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'''Greek Mythology''' is the polytheistic myths and legends beliefs of the ancient Greeks. Ancient Greeks often relied on myths and legends to explain their natural world, such as the change of seasons. Largely inspiring Etruscan and Roman mythology, Greek legends  and symbolism remain popular in culture today.
#redirect [[Greek Mythology]]
 
==Primary Gods and Legends==
 
In Greek mythology, there are many other demi-gods and heros, but the most well known gods are the immortals who sit upon the thrones of Mt. Olympus. The Olympian gods represent a specific natural element or energy force. They are the following:
 
* '''[[Zeus]]''': The god of the heavens, or as later mythology would determine, the God of the Gods (Roman Name is Jupiter)
 
* '''Posiedon''': The god of the seas, who would challenge Athena for the title of patron of Athens (Roman Name is Neptune)
 
* '''[[Hades]]''': The god of the underworld, whom oversaw the sould of the mortally deceased (Roman Name is Pluto)
 
* '''Hera''': The goddess of marriage, who served as Zeus' primary and exceedingly jelous wife (Roman Name is Juno)
 
* '''Demeter''': The goddess of the harvest, whose daughter was the delicate Persephone (Roman Name is Ceres)
 
* '''Hestia''': The goddess of the hearth, who tends Mt. Olympus' sacred fire (Roman Name is Vesta)
 
* '''Hephaestus''': The god of blacksmiths and craftsmen, who forged lightning bolts for Zeus (Roman Name is Vulcan)
 
* '''[[Athena]]''': The goddess of wisdom, who became the patroness of Athens (Roman Name is [[Minerva]])
 
* '''Artemis''': The goddess of hunting and wilderness, who was the twin sister of Apollo (Roman Name is Diana)
 
* '''Apollo''': The god of music and light, who was the twin brother of Artemis (Roman Name is Apollo)
 
* '''Ares''': The god of war, who was quite reckless in his sides and choices in battle (Roman Name is Mars)
 
* '''Aphrodite''': The goddess of love, who rose from the botton of the sea (Roman Name is Venus)
 
* '''Hermes''': The god of theives and trickery, who also served as a messenger of the Gods (Roman Name is Mercury)
 
* '''Dionysus''': The god of winemaking and festival, who also has been metaphorically compared to Jesus Christ (Roman Name is Bacchus)
 
* '''Persephone''': The goddess-daughter of Demeter, who also served as the queen of the underworld (Roman Name is Proserpina)
 
There are various other deities, which include the Titans (Cronus, [[Prometheus]], and Epimetheus) and  demi-gods (Pan, Orion, and Minos). The heros of Greek myth and legend are also quite known, with Heracles, Odysseus, Perseus, Theseus, and Achilles.
 
==H. P. Blavatsky and Greek Myths==
 
==Anthropomorphism==
 
In traditional Greek mythology, the gods inhabit bodies that display the vices and virtues that are seen in the lower states of man. Many [[Theosophists]] believe the reason for the anthropomorphism of the gods is to give them the full spectrum of the human experience, including the sensual desires. As [[Alvin Boyd Kuhn]] remarks: 
 
<blockquote>"The dark night of the soul," no less than the Götterdämmerung, was, in the
ancient mind, just the condition of the soul's embodiment in physical forms.
Taylor reasons that Minerva (the rational faculty, as Goddess of Wisdom) was by
her attachment to body given wholly "to the dangerous employment and abandons
the proper characteristics of her nature for the destructive revels of desire."
All this is the dialectic statement of the main theme of ancient theology - the
incarnation of the godlike intellect and divine soul in the darksome conditions
of animal bodies.<ref>Kuhn, Alvin Boyd. ''The Lost Light: An Interpretation of Ancient Scriptures'' (Rahway, NJ: Quinn & Boden Company, 1940), 146.</ref></blockquote>
 
Though many Theosophists describe the human condition of the gods as degrading, [[Annie Besant]] describes the anthropomorphism as an inspiration towards man. She accounts that the fall and triumph of the Greek Olympians serve as a metaphor to man's ability to rise above his errors. She notes: 
 
<blockquote>That one who falls thus may quickly rise again is encouraging. That old Greek allegory in which every time that the hero falls to earth, worsted in the conflict, he gains new strength from it, applies to man.<ref> Besant, Annie. ''Talks on the Path of Occultism: Vol. II The Voice of The Silence'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965), 154.</ref></blockquote>
 
==Importance of Mythology==
 
<blockquote>Similarly it is that during those periods of spiritual dryness we can, if we
have so trained ourselves, commune with God through various forms of Art, for
Art fundamentally is a revelation of the Divine Nature, it reveals what Plato
called the Idea or the Archetype. The ancient Greeks were particularly sensitive
to this aspect of Art. If they looked at a statue of Apollo, the sun-god, it was
not merely to them a statue of some handsome youth, but there radiated from the
statue a mysterious influence, so that they came to feel the influence of God.
Similarly with the goddess Minerva; they felt, when there was an adequately
beautiful image in a temple, that somehow as they offered their adoration to it,
the image was like a wonderful window through which they looked into the Divine
Nature.<ref>Jinarājadāsa, Curuppumullage. ''Discourses on the Bhagavad Gita'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1953), 99.</ref></blockquote>
 
==Notes==
 
<references/>

Latest revision as of 16:15, 17 May 2013

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