Classical Mythology

(^132) THE MYTHS OF CREATION: THE GODS
of the human condition). A chorus in Sophocles' Antigone sings exultantly: "Won-
ders are many but none is more wonderful than man"; and Achilles' judgment
of the afterlife in Homer's Odyssey (translated on p. 331) quoted out of context
seems to affirm an unbridled optimism in the boundless hope and achievement
possible in this life, as opposed to the dismal gloom and dull inertia of the here-
after. He cries out:
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1 should prefer as a slave to serve another man, even if he had no property and
little to live on, than to rule all those dead who have done with life.
With words such as these ringing in one's ears, it seems easy to postulate a
Greek worship (even idolatry) of the human in a universe where mortals pay
the gods the highest (but surely dubious) compliment of casting them in their
own image.
Whatever truths this popular view may hold, it is far too one-dimensional
and misleading to be genuinely meaningful and fair. In opposition to this my-
opic, uplifting faith in the potential of human endeavor to triumph against all
divine odds, Greek literature and thought are shot through with a somber and
awesome reverence for the supremacy of the gods and the inevitability of the
Fates. A sense of predetermined destiny for each individual was analyzed in
terms of the meaning and possibility of free will and independent action. There
also developed a strong and realistic awareness of the miseries, uncertainties,
and unpredictability of human life, ordained by the gods. If we are lucky, our
lives will be more blessed by happiness than doomed to misery; still, the terri-
ble vicissitudes of life lead to only one conclusion: It is better to be dead than
alive. This tragic irony of man's dilemma as both an independent agent and a
plaything of fate and the pain and suffering of human existence were pitted
against the conviction that mortals may reach glorious and triumphant heights
in the face of dreadful uncertainties and terrors. This idealistic optimism and
this realistic pessimism, these two seemingly irreconcilable points of view, ac-
count for a unique humanism originated by the Greeks, with its emphasis upon
the beauty and wonder of mortal achievement, despite the horrible disasters that
a vindictive god or fate may dispense at any moment.
MYTH, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY
Another word of caution is in order about generalizations concerning Greek re-
ligious attitudes. It has been claimed that the Greeks had no Bible or strict dogma
and (incredible as it may seem) no real sense of sin, or that they were innocently
free and tolerant in their acceptance of new gods—what difference does one
more make to a polytheist? One should not merely repeat stories (many of them
from Ovid) and make pronouncement upon the spiritual adequacy or inade-
quacy of the theological convictions they are supposed to represent. Mythology,
philosophy, and religion are inextricably entwined, and one must try to look at