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Bulfinch's Mythology Analysis

Decent Essays

“Mythology is a subjective truth. Every culture imagines life a certain way” Devdutt Pattanaik (Brainyquote). A myth, which is a story that contains early history of civilization, explains and discloses the cultural inferences through the readings. As told in Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch, cultural aspects are revealed in Prometheus and Pandora, Apollo and Daphne, and Hercules. This includes, societal roles determined by sex and morals. Societal roles determined by sex is also reveled in Prometheus and Pandora. [D1: Position] Thomas Bulfinch displays this when Zeus imposes Prometheus and Epimetheus with an unpleasant gift: a woman named Pandora, “Women was not yet made. The story is that Jupiter made her, and sent her to …show more content…

[E2: Quote] When Apollo saw Cupid, a petite boy playing with a small bow, he admired the fact that he could kill an enemy because he had killed Python. With Cupid being small in stature and Apollo being might, he started to insult Cupid on account of his bow. [D3: Rephrase] Furthermore, Daphne’s father insisted on a son in law, “Her father often said to her, ‘Daughter you owe me a son-in-law; you owe me children’ ” (Bulfinch 28). [E3: Quote] Traditionally, the role for women were supposed to be acquitted by a man but Daphne thought weddings were a crime,[D4:Rephrase] “She, hating the thought of marriage as a crime… and said, ‘Dearest father, grant me this favour, that I may always remain unmarried, like Diana’ ” (Bulfinch 28-29). [E4: Quote] Apollo and Daphne demonstrates the societal roles determined by sex. Bulfinch also demonstrates morals in Hercules. [D1: Position] For example, “ Hercules in a fit of madness killed his friend Iphitus, and was condemned for this offence to become the slave of Queen Omphale” (Bulfinch 121-122). [E1:Quote] With Hercules being the strongest man, he violates the law on several occasions. Out of the several incidents, one of them was when Hercules was sold into slavery as a result of him killing Iphitus. [D2: Rephrase] Another example of when Hercules disrespects the law is, “...the precious infant strangled them with his own hands.He was, however, by the arts of

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