Level 2: MYTHOLOGY
Jason and Medea Jason was the commander of the Argo and hero of the Golden Fleece. Medea was a powerful sorceress, and daughter of the King of Colchis. When Jason and the Argonauts reached Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, Medea fell hopelessly in love with him. In return for Jason's pledge of everlasting fidelity, Medea used her magic gifts to enable him to deceive her father and obtain the fleece. Medea then sailed away from Colchis with Jason, taking her young brother with her. To escape from pursuit, Medea killed her brother and scattered his remains on the sea. The king stopped to gather them up, and the delay enabled Jason and his party to escape. Jason and Medea sailed to Greece, but after Medea murdered Jason's evil uncle, the couple fled to Corinth where their two sons were born. They lived happily there until Jason fell in love with the daughter of King Creon. In revenge for Jason‘s betrayal, Medea killed their sons. In despair over her loss, Medea threw herself into the river and drowned. Jason‘s life came to an end soon after, when he was walking on the beach and stepped on a nail that has once been part of the Argo.
Odysseus Odysseus was a Greek hero, ruler of the island of Ithaca, and one of the leaders of the Greek army during the Trojan War. Homer's Odyssey recounts Odysseus's adventures and his return home ten years after the fall of Troy. Initially, Odysseus was mentioned as the son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, although in later tradition Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was considered his real father. At first Odysseus refused to accompany the Greeks to Troy, feigning madness by sowing his fields with salt, but the Greeks placed his son Telemachus in front of the plow, and Odysseus was compelled to admit his ruse and join the invading army. Throughout the Iliad of Homer, he is portrayed as a brave warrior, and he was awarded the armor of the hero Achilles on the latter's death. Odysseus was responsible for bringing the Greek heroes Neoptolemus and Philoctetes to Troy for the final stage of the conflict. In the Odyssey it is said that he proposed the stratagem of the Trojan horse, the means by which Troy was conquered.
Perseus Perseus is slayer of the Gorgon Medusa, and son of Zeus and Danaë. Warned that he would be killed by his grandson, Acrisius locked mother and child in a chest and cast them into the sea. They drifted to the island of Seriphus, where they were rescued and where Perseus grew to manhood. The King of Seriphus fell in love with Danaë, and fearing that Perseus might interfere with his plans, sent him to procure the head of Medusa, a monster whose glance turned men to stone. Aided by Hermes, messenger of the gods, Perseus made his way to the Gray Women, three old hags who shared one eye between them. Perseus took their eye and refused to return it until they gave him directions for reaching the nymphs of the north. From the nymphs he received winged sandals, a magic wallet that would fit whatever was put into it, and a cap to make him invisible. Equipped with a sword from Hermes that could never be bent or broken and a shield from the goddess Athena, which would protect him from being turned to stone, Perseus found Medusa and killed her. Invisible in his cap, he was able to escape the wrath of her sisters and with her head in the wallet flew on his winged sandals toward home. As he was passing Ethiopia, he rescued the princess Andromeda from a sea monster and took her as his wife. At Seriphus, Perseus freed his mother from the King by using Medusa's head to turn the king and his followers to stone. All then returned to Greece, where Perseus accidentally killed his grandfather Acrisius with a discus, thus fulfilling the prophecy.
Theseus Theseus was the greatest Athenian hero, being the son of the king of Athens and the daughter of the king of Troezen. Theseus was brought up in Troezen, and at the age of 16 he went to Athens to claim Aegeus as his father. The young man chose to make the hazardous journey by land, clearing the road of bandits and monsters. Among the villains whom Theseus killed were Sciron, Sinis, and Procrustes. Theseus arrived in Athens wearing a sword and a pair of sandals that Aegeus had left for his son in Troezen. Medea, Aegeus's wife, attempted to poison Theseus, but Aegeus recognized his son and heir and banished Medea. Theseus‘s early adventures included his encounter with the Minotaur, a monster who was confined in a labyrinth under the palace of Minos, king of Crete. With the help of Ariadne, Minos's daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped from the maze. On his return to Athens however, he forgot to hoist a white sail signaling his success against the Minotaur. Aegeus, seeing a black sail, believed his son dead and threw himself from a rocky height into the sea. As king of Athens, Theseus was wise and generous, but he retained his love of danger and adventure. He abducted the Amazon Hippolyta, who bore him a son. He took part in the Calydonian boar hunt and in the quest of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece. He was a devoted friend of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, whom he accompanied to the underworld to rescue the goddess Persephone. Both men were imprisoned by the god Hades for their rash deed, but Theseus was subsequently rescued by Hercules. Returning to Athens, Theseus found his kingdom in disarray, torn by rebellion and corruption. Unable to reestablish authority, he sent his children away and sailed to the island of Skyros, where Lycomedes, king of Skyros, murdered him by throwing him from a cliff into the sea. Later the Delphic oracle commanded the Athenians to gather Theseus's bones and bring them back to Athens. The Athenians then paid him great honor by building him a tomb dedicated to the poor and helpless who he had befriended.
Daedalus Daedalus was the Athenian architect and inventor who designed the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. It was built as a prison for the Minotaur, a man-eating monster. The labyrinth was so skillfully designed that no one who entered it could escape from the Minotaur. Daedalus only revealed the secret of the labyrinth to Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, and she aided Theseus who staid the Minotaur and escaped. Angered at the escape, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the labyrinth. Although the prisoners could not find the exit, Daedalus made wax wings so that they could both fly out. Unfortunately Icarus flew too near the sun; his wings melted, and he fell into the sea. Daedalus flew on to Sicily where he was welcomed by King Cocalus. Minos later pursued Daedalus but was killed by the daughters of Cocalus.
Minotaur The Minotaur was monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. It was the offspring of Pasiphaë, queen of Crete, and a snow-white bull the god Poseidon had sent to Pasiphaë's husband, King Minos. When Minos refused to sacrifice the beast, Poseidon made Pasiphaë fall in love with it. After she gave birth to the Minotaur, Minos ordered the architect and inventor Daedalus to build a labyrinth so intricate that escape from it without assistance would be impossible. Here the Minotaur was confined and fed with young human victims Minos forced Athens to send him as tribute. The Greek hero Theseus was determined to end the useless sacrifice and offered him as one of the victims. When Theseus reached Crete, Minos's daughter Ariadne fell in love with him. She helped him escape by giving him a ball of thread, which he fastened to the door of the maze and unwound as he made his way through it. When he came upon the sleeping Minotaur, he beat the monster to death and then led the other sacrificial youths and maidens to safety by following the thread back to the entrance.
Chimera The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a she-goat, and the tail of a dragon. It terrorized Lycia, a region in Asia Minor, but was finally killed by the Greek hero Bellerophon.
Cerberus Cerberus was the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog that guarded the entrance to the lower world, or Hades. The monster permitted all spirits to enter Hades, but would allow none to leave. Only a few heroes ever escaped Cerberus's guard; the great musician Orpheus charmed it with his lyre, and the Greek hero Hercules captured it bare-handed and brought it for a short time from the underworld to the regions above. In Roman mythology both the beautiful maiden Psyche and the Trojan prince Aeneas were able to pacify Cerberus with a honey cake and thus continue their Put together by MODG LS students for use of families in MODG only – Do not distribute without permission from MODG. journey through the underworld. Cerberus is sometimes pictured with a mane of snakes and 50 heads.
Charon Charon was the son of Night and Erebus. Charon was the aged boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across a river separating the world of the living from the world of the dead and brought them to the gates of the underworld. The river has traditionally been identified as the Styx, but early Greek writers called it the Acheron. Charon would admit to his boat only the souls of those who had received the rites of burial and whose passage had been paid with a coin placed under the tongue of the corpse. Those who had not been buried were not admitted to Charon‘s boat, and were doomed to wait beside the river for 100 years.
Prosperina Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and of Demeter, goddess of the earth and of agriculture. Hades, god of the underworld, fell in love with Persephone and wished to marry her. Although Zeus gave his consent, Demeter was unwilling. Hades, therefore, seized the maiden as she was gathering flowers and carried her off to his realm. As Demeter wandered in search of her lost daughter, the earth grew desolate. All vegetation died, and famine devastated the land. Finally Zeus sent Hermes, the messenger of the gods, to bring Persephone back to her mother. Before Hades would let her go, he asked her to eat a pomegranate seed, the food of the dead. She was thus compelled to return to the underworld for one-third of the year. As both the goddess of the dead and the goddess of the fertility of the earth, Persephone was a personification of the revival of nature in spring. The Eleusinian Mysteries were held in honor of her and her mother. Proserpine was the Latin counterpart of Persephone.
Styx The Styx was the river entrance to the underworld. It was often described as the boundary river over which the aged ferryman Charon transported the shades of the dead. The River Styx was personified as a daughter of the Titan Oceanus, and Styx was the guardian of the sacred oaths that bound the gods. The actual river, the modern name of which is the Mavronéri, is in northeastern Arcadia, Greece. It plunges over a 183-m (600-ft) cliff, then flows through a wild gorge. The ancient Greeks believed that its waters were poisonous, and the river was associated with the underworld from the time of Homer.
Pluto Hades was god of the dead, son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When the three brothers divided up the universe after they had deposed their father, Hades was awarded the underworld. With his queen Persephone, whom he had abducted from the world above, he ruled the kingdom of the dead. Although he was a grim and pitiless god, unappeased by either prayer or sacrifice, he was not evil. In fact, he was known also as Pluto, lord of riches, because both crops and precious metals were believed to come from his kingdom below ground. The underworld itself was often called Hades. It was divided into two regions: Erebus, where the dead pass as soon as they die, and Tartarus, the deeper region, where the Titans had been imprisoned. It was a dim and unhappy place, inhabited by vague forms and shadows and guarded by Cerberus, the three-headed, dragon-tailed dog. Sinister rivers separated the underworld from the world above, and the aged boatman Charon ferried the souls of the dead across these waters. Somewhere in the darkness of the underworld Hades' palace was located. It Put together by MODG LS students for use of families in MODG only – Do not distribute without permission from MODG. was represented as a many-gated, dark and gloomy place, thronged with guests, and set in the midst of shadowy fields and apparition-haunted landscapes. In later legends the underworld is described as the place where the good are rewarded and the wicked punished.