Ancient Stories and Myths Human beings have had beliefs in all sorts of things. Much of this is from the fact they have a desire to know what happens when they die. If one believes in the afterlife, you would think they would want it to be really nice, being peaceful and full of those they loved. Using this has a yardstick you have to wonder about those who worshiped and still worship the devil. What did they think they would get out of this if they were right? It seems to me it would be nothing but torture and unhappiness. Since the beginning of humans on earth there was belief in gods, both evil and loving. Early man assigned some of the objects in nature to be their gods such as the sun, moon and probably even Mars. I say that because of its red color in the night sky. They also worshiped animals and the bible tells us about this. It does make me wonder why a dumb animal would be considered as such. There were times even when people became a little more enlightened but believed their leaders were gods. There are some interesting stories and myths from ancient times I would like to tell you about, but I also would like to mention some of the ways the people were fooled into believing some of these things. Take one of the most famous prophets of all, The Oracle at Delphi. What a scam that was. Women would be subject to the vapors leaking from the earth and they were said to have premonitions which they were only allowed to relay to a priest. This priest would then tell the subject what the Oracle saw. Money seems to have been involved and I bet those priests at Delphi had a pretty penny. They also exerted a lot of power telling Greek leaders what to do in certain situations such as a war. The ancient Mesopotamia people had some interesting myths on how the earth was created. We are talking about over 5,000 years ago. There were several different creation myths from different areas of Mesopotamia. One said humans were created by the goddess Mami and these humans were to help the gods. The humans became too numerous so measures were taken by the god Enki to thin out the population which led to a great flood, but the god Enki built a boat and saved mankind. One Greek myth tells of the story of Phaeton. Phaeton lived with his mother. He insisted his father was Helios who drove the sun chariot across the sky. Helios met with the boy and decided to grant him a wish. His wish was to drive the sun chariot across the sky. Reluctantly, Helios granted his wish but told him to be very careful and never use the whip on the horses. Helios got into the chariot and took off. When he got into his journey, he disregarded his father’s command and used the whip. The horses went wild and the chariot caused havoc in the heavens. Zeus was the brother of Helios and heard about what happened. He struck the boy with a lightning bolt which sent the boy down to earth. This saved the earth from disaster. There are a lot of famous Roman myths, but one of the most famous concerns Romulus and Remus who were twin brothers. It seems slight changes have been made to the story over the centuries. These two brothers were said to have been born in Alba Longa near Rome. Their mother was the daughter of the deposed king of that city. His brother was now the ruler. He wanted the brothers killed. They were left on the bank of the Tiber River. The god of the river, Tiberinus, seeing the children rescued them. He appointed a she wolf to take care of them. She gave them her milk and took them to a cave to live. Interestingly the cave was said to be at the foot of the Palatine Hill. A shepherd named Faustulus saw the children and took them to his home to raise them. Remus was taken prisoner when he took sides against the king. Romulus decided to break him out of jail. They then joined up with the former king and helped him get his throne back. Remus was killed, by whom is unknown. Romulus founded Rome and became the first king. It is believed that was on April 21, 753 B.C. When the witch trials were conducted in Europe, it was thought there was a way to tell if a person was a witch or not. It really showed the stupidity and uncaring of the people. A suspected witch would be bound, weighted down and thrown into the water. If she was a witch, it was believed she would float. If she was innocent she would not float and drown, proving she was not a witch. This certainly was a lose, lose situation. Most people in the middle ages did not believe the earth was flat. When a king used an orb as a symbol, it was the symbol of the earth. The story of how Christopher Columbus was afraid of falling off the earth in his journey was false. Some people believe the ancient stories about a flood which appeared in the records of pre-Noah civilizations never happened and are just myths. One has to admit however it is very strange that so many different civilizations had this tale before it appeared in the bible. The past is full of myths about the battle between good and evil sometimes called the battle between light and dark. These stories go way back and are even mentioned in the Mahabharata an ancient Indian text written in Sanskrit. While the date of its origin is unknown, it does refer to a war which took place between the 13th and 14th century B.C. and as I said was written in one of the oldest earth languages. Some people state the Mahabharata tells us how to know the difference between good and evil. This is the same book which tells of a great nuclear war and describes the effects of radiation such as teeth falling out along with hair and a great burst like the sun. It always amazed me how people back then could have known this unless they saw it happen. There were many myths in ancient times, but some of the stories may have been true with the proof being lost in time, there is really no way of knowing the answer to that question.
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