Greek Mythology (October 2018)

When I went to a shop in Greece, the plastic bag had a line: "The land of gods."

It is so true that Greece has many gods, man-made, from whom ancient people choose to worship. Most likely, the practice was related to seek their greed or to cover their fear. So be it. It was then and there. But what about now and here?

Well, people still get fascinated by the Greek mythology even these days, as evidenced by picking up ideas and concepts from the Greek mythology. For example, Nike was one of the Greek gods who was the goddess of victory. It makes sense that as a sports shoes, apparel and equipment manufacturer, Nike wanted to find the connection with a deity of victory.

The most widely accepted version at the time is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony.

He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Very close to the first verse in the Bible. Genesis 1:1.

Out of void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans - six males, including Cronus, and six females, including Rhea.

With the help of his mother Gaia, Cronus rebelled against Uranus and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife Rhea.

A motif of fathter-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus. Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate.

When Zeus was fully grown, he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children and the stone, which has been sitting in Cronus' stomach all along. Zeus then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.

After the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus.

Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god "greater than he" Zeus swallowed her. She was already pregnant with Athena, however, and she burst forth from his head, fully grown and dressed for war. The current capital city of Athens was derived from Athena.

The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essntially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts." Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities, most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.

Some of the better known gods include:

• Zeus, the king of gods
• Hera, the wife of Zeus
• Athena, the goddess of war
• Poseidon, the god of the ocean
• Nike, the goddess of victory
• Fortuna, the goddess of fortune
• Dynosus, the god of wine and emotions
• Apollo, the god of light
• Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the hunt, the moon, and the childbirth and nature. Her counterpart in the Roman Mythology was Diana. In Ephesus, this goddess was worshiped fervently, and her worshipers chased Apostle Paul out of Ephesus.

The Roman Empire learned from the Greeks and created their own deities. The Roman Mythology had its own story of the gods, but people remember them only by their names, not as well as the Greek gods.

The gods act like human, getting married, loving and hating, fighting. But they were portrayed as the immortal. Many parts of the mythology were similar to the story in the Bible. I am not sure who copied which, but I trust that humans remembered and copied the Jehovah God's story and twisted into the human version of mythology. - Jeffrey