Greek Mythology: An Overview

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:41

Greek mythology is conditionally divided into two large sections: the deeds of the gods and the adventures of heroes. It should be noted that even despite the fact that they very often intersect, the line is drawn quite clearly and the child is able to notice it as well. Gods very often turn to heroes for help, and heroes, having the essence of demigods or titans, get out of certain situations in every possible way, creating positive stereotypes and doing good.

Greek mythology in the names of the gods

As always, at the top of the pantheon sits the God of Thunder, who, nevertheless, is not the progenitor of all things, but only the heir. This is one of the distinguishing features of pagan beliefs from monotheistic ones, and all Greek mythology is clearly permeated with this fact. Gods who are not creators and creators, but only representing immortal beings, feeding their power with the worship and faith of people. The father and mother of all things were the ancestors of the parents of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades - the mother earth Gaia and the father sky Ouranos. They gave birth to gods and titans, among whom was the strongest - Kronos. Greek mythology ascribes supreme power and strength to him, but, nevertheless, having matured, Zeus overthrewhis father and he himself took his throne, dividing the Earth between the brothers: Poseidon - water spaces, Hades - the underworld, and he himself became the supreme god of thunder and took Hera as his wife.

The next and intermediate step between gods and people are various mythical creatures. Greek mythology gave birth to pegasi, sirens, minotaurs, centaurs, satyrs, nymphs and many other creatures who, to one degree or another, possessed certain mystical powers. For example, Pegasus - could fly and became attached to only one person, and the sirens had the art of casting illusory spells. Moreover, most of these creatures in Greek mythology were endowed with intelligence and consciousness, sometimes much higher than that of an ordinary person.

And those who were human, but had at least a drop of divine blood in them, were called

heroes and demigods. Since they, possessing the power of the god-father, nevertheless, remained mortal and very often opposed higher powers. One of the most prominent heroes was Hercules, who became famous for his exploits, such as killing the hydra, Antaeus, and so on. You can always read more details in any book marked "Greek Mythology". The names of heroes such as Hector, Paris, Achilles, Jason, Orpheus, Odysseus and others not only went down in history, they remained on everyone's lips to this day, like living proverbs and examples of how one should behave in one or another other situation.

Indirect characters

There were also those who did not belong to anygods or heroes. These were ordinary people who accomplished feats of such magnitude that their deeds went down in history and are passed from mouth to mouth to this day. The wings of Daedalus and the arrogant stupidity of his son Icarus have become an instructive parable. The senseless and bloody victories of King Pyrrhus in the wars served as the basis for the saying "Pyrrhic victory", which takes its origins in his own words: "Another such victory and I will have no army!".