Mythology Essay, Research Paper

Mythology

Every race of humans and most cultures believed in a myth or type of myth at one time. Sometimes a myth can be something small like a teacher who?s said to be an alien. Yet some are quite big and still believed in today like the loch ness monster. Myths have been around since the beginning of time and will be there to the end. All of us no one, and we?ve all told one.

Probably the biggest myth of all that was believed in by two different cultures was that of Greek and Roman mythology. The list of gods go on and on, to name few I?d have to say Zeus, Artemis, Atlas, Athena, Cronus, Hera, Rhea, Hermes, Hades, and the god of the sea, Poseidon. In Roman myth they just changed the names to names like Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Pluto, and Uranus. There was also

Demo-gods who were half-man half-god; these were usually heroes like Hercules and Achilles.

The strongest of these gods was Zeus who wielded the mighty thunderbolt. He was the king of the gods. His wife was originally his sister and her name is Hera. She was the goddess of birth.

Some of the most told Greek stories were these as I found out in the book Greek and Roman Mythology from A to Z. They told the story of Atlas, doomed to hold the sky forever (21). Medusa, if you looked at her you turned to stone (77). Yet some of the most popular stories were of Zeus and his love affairs which all together he had thirteen (125).

Scandinavia had many myths as well called Norse mythology. I learned from the book Norse Gods and Giants that According to them Ymir the

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Frost giant was the first living thing (1). After that men grew from his fur during his sleep. Odin was their leader (14). He rode and eight-legged horse and claimed that the frost giants are evil and therefore should be destroyed (154). Odin had a son named Thor, he was the strongest of the Norse gods. They called Thor the god of thunder and sometimes the hammer thrower.

Unlike Greek and Roman myth the Norse gods did not meddle in human affairs. Most stories of gods didn?t include humans. When there was a story of a great hero the gods were not involved almost at all.

Most myths have been proven to be false but some still exist today. They were improved on by some cultures at times but eventually they faded away because most never really believed in them in the first place. We study them to get a feel for what it was like for that culture at the time and the way people acted. Myth?s still exist but does not play the role it once did.

Bibliographies

1.Rosen, Donna. World Mythology

Chicago: National Textbook

Company, 1986.

2.O? Flaherty, Wendy D. Hindu Myths

Aylesbury Bucks, England: Penguin

Books, 1975.

3.Ions, Veronica. Indian Mythology

New York: Peter Bedrick

Books, 1984.

4.D?Aulaires. Norse gods and giants New

York: Double day, 1986.

5.Daly, Kathleen, N. Greek and Roman

Mythology A to Z New York: Facts

On File, 1992.