Myths And Religion

Oral myths existed throughout the history of humankind regardless of place, culture or language spoken, and they don’t obligatorily relate back to an objective reality. The nature of human being always remained the same, curious and eager to explore, but most of the time they were not able to explain the things surrounding them. That is the time when myths came on the stage, incarnating values and interpreting the origins of nature processes into the clear and accessible for everybody language. Myths combined not only science, religion or philosophy, it was an attempt to explain an unexplainable. These clear ideas were followed in “Demeter and Persephone”, where consolidation of mystical, cosmological, sociological and pedagogical functions
came into place, allowing a modern generation to explore and perceive the way of understanding of ancient Greeks, how things came into being.
Back in the ancient days, when the Earth was still flat and things like fire, thunder or death were considered a mystery, people needed to explain it somehow. Demeter was the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture, together with her daughter Persephone who represents the life force of plants, they were literally responsible for the life on Earth. This image served a purpose to engraft a sense of awe and reverence to the great mystery of world existence. This monstrous mystery was simply explained by the existence of Gods and in specific Demeter “the bringer of seasons and splendid gifts”. The great “power” of goddess affected a religious and spiritual aspect of life as well, “all night long they propitiated the glorious goddess, quaking with fear” and “he then called to assembly the people of every district and bade them build an opulent temple to lovely-haired Demeter”. In that days agriculture was already a source of civilization, that is why things that cannot be thought and predicted, like excessive fertility of harvest or in opposite, crop failure, perfectly fitted in the Hymn to Demeter, and her moaning on her daughter. One more aspect of the mystical function of Hymn is a presence of Hades, a human being was always seeking for an immortal life, and knowing that life after death exists, probably gave a hope to millions of people.
Before religion and way before science, Hymn to Demeter formulated an image of the universe, made it alive for us and infused with meaning and significance.
A simple expression “as the year revolved, her daughter could spend one portion of it in the misty darkness and the other two with her mother and the other immortals” gave the people an understanding that particular weather conditions have to be maintained in order for the crops to grow and an establishment of winter is explained in the basic language. Appearances of queen of underworld during the year clearly symbolized the distinction between the seasons, the eternal cycle of
the

nature's death and rebirth, and this is what cosmological function is responsible for, it helps us to make sense of everything that we come into contact with in the universe around.
Myth is some kind of a glue that held different layers of socium together and was an essential component of moral conduct. The third function of myth is sociological, it deals with the current ideas and models of social behavior. These parallels of specific social order can be observed in Hymn to Demeter and ancient Greek society. Typical Greek marriage with a huge gender gap was a very common thing in that culture, the same like in this myth “cloud-gathering Zeus, who gave her to Hades, his own brother, to become his buxom bride”. The Hellenes were a patriarchal community that subjugated females and the Hymn helped to endorse and excuse that belief, and what makes it even sadder is that Persephone and Demeter just adjusted to it: “After the splendid Demeter had counseled the kings in everything, she and her daughter went to Olympus for the company of the other gods”, as a result, unhealthy beliefs remained uphold and misbalanced relationship of males and females sustained untouched. Each of us sometimes needs a guide to follow, and pedagogical function of myth gives us patterns of beliefs to guide us through different phases of life.
It may be considered that this function could be the most significant, it presents myth as a teacher and basically shows the steps how to live a lifetime regardless of difficulties and circumstances. Many social problems and patterns can be observed in “Demeter and Persephone”, dependence on man and how woman have to obey and consistently adjust to his will “he spoke and the goddess did not disobey the behests of Zeus”. Myth explains that females must accept established patriarchal system of society, after all the events Persephone and her mother, the goddess of august Demeter, partially agreed on conditions, which is ironic, because most of the time it was just an anxiety about the power of woman. Another lesson which was hidden in the story is a fortitude of Demeter. Her pleas were abandoned by each and every God “but none of the gods or mortal men wanted to tell her the truth and none of the birds of omen came to her as truthful messenger”, she relied only on herself and still never gave up in her pursuit to save Persephone. It also can be connected with the power and sorrow of motherly love, despite anything, nothing can beat it. At the end of the day, Demeter stood up against all-mighty Zeus and dreadful Hades, which is kind of a paradox, on one side there is an obedient woman, always happy to please her male-ruler,
and on the other strong and powerful woman ready to protect her family. Myths were created by different cultures in an attempt to find out the purpose of its existence. So for thousands of years various nationalities absorbed the fundamental answers about the origins of nature and the world surrounding us. This stories may not be true, and no one must believe in it, but this could be the path of human understanding of reality, they go far beyond philosophy, history or science aiming to reach the internal parts of our hearts, giving a magical and astonishing experience of the mysterious world. Although they do not always provide answers directly, it gives us a chance to perceive this deep wisdom through the interpretation of many mystical, cosmological, sociological and pedagogical examples. The Hymn to Demeter is exactly this kind of a story, which manifests to show us the values, knowledge and principles of Greek society.