Modern Influence
Order of Society
Mythology in the past had help lead to the development of the different roles of males and females along with the lesser status of females, the development of both aristocracy and democracy, and the formation of social classes even that was more of a justification. People were able to believe that men held a higher status in society because of the ritual that he passed as boy allowing him into manhood while in mythology a woman committed a sin in this case Pandora by releasing disease and death upon humans thus giving reason to why men would hold the higher social status while women held the lower. Aristocracy also rose in ancient society as in most cultures there was a supreme god that ruled all but democracy formed in Greek mythology as there were many gods each with a different function in government and society laying the foundation for modern government. Social classes were also formed or rather justified by ancient mythology as Gods would deem who the upper class would be and those with the lower class were originally created as lesser humans.
Societal Ideas
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Many of society's current fundamental ideas were products of ancient mythology; The main of which is masculinity and femininity. Femininity was developed from the goddess of fertility in this case Aphrodite as she was the symbol of
the grace and beauty that women were supposed to uphold giving the symbol of femininity. There was also the symbol of being the self-sacrificing mother who would do anything for her children that developed due mythological stories. Masculinity, the opposite of femininity, developed from the ideas of heroes who practiced the common masculine values that we know today like courage, strength, and integrity in heroes like Hercules. This has laid the standard for modern society as it is today.
the grace and beauty that women were supposed to uphold giving the symbol of femininity. There was also the symbol of being the self-sacrificing mother who would do anything for her children that developed due mythological stories. Masculinity, the opposite of femininity, developed from the ideas of heroes who practiced the common masculine values that we know today like courage, strength, and integrity in heroes like Hercules. This has laid the standard for modern society as it is today.
The Arts
The reason we use statues of the Gods and architecture used in Greek temples on our major landmarks and government building is because Greek philosophers and mathematicians discovered the golden ratio of phi (ϕ) which is the ratio that helps us define aesthetic beauty in nature as it is evident in the human body. Greek architects used phi whenever they created a temple or a statue or a place of worship to the gods. I also learned that a lot of the art that we see has a background Greece and Rome during their golden periods which has set the foundation for art as it is today affecting almost all western artists like Leonardo da Vinci (most famous of them all in my opinion).
Morality
Morality has a strong base in mythology as the stories were meant to show how humans should act and think based on how the gods, which in this case would be their role models, would act. A great example of this is how in different cultures different rules need to be set for their situation like with population; If a country’s population is too small the stories will encourage a woman to have sex many times in order to conceive many children while in other countries like China where the population is too large the stories set consequences for women who are too free with themselves to promote having less kids and thus keeping the population stable. Mythology also affects topics like how to deal with criminals, monogamy v polygamy, alcohol, and other moral dilemmas.
Lessons
The stories from Greek and Roman mythology do more than just provide a great fiction adventure or give credibility behind the religion but they also set the precedents for how we would make decisions in our life and they influence the way that we decide good from evil. In these stories there would be a role model or hero who would make the right decisions and the the thing that’s noble and good while the monsters, power hungry kings, or villains of the story would do everything they could to benefit themselves rather than others which would generally lead to the worst possible outcome. This example would encourage us to be selfless people who do the just and noble thing because the story has shown us that then it will all work out in the end (and in ancient times so that you wouldn’t be killed or cursed by the gods). These stories and even ones today in modern religions are supposed to guide us towards being good people and have set the foundation for the idea of good and evil in Western Culture.