On Greek Classic 02
The Roles of the
Greek Gods and Goddesses
Zeus
Nature: sky,
lightning, thunder
Society: law, order,
justice, ruler
Family: Father,
husband, king
Hera
Nature: probably mother
earth
Society: cities,
marriage, bearing offspring,
Family: Mother,
wife, queen
Poseidon
Nature: seas,
earthquakes, and tidal wave
Society: probably
voyage, since Greek were called Sea People (Odysseus exp.)
Family: uncle
Demeter
Nature: fertility,
nature, and the seasons
Society:
agriculture, pregnancy
Family: Aunt
Hestia
Nature: Hearth
Society: Domesticity
Psych: relation
matters, family dealing
Family: Aunt
-
-
Athena
Nature:
Society: defense and
strategic warfare, handicrafts and science
Psych: knowledge,
reason, intelligent activity, literature
Family: child, sibling
Apollo
Nature: light, the
sun
Society: poetry,
music and arts, medicine and healing
Psych: prophecy,
philosophy, inspiration
Family: child, sibling
Artemis
Nature: the moon,
all animals
Society: hunt,
archery
Psych: virginity
Family: Child, sibling
Ares
Nature: violent
phenomenon
Society: war,
bloodshed
Psych: violence,
longing for bloodshed
Family: Child, sibling
Aphrodite
Nature: pleasure,
beauty
Society: sexual
activity
Psych: sensual love,
desire
Family: child, sibling
Hephaestus
Nature: fire
Society: blacksmith
Psych: craftsman
art, forge tool and weapon
Family: child, sibling
Hermes
Nature:
Society: commerce,
communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves and games
Psych: Social art,
rhetoric, trickery, art of deal :D
Family: child, sibling
Dionysus
Nature: wine
Society: theater,
entertaining business, celebrations, party
Psych: ecstasy
Family: child, sibling
(this god entered
Olympus late, probably b/c entertainment was developed late in
Ancient Greek)
It’s really
fascinating how creative the Ancient Greek are, their religion system
is created thru their understanding of Nature, Society, and their
Inner Experience. Gods and goddesses not only dwell in heaven, in
Nature, also in their social and day to day activities, and even
clever that the nature of gods and goddesses possess their emotion
and thoughts. I guess they tell the patron god of their each child
according to his/her early-shown talent, and every child has
different talent in unique art, like speech, craft, poetry, sport… (special interests or good grade subjects at school)and
even bad temperament and lusty character prove he is Ares possessed
for that moment or oh no! He is gonna be horny like Zeus when he
grows up…. Athena is Odysseus and Penelope’s patron goddess, and
cities pick their own patron goddess, more like todays team mascots,
national animal, on society level. Iliad and Odyssey often show 3 stages of gods and
goddesses function, they argue and deal in heaven, Olympus; and appear in
physical body fighting on the battlefield with men, Aphrodite can’t
handle the hardcore bestial nature of war, cried like baby, probably suggests
the formula sex and physical violence don't go well together, so that’s how
we unconsciously produce the famous slogan “Make Love Not War”;
also in men’s psych, Achilles holds his sword, that moment of
hesitation to strike Agamemnon, his mind hears Athena’s advice; Hector going nuts, Ajax
going nuts, Achilles going berserk, all possessed by Ares in that particular moment of fight,
later they could not explain their madness, but Odysseus seems never lost
his mind in critical time… the two epics are like
classic, surreal, futuristic blended stories, gods and goddesses are one
dysfunctional Modern family, husband comes home late from a local
bar, and wife has already schemed with her children to carry out her
revenge, and dramas and fight begin, but the family relationship never
really breaks down, they need each other, just like all their nature
and symbol must play the parts of the whole, so their civilization
progresses along with their dramas, grudges, and love too.
Also, Athena is a goddess, female symbol, but she plays the old sister role, she is goddess in war, represents victory, how ancient Greek pick goddess (female symbol) for war nature really progressive than today Conservative; not only that, Athena also reigns in wisdom: knowledge, reason, intelligent activity, literature. Artemis is another female deity, goddess of hunt, it's boy's sport too that today's conservative may tell us how to think, she is the tomboy goes into the woods night and and brings back the game early morning. Aphrodite is the talk of the town, boys love her, she loves them back, women hate her and call her names, but she cares less because she does what she wants, and she likes it. so Feminism is not new thing, rather very old one.
And the boys, oh, boys, they are a bunch of bums and losers. Apollo is a dude spends more time in front of mirror while working on his poetry, music and arts, it's like he has audition everyday, but much of his artistic flare wont get his love to fall for him, so he hugs a laurel tree, he even composes poem for that tree, becomes a tree hugger, his medicine and healing specialty is like family secret remedy, and in ancient time the medicine = quack, that's a little more effective than a prayer with olive oil rubbing, so good for nothing, that's him. Ares, well, using Homer's words, everybody hates Ares. yeah, he is the one always bad tempered, rash, disturbs a perfect afternoon family gathering, and gets a talk to or a slap by other siblings to calm down. Hermes, well, a little brother dresses dandy, stands on the street corner, swindles people selling his stolen or fake junks, a smooth guy, doing a lot of business, tricks everyone and flight by night, like he has wings on his foot. Dionysus is a drunken stupor or wild singing and dancing, running a theater business to the ground, so people move his parties to the wilderness.
So this is the family. Progressive Left, Democratic too. Joke aside, how people create their deities also shows their faith of society, that each god, each goddess possesses unique function to construct a complete heaven, just as their men, have individual voices and parts in war or peace. Polytheism allows different ideas to develop and permit other faith to coexist.
Scholars state that ancient Greeks consider their gods and goddesses seriously, but in Homer's time people may not see gods that serious as their ancestors do (even tho they offer rites like today religious people in many parts of the world), that might show from 2 epic poems why gods and goddesses are rather comical, immature and short-tempered being, just like how human experience their own daily emotion. Or I want to believe that the singers thru generations and the first epic compilers share the same concept of the main tune, that they purposely describe gods and goddess as childish, might be they want to guide listeners from the vanity of the idol figurine worship, or they discover new art that human art better and contain more flesh than the cold statue gods. From the beginning of Iliad, the four parallel narratives: Achilles' godly anger, the collapse of old ranking order from moral standard (Agamemnon), the old human sacrifice ritual, the catalog of ships that harken back to the golden period of Greek... are all reminiscent, dark, foolish and savory or old glory to the listeners. I assume there are many other stories, like how Troy fall, how Achilles die... but the compiler of Iliad or(Homer) only focus on the the beginning 4 themes to start, unless he could not find other pieces fill the missing parts of the epic, Troy falls. But Achilles and Odysseus are men on two inner journeys: Achilles struggles with doubts about warrior being(fighting in war), the cost / sacrifice of being great, it's a confusing belief, even for Achilles himself; Odysseus strives to go home, deal with longing, the suffering to be happy, there's nothing wrong for his goal; and today these two heroes still reign in our ambition, but Odysseus is more matured and learned than Achilles, Achilles learns about himself after slaying Hector, and dies in battle as listeners all know, only his name remains; Odysseus crawls onto his home shore, finally returns, a satisfying ending. Probably Homer's time people realize that Odysseus is their new hero to replace the old hero, Achilles.
Also, Athena is a goddess, female symbol, but she plays the old sister role, she is goddess in war, represents victory, how ancient Greek pick goddess (female symbol) for war nature really progressive than today Conservative; not only that, Athena also reigns in wisdom: knowledge, reason, intelligent activity, literature. Artemis is another female deity, goddess of hunt, it's boy's sport too that today's conservative may tell us how to think, she is the tomboy goes into the woods night and and brings back the game early morning. Aphrodite is the talk of the town, boys love her, she loves them back, women hate her and call her names, but she cares less because she does what she wants, and she likes it. so Feminism is not new thing, rather very old one.
And the boys, oh, boys, they are a bunch of bums and losers. Apollo is a dude spends more time in front of mirror while working on his poetry, music and arts, it's like he has audition everyday, but much of his artistic flare wont get his love to fall for him, so he hugs a laurel tree, he even composes poem for that tree, becomes a tree hugger, his medicine and healing specialty is like family secret remedy, and in ancient time the medicine = quack, that's a little more effective than a prayer with olive oil rubbing, so good for nothing, that's him. Ares, well, using Homer's words, everybody hates Ares. yeah, he is the one always bad tempered, rash, disturbs a perfect afternoon family gathering, and gets a talk to or a slap by other siblings to calm down. Hermes, well, a little brother dresses dandy, stands on the street corner, swindles people selling his stolen or fake junks, a smooth guy, doing a lot of business, tricks everyone and flight by night, like he has wings on his foot. Dionysus is a drunken stupor or wild singing and dancing, running a theater business to the ground, so people move his parties to the wilderness.
So this is the family. Progressive Left, Democratic too. Joke aside, how people create their deities also shows their faith of society, that each god, each goddess possesses unique function to construct a complete heaven, just as their men, have individual voices and parts in war or peace. Polytheism allows different ideas to develop and permit other faith to coexist.
Scholars state that ancient Greeks consider their gods and goddesses seriously, but in Homer's time people may not see gods that serious as their ancestors do (even tho they offer rites like today religious people in many parts of the world), that might show from 2 epic poems why gods and goddesses are rather comical, immature and short-tempered being, just like how human experience their own daily emotion. Or I want to believe that the singers thru generations and the first epic compilers share the same concept of the main tune, that they purposely describe gods and goddess as childish, might be they want to guide listeners from the vanity of the idol figurine worship, or they discover new art that human art better and contain more flesh than the cold statue gods. From the beginning of Iliad, the four parallel narratives: Achilles' godly anger, the collapse of old ranking order from moral standard (Agamemnon), the old human sacrifice ritual, the catalog of ships that harken back to the golden period of Greek... are all reminiscent, dark, foolish and savory or old glory to the listeners. I assume there are many other stories, like how Troy fall, how Achilles die... but the compiler of Iliad or(Homer) only focus on the the beginning 4 themes to start, unless he could not find other pieces fill the missing parts of the epic, Troy falls. But Achilles and Odysseus are men on two inner journeys: Achilles struggles with doubts about warrior being(fighting in war), the cost / sacrifice of being great, it's a confusing belief, even for Achilles himself; Odysseus strives to go home, deal with longing, the suffering to be happy, there's nothing wrong for his goal; and today these two heroes still reign in our ambition, but Odysseus is more matured and learned than Achilles, Achilles learns about himself after slaying Hector, and dies in battle as listeners all know, only his name remains; Odysseus crawls onto his home shore, finally returns, a satisfying ending. Probably Homer's time people realize that Odysseus is their new hero to replace the old hero, Achilles.
