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greek mythology2

greek mythology2 The Greek gods of Mount Olympus were more human than we realize. They had super human powers, but suffered from the same dilemmas humans throughout time have faced. The gods were put through deceit, rivalry, and breaking the rules they enforced on others. Zeus was the god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods. He had two brothers, Poseidon and Hades. Zeus is lord of the sky, the rain god, and the gatherer of clouds. His weapon is a thunderbolt, which he hurls at those who displease him. His breastplate was the aegis. His bird was the eagle and his tree was the oak tree. Zeus started a new era for the gods and created a council of gods in mount Olympus. Poseidon is the most powerful god after Zeus. He is the god of the sea, protector of all waters, earthquakes and horses. Poseidon represented as the god of justice and mercy, the protector of the weak and the punisher of the wicked. He was married to the sea-nymph Amphitrite, daughter to Nereus, and granddaughter of the Titan Oceanus. He was the father of a flying horse named Pegasus. Poseidon sometimes granted the shape-shifting power to others. He is a strong guy and mostly gets what he wants. For example, when he decided that there should be an ocean somewhere, he created one. Poseidon was widely worshiped by seamen. His weapon was the trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. The Romans’ name for him was Neptune. Hades was the lord of the underworld, ruler of the dead. He was also the god of wealth and was known as the “Rich One”, due to the precious metals mined from the earth. Since he was the god of wealth, he was indeed wealthy when it came to the number of subjects in his kingdom of the dead. Hades was referred to as “Ploutos”, wealth. Even though, he was a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects. Those whose calling increases the number of dead are seen favorably. Hades was unpitying and terrible, but predictable. He exceedingly disinclined to allow any of his subjects leave. Hades abducted his wife, Zeus’s daughter, Persephone. His helmet makes him invisible. Hera is the wife and sister of Zeus. Hera bored four children for Zeus. Ares was the god of war, Hephaestus was the god of fire and metalworking. Hebe was the goddess of youth, and Eileithyia was the goddess of childbirth. Hera was the protector of women, presiding over marriage and childbirth. She takes special care of married women and frequently punished offending husbands. Hera was thought to be pretty and unforgiving. Heras’ sacred animals are the cow and the peacock. Her favorite city is Argos. The Romans identified Hera with Juno. Many of the myths are full of deceit, which means to trick or lie. Zeus was married to Hera but is famous for his many affairs, which is lying and breaking the oaths such as marriage. He is also known to punish those that lie or break oaths. Besides the trickery between the gods, they also had rivalry. Poseidon has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy. He had a series of disputes with other gods when he tried to take over their cities. Poseidon similarly cursed the wife of King Minos. Minos had proved his divine right to rule Crete by calling on Poseidon to send a bull from the sea, which the king promised to sacrifice. Poseidon sent the bull, but Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it. Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love; to make Minos’s queen, Pasiphea, fall in love with the bull. The result was the monstrous Minotaur, half-man, half-bull. Zeus, known for cheating on Hera, constantly fought. Hera plagued his mistresses and children. Hera hated the hero Hercules so much that she caused him problems at every opportunity. Once when Zeus was being particularly overbearing to the other gods, Hera convinced them to join in a revolt. Her part in the revolt was to drug Zeus, and in this she was successful. The gods then bound the sleeping Zeus to a couch taking care to tie many knots. This done they began to quarrel over the next step. Briareus overheard the arguments. Still full of gratitude to Zeus, Briareus slipped in and was able to quickly untie the many knots. Zeus sprang from the couch and grabbed up his thunderbolt. The gods fell to their knees begging and pleading for mercy. He seized Hera and hung her from the sky with gold chains. She had little choice but to agree. One myth tells how Hades kidnapped Persephone, one of Zeus’s daughters, to make her his wife. Zeus overthrew his father Cronus, who was swallowing all of his siblings, by getting him into drinking an emitic, which causes Cronus to through up all of his siblings. Heracles, son of Zeus, once wrestled Zeus to a draw for rule of the Olympians. His sons, Aias. Aphrodite was wounded protecting her son Aineias. Ares’ son, Askalaphos, was killed, and, of course, Achilleus, son of the goddess Tethys, was to be the grand sacrifice. Like humans through out history, the Gods also had wars. During the Trojan War there were many sons of the immortals in the battle for Troy. Zeus let his son Sarpedon die on the battlefield at the hands of another of Zeus’s sons. Bibliography:

Word Count: 908