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How the Gods of Antiquity Were Used to Explain Creation. For thousands of years
now, there have been countless myths passed down by word of mouth. ...
... of the great sage of antiquity on history ... books and the ‘ancient’ gods, ‘Confucianism’
(Schafer 60 ... The Chinese were inquisitive people, always inventing ...
... During antiquity, it was widely assumed that gods only ... do not “bow down” to other
gods, God promises ... Hammurabi’s Code, these commandments were the laws ...
... Even Augustine granted the pagan gods a claim to exist, but ... to turn away from the
world that antiquity had made ... set for himself in these books were to explain ...
... handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the ... only the fullest surviving account
of the gods, but also ... and other legendary seers, which were used in private ...
Submitted by tennisgirl212 on November 9, 2007
Category: Religion
Words: 1327 | Pages: 6
Views: 141
Popularity Rank: 73,643
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For thousands of years now, there have been countless myths passed down by word of mouth. These myths try to make sense of the unexplainable and the unknown. Gods of antiquity, from the myths of ancient societies, have provided ways for people to explain vague situations throughout history. Each civilization has its own apparent uniqueness. While some cultures use mythical beings that have not been seen by man, others are based on actual facts. One of the phenomena that many civilizations use their gods of antiquity to explain is the creation phenomenon. The creation myths through various gods of antiquity are distinctively different, but the end results are the same – the being of all things as we know it.
In the Greek culture, there are two main creation myths. Both stories began with a common mass called Chaos. Chaos was an "amorphous, gaping void encompassing the entire universe" (Greek 1). The first version of creation, told by Hesoid in his Theogony, is obscure. It tells of how Chaos gave birth to the Earth (Gaia), the Underworld (Tartarus), Desire (Eros), and many others. This version also speaks of how Chaos lay with Heaven and had many children. These children are later called the Titans. The familiar Titans include Oceanus, Rhea, and Cronos. From Cronos and Rhea, the gods of Greek mythology were born. They were the gods who created the human race and governed them from Mt. Olympus (Greek 1-3).
The second Greek creational myth also speaks of Chaos, but in this account, she was surrounded by the god Oceanus. In Oceanus, the Goddess Eurynome also dwelled. Eurynome set about trying to make order out of Chaos. One example of this is the way she separated the sky from the sea by "dancing on the waves of Oceanus" (Greek 1). Later, after Earth had been created, Chaos gave birth to Gaia and Uranus. These two, in turn, bore the Titans. Like the first Greek myth, Cronus married Rhea. However, because Cronus was told that a...
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