Dionysus allows Midas to have his wish knowing that it will soon be the worst thing he could have done as man cannot live by gold alone. For awhile Midas is a "happy man" (Ovid 263), surrounded by all of the gold but soon he begs to be rescued from "this loss / That looks so much like gain!" (263). We also see a tragedy with the story of Narcissus, who is so in love with himself that he falls in love with his own reflection in a pool as punishment for his cruelty. This might not seem like such a bad thing except for the fact that he is compelled to look at the reflection and never leave. In short, he "wanted himself" (70) and died while trying to kiss the image. We see how the gods can inflict their wrath on individuals in Homer's The Iliad. When Achilles shows disregard for Hektor's dead body by dragging it until it literally turns to dust, he is punished. Lycurgus also experiences the gods' anger when his life is cut short. Helen incurs the anger of Venus as Oeneus must deal with the wrath of Diana when he does not do as she says. The make the gods angry was something one never wanted to do but the most stressful aspect of the relationship between gods and mortals is that mortals did not have...
With respect to the mythology of the male gods, Zeus, Apollo, and Hephaestus seem to be a combination that matches the dynamism of their female goddess counterparts. These gods represent the good and the bad of males; they also represent the spectrum of power and balance of male energy. There is no one god or goddess myth that I feel fully represents the tension between male and female gods because
Moby Dick, the creature, fits this classification very well as a mythological creature. Within the story that bears its name, the whale is described as being larger than any whale that Ahab had ever seen- an indication of something being too formidable for mere mortals to be able to fight, let alone defeat. To this air of invincibility, the obsession that Ahab has for the beast, and his classification
Politics Hesiod's Theogony Written in the 8th century BC, Hesiod's Theogony provides a detailed and authoritative account of the Greek creation myth and, as such, is regarded as a significant primary source of Greek mythology. Although the style and structure of Theogony poses several problems to a modern readership, the manner in which the poem organizes and records the origins and chronology of Greek myth - and displays connections with the myths
Myths Myth of Marriage and Children Joseph Campbell's The Power of Myth is a book that can potentially transform the reader's consciousness. Beyond being informative, Campbell's analysis of cultural myths is profound; it provokes genuine introspection. The author refers to the spiritual in whatever he speaks about, and yet he never lapses into religious diatribe or dogma. Subjects like marriage are elevated beyond the social to the psycho-spiritual. For example, he calls
This mythical structure has a long history in terms of mythical and visionary experience in all cultures of the world. One could also refer to the earliest Shamanic forms of religion and the myth of the dismembered Shaman who is also the transformed healer of others. In these myths the journey to the underworld, and the process of the destruction of the old self or ego does not result
Zeus also acted on principle to create social order at Olympia by waging war on his own father. However, Zeus was just in his treatment of the vanquished Titans, eventually granting their freedom (Morford & Lenardon p. 78). Zeus's story mirrors that of the Greeks in their skillful fashioning of political and social structures out of disparate and geographically distinct peoples. Zeus can even suggest the evolution from a polytheistic
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