Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

Pleasure and Leisure 303
The Greek geographer Eratosthenes, however, who lived two centuries
later than Thukydides, was openly dismissive. He is reported
to have stated, “You will find the scene of Odysseus’ wanderings
when you find the cobbler who made the bag of winds in which
Aiolos [king of the winds] deposited them” (in Strabo, Geography
1.2.15). On the other hand, it is probably fair to state that no Greek
ever seriously doubted that the Trojan War was a historical event.
Although the Greeks in general did not question the veracity of
their myths, from the fifth century b.c.e. onward, an effort was made
to try to explain away some of their more fanciful elements. One
that came in for rationalization concerned the god Dionysos, who
was conceived when Zeus impregnated his mother Semele in the
form of a thunderbolt. Having at the same time incinerated Semele,
Zeus rescued the embryo by sewing it into his thigh. In Euripides’
Bacchai, however, the seer Teiresias claims that this myth is based
on a verbal confusion. What Zeus really did was to make a replica
of the god, which he then “showed,” rather than “sewed,” to Hera.
This laborious pun, which can be only approximately reproduced
in English, demonstrates an attempt on the part of a rationalist to
explain away an extravagant mythical claim without denying its
essential veracity.
Conclusions
Myths express the patterns that underlie human existence; they
do not determine the consequences of those patterns. Rather, they
admit variants in line with the Greek belief in free will. Myths
allowed the Greeks to live their lives freely while establishing certain
parameters within which repetitive cycles occur.
Myth played a central role as a teaching tool. In Book 9 of The
Iliad, when Phoinix, the tutor of Achilles, is trying to persuade
his erstwhile pupil to return to the battle and accept the gifts that
Agamemnon has offered him in reconciliation, he tells the story of
Meleager, who refused to participate in battle and was ultimately
compelled to return to the fray, forgoing the gifts that had previously
been offered to him. This same fate, Phoinix suggests, awaits
Achilles if he remains obdurate and does not accept Agamemnon’s
gifts. We can well imagine that conversations of this sort, in which
a story from mythology was cited to teach one of life’s important
lessons, were taking place all the time.
In general, Greek mythology presents an exceedingly menacing
and troubled landscape. Although it does not entirely banish what