Myths are entertaining stories; they cover the basis from Heroin adventures, tales of heroism, passionate love stories, Monsters, Gods and much more. In their time myths would serve many important functions for the society and culture that believed in them. Myths attempt to explain the unanswerable questions to provide reasons that things are the way they are. Classical myths are terrific entertaining stories, the most common are of the Greek and Romans. For the ancients, they had a religious significance. They explain the creation of the universe, the condition of the natural and social words, the authenticity of Kings or the beginning of religious rituals.
Myths had various functions in society, one of them was religious function, and stories that concern themselves with the nature and actions of Gods and the way they relate to the human race. The myth would inform the Romans and the Greeks which Gods they should petition for specific types of help. Some Gods were Goddess Hestia, for the safety of house and family. Athena, for wisdom and courage, Demeter for an abundant harvest and Zeus for Justice and military might.
Myths, also explore all aspects of life. Love can be painful as in the night of Echo and Narcissus, both Echo and Narcissus remain solitary tragic figures, cursed with loneliness and tormented by a love they can never have. Myths can serve to justify or validate social standing or political power in the world. The Romans for example used mythology to establish lineage for the rulers. Roman myths showed their line of Kings and later emperors to be descended not only form great heroes, but from the gods themselves.
The Term Paper on Of Gods And Romans
History of the Roman Republic/Empire October 27, 2000 Of Gods and Romans The Romans during the time of their Republic relied on their advanced technology, social structure, leadership and politics to achieve as much as they did. To these people, their gods affected all of these factors and the relationships mankind had with them. The contractual relationship between mankind and the gods involved ...
The cosmological function of myths is to help us understand more fully who we are, Questions like who am I? How am I to conduct my self, where am I going? How can I best serve this world? The shaman was the one person that you could go to get answers to things that where unknown. Most of the time he was the old wise man that knew a lot, he was like a teacher to the people, his role was a mediator between people and spirits, they were historians they kept most of the stories and happenings of the community and would pass them on the future generations. Today this person is called a Scientist, they play that same role they give us answers to the unknown and they keep records of it and pass on to future generation and They continue to find more answers for us because we evolve as questioning beings always looking for answers. Every culture has a myth of creation.
They try to explain the beginning of all things, where they originated from # 1 being the universe. To the Greeks the universe began with a mystery. The physical world was not born from nothing. Instead it sprang from the unknown from Chaos. Chinese cosmic egg story, when the divine ancestor Pan Gu had grown inside the shell for 18, 000 years, the egg exploded in two parts, the light half forming the heavens the dark half forming the earth.
In the Me ori creation myth, the world began when two creator beings, Range the male sky and Papa the female earth broke apart from their immobile embrace in the void and assumed their opposed and complementary positions in the cosmos.