Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [87]
There is, however, another reality reflected in the story of Greece and its myths. More than in any other ancient culture, the mythic tradition in Greece is a grand story in which, in the words of Voltaire, “men passed from barbarism to civilization.” The Greek poets and playwrights reshaped and recast the brooding, violent ancient stories of feuding, spiteful gods and flawed heroes into the poetic epics and drama of an emerging social order that profoundly influenced Western civilization. The Greek myths permeated the Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer, which form the core of the Western literary tradition. Also based largely in the Greek mythic traditions were the great Greek dramas, highlighted by the three playwrights of the Athenian Golden Age—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, whose works have influenced writers for more than 2,500 years and are still staged around the world.
Before the “Greek Miracle”—as this extraordinary period of cultural and social ferment is called—sculpture in such places as Egypt and Mesopotamia mostly showed stiff, unapproachable gods and kings, often on a monumental scale. But in the hands of Greek sculptors, the divine became human, for example, in the form of a discus thrower perfectly frozen in action. On pottery and vases, Greek painters depicted not only the gods and heroes, but ordinary women of delicacy and beauty serving food and drinks. (They also made an art of obscenely painted drinking cups, of a sort not usually displayed in modern museums, portraying the popular wine-and-sex parties called symposia. But that’s another story.)
Greek architects created a classical sense of scale and beauty still considered the standard for great and important buildings. These poets, playwrights, and sculptors transformed Greek arts, and in doing so, changed the basic view of humanity, elevating the human form to the nearly divine.
At the same time, their philosophers and early scientists, rooted in the same ancient ideas of gods and religion, pushed the envelope of what human reason could discern. In this Greece, humanity was no longer helplessly trapped in a world in which people existed to serve the gods. At this unique moment in human history, the gods were glorified. But the Greeks also realized that, as the philosopher Protagoras put it, “Man is the measure of all things.”
That was the glory of Greece.
Where did the Greeks get their myths?
Two of the most famous goddesses in Greek myth make their debuts on the mythical stage as fully formed and perfect adults—one usually naked, and the other in battle armor. Aphrodite—you know, the one on the half-shell—is the goddess of love, and she emerges full-blown from the sea, au naturel but with strategically placed long locks, in one of the most famous artistic depictions of her birth. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, is born in full battle regalia, emerging from the head of her father Zeus when another god hits him on the head with an ax.
People seem to have the same idea about Greek myths—that somehow, they were created full-blown, in just the form we know them today, crafted from the genius of some anonymous poet or philosopher. But ancient myths, as their history in Egypt and Mesopotamia prove, aren’t that simple. Over the course of centuries, myths are invented, told, and then start to travel. As they make the rounds, they are borrowed, reshaped, and retold—often to fit a very local agenda. Like old wine in new bottles, or reality shows that originate in England and get picked up by American networks, ancient myths sometimes resurfaced with a different name and a changed face. It was no different in Greece, where the origins of the myths—and the religion they spawned—serve as a fascinating reflection of Greek history.
Recent discoveries from the worlds of archaeology and literature make it clear that what