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After the Ice Age, hunting and foraging communities evolved
to a more settled, agricultural life; belief in savage animal
spirits was replaced by a belief in domesticated spirits.
With the invention of cuneiform and other writing systems,
mythological epics emerged to explain the origins of life and
the causes of death and earthly suffering.
Sumeria,
Persia, and Egypt were early centers for these developments.
Egyptians were typically obsessed with the afterlife, emphasizing
pyramids, mummies, hieroglyphs, spells, prayers, and myths (such
as the death and resurrection of Isis). The sea-going Phoenicians
spread their alphabet and religion around the Mediterranean,
and their gods (El, Baal) especially influenced the Hebrews.
When the Indo-Europeans (ancestors of the Greeks, Romans, and
others) expanded beyond central Asia, these war-like peoples
brought forceful and powerful gods. Their storm god was later
known as Zeus (Greeks), Jupiter (Romans), Thor
(Germanic tribes), and by other names as well.
After
Bronze Age civilization collapsed in about 1200 BCE, Greek population
declined by up to ninety percent; the survivors preserved the
glorious memories of the Bronze Age in myths and epic poetry.
Where Homer celebrated the events of the Trojan War in
the Iliad and Odyssey. Hesiod described
the world's creation in his Theogony. Greeks had a flood
myth and dozens of myths celebrating bronzeworking; they especially
emphasized the intellect in stories about wisdom and
intelligence. Art and drama dominated Greek religious devotion
by exploring the glories and dilemmas of human existence.
The
Romans conquered Greece in 146 BCE, and they adopted or interpreted
the Greek gods in typically Latin ways. The epic poet Virgil
(in the Aeneid) presented a mythological past as the pre-destined
antecedent of Rome's later greatness; the Romans also closely
associated statecraft and religion. From within
the sprawling territories of the Roman Empire would emerge the
three great religions of the Western world: Judaism,
Christianity,
and Islam.
Myths
rely on imagination and intuition; they express fervently-held
convictions about the ultimate nature of things. Myths are vehicles
that capture our most profound ideals and beliefs, and they
shape our standards, goals, and self-perceptions.
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