Zeus and Typhon - Part Four

As soon as Typhon climbed up Mount Olympus, the other Greek Gods began to tremble in fright.

Some Gods like Hera, Demter and Apollo turned themselves into animals and fled the place in terror.

Zeus being the king of the Gods had to defend his realm.

On seeing Zeus, Typhon hurled mountains at him.

There were roars and thunderbolts all across the skies and the very cosmos trembled.

It was such that for a brief period of time, Typhon even bested Zeus in the fight.

Typhon tore out Zeus’ sinews and rendered Zeus helpless. After that, Typhon hid Zeus in a cave.

Hermes is the Messenger God of the Greeks. Hermes and Aegiapan, another God, entered the cave where Zeus had been held captive.

The two Gods brought Zeus’ sinews and restored him to full strength.

After Zeus had become powerful, he angrily went out of the cave and attacked Typhon.

Zeus took out his most powerful weapon - the thunderbolt.

Zeus relentlessly fired thunderbolts at Typhon.

Typhon was unable to fight the continuous barrage and finally he was defeated.

Then Zeus trapped Typhon under Mount Etna.

The Ancient Greeks believed that the volcanic eruption of Mount Etna was because of Typhon’s breath who was trapped there.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Zeus and Typhon - Part Three

 

Typhon was a huge and terrible monster to look at. 

Typhon was so huge that his head brushed against the very stars of the sky. 

From the top of his waist Typhon looked like a human, but below it Typhon had two coiled serpents in the place of his legs. His fingers had a hundred serpent heads and his eyes flashed fire.

Some versions mention that Gaia the Earth and Tartarus were the parents of Typhon.

However, some other versions mention that Hera prayed to Gaia, Uranus and the Titans so that she could give birth to a son stronger than Zeus.

Soon after that, it is said that Hera gave birth to Typhon.

It was believed that Python was the dragon that lived in the centre of the earth. The Ancient Greeks believed that Delphi was the centre of the earth.

So the Python resided at Delphi.

It is said that Hera gave Typhon to Python and asked Python to raise Typhon.

One of Typhon’s wives is Echidna. 

Together, the two of them were responsible for creating many monsters including Hydra, Chimera and even the three-headed dog of hell called Cerberus.

Whatever be his origin, Typhon realized that he was the enemy of Zeus. So Typhon began his ascent to Mount Olympus to fight Zeus.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Zeus and Typhon - Part Two

The Greek Goddess of wisdom, warfare and handicraft is Athena. There are many stories regarding the birth of Athena.

Some mention that just like Zeus feared that what had happened to Cronos would happen to him as well. 

Metis was the ancient Goddess of wisdom, counsel and deep thought. However, she was not an Olympian. She was born to Titan Oceanus and Titaness Tethys. 

Metis was the first consort of Zeus.

However, Zeus was afraid of Metis. It had been prophesied that Metis would give birth to a daughter who was more powerful than Zeus.

Zeus wanted to avoid this. So he deceived Metis and made her turn herself into a fly.

As soon as Metis had done this, Zeus swallowed Metis.

However, Metis was already carrying her daughter Athena at that time.

Now that she was swallowed, Metis raised Athena in Zeus’s mind.

It is believed that even now, Metis gives advice to Zeus from the mind.

However, Metis helped her daughter escape. 

When Athena had grown up, Metis gave her an armour, shield and spear and asked Athena to hit the weapons hard against Zeus’s head.

Zeus could not take the terrible headaches and with the help of other Gods, he tried to remove whatever was causing his headache.

That was how Athena emerged from Zeus’ mind - fully grown up and wearing an armour.

Athena became the new Goddess of Wisdom warfare and handicraft.

Zeus now had a new consort - Hera and Hera was angry that Zeus had given to Athena all by himself.

So Hera prayed to Gaia, Uranus and the Titans to give her a son who was stronger than Zeus.

This could be one of the versions for the birth of Typhon.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Zeus and Typhon - Part One

Zeus was the God of the Sky and he was the king of all the Greek Gods. However, that was not always the case.

The older Greek Gods were the Titans.

Titans were the children of Gaia, the earth and Uranus, the Sky.

The youngest Titan was Cronos, the God of Time.

Cronos overthrew his father and ruled over the ‘golden age’.

However, Uranus prophesied that the same thing would happen to Cronos. “Just as you overthrew me, one of your children will overthrow you too.”

Cronos felt that his father’s words would come true.

So, just to circumvent his father’s prophecy, Cronos swallowed all but the last of his children as soon as they were born.

Cronos and Rhea had six children. 

Their last son was Zeus.

When Zeus was born, Rhea gave a rock for Cronos to swallow and Rhea managed to convince Cronos that the rock was their latest child.

Cronos swallowed the rock and then felt that he had nothing more to fear.

Zeus grew up to be a strong man away from the eyes of his father and subsequently, Zeus got Cronos to throw up all the children that he had swallowed.

Then together with his siblings, Zeus fought a long and hard war against the Titans and finally overthrew his father.

Zeus then became the ruler of the Greek Gods and he set up his kingdom in Mount Olympus. That was the reason that Zeus and his other siblings are called Olympians.

However, during the early times, Zeus’ rule was not without any troubles. 

Zeus was frequently challenged and one of the most intimidating challenges to Zeus came from Typhon.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

The Black Crow

Apollo was the Greek God of Light, sun, truth and Prophecy. 

One of Apollo’s lovers was Coronis.

Coronis was the daughter of King Phlegyas of the Lapiths.

Coronis was carrying Apollo’s child and at that time, Coronis unfortunately fell in love with another man. 

Coronis fell in love with Ischys, the son of Elatus.

Apollo suspected that Coronis loved another man and so he had left a white crow to guard Coronis. The white crow was supposed to inform Apollo when Coronis met Ischys.

However, the crow did not do as Apollo had asked.

Apollo was very angry with the crow and cursed the bird. The power of Apollo’s curse was so bad that it scorched the feathers of the bird.

Since that day, crows were always black in colour.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Apollo and Daphne - Part Two

Apollo fell in love with Daphne and followed her. But as soon as Daphne saw him, she fled from there.

Apollo pleaded with her to stop. But Daphne did not heed to him and kept running.

Finally Daphne realized that she could not outrun Apollo and she prayed to her father. “Father, open the earth and enclose me in it. Or at least change my form so that I will not have to face this kind of danger anymore.”

Even as Daphne had spoken, she changed. Her skin became like the bark of a tree and her limbs became stiff. Her hair became leaves and her arms became branches.

Daphne turned into a tree with her feet rooted into the ground.

Apollo looked at the tree and was stunned.

“You cannot be my wife anymore. But you will always be known as my tree. Your leaves shall always be green and will not decay. I will wear your leaves as my crown.”

This was the laurel and is called ‘daphne’ in Greek. 

After that day, the laurel was always considered as the symbol of Apollo.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Apollo and Daphne - Part One

In Greek mythology Apollo was the God of prophecy and oracles. He was also the God of Archery, healing, plague and disease. 

Aphrodite was the Goddess of Love and her son was Eros. 

Eros was the God of love and he often struck people with his bow and arrow to bring about a powerful feeling of love in the people who were struck with it.

There was a time when Apollo had just won a war against Python. Python was a dragon that had lived at Delphi and after defeating Python, Apollo felt very proud of himself.

When Apollo saw Eros with his bow and arrow, Apollo became very arrogant and smirked at Eros. “Leave the war-like weapons to warriors. Do not meddle with my weapons.”

Eros was angry when he heard Apollo’s arrogant words. “Your arrows strike everything else, but my arrow will strike you.”

Eros then pulled out two different kinds of arrows from his quiver - one of the arrows was made of gold and was sharp and pointed and the other was a leaden arrow that was blunt. 

The sharp golden arrow could generate the powerful emotion of love in a person. Whereas when the lead arrow struck anyone, the person would never want to fall in love.

Eros stood on a rock in Mount Parnassus, pulled back both the arrows and fired both the arrows at the same time on two different persons. The golden arrow struck Apollo and the lead arrow hit Daphne. 

Daphne was the daughter of Peneus, the River God and Daphne’s greatest joy was to hunt in the forests and she was not interested in anything else.

Seeing Daphne’s beautiful face, many lovers had sought Daphne’s hands, but she refused because she had no interest in falling in love.

Once when her father asked Daphne about whether she intended to ever get married, Daphne told her father that she intended to remain unmarried like Artemis who was the Goddess of the Hunt.

Her father granted her the boon, but Peneus acknowledged that Daphne’s face would be the reason that this would not come true.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Callisto and Constellation of Ursa Major

Zeus was the Olympian God and he was the king of all the Greek gods. 

Before the Olympians became the Greek Gods, the Titans were considered as the Gods of the Greeks.

It was believed that Zeus along with the other Olympians fought and defeated the Titans.

Zeus’s wife was Hera. However Zeus was frequently unfaithful to Hera and Zeus had many lovers. Hera was jealous of Zeus and frequently tried to injure or hurt Zeus’ lovers or the children born to Zeus and his other lovers.

One of Zeus’s children through other lovers was Artemis, who was the Goddess of the hunt. 

Artemis had a twin brother called Apollo. Apollo was the God of religious law and he helped humans by telling them his knowledge of the future and he also told the humans about the will of his father - Zeus.

Callisto was a nymph and she was most probably the daughter of Lycaon of Arcadia. Callisto had joined Artemis in the hunt. There were many women who joined Artemis in the hunt. All of them promised to remain unwed. 

However, Callisto was loved by Zeus.

In all the versions of the story Callisto was turned into a bear. 

In some versions Callisto was turned into a bear by Zeus himself to hide Callisto from Hera.

In some other cases Hera or Artemis changed Callisto into a bear, to teach Zeus a lesson or simply because they were angry with Callisto.

Eventually it so happened that during a hunt Artemis killed Callisto whom she mistook to be a real bear. 

It could be that this was the work of the jealous Hera who did not like any of Zeus’s lovers. 

Arkas was the child growing in the womb of Callisto when she was killed by Artemis and Arkas was the child of Callisto and Zeus. 

Zeus gave Arkas to Maia, a Titaness, to raise. 

After that Zeus placed Callisto among the stars as the constellation Ursa Major or the great Bear.

Adapted from Greek mythology

Dionysus and the Pirates

In Greek mythology Dionysus was the God of wine. 

Dionysus taught his followers the art of tending to grapes and making wine from it. Dionysus was sometimes a bringer of great joy but on the other hand he was also responsible for uncontrolled anger.

It was believed that Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele.

Zeus was one of the main Greek God and his wife was Hera. However Zeus had many lovers and Hera was very jealous of this. 

When Hera learnt that Zeus had fallen in love with a mortal called Semele, Hera wanted revenge. 

Hera went to Semele in disguise and convinced Semele to ask her lover to show his true form.

Semele did not know who Hera was or what Hera wanted. So Semele made Zeus promise her to show her, his true form. 

Unfortunately when Zeus showed his true form, Semele was burnt to a crisp. 

Zeus managed to save Dionysus who was in Semele’s womb. 

Because Dionysus was born from Zeus, Dionysus became immortal.

However Hera was still jealous of Dionysus. 

The Titans were the previous Gods before the Greek Gods led by Zeus came to power. 

After Hera realized that Zeus had saved Dionysus, Hera arranged with some of the Titans to kill Dionysus. 

This time Dionysus was saved by Rhea, who was Zeus’s mother. 

After that Dionysus disguised himself as a human and roamed around the Earth. 

Once when Dionysus was going across the Lands of Greece as a human, Dionysus was seen by some Tyrrhenian pirates.

The pirates kidnapped the human and took him to their boat. The pirates wanted to sell the human into slavery. But no matter how much they tried to bind the human, the pirates could not do it. Further the human also did not say anything nor was he worried at his own predicament.

The pirate ship's pilot was Acoetes.

Acoetes instantly felt that there was something wrong with the human whom they had caught. 

Acoetes tried to plead with the other pirates to free the young man whom they had caught. 

It was at this time that Dionysus revealed his true form. 

The entire pirate ship was filled with vines and terrible beasts. 

The pirates saw this and they were terrified and they dived into the sea. It is said that Dionysus converted these pirates (other than Acoetes) into dolphins and that was the origin of the first dolphins.

Adapted from Greek Mythology

Polyphemus and Nobody

Poseidon was the Greek God of seas, storms earthquakes and horses. It was believed that Poseidon lived on Mount Olympus.

Thoosa was a nymph and she was the daughter of Phorcys. Phorcys was the primordial sea God.

Thoosa and Poseiden had a son whose name was Polyphemus. 

Polyphemus was huge as a giant and he had only one eye. Polyphemus was believed to be a Cyclops. According to Homer's Odyssey, some Cyclops lived on an island herding huge animals. 

Odysseus was one of the heroes of the Trojan war. Oddysseus won the Trojan war and he was journeying back to Greece. 

At that time he landed on an island to find some provisions for his people. A group of soldiers from the boat, accompanied Odysseus in exploring the island. 

All Odysseus had with him was a bottle of rare wine which had been presented to him by the priest of the temple of God Apollo.

Odysseus and his men found a huge cave with many goats. 

It turned out that the cave belonged to Polyphemus. He returned in the evening with his flock of goats and he blocked the entrance of the cave with a rock. 

Polyphemus was then surprised to find men there. 

However, Polyphemus was too hungry. 

As soon as he blocked the cave, he ate two of Odysseus’s men for dinner that night. 

The next morning he ate two more men of Odysseus's group and left the cave with his flock after blocking it with a rock again. 

Odysseus and his remaining men hid in the caves and there they sharpened a wooden stake, during the time that Polyphemus was away.

The next evening when Polyphemus returned to the cave, Odysseus offered the wine to the Cyclops. 

Polyphemus liked the wine. So he asked Odysseus his name. 

Odysseus answered that his name is ‘Nobody’. 

That night when Polyphemus was in a drunken sleep Odysseus and his men drove the sharp wooden stake into Polyphemus’ eye.

Polyphemus roared in pain. 

The other Cyclops in the island Cape running towards the cave. “What is happening?” 

“Nobody is killing me! Nobody is killing me!” Polyphemus roared. 

The other Cyclops did not understand what this meant and walked away from there wondering what was wrong with Polyphemus. 

The next morning the blind Polyphemus led the sheep out to the cave and for this he removed the rock of the cave. 

At that time Odysseus and his men each tied themselves to a huge animal of the herd.

The blind Polyphemus was unable to see this and he let the animals out of the cave. 

That was how Odysseus and his remaining men were able to get out of the cave.

After that, Odysseus and his remaining men ran to the boat and sailed away from there.

Adapted from Greek Mythology