HawkinsEnglish IV23 Oct. 1999 Greek Mythology: Fact or Fiction Most myths can be divided into two groups: explanatory myths and creationmyths. Creation myths are those that try to explain the origin of the world, the creation ofhuman beings and the birth of gods and goddesses. Explanatory myths are those that tryto explain natural processes or events and also some deal with illness and death. Mythicalbeings fall into several groups. Many gods and goddesses resemble human beings eventhough they do have supernatural powers. These divinities are called anthropomorphic,from the Greek word meaning, in shape of a man. Another group of mythical beingsinclude gods and goddesses who resemble animals. These characters are calledtheriomorphic, again from the Greek word meaning in the shape of an animal. The lastgroup of mythical beings has no specific name. These beings were neither completelyhuman or animal. An example is the famous sphinx of Egypt, which has a human headand a lion's body. Many myths deal with the relationship between mortals and divinities.Some mythical mortals have a divine father and a mortal mother and are called heroes(Taylor).Each one of these divinities had a place to live. Since humans characterized thesegods as all knowing and all seeing their homes were usually higher than mortals canreach. (Hercules). Most things in mythology were symbolized, for instance the sun wassymbolized by, Helios god of the sun, driving a flaming chariot across the sky. People,animals, and plants represented ideas or events. Asclepius, god of healing held a staffwith a serpent coiled around it and to day that staff is the insignia for the medicalprofession. Then again there are quite a few things that have opposite meanings likeGilgamesh looking for a herb that made anyone who ate it immortal and Adam and Eveeating the forbidden fruit and loosing their immortal qualities.One of the first theorists Friedrich Max Muller was a Germa...
