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INTRODUCTION TO THE ANCIENT GREEKS

The world of the primitive people was a world filled with terror. Horror lurked all around them. They felt small and insignificant in a
world they could not understand. They thought the forests were filled with demon spirits far stronger than they and eager to
destroy them. They sought ways to deal with them. The demons were eternal. In their terror, they turned to magic and to human
sacrifice. Their chief hope of escaping the anger of whatever gods and demons were about, lay in some magical rite, senseless
but powerful, and in offerings made at the cost of great pain and grief.

The Greeks lived a savage life, ugly and brutal. But somehow, with the earliest Greek poets, particularly Homer, a new point of
view dawned, a new way of looking at man and at the gods, one never even dreamed of in the world before then, but one never to
leave the world after then.

With the coming of Greece, mankind became the center of the universe--the most important thing in it--more important than the
gods or the spirits. This was revolutionary. Human beings had counted for little before. It was in Greece, at last, that mankind first
appreciated what mankind was.

The Greeks were the first to make the gods in the image of humans. This idea had never been entertained before. The idea that
gods could resemble humans was unheard of before the Greeks. In Egypt, for example, the god was a towering colossus,
immobile, almost beyond the powers of imagination, a representation of the human shape made deliberately inhuman. Or the god
could be a rigid figure, a woman with a cat’s head suggesting terrible cruelty, or it could be a monstrous, mysterious sphinx, aloof
from all that lived. In Mesopotamia, the gods were shaped like beasts, but unlike any beast ever known: men with birds’ heads
and lions with bulls’ heads and both with eagles’ wings.

These were the creatures that the pre-Greek world worshipped. It was part of their fear, their terror. In your imagination, place
these gods beside any Greek statue of a god, so normal and natural, with its beauty, to perceive that a new idea had come into the
world.

It was in Greece that people first began to find satisfaction in the visible world around them. They began to see beauty and grace
where the primitive had felt terror. They began to see themselves as capable of fabulous creation. The Greek sculptor, for
example, watched the athletes competing in the games, and felt that nothing he could imagine would be as beautiful as those
strong young bodies. So he made his statue of the god, Apollo, from this image. Greek artists and poets realized how splendid
humans could be. They were the fulfillment of their search for beauty. All the art and all the thought of Greece centered on human
beings.

The fact that the gods were human in appearance made “heaven” a pleasantly familiar place. The Greeks felt comfortable with it.
They knew just what the divine inhabitants did there, what they ate and drank, and how they amused themselves.

Of course, the gods were to be feared. They were powerful and dangerous when angry. Yet, with proper care, a people could get
along with them. They were even perfectly free to laugh at them. They could laugh at Zeus trying to hide his love affairs from his
jealous wife, Hera. No one would dare laugh in the presence of an Egyptian sphinx or an Assyrian bird-beast, but it was perfectly
natural for the Greeks to laugh at the expense of their gods.

GREEK MYTHOLOGY

Myth: an idea or story that is believed by many people but that is not true; a story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a
practice, belief, or natural occurrence.

The stories that we know as “Greek myths” were most likely told beginning in 700 BCE over a wide and historically fluctuating
area, by no means coincident with the territory labeled “Greece” on modern maps. These stories were transmitted orally from
generation to generation.

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Mythology: The body of myths (sacred stories) of a particular culture; the study and interpretation of such myths. A long time ago
mythology was something treated with respect. People respected and believed in it. The two major mythologies known are Greek
and Roman.

Purposes of a Myth:
1. Offered guidance on personal behavior, social rules and what might happen in the afterlife.
2. Provided the mental foundations of understanding and belief on which individuals could build their lives.
3. Provided answers to the great philosophical questions such as
 how the universe came into being,
 the nature of the forces operating within it, and
 the origins of the first people and of the human community.

Elements of a Myth:
 Story/Plot (Conflict): A myth is a narrative. There must be a conflict which is the struggle that grows out of opposing
forces between characters and events.

 Phenomenon: anything that is extremely unusual; an extraordinary occurrence

 Metamorphosis: to change form, shape, structure, or substance; a complete change of appearance or condition

 Hero: More often than not, the subject of Greek myths is heroic. The role of the hero is mapped out in such recurring
themes as the separation from the mother, the overcoming of obstacles, and the finding and supplanting (displacing;
unseating) of the father.

 Forces of Nature: The wonders and mysteries of nature are explained in mythology through the will and actions of the
gods.

 Monsters and Beasts: They come in all shapes and forms: some were half human and half animal/reptile. They
symbolize the dark and unresolved forces in life. Sometimes they are fair, but other times they are demonic: not all of
them were cruel, but some did harass and haunt humans.

 Giants: Creatures those were larger than life. Some were gentle, but some were predators. Symbolize immense forces
neither good nor bad.

 Gods & Goddesses: The gods were differentiated from heroes not so much by their strength as by their supernatural
power. They demanded worship from heroes and people alike and, in return, were able to perform miracles, offer
supernatural protection, or give magical gifts. These supernatural beings often disagreed with each other, which caused
either unfortunate circumstances for the mortal or horrendous weather conditions.

The Olympians: The Olympians are the twelve Gods of Mount Olympus which is located in the northern central part of Greece. These
Gods (Goddesses) include: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis,
and Hestia. In addition to these twelve Olympian deities are Hades, who ruled the Underground realms with his queen, Persephone,
and Hecate, who lived with them. Hestia, goddess of the home and hearth, was replaced by Dionysus in the fifth century BCE.

This mountain (Mt. Olympus) was believed to be the highest point on Earth and sacred throughout ancient times. The Gods that ruled
Mount Olympus also ruled the lives of all mankind. Each and every single God (or Goddess) had their own character and domain. Gods
in mythology were very human like. They had the strengths and weaknesses of mortals (as we know them today). They were truly made
to represent each and every side of human nature. They supported justice, as seen by their own point of view.

Gods even had children with mortals, which resulted in demi-gods such as Hercules. The most amazing observation is how the Gods
expressed human nature in its complete form. Strength, fear, unfaithfulness, love admiration, beauty, hunting, farming, education, there
was a God for every human activity and expression. These Gods weren’t just ideal figures; they were beings with their own limitations.
They expressed anger, jealousy and joy, just like us. Each God ruled his own realm. The only truly omnipotent God was Zeus, who ruled
all!

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