The Story Of Greek Myth

The Ancient Greeks believed in many gods and heroes during their time. Each one had a sole purpose in a mortal’s lifetime. Greek mythology had a huge impact on religion in Ancient Greece. The Greeks performed rituals in order to honor their gods. Mythology affected the Ancient Greeks in many ways. The origins of mythology, the influences of mythology through a human’s lifetime and lessons taught in the ancient myths will be examined.

on our history and mythology helped shed light to it’s culture, religion, and government of ancient Greece. The Mediterranean has served as a vessel for the early civilizations., Greek mythology has influenced the life style and religion of the Greeks, especially because Greek mythology served as the primary basis of Greek belief, it became the nearest thing the Greeks had to a holy bible.1 These mythologies served as the center of Greek life and these mythologies served as their basis for their life and in turn the mythologies shaped the foundation of the Greek life style, culture, religion that we know today.

Greek mythology is one of the coolest things anyone could think of. The ideas of gods and goddesses coming down to earth to interact with the human race, is quite an amazing thing. In many cultures, gods are very important. The ancient greek culture is an example where mythology is very important to the people, the gods are everywhere in daily life. Yet with the made up mythology, they needed a place to begin with and the greeks are no exception, but the story of the gods beginning is very interesting.

“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.

When people wonder about Ancient Greece the first thing that comes to their minds is Greek mythology; gods and goddesses that have helped shape many historical events. “In ancient Greece, stories about gods and goddesses and heroes and monsters were an important part of everyday life.” (“Greek Mythology.”) The civilization showed that numerous characters and stories helped shape Greeks. The beliefs the Greeks had with mythologies was they understood the meaning behind all the characters that are known today. However, to the Greeks, they were not just characters, these were their gods and goddesses who gave them meaning and understanding of the world around them. Worshiping the gods and goddesses helped them with their religious rituals and the temperament of the weather. A famous wine-jar that was made during this time period was “Achilles killing the Amazon Queen Penthesilea, 540-530 BCE, black-figured amphora”. (Khan Academy) The civilization that they lived in grew around their worship and achievements.

In many cultures there are flood myths that normally pertain to angered Gods who release their anger by flooding the world to cleanse whatever caused the anger in the first place. In the Roman culture, one of the flood myths mentioned states that Jupiter had been angered by the evil that came with humanity and had wanted to burn the Earth. However, Jupiter had feared by doing so Heaven would be set ablaze as well and thus, with Neptune's help, flooded the Earth. The hero Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha had been the only two to survive. Jupiter had recognized their religious lifestyle had let them live and retracted the flood. Deucalion and Pyrrha had then repopulated the world by throwing stones behind them. In the Murato culture, there is a myth in which a man had been fishing in a lagoon of the Pastaza river, a crocodile had swallowed the fisherman’s bait and the man killed the crocodile. The mother of crocodiles had been angered by this and had slashed the water with her tail creating a flood in the area and drowning everybody except for one man who had climbed up a palm tree. After the flood had subsided the man climbed down from the tree, cut off a piece of his flesh, planted it in the soil, and had grown a woman. He had then married the woman and begun to repopulate the world.

The gods graced one man, named Manus, with power and vision. He foresaw the possibility of using rock from the mountains to build their homes on the lands below—this way, the water would be

Greek Mythology is well known throughout the world. Greek Mythology is composed of many gods, goddesses, and myths; one myth in particular is about courageous Mortal named Atlanta and how she met her husband.

If “The Fates” predate the Greek Gods and seemingly have control over their destinies in addition to those of humankind, then why are they not glorified figures in Greek mythology?

The Epic of Gilgamesh contains an apocalyptic myth where a god indirectly chooses a survivor to rescue the human race, and he receives a blessing from the gods in return for his bravery and success. In the epic about ancient Mesopotamian religion, Utnapishtim tells Gilgamesh the story of how he became immortal after surviving the gods’ downpour. Utnapishtim lived on the banks of the Euphrates in a town called Shuruppak “when the great gods decided to send down the Deluge.” Each of the gods swore on this plan, and chose to keep it secret. However, one god named Ea yelled his swear at a wall: “‘Abandon wealth and seek survival! Spurn property, save life!

“Soo shall be it, brothers.” It was obvious that he felt uncomfortable because he had been interrupted. “We have built a hall for the Gemstones, the Air Gem is already there.

In the Ancient Greeks, religion was based on the image of remarkable and memorable god and goddess which were powerful, wise, immortal and controlled different part of the universe. For many years humans had the opportunity to study these significant figures by reading their myths, stories where our minds are transported to the early time of civilization in which the god and goddess lived and became the important figures that we know nowadays. One of the god that make himself stand out using his wisdom and his abilities was Hermes. He is the god of trade, travelers, thieves, athletes, border crossing, guide to the Underworld and often known as the messenger of the gods. While many gods are incredible gifted with strength and power, Hermes represents cleverness, determination and a powerful musician.

1. The genre of the story is myth . What led me to this conclusion is that the story refered to something as nymphs , which are Greek mythology creatures.

"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.