Anthropomorphism In Greek Mythology

Mythology refers to a collection of myths concerning a certain group of people and their stories explaining nature, history, and customs. Mythology is also the study of myths (Campell 1991).

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism refers to the interpretation of non-human things or events in terms of human characteristics e.g. when one hears human voices in the wind. In religion and mythology, it refers to the perception of the human form to something that is not human. It includes relating spiritual beliefs with the human form, human traits with fictional non-human animal characters and human motives and emotions with forces of nature such as earthquakes. Anthropomorphism may occur consciously or unconsciously.

Anthropomorphism in mythology specifically

describes gods and goddesses in human forms and possessing human characteristics such as jealousy, hatred or love. In Greek, gods such as Zeus and Apollo were depicted in human characteristics while the avatars of the Hindu god Vishnu were believed to possess human forms and qualities.
Anthropomorphism related to the nonreligious world explains how people relate human features when they see such as landforms, clouds, and trees.In literature, relating objects or landforms and other nonhuman things is referred to as personification, for example death of liberty referring to the loss of freedom that prevents people from being restricted, imprisoned or used as slaves.

A statement such as “The raging storm brought howling winds and fierce lightening as the residents of the village looked up at the angry…” anthropomorphism must be applied in order to help humans relate the human characteristics found in words such as raging and fierce. This will help the reader understand the situation being described. Artists also apply anthropomorphism when they depict natural phenomena such as sun and moon having faces and

gender
In traditions, anthropomorphism is used in an intellectual manner in order to enable people relate what has been said about their lives. This helps in making people understand what has been said. This happens when one explains something unfamiliar and mysterious by using a model that people are conversant with usually using them as examples. Anthropomorphism is also used to make strange, or terrifying things look less frightening and terrifying.it helps in making a certain aspect of the world which are hostile look familiar thus making people stop fearing them. However, anthropomorphism does not explain incidences like why people think that they had been attacked when they hear a door slammed.
Anthropomorphism also occurs when people mistake human or human-like things with nonhumans.

For example when a person sees a threatening figure far away from him but later realizes that the figure was a large piece of polythene paper. In this case, anthropomorphism results from misinterpretation.

In modern Christianity, mythologies in anthropomorphism describe God as omnipresent, omnipotent. These features correspond to human attributes.Relating God to human is meant to make average people understand the nature of God by relating the features of God with those of humans e.g. present meaning being in a particular place at a particular time. Although religion tends to argue that it is not logical describing God in relation to humans, it would be difficult to understand God.

In Greek gods had different roles pertaining to what people believed to be important. The role of gods was defined according to human characteristics to things such a love, wind and seasons, for example, the god of love was humanized as Aphrodite. If the concept of love and sexuality had not been related to human, then the god of love (Aphrodite) would not have been worshiped (J.F.Bierlein

1994).
Symbolism of A Circle
Circles are commonly believed to be representatives of unity, wholeness, and infinity. Since they do not have a distinct beginning or end, sides or corners, a circle is associated with number one. There are distinctions between what lies within a circle and that which lies outside it. In many religions and societies, the symbol of a circle is surrounded by myths. The following are myths about circles (Eggers 2014).
Protection
Circles are seen as protective symbols, standing within a circle shields a person from natural dangers and influences that originate outside the circles. In the magic world, practitioners believe that the inside of a magic circle contains some energy that provides magical protection. The circle may be physically drawn using chalk or salt while at times it may be merely visualized. Magicians believed that circles formed a protective barrier between them and what they summoned.
In the modern world today a circle is also believed to have power to protect. In the United States there is “The Circle of Protection” composed of more than sixty-five denominations heads, relief and development agencies and other Christian organizations whose work is to protect people in poverty in the United States and all over the world (Moreno 2015).
Sun
Circles are used as sun symbols and representatives of things associated with the sun. The astrological symbol of the sun is a circle with middle in the middle. The astrological symbol is used to represent gold whose color resembles that of the sun. Therefore, the sun is associated with gold. The sun is regarded as a sacred symbol among the Zia people of Mexico. The symbol of the sun usually a red circle with for groups of four rays pointing in four directions is used in birth ceremonies to introduce the newborn babies to the sun.
Ouroboros
This is a symbol formed by a creature feeding on its own tail e.g. a snake or two creatures feeding off each other’s tails. In the two cases, a circular shape is created. The word ‘ouroboros’ originate from Greek. ‘Oura’ meaning tail and ‘boros’ meaning eating. The shape is associated with completion, uniting of polarities, regeneration, and eternity. The symbol is associated with the renewal of life and infinity that is the concept of eternity and the eternal return. This explains the cycle of life, death, and rebirth that leads to immortality as seen in the Phoenix that is a mythical sacred bird in the mythologies of Egypt, Arabian, Romans Phoenicians and Hindu that came to the planet leaving an imprint on the landscape of our reality believed that one day men would interpret it as the end of this consciousness and the beginning of another.
In mathematics, the symbol of infinity may be derived from a variant on ouroboros with the creature (snake) snake looped once before eating its tail. Today, a double loop as a snake eating its own tail is used in fantasy art and literature (Eddision 2012).
The Ouroboros also represents primordial unity related to something persisting from the beginning with qualities it cannot be extinguished. In the history of Egypt, Ouroboros represents the formless disorder of the orderly world and the renewal of the world.