Soldan High School - Scrip Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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ie ef ef-el -ev I GTZ: --e' e 159' e The Origin of the Grecian Myths By Lucy Mae Jaco, 8 5 GREAT many of the really valuable possessions of the world XG' were discovered by accident in the attempt to prove some , theory based on an entirely mistaken assumption. One of 'E' Q the best examples of such an anomaly is the mythology of h -I ancient Greece, though it is the basis for much of the beauty in all forms of art perfected from the ancient days to these-. In an attempt to explain the awe-inspiring natural phenomena all about them, the rude savages wandering about the inhospitable steppes east of the Caspian Sea were probably the first to formulate the embryo tales which eventually became Grecian mythology. As they huddled about their campiires at night clasping crude spears or heavy clubs in their hands and afraid to sleep while the all-covering darkness hid from their sight the enemy slinking just beyond the flickering light, these first Grecians very likely attempted some first simple but, to them, satisfying explanation for the conditions that had always caused them so much discomfort. Although the first necessity of these people was, of course, food, shelter, and weapons, even then man seems to have felt the need for an undefinable something that would satisfy his crav- ing for peace and beauty. Generations after these First simple tales had been formulated, and after these savages had become united bands of barbarous nomad peo- ples, they were crowded out of their wild steppes by a more warlike race. Following the path of least resistance, the Wanderers are believed to have followed the coast of their sea and then the banks of rivers until they eventually arrived in the sunny Grecian peninsula. Here in the kindlier climate, the invaders found time and inspira- tion for more lucid, more connected, and more beautiful explanations of the natural occurrences all about them. Back and forth, from east to west above the Hat, circular plain, which was the earth, traveled, First the goddesses of the dawn, the rosv-limbed Hours and then Aurora, and later, that mightv personage, who, with his golden sun-chariot, satisfied the splendor-loving barbarous intellects. The dew was a shy, gentle maiden fleeing from her too impetuous lover, the sun, until at last, pursued even into the depths of the forest, she was destroyed by this same irnpetuosity. Always, the sun was recognized as a giver of health and life: so it became the mightiest physician and the patron and helper of mere, frail human physicians. At the same time, this beneficent deity was recognized and feared as the bringer of plagues and fevers. For did not these plagues and illnesses occur when the sun was the closest and 1

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f ffv: -A e Q1 - r A R- !. H X g 5 A J es, N e Ls - , ' Greece, Mother of the Arts By Doro thy Ka n ter, 8 HEN, in creation of all living things, The earth radiantly shed its veil of mist, Rejoicing in its divine mysteries, Black night and shining day, strange miracles, ' 1 2' Diana, lovely goddess of the moon, Drove forth her milk-White steeds across the sky To wrap the sleepy earth in evening's stillness: Then, on departure of the fading night, Aurora flung Wide the gates of morn To usher in the light in sparkling splendor, As Apollo, in his Haming chariot, Raced 'cross the heavens in glowing radiance. There, in the shining rays of golden dawn, Desire was born within thy gentle soul To bring to wond'ring man the beauty of the e Inspirer of all men-Mother of the Arts! is arth. 5, fy

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hottest? Thus these legends mingled comfort and beauty with the merely terrifying remnants of earlier tales. Active volcanoes were not infrequent in the new home of these myth-makers, so nothing was more natural than to have some one, more poetically inclined than his fellows, discoverv that, under these fiery-topped mountains, lived a kind, hard-working god, who in this, his mighty forge, made the weapons and tools which all-powerful gods might be expected to wield. The seasons, too, received their share of speculation: and slowly there grew a story of a beautiful and stately goddess of plenty, who presided over the crops and harvest, and who allowed her protegee, man, to be cursed with cruel winter only because she was mourning the absence of her daughter, gentle spring, who had been carried to the harsh, grim, foreboding underworld, whither traveled the shades of the dead. Virtue-using the word with its full meaning of strength, beauty, and valor, as well as piety - was rewarded by transportation, after death, to the fair Elysian fields: and evil or folly was punished as it deserved. Niobe, for her impious folly in boasting of her equality with the gods, was punished by losing her beloved source of pride. Orestes was pursued by Furies for his lack of iilial piety, however much justi- fiable. Croesus, when he became too proud and too confident, lost his mighty kingdom to the Persians. Midas was first punished for his unnatural greed and then punished, not so justly, for his lack of dis- cernment in caring more for the music of Pan than for that cf Apollo, the god of music. Thus, in nearly every case, beauty, which is virtue and truth, was liberally rewarded: while evil, which is the cause of unloveliness, was punished severely. All of the innumerable stories seem to have their origin in some natural occurrence or the desire to assuage the human feeling of impotence by assuring merited reward or punishment, if not in this life, in the next. So behind the simplest and most mistaken explanations given by these forerunners of the greater part of our culture and civilization. lurks a rudimentary but far-reaching theory. Finally, of course, the first childlike and poetic explanations were outgrown, but even while the truth of the stories was beginning to be doubted, their beauty and truth in the delineation of the character- istics of all humanity were unquestioned. Indeed many of the greatest works of art and literature have been the direct outgrowth of this great wealth of beauty in mythological lore. b IS