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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
THE GREEK
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NATURAL PHENOMENA For the Greeks, gods don't generate the universe; the universe
creates gods. These "gods" spontaneously generated. Thus, sometimes
Greek gods are simply personified abstractions or concepts with
no real personalities. (We still refer to Father Time and Mother
Nature.) Chaos (or the Void, or Chasm) Not a deity itself, but the opening from which other primordial beings
arose; implies a gap or separation to make room in the middle. Gaea (Ge) = Earth, Mother Earth Spontaneously produced male principles. Uranus = Sky, who covers her. (Egyptians have Nut
and Geb in opposite gender roles.) Ourea = Mountains. Pontus = Sea (his rain as seed). As sibling-lovers,
they yielded ultimately many sea gods and monsters [Harpies
("Snatchers"), Gorgons, Sirens, Scylla], and Nereus (the
protean wise old man of the sea who begot Thetis who begot
Achilles). Some generations later, the offspring include the
Sphinx ("Strangler"?), Cerberus, the Hydra ("Watery"), the
Chimera ("She-Goat"), the Nemean Lion. Eros / Amor = Desire, Love as the binding principle in Nature, the force of attraction,
the first motion. Nyx / Nox = Night (or "dark place in the earth"),
This produced alone the dark necessities: the Moerae (Fates) who
apportion birth, length of life, time of death; and Nemesis (Retribution)
who brings pain and punishment. Erebus = Darkness These two (Erebus and Nyx) sexually produce their opposites: Aether = Light Hemera = Day THE TITANS Gaea and Uranus sexually produced six male and six female Titans
(unknown meaning) and then some incests follow. This batch of ur-forces,
known for their size and strength, are more anthropomorphic than the
first generation but for the most part are ousted now by the Olympian
gods we're more familiar with through the stories, where these
deities seldom appear. They're seldom represented in art too. Ocean (the river enclircling the world), Hyperion
(sun-god father to Helius the sun-god, Selene the moon, and Eos the
dawn*), Themis ("Law"), Mnemosyne ("Memory"),
Phoebe ("Brilliant," having something to do with the light
of the sky), and others (Tethys, Coeus, Crius,
Theia, Iapetus: little more than names), And Rhea
and Cronus (below).
Gaea also brings forth the Cyclopes ("Round-eyes" or
single-eyed beings who make for Zeus the thunder and lightning-bolt),
Hecatonchires ("Hundred-handers" with fifty heads like
Briareus "Strength"). Atlas and Prometheus also belong to this generation. *[Selene fell in love with shepherd Endymion, seduced him while he
slept in his cave, bore him fifty daughters, and got Zeus to place him in
eternal sleep so that he would never grow old. Eos was lascivious but
loved Tithonus, a Trojan prince, whom she asked Zeus to make immortal
too, but she forgot to add that he wouldn't age -- so eventually she
avoids bed, and finally locks him up in his room. His piping voice inside
drones on endlessly and later versions of the myth report that he was
turned into a cicada, chirping uselessly in the wind.] Uranus/Sky constantly lays across Gaea/Earth, smothering her so that
the offspring remain inside her. Thus there is no space for the activity
of the world to take place. The notion that Sky and Earth were once
united in sexual embrace, separated during creation, was widespread in
the ancient world.
So son Cronus plots with mother Gaea and castrates father Uranus with
a sickle, so that Sky ascends to its appropriate place and earth reaches
its proper configuration. (The story also was used by Freud to detect a
new patriarchal paranoia in the culture: mother and son vs. father).
The blood falling on Earth gave birth to the Erinyes (the Furies),
ferocious female spirits who haunt those who shed the blood of kin, and
Giants ("Earthborn Ones"), who are violent and will battle Zeus
and the Olympians. The genitals themselves fell into the sea. Cronus (Saturn) [attempted etymology with Chronos = Time,
but...] Having been told by his parents that it was his destiny to be
vanquished by one of his own offspring (= the parental threat of
vengeful martyrdom: "Some day you'll have kids of your own; then
you'll see"), he in turn swallows his own kids as soon as they're
born from Rhea, his sister and wife.
Zeus escapes being swallowed thanks to Rhea's rock-in-swaddling-clothes
substitution trick. The vomited rock (Hesiod 67) became a tourist site,
called omphalos (navel), exhibited at Delphi and oiled daily
by the priests and decorated on holidays.
Rhea (Cybele) Originally an oriental fertility goddess whose worship involved
mystical frenzies, drums and cymbals, a young lover named Attis,
and animals. The etiology of the din associated with worship involves
the story of Zeus' birth. She secretly handed the infant over to the
Curetes (historically on Crete, orgiastic worshippers of a
mother-goddess), who performed a war dance, banging their spears
against their bronze shields so that the cries of baby Zeus would
be covered and not heard by Cronus. THE OLYMPIANS Cronus was forced eventually to vomit up the rest of the kids, Zeus
became king of the gods, and he and his brothers and sisters took up
residence on Mount Olympus, from which the Olympians get their name (in
Thessaly of northeast Greece? or a mystery region above?). These gods did
battle with the Titans. A prophecy claimed that the Olympians could win
only with the help of the Hecatonchires. They are released and the
Cyclopes from Tartarus where a fearful Uranus had imprisoned them. Their
strength is restored with nectar ("that which overcomes death"?) and
ambrosia ("undying") which the Olympians also feast on perpetually. The
Cyclopes in gratitude make Zeus the thunderbolt, his special weapon.
The Titans end up essentially imprisoned, with Atlas condemned to hold
up the heavens at the edge of the world, ensuring the continued separation
of Sky and Earth.
Gaea for some reason resented Zeus' victory and coupled with her
offspring Tartarus to create Typhoeus (a.k.a. Typhon). Zeus was
victorious and so is also an archetypal dragonslayer (Hesiod 76f).
(Cp. Marduk vs. Tiamat in Babylonian myth, YHWH vs. Leviathan in
remnants of Hebrew myth, norse mythology, etc.)
Metis ("Cleverness") was first of Zeus' seven consorts, and became
pregnant with Athena. So Zeus figured out how to forestall the
seemingly perpetual yielding of power to the next generation by
swallowing her, swallowing cleverness to make it part of his own being.
He defied the prophecy by defying biological logic. Zeus represses women
instead of children and forestalls opposition by disposing of mothers,
and so, unlike previous generations with their suppressions, establishes
a lasting order. He usurps the female reproductive role too, just to be
sure. Eternal order is established now (for this long extinguished
culture); no more yielding of power to sons. (This may reflect the
historical conquest and amalgamation c. 2000 bce when invaders brought
their own gods to the Greek peninsula.) This has been a tale of the
ascent of the power of the male over the female.
Cronus and Rhea produced 6 Olympians: Zeus (Jupiter / Jove) "Father of gods and men." He's a god of battles, a giver of victory
(like the earliest vestiges of YHWH), a male thunderstorm god, a northern
Aryan sky or mountain god (Greek Zeus and Roman Jupiter derived from same
Indo-European word) associated with the thunderbolt, especially in cartoon
iconography.
The Greeks didn't know the origin of the name and tried to connect it
with "to live," but it really derived from the Aryan "Dyu" = "to shine."
The name relates to the Latin term for "god": "deus."
He was hidden away as an infant for protection from Cronus. Amalthea
(goat, or woman with pet goat) became Zeus' nurse and he was brought
up by nymphs with honey from Melissa, the bee. As an adult he slew a
goat and the skin (the "aegis") made him unconquerable. He cast lots
with his brothers Poseidon and Hades, winning mastery over the sky
and land.
Zeus is not more moral, or beyond good and evil; he just outdoes the
Titans. With some writers, Zeus is supreme, all-knowing (omniscient),
and all-powerful (omnipotent); elsewhere he is limited by necessity
("ananke") or fortune and luck ("tyche") or destiny ("moira").
One story has Rhea forbidding Zeus to marry since she knows his
proclivities. Zeus, outraged, threatens to rape her; she turns into
a serpent. He does too and rapes her, leaving her with none of her
former powers.
Fifty sexploits are recorded, each possibly a marginalizing of a
goddess worshipped before the invasion of the Indo-Europeans. Zeus'
breedings yield 19 daughters, all virgins.
The Olympics were held in his honor.
The history of the gods started out with Gaea as a goddess giving
birth alone to her sons and ends with Zeus who can give birth to
a daughter by himself. Zeus has forestalled the earlier opposition
and foilings of the female cunning by disposing of the mother as well
as the infant. He usurps the female reproductive role. Athena's perpetual
virginity and the many other daughters' too [all from liaisons: e.g.,
Themis (Right), Eunomia (Order), Eirene (Peace), Dike (Justice)]
guarantee their refusal to be the source of any further threat to the
male throne. Poseidon (Neptune) God of the sea. The three sons of Cronus and Rhea divided up the
cosmos and drew lots for realms. Hades (Pluto) = Invisible One God of the underworld. He's grim but just, and although the place
ends up bearing his name, he does not equal Hell nor is he Death.
He's also the god of wealth, that is, the precious metals hidden in
the earth. Hera (Juno) Sister and shrewish wife of Zeus. Goddess of marriage, especially
monogamy; of childbirth; of relief from menstrual cramps; of strife and
war to some extent. Her name means "protectress." Before the Aryan
invasions, Hera was an earth goddess and mother goddess in Anatolia,
Crete, and Samos. She becomes an archetypal nagging distrustful wife,
monitoring her husband's moves, and an archetypal wicked stepmother.
Her character is a reflection of the diminution of her rank and the
resultant paranoia and nastiness of the patriarchal culture in charge.
She is able to renew her virginity annually by bathing in a sacred
spring near Argos. She gave birth to the monster-serpent Typhoeus. Hestia (Vesta) Goddess of the hearth. A passive goddess who, although associated
with the hearth (the center of the Greek home or oikos) and
therefore family life, nevertheless foreswears marriage and motherhood.
(But then Pat Robertson's illegitimate son probably still runs
"The Family Channel.")
Minimal mythology surrounds her since she has, appropriately, no
"adventures." She'd get small offerings of food. In Rome, her fire was cared
for by six virgin priesteses: the Vestals. Demeter (Ceres) Patron goddess of corn (cereal) and grain cultivation (agriculture),
of human control of the earth, of the seasons somewhat, but generally
related to culture than to nature. She can create famine. She constitutes
a rare positive image of motherhood. "Meter" = Gr. mother.
Persephone (Proserpine) was her daughter with Zeus who, with
Zeus' permission, is taken/kidnapped by Hades to be queen of the
underworld. (In Greek culture, the father arranges marriages, perhaps
against the hopes of the mother, which from another perspective can seem
like rape and death.) Demeter searches until Helios tells her, whereupon
she leaves Olympus. Persephone is allowed to visit, but the pomegranate
insures her return to the underworld (red = death; seeds = fetility /
resurrection). The story ends up accounting for the cyclic life and death
pattern of the seasons: the pattern of death, planting, and renewal. The
Eleusian mysteries are associated with the story too, for a
psychological/spiritual manifestation of the same pattern. The rest of the Olympians are mostly Zeus’ kids: Hebe Cupbearer of the gods before Zeus' boy-toy Ganymede (Trojan
prince). Daughter of Zeus and Hera, and goddess of youthful bloom. She
was also the bride of Heracles apotheosized. Ares (Mars) God of war. Son of Zeus and Hera and detested by them both.
Surprisingly, we don't get much myth about him, except for
Homer's Iliad. Athena (Minerva) Goddess of wisdom, justice and war (and the wisdon is derived from a
fondness for schemes and contrivances). "Pallas Athena" =
strong young man or warrior maiden; she is somewhat androgynous. Athens
was named in her honor. The Parthenon housed her statue; Parthenos =
virgin. Zeus swallowed her mother Metis. He later had a headache and called
upon Hephaestos (or Prometheus), who split his head open. Out sprang
Athena fully armed and screaming the war cry. She was associated with
fertility (oddly), but mostly in terms of olive trees (more a matter of
economics and commerce), birds (owls), and the serpent. She was also
associated with the image of Medusa (on her shield) -- this was her
mother originally? Hephaestos (Vulcan) God of craftsmanship and skill. He was ugly and lame; his soles and
heels were turned backwards either from birth (Hera, in a fit of
vengeance against Zeus' production of Athena, decided to give birth
alone), or from an incident after he aided Hera when she was being
tormented by Zeus (for harassing Heracles) who threw him from Olympus,
after which he fell for an entire day.
Another story has it that his mother Hera threw him for shame of his
deformity. The goddesses of the sea (including Thetis) tended his
recovery, and for 9 years he made them clasps, jewelry, earrings, etc. He
sent a throne to Hera which bound her in invisible shackles. Requests
were sent to him, but he said he had no mother. Finally he was brought to
Olympus by Dionysus, drunk, and promised Aphrodite as his wife, so he
released Hera.
He fashioned the first human woman, Pandora. Apollo God of high culture, of light, medicine, music, and flocks, but
also
prophecy. Son of Zeus and Leto, he was another dragonslayer, against
Pytho. Artemis (Diana) Twin of Apollo and midwife for him immediately after her birth (but
sort of an honorary male). She is a chaste huntress (the antithesis in
some respects of the urban Athena), destructive and creative, and a
loner, haunting the remote regions of the countryside. The Greeks promoted celibacy as a precondition to physical achievement
such as hunting (and Actaeon's story records a violation of this
indirectly). Somehow, despite the hunting, she is celebrated for being a
nurturer of young animals too, that adolescent Ellie-May Clampett
phenomenon. Artemis became a goddess of childbirth (again oddly) taking
over the role from the waning Ilithyia. When Paul the self-appointed
apostle denounced her in Ephesis there was a riot against him. Aphrodite (Venus) Goddess of sweet lust, "love," sexuality, beauty, the sexual
urge operating on every level of creation, laughter and hoaxes, the
whisperings of maidens. "Aphrodisiazein" = to make love, vs.
Eros = physical love or desire.
One legend has her born out of the sea from father Uranus'
genitals, which were hacked off by Cronus. The sea foam mixed with
semen sloshed around until from the shining white foam (aphros)
she appeared. (Thus is she associated with the castration fear born
of fear of female sexuality, as in the Adonis story too?).
Originally a Cyprian love goddess, she may have taken on
Astarte's/Istar's characteristics when Cyprus was colonized by
the Phoenicians in the 9th century bce. Her cult then went to mainland
Greece (which would acount for the birth from the sea and the journey
across waters).
Only Athena, Artemis, and Hestia escape her influence. Zeus compels
her to fall in love with the Trojan Anchises (so that Aeneas is born).
Her kids, mostly by Ares: Phobus (Fear), Deinos (Terror), Eros (Cupid),
Harmonia (wife of Cadmus). By Hermes: Hermaphroditus and Priapus. She was
a bad mother, naturally. She is promiscuous and adulterous, so disturbing
to the Greeks. Hermes (Mercury) Messenger of the gods, god of travel, commerce, rhetoric, herds,
medicine, also a trickster, liar, and thief. Son of Zeus and Maia. Two
copulating vipers entwined on a staff = the caduceus. Dionysus (Bacchus) God of wine, god of madness. Son of Zeus and Semele (a Theban
princess). It was a shock when his name appeared in the deciphering of Linear B
because he was thought to be a much later creation. His mother was
tricked by Hera into demanding that Zeus appear in his full glory, at
which time she burned up. Zeus took the fetus and sewed it up in his
thigh until birth. Another birth story had him torn to death as a baby and resurrected in
a cave.
Dionysus brought his mother back from the underworld, and is
associated with resurrection, hence "twice-born Dionysus."
The Maenads are followers of his who carry the Thyrsus (a stick topped
with a pinecone), find themselves in a state of psychological ecstasy,
and engage in Dionysian rites such as omophagy (devouring of animals).
One often finds Satyrs around too (part men, part goats).
Because of the resurrection associations, the wine, and other matters,
it is no wonder Jesus was able to catch on outside of Judaism in the
Greek
world.
Greek gods did not reveal their will in sacred writings, so priests
have to perform rituals instead. Interpretation relies on signs.
