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Notes on Greek Mythology. The Beginnings (much thanks to Ingi and Edgar Parin D’Aularie). Night Sky: Uranus Mother Earth: Gaea (or Gaia). 1 st set of kids: the Titans Famous Names: Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Rhea, and CRONUS
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Notes on Greek Mythology The Beginnings (much thanks to Ingi and Edgar Parin D’Aularie)
Night Sky: Uranus • Mother Earth: Gaea (or Gaia)
1st set of kids: the Titans • Famous Names: Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, Rhea, and CRONUS • 2nd set of kids: the Cyclopes and the 3 fifty-headed, hundred-handed giants
The son overthrew his father, but feared that his son would do the same, so he swallows his children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon • This is Goya’s famous painting: Saturn Devouring his Son
Zeus gets away because Rhea gives Cronus a rock wrapped in baby clothes • Zeus is spirited away to CRETE, where he’s raised by nymphs and a magical goat (yes, a goat) named Amaltheia • Metis tricks Cronus into drinking a potent herb, and he throws up the kids, who are fine b/c they’re gods • Thus begins the battle with the TITANS
The Beginnings of The Trojan War • It starts w/a wedding and a beauty contest • The goddess Eris(Strife) said that she would give to the fairest at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis this gift – the apple. • “to the fairest” was written on it.
The Judgement of Paris The golden apple sparked a vanity-fueled dispute between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War. The Apple of Discord became symbol for disputes for people who purposely cause quarrels.
Some lineage stuff: - Helen and Clytemnestra are sisters, sort of. • They marry brothers: Menelaus (of Sparta) and Agamemnon (of Mycenae), both of whom fight in the Trojan War later • EVERYONE wants to marry Helen, and one of these admirers was Odysseus, but he asked for her gentle cousin’s (Penelope’s) hand in marriage instead
Their father, King Tyndareus solved the problem of the hundreds of suitors with Odysseus’ help: the King must ask all the suitors to accept the one he chose for Helen’s husband and swear to stand by and help to win her back should anyone try to steal or otherwise harm her. The suitors agreed. Each one hoped that the choice would fall on him, and they all took the oath, so when her father gave Helen to Menelaus, they were mostly okay with it.
Thus Began The Trojan War “Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships,And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? “ ~Christopher Marlowe
And so, the Odyssey begins as Odysseus tries to find his way back to Ithaca. Let’s hope he learns something on this mythic journey…