information about
Greek Mythology
{{Greek myth}}
Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods and goddesses and ancient heroes and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. Our surviving sources of mythology are either transcriptions of this spoken word, or are later literary reworkings.
In their various legends, stories and hymns the gods of ancient Greece are nearly all described as human in appearance, unaging, nearly immune to all wounds and sickness, capable of becoming invisible, able to travel vast distances almost instantly, and able to speak through human beings with or without their knowledge. Each has his or her own specific appearance, genaeology, interests, personality, and area of expertise; however, these descriptions do have local variants that do not always agree with the descriptions used in other parts of the Greek-speaking world of the time. When these gods were called upon in poetry or prayer, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, with the epithets identifying them by these distinctions from the other gods.
In legends, these beings are described as a large multi-generational family. Their oldest members created the world as we know it. The generation of the gods most current (and relevant) to ancient Greek religion are described in epic poems as having appeared in person to the Greeks during the "age of heroes," understood to be a reference to the archaic Greek dark ages (ca. 1200 BC to 800 BC) that preceded the Greek classical civilization. They provided the struggling ancestors of the Greeks with a limited number of miracles, taught them a selection of useful skills, taught them the methods of worshipping the gods, rewarded virtue and punished vice, and fathered children by humans. These half-human, half divine children are collectively known as "the heroes," and until the establishment of democracy their descendents claimed the right to rule on the basis of their divine ancestry and presumed divinely inherited ability to rule well.
The nature of Greek mythology
While all cultures throughout the world have their own
mythologies, the term is a Greek coinage, and had a specialized meaning within Greek culture.
The Greek term
muthologia is a compound of two smaller words:
-
muthos — which in
Homeric Greek means roughly "a ritualized
speech act", as of a chieftain at an assembly, or of a poet or priest.
-
logos — which in
Classical Greek stands for "a convincing story, an ordered argument".
In the original sense, therefore, a
mythology is an attempt to bring sense to the stylized narratives that the Greeks recited at festivals, whispered at shrines, and bandied about at aristocratic banquets. Since few breeds of men are more prone to squabbling than poets, priests and aristocrats, contradictions in the material are rife. Moreover, they are part of the fun.
Overview
The scope of Greek mythology is enormous. It extends from the horrific crimes of the
early gods and the bloody wars of
Troy and
Thebes, to the childhood pranks of
Hermes and the touching grief of
Demeter for
Persephone. The legions of
gods,
goddesses,
heroes,
heroines,
monsters,
daemons,
nymphs,
satyrs, and
centaurs that one encounters in traversing this vast landscape are beyond count.
Greek mythology has an approximate internal chronology. While contradictions in the material make an absolute timeline impossible, it breaks down roughly into an age of gods, an age when men and gods mingled freely, and an age of heroes where divine activity was more limited. While the myths of the age of gods have often been more interesting to contemporary students of myth, Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for those of the age of heroes: the heroic
Iliad and
Odyssey, for example, dwarfed the divine-focused
Theogony and
Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity.
[[image:Delphi_temple-650px.jpg|thumb|250px|Temple of Apollo at
Delphi.]]
The age of gods
Like their neighbors, the Greeks believed in a
pantheon of
gods and
goddesses who were associated with specific aspects of life. For example,
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, while
Ares was the god of war and
Hades the god of the dead. Some deities like
Apollo and
Dionysus revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others like
Hestia (literally "hearth") and
Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. There were also site-specific deities, such as river gods and nymphs of springs and caves, and venerated tombs of local heroes and heroines.
Although there were hundreds of beings that could be considered "gods" or "heroes" in one sense or another, some figured only in
folklore or were honored locally in particular places (e.g.
Trophonius) or at particular festivals (e.g.
Adonis). Major sites of ritual, the large
temples, were dedicated mostly to a small circle of gods, chiefly the
twelve Olympians,
Heracles and
Asclepius and in some places
Helios. These deities were the centers of the large pan-Hellenic cults. Many regions and individual villages had their own cults centered on
nymphs, minor deities, heroes or heroines unknown elsewhere; most cities also worshipped the major gods with peculiar local rites and had peculiar local legends about them.
The first gods
One type of narrative about the age of gods tells the story of the birth and conflicts of the
first divinities:
Chaos,
Night,
Eros,
Uranus,
Gaia, the
Titans and the triumph of
Zeus and the
Olympians.
Hesiod's
Theogony is an example of this type. It was also the subject of many lost poems, including ones attributed to
Orpheus,
Musaeus,
Epimenides,
Abaris and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and
mystery-rites. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by
Neoplatonist philosophers and recently-unearthed
papyrus scraps.
The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the
theogony, or song about the birth of the gods, to be the prototypical poetic genre - the prototypical
muthos - and imputed almost magical powers to it.
Orpheus, the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in the
Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to
Hades. When
Hermes invents the
lyre in the
Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is to sing the birth of the gods.
Hesiod's
Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long perliminary invocation to the
Muses.
New gods
Another type tells the story of the birth, struggles and exploits, and eventual ascent into
Olympus of one of the younger generation of gods:
Apollo,
Hermes,
Athena, etc. The
Homeric Hymns are the oldest source of this kind of story. They are often closely associated with cult-centers of the god in question: the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo is a compound of two earlier narratives: one telling of his birth at
Delos, the other of his establishment of the oracle at
Delphi. Similarly, the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, with its tale of the abduction of
Persephone by
Hades, narrates the back-story of the
Eleusinian Mysteries.
The age of gods and men
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and men moved freely together.
The most popular type of narrative that confronts gods with early men involves the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god (most often
Zeus), resulting in heroic offspring. In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies with
Anchises to produce
Aeneas. The marriage of
Peleus and
Thetis, which yielded
Achilles, is another such myth.
Another type involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when
Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when
Prometheus or
Lycaon invents sacrifice, when
Demeter teaches
agriculture and the Mysteries to
Triptolemus, or when
Marsyas invents the
aulos and enters into a musical contest with
Apollo.
Yet another type belongs to
Dionysus alone: the god wanders through Greece from foreign lands to spread his cult. He is confronted by a king,
Lycurgus or
Pentheus, who opposes him, and whom he punishes terribly in return.
The age of heroes
The age of heroes can be broken down around the monumental events of the
Argonautic expedition and the
Trojan War. The Trojan War marks roughly the end of the Heroic Age.
Early heroes
[[Image:Perseus-slays-medusa.jpg|right|thumbnail|250px|Perseus with the Head of
Medusa]]
Among heroes,
Heracles is practically in a class by himself. His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many
folk tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. His enormous appetite and rustic character also made him a popular figure of comedy, while his pitiful end provided much material for tragedy.
The other members of the earliest generation of heroes, such as
Perseus and
Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on
fairy tale, as they slay monsters like
Medusa and the
chimera. This generation was not as popular a subject for poets; we know of them mostly through mythographers and passing remarks in prose writers. They were, however, favorite subjects of visual
art.
The generation of the Argonauts
Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as
Heracles, went with
Jason on the expedition to fetch the
Golden Fleece. This generation also included
Theseus, who went to
Crete to slay the
Minotaur;
Atalanta, the female heroine; and
Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Royal crimes
In between the
Argo and the
Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of
Atreus and
Thyestes at
Argos; also those of
Laius and
Oedipus at
Thebes, leading to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the
Seven Against Thebes and
Epigonoi. For obvious reasons, this generation was extremely popular among the Athenian tragedians.
[[Image:The_Rage_of_Achilles_by_Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|"The Rage of Achilles" by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]]
Troy and aftermath
As the turning point between the Heroic Age and what the Greek considered the historical period, the
Trojan War, its preludes and epilogues, outweighs the rest of the age combined in the sheer amount of source material available. The Trojan cycle includes:
- The events leading up to the war: the
Judgement of Paris, the abduction of
Helen, the sacrifice of
Iphigenia at
Aulis.
- The events of the
Iliad, including the quarrel of
Achilles with
Agamemnon and the deaths of
Patroclus and
Hector.
- The ruse of the
Trojan Horse and the destruction of
Troy.
- The homecomings of heroes from Troy, including the wanderings of
Odysseus and the murder of
Agamemnon- The children of the Trojan generation: e.g.
Orestes and
TelemachusSources
Several types of primary source are available for the study of Greek mythology.
- The poetry of the Archaic and Classical eras — composed primarily for performance at cultic festivals or aristocratic banquets, and thus part of
muthos in the Homeric sense (see
The Nature of Greek Mythology above). This includes:
- *the
Homeric
Odyssey,
Iliad and
Hymns- *the
Hesiodic
Theogony.
- *the dramatic works of
Aeschylus,
Sophocles,
Euripides and
Aristophanes- *the choral hymns of
Pindar and
Bacchylides.
- The work of historians, like
Herodotus and
Diodorus Siculus, and geographers, like
Pausanias and
Strabo, who made travels around the Greek world and noted down the stories they heard at various cities.
- The work of mythographers, who wrote prose treatises based on learned research attempting to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets. The
Bibliotheke by
Apollodorus of Athens is the largest extant example of this genre.
- The poetry of the
Hellenistic and
Roman ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:
- *The Hellenistic poets
Apollonius of Rhodes and
Callimachus.
- *The Roman poets
Hyginus,
Ovid,
Statius,
Valerius Flaccus and
Virgil.
- *The
Late Antique Greek poets
Nonnus and
Quintus Smyrnaeus.
- The ancient novels of
Apuleius,
Petronius,
Lollianus and
Heliodorus.
Did the Greeks believe their myths?
To the Greeks, mythology was literally a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the
Trojan War in the
Iliad and
Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's descent from a mythological hero or a god.
On the other hand, philosophers like
Xenophanes were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the
6th century BC; this line of thought found its most sweeping expression in
Plato's ''
Republic and Laws''. More sportingly, the
5th century BC tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. In other cases Euripides seems to be directing pointed criticism at the behavior of his gods.
Hellenistic rationalism
The skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced in the
Hellenistic era. Most daringly, the mythographer
Euhemerus claimed that stories about the gods were only confused memories of the cruelty of ancient kings. Although Euhemerus's works are lost, interpretations in his style are frequently found in
Diodorus Siculus.
Rationalizing
hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the
Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of
Stoic and
Epicurean philosophy, as well as the pragmatic bent of the Roman mind. The antiquarian
Varro, summarizing centuries' worth of philosophic tradition, distinguished three kinds of gods:
- The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
- The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
- The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.
Cicero's
De Natura Deorum is probably the most comprehensive summary of this line of thought.
Syncretizing trends
One unexpected side-effect of the rationalist view was a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. If
Apollo and
Serapis and
Sabazios and
Dionysus and
Mithras were all really
Helios, why not combine them all together into one
Deus Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes? The surviving
2nd century AD collection of
Orphic Hymns and
Macrobius's
Saturnalia are products of this mind-set.
But though Apollo might in religion be increasingly identified with Helios or even Dionysus, texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.
External links
-
Timeless Myths - Classical Mythology-
Greek MythologyCategory:Ancient GreeceCategory:Mythology[[Category:Greek mythology|*]]
af:Griekse mitologiear:ميتولوجيا إغريقيةca:Mitologia gregacs:Řecká mytologieda:Græsk mytologide:Griechische Mythologiees:Mitología griegaet:Vanakreeka mütoloogiaeo:Helena mitologiofr:Mythologie grecquehe:מיתולוגיה יווניתhr:Grčka mitologijait:Mitologia grecako:그리스 신화la:Mythologia Graecalb:Griichesch Mythologiehu:Görög mitológianl:Griekse mythologie
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Greek Mythology
{{Greek myth}}
Greek mythology comprises the collected legends of Greek gods and goddesses and ancient heroes and heroines, originally created and spread within an oral-poetic tradition. Our surviving sources of mythology are either transcriptions of this spoken word, or are later literary reworkings.
In their various legends, stories and hymns the gods of ancient Greece are nearly all described as human in appearance, unaging, nearly immune to all wounds and sickness, capable of becoming invisible, able to travel vast distances almost instantly, and able to speak through human beings with or without their knowledge. Each has his or her own specific appearance, genaeology, interests, personality, and area of expertise; however, these descriptions do have local variants that do not always agree with the descriptions used in other parts of the Greek-speaking world of the time. When these gods were called upon in poetry or prayer, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, with the epithets identifying them by these distinctions from the other gods.
In legends, these beings are described as a large multi-generational family. Their oldest members created the world as we know it. The generation of the gods most current (and relevant) to ancient Greek religion are described in epic poems as having appeared in person to the Greeks during the "age of heroes," understood to be a reference to the archaic Greek dark ages (ca. 1200 BC to 800 BC) that preceded the Greek classical civilization. They provided the struggling ancestors of the Greeks with a limited number of miracles, taught them a selection of useful skills, taught them the methods of worshipping the gods, rewarded virtue and punished vice, and fathered children by humans. These half-human, half divine children are collectively known as "the heroes," and until the establishment of democracy their descendents claimed the right to rule on the basis of their divine ancestry and presumed divinely inherited ability to rule well.
The nature of Greek mythology
While all cultures throughout the world have their own
mythologies, the term is a Greek coinage, and had a specialized meaning within Greek culture.
The Greek term
muthologia is a compound of two smaller words:
-
muthos — which in
Homeric Greek means roughly "a ritualized
speech act", as of a chieftain at an assembly, or of a poet or priest.
-
logos — which in
Classical Greek stands for "a convincing story, an ordered argument".
In the original sense, therefore, a
mythology is an attempt to bring sense to the stylized narratives that the Greeks recited at festivals, whispered at shrines, and bandied about at aristocratic banquets. Since few breeds of men are more prone to squabbling than poets, priests and aristocrats, contradictions in the material are rife. Moreover, they are part of the fun.
Overview
The scope of Greek mythology is enormous. It extends from the horrific crimes of the
early gods and the bloody wars of
Troy and
Thebes, to the childhood pranks of
Hermes and the touching grief of
Demeter for
Persephone. The legions of
gods,
goddesses,
heroes,
heroines,
monsters,
daemons,
nymphs,
satyrs, and
centaurs that one encounters in traversing this vast landscape are beyond count.
Greek mythology has an approximate internal chronology. While contradictions in the material make an absolute timeline impossible, it breaks down roughly into an age of gods, an age when men and gods mingled freely, and an age of heroes where divine activity was more limited. While the myths of the age of gods have often been more interesting to contemporary students of myth, Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for those of the age of heroes: the heroic
Iliad and
Odyssey, for example, dwarfed the divine-focused
Theogony and
Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity.
[[image:Delphi_temple-650px.jpg|thumb|250px|Temple of Apollo at
Delphi.]]
The age of gods
Like their neighbors, the Greeks believed in a
pantheon of
gods and
goddesses who were associated with specific aspects of life. For example,
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, while
Ares was the god of war and
Hades the god of the dead. Some deities like
Apollo and
Dionysus revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others like
Hestia (literally "hearth") and
Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. There were also site-specific deities, such as river gods and nymphs of springs and caves, and venerated tombs of local heroes and heroines.
Although there were hundreds of beings that could be considered "gods" or "heroes" in one sense or another, some figured only in
folklore or were honored locally in particular places (e.g.
Trophonius) or at particular festivals (e.g.
Adonis). Major sites of ritual, the large
temples, were dedicated mostly to a small circle of gods, chiefly the
twelve Olympians,
Heracles and
Asclepius and in some places
Helios. These deities were the centers of the large pan-Hellenic cults. Many regions and individual villages had their own cults centered on
nymphs, minor deities, heroes or heroines unknown elsewhere; most cities also worshipped the major gods with peculiar local rites and had peculiar local legends about them.
The first gods
One type of narrative about the age of gods tells the story of the birth and conflicts of the
first divinities:
Chaos,
Night,
Eros,
Uranus,
Gaia, the
Titans and the triumph of
Zeus and the
Olympians.
Hesiod's
Theogony is an example of this type. It was also the subject of many lost poems, including ones attributed to
Orpheus,
Musaeus,
Epimenides,
Abaris and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and
mystery-rites. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by
Neoplatonist philosophers and recently-unearthed
papyrus scraps.
The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the
theogony, or song about the birth of the gods, to be the prototypical poetic genre - the prototypical
muthos - and imputed almost magical powers to it.
Orpheus, the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in the
Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to
Hades. When
Hermes invents the
lyre in the
Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is to sing the birth of the gods.
Hesiod's
Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long perliminary invocation to the
Muses.
New gods
Another type tells the story of the birth, struggles and exploits, and eventual ascent into
Olympus of one of the younger generation of gods:
Apollo,
Hermes,
Athena, etc. The
Homeric Hymns are the oldest source of this kind of story. They are often closely associated with cult-centers of the god in question: the
Homeric Hymn to Apollo is a compound of two earlier narratives: one telling of his birth at
Delos, the other of his establishment of the oracle at
Delphi. Similarly, the
Homeric Hymn to Demeter, with its tale of the abduction of
Persephone by
Hades, narrates the back-story of the
Eleusinian Mysteries.
The age of gods and men
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and men moved freely together.
The most popular type of narrative that confronts gods with early men involves the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god (most often
Zeus), resulting in heroic offspring. In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the
Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies with
Anchises to produce
Aeneas. The marriage of
Peleus and
Thetis, which yielded
Achilles, is another such myth.
Another type involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when
Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when
Prometheus or
Lycaon invents sacrifice, when
Demeter teaches
agriculture and the Mysteries to
Triptolemus, or when
Marsyas invents the
aulos and enters into a musical contest with
Apollo.
Yet another type belongs to
Dionysus alone: the god wanders through Greece from foreign lands to spread his cult. He is confronted by a king,
Lycurgus or
Pentheus, who opposes him, and whom he punishes terribly in return.
The age of heroes
The age of heroes can be broken down around the monumental events of the
Argonautic expedition and the
Trojan War. The Trojan War marks roughly the end of the Heroic Age.
Early heroes
[[Image:Perseus-slays-medusa.jpg|right|thumbnail|250px|Perseus with the Head of
Medusa]]
Among heroes,
Heracles is practically in a class by himself. His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many
folk tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. His enormous appetite and rustic character also made him a popular figure of comedy, while his pitiful end provided much material for tragedy.
The other members of the earliest generation of heroes, such as
Perseus and
Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on
fairy tale, as they slay monsters like
Medusa and the
chimera. This generation was not as popular a subject for poets; we know of them mostly through mythographers and passing remarks in prose writers. They were, however, favorite subjects of visual
art.
The generation of the Argonauts
Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as
Heracles, went with
Jason on the expedition to fetch the
Golden Fleece. This generation also included
Theseus, who went to
Crete to slay the
Minotaur;
Atalanta, the female heroine; and
Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the
Iliad and
Odyssey.
Royal crimes
In between the
Argo and the
Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of
Atreus and
Thyestes at
Argos; also those of
Laius and
Oedipus at
Thebes, leading to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the
Seven Against Thebes and
Epigonoi. For obvious reasons, this generation was extremely popular among the Athenian tragedians.
[[Image:The_Rage_of_Achilles_by_Giovanni_Battista_Tiepolo.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|"The Rage of Achilles" by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]]
Troy and aftermath
As the turning point between the Heroic Age and what the Greek considered the historical period, the
Trojan War, its preludes and epilogues, outweighs the rest of the age combined in the sheer amount of source material available. The Trojan cycle includes:
- The events leading up to the war: the
Judgement of Paris, the abduction of
Helen, the sacrifice of
Iphigenia at
Aulis.
- The events of the
Iliad, including the quarrel of
Achilles with
Agamemnon and the deaths of
Patroclus and
Hector.
- The ruse of the
Trojan Horse and the destruction of
Troy.
- The homecomings of heroes from Troy, including the wanderings of
Odysseus and the murder of
Agamemnon- The children of the Trojan generation: e.g.
Orestes and
TelemachusSources
Several types of primary source are available for the study of Greek mythology.
- The poetry of the Archaic and Classical eras — composed primarily for performance at cultic festivals or aristocratic banquets, and thus part of
muthos in the Homeric sense (see
The Nature of Greek Mythology above). This includes:
- *the
Homeric
Odyssey,
Iliad and
Hymns- *the
Hesiodic
Theogony.
- *the dramatic works of
Aeschylus,
Sophocles,
Euripides and
Aristophanes- *the choral hymns of
Pindar and
Bacchylides.
- The work of historians, like
Herodotus and
Diodorus Siculus, and geographers, like
Pausanias and
Strabo, who made travels around the Greek world and noted down the stories they heard at various cities.
- The work of mythographers, who wrote prose treatises based on learned research attempting to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets. The
Bibliotheke by
Apollodorus of Athens is the largest extant example of this genre.
- The poetry of the
Hellenistic and
Roman ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:
- *The Hellenistic poets
Apollonius of Rhodes and
Callimachus.
- *The Roman poets
Hyginus,
Ovid,
Statius,
Valerius Flaccus and
Virgil.
- *The
Late Antique Greek poets
Nonnus and
Quintus Smyrnaeus.
- The ancient novels of
Apuleius,
Petronius,
Lollianus and
Heliodorus.
Did the Greeks believe their myths?
To the Greeks, mythology was literally a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the
Trojan War in the
Iliad and
Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's descent from a mythological hero or a god.
On the other hand, philosophers like
Xenophanes were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the
6th century BC; this line of thought found its most sweeping expression in
Plato's ''
Republic and Laws''. More sportingly, the
5th century BC tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. In other cases Euripides seems to be directing pointed criticism at the behavior of his gods.
Hellenistic rationalism
The skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced in the
Hellenistic era. Most daringly, the mythographer
Euhemerus claimed that stories about the gods were only confused memories of the cruelty of ancient kings. Although Euhemerus's works are lost, interpretations in his style are frequently found in
Diodorus Siculus.
Rationalizing
hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the
Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of
Stoic and
Epicurean philosophy, as well as the pragmatic bent of the Roman mind. The antiquarian
Varro, summarizing centuries' worth of philosophic tradition, distinguished three kinds of gods:
- The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
- The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
- The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.
Cicero's
De Natura Deorum is probably the most comprehensive summary of this line of thought.
Syncretizing trends
One unexpected side-effect of the rationalist view was a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. If
Apollo and
Serapis and
Sabazios and
Dionysus and
Mithras were all really
Helios, why not combine them all together into one
Deus Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes? The surviving
2nd century AD collection of
Orphic Hymns and
Macrobius's
Saturnalia are products of this mind-set.
But though Apollo might in religion be increasingly identified with Helios or even Dionysus, texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.
External links
-
Timeless Myths - Classical Mythology-
Greek MythologyCategory:Ancient GreeceCategory:Mythology[[Category:Greek mythology|*]]
af:Griekse mitologiear:ميتولوجيا إغريقيةca:Mitologia gregacs:Řecká mytologieda:Græsk mytologide:Griechische Mythologiees:Mitología griegaet:Vanakreeka mütoloogiaeo:Helena mitologiofr:Mythologie grecquehe:מיתולוגיה יווניתhr:Grčka mitologijait:Mitologia grecako:그리스 신화la:Mythologia Graecalb:Griichesch Mythologiehu:Görög mitológianl:Griekse mythologie
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Greek Mythology".
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