Wednesday 15 July 2015

Hymen

                                          In Greek  mythology , Hymen  was described  as the god of marriage ceremonies, inspiring feast and song. 
Hymen, Aphrodite and Eros................

According  to Greek  mythology,  Hymen  was supposed to attend every wedding. If he did not then the marriage would supposedly prove disastrous. In Greek  art Hymen  was described as a young man wearing a garland of flowers and holding a burning torch in one hand. Hymen  was the son of Apollo and one of the Muses or Dionysus  and Aphrodite
Hymen and Eros

                                               According to other version, Hymen  was described as an Athenian youth of such delicate beauty, that he might be taken for a girl. Hymen  fell in love with a beautiful  girl, who refused to listen to him.  So Hymen in the disguise of a girl, followed her to Eleusis to the festival of goddess Demeter. He, together with the other girls, was carried off by pirates into a distant and desolate country. Hymen encouraged the women and plotted strategy with them, and together they killed pirates .

                                  Hymen returned to Athens, requesting the citizens to give him his beloved in marriage, if he restored to them the maidens who had been carried off by the pirates. His request was granted, and his marriage was extremely happy. For this reason he was invoked in the hymeneal songs.

Index......

Wednesday 8 July 2015

Laomedon

                               In Greek  mythology, Laomedon was  described  as the king  of Troy  and the son  of Ilus and Eurdice.  Laomedon's son  Ganymede  was kidnapped by Zeus, the king of gods, who had fallen in love with the beautiful boy. Laomedon grived for his son, Zeus send Hermes, the god messenger,  with two magical horses, (the horses could run over water), as compensation. Hermes  also assured Laomedon  that Ganymede  was immortal and would be the cup-bearer for the gods, a position of much distinction. According to other version, Ganymede  was described  as the son of Tros, an early king and grandfather of Laomedon. So Laomedon  was described  as the nephew of Ganymede.
Laomedon with Poseidon and Apollo....

              According  to Greek  legend, Poseidon, the god of sea, and Apollo, the god of music,  revolted against Zeus and were doomed by Zeus to serve king Laomedon  for wage. According  to other version, Poseidon  and Apollo  came to Laomedon  of their own accord, in order to test him. Laomedon  had them built huge walls around the Troy  and was assisted in the building the wall by Aeacus. In other version Poseidon built the walls of Troy, while Apollo  attended to king' flocks on Mt Ida. 

When the two gods had done their work, Laomedon  refused them the reward he had promised them or wage, and expelled them from his kingdom. 
  In vengeance, Poseidon send sea monster  into the territory of Troy , which ravaged the whole country and Apollo  sent a plague. By an oracle advice Laomedon  agreed to sacrifice his daughter  Hesione to Poseidon  in hope of appeasing  him. 
      But it happened that Hercules  was just returning from his expedition against Amazons, along with Oicles and Telamon. Hercules  promised to save Hesione  if Laomedon  would gave him the horses  which Laomedon  had received from Zeus  as a compensation for Ganymede (or Tros had once received from Zeus  as a compensation for Ganymede). 
Hercules......save Hesione....

Laomedon  promised to give them to Hercules but broke his word when Hercules  had killed the monster and saved Hesione. So Hercules sailed with a squadron of six ships against Troy and capture Troy. Hercules  killed Laomedon with all his sons except Podarces (Priam), who saved his own life by giving Hercules a golden veil. In some versions, Tithonus was also described  as Laomedon  son and was said Eos, the goddess of dawn, save life of Podarces and Tithonus. Hercules gave Hesione  to Telamon, as a war prize.
                                           Laomedon  tomb existed in the neighbourhood of the Scaean Gate and it was believed that Troy  would be save so long as the tomb remained uninjured.

Index.....

Monday 6 July 2015

Cecrops

           In Greek mythology, Cecrops was described as the son of soil (Gaea), with a body of compounded of man and serpent (or dragon). Cecrops married Aglaulus1, daughter of  Actaeus (first king of Greek), and inherited throne. Cecrops was founder of the city of Athens.
Cecrops.........

Cecrops was the first man to offer sacrifices to the goddess Athena following her birth from the head of ZeusDuring Cecrops time,  the gods competed with each other to gain the patronage of the cities. In Athens this competition took place between Poseidon and Athena. The two raced ferociously towards the hill of the Acropolis. Athena took Cecrops as her witness while she planted an olive tree on the hill of the Acropolis. Poseidon had no witness that he had created the well or salt sea. When Cecrops was asked to adjudicate, he descided in Athena favour.

Cecrops, Athena and Poseidon

Cecrops was first to acknowledge Zeus as the supreme god and first to set up altars and statues of the gods. Cecrops instituted marriage among the Athenians, who before lives promiscuously.
                          From his wife Agraulus1, Cecrops became father of a son, Erysichthon and three daughters- Agraulus2, Herse and Pandrosus. Cecrops was succeeded on the throne by Athena's foster son Erichthonius  (see Athena and Hephaestus).


Index........

Lysippe

  Lysippe1
                                                 In Greek mythology, Lysippe was described as an Amazon and the mother of Tanais by Berossos. Lysippe son, Tanais, only venerated Ares and was fully devoted to war, neglecting love and marriage. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, cursed him with falling in love with his own mother. Preferring to die rather than give up his chastity, he threw himself into the river Amazonius, which was subsequently renamed Tanais.
Lysippe.....Amazon Queen

                                          Lysippe lost her sorrow in work consolidating her queendom, building the city of Themiscyra and raising temples to worship goddess Artemis. In some version, Lysippe was described to led a force of women that were the first to use cavalry in battle.

Lysippe2
                                          In Greek mythology, Lysippe was described as one of the daughters of Thespius, King of Thespiae, Boeotia. She was one of the forty-nine of his fifty daughters to sleep with Hercules while he was in Thespia. Lysippe bore Hercules a son, Erasippus. (see Thespiades----------Fifty daughters of King Thespius)

Lysippe3
                                   In Greek mythology, Lysippe was described as the mother of Teuthras the Mysian king. Her son killed a sacred boar of goddess Artemis during hunt and was driven mad by the angry goddess. 

Lysippe then went out in the woods, seeking to find out what had happened to her son. Eventually she learned about the goddess' wrath from the seer Polyidus, she then sacrificed to the goddess to propitiate her, and Teuthras' sanity was restored.

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