exam 3 babyyy
Mythology Exam #3:
Hero myths:
Now our myths will be focused on human beings instead of gods. These “Hero” myths are not about extraordinarily courageous or superior people, as our common interpretation of ‘hero’ denotes. Instead, heroes in mythology are capable of stupidity, cowardice and other weaknesses, though some are naturally brave and smart. Greek heroes, basically, are ordinary human beings who live extraordinary lives, who could either succeed or fail at their tasks. Greek hero myths show what it was like to be human.
Fate – a concept somewhat foreign to our culture, which emphasizes freedom of choice and autonomy, as well as responsibility for your own actions. Greeks believe that it was all mapped out for you since you were born – an unchangeable blueprint, with personal choice being merely an illusion. We’re ruled instead by fate – but Greeks were unclear as to who authored fate, since even the gods could not change it. Later on came the concept of three women who controlled fate, one of whom wove the thread of fate, the next who measured it (and thereby measured your lifespan), and one who cut the thread.
Belief in fate made the oracle of Apollo so important – it let visitors find out what their fate was going to be. Astrology and horoscopes are also based on the assumption that you do not have freewill – that the stars determine your life. Psychology says that you were born free, but your development and childhood dictate what kind of person you’ll be – that you’re not free anymore. The biological basis for human behavior says that both physical attributes and personality are controlled by your genes. Whether you’re violent or peaceful, it’s genetic. So each of these things is a form of predetermined fate – we may think we’re free, but the things and sciences we surround ourselves with say otherwise.
Croesus, king of Lydia – he was the richest person in the world, and it was he that created to concept of money. He had the fortune to do or have whatever he wanted to. A famed Greek philosopher named Solon visited Croesus, and the king really wanted to impress this powerful man. After Solon had been shown the grand tour of all of Croesus’ riches and power, Croesus asked Solon who the happiest person in the world was. Solon, to Croesus’ surprise, named someone he’d never heard of. So Croesus asked who was second. Again, someone he’d never heard of. Finally, exasperated, Croesus asked, “OK, what about me??” Solon replied, “Call no man happy until he’s dead.” This was confusing to Croesus – the Greek view of the afterlife was very bleak with eternal misery. What Solon meant was that if you can die with a good life with nothing bad happening to you, then you can be called happy, as in having had a happy life. But while you’re still living, something bad might still happen to you. So until you complete life happy, you can’t be happy. Such is the story of the father whose two sons won medals at the Olympics. People around him watching told him to die now, because he would never be happier.
Well, Croesus didn’t believe him. He knew he was happy. After Solon left, Croesus had a beloved son who, at birth, the priests had said was fated to die by a man-made weapon. This type of thing happened all the time, but Croesus, with all of his money and power, decided that he would beat fate and not let a man-made weapon near his son. This also meant that the son never could learn to use such weapons, even a knife with which to cut his food. All other boys got trained, but the king’s son was raised like a girl. Very early, the son started complaining to Croesus, but Croesus still said no. Still, as a parent, it was very hard for Croesus to tell his son “no, you can’t grow up like a man”, but he was doing it to protect him.
Another visitor came to visit Croesus – Adrastus, a man who had killed his own blood relations in his own country. Killing was common, but killing your own blood was considered breaking both human law and it offended the gods. When someone killed a blood relative, they were forced to leave their own country and travel about until they could convince the king of another country to perform the religious rites to cleanse them of their crime. This was done to protect the home country from the wrath of the offended gods.
So Adrastus came before Croesus, who agreed to perform the rites, which put Adrastus under great moral obligation to the king. Adrastus looked for ways to repay him, and one day some peasants came to the king to ask for hunters to rid their village of a killer wild boar. Croesus said OK, he’d send the boar hunt. The son asked Croesus if he could go, not to participate, but just to watch. Croesus said no. Adrastus saw this, stepped forward and said, “if you let him go, I will act as his guard and protect him with my own body. The son begged his father even more until Croesus finally said yes. Both were overjoyed – the son because he’d be going to watch the boar hunt and Adrastus because he’d found a way to repay Croesus.
So the boar hunt gets underway, and the semi-circle of hunters surrounded the cave where the wild boar hides. The boar charges out of the cave and is supposed to stop for a second, surprised by the semi-circle of hunters, just long enough for it to be killed. Instead, the boar charged directly for the king’s son. Well, the son had nothing to logically fear – the boar had no man-made weapons. But Adrastus panicked and grabbed a spear from a nearby hunter. He threw it at the boar, missed, and hit the king’s son, killing him. So despite Croesus’ attempts to defy fate, fate won, and the very thing that he did to try to defeat fate (sending Adrastus as a bodyguard) caused fate to come true. Adrastus killed himself, and Croesus finally understood what Solon had meant about a living man not being happy. Croesus, in dealing with his grief, set out to attack Persia, was defeated and became a prisoner. He later traveled to Delphi to ask why Apollo had betrayed him.
Heracles – name means “glory of Hera”; son of Zeus and Alcmena; since Hera takes out her wrath on the children of Zeus’ affairs, one woman,Alcmena, named her child Heracles to try to protect the boy from Hera. Zeus came to Alcmena in the form of her husband and made the night last three times longer than normal. So her husband returns the next day wanting to make love, and she said I’m surprised you’d want to after making love all night last night. They figured it out – must have been Zeus.
When Heracles was being born, Hera found out and sent the goddess of childbirth to the front porch of Alcmena’s house to sit down and hold her knees together. This is a form of sympathetic magic, like voodoo – since the goddess of childbirth did this, Alcmena could not give birth, which became excruciatingly painful. Hera was seeing to it that Alcmena suffered for being too attractive and getting the attention of Zeus. Finally, Alcmena’s maid ran out and yelled, “My mistress has given birth!!”. This couldn’t be, but still the goddess of childbirth jumped up to see what was going on, and Heracles popped out. In revenge, Hera turned the maid into a weasel.
Hera took out her wrath on the children of Zeus’ affairs because they were walking monuments to his infidelities. So she sent two serpents to the crib of Heracles to kill him, but instead he strangled the snakes. Heracles is the strongman of Greek myth, analogous to Samson in the Bible.
Heracles was born human but becomes a god after his death – he lives and dies physically, but Zeus wanted the soul of his son to be spared the underworld, so he transfers it up to Olympus and makes him a god.
Heracles used his weapons to hunt and fight. The king in a neighboring kingdom had a problem with a man-eating lion. Heracles was 16-years old when he came in and killed the lion, which he skinned. Heracles became the only Greek hero to wear lion’s skin. In thanks, the king offered Heracles all 50 of his daughters – Heracles either spent 50 nights in the kingdom, one with each, or spent a single night in which he made love to all 50. An example of masculinity by arithmetic.
Heracles got married, but Hera was still out to get him, so she drove him insane and, while insane, he killed his own wife and kids. Then she restored his sanity so that he’d have to live with the guilt. Recall that when a man kills blood relatives, such as his kids, he was forced to leave the kingdom. So Heracles had to leave his country and find a king to perform the religious rites to cleanse him. He found a king to do it, but he made Heracles perform 12 Labors – 12 problems which needed to be solved. Here are a few:
The Lion of Nemea (Nemean Lion) – different from the lion he had slain earlier, but also a man-eater. This lion’s hide was so thick that it could not be pierced by any man-made weapon. Heracles had to kill it bring back its skin for proof. He killed the lion with a club, since spears didn’t work, but still had to skin it, and knives wouldn’t work on that hide. Heracles looked closely and thought – then used the lion’s own claws, which were after all not man-made, to take its skin off
The Hydra of Lerna – he had to kill this water serpent that had 9 poisonous heads. Heracles started chopping heads off, but each time he’d cut one off, two would grow back in its place. Hera, still out for revenge, sent a giant crab to harass him. So first, he killed the crab, but the crab had performed well, so Hera set it up in the sky as a constellation, Cancer. Heracles went and got a friend who brought his sword and made it red hot in a fire. Heracles would cut off a head, and the friend would cauterize the wound. But when the 9th head was cut off, it was immortal, still snapping. Heracles buried it under a big rock. He then milked the poison of the head and dipped all his arrowheads in the poison to make them more deadly. This would later cause his own death.
Stables of Augeas (Augean Stables) – King Augeas had 30,000 cattle, whose stalls had never been cleaned. Heracles was given one day to clean them. He saw the task and knew it couldn’t be done in a single day. But he also saw two rivers nearby – narrow, rapid-flowing rivers in the mountainous terrain. So Heracles dammed the rivers so they’d flow through the stables, and it cleaned out in one day.
The first 6 of Heracles’ labors were in the real world – only the skin of the lion and the heads of the hydra were supernatural. The other 6 labors take him to the threshold of the supernatural world, where he tries to function as a human where only gods can function.
Apples of the Hesperides (Hesperides means “daughters of Evening”) – another example of anthropomorphism, with Evening being given human qualities such as the ability of childbirth. The daughters of Evening lived on an island in the river Ocean that flows around the earth. No one knew where this island was. Heracles was sent to get from the Hesperides the golden apples, which had been a wedding gift to Hera. In the middle of the garden of the Hesperides was the tree with the golden apples. Heracles didn’t know exactly where the island was, so he went to the furthest west that he could get to by land – northwest Africa. He stopped once he came upon the river Ocean.
He did not see the island, but there he found Atlas, one of the Titans who was not sent down to Tartarus, but instead was sent to the corner of the earth to hold the weight of the heavens on his shoulders. (note it’s the weight of the heavens, not weight of the earth as commonly portrayed). Atlas is a defeated, inferior god, but still superior to humans. Heracles asked Atlas if he knew where the island was, to which Atlas replied, of course, because I am the father of the Hesperides (Atlas & Evening). He said he would go to the island and that the daughters would give him, their father, the apples. So Atlas transferred the weight of the heavens onto the shoulders of Heracles. This marks the first time that a human was doing the work of a god.
The Hesperides gave Atlas, reluctantly, the golden apples. But Atlas realized that he enjoyed not having the weight of the heavens upon him, so when he got back, he told Heracles that he didn’t want it back – Heracles would have to hold up the heavens. Heracles agreed, but asked Atlas to take it for just a second so he could put some padding on his shoulders. Atlas wasn’t the smartest, and this sounded OK, so he “momentarily” took back the weight of the heavens – and Heracles left with the golden apples. Heracles was not only able to do the work of a god, but had been able to deceive him.
The 12th Labor – Cerberus – the watchdog at the gate of the underworld, the fiercest of all dogs, with three heads. To always be alert, the three heads would sleep, eat and keep watch all in rotation. Heracles had to go down to the world of the dead, overpower Cerberus, and bring him back. Well, the underworld was easy to get into – that’s not why Cerberus was there. He was there to keep people in. Heracles wrestled him and brought him up to the surface, but people were terrified, so he had to bring him back. When you go down to the world of the dead and come back, it’s an example of a resurrection myth. So while Cerberus was away on the surface, the gate was unguarded, so the souls of the dead could also get out and come back up. He compared this to Jesus raising the souls of the dead.
So Heracles had done the 12 labors and was free from the guilt. The Romans prizes Hercules, their name for Heracles. They would say “Heracles!” when surprised, much as we say “Jesus!”, so he was a very important figure in Roman pagan religion.
Heracles married a second wife, Deianira. Deianira would be his downfall, much like Delilah was to Samson (she got the secret of his strength, his long hair, and gave it to the Pharisees, who captured him. In an attempt to torture him, Samson prayed for strength and took out a temple column, killing them all). So Heracles, who no man could beat, fell due his wife Deianira.
The two were traveling and came to a river. Heracles wanted to get her across without getting her soaked, so he looked around for a way. Nothing. Acentaur named Nessus approached and offered to carry her across on his back. Great! So Heracles swam across the river, thinking they were right behind him. At the other side, he turns around and sees that they had not crossed, and that Nessus was trying to rape Deianira. Heracles fired an arrow – one of the hydra-poison tipped arrows – at Nessus. Nessus was hit and felt the poison working inside him, and he knew he was doomed. All he could think of was revenge. So he told Deianira that her husband’s arrow was killing him, but that his blood was a magical love charm that she could use if she ever was afraid of losing her husband’s love. So she collected some of the blood and hid it away. He had appealed to her fear of losing Heracles’ love.
So things go on, and Heracles has many more adventures. And after one adventure, he brings back a concubine – a sleep-with partner. Typically, wives shouldn’t have felt threatened since the concubines were strictly for sex, and in fact some wives welcomed the diversion. But Deianira heard that Heracles was bringing a concubine back and her heart sank – she was worried that he would give more than sex to the concubine, and in fact give her his attention and love. So she remembered the blood and made Heracles a beautiful robe, and dyed it with the blood of Nessus. She had the robe sent to him and he loved it. He was wearing the robe, but the poison in the blood was heat-activated, so that night as he stood by the fire, the poison seeped into his skin and burned him terribly. He tried to tear away at it, but it was stuck to him, like napalm. Heracles burned to death in agony from the poison on the robe.
Zeus, his father, was unwilling to let Heracles’ soul go to the underworld, so he took his soul to Olympus and set him up as a god.
Next hero: Jason
Jason was from the town of Iolcus. His uncle was named Pelias. Jason’s father was crown prince of Iolcus and was supposed to become king, but Pelias took over the throne instead. Pelias considered Jason to be a threat, so Jason’s parents hurriedly got Jason out of the country to safety in case Pelias tried to have him killed. Twenty years later, at around age 20, Jason decides to come back to Iolcus to reclaim his throne. On his way, he stopped to help an old woman cross a stream. Part-way across the stream, he lost one of his shoes. The old woman, though, was really Hera in disguise, so she decided to help him defeat Pelias, who Hera felt had not given her the proper respect. (The fact that Hera decides to help Jason lets us know that Zeus was not his father).
Pelias had been fated to be killed by a man with one shoe, then here comes back Jason with one shoe saying that he wanted the throne. Pelias knew that he could not kill Jason since he was a blood relative, and he’d then have to go into exile himself. So he asked Jason what he would do if he were confronted by the man fated to kill him. Jason said, “I would send him on an adventure to get the golden fleece. If he’s lost at sea, it would not be your fault.” So Pelias did just that – sent Jason on an adventure to get the golden fleece, promising that if Jason brought back the golden fleece, he could be king.
The golden fleece was a sheepskin – many gold miners would stretch a sheepskin (fleece) in a stream so that the wool could gather flowing gold pieces. The fleece was in a country at the far end of the Black Sea, over which Jason would have to sail. He built a ship – the first Greek ship – called the Argo. The sailors were called Argonauts. Jason recruited 50 men to go along with him – he needed so many to row the ship out when leaving and nearing the dock.
Jason’s adventures:
Phineus was a blind king who had the gift of prophecy. He was tormented by Harpies – bird-like women who’d fly over and snatch his food. He was desperate and starving. Jason and his Argonauts drove off the harpies, so in gratitude, Phineus prophesized the dangers of the journey and how to get the fleece.
He had to sail through the Clashing Rocks, which no ship had ever sailed through before. Phineus has told him to release a dove, and if the dove made it through the two huge crushing rocks, they should start rowing as fast as they could – if the dove was crushed, turn around and go home. So they release the dove, the rocks start to close and they snatched off one tail feather from the dove, who was otherwise unharmed. So they started rowing – the rocks closed and snatched off one board from the back of the boat, but otherwise unharmed. The curse of the clashing rocks broken, they parted and would stay open forever.
So the Argo gets to Colchis on the eastern shore of the Black Sea, where the golden fleece was. He went to the king, but the king would not give him the fleece, stating it was a national treasure. But he gave Jason tasks to perform to see if he could earn it (you couldn’t just kill or turn away a peaceful visitor, as this would garner Zeus’ wrath). Jason was told that he would have to (1) put a yoke on a pair of fire-breathing bulls, (2) plow a field and plant dragon’s teeth, and (3) kill the armed men who would spring up from the planted dragon’s teeth.
Well, the king of Colchis had a daughter named Medea, who was a witch. So Hera went to Aphrodite to get Medea to fall in love with Jason in order to have her help him. She did. First, Medea gave Jason an ointment to protect him from the bull’s fire. Then she gave him advice on fighting the armed men. Jason yoked the bulls, plowed the field, planted the dragon’s teeth, and the army of armed men sprung up. Jason threw a rock into the middle of them, the guy that it hit thought that the guy standing next to him had hit him, so he hit him. The next guy hit the next guy. It became a barroom brawl-type fight. At the end only 5 of the armed men, wounded and beaten, were alive, and Jason was able to kill them by himself. So he’d accomplished his tasks…but the king still refused to give him the golden fleece.
Jason decided to steal the fleece, which was hung in a tree in a special garden, protected by a dragon. Medea helped him out by drugging the dragon so that Jason could steal the fleece. After they got it, Jason, his men, and Medea (who had now burned her bridge with the family and town) rushed to board the Argo. The king’s men also rushed to stop them. Medea, though, had brought along her little brother, and as they sailed, she killed him and cut him to pieces. She would throw pieces overboard, one at a time. The king had to stop at each piece to pick it up – a body had to be buried intact for the soul to have a chance to continue – so the king lost time each time he had to stop. Eventually, Jason and the Argo, with Medea on board, got away.
On the way back to Iolcus, the Argo stopped in Crete and ran into Talos, a bronze giant that patrolled the beach. Again, Medea, with her witch knowledge, told Jason the secret to victory. Talos had a bronze plug in back of one of his heels. The Greeks thought that the gods had ichor, a clear substance that was a divine version of blood, running through their veins. So Jason pulled the plug, and all of the ichor leaked out, killing Talos.
Jason then returned to face Pelius with the golden fleece, but Pelius still wouldn’t abdicate the throne, telling Jason that he’d just have to wait until Pelius died. Since he was a blood relative, Jason couldn’t kill him. But Medea had a plan. She got the daughters of Pelius together and showed them a trick. She killed an old sheep, cut it up, put it in a pot, cast a spell…and a young ram jumped out. She showed them the same trick using Jason’s father, who hopped out 30 years younger. So she asked them if they’d like to do this for their own father, Pelius. They agreed happily. So she gave them the ingredients, wrote down the spell, and gave it to the daughters. But naturally, she tricked them, and the spell did not work for them. They had killed their own father.
Jason thought he’d take over now, but the townspeople said that Jason and Medea were guilty of the killing, and the two were exiled anyway. So Jason had to find a king to purify him. The King of Corinth did and allowed them to live in Corinth. Jason was unhappy – he’d always assumed he’d be a king someday. Still, he tried to help the king of Corinth and pay him back. The king was fond of Jason, and since he had no son of his own, he told Jason to marry his daughter so that he’d later become king. Problem – Jason was married to Medea, and she was not pleased with this concept. Medea could not go home – she had alienated her family as she left on the Argo, so she was stuck. Reluctantly she agreed. Medea then made a robe for Jason’s new bride and coated it with a heat-activated poison like the poison of the hydra. Again it burned, here into the flesh of Jason’s bride as she showed the new gift to her father. The king tried to help his daughter and together they burned to death in agony.
Jason went to confront Medea, but she was still getting even with him. The only chance of a good afterlife was leaving behind good kids. She had a dilemma – did she hate Jason more, or love their own children more? She decided she hated him more and stabbed the kids to death in front of him. Jason wanted to kill her, but she escaped in a dragon-pulled chariot. Medea went to Athens, where she took up with King Aegeus. Jason, though, became a hopeless drunk, looking back on his life and how he never became king. Drinking on the seashore, he sat leaning against the remains of the Argo where it had grounded, and a board fell off and killed him.
Next hero: Theseus
Now in Athens, King Aegeus, at an earlier time (before Medea). The king had no sons to be his heir, which was dangerous, because people wanted to kill him for the job since it would be up for grabs. Aegeus was even threatened by his own brothers. So he went to the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi and asked if he’d ever have a son. The answer: “Don’t undo the wineskin’s mouth until you get home.” OK, he didn’t get it. So, traveling back to Athens, he stopped for the night at a neighboring kingdom, during which he tells the king about his prophecy. The neighbor king understood it, even though Aegeus did not, so the king gets Aegeus drunk and sends his own daughter in to sleep with him, knowing from the prophecy that she would get pregnant. The next morning, Aegeus figured it out and knew he’d been tricked. He told the girl, ‘if you have my daughter, don’t even bother telling me. But if it’s a boy, raise him without telling him who I am. Don’t tell him until he can lift a certain large stone that I choose and gets the items out from under it.’ King Aegeus then returned to Athens.
The girl gave birth to Theseus. A problem arose – the Greeks only had one name, so they’d identify themselves by listing their lineage (I’m Joe, son of John, grandson of Josh), only throwing in the mother’s names for clarification. Theseus did not know who his father was, he was just….Theseus. So he was ridiculed for all his life as he grew up and developed a complex about his father. Eventually, he became old enough to life the giant rock, where he found a pair of sandals and a sword. His mother was then able to tell him that his father was Aegeus, king of Athens, who wanted him to come and claim his birth rite. But Theseus had this complex – usually fathers give their son “permission” to become a man through some coming-of-age rite, that Theseus never had. So Theseus took the long, dangerous route to Athens to have adventures and prove to himself and his father that he was a man.
On the way, he ran into Sinis, who lived on the side of the road. Sinis would trap people as they went by and tie each of their arms to the tips of two pine trees that he had bent down to the ground and tied there. He would tie their arms up, one each to a tree, then cut the rope that held the trees in place. As the trees swung up, the person would be ripped apart. Theseus overpowered Sinis and reversed it – he tied him to the two trees, but the rope, and Sinis was torn apart.
He also ran into Procrustes, known as “The Stretcher”. Procrustes also lived on the side of the road and had a guest bed for people who’d stop by. But they had to fit in the bed. So he’d either stretch them until they fit the bed or, if they were taller than the length of the bed, he’d chop off parts until they fit. (This is still known as Procrustean Logic – starting at the end and thinking your way backwards from there) Theseus overpowered Procrustes also and made him fit the bed.
Theseus was the only hero in Greek myth to voluntarily undertake these adventures. Others, including Heracles and Jason, had the adventures assigned to them. Theseus did it to prove himself to both the king and to himself. He did not want Aegeus to be obligated to like him.
Back in Athens, King Aegeus had married Medea and they had by now had a couple of sons. Theseus didn’t just go in and tell his story – he simply said that he had business with the king. Medea, being a witch, knew who he was, so she told the king that this visitor was trouble and should be killed, with it made to look like an accident. Aegeus, not knowing, agreed, and Medea planned to poison Theseus that night at dinner.
Theseus was the guest of honor and showed up wearing his sandals and carrying the sword, but his cloak concealed them. Being the guest of honor, he noticed that he was drinking from a gold cup while all the others had silver. (The better to poison you with.) At dinner, Greeks did not use forks, they ate with their hands, and the elite had their food cut to bite-sizes for them. When the boar was brought from the kitchen, it had not been carved, so Theseus says ‘allow me’, takes out his sword, and goes to carve the boar. King Aegeus recognizes the sword and knocks the cup out of Theseus’ hand, saving him from drinking the poison. By the time the king turned around to confront Medea, she had fled, never to be seen again.
Life was good in Athens…Aegeus had his heir, and all was well. Then, a ship arrived from the island of Crete – a ship with black sails. A depressed atmosphere overcame Athens, and Theseus asked the king what was going on. Aegeus told him, the king of Crete was named Minos, and their most important god, Crete being an island, was Poseidon. Minos wanted to offer Poseidon a bull as a sacrifice, but didn’t have one suitable. So he asked Poseidon to send him a bull to sacrifice to him. Poseidon sent him a beautiful, perfect bull. So perfect that Minos could not bring himself to kill it, so he kept it for himself and sacrificed a lesser bull to Poseidon. Not a good idea to anger Poseidon.
Minos had a wife named Pasiphae. Poseidon made her fall madly in love with the bull. She knew it was wrong, but finally she had to satisfy her urge, so she went to the village craftsman, Daedalus, who made a huge hollow cow that she could climb into so that she could mate with the bull. It worked, the bull mated with Pasiphae, and she had a child – a minotaur, “bull of Minos”, a man’s body with a bull head. Minos decided he had to hid this creature away, so he made Daedalus create a labyrinth in which the minotaur would be kept and hidden away.
But Minos was still furious with Daedalus for making the hollow cow, so he kept him under house arrest. Daedalus wanted to leave the island, but King Minos had threatened any sailor that gave him passage. So Daedalus made wings from feathers and wax for himself and his son, Icarus. They’d escape by flying off the island. So they went to a cliff, jumped off, and it worked – they were flying. Daedalus had warned Icarus not to fly too low because if the wings got wet they’d be waterlogged, or to fly too high because the sun would melt the wax. Icarus was having a good time, though, and kept flying higher. Eventually, he flew too high, the sun’s heat melted the wax, the wings disintegrated and he crashed into the sea, dead.
Back to the minotaur. Athens and Crete had had a minor war, after which Athens had to annually send 7 boys and 7 girls from prominent families to be fed to the minotaur, who ate human flesh. It was a lottery – no one knew who’d be picked, so yearly the ship with the black sails came to get the children and a depression overcame Athens. When Theseus heard about this, he volunteered to go – he wanted to kill the minotaur himself. Aegeus didn’t want to lose his son, but Theseus, wanting to further prove himself to his father, insisted. Aegeus then made him promise that if he succeeded, he’d change the sails from black to white so that the king would know immediately if his son were living or dead.
So Theseus goes down to Crete. Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, fell immediately in love with Theseus and wanted to help him defeat the minotaur. She gave him one of two things, depending on the myth – either a string to trail behind him so he could find his way out of the labyrinth or a wreath that lit up to wear around his neck so he could see in the dark. Theseus found and killed the minotaur. Ariadne, though, had betrayed her father so she decided to leave with Theseus for Athens. They sailed out and stopped for the night along the coast of an island. In the morning, Theseus left without Ariadne (myth says he ‘forgot’). He also forgot to change the sails. So he sails into Athens with the black sails flying, his father Aegeus is sitting on the cliff and sees the black sails instead of white ones, thinks Theseus is dead, and throws himself off the cliff into the sea. (it’s now named the Aegean Sea)
Theseus is now in power in Athens, his father dead. Things don’t get better. He has a son, Hippolytus, who followed Artemis, thinking sex was disgusting. Aphrodite gets her revenge by making Theseus’ wife, Phaedra, fall in love with Hippolytus. Phaedra leaves a note for Theseus that Hippolytus had tried to rape her, she kills herself, he runs Hippolytus out, and Hippolytus is killed by Poseidon. Artemis then tells Theseus that he had been tricked, and his son was now dead. Theseus became so depressed that he left the throne, became a drunk, and died in exile in poverty.
Next hero: Perseus
The king of Argos was Acrisius, who had no sons. But he did have a daughter named Danae. Still, there was no clear heir to the throne. Acrisius went to the oracle to ask if he’d ever have a son. The answer was: No, but your daughter will have a son. OK, that’ll work, Acrisius thought. But, the oracle continued, that son will kill you. Not OK, then. So Acrisius tries to beat fate by shutting Danae in an underground bronze chamber, with only female servants attending her. But Zeus visited her in the form of golden rain, and she became pregnant with Perseus. She was still in the chamber, so Acrisius did not know about the child, until one day he was walking near the chamber and heard the laughter of a child. He opened the chamber, and there was Danae with Perseus. She tried to explain about being visited by a god, but Acrisius instead believed that one of the servants had allowed a man in.
So Acrisius had a dilemma – he wanted to get rid of the child, but he couldn’t kill it since it was a blood relative. So he put the Danae and Perseus in a chest with enough food and water for one day, took them to the seashore, and set them off sailing. This was not considered killing them – the Greeks figured the gods would provide for them if they wanted them to live. But the chest was seaworthy and washed ashore on an island. Danae and Perseus were taken in by a fisherman, who raised young Perseus.
The king of the island was attracted to Danae, who rejected him repeatedly. So the king had a banquet and invited all the young men, each of whom having to give him a horse. Perseus said that a horse was too easy, why not something like a Gorgon head. So the king said, fine, Perseus, bring me the head of a Gorgon. The Gorgons were three sisters, each with wings, snakes for hair, and so ugly that you’d turn to stone if you saw their face. The only mortal Gorgon was Medusa. Both Hermes and Athena came to Perseus’ aid to help him behead Medusa. Hermes gave him a sword to use, and the both gave him advice on how to kill her. They told Perseus to visit women named the Graeae (“gray ones”), three very old women who were the sisters of the three Gorgon. The Graeae were old from the time they were born, and between them they had only one eye and one tooth, which they’d pass around to whichever one needed an eye or a tooth at the time.
They figured Perseus was up to no good, so they refused to tell him where the Gorgon were. So he reached out and took their eye. They still wouldn’t tell him. Later, as they were eating, he took their tooth. Now they knew they were helpless and would starve, so they reluctantly told him where to find the Gorgon and where to find the items he’d need. The items were: a Cap of Invisibility, Winged Sandals, and a Bag to keep Medusa’s head in.
So Perseus goes and finds the Gorgons. With his cap and sandals, he can fly overhead without being seen. But he can’t look at Medusa or he’ll turn to stone. So Athena carries a large reflective shield, which he looks at the reflection as he cuts her head off. After Medusa’s head is severed, lots of snakes come out, as well as Pegasus, the winged horse. Medusa was pregnant with Pegasus at the time. So Perseus had accomplished his task and had the head of Medusa.
On his way back, along the coast, Perseus saw a beautiful woman chained to a cliff, with a sea monster ravaging the town below and headed toward the woman. Her name was Andromeda. Perseus asked why she was chained up there and was told that the girl’s mother, the queen, had said that she (the queen) was more beautiful than even the mermaids. Poseidon didn’t like this, so the mother had to sacrifice her daughter to the sea monster. Perseus asked the king that if he saved Andromeda if he could have her hand in marriage. The king agreed. So Perseus, with his cap of invisibility and winged shoes, swoops down, shows the sea monster Medusa’s head, and it turns to stone. Perseus gets to marry Andromeda.
As Perseus continues home, he comes to the place in northwest Africa where Atlas was holding up the heavens. He said hello, but Atlas wouldn’t even talk to him. How rude! So Perseus flies back with Medusa’s head, and Atlas is turned to stone (the origin of the Atlas Mountain range). Eventually, Medusa’s blood begins to drip out of the bottom of the bag. Where it drips on land, snakes came up in the Libyan desert. Where it dripped in the water, coral formed.
So Perseus makes it home and tells the king that he’s got the head of the Gorgon. The king doesn’t believe him and says “Show me.” Brilliant move. So the king is turned to stone and his brother, the fisherman who took in Perseus and Danae, becomes king.
Perseus decided to go back to Argos claim his throne from his grandfather Acrisius. He still has Medusa’s head, and unsure what to do with it, asks Athena, who has him return the head, the winged sandals, and the cap of invisibility. So Perseus and his wife Andromeda go to Argos, and the king, Acrisius, runs away. Perseus takes over the throne.
Later, Perseus decides to compete in the discus throw in the Olympic games. The playing field was very narrow, and Perseus’ throw went awry, into the crowd, and hit a man – Acrisius, killing him, killed by his grandson as fated. But Perseus had killed a blood relative, albeit accidentally, and had to leave the country. He found a king to perform the necessary rites, and that king later said “I’ve always like Argos, let’s switch.” So Perseus has a new kingdom and, rare in myth, lived happily ever after.
The family was the basic unit of society, like fingers on a hand. You could curse someone’s entire family, not just the single person, to get revenge.
Laius was the son of the king of Thebes. A revolution occurred and drove the father and son from the kingdom. While in exile, the father died when Laius was just a young boy. Laius was taken in by the king of another kingdom, who raised him as his own child. This was rare, since blood relations held a family together, so such adoption was unheard of in ancient worlds. When Laius got older, he fell in love with one of the king’s real daughters. She wasn’t interested, so he raped her. The king cursed Laius and all of his descendants.
Laius returned to Thebes and became king, and he married a woman named Jocasta. He wanted children, but couldn’t have any, so he asked the Oracle of Apollo for the answer. He was told that he would have a son, but because of the curse the son would kill him. So Laius decided to get rid of the baby by using exposure. The idea was to leave the baby in the woods outside the city limits … as long as he didn’t kill this blood relative, it was OK. This, to Laius, was the ideal way to beat fate. So he gave his son to a servant who would bring the baby to the woods with his ankles pinned so he wouldn’t crawl away.
The servant, though, felt sorry for the baby and brought him to Corinth. The king and queen kept him and named him Oedipus (“swollen foot”). Oedipus grew up very happily in Corinth with the king and queen, whom he thought were his parents. A drunk man at a party told him that he wasn’t really the child of the king and queen. When the man sobered up, Oedipus asked him to explain, but the man denied having said that. When Oedipus asked the king and queen, they assured him that he was indeed their son.
Not convinced, Oedipus went to the Oracle to find the truth. He was told to avoid his homeland because he was fated to murder his father and marry his mother. Greeks believed that love between father and son was the strongest and most important love, and that it was forbidden for a mother to sleep with her son. (Still universally forbidden). So these were two of the most heinous crimes the Greeks had.
When Oedipus heard this fate from the Oracle, he forgot all about what the drunk had said. He thought the king and queen of Corinth were his parents – the only parents he knew, and the Oracle had told him to avoid his homeland, so he couldn’t go back to Corinth. So Oedipus had to go into exile, at least for the rest of his parent’s lives. He decided to go to Thebes, a city he’d never set foot in – to the extent of his knowledge. As is usually the case, the steps taken to beat fate usually cause the fate to come true.
As Oedipus walked toward Thebes, the chariot of a wealthy man came up on the road behind him. The driver yelled for Oedipus to move, but he, being stubborn, did not. Tension grew, and eventually the chariot pulled off the road to pass him, but as it went by the man in the chariot hit Oedipus on his head with a staff. Oedipus, furious, pulled the man out of the chariot and killed him on the side of the road. The man in the chariot was Laius, his father. Oedipus had fulfilled the first part of the oracle, although no one knew.
When Oedipus got to Thebes, there was a monster at the city gates, not letting anyone in or out. It had the body of a lion and the head of a woman – the Sphinx (Greek for “the strangler”). It would ask one who approached a question, and if they answered it, they were allowed to pass. If not, they were strangled. Oedipus approached, and the Sphinx asked him “What has four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?” Oedipus answered: a man. Four legs as an infant, two as an adult, and three (2 legs and a cane) late in life. The Sphinx was disgusted that he got it right, so she threw herself off of a cliff.
The people of Thebes were grateful to Oedipus and made him a hero, and since they had the problem of their king recently being killed on the road by a gang of thieves (according to the driver, the only witness), they had no king and he had left no heirs. Since Oedipus had been raised as a prince, they made him king of Thebes. As king, Oedipus inherited all of the old king Laius’ power, property…and the queen, Jocasta. He was young, she was older, both were at their sexual peak, so they got married and had children. This makes the children Oedipus’ sons and daughters as well as brothers and sisters. But more importantly, his marriage to Jocasta fulfilled the second part of the oracle – he had now killed his father and married his mother, and neither of them nor anyone else knew.
As the years passed, Oedipus had thought that he had beaten the fate of the Oracle, since he had never gone back to Corinth and thought he had not killed his father and married his mother. Still, if even one person beat fate, it would have been horrible for human race, signifying that they could not depend on their gods to know the future.
A plague fell over Thebes, and plagues were always thought to be sent by the gods. Oedipus, as king of Thebes, had to find out why the gods were angry and had sent a plague, so he sent a servant to the Oracle to find out. They were told: “Apollo is angry because the killer of the former king lives in the city unpunished.” So Oedipus began an investigation to find the killer, and thus get rid of the plague. Oedipus himself questioned the only witness, the old driver, who stuck to his story about a gang of thieves killing the king. Oedipus asked for details – where did it happen, what was the scene. He knew the gang of thieves could be a lie, and as the old driver told the tale, Oedipus recalled killing the man on the side of the road and got a sinking feeling, wondering if he were the killer.
At this point, a messenger from Corinth told Oedipus that the king of Corinth had died in bed of old age. Oedipus grieved for the loss of who he thought was his father, but was relieved, thinking that since the king had died in bed, that Oedipus had beaten the fate the Oracle had told him. With the king dead, the people of Corinth wanted Oedipus to come back and assume the throne, but he said he couldn’t, that he was cursed and could not return while his mother was alive. The messenger then told Oedipus that he was not the child of the king and queen of Corinth – that he had been found in a forest that separated Corinth and Thebes and had been brought to the king and queen of Corinth. When Oedipus asked the messenger how he knew this, the messenger replied that it was he who had found him in the woods.
Oedipus was horrified – the oracle might have been true after all, so he now had to find out who his real parents were. So he questioned the messenger about how he had been found. The messenger said that a slave came out of those woods wearing the royal seal of Thebes and left the baby. So Oedipus found the old slave in Thebes and asked him who his parents were. The slave did not want to tell, but, to avoid torture, answered that the parents were Laius and Jocasta. So now Oedipus knew that the fate was true. He went looking for Jocasta, but she had gotten wind of it all and had hung herself. Oedipus took the body down, took the pins out of her robe and stabbed his own eyes. He staggered out and admitted his 2 crimes (killing dad and loving mom), and said that he would now wander in exile for the rest of his life.
Oedipus did have kids, though, with Jocasta. The sons wanted nothing to do with him, but his daughter, Antigone, helped him in exile. Oedipus did, though, die in exile, punished for suffering a bad fate paying for the crime of Laius raping the king’s daughter.
So Antigone went with Oedipus into exile to help him until his death. His two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, refused to have anything to do with him, so Oedipus cursed them before he left.
The two brothers, Eteocles and Polynices, came into an agreement that they’d rule in alternate years – one acting as king for a year while the other was in exile, then they’d switch roles annually. Eteocles went first, becoming king while Polynices went into exile. At the end of the first year, Eteocles refused to give up the throne. When Polynices heard of this, he raised up an army of mercenaries and attacked the city, Thebes. A civil war took place, even though civil war was an offense to the gods since hit had blood relatives killing each other. During the battle, the two brothers met up with each other on the battlefield and fought in individual combat. Both ended up wounded badly and eventually died from the wounds. With both dead, the army of Polynices, who were paid mercenaries, simply left, while the army of Thebes went back to the city.
Creon was the next to rule Thebes following their deaths. Creon was Jocasta’s brother and was the only remaining blood relative who could assume the throne. He tried to settle things after the civil war by instituting marshal law and ruling with an iron fist.
The first law Creon passed offended the gods themselves – he declared that Eteocles would be given proper burial in the city at public expense, but said that Polynices would be left out on the battlefield to rot. To the Greeks, having no proper burial meant suffering for 100 years after death, so it was taken seriously. The only person bothered by this, though, was Antigone. She wanted to see that Polynices, her brother, got a proper burial. Eteocles had already been buried at public expense.
One night, Antigone sneaked out, covered Polynices with dirt, and said the religious rites of burial, then went home. The guards that were guarding the body (to make sure no one buried it against King Creon’s orders) had been sleeping. In the morning, they woke to find the body buried, and had to go tell Creon. Creon gave them a broom and told them to unbury it immediately. The next night, Antigone tried to bury Polynices again, but was this time caught by the guards and brought before Creon. Creon was shocked – here was his own niece breaking his laws. When he asked her why, she replied that it was her religious duty, and divine law trumped any human law he could institute. Creon, angry, condemned her to death. But since she was a blood relative, he couldn’t kill her outright. So he sentenced her to be buried alive in a rock tomb with enough food and water for one day. The tomb was then sealed.
However, Antigone was engaged to Creon’s son, who went to Creon to argue for her freedom. Creon wouldn’t listen to him, so the son stormed out. Next, the town prophet came to Creon and explained how his actions would anger the gods and, finally, he convinced Creon that he was wrong. So Creon agrees to release Antigone, and he and his men go to the tomb. When they arrive, they see that the tomb had already been opened. Looking in, Creon saw his own son crying at the feet of Antigone, who had hanged herself rather than suffer the death of starvation. When the son saw Creon standing there, he walked right past him out of the tomb, buried the handle of his sword in the ground, and fell on the sword, impaling himself. Creon then went back to the palace and is told that his wife had heard of the deaths of her son and of Antigone, and had hanged herself!
So overall, Oedipus and Jocasta were innocent victims of the curse placed on Laius. But the rest, Eteocles, Polynices, Creon’s son and even Antigone, had a hand in their own destructions as the curse continued.
