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).