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Belinda Brusoni
“It’s all Greek to me”: a study of the continuing influence of
Greek mythology in modern society
Table of Contents
1. Introduction.................................................................................................................... 2
2. Definition of Mythology..............................................................................................3
3. The Visual Arts...............................................................................................................4
Literature:................................................................................................................................... 4
Movies:......................................................................................................................................... 6
4. Psychoanalysis – Freud and Oedipus......................................................................8
5. Current knowledge explored:.................................................................................10
6. Conclusion:...................................................................................................................13
7. Bibliography................................................................................................................. 14
1. Introduction
Many children might have watched Disney’s 1997 reinterpretation of the myth of
Hercules, with the movie under the same title. Many others might have read Marcia
Williams’ children books that retell in simple ways the myths of The Iliad and The
Odyssey (1996), written by poet Homer or Greek Myths (1991). Thus mythology,
whether it is from the Ancient Greeks, Romans or Celts, has been a continuous source
of inspiration, awe and fascination for modern people of the ancient cultures and can
be found to be deeply embedded in cultural aspects of many countries such as the
Venus de Milo statue or Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. As modern audiences,
the content of many myths such as how mortals became stars in space have been
disproven by science, as they give concrete proof of how stars are created. This does
not, however, leave mythology without a significant amount of influence in other
fields such as literature or psychology.
In the present dilemma, we pose the question of what can be the different opinions on
the connection between Greek mythology and modern society. Before we answer this
question in detail, it remains of the important to be reminded that the function of
mythology or of the narration of myths has undergone some significant changes
within the last thousands of years – which may lead to a difference in the meaning of
mythology in Ancient Greece’s society and today’s society. The question of whether a
connection between Greek mythology and modern times would need to be more aptly
rephrased to whether Greek mythology continues to influence our society. This essay
outlines where the word ‘myth’ comes from and what is now understood under Greek
mythology as well as explaining in some areas of influence in detail as an example of
how Greek mythology continues to be important.
2. Definition of Mythology
In order to understand how mythology influences modern society, it is important to
know where the word comes from and what it comprises.
It is widely believed that the word mythology derives from the Greek ‘mythos’, at
first meaning speech or discourse but now also meaning fable or legend. Fable1
and
legend2
have acquired a different definition, but the basic meaning remains for all
three definitions as they describe a collection of stories from different cultures.
In its definition of speech, people are immediately informed of the means with which
mythology has been passed on though historians believe that myths are handed down
in three major ways; art, texts or orally. They also believe that it is part of a tradition
originating from the Bronze Age, from which slowly the verbally narrated myths were
given plot and themes to become literature in the archaic and classical eras. Much of
our current knowledge is based upon Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogony
as well as Ovid’s Metamorphoses which came along about AD 8; yet beforehand,
myths having been vocally passed from one generation to another and since there was
no original text that introduced characters and their stories such as the Christian Bible
or the Hindu Vedas, the myths may have undergone various changes, causing us to
doubt the truth of their content.
Dowden (1992) claims that myths are neither “factually exact [nor] false” and that
they have their “own truth”, giving myths a vast amount of ambiguity as to their
meaning, function and purpose. The purposes and functions changed with the
meaning and they “reflected our changes in attitude”. To illustrate this, myths were
used to explain that convention which was established.
To the Greeks, it explained where souls went after the body died, why the seasons
changed. This is one of four functions that Joseph Campbell in his 1968 book
Creative Mythology explained; according to him, this was the social prospect. Other
prospects include the cosmological and the psychological ones; the psychological
prospect was brought under heavy controversial discussion after the beginning of the
20th century with the founding of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud.
1
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved
October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fable
2
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved
October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend
3. The Visual Arts
Literature:
In this section we shall see what influence Greek myths have had in popular culture
such as literature and visual arts.
As one of the foremost ways to preserve knowledge of mythology, texts and literature
have a long tradition that spans from translating Greek texts into Latin to allusions in
literary works of Dante (“O Muses, O high Genius, aid me now” Inferno, Canto II)
Keats (“Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards” Ode to a Nightingale) and Goethe
(references to The Rape of Ganymede in Italienische Reisen) into modern times,
where even films are made about Greek mythology. There has been a transformation
in the use of Greek mythology in the past centuries; where the previous centuries
deployed many allusions to the mythical characters as the references were known to
the culture, recently it has appeared to become a trend to utilize the basic storyline and
create a fiction/fantasy prose.
This modification first began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which with its lesser-
known subtitle Or, Modern Prometheus indicates that is based on the myth of
Prometheus. In her novel, the main character Victor Frankenstein uses science to
create human life; Prometheus was said to have been the Titan who created man and
stole the fire and ambrosia from the Gods which he gave to mankind. Prometheus and
Victor are both punished for their god-like arrogance; their punishments differ as
Prometheus is damned to Tartarus to have his liver eaten by vultures and regrown
daily whereas Victor suffers from regret, guilt and loss inflicted on him by his
creation. With this change having been first pioneered in 1818, we then find this
conversion again in 1922 James Joyce published Ulysses, a story based on Homer’s
Odysseus, the Trojan War hero who got lost at sea for twenty years. The main
character Leopold Bloom is marked with similarities to Homer’s character, and the
book plays on the Anglicized meaning of an odyssey3
- an extended voyage or trip, by
Joyce having structured his book in 18 episodes that correspond to Odysseus’ errand
tasks while lost at sea. Around the turn of the 21st
century, the use of the basic plotline
of certain myths was popularized by books such as The Penelopiad by Margaret
Atwood (2005), Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan (2005-2009), the Goddess
Summoning series by P.C. Cast (2003-2010) or by Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed
(2011). These books appear at first to be stories that stand on their own at first, yet
slowly reveal that they have many roots within famous Greek myths. Margaret
Atwood’s title derives its name from Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, and is told from
her perspective during the Trojan War and its aftermath, thus loosely themed on
Homer’s epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. The novel is set out in Greek theatre style, as
the handmaidens create the chorus of the story.
The Percy Jackson series takes, to an extent, after most Greek myths about heroes.
Some of the most well-known heroes are Hercules and Achilles. Just like the main
character of the series, they possess two qualities. For one, they were born from a
3
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003).
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Odyssey
sexual encounter between a god and a mortal – this is a most notable feature in Percy
Jackson and his friends, as they are all demigods as well. Secondly, another similarity
they all held was that they overcame feats that no mortal would have been able to,
such as the defeat of the Hydra by Hercules. This is mirrored in Percy Jackson and
the Lightning Thief, when he takes on the Hydra in the Parthenon in Tennessee. He
also kills the Medusa like the Greek hero from whom his name is derivative, Perseus.
In Starcrossed, the writer subtly hints that the characters have magical abilities, and
only after an attack on Helen’s life does she discover that she and Lucas’ family are
descendent from demigod offspring, from which they inherit their powers. In a further
moment of revelation and of disregard to tradition do readers know that Lucas, the
main male persona, was meant to be called Paris. To many, the names Helen and Paris
will reminisce of the myth of the Trojan War. Knowledge of the Trojan War came
along a few hundred years later through the poems of Homer. This time-span permits
safe presumptions that all of the subplots are of fantastical nature; it is in fact highly
doubtful that either Helen, Paris, Achilles or Hector existed, or that Helen’s kidnap
caused the war – this does not change after Schliemann’s excavations near Troy
proved that the war had happened.4
The last example brought up as a contemporary literary piece to illustrate how Greek
mythology remains influential is the Goddess Summoning Series by P.C. Cast. Much
like The Penelopiad, the title hints at a feminine narrative voice, thus arguably
creating a feminist twist to the novels. As well as having a similarity with Rick
Riordan’s series, as in his story contact with mortals created demigods, and Cast
describes some encounters between mortal and god of Olympus in detail. However it
does not detract from the myth’s plotline that is used as a foundation to her stories.
With P.C. Cast, readers would find that she bases on many different myths, as
Goddess of Legend is set in the Arthurian legend; nonetheless, the other Goddesses
are exclusively based on Greek mythology though names may vary according to
Roman or Greek translation. Such a translating variation can be found in Goddess of
Love, in which Aphrodite is known as Venus and her husband Hephaestus is known
as Vulcan. An element of the myth Venus and Adonis can be found toward the end of
the book when she reveals herself as the Goddess and Griffin rejects her; and like
Adonis, he later dies at doing what he does best. With an interfering hand from Hera,
Vulcan’s mother, a happy ending for every character in the book isn’t far behind. In
another book of this series, Goddess of Spring retells the story of Persephone’s kidnap
by Hades. The lore narrates that Hades stumbled upon Persephone while she
frolicked, took her to the Underworld and she ate six pomegranates that symbolize the
sixth months of autumn and winter. The idea behind the myth remains as throughout
the story, as Lina (in Persephone’s body) thinks of her sojourn as a job, implying that
a certain reluctance on being there in the first place. Lina’s rough knowledge of the
kidnap myth and the remembrance of the pomegranate aspect appear at first to be a
hint of the general narrative yet it turns to irony as she and the Goddess re-create the
myth.
To conclude, we can see that the paragraph has outlined how mythology has remained
a source of inspiration yet it is how they are used that has changed over time, from
allusions to retelling the story. Nevertheless, with these current published books based
4
Lovgren, S. (2004). Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth. Available:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html.
Last accessed 07th Sep 2012.
on mythology, we can hope that mythology continues to be a source of great
inspiration.
Movies:
Similar to literature, if not inspired by literary texts, we find that there are several
movies that appear stimulated by Greek mythology, from 1963’s Jason and the
Argonauts to current well-known releases such as the Coen’s O Brother, where art
thou? (2000) and Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger and Orlando Bloom.
Even in the cinematographic world, the myths retain two functions. Its first function is
to retell the story to a new audience and secondly, to make references to the myth for
an informed audience.
Upon watching O Brother, where art thou?, the realization that it “play[s the] bass
notes”5
of the myth is literature’s equal to adopting the basic plotlines, characters etc.
For example, at the beginning of the movie, the trio Everett, Delmar and Pete first
meet a blind Afro-American who almost appears to prophesize their journey; he is
reminiscent of Tiresias, the blind man who prophesized to Odysseus the troubles of
his journey. Some of the other characters within the movie were more obvious such as
Big Dan Teague (Goodman) has one blind eye thus holding resemblance to Cyclops
of the Odyssey and the three women by the river who sing and charm the three men
take after the sirens within the myth. The most direct reference the whole movie
makes to its inspirational basis is the name of the main character, Ulysses Everett
McGill; though he is often referred to as Everett, his first name Ulysses is the Roman
version of the Greek name Odysseus. Although we may find these direct relations to
the myth, director Joel Coen has said that this was “half a joke”6
indicating that there
was another theme that the movie took into account which was to criticize the
conventional views in which the movie is based as it is often categorized as a satire;
this is shown in scene such as the siren one, when Delmar believes that his friend Pete
was turned into a frog by God, whereas the truth was, he had been found by the prison
officers and arrested – this criticizes rural Mississippi in its strong belief in religion.
This movie also illustrated that the aforementioned functions can work together as it
tells the story of Odysseus’ journey but to an informed audience, certain characters
would have been obvious at representing certain aspects of the myth.
Verisimilar to the Coen Brothers movie is Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy that is viewed as
an accurate depiction of the poem upon which it is based, yet as explained previously
it does not verify the existence of the characters or the actual events as narrated in the
Iliad. The use of the myth within the film is fulfilling its first function as director
Wolfgang Petersen was a long-time fan of the Iliad before he turned his dream to
reality by making this movie. In an interview with BBC, he reveals to have studied
Old Greek and Latin when he was in school, thus making him an expert connoisseur
of the content of the Trojan War as depicted in the Iliad. As a teenager, Achilles, the
hero, became an idol for him as he “lived by his own rules…and wouldn’t accept any
kind of authority.”7
If Achilles was seen by Petersen as an idol, can we ask ourselves
how many children may view Achilles or Helen or Odyssey as idols? In this setting,
we have taken elements of the myths and glorified them. In this scenario, the two
5
Coen J. 2000. O Brother, where art thou?
6
As #3
7
Papamichael, S. (2004). Wolfgang Petersen. Available:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/05/13/wolfgang_petersen_troy_interview.shtml.
movies are very similar as they retell the story to a new audience. However, their
differences lie in how the myth is used: within the Coen’s Brothers movie, myth is
used allegorically and the allegories would truly only be recognized by someone who
has heard of the Odyssey before whereas in Troy, the myth is retold precisely with no
use of allegory that even a new audience can learn of the myth without having heard
of it before.
Movies based on myths are literature’s equal to adopting the basic plotlines,
characters etc. The myths do remain a basis of inspiration, what is relevant in the
modern age is how these are interpreted and presented to the audience.
4. Psychoanalysis – Freud and Oedipus
Many may have heard of the Oedipus and the Electra complex, regardless of whether
they have taken to studying psychology or didn’t. Many will also be aware of their
origins lying within mythology. But how influential is the actual mythology within
these psychological theories?
Many authors have attempted to give myths a psychological function; around the
1960’s, Joseph Campbell asserted that its function was to help us look for answers,
guidance and understanding of our own lives using the symbolism. In 1976,
Bettelheim distinguished the role of myth and folktales; folktales served to facilitate
“projections and identifications”8
of the everyday man whereas myths offered
imagery to develop the superego. Richard Cardwell wrote in his article
Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myths that myths are a religious phenomenon
and that its function is both intellectual and emotional for the listener, mostly in the
satisfaction of one’s curiosity (e.g. Why is there lightning?) or in the expression of
unconscious fantasies9
. Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung used the Oedipus and the
Electra complexes to explain the psychosexual development of a child deemed by
both as manifesting within the subconscious, Oedipus for boys, Electra for girls. Their
theories have been met with much criticism and remain one of the most controversial
issues discussed. Cardwell stated that myths serve three psychological functions:
1) They allow expressing the repressed, unconscious ideas within a convention of
society.
2) They use the emotional content attached to ideas to highlight non-emotional
functions.
3) They provide a response from society, whether universally or specific.
From the first function, Freud famously developed the Oedipus complex,
which states a son develops sexual affection for the mother while viewing the father
as a rival. In his 1909 paper, he discovered how the fear of certain horses expressed
the boy’s fear of his father; the horses would have some features that Little Hans, the
case study, associated with his father, thus his fear of horses equaled the fear of his
father, or as later coined by Freud, the fear of castration. This mirrors the myth of
Oedipus Rex, the man who killed his father and married his mother unbeknownst to
himself; because Freud claimed that this psychosexual development of a child
manifested itself subconsciously, it is a reflection of the myth. The dilemma of Hans’
fears of horses dissolved with the introduction of a self-defense mechanism which
was due to a new fear: the castration. Hans simulated his father, adopting his
mannerism and attitudes in hope that the father wouldn’t feel hostility towards him.10
In accordance to the function, the myth of Oedipus allowed Hans to express his
unconscious idea within the convention of society, which here isn’t a societal custom
but rather the pre-established relationship Hans had with his mother and father.
8
Dowden, K (1992). The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
9
Cardwell, R. (1990). Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myths. In: Approaches to Greek Myth.
Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. p344-385.
10
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Little Hans - Freudian Case Study. Retrieved from
http://www.simplypsychology.org/little-hans.html
The second function ties in with the first as it allows it to take concrete hold of the
patient’s behavior and express the unconscious idea in a way that it is still disguised.
With Little Hans, Freud found that his fear of horses was the way the boy disguisedly
expressed his fear of castration (which is a consequence of the Oedipus complex). The
horses had certain features, e.g. the black bits around the mouth – resembling his
father’s black beard and moustache – and blinkers – his father’s glasses, that
highlighted that the unconscious idea. The “emotional content” expressed itself
through Hans’ fear of horses whereas the “non-emotional” content in his situation
would be the fear of castration. Besides creating a function within the Oedipus
complex, the same principles were found in the comparison drawn between dreams
and myth. Cardwell stated that dreams and myths held the same function within their
respective fields. Myths maintained the “collective mental health” of the society with
its religious, cultural and perhaps even political angle. Dreams were observed to
manifest similar function for the individuals, as dream deprivation caused a near
psychotic behavioral development. This is appears to prove that myths remained
necessary for the culture so that for all generations events could be explained. This is
the third function.
Psychoanalysis has always been viewed as a way of reading myths and legends and
folk tales, and with the eras their meanings change. Freud stated that psychoanalysis
was a “therapeutic measure”11
rather than a scientific investigation. To answer the
question of how influential myths are to psychoanalysis, we have assessed that the
content of it doesn’t have much relevance but it seems that it is the comparison in
which they are used that make them relevant.
11
Freud, S. (1909) Analysis of a phobia of a five-year old boy. Pelican Freud Library. Vol. 8. Case
Histories
5. Current knowledge explored:
From one time period to another, there has been a decline in teaching Latin or Old
Greek and only few schools offer the option of studying Classics, which include
Aeneid, Homer, Virgil and other Ancient poets. If this is so, how does the modern
generation possess knowledge, however minimal, of Greek mythology? In this
questionnaire12
and asking 30 teenagers between 16-18 year olds to complete it, the
attempt of understanding mythological knowledge in modern society has these
following results:
The first question revealed that a stunning, or perhaps anticipated 30-33% have heard
of Greek mythology through the media. The many books and films have, in this
technological era, the biggest influence on young children and are also for adults a
very simple way of being instructed on many subjects. It is surprising that no one
heard of Greek mythology while on holidays in Greece, yet this result could be
skewed as we don’t know what type of holiday parents decide to go on for the whole
family. Other results, as written down by the candidates include drama classes,
museum visits and Disney. Disney has proven to be the most popular provider of
mythical knowledge as in a question asking to name known myth-based movies, 30%
answered that Hercules is a very popular myth amongst children and teenagers with
23.3% saying this was due to Disney having made a film about him. Close to
Hercules follow Troy (6.7%) and Medusa (13.3%) as the most well-known myths
with teenagers and children. Hercules being one of the most well-known movies,
16.7% listed Troy as a well-known one followed by the most recently released Percy
Jackson and the Lightning Thief with 13.3%. Among lesser known movies teenagers
listed 300, a movie inspired on a legendary defeat of 3000 Persian soldiers against
300 Greek ones, Jason and the Argonauts, myth inspired on Jason’s missions, and It’s
a boy girl thing, a modern adaption of Tiresias’ myth.
Having been asked where they have gained knowledge of myths, the questionnaire
proceeds to asking specific questions.
1) Which myth are the characters Paris and
Agamemnon from?
Odyssey 58.8%
Hercules 11.8%
Iliad 29.4%
12
http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=6F37ED24-8BAE-433F-AC67-089750D549E0&
1) How did you acquire
knowledge of Greek
mythology?
On Holiday in Greece 0%
History class 23.30%
Read books 33.30%
Seen movies 30.00%
Other 13.30%
2) What was the other name for the
Underworld?
Land of the Death 12.5%
Hades 62.5%
Tartarus 25%
For these questions, it is worth acknowledging once again that the results may be
skewed. For question two, a shocking percentage reveals a simple displacement. Both
the Odyssey and the Iliad were written by Homer and while one is set during the
Trojan War and the other in the aftermath, the two characters are found in the Iliad.
This is, in other words, a simple mistake – yet it can allude to many causes. The Iliad
isn’t a well-known title. It is mostly known as Troy or the Trojan War as it narrates
about it; one may blame the 2004 movie yet it can also be blamed on education or
other people passing half-truth information from one to the other. As for question
three, the answers weren’t cleverly planned however only Hades is the correct
synonym for Underworld. It is true that Hades is the God of the Underworld; it was
believed that Hades meant Underworld when Hades meant the “Unseen One” 13
because he spent much time in his realm. Tartarus is legendarily believed to be the
place within the Underworld where souls who had committed horrible crimes where
condemned to; a famous resident of Tartarus is Prometheus.
This question with its first optional answer and its subsequent result appear to imply
that candidates are aware of mythological names, battles, quests and places if they
came across it. The question makes it difficult to precise where their previous
knowledge has come from as in a lesson; a teacher might directly explain its
mythological origins. Out of the 30 candidates, only as few as 6% hold no interest in
mythology. Nearly 38% would look the name up if told so by a teacher; we can
speculate that one would do so if it there would be the need to explain the origins and
hidden meaning in context in a coursework piece or during an exam. Half of the
teenagers would look it up in private. Here,
we can truly theorize why a teenager would
research it: do they research it because they
are interested in them? Or is it truly for
scholarly purposes and the knowledge
would soon be forgotten?
The final two questions of the survey ask, after assessing the candidates’ knowledge,
if they believe and how do they that mythology continues to remain influential in
society.
The percentages of this answer show that there is a near equal opinion amongst older
teenagers. The survey was structured so that they’d give reasons for why Greek
mythology may still be important. Out of 30, twice did 10% answer that it remained
culturally and historically important. Culturally because it reflects how ancient
civilisations coped with explaining things that or now explained to us by science.
6.7% answered on three different spectrums that it a) does not have any relevance at
all, b) there is some relevance such as in literature and drama and that the Greeks
founded democracy, the world’s leading political system, but not in overall aspects
and c) that it is an interesting and fun subject to learn about. Based on their previous
answers, the survey’s final question of whether mythology still holds any influence
can be almost deduced by the answers they gave beforehand. The 20% who answered
with cultural or historic relevance may be the ones to have likely voted for yes. It is
13
Gill, N.S. (2012). Who is Hades?. Available:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/p/Hades.htm.
3) If a myth was touched upon in class,
how likely are you to research it
outside school?
That was a myth?! 0%
Not interested in mythology 6.2%
No, I wouldn’t 6.2%
Only if told by a teacher 37.5%
Yes, I would 50%
difficult to determine which answer those candidates who said that it still held
relevance within specific areas would have voted for.
In many of the survey’s questions, the open-ended ones are very subjective to the
candidate – this makes it harder to give a proper data analysis as each answer must be
summoned up to a common heading. As to the general
survey, because it was an online based one, we cannot
be sure that the candidates haven’t researched any
question while filling it out – that would have skewed
the result, as well as being unfair to those who didn’t
research it and it would be a wrong representation of
what the teenagers truly know of mythology out of
their own account.
4) Do you believe that
mythology continues to
influence society in all
its aspects?
Yes 52.9%
No 47.1%
6. Conclusion:
In this essay, I’ve argued using literature, art, the cinematographic industry and
psychology to explain that mythology is still influential on societies and our own
specifically.
The Greeks and their mythology continue to be relevant source of foundation in many
aspects of society. In literature and movies, mythology provides a starting point for
authors and directors to base their stories on. Yet these myths are used to criticize
contemporary aspects of society or to narrate their point of view. This reflects what
Dowden (1992) said about “changes in its meaning” show how we have developed as
a society or in our attitude. For psychology, it’s confirmative that while some
complexes such as the Oedipus are based on mythical content, however the analysis
used in some myths appear too far-fetched. Sometimes, they may not even be
applicable to the rest of the population and is often a very subjective approach in the
area of interpretation.
What I find most useful about Greek mythology is that it will always remain relevant
as its themes are flexible. For the Greeks themselves, mythology emphasized the
faults and strengths of human nature and its contents talked of the fears and beliefs of
their society. During our contemporary time, mythology is used metaphorically to
comment, explore and criticize contemporary issues14
. It truly is “all Greek to me”;
though it is mostly malleable in literature, its cinematographic adaptions and in art, its
presence and influence can be felt in many other aspects such as in psychology and in
linguistics and it will continue to be prominent within our societies.
14
Wolfson, E. (2012). The Persistence of Myth. Available:
http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/exhibitions/6673.
7. Bibliography
fable. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fable
legend. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012
from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.
(2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Odyssey
Lovgren, S. (2004). Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth. Available:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html.
Last accessed 07th Sep 2012.
Coen J. 2000. O Brother, where art thou?
Papamichael, S. (2004). Wolfgang Petersen. Available:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/05/13/wolfgang_petersen_troy_interview.shtml.
Last accessed 18th
Sep 2012.
Dowden, K (1992). The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge.
Freud, S. (1909) Analysis of a phobia of a five-year old boy. Pelican Freud Library.
Vol. 8. Case Histories
http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=6F37ED24-8BAE-433F-AC67-089750D549E0&
Gill, N.S. (2012). Who is Hades?. Available:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/p/Hades.htm.
Last accessed 11th Oct 2012.
Wolfson, E. (2012). The Persistence of Myth. Available:
http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/exhibitions/6673.
Last accessed 06th
Oct 2012

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Greek mythology's influence in modern society

  • 1. Belinda Brusoni “It’s all Greek to me”: a study of the continuing influence of Greek mythology in modern society Table of Contents 1. Introduction.................................................................................................................... 2 2. Definition of Mythology..............................................................................................3 3. The Visual Arts...............................................................................................................4 Literature:................................................................................................................................... 4 Movies:......................................................................................................................................... 6 4. Psychoanalysis – Freud and Oedipus......................................................................8 5. Current knowledge explored:.................................................................................10 6. Conclusion:...................................................................................................................13 7. Bibliography................................................................................................................. 14
  • 2. 1. Introduction Many children might have watched Disney’s 1997 reinterpretation of the myth of Hercules, with the movie under the same title. Many others might have read Marcia Williams’ children books that retell in simple ways the myths of The Iliad and The Odyssey (1996), written by poet Homer or Greek Myths (1991). Thus mythology, whether it is from the Ancient Greeks, Romans or Celts, has been a continuous source of inspiration, awe and fascination for modern people of the ancient cultures and can be found to be deeply embedded in cultural aspects of many countries such as the Venus de Milo statue or Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. As modern audiences, the content of many myths such as how mortals became stars in space have been disproven by science, as they give concrete proof of how stars are created. This does not, however, leave mythology without a significant amount of influence in other fields such as literature or psychology. In the present dilemma, we pose the question of what can be the different opinions on the connection between Greek mythology and modern society. Before we answer this question in detail, it remains of the important to be reminded that the function of mythology or of the narration of myths has undergone some significant changes within the last thousands of years – which may lead to a difference in the meaning of mythology in Ancient Greece’s society and today’s society. The question of whether a connection between Greek mythology and modern times would need to be more aptly rephrased to whether Greek mythology continues to influence our society. This essay outlines where the word ‘myth’ comes from and what is now understood under Greek mythology as well as explaining in some areas of influence in detail as an example of how Greek mythology continues to be important.
  • 3. 2. Definition of Mythology In order to understand how mythology influences modern society, it is important to know where the word comes from and what it comprises. It is widely believed that the word mythology derives from the Greek ‘mythos’, at first meaning speech or discourse but now also meaning fable or legend. Fable1 and legend2 have acquired a different definition, but the basic meaning remains for all three definitions as they describe a collection of stories from different cultures. In its definition of speech, people are immediately informed of the means with which mythology has been passed on though historians believe that myths are handed down in three major ways; art, texts or orally. They also believe that it is part of a tradition originating from the Bronze Age, from which slowly the verbally narrated myths were given plot and themes to become literature in the archaic and classical eras. Much of our current knowledge is based upon Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Theogony as well as Ovid’s Metamorphoses which came along about AD 8; yet beforehand, myths having been vocally passed from one generation to another and since there was no original text that introduced characters and their stories such as the Christian Bible or the Hindu Vedas, the myths may have undergone various changes, causing us to doubt the truth of their content. Dowden (1992) claims that myths are neither “factually exact [nor] false” and that they have their “own truth”, giving myths a vast amount of ambiguity as to their meaning, function and purpose. The purposes and functions changed with the meaning and they “reflected our changes in attitude”. To illustrate this, myths were used to explain that convention which was established. To the Greeks, it explained where souls went after the body died, why the seasons changed. This is one of four functions that Joseph Campbell in his 1968 book Creative Mythology explained; according to him, this was the social prospect. Other prospects include the cosmological and the psychological ones; the psychological prospect was brought under heavy controversial discussion after the beginning of the 20th century with the founding of psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud. 1 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fable 2 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend
  • 4. 3. The Visual Arts Literature: In this section we shall see what influence Greek myths have had in popular culture such as literature and visual arts. As one of the foremost ways to preserve knowledge of mythology, texts and literature have a long tradition that spans from translating Greek texts into Latin to allusions in literary works of Dante (“O Muses, O high Genius, aid me now” Inferno, Canto II) Keats (“Not charioted by Bacchus and his pards” Ode to a Nightingale) and Goethe (references to The Rape of Ganymede in Italienische Reisen) into modern times, where even films are made about Greek mythology. There has been a transformation in the use of Greek mythology in the past centuries; where the previous centuries deployed many allusions to the mythical characters as the references were known to the culture, recently it has appeared to become a trend to utilize the basic storyline and create a fiction/fantasy prose. This modification first began with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which with its lesser- known subtitle Or, Modern Prometheus indicates that is based on the myth of Prometheus. In her novel, the main character Victor Frankenstein uses science to create human life; Prometheus was said to have been the Titan who created man and stole the fire and ambrosia from the Gods which he gave to mankind. Prometheus and Victor are both punished for their god-like arrogance; their punishments differ as Prometheus is damned to Tartarus to have his liver eaten by vultures and regrown daily whereas Victor suffers from regret, guilt and loss inflicted on him by his creation. With this change having been first pioneered in 1818, we then find this conversion again in 1922 James Joyce published Ulysses, a story based on Homer’s Odysseus, the Trojan War hero who got lost at sea for twenty years. The main character Leopold Bloom is marked with similarities to Homer’s character, and the book plays on the Anglicized meaning of an odyssey3 - an extended voyage or trip, by Joyce having structured his book in 18 episodes that correspond to Odysseus’ errand tasks while lost at sea. Around the turn of the 21st century, the use of the basic plotline of certain myths was popularized by books such as The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood (2005), Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan (2005-2009), the Goddess Summoning series by P.C. Cast (2003-2010) or by Josephine Angelini’s Starcrossed (2011). These books appear at first to be stories that stand on their own at first, yet slowly reveal that they have many roots within famous Greek myths. Margaret Atwood’s title derives its name from Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, and is told from her perspective during the Trojan War and its aftermath, thus loosely themed on Homer’s epic poems Iliad and Odyssey. The novel is set out in Greek theatre style, as the handmaidens create the chorus of the story. The Percy Jackson series takes, to an extent, after most Greek myths about heroes. Some of the most well-known heroes are Hercules and Achilles. Just like the main character of the series, they possess two qualities. For one, they were born from a 3 The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Odyssey
  • 5. sexual encounter between a god and a mortal – this is a most notable feature in Percy Jackson and his friends, as they are all demigods as well. Secondly, another similarity they all held was that they overcame feats that no mortal would have been able to, such as the defeat of the Hydra by Hercules. This is mirrored in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, when he takes on the Hydra in the Parthenon in Tennessee. He also kills the Medusa like the Greek hero from whom his name is derivative, Perseus. In Starcrossed, the writer subtly hints that the characters have magical abilities, and only after an attack on Helen’s life does she discover that she and Lucas’ family are descendent from demigod offspring, from which they inherit their powers. In a further moment of revelation and of disregard to tradition do readers know that Lucas, the main male persona, was meant to be called Paris. To many, the names Helen and Paris will reminisce of the myth of the Trojan War. Knowledge of the Trojan War came along a few hundred years later through the poems of Homer. This time-span permits safe presumptions that all of the subplots are of fantastical nature; it is in fact highly doubtful that either Helen, Paris, Achilles or Hector existed, or that Helen’s kidnap caused the war – this does not change after Schliemann’s excavations near Troy proved that the war had happened.4 The last example brought up as a contemporary literary piece to illustrate how Greek mythology remains influential is the Goddess Summoning Series by P.C. Cast. Much like The Penelopiad, the title hints at a feminine narrative voice, thus arguably creating a feminist twist to the novels. As well as having a similarity with Rick Riordan’s series, as in his story contact with mortals created demigods, and Cast describes some encounters between mortal and god of Olympus in detail. However it does not detract from the myth’s plotline that is used as a foundation to her stories. With P.C. Cast, readers would find that she bases on many different myths, as Goddess of Legend is set in the Arthurian legend; nonetheless, the other Goddesses are exclusively based on Greek mythology though names may vary according to Roman or Greek translation. Such a translating variation can be found in Goddess of Love, in which Aphrodite is known as Venus and her husband Hephaestus is known as Vulcan. An element of the myth Venus and Adonis can be found toward the end of the book when she reveals herself as the Goddess and Griffin rejects her; and like Adonis, he later dies at doing what he does best. With an interfering hand from Hera, Vulcan’s mother, a happy ending for every character in the book isn’t far behind. In another book of this series, Goddess of Spring retells the story of Persephone’s kidnap by Hades. The lore narrates that Hades stumbled upon Persephone while she frolicked, took her to the Underworld and she ate six pomegranates that symbolize the sixth months of autumn and winter. The idea behind the myth remains as throughout the story, as Lina (in Persephone’s body) thinks of her sojourn as a job, implying that a certain reluctance on being there in the first place. Lina’s rough knowledge of the kidnap myth and the remembrance of the pomegranate aspect appear at first to be a hint of the general narrative yet it turns to irony as she and the Goddess re-create the myth. To conclude, we can see that the paragraph has outlined how mythology has remained a source of inspiration yet it is how they are used that has changed over time, from allusions to retelling the story. Nevertheless, with these current published books based 4 Lovgren, S. (2004). Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth. Available: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html. Last accessed 07th Sep 2012.
  • 6. on mythology, we can hope that mythology continues to be a source of great inspiration. Movies: Similar to literature, if not inspired by literary texts, we find that there are several movies that appear stimulated by Greek mythology, from 1963’s Jason and the Argonauts to current well-known releases such as the Coen’s O Brother, where art thou? (2000) and Troy (2004), starring Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger and Orlando Bloom. Even in the cinematographic world, the myths retain two functions. Its first function is to retell the story to a new audience and secondly, to make references to the myth for an informed audience. Upon watching O Brother, where art thou?, the realization that it “play[s the] bass notes”5 of the myth is literature’s equal to adopting the basic plotlines, characters etc. For example, at the beginning of the movie, the trio Everett, Delmar and Pete first meet a blind Afro-American who almost appears to prophesize their journey; he is reminiscent of Tiresias, the blind man who prophesized to Odysseus the troubles of his journey. Some of the other characters within the movie were more obvious such as Big Dan Teague (Goodman) has one blind eye thus holding resemblance to Cyclops of the Odyssey and the three women by the river who sing and charm the three men take after the sirens within the myth. The most direct reference the whole movie makes to its inspirational basis is the name of the main character, Ulysses Everett McGill; though he is often referred to as Everett, his first name Ulysses is the Roman version of the Greek name Odysseus. Although we may find these direct relations to the myth, director Joel Coen has said that this was “half a joke”6 indicating that there was another theme that the movie took into account which was to criticize the conventional views in which the movie is based as it is often categorized as a satire; this is shown in scene such as the siren one, when Delmar believes that his friend Pete was turned into a frog by God, whereas the truth was, he had been found by the prison officers and arrested – this criticizes rural Mississippi in its strong belief in religion. This movie also illustrated that the aforementioned functions can work together as it tells the story of Odysseus’ journey but to an informed audience, certain characters would have been obvious at representing certain aspects of the myth. Verisimilar to the Coen Brothers movie is Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy that is viewed as an accurate depiction of the poem upon which it is based, yet as explained previously it does not verify the existence of the characters or the actual events as narrated in the Iliad. The use of the myth within the film is fulfilling its first function as director Wolfgang Petersen was a long-time fan of the Iliad before he turned his dream to reality by making this movie. In an interview with BBC, he reveals to have studied Old Greek and Latin when he was in school, thus making him an expert connoisseur of the content of the Trojan War as depicted in the Iliad. As a teenager, Achilles, the hero, became an idol for him as he “lived by his own rules…and wouldn’t accept any kind of authority.”7 If Achilles was seen by Petersen as an idol, can we ask ourselves how many children may view Achilles or Helen or Odyssey as idols? In this setting, we have taken elements of the myths and glorified them. In this scenario, the two 5 Coen J. 2000. O Brother, where art thou? 6 As #3 7 Papamichael, S. (2004). Wolfgang Petersen. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/05/13/wolfgang_petersen_troy_interview.shtml.
  • 7. movies are very similar as they retell the story to a new audience. However, their differences lie in how the myth is used: within the Coen’s Brothers movie, myth is used allegorically and the allegories would truly only be recognized by someone who has heard of the Odyssey before whereas in Troy, the myth is retold precisely with no use of allegory that even a new audience can learn of the myth without having heard of it before. Movies based on myths are literature’s equal to adopting the basic plotlines, characters etc. The myths do remain a basis of inspiration, what is relevant in the modern age is how these are interpreted and presented to the audience.
  • 8. 4. Psychoanalysis – Freud and Oedipus Many may have heard of the Oedipus and the Electra complex, regardless of whether they have taken to studying psychology or didn’t. Many will also be aware of their origins lying within mythology. But how influential is the actual mythology within these psychological theories? Many authors have attempted to give myths a psychological function; around the 1960’s, Joseph Campbell asserted that its function was to help us look for answers, guidance and understanding of our own lives using the symbolism. In 1976, Bettelheim distinguished the role of myth and folktales; folktales served to facilitate “projections and identifications”8 of the everyday man whereas myths offered imagery to develop the superego. Richard Cardwell wrote in his article Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myths that myths are a religious phenomenon and that its function is both intellectual and emotional for the listener, mostly in the satisfaction of one’s curiosity (e.g. Why is there lightning?) or in the expression of unconscious fantasies9 . Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung used the Oedipus and the Electra complexes to explain the psychosexual development of a child deemed by both as manifesting within the subconscious, Oedipus for boys, Electra for girls. Their theories have been met with much criticism and remain one of the most controversial issues discussed. Cardwell stated that myths serve three psychological functions: 1) They allow expressing the repressed, unconscious ideas within a convention of society. 2) They use the emotional content attached to ideas to highlight non-emotional functions. 3) They provide a response from society, whether universally or specific. From the first function, Freud famously developed the Oedipus complex, which states a son develops sexual affection for the mother while viewing the father as a rival. In his 1909 paper, he discovered how the fear of certain horses expressed the boy’s fear of his father; the horses would have some features that Little Hans, the case study, associated with his father, thus his fear of horses equaled the fear of his father, or as later coined by Freud, the fear of castration. This mirrors the myth of Oedipus Rex, the man who killed his father and married his mother unbeknownst to himself; because Freud claimed that this psychosexual development of a child manifested itself subconsciously, it is a reflection of the myth. The dilemma of Hans’ fears of horses dissolved with the introduction of a self-defense mechanism which was due to a new fear: the castration. Hans simulated his father, adopting his mannerism and attitudes in hope that the father wouldn’t feel hostility towards him.10 In accordance to the function, the myth of Oedipus allowed Hans to express his unconscious idea within the convention of society, which here isn’t a societal custom but rather the pre-established relationship Hans had with his mother and father. 8 Dowden, K (1992). The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge. 9 Cardwell, R. (1990). Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myths. In: Approaches to Greek Myth. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press. p344-385. 10 McLeod, S. A. (2008). Little Hans - Freudian Case Study. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/little-hans.html
  • 9. The second function ties in with the first as it allows it to take concrete hold of the patient’s behavior and express the unconscious idea in a way that it is still disguised. With Little Hans, Freud found that his fear of horses was the way the boy disguisedly expressed his fear of castration (which is a consequence of the Oedipus complex). The horses had certain features, e.g. the black bits around the mouth – resembling his father’s black beard and moustache – and blinkers – his father’s glasses, that highlighted that the unconscious idea. The “emotional content” expressed itself through Hans’ fear of horses whereas the “non-emotional” content in his situation would be the fear of castration. Besides creating a function within the Oedipus complex, the same principles were found in the comparison drawn between dreams and myth. Cardwell stated that dreams and myths held the same function within their respective fields. Myths maintained the “collective mental health” of the society with its religious, cultural and perhaps even political angle. Dreams were observed to manifest similar function for the individuals, as dream deprivation caused a near psychotic behavioral development. This is appears to prove that myths remained necessary for the culture so that for all generations events could be explained. This is the third function. Psychoanalysis has always been viewed as a way of reading myths and legends and folk tales, and with the eras their meanings change. Freud stated that psychoanalysis was a “therapeutic measure”11 rather than a scientific investigation. To answer the question of how influential myths are to psychoanalysis, we have assessed that the content of it doesn’t have much relevance but it seems that it is the comparison in which they are used that make them relevant. 11 Freud, S. (1909) Analysis of a phobia of a five-year old boy. Pelican Freud Library. Vol. 8. Case Histories
  • 10. 5. Current knowledge explored: From one time period to another, there has been a decline in teaching Latin or Old Greek and only few schools offer the option of studying Classics, which include Aeneid, Homer, Virgil and other Ancient poets. If this is so, how does the modern generation possess knowledge, however minimal, of Greek mythology? In this questionnaire12 and asking 30 teenagers between 16-18 year olds to complete it, the attempt of understanding mythological knowledge in modern society has these following results: The first question revealed that a stunning, or perhaps anticipated 30-33% have heard of Greek mythology through the media. The many books and films have, in this technological era, the biggest influence on young children and are also for adults a very simple way of being instructed on many subjects. It is surprising that no one heard of Greek mythology while on holidays in Greece, yet this result could be skewed as we don’t know what type of holiday parents decide to go on for the whole family. Other results, as written down by the candidates include drama classes, museum visits and Disney. Disney has proven to be the most popular provider of mythical knowledge as in a question asking to name known myth-based movies, 30% answered that Hercules is a very popular myth amongst children and teenagers with 23.3% saying this was due to Disney having made a film about him. Close to Hercules follow Troy (6.7%) and Medusa (13.3%) as the most well-known myths with teenagers and children. Hercules being one of the most well-known movies, 16.7% listed Troy as a well-known one followed by the most recently released Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief with 13.3%. Among lesser known movies teenagers listed 300, a movie inspired on a legendary defeat of 3000 Persian soldiers against 300 Greek ones, Jason and the Argonauts, myth inspired on Jason’s missions, and It’s a boy girl thing, a modern adaption of Tiresias’ myth. Having been asked where they have gained knowledge of myths, the questionnaire proceeds to asking specific questions. 1) Which myth are the characters Paris and Agamemnon from? Odyssey 58.8% Hercules 11.8% Iliad 29.4% 12 http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=6F37ED24-8BAE-433F-AC67-089750D549E0& 1) How did you acquire knowledge of Greek mythology? On Holiday in Greece 0% History class 23.30% Read books 33.30% Seen movies 30.00% Other 13.30% 2) What was the other name for the Underworld? Land of the Death 12.5% Hades 62.5% Tartarus 25%
  • 11. For these questions, it is worth acknowledging once again that the results may be skewed. For question two, a shocking percentage reveals a simple displacement. Both the Odyssey and the Iliad were written by Homer and while one is set during the Trojan War and the other in the aftermath, the two characters are found in the Iliad. This is, in other words, a simple mistake – yet it can allude to many causes. The Iliad isn’t a well-known title. It is mostly known as Troy or the Trojan War as it narrates about it; one may blame the 2004 movie yet it can also be blamed on education or other people passing half-truth information from one to the other. As for question three, the answers weren’t cleverly planned however only Hades is the correct synonym for Underworld. It is true that Hades is the God of the Underworld; it was believed that Hades meant Underworld when Hades meant the “Unseen One” 13 because he spent much time in his realm. Tartarus is legendarily believed to be the place within the Underworld where souls who had committed horrible crimes where condemned to; a famous resident of Tartarus is Prometheus. This question with its first optional answer and its subsequent result appear to imply that candidates are aware of mythological names, battles, quests and places if they came across it. The question makes it difficult to precise where their previous knowledge has come from as in a lesson; a teacher might directly explain its mythological origins. Out of the 30 candidates, only as few as 6% hold no interest in mythology. Nearly 38% would look the name up if told so by a teacher; we can speculate that one would do so if it there would be the need to explain the origins and hidden meaning in context in a coursework piece or during an exam. Half of the teenagers would look it up in private. Here, we can truly theorize why a teenager would research it: do they research it because they are interested in them? Or is it truly for scholarly purposes and the knowledge would soon be forgotten? The final two questions of the survey ask, after assessing the candidates’ knowledge, if they believe and how do they that mythology continues to remain influential in society. The percentages of this answer show that there is a near equal opinion amongst older teenagers. The survey was structured so that they’d give reasons for why Greek mythology may still be important. Out of 30, twice did 10% answer that it remained culturally and historically important. Culturally because it reflects how ancient civilisations coped with explaining things that or now explained to us by science. 6.7% answered on three different spectrums that it a) does not have any relevance at all, b) there is some relevance such as in literature and drama and that the Greeks founded democracy, the world’s leading political system, but not in overall aspects and c) that it is an interesting and fun subject to learn about. Based on their previous answers, the survey’s final question of whether mythology still holds any influence can be almost deduced by the answers they gave beforehand. The 20% who answered with cultural or historic relevance may be the ones to have likely voted for yes. It is 13 Gill, N.S. (2012). Who is Hades?. Available: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/p/Hades.htm. 3) If a myth was touched upon in class, how likely are you to research it outside school? That was a myth?! 0% Not interested in mythology 6.2% No, I wouldn’t 6.2% Only if told by a teacher 37.5% Yes, I would 50%
  • 12. difficult to determine which answer those candidates who said that it still held relevance within specific areas would have voted for. In many of the survey’s questions, the open-ended ones are very subjective to the candidate – this makes it harder to give a proper data analysis as each answer must be summoned up to a common heading. As to the general survey, because it was an online based one, we cannot be sure that the candidates haven’t researched any question while filling it out – that would have skewed the result, as well as being unfair to those who didn’t research it and it would be a wrong representation of what the teenagers truly know of mythology out of their own account. 4) Do you believe that mythology continues to influence society in all its aspects? Yes 52.9% No 47.1%
  • 13. 6. Conclusion: In this essay, I’ve argued using literature, art, the cinematographic industry and psychology to explain that mythology is still influential on societies and our own specifically. The Greeks and their mythology continue to be relevant source of foundation in many aspects of society. In literature and movies, mythology provides a starting point for authors and directors to base their stories on. Yet these myths are used to criticize contemporary aspects of society or to narrate their point of view. This reflects what Dowden (1992) said about “changes in its meaning” show how we have developed as a society or in our attitude. For psychology, it’s confirmative that while some complexes such as the Oedipus are based on mythical content, however the analysis used in some myths appear too far-fetched. Sometimes, they may not even be applicable to the rest of the population and is often a very subjective approach in the area of interpretation. What I find most useful about Greek mythology is that it will always remain relevant as its themes are flexible. For the Greeks themselves, mythology emphasized the faults and strengths of human nature and its contents talked of the fears and beliefs of their society. During our contemporary time, mythology is used metaphorically to comment, explore and criticize contemporary issues14 . It truly is “all Greek to me”; though it is mostly malleable in literature, its cinematographic adaptions and in art, its presence and influence can be felt in many other aspects such as in psychology and in linguistics and it will continue to be prominent within our societies. 14 Wolfson, E. (2012). The Persistence of Myth. Available: http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/exhibitions/6673.
  • 14. 7. Bibliography fable. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fable legend. (n.d.) The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legend The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. (2003). Retrieved October 11 2012 from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Odyssey Lovgren, S. (2004). Is Troy True? The Evidence Behind Movie Myth. Available: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/05/0514_040514_troy.html. Last accessed 07th Sep 2012. Coen J. 2000. O Brother, where art thou? Papamichael, S. (2004). Wolfgang Petersen. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2004/05/13/wolfgang_petersen_troy_interview.shtml. Last accessed 18th Sep 2012. Dowden, K (1992). The Uses of Greek Mythology. London: Routledge. Freud, S. (1909) Analysis of a phobia of a five-year old boy. Pelican Freud Library. Vol. 8. Case Histories http://stellarsurvey.com/s.aspx?u=6F37ED24-8BAE-433F-AC67-089750D549E0& Gill, N.S. (2012). Who is Hades?. Available: http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/p/Hades.htm. Last accessed 11th Oct 2012. Wolfson, E. (2012). The Persistence of Myth. Available: http://www.samfoxschool.wustl.edu/exhibitions/6673. Last accessed 06th Oct 2012