MYTHOLOGY 101 by Kathleen Sears

• The ancient Greeks and Romans used myths to explain the wonders of the world, including the rise of humanity, the causes of natural phenomena, and the origin of the Earth and the universe.
• A myth, defined simply, is a fictitious story or half-truth, but it goes much deeper than that.
• A myth evolves as it’s told, over and over again.
• Because myths are told and retold, passed from one person to the next, there is often more than one version of the same story.
• The Greek victory over Troy was a defining moment for the Greeks and the catalyst for the foundation of Rome.
• Virgil is best known for the Aeneid. This epic poem, which tells the story of the origins of Rome, follows the Trojan hero Aeneas after the fall of Troy, as he travels and then settles in a new land, where he founds a new race: the Romans.
• Like many modern religions, classical mythology explores the relationship between humanity and a higher power.
• Mount Olympus was more than the dwelling place of the gods and goddesses. It was also their command center, the place where trials were held, laws were created, and important decisions were made.
• As ruler of gods and men, Zeus had the duty of bringing ultimate order to the universe.
• Often considered second in command to Zeus, Poseidon was the powerful god of the sea, a god who garnered more fear than respect. He controlled the seas and could create earthquakes.
• Although the ancients often described Hades as cold, he was never associated with evil. He was simply the ruler of the dead, and he performed his duties efficiently and with an unrelenting sense of responsibility.
• In Greek mythology, the Underworld was divided into different regions. One region was for the most exceptional mortals (such as heroes), another region was for the common folk, and a third was for evildoers.
• When a person died, Hermes came to collect that person’s shade (or soul) and lead him or her to the Underworld. To get to the Underworld required crossing one or more rivers. To cross a river, the shade had to engage the services of Charon, the ferryman of the dead. Charon didn’t work for free; he required a coin as payment. If a would-be passenger could not pay Charon’s fee, that shade was doomed to wander the shoreline for a hundred years before being allowed passage. Even after they’d paid and boarded the boat, the shades had to do most of the work—they rowed, while the ferryman merely steered.
• Elysium (sometimes called the Elysian Fields) was the dwelling place of the exceptional. This island was where heroes (and other extraordinary mortals) were sent after death.
• According to Greek mythology, all shades (souls) traveled to the Underworld, Hades’s realm, after death.
• The hearth was the source of warmth and nourishment because it provided heat for cooking. As a result, to the ancients, the hearth represented the epicenter of the family and one of the most important places in the home.
• Of all the things that mortals might do to offend the gods, blatant violation of something sacred was one of the worst. The sacrilege usually resulted in the offender’s suffering and death.
• The Parthenon is one of the best-known temples of ancient Greece, partially due to the fact that remains of the temple are still standing today.
• The Judges of the Dead decided the destinies of those who dwelled in the Underworld. Although the Judges were symbolically important to the Underworld, they didn’t have much real power. The gods themselves decided whether a person had been wicked enough to send to Tartarus or brave and good enough to spend eternity in Elysium.
• Ancient battlefields were places of confusion, bravery, violence, brutality, and bloodlust.
• The Thracians were skilled, savage warriors who wielded heavy swords and were ferocious in battle.
• To the ancients, the world was inhabited by thousands of deities and spirits that controlled nature and interacted with humans.
• The Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, were the goddesses of music, art, poetry, dance, and the arts in general.
• The Fates: Three goddesses in charge of determining a person’s lifespan.
• Greek mythology was assimilated into Roman mythology to fill in gaps in the latter; eventually, Romans adopted (and adapted) Greek myths on a broad scale.
• While many of the stories are essentially the same in Greek and Roman mythologies, the names are different.