Introduction
This led to humananity all over the world making up tales about those phenomenon, which resulted in the invention of gods and supernatural beings to provide the needed explanation. All the creation myths all over the world are similar in certain ways to one another, and that is exploration of human efforts of explaining the origins of the Earth, the Sun, the Moon and the stars, the animal life on their home planet.
The best known sources for Greek-Roman mythology include Homer, Hesiod, later Roman poets such as Ovid, and Greek tragic poets, which give us an approximate time frame from the eighth century B.C.E to the first century.
“In the early years, women were the supreme gods to most mythologies in most cultures. The Earth Mother was depicted as the creator of all of the life on the Earth, as well as the moon or sun goddess ruling the sky, the seasons, and weather. But with years going by, people realized that both, males and females were necessary for the procreation of the species. Thus male gods strarted to gain more power in different mythologies all over the world” (Diel, 154).
“Taking a Look at the Greek and Roman myths will tell us a story of creation of order out of chaos. Earth and Heaven (Gaia and Uranos), being the main gods of the Greco-Roman mythos, were born from out of Chaos, the primordial undifferentiated abyss; the water, personified as Ocean, can also be identified as the primordial element surrounding the whole cosmos” (Daly, 8).
The two gods created the animal and vegetative life on the Earth. They as well created the Titans, the Cyclopes, and other monsters that were banished underground by Uranus, who was then eventually overthrown by Cronus (his son), who had 12 children with Rhea, that became the Olympian Gods, the great Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses.
The Greek myths are telling us the story of the struggle between gods that lasted for entire generations. The culmination of generations struggling can be found in the battle of Zeus (the Roman Jupiter) against his father, the Titan Cronus (Saturn). Eventually Zeus became the supreme leader of the Olympian gods, who under his command then began a battle against those horrific Earth’s offspring representing disorder. Once Zeus appeared victorious in this struggle, another one became clear, and it was among the Olympian gods. And because, as in other mythic traditions, each Greek god was associated with some natural feature or power, natural phenomenon such as earthquakes and storms, the rising and setting of the sun were explained as the struggle among the gods.
One of the most important stories among them all is the story of Demeter (goddess of grain and growing crops) and her daughter Persephone. Persephone got kidnapped and carried to the underworld by Hades, and in response Demeter stopped all the vegetation from growing until Hades agreed to his brother’s Zeus persuasion to release Persephone. This story is the obvious example of how the origins of the cycle of the seasons can be explained in terms of gods struggling with each other.
Another story goes on about the Titan Prometheus creating human beings and animals, with his brother, Epimetheus, who helped in the creation, and who gave different sorts of physical advantages to animals over humans. But Prometheus decided to balance out the situation, by gaving the knowledge of how to use fire and other crafts to the humans.
In another myth, Zeus did supposedly “flood the Earth in order to vanquish the well developed iron men with only degenerate stone men left. Such stories indicate that Greeks were aware of the ancient traditions leftovers of the Minoan and Cretan civilizations being present, and thus shows a healthy respect that Greeks possessed for the destructive potential of the gods’ natural powers” (Leeming, 118).
Reading these stories a “certain Greek view of the relation between gods and human beings can be discovered. And this view is tell that the natural world is full of spiritual energies and divine beings, in which human beings must be careful as if not to offend these natural deities and no to disrupt the order of the cosmos, and that the gods actually have no real concern for humans until those maintain rituals for them and make sacrifices to them” (Diel, 159).
Conclusion
Having almost none of the gods of their own, and by simply borrowing myths from the Greeks and converting the stories and beliefs in their own manner, the Romans managed to give a certain personality and vividness to their religion. Jupiter got the glory of the Greek Zeus; temples and statues to Jupiter and his consort, Juno, and Minerva were built all over the empire.
References
Daly, Kathleen., Rengel, Marian. Introduction. Greek and Roman Mythology A to Z. New York: Chelsea House Pub, 2009. 7-10. Print.
Diel, Paul. Symbolism in Greek Mythology: Human Desire and Its Transformations. Boston: Shambhala, 1980. 150-163. Print.
Leeming, David. Creation Myths of the World: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio , 2009. 9-16; 116-120; 231-233. Print.
