About Myth

Myths are traditional stories from the past that often explain the cause of a natural phenomenon. There are 2 kinds of myths, Roman and Greek with only a slight difference in the story telling and different names for Gods. Some examples of these myths can be Persephone, All Stories are Anansi’s, and The Twelve Labors of Hercules. In Persephone, Persephone gets kidnapped by Hades so her father makes a deal with him for her to leave the Underworld. Then In All Stories are Anansi’s, Anansi completes tasks to have all stories be written by him. Lastly, in The Twelve Labors of Hercules, Hercules completes tasks to be forgiven for killing his nieces.

In most myths, the main character gets into a lot of conflict with the gods, making their relationships rather complicated. In Persephone, her uncle Hades kidnaps her, causing her mother, Demeter, to fall into a state of depression. Then in All Stories are Anansi’s, he has a father-son relationship with the gods as he is the child of Nyame. Lastly, in The Twelve Labors of Hercules, he has the most complicated relationship with gods with some of them wanting revenge and the others always willing to help him. But, character relationships with gods are not limited to these 3 stories, as there are many more for you to read about.

If you read Greek or Roman myths often, you can see they often explain natural phenomenons such as the cause of rain. Just like other myths, Persephone, All Stories are Anansi’s, and The Twelve Labors of Hercules also explain the cause of a natural phenomenon. In Persephone, when she was captured by Hades, it caused her mother who is the god of harvest to fall into depression. While she was in this state, her bad mood caused a bad harvest explaining the cause of winter. Then in All Stories are Anansi’s, they explain how Anansi got his hands on all the stories, allowing the people on earth to know of them. Lastly, in the Twelve Labors of Hercules, the 12 labors explain the cause of wars in the world. There are many more myths explaining other things too, for example the cause of spiders in this world.

One last thing about myths, is that they’re just the same as stories with a theme of their own. In Persephone, the theme is a mother’s love as we can see how Demeter’s negative feelings affected the earth around her when her daughter was taken. Then in All Stories are Anansi's, the theme is to not judge someone by their looks and the power of tricks. This is shown when Anansi, who is just a mere spider, captures multiple beasts using tricks. Lastly, in The Twelve Labor of Hercules it tells us about the weight of consequences and a hero’s story which includes strength, bravery, intelligence, and support. Other themes shown in Greek and Roman myths could be to not overestimate yourself as shown in a myth called Arachne.

In conclusion, myths are traditional stories written in ancient times by the people of Greece and Rome. More than usual, Greek and Roman myths explain the cause of a natural phenomenon, contain a theme, and have a main character with a complex relationship between the gods. For example in Persephone, the main character is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus, and the niece of her kidnapper, Hades. Then in All Stories are Anansi’s, Anansi teaches us to not judge a person by their looks and the power of tricks. Lastly, in The Twelve Labors of Hercules they teach us about the cause of wars on earth. Greek and Roman myths are really popular and fun to read, but they’re not the only myths you can find. For example, there are also Chinese myths which aren’t as complicated as Greek and Roman myths. Their heroes also tend to contribute a lot to human society and are nonetheless a beautiful story to read.