Greek Mythology for Beginners
Created | Updated Sep 3, 2002
One of the most influential and powerful nations the world has ever witnessed, Greece boasted an exstensive, diverse, and polytheistic religion. Greek legends are (and were) so engaging and well-known that the actual word "mythology" is derived from their language, the world "mythologia" having been coined by the philosopher Plato to distinguish between imaginative accounts of divine activites and factual description of events.
The earliest Greeks invented the gods and stories about them to explain natural phenomena, which, of course, they had no way of understanding. As the Greek civilisation expanded the beliefs of other people were mixed in with those that already existed, causing a new, unique, and somewhat multicultural religion.
The range of Greek gods is known as a "pantheon", and includes such famous deities as Zeus, King of the Gods and Ruler of the Skies, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, and Apollo, God of the Sun, Light and the Arts. Apart from recounting the activites of the gods, Greek mythology also detailed the adventures of heroes - usually brave men and grief-stricken women (it should be noted that the Greeks were one of the first cultures to develop antiheroes - characters who display bad qualities or vices yet fight for good) - and traced the outcomes of wars and other special events.
Although the Greek gods and heroes are usually what people think of when the hear the term "Greek mythology", they are not the only aspects of the legends. "Chaos" is a term also invented by the Greeks, and they use it in their myths to describe the disordered time when nothing existed. From Chaos came Gaia, the Earth, who gave birth to Ouranos, the sky. Their passion was so great that the children Gaia conceived could not escape from her womb; so the Titans, huge, human-like beings, decided to overthrow their father. The youngest, Cronos, seized a sickle and castrated Ouranos, allowing the Titans to escape. From Ouranos' blood sprang the Furies, goddesses of vengeance.
Thus the Titans gained control over the universe. An oracle warned Cronos that the children of himself and his sister Rhea would overthrow him as he had overthrown them; so he swallowed the first five to emerge. Rhea, however, hid the sixth from him. She hid the baby Zeus in a cave until he was old enough to confront his father: eventually, he forced him to regurgitate his brothers and sisters, and a mighty war between the Titans and the New Gods followed. The New Gods - Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, and Hestia, Hera and Demeter - freed the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants, the siblings of the Titans) from their prisons where the Titans had locked them and the gigantic creatures made weapons for them - the thunderbolt for Zeus, the trident for Poseidon, and a helmet of invisibility for Hades. The New Gods overcame the Titans and ruled over the earth.
The other gods who ruled were the children of the New Gods - Athena, Goddess of War and Wisdom, Patroness of Athens, daughter of Zeus and Metis, a Titaness; Apollo and Artemis, the twin children of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, God of the Sun and the Arts and Goddess of Hunting, Virginity and the Moon respectively; Ares, God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, Goddess of Women and Childbirth; Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, born from where a drop of Ouranos' blood fell upon the sea; and Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods, God of Thieves and Tricksters, the son of Zeus and Maia.
According to Greeks, the gods lived upon Mount Olympus, a holy place unaccessable to men. When the hero Bellerophon tried to reach the home of the gods upon the winged horse Pegasus, the gods sent a gadfly to sting the horse, which bucked and threw its rider. Bellerephon tumbled to the land and wandered blind and poor for the rest of his days.
Bellerophon was not the only one to feel the vengeance of the gods; Arachne boasted that she could beat the goddess Athena in a weaving contest, and won - in her wrath and jealousy Athena turned her into a spider (thus we get the word "arachnid"). Medusa slept with a man in Poseidon's temple and the sea god turned her and her two sisters into hideous Gorgons, with fangs, scales and snakes for hair.
When monsters such as the Gorgons and the Minotaur (who was the offspring of a bull and the King of Minos' wife) were created, it was the duty of heroes to destroy them. Greek heroes were not full gods, but many were part-divine (Herakles was the son of Zeus and a woman, as was Perseus). In either case, they were worshipped as holy, although they were rarely praised as gods were.
Other folk featuring in Greek mythology were the dryads, hamadryads, nereids and naiads, the spirits (usually depicted as females) of mountains, rivers, seas and trees. Often in pursuit of these beautiful creatures were the hybrid satyrs, mixtures of goats and men, and the primitive centaurs, with the bodies of horses and the torsos and heads of men. Almost no centaurs were civilised, save Charon, the wise teacher, and a few of his associates.
The satyrs (and some centaurs) were often found in the companionship of the female maenids, who worshipped the wine god, Dionysus. The maenids were wild and were known to rip men apart in their crazed dancing.
Greek mythology was a central part of Ancient Greek life: they dedicated temples and cities to their gods and performed rites and sacrifices. The influence of the Greeks over the rest of the world meant their religion spread across the globe: the Romans and Egyptians, for example, adopted many Greek gods, although they generally gave them different names. Despite the power of Greek mythology, however, as religions such as Judaism and, later, Catholicism, travelled across the world, it was enveloped and dragged out of existence, so that today we only know Greek mythology as a group of meaningless - yet interesting - legends and fantastical stories about heroes, gods and strange creatures.
The earliest Greeks invented the gods and stories about them to explain natural phenomena, which, of course, they had no way of understanding. As the Greek civilisation expanded the beliefs of other people were mixed in with those that already existed, causing a new, unique, and somewhat multicultural religion.
The range of Greek gods is known as a "pantheon", and includes such famous deities as Zeus, King of the Gods and Ruler of the Skies, Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, and Apollo, God of the Sun, Light and the Arts. Apart from recounting the activites of the gods, Greek mythology also detailed the adventures of heroes - usually brave men and grief-stricken women (it should be noted that the Greeks were one of the first cultures to develop antiheroes - characters who display bad qualities or vices yet fight for good) - and traced the outcomes of wars and other special events.
Although the Greek gods and heroes are usually what people think of when the hear the term "Greek mythology", they are not the only aspects of the legends. "Chaos" is a term also invented by the Greeks, and they use it in their myths to describe the disordered time when nothing existed. From Chaos came Gaia, the Earth, who gave birth to Ouranos, the sky. Their passion was so great that the children Gaia conceived could not escape from her womb; so the Titans, huge, human-like beings, decided to overthrow their father. The youngest, Cronos, seized a sickle and castrated Ouranos, allowing the Titans to escape. From Ouranos' blood sprang the Furies, goddesses of vengeance.
Thus the Titans gained control over the universe. An oracle warned Cronos that the children of himself and his sister Rhea would overthrow him as he had overthrown them; so he swallowed the first five to emerge. Rhea, however, hid the sixth from him. She hid the baby Zeus in a cave until he was old enough to confront his father: eventually, he forced him to regurgitate his brothers and sisters, and a mighty war between the Titans and the New Gods followed. The New Gods - Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, and Hestia, Hera and Demeter - freed the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants, the siblings of the Titans) from their prisons where the Titans had locked them and the gigantic creatures made weapons for them - the thunderbolt for Zeus, the trident for Poseidon, and a helmet of invisibility for Hades. The New Gods overcame the Titans and ruled over the earth.
The other gods who ruled were the children of the New Gods - Athena, Goddess of War and Wisdom, Patroness of Athens, daughter of Zeus and Metis, a Titaness; Apollo and Artemis, the twin children of Zeus and the Titaness Leto, God of the Sun and the Arts and Goddess of Hunting, Virginity and the Moon respectively; Ares, God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, Goddess of Women and Childbirth; Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, born from where a drop of Ouranos' blood fell upon the sea; and Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods, God of Thieves and Tricksters, the son of Zeus and Maia.
According to Greeks, the gods lived upon Mount Olympus, a holy place unaccessable to men. When the hero Bellerophon tried to reach the home of the gods upon the winged horse Pegasus, the gods sent a gadfly to sting the horse, which bucked and threw its rider. Bellerephon tumbled to the land and wandered blind and poor for the rest of his days.
Bellerophon was not the only one to feel the vengeance of the gods; Arachne boasted that she could beat the goddess Athena in a weaving contest, and won - in her wrath and jealousy Athena turned her into a spider (thus we get the word "arachnid"). Medusa slept with a man in Poseidon's temple and the sea god turned her and her two sisters into hideous Gorgons, with fangs, scales and snakes for hair.
When monsters such as the Gorgons and the Minotaur (who was the offspring of a bull and the King of Minos' wife) were created, it was the duty of heroes to destroy them. Greek heroes were not full gods, but many were part-divine (Herakles was the son of Zeus and a woman, as was Perseus). In either case, they were worshipped as holy, although they were rarely praised as gods were.
Other folk featuring in Greek mythology were the dryads, hamadryads, nereids and naiads, the spirits (usually depicted as females) of mountains, rivers, seas and trees. Often in pursuit of these beautiful creatures were the hybrid satyrs, mixtures of goats and men, and the primitive centaurs, with the bodies of horses and the torsos and heads of men. Almost no centaurs were civilised, save Charon, the wise teacher, and a few of his associates.
The satyrs (and some centaurs) were often found in the companionship of the female maenids, who worshipped the wine god, Dionysus. The maenids were wild and were known to rip men apart in their crazed dancing.
Greek mythology was a central part of Ancient Greek life: they dedicated temples and cities to their gods and performed rites and sacrifices. The influence of the Greeks over the rest of the world meant their religion spread across the globe: the Romans and Egyptians, for example, adopted many Greek gods, although they generally gave them different names. Despite the power of Greek mythology, however, as religions such as Judaism and, later, Catholicism, travelled across the world, it was enveloped and dragged out of existence, so that today we only know Greek mythology as a group of meaningless - yet interesting - legends and fantastical stories about heroes, gods and strange creatures.
