Ø
What we call mythology are the
stories that remain (zostavia) of the first religions of ancient (staroveký) civilizations. What we
know about them come from ancient texts and tablets (pamätná tabuľa) that had to be discovered
and decoded by archaeologists.
This tablet from around 1750 BC tells the story of an ancient flood
Ø
The most famous myths come from
Mesopotamia , Egypt ,
and Greece , but there are
also many from India, Africa, Polynesia, South America, and Scandinavia .
Ø
It’s funny how similar some
of these myths are. In explaining creation and families of gods, many myths involve monsters, incest, and vomiting (zvracenie). It makes you wonder (byť zvedavý) what people were like back then.
Ø
Myths were more than just
stories, and more than just religion (náboženstvo). In the ancient world, cities fought one
another. The strongest cities controlled the small ones and demanded tribute (príspevky, dane). Any
city could grow and build an army, hoping to start an empire (riša).
Ø
Every city had a patron god or
goddess, and a temple (chrám) dedicated to him or her (svojho boha). Religion united the citizens in each town by answering the questions “How
was the world created?” and “Why is life unfair? Why are there catastrophes
like floods (záplavy)?” and “Why do kings have the right to rule (vládnuť)?”
Ø
By answering these questions,
people:
1.
Knew which gods were true (theirs)
and which were false (everyone else’s). They also knew how the world started,
and where they came from.
2.
Understood the gods and why
they did such terrible things. People believed that they could avoid (vyvarovať sa) disaster
and suffering (utrpenie) by pleasing their gods with sacrifices (obeta) and prayer (modlitba).
No comments:
Post a Comment