Category: Greek Mythology
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Myth – A world of the imagination
“Zeus, first cause, prime mover; for what thing without Zeus is done among mortals?”– Aeschylus, Agamemnon The Greek gods were not local in their interests or powers: they held sway over the whole world. Ancient Greeks had access to a huge reserve of fabulous tales about these gods’ about a very different universe, one full of not…
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The Argonautica
The Argo, by Constantine Volanakis, c. 1800 One of the oldest sources for the story of Jason and the Argonauts is the Argonautica, an epic poem in the same vein as Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey, written by Apollonius of Rhodes. Apollonius was an inspiration to the Latin poets Virgil and Flaccus when they wrote their own epic poems, and he was both innovative and…
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Hesiod & The Five Ages of Mankind
Marble bust of Hesiod The Five Ages of Man is a creation story written by a Greek shepherd named Hesiod, who lived somewhere between 776 BC and 650 BC, who along with Homer was one of the epic writers of Greek poetry. It is likely that Hesiod ‘borrowed’ some of his poem from an unidentified…
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Erisychthon
Adam Cvijanovic (American citizen, born 1959) Erysichthon, oil on Masonite Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their…
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Prometheus – The Titan who created Mankind
Prometheus, possibly meaning “forethought” is a god of fire and his adaptability in the face of brutality has become legendary. He is known across the world for defying the Zeus by stealing fire from him and giving it to humanity in the form of technology and civilization. His story inspired the famous Greek play Prometheus Bound. In the time before…
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Actaeon
Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should be a copy of his book in…
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Echo and Narcissus
Narcissus and Echo (45–79 AD), wall painting from Pompeii Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should…
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Tiresias
Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There should be a copy of his book in…
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Hades: The Mythological Underworld
Cerberus who guarded Hades To tell the story of the beginning of the universe, the time of Chaos (literally ‘Yawning Gap’ – the infinite space between heaven and earth), and the gods that followed it in Greek mythology, is no straightforward affair. There are a multitude of characters, all with different roles to play, but…
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Medusa Misunderstood
Luciano Garbati, Medusa holding the head of Persues, 2008 To some, the Greek myth of Medusa is a nightmarish tale, one of madness, a demonic monster with snakes for hair and a glance that has a petrifying power, while others such as the Roman poet Ovid, have interpreted her as a wronged woman, a symbol…
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