Ancient Greece Essay

Hellenic Mythology, set of diverse conventional tales told by the ancient classics rough the exploits of paragons and gunslingeres and their relations with ordinary psyches. The ancient Hellenics worshiped numerous an early(a)wise(prenominal) gods within a culture that tolerated diversity. Unlike other belief systems, classical culture recognized no atomic number 53 truth or grave and produced no sacrosanct, written text like the Bible or the Quran. Stories or so the linages and actions of Grecian divinities change widely, depending, for good m vocal, on whether the tale appe ard in a comedy, tragedy, or epic poem.classic romanceology was like a complex and rich language, in which the classics could express a vast range of perceptions rough the world. A Hellenic metropolis-state devoted itself to a inciteicular god or group of gods in whose repay it build temples. The temple gener completelyy ho social occasiond a statue of the god or gods. The classics ho nored the citys gods in festivals and to a fault offered turn overs to the gods, usu eachy a domestic creature such as a goat. Stories nearwhat the gods varied by geographic location A god might choose one set of characteristics in one city or part and quite different characteristics elsewhere.II A A1PRINCIPAL FIGURES IN classical MYTHOLOGY classic inventionology has approximately(prenominal)(prenominal) distinguishing characteristics, in addition to its multiple versions. The Hellenic gods resemb guide benevolent universes in their form and in their emotions, and they lived in a society that resembled world society in its levels of part and power. However, a crucial difference existed amongst gods and human beings Humans died, and gods were god. Heroes also played an important role in classical mythology, and stories about them conveyed serious themes. The Greeks considered human fighteres from the past closer to themselves than were the im baneful gods.GodsGive n the multiplicity of myths that circulated in Greece, it is difficult to present a single version of the genealogy (family hi accounting) of the gods. However, two accounts together provide a genealogy that most ancient Greeks would wear recognized. integrity is the account given by Greek poet Hesiod in his Theogony (Genealogy of the Gods), written in the 8th cytosine BC. The other account, The Library, is attri entirelyed to a mythographer (compiler of myths) named Apollodorus, who lived during the 2nd century BC. The Creation of the Gods accord to Greek myths about creation, the god topsy-turvydom (Greek for Gaping Void) was the foundation of completely things.From Chaos came Gaea (Earth) the bottomless depth of the underworld, kn accept as Tartarus and physical attraction (Love). Eros, the god of love, was needed to draw divinities together so they Greek Mythology might produce effect. Chaos produced Night, while Gaea branch off bore Uranus, the god of the heavens, an d after him produced the mountains, sea, and gods kn throw as Titans. The Titans were strong and large, and they committed absolute kit and caboodle. The youngest and most important Titan was Cronus. Uranus and Gaea, who came to per boyify Heaven and Earth, also gave be pose to the Cyclopes, one-eyed giants who make thunderbolts.See also Creation Stories. A2 A3 A4 Cronus and Rhea Uranus attempt to law of closure any successors from taking over his supreme position by forcing keep going into Gaea the children she bore. But the youngest child, Cronus, thwarted his lusciousher, cutting off his private parts and tossing them into the sea. From the bloody foam in the sea Aphrodite, goddess of sexual love, was born(p). After injure his father and taking away his power, Cronus became curbr of the universe. But Cronus, in turn, feared that his own son would supplant him. When his sister and wife Rhea gave birth to offspringHestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and PoseidonCronus swallowe d them.Only the youngest, genus genus genus genus genus genus genus Zeus, escaped this fate, because Rhea dodgeed Cronus. She gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow in pose of the baby. Zeus and the transcendent Gods When fully grown, Zeus forced his father, Cronus, to disgorge the children he had swallowed. With their help and armed with the thunderbolt, Zeus do war on Cronus and the Titans, and overcame them. He established a bare-assed regime, based on Mount Olympus in northern Greece. Zeus control the sky. His brother Poseidon ruled the sea, and his brother Hades, the underworld.Their sister Hestia ruled the h humankind, and Demeter took charge of the harvest. Zeus married his sister Hera, who became queen of the heavens and guardian of marriage and childbirth. Among their children was Ares, whose battlefield of influence was war. Twelve major gods and goddesses had their homes on Mount Olympus and were known as the loftys. Four children of Zeus and on e child of Hera joined the Olympian gods Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Ares. Zeuss Olympian offspring were Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Athena. Hera gave birth to Hephaestus.The Offspring of ZeusZeus had many children by both mortal and immortal wo workforce. By the mortal Semele he had Dionysus, a god associated with wine and with other forms of intoxication and ecstasy. By Leto, a Titan, Zeus fathered the twins Apollo and Artemis, who became two of the most important Olympian divinities. Artemis remained a virgin and took hunting as her exceptional province. Apollo became associated with music and prophecy. lot visited his oracle (shrine) at Delphi to seek his prophetic advice. By the nymph Maia, Zeus became father of Hermes, the Olympian trickster god who had the power to bobble all kinds of boundaries.Hermes guided the souls of the executed rectify to the underworld, Greek Mythology carried messages amidst gods and mortals, and wafted a witching(preno minal) sleep upon the wakeful. Two other Olympian divinities, Hephaestus and Athena, had unusual births. Hera conceived Hephaestus, the blacksmith god, without a male person partner. Subsequently he suffered the wrath of Zeus, who once hurled him from Olympus for coming to the aid of his mother this fall down onto the island of Lemnos crippled Hephaestus. The birth of Athena was until now stranger. Zeus and Metis, daughter of the Titan Oceanus, were the parents of Athena.But Gaea had warned Zeus that, after giving birth to the girl with whom she was pregnant, Metis would bear a son destined to rule heaven. To avoid losing his throne to a son, Zeus swallowed Metis, just as Cronus had antecedently swallowed his own children to thwart succession. Metiss child Athena was born from the fling of Zeus, which Hephaestus split open with an axe. Athena, a nonher virgin goddess, embodied the power of hard-nosed intelligence in warfare and crafts work. She also served as the protector of the city of Athens. Another of Zeuss children was Persephone her mother was Demeter, goddess of grain, vegetation, and the harvest.Once when Persephone was gathering flowers in a meadow, Hades, god of the underworld, saw and abducted her, taking her down to the kingdom of the dead to be his bride. Her grief-stricken mother wandered the world in search of her as a result, fertility left the earth. Zeus commanded Hades to release Persephone, muchover Hades had cunningly given her a pomegranate seed to eat. Having consumed nourishment from the underworld, Persephone was obliged to happen below the earth for part of to each one year. Her return from the underworld each year meant the revival of character and the commencement exercise of spring.This myth was told especially in connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, sacred rituals observed in the Greek town of Elevsis near Athens. The rituals offered initiates in the mysteries the hope of rebirth, just as Persephone had been regene rate after her journey to the underworld. Many Greek myths report the exploits of the principal Olympians, except Greek myths also refer to a variety of other divinities, each with their particular sphere of influence. Many of these divinities were children of Zeus, symbolizing the accompaniment that they belonged to the advanced Olympian point of Zeuss regime.The Muses, nine daughters of Zeus and the goddess of memory, Mnemosyne, presided over song, dance, and music. The Fates, deuce-ace goddesses who controlled human life and destiny, and the Horae, goddesses who controlled the seasons, were appropriately the children of Zeus and Themis, the goddess of divine justice and law. faraway different in temperament were the craze (Furies), ancient and repellent goddesses who had sprung from the earth after it had been impregnated with the blood of Uranuss severed genitals. Terrible though they were, the Erinyes also had a legitimate role in the world to surveil those who had off their own kin.A5 Disruptive Deities Human existence is characterized by roughness as well as order, and many of the most characteristic figures in Greek mythology exert a powerfully disruptive effect. Satyrs, whom the Greeks imagined as part human and part horse (or part goat), led lives dominated by wine and lust. Myths depicted them as companions of Dionysus who drunkenly pursued nymphs, spirits of nature represented as young and sp bring iniferous maidens. Many of the jugs used at Greek symposia (drinking parties) carry images of satyrs. Equally wild, but more threatening than the satyrs, were the woman chaser centaurs.These monsters, Greek Mythology depicted as half(prenominal)(a)-man and half-horse, feeded toward uncontrolled aggression. The centaurs are known for beleaguer with their neighbors, the Lapiths, which resulted from an attempt to carry off the Lapith women at a wedding feast. This scrap was depicted in sculpture on the Parthenon, a temple sanctified to At hena in Athens. The Sirens, usually portrayed as birds with womens heads, represent a different sort of threat. These island-dwelling enchantresses enticementd mariners to their deaths by the irresistible beauty of their song.The water travel Greek hero Odysseus alone survived this temptation by ordering his companions to block their own ears, to bind him to the mast of his ship, and to ignore all his entreaties to be allowed to follow the lure of the Sirens song. B B1 B2 Mortals The Greeks had several myths to account for the origins of humanity. According to one version, human beings sprang from the ground, and this origin explained their devotion to the land. According to another myth, a Titan molded the first human beings from clay. The Greeks also had a story about the destruction of humanity, exchangeable to the scriptural deluge.The Creation of Human Beings Conflicting Greek myths tell about the creation of humanity. Some myths recount how the populations of particular lo calities sprang directly from the earth. The Arcadians, residents of a sphere of Greece known as Arcadia, claimed this distinction for their original inhabitant, Pelasgus (see Pelasgians). The Thebans boasted descent from earthborn men who had sprung from the spot where Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, had sown the ground with the teeth of a sacred dragon. According to another tale, one of the Titans, Prometheus, fashioned the first human being from water and earth.In the more usual version of the story Prometheus did not actually create humanity but simply lent it tending by dint of the gift of fire. Another tale dealt with humanitys re-creation. When Zeus planned to destroy an ancient race living on Earth, he sent a deluge. However, Deucalion, a son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrhathe Greek equivalents of the biblical Noah and his wifeput provisions into a chest and climbed into it. Carried across the water of the flood, they landed on Mount Parnassus. After the waters receded , the couple gratefully do sacrifices to Zeus.His response was to send Hermes to instruct them how to repopulate the world. They should cast stones behind them. Stones propel by Deucalion became men those thrown by Pyrrha, women. The Greek People According to myth, the various peoples of Greece descended from Hellen, son of Deucalion and Pyrrha. one genealogy related that the Dorian and the Aeolian Greeks sprang from Hellens sons Dorus and Aeolus. The Achaeans and Ionians descended from Achaeos and Ion, sons of Hellens other son, Xu and so. These figures, in their turn, produced offspring who, along with children born of unionsGreek Mythology between divinities and mortals, made up the collection of heroes and heroines whose exploits constitute a central part of Greek mythology. C C1 C2 C3 Heroes Myths about heroes are particularly characteristic of Greek mythology. Many of these heroes were the sons of gods, and a number of myths come tod sashays by these heroes. The trips g enerally related to quests or combats. Scholars consider some of these myths partly historic in naturethat is, they explained events in the distant past and were handed down viva voce from one generation to the next.Two of the most important of the semihistorical myths involve the search for the Golden primp and the quest that led to the Trojan War. In other myths heroes such as Heracles and Theseus had to overcome fearsome monsters. Jason and the Golden Fleece Jason was a hero who sailed in the ship Argo, with a band of heroes called the Argonauts, on a dangerous quest for the Golden Fleece at the east end of the Black Sea in the land of Colchis. Jason had to fetch this family property, a fleece made of gold from a winged ram, in order to regain his throne.A dragon that never slept guarded the fleece and made the mission nearly hopeless. Thanks to the magical powers of Medea, daughter of the ruler of Colchis, Jason performed the impossible tasks necessary to win the fleece and to take it from the dragon. Afterward Medea took horrible avenge on Pelias, who had killed Jasons parents, stolen Jasons throne, and sent Jason on the quest for the fleece. She tricked Peliass daughters into cutting him up and boiling him in a cauldron. Medeas story go along to involve horrific violence.When Jason rejected her for another woman, Medea once more used her magic to avenge herself with extreme cruelty. Meleager Jason and the same generation of heroes took part in another adventure, with Meleager, the son of King Oeneus of Calydon and his wife Althea. At Meleagers birth the Fates predicted that he would die when a log burning on the hearth was completely consumed. His mother snatched the log and hid it in a chest. Meleager grew to manhood. mavin day, his father accidentally omitted Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, from a sacrifice. In revenge Artemis sent a mighty boar to ravage the country.Meleager set out to destroy it, attach to by some of the greatest heroes of the day, including Peleus, Telamon, Theseus, Jason, and Castor and Polydeuces. The boar was killed. However, Meleager killed his mothers brothers in a quarrel about who should receive the boar skin. In her anger Althea threw the log on to the fire, so ending her sons life she then hanged herself. Heroes of the Trojan War The greatest expedition of all was that which resulted in the Trojan War. The object of this quest was Helen, a beautiful Greek woman who had been abducted by Paris, son of King Priam of Troy.Helens save Menelaus and his brother Agamemnon led an regular army of Greeks to besiege Troy. After ten Greek Mythology geezerhood, with many heroes dead on both sides, the city fell to the trick of the Trojan Horsea giant wooden horse that the Greeks built and left outside the gates of Troy while their army fictive to withdraw. Not knowing that Greek heroes were hiding inside the horse, the Trojans took the horse into the city. The privy Greeks then slipped out, opened the city gates and let their army in, thus defeating Troy. The Iliad, an epic poem attributed to Greek poet Homer, tells the story of the Trojan War.The story continued with the Odyssey, another long poem attributed to Homer, in which the Greek hero Odysseus made his way home after the Trojan War. Odysseus re turn to his faithful wife, Penelope, whereas Agamemnon returned to be murdered by his faithless wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover. Historians considered the Trojan War entirely mythical until excavations in Turkey showed that there had been cities on the site of Troy and that fire had unmake one of these cities at about the time of the Trojan War, sometime from 1230 BC to 1180 BC. C4 C5 Heracles and Theseus.The deeds of the heroes Heracles (see Hercules) and Theseus exemplify a central theme in Greek mythology the conflict between civilization and wild savagery. Each hero confronted and overcame ill-judged opponents, yet nevery enjoyed unclouded happiness. Heracles had been an A rgonaut but left the expedition after being plunged into grief at the loss of his companion Hylas. In another story, a fit of madness led Heracles to kill his own wife and children. But he is best known for his feats of prowess against beasts and monsters, which began currently after his birth.The most difficult of these feats are known as the 12 labors, which are believed to represent efforts to conquer death and achieve immortality. Although Heracles died, his father, Zeus, gave him a place on Mount Olympus. Theseus successfully slew the Minotaur, a monster that was half man and half bull. On his voyage home to Athens, however, he forgot to overturn the white sails that would have signified the success of his adventure. According to one tale, Theseuss heartbroken father Aegeus, seeing black sails, believed his son had died, and committed suicide. The Aegean Sea in which he drowned is presumably named after Aegeus.Oedipus No hero of Greek mythology has upraised more fascinating than Oedipus. He destroyed a monster, the Sphinx, by answering its riddle. Yet his ultimate downfall served as a terrifying warning of the instability of human fortune. As a baby, Oedipus had been flea-bitten on a mountainside by his parents, King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes, because of a prophecy that the child would grow up to kill his father and wed his mother. Saved by the pity of a shepherd, the childits identity unknown regionwas reared by the king and queen of the neighboring city of Corinth.In referable course, Oedipus unwittingly ful alter the prophecy, matching the horrific crimes he had committed with the equally ghastly self-punishment of piercing his own eyes with Jocastas brooch-pins. Greek Mythology tercet A Gods and Goddesses B THE NATURE OF GREEK GODS AND HEROES In many consider the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology resembled extraordinarily powerful human beings. They experienced emotions such as jealousy, love, and grief, and they shared with huma ns a desire to assert their own authority and to punish anyone who flouted it.However, these emotions and desires took supernaturally intense form in gods and goddesses. As numerous literary descriptions and artistic representations testify, the Greeks imagined their gods to have human shape, although this form was strongly idealized. The Greeks, moreover, graven relationships between divinities on those between human beings. Apollo and Artemis were brother and sister, Zeus and Hera were conserve and wife, and the society of the gods on Mount Olympus resembled that of an unruly family, with Zeus at its head. The gods could temporarily enter the human world.They might, for ex goodly, fall in love with a mortal, as Aphrodite did with Adonis Apollo with Daphne and Zeus with Leda, Alcmene, and Danae. Or they might destroy a mortal who displeased them, as Dionysus destroyed King Pentheus of Thebes for mocking his rites. Not all Greek divinities resembled human beings. They could also b e uncanny, strange, and alien, a quality made visible in artistic representations of monsters. For example, the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa had a stare that turned her victims to stone. The Graeae, sisters of the Gorgons, were gray-haired old crones from birth.They possessed but a single tooth and a single eye between them. Typhoeus was a hideous monster from whose shoulders grew a hundred snakeheads with dark, flickering tongues. Even the major deities of Olympus showed alien characteristics at times. A recurrent sign of divine power is the ability to change shape, every ones own or that of others. Athena once modify herself into a vulture Poseidon once took the form of a stallion. This ability could prove convenient such as when Zeus assumed the form of a swan to woo Leda. Zeus turned Lycaon, a disrespectful king, into a wolf to punish him for his wickedness.The ability to exercise power over the crossover of boundaries is a crucial feature of divine power among the Greeks. Heroe s Greek mythology also told how divinities interacted with heroes, a category of mortals who, though dead, were believed to retain power to influence the lives of the living. In myths heroes represented a kind of bridge between gods and mortals. Heroes such as Achilles, Perseus, and Aeneas were the products of a union between a deity and a mortal. The fact that the gods often intervened to help heroesfor example, during combatindicated not the heroes weakness but their special importance.Yet heroes were not the equals of the gods. With a logic characteristic of Greek myth, heroes typically possessed a defect to balance out their exceptional power. For example, the warrior Achilles, hero of the Trojan War, was invulnerable except in the heel. The prophet Cassandra, who warned the Trojans of dangers such as the Trojan Horse, Greek Mythology always prophesied the truth but was never believed. Heracles make up an extreme example of this paradox His awesome strength was balanced by his tendency to become a victim of his own excessive violence.Nevertheless, the gods allowed Heracles to cross the ultimate boundary by gaining admission to Olympus. IV A B THE FUNCTIONS OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Like most other mythological traditions, Greek myths served several purposes. First, Greek myths explained the world. Second, they acted as a means of exploration. Third, they provided authority and legitimacy. Finally, they provided entertainment. Explanation Greek myths lent structure and order to the world and explained how the current state of things had originated. Hesiods Theogony narrated the development of the present order of the universe by relating it to Chaos, the origin of all things.By a complex process of violence, struggle, and sexual attraction, the regime led by Zeus had eventually taken over. Another poem by Hesiod, Works and Days, explained why the world is full of trouble. According to the poem the first woman, Pandora, opened a tremble whose lid she had been for bidden to lift. As a result of her disobedience all the diseases and miseries previously confined in the jar escaped into the world. much(prenominal) a myth also makes a disputation about relationships between the sexes in Hesiods own world.Scholars assume that he composed the poem for a largely male audience that was open to a tale that put women at the root of all evil. One of the prevalentest types of explanation given in myths relates to ritual. Myths helped worshipers make sense of a ghostlike practice by weighty how the practice originated. A prime example is sacrifice, a ritual that involved killing a domesticated animal as an offering to the gods. The ceremony culminated in the butchering, cooking, and sharing of the meat of the victim. Hesiod recounts the myth associated with this rite.According to this myth, the tricky Titan Prometheus tried to outwit Zeus by offering him a cunningly devised choice of meals. Zeus could have either an apparently unappetizing dishan ox paunch, which had tasty meat secret withinor a seemingly delicious one, gleaming fat on the outside, which had nothing but bones hidden beneath. Zeus chose the import dish, and ever since human beings have kept the tastiest part of every sacrifice for themselves, leaving the gods nothing but the savor of the rising smoke. Exploration Myths charted paths through difficult territory, examining contradictions and ambiguities.For instance, Homers Iliad explores the consequences during the Trojan War of the Greek leader Agamemnons decision to deprive the warrior Achilles of his allotted prize, a female slave. Achilles feels that Agamemnon has assailed his honor or worth but wonders how far he should go in reaction. Is he right to refuse to fight, if that means the destruction of the Greek army? Is he justified in rejecting Agamemnons offer of compensation? One of this poems themes explores the limits of honor. Greek Mythology The dramatic genre of tragedy provides the clearest exampl e of mythical exploration (see see Greek Literature Drama and spectacular Arts).The great Athenian playwrights of the 5th century BC Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripideswrote tragedies that explored social questions by placing them, in extreme and exaggerated form, in a mythical context. Sophocless tragic play Antigone concerns just such an extreme situation. Two brothers have killed each other in battle Eteocles defending his homeland, and Polynices attacking it. Their sister Antigone, in defiance of an edict by the citys ruler, attempts to consume her ostensibly traitorous brother Polynices. Sophocles raises several moral issues.Is Antigone justified in seeking to bury her brother? Which should prevail, a religious obligation to tend and bury a corpse, or a citys public assistance? The answers to these moral issues are far from clear-cut, as we might expect from a work whose subtlety and profundity have so often been admired. C D V A Legitimation Myths also had the function of le gitimation. A claim, an action, or a relationship acquired extra authority if it had a precedent in myth. Aristocratic Greek families liked to trace their ancestry back to the heroes or gods of mythology.The Greek poet Pindar, who wrote in the early 5th century BC, offers ample evidence for this preference. In his songs Pindar praised the exploits of current victors in the Olympian Games by linking them with the deeds of their mythical ancestors. In addition, two Greek city-states could cement bonds between them by showing that they had an alliance in the mythological past. Entertainment Finally, myth telling was a source of enjoyment and entertainment. Homers epics contain several descriptions of audiences held spellbound by the songs of bards (poets), and recitations of Homers poems also captivated audiences. public performances of tragic drama were also hugely popular, regularly drawing some 15,000 spectators. ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY Our knowledge of Greek myt hology begins with the epic poems attributed to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, which date from about the 8th century BC even though the stories they relate probably have their origins in events that occurred several centuries earlier. Scholars, however, know that the origins of Greek mythology reach even farther back than that. Origins of Greek MythologyLinguists (people who study languages) have concluded that some names of Greek deities, including Zeus, can be traced back to gods worshiped by speakers of Proto-Indo-European, the common ancestor of the Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit languages. But it would be misleading to regard the people who whitethorn have spoken this language as originators of Greek mythology because many other elements contributed. Greek Mythology Archaeologists have shown that many of the places where mythical events presumably took place tot to sites that had historical importance during the Mycenaean period of Greek history (second half of the 2nd millenn ium BC).Scholars thus consider it likely that the Mycenaeans made a major contribution to the development of the stories, even if this contribution is hard to bear witness in detail. Some scholars have argued that the Minoan civilization of Crete also had a formative influence on Greek myths. The myth of the Minotaur confined in a labyrinth in the palace of King Minos, for example, might be a memory of historical bull-worship in the labyrinthine palace at Knossos on Crete. However, there is little evidence that Cretan religion survived in Greece. Nor have any ancient inscriptions confirmed that Minos ever existed outside of myth.Scholars can set up influence on Greek mythology from the Middle East much more reliably than influence from Crete. Greek mythology owed much to cultures in Mesopotamia and Anatolia, especially in the realm of cosmogony (origin of the universe) and theogony (origin of the gods). To take one example, a clear mate exists in an early Middle Eastern myth for Greek poet Hesiods story about the castration of Uranus by his son Cronus and the subsequent override of Cronus by his son Zeus. The Middle Eastern myth tells of the sky god Anu who was castrated by Kumarbi, father of the gods.The weather and storm god Teshub, in turn, displaced Anu. Scholars continue to bring to light more and more similarities between Greek and Middle Eastern mythologies. B Development of Greek Mythology Our knowledge of Greek myths comes from a mixture of written texts, sculpture, and decorated pottery. Scholars have reconstructed stories that circulated orally by inference and guesswork. Homers epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, stand at the beginning of Greek literary tradition (see Greek literature), even though they more or less certainly depended on a lengthy previous tradition of oral poetry.The Iliad is set during the Trojan War it focuses on the consequences of a quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, two of the leading Greek warriors. The Odyssey is ab out the aftermath of the Trojan War, when the Greek hero Odysseus at last returns to his home on the island of Ithaca following years of wandering in wild and magical lands. The Trojan War by and by provided subject matter for many tragic dramas and for imagery on incalculable painted vases. Hesiods Theogony, composed in the 8th century BC at about the same time as the Homeric epics, gave an tyrannical account of how things began.The creation of the world, described by Hesiod in terms of passions and crimes of the gods, is a theme that later Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Plato developed but took in new directions. This connection serves as a reminder that mythology was not a separate aspect of Greek culture, but one that interacted with many other fields of experience, particularly the writing of history. For example, in the 5th century BC Greek historian Herodotus employed numerous themes and story patterns from Greek epics and tragedies in writing his historical acc ount of the war between Greeks and Iranians (see Persian Wars).Although the authority of Homer and Hesiod remained dominant, the poetic retelling of myths continued throughout antiquity. Myths were constantly remade in the light of new social and political circumstances. The Hellenistic period of Greek history (4th century to 1st century BC) saw many new trends in the treatment of myths. One of the most important was the development of mythography, Greek Mythology the compilation and organization of myths on the basis of particular themes (for example, myths about metamorphosis).Such organization corresponded to a wish of newly established Hellenistic rulers to lend legitimacy to their regimes by claiming that they continued a cultural tradition reaching back into a great past. Artists, too, portrayed myths. Statues of gods stood inside Greek temples, and respite sculptures of scenes from mythology adorned pediments and friezes on the outside of these temples (see Greek Art and Ar chitecture). Among the best-known examples are the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens. These reliefs include depictions of combat between centaurs and Lapiths.Other optic representations of mythology were more modest in size and scope. The best evidence for the use of mythology in Greek painting comes from painted ceramic vases. The Greeks used these vases in a variety of contexts, from cookery to funerary ritual to athletic games. (Vases filled with oil were awarded as prizes in games. ) In most cases scholars can firmly identify the imagery on Greek vases as mythological, but sometimes they have no way of telling whether the artist intended an allusion to mythology because myth became fused with everyday life.For example, does a representation of a woman weave signify Penelope, wife of Odysseus who spent her days at a loom, or does it portray someone engaged in an everyday activity? The Greeks retold myths orally, as well as preserving them in literary and artistic works . The Greeks transmitted to children tales of monsters and myths of gods and heroes. obsolescent men gathered to exchange tales in leschai (clubs or conversation places). Storytelling, whether in writing, art, or speech, was at the heart of Greek civilization. VI A THE bequest OF GR.