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T he legends of ancient Greece are more familiar because they have become so permanently embedded in literary traditions of Western civilization. Greek mythology followed the pattern of other mythologies: the forces of nature were given personalities and were worshiped. There was no worship of animals or of gods in animal form, however, as there was in Egypt. Pan, for example, had a goat?s horns, hoofs, and tail, but his head was like that of a man. Greek gods and goddesses were pictured as being much like men and women. The term for this is anthropomorphism, meaning ?in the form of a human.? The gods were conceived as more heroic in stature, more outstanding in beauty and proportion, and more powerful and enduring than humans. They were nevertheless endowed with many human weaknesses. They could be jealous, envious, spiteful, and petty. Among them only Zeus was known as the Just
The Greeks believed that their gods lived on Mount Olympus. They dwelt together in a community of light and pleasantness, and from this height they mingled with (and often interfered with) the lives of mortals. Before the gods existed there had been Titans?the children of Earth (Gaea) and the heavens (Uranus). According to Hesiod?s account there were originally 12 of them: the brothers Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Cronus and the sisters Thea, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, and Tethys. At their mother?s prompting they rebelled against their father, who had shut them off in the underworld of Tartarus. Under the leadership of Cronus they deposed Uranus and made Cronus their ruler. Zeus, a son of Cronus, overthrew his father and seized power after a ten-year struggle. The Titans were again imprisoned in Tartarus. Zeus, also called the Thunderer, was then the first and most powerful of the gods. He ruled the universe with 11 other gods. Poseidon, his brother, governed the waters. Hades, later called Pluto, ruled the underworld and the dead. Hestia, sister of Zeus, was goddess of the household. Hera, the wife of Zeus, was the goddess of marriage, and Ares, a son of Zeus, was the god of war. Athena was the favorite daughter of Zeus (see Athena). Because she had sprung full grown from his forehead, she was the goddess of wisdom. Another son of Zeus, Apollo, drove the chariot of the sun across the skies (see Apollo). He was also the music maker and the god of light and song, and he was worshiped by the poets. His sister Aphrodite was the goddess of love (see Aphrodite). Hermes, the messenger of the gods, was another son of Zeus. Hephaestus was the god of fire. The only one of the gods who was not beautiful, he was skilled in craftsmanship and forged the armor of the gods. He was the patron of handicrafts and the protector of blacksmiths.
Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, was the moon goddess. The favorite among rural people, she was also goddess of vegetation, and, attended by nymphs (naiads), supervised waters and lush wild growth. Also the goddess of wild animals and the hunt, she was often pictured with a stag or a hunting dog. These were the 12 major gods. There were other lesser ones whom the Greeks worshiped. Demeter, for instance, was the goddess of grain. Her legend centered on the story of her daughter Persephone, who was stolen by Hades and taken tolive in the underworld. Demeter heard her daughter?s cries, but no one knew where she had been taken. Because Demeter was distressed by Persephone?s disappearance, she lost interest in the harvest, and as a result there was widespread famine. When Apollo traveled under the Earth as he did over it, he saw Persephone in the underworld. Then Zeus sent Hermes to bring Persephone back. Hades knew he must obey Zeus, but because Persephone had eaten one pomegranate seed in the land of the dead she had to return there for four months of every year. Each year when her daughter returned, Demeter made the Earth bloom and bear fruit again. Through this story the Greeks interpreted the miracle of spring. After Persephone returned to Hades in the fall, winter arrived.
Dionysus was the god of wine. He was a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation. Lavish festivals called Dionysia were held in his honor. He came to represent the irrational side of human nature, while Apollo represented order and reason. The attendants of Dionysus were the satyrs, minor gods representing the forces of nature. They were depicted with bodies of animals and had small horns and tails like a goat?s. Similar in appearance to the satyrs was Pan, a god who did not live on Mount Olympus. Instead he guarded the flocks while playing his pipes. The Muses, from whose name the word music is derived, were nine goddesses who came to be regarded as patrons of the arts and sciences. Their names and the endeavors they inspired were: Clio, history; Calliope, epic poetry; Erato, love poetry; Euterpe, lyric poetry; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, song, rhetoric, and geometry; Thalia, comedy; Terpsichore, dancing; and Urania, astronomy and astrology. Perhaps the most threatening of the goddesses were the Fates, called collectively Moirai. There were three Fates, whom Homer called ?spinners of the thread of life.? Clotho was the spinner of the thread, hence she was also a birth goddess. Lachesis measured the length of the thread, the amount of time allotted to each person. And Atropos cut the thread. These three had more power than most other gods, and whoever resisted them had to face Nemesis, the goddess of justice. (See also Fates.) Hypnos was the god of sleep and brother of Thanatos (Death). The son of Hypnos was Morpheus, the god of dreams. Thanatos was not worshiped as a god. Homer refers to him as a son of Nyx (Night). Hesiod declared that he was hated by the gods because he was the personification of death.
© 1999 C.Stokes. |
Greek Mythology
