1.
Milos
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Milos or Melos is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group, the island is famous for the statue of Aphrodite, and also for statues of the Greek god Asclepius, the Poseidon and an archaic Apollo in Athens. Milos is a popular tourist destination during the summer, the Municipality of Milos also includes the uninhabited offshore islands of Antimilos and Akradies. The combined land area is 160.147 square kilometres and the 2011 census population was 4,977 inhabitants, obsidian from Milos was a commodity as early as 15,000 years ago. The mining of obsidian did not lead to the development of permanent habitation or manufacturing on the island, instead, those in search of obsidian arrived by boat, beaching it in a suitable cove and cutting pieces of the volcanic glass from the quarries. The position of Milos, between mainland Greece and Crete, and its possession of obsidian, made it an important centre of early Aegean civilisation, Milos lost its arms-making importance when bronze became the preferred material for the manufacture of weapons. The first settlement at Phylakopi arose in the Bronze Age, flourishing as the extraction of obsidian was in the decline, the first settlers were tuna fishermen. The famous fresco of the fish was found in the ruins of the Pillar room and was executed with delicate colouring. Stylistic similarities to Minoan frescoes are suggested, and it could perhaps have been the work of a Cretan artist, part of the site has been washed away by the sea. The antiquities found at the site covered three major periods, from the Early Cycladic period to the Mycenaean period, at the site much pottery was excavated, with several changing styles and influences over the sites long occupation. In the early occupation of the site, there are similarities and imports from other Cycladic islands. The quantities found at the Cycladic sites have taken to suggest a Minoan control over the region. At Phylakopi a Megaron structure, which is associated with the Mycenaean palaces, such as those at Tiryns, Pylos. This has been taken to suggest that the Mycenaeans conquered the settlement, the evidence is not clear, though again it could be a legacy of the islanders adopting foreign elements into their culture. Particularly unexpected was the discovery in the 1970s of a shrine at the site, the shrine is unprecedented in the Bronze Age Cyclades and has provided a valuable insight ito the beliefs and rituals of the inhabitants of Phylakopi. The site was abandoned and was never reoccupied. The first Dorian settlement on Melos was established no earlier than the 1st millennium BC, dorians are the ethnic group to which the Spartans belonged, but the Dorian settlers of Melos made themselves independent. They eventually established a city whose site lies on the shore of the bay
2.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
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The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world, the first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museums curator, during World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the designs of Patroklos Karantinos. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures, the building has undergone many expansions. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum more than 1.5 years to complete. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005, on May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. The museums collections are organised in sections, The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era, Early and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia, Attica, some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist, of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull
3.
Mount Olympus
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Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece. It is located in the Olympus Range on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia, between the units of Pieria and Larissa, about 80 km southwest from Thessaloniki. Mount Olympus has 52 peaks, deep gorges, and exceptional biodiversity, the highest peak Mytikas, meaning nose, rises to 2,918 metres. It is one of the highest peaks in Europe in terms of topographic prominence, Olympus was notable in Greek mythology as the home of the Greek gods, on the Mytikas peak. Mount Olympus is also noted for its rich flora with several species. It has been a National Park, the first in Greece, since 1938 and it is also a Worlds Biosphere Reserve. Every year thousands of people visit Olympus to admire its fauna and flora, to tour its slopes, organized mountain refuges and various mountaineering and climbing routes are available to visitors who want to explore it. The usual starting point is the town of Litochoro, on the foothills of the mountain,100 km from Thessaloniki, where, in the beginning of every summer. The shape of Olympus was formed by rain and wind, which produced an isolated tower almost 3,000 metres above the sea, Olympus has many peaks and an almost circular shape. The mountain has a circumference of 150 kilometres, a diameter of 26 kilometres. To the northwest lies the Vlach village of Kokkinoplou, the Makryrema stream separates Olympus from the massif of Voulgara. The villages Petra, Vrontou and Dion lie to the northwest, while on the side there is the town of Litochoro. On its southeastern side, the Ziliana gorge divides Mount Olympus from Kato Olympos, while on its foothills, there are the villages Sykaminea. The Aghias Triadas Sparmou Monastery and the village Pythion lie to the west, Olympus dry foothills are known as the Xirokampi, containing chaparral and small animals. Further east, the plain of Dion is fertile and watered by the streams originate on Olympus. Mount Olympus is formed of rock laid down 200 million years ago in a shallow sea. Various geological events that caused the emergence of the whole region. Around one million years ago glaciers covered Olympus and created its plateaus, the complicated geological past of the region is obvious on the morphology of Olympus and its National Park
4.
Trident of Poseidon
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The trident of Poseidon and his Roman equivalent, Neptune, has been their traditional divine attribute featured in many ancient depictions. In Hesiods account, Poseidons trident was crafted by the three Cyclopes, in another view shared by Friedrich Wieseler, E. M. W. Tillyard and several other researchers, Poseidons trident is a fish spear, typical for coast-dwelling Greeks. In that sense it resembles the arrow-headed pronged fork, used by the Mediterranean fishermen to catch eels, Poseidon became particularly worshipped in coastal countries, where fish formed a basic commodity of trade. According to competing proposal by H. B, walters, Poseidons trident is derived from Zeus lotus sceptre, with Poseidon being Zeus in his marine aspect. In Greek myths, Poseidon wields his trident on a number of occasions, during the contest with Athena over the possession of Attica Poseidon strikes the Acropolis with the trident to produce a well of seawater. In a similar myth Poseidon strikes the ground with trident to produce a horse for mankind, the oldest coins of Poseidonia from the 6th century BC depict trident wielded by Poseidon in his right hand, similar to Zeuss thunderbolt. An Attic red figure kylix from c. 475 BC depicts Poseidon killing the Giant Polybotes with his trident, in another myth, Poseidon creates a spring or springs with the strike of his trident to reward Amymone for her encounter with him. In a version of another myth Poseidon wields his trident to scare off a satyr who tries to rape Amymone after she hits him with a hunting spear. There is also a myth where Poseidon touches the island of Delos with his trident, another myth tells how Poseidon, enraged by sacrilegious behavior of Ajax the Lesser, splits with trident the rock to which Ajax was clinging. According to the second and third Vatican Mythographer, Neptunes trident symbolizes the three properties of water, liquidity, fecundity and drinkability, a series of American fleet ballistic missiles Trident is named after Neptunes trident, as well as Operation Neptune Spear. The personification of Great Britain, Britannia is depicted with the trident of Poseidon as a symbol of naval power, the logo of car manufacturer Maserati is based on the trident from the statue of Neptune in Bologna. The trident of Poseidon is an artifact with destructive powers in Michael Livingstons 2015 historical fantasy novel The Shards of Heaven
5.
Amphitrite
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In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite was a sea goddess and wife of Poseidon. Under the influence of the Olympian pantheon, she merely the consort of Poseidon and was further diminished by poets to a symbolic representation of the sea. In Roman mythology, the consort of Neptune, a minor figure, was Salacia. Others called her the personification of the sea itself, Amphitrites offspring included seals and dolphins. Poseidon and Amphitrite had a son, Triton who was a merman, bibliotheca also mentions a daughter of Poseidon and Amphitrite named Benthesikyme. Amphitrite is not fully personified in the Homeric epics, out on the sea, in Amphitrites breakers. She shares her Homeric epithet Halosydne with Thetis in some sense the sea-nymphs are doublets, jane Ellen Harrison recognized in the poetic treatment an authentic echo of Amphitrites early importance, It would have been much simpler for Poseidon to recognize his own son. Even so late as the Iliad Amphitrite is not yet Neptuni uxor, an exception may be the cult image of Amphitrite that Pausanias saw in the temple of Poseidon at the Isthmus of Corinth. Pindar, in his sixth Olympian Ode, recognized Poseidons role as god of the sea, husband of Amphitrite. For later poets, Amphitrite became simply a metaphor for the sea, Euripides, in Cyclops and Ovid, eustathius said that Poseidon first saw her dancing at Naxos among the other Nereids, and carried her off. In the arts of vase-painting and mosaic, Amphitrite was distinguishable from the other Nereids only by her queenly attributes and she is dressed in queenly robes and has nets in her hair. The pincers of a crab are sometimes attached to her temples. Amphitrite is the name of a genus of the worm family Terebellidae, in poetry, Amphitrites name is often used for the sea, as a synonym of Thalassa. Seven ships of the Royal Navy were named HMS Amphitrite, including Amphitrite, at least one ship of the Royal Netherlands Navy was named HM Amphitrite. Three ships of the United States Navy were named USS Amphitrite, an asteroid,29 Amphitrite, is named for her. The figure of Amphitrite plays a role in the 1918 Spanish novel Mare Nostrum by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez and its 1926 film adaptation. In 1936 Australia used an image of Amphitrite on a stamp as a classical allusion for the submarine communications cable across Bass Strait from Apollo Bay, Victoria to Stanley. The name of the former Greek Royal Yacht, Amphitrite Pool, a shallow ceremonial pool on the grounds of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, New York contains a statue of Amphitrite
6.
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
7.
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,
8.
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
9.
Theseus
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Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus, or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order. As Heracles was the Dorian hero, Theseus was a hero, considered by Athenians as their own great reformer, his name comes from the same root as θεσμός. The myths surrounding Theseus—his journeys, exploits, and family—have provided material for fiction throughout the ages, Theseus was responsible for the synoikismos —the political unification of Attica under Athens, represented emblematically in his journey of labours, subduing ogres and monstrous beasts. Because he was the king, Theseus built and occupied a palace on the fortress of the Acropolis that may have been similar to the palace that was excavated in Mycenae. Pausanias reports that after the synoikismos, Theseus established a cult of Aphrodite Pandemos, Plutarchs vita of Theseus makes use of varying accounts of the death of the Minotaur, Theseus escape, and the love of Ariadne for Theseus. Plutarchs sources, not all of whose texts have survived independently, included Pherecydes, Demon, Philochorus, Aegeus, one of the primordial kings of Athens, was childless. Desiring an heir, he asked the oracle at Delphi for advice and her cryptic words were Do not loosen the bulging mouth of the wineskin until you have reached the height of Athens, lest you die of grief. Aegeus did not understand the prophecy and was disappointed and he asked the advice of his host Pittheus, king of Troezen. Pittheus understood the prophecy, got Aegeus drunk, and gave Aegeus his daughter Aethra, but following the instructions of Athena in a dream, Aethra left the sleeping Aegeus and waded across to the island of Sphairia that lay close to Troezens shore. There she poured a libation to Sphairos and Poseidon, and was possessed by the sea god in the night. The mix gave Theseus a combination of divine as well as mortal characteristics in his nature, such double paternity, with one immortal, after Aethra became pregnant, Aegeus decided to return to Athens. In Athens, Aegeus was joined by Medea, who had left Corinth after slaughtering the children she had borne, priestess and consort together represented the old order in Athens. Thus Theseus was raised in his mothers land, when Theseus grew up and became a brave young man, he moved the rock and recovered his fathers tokens. His mother then told him the truth about his fathers identity, young, brave, and ambitious, Theseus decided to go alone by the land route and defeated a great many bandits along the way. At the Isthmian entrance to the Underworld was a robber named Sinis and he would capture travelers, tie them between two pine trees that were bent down to the ground, and then let the trees go, tearing his victims apart. Theseus killed him by his own method and he then became intimate with Siniss daughter, Perigune, fathering the child Melanippus. In another deed north of the Isthmus, at a place called Crommyon, he killed an enormous pig, some versions name the sow herself as Phaea. The Bibliotheca described the Crommyonian Sow as an offspring of Typhon, near Megara, an elderly robber named Sciron forced travellers along the narrow cliff-face pathway to wash his feet
10.
Triton (mythology)
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Triton is a mythological Greek god, the messenger of the sea. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite, god and goddess of the sea respectively and he is usually represented as a merman where he has the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, sea-hued, according to Ovid his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells. Like his father, Poseidon, he carried a trident, however, Tritons special attribute was a twisted conch shell, on which he blew like a trumpet to calm or raise the waves. Its sound was such a cacophony, that when blown, it put the giants to flight. According to Hesiods Theogony, Triton dwelt with his parents in a palace in the depths of the sea. The story of the Argonauts places his home on the coast of Libya, when the Argonauts were lost in the desert, he guided them to find the passage from the river back to the sea. Triton was the father of Pallas and foster parent to the goddess Athena, Pallas was killed by Athena accidentally during a sparring fight between the two goddesses. Triton can sometimes be multiplied into a host of Tritones, daimones of the sea, in the Virgils Aeneid, book 6, it is told that Triton killed Misenus, son of Aeolus, by drowning him after he challenged the gods to play as well as he did. Over time, Tritons class and image came to be associated with a class of creatures, the Tritons, which could be male or female. Tritons were a race of sea gods and goddesses born from Triton, Triton lived with his parents, Poseidon and Amphitrite, who was also known as Celaeno, in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. According to Homer it was called Aegae, unlike their ancestor Poseidon who is always fully anthropomorphic in ancient art, Tritons lower half is that of a fish, while the top half is presented in a human figure. This is debated often because their appearance is described throughout history. Ordinary Tritons were described in detail by the traveller Pausanias, the Tritons have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in color, the rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as is the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a nose, but the mouth is broader. Their eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, fingers, under the breast and belly is a tail like a dolphins instead of feet. They are often compared to other Merman/Mermaid like beings, such as Merrows, Selkies and they are also thought of as the aquatic versions of Satyrs. Another description of Tritons is that of the Centaur-Tritons, also known as Ichthyocentaurs who are depicted with two feet in place of arms
11.
Polyphemus
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Polyphemus is the giant son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes described in the Odyssey. His name means abounding in songs and legends, Polyphemus first appears as a savage man-eating giant in the ninth book of Homers Odyssey. Some later Classical writers link his name with the nymph Galatea, in Homers epic, Odysseus lands on the island of the Cyclops during his journey home from the Trojan War and, together with some of his men, enters a cave filled with provisions. When the giant Polyphemus returns home with his flocks, he blocks the entrance with a stone and, scoffing at the usual custom of hospitality. Next morning, the giant kills and eats two more and leaves the cave to graze his sheep, after the giant returns in the evening and eats two more of the men, Odysseus offers Polyphemus some strong and undiluted wine given to him earlier on his journey. Drunk and unwary, the giant asks Odysseus his name, promising him a guest-gift if he answers, Odysseus tells him Οὖτις, which means nobody and Polyphemus promises to eat this Nobody last of all. With that, he falls into a drunken sleep, Odysseus had meanwhile hardened a wooden stake in the fire and now drives it into Polyphemus eye. When Polyphemus shouts for help from his fellow giants, saying that Nobody has hurt him, they think Polyphemus is being afflicted by divine power and recommend prayer as the answer. In the morning, the blind Cyclops lets the sheep out to graze, however, Odysseus and his men have tied themselves to the undersides of the animals and so get away. As he sails off with his men, Odysseus boastfully reveals his real name, Polyphemus prays to his father, Poseidon, for revenge and casts huge rocks towards the ship, which Odysseus barely escapes. The story reappears in later Classical literature, in his Latin epic, Virgil describes how Aeneas observes Polyphemus as he leads his flocks down to the sea. They have encountered Achaemenides, who re-tells the story of how Odysseus and his men escaped, the giant is described as descending to the shore, using a “lopped pine tree” as a walking staff. Once Polyphemus reaches the sea, he washes his oozing eye socket, Achaemenides is taken aboard Aeneas’ vessel and they cast off with Polyphemus in chase. His great roar of frustration brings the rest of the Cyclopes down to the shore as Aeneas draws away in fear, julien dHuy speculates that the myth may be palaeolithic. Elements of the story of Odysseus and Polyphemus are recognizable in the folklore of many other European groups, Wilhelm Grimm collected versions in Serbian, Romanian, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, and German. Versions in Basque, Lappish, Lithuanian, Gascon, Syrian, one such episode, on a vase featuring the hero carried beneath a sheep, was used on a 27 drachma Greek postage stamp in 1983. The blinding was depicted in sculpture, including a giant Polyphemus. This may be an interpretation of a composition, and was apparently repeated in variations in later Imperial palaces by Claudius, Nero
12.
Orion (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Orion was a giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion. Ancient sources tell different stories about Orion, there are two major versions of his birth and several versions of his death. Most ancient sources omit some of episodes and several tell only one. These various incidents may originally have been independent, unrelated stories, in Greek literature he first appears as a great hunter in Homers epic the Odyssey, where Odysseus sees his shade in the underworld. The surviving fragments of legend have provided a field for speculation about Greek prehistory. Orion served several roles in ancient Greek culture, in Homers Iliad Orion is described as a constellation, and the star Sirius is mentioned as his dog. In the Works and Days of Hesiod, Orion is also a constellation, the legend of Orion was first told in full in a lost work by Hesiod, probably the Astronomia, simple references to Hesiod will refer to this, unless otherwise stated. This version is known through the work of a Hellenistic author on the constellations, according to this version, Orion was likely the son of the sea-god Poseidon and Euryale, daughter of Minos, King of Crete. Orion could walk on the waves because of his father, he walked to the island of Chios where he got drunk and attacked Merope, daughter of Oenopion, in vengeance, Oenopion blinded Orion and drove him away. Orion stumbled to Lemnos where Hephaestus — the lame smith-god — had his forge, Hephaestus told his servant, Cedalion, to guide Orion to the uttermost East where Helios, the Sun, healed him, Orion carried Cedalion around on his shoulders. Orion returned to Chios to punish Oenopion, but the king hid away underground, Orions next journey took him to Crete where he hunted with the goddess Artemis and her mother Leto, and in the course of the hunt, threatened to kill every beast on Earth. Mother Earth objected and sent a giant scorpion to kill Orion, the creature succeeded, and after his death, the goddesses asked Zeus to place Orion among the constellations. Zeus consented and, as a memorial to the heros death, although Orion has a few lines in both Homeric poems and in the Works and Days, most of the stories about him are recorded in incidental allusions and in fairly obscure later writings. No great poet standardized the legend, the margin of the Empress Eudocias copy of the Iliad has a note summarizing a Hellenistic poet who tells a different story of Orions birth. Here the gods Zeus, Hermes and Poseidon come to visit Hyrieus of Tanagra, when they offer him a favor, he asks for the birth of sons. The gods take the hide and ejaculate or urinate into it and bury it in the earth. When he does, he finds Orion, this explains why Orion is earthborn, a second full telling is in a Roman-era collection of myths, the account of Orion is based largely on the mythologist and poet Pherecydes of Leros. Here Orion is described as earthborn and enormous in stature and this version also mentions Poseidon and Euryale as his parents
13.
Atlantis
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In the story, Athens repels the Atlantean attack unlike any other nation of the known world, supposedly giving testament to the superiority of Platos concept of a state. At the end of the story, Atlantis eventually falls out of favor with the gods, despite its minor importance in Platos work, the Atlantis story has had a considerable impact on literature. The allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up in works of several Renaissance writers, such as Francis Bacons New Atlantis. On the other hand, 19th-century amateur scholars misinterpreted Platos account as historical tradition, most notably in Ignatius L. Donnellys Atlantis, The Antediluvian World. As a consequence, Atlantis has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations and continues to inspire contemporary fiction, while present-day philologists and historians accept the storys fictional character, there is still debate on what served as its inspiration. Platos dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written in 360 BC, contain the earliest references to Atlantis, for unknown reasons, Plato never completed Critias. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent. The four people appearing in those two dialogues are the politicians Critias and Hermocrates as well as the philosophers Socrates and Timaeus of Locri, in his works Plato makes extensive use of the Socratic method in order to discuss contrary positions within the context of a supposition. The Timaeus begins with an introduction, followed by an account of the creations and structure of the universe and ancient civilizations. In the introduction, Socrates muses about the society, described in Platos Republic. Critias mentions a historical tale that would make the perfect example. In his account, ancient Athens seems to represent the perfect society and Atlantis its opponent, representing the very antithesis of the perfect traits described in the Republic. According to Critias, the Hellenic gods of old divided the land so that each god might have their own lot, Poseidon was appropriately, and to his liking, bequeathed the island of Atlantis. The island was larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined, fifty stadia from the coast was a mountain that was low on all sides. Broke it off all round about, the central island itself was five stades in diameter. In Platos myth, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of Evenor and Leucippe, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made king of the entire island and the ocean, and was given the mountain of his birth. Atlass twin Gadeirus, or Eumelus in Greek, was given the extremity of the island towards the pillars of Hercules
14.
Cronus
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In Greek mythology, Cronus, or Kronos, was the leader and youngest of the first generation of Titans, the divine descendants of Uranus, the sky, and Gaia, the earth. He overthrew his father and ruled during the mythological Golden Age, until he was overthrown by his own son Zeus, Cronus was usually depicted with a harpe, scythe or a sickle, which was the instrument he used to castrate and depose Uranus, his father. Cronus was also identified in antiquity with the Roman deity Saturn. In an ancient myth recorded by Hesiods Theogony, Cronus envied the power of his father, Gaia created a great stone sickle and gathered together Cronus and his brothers to persuade them to castrate Uranus. Only Cronus was willing to do the deed, so Gaia gave him the sickle, when Uranus met with Gaia, Cronus attacked him with the sickle, castrating him and casting his testicles into the sea. From the blood spilled out from Uranus and fell upon the earth, the Gigantes, Erinyes. The testicles produced a white foam from which the goddess Aphrodite emerged, for this, Uranus threatened vengeance and called his sons Titenes for overstepping their boundaries and daring to commit such an act. After dispatching Uranus, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes and he and his sister Rhea took the throne of the world as king and queen. The period in which Cronus ruled was called the Golden Age, as the people of the time had no need for laws or rules, everyone did the right thing, and immorality was absent. Cronus learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own sons, just as he had overthrown his father. As a result, although he sired the gods Demeter, Hestia, Hera, Hades and Poseidon by Rhea, he devoured them all as soon as they were born to prevent the prophecy. When the sixth child, Zeus, was born Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to them and to eventually get retribution on Cronus for his acts against his father. Rhea secretly gave birth to Zeus in Crete, and handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, also known as the Omphalos Stone, Rhea kept Zeus hidden in a cave on Mount Ida, Crete. Still other versions of the say that Zeus was raised by his grandmother. In other versions of the tale, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the children, after freeing his siblings, Zeus released the Hecatonchires, and the Cyclopes who forged for him his thunderbolts, Poseidons trident and Hades helmet of darkness. In a vast war called the Titanomachy, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, with the help of the Hecatonchires, and Cyclopes, overthrew Cronus and the other Titans. Afterwards, many of the Titans were confined in Tartarus, however, Atlas, Epimetheus, Helios, Gaia bore the monster Typhon to claim revenge for the imprisoned Titans. Accounts of the fate of Cronus after the Titanomachy differ, in Homeric and other texts he is imprisoned with the other Titans in Tartarus
15.
Rhea (mythology)
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Rhea is the Titaness daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus, in Greek mythology and sister and wife to Cronus. In early traditions, she is known as the mother of gods and therefore is associated with Gaia and Cybele. The classical Greeks saw her as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses, the Romans identified her with Magna Mater, and the Goddess Ops. Alternatively, the name Rhea may be connected with words for the pomegranate, ῥόα, the name Rhea may ultimately derive from a pre-Greek or Minoan source. Cronus sired six children by Rhea, Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus in that order. Apart from Zeus, he swallowed all as soon as they were born, because he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that, as he had overthrown his own father, he was destined to be overcome by his own child. When Zeus was about to be born, however, Rhea sought Uranus and Gaia to devise a plan to him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, and saved him by handing Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. Her attendants, the warrior-like Curetes and Dactyls, acted as a bodyguard for the infant Zeus, Rhea had no strong local cult or identifiable activity under her control. She was originally worshiped in the island of Crete, identified in mythology as the site of Zeuss infancy and her cults employed rhythmic, raucous chants and dances, accompanied by the tympanon, to provoke a religious ecstasy. Her priests impersonated her mythical attendants, the Curetes and Dactyls, with a clashing of bronze shields, in Roman religion, her counterpart Cybele was Magna Mater deorum Idaea, who was brought to Rome and was identified in Roman mythology as an ancestral Trojan deity. On a functional level, Rhea was thought equivalent to Roman Ops or Opis, the one at Mycenae is most characteristic, with a lioness placed on either side of a pillar that symbolizes the goddess. In Homer, Rhea is the mother of the gods, although not a mother like Cybele. In the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes, the fusion of Rhea, for her temenos they wrought an image of the goddess, a xoanon, from a vine-stump. They leapt and danced in their armour, For this reason the Phrygians still worship Rhea with tambourines, the name of the bird species rhea is derived from the goddess name Rhea. The second largest moon of the planet Saturn is named after her, 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. Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library, Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T
16.
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
17.
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
18.
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
19.
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
20.
Chiron
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In Greek mythology, Chiron was held to be the superlative centaur amongst his brethren. Chiron was notable throughout Greek mythology for his youth-nurturing nature and his personal skills tend to match those of Apollo, his foster father, medicine, music, archery, hunting, prophecy. His parents were Cronus and Philyra, although a centaur, Chirons physical appearance often differs somewhat from other centaurs, demonstrating his status and heritage. This clearly sets Chiron apart from the centaurs, making him easily identifiable. This difference may also have highlighted Chirons unique lineage, being the son of Cronus, Chiron is often depicted carrying a branch with dead hares he has caught hanging from it. Chiron is also depicted wearing clothes, demonstrating he is more civilised. The Education of Achilles wall painting, from the basilica in Herculaneum, is one of the most common Roman depictions of Chiron, as he teaches Achilles the lyre. In this version we see Chiron with a fully equine lower body, in addition to this reconfiguration, Chiron’s appearance is further altered with his ears. Whereas previously human, Chiron’s ears now match those of a satyr and this rendering creates a more bestial version of Chiron, much more akin to a standard centaur. This may then, not be a reworking of the Chiron myth on the part of the Romans. It has also suggested that this fresco is a reproduction of an actual statue in the Roman forum. Like satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being wild, lusty, overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, violent when intoxicated, Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind, but he was not related directly to the other centaurs. He was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine, according to an archaic myth, he was sired by the Titan Cronus when he had taken the form of a horse and impregnated the nymph Philyra. Myths in the Olympian tradition attributed Chirons uniquely peaceful character and intelligence to Apollo, some sources speculate that Chiron was originally a Thessalian god, later subsumed into the Greek pantheon as a centaur. Chiron lived predominantly on Mount Pelion, there he married the nymph Chariclo who bore him three daughters, Hippe, Endeïs, and Ocyrhoe, and one son Carystus. A great healer, astrologer, and respected oracle, Chiron was said to be the first among centaurs and highly revered as a teacher, Dionysus was loved by Chiron, from whom he learned chants and dances, the bacchic rites and initiations. There is also a persistent link with Peleus throughout Chirons myth, Chiron saved the life of Peleus when Acastus tried to kill him by taking his sword and leaving him out in the woods to be slaughtered by the centaurs. Chiron retrieved the sword for Peleus, Chiron then explained to Peleus how to capture the nymph Thetis, leading to their marriage
21.
Neptune (mythology)
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Neptune was the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon, in the Greek-influenced tradition, Neptune was the brother of Jupiter and Pluto, the brothers presided over the realms of Heaven, the earthly world, and the Underworld. Depictions of Neptune in Roman mosaics, especially those of North Africa, are influenced by Hellenistic conventions, Neptune was likely associated with fresh water springs before the sea. Like Poseidon, Neptune was worshipped by the Romans also as a god of horses, under the name Neptunus Equester, Neptune is the creator of horses and is the god of the sea as well as the owner of a powerful weapon, the Trident. Poseidon is the greek Neptune and is one of the big three gods Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and he accidentally created horses when he had an affair with Medusa, and also created a boy who roams the seas as a pirate past the pillar of Hercules. The etymology of Latin Neptunus is unclear and disputed, the ancient grammarian Varro derived the name from nuptus i. e. covering, with a more or less explicit allusion to the nuptiae, marriage of Heaven and Earth. Among modern scholars Paul Kretschmer proposed a derivation from IE *neptu- moist substance, similarly Raymond Bloch supposed it might be an adjectival form in -no from *nuptu-, meaning he who is moist. Georges Dumézil though remarked words deriving root *nep- are not attested in IE languages other than Vedic and he proposed an etymology that brings together Neptunus with Vedic and Avestan theonyms Apam Napat, Apam Napá and Old Irish theonym Nechtan, all meaning descendant of the waters. By using the approach the Indo-Iranian, Avestan and Irish figures would show common features with the Roman historicised legends about Neptune. Dumézil thence proposed to derive the nouns from IE root *nepot-, descendant, IE root *nebh-, having the original meaning of damp, wet, has given Sanskrit nábhah, Hittite nepis, Latin nubs, nebula, German Nebel, Slavic nebo etc. The concept would be close to that expressed in the name of Greek god Όυράνος, derived from IE root *h2wórso-, to water, irrigate and *h2worsó- and this etymology would be more in accord with Varros. The district was connected to the cult of the god, Messapus and Halesus. Messapus led the Falisci and others to war in the Aeneid, nepi and Falerii have been famed since antiquity for the excellent quality of the water of their springs, scattered in meadows. Nepet is considered a hydronymic toponym of preIndoeuropean origin widespread in Europe and from an appellative meaning damp wide valley, plain, cognate with pre-Greek νάπη, such an identification may well be grounded in the strict relationship between the Latin and Greek theologies of the two deities. Servius the grammarian also explicitly states Neptune is in charge of all the rivers, springs and he also is the lord of horses because he worked with Minerva to make the chariot. He may find a parallel in Irish god Nechtan, master of the well from all the rivers of the world flow out. Poseidon on the other hand underwent the process of becoming the main god of the sea at an earlier time. For a time he was paired with Salacia, the goddess of the salt water, Neptune was also considered the legendary progenitor god of a Latin stock, the Faliscans, who called themselves Neptunia proles
22.
Specials (Unicode block)
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Specials is a short Unicode block allocated at the very end of the Basic Multilingual Plane, at U+FFF0–FFFF. Of these 16 codepoints, five are assigned as of Unicode 9, U+FFFD � REPLACEMENT CHARACTER used to replace an unknown, unrecognized or unrepresentable character U+FFFE <noncharacter-FFFE> not a character. FFFE and FFFF are not unassigned in the sense. They can be used to guess a texts encoding scheme, since any text containing these is by not a correctly encoded Unicode text. The replacement character � is a found in the Unicode standard at codepoint U+FFFD in the Specials table. It is used to indicate problems when a system is unable to render a stream of data to a correct symbol and it is usually seen when the data is invalid and does not match any character, Consider a text file containing the German word für in the ISO-8859-1 encoding. This file is now opened with an editor that assumes the input is UTF-8. The first and last byte are valid UTF-8 encodings of ASCII, therefore, a text editor could replace this byte with the replacement character symbol to produce a valid string of Unicode code points. The whole string now displays like this, f�r, a poorly implemented text editor might save the replacement in UTF-8 form, the text file data will then look like this, 0x66 0xEF 0xBF 0xBD 0x72, which will be displayed in ISO-8859-1 as f�r. Since the replacement is the same for all errors this makes it impossible to recover the original character, a better design is to preserve the original bytes, including the error, and only convert to the replacement when displaying the text. This will allow the text editor to save the original byte sequence and it has become increasingly common for software to interpret invalid UTF-8 by guessing the bytes are in another byte-based encoding such as ISO-8859-1. This allows correct display of both valid and invalid UTF-8 pasted together, Unicode control characters UTF-8 Mojibake Unicodes Specials table Decodeunicodes entry for the replacement character
23.
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
24.
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
25.
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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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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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
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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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