‘Ancient Greeks’ of all periods have had a vast pantheon of gods for worship. The need to justify their emotions and to follow a moral code for their behaviour lead to anthropomorphism. While polytheism was created to concentrate each sphere of influence with its own deity. The Greeks experienced love, hate, anger, sadness and happiness among other emotions. To explain them, they used their gods as examples. Aphrodite, the common expression of love, what it’s like to fall for someone you just can’t not be around. With love comes lust, a dangerous emotion that can put its participators in danger like Amphitrite changing Scylla, a lover of Poseidon, into a hideous creature. Opposite to love is hatred, often spawning anger, like the story of Polyphemus striking Acis with the rock out of spite of him laying with Galatea. Apollo showing compassion, Zeus being just and Athena’s wisdom begin to show the basis for the apparent anthropomorphism in the Greek pantheon. …show more content…
It’s the gods’ ways of showing the Greeks the dos and the don’ts. Typically set by Zeus, the upholder of moral values, but any god or goddess can set an example. This could a direct lesson set by Zeus like when he punished Lycaon for breaking the rules of hospitality or Prometheus for trying to outsmart him by first hiding the inedible parts of the sacrifice and then stealing fire from Olympus to give to the humans. It could also be indirect, like a hidden message within a myth. The societal stance against infidelity is an example of this, as it can be seen what the punishments were for Zeus’s many mistresses by
Ancient Greek religion was heavily established in the social and political institutions of their world (Larson 4). Religion for the ancient Greeks was very individualistic, and as a group, society held no doubt that the gods existed and exercised control over life and death. The roles of the gods in Greek religion were influenced by the Greeks’ own belief, ensuring that their gods’ roles were “to guarantee and enforce moral conduct rather than define it.” (5). For each Greek polis, there was a “local pantheon” they uniquely worshipped, but as a collective group, there was a core group of 12-13 gods that mostly all poleis worshipped.
In Greek and Roman mythology, the role of gods and goddesses were very influential to the people. Praising and sacrificing for the gods was an important part of everyday life in this culture, and any opposition of the gods were returned with punishment. The power of the gods is shown in Charles Martin’s translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In Book VI of Metamorphoses, which is rightly subtitled “Of Praise and Punishment”, three specific instances of the gods’ smite are shown through the conflict between Minerva and Arachne, Niobe and Latona, and the ill-fated marriage of Tereus and Procne.
In Mythology, Edith Hamilton portrays the Greek gods as somewhat greedy, and they are often appeased through ritual slaughter. Thus, modern culture learns that Greeks hold value in the authority of their gods through sacrifice. For example, at the beginning of the Trojan War, unbearable winds made it impossible for the Greek army to sail to Troy. If these harsh winds were to subside, the furious goddess Artemis had to be pleased through the death of Iphigenia, Agamemnon’s daughter. Eventually, Agamemnon succumbed to the need to appease the goddess and thus “dared the deed, slaying his child to help a war” (Hamilton 259).
I think that it shows the Greeks believe that pridefulness is wrong/punishable as well. Along with pride, I think that there were themes of piety, lies and deciet, and justice so I believe that the Greeks may have seen the Gods as a way to enforce good behavior/a moral code of good, although they show to be ignorant, act "bratty", and can be decietful which may be believed to cause humans to be bad. So it explains their bad behavior for them in a
There was no specific law which one would have to follow for the God's appeasement, sacrifices and rituals were made as offerings to appease the Gods, as well as excellence in battle, arts, and sports. The Gods were portrayed in Greek literature as possessing overtly human characteristics, and this was applied broadly, as they would quarrel with each other and often times contradict one another in what they believed or supported. Yet one rule was clear, revenge was completely unjustified in Greek mythology and literature. This was because of the belief that revenge was inter-generational and that the thirst for revenge would never be
Characterized as capricious, selfish, and often comical, the Greek gods and goddesses hardly served as moral precedents, as can be seen through Zeus’ various exploits and Ares’ violent and cruel tendencies (Whitmarsh 31-32). To this end, the Greek gods and goddesses served as symbolic manifestations of all aspects of humanity, embodying the urges, ingenuity, hardships, and faults of all people (31). Consequently, the Greek people tended to criticize divine elements in Homer’s and Hesiod’s works, undermining, questioning, and even parodying the adventures of the heroes (36). A significant instance of this can be found within the writings of Palaephatus, a skeptical Athenian. Regarding the mythological creatures known as centaurs, Palaephatus writes, “... it is impossible.
Have you ever noticed that the gods of Greece are quite different from the Christian God? In recent readings of Mythology it has been noticed that Greek gods are different from God. There are many differences that have been found, but one of them is the grace of the gods and God. The grace of these two figures should be considered because of how people get grace, examples of grace in the Bible, and examples of grace in mythology books.
The Greek culture and Greek gods and goddesses has always been on my interest list. I find the study of Greek gods to be extremely intriguing and an interesting way to follow a specific practice of religion. I know a little information about Greek gods and who the main gods are, so having the opportunity to learn more about them is the extra push I needed to pick the topic of Greek gods and goddesses. I have also watched the Percy Jackson movies and read the books, which provided me with more insight on Greek gods even though Percy Jackson is a fictional read. Knowing all this information and interest in Greek gods lead me to the question, “How does Greek Gods get started and how does it influence the world today?”
The relationships between the Greek gods and mortals have always been complicated. The gods can be generous and supportive, but also harsh and destructive towards the humans. They claim to be all powerful beings with unlimited power and influence, but in truth, they are far more human than they are perceived. They meddle with human lives, not because they are wise, but because of their own selfish reasons. In Homer’s
Gods, like mortals, in anger can be very punishable and prejudiced. Also a king cannot rule without the favor of the Gods. The Gods also want sacrifices and offering from the people. Likewise, in the closing verse of Sophocles’ Antigone “Wisdom is provided as the chief part of happiness, and our dealings with the gods must be in no way unholy. The great words of arrogant men have to make repayment with great blows, and in old age teach wisdom.”
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.
In the epic poem The Odyssey, Homer portrays Greek gods and goddesses as possessing human qualities and faults. Through their actions and emotions, Homer emphasizes the detrimental effects of lust, envy, wrath, and greed in ancient Grecian society. He also never fails to remind readers of the importance of respect for holy figures because of their powerful abilities to create chaos and wonder". Homer wants to prove that gods and humans share a variety of traits, and the only difference is that god don’t allow these flaws negatively to impact their society. To help further his argument, we can compare Greek gods and goddesses to that of Christianity.
The lives of the gods were motivated the same basic factors of love, anger, and envy. Although their situations with these factors were more drastic due to their abilities, the gods still reacted and behaved similarly to humans. In the novel, Mythology , it is shown that the behaviors of the Greek gods that were influenced by the desire of love were extremely similar to those of a human. When Cupid falls in love with a mortal girl named Psyche, in an attempt to assure that no one else would marry her, the text states, “He put some drops of water of Psyche’s lips, a charm to prevent anyone else from falling in love with her, “ (33).
Then somehow Love was born bringing a start of order.” so the Gods that created the Earth in Greek Mythology kind of just made the rules on their own. Therefore they are different in the way that they decide to split up the characteristics of the Earth (Cr. Iris
Cheolmin Im GSI: David Wheeler Classics 10A Ontological Interpretation of Mortals and Gods in Iliad In this paper, I will ontologically examine the remarkable encounter between Helen and Aphrodite in Bk 3 of Homer’s Iliad, and investigate the interpretation’s ramifications of roles of gods in Homeric societies. I will argue that Aphrodite is synonymous to a particular “mood” that Helen must achieve “attunement” within the specific encounter, and expand the argument to suggest all gods being equivalent to moods that demand mortals’ attunement.