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Vatican Museums
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The Vatican Museums are the museums of the Vatican City and are located within the citys boundaries. The museums contain roughly 70,000 works, of which 20,000 are on display, and currently employ 640 people who work in 40 different administrative, scholarly, Pope Julius II founded the museums in the early 16th century. The Sistine Chapel, with its ceiling decorated by Michelangelo and the Stanze di Raffaello decorated by Raphael, are on the route through the Vatican Museums. In 2013, they were visited by 6 million people, which combined makes it the 6th most visited art museum in the world, there are 54 galleries, or sale, in total, with the Sistine Chapel, notably, being the very last sala within the Museum. It is one of the largest museums in the world, in 2017, the Museums official website and social media presence was completely redone, in accord with current standards and appearances for modern websites. Pope Julius II sent Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti, who were working at the Vatican, on their recommendation, the pope immediately purchased the sculpture from the vineyard owner. The pope put the sculpture of Laocoön and his sons on public display at the Vatican exactly one month after its discovery, the Museum Christianum was founded by Benedict XIV, and some of the Vatican collections formed the Lateran Museum, which Pius IX founded by decree in 1854. The Museums celebrated their 500th anniversary in October 2006 by permanently opening the excavations of a Vatican Hill necropolis to the public, on 1 January 2017 Barbara Jatta became the Director of the Vatican Museums, replacing Antonio Paolucci who had been director since 2007. The art gallery was housed in the Borgia Apartment until Pope Pius XI ordered construction of a proper building, the new building, designed by Luca Beltrami, was inaugurated on 27 October 1932. The museum has paintings including, Giottos Stefaneschi Triptych Olivuccio di Ciccarello, Opere di Misericordia Raphaels Madonna of Foligno, Oddi Altarpiece, the group of museums includes several sculpture museums surrounding the Cortile del Belvedere. The museum takes its name from two popes, Clement XIV and Pius VI, the pope who brought the museum to completion, Clement XIV came up with the idea of creating a new museum in Innocent VIIIs Belvedere palace and started the refurbishment work. Pope Clement XIV founded the Pio-Clementino museum in 1771, and originally it contained the Renaissance, the museum and collection were enlarged by Clements successor Pius VI. Today, the museum works of Greek and Roman sculpture. Some notable galleries are, Greek Cross Gallery, with the porphyri sarcophagi of Constance and Saint Helen, daughter and mother of Constantine the Great. Sala Rotonda, shaped like a miniature Pantheon, the room has impressive ancient mosaics on the floors, Gallery of the Statues, as its name implies, holds various important statues, including Sleeping Ariadne and the bust of Menander. It also contains the Barberini Candelabra, Gallery of the Busts, Many ancient busts are displayed. Cabinet of the Masks, The name comes from the mosaic on the floor of the gallery, found in Villa Adriana, along the walls, several famous statues are shown including the Three Graces. One wove the thread of life, second nurtured it, third cut it. The center piece is Belvedere Torso, revered by Michelangelo and other Renaissance men, sala degli Animali, So named because of the many ancient statues of animals
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Greek underworld
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The Greek underworld, in mythology, is an otherworld where souls go after death, and is the original Greek idea of afterlife. At the moment of death the soul is separated from the corpse, taking on the shape of the former person, the Underworld itself is described as being either at the outer bounds of the ocean or beneath the depths or ends of the earth. It is considered the counterpart to the brightness of Mount Olympus. Hades is an invisible to the living, made solely for the dead. There are five rivers that are visible both in the living world and the underworld. Their names were meant to reflect the emotions associated with death, the Styx is generally considered to be one of the most prominent and central rivers of the Underworld and is also the most widely known out of all the rivers. Its known as the river of hatred and is named after the goddess Styx and this river circles the underworld seven times. The Acheron is the river of pain and its the one that Charon, also known as the Ferryman, rows the dead over according to many mythological accounts, though sometimes it is the river Styx or both. The Lethe is the river of forgetfulness and it is associated with the goddess Lethe, the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion. In later accounts, a poplar branch dripping with water of the Lethe became the symbol of Hypnos, the Phlegethon is the river of fire. According to Plato, this leads to the depths of Tartarus. The Cocytus is the river of wailing, oceanus is the river that encircles the world, and it marks the east edge of the underworld, as Erebos is west of the mortal world. In front of the entrance to the underworld live Grief, Anxiety, Diseases, fear, Hunger, Death, Agony, and Sleep also live in front of the entrance, together with Guilty Joys. On the opposite threshold is War, the Erinyes, and Eris, close to the doors are many beasts, including Centaurs, Gorgons, the Lernaean Hydra, the Chimera, and Harpies. In the midst of all this, an Elm can be seen where false dreams cling under every leaf, the souls that enter the Underworld carry a coin under their tongue to pay Charon to take them across the river. Charon may make exceptions or allowances for those carrying a certain Golden Bough. Charon is appallingly filthy, with eyes like jets of fire, a bush of unkempt beard upon his chin, although Charon embarks now one group now another, some souls he grimly turns away. These are the unburied which cant be taken across from bank to bank until they receive a proper burial, across the river, guarding the gates of the Underworld, is Cerberus
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Hermes
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Hermes is an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods. Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundaries and he is described as quick and cunning, moving freely between the worlds of the mortal and divine. He is also portrayed as an emissary and messenger of the gods and he has been viewed as the protector and patron of herdsmen, thieves, oratory and wit, literature and poetry, athletics and sports, invention and trade, roads, boundaries and travelers. In some myths, he is a trickster and outwits other gods for his own satisfaction or for the sake of humankind and his attributes and symbols include the herma, the rooster, the tortoise, satchel or pouch, winged sandals, and winged cap. His main symbol is the Greek kerykeion or Latin caduceus, which appears in a form of two snakes wrapped around a staff with carvings of the other gods. The earliest form of the name Hermes is the Mycenaean Greek *hermāhās, most scholars derive Hermes from Greek ἕρμα herma, prop, heap of stones, boundary marker, from which the word hermai also derives. The etymology of ἕρμα itself is unknown, R. S. P. Beekes rejects the connection with herma and suggests a Pre-Greek origin. Scholarly speculation that Hermes derives from a primitive form meaning one cairn is disputed. In Greek, a find is a hermaion. It is also suggested that Hermes is a cognate of the Vedic Sarama, homer and Hesiod portrayed Hermes as the author of skilled or deceptive acts and also as a benefactor of mortals. In the Iliad, he is called the bringer of luck, guide and guardian. He was an ally of the Greeks against the Trojans. However, he did protect Priam when he went to the Greek camp to retrieve the body of his son Hector and he also rescued Ares from a brazen vessel where he had been imprisoned by Otus and Ephialtes. In the Odyssey, Hermes helps his son, the protagonist Odysseus, by informing him about the fate of his companions. Hermes instructed Odysseus to protect himself by chewing a magic herb, when Odysseus killed the suitors of his wife, Hermes led their souls to Hades. Hermes was then instructed to take her as wife to Epimetheus, aesop featured him in several of his fables, as ruler of the gate of prophetic dreams, as the god of athletes, of edible roots, and of hospitality. He also said that Hermes had assigned each person his share of intelligence, Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the Titan Prometheus. In addition to the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sports of wrestling and boxing, in 1820 Shelley translated this hymn
4.
Scylla
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In Greek mythology, Scylla was a monster that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite her counterpart Charybdis. The two sides of the strait were within a range of each other—so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla. Scylla made her first appearance in Homers Odyssey, where Odysseus and his crew encounter her, later myth gave her an origin story as a beautiful nymph who gets turned into a monster. The strait where Scylla dwelled has been associated with the Strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily, the idiom between Scylla and Charybdis has come to mean being forced to choose between two equally dangerous situations. The parentage of Scylla varies according to author, Other authors have Hecate as Scyllas mother. The Hesiodic Megalai Ehoiai gives Hecate and Phorbas as the parents of Scylla, while Acusilaus says that Scyllas parents were Hecate and Phorkys. Perhaps trying to reconcile these accounts, Apollonius of Rhodes says that Crataeis was another name for Hecate. Likewise, Semos of Delos says that Crataeis was the daughter of Hecate and Triton, Stesichorus names Lamia as the mother of Scylla, possibly the Lamia who was the daughter of Poseidon, while according to Hyginus, Scylla was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. A similar story is found in Hyginus, according to whom Scylla was loved by Glaucus and her body consisted of 12 tentacle-like legs and a cats tail, while four to six dog-heads ringed her waist. In this form, she attacked the ships of passing sailors, in a late Greek myth, recorded in Eustathius commentary on Homer and John Tzetzes, Heracles encountered Scylla during a journey to Sicily and slew her. Her father, the sea-god Phorcys, then applied flaming torches to her body, in Homers Odyssey XII, Odysseus is advised by Circe to sail closer to Scylla, for Charybdis could drown his whole ship, Hug Scyllas crag—sail on past her—top speed. Better by far to lose six men and keep your ship than lose your entire crew, She also tells Odysseus to ask Scyllas mother, the river nymph Crataeis, to prevent Scylla from pouncing more than once. According to Ovid, the fisherman-turned-sea-god Glaucus fell in love with the beautiful Scylla, when he went to Circe to ask for a love potion to win her, the sorceress herself fell in love with him. Meeting with no success, she became jealous of her rival, prepared a vial of poison and poured it in the sea-pool where Scylla bathed. In vain she offers herself to run And drags about her what she strives to shun. The story was adapted into a five-act tragic opera, Scylla et Glaucus. In John Keats loose retelling of Ovids version of the myth of Scylla and Glaucus in Book 3 of Endymion, Glaucus then takes her corpse to a crystal palace at the bottom of the ocean where lie the bodies of all lovers who have died at sea. After a thousand years, she is resurrected by Endymion and reunited with Glaucus, at the Carolingian abbey of Corvey in Westphalia, a unique ninth-century wall painting depicts, among other things, Odysseus fight with Scylla, an illustration not noted elsewhere in medieval arts
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Circe
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Circe (/ˈsɜːrsiː/, is a goddess of magic or sometimes a nymph, witch, enchantress or sorceress in Greek mythology. By most accounts, she was the daughter of the sungod Helios, and Perse and her brothers were Aeetes, keeper of the Golden Fleece, and Perses. Her sister was Pasiphaë, the wife of King Minos and mother of the Minotaur, other accounts make her the daughter of Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs, through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she transformed her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. Some say she was exiled to the island of Aeaea by her subjects and her father Helios for killing her husband. Later traditions tell of her leaving or even destroying the island and moving to Italy, in Homers Odyssey, Circe is described as living in a mansion that stands in the middle of a clearing in a dense wood. Around the house prowled strangely docile lions and wolves, the victims of her magic, they were not dangerous. Circe worked at a huge loom, thus so she turned them all into swine with her magic wand or staff after they gorged themselves on it. Only drunken Eurylochus, suspecting treachery from the outset, escaped to warn Odysseus, Odysseus set out to rescue his men, but was intercepted by the messenger god, Hermes, who had been sent by Athena. Hermes told Odysseus to use the holy herb moly to protect himself from Circes wizardry and, having resisted it, to draw his sword, from there, Circe would ask him to bed, but Hermes advised caution, for even there the goddess would be treacherous. She would take his manhood unless he had her swear by the names of the gods that she would not, Odysseus followed Hermes advice, freeing his men and then remained on the island for one year, feasting and drinking wine. She also advised Odysseus to go to the Underworld and gave him directions, towards the end of Hesiods Theogony, it is stated that Circe bore Odysseus three sons, Ardeas or Agrius, Latinus, and Telegonus, who ruled over the Tyrsenoi, that is the Etruscans. The Telegony, a now lost, relates the later history of the last of these. Circe eventually informed him who his absent father was and, when he set out to find Odysseus, with this he killed his father unknowingly. Telegonus then brought back his fathers corpse, together with Penelope and Odysseus other son Telemachus, after burying Odysseus, Circe made the others immortal. According to Lycophrons Alexandra and John Tzetzes scholia on the poem, however, Odysseus then gave Telemachus to Circes daughter Cassiphone in marriage. Some time later, Telemachus had a quarrel with his mother-in-law and killed her, on hearing of this, Odysseus died of grief. In a very late Alexandrian epic from the 5th century AD, in the 3rd century BC epic, the Argonautica, Apollonius Rhodius relates that Circe purified the Argonauts for the death of Absyrtus, maybe reflecting an early tradition
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Asteria (mythology)
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Each of these is detailed below. Asteria was the daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and sister of Leto, according to Hesiod, by Perses she had a daughter Hecate. This then became identified with the island of Delos, which was the piece on earth to give refuge to the fugitive Leto when, pregnant with Zeuss children. Asteria was the ninth Amazon killed by Heracles when he came for Hippolytes girdle, Asteria or Astris was a daughter of Helios and Clymene or Ceto, one of the Heliades. She married the river god Hydaspes and became mother of Deriades, Asteria was one of the Danaids, daughters of Danaus who, with one exception, murdered their husbands on their wedding nights. She was, briefly, the bride of Chaetus, Asteria was one of the Alkyonides. Along with her sisters, she flung herself into the sea and was transformed into a kingfisher, Asteria or Asterodia was the mother of Crisus and Panopeus by Phocus. Asteria, daughter of Hydeus, was the mother of Hydissos by Bellerophon and her son is known for having founded a city in Caria which was named after him. Asteria, daughter of Coronus, and Apollo were possible parents of the seer Idmon, the daughter of Teucer and Eune of Cyprus also bore the name Asteria. Asteria was one of the sacrificial victims of Minotaur, portrayed in a vase painting. Christoph Willibald Gluck gave the name Asteria to one of the characters in his 1765 opera Telemaco, though the name did not appear in Homers Odyssey on which the opera was based
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Ancient Greek religion
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Ancient Greek religion encompasses the collection of beliefs, rituals, and mythology originating in ancient Greece in the form of both popular public religion and cult practices. These groups varied enough for it to be possible to speak of Greek religions or cults in the plural, many ancient Greeks recognized the twelve major gods and goddesses, although philosophies such as Stoicism and some forms of Platonism used language that seems to assume a single transcendent deity. Different cities often worshiped the deities, sometimes with epithets that distinguished them. Greek religion was tempered by Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later ancient Roman religion, while there were few concepts universal to all the Greek peoples, there were common beliefs shared by many. Ancient Greek theology was polytheistic, based on the assumption there were many gods. There was a hierarchy of deities, with Zeus, the king of the gods, having a level of control all the others. Some deities had dominion over aspects of nature. Other deities ruled over abstract concepts, for instance Aphrodite controlled love, while being immortal, the gods were certainly not all-good or even all-powerful. They had to obey fate, known to Greek mythology as the Moirai, which overrode any of their divine powers or wills. For instance, in mythology, it was Odysseus fate to return home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and the gods could only lengthen his journey and make it harder for him, the gods acted like humans, and had human vices. They would interact with humans, sometimes even spawning children with them, at times certain gods would be opposed to others, and they would try to outdo each other. In the Iliad, Aphrodite, Ares and Apollo support the Trojan side in the Trojan War, while Hera, Athena, some gods were specifically associated with a certain city. Athena was associated with the city of Athens, Apollo with Delphi and Delos, Zeus with Olympia, other deities were associated with nations outside of Greece, Poseidon was associated with Ethiopia and Troy, and Ares with Thrace. The Greeks believed in an underworld where the spirits of the dead went after death, one of the most widespread areas of this underworld was ruled over by Hades, a brother of Zeus, and was known as Hades. Other well known realms are Tartarus, a place of torment for the damned, and Elysium, in the early Mycenean religion all the dead went to Hades, but the rise of mystery cults in the Archaic age led to the development of places such as Tartarus and Elysium. Such beliefs are found in the most ancient of Greek sources, such as Homer and this belief remained strong even into the Christian era. For most people at the moment of death there was, however, no hope of anything, some Greeks, such as the philosophers Pythagoras and Plato, also embraced the idea of reincarnation, though this was only accepted by a few. Epicurus taught that the soul was simply atoms which dissolved at death, Greek religion had an extensive mythology
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Greek mythology
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It was a part of the religion in ancient Greece. Greek mythology is explicitly embodied in a collection of narratives. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world, and details the lives and adventures of a variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines. These accounts initially were disseminated in a tradition, today the Greek myths are known primarily from ancient Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, Homers epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on the Trojan War, archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles, in the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has had an influence on the culture, arts. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes, Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. Mythical narration plays an important role in every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus and this work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c, 180–125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection, however the Library discusses events that occurred long after his death, among the earliest literary sources are Homers two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiods Works and Days, a poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama
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Ancient Greek philosophy
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Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC and continued throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Ancient Greece was part of the Roman Empire. Philosophy was used to sense out of the world in a non-religious way. It dealt with a variety of subjects, including political philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric. Many philosophers around the world agree that Greek philosophy has influenced much of Western culture since its inception, alfred North Whitehead once noted, The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato. Clear, unbroken lines of lead from ancient Greek and Hellenistic philosophers to Early Islamic philosophy, the European Renaissance. Some claim that Greek philosophy, in turn, was influenced by the wisdom literature. But they taught themselves to reason, Philosophy as we understand it is a Greek creation. Subsequent philosophic tradition was so influenced by Socrates as presented by Plato that it is conventional to refer to philosophy developed prior to Socrates as pre-Socratic philosophy. The periods following this, up to and after the wars of Alexander the Great, are those of classical Greek, the pre-Socratics were primarily concerned with cosmology, ontology and mathematics. They were distinguished from non-philosophers insofar as they rejected mythological explanations in favor of reasoned discourse, Thales of Miletus, regarded by Aristotle as the first philosopher, held that all things arise from water. It is not because he gave a cosmogony that John Burnet calls him the first man of science, according to tradition, Thales was able to predict an eclipse and taught the Egyptians how to measure the height of the pyramids. He began from the observation that the world seems to consist of opposites, therefore, they cannot truly be opposites but rather must both be manifestations of some underlying unity that is neither. This underlying unity could not be any of the classical elements, for example, water is wet, the opposite of dry, while fire is dry, the opposite of wet. Anaximenes in turn held that the arche was air, although John Burnet argues that by this he meant that it was a transparent mist, the aether. Xenophanes was born in Ionia, where the Milesian school was at its most powerful, Burnet says that Xenophanes was not, however, a scientific man, with many of his naturalistic explanations having no further support than that they render the Homeric gods superfluous or foolish. He has been claimed as an influence on Eleatic philosophy, although that is disputed, and a precursor to Epicurus, a representative of a total break between science and religion. Pythagoras lived at roughly the time that Xenophanes did and, in contrast to the latter. Parmenides of Elea cast his philosophy against those who held it is and is not the same, and all travel in opposite directions, —presumably referring to Heraclitus
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Hellenistic philosophy
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Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with the beginning of Neoplatonism. Pythagoreanism is the given to the system of philosophy and science developed by Pythagoras. Protagoras Gorgias Antiphon The Cynics were a sect of philosophers beginning with Antisthenes in the 4th century BCE. They believed that one should live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature and this meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, or fame, and living a life free from possessions. Antisthenes Diogenes of Sinope Crates of Thebes Menippus Demetrius The Cyrenaics were an ultra-hedonist school of philosophy founded in the 4th century BC and they held that pleasure was the supreme good, especially immediate gratifications. The school was replaced within a century by the more moderate doctrine of Epicureanism, Aristippus of Cyrene Platonism is the name given to the philosophy of Plato, which was maintained and developed by his followers. The central concept was the theory of Forms, the transcendent, perfect archetypes, the highest form was the Form of the Good, the source of being, which could be known by reason. In the 3rd century BCE, Arcesilaus adopted skepticism, which became a tenet of the school until 90 BCE when Antiochus added Stoic elements. With the adoption of oriental mysticism in the 3rd century CE, speusippus Xenocrates Arcesilaus Carneades Antiochus of Ascalon Plutarch The Peripatetics was the name given to the philosophers who maintained and developed the philosophy of Aristotle. They advocated examination of the world to understand the foundation of things. The goal of life was the happiness which originated from virtuous actions and it advocated total philosophical skepticism about the world in order to attain ataraxia or a tranquil mind, maintaining that nothing could be proved to be true so we must suspend judgement. Pyrrho Timon Aenesidemus Sextus Empiricus Epicureanism was founded by Epicurus in the 3rd century BCE and it viewed the universe as being ruled by chance, with no interference from gods. It regarded absence of pain as the greatest pleasure, and advocated a simple life and it was the main rival to Stoicism until both philosophies died out in the 3rd century CE. Epicurus Metrodorus Zeno of Sidon Philodemus Lucretius Stoicism was founded by Zeno of Citium in the 3rd century BCE, based on the ethical ideas of the Cynics, it taught that the goal of life was to live in accordance with Nature. It advocated the development of self-control and fortitude as a means of overcoming destructive emotions and it was the most successful school of philosophy until it died out in the 3rd century CE. Its most notable advocate was Cicero, varro Reatinus Cicero Seneca the Younger Hellenistic Judaism was an attempt to establish the Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism. Its principal representative was Philo of Alexandria, Philo of Alexandria Josephus Neopythagoreanism was a school of philosophy reviving Pythagorean doctrines, which was prominent in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE. It was an attempt to introduce an element into Greek philosophy, worshipping God by living an ascetic life, ignoring bodily pleasures and all sensuous impulses
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Polytheism
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Polytheism is the worship of or belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religions and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism, within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the belief in a singular God, in most cases transcendent. Polytheists do not always worship all the gods equally, but they can be henotheists, other polytheists can be kathenotheists, worshiping different deities at different times. Polytheism was the form of religion during the Bronze Age and Iron Age up to the Axial Age and the development of Abrahamic religions. Important polytheistic religions practiced today include Chinese traditional religion, Hinduism, Japanese Shinto, the term comes from the Greek πολύ poly and θεός theos and was first invented by the Jewish writer Philo of Alexandria to argue with the Greeks. When Christianity spread throughout Europe and the Mediterranean, non-Christians were just called Gentiles or pagans or by the pejorative term idolaters. The modern usage of the term is first revived in French through Jean Bodin in 1580, a central, main division in polytheism is between soft polytheism and hard polytheism. Hard polytheism is the belief that gods are distinct, separate, real divine beings, hard polytheists reject the idea that all gods are one god. Hard polytheists do not necessarily consider the gods of all cultures as being equally real, Polytheism cannot be cleanly separated from the animist beliefs prevalent in most folk religions. The gods of polytheism are in cases the highest order of a continuum of supernatural beings or spirits. In some cases these spirits are divided into celestial or chthonic classes, since divinity is intellectual, and all intellect returns into itself, this myth expresses in allegory the essence of divinity. Myths may be regarded physically when they express the activities of gods in the world, the psychological way is to regard the activities of the soul itself and or the souls acts of thought. The material is to regard material objects to actually be gods, for example, to call the earth Gaia, ocean Okeanos, Some well-known historical polytheistic pantheons include the Sumerian gods and the Egyptian gods, and the classical-attested pantheon which includes the ancient Greek religion and Roman religion. Post-classical polytheistic religions include Norse Æsir and Vanir, the Yoruba Orisha, the Aztec gods, an example of a religious notion from this shared past is the concept of *dyēus, which is attested in several distinct religious systems. In many civilizations, pantheons tended to grow over time, deities first worshipped as the patrons of cities or places came to be collected together as empires extended over larger territories. Conquests could lead to the subordination of the elder cultures pantheon to a one, as in the Greek Titanomachia. Most ancient belief systems held that gods influenced human lives, epicurus believed that these gods were material, human-like, and that they inhabited the empty spaces between worlds. Though it is suggested that Hestia stepped down when Dionysus was invited to Mount Olympus, robert Graves The Greek Myths cites two sources that obviously do not suggest Hestia surrendered her seat, though he suggests she did
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Henosis
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Henosis is the classical Greek word for mystical oneness, union, or unity. In Platonism, and especially Neoplatonism, the goal of henosis is union with what is fundamental in reality, the One, the Neoplatonic concept has precedents in the Greek mystery religions as well as parallels in Eastern philosophy. It is further developed in the Corpus Hermeticum, in Christian theology, soteriology, the term is relatively common in classical texts, and has the meaning of union or unity. Henosis, orprimordial unity, is rational and deterministic, emanating from indeterminism an uncaused cause, each individual as a microcosm reflects the gradual ordering of the universe referred to as the macrocosm. In mimicking the demiurge, one unites with The One or Monad, thus the process of unification, of The Being, and The One, is called Henosis. The culmination of Henosis is deification, Henosis for Plotinus was defined in his works as a reversing of the ontological process of consciousness via meditation toward no thought and no division within the individual. As is specified in the writings of Plotinus on Henology, one can reach a tabula rasa and this absolute simplicity means that the nous or the person is then dissolved, completely absorbed back into the Monad. Within the Enneads of Plotinus the Monad can be referred to as the Good above the demiurge, the Monad or dunamis is of one singular expression all is contained in the Monad and the Monad is all. All division is reconciled in the one, the stage before reaching singularity, called duality, is completely reconciled in the Monad. As the one, source or substance of all things the Monad is all encompassing, as infinite and indeterminate all is reconciled in the dunamis or one. It is the demiurge or second emanation that is the nous in Plotinus and it is the demiurge or nous that perceives and therefore causes the force to manifest as energy, or the dyad called the material world. Nous as being, being and perception manifest what is called soul, Plotinus words his teachings to reconcile not only Plato with Aristotle but also various World religions that he had personal contact with during his various travels. Plotinus works have a character in that they reject matter as an illusion. Matter was strictly treated as immanent, with matter as essential to its being, having no true or transcendential character or essence, substance or ousia and this approach is called philosophical Idealism. Within the works of Iamblichus of Chalcis, The One and reconciliation of division can be obtained through the process of theurgy, by mimicking the demiurge, the individual is returned to the cosmos to implement the will of the divine mind. One goes through a series of theurgy or rituals that unites the initiate to the Monad and these rituals mimic the ordering of the chaos of the Universe into the material world or cosmos. Thus one without conflict internal or external is united and is The One, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but also in western mysticism, henosis can be acquired by theoria, hesychasm and contemplative prayer. Yet, the concept of theosis, or deification, differs from henosis, since created beings cannot become God in His transcendent essence, nondualism Absolute Apotheosis Fana Form of the Good Moksha Monolatrism The All Theosis http, //www. goddess-athena. org/Encyclopedia/Friends/Iamblichus/index. htm
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Monism
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Monism is the view that attributes oneness or singleness to a concept. Substance monism is the view that a variety of existing things can be explained in terms of a single reality or substance. Another definition states that all existing things go back to a source that is distinct from them and this is often termed priority monism, and is the view that only one thing is ontologically basic or prior to everything else. Another distinction is the difference between substance and existence monism, or stuff monism and thing monism, substance monism posits that only one kind of stuff exists, although many things may be made out of this stuff. Existence monism posits that, strictly speaking, there only a single thing. The restricted definition, this not only unity of origin. Although the term monism is derived from Western philosophy to typify positions in the mind–body problem, in modern Hinduism, the term absolute monism is being used for Advaita Vedanta. The mind–body problem in philosophy examines the relationship between mind and matter, and in particular the relationship between consciousness and the brain and it was later also applied to the theory of absolute identity set forth by Hegel and Schelling. Thereafter the term was more used, for any theory postulating a unifying principle. The opponent thesis of dualism also was broadened, to include pluralism, according to Urmson, as a result of this extended use, the term is systematically ambiguous. According to Jonathan Schaffer, monism lost popularity due to the emergence of Analytic philosophy in the twentieth century. Carnap and Ayer, who were proponents of positivism, ridiculed the whole question as incoherent mysticism. Monism is also relevant to the philosophy of mind, where various positions are defended. g. Metaphysical nihilism, negates any of the above categories, eliminative Materialism, according to which everything is physical and mental things do not exist b. Moreover, they do not define the meaning of real, while the lack of information makes it difficult in some cases to be sure of the details, the following pre-Socratic philosophers thought in monistic terms, Thales, Water. Reality is some, one thing, but we know what. Parmenides argued that Being or Reality is a perfect sphere, unchanging. Neopythagorians such as Apollonius of Tyana centered their cosmologies on the Monad or One, Stoics taught that there is only one substance, identified as God
14.
Pantheism
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Pantheism is the belief that all reality is identical with divinity, or that everything composes an all-encompassing, immanent god. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal or anthropomorphic god. The term pantheism was not coined until after Spinozas death, and his work, Ethics, was the major source from which Western pantheism spread. Pantheistic concepts may date back thousands of years, and some religions in the East continue to contain pantheistic elements, Pantheism derives from the Greek πᾶν pan and θεός theos. There are a variety of definitions of pantheism, some consider it a theological and philosophical position concerning God. As a religious position, some describe pantheism as the polar opposite of atheism, from this standpoint, pantheism is the view that everything is part of an all-encompassing, immanent God. All forms of reality may then be considered either modes of that Being, some hold that pantheism is a non-religious philosophical position. To them, pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical, pantheistic tendencies existed in a number of early Gnostic groups, with pantheistic thought appearing throughout the Middle Ages. These included a section of Johannes Scotus Eriugenas 9th-century work De divisione naturae, the Roman Catholic Church has long regarded pantheistic ideas as heresy. Giordano Bruno, an Italian monk who evangelized about an immanent and he has since become known as a celebrated pantheist and martyr of science. Bruno influenced many later thinkers including Baruch Spinoza, in the West, pantheism was formalized as a separate theology and philosophy based on the work of the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza. Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher of Sephardi Portuguese origin, whose book Ethics was an answer to Descartes famous dualist theory that the body, Spinoza held the monist view that the two are the same, and monism is a fundamental part of his philosophy. He was described as a God-intoxicated man, and used the word God to describe the unity of all substance, although the term pantheism was not coined until after his death, Spinoza is regarded as its most celebrated advocate. His work, Ethics, was the source from which Western pantheism spread. The breadth and importance of Spinozas work was not fully realized until years after his death. Spinozas magnum opus, the posthumous Ethics, in which he opposed Descartes mind–body dualism, has earned him recognition as one of Western philosophys most important thinkers, Hegel said, You are either a Spinozist or not a philosopher at all. His philosophical accomplishments and moral character prompted 20th-century philosopher Gilles Deleuze to name him the prince of philosophers, Spinoza was raised in the Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam. He developed highly controversial ideas regarding the authenticity of the Hebrew Bible, the Jewish religious authorities issued a cherem against him, effectively excluding him from Jewish society at age 23
15.
Orthopraxy
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In the study of religion, orthopraxy is correct conduct, both ethical and liturgical, as opposed to faith or grace etc. This contrasts with orthodoxy, which emphasizes correct belief, and ritualism, the word is a neoclassical compound—ὀρθοπραξία meaning correct practice. This contrasts with the case of Hinduism, in which orthopraxy, from the Greek orthos straight + praxis action, first used in 1851 There are two versions of the term, orthopraxis and orthopraxy. Orthopraxy is the older and more common term, and is parallel to orthodoxy, the premise is correct belief compels correct action, and incorrect action is caused by incorrect beliefs. Prosperity theology is a known as reciprocity when discussing traditional or ethnic religions such as that in Ancient Greece. The purpose of Divine law is disputed among Christian denominations, a minority are Torah-observant, sometimes called Jewish Christians, and at the other extreme are antinomistic and anarchistic views. In between, most Christians believe that some or all of the Ten Commandments are still binding or have been reinstituted in the Law of Christ. For the teachings of Jesus on the subject, see Ministry of Jesus – Teachings, Sermon on the Mount, orthopraxis would include attendance of church services which are designed to benefit the practitioner of the Eastern Orthodox faith. It refers to accepted religious practices and may include both ritual practices as well as interpersonal acts, the Orthopraxy ties into the concept of Phronema and is meant to work together toward the goal of theosis. The Jewish religion attaches primary importance to the practice of the mitzvot, maimonides codification of Jewish law even contains a section entitled Yesodei HaTorah which delineates the required beliefs of Judaism. Thus, it is not accurate to describe Judaism solely in orthopraxic terms, the Five Pillars of Islam fundamental to Sunnis prescribe Islamic practice, while Shahadah defines Islamic belief. Generally stresses Orthopraxy over Orthodoxy, but since the practice is held to come from doctrine, in the case of Hinduism orthopraxy and ritualism are conflated. Emphasis on ritual vs. personal salvation was a division in classical Hindu philosophy. Ritual continues to play a role in contemporary Hinduism. Even Hindus who diligently practice a subset of prescribed rituals are called orthoprax, the correctness of ones interpretation of the scripture is then considered less important than following traditions. For example, Srinivasa Ramanujan was a example of an orthoprax Hindu. In terms of conduct and other ethical precepts within the Hindu framework. Each person harbors this indwelling God, thus, conduct which unifies society, self-centered existence is discouraged as a result of this jivatma concept
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Twelve Olympians
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Hades and Persephone were sometimes included as part of the twelve Olympians, although in general Hades was excluded, because he resided permanently in the underworld and never visited Olympus. The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon, were the deities of the Greek pantheon. The Olympians gained their supremacy in a war of gods in which Zeus led his siblings to victory over their predecessor gods. The concept of the Twelve Gods is older than any extant Greek or Roman source, the gods meet in council in the Homeric epics, but the first ancient reference to religious ceremonies for the Olympians collectively is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. The Greek cult of the Twelve Olympians can be traced to 6th-century BC Athens, the Altar of the Twelve Gods at Athens is usually dated to the archonship of the younger Pesistratos, in 522/521 BC. In ancient Greek religion, the Olympian Gods and the Cults of Twelve Gods were often relatively distinct concepts, while the number was fixed at twelve, there was considerable variation as to which deities were included. However, the twelve as most commonly portrayed in art and poetry were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and either Hestia, or Dionysus. Hades, known in the Eleusinian tradition as Pluto, was not usually included among the Olympians because his realm was the underworld. Plato connected the Twelve Olympians with the months, and implies that he considered Pluto one of the twelve in proposing that the final month be devoted to him. In Phaedrus, Plato seems to exclude Hestia from the rank of the great gods. At Olympia there were six altars dedicated to six pairs of gods, Zeus and Poseidon, Hera and Athena, Hermes and Apollo, the Charites and Dionysus, Artemis and Alpheus, the historian Herodotus states that Heracles was included as one of the Twelve by some. At Kos, Heracles and Dionysus are added to the Twelve, for Pindar, the Bibliotheca, and Herodorus of Heraclea, Heracles is not one of the Twelve Gods, but the one who established their cult. Lucian includes Heracles and Asclepius as members of the Twelve, without explaining which two had to give way for them, hebe, Helios, Selene, Eos, Eros and Persephone are other important gods and goddesses who are sometimes included in a group of twelve. Eros is often depicted alongside the twelve, especially his mother Aphrodite. Notes ^ Romans also associated Phoebus with Helios and the sun itself, however, ^ According to an alternate version of her birth, Aphrodite was born of Uranus, Zeus grandfather, after Cronus threw his castrated genitals into the sea. This supports the etymology of her name, foam-born, as such, Aphrodite would belong to the same generation as Cronus, Zeus father, and would be Zeus aunt. See the birth of Aphrodite The following gods and goddess are sometimes included as one of the twelve Olympians, the following gods and goddesses were not usually counted as Olympians, although they had close ties to them. Aeolus – King of the winds, keeper of the Anemoi, Alpheus – God of the River Alpheus
17.
Aphrodite
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Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus, and her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus, as with many ancient Greek deities, there is more than one story about her origins. According to Hesiods Theogony, she was born when Cronus cut off Uranuss genitals and threw them into the sea, according to Homers Iliad, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Plato, these two origins are said to be of hitherto separate entities, Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos, Aphrodite had many lovers—both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. Many lesser beings were said to be children of Aphrodite, Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea and Cypris after the two cult sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed to be her place of birth. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her, the ancient Greeks identified her with the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor. Aphrodite had many names such as Acidalia and Cerigo, each used by a different local cult of the goddess in Greece. The Greeks recognized all of these names as referring to the single goddess Aphrodite, despite the differences in what these local cults believed the goddess demanded of them. The Attic philosophers of the 4th century, however, drew a distinction between a celestial Aphrodite of transcendent principles, and a separate, common Aphrodite who was the goddess of the people, hesiod derives Aphrodite from aphrós sea-foam, interpreting the name as risen from the foam. Michael Janda, accepting this as genuine, claims the birth myth as an Indo-European mytheme. Likewise, Witczak proposes an Indo-European compound *abʰor- very and *dʰei- to shine and it has been argued that etymologies based on comparison with Eos are unlikely since Aphrodites attributes are entirely different from those of Eos or the Vedic deity Ushas. A number of improbable non-Greek etymologies have suggested in scholarship. One Semitic etymology compares Aphrodite to the Assyrian barīrītu, the name of a demon that appears in Middle Babylonian. Hammarström looks to Etruscan, comparing prϑni lord, an Etruscan honorific loaned into Greek as πρύτανις and this would make the theonym in origin an honorific, the lady. Hjalmar Frisk and Robert Beekes reject this etymology as implausible, especially since Aphrodite actually appears in Etruscan in the borrowed form Apru, the medieval Etymologicum Magnum offers a highly contrived etymology, deriving Aphrodite from the compound habrodíaitos, she who lives delicately, from habrós and díaita. The alteration from b to ph is explained as a characteristic of Greek obvious from the Macedonians. Aphrodite is usually said to have been born near her chief center of worship, Paphos, on the island of Cyprus, however, other versions of her myth have her born near the island of Cythera, hence another of her names, Cytherea
18.
Apollo
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Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros, Apollo has been recognized as a god of music, truth and prophecy, healing, the sun and light, plague, poetry. Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the gods custodial charges, Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, as the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became an attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans, Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE. The name Apollo—unlike the related older name Paean—is generally not found in the Linear B texts, the etymology of the name is uncertain. The spelling Ἀπόλλων had almost superseded all other forms by the beginning of the common era and it probably is a cognate to the Doric month Apellaios, and the offerings apellaia at the initiation of the young men during the family-festival apellai. According to some scholars the words are derived from the Doric word apella, apella is the name of the popular assembly in Sparta, corresponding to the ecclesia. R. S. P. Beekes rejected the connection of the theonym with the noun apellai, several instances of popular etymology are attested from ancient authors. Thus, the Greeks most often associated Apollos name with the Greek verb ἀπόλλυμι, in the ancient Macedonian language πέλλα means stone, and some toponyms may be derived from this word, Πέλλα and Πελλήνη. The role of Apollo as god of plague is evident in the invocation of Apollo Smintheus by Chryses, the Hittite testimony reflects an early form *Apeljōn, which may also be surmised from comparison of Cypriot Ἀπείλων with Doric Ἀπέλλων. A Luwian etymology suggested for Apaliunas makes Apollo The One of Entrapment, Apollos chief epithet was Phoebus, literally bright. It was very commonly used by both the Greeks and Romans for Apollos role as the god of light, like other Greek deities, he had a number of others applied to him, reflecting the variety of roles, duties, and aspects ascribed to the god. However, while Apollo has a number of appellations in Greek myth. Aegletes, from αἴγλη, light of the sun Helius, literally sun Lyceus light, the meaning of the epithet Lyceus later became associated with Apollos mother Leto, who was the patron goddess of Lycia and who was identified with the wolf
19.
Ares
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Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and his sons Phobos and Deimos and his lover, or sister, Enyo accompanied him on his war chariot. In the Iliad, his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him, an association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality. His value as a war god is placed in doubt, during the Trojan War, Ares was on the side, while Athena, often depicted in Greek art as holding Nike in her hand. Ares plays a limited role in Greek mythology as represented in literary narratives, though his numerous love affairs. When Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation and he is well known as the lover of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship. The most famous story related to Ares and Aphrodite shows them exposed to ridicule through the wronged husbands device. The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a father of the Roman people was given a more important, during the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares, thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures becomes virtually indistinguishable. The etymology of the name Ares is traditionally connected with the Greek word ἀρή, there may also be a connection with the Roman god of war Mars, via hypothetical Proto-Indo-European *M̥rēs, compare Ancient Greek μάρναμαι, I fight, I battle. Walter Burkert notes that Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name. The earliest attested form of the name is the Mycenaean Greek
20.
Artemis
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Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek, Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron, Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals. The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter, in the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her, in later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding childbirth. The name Artemis is of unknown or uncertain origin and etymology although various ones have been proposed, for example, according to J. T. Jablonski, the name is also Phrygian and could be compared with the royal appellation Artemas of Xenophon. Anton Goebel suggests the root στρατ or ῥατ, to shake, babiniotis, while accepting that the etymology is unknown, states that the name is already attested in Mycenean Greek and is possibly of pre-Hellenic origin. It is believed that a precursor of Artemis was worshiped in Minoan Crete as the goddess of mountains and hunting, R. S. P. Beekes suggested that the e/i interchange points to a Pre-Greek origin. Artemis was venerated in Lydia as Artimus, various conflicting accounts are given in Classical Greek mythology of the birth of Artemis and her twin brother, Apollo. All accounts agree, however, that she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto, an account by Callimachus has it that Hera forbade Leto to give birth on either terra firma or on an island. Hera was angry with Zeus, her husband, because he had impregnated Leto, but the island of Delos disobeyed Hera, and Leto gave birth there. In ancient Cretan history Leto was worshipped at Phaistos and in Cretan mythology Leto gave birth to Apollo, a scholium of Servius on Aeneid iii. The myths also differ as to whether Artemis was born first, most stories depict Artemis as born first, becoming her mothers mid-wife upon the birth of her brother Apollo. The childhood of Artemis is not fully related in any surviving myth, the Iliad reduced the figure of the dread goddess to that of a girl, who, having been thrashed by Hera, climbs weeping into the lap of Zeus. She wished for no city dedicated to her, but to rule the mountains, Artemis believed that she had been chosen by the Fates to be a midwife, particularly since she had assisted her mother in the delivery of her twin brother, Apollo. All of her companions remained virgins, and Artemis closely guarded her own chastity and her symbols included the golden bow and arrow, the hunting dog, the stag, and the moon. Okeanus daughters were filled with fear, but the young Artemis bravely approached and asked for bow, Callimachus then tells how Artemis visited Pan, the god of the forest, who gave her seven bitches and six dogs. She then captured six golden-horned deer to pull her chariot, Artemis practiced with her bow first by shooting at trees and then at wild beasts. As a virgin, Artemis had interested many gods and men, Orion was accidentally killed either by Artemis or by Gaia
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Athena
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Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is the goddess of wisdom, craft, and war in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Minerva is the Roman goddess identified with Athena, Athena is known for her calm temperament, as she moves slowly to anger. She is noted to have fought for just reasons. Athena is portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the patroness of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her city, Athens. Veneration of Athena was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes, in her role as a protector of the city, many people throughout the Greek world worshipped Athena as Athena Polias. While the city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear the same name, Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name, because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times. Mycenae was the city where the Goddess was called Mykene, at Thebes she was called Thebe, and the city again a plural, Thebae. Similarly, at Athens she was called Athena, and the city Athenae, Athena had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city. According to mythical lore, she competed with Poseidon and she won by creating the olive tree, the Athenians would accept her gift and name the city after her. In history, the citizens of Athens built a statue of Athena as a temple to the goddess, which had piercing eyes, a helmet on her head, attired with an aegis or cuirass, and an extremely long spear. It also had a shield with the head of the Gorgon on it. A large snake accompanied her and she held Nike, the goddess of victory, therefore, Mylonas believes that Athena was a Mycenaean creation. On the other hand, Nilsson claims that she was the goddess of the palace who protected the king, a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja is also found in Linear A Minoan, the final part being regarded as the Linear A Minoan equivalent of the Linear B Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja. Divine Athena also was a weaver and the deity of crafts, whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have to wait for decipherment of Linear A. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean she who knows divine things better than others. Thus for Plato her name was to be derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Plato also noted that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith, and which was identified with Athena. Neith was the war goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient Pre-Dynastic period, in addition, ancient Greek myths reported that Athena had visited many mythological places such as Libyas Triton River in North Africa and the Phlegraean plain
22.
Demeter
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In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest and agriculture, who presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito, she of the Grain, as the giver of food or grain, though Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter Persephone were the figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenean Greek tablets of c, 1400–1200 BC found at Pylos, the two mistresses and the king may be related with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. It is possible that Demeter appears in Linear A as da-ma-te on three documents, all three dedicated in religious situations and all three bearing just the name. It is unlikely that Demeter appears as da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription, on the other hand,
23.
Dionysus
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Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He may have been worshipped as early as c, 1500–1100 BC by Mycenean Greeks, traces of Dionysian-type cult have also been found in ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms, some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, in some cults, he arrives from the east, as an Asiatic foreigner, in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, the god that comes and his festivals were the driving force behind the development of Greek theatre. The earliest cult images of Dionysus show a male, bearded and robed. He holds a staff, tipped with a pine-cone and known as a thyrsus. Later images show him as a beardless, sensuous, naked or half-naked androgynous youth, in its fully developed form, his central cult imagery shows his triumphant, disorderly arrival or return, as if from some place beyond the borders of the known and civilized. His procession is made up of female followers and bearded satyrs with erect penises, some are armed with the thyrsus. The god himself is drawn in a chariot, usually by exotic beasts such as lions or tigers and this procession is presumed to be the cult model for the followers of his Dionysian Mysteries. He is also known as Bacchus, the adopted by the Romans. His thyrsus, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. As Eleutherios, his wine, music and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care and those who partake of his mysteries are possessed and empowered by the god himself. The cult of Dionysus is also a cult of the souls, his maenads feed the dead through blood-offerings and he is sometimes categorised as a dying-and-rising god. Some scholars believe that Dionysus is a syncretism of a local Greek nature deity, Dionysus had a strange birth that evokes the difficulty in fitting him into the Olympian pantheon. His mother was a woman, Semele, the daughter of king Cadmus of Thebes, and his father was Zeus. Zeus wife, Hera, discovered the affair while Semele was pregnant, appearing as an old crone, Hera befriended Semele, who confided in her that Zeus was the actual father of the baby in her womb. Hera pretended not to believe her, and planted seeds of doubt in Semeles mind, curious, Semele demanded of Zeus that he reveal himself in all his glory as proof of his godhood
24.
Hades
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Hades was the ancient Greek chthonic god of the underworld, which eventually took his name. In Greek mythology, Hades was regarded as the oldest son of Cronus and Rhea and he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated their fathers generation of gods, the Titans, and claimed rulership over the cosmos. Hades received the underworld, Zeus the sky, and Poseidon the sea, Hades was often portrayed with his three-headed guard dog Cerberus. The Etruscan god Aita and Roman gods Dis Pater and Orcus were eventually taken as equivalent to the Greek Hades and merged as Pluto, the origin of Hades name is uncertain, but has generally been seen as meaning The Unseen One since antiquity. Modern linguists have proposed the Proto-Greek form *Awides, the earliest attested form is Aḯdēs, which lacks the proposed digamma. West argues instead for a meaning of the one who presides over meeting up from the universality of death. In Homeric and Ionic Greek, he was known as Áïdēs, other poetic variations of the name include Aïdōneús and the inflected forms Áïdos, Áïdi, and Áïda, whose reconstructed nominative case *Áïs is, however, not attested. The name as it came to be known in classical times was Háidēs, later the iota became silent, then a subscript marking, and finally omitted entirely. Perhaps from fear of pronouncing his name, around the 5th century BC, Plouton became the Roman god who both rules the underworld and distributed riches from below. This deity was a mixture of the Greek god Hades and the Eleusinian icon Ploutos, and from this he received a priestess. More elaborate names of the genre were Ploutodótēs or Ploutodotḗr meaning giver of wealth. Epithets of Hades include Agesander and Agesilaos, both from ágō and anḗr or laos, describing Hades as the god who carries away all. He was also referred to as Zeus Katachthonios, meaning the Zeus of the Underworld, by avoiding his actual name. In Greek mythology, Hades the god of the underworld, was a son of the Titans Cronus and he had three sisters, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera, as well as two brothers, Zeus, the youngest of the three, and Poseidon. Upon reaching adulthood, Zeus managed to force his father to disgorge his siblings, after their release, the six younger gods, along with allies they managed to gather, challenged the elder gods for power in the Titanomachy, a divine war. The war lasted for ten years and ended with the victory of the younger gods, following their victory, according to a single famous passage in the Iliad, Hades and his two brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots for realms to rule. Some myths suggest that Hades was dissatisfied with his turnout, but had no choice, Hades obtained his wife and queen, Persephone, through abduction at the behest of Zeus. Despite modern connotations of death as evil, Hades was actually more altruistically inclined in mythology, Hades was often portrayed as passive rather than evil, his role was often maintaining relative balance
25.
Hephaestus
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Hephaestus is the Greek god of blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. In Greek mythology, Hephaestus was the son of Zeus and Hera, in another version, he was Heras parthenogenous child, rejected by his mother because of his deformity and thrown off Mount Olympus and down to earth. As a smithing god, Hephaestus made all the weapons of the gods in Olympus and he served as the blacksmith of the gods, and was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly Athens. The cult of Hephaestus was based in Lemnos, Hephaestus symbols are a smiths hammer, anvil, and a pair of tongs. The name of the god in Greek has a root which can be observed in names of places of Pre-Greek origin, Hephaestus had his own palace on Olympus, containing his workshop with anvil and twenty bellows that worked at his bidding. Hephaestus crafted much of the magnificent equipment of the gods, in later accounts, Hephaestus worked with the help of the chthonic Cyclopes—among them his assistants in the forge, Brontes, Steropes and Pyracmon. Hephaestus built automatons of metal to work for him and this included tripods that walked to and from Mount Olympus. He gave to the blinded Orion his apprentice Cedalion as a guide, in some versions of the myth, Prometheus stole the fire that he gave to man from Hephaestuss forge. Hephaestus also created the gift that the gods gave to man, being a skilled blacksmith, Hephaestus created all the thrones in the Palace of Olympus. The Greek myths and the Homeric poems sanctified in stories that Hephaestus had a power to produce motion. He made the golden and silver lions and dogs at the entrance of the palace of Alkinoos in such a way that they could bite the invaders, the Greeks maintained in their civilization an animistic idea that statues are in some sense alive. This kind of art and the animistic belief goes back to the Minoan period, when Daedalus, a statue of the god was somehow the god himself, and the image on a mans tomb indicated somehow his presence. Homers Odyssey and Iliad have Hephaestus being born of the union of Zeus, in another tradition, attested by Hesiod, Hera bore Hephaestus alone. In Hesiods Zeus-centered cosmology, Hera gave birth to Hephaestus as revenge for Zeus giving birth to Athena without her, several later texts follow Hesiods account, including Bibliotheke, Hyginus, and the preface to Fabulae. In the account of Attic vase painters, Hephaestus was present at the birth of Athena, in the latter account, Hephaestus is there represented as older than Athena, so the mythology of Hephaestus is inconsistent in this respect. In one branch of Greek mythology, Hera ejected Hephaestus from the heavens because he was shrivelled of foot and he fell into the ocean and was raised by Thetis and the Oceanid Eurynome. In another account, Hephaestus, attempting to rescue his mother from Zeus advances, was flung down from the heavens by Zeus. He fell for a day and landed on the island of Lemnos
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Hera
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Hera is the goddess of women and marriage in Greek mythology and religion. She is the daughter of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, Hera is married to her brother Zeus and is titled as the Queen of Heaven. One of her characteristics is her jealous and vengeful nature against Zeuss other lovers and offspring, Hera is commonly seen with the animals she considers sacred including the cow, lion and the peacock. Scholar of Greek mythology Walter Burkert writes in Greek Religion, Nevertheless, there are memories of an aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno, According to Plutarch, Hera was an allegorical name and an anagram of aēr. So begins the section on Hera in Walter Burkerts Greek Religion, in a note, he records other scholars arguments for the meaning Mistress as a feminine to Heros, Master. John Chadwick, a decipherer of Linear B, remarks her name may be connected with hērōs, ἥρως, hero, a. J. van Windekens, offers young cow, heifer, which is consonant with Heras common epithet βοῶπις. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin and her name is attested in Mycenaean Greek written in the Linear B syllabic script as
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Hestia
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In Ancient Greek religion, Hestia is a virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture, and the right ordering of domesticity, the family, the home, and the state. In Greek mythology, she is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, Hestia received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary, with the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestias public hearth in the mother city would be carried to the new settlement. Hestias name means hearth, fireplace, altar, the oikos, likewise, the hearth of the later Greek prytaneum was the community and governments ritual and secular focus. Hestias name and functions show the importance in the social, religious. It was essential for warmth, food preparation, and the completion of sacrificial offerings to deities, in the latter, Hestia was the recipient of a preliminary, usually cheap. She was also offered the first and last libations of wine at feasts and her own sacrificial animal was a domestic pig. At the level of the polis, the hearths of Greek colonies, Hestias nearest Roman equivalent, Vesta, had similar functions as a divine personification of Romes public, domestic, and colonial hearths, and bound Romans together within a form of extended family. Responsibility for Hestias domestic cult usually fell to the woman of the household. Evidence of her priesthoods is extremely rare, most stems from the early Roman Imperial era, when Sparta offers several examples of women with the priestly title Hestia, Chalcis offers one, a daughter of the local elite. Existing civic cults to Hestia probably served as stock for the grafting of Greek ruler-cult to the Roman emperor, in Athens, a small seating section at the Theatre of Dionysus was reserved for priesthoods of Hestia on the Acropolis, Livia, and Julia, and of Hestia Romaion. A priest at Delos served Hestia the Athenian Demos and Roma, an eminent citizen of Carian Stratoniceia described himself as a priest of Hestia and several other deities, as well as holding several civic offices. Hestia is a goddess of the first Olympian generation and she was the eldest daughter of the Titans Rhea and Cronus, and sister to Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hera, and Hades. As first to be devoured. and the last to be yielded up again, Hestia rejects the marriage suits of Poseidon and Apollo, and swears herself to perpetual virginity. She thus rejects Aphrodites values and becomes, to some extent, her chaste, domestic complementary, Zeus assigns Hestia a duty to feed and maintain the fires of the Olympian hearth with the fatty, combustible portions of animal sacrifices to the gods. Wherever food was cooked, or an offering was burnt, she thus had her share of honour, among all mortals she was chief of the goddesses. At Athens in Platos time, notes Kenneth Dorter there was a discrepancy in the list of the chief gods. The altar to them at the agora, for example, included Hestia, Hestia was known for her kindness, but no ancient source or myth describes such a surrender or removal
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Poseidon
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Poseidon was one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His main domain was the ocean, and he is called the God of the Sea, additionally, he is referred to as Earth-Shaker due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the tamer of horses. He is usually depicted as a male with curly hair. The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology, both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. According to some folklore, he was saved by his mother Rhea, who concealed him among a flock of lambs and pretended to have birth to a colt. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who was the protector of many Hellenic cities, according to the references from Plato in his dialogues Timaeus and Critias, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon. The form Ποτειδάϝων appears in Corinth, the origins of the name Poseidon are unclear. Walter Burkert finds that the second element da- remains hopelessly ambiguous, another theory interprets the second element as related to the word *δᾶϝον dâwon, water, this would make *Posei-dawōn into the master of waters. There is also the possibility that the word has Pre-Greek origin, Plato in his dialogue Cratylus gives two alternative etymologies, either the sea restrained Poseidon when walking as a foot-bond, or he knew many things. If surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted, the name occurs with greater frequency than does di-u-ja. A feminine variant, po-se-de-ia, is found, indicating a lost consort goddess. Poseidon carries frequently the title wa-na-ka in Linear B inscriptions, as king of the underworld, the chthonic nature of Poseidon-Wanax is also indicated by his title E-ne-si-da-o-ne in Mycenean Knossos and Pylos, a powerful attribute. In the cave of Amnisos Enesidaon is related with the cult of Eileithyia and she was related with the annual birth of the divine child. During the Bronze Age, a goddess of nature, dominated both in Minoan and Mycenean cult, and Wanax was her companion in Mycenean cult. It is possible that Demeter appears as Da-ma-te in a Linear B inscription, in Linear B inscriptions found at Pylos, E-ne-si-da-o-ne is related with Poseidon, and Si-to Po-tini-ja is probably related with Demeter. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for the Two Queens, the Two Queens may be related with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. The violated Demeter was Demeter Erinys, in Arcadia, Demeters mare-form was worshiped into historical times. Her xoanon of Phigaleia shows how the local cult interpreted her, a Medusa type with a horses head with snaky hair, holding a dove and a dolphin, probably representing her power over air and water
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Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
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Aether (mythology)
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Aether /ˈiːθər/ or Aither, in ancient Greece, was one of the primordial deities. Aether is the personification of the upper air and he embodies the pure upper air that the gods breathe, as opposed to the normal air breathed by mortals. Like Tartarus and Erebus, Aether may have had shrines in ancient Greece, in Hesiods Theogony, Aether, was the son of Erebus and Nyx, and the brother of Hemera. The Roman mythographer Hyginus, says Aether was the son of Chaos, started his Fabulae with a strange hodgepodge of Greek and Roman cosmogonies and early genealogies. It begins as follows, Ex Caligine Chaos, Ex Chao et Caligine Nox Dies Erebus Aether. His genealogy looks like a derivation from Hesiod, but it starts with the un-Hesiodic and un-Roman Caligo, darkness probably did occur in a cosmogonic poem of Alcman, but it seems only fair to say that it was not prominent in Greek cosmogonies. Aristophanes states that Aether was the son of Erebus, however, Damascius says that Aether, Erebus and Chaos were siblings, and the offspring of Chronos. According to Epiphanius, the world began as an egg, encircled by Time. Together they constricted the egg, squeezing its matter with great force, after that, the atoms sorted themselves out. The lighter and finer ones floated above and became the Bright Air and the rarefied Wind, while the heavier and denser atoms sank and became the Earth, see also Platos Myth of Er. The fifth Orphic hymn to Aether describes the substance as the high-reigning, ever indestructible power of Zeus, the best element, Greek Religion and Culture, the Bible and the Ancient Near East. Jerusalem Studies in Religion and Culture, gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth, A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press,1996, Two volumes, ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9, ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3. Grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1914. Hammond, N. G. L. and H. H. Scullard, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Second Edition, Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus. Edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence, University of Kansas Press,1960, smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London
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Aion (deity)
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Aion is a Hellenistic deity associated with time, the orb or circle encompassing the universe, and the zodiac. The time represented by Aion is unbounded, in contrast to Chronos as empirical time divided into past, present and he is thus a god of eternity, associated with mystery religions concerned with the afterlife, such as the mysteries of Cybele, Dionysus, Orpheus, and Mithras. In Latin the concept of the deity may appear as Aevum or Saeculum and he is typically in the company of an earth or mother goddess such as Tellus or Cybele, as on the Parabiago plate. Aion is usually identified as the nude or seminude youth within a circle representing the zodiac, examples include two Roman mosaics from Sentinum and Hippo Regius in Roman Africa, and the Parabiago plate. But because he represents time as a cycle, he may also be imagined as an old man, the imagery of the twining serpent is connected to the hoop or wheel through the ouroboros, a ring formed by a snake holding the tip of its tail in its mouth. The 4th-century AD Latin commentator Servius notes that the image of a snake biting its tail represents the nature of the year. Martianus Capella identified Aion with Cronus, whose name caused him to be conflated with Chronos. Martianus presents Cronus-Aion as the consort of Rhea as identified with Physis and this deity is represented as the leontocephaline, the winged lion-headed male figure whose nude torso is entwined by a serpent. He typically holds a sceptre, keys, or a thunderbolt, the figure of Time played a considerable, though to us completely obscure, role in Mithraic theology. Aion is identified with Dionysus in Christian and Neoplatonic writers, euripides, however, calls Aion the son of Zeus. The Suda identifies Aion with Osiris, in Ptolemaic Alexandria, at the site of a dream oracle, the Hellenistic syncretic god Serapis was identified as Aion Plutonius. The epithet Plutonius marks functional aspects shared with Pluto, consort of Persephone, epiphanius says that at Alexandria Aions birth from Kore the Virgin was celebrated January 6, On this day and at this hour the Virgin gave birth to Aion. The date, which coincides with Epiphany, brought new years celebrations to a close, the Alexandrian Aion may be a form of Osiris-Dionysus, reborn annually. His image was marked with crosses on his hands, knees, Roman coins associate both Aion and Aeternitas with the phoenix as a symbol of rebirth and cyclical renewal. Aion was among the virtues and divine personifications that were part of late Hellenic discourse, aeon Interpretatio graeca Zurvanism Chronos Kákosy, László. AIΩN in der Literatur der Kaiserzeit, verlag der Osterreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Suda On Line, entries naming Aion Views of the Aion mosaic at Munich Glyptothek Images of Aion in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database
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Ananke (mythology)
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In ancient Greek religion, Ananke, also spelled Anangke, Anance, or Anagke, is a personification of inevitability, compulsion and necessity. She is often depicted as holding a spindle, one of the Protogenoi, Ananke marks the beginning of the cosmos, along with her father and consort, Chronos. She was seen as the most powerful dictator of all fate and circumstance which meant that mortals, as well as the Gods, respected her, considered as the mother of the Fates according to one version, she is the only one to have control over their decisions. According to the ancient Greek traveller Pausanias, there was a temple in ancient Corinth where the goddesses Ananke, Ananke is derived from the common Ancient Greek noun ἀνάγκη, meaning force, constraint or necessity. The common noun itself is of uncertain etymology, homer refers to her being as necessity, often abstracted in modern translation or force. In Ancient Greek literature the word is used meaning fate or destiny. She appears often in poetry, as Simonides does, Even the gods fight against ananke. The pre-modern is carried over and translated into a modern philosophical sense as necessity. In Orphic mythology, she is a self-formed being who emerged at the dawn of creation with an incorporeal, serpentine form, Ananke and Chronos are mates, mingling together in serpent form as a tie around the universe. Together they have crushed the primal egg of creation of which constituent parts became earth, heaven, Ananke was the mother of Adrasteia, the distributor of rewards and punishments. Lakhesis, the daughter of Ananke. Only when I have been bent by pangs and tortures infinite am I to escape my bondage, skill is weaker by far than Ananke. Chorus, Who then is the helmsman of Ananke, prometheus, The three-shaped Moirai and mindful Erinyes. Chorus, Can it be that Zeus has less power than they do, prometheus, Yes, in that even he cannot escape what is foretold. Chorus, Why, what is fated for Zeus except to hold eternal sway, prometheus, This you must not learn yet, do not be over-eager. Chorus, It is some solemn secret, surely, that you enshroud in mystery, the word Ananke is featured in Victor Hugos novel Notre-Dame of Paris, written upon a wall of Notre-Dame by the hand of Dom Claude Frollo. In his Toute la Lyre, Hugo also mentions Ananke as a symbol of love, here is what Hugo had to write about it in 1866. In Philip K. Dicks novel VALIS, Ananke is mentioned as blind necessity or blind chance, according to some experts. blind chance, chaos, described alongside the term Noos as the overwhelming chaos which reason, Noos, tries to constrain
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Chronos
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Chronos is the personification of Time in pre-Socratic philosophy and later literature. Chronos already was confused with, or perhaps consciously identified with, the identification became more widespread during the Renaissance, giving rise to the allegory of Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe. He was depicted in Greco-Roman mosaics as a man turning the Zodiac Wheel, Chronos might also be contrasted with the deity Aion as Eternal Time. Chronos is usually portrayed as an old, wise man with a long, grey beard, during antiquity, Chronos was occasionally interpreted as Cronus. According to Plutarch, the Greeks believed that Cronus was a name for Chronos. In addition to the name, the story of Cronus eating his children was also interpreted as an allegory to an aspect of time held within Cronus sphere of influence. During the Renaissance, the identification of Cronus and Chronos gave rise to Father Time wielding the harvesting scythe, the original meaning and etymology of the word chronos are uncertain. Some of the current English words whose etymological root is khronos/chronos include chronology, chronometer, chronic, anachronism, in the Orphic tradition, the unaging Chronos was engendered by earth and water, and produced Aether and Chaos, and an egg. It produced the hermaphroditic god Phanes who gave birth to the first generation of gods and is the creator of the cosmos. Pherecydes of Syros in his lost Heptamychos, around 6th century BC, the semen of Chronos was placed in the recesses and produced the first generation of gods
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Erebus
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In Greek literature the name Erebus is also used as a region of the Greek underworld where the dead pass immediately after dying, and is sometimes used interchangeably with Tartarus. The perceived meaning of Erebus is darkness, the first recorded instance of it was place of darkness between earth and Hades, the name Ἔρεβος itself originates from PIE *h1regʷ-es/os- darkness. Hesiod, Theogony The Roman writer Hyginus, in his Fabulae, described Erebus as the father of Geras, notes Sources Evelyn-White, Hugh G. Theogony. The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, London
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Eros
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In Greek mythology, Eros was the Greek god of sexual attraction. Some myths make him a god, while in other myths. He was one of the winged love gods, Erotes, Eros appears in ancient Greek sources under several different guises. In the earliest sources, he is one of the gods involved in the coming into being of the cosmos. But in later sources, Eros is represented as the son of Aphrodite, whose mischievous interventions in the affairs of gods and mortals cause bonds of love to form, a cult of Eros existed in pre-classical Greece, but it was much less important than that of Aphrodite. However, in antiquity, Eros was worshiped by a fertility cult in Thespiae. In Athens, he shared a very popular cult with Aphrodite, according to Hesiod, one of the most ancient of all Greek sources, Eros was the fourth god to come into existence, coming after Chaos, Gaia, and Tartarus. However, Parmenides, one of the philosophers, makes Eros the first of all the gods to come into existence. The Orphic and Eleusinian Mysteries featured Eros as a very original god, aristophanes, influenced by Orphism, relates the birth of Eros, At the beginning there was only Chaos, Night, Darkness, and the Abyss. Earth, the Air and Heaven had no existence and he mated in the deep Abyss with dark Chaos, winged like himself, and thus hatched forth our race, which was the first to see the light. In later myths, he was the son of the deities Aphrodite and Ares, Eros was associated with athleticism, with statues erected in gymnasia, and was often regarded as the protector of homosexual love between men. Eros was depicted as carrying a lyre or bow and arrow. He was also depicted accompanied by dolphins, flutes, roosters, roses, “We must have a word with Aphrodite. Let us go together and ask her to persuade her boy, if that is possible, to loose an arrow at Aeetes’ daughter, Medea of the spells, and make her fall in love with Jason. ”He smites maids’ breasts with unknown heat. Once, when Venus’ son was kissing her, his quiver dangling down, in fact the wound was deeper than it seemed, though unperceived at first. Enraptured by the beauty of a man, Eros drove Dionysos mad for the girl with the delicious wound of his arrow, then curving his wings flew lightly to Olympus. And the god roamed over the hills scourged with a greater fire. ”The story of Eros and Psyche has a tradition as a folktale of the ancient Greco-Roman world long before it was committed to literature in Apuleius Latin novel. The novel itself is written in a picaresque Roman style, yet Psyche retains her Greek name, Eros and Aphrodite are called by their Latin names, and Cupid is depicted as a young adult, rather than a child
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Gaia (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the mother of all life, the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the parent of Uranus, from whose sexual union she bore the Titans and the Giants. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra, the Greek word γαῖα is a collateral form of γῆ meaning Earth, a word of uncertain origin. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin, in Mycenean Greek Ma-ka also contains the root ga-. Gaia is the personification of the Earth and these are her offspring as related in various myths, some are related consistently, some are mentioned only in minor variants of myths, and others are related in variants that are considered to reflect a confusion of the subject or association. *Some said that those marked with a * were born from Uranus blood when Cronus castrated him, hesiods Theogony tells how, after Chaos, wide-bosomed Gaia arose to be the everlasting seat of the immortals who possess Olympus above, and the depths of Tartarus below. He then tells that Gaia brought forth her equal Uranus to cover her on every side, Gaia also bore the hills, and Pontus, without sweet union of love. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, as each of the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires were born, Uranus hid them in a secret place within Gaia, causing her great pain. She created a grey flint sickle, and Cronus used the sickle to castrate his father Uranus as he approached Gaia to have sex with her. From Uranus spilled blood, Gaia produced the Erinyes, the Giants, from the testicles of Uranus in the sea came forth Aphrodite. By her son Pontus, Gaia bore the sea-deities Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia. Because Cronus had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overthrown by one of his children, but when Rhea was pregnant with her youngest child, Zeus, she sought help from Gaia and Uranus. When Zeus was born, Rhea gave Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes in his place, which Cronus swallowed, with the help of Gaias advice, Zeus defeated the Titans. But afterwards, Gaia, in union with Tartarus, bore the youngest of her sons Typhon, according to Hyginus, Earth, along with Heaven and Sea were the children of Aether and Day. According to Apollodorus, Gaia and Tartarus were the parents of Echidna, Zeus hid Elara, one of his lovers, from Hera by stowing her under the earth. His son by Elara, the giant Tityos, is sometimes said to be a son of Gaia. Gaia is believed by some sources to be the deity behind the Oracle at Delphi
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Hemera
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In Greek mythology Hemera was the personification of day and one of the Greek primordial deities. She is the goddess of the daytime and, according to Hesiod, Hemera is remarked upon in Ciceros De Natura Deorum, where it is logically determined that Dies must be a god, if Uranus is a god. The poet Bacchylides states that Nyx and Chronos are the parents and she was the female counterpart of her brother and consort, Aether, but neither of them figured actively in myth or cult. Hyginus lists their children as Uranus, Gaia, and Thalassa, pausanias seems to confuse her with Eos when saying that she carried Cephalus away. Pausanias makes this identification with Eos upon looking at the tiling of the portico in Athens. He makes this identification again at Amyklai and at Olympia, upon looking at statues and illustrations where Eos is present
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Nyx
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Nyx is the Greek goddess of the night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation and mothered other personified deities such as Hypnos and Thanatos and her appearances are sparse in surviving mythology, but reveal her as a figure of such exceptional power and beauty that she is feared by Zeus himself. In Hesiods Theogony, Nyx is born of Chaos, with Erebus, Nyx gives birth to Aether and Hemera. Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth to Moros, Ker, Thanatos, Hypnos, the Oneiroi, Momus, Oizys, the Hesperides, the Moirai, the Keres, Nemesis, Apate, Philotes, Geras, and Eris. In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod locates there the home of Nyx, Hesiod says further that Nyxs daughter Hemera left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it, continuing cyclicly, when Hemera returned, Nyx left. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri in the Rigveda, where she works in close cooperation, at Iliad 14. 249–61, Hypnos, the minor deity of sleep, reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. He had once before put Zeus to sleep at the bidding of Hera, Zeus was furious and would have smitten Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. Homer goes on to say that Zeus, fearing to anger Nyx, held his fury at bay and he disturbed Zeus only a few times after that always fearing Zeus and running back to his mother, Nyx, who would have confronted Zeus with a maternal fury. Nyx took on a more important role in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. In them, Nyx, rather than Chaos, is the first principle from all creation emerges. Nyx occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles, cronus – who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesies. Outside the cave, Adrasteia clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, phanes – the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge – was the child or father of Nyx. Nyx is also the first principle in the chorus of Aristophanes The Birds. Here she is also the mother of Eros, the theme of Nyxs cave or mansion, beyond the ocean or somewhere at the edge of the cosmos may be echoed in the philosophical poem of Parmenides. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Nyx, in Greece, Nyx was only rarely the focus of cults. According to Pausanias, she had an oracle on the acropolis at Megara, more often, Nyx lurked in the background of other cults. Thus there was a statue called Nyx in the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Spartans had a cult of Sleep and Death, conceived of as twins. Cult titles composed of compounds of nyx- are attested for several deities, most notably Dionysus Nyktelios nocturnal, in 1997, the International Astronomical Union approved the name Nyx for a mons feature on the planet Venus
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Phanes (mythology)
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In these myths Phanes is often equated with Eros and Mithras and has been depicted as a deity emerging from a cosmic egg, entwined with a serpent. He had a helmet and had broad, golden wings, the Orphic cosmogony is bizarre, and quite unlike the creation sagas offered by Homer and Hesiod. Scholars have suggested that Orphism is un-Greek even Asiatic in conception, time, who was also called Aion, created the silver egg of the universe, out of this egg burst out the first-born, Phanes. Many threads of earlier myths are apparent in the new tradition, Phanes was believed to have been hatched from the World-Egg of Chronos and Ananke or Nyx in the black bird form and wind. His older wife Nyx called him Protogenus, as she created nighttime, he created daytime. He also created the method of creation by mingling and he was made the ruler of the deities and passed the sceptre to Nyx. This new Orphic tradition states that Nyx later gave the sceptre to her son Uranos before it passed to Cronus and then to Zeus, who retained it. According to Aristophanes, whence he is called Eros, he was born from an egg created by Nyx, after which he mates with Chaos and creates the birds. This passage seeks to demonstrate that the birds are considered older than all living creatures. The Protogonos Theogony is known through the commentary in the Derveni papyrus and references in Empedocles, according to Damascius, Phanes was the first god “expressible and acceptable to human ears”. Another orphic hymns states, You scattered the dark mist that lay before your eyes and, flapping wings, you whirled about. For this I call you Phanes, dionysus of the Orphic tradition is intimately connected to Protogonos. In the Orphic tradition, Dionysus-Protogonos-Phanes is a dying and rising god, eusebius tell us the story of his death and recreation. Myth, Ritual, and Religion, Volume 1, Chapter 10
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Pontus (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Pontus was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. Pontus was Gaias son and has no father, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, he was born without coupling, though according to Hyginus, Pontus is son of Aether and Gaia. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, with Gaia, he fathered Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the Strong Goddess Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa, he fathered the Telchines and all sea life, in a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on the prow of a ship. He wears a crown, and accompanies Fortuna, whose draperies appear at the left. She bore also the deep with his raging swell, Pontus. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phorcys, being mated with Earth, - Hyginus, Fabulae Preface Pontus, historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea
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Thalassa (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Thalassa was the primeval spirit of the sea, of whom it has been suggested that she was of Pre-Greek origin. Gaius Julius Hyginus described her in the preface to his Fabulae as daughter of Aether, with her male counterpart Pontus, she spawned the tribes of fish. The couple were replaced by the other marine pairs, Oceanus and Tethys, Poseidon. Nevertheless, fables were devoted to her by Aesop and she was to be depicted in both artistic and literary works during the Common Era, two rather similar fables are recorded by Babrius. In one, numbered 168 in the Perry Index, a farmer witnesses a shipwreck, assuming the form of a woman, she answers by blaming the winds for her turbulence. Otherwise “I am gentler than that dry land of yours. ”In the other, a survivor from a shipwreck accuses the sea of treachery and receives the same excuse. But for the winds, “by nature I am as calm and safe as the land. ”In yet another fable, Perry’s number 412 and only recorded by Syntipas, the sea replies that if they know as much, they should avoid such contact. The commentary suggests that the tale may be applied to people who criticize someone inappropriately even though they may actually be helping them, in this case he had been badly scorched and asks her to soothe his wounds. While the sea-divinities Tethys and Oceanus were formerly represented in Roman-era mosaics, they were replaced at a period by the figure of Thalassa. There she was depicted as a woman clothed in bands of seaweed and half submerged in the sea, in one hand she holds a ships oar, and in the other a dolphin. In 2011, Swoon created a site-specific installation depicting the goddess in the atrium of the New Orleans Museum of Art, in fall 2016, the installation was erected once more in the atrium of the Detroit Institute of Arts. Media related to Thalassa at Wikimedia Commons
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Tartarus
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In Greek mythology, Tartarus is the deep abyss that is used as a dungeon of torment and suffering for the wicked and as the prison for the Titans. Tartarus is the place where, according to Plato in Gorgias, souls were judged after death, like other primal entities, Tartarus was also considered to be a primordial force or deity. In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld, in ancient Orphic sources and in the mystery schools, Tartarus is also the unbounded first-existing entity from which the Light and the cosmos are born. In the Greek poet Hesiods Theogony, c.700 BC, Tartarus was the third of the deities, following after Chaos and Gaia, and preceding Eros. According to Hyginus, Tartarus was the offspring of Aether and Gaia, as for the place, Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall nine days before it reached the earth. The anvil would take nine days to fall from earth to Tartarus. In the Iliad, Zeus asserts that Tartarus is as far beneath Hades as heaven is above earth, while according to Greek mythology the realm of Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus came to power as the King of the Titans, he imprisoned the one-eyed Cyclopes, Zeus killed Campe and released these imprisoned giants to aid in his conflict with the Titans. The gods of Olympus eventually triumphed, kronos and many of the other Titans were banished to Tartarus, though Prometheus, Epimetheus, Metis and most of the female Titans were spared. Another Titan, Atlas, was sentenced to hold the sky on his shoulders to prevent it from resuming its primordial embrace with the Earth, other gods could be sentenced to Tartarus as well. Apollo is an example, although Zeus freed him. The Hecatonchires became guards of Tartarus prisoners, later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhon, he threw him into wide Tartarus. Originally, Tartarus was used only to confine dangers to the gods of Olympus, in later mythologies, Tartarus became the place where the punishment fits the crime. But regardless of the impropriety of Zeus frequent conquests, Sisyphus overstepped his bounds by considering himself a peer of the gods who could report their indiscretions. When Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain up Sisyphus in Tartarus, Sisyphus tricked Thanatos by asking him how the chains worked and ended up chaining Thanatos and this caused Ares to free Thanatos and turn Sisyphus over to him. Sometime later, Sisyphus had Persephone send him back to the surface to scold his wife for not burying him properly, Sisyphus was forcefully dragged back to Tartarus by Hermes when he refused to go back to the Underworld after that. In Tartarus, Sisyphus was forced to roll a boulder up a mountainside which when he almost reached the crest, rolled away from Sisyphus. King Tantalus also ended up in Tartarus after he cut up his son Pelops, boiled him and he also stole the ambrosia from the Gods and told his people its secrets
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