Influences of Roman and Greek Myths on English Idioms.doc

希腊罗马神话对英语习语的影响Influences of Roman and Greek Myths on English IdiomsContentsAbstract.1Key words.1I. Introduction.2II. Literature review.3III. Roman and Greek myths.31. Roman and Greek myths.32. The influence of Roman and Greek myths.5IV. English idioms.6V. The English idioms about Roman and Greek myths.71. Sword of Damocles.72. Pandora's Box.73. An apple of discord84. Gordian knot.95. Mercury.9VI. Conclusion.9References.10Abstract: In the modern society, a country or nation must communicate with other countries or nations for surviving and development. For this reason, we must learn the languages of other countries or nations. In the course of learning foreign languages, a problem appeared before us: We have remembered many words and have learned the rules of the languages, but why do we make many mistakes (cant understand or the other meanings of the word)? At last, we found the reasons of this problem; the reason is that we dont know the background of the language and the culture expressed by the language. For this reason, it is need to learn the background of the language. Ancient Roman and Greek civilization is the origin of the western civilization. It has produced profound influence upon western civilization. The Greco-Roman world pervades every western and many non-western societies; it includes literature, arts, architecture and languages, etc. The Roman and Greek myths are vital in Greco-Roman world, and it is the main power in the influence of Greco-Roman world. In English vocabulary, there are many words originated from the Roman and Greek myths，this thesis will talk about the influences of Roman and Greek myths on English idioms.Key words: English idioms; Roman and Greek myths; influence摘 要：在现代社会，一个国家或民族想要生存和发展，就必须对外进行交流。为了与外交流，就必须要学习其它国家或民族的语言。在学习外语的过程中，我们又发现一个问题，我们已经知道了很多的词汇，也知道了很多的语法规则，但是为什么我们在与外交流中，还是会出现很多无法理解或是产生歧义的情况呢？后来我们终于发现，这是因为我们对其语言的背景和它所承载的文化的不了解造成的，这就要求我们学习语言的文化背景。古希腊罗马文化是西方文明的源头，对西方文明产生了巨大的影响。古希腊罗马文化的影响遍及文学、艺术、建筑、语言等，并且在西方国家和非西方国家都有很大的影响。 在古希腊罗马文化对世界的影响中，古希腊罗马神话起了重要的作用。在英语词汇中，有很多词汇源于古希腊罗马神话，本论文我们将探讨希腊罗马神话对英语习语的影响。关键词：英语习语；古希腊罗马神话；影响. IntroductionIn the modern society, a country or nation must communicate with other countries or nations for surviving and development. Along the development of the globalization of the economy and politics, the relations among all countries and nations become more and more closer. Any country cant develop and survive without communicating with other countries. To communicate with other countries or nations, we must learn the languages of other countries or nations. But in the course of learning foreign languages, a strange phenomenon appeared: We have remembered many words and have learned the rules of the languages, but why do we make many mistakes (cant understand or the other meanings of the word)? The cause of this phenomenon is the lack of the background of the languages.Ancient Roman and Greek civilization is the origin of the western civilization. It has produced profound influences upon western civilization. The Greco-Roman world pervades every western and many non-western societies; it includes literature, arts, architecture and languages, etc. The Roman and Greek myths are vital in Greco-Roman world, and it is the main power in the influence of Greco-Roman world. In English vocabulary, there are many words originated from the Roman and Greek myths，The influence of the art, languages, literatures and cultures of the Greco-Roman world pervades every western and many non-western societies. A meaningful appreciation of our classical past is very important for understanding the impressive continuity of western institutions and values. Meanwhile, it is also vital for recognizing how recent innovations and transformations of received assumptions have rendered aspects of the classical world alien and sometimes exceptionable. The classics are crucial both to the perpetuation and to the critique of the western liberal arts education. The mythology reflects the every field of the arts, languages, literatures and cultures. In other words, the mythology is the origin of one civilization.In the traditional way of learning English, the important point usually focuses on the words and grammar, but a little background. This reason makes people in a ridiculous position. Some people have remembered many words even over the number of 10 000, but when they read the native newspapers or articles, many sentences are still out of their capacity. This is an example of mistake that usually made by people. Learning the culture is only way to solve this problem. And learning the Roman and Greek myths is one of the best ways.Language is the carrier of culture, the main expressional form of culture, which develops along with nation, country and societys development. Language is a part of a nations culture. The different nationality has different culture, history, manners，customs and so on, but various nationalities culture and the social custom all display in this nationalitys language. English idioms has its own traits of culture, the influence of Roman and Greek myths on it is a perfect model. Among the family of idioms, there are many members related to Roman and Greek myths.II. Literature ReviewIn ancient times, Greek created their own myths; they worshipped the gods and goddesses they created. In the Greek myths, gods resembled human beings; the difference in appearance between mortal and immortal is that the gods were more perfect than humans. After Rome invaded Greece, Roman accepted Greek culture; it is naturally included Greek myths. Before Rome invaded Greece, Roman had their own mythology; they mixed Roman myths and Greek myths together, so people classed them together. It is called Roman and Greek myths. Almost every person worshipped gods, so people in ancient Rome and Greece usually take the person in the myths as symbols. For example, “the Achilles Heel”, which means a weak point that, can make someone or something in despair; “Helen of Troy”, which means a terrible disaster brought by somebody or something you like best; a beautiful girl or woman; a beauty who ruins her country. Besides, some phrases like “the Trojan Horse”, “A Penelopes Web”, “Greek Gift(s)”, and so on. Along the times passed by, the phrases originated from the Roman and Greek myths became more and more various. In the course of the using languages, a special group of the words appeared, they are idioms. Idioms are produced from the long and lasting use of language. The phrases originated from the Roman and Greek myths is one kind of the idioms. . Roman and Greek Myths 1Roman and Greek mythsGreek mythology is a group of traditional tales told by the ancient Greeks about the deeds of gods and heroes and their relations with ordinary human beings. Roman mythology is the religious beliefs and practices of the people of ancient Rome. To many people, Roman mythology largely seems a copy of Greek mythology. The Romans had come into contact with Greek culture during the 6th century B.C. and afterwards some of their gods and goddesses began to take on the qualities of Greek gods and goddesses. But before that time, the Romans had developed their own mythology. At first the Romans regarded their gods more as powers than as persons. Their gods did not have human motives, they did not marry or fight or have love affairs with human beings. Only after the Romans came into contact with Greek culture did they begin to represent their gods in human form.As Roman and Greek cultures mixed together, we know ancient Roman gods and goddesses became associated with those in Greek mythology. Between the 5th and 1st centuries B.C. additional Roman mythological figures appeared, nearly all based on the gods and heroes in Greek mythology. Writers such as Virgil and Ovid borrowed stories from Greek literary and artistic tradition, and attached them to Roman gods, creating a hybrid Greco-Roman mythology. These writers also invented some stories about Roman gods, largely under Greek influence. Myths that can be regarded as almost entirely Romans creation are those about ancient Roman mythology comes mainly from the works of art also provide us with some knowledge of Roman myths. In addition to those gods and goddesses whose stories were borrowed from Greek myths, the Romans worshiped many native gods and goddesses. From these definitions and descriptions, we know that the Roman myths and Greek myths are closely associated and undividable. And it is the origin of the ancient Roman and Greek culture. The western culture is from the ancient Greek and Roman, the Roman and Greek myths are naturally the origin of western civilization.Greek mythology is the body of myths and stories developed by the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world and their own culture and ritual practices. Modern scholars referred to the myths and studied them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and, in general, on the ancient Greek civilization. In the modern mind，Greek and Roman culture and mythology are classed together. An indication of this is that the academic study of the Ancient Greeks and Romans are general put into the same Classics department. Most of the Greek deities were adopted by the Romans, although in many cases there was a change of name. The following is a chart about the names of the gods and goddesses in Roman and Greek myths:Roman Greek Ceres DemeterDianaArtemisJuno HeraJupiter ZeusMarsAres MercuryHermes MinervaAthenaNeptunePoseidonPlutoHadesSaturn CronusVenusAphrodite VestaHestiaVulcan Hephaestus2. The influences of Roman and Greek mythsThe influence of the Greco-Roman world pervades every western and many non-western societies. The Roman and Greek myths are outstanding literature works, they are the origins of the works of the artists, many poets created poems according to the Roman and Greek myths, essayist created sad and move stories borrowed the myths, artists created famous statues about the stories, scientists named the stars with the names of the gods and goddesses or the names of the heroes, many rockets were named after the figures in the Roman and Greek myths, some animals and plants were given the names of the names in the myths, even some brands and companies were named according to the stories in the Roman and Greek myths, for attracting eyeballs, some advertisements were also got the elements of the myths. To understand the literature works, the paintings and statues, it is necessary to learn the myths. In the history of English literature, from the works of Chaucer, Spencer, Shakespears, Milton to the works created by Shelly, Yeaz, Baron, we can find the influences of the Roman and Greek myths. In the field of music, the influences of the Roman and Greek myths are more usually appeared; many compositions are created according one god or one story. In addition, the influences of the Roman and Greek myths are also reflected on the languages. The meaning of many words, we must find it from the myths. Take “Janiter” as an example, it is originated from the two-faced god “Janus” in the Roman and Greek myths, the sixth month of the year is from the empress “Juno”, the westerners describe the delicious food “tastes like Ambrosia”, the “Ambrosia” is the food of the gods and goddesses lived in the Olympus. . English IdiomsAs For English idioms，there are several definitions. (1) According to the Oxford Advanced English Learners Dictionary, the idiom is the phrase or sentence whose meaning is not clear from the meaning of its individual words and which must be learnt as a whole unit. (2) Idiom is a manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language. (3) Idiom is an important part of the vocabulary in a language. It is the concentrating expressions of the languages national form and all kinds of the rhetoric. (4) It is formed through long-lasting use and using many times of some part of the language. (5) It has stable and set form, it is brief, and it has deep thought of phrases or short sentences. The idiom includes metaphorical phrases, slang, colloquialism, proverb, etc.Idiom basically comes from the folk, and to a great extent, reflects a nationalitys cultural characteristics, the different nationalitys experience of life and the national character. Same as novel, poetry and other literary work, idiom is the essence of various national languages. Many idioms are even very difficult to find in common dictionaries, but have vivid life feature and trueborn national characteristic. This is also a phenomenon which worthy of the language researchers and learners attention. Idiom is also an important rhetoric method of language, the independence, anomalistic but the fixed factor of language. The idioms of different languages are both influenced by cultural characteristics, and have a certain influence to the respective language and nationality's culture. English idiom is a vivid language form.Idioms are produced from the long and lasting use of language. The language used in all countries which have passed long history have large numbers of idioms. English is the widest language in the world. Meanwhile, it is one of the languages which have the most various ways to express itself and the most fantastic tradition. English is used by the people in different nations and regions, all of them have more or less contributions to it. Idiom is from short messages or phrases, it is the core or the essential of the language. The language will be boring without idiom. We put the idioms in a correct or a proper position, or we use idioms skillfully and perfectly, which would make the language more beautiful.As a special expressing form of the language, it is also the set phrases or short sentences used by most people. We can explain it with the modern language, it is also used in the daily life. However, not all the structures of the idioms is equivalent with the modern language, sometimes the words. The idioms is long-lasting and formed in the daily life, it also has complete and specific meaning. Therefore, the idioms have the different characteristics with the general language form. The English Idioms about Roman and Greek MythsIn the big family of English idioms, there are many idioms about Roman and Greek myths. The follo