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Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the Ancient Greeks concerning their Gods and Hero es, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own Cult and Ritual practices. Modern scholars refer to the Myth s and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and on the Ancient Greek civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.1 Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as Vase-paintings and Votive Gifts . Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes, Heroines , and other Mythological Creatures . These accounts were initially disseminated in an Oral-poetic Tradition ; the Greek myths are known today primarily from Greek Literature . The oldest known literary sources, the Epic Poem s '' Iliad '' and '' Odyssey '', focus on events surrounding the Trojan War . Two poems by Homer 's near contemporary Hesiod , the '' Theogony '' and the '' Works And Days '', contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns , in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle , in Lyric Poem s, in the works of the tragedians of the 5th Century BC , in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age and in writers of the time of the Roman Empire , for example, Plutarch and Pausanias . Monumental evidence at Mycenaean and Minoan sites helped to explain many of the questions about Homer's epics and provided Archaeological proofs of many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Greek mythology was also depicted in artifacts; Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th Century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles . In the succeeding Archaic , Classical and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence.2 Greek mythology has had extensive influence on the culture, the arts and the literature of Western Civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. It has been a part of the educational fabric from childhood, while poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.J.M. Foley, ''Homer's Traditional Art'', 43 SOURCES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric Period (c. 900-800 BCE) onward.F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 200 Literary sources Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the '' Library '' of Pseudo- Apollodorus , which attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 1 Among the literary sources first in age are Homer's two epic poems, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these later and lesser poems are now almost entirely lost. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric Age .Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7 Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in ''Theogony'' (''Origin of the Gods'') the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods, Titans and Giants ; elaborate genealogies and folktales and etiological myths. Hesiod's ''Works and Days'', a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus , Pandora and the Four Ages . The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world rendered yet more dangerous by its gods. Lyrical poets sometimes take their subjects from myth, but the treatment becomes gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar , Bacchylides , Simonides , and bucolic poets, such as Theocritus and Bion , provide individual mythological incidents.Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek nad Roman Mythology'', xii Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian Drama . The tragic playwrights Aeschylus , Sophocles and Euripides took their plots from the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (i.e. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus , Jason , Medea etc.) took on their classic form in these tragic plays. For his part, the comic playwright Aristophanes used myths, as in '' The Birds '' or '' The Frogs ''.Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 8 Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus , and geographers Pausanias and Strabo , who traveled around the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supply numerous local myths, often giving little-known, alternative versions. Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him in and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.P. Cartledge, ''The Spartans'', 60, and ''The Greeks'', 22 The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: #The Roman poets Ovid , Statius , Valerius Flaccus , Seneca and Virgil with Servius 's commentary. #The Greek poets of the , Antoninus Liberalis and Quintus Smyrnaeus . #The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius Of Rhodes , Callimachus , Pseudo-Eratosthenes and Parthenius . #The ancient novels of Greeks and Romans such as Apuleius , Petronius , Lollianus and Heliodorus . The ''Fabulae'' and ''Astronomica'' of the Roman writer styled Pseudo-Hyginus are two important, non-poetical compendiums of myth. The ''Imagines'' of Philostratus the Elder and Younger and the Descriptions of Callistratus, are two other useful sources. Finally, the Christian apologist Arnobius , quoting cult practices in order to disparage them, and a number of Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, some of it sourced from lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include Hesychius ' lexicon, the '' Suda '', and the treatises of John Tzetzes and Eustathius . The Christian moralizing view of Greek myth is encapsulated in the saying ''En panti muthoi kai to Daidalou musos'' ("In every myth there is also the defilement of Daidalos"), on which subject the encyclopedic Sudas reported of the role of Daedalus in satisfying the "unnatural lust" of Pasiphae for the bull of Poseidon: "Since the origin and blame for these evils were attributed to Daidalos and he was loathed for them, he became the subject of the proverb." Pasiphae , Encyclopedia: Greek Gods, Spirits, Monsters Archaeological sources The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by German amateur Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the 19th Century , and the discovery of the Minoan Civilization in Crete by British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans in the 20th Century , helped to explain many of the questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeoloical proof of many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myth and ritual at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B Script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and Greece) was mainly used to record inventories, though the names of gods and heroes have been doubtfully revealed. Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th Century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles. These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons; on the one hand, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources (of the twelve labors of Heracles, only the Cerberus adventure occurs for the first time in a literary textHomer, ''Iliad'', 8. An epic poem about the Battle of Troy. 366–369 ) and, on the other hand, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry by several centuries. In the Archaic (c. 750–c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence. SURVEY OF MYTHIC HISTORY The Greeks' mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture. The earlier inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people who assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human shape and entered the local mythology as gods and goddesses.Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 17 When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older deities of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 18 After the middle of the Archaic period myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes become more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of and Patroclus , were also cast in a Pederastic Light .W.A. Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', 54 Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often adapted stories of Greek mythological characters. The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles, and as a result to develop a sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds like a phase in the development of the world and of man.K. Dowden, ''The Uses of Greek Mythology'', 11 While self-contradictions in the stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The mythological history of the world can be divided in 3 or 4 broader periods: #''The myths of origin'' or ''age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods")'': myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race. # ''The age when gods and mortals mingled freely'': stories of the early interactions between gods, Demigod s, and mortals. #'' The age of heroes (heroic age)'', where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the stories of ''the Trojan War and after'' (regarded by some researchers as a separate fourth period).G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 35 While the age of gods has often been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes. For example, the heroic ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' dwarfed the divine-focused ''Theogony'' and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (=heroes), of the Olympian from the '' Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', I, 89–162 Age of gods Cosmogony and cosmology See Also: Greek primordial gods Family tree of the Greek gods '' (''Love Conquers All''), a depiction of the god of love, Eros. By Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio , circa 1601–1602.]] "Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms and explain the origin of the world.Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 10 The most widely accepted account of beginning of things as reported by , Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus , Theia and Rhea , Themis and Mnemosyne , Phoebe and Tethys , and Cronus ); then the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handers. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of children")castrated his father and became the ruler of the gods with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort and the other Titans became his court. This motif of father/son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus . Zeus, persuaded by his mother, challenged him to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes, (whom Zeus freed from Tarturus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.Hesiod, ''Theogony'', [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Theogony 713–735
Greek gods See Also: Religion in ancient Greece Twelve Olympians by Monsiau , circa late 18th century.]] After the overthrow of the Titans, a new Pantheon of Gods and Goddess es emerged. Among the principal Greek deities were the Olympians (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea),H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 8 residing atop Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshiped various gods of the countryside, the goat-god Pan , Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naeads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, Satyrs , and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.4 In order to honor the ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs).J. Cashford, ''The Homeric Hymns'', vii Gregory Nagy regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with ''Theogony''), each of which invokes one god".G. Nagy, ''Greek Mythology and Poetics'', 54 In the wide variety of myths and legends that Greek mythology consists of, the deities that were native to the Greek peoples are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert , the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts".W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 182 Regardless of their underlying forms, the ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of Nectar and Ambrosia , by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 4 seduces Leda , the Queen of Sparta . A sixteenth century copy of the lost original by Michelangelo .]] Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods were called upon in poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and Epithet s, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g. ''Apollo Musagetes'' is " Apollo , {Link without Title} leader of the Muse s"). Alternatively the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece. Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, Ares was the god of war, Hades the god of the dead, and Athena the goddess of wisdom and courage.H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 20ff Some deities, such as Apollo and Dionysus , revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as Hestia (literally "hearth") and Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive Temple s tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demi-gods) supplemented this of the gods. Age of gods and men ]] Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and men moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' and they are often divided in two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 38 Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 39 In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', where the goddess lies with and Thetis , which yielded Achilles , is another such myth. with Satyr s. Interior of a cup painted by the Brygos Painter , Cabinet Des Médailles ]] The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when Tantalus steals nectar and Ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus or Lycaon invents sacrifice, when Demeter teaches Agriculture and the Mysteries to Triptolemus , or when Marsyas invents the Aulos and enters into a musical contest with Apollo . Prometheus' adventures mark "a place between the history of the gods and that of man".I. Morris, ''Archaeology As Cultural History'', 291 An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the Third Century BC , vividly portrays Dionysus ' punishment of the king of Thrace , Lycurgus , whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.J. Weaver, ''Plots of Epiphany'', 50 The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy.R. Bushnell, ''A Companion to Tragedy'', 28 In another tragedy, Euripides' '' The Bacchae '', the king of Thebes , Pentheus , is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his Maenads , the female Worshipper s of the god.K. Trobe, ''Invoke the GOds'', 195 In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,M.P. Nilsson, ''Greek Popular Religion'', 50 and echoeing a similar theme, Demeter was searching for her daughter, Persephone , having taken the form of an old woman called Doso , and received a hospitable welcome from Celeus , the King of Eleusis in Attica . As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', 255–274 binds the wound of Patroclus , on a late archaic Kylix by the Sosias painter.]] Heroic age The age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age.F.W. Kelsey, ''An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology'', 30 The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden, "there is even a saga effect: we can follow the fates of some families in successive generations". After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths, and prayers which are addressed to them. In contrast to the age of gods, during the heroic age the roster of heroes is never given fixed and final form; great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead. Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.;Raffan-Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 206
Heracles and the Heracleidae For more details on this topic, see Heracles and Heracleidae , Paris ).]]
Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks. In Italy he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.
Other members of this earliest generation of heroes, such as Perseus, Deucalion , Theseus and Bellerophon , have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on Fairy Tale , as they slay monsters such as the Chimera and Medusa . Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.G.S. Kirk, ''Myth'', 183 Argonauts ritual vessel ( Galleria Borghese , Rome ), picturing two Argonauts before a hunt. The personages have been tentatively identified as Heracles and Hylas .]]
House of Atreus and Theban Cycle See Also: Theban Cycle Seven Against Thebes '', by Maxfield Parrish , 1908]] In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of Atreus and Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of Labdacus ) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.Y. Bonnefoy, ''Greek and Egyptian Mythologies'', 103 The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with Cadmus , the city's founder, and later with the doings of Laius and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Seven Against Thebes (it is not known whether the Seven against Thebes figured in early epic) and Epigoni .R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 317 As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have followed a different pattern (in which he continued to rule at Thebes after the revelation that Iokaste was his mother and subsequently married a second wife who became the mother of his children) from the one known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' "Oedipus the King") and later mythological accounts.R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 311 Trojan War and aftermath (1757, Fresco, 300 x 300 cm, Villa Valmarana, Vicenza ) Achilles is outraged that Agamemnon would threaten to seize his warprize, Briseis, and he draws his sword to kill Agamemnon. The sudden appearance of the goddess Minerva , who, in this fresco, has grabbed Achilles by the hair, prevents the act of violence.]] For more details on this topic, see Trojan War and Epic Cycle
The and the Golden Apple of Kallisti , the Judgement Of Paris , the abduction of Helen , the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis ). To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of Menelaus ' brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos or Mycenae , but The Trojans refused to return Helen. The ''Iliad'', which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' friend Patroclus and Priam's eldest son, Hector . After Hector's death the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, Penthesilea , queen of the Amazons , and Memnon , king of the Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess Eos .10 Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the Palladium ). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the Trojan Horse . Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter Cassandra , the Trojans were persuaded by Sinon , a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of Odysseus and Aeneas (the ''Aeneid''), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns ('' Nostoi ''; lost) and Homer's ''Odyssey''.11 The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g. Orestes and Telemachus ). , Washington ) by the famous myth of the Trojan cycle. Laocoon was a Trojan priest who tried to have the Trojan horse destroyed, but was killed by sea-serpents.]] The Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main source of inspiration for ancient Greek artists (e.g. Metope s on the Parthenon depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance for the ancient Greek civilization. The same mythological cycle also inspired a series of posterior European literary writings. For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own courtly and chivalric ideals. 12th Century authors, such as Benoît De Sainte-Maure (''Roman de Troie'' of Troy, 1154–60 ) and Joseph Of Exeter (''De Bello Troiano'' the Trojan War, 1183 ) describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in ''Dictys'' and ''Dares''. They thus follow Horace 's advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something completely new.D. Kelly, ''The Conspiracy of Allusion'', 121 GREEK AND ROMAN CONCEPTIONS OF MYTH Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in ancient Greece.Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 15 Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's leaders' descent from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. According to Victor Davis Hanson , a military Historian , Columnist , political essayist and former Classics professor, and John Heath, associate professor of Classics at Santa Clara University , the profound knowledge of the Homeric Epos was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education of Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry "the Book".Hanson-Heath, ''Who Killed Homer'', 37 Philosophy and myth 's Plato in '' The School Of Athens '' fresco (probably in the likeness of Leonardo Da Vinci ). The philosopher expelled the study of Homer, of the tragedies and of the related mythological traditions from his utopian Republic.]] After the rise of philosophy, and history, prose and Rationalism in the late 5th century BC the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the Thucydidean history).J. Griffin, ''Greek Myth and Hesiod'', 80 While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7 A few radical philosophers like Xenophanes Of Colophon were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th century BC; Xenophanes had complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another".F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 169–170 This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in Plato 's '' Republic '' and '' Laws ''. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the ''Republic''), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature. Plato's criticism (he called the myths "old wives' chatter")Plato, ''Theaetetus'', 176b was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition. For his part Aristotle ctiticized the Pre-socratic quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us [...] But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them". Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization for Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:Plato, ''Apology'', 28b-c
Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization. The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry, and to form the main subject of painting and sculpture. More sportingly, the 5th century BC . Hellenistic and Roman rationalism During the Hellenistic Period , mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced.M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 89 Greek mythographer Euhemerus established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.12 Although his original work (''Sacred Scriptures'') is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and Lactantius .R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 7 Rationalizing Hermeneutic s of myth became even more popular under the Roman Empire , thanks to the physicalist theories of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.J. Chance, ''Medieval Mythography'', 69 Through his Epicurean message, Lucretius had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvi Livy , too, is sceptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae).M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 88 The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of Religious Tradition was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian Varro , who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his ''Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum'' (which has not survived, but Augustine 's '' City Of God '' indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents. In his work he distinguished three kinds of gods:
Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 87 Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended. Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of Scyllas , Centaurs or other composite creatures,Cicero, ''Tusculanae Disputationes'', 1. 11 but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people.Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2. 81 ''De Natura Deorum'' is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought.P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvii Syncretizing trends ) was combined with the cult of Sol Invictus. The worship of Sol as special protector of the emperors and of the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by Christianity .]] During the Roman era appears a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. Syncretization was also due to the fact that the Romans had little Mythology of their own, and inherited the Greek mythological tradition; therefore, the major Roman gods were syncretized with those of the Greeks. In addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with eastern religions led to further syncretizations.North-Beard-Price, ''Religions of Rome'', 259 For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome after Aurelian 's successful campaigns in Syria . The Asiatic divinities Mithras (that is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one Sol Invictus , with conglomerated rites and compound attributes.J. Hacklin, ''Asiatic Mythology'', 38 Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice. The surviving 2nd century collection of Orphic Hymns and Macrobius 's ''Saturnalia'' are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing trends as well. The Orphic Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned myth. In reality, these poems were probably composed by several different poets, and contain a rich set of clues about prehistoric European mythology.Sacred Texts, Orphic Hymns The stated purpose of the ''Saturnalia'' is to transmit the Hellenic culture he has derived from his reading, even though much of his treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia reappear mythographical comments influenced by the euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists. MODERN INTERPRETATIONS The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or Fable had been retained.Robert Ackerman, 1991. ''Introduction to Jane Ellen Harrison 's "A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion"'', xv In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In Göttingen Johann Matthias Gesner began to revive Greek studies, while his successor, Christian Gottlob Heyne , worked with Johann Joachim Winckelmann , and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere.F. Graf, ''Greek Mythicalically'', 9 Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches See Also: Comparative mythology
Sigmund Freud introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochment between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.R. Caldwell, ''The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth'', 344 Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it. According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche".C. Jung, ''The Psychology of the Child Archetype'', 85 Comparing Jung's methodology with Joseph Campbell 's theory, Robert A. Segal concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the ''Odyssey'', for example, would show how Odysseus’s life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth".R. Segal, ''The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell'', 332–335 Karl Kerenyi , one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 38 Origin theories See Also: Similarities between Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies , 1811.]]
and Adonis, Attic red-figure Aryballos -shaped Lekythos by Aison (c. 410 BC, Louvre, Paris).]] Archaeology and mythography, on the other hand, has revealed that the Greeks were inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East. , Thebes and Orchomenos .W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 23 Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connencted with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur etc.) Professor Martin P. Nilsson concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaen centres and were anchored in pehistoric times.M. Wood, ''In Search of the Trojan War'', 112 Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 24 MOTIFS IN WESTERN ART AND LITERATURE See Also: List of movies based on Greco-Roman mythology '' (c. 1485–1486, oil on canvas, Uffizi , Florence ) — a revived ''Venus Pudica'' for a new view of pagan Antiquity —is often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.]]
In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with Chaucer and John Milton and continuing through Shakespeare to Robert Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths. Although during the Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the Libretti for many of Handel 's and Mozart 's operas.l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75 By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as Alfred Lord Tennyson , Keats , Byron and Shelley ) and painters (such as Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema ).l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75–76 Christoph Gluck , Richard Strauss , Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music. American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne , held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 4 In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh , Jean Cocteau , and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in America, and T.S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide . NOTES REFERENCES Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
Secondary sources FURTHER READING
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