Greek Mythology: Demeter

Goddess of the harvest: presided over grains, the fertility of the Earth, the seasons and the harvest.
Daughter of Rhea and Cronus
Children: Philomelus, Arion (with Poseidon), Plutus, Persephone (with Zeus) , Despoina (with Poseidon)
Roman Name: Ceres
Symbols: Torch, Lion, Cornucopia, Wheat or barely

Poseidon and Demeter:
Poseidon once persuded Demeter but she resisted him, she hid among the horses of King Onkios. She however couldn't hide her divinity so Poseidon desguised himself as one of the stallion and mounted her. She bore a daughter Despoina (this is only talked about in the Eleusinian Mysteries) and a horse named Arion who had a black mane and tail.

Festival: April 19th Roman Celebration of Spring when Demeter is reunited with Persphone

Greek Mythology: Hestia

Goddess of the Hearth and Home
The Eldest child of Rhea and Cronus
Hearth in Greek Culture: was a very important center point, it was in the center of every home, political and social activity... This made her one of the most important gods especially household gods.
She is one of the Virgin Goddesses...
Roman name: Vesta
Symbols: Hearth, Pig, Fire, Cauldron, Pot, Crane, Broom, Torch,

Stopping a War on Olympus
Both Poseidon and Apollo wanted to marry Hestia this rivalry could have started a major conflict. So Hestia went to Zeus and asked to remain a virgin forever and never marry. Zeus understood her actions and was very grateful, so grateful that he awarded her the first victim of every public sacrifice for keeping peace on Olympus.

Romes Vesta
Vesta's cult guarantees Rome's performance
Temple of Vesta is the Forum with sacred fire
Rome appointed 6 girls to be the Vestal Virgins and the tended to the sacred fire if the sacred fire goes out one of the virgins is no longer a virgin and the one they deemed no longer a virgin was buried alive...

Vestal Virgin

Greek Mythology: Poseidon

God of the Sea and Earthquakes

Son of Cronus and Rhea
Married to the Sea Nymph (Nereid) Amphitrite
Roman Name: Neptune

Symbols: Fish, Trident, Dolphin, Horse and Bull

A few of his Children:
Demeter: Arion and Despoina
Thoosa: Polyphemus
Euryele: Orion
Amphitrite: Rhode, Triton and Benthesikyme
Aethra: Theseus
Lybie: Lamia

Exploits of Poseidon:
The Wall of Troy: Poseidon and Apollo, having offended Zeus, were sent to serve the King Laomedon of Troy. He had them build huge walls around the city and promised to reward them well a promised he then refused to fulfill. In vengeance, before the Trojan War, Poseidon sent a sea monster to attack Troy (later the monster was killed by Heracles).

Medusa: 2 stories 1 was that Medusa was already a gorgon 2 she was a beautiful priestess of Athena in Athens. Poseidon lust after her and raped her in the Temple of Athena which made Athena angry but since she couldn't take her rage out on Poseidon she turned Medusa into a Gorgon.

Personal note: from what I have read I have a slightly different view on what Poseidon looks like I do not picture him as old as he looks in paintings and sculpture but again that is personal based on what I have read... I feel the interpretation that is shown in the Gods and Titans Oracle deck is more what I envisioned him like...

this is a really bad pic of Poseidon in the deck but you get the idea...

Greek Mythology: Hera

Goddess of married women and marriage
Daughter of Cronus and Rhea
Married to Zeus
Roman Name: Juno

Symbols: Peacocks, Cows, Pomegranates
Children:
               With Zeus: Hebe (Youth), Eileithyia (Childbirth), and Ares (War)
               Alone: Hephaestus (simply put and I will go into more detail later... blacksmiths and fire)

Hera Myths:
These are myths that I enjoyed that Hera had a part in...

First is the story of the birth of Athena:
Hera was furious that Zeus didn't need a woman to have children so Hera decided that she would have a child without a man. From this came the birth of Hephaestus he was ugly AND IN MY OPINION this says a lot about how Ancient Greek society thought about the idea of women having children alone... Hera was so disgusted by the his ugly appearance so she threw the baby off Mount Olympus breaking his legs and making him the only "lame" God.

As Zeus is known for his dalliances Hera in turn is known for her Vengeance:

Semele was a mortal woman Zeus was having an affair with so Hera tricked her into asking Zeus to see him in his true form. He didn't want to but she wouldn't stop asking, and when he finally did thunderbolts killed her.

Echo the Nymph that distracted Hera away from all Zeus' affairs: Cursed her to only repeat the last words that others spoke...

Lamia was a mortal woman that Zeus loved so Hera killed her children and turned her into a monster cursed so that she could never close her eyes so she would always dwell on her dead children... Zeus took pity on her and gave her the ability to take out her eyes to rest.

Leto a Titan Goddess was pregnant with Zeus' children so she convinced her daughter Eileithyia (Childbirth), and Gaia not to let her give birth

The story of how the peacock feathers got their eyes:
Hera almost caught Zeus with a mistress named Io, a fated avoided by Zeus by turning her into a beautiful white cow. However, Hera was not completely fooled and demanded that Zeus give her the cow as a present. Once Io was given to Hera, she placed her in the charge of Argus a one hundred eyed giant (who never had all his eyes closed) to keep her separated from Zeus. Zeus then commanded Hermes to kill Argus, which he did by lulling all his eyes to sleep and killing him. According to Ovid when Hera learned her servant Argus had been killed she took his eyes and placed them in the plumage of the peacock. That is why there is an eye pattern in its tail.

Greek Mythology: Zeus

Zeus is the youngest son of Rhea and Cronus...
He was the Greek God of the Sky, and the King of the Gods...

Symbols: Eagle, Bull, Oak Tree, Thunderbolts, Olive Tree

How Zeus ended the cycle of Children overthrowing their fathers: The story of Metis & Zeus
Metis was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and was Zeus' first wife. When she got pregnant Zeus feared the cycle of children overthrowing their fathers would repeat. So to end the cycle he swallowed Metis instead of just the child... When Metis gave birth it was inside Zeus began to have a "splitting headache" and Athena to spare you the details was born out of Zeus' head. (Making Athena one of the only Goddesses to be considered wise and not driven by the irrational emotion that most women are driven by) and by giving birth to Athena ended the cycle of mother allegiances killing the father... By this time Zeus had remarried to Hera and Hera was angry that Zeus had a child "without the need of a woman" and decided to have her own child by herself... Hephaestus (who I will talk about in a different post)...

www.crystalinks.com/zeus.html

*really don't like the cherubs in this picture I'll explain later... but this is a famous painting of Zeus and Hera... despite what others may post it as... you can tell by the eagle under Zeus' feet (one of his symbols) and the peacock behind Hera (one of her symbols)...

Zeus had many children with many different people... Some of them were:
(First Wife Titan) Metis: Athena
(Goddess) Demeter: Persephone
(Titan) Leto: Artemis and Apollo
(Titan) Mnemosyne: The Muses
(Titan) Themis: the Seasons and the Fates
(Oceanid) Eurynome: the Graces
(Goddess) Maia: Hermes
(Goddess) (Wife) Hera: Hebe (Youth), Eileithyia (Childbirth), Ares (Offensive War and Bloodlust *and yes there is a reason for the distinction)
(Goddess) Nemesis: Helen (of Troy)
(Mortal) Alcmene: Heracles (Demi-God)
(Moral) Danae: Perseus (Demi-God)
(Mortal) Semele: Dionysus (God)
(Mortal) Europa: Minos

Zeus and one of his Consorts... can you see jealous Hera in the upper left corner?

If there was one thing Zeus was very known for besides his affairs it was his punishments:
I have already posted about Prometheus...
There was also though Tantalus who killed his son as a sacrifice (food) for the gods: He was charged to be in Tartarus for all eternity having food and drink just out of his reach... what does his name sound like I wonder... lol
King Salmoneus made his subjects worship him as Zeus: He was condemned to riding around in a bronze chariot loudly imitating thunder...

Reading Between the Lines of Mythology: Greek

Lets talk about the Greeks mythology... there are so many versions of the same stories its hard to tell what way is up... I have read many authors from the classics of Hesiod and Ovid to Edith Hamilton and the details seem to get screwed in many different directions and a lot is left to the readers but on the other hand there are certain parts and details that ALWAYS stay the same... I have read and taken great interest in the Greek myths for a number of reasons...
The stories are so memorable for one the names have lived on for so long and most know at least the basic outline of the Greek myths....
The characters in the myths themselves are so dynamic and easy to relate to no matter if you agree with their actions or not..

I want to do a series on Gods and Goddesses first on the Greeks I am mostly going to be focusing on the Gods themselves but also throw in some of my favorite myths and see where it goes... I have to give a little warning however, I will be giving the facts that the myths provide but also my opinions and interpretation of many ideas and details in the myths... basically reading between the lines.

I will try and keep most of these in Chronological order... and most of my interpretations are going to come from the works of Hesiod and Ovid plus what I have learned through class and my own research

I must give a warning however to those of you who read these Greek Mythology posts if you are uncomfortable or offended by concepts such as violence, incest, sex, rape, body parts getting cut off, gore, homosexuality etc. I do not suggest that you read these posts due to the fact that these concepts frequently come up in Greek Mythology.