Ancient Greek Mythology: Hellas The Oppressive Essay

“Mythos”- a Greek word meaning “tale” and the origin of the word mythology; according to the dictionary mythology means, a traditional story aiming to explain the meaning of things concerning deities and demigods.

Since ancient civilizations people have been trying to explain what goes on after death. Throughout history, many cultures have had different theories about what happens. Two distinguished ideas of where people go after death are the underworld and Hell. The idea of the underworld came from the Greeks and Romans. A few famous works by the Greeks and Romans that talk about the underworld are The Iliad, The Aeneid, and, The Odyssey. A famous work that discusses Hell is Dante's Inferno. Hell is an accepted part of the Christianity religion and taught all over the world. The two beliefs are very similar but some distinct differences can be seen.

Greek gods, the basis of Greek culture and religion, are the center of Greeks’ superstitions and ways to worship. These relate to the god’s origin and their deeds in their myths. Gods can either show jealousy, courage, or kindness to mortals and other gods, so Greeks label the gods based on their qualities. In most circumstances, the Greeks decide whether to worship or despise a god only by whom or what they rule over. For example, Greeks show reluctance in worshipping Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. Greeks hold celebrations and festivities to earn favor from the gods. Greek gods can either have a positive or a negative impact on Greek culture. Most people believe that Hades, an important god in Greek culture, has a negative impact on

Since the beginning of time the people of the world have their share of beliefs. Greek mythology is the arguably the most popular region of study. In Ancient Greece every citizen had a patron that would protect them and pantheism was commonplace. The Romans admired the Greeks in their art and culture and even took different aspects of their gods. Polytheism was widely accepted in all cultures so the seed of mythology bloomed. The time line of the creations of gods to the end of their reign is an important factor in Greek Mythology.

In ancient Greece, around 500 B.C.E, the culture was revolving around gods and goddesses. The lifestyles and actions of the people of Greece had an interdependence with the common belief of Hellenism. By understanding that many Greeks looked to their gods and goddesses in most aspects of their life, we can better understand how Greek culture worked as a whole. This can be seen specifically in Athens Greece. In Athens they looked to the Goddess Athena in particular because she was their patron Goddess. During this time a sculptor, named Phidias, sculpted a grand statue called the Athena Parthenos. The Athena Parthenos was viewed as an actual incarnation of the Goddess Athena, and symbolize victory in wars that ultimately create peace and harmony.

Gender roles play an essential part in Homeric society. Book 1 sees Telemachos’ interaction with his mother Penelope that is again repeated in a few more scenes, which put emphasis on gender role in an ideal Homeric society. However, book 7 reveals an action that goes against the principles of gender role during the interaction between Odysseus and Arete. While there exists complexity in the ways women are treated, whether by them being confined or by exercising minimal power, the Homeric society ultimately remains a male dominant society.

Ancient Greek text describes women as the ‘secondary’ characters. Secondary characters are not the focus of the story, but remain in the background. Women supplement the men of their respective stories. They are written as people without personalities. They lack substantive information to develop their characters. They are treated like property, used but not heard. Ancient Greek culture depicts women as loyal wives, mother figures, and objects of desire; however, Greek poets, Homer and Sappho, defy that stereotype by depicting woman as subversion of their typical gender roles.

When Zeus was born he was born with two other siblings. Poseidon and Hades are the name of Zeus’s two siblings. As they grow up together they don’t get along just like the majority of siblings do in the present day. Each week the boys fight at least three times. After they get past their childhood days of their lives, the brothers grow up and are adults.

Greek mythologies arise from various cultural aspects of the Greek society; however, the role of the divinities in human affairs is particularly accentuated in most, if not all, Greek mythologies. Nevertheless, each author displays the role of divinities and supernatural differently, as Homer in The Odyssey and The Iliad displays direct interaction between the supernatural divinities and the mortals. On the other hand, Sophocles’ Antigone lessens such interactions and emphasizes the human role, while Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War completely ignores the notion of divine power, but focuses impartially on the actions of men and their consequences. Therefore, such difference of perspectives gives rise to the conflict between

Up above, down below, and in the sea are the three main gods Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Zeus the gods of the sky and king of all gods youngest of the three, Poseidon the god of the sea, earthquakes,horses, and the oldest of the three, and Hades king of the underworld older than Zeus but not Poseidon. Years ago the brother would have affairs with other women and their children would be very powerful, more powerful than any other child of any of the gods or goddesses. The children of the three would fight Zeus and Poseidon’s children against Hades children. They would cause thousands maybe even millions of dollars of damage. So Hades said “ Zeus, Poseidon our children. They are to powerful. We have to stop. We will make an oath.”The children were too powerful and Zeus and Poseidon knew so they decided to do the oath. An oath

Moving onto Greek Mythology which is home to hundreds of gods each with their own power. The Greeks have a very large family tree, each passing down power and creating new gods and goddesses into the family to rule. There are different gods that made an impact on different time eras of the past. There was the Age of the Titans, the Ages of Man, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, the Age of Heroes, the Iron Age, and the Underworld. Each of these time eras were created by gods to test mankind. The Greek God Zeus created many of these ages, just as he destroyed them. He continued to create different worlds for mankind to live, almost as a test. One by one they kept failing and Zeus would have to destroy that world, bringing the age to an end.

The stories that as a whole make up the body of ancient Greek mythology have treatedthe complex subject of women in various ways. Although women are generally considered to beweak and subordinate to their husbands, there exist some examples of strong, even heroic womenin certain myths. Such “extraordinary” women include Deianeira, Phaedra, Medea, Penelope,and Clytemnestra, among others. This discussion of women will focus on the latter two,comparing and contrasting them and addressing the ways in which the former is often considereda “good” wife and the latter a “bad” wife. The comparison of Penelope and Clytemnestra willultimately show that, in certain ways, the line between “good” and “bad” wife is rather blurryand the distinction between husband-killing monster and devoted, faithful wife is not as clear-cutas one might expect.The major works in which Penelope and Clytemnestra appear are Homer’s Odyssey andAeschylus’ Oresteia, particularly the Agamemnon. One of the first things to notice about theseworks is that they were both written by men, for men. Given the ancient Greek context, this is arather obvious observation, but it deserves to be pointed out because it should be expected thatmen would have a biased view of women. Hesiod’s Theogony and Works and Days describe thecreation of Pandora, the first of “the race of women”, as a gift and punishment from the gods.While she is made to “look like a goddess immortal, / having the lovely, desirable shape of a

In Greek Mythology, perhaps one of the most rudimental yet one of the most important elements are the Greek Gods and Goddesses. The ancient Greeks created the stories about the lives and journeys of the Greek Gods, known as myths, simply as an endeavor to elucidate nature and all phenomena which were difficult to explain using modern science and logic. These myths about the Gods were spread around the world by explorers and storytellers, and later merged with Greek religion. To this day, numerous myths survived through many writings and through much art. Each of these myths is very unique, and moreover, tells us much about the Greek Gods. The Greek myths in particular convey to us that Greek Gods and Goddesses looked and acted like humans,

"A myth is a collective term denoting a symbolic narrative in religion, as distinguished from symbolic behavior (cult, ritual) and symbolic places or objects (temples, icons)". (The New Encyclopedia Britannica. Vol. 24)Mythology is a collection of myths meant to explain the universe. Mythological stories were told in many different cultures and civilizations. The existence of myths is known in every society. Many different myths were conceived to explain occurrences that happened in nature.

Throughout the course of time, different civilizations across the world hold one thing in common by which a society or culture can be based upon or help influence the structure. The one common thing that has help a civilization grow throughout the period of time would be the formation of a religion. Religion is a center point for many societies throughout history. As the center for the different civilizations, it helped form their different traditions and customs. The same could be said about the people of ancient Greece, where religion or mythology played an important role in their lives as it was the pedestal of their culture and how they base their lives upon. The formation of a religion across the large number of regions of Greece, help the different locations mold themselves by the customs that were created from the adaptation. During what was known as Ancient Greece, the people would hear tales of the twelve Olympians and how their actions influence the world around them. Within this period of time for the people of Greece was that of growth, as they sought to bring new ideas into light as they exited from a dark period within their own history.