How is the Greek mythology look like and some comparison of Chinese, Norse and Greek mythology.

This week I continued my research of the cultural awareness of the mythology in different places. I have already done a lot of research on the Chinese and the Norse mythology, so I did some research of the Greek mythology this week.

I searched for information on the website, and I found a website, www.greekmythology.com. In this website, I can find the descriptions to all the gods and characters in the Greek mythology, and it seems that the Greek mythology has the most systematic background and relations in all mythology, and it is also very complicated. Here are some examples of the Greek mythology.

The first story is about Sisyphus. Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra (Corinth) in Greek mythology. He was the son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete. He founded Ephyra, which he ruled over as its first king. His spouse was the nymph Merope, with whom he had four children; Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander. Although Sisyphus helped its city become a commercial hub and invested in navigation, he was a sly and deceitful person. In numerous occasions, he violated the Xenia, the concept of hospitality and generosity shown to travellers and guests, by killing them, so he could prove that he was a ruthless king. These violations made him fall in the eyes of Zeus, who was in charge of promoting the Xenia. Another time that Sisyphus infuriated Zeus when he told the river god Asopus where his daughter Aegina was - Zeus had previously kidnapped her. In return, Asopus created a spring to flow on the Acropolis of Corinth. The now furious father of gods decided to punish Sisyphus for good. He asked Thanatos, personification of death, to take him and chain him in the Underworld. When Thanatos went to Sisyphus, the king asked how the chains actually worked; Thanatos agreed, but Sisyphus swiftly managed to chain Thanatos instead. With Death now in chains, no mortal could die and go to the Underworld. After a while, the situation aggravated, and the god of war Ares, unhappy that his wars were no longer interesting as no one died, released Thanatos. He then trapped Sisyphus and gave him to Thanatos too. Another version of the story has it that Hades was sent instead of Thanatos, and it was him that was tricked and chained by Sisyphus. As a result, people could no longer make sacrifices, and the sick would no longer find peace as they couldn't die. All gods told Sisyphus they would make his life a living hell if he didn't free Hades, and he reluctantly agreed. Before surrendering though and dying, Sisyphus told his wife Merope to later throw his lifeless body in the middle of the city square, as a test for his wife's love for him. As a result, his body ended up on the banks of the river Styx. Sisyphus, now in the Underworld, told Persephone, queen of the underworld, what had happened, and told her to release him and send him back to the living, so he could punish his wife. Persephone agreed, and Sisyphus went back to the realm of the living. He found his wife and scolded her, but he then refused to return to Tartarus. In the end, the god Hermes took him and dragged him there. Zeus, fed up with Sisyphus' tricks and cunning as well as his hubris - believing he was more cunning than Zeus - punished him to eternally push a boulder uphill. However, as soon as he would reach the top of the hill, the boulder would roll off and Sisyphus had to push it back again.

Another story from Greek mythology is about the Trojan War. This is a very famous war in the Greek mythology. The beginning of this war is because of a party. The god of gods organised a grand feast in celebration of Peleus' and Thetis' marriage, in which all of the gods and important figures were invited, except the goddess of strife, Eris. The goddess was stopped at the door by Hermes, infuriating her. Before she left, she threw her gift amidst the guests; the Apple of Discord, a golden apple on which the words "to the fairest" had been inscribed. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite started quarreling over who should be the one to take the apple, and demanded that Zeus decide on this matter. Zeus knew that if he made a choice, he would cause the anger of the other two that wouldn't be picked, and decided to abstain; instead, he appointed Paris, the young prince of Troy, as the judge. Paris could not make a decision, even after seeing the three goddesses naked, so they started bribing him; Hera said that he would get political power and be the ruler of the continent of Asia; Athena would give him wisdom and great skills in battle; and Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen of Sparta. Paris gave the apple to Aphrodite, and returned to Troy. The story later is too long so I just pick this part of this story as it is enough to prove my topic.

The Greek mythology is quite different in many places compared with the Chinese mythology and the Norse mythology. The gods also have emotion in the Greek mythology, they would be angry, envy, vain, happy, and they will also make mistakes and be punished (like Sisyphus), and Gods in Greek mythology seems have lots of conflicts, and often harm each other. But gods in Greek mythology is the most powerful. The relationship between gods and humans can’t be surpass in the Greek mythology. This is different in the Chinese mythology, humans can be gods if they keep discipline themselves for a very long time, but the main point to be a god is to be motionless in Chinese mythology.

Another difference in these mythology is the fate. In Greek and Norse mythology, the gods cannot fight with the destiny, they all need to followed the destiny, but in Chinese mythology, we do not emphasize the importance of destiny, and the destiny can even be changed by some gods. When facing some disasters, the gods in the Greek and Norse mythology cannot fight against them because this is their destiny, but in Chinese mythology, gods or the humans could fight, and in most cases they will win and alive. So someone summarized the Chinese mythology as the history of fighting with the nature, and summarized the Greek mythology as the history of incest and obstruct others.

This topic is too complicated in some ways so I cannot learn a lot of it, but I still get a lot of information and learn a lot from it. I hope the readers can also learn something from my blog.