Greek mythology is a collection of stories about the gods of ancient Greece. These stories tell how the world was created, how humans came to live on Earth, how people became heroes or gods and why certain things happen.
The stories of Greek mythology were passed down orally through generations before they were written down by different authors at different times. The earliest known written versions were created by Hesiod (writer) and Homer (poet). These poems were often sung or recited at festivals and celebrations.
Greek mythology is divided into two main periods:
The first period covers stories from before about 700 BC, when most of Greece was united under one government. These stories were told in poems, plays and other forms of writing that were passed down from generation to generation by word-of-mouth.
The second period covers stories from after about 700 BC until Roman times (between 476 BC to 146 BC), when Greece was no longer independent. The Greeks began writing down their myths in books called “epics” or “epic poems.” These epics told about some events that happened long ago but also contained lessons for people to learn from those events.
The Romans adapted many Greek myths for their own use, most famously by adding new characters and creating their own stories set within existing ones. They also used Greek myths as models for their own literature and artworks; for example, Virgil’s Aeneid was written with Homer’s Iliad as its inspiration.
