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İED 141 Mythology

Lecture Notes

Prof Dr Burçin Erol

2022-2023

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MYTHOLOGY

If we try to look at the universe from the standpoint of primitive man, we have to first of all, put aside
all the views of the thinkers and scientists. When we do this we are left with our five senses and our
mental abilities which are primitive because they lack the necessary knowledge to perform the amount
of activity it performs now. With this kind of mind, that is, with a mind deprived of the knowledge
brought by centuries and generations of scientists and philosophers, we would not be able, at first
glance, to think of a creator or creators for the things and beings we see around us. What is there and it
can be seen and that is all.

The most important problem of primitive man was to survive in the conditions he found himself. We
can call this basic wish, the will to survive. Although primitive man was a part of nature, he was not
aware of the fact that it was the various surprising incidents and conditions that nature brought him
face-to-face with that gave him the will to survive. These conditions, especially in ancient times must
have been of a threatening nature to man's being and survival. And in this movement of nature,
primitive man while trying to survive started to strive to understand what was going on around him
because in order to go on living he had to know what was happening around him.

In his primitive state of mind and his struggle to survive, at first step he will perceive the major parts
of nature around him because the most powerful and effective happenings come, for good or bad, from
these parts of nature. These are namely the earth, the sky and probably the sea. Before he could make
the distinction between earth-air-water, man had to be in close contact with nature for a long time.
(This problem of first element, or first cause, rose a long time after the primitive stages, that is, during
the time of the Ionian School of Philosophers).

Primitive man at first perceived these main parts of nature as a whole. Then he started to observe the
different movements of these parts, he understood and recognised the various aspects and qualities. As
he understood the relationship between himself and these parts of nature, he tried to give them some
meaning. This attempt to try and understand things made primitive man try to explain everything he
observed. Today, this process is called scientific thinking and the first steps of scientific thinking were
taken during the time when myths were created. From this point of view, along with the mythologies
of other nations, Greek mythology has a special place in the history of civilisation.

THE ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD 'MYTH'

If the word myth studied etymologically, it will be found that it has its origins in the religious rites of
the primitive people. The rituals which were carried out by the priests or religious leaders in the
temples consisted of:

1. A system of actions: These were performed always in a fixed way, at regular times of the year
and by authorised persons. These set of actions were performed with the aim of securing the
well-being of the community. This, they believed, could only be achieved by overpowering
those forces which men were surrounded with but which were beyond their understanding.

2. Words and stories: These were recited accompanying the system of actions performed

Words: The words recited formed an essential part of the ritual because of the magical effect
they were supposed to create in the recreation of the situation or the event. These words
consisted of Chants, magic words, incantations (spell, magical formula).

Muthos: The stories or tales telling of what was being enacted or describing the situation.
Their function was to explain, not to amuse. Since 'muthos' referred to tales or stories which
are the products of imagination and the desire to believe in some forces of unknown nature, it
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came to mean in Greek language, those words that have come to be in the flux of life and the
truth of which is not reliable.

3. The meaning of the word myth: The word 'myth' refers to old, fictitious tales of anonymous
origin produced by the working of the naive human imagination upon the facts of life. The
nature of myths:

A. Myths have their origin in the primitive beliefs of races or nations.

B. They present supernatural beings and episodes or natural beings or events influenced by
supernatural agencies.
C. They were born out of the need felt by the primitive people to interpret the universe, the
world and the natural phenomena, the scientific origins of which were beyond their
comprehension.
D. They were prevalent (commonly found) among primitive people and accepted as true.
Since they were the products of their own imagination created in an effort to make what
they had not understood, they are concrete and particular in terms of individuals, a
specific interpretation of man or of a cosmic view.

This is the meaning and nature of the word 'myth' in terms of its use in the classical sense. To
distinguish the difference between the use of the word in the modern sense, the latter is referred to as
'myth proper'. Robert Grave's definition of myth proper is: ‘Reduction to narrative shorthand of ritual
mime performed on public festivals, and in many cases recorded pictorially on temple walls, vases,
seals, bowls, mirrors, chests, shields, tapestries, and the like.’

Although there was a time when myth only referred to 'myth proper, the tendency today is to define
and interpret mythos as a 'dramatic or narrative embodiment of a particular group of people's
perception of the deepest truth.'

When myth is used in the modern sense, it may either assume the meaning as understood in the
modern meaning of the word or the meaning in sophisticated literary sense.
Myth as understood in the modern meaning of the word refers to stories concerning,

a. Places either fictional or real

b. Individuals
c. Episodes

which possess an uncommon significance, by the working of the universal instinct and mind, of any
group of people, having become distinguished as types, communal possessions, the agreed and
classical embodiments of some ways of feeling and thinking. Some examples of modern myths are:

1. Myths centring on events or individuals mythicised by the members of a family, school or a

building.
2. ‘St. Paul's Cathedral’ spared during the World War II, introduced the myth of Present
Endurance and Ultimate Escape.
3. ‘James Dean Myth' (A romantic young man full of an extraordinary impulse for rebellion)
represents The Rebellious Youth.
4. 'The Myth of Spartacus' resisting the Persians at Thermopylae originated the myth of heroic
courage against desperate odds.
5. 'The Defeat of the Spanish Armada' originated the myth of defence of freedom against
tyranny, an eternal myth of victory of the weak over the strong,
6. White-Red struggle in America gave way to the production of myths centring on cowboys and
Indians, and likewise White-Negro struggle to the myth of ‘Uncle Tom’.
7. The love story Romeo and Juliet has originated the myth of young love ending in tragedy.

B. Myths in the sophisticated literary sense refer to the material with which the artist works. Into
this material he incorporates the old myths in varying ways or degrees or the new ones he has created,

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in order to give order and a frame of meaning to his individual perceptions of truth; symbols and
images he uses become a recognisable element of his career as a while. Examples are:

a. T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land

b. James Joyce's Ulysses
c. Melville's Moby Dick / The White Whale

CHARACTERISTICS OF MYTHS

I. Myths are born, not made for they owe their features not to any one historic individual, but
to the imaginative efforts (arising from a societal need) of a generation of story tellers.
II. Anonymous for they are not to deliberate inventions of any one individual, but the possession
of the generations of a society.
III. Have different versions for they pass from mouth to mouth - with no record by which to
check their accuracy in particulars and being not committed to writing (due to which they
might be fixed for all times) - are free to expand and are open to all kinds of modifications
in accordance with the moods of those who recite them, besides the intellectual and more
standards of those who listen to them.
IV. Clustered about beings worshipped be they gods, deities, supernatural beings, animals, etc.,
which were actually worshipped.
V. They differ - especially myths of Origin (or creation myths) or eventual extinction - according
to the climate and other geographical conditions of the country where they have their
origins.
VI. Develop as culture spreads, old myths being remodelled to reflect the changes which the
society undergoes, especially those changes produced by revolutions or invasions as a
rule, politely to disguise the actions and deeds of violence.
VII. Germinate luxuriant branches and leaves of narratives and blossoms of poetic
comeliness and form in some strange and childish interpretation of natural events, under
nurture of the simple folk, put forward, unconsciously.
VIII. Usually concerned with supernatural beings and powers having control over natural
phenomena, and even being parts of it: the sense of awe, felt in presence of magnificent
objects of nature being universal, since they did not deem themselves superior to nature
(being primitive and having no notion of science in relation to nature and natural
phenomena) and they were living close to the heart of nature, besides.
IX. Not historically true, not even possess the value of slightly exaggerated or idealised history
though they might embody some historical facts.
X. Fascinating with a high rate of mis-readability. Therefore a proper study of myths require a
great store of geographical, historical and anthropological knowledge and familiarity with
the properties of plants and trees, and the habits of wild birds and beasts.

THE NATURE AND THE ELEMENTS OF MYHTS

Myths possess both reasonable and unreasonable elements. The reasonable elements account for their
appeal to moral sense and reason. In certain myths the gods are displayed as beautiful, wise and
beneficent beings. On the other hand, in complete contradiction to its reasonable elements, there exist
those elements which are not in harmony with imaginative and moral sense or reason. In some myths
the gods are attributed cruel, foolish and unpleasant practices and adventures. Hence, myths as being
based on two contradictory elements, present a complex and puzzling nature. Therefore, different
versions of the same myth exist.
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TYPES OF MYTHS

A. Myths can be classified according to their elements as Reasonable and Unreasonable Myths.

a. Reasonable Myths: Myths which present deities and supernatural beings as beautiful,
wise and beneficent while trying to interpret in concrete terms the natural phenomena and
powers are qualified as reasonable myths. These myths are in harmony with reason,
imagination and the moral sense.

Example: The myth of Demeter, the Mother-Earth, mourning the loss of her daughter
Kore or Proserpine (spring time), a very beautiful girl abducted by Hades (the king of the
underworld), is reasonable enough. Demeter with the hope of finding her daughter goes to
Zeus for advice. Zeus tells her that if Kore had not eaten anything from this world, she
would come back. But she has eaten the seeds of pomegranate. This motif explains the
change of seasons.

b. Unreasonable Myths: Myths which convey deities and supernatural beings as beings
indulged in cruel, foolish and unpleasant practices, adventures and interpret natural events
in terms of untrue and unlovely conceptions in an effort to make them concrete are
qualified as unreasonable myths.

Example: Again in the above myth, Demeter, in a bit of anger, devouring the shoulder of the
boy Pelops and replacing it with ivory is not only senseless but also cruel.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN MYTH AND RELATED GENRE

1. Folk story: It is a simple narrative with a simple plot. Its story is either true or imaginary
(fictive) and it is either in verse or in prose. It gives a slightly correct idea about traditional patterns of
behaviour common to the members of a particular culture and it is characteristically anonymous being
preserved by oral tradition.

Folktale is an embodiment of the group characters of a particular culture without demanding belief
whereas myth is the embodiment of commonly shared imaginative beliefs concerning facts of
experience. While folktale carries some traditional elements of a specific culture, myth has more
universal elements embodying primitive science, philosophy, and history. One can also speak of many
overlapping, stored elements and transfusions between the two genres.

2. Legend: Legends are collections of traditional stories passed down from past generations and
they deal with the lives of gods, heroes and saints. There may be a historical basis to what it talks
about though in an exaggerated and distorted way and legends are the products of imagination rather
than of the memory or reason. They also belong to the oral tradition.

Legends are historicizing in content, and rooted in history, they exaggerate and distort it, whereas
myths have no actuality. Legends are also given in realistic terms and it has more human environment
while myths are fantastic stories with a more otherworldly environment.

3. Saga: It is Icelandic or Scandinavian story about medieval times. It records legendary or

historic accounts of heroic adventures. It involves extraordinary or marvellous adventures. It talks
about certain important or famous people. It is developed anonymously through oral tradition. Sagas
may have some truth in them. They present ideals which people should try to copy.

Saga is not a wholly invented story; at its basis it may have some historical truth while myth
is an invented story produces by the imagination. The former may also be didactic.

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4. Marchen: It is a pure simple story (fairy tale) made up of small episodes. There is no definite
time or place or characters to the story and there is no accounting of anything. Its only purpose is to
amuse.

As opposed to a myth's aesthetic and explanatory nature compelling belief, marchen does not aim to
find or record truth but amuse, it accounts for the cause of nothing and it does not intend to command
belief. While myth appeals to the hearer's notion of probability, marchen does not demand imaginative
assent.

5. Fable: It is an imaginary story in which animals and even things act and speak like human
beings. It is the vehicle of moral or didactic instruction. It is cynical, coarse and in short verse.
Fable has a definite author while myth is anonymous (see below for 7 more differences). Myth is less
concerned with moral didacticism and it is the product of a racial group.

6. Beast fable: A kind of fable in which the characters are animals. It is a satirical device used to
point out the follies of mankind.

7. Fabliau: A humorous tale which was very popular in medieval French Literature. It is based
on sly satire on human beings and on bawdy themes.

8. Epic: A long narrative poem in elevated style which presents heroic characters of high
position in a series of deeds and adventures which are important to the history (and also fate) of a
nation or a race. Folk epic (primary, pop) of the oral tradition presenting, in a narrative mood, a story
which is an end in itself (Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, Beowulf, Dedekorkut, Oguz Destam, Gilgamesh).

9. Art epic (literary, secondary): written by specific poets with a poetic effect, less or strong
individuality, style and diction. This secondary myth is used as a means to an end (Virgil's Aeneid,
Milton's Paradise Lost)

10. Myth is a part of the legend and legend is the skeleton of an epic.

THE ETYMOLOGY AND THE ORIGIN OF THE WORD 'MYTHOLOGY'

(MYTHOS: Tales, stories) MYTHO + LOGY (LOGOS. Account, study)

The word Mythos, meaning 'stories' or 'tales' in Greek, refers to those the truth of which cannot be
relied on. In other words, it meant that which is not worthy of belief, being only the product of
imagination and fancy. The word Logos, on the other hand, meaning 'study' or 'account', refers to
those which are produces by the orderly procedure of human reasoning yet both imagining and
reasoning are two authentic modes of thought.

Henceforth the word Mythology is composed of two opposing components: Mythos which includes
all that concerns the imagination, ail that the truth of which cannot be tested, but all that which
contain its truth in itself; and Logos which includes everything that can be stated in rational terms, all
that attains to objective truth and therefore, appears the same to all minds. The very etymological
nature of the word Mythology consisting of two polar terms, reflect the very authentic nature of
mythology itself which is the study of mythical tales, that is the rational analysis of fictitious
productions of imagination.

To define mythology at a simpler level, it is 'a body of myths, legends, sagas related to persons or
objects or things which are current to a particular group of people.

At a deeper level, Palmer Bovie defines mythology with an explanation of its nature as follows:
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Mythology is not entertainment or history. It is a marvellous cultural vision, a dazzling and

aromatic struggle of values and forces. It contains small doses of truth treated with
generous alloys of fiction. ... Among the kaleidoscopic effects of mythological narration are
religion, social work", philosophy and art, mysticism, geography, astronomy, human
history. Mythology looks at man in his cosmic surroundings and transmits typical pictures
of typical disasters and triumphs, it unfolds patterns of fearful, daring, impulsively free
action carried on by spiritual and rational beings, sometimes in concert, sometimes in
conflict. While these narratives may appear at times wildly emotional and impromptu, the
gist of their meaning is forever relevant to the human condition.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MYTHOLOGY

Every country, every nation has its own mythology, yet all mythologies share some common
characteristics:

I. Mythology is a flexible and fluid concept. Being free of the restraints of reason, it can be
moulded and shaped easily. It is this flexibility which is open to various interpretations, that is,
accountable for its serving as a fertile source of inspiration for philosophical and artistic
creation alike.

II. Mythology attempts to account for the Creation, Durability, Religion; to explain natural
phenomena, to guess at the meaning of existence and death, and to chronicle the adventures of
racial heroes.

III. Mythology is the production of human mind affected by awe, wonder, credulity, fear, and
above all, curiosity, and hence together with ritual is one of the twin offspring or progeny of
social necessity.

IV. The richness of the mythologies of any nation depends upon its being a nation possessing a
historical tradition, having its roots in the very ancient times.

V. The variety and the number of mythological stories comprising the mythology of any nation
increase in direct proportion with the lands over which that particular nation is born and
develop.

VI. Mythology of a nation contains characters, actions, episodes (stories), and recurrent motifs
startlingly similar to those found in various other mythologies belonging to societies widely
separated both in time and place (e.g. the Flood Myth).

VII. Besides, mythologies of different nations in themselves are a rare collection of

recurrent motifs as homicide, parricide, exile, seduction, violation of taboos, illegitimate
births, incest within the same family circle, theft, deceit, trick, as well as the other
manifestations of what the anthropologists call The ‘shame culture' and 'the guilt culture'.

TYPES OF MYTHOLOGY (AND THE SOURCES)

I. PREHISTORIC MYTHOLOGY
II. CLASSICAL MYTHOLGY

1. Greek Mythology (Hesiod's THEGONY, and Homer's ILIAD, ODYSSEY)

i. Pre-Hellenic (The Aegean) Mythology
ii. The Mythology of Classical Greece

2. Roman Mythology (Ovid’s METAMORPHESES, Virgil’s AENEID)

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III. TEUTONIC MYTHOLOGY

1. German Mythology
2. Scandinavian Mythology (THE ELDER EDDA, THE YOUNGER EDDA)

IV. CELTIC MYTHOLOGY

V. SLAVONIC MYTHOLOGY

VI. MYTHOLOGY OF THE TWO AMERICAS

VII. MYTHOLOGY OF OCENIA

VIII. MYTHOLOGY OF THE BLACK AFRICA

IX. MIDDLE EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

1. Mesopotamian Mythology
i. Babylonian Mythology
ii. Sumerian Mythology

2. Egyptian Mythology (THE PYRAMID TEXT)

3. Ugaratic Mythology (RASSHAMRA TABLETS, 1928)
4. Fino-Ugaratic Mythology
5. Hittite Mythology (10000 TABLETS FOUND IN BOĞAZKÖY)
6. Phoenician mythology
7. Mythology of Ancient Persia
i. Judeo-Christian Mythology
ii. Hebrew Mythology (THE OLD TESTAMENT)
iii. Christian Mythology (THE NEW TESTAMENT)

X. FAR EASTERN MYTHOLOGY

1. Mythology of India
2. Chinese Mythology
3. Japanese Mythology
4. Altaic Mythology

MYHTOLOGICAL CHARACTERS

In the traditional sense mythological allusions are:

a. God, Goddess, or Demigod (eg. Zeus, Fdejya)
b. Deity or Divinity -Nymph-(eg. Musaeus)
c. Supernatural Beings, other than those mentioned above, such as Giants, Monsters,
Spirits possessing certain attributes and stories particular to themselves (eg. Utgard, Loki,
Sphinx, Unicorn, Sirens, Nixies, Norms)
d. Heroes, unusual personalities who are superior to the rest for being braver, stronger of built,
mightier in handling spear or sword for having experienced certain adventures involving the
above mentioned mythological characters; sometimes being victorious, receiving considerable
help from them, at times being defeated for attracting their anger (eg. Sigurd, Sigmund,
Odysseus, Aeneid, Theseus, Hercules).

MYTHIOLOGICAL ALLUSION

Mythological characters, their attributes, nature, powers, or emblems or stories closely linked with
them, which are referred to by the poets and novelists to reinforce the meaning of their own work, to
further elaborate their point, or to provide order or frame for their concepts and images.
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Eg:

The intelligible forms of ancient poets,

The fair humanities of old religion,
The Power, the Beauty and the Majesty,
That had their hunts in dale or piny mountain,
Or forest, by slow stream, or pebby springs.
Or chasms and watery depths; all these have vanished;
They live no longer in the faith or reason;
But still the heart doth need a language; still
Doth the old instinct bring back the old names;
Spirits or Gods that used to share this earth
With man as with their friend; and at this day
tis Jupiter who brings whate'er is great,
And Venus who brings everything that's fair.
Coleridge, The Piccolomini Act: II Scene: 4

The above lines of poetry contain a mythological allusion. It is Jupiter and Venus who are referred to
by name, as a whole the lines implicitly refer to Greek Mythology, and the lines 3, 4, 5 in particular to
the Nymphs.
Had gazed on nature's naked loveliness
Acteon-like and now he fled astray
With feeble steps over the world's wilderness,
And his own thoughts, along that rugged way
Pursued like raging hounds, their father and their pray.
Shelley, ‘Adonis’

Had gazed on the mythical allusion used here is the story of Artemis (Diana) and Acteon, the youth
torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs, as a punishment for seeing Artemis naked. Yet the poet uses
this allusion to enforce the meaning he incorporates into his poem: Nature stands for Artemis; Acteon,
the poet's own mind; the dogs, his thoughts as the poet himself in his mind gazes at nature.

WHY STUDY MYTHOLOGY?

1. As Bulfinch puts it, ‘Mythology is the handmaid of Literature’. What he means is that without
a proper knowledge of mythology, especially that of Classical Mythology, it is almost impossible to
understand and appreciate fully the masterpieces of Western Literature which has produced many a
novelist and poet like Byron who calls Rome ‘The Noble of all nations’, and Venice ‘A Sea- Cybele,
fresh from Ocean.’

In fact, the study of mythology serves as a torchlight to illuminate the Fabric of Literature (of Epics, of
Lyrics, of Dramas, of Novels, of Essays) which are richly interwoven with the mythology of ancient
nations.

Myth puts the reader, m possession of information which is indispensable to everyone who would read
with intelligence, the elegant literature of his own day. For authors often resort to recurrent myths
embodied in various myths for three main reasons:

a. Style: similes, metaphors, allusions.

Ex. Milton’s ‘Comus', 'On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity', and Paradise Lost
b. Plot Construction: to reinforce the topic of the theme employed.
Ex. Joyce's Ulysses
c. Choice of Subject Matter: mainly employed by poets and dramatists.
Ex. M. Arnold's ‘Palder Dead', Shelley's ‘Prometheus Unbound’

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2. Likewise, mythology serves to illuminate the way as to how certain words have come into
being with the specific meanings attached to them;
Pan panic Psyche psyche (soul);
Tantalus tantalise chaos chaos,chaotic
Eros erotic gyges giant

3. Mythology serves as the best aid for the evolution of the aesthetic sense and the refinement of
aesthetic judgement and appreciation and understanding of the works of art produced both in the field
of painting and sculpture.Ever since artistic creation has gained currency, mythology has been serving
as the best and most comprehensive interpreter of concrete artistic productions.Similarly, art is
responsible for the complete understanding and appreciation of mythology, both sharing the same
means for production: imagination.

4. Serves as one of the most important source of inspiration even for the present day modern art
and literature, in an age when besides social problems psychology of the major source to which the
artist resort to.
Because, mythology embodies the metaphysical and psychological behaviour of the primitive people.
Its intuitive power, capturing the weaknesses and follies of mankind, provides an unchangeable nature,
surviving the lapse of time and the opportunity of multiple application.

Psychological and psychoanalytical concepts such as dream experience, sex and its responsibilities,
the family's network of authority and instinct, "compensation", moral freedom, totem and taboo
“aggression”, “Oedipus complex”, “castration anxiety” populate mythology. Modern psychology and
psychoanalysis have labelled these fundamental psychological phenomena embodied in the myths and
legends, coloured by fictitious and supernatural elements.Therefore, mythology preserves its perennial
fascination for men, due to its strong psychological overtones disclosed in the universal language of
man: the language of man's inner world, and the science of his mind.

5. Serves to mirror primitive history, social history, religion, philosophy and science because
mythology is a dramatic shorthand record of such matters as invasion, migration, dynastic changes,
admission of foreign cults, and social reforms. It gives expression to the beliefs, traditions, customs
underlying the civilisation of a society it relates to and is produced by, and voices the spirit and
spiritual aspirations of various societies, concepts of life, man and his position in the universe. It also
mirrors the manifestations of "shame culture" or "guilt culture" that reflects the social history, and
suggests ideas which are later realised by scientific developments.

CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY

The term classic is not only restricted to the products of Greece and Rome for classic does not mean
classical; neither it is antithetical to Romantic, since both are relative terms. Hence the 'Classic' and
the 'Romantic' of one generation may equally merit to be the Classics of the next.

What should be called a “Classic” must then possess such qualities as being first-class, spontaneous,
simple and beautiful as it should fulfil the requirements of everlasting freshness, aesthetic potency,
ideal worth, unconscious simplicity, inevitable charm, and noble perfection.

Ancient Greek and Roman mythologies together are often referred as ‘Classical Mythology’. Greek
Mythology is further subdivided into Pre-Hellenic Mythology and Classical Greek Mythology. The
latter is composed of Myths, Legends and Cycles of Sagas.

PRE-HELLENIC PEOPLE AND THEIR CIVILISATION

In order to fully understand and appreciate Greek Mythology we have to take a brief glance at the
beginnings of Greek history.
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To examine the prehistoric times of Greece and Western Anatolia getting more interesting with the
new data which are constantly brought to us by archaeologists and philologists. Scientists are
enlightening us on these civilisations day by day beginning with Heinrich Schliemann who believed in
the historical reality of Greek Mythology. In 1870s Schliemann has gone to Troy, Mycenae, and
Tiryns and has proved the reality of the prosperity and power of the cities, kings and the heroes of the
Minoan-Mycenaean legend.

Later in 1900s Sir Arthur Evans discovered the great magnificent palace of King Minos with its
intricate construction. It was believed for a long time that no one inhabited Greece before the Neolithic
age. But today we know that Greece was inhabited in the Palaeolithic age - 7000 BC. The
archaeological searches have proved that there were agricultural communities in Greece at about
6000-3000 BC.

Before Greeks had emerged primitive barbarism, there existed in the basin of the Aegean Sea a Pre-
Hellenic Mediterranean civilisation. These Pre-Hellenic settlements of about 3000 BC were namely
Thessaly, central Greece, Crete, and Aegean islands. Crete was the centre of this civilisation. It was
threatened and uprooted by the Hellenic invasion of the early 2000 BC. The civilisation was
transported to Athens, Peloponnese, and Argons by the Aeolians and Ionians. It survived there only a
short period and was put to an end by the Achaean and Dorian invasion in about 1200 BC. Thus in
about 1000 BC the actual Hellenic civilisation and hence Classical Greece and its civilisation was
finally established.
MINOAN CIVILISATION (2500-1400 BC)

Crete is the place where the highest form of Aegean civilisation had begun. Greece inherited this
civilisation. Crete, Greece and Aegean islands were still in the stone age when the invader Minoans
came from the East. The Invaders passed through Asia Minor, went over the Aegean Sea and reached
up to Peloponnese in Greece and there established the Great Minoan Civilisation beginning with
Crete. The Minoan Civilisation developed through the Middle Bronze Age reaching its peak between
1600-1400 BC. Excavations proved that the city of Knossus was the capital of the Minoan state which
influenced the Aegean islands and Greece through the sea. The magnificent Minoan state most
probably demanded tribute from its neighbours. We learn from the paintings at Knossus Palace that
the basis of Minoan religion was the worship of fertility goddess.

The Minoan Civilisation was destroyed at about 1400 BC. There are archaeological evidences of a
great fire which might the actual cause of the destruction of this civilisation along with other possible
causes as an earthquake, or the Achean invasion.

THE NATURE OF THE PRE-HELLENIC PEOPLE

The Pre-Hellenic people in Greece belonged and shared the same ideas with the rest of the Neolithic
(the latest period of the Stone Age) people of the Europe, inhabiting it before the arrival of the Aryan
invaders from the distant North and East; therefore, they possessed political and religious systems
common to all Neolithic Europeans. They had a remarkably homogenous system of religious worship
of the many titled Mother-Goddess who was also known in Syria and Libya.

RELIGION

Fethishism was the first form of the Aegean form of worship, as with the rest of the world, the
worship of any kind of object irrationally reverend (fetish: inanimate object worshipped by savages its
supposed inherent magical powers or as being inhabited by a spirit). Their fetishes were:

a. Sacred Stones,
b. The Cult of Weapons
c. The Cult of Trees and Animals

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In 2000 BC, the religion of the people of Crete and Mycenae in the Aegean was chiefly the
FERTILITY CULT of the MOTHER GODDESS (CULT: The body of ritual practices through which
men symbolise their beliefs and seek to communicate with their Gods in terms of gratitude or petition
and to inspire in themselves the right frame of mind).

Matriarchal Phase: Pre-Hellenic people had no gods other than the Great Goddess, since she was
regarded as immortal, changeless, and omnipotent. The concept of the fatherhood had not yet been
introduced into the religious thought. She took lovers not to provide her children with a father, but for
pleasure. She was believed to be responsible for creating new life on her own, and to give birth on her
own (parthenogenesis). Men feared, adored, and obeyed the matriarch. The Hearth which she tended
in a cave or hut became their earliest social centre, and motherhood their prime mystery.

Patriarchal Phase: Once the relevance of sexual union to childbearing had been officially admitted,
man's religious status gradually improved, and winds or rivers were no more given credit for
impregnating women. The tribal Nymph chose an annual lover from her worshippers and attendants, a
king to be sacrificed when the year ended. It was made a symbol of fertility, rather than an object of
her erotic pleasure. His sprinkled blood served to fertilise trees, crops, and flocks; and his flesh was
torn and eaten raw by the Queen's fellow nymphs - the Priestesses. The death of the king was
associated with the decline of the power of the sun in winter time. For the next year, a young man was
selected as the new king and the Queen's lover to be sacrificed again in the following mid-winter. As a
reward he was reincarnated in an oracular serpent Thus kingship developed and the king became the
symbol of male fertility since the king's life was identified with seasonal course of the sun. However,
it still remained under the Moon's guardianship long after the matriarchal phase had been outgrown.

When women are sovereign in religious matters, men were not denied fields in which they might act
without female supervision. They could be trusted to hunt, fish, gather certain foods, mind flocks and
herds, and help to defend the tribal territory against intruders, so long as they did not transgress
matriarchal law. During war or migration, a maternal male relation of the Queen was appointed as the
commander in chief.
PRE-HELLENIC MYTHOLOGY

Since the first form of the Aegean religion was fetishism, only later on, after the concept of divinity
was established, the Pre-Hellenic people were able to form a mythology of their own. Only then it was
possible for the Cretan pantheon to be formed and the myths centring around its members were
created; thus Pre-Hellenic mythology was born.

CHARACTERISTICS OF PRE-HELLENIC MYTHOLOGY

The dark picture of mythology, created by the Pre-Hellenic people was worlds apart from the stories
of classical mythology.

a. The chief deity, dominating the Pre-Hellenic mythology like many of the Asiatic cults, was
feminine, the male god who was a celestial divinity was subordinated to her.

b. It was akin to the mythologies of those nations inhabiting Eastern Mediterranean and ancient
Western Asia where the domineering two major figures were:
i. the mother goddess who was connected with Fecundity (Fertility) Rites.
ii. The Sky God.

c. Primarily it was concerned with the changing relations between the Queen - who was the
representative of the Great Goddess - and her lovers. They began with their annual or six
monthly sacrifices.

d. Pre-Hellenic mythology was weakened by the Hellenic invasions and finally was incorporated
into Classical Greek Mythology.
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Nevertheless, the Pre-Hellenic mythology was never to be lost completely. It survived in a great many
Greek legends, like,
The abduction of Europa,
The birth of Zeus in Crete,
The Minotaur of Crete.
THE AEGEAN PANTHEON

The Aegean Pantheon was mainly based on the cult of the Mother Goddess. The cults of the Mother
Goddess and her roles were as diverse as the regions and cultures where she was worshipped.

a. Basically, she was the Mother and hence, the giver of birth, the source of new life and she was
associated with the cycle of agricultural and wild life.
b. She was also the wife of male deities, and sometimes her consort or her son underwent death
and resurrection that symbolised the renewal of nature in spring time. Ex.: Ishtar and her
consort Dumuzi (Tammuz) in Mesopotamia and Isis and her husband Osiris in Egypt.
c. Sometimes, as a huntress, the Goddess had a special association with animals - like the Greek
Goddess Artemis - thus one of her roles was to be the patroness of wild beasts.
d. She had a profound influence both in Western Asia and in the Greco-Roman world in many
different forms as in the Cults of CYBELE, BELLONA, DEMETER and ISIS.
e. In Greek religion, the varied functions of the Mother Goddess were ultimately assigned to
different deities.

THE GREAT GODDESS: THE UNIVERSAL MOTHER: MOTHER GODDESS

Character
1. She was the chief deity, the Matriarch.
2. In her, she united all the attributes and functions of divinity. She was the single focal point for
many different aspects of religious life and ritual.
3. Is often associated with her young male god, who may have been her consort, especially in
Crete,
4. Her influence extended over plants, animals, and humans.
Atributes
1. The Goddess of Fertility, the Mother Goddess: because of being identified with seasonal
changes in animal and plant life, and thus with Mother Earth. At the beginning of the
vegetative year, she was supposed to produce only leaves firsts, and then flowers and fruits.
2. The Goddess of the Universe since all the universe was her domain, and hence:
3. The Goddess of the Sun
4. The Goddess of the Moon
5. The Goddess of Heaven
6. The Goddess of Sea and Earth
7. The Goddess of the Underworld - being the sovereign of death.
8. The Mountain Goddess
9. The Lady of the Beasts
10. She can be conceived as Triads in connection with the Matriarch's three phases of Maiden,
Nymph (Nubile woman), and Crone (Old woman) representing some other triads such as:
a. The three phases of the Moon; the New, the Full, and the Old Moon.
b. The suns annual course recalls the rise and decline of her powers and hence: Spring (the
Maiden), Summer (the Nymph), and Winter (the Crone).
c. The Goddess of Heaven - the Maiden of upper Air; the Goddess of the Sea - the Nymph of
the Sea; and the Goddess of the Underworld - The Crone of the' Underworld.
This triple aspect is typified in Greek mythology by Selene (Moon) respectively. Besides it can be
accounted for the sacred Aphrodite (Beauty) and Hecate (Underworld).

Emblems and Sytmbols

1. The Poplar Tree: was sacred to her and served as her altar and symbolised her generative
power and the union of earth and heaven

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2. The Bird: was sacred to her and usually decorates her heddress and symbolises universality
3. The Snake: It is regarded as the guardian of heaven and hence is treated with special
reverence. It symbolises her being the Goddess of the hearth, universality and hence the
guardian of the house. The river Nile maybe identified by the snake and hence from this point
of view symbolise her power of fecundity and fertility.
4. The Moon and the Sun: these are her celestial symbols(Lunar Axe and Double Axe)
5. The White Conical Image:
Functions
1. Causing the products of the soil to flourish,
2. Regulating the courses of the heavenly bodies,
3. Controlling the alternating seasons,
4. Guiding man at sea,
5. Presiding over plants, trees and vegetation life,
6. Tending the heart, giving man riches, protecting them in battle,
7. Presiding over the underworld,
8. Killing and taming the wild beasts.

OTHER CRETAN GODDESSES

DICTYNNA: ‘Goddess of the Nets’she received this name upon failing into the nets of a fisherman
when she flung her off a high rock into the sea.

BRITOMARTIS: ‘The Sweet Virgin’ She received this name after her chastity was proved by her not
yielding to Minos' offer of his love to her, and fleeing a race (lasting 9 months) to avoid him. Later, in
their legends, Greeks applied these two names to one divinity, calling her Dictynna-Britomartis in
reference to the Cretan Artemis.
According to the Greek legend, Britomartis was a young virgin huntress who pursued wild beasts in
the forests of Crete. She was said to be the daughter of Zeus. Minos saw her and was captivated by her
beauty. He offered her his love. He then attempted to violate her. But she fled and after a race which
lasted not less than nine months, in order to escape him. She finally flung herself off a high rock into
the sea. Yet she fell into the nets of a fisherman and for that reason received the name Dictynna-
Artemis. In reward for her chastity, she was raised to the rank of the immortals and thenceforth she
appeared to navigators during nights.

THE AEGEAN GOD: THE BULL-GOD

Atributes
1. A celestial divinity like the Cretan goddess with whom he is associated, but he, at the same
time, subordinated to her.
2. He bore the epithet Asterius, ‘The Starry’.
3. He was found again under the name of Asterion, the king of Crete who was said to have
married Europe after her adventure with Zeus.
4. Later he was identified with Zeus himself, whose legend was thus enriched with Cretan
contributions.
5. The peculiarity of the Cretan God was a mingling of Animal and Human features which
composed his nature.
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CLASSICAL GREEK MYTHOLOGY

THE NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF CLASSICAL GREEK MYTHOLOGY

1. Iliad, composed with the eclipse of the Mother-Goddess cult by an unlimited male monarchy,
marks the beginning of the Classical Greek Mythology.
2. Classical Greek Mythology formed the essential background and cultural heritage of later
Greek civilizations.
3. Since Greek religion was polytheistic, the divine attributes and functions of the divinities were
distributed among a number of gods and go
4. Goddesses. Classical Greek Mythology crowds with both male and female deities equally
important and almost in the same number.
5. The tales contained in Classical Greek Mythology do not throw any clear light upon what
early mankind was like, but illuminate abundantly the nature of the Greek people, which is
more valuable for the English and Americans, who are their descendants, intellectually,
artistically, and politically.
6. Classical Greek Mythology was a product of the Greeks for whom mankind was the center of
the universe, the divinities comprising the Geek Pantheon were in their own image. Being
immortal was the distinguishing characteristic of gods from human beings.
7. Greek divinities were much like man: acting like man, looking like them with the exception of
being much handsomer, more powerful and immortal.
8. Greek divinities, unlike the Pre-Hellenic divinities, were not ugly, dark idols; but beautiful and
radiant.
9. These divinities descended down from Olympus to earth at times, either in their own shapes or
as disguised as animals or humans. They would metamorphose themselves in anything they
desired.
10. The figures peopling Classical Greek Mythology fall into three groups and hence mythology
itself in three categories:
a. The Gods of Olympus and lesser divinities and myths about them seeking to explain
natural events and phenomena.
b. Supernatural beings, monsters and beasts, and myths, legends and marchens centering on
them to explain the source of evil on earth.
c. Greek heroes, and cycles of sagas centering on them.

11. In Classical Greek Mythology there were few things in man's life that did not have a god to
look over them. Ex., there were special gods for Town (Athena), Plants (Demeter), Man's
occupation (Hephaestos), Feelings (Aphrodite).
12. The abode of gods, the Heaven, was a pleasantly familiar place.
13. It was the miracle of Greek mythology to introduce a humanized world and to free man from
the paralyzing fear of an omnipotent Unknown.
14. It possessed a certain matter-of-factness resulting from the familiar local habitation
introducing reality to ail the mythical beings.

15. The terrifying irrational had no place in classical mythology; there are no man but only two
women with dreadful supernatural powers, yet they both are young and a surpassing beauty,
not horrible.
16. Besides the divinities, classical mythology is also crowded with various monsters and beasts in
any number of shapes. These are found either to stand for ail that is wicked and dark - to be
conquered by heroes or to give the hero his mead of glory.
17. Myths consisting Classical Greek Mythology possess not only a quasi-scientific meaning but
also a value as early literature.
18. The importance of Greek Mythology rests on:

a. Its having the compulsivity of stories that have been passed down through the ages
because of their vigour and ultimate significance, because they are the indications of the
spirit and the aspirations of the Greeks.

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b. Its inclusion of wonderful accounts of the actions and histories of numerous divine beings,
and legends and sagas relating adventures of heroes in which magical and ghostly
agencies play a part, and where animals and inanimate nature do possess the attributes of
man and gods.
c. Its being consisted of myths which appear more or less in the literature arid art of every
nation

THE CREATION MYTHS (COSMOGONICAL)

These myths have been devised on account of the creation of the universe and the world, the gods, and
finally mankind.

THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE AND THE FORMATION OF THE WORLD

There are many myths on Greek and Roman mythologies about the creation of the universe. Although
these myths have a lot in common, they differ from each other in many points. They also have
parallels in the eastern mythologies, therefore Cosmogony - the creation of the universe - comes up as
a very complicated subject. This complication generally arises from the fact that a mythic figure in a
myth takes some other function, shape or another name in some other myth.

CHAOS: In order to be able to fully understand the myths of creation the important concept of chaos
which is mentioned in all of them must be clarified. In Greek, Chaos generally means pit or dark pit.
In the beginning of Theogony, Hesiod says, ‘Before everything there was chaos’ and in
Metamorphoses, Ovid says, before the sea, the land and the sky there was Chaos which included
everything. In this heavy confusion which had neither shape nor movement, were all the elements of
everything mingled with each other. So Chaos is the state of nature, or of the universe when nothing
existed alone and there was not yet a harmonious order.

• Etymologically speaking, the word ‘Chaos’ stems from the same root as chasmos a yawning
gulp or gap'. The same word is also the origin of the word ‘chasm’, (gap, cleft). It was not
empty (void) but filled with a dark mass of waters.
• According to Hesiod, at the very beginning Chaos was:
1. Void and vast gap (comparable to Gugingagap),
2. A confused and shapeless watery mass,
3. Darkness,
4. A living creature, whose body was perhaps formed by the water. In various other
theologies ‘chaos’ was an ‘Infant’, or considered to be a ‘great dragon’ holding the waters
with him. These waters containing the basic elements on earth, though in complete
disorder and confusion, are awaiting to be released from the Chaos Demon, from the
confinement, to occupy their proper places.

Different conceptualisations nourished by the ancient Greeks concerning the creation of the universe
run as follows:

1. The Pelasgian Creation Myth: The name ‘Palesgians’ was given by Homer to the aboriginal
non-Greek inhabitants or Greece before the Mycenaean Period. This version was before the others for
its matriarchal intonations under the influence of the Pre-Hellenic mythology.

In the beginning, Eurynome, the Goddess of all things, rose naked from chaos, she could not find
anything solid to put on her feet upon and therefore she divided the sea from the sky and danced on the
waves. As she danced towards the south, she created a wind behind her. This wind was the north wind
Boreas. Eurynome caught it and rubbed it between her hands and created the great snake called
Ophion. Eurynome became a dove and laid the universal egg and it hatched and split into two. Out of
the egg came all things that exist, the moon, the sun, planets, stars, the earth with its mountains and
rivers, tees and living creatures.
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Then Eurynome and Ophion went up to Mount Olympus and made their home there. Eurynome
banished Ophion the dark caves below the earth because he claimed that he made everything. After
that, Eurynome created the seven planets and set a Titan and Titaness over each.

The first man was Pelasgus and he was the ancestor of the Pelasgians. He sprung from the soil of
Arcadia, the sown teeth of Ophion, followed by some other men. He taught these people the land and
how to make huts and clothes.

Parthenogenesis, giving birth without copulating with a male, is the major characteristic of this myth
with other matriarchal intonations in which female divinity or the goddess is held responsible for
creation while the male divinity is regarded as an agent of fortune. Goddess is considered superior and
fatherhood is not honoured.

2. The Olympian Creation Myth: At the beginning of all things, Mother Earth, Gaea, emerged
from Chaos and bore her son Uranus, the vault of Heaven, as she slept [parthenogenesis]. Gazing
down fondly at her from above, he showered fertile rain upon her. Thus, she bore grass, flowers, and
the trees with the beasts and birds accordingly. This very rain, at the same time, made the rivers flow
and filled the hollow places with water forming the rivers, ponds, lakes and the seas. Moreover, she
gives birth to three groups of offspring, one group in human forms (12 Titans), and the other two with
semi-human features (the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires).
Chaos

Gaea (Mother Earth) ________Uranus (son and lover later)

Cyclopes Hecatonchires 12 Titans

3. The Homeric Creation Myth in Iliad: According to Homer, all gods and living beings originated
from Oceanus, the river Ocean. It was a deep and mighty flood of fresh water encircling the earth like
a serpent with its tail in his mouth. His consort Tethys was the mother of ail gods and goddesses and
living beings. By virtue of this primary union resulting the creation of everything, Oceanus and Tethis
are referred as the ‘primal pair’.

The Pelasgian snake image and the image of ‘primal pair’ represent the transition from matriarchal to
patriarchal phase

4.Hesiod's Creation Myth in Theogony: This is the most consistent account of the origin of the
world and of the creation. It is also the most widely accepted since the work is a consistent whole
comprising the myths of the East and of Greece.

According to Hesiod, there was chaos at the beginning. From it emerged:

a. Night (f) — female darkness dwelled in the remote regions of the world,
b. Tartarus (m) - the part of the infernal regions where the guilty are eternally punished,
c. Erebus (f) - the mysterious darkness under the earth,
d. Eros (m) - the beautiful love who rules the heart of men and gods alike,

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e. Gaea (f) - the broad-bosomed Mother Earth whose fructifying power then on presided over the
formation of beings and things.

Then, Gaea, unaided - 'without sweet union of love' as Hesiod puts it - [parthenogenesis] but touched
by Eros, gave birth to Uranus (m), the vault of Heaven, the sky, and with stars she crowned him. Next,
she gave birth to the mountains and Pontus, the sterile sea. Later she provided them with animals,
plants, etc. All of Gaea’s activities symbolise the separation of the world from chaos, and beginning of
order out of disorder.

Meanwhile, Erebus and Night were united and from their union came light out of darkness:
a. Ether (Aether, Aither, Air) - male light, bright sky
b. Hemera - female light, The Day.

Chaos
I
________________________________________________________________
I I I I I
Night Erebus Tartarus Eros Gaea
I I I I
I I
______I________ __________I_________
I I I I I
Aether Hemera Uranus Pontus Mountains

5.The Orphic Creation Myth: The Orphic Cosmogony, in opposition to other accounts of creation,
introduces a theory more metaphysical than being mythological. This theory asserts that Cronus -
Time - was the beginning of all, yet had no beginning himself. From him proceeded Chaos which
symbolizes the infinite, and Aether which symbolizes the finite. Chaos was surrounded by Night, the
black winged goddess, and Mist. By Chaos, Ether was caused to spin around the central fiery air till
the mass assumed the form of an egg: a huge world egg, a silver egg. Night formed its shell. The Egg,
while floating on Chaos, broke into halves by reason of its fast rotation. From its center was born Eros
who is also referred as Phanes, the light. The upper section of the Egg formed the vault of Heaven and
the Lower, the Earth.

EROS:
a. Double sexed with golden wins,
b. Four headed roaring sometimes like a Bull, sometimes like a Lion, and at other times,
hissing like a Snake and bleating like a Ram. His four heads corresponded to the symbolic
beasts of the four seasons:
Bull New Year Lion Summer Snake Spring Ram Autumn
c. Creator of the Earth, Sky, the Sun, and the Moon. Upon piercing ail things with his torch
and arrows, he animated ail things producing love and joy.

NIGHT: She lived in a cave with Eros. She displayed herself in the following triad:
a. Night, b.Order, c. Justice.

6.Ovid’s version of the Creation Myth in Metamorphoses: In the beginning there was only Chaos
which was a confused and shapeless mass, a formless mixture of elements of principles of matter, hard
and soft, heavy and light, etc. It was nothing but dead weight in which, however, existed the seeds or
beginnings of all things mixed up together and all moving about in all directions. Air, Earth, Sea were
all mixed up together, and the Earth was not solid, the Sea was not fluid, and the Air was not
transparent.

A Supreme Being, Creator of All Things, at last appearing suddenly in Chaos put an end to
this discord. He separated the Earth from the Sea, Heaven from both the Upper Air (Aether) and the
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Lower Air, and he set them all in due order. The fairy part, being the lightest, sprang up and formed
the Skies, the Air, being next in weight, new up as well taking its place just below it.

The heavier parts gathering together sank below forming the earth. The water took the lowest
place and filled up the earth. Then the Creator arranged the earth by dividing it into zones, some very
hot, some very cold, others temperate. He moulded it into mountains and plains, scoped out valleys,
distributed woods, mountains and plains, appointed the rivers and their places. Above it he set the
firmament, sprinkling it with stars and assigned stations for four winds. He peopled the sky with the
moon, the sun and the five planets together with the earth. Then fish took possession of the sea, birds,
of the air, and four-footed beasts, the land.

Ovid's account differs greatly from the Hesiodic account for the former presents a
pseudoscientific account of the creation of the world. It also presents chaos not as a living being but as
a mixture of elements.

As it can be deduced form the above creation myths, the Greeks did not believe that it was the
God or gods who created the Universe. On the contrary, they were created by the Earth and the
Heaven which were already existent. The marriage of Heaven and Earth horizon that the children were
confined in the mother's body.

CREATION : BIRTH OF THE GODS

THE URANUS GROUP

After the universe had been formed, it remained to be peopled: hence Uranus united with Gaea,
producing a progeny from whom the rest of the living beings on earth proceeded.

URANUS GAEA

______________________________________________

CYCLOPES TITANS HECATONCHIRES

Brontes Steropes Arges Cottus Briareus Gyges

URANUS: The starry vault that covers the earth. The personification of Heaven.

He is hardly a god, for having no cult and worshippers among the Greeks, hence no fixed type
in art. Son and husband of Gaea, probably having its origin like Gaea, in the Indo-European
culture, identified as the two primordial divinities, common to all Aryan Nations: The Sky and
the Earth, ‘the immortal couple’, and the ‘two grandparents of the world’.

GAEA: ‘Deep Breasted’. The personification of the earth. A genuine goddess, having a fairly
widespread cult.

It is unlikely that she is anything but so huge as the planet Earth in general, but the power
presiding over the piece of earth known to the particular worshippers, making it produce all
manners of plants.

Largely displaced in cult and in mythology by goddesses more commonly humanised but
having the similar or the same origin, later on.

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The only divinity among the first gods, with well-defined features.

The divinity which brings the Classical Greek mythology closer to the Pre-Hellenic
mythology, having the characteristics of the mother-goddess.

Gaea was the prime goddess whose prestige, did not lessen even after the
Olympian Pantheon was established. Hera says, in Iliad, ‘I swear by Gaea and the vast sky
above her.’ Her power was also manifested in the field foretelling the future. The Oracle
of Delphi had originally belonged to her.

Later on, when other divinities rose in the estimation of men, the role of Gaea gradually
became less important yet she still remained as a goddess who presided over marriages
and was honoured among the prophetesses as pre-eminent.

She is represented as a huge, gigantic woman. To her, the poet of a Homeric hymn thus
alludes:‘I shall sing of Gaea, universal mother, firmly founded the oldest of divinities.’

THE CYCLOPES: ‘Goggle-Eye’, ‘The Wheel Eyed’, ‘Round Eyed’, ‘Ring-Eyed’.

A group forming the progeny of Gaea and Uranus. They consist of three monsters having one
huge and bushy eye in the middle of their foreheads, with one huge and bushy eyebrow above
it.

They represented the tumultuous forces of nature:

Brontes: Thunder; Steropes: Lightning; Arges: Bright, Thunderbolt.

They were tremendously strong smiths who forged mighty weapons for Zeus and his
brothers, during the war with the Titans. Their workshop was under Mt. Aetna from
which the smokes and flames of their furnaces were to issue.

HECATONCHIRES(CENTIMANES): Another group forming the progeny of Gaea and

Uranusconsisting of semi-human giants with 100 hands and 50 heads as very aptly described
by their names. They were also three in number:

Cottus: ‘The Furious’; Briareus: ‘The Vigorous,’ ‘The Strong’; Gyges: ‘The Big Limbed’
whence issued the word 'Giant'. In a way, they personified the sea with its multitudinous
waves, its roars, and its breakers which seem to shake the world.

THE TITANS: ‘The Honourable’, ‘The Powerful’, and ‘The King’. They are often called the ‘Elder
Gods’ supreme in the universe for untold ages. Their dominion was afterwards transferred to
other gods.
They were the first divine race who later became the ancestors of the preceding gods, begotten
by their union with one another or the male ones coupling with the nymphs. They were of
enormous size and incredible strength.

In Greece, they were also honoured as the ancestors of men. To them was attributed the
invention of the arts and of magic.

They are the deifications of various aspects of Nature. They appear to be the personifications of
mighty convulsions of the physical world, of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. They played
a quarrelsome part in mythical history: They were the instigators of Hatred and Strife. Hesiod
gives a list of these Titans, enumerating them to six males: Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetos,
Cruis, Coeus, and Cronus; and six females: Tethys, Metis, Thea, Mnemosyne, Themis,
Phoebe, and Rhea.
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OCEANUS (male): The Ocean stream, which runs like a great river round the World as supposed by
Greeks. God of waters and rivers.

For Homer, as indicated in the Iliad, Oceanus and Tethys were the progenitors of the gods. He
was the only Titan who did not participate in the fight raged against Zeus.

THETHYS (female): ‘The Nourishes, Nurse’. Wife and sister to Oceanus who bore him:

Metis: ‘Prudence’, ‘Wisdom’. Daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. Wife of Zeus. Administrated
him in overthrowing his father Cronus. Swallowed by Zeus, when pregnant, to prevent to be
overthrown by his son as his father had been. Mother of Athena, who sprang from the head of
Zeus.

Styx: The river of the infernal regions.

Sons: 3000 sons personifying the rivers.

Eurynome: Married to Zeus giving him the Three Graces.

Tyche: ‘Fortune’.

Oceanids: 3000 daughters personifying the Water Nymphs.

HYPERION (male): ‘The wanderer on high’, ‘the Sun’. The original sun-god. It is painted with the
splendour and beauty which were afterwards bestowed on Apollo.
He took charge of the light and day. He married Thea.

THEA (female): ‘The Beautiful, Shining’, ‘The Moon’. She was the wife and sister of Hyperion.
From their union were born:

Helios: ‘The Sun.’ Like his father, is a sun-god.

It was related that he was drowned in the in the Ocean by his uncles the Titans, and then rose
to the sky where he became the luminous sun. Every morning he emerged in the East of the
River Ocean in his golden chariot driven by four winged- horses. They were dazzling white
and their nostrils breathed forth flame. At midday he reached the highest point of his course
and began to descend towards the West where awaited his wife and he sailed back to the East
where his children were.

Selene: ‘Moon’, ‘Luna’, God of Light. The sister of Helios who, with her golden crown,
illuminated the shadowy night. Every evening beginning her journey, when her brother
finished his, the divine Selene often dresses herself in splendid robes, and she rose in the sky
on her chariot drawn by shining steeds. She had a love affair with Endymion. She fell in love
with Endymion, a young handsome prince. She asked Zeus to give immortality to Endymion.
He granted it on condition that he slept forever. Selene, the moon, visits him some evenings
and forgets her duty, thus she appears irregularly.

Eos:‘The Dawn’, ‘Aurora’. She is the sister of Helios. She is the rosy-fingered dawn with
snowy eye-lids. She brought the first glimmer of the day to man. Every morning at dawn, she
slipped from the couch of her husband Tithonus, and emerging from the ocean, rose into the
sky. Sometimes Eos appeared as a winged goddess tilting a horn up from which fell the

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morning dew, sometimes she was mounted on the winged horse Pegasus and bore in her hands
a torch, and most often saffron-robed Eos rode on a purple chariot drawn by two horses.

a.Eos + Tithonus ( Memnon): Eos fell in love with the Trojan prince Tithonus, and
when getting married to him, she asked Zeus to give him immortality, but she forget to
ask for 'immortal youth'. Therefore, Tithonus got older and older (thin and old). Gods
pitied him and turned him into a cicada.

b.Cephalus + Prochris: Eos (Aurora) fell in love with Cephalus and carried him away.
But Cephalus loved his wife Prochris and did not return Eos' love, and she had to
release him. Cephalus tested the fidelity of his wife, she run away and took refuge at
the temple of Artemis in hatred of men including her husband. Later they were
reunited. When hunting together, Cephalus accidentally shot Prochris dead with a
javelin .

Duplication of divinities is common in the beginning of things; very often the younger generation
dominates the older and finally usurp their power.

CRONUS (male): ‘Saturn’. The most important of all Titans who coupled with her sister Rhea,
producing the next generation of Gods, the Olympians.

He was the youngest and the most horrible of all Titans who constituted the crooked counsel.
He hated his lusty sire.
He was the god of maturity, ripening harvest, and of agriculture, the Lord of the Ancient
Golden Age. He ruled over the other Titans till his son dethroned him.

RHEA (female): Also Ops. She was the Goddess of fertility and was worshipped as the Mother-
Goddess. She was the sister and wife to Cronus and with him gave birth to a new generation of
gods called the Olympians:

Zeus: Ruler of the gods.

Poseidon: God of the sea and earthquakes.

Hades: God of the underworld; Lord of the dead.

Hera: Goddess of Marriage and Childbirth; Protector of married women; Queen of the gods.

Demeter: Goddess of grain and harvest.

Hestia: Guardian of the home. hera, demeter, hestia - mother goddess extension

MNEMOSYNE (female): ‘Memory’. A Titaness who coupled with Zeus who fall in love and stayed
nine nights with her making her the mother of the Muses, the nine sisters. She was one of the
Titanesses who did not rebel against Zeus.

THEMIS (female): ‘That which is established’, ‘Law’. The Titaness who was the goddess of Justice
and of Good Counsel. After the revolt of the Titans, she was never ceased to be honoured on
Olympus not sharing the disgrace of her brothers. At the beginning of his reign, she was
chosen by Zeus for his wife and from this union were born:
a. The Horea (Seasons)
b. The Moirae (Fates)
c. Astraea
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She is represented as a woman of grave countenance and of austere features. A pair of scales
was her characteristic emblem

Later on when Hera became the wife of Zeus, she remained at his side offering him counsel
and service. Since she was identified with Law which regulated both physical and moral order,
her mission was to maintain order besides regulating various ceremonials.

IAPETUS (male): ‘The Sender Hurler’, ‘Wonder’. From his union with Clymene, one of the
Oceanids, were born:

Atlas: Punished by Zeus, doubtless, for having taken part in the revolt of the Titans. He was
condemned to stand forever before the Hesperides, on the edge of the world, bearing upon his
shoulders the vault of Heaven.

Prometheus: ‘Forethought’. The creator of mankind.

Epimetheus: ‘Afterthought’. Husband of Pandora, the first woman.

COEUS (male): A Titan who, together with his mate Phoebe, personified the radiant lights of
Heaven.

PHOEBE (female): The wife of Coeus. She bore him Asteria and Leto, the mother of Artemis
and Apollo.

CRUIS (male): A Titan who marries Eurybie, the daughter of Gaea and Pontus.

THE MUTILATION OF URANUS BY CRONUS

Uranus was unable to bear the Sight of his ugly children, so he threw them all into the depths of earth,
Tartarus, except for the Titans. Gaea, enraged by the maltreatment of her children appealed to the
Titans to take revenge of their brothers. Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, armed by a sickle provided
by her mother attacked his father Uranus while he was sleeping. Cronus mutilated Uranus and threw
the bleeding genitals into the sea. The blood fertilised the waters and the earth, thus following
offspring came into being:

1. The Furies: The Erinnyes / Eumenides: They were the spirits of vengeance for bloodguilt and
the crimes the mortals commit. Their special mission was to torment and punish the sinners
who had committed the crime of parricide, perjury and violation of oaths. They took revenge
from those who committed crimes against their elders. It was useless to try to escape from
them. They would continually torment the sinners.

They were pictured as beautiful young women with serious features. Sometimes they
are shown to have snakes in their hair or/and in their hands. Their eyes wept tears of blood.
There were torches or whips in their hands. They were three in number:
Alecto (Never Ceasing),
Megaera (Grudger),
Tisiphone (The Avenger of Blood).

2. Melic Nymphs: ‘Meliai’ (Dişbudak Ağacı) . The guardian spirits of the ash tree. They were
three young maidens who died when the tree was harmed.

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3. The Giants; They were called the ‘Earthborn’ as they emerged from the earth that was
fertilized by Uranus' blood. Their legs were in the form of serpents, feet formed or reptiles'
heads. They clothed themselves in the skins of beasts and were armed with rocks and trunks of
trees. They symbolised various forces of nature. Some of the important Giants were:
Alcyoneus of winter storm and icebergs, Pallas, Enceladus, Porphyrion the fire King.

4. Aphrodite (Venus): ‘Foamborn’. She was born foam that gathered around the genitals which
were thrown into the sea. Eros attended her when she was born. [In other sources, Aphrodite,
one of the twelve Olympians, is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione. She is the goddess
of love, goddess of beauty and sexual desire. As Venus in Roman Mythology, she is the
goddess of gardens and fields.]

This mythical story reveals the basic motives and forces at work in man's nature. The devotion of the
youngest Son to the mother is used against the father.

THE REIGN OF CRONUS

When Uranus was reduced to impotence, Cronus became the lord of heaven and earth, and the chief of
a new dynasty. During his reign with his wife Rhea, Greek divinities increased.The titans mated with
their sisters or other nymphs and gave rise to a number of children. Night gave birth to a crowded
progeny. Her offspring were mainly the personifications of abstractions, feelings and emotions.

1. Moros: fate.

2. Ker: doom

3. Thanatos: death, twin of Hypnos, merciless and without heart treating everyone equally.

4. Hypnos: sleep. He rules over all gods and mortals alike. He lived in a cave in the land of
Cimmerians. Outside the cave grew poppies from which he prepared the potion of sleep
that he sprinkles into the eyes of those who fall asleep. There are two gates lead out of his
domain; one is made of ivory out of which came dreams that convey truth. The other gate
is made of horn and out of it came false dreams. Hypnos is generally represented with
wings at his temples.

5. Momos: dreams.

6. Oizys: pain.

7. Nemesis: Resentment of ill deeds. She was the personification of divine anger and
presided over order and forced men to act according to what was right. She punished those
who did not follow moral law and she rewarded the good.

8. Apate : Deception

9. Philotes: Friendship

10. Eris: She represented discord and strife. She made human beings and gods do
irresponsible things. She gave birth to many offsprings that are again abstractions: Wars,
Strife, Battles, Slaughter, Manslaying, Quarrels, False Words, Disputes , Lawlesness,
Infatuation .

11. Ate: Impulse

12. Litae: Prayers for pardon

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13. Geras: Old age

PROGENY OF GAEA

Gaea took a second husband, her son Pontus. From this union were born a group of offspring:

1. EURYBIE: She became the wife of the titan Coeus.

2. THAUMAS: He married the Oceania Electra, and from their union was born

a. Iris, the goddess of the rainbow, she was also the messenger of the gods, therefore she
is represented with wings

b. Harpies. They were horrible creatures who had the heads of maidens and the body
and claws of birds. They experienced perpetual hunger, they ate or spoiled all the food
they could reach therefore they were a pestilence to mankind.

3. NEREUS; He was an important sea god with the gift of prophecy. He is kind, wise and
helpful. He is sometimes called the ‘old man of the sea’. He married the Oceanid Doris. From
their union were born the Nereids who were 50 in number. He lived in the depths of the sea.

4. CETO and PHORCYS: From their union were born a group of monsters:

a. The Graea: They were three in number, Enyo, Pemphredo, Deino. They represent
old age and they are depicted as three old women who share an eye and one the tooth in
between them. They use them in turn. They had grey hair from birth.

b. Ladon: It was a dragon. It guarded the golden apples of Hesperides.

c. Sirens: These were sea nymphs who had beautiful voices and they lured the seamen to
the rocks with their music to shipwrecked them. They are described variously, they had
the faces of maidens and the bodies with wings and feathers like birds. Sometimes they
have only wings and feet like birds. It is said that they acquired this shape as punishment
because they allowed Hades to carry away Persephone.

d. Scylla: She was a sea monster who was a threat to mariners. She had six heads and the
lower parts of her body were in the form of serpents and barking dogs.

e. Gorgons: They were three in number and one of them - Medusa - was mortal. They
had horrible grinning heads, flat noses, staring eyes and snakes for hair. Sometimes they
are visualized with winged bodies. Anyone who dared to look at them was turned into
stone. It was said that once they were beautiful maidens but Medusa boasted that she was
more beautiful than Athena and they were changed into their horrible shape as
punishment.

Medusa united with Posedion and form their union were born
i. Chrysaor
ii. Pegasus. The winged horse.
Chrysaor united with Callirhoe, an Oceanid, and from this union were born:
i.Echidna half serpent and half woman and lived under the earth.
ii.Geryon was a tree bodied monster.

Meanwhile Gaea produced an offspring called Typhon.

Typhon mated with Echidna and from their union following monsters were born:
i. Orthus: It was the two headed hound of Geryon.
ii. Cerberus: It was three headed dog who guards the door of the

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Underworld.
iii. Nemean Lion: It lived in Nemea, and was invulnerable.
iv. Lernean Hydra: A monster who lived in the swamps of Lernea. It
had nine heads one of which was immortal. When you cut off one head, two
heads grew in its place. Its breath was so foul that it killed off people.
v.Chimaera: A monster of the combination of a goat, a serpent and a lion.
It had the head of a lion and breathed out fire.
vi.Sphinx: She had the face of a maid the body of a lion, she also had
wings. She was sent by Hera to afflict the Thebans. She lived on a
rock outside Thebes She asked riddles to travellers and when they
could not answer, she destroyed them. Oedipus solved her riddle.

THE DETHRONEMENT OF CRONUS BY ZEUS

An oracle warned Cronus that one of his children would dethrone him. Therefore, when his wife Rhea
gave birth to an offspring, he swallowed it. But Rhea gave Cronus a stone in swaddling clothes instead
of baby Zeus, and Cronus swallowed this stone. The baby was taken care of by the ash-tree nymphs
and he was given the milk of the goat Amalthea. When Zeus grew up, he took the revenge of his
brothers and sisters, and made Cronus bring up his children, the stone also came up and was placed at
Delphi and it became a famous oracle. Cronus was punished and Zeus became the ruler.

TITANOMACHY (War with the Titans)

After the dethronement of Cronus by Zeus, there began a terrible war between Zeus and the Titans.
Thetis, Mnemosyne, and Oceanus did not take part in this war. In the end, Zeus, helped by Gaea, won
this war. Gaea released the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires from Tartarus. The Cyclopes made the
thunderbolt for Zeus, and the Hecatonchires, with their 100 hands threw great rocks at the Titans. The
Cyclopes also made a Trident [ᴪ] for Poseidon and when he struck the ground, it created earthquakes.
For Hades, the Cyclopes made the cap of invisibility. When a person wore it, he became invisible.
Prometheus and Epimetheus sided with Zeus, but their brother Atlas sided with the Titans. Therefore,
as a punishment, he had to carry the vault of heaven on his back forever. The Atlas Mountains and the
Atlantic Ocean are named after him.

THE SECOND ATTEMPT TO DETHRONE ZEUS: TYPHON

Gaea gave birth to an offspring, Typhon, on her own. He represented the powers of the earth. He was
half man and half serpent. His eyes shot fire, and from his mouth came the hissing of snakes, the roar
of lions, the barking of dogs, and the bellowing of bulls. He was the spirit of the ‘hurricane’ and storm.
He fought with Zeus, and he cut the muscle from Zeus’s leg making him impotent for a time. But after
Hermes restored the muscle, Zeus regained his power and defeated Typhoon. Zeus threw him into
Tartarus and from the underground his hissing and his fiery tongue can be seen and heard from time to
time.

GIGANTOMACHY: THE WAR WITH THE GIANTS

The third attempt to dethrone Zeus was undertaken by the Giants. They represented the powers of the
earth and were half human and half serpent in form. In this battle Zeus and his party were victorious.

PROMETHEUS AND THE CREATION OF MANKIND

The Greeks do not trace all mankind to an original pair such as Adam and Eve, but they believe that
man grew out of trees, stones, rivers, etc. There are different versions of creation.

THE CREATION OF MANKIND BY PROMETHEUS AND EPIMETHEUS

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Prometheus and Epimetheus were given the duty of creating animals and man. Epimetheus, when
creating animals gave them all the good things, such as claws, fur, wings, etc. Therefore, when it was
time to create man nothing exceptionally good was left. Therefore, Prometheus created man in the
image of gods and it stood upright. He also gave fire to man. By using fire, man could make weapons,
cook his meals, defend himself, etc. But this angered Zeus and he punished Prometheus.

There was also another reason why Zeus punished Prometheus; according to a prophecy one
of the offspring of Zeus would dethrone him. Prometheus knew the secret but would not tell Zeus. So
Zeus made an arrangement. There was a problem about which parts of a sacrifice were to be given to
the gods and which part to man. Prometheus took all the bones and placed the fat on the top of it. Then
he made another pile. He put the flesh and on top of it he put entrails. He asked Zeus to choose. Zeus
knew what was happening but he picked the first one and punished Prometheus, because he tried to
trick Zeus. As a punishment he was chained to Mt. Caucasus and every day a vulture came and ate his
liver. During the evening it would grow back. In the end, Hercules came and saved him and Zeus
allowed this because Hercules was his son and he was a hero.
Prometheus is generally called the champion of man, because he helps man and also
represents fight against tyranny. Although Zeus uses force and punishment against him, he does not
tell the secret.

CREATION OF FIRST WOMAN PANDORA

Zeus punished mankind and created the first woman Pandora. Her name meant the gift of god. She
was presented as a gift to Epimetheus. Although Prometheus warned him he was influenced by her
beauty. Pandora had been given a jar and she was told not to open it. But she was curious and she
opened the jar. Out of it came all the bad things that exist on earth. When she put the lid back on only
hope was left in was hope.

CREATION OF MANKIND BY GODS AND THE FOUR AGES

According to this version, mankind was created by gods themselves. First they made a golden race,
then a silver race, then a bronze race, and last of all an iron race.

The Golden Age: The first one was called the golden age. It was a period of happiness, innocence.
Cronus ruled this age. There was no worry, no wars, no unhappiness. Although man was not immortal,
they did not experience death. They fell asleep and became spirits. The earth produced everything
without the effort of man. Milk and wine flew in the rivers.

The Silver Age: The men of this age were inferior to the Golden Age, they were more savage, wicked
and warlike. Zeus shortened the spring and divided the year into seasons. Hence, mankind experienced
extremes of hot and cold. This race had to sow seeds, and plant crops. This race became disrespectful
of the gods and they neglected them so they experienced death and became ghosts in the Underworld.

The Brazen Age: The human race became more savage and readier to for the strife of arms but they
were not altogether completely wicked.

The Iron Age: It was the worst age. There was crime, violence, war, “Might was Right”. The gods left
the world and they deserted mankind.

According to some poets, after this came the age of heroes. The heroes had god-like qualities but
were mortals and they fought against monsters and established a civilisation.

CREATION OF MANKIND FROM STONE: DEUCALION AND PYRRHA

Ovid in his work Metamorphoses gives this version. Zeus observing that man was growing more
wicked and corrupt decided to destroy mankind and to create a new race. He sent the flood with the
help of his brother Poseidon. Only Parnassus was saved . Deucalion, the son of Prometheus and his

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wife Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus who followed the advice of Prometheus built an ark and
when the waters rose floated for nine days and nine nights. When the waters receded they entered a
temple and prayed to the gods for guidance. An oracle told them to leave the temple and to cast behind
them their mother’s bones. They thought that since Mother Earth was their mother they began
throwing the stones behind them. The stones began taking the shape of human beings. The ones
Deualion threw became men and the ones that Pyrrha threw became women. Deucalion and Pyrrha
had a son Hellen who became the ancestor of the Greeks.

MYTHOLOGICAL CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE WORLD

The ancient Greeks believed that the earth was flat and circular, and Helles occupied the centre of it.
This circular earth was crossed from west to east by axes. The river Ocean was believed to flow from
south to north on the western side, and from north to south on the eastern side. In the North lived the
Hyperboreans. It was a land of happiness, immortal life and spring. But it was impossible to get there.
In the south lived the Ethiopians. A land of happiness. On the furthest side of the river Ocean lived the
Chimerians. It was the land of darkness, mist and night. It is the country of a people of melancholy.
Again on the shores of the river Ocean were the islands of the blessed. This was a place where the
exceptionally good could go after death. The Greeks also believed that the dawn, the sun and the moon
rose out of the river Ocean in the east, travelled through the sky to west and every morning and
evening they took back to the east.

THE OLYMPIAN PANTHEON

The Olympian pantheon consists of gods, goddesses and minor divinities related to them. The
pantheon lived in Olympus and went to other places when necessary. They can be grouped as follows:

1. The major gods and lesser divinities of the heaven,

2. The major gods and lesser divinities of the sea,
3. The major gods and lesser divinities of the earth,
4. The major gods and lesser divinities of the underworld,
5. Monsters, supernatural beings.
6. Demigods and heroes.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GODS

1.The Greeks had an anthropomorphic (human-shaped) concept of divinity. They imagined gods in
human form. Their appearance was like human beings.
2. Although the gods looked like human beings they were idealised, hence they were more handsome,
beautiful and strong.
3. Gods not only looked like human beings but they also acted like them; they had similar
weaknesses. They experienced hate, love, envy and other human emotions.
4. Although they looked and acted like mortals they were immortal.
5. Instead of blood there is ichor in their veins. This made them imperishable, and incorruptible but
they were not invulnerable. No matter how badly they were wounded they would heal.
6. They ate ambrosia and drank nectar which made them young forever.
7. Although they were idealised and they had superior powers and strength they could not see and
know everything. That is, they were not omniscient. Zeus possessed the greatest insight but the Fates
and Destiny was above the gods.
8. What they had was the ability to metamorphose. They could change their shape into whatever they
liked.
9.They lived in Olympus, which was believed to be above Mt. Olympus. It was entered through a gate
of clouds guarded by the Horae. It was a place where sun always shined, it never snowed and rained.
And the gods enjoyed themselves listening to Apollo and feasted at the golden tables. They all lived in
their own abodes made for them individually by Hephaestus.
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10. They often came down to earth and mingled with human beings to punish them, to intervene in
their affairs, and to help them. They also had amorous affairs with them and the offsprings born from
these unions were called the demigods and they possessed rare skills.
11. Each aspect of man’s life had a divinity who was responsible for it.
12. The gods had to keep their promises, especially when they took an oath swearing on the waters of
Styx.

THE OLYMPIANS

The twelve chief gods (six children of Cronus + Rhea, and the other six children of Zeus from
different women usually called the Olympians), were Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno); Ares (Mars),
Hephaestus (Vulcan); Apollo, Artemis (Diana) ; Athena; Aphrodite (Venus); Hestia (Vesta),
Hermes (Mercury), Demeter, and Poseidon (Neptune), Hades (Dis, Pluto).

Zeus was the head of the gods, and the spiritual father of gods and people. His wife, Hera, was the
queen of heaven and the guardian of marriage. Other gods associated with heaven were Hephaestus,
god of fire and metal workers; Athena, goddess of wisdom and war; and Apollo, god of light, poetry,
and music. Artemis, goddess of wildlife and the moon; Ares, god of war; and Aphrodite, goddess of
love, were other gods of heaven. They were joined by Hestia, goddess of the hearth; and Hermes,
messenger of the gods and ruler of science and invention.

Poseidon was the ruler of the sea who, with his wife Amphitrite, led a group of less important sea
gods, such as the Nereids and Tritons. Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, was associated with earth.
Hades, an important god but not generally considered an Olympian, ruled the underworld, where he
lived with his wife, Persephone. The underworld was a dark and mournful place located at the centre
of the earth. It was populated by the souls of people who had died.

Dionysus, the god of wine and pleasure, was among the most popular gods. The Greeks devoted many
festivals to this earthly god, and in some regions he became as important as Zeus. He often was
accompanied by a host of fanciful gods, including satyrs, centaurs, and nymphs. Satyrs were creatures
with the legs of a goat and the upper body of a monkey or human. Centaurs had the head and torso of a
man and the body of a horse. The beautiful and charming nymphs haunted woods and forests.

THE MAJOR GODS AND LESSER DIVINITIES OF THE HEAVENS

ZEUS (JUPITER)

Etymology of his name: “Father of Light,” “The Radiants,” “Light of Heaven”

Family and Progeny: Although he was married to Hera he had numerous love affairs with Titanesses,
goddesses and mortal women.

Attributes: He is the lord of the sky, rain, clouds, weather and all atmospheric phenomena. He is the
head of the Olympian pantheon. He is not omnipotent or omniscient . The fates and destiny are above
him. He is a wise and just ruler. He was the protector of Greece.

Representation and Emblems: He is generally depicted as a mature man with a grave countenance
with wavy hair and curly beard. He wears a long mantle and is rarely depicted nude, except for his
early images. He carries emblems such as the sceptre which represents his sovereighnity, and the
thunderbolt. He has a crown of oak leaves, and he may wear the Aegis (breast plate) made by

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Hephaesthus from the skin of Amalthea, the goat which suckled him. He is accompanied by an eagle,
which is the bird sacred to him and carries the thunderbolt.

Amorous Adventures of Zeus

I. Affairs With Titanesses

Zeus + Metis (Wisdom,Wise counsel).She was the daughter of the Titans Tethys and Oceanus. She
was the first wife of Zeus. There was a prophecy that she would give birth to a daughter first equal to
Zeus in wisdom and later a son who would overthrow him. In order to prevent this and to gain her
wisdom Zeus deceived her with flattery and swallowed her. At the time Metis was pregnant. One day,
suddenly Zeus felt a pain in his head and Hephaestus came and split his head with an axe and from his
head was born Athena.

Zeus + Leto (Latona) . She was the daughter of the Titans Phoebe and Coeus. Hera, being jealous of
Leto, made trouble for her and forbade her to give birth anywhere on earth where the sun shone. She
knew that her children were going to be greater than her own children. The island of Delos was still
under the sea and Leto gave birth to her twins Artemis and Apollo there. She gave birth to Artemis
without pain but she experienced labour pains for nine days as Hera would not allow Eileithyia, the
goddess of childbirth to accompany Leto. Hera sent a monster Tityus to frighten her . Apollo and
Artemis killed it. Zeus put Tityus in the underworld where his liver is devoured by vultures.

Zeus + Themis (Justice, Law) She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia. She sits at the side of Zeus.
From her union with Zeus were born the following offsprings:

1. The Horae (Seasons) They were the guardians of the natural and moral order and
supervised the actions of the mortals. They also guarded the gate of Olympus. They were three
in number: Eunomia (Lawfulness), Dike (Justice), Eirene (Peace).

2.The Moirae (Fates) Also three in number, they rule the life of man: Clotho, the spinner,
spins the thread of life and her emblem is the distaff. Lachesis represents the element of
chance and she turns the distaff. Atropos is blind, and in her hand she holds a pair scissors and
cuts the thread of life causing the death of a person.

3. Astreae The goddess of innocence, purity and justice. She used to live among men
on earth but when man became evil she deserted the earth and became the
constellation Virgo.

Zeus + Mnemosyne. She was the daughter of Uranus and Gaia and she represented Memory.
Zeus united with her in a cave for nine nights, and nine muses were born. They represented
inspiration and arts. They lived on Mt. Parnassus and accompanied Apollo. They are also revered on
Mount Helicon. They used to sing and dance at the feasts of the gods.

Calliope, was the muse of epic poetry.

Clio, was the muse of history,her emblems are the writing tablet and the stylus.
Euterpe, was the muse of music and lyric poetry, presided over flute playing.
Melpomene, was the muse of tragedy, her emblem was the tragic mask.
Terpsichore, was the muse of choral dance and song.
Erato, was the muse of erotic poetry.
Polyhymnia, was the muse of heroic and sacred poetry.
Urania, was the muse of astronomy, her emblems were the globe and compass.
Thalia, was the muse of comedy, her emblem was the comic mask.

Zeus + Eurynome Eurynome was the daughter of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. By Zeus she gave
birth to the three Graces (Charites).They were they were named Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne
(Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer). They presided over banquets, dances, and all other pleasurable
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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, it is said that they
accompanied her on her birth. 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 the young maidens, dancing in a circle.

Zeus + Maia She was one of the seven daughters of Atlas, the Pleiades. She gave birth to Hermes on
Mount Cyllene in Arcadia.

Zeus + Taygete She was also one of the seven daughters of Atlas, the Pleiades. When Zeus pursued
her she asked the help of Artemis who turned her into a hind temporarily but she finally gave in to
Zeus. From their union was born Lacedaemon who became the ancestor of the Spartans.

Zeus + Electra She was also one of the seven daughters of Atlas, the Pleiades. She gave birth to
Dardanus who was the ancestors of Dardanians.

II. Affairs with the Olympian goddesses

Zeus + Demeter (Ceres) She was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Demeter rejected the advances
of Zeus. But he changed himself into a bull and raped her. From this union was born Proserpina
(Kore).

III. Affairs with Nymphs

The nymphs were divine spirits that animate nature. They were visualised as beautiful girls who loved
to sing and dance, some of them were amorous. They also acted as attendants to gods and goddesses.
They were like fairies who lived an extremely long life but they were not immortal.

Zeus + Aegina. Aegina was the daughter of the river god Asophus, and she was carried away by Zeus
who took the shape of an eagle. In order to protect her from her father's anger, he changed her into an
island and himself into a stone. The island Aegina was called after her. From this union was born a son
Aecus, who later became the king of the island. Hera sent a plague to punish the island and all the
inhabitants died. Zeus recreated the people from ants and they were called the Myrmidons which
meant the ant people.

Zeus + Antiope. Antiope was the sister of Aegina. Zeus violated her in the shape of a satyr. Satyrs
were half goat and half human spirit of the woods. Antiope gave birth to the twins Amphion and
Zethus. The twins fought in the Trojan war. Amphion was a famous musician who later became the
king of Thebes, and Zethus was a skilled hunter and shepherd.

Zeus + Callisto. Callisto also refused the advances of Zeus and wanted to remain a virgin follower of
Artemis. So Zeus took the shape of Artemis and violated her. Their son Arcas became the ancestor of
Arcadians. Arcadia was the idealised pastoral setting. Hera to take revenge, changed the mother into a
bear and the son unknowingly wanted to hunt her. But just as he killed her, he was also changed into a
bear and they were placed in the heavens as the constellations the big bear and the little bear.

IV. Affairs with Mortals

Zeus + Semele. Semele was the daughter of Cadmus , the founder of Thebes. Zeus fell in love with
Semele. Hera being jealous, disguised as a servant persuaded the girl to ask Zeus to appear to her in his
immortal form. If a mortal sees a god in all his glory, s/he will certainly die. Semele was six months

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pregnant. She died, but some ivy leaves protected her body and the baby did not die. Hermes took the
baby from her body and put it in the leg of Zeus. Three months later the baby was born. Therefore,
Dionysus was called the “god of the double doors”.

Zeus + Danae. Danae was the daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. An oracle had warned the king that
the son Danae would kill him. To prevent this he kept Danae in a bronze room. Zeus approached her
as a shower of gold and violated her. She gave birth to Perseus. Acrisius locked the mother and child
in a chest and cast them into the sea. They drifted to the island of Seriphos, where they were rescued
by a fisherman Dictys Perseus grew to manhood and became a famous hero.

Zeus + Alcmene. Alcmene, daughter of King Electryon of Mycenae, was married to Amphitryon,
prince of Tiryns. During the absence of her husband on a military expedition, Zeus visited her and
disguised himself as her husband. The next day the husband came back from his expedition and slept
with his wife. Alcmene gave birth to twin sons: Hercules the son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of
Amphitryon.

Zeus + Niobe. She was the first mortal whom Zeus loved. She bore two sons to Zeus: Argus and
Pelasgus. Argus was the founder of the city of Argos.

Zeus + Io. Io was the daughter of the river god Inachus . She was a priestess of Hera. Zeus took the
form of a cloud to mate with her. Zeus changed her into a white heifer (young cow) to protect her
from Hera's jealousy. Suspecting that the animal was really Zeus’s mistress, Hera asked for the heifer
as a gift and set the 100-eyed monster Argus (also Panoptes, ‘all-seeing’) to guard it. Because the
monster never slept with all his eyes shut, Io was unable to escape until Zeus sent his son 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 (or with music). Hera , placed the eyes of Argus on the tail of the peacock.
Hera was still angry, however, and next sent a gadfly to torment Io, who wandered over the earth in
misery. Io finally swam across the sea that was later named after her (the Ionian Sea) and she also
crossed the Bosphorus (cow strait) which was named after her. At last she reached Egypt. There she
was restored to her original physical form, and she bore Zeus a son, Epaphus, who was an ancestor of
the Greek hero Hercules.

Zeus + Europa. Europa was the daughter of Agenor, the Phoenician king of Tyre, and sister of
Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes. One morning, when Europa was gathering flowers by the
seashore, Zeus saw her and fell in love with her. Assuming the guise of a beautiful bull, he appeared
before her and enticed her to climb onto his back. He then sped away with her across the sea to the
island of Crete. She gave birth to three sons: Minos , Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon. Minos and
Rhadamanthus became the judges of the dead in the underworld. Then continent Europe was named
after her. According to some versions it is said that the constellation Taurus was formed in the shape
of the bull.

Zeus + Leda. Leda was the wife of Tyndareus, who was king of Sparta. Zeus approached
her in the guise of a swan, she laid two eggs. From one were hatched Polydeuces (also
known as Pollux) and Helen, who were immortal children of Zeus, and from the other Castor and
Clytemnestra, who were mortal children of Tyndareus. Castor and Pollux are also called the Diascouri
(sons of Zeus). After their death they were placed in the heavens as the constellation Gemini (the
twins).

Other stories associated with Zeus

Baucis & Philemon: They were a peasant couple in Phrygia, remarkable for their mutual love. One
day Zeus decided to check if the mortals still respected him and he dressed like an old man and went
to a village accompanied by Hermes. Nobody showed him hospitality, except this old couple. They
were very poor. They offered all their food and showed him respect. Zeus sent a flood and destroyed
all the villagers, but he spared the old couple. He changed their humble cottage into a temple, and
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swore to grant them anything they might wish. But they asked only to be the priest and priestess of his
temple and to die at the same time. Jupiter fulfilled his promise, and in their extreme old age he
transformed Philemon and Baucis into an oak and linden tree, which grew from one trunk so they
would never be separated.

Ganymedes. He was the son of Tors, king of Phyrigia. He was very beautiful. Zeus snatched him up
and brought him to Olympos where he became the cupbearer of the gods. It is said that he was later set
in the sky as the constellation Aquarius.

HERA (JUNO)

Etymology of her Name: “the Lady”, “Splendour of Heaven”

Family: She is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, sister and queen of Zeus. She was born on the island
of Samos and was brought up by Oceanus and Tethys.

Attributes: She represents the idealised wife and matronly virtues and dignity. She presided over all
phases of feminine existence and womanhood. She protected women and looked after their rights. She
was the queen of the gods and mortals alike. She was the goddess of marriage and maternity. The
month of June was named after her. She was also vengeful. Stories about her mostly involve the
various punishments she gave to the women with whom Zeus fell in love. She also punished the
ofsprings born from the se unions.
She was attractive, every year she bathed in the waters of the spring Canathus and regained her youth.

Representation and Emblems: She is generally depicted as a tall, mature woman. Her beauty is a
serious one. She generally wears a high crown and carries the sceptre, sometimes with the cuckoo on
it. She wears a chiton and a veil. The peacock is the bird sacred to her. Also pomegranates (symbol of
conjugal love and fruitfulness) are sacred to her. She is attended by the Horae, Hebe and Iris.

Marriage with Zeus: She rejected the advances of Zeus. He took the shape of a cuckoo. She took the
little bird and put it in her bosom. Suddenly he resumed his godly shape and violated her. They got
married. Their wedding lasted 300 years and all the gods brought them gifts. Zeus gave her the gift
of the golden apples of Hesperides ,according to some versions it is mother earth herself who gave
this gift. From this marriage were born Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe, Eileithyia (Ilithyia). According to
some stories she gave birth to Typhon on her own.

Zeus + Hera-----------------Typhon
_______________ ı__________________________________
ı I I ı
Ares Hephaestus Hebe Eilethyia

Ixion + Nephele Hera was at a wedding with Zeus, Ixion who was a mortal king who fell in love with
her. Zeus immediately took a cloud and fashioned it in the shape of Hera, and Ixion gratified his
passion with it unknowingly. This likeness of Hera was called Nephele. From this union were born
the Centaurs (half man half horse) who were lustful in nature. They chased nymphs. Among them
was a wise one called Chiron. He educated many of the heroes. One day he was wounded by a
poisonous arrow but as he was immortal his suffering was continual. He exchanged his
immortality with Prometheus’ mortality, and after his death he was placed in the sky as a
constellation - Sagittarius.
As for Ixion, he was punished by Zeus for trying to violate Hera. He was put in Tartarus and was
bound to a continually turning wheel and his punishment was eternal.

ARES (MARS)

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Etymology of his name: “Slayer- Venger”, “Destroyer”

Family: He was the son of Zeus and Hera.

Attributes: He is the god of war, but he represents the bloody side of war, he enjoys bloodshed and
violence and takes pleasure in slaughter and massacre. He was the god of turmoil and storm in human
affairs. He was fierce and terrible, because of his violence he was not able to think of right or wrong,
therefore all the gods disliked him.
As he enjoyed violence and disharmony he was accompanied by Eris, the goddess of discord and
Enyo( ruiner of cities). In combat he was accompanied by his sons Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Terror)

Representation and Emblems He is generally depicted as a young man of powerful built, he has a
voice like the thunder and he is very fast. He is generally depicted almost naked or as a bearded
warrior dressed in heavy armour. Generally, he is on a war chariot. He carries emblems such as the
helmet with the high crest, spear, shield and armour. The dog and the vulture are sacred to him.

Stories of Combat
Ares + Athena: Athena was his constant opponent since she represented cool and intelligent courage
whereas Ares represented brutality and violence. One day he challenged her and hit her, but Athena
threw a stone which made him fall down and was overcome.

Ares+ Otus and Ephialtes: They were the twin giant brothers, the sons of Poseidon, who succeeded
in binding him, and imprisoned him in a vase for thirteen months, in the end Hermes saved him.

Ares and Aphrodite: Aphrodite was Hephaestus' wife but she had not married him willingly. She had
an affair with Ares and by him had three children one of which was Harmonia who later became the
wife of Cadmus. Helios, the Sun, one day, catching the lovers in bed, informed Hephaestus about it.
The angry husband pretended to go on a trip, and when the lovers were in bed again, caught them both
and by imprisoning them in a magical net and showed them to all the gods. Apollo and Hermes said
they would not mind being in Ares' place, Zeus was disgusted and refused to give back their wedding
gifts which Hephaestus had asked for . Things were settled in the end. Hephaestus released the lovers.
This time, Aphrodite had affairs with Hermes and Poseidon who helped to solve the problem. From
her union with Hermes was born Hermaphrodites who was double sexed; and from her union with
Poseidon were born two sons (Rhodus and Herophilus).

Tereus+ Procne and Philomela: Tereus was one of Ares' sons. Procne and Philomela were the
daughters of Pandion of Athens. Tereus who lived in Trace married Procne and they had a son Itys .
Later, Tereus fell in love with Philomela, Procne's sister with a beautiful voice. He locked up Procne
with the slaves and cut her tongue to prevent her from talking. He went to his father Ares and said that
Procne had died and that he could only forget his sorrow if he married Philomela. The father agreed.
Although Procne could not talk she wove in a dress put a message telling what had happened, which
she was weaving for Philomela. Philomela, upon taking this message, came and saved Procne. For
revenge, togrther they killed Itys, cooked him up and served to Tereus. When Tereus understood what
he was eating, he grabbed an axe and chased the sisters. But the gods changed all three into birds:
Procne became a swallow, and Philomela, a nightingale, and Tereus, a hawk. Since then, Tereus cries
'pou pou' (where, where), and Procne cires ‘Itu Itu’ (mourning for her son).

HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN)

Etymology of his name: “Burning bright”, “Shining”, “Flaming”

Family: He was the son of Zeus and Hera. Some stories say that Hera gave birth to him on her own
because she was angered by Zeus giving birth to Athena on his own.
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Attributes: He is the god of fire, volcanic eruptions, the forge, and heath and all the arts and crafts
which depended on fire. He was the blacksmith of gods and a very skilful artisan. He made many
things for gods and mortals alike. To mention some: the sceptre and Aegis of Zeus, arrows of Apollo
and Artemis, the throne of Hera, the chariot of Helios, the sickle of Demeter, the shield of Achilles.
He is the only deformed god in Olympus being lame . The lameness represented the uneven flames of
the fire which he represents (not as a destroying but a beneficent element in the service of man). It is
said that when he was born Hera seeing his deformed body threw him down from Olympus into the
sea and he was taken care of by Eurynome and Thetis.
He was a very skilful blacksmith and craftsman. His workshop was under the volcano Mt. Aetna in
Sicily. He made two mechanical women from gold and silver as helpers. The Cyclopes were also his
helpers.

Representation and Emblems: He is generally depicted as a strong mature man with a bearded face
and sometimes as a young man with half naked body with a powerful neck. Generally, he wears a
short tunic covering one shoulder; a pointed conical cap (pilos). His emblems are the hammer and a
pair of tongs.

Birth and Marriage: When he was born, Hera did not want this lame baby and threw him into the
sea. Tethys, his Titaness aunt, brought him up but he refused to come to the Olympus. They could only
bring him to the Olympus when Dionysus made him drunk. He made a magical throne for Hera, and
when she sat on it she was captivated. He said he would release her only if they would give Aphrodite
as a wife to him and Zeus agreed.

Hephaestus + Athena: He always wanted to have Athena and asked for her hand but she continually
refused him. Although Zeus consented the marriage never took place.

HEBE

She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera and one of the minor divinities of Olympus. She was the goddess
of eternal youth and the cup-bearer of the gods. She poured nectar from a golden pitcher to the gods.
One day she fell and exposed herself. So she was replaced by Ganymedes as the cup bearer. When
Hercules was accepted among the gods she became his wife.

EILEITHYIA

She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera and one of the minor divinities of Olympus. She is the goddess
of childbirth and birth-pangs. Generally, she is represented as kneeling beside the woman who is about
to deliver a child and holding a torch in her hand to help the woman in birth. As well as helping the
birth she could also obstruct the birth.

APOLLO

Etymology of his name and epithets: “The Brilliant”, “The Shining,” “The Fair”, “Of the Golden
Locks”, “The Archer”, “The Healer,” “The Shepherd”

Family He is the son of Zeus and Leto, the twin brother of Artemis.

Attributes: He is the personification of youth and beauty. He is the god of medicine, the healer god.
He is the god of the sun and light, and in relation to this, the god of prophesy and oracles. He is also
the archer god. He is also the god of music he plays the golden lyre and is accompanied by the muses.

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He is the god of herds, and the shepherd god . The is also the protector of crops as he destroyed mice
and drives off locust.

Representation and Emblems: He is generally depicted as a young man of idealized beauty with a
beardless face, with thick long blond hair which hangs freely in locks or is sometimes tied in a large
knot. He sometimes wears a long tunic. He carries the emblems such as the bow, arrows, quiver, the
shepherd's crook and the lyre. The laurel and the palm are sacred to him.

The Oracle at Delphi belonged to Apollo. Originally it belonged to Themis (or Gaia). There was a
chasm and out of it came vapours and gases which inspired the priestess. Apollo’s priestess was
called Pythia, she sat in front of a tripod and she passed into a trance to communicate messages from
the gods to men.

The Exploits of Apollo

Apollo and Tityus: Tityus was a giant sent by Hera to insult Leto and to obstruct the Oracle at Delphi.
Apollo, with his sister Artemis, killed Tityus with their arrows and he was put in Tartarus. His
punishment was similar to Prometheus , two vultures ate his liver.

Apollo and the Aloadae . Otus and Ephialtes were the twinswho tried to put the mountains Mt.
Pelion and Mt. Ossa on top of each other to reach Olympus the abode of the gods. Apollo fought
against them and their presumption was punished. They were put in Tartarus where they were bound
to pillars and tortured by the continual hooting and screeching of owls. According to another version
Alaoade wanted to violate Artemis who took the shape of a doe, and trying to kill the doe the giant
twins threw their javelins missed the doe and killed each other.

Apollo and Hercules: When Hercules tried to carry away the tripod he was caught by Apollo. Zeus
prevented the fight.

Apollo and Niobe: Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, had seven sons and seven daughters. One at a feast
celebrating Leto she boasted about her children saying they were more in number than Leto's children
therefore she should be worshipped. This angered the gods and Apollo and Artemis shot the children
of Niobe with their arrows. Niobe out of her sorrow cried continually. Gods pitied her and turned her
into a stone that was forever wet with her tears.(Manisa Ağlayan kaya)

Apollo and Phaeton: Phaeton was the son of Apollo and the nymph Clymene. He boasted about it
among his friends. One day he wanted to borrow Apollo's chariot to prove that he was his son. He
asked his father to grant a wish without disclosing what the wish was. As Apollo made a promise he
had keep his word and unwillingly allowed Phaeton to drive the chariot. But he could not control the
horses since he was a mortal. He could not control the chariot, he came too close to the earth and
almost scorched it creating the Libyan desert. Zeus struck him with his thunderbolt, and he fell into
the river Eridanus and was drowned. His sisters, the Heliades, cried after him lamenting his death.
They were turned into poplar trees and their tears became amber as they dropped into the river.

Amorous adventures

Apollo + Clytie: Clytie was a nymph who fell in love with Apollo, however her love was not returned.
She ate nothing but only followed the course of the sun for nine days. Gods pitied her and turned her
into the sunflower which always follows the journey of the sun. According to some versions she is
turned into the flower heliotrope.

Apollo+Daphne: Apollo once scorned Eros by telling him not to play with arrows as they were for
grown up men. Eros was offended and he said his arrows would strike him. He had two types of
arrows; one of them was made of gold and it caused people to fall in love and the other one was made
of led which made the person it was shot with repel love. He struck Apollo with the golden arrow and
he struck Daphne with the led one. Daphne was the daughter of the river god Peneus. Apollo fell in
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love with Daphne but Daphne did not return his love. Daphne began running away from Apollo and
wanted to remain a follower of Diana. Finally Daphne asked the help of her father. The moment
Apollo touched her she turned into a laurel tree. Apollo could do nothing, so he decided to make the
laurel his sacted tree. He wore its leaves as a crown and decorated his harp and lyre with it. He also
made it an evergreen.

Apollo + Calliope: Calliope was the muse of epic poetry and eloquence. From the union of Calliope
and Apollo was born the great musician Orpheus. Even wild animals became tame and listened to his
music.
Orpheus + Eurydice: Orpheus fell in love with Eurydice, who also loved him. On the day of
wedding a snake bit her and she went to the underworld. Orpheus, with his music tamed
Cerberus who was guarding the gates of the Underworld; he also managed to get a permission
from Hades and Proserpina to allow Eurydice to came back to the world on condition that he
would not look back on Eurydice until they were out of the Underworld. Orpheus could not
control his eagerness and he looked back a moment too soon, and Eurydice vanished. In his
despair, Orpheus wandered in the wilds, playing for the rocks and trees and rivers. He could
no longer play beautiful calming music. Finally, a fierce band of Thracian women , the
Maeneads , who were followers of Dionysus, asked him to play cheerful music.When he could
not they killed him. When his head was thrown in the river Hebrus, it continued to call for
Eurydice, and at the shore of Lesbos, the Muses buried it. After Orpheus's death his lyre
became the constellation Lyra.

Apollo + Cronis: Cronis was the daughter of the king of Lapiths. Apollo fell in love with her but
she later betrayed him with a mortal. The crow which was sacred to Apollo immediately informed
him of the situation. Enraged Apollo struck Coronis with an arrow. The maiden revealed to the god
that she was pregnant upon which Apollo regretted what he had done. Although he tried to save the
maiden it was not possible but he saved the baby. He gave the baby to the centaur Chiron who
brought him up. The baby who was Asclepius, learned the art of medicine from Chiron. As for the
crow as punishment Apollo changed his feathers from white to black.

Asc(u)lepius: He is the god of medicine. He inherited this quality from his father. In one
instance he even brought back a dead man to life by preparing a medicine from a plant which a
serpent told him about. Hades was angered and Zeus struck him dead for destroying the order
of nature.
Generally he is depicted as a middle aged man with a benevolent expression and often
holding a snake. He had two sons, who were doctors ad daughters all related to medicine:
Hygieia ( health), Panacea (the All-healing), Iaso (Cure), Aecesis (Remedy) .

Apollo + Hyacinthus: Hyacinthus was a young handsome prince whom Apollo loved. One day they
were playing discus throwing and the Western wind Zepherus became jealous and struck him. He
died in Apollo’s arms. There was nothing Apollo could do to save him. Where ever his blood
dripped the flower the hyacinth grew. It is said to be the flower of woe as there can be seen the
letters “ai” on its petals which is an expression of grief. Another version for the creation of the
flower states that when Achilles died in the Trojan war, Ajax committed suicide as he was not given
his shield. And where his blood fell grew the hyacinth.

Apollo + Cyparissus: Cyparissus was an exceptionally handsome youth loved by Apollo. He had a
sacred deer who accompanied him. One day in summer he accidentally struck and killed it. Apollo
tried to console him but he asked to be left alone and to mourn his loss forever. His limbs began to
turn into branches and he turned into the cypress the tree of sadness and mourning.

Other Exploits

Midas + Marsyas: Marsyas was a satyr from Phyrigia and a good musician who could play the
flute so well that he was better than Apollo the god of music . Apollo invited him for a competition

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and asked Midas to be the judge. Midas decided that Marsyas was better. Apollo punished Marsyas
for venturing to compete with him ; he was hung on a pine tree and was flayed alive. Midas was
given ass ears for having made such a foolish decision. He hid his ears in his Phyrigian hat but his
barber knew his secret. When he could no longer keep the secret he dug a hole in the river bank and
told the secret into it. When the wind blew the reeds which grew there began singing the secret of
Midas: “The ass ears of Midas”.

ARTEMIS (DIANA)

Family. She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo.

Attributes: She is one of the virgin goddesses of Olympus. She is the personification of maidenhood
and chastity. She is the goddess of the moon and also an archer goddess, a huntress, and thus the
protector of forests and beasts. She is also the goddess of fertility.

Representations and Emblems: She is generally depicted as a young slim maiden. She has a serious
expression on her face, her hair is drawn back and partly gathered by a knot. Generally she wears a
short tunic and carries emblems such as the bow, the arrows, the quiver. She may carry a torch in her
hand to signify her lunar aspect. The moon and/or the stars may be on her head. The dog and the hind
(deer) were sacred to her. She is the goddess of nature, beasts and animals.

Artemis + Acteon: Acteon went on a hunt with his dogs and saw Artemis bathing naked. In order to
prevent him from boasting Artemis turned him in to a deer and her dogs tore him into pieces.

Artemis + Amazons: The Amazons were the descendants of Ares the war god. Earliest/women
warriors, descendants of Ares. They worshipped both Ares (sacrificed horses to him) and Artemis.
Their queen was Hippolyta. They were skilful warriors, even removed one breast to use the bow
better. Their society was exclusively female; they accepted men only once a year to have offspring and
when they had sons, they killed them or deserted them. They are said to have lived in many different
places, in Cappadocia, in the Aegean, and even in the Black Sea. They also fought in the Trojan wars.

HERMES (MERCURY)

Family. He was the son of Zeus and Maia ,the daughter of Atlas.

Attributes: He is the messenger of gods. He is the god and protector of travellers, merchants,
commerce, gamblers, games of chance (lottery). He is at the same time the conductor of souls to the
underworld. He is the first mathematician and astronomer. He is the god of eloquence and is very
persuasive with words. He is the god of athletes and inventor of sports and racing. He is the protector
of herds and flocks.

Representation and Emblems: He is generally depicted as a young man with a graceful body. He
wears a short tunic leaving half of his body naked; wears winged sandals; has a golden hat with wings
which induces sleep the Petasus; carries the Caducaeus, which is the emblem of the messengers. It is
a winged staff around which serpents are entwined.

The birth of Hermes: When he was born, even as a baby he secretly went out of the cave where he
was born, and stole Apollo's cows. He made them walk backwards so that the hoof- prints would show
the other direction and they could not find them. In the end Apollo and his followers found the cows
and accused Hermes of the theft. Baby Hermes pretended to be asleep. Afterwards Hermes made a
lyre and Apollo wanted to have it. They made a deal: for the lyre Apollo gave his herds to Hermes.
Later Hermes made a flute and exchanged it with shepherd's staff of Apollo. Then Apollo became the
god of music, and Hermes, the protector of herds and flocks. Both were good friends. Zeus made
Hermes messenger of gods since he was wise and swift. Hermes promised not to tell lies, and tell the
truth always, but not the whole truth.
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Hermes + Dryope: From their union was born Pan, who was half human, half god. Half of his body
was in the shape of a goat, and he also had horns.

ATHENA (MINERVA)

Etymology of her name: She is generally called Pallas Athena, since she killed the giant during the
war with the giants.

Family: She is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, and she was born from the head of Zeus.

Attributes: She was the goddess of wisdom, intelligence and fine arts. She was the goddess of war,
protector of cities and towns, the patron of architects, sculptors, spinners, and weavers. Athena, Zeus’
favourite child, was also a virgin goddess like Artemis. She could wear the Aegis (armour) and carry
the thunderbolt. She gave many gifts to men such as taming horses, the potter's wheel, art of spinning
and weaving.

Representation and Emblems: She is generally depicted as a young maiden with a serious face
wearing armour, breast plate- the Aegis with the Medusa head on it, and a helmet with a high crest
and she is never naked. She carries a spear in her hand. The owl and snake, and the olive tree are
sacred to her. She is generally accompanied by Nike, the goddess of victory.

Nike: She is the daughter of Pallas and Styx. She is represented with wings attached to her
shoulders and holds a wreath of victory.

Athena and T(e)iresias: Teiresias was a mortal who saw Athena naked while she was bathing. She
punished him by taking his sight away. But in compensation she gave him foresight, the ability to see
the future.

Athena and Arachne: Arachne was mortal girl who was very skilful in embroidery. Some even said
she was better than Athena. A competition was arranged between them. In that competition, while the
girl depicted the weaker sides of gods, Athena depicted the gods in heroic action. Athena punished the
girl by changing her into a spider hanging from a thread. She is still embroidering the web there. The
term arachnophobia -fear of spiders, is related to her.

Athena and Poseidon: When a new city was built, both Athena and Poseidon wanted to have it. Zeus
arranged a competition and asked both of them to create something for mankind. The best gift would
win. Poseidon created horses, and Athena created the olive tree. Athena won the competition and the
city was named after her.

HESTIA (VESTA)

Etymology of her name: “Hearth”

Family: The eldest child of Cronus and Rhea.

Attributes: She is the goddess of the hearth, home and domestic fire. She is the protector of the
home, family and city. She is one of the virgin goddesses. Every meal began with an offering to her.

Representation and Emblems: She is generally depicted as seated or standing but always immobile.
She wears a long dress and a veil. She has a serious and dignified countenance. Her attendance was
called the Vestals. They attended the fires in her temples. They served between the ages 10 and 40.

APHRODITE (VENUS)

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Etymology of her name: “Sea foam”

Family: There are two different versions . According to one she was born from the foam that gathered
around the genitals of Uranus mutilated by Cronus. According to the other version she was the
daughter of Zeus and Dione.

Attributes: The goddess of love, she took pleasure in making love. She is the personification of
feminine grace and harmony. She is the mistress of seductive conversation, joyful laughter, deceits
and charm of love. She is also the goddess of gardens, flowers.

Representation and Emblems: Generally, she is a young woman, very beautiful and naked or half
naked. She is accompanied by the three Graces and Eros. Sometimes he is said to be the son of
Aphrodite. He is depicted with wings and sometimes blindfolded to signify that love is blind.
The animals sacred to her are the dove symbolising love, the sparrow- associated with sexual
productivity, the dolphin - playfulness, and the swan –representing feminine charm, and the turtle-
implying domestic love.

Amorous adventures

With immortals:
Aphrodite + Ares
Aphrodite + Hermes
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With mortals
Aphrodite + Anchises As Aphrodite always made Zeus fall in love with mortals, Zeus wanted to
take revenge, and made her fall in love with the Trojan Anchises. From their union was born Aeneas
who later became the founder of Rome. Aphrodite made Anchises promise not to reveal the mother of
the child. But one day he boasted about the child’s relations and Zeus punished him with a thunderbolt
and he became lame.

Aphrodite + Adonis. Adonis was the son of Myrrha, the daughter of a king in Cyprus. Myrrha did
not honour Aphrodite, so she made her fall in love with her own father. Myrrha made her father drunk
and went to bed with him. Adonis was the child from this union. To avoid the punishment of gods,
right after the child's birth, Aphrodite turned Myrrha into a myrrh tree. However, the child was so
beautiful that both Proserpina and Aphrodite wanted to have him. So the baby spent a third of the year
with Aphrodite, a third with Proserpina, and a third with Zeus. Meanwhile, Aphrodite was wounded by
the golden arrow of Eros and fell in love with Adonis. One day Adonis was going on a boar hunt, and
Aphrodite wanted to prevent it but he would not listen. In the hunt, a boar attacked him and he was
wounded mortally. There was nothing Aphrodite could do. Wherever his blood fell, she made the
anemone flower grow.

Famous Love Stories

Cupid (Eros) + Psyche: Psyche was the youngest of three princesses. She was so beautiful that people
came from all over to see her and later they began worshipping her beauty instead of Aphrodite. The
goddess heard about this, and became jealous and angry. She told Eros to shoot the girl and make her
fall her in love with a monster. But Cupid himself fell in love with Psyche. Although she was very
beautiful and everybody admired her no one wanted to marry her. When the father asked Apollo’s
oracle he was told to leave his daughter on top of a rocky hill and that her husband would be a
monster. Zephyr the mildest wind took her and put her in a meadow of flowers and she fell asleep
there. When she woke up she was beside a river and there was a palace made of gold and silver. When
she entered the palace she saw that it was empty but a voice answered her questions and told her that it
was for her and that at night her husband would come. Her husband always came at night and she
never saw him but she was happy. Psyche wanted to see her sisters. When they came and saw
everything they came and became jealous. They convinced their sister to kill her husband. She went
near her husband with an oil lamp, but when she saw a beautiful creature rather than a monster her
hand trembled and a drop of hot oil dripped on Cupid, he woke up before he was killed. Psyche saw
he was not a giant, and regretted but Cupid was angry and deserted her. He said: “Love cannot live
where there is no trust”. When Aphrodite heard that Cupid had chosen Psyche as his wife she was
angry. Psyche hoped to find Cupid and asked the advice of gods. She also went to Aphrodite for
advice. But Aphrodite tortured Psyche. She gave her some tasks such as:

• A huge pile of seeds to be sorted out in one day. She cried as she thought she could not do it
,but the ants took pity and helped her. Aphrodite understood that she had not done it alone.
She gave her another task:

• To bring the golden fleece of the wild ram of Hyperion who lived by a river. She knew that
this was an impossible task because the sheep were very wild. The reeds helped her with the
advice to wait until the sheep crossed the river going through thorns, which would collect its
wool.

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• Aphrodite gave her a little jar and asked her to bring the potion of beauty from Proserpina.
Proserpina filled the jar. On the way, Psyche became curious and opened the box and she fell
asleep.

Meanwhile Cupid’s wounds had healed and he was looking for Psyche and when he found her asleep
he took sleep from her eyes and put it in the jar. He told Psyche to take the jar to Aphrodite. Cupid
went to Zeus and asked his permission to marry Psyche. The wish was granted and it was announced
to the gods. Zeus made Psyche an immortal by giving her ambrosia.

Pygmalion + Galatea: Pygmalion, a sculpture and woman-hater, angered Aphrodite. Having been
offended, Aphrodite decided to punish him. When he made a female sculpture, Aphrodite made him
fall in love with his own work. He apologised from Aphrodite for his dislike of women, and began
worshipping Aphrodite. Aphrodite gave life to his work, which was named Galatea, and they got
married. Pygmalion is also the title of a work of Bernard Shaw, an anti-feminist.

Pyramus + Thisbe: They both lived in old Babylon, and they were neighbours and loved each other,
but their families were enemies. They communicated with each other through a crack on the wall
dividing their gardens. They finally decide to elope together meeting each other at the tomb of Ninus .
Thisbe was first to arrive there, and while she was waiting there, a lioness appeared, being scared she
ran away. She managed to escape from the lioness, but she dropped her cloak there, the lioness came
near it and smelled it. Its mouth was bloody so the cloak of was also smeared with blood. Pyramus
arrived there afterwards, and seeing the bloody cloak of Thisbe, he thought she was dead and
committed suicide there at the feet of the tomb. Then Thisbe returned, and having seen what happened,
she also committed suicide. The white mulberry tree near the dead bodies, turned into red.

Leander + Hero: Hero was the priestess of Aphrodite and lived in Sestus in a tower by the sea.
Leander lived on the other side of the Hellespont. They met at a festival of Aphrodite, and fell in love
with each other. Leander swam the strait every night to meet Hero waiting on the opposite side with a
light in her hand. Hero's father understood the situation and put off the light one day. (According to
another version in a winter storm the light went out) Leander could not find his way and perished in
the Hellespont. When Hero saw the dead body of Leander she committed suicide.The legend inspired
Lord Byron to swim the strait in 1810.

Hippomenes + Atalanta: Atalanta was the daughter of Iasus who wanted only sons so when she was
born she was exposed on the mountains. A bear suckled her and later hunters found her and brought
her up. Atalanta was a follower of Artemis. She was a virgin and a skilful hunter, and very beautiful.
Everyone wanted to marry her. She was also a fast runner, and said that anyone who could beat her in
race could marry her, otherwise he would die. Hippomenes went to the temple of Aphrodite and
prayed to her for help. Aphrodite helped Hippomenes, she gave him three golden apples and told him
to drop them one by one during the race. He did so, and Atalanta stooped to take the apples. In the end
Hippomenes won the race with the trick and married Atalanta.

The judgement of Paris: Eris, the god of strife, was not invited to a great banquet at Olympus since
she always made trouble. For revenge, she decided to throw an apple with the words ‘to the fairest’ on
it onto the banquet table. All the goddesses wanted to have it, in the end only Hera, Aphrodite and
Athena were left (finalists of the first beauty contest). They asked Zeus' judgement as to who was the
most beautiful. But he said Paris, a Trojan prince brought up by shepherds, was the best judge of
beauty. When Paris was tending his sheep, three goddesses came and asked him to be the judge. Each
tried to bribe him, Hera promised to make him the ruler of Europe and Asia, Athena to help him lead
Troy to victory against the Greeks, and Aphrodite to give him the most beautiful woman in the world,
Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris favoured Aphrodite, even though at the time he was
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in love with the nymph Oenone. His decision made Hera and Athena bitter enemies of his country.
This and the abduction of Helen by Paris, in Menelaus’ absence, brought about the Trojan War.
Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon, had made all the suitors promise to help Helen when she was
ever in trouble. In the tenth year of the siege of Troy that followed, Paris and Menelaus met in hand-to-
hand combat. Menelaus would easily have been the victor except for Aphrodite, who enveloped Paris
in a cloud, and carried him back to Troy. Before the fall of the city, Paris was mortally wounded by the
archer Philoctetes. Paris then went to Oenone, who had a magic drug that could cure him. She refused
him, but when he died, Oenone killed herself out of misery.

THE WINDS

Aeolus: He was the king of the winds. His palace was on the island of Aeolia. He lived there with his
six sons and six daughters. He confined them in a cave and let loose as he wanted.

Notus (South wind)

Eurus (East wind)
Zephyrus (West wind)Known for its gentleness. The lover of Flora.
Boreas (North wind) known for his rudeness.

II. DIVINITIES OF THE EARTH

Titans and the older dynasty : Gaea, Rhea, and Cybele

Olympians / the younger dynasty: Demeter, Persephone and Dionysus.

Minor divinities: Pan,Satyrs,Sileni, Maeneads (Bacchantes), Centaurs,Triptolemus, Galli, Attis,

Nymphs

CYBELE

Etymology of her name: “Magna Mater”, “Great Mother”

Family: Her parentage is not known. According to some versions she was the daughter of Uranus and
Gaea, and according to another she was the daughter of the king of Phyrigia, where she was
worshipped. She was exposed on Mt. Cybele after which she was named. She was suckled by leopards
and lions and grew up in the forest.

Attributes: She was a goddess native to Phrygia. She is the goddess of nature and fertility, the mother
of all life. She also presided over mountains and fortresses.
She was the goddess of caverns and the personification of the Earth in its primitive stage. She is the
patroness of the wild beasts, which accompanied her.
She was the goddess of cities and is said to have surrounded them with walls.

Representation and emblems: She is generally represented as sitting on a throne accompanied by

lions, or on a chariot drawn by lions-the lions signifying her majesty.
She carries a whip decorated with knuckle bones- representing her power.
She has a high crown.

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She is accompanied by Attis, the young god with whom she fell in love with, and the Galli who are
her eunuch priests.
The pine tree is sacred to her.

Attis was a youth with whom she fell in love with. She made him take an oath of chastity and made
him her priest, but later he broke his vow she struck him with frenzied delirium. In his madness he
castrated himself where ever his blood was spilled there grew the pansy and Cybele finally changed
him into a fir tree.

Cybele + Gordius Married Gordius, the king of Phrygia who devised the famous Gordian Knot.

DEMETER (CERES)

Etymology of he name and epithets: Terra Mater “Earth Mother,” “Demeter the Fruitful” “Goddess
of the Corn” “Bringer of Seasons”

Family: She was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea.

Attributes: She is the personification of the rich and fertile soil, the cultivated soil. She is the goddess
of fertility, harvest, agriculture, fruits, barley, wheat and corn. She presided over all agricultural
labours and the harvest, sowing, reaping.

Representation and Emblems: She is generally depicted in a long robe and often seated wearing a
veil covering the back of her head.
She carries
the sceptre-indicating her sovereignity,
ears of corn-indicating fertility,
poppies- indicating sleeping nature,
torch-indicating her association with the Underworld
the Cornucopia, which is the horn of plenty.
barley and wheat are also her emblems and are sacred to her.

Abduction of Proserpina / Persephone: From Demeter’s union with Zeus was born Proserpina
whom she loved very much. One day when Proserpina went to pick flowers in a meadow with the
Oceanids. Suddenly the earth opened and Hades appeared with his chariot and took Proserpina to the
Underworld. Zeus had agreed to this as he wanted Proserpina to be the quenn of the Underworld.
Demeter began looking for her daughter and she met Hecate who took her to Helios who was the only
one to witness what had happened. her grief was so great that she neglected the land; no plants grew,
and famine devastated the earth. Dismayed at this situation, Zeus 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.

Triptolemus, the original priest of Demeter: After the abduction of her daughter Demeter disguised
herself as an old woman and began wandering on earth, King Celeus of Eleusis showed her hospitality
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and she became the nurse to their son. She wanted to confer immortality to him by burning away the
mortal parts but the parents misunderstood and the child died. They also had a son, Triptolemus,
Demeter taught him the secrets of the earth and agriculture; she taught him the art of harnessing the
oxen, gave him the wooden plough and the first gains of seed, showed hoe to sow seeds. She appointed
him to teach mankind the mysteries of the earth and agriculture. She also gave him her chariot drawn
by dragons.

DIONYSUS (BACCHUS/LIBER)

Etymology of his name and epithets: “the twice born” “The child of the double doors”

Family: He was the son of Zeus and Semele. His mother perished when Zeus appeared to her in all his
glory. She was pregnant at the time and a branch of ivy protected her ; Zeus took the baby and put it in
his tigh and he was born three months later. Hermes took the baby Dionysus and gave him to the
nymps who took care of him.

Attributes: He is the close to man. He is the god of wine and vine the bringer of wine to man.. He
represents both the positive and negative effects of wine. He bestows on mankind the gift of ecstasy.
Although he is close to man his anger is terrible. He is the god of heartless savagery, brutality and
cruelty. Being an earth god, he is the god of rebirth, animal and plant life. Dionysus is also
characterised as a deity whose mysteries inspired ecstatic, orgiastic worship, and he represents also the
promise of bodily resurrection.

Representations and Emblems: Generally he is depicted as an effeminate young man with curly hair.
Sometimes he appears as a mature man with curly beard. Generally, he is naked or half-dressed . He
carries the Thyrsus a staff entwined with ivy on top of which is a pine cone and the Cantharos the
wine cup. The ivy ,vine leaves, bunches of grapes are also among him emblems and are sacred to him.
He is accompanied by the Satyrs, Sileni, Maeneads, Pan, Bacchanals, Centaurs.

The retinue of Dionysus

Satyrs They are the elementary spirits of the woods and forests, the mountains. They are often
depicted with half human and half animal features. They have pointed ears or little horns like
goats. Sometimes they have the legs and hooves of goats, and sometimes horse’s tails. They
are fond of frightening and chasing nymphs. They like wine and dancing. They carry the wine
skins for Dionysus.

Bacehantes (Maenads) and Bacchanals : The female and male worshippers of Dionysus.
They used to play musical instruments, sing and dance. The Maenads, or Bacchantes, were a
group of female devotees who left their homes to roam the wilderness in ecstatic devotion to
Dionysus. They wore fawn skins and were believed to possess occult powers. Dionysus was
good and gentle to those who honoured him, but he brought madness and destruction upon
those who spurned him or the orgiastic rituals of his cult. Bacchanalia: The Dionysiac
mysteries, frenetic celebrations which became occasions for licentiousness and intoxication.
The celebrations were prohibited by the Roman Senate in 186 BC.

Pan (Faunus) He was the god of shepherds, herds and flocks. He was believed to be
responsible for their fertility. Pan was depicted with human arms and a human torso but with
the ears, horns, and legs of a goat (resembles satyrs). As he slept in the afternoon, shepherds
did not play their pipes. Pan was especially fond of remote mountains and caves and was

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believed to be responsible for the sudden, inexplicable fear, or panic, that can overtake
travellers in such surroundings.

Pan's invention of the panpipes, or syrinx: He fell in love with a nymph ,a Hamadryad. She
was a follower of Artemis. When he was chasing her she came to a river and could no longer
escape she asked the help of the Naiades-the water nymps. She was transformed into a stand
of reeds. Pan fashioned the instrument syrinx from one of the reeds and named it after the
nymph; he tied together some of the reeds to make it.

Silenus The oldest of the satyrs, the son of Pan (or Hermes in some versions). The tutor of
Dionysus, Silenus often accompanied him on his travels. He was almost always drunk, but at
the same time very wise and had the gift of prophesy. As a reward for his hospitality to
Silenus, Dionysus granted Midas, king of Phrygia, the golden touch. Silenus is represented as
little old fat man with a bald head in a state of jovial intoxication. His offspring are the Sileni,
and they resemble him.

Centaurs They were the offsprings of Ixıon. They had the head arms and the torso of men
and the rest of their bodies was in the form of horse. Cheiron was the wise one among them.
He was also said to be of a different parentage. He was known for his justice, wisdom and
kindness. He was the tutor of many heroes including Achilles. Hercules accidentally wounded
him with his poisonous arrows. Since he was immortal his suffering was incurable. He wanted
to die. With the permission of Zeus he gave his immortality to Prometheus and died. He was
placed in the sky as the constellation Centaurus.

Dionysus, the pirates and Acetes: While Dionysus was visiting the islands in the Aegean Sea, the
pirates saw him and thinking that he was a prince, they decided to kidnap him and ask for ransom.
They tied him to the mast of their ship, but the ropes would not hold. Acetes, one of the pirates, told
his friends to leave this prisoner as he was a god. But they would not listen to him. In the end,
Dionysus changed all the pirates into dolphins. Only Acetes was saved.

Dionysus + Ariadne: Ariadne was the girl that Theseus has promised to marry. But he deserted her in
the island of Naxos, where Dionysus found her asleep and fell in love with her. They were married and
all the gods came to their wedding.

The Nymphs of the earth

The nymphs are local deities. They were depicted as beautiful girls. They are kindly and help man.
They look after children. They increase flocks, send rain, cause springs to flow, help the fruits and
orchards to grow.

The Dryads (Hamadrads): They were the forest nymphs responsible for trees. They were represented
as crowned with oak leaves. When a tree died or was harmed, its nymph also died.
The Oreads: They were the nymphs of the mountains, caves (grottoes).
The Naiads: They were the nymphs of springs, fountains, streams and rivers.

III. DIVINITIES OF THE SEAS AND WATERS

Titans and the older dynasty : Pontus, Oceanus, Nereus, Proteus

Olympians / the younger dynasty: Poseidon, Amphitrite, Triton, Glaucus

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Minor divinities: Oceanids, River gods, Nereids, Water Nymphs

Sea Monsters: Sirens, Scylla, Charybdis.

Oceanus

Family: He is the son of Uranus and Gaea, he is married to Tethys the titaness.

Attributes: He is the lord of the stream which flows around the whole world.
He lives in the seas with his wife and they look after the earth and the waters. He is different from the
sea which is salty as Oceanus is not salty. He is the ocean stream that flows around the sea and the
various countries and forms the outermost edge of the world.
From the union of Oceanus and Tethys were born the Oceanids, 3000 in number and the river gods.

Nereus

Family: He is the son of Pontus and Gaea and is married to Doris.

Attributes : He is the old man of the sea and the patron of sailors. He lived in the depths of the
Aegean Sea and came to the surface only to help the sailors. He is called “the truthful” because he tells
no lies, is always trustworthy and knows what is right. He had the gift of prophecy but he was not
willing to talk so he kept changing his shape in order to escape.
From his union with Doris were born 50 Nereids.

Appearance: Originally he was represented with along fish tail but later he is portrayed with human
shape.

Nereids: They were the 50 lovely virgin sisters with golden hair. They lived at the bottom of the sea
with their father Nereus, and often came to the surface to aid sailors and other travellers. They were
believed to ride dolphins and other sea animals. They spent their time spinning and singing songs.
They could smooth stormy waves and calm tempests.
The most famous of the Nereids were Thetis, the mother of the Greek hero Achilles; Amphitrite, the
wife of Poseidon, god of the sea.

Galatea, Acis, Polyphemus (Cyclopes): Galatea, one of the Nereids, the sea nymph was loved by the
Cyclops Polyphemus, an ugly giant with one huge eye in the middle of his forehead. Galatea did not
return his love, however; she teased and ridiculed him arousing his hopes with kind words and then
rejecting him. Galatea finally fell in love with Acis, a handsome young prince, whom Polyphemus
killed in a jealous rage by crashing him under a huge rock. But Acis turned into a river.

Thetis + Peleus Thetis was wooed both by Zeus, and by Poseidon until they learned the prophecy
from Prometheus that she would bear a son who would be mightier than his father [. She was then
given in marriage to Peleus, ruler of the Myrmidons, who was considered the most deserving mortal.
From this union was born the hero Achilles. The mother held him by the heels and dipped him into the
river Styx to make him invulnerable. So it was impossible to wound him except for his heels.

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Proteus

Like Nereus, he was also the old man of the sea. He also had the gift of prophesy, but to learn anything
from him, one had to catch him first since he always kept changing his shape f not to be caught easily.
He was the guardian of the seals of Poseidon.

POSEIDON (NEPTUNE)

Etymology of his name: “The Master,” “The Earthshaker” “Granter of Safe passage”

Family: He is the son of Cronus and Rhea, the brother of Zeus.

Attributes He is the god of the seas. He lives in his palace in the sea. With his trident he can stir up
the waves, he can also command the winds. He also sends victory and defeat in naval battles. He also
had power over rivers and springs and inland waters. As he was the god of watery elements he was
also a god of fecundity and vegetation.
He is also the god of earthquake, he creates earthquakes with his trident.
He was the creator of horses and inventor of horsemanship.

Representation and emblems He is generally represented as an elderly man with majestic figure,
wavy disheveled hair, curly beard, and generally naked. He has He rides a chariot drawn by horses
which have golden manes He carries the trident, which produces earthquakes and storms when struck
the ground. Sea creatures such as a dolphin accompany him.

Poseidon + Amphitrite Amphitrite was a Nereid who first refused him, but a dolphin sent after her
brought her to Poseidon, and she became the queen of the seas. She was a faithful wife and gave birth
to a son, Triton, and daughters.

Triton

Family: He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite and lives with them in their golden palace under the
sea.

Representation and emblems: He has blue eyes and green hair. The lower part of his body is like that
of a dolphin’s fishtail. His body is said to be covered in scales.
He carries a Trident like his father, and by using it he shakes the rocks and creates islands he could
also smooth the waves with it.
He blows a conch shell.
He had the ability to tell the future.
His sons also looked like him and were called the Tritons.

Poseidon + Arne From this union was born Aeolus the keeper of the winds. He lived on the floating
island Aeolia. Zeus had given him the power to still and arouse the winds. He was the inventor of ship
sails.

Poseidon + Gae Antaeus, their son, was a monster who lived in the deserts of Libya and forced all
strangers to wrestle with him. Hercules killed him.
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Glaucus

He is the representation of the sea in its greenish blue colour. He was given the gift of prophesy by
Apollo. Once a year he took a tour in the Aegean Sea. He would appear to the sailors with his body
covered with seaweed and seashells. Originally he was a mortal fisherman but later Oceanus and
Tethys purged him of his mortality.

Water Nymphs: They were classified according to where they lived: Nymphs of the rivers, of brooks,
of springs, of stagnant waters and pools. They were generally represented as beautiful girls. Though
they lived long they were not necessarily immortals.

Echo and Narcissus

Narcissus was a handsome youth, the son of the river god Cephissus and a nymph. On his birth, his
mother went to see Tiresias to learn about the future of his son. He said her son would live long unless
he knew who he was. Because of his great beauty many women fell in love with Narcissus, but he
rejected their advances. Among the lovelorn maidens was the mountain nymph Echo, who had
incurred the displeasure of Hera by keeping her busy on Zeus’ demand so that Hera could not spy on
him. She had been condemned by Hera never to speak again except to repeat the final syllable of what
was said to her. Echo was therefore unable to tell Narcissus of her love, but one day, as Narcissus was
walking in the woods, he became separated from his companions. When he shouted, "Is anyone here?"
Echo answered, "Here, here”. Unable to see her hidden among the trees, Narcissus cried "Come!"
Back came the answer, "Come, come," as Echo stepped forth from the woods with outstretched arms.
Narcissus refused to accept Echo's love; she was so humiliated that she hid in a cave and wasted away
until nothing was left of her but her voice. To punish Narcissus, the avenging goddess Nemesis made
Narcissus fall hopelessly in love with his own beautiful face as he saw it reflected in a pool. As he
gazed in fascination, unable to remove himself from his image with a bent-down head looking into the
water, he gradually wasted away. At the place where his body had lain grew a beautiful flower,
honouring the name and memory of Narcissus: the flower narcissus, or the yellow daffodil, with a bent
head.

Water Nymphs and Hylas: Hylas accompanied Hercules as his armour bearer during the voyage of
the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. When they stopped on the coast of Mysia in Asia Minor,
Hylas was drawn by a sea nymph who fell in love with him into the spring from which he was drawing
water. He never appeared again. Hercules abandoned the expedition in order to look for Hylas, and
afterward, the Mysians conducted a search for Hylas one day of each year.

Sea Monsters

Sirens: They were born from Melpomene, the muse of tragedy and Achelous the river god. They were
half women half bird sea nymphs with beautiful voices. Their emblems were the lyre or the double
flute. They made beautiful music to lure the seamen to their death. The lived on the island close to
Sicily.

Scylla and Charybdis: They were the personification of the dangers of navigation near the rocks and
eddies. The geographical position of this dangerous passage was believed to be the Strait of Messina
between Italy and Sicily, with Scylla on the Italian side.

Scylla: She was half woman and half combination of other animals. Scylla, originally a beautiful
maiden loved by a sea god (Glaucus), had been transformed into a monster by her jealous rival, the
sorceress Circe.

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She was a horrible creature with six dog’s heads for legs, with three rows of teeth, with which she
devoured any prey that that came within reach, and twelve claws with which she grabbed men from
any ship passing by. She had a dolphin’s tale. She lived in a cave on a cliff.

Charybdis: She lived under a rock across the strait, opposite Scylla. She was the daughter of Poseidon
and Gaea. She was the personification of the whirlpool. She sucked in the water three times a day and
devoured ships and all who were on them.

IV. DIVINITIES OF THE UNDERWORLD

Major Gods: Hades, Proserpina, Hecate.

Minor divinities: Aecus, Rhadamanthus, Minos

Furies
Thanatos and Hypnos
Morpheus
The Underworld
Rivers: Styx, Lethe, Phlegethon, Cocytus, Acheron
Charon
Cerberus
Judges: Aecus, Rhadamanthus, Minos
Asphodel Fields, Islands of the Blessed
Elysian Plains
Tartarus: Tityus, Sisyphus, Ixion, Tantalus, Danaids

The concept of the underworld, the infernal regions

The infernal regions were under the earth or at the end of the world. It was governed by Hades
and his wife Proserpina. The underworld was a place of shadows and mysteries.

For the Greeks, the proper burial of the dead was very important. They put a golden coin into
the mouth of the corpse. Hermes was the conductor of the souls of the dead to the underworld which
was divided into two regions: Erebus, where the dead pass as soon as they die, and Tartarus, the
deeper region, where the Titans had been imprisoned. It was a dim and unhappy place, inhabited by
vague forms and shadows and guarded by Cerberus. Sinister rivers separated the underworld from the
world above.

River Styx: Once the dead reached this river of entrance surrounding the underworld, they paid the
gold coin to the aged stingy boatman Charon who ferried the souls of the dead across it. Styx was
sacred even among the gods. It was a river of unbreakable oath: gods swore by it.
Breaking an oath resulted in a punishment for hundred years.

Lethe: It was the river of forgetfulness, and oblivion situated in the underworld. When you drank
from its waters, you forgot everything. The spirits of the dead drank from its waters to forget the
sorrows of their earthly life before entering the underworld.

Phlegethon: It was the river of fire.

Cocytus: It was the river or lamentation and wailing.

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Acheron: It was the river of woe.

Cerberus: It was the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog who guarded the entrance to the underworld. His
duty was to check the arrivals if they were really dead and not allow them to enter the underworld if
they were alive. It permitted all spirits of the dead to enter Hades, but would allow none to leave. Only
a few heroes ever escaped Cerberus's guard; the great musician Orpheus charmed it with his lyre, and
the Greek hero Hercules captured it bare-handed and brought it for a short time from the underworld to
the regions above. Both the beautiful maiden Psyche and the Trojan prince Aeneas were able to pacify
Cerberus with a honey cake and thus continue their journey through the underworld. Cerberus is
sometimes pictured with a mane of snakes and 50 heads.

Asphodel Fields: Souls would enter there to be judged by the judges. These fields were dark, misty,
and joyless place of existence/rest until judgement. The asphodel flowers grew there which were also a
lifeless grey.

The Three Judges:

Minos and Rhadamanthus:They were the sons of Zeus and Europa. Rhadamanthus especially judged
Asiatics.
Aeacus: He was the son of Zeus and Aegina. He was renowned for his piety and love of justice. He
became a judge in the Underworld after his death and he especially judged the Europeans.
The souls went to Elysium or Tartarus according to their deeds.

Elysium It was is the equivalent of heaven. It was a very nice place with the sun always shining. The
good went there.

The Island of the Blessed This place was similar to Elysium however those who went there retained
their faculties and engaged in their favourite activities and lived a life free from work and toil.

The exceptionally wicked were thrown into Tartarus, a place of continual torture and suffering. There
most notorious prisoners were as follows:

Titans: Zeus, after leading the gods to victory over the Titans, banished his father, Cronus, and the
other Titans to Tartarus.

Ixion: He was punished by Zeus for trying to violate Hera; he was put in Tartarus and was bound to a
continually turning wheel.

Tityus: It was a giant sent by Hera to insult Leto and to obstruct the Oracle at Delphi. Apollo, with his
sister Artemis, killed Tityus and the soul was put into Tartarus where two vultures ate its liver.

Tantalus: He was the king of Lydia and son of Zeus. Tantalus was honoured 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, realised the nature of the food. Only Demeter had eaten a piece since she
was busy gossiping. The gods 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 bunches of grapes, pears, apples, figs, ripe olives, and pomegranates, but when he
reached for them the wind blew the laden branches away, out of his reach. The word tantalize is
derived from this story.

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Sisyphus: He was the king of Corinth, the son of Aeolus. He witnessed the abduction of the maiden
Aegina by Zeus, and told her father what he had seen. 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.

The Danaids: They were the 50 daughters of Danaus. Aegyptus wished to settle a quarrel with his
twin brother Danaus by marrying his 50 sons to the 50 daughters of Danaus. Danaus and his daughters,
who opposed the arrangement, fled from Egypt to Argos, where Danaus became king. The young men
pursued them, however, and Danaus finally agreed to the marriage, but gave each daughter a dagger
with which to kill her husband on the wedding night. Hypermnestra, the only daughter who did not
obey, was imprisoned by Danaus but later released. As punishment for the murders, the 49 obedient
sisters, known as the Danaids, were condemned by the gods to the fruitless and eternal task of filling
leaking jars, or a huge vessel with holes, in the underworld.

HADES (PLUTO/DIS)

Etymology of his name and epithets: “The Gate Fastener”, “the Mighty”, “the Terrible” “the Giver
of Wealth” “the Invisible”

Family: He was the son of Cronus and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus.

Attributes: The god of the dead and the underworld. He is also the god of mystery and the
inexplicable, and the god of wealth. He lived in the underworld with his queen Persephone, whom he
abducted from the world above, he ruled the kingdom of the dead.

Representation and Emblems: He is generally depicted as an aged man with a beard and seated on a
throne, sometimes as riding his chariot drawn by black horses and he wears the helmet of invisibility.
He also carries a forked staff with which he guided the dead to the underworld until this duty was
taken over by Hermes.
The mint and the cypress are sacred to him.
He is accompanied by Cerberus.

Amorous adventures:
Abduction of Proserpina

Hades and Menthe: Menthe was a nymph with whom Hades had an affair. Proserpina became
suspicious and she continually mistreated her. Hades turned her into the mint which retained the nice
fragrance.

Hades and Leuke: Leuke was the Daughter of Oceanus and Thethys but she was not immortal. Hades
fell in love with her and abducted her and brought her to the Underworld where, being a mortal she
died. Hades wanted to immortalise her by changing her into the white poplar which is found in
abundance in the Elysian Fields.

PERSEPHONE (PROSERPINA, KORE)

Family: She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

Attributes: She is the queen of the underworld, also the goddess of spring and rebirth since she has
double personality.
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Representations and Emblems: She is generally represented as a young woman carrying ears of corn,
vegetables, poppies, and pomegranate, typical symbol of fertility in the Mediterranean.

HECATE

Family: She was the daughter of the Titan Perses and Astrea.

Etymology of her name and epithets: “the Wayside Goddess”, “of the three ways” “goddess of three
forms”

Attributes: She is the lunar goddess, the goddess of riches, wisdom and victory, and also the goddess
of magic and enchantment. She was believed to appear in the nights accompanied by dogs near
crossroads and graveyards. She is associated with witches and mystery.
She had power in the sky, the earth and the sea.

Representations and Emblems: She is represented carrying a torch and is accompanied by howling
dogs and ghosts. Since she had three aspects to her personality, she is depicted with three faces and
three bodies.
Unlike Artemis, who represented the moonlight and splendour of the night, Hecate represented its
darkness and its terrors. On moonless nights she was believed to roam the earth with a pack of ghostly,
howling dogs. She was the goddess of sorcery and witchcraft and was especially worshipped by
magicians and witches, who sacrificed black lambs and black dogs to her. As goddess of the
crossroads, Hecate and her pack of dogs were believed to haunt these remote spots, which seemed evil
and ghostly places to travellers. In art Hecate is often represented with either three bodies or three
heads and with serpents entwined about her neck.

Morpheus

He is the god of dreams. According to one version the dreams live in a cave which had two gates out
of which were issued the dreams. There were true dreams and false dreams. The true dreams came out
of the horn gate and the false dreams came out of the ivory gate.

HEROES

HERCULES (HERACLES)

(son of Zeus and Alcmene): Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, was determined to kill her unfaithful
husband’s offspring, and shortly after Hercules’ birth she sent two great serpents to destroy him.
Hercules, although still a baby, strangled the snakes.
MILKY WAY: One day Jupiter took the baby Hercules to Hera and made her suckle him hoping to
immortalise his infant son who was born to a mortal woman (according to hoca: so that he would be
stronger). But when she recognised that the baby was Hercules, she pushed him away from her breast,
and the milk was spirted / spilled out, forming the milky way. [As ayoung man Hercules killed a lion
with his bare hands. As a trophy of his adventure
the skin of the lion as a cloak and its head as a helmet. The hero next conquered a tribe that had been
exacting tribute from Thebes. As a reward, he was given the hand of the Theban princess Megara, by
whom he had three children.

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The 12 Labors Of Hercules: Hera, still relentless in hatred of Hercules, sent a fit of madness upon
him during which he killed his wife and children. In horror and remorse at his deed Hercules would
have slain himself, but he was told by the oracle at Delphi that he should purge himself by becoming
the servant of his cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae, Eurystheus, urged on by Hera, devised as
penance the 12 difficult tasks:

1. Killing the Nemean Lion: It could not be killed by any weapons but bare hands. Hercules
stunned the lion with his club first and then strangled it.
2. Killing of Lernean Hydra: This monster had nine heads: onehead was immortal; when one of
the others was chopped off, two grew back in its place. Hercules seared each mortal neck with
a burning torch to prevent reproduction of two heads; he buried the immortal head under a
rock. He then dipped his arrows into the Hydra’s blood to make them poisonous.
3. Capture Erymanthean Boar, a great boar that had its lair on Mount Erymanthos, for the king.
4. Capturing alive the Cerynean Stag with golden horns and bronze hoofs (sacred to Artemis).
5. Driving off Stymphalian birds (sacred to Mars). [These were a huge flock of man-eating
birds with bronze beans, daws, and wings.] They were giving harm to crops. He first
frightened them with bells and then shot them down one by one.
6. Cleaning Augean stables which had not been cleaned for 30 years (with thousands of oxen
and horses). He diverted the streams of two rivers, causing them to flow through the stables.
7. Bringing the Cretan Bull to Eurystheus. It was a mad bull that Poseidon had sent to terrorise
Crete [hoca s version: a beautiful bull belonging to Minas king and it was giving damage to
the land. Hercules carried it to the Island Crete (?) through the sea and left it there.]
8. Bring back the mean eating mares of Diomedes (female horses). Hercules made the mares eat
their owner Diomedes, then drove them to Mycenae to a safe place.
9. To bring the girdle of Hippolyta, for the daughter of Eurystheus. Hippolyta, queen of the
Amazons, was willing to help Hercules with his ninth labor, but Hera made Hippolytia’s
forces believe Hercules was trying to abduct the queen. Hercules killed Hippolyta, thinking
she was responsible for the ensuing attack, and escaped from the Amazons with the girdle.
10. Capturing the Cattle of Geryon, three-headed and three-bodied monster on his way to the
island of Erythia. Hercules set up two great rocks (the mountains Gibraltar and Ceuta, which
now flank the Strait of Gibraltar) as a memorial of his journey.
11. Fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides, the daughters of Atlas.The apples were on a tree
at the edge of the world where lived also the daughters of Atlas, and the tree was well guarded.
He sought help from Atlas, father of the Hesperides. Atlas agreed to help him if Hercules
would support the world on his shoulders while Atlas got the apples. The old man did not wish
to resume his burden, but Hercules tricked Atlas into taking the world back.
12. Bringing back Cerberus from the underworld. Hades gave Hercules permission to take the
beast if he used no weapons. Hercules captured Cerberus, brought him to Mycenae, and then
carried him back to Hades.

Hercules+Admetus & Alcestis: Hercules visited his friend Admetus whose wife
Alcestis had just died. Admetus showed him hospitality without showing his sadness and without
mentioning his wife's death. When Hercules learned it, he realised he had been disrespectful to a house
where there was mourning and decided to bring Alcestis back from the underworld. He did so with the
permission of Hades with the condition that they found someone else to die in her place. This time
husband goes.

Hercules and Omphale: Hercules killed a man out of anger, and as a punishment he was given as a
slave to Omphale, the Queen of Lydia and he had to wear like a woman and do women's work,
knitting, embroidering, etc.
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Death of Hercules: Hercules later married Deianira, whom he won from Antaeus, son of Poseidon.
When they were crossing a river, the centaur Nessus attacked Deianira, and tried to run away with her,
Hercules wounded him with an arrow that he had poisoned in the blood of the Hydra. The dying
centaur told Deianira to take some of his blood, which he said was a powerful love charm but was
really a poison. Believing that Hercules had fallen in love with the princess Iole, Deianira later sent
him a tunic dipped in the blood. When he put it on, the pam caused by the poison was so great that he
killed himself on a funeral pyre (fire to burn corpses) [hoca's version: the tunic sticked to his flesh, he
could not take it off, and it burnt him to death). After death he was brought by the gods to Olympus
and married to Hebe, goddess of youth.

THESEUS

The greatest Athenian hero, the son ofAegeus, king of Athens and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, king
of Troezen. His father left sword, and a pair of sandals under a big stone for his son, and went tothat
stone, and went to Athens to claim Aegeus as his father. At the age of 16, Theseus having been
brought up in Troezen, took his father’s heirlooms lifting that stone, and went to Athens to claim
Aegeus as his father The young man chose to make the hazardous journey by land, clearing the road of
bandits and monsters. He made the villains suffer the method of death each of them had inflicted on
others:
1. Wrestling with Cercyon.
2. Procrustes‘The [Bed]Strecher’ tortured his victims by cutting them down to fit his bed if they
were too tall, or hammering and stretching them if they were too short. Theseus captured him
and inflicted upon him the same kind of torture that he had imposed upon his victims as he
was too small for the bed.
3. Sciron, feet washer: he washed the feet of people by making them sit at the top of a cliff, and
term pushed them into the sea where they were eaten by turtles, etc. Theseus punished Sciron
in the same way by pushing him into the sea,
4. Sinis, the pine tender, used the branches of a pine tree like a catapult to throw people. Theseus
made him suffer the same.

Theseus arrived in Athens wearing a sword and a pair of sandals that Aegeus had left for his son in
Troezen. Medea, Aegeus's other wife, attempted to poison Theseus, but as soon as Aegeus recognized
the heirlooms, he proclaimed Thesus his son and heir and banished Medea.

Theseus + the Minotaur: Poseidon had sent a white bull to Minos, king of Crete for sacrifice. But
Minos refused to sacrifice the bull. Then Poseidon made Minos' wife Pasiphae fall in love with it. And
from the bull, she gave birth to Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.
Minos ordered the architect Daedalus to build an intricate labyrinth for Minotaur so that escape from
it without assistance would be impossible. Here the Minotaur was confined and fed with young human
victims Minos forced Athens to send him as tribute (7 men and 7 Maiden every year to be sacrificed).
Theseus was determined to end the useless sacrifice and offered himself as one of the victims. When
he reached Crete, Minos' daughter Ariadne fell in love with him. She helped him escape by giving him
a ball of thread, which he fastened to the door of the maze and unwound as he made his way through
it. When he came upon the sleeping Minotaur, he beat the monster to death. On his return to Athens,
however, he forgot to hoist a white sail signalling his success against the Minotaur. Aegeus, seeing a
black sail, believed his son dead and threw himself from a rocky height into the sea, which has since
been known as the Aegean Sea.

Ariadne and Theseus: Taking Ariadne with him, Theseus fled Over the seas toward Athens. On the
way they stopped at the island of Naxos. Theseus deserted Ariadne, sailing without her while she was

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asleep on the island Dionysus found her and married her. [According to another legend, Theseus set
Ariadne ashore to recover from seasickness while he returned to the ship to perform some necessary
task. A strong wind then earned him out to sea. When he was finally able to return, he found that
Ariadne had died].

Theseus + Hippolyta: He abducted the Amazon queen Hippolyta, who bore him a son,
Hippolytus.

Theseus + To rescue Proserpina: Theseus was a devoted friend of Pirithous, king of the
Lapithae, whom he accompanied to the underworld to rescue the goddess Persephone. Both
men were imprisoned by the god 'Hades for their rash deed, but Theseus was subsequently
rescued by Hercules. [Another version, there in the underworld, Theseus sits on the chair of
forgetfulness and he is still sitting there.]
When he is back he remarries. But his new wife falls in love with his son Hippolytus. Later she causes
the death of Hippolytus by loosening the wheel of his chariot. Hippolytus falls from the chariot and
dies. [Theseus was murdered by Lycomedes, the king of Scyros, by having been thrown from a high
cliff into the sea. Later the Delphic oracle commanded the Athenians to gather Theseus bones and
bring them back to Athens. The Athenians then paid him great honor by building him a tomb dedicated
to the poor and helpless whom he had befriended.]

Theseus + Aegeus(who commits suicide): On his return to Athens, however, Theseus forgot to hoist a
white sail signalling his success against the Minotaur. Aegeus, seeing a black sail, believed his son
dead and threw himself from a rocky height into the sea, which has since been known as the Aegean
Sea.

Theseus + Daedalus and Icarus: The Athenian hero, to slay the Minotaur and escape. In anger at the
escape of Theseus, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the
labyrinth [or in an Island]. Although the prisoners could not find the exit, Daedalus made waxwings so
that they could both fly out. Icarus, however, flew too near the sun; his wings melted, and he fell into
the sea. Daedalus flew to Sicily, where King of Cocalus welcomed him. Minos later pursued Daedalus
but was killed by the daughters of Cocalus.

PERSEUS

He was the son of Zeus and Danae, daughter of Acrisius, king of Argos. Warned that he would be
killed by his grandson, Acrisius locked mother and child in a chest and cast them into the sea. They
drifted to the island of Seriphus, where they were rescued and where Perseus grew to manhood.
Polydectes, king of Seriphus, fell in love with Danae, and, fearing that Perseus might interfere with his
plans, sent him to procure the head of Medusa (as a wedding gift), a monster whose glance turned men
to stone.

Medusa's head: Persues goes to Delphi and prays to the gods for help. Aided by Hermes, Perseus
makes his way to the Gray Women, three old hays who shares one eye between them. Perseus takes
their eye and refuses to return it until they gave him directions for reaching the nymphs of the north.
From the nymphs he receives winged sandals, a magic wallet that would fit whatever was put into it,
and a cap to make him invisible. Equipped with a sword from Hermes that could never be bent or
broken and a shield from the goddess Athena,which would protect him from being turned to stone.
Perseus found Medusa and killed her. Invisible in his cap, he was able to escape the wrath of her
sisters and with her head in the wallet flew on his winged sandals toward home.
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Perseus + Andromeda: As he was passing Ethiopia, he rescued the princess Andromeda as she was
about to be sacrificed to a sea monster and took her with him as his wife. At Seriphus he freed his
mother from Polydectes by using Medusa's head to turn the king and his followers to stone. All then
returned to Greece, where Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather Acrisius with a discus, thus
fulfilling the prophecy. [According to one legend, Perseus went to Asia, where his son Perses ruled
over the Persians, from whom they were said to have gotten their name.]

BELLEROPHON

The son of Glaucus, king of Corinth; he was the hero who tamed the winged horse Pegasus with the
aid of a bridle given him by the goddess Athena. Falling in love with the wife of King Proetus of
Argos, Bellerophon aroused the jealously of Proetus, who sent him to his father-in-law Iobates, king of
Lycia, with a message requesting that the bearer be slain. The king, having entertained Bellerophon
before he read the message, was afraid to anger Zeus by carrying out a request that would break the
traditional bond between host and guest. Instead of killing Bellerophon, he asked him to kill the
Chimera, a fire-breathing monster, which the hero did with the help of Pegasus (and also Athena). He
threw copper pieces into the monster's mouth, they melt there and blocked the fire.

He also defeated the Solymi and the Amazons, two warrior tribes. Iobates was impressed by
Bellerophon’s superhuman courage and married him to his daughter. After a time of prosperity,
Bellerophon defied the gods by trying to ride Pegasus up to Olympus, but, thrown to the earth by the
horse, he wandered in misery until he died.

PHRIXUS AND HELLE AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE,

Phrixus and Helle were the children of the Greek king Athamas and his wife, Nephele. Athamas had
grown indifferent to his wife and had taken Ino, the daughter of King Cadmus, for his second wife. Ino
hated her stepchildren, especially Phrixus, because she wanted her own son to succeed to the throne.
Realizing that her children were in grave danger because of the jealousy of their stepmother, Nephele
prayed to the gods for help. Hermes sent her Chrysomallus, the winged ram, whose fleece was made of
gold. The ram snatched the children up and bore them away on his back. Soaring into the air, he flew
eastward, but as he was crossing the strait Dardanelles, Helle slipped from his back and fell into the
water. The strait was named for her: Hellespont, ‘theSea of Helle’. The ram safely landed Phrixus in
Colchis, a country on the Black Sea that was ruled by King Aeetes. There he was hospitably received
and, in gratitude to the gods for saving his life, sacrificed Chrysomallus at the temple of Zeus. Phrixus
then gave the precious Golden Fleece to Aeetes, who placed it in a sacred grove under the watchful
eye of a dragon that never slept.

Many years later, the Argonauts led by Phrixus' cousin, the Greek hero Jason, recovered the Golden
Fleece with the help of the daughter of King Aeetes, the sorceress Medea who, out of love for Jason,
put the dragon to sleep.

JASON

Son of Aeson, a king in Greece. Aeson’s throne had been taken away from him by his half-brother
Pelias, and Jason, the rightful heir to the throne, had been sent away as a child for his own protection.
When Jason grew to manhood, however, he courageously returned to Greece to regain his kingdom.
Pelias pretended to be willing to relinquish the crown, but said that the young man must first undertake
the quest of the Golden Fleece, which was the rightful property of their family. Pelias did not believe

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that Jason could succeed in the quest, nor that he would come back alive, but the young man scoffed at
the dangers ahead. Jason assembled a crew of heroic young men from ait parts of Greece to sail with
him on the ship Argo. After a voyage of incredible perils, [clashing rocks, etc.] the Argonauts reached
Colchis, the country in which the Golden Fleece was held by King Aeetes. Aeetes agreed to give up
the Golden Fleece if Jason would yoke two fire-breathing bulls with bronze feet, and sow the teeth of
the dragon that Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, had long before slain. From the teeth would spring up
a crop of armed men who would turn against Jason.

Jason successfully accomplished this task with the aid of Medea, the king's daughter. Unknown to
Jason, the goddess Hera had intervened in his behalf by making Medea fall in love with him. Medea
gave Jason a charm to sprinkle on his weapons that would make him invincible for the day of his
ordeal and helped him steal the fleece that night by charming a sleepless dragon that guarded it. In
return for her help, Jason promised to love Medea always and to marry her as soon as they were safely
back in Greece. Carrying the fleece and accompanied by Medea, Jason and his crew managed to
escape from Aeetes.

On reaching Greece, the crew of heroes disbanded, and Jason with Medea took the Golden Fleece to
Pelias. In Jason's absence Pelias had forced Jason's father to kill himself, and his mother had died of
grief. To avenge their deaths, Jason called upon Medea to help him punish Pelias. Medea tricked
Pelias's daughters into killing their father, and then she and Jason went to Corinth, where two sons
were born to them. Instead of feeling grateful to Medea for all she had done, Jason treacherously
married the daughter of the king of Corinth. In her grief and despair, Medea employed more sorcery to
kill the young bride. Next, fearing that her young sons might be left alone for strangers to mistreat, she
killed them. When the furious Jason determined to kill her, she escaped in a chariot drawn by dragons.
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PROGENY OF GAEA

Gaea Pontus

Eurybe Thaumus Nereus Ceto Phorcys

+ +
Electra (Ocenaid) Doris (Ocenaid)
Graea Ladon Sirens Scylla Gorgon
+
Iris Harpies Poseidon

Chyrsaor Pegasus
+
Challirhoe (Oceanid)

Echidna Geryon
+
Typhoon

Orthrus Cerberus Nemean Lion Lemean Hydra Chimaera Sphinx

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TITANS AND TITANESSES

OCEANUS TETHYS

1. The River Gods River Styx Metis Eurynome The Oceanids

HYPERION THEA
2.

Helios (Sun) Selene (Moon) Eos (Aurora, Dawn)

3. COEUS PHOEBE

Leto Aestria

Apollo Artemis

4. CRONUS RHEA

Zeus (Jupiter, Jove) Poseidon (Neptune) Hades (Dis, Pluto)Hera (Juno) Demeter (Ceres) Hestia (Vesta)

5. CRUIS (+Euribic, daughter Pontus & Gaea) THEMIS (+ Zeus)

The Horae (Seasons) Astrea The Moirae (Fates)

6. IAPTEUS (+Clymene, and Ocenaid) MNEMOSYNE (+ Zeus)

AtlasPrometheusEpimetheus The 9 Muses