Juxtaposition of Gods: Orion and Culture

I. The stories of Orion transcends cultures because of his prominent space in our night sky. The Greeks saw Orion as a great hunter and a very handsome one at that. A giant in stature he was seen as a God, a hero, and a courageous hunter. His courage was so notable that he was said to have no fear in presence of even the most horrible monsters. This characteristic is the one I would most attribute to my life. Even though there are no mythical creatures in our reality to hunt courage can have its applications in other ways. Courage plays a part in my life by being able to stand up to my enemies under any circumstance let them be teachers, peers, or the government. I will always hold my ground. Orion as with every other hero in Greek myth has his trials and tribulations to over come. Just as we humans have day to day problems we most triumph over. Sometimes the problems in our life are not as concrete as monsters or teachers but, instead abstract personality traits that are unhealthy and must be regulated. My first trait courage was originated by my father who made sure I grew up without fear of stupid childhood monsters, which broke my reality of what is truly fearful.

My second trait which is a lot more abstract has much more ambiguous an origin. It might be caused by the anxiety which is prevalent in my family, but jealousy has always coursed through my veins. This is also a theme in Orion's life. Orion fell madly in love with Merope the daughter of Oenopion, whose father was Dionysus an Olympian. He promised Merope's hand to Orion if he could rid the island, Chios, of the horrible beast that inhabited it. Orion set out on the task for he loved Merope and would kill all the beasts just to win her hand. When Orion came back to Oenopion with the news that he slain all the beast. Oenopion stalled claiming there were still beasts left. Orion who knew he had destroyed all the creatures was extremely angry. Then he realized Oenopion's true motive, that he himself was in love with his own daughter. Orion one night filled with jealousy and wine broke into Merope's chamber and forced himself on her. When Oenopion heard of this rape he got Orion drunk one night till he passed out, and then put out both his eyes. This story of jealousy gone extremely wrong for Orion leads him on a journey to recover his eye sight. He then travels miles and miles across the seas to visit Helos the sun and as prophesized if he stared into the blaring light he would recover his sight. His journey there was not easy mainly because of his lack of sight, but he overcame the adversary and perils of his trip to reach his destination and obtain his goal. Which explains my last trait fortitude, which is the strength of mind and body used with courage to over come pain and turmoil. Through my life I've had to deal with a range of pain steming from alcoholism to Zoloft, and through it all whether it happen to myself or family and friends. I kept my head up. I took each day just as every other as an opportunity to live life. If it wasn't for my fortitude I would have crumbled under weight along time ago.

Orion's life was filled with so many other amazing stories of courage and fortitude, but also of love and death. The use of anthropomorphism in the myths of the Greek gods really proves how important the Gods were to the Greeks. There stories are filled with drama and excitement as if you were watching a soap opera. That's why we can draw so many parallels between ourselves and these stories. Even though we know these beings to be non existent in a way we still recognize there importance in a culture, especially when viewing the belief system of a society. For those myths are more a tapestry of the drama and excitement of ancient times painted through the wonderful stories of Greek mythology.

II. When viewing the differences between belief systems of two very similar religious cultures one most look at the frameworks of the system to then be fully able to elaborate on a single God of that polytheistic faith. When looking in regards to that of the Greeks one most note how the intellectual more philosophical side influences the religion of that society, and then that of which you would note the Romans, whose society was modeled after the Greeks, but failed due to war (external or internal), imperialism, and moral dissidence. These different yet very similar societies used the same framework of a religion, but the extreme cultural differences imposed themselves on the populations' practice of that framework. Romans would view courage and fortitude in battle as one of the highest honors. While Greeks would value courage on the battle field, but would also equally as praise intellectual achievements and cultural advances. Their broad realization of what was important gave them a structure to view their gods, therefore; gods of war were equally important as gods of music or love. Taking it even a step further by viewing each individual god more broadly on the spectrum of behavior. Romans tended to focus on an important trait of a god and exploit it. While the Greeks would anthropomorphize their gods more by including a wide range of human structural scenarios into myth. Now that the differences between the two cultures are defined I can now go to a micro level of analysis of my god Orion.

Orion is most famous for the constellation "Orion The Hunter" and especially the brightest part Orion's belt. The origin of how Orion was placed in the heavens differs in presentation in Greek and Roman culture. The structure of the story is that Orion one of the more handsome demi-gods attracted the goddess Artemis/Diana who fell madly in love with him for his looks and supreme hunting skills. Apollo twin brother of Artemis was concerned that his sister would be disgraced by loving Orion, and decided he had to get rid of him. This is were a schism arrives between the two cultures. Roman mythology tends to follow the version where Apollo sends a scorpion to kill Orion, who fights bravely and kills the beast, but not before being fatally wounded. Artemis then takes his body and places it among the stars and Apollo does the same for the scorpion, who rises from the east to chase Orion who then sets in the west. This version is very straight forward and less elaborate as the Greek story, which goes further in depth about the love affair with Artemis. Also it extends the death of Orion, who instead of dying by the scorpion dies by the hand of his lover. Orion escapes and is traveling across the sea, when Apollo sees this he challenges his sister to try and hit that little dot on the sea, not knowing it was her beloved Orion. Her reputation on the line Artemis grabs her bow and sends a perfect shot into Orion's head killing him instantly. When she learns of this she places Orion body in the sky as a loving memory of her favorite hunter. The Greeks loved intricate stories with their Gods, which is prevalent even in this minor myth. While the Romans on the other hand limited the elaborate myths to almost summaries of the original Greek stories. Usually playing on the Roman's lust for blood and death.

III. The one common element throughout all cultures' religions is the use of the sky and stars in their creation stories. The Greeks believe that Uranous or the sky mated with Ghea or mother earth to create the first anthropomorphic Gods, who then in turn gave birth to the slew of gods in Greek mythology. The same goes for the peoples of Africa expect for the mulitple gods. The Yoruba of West Africa believe in Olorun the sky who sent down from the heavens a great star call Orisha Nla to mold from mother earth people which Olorun would breathe life into. Both cultures see the sky as the birth place of existence and also a graveyard for souls. Egyptians saw the sky as the final resting place for souls and assigned different deities or important humans to stars in the sky, which was very similar to Greek mythology, but was not nearly as involved. Orion in Greek and Roman mythology was the hunter and carried behind him a elaborate story of love and death. While the African people's had stories they were not so detailed and complex. This does not negate the importance the heavens held for these people, but it shows a difference in how more complex societies tend to anthropomorphize and use anthropocentrism in their myths. While more simple societies that of which we noted the Yoruba use myths in a broader more spiritual context. The Greeks individualized a lot of the natural aspects of life, while Africans saw it as more of a universal creator who uses mother earth as a carrier of life.

Africa not including Egypt was filled with idea of a universal creator who lives in the heavens and a mother earth who we sprung from. In the same way do the Greeks and Romans see the creation of their world, but they take it further to say that those initial forces created sub deities to govern natural processes. Viewing these three societies of Greek, Rome, and that of which we note Africa's tribes, similarities and differences can be easily pointed out, but the dissection of macro mythology and micro mythology describes the social undertones of a community. Whether it's the Greeks complex hierarchy of gods or the Romans assimilation and further adaptation of Greek religion. It shows how complex individual societies tend to anthropomorphize their deities to better understand their role in such a complex society. While more simple societies tended to have a more communal universal understanding of their deities.