Summary: Chapter I — The Gods
Unlike many other creation stories, in the Greek versions
the gods are created by the universe instead of
the other way around. In the beginning, two entities exist, Heaven
and Earth. Their children are the Titans, whose children, in turn,
are the Olympians, the main Greek gods. The Titans—who include such
notables as Ocean, Mnemosyne (Memory), and Prometheus, mankind’s
benefactor—rule the universe until Zeus and their other children
conquer them.
The term “Olympians” comes from Mount Olympus, the gods’ mystical
home, which is conceived as a high mountaintop but is really a magical
place that exists on a heavenly plane—not the heavens (which Zeus
alone rules), earth, sea, nor underworld. Shared by all the gods,
Olympus is perfect. Rain never falls there, and the gods while away
their time eating, drinking, and listening to music. There are twelve
proper Olympians: Zeus; his two brothers, Poseidon and Hades; his
two sisters, Hestia and Hera (who is also his wife); his children,
Ares, Athena, Apollo, Hermes, and Artemis; and two gods sometimes
considered his offspring, Hephaestus and Aphrodite.
There are also lesser gods in Olympus, like Eros, the
Graces, and the Muses. Several, like Hebe, goddess of Youth, are
rarely mentioned in myths. There are also a few abstract forces
personified, if not completely, who live on Olympus: Themis, Divine
Justice; Dike, Human Justice; Nemesis, Righteous Anger; and Aidos,
the sense of respect and shame that keeps humans from sinning.
Besides the Olympians, supernaturals also abound in the
sea and underworld. Poseidon rules the sea, which is populated by
the Nereids, sea nymphs who are distinct from the Naiads, the
freshwater nymphs; Triton, the trumpeter of the sea; the shape-shifting
Proteus, Poseidon’s son or attendant; Pontus, a god of the deep
sea; and Nereus, a god of the Mediterranean. There is a different
god for every river, and the Titan Ocean—lord of the mysterious
river that encircles the earth—lives there along with several other
minor water gods.
Hades and his queen, Persephone, are the only rulers
of the underworld—a place often simply referred to as Hades, after
its king. A mysterious locale somewhere under the earth, it is the
realm of the dead. Many myths concern a mortal’s journey to the
underworld and his encounters with its vicious guardian, the three-headed
dog Cerberus. Divided into two sections, Tartarus and Erebus, Hades
has five famous rivers: Acheron, the river of woe; Cocytus, the
river of lamentation; Phlegethon, the river of fire; Styx, the river
of the gods’ unbreakable oath; and Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.
A boatman named Charon ferries the dead from Erebus across the junction
of the Acheron and the Cocytus to the gates of Tartarus, where they
are judged by three former kings, Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus.
The wicked are sentenced to eternal torment, while the good are
admitted to the Elysian Fields, a place of perfect bliss. Other
dwellers of Hades include the Furies and the personified forces
of Sleep and Death.
Earth has its share of lesser gods as well. Pan and Silenus
are mischievous and jovial earth gods. Pan rules over the Satyrs,
a race of goat-men, and dances with the Dryads, the forest nymphs,
and the Oreads, the mountain nymphs. Also on earth are the twins
Castor and Pollux, sometimes spoken of as gods. The twins represent
the ideal of brotherly devotion because, when an angry cattle-herder named
Idas killed Castor, Pollux begged to die out of love for his brother.
Rewarding this devotion, Zeus allows them to spend half the year
in Hades and the other half on earth. Earth is also home to the
wind gods: Aeolus, King of the Winds; Boreas, the North Wind; Zephyr,
the West; Notus, the South; and Eurus, the East. The earth is also
home to many other nondivine supernatural beings, such as the Centaurs—half-men,
half-horses, one of whom is Chiron, an important tutor to many eventual
heroes. Two trios of sisters are also earth-bound: the fearsome
Gorgons, of which Medusa is one, and the Graiae, three ancients
who share one eye. Finally, the Fates, who are assigned neither
a place in heaven nor earth, spin, measure, and cut the threads
of men’s lives. The Fates are not subject to the decrees of any
of the gods, not even Zeus himself.
