CLAS 1020 Summary – Flashcards

literally means "utterance" or "something one says: a traditional story commonly set in the remote past and involving the actions of divine beings and/or humans heroes.

stories about heros

stories about gods

stories about creatures, like ogres

Ovid begins the Metamorphoses by invoking the gods. He asks them to inspire his work, which opens with the creation of the world and continues on to the present day, and is about the transformation of bodies. After this short prayer, Ovid describes the birth of the world. A creator separated earth from heaven, sea from land, and lighter air from heavier air. He then made beings to inhabit these new spaces: Gods and stars filled the heavens, fish the seas, beasts the land, and birds the air. Man was created to rule the world.

Four ages followed. The age of gold was a time of trust, moral goodness, and fruitfulness. In the age of silver, people had to work for a living. The age of bronze saw the first wars, but some semblance of morality persisted. In the age of iron, however, nothing is sacred. Even family ties lead to bloodshed.

In the iron age, the gods appear and witness human impiety. In particular, Jupiter visits the house of the Lycaon, who treats Jupiter with the greatest disrespect, even trying to murder him in his sleep. Tried to feed zeus human flesh.

Outraged, Jupiter decides to punish humanity with a flood, because of Lycaon.

Because of their piety, Deucalion and Pyrrha survive. No one else does. Themis gives Deucalion and Pyrrha cryptic advice about how to repopulate the earth: They must cover their heads, let their garments loose, and cast the bones of their great mother behind their backs. Initially, Pyrrha is disheartened, because she interprets this advice as sacrilegious. How can she desecrate her mother's bones? Deucalion has a different interpretation. He thinks Themis was referring not to their actual mothers, but to the earth. They try throwing stones behind them, and the stones morph into people.

son of cronus and rhea He is lord of the sky, the rain god. His weapon is a thunderbolt. Husband of Hera's the eagle, thunderbolt, serpent

son of cronus and rhea lord of the sea and earthquakes married Amphitrite a granddaughter of the Titon Oceanus trident, giant bull

son of zeus and leto god of light, rationale, health, plague, prophecy, music, and all creative arts, also god of sun oracle at delphi and artemis' twin bow and arrow, lyre, the sun

son of zeus and hera god of violence and war and frenzied agression lover of aphrodite more worshipped in rome the sword

son of zeus and maia messenger of zeus, father of pan, conductor of souls to underworld, god of luck, sleep, dreams, magic, roads parton of thieves, tricksters, athletes winged sandals, travelers hat, the caduceus

sone of hera and zeus god of fire, forge, and metal craft husband of aphrodite hammer and anvil

daughter of cronus and rhea queen of heaven and patron of marriage wife and sister of zeus the peacock

daughter of cronus and rhea virgin goddess of the hearth the household fire and hearth

daughter of zeus (and metis) virgin goddess of wisdom, victory in war, patron of weavers potters helmet, speer, shield, the aegis, owl

daughter of zeus and leto virgin goddess of wildlife and hunt, patron of women and childbirth vestil virgins twin sister of apollo bow and arrow, moon

daughter of zeus and dione godess of beauty, sexual love, and desire wife of hephestus, lover of mars, mother of eros/cupid the dove

daughter of cronus and rhea patron of agriculture and source of the soil's fertility and grain harvest founder of eleusinian mysteries mother of persephone sheaf of golden wheat

son of zeus and mortal virgin semele god of wine, emotional freedom, ecstasy the grape vine and actors mask

vulcan finds ares and aphrodite in bed together and traps them with an almost invisible net, he later invites all the gods to come see and shame them. however, apollo and hermes wish to be in mars place. Poseidon demands that hephestus releases them.

hermes was born and instantly smart and mischievous, he stole apollo's cattle, built the lyre, exchanges the lyre for apollo's forgiveness, they are now bffs.

Apollo speaks disparagingly to Cupid, who shoots two arrows in retaliation. The first arrow causes Apollo to fall in love, and the second arrow makes the object of his love, Daphne, flee. Apollo pursues Daphne, but she rejects him. Apollo pleads and persists, and Daphne cries out to her father for help. He responds by transforming her into a laurel tree. Not entirely deterred, Apollo gropes the tree.

At this point, Jupiter catches sight of a young nymph, Io, and lust fills his heart. He rapes her. Juno, Jupiter's wife, suspects something. To throw his wife off the scent, Jupiter turns Io into a cow. But this move makes Juno even more suspicious. She asks Jupiter for Io as a present and sets many-eyed Argus to keep watch over the transformed Io. Upset by Io's great distress, Jupiter sends Mercury to kill Argus. Mercury succeeds, and Io is eventually transformed back into a nymph. She has a son by Jupiter, Epaphus.

Phaeton travels to the palace of the Sun to get some answers about who his father is. Exquisite artwork on the palace doors depicts the sea, land, and heavens, with their respective inhabitants. The Sun approaches and reaffirms to Phaeton that he is, indeed, his father. Unconvinced, Phaeton asks his father to prove it to him by allowing him to drive his father's chariot and winged horses. The Sun pleads with Phaeton to ask for something else, but Phaeton is stubborn. The Sun tells Phaeton how to ride and rubs his face with sacred ointment to protect him from the heat. As soon as Phaeton takes flight, his excitement changes to abject fear. He realizes that he is not able to control his father's chariot. The earth suffers as he draws nearer. Moisture evaporates, mountain and forest are burned, rivers dry up, and the heat confines Neptune to the sea. The earth utters a lament, which is quickly silenced by heat and smoke. Jupiter sees what is going on and saves the day by hurling a thunderbolt at Phaeton, killing him. So devastated are Phaeton's sisters that they are transformed into amber trees. Phaeton's mother travels the world searching for her son's remains to give him a proper burial.

Meanwhile, Jupiter assesses the damage Phaeton's flight did to the world. He pays special attention to his favorite place, Arcadia. He sees Callisto, a follower of Diana, and lust grips him. Disguising himself as Diana, Jupiter rapes the unwilling Callisto. In nine months, Diana discovers Callisto's condition and exiles her. Furious over her husband's exploits, Juno turns Callisto into a bear. Fifteen years later, while Callisto is roaming the woods, she sees her son, Arcas. She longs to reach out to her son, but he sees her as a bear and stands ready to defend himself with a spear. Before Arcas unwittingly commits matricide, Jupiter transforms him and Callisto into constellations. The evidence of Jupiter's adultery is now confirmed in the heavens. Enraged, Juno flies through the upper air in her peacock-driven chariot.

hen he gets up to heaven, Jupiter sends him on another mission. He tells him to go to the land of Sidon (in the Middle East); when he gets there, he will see a herd of cattle. He should then drive this herd into the sea. (Jupiter doesn't give any explanation for this.) Mercury does as he's told, finds the cattle, and drives them into the sea. Meanwhile, Jupiter turns himself into a bull and heads down to the beach. The cattle Mercury is driving belong to Agenor, the local king. Jupiter heads straight for Europa, the king's beautiful daughter. He acts friendly and nuzzles her hand. Eventually, his gentleness makes Europa trust in him so much that she sits on his back. That's just what he's been waiting for - now Jupiter races out into the open sea, carrying Europa away with him on his shoulders.

Cadmus's household is plagued. While hunting, his grandson, Actaeon, stumbles upon Diana bathing in her sacred grove. Diana is so offended that she transforms Actaeon into a deer, and Actaeon's own hunting dogs kill him

When Hermaphroditus was fifteen years old, he left his home on Mt. Ida and started traveling the world. One day, he came to a pool of fresh, clear water. This pool was inhabited by a Naiad (water nymph) named Salmacis. When Salmacis saw Hermaphroditus, she instantly developed a crush on him. Unfortunately, he rejected her advances. Then, Hermaphroditus went swimming in the pool. Now that Salmacis saw her crush without any clothes on, she couldn't restrain herself. She stripped off her own clothes and dived into the pool. Even though Hermaphroditus tried to resist, she wrapped herself around him and wouldn't let go. When he still wouldn't have sex with her, she prayed to the gods to join them together forever. Her wish was granted: in a flash, they fused into a single being, half male and half female - or both at the same time. Thus, Hermaphroditus became the first hermaphrodite

The moral Minerva takes from the story is that it's important for gods to punish mortals who don't respect them. First on her agenda is bringing some vengeance down on Arachne; Minerva had heard rumors that Arachne claimed to be better than her at weaving. Ovid tells us that Arachne came from the land of Lydia; this is in modern Turkey, though he doesn't tell us that part. She is from a humble background, but has won great fame by her knitting - so much fame that she boasts that she could beat Minerva in a weaving contest. Hence Minerva's motivation to knock some sense into her. Minerva first appears at Arachne's house in the shape of an old woman. In this disguise, she tells Arachne to mend her ways, and honor the goddess. But Arachne just repeats her boasting. At that moment, Minerva reveals her true form and says, "Bring it on." While the others present all bow down to Minerva, Arachne remains defiant. (She does blush a little.) Very well: let the weaving contest commence! Minerva weaves an image of the contest between herself and Neptune over who would be the patron god of Athens. She won this contest, of course. (In Greek, Minerva's name is Athena, so you can see the connection.) In the corners of her cloth, she weaves images of gods punishing uppity mortals. Hmm...might there be a message in these images? As for Arachne, her tapestry shows scenes of Jupiter, Neptune, Apollo, Bacchus, and Saturn seducing various ladies. (Hmm...she doesn't really show the gods in a good light, does she?) When Arachne is finished, everyone - even Minerva - agrees that her work is flawless. Minerva loses it, and tears Arachne's work to shreds. Then she whacks her on the head with her shuttle. Out of shame, Arachne then hangs herself. Seeing her hanging there, Minerva takes pity on her and lets her live - but turning her into the world's first spider.

One day, when the other citizens of her city are worshipping Latona, the mother of Apollo and Diana, Niobe interrupts them and says that they should worship her, Niobe, instead. That's because she is also descended from gods, but has more children. When Latona gets wind of this, she immediately tells her children, Apollo and Diana, so they can avenge her honor. No sooner said than done: Apollo and Diana, who are both excellent archers, swoop down to the city of Thebes and shoot all of Niobe's sons dead. When the sons' father, Amphion, learns of this, he kills himself. But Niobe remains defiant: through her tears, she boasts that she still has seven daughters to be proud of. Bad move. Arrows start raining down, and soon six of the daughters are dead, too. Now Niobe's starting to get worried - she prays that the gods spare her last daughter at least. No such luck. Another arrow whizzes by and strikes her daughter dead. At this point, Niobe starts weeping uncontrollably. She weeps for so long, in the same position, that she slowly turns to stone. Then, a strong wind comes, picks her up, and deposits her on top of Mount Sipylus, in modern Turkey, where she came from. To this day, Ovid tells us, she remains there as a rock with water streaming out of it.

According to the Hymn to Demeter, the Mysteries at Eleusis originated in the two-fold story of Demeter's life—her separation from and reunion with her daughter and her failure to make the queen's son immortal. After Eleusis was incorporated, the city of Athens took responsibility for the festival, but the festival never lost its local associations.

According to the myth told in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the earth goddess Demeter went to Eleusis in search of her daughter Kore (Persephone), who had been abducted by Hades (Pluto), god of the underworld. Befriended by the royal family of Eleusis, she agreed to rear the queen's son. She was, however, prevented by the queen's unknowing interference from making the boy immortal and eternally young. After this occasion, she revealed her identity to the royal family and commanded that a temple be built for her into which she retired.

Semele, Cadmus's daughter, is pregnant with Jupiter's child. Juno, filled with rage at yet another dalliance of Jupiter's, disguises herself as an old woman and convinces Semele to ask Jupiter to make love to her with all his power as a god, just as he makes love to Juno. Semele gets Jupiter to promise her an unspecified gift. When she makes her request, Jupiter cannot go back on his word. He makes love to her with all his power. She cannot withstand it, and she dies. Jupiter brings their son, Bacchus, to full term in his thigh.

The scene changes. Jupiter and Juno banter about which gender enjoys sex more. Jupiter says women do, and Juno says men do. They decide to ask Tiresias, who reportedly has experienced life as both a man and woman. Tiresias agrees with Jupiter. In her anger, Juno strikes Tiresias blind. Jupiter compensates Tiresias by giving him supernatural foresight. Ovid records Tiresias's first prediction: that Narcissus will live a long life as long as he does not know himself. These cryptic words were born out when Narcissus, who had rejected all would-be lovers, fell in love with his own reflection.

(You may skip the following chorus sections: pp. 539-540, 545-546, 557-559, 562-563, and 567 (but be sure to read the first chorus). onysus is now determined to show them all. He's started by turning his mother's sisters into the Maenads. The basic job description for a Maenad includes: dancing in the woods, drinking wine, breast feeding baby animals, and dismembering whoever gets in their way. Dionysus summons the Chorus, a group of Asian female followers, to dance around the city and sing his glory, while he goes off to the mountains to frolic with the Maenads. Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and Tiresias, the famous seer, show up all decked out to worship Dionysus. The two old men are wise and know better than to trifle with a god. King Pentheus, Cadmus's grandson, storms on stage. He's incredibly mad about all the women dancing in the woods, especially since one of them is his own mother, Agave. He declares that he'll stop the spread of this new and terrible religion no matter what. Tiresias and Cadmus tell him he'll be sorry, but the stubborn Pentheus doesn't listen. Pentheus's men bring in a chained Dionysus. Of course, they have no idea that they've got the actual god on their hands, since Dionysus is in mortal form. They think the Stranger is just the head of this new Dionysian cult. King Pentheus mocks the Stranger and tells him he looks girly. The King locks Dionysus up in jail, but swiftly regrets it. The god summons earthquakes and lightning, flattening his jail and ravaging the palace. A Herdsman toddles on and reports that the Maenads have gotten even crazier. The Herdsman and his buddies tried to take them into custody, and the women went nuts, ripping up cattle and raising hell all over the countryside. King Pentheus determines that it's time to summon his soldiers and kill all the Maenads. However, Dionysus convinces Pentheus that he ought to go and observe the rituals before he makes his decision. The only way to do this, says Dionysus, is for the King to dress in women's clothing. Pentheus is dubious, but after the god places him in a weird trance, the King is all about cross-dressing. This works out terribly for Pentheus. Dionysus sells him out while he's spying on the Maenads. The ladies go into a frenzy when they see the King. Pentheus ends up being ripped apart by his own mother, Agave. Agave returns to Thebes, bearing the head of her son. She's so deep in her Dionysian delirium that she thinks she's holding the head of a lion. Her father, Cadmus, knocks some sense into her, and Agave realizes the horrible thing she's done. In the end, Dionysus appears in all his godly glory. He curses Cadmus, saying that he'll be turned into a snake and must lead an army of barbarians in battles against Greece. Agave ends up being banished from Thebes. At the close of the play, the Chorus sings a song of praise for their victorious god, Dionysus.

This hymn begins with a sensually phrased description of the beautiful god Dionysus, and then narrates the story of the god's capture by the crew of a rogue sailing ship. The poet narrates the argument between a helmsman (who recognizes the holiness of the prisoner) and the captain (who is determined to hold the prisoner for ransom). As the ship sails onward on the captain's orders, vine leaves appear and sprout grapes, and Dionysus transforms himself into a lion, terrorizing the crew. Finally, all the crew but the helmsman jumps overboard, and they are turned into dolphins. The helmsman is richly rewarded, and the hymn concludes with praise of the god

A On the Wiki Wiki Activity Random page Videos Images Chat Forum Maps Immortals Community Contribute Watchlist Random page Recent changes Theogony 1,950PAGES ON THIS WIKI Edit Talk0 The Theogony is a poem by Hesiod describing the origins of the Gods of Greece composed around 700 BC. Contents[show] DescriptionEdit The Theogony is a large synthesis of the wider local Greek traditions concerning the Gods origins, organized as a narrative. It if often used as a sourcebook for Greek Mythology, however in formal terms it is a hymn invoking Zeus and the Muses. StoryEdit Note:This is a brief summary The poem starts with a blessing from the Muses and thanks them for inspiration Cosmogony and Castration of UranusEdit Chaos was the first to come to be, followed by Gaia, Tartarus and Eros. From Chaos came forth Erebos and Nyx, and from Night and Erebos came Aither and Hemera. From Earth came Ouranus, The Ourea and Pontos. Gaia then lay with Ouranus and bore Oceanos, Koios, Krios, Hyperion, Iapetos, Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Tethys. After them Kronus was born. After that she mated with Ouranus once again, and bare the Kyklopes; Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who made thunder for Zeus. She also had the Hekatonchires; Kottos, Briareos, and Gyges. Ouranus was disgusted with them and hide them away in Gaia. She asked the Titans to punish their father, and Kronos volunteered, and castrated him with the sickle his mother gave him. From the drops of blood which fell on Earth, the Erinyes and the Gigantes, the Nymphs Meliai all around Earth. From the sea foam came Aphrodite, and with her came Eros and Himeros. But Rhea was subject in love to Kronos and bare children Hestia, Demeter, Hera and Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. These Kronos swallowed as each came out, as he learned from Gaia and Ouranus that he would be overthrown by his son. So when Rhea was pregnant with Zeus, she consulted with her parents, so they sent her to Lyetus and to Crete and when she gave birth, Earth carried him to Lyctus at night, then to a remote cave beneath Mount Aegeum. Rhea gave Kronos a stone wrapped in cloth. Then he took it and swallowed it. After years Kronos vomited it out and Zeus set it in the Earth at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus and he set free the Kyklopes and the Hekatonkheires and they were grateful and gave him thunder and lightning, for before, they were hidden in Earth.

His name means "forethought" and he was able to foretell the future. He was the son of Iapetos. When Zeus revolted against Kronos, Prometheus deserted the other Titans and fought on Zeus' side. By some accounts he and his brother Epimetheus were delegated by Zeus to create man. In all accounts, Prometheus is known as the protector and benefactor of man. He gave mankind a number of gifts including fire. He also tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep the best part of the animals sacrificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts. For this Zeus punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with the Kaukasios Eagle tearing at his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to disclose to Zeus which of Zeus children would try to replace him.

When Zeus was so angry at Prometheus for giving people fire, he was also mad at the people who had tricked him into taking the wrong bag of meat. Zeus got back at the people by getting Hephaistos to make a beautiful woman, whom he named Pandora (which means all-gifts). Zeus sent Pandora down to earth and gave her as a present to Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus. Zeus told Epimetheus that he should marry Pandora. Also, Zeus sent Pandora with a little box, with a big lock on it (Actually in the earliest versions of this story it is a sealed pottery vase). He said not to ever open the box, and he gave the key to Epimetheus. Pandora opens the box But Pandora was very curious about what was in the box. She begged Epimetheus to let her open it, but he always said no. Finally one day he fell asleep, and she stole the key (or broke the seal) and opened the box (or vase). Oh! Out of the box flew every kind of trouble that people had never known about before: sicknesses, and worries, and crimes, and hate and envy and all sorts of bad things. The bad things all began to fly away like little bugs, all over the place. Pandora was very sorry now that she had opened the box! She tried to catch the bad things and put them back in the box but it was too late. They all flew away. But the very last thing to fly out of the box, as Pandora sat there crying, was not as ugly as the others. In fact it was beautiful. It was Hope, which Zeus sent to keep people going when all the nasty things got them down.

This epic battle was waged for ten years between Zeus and the Olympians and Cronus and the Titans. Cronus fought from Mt. Othrys; his allies were the Titans except for Themis and her son PROMETHEUS. Prometheus' brother ATLAS sided with Cronus. Zeus fought from Mt. Olympus and his allies, in addition to Themis and Prometheus, were his brothers and sisters, who had been swallowed by Cronus but later regurgitated, namely: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Also on his side were the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes. Zeus was victorious and the Titans were imprisoned in Tartarus, guarded by the Hecatonchires; and Atlas was punished with the task of holding up the sky.

TYPHOEUS/ TYPHON was a ferocious dragon-god, whom earth produced to do battle with Zeus, either separately, or alongside the giants in the great Gigantomachy. Zeus' triumph singles him out as an archetypal dragon-slayer.

Odysseus travels to the Underworld and makes the offerings according to Circe's instructions. The shades of the dead (shades = ghosts) gather to drink the blood (gross) and then talk to Odysseus. The first shade is Elpenor, freshly fallen from Circe's roof. Odysseus's eyes bug out when he sees one of his crew members—he weeps and listens to the man's story. Elpenor begs for Odysseus to honor his death by building a burial mound (essentially a pile of rocks) for his dead body. Odysseus agrees, since it's the least he can do after totally having failed to notice that one of his crew members was missing. Odysseus then glimpses his mother's shade among the rest of the dead. This is news to him, since last he heard she was still alive. Not a good way to find out. Fortunately, he is soon distracted from his weeping by the arrival of Teiresias (the dead blind prophet). Teiresias drinks the blood of Odysseus's sacrifice and then speaks. His first words are a warning: don't eat Helios's cattle at Thrinakia. His next are to casually announce that Odysseus will survive alone. In other words, all of his companions will die. Great, that's probably something they're glad to hear.. The good news is, Odysseus will make it home after all, but he'll find trouble there. He'll have to make the suitors pay for their insolence with ... wait for it ... blood. After defeating the suitors, Teiresias continues, Odysseus had better go inland until he reaches an area of earth which has never known the sea. There, he has to pray to Poseidon in order to ensure himself a peaceful seaborne death in his old age, surrounded by all his folk. Okay, that's great, says Odysseus; but why is his mother here, and can he talk to her? Sure, says Teiresias, as long as she drinks the blood of the sacrifice, too. One gory mess later, Odysseus's mother Antikleia tells him of the situation back home in Ithaka: Telemachos is growing up but helpless against the suitors; Penelope is still loyal; and, oh yeah, she herself has died from loneliness. Her son tries three times to embrace her, but this doesn't work out too well, since Antikleia is dead. When she leaves, there's a long line of other dead people waiting to talk to him. The shades don't get too many visitors around these parts. Odysseus draws his sword to hold them back. (Except they're already dead, so we're not sure how effective that would be.) He lets them come and drink one at a time.

After that, the Sibyl busts out some prophecies. Specifically, she says that things are going be tough: they will have to fight a war to secure their territory in Italy. She predicts that a new Achilles will arise in the territory of Latium. (Achilles was the greatest of the Greek warriors fighting against Troy in the Trojan War.) The Sibyl then says that the war will arise as a result of a foreign bride. She says that the Trojans will find safety from an unexpected source: a Greek city. (If this all sounds kind of weird, don't worry, prophecies are supposed to sound weird.) After receiving this prophecy, Aeneas prays to be allowed to descend to the underworld, so that he can visit his father. The Sibyl says that the way down to the underworld is easy, it's coming back out that's the tricky part. She says that Aeneas must go deep into the forest and, in darkest and most secluded part, find a tree sprouting a golden bough. He must pluck this bough and bring it as a gift to Proserpina, the queen of the underworld. She says that only those who are fated to can pluck the bough: it won't come off for those who try to force it. But then the Sibyl reveals a snag. She says that the Trojans have become defiled and have to purify themselves. This is because one of their number has died and remains unburied. The Sibyl says they have to find out who it is, bury him, and then sacrifice some black animals. Then Aeneas can go down to the underworld. You might have thought that the unburied dead guy was Palinurus, but actually it's some guy named Misenus. He had apparently made the mistake of thinking he was better at blowing his conch shell than the sea god Triton. Gods don't take kindly to that sort of boast, and Triton's response was to drown Misenus in the surf. While the Trojans start building a pyre for Misenus, Aeneas prays for a sign that the Sibyl's other predictions will come true, just like this one did. Venus sends down two doves, reassuring Aeneas. Then Aeneas asks to be shown where the golden bough is. The doves fly off and he follows. Eventually, they lead him to the spot. Aeneas is totally excited, and breaks the bough off the tree. We are told that it "clung" to the tree a bit. Does this mean that Aeneas is acting against fate? Generations of scholars haven't been able to give a conclusive answer. (That's your cue to have at it!) Now armed with the golden bough, Aeneas follows the Sibyl down into the underworld, where they immediately encounter a lot of freaky stuff. Then they come to the banks of the River Styx, where a crowd of souls has assembled, waiting to be ferried across by Charon, the boatman of the underworld. The Sibyl explains that only those who have been buried can cross; those who haven't been must first wait a hundred years on the Styx's banks. At this point, Aeneas catches sight of his lost pilot, Palinurus - now one of the unburied dead crowding the bank, denied passage. Aeneas asks Palinurus if Apollo's oracle had lied, and some god had killed him. Palinurus says, "No, no god killed me. The rudder broke while I was leaning on it, and I fell into the water. Then I swam ashore, but some locals killed me." Then Palinurus asks Aeneas to bury him. "Or," he says, "take me across with you." But then the Sibyl cuts him off, saying, "You know that we can't take you. Anyhow, some other locals are going to bury your body soon enough - and then they are going to name that cape of land after you." Palinurus is satisfied with this response. Then up paddles Charon, the ferryman, and addresses Aeneas and the Sibyl as follows: "Whaddaya want?" The Sibyl explains that Aeneas is just going to see his dad. Then she reveals the golden bough. That does the trick, and Charon takes them across. Once they get to the other side, Aeneas and the Sibyl see various dead people. Aeneas sees Dido, and approaches her. He tells her he is sorry, and how it wasn't his fault for leaving her: he was only doing the gods' bidding, just as he is now. But Dido doesn't listen to him. Instead, without a word, she runs off to join the shade of her dead husband, Sychaeus. Next Aeneas sees some dead Trojan warriors - plus some Greeks, who scatter when he approaches. Then he catches sight of Deiphobus, a Trojan warrior. His face shows that he has been cruelly mutilated. Deiphobus, who had married Helen after the death of Paris, says that his wife is to blame. During the fall of Troy, she let her former husband, Menelaus, and Ulysses into their bedroom, and the two of them went at him. He asks what Aeneas is doing there, but before he can answer, the Sibyl taps her watch (OK, points to the sky) and says that they've got to get a move on. Deiphobus says, "That's cool. Peace out." Then Aeneas and the Sibyl come to a place where the road forks. The path on the left leads to Tartarus, the black pit of hell. The one on the right leads toward Elysium, where the blessed go. The Sibyl tells Aeneas about the horrible torments suffered by the souls in Tartarus. Then she tells him again to hurry up. They go to the gates of Proserpina's palace where, after performing a cleansing ritual, he leaves the golden bough. After that, he and the Sibyl head to Elysium - the ultimate chill-out zone, a.k.a. Club Dead. They go up to Musaeus, an ancient singer and poet, and ask where Anchises is. Musaeus directs him to the spot. There they find Anchises watching the souls preparing for rebirth. Aeneas and Anchises share a tearful reunion. Then Aeneas catches sight of the thousands of souls crowding around a nearby river. He asks Anchises, "What gives?" Anchises says that these are souls waiting to be reborn. They are drinking from the River Lethe, whose waters will wipe clean their memory of their previous lives. Aeneas says, "Why would they want to live again?" That's Anchises's cue to have a fatherly talk with Aeneas (a super-special fatherly talk, since Anchises is now dead and knows the secrets of the universe). Anchises explains that everything that exists - including things like the sky, the land, the water, the moon, sun, and stars, as well as living creatures - is permeated with Spirit. This Spirit occasionally becomes part of living things. When this happens, though, the body pollutes the spirit and clouds its vision. Even in death, the spirit retains traces of its old life. As a result, the souls of the dead must spend a good deal of time (sometimes up to a thousand years) being purified (sometimes involving torments), so that they can regain clear vision. (Those who were especially pure in life - like Anchises - get to chill out in Elysium.) Then, when the time comes, the soul of the dead man drinks from the waters of Lethe and enters a new body. Anchises shows Aeneas some of the people waiting to be reborn. These include many future leaders of Rome. First Anchises points out a bunch of Aeneas's immediate descendents. Then he points out members of the Julian dynasty, culminating in Caesar Augustus (the first Roman emperor). Then they see various other figures from Roman history, last of whom is Marcellus, who looks a little under the weather. Marcellus was Augustus's nephew, son-in-law, and prospective heir; Anchises explains that he looks glum because he is destined to die young, without fulfilling his promise. After this who's-who session, Anchises shows Aeneas a bunch of other cool stuff, including glimpses of the future. This gets Aeneas all fired up for the rest of his mission. But now it's time to wrap things up. Anchises takes Aeneas to the exit of the Underworld: the Gates of Sleep. There are two gates, to be precise. One, made of horn, is the gate from which "true shades" Emerge. The other is made of ivory; through it, "false dreams" make their way to mankind. Aeneas and the Sibyl leave through the ivory gate of false dreams. Why? That's a million dollar question. Unfortunately, we don't have a million dollars to give you.

The Aeneid, the story of a band of survivors who leave their destroyed city to seek another home in a faraway country, is about rebirth, about life springing forth from ruin and death. It is primarily a fiction whose narrative fabric, woven from myth and legend, traces a pattern that appears in the most profound myths that concern the human spirit's eternal quest for self-perpetuation. We must bear in mind, however, that the epic was seen in an entirely different light by Virgil's contemporaries. Because the events that take place in the poem were recounted from generation to generation, they eventually took on the appearance of unquestionable truth.

Shortly after the wedding, however, Hymen, the god of marriage, had to speed off to Thrace. That was because the famous poet and singer Orpheus was calling for him. Orpheus wants Hymen to help out at his marriage. When he gets there, however, he wears a sour expression that puts a damper on the wedding celebrations. This is a bad omen. This bad omen plays out in real life, when Orpheus's new bride dies in a freak accident: she steps on a poisonous snake that bites her. But Orpheus loves her so much that he goes down to the Underworld to get her back. When he comes up to Proserpina and Pluto, he pulls out his lyre and begins to sing. In his song, he asks for his wife back; her name, we now learn, is Eurydice. Orpheus reminds Pluto that it was love that made him carry of Proserpina, so why can't he have a heart now? After all, he says, she and I will die someday anyway; why not let us live a little longer together? All of the terrible inhabitants of the Underworld are moved by Orpheus's song - including Pluto and Proserpina. They give the word for Eurydice to come forward. When she arrives, they tell Orpheus he can lead her away - on one condition: he can't look back at her. If it does, she will be lost. Orpheus and Eurydice make their way to the upper world. Just when they are almost home free, however, Orpheus looks back - he wants to make sure his wife is still there - and Eurydice vanishes once more into the Underworld. At first, Orpheus is so stricken with grief that he can't move. Then he tries going back down to the Underworld to try again to bring Eurydice back. But Charon, the ferryman of the River Styx, won't let him cross. Finally, Orpheus goes wandering in the mountains.

Thracian women attack Orpheus with stones. Orpheus protects himself by charming the rocks with his songs. But the women drown out his music and tear his body apart. Orpheus's shade descends to the underworld, where he joins Eurydice.

son of Zeus and Danaë. His grandfather, Acrisius, had been warned by an oracle that his grandson would kill him and therefore put Perseus and his mother in a chest and threw it into the sea. It drifted to Seriphus, where King Polydectes befriended the two. After a time Polydectes fell in love with Danaë but was embarrassed by the presence of her full-grown son. He sent Perseus to fetch the head of the Gorgon Medusa, thinking that Perseus would die in the attempt. The gods, however, loved Perseus. Hermes gave him a curved sword and winged sandals, Athena a mirrorlike shield, and Hades a helmet that made Perseus invisible. Thus armed, Perseus slew Medusa. While fleeing the other Gorgons, Medusa's sisters, Perseus asked Atlas for help. Atlas refused, and Perseus, by means of the Medusa head, promptly turned him into a mountain of stone. On his way home Perseus rescued Andromeda from a sea monster and married her. When he arrived in Seriphus, he killed Polydectes and his followers. He then gave the Medusa head to Athena. He went with his mother and his wife to Argos. There, while competing in a discus contest, Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather. Thus the prophecy was fulfilled. Perseus was the father of Electryon, who was the grandfather of Hercules.

Heracles' hometown of Thebes has had to pay a tribute every year to Erginus, the King of the Minyans. This ticks Heracles off, so when he meets some Minyans on the road he cuts off their ears, noses, and hands. As you might guess, this makes King Erginus pretty darned mad, and he charges toward Thebes with his whole army behind him. Heracles isn't scared at all and raises an army of his own. Our hero leads the charge, obliterating the Minyans and killing the King Erginus himself. King Creon of Thebes is more than a little grateful to Heracles, so he gives Heracles his daughter, Megara, as a bride. Every thing is happy for a while, and Heracles and Megara have a bunch of kids. Eventually though, Heracles' archenemy Hera, Queen of the Gods, steps in to ruin his life. (Hera hates Heracles because he's the illegitimate son of her husband, Zeus.) The Queen of the Gods gets seriously nasty and causes Heracles to go crazy and kill all of his children (Whoa.) Needless to say, Heracles feels more than a little guilty about killing his kids and all. Our hero goes to the Oracle of Delphi to figure out how to atone for the damage he's done. The Oracle tells him that he has to submit himself to be the servant of King Eurystheus of Argos. (If it wasn't for a trick of Hera's, Heracles would've sat on Eurystheus' throne. Click here for more.) Eurystheus tells Heracles that he has to perform ten labors for him. "Okey doke," says Heracles, "What do you want me to do?" The First Labor: The Nemean Lion The Second Labor: The Lernean Hydra (snake) The Third Labor: Erymanthian Boar The Fourth Labor: Cerynian Hind (dear) The Fifth Labor: Augean Stables (clean poo) The Sixth Labor: Stymphalian Birds ( Lake and rid it of a flock of man-eating birds.) The Seventh Labor: The Cretan Bull The Eighth Labor: Horses of Diomedes The Ninth Labor: The Belt of Hippolyte The Tenth Labor: Cattle of Geryon The Eleventh Labor: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides The Twelfth Labor: Cerberus

Phoebus Apollo has a son, Asclepius, who in time becomes a god of medicine and healing. Asclepius transgresses divine law by raising a mortal, Hippolytus, from the dead, and Zeus, in anger, kills Apollo's son with a thunderbolt forged by the Cyclops. Apollo then slays the Cyclops, a deed for which he is condemned by Zeus to leave Olympus and to serve for one year as herdsman to Admetus, the king of Pherae in Thessaly. Some time after Apollo completes his term of service, Admetus marries Alcestis, the daughter of the king of Iolcus, Pelias. On his wedding day, however, he offends the goddess Artemis and so is doomed to die. Apollo, grateful for the kindness Admetus showed him in the past, prevails on the Fates to spare the king on the condition that when his hour of death comes, they accept instead the life of whoever will consent to die in his place. None of Admetus's kin cares to offer himself in his place, but Alcestis, in wifely devotion, pledges herself to die for her husband. The day arrives when she must give up her life. Concerned for the wife of his mortal friend, Apollo appeals to Thanatos, who comes to take Alcestis to the underworld. Thanatos rejects his pleas, warning the god not to transgress against eternal judgment or the will of the Fates. Apollo declares that there is one powerful enough to defy the Fates who is even then on his way to the palace of Admetus. Meanwhile Alcestis prepares for her approaching death. On the day she is to die, she dresses herself in rich funeral robes and prays before the hearth fire to Vesta, goddess of the hearth, asking her to be a mother to the two children she is leaving behind, to find a helpmate for the boy and a gentle lord for the girl, and not to let them...

Because of a past wrong, Athens is forced to ship off young people to Crete every few years. There, boys and girls are devoured by the man-eating Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Theseus, Prince of Athens, decides to put a stop to this and sails off to slay the beast. He promises his father, King Aegeus, that he'll change the black sail of the ship to white on his return journey to show that he survived. Theseus manages to slay the Minotaur with the help of the beautiful Cretan princess, Ariadne, whom he ends up marooning on an island on the way back to Greece. As Theseus approaches Athens, he's so full of himself that he forgets to change the sail of is ship to white. When Aegeus sees the black-sailed ship approaching, he assumes that Theseus is dead and hurls himself into what is now call the Aegean Sea. Theseus becomes the King of Athens, but loses his father in the process.

Jason shows up in his hometown of Iolcus with a game-plan: regain the throne stolen from his father by his uncle Pelias. King Pelias says he's down to give up the throne... so long as Jason brings him the Golden Fleece. Which is held in the far away land of Colchis, a.k.a not something you can just pick up at the local Walmart. Jason accepts the quest anyway and assembles the most star-studded team of heroes Greece has ever seen to go on the quest with him aboard the magical ship, the Argo. Jason and the Argonauts have tons of adventures on the way Colchis, like battling Harpies and giants and stuff like that. When they finally arrive in Colchis, King Aeëtes says that Jason can have the Fleece just as long he completes three nearly impossible tasks. With the help of Medea, the daughter of Aeëtes, Jason completes the tasks, grabs the Fleece and Medea, and sails back to Greece. A few adventures later, Jason and pals are marching into Iolcus with the Golden Fleece.

Euripedes' Medea opens in a state of conflict. Jason has abandoned his wife, Medea, along with their two children. He hopes to advance his station by remarrying with Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, the Greek city where the play is set. All the events of play proceed out of this initial dilemma, and the involved parties become its central characters. Outside the royal palace, a nurse laments the events that have lead to the present crisis. After a long series of trials and adventures, which ultimately forced Jason and Medea to seek exile in Corinth, the pair had settled down and established their family, achieving a degree of fame and respectability. Jason's recent abandonment of that family has crushed Medea emotionally, to the degree that she curses her own existence, as well as that of her two children. Fearing a possible plot of revenge, Creon banishes Medea and her children from the city. After pleading for mercy, Medea is granted one day before she must leave, during which she plans to complete her quest for "justice"--at this stage in her thinking, the murder of Creon, Glauce, and Jason. Jason accuses Medea of overreacting. By voicing her grievances so publicly, she has endangered her life and that of their children. He claims that his decision to remarry was in everyone's best interest. Medea finds him spineless, and she refuses to accept his token offers of help. Appearing by chance in Corinth, Aegeus, King of Athens, offers Medea sanctuary in his home city in exchange for her knowledge of certain drugs that can cure his sterility. Now guaranteed an eventual haven in Athens, Medea has cleared all obstacles to completing her revenge, a plan which grows to include the murder of her own children; the pain their loss will cause her does not outweigh the satisfaction she will feel in making Jason suffer. For the balance of the play, Medea engages in a ruse; she pretends to sympathize with Jason (bringing him into her confidence) and offers his wife "gifts," a coronet and dress. Ostensibly, the gifts are meant to convince Glauce to ask her father to allow the children to stay in Corinth. The coronet and dress are actually poisoned, however, and their delivery causes Glauce's death. Seeing his daughter ravaged by the poison, Creon chooses to die by her side by dramatically embracing her and absorbing the poison himself. A messenger recounts the gruesome details of these deaths, which Medea absorbs with cool attentiveness. Her earlier state of anxiety, which intensified as she struggled with the decision to commit infanticide, has now given way to an assured determination to fulfill her plans. Against the protests of the chorus, Medea murders her children and flees the scene in a dragon-pulled chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-God. Jason is left cursing his lot; his hope of advancing his station by abandoning Medea and marrying Glauce, the conflict which opened the play, has been annihilated, and everything he values has been lost through the deaths that conclude the tragedy.

Meanwhile, back in Crete, the inventor Daedalus is getting antsy. It turns out that he is being held by Minos as a prisoner, against his will. Eventually, however, he figures that, even though Minos can prevent him from leaving by sea, he has no control over the air. And so Daedalus gathers up some feathers and sets to work building two sets of wings - one for himself, and one for his son, Icarus. When the wings are built, Daedalus puts them on himself and his son. Before they set out, he gives Icarus a solemn warning: "Fly in the middle of the sky," he says, "Don't fly too high or the sun will melt the wax that hold your wings together. Don't fly too low, or the moisture of the waves will destroy them." Then they fly off. At first everything seems to be going fine - but then Icarus gets cocky. He starts doing all kinds of crazy maneuvers, and flies way too high. The sun melts the wax of his wings and he plummets into the sea. Daedalus swoops down, rescues the corpse (apparently without damaging his wings), and buries him on a nearby island. From that point on, the land is known as Icaria. While Daedalus was burying his son, who should turn up but a meddlesome partridge. As it happens, this bird used to be Daedalus's nephew, whom his sister had entrusted to his care. The kid was extremely clever; during his stay with Daedalus, he invented both the saw and the geometrical compass. But this display of smarts just made Daedalus jealous - so he picked the kid up and hurled him off the nearest battlements. But Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, didn't like to see intelligence punished in that way, so she turned the boy into a bird before he hit the ground.

oedipus killed his father and married his mother

antigone buries her brother

gamemnon begins with a Watchman on duty on the roof of the palace at Argos, waiting for a signal announcing the fall of Troy to the Greek armies. A beacon flashes, and he joyfully runs to tell the news to Queen Clytemnestra. When he is gone, the Chorus, made up of the old men of Argos, enters and tells the story of how the Trojan Prince Paris stole Helen, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus, leading to ten years of war between Greece and Troy. Then the Chorus recalls how Clytemnestra's husband Agamemnon (Menelaus' brother) sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia to the god Artemis to obtain a favorable wind for the Greek fleet. The Queen appears, and the Chorus asks her why she has ordered sacrifices of thanksgiving. She tells them that a system of beacons has brought word that Troy fell the previous night. The Chorus give thanks to the gods, but wonder if her news is true; a Herald appears and confirms the tidings, describing the army's sufferings at Troy and giving thanks for a safe homecoming. Clytemnestra sends him back to Agamemnon, to tell her husband to come swiftly, but before he departs, the Chorus asks him for news of Menelaus. The Herald replies that a terrible storm seized the Greek fleet on the way home, leaving Menelaus and many others missing. The Chorus sings of the terrible destructive power of Helen's beauty. Agamemnon enters, riding in his chariot with Cassandra, a Trojan Princess whom he has taken as his slave and concubine. Clytemnestra welcomes him, professing her love, and orders a carpet of purple robes spread in front of him as he enters the palace. Agamemnon acts coldly toward her, and says that to walk on the carpet would be an act of hubris, or dangerous pride; she badgers him into walking on the robes, however, and he enters the palace. The Chorus expresses a sense of foreboding, and Clytemnestra comes outside to order Cassandra inside. The Trojan Princess is silent, and the Queen leaves her in frustration. Then Cassandra begins to speak, uttering incoherent prophecies about a curse on the house of Agamemnon. She tells the Chorus that they will see their king dead, says that she will die as well, and then predicts that an avenger will come. After these bold predictions, she seems resigned to her fate, and enters the house. The Chorus' fears grow, and they hear Agamemnon cry out in pain from inside. As they debate what to do, the doors open, and Clytemnestra appears, standing over the corpses of her husband and Cassandra. She declares that she has killed him to avenge Iphigenia, and then is joined by her lover Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin, whose brothers were cooked and served to Aegisthus' father by Agamemnon's father. They take over the government, and the Chorus declares that Clytemnestra's son Orestes will return from exile to avenge his father.

orestes gets revenge and a trial

council

achilles fights with agamemnon

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