What are the characteristics of myths?

Chinese mythology:

Ancient Chinese mythology has a very distinct moral spirit, which becomes even more prominent when compared with Western mythology, especially Greek mythology. The great gods in ancient Chinese mythology all have the characteristics of deities who do not eat the fireworks of the world and have no mortal desires. The myths are full of praise and praise for the dedication of ancient heroes and emperors, as well as the duty requirements of mythical figures to protect and protect the people. Part of this is the inherent quality of innate mythology, and the other part is due to acquired transformation. For thousands of years, this virtuous spirit has been influencing people's evaluation of historical figures and expectations of real figures, and has even influenced the trend of modern Chinese civilization since the 20th century.

When you open the ancient Chinese mythology, a world of sages comes to mind. Although the myths do not have a very complete plot, and the mythical characters do not have a systematic theological genealogy, they do have distinct oriental cultural characteristics, and the most notable one is their virtuous spirit. This virtuous spirit becomes even more prominent when compared with Western mythology, especially Greek mythology. This virtuous spirit in ancient Chinese mythology, on the one hand, originates from the inherent characteristics of the original mythology, and on the other hand, it is the most proud work of the myth reformers of later generations. In Western mythology, especially Greek mythology, the praise and blame of gods are mostly based on wisdom and strength, while the praise and blame of gods in ancient Chinese mythology are mostly based on morality. This way of thinking is deeply infused into Chinese cultural psychology. For thousands of years, the virtuous spirit of ancient Chinese mythology has influenced people’s evaluation of historical figures and expectations of real-life figures, determined the content and purpose of social education for people, and even influenced the development of modern Chinese civilization since the 20th century. towards.

1

“They don’t eat the fireworks of the world, and they don’t have the passions of ordinary people.” This is an important characteristic of the godhood of the main gods in ancient Chinese mythology. In many Chinese classics and historical books, the main gods in ancient China, such as Fuxi, Nuwa, Emperor Yan, Huangdi, Zhuanxu, Emperor Ku, Yao, Shun, Yu, etc., are all noble and holy. They are serious in speech and speech, never make fun of humans, let alone be jealous or harm humans. In their private lives, they have always been very disciplined and disciplined, paying great attention to details, the cultivation of character and morality, and respecting the virtuous and capable. Almost every god-king does not have the phenomenon of "red apricot cheating" or "randomly sowing the seeds of love". In them, there is only a sacred aura, pure character and noble sentiments. When humans look at them, they will just look up and worship without any disrespect.

In the world of myths in our country, let alone the myths that have been transformed by later generations, even the ancient primitive myths, we cannot see the description of the love life of the great gods, nor can we see their aspects of it. Details of life. Since there is very little content about love in ancient Chinese mythology, the myth of Chang'e flying to the moon and the legend of the Wushan goddess appear to be beautiful and graceful in the world of Chinese mythology, and the scenery here is unique.

On the contrary, in ancient Greek mythology, the gods, large and small, we see are all secular, and they are images full of human fireworks: Zeus, the king of the gods, is uninhibited, flirting with women, and He left a lot of romantic debts between the gods and the human world. What is more serious is that he acted arbitrarily, without principles, full of jealousy and personal preferences; the goddess Hera was originally the role model of the gods and the goddess of the world, but she He often loses his nature due to jealousy and hatred, and does some cruel and godless stupid things, which has no respect for humans. The main god is like this, and the gods under them also have very similar characters. During the war between the Greek army and Troy, Achilles asked Agamemnon to return the captured female prisoner Chryses to the priests of his father Apollo, so at this time the god Apollo was preparing for his The priest's daughter was robbed and used a plague to wipe out the Greek army. Agamemnon thought he was insulted and just kept the female prisoner Chryses with him. Achilles led his army to withdraw in anger. The battle began and the Trojan general Hector quickly killed the Greek soldiers who had not died from the plague. This tragic defeat of the Greeks was only because of a woman. This result is incomprehensible and inexcusable to the Chinese people, and is not allowed by the virtuous spirit in Chinese mythology. Another example is Apollo who failed in the flute competition with Marseille, so he cruelly skinned Marseille and hung it on a tree; another example is the brother and sister of the moon god and Apollo, because Niobo laughed at them. The Titan's mother, Leto, gave birth to only one son and one daughter, and forbade the Thebes women from offering sacrifices to Leto, so they shot and killed many of Niobo's children. And so on. It can be seen that in Greek mythology, apart from the difference in strength, gods and humans are the same emotionally. When the gods took off their divine cloaks, they all became secular mortals.

II

“Advocating and praising the spirit of devotion to God” is another important manifestation of the virtuous spirit of ancient Chinese mythology. This spirit of sacrifice was first expressed in the ancient creation myths. The Chinese creation myth is to sacrifice the body of the Creator God to complete the creation of the heaven and earth and the creation of all things. Therefore, after Pangu, the great god of creation in ancient China, completed the task of opening up the world, he turned his eyes into the sun and moon, his limbs and head into the five mountains, his blood into the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and his hair into mountains, forests and vegetation. The muscles were turned into clay, the sinews were turned into gold and stone, and the parasites on his body became human beings.

Another great pioneering goddess, Nuwa, after completing the great feats of mending the sky and creating humans, she also transformed her body into all things. Therefore, in the Book of Mountains and Seas, there are ten gods who were transformed from the intestines of Nuwa. Although we cannot understand all the details of Nuwa's transformation today, this myth has revealed more or less this information to us.

The later Ancestral God inherited this tradition of the Creation God and carried it forward, creating commendable achievements for the Chinese nation. Suiren's invention of fire went through untold hardships and hardships; Emperor Yan tasted all kinds of herbs in order to invent agricultural planting and herbal medicine, and went through life and death several times. Therefore, "Huainanzi Xiuwu Xun" said that Shennong "tasted the taste of hundreds of herbs, and the sweetness and bitterness of springs, so that the people would know "At this time, seventy poisons were encountered in one day." The pre-Qin history records say that Dayu spent ten years trying to control the floods, and failed to enter the house three times. As a result, "there was no hair on the shins, and the disease was dry and dry. "No phase" ("Xunzi·Feixiang" notes citing "Xi Zi").

Not only the creation gods and ancestor gods are like this, but also the stories and legends of our ancient mythological heroes and the praise of heroes also reflect a spirit of advocating dedication and sacrifice. In these myths, heroes who devote themselves to the progress of society and happiness of mankind are generally praised by people; on the contrary, those divine figures who are not conducive to the progress of society and the happiness of mankind are despised and criticism. Therefore, Kuafu who died chasing the sun, Hou Yi who shot the sun to eliminate harm, Dayu who saved the people from floods, etc. all occupy a lofty position in the hearts of the people; after being drowned by the flood, he turned into a bird and kept using wood and rocks to save the people. Jingwei, who bravely filled the sea, was respected by people from generation to generation. And if those divine snakes and monster-like villains who harm human beings are not annihilated by heroes, they will also be annihilated by history and culture.

The spirit of devotion generally embodied by the ancient gods of China is not possessed by the mythical heroes of other nations in the world. In Greek mythology, its founding myths are full of blood: the first child of the universe was Chios (Chaos), the broad-minded earth mother Gaia, the god of hell Tartarus, and the god of love Eros. Chios gave birth to Nyx, the god of night, and Erebos, the god of darkness. The union of Nyx and Erebus gave birth to Space and Day. Gaia gave birth to Ouranos (the sky), the sea, and the mountains. At this time Uranus became the master. He united with his mother Gaia and gave birth to six boys, six girls and twelve gods. Later, the first generation of the main god Uranus was castrated by his son Cronus. Cronus and his sister Rhea gave birth to six boys and six girls, with Zeus being the youngest. Cronus was afraid that his children would overthrow him as he overthrew their father, so he swallowed all his children. Before Zeus was born, Rhea escaped to Crete with the help of the earth mother Gaia. After arriving on the island, she gave birth to Zeus, and Zeus survived. Later, Zeus united with the gods to overthrow his father Cronus and forced him to vomit out his brothers and sisters. Zeus then established a divine kingdom on Mount Olympus and became the supreme god himself. This Greek myth shows that the order of Zeus's divine world was established on the flesh and blood of generations of gods. What's more serious is that this kind of killing is still a matter of flesh and blood.

Not only Greek mythology, but also Babylonian mythology and Nordic mythology also have a strong smell of blood. "Enuma Elish", which records the Babylonian mythology, said that in the beginning, there were two major factions of the gods: one symbolized the irregular "chaos" and were gods and monsters born from the ocean; the other symbolized the orderly "chaos". "Order" is the god separated from the ocean. The process of creation is understood as the battle between Chaos and Order. In the end, Order defeated Chaos and created all things and humans from the corpses of Chaos gods and monsters. Norse mythology says that the god Odin killed the powerful ice giant and created everything in the world with his corpse.

三

The virtuous spirit in ancient Chinese mythology is not only reflected in the nobility and great devotion of the gods, but also in their "protecting and protecting the people." sense of responsibility". In the minds of the Chinese people, as a god worshiped by people, he should fulfill his duty to protect and benefit the people. In ancient times, many famous gods in China had the identity of ancestor gods. These ancestor gods are all outstanding figures in their tribes. They have played a huge role in the development and growth of their nation or in major changes in the nation. The prerequisites for them to become the ancestor gods of their nation also determine their responsibilities and obligations as great gods. Especially since the Western Zhou Dynasty, due to historical and political needs, various schools of thought have consciously transformed the images of characters in myths, adding all the heroic virtues of human ideals to them. The result of this phenomenon is that the wild nature remaining in ancient mythological characters has completely disappeared, and some are just sanctimonious and high-sounding. As a result, these ancient mythological heroes or ancestor gods stepped onto the stage of history with a new attitude, transforming from gods into human emperors with perfect moral character. First of all, they all put the common people in the world as their top priority, and it is their fundamental responsibility to govern the world and benefit mankind. Among them, Dayu is an example. Dayu was selfless and devoted his whole life to the happiness of all people in the world. Others such as Emperor Yan, Emperor Huang, Yao, Shun, etc. were also like this. At the same time, the ancient gods in Chinese myths and legends did not regard the world as their own, but promoted talents and talents, and had the virtue of "giving in". Therefore, when Yao grew old, he passed the throne to Shun, and Shun also passed the throne to Yu. This realm is so beautiful that later generations can't even figure out whether it is a historical fact or a myth.

The myths and legends of ancient Greece show cultural characteristics that are very different from Chinese myths. In ancient Greek mythology, gods, like humans, also show mundane emotions such as love, hate, anger, desire, and jealousy. "Pandora's Box" is an example: after humans were created, the hero Prometheus helped humans observe the stars, discover ores, and master production technology. As the heavenly father, Zeus refused to give "fire" to humans out of jealousy towards humans. Prometheus took fire from the flames of the sun chariot and gave it to mankind. After Zeus found out, he locked Prometheus in the Caucasus Mountains and let the vicious hungry eagles eat his liver. At the same time, Zeus stepped up his revenge on mankind. He ordered Vulcan to create the beautiful Pandora - "a woman with all gifts." The gods gave her tenderness, scheming, and beauty, and asked her to bring a box to Pulu. Epimetheus, brother of Michus. Epimetheus left Pandora behind and opened the box that brought disaster to mankind, so pain, disease, jealousy, etc. flew out of the box, and the world fell into an abyss of darkness. Zeus was not satisfied with this, and he launched a flood to exterminate mankind.

Compared with the Chinese myths of patching up the sky, filling the sea, chasing the sun, flying to the moon, shooting the sun, and controlling floods, these kinds of behaviors in Western mythology are really completely different and incomparable. If Zeus had the misfortune to become the ancient god-king of China, he would have been thrown into the abyss of eternal destruction.

Some of the virtuous spirit reflected in ancient Chinese myths are inherent qualities of innate myths, while others are artificially transformed. It is the result of the reshaping and selection of culture in a civilized society. After this kind of cultural reshaping and selection, the little bit of "humanity" that still existed in the ancient gods disappeared. What was left was only an idealized image that was far away from society and human beings, aloof and illusory, so they The original divinity was also weakened, and they became idols worshiped by the world and became models for emperors in the world. As a result, the great gods in mythology eventually evolved into the ancestors of the human world, worship of gods turned into ancestor worship, and mythology turned into religious worship.

It is this spirit of advocating virtue that makes the requirement for "virtue" reflected everywhere in Chinese culture. In our traditional life realm of "cultivating oneself and improving one's self-cultivation", putting "self-cultivation" in the first place also illustrates this point. Only by "starting from the beginning" can we first cultivate ourselves, then we can manage our family, and then we can govern the country and bring peace to the world. In a civilized society that lasts for a long time, whether a minister deposes a king and replaces him, or whether the king demotes his ministers or punishes his ministers, there are often excuses from the aspect of "virtue". It seems that only in this way, one murderous "coup" or "derogation" seems justifiable and logical. This kind of cultural choice can still be found everywhere even in today's social life and in the thinking and habits of our nation

Ancient Greek mythology:

Ancient Greece For historians, myths and legends are indispensable reference books for studying and understanding ancient Greece; for writers and artists, they are one of the references and sources for creation; and for us ordinary people, they are One of the signs of knowledge and literacy. They have strong aesthetic and cognitive value. What you get from reading them is not only aesthetic pleasure, but also a better understanding of ancient Greece. Greek mythology has always been dazzling and enduring in the history of human thought, culture and art. The self-esteem, justice, strength and order of human childhood are shown here in a magnificent picture that continues to this day...

The beauty and movingness of ancient Greek mythology are world-famous.

Ancient Greece is one of the ancient civilizations in the world. The scope of activities of the ancient Greeks mainly included the present-day southern Balkan Peninsula, the western coastal areas of Asia Minor and the islands in the eastern Mediterranean. In addition, they have interacted with the residents of the Black Sea coastal areas very early, immigrated to areas such as the southern coast of the Italian Peninsula and Sicily, and have traveled as far as the Western Mediterranean and North Africa. During their survival and development, the ancient Greeks created a brilliant and colorful culture and passed down rich heritage, including myths and legends.

The emergence of ancient myths has a long history. It is the product of ancient humans who used their imagination to conquer natural forces when the level of productivity development was low. Therefore, ancient mythology must include two aspects: stories of gods and stories of relationships and conflicts between humans and gods, that is, heroic legends. The stories of gods more obviously reflect the rich imagination of ancient humans in visualizing powerful natural phenomena, while heroic legends mainly focus on the worship and idealization of legendary figures and related events that may have some historical significance, reflecting the imagination of ancient humans. Survival activities and tenacious struggle with nature. Ancient Greek mythology also includes these two aspects.

The formation period of ancient Greek mythology is very early, and it is the crystallization of the collective creation of generations in ancient times. Myths were first transmitted orally and later found in written texts. Its earliest written document is the Homeric epic. In addition to the main story, the epic also mentions many other mythological stories, which were obviously widely circulated and generally known at that time. Shortly after Homer, there was the long poem "Theogony" by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, which briefly recorded many mythological stories and tried to genealogize those stories. The themes of ancient Greek tragedies are basically based on myths, and are dramatic manifestations of the writers' realistic understanding of those mythological stories.

Alexandrian scholars in the Hellenistic period after the third century BC made great contributions to the collection and preservation of ancient Greek myths in the collection and annotation of classical works. Some poets, guided by the principles of scholarship, excavated There are many little-known mythological allusions.

Influenced by animism, ancient Roman mythology lacked figurative thinking about gods and was poor in mythical stories. Heroic legends are also mainly expressed as historical stories, and the characters in the stories are more realistic than superhuman. After the ancient Romans came into contact with ancient Greek mythology, they were quickly attracted by the moving Greek mythology. As a result, they widely absorbed the images and stories of ancient Greek gods, and a unique fusion of ancient Greek and Roman myths and legends emerged.

The ancient Greek nation went through several changes in its development process. Their mythological concepts are also constantly changing in this change. The basic characteristic of this change is the shift from the worship of nature to the worship of human nature. The basic feature of Greek mythology of this period that people are familiar with is that man creates gods in his own image and gives gods human form and humanity. Even people’s social relationships. The basic difference between gods and humans is that gods are powerful, immortal, and live a leisurely and happy life; humans are weak, mortal, and have a hard life. They have to often seek help from gods, but they also often curse gods and do evil. The ancient Greeks worshiped gods, but at the same time they praised people, their bravery and enterprising spirit. The ancient Greeks criticized personality weaknesses such as pride, cruelty, vanity, greed, violence, and stubbornness, and believed that it was often these personality weaknesses that caused tragedies in life. The ancient Greeks worshiped gods, but they did not give the gods excessive loftiness, nor did they regard the gods as standards of moral measurement, but rather regarded them as reflections of life. It is precisely with this humanistic spirit, touching stories and profound ideological connotations that ancient Greek myths have always attracted a wide range of readers, emitting the power of frogmen, making people read hundreds of times, and becoming a rich source of materials for future generations' literary and artistic creations. .