Greek Mythology Today
Seems like no matter how far we move into the future, we keep on coming back to those old Greek guys.
For some reason, we find those crazy stories about ridiculously muscular gods and snake-headed women from Greek mythology to be a lot of fun. Just look at the entertainment industry: Disney’s Hercules, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, and even J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is permeated with references and allusions to the beliefs and stories of the ancient Greeks (i.e. Fawkes the Phoenix, Fluffy the three-headed dog who guards the world under the school, etc.).
You see it all over the place in branding and advertising — just take a stroll down the aisle at your local drugstore, or go for a walk downtown and you will see Greek and Roman mythology everywhere, for example:
· Venus razors (Venus or Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty)
· Pandora music station (Pandora’s box)
· Nike sports (Nike, the goddess of victory)
· Amazon (an ancient tribe of women warriors)
· Ajax cleaner (a great Greek warrior from the Trojan War)
· The Cupid Shuffle (Cupid or Eros, the god of love)
· Saturn cars (Saturn or Cronus, ruler of the universe before his son, Zeus, dethroned him)
· The Tennessee Titans (the titans ruled before the Olympian gods came about)
· FTD: Florists’ Transworld Delivery (their logo depicts Hermes, the messenger god, delivering flowers)
Companies use these mythological allusions to portray the message of their product at an even deeper level. For example, Nike is the goddess of victory, so if you want to win you know you’re going to want to wear Nike shoes. But if you want beautifully smooth legs every time you shave? Look no further than Venus razors, named after the goddess of beauty herself. You get the idea.
But even beyond entertainment and marketing, Greek mythology finds ways into Western Civilization in other ways. Take these words from the English Language, for example:
· Mentor (the name Athena takes when disguised in The Odyssey)
· Atlas (The Titan who was forced to hold up the sky for the rest of eternity)
· Narcissism (Narcissus fell in love with his own reflection)
· Psyche (the Greek goddess of the soul)
· Chaos (before the creation of the universe, only an empty void — “chaos” existed)
Then of course there are many popular phrases we still use today, once again pulled from Greek mythology:
· Trojan horse (from the Trojan War)
· Beware a Greek bearing gifts (also from the Trojan War — the Trojan Horse was of course, a devious gift from the Greeks)
· Don’t fly too close to the sun (Icarus failed to heed his father’s warning not to fly too close to the son, and the wax that held his wings together melted and he fell to his death)
· Achilles’ Heel (Achilles’ mother dipped him in the River Styx so that he would be invulnerable, but held on by his heel (where the appropriately named “Achilles’ tendon” is found) — so that became his one and only weak spot)
· Siren voices / Call of a siren (sirens sing to passing ships to enchant them, luring them closer so they crash upon their rocks)
· Mercurial Disposition (Mercury or Hermes, the messenger god)
· Panic Button (from the mischievous god Pan who liked to freak humans out with his pranks)
· Titanic strength (Titans were the deities who came before the Olympian gods, and were much stronger)
· Having the Midas’ touch (King Midas turned whatever he touched into gold)
· Opening Pandora’s Box (Pandora was curious and opened a secret box, releasing curses out into the world (well, technically it was a jar, but due to an error in translation, we like to say box)
As you go about your everyday activities, see if you can find any of the other mythological references out there, and come back here to comment!
