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Similarities and differences of greek mythology and the bible
Greek mythology influence on Greek civilization
Influence of mythology on greek culture
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Greek Mythology vs Christianity What made Christianity thrive longer than Greek mythology? Is Greek mythology really dead? If both religions were around the same time period, then why didn't they both end around the same time? There are numerous ways to look at all of the questions of the two religions. Greek mythology and Christianity are similar in some ways, but also differ in multiple ways. The two religions were not only around the same time period, but also were relatively located generally close to each other on the map. The two religions are still very closely related and used in today’s society, but in different ways. Christianity is still currently a modern day religion, but Greek mythology is mainly used in literature and other …show more content…
Greek mythology “died” out around 2000 years ago in Greece, about the same time that Christianity began to flourish. Both Christianity and Greek mythology were spread by mouth in the beginning. Then later on, Christianity was written down in a book called the Bible that contains all of the stories, prophecies, and other works of literature. Greek mythology never had an official book with common beliefs like Christianity. This could have been one of the major causes for the fall of Greek mythology and its lack of a strong main structure. When a story is told to a large number of people without something to go by, there will be different versions. Just like the childhood game of telephone, where people whisper a phrase to one person and they say it to another, is used to explain gossip also is true for mythology. It is not wrong to go and spread the stories, in fact it can help the religion become stronger if the same story is told every time. In Matthew 28:19 Jesus says,“ Therefore go and make disciples among the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (True Images). …show more content…
Unlike Greek mythology, Christianity has one God, who is good and peaceful, and Satan who was evil. Unlike Christianity, Greek gods and goddesses were both good and evil, similar to humans.The Greek gods have flaws that caused them to appear almost human-like and not so much as a god (Schmucker). The most common thought of a god is that they are powerful and without mistake, which contradicts the appearance of Greek gods/goddesses (Burns). They have been known in stories, such as the one with Zeus turning a woman (Io) he had an affair with into a cow, to lie and cheat for their own personal enjoyment (Hamilton 78-80). The saying “humans make mistakes” and if the Greek gods and goddesses did too, then why did the Greeks worship them. Almost all of the gods had flaws such as lust, adultery, and even hatred. The Greek gods acted so much like humans that the only major difference between the two is that the gods/goddesses had powers. The Greeks putting all of their faith and reliance in these flawed gods and goddesses created an unstable foundation which would have easily been why their religion died. The followers of Greek mythology didn’t always obey what the gods/goddesses told them to do out of love, but sometimes out of fear (“Powerful”). All of the sexual harassment and cruelty in Greek mythology could have led to the Greeks leaving mythology and
The Greek gods were portrayed as humans, which meant that they were not perfect. That is, the gods made mistakes, felt pain (e.g. Aphrodite in love with the mortal Adonis), and succumbed to anger and their tempers (e.g.
the matter of Odysseus with Zeus, the head god and god of sky (Homer 10). Of
The relationship between gods and mortals in mythology has long been a complicated topic. The gods can be generous and supportive, and also devastating and destructive to any group of humans. Mortals must respect the powers above them that cannot be controlled. The gods rule over destiny, nature, and justice, and need to be recognized and worshipped for the powerful beings as they are. Regardless of one's actions, intentions, and thoughts, the gods in Greek myth have ultimate power and the final decision of justice over nature, mortals, and even each other.
On the surface, pagan culture and Christianity would appear to have very little in common. Traditionally, the Hellenistic pagan cultures worshipped multiple deities; the central of which were the twelve Olympians of the Greek Pantheon. Lesser divine beings and demi-humans also played a significant role in the Hellenistic culture. The worship of these deities was the mainstream of religion during the Hellenistic period until the rise of the great philosophers.
Characteristic of paganism is a tolerance for other paganistic ideas, even those that literally contradict one's own. Such persecutions as have been directed against paganistic religions by each other are by-products of political struggles and mass population movements rather than ideologically motivated. The same is to some extent true of early Judaism, which was the direct inheritor to the traditions of a strongly pagan society. A slave revolt apparently led to a few hundred thousand slaves with no place to live; to get them, they butchered the inhabitants of pagan cities and took up residence in the cities themselves. They invoked their war god to justify this action. Similarly, when the beginnings of the modern Greek mythology were laid down, it was as a result of invading Northern barbarians supplanting the earlier (and somewhat gynocentric) Titan mythology with their imported religion, which grew more refined and less aggressive later on, as happened with Judaism.
All comes to show, that Christianity took hold on the ancient world because it was easy, convenient and powerful. Christianity is a strong religion seeming as it still stands
Myths and religious doctrine are generally recognized as two entirely different things. Myths are usually referred to as a fictitious story or a half-truth; often they are stories shared between groups of people that are part of a cultural society. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, and purpose of the universe, and often containing an ethical code dictating appropriate human conduct. Although they differ in certain aspects, they still hold similarities. Comparable to parables within the Bible, myths have different versions which are both motivating, as well as entertaining. There are not only parallels to the idea of the stories but specific tales hold similar morals and equivalent characters.
People are in search of understanding life and the happenings that surround them. When things go wrong, people turn to God for hope and understanding. As we look at the Jewish and the Christian faiths, both of which trace their origins back past Abraham and Moses, to the original stories of the Garden of Eden, we notice basic similarities and major differences between the two religions. The three main differences between Jewish and Christianity is the concept of God, judgment, and salvation. The most eminent difference between both religions is the concept of God. Christianity believes that God is trinity which means three persons in one the father, the son and the holy spirit. However Judaism sees God as a single entity, and viewsTrinitarianism as a violation of the Bible's teaching that ...
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
“Christianity, along with all other theistic belief systems, is the fraud of the age. It serves to detach the species from the natural world, likewise, each other. It supports blind submission to authority[control of the masses].”(Zeitgeist 2007) In this essay, we will explore the different roots of religion and the plagiarism that Christianity and a number of different religions have committed.
The Roman and Greek mythology were very important to the Roman and Greek people. They worshipped their gods and goddesses by trying to please them in many different ways. “In Roman mythology the heroic deeds of gods were more important as the actions of mortals as man's life did not matter once good status in the afterlife had been achieved” (“Greek Gods vs
Do you know that all the religions have different gods, and those gods have different roles, and powers? In this comparison, I’m introducing about Greek and Igbo’s religion which also compare both religions in several different ways. For example, the role of each gods, how do they worship in their religions and why those religions die down.
There are many similarities and differences between Judaism and Christianity. Some of these are their religious beliefs, Jesus, heaven and hell, original sin, the trinity. This therefore leads the two religions to follow different paths of worship even if they worship the same god.
Greek mythology should not be mistaken for fact since there is no scientific evidence of these events but should be taken as advice. This is not saying that all mythology is untrue or fictional. Like in any religion, faith is the domineering factor; for without faith religion would cease to exist. Joseph Campbell states that, "The material of myth is the material of our life, the material of our body, and the material of our environment, and a living, vital mythology deals with these in terms that are appropriate to the nature of knowledge of the time" (Campbell 01).
To begin with, the ancient Greeks explained the creation of the universe, in particular the Earth and its elements, by a system of anthropomorphism in which their gods are human-like and are representatives of these elements. For example, Zeus is the god of heaven while Hades is the underworld lord (Hesiod, p.145). Unlike the Christians’ god who is “flawless”, the ancient Greeks’ divinities are portrayed as humans and are far from perfect. Their gods behave like ordinary people except they are immortal and have supernatural powers. Like any human being, the Greeks’ gods have love, jealousy, sadness, etc. For instance, in Euripides’ Bacchae, Zeus falls in love with Semele, which makes Hera becomes jealous and tries to kill Semele and Dionysus (Euripides, p.209). The Greeks even have a physically imperfect god, Hephaestus. This is to say that the gods’ attitude toward mortals is affected by how people treat them as the Greeks’ gods have emotions like humans.