Similarities Between African And Greek Myths

What are some major similarities between African and Greek myths? Differences?

Aaron Sanders

Ms. Williams

English II

9/25/15

Myth: a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being or hero or event with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, especially one that is concerned with deities or demigods and explains some practice rite, or phenomenon of nature (Dictionary.com). We have a definition for what a myth is, so all myths have to fit into this definition somehow. But other than this basic definition of a myth, there other major similarities between African and Greek myths than meets the eye.

Africa and Greece are thousands of miles apart, but there still are some very close similarities between them. One of the first is that they both portray a certain moral no matter what the story is about. In the African myth “The Hare and the Elephant”, a

Scholastic interpretation, the moral is, brain is better than brawn. While in the Greek myth of Icarus,(greeka.com), the moral is listen to the wisdom of your elders. Even though these myths don’t have the same moral, they both have a moral that helped to lead those that listened to them. In addition to these myths and the morals that they laid out, they also were cherished by those that created them. Myths were passed down generation to generation because they had a specific role in the community that created them. Another similarity between these two cultures was that they both involved a trickster of some sort. According to mythencyclopedia.com, the African trickster was either a god or an animal that caused friction with the humans. In Greek mythology, the trickster were mainly monsters, but the monsters caused friction between gods AND humans, greekmythology.com. An example of a trickster in the African myth “The Hare and the Elephant”, a Scholastic interpretation, was the hare just because he caused friction with the elephant and the hippo. In another Greek myth from greeka.com, the myth of Persephone and the Underworld, a god is the trickster, Hades, god of the underworld.
Moving on to the differences of these two cultures and their myths, there are actually not as many differences as similarities.

The first difference is that the Greeks involved monsters more in their myths than in African myths. The monsters that you hear the most about came from Greek culture, such as the Cyclops, Chimera, Minotaur, Medusa, Hydra, Cerberus.... etc. Rarely do you ever hear about African monsters. Also another major difference between Greek and African myths are the difference between who is involved in the story and to whom they are based. In Greek myths, you have stories that talk more about warriors fighting monsters, gods quarreling over the mortals, or great wars between the gods and the Titans. In African myths, you have stories that talk more about animals and their relationship with humans. Examples of Greek myths that talk about warriors fighting monsters “Jason and the Argonauts” or “Hercules”. African myths such as “The Hare and the Elephants” or “The Tortoise of the Zulu” both are myths that talk about animals and their relationships with

humans.
All in all, there are more similarities than differences between African myths and Greek myths. Whether they are based upon animals or warriors fighting monsters, they both talk about friction between gods and humans, the morals of what one should not do. Even though Greek and African culture differs greatly they still are quite similar when it comes to the myths that came out.
Works Cited
Allen, Peter J., and Chas Sanders. "African Mythology - the Gods and Spirits of Africa." Godchecker. Godchecker, 13 Sept. 2015. Web. 22 Sept. 2015.
Allen, Peter J., and Chas Sanders. "Greek Mythology - Your Guide to the Gods of Ancient Greece." Godchecker. Godchecker, 23 Aug. 2015. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
"Myths Encyclopedia." African Mythology. Advameg, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2015.
"Persephone, Queen of the Underworld - Greeka.com." Greeka. Greeka, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.
Saunders, Chas, and Peter J. Allen, eds. "FATES - the Greek Goddesses of Fate (Greek mythology)." Godchecker. Godchecker.com / CID, 23 Aug. 2015. Web. 22 September 2015.
"Africa | Scholastic.com." Scholastic Teachers. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2015.