How Has Greek Mythology Changed Over Time

Mythology is an essential part of all cultures. Through myth, ancient cultures attempted to explain the world and make sense of their daily lives. Myth helps us to live in the minds and time period of people who lived many centuries ago with no technology, no running water, and a basic education. Greek myth is possibly the most commonly recognized myth simply because it is likely the most developed and best recorded. Modern Greek myth originated around 1000 B.C. in the writings of the famous Greek poet Homer in the Odyssey and the Illiad. Although early Greek myths are often vague and contain many primitive elements regarding their understanding of death, sacrifice, and fate, later myths show Greek culture developed and changed over time.
To the early Greeks, death was dark and mysterious. Early myth about the underworld and life after death is very vague, and it is likely that the Greeks just did not understand death or the underworld. In Homer’s myths the underworld, Erebus, was the child of Chaos along with Night. The early Greeks, according to Hamilton, believed that

the underworld was simply, “A shadowy place inhabited with shadows.” (Hamilton 42). Homer explains that when a person dies their psyche, spirit, leaves the body and immediately goes to be with the god Hades, the king of the dead, in the underworld. The Greeks clearly knew death existed in the world but they did not fully understand it.
Later Greek poets focused further on explaining what happens after death. They often showed a desire for a greater life following death. Many later myths convey the idea that the soul lives on, and that resurrection is possible. For example, the goddess Persephone rises from the dead each spring to be with her mother, the goddess Demeter on Earth. The idea and the possibility of resurrection is even more prominent in many of the myths about the god Dionysus. In one myth, Dionysus physically goes into the underworld and resurrects his mother from the dead. In other myths, he is completely torn apart by Hera or the Titans, only to rise again unscathed. Dionysus’s constant resurrection is most likely because he is the god of the vine, and each fall the vine is cut back only to sprout up again in the spring bearing fruit.
Early Greek rituals, like in many ancient cultures, contained vivid accounts of human sacrifice. As the Greeks developed into an advanced society they strived to remove primitive elements of their culture from their myths. Many of the Flower Myths for example, were originally sacrifice myths. They contain many accounts of young men being killed in return for a good harvest season. Hamilton explains that, “Before there were storytellers and poets, it might happen, if the fields around the village were not fruitful, if the corn did not spring up as it should, that one of the villagers would be killed and his blood sprinkled over the barren land,” (Hamilton 116). When the men in these myths died their blood brought forth beautiful flowers. Just as the Greeks believed blood would bring a good harvest.
Human sacrifice was eventually removed from Greek myth and switched to the sacrifice of animals. Greek culture gave up human sacrifice in the pursuit of changing with the times and to cleanse their image of this barbaric and primitive idea. By about 1000 B.C. when Homer wrote the Odyssey, human sacrifice was changed primarily to animal sacrifice. Homer’s poems reflect these changes of Greek beliefs, for example, in the story of human creation. He explains that Prometheus, the savior of humans, tricked Zeus into giving humans the best part of the animal sacrifice. Homer’s poems contain numerous accounts of animal sacrifice, but very little accounts of human sacrifice.
Greek writers started to change old myths to hide now primitive and barbaric accounts of human sacrifice. The Flower Myths were altered, and many of the deaths in the myths were now caused by unfortunate accidents instead of by sacrificed. Similarly, in one early myth the goddess Artimis calls for a sacrifice of a young maiden. In a much later account however, Artimis swoops in and replaces the maiden with a deer. Hamilton explains that the Greeks altered all of these primitive myths or just forget about them, “Then as the ages passed and people no longer believed that the earth needed blood to be fruitful, all that was cruel in the story would be dropped and in the end forgotten,” (Hamilton 117). As the Greeks became more civilized they tried to cover up the barbaric human sacrifice of their past, in pursuit of a more humane image.
The early Greeks certainly believed that a person had a set fate.

They believed, that they had a set destiny that they could not alter. In Greek myth, Fate was often very mysterious and hard to explain and quite possibly more powerful than Zeus. Early myth explains Fate as a power, much like death. Hamilton says Homer makes, “Hera ask him (Zeus) scornfully if he proposes to deliver from death a man Fate has doomed,” (Hamilton 26). Despite the Greek beliefs that they could not change their fate, they still attempted to understand it. Early Greek myth shows humans trying to understand fate through myths about Apollo’s oracle. Apollo’s oracle is able to predict the future, but its messages are often vague and puzzling. So even though people could be told their future they did not necessarily understand it. The early Greeks clearly believed that life was fixed and nothing they did could change

it.
Later, Greeks started to believe that a person’s fate is not set and can be changed. In later, myths Zeus is able to influence fate. Because fate is portrayed as Zeus’s three daughters (children of Zeus and Themis) Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, Zeus was their father he was able to influence the fates decisions. Also in addition to Zeus being able to change a person’s fate, one myth tells that if someone dies for you, your life could be spared. The late myths clearly show the Greek’s desire to make humans the center of the world, by giving them the possibility to change their destiny.
Myth is essentially a summary of Greek beliefs, ideals, and views of the world. Like beliefs in every aspect of life myths have changed over time and developed into the myth people read today. Myth can be read as a Bible, a science, or as just a fable, but I believe it to be more of a summary of the ancient Greeks and their history. Myth has elements essential to every culture, floods, gods, creation, and morals. It is logical that Greek mythology developed just like the Bible, science, and fables, and that certain elements were softened or erased. Greek myth is essential to our understanding of the ancient world, and it is simply a step into the mind of ancient Greeks.