Ancient Greece and Eclipses
Many ancient cultures worshipped heavenly bodies such as the sun and moon. One of these was Ancient Greece. The sun and moon gave the people a sense of order in the universe that connected with their daily lives. So, since the sun and moon were of great significance, a sudden darkening of the sun was most likely the cause for much fear and panic. The word “eclipse” actually comes from the greek word “Ekleipsis”, which means abandonment in ancient greek. The Greeks worshipped the sun as a god “Helios”, and when it suddenly started darkening, it caused much terror. Ancient greeks thought of it as a terrible crisis and existential threat. It meant that the king would fall and “terrible misfortunes” would rain down on the world. Occasionally, the king was removed for the day and replaced by slaves or people from the lower classes because the happening of the solar eclipse was believed to bring bad luck to the king. The “replacements” were later killed. So Ancient Greece really was terrified of an eclipse. They believed that the sun was angry at the people and that things would go bad soon after. Nowadays, people are more educated. We probably won’t think of the solar
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Many people in the world still see the eclipses as bad omens that bring disaster, destruction, and death. A popular misunderstanding is that solar eclipses can be a danger to pregnant women and their unborn children. In many countries, young children and pregnant women are asked to stay indoors during the event. In many parts of india, people don’t eat during a solar eclipse because of the belief that any food cooked during the eclipse will turn poisonous and impure. Of course, not all superstitions concerning solar eclipses are about doom. In Italy, it is believed that flowers planted during a solar eclipse are brighter and more colorful than any other time of the
In Astronomy, an eclipse is an event in which an object is covered by passing through another body or having another body pass through it and the viewer. In our American history, there have been numerous events that have happened in certain years that we will never forget. 1831 is an unknown year for most people because most think that it was a just another year and that nothing important happened. Louis P. Masur would say other wise in his book 1831 Year of Eclipse. Masur depicts an “eclipse” as a pivotal year in American history because there were many historical events that occurred.
Ancient Greece and China had similar problems. They both had to deal with civil wars. They also dealt with rivers flooding. Lastly, they both had to deal with plague that killed a lot of the population in the Ancient lands.
Mythology is critical to Greek people’s everyday life, just like how religion is in our modern day age. Everyday events, such as a thunderstorm, can be linked to a god or goddess. For example, when an earthquake would happen, it would be Poseidon crashing his tritan on the ground. People’s lives revolved around the whole ideology and it served as a way to explain the unexplained and to help them in times of need. All of the stories of these great gods and goddesses were passed down generation through generation, each time becoming more extreme and distorted.
The Ancient Greeks believed strongly in their gods and goddesses, they believed that the gods often intervened in their lives. In the epic poem, The Odyssey, Homer portrays relationship between the mortals and immortals as immortals have the ultimate power over mortals. The mortals are at the mercy of the immortals. The gods can be generous and supportive but also destructive to any human being.
In ancient times, the Greeks had absolute and undeniable respect for their gods. They demonstrated their admiration by putting in place many rituals and celebrations to reverence the gods that they loved and feared in order to ensure harmony with them. In particular, the focus will be on the religious beliefs of the Greeks, including prayer and sacrifice, as well as on festivals and the arts, such as the ancient Olympic games and theatre. These aspects of their culture made a significant contribution to their quality of life. Moreover, these topics will be examined in relation to the twelve Olympian gods and their associates.
In Greek Mythology a rivalry always occurs between certain Gods and Goddesses. In the case of Apollo and Dionysus there is no exception. They are half brothers, both sons of Zues and they compete just as most brothers do. Though the two Greek Gods, Apollo and Dionysus, were actually very similar in some ways, they severely contrasted in others.
Although a country may be located in the same geographical area over an elongated period of time, that country is perchance susceptible to slight transformations, due to adjustments in the populations generational beliefs and practices. As the similarities between Archaic Greece and Classical Greece are bountiful, there are a few differences that have conclusively occurred. While both Archaic Greece and Classical Greece were set in a prolific time period, their philosophy, architecture, and art such as sculpting share similar characteristic, as well as contrast.
Greek religion influenced greatly on the people’s daily lives.
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.
This was so because unlike us, the Greeks believed that they already had explanations for trivial questions such as, “Where the world came from?'; “Who are we?'; and “Who controls the world around us?'; To them all these questions could simply be explained by looking at their own mythology. It is hard for us to really understand how deeply these beliefs were rooted into their personalities, to the Greeks if some natural phenomenon occurred it occurred because one of their gods had decided to make it occur, it was just as simple as that. The existence of the God’s to the Greeks was something just as simple as that the fact that the sky is blue is simple to us. The strength of these preconceived ideas can be seen in Strepsiades’s words while he argues with Socrates in Aristophanes’s The Clouds:
Ancient Greek Religion There are many topics to be explored in Ancient Greek mythology. This unique polytheistic religion was based upon myths about anthropomorphic gods and goddesses. It impacted every facet of Grecian life, from law and ritual to culture and art. The individual as well as society both influenced the characteristics of the religion and were influenced by the religion itself. The Cambridge Illustrated History of Ancient Greece explains a variety of ways in which the Greeks were influenced by their religion.
The ancient Greeks lived in an influential and creative time. Music filled the streets, sculptures towered over the city and masterpieces hung on walls everywhere. Children were being educated which led to great philosophers in the future. This city-state was flourishing and is now known today as one of the most advanced ancient civilizations. As progressive as these people were sadly, they were held back by their own beliefs. The fear of a raging hurricane controlled by Poseidon or one of Zeus’s deadly lightning bolts left people scared that these awful things could happen to them which made following the lessons of the stories a lot easier than thinking for themselves. When the consequences were so deadly why wouldn’t you follow the rules? The gods were a great way to describe what was going on around them. It was an easier explanation then a scientific equation. The Greeks were not encouraged to think for themselves but were rather expected to follow the lessons of the myths in love, character traits and in the afterlife.The ancient Greeks grew up with stories of cursed lovers and doomed mortals for falling in love with immortals. Love was a dangerous thing in Greece and falling in love with the wrong person could mean disaster. A great example of being punished for falling in love are Cupid and Psyche. Venus was so jealous of Psyche’s beauty she tried to put a spell over her and make her fall in love with an awful beast (Hamilton, 97). When that didn’t work she made her do impossible tasks (Hamilton, 102). Hera is another imp...
In Ancient Greece, the lives of the multi-religious yet cognitive people were structured accordingly to their religious practices. Althought there was no dominant set of religious beliefs or dieties, the Greeks believed in what rather seems to be a pantheon of gods all similar in each definitive culture that seem to come together and reign supreme as the polytheistic religion of the Greek people. These beliefs came about from cultural diffusion between different religions and are reflected majorly in Roman polytheistic beliefs which transpired into the beliefs of many other cultures. It is believed that the Ancient Greek religion was comprised of ideologies from philosphers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, and that it became significant through the poetry of the epic writer Homer. The Greek beliefs influenced the cultures and minds of people in many city states throughout Ancient Greece especially Athens, Sparta, and the Minoan civilization and served as a foundation for the culture of these civilizations.
Astronomy is a very important field in science. Ancient Greece, China, and India all contributed to our everyday ideas and uses of astronomy. Ancient Greece was the most influential because the Indian’s based most of their astronomy off of Greece. The Greeks created calendars that were based off of the eclipse cycle, which they called by two different names, Hellenic Calendars and Lunisolar Calendars. Because of Ancient Greece, we now have calendars to keep us on track every day. The Greeks observed a celestial object passing through the eastern and western morning sky. After a long time of observations, they came to a realization that it was a planet and now that is the planet is well known as Venus. (Sarton, 75) Plato and Aristotle’s theories were incredible contributions on us today. Both of their theories were all about the behavior and life of the planets, such as their theory that the earth is spherical. (Sarton, 421). Ancient Greece als...
The word “ancient” can be a hard word to describe. It has no specific time period, but also does at the same time. When something is described as ancient, it is something that is extremely old, or was in the very distant past. Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Greek civilizations co-existed from 1150BC to 146BC. They had different systems, beliefs, and life styles, just like how different countries do today. There were also similarities, such as both having a single person be the ruler, not giving equal power to everyone. For Greeks, this would be a king and for Egyptians, and Pharaoh. Both Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece believed in mythology – a similarity between the two. However, much of their mythology was different. Although both Egypt