Extra Credit Reading Notes - Crash Course Videos

Herakles, the man that became a greek god. Image from: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/hercules

For the extra credit reading this week, I watched the videos over the ancient Mediterranean. I learned a lot from these videos. I was familiar with some of the myths that were told in the videos but the video helped me look at them from a new perspective. The one that really to opened my eyes the most was the one where they started talking about how not all gods are created with the intent of explaining natural phenomenon, rather some of them are created to explain human nature. I had never really thought about this but as the video progressed and continued to talk about the greek gods it all made sense.  The greek gods weren't perfect, they were actually quite a ways from perfect, but that made the gods seem less distant and more relatable. The stories of the gods and their defects provide great examples of what not to do. What the gods struggled with were the same things that the humans struggled with.

The videos can be found at: http://mythfolklore.blogspot.com/2017/12/crash-course-myth-ancient-mediterranean.html