1.
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
2.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
3.
Homer
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Homer is the name ascribed by the ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems which are the central works of Greek literature. The Odyssey focuses on the home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca. Many accounts of Homers life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a bard from Ionia. The modern scholarly consensus is that these traditions do not have any historical value, the Homeric question - by whom, when, where and under what circumstances were the Iliad and Odyssey composed - continues to be debated. Broadly speaking, modern scholarly opinion on the authorship question falls into two camps, one group holds that most of the Iliad and the Odyssey is the work of a single poet of genius. The other considers the Homeric poems to be the crystallization of a process of working and re-working by many contributors and it is generally accepted that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century B. C. Most researchers believe that the poems were transmitted orally. The Homeric epics were the greatest influence on ancient Greek culture and education, to Plato, the chronological period of Homer depends on the meaning to be assigned to the word Homer. Was Homer a single person, an imaginary person representing a group of poets and this information is often called the world of Homer. The Homeric period would in that cover a number of historical periods, especially the Mycenaean Age. Considered word-for-word, the texts as we know them are the product of the scholars of the last three centuries. Each edition of the Iliad or Odyssey is a different, as the editors rely on different manuscripts and fragments. The term accuracy reveals a belief in an original uniform text. The manuscripts of the work currently available date to no earlier than the 10th century. These are at the end of a missing thousand-year chain of copies made as each generation of manuscripts disintegrated or were lost or destroyed and these numerous manuscripts are so similar that a single original can be postulated. The time gap in the chain is bridged by the scholia, or notes, on the existing manuscripts, librarian of the Library of Alexandria, he had noticed a wide divergence in the works attributed to Homer, and was trying to restore a more authentic copy. He had collected several manuscripts, which he named, the Sinopic, the one he selected for correction was the koine, which Murray translates as the Vulgate. Aristarchus was known for his selection of material
4.
Iliad
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The iLiad was an electronic handheld device, or e-Reader, which could be used for document reading and editing. Like the Barnes and Noble nook, Sony Reader or Amazon Kindle, in 2010, sales of the iLiad ended when its parent company, iRex, filed for bankruptcy. The display used is an active matrix display, which uses E Ink Vizplex Imaging Film manufactured by E Ink Corporation. Underneath the E Ink screen is a tablet by WACOM which requires a stylus for input. When it was introduced, the Iliad had largest screen size of existing e-paper products, the iLiad can display document files in several formats, including PDF, Mobipocket, XHTML and plain text. It can also display JPEG, BMP and PNG images, as of May 3,2007 Mobipocket is supported, making the mobipocket digital rights management content available on this platform. IRexs product page for the states that Support for additional E-book formats will become available over the coming months. Through its wireless service, iDS, the iLiad can also download content. Les Echos, a French financial newspaper, is distributed this way, users can connect to their computer over a wireless network to sync new data onto the iLiads internal memory or an inserted MMC, SD, or CF card. The distributor of the iLiad is iRex Technologies, a Philips spin-off company and it was initially advertised in December 2005, to be launched in April 2006, but was delayed until July, when it started to be sold as a beta product. It was released to the public near the end of July. Its list price in Europe is €649, and in US $699, one of the advanced features of the iLiad is the ability to add notes to existing documents. With the integrated Wacom tablet and stylus, it is possible to directly on almost any document. Using the desktop software, those notes can be merged into the original document and this provides malleability, an important feature of physical books that is missing from most ebook products, allowing users to annotate, highlight, and personalize the text. Because of its open Linux operating system, the iLiad is able to run third party applications created for it, developers and users wishing to create or run third party applications can request shell access from the manufacturer. Developers have been able to improve on the devices functionality by porting viewers such as FBReader, full screen PDF reading is made available by community-supported iPDF releases. Programs for recreation, including audio playback, sudoku, and calendars, are rapidly growing community content available for use on the iLiad, independent users have also reported successful porting of mobile web browsers to iLiads Linux platform, although with limited functionality and many bugs. IRex as a company has had a relationship with its Open Source developers
5.
Ancient Thebes (Boeotia)
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Thebes is a city in Boeotia, central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus and others. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes. Theban forces ended the power of Sparta at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC under the command of Epaminondas, the Sacred Band of Thebes famously fell at the battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC against Philip II and Alexander the Great. Prior to its destruction by Alexander in 335 BC, Thebes was a force in Greek history. During the Byzantine period, the city was famous for its silks, the modern city contains an Archaeological Museum, the remains of the Cadmea, and scattered ancient remains. Modern Thebes is the largest town of the unit of Boeotia. Thebes is situated in a plain, between Lake Yliki to the north, and the Cithaeron mountains, which divide Boeotia from Attica and its elevation is 215 metres above mean sea level. It is about 50 kilometres northwest of Athens, and 100 kilometres southeast of Lamia, motorway 1 and the Athens–Thessaloniki railway connect Thebes with Athens and northern Greece. The municipality of Thebes covers an area of 830.112 square kilometres, the unit of Thebes 321.015 square kilometres. In 2011, as a consequence of the Kallikratis reform, Thebes was merged with Plataies, Thisvi, and Vagia to form a larger municipality, the other three become units of the larger municipality. Five main cycles of story may be distinguished, The foundation of the citadel Cadmea by Cadmus, the building of a seven-gated wall by Amphion, and the cognate stories of Zethus, Antiope and Dirce. See Theban pederasty and Pederasty in ancient Greece for detailed discussion, the immolation of Semele and the advent of Dionysus. The Greeks attributed the foundation of Thebes to Cadmus, a Phoenician king from Tyre, Cadmus was famous for teaching the Phoenician alphabet and building the Acropolis, which was named the Cadmeia in his honor and was an intellectual, spiritual, and cultural center. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed cist graves dated to Mycenaean times containing weapons, ivory, *Tʰēgʷai in LHIIIB lost contact with Egypt but gained it with Miletus and Cyprus. In the late LHIIIB, according to Palaima, *Tʰēgʷai was able to pull resources from Lamos near Mount Helicon, and from Karystos and Amarynthos on the Greek side of the isle of Euboia. As a fortified community, it attracted attention from the invading Dorians, and this centralizing policy is as much the cardinal fact of Theban history as the counteracting effort of the smaller towns to resist absorption forms the main chapter of the story of Boeotia
6.
Seven Against Thebes
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Seven Against Thebes is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the Oedipodea and it concerns the battle between an Argive army led by Polynices and the army of Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the City Dionysia, the trilogys first two plays, Laius and Oedipus, as well as the satyr play Sphinx, are no longer extant. When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their inheritance by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years, after the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, leading Polynices to raise an army of Argives to take Thebes by force. This is where Aeschylus tragedy starts, dialogues show aspects of Eteocles character. There is also a description of each of the seven captains that lead the Argive army against the seven gates of the city of Thebes as well as the devices on their respective shields. Eteocles, in turn, announces which Theban commanders he will send against each Argive attacker, finally, the commander of the troops before the seventh gate is revealed to be Polynices, the brother of the king. Then Eteocles remembers and refers to the curse of their father Oedipus, Eteocles resolves to meet and fight his brother in person before the seventh gate and exits. Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that the attackers have been repelled and their bodies are brought on stage, and the chorus mourns them. Due to the popularity of Sophocles play Antigone, the ending of Seven against Thebes was rewritten about fifty years after Aeschylus death, others appear as stock figures to fill out the list, Burkert remarks. The city is saved when the brothers simultaneously run each other through, the mythic theme passed into Etruscan culture, a fifth-century bronze mirrorback is inscribed with Fulnice and Evtucle running at one another with drawn swords. The Seven Against Thebes were Adrastus Amphiaraus Capaneus Hippomedon Parthenopeus Polynices Tydeus Allies, some sources, however, state that Eteoclus and Mecisteus were in fact two of the seven, and that Tydeus and Polynices were allies. This is because both Tydeus and Polynices were foreigners, however, Polynices was the cause of the entire conflict, and Tydeus performed acts of valour far surpassing Eteoclus and Mecisteus. Either way, all nine men were present in the battle, from the nineteenth century onwards, however, it has not generally been regarded as among the tragedians major works. Translators Anthony Hecht and Helen S. Bacon wrote that the play has been accused of being static, undramatic, ritualistic, guilty of an interpolated and debased text, archaic, and in a word, boring. Lille Stesichorus, a fragment of the Theban myth by the lyric poet Stesichorus A. S. Way,1906 – verse E. D. A. Morshead,1908 – verse. The Orientalizing Revolution, Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age Seven against Thebes pp 106–14, Burkert draws parallels between Greek and Ancient Near Eastern materials
7.
Polynices
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In Greek mythology, Polynices, sometimes spelled Polyneices, /ˌpɒlᵻˈnaɪsiːz/ was the son of Oedipus and Jocasta. His father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, in the Thebaid, the brothers were cursed by their father for their disrespect towards him on two occasions. The first of these occurred when they served him using the table of Cadmus and a golden cup. The brothers then sent him the haunch of an animal, rather than the shoulder. Enraged, Oedipus prayed to Zeus that the brothers would die by each others hand, however, in Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus desired to stay in Thebes but was expelled by Creon. There are several accounts of how Eteocles and Polynices shared the rule after Oedipus departure from the city, in Hellanicus account, Eteocles offers his brother his choice of either the rule of the city or a share of the property. In Pherekydes, however, Eteocles expels Polynices by force, and keeps the rule of Thebes, the Bibliotheca and Diodorus state that the brothers agree to divide the kingship between them, switching each year. Eteocles, however, was allotted the first year, and refused to surrender the crown, while Eteocles ruled Thebes, Polynices visited first king Theseus in Athens, then king Adrastus in Argos, where he married Argea, the kings daughter, after he raped her. He enlisted Adrastus help in attacking Thebes, Polynices engendered the support of the prophet Amphiaraus by offering his wife Eriphyle the cursed necklace of Harmonia. The Seven Against Thebes then attacked Thebes, but were ultimately unsuccessful, during the attack on Thebes, Polynices and Eteocles engaged in single combat. Both brothers struck each other down, in Sophocles tragedy Antigone, Polynices story continues after his death. King Creon, who ascended to the throne of Thebes, decreed that Polynices was not to be buried or even mourned, Antigone, his sister, defied the order, but was caught. Creon decreed death, this in spite of her betrothal to his son Haemon, antigones sister, Ismene, then declared she had aided Antigone and wanted the same fate. Creon imprisoned Antigone in a sepulchre, meanwhile the gods, through the blind prophet Tiresias, expressed their disapproval of Creons decision and he then went to bury Polynices himself, and release Antigone. However, she had hanged herself rather than be buried alive. When Creon arrived at the tomb where she was to be interred, his son Haemon made as if to attack him, when Creons wife, Eurydice, was informed of their deaths, she too took her own life
8.
Argea
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In Greek mythology, Argia /ɑːrˈdʒaɪə/ or Argea /ɑːrˈdʒiːə/ was a daughter of King Adrastus of Argos, and of Amphithea, daughter of Pronax. She was married to Polynices, the king of Thebes. Polynices, son of Oedipus, was to rule Thebes with his brother Eteocles on alternating years, when the year was over for Eteocles, Polynices demanded the rule. Eteocles refused to yield it and so Polynices sought out the help from King Adrastus, Polynices begged an army from King Adrastus for recovering his father’s kingdom from his brother Eteocles. King Adrastus not only gave an army but set out himself with six other leaders, the Seven Against Thebes set out to battle against the army of Thebes headed by Eteocles. Polynices and Eteocles killed each other in a fight among themselves in the ensuing battle, Argia set out with others to find her beloved husband among the many lying rotting in the battlefield, in spite of a decree by King Creon forbidding such, on pain of capital punishment. She searched until she found him, Argia tried to revive him with kisses and tears, however all her efforts were in vain. She then had his body cremated and placed the ashes in an urn and her virtuous acts showed the genuine love she had for her husband. Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.6.1 Phoenician Women Hyginus, robert Graves in his popular The Greek Myths prefers the spelling Aegeia. Euripides in The Phoenician Women and Suppliants, who mentions the wedding without giving her name, statius, Thebais IV. 187–213 Hyginus, Fabulae,69. LXX Apollodorus, Library 1.9.13 Apollodorus, Library,3.6.1 Pausanias, Description of Greece,2.20.5 Hesiod, Catalogue of Women, fragment 99a
9.
Eriphyle
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Eriphyle was a figure in Greek mythology who, in exchange for a necklace given to her by Polynices, persuaded her husband Amphiaraus to undertake the raid which precipitated the Seven Against Thebes. She was then slain by her son Alcmaeon, in Jean Racines retelling of Iphigenia at Aulis, she is an orphan whose real name turns out to be Iphigenia as well, despite her many misdeeds, she rescues Iphigenia the daughter of Agamemnon. Eriphyle, daughter of Talaus, was the mother of Alcmaeon, Eriphyle persuaded Amphiaraus to take part in the raid that initiated the mythic tale of the Seven Against Thebes, though she knew he would die. She had been persuaded by Polynices, who offered her the necklace of Harmonia for her assistance, dying Amphiaraus charged his sons Alcmaeon and Amphilochus with avenging his death and, after Amphiaraus died, fulfilling the prophecy, Alcmaeon killed his mother. He was pursued by the Erinyes as he fled across Greece, eventually reaching the court of King Phegeus, exhausted, Alcmaeon asked an oracle how to assuage the Erinyes and was told that he needed to stop where the sun was not shining when he killed his mother. That was at the mouth of the river Achelous, which had silted up. Eriphyle is seen in Hades in Vergils Aeneid, still bearing wounds inflicted by her son and she also plays a role in Statiuss Thebaid, in which her desire to attain the necklace of Harmonia is one of the catalysts for the war between Argos and Thebes. In this version of the myth, however, Argia, Polynicess wife, the necklace of Eriphyle was a gift to Cadmus when Zeus gave him to wife Harmonia, daughter of Aphrodite and Ares. And all the gods quitted the sky, and feasting in the Cadmea celebrated the marriage with hymns. Cadmus gave her a robe and the necklace wrought by Hephaestus, which some say was given to Cadmus by Hephaestus, but Pherecydes says that it was given by Europa, who had received it from Zeus. A relic was being shown in Amathus in Cyprus, in the time of Pausanias, In Cyprus is a city Amathus, in which is an old sanctuary of Adonis and Aphrodite. Here they say is dedicated a necklace given originally to Harmonia and it was dedicated at Delphi by the sons of Phegeus, but it was carried off by the tyrants of Phocis. Jean Racines Iphigénie William Makepeace Thackerays Vanity Fair Pausanias, Description of Greece ix.41.2 Apollodorus, Biibliotheke iii.4.2
10.
Harmonia (mythology)
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Harmonia, in ancient Greek religion, is the immortal goddess of harmony and concord. Her Roman counterpart is Concordia, and her Greek opposite is Eris and her siblings are Eros/Cupid, Phlegyas, Adrestia, and the twins Phobos and Deimos. Her parents are the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite, and the God of War, finally, Harmonia is rationalized as closely allied to Aphrodite Pandemos, the love that unites all people, the personification of order and civic unity, corresponding to the Roman goddess Concordia. Almost always, Harmonia is the wife of Cadmus, with Cadmus, she was the mother of Ino, Polydorus, Autonoë, Agave and Semele. When Cadmus was obliged to quit Thebes, Harmonia accompanied him, when they came to the Encheleans, they assisted them in their war against the Illyrians, and conquered the enemy. Cadmus then became king of the Illyrians, but afterwards he was turned into a serpent, Harmonia, in her grief stripped herself, then begged Cadmus to come to her. As she was embraced by the serpent Cadmus in a pool of wine, Harmonia is renowned in ancient story chiefly on account of the fatal necklace she received on her wedding day. When the government of Thebes was bestowed upon Cadmus by Athena, all the gods honored the wedding with their presence. Cadmus presented the bride with a robe and necklace, which he had received either from Hephaestus or from Europa and this necklace, commonly referred to as the Necklace of Harmonia, brought misfortune to all who possessed it. Other traditions stated that Harmonia received this necklace from some of the gods, polynices, who inherited the necklace, gave it to Eriphyle, that she might persuade her husband, Amphiaraus, to undertake the expedition against Thebes. The necklace had wrought mischief to all who had been in possession of it, phayllus, the tyrant, stole it from the temple to gratify his mistress, the wife of Ariston. She wore it for a time, but at last her youngest son was seized with madness, and set fire to the house, in which she perished with all her treasures. According to him, the thing which brought ill fate to the descendents of Harmonia is not a necklace, the necklace gave peace and held Harmonias powers in it, which is what made it cursed. Homonoia goddess of concord, unanimity, and oneness of mind Aneris Concordia Eris Cadmus et Hermione Chisholm, Hugh and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Leonhard Schmitz. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
11.
Trojan War
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In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homers Iliad. The Iliad relates four days in the year of the decade-long siege of Troy. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid. Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the fairest, in exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helens husband Menelaus, led an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris insult. After the deaths of heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods wrath, few of the Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores. The Romans later traced their origin to Aeneas, one of the Trojans, in 1868, however, the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann met Frank Calvert, who convinced Schliemann that Troy was a real city at what is now Hissarlik in Turkey. On the basis of excavations conducted by Schliemann and others, this claim is now accepted by most scholars, whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War remains an open question. The events of the Trojan War are found in works of Greek literature. There is no single, authoritative text which tells the events of the war. Instead, the story is assembled from a variety of sources, the most important literary sources are the two epic poems traditionally credited to Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, composed sometime between the 9th and 6th centuries BC. Each poem narrates only a part of the war, the Iliad covers a short period in the last year of the siege of Troy, while the Odyssey concerns Odysseuss return to his home island of Ithaca, following the sack of Troy. Other parts of the Trojan War were told in the poems of the Epic Cycle, also known as the Cyclic Epics, the Cypria, Aethiopis, Little Iliad, Iliou Persis, Nostoi, and Telegony. Though these poems survive only in fragments, their content is known from an included in Proclus Chrestomathy. The authorship of the Cyclic Epics is uncertain, both the Homeric epics and the Epic Cycle take origin from oral tradition. Even after the composition of the Iliad, Odyssey, and the Cyclic Epics, events and details of the story that are only found in later authors may have been passed on through oral tradition and could be as old as the Homeric poems
12.
Telephus
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This article is about Telephus the son of Heracles. The name also refers to the father of Cyparissus, in Greek mythology, Telephus was the son of Heracles and Auge, daughter of king Aleus of Tegea, and the father of Eurypylus. He was intended to be king of Tegea, but instead became the king of Mysia in Asia Minor and he was wounded by the Achaeans when they were coming to sack Troy and bring back Helen to Sparta. Aleus, king in Tegea and father of Auge, had been told by an oracle that he would be overthrown by his grandson. So, according to varying myths, he forced Auge to become a priestess of Athena Alea. Although the infant Telephus was hidden in the temple, his cries revealed his presence and Aleus ordered the child exposed on Mt. Parthenion, the child was suckled by a deer through the agency of Heracles, although the Pergamon Altar depicts Telephus being suckled by a lion. Alternatively, Aleus put Auge and the baby in a crate that was set adrift on the sea, alternatively, Aleus exposed Telephus and sold Auge into slavery, she was thereby given as a gift to King Teuthras. In either case, Telephus was adopted, either by King Corycus or by King Creon, Telephus companion Parthenopaeus was destined to die at the gates of Thebes, but Telephus was destined to rule foreign lands and fight his fellow Greeks before they reached Troy. The two companions went off to Asia Minor to look for land to make their kingdom and they eventually came to Mysia, where they aided King Teuthras in a war and defeated the enemy. For this the King gave Telephus the hand of his adopted daughter Auge. Auge, who was consecrated to the memory of Heracles, privately refused her fathers decision. Telephus succeeded Teuthras as king of the Mysians, when the Greeks first assembled at Aulis and left for the Trojan War, they accidentally found themselves in Mysia, where they were opposed by some fellow Achaeans. Paris and Helen had stopped in Mysia on their way to Troy, in another version of the myth, as depicted on the interior frieze of the Pergamon Altar, Telephus was married to the Amazon Hiera. She brought a force of Amazons to aid in the fighting, in the battle Achilles wounded Telephus, who killed Thersander the King of Thebes. This explains why in the Iliad there is no Theban King, the wound would not heal and Telephus consulted the oracle of Delphi about it. The oracle responded in a way that he that wounded shall heal. Telephus convinced Achilles to heal his wound in return for showing the Achaeans the way to Troy, thus resolving the conflict. According to reports about Euripides lost play Telephus, he went to Aulis pretending to be a beggar, there he asked Clytemnaestra, the wife of Agamemnon, what he should do to be healed
13.
Mysia
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Mysia was a region in the northwest of ancient Asia Minor or Anatolia. It was located on the south coast of the Sea of Marmara and it was bounded by Bithynia on the east, Phrygia on the southeast, Lydia on the south, Aeolis on the southwest, Troad on the west and by the Propontis on the north. In ancient times it was inhabited by the Mysians, Phrygians, Aeolian Greeks, the precise limits of Mysia are difficult to assign. The Phrygian frontier was fluctuating, while in the northwest the Troad was only included in Mysia. The northern portion was known as Lesser Phrygia or Phrygia Minor, Mysia was in later times also known as Phrygia Hellespontica or Phrygia Epictetus, so named by the Attalids when they annexed the region to the Kingdom of Pergamon. The Caïcus in the rises in Temnus, and from thence flows westward to the Aegean Sea. In the northern portion of the province are two lakes, Artynia or Apolloniatis and Aphnitis, which discharge their waters into the Macestus from the east and west respectively. The most important cities were Pergamon in the valley of the Caïcus, further south, on the Eleatic Gulf, were Elaea, Myrina and Cyme. A minor episode in the Trojan War cycle in Greek mythology has the Greek fleet land at Mysia, Achilles wounds their king, Telephus, after he slays a Greek, Telephus later pleads with Achilles to heal the wound. This coastal region ruled by Telephus is alternatively named Teuthrania in Greek mythology, in the Iliad, Homer represents the Mysians as allies of Troy, with the Mysian forces led by Ennomus and Chromius, sons of Arsinous. Homeric Mysia appears to have much smaller in extent than historical Mysia. Homer does not mention any cities or landmarks in Mysia, and it is not clear exactly where Homeric Mysia was situated, there are a number of Mysian inscriptions in a dialect of the Phrygian language, in a variant of the Phrygian alphabet. There are also a number of references to a Lutescan language indigenous to Mysia in Aeolic Greek sources. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the apostles Paul, Silas, the narrative suggests that they were uncertain where to travel during this part of the journey, being forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Shortly afterwards Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia who invited the apostles to travel westwards to Macedonia
14.
Pindar
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Pindar was an Ancient Greek lyric poet from Thebes. Of the canonical nine lyric poets of ancient Greece, his work is the best preserved and his poems can also, however, seem difficult and even peculiar. The Athenian comic playwright Eupolis once remarked that they are reduced to silence by the disinclination of the multitude for elegant learning. His poetry, while admired by critics, still challenges the casual reader, Pindar was the first Greek poet to reflect on the nature of poetry and on the poets role. A dream of a shadow Is our mortal being, but when there comes to men A gleam of splendour given of heaven, Then rests on them a light of glory And blessed are their days. His poetry illustrates the beliefs and values of Archaic Greece at the dawn of the classical period, five ancient sources contain all the recorded details of Pindars life. One of them is a short biography discovered in 1961 on an Egyptian papyrus dating from at least 200 AD and it has been claimed that biographical interpretations of the poems are due to a fatal conjunction of historicism and Romanticism. In other words, we know almost nothing about Pindars life based on traditional sources or his own poems. However, the pendulum of fashion has begun to change direction again. He was probably born in 522 BC or 518 BC in Cynoscephalae and his fathers name is variously given as Daiphantus, Pagondas or Scopelinus, and his mothers name was Cleodice. It is reported that he was stung on the mouth by a bee in his youth, Pindar was about twenty years old in 498 BC when he was commissioned by the ruling family in Thessaly to compose his first victory ode. He studied the art of poetry in Athens, where his tutor was Lasos of Hermione. The early-to-middle years of Pindars career coincided with the Persian invasions of Greece in the reigns of Darius and it is possible that Pindar spent much of this time at Aegina. Thrasybulus had driven the winning chariot and he and Pindar were to form a lasting friendship, Pindar seems to have used his odes to advance his, and his friends, personal interests. In 462 BC he composed two odes in honour of Arcesilas, king of Cyrene, pleading for the return from exile of a friend, Demophilus. In the latter ode Pindar proudly mentions his own ancestry, which he shared with the king, as an Aegeid or descendent of Aegeus, the historian Herodotus considered the clan important enough to deserve mention. Pindar might not actually claim to be an Aegeid since his I statements do not necessarily refer to himself. He was possibly the Theban proxenos or consul for Aegina and/or Molossia, as indicated in another of his odes, Nemean 7, in which he glorifies Neoptolemus, a national hero of Aegina and Molossia
15.
Sisyphus
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In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra. He was punished for his craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him. Through the classical influence on culture, tasks that are both laborious and futile are therefore described as Sisyphean. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a pre-Greek origin, otto Gruppe thought that the name derived from sisys, in reference to a rain-charm in which goats skins were used. Sisyphus was the son of King Aeolus of Thessaly and Enarete and he was the founder and first king of Ephyra. He was the father of Glaucus, Ornytion, Almus, and Thersander by the nymph Merope, the brother of Salmoneus, King Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce but was avaricious and deceitful. He also killed travellers and guests, a violation of xenia and he took pleasure in these killings because they allowed him to maintain his iron-fisted rule. Sisyphus and his brother Salmoneus were known to each other. From Homer onward, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest of men, King Sisyphus also betrayed one of Zeus secrets by revealing the whereabouts of Aegina to her father in return for causing a spring to flow on the Corinthian acropolis. Zeus then ordered Thanatos, Death, to chain King Sisyphus down below in Tartarus, Sisyphus was curious as to why Hermes, whose job it was to guide souls to the Underworld, had not appeared on this occasion. King Sisyphus slyly asked Thanatos to demonstrate how the chains worked, as Thanatos was granting him his wish, Sisyphus seized the opportunity and trapped Thanatos in the chains instead. Once Thanatos was bound by the chains, no one died on earth. This caused an uproar especially for Ares, and so he intervened, the exasperated Ares freed Thanatos and turned King Sisyphus over to Thanatos. In another version, Hades was sent to chain Sisyphus and was chained himself, as long as Hades was tied up, nobody could die. Because of this, sacrifices could not be made to the gods, the gods finally threatened to make life so miserable for Sisyphus that he would wish he were dead. He then had no choice but to release Hades, before King Sisyphus died, he had told his wife to throw his naked body into the middle of the public square. This caused King Sisyphus to end up on the shores of the river Styx, then, complaining to Persephone that this was a sign of his wifes disrespect for him, King Sisyphus persuaded her to allow him to return to the upper world. Once back in Ephyra, the spirit of King Sisyphus scolded his wife for not burying his body, when King Sisyphus refused to return to the Underworld, he was forcibly dragged back there by Hermes
16.
Haliartus
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Aliartos is a small town and municipality in the Boeotia regional unit, Greece, at 109 kilometres from Athens. The 2011 census recorded 10,887 residents in the municipality,6,094 residents in the unit and 4,847 in the community of Aliartos. Its name comes from the ancient city of Haliartus, Aliartos Lies in the center of the Kopais plain. The municipality of Aliartos covers an area of 256.507 km2, the unit of Aliartos 148.355 km2. Under the Köppen climate classification, Aliartos has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, with wet, cool winters and dry, the modern town of Aliartos is a recent creation. In the early 19th century, the site was occupied by two small settlements, Moulki and Krimpas. In 1835, the name of ancient Haliartus was revived for the newly established municipality which encompassed these settlements, Krimpas was renamed to Aliartos in June 1919, but in 1951 the settlement was disbanded and the name was transferred in July 1953 to Moulki. The names of Moulki and Krimpas survive as quarters of the new town
17.
Heracleidae
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Since Karl Otfried Müllers Die Dorier, I. ch. 3, their rise to dominance has been associated with a Dorian invasion, after the death of Heracles, his children, after many wanderings, found refuge from Eurystheus at Athens. Eurystheus, on his demand for their surrender being refused, attacked Athens, Hyllus and his brothers then invaded Peloponnesus, but after a years stay were forced by a pestilence to quit. Desiring to reconquer his paternal inheritance, Hyllus consulted the Delphic oracle, which told him to wait for the third fruit, and then enter Peloponnesus by a narrow passage by sea. Accordingly, after three years, Hyllus marched across the isthmus of Corinth to attack Atreus, the successor of Eurystheus and this second attempt was followed by a third under Cleodaeus and a fourth under Aristomachus, both unsuccessful. At last, Temenus, Cresphontes and Aristodemus, the sons of Aristomachus and they received the answer that by the third fruit the third generation was meant, and that the narrow passage was not the isthmus of Corinth, but the straits of Rhium. They accordingly built a fleet at Naupactus, but before they set sail, Aristodemus was struck by lightning and the fleet destroyed, because one of the Heracleidae had slain an Acarnanian soothsayer. The oracle, being consulted by Temenus, bade him offer an expiatory sacrifice and banish the murderer for ten years. On his way back to Naupactus, Temenus fell in with Oxylus, an Aetolian, according to another account, a mule on which Oxylus rode had lost an eye. The Heracleidae repaired their ships, sailed from Naupactus to Antirrhium, a decisive battle was fought with Tisamenus, son of Orestes, the chief ruler in the peninsula, who was defeated and slain. This conquest was traditionally dated eighty years after the Trojan War, the Heracleidae, who thus became practically masters of Peloponnesus, proceeded to distribute its territory among themselves by lot. Argos fell to Temenus, Lacedaemon to Procles and Eurysthenes, the sons of Aristodemus. The Heracleidae ruled in Lacedaemon until 221 BCE, but disappeared much earlier in the other countries and they represent a joint invasion of Peloponnesus by Aetolians and Dorians, the latter having been driven southward from their original northern home under pressure from the Thessalians. It is noticeable that there is no mention of these Heraclidae or their invasion in Homer or Hesiod, herodotus speaks of poets who had celebrated their deeds, but these were limited to events immediately succeeding the death of Heracles. At Sparta, the Heraclids formed two dynasties ruling jointly, the Agiads and the Eurypontids, at Corinth the Heraclids ruled as the Bacchiadae dynasty before the aristocratic revolution, which brought a Bacchiad aristocracy into power. The Heracleidae are the subject of Euripides play, Heracleidae. As Eurysttheus prepared to attack, an oracle told Demophon that he would win if, macaria volunteered for the sacrifice and a spring was named the Macarian spring in her honor. Bibliotheca ii.8 Diodorus Siculus iv
18.
Aristodemus
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In Greek mythology, Aristodemus was a Heracleidae, son of Aristomachus and brother of Cresphontes and Temenus. He was a great-great-grandson of Heracles and helped lead the fifth, Aristodemus and his brothers complained to the Oracle that its instructions had proved fatal to those who had followed them. They received the answer that by the fruit the third generation was meant, and that the narrow passage was not the isthmus of Corinth. They accordingly built a fleet at Naupactus, but before they set sail, Aristodemus was struck by lightning and his brothers were later able to conquer the Peloponessus. By his wife Argia, daughter of King Autesion of Thebes, he was the father of twin Kings Eurysthenes and Procles, history of Greece, Part I, Chapter XVIII. Griechische Geschichte, Part I, Chapter 11, Section 7, where a list of authorities is given
19.
Crete
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Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, 88th-largest island in the world and the fifth-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and Corsica. Crete and a number of surrounding islands and islets constitute the region of Crete, the capital and the largest city is Heraklion. As of 2011, the region had a population of 623,065, Crete forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece, while retaining its own local cultural traits. It was once the centre of the Minoan civilization, which is regarded as the earliest recorded civilization in Europe. The island is first referred to as Kaptara in texts from the Syrian city of Mari dating from the 18th century BC, repeated later in Neo-Assyrian records and it was also known in ancient Egyptian as Keftiu, strongly suggesting a similar Minoan name for the island. The current name of Crete is thought to be first attested in Mycenaean Greek texts written in Linear B, through the words
20.
Heracles
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Heracles, born Alcaeus or Alcides, was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson and half-brother of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of clans who claimed to be Heracleidae. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, details of his cult were adapted to Rome as well. Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among the characteristics commonly attributed to him, together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae. His iconographic attributes are the skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a figure who used games to relax from his labors. By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have made the safe for mankind. Many popular stories were told of his life, the most famous being The Twelve Labours of Heracles and his figure, which initially drew on Near Eastern motifs such as the lion-fight, was widely known. Heracles was the greatest of Hellenic chthonic heroes, but unlike other Greek heroes, the core of the story of Heracles has been identified by Walter Burkert as originating in Neolithic hunter culture and traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld. Heracles role as a hero, whose death could be a subject of mythic telling, was accepted into the Olympian Pantheon during Classical times. Around him cries of the dead rang out like cries of birds scattering left, in Christian circles a Euhemerist reading of the widespread Heracles cult was attributed to a historical figure who had been offered cult status after his death. The ancient Greeks celebrated the festival of the Heracleia, which commemorated the death of Heracles, what is believed to be an Egyptian Temple of Heracles in the Bahariya Oasis dates to 21 BCE. A reassessment of Ptolemys descriptions of the island of Malta attempted to link the site at Ras ir-Raħeb with a temple to Heracles, several ancient cities were named Heraclea in his honor. A major factor in the tragedies surrounding Heracles is the hatred that the goddess Hera. A full account of Heracles must render it clear why Heracles was so tormented by Hera, Heracles was the son of the affair Zeus had with the mortal woman Alcmene. Zeus made love to her after disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon, thus, Heracles very existence proved at least one of Zeus many illicit affairs, and Hera often conspired against Zeus mortal offspring as revenge for her husbands infidelities. His twin mortal brother, son of Amphitryon, was Iphicles, Hera did this knowing that while Heracles was to be born a descendant of Perseus, so too was Eurystheus
21.
Aeneas
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In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus. His father was a first cousin of King Priam of Troy and he is a character in Greek mythology and is mentioned in Homers Iliad. Aeneas receives full treatment in Roman mythology, most extensively in Virgils Aeneid and he became the first true hero of Rome. Snorri Sturluson identifies him with the Norse Æsir Vidarr, Aeneas is the Latin spelling of Greek Αἰνείας. In the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, Aeneas is first introduced with Aphrodite naming him Αἰνείας for the αὶνóν ἄχος he caused her and it is a popular etymology for the name, apparently exploited by Homer in the Iliad. Later in the Medieval period there were writers who held that, as such, in the natural order, the meaning of Aeneas name combines Greek ennos and demas, which becomes ennaios, meaning in-dweller. However, there is no certainty regarding the origin of his name, in imitation of the Iliad, Virgil borrows epithets of Homer, including, Anchisiades, magnanimum, magnus, heros, and bonus. Though he borrows many, Virgil gives Aeneas two epithets of his own in the Aeneid, pater and pius. The epithets applied by Virgil are an example of a different from that of Homer, for whilst Odysseus is poikilios, Aeneas is described as pius. Likewise, Aeneas is called pater when acting in the interest of his men, the story of the birth of Aeneas is told in the Hymn to Aphrodite, one of the major Homeric Hymns. Aphrodite has caused the other gods Zeus, to fall in love with mortal women, in retaliation, Zeus puts desire in her heart for Anchises, who is tending his cattle among the hills near Mount Ida. When Aphrodite sees him she is smitten and she adorns herself as if for a wedding among the gods and appears before him. He is overcome by her beauty, believing that she is a goddess, after they make love, Aphrodite reveals her true identity to him and Anchises fears what might happen to him as a result of their liaison. Aphrodite assures him that he will be protected, and tells him that she bear him a son to be called Aeneas. However, she warns him that he must never tell anyone that he has lain with a goddess, when Aeneas is born, Aphrodite takes him to the nymphs of Mount Ida. She directs them to raise the child to age five, then take him to Anchises, according to other sources, Anchises later brags about his encounter with Aphrodite, and as a result is struck in the foot with a thunderbolt by Zeus. Thereafter he is lame in that foot, so that Aeneas has to carry him from the flames of Troy. Aeneas is a character in the Iliad, where he is twice saved from death by the gods as if for an as-yet-unknown destiny
22.
Pausanias (geographer)
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Pausanias was a Greek traveler and geographer of the 2nd century AD, who lived in the time of Roman emperors Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is famous for his Description of Greece, a work that describes ancient Greece from his first-hand observations. This work provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology, andrew Stewart assesses him as, A careful, pedestrian writer. interested not only in the grandiose or the exquisite but in unusual sights and obscure ritual. He is occasionally careless, or makes unwarranted inferences, and his guides or even his own notes sometimes mislead him, yet his honesty is unquestionable, before visiting Greece, he had been to Antioch, Joppa and Jerusalem, and to the banks of the River Jordan. In Egypt, he had seen the pyramids, while at the temple of Ammon, in Macedonia, he appears to have seen the alleged tomb of Orpheus in Libethra. Crossing over to Italy, he had something of the cities of Campania. He was one of the first to write of seeing the ruins of Troy, Alexandria Troas, Pausanias Description of Greece is in ten books, each dedicated to some portion of Greece. He begins his tour in Attica, where the city of Athens, subsequent books describe Corinthia, Laconia, Messenia, Elis, Achaea, Arcadia, Boetia, Phocis and Ozolian Locris. He famously leaves out key portions of Greece such as Crete, the project is more than topographical, it is a cultural geography. Pausanias digresses from description of architectural and artistic objects to review the mythological and historical underpinnings of the society that produced them and his work bears the marks of his attempt to navigate that space and establish an identity for Roman Greece. He is not a naturalist by any means, though he does from time to comment on the physical realities of the Greek landscape. He notices the pine trees on the sandy coast of Elis, the deer and the boars in the oak woods of Phelloe. Pausanias is most at home in describing the art and architecture of Olympia. Yet, even in the most secluded regions of Greece, he is fascinated by all kinds of depictions of gods, holy relics, Pausanias has the instincts of an antiquary. Some magnificent and dominating structures, such as the Stoa of King Attalus in the Athenian Agora or the Exedra of Herodes Atticus at Olympia are not even mentioned. While he never doubts the existence of the gods and heroes, he criticizes the myths. His descriptions of monuments of art are plain and unadorned and they bear the impression of reality, and their accuracy is confirmed by the extant remains. He is perfectly frank in his confessions of ignorance, when he quotes a book at second hand he takes pains to say so
23.
Stephanus of Byzantium
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Stephen of Byzantium, also known as Stephanus Byzantinus, was the author of an important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica. Of the dictionary itself only meagre fragments survive, but we possess an epitome compiled by one Hermolaus, not otherwise identified. Nothing is known about the life of Stephanus, except that he was a grammarian at Constantinople, and lived after the time of Arcadius and Honorius, even as an epitome, the Ethnica is of enormous value for geographical, mythological, and religious information about ancient Greece. Nearly every article in the epitome contains a reference to some ancient writer, Stephanus cites Artemidorus, Polybius, Aelius Herodianus, Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Strabo and other writers. The chief fragments remaining of the work are preserved by Constantine Porphyrogennetos, De administrando imperio, ch.23 and De thematibus. 10, the latter includes a passage from the comic poet Alexis on the Seven Largest Islands, another respectable fragment, from the article Δύμη to the end of Δ, exists in a manuscript of the Fonds Coislin, the library formed by Pierre Séguier. The first modern printed edition of the work was published by the Aldine Press in Venice,1502. The complete standard edition is still that of Augustus Meineke, and by convention, a new completely revised edition in German is in preparation, however, edited by B. Zubler, M. Billerbeck, J. F. Gaertner,2006 onwards, google Books Guilielmus Xylander,1568, Στέφανος. Google Books Claudius Salmasius and Abraham van Berkel,1688, Στεφάνου Βυζαντίου Ἐθνικὰ κατ ἐπιτομήν Περὶ πόλεων = Stephani Byzantini Gentilia per epitomen, google Books Lucas Holstenius,1692, Notae & castigationes in Stephanum Byzantium De urbibus. Google Books Thomas de Pinedo,1725, Stephanus de urbibus, google Books Karl Wilhelm Dindorf,1825, Stephanus Byzantinus. Incorporating notes by L. Holsteinius, A. Berkelius, and T. de Pinedo, google Books Anton Westermann,1839, Stephani Byzantii ethnikon quae supersunt. Google Books Augustus Meineke,1849, Stephani Byzantii ethnicorum quae supersunt, google Books Margarethe Billerbeck et al. Berlin/New York, Walter de Gruyter, This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh. Smith, W. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, diller, Aubrey 1938, The tradition of Stephanus Byzantius, Transactions of the American Philological Association 69, 333-48. Bunbury,1883, History of Ancient Geography, vol. i, Holstenius, L.1684, Lucae Holstenii Notae et castigationes postumae in Stephani Byzantii Ethnika, quae vulgo Peri poleōn inscribuntur. 1873, De Stephani Byzantii auctoribus Johannes Geffcken,1886, De Stephano Byzantio Whitehead, D.1994, From political architecture to Stephanus Byzantius, sources for the ancient Greek polis
24.
Theban kings in Greek mythology
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The dynastic history of Thebes in Greek mythology is crowded with a bewildering number of kings between the citys new foundation and the Trojan War. This suggests several competing traditions, which mythographers were forced to reconcile, the first king of Thebes was Cadmus, after whom the city was originally called Cadmeia. It only became known as Thebes during the reign of Amphion and Zethus, the first kings of Boeotia before Cadmus and the flood of Deucalion were Calydnus and Ogyges. When Cadmus died, his son Polydorus was still a minor and hence Pentheus and he met a tragic end after falling foul of the young god Dionysus. Polydorus succeeded his nephew but only reigned for a short while, at his death, the kingdom was entrusted to his father-in-law, Nycteus, who acted as guardian for the young Labdacus, the son of Polydorus and Nycteis. During the regency of Nycteus, Thebes made war against Epopeus, the king of Sicyon, Nycteus and the Thebans were defeated, and Nycteus himself died of his battle wounds. He was succeeded as ruler of Thebes by his brother, Lycus, another war erupted, this time over a boundary dispute between Thebes and Athens, once again, Thebes was defeated after King Pandion II of Athens received aid from the Thracian king Tereus. However, following in the footsteps of Pentheus, King Labdacus opposed the cult of Dionysus, and was killed by Dionysus enraged devotees, Labdacus left behind a young son, Laius. Lycus again took control of Thebes, this time as a usurper, Lycus is said to have reigned for twenty years. Lycus, as king and ruler of Thebes, waged war against Sicyon to avenge his brother and this time, the result went in Thebes favor, and King Epopeus was slain. However, Lycus and his wife Dirce proceeded to treat Antiope cruelly, Antiope was imprisoned, but she later contrived to escape, and was reunited with her twin sons, Amphion and Zethus. Amphion and Zethus were the sons of Zeus by Antiope, conceived while Antiope was still in Thebes, they were born in secret, after their tearful reunion with their mother, Amphion and Zethus marched on Thebes and slew King Lycus and Dirce. Lycus death did not restore Laius to the throne, Amphion and Zethus seized power, ruling as joint kings of Thebes, and expelled Laius. Amphions wife was Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, and they had seven sons, Amphion and Zethus expanded the city and built the seven gates of Thebes, naming them after Amphions daughters. Niobe, a woman, attracted the wrath of Artemis and her brother Apollo. Artemis then decided to all of her daughters while Apollo killed all of her sons. Amphion committed suicide after the death of his beloved children, Zethus son and only child had been killed earlier, and Zethus had died of a broken heart. Thus, the throne of Thebes was vacant and the Thebans invited back Laius, when Laius became king, he married Jocasta, daughter of Menoeceus, son of Pentheus
25.
Ogyges
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Ogyges, also spelled Ogygos or Ogygus, is a primeval mythological ruler in ancient Greece, generally of Boeotia, but an alternative tradition makes him the first king of Attica. Though the original etymology and meaning are uncertain, the name Ogyges may be related with the Greek Okeanos, the Greek word Ogygios, meaning Ogygian, came to mean primeval, primal, or from earliest ages and also gigantic. Ogyges is also known as king of the Ectenes, who according to Pausanias were the first inhabitants of Boeotia, as such, he became the first ruler of Thebes, which was, in that early time, named Ogygia after him. Subsequently, poets referred to the Thebans as Ogygidae, Pausanias, writing from his travels in Boeotia in the 2nd century CE, said, The first to occupy the land of Thebes are said to have been the Ectenes, whose king was Ogygus, an aboriginal. From his name is derived Ogygian, which is an epithet of Thebes used by most of the poets, the land was subsequently called Ogygia in his honor but later known as Mount Athos. Sextus Julius Africanus, writing after 221 CE, adds that Ogyges founded Eleusis, stories of his descent also differ widely. Besides Ogyges being one of the aborigines of Boeotia, there are tales that regard him as the son of Poseidon, theophilus, in the 2nd century, says he was one of the Titans. He was the husband of Thebe, from whom the land of Thebes in Greece is said to derive its name and his children are listed variously as two sons, Eleusinus and Cadmus, and three daughters, Aulis, Alalcomenia, and Thelvinia. According to Africanus, he lived at the time of the Exodus of the House of Israel from Egypt, Ogyges is possibly the namesake for the phantom island Ogygia, mentioned in Homers Odyssey. Another possibility for the island is the Niobid named Ogygia, the historian Josephus mentions Ogyges as the name of the oak by which the Hebrew patriarch Abram dwelt while he lived near Hebron. Other sources see it as an associated with Attica. This latter view was accepted by Africanus, who says that great and first flood occurred in Attica, when this deluge has been considered global, a similarity is noticed with Noahs flood in the Bible. Various dates have been assigned to the event, including 9500 BCE,2136 BCE, Ogyges survived the deluge but many people perished. After his death, the devastated Attica was without kings for 189 years, for Philochorus asserts that that Actaeon who comes after Ogyges, and the fictitious names, never even existed. It seems the deluge of Deucalion of Greek-mythology is the Greek version of the older legend, Deucalion and Pyrrha were the only survivals after the great deluge. His son Hellen who became ruler of Phthia in southern Thessaly was the patriarch of Hellenes, minyans Fontenrose, Joseph, Python, A Study of Delphic Myth and Its Origins, University of California Press,1959. Hammond, N. G. L. and Howard Hayes Scullard, The Oxford Classical Dictionary, second edition, harding, Phillip, The Story of Athens, The Fragments of the Local Chronicles of Attika, Routledge,2007. Pausanias, Pausanias Description of Greece with an English Translation by W. H. S, cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1918
26.
Cadmus
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In Greek mythology, Cadmus /ˈkædməs/, Greek, Κάδμος Kadmos), was the founder and first king of Thebes. Cadmus was the first Greek hero and, alongside Perseus and Bellerophon, Cadmus founded the Greek city of Thebes, the acropolis of which was originally named Cadmeia in his honour. Cadmus was credited by the ancient Greeks with introducing the original Alphabet —to the Greeks, herodotus estimates that Cadmus lived sixteen hundred years before his time, or around 2000 BC. Herodotus had seen and described the Cadmean writing in the temple of Apollo at Thebes engraved on certain tripods and he estimated those tripods to date back to the time of Laius the great-grandson of Cadmus. On one of the tripods there was this inscription in Cadmean writing, the Homeric picture of the Mycenaean age betrays extremely little awareness of writing, possibly reflecting the loss during the Dark Age of the earlier Linear B script. Indeed, the only Homeric reference to writing was in the phrase γράμματα λυγρά, grámmata lygrá, literally baneful drawings, but such a suggestion, however attractive, is by no means a certain conclusion in light of currently available evidence. The connection between the name of Cadmus and the origins of either the Linear B script or the later Phoenician alphabet, if any. However, in modern-day Lebanon, Cadmus is still revered and celebrated as the carrier of the letter to the world, according to Greek myth, Cadmuss descendants ruled at Thebes on and off for several generations, including the time of the Trojan War. The etymology of Cadmus name remains uncertain, possible connected words include the Semitic triliteral root qdm signifies east, and the Greek kekasmai to shine. Therefore, the meaning of the name might be, He who excels. After his sister Europa had been carried off by Zeus from the shores of Phoenicia, Cadmus was sent out by his father to find her, and enjoined not to return without her. Unsuccessful in his search - or unwilling to go against Zeus - he came to Samothrace, the island sacred to the Great Gods or the Kabeiroi, whose mysteries would be celebrated also at Thebes. Cadmus did not journey alone to Samothrace, he appeared with his mother Telephassa in the company of his nephew Thasus, son of Cilix, who gave his name to the island of Thasos nearby. An identically composed trio had other names at Samothrace, according to Diodorus Siculus, Electra, there was a fourth figure, Electras daughter, Harmonia, whom Cadmus took away as a bride, as Zeus had abducted Europa. The wedding was the first celebrated on Earth to which the gods brought gifts, according to Diodorus and dined with Cadmus, Cadmus came in the course of his wanderings to Delphi, where he consulted the oracle. He was ordered to give up his quest and follow a cow, with a half moon on her flank, which would meet him. The cow was given to Cadmus by Pelagon, King of Phocis, and it guided him to Boeotia, intending to sacrifice the cow to Athena, Cadmus sent some of his companions to the nearby Ismenian spring for water. They were slain by the springs guardian water-dragon, which was in turn destroyed by Cadmus and he was then instructed by Athena to sow the dragons teeth in the ground, from which there sprang a race of fierce armed men, called the Spartoi
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Pentheus
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In Greek mythology, Pentheus was a king of Thebes. His father was Echion, the wisest of the Spartoi and his mother was Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia. Much of what is known about the character comes from the interpretation of the myth in Euripides tragic play, the story of Pentheus resistance to Dionysus and his subsequent punishment is presented by Euripides as follows. Cadmus, the king of Thebes, abdicated due to his old age in favor of his grandson Pentheus. Pentheus soon banned the worship of the god Dionysus, who was the son of his aunt Semele, an angered Dionysus caused Pentheus mother Agave and his aunts Ino and Autonoë, along with all the other women of Thebes, to rush to Mount Cithaeron in a Bacchic frenzy. Because of this, Pentheus imprisoned Dionysus, thinking the man simply a follower, but his chains fell off, Dionysus lured Pentheus out to spy on the Bacchic rites disguised as a woman, and Pentheus expected to see sexual activities. The daughters of Cadmus saw him in a tree and thought him to be a wild animal and they pulled Pentheus down and tore him limb from limb. When his true identity was discovered, officials exiled the women from Thebes. Some say that his own mother was the first to him, tearing his arm off. She placed the head on a stick and took it back to Thebes, but only realized whose head it was after meeting her father Cadmus. The name Pentheus, as Dionysus and Tiresias both point out, means Man of Sorrows and derives from πένθος, pénthos, sorrow or grief and his name appeared to mark him for tragedy. Pentheus was succeeded by his uncle Polydorus, before or possibly after Pentheus was killed, his wife gave birth to a son named Menoeceus, who became the father of Creon and Jocasta. He became the grandfather of Oedipus, the story of Pentheus is also discussed by Ovid in his Metamorphoses. Ovids version diverges from Euripides work in several areas, in Ovids Metamorphoses, King Pentheus is warned by the blind seer Tiresias to welcome Bacchus or else Your blood poured out and defile the woods and your mother and her sisters. Pentheus dismisses Tiresias and ignores his warnings, as Thebes succumbs to the dementia and the delirium of the new god, Pentheus laments the fall of his kingdom and demands the arrest of Bacchus. Pentheus, convinced that Acoetes is lying, tries to him in jail. But when the try to shackle Acoetes, the chains fall off. When Pentheus heard this it caused something insane behind his eyes tear off its straightjacket, in a rage, Pentheus ran to deal with Bacchus himself
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Amphion and Zethus
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Amphion /ˈæmfiən/ and Zethus /ˈziːθəs/ were, in ancient Greek mythology, the twin sons of Zeus by Antiope. They are important characters in one of the two founding myths of the city of Thebes, because they constructed the citys walls, Amphion and Zethus were the sons of Antiope, who fled in shame to Sicyon after Zeus raped her, and married King Epopeus there. However, either Nycteus or Lycus attacked Sicyon in order to carry her back to Thebes, on the way back, she gave birth to the twins and was forced to expose them on Mount Cithaeron. Lycus gave her to his wife, Dirce, who treated her very cruelly for many years, Antiope eventually escaped and found her sons living near Mount Cithaeron. After they were convinced that she was their mother, they killed Dirce by tying her to the horns of a bull, gathered an army, Amphion became a great singer and musician after Hermes taught him to play and gave him a golden lyre. Zethus became a hunter and herdsman, with a great interest in cattle breeding and they built the walls around the Cadmea, the citadel of Thebes. While Zethus struggled to carry his stones, Amphion played his lyre and his stones followed after him, Amphion married Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, the Lydian king. Because of this, he learned to play his lyre in the Lydian mode, Zethus married Thebe, after whom the city of Thebes was named. Amphions wife Niobe had many children, but had become arrogant and because of this she insulted the goddess Leto, letos children killed Niobes children in retaliation. In Ovid, Amphion commits suicide out of grief, according to Telesilla, Artemis, hyginus, however, writes that in his madness he tried to attack the temple of Apollo, and was killed by the gods arrows. Zethus had only one son, who died through a mistake of his mother Thebe, in the Odyssey, however, Zethuss wife is called a daughter of Pandareus in book 19, who killed her son Itylos in a fit of madness and became a nightingale. After the deaths of Amphion and Zethus, Laius returned to Thebes, compare with Castor and Polydeuces of Greece, and with Romulus and Remus of Rome. Divine twins This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Amphion
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Oedipus
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Oedipus was a mythical Greek king of Thebes. A tragic hero in Greek mythology, Oedipus accidentally fulfilled a prophecy that he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother, thereby bringing disaster to his city and family. The story of Oedipus is the subject of Sophocles tragedy Oedipus Rex, together, these plays make up Sophocles three Theban plays. Oedipus represents two enduring themes of Greek myth and drama, the nature of humanity and an individuals role in the course of destiny in a harsh universe. In the most well-known version of the myth, Oedipus was born to King Laius, Laius wished to thwart a prophecy, so he left Oedipus to die on a mountainside. However, the baby was found by shepherds and raised by King Polybus, on his way he met an older man and quarrelled, and Oedipus killed the stranger. Continuing on to Thebes, he found that the king of the city had recently killed. Oedipus answered the monsters riddle correctly, defeating it and winning the throne of the dead king - and the hand in marriage of the kings widow, and his mother Jocasta. Years later, to end a plague on Thebes, Oedipus searched to find who had killed Laius, Jocasta, upon realizing that she had married both her own son, and her husbands murderer, hanged herself. Oedipus then seized two pins from her dress and blinded himself with them, the legend of Oedipus has been retold in many versions, and was used by Sigmund Freud to name and give mythic precedent to the Oedipus complex. Variations on the legend of Oedipus are mentioned in fragments by several ancient Greek poets including Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, Aeschylus and Euripides. However, the most popular version of the legend comes from the set of Theban plays by Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. Having been childless for some time, Laius consulted the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, the Oracle prophesied that any son born to Laius would kill him. However, rather than leave the child to die of exposure, as Laius intended, the servant passed the baby on to a shepherd from Corinth and who then gave the child to another shepherd. The infant Oedipus eventually came to the house of Polybus, king of Corinth and his queen, Merope, little Oedipus/Oidipous was named after the swelling from the injuries to his feet and ankles. The word oedema or edema is from this same Greek word for swelling, οἴδημα, after many years, Oedipus was told by a drunk that he was a bastard, meaning at that time that he was not of the same blood to them. Oedipus confronted his parents with the news, but they denied this, Oedipus went to the same oracle in Delphi that his birth parents had consulted. The oracle informed him he was destined to murder his father, in an attempt to avoid such a fate, he decided to not return home to Corinth, but to travel to Thebes, as it was near Delphi
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Eteocles
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In Greek mythology, Eteocles was a king of Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. The name is from earlier *Etewoklewes, meaning truly glorious, tawagalawas is thought to be the Hittite rendition of the name. Oedipus killed his father Laius and married his mother without knowing his relationship to either, when the relationship was revealed, he was expelled from Thebes. The rule passed to his sons Eteocles and Polynices, however, because of a curse from their father, the two brothers did not share the rule peacefully. Eteocles was succeeded by his uncle, Creon, in the Thebaid, the brothers were cursed by their father for their disrespect towards him on two occasions. The first of these occurred when they served him using the table of Cadmus and a golden cup. The brothers then sent him the haunch of an animal, rather than the shoulder. Enraged, Oedipus prayed to Zeus that the brothers would die by each others hands, however, in Sophocless Oedipus at Colonus, Oedipus desired to stay in Thebes but was expelled by Creon. There are several accounts of how Eteocles and Polynices shared the rule after Oedipuss departure from the city, in Hellanicuss account, Eteocles offers his brother his choice of either the rule of the city or a share of the property. In Pherecydes, however, Eteocles expels Polynices by force, and keeps the rule of Thebes, the Bibliotheca and Diodorus state that the brothers agree to divide the kingship between them, switching each year. Eteocles, however, was allotted the first year, and refused to surrender the crown, in all of these versions, Polynices gathered the support of the Argives and attacked Thebes. This battle is the subject of Aeschylus tragedy Seven Against Thebes, although Eteocless forces were victorious, the brothers killed each other. Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press,1993, atlanta, Society of Biblical Literature,2009
