The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)
By Mariah Bressani
At the present time, to "know" the Greek gods is necessary to put aside the Christian concept of "perfect God, omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient."
Remember that the Greek gods were "born" in pre Christian ancient Greece. And, for the ancient Greeks, the basic difference between gods and humans was that the gods were immortal, whereas humans were not. Therefore, put off your Christian concepts to understand the Greek gods!
In ancient Greece, the performance of each god and goddess was a function of its attributes.
Thus, Zeus "existed" to be the "father of all" – of gods and men – and thus fulfilled its function.
Hera "existed" to embody the ability and need – of the human being – of commitment and to making marriage "sacred" – in the eyes of gods and men.
Aphrodite "existed" to promote the pleasures and realize the beauty of life and everything around them.
Ares "existed" to stimulate competition - as if to promote "natural selection" (afterwards discovered by Darwin) of the strongest among humans, and thus being able to preserve their territory and food.
Hermes "existed" to fulfill the role of messenger between gods and men - an ever-present need to the human being.
Poseidon reigned under the seas, and he "existed" to be the guardian of the unfathomable and dissipated world of the deep waters.
Demeter was the goddess Mother Earth - she "existed" to personify the earth itself receptive to the seed, which held within itself so it could germinate and produce more food for the humans.
Pluto – the wealthy – ruled the underworld, he "existed" to "keep death" so it would reborn to a new life.
Core – the young – became in the hands of Pluto in Persephone the Queen of the underworld. She symbolizes the seed, that within the fertile and moist land broke the skin and died as a seed and was reborn as a fruit plant. She "existed" to remind everyone that in everything there was life and death.
Therefore, you can not understand the gods and Greek mythology "literally." After all, for the Greeks the basic functions of their gods (pre-Christian) – with their respective attributes – were focused on the achievement and maintenance of Life. And so for anyone who wants to understand the Greek gods, it is necessary to "look" at each god and goddess with a view that is different from the one from Christian education.
For example, when the Greeks said that Zeus and Hera (husband and wife) were brothers, they meant that the two had the same origin and royalty and should be revered in the same manner – each with their respective attributes, so necessary to human beings.
Of course, since it was a patriarchal culture, Zeus was more cherished and revered than Hera and her anger, caused by the "infidelity" of Zeus, was always placed into disrepute and disqualified.
When it was said that Core had been abducted by Pluto and had become Persephone, comparing her to a seed, the Greeks wanted to say that there were moments in the life of every human being that it was necessary to break the hard shell of conditioning, so they would grow; that they would have to leave some belief or social role or situation "die" so that other belief or social role or situation would reborn in its place.
An example: a person can only become mature when the child dies (and it is in the process of adolescence that this occurs). Adolescence is a period predominantly "plutonic": Pluto is the god "kidnapping" the child - Core - whom will be retained for a period (adolescence) until the transformation happens and it becomes adult.
Today, we understand the symbolism of the Greek gods according to their attributes from the archetype concept, which means "typical model" as a universal reference for a typical “model to be” (a mother is a mother anywhere in the world, both with humans and the animals!).
Archetypes are typical models used - unconsciously - by human beings in various social roles they act in the course of their lives. Each typical model has its intrinsic attributes (just as the gods of antiquity also had).
Thus, for example, when we talk or think the word mother in addition to the experience with our own mother, comes to mind the image of a warm and nurturing woman - this is a "typical pattern" represented by the goddess Demeter, the mother earth. And so it is from this "typical model"that we believe that our mother was or is adequate or not in her role as "our mother".
Thus, a woman becomes a mother, not only from the model of her "earth mother" but also from her "divine mother" internalized and that "emanates" from the maternal archetype.
And so, you can find in the various 'gods', in their features, the typical models of "how to be" in our diverse social roles that we live in many different social situations.
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