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Suggested ReadingSuggested ReadingMore on Greek Mythology and ReligionZeus and HeraWhat Was Greek Religion?Iliad and Odyssey Study Guides Gods in the Heroic AgeGreeks had creation stories, but little about man's creation.The Place of Gods in Man's Life Gods in Homer's 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 (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. Confusing Creation Stories There are Greek creation stories -- about the creation of the first supernatural (non-)entities like Chaos or Eros, the later creation of the gods, the development of agriculture, a flood story, and much more. There is even a creation of man story, written by Hesiod, whose reputation was second only to Homer in ancient Greece, but like the Biblical version of the creation of mankind, where Eve was created, in one version, at the same time as Adam, and in the second version, afterwards, the Hesiodic story of the creation of man, the story of the Five Ages, is confusing and contradictory.
27: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. Genesis 2.21-23 21: 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. Also see Jewish Legends - Creation Genealogy Shows Man's relationship To God(s) Genealogy is central to the ancient Greek mythology handbooks -- as it is to the Bible. All the major Greek heroes can trace their ancestry to at least one god (usually Zeus, who is sometimes the father in several generations). City-states (poleis - singular: polis) had their own patron god or goddess. We have several stories explaining the relationships of the patrons to their citizens, and of how the inhabitants are descendants of the patron or another god. Whether or not the Greeks actually believed their myths, they wrote in terms that show pride in this divine association. The stories of one polis 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. This is probably as it must be when handing down important stories from one generation to the next. 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. Interesting Quotations from the Iliad Introduction to Greek Mythology
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