GREEK MYTHOLOGY

the body of myths and stories developed by the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the cosmos, and their own religious practices. Greek mythology encompasses a large variety of narrative materials. According to one classification, some narratives are religious myths proper, relating timeless tales of the gods. Others are more properly legends, accounts of quasi-historical events. Common themes from folktales told for popular entertainment are often found as well. Among the Greeks themselves, attitudes toward the stories differed. At all times there must have been those who accepted them as true accounts. Some thinkers, however, rejected either the myths or their implications. Others tried to preserve the truth of traditional tales and at the same time reject their literal assertions through allegorical interpretation, a technique employed most consistently by the Stoics. The Greek myths are known today primarily from Greek literature. The oldest known literary sources, the Iliad and the Odyssey (9th or 8th century BC), focus on events surrounding the Trojan War and the activities of the gods' society on Mt. Olympus. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the cosmos, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric hymns and in fragments of epic poems on the Trojan War (the Homeric Cycle); in lyric poems, especially those composed by Pindar; in the works of the tragedians of the 5th century BC, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age (323-30 BC), such as Callimachus, Euhemerus, and Apollonius of Rhodes; and in writers of the time of the Roman Empire, for example, Plutarch and Pausanias. Greek religious myths are concerned with gods or heroes in their more serious aspects or are connected with ritual. They include cosmogonical tales of the genesis of the gods and the world out of Chaos and the internecine struggles among immortal beings that culminated in the supremacy of Zeus, the ruling god of Olympus. They also include the long tale of Zeus's amours with goddesses and mortal women, which usually resulted in the births of younger deities and heroes. The principal Greek cosmological myth is found in Hesiod's Theogony. According to Hesiod, the world was produced by the coming into existence of four divine beings, Chaos (Space), Gaea (Earth), Tartarus (the Abyss), and Eros (Love), followed later by the separation of Uranus (the Sky) from Gaea when he was mutilated by his son Cronus. Cronus was then violently overthrown by his son Zeus, who became the current chief of the gods. Myths about the gods described their births, victories over monsters or rivals, love affairs, special powers, or connections with a cultic site or ritual. As these powers tended to be wide, the myths of many gods were correspondingly complex. Myths about Athena, the patroness of Athens, for instance, tend to emphasize the goddess's love of war and her affection for heroes and the city of Athens. Those concerning Hermes (the messenger of the gods), Aphrodite (goddess of love), or Dionysus describe Hermes' proclivities as a god of thieves, Aphrodite's lovemaking, and Dionysus' association with wine, frenzy, miracles, and even ritual death. Many myths of the gods, on the other hand, are trivial and lighthearted. Typical of such are the amusing descriptions of conjugal friction between Zeus and his wife, Hera, in the Iliad. Myths were viewed by the Greeks as embodying divine or timeless truths, whereas legends (or sagas) were quasi-historical. Hence, famous events in epics, such as the Trojan War, were generally regarded as having really happened, and the heroes and heroines of the Homeric poems were believed to have actually lived. In another class of legends, the heinous offenses of mortals-such as attempting to make love to a goddess against her will, deceiving the gods grossly by inculpating them in crime or assuming their prerogatives-were punished by everlasting torture in the underworld. Folktales, consisting of popular recurring themes and told for amusement, inevitably found their way into Greek myth. Such is the theme of lost persons (e.g., Odysseus, Helen of Troy, Paris of Troy) found or recovered after long and exciting adventures. Journeys to the land of the dead were made by Orpheus (a hero who went to Hades to restore his dead wife, Eurydice, to the realm of the living), Heracles, Odysseus, and Theseus (the slayer of the Minotaur). The victory of the little man by means of cunning against impossible odds (e.g., Odysseus) and the exploits of the superman (e.g., Heracles) also occur repeatedly in Greek mythology. Greek mythology formed the staple of most Greek poetry and epic, as well as of many dramatic works. It also influenced the thoughts of philosophers and historians to a marked degree. The Romans adopted Greek mythology virtually wholesale into their own literature. Through the medium of Latin and, above all, the works of Ovid, Greek myth was stamped indelibly on the medieval imagination. Through subsequent revivals and reinterpretations, its influence has permeated Western culture to an unparalleled extent, from the themes of art and literature to the vocabulary of science and technology. See also Greek religion. body of stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of the ancient Greeks. That the myths contained a considerable element of fiction the more critical Greeks, such as the philosopher Plato in the 5th-4th centuries BC, recognized. In general, however, the myths were viewed in the popular piety of the Greeks as true accounts. Greek mythology has subsequently had extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which fell heir to much of Greek culture. Although people of all countries, eras, and stages of civilization have developed myths that explain the existence and workings of natural phenomena, recount the deeds of gods or heroes, or seek to justify social or political institutions, the myths of the Greeks have remained unrivaled in the Western world as sources of imaginative and appealing ideas. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes. Additional reading W.H. Roscher, Ausfhrliches Lexikon der griechischen und rmischen Mythologie, 6 vol. in 9 (1884-1937, reprinted 7 vol. in 10, 1977-78), is the authoritative encyclopaedia of Greek mythology. Other works on the subject include Martin P. Nilsson, The Mycenean Origin of Greek Mythology (1932, reissued 1983), a pioneer work, and Cults, Myths, Oracles, and Politics in Ancient Greece (1951, reprinted 1986), an excellent survey; C. Kernyi, The Gods of the Greeks (1951, reissued 1982; originally published in German, 1951), containing detailed data, and The Heroes of the Greeks (1959, reissued 1981; originally published in German, 1958), a dictionary of saga; H.J. Rose, A Handbook of Greek Mythology, Including Its Extension to Rome, 6th ed. (1958, reissued 1972), the most comprehensive handbook in English; Rhys Carpenter, Folktale, Fiction, and Saga in the Homeric Epics (1946, reissued 1974), a lively comparative account; Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins (1959, reprinted 1980), a massive comparative account with full bibliography; Michael Grant, Myths of the Greeks and Romans (1962, reprinted 1986), discussion of chief myths and their subsequent history; Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, 2 vol. (1955, reissued 2 vol. in 1, 1988), a comprehensive account; John Pollard, Helen of Troy (1965), a popular account of the Trojan saga; Peter Walcot, Hesiod and the Near East (1966), a discussion of Oriental origins of Greek myth; G.S. Kirk, Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures (1970), a comprehensive critical account; and Anne G. Ward et al., The Quest for Theseus (1970), a full, illustrated account. John Richard Thornhill Pollard