December 18, 2017

The Titans were the earliest gods in Greek mythology. The Greeks generally believed the Titans were giant in size and immensely strong. The word titanic, meaning huge and enormously powerful, comes from their name.

Atlas, one of the Titans, was forced to support the world on his shoulders forever. Credit: © Shutterstock

According to Greek myths, the universe originally existed in a state of emptiness called Chaos. Gaea, Mother Earth, emerged from Chaos and gave birth to Uranus, the sky. She then married him. Gaea and Uranus had many children, including the Titans. According to the Theogony, a work by the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, there were 12 original Titans. They were the brothers Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus and the sisters Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. Other Titans included Atlas and Prometheus.

The youngest and most important Titan was Cronus, who married Rhea, his sister. Under his leadership, the Titans deposed Uranus, and Cronus became king of the gods. Rhea and Cronus had numerous children, but Cronus swallowed them as soon as they were born to prevent one of them from overthrowing him. Rhea was determined to save Zeus, her youngest son. She tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone wrapped in baby clothes believing it was Zeus. She then hid the infant on the island of Crete.

After Zeus grew up, he tricked his father into vomiting up all the Titan offspring he had swallowed. Zeus then led his brothers and sisters in a war against Cronus and overthrew him. Zeus banished Cronus and the Titans who had supported him to an underworld region called Tartarus. The defeat of Cronus established Zeus as the supreme ruler of the universe and thus played an important role in ancient Greek religion.

November 27, 2017

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were a group of hybrid creatures, part bird and part woman, who inhabited an island called Anthemoëssa off the coast of Italy. They were known for their enchanting but dangerous songs, which lured passing sailors to their deaths.

This statuette depicts a Siren with the legs, tail, and wings of a bird. Credit: National Archaeological Museum of Spain (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Different accounts describe the Sirens as ranging in number from two to four. Various sources tell that their mother was a Muse, a goddess of the arts and sciences; or one of the Pleiades, seven sister goddesses who became stars in the sky. The Sirens’ father may have been the river god Achelous or the sea god Phorcys. In appearance, the Sirens have been portrayed as having the bodies of birds and the heads of women; or sometimes they have the upper bodies of women, but the legs, tail, and wings of a bird. Sources often describe them as beautiful women or sea nymphs, maiden goddesses who inhabited and guarded nature’s realms. Amid all these variations, the Sirens’ music was always irresistibly alluring and consistently perilous to travelers who ventured near.

Some ancient writers told that the Sirens’ singing lured ships too close to Anthemoëssa’s shore, where they crashed on the rocks. Others told that sailors who visited Anthemoëssa became so enchanted that they eventually wasted away, oblivious to all but the music. Perhaps the best-known stories that include the Sirens are those of the Greek heroes Odysseus and Jason. In the Odyssey, an epic work by the Greek poet Homer, Odysseus was advised to plug his crew’s ears with wax before sailing past the Sirens’ island. However, Odysseus wanted to hear the Sirens’ song, so he had his men tie him to his ship’s mast. He thus escaped being fatally tempted. In another heroic tale, Jason and his nautical comrades—the Argonauts—escaped the Sirens’ pull as their ship passed Anthemoëssa because the hero Orpheus sang or played louder and more beautifully. According to ancient writers, the Sirens were fated to die if any sailor should pass by unharmed.

Some accounts tell that the Sirens once were companions of the goddess Persephone, who was kidnapped by Hades, god of the underworld. As punishment for allowing the abduction, Persephone’s mother, Demeter, imposed the Sirens’ birdlike form on them. In another version of the story, the gods gave the Sirens wings so they could fly over land and sea in search of Persephone. The Sirens sometimes were associated with the cult of the dead and were said to sing songs and prophecies related to Hades. In another story, the Sirens competed musically with the Muses, who then plucked out the Sirens’ feathers to make crowns for themselves.

In the 1890’s, French composer Claude Debussy wrote a piece of music for orchestra and female chorus titled Sirènes. According to Debussy, the piece “depicts the sea and its countless rhythms and presently, among the waves silvered by the moonlight, is heard the mysterious song of the Sirens as they laugh and pass on.”

October 9, 2017

A fire rises… But the streaks of red and gold are not flames, they are feathers, and the blaze is a great bird taking flight. The fiery phoenix, the fabled bird of Greek mythology, appeared in many stories and inspired the name of Arizona’s capital and largest city. The mythological phoenix was a fascinating creature with some peculiar traits: Every phoenix was male; there was never more than one phoenix at a time; each phoenix lived exactly 500 years; and, most famously, at the end of its life cycle, the phoenix burned itself on a funeral pyre. Another phoenix then rose from the ashes with renewed youth and beauty.

This etching of the fiery phoenix appeared in Friedrich Justin Bertuch’s Kinderbuch (children’s book) of mythological creatures in 1806. Credit: Friedrich Justin Bertuch

According to legend, each young phoenix would carry the remains of its predecessor to the altar of the sun god Helios in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (City of the Sun). The bird’s rebirth and rising branded it a symbol of immortality, resembling the setting and rising of the sun each day. Phoenix feathers were brilliant reds, purples, and yellows, and the eagle-sized bird subsisted solely on dewdrops, if anything. Its song was so captivating that even Helios would stop his chariot to listen. The ancient Greeks likely based the phoenix on the stork-like Egyptian bennu, a sacred bird that represented the Egyptian sun god, Re.

The mythologies of other cultures also have versions of the fiery mythological bird. The Fèng Huáng is similar to the phoenix in China, where it is a sacred symbol of the royal empress. Also given dragon properties, the Fèng Huáng represents loyalty, justice, goodness, and honesty. The Native American thunderbird is a giant animal with massive wings that defends people from evil with supernatural power and strength. The thunderbird manipulates thunder, lightning, and rain. Slavic myth tells of the Russian firebird, a falcon protector blessed with strength and courage.

In literature, the phoenix is an extraordinary character named Fawkes in the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. Fawkes is a great red and gold songbird reborn from ashes. His tears have healing powers, he is strong enough to carry several people in flight, and he can teleport. Phoenix tail feathers are used as powerful cores of wizards’ wands. Fawkes is loyal to his companion, Dumbledore, and is a brave and fierce defender.

October 2, 2017

Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The cards were stacked against Perseus from birth, but with the help of a few gods, he did not let that stop him from making a name for himself and becoming one of the greatest heroes in ancient Greek mythology.

This statue shows Perseus holding aloft the severed head of the monster Medusa. Credit: Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy. (SCALA/Art Resource)

Perseus was born in a unique way. The king of Argos, King Acrisius, imprisoned his daughter and only child, Danaë, because the Oracle of Apollo told him that there would come a day when Danaë’s son would kill him. King Acrisius locked Danaë away in hopes that she would never marry or have children. One version of the myth tells how Danaë’s sadness grew and grew, until one day, a bright golden light came through the small window where she was imprisoned. A man appeared holding a thunderbolt in his hand and offered to make her happy. At the time, Danaë did not know which god had visited her, but eventually she learned it was Zeus.

One day, King Acrisius saw light coming from Danaë’s small prison window. After his servants tore down one of the prison walls, the king found Danaë smiling and holding a baby: Perseus. King Acrisius was enraged—and afraid for his life. Unable to kill them himself, he packed the mother and son in a chest and set them adrift at sea. Dictys, a fisherman, rescued them, and Danaë and young Perseus lived in Dictys’s home on the island of Seriphus. There, Perseus grew into a handsome and strong young man.

King Polydectes, Dictys’s brother, tried to force Danaë into marriage. To prevent that from happening, Perseus agreed to slay the snake-haired Gorgon Medusa. Medusa’s hideous face turned all who looked at her to stone. With the help of the goddess Athena and the god Hermes, Perseus beheaded Medusa. He killed her while gazing at her reflection in his polished shield. Unhappy with Polydectes, Perseus turned him to stone with Medusa’s severed head, which Perseus kept hidden in a magic bag. As a reward for ridding the world of Medusa, Perseus earned a constellation in the northern sky.

Perseus’s other adventures included the rescue of the princess Andromeda from the giant sea monster Cetus. Soon after, Perseus and Andromeda married. Among their descendants was Hercules, another great hero in Greek mythology. Perseus also fulfilled his destiny foretold by the oracle by accidentally killing his grandfather, King Acrisius, with a discus. Perseus refused to take his grandfather’s place on the throne in Argos, but he became a successful king in nearby Tiryns.

September 25, 2017

Look, up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superhorse! If you have ever stargazed in the Northern Hemisphere, you might have noticed Pegasus, a constellation resembling part of a horse. As commonly drawn, the constellation—named for Pegasus, the immortal winged horse of Greek mythology—appears to be galloping upside down across the heavens. Pegasus was among dozens of constellations cataloged by the ancient Greek mathematician Ptolemy about A.D. 150 in his great work Mathematike Syntaxis. Here on Earth, Pegasus the flying horse is one of the more interesting figures of mythological lore.

Statue of Pegasus. Credit: © Shutterstock

The Pegasus of mythology was the offspring of the Gorgon Medusa, a monstrous woman with snakes for hair, and Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea and earthquakes—and horses. The Gorgons were three sisters in Greek mythology whose ugliness could turn a viewer to stone. Pegasus was born when Perseus, a hero in Greek mythology, slew the pregnant Medusa by cutting off her head. Pegasus sprang fully grown from Medusa’s head—or from her neck or her blood or the soil fertilized by her blood, depending on the account. Pegasus was born along with a brother, Chrysaor, sometimes described as a giant and bearing a golden sword. Pegasus had a half-brother, Arion, who also was a magical horse and a son of Poseidon.

Mercury (a.k.a Hermes) rides Pegasus in the Jardin des Tuilieries Paris, France. Credit: © Zoran Karapancev, Shutterstock

The Greek legendary hero Bellerophon tamed Pegasus with help from the goddess Athena. One story tells that a prophet advised Bellerophon to sleep on Athena’s altar. There, Bellerophon dreamed that Athena gave him a golden bridle and ordered him to make a sacrifice to Poseidon. When he awoke, Bellerophon found a bridle on the altar. He sacrificed a bull to Poseidon and discovered Pegasus at a spring, waiting to be bridled.

Bellerophon and Pegasus had many adventures together. In one, the Lycian King Iobates sent Bellerophon to kill the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster that was part lion, part goat, and part serpent. Pegasus and Bellerophon flew over the Chimera, and Bellerophon slaughtered the monster with arrows. Pegasus also helped Bellerophon defeat the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women, and another tribe called the Solymoi. Bellerophon, a mortal human being, later tried to ride Pegasus up Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. Zeus, the ruler of the gods, became angry and sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus. The horse bucked, throwing Bellerophon down to Earth and crippling him. Pegasus then lived on Olympus, where he served Zeus by carrying the god’s thunderbolts.

Pegasus’s name may have come from the Greek word pêgê, meaning spring, and it is said that he created springs by striking the ground with a hoof. One of these springs, the Hippocrene spring on Mount Helicon, is associated with poetic inspiration. Some sources say that Zeus eventually turned Pegasus into the constellation that bears his name. If you would like to see the celestial superhorse for yourself, the constellation is best viewed in the northern sky from September through November.

September 18, 2017

The word horseman is simple enough: in common speech, it means a person who is skilled in riding or taking care of horses. The term may conjure strikingly different images, however, for readers of religious texts, popular fiction of yesteryear, or ancient myths. The Christian Bible’s Book of Revelation tells of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who represent hardships that humans must endure before the end of the world. The American author Washington Irving told of a ghostly headless horseman who so frightens the schoolteacher Ichabod Crane that Crane flees Sleepy Hollow forever. But an even older story—a legend of ancient Greek mythology—described perhaps an even stranger kind of horse-man: the quadrupedal centaur. (A quadruped is an animal with four feet.)

No back lawn is complete without a centaur statue. Credit: © Shutterstock

The centaurs were mythological half-man, half-horse creatures that lived in the mountainous Thessaly region of northern Greece. Most depictions of the centaurs show them with a human torso atop the body of a horse. The centaurs were not known for their good manners, and not just for wearing their shoes indoors and munching up all your sugar cubes. The centaurs—their powers of reason overwhelmed by animal instincts—highly valued strong drink, fighting with branches, and other boisterous passions. At the wedding feast of King Pirithous of the Lapiths (the peace-loving people of Thessaly) and his bride, Hippodameia, the centaurs became drunk and tried to kidnap the Lapith women. A great melee followed, and the Lapiths finally drove away the centaurs. Lapith grandmothers thus gained veto power over wedding guest lists for generations to come.

Not all centaurs were uncivilized brutes, however. Chiron, perhaps the most well-known centaur, was wise and just and famous for his skill in medicine. Chiron was also a valued educator who listed Ajax, Aeneas, Achilles, Jason, and Perseus among his pupils.

September 4, 2017

An oracle was a priest or prophet in the ancient Greek world. People visited oracles to ask for advice about the future. People believed that oracles could consult the gods on their behalf and then interpret and pass along the gods’ answers. Visitors consulted oracles at a shrine, which was also called an oracle. The oracle’s answer to a question was called an oracle as well.

Delphi, Greece, was home to the famous Delphic oracle and a religious complex that included the Temple of Apollo and the Sanctuary of Athena, seen here. Credit: © Peter Lazzarino, Shutterstock

There were many oracles in ancient Greece. They enjoyed a reputation for always being right when they answered questions about the future. The reason they always appeared to be accurate is that their responses were generally ambiguous or obscure—they could be interpreted as correct, no matter what actually happened. People consulted an oracle both on personal and public matters. An oracle’s pronouncements often influenced affairs of state and were considered the final answer in matters of religion.

Oracles became famous throughout the Greek world in the 600’s and 500’s B.C. The most famous ancient oracle was the oracle of the god Apollo at Delphi on the slope of Mount Parnassus. It was built around a sacred spring. The Delphic oracle there was a woman known as the Pythia. She sat on a tripod (three-legged stool) in a dreamlike trance. Her responses were understood only by a priest, who interpreted them for visitors. People came from miles around to consult the Delphic oracle. Farmers wanted to know the best time to plant their seeds. Generals asked whether their military campaigns would succeed. It was not unusual for long lines of anxious questioners to form around her. Many people brought gifts to ensure favorable answers. Because of its importance, Delphi became known as the omphalos (belly button, or center) of the ancient world.

Although most oracles were dedicated to Apollo, some were dedicated to Zeus or another Greek deity. One famous oracle of Zeus was in a grove of oak trees in Dodona in northwestern Greece. The people believed that Zeus spoke through the rustling of the oak leaves. The priests interpreted these rustlings as messages from the god. Outside of Greece, important oracles were in Italy, Libya, and Syria.

July 3, 2017

In Greek mythology, Jason and the Argonauts were an ancient all-star team of heroes on a quest to capture the Golden Fleece from Colchis, a land east of the Black Sea. Jason was the son of Aeson, king of the ancient Greek city of Iolkos. Jason’s comrades in action—the Argonauts—were an extraordinary bunch possessing extraordinary abilities.

This sculpture shows Jason holding the Golden Fleece in triumph after a long quest with the Argonauts. Credit: © Shutterstock

When Jason was a baby, his uncle Pelias seized the throne of Iolkos from Aeson. Jason was taken away and raised by a centaur (half man-half horse) named Chiron. After Jason grew up, he returned to Iolkos to claim his father’s throne. To get rid of Jason, Pelias sent him on a quest to capture the Golden Fleece from distant Colchis. The Golden Fleece was the golden wool of a flying ram. For his expedition, Jason recruited about 50 heroes, who became known as the Argonauts after their ship, the Argo. The goddess Athena helped construct the ship and gave its prow the powers of speech and prophecy. Jason and the Argonauts traveled through southern Europe and the Mediterranean and Black seas. They ultimately succeeded in their quest, but not before weathering many adventures.

On the way to Colchis, the Argonauts stopped and lingered for a time on Lemnos, an island inhabited only by ladies who had killed all their men. However, the women were quite hospitable to the Argonauts, who fathered children with them. In the land of the Bebryces, the Argonauts encountered the boxing King Amycus, who customarily challenged visitors to a match and killed them. But the hero Pollux was a better fighter and killed Amycus with a blow. In Thrace, the Argonauts met the blind king Phineus, who advised them on navigating the Clashing Rocks, moving reefs that collided with one another. The winged brothers Calais and Zetes repaid Phineus by driving away the Harpies, half woman-half bird creatures who continually stole and polluted the king’s food.

The Argonauts finally reached Colchis, where King Aeetes set Jason the tasks of yoking two fire-breathing bulls, sowing dragon’s teeth in a field, and then fighting a new-grown crop of armed warriors. Aeetes’s magician daughter Medea loved Jason and agreed to help him. Jason succeeded at his tasks and captured the Golden Fleece, which was guarded by a dragon that never slept. He then fled Colchis with Medea and the Argonauts. On their return journey, the Argonauts encountered the Sirens, sea nymphs whose sweet singing lured sailors to destruction on their rocky island. But the hero Orpheus’s beautiful singing countered the Sirens’ song and saved his comrades. At Crete, the adventurers escaped a monster called Talos after Medea employed her magic to kill it.

These were just a few of the Argonauts’ adventures. They eventually reached Iolkos, where Jason gave the Golden Fleece to Pelias. Capturing the fleece did not solve all Jason’s problems, however, and further adventures and misadventures followed. Regardless, because of their successful quest, the Argonauts were honored above all other men. In ancient times, it was a mark of great honor to be able to claim that an ancestor had sailed with Jason to find the Golden Fleece.

June 5, 2017

The subject of this week’s Mythic Monday is one of the greatest and most famous heroes of Greek mythology: Hercules. (Called Heracles by the Greeks, he is most commonly known by Hercules, the name used by the Romans.) Hercules was famous for his great strength and courage, but he also demonstrated cleverness and cunning in many of his adventures.

Hercules confronts the many-headed Hydra of Lerna. Credit: Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra (c. 1500), by Lucas Cranach the Elder; Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (© Alamy Images)

The stories of Hercules, the son of the mortal princess Alcmene and the king of the gods, Zeus, involve many of the other gods, creatures, and heroes of Greek mythology. Hera, the queen of the gods and the wife of Zeus, played a large role in the life of Hercules. Jealous of Alcmene and filled with hatred for Hercules, Hera persecuted him throughout his life.

Failing to kill Hercules when he was still an infant—he strangled the two serpents she sent to do the job—Hera later caused Hercules to have a fit of madness, during which he killed his wife, Megara, and their children. The oracle at Delphi, who was believed to have the power to reveal the will of the gods, told Hercules that he had to serve King Eurystheus of Tiryns for 12 years to purify himself of the murders. Eurystheus commanded Hercules to perform 12 labors.

One of the labors Eurystheus commanded Hercules to performe involved slaying the deadly Hydra of Lerna. This serpent had several heads that grew back as soon as they were cut off. Hercules enlisted the help of his nephew Iolaus to carry out this task. As Hercules cut off the heads of the hydra, Iolaus sealed each neck with fire to prevent the heads from growing back. One of the hydra’s heads was immortal, so Hercules buried it under a rock.

The other labors of Hercules included slaying the fierce lion of Nemea and capturing the huge boar of Erymanthus and the golden-horned Arcadian stag. He also obtained the girdle (belt) of Hippolyta, the queen of the Amazons, by defeating her in battle.

As one of the labors, Hercules was commanded to perform the disgusting task of cleaning out the Augean stables. These stables belonged to Augeas, king of Elis, and they had not been cleaned for 30 years! It was bad enough that Eurystheus ordered Hercules to clean out the stables, but he also told Hercules the job had to be done in a single day. Using ingenuity and strength, Hercules managed to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. He made the Alpheus and Peneus rivers flow through the stables and wash away the filth.

As one of his last labors, Hercules stole the Golden Apples of the Hesperides from the Tree of Life. The Hesperides were nymphs who guarded the golden apples that Gaea (Earth) had given to the goddess Hera when Hera married Zeus. A sleepless dragon helped the Hesperides guard the apples. Hercules managed to take the apples with the help of Atlas, a titan who had to support the sky on his shoulders. Atlas went to get the apples, leaving Hercules to hold up the sky. When he returned with the apples, Atlas refused to take back the sky, hoping to force Hercules to support it permanently. But Hercules outwitted Atlas and deceived him into taking up the sky again.

For his 12^th and final labor, Hercules descended into the world of the dead. There he captured the three-headed watchdog Cerberus and brought him back to the upper world.

Many other stories describe the adventures of Hercules. In one of them, Hercules accompanied Jason and the Argonauts on part of their voyage in search of the Golden Fleece, the golden wool of a flying ram.

Hercules also released Prometheus from the punishment to which Zeus had condemned him. Because Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to human beings, Zeus punished him by ordering him bound to a remote mountain peak. An eagle came to devour Prometheus’ liver every day, and the liver grew back each night. But Hercules killed the eagle and set Prometheus free, proving once again that it was far better to have Hercules as a friend rather than as a foe.

April 3, 2017

Daedalus, a skilled artisan of ancient Athens, was a colorful figure of Greek mythology. If Daedalus were a modern-day comic book superhero, his origin story might include a mad scientist piecing together the inquiring mind of Thomas Edison, the vision of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, the versatile genius of Leonardo da Vinci, and the rugged physicality of a rugby star. The mythical Daedalus is perhaps best known for his construction of the mazelike labyrinth and for building the wings his son Icarus wore while flying too close to the sun.

The Athenian craftsman Daedalus hovers over his fallen son Icarus, whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, causing him to plunge to his death. Credit: © Thinkstock

Daedalus was well known in ancient Greece for his facility with wood and metals. The son of Athenian royalty, his name translates as “cunning worker.” Stories credit him for inventing the saw, the axe, a drill, and even glue. He built dams and thermal baths. Some tales note his talent in carving statues so lifelike they seemed to move.

For all his virtues, Daedalus had a vindictive streak. He was said to have murdered his talented apprenticed nephew Perdix (also called Talos) in a fit of jealous rage. After this crime, Daedalus fled with his young son Icarus to the island of Crete. Minos, the king of Crete, hired the fugitive Daedalus to create ingenious inventions. Daedalus designed and constructed the labyrinth to imprison the half-man, half-bull monster called the Minotaur. The Minotaur had the misfortune of being the illegitimate son of Minos’s wife, Pasiphae.

As the story goes, Daedalus helped Theseus—a fellow Athenian—escape the labyrinth, kill the Minotaur, and elope with Minos’s daughter Ariadne. The enraged Minos imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the maze. Trapped in his own creation, the cunning craftsman fashioned wings of feathers, wax, and thread. Each with his own pair of wings, then, Daedalus and Icarus flew up and away from the labyrinth and away from Crete itself. Unfortunately, the wax in Icarus’s wings melted when he flew too close to the sun, and he plunged to his death. King Minos later tracked Daedalus to Sicily, where some legends say the craftsman boiled the king alive in a bathtub he had built especially for that purpose.