Dbq Ancient Greek Essay

Hesiod’s Theogony was a myth that addressed the connection between human beings to the Gods and the universe. Giving that Hesiod lived during the Iron age ( 750-650 B.C.) alongside Homer, it is not extraordinary that the two shared similar religious views. Keeping that in mind, he was able to offer his interpretation of how the world came into existence in his epic poem the Theogony. While creating Prometheus’ myth, he focused on the ominous interactions between Zeus and Prometheus that lead to abhorrent events such as the creation of Pandora. On the contrary, Aeschylus lived in the sixth Century B.C. amid a time of great stir and movement in matters of religion and speculation. Hesiod’s Theogony was no longer able to satisfy the higher minds among the nation. Thus, inspiring Aeschylus to write tragic poets such as Prometheus’ Bound in order to express his own ideology and pointing the moral of tragedy. It is no surprise that Hesiod viewed Zeus as a glorified olympian hero and Prometheus as a traitor who stole fire and gave it to mankind. Aeschylus’s idea of Prometheus was conflicting to Hesiod, whereby he viewed Prometheus as a god supporting the civilization of mankind. Through thorough analysis of Zeus’ interaction with Prometheus in both Hesiod’s Theogony and Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, this essay will be able to clarify which one of the authors had the most accurate

Who was the better Greek city-state? Athens or Sparta? A question asked for quite some time now, probably since they existed. It’s time we get an answer! If you ask me, I think it was Athens that was the better Greek city state. Athens was better than Sparta because, it had a better government, education system, and had more cultural achievements.

D'Aulaire, Ingri, and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1962. Print

What are two Greek city-states that you know? I know two popular city-states of Ancient Greece: Sparta and Athens. Sparta and Athens are known as city-state with many contrasting beliefs. Sparta was a strict military society while Athens was a free democracy. Sparta prohibited any new ideas while Athens accepted it. Sparta was about fitness, survival, and war while Athens was about public speaking, debate, and music. As you may see, Sparta and Athens may seem like two whole different worlds, and it’s clear that they deemed each value of theirs’ important, but which city-state would go to great length to preserve that value? Sparta was more committed to their cultural value than Athens.

Christianity started off with only a few followers, but has grown into the most practiced religion in the world. About 2,000 years ago a man by the name of Jesus was born into the Roman ruled city of Jerusalem. Jesus was raised in a community of Jewish followers, and followed the Jewish law himself. Jesus believed that he was the messiah, the savior whom profits predicted would one day bring peace to the people of Israel. The Romans and and Jewish leaders felt threatened by Jesus because he thought he was the messiah. Jesus would then be crucified by the Romans. Christianity was able to take hold in the ancient world and flourish because of Christianity 's belief in equality, Rome’s biased

Aristotle once said, “The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.” Athens was established in 3000 BC, while Sparta was respectively established in 431 BC. Athens was also referred to as the “birthplace of democracy,” a government system still in use today! Athens was a superior city state over Sparta. This is because of Athenian cultural achievements, government and social climate.

The Greeks displayed their humanistic values through government by they utilizing an effective system of self governing. This system was a direct democracy, defined as “government by the people” or “rule of the majority.” In the Athenian Democracy, the Assembly was the regular

Deception and lies both play large roles in Greek mythology. Even Zeus, who is said to punish liars, frequently tricks both mortals and immortals. Although it always has a prominent role in myths, deceit is a powerful factor in the myths of Prometheus, Nessus, and Zeus.

In Greece the Greeks looked up to the gods and goddesses of the Greek culture. The gods and goddesses were the rulers of Greece and had the most power. They over saw everything the humans would do whether it being barbaric or civilized. There were a number of Greek gods and goddesses, but some over powered others. They fought in many wars and helped humans accomplish many different activities in order for them to survive. They were also said to bring the good and the evil to the Greek people. One god that over powered all other gods and goddesses was Zeus. He played many roles in the Greek community and helped out in many ways. Although Zeus is best known as the leader of all gods, he is also known for his mythical influence on the modern day

Greek mythology can be viewed as a mirror to the ancient Greek civilization. Ancient Greek myths and legends often reflected how the Greeks saw themselves. Myths were used by Greeks to make justifications of every existing aspect of earth as well as their own society. In myths, Greek gods & heroes often represented key aspects of the human civilization. From Greek mythology, we can learn about the favorable characteristics of humans, such as their behavior and valuable skills that were approved of by the ancient Greek society. We can also learn about what was viewed as immoral or of little value. In addition, reviewing the Greek myths allows us to determine that the Greek society was generally a patriarchal society and agricultural and war were strong elements that shaped the ancient Greek society.

The ancient Athenian Greek era was a time where democracy and order were highly praised and venerated by the upper echelons of society. The court and government ruling was a concept that the Athenians took much pride in. Also, during that time drama and entertainment was the order of the day. Athenians seemed to decompress from their daily hectic lives by attending dramatic and fantasy based plays. One of the most respected writers of ancient Greece was Sophocles. His style was based on celebrating democracy and presenting the dichotomies of the liberties enjoyed by the most fortunate citizens of his country and the tyrannies which oppressed heavily upon the less fortunate. This style seemed to captivate audiences of that time, filling auditoriums and squares across the region.

The Greeks took a huge step into entertainment. This step is still felt today. The whole reason we have olympics is because of the Greeks. There is way more to this story. The Greek theatre plays a huge role in our modern theatre. The ancient Greek Olympics, sports, and theatre all influenced our modern day entertainment.

The distinction between archetypes and myth has often been blurred so much that myth critics have widely been using archetypal vocabulary (Reeves). Lévi Strauss’s assumption, “all human behavior is based on certain unchanging patterns, whose structure is the same in all ages and in all societies” (Morford and Lenardon 9), endorses the applicability of the mythological interpretation of the Promethean figure to the modern situation. The Promethean figure has contradictory characteristics: he is the archetype of culture god or hero responsible for all arts and science and at the same time the archetype of the divine or heroic trickster (Morford and Lenardon 60). A catholic marriage is attempted between the image and the idea in mythic conception. Therefore, the Promethean image, ignites an idea and strikes a chord in human beings everywhere and throughout time. Moreover, “the purpose of myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction” (Reeves), something typical of the human mind and recurrent in the Promethean dilemma.

“Whenever the creation order is inverted, there is disorder, destruction, and death. When we tamper with this order, even a little, we become life-takers rather than life-givers”(J. Ligon Duncan III ). This quote plays a large part in the overall literature that is Frankenstein; it pulls together the attributes of the story in a way I haven’t seen before. This essay will be focusing on the relationship between the gothic novel of Frankenstein, and the greek myth of Prometheus. It will be a compare and contrast of the dueling stories. I hope to leave the reader with a deeper sense of understanding on how literature can inspire the future generations in ways we don 't yet know.

The play Prometheus bound, composed by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus, presents a rather uncommon view of Zeus’ character compared to other ancient Greek authors. Instead of being described as merciful and kind, Zeus’ lack of experience as a leader and his harshness are mentioned regularly. Throughout the play, Zeus’ decisions and his capability of being the gods’ leader are being continually challenged, mainly through examples of Zeus’ former mistakes. In addition to Prometheus, the other Dramatis Personae are Cratos (Strength), Via (Violence), the god Hephaistos, Oceanus, the Chorus, consisting of Oceanus’ daughters, Io and Hermes, who plays the role of Zeus’ messenger. Even though the king of the gods does not appear once in the entire drama, he is a consistent subject of conversation,