With Greek mythology, diversity won

I hope it will in America as well

I believe in diversity.

I believe that diversity of influence is the fuel for creativity.

I believe that the incredible phenomenon of Greek mythology began with a diversity of influences.

And I believe that America itself, being so diverse, is made great by the different types of people that inhabit it.

But this election makes me feel as if most Americans—at least those who voted—do not believe in diversity.

Image by G Poulsen from Pixabay

It’s a strange feeling to have that opinion when it seems that everyone is trying to find an answer for the “why” of the election—the economy, the price of eggs, Russian interference, Harris’s faults as a candidate—and I keep thinking, I know exactly why it went the way it did, but people seem to be gravitating away from that reason.

Diversity lost.

Race, gender, sexuality—all those identities that people (I guess) are tired of talking about, all those differences we’ve been trying to figure out In the past several years— it’s very complex. It’s awkward. It may seem stupid at times.

It’s an ideal trying to become real—to have a nation where we are all truly equal.

But for now, it seems, America doesn’t want to continue that journey—at least not in the direction we’ve been taking it.

I think it’s natural for people—especially white people (here is a short video about that), but apparently also an increasing number of people of color—to be weary of searching for ways to make America a truly egalitarian society. After all, it’s seemed to work so well in the past that we all just work hard and the best rise to the top—although my reading of history suggests that was never true.

No, again, I’ll say, we’ve been through a tricky time since Ferguson and #MeToo and George Floyd and Dobbs and transgender athletes.

I don’t blame people for wanting to have a president who’s most famous for a reality show (which is to say, a fantasy show).

Maybe it’s time to turn on the television for a few years.

Here, under my shingle, diversity will continue to be the theme.

I am not, by. nature, a political person. I don’t really think that politics is the sole answer to our problems. But I do think that our differences are our strengths, especially when we realize that we are all about 99.9% the same.

You may have subscribed to this Substack expecting to be regaled with entertaining stories from a classic culture.

Or maybe you were looking for new takes on an old subject.

But that isn’t truly what I’m about.

I am writing about how Greek Mythology came to be Greek Mythology.

With Greek mythology, diversity won. Big time.

The ancient Greeks liked diversity for a long time at the beginning of their history. They eagerly incorporated elements of stories from many different cultures into their own stories.

And they were eager to know more, and see more, and be more.

The Odyssey, that immortal poem, is in part a celebration of the travels that Greek and other folk (especially the Phoenicians, from Lebanon and West Syria) took when the Mediterranean world was really opening up to civilization beyond just Egypt and Mesopotamia.

Image by Deborah Jackson from Pixabay

The Odyssey is also a marker for the Greek value of xenia (kseh-NEE-ah), which is often translated as “guest-host friendship.” It is the idea that when you are traveling, you are entitled to hospitality from the people you visit, and you in turn are obligated to reciprocate that hospitality to those who visit you when you are at home.

This is a beautiful idea, and even today the modern Greeks pride themselves on welcoming the traveler and the stranger.

When the ancient Persians decided, in the early 5th century BC, that they wanted to conquer the Greek mainland as they had conquered Anatolia (modern Turkey) with its diverse population of Greeks and others, that’s when Greek poets decided that maybe diversity wasn’t such a good thing, and they began to revise Greek myths to include a divide between east and west, west being Greek and good, and east being Persian and bad.

A topic for another post.

There is something in us humans that wants to welcome, and something else in us that wants to exclude. There is something in us that wants to dominate and conquer, and something in us that wants to share and celebrate.

I hope, very much, that someday, the welcoming, sharing, celebrating impulse comes to be our first and most important impulse.

Till then, I’ll see you around Substack.