Hurray for this Topic of the Week. Greek Mythology happens to be the one class that I am taking right now. Fun stuff, those wacky Greeks. I’d advise people to take a course on Greek Mythology. Well, that being said, what does one right that is progressive when you’re looking at Greek Mythology? I suppose I could talk about the influence it has on us today. I suppose I could tie it in to my favorite blogging topic and do a little rant about religion, but have no fear; I won’t waste anyone’s time with that, not exactly. No, what I’m going to talk about is the progression of the Greek world from Chaos to Order.’
I’m talking gods here. That’s the whole ‘not exactly’ bit. If I’m discussing Greek Gods, I guess I’m discussing Greek religion. Whatever, I won’t linger any longer.
Chaos, maybe the first god. But not much is known about him/her/it if he/she/it was an early god. We know that they felt that everything came out of Chaos. These were the early gods, the Titans. They were still a pretty chaotic bunch. Forceful, wild gods. This is the situation when the Olympians show up. Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia (no one cares today because she was a minor god when it came to myths) and Hades. They fight the Titans with help from some monsters and a couple of turn-coat titans, Epimetheus and Prometheus, mainly. These gods are more orderly than the Titans. Tamer, if you will. They overthrow the Titans and bring order to the world.
Skip forward. The latest god added to the Pantheon is Apollo. He is an orderly god. He’s the god, among other things, of Law and Order. He’s a math god and a music god. Anything ordered and Apollo has his hands in it. The Greeks, being a smart people on the whole, have a problem with this. If you have this god that is the god of order in the Universe, then, well, why is everything still so chaotic?
The answer, of course, is another god. Enter, Dionysus. Bacchus. Whatever you want to call him. Well, you might ask, what does Dionysus have to do with this? I mean, sure wine makes you crazy, but surely that can’t be the source of all chaos in the Universe. Well, Dionysus only became attributed almost exclusively with wine later on. Dionysus is a chaotic god. He was a god of nature, wild beasts, blood, water, (yes) booze. Passion. Foolishness. Irrationality. Madness. Illusion. All of these things are attributes of Dionysus.
So, why is this important? How is it progressive? What am I trying to say with all this? I guess that my point is that we may want to take a page out of the book of ancient Greece. No, I don’t think we ought to worship Dionysus, but I do think that people should be more willing to acknowledge the unpredictable side of life. We shouldn’t always try and make sure that things are ordered. We should allow ourselves to, sometimes, come face to face with chaos. We should allow ourselves to experience it instead of shying away. And, since I think it likely I’ll continue repeating myself at this point, I think I shall end the blog.
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Your telling of the Greek Creation-of-the-Gods story is highly flawed.
Chaos, somehow, begot Gaea (earth) and Uranus (sky). The two got busy and somehow, 12 Titans, 3 Cyclopes, and then 3 fifty-headed, 100 handed, disfigured sons. The Cyclopes were set to work making Thunder, Lighting, and Thunderbolts (coincidentally, their names...). The Disfigured children were cast into Tartarus. The 6 Titans and 6 Titanesses paired off, married, and were happy. Gaea was mad at Uranus for casting out her sons (the Disfigured ones), so she spoke with Cronus and told him to slay Uranus. He does, with a sickle, and Uranus falls to Earth and lands in the ocean (where Aphrodite arises).
After all that, Rhea and Cronus then beget 6 children: Hestia, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades, Hera, and Zeus. And we know that Cronus ate the first 5 and Zeus was, in fact, the youngest. You know the rest, but I can't be sure of the order, I'll assume you're correct.
The Titans actually ruled pretty decently; It was Cronus that was so terrible. But when Zeus took power, he took it from all the Titans, only 2 of which didn't care: Prometheus and Epimethius (because Prometheus knew Zeus was going to win...the wimp). Zeus locked up the other 3 Titans (They lose Cronus when he flees after surrendering to Zeus, and since 2 are in good favor, 6-1-2 = 3) in Tartarus, and everything relaxes.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
I know all that. However, it wasn't relavant to the point I was making and I felt I didn't have a need to be even more long-winded and lecturey.
Actually, the mother of Prometheus and Epimetheus also helped Zeus, but no one cares about her and I can't remember her name. Some moon of Jupiter or Saturn, probably.
Hestia, I think is the oldest, beyond that I'm not sure about the order of birth.
I'm not saying the titans were terrible, with the exception of Cronus, but they were more chaotic than the Olympians, which is the point.
I wouldn't say Prometheus is a total wimp. He does endure having an eagle eat his liver for 13 generations until Heracles saves him.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."
Friedrich Nietzsche
I think that if you're going to explain Hellenic mythology, you need to do it all our or not at all.
The Mother of Prometheus and Epimetheus was named Clymene, but she was a daughter of some Oceanid.
I think you're right on Hestia, but I know that Hates is older than Poseidon is older than Zeus. For positive.
The Titans, ironically enough, ruled during what the Greeks called the "Golden Ages," so I can't see how terrible or chaotic they would be.
I would say he is a wimp. He picks the winning side. And then he is chained to the mountain, unable to brake the the chains, and, well, wimp. He has no choice but to hang out on that mountain side. He is stuck. Father of man, he may be, but I am glad to be made of stone.
Nicholas Aden
Self-Promotion
It was a little rushed, but I felt I should make my point fairly quickly.
The titans represented an unordered world. That doesn't necessarily mean bad. I think it was the golden age because man hadn't invented war yet. The golden age did extend into the age of the Olympians, as I recall, but then Prometheus brought us fire, so Zeus punished humanity with the curse of woman-kind...... and all that stuff in the box.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Very true. :)
What these stories tell us about this religion (which, it was a religion before people began casting it off as "myth") is the very different attitude people used to have about life.
During these times, people viewed their Gods as all-encompasing; they were basically immortal humans with strengths and weaknesses, capable of miracles and destruction. They weren't viewed as "Good" or "Evil" per se... rather they acted in their own interests and in some cases felt what we don't attribute to God/s today, that is regret, remorse, or guilt.
This changed (obviously) as we now separate "good" and "evil" and view "God" as being above humans in everyway - including accountability.
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"when you have nothing else to say, "Fwonk" is always the perfect thing."
"yeah well, fwonk"
--Devon
Fanaile Essence,
A-Team Member
I think the most interesting difference between modern religion and Greek religion is that the Greeks didn't think it wrong to portray the gods in plays or poetry or whatever, and it could be in a negative way.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."
Friedrich Nietzsche
Definitely!
This difference implies the level of importance that religion actually played in these people. It was so engrained into their lives that it's hard to separate their religion from other cultural-defining aspects.
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"when you have nothing else to say, "Fwonk" is always the perfect thing."
"yeah well, fwonk"
--Devon
Fanaile Essence,
A-Team Member
I think that it also sort of shows an acceptance of the importance of humans, which wasn't very high. How could your portrayal of the gods offend them? As long as you keep the sacrifices and whatnot going, they're fine.
"A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything."
Friedrich Nietzsche