Interesting Greek Mythology

Today we have started the second play “King Lear” by Shakespeare. Before we analyzed the dialogue, we were introduced to the Greek mythology. As I mentioned earlier in my second post, knowing the context of the play can help us in understanding the better. This was the first time I got to know the Greek mythology in detail. I was impressed by the mirth because it is out of my expectation. In Greek mythology, the world is divided into two worlds which are the Celestial and the Terrestrial. Celestial is heaven(s) where the immortals live. In the Celestial world, god(s) is at the highest place. The second is angels. The third is fairies and the fourth is Satan and demon. On the other hand, humans and animals live in the Terrestrial or mortal world. The mortal is divided into human world and the animal world. In the human world, King will be at the highest place, the second is royalties and the last is people or citizen. The king is the highest place because people believe that he is selected by god(s). In the animal kingdom, lion is the king on the land because lion is the fiercest among others. Think of the cartoon "Lion King". Dolphin is the king in the sea because it is the most intelligent and eagle is the king in the air because it is the might one in the air. All these animals portray the positive side of the animal kingdom. There are also bad or evil animals in the animal kingdom. For example, hyenas on land, sharks in the sea and vultures in the air. All these animals eat scavenges. They are related to defeat and death in the play. Isn’t it interesting of knowing this mythology? Getting to know all these is important for reading Shakespeare’s play because he uses a lot of animal imagery to describe the characters in the plays.