Mythology of The World

Karan Bhuwalka & Prajval Jhunjhunwala

Class: 8 E
Roll. No. :4 and 17
• Myths are first and foremost stories .But it
is a story that conveys the values, beliefs, and
dreams of people . A myth world is one in
which the powerful unseen forces that shape
and animate the everyday world life. To retell
or reenact a myth is to step out of this world
and into the myth world.
• Just as societies and cultures are shaped by Geography of a land, so are
myths. For e.g.:
• In Egyptian mythology the sacred Benu bird flew across the ocean to a rock
mound that poked above the surface. It then burst and cried out calling the
world into being. This mound provided the model for pyramids.
• Aboriginal sacred places such as Uluru (Ayers Rock) are storehouses of
magical energy related to the life force, which is recharged by rituals. The
aborigines believe that Uluru was built in the Dreaming by two boys playing
in the mud after it rained. It was the site of a great battle in the Dreaming
between two warring groups of snake people.
• In Mesopotamia the gods were called to witness royal gifts of land. The
symbols of the divine witnesses were engraved at the top of kudurrus,
boundary stones, copies of which were erected on the land itself and in
temples. The text on this stone calls for the wrath of the gods on those who
break the agreement.
• The dance of the stars in the night sky and the slow revolution of planets
have inspires humankind. Early people read in stars a story of change,
disaster and renewal.
• Egyptians believed that each evening as the Sun reached the westernmost
peak of Mount Manu, Nut, the Egyptian sky goddess swallowed it. Each
morning she gave birth to it once more.
• The Inca foresaw their downfall in the stars. Believing that the Sun and
Stars were at war, they tried to tie them together by rituals. The Inca
pleaded with their supreme god Viracocha, “ May the world not turn over.”
• The importance of astronomy to earlier cultures is emphasized on top of
Mittleberg mountain in Germany. This is the Nebra sky disk which shows
the night sky from the Mittleberg and features a golden ship that is
probably the sky boat of the Sun.
• Even the Stonehenge, was supposed to be an observatory and took
thousands of years to build, the Stonehenge is supposed to have cosmic
powers. Some people believe it can heal. According to two witnesses, One
day a group of tramps camped in the Stonehenge during a storm and
suddenly disappeared leaving only tent pegs and burnt wood.
Mostly in Greek Mythology ,the twelve Olympians ,are the gods
worshipped .As per beliefs…the Gods dwell on the top of Mount
Olympus. The most important Gods are :
ZEUS - king of the gods and god of the sky.
Poseidon – god of the sea.
Hades - god of the underworld .
Athena - goddess of wisdom crafts and strategic battle
Hermes – Messenger of gods and god of thieves ,travelers.

However, Hades was not one of the Twelve Olympians , he was the
god of the underworld that was why he was and still considered
very important .
The father of Zeus ,Poseidon, and Hades , the horribly strong titan ,
Cronus had a fight between him and his army against Zeus’s one.
To know more , proceed onto the next slide …………..
Cronus was a fearsome titan who had overthrown his father to
become king , and in doing so had learned that he would also be
thrown away by one of his sons . In result he swallowed every
single child that, his wife Rhea, had given birth to namely Hestia,
Demeter, Hera , Hades and Poseidon.
But Rhea hid in Crete and gave birth to Zeus and after his birth hid
him in the cave on mount Ida in Crete .
After reaching manhood Zeus forced Cronus to divulge his brothers ,
in reverse order of their swallowing. After this , with the help of
his brothers , Zeus leaded them into a gruesome, fearsome and
terrible war against his father and the other titans . The Olympians
won and the bad titans were sent to Tartarus. After the battle with
the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers,
Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lotteries: Zeus got the sky and
air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the
underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she
was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which
explains why Poseidon was the "earth-shaker" (the god of
earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died.
The cause of the great war between the Achaeans and Trojans was Helen, the most
beautiful woman in the world. She was a Spartan princess who was stolen by
Paris, son of Priam, ruler of Troy, she was actually the reward Aphrodite
(goddess of love) had given Paris for choosing her over Hera ( wife of Zeus) and
Athena in a beauty competition In which Paris was chosen as the judge.
The Achaeans sailed to Troy in order to get Helen back. Their greatest warrior was
the legendary Achilles, who was considered invincible. The Achaeans were
helped by Hera and Athena, Even though Zeus had told Hera not to do so, this
sparked off a fight between Zeus and Hera.
The battle continued for 10 years. The war was finally won by the Achaeans
because the Achaeans built a huge wooden horse , which was offered as a gift to
Troy….at night, the Achaean soldiers hiding in the Horse attacked the city and
won the war. Achilles, was killed by Paris who shat an arrow at Achilles’ heel ,his
only weak point. After the war the Achaeans faced many sufferings as they had
offended many Gods. This is one of the greatest war stories ever told.
Now, we move onto ancient Egyptian Mythology . It is very interesting and highly concealed in
their tombs. In Egypt, there existed the belief of the Ogdoad , the group of eight gods. The sun
god Ra was essential to life on earth, and was thus among the most important gods. In myth,
the movement of the sun across the sky was explained as Ra traveling in a barque, and the
setting of the sun was regarded as Ra's entry into the underworld, through which he journeyed
during the night. While in the underworld, Ra met with Osiris, who again acted as a god of
resurrection, so that his life was renewed. He also fought each night with Apep, a serpentine
god representing chaos.
There is a story central to Egyptian belief was the myth of Osiris and Isis. It tells of the fertility god
Osiris, who had inherited his rule over the world from his ancestor Ra. Osiris was murdered and
dismembered by his jealous brother Set, a god often associated with chaos. Osiris' sister and
wife Isis then reassembled Osiris' body and resurrected him so that he could conceive an heir to
take back the throne from Set. Osiris then entered the underworld and became the ruler of the
dead, while Isis eventually gave birth to his son Horus. Once grown, Horus fought and defeated
Set to become king himself. Set's association with chaos, and the identification of Osiris and
Horus as the rightful rulers, provided a rationale for pharaonic succession and portrayed the
pharaohs as the upholders of order. At the same time, Osiris' death and rebirth were related to
the Egyptian agricultural cycle, in which crops grew in the wake of the Nile inundation, and
provided a template for the resurrection of human souls after death.
Their were several pharaohs who followed the Egyptian
religion and provided extremely strong basis of Egyptian
Faith . The main were Akhenaton , Tutankhamen, Nefertiti
and others . They lead lavish lives and not even lives , even
deaths !! Yes ,their tombs , or pyramids to be exact , were
extremely well made and full with all a man would need to
live but since the Egyptians believed in life after death, the
pharaohs had many things provided so that they would
have an excellent life after they died . As we all know they
are famous for their “mummies” , meaning their dead
corpses preserved. They all believed that it was the gods
that had decided upon this and to go against god was a
very formidable sin in Egypt at those times .
 Romulus and Remus
Rome was supposedly discovered by a man named Romulus . Before they
were born ,their grandfather Numitor and his brother Amulius and
received the throne of Alba Longa and afterwards since amulius had
more power that is why he became king and thought if Numitor had any
sons he would be thrown off his throne . That is why when Rhea had
twins he told his servant to drown them in River Tiber . However,
because they were too beautiful and innocent, the servant placed the
two in a basket and laid the basket on the banks of the Tiber river and
went away. The river, which was in flood, rose and gently carried the
basket and the twins downstream , they were nursed by a wolf, Lupa in
Latin. They were brought up by the wolf and later found seven hills
where they founded Rome . To decide the Emperor of Rome,Romulus
climbed palatine hill while Remus climbed Aventine hill. Then they
waited for a sign from the gods, Remus saw six vultures and Romulus
saw twelve. Therefore Romulus became Emperor . When Remus mocked
him, Remus was murdered by Romulus.
• For many thousands of years China has depended on agriculture to keep its
people fed. They believed that the Earth was made from the body of the giant
Pang-gu, who was born from the cosmic egg of Yin and Yang.
• According to Chinese myth, Shen Nong, the farmer god, taught humankind how
to plow land and plant grain. He was also God of medicine and tasted every plant
and source of water to find out which were safe and which were poisonous. Once
he poisoned himself 70 times in a day. One herb was so toxic that he could not
sustain it and died in service to mankind.
• Mud People
• In the beginning there were two living beings, Nu Ga and Fu Xi. They were
hybrids of humans and serpents. One day Nu Ga scooped some yellow clay
creatures down…and they began shouting with joy. Next day, she dragged a rope
through mud to create mud people. There were few rich or yellow clay people but
many poor or mud people. When the fire and water Gods had a fight, they
destroyed the props that held up the heavens, Nu Ga could not help to see her
children die. She melted stones in order to close the gap between the heavens
and then created the props by using legs of a giant tortoise.
• For centuries different gods and stories have been absorbed in different
religions
• The ancient Romans, aware that their own religion was of fairly recent
origin, placed a great deal of importance on foundation myths of the past
great cultures. They linked their culture with that of Greece and Troy. The
Romans adopted Greek gods and cultures without discrimination, which is
why most of the classical gods have two names , one Greek and one Roman.
Zeus became Jupiter, Poseidon became Neptune, Athena- became Minerva
and so on.
• Comparisons can be made between the battle of Troy and Ramayana, both
tell stories of war originating from the stealing of beautiful women.
• Many myths tell stories of the world originating from the body of giants.
• Also, most myths have wars between Gods ( Mahabharata, Titanic battle
etc. )
• We can conclude that myths are stories that have been passed along from generations
and have been mixed in different cultures.

Thank You for your patience. Hope you enjoyed the slideshow