A Love of Mythology of the Greeks
I love Greek mythology. Greek Mythology is large. Here are some of the characters and stories i love and why i love them.
Europa and the Bull
Leda and the Swan
Artemis -- the Greatest Bitch of All Times
Hades and Persephone, The Rape of Proserpina
Daughter of Niobe
Hector and Andromache
Nymphs
The Story of Danaids
Medusa
the Minotaur and Labyrinth
Minotaur , for the story of bestiality, labyrinth , and sacrifice of lads and maidens. Minotaur is half bull and half man begotten from a mating by a human queen and a sacred white bull. Among the story is why queen Pasiphae fell madly in love with a bull, and how she lured the white bull to fuck her. Manotaur is a man-eating monster, and is being trapped in a labyrinth with yearly sacrifices of maidens and lads. (the labyrinth is devised by Daedalus) Minotaur was slayed at the end by Theseus, with help of the King's daughter in love with a thread to avoid being lost in the labyrinth. Later on the angry king put Daedalus and his son themselves in the labyrinth of their own design as imprisonment. Then, Daedalus devised wings and escaped. The besotted youngster flew too high against advice and fell to his death.
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Oedipus, for incest and patricide and run in with Sphinx, with its preposterous riddle. Note that, in the story, Oedipus isn't just some evil being who do bad things. Almost always, stories and events in Greek mythology have human reasons and inherent causes. Why did Oedipus committed the incest, and why he killed his father, are the attractions here.
The Sphinx, is a winged-lion with woman's head and torso. She asks passerby a riddle, and strangled anyone unable to answer.
Electra
Electra , the counterpart to Oedipus. (Electra and her brother together murdered their mom, who murdered their dad Agamemnon (the leader for Greeks in Trojan War). Electra doesn't have much story, but for some reason Electra and Vicky are my favorite among all female names.)
Trojan War
Trojan_War. For a war over a woman. There is nothing more beautiful than that. And, for the prelude of the war caused by the just/unjust wrath of Eris, and the unabashed rivalry and bribery among 3 goddesses competing for the title of the most beautiful. And i love the Trojan Horse story of the siege of Troy. (today we have the brand name condom Trojan.)
[Troy][ http://maps.google.com/maps?q=39.95732%2C26.23880 ]
This is just a spectacular epic. Among the many interesting bits are: How the war started with Eris's involvement. Why are the Greek heros willing to fight for somebody's wife. Why Odysseus didn't want to, how Palamedes stepped thru his ruse. Why and how Achilles nymph mother Thetis tried to prevent Archilles's joining, and how Odysseus got him in. Why the Greek army of one thousand ships are stalled at bay, and how it was resolved. The prophesy about the first who steps on Troy. How the great number of prophecies are thwarted but fulfilled (and apparently some went by unfulfilled silently.). The prophet Cassandra and her sorrow. How and why the gods sided, including Apollo, Ares, Aphrodite, Artemis… the mortal sons and daughters of the Gods in the war. The heroic Hector. The quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles (over a love slave girl). How Achilles returns. The death of Hector and Achilles. How Troy came down. And the aftermath spurn great tales of the Odysseus's journey home and Aeneas's journey to found Rome.
Zeus
Zeus. The omnipotent. Fucks about every pussy. Among which, Zeus sired with his sister Hera. Zues also ate his mate Metis. (Zeus's dad Cronus, cut off the genitals of his dad and offspring-eater Cronus. (Aphrodite, the sex goddess, was born out of the blood and semen of Uranus's genitals that was tossed into the sea by Cronus.))
Zeus statueNarcissus
Narcissus. His story of love and Echo and Nemesis.
There's a beauty named Narcissus, who spurned love of both boys and girls. Among them is a nymph named Echo, who pined away her life till she became nothing but a lone echo. Those rejected souls, prayed to the goddess Nemesis to fall the meaning of rejection upon this beautiful boy. One day, Narcissus found love inside a pond, not knowing it is his own reflection, and with unrequited love ogled to his death. [2004, Xah Lee, of Narcissus in Greek Mythology.]
Ares
Ares. Ares is the god of savage war. He and the sex goddess Aphrodite had a affair, while Aphrodite is married to the ugly Hephaestus, a god of technology. You must read, why Zeus arranged the marriage of the sex goddess Aphrodite to the most ugly (crippled and with skin defect) and boring man Hepaestus. How Hepaestus, deviced a net that caught the fornicating lovers in the act.
Other interesting stories
There are so many, that almost none are uninteresting.
The Twelve Labors of Heracles.
Dionysus, the god of orgy and revelry. He's got a bunch of women followers called Maenads (aka bacchantes). (Dionysus is associated with orgy.)
Orpheus the song and lyre player. His wife Eurydice (a nymph) was bitten by a viper and died. Orpheus played such sad songs and sang so mournfully that all the nymphs and gods wept and gave him advice. Orpheus went down to the lower world and by his music softened the heart of Hades and Persephone (the only person to ever do so), who allowed Eurydice to return with him to earth. But the condition was attached that he should walk in front of her and not look back until he had reached the upper world. In his anxiety he broke his promise, and Eurydice vanished again from his sight.
Orpheus later on was killed by the Maenads. The Thracian Maenads, Dionysus' followers, first threw sticks and stones at him as he played, but his music was so beautiful even the rocks and branches refused to hit him. Enraged, the Maenads tore him to pieces during the frenzy of their Bacchic orgies. His head and lyre floated “down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore,” where the inhabitants buried his head and a shrine was built in his honor near Antissa. The lyre was carried to heaven by the Muses, and was placed amongst the stars. The Muses also gathered up the fragments of his body and buried them at Leibethra below Olympus, where the nightingales sang over his grave.
Orpheus also had a story with Jason and Sirens. When the Sirens sung, he took out his lyre and played music that is more beautiful than the Siren's song, thus drowning out Siren's ill effects.
The Muses are:
- Euterpe (music)
- Calliope (epic poetry)
- Clio (history)
- Erato (lyric poetry)
- Melpomene (tragedy)
- Polyhymnia (sacred poetry)
- Terpsichore (dancing)
- Thalia (comedy)
- Urania (astronomy)
(The muses are all female) The Muses struck Thamyris blind for challenging them to a contest.
The beginning, the creation of the gods. Chaos, Gaea, Tartarus, Eros, Uranus, the Titans, …
Aphrodite (aka Venus). Her jealousy with Psyche and love affair with Adonis. See this really lovely love story of the Story of Cupid and Psyche.
Pan, the beasty god, who fucked just about every thing that moves, and slept with every Maenads.