Traditional Culture Encyclopedia - Traditional customs - What are all the foreign myths

What are all the foreign myths

There are three main categories: Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and Egyptian mythology.

1, Greek mythology (Greek: ελληνικμυθολογα) that is, oral or written all the myths about the gods, heroes, natural and cosmic history of the ancient Greeks. A spiritual product of primitive clan society, the earliest form of literature in Europe.

Approximately generated before the 8th century BC, it formed the basic scale on the basis of the long-term oral transmission of the primitive first people of Greece, and later recorded in the Homeric Hymns and Hesiod's "Divine Poo" and the poetry, drama, history, philosophy and other writings of the ancient Greeks, and the descendants organized them into the present Ancient Greek mythological stories, divided into the stories of the gods and heroes legends two parts.

2. Nordic mythology is a mythological system unique to Scandinavia, and its formation was later than that of several other major mythological systems in the world. The history of the oral transmission of Nordic mythology can be traced back to the 1st-2nd centuries A.D., and it was first popular in places such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and then spread to Iceland and other places in the 7th century A.D. along with a group of immigrants who went north.

During the Middle Ages, when Christianity was prevalent throughout Europe, most of the works documenting Norse mythology were burned as heresy due to a strong political crackdown, and the more complete ones preserved to this day include the Icelandic epic poem "The Edda" and the Germanic epic poem "The Song of the Nibelungen", among others.

3. Egyptian mythology is at the same time the ancient Egyptian religion. It refers to the system of gods and religion believed by the ancient Egyptians before the spread of Christianity and Islam. Ancient Egyptian mythology can be traced back to at least 2780-2250 B.C. Because the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians almost 3000 years of history, in which there are many big changes.

The biggest difference between Egyptian mythology and Greek or Roman mythology is that most of the gods in Egyptian mythology are human beings with animal heads, which is a distinctive feature of Egyptian mythology. The beliefs of the ancient Egyptians belonged to the category of polytheism, and most of them could use animals as their symbols. The ancient Egyptians believed that they would go to the afterlife after death.

They believed that the body was a vessel for the soul, and that the soul would leave its body every night and return in the morning. They likewise believed that the soul would rise after death and that the body must be preserved so that the soul had its own abode, hence the invention of embalming and the creation of mummies.

Expanded Information

The creation of myths also depended on the nature of the society at the time. At that time, people had to rely on the collective,**** together to obtain the means of subsistence and defend themselves against wild animals and enemies; the proceeds of labor were limited and had to be distributed equally. In the primitive communal system, the main contradiction between man and nature, became the center of attention of the people. Therefore, explaining nature and subduing it became the main content of myths.

At the same time, due to the unity of interest, the people in the collective production of the emergence of superior skills, brave and strong characters, by all members of the veneration, which is endowed with magical powers and become gods or demi-gods. In them, the desire of primitive man to subdue nature was placed.

Some of the myths represent inter-tribal wars. This part of the myths mainly arose in the late stage of the primitive communal system. At that time the communal system tended to dissolve, but the struggle between tribes for the possession of the means of subsistence was still a universal cause.

Victory in war and the performance of leaders were seen as signs of collective prowess and honor. As a result, the process of war and its conductors were equally spontaneously deified through fantasy, making this part of the story an integral part of the mythos.

It can be seen that myths reflect primitive people's understanding of the objective world, which is a conceptual form reflecting reality, and a superstructure on top of a certain economic base. It is only because the myth reflects the objective world through the refraction of spontaneous and childish fantasies of human childhood, thus presenting a unique form.