Essays on Greek Mythology

As argued by Panofsky, no other classical author’s work was so assiduously illustrated as that of Ovid. While Ovid’s Metamorphoses has lived on through art throughout the centuries, the Renaissance was a time of evoking the world as it was really seen by the eye...

In Ancient Greece, women were considered to have uncontrollable impulses, because they were often controlled by ecstatic emotions and wild passions, and this is reflected in many Greek pieces of literature. Nothing was more common in the dramas of that era than female characters who...

The perfect woman carved out ivory and bound to you forever… Pygmalion, a Greek myth that has been retold many of times in several variations. In this essay, the focus will be on Ovid’s version of Pygmalion in the book Metamorphoses. In Metamorphoses, Ovid describes...

Quoting folklorist Alan Dundes, mythology refers to “a story that serves to define the fundamental worldview of a culture by explaining aspects of the natural world and delineating the psychological and social practices and ideals of a society”. As new myths continue to form over...

The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, composed in the late seventh or early eighth century is one of the most well-known Homeric Hymns. “The hymn falls into three easily differentiated sections: the abduction of Persephone and its revelation to Demeter; the sojourn of the goddess of...

Zeus was the ruler of all Gods and humans. He lived with the other gods at the top of Mount Olympus. Sometimes, Olympus was thought of as an actual mountain in Greece, but more often as a beautiful place in the heavens. Zeus was the...

The Rig Veda and Greek Mythology have helped to provide a narrative behind the creation of the world. These texts developed the various deities and customs that would play a role in the development of mankind and society. In The Rig Veda, “the earliest of...

Some characters seem to have existed forever. Through time, they go through minimal variations but represent the paradigm of the collective imagination. One of these is legendary figure of Ulysses, originally known as Odysseus, which remains one of the most fascinating and controversial of all...

The name Troy alludes both to a spot in legend and a genuine archeological site. In legend, Troy is a city that was blockaded for a long time and in the end vanquished by Hellenes. Troy likewise alludes to a genuine antiquated city situated on...

The theme of burial is an important one in both the Homeric epics and later Trojan War narratives, such as Sophocles’ Ajax and Euripides’ The Trojan Women. It can be utilised in different contexts and different ways to present political and problematic ideas. Sophocles and...