Anthropomorphism in Greek Myth
Paper #1: The role of anthropomorphism in Greek mythology.
"God created man in his image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment."
-Mark Twain
In his beginning, man was part of nature. He knew little about the causes of natural phenomenon and certainly knew of no way to control them. This is perhaps the reason for his creation of ritual and later religion. As man evolved he began to consider the possibilities of gaining some type of control over his environment. If nature was simply a random set of events ruled only by chaos than this wouldn't be possible. However, if something or better yet someone was in control, one could acquire what they desired by pleasing this entity. In the beginning, according to some theories, man worshiped many deities. These deities were usually assigned to a specific aspect of nature such as the sun, wind, or darkness. It seemed to them that at times the sun was presenting the humans with the gift of light, and warmth while other times it hid. The wind at times was soft and cooled the region, and others it was fierce and deadly. Darkness seemed somewhat evil; it was mysterious and brought about other animals and sounds. Humans, while complex, are still limited in what they can understand. What is easy for them to comprehend is that of which they are; their emotions, their actions, their personalities. By assigning nature human characteristics, it was then understandable. This personification of nature eventually evolved into the creation of deities. These deities continued to posses the human characteristics assigned to their "nature" counterparts. This practice of assigning human characteristics to non-human entities is called anthropomorphism. The Greeks took this humanism to a whole new level by adding more complexity to the characters. Through their myths they assigned emotion, personality, lineage and history to the gods. This use of anthropomorphism in Greek myth serves several roles;
"God created man in his image, and man, being a gentleman, returned the compliment."
-Mark Twain
In his beginning, man was part of nature. He knew little about the causes of natural phenomenon and certainly knew of no way to control them. This is perhaps the reason for his creation of ritual and later religion. As man evolved he began to consider the possibilities of gaining some type of control over his environment. If nature was simply a random set of events ruled only by chaos than this wouldn't be possible. However, if something or better yet someone was in control, one could acquire what they desired by pleasing this entity. In the beginning, according to some theories, man worshiped many deities. These deities were usually assigned to a specific aspect of nature such as the sun, wind, or darkness. It seemed to them that at times the sun was presenting the humans with the gift of light, and warmth while other times it hid. The wind at times was soft and cooled the region, and others it was fierce and deadly. Darkness seemed somewhat evil; it was mysterious and brought about other animals and sounds. Humans, while complex, are still limited in what they can understand. What is easy for them to comprehend is that of which they are; their emotions, their actions, their personalities. By assigning nature human characteristics, it was then understandable. This personification of nature eventually evolved into the creation of deities. These deities continued to posses the human characteristics assigned to their "nature" counterparts. This practice of assigning human characteristics to non-human entities is called anthropomorphism. The Greeks took this humanism to a whole new level by adding more complexity to the characters. Through their myths they assigned emotion, personality, lineage and history to the gods. This use of anthropomorphism in Greek myth serves several roles;