The Greek conception of mythology was a way of explaining the unknown – a humanizing system of rationality. Ancient Greeks could visit the island of Cythera, where the goddess of love, Aphrodite, was born from the sea’s foaming waves. This was so much the case that ancient mythological tourism was quite popular. Simply put, gods were a part of the human world. That’s not surprising – human beings were the central element in Greek thought and art. The earliest preclassical Greek poems, such as Homer’s Iliad, set the paradigm for how these human-like gods should behave. The Great Sphinx, for instance, has the head of a woman, the body of a great cat and is clearly visible from miles away. Many of these statues have both human and animal features, and most of them are so colossal that it’s clear their seeming humanness is in fact inhuman. Egyptian depictions of the gods made in stone still tower in the desert.
Just consider how the Egyptians envisaged their female gods. This contrasts starkly with other religious systems of the ancient world. That’s because, although the Greeks didn’t see them as human, their appearance and behavior often were. The Greek gods continue to fascinate, resonating in art and culture to this day. With the assistance of the Titan Prometheus, Zeus defeated Cronos and the remaining Titans to become the sole ruler over the world. Only one son, Zeus, managed to escape as Rhea succeeded in hiding him on the island of Crete.Įventually, Zeus decided to overthrow his father.
To prevent this from happening, Cronos set about devouring his sons and daughters. But Cronos would also become an anxious parent, learning that one of his children would eventually dethrone him. The youngest of these, Cronos, was so angered by this that he castrated his father, deposed him and instead became ruler over everything in his place.Ĭronos chose to rule with his sister Rhea, and they had many children together. Last of all were the gigantic Titans.īut Ouranos hated his own children. Three of their children had 100 hands and 50 eyes, and three were born with one eye each – Cyclops. The only difference is that the Greek monsters had more human qualities. It’s just that their monsters were often a bit more human – it wasn’t a world populated by giant lizards or mammoths.
We know that the world was once filled with monsters. Here we have a connection with the Greeks.
#Odysseus in greek mythology by edith hamilton series#
Gaea and Ouranos had a series of monstrous children. That’s why Mother Earth also goes by the name of Gaea, while Ouranos is commonly used for Father Heaven. You might also have spotted that in these myths there is no difference between an object and a personified agent – sure, Earth and Heaven are places, but they also operate as individuals. The Greek poet Hesiod simply wrote that Earth came to be, and afterward gave birth to starry Heaven, equal to herself. The same was true for the creation of the Earth itself. No god was an architect or initiator things just happened. What’s really interesting about the Greek creation myth is there was no attempt to explain the rationale. Love then created two new entities of its own, Light and Day. Night then laid an egg in Erebus and from the darkness within Night and the death within Erebus, Love was born, bringing order to the chaotic void. Two children emerged from this oblivion, by the names of Night and Erebus, in which darkness and death were each said to reside. Then, though no one quite knew how, something happened. There was just nothingness, the void that was Chaos. In the beginning – as far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned – there was nothing.
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