Portal:Greek mythology

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The Greek mythology Portal

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They are a part of religion in Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.

Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and other mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature.

The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the Trojan War. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths also are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

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Selected article

Pandora

In Greek mythology, Pandora (ancient Greek, Πανδώρα, derived from πᾶν "all" and δῶρον "gift", thus "giver of all", "all-endowed") was the first woman. As Hesiod related it, each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. Zeus ordered Hephaestus to mould her out of Earth as part of the punishment of mankind for Prometheus' theft of the secret of fire, and all the gods joined in offering her "seductive gifts". Her other name, inscribed against her figure on a white-ground kylix in the British Museum, is Anesidora, "she who sends up gifts," up implying "from below" within the earth. According to the myth, Pandora opened a jar (pithos), in modern accounts sometimes mistranslated as "Pandora's box" (see below), releasing all the evils of mankind— although the particular evils, aside from plagues and diseases, are not specified in detail by Hesiod — leaving only Hope inside once she had closed it again. She opened the jar out of simple curiosity and not as a malicious act. The myth of Pandora is ancient, appears in several distinct Greek versions, and has been interpreted in many ways.

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Gods and goddesses

Vulcan

Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus and Hera (the King and Queen of the Gods). He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek eyes. He served as the blacksmith of the gods, and he was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centres of Greece, particularly in Athens. The centre of his cult was in Lemnos. Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's hammer, an anvil and a pair of tongs, although sometimes he is portrayed holding an axe.

In one tradition clearly attested in Homer's Odyssey and perhaps also in the Iliad, Hephaestus was born of the union of Zeus and Hera.[1] In another tradition, which is only unambiguously recorded in late texts but which may be an archaic survival of an autonomous Hera, she bore Hephaestus parthenogenetically; she is given the motivation in Hesiod's Zeus-centred cosmology that she was engaged in a competitive quarrel with Zeus for his "birthing" of Athena, but Attic vase-painters illustrated the mainstream tradition that Hephaestus was already present at the birth of Athena.

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Selected picture

Pallas Athena by Klimt
Artist: Gustav Klimt

Pallas Athena by Gustav Klimt. Athena, goddess of strength, was one of the twelve Olympians.

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Did you know ...

The Olympians gods consist of two generations:
The children of the Titans (Children of Gaia-Earth) Cronos and Rhea:

  • Hestia (goddess of the hearth, architecture)
  • Demeter (agricultural goddess)
  • Hera (The queen of the gods and the wife and sister of Zeus)
  • Hades (the god of the underworld)
  • Poseidon (the god of the sea)
  • Zeus (the king of gods,the ruler of Olympus. He declared war on his father and the titans. His mother, Rhea helped him to be victorious...)

The second generation of gods are the children of Zeus:

  • Apollo (god identified with the sun, protector of poetry, music and balance)
  • Athena (the goddess of wisdom and war)
  • Persephone (she is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, and goddess of springtime)
  • Artemis (identified with the moon, Apollo's twin sister,goddess of hunting, animals and wild nature)
  • Hephaestus (the god of fire and metalworking)
  • Ares(the god of war and violence)
  • Hermes (messenger of gods and also the god of thieves)
  • Dionysus (the god of wine, and madness)

*Aphrodite is not the daughter of Zeus. She was formed from the blood of Uranus.

  • When Zeus became the king of gods in place of his father, he made Cronos a fugitive of nature. He became a fugitive in Italy. He gathered some men and they describe his reign to be the golden age.
  • Hermes Is the son of Zeus and Maia the daughter of Atlas. the Greeks call him Hermes ,which means the messenger. Also, in Latin he is called Mercure,from "Merces" ,which means merchandise. The Romans dedicated 15 May a day for him to honour him.
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WikiProjects

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Heroes

Theseus

Theseus was the legendary founder-king of Athens, son of Aethra, and fathered by Aegeus and Poseidon, both of whom Aethra lay with in one night. Theseus was a founder-hero, like Perseus, Cadmus or Heracles, all of whom battled and overcame foes that were identified with an archaic religious and social order. As Heracles was the Dorian hero, Theseus was the Ionian founding hero, considered by Athenians as their own great reformer. His name comes from the same root as θεσμός ("thesmos"), Greek for institution. He was responsible for the synoikismos ("dwelling together")—the political unification of Attica under Athens, represented emblematically in his journey of labours, subduing highly localized ogres and monstrous beasts. Because he was the unifying king, Theseus built and occupied a palace on the fortress of the Acropolis that may have been similar to the palace that was excavated in Mycenae.

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Legendary creatures

Dryad

Dryads (Δρυάδες, sing.: Δρυάς) are tree nymphs in Greek mythology. In Greek drys signifies 'oak,' from an Indo-European root *derew(o)- 'tree' or 'wood'. Thus dryads are specifically the nymphs of oak trees, though the term has come to be used for all tree nymphs in general. "Such deities are very much overshadowed by the divine figures defined through poetry and cult," Walter Burkert remarked of Greek nature deities. They were normally considered to be very shy creatures, except around the goddess Artemis, who was known to be a friend to most nymphs.

The dryads of ash trees were called the Meliai. The ash-tree sisters tended the infant Zeus in Rhea's Cretan cave. Rhea gave birth to the Meliai after being made fertile by the blood of castrated Ouranos. Nymphs associated with apple trees were Epimeliad, and walnut-trees Caryatids.

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Categories

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Greek mythology topics

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  1. ^ Homer, Odyssey viii. 312 Homer, Iliad i. 578 (some scholars, such as Gantz note that Hephaestus' reference to Zeus as 'father' here may be a general title) , xiv. 338, xviii. 396, xxi. 332; this is the view adopted by Cicero, De Natura Deorum 3. 22