Greek Mythology
Written by Devon Love
Ancient Greeks faced many natural forces that shaped their lives, and they created some fantastic stories to memorialize their relationship with the natural world. These myths were spread by travelers, and included tales of gods, goddesses, and creatures of the sea, forests, heavens, and earth. They include characters such as half humans, half animals, monsters, giants, and heroes.
The tales were memorialized by in epic poems, such as Homers Iliad and Odyssey, as well as the poetry of Hesiod. In reading these stories, we should take into account that they are part metaphor, part religion, part history, and part fantasy. “When the stories were being shaped, we are given to understand, little distinction had yet been made between the real and the unreal. The imagination was vividly alive and not checked by the reason, so that anyone in the woods might see through the trees a fleeing nymph, or bending over a clear pool to drink, behold in the depths a naiads face."
Black-winged Night
Into the bosom of Erebus dark and deep
Laid a wind-born egg, and as the seasons rolled
Forth sprang Love, the longed-for, shining, with
wings of gold. Earth, the beautiful, rose up,
Broad bosomed, she that is the steadfast base
Of all things. And fair Earth first bore
The starry Heaven, equal to herself,
To cover her on all sides and to be
A home forever for the blessed gods.
—Hesiod