1.
Herculaneum
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Located in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, Herculaneum was an ancient Roman town destroyed by volcanic pyroclastic flows in 79 AD. Its ruins are located in the commune of Ercolano, Campania and it had been thought until then that the town had been evacuated by the inhabitants. Herculaneum was a town than Pompeii, possessing an extraordinary density of fine houses with, for example. Ancient tradition connected Herculaneum with the name of the Greek hero Herakles, in fact, it seems that some forefathers of the Samnite tribes of the Italian mainland founded the first civilization on the site of Herculaneum at the end of the 6th century BC. Soon after, the town came under Greek control and was used as a trading post because of its proximity to the Gulf of Naples, the Greeks named the city Ἡράκλειον, Heraklion. In the 4th century BC, Herculaneum again came under the domination of the Samnites. The city remained under Samnite control until it became a Roman municipium in 89 BC, when, having participated in the Social War, it was defeated by Titus Didius, a legate of Sulla. After the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, the town of Herculaneum was buried under approximately 20 metres of ash, excavations continued sporadically up to the present and today many streets and buildings are visible, although over 75% of the town remains buried. Today, the Italian towns of Ercolano and Portici lie on the site of Herculaneum. Until 1969 the town of Ercolano was called Resina and it changed its name to Ercolano, the Italian modernization of the ancient name in honour of the old city. The inhabitants worshipped above all Hercules, who was believed to be the founder of both the town and Mount Vesuvius, Other important deities worshipped include Venus and Apollo. The catastrophic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius occurred on the afternoon of 24 August 79 AD, because Vesuvius had been dormant for approximately 800 years, it was no longer even recognized as a volcano. Based on archaeological excavations and on two letters of Pliny the Younger to the Roman historian Tacitus, the course of the eruption can be reconstructed, at around 1pm on 24 August, Vesuvius began spewing volcanic ash and stone thousands of meters into the sky. When it reached the tropopause, the top of the cloud flattened, the prevailing winds at the time blew toward the southeast, causing the volcanic material to fall primarily on the city of Pompeii and the surrounding area. Since Herculaneum lay to the west of Vesuvius, it was only affected by the first phase of the eruption. While roofs in Pompeii collapsed under the weight of falling debris, only a few centimetres of ash fell on Herculaneum, causing little damage, during the following night, the eruptive column which had risen into the stratosphere collapsed onto Vesuvius and its flanks. The first pyroclastic surge, formed by a mixture of ash and hot gases, a succession of six flows and surges buried the citys buildings, causing little damage in some areas and preserving structures, objects and victims almost intact. In 1709 the digging of a deep well revealed some exceptional statues at the lowest levels which was found to be the site of the theatre
2.
National Archaeological Museum, Naples
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The Naples National Archaeological Museum is a museum in Naples, southern Italy, at the northwest corner of the original Greek wall of the city of Neapolis. The museum contains a collection of Roman artifacts from Pompeii, Stabiae. The collection includes works of the highest quality produced in Greek, Roman and it is the most important Italian archaeological museum and is considered one of the most important in the world. Charles of Bourbon founded the museum in the 1750s, the building he used for it had been erected as a cavalry barracks and during its time as the seat of the University of Naples was extended, in the late 18th century. The museum hosts extensive collections of Greek and Roman antiquities and their core is from the Farnese Collection, which includes a collection of engraved gems and the Farnese Marbles. Among the notable works found in the museum are the Herculaneum papyri, carbonized by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, many of these works, especially the larger ones, have been moved to the Museo di Capodimonte for display in recent years. The Farnese Hercules, which fixed the image of Hercules in the European imagination, a major collection of ancient Roman bronzes from the Villa of the Papyri is housed at the museum. These include the Seated Hermes, a sprawling Drunken Satyr, a bust of Thespis, another variously identified as Seneca or Hesiod, the museums Mosaic Collection includes a number of important mosaics recovered from the ruins of Pompeii and the other Vesuvian cities. This includes the Alexander Mosaic, dating from circa 100 BC and it depicts a battle between the armies of Alexander the Great and Darius III of Persia. Another mosaic found is that of the gladiatorial fighter depicted in a found from the Villa of the Figured Capitals in Pompeii. With 2,500 objects, the museum has one of the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts in Italy after the Turin, Florence and Bologna ones. It is made up primarily of works from two collections, assembled by Cardinal Stefano Borgia in the second half of the 18th century. In its new layout the collection provides both an important record of Egyptian civilization from the Old Kingdom up to the Ptolemaic-Roman era, access was limited to only persons of mature age and known morals. The rooms were also called Cabinets of matters reserved or obscene or pornographic, the highlight of the censorship occurred in 1851 when even nude Venus statues were locked up, and the entrance walled up in the hope that the collection would vanish from memory. In September 1860, when the forces of Garibaldi occupied Naples, since the Royal Butler was no longer available, they broke into the collection. Limiting viewership and censorship have always been part of the history of the collection, censorship was restored during the era of the Kingdom of Italy, and peaked during the Fascist period, when visitors to the rooms needed the permission of the Minister of National Education in Rome. Censorship persisted in the period up to 1967, abating only after 1971 when the Ministry was given the new rules to regulate requests for visits. Completely rebuilt a few years ago with all of the new criteria, visitors under the age of 14 can tour the exhibit only with an adult
3.
Thyrsus
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A thyrsus or thyrsos was a wand or staff of giant fennel covered with ivy vines and leaves, sometimes wound with taeniae and always topped with a pine cone. The thyrsus, associated with Dionysus and his followers, the Satyrs and Maenads, is a symbol of prosperity, fertility, hedonism, and pleasure/enjoyment in general. It has been suggested that this was specifically a fertility phallus, with the representing the shaft of the penis. The thyrsus was tossed in the Bacchic dance, Pentheus, The thyrsus— in my hand shall I hold it. Or thus am I more like a Bacchanal, Dionysus, In thy right hand, and with thy right foot raise it. Sometimes the thyrsus was displayed in conjunction with a wine cup, another symbol of Dionysus, forming a male-and-female combination like that of the royal scepter. In Greek religion, the staff was carried by the votaries of Dionysus, euripides wrote that honey dripped from the thyrsos staves that the Bacchic maenads carried. The thyrsus was an instrument at religious rituals and fêtes. The fabulous history of Bacchus relates that he converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into dangerous weapons, hence his thyrsus is called a spear enveloped in vine-leaves, and its point was thought to incite to madness. Euripides also writes, Theres a brute wildness in the fennel-wands—Reverence it well, for many, as they say in the mysteries, are the thyrsus bearers, but few are the mystics, --meaning, as I interpret the words, the true philosophers. The bas-relief in bronze ye promised me, /Those Pans and nymphs ye wot of, Thrysus at Encyclopædia Britannica Online Thrysus at The Ancient Library Thyrsus at Perseus Project
4.
Kantharos
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A kantharos or cantharus is a type of ancient Greek cup used for drinking. Although almost all surviving examples are in Greek pottery, the shape, like many Greek vessel types, in its iconic Type A form, it is characterized by its deep bowl, tall pedestal foot, and pair of high-swung handles which extend above the lip of the pot. The Greek words kotylos and kotyle are other ancient names for this same shape, the kantharos is a cup used to hold wine, possibly for drinking or for ritual use or offerings. The kantharos seems to be an attribute of Dionysos, the god of wine, kylix Rhyton Ancient Greek vase painting Pottery of ancient Greece Gina Hander. CU Classics, Greek Vase Exhibit, Kantharos
5.
Silenus
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In Greek mythology, Silenus was a companion and tutor to the wine god Dionysus. He is typically older than the satyrs of the Dionysian retinue, the original Silenus resembled a folkloric man of the forest with the ears of a horse and sometimes also the tail and legs of a horse. The later sileni were drunken followers of Dionysus, usually bald and fat with thick lips and squat noses, later still, the plural sileni went out of use and the only references were to one individual named Silenus, the teacher and faithful companion of the wine-god Dionysus. A notorious consumer of wine, he was drunk and had to be supported by satyrs or carried by a donkey. Silenus was described as the oldest, wisest and most drunken of the followers of Dionysus, and was said in Orphic hymns to be the young gods tutor. This puts him in a company of phallic or half-animal tutors of the gods, a group that include Priapus, Hermaphroditus, Cedalion and Chiron, but also includes Pallas, when intoxicated, Silenus was said to possess special knowledge and the power of prophecy. The Phrygian King Midas was eager to learn from Silenus and caught the old man by lacing a fountain from which Silenus often drank, as Silenus fell asleep, the kings servants seized and took him to their master. Silenus shared with the king a pessimistic philosophy, That the best thing for a man is not to be born, an alternative story was that when lost and wandering in Phrygia, Silenus was rescued by peasants and taken to King Midas, who treated him kindly. In return for Midas hospitality Silenus told him some tales and Midas, enchanted by Silenus’s fictions, entertained him for five days, Dionysus offered Midas a reward for his kindness towards Silenus, and Midas chose the power of turning everything he touched into gold. Another story was that Silenus had been captured by two shepherds, and regaled them with wondrous tales, in Euripidess satyr play Cyclops, Silenus is stranded with the satyrs in Sicily, where they have been enslaved by the Cyclops. They are the elements of the story, a parody of Homers Odyssey IX. Silenus refers to the satyrs as his children during the play, Silenus commonly figures in Roman bas-reliefs of the train of Dionysus, a subject for sarcophagi, embodying the transcendent promises of Dionysian cult. The Papposilenus is a representation of Silenus that emphasizes his old age, in vase painting, his hair is often white, and as in statuettes he has a pot belly, flabby breasts and shaggy thighs. In these depictions, it is clear that the Papposilenus is an actor playing a part. His costuming includes a body stocking tufted with hair that seems to have come into use in the mid-5th century BC. This thought is indeed so old that the one who first uttered it is no known, it has been passed down to us from eternity. Moreover, you know what is so often said and passes for a trite expression and he answered, It is best not to be born at all, and next to that, it is better to die than to live, and this is confirmed even by divine testimony. Pertinently to this say that Midas, after hunting, asked his captive Silenus somewhat urgently
6.
Maenad
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In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus and the most significant members of the Thiasus, the gods retinue. Their name literally translates as raving ones, often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy through a combination of dancing and intoxication. During these rites, the maenads would dress in fawn skins and carry a thyrsus and they would weave ivy-wreaths around their heads or wear a bull helmet in honor of their god, and often handle or wear snakes. They went into the mountains at night and practiced strange rites, according to Plutarchs Life of Alexander, maenads were called Mimallones and Klodones In Macedon, epithets derived from the feminine art of spinning wool. Nevertheless, these warlike parthenoi from the hills, associated with a Dionysios pseudanor fake male Dionysus, in southern Greece they were described with Bacchae, Bassarides, Thyiades, Potniades and other epithets. The term maenad has come to be associated with a variety of women, supernatural, mythological. In Euripides play The Bacchae, maenads of Thebes murder King Pentheus after he bans the worship of Dionysus, Dionysus, Pentheus cousin, himself lures Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tear him apart. His corpse is mutilated by his own mother, Agave, who tears off his head, a group of maenads also kill Orpheus. In ceramic art, the frolicking of Maenads and Dionysus is often a theme depicted on kraters, used to mix water and these scenes show the maenads in their frenzy running in the forests, often tearing to pieces any animal they happen to come across. They strike rocks with the thyrsus, and water gushes forth and they lower the thyrsus to the earth, and a spring of wine bubbles up. If they want milk, they scratch up the ground with their fingers, honey trickles down from the thyrsus made of the wood of the ivy, they gird themselves with snakes and give suck to fawns and wolf cubs as if they were infants at the breast. No weapon of iron can wound them, and the snakes harmlessly lick up the sweat from their heated cheeks, fierce bulls fall to the ground, victims to numberless, tearing female hands, and sturdy trees are torn up by the roots with their combined efforts. Having symbolically eaten his body and drunk his blood, the celebrants became possessed by Dionysus, Maenads are found the later references as priestesses of the Dionystic cult. They will give to you both the rites and good practices, and they will establish dance groups of Bacchus in your city. Dionysus came to his birthplace, Thebes, where neither Pentheus, his cousin who was now king, nor Pentheus’ mother Agave, Dionysus punished Agave by driving her insane, and in that condition, she killed her son and tore him to pieces. From Thebes, Dionysus went to Argos where all the women except the daughters of King Proetus joined in his worship, Dionysus punished them by driving them mad, and they killed the infants who were nursing at their breasts. He did the same to the daughters of Minyas, King of Orchomenos in Boetia, according to Opian, Dionysus delighted, as a child, in tearing kids into pieces and bringing them back to life again. He is characterized as the one, and the mad one
7.
Satyr
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In Greek mythology, a satyr is one of a troop of ithyphallic male companions of Dionysus with goat-like features and often permanent erection. Early artistic representations sometimes include horse-like legs, but in 6th-century BC black-figure pottery human legs are the most common, in Roman Mythology there is a concept similar to satyrs, with goat-like features, the faun, being half-man, half-goat, who roamed the woods and mountains. In myths they are associated with pipe-playing. Greek-speaking Romans often used the Greek term saturos when referring to the Latin faunus, the satyrs chief was Silenus, a minor deity associated with fertility. These characters can be found in the complete remaining satyr play, Cyclops, by Euripides. The satyr play was a short, lighthearted tailpiece performed after each trilogy of tragedies in Athenian festivals honoring Dionysus, there is not enough evidence to determine whether the satyr play regularly drew on the same myths as those dramatized in the tragedies that preceded. The groundbreaking tragic playwright Aeschylus is said to have especially loved for his satyr plays. Mature satyrs are depicted in Roman art with goats horns. As Dionysiac creatures they are lovers of wine and women, because of their love of wine, they are often represented holding wine cups, and they appear often in the decorations on wine cups. Attic painted vases depict mature satyrs as being built with flat noses, large pointed ears, long curly hair. Satyrs often carry the thyrsus, the rod of Dionysus tipped with a pine cone, in earlier Greek art, Silenos appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in Hellenistic art, he is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect. This transformation or humanization of the Satyr appears throughout late Greek art, another example of this shift occurs in the portrayal of Medusa and in that of the Amazon, characters who are traditionally depicted as barbaric and uncivilized. A humanized Satyr is depicted in a work of Praxiteles known as the Resting Satyr, Praxiteles gives a new direction to the satyr in art. Although not mentioned by Homer, in a fragment of Hesiods works satyrs are called brothers of the nymphs and Kuretes. In the Dionysus cult, male followers are known as satyrs, in Attica there was a species of drama dealing with the legends of gods and heroes, and the chorus was composed of satyrs and sileni. In the Athenian satyr plays of the 5th century BC, the chorus commented on the action and this satyric drama burlesqued the serious events of the mythic past with lewd pantomime and subversive mockery. One complete satyr play from the 5th century survives, the Cyclops of Euripides, the Satyr and the Traveller, one of Aesops Fables, features the satyr as the benevolent host for a traveler in the forest in winter. The satyr is bewildered by the claim to be able to blow hot and cold with the same breath, first to warm his hands, then to cool his porridge
8.
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
9.
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
10.
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
11.
Pan (god)
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In Greek religion and mythology, Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature of mountain wilds and rustic music, and companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the ancient Greek language, from the word paein, meaning to pasture and he has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat, in the same manner as a faun or satyr. With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens, because of this, Pan is connected to fertility. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism, in the 18th and 19th centuries, Pan became a significant figure in the Romantic movement of western Europe and also in the 20th-century Neopagan movement. Many modern scholars consider Pan to be derived from the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European god *Péh2usōn, the Hindu god Pushan is believed to be a cognate of Pan. The connection between Pan and Pushan was first identified in 1924 by the German scholar Hermann Collitz, the name Pan is probably also a cognate with the Greek word πάειν, meaning to pasture, which shares an origin with the modern English word pasture. In his earliest appearance in literature, Pindars Pythian Ode iii,78, Pan is associated with a mother goddess, perhaps Rhea or Cybele, Pindar refers to virgins worshipping Cybele and Pan near the poets house in Boeotia. In some early sources such as Pindar, his father is Apollo via Penelope, Herodotus, Cicero, Apollodorus and Hyginus all make Hermes and Penelope his parents. Pausanias 8.12.5 records the story that Penelope had in fact been unfaithful to her husband, other sources report that Penelope slept with all 108 suitors in Odysseus absence, and gave birth to Pan as a result. This myth reflects the folk etymology that equates Pans name with the Greek word for all, in the mystery cults of the highly syncretic Hellenistic era, Pan is made cognate with Phanes/Protogonos, Zeus, Dionysus and Eros. Accounts of Pans genealogy are so varied that it must lie buried deep in mythic time, like other nature spirits, Pan appears to be older than the Olympians, if it is true that he gave Artemis her hunting dogs and taught the secret of prophecy to Apollo. Pan might be multiplied as the Pans or the Paniskoi, Kerenyi notes from scholia that Aeschylus in Rhesus distinguished between two Pans, one the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas, and one a son of Cronus. In the retinue of Dionysos, or in depictions of landscapes, there appeared not only a great Pan, but also little Pans, Paniskoi. The worship of Pan began in Arcadia which was always the seat of his worship. Arcadia was a district of people, culturally separated from other Greeks. Greek hunters used to scourge the statue of the god if they had been disappointed in the chase. Being a rustic god, Pan was not worshipped in temples or other built edifices and these are often referred to as the Cave of Pan. In the 4th century BC Pan was depicted on the coinage of Pantikapaion, the goat-god Aegipan was nurtured by Amalthea with the infant Zeus in Athens
12.
Tyche
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Tyche was the presiding tutelary deity that governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. She is the daughter of Aphrodite and Zeus or Hermes, in literature, she might be given various genealogies, as a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite, or considered as one of the Oceanids, daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, or of Zeus. She was connected with Nemesis and Agathos Daimon, increasingly during the Hellenistic period, cities venerated their own specific iconic version of Tyche, wearing a mural crown. Tyche had temples at Caesarea Maritima, Antioch, Alexandria and Constantinople, in Alexandria the Tychaeon, the temple of Tyche, was described by Libanius as one of the most magnificent of the entire Hellenistic world. She was uniquely venerated at Itanos in Crete, as Tyche Protogeneia, linked with the Athenian Protogeneia, daughter of Erechtheus, Tyche appears on many coins of the Hellenistic period in the three centuries before the Christian era, especially from cities in the Aegean. Unpredictable turns of fortune drive the complicated plotlines of Hellenistic romances, such as Leucippe and Clitophon or Daphnis, the effectiveness of her capricious power even achieved respectability in philosophical circles during that generation, though among poets it was a commonplace to revile her for a fickle harlot. In medieval art, she was depicted as carrying a cornucopia, a ships rudder. The constellation of Virgo is sometimes identified as the figure of Tyche, as well as other goddesses such as Demeter. Tyche of Constantinople Media related to Tyche at Wikimedia Commons
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listen); Ancient Greek: Ἑρμαφρόδιτος) was the son of Aphrodite and Hermes. According to Ovid, he was born a remarkably handsome boy with whom the water nymph Salmacis fell in love and prayed to be united forever. A god, in answer to her prayer, merged their two forms into one and transformed them into an androgynous form.[1] His name is compounded of his parents' names, Hermes and Aphrodite.[2] He was one of the Erotes.
Smith, William, ed. (1890). "Hermaphroditus". Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (3rd ed.). London: John Murray.
