How Did Greek Mythology Influence Our Society

The Ancient Greek society ended over 2000 years ago, but even now its mythology continues to influence Western society. References to Greek Mythology are found in books, pieces of literature, television shows, and even video games. Even when the Roman Empire took over Ancient Greece, Rome still used and adopted the Greece mythologies (Jupiter as Zeus, Kronos as Saturn, etc.), which influenced our society just as it did throughout history. Greek Mythology has several links to music, film, and religion, which opened up industries and crossovers from today’s world. This includes movies such as Clash Of The Titans, poems about Greek gods and plays written about the great stories in Greek Mythology (Prometheus Unbound by Aeschylus). Even in the
In the original myth, Heracles fought many monsters during his labors. One of the monsters that he fought was the Hydra, “This serpent lived in the swamps of Lerna, near Argos.”(Morford & Lenardon, 2003, p. 523). Heracles was successful in defeating it as it was as quoted in Classical Mythology, “Each time Heracles clubbed a head off, two grew in its place… Each time he removed one of the heads, Iolaiis cauterized the stump with a burning brand so that another could not grow.”(Morford & Lenardon, 2003, p. 523). Similarly, Kratos battles and defeats the Hydra in God of War as well. However, the monster varies in terms of its physicality. In the game, the Hydra that Kratos fights is described on IGNs gaming website, “Unlike many versions of the Hydra in pop culture, which sport multiple heads, God of War's Hydra is actually several different beasts working in tandem.”(Schedeen, 2010). Meaning that there were many small, one-headed Hydras, and the main body of the Hydra was the biggest one. In order to defeat the Hydra, Kratos focused on attacking and killing the biggest Hydra body, to which he did. This resulted in all the other Hydras dying off as well. Another similar monster that the two heroes fought was Cerberus, who was the watchdog of Hades. A small description of this beast is written in an article Cerberus: Legendary Hell Hound of the Underworld, ”In ancient Greek mythology, there exists a three-headed dog called Cerberus that guards the entrance to Hades, a misty and gloomy underworld in which spirits of the dead are permitted to enter but none are allowed to leave.”(Hill, 2015). In Original Myth, Heracles was responsible to fetch Cerberus as his last task, which was also the most dangerous task he had done, “The final labor was to fetch Cerberus, the three-headed