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| "The Rape of Europa" by Reni (1639) |
We should probably be cautious when we read myths – too many of
them are the spun out creation of storytellers that risk reducing the Gods to
characters in a fairy tale. The great, divine and essential nature of the Gods
may thus be obscured. It may to wise to be mindful that the popularity of some
myths in the ancient world may have contributed to the decline of polytheism –
and may also impede contemporary comprehension of the Gods. Christian writers
of the Roman era, such as Justin Martyr, Tertullian and Minucius Felix, invoked
Greco-Roman myths to mock the Gods, and therefore belief in them. The Christian
poet Prudentius went so far as to write “depart adulterous Jupiter, defiled
with sex with your sister” (cited in Beard 2 at 361). If we were to accept
myths at face value then the early Christian fathers could be occasionally
convincing, in terms of eroding our belief in the Gods. If we understand that
myths may be beautiful and instructive in some way (sometimes acting as a gateway to sacred knowledge, for deep truths may be embedded within, as may be the case for many of the stories that we think of as no more than fairy tales: bbc.com), but that they should always
be treated with caution and never treated as somehow equivalent to religious scripture, then we get closer to the truth.
