摘要

美国和欧洲大陆虽然相隔甚远，但是殖民扩张，宗教传播等一系列的原因使得美国文化和欧洲文化有一定的相似之处，而古希腊文化又是欧洲文化的开端，因此，研究美国社会价值观和古希腊神话的关系，对美国社会价值观追根溯源就显得尤为重要。当今美国社会存有很多价值观，如个人主义，自由至上，开放的性观念等等，古希腊神话中也有类似的价值观，如宙斯的多情，普罗米修斯的无私等，本文旨在通过追根溯源，找出美国价值观与古希腊神话的关系。
本论文主要包括三个部分。第一部分文献综述，主要介绍前人对美国价值观和古希腊神话以及二者之间联系的研究； 第二部分着重介绍现代美国社会价值观和古希腊文化，尤其是古希腊神话之间的如何联系起来的。这部分主要通过历史因素，宗教因素和文化因素这三方面的原因来阐述。 第三部分主要是对美国价值观在希腊文化中的追根溯源进行分析，通过对二者相似点进行阐述来表明二者之间的联系。
通过以上研究及具体的特征分析，本文得出以下结论：当代美国价值观并不是直接根植于古希腊神话，但是却是在以古希腊神话为代表的古希腊文化的基础上发展起来的。两者在个人主义，理性与浪漫等方面都有相似点。

关键词：美国价值观， 古希腊神话，追根溯源，个人主义，理性

ABSTRACT

Though America is far away from the European continent, there are some similarities between their cultures because of the colonial expansion, the religious transformation and other factors. As the ancient Greek culture being the beginning of the European culture, the relationship study between them has been a very important and challenging work. Individualism, freedom, open sex conceptions are among the American values, there does exist several similar values in the ancient Greek mythology such as the lovey-dovey Zeus, the selfish Prometheus and so on. This essay aims to trace back to find out the relationship between the modern American values and the ancient Greek mythology.
This thesis contains three major parts. The first part is literature review which introduces the previous studies on the American values, the ancient Greek mythology and the relationship between them. The second part focuses on how the modern American value and the ancient Greek culture, especially the ancient Greek mythology is related. The third part emphasize on the similarities to trace back to the ancient Greek mythology through the modern American values.
Through the study and specific characteristic analysis, the thesis comes to the following conclusion: the modern American values are not directly rooted in the ancient Greek mythology, but it does stand on the shoulder of the ancient Greek culture, which was represented by the ancient Greek mythology. There are similarities in individualism, mind and romanticism, etc.

Key words: American values, ancient Greek mythology, trace back, Individualism,Mind