Myths In Ancient Greece

According to Walter Burkert, historian of Greek Religion, “myth is a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance”, meaning that, myths were told and used for the specific purpose of informing the cumulative population of certain events, ideas, and or lessons. Myths were pre-scientific ways the Greeks used to explain natural phenomenon and were often tales of morality; acting as the guide of how people should behave and conduct themselves within social structures. Myths established the ground rules of what was expected in society, and more often times than not, depicted the practice of ideal behaviors and characteristics wanted by Greek civilization. The relationships between parents and children …show more content…
Demeter’s sacrifices as a parent shows not only how parents should be with their children, but also for children to realize the extent of their parent’s love. Demeter further exemplifies the love she has for her daughter by employing her self control and not letting temptations make her forget about Persephone’s abduction. Zeus “sent forth all the blessed and eternal gods besides: and they came, one after the other, and kept calling her and offering many very beautiful gifts and whatever right she might be pleased to choose among the deathless gods. Yet no one was able to persuade her mind and will” (HHD ll 326-330). Regardless of all the blessings and gifts Demeter could have received in place of her daughter, she decided against all of them. This not only shows the eternal love Demeter has for her daughter, but also the loyalty she has towards Persephone as throughout this whole time she had been disobeying and displeasing the Olympian gods, but still chose to be on the side of her daughter. Written by Aeschylus, Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies concerning the murder of the Greek hero Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra. The second and third play in the trilogy, Libation Bearers and Eumenides (respectively), …show more content…
Gaia, primordial goddess of the earth, birthed Ouranos, god of the sky, parthenogenetically and later took him to be her lover. Together they created the twelve titans, but because Ouranos refused to share his power with anyone else, he did not allow Gaia to give birth to the children. Engorged with the weight of her offspring, Gaia tried convincing the children to get revenge on their father for not letting them be born and causing discomfort to their mother. Kronos, god of time, was the child who went against his father and “lopped of [his] genitals with the sickle, tossing “them from the land into the stormy sea”; thus becoming the next king amongst gods (Hesiod ll 182). However, Kronos “had learned from Gaia and starry Ouranos that he, despite his power, was fated to be subdued by his own son” (Hesiod ll 463-465). Similar to Ouranos’ fear of his children overpowering him, Kronos thought to repress his children, by swallowing them so they could not grow and one day turn against him. This plan however, was not successful and soon enough the twelve olympians were freed from his stomach, “sinuous-minded Kronos was deceived by Gaia’s cunning suggestions to disgorge his own offspring” where he was later overpowered by the “craft and brawn of his own son” Zeus (Hesiod ll 494-96). Zeus was the only son to overcome the “succession myth” as he was the only one to realize