Study of myths of the Greeks and Romans
Classical mythology
, also known as
Greco-Roman mythology
or
Greek and Roman mythology
, is the collective body and study of
myths
from the
ancient Greeks
and
ancient Romans
. Mythology, along with
philosophy
and
political thought
, is one of the major survivals of
classical antiquity
throughout later
Western culture
.
[1]
The Greek word
mythos
refers to the spoken word or speech, but it also denotes a tale, story or narrative.
[2]
As late as the
Roman conquest of Greece
during the last two centuries
Before the Common Era
and for centuries afterwards, the Romans, who already had gods of their own, adopted many mythic narratives directly from the Greeks while preserving their own Roman (Latin) names for the gods. As a result, the actions of many Roman and Greek deities became equivalent in storytelling and literature. For example, the Roman sky god
Jupiter
or Jove became equated with his Greek counterpart
Zeus
; the Roman fertility goddess
Venus
with the Greek goddess
Aphrodite
; and the Roman sea god
Neptune
with the Greek god
Poseidon
.
Latin
remained the dominant language in
Europe
during the
Middle Ages
and
Renaissance
, largely due to the widespread influence of the
Roman Empire
. During this period, mythological names almost always appeared in their Latin form. However, in the 19th century, there was a shift towards the use of either the Greek or Roman names.
[3]
For example, "
Zeus
" and "
Jupiter
" both became widely used in that century as the name of the supreme god of the classical
pantheon
.
Classical myth
[
edit
]
The stories and characters found in Greco-Roman mythology are not considered real in terms of the same way that historical or scientific facts are real. They are not factual accounts of events that occurred. Instead, Greco-Roman mythology is a collection of ancient stories, legends, and beliefs that were created by the people of ancient Greece and Rome to explain aspects of the world around them, express cultural values, and provide a framework for understanding their existence. These myths often involve gods, heroes, goddesses, afterwar appearances, and other supernatural beings, and they were an integral part of the religious and cultural practices of the time. While these myths are not considered historically accurate, they hold cultural and literary significance.
[4]
Greek myths
were narratives related to
ancient Greek religion
, often concerned with the actions of
gods and other supernatural beings
and of
heroes
who transcend human bounds. Major sources for Greek myths include the
Homeric epics
, that is, the
Iliad
and the
Odyssey
, and the
tragedies
of
Aeschylus
,
Sophocles
, and
Euripides
. Known versions are mostly preserved in sophisticated literary works shaped by the artistry of individuals and by the conventions of
genre
, or in
vase painting
and other forms of visual art. In these forms, mythological narratives often serve purposes that are not primarily religious, such as entertainment and even comedy (
The Frogs
), or the exploration of social issues (
Antigone
).
Roman myths
are traditional stories pertaining to
ancient Rome
's
legendary origins
,
religious institutions
, and
moral models
, with a focus on human actors and only occasional intervention from deities but a pervasive sense of divinely ordered destiny. Roman myths have a dynamic relation to
Roman historiography
, as in the early books of
Livy
's
Ab urbe condita
.
[5]
The most famous Roman myth may be the birth of
Romulus and Remus
and the founding of the city, in which
fratricide
can be taken as expressing the long history of political division in the
Roman Republic
.
[6]
As late as the
Hellenistic period
of Greek influence and primarily through the
Roman conquest of Greece
,
[7]
the Romans identified
their own gods
with those of the Greeks, keeping their own Roman names but adopting the Greek stories told about them (see
interpretatio graeca
) and importing other myths for which they had no counterpart. For instance, while the
Greek god
Ares
and the
Italic
god
Mars
are both
war deities
, the role of each in his society and its religious practices differed often strikingly; but in literature and
Roman art
, the Romans reinterpreted stories about Ares under the name of Mars. The literary collection of Greco-Roman myths with the greatest influence on later Western culture was the
Metamorphoses
of the
Augustan poet
Ovid
.
Syncretized versions form the classical tradition of
mythography
, and by the time of the influential
Renaissance
mythographer
Natalis Comes
(16th century), few if any distinctions were made between Greek and Roman myths. The myths as they appear in popular culture of the 20th and 21st centuries often have only a
tangential
relation to the stories as told in ancient Greek and Latin literature.
The people living in the Renaissance era, who primarily studied the Christian teachings, Classical mythology found a way to be told from the freshly found ancient sources that authors and directors used for plays and stories for the retelling of these myths.
[8]
Professor John Th. Honti stated that "many myths of Graeco-Roman antiquity" show "a nucleus" that appear in "some later common European folk-tale".
[9]
Mythology
was not the only borrowing that the Romans made from Greek culture. Rome took over and adapted many categories of Greek culture:
philosophy
,
rhetoric
,
history
, epic,
tragedy
and their forms of
art
. In these areas, and more, Rome took over and developed the Greek originals for their own needs. Some
scholars
argue that the reason for this “borrowing” is largely, among many other things, the
chronology
of the two cultures. Professor
Elizabeth Vandiver
says Greece was the first culture in the Mediterranean, then Rome second.
[10]
See also
[
edit
]
Related topics
[
edit
]
Classical mythology categories
[
edit
]
On individual myths or figures
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Entry on "mythology" in
The Classical Tradition
, edited by
Anthony Grafton
,
Glenn W. Most
, and Salvatore Settis (Harvard University Press, 2010), p. 614
et passim
.
- ^
"Basic Aspects of the Greek Myths - Greek Mythology Link"
.
www.maicar.com
. Retrieved
2016-12-07
.
- ^
Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny,
Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500-1900
(Yale University Press, 1981, 1998), p. xv.
- ^
Hezser, Catherine (1 Jan 2013).
Ancient “Science Fiction”: Journeys into Space and Visions of the World in Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman Literature of Antiquity
. Brill. pp. 343?348.
ISBN
9789004236394
.
- ^
Alexandre Grandazzi
,
The Foundation of Rome: Myth and History
(
Cornell University Press
, 1997), pp. 45?46.
- ^
T.P. Wiseman
,
Remus: A Roman Myth
(Cambridge University Press, 1995)
passim
.
- ^
Rengel, Marian; Daly, Kathleen N. (2009).
Greek and Roman Mythology, A to Z
. United States: Facts On File, Incorporated. p. 66.
- ^
Nivre, Elisabeth Waghall (2015).
Allusions and Reflections : Greek and Roman Mythology in Renaissance Europe.
Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4438-7891-3. OCLC 913333344.
- ^
Honti, John Th. "Celtic Studies and European Folk-Tale Research". In:
Bealoideas
6, no. 1 (1936): 36. Accessed March 16, 2021. doi:10.2307/20521905.
- ^
"The Great Courses ? Classical Mythology Lecture 22"
.
www.thegreatcourses.com
. Retrieved
2023-01-28
.