Download The Sarpedon Vase, or Euphronius vase along - ri1f

The Sarpedon Vase, or Euphronius vase along with the Persephone tablet, are
extremely significant, as they form the very basis of the concept and
uniqueness of basic Greek mythology. On the Persephone tablet, Persephone,
the god of ----------? and her mother -----------?, the god of ------?, are
sending--------? the young boy god to Earth to teach man agriculture. This
shows that the Ancient Greeks believed that the Greek gods had powers, and
they are benevolent so that they created and are responsible for Man's
developed lifestyle today. However, the Sarpedon vase shows the entire
uniqueness of Greek mythology. On it, Hermes, the messenger god, is
watching while Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death,
carry the dead Sarpedon, son of Zeus and Laodamia, away from the Trojan
War's battlefield to Sarpedon's homeland, Lycia. In Greek mythology,
Sarpedon was given three generations to live as a demigod by Zeus. However,
in other mythological stories, demigods usually were not immortal and the god
parents either do not have a say in the matter of death or was not bothered by
it. Zeus, being the most powerful of the gods, would be able to control his
demigod son's longitivity. In the cases where the god's powers were not
powerful enough to alter their children's lifespan, we can see that demigods
were usually more restricted to the mortal side of their parents, and an
example will be Sarpedon's approximate 210 year lifespan compared to Zeus's
endless immortality. Sarpedon was also killed by a Greek soldier Patroclus.
This shows that demigods have no powers at all except a lengthened lifespan.
So, the Greeks believe that the gods do not exceed man by so much until their
genetics cause their offspring to be almost as powerful as the gods themselves.
Instead, the gods are so similar to Man that their differences from Man are not
enough to cause the demigods to have any powers except a lengthened
lifespan. Thus this leads me to propose a thought: The Greeks believed that the
Gods were had very close ties with Man, and though powerful, do not breach
their many similarities, unlike other mythologies where they describe the god
in a way until Man seems inferior.
Another point would be the moral character of the Greek Gods. In
Greek mythology, Sarpedon was actually the son of Laodamia, one of the
many extra-marital lovers of Zeus kept from his wife, Hera. Due to Zeus's
infidelity, he caused many of his extra-marital lovers and demigod offspring to
suffer horribly due to his lacklustre attitude. Apart from this horrible deed, the
gods have been guilty of numerous sins in Greek mythology that were terribly
distinct. One example would be:
1. To challenge Zeus's omniscience, the titan Prometheus wrapped bones in
glistening fat and hid choice selections of meat inside a cow's stomach in a
ritualistic meeting to finally decide the items Man will sacrifice to the gods.
Zeus, feeling that the bones were heavier, and attracted by the glistening
fat, chose the bag of bones, thus causing Man to be able to consume meat
and sacrifice fat and bones to the gods. This not only shows that even the
king of all Greek gods is not omniscient, but that even the king of all gods
is unable to avoid a severe moral, mortal sin: greed. Zeus, even with all his
power, fails to put others before oneself and chooses the heavier bag of
"meat".
2.
So, we may be able to infer that the Greeks thought that the Gods were also
capable of committing moral, mortal sins, and are not all benevolent and
incapable of sin, such as had been expressed in Christianity of Jesus and in
Buddhism of Buddha.
Another point, not inferred from the artefacts, is that the most powerful gods:
Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, were created by the Titans Cronus and Rhea. It
was the first time in all of mythology that there was a proposed idea that the
origins of gods were from being created. In other mythologies, they always
express the god as the Holy Creator, and he created everything. It was only
during this time came the idea the creators were created. Another similarity to
Man.