Ancient Greek Myths

Most Ancient Greeks believed the same thing, they were polytheists and they worshiped the Greek gods. The Greeks believed that their gods lived on top of Mt. Olympus and they told many stories about them and about Greek heroes. These myths sometimes tried to explain something about nature, for example the story of Pandora’s Box tries to explain why there is pain, suffering, and death in the world, it claims that when the box was opened all pestilence was brought into the world. Many ancient civilizations did this, a Babylonian myth tried to explain why snakes shed their skin, a King named Gilgamesh who was half man and half god wanted to live forever and he was prompted to do this after his best friend died. He consulted the only immortal man in the world who told him if he could stay awake for a long period of time he would live forever, but he fell asleep right after he was instructed to do this. After begging for another chance he was told that if he could swim to the bottom of the sea he would find a magical plant and if he ate it he would live forever, he did so, but on his way home a snake found and ate the plant and Gilgamesh eventually grew old and died. This idea of using myths to explain nature was popular in the ancient world, the Greeks had many myths, some of them did not have the purpose of instruction, instead some of them would be about their gods and the amazing things that they could do, this probably gave the Greeks confidence when they were going to fight a battle, or if they were trying to accomplish a great challenge. Other great civilizations did the same thing, the Romans told the myth of Romulus and Remus and how Rome began. These stories made people confident and respectful toward their gods or their leaders, and it made them sound even more legendary. Some myths told by the ancient Greeks were not to explain or promote something, they may have simply been stories that the Greeks enjoyed hearing. The Greek myths were closely joined to their culture and religion, and whether they were trying to explain something or just for enjoyment they were all connected to what the Greeks believed.