The Greek Myths

R.Graves, The Greek Myths, London, Penguin Books, 1955, pp. 129-30. 

Graves, Robert King Jesus Arena, London, 1989, First Published, Cassell Co, 1946 Graves, Robert The Greek Myths Penguin Books, London, 1992, First Published, Pelican Books, 1955,1960... 

E.O. Wilson, Consilience, The Unity of Knowledge. Alfred E. Knopf, New York, 1998, p. 7. (Reference to the Greek myth of Deadalus and Icarus.)... 

Introduction The enchanting flame has held a special mystery and charm the world over for thousands of years. According to Greek myth, Prometheus the Titan stole fire from the heavens and gave it to mortals—an act for which he was swiftly punished. Early people made use of it anyway. Soon the ancients came to regard fire as one of the basic elements of the world. It has since become the famihar sign of the hearth and the mark of youth and blood—as well as the object of intense curiosity and scientific investigation. 

Hence, when we are told, If you don t invite trouble, trouble comes, it means that if we don t deal with our problems, our problems will deal with us. .. with a vengeance It is easy to see why the Greeks considered many of their myths learning myths, for this one teaches us the best way to defeat that which can destroy us. 

There were in ancient times many Kings of the East who took the name of Solomon. The Koran speaks of several. It was a common name. But the character of Solomon portrayed in our scriptures bears internal evidence, like many other apparently historical characters, of being purely mythical. It is one of the many traditional myths of the Jews that became engrafted on the real history of the nation. The Greeks, the Romans, the Scandinavians -- all nations have their early mythical history, which no one pretends to believe literally. Why should the Jews be an exception Why should people take every word of the Jewish Bible, from the account of the creation down, as literally true Why believe in the actuality of the doings of Moses, more than in the exploits of Agamemnon ... 

This book summarizes current knowledge of the molecular basis of our interaction with plant defensive components that represents a major aspect of our dance with nature. However, knowledge must be used responsibly and has intrinsic dangers as illustrated in the ancient Greek myth of Pandora s box and as more recently explored in The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Herbal medicine still represents a major therapeutic resort for a large part of humanity but the potential for deleterious effects of plant bioactive compounds means that expert medical advice should be sought before use of herbal extracts for medical conditions. 

Even though the Greeks considered air to be one of the four fundamental elements and various alchemists obtained airs, or vapors, in their experiments, careful study of these elusive substances proved difficult. The first person to attempt a scientific study of the vapors produced in chemical reactions was a Flemish physician named Jan Baptista Van Helmont (1577-1644). Thinking that air and similar substances must be akin to the chaos from which, according to Greek myth, the universe was created, Van Helmont described these substances using the Flemish word for chaos, which was gas. 

Literature and history record many famous forest and urban fires [82, 634], Urban fires also exist in myth and legend. Stories about the Fall (burning) of Troy about 1200 BC were told orally for several hundred years before Homer composed his brilliant epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, about the Greek heroes who conquered Troy and the Trojan... 

In 1802, Ekeberg, in Sweden, studied a mineral from Finland and found in it an element which resembled tin, tungsten, and titanium, but differed essentially from each. He proposed the name tantalum for the new element, because its characteristic insolubility in acids suggested the familiar Greek myth regarding Tantalus, since the substance " when placed in the midst of acids is incapable of taking any of them up. ... 

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