Greek mythology:
In many ways, Greek mythology seemed to be influenced by Mesopotamian religion. The similarities included the parallel gods in the two: Zeus, supreme god on Mount Olympus was a god of the sky, including thunder and lightning, and Enlil the highest god among the Mesopotamian deities was also a god of the sky, especially of wind. Similarities also included the absence of heaven and the (almost) impossibility for mortals or even demi-gods to achieve immortality after death. The afterworld in both cases was a dismal place. The deities in both cases often assumed human forms, thought, felt, and behaved like humans, and took sides with humans. There were also some differences. The Greek gods and goddesses seemed to have so many more stories about them and more developed family clans. In general, one can say that in both societies there was an intense focus on the human society, although humans were also extremely conscious of their limitations.
Family tree of the Greek deities:
Stories of the gods:
From the Iliad: the last of the ten year siege of Troy, or Ilium. The gods and goddesses sided with either the Greeks led by Agammenon, king of Mycaenea, or the Trojans. The war was all caused by the jealousy between three goddesses, Hera, wife of Zeus, Athena, protectress of Athens, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. Eventually Troy was taken by the Greeks following a trick made by Odysseus (or Ulysses), who feigned retreat but put all Greek soldiers into the inside of a wooden horse, which the Trojans dragged into their well defended city wall as a trophy.
From the Odyssey: was the story of the return journey of Odysseus from Troy back to his home country Ithaca. Because on his way he blinded a cyclop, one eyed animal of the sea god Poseidon, the latter vowed revenge and made Odeysseus's journey back home extremely difficult. So that today the word odyssey has come to mean a very difficult and perilous journey, often in a figurative way.
What can we learn about the Greek views of the human being from Greek mythology:
Heroes: suggesting the Greek vision of the human being.
Theseus: one of the founding fathers of Athens for expanding it to Attica; father Aegeus, king of Athens, many adventures including killing the Pine Bender, and killed the Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth.
Hercules (or Heracles): born of Zeus and a mortal, killed snakes in his cradle, and cleansed a cattle stable by re-channeling a river through it.
Achilles: mother Thetis was a sea nymph; a mighty fighter; he would rather die a glorious death in the battlefield than live an ordinary life.
Odysseus: the strategist who devised the Wooden Horse that tricked the Trojans, and conducted the impossible journey (odyssey, named after him, for difficult journeys) back home to Ithaca.
Role of fate and the limitations of the power of gods:
Zeus: Supreme, but could not deter fate.
Fate foretold Achilles would die in war; his mother, to avoid that, dipped him in water of eternal life, but forgot to dip his heels in.
Fate foretold Oedipus would kill his father and marry his mother.
Fate foretold Agamemnon, after sacrificing his daughter, would not live long.
Despite that fate could not be deterred, many Greeks chose to battle it rather than giving up.
Anthropomorphized abstract ideas/emotions: e.g. furies, fates: that a person's destiny is actually mediated by the concrete workings of some agents.