Hey readers, I just wanted to give you a little taste of what is going to be happening in my next post. As you may have seen, I have already published the answer to one of my three questions. In my next post I am going to be adding on to that by answering the other two questions, as well as adding in some cool things I thought you guys would want to know. Just getting you guys excited, because this is gonna be a big one.
Whether the Trojan War was actually a real war is still undecided. Many myths have been incorporated throughout the events of the war. The war supposedly started when Eris, the goddess of disagreement, was angry because she had not been invited to the wedding of a king and a sea nymph. In her anger, she cast a golden apple into the banquet hall of the wedding. On the apple, the words "For the fairest". The three wondrous goddesses, Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, each thought the apple was for them. Zeus selected a handsome young prince from Troy, Paris. Each goddess tempted and bribed Paris with different things. Hera, queen of olympus, bribed him with making him lord of Greece and Asia. Athena offered him wisdom. Aphrodite offered him Helen of Sparta. Paris gave the golden apple to Aphrodite. When he was awarded Helen, the king of Sparta, and Helens husband, grew furious. He assembled a team of many famous heroes, including Odysseus and Achilles. The Trojan War may have been real, but it must have happened much differently than the myths say.
There are MANY children of Zeus, and many myths we could go into about them, but today I am going to stick to the children that are major gods. Almost all of the children of Zeus have a conflict with another one. Artemis and Aphrodite, Hermes and Apollo, Aphrodite, Ares, and Athena, and Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite. Artemis and Aphrodite's quarrel is depicted in the play Hippolytus, in which a young prince, Hippolytus, refuses pray to Aphrodite, and will only pray to Artemis. Aphrodite is so infuriated, that she makes Hippolytus' step-mother, Phaedra, fall in love with him. She hangs herself, and when Hippolytus' father finds her, he kills his son because she had a note that said that Hippolytus had raped her. Proceeding Hippolytus' brutal and unfortunate death, Artemis herself tells Hippolytus' father what actually happened, and swears revenge on Aphrodite. The story of Hermes and Apollo is a classic. When Hermes was an infant, he escaped from his cradle to northern Greece, where Apollo herded his cattle. When baby Hermes arrived, he took all of the hooves off of the cattle, and put them on in reverse, so that all of the cows seemed to be walking backwards. When Apollo found his cattle appearing to be walking backwards, he was furious. He soon found out that it was Hermes that had done it, and ant in search of him. Apollo found him inside a cave, and wasted no time snatching the little baby out and taking him to their father Zeus. Their apollo recounted the story of what Hermes had done. The story amused Zeus, therefore, no punishment was given to the infant, although Zeus demanded that he must go back and put the cattle's hooves back correctly. Hermes, who was deeply sorry, returned the cattle back to normal, as well as giving Apollo his lyre (a musical instrument), that he had invented with a turtle shell. Apollo, who felt incredibly grateful for the gift gave young Hermes a golden rod to help him herd the cattle to turn them back to normal. This argument is intertwined into the Trojan War, so it will give more information to the beginning of this post. So, during the Trojan War, Athena had sided with the Greeks, and Aphrodite had convinced Ares to fight for Troy, for reasons explained earlier in this post. Athena and Ares engaged in battle once during this war. When they met on the battle field, Ares attacked her with his spear. The spear bounced off of Athena's magical shield, Aegis, that strikes fear into her enemies because of the horrifying depiction of Medusa on the front. Medusa boasted of her beauty, so Athena turned into a monster, with eyes that could turn people to stone and snake hair. Anyways, the spear did not hurt Athena, but it angered her greatly. She picked up a boulder, and threw it at Ares, trapping him. Aphrodite saw him and attempted to help him escape, but Athena punched her in the face. Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite all have a very complicated relationship. Hephaestus and Aphrodite are married, and Ares and Aphrodite love each other. Helios, Titan of the sun, saw Aphrodite making love to Ares, and decided to tell Hephaestus. Hephaestus set up a trap around he and Aphrodite's bed. He left the house, and as soon as he left, Aphrodite called for Ares. Hephaestus caught them both naked in a net above his bed. He called for all of the gods and goddesses to see the ridiculous sight. He pleaded for Zeus to take back the wedding presents, but Zeus refused. So, there you have it. Now you know why they fight.
The origin of all Greek mythology comes from Chaos, the father of all Greek Titans and Gods. Chaos means a vast void, or a formless mass who gave birth to both light, and the cosmos. Chaos gave birth to Gaea, the Earth, Erebus, the darkness, Tartarus, the hellish pit, and Eros, god of love who is also said to be son of Aphrodite. Gaea and Uranus, the sky, had many children, including Cronus (Kronos), Rhea, and Oceanus. Cronus and Rhea then had Hestia Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Zeus. Cronus ate all of his children except for Zeus, who Rhea had hidden away. Zeus was raised until he was old enough, and then he gave Cronus a rock that he claimed to be a baby. Cronus ate the rock, and then regurgitated Zeus' siblings, who were the first olympians. They together slew Cronus. Those gods mated with each other, and others to create the rest of the olympians, Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes,Persephone, Apollo, and Artemis.
The Tale of Troy by Roger Lancelyn Green I find this source trustworthy because I have read other books by this author and publisher and find that the myths in them concur with other books that I have read.
http://wingedsandals.com/arts/wingedsandals/history/ I think this is trustworthy because my social studies teacher gave it to us to use.
Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green This is one of the other books I talked about when saying I found The Tale of Troy trustworthy. This also corresponds with other myths I have read.
http://www.deviantart.com This website is where I get most of my photos.
Over the next few posts, I will be answering these questions: 1.) How did the Gods start? 2.) Family Feud; Zeus's children, whose team are you on? 3.) Troy; Fact or Myth?
Welcome to Ancient Greece, where you will explore the wonders of the citizens of Greeks religion. You will delve into the myths, heroes, and gods. You will live the countless battles of the incredible heroes. You can wander through the hellish underworld, listening to the horrific screams of the damned in the fields of punishment. You can relax in the wondrously serene land of the gods up on Mount Olympus. You can hear the roars of the titan Typhon, trapped under Mt. Saint Helens by Zeus.