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How the World Began
In the Greek version of how the world began, it starts off
with the goddess of all things, Eurynome, rising naked from Chaos*. But when
she rose, she found nothing to stand her feet on, so she divided sea from sky.
She then did not have a place to rest, so she danced upon the waves to the
south to warm herself. The winds followed her as she danced, and she caught the
north wind and turned it into a huge serpent. The serpent coiled around her and
Eurynome soon became pregnant. She, Eurynome, then turned herself into a white
dove and laid her egg. The serpent kept the egg warm until it hatched. The egg
then brought forth the Sun, Moon, planets, stars, Earth with its valleys and
mountains, streams and lakes, and all the living creatures, including humans.
Eurynome made her home on Mt. Olympus with the serpent. But soon the serpent
claimed he was the author of the universe. This enraged Eurynome and she
banished him to a dark cave miles below the Earth. She created seven planetary
powers, each suited with a god and goddess. Cronus and Rhea, the rulers of
Earth, then became the parents of Zues. Zues, and other family members, then
killed/banished* Cronus and Rhea. Zues then became an important part of Greek
Mythology.
Zeus
Zeus (known as Jupiter by the Romans) was the son of Cronus
and Rhea. He killed/banished* his father and mother and was named king of
Heaven. Zeus was a very powerful god, and could turn himself into humans,
animals, vegetables, and minerals. Although when he was altered, he hardly
fooled gods, he had the power to fool humans. He eventually married his sister,
Hera, and lived to regret it. He was constantly unfaithful to Hera, and the
gave her reason to be very bitter. Soon Hera took action, and with help from
Poseidon and Apollo, made Zeus a prisoner of Olympus. Zeus became furious and
soon Nereid, a female Titan, decided to release him since she did not want to
see another civil war on Olympus. Zeus inflicted punishment on all his
captures, but Hera received the worst. She was hung from the sky with a golden
bracelet on each wrist and an anvil on each ankle. Poseidon and Apollo were
sent temporarily as servants to an earthly king, Laomedon, for whom they built
the city of Troy. Zeus continued to rule his family, and he also kept the stars
and planets in order, made laws, enforced oaths, and pronounced oracles.
Hera
Hera, the wife of Zeus, was very bitter and often tormented
those who annoyed her. Hera had a reason for being bitter though, as Zeus was
often unfaithful to her and treated her awful. The other gods did not show much respect to her either. She had three children. Her two sons were Ares, the
god of war and Hephaestus, the blacksmith god and forger of weapons. Eris, her daughter,
was the goddess of discord. Hera had a great power; she was able to prophesize
future events and bestow the gift of prophecy on other gods and humans. But
when she gave the power to prophesize to others, it was often to only prophesy
the bad things in life. This resulted in a dislike and hatred directed at her
from many of the gods/humans she bestowed the power on. She was renamed Juno.
Athena
Athena (known as Minerva by the Romans) was the daughter of
Zeus and Metis, one of the many women he was unfaithful to while married to
Hera. When Metis became pregnant, Zeus heard on the winds: “Metis will bear a
girl. But, if she gets pregnant again, she will have a son who will depose of
you as you deposed Cronus.” Zues was frightened by this and swallowed Metis and
her unborn child. Athena came out of her fathers head dressed in full armor
with a spear. She hated war and was popular among the gods, but bored the
goddesses. Athena became patron of Athens and people counted on her to mete out
justice instead of acting on whim and spite.
Athena invented geometry and science of the stars. She also invented the first ax, plow, and ox yoke.
Apollo and Artemis: The Twins
Artemis (known as Diana by the Romans) was the first twin born to Zeus and Leto, a beautiful nymph. Zeus loved Artemis very much and on her third birthday asked her to make any wish and he would make sure she got what she wanted. She asked to always be a young girl, as she had seen all the harm that Aprodite could do to those who she had power over, for her father to never give her away to a man, a silver bow and arrow, the best pack of hounds in the universe, and the freedom to run and hunt over the mountains and in the woods for all eternity. Zeus did grant her eternal chasity but told her she could change her mind about falling in love at any time. Artemis went to Hephaestus and asked her to make her a silver bow, but Hephaestus said silver should be created underwater in a cold light. Artemis then swam to Cyclops and he made her a beautiful silver bow, quiver, and arrows. The quiver had a special magic, too. Whenever it got empty, it filled right back up. Then Artemis went to Pan and he gave her his best ten dogs. Artemis then spent her days and nights hunting in the woods for deer. She was worshiped as the goddess of the moon and stars. All men, human and god, who came near her were chased away by her fierce hounds. Young women who had relatives who wishes to marry them off to men they disliked, often prayed to Artemis to save them, and she often did, but sometimes had to turn the woman into a tree, flower, or deer. Artemis is a favorite of sculpture and painting and is usually seen carrying her bow and is usually accompanied by one of more of her dogs.
Apollo was the second twin born to Zeus and Leto.
Leto was very weak and had difficulty giving birth to her second child but with
the help of Artemis, her first child, Apollo was born. Apollo had dark gold hair
and deep blue eyes. He had extraordinary talents in music, poetry, mathematics, and medicine.
Apollo became the god of the sun and patron
of the arts and sciences. Apollo was the most admirable of all the gods and
could not tell a lie and preached moderation. But Apollo was not perfect and
when he became jealous or angry he could be just as cruel as the other gods.
When Apollo was old enough to shoot a golden bow and arrow his father had given
him, he went in search of Python, a serpent who had tortured his mother. Apollo
shot an arrow at the serpent when he found him at Mouth Parnassus. The serpent fled
to Mother Earth at Delphi, a sanctuary* of both humans and gods. Apollo could
not follow the serpent into to cave, so he breathed on his arrows and created a
smoke screen, which he then shot into the cave. The serpent started to
suffocate from the smoke and crawled out of the cave, and Apollo then shot a
full of arrows at him, skinned him, and kept Python’s hide as a souvenir of his
revenge. But Apollo had gotten his revenge on a sacred place and Mother Earth
complained to Zeus that her sanctuary had been defiled. Apollo then held annual
athletic games at Delphi and named them the Pythian Games, after his enemy. He
also established the Delphic oracle and named any priestess who gave advice a
Pythoness. These gestures did not in any way help Python but it got Apollo back
into Zeus’s good graces. Apollo was much like Zeus in the way that he fell in
love with many women and had many children. His most famous child was his son
Aesculapius.
Aesculapius was gifted with much medical knowledge. Doctors
today even use the name Aesculapius as a symbol of medical knowledge and skill
when taking oath to heal and not harm their patients. Aesculapius was the son
of Apollo and Coronis, a princess of Thessaly. But Coronis was in love with a
young mortal and not Apollo, and when
pregnant with their son, went back to her old lover. Apollo was upset and mad
but could not bring himself to the mother of his child, so he asked Artemis to.
Apollo wanted to save Aesculapius, though and delivered the baby himself and
turned him over to the god Hermes. Hermes was struck by Aesculapius’s extreme
intelligence and sent him to Chiron*, a centaur*. Aesculapius doctored everyone
and was even able to heal those who were on the point of death. This enraged
Hades and Hades went to Zeus and complained that Aesculapius was robbing him of
his victims. Zeus used his thunderbolt and sent Aesculapius and the patient he
was curing at the time and sent them to Hades. Apollo was angry and
heartbroken, so he went out and found Cyclops, the maker of Zeus’s thunderbolt,
and killed him. Zeus could not let this sin go ignored, so he banished Apollo
to Hades forever. Leto had kept away from Zeus, knowing that Hera was watching
her, but when their son was banished to Hades, she went to Zeus and reminded
him of their old love. Zeus relented, and let allowed Apollo to come back to
Mount Olympus and also brought Aesculapius back to life, but not without a
warning to not rob Hades by curing the sick on the way across the river Styx.
Apollo was friends with the nine Muses, who represented the
arts. When Apollo was young, the nine Muses thought him their skills, and
Apollo came to be the greatest poet and artist in the universe. He improved on
everything the Muses taught him. Apollo was one of the only gods who was allowed
to keep his original name by the Romans. The Romans tended to picture Apollo
less important then the Greeks had, though. Apollo was generally pictured as a young man who really never grew up.
Aphrodite
Aphrodite (called Venus by the Romans) was the god of love and beauty.
Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea, rising naked on a scallop shell
and stepping first on the island of Cythera. Cythera was sandy and rocky with
few flowers and birds, but as soon as Aphrodite set foot on it, it starteds to bloom.
But the goddess didn't find it suitable for her, so she moved to Cyprus. Zeus saw Aphrodite and thinking she was the most
beautiful creature he had ever saw, took her to Olympus. When Zeus brought Aphrodite home, Hera saw her beauty and told
Zeus to marry her off immediatly or there would be fights over her beauty. Poseidon, Apollo, and Hermes all offered her riches and powers, but in the end she married Hephaestus. Aphrodite knew that
with Hephaustus as her husband, she would be able to have many affarirs without him knowing. She did have many affairs and soon after her marraige she had three children. The father was not Hephaestus but
Ares. Aphrodite was often considered a dangerous and spiteful goddess. She is never found showing
the slightest respect or friendship for a woman.
Ares
Ares (called Mars by the Romans) was the ugliest
of the three children Zeus and Hera had together. Ares is never involved in a kind
thing or considered good, but rather always a villain. Ares is the god of war and his favorite
animal is the vulture, fittingly enough. You may wonder why Aphrodite choose him as one of her many
lovers, what she saw in him, and why she continued on with their affair, as the children he fathered
with her took after Ares in their appearance and character. Ares is usually pictured as bloodstained
with a murderous expression on his fac, but he is occasionally described as good-looking in a sinister
way. The Romans saw him in a better light, perhaps because they saw more glory in war rather than horror.
He was never viewed as a coward to the Romans, just invincible and strong, and his special animal was the dog, not the vulture.
Dionysus
Dionysus (called Bacchus by the Romans) was the son of Zeus and Semele, the princess of Themes.
Since Seele had no divine origins herself, the child was half human and the other gods considered him semimortal.
But Semele met the same fate as all of Zeus's other lovers, caused by Hera. Zeus was fasinaed by her though and swore by the
river of sticks, an oath not even the king of the gods could break, that he would grant her any wish. Hera then entered one of Semele's
dreams and whispered to her how it would be wonderful to see Zeus in his divine form, an homor to see him in the way that the gods
saw him. Semele went to Zeus and asked him to appear as he really was. Zeus tried to change Semele's mind, knowing that no mortal could
see his fiery glory and live, but Semele insisted. Zeus had sworn by the holy oath, though, and when he appeared in his aspect
of godley power, Semele died of shock. Zeus, knowing Semele was pregnant, took their unobrn child and kept it by him, hiding it from
Hera, until it was to be born. Then Zeus gave Dionysus to Hermes, who would carry him to the nymphs of Nysa, a place where the finest of
grapes would eventually grow. Dionysus grew into a young man who loved trabel and adventure. He wandered all over Earth, teaching
humans how to turn the juice of grapes into an intoxicating beverage called wine. He once sailed wigh a band of sailors, who took Dionysus for
a son of a king rather than a god, and captured him, thinking they could be given riches. They captured him but no ropes or leather
would hold him, and all bonds that the kidnappers tried to use, fell apart once they touched Dionysus body. One sailor soon realized they
were not dealing with a mortal and warned the others to let him go, but they did not listen. Soon, the ship would not move, no matter how
much wind filled the sails, wine rained from the heavens, and grape vines grew from the wooden planks of the ship and wound themselves
around the masts and sails. The sailors then tried to free their captive, but Dionysus had turned himsself in a lion and roared so
fierce, they all jumped overboard. When they hit the water, they turned into dolphins, but only one was saved--the sailor who had tried to
get his peers to free Dionysus. He was carried to shore and allowed to go home to his family. Dionysus then grew older and longed for his
mother that he had never seen. He traveled to the underworld and brought her back, but because she was a mortal, he feared she would die
again, so he took her to Olympus, where the gods allowed her to stay. She was the only mortal to live along the immortals forever.
Dionysus was always considered a god with a double nature: kind and helpful but sometimes cruel and destructive. He is also connected
with death and resurection, whether by the fact of the rescue of him as a baby by his fathe, Zeus, or him bringing his mother back from the
underworld. Dionysus was also worshiped as a promise of immortality in a better way than a ghostly existence in Hades. The "happier-life-after-death"
religion was not believed by the Greeks, but we may suppose that there were similar non-christian ideas about the immortality of the soul.
Hades
Hades (called Pluto by the Romans) was the ruler of the underworld. When the lots were drawn to determine who would rule
the parts of the universe, Hades was the least lucky. He got what no one else wanted: the land of the dead. Hades did little to improve the underworld, though.
he built a great palace of black stone, which was surrounded by fields called Erebus. No flowers, birds or plants were in these field, but the souls who
lived in Hades often heard the fluttering of wings, which they shuddered at. Hade's companions in his world were the Erinyes, Charon, and the three-headed dog Cereberus.
The Erinyes were huge monsters with large wings like metal whips, used to kill humans who displeased them, smaky hair, red eyes, and yellow teeth. Charon rowed the ferry
that transferred those who had died from the land of the living to the underworld. Since Charon required payment for his service, the greek often buried their dead with
a coin under their tounge. Dead sould who could not pay, stayed on the other side of the river, a kind of no-mans land. Cererbus guarded the way into Hades, and he would
attack any living thing who attemped to enter the underworld. Hades was not much appriciated by the gods, but the other gods could not forbud him to visit Olympus occasionally.
but when hades did visit Olympus, he was not welcome.
Hestia
Hestia (called Vesta by the Romans) was the
goddess of home and hearth. She was Zeus’s sister and a virgin goddess. There
are not many stories on Hestia, as the goddess of the home was too sacred to be
gossiped about, but there are ancient customs worshipping Hestia. One custom,
which still exists today in some Greek villages, is to carry a newborn child
around the home fire before receiving it into the family. Another was for a
Greek city to establish a community hearth and fire with an eternal flame
which was never allowed to go out, and when a new city or village was founded,
smoldering coal was carried from the colonists’ old home to their new to start
a fresh fire.
Pan
Pan, although not allowed to Mt. Olympus and did
die, proving he was mortal in some sense , was considered a god. His father was
Hermes but his mother is unknown. Pan was born half-human and half-goat. He
lived with the animals he resembled and his playmates were the nymphs on the
countryside. When Pan died, Hermes informed the winds that he did not want his
son’s death to go unnoticed. The winds told Thamus, a sailor on a ship bound
for Italy, that when he reached port to “…take care to proclaim that the great
god Pan is dead…” Thamus did what the winds told him, and many lamented Pan’s death,
while friends of Pan refused to believe the sotry. Pan was more real to the
people who lived in the countryside than many of the great gods of Olympus.
Hephaestus
Hephaestus (called Vulcan by the Romans) was the
blacksmith god and forger of weapons. Hephaestus was ugly and deformed when at
birth, and Hera, expecting a glorious child, threw him off Olympus. Hephaestus hurled
through space for a night and a day and hit the ground by the ocean. He was an immortal
infant, though, so was severly injured but not killed. Thetis, a kind water nymph, took
him and kept him in her grotto. He amused himself by playing with shells, stones, and pebbles,
and when he grew older, he made these objects into beautiful jewelry. One day Hephaestus's
adoptive mother showed Hera a beautiful brooch he had made. Hera figured this was the son she
had disowned, so she demanded Thetis to send him back to Olympus. But Hera still did not want
him nearby, but did want his jewels, so she found him a mountain with a large hole in the center.
She placed Hephaestus there along with some forges and bellows to perfect his craft. Zeus, who we
are not sure whether he knew Hephaestus was his son or not, respected him when he saw the strong
and useful weapons he produced. Hephaestus was kind and an artistically gifted god, who loved his
cruel mother and faithless wife both. Sculptures of Hephaestus show him as deformed, usually with
one leg shorter than the other, but his face often looks kind.
Hermes
Hermes (called Mercury by the Romans) was the god of gamblers and theives,
but also the protector of commerce and the guardian of travelers. Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maria,
the daughter of Atlas and Titan. Hermes was gifted with a special lightness. Wings were placed on his feet and
his helmet and could easily fly anywhere in the universe. Hermes was very likable, amusing, and talented. Zeus wanted to keep
him on Mt. Olympus some of the time, even while hiding Hermes from Hera. Hermes was made the messenger
of Zeus by his father himself to make sure Hera did not get suspicious. Hermes also served as a messenger
of Hades after Hades threatened to tell Hera the truth about him. Hermes invented the alphabet, astronomy, and the
scales. He also made many card games and became an expert cheat, hence what he was named god of. Hermes
was a favorite of sculpture and painting because of his beauty and picturesque attire.
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