MYTHOLOGY
Mythology has had lasting effects on the influence of our society in numerous ways. Western Culture has a relationship to its parent Greek and Roman culture. Mythology contains the basic questions the western civilization has been posing for more than two thousand years. The fantasy element of mythology allows for flexible learning. Though out history there have been many attempts to explain the cultures in the universe. Nearly every individual has his or her own perception of what our universe is. Now in the modern times we live in, advanced scientific knowledge has led us to the assumption that we have a trustworthy grasp on how the universe works. Language, chemistry and physics, along with mathematics, make up the science we use to prove the questions of the universe. Any person educated in these fields will state they know our universe. A person in any of these fields has had to touch base with the origins of the universe. When we examine past cultures as far back as history will allow us, we are forced to recognize the symbolic similarities in language, ideologies, and heroism. I will reveal to you some of these similarities in regarding to our modern language, present ideologie
You can see through these examples we have carried the personalities of mythological characters through out our definitions of modern day English. Much of the modern day scientific discoveries have carried on the meaning behind traditional myths. The myths and sages we can read about hold powerful traditional stories that cultures have used and have passed down to unfold their own explanation of the universe a couple of thousand years before there were the theories of science. We now have created what some would consider to be a modern day myth of god creating the world in seven days and thus creating a world of science for us to explore. The myths we read of with the Titans has its own explanations for the creation of the universe. The Titans in myths are the family of giants born of Uranus and Gaea and who rule the earth until overthrown by the Olympian Gods. Though our imagination struggles to even begin to believe these myths we use them in relation to our modern day happenings with each other every day. ****************************************** We acquire these names and symbols from the mythological stories we hear about now. Let us come to a clear understanding of what the words myth and mythology mean today. Webster’s Dictionary has this: The collected body or system of the traditions or legends of people in which are embodied in their beliefs concerning their origin, gods, heroes, etc.; the science of myths; a treatise on myths. Webster says a myth is a legend; poetic fiction; a fabulous narrative founded on some event; especially in the early existence of people, and embodying their gods, natural phenomena. The terms myth and mythological often carry with them negative or untrue meanings. We tend to use the name of characters from myths as words in our modern vocabulary in relation to the character’s personality for definition. Take Tantalus for example, he was an immortal character who that fed his son to the gods and in return was sent to Hades where he was placed in a pool of water up to his neck, and fruits hung from a tree above him out of his reach. Tantalus was punished with always having his food slightly above his lips and water just out of his tongue’s reach. We now know the word ‘tantalize’ in our vocabulary carrying the meaning of keeping in sight but out of reach. In myth, Mnemosyne was the goddess of memory. We now use the word mnemonics to refer to the study of memory. Then there was Hypnos, who was the god of sleep, relating to the word hypnosis we use to mean a sleep like state. The echo in our vocabulary means the repetition of sound, when read in myths Echo refers to the character who could only repeat the last word. AT LAST there is the character Atlas would held the world on his shoulders, and we use Atlas to refer to a book of maps. Odyssey meaning an adventure or journey comes from the classical Greek myth by Homer, the Odyssey. The hero Odysesseus is returning from the Trojan War, it takes him nine long years, where along the way he has a multitude of adventures, from the Lotus Eaters to Cyclops.
Some topics in this essay:
Olympian Gods,
Webster’s Dictionary,
Greek Roman,
Persian Wars,
Pluto God,
Trojan War,
King Midas,
Saturn Prometheus,
Scylla Charybdis,
Harpies Harpies,
planet sun,
modern day,
scylla charybdis,
mythological characters,
language ideologies heroism,
universe person,
ideologies heroism,
language ideologies,
names symbols,
science explore,
caught scylla charybdis,
myth god,
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Approximate Word count = 2197
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)
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