Thank you very much. I’ll definitely be more active in the summer but right now I have a lot to do. I hope you stick around!
edwardsvelvetvoice: Hi! I'm really interested in Greek Mythology. That's why maybe I enjoyed reading the books of Percy Jackson. Anyway, I love your blog! :)
osmoticshock: You and your blog are incredibly lovely and are indulging one of my most sacred loves with your cerebral and beautiful posts. Thank you. <3
You are quite welcome. Thank you for your kind words.
The Ludovisi Ares; Antonine Roman marble sculpture of Mars, a fine 2nd-century copy of a late 4th-century BCE Greek original (x)
Ares
Ares was the god of war, battle-lust, civil order and manly courage. In Greek art he was depicted as either a mature, bearded warrior dressed in battle arms, or a nude beardless youth with helm and spear. Because of his lack of distinctive attributes he is often difficult to identify in classical art. He is commonly noted as the son of Zeus and Hera. However, there is a variation in which Hera conceived Ares by touching a certain flower, though this is considered to be an imitation of the legend about the birth of Hephaestus.
The character of Ares would be best understood if compared with that of other divinities who are likewise in some way connected with war. Athena represents thoughtfulness and wisdom in the affairs of war, and protects men and their habitations during its ravages. Ares, on the other hand, is nothing but the personification of bold force and strength, and not so much the god of war as of its tumult, confusion, and horrors. His sister Eris calls forth war, Zeus directs its course, but Ares loves war for its own sake, and delights in the din and roar of battles, in the slaughter of men, and the destruction of towns. This savage and sanguinary character of Ares makes him hated by the other gods and his own parents. In the Iliad, he appears surrounded by the personifications of all the fearful phenomena and effects of war but in the Odyssey his character is somewhat softened down.
His most notable offspring were created through relations in an infamous affair with Aphrodite: Anteros, Deimos, Phobos, and Harmonia. Most of these appear to have been assigned to his paternity merely to emphasize their brutal and warlike natures.
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Marble statue of Castor and Pollux.
Twin brothers, together known as the Dioscuri. Their mother was Leda, but Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and Pollux the divine son of Zeus, who visited Leda in the guise of a swan. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
(via worldofmythology)
The Lotus-Eaters
While some have their drug of choice, The Lotus-Eaters prefer to stay natural. In an island near North Africa, are a race of people who are dominated by the lotus plant called the Lotus-Eaters, also known as lotophagi or lotophaguses. When the lotus is consumed, it causes a state of peaceful sleep and apathy brought on due to the narcotic elements within the lotuses. In the Odyssey, Odysseus speaks of how the north winds blew him and his men off course as they were rounding Cape Malea, the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus, headed westwards for Ithaca. They drifted on for nine days and on the tenth, they found the island of the Lotus-eaters. They landed to rejuvenate their health and after they did, Odysseus sent three men to check on the native inhabitants on the island. Instead of being hostile, they offered the men the lotus flower to eat which was so delicious that the men forgot about home. They no longer cared to go back or do anything but eat the flower. After Odysseus realized this, he dragged the men back onto the ship though they wept bitterly and Odysseus warned the rest of the men not to eat the lotuses. You may also be familiar with the film “Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief” where they portrayed the den of the Lotus-Eaters as a casino in Las Vegas.
Hesiod’s Creation Myth
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His earliest work was Theogony, a poem describing the origins of the world and of the gods. It is in some parts, similar to the story of the world’s origin in the first chapter of the Bible. Below is but an excerpt, as the entire thing has over one-thousand lines.
IIn truth at first Chaos came to be, but next wide-bosomed Earth, the ever-sure foundation of all the deathless ones who hold the peaks of snowy Olympus, and dim Tartarus in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth, and Eros (Love), fairest among the deathless gods, who unnerves the limbs and overcomes the mind and wise counsels of all gods and all men within them.
From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night; but of Night were born Aether and Day, whom she conceived and bore from union in love with Erebus. And Earth first bore starry Heaven, equal to herself, to cover her on every side, and to be an ever-sure abiding-place for the blessed gods. And she brought forth long hills, graceful haunts of the goddess Nymphs who dwell amongst the glens of the hills.
She bore also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontus, without sweet union of love. But afterwards she lay with Heaven and bore deep-swirling Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.
It’s Spring Break. That should give me more than enough time to bring this blog up to speed.
I promise I will or may my trip to the Underworld be expedited.
Heraklitus (1628) by Hendrick Ter Brugghen
Heracleitus (or Heraclitus)
c.535–c.475 B.C., Greek philosopher of Ephesus, of noble birth. According to Heraclitus, there was no permanent reality except the reality of change; permanence was an illusion of the senses. He taught that all things carried with them their opposites, that death was potential in life, that being and not-being were part of every whole—therefore, the only possible real state was the transitional one of becoming. He believed fire to be the underlying substance of the universe and all other elements transformations of it. He identified life and reason with fire and believed that no man had a soul of his own, that each shared in a universal soul-fire. (/)
(via manasoul)
Sketch of Apollo dancing with the Muses by Baldassare Peruzzi
The Muses
The Greek goddesses who presided over the arts and sciences. They were believed to inspire all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. The number of Muses varies over time; initially there was but one, and later there is mention of three: Melete, Mneme, and Aoede (the Elder Muses). Usually there is mention of nine muses: Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia, and Urania, the Younger Muses. (The above depicts the younger and well-known nine with Apollo, who wears a bow on his back.) (/)
Melete - Practice
Mneme - Memory
Aoede - Song
Calliope - Epic Poetry
Clio - History
Erato - Love Poetry
Euterpe - Song and Elegiac poetry
Melpomene - Tragedy
Polyhymnia - Hymns
Terpsichore - Dance
Thalia - Comedy
Urania - Astronomy
(via worldofmythology)
