![]() ![]() THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE GREEKS This dark picture is worlds apart from the stories of classical mythology. Mankind's chief hope of escaping the wrath of whatever divinities existed lay in some magical rite, senseless but powerful, or in some offering made at the cost of pain and grief. ![]() Terror lived there, with its close attendant, Magic, and its most common defense, Human Sacrifice. Horrors lurked in the primeval forest, not nymphs. Nothing is clearer than the fact that primitive man, whether in New Guinea today or eons ago in the prehistoric wilderness, is not and never has been a creature who peoples his world with bright fancies and lovely visions. ![]() ![]() The imagination was vividly alive and not checked by the reason, so that anyone in the woods might see through the trees a fleeing nymph, or bending over a clear pool to drink, behold in the depths a naiad's face. Through it, according to this view, we can retrace the path from civilized man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with nature and the real interest of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with the earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel. Intro to Classical Mythology Greek and Roman mythology is quite generally supposed to show us the way the human race thought and felt untold ages ago. Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes By Edith Hamilton ![]()
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