History of world religions. Ancient Greek mythology (most important)

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History of world religions. Ancient Greek mythology (most important)

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13. Ancient Greek mythology

The first signs of understanding the world can be found already in the works of Homer. Homer speaks of three first causes and calls them Nyx, Okeanos and Tethys. Nyx is the primordial state, the stage that precedes anything else. Okeanos represents the primordial sea, and Tethys represents a certain life-communicating force that is connected to water. The so-called early Orphic period also dates back to Homer. Orphism is a religious movement that dates back to the mythological singer Orpheus. Music - harmony - played a significant role in his mythological understanding of the origin of the world and the Gods. From the first principle of Nyx, heaven and earth are derived, and from them everything else (Okeanos is here understood as an essential component of the earth).

An attempt to explain the origin of the world is also contained in the works of Hesiod. According to Hesiod, the basis of everything is chaos, which contains all possible potencies.

Along with cosmogonic and theogonic views, we also find in Hesiod a certain reflection of social reality. The later thinker Akusilai ascends to the cosmogonic views of Hesiod. A certain completion of cosmogonic concepts in Ancient Greece in the period preceding the formation of philosophy proper are the views of Pherekides and Epimenides from Syr.

According to Ferekid, the fundamental principle of everything is a special viable matter, which he designates with the name Zeus. This fundamental principle exists in five stages, the development of which results in the emergence of the gods, the cosmos and the earth.

For the first time, Pherekydes attempts to create a certain comprehensive system covering the entire field of phenomena known at that time.

The five stages of development can also be found in Epimenides, who is older by half a century. According to him, in the first stage there is air as the primordial matter and night as the boundless darkness. Their combination leads to the emergence of the primal foundation (underworld). From there, the Titans rise, from them - an egg, the destruction of which leads to the birth of the world.

All these cosmogonic views, in principle, did not go beyond mythological constructions. However, in some of them (in Hesiod, Pherecydes, Epimenides) one can find tendencies to turn to nature. These "pre-philosophical" views were an attempt in the form of a myth to answer questions about what is the basic principle of the world (or cosmos) and what principles or forces determine its development. The desire to rationally answer these questions, to find a way out of magical and religious addictions is at the origins of Greek philosophy itself.

Authors: Pankin S.F., Mortova E.A.

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