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22 www.dailytelegraph.com.au/classmate Hera, Juno A Picture: Warner Bros Dionysus, Bacchus A coin depicting Dionysus Hades, Pluto n The Greeks and the Romans told legends of being descended from the gods so their tales of gods were actually considered to be ancestral tales rather than stories of other-worldly beings. Unlike the Christian concept of a god as a perfect being, the Greco-Roman gods could be petty, vain, jealous, vengeful, nasty and even spiteful, because they were like members of the family with the same kind of prejudices, squabbles and needs that families all seem to have. Gods were not ideals to be copied, they were reflections of the real world. Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, abetted him in the overthrow of Cronos and was given the seas as his domain. Poseidon carried a trident as his weapon, possibly originally a fish spear. Although he is identified with the Roman god Neptune, god of the seas and water, Poseidon was also a god of earthquakes and was closely associated with horses. He had many children, including Orion the hunter, Theseus the slayer of the Minotaur and Medusa, and Polyphemus the one-eyed giant injured by Odysseus. In modern times he is also the father of Percy Jackson, the demigod hero of the books by Rick Riordan and the film Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Did you know? Ares, Mars Cronos, Saturn n Gaea gave birth to triplet sisters known as the Moirae or the Fates. One of them, Clotho, spun the threads of life, Lachesis would measure the threads and Atropos would cut them when their life had run its course. The Greek god of war, hate, brutality, spite and other general nastiness, Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and, according to some myths, sired children by Aphrodite. Although he played a major part in Homer’s epic poem The Illiad, Ares was not a very popular god in Greece, since he was seen as the cause of strife and destruction. By contrast, the Roman counterpart Mars, also god of war, was one of their most popular gods. Mars was originally a fertility god who was worshipped at the beginning of spring, but since that coincided with the start of the military campaign season, Mars came to be identified most closely with war. A mosaic floor in Cyprus, depicting Neptune Did you know? Ares, a Roman copy of a Greek statue at the Villa Adriana near Rome n Mars was believed to be the father of the legendary founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, by their mother Rhea, a vestal virgin. Phoebus, Apollo The god of light, music, poetry, art, archery, intellectual endeavours, medicine and prophecy, Phoebus, or Apollo, was the son of Zeus. His mother was Leto, a mysterious hidden goddess, and twin brother of Artemis, goddess of hunting, wild animals, forests, childbirth, virginity and childbirth (also later associated with the moon, similar to the Roman equivalent Diana). He was also the god of divine distance, communicating with people via prophecy and presiding over religious laws and constitutions. Other gods feared him and could not endure his presence. He became associated with Helios, god of the sun, and was often depicted riding a chariot across the sky as the sun, while his sister Artemis/Diana was the moon. Apollo is one of the few gods known by the same name by Greeks and Romans. Did you know? n Originally Artemis was not goddess of the moon, this duty belonged to Selene, but since Artemis was the twin sister of Apollo god of light she eventually became associated with the moon. A marble statue of Apollo Bacchus was the Roman god of wine and drink When the world was divided up between the brothers who overthrew the father god Cronos (Saturn), the god Zeus was given the sky, Poseidon the ocean and Hades the underworld. Far from being evil as he is sometimes depicted in films, Hades performed the necessary job of housing souls in his realm that would otherwise wander the Earth. His Roman counterpart was Pluto after whom the dwarf planet is named. Neither god was worshipped as such because, as the embodiment of death, it was thought they were pitiless and deaf to any appeals. Thomas Bullfinch, author of Bullfinch’s Mythology (1855) Poseidon, Neptune The son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Semele, Dionysus was torn from his mother’s womb when Hera forced Zeus to appear to the pregnant Semele in his real form. But his real form was too powerful for Semele and Zeus had to save his unborn son by sewing him into his thigh to protect him until he was ready to be born. Dionysus performed miracles in his time on Earth but was later invited to become a god after he rescued Hera from a throne created by Hephaestus (see Hephaestus). He became the god of wine and in ancient Rome, where he was known as Bacchus, was a popular cult figure for rituals known as bacchanalia, involving a lot of wine drinking. Did you know? www.dailytelegraph.com.au/classmate Zeus is the father of the gods and god of the sky and storm. In the original creation myth, Zeus was born of the Titans, primordial gods, Rhea (Roman Ops) a goddess of fertility, and her husband Cronos (see Cronos). Zeus led a rebellion of his siblings against Cronos, killing him and vanquishing his brother and sister Titans to the depths of Hades. Zeus then became the chief god. Many of the other gods are the siblings or children of Zeus. His brother Hephaestus fashioned him armour, a shield and a lightning bolt to take on his enemies. He was also renowned for assuming human or animal form and visiting human women to sire children by them, known as demigods. In Roman mythology he was known as Jupiter or Jove (Giove). The religions of ancient Greece and Rome are extinct. The so-called divinities of Olympus have not a single worshipper among living men. They belong now not to the department of theology, but to those of literature and taste Greco-Roman gods The ancient Greeks and Romans believed in a range of gods who had responsibility over many aspects of nature and humanity. Many Greek gods were adopted by the Romans or were vaguely identified with Roman gods, but not all the Greek pantheon (group of gods) were directly translated into Roman gods, some had slightly different features. For free teacher resources visit Zeus, Jupiter, Jove Zeus as portrayed by Liam Neeson in Clash Of The Titans Hera, a Roman copy from a Greek original at The Louvre Museum, Paris The Greek and Roman pantheons Saturn as depicted by Caravaggio in the 16th century A silver statuette of Juno from the 1st–2nd century Hera was Zeus’s sister who became his wife. Hera and Juno are often identified with each other simply because they were the wives of the father gods Zeus and Jupiter, but while Hera was goddess of women and marriage, Juno was mainly goddess of the Roman state and state finances. In her case marriage was a secondary concern. lthough they have no real religious adherents left, or at least none that really believe in them, the Greek and Roman gods have left an indelible mark on our culture. Names such as Zeus or Jupiter, Athena, Hades and Poseidon or Neptune are familiar even to people who haven’t studied classical Greece or ancient Rome. The names can be found in literary references and in the names of planets and stars. In recent times films such as Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, based on a popular book series, have introduced a new generation to the stories of the Olympian gods. Cronos (also spelt Cronus or Kronos) was the primordial father of the gods, god of time, born of the mother earth goddess Gaea (Ops in Roman stories) and the father sky god Ouranos (Uranus). Cronos and his brothers and sisters annoyed their father by making tumult and chaos across the world, so Ouranos imprisoned them in their mother’s belly. Gaea took revenge by creating iron and encouraging Cronos to attack Ouranos. Cronos severed his father’s genitals and threw them into the ocean. This created foam on the waves from which came the goddess Aphrodite (see Aphrodite). Drops of blood also fell on Gaia from which sprang many creatures including nymphs, giants and Erinyes, the snake-haired guardians of nature. It was foretold that one of Cronos’s children would overthrow him, so he swallowed each of them as they were born. But Zeus was hidden at birth and later gave Cronos a drink that made him vomit up his brothers and sisters. The Roman god Saturn was much the same as Cronos but was celebrated as a harvest god in a popular festival called Saturnalia. Cronos is also sometimes known as Father Time. Series 10 A coin showing Poseidon from the kingdom of Macedonia in Athens, circa 185BC-168BC Hades, god of the underworld, played by Steve Coogan in Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Picture: 20th Century Fox Poseidon, god of the seas, played by Kevin McKidd in Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief Picture: 20th Century Fox Did you know? n One myth tells that Hades was so lonely he abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, to be his wife. Persephone was eventually released from the underworld by Zeus but because she had eaten a pomegranate during her stay she was bound forever to spend four months of the year there. During their time apart Demeter would mourn for her daughter, neglecting agriculture so badly that nothing would grow. The ancient Greeks believed this accounted for the season of winter. Aphrodite, Venus In the Greek mythology the goddess of love was Aphrodite, daughter of Ouranos, born when Cronos attacked Ouranos (see Cronos). According to another story she was the daughter of Zeus and the little-known goddess Dione. She was the most beautiful of the gods but was anything but sweet and lovely. She could be vain and vengeful and sometimes she was also worshipped as the goddess of war. She was married to Hephaestus so the other gods would not quarrel over her, but she preferred to dally with her lover Ares, god of war, and it was he who fathered her son Eros, who was also a god of love. The Roman equivalent Venus took Mercury, messenger of the gods, as a lover, giving birth to the winged Cupid who fired magic arrows to make people fall in love. A sculpture of Vulcan in marble by French artist Guillaume Coustou II, 1742 Statue of Aphrodite, near Pompeii Sources and further study n Greek Myths And Legends, by Diana Ferguson (Collins) Hephaestus, Vulcan The brother of Zeus, Hephaestus was the god of fire. Born lame, he was cast out of Olympus by his mother, Hera, and took his revenge by fashioning a throne that entrapped her. To release her the demi-god Dionysus, son of mortal woman Semele and the god Zeus, got Hephaestus drunk and took him back to Olympus, winning Dionysus a place as the god of wine. Hephaestus fashioned the lightning bolt that Zeus used to menace his enemies and the armour worn by Achilles in The Illiad. Both he and the Roman equivalent Vulcan were worshipped by blacksmiths. nM yths of Greece And Rome, by Thomas Bullfinch (Penguin) nM yths Of The World, edited by Tony Allan (Duncan Baird) n Encyclopedia Mythica pantheon.org n Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief, available on Fox DVD n Encyclopaedia Britannica britannica.com Cl@ssmate EVERY TUESDAY Email: [email protected] Phone: 9288 2542 Editor: Troy Lennon Graphics: Paul Leigh and Will Pearce