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Sisyphus was the first king of Corinthia (known also as Ephyrae) and thought that he could trick the gods, a really naive assumption and a sure way to be doomed.
According to Homer, it is written in The Iliad, book VI , that Sisyphus was the son of Aeolus, the god of the winds. He was also supposed to be the father of Odysseus, probably because the two men were known to be extraordinarily cunning.
Sisyphus was famous for his trickery and wicked intelligence, but his greatest success was to cheat death and Hades himself, not once but twice, justifying Homer’s description of him as «the most cunning of men» Iliad VI -153.
In his first death, Sisyphus once in the Underworld succeeded to capture Thanatos, the personification of Death, and chain him up so that no human died thereafter, which of course could not be accepted by the gods as only they were immortals.
Hades was obliged to negotiate with Sisyphus, he had to let him go back to the living world so Thanatos (Death ) would be freed to continue his sad but necessary work.
The second death of Sisyphus was even more insulting for the gods.
After dying for the second time Sisyphus succeeded to convince Hades to let him go back to the living.
Sisyphus had plotted with his wife that she would not provide the usual offerings and sacrifices that were due on her husband’s death. He knew that the only weakness of Hades was the love he had for his wife. He also knew that Persephone had a kind heart. So he convinced the lovely Persephone to let him go for just the time for him to oblige his supposedly ungrateful wife to perform the necessary rituals and sacrifices.
Once released, he explained that promises were only binding if they were genuine and he stayed happily away from the Underworld.
He lived to an extremely old age as Thanatos had been traumatised by being made prisoner and always delayed the time to take him to the Underworld.
Zeus had to intervene.
Sisyphus was setting a bad example, demonstrating to the already cunning mortals that it was possible to trick the gods. That could not be allowed. The punishment of Sisyphus had to be a warning for any “hubris-stricken “ mortal.
The punishment would have to be horrific.
It would be : Sisyphus will have to roll an immense boulder up a hill. Just when the boulder got to the top of the hill, it would roll back down to the bottom, forcing Sisyphus to an eternity of unending frustrations.
In Homer’s Odyssey, the hero Odysseus go down into the Underworld and testifies about Sisyphus and his eternal punishment:
Then I witnessed the torture of Sisyphus, as he wrestled with a huge rock with both hands. Bracing himself and thrusting with hands and feet he pushed the boulder uphill to the top. But every time, as he was about to send it toppling over the crest, its sheer weight turned it back, and once again towards the plain the pitiless rock rolled down. So once more he had to wrestle with the thing and push it up, while the sweat poured from his limbs and the dust rose high above his head.
Hades, the Lord of the Underworld was cold taciturn, depressed and globally anti-social.
Hades surprisingly felt passionately in love with his niece Persephone and decided to marry her.
The problem was that he knew that the mother of Persephone, his sister, the energetic Demeter loved so dearly her daughter that she would never let her go into The Underworld, the kingdom of the shadows. So the manipulative Hades tricked first Zeus , the father of Persephone to give him his approval and then he carefully planned the abduction of Persephone .
According to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, on one sunny day the young Persephone was gathering flowers in a field, accompanied by her close friends, the Ocean Nymphs. The carefree Persephone moved away from her companions in search of the most beautiful flower. When she reached out to pluck a wondrous narcissus, Earth yawned open and Hades appeared in his golden chariot and snatched her away to the Underworld.
Demeter, the heart broken mother of Persephone was looking in vain for her daughter day and night. The land and crops of the earth began to wither. After a while, the Sun, looking at everything from the sky, felt sorry for the goddess and told her what happened. Demeter went to Zeus and demanded that Persephone be returned, or she would not let the earth blossom again.
Zeus sent the Messenger God, Hermes, to Hades with the command to release Persephone. Before returning her to Hermes, Hades forced Persephone to eat 3 pomegranate seeds. Hades knew that if someone ate food in the Underworld, they could never really escape from the world of the dead.
So with Zeus as a mediator, they all finally reached an agreement that Persephone would spend three months with her husband from December to March and therefore nothing would grow on earth in her absence.
Life would come back in nature only when Persephone would be back with Demeter, her loving mother.
That is the reason why there are winters, when nothing grow as Demeter is simply too sad to infuse life in nature.
The Eleusinian Mysteries were the most sacred and secret religious rites in ancient Greece.
According to their mythological explanation, the Mysteries were established by Goddess Demeter and those who were successfully initiated would no longer fear death.
Demeter and her daughter, Persephone, were central characters in the Eleusinian Mysteries, where initiates would accomplish rites from 1600 BCE to 392 CE.
Every year in spring time , the Ancient Athenians would celebrate this renaissance with the mystical Eleusinian festivals.
The Eleusinians were a secretive school in Eleusis in the northwest of Athens dedicated to celebrate Demeter and Persephone, there were different degrees of initiation.
It is only known that during these rituals the initiates would be given such a vivid vision of their afterlife that it would free them from the fear of death as they understood that the soul stay intact through a continuous change of mortal bodies.
Prominent men of antiquity, like Plato, Pythagoras and the Roman Emperor Hadrian, were initiated into the Mysteries.
The Mysteries have managed to keep their secrets and till today no one really knows what was really taking place inside the adyton, the inner chamber of the Temple.
For a good reason : speaking about the mysteries was punishable by death.
The mystery is still to be unveiled…
Prometheus and the creation of mankind
According to the poet Hesiod, Prometheus, though a Titan, was one of the very few Titans to support Zeus in his fight against his father Cronus. Prometheus was unusual, he took the side of Zeus, not for glory or personal gain but because he was opposed to the dictatorship of Cronus. After Zeus’s victory Prometheus asked as his reward the freedom of his brother the Titan Epimetheus.
After the second war, this time against the Giants Zeus decided to share his power with his siblings and also to keep them entertained by giving life on Earth, in the oceans. He also decided to create death as the Underworld as well needed to be populated. He asked Prometheus to take care of the creation of all living creatures , requesting that each species should have means of survival.
For an obscure reason, Prometheus delegated this mission to his brother Epimetheus. Unfortunately Epimetheus was just as disorganised as his brother was methodical. So he started distributing defensive and attacking means of survival to each species : claws, poisonous tail, sharp teeth, speed, camouflage skin, venom …..
But at the end of the task, the confused Epimetheus realised that nothing was left for the last species : the men. In a panic, he asked his brother Prometheus for help.
Prometheus felt so sorry for the human race as they were so fragile and vulnerable. Nothing had been left for them.
Prometheus decided to help : he climbed up on Mount Olympus and stole the fire from Hephaestus’ workshop, put it in a hollow reed and gifted it to the humans. This way, men could create fire, warm up, make tools and protect themselves
Zeus stormed into a terrifying fury against Prometheus.
Moreover Prometheus taught the men how to trick the gods.
He showed them how to make sacrifices to honour the gods.
He killed a beef and divided the meat. On one plate he put the organs, the intestines, the liver …..under a layer of a thin white fat mixed with deliciously odorous herbs and on the other plate he put the best meat under the smelly beef’s skin. Then he asked Zeus to choose which plate he would want the men to do their offerings.
Zeus of course chose the wrong plate. And naturally he became ballistic when he realised that Prometheus had tricked him, had made him a fool, had disgraced him, had insulted him, had stolen from him.
He decided to take his revenge but first from mankind…
As the Ancient Greek poet Hesiod narrated : “Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger: [54] `Son of Iapetus, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire — a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction”….
Prometheus, starting to get worried about the ire of Zeus, decided to assemble in a box all the problems, sicknesses, torments that could harm the human creatures and locked them all in a solid sealed box which he asked Epimetheus to hide in his house for him. He made Epimetheus sworn never to open the box and made him promised never to accept a gift from Zeus.
Zeus was still determined to punish Prometheus . He sent him to a high mountain, the Mount Caucasus, and chained him on a rock with thick chains made by the smith god, Hephaestus. And every day, Zeus would send an eagle that devoured Prometheus’ liver, the pain inflicted was excruciating.
Zeus asked repeatedly where the box with all the sufferings was hidden as he wanted to spread them on the men to take his revenge on them. But Prometheus never gave in, demonstrating to the men their first example of fighting against injustice and tyranny.
For thirty years Prometheus remained bound with his liver eaten alive , until the great hero Heracles , Zeus’ demigod son, released him finally from his torment.
While Prometheus was being tortured , Zeus decided to take vengeance on mankind . He ordered Hephaestus to create the first human woman out of soil and water, this creature,he thought would be more disastrous for the men than all the torments hidden by Prometheus.
The evil meant to punish the men was the creation of the first woman Pandora, made by Hephaestus with the help of his beautiful and witty wife Aphrodite.
Each god gave the woman a gift : Athena gave her wisdom, Aphrodite beauty, Hermes wit and so on. The name of the woman was Pandora (meaning “all gifts” in Greek).
Zeus sent her to Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus who immediately felt passionately in love and forgot his promise about never accepting a present from Zeus.
Prometheus had previously warned his brother never to accept any gifts from Zeus. However, the now madly in love Epimetheus could not refuse Pandora, the gift from Zeus.
Pandora soon discovered the hidden box of torments. Although she tried her best to resist the temptation, she finally opened the box and all the evils upon the world scrambled away , now free to roam and to torture the mankind. Hatred, war, death, hunger, sickness, envy, jealousy, greediness and all the disasters were immediately released.
But in this box, the wise Prometheus had also hidden the only antidote for all these torments, the only universal remedy for all these sufferings : Hope.
And from this dark day that is what has kept the humans going on.
Hope is our only force.
Heracles was the most popular god-hero in Ancient Greece. He was really the greatest of the divine heroes so great that his mighty father Zeus made him a god after his death. He then became immortal.
Every where in Greece there would be a temple dedicated to him whereas for the other gods it would depend on their local popularity.
The life of Heracles with its ups and downs enabled everyone to relate to him. For all he was the perfect hero.
Heracles is another illegitimate son of Zeus, this time with the sweet, beautiful and peaceful Alcmene.
Alcmene is a mortal but more problematic for Zeus, she is faithful to her husband the general Amphitryon.
So the besotted Zeus, following the advice of the cunning Hermes, decided to take the appearance of her husband.
So as soon as Amphitryon would leave to go to war, a favourite pastime for the ancient cities, Zeus would take his place in his house without any knowledge of Alcmene. Soon she became pregnant with twins : one from her husband and will be named Iphikles, the other from her disguised lover, the all mighty Zeus and will be called … Heracles, so decided the ignorant Alcmene in honour of Hera, the jealous and mighty goddess, the one and only legitimate wife of Zeus.
Even as a new born Heracles has inherited from his father extraordinary powers.
When Hera, the legitimate wife of Zeus, tortured by jealousy and envy, sent two enormous and venomous serpents into his crib to kill the defenceless baby, little did she knew about this outstanding little baby. Heracles, quite extraordinarily strangled the snakes and threw them over, giggling. Every one understood that Heracles was the true son of Zeus.
Hercules grew into a great warrior. He single-handedly led the attack that drove the Minyans out of Thebes. In gratitude, Creon, king of Thebes offered his eldest daughter, Megara, to the hero.
Hercules and Megara got married and had three strong sons. The family lived happily together.
But Hera would never give up so easily. The innocent and carefree Heracles was going to face a terrible drama designed and implemented by a resentful, vengeful, pitiless Hera.
Heracles was going to be struck by Hera’s resentment in a most atrocious way.
On a quiet evening he drank a wine which the revengeful Hera had mixed with a powerful drug. It drove him mad. In his hallucinations he saw terrible monsters all around him and had to exterminate them to defend himself.
The next day when he finally woke up from his trance he had to face the most horrific reality and realised that he had murdered all his beloved : his loving wife and his own children.
In Ancient Greek time (as nowadays) there was no worse crime and outrage. Even Zeus could not saved his son. The gods had to find an appropriate punishment .
So as an atonement for these horrific murders , Apollo through the voice of the Pithy in the Oracle of Delphi sent Heracles to the cruel King of Tirynthe, Eurystheus, a distant relative of Hera, famous for his greed and pettiness for whom the grieving hero was to perform 10 tasks over ten years.
But the cunning and despicable king Eurystheus added 2 more tasks making a total of 12 labours achieved by Heracles.
These labors were mainly suggested by Hera to Eurystheus and were all doomed as impossible tasks, with the clear objective for Heracles to fail and be condemned to death or even better to die trying to accomplish them.
In chronological order the 12 labors were:
With just his bare hands Heracles killed the ferocious lion and skinned him, wearing his fur as a cloak.
This fire-breathing monstrous creature had the body of a lion and nine serpent heads. As if it wasn’t enough, the Hydra had the horrific power to grow a new head back every time one was cut off. Needless to say that the Hydra was considered unbeatable.
Heracles, with the help of Iolaus, his young nephew , was finally able to kill it : they had to slay all of the heads and sealed the wounds with fire in order to prevent the Hydra from regenerating. After the death of the monster, Heracles plunged the tips of his arrows into the blood of the Hydra.
It was by all standards an amazing victory. But King Eurystheus argued that this amazing victory did not count as Heracles benefited from the help of Iolaus and decided to add one more task.
Heracles had to run after the Golden Hind for almost a whole year until finally the hind had to take a rest and went to sleep.
The horrific King Eurystheus wanted to eat the hind but Heracles freed her.
The problem for Heracles was to track the terrible boar as the beast was constantly on the run. So he started to cut all the trees and to dig traps.
Heracles finally trapped the beast and carried it alive on his shoulders to King Eurystheus.
Not only were these stables absolutely gigantic but they had not been cleaned in decades.
Heracles took all the horses away on the top of a hill close by, then he diverted the two nearby rivers which cleaned the stables.
Then Heracles put back the 2 rivers to their initial paths.
“Elementary, my dear Watson, isn’t it ?”
King Augeas was so overjoyed by the sparkling result that he rewarded Heracles with a whole purse full of gold.
This reward infuriated King Eurystheus as Heracles was his slave and a slave can not be paid. So he decided one more time that this task would not be accounted for and therefore he will add one additional task .
Sacred to Ares these horrific birds were man-eating birds with beaks and claws made of bronze .
These evil creatures were incredibly violent, overrunning Arcadia. Athena helped by asking Hephaestus to create a rattle which sounds frightened the birds. Once the birds were flying into the air, Heracles was able to shoot them down with his bow and his poisonous arrows.
Every one was overjoyed by this new victory of Heracles and in Arcadia he was considered as a saviour.
Just like the Erymanthian Boar, the Cretan bull was huge and fearsome. He was causing havoc on the island of Crete .
This bull had been a gift of the God Poseidon to the king of Crete, Minos. He should have been offered in sacrifice to the mighty god but dazzled by the power of the bull, king Minos committed an offence towards the gods by deciding to keep him for himself.
The gods had punished him immediately by making his wife passionately in love with the bull and she had given birth to the Minotaur which was hidden under the palace. The gigantic bull had been chased out of the palace and had been terrorising the population since.
Heracles was tasked by the envious Eurystheus to capture the formidable beast for his own profit.
With his bare hands, Heracles wrestled the bull to the ground, successfully mastering it and taking it back to Eurystheus.
In Crete, all were overjoyed and Heracles was celebrated as a hero.
These beautiful horses were a sight to behold except that these beautiful animals had been raised to be man-eaters
The cruel King Diomedes of Thrace had trained his horses to eat human flesh.
Heracles was tasked with bringing back these mares.
Heracles headed to Thrace and stayed awake all night until Diomedes fell asleep. Heracles
cut the bronze manger the horses were tied to and chased them to the end of the peninsula before digging a ditch around them, creating an island.
Eventually, Diomedes appeared and Heracles slew him, feeding him to the mares and calming them down so that he could sew their mouths shut and take them back safely to Eurystheus.
Heracles was tasked with retrieving the belt of the Queen of the Amazons, a fearsome group of warrior women, who accepted no man in their tribe.
Hippolyta , their queen was impressed with the exploits of Heracles, she felt in love at first sight with him and was ready to give him her belt, which was a gift from Ares.
Hera could not let Heracles go victorious one more time, so she intervened and appeared before the Amazons, saying that a stranger was on his way to steal their queen away.
The Amazons rushed to their camp, attacked Heracles, who then had to fight back.
The battle was terrible and Heracles killed all the Amazons, including Hippolyta unintentionally.
He took the belt, gave it to Eurystheus who offered it as a tribute to Hera.
How do you think Heracles felt about it ? Having unfortunately killed a woman he loved for the sake of making an offering to his arch-enemy ?
Still he had to endure this additional pain and humiliation.
Geryon was a terrifying giant with three heads and six arms. He lived far away, on the shores of the ocean Atlantic. As if it wasn’t chilling enough, he has a two-headed watchdog named Orthrus.
So Heracles traveled west to steal the cattle of Geryon. On his way to Erythy, near Spain, Heracles could not stand the scorching heat and desperately fired arrows towards the sun. Apollo, instead of being offended, decided to help Heracles by offering him an immense bowl made of gold which has the super natural power of floating and navigating on the sea. Heracles was then able to reach Geryon’s territory very easily.
The giant attacked Heracles but succumbed with one of Heracles‘s arrow piercing Geryon’s forehead.
Heracles gave back the gold bowl to Helios and walked back to Greece with the precious cattle. It took him several years to achieve this trip back.
He had accomplished 10 impossible missions : would Eurystheus give him back his freedom ?
But Eurystheus, supported by Hera, claimed that 2 missions were not to be taken into account :
The Hesperides were the 7 daughters of the Titan Atlas and they all lived in an impressive palace located where the sun set. They were also the gardians of the most wonderful garden where apples of gold would grow. No one else but them could enter this secret garden. But where to find this mysterious garden ?
Heracles was not only extraordinarily strong, he was also cunning. On his way , Heracles met Prometheus, freed him and killed the eagle that was devouring every day the liver of Prometheus.
Grateful, Prometheus advised Heracles to meet the father of the Hesperides, the god Atlas who had been condemned to hold up the heavens by Zeus after the war between the Titans and the Olympian gods.
Since Heracles didn’t know how to access the secret garden, he proposed to Atlas to support the heavens while Atlas go visit his beloved daughters. The only condition he gave for his help was that Atlas would bring him back a basket filled with golden apples.
Atlas accepted the deal with great pleasure. But when he came back with his basket full of apples he had a change of heart and decided not to take back his place. Has Heracles been trapped for eternity?
But Heracles was too cunning for the naive Atlas. He agreed with him but asked for a minuscule favour in return which Atlas being so relieved by his kind understanding was too happy to accept. He quietly asked Atlas to relieve him for one moment, just the time for him to adjust his cloak.
The naive Atlas took back the weight of the heavens and the cunning Heracles just walked away with the golden apples…
Heracles was tasked with bringing back the three-headed dog, Cerberus, who guarded the gates of the underworld.
The problem was to find the way to the underworld. Two gods Athena and Hermes decided then that the punishment was unfair as it was taking such a long time and that they would therefore help secretly Heracles to speed up the process.
They took him to the gate of the underworld.
Heracles boarded with Chiron and asked Hades if he could bring Cerberus with him. Hades, who knew that Hera had decided Heracles list of Labours and thus the slaying of the Hydra, his own creature, accepted on the condition that Heracles could subdue the beast with only his bare hands, without real harm done to Cerberus.
Heracles was successful and slung Cerberus on his back, before walking back from the underworld and presenting the beast to Eurystheus.
Eurystheus was so fear stricken to meet Cerberus. While Heracles took back Cerberus to the underworld, Eurystheus and Hera got busy plotting to trick Heracles.
This time, for all the gods it was enough. Zeus had to intervene and liberated his now beloved son from any punishment. Heracles had finally atoned his tragic crimes.
He would go on to have more adventures, including with other famous Greek mythological heroes.
Many years later, Hercules remarried to Deianira, whose name means “man-destroyer” or “destroyer of her husband”. He should have think twice.
Deianira was tormented by her obsessive jealousy and tried everything she could, including black magic, to keep her dashing husband. So she coated a cloak with what she believed to be a magic balm that would guarantee his love for her forever. Unfortunately the balm was a deadly poison.
When Heracles put the cloak on, it began to burn him. Unable to get the cloak off, Heracles suffered a slow, atrocious death.
While he was going through an excruciating painful agony, Hera finally agreed to reconcile and all the gods gleefully welcomed Heracles to Mount Olympus. Zeus, his mighty and proud father, had granted him immortality.
How do we recognise him?
He is almost always portrayed as a bearded muscular man with a club, most of the time wearing his lion’s skin.
Heracles is one of the most popular characters in Classic and Western Art.
This story is one of the longest and most complex Greek myths as it includes the interventions of numerous protagonists, heroes and goddesses.
Jason was the son of the late King of Iolcos Aeson, who was overthrown by his treacherous brother Pelias. Only a baby at that time Jason escaped death after his mother managed to send him to the wise centaur Chiron and pretended that he was dead as a stillborn.
Pelias knew by the Oracle that there was a threat from his own blood on his throne and that the threat will come from a man who will enter his city with only one sandal.
Years later, the grown-up Jason decided to claim his kingdom. On his way, he saw a frail old poor woman, hesitant how to cross a tumultuous river. Jason immediately proposed his help and carried her across the river. At one point he stumbled and lost one of his sandal. The old woman thanked him profusely but guess who she was?
It was the Queen of the gods, the terrible Hera, who decided at that moment to support Jason, as she loathed Pelias who had disrespected one of her temple in the past. But Hera never forgot anything, or forgave any offence.
So unaware of the prophecy made to Pelias, Jason entered the city of Iolcos with only one sandal and was immediately taken as a prisoner to Pelias.
Jason confronted Pelias, who demanded him to steal the legendary Golden Fleece in exchange for making him his heir instead of his own boy . The Golden Fleece was kept far, far away, at the eastern edge of the known world and guarded by a monstrous serpent that never closed his eyes. Though the task was considered as impossible, Jason agreed.
The Golden Fleece came from a winged ram originally belonging to the god Hermes.
The ram was sent by the goddess Nephele to rescue her children Phrixos and Helle when their devilish step mother Ino persuaded the citizens of Thebes to sacrifice them. Saved just in time, the ram flew off over the sea with Phrixos and Helle. Unfortunately, during the flight, Helle fell off the ram into the sea and the place she landed — the modern straits of the Dardanelles — was thereafter called the Hellespont.
Phrixos, however, was safely taken to Colchis on the Black Sea and he sacrificed the ram in homage to the gods. He then placed its golden fleece in the sacred grove of the god Ares where a fearsome serpent was to guard it without any rest.
To find and bring back the fleece to Greece , Jason assembled the most extraordinary crew of 50 legendary heroes.
Every hero wanted to participate to such a glorious quest, which everyone knew would be celebrated in the whole Hellenistic world.
These are the names that are still thousands of years later learned proving that their quest for glory was a success.
The ship, reportedly the first Greek long ship, was named after its maker Argos
Jason commissioned the shipwright Argos to construct the best ship ever built.
Athena who was touched by Jason fearlessness decided to help by giving a plank of sacred oak wood with the power of speech, taken from the sanctuary of Zeus at the holy place of Dodoma.
It was used for the prow which was carved figuring Hera.
Never was a ship so well constructed.
On completion, the vessel was named the Argo and blessed by none other than Hera, Queen of the Greek Gods. Hera, at that point, proudly considered Jason as her personal champion as she wanted Pelias, the usurper to be defeated.
The Argo could carry 50 oarsmen and Jason filled the boat with an all-star crew of Greek heroes.
The Argonauts encountered many mythical obstacles on their way to and from Colchis. These include murderous wives, sirens, giants, harpies, clashing rocks and crimes.
Finally, at their destination, in Colchis , on the eastern end of the Black Sea. Aeetes, the clever and cunning ruler accepted to give them back the fleece if they accomplished 3 tasks which were all deemed as impossible. He thought that it would be the best way to keep the Golden Fleece and to get rid of these impossible heroes.
1- to plough a field using two fire-breathing bulls
2- to sow the teeth of a serpent in the field,
3- to fight the giants which will come out of the teeth.
But Aeetes did not think about the gods or more importantly the goddesses. To help Jason, Hera persuaded Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, to enchant Aeetes’ daughter, Medea, into falling passionately in love with Jason.
Medea was not only a beautiful princess , but also a sorceress, mastering dark forces. She was after all the niece of Circe, another mighty and dangerous sorceress.
Medea gave Jason a magic lotion to protect him from the fire-breathing bulls and told him to throw a stone amongst the giants so that they would slaughter each other.
Thanks to Medea, Jason completed the three tasks and claimed the fleece despite the fury of Aeetes, who tried to keep the fleece despite his initial agreement.
Jason with Medea and the Argonauts had to fled hurriedly but they had captured the Golden Fleece and were taking it back to Greece. The quest was a success.
Sadly the rest of the life of Jason was not going to be a similar success, quite the opposite.
Jason and Medea should have live happily ever after as the king and queen of Iolcus. But Jason was reckless and ambitious. He decided to strengthen political ties with Corinth by marrying the daughter of the king. He betrayed Medea
Moreover by breaking his vow of love to Medea, Jason permanently lost the favour of Hera, who was the Goddess of Matrimony.
Driven crazy by this shocking betrayal ,Medea who had abandoned her family her country and even killed her own brother for Jason, killed the Corinthian princess with a cursed, flaming dress. Before fleeing in a magical chariot, she also killed her own two sons.
As for Jason, he survived Medea’s revenge for unscathed.
He ultimately died lonely regretful and unhappy. While sleeping under the rotting remains of the Argo, the stern fell on him, crushing the aged broken hero to death.
By being so self absorbed Jason had brought terrible fate on his wives and children.
Still his quest was the first of the genre and made generations and generations dreaming about the bravery and the courage of these immortal heroes.
One of the most famous illegitimate sons of Zeus, King of the Greek Gods, Perseus was conceived after Zeus rained himself onto the lap of Perseus’ mother, the beautiful Danaë, in the form of a shower of golden coins.
Unfortunately his maternal grandfather, Acrisius, has decided to kill him for he had been warned in a prophecy that a son of his daughter would slay him.
As he did not dare to kill Zeus’s illegitimate son, Acrisius locked the mother and the child in a wooden crate and casted them out to sea.
Perseus and Danaë would be rescued and protected by Dictys a kind fisherman, on the island of Seriphos.
Unfortunately for Perseus, Polydectes, the ruler of Seriphos, fell in love with Danaë. To rid himself of Perseus, who disapproved of the relationship, the cunning ruler tricked the hot-blooded young man into agreeing to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa.
Medusa was once considered to be the most beautiful woman in the world. She was a priestess of the Goddess Athena and no man was allowed to touch her.
But she was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple. As Athena could not punish Poseidon for the desecration of her temple, she directed her fury towards the victim, the poor Medusa. Athena transformed Medusa into a Gorgon, a horrific humanoid with a serpentine body and slithering snakes for hair.
To kill Medusa was considered to be an impossible task for the very gaze of Medusa was enough to turn any mortal being into stone.
So that his son would survive, Zeus then instructed the Greek gods to aid Perseus with divine gifts, the most famous of which being a polished mirror shield from Athena.
Perseus ultimately succeeded in beheading Medusa by only viewing her reflection using this extraordinary shield.
While returning to Seriphos, he also rescued Princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. Andromeda was being offered as a sacrifice to appease Poseidon.
Andromeda’s mother, Queen Cassiopeia, had bragged that Andromeda was equal in beauty to the Nereids (sea nymphs). Irked, Poseidon dispatched the sea monster Cetus to devastate Cassiopeia’s kingdom. After rescuing Andromeda he married the beautiful princess.
The evil Polydectes was ultimately turned into stone by Perseus using Medusa’ head.
As a tribute for her help, Perseus gave Medusa’s head to Athena, who then magically incorporated the grisly trophy into the middle of her shield. Today, many depictions of Athena include Medusa’s horrific visage in the middle of her shield.
Perseus had other lesser known adventures. He is also believed to have founded the Peloponnesian city of Mycenae.
Perseus, Cassiopeia and Andromeda are also immortalized as constellations. The mythical winged horse, Pegasus, which was birthed from the blood of Medusa, is also a constellation.
The Hero and the Monster
Theseus was the son of the King of Athens Aegeus, though it was whispered that his biological father was Poseidon, God of the Sea, as supposedly his mother was possessed by Poseidon when she slept with Aegeus.
Separated from Aegeus at birth, the adult Theseus eventually learned about his royal parentage and successfully claimed his place beside his father.
The young warrior did so after surviving six labors on his way to Athens. Each labor involved him slaying a notorious villain, killing a monstrous wild boar, punishing outlaws. He was almost poisoned by Medea who had married his father before being finally acknowledged by his father.
But the joy of Theseus’ reunion with his father was to be short-lived.
Some time ago the son of Minos, the powerful king of Crete, Androgeos, had been “treacherously killed” while he was in Athens. Minos had immediately sought revenge from the Athenians and as retribution he had them send to Crete several youths every seven years for an unknown fate.
In fact to be devoured by the Minotaur, a terrifying monster, half man half bull. The young Athenians were thrown into a dark maze, full of arcades and dead ends, wandering aimlessly, until the Minotaur would find them
Unable to accept these human sacrifices Theseus volunteered to be one of the youths and promised his father that should he survive, he would return on a ship with white sails.
At his arrival in Crete, Theseus was sent into a secret location: the Labyrinth under the magnificent Palace of Cnossos, which was built by non less than the most famous architect of Ancient Greece Daedalus.
Here, the young prince quickly discovered the grim truth. Trapped inside an inextricable maze full of arcades and dead ends, they were to be hunted down and devoured by Minotaur, the terrifying monster, half man half bull.
The Minotaur was in fact the punishment of king Minos for disrespecting Poseidon, god of the sea.
A magnificent bull had been offered by the God Poseidon to the king of Crete, Minos. This extraordinary bull therefore should have been offered in sacrifice to the mighty god but dazzled by the power of the bull, king Minos committed an outrage towards all the gods by keeping him for himself. That was unprecedented and the gods were determined to make sure that no one would ever challenge them this way ever again.
Therefore the gods punished him immediately by making his wife Parsiphae fall passionately in love with the bull and she gave birth to the Minotaur, the monstrous half man and half bull.
King Minos, mortified and shameful, asked the great architect Daedalus to build a labyrinth under the magnificent Palace of Cnossos in order to hide his living shame the Minotaur.
Even with his divine lineage and his heroic prowess, Theseus wouldn’t have survived the Minotaur, especially with the battle taking place in the confusing and confining corridors of the Labyrinth, without an unexpected help.
Fortunately for him, King Minos’ daughter Ariadne had fallen in love with him at first sight. Not only did Ariadne give Theseus a ball of thread to mark his path within the Labyrinth, she also smuggled a sword for him into the labyrinth. These tools would enable Theseus to find his way out of the Labyrinth and to slay the monstrous Minotaur.
After escaping the Labyrinth, Theseus fulfilled his promise to Ariadne by fleeing back to Athens with her. For reasons unclear, however, Ariadne never made it to Athens. Midway through the journey, Theseus abandoned the trustful sleeping Ariadne on the island of Naxos.
Thankfully for Ariadne, she would be rescued by the charming god Dionysus , they would married and lived happily ever after.
Fate was going to strike the young prince : was he overwhelmed by guilt for abandoning the key to his success Ariadne or overwhelmed by hubris?
In any case he forgot to change the sails on his ship.
Gazing at the ship with black sails returning from afar, the devastated King Aegeus assumed Theseus had perished. In grief, he committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea at the Cape , thus giving his name to the Aegean Sea.
Theseus succeeded to his father, becoming king of Athens, he pushed back the Amazons
army and increased the power of Athens. After his death the Athenians offered him sacrifices as an equal to the gods.
Ariadne’s thread :
Since then the expression Ariadne’s thread means to find a way to solve a problem or a puzzle.
Oedipus was the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. Somewhat similar to the fate of Perseus, the newborn Oedipus was left to die in the mountains as Laius was told by the Oracle of Apollo in Delphi that his own son would kill him.
In a desperate attempt to prevent the prophecy’s fulfillment, when Jocasta indeed gave birth to a healthy son, Laius had his ankles pierced and tethered together so that he could not crawl;
Jocasta then decided to leave her defenceless baby to a shepherd with the cruel task to abandon him in the forest to die.
Against all odds, Oedipus was soon rescued and adopted by non the less than King Polybus of Corinthia. Little Oedipus was named after the swelling from the injuries to his feet and ankles («swollen foot»), hence the word «oedema» in English.
Once of age, Oedipus, as a young prince, decided to consult the oracle in Delphi and learned the appalling prophecy : that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
Horrified, he thought naturally that the prophecy was referring to the King Polybus whom he believed to be his father, and to Queen Merope. Therefore, heartbroken, he decided never to come back to Corinthia in order to escape this terrible fate.
But how could anyone escape his fate ?
He headed straight for Thebes to resettle. During the journey, he quarrelled with an old man and being short tempered and arrogant, killed him.
At Thebes, Oedipus found out that the ruler, king Laius, was dead and that the city was besieged by a riddle-spouting monstrous creature, half a lion and half a ma named the Sphinx.
In Ancient Greece, contrary to the Egyptian tradition, the Sphinx had a woman’s head. The rest of the body was the same with the haunches of a lion and the wings of a bird. In both civilisations the mythological creature was considered as mysterious and merciless. If you failed to answer her riddle she would devoured you.
The riddle here was: «What walks on four feet in the morning, two in the afternoon and three at night?».
Oedipus answered: » The Man : as an infant, he crawls on all fours; as an adult, he walks on two legs and finally in old age, he uses a ‘walking’ stick».
As Oedipus has given the right answer the Sphinx vanished immediately in thin air.
The citizens of Thebes were so relieved that Oedipus was given the kingdom and the hand of the recently widowed Queen Jocasta.
Oedipus and Jocasta had four children : 2 sons Eteocles and Polynices and 2 daughters Antigone and Ismene.
But the life of Oedipus has nothing to do with a fairy tale where they would live happily ever after.
Some years later, a plague of infertility struck the city of Thebes, affecting crops, livestock and the people. Oedipus understood that it was a punishment sent by the gods but for what outrage?
Oedipus sent an envoy to the Oracle at Delphi, seeking guidance. The oracle gave the answer : to bring the murderer of King Laius to justice.
To find the murderer , the blind prophet of Apollo in Thebes, Tiresias who was widely respected was requested.
Tiresias tried desperately to warn Oedipus not to seek for Laius’ killer.
After a heated discussion between the two men, Oedipus discovered to his horror that the murderer was none other than himself;
At that dramatic moment, a messenger from Corinthia rushed to bring the sad news that King Polybus had died .
Oedipus was at first relieved that he had nothing to do with the death of his father until he learned that the aristocracy of Corinthia refused to recognise him as the rightful heir as he had been adopted, which was news for him.
Jocasta, finally realizing that her husband was her first born son, went back to her appartement where she hanged herself.
Shocked by the awful truth, disgusted by his life, Oedipus blinded himself with pins from Jocasta dress.
The legend of Oedipus has been retold by most Greek poets : Homer, Hesiod, Euripides and especially Sophocles.
Centuries later it was the founder of the psychology, Sigmund Freud who labelled the unconscious desire in a child for the opposite sex-parent the “Oedipus complex “. Thankfully it happens mostly in the very small childhood and fortunately it passes very rapidly as the child grows up.
But the story of Oedipus clearly shows that for the Ancient Greeks no one could escape his fate.
Everything was written…
One day on Mount Olympus the gods started arguing where the centre of the world could be . Every god had a precise idea of the location of the centre of the world but the problem was that each of them had a different idea. So Zeus decided to take the matter into his capable and powerful hands. He knew exactly what needed to be done to have a precise, an accurate and a non disputable location.
His method was quite original : he freed his two sacred eagles in opposite directions. When the two eagles finally met, Zeus declared the site to be the heart of the world : it was at Delphi.
No one, but no one challenged the short tempered King of the gods.
And what a splendid place : nestled high up of Mount Parnassus, overlooking the valley of Phocis.
Unfortunately, it was also the nest of the giant serpent Python. So Apollo, the fantastic archer, went on a hunt, in order to please his mighty father but more importantly to take his revenge against Python which had been pursuing relentlessly his then pregnant mother, as the terrible snake was following the orders of the scorned Hera.
Apollo exterminated Python at the precise location of Gaia ‘s oracle, he thus inherited its prophetic power.
From this time, Delphi will be forever linked to Apollo. Delphi will become the spiritual center of Ancient Greece. Many myths and epics originated here from the prophecies spoken here.
Kings, heroes, mere mortals would travelled from afar to beg for an answer to their questions.
Apollo also presided here over the Pythian Games that Zeus had initiated. The Pan-Hellenic Pythian Games were the precursors of the glorious Olympic Games which were presided by Zeus.
Also the practice of bestowing laurel wreath, a practice associated with the Olympic Games, began at Delphi. Winners of the Pythian Games were awarded such wreaths.
Six months before the start of the Pythian Games, nine citizens from Delphi, called Theoroi, would start traveling across the Greek cities to announce the beginning of the games and to declare the start of the Sacred Truce (Hierominia), aiming to protect the athletes and the travelers that would travel to Delphi. Any city that would be involved in robberies or armed conflicts during that period would be banned from the games, which was a terrible punishment but they would also be banned of the sanctuary of Apollo, unable to consult the Oracle, an even worse punishment.
The Delphic Oracle was an Apollonian high priestess who would be seated over the volcanic fumes at Delphi, she would inhale them and then deliver prophetic mutterings.
The high priestess was also known as the Pythia.
If Delphi was the major religious, social, and political site in the ancient world, it was also a bank or a safe for all the Hellenistic world. All the cities -states would keep their treasuries along the Sacred Way . Several of these could still be seen today.
Thousands of people, from commoners to Kings, would travel to the Sanctuary of Apollo to listen to the oracles of Pythia. After the fall of the Greek city-states to the Roman and later the rise of Christianity in the 4th century AD, Delphi remained an active sacred (now pagan) site and the Pythian Games were celebrated at least until 424 AD.
Unfortunately, after that time, it is unknown what Delphi and the sanctuary became. There is no documented information. Eventually, the Sanctuary of Apollo got buried under the mountains from too many earthquakes.
Over the entrance to the temple at Delphi was a famous inscription: KNOW THYSELF! It reminded visitors that man must never believe himself to be more than mortal — and that no man can escape his destiny.
“Flying too close to the sun”
Daedalus was a descendant of Hephaestus and was famous for his creative mind and his inventions. But one day in Athens, Daedalus was so upset and envious of his nephew Talos who had imagined the compass that he killed him. He had to fled and sailed to Crete.
The Labyrinth
In Crete, the King Minos requested him to build a prison where no one could escape. Daedalus imagined and build the labyrinth where Minos could hide the terrible Minotaur.
But after building the labyrinth, the cautious King Minos kept Daedalus with his son Icarus imprisoned in a tower so that he would not divulge the secrets of the maze as well as the secret about the Minotaur, who was kept there.
Daedalus was a brilliant mind , so he imagined the most extraordinary way to escape.
He patiently collected feathers from the birds nestled in the tower. He then used wax to glue the feathers together to create wings. He made two sets of wings, one for himself and one for his beloved son Icarus.
Daedalus warned his son to not fly too close to the sun or the wax would melt with the heat and the wings would fall apart.
The plan of Daedalus worked perfectly. One morning the soldiers guarding the tower were so shocked to witness the 2 captives flying away.
It must have been exhilarating, so extraordinarily exhilarating that Icarus forgot completely the wise warnings of his father.
Icarus flew too close to the sun, causing the wax to melt with the heat of the sun, the wings to break apart and Icarus to drop into the sea.
Daedalus, heartbroken by the loss of his son, arrived safely far, far away from Crete in Sicily. He managed to be introduced at the court of the king, Cocalus. He proposed to the King to build him a splendid temple consecrated to Apollo and offered him his wings.
The Sin of Hubris
In Crete, king Minos was furious and worried that Daedalus might give away the secrets of the labyrinth.
He knew that Daedalus had a weak point : his arrogance. So he sent envoys every where asking if anyone could solve the riddle of running a string through a spiral seashell.
Daedalus could not resist : he was able to attach a thin string to an ant and then attracted the ant into the seashell with a drop of honey !
Minos knew now where Daedalus was hidden. He made a secret pact with king Cocalus and Daedalus was quietly and quickly murdered.
Both father and son had succumbed because their “hubris”’, their excessive confidence.
In Ancient Greece, an excessive confidence was an intolerable outrage and would be immediately punished by the gods.
The Icarus Syndrome
Icarus gave his name to the excess of confidence, “the Icarus Syndrome” , with its lack of humility, is a pattern that every one and especially every successful leader needs to be concerned about.
It has felled on so many leaders throughout history, who planned grandly but failed miserably by overestimating their knowledge, foresight and ability.
Icarus also created the expression “ Flying too close to the sun”.
Ariadne’s thread
Only Theseus was able to find his way out of the terrible labyrinth created by Daedalus. He was able to do so because of the help of Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, who had the idea to give him a thread to guide him out.
Since then the expression Ariadne’s thread means to find a way to solve a problem or a puzzle.
The capital of Greece is named after Athena, the goddess of wisdom. But why ? it has been quite a competitive challenge between the gods to be chosen by the mere mortals who populated this extraordinary city.
At the beginning, the city of Athens was named Cecropia, after Cecrops, the supposed first Athenian king. The city had yet no patron god.
In Ancient Greece each city state determined for itself a specific patron deity which implied dedicated temples, specific clergy and festivals. Greece as a country didn’t exist, it was a collection of city-states in an Hellenistic common world.
King Cecrops decided that it was about time to have a patron god, so even before inventing the political system of the democracy, the Athenians called for an open contest among the gods. They would vote for the god who would become their patron. This concept was quite revolutionary : the people would decide.
Life was sweet in Mount Olympus but a bit dull. Every one was excited when two gods entered the competition :
In order to settle their difference, it was decided that they would both present a gift to the people of Cecropia and the people would then vote in favour of the one they preferred.
The stage for the vote was set on Acropolis Hill, the highest point in the city. The citizens climbed the rock to watch the two gods present their gifts to them.
Poseidon came first; he stood proudly with his trident in hand and gave a powerful blow to the ground. Shortly after, water started gushing from the rock and the people of Cecropia were subdued, gazing with admiration as water is so precious. Unfortunately they tasted it and it was un drinkable as it was sea water.
Then, it was Athena’s turn : the goddess thrust her spear to the rocky hill and a fruitful olive tree appeared, provide food, oil, wood and also the needed shadow to protect them from the blazing sun.
The people voted enthusiastically for Athena becoming the patroness of Cecropia which was then renamed Athena.
To appease the fury of Poseidon and prevent him from flooding the city, the cautious Athenians built the temple of Erechtheion on top of the spring of water the god had created.
It is said that you can still hear the sound of waves coming from the inside of the temple when the wind blows from the south.
There is also an olive tree next to the Erechtheion and some guides will swear that it is Athena’s olive tree.
Let’s not get the truth in the way of a good story.
The Twin Brothers : Danaus and Aegyptus
King Belus of Egypt and the Naiad Anchinoe had twin boys Danaus and Aegyptus. As his kingdom was vast, Belus divided his territory equally between his 2 boys.
Surprisingly the 2 now kings fathered both 50 children. Even more surprising, Aegyptus had 50 boys and Danaus 50 girls.
Aegyptus, who wanted to expand his territory thought that it would be clever to have his 50 sons marry the 50 daughters of his twin Danaus. Aegyptus, who was the first born of the twins had always been resentful of the sharing decided by their father.
The Escape to Argos
Danaus felt that these weddings were a trap and tried to escape with his daughters. With the help of Athena, Danaus imagined and constructed the first ship in history and smuggled the Danaids to Argos. But almost immediately the 50 sons of Aegyptus arrived at Argos and threatened both Danaus and Pelasgus, the King of Argos , to take the 2 kingdoms as well as the 50 daughters by force.
A Gruesome Wedding Night
Danaus resigned to the marriages and even organise a great feast to celebrate the occasion. However, he secretly gave each of his fifty daughters a dagger and an order to murder their husbands on the wedding night. Forty-nine of them obeyed: as soon as they fell asleep, they chopped the heads of forty-nine of Aegyptus’ sons and presented them to Danaus the next morning as evidence of their obedience.
“The Justice of men Should Never Punish Love “
Only his lovely eldest daughter Hypermestra had failed him by helping her new husband Lynceus to escape. There was a trial and the goddess Aphrodite, herself, came to the rescue of Hypermestra arguing that “the justice of the men should never punish love”.
Hypermestra was acquitted.
Danaus organised games in Argos to pick husbands for his daughters. All but two of Danaus’ daughters remarried : Hypermestra and the youngest one Amymone, who married the mighty god Poseidon.
Lynceus managed to be forgiven by Danaus and him and Hypermestra lived a happy marital life with children (including Acrisius and grand children Perseus).
The Doom of Eternal Punishment
There was no happy end for the other 48 daughters who were all condemned for breaking their mariage vows and slaying their husbands in the Underworld to an eternal punishment.
They have to fill for the eternity a pierced barrel with water which is of course an impossible task.
The Story of Echo and Narcissus is one of the most enduring tales from the Greek Mythology.
It is a sad tale of self-love and unrequited love, one which has been told over hundreds of years. Certainly to warn about the toxicity about both : self-love as well as unrequited love.
The doom of Echo
Echo was a nymph from Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia.
The beautiful Echo was courted by both Apollo and Pan, but would run faster and hide herself cleverly. Zeus did use Echo but for her animated and clever speech. He soon discovered that his stern wife enjoyed talking with Echo and was happy to spend time gossiping with her. Whenever Hera was spending time with her friend Echo, Zeus was free to do whatever he desired.
But after a while Hera understood what was going on and as usual punished not her guilty husband but the innocent nymph. Hera blocked the voice of Echo and the poor nymph could only repeat the words of others.
The Narcissistic Narcissus
Narcissus was a deer hunter but his beauty was such that most of the people, mortals or immortals would fall under his spell.
An Unrequited Love
One Day in the forest, the mountain nymph Echo saw Narcissus, the deer hunter, and fell passionately in love.
As she followed him, hiding from him Narcissus felt a presence and shouted “who’s there?» again and again, only to have Echo repeat his words.
After a while, a desperate Echo showed herself and tried to kiss Narcissus who rejected her cruelly. The poor nymph was heartbroken.
The doom of Narcissus
This angered Nemesis, the goddess of revenge, who then lead Narcissus to a pool deep in the woods where for the first time of his life he saw his reflection.
The naive Narcissus did not understand that he was gazing at his own reflection. He felt passionately in love with his own image and was unable to leave until he leaned over to exchange a kiss, felt and drowned.
Narcissus gave his name to self-love : narcissism, narcissistic.
And to a flower…
