Origins of Greek Mythology

 

 

Greek myths have fascinated us for hundreds of years.

They’ve made our imaginations run wild with bewitching stories of feuding gods, heroic heroes, breathtaking beasts and mind-blowing monsters.

As with myths from all countries, Greek myths are stories, folktales and legends, call them what you will, passed down through generations orally by word of mouth.

The oral tradition emerged from the Minoan (3000 BC. to about 1100 BC.) and Mycenaean civilizations (1750 to 1050 B.C.) owing to the lack of literacy back in those times

It was the main method for keeping alive historical events and cultural tales.

 

 

These storytellers, or bards, were known in Ancient Greece as “rhapsodes”, people who travelled from place to place, entrancing gatherings with their mystical tales.

The word “rhapsode”, comes from the Greek words “rhaptein” meaning to sew and “ode”, meaning song, hence these strolling storytellers of Ancient Greece, you could say, stitched together stories in the form of songs.

(Now you know where today’s rap music comes from; it’s nothing new!)

This accounts for there being so many versions of the same story.

Nothing was written down; details were forgotten whilst others were added and characters changed, however, the overall message, or lesson, as most myths seem to be, remained the same.

 

Thank you Hesiod

 

 

We can thank the ancient Greek historians and writers for the knowledge we have today of Greek myths.

We gained great insight into Greek mythology through Homer, with his epic works, The Iliad and the Odyssey, however, it is Hesiod’s “Theogony” and “Works and Days” (c. 700 BCE), that are the best source when it comes to ancient myths.

More information about these magical tales was given to us by famous playwrights, particularly the Greeks ones from the fifth century B.C.

These included Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes, who all competed in the Great Dionysia, a contest in which playwrights submitted their plays.

 Much later, from around the seventeenth century, William Shakespeare, has entertained us with plays based on Greek mythology, most notably “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.

We must also be grateful to the ancient Greek painters and sculptors for helping us gain the knowledge we have today, thousands of years later, through their painted clay vases and marble statues depicting various Greek myths.

 

What’s in a Myth?

 

 

You know what they say; “There’s a story behind everything” and the Ancient Greeks were master story tellers!

The myths included stories of the origins of the World, the Underworld and everything in between.

 They speak of gods, heroes and the religious rituals of the ancient Greeks.

They tell us of the infidelity of Zeus, king of all the Greek gods, with both goddesses and mortals; it seems he was also the playboy of Greek gods!

Through myths we learnt of the crazy habits of Dionysus, god of wine and with his entourage of nymphs, some would say, god of debauchery too.

How evil came into existence is explained by Pandora’s rash decision to open that fatal box, unleashing all the abominations of the World onto humanity, it was only the fact that hope remained, clinging to the side of the box, that saved us.

 

 

Through reading these enchanting tales, we learnt of Satyrs and nymphs, of Centaurs and sirens, of Charon, the ferryman of the dead, rowing people across the River Styx and the goings on of the good-hearted trickster Prometheus.

Metamorphosis is a typical theme in Greek mythology, gods as well as mortals, had the power transform themselves into birds, animals, flowers, trees or humans and repeatedly used this power to trick and manipulate.

Then there’s the genre of myths where the gods appeared on Earth, disguised as mortal men and women, one such tale is the Myth of Baucis and Philemon, who were saved from a flood by offering hospitality to a couple of beggars who were really the gods Zeus and Hermes in disguise.

 

Cautionary Tales

 

Greek myths have given us valuable lessons; they’ve taught us how to be courageous and to never give up.

They’ve taught us how to behave correctly, with that being said though, the ancient Greek gods were not always heroes and in some myths they made bad decisions and had to deal with the consequences.

These were examples of how not to behave.

One such myth with a valuable warning to us is that of Icarus.

 

The Myth of Icarus

 

 

Icarus was the son of Daedalus; master craftsman, hired by King Minos of Crete, to construct a labyrinth, underneath his palace, where he wanted to imprison the half man, half bull creature, the Minotaur.

After learning of how Daedalus had given his daughter Ariadne a ball of string, to help his enemy, Theseus, defeat the Minotaur and escape from the labyrinth, King Minos had Daedalus and his son Icarus, imprisoned in a tower above his palace in Knossos.

Daedalus saw that the only way of escape was by flying off the top of the tower and over the palace towards freedom.

He put together two pairs of wings made from feathers stuck together with wax and taught Icarus how to fly.

 

 

After cautioning Icarus, on no account was he to fly too close to the sun, as it would melt the wax holding the wings together, nor was he to fly too close to the sea, as the water would cause the wings to become wet and heavy, father and son took off on their flight to freedom.

Icarus however, ignored his father’s warning and soared higher and higher until the hot rays of the sun began to melt the wax that was holding his wings together.

As one by one the feathers fell away, Icarus desperately flapped his arms about, in order to remain airborne but to no avail, he tumbled into the sea below and drowned.

The story warns us of the dangers of hubris, or excessive pride, when not taking heed of good advice.

Another myth warning us of how not to behave is the sad love story of Echo and Narcissus.

 

The Sad Love Story of Echo and Narcissus

 

 

Echo had fallen head over heels for Narcissus, who had the looks to make any Greek god jealous, however, being totally absorbed in himself, Narcissus had no time for girls.

Echo tried her best to gain the attention of Narcissus, to no avail, at her wits end, seeing him alone in the woods one day; she drew up her courage and threw her arms around him.

To learn what happened next to the fated nymph, who ended up with no voice of her own but was able only to repeat the words of others, hence her name Echo, read the whole story here. 

 

Time for a Story

 

 

Myths weren’t all about educating people; many were repeated, often with reoccurring themes, just for entertainment.

Themes such as people being lost and found, Helen of Troy for example, journeys to the Underworld, as in Orpheus who went there to retrieve his love, Eurydice.

Heroes slaying beasts is another popular theme, Hercules and the Nemean lion and Theseus and the minotaur, are two perfect examples.

 

True or False

Are the myths true?

 

 

If you look up the meaning of the word “myth”, it does state:

“A traditional story, especially one concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, and typically involving supernatural beings or events”

It also goes on to say that a myth is just:

 “A widely held but false belief or idea, a misrepresentation of the truth” or “an exaggerated or idealized conception of a person or thing”

My personal thoughts are that there’s a grain of truth in most of them but saying that, it is rather difficult to believe in man-eating monsters and fire-breathing dragons!

Take the myths about Trojan Wars; they were generally thought to have actually happened and today there’s archaeological proof to prove it.

In the 1860s German archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, with Frank Calvert, was the first to identify the likely site of Troy at Hissarlik, in Anatolia, until then still considered just a myth.

 

 

Philosopher Plato, in the 5^th – 4th century B.C., among other esteemed Greeks of his day, did say the myths contained a considerable element of fiction.

To the others though; the “hoi polloi”, a Greek expression meaning “the others”, as in “the man in the street”, “the rabble“, “the masses“, “the great unwashed” and “the riffraff”, the myths were viewed as true accounts.

 

The End of one World

The Beginning of Another

 

 

I’ll end here with the myth which could actually be one of the truer ones, the subsequent destruction of humanity, in punishment for all their wickedness and how civilization was reborn.

It’s also the Myth of how Greece came to be named Hellas!

 

The Deucalion Deluge

The Great Flood

 

Deucalion, ruler of Phthia, central Greece, was warned by his father, Prometheus, that the big rains were coming and advised him to be prepared; build a wooden chest (Ark?), stock up on provisions and hope for the best.

Sure enough, the heavens opened, Deucalion and his wife, Pyrrha took refuge in the chest he had put together and proceeded to be thrown around in turbulent seas for the following nine days and nights.

They finally ran aground on the highest peak of Mount Parnassus which overlooks Delphi in central Greece.

 

 

So relieved to be back on terra firma, Deucalion and Pyrrha, would agree to anything asked of them and so complied, when ordered by Zeus (King of the Greek gods), to throw stones over their shoulders.

They were surprised to see the stones instantly become people!

The stones thrown by Deucalion became men and the ones thrown by Pyrrha became women.

These men and women, created from stones, went on to repopulate Greece.

Of the couple’s many children, (or should I say stones?) the first was a son, Hellen, or Hellinas, (Not to be confused with the great beauty, who launched a thousand ships, Helen of Troy).

 Hellen eventually had many children himself, including Aeolus, leader of the tribe of Aeolians, Dorus, leader of the tribe of Dorians, Xuthus, leader of the tribe of Achaens and Ion, leader of the tribe of Ionians.

 These ancient Greek tribes conquered ancient Thessaly, and other Greek cities, and the people of these conquered areas came to be known as “Hellenes”, and their territory, “Hellas” (Ellas-Ἑλλάς).

 

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