Post by EVYLEN PUNCHES PUPPIES on Jul 5, 2010 23:20:06 GMT -5
the creation Iin the beginning there was only chaos. then out of the void appeared erebus, the unknowable place where death dwells, and night. all else was empty, silent, endless, darkness. then somehow love was born bringing a start of order. from love came light and day. once there was light and day, gaea, the earth appeared.
then Erebus slept with night, who gave birth to Ether, the heavenly light, and to day the earthly light. then night alone produced doom, fate, death, sleep, dreams, Nemesis, and others that come to man out of darkness.
meanwhile Gaea alone gave birth to Uranus, the heavens. Uranus became Gaea's mate covering her on all sides. together they produced the three cyclopes, the three hecatoncheires, and twelve titans.
however, Uranus was a bad father and husband. he hated the hecatoncheires. he imprisoned them by pushing them into the hidden places of the earth, Gaea's womb. this angered Gaea and she plotted against Uranus. she made a flint sickle and tried to get her children to attack Uranus. all were too afraid except, the youngest titan, Cronus.
Gaea and Cronus set up an ambush of Uranus as he lay with Gaea at night. Cronus grabbed his father and castrated him, with the stone sickle, throwing the severed genitals into the ocean. the fate of Uranus is not clear. he either died, withdrew from the earth, or exiled himself to Italy. as he departed he promised that cronus and the titans would be punished. from his spilt blood came the giants, the ash tree nymphs, and the Erinnyes. from the sea foam where his genitals fell came Aphrodite.
Cronus became the next ruler. he imprisoned the cyclopes and the hecatoncheires in Tartarus. he married his sister Rhea, under his rule the titans had many offspring. he ruled for many ages. however, Gaea and Uranus both had prophesied that he would be overthrown by a son. to avoid this Cronus swallowed each of his children as they were born. Rhea was angry at the treatment of the children and plotted against Cronus. when it came time to give birth to her sixth child, Rhea hid herself, then she left the child to be raised by nymphs. to counsel her act she wrapped a stone in swaddling cloths and passed it off as the baby to cronus, who swallowed it.
this child was Zeus. he grew into a handsome youth on Crete. he consulted Metis on how to defeat Cronus. she prepared a drink for Cronus designed to make him vomit up the other children. Rhea convinced Cronus to accept his son and Zeus was allowed to return to Mount Olympus as Cronus's cup bearer. this gave Zeus the opportunity to slip Xronus the specially prepared drink. this worked as planned and the other five children were vomited up. being gods they were unharmed. they were thankful to Zeus and made him their leader.
Cronus was yet to be defeated. he and the titans, except prometheus, epimetheus, and oceanus, fought to retain their power. atlas became their leader in battle and it looked for some time as though they would win and put the young gods down. however, zeus was cunning. he went down to tartarus and freed the cyclopes and the hecatoncheires. prometheus joined zeus as well. he returned to battle with his new allies. the cyclopes provided zeus with lighting bolts for weapons. the hecatoncheires he set in ambush armed with boulders. with the time right, zeus retreated drawing the titans into the hecatoncheires's ambush. the hecatoncheires rained down hundreds of boulders with such a fury the titans thought the mountains were falling on them. they broke and ran giving zeus victory.
zeus exiled the titans who had fought against him into tartarus. except for atlas, who was singled out for the special punishment of holding the world on his shoulders.
however, even after this victory zeus was not safe. gaea angry that her children had been imprisoned gave birth to a last offspring, typhoeus. typhoeus was so fearsome that most of the gods fled. however, zeus faced the monster and flinging his lighting bolts was able to kill it. typhoeus was buried under mount etna in sicily.
much later a final challenge to zeus's rule was made by the giants. they went so far as to attempt to invade mount olympus, piling mountain upon mountain in an effort to reach the top. but, the gods had grown strong and with the help of heracles, the giants were subdued or killed.
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the creation IIperhaps the most confusing aspect of this myth is the extensive use of names that seem difficult to non native greek speakers to pronounce. this sometimes causes frustration and loss of track when trying to establish the continuing relationship between these characters in the birth of the world. so you have to be patient and try to associate these names with the characters and events that took place...
according to the myths, the immortal gods thought that it would be interesting to create beings like them, but that were mortal. they would allow these beings to inhabit the earth. as soon as the mortals were created, zeus, the leader of the gods, ordered the two sons of the titan iapetus, prometheus and epimetheus, to give these beings various gifts in the hope that the mortals would evolve into interesting beings, able to amuse the gods.
so the two brothers started to divide the gifts among themselves in order to give them to the earth's inhabitants. epimetheus asked his brother to give out the gifts first, and was granted his wish. he gave the gift of beauty to some animals, agility on other animals, strength in others, and agility and speed to some. however, he left the human race defenseless, with no natural weapons in this new kingdom. prometheus, who liked the human race, upon realizing what had happened, promptly distributed his own gifts to mankind. he stole reason from athena, and thus gave reason to man. he then stole fire from the gates of hephaestus, and gave mankind this new gift, which would keep them warm. prometheus then became the protector of the human race, and shared with it all the knowledge he had.
this new situation angered zeus, for fire until now had been a gift only reserved for the gods. zeus did not want the human race to resemble the gods. zeus' next step was to punish prometheus. and a heavy punishment it was. zeus chained prometheus to a peak in the caucasus which was believed to be at the end of the world. he had an eagle eat his liver every single day for thirty years. at the end of each day, prometheus' liver would grow back again, so he would have to suffer all over again. after thirty years, heracles released prometheus from his nightmare.
the olympians refers to the twelve gods of mount olympus which is located in the northern central part of greece. this mountain was believed to be sacred throughout ancient times, and, it was believed to be the highest point on earth. these gods that ruled mount olympus, also ruled the lives of all mankind. each and every single god or goddess had their own character and domain. gods in mythology were very human like. they had the strengths and weaknesses of mortals. they were truly made to represent each and every side of human nature. they supported justice, as seen by their own point of view.
gods even had children with mortals, which resulted in semi-gods like hercules. the most amazing observation is how the gods expresses human nature in its complete form. strength, fear, unfaithfulness, love, admiration, beauty, hunting, farming, education, there was a god for every human activity and expression. these gods weren't just ideal figures. they were beings with their own limitations. they expressed anger, jealousy and joy, just like us. each god rules his own realm. they only true omnipotent god was zeus, who ruled all.
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zeus' loversas the sky god zeus had easy access to the women of the world and took full advantage of it. also, his power as a supreme god made him difficult to resist. prior to his marriage to hera he was married first to metis, then themis. he was interested in demeter but she resisted him. his third wife was mnemosyne. he was involved with leto shortly before his marriage to hera. the list of lovers after his final marriage, to hera, is considerable:
europathe cretan moon goddess who was adopted into greek myth as a virgin phoenician princess abducted by zeus in the form of a bull, raped by him, and subsequently abandoned. europa was the daughter of the king agenor of sidon. she had the continent of europe named for her. somewhat miraculously hera was distracted during her affair with zeus and never punished her for it.
one night europa had a dream. in this dream two continents, which were in the forms of women were arguing over europa. asia maintained that since europa had been born in asia she belonged to it. the other continent, which was nameless, said that her birth was not important, that zeus would give her to it.
it was early morning, disturbed by the dream europa did not go back to sleep. she summoned her companions, who were all daughters of nobility and of her age. it was a beautiful day and they went off gathering flowers by the sea. zeus noticed this charming group, particularly europa, who was the prettiest of the maidens. some say that eros, induced him into action with one of his darts. although, zeus often made due with self motivation. in any case, zeus appeared to the group as a white bull. a white bull more beautiful then any other. a bull that smelled of flowers, and lowed musically. a bull so obviously gentle that all the maidens rushed to stroke and pet it.
the bull laid down in front of europa. she slid on to its back. instantly, the bull charged off, plunging into the sea, and began to swim rapidly from the shore. europa saw that a procession had joined them, nereids riding dolphins, triton blowing his horn, even poseidon. from this she realized that the bull must be a god. she pleaded with him to pity her. zeus spoke to her and explained his love. he took her to Create, where he had been raised. he promised that she would bear him many famous sons.
her sons included minos and rhadamanthus.
ioprincess of argos. zeus fell in love with io and seduced her. to try to keep hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. this backfired, arousing hera's suspicions. she came down from mount olympus and began dispersing the clouds. zeus did some quick thinking and changed io's form from being a lovely maiden. so as the clouds dispersed hera found zeus standing next to a white heifer. he then swore that he had never seen the cow before, it had just sprang right out of the earth. seeing right through this hera complemented the cow and asked to have it as a present. as turning such a reasonable request down would have given the whole thing away, zeus presented her with the cow.
she sent the cow away and arranged argus panoptes to watch over it. since argus had a hundred eyes and could have some of them sleep while others were awake he made a fine watchman. desperate, zeus sent hermes to fetch io. disguised as a shepard, hermes had to employ all his skill as a musician and story teller to gain argus confidence and lull him to sleep. once asleep hermes killed argus. as a memorial, hera took his eyes and set them into the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock.
while io was now free hera sent the mother of all gad-flys to sting the still bovine io. the ghost of argus pursued her as well. this pushed her near madness, trying to escape she wandered the world. during her wanders she came across prometheus while chained. he gave her hope. he predicted that she would have to wander for many years. but, she would eventually be changed back into human form and would bear a child. he predicted that a descendant of this child would be a great hero and set him free.
his predictions came true. during her wanderings many geographical features were named after her including the ionian sea, and the bosphorus. she eventually reached the nile where zeus did restore her to human form. she bore epaphus and eleven generations later her descendant heracles would set prometheus free.
semelesemele was a thebian princess. she is the only mortal to be the parent of a god. she was one of zeus many lovers and like most came to an unfortunate end due to hera's jealous hatred. she is best known as the mother of dionysus. while she was killed shortly before giving birth the child was rescued by zeus. eventually dionysus, who had never seen her, managed to rescue her from the underworld. and arrange for her to live on mount olympus.
ganymedea trojan prince known for his beauty. it is uncertain which of the trojan kings was his father, probably tros or laomedon. while still a youth, zeus appeared in the form of an eagle and carried him off to mount olympus. some accounts say he was carried to olympus by a whirlwind. he served zeus as cup bearer and lover. jis role was commemorated in the constellation aquarius, the water carrier.
callistodaughter of lycaon, king of arcadia. she was one of artemis hunting attendants. as a companion of artemis, callisto would have taken a vow of chastity. zeus appeared to her in disguise, probably as artemis, gained her confidence, then took advantage of her. as a result of this encounter she conceived a son, arcas.
he was turned into a large bear, either by zeus as part of an attempt to hide his philandering, or by hera out of jealously, or by artemis out of anger that she broke her vow of chastity. not content with callisto's fate as a bear, hera continued to work against her to get artemis to think she was a normal bear and slay her. zeus came to the rescue turning her into the constellation arctos, the great bear, also known as ursa major. at zeus direction, hermes saved arcas from the womb and took him to be raised by maia. she was joined by her son who became the nearby constellation arctophylax, the little bear, also known as ursa minor.
continuing to hold a grudge hera persuaded tethys and oceanus not to allow callisto to enter their realm, the ocean. due to this callisto must circle the north star and never set over the horizon.
letoleto is the daughter of coeus and phoebe. she was an early and favorite lover of zeus. zeus married hera while leto was pregnant. while the pregnancy began before the marriage hera was still jealous of leto. for the duration of leto's pregnancy hera created problems. first leto was pushed out of olympus. as she wandered no place would allow her to stay for fear hera would be offended. hera had the dragon python chase her. zeus saved her by sending the north wind boreas to carry her out to sea.
finally, the desolate rocky island of delos, which had little to lose, accepted her. the other goddesses gathered to help leto as she gave birth. hera stayed away and managed to detain eileithyia, goddess of childbirth, until iris fetched her. leto first gave birth to artemis and then after another nine days of labor to apollo.
still fleeing hera's wrath she went to lycia. the peasants tried to prevent her from drinking from their well, so she turned them into frogs. initially leto's problems continued. but, now she had her two fast developing children, both of whom became powerful archers, to protect her. when four days old apollo was able to slay python. then the euboean giant tityus tried to rape leto only to be killed by the children. as they grew into their full power the twins become willing to avenge leto's honor as well as to protect her safety. niobe boasted that she was more deserving of adulation then leto because she had borne seven sons and seven daughters. the twins replied to this by slaying all but one of niobe's children.
as the mother of two powerful gods leto returned to zeus' favor despite hera's disapproval. after apollo killed the cyclopes, leto was able to persuade zeus to lighten his punishment. she spent much of her time hunting with artemis. she sided with the trojans during the war and helped heal aeneas from his battle wounds.
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the birth of athenazeus came to lust after metis, and chased her in his direct way. metis tried to escape, going so far as to change her form many times. turning into various creatures such as hawks, fish, and serpents. however, zeus was both determined and equally proficient at changing form. he continued his pursuit until she relented.
an oracle of gaea then prophesied that metis first child would be a girl but, her second child would be a boy that would overthrow zeus as had happened to his father and grandfather. zeus took this warning to heart. when he next saw metis he flattered her and put her at her ease. then with metis off guard zeus suddenly opened his mouth and swallowed her. this was the end of metis but, possibly the beginning of zeus' wisdom.
after a time zeus developed the mother of all headaches. he howled so loudly it could be heard throughout the earth. the other gods came to see what the problem was. hermes realized what needed to be done and directed hephaestus to take a wedge and split open zeus' skull. out of the skull sprang athena, full grown and in a full set of armour. due to her manor of birth she has dominion over all things of the intellect.
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the wanderings of dionysusonce he had grown to manhood dionysus decided to wander far and wide, including areas outside of greece. where ever he went he taught men how to cultivate vines, and the mysteries of his cult. he was accepted until he returned to his own country of thebes.
as he journeyed back to greece he was spotted by pirates. he appeared to them as a rich young man. he might even be the son of a king. he certainly looked like his parents would pay a rich ransom for his safe return. happy at their good luck the pirates seized him and brought him aboard their ship. they then attempted to tie him to the ship but, the ropes refused to hold. anyplace a rope touched him it just fell apart. dionysus watched calmly, smiling.
after some time the helmsman realized that only a god could be responsible. he called out that the crew should free dionysus and beg his forgiveness. but, the captain mocked the helmsman as a fool and called for the crew to set sail. the crew raised the sail and caught the wind but, the ship did not move. looking around they saw the ship quickly becoming overgrown with vines that held it fast. dionysus then changed himself into a lion and began to chase the crewmen. to escape they leaped overboard but, as they did they were changed to dolphins. Only on the helmsman did dionysus have mercy.
as he passed through thrance he was insulted by king lycurgus, who bitterly opposed his new religion. initially dionysus retreated into the sea but, he returned, overpowered lycurgus and imprisoned him in a rocky cave. dionysus planned to let him reflect and learn from his mistakes. however, zeus did not care to have the gods insulted, so he blinded then killed lycurgus.
he pressed on to thebes, ruled by his cousin pentheus. however, pentheus did not know of dionysus. dionysus was with a group of his followers, who were naturally singing and dancing loudly, flushed with wine. pentheus disliked the loud, strangers, and ordered his guards to imprison them all. he referred to their leader as a cheating sorcerer from lydia. when he said this the blind old prophet teiresias, who had already dressed as one of dionysus' followers gave pentheus a warning: "the man you reject is a new god. he is semele' child, whom zeus rescued. he, along with demeter, are the greatest upon earth for men." pentheus, seeing the strange garb teiresias had on, laughed at him and ordered his guards to continue.
the guards soon found that ropes fell apart, latches fell open, and there they could not imprison dionysus' followers. they took dionysus to pentheus. dionysus tried to explain at length his worship but, pentheus listened only to his own anger and insulted dionysus. finally, dionysus gave up and left pentheus to his doom.
pentheus pursued dionysus followers up into the hills where they had gone after walking away from his prison. many of the local women including pentheus' mother and sister had joined them there. then dionysus appeared to his followers in his most terrible aspect and drove them mad. to them pentheus appeared to be a mountain lion. in a berserk rage they attacked him. now pentheus realized he had fought with a god and would die for it. his mother was the first to reach him, and ripped his head off, while the others tore off his limbs.
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theseus' adventuresonce there was a young boy named teseus. nobody knew who his father was, for both king aegeus of athens and poseidon had been fond of his mother aethra. right before theseus was born aegeus said to aethra, "if we shall have a son, when he is old enough tell him to lift this rock and take my sword and sandals from under it." then aegeus placed both his sword and his sandals under a large boulder and then set sail for athens.
now this all happened in a small town called troezen where theseus grew into a strong young man. when aethra thought it was time she took theseus to the large boulder and told him to lift it. theseus wrapped his mighty arms around the boulder lifted it as if it were paper. then he threw the boulder into a nearby forest. aethra then told him to take the sword and sandals and go to athens.
aethra and her father begged theseus to go to athens by sea, for horrible robbers and bandits inhabited the road, but theseus was bold and went overland. after a few miles he met a large man with a shiny club. "i am priphetes the cudgel man and i'm going to bash you're head with this club," he said.
"that's a mighty fine club you have there," replied theseus.
"ure brass."
"Ii bet it isn't."
"yes it is."
"it's just wood wrapped in brass."
"here, let me look at it to make sure."
periphetes handed the club to theseus. theseus knocked periphetes in the side of the head with it. "not bad," thought theseus, "not bad at all. i think i'll keep this."
theseus started walking again. not much farther he saw giant man holding a battle-ax on the side of the road. "i am sciron and these are my cliffs. to pass you must wash my feet as a toll!" the man said. "what would happen if i didn't?" replied theseus. "i will chop of your head with this ax, and don't think that puny little twig you're carrying will save you, you're absolutely... wrong!!!!" sciron yelled. so theseus sat down and started to wash sciron's feet. theseus looked over the side of the cliff, there was a monstrous turtle at the bottom. then theseus knew that this was the sciron that kicked people off the cliff where a man-eating turtle waited. when sciron's foot came towards him, theseus jerked aside and hurled sciron off the cliff.
theseus walked a ways longer until he saw a man that looked remarkably like sciron. the man said, "could you do me a favor young man? hold this pine tree down for me." the man's name was sinis the pine-bender. sinis bent a pine tree down and waited for theseus to hold the tree down with him. then sinis let go! he was expecting theseus to be catapulted in the air, but theseus held it down. sinis stooped down to get a better look at the tree, thinking that it had broken. theseus let go of the tree. it hit sinis in the chin knocking him unconscious. theseus then tied sinis' legs to one bent pine tree, his arms to another. then theseus let go, the trees ripped sinis in half. vultures screamed with delight.
theseus went on his way again. after a few miles it got dark. theseus saw a large house up ahead of him. he decided to ask the owner for a bed for the night. he walked up to the door and knocked. a man came to the door and said, "welcome young man. come in, you look tired. my name is procustes. i have a magic bed for you to stay the night on. it is exactly six feet long, but can fit anyone, be they short or tall." theseus had been warned about a man named procustes. his so called "magic" bed did fit anyone, but in an unpleasant way. if you were to short he would fasten chains on to your arms and legs and stretch you. if you were too tall he would chop of your legs until you were just right. procustes led theseus into the room where the bed was. theseus pushed procustes on to the bed and chopped off his legs. so procustes wouldn't feel pain theseus sliced his head off to.
the next morning theseus reached athens. it was the largest city he had ever seen. he went to the castle where aegeus lived. aegeus had married medea who (being a sorceress) had him under her power. with her powers medea recognized theseus and knew that he would get rid of her. so she told aegeus that theseus had come to kill him and that she would give theseus poisoned wine. aegeus-not knowing that theseus was his son-agreed. aegeus invited theseus to a banquet. when theseus was just about to drink his wine aegeus recognized the sword and dashed the wine cup to the floor. theseus and aegeus were filled with happiness. medea left in a chariot drawn by dragons.
theseus and aegeus were happy for a long time, but when the time of the spring equinox came all the athenians became mournful as a ship with black sail approached athens. theseus begged his father to tell him why the athenians were sad, but aegeus said nothing.
theseus went down to the harbor and asked the captain of the black-sailed ship what was happening. the captain told him about how king minos of crete's eldest son androgeus had accidentally been killed in athens. minos was very angry. he attacked athens and demanded that the athenians pay a yearly tribute of seven young man and seven young women to be fed to the minotaur. the minotaur was half man and half bull. it lived in the labyrinth, a large maze that once one is in he or she will be aimlessly lost in it's many tunnels.
theseus went back to aegeus and said, "i will go to crete as one of the victims and i will slay the minotaur!" "no my son," said aegeus, "you mustn't go. you are my only son. the only heir to the throne." "i must go father. i must prove that i am a hero." said theseus. in the end aegeus let theseus go, but made him promise that if he return alive, to change the sails from black to white. so theseus volunteered to go as one of the fourteen victims.
when theseus and his companions landed at crete, minos was there to welcome them. he asked each who they were. when it came to theseus' turn he said, "i am theseus, prince of athens, son of poseidon!" to this Minos replied, "if you were the prince of athens wouldn't old aegeus be your father. to prove you are son of poseidon fetch my ring." minos threw his ring into the sea. praying to poseidon theseus dived into the water. he saw the nymph thetis who gave him the ring and an old crown. theseus came to the surface holding the ring and the crown. minos laughed.
that night theseus was visited by minos' daughter ariadne. she said to him, "theseus, i have decided to help you kill the minotaur if you will take me back to athens and make me your queen." theseus was glad of the help and promised to ariadne that he would take her back to athens. she gave theseus a ball of silk thread and told him to tie it to the entrance of the labyrinth and unwind it as he went. the string would lead him back to the entrance.
the next day theseus and his companions were forced into the labyrinth. theseus tied the string onto a rock and told everyone to follow him. he led them towards the center of the labyrinth where the minotaur was. when they got there they saw the beast sleeping. theseus jumped on it and ripped of one of it's horns. theseus started poking at the minotaur (who was very angry) with the horn. then theseus ran to a safer distance and threw the horn like a javelin. the horn ripped into the monsters neck and stuck there. the minotaur now enraged charged at theseus, but fell dead before it was half way. everyone cheered. theseus was a hero! they followed the thread back to the entrance of the labyrinth.
theseus, ariadne, and the others went on board the black-sailed ship and set sail for athens. one night the god dionysus came to theseus and said, "you mustn't marry princess ariadne for i have chosen her as my own bride. leave her on the island of naxos." theseus did as the god told him. he was so sad, he forgot to change the sails from black to white. old aegeus sat on a cliff watching and waiting for theseus to come, but when he saw the black sails he jumped into the sea. that fatal stretch of water was named after him. it still is called the aegean.
