The Greek Story of Creation

Greek Myths

The Greek Story of Creation

·  Chaos gives birth to (Heaven) and (Earth)

·  Ghea gives birth to the Cyclopes, monsters with 100 hands and 50 heads, and the titans:

Cronos (time), Rhea, Ocean and his wife Tethys, Hyperion (sun), Mnemosyne (Memory), Themis (justice), and Iapetus (who bore Atlas, Prometheus, and Epimetheus)

·  Uranos, fearing his children, attempts to stop Ghea from having more by shoving her children back into the womb (vast canyons of earth)

·  Cronos rebels and castrates Uranos. The drops of blood form who become responsible for vengeance. Cronos casts the remains into the sea and (love) is born from the sea foam

·  Cronos marries Rhea, and have children:

Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, and Hera

·  Cronos, like Uranos, fears his children. He swallows them at the time of birth. Rhea hides Zeus to protect him and feeds Cronos a stone dressed in swaddling clothes instead

·  Cronos regurgitates his children and Zeus leads them in the battle of the gods. The gods (with help from some of the creatures of the earth) win the battle and the titans assume secondary roles

·  Zeus makes Hera his wife and they settle on Mt. Olympus with their siblings and their children:

Ares, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, Artemis, and Hephaestus

Mankind

·  Zeus commissions (forethought) and (afterthought) to populate the world. Epimetheus creates all the animals and gives them all of the physical attributes necessary for survival (fur, claws, fangs, gills, wings). Prometheus creates mortals with what was left over (clay)

·  Zeus argued with Prometheus over the sacrifices to the gods

·  Prometheus gave Zeus a choice between two sacrifices. When animals had been killed, Prometheus offered two choices to Zeus

·  In glistening fat, Prometheus hid the animal’s bones

·  Under the animal’s stomach, he hid the animal’s meat

·  Zeus picked the fat and forever was denied the meat

·  In anger, Zeus denied man fire to cook this meat

·  Prometheus, on the side of man, steals fire from the gods and gives it to the mortals so that they may survive.

·  As a punishment, Zeus chained Prometheus to a mountain where a giant eagle eats his liver every day

·  Each night it would grow back

·  Zeus asks Hephaestus to create Pandora, the first woman

·  She was bestowed gifts from the gods (Pandora means “all gifts”)

·  Clothes and looming ability from Athena

·  Beauty and charm from Aphrodite

·  The ability to lie persuasively from Hermes

·  According to Hesiod, she had “thievish morals and the soul of a bitch”

·  As revenge for the meat trick, Zeus delivered Pandora to the world with a mysterious jar

·  Prometheus warned his brother about Pandora, but he was smitten by her

·  After she was married, Pandora was warned to never open the jar

·  When she did, all of the evils of the world flew out of the box

·  All that was left was hope

·  In the 16th Century, the Dutch author Erasmus mistranslated the Greek and called the jar a box

The Ages of Mankind

·  The first humans were made of gold and existed alongside the titans

·  There is no explanation where they came from

·  The second age of man was created by Zeus out of silver

·  They refused to make sacrifices to the gods and were wiped out

·  The third age were made out of bronze

·  They were so warlike that they wiped themselves out

·  The fourth age of man was the Heroic Age

·  These were all demigods created by Zeus

·  When they died, they became the constellations, companions of the gods, or lived on the Island of the Blessed

·  The current human form was perfected in the Iron Age

·  Zeus, in disguise, was disgusted to discover that these people practiced cannibalism and human sacrifice Zeus decided to destroy them, and (with the help of Poseidon) unleashed a terrible flood

·  This killed everyone except two good people

·  , son of Prometheus, and , daughter of Pandora survived the flood

·  Warned by Prometheus, Deucalion built a big boat

·  After the flood, he sent a dove to search for land

·  The ship eventually settled on a mountaintop

·  Deucalion and Pyrrha heard the voice of a goddess in a nearby cave telling them to throw their “mighty mother’s bones” over their shoulders

·  Befuddled, they soon deduced that the goddess meant mother earth, and the bones were rocks

·  The rocks turned into people

·  One of these people was named Hellen (male); whose name became synonymous with Greeks (Hellenes)

The Greco-Roman Gods

God of the sky, ruler of the gods

Roman: (Jove)

Powers: Shape shifter, wields the thunderbolt

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: The eagle, the oak tree, the lightning bolt

Mate: Too many to list

Children: At least 38 mortals and 7 gods

Goddess of marriage, childbirth, and the home; Queen of the gods

Roman:

Powers: Can make people fall in love with her; protects married women

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: The peacock, cow, pomegranate (symbol of marriage)

Mate: Zeus

Children: Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe

God of the sea, earthquakes, and horses

Roman:

Powers: Second in power only to Zeus; can cause earthquakes and tidal waves

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: Trident, dolphins, and horses

Mate: Amphitrite; had affairs with Medusa, Thoosa, and Aethra

Children: Triton (half human, half fish), Polyphemus (Cyclopes), and others (Including Percy Jackson)

God of the underworld, the dead, and wealth

Roman:

Powers: None, but has some helpers such as Cerberus, Charon (boatman of the river Styx), Thanatos (death) and Hypnos (sleep)

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: Cerberus, bident, precious metals

Mate: Persephone

Children: None

Goddess of wisdom, crafts, and fine arts

Roman:

Powers: Shape shifter; invented the trumpet, flute, ship, bridle, and chariot

Parents: Sprang from Zeus’ head

Symbols: Owl, olive tree

Mate: None

Children: None, but she did have a friend named Arachne who she turned into a spider

The most Greek god; he is god of music (plays a golden lyre), archery (uses a silver bow), healing, truth, light/sun, prophecy, and agriculture

Roman:

Powers: Can shape shift, can play any instrument, can tell the future

Parents: Zeus and Leto

Mate: Calliope and Clymene; had affairs with Cyrene, Hecuba, and Cassandra (all mortals)

Children: All sons: Orpheus, Phaethon, Aristaeus, Troilius, Asclepius

·  Orpheus had the most beautiful voice in all the world and fell in love with Eurydice

·  On their wedding day, Eurydice was bitten by a snake and died

·  Orpheus went to the underworld and so moved Hades that he allowed him to take Eurydice back with him to the world, provided that he did not look back at her on the way out

·  He does turn back and Eurydice is forced to stay behind

·  Orpheus, depressed, wandered the world singing sad songs

·  A group of Maenads told him to cheer up and when he could not they ripped him limb from limb and tossed the remains into a river

·  He was then reunited with Eurydice

·  Borrowed Dad’s chariot of the sun so everyone would know he was Apollo’s son

·  He could not control it and scorched the earth

·  Zeus was forced to strike him down with a thunderbolt in order to prevent further damage

Goddess of the moon, hunt, children, virginity

Roman:

Powers: Brought sudden death with her arrows, controls lunar and menstrual cycles, helps women with childbirth

Parents: Zeus and Leto

Symbols: Cypress tree, moon, deer

Mate: None

Children: None, but twin sister of Apollo

Goddess of love and beauty, desire and fertility; protector of sailors

Roman:

Powers: Can make people fall in love

Symbols: Dove, magic girdle, goose, sparrow, Myrtle tree

Mate: Hephaestus, but had affairs with Ares, Hermes, Dionysus and the mortals Adonis and Anchises

Children: Eros (Cupid) with Ares, Aeneas, and Anteros

·  Echo fell in love with Narcissus, but her love was not returned

·  She hid in shame and lost the ability to start a conversation; she could only repeat what was said

·  Narcissus spurned many maidens; he eventually fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water and drowned

Messenger of the gods; god of thievery and commerce; leads the dead to the underworld; mischievous

Roman:

Powers: Fastest of the gods; invented the lyre, pipes, musical scale, weights and measures, boxing, gymnastics

Parents: Zeus and Maia

Symbol: Staff

Mate: Dryope, Aphrodite

Children: Pan (demigod of mischief)

Virgin goddess of hearth and home

Roman:

Powers: Protects orphans and missing children

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: In Rome, Vestal Virgins

Mate and Children: None

Goddess of agriculture

Roman:
Powers: Made crops grow

Parents: Cronos and Rhea

Symbols: Corn, poppies, wheat, cornucopia

Mate: Zeus

Children: Persephone

·  One day while picking flowers, the world opened up and Hades kidnapped Persephone and made her his queen

·  Demeter searched for her and during that time the crops withered and died

·  Zeus demanded that Persephone must be shared

·  Spring and summer were spent with Demeter, fall and winter with Hades

God of war, worshipped by no one

Roman:

Powers: Sacred lance and armor; cannot be wounded in battle

Symbols: Vulture and dog

Parents: Zeus and Hera (both disliked him)

Mate: Aphrodite (his brother’s wife); various mortals

Children: Eros, Anteros, Harmonia, Deimos, and Phobos

God of fire and the forge

Roman:

Powers: Master craftsman; made Apollo’s chariot, Athena’s shield, Eros’ arrows, Zeus’ thunderbolt, Achilles’ armor, Pandora

Parents: Zeus and Hera

Mate: Aphrodite

Children: None

·  Hephaestus was known as the lame god. He was born weak, ugly, and crippled

·  Once Hera saw he was weak, she cast him out of Olympus

·  He made it to the island of Lemnos where he built a forge in a volcano

·  Zeus commissioned him to make thrones for the gods. He made a special throne for Hera. Once she sat in it, the arms closed around her and not even Zeus could release her

·  Hephaestus refused to release her, so Dionysus got him intoxicated and brought him back to Olympus on a mule

·  He agreed to free Hera only after Zeus gave him Aphrodite as his reward

God of wine, fertility, and drama

Roman:

Powers: Can bring the dead back to life

Parents: Zeus and Persephone (or Semele, or others)

Symbols: Grapes, comedy and tragedy masks, wine bottles/glasses

Mate and children: Too many to list

·  Granted by Dionysus the ability to turn anything he touched into gold

·  Asked Dionysus to take the power back when he accidentally turned his daughter into gold

Minor Gods, Titans, and Assorted Myths

Roman:

Powers: Father Sky and Mother Earth

Parents: Chaos

Children: The titans, Cyclopes, monsters

Titan associated with time

Roman:

Powers: Keeps time running

Parents: Uranos and Ghea

Mate: Rhea

Children: Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Hestia

Titan associated with strength; said to be the king of Atlantis

Powers: Supports the weight of the heavens on his shoulders

Children: The Hesperides, the Hyades, and the Plieades

Goddess of youth

Roman:

Powers: Cupbearer of the gods; serves them nectar and ambrosia

The rainbow goddess, assistant messenger to the gods

The goddess of victory

Roman:

·  King of Corinth, he spied Zeus having an affair with his daughter

·  He told a god and Zeus was upset

·  Zeus punished Sisyphus by making him forever roll a rock uphill. He would be released only when he had pushed the rock over the hill.

·  Just as the rock was almost to the top, the rock would always roll back down

·  Glaucus, the son of Sisyphus, fed his horses human flesh to make them meaner in battle

·  He was eventually tossed from his chariot and devoured by his own horses

·  His son, Bellerophon, was also a great horseman

·  He coveted Pegasus, a winged horse born from the blood of Medusa

·  He tamed Pegasus with a golden bridle given to him by Athena

·  With Pegasus, he slayed the Chimera, a beast that was lion in the front, goat in the middle, and serpent in the back

·  Tantalus angered the gods

·  Either he lied about dining with the gods or served the gods his own son

·  He was sentenced to stand in a pool of water, which drained whenever he tried to drink it

·  He was also almost within reach of fruit that dangled in front of him

·  The verb words tantalize and tantalizing come from this myth

·  A nation of gigantic, warrior women

·  The source for many paintings and statues, but not much literature

·  Very strong and handsome, he was a great hunter

·  He eventually settled in Crete and was the chief hunter of Artemis

·  He fell for the demi-goddess Dawn

·  Artemis, in a jealous rage, shot him with her arrow

·  To make up for it, she turned him into a constellation

·  Orion’s belt is one of the most prominent features of the Western Hemisphere

•  Unlike the Greeks, the Romans believed that their divinities were real

•  Romulus and Remus were sons of Mars

•  Mars raped Rhea Silvia, the first of the Vestal Virgins

•  Since she was defiled, her children were taken from her and set afloat on the Tiber river

•  The babies were rescued by a , who treated them like her pups until they were discovered by a shepherd

•  They became hunters and warriors

•  Eventually, they were so respected that men decided to follow them to a new city where they would rule.

•  Very shortly after they decided to found a city, the brothers quarreled.

•  Romulus killed Remus, but felt immediate remorse

•  He built Rome (named after himself)

•  Rome quickly became a safe haven for runaway slaves, bandits, and murders (all men)

•  A nearby group of people (Sabines) held a religious festival

•  The Romans killed all of the men and raped all of the women

•  Romulus became the first king of Rome until he disappeared in a thundercloud

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