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English IV
Introduction to Classical Mythology
“We can keep from a child all knowledge of earlier myths,
but we cannot take from him the need for mythology.”
--Carl Jung
The word “myth” comes from the Greek word mythos, meaning “word,” “tale,” or “story,” and that is
essentially what a myth is: a story. Classical mythology is the term used for the stories the ancient
Greeks and Romans told about the gods they worshiped and humankind’s relationship with them. Two
indisputable characteristics of the myths of Classical Mythology are their artistic merit and the
inspiration they have given to those who read them. These myths are some of the most interesting
stories ever told, incredible works of the human imagination that still amaze us today with their
wonders and psychological insights, perhaps because both the fears and desires of human beings really
haven’t changed that much in the 3,000 years since these tales were first spun.
The Nature of the Greek and Roman Gods
Unlike the God of the three great monotheistic religions of the Western world (Judaism and its two
offshoots, Christianity and Islam), the god of ancient Greece and Rome were anthropomorphic—that is,
they look and act like human beings do, just on a grander scale. In a way it can be argued that today’s
Superheroes are the literary descendants of these gods, human-like creatures with super-human
powers, yet also with some of the same flaws and problems which haunt humans, such as vanity and
lust. The gods of ancient Greece are as imperfect as humans, and in the myths they steal, lie, and cheat,
just with a finesse that is exquisitely divine.
Perhaps it is in the realm of romantic desire that the gods most mirror human beings, for the Greeks and
Romans were fascinated with the phenomena of blinding passion and romantic conquests, often with an
unwilling object of their desire who eventually succumbs through guile or some sort of divine trickery.
For example, there are numerous stories of the strongest male god (Zeus) pursuit of both gods and
mortals, and taken together one can argue that he is the lustiest character in all of literature.
What purpose do myths serve?
Myths are many-faceted personal and cultural phenomenon created to provide reality and unity to what
is transitory and fragmented in the world we experience. Myths provide us with absolutes in the place of
ephemeral values and with a comforting perception of the world that is necessary to make the
insecurity and terror of existence bearable. As Martha Graham put it, “Art is eternal, for it reveals the
inner landscape, which is the soul of man.” The mythological gods, monsters, and heroes of classical
mythology provided for its people a parallel plane of existence that mirrored their own and provided
possible explantions for the events of their lives: why did we win or lose that war? Why won’t that cute
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girl like me back? In their world, a plausible explanation for questions like these was the intervention of
the gods (for example, the Greeks defeated the Trojans because the majority of the gods wanted this).
Classical mythology is primarily concerned with the main Olympian gods. Most Greek and Roman myths
reflect the universal preoccupation with creation (where did we come from), the nature of god and
humankind (what are the “rules” of life), the afterlife (what happens to the dead), and other spiritual
concerns. For example, myths attempt to explain the origins of:
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The earth and the heavens, the sun, moon, and the stars
The seasons of the year
How human beings came to be
The source of beauty and goodness, and of evil and sin
The nature and meaning of love and desire
“Old myths, old gods, old heroes have never died. They are
only sleeping at the bottom of our mind, waiting for our
call. We have need for them. They represent the wisdom of
our race.”
--Stanley Kunitz
Sources for classical mythology
Pride of place goes to Homer, the name of the poet given credit for composing The Iliad and The
Odyssey. Another major source of classical mythology is the works of Hesiod, whose major works are
Theogony and Works and Days . The two most important Roman authors are Virgil, who wrote the epic
poem The Aeneid (which tells of a Trojan survivor who founded Rome) and Ovid, whose masterpiece is
The Metamorphoses.
Note: one thing to keep in mind is that for every myth there are multiple versions, with different
characters and endings, etc. Unlike the Bible, no authority has sat down and decided which version is
the official “correct” version, rather just different levels of artistry and relevance for the audience.
Creation Story
Creation stories explain how the earth and humans came into being; literally, they answer the question,
“how did things get created?” The main theme of the ancient Greek creation story is that of generational
conflict, specifically of fathers living in fear of being overthrown by their sons, a theme that repeated
itself in the gods’ first two generations, then stopped with Zeus’ generation of Olympian gods.
Another theme which the Greek creation story has in common with mythologies from other cultures is
the sacred marriage of Sky and Earth, which more or less represents the union of man and woman. This
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symbolic marriage makes perfect sense for a primitive, pre-literate agricultural society, as sky and rain,
earth and fertility are fundamental concerns connected with their survival: the rain of the sky fertilizes
mother earth and makes her conceive.
In the beginning there was nothing but a great void, called Chaos, and Night, and Eros (the force of
procreation, though later the name was used by the son of Aphrodite) and broad Tartarus, which later
became the land under the earth where the dead go. And there was no race of immortal gods until Eros
caused all things to mingle. From the mingling of couples came Mother Earth, named Gaia (pronounced
gi-uh), and she then brought forth starry Ouranus (pronounced oo-REY-nus), the Sky, so that he might
surround and cover her completely and be a secure home for the blessed gods forever. And she brought
forth, without coupling, the mountains and Pontus, the sea we call the Mediterranean. But then Gaia lay
with Ouranus and produced six twins known as the Titans; the last set of twins was brother and sister
Cronos and Rhea. Gaia and Ouranus also created three Cyclopes and three giants, each with fifty heads
and one-hundred arms.
However, as each of these children was born, Ouranus hid them in the depths of Gaia and did not allow
them to emerge into the light. And he delighted in his wickedness. But huge Earth in her distress
groaned within and devised a crafty and evil scheme. “My children,” she said, “born of a presumptuous
father, if you are willing to obey, we shall punish his evil insolence. For he was the first to devise
shameful actions.”
Fear seized them all and not one answered. But the youngest, great and wily Cronos took courage and
answered, “I shall undertake and accomplish the deed, since I do not care about our abominable
father.”
And huge Earth rejoiced greatly in her heart. She hid him in and ambush and placed in his hands the
sickle with jagged teeth. Great Ouranus came leading on night, and, desirous of love, lay on Gaia. Cronos
from his place of ambush reached out and used the sickle to castrate his father, and threw the severed
genitals so they fell behind him into the sea, where they were carried for a long time. Then white foam
arose about the immortal flesh, and from this foam immerged the goddess of love and desire,
Aphrodite, her name coming from the
Greek word for foam, aphros.
Cronos then married his sister Rhea, and
the two had six children: Hestia, Demeter,
Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. However,
because he also feared that his children
would overthrow him, Cronos swallowed
the first five children after each birth.
Rhea, who like her mother did not like
what her husband was doing with their
children, tricked Cronos with the sixth
child, Zeus, by giving Cronos a rock in a
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Cronos with his scythe
blanket rather than handing him over. Cronos swallowed it believing it was the baby, and Rhea then
smuggled the baby Zeus to the island of Crete to be raised by nymphs.
As the young god Zeus matured, he became more
and more powerful. When Rhea thought him
mighty enough to challenge Cronos, she told him
about his five brothers and sisters trapped inside
their father’s body, and about how narrowly he had
escaped the same fate. With the help of his
Grandmother Gaea, Zeus forced his father to
regurgitate his five brothers and sisters, as well as
the stone. The stone was taken to Delphi and left
there. What Cronos feared all along became a
reality. His children, who were led by their
youngest brother, Zeus, waged war against him.
However, Cronos was not left defenseless, he was
backed by most of his brothers and sisters, the
Titans.
The war between the gods and the Titans was so
Zeus hurling a thunderbolt
terrible that it nearly destroyed the universe. The
Titan Prometheus, whose very name means “forethought,” could see that Zeus and his siblings were
destined to win this war against Cronos, so he abandoned his own brothers and sisters and joined the
offensive team. He secretly advised Zeus to release Gaea’s first-born children, the Hundred-Handed
Ones, informing him that they wielded thunder, lightning, and earthquakes as weapons. Once released,
monsters fought all the harder against Cronos because he had betrayed his earlier promise to free them.
With the help of Prometheus and the monsters, the gods finally defeated the Titans. Cronos and his
relations were then imprisoned at Tartarus, the deep bowels of the earth. Zeus, impressed by the
effectiveness of the monsters’ weapons, appropriated the thunder and lightning for his own use. From
that time on, whenever Zeus grew angry, he hurled thunderbolts at the target of his rage. With the
entire world open to them after the war, the gods chose the cloud-draped summit of Mt. Olympus to be
their home.
The Creation of Humankind
Zeus made himself God of the Sky and all its phenomena, including the clouds as well as the
thunderbolts. Hestia became goddess of the Hearth. To his brother Poseidon, he gave the rule of the
Sea. Demeter became a goddess of fertility, of the grain and agriculture, Hera (before she married Zeus
and became a jealous wife), was goddess of Marriage and Childbirth, while Hades, one of his other
brothers, was made god of the Underworld.
Zeus did indeed bring order, but one of his failings was that he did not look kindly upon the people,
those creatures that populated the lands over which he reigned. Many were not beautiful, and Zeus had
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contempt for anyone who was not beautiful. And of course they were not immortal, as the Olympian
gods were, and they complained about the lack of good food and the everlasting cold nights. Zeus
ignored their complaints, while he and the other gods feasted endlessly on steaming hot game from the
surrounding forests, and had great crackling fires in every room of their palaces where they lived in the
cold winter.
Enter Prometheus, one of the Titans not vanquished in the war between Zeus and the giants. It is said in
many myths that Prometheus had created a race of people from clay, or that he had combined specks of
every living creature, molded them together, and
produced a new race, Man. At the very least he
was their champion before Zeus.
Fire for cooking and heating was reserved only for
the gods to enjoy. Prometheus stole some of the
sparks of a glowing fire from the Olympians, so that
the people below Olympus could have fire for
cooking and warmth in the winter, thus greatly
improving their lot in life.
Zeus was furious at this insult to his absolute
power, and had Prometheus bound and chained to
a mountain, sending an eagle to attack him daily.
Every day, the bird ate Prometheus’s liver, but
because he was immortal, every night it grew back,
only to be eaten again.
Adding insult to injury, Zeus had his fellow
Olympian, Hephaestus, fashion a wicked but
beautiful creature to torment Prometheus. It was a
woman, whom they named Pandora, which means
"all gifts". She was given a precious and beautiful
box, which she was told not to open, but curiosity
got the better of her, and out flew "all the evils
that plague men." The only "gift" that stayed in the
box was "Hope".
Here is Hesiod’s telling of this story, from The Works and Days:
For the gods have hidden and keep hidden
what could be men's livelihood.
It could have been that easily
in one day you could work out
enough to keep you for a year,
with no more working.
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Soon you could have hung up your steering oar
in the smoke of the fireplace,
and the work the oxen and patient mules
do would be abolished,
but Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it away
because the devious-minded Prometheus had cheated him;
and therefore Zeus thought up dismal sorrows
for mankind.
He hid fire; but Prometheus, the powerful son
of Iapetos,
stole it again from Zeus of the counsels,
to give to mortals.
He hid it out of the sight of Zeus
who delights in thunder. In anger
the cloud-gatherer spoke to him:
"Son of Iapetos, deviser of crafts beyond all others,
you are happy that you stole the fire,
and outwitted my thinking;
but it will be a great sorrow to you,
and to men who come after.
As the price of fire I will give them an evil,
and all men shall fondle
this, their evil, close to their hearts,
and take delight in it."
So spoke the father of gods and mortals;
and laughed out loud.
He told glorious Hephaistos to make haste, and plaster
earth with water, and to infuse it with a human voice
and vigor, and make the face
like the immortal goddesses,
the bewitching features of a young girl;
meanwhile Athena
was to teach her her skills, and how
to do the intricate weaving,
while Aphrodite was to mist her head
in golden endearment
and the cruelty of desire and longings
that wear out the body,
but to Hermes, the guide, the slayer of Argos,
he gave instructions
to put in her the mind of a hussy,
and a treacherous nature.
So Zeus spoke. And all obeyed Lord Zeus,
the son of Cronos.
The renowned strong smith modeled her figure of earth,
in the likeness
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of a decorous young girl, as the son of Cronos
had wished it.
The goddess gray-eyed Athena dressed and arrayed her;
the Graces,
who are goddesses, and hallowed Persuasion
put necklaces
of gold upon her body, while the Seasons,
with glorious tresses,
put upon her head a coronal of spring flowers,
[and Pallas Athena put all decor upon her body].
But into her heart Hermes, the guide,
the slayer of Argos,
put lies, and wheedling words
of falsehood, and a treacherous nature,
made her as Zeus of the deep thunder wished,
and he, the gods' herald,
put a voice inside her, and gave her
the name of woman,
Pandora, because all the gods
who have their homes on Olympos
had given her each a gift, to be a sorrow to men
who eat bread. Now when he had done
with this sheer, impossible
deception, the Father sent the gods' fleet messenger,
Hermes,
to Epimetheus, bringing her, a gift,
nor did Epimetheus
remember to think how Prometheus had told him never
to accept a gift from Olympian Zeus,
but always to send it
back, for fear it might prove
to be an evil for mankind.
He took the evil, and only perceived it
when he possessed her.
Since before this time the races of men
had been living on earth
free from all evils, free from laborious work,
and free from
all wearing sicknesses that bring
their fates down on men
[for men grow old suddenly
in the midst of misfortune];
but the woman, with her hands lifting away the lid
from the great jar,
scattered its contents, and her design
was sad troubles for mankind.
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Hope was the only spirit that stayed there
in the unbreakable
closure of the jar, under its rim,
and could not fly forth
abroad, for the lid of the great jar
closed down first and contained her;
this was by the will of cloud-gathering Zeus
of the aegis;
100 but there are other troubles by thousands
that hover about men,
for the earth is full of evil things,
and the sea is full of them;
there are sicknesses that come to men by day,
while in the night
moving of themselves they haunt us,
bringing sorrow to mortals,
and silently, for Zeus of the counsels
took the voice out of them.
105 So there is no way to avoid what Zeus has intended.
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