Question

During Ancient Greece it is believed Greek and Roman heroes were called up to intervene in all kinds of human endeavors; such as battles between peoples, or wars between nations. They are also often conscripted into worthy causes, such as the creation of a new town; laying the metaphoric foundations for what was to prosper into our contemporary major cities that we still walk in today. These stories are called founding myths, and often denote moments in a shared history when new communities arise to later became powerful and prosperous. What does the phrase “metaphoric foundations” most closely mean as it is used in the text?

Answer 1

Answer: A the mythic ideas of what the city was built on

Explanation;

By stating that the Greek and Roman heroes laid the metaphoric foundations for what became major cities, the text seems to infer that the heroes laid the mythical ideas of what the city was built on.

Metaphors are used to describe things in a way that are not literally applicable so when it is said that the foundations laid were metaphoric, it meant that the foundations did not mean actual physical foundations but something else which in this case meant the mythic ideas of what the city was built on.