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Mythology In Greek Mythology

Decent Essays

Greek mythology is commonly mistaken by those unfamiliar with it as a religious subject. Instead, they are a set of stories about Greek gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines that serve to entertain and give an explanation of how the world came to be. It’s apparent that the world wasn’t like the way it is currently from the beginning, but the myths do give us an idea of how things were like. As Edith Hamilton once said, “ But what the myths show is how high they had risen above the ancient filth and fierceness by the time we have any knowledge of them.” This gives us an idea that traces of that time are found in the stories as we read "Mythology" by Hamilton and "Black Ships Before Troy" by Sutcliff which is where we will be able to …show more content…

Another example shown in “ The Adventures of Odysseus” from “Mythology” by Edith Hamilton would be when Athena came down to Earth disguised as a man who appeared in front of Odysseus’ house. The moment she arrived, Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, “ hastened to greet the stranger, take his spear, and seat him on a chair of honor. The attendants also hurried to show the hospitality of the great house, setting food and wine before him and stinting him in nothing.”(Edith Hamilton, 183) Hospitality was not only important custom back then, but it is still an important custom today. However, the only difference is that we grew to become cautious of each other because we do not know if the other party could harm us in any way. Lastly, as aretè was briefly mentioned, it translates to “virtue” which means doing your best to achieve your highest potential/ the realization of a person’s full potential. It is often associated with skills of a leader that consists of bravery, effectiveness, strength, intelligence, and deceptiveness to achieve desired results which heroes of Troy and Greece have shown throughout the myths. An example shown in “Black Ships before Troy” by Rosemary Sutcliff would be in “The

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