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NOT NECESSARY TO READ, ABOUT GREEK MYTHS FROM WIKIPEDIA, This is only used to fill up wordcount.

This is the source I used: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_mythology

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Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices.

Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.

Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods, heroes, and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase paintings and the decoration of votive gifts and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes. Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature.

Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends. Apollodorus of Athens lived from c. 180 BC to c. 125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection; however, the "Library" discusses events that occurred long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus. Prometheus (1868 by Gustave Moreau). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by Hesiod and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus Pyrphoros.

Among the earliest literary sources are Homer's two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the "Homeric Hymns" have no direct connection with Homer. The oldest are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths.

This was dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods, Titans, and Giants; as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales, and etiological myths. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Five Ages. The poet advises on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods. Lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents.

Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama. The tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea, etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright Aristophanes also used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs. Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends, often giving little-known alternative versions. Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East. Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins and the blending of differing cultural concepts.

The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Seneca and Virgil with Servius's commentary. The Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus Smyrnaeus. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Parthenius. Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths include Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus, and Heliodorus. Two other important non-poetical sources are the Fabulae and Astronomica of the Roman writer styled as Pseudo-Hyginus, the Imagines of Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the Younger, and the Descriptions of Callistratus.

Archaeological sources

If someone actually is reading this you have my respect! I shall dub you Royalty of the myths!

I don't know what I just did but okay moving on!

The Roman poet Virgil, here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the Vergilius Romanus, preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.

The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the Minoan civilization in Crete by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.[3]

Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth-century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles.[13] These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the Cerberus adventure occurs in a contemporary literary text.[14] Secondly, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by several centuries.[5] In the Archaic (c. 750 – c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic (323–146 BC) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.[3]

Survey of mythic history

Phaedra with an attendant, probably her nurse, a fresco from Pompeii, c. 60 – c. 20 BC

Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their culture, of which mythology, both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions, is an index of the changes. In Greek mythology's surviving literary forms, as found mostly at the end of the progressive changes, it is inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson (1975) has argued.[i][15]

The earlier inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people who, using Animism, assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human forms and entered the local mythology as gods.[16]:17 When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older gods of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.[16]:18

After the middle of the Archaic period, myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes became more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of pedagogic pederasty (παιδικὸς ἔρως, eros paidikos), thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the fifth-century BC, poets had assigned at least one eromenos, an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion, to every important god except Ares and many legendary figures.[17] Previously existing myths, such as those of Achilles and Patroclus, also then were cast in a pederastic light.[18]:54 Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often re-adapted stories of Greek mythological characters in this fashion.

The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles and, as a result, to develop a new sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the development of the world and of humans.[19]:11 While self-contradictions in these stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The resulting mythological "history of the world" may be divided into three or four broader periods:

The myths of origin or age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods"): myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race.

The age when gods and mortals mingled freely: stories of the early interactions between gods, demigods, and mortals.

The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and after (which is regarded by some researchers as a separate, fourth period).[8]:35

While the age of gods often has been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes, establishing a chronology and record of human accomplishments after the questions of how the world came into being were explained. For example, the heroic Iliad and Odyssey dwarfed the divine-focused Theogony and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the Chthonic from the Olympian.[20]:205 In the Works and Days, Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races to the creation of Zeus. The presence of evil was explained by the myth of Pandora, when all of the best of human capabilities, save hope, had been spilled out of her overturned jar.[21] In Metamorphoses, Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.[22]

Origins of the world and the gods

Further information: Greek primordial gods and Family tree of the Greek gods

Amor Vincit Omnia (Love Conquers All), a depiction of the god of love, Eros. By Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, circa 1601–1602.

"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to explain the beginnings of the universe in human language.[9]:10 The most widely accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the beginning of things, is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Gaia (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: Eros (Love), the Abyss (the Tartarus), and the Erebus.[23] Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Coeus, Crius, Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatonchires or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's children"),[23] was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife, Rhea, as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.

A motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus. Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was full-grown, he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children, including Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, and the stone, which had been sitting in Cronus's stomach all this time. Zeus then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.[24]

Attic black-figured amphora depicting Athena being "reborn" from the head of Zeus, who had swallowed her mother Metis, on the right, Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, assists, circa 550–525 BC (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis, would give birth to a god "greater than he", Zeus swallowed her.[25]:98 She was already pregnant with Athena, however, and she burst forth from his head—fully-grown and dressed for war.[25]:108

The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogonies to be the prototypical poetic genre—the prototypical mythos—and imputed almost magical powers to it. Orpheus, the archetypal poet, also was the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius' Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to Hades. When Hermes invents the lyre in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is sing about the birth of the gods.[26] Hesiod's Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the Muses. Theogony also was the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, Musaeus, Epimenides, Abaris, and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and mystery-rites. There are indications that Plato was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony.[27]:147 A silence would have been expected about religious rites and beliefs, however, and that nature of the culture would not have been reported by members of the society while the beliefs were held. After they ceased to become religious beliefs, few would have known the rites and rituals. Allusions often existed, however, to aspects that were quite public.

Images existed on pottery and religious artwork that were interpreted and more likely, misinterpreted in many diverse myths and tales. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by Neoplatonist philosophers and recently unearthed papyrus scraps. One of these scraps, the Derveni Papyrus now proves that at least in the fifth-century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus was in existence.[20]:236[27]:147

The first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the river of Oceanus and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars. The Sun (Helios) traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades and his predecessors, home of the dead.[28]:45 Influences from other cultures always afforded new themes.

Greek pantheon

Further information: Ancient Greek religion, Twelve Olympians, Family Tree of the Greek Gods, and List of Mycenaean gods

Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces Leda, the Queen of Sparta. A sixteenth-century copy of the lost original by Michelangelo.

According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea.)[29]:8 Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped various gods of the countryside, the satyr-god Pan, Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, Satyrs, and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.[30] In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs).[31] Gregory Nagy (1992) regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with Theogony), each of which invokes one god."[32]:54

The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts."[20]:182 Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.[29]:4

Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods are called upon in poetry, prayer, or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g., Apollo Musagetes is "Apollo, [as] leader of the Muses"). Alternatively, the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.

Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, Ares was the god of war, Hades the ruler of the underworld, and Athena the goddess of wisdom and courage.[29]:20ff Some gods, such as Apollo and Dionysus, revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as Hestia (literally "hearth") and Helios (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive temples tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demigods) supplemented that of the gods.

Age of gods and mortals

Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's Metamorphoses and they are often divided into two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.[8]:38

Dionysus with satyrs. Interior of a cup painted by the Brygos Painter, Cabinet des Médailles.

Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.[8]:39 In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite, where the goddess lies with Anchises to produce Aeneas.[33]

The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when Tantalus steals nectar and ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus or Lycaon invents sacrifice, when Demeter teaches agriculture and the Mysteries to Triptolemus, or when Marsyas invents the aulos and enters into a musical contest with Apollo. Ian Morris considers Prometheus' adventures as "a place between the history of the gods and that of man."[34]:291 An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the third century, vividly portrays Dionysus' punishment of the king of Thrace, Lycurgus, whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.[35]:50 The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy.[36]:28 In another tragedy, Euripides' The Bacchae, the king of Thebes, Pentheus, is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his Maenads, the female worshippers of the god.[37]:195

Demeter and Metanira in a detail on an Apulian red-figure hydria, circa 340 BC (Altes Museum, Berlin).

In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,[38] and echoing a similar theme, Demeter was searching for her daughter, Persephone, having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, and received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make his son Demophon a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.[39]

Heroic age

The age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age.[40] The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden (1992), "there is even a saga effect: We can follow the fates of some families in successive generations."[19]:11

After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths and prayers which are addressed to them.[20]:205 Burkert (2002) notes that "the roster of heroes, again in contrast to the gods, is never given fixed and final form. Great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead." Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.[20]:206

The monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are also ascribed three great events: the Argonautic expedition, the Theban Cycle, and the Trojan War.[40][41]:340

Heracles and the Heracleidae

Further information: Heracles, Heracleidae, and Hercules

Heracles with his baby Telephus (Louvre Museum, Paris).

Some scholars believe[41]:10 that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of Argos. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac.[42] Others point to earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, granddaughter of Perseus.[43] His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many folk-tale themes, provided much material for popular legend. According to Burkert (2002), "He is portrayed as a sacrificer, mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy.[20]

While his tragic end provided much material for tragedy—Heracles is regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance in examination of other Euripidean dramas."[44][20]:211 In art and literature Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club. Vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times.[20]:211

Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks.[20]:211 In Italy he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.[43]

Heracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as official ancestor of the Dorian kings. This probably served as a legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the Peloponnese. Hyllus, the eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle, became the son of Heracles and one of the Heracleidae or Heraclids (the numerous descendants of Heracles, especially the descendants of Hyllus—other Heracleidae included Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus). These Heraclids conquered the Peloponnesian kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos, claiming, according to legend, a right to rule them through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the "Dorian invasion". The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.[45][20]:211

Other members of this earliest generation of heroes such as Perseus, Deucalion, Theseus and Bellerophon, have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on fairy tale, as they slay monsters such as the Chimera and Medusa. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.[46]

Argonauts

Further information: Argonauts

The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of Alexandria) tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Colchis. In the Argonautica, Jason is impelled on his quest by king Pelias, who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his nemesis. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included Theseus, who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta, the female heroine, and Meleager, who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the Iliad and Odyssey. Pindar, Apollonius and the Bibliotheca endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.[47][48][49]

Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than Odyssey, which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded on it).[50][51] In ancient times the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident in the opening up of the Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization.[50] It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of Medea, in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets.[51]

House of Atreus and Theban Cycle

Further information: Theban Cycle and Seven against Thebes

In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of Atreus and Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of Labdacus) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.[52]

The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with Cadmus, the city's founder, and later with the doings of Laius and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the war of the Seven against Thebes and the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Epigoni.[7]:317 (It is not known whether the Seven figured in early epic.) As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have him continuing to rule at Thebes after the revelation that Iokaste was his mother, and subsequently marrying a second wife who becomes the mother of his children—markedly different from the tale known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex) and later mythological accounts.[7]:311

Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece.[16]:15 Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace the descent of one's leaders from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. According to Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian, columnist, political essayist, and former classics professor, and John Heath, a classics professor, the profound knowledge of the Homeric epos was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education of Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry "the Book".[57]

Philosophy and myth

Raphael's Plato in The School of Athens fresco (probably in the likeness of Leonardo da Vinci). The philosopher expelled the study of Homer, of the tragedies and the related mythological traditions from his utopian Republic.

After the rise of philosophy, history, prose and rationalism in the late 5th-century BC, the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the Thucydidean history).[58] While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.[8]

A few radical philosophers like Xenophanes of Colophon were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th-century BC; Xenophanes had complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another."[5]:169–70 This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in Plato's Republic and Laws. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the Republic), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts, and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature.[8] Plato's criticism was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition,[57] referring to the myths as "old wives' chatter."[59] For his part Aristotle criticized the Pre-socratic quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us ... But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them."[58]

Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization for Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:[60]

But perhaps someone might say: "Are you then not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed such a pursuit, that you are now in danger of being put to death as a result?" But I should make to him a just reply: "You do not speak well, Sir, if you think a man in whom there is even a little merit ought to consider danger of life or death, and not rather regard this only, when he does things, whether the things he does are right or wrong and the acts of a good or a bad man. For according to your argument all the demigods would be bad who died at Troy, including the son of Thetis, who so despised danger, in comparison with enduring any disgrace, that when his mother (and she was a goddess) said to him, as he was eager to slay Hector, something like this, I believe,

My son, if you avenge the death of your friend Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself shall die; for straightway, after Hector, is death appointed unto you. (Hom. Il. 18.96)

he, when he heard this, made light of death and danger, and feared much more to live as a coward and not to avenge his friends, and said,

Straightway may I die, after doing vengeance upon the wrongdoer, that I may not stay here, jeered at beside the curved ships, a burden of the earth.

Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization.[57] The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry and to form the main subject of painting and sculpture.[58]

More sportingly, the 5th century BC tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's version of the same or similar myth. Euripides mainly impugns the myths about the gods and begins his critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as traditionally represented, are far too crassly anthropomorphic.[5]:169–70

Hellenistic and Roman rationalism

Cicero saw himself as the defender of the established order, despite his personal skepticism concerning myth and his inclination towards more philosophical conceptions of divinity.

During the Hellenistic period, mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced.[61]:89 Greek mythographer Euhemerus established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.[62] Although his original work (Sacred Scriptures) is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and Lactantius.[7]:7

Rationalizing hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.[63] Through his Epicurean message, Lucretius had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.[64]:xxvi Livy, too, is skeptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae).[61]:88 The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of religious tradition was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian Varro, who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (which has not survived, but Augustine's City of God indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents.[64]:xxvi According to Varro, there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and the natural account created by the philosophers.[65] The best state is, adds Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with the philosopher's.[65]

Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.[61]:87 Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended.[61]:88 Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of Scyllas, centaurs or other composite creatures,[66] but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people.[67] De Natura Deorum is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought.[64]:xxvii

Syncretizing trends

See also: Comparative mythology

Max Müller is regarded as one of the founders of comparative mythology. In his Comparative Mythology (1867) Müller analysed the "disturbing" similarity between the mythologies of "savage races" with those of the early Europeans.

The development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative. Wilhelm Mannhardt, James Frazer, and Stith Thompson employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.[72] In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor published his Primitive Culture, in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.[73][74]:9 Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Max Müller applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of Aryan nature worship. Bronisław Malinowski emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions. Claude Lévi-Strauss and other structuralists have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.[72]

Sigmund Freud introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochement between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.[75] Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.[3] According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche."[76] Comparing Jung's methodology with Joseph Campbell's theory, Robert A. Segal (1990) concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the Odyssey, for example, would show how Odysseus's life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth."[77] Karl Kerényi, one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.[5]:38

Origin theories

See also: Mycenaean religion; Mycenaean deities; and Similarities between Roman, Greek and Etruscan mythologies

Max Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European religious form by tracing it back to its Indo-European (or, in Müller's time, "Aryan") "original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century concerning the ancient history of mankind ... was this sample equation: Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr".[74]:12 The question of Greek mythology's place in Indo-European studies has generated much scholarship since Müller's time. For example, philologist Georges Dumézil draws a comparison between the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna, although there is no hint that he believes them to be originally connected.[78] In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek Moirai and the Norns of Norse mythology.[79]

It appears that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the Greek religion[80] and its pantheon already included many divinities that can be found in classical Greece.[81] However, Greek mythology is generally seen as having heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern cultures, and as such contains few important elements for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European religion.[82] Consequently, Greek mythology received minimal scholarly attention in the context of Indo-European comparative mythology until the mid 2000s.[83]

Archaeology and mythography have revealed influence from Asia Minor and the Near East. Adonis seems to be the Greek counterpart—more clearly in cult than in myth—of a Near Eastern "dying god". Cybele is rooted in Anatolian culture while much of Aphrodite's iconography may spring from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish.[84][85] According to Meyer Reinhold, "near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way…into Greek mythology."[86]

In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and Orchomenus.[20]:23 Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur, etc.). Martin P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations and general function of the gods, that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenaean religion.[87] and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaean centres and anchored in prehistoric times.[88] Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.[20]:24

Motifs in Western art and literature

Further information: Greek mythology in western art and literature

See also: List of films based on Greco-Roman mythology and Greek mythology in popular culture

Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (c. 1485–1486, oil on canvas, Uffizi, Florence)—a revived Venus Pudica for a new view of pagan Antiquity—is often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.[3]

The widespread adoption of Christianity did not curb the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in the Renaissance, the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.[3][89] From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, portrayed the Pagan subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.[3][89] Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Italy.[3]

The Lament for Icarus (1898) by Herbert James Draper

In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature.[90] The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with Chaucer and John Milton and continuing through Shakespeare to Robert Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France and Goethe in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths.[3][89] Although during the Enlightenment of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the libretti for many of Handel's and Mozart's operas.[91]

By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as Alfred Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema).[92] Christoph Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and many others set Greek mythological themes to music.[3] American authors of the 19th century, such as Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.[9]:4 In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.[3]

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This is a timeline for riordanverse from this link: https://riordan.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline

This is an in-series Timeline of Rick Riordan's books in the in-universe chronological order in which they are set. Some books and short stories are set around or at roughly the same time.

Note: This is a timeline for the stories written by Rick Riordan himself, and thus do not include books and short stories under Rick Riordan Presents, as they are set in a different universe from his works. If something not by him is said to be canon by Rick, such as Son of Magic, it can be added.

The exact years the books take place in are unknown, as the literary universe references pop culture that has come out years after it ended if the starting year for the series is 2005, such as movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Main series titles are in bold while companion stories are in italic.

Timeline

The Demigod Diaries: Diary of Luke Castellan

The Lightning Thief

The Sea of Monsters

The Titan's Curse

The Demigod Files: Percy Jackson and the Stolen Chariot

The Battle of the Labyrinth

The Demigod Files: Percy Jackson and The Bronze Dragon

The Demigod Files: Percy Jackson and the Sword of Hades

The Last Olympian

Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo

The Demigod Diaries: The Staff of Hermes

Percy Jackson's Greek Gods

The Lost Hero

The Red Pyramid

The Demigod Diaries: Leo Valdez and the Quest for Buford

The Throne of Fire

The Demigod Diaries: Son of Magic

The Son of Neptune

The Mark of Athena

The House of Hades

The Blood of Olympus

The Serpent's Shadow

Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes

The Son of Sobek

The Staff of Serapis

The Crown of Ptolemy

The Sword of Summer/The Hidden Oracle

Camp Half-Blood Confidential

Brooklyn House Magician's Manual

Camp Jupiter Classified: A Probatio's Journal

The Dark Prophecy/The Hammer of Thor

The Burning Maze

The Tyrant's Tomb

The Ship of the Dead/The Tower of Nero

9 from the Nine Worlds

Un Natale Mezzosangue

Trivia

The events of Percy Jackson and the Bronze Dragon are hard to place in the timeline. Contradictory information points in either of two directions: during the summer of The Battle of the Labyrinth or the summer of The Last Olympian. Most of the evidence seems to indicate the latter.The events of the story are mentioned to take place by the end of June, two weeks after Percy Jackson's last quest. This means that Percy's latest quest must have ended at least two weeks before the end of June. If this is meant to be the same year as The Battle of the Labyrinth, then the Quest for Daedalus would have had to end by mid-June, which is unlikely since Percy's encounter with Geryon happened on June 13. Percy's latest quest could also be referring to one of the many quests he went on during the following summer, right before the events of The Last Olympian, to undermine Kronos' armies.

During the story, Charles Beckendorf is said to have just turned eighteen and to be two years older than Percy, this means Percy must have been fifteen and about to turn sixteen.

However, during The Last Olympian, it is implied several times that Beckendorf and Silena Beauregard dated for a whole year before their deaths, explaining that they had "started dating last summer" and that Silena made Charles' "last year the best of his life". This would mean the events of the story happened a full year before The Last Olympian, during late June after the Quest for Daedalus.It's also possible that they originally began dating in secret during the summer of the Battle of the Labyrinth, and it had come out by The Last Olympian

Whatever the case, during the final chapter of The Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy mentions that summer after the quest was strangely normal, which could rule out an encounter with the Bronze Dragon. He also mentions the 4th of July fireworks, but when referring to Annabeth he claims they avoided each other, making it unlikely for them to have dated back then.

Magnus Chase was said to have been homeless for two years before The Sword of Summer, placing the time of his mother's death between The Battle of the Labyrinth and The Last Olympian.

Despite the book series not moving past 2011, The Trials of Apollo references many things that came out much later in the 2010s, making these references anachronisms.

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Roman Mythology from this link:https://www.ancient.eu/Roman_Mythology/#:~:text=Roman%20mythology%2C%20like%20that%20of,renaming%20a%20number%20of%20them.

The ancient Romans had a rich mythology and, while much of it was derived from their neighbors and predecessors, the Greeks, it still defined the rich history of the Roman people as they eventually grew into an empire. Roman writers such as Ovid and Virgil documented and extended the mythological heritage of the ancient Mediterranean to gives us such long-lasting and iconic figures as Aeneas, Vesta, Janus, and the twin founders of Rome itself, Romulus and Remus.

The purpose of Myths

Before one can delve into a study of mythology, one must understand the concept behind a myth. In his book The Greek and Roman Myths: A Guide to the Classical Stories, Philip Matyszak describes a myth simply as "the ancient's view of the world." These myths — although often appearing as simple stories filled with valiant heroes, maidens in distress, and a host of all-powerful gods — are much more. The gods of the Greeks and Romans were anthropomorphic, exhibiting many human qualities such as love, hate, and jealousy, and because of this, the people of Rome and Greece were able to see themselves in these tales and understand their relationship to the rest of the world as well their connection to the gods. The lesson often to be learned was that one must meet one's destiny with strength, determination, and nobility. These myths enabled an individual to stand against the ills and hardships of an unforgiving universe. Matyszak states that, in spite of their constant disagreements and battles, the gods and humankind had to stand together against the "monsters and giants" of the world, or more simply, the "forces of disorder and wanton destruction."

THE INFLUENCE OF GREEK MYTHS WAS SEEN EVERYWHERE IN ROME; IN THE ARCHITECTURE, SUBJECT MATTER, & ADORNMENTS OF SCULPTURES, TEMPLES, & MOSAICS.

Myths, whether Greek, Roman, any other culture's, at the end of the day were concerned with the relationship between the gods and humans, differing in this regard from fairytales and folktales. For all people, in many ways, myths made life bearable by providing security. They should not be easily dismissed as simple stories for, in both Greece and Rome, they dealt with important issues: the creation of the world, the nature of good and evil, and even the afterlife. And, for this reason, these tales have stood the test of time and become part of our present day culture. One only needs look at the names of our planets to see this: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus and even poor little Pluto are all named for Roman gods.

Greek origins

In Greece, myths were derived from a rich old oral tradition: Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Hesiod's Theogony. These were tales that had been passed down through the generations, first through the spoken word, and finally written down c. 8th century BCE. When Rome was founded in the 8th century BCE, many of the Greek city-states were already well-established. Greece even had founded colonies on the Italian peninsula and Sicily. Centuries later, after the four Macedonian Wars, these colonies would become a part of the early Roman Republic. This contact with Greece, and more specifically with Greek religion and mythology, had a lasting effect on Rome and its people. Rome was able to adopt much that defined Greece: art, philosophy, literature, and drama. Mythology, however, had to be adapted to reflect a Roman set of values.

Mars Ultor

by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

The influence of Greek myths was seen everywhere in Rome; in the architecture, subject matter, and adornments of sculptures, temples, and mosaics. This adoption of all that was Greek can be seen in the city's relationship to the Trojan War, a war that ultimately led to the most basic of Roman mythology: the birth of Romulus and Remus and the founding of a city. Whereas much of Greek mythology was transmitted through their poetry and drama, the Roman myths were written in prose, providing a sense of history and a foundation of all that was Roman: their rituals and institutions. In Roman mythology the difference between history and myth was almost indistinguishable: Rome was a city of destiny and the myths told that story.

Ovid

Many early Roman authors wrote on the myths of Rome. Ovid, before his exile by Emperor Augustus, wrote at a critical time in Roman history, politically and culturally. The emperor was hoping to reestablish a connection to the Republic's old religion and a reverence for the gods. Ovid penned several works centering on both Roman myth and religion — Metamorphoses and Fasti are two of his best-known works. His stories, while mostly Greek, contained Roman names. In Fasti he portrayed the festivals of the first six months of the old Roman calendar, the legends of the gods, and the origin of many of their rituals. While early Roman mythology maintained a deep connection with the city and its rich history, it centered on one specific legend: the birth of its supposed founders: Romulus and Remus.

The Aeneid & Aeneas

While the true origin of Rome varies from source to source, historical as well as fictional, one of the earliest to relate the story (reminiscent of Homer's Odyssey) was Virgil (Vergil) in his Aeneid, a tale that related the travels of its hero, the Trojan warrior Aeneas. The Aeneid has been said to exhibit the most complete expression of Roman mythology. In the story, our hero, with the assistance of his mother, the goddess Venus (his father was a mortal named Anchises), escaped Troy with his father and a number of his fellow soldiers before the city completely succumbed to the Greeks. This story and its connection to the Trojan War gave the Romans a link to the ancient Trojan culture. It should be noted that the story of the Trojan horse comes from Virgil, though mentioned in Homer's Odyssey. With Venus's assistance, the defeated Trojans leave the fallen city and set sail for Italy, where it has been foretold that Aeneas would found a city. They traveled first to Greece and then, as in Homer's tale, are blown off course. Jupiter's wife Juno constantly interferes with Aeneas throughout the story. They land at the African city of Carthage where our hero meets the beautiful Queen Dido, and of course, love follows, and he soon forgets his true purpose.

Fresco with Wounded Aeneas

by Carole Raddato (CC BY-SA)

Ultimately, the god Mercury intervenes and reminds Aeneas of his destiny, causing him and his men to reluctantly leave Africa and sail away; tragically, Queen Dido commits suicide over the loss of her beloved by throwing herself on a burning pyre. Upon landing at Cumae, Aeneas consults Sibyl, an oracle, who leads him into Hades where he not only encounters his fallen enemies and Queen Dido but also meets his recently deceased father who tells him of the great city his descendants would establish. Later, after reaching the mouth of the Tiber, the wayward Trojans enter into a war with King Turnus of the Rutuli (more of Juno's handiwork). Venus appeals to Vulcan (the Roman version of the Greek Hephaestus) to make Aeneas new armor and weapons as he had done for Achilles. Turnus was finally defeated and killed in a duel. A peace is ultimately reached with Aeneas marrying the king's daughter; supposedly Jupiter had convinced Juno to end her war with Aeneas.

Romulus & Remus

Aeneas's descendants became the founders of the city of his destiny: Rome. According to the legend, Romulus and Remus were the sons of the war god Mars and Rhea Silvia, daughter of the true king of Alba Longa, Numitor. In a coup, Amulius overthrew his brother and, to safeguard his claim to the throne, forced Rhea to join the Vestal Virgins. One day, Mars spied the young Rhea in the sacred woods and raped her. She bore two sons who, by order of King Amulius, were thrown in the Tiber. A recent flood caused them to drift ashore at Ficus Ruminalis. They were rescued by a she-wolf, the sacred animal of Mars (the wolf was supposedly aided by a woodpecker, another sacred animal of Mars). Later, the boys were adopted by a local herdsman named Faustulus and his wife Acca Larentia.

Romulus & Remus

by Mark Cartwright (CC BY-NC-SA)

Years pass and the two future founders of the city become leaders in their community, with Remus ultimately landing in the king's dungeon. Romulus rescued his brother, and with the assistance of Numitor, deposed Amulius. Of course, by this time the boys had learned of their true identity. Together they founded a city; however, in a dispute over the naming rights to the city, Remus is killed in a fit of jealousy, and the city becomes Rome. In one version of the dispute, the boys agreed to watch for omens in a flight of birds. Romulus won the naming rights and Remus was killed (Romulus was supposedly favored by the gods). Romulus would rule Rome for forty years.

Roman Gods & Goddesses

Roman mythology, like that of the Greeks, contained a number of gods and goddesses, and because of the early influence of Greece on the Italian peninsula and the ever-present contact with Greek culture, the Romans adopted not only their stories but also many of their gods, renaming a number of them. One exception to this practice is the god Apollo, the only god whose name is common to both cultures. Originally, before their association with the Greeks, many of the Roman gods were more closely associated with cults rather than myths (as was the case with the Greek hero Heracles who became the Roman champion Hercules). Much of this change came, however, when the Romans turned from farming to war.

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JUPITER INFLUENCED EVERY ASPECT OF A ROMAN'S LIFE; HIS TEMPLE ON CAPITOLINE HILL WAS THE FINAL DESTINATION OF MANY VICTORIOUS MILITARY COMMANDERS.

Early in the development of Roman mythology, there was Saturn, equivalent to the Greek god Cronus. His temple at the foot of Capitoline Hill included the public treasury and decrees of the Roman Senate. The triad of early Roman cult deities were recreated as Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva; the latter was the patron saint of craftsmen and goddess of school children (later associated with Athena). Jupiter, the sky-god, became more akin to the Greek Zeus. Jupiter influenced every aspect of a Roman's life; his temple on Capitoline Hill was the final destination of many victorious military commanders who would leave a portion of their booty as an offering to Jupiter. His wife (and sister) Juno became reminiscent of Hera, presiding over every facet of Roman women's life, and in the case of Aeneas, vindictive against those she disliked.

Artemis / Diana

by Timothy Tolle (CC BY)

Similarly, the love-goddess Aphrodite became Venus, born from the foams of the sea, while the brothers of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon, became Pluto and Neptune respectively. The Greek Artemis was renamed Diana, the goddess of the hunt, while Ares, the war god, was now Mars who originally had been an agricultural god associated with spring, a time of regeneration (March is named for him). Roman commanders would always make a sacrifice to him before a battle. And lastly, one must not forget Hermes, the messenger, who turned into Mercury, a minor deity who had at one time been the god of trading and profit and, as mentioned, Hercules, the Roman version of Heracles.

As in Greece, Roman cities often adopted their own patron deity and built temples and performed rituals to honor that god. And, while the influence of the Greeks is vast, the Romans had a number of original gods of their own such as Janus, the two-faced god of doorways and gates (the city gates were open during the time of war and closed during the time of peace). Similar to the Etruscan god Culsans, Janus could see both the future and the past. Valued for his wisdom, he presided over the beginnings of all events. There was also Vesta, daughter of Saturn and the goddess of the hearth and family life, whose followers were called the Vestal Virgins. Though linked to the goddess Hestia of the Greeks, she took on her own distinct personality in Roman mythology. Numa, the second king of Rome, founded a cult dedicated to Vesta. Lastly, there was Faunus, the god of nature; he was worshipped as the protector of crops with a festival in December.

There were also a number of water gods, vitally important to the farmers, as every river and spring had its own deity (Juturna was the goddess of springs and water). Farmers had to appease these gods through a series of offerings. Tiberius was the god of the Tiber, and every May 27th straw dummies were thrown into the Tiber to pacify him. This is reminiscent of the ancient Roman belief in spirits —- supernatural forces that inhabited everything around them including people. Every May (9, 11, and 13) the festival of Lemuria was celebrated where the spirits of the dead were exorcized. Many Romans believed they were constantly watched over by the spirits of their ancestors.

While many people only think of the Greeks when the topic of mythology is considered, the Romans had a rich and vibrant mythology of their own. We all have heard, in some form, the story of the she-wolf and her saving the brothers Romulus and Remus and, in this same way, many other Roman myths have become a part of our culture in the present day. To the Greeks and the Romans, myths explained who they were as a people and gave them a sense of national pride, an understanding of valor and honor, and insight into their destiny.

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This is Norse myths from this source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norse_mythology

Norse mythology is the body of myths of the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Norse paganism and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Scandinavian folklore of the modern period. The northernmost extension of Germanic mythology, Norse mythology consists of tales of various deities, beings, and heroes derived from numerous sources from both before and after the pagan period, including medieval manuscripts, archaeological representations, and folk tradition.

The source texts mention numerous gods, such as the hammer-wielding, humanity-protecting thunder-god Thor, who relentlessly fights his foes; the one-eyed, raven-flanked god Odin, who craftily pursues knowledge throughout the worlds and bestowed among humanity the runic alphabet; the beautiful, seiðr-working, feathered cloak-clad goddess Freyja who rides to battle to choose among the slain; the vengeful, skiing goddess Skaði, who prefers the wolf howls of the winter mountains to the seashore; the powerful god Njörðr, who may calm both sea and fire and grant wealth and land; the god Freyr, whose weather and farming associations bring peace and pleasure to humanity; the goddess Iðunn, who keeps apples that grant eternal youthfulness; the mysterious god Heimdallr, who is born of nine mothers, can hear grass grow, has gold teeth, and possesses a resounding horn; the jötunn Loki, who brings tragedy to the gods by engineering the death of the goddess Frigg's beautiful son Baldr; and numerous other deities.

Most of the surviving mythology centres on the plights of the gods and their interaction with several other beings, such as humanity and the jötnar, beings who may be friends, lovers, foes or family members of the gods. The cosmos in Norse mythology consists of Nine Worlds that flank a central sacred tree, Yggdrasil. Units of time and elements of the cosmology are personified as deities or beings. Various forms of a creation myth are recounted, where the world is created from the flesh of the primordial being Ymir, and the first two humans are Ask and Embla. These worlds are foretold to be reborn after the events of Ragnarök when an immense battle occurs between the gods and their enemies, and the world is enveloped in flames, only to be reborn anew. There the surviving gods will meet, and the land will be fertile and green, and two humans will repopulate the world.

Norse mythology has been the subject of scholarly discourse since the 17th century, when key texts attracted the attention of the intellectual circles of Europe. By way of comparative mythology and historical linguistics, scholars have identified elements of Germanic mythology reaching as far back as Proto-Indo-European mythology. During the modern period, the Romanticist Viking revival re-awoke an interest in the subject matter, and references to Norse mythology may now be found throughout modern popular culture. The myths have further been revived in a religious context among adherents of Germanic Neopaganism.

Contents

1Terminology

2Sources

3Mythology3.1Gods and other beings

3.2Cosmology

3.3Humanity

3.4Influence on popular culture

4See also

5Notes

6References

7Further reading7.1General secondary works

7.2Romanticism

7.3Modern retellings

8External links

Terminology[edit]

The historical religion of the Norse people is commonly referred to as Norse mythology. In certain literature the terms Scandinavian mythology,[1][2][3] North Germanic mythology[4] or Nordic mythology have been used.[5]

Sources[edit]

The Rök runestone (Ög 136), located in Rök, Sweden, features a Younger Futhark runic inscription that makes various references to Norse mythology.

Norse mythology is primarily attested in dialects of Old Norse, a North Germanic language spoken by the Scandinavian people during the European Middle Ages and the ancestor of modern Scandinavian languages. The majority of these Old Norse texts were created in Iceland, where the oral tradition stemming from the pre-Christian inhabitants of the island was collected and recorded in manuscripts. This occurred primarily in the 13th century. These texts include the Prose Edda, composed in the 13th century by Snorri Sturluson, and the Poetic Edda, a collection of poems from earlier traditional material anonymously compiled in the 13th century.[6]

The Prose Edda was composed as a prose manual for producing skaldic poetry—traditional Old Norse poetry composed by skalds. Originally composed and transmitted orally, skaldic poetry utilizes alliterative verse, kennings, and several metrical forms. The Prose Edda presents numerous examples of works by various skalds from before and after the Christianization process and also frequently refers back to the poems found in the Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda consists almost entirely of poems, with some prose narrative added, and this poetry—Eddic poetry—utilizes fewer kennings. In comparison to skaldic poetry, Eddic poetry is relatively unadorned.[6]

The Prose Edda features layers of euhemerization, a process in which deities and supernatural beings are presented as having been either actual, magic-wielding human beings who have been deified in time or beings demonized by way of Christian mythology.[7] Texts such as Heimskringla, composed in the 13th century by Snorri and Gesta Danorum, composed in Latin by Saxo Grammaticus in Denmark in the 12th century, are the results of heavy amounts of euhemerization.[8]

Numerous further texts, such as the sagas, provide further information. The saga corpus consists of thousands of tales recorded in Old Norse ranging from Icelandic family histories (Sagas of Icelanders) to Migration period tales mentioning historic figures such as Attila the Hun (legendary sagas). Objects and monuments such as the Rök runestone and the Kvinneby amulet feature runic inscriptions—texts written in the runic alphabet, the indigenous alphabet of the Germanic peoples—that mention figures and events from Norse mythology.[9]

Objects from the archaeological record may also be interpreted as depictions of subjects from Norse mythology, such as amulets of the god Thor's hammer Mjölnir found among pagan burials and small silver female figures interpreted as valkyries or dísir, beings associated with war, fate or ancestor cults.[10] By way of historical linguistics and comparative mythology, comparisons to other attested branches of Germanic mythology (such as the Old High German Merseburg Incantations) may also lend insight.[11] Wider comparisons to the mythology of other Indo-European peoples by scholars has resulted in the potential reconstruction of far earlier myths.[12]

Only a tiny amount of poems and tales survive of the mythical tales and poems that are presumed to have existed during the Middle Ages, Viking Age, Migration Period, and before.[13] Later sources reaching into the modern period, such as a medieval charm recorded as used by the Norwegian woman Ragnhild Tregagås—convicted of witchcraft in Norway in the 14th century—and spells found in the 17th century Icelandic Galdrabók grimoire also sometimes make references to Norse mythology.[14] Other traces, such as place names bearing the names of gods may provide further information about deities, such as a potential association between deities based on the placement of locations bearing their names, their local popularity, and associations with geological features.[15]

Mythology[edit]

Gods and other beings[edit]

Main articles: Æsir, Vanir, and Jötnar

See also: List of Norse gods and goddesses

The god Thor wades through a river, while the Æsir ride across the bridge, Bifröst, in an illustration by Lorenz Frølich (1895).

Central to accounts of Norse mythology are the plights of the gods and their interaction with various other beings, such as with the jötnar, who may be friends, lovers, foes, or family members of the gods. Numerous gods are mentioned in the source texts. As evidenced by records of personal names and place names, the most popular god among the Scandinavians during the Viking Age was Thor, who is portrayed as unrelentingly pursuing his foes, his mountain-crushing, thunderous hammer Mjölnir in hand. In the mythology, Thor lays waste to numerous jötnar who are foes to the gods or humanity, and is wed to the beautiful, golden-haired goddess Sif.[16]

The god Odin is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts. One-eyed, wolf- and raven-flanked, with spear in hand, Odin pursues knowledge throughout the worlds. In an act of self-sacrifice, Odin is described as having hanged himself upside-down for nine days and nights on the cosmological tree Yggdrasil to gain knowledge of the runic alphabet, which he passed on to humanity, and is associated closely with death, wisdom, and poetry. Odin is portrayed as the ruler of Asgard, and leader of the Aesir. Odin's wife is the powerful goddess Frigg who can see the future but tells no one, and together they have a beloved son, Baldr. After a series of dreams had by Baldr of his impending death, his death is engineered by Loki, and Baldr thereafter resides in Hel, a realm ruled over by an entity of the same name.[17]

Odin must share half of his share of the dead with a powerful goddess, Freyja. She is beautiful, sensual, wears a feathered cloak, and practices seiðr. She rides to battle to choose among the slain and brings her chosen to her afterlife field Fólkvangr. Freyja weeps for her missing husband Óðr, and seeks after him in faraway lands.[18] Freyja's brother, the god Freyr, is also frequently mentioned in surviving texts, and in his association with the weather, royalty, human sexuality, and agriculture brings peace and pleasure to humanity. Deeply lovesick after catching sight of the beautiful jötunn Gerðr, Freyr seeks and wins her love, yet at the price of his future doom.[19] Their father is the powerful god Njörðr. Njörðr is strongly associated with ships and seafaring, and so also wealth and prosperity. Freyja and Freyr's mother is Njörðr's sister (her name is unprovided in the source material). However, there is more information about his pairing with the skiing and hunting goddess Skaði. Their relationship is ill-fated, as Skaði cannot stand to be away from her beloved mountains, nor Njörðr from the seashore.[20] Together, Freyja, Freyr, and Njörðr form a portion of gods known as the Vanir. While the Aesir and the Vanir retain distinct identification, they came together as the result of the Aesir–Vanir War.[21]

While they receive less mention, numerous other gods and goddesses appear in the source material. (For a list of these deities, see List of Germanic deities.) Some of the gods heard less of include the apple-bearing goddess Iðunn and her husband, the skaldic god Bragi; the gold-toothed god Heimdallr, born of nine mothers; the ancient god Týr, who lost his right hand while binding the great wolf Fenrir; and the goddess Gefjon, who formed modern-day Zealand, Denmark.[22]

Various beings outside of the gods are mentioned. Elves and dwarfs are commonly mentioned and appear to be connected, but their attributes are vague and the relation between the two is ambiguous. Elves are described as radiant and beautiful, whereas dwarfs often act as earthen smiths.[23] A group of beings variously described as jötnar, thursar, and trolls (in English these are all often glossed as "giants") frequently appear. These beings may either aid, deter, or take their place among the gods.[24] The norns, dísir, and aforementioned valkyries also receive frequent mention. While their functions and roles may overlap and differ, all are collective female beings associated with fate.[25]

Cosmology[edit]

The cosmological, central tree Yggdrasil is depicted in The Ash Yggdrasil by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine (1886)

Sól, the Sun, and Máni, the Moon, are chased by the wolves Sköll and Háti in The Wolves Pursuing Sol and Mani by J. C. Dollman (1909)

In Norse cosmology, all beings live in Nine Worlds that center around the cosmological tree Yggdrasil. The gods inhabit the heavenly realm of Asgard whereas humanity inhabits Midgard, a region in the center of the cosmos. Outside of the gods, humanity, and the jötnar, these Nine Worlds are inhabited by beings, such as elves and dwarfs. Travel between the worlds is frequently recounted in the myths, where the gods and other beings may interact directly with humanity. Numerous creatures live on Yggdrasil, such as the insulting messenger squirrel Ratatoskr and the perching hawk Veðrfölnir. The tree itself has three major roots, and at the base of one of these roots live a trio of norns, female entities associated with fate.[26] Elements of the cosmos are personified, such as the Sun (Sól, a goddess), the Moon (Máni, a god), and Earth (Jörð, a goddess), as well as units of time, such as day (Dagr, a god) and night (Nótt, a jötunn).[27]

The afterlife is a complex matter in Norse mythology. The dead may go to the murky realm of Hel—a realm ruled over by a female being of the same name, may be ferried away by valkyries to Odin's martial hall Valhalla, or may be chosen by the goddess Freyja to dwell in her field Fólkvangr.[28] The goddess Rán may claim those that die at sea, and the goddess Gefjon is said to be attended by virgins upon their death.[29] Texts also make reference to reincarnation.[30] Time itself is presented between cyclic and linear, and some scholars have argued that cyclic time was the original format for the mythology.[31] Various forms of a cosmological creation story are provided in Icelandic sources, and references to a future destruction and rebirth of the world—Ragnarok—are frequently mentioned in some texts.[32]

Humanity[edit]

According to the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda poem, Völuspá, the first human couple consisted of Ask and Embla; driftwood found by a trio of gods and imbued with life in the form of three gifts. After the cataclysm of Ragnarok, this process is mirrored in the survival of two humans from a wood; Líf and Lífþrasir. From this two humankind are foretold to repopulate the new and green earth.[33]

Influence on popular culture[edit]

Main article: Norse mythology in popular culture

See also: Germanic mythology and Germanic neopaganism

With the widespread publication of translations of Old Norse texts that recount the mythology of the North Germanic peoples, references to the Norse gods and heroes spread into European literary culture, especially in Scandinavia, Germany, and Britain. During the later 20th century, references to Norse mythology became common in science fiction and fantasy literature, role-playing games, and eventually other cultural products such as comic books and Japanese animation. Traces of the religion can also be found in music and has its own genre, viking metal. Bands such as Amon Amarth, Bathory, and Månegarm have written songs about Norse mythology.

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