This article is made after good amount of toil and sweat. It was my curiosity that I collated and correlated all wiki, videos and articles for last 2 months and made a diagram for my understanding. Later I thought to share. It is not meant to hurt any caste, creed, cult or religion. I strongly hope this will help for further study those who are interested in such literature.
In all civilizations of the world mythologies were the traditions which man made out of its imagination to understand and acknowledge powerful nature. These became the folklore and means to act to appease the powerful entities of nature such as sea, fire, tempest, sky and sun etc. Europe’s oldest civilization Minoan and Mycenae also were not exception. Later Greeks adopted them as part of Greek Civilization.
We come straight to the point as Greek mythology are very imaginative and vast. These stories shows how much the 4000 years old humans could think about nature. I have given here just the HEAD and TAIL of the Greek mythology for the interested ones for further study as Greek mythology is an ocean of stories.
Goddess Gaia is the most powerful Goddess of Greek mythology and is like Vishnu in Hindu mythology.
Greek Deities are mainly divided in three ages.
In Greek Mythology Earth has been made a very powerful entity and if we compare with Hindu mythology Earth is like Vishnu (Vishnu Puran). Earth created the God of Typhoon, sea, heaven, death and sky from her body alone same way as Lord Vishnu created Lord Shiva, Bramha, Goddess Lakshmi. In the Primordial age Gaia mated with her son Uranus to produce 12 Titans and few creatures. In Hindu mythology Vishnu created Lakshmi as part of his body and she became his concert (Vishnu Puran). Therefore though Greek mythology looks imaginative yet when we have to create LIFE out of VOID the only way is this which Gaia followed.
Next we come to Titan Age. Titans are like God and to me they seem the mix of semi God and God virtues. The killing of father by son is the tradition which is seen even in Olympian age. So the Titans were with the demons, God and human qualities. Not sure how this tradition originated in minds of Minoan and Mycenae but could be that these killings were also common in these
civilization?? Marrying among first brother and sister among Gods is because the characters which Gaia produced were 12 only and to perpetuate the life further there was no alternative. Swallowing of Gods by its children, creation of Goddess Aphroditis from body parts of Titan Cronus, evolution of swallowed pregnant wife from stomach of Titan Zeus etc look illogical. But myths are myths. We should listen to them as the gift of imagination and thoughts gifted to us to acknowledge and respect the eternal power of nature.
What is the current situation of Ancient Greek Gods worship
Christianity, Judaism and Islam are prevalent religions in Greece and Europe currently. The Greek government has not formally recognized the ancient Greek religion. Some section of people are questioning that if Greek constitution gives freedom of religion why it does not recognize ancient Greek religion? In want of recognition they do not have a proper place to worship these Gods. They can not do religious activity in ancient temple of Parthenon, Apollo, Zeus or Athena or Afriditis.
Ancient places to visit in Greece
Epilogue
Hope with my this article you understand the ancient Greek mythology and will give you a foundation to further explore more and more details about them. Greek culture and its effect was so much that Romans adopted the same Gods with different names. They accepted the Greek mythologies as it is and made some additional Gods to match with their life.
This article also indicates that Hindu mythology sustained like Himalayas for 4500 years till today in spite of several attacks while all other civilizations and their forerunners gave up. So Hindu religion is the oldest religion of world.
In today’s Greece there are some sections of population who want government to formally recognize ancient Greek as religion. Christianity is rooted so deeply now since 400 AD that now it seems a tough task. Whatever these deities are part of most precious glory of ancient Greece on which whole modern Europe is founded.
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