The Wisdom of Our Race

"Old myth's, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of our race." -Stanley Kunitz

Myths were created as a way to explain natural phenomena and provide a moral code that the Greek and Roman people could live by. There was need for them and there still is, as humans today can still relate to the basic ideas of these stories. Myths represent "the wisdom of our race" because even though they were written thousands of years ago, people today can still learn important lessons from them. They are "sleeping at the bottom of our minds" because these stories are based on human nature.

Fooling the Fates

The one of the main concepts in The Creation of the Titans and the Gods, is greed and selfishness. Cronus is hungry for power and was willing to do anything to get it, including eating his own children. Cronus believes he can "fool the Fates", but he later pays for his actions when his own children wage war against him. The moral of the story is basically that being greedy usually does not end well. The Greeks seemed to believe in fate, and thought that everyone had a predetermined destiny that you can neither fight nor change.

Eternal Truths

"Thus, the myths reveal eternal truths about the nature of man and his quests in life."



Myths have had a staying power for thousands of years. This is because you find yourself able to relate to not the stories, but the moral dilemmas the characters face. Myths did not focus on the time, but rather human nature and that is something that hasn't changed; almost everyone has a curiosity about mans origins and the societies that helped shape our modern day world.