In Greek myth stories there are going to be many themes/characteristics that appear in the stories each making it connect to other myths and being unique to itself. Some myths have the same themes and many other themes that set them apart. The three themes expressed in this writing are love, bravery and disrespect, the myths that are talked about are Perseus, Herakles and Medusa. The theme love is expressed in the Medusa and the Herakle myth stories. Before Medusa turned ugly she was once a lovely girl who had a boyfriend she dearly loved, they were so intensely in love that they went out of there way to find somewhere to express their feelings to each other. “They went into a temple of the goddess Athena. Seeing that nobody else was there, …show more content…
Perseus was a brave person who cared for his mom (Danae) and would do anything to protect her. Perseus was a brave man because he took up the difficult quest of killing Medusa, he was given items from several gods to aid him in his journey of defeating Medusa and he did along with two other sisters of Medusa. Bravery in the Medusa myth was quite strange, before she was turned ugly she was brave in a silly way. Medusa and her boyfriend were brave enough to enter Athena's temple in which they did acts that were discouraged and resulted in Medusa initially turning ugly. “Athena, looking down from the sky, saw them, and she was very angry that they would use her temple this way. She made Medusa grow very ugly, and have snakes instead of hair”(Myth 2). This silly bravery resulted in Medusa becoming ugly and shows that from different experiences bravery can be represented both good and …show more content…
Disrespect shows up in the Harakles myth when Zeus actually has a child with another woman named Alcmene while he was married to the goddess Hera. Hera felt disrespected because Zeus was her husband and she didn’t want him to have children with other women so she tried to get at their child Hercules but it seemed impossible because of how strong he was. Disrespect in the Perseus myth is a bit different, Perseus's mom Danae is a widow and has not married anyone else since the first king that is introduced who was killed. The new king on a different land actually tried to marry Danae but Danae did not want to so he tried to force her to marry him after he sent Perseus away on a quest. “This king wanted to get rid of Perseus for awhile so he could make Dane marry him”(Myth 3). The king does not show respect to Danae and would later try to make Danae marry him while Perseus was gone, maybe through assault or
As one of the most well known ancient Roman love poets, Ovid has demonstrated bountiful talents within his writing. When reading myths from his book titled Metamorphoses, you gain an enlightening insight of how he viewed mythology. To Ovid, love was the origin of everything. Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that most of his poems relate to the theme of love. However, not all poets are the same and every re-telling of a myth has its own unique perspective. In this paper I will compare and contrast the myth of Medea in Euripides Medea and Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 7. I will then explain how Ovid’s approach to love and loss correlate to his general approach to myth as a whole. I will support my belief with evidence from Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 14.
In classical Greek literature the subject of love is commonly a prominent theme. However, throughout these varied texts the subject of Love becomes a multi-faceted being. From this common occurrence in literature we can assume that this subject had a large impact on day-to-day life. One text that explores the many faces of love in everyday life is Plato’s Symposium. In this text we hear a number of views on the subject of love and what the true nature of love is. This essay will focus on a speech by Pausanius. Pausanius’s speech concentrates on the goddess Aphrodite. In particular he looks at her two forms, as a promoter of “Celestial Love” as well as “Common Love.” This idea of “Common Love” can be seen in a real life context in the tragedy “Hippolytus” by Euripides. This brings the philosophical views made by Pausanius into a real-life context.
Throughout the Odyssey there are many themes that Homer uses to portray different people and events. To name a few, there are the themes of Betrayal and Revenge,Greed and Glutony, Hospitality, Role of the Gods and Wealth (the amount of money one had determined the status he held in the greek society, and this explains Odysseus's love for plunder).
The story of Medusa and Perseus is known as one of the top thriller tales in Greek Mythology. To begin, Medusa is one of three sisters, Sthenno and Euryale. However, she is the only mortal one. Originally, Medusa had golden, long, beautiful hair. She was Athena’s Priestess and swore to a celibate life. Later on, Medusa met Poseidon, fell in love with him and completely forgot about her vows to Athena. The Goddess Athena was so infuriated that she turned Medusa into a hideous looking monster. Her golden locks became venomous snakes and her face became so grotesque that any God or immortal to look into her eyes would become a statue of stone. Athena did this so Medusa would not attract any man. The same came for her sisters because Poseidon
Can a simple emotion such as love be regarded as one of the greatest weapons to create or attain power? It’s a renowned fact that human beings are by nature designed to need, crave, and even require love as part of their survival mechanisms. It comes to no surprise that one of the first accounts of antique poetry maintains love and the craving for it as its main theme; thereby, reinforcing the deep importance that it upholds in the lives of many individuals. Sappho’s “Deathless Aphrodite” clearly epitomizes the suffering and bitterness that arises from an unrequited love. In Sappho’s case, which portrays the case of many, she constantly finds herself in loneliness and despair for though she tries repeatedly, she is only let down recurrently as no one reciprocates the love she gives. It is only the Greek goddess Aphrodite, who holds
Love is often misconstrued as an overwhelming force that characters have very little control over, but only because it is often mistaken for the sum of infatuation and greed. Love and greed tread a blurred line, with grey areas such as lust. In simplest terms, love is selfless and greed is selfish. From the agglomeration of mythological tales, people deduce that love overpowers characters, even that it drives them mad. However, they would be wrong as they would not have analyzed the instances in depth to discern whether or not the said instance revolves around true love. Alone, true love help characters to act with sound reasoning and logic, as shown by the tales of Zeus with his lovers Io and Europa in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology.
They had similar beliefs, but also immeasurable differences. It was composed of many meaningful gods and goddesses that all played a part in the everyday life of the average Roman and Greek person of that time.
He completed the impossible task for a mortal of killing Medusa but he had some negative characteristics to him still. He was easily swayed by Polydectes to go on the mission to kill Medusa in the first place, which could have gotten him killed. Perseus was also oblivious of what Polydectes’s plan was to get rid of him so he can be with his mother, Danaë. Even though Perseus had some poor traits, his impressive traits, like his quickness, intelligence, and bravery, over powered the negative. Others can find a flawed hero like Perseus inspirational because he did not let his non-perfect traits hold him back, according to the text, ”Now, indeed, Perseus had a good reason to hope.”
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered as a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies or music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being.
Perseus grew up to be a strong fearless lad. One day he claimed to King Polydectes, “Oh, Host and Benefactor, I owe you too much gratitude to repay you with the common gift of a horse. I shall bring you the head of Medusa!”(Evslin.110) Perseus set off for his mission, he encountered the gray sisters and the apple nymphs forcing them to give him information about Medusa’s location. Then he went to Medusa with three gifts from the apple nymphs: a sword, a shield, and the Cap of Darkness. Successfully Perseus killed Medusa and while bringing Medusa’s head towards the island of Sephiros. He encountered a sea serpent who was creating trouble by the nearby town of Cepheus. Perseus drew out Medusa’s head and turned the sea serpent into stone. Throughout Perseus’s mission he encountered many obstacles and he handled each challenge in a smart and clever way, unlike King
These two stories also give a perception of Greek morals, ideologies, values and much more. Even though these two tragedies may be entirely different the two have many major themes in common, fate and justice. The themes of fate and justice are not only portrayed in these two stories, but in nearly all Greek mythology. Oresteia is a
The Classical mythology contains tales and epics of the ancient Greek and roman literatures and myths. On the other hand, Homer’s two epic poems, the Iliad relates to the events of the Trojan War while the Odyssey details Odysseus expedition after the war. Homer’s epic poems, the Odyssey and the Iliad present a major part of ancient history as modern fictional heroic stories. In ancient Greek, heroes were humans who were depicted to possess superhuman abilities. A key example in the classical mythology is Akhilles who is later known in Homer’s Iliad as Achilles. Achilles is he greatest hero of the Iliad whereas Odysseus is the greatest hero of the Odyssey. The greatest heroes from classic mythology and the modern fictional hero’s stories are mortal, and subject to death. The Odyssey and the Iliad marks the beginning of modern fictional literature.
In the Bible and Greek Mythology both were the believe of us to God(s). In biblical stories, christians believe that the lord God created the world; he created birds, animals, and humans. Similarly, in Greek mythology, Zeus and his forces established the mount olympus to be there Eden, and he ordered to create all alive things in earth, even though he doesn’t want mortals, but the mortals still appears. Therefore, Biblical stories and Greek mythology have many similarities, both have the stories of the creation of human. In particular, the three examples that have the closest similarities are The Creation of woman, How god's punish those who don’t worship them and reward those who worship them. and The Kingdom of God.
The theme of love is a very general theme. One way of love that Perrault
First off, Perseus is a great hero throughout greek mythology. He slayed the mighty Medusa. But some may say since Perseus only killed Medusa, while heroes such