Greek myths are entertaining and meaningful, fictional and truthful. They tell stories of Gods, Goddess's, children and animals. But most of all they teach a lesson. What was the point of Greek myths? What were some of the stories? Were they taken seriously? Why were they important? This paper will explain what Greek myths are all about. It will say why Greek myths were created, and what they mean. It will also give an example of a popular myth.
"A myth is a religion in which no one any longer believes." (James Feibleman) Although Greek myths are interesting and entertaining stories, they played a more important roll in the every day life of ancient civilization. "Greek Gods were simply the products of colorful imaginations." (www.angelfire.com/mt/ahsb/intro.html) They were the imaginations of a civilization that told these stories as a way of explaining the unexplainable events that happened in their lives. These "unexplainable" things consisted of uncontrollable events, natural phenomenons and mind-boggling occurrences. The realization of these stories lead one to believe that they were "perfect humans", but can benefit from being immortal as well. The Greeks gave them all the abilities, qualities and values that they themselves wanted. Once they did this, the Greeks idolized the existence of the Gods and they way they behaved. .
The Greeks felt that these Gods and Goddesses had complete control and influence over their lives. "The poets were not alone in sanctioning myths, for long before the poets the states and the lawmakers had sanctioned them as a useful expedient. They needed to control the people by superstitious fears, and these cannot be aroused without myths and marvels." (Mikhail Strabo) The Greeks were the first people to write myths. These myths were like parables; there was usually a "moral to the story". There were heroes and Gods in these stories and as they were passed down from one generation to the next, they became accepted as logical explanations to situations and uncertainties that they didn't understand.
