Identity is something that can be clearly defined and redefined but never conquered. The ancient Greeks sought to forge their own identity in a world of chaos by not limiting themselves to one definition. As a result, several different sources of spirituality and free thought contributed to the never-ending quest of the Greeks to find what’s worth keeping as everything else shifts around them. Beliefs and reason went hand in hand over time to fabricate the universal truths that the Greeks valued so dearly. These universal truths created a focus within society on developing the individual rather than the majority. One truth that encapsulates individual development is that humans are unenlightened. We are punished for it until we suffer into
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Hesiod in Works and Days explains human failures through a myth known as “Pandora’s Box” (Hesiod). Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for man, and in turn Zeus sent a woman named Pandora with a deceitful nature and a jar filled with plagues for mankind. She inevitably opened the jar and unleashed evil upon the world. This myth shows that the Greeks believed it was the gods’ fault that bad things happened because Pandora was a gift from the gods. Additionally, Hesiod mentions that “gods keep hidden from men the means of life”, which means that men are sentenced by the gods to ignorance from birth (Hesiod). Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave doesn’t seek to explain why unenlightenment exists, but focuses on how humans are “chained” to a lack of knowledge and a skewed perception (Plato, Allegory of the Cave). Plato records his teacher, Socrates, creating an allegory about prisoners trapped in a cave. Their heads are constrained to one position so that all they can see are shadows cast on the wall in front of them. The cave itself symbolizes ignorance, and the prisoners held within stand for humanity. The shadows are only what the prisoners perceive to be reality, and any outsider would be able to see that the prisoners are trapped within a microcosm that is nothing like the outside world. Their chains limit them to their own sensory discernments and as the allegory explains, those often prove to be
Hesiod in Works and Days explains human failures through a myth known as “Pandora’s Box” (Hesiod). Prometheus stole fire from Zeus for man, and in turn Zeus sent a woman named Pandora with a deceitful nature and a jar filled with plagues for mankind. She inevitably opened the jar and unleashed evil upon the world. This myth shows that the Greeks believed it was the gods’ fault that bad things happened because Pandora was a gift from the gods. Additionally, Hesiod mentions that “gods keep hidden from men the means of life”, which means that men are sentenced by the gods to ignorance from birth (Hesiod). Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave doesn’t seek to explain why unenlightenment exists, but focuses on how humans are “chained” to a lack of knowledge and a skewed perception (Plato, Allegory of the Cave). Plato records his teacher, Socrates, creating an allegory about prisoners trapped in a cave. Their heads are constrained to one position so that all they can see are shadows cast on the wall in front of them. The cave itself symbolizes ignorance, and the prisoners held within stand for humanity. The shadows are only what the prisoners perceive to be reality, and any outsider would be able to see that the prisoners are trapped within a microcosm that is nothing like the outside world. Their chains limit them to their own sensory discernments and as the allegory explains, those often prove to be