Eos' Boys

#Eos #dawngoddess #greekmythology #Greekceramics

EOS the dawn goddess gets a BAD rap in Greek literature labelled as being a pederastic cougar chasing and stealing boytoys. I rather suspect though there were older myths speaking of her as a spirit carrying off souls.

Actual depictions of her often look more like an annoyed mother chasing naughty teens.

I wonder if the original "moral" of stories about Eos was if you misbehave and stay up partying all night EOS will take you ?

Sirens

#sirens #greek myths

While the #Harpies and their sister Iris were daughters of Titans although serving Zeus the Sirens were probably death spirits or fever demons since their use and appearance on funerary objects suggest they had other functions apart from beguiling sailors.

Regardless of who their parents are (the stories vary) they are always described as living on islands near Sicily or in the Adriatic. 

Another possibility is a distorted memory of sacred islands guarded by priestesses in bird costumes?

The Sirens are never mentioned as preying on women only men?

Harpies as young Girls

#harpies #Birds #goddesses

The Harpies literally the Snatchers are the daughters of Thaumas son of Pontos and Gaia and the Oceanid Electra. Apollonios Rhodios in his Argonautica describes them as monsters

They are said to have lived in a cave on Mt Dicte on the island of Thrace and had the role to sinning those who sinned against the gods.

Other artists had different ideas. The Harpies shown here appear to be young girls though the position and shape  of the wings suggest that maybe young boy dancers in costume for a play are being depicted? Also there are 3 Harpies not two.

Their older sister was Iris goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods in the oldest epics.

Poor Ladon Poor Heracles

#hercworks #heracles #hercules #hesperides #greekmythology

Poor #Heracles 

He gets back to Greece from that cattle raid and gets sent back to the farthest reaches of the world and beyond to retrieve the golden apples of the Hesperides!

Some people think these were oranges tho since apples in ancient Greece seem to have been red they may have been some variant with yellow coloring?

Now these apples came from an orchard tended by the daughters of Atlas and guarded by a creature described as a dragon but usually depicted as a rather friendly looking snake ? 

Being Heracles he has several adventures on the way, killing a son of Ares, catching and interrogating Nereus, wrestling Antaios, slaying a tyrant called Busiris,  freeing Prometheus, and then he cons his cousin Atlas into picking and fetching the apples for him or in some versions killing the serpent whose name was Ladon. Hera created the constellation Serpens in memory of the faithful guardian of the tree.  

No stories record how the Hesperides felt about all this!

Geryon

#hercules #geryon #HERACLES
Good morning metousia followers !
I took a break over thanksgiving and then local storms and other problems disrupted my blogging schedule.

I simply couldnt find one good image I liked of the Geryon stories.
Its a odd one with a Celtic flaviur. Heracles shoots arrows at the sun and gets given a cup that can be used as a boat a kind of magical size changing coracle.
Coracles are NOT greek.
He also journeys to the mysterious West and steals cattle from a sacred guardian his dog. he guardian has 3 bodies and the dog 2 heads.

The Greeks seemed to have used this story to support colonization and trade with Spain and Southern France. A three bodied warrior suggests some kind of ritual combat and while most versions claim this took place in spain it could have been in a Celtiberian area!

Heracles and the Cretan Bull

#Heracles and the #CretanBull

#greekmyths

The Labours of Heracles 7

You've heard of Theseus and the Minotaur but Theseus wasn't the only Greek hero into bullfighting or ritual acrobatics or men wearing bull marks or whatever  possible historical events or Minoan rituals underlie the story about the Minotaur.

Minos ruler of Crete had a sacred bull allegedly fire breathing which had escaped and was ravaging farms and orchards tearing down fences damaging crops and reaking havoc.

Heracles managed to capture this bull and ship it to the mainland where it was turned loose.

I choose this particular vase painting cos the artists has given some thought to how one would actually catch a wild bull and take it alive without the modern benefits of tranquillizer darts or trained cattle dogs or horses trained to work with you while lassoing an animal. 

The end of the story suggests the mainlanders had better cattle herding skills.

The bull was driven across Greece and ended up in Attica probably siring calves on various herds of cows on the way.

The Cranes of Stymphalos

This week's #Hercworks is labour 6
#laboursofheracles #heracles #greekmythology #greekmyths

(My apologies this is later than usual having trouble with the wifi on the laptop)

The CRANES OF STYMPHALOS.

The painter has basically used the myth as an excuse or opportunity to demonstrate his ability to paint birds and the limited color makes the painting more beautiful. 

Greek vase painters used a limited range of colors because many pigments used by painters can not be used for ceramics due to the effect of heat and fire on them. True Glazes despite the use of faience by the Egyptians didn't reach the Mediterranean cultures from the Far East until much later.

The shine of the black part is burnished clay slip.

Now back to the myth.

There is still a lake in Arcadia by this name today. 

In ancient times there was a small city many religious shrines to Artemis and wetlands near the Lake. 

 A group of birds described as cranes migrated and settled there. 

These birds were said to have had razor sharp beaks and feathers and poisonous dung. Apparently none of the local farmers they were plaguing had archery skills at least not on the level of Heracles. Or the birds had the sense to hide deep in the marshes? 

Heracles used a rattle to startle them so he could shoot them. 

Some writers claim the "cranes" were actually fever demons.

However large birds despite their fragile appearance can be quite strong and a  swan can break a man's arm with its wings.

I suspect the farmers tried to drive the birds away from their fields and out of the wetlands but the birds defended their nesting sites so they had to call the Mycenaean age's leading pest control expert  HERACLES !

The Labors of Heracles 3 - the Ceryneian Hind

One of the lesser known labors of #Heracles is that of the #CeryneianHind.

The Hind of Ceryneia was sacred to Artemis with golden horns and hooves of bronze and could not be hunted by ordinary men.

Possibly it was just some priestess' spoilt pet helping itself to local crops and gardens and just making a general nuisance of itself damaging gardens however it be have been sacred for other reasons too!

Legend and some historians speak of "Hyperboreans" visiting the shrines of Greece particularly Delphi following the Amber trade route.

Perhaps this deer was a reindeer hence its special status.

Now Ceryneia was the name of both a settlement and a river now called the Vouraikos, and this river that flows through a narrow gorge which is now notable for a scenic railway called the Kalavrita.

Due to the local geology the valley is broader up near Kalavrita and narrows to a gorge before reaching the narrows coastal plain.

Deer raiding gardens and farms near could have retreated into the safety of the narrow gorge and hidden in forested slopes difficult for even the most skilled hunters to access.

Heracles has said to have taken a year to catch the beast which may seem odd to modern hunters but remember he had to catch it alive to avoid offending the goddess or breaking a taboo.  Also no infra red scope!

I can also see some one saying
"How can we avoid breaching the taboo on that pesky deer?
Oh hey that Guy over at Mycenae whats his name Heracles the one already working off a curse ..."

Some versions claim Eurysthenes was going to add the deer to his private collection but Heracles either arranged its escape or first returned it to his half sister depending on which author you read.

The vase painting I selected shows Heracles between Athena and Artemis.

He is shown breaking off a horn so perhaps there is a lost variant of the story in which he does that?

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?

Half Humans Centaurs and Satyrs

Half Humans Centaurs and Satyrs

The Centaurs disrupting the Lapith wedding feast is a story depicting the Centaurs as strange hybrids of human and horse, man and beast, with the Centaurs having equine ears and lower torsos.

Satyrs however are also depicted as having horse tails and ears.

The idea that Satyrs are part goat dates to the Roman era.

The Romans seem to have thought Satyrs and Fauns were the same.

So what underlies these images.

Animal features as symbols of lust?

Depictions of nature spirits possessing male cultists during Dionysiac rituals?

Old  stories about mountain tribes so primitive they wore fur rather than wool ?

Perhaps a sly dig at randy aristocrats behaviour during parties since horse ownership was a luxury for the wealthy?

Given the antiquity of these myths perhaps all the explanations are equally valid?

Bear in mind when you're looking at art featuring myths that the original artist's intentions may differ from your interpretations.

Centaurs

CENTAURS

One theory about the origin of Centaurs is that the legends are based on the

 (mis) behaviour of mountain tribes living in remote areas.

Another is that they were the last Neanderthals?

However the earliest Archaic art often shows a very human torso.

530 B.C.

Note the carefully combed beard and hair

Vase painting Note how the centaurs have ears and snub noses like Satyrs.

One of the oldest images of a Centaur.

Certainly different from this famous Renaissance painting.

So why so many different ways of depicting these legendary beings?

Part of  the reason is the tendency of later artists to decide to use monsters and non humans as symbols of lust or drunkness and violence in the case of Centaurs.

The main stories we have in the literature however depict Centaurs as living in remote mountainous and forested areas and only misbehaving when exposed to alcohol as in the Tale of the Weddings of the Lapiths. 

The other main story is that of Chiron the Wise and his daughter depicted as healers.

So what's going on?

A  minority group demonized for the sake of a moral lesson?

The earliest Satyrs are often shown with horse tails.

A topic for another blog.