Greek Mythology and Religion :: Ancient Greece Greek History

Greek Mythology and ReligionMythology is the study and exposition of fiction and the body of allegorys of a particular culture. Myth is a conglomerate cultural phenomenon that can be approached from a number of viewpoints. In general, apologue is a narrative that describes and portrays in symbolic language the origin of the primary elements and assumptions of a culture. Mythic narrative relates, for example, how the world began, how humans and animals were created, and how certain customs, gestures, or forms of human activities originated. Almost all cultures possess or at superstar time possessed and lived in terms of storys. Myths differ from fairy tales in that they restore to a time that is different from ordinary. The time sequence of myth is extraordinary- an other time - the time before the conventional world came into being. Because myths refer to an extraordinary time and place and to gods and other supernatural beings and processes, they have usually been seen as a spects of religion. Because of the inclusive reputation of myth, however, it can illustrate many aspects of mortal and cultural life. Meaning and interpretation From the beginnings of Western culture, myth has presented a caper of meaning and interpretation, and a history of controversy has gathered about both(prenominal) the value and the status of mythology.Myth, History, and Reason In the Greek heritage of the West, myth or mythos has always been in tension with reason or logos, which gumption the sensible and analytic mode of arriving at a true draw of reality. The Greek philosophers Xenophanes, Plato, and Aristotle, for example, exalted reason and made sarcastic criticisms of myth as a proper way of knowing reality. The distinctions between reason and myth and between myth and history, although essential, were never quite absolute. Aristotle concluded that in few of the early Greek creation myths, logos and mythos overlapped. Plato used myths as metaphors and also as lit erary devices in developing an argument. Western Mythical Traditions The contend over whether myth, reason, or history best expresses the meaning of the reality of the gods, humans, and nature has continued in Western culture as a legacy from its earliest traditions. Among these traditions were the myths of the Greeks. Adopted and assimilated by the Romans, they render literary, philosophical, and artistic inspiration to such(prenominal) later periods as the Renaissance and the romantic era. The pagan tribes of Europe furnished another body of tradition.