“The Father of The Greek Didactic Poetry,” (“Theogony” Britannica.com) is one of the earliest Greek poets, Hesiod. Hesiod created a poem in which he described the birth and relationships between primordial deities as well as characterized behaviors amongst the gods. Hesiod’s interpretation of the birth of the gods is established in his work, “Theogony.” There are a number of reasons as to why Hesiod wrote the piece. Hesiod’s attitude toward males differs completely from his attitude towards females. Not only does Hesiod’s sexist attitude reflect in his writing, but also his stories all have a connection to the reality and social aspects of the world.
Of course, the tale is well known as an anachronism; however, the main protagonists emulate the ancient Romans in mythological and pagan practiceof reverence. Amongst the temples of Diana and Venus; Mars takes lead in interest. Chaucer depicts Mars as a figure who induces, or promotes, the conflicting and chaotic elements of destruction and warfare.However, his depiction of war falls into two categories. Chaucer illustrates the good and the bad elements of war in his description of the artisticwalls in the temple of Mars. Temples are known to represent otherworldly figures presiding over man and his actions.
This is seen at Mecone where Prometheus’ trick brought wrath at him and humans. The purpose of this sacrifice is to settle accounts between the mortals and immortals by bringing two sacrificial offerings before the Gods. Prometheus tricked Zeus into picking an inedible piece of sacrifice which set a precedent for future sacrifices. This precedent is a basic belief that disobeying or tricking the Gods leads to disaster. This is highlighted during Prometheus’ attempt to steal the fire from the immortal’s to give to the mortals that led to the punishment of man working to find his food.
Created for the festival of Dionysus in 431 BC, Medea is a controversial study of impassioned love turned into furious hatred. It examines the liability of various characters for the final tragedy of the play, whence Medea butchers her two innocent children. It also disregards the concept of ‘heroes’ common to dramas in Euripides time. The clash of two contrasting characters — one, a barbarian woman with extreme emotional reactions, and her husband, a vain man of civilisation who lacks empathy — allows Euripides to explore whether it is the heart or the head that drives humans to commit inhumane acts. Medea’s extreme emotional attachments can only be expressed through extreme measures.
Mythology reflects the cultural and belief elements. By examination of the heroes, tricksters, the creation and the afterlife of the myths of different mythologies, some similarity can be detected. By comparing the Ancient Greek, the native African, the Mesopotamian and the Biblical mythologies, many common belief symbols can be summarized: the human challenge to the God, the human’s reflection of their sinful behaviors, the desire to perform over the human limit, the fear for the almighty power, the desire to explain the world origination and the different destinations for the faithful and unfaithful. Firstly, the fear for the almighty power is one of the original motivations for the existence of all the mythologies, which can be found in different mythologies. All the Gods own the almighty power over human beings and other creatures on earth.
Nikhil Anjuri CAMS 045 PSU ID: 930117336 Power Structures in Greco-Roman Myth The Ancient mythologies have been well stocked in cultures, gods, human characters and traditions. There has been a common pattern in the way these gods, mortal humans associate themselves in a variety of events that demonstrates their behavioral and power relations in the Greek and Roman myths. Power, without any hesitation, can be termed as a driving force for humans as well as gods. Power as an expression of control over people, state, and finances have always been something of a center of aspirations but is however, usually abused. The most interesting part of these myths has been the dynamic relationship and power sharing.
Beowulf, Gilgamesh and The Odyssey are all great epics written by different cultures in different time periods. But being from different civilizations, they share certain values that make them similar. These similarities can be seen through the actions, appearance and fights of the epic heroes’ enemies. Both Humbaba from Gilgamesh and the Cyclops from The Odyssey had certain human aspects to them. Like any human Humbaba pleads for his life, as he’s about to die, making the reader feel pity for him.
Rather, the point is that the authority of kingship now belongs to the poetic voice, the voice that is declaiming the Theogony. Although it is often used as a sourcebook for Greek mythology the Theogony is both more and less than that. In formal terms it is a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses (who he farthered): parallel passages between it and the much shorter Homeric Hymn to the Muses make it clear that Hesiod's account the Theogony is developed out of a tradition of hymnic preludes with which an ancient Greek rhapsode would begin his performance at poetic competitions. It is necessary to see the Theogony not as the definitive source of Greek mythology, but rather as a photographic account of a dynamic tradition sort to say that happened to become
Fight your way out, / or run for it, if you think you can escape death. / I doubt one man of you skins by…” (705). By destroying the suitors, Odysseus used violence once again as a way to satisfy his need for vengeance, despite the fact that the suitors offered alternate ways to pay him back. Since the suitors betrayed him, pursued his beloved wife Penelope, and threatened to take his place as king, Odysseus felt the need to slaughter the suitors as the most sufficient way to retaliate. “Death at the Palace” suggests Ancient Greeks considered violent revenge adequate.
A major difference in the texts is that while Dante uses the underworld to denote hell, Virgil extends the physical world, as we know it. Dante feels that the pagan Virgil is contradicting in his ways, and Dante’s hell is an extension of Virgil’s underworld. Virgil influenced the way Dante denotes hell in specific circles or steps. While Virgil had only three; Tartarus, Elysium and Lugentes Campi, Dante had nine; Limbo, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery. Apparently, it is also clear that the concept of underworld is yet another influence Dante received from Maro’s “The Aeneid” (Maro 930-939).