The anthropomorphic representation of Olympian gods on the art of the Parthenon reflects the idea brought up in class that “mythos was the core of reality” in ancient Greece. Ancient Greeks built their perception of the world around them on their views of the gods and mythology. Thus, to the Greeks these stories are very real and have relevance in every day life, as fantastical as they may seem to us today.

I believe that this also explains the intimacy between myth and history among the Greeks, where myths make up the true history of the gods and are not associated with fictitious ideas, as the word suggests today. In the mind of ancient Greeks, myth and history are truly intertwined, because they saw their gods’ history as a reality, and the realm of the gods influenced their own actions and course of history. The humanization of the divine on the Parthenon artistically represents this close relationship with the gods in a way that the entire population can understand, rather than in abstract forms. Likewise, the divinization of the human form represents this relationship from another perspective. Depicting humanity in its ideal form and great strength echoes the power of the gods, which humanity strives for.