Homework 5/1
Read the The Impact Of Mythology Across Cultures and answer the following questions:
What strikes you about the reading?
What questions do you have about the reading?
What impacts do you think mythology has across cultures?
Hephaestus
Hephaistos (heh-FAIS-toss) is the blacksmith god, the god of volcanoes and hot fires and smelting metal ore to make iron. People said he lived inside volcanoes, and when they erupted it was because Hephaistos was moving around.
Hephaistos was Hera‘s son, and was not thought of as having had any father. People said that Zeus had thrown him off Mount Olympus down to earth, and he had injured his legs in his fall and couldn’t walk well.
This story shows his connection to the earth in several ways: Hera, Gaia‘s daughter, is an earth goddess, and her son is also earthy. He is thrown from Mount Olympus down to the earth, and he crawls on the earth instead of walking with his head high like a sky god. Of course the god of volcanoes would have to be an earth god and not a sky god, because volcanoes are inside the earth.
In some stories, Hephaistos is married to Aphrodite, but they never seem to get along very well. She likes Ares better.
This information comes from http://greece.mrdonn.org/greekgods/hephaestus.html
Hephaestus was the only Olympian who limped. He was the son of Hera and Zeus. Some say he was born with a limp. Others say Zeus, in a fit of temper, flung him off Mount Olympus when he was just a baby.
Hephaestus is the god of fire and forge. He made things, like the gods home on Mount Olympus. He married (and was deeply loved) by Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.
Zeus ordered Hephaestus to create the first woman out of clay. Hephaestus created Pandora.
Once up a time, a long time ago, Zeus ordered Hephaestus (Aphrodite’s husband) to make him a daughter. It was the first woman made out of clay. Hephaestus made a beautiful woman and named her Pandora.
Zeus sent his new daughter, Pandora, down to earth so that she could marry Epimetheus, who was a gentle but lonely man.
Zeus was not being kind. He was getting even. Epimetheus and Prometheus were brothers. Zeus was mad at one of the brothers, Prometheus, for giving people fire without asking Zeus first.
Zeus gave Pandora a little box with a big heavy lock on it. He made her promise never to open the box. He gave the key to Pandora’s husband and told him to never open the box. Zeus was sure that Epimetheus’ curiosity would get the better of him, and that either Epimetheus or his brother would open the box.
Pandora was very curious. She wanted to see what was inside the box, but Epimetheus said no. Better not. “You know your father,” Epimetheus sighed, referring to Zeus. “He’s a tricky one.”
One day, when Epimetheus lay sleeping, Pandora stole the key and opened the box.
Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate and envy, and all the bad things that people had never experienced before. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box. They flew away, out into the world.
Epimetheus woke up at the sound of her sobbing. “I opened the box and all these ugly things flew out,” she cried. “I tried to catch them, but they all got out.” Pandora opened the box to show him how empty it was. But the box was not quite empty. One tiny bug flew quickly out before Pandora could slam the lid shut again.
“Hello, Pandora,” said the bug, hovering just out of reach. “My name is Hope.” With a nod of thanks for being set free, Hope flew out into the world, a world that now held Envy, Crime, Hate, and Disease – and Hope.
Hades
This information comes from http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/hades.htm
Hades was the god of the dead, who ruled the place where dead people went after they died. He is a rather shadowy figure in more ways than one, spooky, and the Greeks preferred not to talk about him too much. Generally people who had good intentions did notsacrifice to Hades either. When they did, instead of burning the fat and thebones so the smoke would go up to the sky, instead they poured blood into pits or ditches dug into the ground (as in the part of Homer‘s Odyssey where Odysseus visits the Underworld).
Hades was thought of as the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and therefore also the brother of Demeter and Hera.
Like Poseidon, Hades does not appear in very many Greek myths. The best-known of the myths he is in are those of Persephone andOrpheus.
People sacrificed to Hades when they wanted something bad to happen, like if they were trying to get revenge on an enemy.
The Greeks did not like to talk about what happened to you after you died, and so we don’t know as much about what they thought as we might like. Probably they did not think about it as much as later people like the Christians and theBuddhists did, or at least not in the same ways.
Most Greeks believed that everybody had a spirit, which lived on after your body died, and they thought of this spirit as being rather like our ghosts, sort of transparent and floaty, but looking like the living person otherwise.
They thought that you had to do certain ceremonies when somebody died, in order to let their spirit go to the land of the dead. If you did not do these ceremonies, their spirit would continue to hang around the land of the living, haunting you and making a nuisance of itself. The most important thing was that dead people had to be buried. (see the story of Antigone, for instance).
After your body had been buried, so you were under the ground, you could cross an underground river, the river Styx (pronounced STICKS), to get to the land of the dead. Often dead people were buried with a small coin or two to pay the ferryman, Charon (KA-ron) who took you across the river Styx.
Then when you got to the land of the dead, it was basically like any place underground: dark, damp, and chilly, with nothing much to do, and lots of ghost-spirits floating around, bored and depressed, sounding like thousands of bats. You just stayed there forever. There was no promise of a better place for good people, or a worse place for bad people. Hades was king there, and sometimes Persephone was the queen.
When Odysseus visited the land of the dead and saw the spirit of Achillesthere, he asked him what it was like, being dead, and Achilles said that he would rather be a landless field hand, and alive, than be the king of the dead.
This description is about the same as what other ancient people thought around the same time. The Zoroastrians and the Jews had similar ideas. Gradually people got more interested in the afterlife, and by the time of Jesus everyone – not just Christians – was beginning to think about a different afterlife for good and bad people.
To find out more about Hades and the underworld, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your local library:
Persephone
Information can be found on this website: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/persephone.htm
Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it.
Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of nature. In the Eleusinian mysteries, this happening was celebrated in honor of Demeter and Persephone, who was known in this cult as Kore.
Here is a different source of information on Persephone.
Zeus, the king of all the gods, had three sisters. Hera, his wife and sister, was the goddess of marriage and the queen of all the gods.
Hestia, another of his sisters, was a much loved goddess by the woman of Greece – Hestia was the goddess of home and hearth.
His third sister, Demeter, was in charge of the harvest. All the gods jobs were important. Demeter’s job was very important. If she was upset, the crops could die. Everyone, gods and mortals, worked hard to keep Demeter happy. What made her happy was enjoying the company of her daughter, Persephone.
Persephone had grown into a beautiful young woman, with a smile for everyone. One day, while picking flowers in the fields, Hades, her uncle, the god of the underworld, noticed her.
Hades was normally a gloomy fellow. But Persephone’s beauty had dazzled him. He fell in love instantly. Quickly, before anyone could interfere, he kidnapped Persephone and hurled his chariot down into the darkest depths of the underworld, taking Persephone with him.
Locked in a room in the Hall of Hades, Persephone cried and cried. She refused to speak to Hades. And she refused to eat. Legend said if you ate anything in Hades, you could never leave. She did not know if the legend was true, but she did not want to risk it in case someone came to rescue her.
Nearly a week went by. Finally, unable to bear her hunger, Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds. It seemed her fate was sealed. She would have to live in the Underworld forever.
Meanwhile, back on earth, Zeus was worried about the crops. The people would die if the crops failed. If that happened, who would worship Zeus? He had to do something. Zeus did what he often did. He sent Hermes, his youngest son, the messenger, to crack a deal, this time with Hades.
Even as a baby, Hermes was great at making deals. Everyone knew that. But this deal might be the challenge of his life. His uncle Hades, king of the underworld, was really in love. This was no passing fancy.
When Hermes heard that Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds, he had to think quickly. The deal he made with Hades was that if Persephone would marry Hades, she would live as queen of the underworld for six months out of the year. However, each spring, Persephone would return and live on earth for the other six months of the year. Hades agreed. Zeus agreed. Persephone agreed. And finally, Demeter agreed.
Each spring, Demeter makes sure all the flowers bloom in welcome when her daughter, Queen of the Underworld, returns to her. Each fall, when Persephone returns to Hades, Demeter cries, and lets all the crops die until spring, when the cycle starts again.
Mr. Anthony's DP 