Mythos: A Retelling of the Myths of Ancient Greece

So is Thetis ‘Theetis’, ‘Thettis’ or ‘Thaytis’? Is it ‘Maytis’, ‘Mettis’ or ‘Meetis’ for Metis, and ‘Hearer’ or ‘Hairer’ for Hera? ‘Ahr-ease’ or ‘Air-ease’ for Ares? Modern Greeks pronounce it one way, English and American academics their ways and common usage, inasmuch as there is common usage, goes its way. Anyone who tells you that there is a definitive right or wrong can be doubted, in my opinion.

Illustrations

1. Gaia, a primordial goddess and the personification of Earth, brought into being at the dawn of creation.

2. Themis, the Titan goddess who became the embodiment of law, justice and order. She is shown here seated on the Delphic tripod, holding a cup in one hand and a sprig of laurel in the other.

3. The Cyclopes had a single, orb-shaped eye in the middle of their forehead.

4. Hypnos, the personification of sleep. He would father Morpheus, who shaped and formed dreams.

5. Kronos (Cronus) uses a scythe to mutilate his father, Ouranos (Uranus).

6. Botticelli’s Birth of Venus shows Aphrodite as she makes landfall in Cyprus.

7. Kronos devouring one of his sons.

8. Kronus receives the Omphalos stone from Rhea.

9. The infant Zeus being fed by nymphs and the she-goat Amalthea on Crete.

10. Two giants battling the gods during the Gigantomachy.

11. Zeus aims a thunderbolt at the winged and snake-legged monster, Typhon.

12. The Muses: nine sisters, each of whom represents and stands patron to her own particular art form.

13. The three Moirai, or Fates. Clotho spins the thread that represents a life, Lachesis measures out its length and Atropos chooses when to cut the life off.

14. The gods battle the Titans during the ten-year conflict known as the Titanomachy.

15. The triumphant gods of Olympus.

16. The wedding of Hera and Zeus

17. Hephaestus – god of fire, of blacksmiths, artisans, sculptors and metalworkers – at work in his forge.

18. Ares, god of war.

19. Ares sleeps peacefully while Aphrodite watches, awake and alert.

20. Equipped with armour, shield, spear and plumed helmet, Athena rises out of the head of her father, Zeus.

21. Pallas Athena, goddess of war.

22. For the messenger of the gods, Hephaestus fashioned what would become Hermes’ signature footwear, the talaria – a pair of winged sandals.

23. Apollo, entranced by Hermes’ gift to the god of music.

24. Artemis, goddess of the chase and the chaste, of hounds and hinds, queen of archers and huntresses.

25. Prometheus brings fire to mankind.

26. Zeus called to Prometheus: ‘You will lie chained to this rock for ever. Each day these eagles will come to tear out your liver, just as you tore out my heart. Since you are immortal it will grow back every night. This torture will never end.’

27. The instant that human spirits departed their bodies, they were led to where the River Styx (Hate) met the River Acheron (Woe). There the grim and silent Charon held out his hand to receive his payment for ferrying the souls across the Styx.

28. The Golden Age of gods and mankind came to an end when Pandora opened the pithos, releasing Illness, Violence, Deceit, Misery and Want into the world.

29. For six months Persephone was Queen of the Underworld. For the other six months, she returned to her mother Demeter as the Kore of fertility, flowers and frolic.

30. Eros and Psyche … Cupid and Anima … Love and Soul.

31. Phaeton had begged his father Apollo to allow him to drive the chariot of the sun across the sky.

32. Silenus, the pot-bellied tutor of Dionysus, accompanied by the sileni – satyr-like creatures for ever associated with antic riot, rout and revelry.

33. To punish Marsyas for his hubris in daring to test an Olympian, Apollo peeled the skin from the satyr’s living body.

34. Arachne, so proud of her weaving, challenged an Olympian to a contest.

Appendices

The Brothers, a Sidebar

A final word about Epimetheus and Prometheus, the sons of Clymene (or Asia) the Oceanid and Iapetus the Titan, and younger brothers of sky-shouldering Atlas and thunderbolt-exploded Menoetius. It is generally held that Prometheus means ‘forethought’ and Epimetheus ‘afterthought’, from which it is usually inferred that Epimetheus blundered into things without considering consequences while his elder brother Prometheus deliberated with more perspicacity. It might be convincingly argued that there was nothing especially cautious, forward-thinking or prescient about Prometheus’s actions in bringing fire to man. It was impulsive, generous … loving even, but not especially wise. Epimetheus was a kindly, well disposed individual also, and his failings were only … I was going to say only human, but that can hardly be right, for he was a Titan. His failings were certainly titanic in their consequences. The perceived difference between the brothers is used to this day by philosophers to express something fundamental about us all.

In Plato’s dialogue Protagoras the title character suggests a creation myth somewhat different from the traditionally accepted one.