Did Ancient Greeks Truly Believe Their Own Mythical Tales
Ancient Greek was all about mythical beliefs, concepts of divinity and normality, and so much more that inspired modern art and philosophy in multiple ways.
Their rational skepticism and stories of gods and heroes are not alien to anyone.
However, the firmness of their faith in the mythologies was widely accepted at the time, with a few individuals as an exception. The mythical tales were the most significant aspect of all; it helped guide philosophers to think big and eventually became the foundation of many scientific discoveries.
The Twelve Olympian gods
The skepticism and superstitious beliefs of the Greeks can be identified by the fact that they related every possible natural phenomenon to the pleasure and displeasure of their gods.
Life, death, the afterlife, seasons, sickness, feelings, and even natural disasters were affiliated with how their gods felt.
The people and their leaders made almost regular sacrifices to please the gods to avoid bad omens.
The ancient belief was that there were twelve Olympian gods that all lived together as a family at the top of Mount Olympus.
Zeus, the greatest of them all, was the leader of gods and the god of sky and rain. His wife, Hera, was the goddess of marriage and childbirth, while all the other gods, including Hades; the god of the underworld, Ares; god of war, Poseidon; god of the sea, and Aphrodite; the goddess of love, had different duties and affiliation to natural life phenomenon.
Zeus was considered mighty and said to have many children, even with normal human beings.
One of those children, a significant part of the mythology, was Hercules, a mighty half-human, half-divine being.
Similarly, there was an explanation for everything. A goddess of seasons married Hades and went to the underworld, explaining why spring and summer lasted for…
