The Influence of Mythology on Literature and Society

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The Influence of Mythology on Literature and Society Edith Hamilton is the author of the book Mythology. This book is about the Mythology of the Romans and Greeks through her eyes and the way she interprets it. In the beginning of the book Hamilton writes an introduction to Classical Mythology and how, and why it came about. She starts off by writing that Greek and Roman Mythology is meant to show us how people felt about the human race and about where they came from many years ago. She points out that Mythology describes the Earth when it was young and people cared for the Earth more than today. This is true, because in today?s world not many people are caring about the Earth and its going by us fast. She also points out that these stories in Mythology and the characters are describe in such great detail that even through you cannot see them, that maybe just maybe they are real and believable. Mythology is the way the Greeks and Roman saw and understood the world around them and it is written in which a way that we may never truly understand it. Hamilton now describes the Mythology of the Greeks as a totally different picture than the one described in Classical Mythology. She describes it as being vile, and savage, but the reason for this is because the Greeks wrote about themselves when they had a brutal and poverty filled life. They wrote like this to show you how they came to power and what they went through to get there. Not only was Greece coming to power, but also they changed the world as it was back then and forever. The reason for this was, because when Greece came to power so did mankind, and because they finally saw how powerful they could be, mankind was born. Greek originally obtained their gods fro... ... middle of paper ... ...die and who wanted to fight the good fight. I believe that the Norsemen gods had something to die for, where as the Greco-Roman gods had everything to live for. The Greco-Roman gods were gods who indulged in their delights and who were in a way stuck up. Both Greco-Roman and Norsemen Myths are similar in principal, but are different in meaning. The Norsemen gods seem more like people who are struggling for a common goal, and go through a lot to get their desired happiness. The Norsemen gods? way of life is the way most people think of Mythology when they hear of it. That would be the whole good versus evil battle that supposed to take place between Heaven and Hell, but even though the Norsemen gods are not as strong as the Roman-Greco gods they are stronger in faith and that?s more important than any incredible power that the Greco-Roman gods will ever have.

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