How Did Greek Mythology Influence Ancient Western Civilization

The ancient egyptians religion was complex in some ways. Ancient Egyptians were polytheistic meaning they believed in more than one god. Many temples were built in honor of the gods. The only people that were allowed in the temples were the priests, priestesses, queens, and pharaohs, other people could only go as far as the temple gates. In total there was about 700 different gods and goddesses and many were combined to create new gods and goddesses. Ancient Egyptians were always polytheistic besides one brief change. King/Pharaoh Akhenaten changed it to monotheism but it didn’t stick and died with him. The most worshiped gods were Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, Ra, Nu, and Set. Isis was the goddess of marriage, fertility, motherhood, magic,

Egyptians believed in Egyptian Gods for more than 3,000 years. It started being believed in, in 2800 B.C.E. Egyptian mythology was believed in across Egypt. Religious Cults played a big role in Egyptian Mythology. The Creation of Earth created the Gods so they can have features in the Earth. The “End of the World” ended the belief in Gods nearly 100 years later.

In Greek and Egyptian mythologies, there is a supreme God. In Greek tradition this was Zeus, “Zeus was now King of all the gods and lived on Mount Olympus.” (Corsar, Reid Rooney, and Smith 9) In Egyptian mythology, this position was first held by Osiris, and the other deities herald him by saying “He lives, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, beloved of Ra, living forever! Heir of Geb, Osiris, beloved of the gods, Osiris, given life, endurance, joy, health, all happiness, like Ra!” (Kaster 81) After being murdered by Set, he became ruler of the Netherworld, and was replaced as King of Upper and Lower Egypt, by his son, Horus. The idea of a supreme deity is common in both Greek and Egyptian traditions.

At first glance, the idols of Egypt and the God of Israel appear utterly different, similarities bleed through as we investigate the history of the Egyptians and the Israelites. Some differences leap out. The Egyptians were polytheistic, and the Israelites were monotheistic. The Egyptian gods had human traits and could die, whereas God was fully God and could not die. To get to heaven, the Egyptians believed they needed to do good works, but the Israelites believed they needed faith. Looking deeper, we see some similarities. Both groups of people worshipped their gods. Also, the creators spoke through priests and prophets. The last major similarity is that each god had their own group of chosen people. The gods of the Egyptians had similar and different characteristics to the God of Israel.

The Ancient Egyptian were polytheistic most of the time, which means that they believed in multiple gods. When Akhenaten was pharaoh, the Egyptians were monotheistic, meaning they worshiped only one god. He ended the worship of other gods and claimed that Aten, the lord of all was the only god in Egypt. The Egyptians didn't like this idea, so on their own,

When people first hear of the term mythology, he or she normally will associate the word with the Greeks or the Romans because of the well-known myth and specifically the gods and goddesses. For instance, movies like Hercules, Clash of the Titans , 300, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympian are renowned films that people love and since people know these films, they tend to know general information about the background of the Romans and Greek mythology. Furthermore, the planets and days of the week are named after Roman and Greek gods and goddesses. The ancient people worshipped many of these and linked their divine deities with the planets and days and each is named after an individual god or goddesses, except for earth. Moreover, although these civilizations have fascinating myths, it is imperative to note that all cultures have their own unique mythologies. Similarly, the Mayans and Aztecs have their own exceptional take on how the world was created along with the first humans.

In ancient greece the people mostly believed in olympian greek Gods and Goddesses. The Gods who were most important were Zeus king of the gods, poseidon king of the ocean , Hades god of the underworld. They are important because they defeated their evil father kronos who ate his children. Other important gods are apollo, artemis ,aphrodite ,ares, aphrodite, dionysus, hephaestus, athena, hermes, demeter, and hera. They represented each god like hera is the god of

A difference between both myths however was the fact that the Sumerians had a different god for each city as well as a god for each part of the Earth, and the Egyptians had one God, who made smaller gods and goddesses. The gods and goddesses of Egypt were as follows: Khepera at dawn, Re at noon and Atum in the evening, the gods of the sun. Shu, the god of wind. Tefnut, the god of rain. Geb, the Earth God. The goddess Nut, who was the sky

Origin is a fundamental aspect of religion. Every early society needed deities to explain all kinds of phenomena including the weather, fertility, food, etc. The Ancient Egyptians needed to explain different aspects of their lives and for everything that needed to be explained, they could create a god for it. Ancient Egyptian religion was a polytheistic religion that worshiped as many as 2000 gods and goddesses. Some, such as Amun, were worshipped throughout the whole country, while others had only a local following. Often gods and goddesses were represented as part human and part animal. Some gods and goddesses took part in creation, some brought the flood every year, some offered protection, and some took care of people after they died. Others were either local gods who represented towns, or minor gods

One of them is the “head” god. The king of the gods in Greek religion is Zeus. He is the god of the sky and god of thunder. He gained his rank by being the only god able to defeat his father, Kronos. Ra is the most powerful god in Egyptian religion.

Horus, meaning “falcon” in Egyptian hieroglyphics, was represented as a man with a falcon head wearing a crown. He is considered the god of combat, hunting and the sky.

In the ancient world, there were many different civilizations. In these civilizations, the peoples’ humanity, interaction with one another, and the belief in the supernatural were viewed differently. Ancient Greece was between 800 B.C. and 500 B.C. Ancient Egypt was between 3100 B.C. and 332 B.C. Both of these civilizations have many things in common, but were also very different when referring to the people. In Ancient Greece, the people had different roles in society depending primarily on their gender and class. On the other hand, in Ancient Egypt the people were given equality. Both civilizations believed in gods and goddesses, but their gods were different and had different purposes in their world. In many ways these parts of their civilization are different, but they are also similar.

Similar Gods of Different Cultures During the time of ancient cultures, myths arose to explain a cause for natural phenomena within that region. There are archetypes within similar gods and goddesses between multiple cultures manipulating the same concepts and ideas for their functionality. For ancient Greece, Poseidon, the god of the seas and waters was created to explain why floods, sea storms, and earthquakes occurred and to promote the fertility of certain plants and animals on land (Felson 15: 697; Conner 80). The ancient Egyptians lived near the Nile River and attributed many occurrences of the Nile River to the water and fertility god, Hapy (Wilkinson 106).

Throughout the ancient Greek time period, there were many myths, including many different gods and goddesses. Many gods shared certain characteristics, while others differed in every way possible. I think that the comparison between Poseidon, the god of the seas, and Ares, the god of war, is very interesting.

Greek Mythology played a monumental role in the structural development of ancient Greece, not only as a society, but as individuals. Surprisingly, their religion was not exactly one of originality. In fact, their religion was loosely based on earlier cultures’ religions. It bears many strikingly similar resemblances to some of the oldest recorded religions in history. Ancient Greek religion is a type of polytheism called “Monarchial Polytheism.” That is, they believe in several different gods and deities but there is a supreme ruler above all of them. In order to fully understand how similar the mythological systems of religions have been throughout the years, you must look back towards the earliest of recorded civilizations. Polytheism