Geography in Greek Myth
How the Mediterranean Environment Shaped Ancient Culture
Why was the relationship between man and god so conflicted in classical mythology? An analysis of the natural world of their birth may shed some light.
Thousands of years ago, the Mediterranean Sea gave rise to the ancient cultures from which the Western world claims much of its cultural heritage. Today, we see the ruins of past civilizations in the landscapes of Greece, Italy, Turkey, and North Africa. Yet the land did as much in shaping these cultures as their edifices have shaped the landscape of the region. The influence of geography on ancient culture is reflected in much of Greek mythology. The following will exemplify the motifs of natural catastrophe as acts of god and the forces of nature as a vehicle of fate in classic Greek lore.
The Mediterranean region straddles the Eurasian and African lithospheric plates, a major zone of subduction where earthquakes and volcanic activity have played a large role in shaping the land in recent geological history. The Poseidon cults of the ancient Greek world reflect the impact of natural catastrophe on cultural beliefs. The early Greeks called Poseidon the Earth Shaker as earthquakes often cause tidal waves in coastal regions. They believed that the god, if displeased by human action, would use catastrophic powers to punish men. The many temples to Poseidon found in the Aegean and Mediterranean seas were a kind of earthquake "insurance;" the cults were an attempt to appease the god and thereby be spared his wrath. This belief is strengthened in the historical record by such events as the tidal wave of 470 BCE that destroyed the Persian Army advancing on Potidea after their desecration of a nearby Temple of Poseidon, which the Potidaeans naturally attributed to the god's wrath at such affrontery.
Volcanoes were also connected to gods in Greek nature myths. Volcanoes were perceived as the forges of the god Hephaestus and were found in such places as Lemnos, Mt. Aetna, and the island of Hiera. Volcanoes gave rise to the stories of titanic proto-gods imprisoned beneath the earth's surface by the reigning gods of Olympus. Areas of volcanic activity were often heavily populated and repopulated in the ancient world. Though volcanic eruptions brought temporary destruction, the fertile soil they produced was an irresistible attraction for agrarian populations. These cataclysmic forces brought both devastation and fertility to the land and its inhabitants. Because the earth is so active and "alive" in the Mediterranean region, the belief that such humanized and anthropomorphic gods as those of the Greek pantheon controlled the powers of nature seems a natural evolution of cultural collective consciousness.
It was the sea, however, that ultimately shaped the Mediterranean world. Strabo, though writing in Roman times, wrote eloquently on the importance of the seas in the geography of the ancient world: "we are in a sense amphibious, not exclusively connected with the land, but with the sea as well... the sea and the land in which we dwell furnish theaters for action, limited for limited actions, and vast for grander deeds." In trade, warfare, and colonization, the seas and the winds that ruled them largely shaped the habits, migrations, and history of ancient Mediterranean peoples. Favorable winds were seen as gifts from the gods and unfavorable ones as punishments. This is echoed repeatedly in Homer's Odyssey in which the hero is alternately thwarted and favored by the powers of wind and water on his journey.
The ancient Greeks at once depended on and feared the forces of nature. The complex and conflicted relationship between men and gods reflected in their mythology s intimated related to the geography from which this ancient culture arose.
