Throughout history Civilizations have created stories explaining the origin of the world and themselves. Currently we only know of the ancient world through writing and physical evidence. We know that the ancients lived long before writing was a form of communication. As such any stories or myths that they have had were only ever known through oral tradition. These types of story tellings are quite inconsistent and should be treated as morphing myths. Truly, we only know of the current myth at the time the myth was written. Most cultures have no idea where they came from since the only way they remembered their history is through their elders. The origin of the world and its people has always been a question among people and such is the nature of people to explain away the mysteries of the world rather than leave them as holes in their knowledge. These explanations are almost always fantastical, full of intercourse and connected with the most powerful beings in the world.

Greek origin myth is interesting. In it the creators of the world do not rule the world. The sons and the daughters of the creators do not rule either. It is the sons and daughters of one Titan, Cronus, that rule the world. This myth seems to run parallel with Greek history. The Greeks as we know it originated from the Mycenaeans just like the current gods originate from the Titans. This myth also coincidentally runs parallel with Romulus and Remus in which the current rulers had to defeat their own rulers to become king. Sons rising up against their father is a common trope in greek/roman myth.

Roman origin myth is the same to the greek myth in terms of the gods. Romans however have an origin story of their own city. This story of Romulus and Remus is probably as accurate as an oral tradition can get since it separates itself from the fantastical and hugs tightly to the grim reality of conflict. Unlike the U.S.A’s founder George Washington, Romulus was not benevolent and the only pride a Roman can claim to their origin is that Romulus was a stronger leader than anyone else. The Romans know that they originated from a people before them which to the modern day person is not intuitive to know that even before our records or findings there were civilizations thriving and competing with each other.

I additionally looked at celtic, hindu and japanese origin myths and found many similar tropes. The very beginning of almost every myth starts with a place of chaos or nothingness. From the nothingness a god appears and from this god appear earth and more other gods. Some cultures have a hard time imagining a nothingness so they replace the void with an endless sea and from the first god appear land. Usually the gods create more gods through either intercourse or with illogical means such as with a spear dipped in water or through vomit or cut off gentals. Usually there is conflict since not all gods are benevolent. The not benevolent gods are usually defeated and either sent to a hell or cast away but always present. Humans are not always created by the one major god and usually are not. Compared to the gods, humans are quite unimportant and inconsequential. This may attest to the fact that nature which humans often correlate to the gods is often uncaring and acting in random.  

Humans often attribute their gods to human ways of thinking. Actually ancient gods are basically humans with extraordinary abilities. Explaining the mysteries of the world with such common human viewpoints seems like it would stifle any creative thinking since if the mysteries were already explained there would be no reason to think of them. Strangely enough this is not the case. There were many ancient Greek philosophers that tried to explain the world without myth and these pursuits allowed us to take control of the world as opposed to letting these myths to take control of us. Honestly, until we ourselves become all knowing, all powerful, immortal beings, we will never be able to explain how a god will behave.

For my artifact I created a poem on the Roman origin story of Romulus and Remus. 

This is the tale of Romulus and Remus

Two brothers both handsome and famous

The founders of Rome

Recorded in tome

And lost to barbarians enormous

It started with the Aeneas babe Romulus

whose own people where strict and callous

A Vestal Virgin was his mother

So both he and his brother

Were floated down the Tiber hapless  

Eventually their basket stuck in a tree

Visible enough for a she wolf to see

She raised them like pups

But before they were grownups

A shepard took them in aptly

King Anulius and his cronies kidnapped his twin

Romulus lead fellow shepherds against such a sin

After they freed his brother

Anulius they did smother

And the position of king they did win

The brothers decided to make their own city

They chose a place both fertile and hilly

Unable to agree they began to fued

Which later caused Romulus to be in a bad mood

For he killed his brother when he called his wall silly

Romulus filled his city with fugitives, slaves and crooks

With only men, Roma had a dismal outlook

So they invited the Sabines into a circus pen

distracted the citizens and took all the women

They beat back the Sabines and raped what they took

Roma was betrayed by the daughter of the citadel

she let King Titus enter where the Romans dwell

Within the city a great fight ensued

But with the power of Jupiter, King Titus was subdued

A truce was made

and for half a decade,

all was well

But then wrongdoing  bandits allied with King Titus

and so to repent he traveled to Lavinium uncautious

By assassins he was killed

so the position of King, Romulus filled

And his hunger of power was growing restless

With sword and shield he expanded through war

and to aid him he made more than one senator

They resented his rule

and with daggers so cruel

The father of Rome was nevermore