Origins of Greek Mythology
Greek Myths are all that’s left of the ancient Greek religion. About 1200 b.c.e., the residents of, what we would call, Greece and Asia Minor shared a common belief in a group of deities that came to be known as The Olympians.
The distillation of the various regional beliefs into a coherent central religion was probably not as tidy and uniform as we would prefer, but it’s fair say that the stories of the Olympians survived because they had the largest number of followers and, most importantly, The Olympians did not forbid or punish the pursuit of knowledge. Beauty, poetry and creative activities are the blessings of The Immortals and are a vital part of the Greek tradition.
The Olympians are descended from the primal, self created gods, begining with Kaos. The Olympians are ruled by Zeus. He is the strongest and, as you will see, without him, the other Olympians would still be held captive inside their devious father, Kronos. The Olympians are only a small part of the family of Immortals that rule the earth and sky. The various rivers, mountains and forces of nature are the ‘bodies’ of the Immortals and proper respect must always be shown if you wish to have peace at home and safe passage when you travel.
The ancient texts we call Greek Myths are mostly from the period known as Classical Greece, circa 500 b.c.e. The stories behind the myths are from a much earlier time but written versions don’t exist before Classical times.
The oldest myths can be traced to three main sources: Homer, Hesiod and The Homeric Hymns, circa 800 b.c.e. That means that by the time they were written down, these works had survived 400 years of additions, subtractions and mutations to finally become the versions we now call ‘authentic’. The Greek Myths are our window into the distant past, a view of a world that existed not only in the mind of the Greek poets but in the hearts of the humble and long suffering natives of ancient Greece.
Where do the Greek myths STOP? At what point in time can we assume that the essence of Greek mythology was lost? The decision as to when exactly the essence was lost is strictly arbitrary, but when I read Greek myths as told by the Roman, Ovid, circa 20 B.C.E., I get a little skeptical as to the depth of his insight... after all, he was a thousand years, a language and a culture away from the origins of the myths... all he could possibly tell us is how Romans viewed Greek mythology... this is important for the study of the Romans but not of the Greeks.
I don’t even trust the Classical Greeks to keep the stories straight... the Classical Period, Athenian Greece, beginning circa 502 B.C.E., was a time of cultural and artistic freedom. The Classical Greek writers and story tellers probably embellished the myths in a way that seemed proper to them but, after all, they were five hundred years away from the harsh and brutal foundations of Greek culture and myths.
For us to try to imagine the Olympians of The Iliad we must abandon the dramatic stories of the Classical Greeks and the flights of fancy of the Romans. To use them would be like losing your car keys in a dark alley and going down the block to look for them under the streetlight because the lights’ better. Even though the Classical Greek and Roman versions of the Ancient Greek myths outnumber the authentic texts I will try to, eventually, only list the oldest stories on these pages. I hope you enjoy my effort... Xavr
AphroditeAphrodite, the golden goddess of Love; born of the blood of Ouranos (the Heavens) and the foam of the sea.(Aphrodite, Venus)
Venus
ApollonApollon, the son of Zeus and Leto; the brother of Artemis.(Apollo, Apollon, Phoibos Apollon, the Striker from Afar)
Apollo
AresAres, the god of War; the son of Zeus and Hera.(Ares, Aries, Mars, God of War)
Mars
ArtemisArtemis, Diana(Artemis, Diana)
Diana
Athene (Athena)Athene, the goddess of Wisdom; the daughter of Zeus and Metis; the virgin goddess of intellect and invention.(Athene, Athena, Pallas Athene, Tritogeneia, Glaukopis, Minerva)
Minerva
DemeterDemeter, the goddess of the Harvest; the daughter of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).(Demeter, Ceres)
Ceres
DioneDione, the Mother Goddess of Mount Olympos (Olympus).(Dione)
EosEos, the Dawn; mother of the Winds.(Dawn, Eos, Erigeneia)
EnyoEnyo, one of the Graiai (the Gray Sisters); the daughters of Keto (Ceto) and Phorkys (Phorcys).(Enyo, Bellona, Gray Sisters, Graiai)
Bellona
EridaErida, the wearisome goddess of Hate.(Erida, Hate)
ErinyesErinys, the Mist-Walking and the Kindly One; punisher of the unfaithful.(Erinyes, Erinys, Furiae, Furies, Tisiphone, Megaera, Alecto, Alekto)
Furiae
ErisEris, the goddess of Discord and Strife.(Eris, Discordia, Discord)
Discordia
ErosEros, the primal god of Love; using arrows of gold and lead, he would wound the hearts of mortals and Immortals alike.(Eros, Cupid)
Cupid
EurynomeEurynome, one of the many daughters of Ocean; the mother of the Graces.(Eurynome)
FatesThe Fates, the Daughters of Necessity; born of Zeus and Themis.(Fates, Morae, Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos, Klotho, Lakhesis, Moiras, Keras, Moirai, Moira)
Morae
GorgonsGorgons, the daughters of Phorkys and Keto (Ceto); with snakes about their heads and wrists, Medusa, Sthenno and Euryale were so hideous, the shock of seeing them would turn anyone to stone.(Gorgon, Medusa, Sthenno, Euryale)
GracesGraces, the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome; the attendants of Aphrodite (goddess of Love) and the incarnations of Grace and Charm.(The Graces, Graces, Aglaia, Euphrosyne, Thalia, The Charities, Charities)
Charities
HadesHades, Lord of the Underworld; the son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).(Hades, Underworld, Pluto)
Pluto
HebeHebe, the goddess of Youth; the daughter of Zeus and Hera; the wife of Herakles (Heracles).(Hebe, Youth)
HeliosHelios, the Sun; the son of Hyperion and Eryphaesa; he sees everything his light touches.(Helios, Sun God, the Sun)
Apollo
Hephaistos (Hephaestus)Hephaistos, the god of the Smith; the son of Hera and artificer of the Olympians.(Hephaistos, Hephaestus, Vulcan)
Vulcan
HeraHera, the daughter of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea); the wife to Zeus; the most beautiful of the Immortals.(Hera, Juno)
Juno
Herakles (Heracles)Herakles, the ultimate hero; the son of Zeus and Alkmene (Alcmene).(Herakles, Hercules, The Twelve Labors)
Hercules
HermesHermes, the wing shod messenger of the Olympians; the son of Zeus and Maia.(Hermes, Mercury, Argeiphontes)
Mercury
HestiaHestia, the virgin goddess of the Hearth and humble domestic joy.(Hestia, Vesta)
Vesta
HyperionHyperion, the Titan; father of Helios (the Sun), Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon).(Hyperion)
HypnosHypnos, the god of Sleep; a child of Nix (Night) and the brother of Thanatos (Death).(Hypnos, Somnus)
Somnus
IoIo, the Heifer-Maiden who rejected the love of Zeus.(Io, Heifer-Maiden)
IrisIris, the Wind-Footed messenger of the Immortals.(Iris)
Kalypso (Calypso)Kalypso, the queenly Nymph and lover of Odysseus.(Calypso, Kalypso, Nymph, Nymphs)
Kheiron (Chiron)Kheiron, the most righteous of the Centaurs; the powerful master of many arts and sciences.(Cheiron, Kheiron, Centaurs, Centaur, Eurytion)
Kirke (Circe)Kirke, the Dread Goddess; the daughter of Helios and the mistress of potions and spells.(Circe, Kirke)
Kronos (Cronos)Kronos, the Titan; father of the Olympians.(Kronos, Cronos, Cronus, Saturn)
Saturn
LetoLeto, the consort of Zeus and mother of Apollon and Artemis.(Leto)
MusesThe Muses attend the festivals on Olympos and entertain and inspire the other gods with their wit and charm.(Muses, Mousai)
NereidsThe Nereids, the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris.(The Nereids, Nereids, Thetis, Agaue, Aktaia, Amphinome, Amphithoe, Apseudes, Dexamene, Doris, Doto, Dynamene, Galateia, Glauke, Halia, Iaira, Ianassa, Ianeira, Kallianassa, Kallianeira, Klymene, Kumodoke, Kumothoe, Limnoreia, Maira, Melite, Nemertes, Nesaie, Oreithyia, Pherousa, Panope, Proto, Speio, Thaleia, Thoe)
OdysseusOdysseus, the hero of the Trojan War and the long suffering traveler in The Odyssey.(Odysseus, Ulysses)
Ulysses
Orai,The HoursOrai, the three sisters, Eunomia (Harmony), Dyke (Justice) and Eirene (Peace) assist the Olympians by organizing the Seasons and adding balance to Nature.(Hours, The Hours, Eunomia, Dyke, Eiren, Horae, The Horae, Orai)
Horae
PanPan, the Goat-God; he prances through the fertile countryside in the company of Nymphs playing his seven-reed pipe in wild abandon.(Pan, Faunus, Goat God)
Faunus
PersephonePersephone, the daughter of Demeter and Zeus; the wife of Hades and queen of the Underworld.(Persephone, Proserpina)
Proserpina
PoseidonPoseidon, the lord the Sea; son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea).(Poseidon, Neptune)
Neptune
PrometheusPrometheus, the rebel god; in defiance of Zeus, he gave fire and other comforts to the mortals on the earth.(Prometheus)
Rheia (Rhea)Rheia, the wife of devious Kronos (Cronos) and mother to the Olympians.(Rheia, Rhea)
RiversRivers; the children of Okeanos (Ocean); Immortals who have chosen rivers as their earthly bodies.(Rivers, Acheloios, Akheloios, Aiseopos, Alpheios, Asopos, Axios, Boagrios, Grenikos, Gyge, Hermos, Hyllos, Hypereia, Karesos, Kephisos, Lykia, Maiandros, Messeis, Minyeios, Ocean, Okeanos, Parthenios, Peneios, Rhesos, Rhodios, Sangarious, Satnioeis, Simoei, Skamandros, Spercheios, Styx, Titaressos, Xanthos)
SkyllaSkylla, the man-eating she-beast with six heads.(Skylla, Charybdis, Kharybdis)
StyxStyx, the eldest daughter of Okeanos (Ocean) and Tethys; any Immortal who pours the waters of Styx and swears an oath, is solemnly bound to tell only the truth.(Styx)
ThanatosThanatos, the god of Death; a child of Nix (Night) and the brother of Hypnos (Sleep).(Thanatos, Death)
ThetisThetis, one of the fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris; the wife of Peleus and the mother of Akhilleus (Achilles).(Thetis)
WindsThe Winds are Immortals who have chosen the air as their earthly bodies.(Winds, Eos, Boreas, Eurus, Notus, Zephyros, North Wind, East Wind, South Wind, West Wind, Kaikias, Caicias, Apeliotes, Lips, Skiron, Sciron)
ZeusZeus, the Olympian; the son of Kronos (Cronos) and Rheia (Rhea); lord of the Sky.(Zeus, Jupiter)
Greek mythology consists in part in a large collection of narratives that explain the origins of the world and detail the lives and adventures of a wide variety of
gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines. These accounts were initially fashioned and disseminated in an
oral-poetic tradition; our surviving sources of
Greek mythology are literary reworkings of this oral tradition. Greek mythology was also reflected in artifacts, some of them works of art, notably the repertory of vase-painters. The Greeks themselves referred to the myths and associated artworks to throw light on
cult practices and
ritual traditions that were already ancient and, at times, poorly understood.
The span of stories and characters in Greek mythology ranges from the atrocities of the
early gods to the brutal wars of
Troy and
Thebes, from the youthful pranks of
Hermes to the heartfelt grief of
Demeter for
Persephone, all depicted in minute detail in a bewildering range of media. In addition to the above, the cast of characters includes many
monsters,
daemons,
nymphs,
satyrs, and
centaurs.
The Greek gods
In the wide variety of legends and stories that constitute ancient Greek mythology, the deities that were native to the Greek peoples are described as having essentially human but ideal bodies. Although each god's physical appearance is distinct, they have the power to take on whatever form they choose. The few composite or
chimerical beings that occur, such as the
Sphinx, had their origins in
Anatolia or the
Near East and were imported into the Greek culture.
Perseus with the head of
Medusa.
Regardless of their underlying forms, the Greek gods have many fantastic abilities: they can disguise themselves or make themselves invisible to humans, they can instantly transport themselves to any location, and are able to act through the words and deeds of humans, often without the knowledge of the human through whom the gods act. Most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances, and are immortal. Even though each of the gods was born, most of them growing from infancy to adulthood, once they reach their physical peak of maturity they do not age beyond that point.
Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods were called upon in poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and
epithets, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves. A Greek deity's epithet may reflect a particular aspect of that god's role, as Apollo Musagetes is "
Apollo, [as] leader of the
Muses." Alternatively the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.
In such mythic narratives, we are told that the gods are all part of a huge family, spanning multiple generations. The oldest of the gods were responsible for the creation of the world, but younger gods usurped their power. In many familiar epic poems set in the "age of heroes," the twelve Olympians are said to have appeared in person. In order to help out the Greeks' primitive ancestors, the gods performed miracles, instructed them in various areas of practical knowledge, taught them proper methods of worship, rewarded good behavior and chastised immorality, and even had children with them.
A survey of mythic history
While self-contradictions in the stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. There was first an age of gods, then an age when men and gods mingled freely, followed by an age of heroes, where divine activity was more limited.
While the age of gods has often been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes. For example, the heroic
Iliad and
Odyssey dwarfed the divine-focused
Theogony and
Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity.
The age of gods
Topics in Greek mythology
Gods
Primordial gods and
TitansZeus and the
OlympiansPan and the
nymphsApollo and
DionysusSea-gods and
Earth-godsHeroes
Heracles and his
LaborsAchilles and the
Trojan WarOdysseus and the
OdysseyJason and the
ArgonautsPerseus and the
GorgonOedipus and
ThebesTheseus and the
MinotaurTriptolemus and the
Eleusinian MysteriesRelated
Satyrs,
centaurs and
dragonsAncient Greek religionLike their neighbors, the Greeks believed in a
pantheon of
gods and
goddesses who were associated with specific aspects of life. For example,
Aphrodite was the goddess of love, while
Ares was the god of war and
Hades the god of the dead. Some deities, such as
Apollo and
Dionysus, revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as
Hestia (literally "hearth") and
Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. There were also site-specific deities: river gods, nymphs of springs, caves, and forests. Local heroes and heroines were often venerated at their tombs by people from the surrounding area.
Many beings described in Greek myths could be considered "gods" or "heroes." Some were recognized only in
folklore or were worshipped only at particular locales, (e.g.
Trophonius) or during specific festivals (e.g.
Adonis). The most impressive
temples tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods: the
twelve Olympians,
Heracles,
Asclepius and occasionally
Helios. These gods were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to
nymphs, minor gods, or local heroes. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere.
The first gods
One type of narrative about the age of gods tells the story of the birth and conflicts of the
first divinities:
Chaos,
Nyx (Night),
Eros (Love),
Uranus (the Sky),
Gaia (the Earth), the
Titans and the triumph of
Zeus and the
Olympians.
Hesiod's
Theogony is an example of this type. It was also the subject of many lost poems, including ones attributed to
Orpheus,
Musaeus,
Epimenides,
Abaris and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and
mystery-rites. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by
Neoplatonist philosophers and recently unearthed
papyrus scraps.
The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogony, or song about the birth of the gods, to be the prototypical poetic genre—the prototypical muthos—and imputed almost magical powers to it.
Orpheus, the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius'
Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to
Hades. When
Hermes invents the
lyre in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is sing the birth of the gods.
Hesiod's
Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the
Muses.
The Olympian gods
After the overthrow of the elder gods by the Olympians, another set of myths tells the story of the birth, struggles and exploits, and eventual ascent into
Olympus of one of the younger generation of gods:
Apollo,
Hermes,
Athena, etc. The
Homeric Hymns are the oldest source of this kind of story. They are often closely associated with cult-centers of the god in question: the Homeric Hymn to Apollo is a compound of two earlier narratives: one telling of his birth at
Delos, the other of his establishment of the oracle at
Delphi. Similarly, the Homeric Hymn to
Demeter, with its tale of the abduction of
Persephone by
Hades, narrates the back-story of the
Eleusinian Mysteries.
The age of gods and men
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and men moved freely together.
The most popular type of narrative that confronts gods with early men involves the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies with
Anchises to produce
Aeneas. The marriage of
Peleus and
Thetis, which yielded
Achilles, is another such myth.
Another type involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when
Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when
Tantalus steals nectar and ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects - revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when
Prometheus or
Lycaon invents sacrifice, when
Demeter teaches
agriculture and the
Mysteries to
Triptolemus, or when
Marsyas invents the
aulos and enters into a musical contest with
Apollo.
Myths centered around households and lineages were particularly popular, and grouped by historians under the name of the key ancestor, such as Atreus, whose household passed a curse that touched the Trojan war.
Yet another type belongs to
Dionysus: the god wanders through Greece from foreign lands to spread his cult. He is confronted by a king,
Lycurgus or
Pentheus, who opposes him, and whom he punishes terribly in return. A similar theme echoes in a myth about
Demeter: The maternal goddess in search of her kidnapped daughter stops in a kingdom and out of love tries to make the royal family's son immortal by dipping him into a magical fire. When the matron finds her son being held in a fire by his nurse, the woman turns on the disguised Demeter, causing Demeter to throw him down on the floor. Before the enraged mother, Demeter strips her
mortal guise and punishes the woman for her faithlessness.
Achilles binds the wound of
Patroclus, on a late archaic
Kylix by the Sosias painter.
The age of heroes
The age of heroes can be broken down around the monumental events of
Heracles as the dawn of the age of heroes, the
Argonautic expedition and the
Trojan War. The Trojan War marks roughly the end of the Heroic Age.
Heracles
Among heroes,
Heracles is in a class by himself. His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many
folk tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. His enormous appetite and rustic character also made him a popular figure of comedy, while his pitiful end provided much material for tragedy.
The descendants of Heracles, known as the
Heracleidae, were the mythical ancestors of the
Dorian Greek
kings.
Other early heroes
Other members of the earliest generation of heroes, such as
Perseus,
Deucalion and
Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on
fairy tale, as they slay monsters such as the
Chimera and
Medusa. This generation was not as popular a subject for poets; we know of them mostly through mythographers and passing remarks in prose writers. They were, however, favorite subjects of visual
art.
The Argonauts
Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with
Jason on the expedition to fetch the
Golden Fleece. This generation also included
Theseus, who went to
Crete to slay the
Minotaur;
Atalanta, the female heroine; and
Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the Iliad and Odyssey.
The
Seven against Thebes and royal crimes
In between the
Argo and the
Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of
Atreus and
Thyestes at
Argos; also those of
Laius and
Oedipus at
Thebes, leading to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the
Seven Against Thebes and
Epigoni. For obvious reasons, this generation was extremely popular among the Athenian tragedians.
"The Rage of Achilles" by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
The Trojan War and its aftermath
The
Trojan War, including its causes and consequences, was the turning point between the heroic age and what the ancient Greeks considered to be their historical era. Vastly more attention was paid to this struggle than to all the many other contemporaneous events combined. The lasting popularity of the tales related to the Trojan War have kept them in circulation for millennia. The Trojan cycle includes:
The events leading up to the war:
Eris and the
golden apple of
Kallisti, the
Judgement of Paris, the abduction of
Helen, the sacrifice of
Iphigenia at
Aulis.
The events of the
Iliad, including the quarrel of
Achilles with
Agamemnon and the deaths of
Patroclus and
Hector.
The ruse of the
Trojan Horse and the destruction of
Troy.
The homecomings of heroes from Troy, including the wanderings of
Odysseus (the
Odyssey) and
Aeneas (the
Aeneid), and the murder of
AgamemnonThe children of the Trojan generation: e.g.
Orestes and
TelemachusTheories of origin
In antiquity, historians such as
Herodotus theorized that the Greek gods had been stolen directly from the
Egyptians. Later on, Christian writers tried to explain Hellenic paganism through degeneration of
Biblical religion. Since then, the sciences of archaeology and linguistics have been applied to the origins of Greek mythology with some interesting results.
Historical linguistics indicates that particular aspects of the Greek pantheon were inherited from
Indo-European society (or perhaps both cultures borrowed from another earlier source), as were the roots of the Greek language. Thus, for example, the name
Zeus is cognate with Latin
Jupiter,
Sanskrit Dyaus and Germanic
Tyr (see
Dyeus), as is
Ouranos with Sanskrit
Varuna. In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek
Moirae and the
Norns of
Norse mythology.
Archaeology and mythography, on the other hand, has revealed that the Greeks were inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East.
Cybele is rooted in
Anatolian culture, and much of
Aphrodite's
iconography springs from the Semitic goddesses
Ishtar and
Astarte.
Textual studies reveal multiple layers in tales, such as secondary asides bringing
Theseus into tales of
The Twelve Labours of
Herakles. Such tales concerning tribal
eponyms are thought to originate in attempts to absorb mythology of one tradition into another, in order to unite the cultures.
In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the still poorly understood pre-Hellenic societies of Greece, such as the
Minoans and so-called
Pelasgians. This is especially true in the case of
chthonic deities and
mother goddesses. For some, the three main generations of gods in
Hesiod's
Theogony (Uranus, Gaia, etc.; the Titans and then the Olympians) suggest a distant echo of a struggle between social groups, mirroring the three major high cultures of Greek civilization:
Minoan,
Mycenaean and
Hellenic.
The extensive parallels between Hesiod's narrative and the
Hurrian myth of
Anu,
Kumarbi, and
Teshub makes it very likely that the story is an adaptation of borrowed materials, rather than a distorted historical record. Parallels between the earliest divine generations (
Chaos and its children) and
Tiamat in the
Enuma Elish are possible (Joseph Fontenrose, Python: A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins: NY, Biblo-Tannen, 1974).
Jungian scholars such as
Karl Kerenyi have preferred to view the origin of myths in universal
archetypes. Though not all readers are confident of interpretations of myth in terms of
Carl Jung's psychology of dreams (by Kerenyi or
Campbell for examples), most agree that myths are dreamlike in two aspects: they are not consistent, perhaps not wholly consistent even within a single myth-element, and they often reflect some
epiphany which then must be assembled into a narrative thread, much as dreams are recreated as sequential happenings.
The origins of Greek mythology remain a fascinating and open question.
The Greeks' relationship to the myths
"Our own myths we call reality" is one of the axioms with which Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples commence The World of Classical Myth; to the Greeks, mythology was a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the
Trojan War in the
Iliad and
Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's descent from a mythological hero or a god.
Evolution of the myths
At the same time, the Greeks' construction of the gods changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture. For example, while myths about love relationships between male gods and male heroes do not appear before the middle of the Archaic period, starting around the last third of the seventh century such stories become more and more frequent. All the gods with the exception of
Ares eventually acquire pederastic beloveds, and so do many of the heroes, such as
Heracles. Previously existing myths of love between men, such as that of
Achilles and
Patroclus, are now cast in a pederastic light, giving rise to significant confusion over whom to make the erastes and whom the
eromenos. These developments were meant to legitimate the parallel development of
pedagogic pederasty, thought to have been introduced around
630 BCE.
Sophisticated Greeks experienced a cultural crisis in the
5th century BC, when increased literacy and the development of logic forced a more comparative skeptical turn of mind, a crisis of which
Socrates was the most famous victim.
On the other hand, a few radical philosophers like
Xenophanes were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the
6th century BC; this line of thought found its most sweeping expression in
Plato's
Republic and Laws. More sportingly, the 5th century BC
tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. In other cases Euripides seems to be directing pointed criticism at the behavior of his gods.
Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often adapted stories of characters in Greek myth in ways that did not reflect earlier actual beliefs. Many of the most popular versions of these myths that we have today were actually from these fictional retellings, which may blur the archaic beliefs.
Hellenistic rationalism
The skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced in the
Hellenistic era. Most daringly, the mythographer
Euhemerus claimed that stories about the gods were only confused memories of the cruelty of ancient kings. Although Euhemerus's works are lost, interpretations in his style are frequently found in
Diodorus Siculus.
Rationalizing
hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the
Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of
Stoic and
Epicurean philosophy, as well as the pragmatic bent of the Roman mind. The antiquarian
Varro, summarizing centuries' worth of philosophic tradition, distinguished three kinds of gods:
The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.
Cicero's De Natura Deorum is the most comprehensive summary of this line of thought.
Syncretizing trends
One unexpected side-effect of the rationalist view was a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. If
Apollo and
Serapis and
Sabazios and
Dionysus and
Mithras were all really
Helios, why not combine them all together into one
Deus Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes? The surviving
2nd century AD collection of
Orphic Hymns and
Macrobius's Saturnalia are products of this mind-set.
But though Apollo might in religion be increasingly identified with Helios or even Dionysus, texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.