Greek Mythology - Bible vs Biblos

The Bible is sometimes called the Good Book, which is fitting since the word Bible comes from the Greek word for book, biblos. For the Greeks, the bible was Homer, particularly, The Iliad, and Hesiod. The Father of History, the Greek Classical period traveler Herodotus (c. 484-425 B.C.) writes: Whence the gods severally sprang, whether or no they had all existed from eternity, what forms they bore - these are questions of which the Greeks knew nothing until the other day, so to speak. For Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose Theogonies, and give the gods their epithets, to allot them their several offices and occupations, and describe their forms; and they lived but four hundred years before my time, as I believe.~ Herodotus Book IIYou can find a religious world view, morals, customs, genealogy, and more in Homer and Hesiod. However, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Theogony were not sacred texts. (Depending on your definition, the Greeks had other sacred texts, like hymns and responses of the oracles.)The Opening of The Iliad The Iliad begins, not with the creation of the world in 6 days, but with an invocation of the goddess or muse:Sing, O goddess, followed by the story of the wrath of the great Greek hero of the Trojan War, Achilles:the anger of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Achaeans. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Jove fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another.... and his anger at the expeditions leader, Agamemnon, who has strained relations with his best man by stealing his beloved concubine and committed sacrilege:And which of the gods was it that set them on to quarrel? It was the son of Jove and Leto [Apollo]; for he was angry with the king and sent a pestilence upon the host to plague the people, because the son of Atreus had dishonoured Chryses his priest.(Samuel Butler translation) The Place of Gods in Mans Life Gods in Homers ancient heroic age walked among men, but they were much more powerful than humans and could be prevailed upon by prayer and sacrifice to help human beings. We see this in the opening of The Iliad where the rhapsode (the composer/singer of the story) Homer seeks divine inspiration to create a great epic, and where an old man seeks the return of his abducted daughter.There is nothing in this Greek great book (The Iliad) about taking clay and forming it in a certain likeness or taking a rib from said animated clay, although the latter, the story of the creation of woman (Pandora) by a craftsman, does appear differently elsewhere in the canon of Greek mythology.Next Page: Creation Stories Introduction to Greek Mythology Myth in Daily LifeWhat Is Myth?Myths vs. LegendsCreation StoriesTitanomachyOlympian Gods and GoddessesFive Ages of ManPhilemon and BaucisPrometheusTrojan WarBulfinch MythologyMyths and LegendsKingsley Tales from Mythology | Golden Fleece and the Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne Confusing Creation Stories Creation StoriesUranos RevengeTitanomachyPhilemon and BaucisPrometheus Version 1: Genesis 1.27 King James27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Version 2: Genesis 2.21-2321: And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22: And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23: And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.... the story of the 5 Ages Also see Jewish Legends - Creation Genealogy Shows Mans Relationship to God(s) The stories one polis told about its divine connection might or might not contradict the stories of another polis about its connection with the same god. Sometimes what looks like an effort to smooth out one set of inconsistencies seems to have created others. It might serve those of us coming to the Greek stories from a Judaeo-Christian tradition to remember that there are plenty of apparent inconsistencies in the Bible, too. Reference: [url formerly www.rpgclassics.com/quotes/iliad.shtml] Interesting Quotations from the Iliad Introduction to Greek Mythology Myth in Daily LifeWhat Is Myth?Myths vs. LegendsGods in the Heroic Age - Bible vs. BiblosTrojan WarBulfinch MythologyMyths and LegendsGolden Fleece and the Tanglewood Tales, by Nathaniel Hawthorne