After Reading | The Nude of Ancient Greek Gods

The first official contact with the novel about ancient Greek mythology was a series of 5 "Percy Jackson" written by American writer Ray Clairton. Of course, I read the Chinese translation. As I looked at it, I felt that the gods of ancient Greece were so different from the gods I imagined.

Greek gods are actually not much different from humans. Humans have desires, and Greek gods also have them, which are even more exaggerated than humans. For example, Greek gods can "go down to earth" to fall in love with humans and have children. There are not only one, but hundreds, maybe "God" has forgotten how many children he has.

If you were first exposed to ancient Greek mythology, you would say OMG! Are they really gods?

Later, Ray Clairton wrote a science fiction novel about ancient Roman mythology. The gods in ancient Roman mythology are actually the same group as the gods in ancient Greek mythology, but only appear in the image of Rome, so these gods have two images and names. , such as the greatest god Zeus, this is his ancient Greek name, and his ancient Roman name is Jupiter. It's all messed up while watching! I can't figure out their relationship!

The other day, I saw the Taiwanese writer Gu Ye wrote everything about the ancient Greek gods at the bookstore, "If you don't understand mythology, you can only watch nudes", so I bought it.

"If you don't understand mythology, you can only watch nudes" is actually an art book. There are many paintings of ancient Greek gods drawn by ancient painters in the book. In order to keep readers from being bored, the author matches the story so that everyone can learn more about it. Learn about these famous paintings. Moreover, the author wrote the story simple and funny, to ensure that everyone can laugh while watching! I am smiling too!

This also allows people who have no chance to go to major museums or art galleries in Europe to enjoy many famous paintings in this book. If you have the opportunity to watch it with your own eyes, you can also learn the stories behind these famous paintings, and you will not only admire the beauty of the paintings in your heart! But I don't really understand it at all.

The author begins by writing in the preface that Greek mythology contains blood, violence, incest, infighting, and gay R-rated movies. Absolutely completely different from our oriental fairy tales!

There were nineteen main gods in ancient Greece. Because of the lack of "manpower", almost every god has multiple roles. The author also introduces the origin of these gods one by one for readers in the book. Among these main gods, people often hear that they are the biggest god Zeus, the goddess Hera, the god of wisdom Athena, the god of the sun Apollo, the little god of love Ainos, or the movie "Percy Jackson" who often appear in Hollywood mythology movies. ", the male protagonist's father is the sea god Poseidon, etc. The above names are their ancient Greek names, as for their ancient Roman names, they are Jupiter, Minerva, Apollo (the only god of the two places has the same name. ), Cupid and Neptune.

In ancient Greek mythology, Gaia, the mother of the earth, gave birth to a son, the first god Uranus, and the two gave birth to twelve Titans together. From then on, the world was ruled by the twelve Titans. Greek mythology This is how it starts!

Cronus in the Titan Twelve killed his father and became the second generation of gods, while the famous Zeus is the third generation of gods. Although he is the god of the gods among the Greek gods, he is also the source of chaos. His reputation is not very good, and his wife, the Queen of Heaven, is his "sister"!

After Zeus became a god, he found Prometheus, the son of one of the twelve Titans, and asked him to make a lot of little people out of mud, just like human beings! After that, Prometheus sent fire to mankind, which made the gods panic. As a result, the gods sent the first gift to mankind, the first woman in the world (at that time all mankind were men) Pandora ( Pandora).

Are you familiar with the name Pandora? Because she is now the name of a famous jewelry brand, and the asking price is not cheap!

There is also often a saying, don't open the "Pandora" box. The metaphor tells people not to be too curious. Once Pandora's box is opened, all the evil in the world will be released. Before Pandora went to the world, Zeus gave Pandora a box, which contained various disasters to punish mankind, and also explained that she must not open it.

But when Pandora arrived on Earth, she couldn't help being curious (curiousness really kills people) and opened the box, and all kinds of disasters were released. Fortunately, she closed the box and left the last one, and Athena deliberately put it in" Hope", which means that although there are many disasters on the earth, there is still a glimmer of hope, and if there is hope, there is the courage to continue to live!

Everyone should have seen or heard of a Hollywood blockbuster movie "300 Spartans". The ancestor of the Spartans was named "Hercules", and he often appeared in various Greek mythological stories or movies. , is a well-known figure, and he is the child of Zeus and Mortal, and his 50 children later established a country called "Sparta"! Later, we had the "300 Spartan Warriors" movie which looked good!

In addition, the author is also familiar with the "Trojan War" (Trojan War) in the book. This story has been made into a movie many times. , Three lines in a cold sweat! Really helpless!

This war lasted for nine years because the gods were involved. The gods were divided into three factions. One supported Troy, the other supported the Greek army, and the third was Zeus. win.......

In addition to introducing the stories of the gods, the author also introduced the myths of the twelve constellations with bonus, which is quite interesting.

As for why the title of the book is called "If you don't understand mythology, you can only watch nudes", because

When Western painters paint Greek mythology, they like to paint the gods with naked men and women, and do not give them clothes to wear! So if you still don't understand Greek mythology, you really can only look at the nudes in the paintings!

After reading this book, I felt that ancient Greek myths were written by ancient poets or writers in their own imaginations, and they wrote all the desires in their hearts! Just have fun while watching!

• Title: If you don't understand mythology, you can only read nudes
• Author: Gu Ye
• Publishing: Origin Publishing Uni-Books
• ISBN: 9789869405501