Myth Topic 7
The Male
Olympians
Poseidon (Neptune), Lord of the Deep
the
Sea, and Earthquakes, Horses
Shaker of the
Earth
Illiad 13.1-42
Contest
for Athens
married to
Amphitrite, A Nereid
father to
Triton: a Merman
Father to Polyphemus
the Cyclopes
hates
Odysseus
Hades –“the
invisible”; Pluto “the enricher”
“the most
hated of the gods”
married to
Persephone
Apollo God of Prophecy, “Phoebus”
Son of Zeus and Leto
(a Titaness)
brother of
Artemis
Sometimes a sun god (but not his origin)
Arrows of disease
Lord of Mice, plague-bringer,
“far-shooter”
Illiad 1.41-66
One of the longest Homeric Hymns—in two parts
To
the Delian Apollo (7th century BC)
pregnant
Leto persecuted by Hera
Apollo born on floating
island Delos
crumby
little island
Apollo
at Delphi (later)
oracular
shrine on Parnassus
Apollo plays the lyre
At Delphi—kills the dragon “Python”
Shines at Delos
and Delphi were pan-Hellenic religious centers
Delphi operated from 800BC –
394 AD
“the
world navel”
Prophetess: Pythia
function
as a medium (cf. 300)
Apollo’s “Lovers” -- a lot in OVID
Cassandra
Sibyl at Cumae
Satyricon
Daphne a nymph
Hyacinth – young boy
Coronis
·
pregnant with Asclepius
(doctor – snake shedding skin)
·
saves the son—gives him to Chiron, the centaur
Ares
(Mars) Bloodlust
two children Phobos and Deimos (panic and
fear)
Adultery with Aphrodite most famous
told, in
Homer, by Demodocus
Hephaestus (Vulcan) god of
Smiths
Crippled
Son of just (?)
Hera
thrown
off Olympus by Zeus and/or Hera
Iliad 1.619
ff.
associated with Lemnos—active volcano
civilization
and city life
Greek love/hate
of craftspeople
Married to Aphrodite—Beauty and the Geek
Uses his
cleverness Odyssey, 8.256-366
HERMES, trickster, wayfarers (Mercury)
“a Herm” phallic
pillar/boundary marker
Arcadia –shepherds
Protector of thieves, merchants, commerce
Psychopompos
Argeophontes
Homeric
Hymn to Hermes (sixth century)
son of
Maia and Zeus
makes a LYRE
Apollo's cattle
Two types of men in Athens –aristoi and kakoi
irreverence
Odysseus is his grandson
PAN,
the Goatherd's god
son of
Hermes
a
lustful. Lecherous half-goat (like a satyr)
in
Arcadia
Associated with Faunus and
Silvanus—woodland gods
origin
of our devil images
