INTRODUCTION

Mythology is a branch of study dealing with gods and goddesses of the

ancient people. It records how man worshipped his own supreme being, bow be
honored and made sacrifices to please them. It allows us to comprehend how man
views the supernatural forces existing in this world. This discipline enables the
learners and the mentors to discover the values and virtues prevailing in other
cultures, their beliefs, their customs, and ways of viewing the world. Thru scrutiny, we
become acquainted with the different perceptions and ideas about things beyond the
spectrum of mortal life.

Somehow, Mythology can answer the riddles of life, but by being influenced
ourselves by this improbable subject, we may probably corrode our mind to some
measure. Nonetheless, leaving behind the query and opposition of amazement, it
would definitely sharpen our minds.

Mythology does not contradict any religious practices. Rather, it elevates the
tradition and life of the people into a higher moral, spiritual and intellectual plane.
Perplexing writers of mythology possess academic excellence, and their work
continues to influence literature.

In this modern era of mechanization and computerization, mythology is

rhetorically impressive but hardly conceivable, especially, when reality is checked
against what has been written. In the end, whether we believe it as a true or shrug it
off as a mere symbols, what really matters most is our reaction. Perhaps we need
mythology more than it needs readers.

Those of us committed to the study of the English language and Literature

need to produce a module on mythology for the inquisitive learners. This will serve as
guide in our great journey to a world of admiration, love, adventure, power, and
supremacy. It will provide us the means in our quest for the truth and the Golden
Fleece. Through winds, which favor us, "we will be carried away to the land of Argos
for our search of wisdom in no time. Odysseus will give us insights into his cunning
mind of wisdom to think critically and logically. The author, in some respects, helps
the learners who are taking this subject. Learners will not wander and get lost in the
land of Calypso nor will be tricked by Circe in finding references for it is now available
within their reach. The unbillable effort exerted by the author on this module was
inspired by his loved one and by persistent learners to make the knowledge of
Mythology more accessible to them.

This includes the Mythology of the Romans, the artistry and beauty of the
Greeks, ancient Egyptians, the untold Norsemen and Filipinos.

Furthermore, even as we get closer to the subjects of this study, we should

not forget that God created the world and that man a masterpiece of divine artistry.
Regardless of color, creed, race, and religion, all of us will meet in the same ground
of Heaven and realize that there is the one and only God.
THE MEANING OF MYI'HOLOGY

A Myth is a kind of a story, usually having one or more of the following four
(4) characteristics: first, Myths tend to be stories about gods and supernatural
beings, who have powers and abilities greater than those of humans; second, myths
usually tell about events set in a very distant past, often in the period before man first
lived on earth; third, myths are frequently origin stories, explaining how the world or
particular things in the world first came to be or how human customs and ways of life
were first established; fourth, myths are stories that were probably regarded as true
and perhaps sacred by their original tellers.

Mythology is a body of myths, especially, those relating to gods and heroes

and to their origins or those connected to a certain subject. The term mythology is
used in two (2) ways. It, sometimes, is used to refer to a group or related myths.

Myth is a story that narrates, in an imaginative and symbolic manner, the total
and basic structure upon which a culture rests. An old traditional story or legend,
especially one concerning fabulous or supernatural beings, giving expression to the
early beliefs, aspirations and perception of a people and often serving to explain
natural phenomena or the origins of a people, etc.

The term myth has usually a more specialized meaning and refers to
stories in which gods, goddesses, and other pagan divinities play a part. It is a
story that explains primitive man's idea of the origin of the universe, the mysteries of
natural phenomena. The purpose of the myth is to explain matters in the science of a
prescientific age. A myth remains a myth as long as the divinity of its actors is
recognized. It is associated with religious rites and beliefs.

The richest known mythology is that of the ancient Greeks. It is inspired

their own poets, then those of Rome, and later all whom Roman cultured
reached. Its influence is to be seen in much of the finest literature, sculpture,
and painting produced in Europe and America. The earliest sources of Greek
mythical tales are the works of the poets Homer and Hesiod. Greek myths were
adapted by the Romans, who originated almost no mythology of their own except a
few tales about early Rome and events that led toward its founding. However, the
Romans were important in preserving the Greek mythological heritage and
transmitting it to later European civilizations.

Second to Greek and Roman Mythology in its appeal to later centuries is the
Norse and Teutonic mythology. The Norsemen including all Scandinavians, and the
Teutons, or Old Germans, were descended from Indo-Europeans, as were the
Greeks, and there are striking similarities in their myths. The Norse myths, long
transmitted by words of mouth, were not written down until the 13 th century.

Other significant and intricate mythologies include those of the ancient

Egyptians, the Babylonians, and the Hindus. However, their mythologies did not
influence European culture as much as those of the Greeks or the Norsemen.
A. EVOLUTION OF MYTHS
The evolution of myth and religion differ from people to people. An ancient
Greek writer, Euhemerus (300 B.C.) believed that the ancient gods were patterned
after heroes who actually lived at one time.

A second theory was made by philologists or people who study the growth of
language. This study claims that man repeating things their ancestors said,
understood them in a different sense and because of that, misunderstanding created
myths.
The third theory was made by anthropologists or people who study the history
of the human race. They tried to explain the cause of natural phenomenon.

The fourth theory according to French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, explained

that myths came from society as a whole. He believed that tribal festivities that they
thought that a great power came to them fron1 an object in their camp. This object
became a sacred emblem to the tribe.

B. TYPES OF MYTHS
There are many kinds of myths. However, most of them can be classified as:
1. The Nature Myths
2. The Semi-Historical Myths
3. The Myths of explanation
4. The Creation 11yths
5. The Myths of about the World of the Dead
6. The Myths of Renewal and Rebirth

1. THE NATURE MYTHS:

A large number of myths are about nature. Before people were able to explain
natural phenomena scientifically, they needed a way to account for the destruction
and benefits that the forces of nature can cause. There are, of course, no records of
this early period, but it is easy to understand how simple people started to believe in
mighty powers that controlled these forces and through them expressed anger or
goodwill. Once such powers were believed in, it would be natural for people to seek
the goodwill of the powers with prayers and offerings. Such thoughts may have been
the origin of a conviction that the forces of nature and the vents in human lives were
controlled by supernatural beings.

This belief seems to have existed among the Indo-Europeans, who were
ancestors of the Hindus, the Greeks, the Romans, and most of the other people of
Europe. All of them honored a god of the sky, and the names given this god in
Sanskrit, an old Hindu language, in Greek, and in Latin all mean "shining father." For
the Greeks and Romans this divinity was the king of all the gods. Those who won bis
favor, he was a generous benefactor, but he could also send destruction by torrents
of rain and fiery lightning.

2. THE SEMI-HISTORICAL MYTHS:

Myths that have some historical basis are called legends. Such myths had
their origin in historical events, but the facts were changed and exaggerated in the
course of time. Some myths about heroic men in the early periods of various nations
are believed to have arisen the names of famous kings or princes who had actually
lived. After death, their courage and achievements were magnified in songs and in
tales, often to the extent of including deeds humanly impossible.

Although there are no written records to prove it, recent archeological

discoveries support the ancient tradition that the scattered villages in the Greek land
of Attica were united under the supremacy of the city-state of Athens by a strong
ruler, probably before 1225 B.C. Another significant prehistoric political development
occurred when Athens stopped paying tribute to the widespread empire of the king of
the island of Crete. Both of these political accomplishments, the Athenians claimed,
were achieved by Theseus, and this claim may or may not be true.

3. THE MYTHS OF EXPLANATION:

Many myths were invented to explain customs and beliefs so old that their
origins were unknown. These myths are called "etiological," a word derived from the
Greek aitios, meaning "cause." For example, when the ancient Greeks sacrificed an
animal, the custom was to pour perfumed oil on the bones and other inedible parts,
which were then burned, so that vapors would rise from them to the gods in Heaven.
Then the meat was cooked and served to the people attending the sacrifice.

The origin of this practice as explained by a myth about Prometheus, who

stole fire from the gods and brought it to man. When Prometheus was appointed to
determine what part of a sacrifice should go to the gods and what should be left for
men, he sacrificed an ox and placed the parts of its body in two piles, one small and
the other very large. Then he asked Zeus to choose which should be for the gods.
Prometheus had made the large pile look attractively by covering it with fine slices of
meat, but underneath there were only bones and inedible parts, while the small pile
contained all the parts that were good to eat. As Prometheus had expected, Zeus
was tricked into choosing the larger pile.

Other etiological myths explain the origins of the constellations, plants,

animals, and other natural phenomena. One myth explains the creation of the
constellation Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, or the Great Bear and the Little Bear. It
happened that one day Zeus fell in love with a beautiful woman named Callisto, but
his jealous wife, Hera, transformed this rival into a bear. Years later, Callisto's infant
son had grown up to be a youth fond of the hunt. One day, while he was hunting, he
saw his mother in the form of a bear and was about to kill her, not knowing who she
was, when Zeus intervened. He turned Callisto and her son into two constellations,
which later became known as the Great Bear and the Little Bear.

4. THE CREATION MYTHS:

The creation or cosmogenic myth is usually the most important myth of
culture because it relates how tile entire world came into being. It presents not only
the beings revealed in the myth, but, also, the qualitative mode of creation becomes
a model for all other forms of creation in the culture.
Practically, in all mythologies, there are accounts of the creation of the world.
The Greek poet Hesiod, stated that first of all, space came into being. From it
emerged the generous Earth and Love, fairest of all immortal beings. After these
came forth Tartarus, a dark place underground, Darkness, and Night. Earth created
above herself the vault of the sky, which was to become an everlasting home for the
blessed gods. In her wide lap she formed high mountains and valleys, with wooded
glens for the nymphs, and around her land she spread U1e sparkling sea.

Then, in the heart of creation, Loue began to stir and to bring all living
creatures together in pairs. He united Darkness and Night, and from them sprang
brilliant Light and Day. Sky or Uranus became the husband of Earth. Their children
were 12 powerful immortals called Titans; 3 lightning-eyed Cyclopes, who produced
storms; and 3 other monsters, each with 100 arms that caused the roaring waves to
rise and shake the land. Uranus, in fear, thrust all these creatures back into Earth's
body. Angered and in pain, Earth called for aid. Her son, the Titan Cronus, wounded
his father Uranus, dethroned him, and established himself as ruler in Heaven.

Under Uranus, men had lived in caves and eaten only what grew naturally, but
Cronus taught them agriculture, and thus began the development toward civilization.
Cronus and his queen Rhea became the parents of the goddesses, Hestia, Demeter,
and Hera and of the gods Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Cronus, fearing that he would
be dethroned as his father had been, swallowed each child as soon as it was born.
However, after the birth of Zeus, Rhea substituted a stone wrapped in swaddling
clothes for the infant and had the stone carried to Cronus, who failed to notice the
deceit. Meanwhile, Zeus was reared secretly by his mother. Like most divinities,
Zeus quickly grew to maturity. He then dethroned his unjust father in order to
establish justice among gods and men.

The Norse myth of creation begins, like the Greek, with empty space. South of
it was a region of warmth and sunlight, and on the north was a region of cold and
mist from which flowed 12 rivers. The rivers gradually froze until space was filled with
ice. Theo a warm wind from the south melted tile ice, causing vapors to rise. From
the vapors issued the giant Ymir and his offspring and also the cow that nourished
them with its milk. The cow licked the ice until there emerged from it a god of great
beauty, agility, and power, who married a daughter of the giant race. Their son
became the father of Odin, who was the Norse god corresponding Zeus. Like Zeus,
Odin had two brothers. These three slew Ymir and formed the earth from his body.
Out of it grew the enormous ash tree, Yggdrasill, which supported the whole
universe. Odin placed the sun and the moon in the sky, and as soon as the sun's
rays touched the earth, vegetation of all kinds began to grow. The gods were
pleased, but considered the world incomplete without human beings. From the wood
and an ash tree they made a man, and from that of an elm, a woman. Odin gave the
man and woman life and soul, one of his brothers gave them reason and motion, and
the other gave them the senses and speech.

5. MYTHS ABOUT THE WORLD OF THE DEAD:

A living hero's visit to the awesome world of the dead is the subject of the 11th
book of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. More than 700 years later the Roman poet
Virgil chose the same subject for the 6th book of his epic, the Aeneid. Both
Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, and Aeneas, the hero of the Aeneid, went to the
world of the dead to receive instruction from a wise spirit. However, both men also
learned something about the region and the souls that were there. Odysseus went
no farther than the entrance, and the souls came out to him. Aeneas, however, was
led by the wise Sibyl, or prophetess, through the entire realm.

Virgil's account is the more detailed and may be summarized as follows.

Under darkening trees and beside the whirling river Styx, souls were crowding, eager
to be ferried over by Charon, the boatman. Some be refused because they bad been
left unburied, and therefore were without the coin to pay him, which was regularly
placed in the dead person's mouth. The three-headed dog Cerberus barked to drive
them back. On the other side of the river ·was a wood through which wound many
paths. In the wood were all who bad died before their destined hour, including those
who had killed themselves and those who had been the victims of another's crime.
Beyond this the road divided. The pathway on the left led down, as Sibyl told
Aeneas, to Tartarus, where the wicked suffered for their sins. There be saw a gate
too strong even for gods to batter down, and from behind it came the terrifying sound
of sobs and groans, the cracking of whips, and the clank of iron. Taking the other
road, Aeneas came to fair Elysium, a spacious region of sunlit meadows, shady
groves, and gleaming rivers. There dwelt heroes who had fought to keep their
countries free, poets who had inspired their people, all who bad served others. What
they had enjoyed when living still occupied and absorbed them. Far beyond, in a
green valley, gathered the spirits who were ready again to enter mortal bodies and
live another life on earth.

6. MYTHS OF RENEWAL AND REBIRTH:

Modern societies conceive of time as a linear process moving always into a
new and infinite future. In primitive and traditional societies, time was understood and
experienced as a cyclical rhythm that, at various intervals, came to the end of a cycle
and began again.

The creation myth is a narrative that relates bow the gods, through the
eruption of great creative power, brought forth the world. At certain moments this
creative power is thought to run down or to become over weighted with the actions of
human and divine beings. It needs to be renewed. The renewal takes place at the
end of a cycle when the society as a whole reexperiences the original creative art.

C. VALUES OF MYTHS
1. There is a dramatic quality about myths that captures the imagination of the
poets and children.
2. Many English poems are filled with classical allusions from myths.
3. Subjects of sculpture and graphic arts are taken from the Greek and Roman
myths.
4. They furnish background for the great national epics of all countries.
5. They serve to explain the origin and meaning of many words in everyday use.
6. They serve as an aid in the understanding of art and literature.
7. They widen our knowledge about the physical world, the history and
civilization of the times in which the stories originated and about human
nature.
8. Myths give answers to questions often asked by children concerning the how,
when, why of the ways of animals, birds, insects, trees, flowers, and other
forces of nature.

INTRODUCTION TO GREEK MYTHOLOGY

The "Greek Mythology" refers to the myths and hero legends of the ancient
Greeks. Myths are stories about gods or other supernatural beings. They usually
explain the origin of the world and how human customs came to be. Myths are
typically set in the distant past, during the early history of the world, before or soon
after the appearance of the human beings. Hero legends are stories about
remarkable human beings. They were sent in the recent past, after the familiar world
had been formed, to recount the lives and adventure of remarkable men and women.

Greek mythology contains what the ancient Greeks accepted about the early
history of the world and humans lives. Although individual Greeks did not believe
every detail of eve1y story, nearly everyone thought that the myths and legends were
mainly true.

The civilization that eventually would be called Greece has had its origin some
4,000 years ago. About 2,000 B.C. there was a movement of people into the Greek
peninsula. They brought many of their own myths and legends with them, but, later,
they also becan1e acquainted with the mythologies of the people in neighboring
regions, including Crete, Egypt, and Phoenicia. All the ancient people borrowed
mytl1s and legends from one another, adding them to their own mythologies and
substituting the names of their own gods for the names of foreign gods.

THE GODS

A. THE TITANS:
The Titans were the 12 children of Uranus and Gaea, Heaven and Earth. The
Titans were often called the Elder Gods and were, for untold ages, supreme rulers of
the universe and were of enormous size and of incredible strength. The most
important was Cronus; he ruled over the other Titans until his son Zeus overthrown
him and seized the power for himself. Of all the Titans only Prometheus and
Oceanus sided with Zeus against Cronus. As a result, they were honored and the
others were bound in Tartarus. Eventually, however, Zeus was reconciled with the
Titans, and Cronus was made ruler of the Golden Age.

1. CRONUS (Saturn in Latin) - the most important Titan god. He ruled over the
other gods and goddesses. He was one of the 12 Titans and the youngest son
of Uranus and Gaea, the personifications of heaven and earth. The first sons
of his parents were the three Hecatonchires, the 100-banded, so-beaded
monsters whom Uranus had imprisoned in a secret place. Gaea sought to
rescue them and appealed for help from her other offspring, including the
Cyclopes. Cronus alone accepted the challenge. He attacked Uranus and
wounded him severely; Cronus thus became the ruler of the universe.

2. OCEANUS - the Titan god of Oceans, River that was supposed to encircle the
earth.
3. TETHYS - wife of Oceanus.
4. HYPERION - the father of the Sun, the Moon and the Dawn.
5. MNEMOSYNE - goddess of Memory and mother of the Muses.
6. THEMIS -goddess of Divine Justice.
7. IAPETUS -father of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus.
8. ATLAS -son Iapetus, who bore the world on bis shoulder.
9. PROMETHEUS - son of Iapetus, the savior of mankind who gave the first fire to
mankind.
10. EPIMETHEUS -brother of Atlas and Prometheus, and husband of Pandora.

PANDORA was first woman on earth, created by the god Hephaestus at the request
of the god Zeus. Zeus wished to counteract the blessing of fire, which had been
stolen from the gods by the Titan Prometheus and given to human beings. Endowed
by the gods with every attribute of beauty and goodness. Pandora was sent to
Epimetheus, who was happy to have her for his wife, although he had been warned
by his brother Prometheus ne\'er Lo accept anything from Zeus. To bestowing their
gifts on Pandora, the gods had given her a box, warning her never lo open it. Her
curiosity finally overcame her, however, and she opened the mysterious box, from
which flew innumerable plagues for the body and sorrows for the mind. In terror, she
tried to shut the box, bul only Hope, the one good thing among many evils the box
had contained, remained to comfort humanity in its misfortunes. To another legend,
U1e box contained blessings that would have been preserved if Pandora had not
allowed them to escape.

B. TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS:

The twelve (12) great Olympians were supreme among the gods who
succeeded the Titans. They were called the Olympians because Olympus was their
home. What Olyn1pus was, however is not easy to say. Whatever it was the
entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by the seasons. Inside Olympus were
the gods' dwellings, where they lived, slept, and feasted on ambrosia and nectar. It
was an abode of perfect blessedness. No rain ever fell there nor did snow; but the
cloudless firmament stretches on all sides and the white glory of sunshine is diffused
upon its walls. The twelve (12) Olyn1pians made up a divine family.

1. ZEUS (Jupiter) - the chief god; the supreme ruler god; lord of the sky; the
rain-god; the cloud-gatherer, who ruled the awful thunderbolt. His power was
greater than that of all the other divinities together. His breastplate was the Aegis,
awful to behold; his bird was the Eagle; his tree the Oak. His oracle was Dodona in
the land of the oak leaves, which the priests interpreted. Zeus was the youngest
son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea and the brother of the deities Poseidon,
Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. Zeus presided over the gods on Mount
Olympus in Thessaly. His principal shrines were at Dodona, in Epirus, the land of the
oak trees and the most ancient shrine, famous for its oracle, and at Olympia, where
the Olympic Games were celebrated in his honor every fourth year.

2. HERA (Juno) - she was Zeus' wife and sister. The Titans' Ocean and Tethys
brought her up. She was the Protector of Marriage, and married women were her
peculiar care. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her. Argos was her favorite
city.

3. POSEIDON (Neptune) - the ruler of the sea, brother of Zeus and second only
to him in eminence. His wife was Amphitrite, a granddaughter of Ocean. He had a
splendid palace beneath the sea, but he was more often found in Olympus. He
introduced horse to man. He was commonly called "Earth-shaker" and was always
shown carrying Trident, a three-pronged spear, with which he would shake and
shatter whatever he pleased.

4. HADES (Pluto) - He was the third brother among the Olympians, He drew for
his share the underworld and the ruled over the dead. He was also called Pluto, the
god of wealth, of the precious metals hidden in the earth. He had a far-famed cap or
helmet, which made whoever wore it invisible. His wife was Persephone (Proserpine)
whom he carried away from the earth and made queen of the lower world. He was
the king of the dead-not death himself, whom the Greeks called Thanatos and the
Romans, Orcus.

5. PALLAS ATHENA (Minerva)- she was the daughter of Zeus alone. No

mother bore her. Full-grown and in full armor, she sprang from bis head. She was
pre-eminently the goddess of 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' favorite child. He trusted her to carry the awful aegis, bis buckler, and bis
devastating weapon, the thunderbolt of the three (3) virgin goddesses and was
called the Maiden, Parthenos, and her temple was called the Parthenon. She was
the goddess of wisdom, reason, and purity. Athens was her pet city; the Olive
created by her was her tree; the Owl her bird.

6. PHOEBUS APOLLO -the son of Zeus and Leto (Latona) and born in the little
island of Delos. He has been called "the most Greek of all god. He was the god of
light, music, poetry, healing, prophecy, and truth. The Laurel was his tree. Many
creatures were sacred to him, chief among which are the Dolphin and the Crow.

7. ARTEMIS (Diana) - also was called Cynthia from her birthplace, Mount
Cynthus in Delos. She was Apollo's twin sister, daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was
one of the three (3) virgin goddesses of Olympus. She was the lady of wild things,
huntsman-in-chief to the gods, an odd office for a woman. The Cypress was sacred
to her; and so were wild animals, especially the Deer.

8. APHRODITE (Venus) - the goddess of love and beauty, the laughter-loving

goddess, who laughed sweetly or mockingly at those her wiles, had conquered. She
is the daughter of Zeus and Dione in the Iliad. In the later poem, she is said to have
sprung from the foam of the sea, and her name was explained to mean ―foam of the
sea‖, or "the foam risen." Aphros is foam in Greek. She is married to Hephaestus,
but n1aintains a romantic relationship with Ares.

9. HERMES (Mercury) - son of Zeus and Maia, daughter of Atlas. On his feet
were winged sandals. Wings were on his low-crowned hat, too, and on bis magic
wand, the Caduceus. He was Zeus' messenger, who flies as fleetingly as though to
his bidding". He was the god of commerce, market, and protector of traders.

10. ARES (Mars) - the god of war, son of Zeus and Hera. His bird was the
Vulture. The Dog was wronged by being chosen as his animal.

11. HEPHAESTUS (Vulcan and Mulciber) - 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 having brought forth Athena. He was an ugly among perfect immortals. He was
the husband of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. He was a kindly, peace-
loving god, and the protector of the blacksmith.

12. HESTIA (Vesta) - she was Zeus' sister, and, like Athena and Artemis, a virgin
goddess. She was the goddess of hearth, the symbol of the Home. Vestal means
virgin.

C. THE LESSER GODS OF OLYMPUS

1. EROS (Cupid) - god of love and the deathless god of fairies. He is the son of
Aphrodite, a naughty god and is blindfolded because love is often blind.

2. HEBE - goddess of youth, daughter of Zeus and Hera. The cupbearers of the
gods, she was married to Heracles (Hercules).

3. IRIS - goddess of the rainbow, and, like Hermes, the messenger of the gods.
The daughter of the Titan Thaumas and Electra, daughter of the Titan Oceanus. As
messenger of the gods Zeus and Hera, Iris left Olympus only to convey the divine
commands to humankind, by whom she was regarded as an adviser and guide.
Traveling with the speed of the wind, she could go from one end of the earth to the
other, and to the bottom of the sea or to the depths of the underworld. Although she
was a sister of the winged monsters, the Harpies, Iris was represented as a beautiful
maiden, with wings and robes of bright colors and a halo of light on her bead, trailing
across the sky with a rainbow in her wake.
D. TWO BANDS OF LOVELY SISTERS OF OLYMPUS
1. THE GRACES — the three goddesses of joy, charm, and beauty. The
daughters of the god Zeus and the nymph Eurynome, they were named Aglaia
(Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer), The Graces presided over
banquets, dances, and all other pleasurable social events, and brought joy and
goodwill to both gods and mortals. They were the special attendants of the divinities
of love, Aphrodite and Eros, and together with companions, the Muses, they sang to
the gods on Mount Olympus, and danced to beautiful music that the god Apollo
made upon his lyre. In some legends Aglaia was wed to Hephaestus, the craftsman
among the gods. Their marriage explains the traditional association of the Graces
with the arts; like the Muses, they were believed to endow artists and poets with the
ability to create beautiful works of art. The Graces were rarely treated as individuals,
but always together as a kind of triple embodiment of grace and beauty. In art they
are usually represented as lithe young maidens, dancing in a circle.
1. Aglaia — the splendor
2. Euphrosyne — the mirth
3. Thalia — the good cheer

2. THE MUSES — Nine goddesses, daughters of the god Zeus, king of the gods,
and of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The Muses were believed to inspire all
artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. By late Roman times (3rd
century to 5th century), each muse was believed to preside over a particular art. The
Muses were said to be the companions of the Graces and of Apollo, the god of
music. They sat near the throne of Zeus and sang of his greatness and of the origin
of the world and its inhabitants and the glorious deeds of the great heroes. The
Muses were worshiped throughout ancient Greece, especially at Helicon in Boeotia
and at Pieria in Macedonia.
1. Clio — muse of history
2. Urania — muse of astronomy
3. Melpomene — muse of tragedy
4. Thalia — muse of comedy
5. Terpsichore — muse of the dance
6. Calliope — muse of epic poetry
7. Erato — muse of love-poetry
8. Polyhymnia — muse of the songs to the gods
9. Euterpe — muse of lyric-poetry

E. THE GODS OF THE WATERS

1. POSEIDON — god of the sea. He is usually portrayed holding a trident whenever
he goes.
2. OCEAN — is a Titan, the lord of the ocean, and husband of Tethys.
3. PONTUS — the primal deity embodying the waters. Pontus sprang from the
goddess Gaea, or Mother Earth and the father of Nereus, the deep sea.
4. NEREUS — old man of the sea, wife of Doris who is daughter of Ocean; they have
50 lovely daughters, the nymphs of the Sea, called Nereids from their father's
name, one of whom, Thetis, is the mother of Achilles. Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite,
is another.
5. TRITON — is the trumpeter of the sea. His trumpet is a great shell. He is the son
of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Human in form to the waist, but with the tail of a fish,
Triton blew loudly upon his large seashell to raise great storms and blew gently to
calm the waves.
6. PROTEUS — sometimes said to be Poseidon's son, he is also sometimes his
attendant. He has the power both of foretelling the future and of changing his
shape at will. He slept on the beach each day at noon, and it was then he could be
caught and made to tell the future. His captor would have to hold on him as he
took the form of dangerous beasts and monsters.
7. NAIADS — are water nymphs. They dwell in brooks, spring and fountains.

F. GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD

1. HADES- god of the underworld, god of the dead.
2. PERSEPHONE — queen of the underworld, wife of Hades (Pluto).
- Daughter of Demeter who is the goddess of earth.
+ The Erinyes (The Furies) - In most accounts the Erinyes are the daughters of
Gaea and Uranus; sometimes they are called the daughters of Night. They are the
pursuers of sinners on earth and they punish evildoers. They are pictures as winged
women with snakes' hair. There are three:
I. Tisiphone- the avenger of murder
2. Megaera- the jealous one
3. Alecto- unceasing in anger
+ Charon- the son of Night and of Erebus, who personified the darkness under the
earth through which dead souls, passed to reach the home of Hades, the god of
death. An aged boatman who ferries the souls of the dead across the water to the
farther bank of the River Styx. He receives into his boat only the souls of those upon
whose lips the passage money was placed when they died and who are duly buried
+ Cerberus- the three-headed dragon-tailed dog, which guards the adamantine gate
and permits all spirits to enter, but, none to

TWO DIVISIONS OF UNDERWORLD

1. Tartarus- the deeper between the two divisions of the underworld and the
prison of the sons of earth. According to Hesiod and Virgil, Tartarus is as far below
Hades as the earth is below the heavens and is closed in by iron gates. In some
accounts Zeus, the father of the gods, after leading the gods to victory over the
Titans, banished his father, Cronus, and the other Titans to Tartarus. The name
Tartarus was later employed sometimes as a synonym for Hades, or the underworld
in general, but more frequently for the place of damnation where the wicked were
punished after death. Such legendary sinners as Ixion, king of the Lapiths,
Sisyphus, king of Corinth, and Tantalus, a mortal son of Zeus, were placed in
Tartarus.

Three Famous Mortals to Punish in Tartarus

1. Ixion- King of the Lapiths, the first man to murder one of his kinspeople. He
killed his father-in-law to avoid giving him promised bridal gifts. After obtaining
purification from the god Zeus, Ixion ungratefully sought to seduce Hera, the
wife of Zeus. To foil Ixion, Zeus created a cloud in Hera's image; Ixion was
deceived and consequently sired the monstrous Centaurs. As punishment, Ixion
was bound to a wheel that revolved eternally in the underworld.
2. Sisyphus- King of Corinth, the son of Aeolus, king of Thessaly. Sisyphus saw
the god Zeus carry off the beautiful maiden Aegina and told her father what he
had witnessed. Enraged with Sisyphus, Zeus condemned him to Tartarus,
where he was compelled for eternity to roll to the top of a steep hill a stone that
always rolled down again.
3. Tantalus- king of Lydia and son of Zeus, ruler of the gods. Tantalus was
honored above all other mortals by the gods. He ate at their table on Olympus,
and once they even came to dine at his palace.
To test their omniscience, Tantalus killed his only son, Pelops, boiled him
in a cauldron, and served him at the banquet. The gods, however, realized the
nature of the food. They restored Pelops to life and devised a terrible
punishment for Tantalus. He was hung forever from a tree in Tartarus and
afflicted with tormenting thirst and hunger. Under him was a pool of water, but
when he stooped to drink, the pool would sink from sight. The tree above him
was laden with pears, apples, figs, ripe olives, and pomegranates, but when he
reached for them the wind blew the laden branches away. The word tantalize is
derived from this story.

2. Erebus- son of Chaos and husband of Nyx, meaning night. Their children were
Aether, the upper air, and Hemera, day. The name Erebus meaning, darkness, was
also given to the gloomy region through which the dead were thought to pass as
soon as they die before entering Tartarus, the deeper region of Hades.

THREE JUDGES OF THE UNDERWORLD

1. Rhadamantus - the son of Zeus and Europa and the brother of Minos, king of
Crete. According to Homer, Rhadamanthus dwelt in Elysium. Later legends report
that, respected for his judgment and probity, he was made one of the three judges of
the underworld.

2. Minos - legendary ruler of Crete (Kriti), Minos was the son of Zeus, father of the
gods, and of the princess Europa. From the city of Knossos (Knosös) he colonized
many of the Aegean islands, and he was widely considered a just ruler. In the most
famous story about Minos, he refused to sacrifice a certain bull. The god Poseidon
punished him by making his wife Pasiphaé fall in love with the animal, and she
subsequently gave birth to the Minotaur. According to Attic legend, Minos was a
tyrant who took harsh measures to avenge the death of his son Androgeos at the
hands of the Athenians. At stated intervals he exacted a tribute from Athens of seven
youths and seven maidens to be sacrificed to the Minotaur, Minos eventually met his
death in Sicily, and he then became one of the judges of the dead in the underworld.
"Ihe legends concerning Minos probably have a historical basis and reflect the age
when Crete was supreme in the Aegean region and certain cities of Greece were
subject to the kings of Knossos.

3. Aeacus - king of Aegina (now Aiyina). He was the son of the nymph Aegina, for
whom his island kingdom was named, and the god Zeus. Hera, queen of the gods,
angry with Zeus for his love of Aegina, sent a plague that destroyed most of the
Aeginetans. Aeacus prayed to his father to change a group of industrious ants into
human beings to people his deserted city. Zeus granted his wish, creating a race
called the Myrmidons. Aeacus ruled over his people with such justice that after his
death he became one of the three judges of the underworld. He was the father of
Peleus and the grandfather of Achilles.

+ Elysian Fields- a place of blessedness, where the good souls are sent after being
judge. a preHellenic paradise, a land of perfect peace and happiness. In the works of
Homer, Elysium was a land at the farthest and westernmost edge of the world to
which the great heroes were carried, body and soul, and made immortal. There they
were free to pursue their favorite activities, and worries and illness were unknown.
Soon, however, Elysium came to be regarded as the abode of the blessed dead,
where the souls of dead heroes, poets, priests, and others lived in perfect happiness,
surrounded by grass, trees, and gentle winds and enveloped in rose-tinted, perpetual
light.
FIVE RIVERS OF THE UNDERWORLD
1. Phlegethon — River of Fire. It flowed into Acheron, the river of woe.
2. Styx — River of the Unbreakable Oath. fie river of hate that wound five times
around the underworld.

3. Lethe — River of Forgetfulness or Oblivion.

4. Acheron- River of Woe. The souls of the dead had to cross it.
5. Cocytus- River of Lamentation

G. THE TWO GREAT GODS OF EARTH

1. DEMETER (CERES)- Goddess of the Corn, Goddess of Harvest and of
Wealth, daughter of Cronus and Rhea. When her daughter Persephone was
abducted by Hades, god of the underworld, Demeter's grief was so great that she
neglected the land; no plants grew, and famine devastated the earth. Dismayed at
this situation, Zeus, the ruler of the universe, demanded that his brother Hades
return Persephone to her mother. Hades agreed, but before he released the girl,
he made her eat some pomegranate seeds that would force her to return to him for
four months each year. In her joy at being reunited with her daughter, Demeter
caused the earth to bring forth bright spring flowers and abundant fruit and grain
for the harvest. However, her sorrow returned each fall when Persephone had to
go back to the underworld. The desolation of the winter season and the death of
vegetation were regarded as the yearly manifestation of Demeter's grief when her
daughter was taken from her. Demeter and Persephone were worshiped in the
rites of the Eleusinian mysteries. The cult spread from Sicily to Rome, where the
goddesses were worshiped as Ceres and Proserpine

2. DIONYSUS (BACCHUS)- God of the Vine and of Wine.

In Greek mythology, god of wine and vegetation, who showed mortals how to
cultivate grapevines and make wine. A son of Zeus, Dionysus is usually
characterized in one of two ways. As the god of vegetation- specifically of the fruit of
the trees- he is often represented on Attic vases with a drinking horn and vine
branches. He eventually became the popular Greek god of wine and cheer, and wine
miracles were reputedly performed at certain of his festivals. Dionysus is also
characterized as a deity whose mysteries inspired ecstatic, orgiastic worship. The
maenads, or bacchantes, were a group of female devotees who left their homes to
roam the wilderness in ecstatic devotion to Dionysus. enry wore fawn skins and were
believed to possess occult powers. Dionysus was good and gentle to those who
honored him, but he brought madness and destruction upon those who spurned him
or the orgiastic rituals of his cult.

According to tradition, Dionysus died each winter and was reborn in the spring.
To his followers, this cyclical revival, accompanied by the seasonal renewal of the
fruits of the earth, embodied the promise of the resurrection of the dead. The yearly
rites in honor of the resurrection of Dionysus gradually evolved into the structured
form of the Greek drama, and important festivals were held in honor of the god,
during which great dramatic competitions were conducted.
H. THE LESSER GODS ON EARTH
I. PAN- god of shepherds and flocks. He was believed to be responsible for their
fertility. Born in Arcadia, Pan was depicted with human arms and a human torso
but with the ears, horns, and legs of a goat. His father was the god Hermes and
his mother was either Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, or the nymph Callisto. Pan
was especially fond of remote mountains and caves and was believed to be
responsible for the sudden, inexplicable fear, or panic, that can overtake travelers
in such surroundings.
2. SILENUS — oldest of the satyrs, the son of Hermes, messenger of the gods,
or of Pan, a woodland god. The tutor of the young god Dionysus, Silenus often
accompanied him on his travels. The old satyr was usually drunk, and he could be
compelled, if caught in a drunken sleep, to prophesy the future. As a reward for his
hospitality to Silenus, Dionysus granted Midas, king of Phrygia, the golden touch. In
art Silenus is represented as a little old man in a state of jovial intoxication.
3. The SATYRS — like Pan, they are goat-men, and like him they have their
home in the wild places of the earth. Deities of the woods and mountains, with
horns and tails and sometimes with the legs of a goat. The satyrs were the
companions of Dionysus, god of wine, and spent their time pursuing nymphs,
drinking wine, dancing, and playing the syrinx, flute, or bagpipes.
4. AEOLUS — King of the Winds who also lived on the earth. He is only regent
of the Winds, viceroy of the gods. He was the keeper of the winds. He lived on
the floating island Aeolia with his six sons and six daughters. The god Zeus had
given him the power to still and arouse the winds. When the Greek hero Odysseus
visited Aeolus, he was welcomed as an honored guest. As a parting gift Aeolus gave
him a favoring wind and a leather bag filled with all the winds. Odysseus's sailors,
thinking the bag contained gold, opened it and were at once swept back to Aeolia.
There Aeolus refused to help them again.

THE FOUR CHIEF WINDS ARE:

a. Boreas (Aquilo in Latin)- the North Wind
b. Zephyr (Favonius)- the West Wind
c. Notus (Auster)- the South Wind
d. Eurus- the East Wind

5. The CENTAURS — they are half-man, half-horse, and for the most part
they are savage creatures, more like beasts than men.
6. The GORGONS — One of three monstrous daughters of the sea god
Phorcys and his wife, Ceto. They are also earthdwellers. There are three of
them, two of whom are immortals. The mortal is MEDUSA who was slain by
Perseus and the most famous among the three.
1. Stheno
2. Euryal
3. Medusa

7. The GRAIAE —They were the sisters of the Gorgons, were three gray-
haired old crones from birth. They possessed but a single tooth and a single eye
between them. They live on the further bank of Ocean.
8. The SIRENS — live on an island in the Sea. They have enchanting voices
and their singing lure sailors to their death.
9. The FATES- the three goddesses who determined human life and destiny.
Known as Moirai in Greek and Parcae in Intin, the Fates apportioned to each
person at birth a share of good and evil, although one might increase the evil by
one's own folly. Portrayed in art and poetry as stern old women or as somber
maidens, the goddesses were often thought of as weavers. The decisions of the
Fates could not be altered, even by the
1. Clotho- the Spinner, who spins the thread of life.
2. Lachesis - the Disposer of Ints, who assigns to each man his destiny.
3. Atropos- she who could not be turned, who carries "the abhorred shears" and
cut the thread at death.

I. OTHER DIVINITIES OF OLYMPUS

1. EOS- Goddess of the Dawn.
2. ENVO- Goddess of War and wife of Ares.
3. HECATE- Goddess of the Moon, the Netherworld and of Magic, and Goddess of
Crossways.
4. NIKE- Goddess of Victory. Daughter of the Titan Pallas and the river Styx. Nike
fought with the god Zeus in his battle against the Titans, and in Greek art is
sometimes represented as winged and carrying a wreath or palm of victory.
5. HYMEN- God of Marriage and the Wedding Feast.
7. PEITHO- Goddess of Persuasion.
8. POENA- Goddess of Punishment and attendant of Nemesis.
9. ATE- Goddess of Mischief and the author of all rash actions and their results. She
was the daughter of the god Zeus and Eris, goddess of strife. Zeus banished
her from heaven after she had tricked him into taking a thoughtless oath. She is
said to have been responsible for the bitter quarrel between the Greek heroes
Agamemnon and Achilles during the Trojan War.
10. HYGES- Goddess of Health.
11. HYPNUS-God of Sleep.
12. NEMESIS- Goddess of Righteous Anger. She is the personification of divine
justice and the vengeance of the gods sometimes called the daughter of
Night. She represented the righteous anger of the gods against the proud and
haughty and against breakers of the law; she distributed good or bad fortune to all
mortals. No one could escape her power.
13. TYCHE- Goddess of Fortune.

THE LIFE OF ZEUS

ZEUS- son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and
Poseidon. Father of the gods and men, he successively married:
a. Metis (Council)
b. Themis (Law)
c. Hera (Lady)
 He has more than 115 mistresses, both mortal and immortal. He had over 140
offspring like the Graces, the Muses, the Seasons, and numerous Kings and
Queens, Heroes and Heroines, who are considered demi-deities.

 His divine children who ranked as Olympian divinities (except Persephone) are:
a. Apollo
b. Ares
c. Artemis
d. Athena
e. Dionysus
f. Hebe
g. Hephaestus
h. Hermes
 He was born in Mt. Dekte in Crete.
 He was reared in Mt. Lykaion in Arcadia.
 He dwells in Mt. Olympus in Thessaly.
 His oracle, the oldest oracle in Greece is in Dodona in Epirus.
 From 776 B.C. the Olympic games were held quadrinially in his honor in Olympia in
Elis.

A. ZEUS' WIVES AND THEIR OFFSPRINGS:

I. METIS — Goddess of Council, Prudence. She warned Zeus that if she bore
him a child it would become greater than him. Zeus swallowed her and later
Athena sprung from his head.
1. ATHENA — Goddess of Wisdom and of Battle. Daughter of Zeus alone
sprang from his head full grown and in full armor, She was the Goddess of the
City and Protectress of Civilized Life, Handicrafts, and Agriculture. The
favorite child of Zeus and one of the three virgin goddesses of Olympus
(Artemis and Hestia).

II. THEMIS — Goddess of Divine Justice or Rights and Law. The daughter of the
Titan Uranus and Gaia. Themis was one of the Titans and was the constant
companion of the god Zeus and sat beside him on Olympus. In ancient art she is
represented holding aloft a pair of scales on which she weighs the claims of
opposing parties.
2. ASTRAEA- Daughter of Zeus and Themis. During the golden age, these
star maiden, which is what her name means, lived on earth and blessed
mortals. After it ended she was placed among the stars as the constellation
VIRGO.
3. The HORAE- The three sisters who watch over the affairs of mortals;
they usher in the seasons of spring, summer and winter. Their names are: a.
Eirene (Peace)

b. Eunomia (Order)
c. Dike (Justice)
4. The FATES — Another three more daughters of Zeus and Themis, who
spin, measure out and cut the threads of our lives, apportioning both good
and bad things. They are:
a. Clotho
b. Lachesis
c. Atropos
III. HERA — Sister and wife of Zeus. Daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Queen of
the Gods. Goddess of Marriage.
5. ARES - God of War
6. HEBE — Goddess of Youth and the Cupbearer of the Gods, married of
Heracles.
7. HEPHAESTUS - God of Fire, Goldsmith of the Gods.
8. EILEITHYIA- Goddess of Childbirth (Evans, 1970)

B. ZEUS MISTRESSES AND THEIR OFFSPRINGS:

IV. DEMETER — Goddess of Corn, daughter of Cronus and Rhea and sister of
Zeus himself.
9. PERSEPHONE - Queen of the Underworld. Wife of Hades. Maiden of the
Goddess of Spring.
V. LETO — Daughter of the Titans Phoebe and Coeus. When Leto was about
to give birth to the twins, Zeus banished her because he feared the jealousy
of his wife Hera. All countries and islands were also afraid of Hera's wrath
and refused the desperate Leto a home where her children could be born.
Finally, in her wanderings, she set foot on a small island floating in the
Aegean Sea. The island, which was called Delos, was a rocky, barren place,
but when Leto reached it and asked for refuge, it welcomed her hospitably. At
that moment four great pillars rose from the bottom of the sea to hold
the island firmly moored forever after.
10. PHOEBUS APOLLO - God of the Truth and the God of Light. God of
Medicine, Arts, and Prophecy. The Archer-God and the Master Musician.

11. ARTEMIS- the twin sister of Apollo. Goddess of Hunting. Goddess of

Woods and Wild Creatures.
VI. MAIA- The eldest of the seven Pleiades, the children of Atlas and Pleione. A
lover of Zeus, ruler of the Olympian gods, Maia gave birth to Hermes. In
ancient Rome, she was often confused with the obscure cult deity Maia, from
whom the month name Maius (May) is derived.
12. HERMES- God of Commerce and the Market. Messenger of the Gods
and the Protector of Traders.

VII. DIONE- Daughter of the Titan Epimetheus.

13. APHRODITE- Goddess of Love and Beauty. Wife of Hephaestus.

VIII. DANAE - Daughter of King Acrisius, a King of Argos. Zeus came to her in
the tower where her father kept her locked up, in the form of a shower of
gold.
14. PERSEUS- The slayer of the Gorgon Medusa. Married to an Ethiopian
Princess Andromeda.

IX. ALCMENE— Daughter of Electryon, granddaughter of Perseus, and wife of

Amphitryon. Zeus disguised himself as Amphitryon and deceived her who
bore Heracles(Hercules).
15. HERACLES (Hercules) — The greatest hero of Greece. The strongest
man on earth and considered himself equal to the gods. He is known of
his 12 labors.

X. AEGINA — Daughter of Aesopus, the River-god and son of Ocean and

Tethys. The maiden of the island of Aegina after whom the island was named.
16. AEACUS — One of the judges of the underworld. King of Aegina and
his followers were the Myrmidons, an ants which from his intense
prayer, turn into men. He was Grandfather of Achilles.

XI. LEDA — Wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. She was loved by Zeus, who
came to her in the form of a swan. She was the mother of Castor, Pollux,
Helen and Clytemnestra.
17. HELEN— The most beautiful woman on earth. The heroine of Troy,
she was the cause of the Trojan War.
18. POLLUX- Brother of Helen, Clytemnestra and Castor. In some
stories, Castor and Pollux were sons of Zeus and were inseparable brothers
called "The GEMINI", the twins.

XII. SEMELE — A Theban Princess, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, who were
the King and Queen of Thebes. Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, realizing that
Semele had conceived a child by her husband, tricked Semele into asking to
see Zeus in his majesty. Bound by an oath, Zeus appeared before Semele in
all his divine glory. As she gazed at him, she was consumed by the lightning
bolts that radiated from him. Zeus was nevertheless able to rescue her unborn
child, Dionysus, from the ashes, and he hid the fetus in his thigh until it was
time for the child to be born. Later the young Dionysus rescued his mother
from the underworld and brought her to Olympus.
19. DIONYSUS - God of Wine and Vines.

XIII. IO — Daughter of the river god Inachus. The princess of Argos. She
was loved by the god Zeus, who changed her into a white heifer to protect
her from the jealousy of his wife, Hera. Suspecting that the animal was really
his mistress, Hera asked for the heifer as a gift and set the 100-eyed
monster Argus to guard it. Because the monster never slept with all his
eyes shut, I0 was unable to escape until Zeus sent his son, the messenger
god Hermes, to rescue her. Hermes managed to kill the monster after he had
put Argus's 100 eyes to sleep with a series of boring stories. Hera was
still angry, however, and next sent a gadfly to torment I0, who wandered over
the earth in misery. 10 finally swam across the sea that was later named for
her (the Ionian Sea) and at last reached Egypt. Here she was restored to her
original physical form.
20. EPAPHUS- The ancestor of Perseus and Hercules.

XIV. EUROPA — Daughter of King Agenor of Sidon — King of Tyre. The

great granddaughter of I0. One morning, when Europa was gathering
flowers by the seashore, the god Zeus saw her and fell in love with her.
Assuming the guise of a beautiful chestnut-colored bull, he appeared
before her and enticed her to climb onto his back. He then sped away with her
across the ocean to the island of Crete (Kriti).
21. MINOS} Judges of the dead
22. RHADAMANTHUS } in the underworld.
23. SARPEDON- Ancestors of Lycians. Grandson of Bellerophon and one
of the Trojan leaders in Trojan War.

XV. EURYNOME – Daughter of the Titan Ocean, she has three lovely
daughters from Zeus, the ―Graces.

24. AGLAIA- Splendor

25. EUPHROSYNE- Mirth
26. THALIA- Good Cheer

XVI. MNEMOSYNE- The Titan Goddess of Memory. She has 9 lovely

daughters from Zeus called the ―Muses. Mnemosyne was one of the
pre-Olympian Titans, who were the children of the god of the heavens,
Uranus, and the goddess of the earth, Gaea.

27. CLIO- Muse of History

28. URANIA- Muse of Astronomy
29. MELPOMENE- Muse of Tragedy
30. THALIA — Muse of Comedy
31. TERPSICHORE — Muse of the Dance
32. CALLIOPE - Muse of Epic-Poetry
33. ERATO - Muse of Inve-Poetry
34. POLYHYMNIA — Muse of songs to the Gods
35. EUTERPE — Muse of Lyric-Poetry/Music

XVII. ANTIOPE — A Princess of Thebes. In Greek mythologv, mother of the

twins Amphion and Zethus, whose father was Zeus. Antiope was imprisoned
by a tyrant, Lycus, and his wife, Dirce, and freed by her sons, who
punished Dirce by tying her to a bull.
36. ZETHUS — A man of great physical strength and a strong athlete.
37. AMPHION- Twin brother of Zethus, an incomparable musician, who
outdid his strong brother Zethus in the heavy task of getting rocks for the
wall by building lofty walls around Thebes. He drew such an enchanting
sounds from his lyre that the very stones were moved and followed him to
Thebes.

XVIII. CALLISTO - Daughter of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. A nymph loved by

Zeus. Changed into a great bear, she became the constellation URSA
MAJOR. Hera turned her into a bear after her son was born.
38. ARCAS- He was also turned into a lesser bear or the URSA MINOR in
the constellation.

XIX. ELECTRA- one of the seven (7) daughters of Atlas. She was one of
the Pleiades. It was said that they were pursued by Andope Orion but fled
before him and he could never seized any of them. Pitying them, Zeus, placed
them in the heavens as stars.
39. DARDANUS- He was the son of Zeus and Electra, daughter of Atlas.
He built the city of Dardania, which later became part of Troy. Dardanus
was an ancestor of Aeneas, progenitor of the Romans and the Founder
of the Trojan race.

XX. TAYGETE- Sister of Electra and also one of the Pleiades.

40. LACEDAEMON- A son of Zeus (Jupiter), had married Sparta,
daughter of the King of Sparta. On succeeding his father-in-law he gave
his name to the country and his wife's to the city.

C. OTHER CHILDREN OF ZEUS:

41. TANTALUS- King of Lydia (Ancient Kingdom of Central Asia Minor-
now Turkey), the most honored by the gods beyond all the mortal children of
Zeus. The gods punished him when he killed his son Pelops and served his
fleshed to the gods at a banquet in his palace. He was punished by
tormenting, eternal thirst, and hunger. He had to stand up to his neck in water
which disappeared when he tried to drink of it and under branches of fruits
which constantly eluded his grasp.
42. NAIADES- They was nymphs of the liquid elements, water nymphs,
dwelt on brooks, springs, fountains, and rivers.

Mythology and Folklore

WHY STUDY MYTHOLOGY?

Mythology is the study of myth. Myths are ancient stories that have been
handed down from generation to generation in a certain culture. By studying myth, a
person can learn how a culture thought, lived, and expressed themselves.

HISTORY can tell you facts about a people, but MYTH shows you the
personality, their beliefs, fears, and hopes. Relying only on HISTORY to tell you about
a people is like reading someone's driver's license instead of meeting him or her face-
to face.

As you read myths from ancient cultures, it also causes you to think of your
own culture. What stories are we leaving behind for generations to come? What do
we value? What mark are we leaving on an ever-changing world?

These (along with many others) are the reasons one studies Mythology.
CLASSIFICATION OF MYTHOLOGY:
1. MYTHS- are a kind of imaginative precursor of scientific investigation. Early
man sought explanations of the phenomena of nature.
2. SAGAS or LEGENDS- have behind them real events, such as war or other
noteworthy happening. (Trojan War)
3. FOLKTALES or MARCHEN- are pure fiction and seem to have no other origin
than a desire to amuse and interest.

WHY TEACH MYTHOLOGY?

The teaching of mythology provides many varied benefits to students of all
ages. Students come in contact with a variety of world cultures while comparing those
cultures to their own. Mythology also teaches history by examining ancient times and
their effect on the modern world. The study of Greco-Roman and Norse mythology
also strengthens students' understanding of language since many English words are
derived from characters and events found within.
It can also increase students' appreciation for Literature and art by
understanding the many mythological allusions. By studying ancient mythologies,
students also start thinking analytically about modern culture, analyzing the traces of
ancient mythology have left behind and the legends that have been created in their
own day.
Mythology combines all these different facets of learning into one object of
study. And the best part is: Mythological stories are often fun! If taught correctly, a
mythology course can be simultaneously educational and entertaining.
Because of its multifaceted nature, mythology is hard to categorize into one
single subject area. Some schools teach mythology as a history or sociology
course. Others emphasize the literary importance and teach mythology as an English
or Communication Arts course. Teachers of Latin often teach mythological stories to
supplement the study of language.
No matter which way mythology is taught or to which age group, it is still an
important and interesting topic of study.
"Thus we hope to teach mythology not as a study, but as a relaxation from study; to
give our work the charm of a story-book, yet by means of it to impart a knowledge of
an important branch of education."
- Thomas Bulfinch -

EVOLUTION OF MYTH
The evolution of myth and religion differ from people to people.
1. Euhemerus, an ancient Greek writer, believed that the ancient gods were
patterned after heroes who actually lived at one time.

2. A second theory was made by philologists or people who study the growth of
language. This study claims that man repeating things their ancestors said,
understood them in a different sense and because of that, misunderstanding
created myth.

3. The third theory was made by anthropologists or people who study the history
of the human race. They tried to explain the cause of natural phenomenon.
4. The fourth theory according to French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, explained
that myths came from society as a whole. He believed that tribal festivities that
they thought that a great power came to them from an object in their camp.
This object became a sacred emblem to the tribe.

FUNCTIONS OF MYTH
Myth plays a significant role in the society and culture where it emerged.
1. EXPLANATION- This is one of the most obvious functions of myth. It is used to
explain natural phenomena-the origin of the world, origin of race, and how other things
in nature originated.

2. JUSTIFICATION OR VALIDATION- Myth here helps in explaining the ritual and

cultic customs of a particular socio-cultural group. Part of this are ritual sacrifices of
traditional peasant culture.

3. DESCRIPTION- This points to the educational value of myth wherein during the
preindustrial societies it forms an important source of information since no
philosophical and scientific system of inquiry exist during this time.

4. HEALING- This is closely link with creation myth which plays a significant role in
healing the sick. It has been seen that healing can be facilitated through the
incantation of a cosmogony which the ancients believed to have a healing
power/effect.

TYPES OF MYTH
1. CREATION MYTH - This is very popular among the ancients who tried to ask
the questions concerning the beginning of the universe, the world, and all that is
in it.

2. ESCHATOLOGY and DESTRUCTION – In contrast to creation/cosmogony, this

type deals with the reality of death, mortality, or in a wider sense the end of the
world.

3. MESSIANIC AND MILLENARIAN MYTH - This myth centers on prophetic

leaders who emphasize the return of the dead, the renewal to come, and are
convince of the catastrophic end of the present world. Also expressed, in this
type is the expectation of new heaven and new earth.

4. SOTERIOLOGICAL – This is about a culture hero who brings a civilizing,

liberative, and civilizing effect to humanity.
Examples:
a. Prometheus who brings fire to mankind is a prominent example from
Greek myth.

5. MYTHS OF TIME AND ETERNITY – The vastness of space with its moon, sun,
planets, and stars impressed on man the idea of transcendence that goes
beyond his grasp. Many myths just like the one profounded by Zoroastians, the
book of Daniel, the millenarian in Judaism, and the Mayan myths which
intersect time and space.

6. MYTH OF PROVIDENCE AND DESTINY – Shown in this myth is divine

supremacy which marked god‘s mastery over fate.

7. MYTH OF REBIRTH AND RENEWAL – The cyclical concept of time in many

religious traditions presents ideas of reincarnation, seasonal patterns and
resurrection.

8. MYTHS OF TRANSFORMATION – This presents stories of cosmic change

affecting the natural world (formation and destruction of lands) and humanity
such as initiation rites and the rites of passage.

VALUES OF MYTH
1. There is a dynamic quality about myths that captures the imagination of the
poets and children.
2. Many English poems are filled with classical allusions from myths.
3. Subjects of sculpture and graphic arts are taken from the Greek and Roman
myths.
4. They furnish background for the great national epics of all countries.
5. They serve to explain the origin and meaning of many words in everyday use.
6. They serve as an aid in the understanding of art and literature.
7. They widen our knowledge about the physical world, the history and civilization
of the times in which the stories originated and about human nature.
8. Myths give answer to questions often asked by children concerning the how,
when, why of the ways of animals, birds, insects, trees, flowers, and other
forces of nature.

Greek Mythology An Introduction

Introduction
The Greek Mythology refers to the myths and hero legends of the ancient
Greeks.
Greek Mythology contains what the ancient Greeks accepted about the early
history of the world and human lives. Although individual Greeks did not believe every
detail of every story, nearly everyone thought that the myths and legends were mainly
true.
Out of all the mythologies of the world, Greek mythology has had the most
influence on Western culture. Literally thousands of artists and writers have used
Greek mythology as their muse--bringing the ancient stories to life through sculpture,
painting, poetry, and song.
Myth-inspired phrases such as Achilles Heel and Oedipus Complex and stand-
alone words like labyrinth and mentor proliferate our language. Media other than high
art use mythological references too. Businesses and advertising firms use mythology
as a selling tool.
The civilization that eventually would be called Greece has had its origin some
4,000 years ago. About 2,000 B.C. there was a movement of people into Greek
peninsula. They brought many of their own myths and legends with them, but, later,
they also became acquainted with the mythologies of the people in neighboring
regions, including Crete, Egypt, and Phoenicia.
All the ancient people borrowed myths and legends from one another, adding
them to their own and substituting the names of their gods for the names of foreign
gods.
Arethusa Plumbing references Arethusa (a nymph transformed into a spring), a
diamond necklace is titled a Pandora for its irresistibility, and towering billboards bear
the name Olympus.
All these examples show how culturally ingrained Greek mythology has
become.
Together with the Bible and Shakespeare, Greek mythology rounds out the
Big Three of Allusions. Any serious student of literature must have a healthy
background in these three areas in order to spot the numerous references authors
make to them.

1. Arethusa- was a wood nymph, the favorite of the nature goddess Artemis. One day,
while Arethusa was bathing in a stream belonging to the river god Alpheus, Alpheus
appeared and proclaimed his love for her. Arethusa fled under the ocean to the island
of Ortygia, where Artemis transformed her into a fountain. But Alpheus pursued her
beneath the sea and was himself changed into a river whose waters united with those
of the fountain. In ancient times, it was thought that the Alpheus River ran under the
sea from Greece and emerged in the fountain of Arethusa in the Sicilian harbor of
Syracuse.

THE TITANS
The Creation of the World
In the beginning there was only CHAOS. Then out of the void appeared
EREBUS, the unknowable place where death dwells, and NIGHT. All else was empty,
silent, endless, and darkness. Then LOVE was born bringing a start of order. From
LOVE came LIGHT and DAY. Then, GAEA (gay‘yuh), the earth appeared.

Chaos’ Descendants

The Creation of the World

GAEA alone gave birth to URANUS (you‘ruh-nus), the heavens. Uranus became
Gaea‘s mate covering her on all sides. Together they produced the Three (3)
CYCLOPES, the Three (3) HECATONCHIRES, and the Twelve (12) TITANS.

URANUS hated the Hecatonchires, the 100 handed, 50 headed monsters. He

imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth. This angered
Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. She made a flint sickle and tried to get her
children to attack Uranus. All were afraid except, the youngest Titan, CRONUS.

Gaea and Cronus set up to ambush Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night.
CRONUS grabbed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing
the several genitals into the ocean. The fate of Uranus is not clear. He died,
withdraws from earth, or exiled himself to Italy.

As Uranus departed, he promised that Cronus and the Titans would be

punished. From his spilt blood came the GIANTS, the ASH TREE NYMPHS, and the
ERINYES. From the sea foam where his genitals fell came APHRODITE.

Cronus became the next ruler. Cronus imprisoned the Cyclopes and the
Hecatonchires in TARTARUS. He married his sister RHEA, under his rule the Titans
had many offspring. He ruled for many ages. But there was a prophecy that he would
be overthrown by one of his sons.

To avoid this, Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea
was angry at the treatment and plotted against Cronus. When she gave birth to her
6th child, Rhea hid herself, then left the child to be raised by nymphs. To conceal her
act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as baby to Cronus, who
swallowed it.

This child was ZEUS. He grew into a handsome youth on Crete. He consulted
METIS on how to defeat Cronus. She made a drink for Cronus design to make him
vomit up the other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son & Zeus was
allowed to return to Mt. Olympus as Cronus‘ cupbearer. This gave Zeus the chance to
slip Cronus the specially prepared drink.
The plan worked accordingly and the other 5 children were vomited up. Being
gods, they were unharmed. They were very thankful to Zeus and made him their
leader. Cronus was yet to be defeated. He and the Titans, except PROMETHEUS,
EPIMETHEUS and OCEANUS, fought to retain their power.

During the battle the young gods seem to be defeated, but Zeus was cunning.
He went down to TARTARUS and freed the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires.
Prometheus joined Zeus as well. He returned to battle with his new allies. The
cyclopes provided Zeus with lighting bolts for weapons.

The Hecatonchires were set to ambush armed with boulders. With the time
right, Zeus retreated drawing the Titans into the Hecatonchires‘ ambush. The
Hecatonchires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the Titans thought
the mountains were falling on them. They broke and ran giving Zeus victory.

Zeus exiled the Titans who had fought against him into Tartarus. Except for
Atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his
shoulders.

The Parthenon, ancient Greek temple dedicated to the goddess Athena Parthenos
(Athena the Virgin), on the Acropolis in Athens.

The Titans
The elder gods and for untold ages, supreme rulers of the universe

THE TITANS
• The Titans were often called the Elder Gods and were, for untold ages,
supreme ruler in the universe and were of enormous size and incredible
strength. They were the 12 children of Uranus and Gaea.
• The most important was CRONUS, he ruled over the other Titans until his son
Zeus overthrown him and seized the power for himself.

The 12 Titan Gods (The Uranides- First Generation Titans)

1. CRONUS - God of Eternal Time and King of the Titans. He ruled over the other
gods and goddesses. He attacked his father Uranus and wounded him
severely; thus, he became ruler of the universe.

2. RHEA (ree‘uh) – Titaness and earth-goddess. According to Diodorus Siculus,

Rhea was also known as Pandora. She married her brother, Cronus and was
the mother of Olympians: Hestia, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, Hera and Zeus.
When it was prophesied that her children would overthrow her brother/husband,
Cronus, he took steps to prevent it.

3. OCEANUS (oh-see‘uh-nus) - God of the fresh water rivers that bound the earth;
including wells, springs, river and rain. Husband of Tethys, a nurse that claimed
to have distributed the water to the earth. The Oldest of the twelve Titans.

4. TETHYS (tee‘this) – Titaness of the sea. She married her brother, Oceanus.
She became the mother of all the river gods. She is said to have bore three
thousand daughters, known as the Oceanids. The eldest daughter being Styx,
who was the only female river goddess; while Amphitrite, who married
Poseidon, and Doris, who married Nereus, became sea goddesses.

5. HYPERION (high-pee‘ree-on) – God of the Sun, sometimes referred to as

‗Helios Hyperion‘ Sun High one.

6. COEUS - God of intellect. He married his sister Phoebe, became the father of
Leto and Asteria.

7. CRIUS - Married his half-sister Eurybia, daughter of Gaea and Pontus, and
became father of Perses, Pallas and Astraeus.

8. THEIA - Titaness of Sorcery. She was sometimes called, Eurypha Essa

(Eurtphaessa). Theia was the Goddess of Light. She married her brother
Hyperion, and was the mother of Eos (―Dawn‖), Helius (―Sun‖), and Selene
(―Moon‖). By her other brother Oceanus, she was mother of the Cercopes.

9. THEMIS (thee‘mis) – Titaness of Justice and Earth-goddess. Later she became

known as the Goddess of Order and Justice. Themis was the second wife of
Zeus. Themis became the mother of many children, including the Seasons
(Horae) – Eunomia (―Order‖), Dike (―Justice‖) and Eirene (―Peace‖) – and the
Fates (Moerae).
10. PHOEBE (fee‘bee) – Titaness of the Moon, married her brother Coeus
(Coeus). Phoebe became the mother of Leto and Asteria, so Phoebe was the
grandmother of Apollo, Artemis and Hecate.

11. MNEMOSYNE (ne-mos‘i-nee) –Titaness of Memory. Mnemosyne (―Memory‖)

was the daughter of Uranus and Gaea. She was the abstract personification of
memory. She was the mother of the Muses from Zeus.

12. DIONE (die-oh‘nee) – An obscure goddess, as it was not certain whether she
was either Titaness or Oceanid. Most commonly thought to be the Goddess of
the Sea. She was also known as Thalassa, who was a sea deity. Thalassa was
also beleived to the wife of the ancient sea god, Pontus.

13. IAPETUS (eye-ap‘i-tus) – father of Atlas, Prometheus and Epimetheus.

The 2nd Generation Titan Gods (The Iapetionides)

1. PROMETHEUS –the savior of mankind who gave the first fire to mankind.
Titan of forethought. Son of the Titan Iapetus and by Iapetus‘ sister Themis or
by Clymene or Asia. Both were Oceanids. Prometheus was the brother of Atlas,
Menoetius and Epimetheus.
• Prometheus married Pronoea and was the father of Deucalion. During the war
between the Titans and Olympians, Prometheus sided with Zeus, knowing that
the war would end with the younger gods winning the war.
• Prometheus unsuccessfully tried to persuade his father Iapetus and his brother
Atlas to change side. Iapetus was thrown into Tartarus, while Atlas would be
forever burdened with the weight of heaven on his shoulder.

2. ATLAS- Atlas was the son of the Titan Iapetus by the Oceanid Clymene or
Asia. Brother of Menoetius, Prometheus and Epimetheus. When his brother,
Prometheus tried to persuade him not to go to war against the Olympians, he
did not listen. Zeus punished Atlas, by making the Titan carry the weight of the
sky upon his shoulders.

3. EPIMETHEUS – Titan of afterthought. Epimetheus ( Afterthought ) was the son

of the Titan Iapetus by the Oceanid Clymene or Asia. Brother of Prometheus,
Menoetius and Atlas. Epimetheus married the first mortal woman Pandora and
was the father of Pyrrha.

4. MENOETIUS: Son of Iapetus and Oceanid Clymene or Asia. Brother of Atlas,

Prometheus and Epimetheus.

The Golden Age

The Golden Age was a time of Perfect peace and happiness. Every day was
like spring; flowers bloomed the year round. The men of the Golden Age, the subjects
of Cronus, were greatly loved by the gods. They lived very much like gods without
cares or labor, the earth provided them with all the food they needed- acorns, wild fruit
and honey that dripped from the trees, pain, no worry, and no wars.

Indeed, they were always happy, and their time was spent in dancing and
singing. There were no mortal descendants of this golden race, for there were no
women, but they were much a good race that at their passing, their pure spirits
remained on earth as the guardians of mankind.

Parthenon in Athens, Greece

The Parthenon (center), is one of the finest examples of Greek classical architecture. It
was built about 2,500 years ago as a temple to the Greek goddess Athena. It stands
atop the Acropolis, a hill with fortifications in Athens, Greece.
Temple of Poseidon, Paestum
The Greek temple of Poseidon at Paestum, Italy, was constructed in the mid 5th-
century bc. Its massive, closely spaced columns are characteristic of the Doric order.
Temple of Apollo at Didyma
The Greeks built the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, Turkey (about 300 bc). The design
of the temple was known as dipteral, a term that refers to the two sets of columns
surrounding the interior section. These columns surrounded a small chamber that
housed the statue of Apollo. With Ionic columns reaching 19.5 m (64 ft) high, these
ruins suggest the former grandeur of the ancient temple.
Palace at Knossos
The ancient city of Knossos was a center of the Minoan civilization, an advanced
society on Crete named after Minos, a legendary Cretan king. Skilled in such fields as
engineering and architecture, the Minoans constructed the palace at Knossos in 1700
bc.
The Ruins of Pergamum
The ancient city of Pergamum was an important center of Greek culture, housing an
impressive library and an altar to Zeus. The city was the capital of the kingdom of
Pergamum, one of several so-called Hellenistic kingdoms that emerged after the
breakup of the vast empire of Alexander the Great in 323 bc. Today the ruins of
Pergamum lie on the outskirts of the town of Bergama, Turkey.
Ruins at Olympia
The site of the ancient Olympic Games was a sanctuary consisting of temples and
buildings to honor the mythological gods of ancient Greece. The games, which,
according to tradition, began in 776 bc, opened with a ceremony and sacrifice to the
gods. The exedra, or sitting area, pictured here is among the ruins at Olympia.

The Nymphs
The Nymphs
 Were lesser Goddesses who supposedly lived in mountains, trees, fountains,
forests, valleys, grottoes, and rivers. They were of great beauty, loved and
respected by Gods and men. They passed their times in pleasurable pursuits,
weaving, spinning, dancing, singing, and bathing. They are antipathetic to
satyrs but were in good terms with major deities.
 The Greeks erected altars to them and made sacred the places they were
supposed to inhabit. Nymphs, unlike the gods, are not immortal since they held
from middle station between Gods and mortals, but they lived longer than
mortal men.

1. DRYADES OR HERMADRYADES/ HAMADRYADES

Nymphs living in a tree. Nymphs of the forest and trees. Dryads live and die
with the tree inhabit.

Lotis- She transformed herself into a Lotus tree with flowers as she was
fleeing from her pursuer and some of her flowers were plucked by
Dryope.

2. OREADES- Nymphs of mountains and grottoes.

Ida- One of the nymphs who cared for infant Zeus.
Oenone- A lovely nymph inloved with Paris in the Iliad.

3. LEMONIADES- Nymphs of meadows and flowers.

4. DANAIDS- the fifty (50) lovely daughters of Danaus who is King of Argos. They
married to the fifty (50) sons of Aegyptus who is twin brother of Danaus. With
the exception of Hypermnestra, they all killed their husband on the wedding
night in obedience to their father‘s order. They were condemned to pour water
into a bottomless pitcher in Hades.

5. NEPAEAE – Nymphs of the vales with grazing hands.

6. NEREIDS – They were the sea nymphs. They were fifty (50) lovely daughters
of Nereus, old man of the sea, and Doris, daughter of Ocean, the Sea God.
 Thetis- Mother of Achilles.
 Amphitrite- Wife of Poseidon.
 Panope
 Hesione- Wife of Prometheus.
 Idothea- Daughter of Proteus, who taught King Menelaus how to catch her
father in order to know their future.
 Galatea- who was loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus

7. NAIADS/NAIADES – Also water nymphs they dwelt in brooks, springs,

fountains, and rivers. Endowed with youth and beauty, they were gifted in music
and dancing and the social graces. They were also thought to have healing and
prophetic powers.
Daphne- Pursued by Apollo and changed into a laurel tree to escape from him.
Cyrene- Mother of Aristaeus from Apollo.

Greek god Apollo fell in love with the nymph Daphne after he was struck by Cupid’s
arrow. As Apollo pursued the unwilling Daphne, she prayed for rescue and was turned
into a laurel tree.
8. OCEANIDS/OCEANIDES – Nymphs of the Ocean and of great rivers. They
were the daughters of the Titan Ocean and Tethys.

9. THE HYADES – They were also nymphs, daughters of Atlas and half-sisters of
the Pleiades. They were the rainy stars, supposed to bring rain because the
time of their evening and morning setting, which comes in early May and
November, is usually rainy. They were six (6) in number. Dionysus, as a baby,
was entrusted to them by Zeus, and to reward them for their care, he set them
among the stars.

Nysa- The loveliest of earth‘s valleys who took care of the infant Dionysus

10. PLEIADES – The seven (7) daughters of Atlas and Pleione who were changed
into stars by Zeus and are the seven brightest stars in the constellation
TAURUS. Nymphs of summer and winter seasons. The seven nymphs who
were companions of the Goddess Artemis. Fleeing the advances of the giant
hunter ORION.

They sought help from the gods who changed them into doves. They flew to
heaven where they transformed into a constellation of the seven stars and are
associated with the planting seasons, the beginning of summer and winter, and, the
opening and closing of the navigation.

Electra- Mother of Dardanus, founder of the Trojan race.

Maia- Mother of Hermes.
Taygete- Mother of Lacedaemon.
Alcyone- the brightest among the seven Stars in the constellation Taurus.
Merope
Celaeno
Sterope

The Pleiades is a group of stars in the constellation Taurus. Between seven and
twelve stars are visible with the unaided eye, but the cluster actually contains
hundreds of stars.

Aphrodite
Goddess of Love and Beauty
• I. Aphrodite—Birth

A. Aphros—foam; the story from HESIOD is that Aphrodite‘s birth occurred from
the foam that was upon the sea as a result of Ouranos‘ castration. She then
floated to the island of Cythera or Cyprus. (hence epithets: Cytherea and
Cypris)

B. An alternate myth is that she is the child of Zeus and Dione. However, nothing
but name is known about Dione.
C. The ancients were aware of this double birth tradition and thus, used it to serve
their ideas of the duality of love‘s nature—that of Aphrodite Urania (Celestial—
sacred love) and Aphrodite Pandemos (of the people—profane love)
D. Aphrodite governs desire and sexuality. She is also known as Cytherea, Cypris,
and Venus (Roman). She is often pictured with a sceptre or a mirror.

• Aprhodites’ appearance

Due to the duality of the ancient rendering of Aphrodite, she is presented both
in art and literature in differing ways. Also, remembering that mythology is oral in
nature, clearly, different stories would arise. However, the conception of the
love/fertility goddess was fairly universal in the ancient world. The idealized feminine
form of sensual beauty was begun by a Greek sculptor named Praxiteles. The Venus
de Milo is a copy of one of his works.
• II—Aphrodites’ family
A. Maritus—She married to Hephaestus, the only lame/ugly god
An episode from their marriage—Helius warned Hephaestus of his wife‘s
adulterous affair with Ares (Mars). Hephaestus trapped the lovers in his own bed and
called upon the other gods to witness and ridicule the adulterers.
• B. Liberi—
Most famous would be Eros and Aeneas.

1. Eros has dual birth stories—one is that he is an early cosmic deity, arising soon
after creation. However, the second, and more popular story, is that he is the
love child of Aphrodite and Ares. He is depicted in art in many ways—usually a
mischievous young man with bow and arrows; by which he might induce both
love and hatred. His golden tipped arrows cause love; his lead tipped ones
cause hate. Hence, the story of Apollo and Daphne from Ovid.

2. Her second famous child is Aeneas, son of Anchises, the Dardanian. She
sleeps with him in consequence of her boasting that she has never succumbed
to the lusts which other gods have. As a result, she continues to glorify
Anchises and work on behalf of both him, his people, and his progeny
(Aeneas).
• Her lesser well-known children
3. Priapus (son of Hermes, Dionysus, Pan, Adonis, or Zeus)—a fertility god
depicted with a giant and erect phallus.

4. Hermaphroditus (son of Hermes)—aka Atlantiades or Atlantius (from Atlas, his

paternal great-grandpa)—was taken by Salmacis, the river nymph, who
immovably clung to him. Hence, he was both male and female. Horrified by this,
Hermaphrodites prayed that all who bathed in the Salmacis river become as
he—hence, the modern term ―hermaphrodite‖.
• DIVINE OFFSPRING

1. ANTEROS The god of reciprocal (or some say, unrequited) love was a son of
Ares and Aphrodite.

2. BEROE The goddess of the city of Beroe (in Lebanon, Asia Minor) was a
daughter of Adonis and Aphrodite. She wed the god Poseidon.
3. DEIMOS The god of fear was a son of Ares and Aphrodite.

4. EROS The winged boy god of love was a son of Aphrodite and her constant
companion. (Some say the father was Ares, others that she was born pregnant
with the child).
5. EROTES, THE The winged godlings of love were sons of Aphrodite.
6. HARMONIA The goddess of harmony (marital and civic) was a daughter of
Ares and Aphrodite, born of their adulterous union. She was married to the
mortal Kadmos, founding King of Thebes
7. HERMAPHRODITOS The Hermaphroditic godling was a son of Hermes and
Aphrodite. His form was merged with that of the Naiad Salmakis to form a
creature that was half male and half female.

8. HIMEROS The god of desire, twin brother of Eros, was a son of Aphrodite. The
goddess may have been born pregnant with the pair, giving birth to them as she
grew from the sea-foam.

9. IAKKHOS A god of the Eleusinian Mysteries, often called the Eleusinian

Dionysos or Hermes was, according to the Orphic Hymns, a son of Dionysos
and Aphrodite.
10. PEITHO The goddess of persuasion and seduction was sometimes said to be a
daughter of Aphrodite. (She was usually, however, described as an Okeanis
daughter of Okeanos and Tethys).
11. PHOBOS The god of panic was a son of Ares and Aphrodite.

12. POTHOS The god of sexual longing was a son of Aphrodite. He was one of the
Erotes.
13. PRIAPOS The god of garden fertility was a son of Aphrodite by Dionysos, Zeus
or Adonis.

14. RHODOS (aka RHODE) The goddess of the island of Rhodes and wife of
Helios was a daughter of Aphrodite and Poseidon.
• MORTAL OFFSPRING

1. AENEAS A Prince of Dardania (near Troy, in Asia Minor) who was born of
Aphrodite and Ankhises. He led his people on the side of the Trojans in the
Trojan War and later founded the Kingdom of the Latins (Rome).
2. ASTYNOOS A Prince of Syria (in Asia). He was a son of Aphrodite and
Phaethon.

3. ERYX A King of Sikelia (Sicily, in Southern Italia) who was born of Aphrodite
and the Argonaut Boutes.
• MORTAL OFFSPRING

4. HEROPHILOS (aka HEROPHILE) One of the sibyls (prophetesses) who was

said to be a daughter of Poseidon and Aphrodite.
5. LYROS A Prince of Dardania (near Troy, in Anatolia) who was born to
Aphrodite and Ankhises.
• A. The Judgment of Paris/Trojan War
 Bribed Paris with promise of Helen.
 Was awarded the golden apple.
 Saved Paris many times during the ensuing war.

 Wounded by Diomedes (while aiding her son, Aeneas) and knocked down by
Athena (while aiding Ares)
 Did lend Hera her ―cestus‖ (girdle) during the war.
 In one lesser known tale, she even allows Achilles and Helen to meet.

• B. Adonis

 Orsedice, Laogore, and Braesia, filiae of King Cinyras of Cyprus, caused

Aphrodite‘s displeasure.
 Aphrodite caused them to lust after strangers.

 The 4th daughter, Myrrha, due to her mother‘s boast of her beauty being
superior to Aphrodite, made her lust for her own father. Thus, Adonis born.

 Immediately, Aphrodite loved the baby and gave him to Persephone for care.
Persephone immediately became enamored of the boy, too.

 The two goddesses quarrelled, with the resulting judgment, made by the muse
Calliope, being that the boy, now a fine young man, spend part of each year
with both.
 Aphrodite killed Orpheus to spite Calliope for her judgment.

 Adonis is lost altogether when killed by a wild boar. Adonis‘ blood results in the
blood-red anemone.
• C. Cupid and Psyche (as told by the late Roman author Apuleius, in
Metamorphoses, a.k.a, The Golden Ass)

 Psyche was the fairest of three daughters. So fair, she incurred the jealousy of
Aphrodite.

 Aphrodite orders Cupid to cause Psyche to fall in love with the most vile of
creatures—TAMEN, Cupid himself falls for the dame.

• C. Cupid and Psyche (as told by the late Roman author Apuleius, in
Metamorphoses, a.k.a, The Golden Ass)

 the story is too long to tell here, however, consult Morford and Lenardon,
chapter 9, to get all the details. Ultimately, Psyche and Cupid are able to
overcome many obstacles and difficulties and ―all ends happily ever after‖. The
result of the union of the two was ―Voluptas‖—the god of Pleasure and Psyche
is granted immortality.
• A list of the tasks assigned to Psyche by Aphrodite:
a. Sort a vast quantity of grains in one night (aided by the ants).

b. Bring back the golden wool of some dangerous sheep (aided by a reed, which
murmured instructions on how best to get the wool without danger)
c. Retrieve water from a high mountain stream (became Cocytus); faced a dragon
to do so. (aided by Jupiter‘s eagle)

d. Descend to the underworld and retrieve Persephone‘s beauty. (aided in this by

a speaking tower and by Cupid, himself, who awakened the girl when her
curiosity got the best of her and she looked in upon the box which contained
Persephone‘s beauty)
• REVENGE—Aphrodite was a wench when she was offended

 Step-mom Phaedra (sister of Ariadne) fell in love with him. Caused both their
deaths.

 Tyndareus, King of Argos, didn‘t honor Aphrodite enough—caused all 3 of his

daughters (Helen, Clytemnestra, and Timandra) to betray their husbands.
 Pasiphae —when Minos didn‘t sacrifice the Cretan bull, she developed lust for
the bull.

 Lemnian women—same reason. Caused them to stink, resulting in husbands

taking foreign wives. Lemnian women kill all men on the island. She relents,
finally, to honor her hubby, Hephaestus, and allows Jason and the Argonauts to
re-populate the island.
 Clio (muse)—fell in love with the mortal Pierus
 Eos—fell in love with mortal after mortal (payback for laying with Ares)
 Helius—fell in love with Leucothoe (for telling Hephaestus about her and Ares).
This indirectly caused Leucothoe‘s death.

 Glaucus—refused to allow his herd of mares to breed—she caused them to eat

their masters alive.
• HELP-Aphrodite could be beneficial when she chose

 Hippomenes (sometimes Melanion)—aided him in quest for Atalanta by giving

him the golden apples. (turned them both into lions, though, when they forgot to
thank her).

 Pygmalion—heard his pious prayer and turned his creation into a woman
(sometimes called Galatea). N.B. Propoetides—the first prostitutes
 Adopted the daughters of Pandareus and arranged good marriages for them.

 Creusa—rescued her from slavery to the Greeks.

Butes—the Argonaut—aided him in escaping the Sirens‘ island.
 Ino—pitied her and begged Poseidon‘s aid on her behalf.
• Symbols, etc.

• Aphrodite was associated with, and often depicted with, the sea, dolphins,
doves, swans, pomegranates, apples, myrtle, rose trees, lime trees, clams,
scallop shells, and pearls.

Prometheus Brings Fire to Man

The flood that ended the Silver Age not only destroyed the men of that time, it
also shook all the ice and snow which had been struck up in the northern part of the
world. The climate of the earth was no longer mild and the new man that Prometheus
made suffered greatly from the cold. They spent a lot of time complaining about the
weather and said that it was cruel a joke for someone to create them just to lead such
miserable lives
―These men more disagreeable than the others, ― said Zeus.

When Prometheus heard this, he knew that Zeus would soon decide to crown
these men too, unless something was done. The best thing Prometheus could think of
to make men‘s lives better was the gift of fire. With fire, man could warm himself, cook
his food, and forge metals for tools and weapons.
He could make lights, so that the world not seem such a dark, dreary place.
Prometheus also knew that Zeus would never agree to this, so he made his plans
secretly.
He gave a last look at Olympus, for he knew he could never return, and he told
Athens goodbye. She had been best friend there. Without another backward glance,
Prometheus set out for the fiery home of the sun.
He broke from the sun a fragment of glowing coal and hiding it in the hollow of a giant
fennel-stalk, he carried it down to earth. There he lit a central fire and showed men
how to use it. Then he taught them how to make it for themselves by rubbing sticks
together.

Sitting around their evening fires, eating ox or lamb, men said to each other
they didn‘t know how they survived before, without this fine thing, FIRE.

When Zeus heard that Prometheus had given fire to man, he was terribly angry. He
really care whether man had fire or not, but the fact that Prometheus had aided man
without his permission made him furious. It was the principle of the thing, Zeus
decided to make an example of Prometheus.

He ordered Prometheus to be seized and chained to the face of the great cliff in
the Caucasian Mountains.
A great vulture was sent to eat at Prometheus liver all day long. Each day his liver
grew back and there was no end to his suffering.

Zeus was great schemer. He wanted revenge on Prometheus, but he also had
an idea of how to make use of him. After a while, he sent Hermes to Prometheus with
an offer.

Hermes told Prometheus that Zeus saw no reason to continue the punishment if
Prometheus would make a reasonable agreement. Since Prometheus could see into
the future, he would be able to tell Zeus the identity of the mother of the child destined
to overthrow him, just as he had overthrown his father and Cronus had overthrown
Uranus before him. For that information, Zeus would free Prometheus.

Prometheus answered that he had already done more favors for Zeus than
Zeus had ever done for him, and that he would not submit to his blackmail, ―I am
right,‖ said Prometheus. ―And I know I would rather suffer than give in to an
unreasonable tyrant.‖
This answer made Zeus wild with anger, but he could do nothing but rave.

HOMER, Greeks Greatest Poet

HOMER
The Greek poet Homer is believed to be the author of the Iliad and the
Odyssey, two great epics of ancient Greek literature. Very little is known about Homer
or about how much he contributed to the final form of these epic poems. What is
certain is that both epics have had considerable influence on Western literature.

He was a native of Chios of Asia

Minor, they say, a blind man who
composed the Iliad and Odyssey. These poems are the greatest works of ancient
Greek Literature. Some critics call them the finest poems ever written. But, few people
now believe that Homer, or any other one person, made up the poems alone.
The true story behind the Iliad and Odyssey may be like this: In Greece. There
were many story-telling poets who traveled from town to town. They entertained kings,
the nobility, & commoners by reciting poems composed either by themselves or
others. One of the storytellers‘ favorite subjects was the Trojan War. All the poets had
their own version of that great event.
Writing was probably unknown in Greece at the time when these stories were
being put into poetic form. Poems were learned by heart & passed on by word of
mouth. All good poets added something of their own to the traditional tales. Then,
about 800 years before the birth of Christ, a very great poet came along. (We might as
well call him Homer, although we can only guess his name and the facts of his life.) He
put together many of the older poetic stories of the Trojan War and made them into a
single magnificent and exciting poem.
It was called the Iliad, from Ilion, another name of Troy.
A little later Odyssey was put together in the same way, either by Homer or
another great poet. It tells of the marvelous adventures of Odysseus or Ulysses on his
long journey home from Troy, and of his battle against the robber barons who were
taking over his home.
The Iliad and Odyssey were very much better than the other versions of the
Trojan story so that almost all traveling poets learned them & recited them all over
Greece. When writing was introduced, Homer‘s poems were written down. Since the
poems were very popular, many copies were made. So we have today these two
wonderful stories that a great poet recited almost 3,000 years ago.
Troy was an ancient city on the Aegean Sea in Asia Minor (now Turkey). It was
made famous by the Greek poet Homer, who wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey, and by
Virgil, the Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid. Their stories about Troy are legends and
only partly true.

The Iliad andThe Trojan War

―No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not
only the world as it is, but the world as it will be.‖
-Isaac Asimov

The Iliad- An Introduction

One of the most famous stories from the Classical World is the story about the Trojan
War. The story, according to common belief, was written by the poet Homer.
• Homer, himself, may not have existed. Instead stories like the Iliad were most likely
passed by word and mouth through many generations.
• The Iliad starts nine years into the Trojan War
• The Trojan War took place in Troy which is in the northwest corner of what we now
call the Republic of Turkey
• Many things had to happen to get this big war under way
The Start of it All…
Three generations of misery and bloodshed started because a wedding planner failed
to invite an important
Peleus and Thetis’ Wedding
• Peleus was a mortal man.
• Thetis was a sea nymph and the daughter of Zeus.
• Peleus had been on many adventures and had already been married, but things went
sour when he accidentally killed his father-in-law.
• He saw Thetis, fell in love with her, and tried to kidnap her. • She managed to fight
him off with a snake until he eventually won her over.
―It is not without some god‘s assistance that you conquer‖ (Thetis to Peleus in Ovid‘s
Metamorphosis)

The Big Affair – Peleus and Thetis’ Wedding

• With Zeus‘ consent, all the famous mortals, gods, and goddess attended
• Eris, the goddess of strife was not invited
• Eris was insulted and snuck into the wedding reception…

A Golden Apple
• Eris tossed a golden apple onto the dance floor.
• On the apple were the words, ―To the fairest.‖
• The golden apple was a serious party killer. Who was the most beautiful?
Who is the fairest of them all?
The competition was between:
❖ ATHENA – Zeus‘ daughter and a real daddy‘s girl

❖ HERA – Zeus‘ wife and Queen of the Gods

❖ APHRODITE – The Goddess of Love They asked Zeus, as the King of the Gods, to
award the prize, but he was no fool…
The Judgment of Paris
• Zeus gave the task to Paris, son of Priam, the King of Troy.
• Zeus knew that Troy was fated to be destroyed because of an old run-in with Apollo
and Poseidon.
• Paris was the “torch to set the whole city on fire.”
Paris’ Ill-fated Choice
❖ Athena offered him victory in war

❖ Hera offered him power over nations

❖ Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world

What would you choose?

Helen of Troy
• Paris accepted Aphrodite‘s offer
• He then learned that the most beautiful girl in the world was ALREADY MARRIED
• She was Helen, daughter of Leda and Zeus
• She was married to Menelaus, King of Sparta

The Kidnapping of Helen

• Paris already had a wife named Oenone who warned him not to go through with the
kidnapping
• He didn‘t listen
• He sailed off to Sparta to be guest at the palace of Menelaus
• Troy was already doomed before this whole incident
• Zeus was the ―Protector of Hospitality‖
• Kidnapping your host‘s wife isn‘t exactly hospitable
• If Troy wasn‘t in trouble before, they certainly were now!

In Sparta, Paris either forcefully carried Helen away from Troy or he seduced her
and she left with him on her own.
• Paris immediately went to Sparta, wooed Helen, and then returned to Troy with his
new lover.
• This did not please the Greeks, for Helen was married to Meneleus.
Troy in Trouble
• When Menelaus discovered that his wife was kidnapped, he ran to his big brother
Agamemnon who agreed to get help wage war to get Helen back
The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships
• It is said that Helen was the face that launched a thousand ships, for that is how
many eventually set sail for Troy.
Clever Odysseus!
• Odysseus tried to get out of joining Agamemnon and Menelaus in their fight for
Helen by pretending to be crazy.
• Thetis (whose wedding started all this) tried to get her son Achilles out of fighting,
too.
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
 Agamemnon finally got his army together, but they couldn‘t set sail against
strong winds on the Aegean Sea.
 The prophet Calchas told him that the winds were from Artemis, and to appease
Artemis, Agamemnon would have to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia
• Agamemnon sent a message to his wife, Clytemnestra, saying that he had arranged
for Iphigenia to marry Achilles in Aulis, but when she arrived on her wedding day, her
father sacrificed her on the altar like an animal.

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia

• The youthful Greek warrior Achilles has just learned from Agamemnon will not him to
marry his daughter, Iphigenia, shown dressed as a bride and being comforted by her
tearful mother, Clytemnestra. To appease the goddess Artemis so that the Greek fleet
can sail to Troy, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter to her.

Now the War Can Begin!

The Trojan War Begins

Agamemnon, the Commander-In-Chief of the Greek Armies
 The Greeks mustered an army, and under the leadership of Agamemnon, the
brother of Meneleus, prepared to sail to Troy.
The City of Troy
 The Greeks and the Trojans fought fiercely on the coastal plain, and although
the Greeks won many battles they were unable to penetrate the defences of the
Trojan city.
 Troy was a well defended city, with walls, according to legend, built by
Poseidon.
The Impregnable City of Troy (PICTURE)
Achilles, the Greeks Greatest Warrior
 The Greeks were supported by the goddesses Hera and Athena, and also
benefited from the services of a number of mighty warriors within their ranks.
The greatest of these was undoubtedly Achilles, whose mother had dipped him
into the river Styx when he was a baby, thereby causing him to be virtually
invincible in battle.
Achilles, the Greeks Greatest Warrior
 Patroclus - Best friend of Achilles, his death will bring "Achilles sulking in his
tents" back out to battle
 Achilles, however, sometimes did not help his fellow Greeks in battle. Once he
agued with Agamemnon over a slave girl and refused to fight.
The Rage of Achilles
Achilles is outraged that Agamemnon would threaten to seize his war prize,
Briseis, and he draws his sword to kill Agamemnon. The sudden appearance of the
goddess Athena, who, in this fresco, has grabbed Achilles by the hair, prevents the act
of violence.
The Death of Patroclus
Nevertheless, he agreed to lend his armour to his friend Patroclus.
Unfortunately, Patroclus, mistaken, for Achilles, was killed by Hector, the son of King
Priam, and the greatest of the Trojan warriors.
Hector gives instruction to his men… (PICTURE)
Achilles kills Hector…
 With Patroclus dead, Achilles vowed to avenge his friend‘s death. Achilles
quickly found his sworn enemy, and, following a fierce fight, Hector soon lay
dead on the battlefield.
 Achilles tied Hector‘s body to the back of his chariot and then drove in glorious
triumph around the walls of Troy. After much beseeching by King Priam,
Achilles eventually agreed to return Hector‘s body to the Trojans.
Achilles and Hector duel… (PICTURE)
Priam ransoms Hector’s body… (PICTURE)
The Death of Achilles
 Despite Hector‘s death, the Greeks were still unable to break down the
defences of Troy. And then tragedy struck; Achilles was slain, shot in the heel
by Paris. Held there by his mother, his heel had been the only part of his body
not to have been dipped into the river Styx.
Odysseus’ Cunning Plan..
 The war reached its tenth year, and yet neither side could gain the upper hand.
 At last Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, came up with a cunning plan. He
suggested that the Greeks should build a huge wooden horse, inside which fifty
of the strongest warriors could be hidden.
The trick continues..
 Agamemnon eventually agreed to this idea, and the horse was built. The
chosen men, including Odysseus, climbed up into the belly of the horse, and
the horse was left on the shore.
 The rest of the Greeks deserted their camp, and sailed to the other side of the
nearby island, Tenedos.
 However, one Greek, named Sinon who was renowned for making up stories,
was left with the horse to convince the Trojans that they should drag the Horse
into their city.
The Wooden Horse
 When the Trojans saw that the Greeks had gone away they were overjoyed, for
they believed the war was finally over.
 However, they were in awe of the horse and were unsure what to do with it.
 Sinon, who explained he had been left as a deserter and a prisoner, told the
Trojans that the horse had been built as an offering to the god Poseidon to
provide them with a safe passage back to Greece.
Pointers to Consider in Giving Assignment
 The Trojans were on the point of believing Sinon‘s story when Laocoon, a priest
of Troy, claimed the horse was a trick, and hurled a spear into the side of the
huge wooden statue. Luckily for the Greeks hiding inside no one was hit.
 Almost immediately, a huge serpent appeared out of the sea and wrapped itself
around laocoon and his two sons, dragging its wretched victims back under the
waves. The Trojans, now left in little doubt that the horse was truly an offering to
the god Poseidon, readily accepted Sinon‘s story.
The Burning of Troy
 The Trojans dragged the wooden horse into their city, unaware of the danger
that was concealed inside the huge belly. Happy that the war was over the
Trojans planned parties and celebrations that would last late into the night.
They did not even bother to post guards on the ramparts, so sure were they that
all danger of attack had passed with the departure of the Greeks.
 It did not take long for the Trojans to become drunk, and soon they all fell into a
deep sleep. It was then that the warriors descended from the belly of the horse.
They crept to the outer walls and opened the gates. Then they lit a fire on the
ramparts as a signal to the rest of the Greeks, who in the meantime had
returned to the mainland, that the plan had worked.
 The sleeping revellers were easy prey for the rampaging Greeks, and, with the
city burning, the Trojans were slaughtered without mercy.
The Fall of Troy
 The once proud city of Troy was reduced to a smoking ruin. The Greeks were
victorious, Helen was restored to Meneleus.
 The Greeks prepared to sail back to their homelands – most completing the
journey in little time. However, many years were to pass before Odysseus
would see the shores of Ithaca again.
Aeneas escaped and founded new city
 Did any Trojan survive the Greek massacre? According to legend, prince
Aeneas escaped from the burning city with his young family and his elderly
father. The Roman poet, Virgil, would have us believe that Aeneas sailed to
Italy and there founded a new settlement. From this settlement emerged the
great city of Rome.
Seven (7) Outstanding Episodes in The Iliad
1. The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles.
2. The single combat between King Menelaus (the wronged husband) and
Paris/Alexandros (the wife stealer).
3. The farewell of Hector to Andromache, the beautiful, gentle, unfortunate wife,
as he left to fight Achilles.
4. The single combat between Aias and Hector.
5. The games played in the funeral of Patroclus.
6. The ransoming of the body of Hector by his father, King Priam, and
7. The lamentations of the Trojan women over the body of their beloved Hector,
the magnanimous defender of the city of Troy.

The Odyssey
―Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear
and obstacles vanish‖ - John Quincy Adams
ODYSSEY
 The story of the journey of Odysseus and his men trying to get home after the
Trojan War.
 10 years
 an epic about humans on the journey of life overcoming temptations along the
way
THE ODYSSEY
 poet
 thought to be blind, but describes events as a seeing person
 lived around 1200 B.C.E
 Wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey - stories about the war between the Trojans
and the Greeks which had happened between 900 and 700 B.C.E.
Introduction to The Odyssey
 The Odyssey is the story of the wanderings of Odysseus after the fall of Troy.
 The Greek leaders quarreled over the plunder, and so they set off in different
directions.
 Odysseus was King of Ithaca, a small island off the west coast of Greece, but
he took another ten (10) years to return to his own land because the gods from
above were divided about him. Some supported him and others hindered his
progress.
 He had many great adventures: he was nearly killed by the one-eyed giant
Polyphemus, and he narrowly escaped being turned into a pig by the sorceress,
Circe.
 Then he was detained in an island for seven (7) years by the nymph, Calypso,
who offered him immortality and perpetual youth if he would stay. But in his
heart he longed to return to Ithaca, where his wife and his son were waiting for
him with great anxiety.
 The story closes when Odysseus came back to Ithaca disguised as a beggar
and succeeded in dealing with the forty (40) suitors who were pestering his
wife, Penelope, insisting that she should choose one of them as husband.
The Brief Summary Of The Odyssey
The subject matter of the Odyssey is the return of Odysseus, or Ulysses, from
the Trojan War. Because of the anger of the goddess Athena, he was made to wander
in lands beyond the range of human knowledge. He found Ithaca, his native land,
invaded by insolent suitors who sought to kill his young son, Telemachus, and marry
his wife, Penelope.
The poem begins at that point where the hero was considered farthest away
from his home- in the island of Ogygia where the nymph Calypso, who had fallen in
love with him, has kept him imprisoned for seven (7) years. Receiving a command
from Zeus, Calypso released Odysseus and he sailed happily for home. But Poseidon,
the god of the sea, persecuted him and, because of unfavorable winds, he
encountered many dangers and adventures before he reached Ithaca.
The most famous of these adventures were his encounter with Nausicaa,
daughter of the King of Phaeacea; the Cyclopes; the one-eyed giant Polyphemus;
Circe, the enchantress; the sirens; the lotus-eaters; and his journey to the land of the
dead. King Alcinous of Phaeacea helped Odysseus return to Ithaca where danger
from the aggressive suitors of his wife threatened him.
After overcoming and slaying the suitors, Odysseus was reunited with
Penelope, his faithful wife, who had waited for him with great loyalty, patience, and
shrewdness in avoiding the advances of her treacherous and wicked suitors.
THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF ODYSSEUS
1. LAND OF THE LOTUS-EATERS
Lotophagi were the peaceful folks but a strange people. They ate the Lotus
flowers that made them lazy and dream their lives away. They were the first
people whom Odysseus had met during his wandering in the sea for ten years.
People who ate the lotus forget their homes and longed to remain with the
lotus-eaters. The inhabitants met Odysseus and his men with kindness and
gave them their flower- food to eat, but those who tasted it, only a few
fortunately, lost their longing for home.
They wanted only to dwell in the Lotus Land, and let the memory of all that had
been fading from their minds. Odysseus had to drag them on shipboard and
chain them there. They wept, so great was their desire to stay, tasting forever
the honey-sweet flowers.
2. ISLAND OF THE CYCLOPES
Polyphemus a one-eyed giants or a Cyclops kept Odysseus and his
companions a prisoners. He ate two of his prisoners each day, until Odysseus
made him drunk and blinded him.
3. SHORES OF AEOLIA
From the Cyclops‘ island Odysseus came to the country of the Winds. They
were welcomed and received hospitably by Aeolus, King of the Winds, and
when they left he gave Odysseus a leather sack as his parting gift, into which
he had put all the Storm Winds. It was so tightly fastened that not the very least
puff of any wind that spells danger for a ship could leak out. His men thought
the carefully stored bag was probably full of gold and they wanted to see what
was in it. They opened it, with the result all the winds rushed out at once and
swept them away in a terrific tempest. Sultan Kudarat State UNIVERSITY A
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4. ISLAND OF LESTRIGONS/ LAESTRYGONS
After days of danger, they saw land, the Country of Laestrygons, the land of
cruel and rapacious giants. They were the people of gigantic size and cannibals
too. Their ships barely escaped the slaughter and destruction made by the
giants. These horrible folk destroyed all Odysseus‘ ships except the one he
himself was in- which not yet entered the harbor when the attack was made.
5. AEAEA, THE LAND OF CIRCE
Circe was the most beautiful but the most dangerous witch. She was an
enchantress and a sorceress, who charmed her victims and then turned them
into a beast or a swine. Odysseus had come to Aeaea, the realm of Circe. He
dispatched to spy out the land, and there she changed them into swine. She
gave them acorns to eat; they were swine yet inside they were men, aware of
their vile state, but completely in her power
Luckily, one of his men had been cautious to enter the house and watched what
happened and fled back to the ship and told Odysseus the story. On his way to
help his men, Hermes met him and gave an herb that could save him from
Circe‘s deadly art. With it he could taste anything she gave him and suffer no
harm..
6. THE DARK REALM OF HADES
Odysseus must go down to the dark realm of Hades and find the spirit of the
prophet Teiresias, a blind prophet and the holy man of Thebes. He wanted to
know from him how he would get back home to Ithaca. There was only one way
to induce his ghost to come to him, by killing a sheep and filling a pit with their
blood. All ghosts had an irresistible craving to drink blood. Every one of them
would come rushing to the pit, but Odysseus must draw his sword and keep
them away until Teiresias spoke to him.
7. THE ISLAND OF THE SIRENS/ ISLAND OF DEATH
After he ascended from Hades and set sail for home, he passed the island of
the Sirens. They were marvelous singers whose voices would make a man
forget all else, and at last their song would steal his life away. Their songs
charmed mariners into hurling themselves upon rocks, thus killing themselves.
Seated in the green meadows near the shore, and preparing to lure men into
danger with their most captivating songs.
8. PASSAGE BETWEEN SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS
Scylla was a rock that wrecked many ships and Charybdis was a dangerous
whirlpool. The two were on the opposite sides of a narrow channel, which was
also guarded by a monster with six mouths that vomited out ashes and flames.
Created poisonous clouds of smokes that choke men to death. It was a frightful
ordeal and six of the crew lost their lives there.
9. THE ISLAND OF THE SUN
The next stopping place of Odysseus after passing Scylla and Charybdis, the
Island of the Sun, the men acted with incredible folly. They were hungry and
killed the sacred oxen. Odysseus was away gone into the island alone to pray
that when he returned, the beast had been roasted and eaten and nothing could
be done. The vengeance of the Sun was swift. As soon as the men left the
island a thunderbolt shattered the ship. All were drowned except Odysseus.
10. THE ISLAND OF CALYPSO
Odysseus drifted for days after their ships shattered by the thunderbolt hurled
by the Sun, until finally he was cast ashore on the Island of Ogygia where the
nymph Calypso has kept him imprisoned for seven (7) years. Calypso had
fallen in love with him and planned never to let him go. She gave everything he
wanted except in giving him his freedom. Odysseus longed for his home, his
wife and his son.
Athena determined to put an end to his sufferings and bring him home. She
brought the sad case to Odysseus before the gods in Olympus. Zeus sent
Hermes to Calypso to tell her that she must release Odysseus from her island
and allow him to sail back to Ithaca.
11. THE ISLAND OF THE PHAEACIANS
Odysseus safely landed in the country belonged to the Phaeacians, a kind
people and splendid sailors. Their king, Alcinous, was a good and sensible
man, and his wife Queen Arete, a wise woman. Their daughter Nausicaa, never
imagined the next morning she was to play the part of rescuer to the hero. As
she was washing her clothes, together with her servants, in the river Odysseus
suddenly stepped out from the bushes.
All her servants ran away except her. She faced him fearlessly and spoke to her
cause. She then brought her to the palace and then Odysseus told them his
story from the time that he left Troy and up to the moment that he drifted to their
land. The Phaeacians help him sail back to Ithaca.
The Return of Odysseus
Penelope waited 20 years for her husband, Odysseus, to return from the Trojan
War. During his absence (when he was presumed dead), she fended off suitors by
promising to choose one when she finished weaving a garment. But each night she
undid the day‘s work on her loom.

OEDIPUS THE KING

by: Sopocles*
Sophocles, considered one of the greatest of all Greek dramatists, introduced
several important advances into Greek theater during the 5th century BC. His richly
developed characters often exhibit tragic flaws that ironically support their unwelcome
destinies.
In Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), Sophocles dramatized the famous story of
Oedipus, the Greek mythological figure who killed his father, the king, and married his
own mother. The blind prophet Teiresias speaks the words in this excerpt at the point
in the play when he is asked to divine who has offended the gods by killing the former
king (recited by an actor).
Sopocles (496-406 B.C.)

❖ Sopocles was born in Colonnus. He enjoyed the comforts of being a rich merchant‘s
son. His village home was lovely. He led a sheltered life, was carefully trained in
music, and grew in beauty of body and soul. It is said that he was so handsome in face
and body that when the Athenians wanted to celebrate their victory at Salamis and
wanted the most good-looking youth who could be found to lead the choir of boys, he
was chosen as the choral leader.

❖ He was about thirty years younger than Aeschylus, whose plays he must have seen
and admired. It is said that for twelve years he trained himself and studied to become
a playwright..

❖ It is not known exactly when he won in a play contest with Aeschylus; but it is
related that when the two competed for the prize, feelings ran so high that the judging
of the competition was entrusted to a board of generals.

❖ One hundred plays followed his victory. In all won eighteen first prizes; he never
placed lower than second prize. He was a remarkable person. He was the darling of
the Athenian populace; he disproved the sating that a genius must be unrecognized in
his own age.
OEDIPUS THE KING
 The story of Oedipus begins with the story of his parents, Laius and Jocasa,
King and Queen of Thebes. This couple is childless, and they prayed and
offered sacrifices to the gods, asking for a child. They went to the temple of
Apollo at Delphi, and again begging the god for a child, they received the
horrifying prophecy that Jocasta would have a son but that son would murder
his father and wed his mother Jocasta.
 The child Oedipus was born. The frightened parents told a faithful shepherd to
expose the child in the mountains so that he would die and the evil prophecy
would not be realized. The shepherd took the baby to the mountains, but before
he could leave him, another shepherd from Corinth came and asked for the
child, whom, he said, he would give to the childless king and queen of Corinth.
Out of pity the Theban shepherd gave the child to him.
 Oedipus grew up believing that Polybus and Merope, the King and Queen of
Corinth, were his parents. But because of a quarrel with a youth of his age who
accused him of not knowing who his real parents were, he went to the oracle of
Delphi and asked the god to tell him of his parentage. The oracle repeated the
prophecy already given to Laius and Jocasta that he was doomed to kill his own
father and marry his own mother.
 Shocked by this statement and in order to avoid this doom, Oedipus left Corinth
determined never to come back until Polybus and Merope were dead. He left
home and came to a meeting of three roads. He was insulted by an old man in
the clothes of a pilgrim who attempted to beat him up. Oedipus gave the old
man a strong blow, killing him at once. He then continued on his way and came
to the city of Thebe.
 The inhabitants of Thebes were suffering under misfortune in the form of the
Sphinx. This monster had given them a riddle to solve which ran like this: What
is it who in the morning walks on four legs, at noon walks on two legs, and at
night walks in three legs? Because the Theban could not solve this riddle, they
had to take their young boys and girls to feed voracious Sphinx.
 Oedipus successfully solved this riddle by telling the Sphinx that the answer is
man, who crawls on four feet when he is a child, walks upright on two when he
grows up, and walks on three feet with the help of a cane in old age. The
Thebans who asked him to marry their queen, Jocasta, as a result of his having
saved their city, acclaimed Oedipus a hero. The plays open with Oedipus as
king of Thebes. He has four children- two boys and two girls.
 Oedipus and the Sphinx In Greek mythology Oedipus encountered the Sphinx
on his way to Thebes and solved her riddle, thereby ridding the city of the evil
creature. The Sphinx is shown on this Greek vase from the 5th Century BC as a
winged figure with the head of a woman and the body of a lion.
 A plague comes over the land, and when the oracle of Delphi is consulted, the
god Apollo says that if the Thebans want the plague to be removed, they must
look for the murderer of their late king, Laius, and punish him. The people
appeal to Oedipus, who promises to look for the murderer and save the city.
The play develops in a powerful psychological manner, with Oedipus hovering
between the hope that he is not the guilty man and fear that he is.
 Little by little, the truth unfolds to Jocasta and Oedipus, and the two realize that
they are mother and son. Unable to bear this situation, Jocasta commits suicide
and Oedipus blinds both his own eyes for their failure to see the truth. One of
the most pathetic parts of the play is when Oedipus calls for his children and
does not know whether to call them his sons and daughters or his brothers and
sisters.
 Oedipus (in purple robe) learns from his mother, Jocasta (in red), that the fate
prophesied for him at birth has probably come to pass: He has unknowingly
murdered his father and married his mother. Ghostly white plaster figures, in
modern dress but appearing as sculptures, witness the action.

Adventures of Perseus
 Perseus was the son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos.
An oracle had warned the king that he was doomed to be slain by a son of
Danae. To forestall his fate, Acrisius locked up his daughter in a tower of brass
or stone.
 Zeus, however, stole through the roof in a shower of gold, and the fruit of their
union was Perseus. When Acrisius discovered the child, he set him and Danae
adrift in a chest. Through Zeus intervention, the chest was washed ashore in
the Aegean island of Seriphos, where they were received hospitably by
Polydectes, its ruler.
 Polydectes felt in love with Danae and, to get rid of Perseus, dispatched him to
bring back the head of Gorgon Medusa. Equipped with Athena‘s reflecting
shield, Hermes‘ winged sandals, and Hades‘ helmet of darkness, which made
him invisible, Perseus set forth. He overcame Medusa and cut off her head with
a sickle. Possession of the head gave him the power to turn anything to stone.
On his way home he turned Atlas into a mountain and rescued Andromeda, The
Ethiopian Princess from a sea monster by transforming it into a rock. After
returning to Seriphos, Perseus saved his mother from Polydectes by turning
him into stone.
 He then gave Medusa‘s head to Athena, who placed it on her breastplate.
Acrisius meanwhile had fled to Thessaly to avoid Perseus and thereby escape
the fate prophesied by the oracle. Perseus followed Acrisius to Thessaly, where
he took part in an athletic contest and accidentally killed him with a discus. In
this way the prophecy was fulfilled. Uneasy, however, about succeeding
Acrisius, Perseus exchanged thrones with the King of Tiryns.
 Perseus occupies a prominent position in art. Benvenuto Cellini executed a
bronze statue of Perseus rescuing Andromeda, and Peter Paul Rubens did a
notable painting of him. In physique as well as in attire, Perseus was believed to
resemble Hermes. His typical attributes were the winged sandals, the helmet of
Hades, and the sickle with which he slew Medusa.