Roman Marsyas Statue, 1st Century AD

A Roman copy of a Greek original.

Marsyas was a Phrygian Satyr who first composed tunes for the flute. He obtained his instrument from Athena, who had invented the device but discarded it in her displeasure over the bloating effect it had on her cheeks. Later, in hubristic pride over the new-found music, Marsyas dared challenge the god Apollo to a contest. The Satyr inevitably lost, when, in the second round, the god demanded they play their instruments upside down–a feat ill-suited to the flute. As punishment for his presumption, Apollo had Marsyas tied to a tree and flayed him alive. The rustic gods in their pity then transformed him into a mountain stream.

Jason and the Golden Fleece - Greek Bronze Box Mirror, C. Second Half of the  4th Century BC

This represents one of the great heroes of Greek mythology, Jason, famous for his role as the leader of the Argonauts and their quest for the Golden Fleece: according to the epic poem, in order to regain the throne of his father (Aeson, dispossessed by his half-brother Pelias), Jason left for Colchis (a region located on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, centered on present-day western Georgia) with his companions; there, the king Aites (the Fleece was given to him by Phrixus) promised to give him the Fleece if he could perform three certain tasks. Jason succeeded in the challenges with the help of Medea (the daughter of Aites and Jason’s future wife), took the Fleece and went back to Thessaly, where he reacquired his father’s kingdom after killing his uncle, once again thanks to a trick by Medea.

This relief, which illustrates an episode of this long legendary voyage, represents Jason standing as a young athlete, quickly moving to the left. Except for a cloak that flutters in the wind behind him, he is entirely nude. He is armed with a sword, hanging from his shoulder, and with a spear; as defensive weapons, he wears a helmet of the Attic type and a large, richly incised round shield. Between his feet lies the ram’s fleece, which, according to the myth, was guarded by a serpent/dragon, and that Jason is about to steal: the incised tree behind the arm of Jason would have represented the shrub in which the monster was hidden.

Greek Mythology- “The Fates”

The Fates were composed of three sisters: Clotho the spinner of the thread of life, Lachesis who decided how long a mortals life was, and Atropos who determined how someone died by cutting their thread of life with her shears.Together the three sisters controlled every mortal’s life from birth to death.

Gold Ear Reel

350B.C. - 330B.C.

East Greek

This gold ear ornament consists of two end-plates and a spool-shaped side sheet. The end-plates are die-formed and have figures against a background of concentric circles. One side shows a naked Eros leaning against a pillar as he plays with a iunx. The other side has a Nereid wearing a chiton, with one breast bare. She rides on a dolphin and holds Achilles’ new helmet in one hand.

Source: The British Museum

Flying on Pegasus, Perseus he saw below the beautiful princess Andromeda chained to a rock, about to be sacrificed to Cetus, a sea monster also known as The Kraken. Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, had angered Poseiden by claiming her beauty was greater than that of the Nereids. Appeasing the monster with the princess was the only way for Cepheus the king and Cassiopeia the queen to spare Ethiopia (Philistia). Perseus offered to kill Cetus in exchange for Andromeda’s hand in marriage. After dispatching the monster, Perseus married Andromeda and flew her back to Seriphos.

 In memorial of the event Athena placed Perseus, Andromeda, Cepheus and Cassiopea and Cetus amongst the stars. 

30 Day Greek Mythology Challenge: Day 9, Zodiac or Constellation Myth

Penthesilea

PENTHESILEA was a Queen of the Amazons who led her troops to the Trojan War in support of King Priam. Some say she came as a mercenary, others that she was seeking redemption for the accidental killing of her sister. In the battles which ensued, Penthesilea slew the Greek hero Makhaon, but was herself felled by Achilles. The hero upon lifting her helm fell in love with her, and returned her corpse to the Trojans unharmed for proper burial. When Thersites mocked him, and some say gouged out Penthesilea’s eye with a spear, Achilles killed him. (x)

Image: Penthesilea (1852), Gabriel-Vital Dubray, Louvre Palace, France

30 Day Greek Mythology Challenge: Day 12, Mortal or Semi-Divine Heroine

"Scylla," the six-headed sea she-devil

The Greek poet Homer would describe Scylla as a malevolent goddess of the sea born a monster, replete with twelve dangling feet and six long necks ending in ghastly heads full of gnashing teeth.  Modern thinkers, however, believe her to have been a more tragic figure, a cursed but beautiful nymph who was doomed to her horrific appearance by the witch Kirke for falling in love with the god Glaukos. The dogs attached at her waist reference statements in The Odyssey that her voice sounded like the howling of canines, and it is likely they also stem from the description of her having a multitude of heads. While the classic interpretation has always shown her in this way, complete with piscine tail and fins, other visions of Scylla include six-headed dragons, a large serpent with the faces of several women on its body, and even a sea nymph riding a pack of wild dogs. In The Odyssey, Scylla gained infamy for being paired with the monstrous whirlpool Charybdis in a frightening test of courage for the story’s titular hero, Odysseus. Scylla would late appear in mythology as a villainous blockade for other, similar heroes such as Jason and the Argonauts, Aeneas, and even Heracles.

In our world, “Scylla” is the name of a large rock in the waters between Italy and the island of Sicily; much like the stories, this rock also shares its waters with another, similar boulder called “Charybdis.” So famous were these two stones for ancient sailors that they worked their way into early classical literature not only as the twin beasts, but more importantly a possible origin for the term “between a rock and a hard place.” For the sailing men of Antiquity, novice to the world surrounding them, it truly must have felt like an angry sea goddess and her demonic currents were staring down their ship as they traversed these tricky sea routes through sea-swallowing hazards. So amazed were they by these sights that they personified them as monsters.

In all manner of truth, Scylla does not literally exist in our world in the form she had been described in the epic tales, but the ancient sailors remained fearful of the unknown corners of the world seas, and this is reflected in their literature. In fact, Scylla is referenced several times throughout the writings of Greek philosophers well beyond the land of fictional voyages. While this may seem strange, Scylla behaves as a metaphor for “the starving greed of a woman once scorned,” which can only be deemed fitting for a stone that could literally tear a ship apart and leave the crew of men starving for dry land. Running aground on a boulder of such massive size, much like crossing an unforgiving female force of such ferocity as Scylla, must have felt all too close to one in the same, for men of any time.

You were warned, campers. Respect your sisters, mothers, and wives… and always watch where you sail that ship. It would be unfortunate for you to come across Scylla, anyway she comes, in the flesh.

REFERENCES:

IMAGES:

Medea (Ancient Greek: Μήδεια) is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth ofJason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed her for another woman.

This scene depicts Medea fleeing after murdering her and Jasons’ children (whose bodies are the bottom right corner of the vase) with Jason to mourn and be doomed.

PEITHO & HIMEROS

Peitho is the Greek goddess of seduction and persuasion. Most often the type of persuasion involved love affairs, such as a suitor persuading the father of a likely bride but she is also known as the goddess of charming speech.

Himeros is the god of sexual desire and twin of Eros (aka Cupid).

Image:

Attic Red Figure. Krater, calyx. 420 BC Museo Nazionale, Palermo, Italy 

Notes:

Peitho was requested by burnbeauty.

If you have any requests or questions about greek mythology, just drop them in my Ask Box!

Killer Cave May Have Inspired Myth of Hades

A giant cave that might have helped serve as the inspiration for the mythic ancient Greek underworld Hades once housed hundreds of people, potentially making it one of the oldest and most important prehistoric villages in Europe before it collapsed and killed everyone inside, researchers say.

The complex settlement seen in this cave suggests, along with other sites from about the same time, that early prehistoric Europe may have been more complex than previously thought.

The cave, located in southern Greece and discovered in 1958, is called Alepotrypa, which means “foxhole.”

“The legend is that in a village nearby, a guy was hunting for foxes with his dog, and the dog went into the hole and the man went after the dog and discovered the cave,” said researcher Michael Galaty, an archaeologist at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss. “The story’s probably apocryphal — depending on who you ask in the village, they all claim it was their grandfather who found the cave.” Read more.

Echidna (artist unknown)

The Minotaur, tondo of an Attic bilingual kylix. (X)

National Archaeological Museum of Spain

In Greek mythology, Lycaon was a king of Arcadia, son of Pelasgus and Meliboea, who in the most popular version of the myth tested Zeus by serving him a dish of his slaughtered and dismembered son in order to see whether Zeus was truly omniscient. In return for these gruesome deeds Zeus transformed Lycaon into the form of a wolf, and killed Lycaon’s fifty sons by lightning bolts, except possibly Nyctimus, who was the slaughtered child, and instead became restored to life.

Despite being notorious for his horrific deeds, Lycaon was also remembered as a culture hero: he was believed to have founded the city Lycosura, to have established a cult of Zeus Lycaeus and to have started the tradition of the Lycaean Games, which Pausanias thinks were older than the Panathenaic Games. According to Hyginus, Lycaon dedicated the first temple to Hermes of Cyllene. The Arcadian town Nonakris was thought to have been named after the wife of Lycaon.

The Greek God of the seas, Poseidon, riding his fish chariot.

(picture source: Symbole by David Fontana)

Because Charon is amazing. <3

(had to be done guys)

A harpy in Ulisse Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia, Bologna, 1642

Zeus foudroyant un géant ailé.