Saturday, July 31, 2010

About Me

HI, I am Aaron Marzo. I am a 13 year old boy who made this blog. I am currently studying at a Saint Augustine College in the Philippines and I am at 2nd Year. I am very enthusiastic in many things especially about Mythology, although I wish to study Aeronautics and become a pilot.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Hades (Pluto)

He was the third brother among the Olympians, who drew for his share the underworld and ruled over the dead. He was also called Pluto, God of Wealth, of the precious metals hidden in the earth. The Romans as well as the Greeks called him by his name, but often they translated it into Dis, the Latin word for "rich". He had a far-famed cap or helmet which made whoever wore it invisible. It was rare that he left his dark realm to visit Olympus or the earth, nor was he urged to do so. He was not a welcome visitor. He was unpitying, inexorable, but just; a terrible, not an evil god. His wife was Persephone (Proserpine) whom he carried away from the earth and made her Queen of the Lower World. He was King of the Dead-not Death himself, whom the Greeks called Thanatos and the Romans, Orcus.

Poseidon (Neptune)

The ruler of the sea, Zeus's brother and second only to him in eminence. The Greeks on both sides of the Aegean were semen and the God of the sea was all important to them. His wife was Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titan, Ocean. Poseidon had a splendid palace t the bottom of the sea, but was oftener to be found in Olympus. Besides being the Lord of the Sea he gave the first horse to man, and e was honored as much for the one as for the other.
                                                   Lord Poseidon, from you this pride is ours,
                                                The strong horses, the young horses, and also the rule of the deep
Strong and calm were under his control.
                                                   He commanded and the storm wind rose
                                                   And the surges of the sea
But when he drove in his golden car over the waters, the thunder of the waves sank into stillness, and the tranquil peace followed his smooth-rolling wheels. He was commonly called "Earth-Shaker" and was always shown carrying trident, a three-prolonged spear, with which he would shake and shatter whatever he pleased. He had a connection with bulls as well with horses, but the bulls was connected to other gods too.

Zeus (Jupiter)

Zeus and his brothers drew lots for their share of the universe. The sea fell to Poseidon, and the underworld to Hades. Zeus became the supreme ruler. He was the Lord Of the Sky, the Rain-God and the Cloud-gatherer, who wielded the awful thunderbolt. His power was greater than that of all the other divinities together. In the Iliad he tells his family, "I am the mightiest of all. Make trial that you  may know. Fasten a rope of gold to heaven and lay hold, every god and goddess. You could not drag Zeus down. But if I wished to drag you down, then i would. The rope I would bind to a pinnacle of Olympus and all would hang in air, yes, the very earth and the sea too." Nevertheless he was not omnipotent or omniscient, either. He could be deceived and opposed. Sometimes, too, the mysterious power, Fate, is spoken of as stronger than he. Homer makes Hera ask him scornfully if he proposes to deliver from death a man Fate has doomed. He is represented as falling in love with one woman to another and descending to all manner of tricks to hide his infidelity from his wife. Still, even in the earliest records Zeus had grandeur. In the Iliad Agamemmon prays: "Zeus, most glorious , most great, God of the storm-cloud, thou  shall dwellest in the heavens." The Greek Army at Troy is said "Father Zeus never helps liars or those who breaks their oaths." The Two ideas of him, the low and the high, persisted side by side for a long time. His breastplate was the aegis, a large collar or cape worn in ancient times to display the protection provided by a high religious authority, his bird was the eagle, his tree the oak, his oracle was Dodona in the forest of oak

The Titans And The Twelve Great Olympians

The Titans, often called the Elder Gods, were for untold ages supreme in the universe. They were of enormous size and of incredible strength. The most important titan of all was Cronus, in Latin Saturn. He ruled over the other Titans until his son Zeus dethroned him and seized the power for himself. The Romans believed that when Zeus ascended the throne, Cronus fled to Italy and brought it in its Golden Age. Another notable Titan is Ocean, the river that is said to encircle the world; his wife Tethys; Hyperion, the father of the sun, the moon and the dawn; Mnemosyne, which means memory; Themis, usually translated by justice; And Iapetus, important because of his sons, Atlas, who bore the world on his shoulders, and Prometheus, who was the savior of mankind. The great Olympians were supreme among those who succeeded to the Titans. They were called Olympians because Olympus were their home. Olympus was first said to be on a mountain top, and generally identified with Greece's highest point, Mt. Olympus. In one passage of the Iliad, Zeus talks to the gods from the "highest peak of many ridged Olympus" clearly a mountain. But a little further he says that if he willed he could hang earth and sea from a pinnacle of Olympus, clearly no longer a mountain. Even so, it is not heaven. Homer, said to be the author of the ancient poems Iliad and Odyssey, makes Poseidon say that he rules over the sea, Hades the dead, Zeus the heavens, but Olympus is common to all three. Wherever it was, the entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by seasons. No wind, Homer says, ever shakes the untroubled peace of Olympus; No rain ever falls there or snow; but the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white glory of sunshine is diffused upon its walls.
The twelve Olympians made up a divine family: (1) Zeus (Jupiter), the chief; his two brothers next , (2) Poseidon (Neptune), and (3) Hades (Pluto); (4) Hestia (Vesta), their sister; (5) Hera (Juno), Zeus's wife, and (6) Ares (Mars), their son; Zeus's children: (7) Athena (Minerva), (8) Apollo, (9) Aphrodite (Venus), (10) Hermes (Mercury), and (11) Artemis (Diana); Hera's son (12) Hephaestus (Vulcan), sometimes said to be Zeus's son.

Introduction To Classical Mythology

Greek and Roman mythology is quite generally supposed to show us the way the human race thought and felt untold ages ago. Through it, according to this view, we can retrace the path from civilized man who lives so far from nature, to man who lived in close companionship with with nature; and the real interests of the myths is that they lead us back to a time when the world was young and people had a connection with earth, with trees and seas and flowers and hills, unlike anything we ourselves can feel. When the stories were being shaped, we are given to understand, little distinction had as yet been made between the real and unreal.

Mythology

From the creation of the world to visions of the not-so-sweet hereafter, from family quarrels to conflicts among nations, in these stories of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Norsemen we are as entertained and enthralled as generations have been before us.