In Greek mythology, Ananke, also spelled Anangke, Anance, or Anagke (Ancient Greek: Ἀνάγκη, from the common noun ἀνάγκη, "force, constraint, necessity"), was a primordial ancient Greek goddess of inevitability, the personification of destiny, necessity and fate. She appears as a serpentine being, and marks the beginning of the cosmos, along with Chronos, in the Orphic cosmogony. Together they surrounded the primal egg of solid matter and so brought about the creation of the ordered universe. The ancient representation of the goddess, is perhaps a torch-bearing figure, but she was also depicted holding a spindle, as the representation of Moira (fate).

Ananke may be related with the Homeric Moira and with Tekmor, the primeval goddess of ordinance in the cosmogony of Alcman (7th century BC). It seems that she represented a universal principle of natural order, which controlled all fate and circumstance of mortals, and was far beyond the reach of the younger gods whose fates she was sometimes said to control. The Greek writers named this power Moira, or Ananke, and even the gods could not alter what was ordained.

The term "mythology" can refer either to the study of myths (e.g., comparative mythology), or to a body or collection of myths (a mythos, e.g., Inca mythology). In folkloristics, a myth is a sacred narrative usually explaining how the world or humankind came to be in its present form, although, in a very broad sense, the word can refer to any traditional story. Myths typically involve supernatural characters and are endorsed by rulers or priests. They may arise as overelaborated accounts of historical events, as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as an explanation of ritual. They are transmitted to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach.

Early rival classifications of Greek mythos by Euhemerus, Plato's Phaedrus, and Sallustius were developed by the neoplatonists and revived by Renaissance mythographers as in the Theologia mythologica (1532). Nineteenth-century comparative mythology reinterpreted myth as evolution toward science (E. B. Tylor), "disease of language" (Max Müller), or misinterpretation of magical ritual (James Frazer). Later interpretations rejected opposition between myth and science, such as Jungian archetypes, Joseph Campbell's "metaphor of spiritual potentiality", or Lévi-Strauss's fixed mental architecture. Tension between Campbell's comparative search for monomyth or Ur-myth and anthropological mythologists' skepticism of universal origin has marked the 20th century. Further, modern mythopoeia such as fantasy novels, manga, and urban legend, with many competing artificial mythoi acknowledged as fiction, supports the idea of myth as ongoing social practice.

Luciano De Crescenzo (Italian pronunciation: [luˈtʃano de kreʃˈʃɛntso]; born 18 August 1928) is an Italian writer, film actor, director and engineer.

Born in Naples, he graduated in engineering and worked for IBM Italy until 1976, when he published the bestseller Così parlò Bellavista (Thus Spoke Bellavista), a collection of facts and anecdotes about his city which sold 600,000 copies in Italy and was translated into numerous languages. In 1980 he debuted as actor in Il pap'occhio, under the direction of his friend Renzo Arbore, together with Roberto Benigni.

In 1984 he directed the successful movie adaptation of Così parlò Bellavista (in which he also played the main protagonist), followed by Il mistero di Bellavista in 1985. In 1995 he wrote and directed Croce e delizia, featuring Teo Teocoli and Isabella Rossellini.

In the meantime he published a long series of books, including novels and popularizations of philosophy. For his work in the field of Greek philosophy he received honorary citizenship of Athens in 1994.