Finding beauty between chaos and order By Mariah Vilhauer

Taken from Adobe Sparks library - A picture showing the difference between an orderly and a chaotic mind set.

People have such a different mindset when they consider what is orderly and what is chaotic. For some, chaos can be as simple as a messy room; but for others, chaos can be way more than that, such as a natural disaster. Mindsets are often rooted based on culture and what that culture views as acceptable. Our cultures base what is orderly and what is chaotic by how things have been passed down through myths within the generations. Throughout the next few paragraphs, we'll be taking a deeper look into how the Greeks viewed chaos and order.

A photo taken off the Adobe Sparks library - demonstrating chaos

In Greek mythology, it is believed that 'chaos' was what was there before the gods. Before the gods, there was nothing. It is believed chaos was looked at as a dark hole that had no hope or any sense of normality. Chaos through the years has been looked at with the same ideas that chaotic. There is no purpose or logical reasoning behind it, nothing that makes sense as to the acts being committed.

A photo found from Adobe Sparks - illustrating order

Greeks looked at order as something that was established when the gods came about. After there was order, there was logic reasoning behind things. Things came to have meaning and purpose when the gods established order. Order is looked at as a sign of knowledge and having something to hold onto that makes sense.

Photo from Adobe Sparks - demonstrating war

With chaos, comes the concept of war. As stated earlier, chaos has no morals. War comes with the killing and destruction of many. In the early Greek time period, women and children would be taken as slaves after a city had gotten raided and conquered. There is no moral or logic reasoning as to taking hostages and making them slaves after killing their husband/father/son.

Photo from Adobe Sparks - illustrating order

In the early Greek time era, peace would be made between two kings or high rulers. Often times, ways to keep peace would be to offer their daughters as wives to the princes (or vice versa.) It wasn't for many years that people came to the realization that war isn't always the correct way to go about disputes.

Photo from Adobe Sparks - demonstrating chaos (cheating)

In the early Greek culture, and even with the gods, staying unfaithful in a marriage was very common. Nowadays we consider that a very chaotic act, with no morals or logic behind it. It is a action on feelings and has through the years become more scorn by societies. Aphrodite was not faithful, but neither was Hephaestus nor Ares.

Photo taken from Adobe - demonstrating order (faithful marriage)

As time has gone on more, faithful marriages has become a strong sense of order. It was important in the earlier Greek era but wasn't as serious as it is nowadays. Order goes hand in hand with morals, and morally it is very known that it is important to remain faithful and loyal to a spouse.

photo from Adobe Sparks - capturing both chaos and order

Overall, chaos and order have the same definitions as they did in the beginning of time, only tweaked for relativity. Based on the myths we have in our culture, we really do get what we find as order and chaos. What one myth will say in one culture, will be different in another - changing how those two cultures view things, even many years down the road.

WORK CITATIONS: ........ "Chaos." Chaos in Greek Mythology - Crystalinks. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017. .........."Slavery and Women in Ancient Greece." The Role of Women in the Art of Ancient Greece. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017 ............ "Greek Stories about Zeus-Zeus and his Mates." Greek gods. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2017.

Credits:

Created with images by docoverachiever - "A rainy day" • ElisaRiva - "head brain thoughts" • Pexels - "brush color colors" • sarangib - "lotus flower pink" • leateds - "Gears of War 3" • Alexas_Fotos - "vw bulli meadow" • tswedensky - "lying promises deception" • toanmda - "wedding love happy" • blackwing_de - "Fireworks"

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