Similarities and Differences Between Chinese and Greek Myth.docx

Similarities and Differences Between Chinese and Greek MythSimilarities and DifferencesBetween Chinese and Greek Myth As for myth, we often define it as tales that prevailed in primitive society. Gods who had more incredible power than human conducted them. They were transmitted and believed by ancient people though its ridiculous. A myth is also distinctly different from an allegory or parable which is a story deliberately made up to illustrate some moral point but which has never been assumed to be true by anyone.Some myths describe some actual historical event, but have been embellished and refashioned by various story tellers over time so that it is impossible to tell what really happened. In this last aspect myths have a legendary and historical nature. Therefore, myth, which is the primitive peoples recognition, understanding and explanation about objective world with imaginative thinking, is a cultural phenomenon. Its the reflection of primitive peoples natural value and social value. When it comes to Chinese and Greek myth, we can easily find that there are some similarities and differences between Chinese and Greek myth, which show their own unique national spirits and conceptions of moral principles and also share some similarities. For many reasons, there are many differences between Chinese and Greek myth, which show their own unique national spirits and conceptions of moral principles. Through comparison of different cultural characteristics between Chinese and Greek myth, we can keep our own national characteristics in current of global culture and understand Western culture better in intercultural communication, thus advancing cultural exchange between China and Western countries. Different Characters of heroes in Chinese myths and Greek myths .In ancient time, Chinese were attaching importance to morality. However, heroes in Greek myths respected power. They were superman and conquerors. Heroes in Chinese myths always depended on their noble morality and cordiality to serve people. They had characters of Gods and sages, such as Yu prevented floods, Jing Wei filled the sea, Shen Nong tasted herbal medicine for human and so on. Greek heroes were powerful, strong and intelligent. Hercules was a giant, when he was a baby he killed two snakes. Odysseus The Wooden Horse5 and his fight with single-eyed giant all reflected Greek heroes terrific power. Chinese hero complex originated from nationality worship and Greek hero complex came from personal worship. China, during that period, the nations domestic war and nationality struggle continuously took place. This kind of struggle needed heroes to take guidance, and needed the heroism to take moral support. However, people in ancient Greek worship their tombs, these were their worships of the ancient times heroes as well as the deceased famous heroes. The creations in the two mythologies are different.In Chinese myth, NuWacreated human with clay. This myth was meaningful. It not only made up the creation of human but also implied the cause of the class system. Besides creating human, Nu Wa also saved human from disaster. In Greek myths, human was created by Prometheus. He mixed water with clay to create human according to his own image. In order to endow those clay lives, he took goodness and badness from animal and put them into clay. With Athenas help, those clay received intelligence. Chinese and Greek myths creation of human has similar origin. At very beginning of the world there were mountains, rivers, flowers, grass, birds and beasts except human, so Gods began to create human. The primitive peoples life depended on the earth: they thought clay could produce everything and create life. They learned that the clay had plasticity from making pottery. So they imagined that human was made from clay by God. Similarly, in Greek hero myths, Prometheus was the god who not only created human beings by mud and water but also enlightened man by bringing the fire from heaven on theft to the earth, distinguished man from the ignorant of animals. Unfortunately, he was tied by Zeus on the Caucasus Mountain suffering from the destruction of wind, frost, rain and snow. Eagles pecked his liver during the day time, while his liver would come out in the night for the pecking by eagles the next day. In this way, three years Prometheus endured the pain of torture, still stubborn and unyielding, and Marx praised him as “the noblest saint and martyr of the calendar of philosophy”. The story which Hercules rescued people from harm was most praised by Europeans. When he was still a baby in cradle, he strangled two pythons sent by Hera. When he was at his adulthood, he killed many dangerous monsters with fearless courage and was eventually crown the hero of mankind. IN ancient times, people were suffering from not only natural disasters but also the threat of the wild animals. People create gods of all the abilities to help them fight against all the dangers. Therefore, the hero image was very common in Chinese and Greek myths. Chinese and Greek heroes in myths have the same ideological quality, but they also have some special personalities originated from their own nations. We can easily see those differences by the hero images created by people in myths. IN Chinese hero myths, the images were created in combination of gods and animals. They have the power of gods but their bodies were consisted of man and various animals.Nvwa had a man head and a snake body; Huangdi (Yellow Emperor) had four faces, whose son, the sea god Yuguo, had a man face and a body of bird, with two yellow snakes on the ear; Shennong, who identified poisonous plant and taught people how to how to cultivate crops and to establish markets for trading, had a cow head and a man body; Western Queen had a panther tail and tiger teeth; Zhuanxu, as the one of main gods of heaven, had a man face, a pig mouth and Kirins body. Through analysis above the similarities and diversities between Chinese myths and Greek myths have been primitive clearly. We have known that the main similarities between them are the creation of the world, the origin of human. The main diversities between them are spirits of two myths, aspects of their Gods and characters of their heroes. Studies for these countries myths help us further understand Chinese culture and Greek culture.