This April I'll be tweeting an entire ancient Greek myth every day – in only 140 characters!
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#MythMonth
30. Chryseis
Chryseis is one of the women mentioned in Homer's Iliad – and she is also one of the narrators of my debut novel, For the Most Beautiful. She has a fascinating story – in fact, it's her story which sets off all the action of the Iliad itself, as it's her capture by the Greeks and the plague her father asks the god Apollo to bring down upon the Greek army which begins the epic tale. But there's also more to her tale than what the Iliad gives us. A tradition which runs right down to the Middle Ages, through Chaucer and to Shakespeare, has Chryseis (later known as Cressida) falling in love with the Trojan prince, Troilus; her capture by the Greeks; and Troilus' death at the hands of Achilles, thus fulfilling a prophecy that the city of Troy would fall when Troilus died. Chryseis' story is a powerful, moving tale of forbidden love, sacrifice and betrayal – and to me, it's just as important and thrilling a tale as that of Achilles and the other heroes of Troy. To find out more about For the Most Beautiful, go to Amazon, Waterstones, or your local independent bookstore. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
Note: I spell her name Krisayis in the book in order to give her more of an Anatolian feel, and to avoid confusion with her fellow narrator, Briseis. Both spellings are in fact equally true to her ancient Greek name, which would have been pronounced kh-ru-sair-is.
Note: I spell her name Krisayis in the book in order to give her more of an Anatolian feel, and to avoid confusion with her fellow narrator, Briseis. Both spellings are in fact equally true to her ancient Greek name, which would have been pronounced kh-ru-sair-is.
29. Ares & Aphrodite
The story of Ares and Aphrodite is told by a bard singing at the Phaeacian court on Odysseus' travels, in book 8 of the Odyssey. Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex, was married to Hephaestus, the lame craftsman god; but then she had an affair with Ares, god of war. Hephaestus discovered the affair and, being the god of craftsmanship, he fashioned a bed with magic chains which would leap out and ensnare whoever lay there. When Ares and Aphrodite lay down together on the bed, the chains sprang out and bound them there – then all the gods came and laughed at Ares and Aphrodite, caught in a net of chains. Eventually, Poseidon begged Hephaestus to set Ares free, and he eventually did so. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
28. The Cyclops
The story of the Cyclops Polyphemus is told in book 9 of Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus relates how he was sailing back to Ithaca from Troy when he came upon the island of the Cyclopes. Discovering a large cave upon the island, Odysseus and his men settled down and began to eat the food stored there when the monstrous one-eyed Cyclops returned with his herd of sheep. He ate a couple of Odysseus' men and threatened to eat them all, so Odysseus came up with his famous ruse: telling the Cyclops that his name was "No-one", he got him drunk with wine brought up from his ships and then, when the Cyclops fell asleep, blinded him by driving a sharpened, fire-heated stake into his eye. He then escaped by clinging to the underside of the Cyclops' sheep as they went out to pasture. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
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27. Jason & the Argonauts
The myth of Jason and the Argonauts tells of the story of Jason, prince of Iolcos (a city in northern Greece, modern-day Volos). The story goes that Jason's father, Aeson, was imprisoned by his brother Pelias and Jason sent away while Pelias took over the kingdom of Iolcos. However, Jason returned (fulfilling a prophecy as he did so) and claimed the rule of Iolcos. Pelias demanded that he prove his worth and bring back the Golden Fleece from Colchis, a kingdom at the very edge of the known world (in modern-day Georgia on the eastern coast of the Black Sea). Jason did so, sailing to Colchis in a ship named the Argo and with a group of heroes named the Argonauts – "sailors of the Argo" – undergoing various adventures along the way, including navigating the treacherous Clashing Rocks and saving the blind prophet Phineus from the attacks of the Harpies. With the help of Medea, princess of Colchis, Jason retrieved the Fleece and returned to Greece, thus winning back his kingdom. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
26. Sirens
The Sirens, mythological creatures who are half-birds, half-women, first appear in book 12 of Homer's Odyssey. Odysseus, the famous Greek hero who departed from Troy at the end of the Trojan War and whose return journey took him ten years, sails past the island of the Sirens. Although their song is known to be fatal to all who hear it, luring sailors onto the rocks, Odysseus is determined to hear them. He plugs the ears of his sailors with beeswax, then has them tie him to the mast of the ship. Sure enough, when the sirens sing (incidentally, they sing the story of his adventures, calculated to stroke any man's ego), Odysseus struggles to get free, but his crew refuse to release him. Then, when they are safely past the Sirens, they unplug their ears and untie Odysseus from the mast.
25. Aeneas
The tale of Aeneas, son of Anchises and the goddess Venus, was told in antiquity in one of the most famous epics of all time, Virgil's Aeneid. The story tells of Aeneas' flight from Troy after the sack of Troy by the Greeks, his escape along with his father Anchises and son Iulus to seek a new home for the Trojans, and his journey to Italy where he becomes the founder of the Roman race. On the way to his new home in Italy, Aeneas meets Dido, queen of Carthage (an ancient city in modern Tunisia) and marries her, only to receive a warning from the gods that he has to journey on to fulfil his destiny; he leaves Dido behind, who throws herself onto a burning fire in misery at his departure. After several more adventures, including a trip down to the Underworld to meet his ancestors and to look into the the future to see his descendants (among whom are the first Roman emperor, Augustus), Aeneas arrives at Rome. Ordered by a prophecy to marry Lavinia, daughter of the Italian king Latinus, things soon get heated as Turnus, a suitor of Lavinia, refuses to accept Aeneas' claim to Lavinia's hand. A battle ensues between Trojans and Italians, which Aeneas eventually wins – thus also winning Lavinia in marriage and the kingdom of Latium. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
24. Pygmalion
The name of Pygmalion is perhaps most well known via the title of George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion – the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady. The myth of Pygmalion, told in Ovid's Metamorphoses, describes a man who, "offended by the failings that nature gave the female heart", decided to live alone as a bachelor. However, to keep himself busy, he decided to perfect the art of sculpting – and eventually ended up making a statue of a woman so beautiful that he fell head over heels in love with her. He bought her clothes and jewellery, kissed her, laid her on the bed next to him when he slept – and eventually, unable to bear it any longer, he prayed to Venus to give him a girl like his statue. Venus, understanding the desire behind the prayer, made the statue come alive, and the two got married. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
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23. Trojan War
The legend of the Trojan War is one of my all-time favourites from the ancient world, and forms the backdrop for my debut novel, For the Most Beautiful. It begins with the Judgement of Paris: a beauty contest between three goddesses which Paris, a prince from Troy, is forced to judge. (The prize is a golden apple inscribed with the words "For the Most Beautiful" in Greek, which is the title of my book.) Each of the goddesses promises Paris something in return, but when Aphrodite, the goddess of love and sex, promises to give him Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world, Paris cannot resist. He gives her the apple, and in return, Aphrodite helps him to steal Helen from her husband, Menelaus, king of Sparta. Paris takes Helen with him back to Troy, a wealthy Anatolian city on the north-western coast of what is today called Turkey. Menelaus is enraged at losing his wife and, together with his brother Agamemnon, gathers an army of all the Greeks to besiege Troy for ten years. And so the Trojan War begins, the greatest war the world has ever seen... For more, read on here! (Image credit: Helen Forte)
22. Hercules
Who isn't familiar with the legend of Hercules, mighty strongman of ancient Greek legend who undertook the fabled twelve labours? But there are some things about Hercules you might not know – and things that might surprise you. For one thing, he had two different names in antiquity: Hercules was his Roman name, whereas the Greeks called him Heracles. He was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman, Alcmene (whom Zeus seduced in the guise of her own husband while he was away) – not Zeus and Hera, as the family-focused Disney film would have you believe. And, though he did complete his twelve labours, he was afterwards driven mad by Hera and threw his closest friend off a city wall in a fit of rage – leading to a three-year sentence serving Queen Omphale of Lydia, who forced him to dress as a woman. Not quite the Hercules you knew, eh? (Image credit: Helen Forte)
21. Actaeon
The myth of Actaeon is told most famously in Ovid's Metamorphoses, a fantastic narrative poem that relates the transformations of various humans into, by turns, wolves, daffodils, and laurel trees. Actaeon was a young prince and hunter from Thebes; one day, when out hunting, he either purposely spied on the goddess Artemis as she was bathing, or happened upon her by chance (the stories vary). In any case, Artemis was so infuriated at Actaeon's arrogance in daring to see her naked that she transformed him into a stag and incited his hunting hounds to go after him. The hounds tore him apart in a frenzy, thinking that he was a stag, then trailed all over the mountain, howling and searching for their lost master. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
20. Perseus
Perseus was the son of Zeus, king of the gods, and Danaë, daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. An oracle had predicted to King Acrisius that he would be killed by his daughter's son, so he imprisoned Danaë, determined that she would never marry. Of course, the king of the gods got around this and appeared to her in a shower of gold and had his way with her; when Danaë gave birth to Perseus, old king Acrisius cast them both to sea trapped in a wooden chest. However, they were washed ashore and taken in by an old fisherman, Dictys. When he was older, Perseus was commanded by the king of the island to bring back the head of the Gorgon Medusa, whose gaze turned the onlooker to stone. With the help of Athena and others of the gods, and armed with Hermes' winged sandals and Athena's polished shield, Perseus defeated the Gorgon by looking into the reflection of the shield and cutting off her head. He brought the Gorgon's head back in a special sack given to him by the Hesperides (rescuing Andromeda from a sea-monster on the way), turned the king of the island to stone, and set up Dictys as the new ruler. He then travelled to Argos for an athletic contest; when it was his turn to throw the discus his aim went awry and he ended up hitting and killing his grandfather, Acrisius, thus fulfilling the prophecy. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
19. Birth of Aphrodite
The legend of the birth of Aphrodite is perhaps most famously told in Hesiod's Theogony, an epic poem written in ancient Greek in around the 8th century BCE which describes the births of the various gods of the Greek world. The god of the sky, Ouranos (also spelled Uranus, which is where the name of the planet comes from), was, at the beginning of time, having sex with the goddess of Earth, Gaia, continuously pressing his attentions on her. When she became pregnant and he refused to leave, her unborn children decided to take matters into their own hands. Earth created a scythe from within herself and her youngest son, Cronos, cut off his father's members from within the womb and flung them down into the sea. It was said that Aphrodite, goddess of love and sex, was born from the sea-foam on top of the waves and that she emerged into the world from the ocean – different islands claimed to be in the vicinity of her birthplace, most famously Cythera and Cyprus.
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Image credit: Helen Forte
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18. Achilles
Achilles is one of the most famous, if not the most famous, character from all of Greek and Roman mythology – and he also plays a central role in For the Most Beautiful, my recently published novel retelling the Trojan War. Achilles was the son of the mortal Peleus and the goddess Thetis (Thetis was forced to marry a mortal after it was prophesied that her son would be greater than his father, and all of the gods suddenly became disinterested in marrying her). When it became clear that all the nobles and warriors of the Greeks were being summoned to fight in the Trojan War, Thetis attempted to hide Achilles away by disguising him as a woman, but the cunning Odysseus discovered him anyway and he went to fight at Troy. The best fighter of all the Greeks, Achilles became enraged with King Agamemnon when he stole his captive slave, Briseis (a woman and one of the narrators of For the Most Beautiful). He left the war, determined to make Agamemnon pay for the insult he had done him; but when Patroclus, his comrade (and perhaps his lover), was killed in the fighting he returned, bent on revenge. He killed Hector, prince of Troy, thus ensuring Troy's demise; he himself was killed before the city of Troy fell with an arrow through his heel, the only place in his body where he was a mortal (his mother Thetis had dipped him in the Styx to ensure his immortality, but had forgotten to dip the heel) – it's from this that we have the modern term Achilles heel to describe a person's weakness, and the Achilles tendon to describe the fibrous tissue at the back of the ankle.
(Image credit: Helen Forte)
(Image credit: Helen Forte)
17. Tiresias
The myth of Tiresias is, to me, one of the most wonderful (and most bizarre) legends handed down to us from antiquity. Tiresias was said to have been a blind prophet: Odysseus visited him in the Underworld on his voyage back from Troy (see right). But it's the reason for his blindness that's really interesting. The legend goes that Tiresias, born a man, came upon two snakes mating and killed the female; in punishment, Hera transformed him into a woman. Having lived as a woman for several years, he once again came upon two snakes mating and this time killed the male; he was turned back into a man. A while later, when Zeus and Hera were arguing over whether the man or the woman gets more pleasure from sex, they called on Tiresias to answer the question – the only person who had ever been both a man and a woman. Tiresias answered that it's the woman (in fact, he said that of ten parts of pleasure the woman has nine). Hera was enraged at his response and blinded him; Zeus, on the other hand, granted him the gift of prophecy as a reward. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
16. Prometheus
We're over halfway through #MythMonth today, and what better way to celebrate than with the myth of Prometheus, one of Greek myth's most fascinating figures? Prometheus was the archetypal trickster of antiquity (apart from Hermes of course, as those of you who have read For the Most Beautiful will know!). He was a Titan, meaning that he was of the older generation of gods before Zeus established the Olympian order. Prometheus tricked Zeus by giving him two portions to choose from: one, the best parts of the meat of a bull covered in the stomach (the worst bit); the other, the bones, wrapped around in shiny thick fat. Zeus chose the fat for himself – which of course, when he unwrapped it, contained only bones. (This is the way in which the Greeks explained their method of sacrifice, which was to offer the fat and bones of the animal to the gods while they ate the meat themselves.) Enraged with Prometheus' trickery, Zeus decided to withhold fire from the mortals (whom Prometheus had moulded out of clay); Prometheus, undaunted, stole fire from Olympus and brought it down to the mortals instead. Zeus ordered that Prometheus should be chained to a mountain (the modern-day Caucasus mountains in Georgia) and his liver eaten daily by an eagle, commanding that each night his liver should grow back again to renew Prometheus' punishment. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
15. Atalanta
Image credit: Helen Forte
Atalanta is a figure who is particularly close to my heart, and very fitting to end this week's #MythMonth celebration of the launch of the Women's Classical Caucus UK – as she is the protagonist of my second book, For the Winner, forthcoming in January 2017, and is one of my all-time favourite women of the ancient world. I won't say too much here as I don't want to give away the story of For the Winner, but here's a little of what we know of Atalanta. She was born to a king who, wanting only a son and heir, exposed his daughter to die. She was raised by a she-bear, learnt to fight, and later joined the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts as the only woman on board the Argo on the legendary expedition to bring back the Golden Fleece. She also was the first to draw blood from the boar in the mythical Calydonian boar hunt, alongside some of the greatest heroes of Bronze Age Greece. Finally, when she was forced to marry by her father, there was a footrace in contest for her hand – which Atalanta was sure, as a legendary fast runner, that she would win – until an unexpected suitor joined the race...
14. Medea
We couldn't have a week celebrating the #wcclaunch and the women of the ancient world without talking about Medea – one of the most notorious female figures of antiquity. Medea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, was said to be a witch. When Jason and the Argonauts arrived in Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece she fell in love with Jason (because of Aphrodite), and helped Jason steal the Fleece. Jason promised he would marry her and together they ran away to Greece, back to Jason's home of Iolcos; but when they conspired to kill Iolcos' king (Jason's uncle) they were forced to flee to Corinth. Jason then abandoned Medea for the princess of Corinth. And this is where things become difficult: because although the most famous version, which most of us are familiar with, has Medea killing her children in revenge for Jason's infidelity, this version of the story actually seems to have been invented by the Athenian playwright, Euripides (although there's some disagreement among scholars as to whether it might have originated with Euripides' contemporary, Neophron). Other early versions of the tale have the Corinthians killing Medea's children instead; another version, cited by the historian Pausanias, has one of the children being killed by a lioness. It's an important reminder of the remarkable flexibility of ancient myth – and a useful caution that we should not believe all the stories we hear about ancient women. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
13. Helen
Helen of Troy is perhaps the most famous of all the women of the ancient world. She was said to have been born to Leda, the wife of the king of Sparta, after Zeus raped her in the guise of a swan, making Helen a half-god. It was said that, as a young girl, she was abducted and raped by Theseus, who wanted her as his wife. Later, she was married to Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon king of Mycenae, who came to Sparta and ruled the kingdom by her side. When the Trojan prince Paris arrived at the court, however – with Helen promised to him by the goddess Aphrodite as the prize for awarding her the golden apple in a divine beauty contest – he abducted Helen (or took her willingly, no-one really knows) and left Sparta for Troy. Enraged, Menelaus went to Agamemnon and together they gathered together the forces of the Greeks to attack Troy in the legendary Trojan War. It is said that Menelaus fully intended to kill Helen when he found her as the city burnt down in flames; but when he saw her, and caught a glimpse of her beautiful breasts, he was unable to do it and took her back to Sparta with him instead. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
12. Briseis
I won't say much about Briseis here as she's one of the heroes of my debut novel, For the Most Beautiful – to find out more you'll have to read the book! Briseis is one of the central characters of Homer's epic tale, the Iliad, and the quarrel over her between Achilles and Agamemnon (pictured left) sets off the entire spiral of events that becomes the Iliad. A princess of Pedasus, a city near Troy, she is captured by Achilles and watches her husband killed at his hands before becoming a sex slave and prisoner of war in the Trojan camp. It's a story full of desire, passion, and betrayal – one that's been waiting millennia to be told!
Image credit: Helen Forte
Image credit: Helen Forte
11. Persephone
Image credit: Helen Forte
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Persephone was the daughter of the goddess Demeter, goddess of corn and the harvest. The story goes that when Persephone was out picking flowers (according to legend, on the island of Sicily), Hades, god of the Underworld, burst out of a cleft in the ground and snatched her up into his chariot, abducting her to the land of the dead. Demeter was distraught at the loss of her daughter and wandered all over the earth looking for Persephone; and as she did so, the harvests failed and the corn was blighted. The mortals were beginning to starve, and Zeus was forced to compel Hades to return Persephone to her mother. However, in the meantime, Hades had tricked Persephone into eating a few pomegranate seeds while she was in the Underworld: because she had tasted food in the land of the dead, she was forced to remain there with Hades for half the year, and the rest in the upper world with Demeter. This myth was used as a means of explaining the cycle of the seasons: it was said that Persephone was in the Underworld with Hades during the winter months, when her mother Demeter mourned her loss, and that she returned in the spring, when Demeter's joy caused everything to burst into bud again.
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10. Birth of Athena
The myth of the birth of Athena begins by following what is a fairly standard pattern in ancient Greek legend – at least where it comes to the births of the gods. The story goes that Zeus received a prophecy that the child born of his first wife, Metis (her name means "cunning" in ancient Greek), was destined to be greater than him. Determined to maintain his position as ruler of the universe, Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife (just as Zeus' father, Cronus, had swallowed his children in an attempt to prevent them from overthrowing him; clearly that didn't work out). When the time came for the birth of the child that had been growing inside Zeus, Prometheus or Hephaestus struck open Zeus' head with an axe. The goddess Athena leapt out, fully grown and armed with weapons (as the goddess of war). This scene, bizarre as it sounds to modern ears, was in fact pictured in the statues of the eastern pediment of the Parthenon, the iconic classical temple that still stands upon the acropolis of Athena's city, Athens. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
9. Daedalus & Icarus
Daedalus was said to be the most skilled craftsman in the ancient world. He built the famous Labyrinth for the legendary King Minos of Crete (see my post on Theseus). Determined to prevent him from telling anyone how he constructed the Labyrinth, Minos shut Daedalus and his son Icarus in a tower. But Daedalus, cunning craftsman as he was, made a means of escape for himself and his son: stitching together a line of feathers with thread, and fastening them to a base with beeswax, he fashioned wings for himself and Icarus. As they leapt out of the tower window Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high, for the wax on the wings would melt. Icarus, of course, ignored his father and flew higher and higher; the wax did indeed melt, and Icarus fell to his death in the part of the Aegean Sea that is now, after him, called the Icarian Sea. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
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8. Narcissus
Narcissus, whose name gives rise to the modern term narcissism, was said to have spurned the advances of a nymph named Echo. In punishment, the goddess Nemesis (goddess of revenge) caused him to feel the bitter pain of spurned love by making him fall in love with himself. Gazing into a pool, Narcissus was so consumed by love for his reflection that he eventually wasted away and died; but when his sisters came to find him, they found only a flower – a type of daffodil which we now call the narcissus – growing in his place, bending down over the water to gaze at its reflection.
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7. Theseus
The legend of Theseus tells of a debt owed by the Athenians to the legendary king Minos of Crete, father of the Minotaur: every year the Athenians had to send seven men and seven women to Crete as tribute to the Minotaur, a half-man half-bull who had been born to Minos' wife Pasiphae when she slept with Poseidon in the form of a bull. This terrible burden continued until Theseus, son of Aegeus, king of Athens, set out to destroy the Minotaur once and for all. However, the Minotaur was hidden at the centre of an unnavigable labyrinth (interesting side-note: the word "labyrinth" comes from the ancient Greek word for axe, labrys, a favourite ritual object and decorative ornament in Minoan Crete). Theseus only managed to make his way through the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne, King Minos' daughter, who had fallen in love with the young hero and who gave him a thread which he could trail after him and retrace to leave the maze once more. Having killed the Minotaur and relieved Athens of its debt, Theseus left, taking Ariadne with him – only to leave her behind on the island of Naxos on the way. Then, sailing on to Athens, Theseus forgot the agreement that he had made with his father: to warn Aegeus if his son had died, he was to return with black sails; if he was still alive and well, he was to hoist sails of white. Forgetting to change his black sails to white, Aegeus saw the ships coming in and assumed his son had died – and threw himself off a rock into the sea in grief. (This sea then took his name, which it still bears today – the Aegean). Theseus then became king of Athens. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
6. Penelope
Penelope is one of the most famous women from all of Greek myth – although, as often in the ancient world, most of her fame resides from her being the wife of Odysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca, than anything she did herself. Penelope was the daughter of Icarius, who was brother to Tyndareus, the father of Helen of Troy – making her Helen's direct cousin (not something that many people know). When Odysseus won her hand, however, she moved to Ithaca, the rocky island off the western coast of mainland Greece, and bore him a single son, Telemachus. Of course, Odysseus soon after left for the Trojan War, and Penelope was left with an infant son and Odysseus' aging father – neither of them fit to rule the island. Suitors from all around soon flocked to the palace vying for Penelope's hand and the kingship of Ithaca, some of them believing Odysseus to be dead, others hardly caring. In order to delay them, Penelope wove her famous tapestry (in fact a burial shroud for her father-in-law), telling the suitors that she would choose one of them when the tapestry was done – then secretly unpicking what she had woven that day each night. When Odysseus at last returned, disguised as a beggar by Athena, cunning Penelope suddenly announced that she was ready to marry, and that she would set up a contest for her hand: whoever could string Odysseus' great bow and shoot an arrow through a row of axe handles would win her hand in marriage. Of course, Odysseus was the only one strong enough to manage the feat, and after one more test just to be sure – she pretended to have moved their marriage bed, which Odysseus had built with his own hands inside the trunk of a tree that grew through the palace – Penelope accepted her husband back. (Image credit: Helen Forte)
5. Orpheus & Eurydice
Image credit: Helen Forte
Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the most moving and tragic love stories of the ancient world. Orpheus was the son of a king of Thrace and one of the
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Muses, goddesses of song and poetry. It was said that he played the lyre so beautifully that he could charm animals, make trees dance, and move rivers with his song (a Greek Pied Piper). He fell in love with Eurydice and they married, but at their wedding, running away from a man who was chasing her, Eurydice was bitten on the heel by a venomous snake and died. Determined to recover her, Orpheus descended to the Underworld, the abode of the spirits of the dead, and with his beautiful music persuaded Hades and Persephone, king and queen of the dead, to allow him to recover Eurydice. They agreed, but on one condition: he was not allowed to look behind him at Eurydice as he ascended back to the world above. He left, with Eurydice following behind; but, just as they emerged into the light, doubting whether Eurydice was really there, he turned to look at her and she disappeared back into Hades. Orpheus was left to wander the earth, distraught, until (as Virgil tells it) a group of women, spurred on by the ecstatic rites of Bacchus (Dionysus) god of wine, tore him to pieces.
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4. Midas
The tale of King Midas, a king of Phrygia (modern-day Turkey), is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The story goes that the god Dionysus – god of wine – lost his companion and tutor, Silenus. Midas found Silenus, hosted him, and then returned him to Dionysus. In gratitude, the god granted Midas any wish he wanted: and Midas wished that all he touched should turn to gold. At first he was delighted with the gift; however, when he returned home and ordered a feast laid before him, all his food and drink turned to gold. Horrified, he returned to Dionysus and begged him to retract the gift. Dionysus consented, and told Midas to wash in the river Pactolus (a river on the Aegean coast of Turkey): whatever touched the waters would be returned to its original state.
(Nathaniel Hawthorne's Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys gives a slightly different version to the story: he tells how, when Midas returned home, his daughter ran into his arms and was turned to gold. For those of you who grew up with this version – like me – this twist to the tale is, unfortunately, entirely Hawthorne's invention.) |
Image credit: Helen Forte
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3. Odysseus
Image credit: Helen Forte
The legend of Odysseus is told most famously in the epic poem, the Odyssey, written by the poet Homer in about 750 BCE. But the Odyssey only tells a part of Odysseus' story. We can piece together the rest from other texts that survive to us from the ancient world. The story goes something like this:
Odysseus was king of Ithaca, an island to the west of Greece, with a wife, Penelope, and an infant son, Telemachus. When Menelaus and Agamemnon put together the expedition |
against Troy in order to recover Menelaus' wife, Helen, Odysseus attempted to evade the summons to war by pretending to be mad; but they saw through his ruse, and he was forced to accompany them to Troy. Once in Troy, Odysseus fought alongside the other heroes and acquitted himself bravely. After ten years of fighting, he came up with the idea of the famous Wooden Horse, and Troy fell.
Sailing back to Ithaca, however, Odysseus incurred the wrath of Poseidon, god of the sea, and wandered for ten years buffeted by storms, visiting the lands of giants, lotus-eaters, and mysterious enchantresses, until finally the gods relented and he was allowed to return to Ithaca. He arrived disguised by the goddess Athena as an old beggar man, and he entered his palace to discover over a hundred suitors for his wife's hand feasting in his halls and eating his livelihood. By chance – or perhaps not – Penelope set up a contest that very day for her hand in marriage, which Odysseus the beggar promptly won – and then slaughtered all the suitors, regaining his kingdom, his wife, and his home. |
2. Pandora
Pandora was created by the gods as a punishment for men, after Prometheus stole fire from Olympus and gave it to the humans. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod describes her as a kalon kakon – "a beautiful evil". Hephaestus moulded her out of earth and Athena dressed her in beautiful robes. At the same time, she was given a vase or jar (later mistranslated as "box"), filled with the evils of the world. Prometheus' brother, Epimetheus, fell in love with the lovely woman in spite of Prometheus' warnings; Pandora opened the jar, and all the evils of the world came flooding out. Only hope was left behind.
The moral of the tale, according to Hesiod? |
Image credit: Helen Forte
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"From [Pandora] is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth. And as in thatched hives bees feed the drones whose nature is to do mischief—by day and throughout the day until the sun goes down the bees are busy and lay the white combs, while the drones stay at home in the covered hives and reap the toil of others into their own bellies—even so Zeus who thunders on high made women to be an evil to mortal men, with a nature to do evil."
Not surprising, perhaps, that this was written by a man. But I wonder what the women of ancient Greece would have had to say about Pandora?
Not surprising, perhaps, that this was written by a man. But I wonder what the women of ancient Greece would have had to say about Pandora?