Monday 30 September 2013

Nike

Nike was the winged goddess or spirit of victory both in battle and peaceful competition
                                  Nike or Nice the goddess of victory, is described as a daughter of Pallas and Styx and sister of Zelus (zeal), Cratos (strenth), and Bai (force). At the time when Zeus entered upon the fight against the Titans and called upon the gods for assistance, Nike and her two sisters were the first to come forward. Zeus was so pleased with their readiness that he caused them ever after to live with him in Olympus. 
Nike crowning Ares

She is often seen represent in ancient work of art, especially together with other divinities, such as Zeus, Athena, and with conquering heros whose horses she guides. In her appearance she resembles Athena but has wings and carries a palm or a wreath and is engaged in raising a trophy,  in inscribing the victory of the conqueror on a shield.

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Pallas

                        Pallas1 :- In Greek mythology, Pallas was described as the son of Crius and Eurybia, was one of the Titans and brother of Astraeus and Perses. Pallas was the Titan god of warcraft and Greek campaign season of late spring and early summer.

Pallas, the Titan god of warcraft
 He was married to Styx by whom he became father of Zelus (rivalary), Kratos (strength), Bai (force), and Nike (victory). According to other version Pallas was son of Meyamedes and Selene (moon) was his daughter. 

Pallas2 :- In Greek mythology, Pallas was described as the daughter of Triton (a sea god), and a childhood friend of goddess Athena. Triton raised Zeus’s daughter Athena, alongside his own daughter, Pallas. 
Pallas

                     During a friendly fight between the two goddesses, Athena was protected from harm by Zeus but Pallas was mortally wounded. Out of sadness and regret, Athena created the palladium, a statue in the likeness of Pallas. This story inspired a yearly festival in Libya dedicated to Athena. Girls from the Machlyans and Auseans tribes would fight each other, and those who died were labeled false virgins.

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Styx

Styx

Styx was the goddess of the underworld river Styx, she was also the personified spirit of hatred. Styx was daughter of Titan Oceanus and Tethys (Titan generation of Oceanides). By Pallas Styx became the mother of Nike (victory), Zelos (rivalry), Bia (force), and Kratos (strenth).

Styx was a firm ally of Zeus in the Titan Wars, who brought her children ( Bia, Kratos, Nike, and Zelos) to stand alongside the god. Zeus rewarded her by making her streams the agent of binding oath of the gods. When one of the gods was to take an oath by Styx, Iris fetched a cup full of water from the Styx, and the god, while taking the oath, poured out the water. In one version (perhaps in error) Zeus became by her the father of Persephone.



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Nymph

In Greek Mythology, any of a large class of minor female divinities. Nymphs were usually associated with features of a natural world such as trees and water. Though not immortal they were extremely long-lived and they tended to be well disposed toward humans. They were grouped according to the shear of nature with which they were connected.


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Hestia

 
Hestia

Hestia was the daughter of Rhea and Cronus. When Apollo and Poseidon became suitors for her hand, she swore to remain a maiden forever, whereupon Zeus gave her the honour of presiding over all sacrifices. Hestia the goddess of the family hearth and domestic life, was sometime also worshiped at the civic hearth in public buildings. 

As the goddess of the family hearth she also presided over the cooking of bread and the preparation of family meal. Hestia as the goddess of the sacrificial flame, received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. The cooking of the communal feast of sacrificial meat was naturally a part of her domain. Hestia was the first born child of Cronus and Rhea, who was swallowed by her father at birth. Zeus later forced Cronus to disgorge Hestia and her siblings. As the first to be swallowed, she was also the last to be disgorged and so was named as both the eldest and youngest of the six children of Cronus.

Related
  The Twelve Olympians :

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Crius

Crius or Krios was one of Titan god, son of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth). Crius was god of mastery, leadership and the constellation. Led by Cronus, the brothers conspire againrt their father and prepared an ambush for him as he descended to lie with Gaea (earth). Crius, Coeus, Hyperion, and Iapetos were posted at four corner of the world where they seized hold of Uranus (sky) and held him firm, while Cronus, hidden in the centre, castrated Uranus with a sickle. 

                            Crius married Eurybai, daughter of Gaea (earth) and Pontus (sea), and became by her the father of Astraios, Pallas, and Perses.

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Friday 27 September 2013

Hercules

Hercules

Hercules or Heracles, legendary hero of ancient Greek and Rome. Known for his great strength  he was the son of Zeus and Alcmene (granddaughter of Perseus). Zeus fell in love with Alcmene, and when Alcmene's husband, Amphitryon, was away, Zeus made her pregnant. This made Hera so angry that she tried to prevent the baby from born.

Baby Hercules strangling a snake

 However Alcmene gave birth to baby and she named him Hercules "glorious gift of Hera". But that did not ended Hera anger. Hera sent two serpents to kill Hercules in his cradles, but the infant strangled them. He grew up and had become a great warrior, he married a princess, Megara. He killed Megara and his children in a fit of rage sent by Hera and was forced to become the servant of Eurystheus, ruler of Greece. 

Hercules and the three headed dog Cerberus

                                              Eurystheus obliged Hercules to perform the famous 12 labors, including cleansing the Augean stables, fetching the golden apples of the Hesperides, and descending into Hades to bring back the three-headed dog Cerberus. 

                     
Hercules and Deianira

                Hercules married Deianira, as he won her hand by wrestling with the river god Acheloos. Deianira later sent Hercules a shirt smeared with poison, which she mistakenly believed was a love potion. In agony Hercules burned himself to death on a pyre and his spirit ascended to heaven. 
The marriage of Hercules and Hebe

Hera ended her anger as Hercules had suffered enough. Hercules became an immortal and married Hebe daughter of Zeus and Hera.

Hercules love
  HebeDeianeiraThespiades :
Posts related to Hercules
 AlcmeneArgonauts : The island of Lemnos : Hera and Hypnos : Twelve labors of Hercules :

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Metis

Metis was first love and wife of Zeus. She was daughter of  Oceanus and Tethys (Oceanides) and the Titan goddess of good counsel, advise, planning, cunning, craftiness, and wisdom. She was adviser of Zeus during the Titan war and devised the plan which forced Cronus to regurgitate his children. 


                                       Metis prophesied to Zeus that she would give birth first to a girl and afterwards to a boy, to whom the rule of the world was destined by fate. Zeus in fear of a prophecy that she would bear a son more powerful than himself swallowed the pregnant Metis whole. Their daughter, Athena, was later born fully grown from the Zeus head. 
  
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Isthmias Games


In ancient Greek a festival of athletic and musical competition in honor of the sea god Poseidon. It was held in the spring of the second and fourth years of each Olympiad at Poseidon's legendary sanctuary on the Isthmus of Corinth. It died out when Christianity became dominant in the 4th century AD.

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Tuesday 24 September 2013

Philyre

Philyre or Philyra was an Oceanid nymph of Mount Pelion in Thessalia, loved by the Titan Cronus
Philyre

Once Cronus wife Rhea came upon their meeting place. Cronus leapt out of bed and transformed himself into a horse to escape. As a result, Philyre birthed a half horse, half man hybrid; Centaur Chiron (Kentauros Kheiron). To ease her shame, Cronus transformed the girl into a linden tree.


Cronus son of Uranus, deceiving his consort Rhea, lay with Philyre daughter of Oceanus in the days when he ruled the Titanes in Olympos and Zeus was still a child tended in the Cretan cave by the Curetes of Ida.

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Hera

Hera

Hera was daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Greek queen of the gods and sister-wife of Zeus. Being a daughter of Cronus she, like his other children was swallowed by her father, but afterwards released. Rhea was worshiped as queen of heaven and patron of marriage and woman.
Hera and Zeus

                               She was usually depicted as a beautiful woman wearing a crown and holding a royal, lotus tipped staff. Sometimes she  held a royal lion or had a cuckoo or hawk as her familiar. Hera also held the title Eileithyia, the goddess of birth. Her sacred animal was the cow. In literature she was depicted as a jealous wife who vindictively pursued the woman Zeus seduce.


Posts Related to Hera
    Io : Ixion : Semele : Teiresias : The Twelve Olympians : Zeus  and Hera : Hera and Hypnos :

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Rhea



Rhea was the daughter of Uranus (heaven or sky) and Gaea (earth). Rhea was wife of her brother Cronus and was called the mother of the gods. Rhea a goddess of female fertility, motherhood, and generation. Her name means 'flow' and 'ease'. As the wife of Cronus (time), she represent the eternal flow of time and generations; as the great mother, the 'flow' was menstrual blood, birth water, and milk. She was also a goddess of comfort and ease. 

                                                                                       When her husband hear a prophecy that he would be deposed by one of his children, he began to swallow each of them as soon as they were born (Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Hades,  and Poseidon, all were swallowed).  But Rhea bore her youngest, Zeus, in secret and hid him away in Crete (Krete) guarded by shield-clashing Kouretes. Rhea presented Cronus with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he swallowed, instead of her child (Zeus)


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Hyperion

Hyperion was the Titan god of light, one of the sons of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth). Hyperion was one of the four Titan brother who conspired with Cronus in the castration of their father Uranus. When Uranus (sky) descended to lie with Gaea (earth), Hyperion, Crius, Coeus and Iapetus were posted at the four corners of the world -- seized hold of their father and held him fast while Cronus castrated him with a sickle.



                                          With his sister and consort (wife) Theia he fathered Helios (sun), Eos (dawn), Selene (moon). In other version Euryphaessa was Hyperion consort (wife), by whom he became the father of Helios (sun), Eos (dawn), Selene (moon).

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Oceanus

Oceanus or Okeanos, Titan son of Uranus and Gaea, the eldest of the Titans. Unlike his brother Titanes, Oceanus neither participated in the castration of Uranus nor joined the battle against the younger Olympian gods. Oceanus god of all the earth's fresh-water: including rivers, wells, springs and rain-clouds. Oceanus was also the god who regulated the rising and setting of the heavenly bodies which were belived to emerge and descend into his watery realm at the ends of the earth. 


                                   Oceanus was depicted in ancient Grefk vase panting as a bull-horned god with the tail of a serpenting fish in place of leg, similar to his river god sons. His usual attributes were a fish and serpent. With his sister and consort (wife) Terthys, he fathered the Potamoi or river-gods and Oceaides, nymphs of springs and fountains.

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Monday 23 September 2013

Theia

Theia or Thea daughter of Uranus and Gaea, one of female Titans. Theia was the Titan goddess of sight and shining light of the clear blue sky. She was also, by extension, the goddess who emdowed gold, silver, and gems with brilliance and intrinsic value. 
                                     

                               Thea consort (husband) was her brother Hyperion by whom she conceived Helios (sun), Eos (dawn), and Selene (moon).

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Iapetus

Iapetus was one of the Titan gods, son of Uranus and Gaea. Led by Cronus, Iapetus and his brothers conspire againrt their father, preparing an ambush for him as he descended to lie with Gaea (earth). Crius, Coeus, Hyperion, and Iapetus were posted at four corner of the world where they seized hold of Uranus (sky) and held him firm, while Cronus, hidden in the centre, castrated Uranus with a sickle. 

Iapetus also have been regarded as the Titan god of the mortal life span. Iapetus married Asia, the daughter of his brother Oceanus and became by her father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menaetius. Other tradition call the wife of Iapetus Clymene, daugiter of Oceanus.

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Themis


Themis was Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaea. She was goddess of divine law and order- the traditional rules of conduct first established by the gods. She was also a prophetic goddess who presided over the most ancient oracles including Delphi.In this role, she was the divine voice who first instructed mankind in the primal law of justice and morality, such as the precepts of piety, the rules of hospitality, good governance, conduct of assembly and pious offerings to the gods.
Themis and Zeus

                Themis was married to Zeus, by whom she became the mother of the Horai, Eunomia, Dice, Eirene and the Moerae . Themis was often represented seated beside Zeus throne advising him on the precepts of divine law and rules of fate.

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Friday 20 September 2013

Terthys

Terthys, goddess of fresh water

Terthys or Tethys a daughter of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth). Terthys consort was her brother Oceanus, by whom she conceived the Potamoi (rivers), Oceanides (spring, streams and fountains) and Nephelai (clouds). Terthys was goddess of the sources fresh water which nourished the earth. Terthys was imagined feeding her children's streams by drawing water from Oceanus through subterranean aquifers.
                                  Terthys also educated Hera, who was brought to her by Rhea.

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Thursday 19 September 2013

Mnemosyne


Mnemosyne Titan daughter of Uranus and Gaea. Goddess of memory and remembrance and the inventress of language and words. Mnemosyne was also a goddess of time. She represented the rote memorization required before the introduction of writing, to preserve the stories of history and sagas of myth.

        Mnemosyne slept with Zeus for nine consecutive nights, thus birthing the nine Muses. Nine Muses are usually named: Calliope (heroic or epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (lyric or love poetry), Euterpe (music or flutes), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (sacred poetry or mime). Terpsichore (dancing and choral song), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).
  

Phoebe


Phoebe titan daughter of Uranus (sky) and Gaea (earth), and goddess of the "bright" intellect. Phoebe consort was her brother Coeus, with whom she had two daughters Leto (who bore Apollo and Athremis) and Asteria (a star goddess who bore a daughter Hecate)

      Phoebe was in possession of the Delphic oracle after Themis ( she was the third goddess to hold the oracle of Delphic) which she gifted to her grandson Apollo on his birthday.

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Cronus

Cronus

In Greek mythology Cronus (or Cronos or Kronos), was described as a male agriculture deity. He king of the Titans and Titan god of time and the ages, especially time where regarded as destructive and all-devouring. He was the youngest of 12 Titans borne by Uranus and Gaea and his castration of his father separated heaven and earth.


       With his sister and consort Rhea, he fathered Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon, all of whom he swallowed because he had been warned that he would be overthrown by his own child. Rhea hid her son Zeus and tricked Cronus into swallowing a stone; Zeus later forced Cronus to disgorge the others and then vanquished him in war. He was identified with Roman god Saturn.

Cronus love
Philyre : Rhea :

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Coeus

Coeus or Koios was one of the Titan gods, son of Uranus (Sky or heaven) and Gaea (earth). He and his brothers conspired against their father, laying an ambush for him as he descended to lie with Earth. Four of the siblings were posted at the corners of the world where they seized hold of him and held him fast, while Cronus castrated him with a sickle.

       Coeus was god of intelligence who presided over the axis of heaven around which the constellations revolved. With his sister and consort (wife) Phoebe, he fathered Leto and Asteria.   

Thalassa

                                           
Pontus and Thalassa

Thalassa a personification of the Mediterranean, is described as a daughter of Aether and Hemera. Thalassa primeval spirit of the sea. Coupling with her male counterpart Pontus, she spawned the tribes of fish.

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Pontus

Pontus a personification of the sea, is described in the ancient cosmogony as a son of Gaea (without sweet union of love) and as the father of Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia, by his own mother (Gaea). By Thalassa, his female counterpart, Pontus sired the fish and other sea creatures.

       In Roman mosaic he appears as a giant head rising from the sea adorned with a watery-gray beard and crab claw horns. Pontus and Thalassa were completely superseded by Poseidon and Amphitrite in classical art and myth.

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Monday 16 September 2013

Hades


Hades, Greek god of the underworld. He was also known as Pluto, his Roman equivalent was Dis. Hades was son of the Titans Rhea and Cronus and the brothers of Zeus and Poseidon. His queen was Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, whom he kidnapped from earth and carried off to the underworld.
Hades and Persephone

     Stern and pitiless, unmoved by prayer or sacrifice, he presided over the trial and punishment of the wicked after death. His name was also sometimes used to designate the dwelling, place of the death and it later became a synonym for Hell.

Hades Love
Persephone (Abduction of Persephone) : Minthe : Leuce :

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Poseidon

    

In the Greek mythology  Poseidon was described as god of water and the sea, son of Cronus and Rhea. His brother were Zeus and Hades. When the three brothers deposed their father, the kingdom of the sea fell by lot to Poseidon.
      Unpredictable and sometimes violent, he was also god of earthquakes and he was closely associated with horses. Most of his offspring were giants and savage creatures. By Medusa he was the father of the winged horse Pegasus. The Isthmian Games were held in his honor. In art he was often shown holding a trident and accompanied by a dolphin and tuna. The Roman identified him with Neptune.

Poseidon love
  AbaAmphitrite  : Amymone : Aethra ArteriaAstypalaea :Beroe : CaenisCanace :Chione : CirceCoronisCoryra : Demeter (Demeter and Poseidon): Halia : Iphimedeia : MestraNerites : Pelops : SalamisTheophane : Thoosa : Thronia2 : Tyro :(update soon)

Related
  PasiphaeDemeter  and Poseidon  : The Twelve Olympians  :

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Zeus

Zeus

In Greek Religion, the chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god. His Roman counterpart was Jupiter. Zeus was regarded as the bearer of thunder and lighting, rain and wind and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt.
Zeus and Hera

    The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was fated to dethrone his father. He divided dominion over world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. As ruler of heaven, Zeus led the gods to victory against the Titans. From his home atop Mount Olympus, he dispensed justice and served as protector.
        Know for his amorousness- a source of perpetual discord with wife Hera- he had many love affairs with mortal and immortal women, giving rise to numerous offspring including, Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Helen, Hephaestus, and Persephone. In art he was represented as a bearded, dignified and mature man.

Zeus love   
    Aegina : AlcmeneAphrodite : Antiope2Arteria : Callisto : Danae:  Demeter : Dia : Electra : Europa : Eurymedousa Ganymede : Hera (Zeus and Hera): Io : Lamia : Leda : Leto : MaiaMetis Mnemosyne Nemesis : Niobe1 : Othreis : Persephone (Zeus and Persephone): Plouto : Selene : SemeleSinope : Taygete  Thalia : Themis : Thetis :(update soon)

Posts Related to Zeus

 Cyclopes :  Hera and Hypnos : PandoraPrometheusThe Twelve Olympians  : Zeus and Persephone : Zeus and Hera 


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