Q1-GREEK-MYTH-NOTES.docx

**PART ONE: The Gods, The Creation, and the Earliest Heroes** **The Gods** *Strange clouded fragments of an ancient glory,* *Late lingerers of the company divine,* *They breathe of that far world wherefrom they come,* *Lost halls of heaven and Olympian ail:* The Greeks did not believe that the...

**PART ONE: The Gods, The Creation, and the Earliest Heroes** **The Gods** *Strange clouded fragments of an ancient glory,* *Late lingerers of the company divine,* *They breathe of that far world wherefrom they come,* *Lost halls of heaven and Olympian ail:* The Greeks did not believe that the gods created the universe. It was the other way about: the universe created the gods. Before there were gods' heaven and earth had been formed. They were the first parents. The Titans were their children, and the gods were their grandchildren. **Gaia (Earth Goddess)** without male assistance, gave birth to **Uranus (the Sky)**, who then fertilized her. From that union, the first Titans were born. Six Males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus Six Females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, Tethys Uranus was dethroned by his youngest son **Cronus** and became the world's first king ruling over his siblings and his fellow Titans. He marries his sister **Rhea** and was eventually overthrown by his son **Zeus**. **THE TITANS AND THE TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS** The Titans, often called the Elder Gods, were for untold ages supreme in the universe. They were of enormous size and of incredible strength. There were many of them, but only a few appear in the stories of mythology. The most important was CRONUS, in Latin SATURN. He ruled over the other Titans until his son Zeus dethroned him and seized the power for himself. The Romans said that when Jupiter, their name for Zeus, ascended the throne, Saturn fled to Italy and brought in the Golden Age, a time of perfect peace and happiness, which lasted as long as he reigned. The other notable Titans were OCEAN, the river that was supposed to encircle the earth; his wife TETHYS; HYPERION, the father of the sun, the moon and the dawn; MNEMOSYNE, which means Memory; THEMIS, usually translated by Justice; and IAPETUS, important because of his sons, ATLAS, who bore the world on his shoulders, and PROMETHEUS, who was the savior of mankind. These alone among the older gods were not banished with the crowning of Zeus, but they took a lower place. The twelve great Olympians were supreme among the gods who succeeded to the Titans. They were called the Olympians because Olympus was their home. What Olympus was, however, is not easy to say. There is no doubt that at first it was held to be a mountain top, and generally identified with Greece\'s highest mountain, Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, in the northeast of Greece. But even in the earliest Greek poem, the *Iliad,* this idea is beginning to give way to the idea of an Olympus in some mysterious region far above all the mountains of the earth. In one passage of the *Iliad,* Zeus talks to the gods from \"the topmost peak of many-ridged Olympus,\" clearly a mountain. But only a little further on he says that if he willed, he could hang earth and sea from a pinnacle of Olympus, clearly no longer a mountain. Even so, it is not heaven. Homer makes Poseidon say that he rules the sea, Hades the dead, Zeus the heavens, but Olympus is common to all three. Wherever it was, the entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by the Seasons. Within were the gods\' dwellings, where they lived and slept and feasted on ambrosia and nectar and listened to Apollo\'s lyre. It was an abode of perfect blessedness. No wind, Homer says, ever shakes the untroubled peace of Olympus; no rain ever falls there or snow; but the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white glory of sunshine is diffused upon its walls. **[The twelve Olympians made up a divine family: ]** **ZEUS (JUPITER)** Zeus and his brothers drew lots for their share of the universe. The sea fell to Poseidon, and the underworld to Hades. Zeus became the supreme ruler. He was Lord of the Sky, the Rain-god and the Cloud-gatherer, who wielded the awful thunderbolt. His power was greater than that of all the other divinities together. **HERA (JUNO)** She was Zeus\'s wife and sister. The Titans Ocean and Tethys brought her up. She was the protector of marriage, and married women were her peculiar care. **POSEIDON (NEPTUNE)** He was the ruler of the sea, Zeus\'s brother and second only to him in eminence. The Greeks on both sides of the Aegean were seamen and the God of the Sea was all important to them. His wife was Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titan, Ocean. Poseidon had a splendid palace beneath the sea, but he was oftener to be found in Olympus. **HADES (PLUTO)** He was the third brother among the Olympians, who drew for his share the underworld and the rule over the dead. He was also called Pluto, the God of Wealth, of the precious metals hidden in the earth. The Romans as well as the Greeks called him by this name, but often they translated it into Dis, the Latin word for rich. He had a far-famed cap or helmet which made whoever wore it invisible. It was rare that he left his dark realm to visit Olympus or the earth, nor was he urged to do so. He was not a welcome visitor. He was unpitying, inexorable, but just; a terrible, not an evil god. **PALLAS ATHENA (MINERVA)** She was the daughter of Zeus alone. No mother bore her. Full-grown and in full armor, she sprang from his head. In the earliest account of her, the Iliad, she is a fierce and ruthless battle-goddess, but elsewhere she is warlike only to defend the State and the home from outside enemies. She was pre-eminently the Goddess of the City, the protector of civilized life, of handicrafts and agriculture: the inventor of the bridle, who first tamed horses for men to use. She was Zeus\'s favorite child. He trusted her to carry the awful aegis, his buckler, and his devastating weapon, the thunderbolt. **PHOEBUS APOLLO** The son of Zeus and Leto (Latona), born in the little island of Delos. He has been called \"the most Greek of all the gods.\" He is a beautiful figure in Greek poetry, the master musician who delights Olympus as he plays on his golden lyre; the lord too of the silver bow, the Archer-god, far-shooting; the Healer, as well, who first taught men the healing art. Even more than of these good and lovely endowments, he is the God of Light, in whom is no darkness at all, and so he is the God of Truth. No false word ever falls from his lips. **ARTEMIS (DIANA)** Also called Cynthia, from her birthplace, Mount Cynthus in Delos. Apollo\'s twin sister, daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was one of the three maiden goddesses of Olympus:--- (Artemis, Athena, and Hestia) **APHRODITE (VENUS)** The Goddess of Love and Beauty, who beguiled all, gods and men alike; the laughter loving goddess, who laughed sweetly or mockingly at those her wiles had conquered; the irresistible goddess who stole away even the wits of the wise. She is the daughter of Zeus and Dione in the Iliad, but in the later poems she is said to have sprung from the foam of the sea, and her name was explained as meaning \"the foam risen.\" Aphros is foam in Greek. This sea-birth took place near Cythera, from where she was wafted to Cyprus. **HERMES (MERCURY)** Zeus was his father and Maia, daughter of Atlas, his mother. Because of a very popular statue his appearance is more familiar to us than that of any other god. He was graceful and swift of motion. On his feet were winged sandals; wings were on his low-crowned hat, too, and on his magic wand, the Caduceus. He was Zeus\'s Messenger, who \"flies as fleet as thought to do his bidding.\" Of all the gods he was the shrewdest and most cunning; in fact, he was the Master Thief, who started upon his career before he was a day old. **ARES (MARS)** The God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, both of whom, Homer says, detested him. Indeed, he is hateful throughout the Iliad, poem of war though it is. Occasionally the heroes \"rejoice in the delight of Ares\' battle,\" but far oftener in having escaped the fury of the ruthless god.\" Homer calls him murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals; and, strangely, a coward, too, who bellows with pain and runs away when he is wounded. Yet he has a train of attendants on the battlefield which should inspire anyone with confidence. His Sister is there, Eris, which means Discord, and Strife, her son. The Goddess of War, Enyo,------in Latin Bellona,---waIks beside him, and with her are Terror and Trembling. and Panic. As they move, the voice of groaning arises behind them and the earth streams with blood. (magnificent in shining armor) **HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN AND MULIBER)** The God of Fire, sometimes said to be the son of Zeus and Hera, sometimes of Hera alone, who bore him in retaliation for Zeus\'s having brought forth Athena. Among the perfectly beautiful immortals he only was ugly. He was lame as well. In one place in the Iliad he says that his shameless mother, when she saw that he was born deformed, cast him out of heaven; in another place he declares that Zeus did this, angry with him for trying to defend Hera. **HESTIA (VESTA**) She was Zeus\'s sister, and like Athena and Artemis a virgin goddess. She has no distinct personality and she plays no part in the myths. She was the Goddess of the Hearth, the symbol of the home, around which the newborn child must be carried before it could be received into the family. Every meal began and ended with an offering to her. **[THE LESSER GODS OF OLYMPUS]** The most important of them was the **God of Love, EROS (Cupid in Latin)**. Homer knows nothing of him, but to Hesiod he is Fairest of the deathless gods. In the early accounts Eros was not Aphrodite\'s son, but merely her occasional companion. In the later poets he was her son and almost invariably a mischievous, naughty boy, or worse. He was often represented as blindfolded because love is often blind. In attendance upon him was **ANTEROS**, said sometimes to be the avenger of slighted love, sometimes the one who opposes love; also, **HIMEROS** or Longing, and **HYMEN**, the God of the Wedding Feast. **HEBE** was the Goddess of Youth, the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Sometimes she appears as cupbearer to the gods; sometimes that office IS held by Ganymede, a beautiful young Trojan prince who was seized and carried up to Olympus by Zeus\'s eagle. There are no stories about Hebe except that of her marriage to Hercules. **IRIS** was the Goddess of the Rainbow and a messenger of the gods, in the Iliad the only messenger. Hermes appears first in that capacity In the Odyssey, but he does not take Iris\' place. Now the one, now the other is called upon by the gods. There were also in Olympus two bands of lovely sisters, the **Muses** and the **Graces**. **THE GRACES** were three: Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer). They were the daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, a child of the Titan, Ocean. Except in a story Homer and Hesiod tell, that Aglaia married Hephaestus, they are not treated as separate personalities, but always together, a triple incarnation of grace and beauty. The gods delighted in them when they danced enchantingly to Apollo\'s lyre, and the man they visited was happy. They \"give life its bloom.\" Together with their companions, the Muses, they were \"queens of song,\" and no banquet without them could please. **THE MUSES** were nine in number, the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, Memory. At first, like the Graces, they were not distinguished from each other. \"They are all,\" Hesiod says, \"of one mind, their hearts are set upon song and their spirit is free from care. He is happy whom the Muses love. For though a man has sorrow and grief in his soul, yet when the servant of the Muses sings, at once he forgets his dark thoughts and remembers not his troubles. Such is the holy gift of the Muses to men.\" **[THE GODS OF THE WATERS]** POSEIDON (Neptune), was the Lord and Ruler of the Sea (the Mediterranean) and the Friendly Sea (the Euxine, now the Black Sea). Underground rivers, too, were his. OCEAN, a Titan, was Lord of the river Ocean, a great river encircling the earth. His wife, also a Titan, was Tethys. The Oceanids, the nymphs of this great river, were their daughters. The gods of all the rivers on earth were their sons. PONTUS, which means the Deep Sea, was a son of Mother Earth and the father of NEREUS, a sea-god far more Important than he himself was. NEREUS was called the Old Man of the Sea (the Mediterranean) \--\"A trusty god and gentle,\" Hesiod says, \"who thinks just and kindly thoughts and never lies.\" His wife was Doris a daughter of Ocean. They had fifty lovely daughters, the nymphs of the Sea, called NEREIDS NEREIDS from their father\'s name, one of whom, THETIS, was the mother of Achilles. Poseidon\'s wife, AMPHITRITE, was another. TRITON was the trumpeter of the Sea. His trumpet was a great shell. He was the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.. PROTEUS was sometimes said to be Poseidon\'s son, sometimes his attendant. He had the power both of foretelling the future and of changing his shape at will. THE NAIADS were also water nymphs. They dwelt in brooks and springs and fountains. LEUCOTHEA and her son PALAEMON, once mortals, became divinities of the sea, as did also GLAUCUS, but all three were unimportant. **[THE UNDERWORLD]** The kingdom of the dead was ruled by one of the twelve great Olympians, Hades or Pluto, and his Queen, Persephone. It is often called by his name, Hades. It lies, the Iliad says, beneath the secret places of the earth. In the Odyssey, the way to it leads over the edge of the world across Ocean. In later poets there are various entrances to it from the earth through caverns and beside deep lakes. Tartarus and Erebus are sometimes two divisions of the underworld, Tartarus the deeper of the two, the prison of the Sons of Earth; Erebus where the dead pass as soon as they die. Often, however, there is no distinction between the two, and either is used, especially Tartarus, as a name for the entire lower region. In Homer the underworld is vague, a shadowy place inhabited by shadows. Nothing is real there. The ghosts\' existence, if it can be called that, is like a miserable dream. On guard before the gate sits CERBERUS, the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog, who permits all spirits to enter, but none to return. On his arrival each one is brought before three judges, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus, who pass sentence and send the wicked to everlasting torment and the good to a place of blessedness called the Elysian Fields. Three other rivers, besides Acheron and Cocytus, separate the underworld from the world above: Phlegethon, the river of fire; Styx, the river of the unbreakable oath by which the gods swear; and Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. THE ERINYES (the FURIES) are placed by Virgil in the underworld, where they punish evildoers. The Greek poets thought of them chiefly as pursuing sinners on the earth. They were inexorable, but just. Heraclitus says, \"Not even the sun will transgress his orbit but the Erinyes, the ministers of justice, overtake him.\" They were usually represented as three: Tisiphone, Megaera and Alecto. SLEEP, and DEATH, his brother, dwelt in the lower world. Dreams too ascended from there to men. They passed through two gates, one of horn through which true dreams went, one of ivory for false dreams. **[THE LESSER GODS OF EARTH]** Earth herself was called the All-Mother, but she was not really a divinity. She was never separated from the actual earth and personified. The Goddess of the Com, DEMETER (CERES), a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and the God of the Vine, DIONYSUS, also called BACCHUS, were the supreme deities of the earth and of great importance in Greek and Roman mythology. PAN was the chief. He was Hermes\' son; a noisy, merry god, the Homeric Hymn in his honor calls him; but he was part animal too, with a goat\'s horns, and goat\'s hoofs instead of feet. SILENUS was sometimes said to be Pan\'s son; sometimes his brother, a son of Hermes. He was a jovial fat old man who usually rode an ass because he was too drunk to walk. Besides these gods of the earth there was a very famous and very popular pair of brothers, CASTOR and POLLUX (Polydeuces), who in most of the accounts were said to live half of their time on earth and half in heaven. They were the sons of LEDA, and are usually represented as being gods, the special protectors of sailors, Saviors of swift-going ships when the storm winds rage Over the ruthless sea. THE SATYRS, like Pan, were goat-men, and like him they had their home in the wild places of the earth. AEOLUS, King of the Winds, also lived on the earth. An island, Aeolia, was his home. Accurately he was only regent of the Winds, Viceroy of the gods. The four chief Winds were BOREAS, the North Wind, in Latin AQUILO; ZEPHYR the West Wind, which had a second Latin name, FAVONIUS; NOTUS, the South Wind, also called in Latin AUSTER; and the East Wind, EURUS, the same in both Greek and Latin. There were some beings, neither human nor divine who had their home on the earth. Prominent among them were:--- THE CENTAURS. They were half man, half horse, and for THE GORGONS were also earth-dwellers. There were three, and two of them were immortal. They were dragon like creatures with wings, whose look turned men to stone. Phorcys, son of the Sea and the Earth, was their father. THE GRAIAE were their sisters, three gray women who had but one eye between them. They lived on the farther bank of Ocean. THE SIRENS lived on an island in the Sea. They had enchanting voices and their singing lured sailors to their death. It was not known what they looked like, for no one who saw them ever returned. Very important but assigned to no abode whether in heaven or on the earth were THE FATES, Moirae in Greek, Parcae in Latin, who, Hesiod says, give to men at birth evil and good to have. They were three, Clotho, the Spinner, who spun the thread of life; Lachesis, the Disposer of Lots, who assigned to each man his destiny; Atropos, she who could not be turned, who carried \"the abhorred shears\" and cut the thread at death. **The Earliest Heroes** Prometheus and Io, Europa, The Cyclops Polyphemus, Flower-Myths: Narcissus, Hyacinth, Adonis **The Great Heroes before the Trojan War** Perseus, Theseus, Hercules, Atalanta **The Heroes of the Trojan War** Achilles, Odysseus, Nestor, and Ajax Reference from: **Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes by Edith Hamilton** **Compiled by:**