Greek mythology is the body of myths originally
told by the ancient Greeks. These stories
concern the origin and the nature of the world,
the lives and activities of deities, heroes,
and mythological creatures, and the origins
and significance of the ancient Greeks' own
cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars
study the myths in an attempt to shed light
on the religious and political institutions
of ancient Greece and its civilization, and
to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making
itself.The Greek myths were initially propagated
in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by
Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the
18th century BC; eventually the myths of the
heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath
became part of the oral tradition of Homer's
epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Two
poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod,
the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain
accounts of the genesis of the world, the
succession of divine rulers, the succession
of human ages, the origin of human woes, and
the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths
are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in
fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle,
in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians
and comedians of the fifth century BC, in
writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic
Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman
Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.
Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient
Greek literature, pictorial representations
of gods, heroes, and mythic episodes featured
prominently in ancient vase-paintings and
the decoration of votive gifts and many other
artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of
the eighth century BC depict scenes from the
Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of
Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical,
and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various
other mythological scenes appear, supplementing
the existing literary evidence.Greek mythology
has had an extensive influence on the culture,
arts, and literature of Western civilization
and remains part of Western heritage and language.
Poets and artists from ancient times to the
present have derived inspiration from Greek
mythology and have discovered contemporary
significance and relevance in the themes.
== Sources ==
Greek mythology is known today primarily from
Greek literature and representations on visual
media dating from the Geometric period from
c. 900 BC to c. 800 BC onward. In fact,
literary and archaeological sources integrate,
sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes
in conflict; however, in many cases, the existence
of this corpus of data is a strong indication
that many elements of Greek mythology have
strong factual and historical roots.
=== Literary sources ===
Mythical narration plays an important role
in nearly every genre of Greek literature.
Nevertheless, the only general mythographical
handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was
the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work
attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales
of the poets and provides a grand summary
of traditional Greek mythology and heroic
legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from
c. 180 BC to c. 125 BC and wrote on many
of these topics. His writings may have formed
the basis for the collection; however the
"Library" discusses events that occurred long
after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus.
Among the earliest literary sources are Homer's
two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but
these later and lesser poems now are lost
almost entirely. Despite their traditional
name, the "Homeric Hymns" have no direct connection
with Homer. They are choral hymns from the
earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod,
a possible contemporary with Homer, offers
in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest
account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing
with the creation of the world; the origin
of the gods, Titans, and Giants; as well as
elaborate genealogies, folktales, and etiological
myths. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic
poem about farming life, also includes the
myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Five
Ages. The poet gives advice on the best way
to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered
yet more dangerous by its gods.Lyrical poets
often took their subjects from myth, but their
treatment became gradually less narrative
and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including
Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic
poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate
individual mythological incidents. Additionally,
myth was central to classical Athenian drama.
The tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles,
and Euripides took most of their plots from
myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan
War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g.
Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason,
Medea, etc.) took on their classic form in
these tragedies. The comic playwright Aristophanes
also used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs.Historians
Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers
Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout
the Greek world and noted the stories they
heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends,
often giving little-known alternative versions.
Herodotus in particular, searched the various
traditions presented him and found the historical
or mythological roots in the confrontation
between Greece and the East. Herodotus attempted
to reconcile origins and the blending of differing
cultural concepts.
The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages
was primarily composed as a literary rather
than cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains
many important details that would otherwise
be lost. This category includes the works
of:
The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus,
Seneca and Virgil with Servius's commentary.
The Greek poets of the Late Antique period:
Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus Smyrnaeus.
The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period:
Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes,
and Parthenius.Prose writers from the same
periods who make reference to myths include
Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus, and Heliodorus.
Two other important non-poetical sources are
the Fabulae and Astronomica of the Roman writer
styled as Pseudo-Hyginus, the Imagines of
Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the
Younger, and the Descriptions of Callistratus.
Finally, a number of Byzantine Greek writers
provide important details of myth, much derived
from earlier now lost Greek works. These preservers
of myth include Arnobius, Hesychius, the author
of the Suda, John Tzetzes, and Eustathius.
They often treat mythology from a Christian
moralizing perspective.
=== Archaeological sources ===
The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization
by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich
Schliemann in the nineteenth century, and
the discovery of the Minoan civilization in
Crete by the British archaeologist Sir Arthur
Evans in the twentieth century, helped to
explain many existing questions about Homer's
epics and provided archaeological evidence
for many of the mythological details about
gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence
about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan
sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear
B script (an ancient form of Greek found in
both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly
to record inventories, although certain names
of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.Geometric
designs on pottery of the eighth century BC
depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well
as the adventures of Heracles. These visual
representations of myths are important for
two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are
attested on vases earlier than in literary
sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles,
for example, only the Cerberus adventure occurs
in a contemporary literary text. Secondly,
visual sources sometimes represent myths or
mythical scenes that are not attested in any
extant literary source. In some cases, the
first known representation of a myth in geometric
art predates its first known representation
in late archaic poetry, by several centuries.
In the Archaic (c. 750 – c. 500 BC),
Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic
(323–146 BC) periods, Homeric and various
other mythological scenes appear, supplementing
the existing literary evidence.
== Survey of mythic history ==
Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate
the evolution of their culture, of which mythology,
both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions,
is an index of the changes. In Greek mythology's
surviving literary forms, as found mostly
at the end of the progressive changes, it
is inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson
has argued.The earlier inhabitants of the
Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people
who, using Animism, assigned a spirit to every
aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague
spirits assumed human forms and entered the
local mythology as gods. When tribes from
the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded,
they brought with them a new pantheon of gods,
based on conquest, force, prowess in battle,
and violent heroism. Other older gods of the
agricultural world fused with those of the
more powerful invaders or else faded into
insignificance.After the middle of the Archaic
period, myths about relationships between
male gods and male heroes became more and
more frequent, indicating the parallel development
of pedagogic pederasty (eros paidikos, παιδικὸς
ἔρως), thought to have been introduced
around 630 BC. By the end of the fifth century
BC, poets had assigned at least one eromenos,
an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion,
to every important god except Ares and to
many legendary figures. Previously existing
myths, such as those of Achilles and Patroclus,
also then were cast in a pederastic light.
Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally
literary mythographers in the early Roman
Empire, often re-adapted stories of Greek
mythological characters in this fashion.
The achievement of epic poetry was to create
story-cycles and, as a result, to develop
a new sense of mythological chronology. Thus
Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the
development of the world and of humans. While
self-contradictions in these stories make
an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate
chronology may be discerned. The resulting
mythological "history of the world" may be
divided into three or four broader periods:
The myths of origin or age of gods (Theogonies,
"births of gods"): myths about the origins
of the world, the gods, and the human race.
The age when gods and mortals mingled freely:
stories of the early interactions between
gods, demigods, and mortals.
The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine
activity was more limited. The last and greatest
of the heroic legends is the story of the
Trojan War and after (which is regarded by
some researchers as a separate, fourth period).While
the age of gods often has been of more interest
to contemporary students of myth, the Greek
authors of the archaic and classical eras
had a clear preference for the age of heroes,
establishing a chronology and record of human
accomplishments after the questions of how
the world came into being were explained.
For example, the heroic Iliad and Odyssey
dwarfed the divine-focused Theogony and Homeric
Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the
influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to
a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed
in the separation of the realm of the gods
from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the
Chthonic from the Olympian. In the Works and
Days, Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four
Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze,
and Iron. These races or ages are separate
creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging
to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races
to the creation of Zeus. The presence of evil
was explained by the myth of Pandora, when
all of the best of human capabilities, save
hope, had been spilled out of her overturned
jar. In Metamorphoses, Ovid follows Hesiod's
concept of the four ages.
=== Origins of the world and the gods ===
"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent
an attempt to explain the beginnings of the
universe in human language. The most widely
accepted version at the time, although a philosophical
account of the beginning of things, is reported
by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins with
Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void
emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary
divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the
Tartarus), and the Erebus. Without male assistance,
Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then
fertilized her. From that union were born
first the Titans—six males: Coeus, Crius,
Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and
six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia,
Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born,
Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were
to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed
Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed
Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by
Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus ("the
wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's
children"), was convinced by Gaia to castrate
his father. He did this, and became the ruler
of the Titans with his sister-wife Rhea as
his consort, and the other Titans became his
court.
A motif of father-against-son conflict was
repeated when Cronus was confronted by his
son, Zeus. Because Cronus had betrayed his
father, he feared that his offspring would
do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth,
he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea
hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus
and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket,
which Cronus ate. When Zeus was full grown,
he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused
him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children
and the stone, which had been sitting in Cronus's
stomach all along. Zeus then challenged Cronus
to war for the kingship of the gods. At last,
with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed
from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were
victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were
hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.
Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and
after a prophecy that the offspring of his
first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god
"greater than he", Zeus swallowed her. She
was already pregnant with Athena, however,
and she burst forth from his head—fully-grown
and dressed for war.The earliest Greek thought
about poetry considered the theogonies to
be the prototypical poetic genre—the prototypical
mythos—and imputed almost magical powers
to it. Orpheus, the archetypal poet, also
was the archetypal singer of theogonies, which
he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius'
Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts
of the underworld gods in his descent to Hades.
When Hermes invents the lyre in the Homeric
Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is
sing about the birth of the gods. Hesiod's
Theogony is not only the fullest surviving
account of the gods, but also the fullest
surviving account of the archaic poet's function,
with its long preliminary invocation to the
Muses. Theogony also was the subject of many
lost poems, including those attributed to
Orpheus, Musaeus, Epimenides, Abaris, and
other legendary seers, which were used in
private ritual purifications and mystery-rites.
There are indications that Plato was familiar
with some version of the Orphic theogony.
A silence would have been expected about religious
rites and beliefs, however, and that nature
of the culture would not have been reported
by members of the society while the beliefs
were held. After they ceased to become religious
beliefs, few would have known the rites and
rituals. Allusions often existed, however,
to aspects that were quite public.
Images existed on pottery and religious artwork
that were interpreted and more likely, misinterpreted
in many diverse myths and tales. A few fragments
of these works survive in quotations by Neoplatonist
philosophers and recently unearthed papyrus
scraps. One of these scraps, the Derveni Papyrus
now proves that at least in the fifth century
BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus
was in existence.The first philosophical cosmologists
reacted against, or sometimes built upon,
popular mythical conceptions that had existed
in the Greek world for some time. Some of
these popular conceptions can be gleaned from
the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer,
the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat
on the river of Oceanus and overlooked by
a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars.
The Sun (Helios) traversed the heavens as
a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in
a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven,
rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers
and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures
were popularly regarded as entrances to the
subterranean house of Hades and his predecessors,
home of the dead. Influences from other cultures
always afforded new themes.
==== Greek pantheon ====
According to Classical-era mythology, after
the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon
of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among
the principal Greek gods were the Olympians,
residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of
Zeus. (The limitation of their number to twelve
seems to have been a comparatively modern
idea.) Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped
various gods of the countryside, the satyr-god
Pan, Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naiads (who
dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits
of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the
sea), river gods, Satyrs, and others. In addition,
there were the dark powers of the underworld,
such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue
those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.
In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon,
poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group
of thirty-three songs). Gregory Nagy regards
"the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes
(compared with Theogony), each of which invokes
one god".The gods of Greek mythology are described
as having essentially corporeal but ideal
bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining
characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is
that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions,
ideas or concepts". Regardless of their underlying
forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic
abilities; most significantly, the gods are
not affected by disease, and can be wounded
only under highly unusual circumstances. The
Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive
characteristic of their gods; this immortality,
as well as unfading youth, was insured by
the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by
which the divine blood was renewed in their
veins.Each god descends from his or her own
genealogy, pursues differing interests, has
a certain area of expertise, and is governed
by a unique personality; however, these descriptions
arise from a multiplicity of archaic local
variants, which do not always agree with one
another. When these gods are called upon in
poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred
to by a combination of their name and epithets,
that identify them by these distinctions from
other manifestations of themselves (e.g.,
Apollo Musagetes is "Apollo, [as] leader of
the Muses"). Alternatively the epithet may
identify a particular and localized aspect
of the god, sometimes thought to be already
ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.
Most gods were associated with specific aspects
of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess
of love and beauty, Ares was the god of war,
Hades the ruler of the underworld, and Athena
the goddess of wisdom and courage. Some gods,
such as Apollo and Dionysus, revealed complex
personalities and mixtures of functions, while
others, such as Hestia (literally "hearth")
and Helios (literally "sun"), were little
more than personifications. The most impressive
temples tended to be dedicated to a limited
number of gods, who were the focus of large
pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common
for individual regions and villages to devote
their own cults to minor gods. Many cities
also honored the more well-known gods with
unusual local rites and associated strange
myths with them that were unknown elsewhere.
During the heroic age, the cult of heroes
(or demi-gods) supplemented that of the gods.
=== Age of gods and mortals ===
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and
the age when divine interference in human
affairs was limited was a transitional age
in which gods and mortals moved together.
These were the early days of the world when
the groups mingled more freely than they did
later. Most of these tales were later told
by Ovid's Metamorphoses and they are often
divided into two thematic groups: tales of
love, and tales of punishment.
Tales of love often involve incest, or the
seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male
god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories
generally suggest that relationships between
gods and mortals are something to avoid; even
consenting relationships rarely have happy
endings. In a few cases, a female divinity
mates with a mortal man, as in the Homeric
Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies
with Anchises to produce Aeneas.The second
type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation
or invention of some important cultural artifact,
as when Prometheus steals fire from the gods,
when Tantalus steals nectar and ambrosia from
Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing
to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus
or Lycaon invents sacrifice, when Demeter
teaches agriculture and the Mysteries to Triptolemus,
or when Marsyas invents the aulos and enters
into a musical contest with Apollo. Ian Morris
considers Prometheus' adventures as "a place
between the history of the gods and that of
man". An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated
to the third century, vividly portrays Dionysus'
punishment of the king of Thrace, Lycurgus,
whose recognition of the new god came too
late, resulting in horrific penalties that
extended into the afterlife. The story of
the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult
in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean
trilogy. In another tragedy, Euripides' The
Bacchae, the king of Thebes, Pentheus, is
punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected
the god and spied on his Maenads, the female
worshippers of the god.
In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,
and echoing a similar theme, Demeter was searching
for her daughter, Persephone, having taken
the form of an old woman called Doso, and
received a hospitable welcome from Celeus,
the King of Eleusis in Attica. As a gift to
Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter
planned to make his son Demophon a god, but
she was unable to complete the ritual because
his mother Metanira walked in and saw her
son in the fire and screamed in fright, which
angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish
mortals do not understand the concept and
ritual.
=== Heroic age ===
The age in which the heroes lived is known
as the heroic age. The epic and genealogical
poetry created cycles of stories clustered
around particular heroes or events and established
the family relationships between the heroes
of different stories; they thus arranged the
stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden,
"There is even a saga effect: We can follow
the fates of some families in successive generations".After
the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes
constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked
together in oaths and prayers which are addressed
to them. Burkert notes that "the roster of
heroes, again in contrast to the gods, is
never given fixed and final form. Great gods
are no longer born, but new heroes can always
be raised up from the army of the dead." Another
important difference between the hero cult
and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes
the centre of local group identity.The monumental
events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn
of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are
also ascribed three great events: the Argonautic
expedition, the Theban Cycle, and the Trojan
War.
==== Heracles and the Heracleidae ====
Some scholars believe that behind Heracles'
complicated mythology there was probably a
real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the
kingdom of Argos. Some scholars suggest the
story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's
yearly passage through the twelve constellations
of the zodiac. Others point to earlier myths
from other cultures, showing the story of
Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths
already well established. Traditionally, Heracles
was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, granddaughter
of Perseus. His fantastic solitary exploits,
with their many folk-tale themes, provided
much material for popular legend. According
to Burkert, "He is portrayed as a sacrificer,
mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined
as a voracious eater himself; it is in this
role that he appears in comedy,
While his tragic end provided much material
for tragedy—Heracles is regarded by Thalia
Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance
in examination of other Euripidean dramas".
In art and literature Heracles was represented
as an enormously strong man of moderate height;
his characteristic weapon was the bow but
frequently also the club. Vase paintings demonstrate
the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his
fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds
of times.Heracles also entered Etruscan and
Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation
"mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans
as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks. In Italy
he was worshipped as a god of merchants and
traders, although others also prayed to him
for his characteristic gifts of good luck
or rescue from danger.Heracles attained the
highest social prestige through his appointment
as official ancestor of the Dorian kings.
This probably served as a legitimation for
the Dorian migrations into the Peloponnese.
Hyllus, the eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle,
became the son of Heracles and one of the
Heracleidae or Heraclids (the numerous descendants
of Heracles, especially the descendants of
Hyllus—other Heracleidae included Macaria,
Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus).
These Heraclids conquered the Peloponnesian
kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos, claiming,
according to legend, a right to rule them
through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance
is frequently called the "Dorian invasion".
The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings,
as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.Other
members of this earliest generation of heroes
such as Perseus, Deucalion, Theseus and Bellerophon,
have many traits in common with Heracles.
Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic
and border on fairy tale, as they slay monsters
such as the Chimera and Medusa. Bellerophon's
adventures are commonplace types, similar
to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus.
Sending a hero to his presumed death is also
a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition,
used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.
==== Argonauts ====
The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica
of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar,
and director of the Library of Alexandria)
tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and
the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece
from the mythical land of Colchis. In the
Argonautica, Jason is impelled on his quest
by king Pelias, who receives a prophecy that
a man with one sandal would be his nemesis.
Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at
the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in
motion. Nearly every member of the next generation
of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with
Jason in the ship Argo to fetch the Golden
Fleece. This generation also included Theseus,
who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta,
the female heroine, and Meleager, who once
had an epic cycle of his own to rival the
Iliad and Odyssey. Pindar, Apollonius and
the Bibliotheca endeavor to give full lists
of the Argonauts.Although Apollonius wrote
his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition
of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than
Odyssey, which shows familiarity with the
exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus
may have been partly founded on it). In ancient
times the expedition was regarded as a historical
fact, an incident in the opening up of the
Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization.
It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle
to which a number of local legends became
attached. The story of Medea, in particular,
caught the imagination of the tragic poets.
==== House of Atreus and Theban Cycle ====
In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there
was a generation known chiefly for its horrific
crimes. This includes the doings of Atreus
and Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of
the house of Atreus (one of the two principal
heroic dynasties with the house of Labdacus)
lies the problem of the devolution of power
and of the mode of accession to sovereignty.
The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants
played the leading role in the tragedy of
the devolution of power in Mycenae.The Theban
Cycle deals with events associated especially
with Cadmus, the city's founder, and later
with the doings of Laius and Oedipus at Thebes;
a series of stories that lead to the eventual
pillage of that city at the hands of the Seven
Against Thebes and Epigoni. (It is not known
whether the Seven Against Thebes figured in
early epic.) As far as Oedipus is concerned,
early epic accounts seem to have him continuing
to rule at Thebes after the revelation that
Iokaste was his mother, and subsequently marrying
a second wife who becomes the mother of his
children—markedly different from the tale
known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles'
Oedipus Rex) and later mythological accounts.
==== Trojan War and aftermath ====
Greek mythology culminates in the Trojan War,
fought between Greece and Troy, and its aftermath.
In Homer's works, such as the Iliad, the chief
stories have already taken shape and substance,
and individual themes were elaborated later,
especially in Greek drama. The Trojan War
also elicited great interest in the Roman
culture because of the story of Aeneas, a
Trojan hero whose journey from Troy led to
the founding of the city that would one day
become Rome, as recounted in Virgil's Aeneid
(Book II of Virgil's Aeneid contains the best-known
account of the sack of Troy). Finally there
are two pseudo-chronicles written in Latin
that passed under the names of Dictys Cretensis
and Dares Phrygius.The Trojan War cycle, a
collection of epic poems, starts with the
events leading up to the war: Eris and the
golden apple of Kallisti, the Judgement of
Paris, the abduction of Helen, the sacrifice
of Iphigenia at Aulis. To recover Helen, the
Greeks launched a great expedition under the
overall command of Menelaus's brother, Agamemnon,
king of Argos or Mycenae, but the Trojans
refused to return Helen. The Iliad, which
is set in the tenth year of the war, tells
of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles,
who was the finest Greek warrior, and the
consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' beloved
comrade Patroclus and Priam's eldest son,
Hector. After Hector's death the Trojans were
joined by two exotic allies, Penthesilea,
queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of
the Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess
Eos. Achilles killed both of these, but Paris
then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow
in the heel. Achilles' heel was the only part
of his body which was not invulnerable to
damage by human weaponry. Before they could
take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the
citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena
(the Palladium). Finally, with Athena's help,
they built the Trojan Horse. Despite the warnings
of Priam's daughter Cassandra, the Trojans
were persuaded by Sinon, a Greek who feigned
desertion, to take the horse inside the walls
of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest
Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed,
was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek
fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse
opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack
that followed, Priam and his remaining sons
were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed
into slavery in various cities of Greece.
The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek
leaders (including the wanderings of Odysseus
and Aeneas (the Aeneid), and the murder of
Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns
(the lost Nostoi) and Homer's Odyssey. The
Trojan cycle also includes the adventures
of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g.,
Orestes and Telemachus).The Trojan War provided
a variety of themes and became a main source
of inspiration for Ancient Greek artists (e.g.
metopes on the Parthenon depicting the sack
of Troy); this artistic preference for themes
deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its
importance to the Ancient Greek civilization.
The same mythological cycle also inspired
a series of posterior European literary writings.
For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers,
unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found
in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic
and romantic storytelling and a convenient
framework into which to fit their own courtly
and chivalric ideals. Twelfth-century authors,
such as Benoît de Sainte-Maure (Roman de
Troie [Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and Joseph
of Exeter (De Bello Troiano [On the Trojan
War, 1183]) describe the war while rewriting
the standard version they found in Dictys
and Dares. They thus follow Horace's advice
and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem
of Troy instead of telling something completely
new.Some of the more famous heroes noted for
their inclusion in the Trojan War were:
On the Trojan side:
Aeneas
Hector
ParisOn the Greek side:
Ajax (there were two Ajaxes)
Achilles
King Agamemnon
Menelaus
Odysseus
== Greek and Roman conceptions of myth ==
Mythology was at the heart of everyday life
in Ancient Greece. Greeks regarded mythology
as a part of their history. They used myth
to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations,
traditional enmities and friendships. It was
a source of pride to be able to trace the
descent of one's leaders from a mythological
hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there
was truth behind the account of the Trojan
War in the Iliad and Odyssey. According to
Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian,
columnist, political essayist and former classics
professor, and John Heath, a classics professor,
the profound knowledge of the Homeric epos
was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their
acculturation. Homer was the "education of
Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις),
and his poetry "the Book".
=== Philosophy and myth ===
After the rise of philosophy, history, prose
and rationalism in the late 5th century BC,
the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological
genealogies gave place to a conception of
history which tried to exclude the supernatural
(such as the Thucydidean history). While poets
and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek
historians and philosophers were beginning
to criticize them.A few radical philosophers
like Xenophanes of Colophon were already beginning
to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies
in the 6th century BC; Xenophanes had complained
that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods
"all that is shameful and disgraceful among
men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive
one another". This line of thought found its
most sweeping expression in Plato's Republic
and Laws. Plato created his own allegorical
myths (such as the vision of Er in the Republic),
attacked the traditional tales of the gods'
tricks, thefts and adulteries as immoral,
and objected to their central role in literature.
Plato's criticism was the first serious challenge
to the Homeric mythological tradition, referring
to the myths as "old wives' chatter". For
his part Aristotle criticized the Pre-socratic
quasi-mythical philosophical approach and
underscored that "Hesiod and the theological
writers were concerned only with what seemed
plausible to themselves, and had no respect
for us ... But it is not worth taking seriously
writers who show off in the mythical style;
as for those who do proceed by proving their
assertions, we must cross-examine them".Nevertheless,
even Plato did not manage to wean himself
and his society from the influence of myth;
his own characterization for Socrates is based
on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns,
used by the philosopher to praise the righteous
life of his teacher:
But perhaps someone might say: "Are you then
not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed
such a pursuit, that you are now in danger
of being put to death as a result?" But I
should make to him a just reply: "You do not
speak well, Sir, if you think a man in whom
there is even a little merit ought to consider
danger of life or death, and not rather regard
this only, when he does things, whether the
things he does are right or wrong and the
acts of a good or a bad man. For according
to your argument all the demigods would be
bad who died at Troy, including the son of
Thetis, who so despised danger, in comparison
with enduring any disgrace, that when his
mother (and she was a goddess) said to him,
as he was eager to slay Hector, something
like this, I believe,
My son, if you avenge the death of your friend
Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself shall
die; for straightway, after Hector, is death
appointed unto you. (Hom. Il. 18.96)he, when
he heard this, made light of death and danger,
and feared much more to live as a coward and
not to avenge his friends, and said,
Straightway may I die, after doing vengeance
upon the wrongdoer, that I may not stay here,
jeered at beside the curved ships, a burden
of the earth.
Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection
of the Homeric tradition was not favorably
received by the grassroots Greek civilization.
The old myths were kept alive in local cults;
they continued to influence poetry and to
form the main subject of painting and sculpture.More
sportingly, the 5th century BC tragedian Euripides
often played with the old traditions, mocking
them, and through the voice of his characters
injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects
of his plays were taken, without exception,
from myth. Many of these plays were written
in answer to a predecessor's version of the
same or similar myth. Euripides mainly impugns
the myths about the gods and begins his critique
with an objection similar to the one previously
expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as traditionally
represented, are far too crassly anthropomorphic.
=== Hellenistic and Roman rationalism ===
During the Hellenistic period, mythology took
on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks
its possessors as belonging to a certain class.
At the same time, the skeptical turn of the
Classical age became even more pronounced.
Greek mythographer Euhemerus established the
tradition of seeking an actual historical
basis for mythical beings and events. Although
his original work (Sacred Scriptures) is lost,
much is known about it from what is recorded
by Diodorus and Lactantius.Rationalizing hermeneutics
of myth became even more popular under the
Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories
of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Stoics
presented explanations of the gods and heroes
as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists
rationalized them as historical figures. At
the same time, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists
promoted the moral significations of the mythological
tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.
Through his Epicurean message, Lucretius had
sought to expel superstitious fears from the
minds of his fellow-citizens. Livy, too, is
skeptical about the mythological tradition
and claims that he does not intend to pass
judgement on such legends (fabulae). The challenge
for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense
of religious tradition was to defend that
tradition while conceding that it was often
a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian
Varro, who regarded religion as a human institution
with great importance for the preservation
of good in society, devoted rigorous study
to the origins of religious cults. In his
Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (which has not
survived, but Augustine's City of God indicates
its general approach) Varro argues that whereas
the superstitious man fears the gods, the
truly religious person venerates them as parents.
According to Varro, there have been three
accounts of deities in the Roman society:
the mythical account created by poets for
theatre and entertainment, the civil account
used by people for veneration as well as by
the city, and the natural account created
by the philosophers. The best state is, adds
Varro, where the civil theology combines the
poetic mythical account with the philosopher's.Roman
Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and
allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring
roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.
Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth,
but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support
for the state religion and its institutions.
It is difficult to know how far down the social
scale this rationalism extended. Cicero asserts
that no one (not even old women and boys)
is so foolish as to believe in the terrors
of Hades or the existence of Scyllas, centaurs
or other composite creatures, but, on the
other hand, the orator elsewhere complains
of the superstitious and credulous character
of the people. De Natura Deorum is the most
comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of
thought.
=== Syncretizing trends ===
In Ancient Roman times, a new Roman mythology
was born through syncretization of numerous
Greek and other foreign gods. This occurred
because the Romans had little mythology of
their own, and inheritance of the Greek mythological
tradition caused the major Roman gods to adopt
characteristics of their Greek equivalents.
The gods Zeus and Jupiter are an example of
this mythological overlap. In addition to
the combination of the two mythological traditions,
the association of the Romans with eastern
religions led to further syncretizations.
For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced
in Rome after Aurelian's successful campaigns
in Syria. The Asiatic divinities Mithras (that
is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined
with Apollo and Helios into one Sol Invictus,
with conglomerated rites and compound attributes.
Apollo might be increasingly identified in
religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but
texts retelling his myths seldom reflected
such developments. The traditional literary
mythology was increasingly dissociated from
actual religious practice. The worship of
Sol as special protector of the emperors and
of the empire remained the chief imperial
religion until it was replaced by Christianity.
The surviving 2nd-century collection of Orphic
Hymns (second century AD) and the Saturnalia
of Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius (fifth century)
are influenced by the theories of rationalism
and the syncretizing trends as well. The Orphic
Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions,
attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject
of a renowned myth. In reality, these poems
were probably composed by several different
poets, and contain a rich set of clues about
prehistoric European mythology. The stated
purpose of the Saturnalia is to transmit the
Hellenic culture Macrobius has derived from
his reading, even though much of his treatment
of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African
mythology and theology (which also affect
the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia
reappear mythographical comments influenced
by the Euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists.
== Modern interpretations ==
The genesis of modern understanding of Greek
mythology is regarded by some scholars as
a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth
century against "the traditional attitude
of Christian animosity", in which the Christian
reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or fable
had been retained. In Germany, by about 1795,
there was a growing interest in Homer and
Greek mythology. In Göttingen, Johann Matthias
Gesner began to revive Greek studies, while
his successor, Christian Gottlob Heyne, worked
with Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and laid
the foundations for mythological research
both in Germany and elsewhere.
=== Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches
===
The development of comparative philology in
the 19th century, together with ethnological
discoveries in the 20th century, established
the science of myth. Since the Romantics,
all study of myth has been comparative. Wilhelm
Mannhardt, James Frazer, and Stith Thompson
employed the comparative approach to collect
and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.
In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor published his
Primitive Culture, in which he applied the
comparative method and tried to explain the
origin and evolution of religion. Tylor's
procedure of drawing together material culture,
ritual and myth of widely separated cultures
influenced both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell.
Max Müller applied the new science of comparative
mythology to the study of myth, in which he
detected the distorted remains of Aryan nature
worship. Bronisław Malinowski emphasized
the ways myth fulfills common social functions.
Claude Lévi-Strauss and other structuralists
have compared the formal relations and patterns
in myths throughout the world.Sigmund Freud
introduced a transhistorical and biological
conception of man and a view of myth as an
expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation
is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation
and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes
the importance of contextual relationships
for the interpretation of any individual element
in a dream. This suggestion would find an
important point of rapprochment between the
structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches
to myth in Freud's thought. Carl Jung extended
the transhistorical, psychological approach
with his theory of the "collective unconscious"
and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns),
often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.
According to Jung, "myth-forming structural
elements must be present in the unconscious
psyche". Comparing Jung's methodology with
Joseph Campbell's theory, Robert A. Segal
concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell
simply identifies the archetypes in it. An
interpretation of the Odyssey, for example,
would show how Odysseus's life conforms to
a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers
the identification of archetypes merely the
first step in the interpretation of a myth".
Karl Kerényi, one of the founders of modern
studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early
views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories
of archetypes to Greek myth.
=== Origin theories ===
Max Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European
religious form by tracing it back to its Indo-European
(or, in Müller's time, "Aryan") "original"
manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the
most important discovery which has been made
during the nineteenth century with respect
to the ancient history of mankind ... was
this sample equation: Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar
= 
Greek Zeus = Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr".
The question of Greek mythology's place in
Indo-European studies has generated much scholarship
since Müller's time. For example, philologist
Georges Dumézil draws a comparison between
the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna,
although there is no hint that he believes
them to be originally connected. In other
cases, close parallels in character and function
suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic
evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in
the case of the Greek Moirai and the Norns
of Norse mythology.It appears that the Mycenaean
religion was the mother of the Greek religion
and its pantheon already included many divinities
that can be found in classical Greece. However,
Greek mythology is generally seen as having
heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern
cultures, and as such contains few important
elements for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European
religion. Consequently, Greek mythology received
minimal scholarly attention in the context
of Indo-European comparative mythology until
the mid 2000s.Archaeology and mythography
have revealed influence from Asia Minor and
the Near East. Adonis seems to be the Greek
counterpart—more clearly in cult than in
myth—of a Near Eastern "dying god". Cybele
is rooted in Anatolian culture while much
of Aphrodite's iconography may spring from
Semitic goddesses. There are also possible
parallels between the earliest divine generations
(Chaos and its children) and Tiamat in the
Enuma Elish. According to Meyer Reinhold,
"near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving
divine succession through violence and generational
conflicts for power, found their way ... into
Greek mythology".In addition to Indo-European
and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have
speculated on the debts of Greek mythology
to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: Crete,
Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus. Historians
of religion were fascinated by a number of
apparently ancient configurations of myth
connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus
and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull
and gives birth to the Minotaur, etc.). Martin
P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations
and general function of the gods, that a lot
of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were
fused in the Mycenaean religion. and concluded
that all great classical Greek myths were
tied to Mycenaean centres and anchored in
prehistoric times. Nevertheless, according
to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan
Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation
for these theories.
== Motifs in Western art and literature ==
The widespread adoption of Christianity did
not curb the popularity of the myths. With
the rediscovery of classical antiquity in
the Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became
a major influence on the imagination of poets,
dramatists, musicians and artists. From the
early years of Renaissance, artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael,
portrayed the Pagan subjects of Greek mythology
alongside more conventional Christian themes.
Through the medium of Latin and the works
of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and
Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio
and Dante in Italy.
In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never
took the same hold of the visual arts, but
its effect was very obvious on literature.
The English imagination was fired by Greek
mythology starting with Chaucer and John Milton
and continuing through Shakespeare to Robert
Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France
and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama,
reworking the ancient myths. Although during
the Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction
against Greek myth spread throughout Europe,
the myths continued to provide an important
source of raw material for dramatists, including
those who wrote the libretti for many of Handel's
and Mozart's operas.By the end of the 18th
century, Romanticism initiated a surge of
enthusiasm for all things Greek, including
Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations
of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary
poets (such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Keats,
Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord
Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema). Christoph
Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach
and many others set Greek mythological themes
to music. American authors of the 19th century,
such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne,
held that the study of the classical myths
was essential to the understanding of English
and American literature. In more recent times,
classical themes have been reinterpreted by
dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and
Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in
America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by
novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.
== References ==
=== Primary sources (Greek and Roman) ===
=== Secondary sources ===
== Further reading ==
== External links ==
Media related to Greek mythology at Wikimedia
Commons
Greek Myths on In Our Time at the BBC
Library of Classical Mythology Texts translations
of works of classical literature
LIMC-France provides databases dedicated to
Graeco-Roman mythology and its iconography.
Martin P. Nilsson, The Mycenaean Origin of
Greek Mythology, on Google books
