Before continuing a clear definition of "myth" needs to be established. The term m

Some of the earliest known philosophies on the creation of the Earth come from the works of Hesiod. In his Theogony he attempts to explain the creation of the Earth, and all that surrounds him, using myth. In the myth Hesiod anthropomorphizes the cosmos. He tells of "Chaos" being the first to come into being, then he goes on to describe how each of the gods of the cosmos comes in to being. The gods of the cosmos are all related to some characteristic of our universe. They can be physical parts or concepts (similar to Plato's idea of the forms). For example the line, "Earth first bore starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods."(Theogony, 126) describes both the act of birth, which is a human characteristic, and physical parts of the universe being gods (Heaven meaning the stars, and the Earth). He also has gods, such as Eros, which represents the concept of Love. Two main issues the come up during discussions of cosmology are how the universe was created and out of what was the universe created. In the Theogony, Hesiod has the world created out of gods that are human by nature and to create this universe the gods reproduced. Hesiod's theories of the universe can clearly be classified as myth, since there is no scientific background for it. The philosophers to follow Hesiod moved slightly away from this. The Pre-Socratics begin to de-anthropomorphize the universe. Even later, in the works of Socrates and Plato, the universe is completely de-anthropomorphized. The Pre-Socratics focus more on what the universe was made of than how it was created. They typically chose a single element that everything consisted of and tried to explain the world according to that element. Sometimes these elements were one of the basic four elements; earth, fire, air, and water. Sometimes they were more abstract such as Anaximander's theory. "...The principle element of existing things was the aperion... it is neither water nor any other of the so-call elements, but some other aperion nature, from which come into being all the heavens and the worlds in them."(Hetherington, pg. 58) The Pre-Socratics based their theories on insight and observations. For this reason their theories are both mythical and scientific. Because some of their choices of what the key element is are based on instinctive feelings, they can be considered myth. On the other hand, they support their ideas through observations and experience making the ideas scientific. Science is defined one way in Webster's II Dictionary to be "Knowledge that is acquired through experience." The Pre-Socratics were not completely scientific because not everything they theorized was based on experience, but they were not as mythical as Hesiod either. Aristotle's concept of the universe was mostly scientific. Since Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander the Great, he had access to a wide variety of cultures. By gathering information from all of these cultures, he was able to analyze the world from a scientific perspective. He came up with four fundamental theses to the universe. 1.) The universe was Geocentric, Earth centered. 2.) The universe contained two separate worlds, one that spanned out to the moon and it was ever changing, and another that was from the moon out that was unchanging and made of the fifth element (ether). 3.) The universe did not consist of any void or em

Some common words found in the essay are:
Buddhist Cosmology, Buddhists Buddhism, Socrates Plato, Hesiod Theogony, Geocentric Earth, Ancient Greece, II Dictionary, Theogony Hesiod, Physics Mathematics, Hesiod Aristotle's, buddhist cosmology, reach enlightenment, ancient greece, myth science, universe created, physical world, level reality, french pg, workings universe, karma reach enlightenment, webster's ii, french pg 61, webster's ii dictionary, myth science seen,
Approximate Word count = 2292
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)