Since the start of time nature’s song has resounded throughout creation. It is an eerie song, one of life and death, inextricable disorder and soothing serenity. Alone in the wilderness, accompanied only by life’s primordial symphony and the beating of his heart, however, the hymn took on a new and unquestionable form to primitive man. As the symphony echoed in early man’s ears, he interpreted only one thing, a song of uncertainty and helplessness. Primal man’s entire surroundings were a place of foreboding where behind every shadow there lay some new danger ready to make him his prey or a natural occurrence taunting his curiosity with mystery.

In a seemingly hostile world, mankind felt cold and desolate. Tortured by both unknown dangers and an instinctual curiosity, man yearned for answers. Thus in his search for answers and protection, man’s imagination transformed the predators in the shadows into beings he could relate with and made it clear that another being must had rattled the earth during the last earthquake. These ideas gave primitive man a sense of security and assurance, no longer were they torn apart by fears and daunting mysteries.

Despite the changes that took place as mankind developed advanced societies, the most profound change would not occur until the advent of large-scale city life. As man left the wilderness and abandoned his small hamlets for a life in the big city, his connection with nature became increasingly distant. The beliefs in the ‘animal-gods’ of their forefathers became increasingly foreign. Eventually the Greeks would come upon a great revelation, the greatness and perfection of mankind. No longer would man be the insignificant being before lurking menace in the shadows of wilderness, the tides had turned, light would be shed upon the shadows and he would prevail over all.

Where before the gods were a terrifying unpredictable force, now the gods and deities were shaped in the likeness of man. Moreover, the gods won human qualities and characteristics, they were no longer beings revered and honored out of fear but because of their human qualities and what transactions might be made between god and sacrificing man. The gods now connected with the community on the personal level, the populace could relate with their same troubles and thus the messages sent in stories of the gods could easily be understood. In addition, the more direct relationship between man and god allowed mythology to serve as a source of entertainment. While there is no doubt whether some stories were created as distractions from life’s troubles, the close man-god relationship created a larger amount and better understanding of pleasurable mythology. Consequently, came the development of literature, poetry and more influential and profound myths.

What Virgil felt was the one triumph his Empire lacked was its own epic, a tale embodying the Roman spirit, virtue and justifying its greatness. What Homer achieved for the Greeks with the Iliad and the Odyssey, so Virgil would do the same? He immediately set to work in his reacquire country estate at Mantua, Italy.

Part II: Prometheus and Io: A Lesson for us All

A crying woman may walk for hours through the streets of any one modern city and receive not one-piece consolation from any of the hundred passing by her. Amazingly, the majority of those same passerby’s have wished for something wonderful to occur to them i.e. winning the lottery. The message sent in Prometheus and Io was universal truth that we should be reminded of more often.

Some topics in this essay:
Shelter Unknown, Eventually Greeks, Oedipus Rex, Moreover Virgil, Iliad Odyssey, Io Tale, Roman Empire, Virgilius Maro’s, Northern Europe, Consequently Norse, prometheus io, seven thebes, sons pay sins, roman empire, gods deities, sons pay, sins fathers, triumph empire, house thebes, human qualities, antigone executed, pay sins fathers,