Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning theirgods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult andritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, on the Ancient Greek civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.

The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the Trojan War. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths also are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Archaeological evidence is a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featuring prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BCE depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.

Greek mythology has exerted an extensive influence on the culture, the arts, and the literature ofWestern civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in these mythological themes.


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Top 10 Apollo Hoax Theories

By Robert Myers and Robert Pearlman

In the early days of the Cold War, three men claim they were chosen by a powerful new government agency to undertake a historically perilous journey. They claim this well-funded operation was staffed with the best scientists and engineers using technology pioneered by the Nazis, and they created the most powerful machine ever built.

In July of 1969, they claim, they climbed aboard an enormous rocket assembled in a Florida swamp, and were sent hurtling at incredible speeds into the sky … all the way to the Moon! Two of them even claim they landed on the Moon, got out, and walked around!

And what prize did they bring back from this momentous journey? Well … they have a bunch of black and white photos of unidentifiable persons in bulky white spacemen costumes in a field of gravel (but curiously without any stars in the black sky) -- and several bags of gray, dusty rocks.

Put that way, the story of the Apollo program can sound pretty far-fetched.

But why should we believe the stories? What evidence is there, really, that the Apollo program landed men on the Moon and brought them back?

Phil Plait, an astronomer at Sonoma University in California, and the Web master of BadAstronomy.com, has his reasons.

If I were trying to fake this, I would put stars in the image," he said referring to the complaint made by hoax proponents that the Apollo photos lack stars. If this had been an oversight, he said, it's an amazingly stupid thing to have forgotten, considering the scope of the "hoax."

Not to mention that with the way cameras work, photographing stars under those conditions would have been nearly impossible.

"If you do know about physics and photographs, you can see these arguments are all ridiculous," Plait said.

So why do people even give an idea like this a second thought?

"I'm not exactly sure," said Plait, "Michael Shermer is a renowned skeptic… and he has a list of reasons (such as) we have an innate thing inside of our brain, we have a need to believe."

"But one thing he leaves off, is that some of these things are just believable. If you don't know much physics, these arguments might sound convincing."

Besides, Plait says the political realities of the time would have made a fraud of that scale almost impossible to pull off.

"We went to the moon to beat the Soviets. If the Soviets had suspected that we faked these missions in any way, they would have been screaming at the top of their lungs."

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NASA to Try For Monday Space Shuttle Launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA aims to give the space shuttle Endeavour a fifth shot at launching into orbit today after being waylaid by a series of unfortunate events for more than a month.

Endeavour is slated to launch Monday evening at 6:51 p.m. EDT (2251 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center here with only a 40 percent chance of good weather expected. Approaching lightning and thunderstorms in the area are a risk to thwart the launch.

Endeavour almost got off the ground on Sunday, but was foiled at the last minute by storms too close to the shuttle's emergency landing site here. Though the weather wasn't a constraint for liftoff, Kennedy's Shuttle Landing Facility must be clear within a 20 nautical mile radius in case an emergency forces the shuttle to make an abort landing.

"Scrubs aren't fun, and I've been in this situation before," said Endeavour commander Mark Polansky late Sunday via the microblogging Web site Twitter, where he is chronicling the mission as @Astro_127. "You just have to roll with it."

The weather outlook for the coming days only appears to worsen as time goes on, with a sea breeze potentially pushing thunderstorms near the launch site.

Endeavour has until July 14 to launch before it must stand down to allow an unmanned Russian cargo ship to dock at the space station. If the mission does not get off the ground by then, NASA may negotiate with Russia for more time, or wait until the shuttle's launch window opens up again on July 27.

Repeated delays

An earlier launch attempt this week was also spoiled by Florida's erratic weather. A violent lightning storm struck near the launch pad on Friday, and NASA was forced to delay Endeavour's flight a day so engineers could ensure the shuttle had suffered no damage.

Endeavour's STS-127 mission was delayed twice by a potentially dangerous hydrogen gas leak from the shuttle's external fuel tank, though that issue has since been successfully repaired.

Endeavour and its seven-astronaut crew are slated for a 16-day assembly mission to the International Space Station. Polansky and his crew will deliver an outdoor experiment porch for the Japanese Kibo laboratory, a cache of spare supplies and a new long-duration stationcrewmember - NASA astronaut Tim Kopra - to the orbital outpost. Kopra is set to start a stint as a flight engineer on the outpost's six-man Expedition 20 crew.

Rounding out the crew are Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and NASA astronauts Doug Hurley, Chris Cassidy, Tom Marshburn and Dave Wolf. The astronauts plan an ambitious visit to the station with five spacewalks and elaborate robotic work.

Endeavour's flight will be NASA's third shuttle mission of the year.

• New Video - The Kibo Lab: Japan's Hope in Space - Part 1, Part 2
• Final Countdown: A Guide to NASA's Last Space Shuttle Missions
• SPACE.com Special Report - THE MOON: Then, Now, Next

SPACE.com is providing continuous coverage of STS-127 with reporter Clara Moskowitz at Cape Canaveral and senior editor Tariq Malik in New York. Click here for mission updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed. Live launch coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT).

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