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The Male Olympians
Chris Mackie
The Male Olympians
The three brothers
• Zeus • Poseidon • Hades
The younger generation • Apollo • Hermes • Dionysus
Chris Mackie
The Olympian Family TRee
Chris Mackie IMAGE: http://www.buzzle.com/images/zeus-family-tree.jpg
Zeus (Jupiter)
• Birth • Relationships with the
other Olympians as brother or father
• The division of the world
Chris Mackie
Zeus with his lightning bolt and eagle. Attic Red Figure amphora attributed to the Berlin Painter, c.470 - 460 BCE http://www.theoi.com/image/K1.1Zeus.jpg
Zeus
• Zeus as god of the sky and mountains
• Zeus in the story of Troy in the Iliad on Mount Olympus and Mount Ida
• Interaction with the world of humans via intermediaries or in theriomorphic (ie wild animal) form
• Note especially Hermes and Iris
Chris Mackie
Zeus and Hera feasting on Olympos, served by Hebe or Iris. Attic Red Figure Amphora Attributed to the Nikoxenos Painter, c.500 BCE: http://www.theoi.com/image/K18.2Hebe.jpg
Zeus
• The sexual encounters of Zeus with mortal women are incredibly numerous. They include:
• Danae (Perseus) • Alcmene (Heracles) • The unnamed mother of
Dardanus, the founder of Troy
• Leda (Helen). Note the famous poem by W.B. Yeats
Chris Mackie
Zeus asumes the form of a shower of gold to impregnate Danae. (Lucanian?) Red Figure Krater, c 450 - 425 BCE: http://www.theoi.com/image/K1.14Zeus.jpg
Zeus
• Note also Zeus’s homosexual relationship with Ganymede, the young Trojan boy. Zeus comes down from Mount Ida as an eagle and takes the boy up to Olympus where he becomes his cup bearer
Chris Mackie LEFT: Zeus abducts Ganymede. Clay group from Olympia. c.470 BCE: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/dictionary/Dict/image/GanymedeSmall.jpg
Above: Ganymede serves ambrosia to Zeus. Attic Red Figure Krater,.attributed to the Eucharides Painter c. 490 - 480 BCE: http://www.theoi.com/image/O24.6Ganymedes.jpg
Zeus and the house of DArdanus
• Note Zeus and the world of Troy
• Zeus has considerable interaction with Troy across the generations, especially with Dardanus, Tros, Ganymede, Laomedon, Tithonus and Aeneas
• Troy is the sacred city
Trojan family tree. http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcThhZyGfStRiMJneUFKxTy4m7xKqMIp_JcB45rKBhEtU2cd6ZiRKcdvKhmC
Zeus • Note the limitations
of Zeus’s power. He is not omniscient and he is not omnipotent.
• The story of Thetis and the story of Prometheus
Chris Mackie
Zeus, attended by Hypnos (Sleep) and Persuasion, takes the shape of a swan to seduce Leda. Apulian Red Figure Loutrophoros attributed to the Painter of Louvre MNB 1148, c. 350 - 340 BCE: http://www.theoi.com/image/K1.11Zeus.jpg
Poseidon (Neptune)
"I begin to sing about Poseidon, the great god, mover of the earth and fruitless sea, god of the deep who is also lord of Helicon and wide Aegae. O Shaker of the Earth (Ennosigaios), to be a tamer of horses and a saviour of ships! Hail Poseidon Holder of the Earth (gaienokhos), dark-haired lord! O blessed one, be kindly in heart and help those who voyage in ships!“
Homeric Hymn 22 to Poseidon (trans. Evelyn-White)
Chris Mackie
“Neptune and Triton” Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1622-1623. http://culturextourism.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Ancient-Greek-Gods-Poseidon-His-History-and-MythologyAncient-Greek-Gods-Poseidon-His-History-and-Mythology.jpg
Poseidon
• Not that prominent in myth
• God of the earth and the sea
• God of the elemental force of nature (the tsunami, the horse)
• Strongly associated with monsters
• Often cruel and nasty • Built the walls of Troy
and was betrayed by the Trojan king of the day (Laomedon) Chris Mackie
Poseidon, holding his trident, rides a Hippocampus. Attic archaic black figure cup attributed to the Krokotos Group or to the Leagros Group: IMAGE: http://www.theoi.com/image/K2.4Poseidon.jpg
Poseidon and Odysseus
• Notice that epic poetry, like the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid, is anchored to the idea of a god having a very considerable hatred for the epic hero
• Poseidon is the god who hates Odysseus with a considerable passion. This occurs after the blinding of the Cyclops Polyphemus by Odysseus and his men.
Chris Mackie http://www.utexas.edu/courses/ancientfilmCC304/lects2012/lecture5/images/16polyphemus.jpg
Odysseus and his companions blind the cyclops Polyphemus, a monstrous son of Poseidon. Proto-Attic Black Figure Amphora, c.650 BCE
HADES (Pluto)
• The third brother with Poseidon and Zeus
• Got the Underworld as his portion. People forget about him (Hades=‘the unseen one’)
• The abduction of Persephone is the major myth involving Hades
Chris Mackie
Hades abducts Persephone in his chariot. C4th BCE Greek fresco from a tomb in Vergina, Macedonia. http://www.theoi.com/image/F14.1Haides.jpg
The House of Hades
• The Underworld is the place where Hades has his house. The dead don’t go to Hades but to the house of Hades, which is guarded by the dog Cerberus.
Chris Mackie http://i551.photobucket.com/albums/ii459/history_of_macedonia/Sun%20of%20Vergina/greek_underworld.jpg
Tarantine Greek red figure vase showing Hades and Persephone in the Underworld. Aeacus , a judge of the dead, sits to their right. Cerberus in the foreground, with Sisyphus to his left and Tantalus to his right
Apollo (Apollo)
• Child of Leto (born at Delos)
• Twin brother of Artemis • God of archery and the lyre
(note the connection) • Healer and destroyer. The
plague god. Miasma and catharsis
• God of prophecy. Note the importance of Delphi as a cult site.
Chris Mackie
Apollo plays the lyre and pours a libation Attic Red Figure (White Ground) Kylix attributed to Euphronios or to Manner of Pistoxenos Painter c.470 BCE http://www.theoi.com/image/K5.2Apollon.jpg
Apollo
• Apollo hates Achilles much as Poseidon hates Odysseus. We don’t see that much of this in the Iliad.
• It is quite common in Greek mythology for a god to hate a mortal that resembles him/her
Chris Mackie
Apollo and Artemis slay the children of Niobe. Cw. Homer, Iliad 24.602-617. Attic Red Figure calyx Krater, Niobid Painter, c. 475 - 425 BCE. http://www.livius.org/a/turkey/magnesia/niobe_louvre.jpg
Apollo
• God of the beautiful male (‘kouros’ figure), but for all that he is very unlucky in love (eg Cassandra and Coronis)
• The Greek myths are rather ambivalent about physical beauty (compare Helen and Paris, both beautiful in a physical sense)
Chris Mackie
At Delphi, Apollo (with laurel branch and sacrificial piglet) purifies Orestes (seated). Apulian Red Figure Krater attributed to the Eumenides Painter, c. 380 - 370 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/T40.6Erinyes.jpg
Hermes (mercury)
• Child of Zeus and Maia. Born in a cave
• When he is a baby he steals Apollo’s cattle in the dark of night and sacrifices some of them (theft/darkness/cattle)
• He strikes a deal with Apollo and enters Olympus (reciprocity)
Chris Mackie
Hermes with travellers cloak and hat, staff and winged sandals. Attic Red Figure Lekythos attributed to the Tithonus Painter, c. 500 - 450 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/K11.11Hermes.jpg
Hermes
• Borders and Boundaries • Messenger (Movement!) • Exchange and
Reciprocity • Theft and trickery • Inventor • Guide into the beyond
and through darkness. • Psychopomp (guide of
souls to Hades) • Young men Chris Mackie
Sleep, Hermes and Death with the corpse of Sarpedon. Calyx-krater signed by Euphronios and Euxitheos c.515 BCE. ARTSTOR Digital Library http://www.theoi.com/image/N12.1Thanatos.jpg
Hermes
• Hermes is almost always and kindly and positive kind of god, especially to mortals
• I can think of no narrative in which he is cruel and nasty. He is often described as kindly or a ‘helper’
• Note Iliad 24 is an excellent source for Hermes Chris Mackie
Apollo confronts his infant brother Hermes about the theft of his cattle. Caeretan Black Figure Hydria, c. 520 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/T23.1Maia.jpg
Dionysus (Bacchus, Liber)
• Born from Zeus’s thigh after the violent rupture of the foetus from Semele
• Quite a few rejection myths where Dionysus has to struggle to be recognised as a god
Chris Mackie
The birth of Dionysus from the thigh of Zeus. Dionysus holds a vine and a wine cup. Attic Red Figure Volute Krater by the Altamura Painter, c. 460 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/K12.27Dionysos.jpg
Dionysus
• The most famous rejection myth sources are Homer, Iliad 6, 132-7; Homeric Hymn to Dionysus no 7 (pirates turn on Dionysus, and he turns them into dolphins; and Euripides’ Bacchae (king Pentheus of Thebes rejects Dionysus and is ultimately torn apart physically by Bacchic women)
Chris Mackie
When pirates try to kidnap Dionysus, he transforms them into dolphins (cw. Homeric Hymn to Dionysus 6. 44): Attic Black Figure Kylix signed by Exekias, c. 540 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/K12.16Dionysos.jpg
Dionysus
• Wine and revelry • Dance • Drama • Music • Sexuality • Transformed states of
mind and changed identity (ecstasy)
• Self-abandonment
Chris Mackie
Dionysus, some Maenads draped in vines and panther skins, and a worried rabbit. Attic Black Figure Neck Amphora by The Amasis Painter, c. 540 - 530 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/K12.28Dionysos.jpg
Dionysus
• Plutarch says that Dionysus represents the ‘wet element’
• This is presumably reference to the raw force of life and the procreative powers – blood, sap, semen, wine, juice)
Chris Mackie
Hermes delivers the infant Dionysus into the foster care of Silenos and the Nysiades. Attic Red Figure, White Ground kalyx krater, attr. to the Phiale Painter, c. 440 - 435 BCE. http://www.theoi.com/image/K12.19Dionysos.jpg
Conclusion • Zeus has a connection to all of the Olympian gods that
ensures his power, as much as that is possible. Even then, there are attempted coup d’etats (including one by Athena, Hera and Poseidon, as mentioned in Iliad 1)
• In a sense Poseidon is ‘Zeus of the land and sea’ as Hades is ‘Zeus of the Underworld’. In art, the three brothers often look alike
• The three sons of Zeus, Apollo, Hermes, and Dionysus, are all complex gods, and they can be contrasted and connected in various ways (eg. Dionysus and Apollo as gods of nature and culture).