Mythology and the supernatural characters story, surrounded by symbolism and venerated in the form of gods, demigods and heroes, who ruled the forces of nature, commanded lightning, wind, rivers, heaven and earth, sun and moon. It's the set of fables that explain the origin of myths, of mythological deities, who held the destiny of men and ruled the world in their hands.
Myth, from the Greek, means to narrate, to tell. In the figurative sense it means unbelievable thing. Myth also means deified character. Logia, from the Greek logos, means study, word, science.
Mythology it's the study of legends, myths, narratives and rituals, with which ancient peoples revered the gods and heroes. Mythology is the science that seeks to explain myths, which have a social character since their origin, and are only understandable within the general context of the culture in which they were created.
Philosophical meaning of mythology
Ancient cultures, in an attempt to face the problems related to the existence of life and to understand the world, found a way to defend themselves from real dangers and imaginaries, creating their gods, demigods and heroes, involved in stories of magic and fabulous rituals, before the mysterious forces that believed everything ruled.
The magical acts meant a man's effort to understand and solve his problems, which were enormous given his ignorance of the world.
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the story of countless immortal gods, semi-divine creatures and muses, created in ancient Greece, and who have spanned the centuries. Greek mythology emerged as an attempt to explain natural phenomena, or as a guarantee of victory in wars, good harvest, luck in love, etc. The Greek deities were arranged in a hierarchy and their gods were very similar to man. The attitudes of jealousy, envy, spite and love, were common, because the gods of Olympus behaved like human creatures. Only they were endowed with greater powers, more beauty and perfection, and immune to time.
Zeus was the lord of men and supreme mandatary of the gods who inhabited Mount Olympus. To gain good graces, the Greeks honored the mighty creatures with rites, feasts and offerings. Each entity represented forces of nature or human feelings: Aphrodite represented (beauty and love); Athena (wisdom); Artemis (the moon); Dionysus (the feast, the wine and the pleasure); Demeter (the fertile land); Phoebus (the sun); Hermes (the wind); Posseidon (the seas) etc.
The main Greek heroes, almost gods, were able to defeat monsters, fight enemies and perform feats impossible to mortals. Among them are: Perseus (killed Medusa, a terrible creature with a hair of serpents, whose eyes turned into stone statues all those who stared at her); Theseus (participated in the Argonauts' journey and killed the Minotaur); Heracles (Hercules, for the Romans), (son of Zeus and Alcmene, whose main quality was physical strength); Agamemnon (was the commander of the Trojan War); Achilles (participated in the siege of the city of Troy); Oedipus (deciphered the enigma of the sphinx); Atlanta (heroine who participated in Caridon's wild boar hunt).
Roman mythology
Roman mythology is the story of various gods and heroes, who were admired during the Roman Empire, from Etruscan, Celtic, Egyptian, Italic and mainly Greek deities, when Greece became part of the Empire Roman.
In the early days of the Empire, the gods existed only to serve man and as the people were usually peasants, the Romans worshiped the patrons of herds and fields. Animals, wine and incense were offered to them before the harvest, and the gods were invoked to protect the works of the field.
Among the gods conquered by Rome, the Greeks were the most important, and when they were incorporated at the Divine Assembly in Rome, they had the Romans reformulate their conception of forces supernaturals. They lost their utilitarian aspect and assumed human characteristics. Some gods disappeared and others changed their names and received various assignments. Thus, Jupiter (was the supreme god, the god of the city, of lightning and thunder); Venus (goddess of beauty and love); Minerva (the wisdom); Diana (goddess of the moon and hunting); Bacchus (god of wine and bacchanals); Ceres (the fertile land); Apollo (the sun); Mercury (the wind); Neptune (the seas) etc.
Hercules, who in Greek mythology was called Heracles, came to have greater importance in the Roman Empire. Famous for his strength, he faced difficult tasks to kill monsters and ferocious animals.
Egyptian Mythology
Egyptian mythology is the set of fables that brought together a considerable variety of gods, immersed in the strength of the religion, which served to theoretically justify the general organization of society, which lived in function of the gods, following the principles for them settled down.
Hundreds of gods protected agriculture, others language, teaching and literature. Each city or district had its own gods. Osiris was the god of death, as the Egyptians believed that when man died, they would live in another way, in the world of the dead, hence the practice of mummifying the most illustrious dead. Amon, or Amon-Ra, was the sun god, elevated to a national god in the 11th dynasty. It was the greatest Egyptian deity. Isis was the goddess of love and magic, she was the daughter of Geb, god of the earth and Nut goddess of the firmament.
For political reasons, for a god to symbolize a monarch, they approached monotheism. In fact, it was only said that a few gods were more important. Pharaoh Amemophis IV, abandoned polytheism and imposed excessive worship on the god Atom, the Sun himself, and appointed himself the representative of Aten on earth. In Ptolemy's reign, Serapis was the official god, which resulted from the fusion of the gods Osiris and Apis.
Norse mythology
Norse mythology had its origins in the sagas, tales that praised heroes. They emerged around the 10th century in Iceland, where the main Icelandic families, desirous of immortality, charged the sgnamenn, men of extraordinary memory and narrative talent, to recount the deeds of their origins. Norwegian kings adopted the same feat. To these stories were added fantastic and mythical elements, and the heroes mingled with the gods.
The Nordic peoples were the inhabitants of countries now known as Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. For these peoples, the center of the world was Midgard, the home of men. The house of the gods was Asgard, and around the two abodes was the sea, the land of giants, and the great serpent. Odin, ruled the gods and men and knew all past, present and future. His son Thor commanded thunder, which was created by hammer blows. Loki, god of fire, was the cheater's advisor and enemy.
In Asgard was Valhalla, paradise, where the Valkyries, women warriors, took the heroes killed in combat. There they would live forever young, in hunting fights and feasting, awaiting the resurrection of the world. They would have to face the giants, the monsters, the serpent and Loki's son. The heroes would be defeated and the land would be all dark and cold, until life began again. Whoever did not die in combat would go to the kingdom of Hell, eternally frozen and in darkness.
Celtic Mythology
Celtic mythology is the result of the blending of various civilizations. The Celts were barbarian peoples who spread throughout most of Europe and were the root of many cultures. The Celts were formed by several rival tribes, led by a warrior chief, and each tribe worshiped its different deities.
The Celts did not constitute an empire with political unity, but cultural unity was ensured by priests, called druids, who took care of the maintenance of norms. They were also responsible for the practice of magic and religious rituals. To worship their gods, the Celts, initially built their altars outdoors, in the middle of woods, where they performed their rituals.
Celtic mythology is divided into three groups: Irish, British and continental mythology. Among the main gods worshiped by the Celts are: Sucellus, the king of the gods, who represented fertility; Dagda, god of magic and wisdom; Taranis, god of thunder who appeared in the sky in a chariot; Lugh, god of the sun and light; Tailtiu and Macha, goddesses of nature; Cernunnos, god of animals, with eyes and antlers of deer, who can take the form of various animals; Morrigan, goddess of war; Dea Matrona, was the mother goddess, represented by three women; Epona, goddess of horses. Cuchulain was the son of Lugh, the warrior hero who killed his enemies with a spear full of thorns.