Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Intro to Mythology

"These things never happened, but are always."- Saloustios. This quote best describes today's first Mythology class. All of these myths have lasted for ages, and will continue to exist; they exist as stories of how the world came to be and the adventures that were had in times passed. They were also fictional stories. This is what we talked about in class. Myths are but stories told generation after generation, whether they be Ovid or Homer.

Speaking of stories, I read the first couple chapters of The marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. When I read it, I saw the gods as I have seen them so many times before, so I was unsurprised at their personality traits (selfishness and dangerous) being brought forth here. I did find an interesting theme through these first couple chapters: the gods, powerful though they are, are a great danger to the humans they claim to care about, and even love. The boy Dionysus loved came to a tragic death, leaving the god of wine in mourning. Then there was all the woman Zeus abducted to satisfy his needs. The view ancient Greeks clearly had on the subject judging by these stories and many others is to worship the gods, but to keep them at a safe distance.

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