Influence Of Mythology On Literature And Society Essays - Trojans

Influence Of Mythology On Literature And Society Anthony Roldan P3 3-282 1/4/01 The Influence of Mythology on Literature and Society Part One: Edith Hamilton is the author of the book Mythology. This book is about the Mythology of the Romans and Greeks through her eyes and the way she interprets it. In the beginning of the book Hamilton writes an introduction to Classical Mythology and how, and why it came about. She starts off by writing that Greek and Roman Mythology is meant to show us how people felt about the human race and about where they came from many years ago. She points out that Mythology describes the Earth when it was young and people cared for the Earth more than today. This is true, because in todays world not many people are caring about the Earth and its going by us fast. She also points out that these stories in Mythology and the characters are describe in such great detail that even through you cannot see them, that maybe just maybe they are real and believable. Mythology is the way the Greeks and Roman saw and understood the world around them and it is written in which a way that we may never truly understand it. Hamilton now describes the Mythology of the Greeks as a totally different picture than the one described in Classical Mythology. She describes it as being vile, and savage, but the reason for this is because the Greeks wrote about themselves when they had a brutal and poverty filled life. They wrote like this to show you how they came to power and what they went through to get there. Not only was Greece coming to power, but also they changed the world as it was back then and forever. The reason for this was, because when Greece came to power so did mankind, and because they finally saw how powerful they could be, mankind was born. Greek originally obtained their gods from the Egyptians when they traveled into Egypt and saw the statues of their gods. The Greeks then took the same idea and changed its meaning around. An example would be how the Egyptian gods have different body parts with other bodies and the Greek gods are humans. Hamilton states that the Egyptians made gods they thought up and made them in a way that no one has seen before. The Greeks therefore made their gods in there own image. That made it easier for them to understand them and know how they act. The major point Hamilton is showing in this introduction is that Mythology is a new to look at life and to understand it under a different light. Another point she states is that Greek Mythology its self, is so unique that it showed extreme beauty yet fear at that same time. The gods were not to be completely feared, but respected to the point where you didnt anger them. Greek Mythology is also unique, because it doesnt have many of the things that are in most religion or folklore. Hamilton states that Greek Mythology didnt contain Magic or Witches, and in reality didnt fear the dead, they actually pitied the dead. Hamiltons main point in this whole introduction is that Mythology itself is completely and totally different from any other religion or folklore ever. Mythology was written in such a beautiful way that upon reading it, it seems real and it begins to take shape. She is also saying that Greek Mythology was in a way different than normal Mythology and therefore changed the face of Mythology forever. PART TWO: Aside from mortals and immortals in Mythology there were many heroes in it as well. There are heroes such as the well-known Hercules and Hermes and Apollo, but there are many not as famous. Two examples of these are Prometheus and Io. Prometheus is a god who was the first to introduce fire to mankind. Zeus was very anger when he first learned of this and punished Prometheus for what he had done. Many other gods accommodated Prometheus for his courage to go against Zeus and do something that was right. Zeus sent Prometheus to the rock peak of Caucasus where