Greeks Essay, Research Paper

People from all different regions of the earth talk about ?the Greek miracle.? A period in time when a new outlook on the world came about. A common phrase in used to describe this ?Old things are passed away; behold all things are become new?(Hamilton 78). Why it happened, or when, people have no idea. The only conclusion people can make from this would be a new point of view dawned; new ideas were brought forth never thought of before them. With this new miracle mankind became the center of the universe the most important thing it(Osborne134). ? In Greece man first realized what mankind was?

People do not know when Greek dramas and myths were first told in their present shape, but whenever it was primitive life had been left far behind?.

The stories we read tell us what the people of ancient Greece thought about their world. They believed there were many Gods and that those Gods controlled the universe. For example, Zeus, the greatest god, was in charge of the weather, thunder and lighting. When it thundered, the ancient Greeks thought Zeus was at work.

The ancient Greeks believed that all of nature- trees and mountains and rivers and rocks, either was or contained gods and goddesses. Many stories explained nature. If the pattern of particular stars in the sky looked like a horse, people told a story about a bull that had been placed in the sky long before. An example of this would be when the Greeks were unaware of the tilting of the earth and it rotation, so Greeks came up with another explanation of why the seasons change. The story of Demeter and Persephone filled this particular gap. In the case of Demeter and Persephone, a story about a mother?s grief over her missing daughter satisfies not only the scientific question but also your curiosity.

The ancient Greeks also believed that the gods and goddesses were not very different from human beings, they were just like another family. Zeus was the father, and Hera queen of gods, women marriage and childbirth was the mother. Mount Olympus home of the gods seem to modern day and ancient theater were a large cast of characters preformed drama. The Greeks though, believed that these characters really existed and influenced human lives. Often myths talk about how gods even married human beings and became the fathers and mothers of humans. An example would be Zeus and Leda how produced Helen, one of the ancient world?s greatest beauties the persons who abduction triggered the Trojan War.

The Greeks were a deeply religious people with many of their myths serving a religious function. Most of the time it had an obvious consequence that showed the Greek?s concerns with the nature and actions of the gods and the way they relate to the human race. Nearly every aspect in nature and human life fell under the category of one or more gods or goddesses. When Greeks offered up sacrifices to the gods, they burned the bones of the slaughtered animals while saving the meat for themselves. They practiced this religious rite from the myth of the first sacrifice. When Prometheus reserved the meat for humans and gave the gods the bones and fat. Some myths led to the development of particular religious rituals and practices. Some even gave rise to the birth of cults. The myth of Demeter, and the importance of the goddesses of the harvest in the day-to-day lives of the ancients gave rise to Eleusinian- a mystery religion. Mystery religions were secret cults in both Greece and Rome that offered religious experiences that the more established, officially sanctioned religious practices could not offer. The Dionysian cults, the Orphic cults, and the Eleusinian Mysteries were all mystery religions in ancient Greece. People in theses secret cults would seek spiritual fulfillment through mysterious ceremonies, rituals, religious feats and dances. Activities that would strengthen the bonds within the cult (Osborn 78).

Each Greek city was normally under the protection of one or more individual gods who were worshipped with special emphasis, as, for example, Athens and the goddess Athena. While many sanctuaries honored more than a single god, usually one god such as Zeus at Olympia or a closely linked pair of gods like Demeter and her daughter Persephone at Eleusis dominated the cult place. Elsewhere in the arts, various painted scenes on vases, and stone, terracotta and bronze sculptures portray the major gods and goddesses. The gods are depicted either by themselves or in traditional mythological situations in which they interact with humans, gods and legendary characters.

They worshipped many gods whom they believed appeared in human form and yet were capable of superhuman strength and never-ending beauty. The Iliad and the Odyssey, our earliest surviving examples of Greek literature, record men’s interactions with these various gods and goddesses whose characters and appearances underwent little change in the centuries that followed. The Greeks attributed these epic narratives to Homer. Know body really knows just when Homer lived but people believe that his parents were Greek and that he lived and wrote in ?Ionia?. Also that he might or might not of been blind(Pearson 97).