Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

Year 11 Ancient History: The Origin of Greek Gods & Goddesses

Good Essays
909 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Year 11 Ancient History: The Origin of Greek Gods & Goddesses
Question: Examine the Origin of the Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses

In ancient Greece, mythology was a part of the Greek religion. Mythology was a tool used to explain various aspects of ancient life, such as, the environment in which humankind lived, the creation of the world, and the natural phenomena they witnessed. Myths in relation to Greek religion refers to the ancient Greek gods, explaining their origin and their lives. The accounts of Greek mythology were originally disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition, today, however, the myths are known primarily from Greek literature, such as the poems of Homer and Hesiod. These poems help determine the origin of the ancient Greek gods and goddesses along with the creation of the world and the re-telling of historical events.

Though there are many versions of the Greek creation myths, the most complete is a poem called the Theogony (Birth of the Gods) by the poet Hesiod. Hesiod lived around the late eighth or early seventh century B.C. and composed this poem circa 700 B.C. in the Epic dialect of Homeric Greek. The Theogony describes the origins and the establishment of polytheism and the vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods. Hesiod's creation story describes the beginning of the universe as being covered in darkness. This darkness was the first Greek god, Chaos, a shapeless, mixed-up, dark entity. It was from Chaos that five divinities came into being; Gaia (the mother Earth), Tartarus (the underworld), Erebus (the darkness that covers the underworld), Night (darkness that covers the Earth), and Eros (Love). These divinities are classified as the first generation of gods and they organised the muddle that was Chaos, also creating further forces in the process. A few of these forces include, Doom, Death, Murder, Slaughter, Battle, Misery, Crime, Light, etc. The second generation of gods are known as the Titans; the children of Uranus (the sky) and Gaia. After a violent conflict between Uranus and Gaia, the goddess Aphrodite was born. The most well-known gods are those of the third and final generation, the Olympians, born from the Titans Cronos and Rhea. This then leads to the creation of the world and humankind, known as Cosmogony, by the Titan Prometheus, cousin to the Olympic gods.

The oldest sources of Greek mythology are the poems written by Homer, the most highly revered of ancient Greek epic poets. These poems are known as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Both these poems are centered around the re-telling of historical events side to ancients Greek Mythology. The Iliad is sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilium, and is set during the ten-year siege of the city of Troy, known as the Trojan War. Recent statistical modeling based on language evolution suggests the poem was written between 760-710 B.C. This narrative tells the story of the battles and events of the war and frequently refers to many of the Greek legends about the siege. The Iliad also explains the origin of the war. According to mythology, the king of the gods, Zeus, believed that the Earth was overpopulated and used the Trojan War as a means to depopulate the Earth. The Odyssey is believed to be a sequel to the Iliad. This poem focuses on the Greek hero Odysseus and his epic ten-year voyage home after the fall of Troy. This narrative tells the story of his adventures, including the famous encounter with the Cyclops Polyphemus and the destruction of his ship by the sun-god Helios after Odysseus' men ate the cattle sacred to this god. These poems indicate the great power the ancient Greeks' believed their gods possessed.

Theology refers to the study of concepts of God and its influences and of the nature of religious truths. Ancient Greek theology was based on polytheism, the belief in multiple gods and goddesses. Ancient Greek religion dictated the dominion of several deities over certain aspects of nature. For example, Zeus controlled the sky, Helios controlled the sun, etc. Although the gods were seen as having colossal power, fate was a force they could not reckon with. For example, in Homer's the Odyssey, it was Odysseus' fate to return home after the Trojan War, and although the gods were able to lengthen his journey, they could not stop him. Regardless of their superiority, stories depicted the gods as acting in such a way that could be mistaken as human. For example, they would regularly involve themselves in conflict amongst their brothers and sisters, sometimes going to extremes, such as the case of Zeus banishing his brother, Hades, to the underworld. The ancient Greeks also believed that after death, their spirits would go to the underworld. These aspects of the lives of the people of ancient Greece show how dependent they were on these myths. They relied on these stories to explain the presence of man on Earth, the phenomena they witnessed and the environment in which humankind lived.

To conclude, the people of ancient Greece polytheistic. Today, Greek literature explains the importance of Greek mythology as a religious aspect to the lives of this ancient civilisation. The poems of the epic Greek poets, Homer and Hesiod, demonstrate the ancient Greek's belief that their gods had enormous powers, and that they were able to control nature in all its forms. Hesiod's, Theogony, also show how the gods evolved as the ancient Greeks sought to find meaning and possibly faith in an often challenging world.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Theogeny

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Cosmogony, or the beginning of the birth of the gods, begins with one primeval entity, Chaos. Chaos literally represents the void or the gaping yawn. He also represents symbolically the womb from which all primordial beings originate. Chaos is also described as a mist or air. When Gaia emerges as earth, it creates a symbiosis of the elements of air and earth coming together. Nothing on earth can survive without air, and there are many scientific theories explaining the creation of earth from the void of space. Out of this void in the Hesiod’s Theogeny, comes Gaia, Tartaros/Erebus and Eros.…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Complete the matrix section and the question section on the worksheet for each week. For each culture, identify the starting and ending dates of the culture, the structure of government, the role of the city government, and type of law created by the culture. Describe how the culture viewed the relationship between gods and people and how it defined citizenship. List the major events the culture experienced.…

    • 1672 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hesiod's theology is single of the paramount preamble we have on the establishment of the human kind. According to Hesiod, three main rudiments obtain part in the commencement of formation, Chaos, Gaia, and Eros. It is supposed that Chaos provide origin to Erebos and Night at the same time as Ouranos and Okeanos pounce from Gaia. Each youngster had a precise function, and Ouranos's responsibility was to look after Gaia. Later the two became a pair and were the earliest Gods to imperative the earth. They had 12 offspring who were acknowledged as the Titans. Three others known as the Cyclopes, and the three hundred handed Giants. The germ of Ouranos, which fell into the sea, provides birth to Aphrodite while commencing his blood was produce the Fates, the Giants, and the Meliai nymphs.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people know about most of the gods and goddesses in Greek mythology. In fact, they know almost all of them, going as far back in the family tree until they reach the Titans. However, something many people do not know is that there were gods and goddesses before the Titans, according to Greek mythology. One of the primary examples of these primordial gods is Gaia, the Greek Mother…

    • 70 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    People in Ancient Greece craved to understand the world around them. They could not get answers to everything through science. If there was something that they could not understand they would use the gods and goddesses to provide an explanation. They needed these gods and goddesses to make sense in their lives. The explanations that the Greeks would use gods for splits into two general categories. They used the gods to explain natural occurring phenomena and things about nature, and they used them to explain social issues and human life and the course it takes.…

    • 633 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek mythology is composed of a larger collection of myths and teachings that belong to the ancient Greeks, stories of their gods and heroes, and explanations given to unexplainable phenomenons. Zeus became the ultimate ruler of the gods as well as lord of the sky and rain after defeating his father. Zeus was characterized by the Greeks as a regal man, mature with a sturdy figure and a long beard. He is usually depicted with a lighting bolt, royal scepter or with an eagle. He married Hera, his sister, but was infamous for his many affairs.…

    • 848 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek mythology are myths that belong to the ancient Greeks. Greek mythology is important because of the representational arts, and explain the origins of the world. These stories were passed from generation to generation . In Greek mythology , Cecrops was the first king of Attica. The myth of Cecrops reveals consequences of a cultural hero.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Greek Gods Book Report

    • 1066 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The book begins by introducing Cronos the king of the gods, who was originally father of gods. This was after he selfishly murdered his father. Ever since Cronos was afraid that his children might do the same to him, so instead of letting them lived he swallowed them. His wife Rhea was appalled by his behavior and the next time she was pregnant she made sure she gave birth in an isolated area, and so she did. Rhea named her baby boy Zeus. To make sure her child wasn’t eaten she gave him to a herd of sheep, in return she assured the herd they wouldn’t be eaten. Once Zeus was all grown up his mother introduced him to Cronos. Then one night they decided to poison him, and it worked he threw up all of the children he had previously eaten, plus they were still alive. After Zeus was chosen to be the leader. This infuriated his father, and a war was brought upon them. Reluctantly Zeus reigned and no on ever knew what happened to Cronos. Soon after he faced death for the third time, and this time it was by his wife and also sister Hera. She tied him up but he managed to break free and they both spared each other’s life. Athene, named after the city of Athens was another much loved god in Pantheon. She is the type of person that will kill you if you’re wrong. Zeus wanted to be in control of the sky, Poseidon gladly took the sea and Hades was unlucky and had the underworld. Poseidon was a greedy and cruel leader to the underwater kingdom, although he concocted some of the most known species today. Demeter has known as the lady growing things. She birthed 2 of Zeus’s children one was…

    • 1066 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Ancient Greek belief system was polytheistic, meaning that they believed in more than one god or deity. Each god and goddess had power over a different aspect of life, leading the Greeks to believe that these gods had power over what happened in their own lives. The Greek Gods looked like humans physically, essentially the only difference between the Greeks and their Gods was that the Gods were considered immortal. The Greeks believed that the gods lived high above Mount Olympus and were always watching the life below, and from time to time would interfere with it. This led them to the understanding that, you would not want to anger any of the gods in any way, or else they would make your life miserable. Emphasis was placed on pleasing the gods in order to live a life free of hardship and oppression. Man, created the Greek gods to explain the world around him, act as a means of exploration, provide legitimacy and authority to ancient Greek aristocracy, and provide entertainment for the masses. The religion of the ancient Greeks was different to the many religions we follow in the 21st Century. It did not have a single source of written scripture such as the Bible or the Qur'an. Furthermore, the ancient Greeks did not…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    All there was in the universe was Chaos. He wanted to build something and created Earth which was Gaea. She was happy for a while until she felt lonely all by herself. Chaos must have heard her and put a sky over her Ouranos. Chaos also wanted to build something under the Earth which was Tartarus. Ouranos and Gaea married and had children. Gaea gave birth to twelve titans, The Elder Cyclops, and The Hundred-Handed Ones. Ouranos chained the Cyclops and The Hundred-Handed Ones and threw them in Tartarus because in his perspective, he saw very ugly creatures. Gaea like them and demanded to release them but he wouldn’t do a thing. Gaea was on fire! She was very angry. The scythe was invented for revenge. She told her titan children that one of them will take revenge on their father by chopping him up into pieces and throwing him to Tartarus. Everyone…

    • 484 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek Gods And Goddesses

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gods and goddesses are the rulers of the world, some say.do you believe that? People worshipped gods and goddesses every in the world in the B.C’s and in the early A.D’s. i’m going to write about Greek gods and goddesses, Egyptian gods and goddesses, and Roman gods and goddesses. Lastly some books and movies about gods and goddesses.…

    • 302 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first ever story in the history of Greek mythology is called The Creation. It started out as Gaea, the earth Goddess. Then she met Uranus, the sky God and they had the twelve Titans. One of the Titans, Kronos, who was the youngest, was sent by Gaea to kill Uranus with his own scythe. Kronos chopped Uranus up into tiny bits and threw him into the ocean to mourn eternally under the sea. One day Kronos’s wife had a kid named Zeus. Zeus was the God of the sky. Kronos was afraid that Zeus would overthrow him as he did to his father. So Kronos ate Zeus. Kronos's wife tricked Kronos into drinking a mixture. After drinking the mixture, Zeus arose from Kronos's skull and eleven other Gods and Goddesses arose with him. Zeus took Kronos's scythe, that he used to kill Uranus, and killed…

    • 593 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Greek mythology is a set of rich and beautiful stories which ranks as the world's best story. It is both a process of conquering nature lasts extremely sluggish since humans appeared on earth. Before writing, the Greeks had invented miraculous stories to send to that awareness of the world, life experiences, and dreams of their aspirations. Through the story, the Greeks themselves measure the universe, they use rich imagination to explain natural phenomena and natural to put conquering their aspirations. Greeks have cleverly built their great gods, all things, phenomena are assigned to the mystical power,…

    • 97 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Greek mythology begins with Chaos, a being born from the empty space and darkness, the first god. Born of Chaos were Gaea (the earth), Tartarus (the underworld), and Eros (love), after them Erebus (darkness) and Nyx (night) were also born. Gaea gave birth to Uranus (the sky) and he became her husband, then together they created the Cyclopes, the Twelve Titans, and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus who was disgusted by his children trapped…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For my DIY course, I had researched mythology, mainly Greek mythology though. So in the beginning of Greek mythology, the first gods were Gaea, the Earth and Uranus, the Sky and Heavens. Some stories say that Gaea had made Uranus. Together they had twelve children in all and they were known as the first generation of Titans. Six of them were females and their names were Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis and Tethys. The six males were named Coeus, Cronus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus. The Titans arose to power when Cronus, his mother, Gaea, and his brothers made a plan to take the rulership of the Cosmos from their father, Uranus, resulting with Cronus who the youngest brother to be in control.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics