in the history of world civilization, the ancient Greek civilization is famous for its unique style and outstanding achievements, and even has the saying that "words must be called Greece". Shelley once said in a poem, "We are all Greeks." Greece is the birthplace and cradle of European civilization. Without Greece, it is impossible to imagine what European civilization would look like. Today, the western world has the tradition of Greek civilization everywhere. However, except for the citizens living on the Greek peninsula who think they are Greeks, few people think they are Greeks with philosophical imagination like Shelley. So who is the Greek?
History shows that Mycenae, the conqueror of Crete and the destroyer of Troy, was one of the earliest inhabitants of Greece. Later, they became slaves of barbarians in the north, and gradually split into Doric and Ionian. They all had the same beliefs and languages, so they were called Greeks.
in the 12th century BC, the Aegean civilization was seriously damaged by the invasion of barbarians in the north. However, the unyielding Greeks re-established a splendid Greek civilization on the ruins of this once rich civilization and became the true ancestor of European civilization.
In the Greek Peninsula, which entered the slave society, more than 2 slave city-states were established. Each city-state took the city as the center, and together with suburban rural areas, it formed countries of different sizes, acting independently. The most powerful of these are Athens and Sparta. Because the country is poor and the people are poor, in order to survive and develop, there is a constant war between the city-States, and the law of the jungle prevails. In order to preserve themselves and plunder wealth, the city-state implements the policy of strengthening the country Qiang Bing, implements democratic politics within the city-state, and the free people directly participate in the governance of the city-state, attaching great importance to the exercise of the national physical quality. Therefore, it is the sacred duty of every citizen to manage the country and exercise.
Greece has a pleasant climate, abundant sunshine and moderate temperature, so it is suitable for outdoor nude exercises and competitions under such natural conditions. Because of the nudity movement, people's ideas have changed, instead of being ashamed of being naked, they are proud of bodybuilding, which has attracted the attention of aestheticians and the performance of artists. Aestheticists have discovered the beauty of human bodies and artists have created beautiful human bodies. Perikles, a great politician, said, "We are people who love beauty." The Greek nation loves and creates beauty.
The Greeks not only discovered, bred and created beauty, but also created God in the environment of democracy, freedom and fierce competition. In the eyes of the Greeks, the most perfect person is God. Therefore, the Greeks respect people and raise them to the height of God. God and people are identical. The Greeks regard a strong body as the source of all goodness and beauty, and Greek mythology as the spiritual source of art, as Marx pointed out: "Greek mythology is not only the source of art.
Ancient Greek Myth: Greek mythology originated in ancient Greece, and has been passed down orally for a long time. It is a collective creation of ancient Greeks, scattered in Homer's epic, hesiod's Epic of God, and later literature, history and other works. Therefore, the image or story of the same mythical figure is often different or even contradictory in different writers' works. Now the common systematic Greek myths are all written by later generations according to ancient books.
Greek mythology mainly includes two parts: the story of God and the legend of heroes. The story of God and the confluence of the legend of heroes are scattered in Homer's Epic, Hershey's Divine Spectrum, and literature, history and philosophy in the classical period.
The story of God mainly includes stories about the creation of the world, the birth of God, the genealogy of God, the change of dynasties in heaven, the origin of mankind and God's daily activities. In the imagination of the ancient Greeks, mountains, rivers and trees, the sun, the moon, the sea and the land, and even rainbows after the rain and daffodils by the river are all gods; Birth, illness, death, success or failure, all depend on God's will. They have created a huge family of God. Zeus is the head of the gods, Poseidon is the sea god, Hades is the ghost god, Apollo is the sun god, themis is the hunting god, Ares is the god of war, hephaestus is the god of fire, Hermes is the god of commerce, nine muses are the goddess of literature and art, and three Moira are the goddess of fate. The gods live on the highest Mount Olympus in Greece and so on.
The gods in Greek mythology are different from those in other developed religions, and they are very close to secular life. Most gods are very much like the nobles in the clan. They are willful, hedonistic, vain, jealous and vengeful. They are eager for power and profit, and sometimes sneak down the mountain to have an affair with beautiful men and women on earth. Most gods, represented by Zeus, like to play tricks on human beings, and even intend to destroy human beings three times and five times. The ancient Greeks often laugh at the evil of God in mythology and accuse God of injustice. Homer once said, "God gives fear and pain to poor people, and God himself lives happily and carefree." However, there are also great gods like Prometheus who benefit mankind. Prometheus stole skyfire to the world, which made mankind make epoch-making progress. Zeus nailed him to the Caucasus Mountain and released an evil eagle every day to peck at his liver.
the legend of heroes is a memory of ancient history, social life and people's struggle against nature. Heroes are regarded as descendants of gods and people, and are actually representatives of collective strength and wisdom. The legend of heroes has formed many systems centered on different families, including the Trojan War, Hercules' achievement in the 12th National Congress, theseus, King of Athens, and Jason's hero's capture of golden fleece. Among them, Achilles, described in Homer's History of Poetry, is said to have two fates: one is to live a long life in obscurity; Or die a glorious death on the battlefield. The mother was so eager to love her son that she disguised him as a girl, but Odysseus, a wise man, recognized him. Achilles stepped onto the battlefield against Trojans and made numerous contributions. His mother predicted that he would be buried at the gates of Troy, but he still stood up and took part in the war, which showed the courage of the Greeks.
For example, Hercules, a famous Hercules, killed a water snake in the cradle. When he was young, the evil goddess came to lure him to the road of enjoyment, but he listened to the advice of the good goddess and was determined to take risks and benefit everyone. Legend has it that after he became an adult, he killed a nine-headed dragon and Medusa, a banshee with snake hair, and even defeated Hades in the lower bound to save theseus, who was imprisoned, and made their husband and wife live happily. The story about Hercules is full of heroic spirit, which embodies the ancient people's precious qualities of loving labor and cherishing the collective.