新建 希腊罗马神话.docx

1、新建 希腊罗马神话Greek Mythology Greek Mythology is a group of traditional tales told by the ancient Greeks about the deedsof gods and heroes and their relations with ordinary human beings. The ancient Greeks worshiped many gods. Each Greek city-state had its own particular gods or goddesses and built templ

2、es in honor of them. The temple generally housed a statue of the god or gods. Stories about the gods were different. A god might have one set of characteristics in one city or region and quite different characteristics elsewhere. So each myth may have a number of versions. Greek gods can be divided

3、into several groups. The earliest group was the Titans, led by Cronus. The most powerful group was the Olympians. The Greek gods and goddesses resembled human beings in their form, but this form was strongly idealized. They also resembled human beings in their emotions and experienced jealousy, love

4、 and grief. They shared with humans a desire to assert their own authority and to punish anyone who denied it.Their society, like human society, consisted of members with different levels of authority and power. Their families and relationships were similar to those of human beings. Zeus and were hu

5、sband and wife, Apollo and Artemis were brother and sister, and the gods on Mount Olympus resembled a quarrelsome family, with Zeus as its head. The gods could temporarily enter the human world. They might, for example, fall in love with a human being, as Aphrodite did with Adonis. and Zeus with Alc

6、mene and Danae. Or they might destroy a mortal who displeased them. However, there are some important differences between gods and human beings.Humans died, and gods were immortal; gods were extraordinarily powerful, and they could change in form; gods emotions were much stronger than those of human

7、 beings. There were several groups of minor gods in Greek mythology. Nymphs were minor goddesses or spirits of nature, living in oceans, lakes, rivers, mountains and trees. Three goddesses called Fates controlled the destiny of every man. The Muses, nine daughters of Zeus, were goddesses of literatu

8、re, music and dance. The Horae were goddesses who controlled the seasons. The Furies were terrible goddesses who pursued those who had murdered their friends or relatives. Not all Greek gods looked like human beings. They could also look very strange and horrible, unlike any natural creatures on ear

9、th. For example, Medusa had hundreds of snakes in her hair, and a glaring stare that turned her victims to stone. The Graeae were gray-haired from birth, with but a single tooth and a single eye between them. Greek heroes were almost as important as the gods in Greek mythology. Heroes were big-ger,

10、braver, and more beautiful than ordinary men and women. In most cases their fathers or grandfathers were gods, but their mothers were mortals, so they were often called half-gods. (called Hercules in Roman mythology) probably the most important half-god. He was the symbol of strength and physical en

11、durance. Another demigod, Orpheus, became known for his beautiful singing. Heroes were favoured by the gods, and worshiped after their&ath owees did not always act heroically in the modern sense. The Greeks not only retold their myths orally, but also preserved them in literary and artistic works. S

12、cholars have reconstructed Greek mythology by drawing material from written texts, sculpture, and pictures painted on pottery. Homers epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, are one of the major sources of our knowledge of Greek mythology. The Iliad is about the Trojan War and the quarrel between Agamemno

13、n and Achilles, two of the leading Greek warriors. The Odyssey is about the adventures of the Greek hero Odysseus, who, after the Trojan War, sails back to his home on the island of Ithaca. Another important source is Hesiods Theogony, written in the 8th century B.C. at about the same time as Homers

14、 epics. It describes the beginning of the world and the history of the family of the gods. Besides, the ancient Greek poet Pindar and the three greatest dramatists-Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripi- des also tell us a lot about Greek gods and heroes in their works. Greek artists, too, portrayed mythol

15、ogy. we now can still see some statues of gods inside Greek temples, and relief sculptures of scenes from mythology outside them. Among the best-known examples are the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens. We can also see mythological imagery painted on Greek vases.1. The Origin of the Gods Ac

16、cording to Greek myths, the god Chaos was the source of all things. From Chaos cameGaea, the Earth. Gaea immediately gave birth to Uranus, who became king of the sky. Gaea mated with Uranus, producing children who were called the Titans. The Titans were strong and large. The youngest and most import

17、ant Titan was Cronus (Saturn in Roman Myth). Uranus feared his children and prevented them from being born. Gaea called upon her son Cronus, the youngest Titan, to help. Cronus attacked Uranus with a sickle and cut off his sexual organs and threw them into the sea. From the bloody foam in the sea Ap

18、hrodite, goddess of sexual love, was born. Cronus then freed the Titans from inside Gaea. Taking away his fathers power, Cronus became king of the sky. Cronus married his sister Rhea, who boren three daughters and three sons. But Cronus md that he, like Uranus, would be over-thrown by his children.

19、He therefore swallowed his first five children Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon immediately after their birth. However, when their sixth child, Zeus was born, Rhea handed Cronus a stone wrapped in baby clothes. Rhea then hid the infant on the island of Crete. After Zeus grew up, he returne

20、d to challenge his father. By using a trick, he caused Cronus to vomit his children. The children had grown into adults while inside their father. Zeus then led his brothers and sisters in a war against Cronus and the other Titans. Zeus and his followers won the war. Theydrove the Titans to Tartarus

21、, a dark region deep within the earth. Then the gods and goddesses chose Zeus as their ruler and agreed to live with him on Mount Olympus. The gods and goddesses who lived on Olympus became known as Olympians.2. the TitansThe Titans were the children of Uranus(Heaven) and Gaea (earth), a group of go

22、ds of the generation before the Olympian gods. They were gods of enormous size and incredibley strong. According to Hesiod, the Titans were twelve in number, six males and six females. Among them the youngest and most important was Cronus, who married Rhea, his sister. Rhea gave birth to Zeus, who l

23、ater became the leader of the Olympian gods. The other important Titans were Oceanus, a great river encircling the earth and the father of the rivers and water-nymphs; his wife, Tethys; Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory; Themis, the goddess of divine justice; Hyperion, the father of the sun, the moon

24、, and the dawn; Iapetus, the father of Prometheus. After Zeus grew up, he tricked his father into vomiting up all his children he had swallowed. Zeus then led his brothers and sisters in a war against Cronus. The war lasted for ten years, shaking the whole universe. Zeus finally defeated Cronus and

25、the Titans who had supported him, and imprisoned them in Tartarus, a region in the Underworld.Some of the children of Titans were also regarded as Titans, notably Prometheus, who created mortals, and Atlas, who carried the world (or heaven) on his shoulders. Of all the Titans only Prometheus and Oce

26、anus sided with Zeus against Cronus. As a result, they were honored while the others were bound in Tartams.3 Prometheus and PandoraPrometheus was a member of the earliest race of gods, called Titans. Prometheus father was Iapetus, and his mother was either Themis or Clymene. He was thought of as the

27、 friend of mankind and their protector against the hostility of gods. When Zeus, having no love for men, deprived the earth of fire so as to destroy them, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to men. He also improved mens life by teaching them all kinds of arts and sciences. At a meeting

28、of gods and men to decide what part of sacrificed animals should be given to the gods, Prometheus arranged two piles: in one of these the good flesh was covered with the worst parts of the animals, and in the other, the bones were covered with fat. Zeus chose the second pile and was very angry when

29、he realized that he had been cheated. But since he had made his choice he had to stick to it. To take revenge, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create a woman, Pandora, made out of clay. Gods gave her life and all kinds of gifts to make her charming, but Hermes taught her flattery and cunning. Zeus gave P

30、andora to Prometheus brother Epimetheus, since he knew Prometheus was too cunning to accept such a dangerous gift. Epimetheus was happy to have her for his wife, although he had been warned by his brotherPrometheus never to accept anything from Zeus. Pandora brought with her a mysterious box and her

31、 curiosity led her to open the box, from which flew all kinds of evils and diseases that men had never known before. She was terrified and tried to shut the box, but only Hope, the one good thing among many evils the box had contained, remained to comfort men in their misfortunes.Zeus was very angry

32、 at Prometheus actions against him. To punish Prometheus, he ordered him chained to a remote peak in the Caucasus Mountains. An eagle came to devour Prometheus liver every day, and the liver grew back each night. After Prometheus had suffered for many centuries, the hero Heracles killed the eagle an

33、d set Prometheus free.5. the Olympian Gods The Greek called their most important gods the Olympians, because they believed these gods lived on Mount Olympus in northern Greece. The Olympians were twelve in number. The following is a list of them, with their Roman names in the braces: Poseidon(Neptune): God of the s