In the Greek creation myth, The Theogony “is a mythical account of how the Greek gods came into existence and of the relationships and conflicts bewtween them, which led to a divine monarch under the ruler Zeus.”[2] Features include, a polytheistic worldview, with gods being part of the natural environment and personified, to the extent of having male and female sex characteristics. [3] They are also considered anthromorphic and therefore take on qualities of humans in form and behaviour. There is a contrast of the female representing the earth goddess, (Gaea) and the male representing heaven(Uranos), who is both the son and partner of Earth. Creation, therefore takes place through birth of these elements and continue with their offspring producing a further generation of gods. [4] These features are shared also in the Babylonian creation myth, Enumera Elish.
A.) How do the Gods influence human actions in both the Iliad and the Agamemnon? In what way are these influences similar or different in one work compared to the other? In Ancient Greece, many literary and poetic works put huge amounts of emphasis on the divine intervention of Gods, which can easily be seen through the poetics of Homer’s Iliad, and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. Although both writings use the Gods to thicken the plot and add “immortal” thrill to the story line, the real similarities in both stories can be seen through the use of Gods as a scapegoat for tragedy caused at the hand of mortals.
In her essay, Simone Weil’s evaluation of the Iliad has some valid points according to the passages in the Iliad. Also Nietzsche wrote his evaluation of the Iliad(actually the Homeric World) in which he points out some really interesting ideas evaluated from the Iliad, he explains the main ideas of the Hellenic notion and he compares some famous Greek stories in order to express us his ideas about the Homeric world. Both of these essays have some valid points about the Iliad but they are both partially true because they also include wrong ideas according to the Iliad. If we are to start with Simone Weil’s opening statement of her essay which is "The true hero, the true subject matter, the center of the Iliad is force." She points out some valid points such as; a lot of detailed death descriptions on the battlefield, the focus on the flying body parts which help us to picture the death in our minds, showing us the power of the force which can reduce human beings into simple things; the interesting explanations and descriptions of war victims in order to show us that this reduction of human beings to things can apply to the living.
On the other hand, Io, who is not bound but is “maddened and forced to wander” (p.183), is unable to govern her own movements. Prometheus is seditious, and punished by Zeus for raging against him in almost constant defiance. In contrast, Io, who recognises Zeus as the cause of her sufferings, never makes any attempt at rebellion. They are, to an extent, each other’s opposite. However, rather than speculating that the relationship between Prometheus and Io is used as a mechanism for describing disproportion, Oliver Taplin, when analysing the exits and entrances that occur throughout the various works of Aeschylus, observed that Io’s dramatic leap into the action may be used to “set the main theme of
The ancient Greeks tended to use the gods as an excuse for natural events. Many believe that because of their lack of scientific knowledge, the easiest explanation for unexplainable events was to place the blame on the gods. For example, when Agamemnon, the Achaean leader, would not give up his war prize, Chrysies, her father prayed to Apollo for her return. Apollo hears his prayers and casts his arrows down upon the Achaeans. This is depicted as a plague lasting nine days that sweeps through the troops.
The addition of Apollo to the Olympian order bridged this gap between gods and men since Apollo was now the mediator between Zeus and mankind. Apollo uses his attributes of music, archery and prophecy throughout the hymn to strengthen the relationship between gods and mankind as well to secure the order in Olympus. In the poem the gods muse at the human suffering and their defenceless nature. The gods laugh at how the humans cannot defend themselves against growing old or how they cannot avert death. Though they seem to have a perfect life, the gods require humans to express their majesty.
These celebrated Zeus. One of the most important religious moral concepts to the Greeks was a fear of committing hubris, which constituted many things, from rape to desecration of a corpse. It was a crime in the city-state of Athens. Although pride and vanity were not considered sins themselves, the Greeks emphasized moderation. Pride only became hubris when it went to extremes, like any other Anything done to excess was not considered proper.
The first reason for this is the blatant promiscuity of Zeus. While there are people who are promiscuous today, few are open about living such a lifestyle. The second problem with this story is the method in which Zeus took Ganymede. Basically, he was kidnapped for his beauty. This is obviously morally and legally wrong in any country in the world today.
Greek and Roman Architecture Nicole Saravante July 8, 2010 ART/101 Instructor/Sashlin Roman and Greek Architecture The Roman and Greek architectures shared many similarities. The Greeks’ built their architectures around their beliefs, for example the Greek belief in “The Gods,” such as Zeus, Athens, or Trident. Greeks believed the Gods needed a home on earth, so they built temples. The Romans made similar designs to the Greeks. Romans used the Greek culture as an influence in their architectures, for example Romans used the Greeks belief in the Gods and just changed the names of them.
Mesopotamia never had very good crop seasons and they believed that this is because of the gods unforgiving and spiteful manner. However the Egyptians almost always had a good crop season therefore they thank their gods. Another difference these two civilizations share regarding religion is their belief in the afterlife. Although both civilizations believed in an afterlife, Egyptians believed that the afterlife was a place of joy and celebration, the Mesopotamians believed that their afterlife was a brutal and torturous place. The third difference regarding religion is the fact that Egyptians at a pharaoh who they worshiped as a god, loan Mesopotamians had no pharaoh.