1.
Tethys (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Tethys, was a Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaia, and the wife of her brother the Titan-god Oceanus, and the mother by him of the river gods and the Oceanids. Tethys had no role in Greek mythology, and no established cults. Tethys was one of the Titan offspring of Uranus and Gaia, Hesiod lists her Titan syblings as Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Cronus. Tethys married her brother, Oceanus, an enormous river encircling the world, and was, by him, the mother of sons, who were river-gods. According to Hesiod, there were three thousand river-gods, also according to Hesiod, there were three thousand Oceanids. Passages in a section of the Iliad called the Deception of Zeus, suggest the possibility that Homer knew a tradition in which Oceanus and Tethys were the parents of the Titans. Twice Homer has Hera describe the pair as Oceanus, from whom the gods are sprung, however, for M. L. West, these lines suggests a myth in which Oceanus and Tethys are the first parents of the whole race of gods. Tethys played no part in Greek mythology, the only early story concerning Tethys, is what Homer has Hera briefly relate in the Iliads Deception of Zeus passage. Hera relates this while dissembling that she is on her way to visit Oceanus and Tethys, in hopes of reconciling her foster parents, who angry with each other, are no longer having sexual relations. Originally Oceanus consort, at a later time Tethys came to be identified with the sea, in Ovids Metamorphoses, Tethys turns Aesacus into a diving bird. Tethys was sometimes confused with another sea goddess, the sea-nymph Thetis and this possible correspondence between Oceanus and Tethys, and Apsū and Tiamat, has been noticed by several authors, with Tethys name possibly having been derived from that of Tiamat. Representations of Tethys prior to the Roman period are rare, Tethys appears, identified by inscription, as part of an illustration of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis on the early sixth century BC Attic black-figure Erskine dinos by Sophilos. Tethys, accompanied by Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, follows close behind Oceanus, Tethys is also conjectured to be represented in a similar illustration of the wedding of Peleus and Thetis depicted on the early sixth century BC Attic black-figure François Vase. Tethys probably also appeared as one of the fighting the Giants in the Gigantomachy frieze of the second century BC Pergamon Altar. Only fragments of the figure remain, a part of a chiton, below Oceanus left arm, the above are the only artistic representations of Tethys known prior to the Roman period. Her identifying attributes are wings sprouting from her forehead, a rudder/oar, and a ketos, a creature from Greek mythology with the head of a dragon and the body of a snake. The earliest of these mosaics, identified as Tethys, decorated a triclinium overlooking a pool, excavated from the House of the Calendar in Antioch, dated to shortly after AD115. Tethys, reclining on the left, with Oceanus reclining on the right, has long hair, a ketos twines around her raised right arm
2.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
3.
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
4.
Titan (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, the Titans and Titanesses were members of the second generation of divine beings, descending from the primordial deities and preceding the Olympian deities. Based on Mount Othrys, the Titans most famously included the first twelve children of the primordial Gaia and they were giant deities of incredible strength, who ruled during the legendary Golden Age, and also comprised the first pantheon of Greek deities. The first twelve Titans comprised the females Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis and the males Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius, like Cronus overthrowing his father Uranus, the Titans were overthrown by Cronus children, in the Titanomachy. The Greeks may have borrowed this mytheme from the Ancient Near East, Greeks of the classical age knew of several poems about the war between the Olympians and Titans. The dominant one, and the one that has survived, was in the Theogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic, Titanomachia was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was attributed to Plutarch. The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus, although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences with the Hesiodic tradition. Sometimes the elders are supplanted, and sometimes the rebels lose and are either cast out of power entirely or incorporated into the pantheon, the Titanomachy lasted for ten years. The Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus after the war had ended, Tartarus is the deepest spot known in the Underworld, where the most evil beings would be cast into to be tortured for all eternity. Hesiod does not have the last word on the Titans, surviving fragments of poetry ascribed to Orpheus preserve some variations on the myth. In such text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently, instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus so that he becomes drunk upon fermented honey. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged—still drunk—to the cave of Nyx, another myth concerning the Titans that is not in Hesiod revolves around Dionysus. At some point in his reign, Zeus decides to give up the throne in favor of the infant Dionysus, who like the infant Zeus, is guarded by the Kouretes. The Titans decide to slay the child and claim the throne for themselves, they paint their faces white with gypsum, distract Dionysus with toys, then him and boil. Zeus, enraged, slays the Titans with his thunderbolt, Athena preserves the heart in a gypsum doll and this story is told by the poets Callimachus and Nonnus, who call this Dionysus Zagreus, and in a number of Orphic texts, which do not. Pindar, Plato, and Oppian refer offhandedly to the Titanic nature of humans, according to them, the body is the titanic part, while soul is the divine part of humans. Other early writers imply that humanity was born out of the malevolent blood shed by the Titans in their war against Zeus, Martin Litchfield West also asserts this in relation to shamanistic initiatory rites of early Greek religious practices. Beekes connects the word with τιτώ, burket, Walter, The Orientalizing Revolution, Near Eastern Influence on Greek Culture in the Early Archaic Age, Harvard University Press,1995
5.
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
6.
Chthonic
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The translation of meaning discusses deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in Greek religion. The Greek word khthon is one of several for earth, it refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land. These include, but are not strictly limited to, Demeter. Nocturnal ritual sacrifice was a practice in many chthonic cults. When the sacrifice was a creature, the animal was placed in a bothros or megaron. In some Greek chthonic cults, the animal was sacrificed on a raised bomos, offerings were usually burned whole or buried rather than being cooked and shared among the worshippers. C. He does, however, note that this may be somewhat of an overgeneralization, the myths associating the underworld chthonic deities and fertility were not exclusive. Myths about the later Olympian deities also described an association with the fertility, thus Demeter and Persephone both watched over aspects of the fertility of land, yet Demeter had a typically Olympian cult while Persephone had a chthonic one. Also, Demeter was worshiped alongside Persephone with identical rites, and yet occasionally was classified as an Olympian in late poetry, the absorption of some earlier cults into the newer pantheon versus those that resisted being absorbed is suggested as providing the later myths. The categories Olympian and chthonic were not, however, completely separate, some Olympian deities, such as Hermes and Zeus, also received chthonic sacrifices and tithes in certain locations. The deified heroes Heracles and Asclepius might be worshipped as gods or chthonic heroes, depending on the site, moreover, a few deities are not easily classifiable under these terms. Hecate, for instance, was typically offered puppies at crossroads—a practice neither typical of an Olympian sacrifice nor of a sacrifice to Persephone or the heroes. Because of her roles, Hecate is generally classed as chthonic. As well, the chthonic has connotations with regard to gender, in cultural anthropology, men associated with the above, the sky, and women associated with the below, with the earth, water of the underground, and the chthonic deities. This was by no means universal, in Ancient Egypt the main deity of the earth was the male god Geb, his consort was Nut. The term allochthon in structural geology is used to describe a large block of rock which has moved from its original site of formation. From the Greek allo meaning other and chthon designating the process of the mass being moved under the earth. Chthonic law Earth mother Geomancy Life-death-rebirth deities Sky father The dictionary definition of chthonic at Wiktionary
7.
Asclepius
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Asclepius was a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Asclepius represents the aspect of the medical arts, his daughters are Hygieia, Iaso, Aceso, Aglæa/Ægle. He was associated with the Roman/Etruscan god Vediovis and the Egyptian Imhotep and he was one of Apollos sons, sharing with Apollo the epithet Paean. The rod of Asclepius, a staff, remains a symbol of medicine today. Those physicians and attendants who served this god were known as the Therapeutae of Asclepius, the etymology of the name is unknown. In his revised version of Frisks Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, R. S. P. Beekes gives this summary of the different attempts, but the variants of Asklepios and those of the word for mole do not agree. The name is typical for Pre-Greek words, apart from minor variations we find α/αι followed by -γλαπ- or -σκλαπ-/-σχλαπ/β-, I think that the -σ- renders an original affricate, which was lost before the -γ-. Szemerényis etymology from Hitt. assula- well-being and piya- give cannot be correct, Beekes suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *Atyklap-. He was the son of Apollo and, according to the earliest accounts and his mother was killed for being unfaithful to Apollo and was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed, but the unborn child was rescued from her womb. Or, alternatively, his mother died in labor and was out on the pyre to be consumed. Apollo carried the baby to the centaur Chiron who raised Asclepius and it is said that in return for some kindness rendered by Asclepius, a snake licked Asclepius’ ears clean and taught him secret knowledge. Asclepius bore a rod wreathed with a snake, which associated with healing. A species of non-venomous pan-Mediterranean serpent, the Aesculapian snake is named for the god, Asclepius became so proficient as a healer that he surpassed both Chiron and his father, Apollo. Asclepius was therefore able to evade death and to bring back to life from the brink of death. This caused an influx of human beings and Zeus resorted to killing him to balance in the numbers of the human population. Asclepius was married to Epione, with whom he had five daughters, Hygieia, Panacea, Aceso, Iaso, and Aglaea and he also sired a son, Aratus, with Aristodama. At some point, Asclepius was among those who took part in the Calydonian Boar hunt, Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt because he brought Hippolytus back alive from the dead and accepted gold for it. This angered Apollo who in turn killed the Cyclopes who made the thunderbolts for Zeus, for this act, Zeus suspended Apollo from the night sky and commanded Apollo to serve Admetus, King of Thessaly for a year
8.
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
9.
Ceto
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For the minor planet, see 65489 Ceto. Ceto or Keto, is a sea goddess in Greek mythology. Ceto was also variously called Crataeis and Trienus, and was occasionally conflated by scholars with the goddess Hecate, as a mythological figure, she is most notable for bearing by Phorcys a host of monstrous children. The small solar system body 65489 Ceto was named after her and this goddess should not be confused with the minor Oceanid also named Ceto, or with various mythological beings referred to as ketos, this is a general term for sea monster in Ancient Greek. Hesiods Theogony lists the children of Phorcys and Ceto as Echidna, The Gorgons, The Graeae and these children tend to be consistent across sources, though Ladon is sometimes cited as a child of Echidna by Typhon and therefore Phorcys and Cetos grandson. The Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius cites Phorcys and Ceto as the parents of the Hesperides, homer refers to Thoosa, the mother of Polyphemus in The Odyssey, as a daughter of Phorcys, but does not indicate whether Ceto is her mother. Pliny the Elder mentions worship of storied Ceto at Joppa, in a reference, immediately after his mention of Andromeda. S. Safrai and M. Stern suggest the possibility that someone at Joppa established a cult of the monster under the name Ceto, as an alternative explanation, they posit that Pliny or his source misread the name cetus — or that of the Syrian goddess Derceto. Percy Jackson and Frank Zhang, both descended from Poseidon, are imprisoned by Phorcys and they are rescued by the satyr Coach Gleeson Hedge, who kicks Ceto in the head and rescues Percy and Frank. This angers Ceto who sends a Skolopendra to attack their ship the Argo II, but it is defeated by the Ichthyocentaurs who promise to defeat Ceto and Phorcys
10.
Glaucus
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Glaucus was a Greek prophetic sea-god, born mortal and turned immortal upon eating a magical herb. It was believed that he came to the rescue of sailors and fishermen in storms. According to Ovid, Glaucus began his life as a fisherman living in the Boeotian city of Anthedon. He discovered by accident a magical herb which could bring the fish he caught back to life, the herb made him immortal, but also caused him to grow fins instead of arms and a fishs tail instead of legs, forcing him to dwell forever in the sea. Glaucus was initially upset by this side-effect, but Oceanus and Tethys received him well and he was accepted among the deities of the sea. John Tzetzes adds to the story that Glaucus became immortal. The herb brought the hare back to life, Glaucus then tasted it himself and fell into a state of divine madness, in which state Zeus made him fling himself into the stormy sea. Athenaeus also informs that in yet another version followed by Possis of Magnesia, Glaucus was the builder, during a naval battle between the Argonauts and the Etruscans, he fell into the sea and by the will of Zeus became a sea god. Alexander of Aetolia, cited in Athenaeus, related that the herb grew on the island Thrinacia sacred to Helios. Aeschrion of Samos informed that it was known as the dogs-tooth and was believed to have been sowed by Cronus, Athenaeus, referring to Aristotles non-extant Constitution of Delos, related that Glaucus settled in Delos together with the Nereids and would give prophecies to whoever asked for them. He also mentions, this time reference to Nicander, that Apollo was believed to have learned the art of prophecy from Glaucus. An encounter of Glaucus with the Argonauts was described by Diodorus Siculus and Philostratus the Elder, when the Argonauts were caught in a storm, Orpheus addressed the Cabeiroi with prayer, the wind ceased, and Glaucus appeared. He followed the Argo for two days and prophesied to Heracles and the Dioscuri their future adventures and eventual deification. He addressed other members of the crew individually as well, especially noting that he was sent to them thanks to Orpheus prayer, and instructing them to further pray to the Cabeiroi. In Apollonius Rhodius version, Glaucus appeared at the point when Telamon quarreled with Jason over Heracles, cf. also above for the version that made Glaucus an Argonaut himself. In Euripides play Orestes Glaucus appeared in front of Menelaus on the voyage home. He asked the witch Circe for a potion to make Scylla fall in love with him and she tried to win his heart with her most passionate and loving words, telling him to scorn Scylla and stay with her. But he replied that trees would grow on the ocean floor, in her anger, Circe poisoned the pool where Scylla bathed, transforming her into a terrible monster with twelve feet and six heads
11.
Naiad
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In Greek mythology, the Naiads are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water. They are distinct from gods, who embodied rivers. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, the Greek word is Ναϊάς, plural Ναϊάδες It derives from νάειν, to flow, or νᾶμα, running water. Naiad has several English pronunciations, /ˈneɪæd/, /ˈneɪəd/, /ˈnaɪæd/, /ˈnaɪəd/ and they were often the object of archaic local cults, worshipped as essential to humans. Boys and girls at coming-of-age ceremonies dedicated their childish locks to the local naiad of the spring, in places like Lerna their waters ritual cleansings were credited with magical medical properties. Oracles might be situated by ancient springs, Naiads could be dangerous, Hylas of the Argos crew was lost when he was taken by naiads fascinated by his beauty. The naiads were also known to exhibit jealous tendencies, salmacis forced the youth Hermaphroditus into a carnal embrace and, when he sought to get away, fused with him. The loves and rapes of Zeus, according to Graves readings, so, in the back-story of the myth of Aristaeus, Hypseus, a king of the Lapiths, married Chlidanope, a naiad, who bore him Cyrene. Aristaeus had more than ordinary mortal experience with the naiads, when his bees died in Thessaly and his aunt Arethusa invited him below the waters surface, where he was washed with water from a perpetual spring and given advice. St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans was formerly known as Nyades Street, and is parallel to Dryades Street. Crinaeae Eleionomae Limnades or Limnatides Pegaeae Potameides Bibliotheca 2.95,2.11,2.21,2.23,1.61,1.81,1.7.6 Homer. Odyssey 13.355,17.240, Iliad 14.440,20.380 Ovid, theogony Burkert, Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press,1985. Robert Graves, The Greek Myths 1955 Edgar Allan Poe, Sonnet to Science 1829 The Naiades Naiad Nymphs
12.
Nereid
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In Greek mythology, the Nereids are sea nymphs, the 50 daughters of Nereus and Doris, sister to Nerites. They often accompany Poseidon, the god of the sea, and can be friendly and helpful to sailors, Nereids are particularly associated with the Aegean Sea, where they dwelt with their father Nereus in the depths within a golden palace. The most notable of them are Thetis, wife of Peleus and mother of Achilles, Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon, and Galatea and they symbolized everything that is beautiful and kind about the sea. Their melodious voices sang as they danced around their father and they are represented as very beautiful girls, crowned with branches of red coral and dressed in white silk robes trimmed with gold, but who went barefoot. They were part of Poseidons entourage and carried his trident, in Homers Iliad XVIII, when Thetis cries out in sympathy for the grief of Achilles for the slain Patroclus, her sisters appear. The Nereid Opis is mentioned in Virgils Aeneid and she is called by the goddess Diana to avenge the death of the Amazon-like female warrior Camilla. Diana gives Opis magical weapons for revenge on Camillas killer, the Etruscan Arruns, Opis sees and laments Camillas death and shoots Arruns in revenge as directed by Diana. In modern Greek folklore, the term nereid has come to be used for all nymphs, fairies, or mermaids, Nereid, a moon of the planet Neptune, is named after the Nereids. This list is correlated from four sources, Homers Iliad, Hesiods Theogony, the Bibliotheca, because of this, the total number of names goes beyond fifty
13.
Nereus
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In Greek mythology, Nereus was the eldest son of Pontus and Gaia, who with Doris fathered the Nereids and Nerites, with whom Nereus lived in the Aegean Sea. R. S. P. Beekes suggests a Pre-Greek origin, in the Iliad the Old Man of the Sea is the father of Nereids, though Nereus is not directly named. Nereus and Proteus seem to be two manifestations of the god of the sea who was supplanted by Poseidon when Zeus overthrew Cronus, the earliest poet to link Nereus with the labours of Heracles was Pherekydes, according to a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes. Nereus was known for his truthfulness and virtue, But Pontos and they call him the Old Gentleman because he is trustworthy, and gentle, and never forgetful of what is right, but the thoughts of his mind are mild and righteous. The Attic vase-painters showed the torso of Nereus issuing from a long coiling scaly fishlike tail. Bearded Nereus generally wields a staff of authority and he was also shown in scenes depicting the flight of the Nereides as Peleus wrestled their sister Thetis. Nereus was father to Thetis, one of the Nereids, who in turn was mother to the great Greek hero Achilles, and Amphitrite, who married Poseidon. The largest Mediterranean underwater sea cave yet found, lying northwest of Sardinia, was named by the discoverers, also, the deepest-diving underwater ROV, which recently set a record for exploring the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, is named after this figure. It was reported lost May 9,2014, during a dive to the Kermadec Trench. In The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, Nereus appears as an Elder in Book 3 of the series, in it he confronts and battles Perenelle Flamel in an effort to capture and subdue her, thereby making her his wife. He is described as being a man holding a trident from above the waist, Perenelle ends up defeating him and his daughters, the Nereids, who appear as sharp toothed monsters. In Percy Jackson and the Titans Curse, Nereus appears as an old man in some port in San Francisco who is described by Percy as Santas evil twin. He has that smelly ocean stench that differs him from the other homeless and he changes his shape as Percy clings on him in order to get answers. Despite of being a sea-related Ancient Greek creature, he doesnt know the differences between a demigod of Poseidon and other gods. He later appears briefly in The Son of Neptune, in which he recognizes Jackson in San Francisco, in Disneys Hercules cartoon series, Nereus makes occasional appearances. As in the myth, he is a old man who can transform into various monsters and creatures. In the T. V. series Stargate SG-1, a minor Goauld was named Nerus and he was a scientist and inventor of technologies. He was the one who while working for Baal, made the stargates all dial up simultaneously during the battle with the Replicators, Nereus later tricked General Landry into aiding the Ori by claiming that they should throw all their firepower at an Ori beachhead in the Milky Way
14.
Oceanus
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Strictly speaking, Oceanus was the ocean-stream at the Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere. Thus, the sun rises from the deep-flowing Oceanus in the east, in Greek mythology, this world-ocean was personified as a Titan, the eldest son of Uranus and Gaia. In Hellenistic and Roman mosaics, this Titan was often depicted as having the body of a muscular man with a long beard and horns. In Roman mosaics, such as that from Bardo he might carry a steering-oar, some scholars believe that Oceanus originally represented all bodies of salt water, including the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean, the two largest bodies known to the ancient Greeks. Oceanus consort is his sister Tethys, and from their union came the ocean nymphs, also referred to as the three-thousand Oceanids, and all the rivers of the world, fountains, and lakes. In most variations of this myth, Oceanus also refused to side with Cronus in the revolt against their father. R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek proto-form *-kay-an-, when Odysseus and Nestor walk together along the shore of the sounding sea they address their prayers to the great Sea-god who girdles the world. It is to Oceanus, not to Poseidon, that their thoughts are directed, Heracles forced Helios to lend him his golden bowl, in order to cross the wide expanse of the Ocean on his trip to the Hesperides. When Oceanus tossed the bowl about, Heracles threatened him and stilled his waves, the journey of Heracles in the sun-bowl upon Oceanus became a favored theme among painters of Attic pottery. Oceanus appears in Hellenic cosmography as well as myth, cartographers continued to represent the encircling equatorial stream much as it had appeared on Achilles shield. Apollonius of Rhodes calls the lower Danube the Keras Okeanoio in Argonautica, accion in the fourth century Gaulish Latin of Rufus Avienus, Ora maritima, was applied to great lakes. At the end of the Okeanos Potamos, is the island of Alba, sacred to the Pelasgian Apollo. Hecateus of Abdera refers to Apollos island from the region of the Hyperboreans and it was on Leuke, in one version of his legend, that the hero Achilles, in a hilly tumulus, was buried. Leto, the Hyperborean goddess, after nine days and nine nights of labour on the island of Delos gave birth to the god of the antique light. Old Romanian folk songs sing of a monastery on a white island with nine priests, nine singers, nine altars. Oceanid Ogyges Rasā Uranus Aeschylus, Persians, edited and translated by Alan H. Sommerstein. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press,2009, online version at Harvard University Press. Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1921
15.
Ophion
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In some versions of Greek mythology, Ophion, also called Ophioneus ruled the world with Eurynome before the two of them were cast down by Cronus and Rhea. Pherecydes of Syross Heptamychia is the first attested mention of Ophion, the story was apparently popular in Orphic poetry, of which only fragments survive. Lycophron relates that Zeus mother, Rhea, is skilled in wrestling, having cast the former queen Eurynome into Tartarus. Nonnus in his Dionysiaca has Hera say, I will go to the uttermost bounds of Oceanus and share the hearth of primeval Tethys, thence I will pass to the house of Harmonia, Harmonia here is probably an error in the text for Eurynome. Eusebius of Caesarea in his Praeparatio Evangelica cites Philo of Byblos as declaring that Pherecydes took Ophion, robert Graves in his book The Greek Myths imaginatively reconstructs a Pelasgian creation myth involving Ophion as a serpent created by a supreme goddess called Eurynome dancing on the waves. She is fertilized by the serpent and in the form of a dove lays an egg on the waters about which Ophion entwines until it hatches, then Ophion and Eurynome dwell on Mt. Olympus until Ophion boasts that he made the world alone. Eurynome, as punishment, kicked out his teeth and banished him to the underworld, from Ophions teeth sprang Pelasgus who taught man all the arts and crafts
16.
Phorcys
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In Greek mythology, Phorcys /ˈfɔːrsᵻs/ is a primordial sea god, generally cited as the son of Pontus and Gaia. According to the Orphic hymns, Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea were the eldest offspring of Oceanus, Classical scholar Karl Kerenyi conflated Phorcys with the similar sea gods Nereus and Proteus. His wife was Ceto, and he is most notable in myth for fathering by Ceto a host of monstrous children, in extant Hellenistic-Roman mosaics, Phorcys was depicted as a fish-tailed merman with crab-claw fore-legs and red-spiked skin. These children tend to be consistent across sources, though Ladon is often cited as a child of Echidna by Typhon and therefore Phorcys, according to Apollodorus, Scylla was the daughter of Crataeis, with the father being either Trienus or Phorcus. Apollonius of Rhodes has Scylla as the daughter of Phorcys and a conflated Crataeis-Hecate, the Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes cites Phorcys and Ceto as the parents of the Hesperides, but this assertion is not repeated in other ancient sources. Homer refers to Thoosa, the mother of Polyphemus, as a daughter of Phorcys, Apollodorus, Apollodorus, The Library, with an English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, F. B. A. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann Ltd.1921, online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Athanassakis, Apostolos N, Hesiod, Theogony, Works and days, Shield, caldwell, Richard, Hesiods Theogony, Focus Publishing/R. Clay, Jenny Strauss, Hesiods Cosmos, Cambridge University Press,2003, Early Greek Mythography, Volume 1, Text and Introduction, Oxford University Press,2013. ISBN 978-0198147404. * Freeman, Kathleen, Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, A Complete Translation of the Fragments in Diels, Fragmente Der Vorsokratiker, Harvard University Press,1983. 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, grimal, Pierre, The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Wiley-Blackwell,1996, ISBN 978-0-631-20102-1. Hyginus, Gaius Julius, The Myths of Hyginus, edited and translated by Mary A. Grant, Lawrence, University of Kansas Press,1960. Morford, Mark P. O. Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, rose, Herbert Jennings, Echidna in The Oxford Classical Dictionary, Hammond and Scullard, Second Edition, Oxford University Press,1992. ISBN 0-19-869117-3 Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, theoi Project - Phorcys Greek Mythology at Mythologica
17.
Pontus (mythology)
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In Greek mythology, Pontus was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. Pontus was Gaias son and has no father, according to the Greek poet Hesiod, he was born without coupling, though according to Hyginus, Pontus is son of Aether and Gaia. For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ho pontos, with Gaia, he fathered Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the Strong Goddess Eurybia. With the sea goddess Thalassa, he fathered the Telchines and all sea life, in a Roman sculpture of the 2nd century AD, Pontus, rising from seaweed, grasps a rudder with his right hand and leans on the prow of a ship. He wears a crown, and accompanies Fortuna, whose draperies appear at the left. She bore also the deep with his raging swell, Pontus. And yet again he got great Thaumas and proud Phorcys, being mated with Earth, - Hyginus, Fabulae Preface Pontus, historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea
18.
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
19.
Proteus
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In Greek mythology, Proteus is an early sea-god or god of rivers and oceanic bodies of water, one of several deities whom Homer calls the Old Man of the Sea. Some who ascribe to him a specific domain call him the god of sea change. He can foretell the future, but, in a familiar to several cultures, will change his shape to avoid having to. From this feature of Proteus comes the adjective protean, with the meaning of versatile, mutable, capable of assuming many forms. Protean has positive connotations of flexibility, versatility and adaptability, Proteus name suggests the first, as protogonos is the primordial or the firstborn. It is not certain to what this refers, but in myths where he is the son of Poseidon, it refers to his being Poseidons eldest son, older than Poseidons other son. The first attestation of the name, although it is not certain whether it refers to the god or just a person, is in Mycenaean Greek, the attested form, in Linear B, is
20.
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
21.
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
22.
Nymph
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A nymph in Greek mythology and in Latin mythology is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform. They are beloved by many and dwell in mountainous regions and forests by lakes, charybdis and Scylla were once nymphs. Other nymphs, always in the shape of young maidens, were part of the retinue of a god, such as Dionysus, Hermes, or Pan, or a goddess, nymphs were the frequent target of satyrs. The Greek word νύμφη has bride and veiled among its meanings, other readers refer the word to a root expressing the idea of swelling. The mythologies of classicizing Roman poets were unlikely to have affected the rites and cult of individual nymphs venerated by people in the springs. Among the Roman literate class, their sphere of influence was restricted, the ancient Greek belief in nymphs survived in many parts of the country into the early years of the twentieth century, when they were usually known as nereids. At that time, John Cuthbert Lawson wrote and they might appear in a whirlwind. Such encounters could be dangerous, bringing dumbness, besotted infatuation, when parents believed their child to be nereid-struck, they would pray to Saint Artemidos. Due to widespread use of the term among lay persons and stereotypes attached, professionals nowadays prefer the term hypersexuality, the word nymphet is used to identify a sexually precocious girl. The term was made famous in the novel Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, the main character, Humbert Humbert, uses the term many times, usually in reference to the title character. Thus the classes of nymphs tend to overlap, which complicates the task of precise classification, rose mentions dryads and hamadryads as nymphs of trees generally, meliai as nymphs of ash trees, and naiads as nymphs of water, but no others specifically. She is the consort of Acheron, and the mother of Ascalaphus, leuce, lover of Hades Minthe, lover of Hades, rival of Persephone Melinoe Orphic nymph, daughter of Persephone and Zeus disguised as Pluto. Her name is an epithet of Hecate. Nymphs in such groupings could belong to any of the mentioned above. For lists of Naiads, Oceanids, Dryades etc and this motif supposedly came from an Italian report of a Roman sculpture of a nymph at a fountain above the River Danube
23.
Doris (mythology)
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Doris, an Oceanid, was a sea nymph in Greek mythology, whose name represented the bounty of the sea. She was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and the wife of Nereus and she was also aunt to Atlas, the titan who was made to carry the sky upon his shoulders, whose mother Clymene was a sister of Doris. Doris was mother to Nerites and the fifty Nereids, including Thetis, who was the mother of Achilles, and Amphitrite, Poseidons wife, Doris is a semi-common female name
24.
Archaic Greece
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According to Anthony Snodgrass, the Archaic period in ancient Greece was bounded by two revolutions in the Greek world. The Archaic period saw developments in Greek politics, economics, international relations, warfare and it laid the groundwork for the Classical period, both politically and culturally. The word archaic derives from the Greek word archaios, which means old and it refers to the period in ancient Greek history before the classical. The Archaic period was considered to have been less important and historically interesting than the classical period. More recently, however, Archaic Greece has come to be studied for its own achievements, with this reassessment of the significance of the Archaic period, some scholars have objected to the term archaic, due to its connotations in English of being primitive and outdated. No term which has suggested to replace it has gained widespread currency, however. Much of our evidence about the period of ancient Greece comes from written histories. By contrast, we have no evidence from the Archaic period. We have written accounts of life in the period in the form of poetry, and epigraphical evidence, including parts of law codes, inscriptions on votive offerings, however, none of this evidence is in the quantity for which we have it in the classical period. What is lacking in evidence, however, is made up for in the rich archaeological evidence from the Archaic Greek world. Indeed, where much of our knowledge of classical Greek art comes from later Roman copies, other sources for the period are the traditions recorded by later Greek writers such as Herodotus. However, these traditions are not part of any form of history as we would recognise it today, indeed, Herodotus does not even record any dates before 480 BC. Politically, the Archaic period saw the development of the polis as the predominant unit of political organisation, many cities throughout Greece came under the rule of autocratic leaders, called tyrants. The period also saw the development of law and systems of communal decision-making, with the earliest evidence for law codes, by the end of the Archaic period, both the Athenian and Spartan constitutions seem to have developed into their classical forms. The Archaic period saw significant urbanisation, and the development of the concept of the polis as it was used in classical Greece. The urbanisation process in Archaic Greece known as synoecism – the amalgamation of small settlements into a single urban centre – took place in much of Greece in the eighth century BC. Both Athens and Argos, for instance, began to coalesce into single settlements around the end of that century and these two factors created a need for a new form of political organisation, as the political systems in place at the beginning of the Archaic period quickly became unworkable. Though in the part of the classical period the city of Athens was both culturally and politically dominant, it was not until the late sixth century that it became a leading power in Greece
25.
Alcman
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Alcman was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the nine lyric poets, the name of Alcmans mother is not known but his father may have been named either Damas or Titarus. Alcmans nationality was a matter of even in ancient days. Unfortunately, the records of the ancient authors were often deduced from biographic readings of their poetry, antipater of Thessalonica wrote that poets have many mothers and that the continents of Europe and Asia both claimed Alcman as their son. Frequently assumed to have born in Sardis, capital of ancient Lydia. Thus, Alcman claims he learned his skills from the strident partridges, yet, given that there was a discussion, it cannot have been certain who was the third person of this fragment. Some modern scholars defend his Lydian origin on the basis of the language of some fragments or the content, however, Sardis of the 7th century BC was a cosmopolitan city. The implicit and explicit references to Lydian culture may be a means of describing the girls of the choruses as fashionable. One tradition, going back to Aristotle, holds that Alcman came to Sparta as a slave to the family of Agesidas, Aristotle reported that it was believed Alcman died from a pustulant infestation of lice, but he may have been mistaken for the philosopher Alcmaeon of Croton. According to Pausanias, he is buried in Sparta next to the tomb of Helen of Troy. The fragment, which is now kept at the Louvre in Paris, contains approximately 100 verses of a so-called partheneion, in the 1960s, many more fragments were published in the collection of the Egyptian papyri found in a dig at an ancient garbage dump at Oxyrhynchus. Most of these fragments contain poems, but there are other kinds of hymns among them. Pausanias says that even though Alcman uses the Doric dialect, which does not usually sound beautiful, Alcmans songs were composed in the Doric dialect of Sparta. Apollonius Dyscolus describes Alcman as συνεχῶς αἰολίζων constantly using the Aeolic dialect, however, the validity of this judgment is limited by the fact that it is said about the use of the digamma in the third-person pronoun ϝός his/her, it is perfectly Doric as well. This mixing of features adds complexity to any analysis of his works, one popular metre is the dactylic tetrameter. The type of songs Alcman composed most frequently appear to be hymns, partheneia, much of what little exists consists of scraps and fragments, difficult to categorize. The most important fragment is the First Partheneion or Louvre-Partheneion, found in 1855 in Saqqara in Egypt by the French scholar Auguste Mariette and this Partheneion consists of 101 lines, of which more than 30 are severely damaged. The choral lyrics of Alcman were meant to be performed within the social, political, most of the existing fragments are lines from partheneia
26.
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
27.
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
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Greek hero cult
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Hero cults were one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion. In Homeric Greek, hero refers to a man who was fighting on either side during the Trojan War, copious renewed offerings begin to be represented, after a hiatus, at sites like Lefkandi, even though the names of the grandly buried dead were hardly remembered. Stories began to be told to individuate the persons who were now believed to be buried in these old, large Mycenaean tholos tombs that betokened a grander past, were often the site of hero-cults. Not all heroes were even known by names, the custom, then, was already established, and there were multiple local heroes. In the heros restricted and local scope he retained the limited, the two exceptions to the above were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honored as either heroes or gods, with chthonic libation or with burnt sacrifice. Heroes in cult behaved very differently from heroes in myth and they might appear indifferently as men or as snakes, and they seldom appeared unless angered. A Pythagorean saying advises not to eat food that has fallen on the floor, Heroes if ignored or left unappeased could turn malicious, in a fragmentary play by Aristophanes, a chorus of anonymous heroes describe themselves as senders of lice, fever and boils. These all seem to date to the 8th century BC, the cult of Pelops at Olympia dates from the Archaic period. Where local cult venerated figures such as the sacrificial virgin Iphigeneia, other isolated female figures represented priestess-initiators of a local cult. Iconographic and epigraphal evidence marshalled by Larson combine to depict heroines as similar in kind to heroes, Whitley distinguishes four or five essential types of hero cult, Oikist cults of founders. Such cults arose in colonies in the Hellenic world in Magna Graecia and Sicily at the grave of the founder, in the case of cults at the tombs of the recently heroised, it must be assumed that the identity of the occupant of the tomb was unequivocally known. Thucydides gives the example of Brasidas at Amphipolis, battus of Cyrene might also be mentioned. Such historical examples, Whitley warns, have colored the interpretation of certain tomb cults in the Archaic period. Such Archaic sites as the heroon at Lefkandi and that close to the West Gate at Eretria cannot be distinguished by archaeological methods from family observances at tombs and the cult of ancestors. A number of sites known in Classical times were dedicated to known heroes in the Greek and modern senses, especially of the Iliad. The cults of Oedipus at Athens and Pelops at Olympia are examples, such local figures do not figure among the Panhellenic figures of epic. Examples would be Akademos and Erechtheus at Athens and these are represented archaeologically by Iron Age deposits in Mycenaean tombs, not easily interpreted. Because of the gap in time between the Bronze Age collapse and the earliest votive objects, continuity appears to be broken
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Peleus
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In Greek mythology, Peleus was a hero whose myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs and he married the sea-nymph Thetis with whom he fathered Achilles. Peleus and his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, and served in Heracles expedition against the Amazons, his war against King Laomedon, though there were no further kings in Aegina, the kings of Epirus claimed descent from Peleus in the historic period. Peleus and his brother Telamon killed their half-brother Phocus, perhaps in an accident and certainly in an unthinking moment. In Phthia, Peleus was purified by Eurytion and married Antigone, Eurytions daughter, by whom he had a daughter, Peleus was purified of the murder of Eurytion in Iolcus by Acastus. Astydameia, Acastus wife, fell in love with Peleus but he scorned her, bitter, she sent a messenger to Antigone to tell her that Peleus was to marry Acastus daughter. As a result, Antigone hanged herself, Astydameia then told Acastus that Peleus had tried to rape her. Acastus took Peleus on a trip and hid his sword then abandoned him right before a group of centaurs attacked. Chiron, the centaur, or, according to another source, Hermes, returned Peleus sword with magical powers. He pillaged Iolcus and dismembered Astydameia, then marched his army between the rended limbs, Acastus and Astydamia were dead and the kingdom fell to Jasons son, Thessalus. After Antigones death, Peleus married the sea-nymph Thetis and he was able to win her with the aid of Proteus, who told Peleus how to overcome Thetis ability to change her form. Their wedding feast was attended by many of the Olympian gods, as a wedding present, Poseidon gave Peleus two immortal horses, Balius and Xanthus. During the feast, Eris, in revenge for not being invited, produced the Apple of Discord, the marriage of Peleus and Thetis produced seven sons, six of whom died in infancy. The only surviving son was Achilles, Thetis attempted to render her son Achilles invulnerable. In the well-known version, she dipped him in the River Styx, holding him by one heel, which remained vulnerable. In an early and less popular version of the story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and she was interrupted by Peleus and she abandoned both father and son in a rage, leaving his heel vulnerable. Later on in life, Achilles is killed by Paris when he is shot in his vulnerable spot and this is where the term Achilles heel is derived from. Peleus gave Achilles to the centaur Chiron, to raise on Mt. Pelion, in the Iliad, Achilles uses Peleus immortal horses and also wields his fathers spear
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Achilles
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In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero of the Trojan War and the central character and greatest warrior of Homers Iliad. His mother was the immortal nymph Thetis, and his father, Achilles’ most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan hero Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the Iliad, other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, later legends state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for his heel. Alluding to these legends, the term Achilles heel has come to mean a point of weakness, Achilles name can be analyzed as a combination of ἄχος grief and λαός a people, tribe, nation. In other words, Achilles is an embodiment of the grief of the people, Achilles role as the hero of grief forms an ironic juxtaposition with the conventional view of Achilles as the hero of κλέος kleos. Laos has been construed by Gregory Nagy, following Leonard Palmer, to mean a corps of soldiers, a muster. With this derivation, the name would have a meaning in the poem, when the hero is functioning rightly, his men bring grief to the enemy. The poem is in part about the misdirection of anger on the part of leadership, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a Pre-Greek origin of the name. The name Achilleus was a common and attested name among the Greeks soon after the 7th century BC. It was also turned into the female form Ἀχιλλεία attested in Attica in the 4th century BC and, in the form Achillia, Achilles was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Zeus and Poseidon had been rivals for the hand of Thetis until Prometheus, for this reason, the two gods withdrew their pursuit, and had her wed Peleus. Thetis, although a daughter of the sea-god Nereus, was brought up by Hera. According to the Achilleid, written by Statius in the 1st century AD, and to no surviving previous sources, however, he was left vulnerable at the part of the body by which she held him, his heel. It is not clear if this version of events was known earlier, in another version of this story, Thetis anointed the boy in ambrosia and put him on top of a fire, to burn away the mortal parts of his body. She was interrupted by Peleus and abandoned both father and son in a rage, however, none of the sources before Statius makes any reference to this general invulnerability. To the contrary, in the Iliad Homer mentions Achilles being wounded, in Book 21 the Paeonian hero Asteropaeus, son of Pelagon and he cast two spears at once, one grazed Achilles elbow, drawing a spurt of blood. Peleus entrusted Achilles to Chiron the Centaur, on Mt. Pelion, Achilles consuming rage is at times wavering, but at other times he cannot be cooled. Thetis foretold that her sons fate was either to gain glory and die young, or to live a long, Achilles chose the former, and decided to take part in the Trojan war
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Classical Greece
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Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years in Greek culture. This Classical period saw the annexation of much of modern-day Greece by the Persian Empire, Classical Greece had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire and on the foundations of western civilization. Much of modern Western politics, artistic thought, scientific thought, theatre, literature, in the context of the art, architecture, and culture of Ancient Greece, the Classical period, sometimes called the Hellenic period, corresponds to most of the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Classical period in this sense follows the Archaic period and is in turn succeeded by the Hellenistic period and this century is essentially studied from the Athenian outlook because Athens has left us more narratives, plays, and other written works than the other ancient Greek states. From the perspective of Athenian culture in Classical Greece, the period referred to as the 5th century BC extends slightly into the 4th century BC. In this context, one might consider that the first significant event of this occurs in 508 BC, with the fall of the last Athenian tyrant. However, a view of the whole Greek world might place its beginning at the Ionian Revolt of 500 BC. The Persians were defeated in 490 BC, the Delian League then formed, under Athenian hegemony and as Athens instrument. Athens excesses caused several revolts among the cities, all of which were put down by force. After both forces were spent, a brief peace came about, then the war resumed to Spartas advantage, Athens was definitively defeated in 404 BC, and internal Athenian agitations mark the end of the 5th century BC in Greece. Since its beginning, Sparta had been ruled by a diarchy and this meant that Sparta had two kings ruling concurrently throughout its entire history. The two kingships were both hereditary, vested in the Agiad dynasty and the Eurypontid dynasty, according to legend, the respective hereditary lines of these two dynasties sprang from Eurysthenes and Procles, twin descendants of Hercules. They were said to have conquered Sparta two generations after the Trojan War, in 510 BC, Spartan troops helped the Athenians overthrow their king, the tyrant Hippias, son of Peisistratos. Cleomenes I, king of Sparta, put in place a pro-Spartan oligarchy headed by Isagoras, but his rival Cleisthenes, with the support of the middle class and aided by democrats, took over. Cleomenes intervened in 508 and 506 BC, but could not stop Cleisthenes, through his reforms, the people endowed their city with isonomic institutions — i. e. with equal rights for all —and established ostracism. The isonomic and isegoric democracy was first organized into about 130 demes, the 10,000 citizens exercised their power as members of the assembly, headed by a council of 500 citizens chosen at random. The territory of the city was divided into thirty trittyes as follows, ten trittyes in the coastal region ten trittyes in the ἄστυ. A tribe consisted of three trittyes, selected at random, one each of the three groups
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Polis
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Polis, plural poleis literally means city in Greek. It can also mean a body of citizens, in modern historiography, polis is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, and thus is often translated as city-state. The term city-state, which originated in English, does not fully translate the Greek term. The poleis were not like other primordial ancient city-states like Tyre or Sidon, which were ruled by a king or a small oligarchy, the term polis, which in archaic Greece meant city, changed with the development of the governance center in the city to signify state. Finally, with the emergence of a notion of citizenship among landowners, the ancient Greeks did not always refer to Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and other poleis as such, they often spoke instead of the Athenians, Lacedaemonians, Thebans and so on. The body of citizens came to be the most important meaning of the polis in ancient Greece. The Greek term that meant the totality of urban buildings. Plato analyzes the polis in The Republic, whose Greek title, Πολιτεία, the best form of government of the polis for Plato is the one that leads to the common good. The philosopher king is the best ruler because, as a philosopher, in Platos analogy of the ship of state, the philosopher king steers the polis, as if it were a ship, in the best direction. Books II–IV of The Republic are concerned with Plato addressing the makeup of an ideal polis, in The Republic, Socrates is concerned with the two underlying principles of any society, mutual needs and differences in aptitude. Starting from these two principles, Socrates deals with the structure of an ideal polis. According to Plato, there are five main classes of any polis, producers, merchants, sailors/shipowners, retail traders. Along with the two principles and five classes, there are four virtues. The four virtues of a just city include, wisdom, courage, moderation, with all of these principles, classes, and virtues, it was believed that a just city would exist. Publication of state functions, laws, decrees, and major fiscal accounts were published, synoecism, conurbation, Absorption of nearby villages and countryside, and the incorporation of their tribes into the substructure of the polis. Many of a polis citizens lived in the suburbs or countryside, most cities were composed of several tribes or phylai, which were in turn composed of phratries, and finally génea. They had the right to vote, be elected into office, and bear arms, metics could not vote, be elected to office, bear arms, or serve in war. They otherwise had full personal and property rights, albeit subject to taxation, slaves, chattel in full possession of their owner, and with no privileges other than those that their owner would grant at will
33.
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
34.
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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Hecatoncheires
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Their name derives from the Greek ἑκατόν and χείρ, each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads. Hesiods Theogony reports that the three Hecatoncheires became the guards of the gates of Tartarus, the Hundred-Handed-Ones are giants of great storms and hurricanes. Other accounts make Briareos one of the assailants of Olympus, after his defeat, he was buried under Mount Aetna. According to Hesiod, the Hecatoncheires were children of Gaia and Uranus and they played no known part in cult. They were, Briareos Strong, also called Aegaeon, spelled in Latin as Briareus, gyges or Gyes, possibly Limb or Curved. Soon after they were born, their father Uranus threw them into the depths of Tartarus because he saw them as hideous monsters. The Hecatoncheires remained there, guarded by the dragon Campe, until Zeus rescued them, advised by Rhea that they would serve as allies against Cronus. During the War of the Titans, the Hecatoncheires fought against the Titans, throwing rocks as big as mountains, one hundred at a time, after this, the Hecatoncheires became the guards of Tartarus. Briareos became the son-in-law of Poseidon, who gave him Kymopoliea his daughter to wed, scholia on Apollonius of Rhodes represent Aegaeon as a son of Gaea and Pontos, the Sea, ruling the fabulous Aegaea in Euboea, an enemy of Poseidon and the inventor of warships. In Ovids Metamorphoses and in Philostratus Life of Apollonius of Tyana he is a marine deity, in the Iliad by Homer, translated by Butler, Achilles asks his mother to appeal to Zeus on account of a previous interaction with Briareus, or Aegaeon. In Gargantua and Pantagruel it is mentioned that a waiter needs as many hands as Briareus, the giant is also mentioned in Cervantes Don Quixote, in the famous episode of the windmills. Briareos is mentioned in Book I of John Miltons Paradise Lost alongside Typhon as an analogue to the fallen Satan, Briareos is mentioned in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, by Henry Fielding, in a conversation between Tom Jones and Mr. Partridge. In Don Juan, Byron makes a crude joke, musing whether enviable Briareus. Hadst all things multiplied in proportion, in the Magic, The Gathering expansion Theros, based on Greek mythology, there is a card named Hundred-Handed One, a reference to the Hecatonkheires. Kottos, styled as Cottus is mentioned in John Keats Hyperion as a deity in the aftermath of the Titanomachy. Asura Greek mythology in popular culture Hesiods Theogony, 147ff, bibliotheca I.1.1 Ovid, Fasti iv.593 Horace Carminae II.17.14, III.4.69 Karl Kerenyi, Gods of the Greeks, London, Thames and Hudson,1951
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Giants (Greek mythology)
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According to Hesiod, the Giants were the offspring of Gaia, born from the blood that fell when Uranus was castrated by his Titan son Cronus. Archaic and Classical representations show Gigantes as man-sized hoplites fully human in form, later representations show Gigantes with snakes for legs. In later traditions, the Giants were often confused with other opponents of the Olympians, particularly the Titans, the vanquished Giants were said to be buried under volcanoes and to be the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. The name Gigantes is usually taken to imply earthborn, and Hesiods Theogony makes this explicit by having the Giants be the offspring of Gaia, According to Hesiod, Gaia mating with Uranus bore many children, the first generation of Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handers. But Uranus hated his children and, as soon as they were born, he imprisoned them inside of Gaia, and so Gaia made a sickle of adamant which she gave to Cronus, the youngest of her Titan sons, and hid him to wait in ambush. And when Uranus came to lie with Gaia, Cronus castrated his father, and the drops that gushed forth received. From these same drops of blood also came the Erinyes and the Meliai, there are three brief mentions of Gigantes in Homers Odyssey, though its not entirely clear that Homer and Hesiod understood the term to mean the same thing. Elsewhere in the Odyssey, Alcinous says that the Phaiakians, like the Cyclopes, and Odysseus describes the Laestrygonians as more like Giants than men. Pausanias, the 2nd century AD geographer, read these lines of the Odyssey to mean that, for Homer, the 6th–5th century BC lyric poet Bacchylides calls the Giants sons of the Earth. Later the term became a common epithet of the Giants. Hyginus has the Giants being the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, Homer describes the Giant king Eurymedon as great-hearted, and his people as insolent and froward. Hesiod calls the Giants strong and great which may or may not be a reference to their size, though a possible later addition, the Theogony also has the Giants born with gleaming armour, holding long spears in their hands. Other early sources characterize the Giants by their excesses, Pindar describes the excessive violence of the Giant Porphyrion as having provoked beyond all measure. Bacchylides calls the Giants arrogant, saying that they were destroyed by Hybris, Homers comparison of the Giants to the Laestrygonians is suggestive of similarities between the two races. Rocks huge as a man could lift, certainly possessed great strength, over time, descriptions of the Giants make them less human, more monstrous and more gigantic. According to Apollodorus the Giants had great size and strength, an appearance, with long hair and beards. Ovid makes them serpent-footed with a hundred arms, and Nonnus has them serpent-haired, the most important divine struggle in Greek mythology was the Gigantomachy, the battle fought between the Giants and the Olympian gods for supremacy of the cosmos. It is primarily for battle that the Giants are known
37.
Uranus (mythology)
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Uranus was the primal Greek god personifying the sky. His name in Roman mythology was Caelus, in Ancient Greek literature, Uranus or Father Sky was the son and husband of Gaia, Mother Earth. According to Hesiods Theogony, Uranus was conceived by Gaia alone, elemental Earth, Sky and Styx might be joined, however, in a solemn invocation in Homeric epic. The most probable etymology traces the name to a Proto-Greek form *worsanós enlarged from *ṷorsó-, the basic Indo-European root is *ṷérs- ‘to rain, moisten’, making Ouranos the ‘rainmaker’. A less likely etymology is a derivative with meaning ‘the one standing on high’ from PIE *ṷérso-, georges Dumézil’s equation of Ouranos’ name with that of the Vedic deity Váruṇa, god of the sky and waters, is etymologically untenable. In Hesiods Theogony, Uranus is the offspring of Gaia, the earth goddess, alcman and Callimachus elaborate that Uranus was fathered by Aether, the god of heavenly light and the upper air. Under the influence of the philosophers, Cicero, in De Natura Deorum, claims that he was the offspring of the ancient gods Aether and Hemera, Air, according to the Orphic Hymns, Uranus was the son of Nyx, the personification of night. Uranus was the brother of Pontus, the God of the sea, further, according to the Theogony, when Cronus castrated Uranus, from Uranus blood, which splattered onto the earth, came the Erinyes, the Giants, and the Meliae. In the Olympian creation myth, as Hesiod tells it in the Theogony, Uranus came every night to cover the earth and mate with Gaia, but he hated the children she bore him. Hesiod named their first six sons and six daughters the Titans, Uranus imprisoned Gaias youngest children in Tartarus, deep within Earth, where they caused pain to Gaia. She shaped a great flint-bladed sickle and asked her sons to castrate Uranus, only Cronus, youngest and most ambitious of the Titans, was willing, he ambushed his father and castrated him, casting the severed testicles into the sea. For this fearful deed, Uranus called his sons Titanes Theoi, from the blood that spilled from Uranus onto the Earth came forth the Giants, the Erinyes, the Meliae, and, according to some, the Telchines. From the genitals in the sea came forth Aphrodite, after Uranus was deposed, Cronus re-imprisoned the Hekatonkheires and Cyclopes in Tartarus. Uranus and Gaia then prophesied that Cronus in turn was destined to be overthrown by his own son, zeus, through deception by his mother Rhea, avoided this fate. These ancient myths of distant origins were not expressed in cults among the Hellenes, the function of Uranus was as the vanquished god of an elder time, before real time began. After his castration, the Sky came no more to cover the Earth at night, but held to its place, Uranus was scarcely regarded as anthropomorphic, aside from the genitalia in the castration myth. He was simply the sky, which was conceived by the ancients as a dome or roof of bronze. Olympus is almost always used of, but ouranos often refers to the sky above us without any suggestion that the gods
38.
Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
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Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Thetis". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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