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If we know nothing about Greece or Greek mythology at least we know Pythagoras from the popular Pythagoras theorem in math
We know about Almighty Socrates from literature and philosophy, we know about Plato, how about Eros? Doesn't it ring a bell? Erotic? Sounds familiar? How about Hercules? Zeus, Ares, Hades, Medusa, Aphrodite, Artemis? Where are my gamers? Seen any familiar names? Kratos?
Yeah, most of what we enjoy today as entertainment and learn from through education could be traced back to Greek mythology and Philosophers.
It doesn't matter where you are from, it doesn't matter your race but at every point in our lives from childhood to adulthood, we have studied, watched and seen how these Greek mythology form the basis of our daily lives today.
But how? Is it enough to just watch these fictional characters as cartoons or movies? Is it enough to just study the various contributions of Greek philosophers? And say oh this affects our culture? How does it affect our culture?
Well in various religions and traditions, we celebrate harvest which is the abundance of food after the cultivation of crops and famine season. But do you know the origin of these celebrations? I stumbled on it during one of my readings about ancient Greece, their practice and their gods.
I love reading about them because it gives me an insight to how life functions from the old world to the new world. I love to study the past and see how it affects the present and ultimately the future. It was on one of these readings that I got to know that the seasons of harvest and famine that we observe today was influenced by Greek mythology.
So the story is, Hades the god of the underworld with the help of his brother Zeus the Olympus god, kidnapped Persephone the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. I don't need to introduce her father again but her mother Demeter is the Greek goddess of fertility, harvest and earth. Persephone is the Greek goddess of Agriculture and grains before she doubled as queen of the underworld after being abducted and married to Hades.
Upon her abduction, Demeter was devastated. She threatened to let all hell loose and cause famine on the land if she didn't get her daughter back. At first she wasn't taken seriously but as the day progressed, her sadness caused all the crops across Greece to wither and the lands became barren. The people could no longer get a bountiful harvest to sacrifice to the gods hence, Zeus was forced to intervene.
Zeus approached Hades and asked him to return Persephone to Demeter but Hades loved her too much to let her go so he tricked her into eating six pomegranate fruit (which was known as the fruit of the dead), to bind her to the underworld. Seeing what Hades had done, Zeus reached an agreement with him.
Both gods concluded that Persephone would return to earth and be with Demeter for six months and then return to Hades and be with him for the other six months of the year.
The return of Persephone to her mother made her so happy, it uplifted her spirit and this marked the season of bountiful harvest. However, when Persephone returned back to Hades, famine descended on the land again because Demeter got sad and lonely. A mother's love indeed should not be messed with.
On a lighter note, today we see different religions that are distinct from Greek mythology observe this story.
Every harvest season, especially on my side of the world, is being celebrated at various worship centers. People come with different varieties of crops to give thanks to God for a bountiful harvest, just like it was done in Ancient Greek mythology.
LEO POWER UP DAY (LPUD)
Yesterday was LPUD, while I observed it yesterday, I got too occupied to make a post about it. So here we go guys, powered up 50 Leos, bringing my LP from 164LP to 223LP.
Above is my response to the Novemberinleo prompt, you can participate here
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