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Greek Mythology
The origin of the world
"In the beginning, there was Chaos. Darkness covered the
earth. Hesiod's creation story does not involve something being created from
nothing. There was stuff (Chaos), but it was shapeless, mixed-up, and dark.
After Chaos, five divinities came into being, and began giving shape to things,
separating the muddle into specific places and times, and to set the stage for
more creation. The divinities were: Gaia (the mother earth), Tartarus (the
lowest region of the world), Erebus (the darkness that covered Tartarus),
Night (the darkness that covered the earth), and Eros (Love). Night and
Erebus got together and had some children: Hemera(Day), Phos(Light), and
Doom, Death, Deceit, Misery, and Discord. Discord later gave birth to the
following forces: Murder, Slaughter, Battle, and Crime." (Blackwell, and
Blackwell, 2009)
The Ancient Greeks believed that besides divine beings
controlling or maintaining forces or objects in life, the forces in life themselves
are actually some divine beings themselves. To more clearly explain, a good
example would be: Hades is the king of the underworld, yet Tartarus is a force,
region and divine being that represents the underworld itself, and
Thanatos(Death) represents the force of Death itself although Hades rules
over the underworld.
The Ancient Greeks believed that female Greek divinities had
the ability for virgin birth, and "Gaia gave birth to Uranus, the God of the sky,
before having him as her consort. From them were born the second
generation of gods called the Titans, which were shoved back into Gaia's
womb as each one was born by Uranus due to him receiving a prophecy that
one of his children would dethrone him. However, they still managed to
survive. Gaia, who was enraged by this, consulted Cronos, her brightest and
strongest son, for help. She gave Cronos a huge sickle made out of flint,
which Cronos used to castrate Uranus from Gaia's womb and toss his genitals
into the sea when Uranus came to Gaia for their frequent sexual
intercourse."(Blackwell, and Blackwell, 2009)
"After Cronos earned the throne, he and his wife, Rhea, had six
children, which were the 3rd generation of gods, called the Olympians, due to
their residence at Mount Olympus. From then on, the first generation of
Olympians' descendants were called Olympians as they resided on Mount
Olympus. Cronos, like his father, received a prophecy that one of his children
would dethrone him. Thus, he swallowed his children one by one as they were
born. Rhea asked for help from her parents Gaia and Uranus, and they came
up with a plan. Rhea and Gaia then smuggled Zeus, the sixth child, to a
mountain cave on the island of Crete, where the magical goat Amalthea
nursed him to adulthood, and many less powerful gods clashed their swords
and shields when Zeus cried so Cronos will not hear Zeus cry. Rhea gave
Cronos a baby-sized rock, which Cronos foolishly swallowed. After Zeus grew
into adulthood, he went back to Cronos's residence and slit his stomach,
freeing his fully-grown siblings, and castrated Cronos. Then, Zeus announced
war on the titans and ignited the Titanomachy. He defeated the Titans and
then sentenced and bound the Titans into Tartarus for eternal torment. Finally,
he established Olympian rule upon the world from Mount
Olympus."(Blackwell,and Blackwell)
The twelve main Olympians
The twelve significant Olympians in Greek mythology are "Zeus,
Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite,
Hephaestus and Hermes."(Wikipedia, 2011)
Zeus was the king of all the Olympians, the sixth, youngest and
strongest son of Cronos and Rhea, and sibling of Hera, Poseidon, Demeter,
Hades and Hestia. "Being the supreme ruler he upheld law, justice and
morals"(Leadbetter,1997), and thus this shows that the reason of the
contradiction of Zeus's upholding of morals and his infidelity is that the Ancient
Greeks believed in a carefree type of sexual freedom, and affairs were not
viewed as immoral.
Hera is Zeus's sister and wife, and Cronos and Rhea's daughter.
She is the goddess of women and marriage, and is ruthless and harsh against
people that had offended her, especially Zeus's extra-marital lovers.
Demeter is Zeus's sister and the daughter of Cronos and Rhea.
She is the goddess of agriculture, the harvest and the fertility of the earth.
Athena is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, and she emerged
fully armed out of Zeus forehead after Zeus's head was cleaved in half. She is
the goddess of wisdom, civilization, strength, warfare, strategy, female arts,
and skill.
Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele, and he is the god of
grape harvesting, wine making, wine, ritual madness and ecstasy.
Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of
Artemis. He is the god of the light and sun, healing and music, poetry and
knowledge.
Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of
Apollo. She is the goddess of the hunt, wild animals, the wilderness, virginity,
childbirth and young girls.
Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera, and he is the god of war.
Aphrodite arose from the sea foam when Cronos sliced off
Uranus's genitals, and she is the goddess of love, beauty and sexuality.
Hephaestus is the son of Hera alone, and he is the god of
metallurgy, blacksmiths and craftsmen.
Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maia, and is the great
messenger of the gods and a guide to the underworld.
References
Leadbetter, R. (1997, March 3). Zeus. Retrieved from
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/z/zeus.html
Blackwell, C.W., & Blackwell, A.H. (2009) .
Understanding the origin of the greek gods. Retrieved from
http://www.dummies.com/how -to/content/understanding-theorigin-of-the-greek-gods.html
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, July 3). Twelve olympians.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Olympians
Corroborating Citations.
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, June 26). Hermes.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, June 14). Hephaestus.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hephaestu s
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, May 25). Aphrodite.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arphrodite
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, June 25). Ares. Retrieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, June 12). Artemis.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, July 4). Apollo. Ret rieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, July 2). Dionysus.
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dionysus
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, July 5). Athena. Retrieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, July 1). Demeter. Retrieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demeter
Wikipedia, Initials. (2011, June 26). Hera. Retrieved
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hera