希腊文化源于古老的爱琴文明，他们是西洋文明的始祖，具有卓越的天性和不凡的想象力。在那原始时代，他们对自然现象，对人的生死，都感到神秘和难解，于是他们不断地幻想、不断地沉思。在他们的想象中，宇宙万物都拥有生命。然而在多利亚人入侵爱琴文明后，因为所生活的希腊半岛人口过剩，他们不得不向外寻拓生活空间。这时候他们崇拜英雄豪杰，因而产生了许多人神交织的民族英雄故事。这些众人所创造的人、神、物的故事，经由时间的淬炼，就被史家统称为“希腊神话”，公元前十一二世纪到七八世纪间则被称为“神话时代”。神话故事最初都是口耳相传，直至公元前七世纪才由大诗人荷马统整记录于“史诗”中。(Hellenism originates from the ancient Aegean civilization. They are the ancestors of western civilization and have remarkable nature and extraordinary imagination. In that primitive age, they feel puzzled and mysterious about natural phenomena, life, and death of human beings. So they kept on dreaming and meditating. In their imagination, the whole creation all has life. However, after the Dorians’ invasion of Aegean Civilization, they had to seek for life space outwards because of the overpopulation of Greek peninsula where they live. At this time, they admired heroes, therefore, many national hero stories of human beings and immortals appeared. These stories about men, gods and objects created by people are called “Greek mythology” by historians through hardening of time. The period between the 11th or 12th and seventh or eighth centuries BC is called “the age of myth”. Myths are spread by words of mouth at the beginning and are completely recorded in “epic” by the great poet Homer until the seventh century BC. )