Greek or Roman?

Ready for Mythology guys? I hope so...

First thing we need to know is the history. Why did people think of Mythology? Who were the first writers? How did the people come up with such bizarre stories and how did mythology evolve through time?

All these were answered by Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes book.  Ms. Hamilton is a classical writer born on August 12, 1867(1867-08-12) and died on May 31, 1963 (aged 95). She published  that book in 1942. (See, even this book is a classic.) She retold the stories in a more comprehensive manner with brilliant clarity. This is one of a kind! We'll be using this book as an over-all-source for this entire odyssey.

So, here we go!

There were a lot of Mythology writers, lyricists and poets who lived to tell the stories from words of mouth to poems, songs, short stories, even novels whose works were compiled by Ms. Hamilton. Some of them, Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Ovid, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Apolodorus, Catullus, Horace and a lot more. I'm sure You've heard some of those names. I'm not going to mention them anymore in the succeeding discussions because we might get confused with these names and the characters in Mythology. (Somehow, they sound alike, don't they?) But thanks to them, we now have the most marvelous of all the stories ever created. Agree?

Back then, Romans thought of their gods and goddesses as fearsome mighty and unexplainable. Something than no one had set eyes upon yet. Something different than what they usually saw with their naked eye. "Until then, gods had no resemblance of reality. They were unlike all living things. A representation of human shape deliberately made unhuman." Like a woman with cat's head, men with bird's head, lion with bull's head and eagle wings. These were created to produce something never seen and to connote great power and fearsome imagery. They we're never seen, touched, heard or mingled with by mortals.

Then Greek Mythology evolved. "With it's coming, the universe became rational. The invisible must be understood by visible." They humanized the world and freed men from "paralyzing fear and omnipotent unknown." They created the gods in their own image. (Sort of the opposite, right?) Only mightier, powerful, huge and most lovely than any human being or mortals ever known. (supernatural powers, included). Unlike the Roman gods, they can be seen, touched, heard or mingled with by mortals.

Characters in each and every story were also different. They have exact opposites. (e.g.: Zeus-Jupiter; Hera-Juno; Poseidon-Neptune; Athena-Minerva; Aphrodite-Venus; Hermes-Mercury and so on...)

People created and told these stories to explain their mere existence, the way of nature and all the things around them. To give meaning and sort of an origin of everything. Like how the universe and the human beings were created, why volcano erupts, why is there lightning, why do we have the seasons in a year and all that. Mythology was their science back then, when people have yet to grasp knowledge on everything.

There, origin all set!

A Headstart

I'm new in blogging. I don't know anything about this yet. Right now, everything i'm doing in this site is experimental, though, excitement tickles my senses right now. I have so much to write, so much to share, so much to talk about... So i said to myself, what the heck am I waiting for. It's a bit of a now-or-never for me.

One thing that inspires me to start blogging now, is my rediscovered passion for Mythology. "Rediscovered", coz i never knew i have it in me (the passion for it). I started learning about it when I was in college. It was one of our subjects then. An entire semester of gods and goddesses, their doings, their strengths and weaknesses, their love affairs. Basically, everything about them. Imagine discussing it in a very classroom setting manner, in an era with less knowledge on visuals and audio plays. All we did was purely, sleepy, head spinning, never ending discussions. (with matching manila papers with notes on it posted on the board) There were times we performed lame short skits or dramatization. One of my classmates did a diorama (characters and scenes in a box), others did picture plays and stick puppets just to be creative, which i appreciate wholeheartedly, don't get me wrong! (No offense to my professor and classmates) It was quite an effort there... but it did not strike me that much. I felt like it's just an ordinary subject i have to pass in order to graduate and have a degree. Well, that's college!

So, as i was saying, yeah, "rediscovered Mythology" indeed...

As most of us would notice,  a lot of stories, whether old or new (has little, if not fully) are inspired by Mythology. To wit: Troy; Lord of the Rings Trilogy; Harry Potter Series; Clash of the Titans; Percy Jackson Series; etc. There is no doubt, that Mythology is one great foundation for stories nowadays. Even our names are amazingly Mythology inspired too. Mine and my dad's came from a German Mythology called Nibelungelied (A German dragon-slayer named Siegfried). My students' namely: siblings Mercury(messenger of gods) and Venus (goddess of love and beauty), Athena and my half sister Minerva (battle goddess), my cousin Phoebe (a titan/ titan's wife) are among the few examples.

My life story, believe it or not, is comparable to Mythology. My dad being Zeus, having multiple wives, bearing several children and all that! You know the chaos it would bring... all the details and comparisons will be revealed on succeeding posts. My blog title has something to do with Mythology too. My dad being the Shining Armour and I being his son. Must i yield my dad's Shining Armour?Inherit all that he is and all that he has?

To set things straight, i just bought Edith Hamilton's Mythology book just the day before yesterday. Yeah! no kidding! You might think, "this guy is so passionate about Mythology, telling all these and all those, yet he just bought the book, not even read it yet!" YES, i am telling you with all honesty, i have not read it thoroughly. To date, i am just at Ms. Hamilton's foreword and introduction.

This is how we're gonna do it. I'll be reading it, then be blogging it, then be discussing it and be sharing ideas. then you'll be reading my blog, you'll be posting comments... Got it?! This way, we'll be understanding mythology, slowly but surely. The best thing about this is that we are re-learning, re-visiting Mythology all together and we're gonna be having so much fun. Right?!

I am the Shining Armour's son... This is my Odyssey... So who's with me?