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Example research essay topic: Greek Mythology Ancient Greece - 1,421 words

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No matter what you think the ancient Greeks were not on drugs. The people of ancient Greece had an extremely intelligent society. They had sophisticated architecture and a very high level of mathematics in their culture. These areas of life dealt with real things that could be controlled. When it came to natural phenomena the Greeks had certain explanations that might look eccentric now, but were reasonable 3000 years ago.

In Greece's history there are several themes that contributed to Greek mythology and reasons it developed. Once Greek mythology was established in the culture an interesting set of gods and beliefs evolved and continued to evolve for hundreds of years. Two of these gods that you are most likely to be familiar with are Zeus and Apollo. If you understand how and why Greek mythology came about, the idea of Greek mythology wont seem so weird. The location of Greece itself lends itself to many different cultures. It is centrally located between Europe, Asia and Africa.

With all three having extremely distinct and varied cultures. Travelers would share their ideas and thoughts with the locals as they went through Greece. Some ideas were adopted into the Greek culture or they were modified to their specific needs. Greece became a melting pot or crossroad for many different cultures.

These factors must be taken into consideration when you are trying to understand Greek culture. Another way Greece was influenced by other cultures was by force. Between the years 2000 - 1400 B. C. Greece was ruled by several different cultures. These outside forces influenced their culture and religion.

One thing that remained a constant was their language. The Greeks maintained to keep their native language and this established great internal uniformity. This became a factor in later years helping them rise to such a sophisticated civilization. The origins of Greek mythology as we know it today are impossible to trace because there was no structured church or written codes, but the main influence is thought to come from the Aegean civilization. The Aegean's lived on the island of Crete and are thought to be one of the first modern civilizations about 3000 B.

C. Aegean's believed that all natural objects had spirits. Over time these beliefs developed into a set of legends involving natural objects, animals, and gods with human form. Some of these legends survived as part of classic Greek mythology. The Greek mythographer, Euhemerus, who lived around 300 B. C.

had a contributing theory. He thought myths were distortions of history and the gods were actually heroes that were glorified over time. A Greek philosopher named Products of Ceos who taught during the 400 's B. C. taught his students that the gods were personifications of natural phenomena. Yet another theory of Greek mythology origins came from a Greek historian named Herodotus.

He lived in the 400 's B. C. and he believed that Greek rituals were inherited from the Egyptians. Probably all of these theories have some truth in them so they arent wrong, but no one reason can explain or trace Greek mythology. No matter where they originated these myths became a part of Greek culture.

Spreading these myths became the job of poets and writers of ancient Greece. Two prominent poets that became instrumental in Greek culture were Homer and Hesiod. One thousand years before Christ Homers Iliad became the first written record of ancient Greece. The Iliad marks the beginning of Greek mythology and is the oldest Greek literature. Later Greek mythology was defined by Hesiod.

Sometimes his gods had slightly different powers and stories than Homers account of deities. Gods sometimes overlap and share responsibilities. The gods themselves also took on different personalities in Hesiod poems. Early deity stories often portrayed the gods in a not so flattering way. They were often saw as deceitful or mean. Later in Hesiod poems gods took on different morals.

They were more of a model of right and wrong with the emphasis on the right way to live. Greater Greek morals and ethics contributed to the gods changing morals. The main purpose of these myths early on was to explain natural phenomena. Some myths were just for entertainment, but for the most part mythology was the earliest form of science. For instance the story of Demeter the goddess of agriculture and her beautiful daughter Persephone. While playing with her friends one day Persephone was captured by Hades and taken to the underworld as his wife.

In her grief Demeter senselessly destroys all the earths crops and brings about a great drought and famine. Hades brother, Zeus, arranges a compromise where Persephone is allowed to return to her mother for two-thirds of each year. She cannot return permanently because she had eaten the food in the underworld. Demeter was then to greet the annual reunion with a replenishing of the earth and to mark Persophone's annual descent to Hades the destruction of agriculture. Thus the arrival of Persephone is an explanation of spring and summer with her departure being fall and winter.

In this myth Persephone is represents the young, innocent life and Hades is death. She becomes a symbol of lost virginity and the impossibility of ever being a child again. Less complicated myths explained everything in nature from fire to earthquakes. Of course everyone knew in ancient Greece that thunder and lightning came from an angry Zeus. To explain volcanoes they believed that a terrible creature was imprisoned in the mountain and was struggling to get out. The Big Dipper doesnt set below the horizon because it angered a goddess once and she declared that it shall never sink into the sea.

With the increase of morality in later Greek society these myths took on a different tone. It was not until late in ancient Greece did mythology begin to have a religious tone. A central element in these myths are the gods the Greeks believed in. The Greeks believed that 12 chief gods lived on Mount Olympus called Olympians. The gods of Mount Olympus formed a society that ranked them in terms of authority and powers. The gods could roam freely and individual gods became associated with three main domains - the sky or heaven, the sea and earth.

The 12 chief gods were Zeus, Hera, Hephaestus, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hestia, Hermes, Demeter, and Poseidon. Zeus was the head of the gods, and the spiritual father of gods and the people. His wife, Hera, was queen of heaven and the guardian of marriage. Other gods associated with heaven were Hephaestus, god of fire and metalworkers. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war; and Apollo, god of light, poetry, and music. Artemis, goddess of wildlife and the moon; Ares, god of war; and Aphrodite, goddess of love, were other gods of heaven.

They were joined by Hestia, goddess of the hearth; and Hermes, messenger of the gods and ruler of science and invention. Poseidon was the ruler of the sea who, with his wife Amphitrite, led a group of less important sea gods, such as the Nereids and Tritons. Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was associated with earth. Hades, an important god but not generally considered an Olympian, ruled the underworld, where he lived with his wife, Persephone. The underworld was a dark and mournful place located at the center of the earth. It was populated by the souls of people who had died.

Other gods and creatures are depicted in Greek mythology, but these are the most popular. Greek mythology varied widely in practice and belief since there was no formal structure like a church government or no written codes. It is generally accepted that the gods came from the Titans. The Titans were also known as the elder gods and they possessed enormous size and incredible strength. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus whose eventually son, Zeus, dethroned him as ruler of the heavens.

The Olympian gods are considered the offspring of the Titans and the offspring eventually took over the world to rule as their own. The Greeks did something that no other culture had done before and that is having there gods in the image of man. This practice was unheard of before. Every other culture before them created their gods to be extraordinary creatures with animal body parts.

There statues, like the Egyptians, were enormous that took sometimes a hundred years to build. The Greeks had their gods resemble humans in form and emotion. Also Greek mythology didnt involve any spi...


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