西方文明史论文作业3

The Attraction of Greek Mythology

希腊神话的魅力

Abstract：

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeksconcerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is embodied, explicitly, in a large collection of narratives, and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.

Key words:

Greek myths; Greek legends; ancient Greeks; origin

Ⅰ.Introduction

Since I was 12-year-old around, I have been fascinated by western mythology especially Greek mythology, because it stands for a part of Western culture, in some degree. The origin of the word “mythology” is from a Greek

word“mythos+logos”,“mythos”means“word”or“verbal language”,“logos”means“story”. It reflects nature and society of ancient people and it is an original understanding of human beings about origin of world, natural phenomenon and social livelihood. So I think it is necessary to research into Greek mythology further.

Ⅱ.Sources of Greek mythology

There are various versions of sources of Greek mythology. Literary sources

and archaeological sources are two main sources. As for literary sources, Homer played a

significant role who is well-known by eminent epic poems Iliad and Odyssey which are the oldest known literary sources. What’s more, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900–800 BC onward. Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. And Greek lyric poets including Pindar, Bacchylides, Simonides and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents. On another aspect, according to archaeo- logical sources, Heinrich Schliemann (the German amateur archaeologist, in the nineteenth century), Sir Arthur Evans (British archaeologist, in the twentieth century) contributed a lot to the discovery about resources. And the discovery of many Greek myths attested on vases which were found earlier than literary text works numerosity. More sources are waiting to be observed and studied.

Ⅲ. Greek pantheon

A. The system of Gods

In Greek myth,“gods are plentiful and systemic, just like a complete world of human beings”(Switch 16).The gods all possess the capabilities of supermen, and have fairly low moral standards, even lower than that of worldly people.“Greek myth, as the spoken literatu re in the early period of human society, represents abundant themes of human nature, presenting the passionate side of Greek spirit”(Green 4).

B. Greek pantheon

According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing atop Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. Zeus was the king of the gods. He was the ruler of the heavens where he controlled the weather and the skies. He created thunder and could hurl lightning bolts at those who angered him. The thunderbolts were given to Zeus by a Cyclops to help aid him in his war against the Titans Zeus was married six times, and he had numerous affairs with goddesses and mortal women alike.