The Creativity of Ancient Greeks Explained in Myths

The well-known creativity of the Ancient Greeks could be represented by the myths in Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. Examples of their expansive creativity could be seen with the Greeks putting the Gods in situations that are more realistic and humans could be found in. In addition, their creativity could be observed throughout the interpersonal relationships among the gods.

Some of the situations that the gods were placed in showed how creative the Greeks could be and how their gods could be like them and be it situations they humans may be in. Foremost, when Cronus, ruler of the universe, discovered one of his children would dethrone him, he did something to stop it from ever happening. He ate all of his children to prevent them from ever becoming powerful enough to overpower him. As a mother, Rhea loved all of her children, and couldn’t bear to have no child to love and nurture. Since she was also a god, and ruled the universe along with Cronus, she went against her husband’s word and hid Zeus and gave him a substitute. She sent him off to Crete, where he was grown in secret. Although Rhea was a god, this myth puts her in the position of a human mother, by saving her child by going against an authority figure’s order. Another example of the human-like situations was after Prometheus gave the humans fire for protection when being created.

Since fire was something that was in Olympus and the Gods had, Zeus felt that the humans did not deserve to have it, but he could not take it back now that the humans had it. Like a human, he was mad and wanted revenge. He swore payback on humankind and then their friend. All of the gods would constantly give Pandora all of these beautiful things. Zeus gave her to the men, and became an evil to man and a character to do evil things. Since Zeus did not yet get the satisfaction of revenge, he made all of the gods put something evil into a box, and prohibited her from ever opening it. As being a woman, curiosity took the better of her, and she opened it. All the bad things that exist in the world today came out of the box, and only one good thing; hope. Yet again, a god (Zeus) was placed in a human-like situation, which made him angry and swear revenge on someone or something (mankind). There were some other situations and mistakes that the gods had that made them more like the Greeks in some ways.