Greek Mythology
授課教師: 王月秋
澎湖科技大學副教授
中華民國95年3月18日
The Gods, the
Creation, and the
Earliest Heroes
1. The Greek did not believe
that the gods created the
universe. They believed that
the universe created the gods.
The Titans and the
twelve great
Olympians
1. The Titans often called the
Elder Gods, were for untold
ages supreme in the universe.
They were of enormous size
and of incredible strength.
2. The twelve great Olympians
were supreme among the gods
who succeeded to the Titans.
They were called the Olympians
because Olympus was their
home. Homer makes Poseidon
say that he rules the sea, Hades
the dead, Zeus the heavens, but
Olympus is common to all three.
The twelve
Olympians
(1) Zeus (Jupiter), (2)Poseidon,
(3)Hades, (4) Hestia, their
sister, (5) Hera, Zeus’s wife, (6)
Ares, their son, (7) Athena, (8)
Apollo, (9)Aphrodite (Venus),
(10) Hermes,(11) Artemis, and
(12) Hephaestus.
The Two Great
Gods of Earth
There were two who were
altogether different and who
were indeed mankind’s best
friends: Demeter, the Goddess
of the Corn, a daughter of
Cronus and Rhea and
Dionysus, also called Bacchus,
the God of Wine.
In the stories of both goddesses,
Demeter and Persephone, the
idea of sorrow was foremost.
Demeter, goddess of the
harvest wealth, was still more
the divine sorrowing mother
who saw her daughter die each
year. Persephone was the
radiant maiden of the spring and
the summertime.
Dionysus or
Bacchus
Thebes was Dionysus’ own city,
where he was born, the son of
Zeus and the Theban princess
Semele. He was the only god
whose parents were not both
divine.
The worship of Dionysus was
centered in these two ideas of
freedom and ecstatic joy and of
savage brutality. The God of
Wine could give either to his
worshipers. Throughout the
story of his life he is sometimes
man’s blessing, sometimes his
ruin.
Wine is bad as well as good. It
cheers and warms men’s hearts
and it also makes them drunk.
The Greek were a people who
saw facts very clearly.
Wine was “the merry-maker,’
lightening men’s hearts,
bringing careless ease and fun
and gaiety.
How the World and
Mankind Were
Created
1. Long before the gods
appeared, in the dim past, there
was only the formless confusion
of Chaos brooded over by
unbroken darkness. Two
children were born to this
shapeless nothingness. Night
was the child of Chaos.
2. The first creatures who had
the appearance of life were the
children of Mother Earth and
Father Heaven (Gaea and
Ouranos).They were monsters.
The universe was once
inhabited by strange gigantic
creatures.
3. In addition to Cyclopes, last
came the Titans. The Titans
were conquered partly because
Zeus released from their prison
the hundred-handed monsters
who fought for him with their
irresistible weapons—thunder,
lightning, and earthquakes.
4. Even after the Titans were
conquered and crushed, Zeus
was not completely victorious.
Earth gave birth to her last and
most frightful offspring, a
creature more terrible than any
that had gone before. His name
was Typhon.
5. Prometheus, whose name
means forethought, was very
wise,wiser than the gods.
Prometheus then took over the
task of creation and thought out
a way to make mankind superior.
6. For a long time, throughout
the happy Golden Age,only men
were upon the earth; there were
no women. Zeus created later.
Prometheus had not only stolen
fire for men;he had also
arranged that they should get
the best part of any animal
sacrificed and the gods the
worst. Because of Zeus’s anger,
he swore to revenge
Prometheus. Mankind was
revenged first and then on
mankind’s friend.
Zeus made a great evil for men,
a sweet and lovely thing to look
upon, in the likeness of a shy
maiden, Padora, a symbol of
“the gift of all.” From her, the
first woman, comes the race of
women, who are an evil to men,
with a nature to do evil.
Another story about Pandora is
that the source of all misfortune
was not her wicked nature, but
only her curiosity. Hope was the
mankind’s sole comfort in
misfortune.
The Earliest
Heroes
1.
2.
When Prometheus had just
given fire to mankind, he had
a strange visitor, a beast
from Io,one of Zeus’s lovers.
Io’s descent would be
Hercules, the greatest of
heroes.
3. Europa, the daughter of the
King of Sidon, was exceedingly
fortunate. Except for a few
moments of terror when she
found herself crossing the deep
sea on the back of a bull she did
not suffer at all.
The Cyclops
Polyphemus
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All the monstrous forms of life which
were first created, the hundred-handed
creatures, the Giants,and so on were
banished from the earth when they
had been conquered.
Flower-myths:
Narcissus,
Hyacinth, Adonis
Part Two: Stories of
Love and Adventure
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
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1. Cupid and Psyche
2. Pyramus and Thisbe: The deep red fruit
of the mulberry is the everlasting memorial
of the two lovers.
3.Orpheus and Eurydice: The world’s
greatest musician tries to rescue the dead
wife from the land of the dead. But one
condition is that he would not look back at
her as she followed him until they had
reached the upper world.
4. Ceyx and Alcyone: Juno
summoned her messenger Iris
and ordered her to go to the
house of Somnus, God of
Sleep, and bid him send a
dream to Alcyone to tell her the
truth about Ceyx,who had been
dead on the sea. At last,both
lovers became birds flying
together because their love was
unchanged.
5. Baucis and Philemon: In the
Phrygian hill-country,there were
once two trees grew from a
single trunk. The story of how
this cam about is a proof of the
immeasurable power of the
gods, and also of the way they
reward the humble and the
pious.
6. Endymion: He was a youth of
surpassing beauty and that this
was his singular fate. In all
stories about him he sleeps
forever, immortal,but never
conscious.
7. Daphne: She was another of
those independent love-andmarriage-hating young
huntresses who are met with so
often in the mythological stories.
She is said to have been
Apollo’s first love. She fled
from Apollo. At last she had
been changed into a laurel by
Apollo.
8. Alpheus and Arethusa: The
story is about the god, changing
back into a river, follower her
through the tunnel and that now
his water mingles with hers in
the fountain.
9. Pygmalion and Galatea: A
gifted young sculptor loved the
status he made.
The Quest of
Golden Fleece
1. Phrixus was taken to the altar
a wondrous ram, with a fleece
of pure gold, snatched him and
his sister up and bore them
away through the air. The boy
came safely to the country of
Colchis. He gave the precious
Golden Fleece to King Aeetes.
Jason vs. Medea: Medea knew
how to work very powerful
magic to save Jason and the
Argonauts and helped Jason
conquer the bulls and the
dragon-teech men.
When Jason came full of fury for
what she had done to his bride
and determined to kill her, the
two boys were dead, and
Medea was stepping into a
chariot by dragons.
Four Great
Adventures
1. Phaethon: In the car
Phaethon, hardly keeping his
place there, was wrapped in
thick smoke and heat as if from
a fiery furnace.
2. Pegasus (flying horse)and
Bellerophon ( the son of
Poseidon):
Anteia told Proetus that
Bellerophon had wronged her
and must die. He made a plan
and asked the youth to take a
letter to the King of Lucia in Asia
and Bellerophon easily
agreed.The king read that
Proetus wanted the young man
killed.
So, he asked him to go and
slay the Chimaera, feeling
assured that he would never
come back. But for
Bellerophone riding Pegasus
there as no need to come
anywhere near the flaming
monster. Bellerophone had
succeeded in conquering these,
on another against the
Amazons.
Finally, Proetus became friends
with him and gave him his
daughter to marry. He lived
happy for a long time. Then, he
made gods angry. Thereafter,
Bellerophon, hated of gods,
wandered alone, devouring his
own soul and avoiding the paths
of men until he died. Pegasus
brought the thunder and
lightning to Zeus.
3. Otus and
Ephialtes
(1)The twin brothers were
Giants, but they did not look like
the monsters of old.
(2) They were still very young
when they set about proving
that they were the gods’
superiors. They imprisoned
Ares with chains of brass.
(3) Otus thought it would be an
excellent adventure to carry
Hera off, and Ephilates was in
love with Artemis. Artemis
wento Otus, and said if he
would let out Ares, he could do
with her what he would do.
Otus was happy, but Ephilates
wasn’t. The brothers began to
quarrel, and when they were not
looking Artemis turned into a
deer.
When the fighting reached a
peak, she sprang between them
as a white doe. Both of them
broke off and threw their spears
at the lovely creature. At
last,they killed each other.
4. Daedalus and
Icarus
Daedalus was a famous
architect, inventor, and master
craftman. He made two pairs of
wings for them. He warned
Icarus to keep a middle course
over the sea. If he flew too high
the sun might melt the glue and
the wings drop off. At last,
Icarus was dead.
King Minos went in pursuit of
Daedalus, hoping to trick the
great inventor into revealing
himself. Eventurally, Minos
came to Camicus in Sicily. The
clever Daedalus tied the string
to an ant, place the ant at one
end of the shell, and allowed the
ant to walk through the spiral
chambers until it came out the
other end.
When the puzzle was solved,
Minos would like to seize
Daedalus. But the King
Cocalus refused to surrender
him, and in the contest Minos
was slain.