They used to believe in MANY gods

Many gods were believed by "pagans" to have their specialized activities/responsibilities, until religions came along making believers shun all the many "pagan" gods (and their believers?), and substituting only one God. That attracted people who no longer paid homage and lots of money to the many gods. Just praying to one God, and attempting to bribe God, was a lot cheaper! Probably they didn't get any better results by praying for all sorts of things. probably they didn't deserve any!