Greek Mythology Read online

  Foreign though she may be, Aphrodite had many stories told about her in Greek myth. Whenever there was an element of love or desire in a story, Aphrodite was usually worked in somehow. She played a role in the Trojan War as the goddess that Paris chose to give the apple to, and she was coveted by both god and mortal because of her great beauty. It was said that she washed up naked on a seashell, which is a famous image because of a Renaissance Botticelli painting. Aphrodite was the patroness of the city of Cnidus in Asia Minor, and also of Paphos on Cyprus, where it was said she had been born. In Rome, she was known as Venus.

  Ares

  Ares was the god of war. As far as war gods go, Ares seems almost peripheral to Greek myth. This is mostly because all Greek gods could be worshipped and praised in war. This was because gods were patrons and patronesses of this city or that, and they would be invoked in war times regardless of whether or not they had an explicitly warlike function. So the Athenians would invoke Athena in war and the Argives would naturally invoke Hera, and so on.

  This reality seemed to leave a little role for Ares in Greek life. In Greek myth, however, Ares crops up now and again. He was known for his love (or lust) of Aphrodite, and the sort of menage a trois the twain shared with the jealous Hephaestus. Again, this is an example of Greek myth seeming to reflect one of the realities of human life: the infidelity seems to be more human even than monogamy. Ares was the patron of few cities in Ancient Greece, at least as far as the major ones go. In Rome, this god was known as Mars.

  Hephaestus

  Hephaestus was the blacksmith of the gods and the husband of Aphrodite. As Greek gods go, there is something un-Greek about him. On the other hand, one might say that there was something most Greek about him. If Aphrodite was the foreign harlot who seduced the Greeks into worshipping her, Hephaestus embodied the hapless Greek man who fell for her charms. Where the other Olympian gods were beautiful and generally depicted as being youthful and idealized, Hephaestus (when he was shown) was depicted as being a rather unattractive man.

  Though Hephaestus seems like he would be a peripheral character, he does pop up in myths not infrequently. He is associated with the story of King Minos and the Minotaur, as well as the story of Jason and the Argonauts. As has already been stated, Hephaestus was married to Aphrodite so he often crops up in tales relating to her. There were few major cities devoted to Hephaestus, though shrines devoted to him were not uncommon.

  Hades

  Hades was a god of a darker shade. He was the god of the underworld, the place where men journeyed to when they died. Hades was not frequently depicted in art, but when he was the artist was sure to imbue him with a macabre character. It was said that one had to cross the River Styx to enter his land, which required that one first paid the ferryman. For this reason, the Greeks often buried their dead with a coin under the tongue. He was married to Persephone, whom he kidnapped and brought to his land. There were no cities devoted to Hades, and his worship was certainly minute compared to the other gods.

  Demeter

  Demeter was the goddess of the harvest. She is often depicted in art with an element that suggested grain and agricultural produce, such as a crown of wheat or holding husks of wheat. She would have been prayed to by men and women who lived in the countryside and who hoped for a bountiful harvest. She also would have been prayed to by people hoping to be delivered from famine. As Greece was not a bountiful land when it came to the soil, Demeter was almost a peripheral goddess compared to similar roles in other societies.

  Indeed, the Norse had several gods responsible for fertility and the harvest. Indeed, there was an entire group of gods, the Vanir, who were believed to have been old fertility gods that had warred with the primary group of Norse gods (the Aesir). The result was that some of them were recruited to join the Aesir. The Greeks only had one fertility goddess, although it could be argued that Dionysus was a fertility god of a sort, too. Many cities had shrines to Demeter, and her worship was particularly important in areas where grain growing was of importance, like Ionia in Asia Minor and Thessaly.

  Dionysus

  Dionysus is another god who appears to have a non-Greek origin. It has been suggested that this god, a son of Zeus, was of Thracian origin. The Thracians were a people who lived on the eastern side of the Black Sea so they would have been far northern neighbors of the Greeks. Greek explorers and colonizers would have come across the Thracians in their attempt to plant colonies in order to secure a constant flow of grain to Greece. the cities of the North Aegean and the Black Sea (especially the cities of Asia Minor) would be very important to the Greeks as a source of food. This is why the defeat of the Persians led to a golden age for the Greeks: cities that produced grain suddenly found themselves free to trade and export as they chose.

  Dionysus was the god of wine and reveling. He was associated with Bacchanalian festivals, named after the god’s moniker in Latin: Bacchus. These were orgiastic rites that were supposed to impact the wine crop. Viticulture was very important in Greece, as well as the Mediterranean culture in general. Dionysus was often invoked by statues or markers at crossroads that featured a bearded man with a phallus pointing up on the front of the marker. Dionysus was worshipped in most Greek cities, including Eleusis, which lay near Athens.

  Hermes

  Hermes was the messenger of the gods of Mount Olympus. A son of Zeus, he was often depicted with winged sandals, representing the flight that the god took in his role as messenger. Hermes did not belong to the primary group of gods, which included Apollo, Athena, Zeus, and Poseidon, but there were temples devoted to his worship. Indeed, because so much of Greek life depended on the ability to communicate with distant places, the facilitation of that communication necessarily took a place of paramount importance.

  This was part of the role that Hermes played. In myth, this god was involved primarily with the gods’ communication with man, but in practical life during the golden age of Greek civilization, Hermes was involved with communication in general. So one might pray to Hermes before an important voyage, especially if there was a need for auspicious communication. There were temples dedicated to Hermes throughout the Greek world, and this god was frequently depicted in art. Hermes also was a frequent character encountered in Greek myth.

  Artemis

  Artemis was an important goddess in Greek myth. Indeed, Artemis was not only an important female divinity but a key divinity in general. Artemis was the goddess of the moon. She was also a huntress and the patroness of hunters. For this reason, Artemis often depicted as a beautiful woman dressed in hunting attire. Another daughter of Zeus, her beauty was enough to arouse the desire of men like Actaeon. But like other goddesses, Artemis was vain. She was one of the contestants in the contest to see which goddess was the most beautiful.

  As the goddess of the moon, Artemis’s worship was widespread throughout the Greek world. This is a convenient time to talk about another aspect of Greek worship that is important. We have already spoken about the gods as patrons of cities, but they were also revered for their attributes. So a Norse city might have shrines to many gods, but the Greeks tended to focus their worship on a handful of divinities that were particularly important based on their usage. Greek worship, therefore, had a highly regional character, and some of this had to do with the ethnic groups within the Greek world, like the Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians and the like.

  It seems that Artemis was particularly favored in the Eastern cities of the Greek world, particularly in Asia Minor. Although today we tend to think of the cities of Ionia and other places of Asia Minor as colonies, they had been settled so long by the Classical period that it is almost incorrect to refer to them as such. Cities like Miletus, Ephesus, and Smyrna were just as important as Argos, Thebes, Corinth, and other important regional centers on the Greek mainland.

  Hestia

  Hestia was the Greek goddess of the hearth. She was also associated with fire. The eldest daughter of Cronys and Rhea, Hestia was, therefore, the elde
r sister of Zeus, king of the gods. It was not a coincidence that the elder of the Olympian gods was a female goddess associated with life and fire. She seems to represent the old gods and old way of worship that was swept away by the invasion of the Achaeans and Dorians in the Heroic Age.

  Hestia was said to love peace, and much modern scholarship has focused on the theory that the earliest gods of the Greeks were peaceable. The claim is that it was later Indo-European speakers, presumably from Asia Minor or the European plain, were warlike and brought with them warlike male gods like Zeus and Apollo. This theory seems like an oversimplification of a more complex theological picture and it is. Even the later Indo-Europeans would have had some female gods, and it stands to reason that the earlier people had male gods to boot.

  The fire was something very important to older, less developed people, rendering Hestia an important divinity. The hearth was the fire of the home that kept the members of the family warm and which would have also been used to prepare meals. In Greek tradition, when a member of the family left the home they would take with them some burning embers from the hearth flame to symbolize the home where they had been reared. Public hearths were kept up in villages and large towns. The fire was used in sacrifices and other public festivals, which prevented this old way of worship and of life from falling into disuse.

  Ephesus was the sacred city of Artemis, and its temple was one of the largest in the Greek world. It may seem strange for there to be so much devotion to the moon, as there was for Artemis, but these gods were primarily divinities associated with particular places and their realm of the rule was almost incidental. So while Poseidon might be important to worship because fishermen and sailors needed luck at the sea, Artemis might be worshipped merely because she was associated with Ephesus and the particular devotee happened to be from that city. In Roman myth, Artemis was known as Diana, and she was no less significant to the Romans as she was to the Greeks.

  Hera’s Jealousy

  Hera was a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, making her the sister-wife to Zeus, king of the gods. She reigned as queen of Olympus, but it seemed most of her time was spent chasing after or at least being irritated by her husband Zeus. If there had been video cameras in ancient times, Hera probably would have spent most of her days watching them in order to see what Zeus was up to. It is said by some that Zeus was a poor husband for inciting the jealousy of Hera, but Hera was not much better in her fixation with the activities of her husband.

  Although the marriage of Zeus and Hera cannot be said to be a happy one, they remained together and the twain in a way modeled the marriage structure that represented the fundamental unit of ancient Greek civilization. Unfortunately for Hera (or Zeus), there were no divorce agreements available if you were a god living on Mount Olympus. There are many tales of Zeus and just as many about Hera. Hera’s jealousy was a common subject in myth. But this story begins with how Zeus and Hera became married. Zeus tricked Hera by taking the form of the cuckoo, a small and harmless bird. The bird was wet and slick and Hera clutched it to her breast to warm it. Zeus instantly transformed back to his natural shape, that is, a man and Hera agreed to marry him.

  She would remain faithful to Zeus in spite of his infidelities. It seemed she had little choice. She did not want to end up in Tartarus with the Titans, which seemed to be the fate of anyone who went against the will of Zeus. Zeus was not always successful in his attempts to deceive Hera. In one try, he changed a beautiful maiden called Io into a cow. Hera was not fooled and she demanded the heifer as a gift and sent a monster called Argus to guard it. Hermes lulled Argus to sleep and killed him, but Io was not free. She was pursued by a gadfly that Hera sent all the way to Egypt. There the eyes of Argus were transformed into a peacock where they remain to this day.

  Hera was beautiful and therefore was just as deserving of admirers as the women that Zeus pursued. A man called Ephialtes made it his goal to capture Hera. They started an unsuccessful war with the Olympian gods. Another admirer was a certain Ixion. Ixion fell in love with Hera at a banquet, but Zeus tricked him by turning a cloud into the shape of Hera. Ixion made love to the cloud and gave birth to the centaurs, an act for which he was punished by being bound to a wheel of fire.

  Hephaestus and Aphrodite

  Hephaestus was the lame son of Zeus and Hera. According to some legends, Hephaestus was the son of Hera alone. He was married to Aphrodite, goddess of love, which naturally seems like a mismatch. Aphrodite was beautiful, vivacious, and coveted by many, while there were few women who would have been interested in Hephaestus, who was not as fair as the other gods of Olympus. In any event, Aphrodite was well-known for being unfaithful to Hephaestus. She had many lovers, of which the most famous was perhaps Ares. Other lovers of Aphrodite included Poseidon and Hermes. By Hermes, Aphrodite father Hermaphroditus and, according to some, Eros, who was also known as Cupid (to the Romans, at least). Eros was usually depicted in later art as an infant who accompanies Aphrodite, although in some stories he is mentioned as a young man.

  In some accounts, Hephaestus was not married to Aphrodite, but to one of the Three Graces. The workshop of Hephaestus was said to be located under Mount Etna in Italy. Hephaestus, of course, was the Vulcan of the Romans.

  Nymphs and Other Creatures

  Greek mythology may not be as rife with fantastic characters as Norse myth and legend, but they are there nonetheless. Most of these peripheral characters had to do with bodies of water, though there were others who were associated with other natural elements of the environment. For example, dryads were spirits associated with trees.

  The spirits and characters that will be discussed here are essentially the embodied spirits of physical spaces, even if those spaces were changing (like water). They occupied a liminal space between god and mortal. Although they are not properly termed demigods, they had much in common with this particular group. Demigods were essentially the half-mortal children of the gods, and they typically had a longer lifespan and special accouterments that distinguished them from human beings. Although the same is not true of the naiads, nereids, and others, it is true that these creatures or spirits were believed to basically be immortal when it came to the duration of life, although they could be killed as mortals can.

  Nymph is basically the catch-all term for the spirit characters discussed in this portion of the chapter. Nereids and naiads are types of nymphs. Nymphs were generally depicted (and thought of) as beautiful young girls. They were associated with fertility and fecundity. Many gods and demigods were the children on nymphs, including characters like Achilles. A nymph was the beautiful young girl associated with (usually) a body of water. A nereid was a nymph associated with the sea, while a naiad was usually associated with a discrete aqueous structure, like a fountain. Although there were no cities or temples associated with nymphs, they frequently appeared in myth and legend. Shrines devoted to important local nymphs would have been common in the Greek world.

  Chapter 4: The Children of the Gods

  In Greek legend, the children of the gods were usually known as demigods. Many of these became famous heroes. Indeed, most of the heroes of Greek myth were the children of the gods. A review of the names who boarded the Argo with Jason reveals how common it was for the gods to father children and for those children to appear in Greek myth. Unlike other mythologies, it seemed common in Greece for mortal men to claim a godly ancestor. Some of the Argonauts who were the children of gods included:

  Adolphus, son of Ares; Calais, son of Boreas, the North Wind; Echion, son of Hermes; Heracles, son of Zeus; Idmon, son of Apollo; Melampus, son of Poseidon; Naupilus, son of Poseidon; Palaemon, son of Hephaestus; Periclymenus, son of Poseidon; Phanus, son of Dionysus; Staphylus, brother to Phanus; Zetes, another son of Boreas.

  The Children of Zeus

  Zeus, the presiding king of Mount Olympus, had many loves and fathered many children. By Hera, he fathered Ares, Hephaestus, and Hebe. It has been mentioned the claim that Hera might have birthed Heph
aestus on her own, but most sources give Zeus as the father. Zeus’s first wife was not Hera, but Metis. Metis became pregnant, but Zeus, in the fashion of his family, swallowed Metis so that a child would not be born who would be greater than himself. This child was Athena, who therefore sprung from the head of Zeus and was the beneficiary of his wisdom.

  Zeus had other children besides. By a certain Electra, Zeus was the father of Harmonia. Zeus fathered the Three Graces by Eurynome. Leto was the mother of Apollo and Artemis. Hermes was the son of Zeus by Maia. Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses, all daughters. Themis, the embodiment of the law, gave birth to several children including the Horae, Eunomia, Dike, the Fates, and Eirene, whose name means peace. Children of Zeus by mortal women include Amphion, Zethus, Perseus, Epaphus, Castor, Pollux (or Polydeuces), Argos (who founded the city of Argos), and Dionysius, who was the son of Semele.