learn about 43 myths

“The cornucopia, also known as the Horn of Plenty or Harvest Cone, is a symbol of food and plenty dating back to the 5th century BC.

In Greek mythology, Amalthea raised Zeus on the milk of a goat. In return Zeus gave Amalthea the goat’s horn. It had the power to give to the person in possession of it whatever he or she wished for. This gave rise to the legend of the cornucopia. The original depictions were of the goat’s horn filled with fruits and flowers: deities, especially Fortuna, would be depicted with the horn of plenty.”

wikipedia5 years ago

Demeter represents the fertile and cultivated soil. Of the tow elements that make up her name, earth and mother, the maternal part assumed greater importance among the Greeks.

In certain regions of Greece, Demeter is represented with an equine head surrounded by snakes and beasts, bearing a dolphin in one hand and a dove in the other. Elsewhere, Demeter is represented as a goddess of the fruits and riches of the field, especially as the godess of corn, wheat, and barley. She was thought to preside over the harvest and agricultural laborers. Demeter is also considered the goddess of marriage.

Demeter was chiefly celebrated for her maternal tribulations, especially over her beloved daughter Kore who was the offspring of Demeter and Zeus. One day Kore was picking flowers in the fields of Nysa with her companions when she noticed a strikingly beautiful narcissus. When she bent to pick it the earth gaped open and Hades appeared. He seized her and carried her with him into the depths of the earth.

Demeter, hearing her child’s despairing cry for help, sought her daughter over land and seas like a bird bearing flaming torches in her hands for nine days. At last on Hecate’s advice, she consulted the divine Helios who revealed to her the name of her daughter’s abductor. “No other god is guilty,” he said, “but Zeus himself, who awarded thy daughter to his brother Hades so that he may call her his flowering bride.”

In rage and despair she withdrew from Olympus and in the guise of an old woman she sought refuge among the cities of men. For a long time she wandered aimlessly. At one point she spends some time as a servant at Celeus’s palace in Eleusis. Years later, still inconsolable over the loss of her daughter, Demeter stops the earth from giving forth any crops. All of the gods tried to supplicate her but she declared that she would not permit the earth to bear fruit unless she saw her daughter again.

Zeus commanded Hermes to descend into the kingdom of Hades and obtain Hades’ promise to return young Kore (who since here arrival in the underworld had taken on the name Persephone) to her mother. Hades complied, but before sending his wife up to earth tempted her to eat a few pomegranate seeds. This fruit was a symbol of marriage and the effect of eating it was to tender the union of man and wife indissoluble.

Because of the pomegranate, Kore/Persephone could not stay with her mother. As a compromise Zeus decided that Persephone should live with her husband one-third of the year and pass the rest with her mother. Demeter set aside her anger and bade the soil again be fertile and before she returned to Olympus she taught the kings her divine science and initiated them into her sacred mysteries.

And thus they explained why each year when the cold season arrived the earth took on the aspect of sadness and mourning: no more flowers in the fields or leaves on the trees. It was the moment when Persephone went to join her husband in the deep shadows. But when spring came, the earth put on a mantle of a thousand flowers to greet the return of Kore.

Reference5 years ago

“Dionysus also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology, the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficent influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of both agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one’s normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine. The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry. There is also an aspect of Dionysus on his relationship to the ‘cult of the souls’, and the scholar Xavier Riu writes that Dionysus presided over communication between the living and the dead.”

“Once, Dionysus found his old school master and foster father, Silenus, missing. The old man had been drinking, and had wandered away drunk, and was found by some peasants, who carried him to their king, Midas (alternatively, he passed out in Midas’ rose garden). Midas recognized him, and treated him hospitably, entertaining him for ten days and nights with politeness, while Silenus entertained Midas and his friends with stories and songs. On the eleventh day he brought Silenus back to Dionysus. Dionysus offered Midas his choice of whatever reward he wanted. Midas asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into gold. Dionysus consented, though was sorry that he had not made a better choice. Midas rejoiced in his new power, which he hastened to put to the test. He touched and turned to gold an oak twig and a stone. Overjoyed, as soon as he got home, he ordered the servants to set a feast on the table. Then he found that his bread, meat, daughter and wine turned to gold.

Upset, Midas strove to divest himself of his power (the Midas Touch); he hated the gift he had coveted. He prayed to Dionysus, begging to be delivered from starvation. Dionysus heard and consented; he told Midas to wash in the river Pactolus. He did so, and when he touched the waters the power passed into them, and the river sands changed into gold.”

Dionysus5 years ago

“Cybele was a deification of the Earth Mother who embodies the fertile earth, a goddess of caverns and mountains, walls and fortresses, nature, wild animals (especially lions and bees). Her title potnia theron alludes to her ancient Neolithic roots as “Mistress of the Animals” . She becomes a life-death-rebirth deity in connection with her son Attis.”

“Attis, a life-death-rebirth deity, was both the son and the lover of Cybele, her eunuch attendant and driver of her lion-driven chariot; he was driven mad by her and castrated himself.”

“The story of his origins from Agdistis, as told to the traveller Pausanias, have some distinctly non-Greek elements: Pausanias was told that the daemon Agdistis initially bore both male and female attributes. But the Olympian gods, fearing Agdistis, cut off the male organ and cast it away. There grew up from it an almond-tree, and when its fruit was ripe, Nana who was a daughter of the river Sangarios picked the fruit and laid it in her bosom. It at once disappeared, but she was with child. In time a boy was born and exposed on the hillside, but the infant was tended by a he-goat. As Attis grew, his long-haired beauty was godlike, and Agdistis as Cybele, then fell in love with him. But the foster parents of Attis sent him to Pessinos, where he was to wed the king’s daughter. According to some versions the King of Pessinos was Midas. Just as the marriage-song was being sung, Agdistis/Cybele appeared in her transcendent power, and Attis went mad and cut off his genitals. Attis’ father-in-law-to-be, the king who was giving his daughter in marriage, followed suit, prefiguring the self-castrating corybantes who devoted themselves to Cybele. But Agdistis repented and saw to it that the body of Attis should neither rot at all nor decay.

Attis was reborn as the evergreen pine.”

Attis5 years ago

• In Greek mythology Thanatos is the personification of death.
• Sisyphus was the craftiest of men, known to be avaricious and deceitful; he killed travellers and wayfarers.

Thanatos was outsmarted by Sisyphus twice. When it was time for Sisyphus to die, he succeeded in chaining Thanatos up with his own shackles. All the time that death was chained, no mortals could die; but eventually Ares released Thanatos and handed Sisyphus over to him. But Sisyphus had another trick to play: before he went to the Underworld, he instructed his wife to make no sacrifices after he was dead. Sisyphus then went to Hades to complain that he was not being properly honored after his death. This infuriated Hades, who sent Sisyphus back to Earth to scold his wife. Sisyphus stayed and lived a good while longer. For this offense, Zeus punished him by making him repeatedly push a rock up to the crest of a hill, only to see it roll back down, over and over again.

• As a result, pointless or interminable activities are often described as Sisyphean.

• In art, Thanatos was depicted as a young man carrying a butterfly, wreath or inverted torch in his hands. He sometimes has two wings and a sword attached to his belt. 5 years ago