On a normal Sunday morning, all of the important Greek gods and goddesses, Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, Athena, Ares, Hera, and Aphrodite, gathered together in the giant arena of Mount Olympus for their usual schedule, which was Sunday playoffs. All of the gods and goddesses controlled a special part of the world and most of the goddess and gods were somehow related to each other. Zeus and Hera were king and queen of Olympus while Ares was the god of war. In some situations, they used their power in out of control ways. They weren’t expecting anything out of the ordinary to occur during the games.
There were once three goddesses. With their original names unknown, they created the Trinity of Order. There was the Goddess of Love, Goddess of Life, and Goddess of Grace. They loved doing the things they love. They lived a peaceful life, best friends until the end, working together to make each and every universe better than it was.
Gods, goddesses, deities, heroes and weak men and women fighting for the overall good, monsters, cultures from an unknown world. These are the figures that bring chaos and control to the Greek person's. The oldest account of these gods and goddesses are from the Greek writer Homer, who wrote “The Illiad and Odyssey.” People believe that he was the one that created these gods and goddesses, but others believe that it was many different people that wrote different parts of the religion. The Greeks believed in a polytheistic religion, meaning they worshipped more than one god.
The Trojan War was a bloody battle, said to be partially caused by two goddesses. Eris’s jealousy and Aphrodite's beauty became a conflict. They have contrasted very much leading up to this situation and even afterward. Aphrodite and Eris were both Greek goddesses but they differed greatly because of one being good and the other evil.
Go and check out all of the Ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses. If you were there, you would probably see someone with a falcon head or a hawk. That would be Horus the amazing sky god! He is one of the most popular gods! He is also a protector and he fights evil.
In general, when people think of God or gods, there tends to be a reverential connotation that goes along with the title, there’s a certain sacredness to the idea and conception of a deity. When the abrahamic God of the Torah is brought into light, he is suppose to characterized as this omniscient, infallible being that’s almost too great for humans to conceptualize, but what is fascinating about the Torah, is we find that God is anthropomorphized in a way that characterizes him as this imperfect force that resembles the Greek gods, particularly Dionysus in the Bacchae. Both of the deities have contradictory traits that encapsulates the complexities of being human while simultaneously establishing themselves as wrathful forces of nature.
When I hear about the Greek Gods and Goddesses, I associate their stories with the modern-day representations of them and really never studied the history behind them. In my Western Civilization class, I read a lot about the foundation of the Orthodox Church and was able to relate to my own upbringing in the Greek Orthodox Church. However, one piece of lacking information that I want to find out about is how the Greek culture of a polytheistic religion eventually became monotheistic. I decided to take a tour of the antiquities of the Gods and Goddesses to search for evidence of their existence as more than a cultural element or if there is any relation to the monotheistic religion that grew out of Greece.
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.
Throughout the history of this planet there have been countless civilizations that have left their mark. The ancient Greek empire is one of those civilizations. What is so intriguing about ancient Greece is the stories and history of Greek mythology. Greek mythology represents much of the Greek way of life that occurred thousands of years ago. It shows us what people thought of the gods and goddesses and also what they thought of one another.
Mythology can help give us a basic understanding of our cultural history and how the relationships between men and woman existed before now. In the story of Persephone and Demeter, Persephone, was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus. Demeter, goddess of harvest, loved her daughter dearly and kept a close eye on her. One-day Persephone wandered off and Hades, the god of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone. Agriculture stopped as Demeter searched for her daughter.
These stories make up what is known as Greek mythology which derived from the Greek word mythos. It implies something untrue but for the ancient Greeks these stories were a matter of faith. They help explain how and why the world works as it does. The ancient people, certainly the Greeks felt that deeply passionate feelings were somehow connected in the human mind and emotions where great desires and hatreds were somehow links. Homer (700-800 BC), commonly credited as the Greek poet and author of Western Literature 's first and most influential works Iliad (c. 750-725 BC) and its sequel Odyssey (c. 743-713 BC).
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.
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?”
Greek mythology has been one of the most complicated subjects in the field of religion and mythology. This is due to the complex relations and interactions which exists in the history of Greek gods and the humans who lived in ancient Greece. Different versions of the existence and the establishment of the superior beings were developed, which at times created suspense for readers through their interactions. The various tales which exist explain the various connections between different gods, how they relate to one another, the ideological order in which they came into existence as well as the interactions they had with humans. These tales form the basis of various religious beliefs and practices since it is perceived that it is through the interactions of the gods that humans came into existence, a situation which created the dependent relationship between mortals and gods.
Mythology from Ancient Greece is still greatly entwined in culture today. Many modern day phrases originate from characters in Greek mythology, as do many themes and topics in modern literature. Some brand names and logos of present day companies are also derived from Ancient Greek myths. Everyday, Greek mythology remains very much a part of our lives through its influences on the language, literature, and marketing of today.
