THETIS THE MOTHER

 #Thetis #Greekgoddess #Achiles #Hephaestus #mythology 

THETIS THE MOTHER

While THETIS obtaining a new Shield and set of armour for her son Achilleus is a popular theme in Greek Roman and later art let us give some thought as to why Hephaestus was so willing to help her.

Art dealing with this topic seems to have been lost but Thetis and her Nereid sisters acted as a foster mother to both Hephaestus and Dionysious.

It may well be that some art thought to depict the return of Hephaestus to Olympus actually are depictions of Hephaestus riding to Thetis' wedding ? 

Note in this image Hephaestus wears a wreath and his half brother Dionysious is next to him?

She's also shown as the Mother mourning her son 

But let us end again with Thetis the Mother riding her seahorse to carry a new shield to her son.

THETIS

#thetis #greekart #nereid #seagoddess #greekceramics

Greek artists often depicted Thetis as accompanied by dolphins, sea horses or Tritones.

So the female figure riding a sea horse in these two mosaics may very well be Thetis however another popular theme was her Wedding to Peleus.

As Thetis like other sea gods had shapeshifting powers the lion on her shoulder would tell a Greek viewer this is Peleus the mortal father of Achilles wrestling with the goddess.

One aspect of the story rarely pointed out that would explain her resistance  is that Peleus killed her nephew and she seems to have had mixed feelings about her marriage to a mere mortal though given the other choices were being ravished by Zeus or Poseidon ... 

Primary Texts for Greek Mythology

Mythology and Literature are intertwined.

Whether you're reading them for the story or the literary values here's a hopefully useful list in chronological order of Greek and Latin texts.

Home the Iliad and Odyssey

The Homeric Hymns

Hesiod Theogony

The greek dramatists Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides and Aristophanes

Callimachus

The Greek Pastoral Poets

Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica

Catullus

Virgil  the Eclouges Georgics and Aeneid

Horace

Ovid the Metamorphoses Heroides and Fasti

Apollodorus

Catching Cerberos

CATCHING and CLEANSING
THE FINAL #hercworks

#Heracles and #Cerberos

This myth seemed to have been used to promote the Eleusinian Mysteries and justify the rites expansion to include non Athenians.

Heracles was ordered to descend to the Underworld and return with

Cerberos Hades' pet.

Before he could do so he had to be ritually cleansed of blood pollution.

Now Hades told his nephew he could borrow the dog if he could restrain and control it without using his club or arrows. Most versions of the story claim he wrestled or throttled the monstrous giant hound into submission and once again terrified his cousin but one Attic vase painter seems to have thought he took a gentler approach.

Have an excellent mid winter feast whatever mysteries rites and myths you honour!

The Labors of Heracles ONE The Nemean Lion

The Legend of #Heracles

Apollodorus Hesiod Pindar and many others mention him.

Like Arthur perhaps a real historical person underlies the myths and legends and worship that have centered around this character over the centuries.

There are dozens of stories associated with Heracles but I'm going to focus on the 12 labors and look also at geographical and historical aspects. What they possibly tell us about Mycenaean society at its peak?

Heracles was a descendant of Perseus allegedly a son of Zeus and had a twin brother.

There were several legends about royal twins with claims of one being divine and the other human. Possibly this means one twin the older of a fraternal pair was placed under the special protection of a god. Curiously there is little  mention of female twins?


Most of the stories agree Heracles killed or captured monsters and wild animals who were dangerous to humans and that he fathered a great many children in and outside of his marriages however one aspect overlooked is that he was also a civil works engineer building wells drainage canals fountains for natural springs roads and city walls. He seems to have been seen as a defender of commoners despite his being prone to fits of rage since most of the victims of those psychotic moments were other aristocrats . Possibly he was bipolar which may explain why the Greeks thought his madness was inflicted on him by the gods given the cyclical nature of that illness?

THE NEMEAN LION

His first official Labor was that of the killing of the nemean Lion a maneater attacking people in the area around Nemea.

I wonder if the last of the Greek lions were possibly cave lions or a different sub species from those of Africa. They are never recorded as living in packs.

Ancient Nemea is near Ayios Yeorgios between Mycenae and Corinth on a plateau and was also the site of the Nemean games and a temple to Zeus.

That temple and the site of the games overlies a Helladic settlement and the cave said to be that of the Lion was the site of discovery of  Neolithic artifacts.

Now this lion it is claimed had an inpenetratable skin that no blade could cut.

At first Heracles is said to have tried to use a sword or spear down its throat then he clubbed it and throttled it choking it to death and using the lions own razor sharp claws to skin the beast and then wearing its head and hide to protect himself.

Despite Greek artists using this as an excuse to depict heracles semi naked I seriouslt doubt whatever species of beast of monster the Nemean lion was that heracles fought him stark naked. 

I note here that Maasai warriors and white hunters try for a frontal chest thrust or shot. Heracles seems to have tried every known method and given his wrestling training and exceptional strength perhaps he really did strangle a lion?

This was the first of 12 labors. 

Next time the Hind with the Golden Horns !

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The Return of Hephaestus

 Hephaestus 
also spelt Hephaistos
is usually depicted  as a mature man garbed as a smith as in this vase painting.

There is however another theme used in Greek art called the Return of Hephaestus in which Dionysos is persuading a very young Hephaestus to  return to Olympus.

Some scholars believe the prescence of satyrs in these paintings means that there may have been a reactment of the return as part of Dionysiac rituals and that it was a theme for Satyr plays that are now missing.

i am inclined to believe both explanations are plausible.

In an era when there were no photography or print making I can see merchants and other people bringing home from Athens ceramics as gifts and saying ... and the procession looked like this ... while rotating their prize souvenir to show the images.

These elaborate ceramics may have functioned as a memory or educational aid?