Big Ideas Simply Explained - The Mythology Book

["ANCIENT GREECE 49 See also: The war of the gods and the Titans 26\u201327 \u25a0 The abduction of Persephone 50\u201351 \u25a0 The quest of Odysseus 64\u201369 \u25a0 The Sibyl of Cumae 108\u201309 Cerberus. Though loosely described Once Death has caught Hecate as a dog, this creature was born of hold of a man, he never the union between the giant snake- Despite Zeus\u2019s victory over man, Typhon, and the man-eating lets him go. Kronos and his Titans, and serpent-maiden, Echidna. Cerberus Theogony his otherwise unchallenged turned this same ferocity on those authority over the universe, who attempted to escape. laden branches that dangled inches Hesiod\u2019s Theogony tells us from his face. When he leaned over that the goddess Hecate, Charon and Cerberus were not to taste either the water or the fruit, associated with darkness, the only nonhuman residents of they withdrew from his reach, was honored \u201cabove all Hades. Nyx, the goddess of night, driving him into a frenzy. others.\u201d Darkness and death lived there, as did Eurynomos, were seen as powerful, a flesh-eating demon, and the Sisyphus, King of Corinth, had immutable elements. goddess Hecate. The Furies served tricked Hades into thinking that Hades as his torturers, while he had been taken to the Hecate was conventionally Tartarus was both a deity and the Underworld prematurely, and depicted with three heads, pit where Titans were punished. managed to get himself returned representing the full moon, to Earth. As punishment, he was the crescent moon, and Hellish punishments sentenced to push an enormous the empty dead-black sky. She Some souls faced hideous torments boulder up a hill. Each time he got was often identified with in Hades. The crimes of Tantalus, to the top, the stone rolled back crossroads, especially those a Phrygian ruler, were twofold: to down to the bottom and he had where three different paths test the gods, he had cooked and to start all over again\u2014and again, met. Associated with liminal served up his son at a banquet he and again, for the rest of all time. spaces and transitions, she was hosting for them; and, as a was often worshipped by guest at Zeus\u2019s table, he had tried those wishing loved ones a to steal nectar and ambrosia, which safe crossing into the realm of would make him immortal, to take the dead. Hecate was invited back with him to Earth. For this, he to stay in the Underworld as a was imprisoned in Hades, wracked companion to Hades\u2019s wife, with thirst and hunger, surrounded Persephone, but was allowed by a pool of water, and with fruit- to come and go as she wished. In myth, Persephone is often Round the pit from every The Greek afterlife seen as the maiden and side the crowd thronged, Hades was not the only realm for Demeter the mother; Hecate is the dead. According to the ancient the crone to complete the trio. with strange cries, writers, fallen heroes and the most and I turned virtuous were sent to the Elysian pale with fear. Fields\u2014paradisiacal islands where Odyssey they could live in bliss. Neither Hades nor Elysium, however, were representative of the ancient Greek view of the afterlife. Stories about Elysium, or the punishment of Sisyphus, were isolated tales. There is no sense that the ancient Greeks, as a whole, believed in a systematic judgment of the dead. \u25a0","50 SIHPNOWETMSOEEELHGITPERAPRASENHDHAAAOTNEND,EY, THE ABDUCTION OF PERSEPHONE IN BRIEF O ne of classical Greece\u2019s Hades kidnaps Persephone in a Homeric Hymns refers to field of daffodils in British artist Walter THEME Demeter as the \u201csacred Crane\u2019s The Fate of Persephone (1877). Life, death, and the goddess with the glorious hair\u201d\u2014 The horses rear up between a sunlit seasons her thick and lustrous golden world and ominous darkness. tresses were emblematic of the SOURCES abundance of the harvest. Demeter hyacinths, and narcissi,\u201d exulting Theogony, Hesiod, ca.700 bce; was the goddess of the harvest, in the beautiful colors and heady Hymn to Demeter, Homer, charged with ensuring that the fragrances of the scene. ca.600 bce; Description of fields were rich and fertile. Before Greece, Pausanias, ca.150 ce. tragedy struck, there was no When Persephone pulled a winter, cold, or decay. narcissus from the ground, the SETTING earth split and opened up beneath Sicily; the Underworld. Demeter\u2019s despair her. A huge chariot thundered forth, One day, Demeter\u2019s beloved drawn by sable-black horses. As her KEY FIGURES daughter Persephone was out companions fled, Persephone stood Demeter Goddess of the with some nymphs in one of Sicily\u2019s transfixed. A tall, shadowy figure harvest, sister of Zeus prettiest vales, picking flowers. leaned down from the chariot and and Hades. Persephone marveled at the \u201croses, scooped her up. Persephone\u2019s uncle, crocuses, lovely violets \u2026 irises, Hades, had come up from the Persephone Demeter\u2019s Underworld to take her as his bride. daughter, who became the queen of the Underworld. Hades God of the Underworld and Demeter\u2019s brother.","See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 Hades and the Underworld 48\u201349 \u25a0 ANCIENT GREECE 51 Cupid and Psyche 112\u201313 Eleusian mysteries Hades dragged the earth. Hades\u2019s abduction of Persephone into his Persephone had set all of creation Priests at the shrine of Eleusis, askew. At last, Zeus was forced to a settlement near Athens in speeding chariot intervene in the quarrel between the region of Attica, developed and she screamed his siblings. He ruled that, so long an elaborate set of ceremonies as Persephone had not taken food based on the story of the out loud. or drink since she arrived in the abduction of Persephone. The Hymn to Demeter Underworld, Hades must agree to \u201cEleusinian Mysteries\u201d are release her. among the oldest and best Persephone struggled and wept, known of the secret religious crying out for her father, Zeus. But A seasonal solution rites of the ancient Greeks. her pleas went unanswered. Some Unfortunately, Persephone had By the Greek classical period versions of the myth suggest that eaten something in the Underworld. (5th\u20134th century bce), the Zeus himself had played a part in Hades had given her a pomegranate, Eleusinian Mysteries were the abduction by conspiring with the fruit of the dead, and she had already ancient. The cult his brother. Hades took Persephone consumed several of the sweet spread to Athens soon after with him down into the gloomy seeds. This resulted in a fresh the annexation of Eleusis in Underworld. He promised that she judgment from Zeus, who decided 600 bce. As with similar rituals would be queen of his subterranean that Persephone could return to the in other early societies, the kingdom, revered and beloved by world above\u2014but she would have Eleusinian cult strove to all\u2014but she was inconsolable. to go back down to the Underworld assert a sense of control and reside with Hades for three over the growing cycle and Demeter\u2019s despair months of every year. the seasons. Persephone\u2019s mother, Demeter, was equally distraught. Frantically Persephone\u2019s sentence The highpoint of the combing the forests, fields, and explained why, with the onset of Eleusinian calendar came hills in search of her daughter, she winter, the world appears to fade toward the end of winter, called out Persephone\u2019s name over and die, as Demeter mourns her with ceremonies designed to and over again\u2014but received no daughter\u2019s absence. Then, as ensure the return of the sun reply. In her grief, Demeter blighted spring approaches and Persephone and the renewal of the earth. the countryside, causing the crops returns to the surface of the earth, The ceremonies involved rites to die and all the leaves to turn its fields and forests once again of personal purification, brown. It seemed as if the entire come into bloom. \u25a0 animal sacrifices, libations (the earth had died. Eventually, the sun ritual pouring of wine onto the god, Helios, told Demeter that her Stealthily, though, Hades earth), fasting, and feasting. brother Hades had snatched her slipped a pomegranate, daughter and spirited her off to The priests of Eleusia honor his dismal realm. At this news, sweet as honey, into Demeter, Kybele, and Persephone Demeter was filled with rage, and Persephone\u2019s hand. on this altar from Chalandri, Attica, wrought yet more destruction upon Hymn to Demeter ca. 360 ce. The man is Iakhos, leader of the Eleusinian Mysteries.","52 STTHHTREEIERRAAMHVOEINMDGEOSLUATDOIEFS THE CULT OF DIONYSUS IN BRIEF D ionysus, the god of sending Titans to dismember and wine and ecstasy, was kill him. Zeus, however, brought THEME born after Zeus\u2019s liaison his son back to life once more. Passion versus restraint with a mortal named Semele. Her insistence on seeing Zeus The Maenads SOURCES revealed in his full divine glory Dionysus presided over fertility Homeric Hymns to Dionysus, resulted in her death, because both for the vineyards and for Homer, ca.600 bce; On Nature, a mere mortal was not permitted women\u2019s wombs. His followers, Heraclitus, ca.500 bce; The to see an undisguised god. Zeus predominantly female, were known Bacchae, Euripides, 405 bce. rescued the fetus and sewed the as Maenads\u2014meaning \u201craving unborn child into his thigh. After ones.\u201d These women shared their SETTING this, Dionysus was born again\u2014 god\u2019s love of wine and raucous The countryside around both as a boy-deity and as an behavior, and he encouraged them Thebes, central Greece, during emblem of fertility. Zeus\u2019s wife, to indulge in both. Marauding the reign of King Pentheus. Hera, then cursed Dionysus, bands of Maenads terrorized the Theban countryside so much that KEY FIGURES Women, here he is: the Pentheus, the King of Thebes, Dionysus God of fertility, man who mocks you and banned the cult of Dionysus. The wine, and madness. me and our unruly rituals. king\u2019s decree was angrily rejected by many women\u2014including the Zeus King of the gods. The Bacchae king\u2019s own mother\u2014who went out into the countryside to praise the Semele Dionysus\u2019s mortal wine god in one last, climactic rite. mother. Dionysus convinced Pentheus Hera Zeus\u2019s wife; goddess to climb a tree to enjoy the view of of women and marriage. the final orgy. Dressed in women\u2019s clothes, the king went to watch, but Maenads Delirious, drunken was seen by the ecstatic Maenads. female followers of Dionysus. Mistaking him for a wild animal, they tore him limb from limb. \u25a0 Pentheus King of Thebes. See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 Vesta and Priapus 108\u201309 \u25a0 A complex god 164","ANCIENT GREECE 53 HCTTOIUASURRWGNEHITINFTUGERA\u2019ANRGNOBLDUEIMSNLHOPDSEW, EHHEAODF ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE IN BRIEF G reek mythology\u2019s great Orpheus led his bride through the bard, Orpheus, was born of caverns of darkness and despair, THEME the relationship between slowly winding upward toward the The finality of death Calliope, the Muse of poetry, and earth\u2019s surface. Eurydice followed Oeagrus, a Thracian river god. after him at a distance, so that he SOURCES Orpheus\u2019s most heartfelt verses would not look upon her. Argonautica, Apollonius of were dedicated to Eurydice, who Rhodes, ca.250 bce; Library, became his wife\u2014only to be killed At last, Orpheus caught a Pseudo-Apollodorus, ca.100 ce. by a snakebite on her wedding day. glimpse of daylight up ahead. Happily, he glanced back at his SETTING Lyrical lamentation wife, only to realize even as he Greece and the Underworld. Wandering through the woods, saw her that she was lost to him\u2014 Orpheus mourned Eurydice in pulled back down, despairing, into KEY FIGURES impassioned song, which surpassed the realms of death. \u25a0 Orpheus A renowned anything he had ever composed. musician; the son of Calliope The music was so moving that the Orpheus plays his lyre in a and Oeagrus. nymphs and gods wept to hear it. 3rd-century ce Roman mosaic Eventually, Orpheus decided to from Antakya, Turkey. The bard is Eurydice The bride of travel to the Underworld to beg surrounded by wild animals that Orpheus; killed on her Hades and his queen to take mercy are entranced by his sublime music. wedding day. on him and return Eurydice to life. Hades The king of the In the Underworld, Orpheus Underworld. played for Hades and Persephone. The queen was so touched by the Persephone The young music that she begged her husband wife of Hades and queen to break the rules of the Underworld of the Underworld. and release Eurydice. Hades agreed, on the condition that Orpheus not lay eyes on Eurydice while she remained in the Underworld. See also: Hades and the Underworld 48\u201349 \u25a0 The abduction of Persephone 50\u201351 \u25a0 The descent of Inanna 182\u201387 \u25a0 Osiris and the Underworld 276\u201383","54 OAFBDRRINEGAEMRS HERMES\u2019S FIRST DAY IN BRIEF H ermes, generally described suggested his quickness of thought as the \u201cmessenger of the and his heedlessness of the normal THEME gods,\u201d was that and much restrictions of time and space. Unpredictability more. Famously, he was able to flit and change from one place to another in an Springing to life instant, carried through the air Hermes was the son of Zeus and SOURCES on winged sandals that would Maia, daughter of the Titan Atlas Odyssey, Homer, 8th century become emblematic of the god and the sea nymph Pleione. Known bce; Theogony, Hesiod, ca.700 himself. His ability to fly was key to the Romans as Mercury, he bce; Homeric Hymns, to his role as courier. Symbolically, showed his mercurial character Anonymous, ca.600 bce; though, the god\u2019s rapid travel from the very beginning of his life, Orphic Hymns, Anonymous, when (according to the Homeric ca.250 bce\u2013150 ce. The god Hermes, with a painted Hymn to Hermes) he \u201cjumped whiplash in his right hand, leads a straight from his mother\u2019s womb\u201d SETTING chariot carrying the nymphs Basile and landed in his cradle. The young Mount Olympus, Greece. and Echelos in this marble votive god did not lie there long, but relief dating from 410 bce. instead leapt out of the cave that KEY FIGURES Hermes The messenger god; son of Zeus and Maia. Zeus King of the gods. Maia Daughter of Atlas and Pleione; mother of Hermes. Atlas A Titan; father of Maia. Pleione A sea nymph; mother of Maia. Apollo The sun god. Orion A giant hunter.","ANCIENT GREECE 55 See also: The war of the gods and Titans 32\u201333 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 Arachne and Minerva 115 \u25a0 The adventures of Thor and Loki in J\u00f6tunheim 146\u201347 \u25a0 Ananse the spider 286\u201387 The seven daughters of Atlas Maia and the Pleiades Orion, the great huntsman. For and Pleione\u2014depicted here by Elihu seven years Orion harassed not Vedder (1885)\u2014fly to the heavens Hermes\u2019s mother was one of only the sea nymph but her and become the Pleiades. Zeus\u2019s many amatory conquests. seven daughters as well. At last, According to Hesiod\u2019s Theogony, Zeus answered their prayers Maia, daughter of Atlas the Titan and intervened, first turning and Pleione the sea nymph, had Orion into the group of stars gone up to Zeus\u2019s \u201choly bed,\u201d slept now associated with his name\u2014 with him, and bore him a son\u2014the Orion\u2019s belt. He then messenger god. Maia in turn transformed Pleione and would be rewarded with her own her daughters\u2014including winged transformation. Maia\u2014into doves. They flew into the night sky to become After the war of the gods with the Pleiades, a cluster of the Titans, while Atlas was forced stars whose appearance is to carry the sky and heavens upon traditionally associated with his shoulders, his wife, Pleione, the onset of rainy weather. was romantically pursued by had been his mother\u2019s refuge\u2014 song, recounting epic stories of the And Maia bore to Zeus despite being only one hour old\u2014to world and its creation\u2014of Titans, glorious Hermes, the herald find and steal the cattle of the sun Olympians, nymphs, men and god, Apollo. Hermes had barely women, and other beings. of the deathless gods. stepped outside the cave when he Theogony was diverted by the sight of a Multifaceted god tortoise. Scooping out the animal, Not yet a day old, Hermes was and roasted them, and\u2014though he turned the hollow shell \u201cinto a already the world\u2019s first musician, hungry\u2014left the aromatic flesh on a singer.\u201d He covered the opening poet, and historian. His platform to atone for his theft. with cowhide, leaving a sounding- multifaceted genius was also hole; he then stretched strings capricious. The Homeric Hymn The caduceus, the rod that across it and built a little wooden states that, even as he sang, he was Hermes carried in his left hand, bridge to make the world\u2019s first lyre. \u201cinwardly attending to other could confer sleep and healing at Plucking the strings, he burst into matters\u201d: as Apollo\u2019s sun went a touch. The two symmetrically down, Hermes crept onto the lands coiling serpents that wound around [Hermes] fastened on his feet of the god and took his cattle. the caduceus suggested its ability the immortal golden Walking the beasts backward, so to balance and reconcile opposing sandals which carried their trail seemed to lead in the sides, whether through changing opposite direction, he herded them them from one form to another or him faster than the breeze. back to his home. through negotiation and trade\u2014 Odyssey Hermes was also believed to be the The quick cunning displayed god of commerce. \u25a0 by Hermes had much in common with \u201ctrickster\u201d spirits of other mythologies, such as West Africa\u2019s Ananse or the Loki of Norse legend. Despite his love of pranks, Hermes also possessed a capacity for more serious deeds. For example, he invented ritual sacrifice when he slew two of Apollo\u2019s cows, skinned,","56 PTAOTHHSEEEONIDLAIOVPNERTTEHSREEENEW,TASVE THE FOUNDING OF ATHENS IN BRIEF T he Homeric Hymn to The Parthenon (\u201cTemple of the Athena begins with Virgin Goddess\u201d) was built at the THEME the words, \u201cOf Athena, top of the Acropolis of Athens in the Origins of the state guardian of the city, I sing.\u201d No mid-5th century bce. It replaced an other Greek deity was so closely earlier temple dedicated to Athena. SOURCES identified with a particular location, Homeric Hymns, Anonymous, nor does any other location loom so of trade and industry, as the ca.600 bce; Library, Pseudo- large in our modern-day perceptions prosperity, confidence, and Apollodorus, ca.100 ce; of Greek culture. When we think technical expertise of its people Description of Greece, of ancient Greece\u2014its literature, came together to make the city Pausanias, ca.150 ce. its art, its democracy\u2014we are grow and prosper. thinking largely of ancient Athens. SETTING Work and pleasure Athens, Greece. The mythological associations of One foundation myth makes Athens with the goddess of wisdom this connection between beauty KEY FIGURES are reflected in its reputation as and technology explicit, linking Athena Goddess of wisdom a cultural and intellectual haven the beginnings of Athens with and patron deity of Athens. full of philosophers, artists, and the craftsman-god Hephaestus. playwrights. This dazzling legacy Lame and ugly though he was, Hephaestus The god of arose from the solid foundations blacksmiths and craftworkers; father of Erichthonius. Erichthonius Founder of the city of Athens. Poseidon God of the seas and contender for patron of Athens. Cecrops First king of Athens.","ANCIENT GREECE 57 See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 Cupid and Psyche 112\u201313 \u25a0 Arachne and the spider 115 Hephaestus was married to the was Erichthonius (\u201cborn of the The Athenians lovely Aphrodite. This union was very soil\u201d), who would go on are far more symbolically suggestive of the to found the city of Athens. marriage of utility and beauty, devoted to religion of work and pleasure, that was By land and sea than other men. prevalent in Greek culture. Athena played a central role in However, in common with other another of the city\u2019s foundation Description of Greece Olympian marriages, their union myths. When Erichthonius was also featured frequent infidelities. establishing his community on an olive tree, laden with abundant the coast of Attica, he called on the and valuable fruit. The goddess of A son is born gods for a divine patron to come wisdom was confirmed by Cecrops, At one point, Aphrodite deserted forward. With Athena and Poseidon king of the city, as the people\u2019s her husband entirely for the both eagerly desiring the role, a choice for patron. However, war god, Ares. After she left, contest was arranged to see what Poseidon\u2019s gift ensured that the Hephaestus fell passionately in each deity could offer the future seaport status of Athens became as love with Athena, then pursued city and its people. Its victor would important to its prosperity as its her and attempted to rape her. be decided\u2014fittingly, for the fertile fields and groves. \u201cLook birthplace of democracy\u2014by vote. kindly on those who make their Athena put up a furious way in ships,\u201d says the Homeric resistance and pushed Hephaestus In the contest, Poseidon shook Hymn to Poseidon. The sea god away just as he ejaculated. His the earth, smiting it with his remained in the city\u2019s prayers. \u25a0 semen struck Athena\u2019s thigh, trident and making a vast wave and she brushed it off disdainfully. come rolling forth. This was a It landed in the Greek soil, and bounteous spring\u2014but its waters there produced a new life; in were salty. In response, Athena some retellings, this offspring poked the ground, which produced King Cecrops rules that the god who presents the best gift to the city will become its patron deity. Poseidon produces a spring. Athena plants an olive tree. His spring water is salty Her tree provides the people and undrinkable. with food, oil, and wood. Athena wins. Athena and Poseidon\u2019s contest King Cecrops names the city Athens. is depicted on an amphora created by the Amasis Painter, ca.540 bce. The signature between the two gods reads Amasis mepoiesen (\u201cAmasis made me\u201d).","58 IITNWOFAIALLLLLLIGBWILVHEEOCSOEUENKSEITL APOLLO AND THE ORACLE OF DELPHI IN BRIEF T he Temple of Apollo at of Delos in the Cyclades, a group of Delphi, on the slopes of islands in the Aegean Sea, to seek THEME Mount Parnassus, in out and kill the feared Python, a Inspiration, poetry, central Greece, was the site of huge and ferocious dragon that and wisdom the most important oracle in the lived in the innards of the earth, ancient world. It was believed beneath what was regarded as its SOURCES that the god Apollo channeled omphalos, or \u201cnavel,\u201d near the town Homeric Hymn, author prophecies through the Pythia, of Delphi. An enraged Hera, the anonymous, ca.600 bce; the high priestess of the temple. wife of Zeus, had sent the monster Description of Greece, Pausanias, ca.150 ce. Raising a temple The Pythia sits on a sacred tripod as Apollo\u2019s association with Delphi she receives a message from Apollo in SETTING began when he was just four days Camillo Miola\u2019s The Oracle (1880). Delphi, on the slopes of Mount old. Taking the form of a dolphin, The figures in the foreground shake Parnassus, in central Greece. he left his birthplace on the island bay leaves as part of the ritual. KEY FIGURES Apollo God of the sun and the arts, who was also associated with wisdom. The Pythia Apollo\u2019s high priestess at Delphi. Hera The wife of Zeus. Zeus King of the Olympian gods; father of Apollo. Leto Mother of Apollo and Artemis. Artemis Sister of Apollo. Asclepius Son of Apollo.","ANCIENT GREECE 59 See also: The war of the gods and Titans 32\u201333 \u25a0 Mount Olympus 34\u201335 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 Apollo and Daphne 60\u201361 \u25a0 The Sybil of Cumae 110\u201311 to hunt down Apollo\u2019s mother, the to his association with wisdom. Delphi\u2019s Temple of Apollo goddess Leto, who had become The invention of medicine was also dates from the 4th century bce. pregnant by Zeus. ascribed to Apollo\u2014although he According to Pausanias, previous devolved most of his medical role to temples on the site were made Although Leto escaped and Asclepius, one of his sons. He was of laurel leaves, beeswax, or bronze. gave birth to Apollo and his twin also a protector of shepherds, who sister, Artemis, on Delos, Apollo were identified with the pastoral he is often shown) captivated the wished to avenge the attempt to idyll celebrated in Greek poetry. audience, and was unanimously destroy his mother. Apollo slayed Pan, a god of fertility and shepherds, proclaimed the victor. the Python with a bow and arrows who played the pipes, challenged made for him by the blacksmith Apollo to a musical duel. Apollo, Apollo communicated his god, Hephaestus. He buried the who played a golden lyre (one of the wisdom through the Oracle at creature beneath the omphalos god\u2019s many attributes, with which Delphi. People flocked to Delphi stone, which marked the from every corner of Greece to gain geographical center of the earth, The child leapt forth knowledge of future events and and established his temple to into the light, and all discover the will of Zeus, especially symbolize the resounding triumph in times of national crisis, such as of heaven over earth. the goddesses war, when more than one Pythia raised up a cry. performed the role of Apollo\u2019s Joy and wisdom Homeric Hymn to Apollo mouthpiece. The people offered By the 5th century bce, Apollo had animal sacrifices to Apollo, then supplanted Helios the Titan as the waited patiently as the Pythia, sun god in the Greek pantheon. seated over a cauldron, with The Homeric Hymn to Apollo volcanic vapor rising around acclaims the \u201csplendor of his her, channeled his response. The radiance.\u201d It also says the god Pythia\u2019s utterances were copious was born to be \u201cthe joy of men\u201d and but often incoherent. Shrine would \u201cdeclare to men the unfailing officials interpreted and then will of Zeus,\u201d references to his role recorded Apollo\u2019s precious words as the god of poetry and music, and of wisdom in verse hexameters. \u25a0","60 NOONATHMEEELROOVFFLELEDOD; VTTEHHEE APOLLO AND DAPHNE IN BRIEF A pollo was among the grand airs. Apollo believed that greatest of the gods, his such an impudent boy was not fit to THEME prestige unimpeachable, carry bow and arrows\u2014and he said Desire and transformation his person radiant with all the as much to the young Eros. splendor of the sun. By contrast, SOURCES Eros personified sexual desire Puffed up with petulant rage, Description of Greece, in all its indignity and neediness. the boy yelled back that he would Pausanias, ca.150 ce; Like an overgrown infant, he was get even; he would make the sun Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce. a caprious troublemaker who god sorry that he had shown such acted on his every whim. scorn. The passions his gold-tipped SETTING arrows aroused could prevail over Thessaly or the Peloponnese, Apollo was the god of archery the most powerful of individuals. Greece. and a skilled archer. His silver Even Apollo was not immune, as bow was as much a symbol of the sun god was soon to learn. KEY FIGURES power as a weapon, the arrows Apollo God of the sun, rarely used. Eros also had a bow Eros takes revenge archery, magic, music, and arrows, which he used Depending upon the account, the and more. regularly to make his conquests. spat took place by the River Peneus His sharp, gold-tipped darts made on the Plain of Thessaly, in central Eros The young god of desire; the target they struck fall in love Greece, or by the river Ladon in the a troublemaker. immediately. He had a second set of arrows, too. Their heads were You don\u2019t know who Daphne A beautiful nymph blunt and tipped with lead, and you\u2019re fleeing from, dedicated to chastity; the they killed affection in anyone they thoughtless nymph. daughter of Peneus. hit. The weapons made Eros giddy Metamorphoses with power. Peneus A river god; father of Daphne. Gods at odds Seeing Eros strutting around, Apollo could not help sneering. Fresh from his glorious triumph over the monstrous Python\u2014killed by a thousand arrows from his quiver\u2014Apollo laughed to see this infant-at-arms give himself such","ANCIENT GREECE 61 See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi 58\u201359 \u25a0 Venus and Adonis 88\u201389 \u25a0 Cupid and Psyche 112\u201313 Peloponnese, in southern Greece. his beauty, she recoiled. As he Eros Eros spotted Daphne, a beautiful, approached her with vows of eternal virginal Naiad (a water nymph) and love, she turned and fled. Pursued Usually a relatively minor daughter of the river god\u2014named by Apollo, she cried out to her father character in the stories of by Ovid as Peneus\u2014upon the as she ran, and just as Apollo Greek mythology, Eros was banks of her father\u2019s stream. Eros caught and grabbed Daphne and the son of Aphrodite, the took aim and pierced Daphne with held her in his arms, Peneus goddess of love. Eros also a lead-tipped bolt. Spinning around, answered her pleas and turned represented love\u2014but, more he shot another arrow, this time his daughter into a laurel tree. specifically, he personified with a golden tip, which pierced \u201cerotic,\u201d sexual desire. Often Apollo. The sun god hardly had Apollo, his desire still burning, portrayed as a slender and time to register the pain: seeing declared that even though Daphne bratty boy, he could be touchy Daphne, he was instantly smitten could not be his bride, he would and quick to take offense, as with desire. claim the laurel as his own. From he was when Apollo teased then on, laurel leaves would always him. He could also be Daphne, however, had been adorn his hair, his lyre, and immature, thoughtless, and hit just as hard by Eros\u2019s leaden quiver. Laurel wreaths would be capricious, even perverse; the dart. Seeing Apollo, even in all used to honor victorious generals in revenge he inflicts on Apollo triumphal processions and, has the cruelest of Daphne recoils from Apollo in this matching Apollo\u2019s immortality and consequences for Daphne. mid-18th-century painting by Italian ever-lustrous hair, laurel leaves Eros was sometimes depicted artist Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. Eros would never fade. The laurel tree with a blindfold to show his hides and Peneus watches on as the then inclined its branches as lack of discrimination\u2014lust nymph is transformed into a laurel tree. if nodding in agreement. \u25a0 typically does not exercise much logic or judgment. Eros is perhaps better known today by his Roman name, Cupid. Depictions of the god gradually changed from the slender youth of Greek tradition to the pudgy, cherubic toddler familiar from Western classical art and modern Valentine\u2019s Day cards.","62 ELBIDAFGLEAEANONCFDEADDREOAANTZTHOHRAERE THE TROJAN WAR IN BRIEF T he Trojan War inspired King of Mycenae, to lead a Greek some of the greatest alliance to Troy and recapture her. THEME ancient Greek poetry, The Greek army included the semi- Epic war particularly Homer\u2019s Iliad and divine warrior Achilles, son of the Odyssey. Although the story has sea nymph Thetis, and Odysseus, SOURCE mythical aspects, it may have been the cunning king of Ithaca. They Iliad and Odyssey, Homer, 8th based on a conflict between the crossed the sea to Troy but were century bce. Mycenaeans and the Hittites that unable to breach the city\u2019s walls. took place in the 12th century bce. SETTING After nine years away from The city of Troy, Asia Minor The chain of events that led to home, the Greek alliance was (western Turkey), and Greece, the war began when the goddess fracturing. The men were on the ca.12th century bce. Aphrodite offered Paris, a Trojan verge of mutiny, and a plague prince, the love of Helen, the world\u2019s diminished their ranks. Achilles KEY FIGURES most beautiful woman. Helen was Aphrodite Daughter of already married to King Menelaus Helen was abducted by Paris and Ouranos, goddess of love. of Sparta, but Paris did not consider taken away on his ship, but smitten by this an obstacle and abducted her. his beauty, she may have left willingly. Paris A Trojan prince. Her husband was furious. Menelaus This alabaster carving decorates an persuaded his brother Agamemnon, Etrurian funerary urn, 2nd century bce. Helen Queen of Sparta. Menelaus King of Sparta. Agamemnon King of Mycenae in southern Greece. Achilles Semi-divine; the greatest Greek warrior. Patroclus Achilles\u2019 comrade. Hector Brother of Paris. Odysseus King of Ithaca.","ANCIENT GREECE 63 See also: The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 Aeneas, founder of Rome 96\u2013101 \u25a0 The cattle raid of Cooley 166\u201367 The giant wooden horse, filled with Greek warriors, is brought inside the walls of the city in The Procession of the Trojan Horse into Troy by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (ca.1760). refused to fight after Agamemnon took one of his concubines. Despite the great warrior\u2019s absence, the Greeks rallied and fought a pitched battle with the Trojans. Menelaus was close to killing Paris when Aphrodite intervened to save him. Attacking the city walls behind his chariot around Troy\u2019s slept, oblivious to their imminent The Trojans regathered and drove walls. Soon after, Achilles was doom, the Greeks inside the horse back the Greeks. Achilles refused mortally wounded when Paris fired sneaked out and murdered Troy\u2019s to fight but allowed his close an arrow at his heel\u2014the only part guards. These soldiers let in the companion Patroclus to borrow his of his body that was not immortal. rest of the Greek army, which had armor. Patroclus inspired a Greek secretly returned to Troy under counterattack and forced the Now in its tenth year, the war cover of night. Trojans back to the city walls. He was won not by force but trickery. was slain by Hector, the greatest of Odysseus had the Greeks build a A savage massacre followed, the Trojan warriors, who stripped giant hollow wooden horse, secretly and Troy was burned to the ground. him of his borrowed armor. fill it with Greek soldiers, and leave Menelaus had regained Helen, but it outside the gates of Troy. The rest both sides had lost some of their Devastated, Achilles built a of the Greeks sailed out of sight, so most famous warriors and much of towering funeral pyre for his that the Trojans believed they had their population. The Greeks, due to beloved Patroclus, held funeral left. Thinking the war was over, the their wanton destruction of temples games in his honor, and returned to Trojans dragged the horse inside during the Sack of Troy, had also the fray with a vengeance. Killing the city walls. As the inhabitants lost the goodwill of the gods. \u25a0 Hector in single combat, he refused to return his body for a royal burial; instead, he dragged Hector\u2019s corpse Achilles Trojan War began, Chiron gave Achilles a mighty shield, but The warrior Achilles was the son Thetis intervened before her son of the sea nymph Thetis and King could join the fray. Calchas had Peleus of Pithia. When he was prophesied that Achilles would born, his mother wanted to make help the Greeks take Troy and, him immortal, so she dipped him fearing for his life, Thetis into the River Styx, which ran disguised Achilles as a girl in between Earth and Hades. She the home of the king of Scyros. held him by his left heel, which Odysseus, however, soon found left Achilles with one vulnerable Achilles and revealed his true spot. Growing up, Achilles was identity. After marrying the taught by the wise centaur Chiron king\u2019s daughter, Achilles left to become a warrior. When the Scyros to lead Odysseus\u2019s army.","64 MOTTHHFYIETSFYYAPMRTAHAUIRENRRTDSE.RED ORESTES AVENGES AGAMEMNON IN BRIEF Agamemnon, King of Argos, Artemis, whom he had offended was commander of the by killing a sacred deer. To banish THEME Greek forces during the these winds, the king reluctantly Revenge versus justice legendary Trojan War. His family heeded the advice of a prophet history was steeped in blood and and sacrificed his own innocent SOURCES betrayal. A ruthless feud between daughter, Iphigenia, whom he had Odyssey, Homer, 8th century bce his father, Atreus, and his uncle, lured to the coast with the false Oresteia, Aeschylus, 458 bce; Thyestes, had already precipitated promise of a husband. This was Orestes, Euripides, 408 bce; adultery, multiple murders, and an act that his wife, Clytemnestra, Electra, Sophocles, ca.400 bce. enduring enmity by the time the would neither forgive nor forget. Trojan conflict in Asia Minor had SETTING broken out. That grisly lineage was The king is murdered Agamemnon\u2019s palace, set to pass on to a new generation. While Agamemnon was away Mycenae, Argos, Greece. at war, his queen took a lover Iphigenia\u2019s sacrifice named Aegisthus, who was KEY FIGURES Agamemnon\u2019s departure for Troy Agamemnon\u2019s first cousin. They Agamemnon The murdered with his fleet of a thousand ships had been bitter enemies since the king of Argos. was delayed for weeks by adverse king\u2019s father had slain Aegisthus\u2019s winds, sent by the goddess siblings. Having gained access to Iphigenia Agamemnon\u2019s the bed of Agamemnon, Aegisthus sacrificed daughter. This man, Agamemnon, quickly helped himself to his crown my husband, is dead, the as well. Soon, he and Clytemnestra Clytemnestra Agamemnon\u2019s work of this right hand. were reigning together as king and wife. queen in Argos, openly displaying Oresteia their adulterous union. Aegisthus Clytemnestra\u2019s lover; Agamemnon\u2019s successor Such was the situation to which as king. Agamemnon returned, victorious at last after 10 long years of war. No Orestes Agamemnon\u2019s son, longer lord in his own house, he who killed Aegisthus. faced a fight to reclaim what was his. This was a fight he quickly lost Electra Agamemnon\u2019s when he was murdered by his wife daughter. and her lover. Different versions of the story offer varying details: some","ANCIENT GREECE 65 See also: The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 The founding of Athens 56\u201357 \u25a0 The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 Orestes slays his mother to avenge his father\u2019s death in this painting by Bernardino Mei (1655). Clytemnestra\u2019s lover, Aegisthus, lies beside her, also slaughtered at the hand of Orestes. say the king was killed at a feast the guilt squarely with Aegisthus, Other accounts cite Clytemnestra\u2019s celebrating his return from the war; Agamemnon\u2019s longstanding enemy, ungovernable female sexuality others say he was murdered while as an act of vengeance for the and her passion. naked and helpless after his bath. crimes of the king\u2019s father. Other versions lay the blame firmly at Agamemnon\u2019s children\u2014his Crime and punishment Clytemnestra\u2019s feet, presenting son, Orestes, and his daughter The varying accounts also cite her as a fearless and defiant woman Electra\u2014were both away from several possible motivations for who murdered her husband as home when their father was killed. Agamemnon\u2019s murder. Some place retribution for killing their daughter. They returned to Argos to find their mother and Aegisthus reigning in his place. Orestes felt it the duty of a son to avenge his father, so, with Electra\u2019s help and encouragement, he disguised himself and gained access to the palace, where he killed Aegisthus. The spirit of vengeance demanded that Clytemnestra, too, should pay the price for her role in the crime. Orestes slew her also, but carried her dying curse on his head: relentless furies, the Erinyes, hunted him across the face of the earth for the rest of his days for his crime of matricide. Electra escaped the curse, marrying Orestes\u2019s friend and co-conspirator Pylades. \u25a0 Aeschylus He claimed that the god of theater, Dionysus himself, visited Revered as the father of tragedy, him while he was asleep and Aeschylus was an early Greek persuaded him to take up the art. dramatist\u2014one of three, along with Euripides and Sophocles, Aeschylus was a prolific whose works survive and are playwright, yet only seven of his still performed. He was born plays survive, each one believed around 525 bce in Eleusis, a to have won first prize at the town northwest of Athens, and Dionysia. The Oresteia trilogy\u2014 grew up to fight against two Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and Persian invasions. When not Eumenides\u2014are now his best- at war, Aeschylus regularly known plays. Aeschylus was took part in Athens\u2019s annual credited with writing Prometheus \u201cDionysia\u201d playwriting contest. Bound, though his authorship of that play is now disputed.","TELL ME STORYOH MUSE, THE HERO\u2019S THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS","","68 THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS IN BRIEF O ne of several Greek heroes Calypso displays the charms with who fought at Troy, as which she entraps Odysseus on her THEME related in Homer\u2019s first isle in a painting by the 16th-century Heroic journeys epic poem, the Iliad, Odysseus Flemish artist Hendrick van Balen. stands out by virtue of his cunning SOURCE and resourcefulness. When he busy at her loom. Although many Odyssey, Homer, becomes the subject of Homer\u2019s on the island despaired of ever 8th century bce. second great epic, the Odyssey, seeing the return of Odysseus, those qualities are tested to the and despite the failure of his son SETTING limit. The fateful events related in Telemachus\u2019s searches, Penelope The Trojan War, 13th\u201312th both works are thought to be part remained devoted to her husband\u2019s century bce. The Aegean Sea; of a long oral tradition that arose memory. She kept her many eager Asia Minor (western Turkey); hundreds of years before they were and increasingly insistent suitors at the Peloponnese peninsula of written down and later attributed bay by promising she would decide southern Greece. to Homer, their legendary author. which to marry once her tapestry was complete. Each night, however, KEY FIGURES Odysseus\u2019s return from Asia she toiled for hours unpicking all Odysseus A cunning warrior. Minor to his kingdom on the Ionian her stitches from the day before; isle of Ithaca\u2014off the west coast of like Calypso, Penelope held up Poseidon God of the sea. Greece\u2014should have taken a week time, but her delaying tactics also at most by sea. No matter how showed her to be her husband\u2019s Telemachus Odysseus's son. strong or weak the wind was, an counterpart in cunning. ancient Greek galley could make Penelope Odysseus\u2019s good headway, thanks to its bank Double standards faithful wife. of 25 oars on each side. Odysseus\u2019s An admirer of Odysseus as a man voyage, however, took him some 10 of action, Athena, goddess of war, Calypso A nymph. years\u2014a consequence of the decided to intervene on his behalf obstacles and challenges that the with her father, Zeus. Calypso Alcinous King of Phaecia; sea god Poseidon set in his way. was compelled to let Odysseus go, father of Nausicaa. As an indication of the forces that and the hero built a ship to escape stood against Odysseus, Homer the nymph\u2019s island and return Polyphemus The one-eyed wrote that the hero\u2019s very name home. When Poseidon discovered giant, or Cyclops. means \u201cvictim of enmity.\u201d this, he stirred up a storm to thwart Circe A sorceress. Of all those creatures Stitches in time which exist on earth, The Odyssey is a drama of delay; each step forward is followed none is more weak almost immediately by a setback. or worthless than At the story's beginning, actually set more than midway through a man. Odysseus's journey, the action was Odyssey already at a standstill. Calypso, a seductive nymph, held Odysseus captive on her island (possibly Gozo, off Malta). Between bouts of lovemaking with the captive hero, she worked away at her loom, using a golden shuttle. Ironically, Calypso\u2019s weaving echoed the heroic handiwork of Odysseus\u2019s wife, Penelope, at home in Ithaca. She too was extremely","See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 The war of the gods and Titans 32\u201333 \u25a0 ANCIENT GREECE 69 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 The founding of Athens 56\u201357 Who was Homer? Odysseus. Shipwrecked and cast in a permanent trance. The lotus ashore alone on the coast of blossoms not only provided The poet credited with both Phaecia (perhaps Corfu), Odysseus nutritional sustenance; they also the Iliad and the Odyssey was was discovered by Nausicaa, the induced a daze of calmness and almost certainly mythical. daughter of Alcinous, the country\u2019s contentment. Only Odysseus was Ancient tradition portrayed king. Smitten by Nausicaa\u2019s beauty, sufficiently quick-thinking and him as a blind and bearded Odysseus made his way to the self-disciplined to recognize the bard, strumming on a lyre. He king\u2019s palace to seek her hand. danger when his shipmates was said to come from Ionia, While Odysseus and his men were encountered the narcotic flowers. on the coast of Asia Minor, in being entertained as guests in the Seizing the men by force, he modern-day Turkey. It is hall of King Alcinous, the hero told marched them back to their ship unlikely that such a person the king the impressive story of and ordered his crew to set sail. existed, and that a single poet their wanderings to date. created the Iliad or the Cyclops and sea god Odyssey, let alone both. Sweet stupor Hungry and tired after further Odysseus began with the tale of days at sea, Odysseus and his men Instead, \u201cHomer\u201d appears his sojourn in the land of the Lotus- reached another coast, where they to have been an after-the-fact Eaters; he had gone there after his dropped anchor. Going ashore to rationalization to account for men sacked Ismarus, their first stop forage, the men stumbled on a the existence of the two great after Troy. The Lotus-Eaters lived cave and were thrilled to find \u276f\u276f works. They are probably a compilation of stories told by The 14 books of the Odyssey innumerable anonymous bards, working in an oral I\u2013IV V\u2013VIII tradition that dated back as Struggles of Odysseus far as the 12th century bce. Telemachus is freed Such narrators could memorize to hold on to his from captivity vast screeds of narrative verse father\u2019s house with Calypso but and fluently improvise new struggles to storylines; they would have return home used many formulaic narrative elements and ready-made IX\u2013XII XII\u2013XIV images that were widely Wanderings Odysseus accepted and are strongly of Odysseus returns home, evident in the Iliad and as his voyage reunites with his Odyssey. The \u201cwriting\u201d of home to Ithaca son, and reclaims the two works in the 8th is dogged by his house century bce was most probably a conclusive setting down, setbacks rather than an originating act.","70 THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS THE QUEST OF ODYSSEUS Key: 7. Aeaea 8 8. Hades Route of 9. Aeaea 79 Odysseus 10. Sirens CORSICA ITALY 1. Troy 11. Charybdis 2. Ismarus 12. Skylla 3. Lotus-Eaters 13. Thrinakia 4. Cyclops 14. Calypso's Island 5. Land of giants 15. Scheria 6. Aeolia 16. Ithaca SARDINIA 10 15 MOUNT 2 OLYMPUS 1 AFRICA 56 11 16 12 GREECE ASIA 3 4 SICILY MINOR ATHENS 13 14 CRETE Mediterranean Sea great quantities of food, wine, came up with a plan. Waiting until Groping about in agonized rage, and other supplies stored within it. the giant shepherd was drunk and Polyphemus could not find his They began to help themselves, drowsy, they heated up a massive attackers. They plotted their escape only to be interrupted when the tree-sized stake in the fire, then and, next morning, when the giant owner of the cave returned. This thrust it forcefully into the giant\u2019s rolled back the boulder to take out was the terrifying Cyclops\u2014a single eye, blinding him. his flock, the men hid beneath the one-eyed giant named Polyphemus, bellies of the giant sheep, clinging who drove before him a flock of to their fleece. The giant felt each giant sheep. Polyphemus was a animal as it came out, but son of the sea god Poseidon. did not check underneath them. Reaching the safety of their ship, Wounding Polyphemus Every day I yearn Odysseus jeered at the Cyclops. When the Cyclops discovered for the day I Hearing his voice, Polyphemus Odysseus and his crew inside see my home. hurled boulders after Odysseus his cave, he was furious. He rolled Odyssey and his crew as they sailed away. a huge boulder across the entrance, sealing it shut and trapping the By wounding Polyphemus, men inside. He then snatched two however, Odysseus and his men of the men and devoured them. had incurred the wrath of Poseidon, Desperate to escape, a terrified who would prove an implacable foe Odysseus and his remaining crew from this moment on. Every wind, wave, and current was against","them. Even a seeming stroke of created by Zeus, and washed up on ANCIENT GREECE 71 luck\u2014when King Aeolus gave the shores of Scheria, where they Odysseus the gift of a leather bag were rescued by Athena. \u201cShapely ships\u201d in which all the winds of the world were stored\u2014turned out to only A hero\u2019s homecoming Homeric text is full of insight delay them further. The ship was in When the crew finally made it home into the construction and sight of Ithaca when the crewmen, to Ithaca, Odysseus was disguised importance of swift ships for thinking the bag might contain so he would not be recognized by the early Greeks. The ancient gold, opened it. The winds blew any of Penelope\u2019s suitors and could galley of Homer\u2019s day was out, taking them away from Ithaca plan to win his \\\"widow\\\" back. His long and slender, rising and into the unknown, where they old swineherd Eumaeus took him gracefully at bow and stern, wandered for several more years. in, and in the old servant\u2019s cottage like the horns of an ox (Iliad he met his son Telemachus, who XVIII, 3). Adjectives such as Witchcraft and prophecy was overjoyed to see him. \u201chollow\u201d (Iliad I,25) seem to Next, Odysseus traveled to Aeaea, imply the absence of a where the witch-goddess Circe By this time, the suitors had covering deck. The \\\"black turned a band of his men into pigs. tired of Penelope\u2019s tapestry ruse, ships\\\" in the Odyssey were He forced her to change his men and so she set a new challenge. She covered in pitch that made back and became her lover. After a agreed to marry only the man who them watertight. Odysseus year, Odysseus asked Circe how to could string her husband\u2019s bow and himself built a vessel to leave get back to Ithaca, and she advised shoot an arrow accurately through a Calypso's island, felling 20 him to sail to Hades to seek a blind row of 12 axeheads. Penelope knew trees and smoothing them into prophet named Tiresius to direct that Odysseus alone had the skill a keel, ribs, and planking. The them home. and strength for this. Still disguised, central sail provided Odysseus succeeded with his first propulsion out at sea, while Odysseus and his crew set arrow and killed a suitor with his 25 men rowing on each side off from Aeaea and he blocked his next. The angry suitors drew their allowed progress in weak or men\u2019s ears to save them from the weapons against the hero, who, adverse winds and gave the seductive songs of the Sirens as with his son's help, killed them all. \u25a0 vessel maneuverability and they sailed past their isle. Next, speed close to shore. his crew steered a course through a fiendishly narrow strait (Messina). On one side was the whirlpool Charybdis, eager to suck ships down; on the other was a crag, on which the six-headed maiden- monster Scylla sat, ready to seize and swallow passing sailors. When Odysseus finally met Tiresius, the seer explained Poseidon's grudge. Against Tiresius's advice, Odysseus and his men stopped to rest in Thrinakia, after which he was caught by Calypso. After leaving Calypso, Odysseus's ship was caught in a mighty storm Odysseus's waiting wife, seated at her loom, is besieged by requests for her hand in marriage. Penelope with the Suitors was painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Pinturicchio (1509).","72 IN BRIEF IHLAAMACEFMBTCWEOOORORRMUSTTPLAHLHDLIEASBDHEEBDE,EN THEME Atonement THE LABORS OF HERAKLES SOURCES Women of Trachis, Sophocles, ca.450 bce; Library, Pseudo-Apollodorus, ca.100 ce; Description of Greece, Pausanias, ca.150 ce. SETTING Greece, Crete, North Africa, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor. KEY FIGURES Herakles Son of Zeus and Alcmene. Zeus Father of Herakles; king of the gods. Hera Wife of Zeus. Alcmene Mother of Herakles; the tallest, most beautiful, and wisest of mortal women. Amphitryon Husband of Alcmene. A lthough he would grow up to become a hero, Herakles owed his existence to a deception. Zeus tricked the lovely Alcmene into having sex with him by disguising himself as her husband, Amphitryon. When Alcmene gave birth to Zeus\u2019s son Herakles, the god ignored him. Amphitryon brought up the baby as his own. When she heard about Zeus\u2019s misdeeds, the goddess Hera went into a jealous rage and sent two giant serpents to kill baby Herakles. But not only was Herakles huge in size, his strength was already superhuman. He strangled the serpents with his bare hands. Later, Herakles married Princess","ANCIENT GREECE 73 See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 Prometheus helps mankind 36\u201339 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 The madness of Dionysus 52 and kill the Nemean lion. The beast Alcmene had been abducting women from the area of Nemea and imprisoning The daughter of Electryon, them in its den nearby. Herakles Perseus\u2019s and Andromeda\u2019s tracked down the lion and shot at it son, Alcmene was celebrated with his bow and arrows, but the as a paragon of feminine arrow tips merely bounced off the beauty and virtue in ancient lion\u2019s impervious hide. Cornering Greece. Despite the duplicity the lion in its cave, he knocked it that led to Herakles\u2019s down with his club, then strangled conception, she and her it. As a result, Herakles is always husband, Amphitryon, loved depicted with his club and the skin her son and brought him up from the lion he killed. alongside their own two children. They were twins: Herakles strangles the serpents The Hydra a son, Iphicles, who later sent by Hera to murder him in his Next, Herakles faced an even more died in battle, and a daughter, cradle. His parents, Alcmene and dreadful monster. Living in Lake Laonome, who married Amphitryon, look on in awe in this Lerna, near the city of Argos, the an Argonaut. 1743 painting by Pompeo Batoni. Hydra was a giant water snake with nine heads waving, hissing, According to Pausanias, Megara of Thebes and the couple and spitting poison. Its very breath the jealous Hera sought to had a son and daughter. But Hera was venomous; its blood corroded punish Alcmene for carrying was still jealous of Zeus\u2019s behavior everything it came into contact Zeus\u2019s child, sending witches and temporarily sent Herakles mad. with; its skin was deadly to the to make her childbirth as Losing all control, he slaughtered touch. When Herakles chopped off difficult as possible. In Ovid\u2019s his wife and his two children. one head, two new ones would account, Alcmene struggled to spring back in its place. give birth to the enormous Herakles, but the goddess of Unable to defeat the creature, childbirth, Eileithyia, refused Herakles begged his nephew Iolaus to help\u2014terrified of upsetting for help. Iolaus brought a blazing Hera, Eileithyia crossed brand so Herakles could cauterize Alcmene\u2019s legs to hinder the the wound as he cut off each head. birth. In both versions of the Stopping the blood prevented a \u276f\u276f myth, Alcmene was saved by a maidservant, who tricked The labors begin The Hydra had a gigantic Hera\u2019s minions into believing Grief-stricken Herakles was now body, with nine huge heads\u2014 the baby was already born. branded a murderer, and would have to be punished. Hera coerced eight of them mortal. the Delphic Oracle into imposing a Library series of tasks as punishment. Herakles was sentenced to serve King Eurystheus of Mycenae and perform 10 labors of his choosing. Devising the most challenging and dangerous tasks imaginable, the king first ordered Herakles to find","74 THE LABORS OF HERAKLES new head from springing up. He When he had chased the degrading job with miraculous ease finally succeeded in slaying the boar with shouts from a by diverting a nearby river through Hydra by cutting off and burying certain thicket, Herakles the site to flush it clean. Eurystheus its final, immortal head. Herakles drove the exhausted animal cried foul: Herakles had not done then armed himself for future the work himself and he would not struggles by dipping his arrows in into deep snow. count this as a completed task. the monster\u2019s blood as it lay dying. Library His triumph was brief: Eurystheus Next, Herakles was sent into ruled that the killing did not count, was terrified of it. The boar lived on a swamp outside the town of as he had relied on outside help. Mount Erymanthos, where it was Stymphalos, not far from Corinth, laying waste to farmers\u2019 fields. where metal-beaked fowl that fed A hind and other animals After a hunt which took him the on human flesh went to roost. The Ceryneian hind\u2014also known length and breadth of Greece\u2014and Herakles struggled to make his way as the Golden Hind\u2014was a deer across the uplands of the Near on the soft and soggy ground, so with golden antlers, sacred to East\u2014Herakles drove the boar into Athena gave him a rattle. When Artemis. The creature was so fast a mountain snowdrift where he swung, the rattle made a terrifying it could outrun a speeding arrow. could tie up the floundering beast. sound, startling the birds into Herakles was told to bring it back Eurystheus begged him to get rid flight. He could then pick them off for Eurystheus\u2019s menagerie. of it, so Herakles flung the boar into with his bow and arrows. He had no trouble finding this the sea. extraordinary animal\u2014the glint More beasts, and a belt of the sun on its golden antlers Herakles\u2019s fifth labor was to After the Stymphalian birds were gave it away\u2014but catching it clean the Augean stables, which dispatched, Herakles was given the was harder. He chased it for a year housed not horses but the cattle of task of capturing the Cretan bull: across the whole of Greece before King Augeas, who ruled Olympia. the animal which had mated with he finally caught it in a net and Home to 1,000 cows, the shed had Pasipha\u00eb, wife of King Minos. headed home. not been cleared for over 30 years. Driven mad by Poseidon, the bull Herakles undertook this dirty and rampaged across the entire island Herakles\u2019s next target\u2014the of Crete. Herakles caught the great Erymanthian boar\u2014was not just beast unawares by sneaking up fast but ferocious, and Eurystheus behind it and strangling it with his mighty hands. He took the bull The labors of Herakles were a to Eurystheus\u2019s court in chains, popular subject in Greek and Roman but Eurystheus later set it free. carvings. This frieze covered one side of a sarcophagus (ca.240\u2013250 ce), now Next, Herakles had to steal the in Rome's Palazzo Altemps. man-eating mares of Diomedes, king of Thrace. They were reputed","ANCIENT GREECE 75 The 12 labors of Herakles 1. Slay the 2. Slay the 3. Capture the 4. Capture the Nemean lion. Hydra. Ceryneian hind. Erymanthian boar. 8. Capture the 7. Capture the 6. Slay the 5. Clean the mares of Diomedes. Cretan bull. Stymphalian birds. Augean stables. 9. Steal 10. Capture 11. Steal the 12. Capture Hippolyta\u2019s belt. Geryon\u2019s cattle. apples of the Cerberus. Hesperides. to be uncontrollable, and Herakles\u2019s stirred up hostility among the place. The Titan agreed\u2014as long companion Abderus had previously Amazons, forcing Herakles to kill as Herakles would hold up the been eaten by them. Herakles Hippolyta in order to escape. heavens for him. Atlas returned killed the king to avenge Abderus, with the apples, but threatened and fed Diomedes\u2019s flesh to his Further burdens to leave Herakles there for good. horses. This briefly satisfied their Herakles\u2019s next labor took him to Herakles asked him to take the hunger, making them calm enough the very edge of the western ocean, strain just for a moment and\u2014 for Herakles to bind their muzzles, to the island of Erytheia, near Libya. when Atlas unthinkingly agreed\u2014 put the horses in harness, and lead There, he had to steal the red cattle escaped with his prize. them back to Mycenae. of Geryon, the three-headed giant. He also killed Geryon\u2019s herdsman Back in Mycenae, Herakles was The ninth labor turned out Eurytion and his dog Orthrus\u2014a given his final task: to go down to be the easiest. Herakles had to two-headed monster with a deep into the earth and bring back steal the belt of Hippolyta, Queen of writhing snake for a tail. Then, Hades\u2019s many-headed watchdog, the Amazons\u2014a tribe of ferocious with great difficulty, he drove Cerberus. Herakles could have the women warriors who lived in the Geryon\u2019s cattle home to Greece. dog, Hades said, only if he could Greek town of Themiscyra. Queen capture him without using any of Hippolyta was so charmed by For his eleventh task, Herakles his weapons\u2014so Herakles swept Herakles that she offered him her headed west again to obtain the the hell hound up inside his girdle of her own free will, but apples of the Hesperides: nymphs lionskin cloak. Herakles had atoned then Hera intervened. Determined of the setting sun. Mysteriously for his sins and, redeemed, was to pursue her grudge against unable to pick the apples himself, finally released from his oath to Herakles, the vengeful goddess he convinced Atlas to do so in his serve Eurystheus. \u25a0","76 HOAEFBHHUIALMDL,WTBHAUESTFHTAHUCEMEARONEFST THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR IN BRIEF T he island of Crete was at youths and seven of its loveliest the heart of the Minoan maidens, drawn by lots, to Minos\u2019s THEME civilization that dominated capital of Knossos to be fed to the Man and monster the Aegean and Mediterranean Minotaur, a monster that lived in a world in the 2nd millennium bce. complex maze called the Labyrinth. SOURCES The Minoans were keen traders Life of Theseus, Plutarch, 75 ce; and had a sophisticated culture. Half-man, half-bull, the Library, Pseudo-Apollodorus, Their rivalry with mainland Greeks Minotaur was the son of Minos\u2019s ca.100 ce. may have been the origin of the wife, Pasipha\u00eb, and a white bull myth of the Minotaur. sent to King Minos by Poseidon. SETTING Rather than sacrifice the bull, as King Minos\u2019s palace, Sacrificial tribute the sea god had intended, King Knossos, Crete. When King Aegeus of Athens had Minos had kept it for his herd. King Minos\u2019s son, Androgeos, Cursing the king, Poseidon had KEY FIGURES murdered, the Delphic Oracle made Pasipha\u00eb fall in love with the Aegeus King of Athens. ordered him to atone for the crime. creature. When the queen, who Every seven years Aegeus had to disguised herself as a cow in order Minos King of Crete; son send seven of the city\u2019s finest to visit the bull, then conceived and of Zeus and Europa. bore the Minotaur, King Minos ordered Daedalus to build the maze Pasipha\u00eb Queen of Crete; to hide the monster. wife of Minos. Daedalus built a Theseus\u2019s mission Poseidon God of the sea. labyrinth, whose complicated By the time Athens drew lots for the third sacrifice, King Aegeus\u2019s Minotaur A monster that is windings confounded son Theseus had come of age. half-man, half-bull. whoever tried to leave. Determined to kill the Minotaur, he asked his father if he could join the Daedalus Inventor. Library sacrificial party bound for Crete. He promised to change his ship\u2019s sails Theseus Son of King Aegeus from black to white for the return and the sea nymph Aethra. journey, as a signal of his success. Ariadne Daughter of Minos When Theseus arrived in and Pasipha\u00eb. Knossos, King Minos\u2019s daughter Ariadne fell madly in love with him.","ANCIENT GREECE 77 See also: The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi 58\u201359 \u25a0 Daedalus and Icarus 76\u201377 \u25a0 Mithras slays the bull 118\u201319 \u25a0 The epic of Gilgamesh 190\u201397 Theseus defeats the Minotaur in a scene on a kylix (drinking cup) from ca.420 bce. Decorated with Theseus\u2019s heroic deeds, the cup is signed by the Greek vase painter Aison. She begged Daedalus to help her lover in his quest. To ensure that Theseus would find his way out of the maze, Daedalus gave her a ball of wool for him to attach at the entrance to the maze and then unwind as he went deeper in. After an epic struggle, he killed the bull and followed Ariadne\u2019s thread back to safety. Hasty exit With Ariadne at his side, Theseus set sail for Athens, but Athena intervened, ordering him to leave Ariadne on the island of Naxos. In his distress at abandoning his lover, Theseus forgot to change the sail to white. Waiting on a cliff top, Aegeus saw the black-sailed ship return and in his grief\u2014believing his son to be dead\u2014hurled himself into the sea below. The sea has been the \u201cAegean\u201d ever since. \u25a0 The bull leap over a bull. Excavated in the early 20th century by British None held the bull in higher archaeologist Arthur Evans, the regard than the people who palace is the most elaborate of inhabited Crete for several several such complexes on the centuries during the 2nd island of Crete. Evans called the millennium bce. In a sense, King culture \u201cMinoan\u201d on account of Minos, the mythical first king the culture\u2019s obsession with the of Crete, was a half-bull like the bull, and due to the mazelike Minotaur: his father, Zeus, had architecture of the excavated taken the form of a bull to rape royal palace, which Evans his mother, Europa. referred to as the Labyrinth. The bull cult was at the This Minoan rhyton (a carved center of Minoan culture: art libation vessel in the shape of an depicting bulls abounds in the animal\u2019s head) from ca.1500 bce was palace complex of Knossos, found in a palace in Knossos. including one in which athletes","78 IN BRIEF IDFETCAVHISATEERDHREUAEHXISRNHI\u2019GSSIINLHOWGAEARRARHAREISTNDEINDGS, THEME Man\u2019s pride and DAEDALUS AND ICARUS punishment SOURCES Historical Library, Diodorus Siculus, ca.30 bce; Library, Pseudo-Apollodorus ca.100 ce; Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce; Natural History, Pliny, ca.78 ce. SETTING Crete and the Aegean. KEY FIGURES Minos King of Crete; son of Zeus and Europa. Daedalus Greek inventor employed by King Minos. Icarus Son of Daedalus by Naucrate, an Egyptian slave. Cocalos King of Kamikos, Sicily; Daedalus\u2019s protector. D aedalus was an inventor and was responsible for a host of innovations: he equipped ships with masts, sails, and prows with battering rams to outpace and outfight rival fleets; he made lifelike statues and automata that could think and feel like men; and he invented new tools for construction. Originally from Athens, he worked for King Minos in Crete and built not only the Labyrinth that concealed the Minotaur but also the wooden cow in which the monster\u2019s mother had hidden in order to mate with the king\u2019s prized bull. Minos valued Daedalus so much that he did not want to let him of his sight.","ANCIENT GREECE 79 See also: Theseus and the Minotaur 76\u201377 \u25a0 Arachne and the spider 115 \u25a0 The epic of Gilgamesh 190\u201397 Daedalus and Icarus build a wooden cow for Queen Pasipha\u00eb (far left) in this floor mosaic from Zeugma, Turkey. Hidden inside the cow, Pasipha\u00eb mated with her husband\u2019s bull. Daedalus\u2019s inventions made him Daedalus realized that the sky was Daedalus\u2019s dark past indispensable but dangerous\u2014he still open to him as a highway\u2014if knew the king\u2019s deepest secrets, only he could fly. Originally from Athens, and Minos dreaded losing him. Daedalus fled to Crete after After Daedalus helped Theseus Daedalus devoted hours of the murder of his nephew escape from the Labyrinth, Minos study to the birds; he examined Talos (sometimes identified installed the inventor in a tower the anatomy of their wings and the as Perdix), who was also his where he lived as a pampered aerodynamics of their flight. Day talented apprentice. Daedalus prisoner, enjoying every luxury and night he toiled to construct was believed to have felt except his freedom. With him was two pairs of wings\u2014one pair for threatened by Talos\u2019s growing Icarus, Daedalus\u2019s son by Minos\u2019s himself and one for his son. powers of invention, which Egyptian slave Naucrate. seemed set to outshine his The wings were complex: their own. By the age of 12, Talos Taking wing frames had to be strong but flexible had already invented the Daedalus resolved to flee his gilded and light, and they had to provide \u276f\u276f potter\u2019s wheel, the chisel, and cage. Escape routes from the tower the first compass, which he and off the island were barred, first made out of two pieces of iron by the dizzying drop beneath the that he pivoted on a pin. window; then by Minos\u2019s men below; and lastly by the waves of Overcome with jealousy, the Aegean Sea. Watching from Daedalus pushed Talos off the his window as the birds flew by, top of the Acropolis. In Ovid\u2019s version of the myth, Pallas Saw Minerva (Athena) witnessed the incident and intervened Axe The Plumb line to catch Talos in mid-air, inventions transforming him into a of Daedalus partridge\u2014a bird, the poet notes, that likes to live close to Ship\u2019s prow Drill the ground. Seeking to escape trial, Daedalus then fled with his son Icarus to Crete, while Talos\u2019s mother, Daedalus\u2019s sister, took her own life. Glue","80 DAEDALUS AND ICARUS enough lift to defy gravity and Daedalus and Icarus, by the Genoese Icarus did not feel his father\u2019s fear. keep Daedalus and Icarus airborne. master Domenico Piola (ca. 1670), With every wingbeat, he grew more Daedalus covered the wings with shows Daedalus strapping wings to his masterful and more audacious, real feathers, but puzzled over how son\u2019s back as he points to the sky and swooping and soaring through the to attach them. The answer, he the hazardous journey ahead. air, oblivious to his father\u2019s decided, was wax: strong and repeated warnings. Well out over yielding at the same time, it replicated the movement of the the Aegean, he flew ever higher, held the feathers firmly while birds. Yet the inventor knew that and laughed to see his father still allowing flexibility. Daedalus the wings were fragile, and he flapping slowly below. set to work. Row after row and layer gave his son strict instructions: upon layer, every plume had to be on no account should he fly too The boy\u2019s descent carefully placed and precisely low, because the waves could Icarus rejoiced at the warmth of anchored to re-create the contours splash his wings and the extra the sun upon his face, but then of a real wing. weight of the water might then suddenly remembered his father\u2019s drag him into the ocean. Nor should warnings. Seeing a feathered wing Risky flight he fly too high, to prevent the rays tip loosen and fall away, he realized Finally, the wings were completed. of the sun from melting the wax the wax was softening in the heat. The results were astounding: the holding his wings together. Alarmed, he dipped into a man-made wings perfectly Daedalus urged Icarus to pursue descent\u2014but too late. The feathers the middle way instead. streamed away from his wings Virtue both finds and as the wax melted, and he plunged chooses that which Wearing his father\u2019s inventions, toward the sea. the young boy stepped from the is intermediate. tower and, instead of plunging to Daedalus heard his son\u2019s Aristotle his death, was borne aloft by the despairing cry and looked back, slow sweep of the wings through only to see the flurry of feathers and Nicomachaean Ethics the air. Icarus was exhilarated; he foam where Icarus had hit the had never felt so powerful or free. surface of the water\u2014the nearby His father was more apprehensive island of Icaria is named for that and cautiously led the way toward spot. Devastated by the loss of his the clouds, assessing his height at son, Daedalus had no option but to every stage in the journey and continue on alone. Although Icaria using landmarks on the ground to lies northeast of Crete off the coast steer a safe course. of Turkey, sources say that Hubris between two extremes. The advisability of this ideal applied The myth of Daedalus and to all aspects of life and was Icarus warns against over- considered an attribute of confidence, or hubris. Mortals beauty. In architecture, the who were considered guilty of golden mean was expressed hubris were severely punished in terms of ideal proportions in Greek myths and in the derived from mathematics. For poetry and plays those stories example, the Parthenon, built inspired. The offense was in 447\u2013432 bce in gratitude for considered grave because an Athenian victory over Persian it threatened the order of the invaders, was the crowning cosmos and the limitations glory of a city at its political and placed on mortals by the gods. military zenith, but it was also a stone-built hymn to symmetry Aristotle proclaimed the and balance\u2014the embodiment desirability of the \u201cgolden of moderation and beauty. mean\u201d\u2014the middle way","Daedalus eventually landed in Because of the ignorance ANCIENT GREECE 81 Sicily, far to the west. There, King of youth, he made his Cocalus of Kamikos took him in. flight too far aloft and Pha\u00ebton and Helios fell into the sea. Tested by a riddle Historical Library The myth of Icarus and Meanwhile, King Minos was intent Daedalus is often compared to on finding his ingenious inventor and enjoy his hospitality for a while. that of Pha\u00ebton and Helios. and returning him to Crete. He Some say that his daughters Helios, the Titan sun god, pursued Daedalus to Sicily, where attacked and killed King Minos as drove westward across the he combed the island with a riddle he took a bath, others that Daedalus sky each day in a golden he knew only Daedalus would be himself had a hand in killing him chariot drawn by flaming able to solve\u2014threading a spiral by pouring boiling water into the horses and plunged over the seashell with a silken cord. When bath through secret pipes. Some western horizon by nightfall. King Cocalus returned the shell versions of the myth say that after Every day, Helios\u2019s son, neatly strung, Minos guessed that his death, the gods took Minos to Pha\u00ebton (\u201cShining One\u201d), Daedalus had assisted him. He Olympus, where he worked with watched in awe and envy, was correct: Daedalus had tied the Hephaestus, the god of begging his father to let him thread to an ant and let the tiny metalworking and blacksmiths. \u25a0 drive the chariot. Despite his creature draw it through the shell. misgivings, Helios eventually agreed and Pha\u00ebton took off, Minos demanded Daedalus\u2019s laughing exultantly. surrender, but Cocalus played for time and asked his visitor to wait Soon, however, Pha\u00ebton panicked; his horses pulled Icarus falls from the sky as his him far off course, bucking, father looks on in this engraving by diving, and swerving through Jean Matheus (ca.1610), from a the sky. Flying low, they translation of Ovid\u2019s Metamorphoses scorched the earth; then by Frenchman Nicholas Renouard. soaring into space, they left the fields frozen and barren. Finally, Zeus had seen enough: he hurled a thunderbolt and sent Pha\u00ebton falling to his death, as a punishment for trying to fly too high. While the story of Icarus is most often viewed as a warning against hubris, Ovid\u2019s account of Pha\u00ebton\u2019s downfall can be read as a tale of both the nobility of man\u2019s aspirations and their folly.","82 HGWTHEOAERBTGCPEOHOHNELIN\u2019IASSGDHHETEEDHDAEHDSEHIRNIELD, PERSEUS AND MEDUSA IN BRIEF T he origins of Perseus were In some versions of the story, the as extraordinary as they king sent Perseus away with the THEME were unlikely\u2014his mother, deadly task of slaying the monster The threat of female Dana\u00eb, conceived him when Zeus Medusa, leaving Polydectes free to sexuality impregnated her with a shower of marry Dana\u00eb. In others, Perseus gold. Perseus was born in Argos, in volunteered as a dare. In any case, SOURCES Greece, but when his grandfather Perseus set off to kill Medusa and Theogony, Hesiod, ca.700 bce; Acrisius was warned that he would bring back her head as evidence. Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus, one day be killed by his grandson, ca.430 bce; Library, Pseudo- he cast Dana\u00eb and Perseus adrift in Medusa was one of a trio of Apollodorus, ca.100 ce; a wooden chest to drown. They Gorgons, creatures who had snakes Description of Greece, landed on the Aegean island of for hair, and faces so hideous that Pausanias, ca.150 ce. Serifos, where the king took them in. the slightest glimpse would turn any onlooker into stone. According SETTING Perseus\u2019s quest to some myths, Medusa had been Argos; Asia; Aethiopia. Years passed and the king, born monstrous, but in others she Polydectes, wanted to marry the had been cursed by the goddess KEY FIGURES beautiful Dana\u00eb, but she refused. Athena for her vanity. Medusa\u2019s Perseus A hero; son of Zeus two sisters were immortal, but and Dana\u00eb. Medusa herself had been specially punished by Athena with mortality Dana\u00eb Daughter of Acrisius; and could therefore be killed. mother of Perseus. Divine assistance Zeus King of the gods; father Faced with the challenge of killing of Perseus. Medusa, Perseus turned to the gods for assistance. Athena gave Medusa One of three him a gleaming shield of bronze; Gorgons. Zeus supplied him with a sword; Andromeda Daughter of The beheading of Medusa by Queen Cassiopeia and King Perseus, accompanied by Athena, Cepheus of Aethiopia. as depicted in a 6th-century bce limestone relief carved in Temple C, Selinunte, Sicily.","ANCIENT GREECE 83 See also: Prometheus helps mankind 28\u201331 \u25a0 The many affairs of Zeus 39\u201347 \u25a0 The labors of Herakles 70\u201373 \u25a0 Theseus and the Minotaur 74\u201375 hag to another, he snatched them A sword-cum- Hades\u2019s cap of both and slipped past. Finding sickle was darkness made Medusa asleep, Perseus crept up on provided Perseus invisible her undetected and looked not at by Zeus. to his target. her actual face but at her reflection They turned in his shield. Raising his sword to stone all those high, he swung it down with all his who beheld them. might, cut off her head, and put it into his bag\u2014never once looking Library directly at Medusa\u2019s petrifying face. Hades provided a helmet of New life Athena\u2019s invisibility; and Hermes granted Medusa had been made pregnant mirrored him winged sandals. At Athena\u2019s by Poseidon, and from the gaping shield let prompting, Perseus also visited the wound left by her decapitation, Perseus Hesperides, who gave him a bag the winged horse Pegasus came gaze safely with which to safely carry the head galloping out, followed by his giant upon of Medusa: even in death, her brother Chrysaor, named for the Medusa\u2019s petrifying stare and her hissing golden sword he brandished. reflection. hair could prove fatal. Perseus rode off on Pegasus and, during his return voyage home, he Winged sandals Finally, Perseus reached the rescued the maiden Andromeda enabled Perseus to fly to Gorgons\u2019s island of Sarpedon, near from a sea monster. When he finally the end of the world. Cisthene. The Gorgons slept in a reached home, Perseus entered the Perseus\u2019s armor consisted of items cave guarded by the Graeae, three palace victoriously bearing given to him by several different gods. hags who shared a single tooth and Medusa\u2019s head. Polydectes looked Often, in ancient Greek mythology, one eye. While they were switching upon it and was turned to stone. enchanted items imbued with magical their shared tooth and eye from one Perseus then returned his gifts to powers would aid a hero in his quest. the gods, giving the Gorgon\u2019s head as a gift to Athena. \u25a0 Andromeda villages. Andromeda\u2019s father, Cepheus, begged Poseidon The daughter of the king and to spare his kingdom further queen of the ancient kingdom of persecution. Poseidon replied Aethiopia\u2014Africa\u2019s upper Nile that he would only call off the region\u2014Andromeda was monster if Cepheus offered it renowned for her beauty. She his daughter as a sacrifice. was humble, but her mother\u2014 the sea-nymph Cassiopeia\u2014was Andromeda was stripped not. Boasting that her daughter\u2019s naked, chained to a rock beside allure surpassed even that of the sea, and left to her fate the Nereids\u2014the nymphs who when Perseus chanced upon attended Poseidon\u2014she caused this scene and swooped down the god of the sea unpardonable to intervene. He killed Cetus, offense. Every day, he sent the freed Andromeda from her giant sea monster Cetus to chains, and took her to be his attack Aethiopia\u2019s fields and bride and live with him at his home on the isle of Serifos.","84 HPBCOOAUTUTPE,RTIOIAWSMNAILDLELPSOSUR JASON AND MEDEA IN BRIEF J ason, the rightful heir to the goddess Athena on his side. throne of Iolcos, grew up in On her instructions, he gathered THEME exile, displaced by his together a group of warriors and Betrayal and revenge father\u2019s half-brother Pelias. As soon set them to work building a ship\u2014 as Jason was old enough, he made the Argo. Then his warriors set out SOURCES the return voyage to his Thessalian to sea, calling themselves the Medea, Euripides, 431 bce; kingdom to take back his crown. \u201cArgonauts,\u201d and, after many Argonautica, Apollonius of Pelias conceded Jason\u2019s claim but adventures, landed in Colchis. Rhodes, ca.250 bce; Library, insisted that, to be the king of This was an island considered Pseudo-Apollodorus, ca.100 ce; Iolcus, he would first have to the edge of the Earth by the Description of Greece, journey east to the Caucasus and Greeks. Making their way Pausanias, ca.150 ce. bring the magical Golden Fleece upstream into a wild mountain back from King Ae\u00ebtes of Colchis. region, the Argonauts found the SETTING fabled fleece hanging from a branch Iolcos, Thessaly; Colchis, on The Argonauts in a sacred grove. Guarding it was the Black Sea; Corinth, the Pelias was confident the mission a ferocious dragon that never slept. Peloponnese. would be suicidal and Jason would never return, but Jason had the Medea\u2019s obsession KEY FIGURES On Jason\u2019s arrival, capricious Eros, Jason Son of Cretheus; god of desire, struck the king\u2019s rightful heir to the throne. daughter, Medea, with one of his gold-tipped arrows. The Pelias King of Iolcos. young princess instantly fell madly in love. Though she was a niece King Ae\u00ebtes Son of the sun of the witch Circe, and a sorceress god Helios; king of Colchis. in her own right, Medea was powerless to resist. Consumed by The Argonauts Jason\u2019s band desire, all she wanted was to be of heroes, who command a ship named the Argo. Medea holds her deadly potion as the unwitting daughters of Pelias bring Medea Sorceress, and in a cauldron for his fatal bath. This is daughter of King Ae\u00ebtes. a Roman copy of a Greek marble stele (funerary monument) from ca. 420 bce.","ANCIENT GREECE 85 See also: The labors of Herakles 70\u201373 \u25a0 Theseus and the Minotaur 74\u201375 \u25a0 Perseus and Medusa 80\u201381 \u25a0 Cupid and Psyche 110\u201311 Medea prepares to murder Absyrtus their children had to flee to Corinth. Euripides and throw his remains overboard, as There, in pursuit of political she and Jason flee Colchis together on advantage, Jason betrayed Medea The three greatest board the Argo in this painting by and left her for Glauce, a princess playwrights of ancient Greece Herbert James Draper (1904). of the city\u2019s ruling house. turned myths into tragedies that are still performed to this with Jason and help him in any Medea soon took her revenge. day and eloquently articulate way she could. She prepared a She gave the new bride a wedding the helplessness of humanity potion that would send the dragon gown steeped in poison that burst in the face of an unforgiving into a long, deep sleep, so that into flames when she put it on, fate. Aeschylus (ca.525\u2013455 Jason could step over its resting killing her and her father. Medea bce) and Sophocles (ca.496\u2013 body and take the fleece. then slew two of her three children, 405 bce) wrote about the leaving only Thessalus alive. Before existential anguish of Having cheated her father of Jason could punish her for this mankind, but Euripides the fleece, Medea then resorted terrible crime, she fled to Athens, (ca.480\u2013406 bce) to a gruesome murder in order flying in the golden chariot of her went further, revealing the to escape with Jason and the grandfather, Helios. \u25a0 harrowing inner lives of Argonauts. As she fled Colchis on compelling men and women. board the Argo, she butchered her Stronger than lover\u2019s love More of his works survive younger brother and threw his is lover\u2019s hate. Incurable, in than of Aeschylus and body parts into the sea, so that each, the wounds they make. Sophocles combined\u2014his her pursuing father would have to popularity grew in the stop to gather them up for burial. Medea Hellenistic Period that followed the death of A woman scorned Alexander in 323 bce, and he When Jason reached Iolcos with the is regarded as a cornerstone Golden Fleece, Pelias refused to of Western literature. keep his side of the contract. Medea tricked him into taking a Euripides\u2019s Medea is deadly potion she claimed would particularly striking for its give him eternal youth. After this psychological sophistication second murder, Jason, Medea, and and compassion. Her fury is evoked in all its horror, as is the torment she feels at her abandonment, and the pain she faces as a mother: \u201cI would sooner stand in the front line of the battle phalanx three times,\u201d she says, \u201cthan go through the sufferings of childbirth even once.\u201d","86 BUMOENEEDFNEIO,NPRLVUETISEAU\u2014DSN!TAOTTFEOALL THE FATE OF OEDIPUS IN BRIEF K ing Laius of Thebes was wed his mother. Distraught at the warned by his soothsayer thought of killing Polybus and THEME (a psychic) never to father a marrying Merope, Oedipus left Fate child. If he did, the soothsayer Corinth and fled toward Thebes\u2014 prophesied, the king\u2019s son would unaware that this was the home of SOURCE grow up to kill him, and then marry his biological family. Oedipus Tyrannus, Sophocles, his wife. However, Laius\u2019s queen, ca.430 bce. Jocasta, was irresistibly beautiful. Prophecy fulfilled Eventually he was overcome with On the road to Thebes, Oedipus SETTING desire and they slept together. Nine met a self-important dignitary, who Thebes. months later, Jocasta gave birth to demanded that Oedipus make way a son, Oedipus. for him. He quarreled with the man KEY FIGURES and killed him, not realizing that he Laius King of Thebes. Home from home was King Laius, his father. When Mindful of the prophecy, Laius gave he then fell in love with the King\u2019s Jocasta Queen of Thebes; the baby to a servant, and told him widow, Jocasta, Oedipus had no wife of Laius, then Oedipus. to leave Oedipus on the idea she was his own mother. mountainside to die. But a Oedipus Son of Laius and shepherd family found the baby Any man who hoped to marry Jocasta. and took care of him, later handing Jocasta and become the new king him over to King Polybus and of Thebes had to solve a riddle Polybus and Merope The Queen Merope of Corinth, who had king and queen of Corinth. no children of their own. Oedipus grew up happily but one day heard The Oracle Also known as it muttered that he wasn\u2019t his the Pythia; a woman widely parents\u2019 child. He went to Delphi to revered for her prophecies. ask the Oracle, and discovered that he was fated to kill his father and The Sphinx A creature that asked riddles and punished Oedipus answers the Sphinx in any who answered incorrectly. this detail of a sarcophagus from the Hellenistic Period (ca. 323\u201331 bce), Tiresias The blind prophet now displayed in the National of Thebes. Archaeological Museum in Athens.","ANCIENT GREECE 87 See also: The Olympian gods 24\u201331 \u25a0 Orestes avenges Agamemnon 64\u201365 \u25a0 The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371 \u25a0 Eshu the trickster 294\u201397 What man\u2019s misfortunes ever threw his successes into so violent a reverse? Oedipus Tyrannus posed by the human-headed, lion- Oedipus blinds himself upon The Oedipus Complex bodied, and bird-winged creature learning his wife\u2019s identity in this known as the Sphinx. \u201cWhat,\u201d the miniature from De Casibus Virorum Sigmund Freud (1856\u20131939), Sphinx asked, \u201cgoes on four legs in Illustrium (\u201cOn the Fates of Famous the founder of psychoanalysis, the morning, two legs at noon, and Men\u201d), Giovanni Boccaccio (1313\u20131375). shocked the world with his three legs in the evening?\u201d Oedipus theories of the unconscious. did not hesitate: \u201cMan,\u201d he replied. Tiresias explained to Oedipus that His idea that people were As an infant, man crawls on all the man he had fought and killed driven by parts of their fours; then he walks upright; finally, was his father, Oedipus realized personality of which they had in old age, he shuffles along with that Jocasta was his mother. At no knowledge was profoundly the help of a stick. this revelation, Jocasta committed upsetting at that time. Special suicide, and when Oedipus found outrage was reserved for his Doomed by destiny her body, he drove her dress pins theory of the \u201cOedipus Oedipus and Jocasta were wed, into his eyes, blinding himself. complex,\u201d named after the lived happily in the palace, and had characters in Sophocles\u2019s play. several children before Thebes was Although Oedipus had not been In every family, said Freud, struck by a devastating plague. aware that he was committing the son subconsciously yearns When all the rituals and sacrifices patricide or incest, his behavior had to possess his mother\u2014his failed to provide a cure, the blind to be punished. Despite his royal very first love from infancy\u2014 prophet Tiresias told the astonished birth, integrity, and ability to and oust his father from first king that he had doomed the answer the hardest riddle, Oedipus place in her affections. city with his own actions. When was as unable as any of us to escape his destiny. \u25a0 Freud\u2019s theories were unfalsifiable\u2014impossible to prove or disprove\u2014and many are discounted by modern psychiatrists. Yet the idea of the Oedipus complex persists in popular culture, as it helps to make emotional sense of seemingly irrational rivalries and jealousies within families.","88 DMSOHOEERSEWHTAEHNAATVNSENSAHDITEOSNEISLF APHRODITE AND ADONIS IN BRIEF E ven Aphrodite, the great Aphrodite was instantly smitten. goddess of love, was not Adonis, Myrrha\u2019s son, was not only THEME immune to the darts of the fairest youth of all\u2014to this day Unrequited love desire. One day, as Eros played in his name is a byword for male his mother\u2019s arms, one of his arrows beauty\u2014but also the least SOURCES brushed against her breast. When Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce; she looked up, the first person that Adonis rejects Aphrodite as he Library, Pseudo-Apollodorus, Aphrodite chanced to see was the hurries off to hunt. In Titian\u2019s Venus ca.100 ce. beautiful Adonis, as he sprinted and Adonis (1554), this is no time for past with his pack of hounds in love\u2014Eros is asleep, dawn is breaking, SETTING pursuit of a lone deer. and the hounds yearn to leave. Ancient Greece. KEY FIGURES Aphrodite Goddess of love; known as Venus in Roman myth, she pursued Adonis relentlessly. Eros Son of Aphrodite; god of sexual attraction. Cinyras King of Cyprus; deceived and seduced by his daughter, then disgusted by her. Myrrha Daughter of Cinyras; pitying her, the gods later turned her into a myrrh tree. Adonis Son of Cinyras and Myrrha; a beautiful and chaste youth.","ANCIENT GREECE 89 See also: Orpheus and Eurydice 53 \u25a0 Perseus and Medusa 82\u201383 \u25a0 Cupid and Psyche 112\u201313 \u25a0 Echo and Narcissus 114 \u25a0 Pomona and Vertumnus 122\u2013123 \u25a0 Pyramus and Thisbe 124 Myrrha her daughter\u2019s beauty. Fleeing her outraged father, Myrrha was Adonis was conceived through turned into a tree at her own his mother Myrrha\u2019s unnatural request, after praying for desire for her father Cinyras, transformation from the gods king of Cyprus. This happened as a punishment for her actions. when Myrrha slipped into his Shedding tears of myrrh, she bed one night, after he had gave birth to Adonis, who was drunk too much wine, tricking perversely chaste. Classical him into believing she was her writers wrote that Myrrha\u2019s lust mother. Her incestuous passion for her father came from an was punishment from the obsession with her virginity. Furies, Cinyras\u2019s unwitting involvement an act of spite by Myrrha hides her face in shame as Aphrodite, who had taken great the poets Dante and Virgil journey offense when Myrrha\u2019s mother, through Hell, in an illustration by Kenkhreis, had boasted about Gustave Dor\u00e9 (1885). attainable. Resolutely chaste, he Adonis lay dying in the arms of the sexuality. Women openly celebrated had no interest in romantic love\u2014 weeping Aphrodite, his blood male physical beauty and mourned hunting was the only passion that spilled out. At her command, the its fleeting nature. They and their stirred his cold heart. Day and night, bloody drops stained the lovely daughters made miniature gardens he ran through dense dark forest in petals of the anemone a deep red, in pots packed with fast-growing search of every sort of quarry. and the flower sprung up afresh plants and carried them up to the each year. rooftops. When the Adonia\u2019s eight Inflamed by desire, Aphrodite days of dance and song ended, the set off in pursuit of Adonis, her long Adonis and the seasons plants were thrown into streams hair streaming behind, and her Athenian women held an annual or the ocean\u2014a symbolic act seen garments flying open as she ran. festival in memory of Adonis, called by some scholars as an attempt Each time she caught Adonis, he the Adonia. Plato disapproved, but to generate plentiful rain for the struggled free. He would not submit otherwise the overwhelmingly male coming harvest. to her embraces, however much official chroniclers of Greek life said she called after him to stay. little about this festival of female In myths and festivals alike, Adonis was not only remembered for Unheeded warnings My dear Adonis, his cold beauty but linked to fertility, Pursuing Adonis through the keep away from the seasons, and the cycle of decay woods, Aphrodite took care to steer savage beasts. and regeneration. One myth, for clear of savage boars and other wild Metamorphoses example, tells of a conflict between animals that might attack, and Aphrodite and Persephone over who urged Adonis to do the same. should be allowed to keep the infant Adonis. Zeus ordered Adonis Adonis dismissed Aphrodite\u2019s to divide his time equally between fears, rejected her pleas and the two, spending spring and caresses, and returned to his summer with Aphrodite (among the hunt\u2014only to be charged by a living) and fall and winter with giant and ferocious wild boar. Its Persephone (in the Underworld). This sharp tusk sliced into his groin\u2014a tale emphasizes Adonis\u2019s symbolic castration regarded by connection to fertility and the cycle some scholars as punishment for of death and revival in crops. \u25a0 his rejection of sexual love. As","90 WTTTAROHWUAANCNTSHYEF,VGOMEORRALMYIDEITDBINETO KING MIDAS IN BRIEF K ing Midas generously thrilled and instantly touched entertained Silenus, the everything he saw\u2014a twig, a THEME companion of Dionysus, for stone, an ear of wheat, an apple on A cursed gift 10 days after saving him from a a branch. All immediately turned village mob. Although Xenophon\u2019s into glowing, solid gold. As he SOURCES account claimed Midas captured reached home, the wooden doors Anabasis (\u201cThe March of the Silenus to steal his wisdom, in and sills of his own palace were 10,000\u201d), Xenophon, ca.370 bce; Ovid\u2019s tale Dionysus was grateful transformed where he touched Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce. for his friend\u2019s safe return and them. What good fortune! offered Midas anything he wanted. SETTING Soon, though, Midas realized Ancyra (now Ankara), in Midas asked that whatever he how hungry he felt, and told his Phrygia (central Turkey). touched turn to gold, and the god servants to bring him food. At his granted his wish. The king was touch, the bread turned to gold and KEY FIGURES the wine turned to molten gold. Midas King of Phrygia; Could he ever eat or drink again? cursed with a golden touch. Midas fled his home, hating Silenus Half-man, half-horse; what he had wished for. Seeking god of wine-making and refuge in the wilderness, he cried drunkenness; companion out to Dionysus, begging his and tutor of Dionysos. benefactor to take back his gift. The god told him to bathe in the Dionysus The god of fertility hills, at the source of the Pactolus; and wine, who brought both washing away the curse, Midas ecstasy and rage. was freed from his golden touch. \u25a0 As Midas bathed at the river\u2019s source, shown here in a work by Bartolomeo Manfredi (1617\u20131619), the gold he washed away was said to have seeped into the sand, later enriching King Croesus. See also: The many affairs of Zeus 42\u201347 \u25a0 The cult of Dionysus 52 \u25a0 Vesta and Priapus 108\u201309","ANCIENT GREECE 91 IBNONIEFGNAAHETSTALI,TNATHGNHLTTEEIHSISEDDLAWIYASANAAVDNPEDPSEARED THE LEGEND OF ATLANTIS IN BRIEF A tlantis was a mythical [Athens] shone forth, civilization that flourished in the excellence of her THEME before an ill-fated war and Lost city natural forces destroyed it. It is virtue and strength. SOURCES described in two dialogues by the Critias Timaeus and Critias, Athenian philosopher Plato as an Plato, ca.360 bce. imaginative illustration of his ceased. There was a historical SETTING beliefs about how an ideal state precedent for the loss of Atlantis: Beyond the Pillars of Herakles should be run, and the dangers of the eruption of the island-volcano (now known as the Strait of the arrogant use of power. of Thera (Santorini), in the Aegean, Gibraltar), which marked the south of Greece, around 1500 bce. edge of the ancient Greek world. Though an island, Atlantis was Not only did most of the island \u201clarger than Libya and Asia.\u201d It was sink into the sea, but the darkening A confederacy of kings, of an advanced society, technically effect of the ash across the sky great and marvelous power. accomplished and well governed. created a \u201cwinter\u201d which lasted Yet when this wealthy aggressor several years. This disaster likely Critias waged an unprovoked war, it was brought about the end of the the small, democratic Athens that Minoan civilization, and some prevailed through her \u201cvirtue and scholars believe that the story of strength.\u201d The seemingly utopian Atlantis represented a sort of folk Atlantis failed, Plato notes, because memory of these events. \u25a0 its people became corrupt. For this, the great god Zeus punished them, sending earthquakes and floods until finally Atlantis was swallowed up in the sea. Minoan memories So vividly suggestive was this one fable that the quest to find a site that inspired Plato\u2019s story never See also: The founding of Athens 56\u201357 \u25a0 The Trojan War 62\u201363 \u25a0 The quest of Odysseus 66\u201371","ANCIENT","ROME","94 INTRODUCTION Virgil\u2019s national Livy\u2019s History of epic the Aeneid Rome intertwines Rome is founded recounts Aeneas\u2019s foundational myths (according to flight from Troy and long journey to Italy. with historical tradition celebrated records of Rome. in the annual Parilia festival). 753 BCE 30\u201319 BCE 27\u20139 BCE 7 BCE 509 BCE 27 BCE The last king of Rome, After civil war Roman Antiquities, Tarquin the Proud, is ends in victory by Dionysius, traces for Octavian, he overthrown; Rome becomes Rome\u2019s first Rome\u2019s history becomes a republic. emperor, Augustus. and legends up until ca.240 BCE. T he city of Rome is said to The Roman gods were not, however, shameful deeds and was turned have been founded in simply Greek gods by different into a spider as a result\u2014appealed 753 BCE by Romulus and names. Bacchus, the lighthearted to Roman values because it both Remus\u2014two descendants of the Roman god of wine and inspiration, condemned the gods\u2019 immorality Trojan prince Aeneas, whose is more similar to the pleasure- and punished a human for daring voyage from the sacked city of Troy seeking Etruscan god Fufluns to reproach them. The story of was the subject of the Aeneid. than to the Greek Dionysus. The Arachne was recorded by the poet Rome became a great imperial \u201cCapitoline Triad\u201d of Jupiter, Juno, Ovid, one of the key authorities for power, at its greatest extent under and Minerva developed from the Roman mythology, but he probably Trajan (ca.100 CE), encompassing Etruscan gods Tinia, Uni, and took it from a lost Greek source, as 20 percent of the world\u2019s population. Menvra. Only later were these arachne means \u201cspider\u201d in Greek. Roman gods aligned with Zeus, Greece and Rome Hera, and Athena. Ancient Roman religion revolved Roman culture absorbed that of around pleasing the gods. Before Italy\u2019s various tribes\u2014the Latins, Many Roman writers took pains Christianity was legalized by the Etruscans, the Sabines\u2014whose to emphasize the moral superiority Constantine in 313 CE, the Roman gods were adopted by Roman of the Roman gods over their Greek calendar was full of feast days, mythology. However, Romans also counterparts. The Romans disliked sacrifices, and rituals to the appropriated the myths of the the wanton amorality of the Greek numerous deities. While Romans ancient Greeks, whose colonies, gods, preferring to stress the moral shared and celebrated the myths culture, and myths they had taken rectitude of the gods of Rome. A of their various gods, their religion on, aligning many of their own myth such as that of Arachne\u2014the was based around the practice of gods with Greek counterparts. spinner and weaver who criticized ritual acts, rather than beliefs in the gods by depicting their most doctrine or mythological narratives.","Ovid explores the Plutarch pens 23 Under Emperor ANCIENT ROME 95 creation, deities, history, biographies of Constantine, Rome legendary Greeks begins to transition The Eastern Roman and rituals of Rome in to Christianity as (or Byzantine) his poems, Fasti and and Romans its official religion. in Parallel Lives. Empire, formed in Metamorphoses. 330 CE, falls to the Ottoman Turks. 8 CE CA.100\u2013120 CE 306\u2013337 CE 1453 CE CA.80 CE CA.158\u2013180 CE 476 CE The Thebaid, by Apuleius\u2019s Germanic leader Statius, depicts the Metamorphoses, Odoacer deposes assault of Argos\u2019s known as The Golden Emperor Romulus, champions on the Ass, tells the story of and the Roman Cupid and Psyche. city of Thebes. empire falls. Origin stories Fearing they would be sold into it absorbed the stories of the Great Much of the mythology that can slavery, they set fire to the ships, Mother, Cybele, from Anatolia; of be called authentically Roman\u2014 making them unseaworthy. The the Egyptian god Isis; and of Syrian such as the tale of Romulus and Achaeans were therefore forced to deities like Jupiter Heliopolitanus. Remus\u2014concerns the founding settle there in Italy rather than As the poet Juvenal wrote in his of Rome. Virgil\u2019s epic poem, the return to Greece. Satires, \u201cThe Syrian Orontes has Aeneid, consciously modeled on the been disgorging into the Tiber for Greek works of Homer, explains Whichever myth they favored, a good while now.\u201d One god who how the Trojan prince Aeneas fled the Romans were proud to trace gained a huge following among the sack of Troy and traveled to their culture back to that of ancient Roman soldiers was Mithras. His Italy to found a new nation. Greece, via the victorious Achaeans origins may have been Persian, or the defeated Trojans. One but the cult of the bull-slayer was Another myth, recorded by account, by Hellanicus of Lesbos, distinctively Roman. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, told of even unified the two: in this version, a fleet of warships from Achaea Aeneas traveled to Italy alongside Ruling over a vast empire, the (Greece) that was sailing back from Odysseus and named the city of Romans kept extensive records, Troy with some captured Trojan Rome after Rom\u00ea (or Rhome), the which helps to explain why so women. Its triumphant journey was Trojan woman who had encouraged much of their mythology has interrupted when a storm forced the others to burn the ships. survived. Art and literature\u2014 them onto the Italian coast. The poems, letters, and satires\u2014 Acheans hauled up their ships for Other influences preserved and transformed Greek, the winter, and in the spring, just Roman mythology was also colored Etruscan, and eastern myths in as they were preparing to leave, the by the influence of deities and cults vivid reimaginings that still Trojan women made their move. from lands beyond Italy and Greece; influence Western artists today. \u25a0","IASRINMG OSF AND THE MAN AENEAS, FOUNDER OF ROME","","98 AENEAS, FOUNDER OF ROME IN BRIEF T he Trojan prince Aeneas, Bearing Anchises, his father, on his the son of the mortal shoulders, Aeneas flees Troy with his THEME Anchises and the goddess son Ascanius. His wife, Creusa, is still National epic Venus (Aphrodite), first appeared beside them in this image, painted in in Homer\u2019s Iliad, but was elevated 1598 by Federico Fiori Barocci. SOURCES to the role of founding father of Aeneid, Virgil, ca. 30\u201319 bce; Rome in Virgil\u2019s powerful epic, urged him to flee and take his Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce. the Aeneid. His story begins at family, Troy\u2019s sacred relics, and the the end of the Trojan War. Aeneas household gods with him. Aeneas SETTING was forced to flee Troy when the escaped with his son Ascanius, From Troy to Italy, ca.1000 bce. city fell to the Greeks. The Aeneid and his father, Anchises, but his describes Aeneas\u2019s subsequent wife, Creusa, became separated KEY FIGURES voyage to Italy, beset with drama from the group. When he went Aeneas A prince of Troy. and misfortune. back, Aeneas found only her ghost, who told him he was destined to Venus Goddess of love and Escape from Troy found a new city in Italy. mother of Aeneas. The poem begins with Aeneas storm-bound in Carthage, telling Fleeing by sea, Aeneas and his Anchises Father of Aeneas. the queen about the events that followers went to Thrace and then had led to his flight from Troy. He Delos, where Apollo, the god of Juno Queen of the gods; explained how the Trojans had enemy of the Trojans. been duped by a giant wooden horse that the Greeks had left Dido Queen of Carthage; lover outside Troy. The Trojans brought it of Aeneas. within the city walls, unaware that Greek warriors hid inside. That Jupiter King of the gods. night, they crept out and opened the city gates to the rest of the Greek Lavinia Princess of Latium; forces, who destroyed Troy. future wife of Aeneas. Aeneas initially joined the fight, Turnus Ruler of Rutuli; enemy but his slain cousin, Hector, called of Aeneas. on him in a dream to found a new Trojan city. His mother, Venus, also Neptune God of the sea. Virgil The poet Publius Vergilius Maro Odysseus; instead, he is often was born near Mantua in 70 bce, described as pater (\u201cfather\u201d) and died in Brundisium in 19 bce. and pius (\u201cpious\u201d) to emphasize He wrote three major works: the his noble quest. Eclogues, the Georgics, and the Aeneid. While the first two deal According to his biographer, with pastoral themes, Virgil was Aelius Donatus, Virgil recited inspired by Homer\u2019s Iliad and much of the Aeneid to the Odyssey to create the Aeneid emperor Augustus, causing as a Roman national epic and Augustus\u2019s sister Octavia to foundational myth. Although the faint at the prophetic mention Aeneid follows immediately on of her son Marcellus in book VI. from the events of the Iliad, its hero is not one of the victorious After Virgil finished writing Greeks but Aeneas, a fleeing the Aeneid, he planned to prince of the vanquished Trojans. make corrections, but he fell Aeneas is not wily, like Homer\u2019s ill. Despite his dying wish that the manuscript be burned, the emperor ordered its publication."]