Transcript Other Gods and Goddesses You Need to Know (plus a couple

Other Gods and Goddesses
You Need to Know
(plus a couple of other mythological creatures)
Hera
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Queen of the Olympian gods
Goddess of marriage and birth
Married to Zeus…children: Hephaestus, Hebe, and Ares
Jealous of Zeus’s other girlfriends…he punished her rivals and
their children with implacable fury
• Roman Name: Juno
Demeter
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Goddess of corn, grain, and the harvest
Parents: Zeus & Rhea
Children: Persephone
When Persephone was abducted by Hades, Demeter would not allow
crops to grow. Zeus ordered that Persephone be returned to her mother
from the underworld, but Hades said she had already eaten there, so she
wasn’t allowed to leave. In the end, they decided Persephone would have
to spend 4 months a year in the underworld...during that time, Demeter
would not allow crops to grow (winter).
• Roman Name: Ceres
Artemis
• Goddess of the wilderness, the hunt, and wild animals (& fertility);
huntsman of the gods
• Parents: Zeus and Leto
• Guardian of young children and protectress of women in labor (gave them
a quick death if they were dying)
• Had the power to heal (like her brother, Apollo), but she also brought
about diseases
• Had a temper—killed Niobe’s daughters with Apollo
• Roman Name: Diana
Kronos (Cronus)
• Titan who came to power by mutilating his own father…time began when Cronus took
over
• Son of Uranus (“Heaven”) and Gaea (“Earth); Wife—Rhea; Children—Hestia,
Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, & Zeus
• An oracle told Cronus that one of his children would take his throne, so Cronus
swallowed each of his children when they were born, except Zeus (because Rhea gave
Cronus a rock in his place and then had Gaea raise Zeus). When Zeus grew up, he
wanted to overtake his father’s thrown, so he convinced him to throw up his brothers
and sisters. After they were back, Zeus and his 5 siblings went to war with the Titans,
overthrew them, and sent them away from Mt. Olympus.
• Roman Name: Saturnus
Hestia
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Goddess of the hearth fire (domestic life)
Eldest daughter of Cronus and Rhea
Did not want to marry, so she never did
Strongly connected to home and family
Roman Name: Vesta
Furies
• AKA, the Erinyes
• From these beings we have the words “furious” and “infuriated.”
• The three furies were responsible for punishing all crime
including the breaking of rules of ALL aspects of society. They
even protected beggars, strangers, birds, and dogs.
• They would strike offenders with madness and never stop
following criminals.
Fates
• Controlled destiny
• Clotho—spun the thread of life
(originally called upon during the 9th
month of pregnancy)
• Lachesis—measured the thread of life allotted to each person with her
measuring rod
• Atropos—cutter of the thread of life. She chose the manner and timing of
each person’s death. When she cut the thread with her “abhorred shears,”
someone on earth died
Cerberus
• The three-headed dog who guards the entrance to the
underworld
Charon
• The ferryman of the dead. The souls of the dead are brought to
him by Hermes, and Charon ferries them across the river Styx.
• The living put a coin in the dead’s mouth to pay Charon.
Chiron
• Deep-thinking centaur
• Never used weapons against humans
• Had extensive knowledge of the healing arts
Medusa
• The only MORTAL gorgon…she was originally a beautiful enough human
that Poseidon took an interest in her and seduced her in one of Athena’s
temples, which was unforgivable. Athena, in turn, turned her into a
gorgon (snakes for hair and a dragon body), but she remained mortal
since she was originally a normal woman.
• Her gaze could turn whomever she looked upon to stone
• Athena helped Perseus kill Medusa later on by leading his hand/sword to
cut off her head.
Minotaur
• Half man, half bull
• It was a terrible monster, so Minos had it enclosed in a labyrinth, and
each year, he had seven young girls and seven young boys from Athens
sacrificed to it.
• Theseus killed the minotaur by pretending to be a sacrifice, but taking a
long thread with him from the entrance until he found the minotaur and
killed it. He was then able to find his way out the labyrinth by following
his thread out. Theseus knew to use the thread because of Minos’s
daughter, Ariadne.
Satyrs
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Deities of the woods and mountains.
Half human & half beast
Usually have a goat’s tail, flanks and hooves
Upper part of body is human except for horns of a goat
Companions of Dionysus
AKA “fauns”
Perseus
• Son of Zeus and Danae
• Killed Medusa with the help of Hermes and Athena by only
looking at her reflection in his shield
Prometheus
• Titan
• Stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals
• Punished by Zeus by having him chained forever…each day an
eagle would come and eat his liver, but it would grow back, so
the torture was never-ending
Pan
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God of shepherds, flocks, and hunting
Satyr
Great musician, played the pipes
Not well liked by other gods
Oracle of Delphi
• Oracle: Prophet
• Oracle of Delphi: Most famous/well-known in Greek Mythology
Arachne
• Mortal who was very good at weaving…so good that she claimed to be
better than the goddess of weaving, Athena
• Athena was offended, but gave Arachne another chance…Arachne still
challenged her
• Arachne’s tapestry came out better than Athena’s in the end, so Athena
gave Arachne guilt
• Arachne hanged her self
• Athena felt guilty, so brought her back to life as a spider so she and all
ancestors could weave for the rest of their lives
Argus
• Monster with many eyes…very helpful in making him a fantastic
guard
• Most well-known for guarding Io at Hera’s command. Zeus was
angry and sent Hermes to retrieve Io. Hermes was able to lull
Argus to sleep and Io was rescued.
Naiads
• Nymphs who presided over rivers, streams, brooks, springs,
fountains, lakes, ponds, wells, and marshes
• Usually related to cautionary tales
Nereids
• The fifty daughters of Nereus and Doris who swell in the
Mediterranean Sea.
• Always helpful and friendly toward sailors fighting perilous
storms
• Able to prophesize
Dryads
• Female spirits of nature (nymphs) who preside over forests and
groves
• Each one born with a certain tree over which she watches
• Connected to lives of trees…if tree dies, so does dryad…gods
punish mortals who kill trees, and dryads punish mortals who
harm trees
Procrustes
• Bandit and torturer
• Captured travelers and made them “fit” into one of his two beds
• He placed tall travelers in his short bed and chopped off their
limbs to make them fit
• He placed short travelers in his long bed and stretched them out
until they fit
• Theseus killed Procrustes
Echidna
• Monster: Half nymph, half serpent
• Lived in a cave and snatched up passers-by to eat them
• Had “children” with Typhon—Cerberus, Orthrus, the Hydra,
Chimera, and the Sphinx were offspring
Chimera
• Monster: head of a lion, body of a goat, tail of a dragon
Lotus Eaters
• Lived in a state of forgetfulness induced by eating the lotus plant
• Odysseus came across the land of the lotus eaters with his
sailors…sailors met the lotus eaters, ate their plants, and didn’t
want to return to the ship…Odysseus searched out his men and
forced them to return to the ship
Harpies
• Winged monsters with the face of an ugly old woman and
equipped with crooked, sharp talons
• Carried people off to the underworld, torturing them as they
went
Rhea
• Mother of the gods…married to Cronus (mother of Zeus,
Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon)
• Rhea was the one who helped save Zeus…hid him in Crete until
he was grown