A paper on ancient Greek myths and stories

Ancient Greek mythology, an important source of modern western cultural spirit

Abstract: Western culture comes from Greece and Greek civilization, that is, ancient Greek and ancient Hebrew civilization. As one of the sources of western culture, Greek mythology is its soil and arsenal, just as Marx said. Ancient Greek drama, architecture, painting and sculpture all draw nutrition from ancient Greek mythology. Therefore, it can be said that ancient Greek mythology is an important source of western culture. As we all know, ancient Greek mythology is an inexhaustible source of western culture. This paper focuses on trying to explore two important spiritual blood drawn by western culture from ancient Greek mythology, namely humanism and rationality, which are the two main spirits of the whole modern western culture.

Keywords: ancient Greek mythology, the spiritual source of modern western culture

I. Myths and Ancient Greek Myths

Marx wrote in the Introduction that myth is said to be "a natural and social form processed in an unconscious artistic way through human fantasy" and "conquering, dominating and visualizing natural forces with imagination and with the help of imagination". Therefore, myth is an exploration of the relationship between nature and self, and between nature and self. Myth should be a true and rational expression of the primitive view of nature and world outlook of clans, tribes, nations and even a group of people. Myth reflects people's thoughts and concepts. "Myth, as the earliest record of a nation's footprint, directly shows what is close to the bottom or essence of human nature because it is less influenced by traditional culture or suppressed by contemporary civilization." As a systematic myth, ancient Greek mythology certainly shows the most essential spirit of ancient Greek humanity.

All the ancient Greek fairy tales we know now come from Homer's epic and hesiod's genealogy, as well as works and time. Homer's epics include the Iliad and two books. The Iliad tells the story of the ancient Greeks and Trojans against the Iliad. Aused describes the experiences of Greek troops on their way back. After Homer, hesiod wrote Divine Spectrum and Work and Time, the origin of Greek gods and the beginning of history. From the 6th century BC to the 3rd century BC, the classic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and euripides, the three great tragedies in Greece, also greatly enriched the content of Greek mythology. Ancient Greek mythology mainly includes stories of gods and legends of heroes. The former includes stories about the creation of heaven and earth, the birth of God, the pedigree of God, the origin of man, and the activities of God. In ancient Greek mythology, there were twelve gods in Greece. They live on Mount Hospice in northern Greece. They are Zeus, the goddess in charge of thunder and lightning, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, themis, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Aphrodite, the god of love and beauty, Ares, the god of fire and craftsmen, Hrsto, Hermes, the messenger of the gods, Demeter and Hestia, the kitchen gods. In addition, there are eros, goddess of knowledge and art, and Hercules. In addition to the gods, there are the legend of heroes in ancient Greek mythology, which mainly reflects the distant ancient social life and the struggle with nature after the development of human spirit and material, and many of them reflect people's understanding of the production struggle. Unlike China's myth, which is scattered, fragmented, isolated and simple in plot, Greek mythology is self-contained, intact, full of twists and turns, and extremely attractive.

Second, the humanistic spirit in ancient Greek mythology and its influence

The gods in China's mythology are mostly animal-shaped, half-human, half-beast-shaped, or a combination of several animals, and few are pure human beings. There are also traces of anthropomorphism in ancient Greek mythology, and they are the ancestors of the gods. The main figures in ancient Greek mythology, the Twelve Gods of Greece, all have the same appearance and gender as human beings, and the gods and heroes in ancient Greek mythology are very secular.

(A), one of the manifestations of humanistic spirit-God reflects people.

We can see that the Greek gods are human from the descriptions of the portraits of the gods in ancient Greek mythology and the sculptures and paintings of the ancient Greek gods. The ancient Greeks worshipped God, but they did not give God too high a lofty standard, nor did they regard God as the standard of moral measurement, but regarded God as a reflection of human beings. Greek gods are not much different from human beings except immortal and powerful. Throughout the ancient Greek mythology, many gods were endowed with super powers, but they were more humanized. Ancient Greek gods lived on Mount Olympus. They organized a network of family and social life. They think and act like human beings, love, marry, envy and raise children like human beings. The emotions of Greek gods are the joys and sorrows of ordinary people. All this shows that Greece is paying attention to itself by creating myths. "In the minds of ancient Greeks, God was neither the naked legal relationship and the real country in the hearts of Romans, nor the majestic, horrible and unattainable god in the hearts of Christians, nor the shriveled and rigid moral idol in China mythology, but the image of a kind, lovely and perfect person and a beautiful ideal". Greek mythology is a story of human experience and society. This is a complete embodiment of humanistic spirit.

Like women in the world, Hera, the noble queen of heaven, is jealous of her husband Zeus, who is not devoted to love, and cares for her husband's extramarital affairs in every way for Zeus's lovers. She turned Calliste into a bear, and she forced Zeus to turn Io into a cow. Although he is a god, Dionysus sings and drinks all day. He is neither serious nor noble. In order to refuse to accept Apollo, the sun god who pursues herself, Daphne has to become a osmanthus tree, which indicates a kind of trouble that people she doesn't like like.

(2) The second manifestation of humanistic spirit-exposing and affirming people's various desires.

Ancient Greek mythology not only showed the wisdom and courage of the gods, but also expressed their praise and pursuit of wisdom and courage, and fully exposed and affirmed the gods' pursuit of lust, throne and property. Www.lwfree.com, paper net

The ancient Greeks admired wisdom and courage because of their knowledge and understanding of nature and man himself. Facing the harsh mountain jungle and the unpredictable sea, facing the powerful nature and the smallness of human beings, the ancient Greeks can only survive by wisdom and courage. Ancient Greek mythology embodies the pursuit of wisdom and courage by shaping different types of gods and heroes. Zeus became the Lord God with his wisdom, courage and strength. Prometheus violated the gods and stole the fire of light for mankind by wisdom and courage; Hercules accomplished 12 things for mankind and became a god by wisdom and courage; Theseus, the first hero, Jason's search for the road to golden fleece, and the Trojan siege of Odyssey all showed wisdom and courage, and the gods' pursuit of them.

Ancient Greek mythology did not avoid the lust, position and power desire of the gods. Zeus, as the head of the gods, despite having a beautiful queen Hera, kept cheating with ordinary women; Avilott Dieter, the goddess of love, was forced to marry hephaestus, the kitchen god. She was dissatisfied with her marriage, so she bravely pursued love and fell in love with Ares, the god of war. Copying papers everywhere for a living is rubbish, showing the characteristics of personal will leading and indulging in personal love pursuit. Achilles left the battlefield not only because Agamemnon took away her beloved female prisoner, but also because Agamemnon ignored his position and role as the supreme commander of Greece, which was his pursuit and value for power.

Ancient Greece praised Zeus for defeating crassus with wisdom and strength and becoming the ruler of the universe, and said mercilessly that he fell in love with every beautiful woman he met and cheated on them. Hephais, the kitchen god, out of resentment against his wife, Averott Dieter and Ares, put Averott Dieter and Ares on the bed and invited the gods to visit them in order to humiliate them. But instead of despising them, Hermes expressed envy and was willing to stay with Avelot Dite even though he was entangled in the three nets. Ancient Greek mythology reveals the desire of the gods, the pursuit of wisdom and courage, and the pursuit of lust, status and power. Ancient Greek myths and legends reflect the real awakening of ancient Greeks' consciousness and their recognition and affirmation in the form of metaphor and symbol, which is the humanistic spirit of ancient Greeks respecting human nature.

(C), the impact of humanistic spirit on the modern West

As the Italian thinker Vico said, God did not create man, but man created God in his own image. "God is the objectification of human nature. Ancient Greece was a humanist who worshipped finiteness and nature rather than otherworldly 1 168.

Greek Myth and Western Traditional Ethical Spirit

What is the true meaning of myth? Different scholars have different understandings. It is no exaggeration to say that with the study of myths by many scholars, the answers have increased. This is because all disciplines only see their faces in the magic mirror of myth. Although everyone has different views, we can still get a glimpse of the true meaning of myth from many discussions. On the surface, the myth named after its theme is the story of the gods, which describes the behavior of the gods beyond human ability, but the essence of the myth is "human speech" Durkheim, a French sociologist, once said that "it is not nature but society that is the prototype of myth, and all the basic themes of myth are the projection of human social life" [1](P245). Edward tylor, a British anthropologist, also has an incisive exposition on this. He said: "The myth records not the life of a superhero, but the life of an imaginative nation. It was the primitive man who brought all the outstanding stories of his life into the kingdom of God, repeating the tragedies and comedies that happened on the ground in heaven. " [2] (P123) Myth is a hypothesis made by primitive human beings according to their own psychological experience and life experience. The more this hypothesis excludes the "human factor", the poorer he will be-because myth can only be a kind of "human talk" in the final analysis. Since myth is a reflection of national life, it must be national. Although myth originated and developed in "human childhood", there is no common childhood experience for different human groups (such as nations, tribes, clans, etc.). ). "There are savage children, precocious children and normal children." [3](P549) If China people are "precocious children", the Greeks are "normal children". Together, they constitute a splendid and diverse world civilization. Greek mythology is self-contained, close to real life, and basically maintains its original appearance when it came into being, from which we can examine the political, economic and cultural conditions of ancient Greeks. It has a great influence on the cultural development of Europe as a whole. This paper attempts to expound the humanistic spirit, the fate of the center of the whole Greek mythological order, the thought of promoting men and restraining women and its multiple evaluation.

First, humanistic spirit.

Anne Bonner, a famous Swiss classical cultural scholar, wrote: "The starting point and object of all Greek mythological civilizations are people. It starts from people's needs and pays attention to people's interests and progress. In order to gain people's interest and progress, it explores the world and people at the same time, and explores the other side through one side. In the concept of Greek civilization, man and the world are the reflection of one party to the other, that is, both are opposite to each other and both write papers for each other. " [4](P64) Protella also has a famous saying: "Man is the measure of all things and the measure of existence. It is also a non-existent scale. " [5](P86) This is a manifestation of the strong self-awareness of the Greeks. Attach importance to the realization of personal value and emphasize people's subjective initiative. The ancient Greek mythology, which was produced in this godly culture soil, shows the characteristics of flaunting individuality, indulging primitive desires and affirming the value of human secular life and individual life, and has a deep-rooted humanistic consciousness. Hercules, for example, is the only hero who is a demigod. After his death, he can climb Mount Olympus and marry Herbie, the goddess of youth, ranking first among the gods. Legend has it that the gods of Olympus fought a fierce battle with giants born in Kaya and Uranus. An Oracle said: If no mortal takes part in the war, then the gods will not harm the invading giants. Hercules appeared at this time, saving the embarrassing situation of Olympus. This story is an episode beyond the feat of Heracles 12, but its content means that the invincible god needs a mortal to save him, and the ancient Greeks' desire for self-worth is ordinary. This story also shows that the position of God in the hearts of the Greeks has changed slightly. Zeus summoned all Olympians who took part in the war to commend the god of meritorious service, and Hercules also won this honor. The epochal nature of myth explains why one and a half people can be allowed to appear in a hierarchy of gods, because the creator of myth needs such a change, and it is time for human will to hold its head high.

(1) Strong individual consciousness. Greek mythology advocates personal honor, affirms personal value and dignity, and has a strong individual consciousness. Although Arrhenius knew his two fates: to live a long life in obscurity or to die in battle with honor, he chose the battlefield to fight the Trojans. Honor is more important to him than life, and when Agamemnon robbed his beloved slave, he refused to take part in the war, leaving his compatriots chased around by Trojans and killed by them in batches. Even if Agamemnon came to apologize, he was indifferent. In fact, alois's anger comes from his defense of personal dignity. No one can defile his dignity, not even Agamemnon, commander-in-chief of the Greek Coalition forces. If Agamemnon wants to trample on this dignity by robbing booty, then he has reason to be angry and endure to see his army killed by hector and wiped out. This is enough to show that the personal dignity of the Greeks is higher than the national interest, or that the personal dignity and personal value of the Greeks are higher than the national interest. It was not until his best friend was killed that he aroused anger and decided to avenge his best friend. Here, Arrhenius cares about his own self-interest, embodies the spirit of Greek culture with individualism as its essential feature, and highlights the value concept of individual supremacy. Based on the concept of separation between man and nature, the Greeks produced a strong individual consciousness after the separation of man and nature. As a subject, man is in the position of nature and society, and advocates the conquest and transformation of nature and society, and the separation of subject and object.

(2) Love for real life. Greeks pay attention to real life, advocate personal freedom and publicize the spirit of independence. In their view, those who are dedicated to the public and have no desires and demands are respectable in spirit, but they are sacred and inhuman. They are out of tune with the reality of life and will eventually become victims of life like Jesus. For example, in Homer's Odysseus, Odysseus returned from an expedition to Troy and passed through the underworld. He met the dead alois, the ghost in charge of the underworld, and praised him, but alois replied, "I'm dead. Why should you comfort me?" I would rather live in the world than command the souls of all the dead. [6](P238) This reflects the strong secularity of the gods and heroes in Greek mythology, and it can also be seen that people in the West are extremely enthusiastic about the perceptual real world. They think that life on the other side is an extension of life on this side, and they are optimistic. They think that the perceptual real life is higher than the soul world on the other side, so if they encounter death, they first try to imagine the other side of the world as reality. Sibillat Stein, an ancient Greek philosopher, said: "No matter when and where, the best thing in life is to enjoy wealth, health and prestige among the Greeks and live to an old age. "No wonder alois wanted to say," Glorious Odysseus, please don't comfort my dead. I would rather farm for others and be employed as a servant, even if he has no ancestral property and poor family wealth, he is not willing to rule all the dead. " [6](P238-239) The love and nostalgia of the Greeks for real life is beyond words.

(3) Humanized God. If the Greek gods and ordinary mortals are put together, it is absolutely difficult to distinguish human gods, because they are all personified images with lust, good and evil, scheming and blood relationship like human beings. They need food, drink, clothes and shelter just like human beings. They also make common mistakes, often mix with human beings, take part in human wars and cheat men and women. Zeus is an affectionate god who often has sex with beautiful women on the earth behind his wife Hera's back. I don't know how many romantic seeds have been sown. Ares, the god of war, was discovered by her husband, the craftsman God, so she surrounded them with a net and sent them to the gods, which attracted laughter. Then Cupid fell in love with adonis, a beautiful boy, which made Cupid's lover Ares jealous. He used magic to let the wild boar kill the teenager. In the legend of the Greek allied expedition to Troy, the spear of the Greek general Demetrius stabbed the goddess of love, screaming and bleeding profusely. She fled to Mount Olympus, fell into her mother's arms and began to cry. All these reflect that Greek mythology is based on the desires, likes and dislikes of real people in social life, so it has a strong flavor of life and is more cordial and moving. Therefore, from the essence of God, we can see the characteristics of human beings and the publicity and alienation of human nature.

Second, fate.

Ancient Greek mythology advocated superman, which was unstoppable and reversed the power of Gan Kun. This power is innate, natural, and innate. They believe in "fate", everything is arranged, and all human efforts are useless and will not change the doomed fate. It can be said that the whole Greek myth is the unfolding of "destiny" and the realization of "Oracle". The best explanation and footnote of "fate" in Greek mythology is the story of Oedipus. Before he was born, King Oedipus was decided by the goddess of fate to kill his father and marry his mother. Although his father, Ios, acted cautiously, and King Oedipus gave up the throne and left his adoptive parents and wife forever, he still couldn't escape the fate, and he still couldn't get rid of the punishment of fate and complete the arrangement of the "Oracle". In the face of "fate", people are helpless! Under the threat of "fate", Greek gods and people were set in an orbit and had to go their separate ways, so there was order. At this time, people feel the unreasonable and unexplained "fate" of nature and alien forces. Therefore, in Oedipus, although there is rational action force, there is also mental pain and anxiety caused by unfathomable fate. Oedipus' strong sense of action shows that human subject has risen to the height of self-awareness at this time. However, his ending shows us the self-esteem of the Greeks and the pain of seeking freedom. The more he wants to get rid of the trap of fate, the more he throws himself into it, the more he sincerely hurts the people, and the closer he is to self-destruction step by step. The process of resisting fate is the process of entering the trap of fate, and the result of action is self-punishment. This paradox implies the inevitability of opposition between man and alien forces and the tragic fate that man cannot defeat alien forces.

If Oedipus' action is to explore the truth of fate, then Sisyphus's action is to explore the meaning of life. Milan Kundera said: "Things that happened only once, as if they had never happened. If life belongs to us only once, of course, there is no life at all. " [7](P6) The existence of life is obtained from heavy burdens again and again. This burden was borne by Sisyphus in ancient Greek mythology. He was sent to hell for telling Aesop where his daughter was. The problem is not how heavy the boulder is, but that Sisyphus will accomplish nothing with all his efforts, because after he pushes the boulder to the top of the mountain, it will roll back to the ground along the mountain. Sisyphus became an absurd hero here, and he constantly proved the return of eternal robbery. From then on, he lived in a universe without people. Perhaps it is such an indispensable action that makes him feel the existence of himself. It can be seen that the Greeks seem to know more about the meaning of action and grasp their own destiny more rationally. It can be said that the Greeks are essentially rational explorers.

The third is the idea of promoting men and restraining women.

The most striking thing in ancient Greek myths and legends is a large number of female images, a female world composed of goddess, demigod, heroine and woman. But Pandora, the first woman in ancient Greek mythology, was pieced together by Zeus to punish men. She brought disasters to the world: poverty, hunger, plague, disease and death. This kind of treatment clearly embodies the idea of promoting men and restraining women. Engels said: "The overthrow of matriarchal system is a historic failure of women. The husband also has power at home, while the wife is degraded and enslaved, becoming a slave to her husband's lust and a simple tool for bearing children. " [3](P 1 13) The degraded status of women is also reflected in Greek mythology. In order to repel the enemies who besieged Athens, Macalia obeyed the Oracle and made sacrifices. Agamemnon's daughter gave her life in order to March into Troy smoothly. The captured Princess Polosena of Troy also fell in alois's grave. All these legends of blood are disguised under various beautiful coats: some are to defend the tribe, such as Agamemnon's daughter, and some are loyal to love, such as Altius ... Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia's sad plea reflects the voices of many innocent women victims: "Don't let me die so young, the glory of the earth is lovely, don't let me go into the dark hell .." For people, nothing is more lovely than life ... "[6] (P57 1) But Iphigenia still fell under the sword.

The woman who was sent to the altar is sad, and the living woman is unfortunate. Penelope's whole life is to guide women to work and miss her long-lost husband alone in the room. When she occasionally tells her pain, her son will take out the face of the master to discipline her: "You'd better go back to your room and do your thing ... Talking is a man's business, first of all, it's my business, because I am the master of this family." [8] (P280) So she was deprived of the right to speak and went back to her room to cry silently. Penelope has been strictly chaste for 20 years, but her husband has no trust in her, because he remembers Agamemnon's entrustment of never trusting women, which represents the prejudice against women in law, morality and public opinion at that time. A lady like Penelope is still in such a poor position, and the situation of other female slaves and prisoners is even worse. Homer's epic Iliad begins with the struggle against female slaves and ends with the slaughter of female slaves. The fundamental reason reflecting the evolution of women's status is the relative decline of women's role in labor production. From the dazzling "goddess" under the matriarchal system to the "woman" competing with the paternal system, and finally to the "female slave" under the oppression of slavery, it is a vivid embodiment that economic status determines social status.

Fourth, multiple evaluation.

In ancient Greek mythology, heroic stories are one of the themes. Greek mythology worships heroes and especially loves and praises them, but this does not depend on whether they have noble moral behavior evaluation standards, nor does it require them to save mankind as their own responsibility. Heroes are brave and fearless, and most of them have the characteristics of demigod and demiman. They like to explore and conquer, and are proud of their bravery, although these heroes are not perfect. But it is still praised by people. In their view, heroes are heroes and admirable people. They should not praise one side and belittle the other because of their personal defects or hostility to each other. They adhere to an aesthetic multi-value evaluation standard. The pursuit of beauty in Greek mythology, on the one hand, has created the national spirit and psychology of westerners who love life, dare to take risks, pursue individuality and advocate heroic temperament, on the other hand, it has also given birth to the prosperity and development of western culture and art with its eternal artistic charm. As Mr. Qian Min said: "Because of its comprehensiveness, myth has become the origin of modern humanities and even some natural sciences, and it is also the mother of literature and art." The more culturally developed countries and nations, the more interested they are in the practical and psychological activities of human childhood. This discussion is not curious, but trying to find the connection between modern civilization and ancient civilization, as well as the potential motivation and inertia of a clan, and find out the position of their national culture in the origin of the whole human culture, so as to enhance national self-confidence and due reflective psychology and plan the future with a more calm scientific attitude. " [