The Ancient Greeks

Bust of Zeus, Otricoli (Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

For example, Zeus, the king of the gods, carried his favorite weapon, the thunderbolt. When it rained and there was thunder and lightning, the ancient Greeks believed that Zeus was venting his anger.

 

Many stories about how the Greek gods behaved and interacted with humans are found in the works of Homer. He created two epic poems: the Iliad, which related the events of the Trojan War, and the Odyssey, which detailed the travels of the hero Odysseus. These two poems were passed down orally over many generations.

 

 

The Statue of Zeus at Olympia (recreated above) was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Zeus was the ruler of the gods, the lord of the skies, and the father of countless deities and demigods of the Greek pantheon.

 

 

 

 

A Soap Opera from Hellas

 

Many Greek myths explained the mysteries of nature. The myth of Apollo, for example, describes how the sun moves across the sky to rise and set each day.

 

The Greeks created gods in the image of humans; that is, their gods had many human qualities even though they were gods. The gods constantly fought among themselves, behaved irrationally and unfairly, and were often jealous of each other. Zeus, the king of the gods, was rarely faithful to his wife Hera. Hera plotted against Zeus and punished his mistresses.

 

The Greek gods were highly emotional and behaved inconsistently and sometimes immorally. Greek religion did not have a standard set of morals, there were no Judaic Ten Commandments. The gods, heroes, and humans of Greek mythology were flawed.

 

In addition to Zeus and Hera, there were many other major and minor gods in the Greek religion. At her birth, Athena, the goddess of wisdom, sprang directly from the head of Zeus. Hermes, who had winged feet, was the messenger of the gods and could fly anywhere with great speed. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, was the most beautiful being in the universe. Her brother, Ares, the god of war, was sinister, mean, and disliked. Poseidon, ruled the sea from his underwater place and Apollo rode his chariot across the sky, bringing the sun with him.

 

Hades was in charge of the dead in the underworld. Almost all people went to Hades after they died whether they were good or bad. To get there, the dead had to cross the river Styx. Charon was the name of the boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across the river Styx to Hades.

 

Typically, the gods punished those who were bad. For example, Tantalus who killed his own son and served him to the gods for dinner was sent to Hades and made forever thirsty and hungry. Although there was a pool of clear, fresh drinking water at his feet, whenever Tantalus bent down to drink, the pool would dry up and disappear.

 

Likewise, over his head hung the most delicious fruit. However, whenever Tantalus reached for them, a wind would blow them just out of his reach. The English word “tantalize” derives from the name Tantalus.

 

Pandora’s Box and Hercules’ Labors

 

Myths helped explain how the world came to be the way it was. In one myth, Zeus created an incredibly beautiful and nearly perfect woman named Pandora. Her one flaw was that she was very curious and suspicious. Hermes, Zeus’s messenger, gave Pandora a golden box. He warned her never to open it because terrible things would occur if she did.

 

But Pandora could hardly contain her curiosity and eventually broke down and opened the special box. Out from the box flew all the evils that plague humanity: famine, greed, pain, sorrow, etc. Only one thing remained in the box — hope — which humans managed to hold on to. This myth explains the origins of human misfortune. At the same time, it teaches a moral lesson by warning of the dangers of curiosity.

 

In addition to myths about gods, the ancient Greeks also told stories about heroes. One of the most famous Greek heroes was Hercules, the world’s strongest man. Hercules was the illegitimate son of a mortal woman and Zeus, who tricked the woman by disguising himself as the woman’s husband. Hera, Zeus’s wife, was angry about Zeus’ affair and sought to punish Hercules. Hera tricked Hercules into believing that his entire family were dangerous beasts, which Hercules then proceeded to kill. When Hercules realized that he had killed his entire family, he agreed to perform 12 tasks to atone for his terrible actions. For one of the tasks, Hercules had to slay the nine-headed monster called the Hydra.

 

For another task, he had to clean the filth from Augean stable, which had not been attended to in 30 years. To do this, Hercules diverted the course of a river that washed away the mess. In the end, he completed the so-called 12 Labors of Hercules and made up for the murder of his family.

 

God/Goddess	Important Attributes
Zeus	King of the gods, Zeus killed his father Chronos. He is also the god of thunder.
Hera	The wife of Zeus, Hera is the goddess of fertility.
Poseidon	The god of the sea.
Hades / Yama	The god of the underworld.
Hestia	A little-known goddess, she is a sister of Zeus and goddess of the hearth.
Chronos	The leader of the Titans and father of the Olympians, Chronos ate all his children except for Zeus, who killed him.
Demeter	Goddess of the harvest and mother of Persephone.
Apollo / Adam	God of the sun, music, and art, one of the most versatile gods.
Artemis	Goddess of the hunt, Moon, and childbirth. The sister of Apollo, she is also a very versatile Olympian.
Aphrodite / Durga	The goddess of love and the mother of Eros, known to the Romans as Cupid.
Ares	The god of War.
Athena	Sprang full-grown from Zeus’s head. She is the Goddess of wisdom. The city of Athens is named for her.
Haephestos / Adam	The god of the forge. Thrown from the top of Mount Olympus by Zeus, Haephestos is also crippled. The husband of Aphrodite.
Hermes	The messenger god wears a winged helmet and winged sandals.
Persephone	The daughter of Demeter, Persephone was kidnapped by Hades to be his bride. Because she ate three pomegranate seeds, she is forced to spend three months of the year in Hades. This period of time is known as winter.
Dionysos / Shiva	The god of wine and revelry. Dionysos had an enormous following throughout the Greek world.
Eros / Maya	The god of love. Often depicted as a young child, Eros used magical arrows could to cause people to fall in love.