Why does all the mythologies (ie: greek, roman, ect...) sound like a soap opera?

Question

The encylopedia of mythica: mythology, folklore, and religion
http://www.pantheon.org

Answer 1

As below, so above... as above, so below. Because the people who created the myths were only human, they had limited human imaginations. Therefore any gods they made up also seemed human, with all the best and worst qualities of humanity.

Our modern idea of the soap opera is a good simile, and this genre of television program can be traced right back to the Greek comedies, tragedies and histories. You'd need to cut a pretty wide path, though, because a television program is not the same as a play or a novel. Yet all contain stories, and stories are what define a people.

As humanity has grown and learned more, so have our ideas about what constitutes divinity. Our ideas about God now are very abstract and conceptual. The Greeks, though learned for their time, had more earthy and realistic ideas about their gods and goddesses.

Hope this helps. Cheers, K

Answer 2

There are two reasons for this:
Because modern interpretations are written to sound like soap operas in order to capture the imagination interest of modern society, and
Because they WERE soap operas. Just as we use the television for entertainment, so the ancients used stories of gods and heroes for entertainment. Their version of entertainment did tend to involve more blood and gore than the modern soap opera, but today, not many people wants to read about how some minor Trojan guy got his head bashed in by Achilles, and how some minor Greek guy got his guts taken out by Hector. Instead, modern rewritings remove much of this stuff, instead (as I said above) focussing on the sex, and relations between the characters.

Answer 3

I think because when it comes right down to it, the human experience can be like a soap opera. Find me a workplace that Isn't like one big soap opera! If this wasn't true, there wouldn't be gossip at all :)

Answer 4

I suppose that if these events happened...it being a long time ago, the only thing people had to do or worry about was war/sex/famine etc....

You couldn't sit around and talk about what was on TV or did you hear that new song, the women survived on gossip...the men on women lol.

...very dramatic lives

Answer 5

Because soap opera is not very original, were do u think all their material comes from.
They just copy each other for centuries

Answer 6

It is the other way round.Soaps have been inspired by the mythology , which is older.

Answer 7

because it's made up