Religions+into+Myths

=The Disappearance of Cultures=

For generations, young children are told a story before going to sleep about the mighty men who risk their lives to help others. The ancient myths in world mythology were once a religion, though now they are considered myths. Many of the myths in world mythology have extremely similar contents and themes as the bible, yet the bible is a religion, and hero epics of world mythology are only myths. Why is it that the Bible, for instance, is the focus of a religion while World Mythology are only considered myths? Many years ago, the myths from World Mythology actually were the stories in a religion.

Religion guided every aspect of Egyptian life. Egyptian religion was based on polytheism, or the worship of many deities. The Egyptians had as many as 2000 gods and goddesses. Often gods and goddesses were represented as part human and part animal. For example, Horus, the sky god, had the head of a hawk, and body of a human. They considered animals such as the bull, the cat, and the crocodile to be holy. Their two chief gods were Amon-Ra and Osiris. Amon-Ra was believed to be the sun god and the lord of the universe. Osiris was the god of the underworld. Osiris was the god that made a peaceful afterlife possible. The Egyptian "Book of the Dead" contains the major ideas and beliefs in the ancient Egyptian religion. Because their religion obtained an afterlife, Egyptians devoted much time and wealth to preparing for survival in the next world. Temples were considered dwelling places for the gods, where they would communicate with the gods.

The Norse legends and myths about ancient heroes, gods, and the creation and destruction of the universe developed out of the original common mythology of the Germanic people and constitute the primary source of knowledge about ancient German mythology. Because Norse mythology was transmitted and altered by medieval Christian historians, the original pagan religious beliefs, attitudes, and practices cannot be determined with certainty. Clearly, however, Norse mythology developed slowly, and the relative importance of different gods and heroes varied at different times and places. Thus, the cult of Odin, chief of the gods, may have spread from western Germany to Scandinavia not long before the myths were recorded. Most information about Norse mythology is kept in the Old Norse literature in the Eddas and later Sagas.

Both of these religions fell as outside religions began to invade and change the mindset of the Egyptians and the Norse. As the religions began to be diminished, the stories were turned into myths. In Egypt this process from religion to myth started around 300 B.C. with the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great. Though he did not persecute those who believed in the ancient Egyptian mythology, he did introduce religions from across the great empire that he controls. The new contact with foreign nations and beliefs created a new style of belief, where people choose which gods to worship. With the death of Alexander the Great, Egypt went through a long period of time were no major changes occurred to the Egyptian religion. Then around 400 A.D., when Egypt was part of the Roman Empire, Rome went from paganism to Christianity, and Egypt began a slow transition to Christianity. When most of the Egyptians became Christian the ancient religion went out of focus. Today the stories, like the ones in //World Mythology//, that made the ancient religion of Egypt are thought of as myths, because the religion is no longer practiced. The ancient Egyptian religion became a myth because it’s ruling empires imposed their own religions. An example of this ruling authority controlling religion can be seen in Selamon Rusdie’s //Haroun and the Sea of Stories//. The Chups, a group of people in the story, ruled by a man named Kattam-Shud believe in an idol because they are told to. If they had an old religion we do not know about it, but we do know that when the idol falls the Chups are joyful. So it can be concluded that the religion of the Chups was decided upon by the ruling power. Like the Chups the Egyptians were influenced by their ruling power, but today the Egyptians only have the architecture of ancient Egypt to remind them of how influential their ancient religion was.

The story of the Norse religion turning into a myth is very similar to the Egyptian religion’s transformation. The Norse religion was practiced by people in Northern Europe, and it was first challenged by the Romans. Like the Egyptians, the Romans spread Christianity to the Nordic people as they conquered them. The Norse religion existed still in most of Europe when the Roman empire fell in around 450 A.D., but Christianity had a strong hold in some parts of Europe. And with the help of missions and eventually Charlemagne’s, and other Christian kings, empires Christianity spread quickly until it engulfed Europe. The Bible quickly emerged as Europes sacred book. Ironically though, the creation story in the Bible and the Nordic creation myth in //World Mythology// seems extremely similar. Both involve eradication of humans, both contain a female and male character who start in nature and populate or repopulate the world, both have similar names for first humans.(Ask-Adam, Embla-Eve) With all these similarities I would seem that the religions would be about equal in popularity, but because of the Roman Empire, which excepted Christianity as it’s official religion, the conquered Nordic people converted.

We see ancient Norse and Egyptian religions as myths today, but this is only because if conquering empire, especially the Roman Empire. This puts religion in perspective, because we see that had Rome not accepted Christianity it could have been the myth today.

**__Questions__**

 * What are all the stories that compries the ancient religions?
 * Why did Rome become Christian?
 * For what reasons did people covert to Christianity?
 * Are their any perdictions to whethar Christianity will become a myth?
 * Who wrote these stories down?
 * What other places lost their religion?

**__Works Cited__**
"Ancient Egyptian Religion." 1999. St. Petersburg Times. 19 Dec. 2007 <[|http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.3.html%3E.|http://www2.sptimes.com/Egypt/EgyptCredit.4.3.html>.]

Rosenberg, Donna. World Mythology: an Anthology of the Great Myths and Epics. Lincolnwood, Illinois: NTC Group, 1999.

"Scandinavian Mythology, Pre-Christian Religious Beliefs of the Scandinavian People." 19 Dec. 2007 <[|http://www.feri.com/dawn/religion.html%3E.|http://www.feri.com/dawn/religion.html>.]

Kjeilen, Tore. "Ancient Egyptian Religion." __Encyclopaedia of the Orient__. 1996. LexicOrient. 19 Dec. 2007 <[|http://i-cias.com/e.o/egypt_rl.htm%3E.|http://i-cias.com/e.o/egypt_rl.htm>.]

"Italian Peninsula, 1–500 a.D." __Timeline of Art History__. 2000. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 19 Dec. 2007 