Influence of Mythology in our daily lives.

How many of us have given this a thought?
Every day we use something from mythology without realising it.

Let’s start it from the days -
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday -- the day of Tyr, day of Woden, day of Thor, day of Freya, day of Saturn – Gods from Nordic mythology.

Your morning cereal, a grain product is named after Ceres, the goddess of grain. The month of January is named after Janus because he had two faces and could look both forward and backward, just like the named month, can look at the year gone by and the New Year!

The planets are all named after Greek gods. Lots of common popular names today also come from characters of Greek myths e.g. Helen, Alexander, Irene, Phyllis, Melissa, Sibyl, etc.

A number of common words and phrases have mythological references, like
• Odyssey – a long quest, from the story of Odysseus
• Tantalize – from Tantalus in Greek mythology who had food hanging
before him which he could never reach
• Panic – derived from Greek god Pan, who was thought to cause panic
• Syringe – from the syrinx, Pan's hollow reeds that functioned as
his musical instrument
• Nectar – from Greek nektaros which was the food of the gods
• Echo – from the Greek nymph Echo was turned into an echo
• Phobia – from Phobus, the god of fear
• Adonis – a handsome man, after the Greek Adonis
• Flowers like the narcissus, hyacinth, and crocus are named after
the boys Narcissus, Hyacinthus and Crocus of Greek myth who were
turned into these flowers by the gods
• Asia – from Asia the wife of the Titan Prometheus
• Europe – the continent, from Europa, a lover of Zeus

Besides the above, we have phrases like, “open up a Pandora’s box”, "Achilles heel", "cleaning the Augean stables", “a herculean task”, etc. all from Mythology.

Chemistry is replete with references from Greek mythology, elements like Mercury, Titanium, Niobium, Plutonium, etc.

A number of trademarks and brands have Greek influence, Nike, Atlas, Hercules, Amazon, Mercury, etc.

Without realizing, the influence of mythology is all around.

Mark Twain..

Mark Twain once said - "Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may look upon this as a sign that sawing wood is what he was intended for."

If Twain was alive today, he might have said - "Write without pay until someone offers pay. If nobody offers within three years, the candidate may take up blogging."

Agatha Christie got me in trouble!

My wife is a great fan of Agatha Christie and recently she came across a quote of hers which says – “The best time to plan a book is while you’re doing the dishes”.
My wife wants me to be a successful writer sometime and she thinks blogging can take me there. So guess what happened???

A Greek Love Story, (we all know so well)

Psyche was one of the three beautiful daughters of a King. However, Psyche was so beautiful that she seemed like a goddess amongst mortals.

When Aphrodite heard about Psyche’s beauty, she was jealous and summoned her son, Eros (also referred to as Cupid in some stories) and ordered him to put a spell on Psyche, so as to ensure that nobody would want to marry her. Eros flew down to the earth to follow his mother’s instructions.

Eros was so charmed by her beauty, that he fell in love with Psyche, but could not go against Aphrodite’s wishes. So along with his mother’s wishes, he sprinkled a magic potion on her eyelids to ensure that she found all the love and happiness in life.

Sure enough, as Aphrodite had willed, nobody was willing to get married to Psyche. Her parents were worried and consulted an Oracle, who confirmed to them that sure enough no mortal would marry her, but there was a monster at the top of the mountain who would marry her.

Giving in to what was destined for her, her parents left her at the top of mountain. On reaching the peak, she came across a beautiful palace decorated and lit up for a wedding. The palace had everything to take care of her including invisible servants and attendants. At night, in the dark, she felt the presence of a prince. The prince was very gentle and nice and assured her that he would love her no matter what. He was very romantic and Psyche instantly fell in love with him. But the prince made a condition, that she should never insist on seeing him, and if she did, he would vanish. Psyche started living a life full of romance and was happy in ignorance, that the Prince was none other than Eros himself.

Soon Psyche was feeling lonely and started missing her family members. She pleaded with Eros, to allow her to get her sisters to visit her. Though Eros warned her that it would lead to trouble, Psyche would not hear, and Eros gave in to her request. When her sisters saw her opulence, they were jealous. When they came to know about Psyche’s unique relationship with her husband and that she had not even seen her husband, they started filling her in with all that the Oracle had said and convinced her to see her monstrous husband.

So one night, she went to bed with a candle and a dagger. If her lover was a monster, then she would kill him with the dagger. That night, when she saw under the light of the candle that her husband was none other than the god of love himself, she was too delighted. In her delight a drop of candle fell on Eros who woke up to find Psyche staring at him. A disappointed Eros left the palace saying where there was no trust, there could be no love.

Aphrodite soon learnt about her son’s disobedience and decided to punish Psyche by making her suffer. She punished Psyche by making her go through a number of torturous tasks, which she fulfilled, albeit, with the help of Eros, who was helping her secretly.

Zeus, the king of gods, intervened and decided to get Eros and Psyche united, as both had proven their love for each other.

This love story of romance, obedience and patience has given rise to many a story in later times, the most famous being, ‘Beauty and the Beast’.

Why write on Mythology?

Somebody asked me the other day – “Why do you want to write on Mythology?” and I shot back by asking “Why not?” But then let me explain.

Mythology has been a part of our lives right from our childhood, especially in India. As children we are fed on stories of all the mythical heroes of Indian mythology and we grow up either idolising the characters or the slightly curious ones end up having more questions as they grow.

How can someone be born out of a sacrificial alter? How can someone not die for ages? How can someone move mountains, fly like a bird, fight like a warrior and romance like Casanova? All these and many more, besides the common ones like who am I and where did I come from?

As one grows older and is introduced to other literatures, one realises that there is more to mythology in other cultures too. English Literature is replete with references from Greek mythology and some of them have become part of daily usage. Statements like “a herculean task”, “the issue will open a Pandora’s box”, etc. are part of our parlance.

So what is it about mythology that has lent it continuity for ages? Some of the things we read are far from rational or rather quite anti-science – then what is it that has still got it going? Is there something more to it than the spoken or written word? Were the writers or the perpetrators of these myths trying to tell us something which might have some relevance? Or is it that these continue to be institutions of ideals in the present day of no-morals, no-hero times?

It is this underlying truth that I am trying to bring forth through this blog. I want to know, what is behind all this that is so logic-defying in today’s times, but still manages to hold us spell-bound. In these modern times, how are the epics still being so relevant and being told and retold in so many different ways? I hope to bring all this and more thru this blog.