Ancient Myths Research Paper

Humanity Through the Eyes of Ancient Mythmakers
Myth-making was the world’s earliest form of literary story-telling. Specific to the ancient myths we have been discussing, a common theme has been man’s relationship with the gods, and the origins of suffering in humanity. We see this in the Hebrew Scriptures with Genesis, and in the two stories by Hesiod we have covered: “Work and Days,” and “Theogony.” During this time, many people had a pessimistic view of the world. This shows in these two works as they ponder questions such as: “are people good?”, “are we meant to be slaves to the gods?”, and “what happens when people do not do as the gods expect?” Through their answers these questions, we can formulate an idea of their views on humanity as a whole. For the most part, these views generally consist of a morbid outlook on life, consisting of working for the gods unconditionally, and accepting suffering as a part of
With the fall of Adam and Eve we begin to see the transition in the way man views God, humanity, and life as a whole. The couple is banished from Eden, a utopian garden and sent forth to live lives filled with hard work and anguish. Examples of this are man’s punishment: being put to hard, physical work, and women’s punishment: being forced to endure child labor and subordination under their husbands. These examples represent the trials of everyday life beginning to take form. With the eating of the forbidden apple, original sin was born. We see this idea of sin escalate with Cain’s killing of his brother Abel. Cain does this in response to God praising Abel. A form of showing love and affection for one of creations. Rooted in jealousy this murder angered the Hebrew Scripture God. Again we see God not happy with his creations, we see the idea of us not being good enough for him. A series and ups and downs becomes evident. Up being God looking upon us fondly, down being God looking down upon us, instilling