Introduction To The Greek Mythology
Greek and Roman mythology is quite generally supposed to show us the way the human race thought and felt untold thousands of years ago. According to this perspective, by following it, we can trace the journey from the modern, civilized man who resides far from nature back to the early stages when humans lived in intimate harmony with the natural world. The myths are fascinating because they take us back to a time when the world was young, and people felt a strong connection with the earth — trees, seas, flowers, and hills in a way we can’t quite grasp today. It’s suggested that when these stories were created, there wasn’t much separation between what was considered real and unreal; In the woods, someone could see a nymph running through the trees, or while leaning over a clear river to drink water, they might catch sight of the face of a naiad in the depths.
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.
THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY
The stories of Greek mythology don’t provide a clear understanding of early humanity. However, they do offer a lot of insights into the nature of early Greeks. This seems more relevant to us, as we are their intellectual, artistic, and political descendants. Everything we discover about them feels familiar to us.
We don’t know exactly when these stories were first told in the way we know them now, but whenever it happened, ancient life was already a thing of the past. The myths, as we know them today, were created by talented poets. The Iliad marks the earliest written record of Greece. Greek mythology begins with Homer, generally believed to be not earlier than a thousand years B.C.
We have no idea why or when it happened. What we do know is that the earliest Greek poets introduced a completely new perspective, never imagined before and never abandoned afterward. With the rise of Greece, humanity became the focal point of the universe, the most significant element in it. This was a groundbreaking shift in thinking. Previously, humans hadn’t been given much importance. In Greece, for the first time, people grasped the true essence of humanity.
The Greeks created their gods to look like themselves. This idea had never occurred to people before. Before that, gods didn’t resemble anything real; they were unlike any living beings.
God figures in different mythologies usually have unique and distinctive appearances. In Hindu mythology, Brahma is depicted as a creator god with four heads and four hands. In Egyptian Mythology Ra is depicted with a horse head or an eagle head, representing the Sun. But in Greek Mythology, it was different. Gods were similar to us, talking to us, and including us in their stories.
This is the “miracle” created by Greek mythology: a humane world, a world without the fear of that unknown, without an overwhelming presence that knows everything and is above everything.
