The ancient Greeks and Romans had no soap operas, no Superman comics, no movie romances. But they had their myths. What Hollywood heroine could be more glamorous than Helen of Troy, what soap-opera wife more faithful than Penelope, what Superman or Buck Rogers more spectacular than Hercules, son of Jupiter?
The exploits of the Greek gods and goddesses, their demi-gods and heroes run like a gold thread through the tapestry of the world's literature, music, and art, and also science. In the last field, some of the achievements of modern man are like myths transformed into reality. Paradoxically, but fittingly enough, man has drawn upon the myths for a great number of descriptive names. Old and new meet again in the myths, which have truly never died, for hardly a day passes without some allusion being made in our newspapers to characters and events found in the myths.
