希腊神话与中国文化的文化意义比较

The Cultural Similarities and Differences Between the Chinese And Greek mythologies

English 142 吴梅梅201410010127 Myth is the first precious spiritual wealth created by mankind.It is a social ideology, including religion, philosophy, politics, art, science, history, customs and so on.Mythology, as a kind of culture, has some universal generality, but different ethnic mythologies have their own special characters.

China and Greece have a lot of fairy tales that Recorded the life of our ancestors. China and Greek mythology have similar ancestral myths and stories of heroes in content.

Both Chinese and Greek myths reveal the fears of nature especially when humankind were faced with the flood. The flood is even regarded as the punishment to mankind when they sinned . In that period, human lack self - control ability. Flood can play a role in regulating the behavior of human .Although early humans feared nature, they have a strong desire to conquer nature. So they created a variety of God's story and the legend of heroes to express their desire to conquer and change nature.Besides,In Greek mythology, God is the epitome of the Homeric society, and China mythical kingdom has strong political overtones, is a reflection of how society going at that time.The Greek myth and Chinese myth have many love stories such as the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid, Jose and Europa

etc.

Chinese myth propaganda that God has superior power, sacred and inviolable, has no supernatural ability of human. The boundary between God and man can not be overcome, that is, human beings have to absolutely fear God, worship God and obey God. Chinese mythology God is our fate, people are faced with hardships and setbacks in life. Although people have fought, most of the time they were pinning their hope fate in the next world, hoping to get the blessing of God.

However, due to the different conditions of the geographical environment and historical evolution of the two countries, China and the ancient Greek mythology respectively represent the difference between the eastern and Western culture. The Chinese myth reacts unfavorably to human nature while the Greek myth emphasize the human nature.The Chinese myth is the product of preaching while the Greek myth is the expression of the idea. The Chinese myth is the embodiment of politics while the Greek myth is the love and dislike of mankind. In the solicitude of humanities, the Greek mythology is more progressive than the Chinese mythology.

Second, the Greek gods, like the men, also have human

desires ,smiles and tears. They also have integrity, courage, and guile. Therefore, the Greek gods have the characteristics of strong secular. For example, there exist incest.The Earth Goddess Gaea heaven and earth