What Are Ancient Greek Myths

Greek mythology is commonly mistaken by those unfamiliar with it as a religious subject. Instead, they are a set of stories about Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines that serve to entertain and give an explanation of how the world came to be. It’s apparent that the world wasn’t like the way it is currently from the beginning, but the myths do give us an idea of how things were like. As Edith Hamilton once said, “ But what the myths show is how high they had risen above the ancient filth and fierceness by the time we have any knowledge of them.” This gives us an idea that traces of that time are found in the stories as we read "Mythology" by Hamilton and "Black Ships Before Troy" by Sutcliff which is where we will be able to

Mcginn 1 Introduction: 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.

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.

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.

Greek mythology is one of the most interesting topics to come out of ancient Greek culture. The idea of sincerely believing that every move or choice that is made all goes back to the gods and goddesses fascinates me. In ancient Greece, the normal thing was to believe in multiple higher powers instead of today were majority dictates that there is only one higher power. I was aware of some facts about the Greek’s belief in the god and goddesses from previous history classes but I have never at the freedom to choose to write a paper solely on them. The goal of my research was to find out what made the gods and goddesses so special to the Greeks and why a civilization would worship them for centuries.

For many years, as long as the ancient stories of greek mythology have been around, the sculpture of Minerva has been in debate. Many believe the correct name for this sculpture should stay the same, which is Minerva. Minerva is in reference to the goddess of war, Athena. This could be a possibility with the helmet that lies beneath her foot as well as the crown that sits upon her head. However, I believe the name should be reversed back to Venus. Venus is the goddess of love, which is Aphrodite. Due to the lack of clothing, how the helmet is placed under her foot, and what I interpret from the crown, this sculpture symbolizes the true goddess, Venus.

What are some examples of the connection between historical events/figures and Greek society and mythic imagery? Are there any contemporary films or novels which make this same connection?

Turritopsis nutricula. Hydras. Lobsters. Bdelloids. Greek Gods. With such a strange set of beings, all five share one common trait—immortality. Though not in the spiritual sense, certain organisms, such as the ones listed above, have successfully acquired the evolutionary trait that prevents their bodies from dying of old age. For many years mankind has struggled in search of finding a path toward immortality. It is with these organisms today which has allowed researchers, and scientists alike, to glean from their cells. With recent advancements in technology and biology, scientists can now continue more in-depth research in their discoveries to the possibility of immortality.

Religion was the central foundation in all that was Greek society and culture, as illustrated by the temples and statues they built to honor them (Matthews, Noble, & Platt, 2014). The Greek culture was a polytheistic, cult-like religion and those that recognized twelve Olympian deities and the chthonian. Their religion was a communal, “the polis and religion could not be separated, for in the eyes of the Greeks the fate of each community depended on the civic deity” (Matthews, et al, 2014, p. 42). Greek mythology and religion, while not the same are closely related with one another, as the myths disclosed much information about the gods and goddesses of the Greek religion (Matthews, et al, 2014).

Greek myths can still be beneficial in our current time for various reasons. In the past they told stories to explain what was happening in the world. Often these stories included Gods or heroes fighting animals or each other and causing wars or natural disasters. Although completely unrealistic mythology has educational purposes. King Midas, Medusa, Pandora’s Box and the tale of Icarus are commonly known myths that all have morals. These morals can be used to introduce children to the rights and wrongs of this world.

Greek myths and stories serve a greater purpose than to simply entertain someone. These stories also serve as a way to teach important lessons and explain the history of certain things. Although the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Illiad,The Ramayana, and the Golden Compass are all very different they all have similar

To some people, Greek myths are just folktales, written by some old story tellers to entertain masses of people, which in hindsight, is

Now we all know that God exists, but how accurate are the bible stories that describe God compared to that of the Greek ones and their Gods. In other words, how does Christianity compare to stories, fables, and myths? DISCLAIMER Before I do anything I just want you to know that I wrote up a ten-page paper but I shortened it down destroying all evidence of other gods or religious figures not based on Christianity. So please excuse me if I sound like an atheist. For one thing, God and the Greek gods are quite similar in how to act. For instance, God has wisdom just like Athena that they both used in battle, times of diplomacy and to empower the people of earth. God rules over all just like Zeus and promised righteous judgment to all who did not sacrifice towards him. However, our God also has some

Greek mythology is used for the explanation on how humankind lived. Religion was the main source of myths. There were many things it was used for like the explanation on how Gods, Goddesses, monsters and mythical creatures lived in ancient times. This mythology explained the origin of gods and their lifestyle and where humanity would go after death. The original gods were Uranus and Gaia. They had a total twelve Titans, one of the most known and powerful Titan was named Iapetus, he repr. During the Golden Age when Uranus was defeated, Iapetus was in charge of the Western part of the mythological world, until he was defeated by Zeus and imprisoned.

The mythology of the ancient Greeks included a dazzling array of heroes, demigods deities, and monsters. These gods had awesome powers, however, despite this, the goddesses and gods shared similar characteristics with the mortals. Their actions curtailed from identifiable passions, pride, love, jealousy, to the extreme of thirst for revenge. Often, these deities left Olympus and came to earth only to get in to affairs of mortals, others interacted with men and women as patrons. However, there was an underlying moral principle which stated that mortals who defied the gods or dishonored themselves were to pay with a high price. There are a number of occurrences where mortals were transformed by the gods due to various reasons.