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Greek mythology influence on modern cultures
Greek mythology influence on modern cultures
Greek mythology influence on modern cultures
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In Greek mythology many of the people worship and adore the Gods and Goddess especially the beautiful Goddess Demeter. Demeter went threw a lot in her back round of life and is the reasons that we have seasons. Although Goddess Demeter is best known for being the Greek Goddess of vegetation and fruit she is also known for natures control of life and her heroic act of sharing agriculture.
Goddess Demeter is one of three daughter of Cronus and his wife Rhea. Demeter has a total of five siblings including Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Hades ,and Hestia. Demeter was in love with her brother Zeus and "had a beautiful daughter by the name Persephone" (Wickersham, ''Demeter''). Demeter wasn't only a mother to Persephone, she was also a "mother to Pluto by
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Hades then kidnapped Demeter's daughter and took her to the underworld where she ''was raped by Hades'' (Crivelli, Fact on file, 263) and forced to be his queen of the underworld. Demeter loved her daughter so much she left Olympian to seek her daughter. She searched for nine days and nine nights. She would not not sleep, she did not rest and she was in so much pain. All around the crops started dying due to Demeter was in sorrow because she could not find her daughter something she possibly cared for the most in the world. Demeter then gave up and "took form of a old woman near a Eleusis" (Wickersham, "Demeter"). The once the Queen Metanira and King Celeus insisted that Demeter where to stay with them and look after their son, she wanted to repay the king and queen for being so nice to her that ''she would give their son immortality but was interrupted and had to announce who she was'' (Wickersham, "Demeter"). Zeus became aware that ''Demeter would not restore the earth with crops with out her daughter and became fearful that all the human would die and their would be no one to worship him''
Demeter the daughter of Cronus and Rhea was the goddess of harvest and fertility. The poet, Edith Hamilton, reveals the sorrow of a mother who has lost a child in the mythical "Demeter." The speaker laments on the consequences the natural cycles will receive due to this suffering Demeter is experiencing. Edith uses imagery of dry land and loss to express the agony a mother endures when losing a child. Furthermore, the speaker uses allusion to explain the consequences the society is suffering.
The goddesses Played a vital role in Greek society for they were responsible for many aspects of Greek. life, i.e., a life of a child. birth, harvest, etc. Accompanying the 6 major goddesses (Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Hestia, Demeter and Artemis) we have the lesser divinities such as the Muses, the Graces, the Fates, etc. The second level of women used in Greek mythology is that of the human.
Hades fell in love with Demeter’s daughter, Persephone. Persephone loved to live about in the fields that her mother made. Hades wanted Persephone as his bride. Zeus, the father of Persephone, did not deny but warned that Demeter would be furious. He captured her and forced her to stay in the underworld. To capture her, he arose from the depth with a chariot of horses. He stole her from the flowery field and took her to a dungeon of darkness. Persephone gained the name “core”. This was symbolizing her loss of girlhood. Demeter went looking for her daughter. She could not find her, and she almost came to the extent of barring the whole earth of the vegetation. Zeus could not let this happen, so he sent for Persephone to be received. Persephone would not eat, but Hades would not let her leave until she ate at least one thing. Hades gave her a forbidden fruit. Any fruit that was to be eaten in the underworld, the eater of that fruit must stay in the underworld. Her eating the fruit meant she had to stay in the underworld forever. A compromise was made between Demeter and Hades. Four months of the year Persephone had to stay with Hades and be the queen of the underworld. During this time the Greeks entered a cold and barren time called winter. The other eight months, Persephone spent her year with Demeter. During this time crops and vegetation would be abundant (Peterson and Dunworth 143). These were the times of spring and summer. When it was time for Persephone to rule the underworld, she was in charge of watching the special prisoners. The prisoners were the defeated titans (Calame, 266).
Zeus’ marriages to Demeter, Leto and Hera yield the gods and goddeses familiar to the Greek world, Persephone, Apollo, Artemis, Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia, and he himself eventually bears Athena (912-24). These are not elements of good rule, but simply the gods of the Greek polis. Demeter and Persephone are worshipped for agriculture, Apollo for his oracular shrine, Artemis for the wilderness and young women, Ares for war. Poseidon as sea god is apart from the polis, but he sires the fearsome Triton (931). Likewise, Ares’ children Phobos and Deimos, two aspects of fear, delineate realms beyond the proper bounds of the polis. Maia bears for Zeus Hermes (938-9), who as herald of the gods moves between realms, between one polis and another.
She is the only goddess with an active sexual life. Many others had a couple of children, and suddenly stopped. In order to control her sexual tendencies, Zeus arranged a marriage for Aphrodite. She married her half-brother, Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithy to the gods. This marriage did not work out well, since...
One of the most notorious love affairs of Poseidon involves his sister, Demeter. Poseidon pursued Demeter and to avoid him she turned herself into a mare. In his lust for her, Poseidon transformed himself into a stallion and captured her. Their procreation resulted in a horse, Arion. Poseidon is Greek for "Husband" (possibly of wheat), and therefore it is thought that he and Demeter (goddess of wheat) are a good match because they reign as the god and goddess of fertility.
Mythology was very important to the men and women of ancient Greece. They worshipped the gods and goddesses, wrote poems about them, and based a great deal of art work off of them. The people of Greece looked to the gods and goddesses for help in all aspects of their lives; including health, agriculture, and war. Reading about Greek mythology can inform people about the society of Greece because the Greek gods were created by the people of Greece. Three main goddesses who were worshipped by the Greeks were Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite.
Cronus and Rhea are the parents of Poseidon in Greek mythology. Poseidon is one of the 3 sons; the others are Hades and Zeus. And there three sisters were Demeter, Hestia, Hera, and while Cronus was the horrible father who feared his own children so he ate them at birth. He continued to eat the newborns until his wife tricked him by giving him stones instead to save Zeus. But sadly Poseidon (and Hades) was eaten by Cronus to save them Zeus (who was being raised by nymphs) became Cronus’ cupbearer. He poisoned Cronus and he threw up Poseidon. They started a war against Cronus it lasted for ten years until the brothers released the Cyclopes and in return they gave the each a weapon. Poseidon received a trident, Zeus a lightning bolt, and Hades the helmet of darkness.
‘Demeter’ is a poem about the story of Demeter. "Demeter was the goddess of harvest and Persephone was the goddess of springtime. Hades, the lord of the underworld, kidnapped Persephone. Hades fell in love with Persephone and asked Zeus to help him kidnap her so she could become his bride. The crops started to wilt and humans couldn't grow crops anymore. However Zeus told Hermes to bring back Persephone and to make sure she didn't eat any food from the Underworld. Hermes fetched Persephone. But before she left, Hades convinced her to eat 6 pomegranate seeds. Hermes made a compromise and said Persephone had to stay in the Underworld as Hades wife for six months. That's why there are seasons. In the fall and winter, Persephone goes down into the Underworld and Demeter mourns. In the summer and spring, she comes back and Demeter rejoices. " (1)
In the Hymn to Demeter, the rape of Persephone starts with her picking flowers and she comes across the hundred headed narcissus which "Gaia made grow as a trick for the blushing maiden" (HHDem. 8-9). This trick is set into motion by Zeus, but since Gaia plays the role of protecting the youngest generation, this is a foreshadowing that Persephone's ordeal will be for a good cause. Hades moves in to take Persephone when the grounds gapes open and she begins to cry aloud. Demeter hears her daughters screams but she is powerless against Hades, hence the separation of distance between them. The grief stricken Demeter goes through an experience which plays out the role of a symbolic death. this is because the relationship between the mother and daughter ends at a wedding.
In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Demeter’s grief is demonstrated through the concepts of divinity and humanity being symbolically contrasted with a woman’s purpose and social status as a mother or daughter. While “terrible” is a word we would expect to describe grief, “brutal” is interesting due to its violent connotations (Hymn to Demeter, 90). As a “brutal grief that seized the heart” it lends itself to a comparison with the violent seizing of Persephone, echoed here in Demeter’s emotions about her daughters’ capture, and perhaps denoting that the nature of what causes grief may be reflected in how it is felt (Hymn to Demeter, 90). The words “brutal” and “seized” also portrays grief itself as uncontrollable and forceful, even to the non-human Being described as “like four goddesses” while Demeter herself is divine and yet, unrecognisable as such seems to hark back to their youth and beauty as a divine gift, while Demeter, in her grief, appears to lose divine status (Hymn to Demeter,108, 94-95, 108).
Demeter cares about her daughter. When she notices that Persephone is missing, she panics and immediately looks for her daughter everywhere on the earth. “For nine days, then, over the earth queenly Deo, roamed about, holding blazing torches in her hands, and she never tasted ambrosia or the sweet drink,nectar, as she grieved, nor did she wash her skin with water” (Hymn to Demeter, 47-50). Demeter is so grieved that she even forgets to eat and drink. The only thing she engages in is to find her daughter. Demeter’s tireless searching reflects a mother’s love and worry for her child. We can also find similar evidence that shows Penelope’s love to her husband in The Odyssey. At Odysseus’s house, when the people are listening a song about Troy War (Odyssey 1,379-362), Penelope cries out, “ Break off this
The primary ruling god of the underworld is Hades whose brother is Zeus, king of the gods, and whose parents are Cronus and Rhea. Hades is a greedy god with his greatest concern being to increase the number of his subjects. He is very stubborn about letting people out of the underworld. Hades himself, rarely leaves the underworld. In one myth, however, we know of a time when he did leave his soulful domain. Hades became very lonely in the underworld, and went above and kidnapped Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, for his wife.Persephone, nonetheless, was not Hades’ only significant other. Hades had a mistress called Minthe whom Persephone later transformed into a plant. Hades is also known as the god of wealth due to the precious metals mined from the earth. He has been said to possess a helmet that was given to him by the Cyclops. This helmet has been said to make him invisible. Hades lent it to gods and mortal men. Perseus used the helmet on his quest for Medusa’s head and Athena, goddess of battle skills, put to use the helmet so the god of war, Ares, could not notice her.
According to “Persephone, Demeter, and Hades” It starts off with “Persephone who is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, the goddess of agriculture (farming). Hades who is her uncle, abducts Persephone while she was picking flowers with her companions in a meadow.” According to “Classical Mythology” it states “Hades had other plans for Persephone: he would steal her innocence and virginity and turn her into the dreaded goddess of the Underworld.” It also states how “Persephone was gathering flowers one day on a plain in Sicily. Hades appeared, thundering across the plain in his four-horse chariot. The god then jumped down upon Persephone, and scooped her up with one arm. After abducting her, he carries her off to the Underworld. Demeter who is Persephone’s mother soon came to retrieve her daughter, but was unable to find a trace of Persephone. She traveled to the corners of the earth, searching for nine full days and nights without ever stopping to eat, drink, bathe, or rest. Demeter was in a fury so in retaliation she destroyed lands, crops, and livestock as she complained to the loss of her daughter. She threatened to make the earth unproductive forever and thus destroy all of humankind if she did not find her
The two deities of Earth, Demeter and Dionysus, are both very kind gods, yet both capable of damaging Earth severely. They experience joys, sorrows, grief, and just about everything humans can feel. Demeter and Dionysus are quite alike in some ways in that sense, but, like all of the gods, they differ from each other in different ways. For example, Demeter’s festival was mostly a gathering to show appreciation for what Demeter did for humans, while Dionysus’s festival was a big show, with great performances. As Edith Hamilton writes, “It was a theater; and the ceremony was the performance of a play. The greatest poetry in Greece, and among the greatest in the world, was written for Dionysus.” Another way of seeing their differences is by seeing