Divine Roles Across CulturesHUM/105 Version 4 1

University of Phoenix MaterialDivine Roles Across Cultures

Part I

Select one common divine role that recurs in world mythology.

Possible options of divine roles include the following: father or mother divinities, divinities of war, home or hearth divinities, divinities of love, divinities of wisdom, divinities of medicine or health, divinities of the wind, divinities of agriculture, divinities of the sky, ruler of all the gods, and so on.

Identify the role in the title of your table.

Select two myths, each from a different culture, in which the divine role appears. Identify the divinity names and cultures in columns A and B.

Complete the table by answering each of the five questions for both selected divinities.

Title: Column ADivinity Name: Culture of Origin:

Column BDivinity Name: Culture of Origin:

1. How is this divinity por-trayed? Describe the divin-ity’s role within the myth.

Zeus is the ruler of all Olympian gods as well as the master of all men. Zeus is the lord of thesky, winds, clouds, light, clouds, thunder as well as a few others. He is also said to be the god of justice,mercy, as well as the pro-tector of the weak, and is said to punish the wicked ones.

Odin like Zeus is also the ruler of all gods, but of the Norse mythology. He lives in Valhalla, where half of all dead warriors gather after death. Odin is said to mount his throne while view-ing the entire world. Odin the ruler of gods is also the god of war, magic, poetry and wis-dom. He is also the wisest god of all in any world. Odin could also transform or shape shift into many different things in-cluding animals and objects.

2. Is the divinity male or fe-male? What function does this gender play?

The God Zeus is a male. Being a male his power shown by him be-ing the god of gods. Also Zeus is the ruler of all gods, acharacteristic of the Greeksociety.

The wise and powerful godOdin is a male. A female ruling all gods would have not been accepted impossible society like this one.

3. What are the divinity’s at-tributes, such as divine pow-ers or characteristics? What

Zeus is a cloud gatherer as well as the rain god. He is known for pun-ishing those who break an oath or

Odin is like an omniscient god, having wisdom about every-thing from the past, present, as

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Divine Roles Across CulturesHUM/105 Version 4 2

objects does the divinity pos-sess, such as a weapon or animal, that assist him or her?

anyone who would displease him in anyway by hurling a thunderbolt their way.

well as the future. Along with him are his magical horse and spear which he has with him at all times to help him reach his goals. Odin also has two ravens that fly out during the day to gather information and return to him at night with the news.

4. Within the myth of origin, how does this divinity compare with other divinities? How does this divinity interact with or compare to divinities of the same gender and to divinities of the opposite gender?

Zeus was the very last son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Cronus was evil and he would swallow all of his children after their birth, but Rhea hid Zeus in a cave. After Zeus grew up he went to Cronus and made him vomit his siblings up, in return they joined Zeus to fight the Titans and Cronus for control of the universe. After he defeated his father along with the other Titans Zeus imprisoned them to the underworld. He then divided the universe between himself and his brothers leaving Poseidon with the sea, Hades with the Under-world, and the sky to himself along with supreme authority on Mount Olympus and Earth. Since Zeus is the ruler of all divinities in Mount Olympus both male and female must answer to him.

Odin and his grandfather Ymir are complete opposites. Odin was the “good god” as his grandfather Ymir was the “bad seed” in the family and very cruel, because of this Odin and the other gods killed him. After this Idin and his brothers made the Earth among other things from the parts of Ymir’s body. The sisters of Ymir were angry about how their brother was killed so the often liked to start trouble for everyone.

5. Identify one character from contemporary culture that shares characteristics of each divinity and explain why you chose each character. What real-life ideals does this divine role represent? How attainable are these ideals?

Zeus should only be compared to the Hulk because his powerunmatched. He is as well a god that has affairs and is now always faithful to his loved one. The real-life ideals represented by Zeus as a god is just a reallypowerful character that will punish all who are not good but are bad.Zeus, being as powerful as he is, he is the whole system as it would be today the meaning that he

Odin which could be moodyand abuse his powers bycausing unnecessary wars.Unfortunately, these situations have been seen by many rulers throughout history. When comparing Odin to a character from contemporary culture, I chose Muammar Gaddafi.

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Divine Roles Across CulturesHUM/105 Version 4 3

would be the judge jury and execu-tioner.

Part II

Write a 150- to 350-word short essay addressing the following: Why do so many cultures have divinities in similar roles?

As we have read throughout this class so far, mythology has and is still evolving within the differ-ent cultures. Mythology is a way that questions have been answered and that can relate to the human condition through out history. As many myths have expressed at one point or another. How was the world we live in created? In I believe most if not all cultures there is something somewhere were the weak or more vulnerable people are protected or looked after. There are also the thoughts that the bad or evil people should have to pay for being evil or wrongdoings.

When it comes to Greek mythology the almighty Zeus came to be a supreme god, a male god as the Greek society was a patriarchal society, who not only have power over the sky and everything hap-pening over the Earth, he is also a god of justice as well as mercy. He punished the bad while he brought justice to the those in need. This is also similar to Israelite mythology and only one god is the all powerful ruler. Other religions believe in one God as well, they also believe that he will bring justice all who deserve it as well be their protector.

References

THE NORSE CREATION. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2015, from http://www.bigmyth.com/myths/eng-lish/2_norse_full.htm

Norse Creation Myth. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2015, from http://www.meta-religion.com/World_Religions/Ancient_religions/Europe/norse_creation_myth.htm

Copyright © 2014, 2011 by University of Phoenix. All rights reserved.