The Contributions Of Greek Mythology On The Modern World

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Introduction

“I think that we need mythology. We need a bedrock of story and legend in order to live our lives ‘coherently.” These words of Alan Moore perfectly describe mythology’s’ importance around the world of keeping people’s moral alive. Greek Mythology has been around for more than 2,700 years, and their unrealistic yet quite interesting, entertaining stories have been passed on and retold each in new and different versions. Even though the Greek Mythology stories are not realistically valuable, it is significant to understand the deeper meaning or lessons of the stories, and the contributions ancient Greece has provided to our modern world today.

In ancient Greece, stories about gods, goddesses, heroes and monsters were an essential part of everyday life. These myths were a major portion of ancient Greek culture because this was how they passed down lessons from generations to generation. Many of Greek Mythology stories explained the cause and the idea of the world, the lives, and exercises of gods, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and noteworthiness of the ancient Greeks religion and ritual practices; it gave meaning to the world people saw around them. At the center of the stories were mostly about the powerful Greek gods, like a significant Olympian, Zeus, the king of the gods. The stories even involved mortals who get involved with the gods leading to most tragic endings. For example, the myth about Pandora’s Box involved a god, Prometheus, who gave fire as a gift to mortals; Zeus, took vengeance by presenting Pandora, the first mortal woman, to Earth and giving her a box full of dread and misery if she opened it, and unfortunately the curiosity got the best of her and she released all the harsh things around the world. Pandora’s Box provided a theme that is that curiosity is a trait in humans that can most easily be, and is most often, their downfall like the saying “curiosity killed the cat.” Another example would be when Odysseus came home disguised as a beggar by the help of the goddess, Athena, to plot his revenge against the suitors. From Odysseus’ point of view as suitor he is able to learn who the loyal one remains and who treat him with disrespect; with the information he collects, Odysseus is able to plot his revenge, giving the suitors a gruesome death. Although in the story Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, treats “the beggar” with respect and nobility. Taken together, these story plot scenes illustrates and teaches people to be respectful and kind to whomever it may be, whether a king or a beggar.These myths were advised to people, and it helped them realize the difference between right and wrong. It helped them deal with how they ought to be modest and never think themselves eternal, or they may very well be refuted in the most terrible and inauspicious of ways. These myths show present-day individuals a look at how people thought in the past, what they thought about imperative, how their ethics worked, and so forth.

Greeks have made an essential contribution to education, olympics, philosophy, and art and architecture. Literature and theatre was an important aspect of Greek culture and influenced modern drama; Greek cuisine was another significant modern day influence of today’s society. Greeks have made many contributions especially to education like math and science. Such as the basic ideas of geometry and some of the astronomical ideas describing the planetary movement, Earth’s axis, and the heliocentric system. A famous physician Hippocrates established medical schools, he wrote many medical treatises, and because of his investigation of diseases and remedies, he is credited being the founder of modern medicine. Art, literature, and theatre were important in greek culture and ancient Greek society as of today. The performance of tragedy and comedy was majorly popular. Aeschylus, a playwright, was the first to introduce the idea of characters interacting with dialogue, theater devices, like irony, were exemplified in those works. Greek artists and architects created unique and beautiful designs on the distinctive buildings and structures that included temples, and theatres. Their perspective and distinctive designs of buildings would go on to influence architects in the Roman world significantly and provide the foundation for the classical architectural orders which would dominate the western world to the present day. Greek cuisine is even another influential factor of the greeks. Food such as gyros, souvlaki, baklava, lakma,and halva were eaten by the Greeks and are most popular today. The civilization of ancient Greece has been immensely influential to our modern day world and has shaped peoples aspect of life. The contributions go to the lengths of dominating most of our beliefs coming out to be foundational in Western culture in general. Scholar, architects, scientists, philosophers, and artists established the scholarly frameworks of numerous fields of study. Regardless of whether it be biology, medicine, engineering, astrology, or mathematics, mostly all of the significant information that we underestimate originates from ancient Greeks and their findings and creations.

All in all, Greek Mythology has played a vital role in contributing to our modern world today, even though we might not know it, it provided the different and traditional aspects of life. It is important for people to learn the origin of the lessons that we grasp onto and use everyday in our lives which is from the Greek myths or stories and the contributions such as astrology, architectural design, education, books, philosophy and a lot more which have had impacted our lives immensely today.

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