Mythology - a source of life lessons
Mythology
(in this case Greek), being a collection of stories and tales, teaches people
life lessons. Even the modern society can relate to stories written thousands
of years ago. In this blog I will mention just a few out of a big pool.
1. A worthy thing to learn is to listen
to elders and people with experience in life. This is shown in the story of Daedalus
(father) and Icarus (son). This myth passes the idea that not listening to elders
might result in harm, even death (in this case flying too close to the sun and
drowning).
2. Another lesson to learn is that
everyone has a weakness. This is show in the story of Achilles. Even the unstoppable
hero like warrior is vulnerable and can perish. His weakness was his ankles
where he was later shot which resulted in his death.
3. The myth of Jocasta and Oedipus shows
us how we can’t escape our fate. There was a prophecy saying that Oedipus would
kill his father and marry his mother and Jocasta did everything to stop that
from happening. Did she succeed? Off course not. There are things in life we
just can’t control and avoid. We should accept that.
Wasn't it Achilles' heel?
ReplyDeletePoint 3 sounds rather fatalistic and I'm not sure I'm ready to accept this view. For Oedipus, to prevent the prophecy from coming true it was enough to 1) kill no one, 2) stay unmarried. Doesn't sound so hard to achieve, does it?