Four years have passed since Eurydice's death (the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice), but Orpheus remained faithful to her...
Four years have passed since Eurydice's death (the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice), but Orpheus remained faithful to her...
The great singer Orpheus - son of the river god Eager and the muse Kaliopa - lived in distant Thrace. Orpheus' wife...
Meleager is the son of the Chaldean king Oeneus, but according to some legends, his real father was Ares, the god of...
Many crimes were committed by the people of the Copper Age. Arrogant and wicked, they did not obey the Olympian gods. The thunderbolt Zeus was angry with them; Zeus was especially angry with the king of Lycosura in Arcadia, Lycaon. Once Zeus came to Lycosura as an ordinary mortal. In order for the inhabitants of Lycosura to know that he was a god, Zeus gave them a sign and all the inhabitants fell prostrate before him and worshiped him as a god. Only Lycaon did not want to give Zeus divine honors and ridiculed all who worshiped Zeus. Lycaon decided to test whether Zeus was a god. He killed a hostage who was in his palace, boiled part of his body, burned another part and offered them to the great thunderbolt to eat. Zeus was terribly angry. With a flash of lightning, he destroyed Lycaon’s palace and turned it into a bloodthirsty wolf.
The immortal gods living on the bright Olympus created the first human race happy; this was the Golden Age. Then the god Cronus ruled in the sky. In those days, people lived like the blessed gods, knowing neither worries, nor labor, nor sorrow. They did not know the weak old age either; their legs and arms were always strong and sturdy. Their life, without disease and full of happiness, was like an eternal feast. Their death, which came after a long life, was like a peaceful, quiet sleep.
The bright, cheerful god Apollo also knows sorrow: misfortune befell him too. He knew the grief soon after his victory over Python. When Apollo, proud to have defeated Python, stood over the monster defeated by his arrows, he saw the young god of love, Eros, stretching his golden bow. Apollo told him with a laugh:
The long-range Apollo is frightening when he gets angry, and then there is no mercy of with his golden arrows. They killed many. From them perished the proud Otos and Ephialtes, sons of Aloadae, who did not want to obey anyone. From an early age, they were famous for their enormous height, strength and boundless courage. As young men, Otto and Ephialtes began to threaten the Olympian gods:
The god Pan could often be seen in the midst of Dionysus’ entourage. When the great Pan was born, his mother, the nymph Driopa, looked at her son, terrified, and fled. He was born with goat’s legs and horns and a long beard. But his father, Hermes, rejoiced that a son had been born to him, took him in his arms, and carried him to the bright Olympus and the gods. All the gods rejoiced loudly at the birth of Pan and laughed as they watched him.
Zeus the Thunderer loved the beautiful Semela, the daughter of the Theban king Cadmus. He once promised to grant her every request, whatever it was, and swore to her with the inviolable oath of the gods in the sacred waters of the underground Styx. But the great goddess Hera hated Semela and wished to destroy her. She told Semela:
Slowly travels across the sky in her chariot, drawn by black horses, the goddess Night – Nukta. With her dark veil she has swept the earth. Darkness has enveloped everything. Near the chariot of the goddess Night the stars are crowded and an uncertain flickering light pours on the earth – these are the young sons of the goddess Dawn – Eos, and of Astrey.
The great goddess Demeter had a young, beautiful daughter, Persephone. Persephone’s father was the great son of Cronus himself, the Thunderer Zeus. Once upon a time, the beautiful Persephone, along with her oceanid friends, played carefree in the blossoming Nise Valley. Like a light-winged butterfly, the young daughter of Demetrius came running from flower to flower. She plucked gorgeous roses, fragrant violets, snow-white lilies and red hyacinths (hyacinths). Persephone was carelessly mad, not knowing what fate her father Zeus had ordained for her. De could think that she would not see the clear sunlight again soon, that she would not soon enjoy the flowers and inhale their sweet scent. Zeus gave her in marriage to his gloomy brother Hades, the ruler of the realm of the shadows of the dead, and with him she was to live in the darkness of the underworld, deprived of the light of the scorching southern sun.
Hephaestus (Ἥφαιστος, Hḗphaistos) was one of the gods of Olympus, son of Zeus and Hera, god of blacksmithing, metallurgy, carpentry, stonework, fire and volcanoes. Famous for forging the weapons of the gods, banished by his mother Hera for his infirmity, and according to another version banished by Zeus for his intentions towards Hera. His wife is the unfaithful goddess of love Aphrodite. Finding out from the sun god Helios that she is cheating on him with the god of war Ares, he binds them with a special chain and drags them to Mount Olympus for edification and shame in front of all the gods.
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