1.
Delphi
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Delphi is famous as the ancient sanctuary that grew rich as the seat of the oracle that was consulted on important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. Moreover, it was considered as the navel of the world by the Greeks as represented by the Omphalos and it occupies an impressive site on the south-western slope of Mount Parnassus overlooking the coastal plain to the south and the valley of Phocis. It is now an archaeological site and the modern town is nearby. The site of Delphi is located in upper central Greece, on multiple plateaux/terraces along the slope of Mount Parnassus, and includes the Sanctuary of Apollo and this semicircular spur is known as Phaedriades, and overlooks the Pleistos Valley. In myths dating to the period of Ancient Greece, the site of Delphi was believed to be determined by Zeus when he sought to find the centre of his Grandmother Earth. He sent two eagles flying from the eastern and western extremities, and the path of the eagles crossed over Delphi where the omphalos, Apollo was said to have slain Python, a drako a serpent or a dragon who lived there and protected the navel of the Earth. Python is claimed by some to be the name of the site in recognition of Python which Apollo defeated. The Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo recalled that the ancient name of this site had been Krisa, others relate that it was named Pytho and that Pythia, the priestess serving as the oracle, was chosen from their ranks by a group of priestesses who officiated at the temple. At the settlement site in Delphi, which was a settlement of the late 9th century. Pottery and bronze work as well as tripod dedications continue in a steady stream, the victors at Delphi were presented with a laurel crown which was ceremonially cut from a tree by a boy who re-enacted the slaying of the Python. Delphi was set apart from the other sites because it hosted the mousikos agon. These Pythian Games rank second among the four stephanitic games chronologically and these games, though, were different from the games at Olympia in that they were not of such vast importance to the city of Delphi as the games at Olympia were to the area surrounding Olympia. Delphi would have been a renowned city whether or not it hosted these games, it had other attractions that led to it being labeled the omphalos of the earth, in other words, in the inner hestia of the Temple of Apollo, an eternal flame burned. The name Delphoi comes from the root as δελφύς delphys, womb. Apollo is connected with the site by his epithet Δελφίνιος Delphinios, the epithet is connected with dolphins in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, recounting the legend of how Apollo first came to Delphi in the shape of a dolphin, carrying Cretan priests on his back. The Homeric name of the oracle is Pytho, another legend held that Apollo walked to Delphi from the north and stopped at Tempe, a city in Thessaly, to pick laurel which he considered to be a sacred plant. In commemoration of this legend, the winners at the Pythian Games received a wreath of laurel picked in the Temple, Delphi became the site of a major temple to Phoebus Apollo, as well as the Pythian Games and the famous prehistoric oracle. Even in Roman times, hundreds of votive statues remained, described by Pliny the Younger, additionally, according to Plutarchs essay on the meaning of the E at Delphi—the only literary source for the inscription—there was also inscribed at the temple a large letter E
2.
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
3.
Priest
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A priest or priestess, is a person authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites, in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of and their office or position is the priesthood, a term which also may apply to such persons collectively. The necessity to read sacred texts and keep temple or church records helped foster literacy in early societies. Priests exist in many religions today, such as all or some branches of Judaism, Christianity, the question of which religions have a priest depends on how the titles of leaders are used or translated into English. In some cases, leaders are more like those that other believers will often turn to for advice on spiritual matters, for example, clergy in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy are priests, but in Protestant Christianity they are typically minister and pastor. The terms priest and priestess are sufficiently generic that they may be used in a sense to describe the religious mediators of an unknown or otherwise unspecified religion. In many religions, being a priest or priestess is a full-time position, many Christian priests and pastors choose or are mandated to dedicate themselves to their churches and receive their living directly from their churches. In other cases it is a part-time role, for example, in the early history of Iceland the chieftains were titled goði, a word meaning priest. In some religions, being a priest or priestess is by election or human choice. In Judaism the priesthood is inherited in familial lines, in a theocracy, a society is governed by its priesthood. The word priest, is derived from Greek, via Latin presbyter. Old High German also has the disyllabic priester, priestar, apparently derived from Latin independently via Old French presbtre, the Latin presbyter ultimately represents Greek presbyteros, the regular Latin word for priest being sacerdos, corresponding to Greek hiereus. That English should have only the term priest to translate presbyter. The feminine English noun, priestess, was coined in the 17th century, in the 20th century, the word was used in controversies surrounding the ordination of women. In the case of the ordination of women in the Anglican communion, it is common to speak of priests. In historical polytheism, a priest administers the sacrifice to a deity, in the Ancient Near East, the priesthood also acted on behalf of the deities in managing their property. Priestesses in antiquity often performed sacred prostitution, and in Ancient Greece, some such as Pythia, priestess at Delphi. Sumerian and Akkadian Entu or EN were top-ranking priestesses who were distinguished with special ceremonial attire and they owned property, transacted business, and initiated the hieros gamos ceremony with priests and kings
4.
Pythia
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The Pythia, was the name of the High Priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi who also served as the oracle, commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi. The name Pythia is derived from Pytho, which in myth was the name of Delphi. Pythia was the House of Snakes, the Pythia was established at the latest in the 8th century BC, and was widely credited for her prophecies inspired by being filled by the spirit of the god, in this case Apollo. The Pythian priestess emerged pre-eminent by the end of 7th century BC, during this period the Delphic Oracle was the most prestigious and authoritative oracle among the Greeks, and she was without doubt the most powerful woman of the classical world. The oracle is one of the religious institutions of the classical Greeks. Nevertheless, details of how the Pythia operated are missing as authors from the classical period treat the process as common knowledge with no need to explain and those who discussed the oracle in any detail are from 1st century BC to 4th century AD and give conflicting stories. Herodotus, writing in the fifth century BC describes the Pythia speaking in dactylic hexameters, the 8th-century reformulation of the Oracle at Delphi as a shrine to Apollo seems associated with the rise in importance of the city of Corinth and the importance of sites in the Corinthian Gulf. The earliest account of the origin of the Delphic oracle is provided in the Homeric Hymn to Delphic Apollo, which recent scholarship dates within a narrow range, c. It describes in detail how Apollo chose his first priests, whom he selected in their swift ship, but Apollo, who had Delphinios as one of his cult epithets, leapt into the ship in the form of a dolphin. Dolphin-Apollo revealed himself to the terrified Cretans, and bade them follow him up to the place where you will have rich offerings. The Cretans danced in time and followed, singing Iē Paiēon, paean seems to have been the name by which Apollo was known in Mycenaean times. G. L. Huxley observes, If the hymn to Apollo conveys a historical message, an early visitor to these dells of Parnassus, at the end of the eighth century, was Hesiod, who was shown the omphalos. There are also many stories of the origins of the Delphic Oracle. On entering the chasm, he found himself filled with a presence and could see outside of the present into the past. Excited by his discovery he shared it with nearby villagers, many started visiting the site to experience the convulsions and inspirational trances, though some were said to disappear into the cleft due to their frenzied state. A shrine was erected at the site, where people began worshiping in the late Bronze Age, after the deaths of a number of men, the villagers chose a single young woman as the liaison for the divine inspirations. Eventually she spoke on behalf of gods, according to earlier myths, the office of the oracle was initially possessed by the goddesses Themis and Phoebe, and the site was initially sacred to Gaia. Subsequently, it was believed to be sacred to Poseidon, the Earth-shaker god of earthquakes, apparently Poseidon was mollified by the gift of a new site in Troizen
5.
Red-figure pottery
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Red-figure vase painting is one of the most important styles of figural Greek vase painting. It developed in Athens around 520 BC and remained in use until the late 3rd century BC and it replaced the previously dominant style of black-figure vase painting within a few decades. Its modern name is based on the depictions in red colour on a black background. The most important areas of production, apart from Attica, were in Southern Italy, the style was also adopted in other parts of Greece. Etruria became an important centre of production outside the Greek World, Attic red-figure vases were exported throughout Greece and beyond. For a long time, they dominated the market for fine ceramics, only few centres of pottery production could compete with Athens in terms of innovation, quality and production capacity. Of the red figure vases produced in Athens alone, more than 40,000 specimens, from the second most important production centre, Southern Italy, more than 20,000 vases and fragments are preserved. Starting with the studies by John D. Beazley and Arthur Dale Trendall, some vases can be ascribed to individual artists or schools. The images provide evidence for the exploration of Greek cultural history, everyday life, iconography, red figure is, put simply, the reverse of the black figure technique. Both were achieved by using the three-phase firing technique, the paintings were applied to the shaped but unfired vessels after they had dried to a leathery, near-brittle texture. In Attica, the normal unburnt clay was of orange colour at this stage, the outlines of the intended figures were drawn either with a blunt scraper, leaving a slight groove, or with charcoal, which would disappear entirely during firing. Then the contours were redrawn with a brush, using a clay slip. Occasionally, the decided to somewhat change the figural scene. In such cases the grooves from the original sketch sometimes remain visible, important contours were often drawn with a thicker slip, leading to a slightly protruding outline, less important lines and internal details were drawn with diluted glossy clay. Detail in other colours, like white or red, were applied at this point, the relief line was probably drawn with a bristle brush or a hair, dipped in thick paint. The suggestion of a hollow needle seems somewhat unlikely, the application of relief outlines was necessary, as the rather liquid glossy clay would otherwise have turned out too dull. After the techniques initial phase of development, both alternatives were used, so as to differentiate gradations and details more clearly, the space between figures was filled with a glossy grey clay slip. Then, the vases underwent triple-phase firing, during which the glossy clay reached its characteristic black or black-brown colour through reduction, the new technique had the primary advantage of permitting a far better execution of internal detail
6.
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
7.
Clytemnestra
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Clytemnestra was the wife of Agamemnon and queen of Mycenae in ancient Greek legend. Her Greek name Klytaimnḗstra is also sometimes latinized as Clytaemnestra and it is commonly glossed as famed for her suitors. However, this form is a later misreading motivated by an erroneous etymological connection to the verb mnáomai, the original name form is believed to have been Klytaimḗstra without the -n-. The present form of the name does not appear before the middle Byzantine period, Aeschylus, in certain wordplays on her name, appears to assume an etymological link with the verb mḗdomai. Clytemnestra was the daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, the King, according to the myth, Zeus appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, seducing and impregnating her. Leda produced four offspring from two eggs, Castor and Clytemnestra from one egg, and Helen and Polydeuces from the other, therefore, Castor and Clytemnestra were fathered by Tyndareus, whereas Helen and Polydeuces were fathered by Zeus. Agamemnon and his brother Menelaus were in exile at the home of Tyndareus, in due time Agamemnon married Clytemnestra and Menelaus married Helen. In a late variation, Euripidess Iphigenia at Aulis, Clytemnestras first husband was Tantalus, King of Pisa, Agamemnon kills him and his infant son, in another version, her first husband was King of Lydia. The kings of Lydia, according to Plutarchs The Greek Questions,45, having succeeded Omphale who had received from Herakles Hippolytes axe, after Helen went from Sparta to Troy, her husband, Menelaus, asked his brother Agamemnon for help. However, consistently weak winds prevented the fleet from sailing, through a subplot involving the gods and omens, the priest Calchas said the winds would be favorable if Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. Agamemnon persuaded Clytemnestra to send Iphigenia to him, telling her he was going to marry her to Achilles, when Iphigenia arrived at Aulis, she was sacrificed, the winds turned, and the troops set sail for Troy. The Trojan War lasted ten years, during this period of Agamemnons long absence, Clytemnestra began a love affair with Aegisthus, her husbands cousin. Whether Clytemnestra was seduced into the affair or entered into it independently differs according to the author of the myth. Nevertheless, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus began plotting Agamemnons demise, Clytemnestra was enraged by Iphigenias murder. Aegisthus saw his father Thyestes betrayed by Agamemnons father Atreus, in old versions of the story, on returning from Troy, Agamemnon is murdered by Aegisthus, the lover of his wife, Clytemnestra. In some later versions Clytemnestra helps him or does the killing herself in his own home, Clytemnestra waited until he was in the bath, and then entangled him in a cloth net and stabbed him. Trapped in the web, Agamemnon could neither escape nor resist his murderer, meanwhile, Cassandra saw a vision of herself and Agamemnon being murdered. Her attempts to elicit help failed and she realized she was fated to die, and resolutely walked into the palace to receive her death
8.
Theatre of ancient Greece
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The ancient Greek drama, is a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from c.700 BC. Tragedy, comedy, and the play were the three dramatic genres to emerge there. Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote a cultural identity. The word τραγῳδία, from which the tragedy is derived, is a compound of two Greek words, τράγος or goat and ᾠδή meaning song, from ἀείδειν, to sing. This etymology indicates a link with the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults and it is impossible, however, to know with certainty how these fertility rituals became the basis for tragedy and comedy. The classical Greeks valued the power of word, and it was their main method of communication. Bahn and Bahn write, To Greeks the spoken word was a living thing, socrates himself believed that once something was written down, it lost its ability for change and growth. For these reasons, among others, oral storytelling flourished in Greece. Greek tragedy as we know it was created in Athens around the time of 532 BC, being a winner of the first theatrical contest held in Athens, he was the exarchon, or leader, of the dithyrambs performed in and around Attica, especially at the rural Dionysia. By Thespis time, the dithyramb had evolved far away from its cult roots, under the influence of heroic epic, Doric choral lyric and the innovations of the poet Arion, it had become a narrative, ballad-like genre. Thus, Thespiss true contribution to drama is unclear at best, the dramatic performances were important to the Athenians – this is made clear by the creation of a tragedy competition and festival in the City Dionysia. This was organized possibly to foster loyalty among the tribes of Attica, the festival was created roughly around 508 BC. While no drama texts exist from the sixth century BC, we do know the names of three competitors besides Thespis, Choerilus, Pratinas, and Phrynichus, each is credited with different innovations in the field. He won his first competition between 511 BC and 508 BC and he produced tragedies on themes and subjects later exploited in the golden age such as the Danaids, Phoenician Women and Alcestis. He was the first poet we know of to use a historical subject – his Fall of Miletus, produced in 493-2 and he is also thought to be the first to use female characters. This century is regarded as the Golden Age of Greek drama. The centre-piece of the annual Dionysia, which took place once in winter, each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play. Beginning in a first competition in 486 BC each playwright submitted a comedy, aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, and that Sophocles introduced the third
9.
Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
10.
Atreus
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In Greek mythology, Atreus was a king of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. Collectively, his descendants are known as Atreidai or Atreidae, Atreus and his twin brother Thyestes were exiled by their father for murdering their half-brother Chrysippus in their desire for the throne of Olympia. They took refuge in Mycenae, where they ascended to the throne in the absence of King Eurystheus, Eurystheus had meant for their stewardship to be temporary, but it became permanent after his death in battle. According to most ancient sources, Atreus was the father of Pleisthenes, the word Atreides refers to one of the sons of Atreus—Agamemnon and Menelaus. The plural form Atreidae or Atreidai refers to both sons collectively, in English, the form Atreides is often used and this term is sometimes used for more distant descendants of Atreus. The House of Atreus begins with Tantalus, Tantalus was a son of Zeus who enjoyed cordial relations with the gods until he decided to slay his son Pelops and feed him to the gods as a test of their omniscience. But Demeter, who was distracted due to the abduction by Hades of her daughter Persephone, the gods threw Tantalus into the underworld, where he spends eternity standing in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reaches for the fruit, the branches raise his intended meal from his grasp, whenever he bends down to get a drink, the water recedes before he can drink. Thus is derived the word tantalising, the gods brought Pelops back to life, replacing the bone in his shoulder with a bit of ivory, thus marking the family forever afterwards. Pelops married Hippodamia after winning a race against her father, King Oenomaus, by arranging for the sabotage of his would-be-father-in-laws chariot. The versions of the story differ, as Myrtilus died, he cursed Pelops and his line, further adding to the houses curse. Pelops and Hippodamia had many sons, two of them were Atreus and Thyestes, depending on myth versions, they murdered Chrysippus, who was their half-brother. Because of the murder, Hippodamia, Atreus, and Thyestes were banished to Mycenae, Atreus vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to Artemis. Upon searching his flock, however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope and she gave it to Thyestes, her lover and Atreus brother, who then convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Thyestes produced the lamb and claimed the throne, Atreus retook the throne using advice he received from Hermes. Thyestes agreed to give the back when the sun moved backwards in the sky. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes, Atreus then learned of Thyestes and Aeropes adultery and plotted revenge. He killed Thyestes sons and cooked them, save their hands and he tricked Thyestes into eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet
11.
Tantalus
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Tantalus was a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his eternal punishment in Tartarus. He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp. He was the father of Pelops, Niobe and Broteas, and was a son of Zeus, thus, like other heroes in Greek mythology such as Theseus and the Dioskouroi, Tantalus had both a hidden, divine parent and a mortal one. Plato in the Cratylus interprets Tantalos as ταλάντατος talantatos, who has to much from τάλας talas wretched. R. S. P. Beekes has rejected an Indo-European interpretation, there may have been a historical Tantalus – possibly the ruler of an Anatolian city named Tantalís, the city of Tantalus, or of a city named Sipylus. Pausanias reports that there was a port under his name and a sepulchre of him by no means obscure, references to his son as Pelops the Lydian led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be good grounds for believing that he belonged to a primordial house of Lydia. Other versions name his father as Tmolus, the name of a king of Lydia and, like Sipylus, the location of Tantalus mortal mountain-fathers generally placed him in Lydia, and more seldom in Phrygia or Paphlagonia, all in Asia Minor. Tantalus, through Pelops, was the progenitor of the House of Atreus, Tantalus was also the great-grandfather of Agamemnon and Menelaus. The geographer Strabo, quoting earlier sources, states that the wealth of Tantalus was derived from the mines of Phrygia, near Mount Sipylus are archaeological features that have been associated with Tantalus and his house since Antiquity. A more famous monument, a statue carved in rock mentioned by Pausanias is a statue of Cybele. Further afield, based on a similarity between the names Tantalus and Hantili, it has suggested that the name Tantalus may have derived from that of these two Hittite kings. In mythology, Tantalus became one of the inhabitants of Tartarus, the association of Tantalus with the underworld is underscored by the names of his mother Plouto, and grandmother, Chthonia. Tantalus was initially known for having been welcomed to Zeus table in Olympus, there he is said to have misbehaved and stolen ambrosia and nectar to bring it back to his people, and revealed the secrets of the gods. Most famously, Tantalus offered up his son, Pelops, as a sacrifice and he cut Pelops up, boiled him, and served him up in a banquet for the gods. Clotho, one of the three Fates, ordered by Zeus, brought the boy to life again, rebuilding his shoulder with one wrought of ivory made by Hephaestus, the revived Pelops grew to be an extraordinarily handsome youth. The god Poseidon took him to Mount Olympus to teach him to use chariots, later, Zeus threw Pelops out of Olympus due to his anger at Tantalus. The Greeks of classical times claimed to be horrified by Tantaluss doings, cannibalism and kinslaying were atrocities, Tantaluss punishment for his act, now a proverbial term for temptation without satisfaction, was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp, whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any
12.
Niobe
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In Greek mythology, Niobe was a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione, the most frequently cited, or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa, and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in todays Aegean Turkey that was called Tantalis or the city of Tantalus, or Sipylus. The city was located at the foot of Mount Sipylus and its ruins were reported to be visible in the beginning of the 1st century AD. Pliny reports that Tantalis was destroyed by an earthquake and the city of Sipylus was built in its place. References to his son and Niobes brother as Pelops the Lydian led some scholars to the conclusion that there would be grounds for believing that she belonged to a primordial house of Lydia. Once the gods interred them, she retreated to her native Sipylus, where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and although being a stone, she broods over the sorrows sent from the Gods. Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated. Niobe boasted of her fourteen children, seven male and seven female, the number varies in different sources. Her attire was splendid with gold and gems, and her face as beautiful as the face of a woman can be. She stood and surveyed the people with haughty looks, what folly, said she, is this. To prefer beings whom you never saw to those who stand before your eyes, why should Latona be honored with worship rather than I. My father was Tantalus, who was received as a guest at the table of the gods and my husband built and rules this city, Thebes, and Phrygia is my paternal inheritance. Wherever I turn my eyes I survey the elements of my power, nor is my form, to all this let me add, I have seven sons and seven daughters, and look for sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of pretensions worthy of my alliance. Have I not cause for pride, will you prefer to me this Latona, the Titans daughter, with her two children. I have seven times as many, fortunate indeed am I, and fortunate I shall remain. Using arrows, Artemis killed Niobes daughters and Apollo killed Niobes sons, according to some versions, at least one Niobid was spared. Their father, Amphion, at the sight of his dead sons, devastated, Niobe fled back to Mount Sipylus and was turned into stone, and, as she wept unceasingly, waters started to pour from her petrified complexion. Mount Sipylus indeed has a rock formation which resembles a female face
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This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Orestes". Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 253–254.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
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