People’s history lasts for many years and there is no exact date when people appeared on the earth. People have always been interested in their history, in the life before them and other events, which were very important for some time. Before historians began to record the events before ancient authors or chroniclers wrote their works some myths were told from one generation till the other one and in such a way ancient myths came to our times. Different countries have different myths, different Gods, and Goddesses, and it can be very informative to compare the myths of different countries and to define their differences and similarities.
Theseus is a Greek hero who is famous not only for his character or some features but for his achievements. Being wise, Theseus managed to be a great ruler. He was also very powerful, as to the way of his ruling he stepped a lot of miles and managed to take part in a lot of struggling, such as the slew of Periphetes giant, the killing of robber Sinis, also the murder of Crommyon and Cercyon, who were cruel and negative characters in the Greek mythology. The name of Theseus is closely connected with the famous myth about Minotaur, when going for a fight with a great monster, Theseus promised to raise a white flag if the affair were successful and to ask the team of the board to raise a black flag in Theseus were dead. Returning from Crete with the victory, the feeling of delight made him forget to change the flag from black to white and Theseus’s father killed himself thinking about his son’s death (Scull, 2003).
Horus is the Egyptian mythological God, who is famous for his appearance, and to be more concrete for the variety of his appearances. His usual look is a human’s body with the head of a hawk or falcon. The most famous story connected with Horus is his battle with Seth, who was the spirit of darkness. Their fight symbolized the battle between light and darkness, day and night, good and evil. Horus was considered a winner, but Seth remained alive, as the battle may be considered unfinished. Horus remained in the sky and was the king, and Seth became the God of the storm who disturbs people (Andrews, 2000).
These myths have both differences and similarities, which show that despite different traditions and understanding of the world, people had the same vision of a lot of things from different countries. The understanding of life and death, good and evil, the fights with monstrous and other evil creatures, where the good part always wins are similar issues which present in the myths of Greek and Egyptian nations. The situations and the way of battle providing are different (Egyptians are crueler). The outcomes various, Greek myth is rather pessimistic.
In conclusion, Greece and Egypt are very ancient civilizations, which existed when most of the countries even were not planned to appear on the world map and the myths are the most numerous there. The difference in the countries’ traditions, customs, understanding of the world, and other aspects in their histories made their myths different, but still, the same features also exist, such as unnatural power or abilities, the understanding of good and bad, and the usual good victory in these battles.
Reference List
- Andrews, T. (2000). Dictionary of nature myths: legends of the earth, sea, and sky. Oxford: Oxford University Press US.
- Scull, S. A. (2003). Greek Mythology Systematized. Kessinger Publishing.