Greek Mythology

Greek mythology has always been a topic of fascination for me. I love reading about the gods and goddesses, the heroes and heroines, the titans and the monsters. The winged horse Pegasus was a personal favourite, together with the tales and adventures of Perseus, albeit influenced by the Hollywood version of the tales in the movie Clash of the Titans. The gods and goddesses held me in awe, from Zeus and Hera, to Apollo, Aphrodite, Athena and many more. Heroes such as Jason, with tales involving the argonauts, the golden fleece, Theseus and his fight against the minotaur, Heracles (Hercules in Roman mythology) and his twelve labours. The Trojan war, so told in the Iliad and who can forget Odysseus' fantastic odyssey simply trying to return home to his wife after the fall of Troy. I love Greek mythology.

Why this topic today? Well, it started with the revelation that I called a friend of mine goddess. It touched off this bout of ribbing from someone I call princess. Yes, yes... there seems to be a trend here... All this pseudonyms and nicknames or codes as it usually were. It really is interesting, the use of codes and nicknames... I think it deserves a posting of its own one day. I digress again. Well, this princess (*smile dearie, you know who you are*) has of late given me a lot of ribbing. Goddess was the most recent, so as usual I rambled on and tried to smooth talk my way out. In doing so, I mentioned that princess was better than being a goddess after all in Greek mythology, goddesses were usually jealous of the princesses because of their beauty or perhaps their love for a prince or hero which the goddess favoured or had simply angered the goddess. Obviously I was spinning shite at the rate of a loom a minute or some crap like that... =D

So being a typical geek, I came home and decided, there might just be some truth to the shite I'd spun earlier. So out with the books and on with the research. I'm sure I'd read somewhere that a goddess had had a heroine or princess killed or sent a monster after or something. I might have confused it with Hera's wrath. Hera was harsh and vengeful, usually towards those who did not reckon with her power or wronged the weak or defenceless and was particularly relentless in pursuing the mistresses and illegitimate children of her husband. Little wonder as she's the goddess of marriage and childbirth and the legitimate wife of Zeus, and he was Casanova and Hugh Hefner all rolled in one and more!

Here's an example. This is the tale of Echo and Narcissus. The nymph Echo, being a follower of Hera had angered her for endlessly talking about Zeus' love affairs. To punish her, Hera took away Echo's voice, so that she could only repeat what other said to her. Well, Echo fell in love with handsome Narcissus, but she could not tell him. Anyway, vain Narcissus would only stare at his own beautiful reflection. Thus, Echo pined away among the rocks, leaving only her repeating voice behind. Hmm... not exactly a case for the princess vs goddess case, but I felt it was interesting... don't you? *grin*

Here's another interesting mythological fact... err... somehow, that didn't sound right. The messenger of god, Hermes, (the Greek one, not Gabriel & certainly not my beautiful English Cocker Spaniel) was the only one of Zeus' illegitimate children not spurned by his wife Hera. Okay, I have to admit, I can't find any stories to support the princess better than goddess spin, and I can tell you want to read more about Greek mythology anyway, so on with it.

The movie Clash of the Titans was my first real exposure to the worlds of Greek mythology, but like many other stories, it didn't escape Hollywood dramatisation and re-imagining. The movie featured the gods and their gifts to Perseus to indirectly assist him in his quest. Gifts ranging from the sword of Hermes, invisibility helmet from Hades, the shield, Aegis from Athena which eventually Perseus used as a mirror to kill the gorgon Medusa. In the movie, Pegasus flew Perseus to the gorgon's home and he'd also been given an owl which was also Athena's sacred bird as his guide.

Well, as with any mythology, the stories change with each telling. This much I gathered from my books... Perseus, was the son of Zeus and Danae, who together with her child, was cast into the sea in a wooden box by her father, Acrisius. He'd done this after an oracle told him that not only would he not have a son, but his grandchild would kill him one day.

Upon being cast into the sea, mother and child were saved by the fisherman, Dictys, brother to Polydectes, the king of the island who in turn sent Perseus off on a quest to kill the gorgon Medusa. In his quest to kill the gorgon, Perseus was gifted a sword by Hermes and a shield by Athena. He also needed a winged sandal, an invisibility helmet and a magical bag. To obtain these, he was to find the nymphs from the North, through the aid of the Graies. The Graies were 3 old ladies living in a cave that shared only one eye amongst them.

Stealing the eye and using it to obtain directions to the nymphs, Perseus obtained the items needed to aid him in killing the gorgon. With the winged sandal, he flew to the home of the gorgon. With the invisibility helmet, he lay hidden from the sight of the gorgon and with the shield as a mirror, he slew the gorgon with Hermes' sword. With the magical bag, he carried the decapitated head back to Polydectes.

Now, as it were, on his way home to save his mother from being forced to wed Polydectes, he comes across Andromeda chained to a rock by the sea as a sacrifice to a sea serpent. This came to be after her mother Cassiopea angered Poseidon after claiming to be more beautiful than the Nereids. To cut a long story short, Perseus kills the serpent, marries Andromeda, returns to his island home and shows the head of Medusa to the king as proof of the completion of his quest. In doing so, Polydectes was cast into stone and Danae was saved from having to marry him.

You'd think that was the end of Perseus' story, right? Well, remember, the reason his grandfather cast him and his mother into the sea was because the oracle had foretold that he'd kill his grandfather. Perseus returned to Argos to assure his grandfather he had no such intention. Finding Acrisius in Larissa, he assures him that and takes part in the local games. As the fates would have it, the discus hurled by Perseus accidentally hits and kills Acrisius. Perseus returns home and in the course of mythology becomes the grandfather of another Greek hero, Heracles. But, that's for another day.

Did I mention I love Greek mythology? *grin* I hope everyone enjoyed that.