The era of the Greek gods began when Cronos ate his children, so that they would not defeat and kill him as Cronos’s father had done. Nevertheless, his fate was inevitable. Zeus, who Rheu hid from Cronos, grew old and strong enough to defeat his father and banish him to the depths of the underworld. The myths of the times of the gods began with murder and deception. This is the message that readers get out of mythology. Mythology, which promotes violence and strayed ideals, is present in most works of literature and greatly affects children.
Ares, the god of war, is known for causing trouble and leading to cruel ticks and violent deaths. In the book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, Ares stole Zeus’s lightning bolt to start a war so that he could gain more power, (Riordan, Ch. 15, 20). Ares is selfish, cruel and vindictive. The motto in these two chapters is to lie and cheat to get what you want. Blackmail is what leads to Ares and other mythological characters to power, that is how they got what they wanted. This is what mythology in literature is teaching children. It also teaches children that war and destroying others in your way is the path to power and greatness.
The society we live in today has had the very concepts of good and evil gelled to that from much of mythology, in which they were based on the gods and their archenemies, the demons. With this concept, many others follow, forming the broad basis on which ideal characteristics of human beings today are built on. (Side, Corrie et al.).
An example of good and evil in mythology would be Hades versus Zeus, brothers that hate each other and rule separate parts of the world. These are the characters and basis of mythology. Zeus banishes his brother, Hades, to stay in...
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...gh literary works read by children. In the end, these ideals and violent ideas influence the younger generation the more they read, even in books as simple as Fairy Tales and Narnia.
Works Cited
Bakay, Graig. “Dragon.” Pantheon.org. Encyclopedia Mythica Online, 25 July 1999. Web. 11 November 2013.
Beers, Kylene, et al. Elements of Literature. Vol 6. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2009. 2- 3. Print.
Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. New York: Scholastic Press, 2008. Print.
Donn, Lin. “Theseus and the Minotaur.” greece.mrdonn.org. N.p, n.d. Web. 11 November 2013.
Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. New York: Hyperion Books, 2005. Print
Side, Cory, et al. “The Age of Mythology.” Library.thinkquest.org. ThinkQuest, 2001. Web. 27 October 2013.
Upright, Morgan. “Narcissus.” Pantheon.org. Encyclopedia Mythica Online, 31 March 2004. Web. 11 November 2013.
The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. New York: Norton, 2013. 1471 - 1534 -.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Long ago, stories of gods, goddesses, heroes, and monsters in ancient Greece were essential to everyday life. Mythology is a culture’s collective rationalization of events, history, and super natural power. Myths are told to have originated in ancient Greece during but the concepts true source is unknown. Influences mythology has on Greeks and Romans include religion, history, art, and entertainment.
For many, good is much easier to explain than evil. Good can be seen as the right or desirable quality, and evil is the opposite. If a person does something that is seen as good, or desirable, it must be the right action for either themselves or others. If it is the right action for themselves, then each person, according to Plato, is doing a good act. A person will do what is right for them, or else it was not the right action for them. For Plato, evil is the ignorance of the right action. By being ignorant, and not consciously doing harmfu...
Since the beginning of time, fairy tales, stories and legends have shared a common theme where good and evil are played against each other. In the story of “Beowulf”, translated by, “Burton Raffel”, there is a hero who plays as a good character, and there is also a demon who rules the dark side. The hero Beowulf, agrees to take a journey to conquer the evil monster Grendel. But when Beowulf is trying to defeat the beast, Grendel fights back, causing integrity and generosity to vanish. The common theme in various tales like in Beowulf is, good vs. evil.
... other. Although Peter is considered evil and cruel, the novel never mentions him killing any human being. Ender is another perfect example of good and evil coexisting in one body though he is generally seen as good, he has his moments. Finally, Card expresses his thoughts on his theme of good versus evil with symbols that can describe the deception of looks; not all who look innocent are innocent, and not all those who look guilty are guilty. Good and evil lives within us however it is up to each individual person to decide which side of the fence they would rather be on: good or evil.
The myths which prove the contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
Ed. Laurence Behrens and Leonard J. Rosen. 10th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.610-612. Print.
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.
Roberts, Edgar V., Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, 4th Compact Edition, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2008, print
The gods in power, like Zeus, exhibit bias, dishonor, betrayal, deception, and many other humanly characteristics. One memorable scene is when Zeus and Poseidon are in conflict with each other over the Achaens versus the Trojans. Zeus controls the battle by “lifting the famous runner Achilles’ glory higher,” (Homer 13: 404). Zeus plays both sides in this scene, acting like a double agent which is dishonorable. Zeus’s bias is prevalent throughout the poem; specifically, he is “bent on wiping out the Argives, down to the last man,” (Homer 12: 81-82). Just like mortals such as Agamemnon and Achilles view each other with suspicion and intolerance, the gods experience identical emotions of wariness, anger, and irritation. This human-like behavior is not restricted to Zeus. Later in the text, Hera lies to Aphrodite to use her powers to manipulate her own husband Zeus. If one looks at Hera as a heavenly entity, her reaction may not make sense, but when it is viewed as a manifestation of human emotion, it become almost reasonable. Her scheming response to Zeus’s meddling with the war is spurred by her support for the Trojans. Hera’s manipulation and Aphrodite’s ego don’t stand alone as examples of this divine humanity. These instances suggest that the deities are being presented in this unique way to help explain behavior of the humans in The
Wicked, dishonorable, corrupt, villainous, malicious, and vicious all have one thing in common: they define evil. A person or a group of people that display these qualities are often to be defined as evil beings or creatures. Two people that have many of these characteristics developed within them are Iago from Shakespeare’s Othello and Lucifer from the Bible. Both Iago and Lucifer are developed with many “evil” qualities woven intricately into their character development. The representation of each “evil” characteristic gives them something they have in common allowing the description and portrayal of both Iago and Lucifer in literature show the audience they share common “evil” characteristics and that they lead to chaos and downfall.
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family.
Myths are explored and alluded to in all kinds of art forms. The tales of greek gods and heroes being echoed down through literature and art throughout the ages. These myths are even portrayed in poetry, as seen in Natasha Trethewey’s “Myth” and W. H. Auden’s “Musèe des Beaux Arts.” “Myth” makes a quick allusion to Erebus, part of the underworld in Greek mythology, while Auden’s poem references the story of Icarus, the boy who flew too close to the sun. The use of myths in both poems help to strengthen the message that the poem is giving, one by using it as a metaphor, while the other compares it to the concept that incidents do not affect everybody the same way.