A myth is a story told about gods or heroes. Mythology is a term applied to the collected myths of a nation or people, sometimes to the scientific study of myths. The first to busy itself in a large sense with mythology was the Greeks, whose myths had the most luxuriant and fanciful development. When the Romans received the arts and sciences from the Greeks, they adopted also their gods and their entire religious system. Thus it was that the Greek and Roman mythologies were to a great extent the same.
THE IMPORTANCE OF MYTHOLOGY IN
EDUCATION
On account of their great beauty and universal interest, myths were made the themes of poets, priests, artists and commentators alike. Not only were the myths the inspiration of classical literature, art and religion, but they kept their place in later civilizations, and mythological allusions are so frequent in our own literature that an acquaintance with classic fable is a necessary part of modern education.
HOW THE MYTHS
ORIGINATED
A large proportion of these myths are due to men’s observations of Nature, and her various active and creative forces, which appeared to their lively Southern fancy as manifestations of single supernatural beings. These were regarded now as friendly, now as hostile, to man; and men therefore strove as eagerly to gain their favor as to appease their wrath. Of the appearance of the deities who thus manifested themselves in the workings of nature, men necessarily formed at first very crude and fantastic ideas. But later, when men emerged from the simple conditions of the early patriarchal epoch, and began to dwell in regular political communities, they gradually ceased to regard the gods as mere personifications of natural forces. They began to regard them as beings acting in accordance with unchangeable moral laws, and endowed with forms similar to those of men. They brought the gods into connection with each other by means of genealogies in a great measure artificial, and built up a vast political system, which has its center in Zeus, or Jupiter, the “father of gods and men.” (See [Chart] on following pages.)
HOW THE GODS RESEMBLE
MORTALS
The ancient Greeks believed their gods to be of the same shape and form as themselves, but of far greater beauty, strength, and dignity. They also regarded them as being of much larger size than men; for in those times great size was esteemed a perfection, supposed to be an attribute of divinities, to whom they ascribed all perfections. A fluid named ichor supplied the place of blood in the veins of the gods. They were immortal, but they might be wounded or otherwise injured. They could make themselves [821] visible or invisible to men, and assume the forms of men or of animals. Like men they stood in daily need of food and sleep. The meat of the gods was called ambrosia, their drink nectar. The gods, when they came among men, often partook of their food and hospitality.
Glimpse into the interior of the Pantheon at Rome showing statues of the gods and the marvelous effects of lighting.
Like mankind, the gods were divided into two sexes; namely, gods and goddesses. They married and had children. Often a god became enamored of a mortal woman, or a goddess was smitten with the charms of a handsome youth, and these love tales form a large portion of Grecian mythology.