This week we examined the history and purpose of mythology. To emphasize the enduring effects of Greece upon Western civilization and culture, we look at where it appears today, even in American pop culture.
Post One: I told you to reflect on mythology as a metaphor. Select one way in which mythology is "Something else." What countless facets of life do these engaging stories represent? Explain your answer in detail.
Post Two: What have you personally learned from our introduction to mythology? What surprised you, awed you, interested you, etc. Do you have any questions? Are these ideas at odds with any of your own spiritual beliefs?
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ReplyDeleteMythology is not always just a fun bed time story, but it has many meanings behind it. Those storyies were once used to guide people's lives and set guidelines for their morals. One way that mythology is a metaphor is when it shows gods being more human than humans are, emphasising the point of not to be like that, letting an emotion control you.
ReplyDeleteSome of the mythology we have read in class has suprised me a lot because of how human some of these gods are. They are not portrayed as all powerful creates who are perfect and divine, they have coruption and problems too.
ReplyDeleteMythology is a lesson. The stories teach the factors of ultimate humanity. The gods of ancient Greece were beyond human in a sense of their extreme passions. The tales of killing the children of their spouse's lover or a god eating his own offspring are unheard of in this day and age, but the emotion of jealousy and hate behind it is something all people can relate to. These stories teach how much humans can achieve with the emotion of burning passion.
ReplyDeleteOur introduction to mythology has really shown me that these myths aren't just bedtime stories that I use to read. I did not really see the significance to these stories and how it has a huge impact on literature. I am excited to hear more stories and study different gods. I have my own beliefs and some aspects may conflict with mythology because it is polytheistic, but I'm just viewing it as literature and a challenge. :)
ReplyDeleteMythology was created to teach lessons, and to help humans to relate to the dieties they worshipped. The gods were portrayed as more human than humans themselves. They felt emotions more deeply than humans. Because of this, people felt better about themselves if they were going through hardships. If the gods had experienced something like this, surely their suffering was part of the gods' master plan for the world.
ReplyDeleteI was interested by how the gods were more human than humans. This conflicts with my religious belief that God is an all powerful diety that is the consummate form of perfection. I think that the God that I (I'm a Christian) believe in is not relatable and sometimes feels unreachable and not real. I question how the Greeks were able to respect their gods when they were petty and volatile.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard that we were going to be learning mythology, I wasn't very excited, but just after the first days of reading through what mythology is I've come to find it very interesting. These stories represent our lives now, but back in the past. It shows us "standards" to follow and gives us guidelines on how to live our lives. Mythology shows the past in meaningful ways because I can reflect on the lessons learned in the past and instead of making the same mistakes, I can continue to move on. Mythology is also away for people to connect themselves to the past, and a way for them to relate their lives to others.
ReplyDeleteFrom what we've learned so far, I find the gods the most interesting, because as it said, the Gods were more human than human. They made bigger and bolder mistakes, did bigger and better things, yet they were very relatable to everyone else. It is from the gods that we have learned many of the morals taught today and many of the lessons we thrive on. The gods were they "leaders" of society in the past, and mythology shows that it is through them that we've reached our social standards of living today.
ReplyDeleteMythology is a way of explaining the unknown. What better way was there (in ancient times) than to create a very believable story about beings called Gods to explain why rain fell or why night and day came? All of the myths known today have a story that explains why something happens or where did something come from? After I think about it, I don't find it surprising that there are so many; There are so many things in this world that need explaining.
ReplyDeleteMythology is a set of stories that teach
ReplyDeleteus lessons. We can learn from mythology because all of the different stories represent different situations in life and most of these stories have lessons that can be learned from analyzing them.
I have learned so far from our introduction to mythology that mythology is so much more than just a bunch of stories told troughout the years. Mythology is a model for us as humans, a model for our traditions and customs, and a model that provdes us with our life lessons. We can get so much out of myths, if we just analyze them. I understand mythology quite well.
ReplyDeleteMythology consists of stories that teach morals and a way to explain how the world works. This way of explaining how everything worked substituted for a lack of scientific evidence towards what each aspect of mythology explained.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that there are many more aspects of mythology that I have not learned about. I am suprised of how many gods there are in Greek mythology alone. I find mythology a good way of explaining aspects of ancient peoples' daily lives to be excellent, dues to lack of scientific research/evidence.
ReplyDeleteFor those of you continuing to post your comments. Please look at the question(s) and answer accordingly. These require some consideration and not duplicate thoughts in both questions.
ReplyDeleteMythology can be "something else" when it teaches us life lessons. These stories often teach us different lessons such as love, patience, etc. In the story of Athena and her weaving competition its shows how never to be cocky and to be humble about your talents.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that mythology is not only stories about ancient gods and mythology still exists today. I was surprised to know that a lot of things are named after gods from mythology. I also learned that there isn't a statue of Hades. I still have questions about exactly what each god represents. I know that Zeus is powerful Helena is beautiful, but that is about it. I personally have never thought of mythology in regards to my religion, and I guess they are kind of related because they both have their views on creation and the ending of the world and why things happen.
ReplyDeleteMythology is so much more than just fun stories to tell little ones. Mythology shows morals, lessons, and for many, how to live life. The gods of ancient Greece taught ethics by showing the people that they were just as human as anybody. They told stories that showed the population of the wrong and right ways to live life.
ReplyDeleteMythology teaches us life lessons and guided people through life. True that they were told as bedtime stories, but hopefully the kid learned something from it. Mythology is a metaphor because in those stories, the gods were not perfect. They had corruption and problems like everyday people had as well.
ReplyDeleteI was personally surprised that mythology purposely made their gods imperfect. Mostly when we hear about gods, they were perfect and everyone looked up to them. Instead, these gods had problems with family. They were jealous of people and were more human than anything.
ReplyDeleteMyths can be "something else" because they explain the unexplainable phenomenon. Mythology was the "science" of the ancient peoples, and they continue to provide closure to some questions that even science cannot reach, such as the origins behind the big bang, or the seemingly perfect, fine tuned fundemental physical constants. Mythology represents human values and the traditional standards of how people need to act. They are also an eyepiece into the cultures, morals, and values of the times from which the myths originated.
ReplyDeleteI learned that Greek mythological deities are simply overemotional extremes of humans. These "gods" are simply people, and could have been people long ago whose existence and experiences transcended reality and became myth. The fact that so many modern psychological terms are based on mythological terms surprises me. The ideas from mythology are not at odds with my religious beliefs, since I believe that the Greek gods are most likely humans (due to their similarities to humans) who had performed some significant action in life, and had their stories passed on from generation to generation. Over time, those who passed on the stories had probably added or deleted information, and exaggerated it when telling the story, hence the supernatural powers and overblown humanness.
ReplyDeleteMythology is not just stories, but morals and personal guidelines and beliefs that influence the lives of many people around the world. Mythology teaches people lessons of how to live their lives based on the mistakes and stories of the Greek gods. Even though these stories could be told for just fun, they are also educational and somewhat essential to everyday life.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that surpirsed me most about Greek mythology was that even the gods were not made into perfect beings. The gods had problems and hardships just as humans do. I also learned that mythology is of morals and personal guidelines rather than just bedtime stories. I do not have any questions about Greek mythology so far.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that mythology is so much more than just stories. They have such a greater meaning to life than that. Myths have taught me that the Greek gods were so human and did not have to be absolutely flawless. Because they were not perfect, their stories truly touched my heart. I could read a myth and feel as if somehow, I was connected to it. Yes, they do kind of interfere with any of my own spiritual beliefs because I believe that everybody makes mistakes. Even God. But although every body can make errors, there are always ways to redeem one’s self. These myths did not show that. They showed us that if your misstep were too great of one, you would just be sent to Hell. I do not quite believe that.
ReplyDeleteGreek Mythology is not only comprised of exciting bedtime stories but also contains morals. The lessons from myths can be used later in life. Myths teach one how to feel love, hate, passion, anger and numerous other stong feelings.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that Mythology may not have been a strong subject to me but i use it every single day. Through my emotions i am using mythology. Myths may seem to be extreme but they are used to teach us what pathway too choose in life. I have found mythology inspirational.
ReplyDeletemythology is something else because it is like answers to unexplained events. i believe that mythology was onced used to explain questions like how we got here, what are the natural events on earth and why they occcur, and what are emotions? myths represent everything. there is a myth to exxplain all aspects of life.
ReplyDeleteMythology is not only about storytelling and wondrous characters, it is about the morals and lessons that human beings can learn in every culture. The stories can relate to an individual's current circumstances in many ways, which is the power of a metaphor. People can translate metaphors and reflect them on their pwn lives.
ReplyDeletei personally learned that all myths have a background and are not just stories pased down. they offer many interesting perspectives to many of lifes occurances. one thing that surprised me was how long these stories can be passed down for. i was also surprised that the first written account of a myth was homer' Odyssey and illiad. the ideas of myths conflict with my personal beliefs because mythology is a polytheistic system of beliefs but i believe in a monotheistic way of life.
ReplyDeleteI think mythology is "something else" rather than a story, it is a metaphor for society today. Everyone can relate to atleast on of the mythological gods. In mythology the gods do not act like all mighty or all powerful beings they act like human beings. They show love, compassion, hate, anger etc. and many more facets of life that we as human beings, not gods, can relate to today.
ReplyDeleteWhat I recently learned about mythology is that it is a metaphor. It never occurred to me that I could take any one story from ancient Grecian culture and relate it to my own life. I find that very touching and magical. Although I do not believe that these gods truly exist, I do believe that the ancient Greek created them for a significant reason. Because they believed in Polytheism, they created the stories to enlighten and set standards for their society.
ReplyDeleteI have personally learned that mythology is more than just a story, it is a metaphor for today's society that everyone can relate to. What surprised me was that the gods did not act like gods at all, they acted like human beings and they were very emotional. Mythology does conflict with my religous beliefs, but I am just reading it and looking at it as any other book we have to read in school.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can say I do enjoy stories about Gods and their power over people and such. However, I never knew there were so many and they were actually all linked to one another! It surprises me to think that the concept of Adam and Eve is almost the exact same for the Gods! After I looked at the family tree of Gods, I saw that Choas was the father of all Gods and it spread out from there, with all the Immortals being connected to each other in some way. I guess I can't complain when the Gods had kids with a family member... they really had no choice!
ReplyDeleteMythology is not only only a metaophor but it can also be an example of protraying personal identity. Some movies have based their stories on mythology. I think we can learn from mythology not only through metaphors but throught the characters them selves
ReplyDeleteI have learned that movies have based there stories on mythology, and that mythology repeats itself through out life. It has awed me, that we can learn things from mythology. To be honest, I was not excited to learn about mythology but I now I realize that self identity can be found; and that the stories are interesting.
ReplyDeleteMythology is not only about the intense stories that are told. I believe that mythology can be used as a guide through life. For instance, us humans can use mythology to help prevent us from making mistakes. Mythology can be used for many facets of life because it lays down somewhat of a path that us humans should follow and where we should not turn on that path.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that to know the real meanings of mythology you must dig deeper than to just surface the myths because the majority of the times the true moral of the myth can be found that way. What awes me about mythology is the personality traits the gods had.
ReplyDeleteI think that mythology is what exactly what it is perceived as. They are all stories. However, it's what you makes of the stories that matter. The 'stories' offer us life lessons to learn from. Depending on how you interpret mythology, you can take away morals, values, and lessons, to help you throughout your life.
ReplyDeleteI think that mythology is interesting because it uses examples of life that we experience, except amplifies and exaggerates people's (or gods) actions. By seeing such extreme comparisons it almost teaches you what not to do and how to react to different trials you may experience. I had never realized that so much could be taken away from fictional stories using gods to relate to humans. This doesn't really effect my spiritual beliefs because I don't necessarily think that these myths are true or anything (obviously because they're myths), but I think that they're just used to get a point across.
ReplyDeleteMythology is a self- image of humans. It is a metaphor for the way society is today. Everyone can relate to the Greek Gods in one way or another. We have a connection where we are able to find certain traits about the Greek Gods in ourselves. These stories are able to represent our daily everyday lives.
ReplyDeleteDeni Danny Sahbegovic here:
ReplyDeleteI believe mythology represents our own experiences and feelings in life, as well as incorporates those experiences and feelings into stories that we can all relate to. I find these stories to be captivating because it is a philosophy of different aspects of our lives and our deaths. To me, mythology is a manifestation of all the examples we can use to express ourselves through these stories, albeit in different varieties of telling it.
I have learned that the myths about the Greek Gods are not just random stories. They all have meaning and teach lessons in one way or another. It surprised me how defined each and every Greek God is. What I mean by that is, all of the Gos have very different an defined personality traits. They also deal with adversity as humans do. I am able to find a little bit of myself in all of them. I never really realized how significant these stories are to literature.
ReplyDeleteAs an avid storyteller who has experience expressing myself, I can say that I am comfortable with mythology. What inspires me the most with mythology is how the fascinating it is spiritually. From stories of gods and mortals becoming emotionally conflicted to overcoming those situations, I can connect with myths because my beliefs are intertwined with them. I am a spiritual being that is always trying to overcome emotions, whether good or bad. I try to be in connection with the realms of consciousness and unconsciouness. I use myths as a fantastic example of finding myself in a spiritual place and being able to purify myself with stories. Myths help me create stories I can express to others.
ReplyDeleteMythology is something else because though they are just stories, they are full of intense meaning. The reader can easily connect with what is going on in the story even though it was written so many years ago. Mythology shows that we are all human and that we all go through the same problems in diffrent ways. Though I might not have the same situation as others, because I am a human being, I naturally feel something about that situation. These stories help people to remember that they are not alone, that everyone feels the way they are feeling at some point in their lives.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that I actually might like mythology. When you said that we would be spending a long time on mythology, I was bummed out before I even gave it a chance. I learned that even though these stories were written so many years ago, I can still make many connections with the main characters in the stories, whether that has actually happened to me before or not. I was quite surprised at how many gods there were and I am not going to lie, it makes my a little bit nervous knowing how many different ones there are. I personally do not believe quite a few of these stories to be true, they do connect to how I feel sometimes, and make me feel better.
ReplyDeleteMythology is something else because in ancient times it was the only way ideas could be spread from group to group. Even today, parts of Greece are geographically isolated, because of the large amount of islands and mountain ranges. Cultures grew apart, but their ideas about myths stayed relatively the same. Ideas put in example about Zeus and his his gods is much more applicable to the ancient Greeks than ideas about pure science.
ReplyDeleteMythology gives an example of different morals. It teaches us about the different ways in which humans act, and how we should act to be a model citizen. Although these myths were made so many years ago they still apply to life today, and they will still apply to life in the distant future. These myths teach you lessons that everyone, at one point in their life need to pay attention to, because in reality everyone goes through the same situations whether people are aware of that or not.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that mythology might be something that interest me and will teach me important lesson about how to live a 'good' life. Although I not a hugely spiritual person like a lot of other people in the world, I believe that mythology can teach important lesson such as other pieces of literature.
ReplyDeleteI consider myself a mythology enthusiast, so when I saw in the syllabus that we were having a block on myth, I thought I was not going to learn anything new. However, I was pleasantly surprised. I learned about the reason myths were told beside the obvious explanation of "To explain the unexplainable". I learned about the spreading of ideas through myth, the way it was done before the age of Greek philosophy.
ReplyDeleteMythology is a metaphor as well as a guide for helping one to discover their identity. The stories are like over exaggerated stories about the problems or issues that people have in life. You can sometimes relate to the protagonist, or even the antagonist. They help prepare you for greater lessons, and bigger problems.
ReplyDeleteI learned that mythology has many different gods. I didn't realize it had so many. I like to think about how these stories were created in the first place and how they became so influential in the way people lived. My question is that if people believe so many different religious beliefs, how can only one of them be right?
ReplyDeleteOne way mythology is "something else" is it being a model for humans. Gods have human qualities but personified so much deeper than us. Their stories can show what happens to humans when we get overcome with envy, and let our emotions take us over. They can also represent humans when they lose sight of their ideals and emotions and rationality.
ReplyDeleteI learned very much from our introduction to mythology. I had, for the majority of my life, had a preconcieved notion that mythology was those stories that have morals, teach you a lesson, are of a mystical and make believe world, etc. Being my pragmatic little self, I did not have much to do with any kind of mythology. When I was about twelve, I got from my sister the series of books, "Daughters of the Moon" by Lynne Ewing. I had never read any kind of books like that before, like I stated earlier I considered myself much too pragmatic for ideas like that. I ended up loving the books. They are about the goddess of the moon, Selene. Currently with our mythology, I am really interested in the female goddesses for some reason, I really like to see how they were percieved. I am enjoying taking all of this in and interpreting it in my own way and look foward to learning more!
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