Mythology

Prior, there was earth or sea or heaven, there existed only chaos: shapeless, unorganized, lifeless matter. There was no sun, no moon, and no air. Elements existed, but they had neither form nor character. The earth was without firmness, the water without fluidity, and the sky without light.

There was opposition in all things: hot conflicted with cold, wet with dry, heavy with light, and hard with soft.

Finally a god, a natural higher force, resolved this conflict, separating earth from heaven, parting the dry land from the waters, and dividing the clear air from the clouds, thus organizing all things into a balanced union. In the highest sphere he made a heavenly vault of weightless and untainted ether. The next lower region he filled with air, light but not without substance. Then came the creation of heavy earth that was encircled by the sea.

Therefore, no science can expand without definition, and the definition of mythology here can be defined as myths and these folk-tales, and legends may be generally defined as traditional forms of narrative. The study of mythology is an extraordinary and imaginative sort of myths whereby the universe with all its components is mentioned in narrative ways of tales in Greek and Roman mythology. Thus, the purpose of such research is to high light on some obscure questions that always pop in to our minds.

This paper solely undertakes the tasks to explore the purpose of Greek and Roman mythology, the hidden reasons behind these kinds of tales with those people who believed in such way of worship of many different gods and goddesses (polytheists).

In addition, the paper is to state the main similarities and differences between Roman and Greek mythology in terms of the origins of the gods and the universe.

At the end, there is a description of the qualities and functions of the following four gods and goddesses: Athena, Hermes, Hephaestus and Cupid.  

  

Broadly speaking myths and mythologies seek to rationalize and explain the universe and all that is in it. Thus, they have a similar function to science, theology, religion and history in modern societies. Systems of myths have provided a cosmological and historical framework for societies that have lacked the more sophisticated knowledge provided by modern science and historical investigation.

Creation myths provide an explanation of the origin of the universe in all its complexity. They are an important part of most mythological systems. Creation myths often invoke primal gods and animals, titanic struggles between opposing forces or the death and/or dismemberment of these gods or animals as the means whereby the universe and its components were created. Form earliest times, humans have had a need to explain the origins and wonders of the world though its amazing creation of  elements such as: the mountains and oceans, the changing seasons, the seas and rivers, the earthquakes and the storms, the existence of animals, floods, volcanoes, including humans.

Early humans, in every culture on earth made up stories about these phenomena and invented gods and supernatural beings to provide comfort and instruction.

Studying or reading mythology is indispensable for mankind irrespective of their specializations in order to comprehend and perceive the world and the history of those people who left many tales, legends and myths. They created their gods and goddesses to supply themselves with comfort and happiness.

There are many different purposes in Greek and Roman mythology, however, there has to be the main purpose is to explain the universe. So the following are listed in the order of priority:

         i.            "Myths grant continuity and stability to a culture.
They foster a shared set of perspectives, values, history. Through these communal tales, we are connected to one another, to our ancestors, to the natural world surrounding us, and to society; and, through the myths which have universal (i.e., archetypal) themes, we are connected to other cultures.

        ii.               Myths present guidelines for living.
When myths tell about the activities and attitudes of deities, the moral tone implies society's expectations for our own behaviors and standards. In myths, we see archetypal situations and some of the options which can be selected in those situations; we also perceive the rewards and other consequences which resulted from those selections.

      iii.            Myths justify a culture's activities.
Through their authoritativeness and the respected characters within them, myths establish a culture's customs, rituals, religious tenets, laws, social structures, power hierarchies, territorial claims, arts and crafts, holidays and other recurring events, and technical tips for hunting, warfare, and other endeavors.

      iv.            Myths give meaning to life.
We transcend our common life into a world in which deities interact with humans, and we can believe that our daily actions are part of the deities' grand schemes. In our difficulties, the pain is more bearable because we believe that the trials have meaning; we are suffering for a bigger cause rather than being battered randomly. And when we read that a particular deity experienced something which we are now enduring -- perhaps a struggle against "evil forces" we can feel that our own struggle might have a similar cosmic or archetypal significance, though on a smaller scale.

       v.            Myths explain the unexplained.
They reveal our fate after death and the reasons for crises or miracles, and other puzzles -- and yet they retain and even encourage an aura of mystery. Myths also satisfy our need to understand the natural world; for example, they might state that a drought is caused by an angry deity. This purpose of mythology was especially important before the advent of modern science, which offered the Big Bang theory to replace creation myths, and it gave us the theory of evolution to supplant myths regarding the genesis of humanity. And yet, science creates its own mythology".

Studying mythology is part of having a well-rounded education. Many great works of literature (including Shakespeare) refer back to mythology, and there is no way to properly understand what the greatest authors of all time were saying without knowing about this topic. When literature refers to another famous work of literature, this is called an allusion, and allusions abound in great literature, not only in books and plays, but in poetry as well. This is because the great authors assumed that people who were reading their literature were educated. The basic building block of literature that the great books refer to the most is the Greek mythology.

"The Greek Mythology was created long time before the Roman Mythology. Around the years of 2000 BC, Atlantis rose up, created by Timaus and Critias, a powerful man and woman, whose origin no one knows. God Timaus and the Goddess Critias are cited in many stories about the beginning of the Greek Mythology. Like the Roman Mythology people presume that it was created from beliefs of ancient population that lived before them. A personal opinion about the creation of the Greek Mythology would be that it was created from the Egyptians who lived before them and also believed in different gods. If we pretend that the Romans took the idea for their mythology from the Greek Mythology, we can suppose that the Greek Mythology was created from Egyptian’s beliefs and myths.

Like the Roman Mythology, the Greek one was composed of 21 gods and goddesses. Compared to the Roman, the Greek gods were represented with gorgeous bodies, where muscles, eyes, faces an hair would give them the most beautiful appearance. Greek gods were named according to a place of a living or non-living thing.

Honoring Greek gods was similar to Roman’s way of worship. People used to bring meals to either Mount Olympus, where gods lived or to the graves of family members who died. Drawing a symbol of a god in a hall of the house could represent that the family needed help of a god. In the family, if a son were sick the father would draw an object representing the Goddess Hygeia, so she could enter the house and cure the young child.

The Roman and the Greek gods seem to relate to each other. A similarity between the two mythologies is that the symbols and designations of powers are the same in the two. The differences are present in the date of creation. Also, for both mythologies we don’t know where and how were they created because there is more than one story that describes their beginning".

The following is a short description about four different gods and goddesses:

"Hera and Poseidon are often associated with Athena as not over-friendly critics of Zeus. Athena, like Hera, is not a name but a title. It means 'the Athenian one' and refers to another manifestation of the pre-Greek mother-goddess worshiped, as she continued to be worshiped, in the Parthenon on the Acropolis at Athens. An Indo-European etymology for the name has, however, been suggested, meaning 'the daughter of the father'. Athena was, however, quite literally absorbed by Zeus, who by pure thoughts brought her to birth from his forehead, fully armed in his own magic goat-skin, the aegis, though Hephaestus cleft his head with an axe to effect the delivery".

"Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Crcadia, where Zeus had visited his mother at night. He sometimes appears as a god of the folks of sheep, especially in Argos, where he stands in an intimate relation with the house of Atreus, and in Arcadia where he was born. Hermes was the god of all forms of magic and trickery, which the Greek at first admired rather than condemned".

'Hephaestus  is the regular son of Zeus and Hera, an eastern fire god who has been incorporated as an Olympian of the second generation. He is a lame and the god who overthrew Zeus".  ".

"In Roman mythology, Cupid (also called Amor) was the god of love, often represented as a small, winged boy, blindfolded (as "love is blind"), carrying bow and arrows.

The arrows, once they struck someone's heart, made the victim fall in love".

To conclude, mythology is a rich reference for those who want to discover, to be literate, and to be knowledgeable about the universe and themselves, as well as to build rational critical thinking according to their perception of Greek and Roman mythology. Even if they do not believe in it, they should spend sometimes reading in order to have at least a background about the history, the tales, and the religious life of those ancient people.