...Mankind has always had a fascination with religion and the heavens. From the earliest Humanoid people to present day humans, they all worshiped a god. There is evidence as early as 100,000 B.C.E; people had some sort of religion. Some historians have suggested that those early humans worshipped the skulls of cave bears, which they regarded as rivals for the spaces in which they lived. By 50,000 B.C.E, Neanderthal people buried their dead with ceremony and care, behavior suggesting a belief in the hereafter. Such conjecture has no proof, but the evidence suggests that religion emerged among the earliest examples of human capacity to think in the abstract. Ancient Sumerians believed that religion and government shared a close relationship. Religion permeated the social, political, and economic, as well as the spiritual and ethical of society. By 2250 B.C.E, Sumerians had a long list of gods they worshipped. Temples were erected throughout Sumer for the sacrifices thought necessary to ensure good harvest. Sumerian religion had important political ramifications as well. It ascribed ownership of all lands to the gods. The king was a king-priest, responsible to the gods alone. Below him, an elaborate class of priests enjoyed worldly power, privilege, and comfort, and to this class fell the responsibility for education and the writing of texts. It is writings that undoubtedly represent the Sumerians’ greatest contribution to the advancement of general civilization. Another example...
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...Greek mythology with the possible exception of the Vedic-Hindu religion of India, religion or religion in connection with the mythology of the ancient Greeks produced the most complex and sophisticated in the world. Greek myth usually read as individual stories. Greek mythology has exercised a profound and unparalleled influence upon western culture. Dramatists, artists, and philosophers from Roman times, through the great revival of interest in antiquity the Renaissance, up to the present day have been inspired by the thrilling legacy of ancient Greece. The origins of these myths are impossible to determine and there is no one true version of any myth. Greek mythology is the foundation of allusion and character genesis in literature. The imaginative...
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...relationship between God and Human In many myths, God create the world and human beings. In Bible, God is described as the creator of the universe, rulers of the world, judge of evil and saver of human. In Genesis Chapter 1, God created the heavens and the earth. God created water, light, plants, different species and human beings in six days. God created human. People shall fear God, worship the power of God. In the relationship between God and Human, faith is the important part which tells people how to do. In the Christian faith, the solution to “how to do” is “believe in the God, and all shalt be saved”. Christians believe that the soul of human life is controlled by sin. They cannot save themselves. Only way to save is to believe God. For Christians, God is the center of faith that believers can gain confidence, strength to obtain power against the darkness and evil. Divine Obedience to God is the center of the relationship between God and human in Bible. In order to find the relationship between God and human, I choose a fairly representative example – the text from Genesis 22. The text I choose is about the relationship between Abraham and God. Abraham plays a vital role in Bible. He had a special covenant relationship between the Jewish people and God. Also, he fully believes in God. So I believe this text can help me explain the relationship between God and human -- Human’s obedience to God. In this text, Abraham was asked to sacrifice his only son to God to show his...
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...revival of “Greek and Roman studies, which emphasized the value of the classics for their own sake, rather than for their relevance to Christianity” (Hunter & Payne, 2003). Humanists believed that through the study of “…the classical study of text of ancient Greece and Rome” (Humanism, 2007) one would be able to improve on society as a whole. During previous periods, this type of teaching was kept mostly to theologians, authors and philosophers. During the Renaissance though, the people who had the means and desire to study classical art and literature were from a broad spectrum of royalty to merchants. The students were not studying for professional reasons but more so for pleasure. The interest in art broadened from works Classical Greece to what, at the time of the Renaissance, were referred to as contemporary works and existed as objects of learning or ideal beauty Literature had its foundation deep in classical roots and there are many similarities and contrasting points of view in their themes. One of the most significant documents of literature, during this period, was the theses (“intellectual propositions”) written by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola which was entitled Oration of the Dignity of Man. The theme of this work “…is that humanity stands at the apex of creation in a way such as to create the link between the world of God and that of the creation” (Cunningham & Reich, 2006). Stating simply that man is the peak of the two forces, one being God and the...
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...Mythology Name Institution Mythology Ancient Greeks were a highly religious people. They believed in many gods who had superhuman powers and strength and appeared in human form. Prometheus was an ancient Greek god, son of Lapetis and Themis. He was brother to Atlas, Menoetius and Epimetheus. He became considered as the god of wily intelligence, craftsmanship and forethought. His main work was to create mankind out of clay (earth and water). It is from this work that Prometheus developed his fond liking for mankind (Jone, 2009). He strived to make mankind have more power than the liking of Zeus who was the supreme ruler of the gods. Ancient Greek viewed Prometheus as the god who championed mankind’s interest. Prometheus is famous for a couple of incidences discussed below. THE STORY OF FIRE According to classic Greek mythology; at some point in the reign of Zeus, mankind and gods were disputing and to settle the dispute, Zeus and Prometheus devised a ceremonial party in the form of animal sacrifice. Once slaughtered, Prometheus divided the animal parts into two. In one part, he wrapped up ox-bones in fat of the slaughtered animal while the other part he wrapped up the main ox-meat using its stomach lining. To rival Zeus judgment ability, he presented both parts of the sacrifice to Zeus while wrapped and proceeded to ask Zeus to choose from the two. Zeus proceeded to choose the part covered in fat not knowing it only contained bones in it...
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...Gods Personify Us “We everlasting gods… Ah what chilling blows we suffer-thanks to our own conflicting wills-whenever we show there moral men some kindness’’ It is obvious that the gods and goddesses are very important in traditional Greek Culture. The whole cause of the Trojan War is based around the fact that even gods can feel emotions such as jealousy, anger and vengeance. The gods are used by Homer to add twists on an otherwise standard plot of war. During the epic, there are times when gods and goddesses alike influence the war by infuriating the soldiers in order to have them continue fighting. Other times, some gods or goddesses removed certain characters so as to avoid death. The gods do not maintain order among humans nor among themselves. They are at times completely selfish and the ones who mostly suffer the consequences of their selfish meddling are the mortals. The mortals pray to and make sacrifices to the gods, yet do not fully understand that their lives are in the hands of fate and fate alone. The gods’ actions are never a result of what is just or fair. They are not interested in the good of anyone, but only in their personal interests. In furthering their interests they use whatever mortals serve their purpose. The gods dabble in the life of man and routinely thwart any attempt for him to entirely forge his own future. The mortals in question are necessary only in so far as their use to the gods and when the gods will or desire is achieved; the...
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...Justin Wilkins Essay #2 Heracles to Hercules: From Greek God to Disney Hero As children many of us grow up watching Disney movies such as Hercules. As children however, we do not always completely understand where these stories are coming from, and we simply watch them for the entertainment. With Greek mythology not being as viewer friendly for young children, Disney had to change some details from the original myth of Heracles. With changes in stories comes changes in outcome. So how did these changes in the Disney version of Hercules impact our view of Heracles? While both the Greek and Disney version present Heracles in different ways, we see that it is the changes that Disney has made makes the character of Heracles to be more relatable. The biggest change in the story may be Heracles birth parents. In the film Hercules we see that Hera is Hercules’ mother. Anyone who has read the myth would be able to tell you that this was not the case. In fact, Hera hated Heracles for Zeus cheated on Hera with a mortal women named Alcmene who birthed Heracles. In the myth Zeus gives Heracles his name to honor Hera because of its meaning, Glory of Hera. The significance of Hera despising Heracles shows in Greek mythology the nature of the Gods. It shows us how Hera reacted when she was jealous or enraged with Zeus for having a child with another women. In Disney though, the significance of changing was to show that Zeus was not promiscuous and remained loyal to his wife which...
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...Humanists believed in the importance of this life; they believed that if someone had a talent it was a gift given to them by God and they should use to create beauty. Their hope was to of gain fame and grow closer to God. It was this idea, that inspired the Renaissance. Even though humanism was considered a Renaissance idea there were many writers in the late Middle Ages that helped create the basis for future humanist. One of the most important writers was Dante, who wrote The Divine Comedy. Some of the Humanistic concepts that he includes in his Inferno are the revival of the classics, putting an emphasis on the divinity of humans, and the desire to...
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...history has been a vital part of the modern human experience. For thousands of years, the first painters and sculptors have given us the first displays that allowed people to see and touch tangible artwork. The artwork has also captured the history and lifestyle of that time. Art History has also expressed its social and political events that happened during that time. This gives the present person a good understand on what events took place during that era. Some of the most prominent artwork of the western civilization is Greek, Etruscan and Roman art. That historical artwork has paved the way for modern art to have a place in art history world. I will compare and contrast the Greek, Etruscan and Roman characteristic and traits of its historical artwork. During the Geometric and Orientalizing art in the 900-600 BCE, the human shape returned to Greek art in the structure of bronze statuettes and simple silhouettes and other motifs on Geometric vases. One art example is the Dipylon krater, Athens, ca 740 BCE. During the Archaic Art, 600-480 BCE the earliest real-life stone statues appeared in Greece. The first Greek kouroi copied the frontal poses of early Egyptian statues, however designed the young men nude the same way that the men competed in the Ancient Olympics. In the beginning of the early 6th century BCE, Greek sculptors recreated the magnitude of the shapes and included “Archaic smiles” to their faces to make them more human-like. An example of Archaic Art is Kroisos...
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...Discuss the extent to which Roman ideas about their gods and the foundation of their city were influenced by Greek mythology. Ancient Rome is filled with history of great wars and heroes, the mighty and the fallen. They were renowned conquers becoming one of the largest empires of their time. The romans were skilled finding their strengths in the engineering industry as well as the law. Although this ancient civilisation existed millenniums ago, they still effect the times of today. A prime example of this is the language, English. Romans spoke Latin and as they conquered and settled through Europe, “Latin fused with the native languages,” creating the romance languages of today; “Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese… and Catalan.” The vocabulary of English has also largely derived from the Latin language. Although the current times of today have been influenced by the times of the ancients, the Romans however were influenced to an extent by the ancient Greek’s civilisation. By the 2nd century BC, Rome had a very evident impact from the culture of the Greeks. Greeks had begun to settle on the south then later migrating further north of Italy’s peninsula, and occupying the city of Sicily. There is neither exact date nor event that stipulates the cross of two nations however events such as the Macedonian and Carthage wars of Roman conquest would have aided in the direct contact to Greek colonization. The influence of Greece can be seen throughout every aspect of a Romans...
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...Eros Eros was the Greek god of love, or more precisely, passionate and physical desire, whose Roman name was Amor or Cupid. The Romans borrowed Eros from the Greeks and called him Cupid (Latin cupido meaning desire). Eros was depicted as a blindfolded male, who, carrying his bow and arrow, could target any human being and make them fall in love with the first person they would see. Eros could be found in the Theogony that is the history of the gods. Eros was the son of Aphrodite the goddess of beauty and Ares the god of War, Eros himself was deeply in love with the Greek goddess Psyche, the goddess who incorporated human emotions. Psyche was renowned for her divine beauty, which was said to be even greater than the beauty of Aphrodite. Eros had one daughter that was Voluptua. His brothers was Anteros, the god of requited love, also he had half-brothers and half-sisters which were named Harmonia that was her half-sister and Deimos and Phobos that were their half-brothers. Eros was the youngest of the gods, generally the son of Aphrodite by Ares or Hermes, always a child, thoughtless and capricious. He is as irresistible as fair, and has no pity even for his own mother. Zeus, the father of gods and men, arms him with golden wings, and with bow and unerring arrows, or burning torches. Eros is usually depicted as a young winged boy, with his bow and arrows at the ready, to either shoot into the hearts of gods or mortals which would rouse them to desire. He possessed two types...
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...There are many Greek gods, far off tails of beings so great that they could only be described as ‘Gods’ or “goddesses” completely out of reach of mere humans. Each of these gods portrays something different, a mystical power or great beauty and brains. Three Gods that I find particularly interesting are Aphrodite, Heracles and Eros. They have the gifts of beauty, strength and love and we have heard many tales of them before. Aphrodite, or Venus in Roman, is the goddess of love and beauty, some say her parents are unknown, and that she was born from nothing but the foam of the sea. Aphrodite can be both a positive and a negative force; she is an essential part of many ancient myths. They say that she could be kind of merciless but she only caused havoc accidently, or if you did something to make her angry. Heracles, or Hercules in Roman, was known to be half man, half god. His mother was a mere mortal, but his father was the king of all gods. Hercules did not know he was half a god in childhood, he only realized this when he was a grown man. He had imaginable, magical strength even as a baby, and for his own protection was sent to live with a mortal family until he had grown. He did not fit in on earth, and eventually his human father told him he was part god, leaving him to earn his way into heaven and take his rightful place with the gods. Eros, otherwise known as our modern day Cupid, is also a Greek god. Cupid is the son of Aphrodite; cupid would shoot arrows of love...
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...Evaluation My intention for my exam piece was to continue my work on the human form that I had explored within my personal investigation but apply it to the Mythology question within my exam. Because I wanted to retain my focus on the human figure I focused my work on exploring elements and creatures within mythology that carried similar characteristics and features, e.g. mermaids, sirens, gods and others which also carry animalistic elements such as the Minotaur and Faun. However unlike my personal investigation I was unsure in the beginning as to whether I wanted to continue my focus just on the female form or develop my work further into male representations. Previously within my AS exam work I had kept to a relatively small scale, but during the development to A2 I found I was able to produce larger pieces that contained a greater level of detail and took longer to construct. As the exam was to fulfil 15 hours I decided that I would produce one or two large pieces as part of my final piece, I knew that this would be possible has I had been able to produce a life size figure of a woman and infant within the final 10 hours of my personal investigation. Although I was aware that I wanted to create a large mythological human figure I was unsure as to the exact area that I would limit the subject of my work to, in the beginning I contemplated with the idea of creating a large (but not life size) figure of one creature from within mythology however I had already created something...
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...InterContinental University GREEK Cultural | Political | Economic | Religion | | The language is almost of Latin. | Greece, and especially Athens, is the cradle of democracy in the western civilization. | The economic and social structure of classical Greece, including thecolonies it sent out around the Mediterranean, had many features in commonWith other agricultural civilizations. | Dancing associated With Religious ceremony. | | Ancient Greek Culture was the birthplace of Western civilization about 4000 years ago. | Apart from many smaller changes, it was mainly based on the opportunity for all citizens over 20 to take part in governing the country. | In the 8th-century Greece depended clearly on farming. | At times Greek peasants showed their interest in some of the more emotionalreligious practices imported from the Middle East, which provided more colorthan the official ceremonies of the Greek pantheon and spiced the demandingRoutines of work. | | The art of ancient Greece has exercised an enormous influence on the culture of many countries from ancient times until the present. | Greek governments supervised the grain trade, providing not onlytransportation facilities but also storage depots to try to minimize theChance of famines. | A common pattern - the Greek economy evolved,Particularly as trade rose and cities grew. | Things that were created turned into their Gods. | | Greek sculptures are very important...
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...intend to use the concept of monomyth coined by Joseph Campbell also referred to as the hero's journey(which is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world.) in comparing these epics. The example of the Ramayana will only serve my purpose of highlighting the theme of duty in mythologies across the world. Lastly, I will conclude with the importance of inspecting these themes because of their significance to the plotline. Georg Wissowa notes that pietas was meant by the Romans as "the conduct of the man who performed all his duties towards the deity and his fellow human beings fully and in every respect."Around the year 70 BC, Cicero defined pietas as the virtue "which admonishes us to do our duty to our country or our parents or other blood relations. 1 Essentially a Roman concept ,I will employ it in this paper in context to Greek...
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