Brief Introduction

Ancient Greek and Roman Myths is a collection of stories and legends about gods and heroes, and western culture is also evolved from it. It shows that there was a high mountain called Olympus which stood between Macedon and Thessaly of eastern Greece. On the top of the mountain, the home of the gods was bathed in brightness. Zeus was the overlord of gods and men and the operator of the thunderbolt. All the gods listened to his commands. Zeus was not a crude ruler, but sometimes he could punish guys who off ended him quite severely. Zeus was a playboy. He had a lot of mistresses and also a large number of children.

Zeus made all the gods sit on a committee of twelve members, including six gods and six goddesses. Hera was Zeus's wife and sister and the queen of the gods and men. Hera was also the goddess of marriage and she took charge of the families. She was a proud and green-eyed queen because of her disloyal husband.

The Influence on the English Language

The word "chaos" means something disordered. It was the name of the god who was the beginning of the world. The god Chaos was a space empty, without limit. It's just like the world of Pangu in Chinese myths.

Many English words which start by "g" are relevant to earth. The root "geo-" means earth, which comes from Gaea, the mother of land. For example, "geography" means the study of the countries of the world and of such things as the land, seas, climate, towns and population, "geometry" means a kind of science that measures the lands, "George” means lands surveyors initially.

Zeus's father Kronos ate his children for the fear of their betrayal, like ruthless time that eats everything. So the root "chron-" refers to time.  The word "chronic" means something lasts for a very long time, and "chronology" refers to the times of a series of past events at which they happened in the order in which they happened.

"Galaxy" comes from Greek word "galakt" means "milky", so galaxy also calls "the Milky Way". In Ancient Greek and Roman Myths, Hera's milk had the magic effect of immortality. One day, Zeus took his bastard Hercules to sleeping Hera and let the kid drink her milk. However, the kid drank so violently that he waked up Hera. She found that Hercules was not her son so she put him away violently and the milk sprinkled up to sky and then became the galaxy.

"Jovian" and "Jovial" come from the god Jupiter. "Jovian" means that someone is majestic-looking, and "jovial" means someone is happy.  The Roman changed Zeus's name into Jupiter after taking charge in Greece. For Zeus was the overlord of gods, "Jovian" was used to describe those who are majestic-looking. The word "jovial" is also used to describe Christmas Father.

The word "cornucopia" means abundance. The phrase "a cornucopia of" meas "a large number of". Its adjective is "cornucopian", which means something is abundant. This word comes from a story about Zeus. When Zeus was a child, in order to escape from his father Kronos's persecution, he lived in seclusion with fairy in Crete and was raised up by nanny goat Amalthea's milk. Young Zeus broke one horn of Amalthea when he was playing. In order to make up for his fault, Zeus cast his power and gave the horn a magic effect so that it could produce everything the owner wants. Then the horn was called "Cornucopia".

The hero Prometheus was clever and had the ability of prophecy. But his brother Epimetheus was stupid and always fell behind others. So the prefix "pre" and "epi" in English come from them. For example, "prologue" refers to an introduction to a play. "Epilogue" means a short passage added at the end of a literary work.

Prometheus stole the fire for men, so Zeus wanted to punish human. He assigned a charming lady Pandora to seduce Epimetheus. The couple lived a happy life for a long time. Prometheus had left a big cask in the care of Epimetheus, and warned him not to open it. One day, when Epimetheus was out, Pandora opened the lid, and out it came unrest and war, plague and sickness, theft and violence, grief sorrow and all other evils. The human world was hence to experience these evils. So Pandora's box becomes the pronoun of "root of disaster". In Ancient Greek and Roman Myths, Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and love. But at first, people usually regarded her dissolute, so many words come from her are relevant to sexual desire. "aphrodisia" refers to a desire of heterosexual intimacy. "aphrodisiac" means exciting sexual desire or a drug or other agent that stimulates sexual desire. "venereal" means of or relating to the external sex organs. "psycho-" refers to spirit and soul, which comes from a beautiful love story. Ordinary maiden Psyche fell in love with Cupid, the god of love, and they met in a palace every night.  Cupid enjoined Psyche not to peep at his face or explore his identity. One day, out of curiosity, Psyche peep at his face under the light of candle, and found that he was the most beautiful god-----the god of love. However, the light waked up Cupid and he ran away. Psyche was so regretful and sorrowful. She wandered around to search for her lover, and she finally reunited with Cupid after going through lots of obstacles and then got married. Psyche also become the goddess of spirit

Pan was the god of forests. He was half man half goat with horns. He was half man half beast half god, and lived in the mountain to protect herd men and hunters. He loved music and creating syrinx, and often led in the dance of mountain goddesses, but didn’t dare to show up because of the ugly appearance. Once his appearance was seen by human, they were all afraid. So, "panic" means an overwhelming feeling of fear and anxiety. When Pan grew up, he fell in love with goddess of water Syrinx. But his appearance scared Syrinx and she jumped into the water and became a reed. Sorrowful Pan made the reed into a flute and called it syrinx. So in English, "syrinx" refers to a primitive wind instrument consisting of several parallel pipes bound together.

Daphne was a lovely blooming fairy maiden. Cupid wanted to play a trick on Apollo so he shoot an arrow of love to Apollo but an arrow of hate to Daphne. So no matter how sincerely Apollo was, Daphne refused him constantly. At last she was quite breathless and cries to her father, a river god, for help. No sooner had her prayer been uttered than answered, for she had instantly found herself glued to the ground and a layer of soft bark growing over her fair skin. She had been turned into a laurel tree. Apollo was the god of music and poetry, so he made crowns by her branches as symbol of honor and awarded to outstanding musicians and poets. So there is a saying of "Poet Laureate". The word "laureate" means someone honored for great achievements or worthy of the greatest honor or distinction.( from Wang Qun, P7. 24)

Conclusion

The myths reflect human's primitive thoughts, also maintain the rationality of social customs and rules. Besides, human also show their worship to heroes in the myths. These are the similarity between Chinese myths and Ancient Greek and Roman myths. However, there also exists differences. Ancient Greek and Roman Myths reflects human's primitive thought of democracy, while Chinese myths are more inclined to show the strong awareness of unexpected development. What's more, Chinese myths also have a sense of patriotism, which can't be noticed in Ancient Greek and Roman Myths.