Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes

Chapter 1 is broken up into several subchapters:

“The Titans and the Twelve Great Olympians”

Hamilton begins with a genealogy of the gods. In the beginning was the “universe,” “heaven and earth,” which gave birth to the first generation of gods, the Titans (19). Chief among them was Cronus, Saturn in Roman mythology, who was eventually overthrown by his son Zeus. Other important Titans were Ocean and his wife Tethys, Hyperion, Mnemosyne (Memory), Themis (Justice), Iapetus (father of Atlas), and Prometheus (patron of humankind). These Titans remained part of the pantheon even after Zeus overcame his father.

The twelve Olympians were siblings Zeus (Roman Jupiter) and his wife Hera (Roman Juno), Poseidon (Roman Neptune), Hades (Roman Pluto), and Hestia (Roman Vesta); Zeus’s children Ares (Roman Mars), Athena (Roman Minerva), Apollo and his twin sister Artemis (Roman Diana), Hermes (Roman Mercury), Aphrodite (Roman Venus), and Hera’s son Hephaestus (Roman Vulcan). The realms of earth, sea, and sky were divided between the three brothers, Zeus (ruler of the sky), Poseidon (ruler of the sea), and Hades (ruler of the dead). Zeus’s wife Hera presided over marriage and married women and as a patron and protector of heroes. Hades’ wife was Persephone (Roman Proserpina). Zeus’s sister Hestia was goddess of the hearth.

Zeus’s favorite child, Pallas Athena, was born from her father’s head fully grown and armored and was goddess of warfare and crafts. Her sacred city, Athens, was named after her, and she was “the embodiment of wisdom, reason, purity” (28). A “kindly, peace-loving god,” Hephaestus was a god of fire and crafts that “are the support of civilization” (36). As Athena protected weavers, Hephaestus protected smiths. Phoebus Apollo was born to Zeus and Leto (Roman Latona) and associated with healing, prophecy, music, the lyre, and the bow. His twin sister Artemis was a maiden goddess of the hunt. Goddess of beauty and typically portrayed as wife of Hephaestus, Aphrodite is alternately the daughter of Zeus and Dione or “sprung from the foam of the sea” (32). Son of Zeus and Maia (a daughter of Atlas), Hermes was shrewd, cunning, and “the Master Thief” (33). The messenger god and protector of traders, Hermes is portrayed as “solemn guide of the dead” (34). God of war, Ares was portrayed as Zeus’s least favorite but held in higher regard in Rome.

“The Lesser Gods of Olympus”

Hamilton calls gods and goddesses who appear in myths but are not among “the twelve great Olympians” the “lesser” gods (37). These include god of love Eros, alternately portrayed as “a beautiful serious youth” or Aphrodite’s naughty child. Others are Iris (goddess of the rainbow and a messenger goddess), the Muses, and the Graces. Daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, the three Graces—Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer)—are the embodiment of “grace and beauty” (38). Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne, the nine Muses initially are referred to as one entity but gradually become associated with particular fields: Clio with history, Urania with astronomy, Melpomene with tragedy, Thalia with comedy, Terpsichore with dance, Calliope with epic, Erato with love poetry, Polyhymnia with “songs to the gods,” and Euterpe with lyric (39). They are linked with Apollo and the Graces.

Two “lesser” deities associated with Zeus are Themis, embodiment of divine justice, and Dike, embodiment of human justice. Two personified emotions are Nemesis, embodiment of righteous anger, and Aidos, which connotes not only “reverence and the shame that holds men back from wrong but also ‘the feeling a prosperous man should have in the presence of the unfortunate,’ which is that ‘the difference between him and those poor wretches is not deserved’” (40).

“The Gods of the Waters and the Underworld”

Hamilton lists water gods: the Olympian Poseidon; the Titans Ocean and his wife Tethys, parents of the river nymphs (the Oceanids); Pontus and his son Nereus, “the Old Man of the Sea” (41). With his wife Doris, Nereus fathered the sea nymphs (the Nereids), among whom were Thetis (mother of Achilles and Amphitrite [Poseidon’s wife]). Amphitrite and Poseidon’s son was Triton, “the trumpeter of the Sea” (41). Proteus, alternately portrayed as Poseidon’s son or attendant, had the power of prophecy and the ability to change form. The Naiads were water nymphs. Other sea divinities are Leucothea and her son Palaemon, both of whom were initially mortal, and Glaucus.

The Underworld, ruled by Hades and Persephone, had two subdivisions: Tartarus and Erebus. Tartarus is sometimes portrayed as the deeper of the two and a prison that contained Earth’s sons and Erebus as a passageway through which the dead pass. Other times, the two are conflated. Earlier poets tend to portray the Underworld as a shadow existence, but in later poetry, it is a place where “the wicked are punished and the good rewarded” (42).

The Roman poet Virgil describes the Underworld’s geography in detail. Five rivers separate the worlds of the living and the dead. Charon ferries the dead across the water to the Underworld’s gates, which are guarded by Cerberus, “a three-headed, dragon-tailed dog” (42). Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus judge the dead, sending the wicked to be punished and the good to the Elysian Fields. According to the Greek poets, the Erinyes (Roman Furies) pursued those who transgressed on earth as a form of justice. Virgil placed them in the Underworld.

“The Lesser Gods of the Earth”

Among the “lesser” gods, Hamilton includes Earth; goddess of corn Demeter (Roman Ceres); god of the vine Dionysus (Roman Bacchus); and Hermes’ son Pan, a half man, half goat satyr, who dwelled in wild places. Alternately Pan’s son or brother was Silenus, who was associated with Bacchus. Known only through vase images, Sileni are part man, part horse. Woodland nymphs include the Oreads (mountain nymphs) and Dryads (tree nymphs).

Sons of Leda, Castor, and Pollux (Greek Polydeuces) were “the special protectors of sailors” and were especially honored in Rome (44). Conflicting stories about them circulated. In some versions, Castor (and his sister Clytemnestra) is the son of Leda and her mortal husband Tyndareus while Pollux (and his sister Helen) is the son of Leda and Zeus.

Creatures who were neither fully human nor divine who lived on earth included the Centaurs and Gorgons. Half man, half horse, Centaurs were typically depicted as brutal and savage, with the exception of Chiron, who was known for his wisdom and goodness. Daughters of Phorcys, the Gorgons were three sisters, two of whom were immortal. Their sisters were the Graiae, “three gray women” who shared a single eye (48). The Sirens were known for their enchanting voices, which could lure sailors to their deaths.

Wind god Aeolus lived on his own island, Aeolia. He ruled over the North wind Boreas (Roman Aquilo), the West wind Zephyr (Roman Favonius), South wind Notus (Roman Auster), and East win Eurus. The Fates, known as the Moirae in Greek and Parcae in Latin, were three sisters. Clotho spun each human life as a single thread. Lachesis dispensed each human’s destiny, and Atropos determined the length of each life.

“The Roman Gods”

According to Hamilton, the Romans had “deep religious feeling” but lacked imagination (49). They were “practical people” who “wanted useful gods” (49). Before coming into contact with Greek art and literature, the Romans did not personify or tell stories about their gods. They had called their gods collectively “The Numina,” meaning “Will-Powers” (49). The two most important were the Lares, meaning “spirit of an ancestor,” and Penates meaning “gods of the hearth and guardians of the storehouse” (49). They were family gods, who protected and defended the household, though the city also had public Lares and Penates. Other Numina were associated with every aspect of the household, though they had no “definitive shape” (50).

Hamilton says the Romans adopted the Greek gods but gave them Roman names. Numina who became associated with Greek gods include Saturn, corresponding with the Greek Cronus, in whose honor the Saturnalia feast was held each winter. Among the Numina the Romans retained after Hellenizing their gods was Janus, a god of boundaries, whose doors were closed only during peacetime. The month January is named for him. Faunus corresponded roughly with the Greek Pan; fauns were Roman satyrs. A legendary founder of Rome, Romulus became deified as Quirinus. The “spirits of the good dead” were called Manes, sometimes seen as divine, and were worshipped. Lemurs or Larvae were sprits of the bad dead and feared. The Camenae had been goddesses associated with healing and prophecy, who became associated with the Muses. Lucina was a kind of Roman Eileithya, the childbirth goddess, but the name was “used as an epithet of both Juno and Diana” (51).