Chapter 3: The Myths

Sophie received the next big brown envelope which contained her next 'lesson' on philosophy. It was about the Ancient Greek myths.
"By philosophy we mean the completely mew way of thinking that evolved in Greece about 6 hundred years before the birth of Christ. Until that time people had found answers to all their questions in various religions. These religious explanations were handed down from generation to generation in the form of myths. A myth is a story about the gods which set out to explain why life is as it is." (mysterious writer, page 21-22)
Now there's another job for the philosophers. They sought to prove that these explanations were not to be trusted. That's why (partially only, actually) they had these questions to answer (by the questions I mean the ones that were stated earlier in the previous posts). Then the letter goes on to talk about one of the myths in Ancient Greek: Thor and his hammer (but these were not Greek myths).
Myths also existed when the first philosophers were evolving in Greece. The story of the Greek gods had been handed down from generation to generation for centuries. The gods were Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Athene, Dionysos and Asclepios, and many other gods. I am sure you have heard of them. It became only possible to discuss them when Homer and Hesiod wrote most of them down at around 700 B.C. The earliest Greek philosophers criticized Homer's mythology, because the gods resembled mortals too much and were just as egoistic and treacherous. For the first time, in history, it was said that the myths were nothing but human notions. It was probably also because of this that now myths are only stories to entertain somebody with (there are many interesting stories and adventures).
"men have created the gods in their own image." (Xenophane, 570 B.C.)
In conclusion, the Greek philosophers wanted to find natural, rather than supernatural, explanations for natural processes.

- The HM

P.S. What have you got to say to this? It's the newest topic of discussion =D