Greek+&+Roman+Mythology+2

= =

= Greek and Roman Mythology (2) =

**Bacchus **
  -Roman God of wine and festivity.  -In Greek mythology he is known as Dionysus.  -He is also the patron God of agriculture and theater.  -He is the son of Semele (a mortal) and Zeus (king of the Gods).  -Once, when he was by the sea shore, he was spotted by some sailors. Mistaking him for a prince, they captured him, planning to hold him for ransom. Instead, he drove them mad. Vines grew from the ship, and the men all jumped overboard, turning into dolphins as they did.

 (source: Powell, Barry B. "Bacchus-Roman God of Wine." //Crystal Links//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. .) (picture source left: Poussin, Nicolas. //Midas and Bacchus//. canvas print. Müchen, Alte Pinakothek.) (picture source right:Caravaggio. //Bacchus//. 1595. oil on canvas.)

**Midas **
-Midas was the king of Pessinus, a city in Phrygia. -He is most remembered in Greek Mythology for his ability to turn everything he touched into gold. This was called the Midas Touch. -He is also known for his garden of roses. THe roses in this garden grew by themselves. Each rose grew sixty blossoms and each was very fragrant. In this garden, Silenos, a friend and tutor to the wine god Dionysus, was taken captive. -Midas was knownn to be the son of King Gordias and the Goddess Cybele. According to Arrian, a Roman historian, he was the son of Gordios, a poor peasant. -In the Illiad, Midas had one son, Lityerses, who was the demonic reaper of men. In other stories, Midas had a daughter, Zoë.

(source: Skidmore, Joel. "Midas." //Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology//. Fleet Gaselle, 30 Julty 2010. Web. 25. Oct. 2010. //www.mythweb.com/index.html>.)// (right picture source: Nicolas Poussin. // Midas Bathing in Pactolus. // 1627. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">. //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture: Nicolas Poussin. //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Midas and Bacchus //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">. c. 1630. Oil on canvas. Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.)

**<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Pandora **


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Pandora was the first woman. She was formed from clay by the gods. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Each god helped create her by giving her unique gifts. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Her other name is Anesidora "she who sends up gifts" <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Pandora was Zeus's gift to Prometheus. She was created as a punishment, because Prometheus gave mankind fire. Zeus gave her a box and ordered her not to open it, knowing full well that she would do so, and therefore release all evils- including death and suffering- onto mankind. Pandora did indeed open the jar (pithos) releasing all the evils of mankind, hope being the only thing remaining in the box once it was closed. Luckily, she did open the box again, allowing hope to escape and exist for mankind, along with all of their suffering.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: Atsma, Aaron J. "Pandora." //Theoi Greek Mythology//. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Pandora.html>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(left picture source: Bates, Harry. //Pandora//. 1880s. sculpture. Metropolitan Toronto.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: "//Greek Art of the Myth of Pandora's Box."// Online image. PowerMediaPlus.com. 4 November 2006. <http://www.powermediaplus.com>.)

**<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Antigone **


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-The daughter of Oedipus. She followed him into exile and left him only after his death. She stole the body of her brother, Polynices, and secretly buried him after the prohibition of Creon forbade it. He had attacked the city of Creon and because his side lost, the prohibition of Creon was put in place. For the act of illegally burying him, she was put to death. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Her name means unbending.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: "Antigone." //Myths Encyclopedia.// Web 25 Oct. 2010. <http://www.mythencyclopedia.com/Am-Ar/Antigone.html>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture source: Tan, Alexa. "Four Rs: 'Notes for the Tragedy of Modern Times" by Enrik Ibsen." //Alexa Tan's Blog//. Blogspot. Web. 25 Oct. 2010. <http://tanalexa09.blogspot.com/2010/09/four-rs-notes-for-tragedy-of-modern.html>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: "Antigone. //Hellenica//. Web. 25 0ct. 2010. <http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Antigone.html>.)

**<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Oedipus **


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-The father of Antigone. He unknowingly killed his father and married his mother. He felt so guilty for committing acts of murder and incest that he gorged his eyes out because he thought they were useless. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -The prophecy about Oedipus was that he would kill his father and marry his mother. His parents knew of the prophecy and, when he was born, had his ankles pinned together. A servant was sent to leave him in the mountains. Feeling sympathetic, the servant left the baby with a shepherd who passed him off to another shepherd. One day, the grown Oedipus got drunk and was told that the 2nd shepherd was not his real father. After his shepherd parents claimed that this was not true, Oedipus went to an oracle to find out the truth. The oracle did not tell him who his real parents were, but instead told him of the prophecy. Oedipus decided not to return to his shepherd parents, but go to Thebes. While traveling to Thebes, Oedipus met his father unknowingly. They began to fight over who had the right to pass first. Oedipus killed his father during this fight. On his arrival to Thebes, a Sphinx told him a riddle. When he got the riddle right (he was the first person to do this), the Sphinx killed himself. In Thebes, Oedipus was crowned the king because he got the riddle right. Because of this appointment, he was given the queen, who was his mother. Their marriage fulfilled the prophecy.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(source: Parada, Carlos."Oedipus." //Greek Mythology//. 1997. Web 26 Oct. 2010. <http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Oedipus.html>. ) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture source: Norman, Marsha. "Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus." //Handouts & Research Links//. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. < http://soursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4533/research/default.html>. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: Moreau, Gustave. //Oedipus and the Sphinx//. 1864. oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Leda and the Swan


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Leda was the wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. She was also the mother of Helen, the cause of the Trojan War. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -According to some stories, Zeus visited Leda in the form of a swan. From this union came Helen, who was hatched from an egg. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Other stories state that Zeus instead chased the goddess Nemesis and tricked her while in the guise of a swan. A Shepherd then found the egg of Nemesis and gave it to Leda to care for.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: "Leda in the Greek Mythology." Loggia.com Based on Mythography: Exploring the Greek, Roman and Celtic Myth and Art, Loggia.com, 1997-200. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.loggia.com/myth/leda.html>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture source: Rapiti, Giovanni. //Leda and the Swan//. oil on canvas.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: Sesto, Cesare. //Leda and the Swan//. 1515-1521. oil on canvas. Wilton House, England.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Trojan War
<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -The Trojan war took place after Paris of Troy kidnapped Helen from her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta at the time. The war originally started between three goddesses after Eris, the goddess of strife gave them a golden apple. This apple, the "Apple of Discord," was meant for the fairest of the three goddesses. to decide who was the fairest, Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who decided that Aphrodite was the fairest of them. In exchange for marking her the fairest, Aphrodite made Helen, Menelaus' wife, the most beautiful woman in the world and had her fall in love with Paris. Paris then took her to Troy with him when Menelaus went to a funeral. As revenge, Menelaus' brother, Agamemnon, led an expedition of Greek soldiers to Troy to get Helen back. The soldiers besieged Troy for 10 years. After the 10 years, the city fell to the Trojan Horse. The Trojan Horse was a large, hollow, and wooden horse that held 30 of the best Greek soldiers. The other Greek soldiers pretended to sail away, while the Trojans brought the giant horse into the city. The Greeks then left the horse and opened the gates for the rest of the Greek army. The Greek army entered Troy and destroyed the city. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Homer's The Illiad is set in the Trojan War and covers a few weeks during the last year of the battle. Homer alludes to many Greek legends in this poem. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Achilles was a Greek war hero during the Trojan War. He is also considered the most attractive of the war heroes. He was considered completely invulnerable except for his heel. Due to this, he died when an arrow was shot into his heel. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Hector was a Trojan war hero during the Trojan War. He was a prince and the leader of the Trojans during the war. He is also mentioned in The Illiad. He was the son of Priam and Hecuba. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Hector is mentioned in Dante's Inferno and Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: wikipedia; "The Trojan War." //Mortal Women of the Trojan War.// Web. 26 Oct. 2010.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture source:Tiepolo, Giovanni. //The Procession of the Trojan Hose into Troy//. 1760. National Gallery, London.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: "THe Sotry of the Trojan Hose." //Trojan Horse Antiques & Collectibles.// Trojan Horse Antiques & Collectibles. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.trojanhorseantiques.com/trojan_horse_mythology.htm>.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Agamemnon


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Agamemnon was one of the main leaders in the Trojan war. During this war, it was he who angered Achilles to the point of almost forsaking the battle altogether. Before the war, he upset the goddess Artemis (goddess of the hunt), either by killing one of her deer or boasting that he was a better hunter than her. Regardless, she, in her anger, prevented Agamemnon to set sail to the Trojan war with unfavorable winds, until he sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. Agamemnon does so, and sails off to war and eventual victory. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> However, his wife, Clytemnestra, burns with hatred for the man who killed her daughter. While he is off at war, she plots to kill him on his return with the help of her lover, Aegisthus. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Ten years later, Agamemnon returns with the seer Cassandra. Cassandra has foreseen both of their deaths, stating that if she enters the palace, she will die. But she also forsees that revenge will be exacted on her murderers, so she accepts her fate and enters. Both Agamemnon and Cassandra are killed by Clytemnestra upon entering. Clytemnestra makes no show of trying to hide what she has done, indeed she boldly announces that she has killed her husband because he murdered her daughter. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -The story of Clytemnestra's plot is told in the play entitled Agamemnon, as part of a trilogy of plays known as The Orestia Trilogy.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: Cummings, Michael J. "Agamemnon." //Agamemnon: A Study Guide.// 2005. Web. 26 Oct. 2010.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(left picture: http://www.gorgoda.com/yukleme/agamemnon1.jpg) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: Désiré Court, Joseph. //Achille donnant à Nestor le Prix de la Sagesse.// 1796-1865 Musée des beaux arts, Rouen.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Orestes


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Orestes was the son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. After his father Agamemnon returned from the Trojan War, he was murdered by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. Orestes went into exile while he was still very young, smuggled away by either his nurse or sister, in order to protect him from Clytemnestra, who wished to kill him. When he was around twenty, Apollo the sun god ordered him to return and avenge his father's death. Accordingly, Orestes swore he would avenge his father's death. Once he reached adulthood, he returned home secretly and plotted to kill his mother and her lover with his sister, Electra. He was reunited with his sister when they met, by chance, at the grave of their father.They decided then that they would work together to kill Clytemnestra. They succeeded in this endeavor. As a consequence of performing this deed, he was tormented by the Furies (avengers of wrong), because he had murdered family. Apollo, who had ordered the deed done, was yet powerless to shift the consequences. It was Athena who arranged a trial of twelve judges. To rid himself of the torment, he sought judgment for his crime at the Aeropagus in Athens. The vote of the judges was divided equally as to what to do with Orestes, so Athena cast the last vote which freed him. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Orestes eventually took control of his father's lands of Mycenae, killing Alete, Aegisthus's son, in the process. He himself is said to have died of snakebite.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (source: "Orestes." __Encyclopedia Mythica__. 2010. Encyclopedia Mythica Online. 26 Oct. 2010 <http://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/orestes.html>. ; "Orestes." //Dictionary of Greek Mythology//. Hellenica. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://mlahanas/de/Greeks/Mythology/Orestes.html>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(left picture: Bouguereau, William-Addolphe. //The Remorse of Orestes.// 1862. oil on canvas. Chrysler Collection, Norfolk, Virginia.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture: "Save Us (Dreams of Orestes). "//THe Annotated TLG Songs//. 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.dgold.info/green/orestes/>.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Electra


-She was the Greek daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She saved the young life of her brother Orestes by sending him away when their father was murdered. She secretly sent him letters, encouraging him to avenge their father’s death. When he returned later, they worked together to slay their mother and their mother’s lover, Aegisthus. She married Orestes’ friend, Plyades.

(sources: "Electra." in2greece. V. E. K. Sandels and George Synodinos, 2010. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://www.in2greece.com/english/historymyth/mythology/names/electra.htm>.) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(left picture:http://www.btinternet.com/~ady1971/electratombagamemnon.jpg) <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture: Church, Alfred. //Electra and Orestes.// 1897.)

**<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Odysseus **


<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-Also known as Ulysses, Odysseus was the Greek king of Ithaca and a character in Homer's The Odyssey and The Iliad. He was known by all as the man to go to when in need of advice. One of the suitors of Helen, he had the foresight to make all of the men swear allegiance to whoever it was who actually won Helen's hand. He was a stolid and cunning fighter during the whole of the Trojan war, and was famous for being cunning and resourceful. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">He is most famous for his return home from the Trojan War that took 10 years. Over this time, he avoided a cyclops by riding its sheep out of the cave in which he was imprisoned, and managed to save most of his men with this tactic. A brief jaunt in the underworld earned him advice from the great fighter Ajax (killed in the Trojan war) and many others, who told him how to continue on his journey, including the avoidance of sirens and how to deal with Charybdis and Scylla, terrors of the waters. However, this advice did not help his men, who slaughtered one of Apollo's sacred cows to eat. In vengeance, Zeus struck their boat with lightning, and only Odysseus was saved. He ended up on an island with the enchantress Cicero, who tried to convince him to stay with her forever on the island she was imprisoned on. Odysseus was tempted, but in the end, chose to leave that paradise in favor of his wife and home. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">-When Odysseus returned, it was to hundreds of suitors trying to win over his wife. They were eating all of his food and drinking all of his wine. Penelope, his wife, had tried to hold them of by saying that she would choose a man after she finished weaving a cloth, but secretly undid all of her work each night. The men had found out about this, however, and insisted that she choose one of them to remarry. She was getting desperate when Odysseus returned. He reveals himself to her and her son, although she doubts him at first. In order to test him, she orders that her bed be moved that the stranger may sleep on it alone. Odysseus, who carved the bed himself from a living tree, tells her that it cannot be moved, which is when she finally believes that this is truly her husband. Disguised as an old beggar, he went on to slay the suitors. Then followed a battle with the relatives of those slain, which was quickly settled by Athena without much blood. Thus did Odysseus return to his wife. <span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> -Odysseus's son, Telemachus, was the main character in The Odyssey. In the first four books, Telemachus looked for news about his father, traveling the land hoping to find some information.

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (sources: wikipedia; "Odysseus." __Encyclopedia Mythica__. 2010. Encyclopedia Mythica Online. 26 Oct. 2010 <httpp://www.pantheon.org/articles/o/odysseus.html>.)// //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (left picture source: TIberius. //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Odysseus Killing Polyphemus. //2nd century bc//. marble. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Sperlonga.) //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">(right picture source: "My Odyssey." //<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Silver Threads. //Wordpress.com, 19 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 Oct. 2010. <http://silverseason.wordpress.com/2009/10/>.)

<span style="color: #0042ff; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Lucretia**

- Lucretia was a figure in Roman History (uncertain, as the story has become almost mythical) who, it is said, killed herself after her rape at the hands of the then-king's son, Sextus Tarquinius. Her suicide set off a chain of events that overthrew the monarchy present in Rome and established the Roman Republic.

This story is referenced in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In Act 2, scene 1, lines 56-57, Macbeth says, "With Tarquin's ravishing side [arrogance], towards his design/ Moves like a ghost", referring to Tarquinius' arrogance in commiting the rape.