mythology-facts

[mythology-facts]

antiphates

“unspeakable”

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- gigante king of the laestrygones

- antiphates is known as five different figures in greek mythology. most commonly, he’s known as the king of the laestrygones. they were a tribe of gigantic cannibals, that odysseus and his scouting party ran into.

- the second figure (antíphates) was a trojan warrior who was slain by leonteus

- third (antiphatês), was the son of melampus and iphianeira. he married zeuxippe, the daughter of hippocoon. their children were oecles and amphalces

- another antiphates was one of the greek warriors who hid in the trojan horse

- the last but not least antiphates, was the son of sarpedon. who accompanied aeneas to italy where he was killed by turnus.

[mythology-facts]

antaeus

“opponent”

a giant of libya

he compelled all strangers who were passing through the country to wrestle with him. whenever antaeus touched the earth (his mother) his strength was renewed, so even when thrown to the ground, he was invincible. he built a temple for his father with their skulls. heracles, while in combat with him, discovered the source of his strength and lifted him up from earth and crushed him to death.

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anax

“tribal chief, lord, leader”

- giant of the island lade

- he was 15 feet tall!

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alcyoneus

“strong, kingfisher”

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- king of the gigantes

- in the gigantomachy, heracles and alcyoneus fought each other. however, alcyoneus was immortal when he was on his native land and would have the ability to revive himself if anyone tried to kill him. so, when heracles hit him with an arrow and alcyoneus was about to stand back up, athena advises heracles to drag him out of him homeland. when the plan worked, alcyoneus died. when his seven daughters found out about his death, they killed themselves.

- in another version, heracles encountered alcyoneus during his travels. he sneaked up upon the giant as he slept and disabled him with a volley of arrows and blows from his club. the hero then dragged the wounded giant beyond the confines of pallene where he died. alcyoneus' seven mourning daughters were transformed into a flock of kingfishers.

[mythology-facts]

astraeus

“of the stars”

- titan god of dusk, winds, and the art of astrology

- astraeus was of the second generation of titans. little is known of him, other than that he fittingly married his cousin eos who was the titan goddess of the dawn. together the two had many children who bore aspects relating to the events of twilight and the night. he participated in the titanomachy and was imprisoned in tartarus because of it. the titanomachy, or war of the titans, was a ten-year-long series of battles fought in thessaly between the titans and the olympians after zeus freed his siblings from his father, cronus. he is sometimes considered to have taught mankind astrology.

[mythology-facts]

asteria

“of the stars, starry one”

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- titan goddess of falling stars and nocturnal oracles

- after the fall of the titans, zeus chased asteria across the sky. to escape the amorous advantages of the god, she escaped him by transforming herself into a quail and leaping into the sea to became the island of delos. her sister, leto, later gave birth to apollo and artemis on the isle.

- another version of the story is that after asteria was pursued by zeus but turned herself into a quail and leaped into the sea, poseidon instead took up the chase. in the madness of his passion, he hunted the chaste goddess to and fro in the sea, riding restless before the changing wind and thus she transformed herself into the desert island of delos with the help of her nephew apollo who rooted her in the waves immovable.

[mythology-facts]

athos

“mount athos, the holy mountain”

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- gigante god of mount athos

- athos was part of the gigantes, but he is most known for the creation of mount athos. mount athos is a mountain and peninsula in northern greece, known as “the holy mountain”. the mountain consists of many monasteries, each tending to their own area. the mountain produced a very large amount of wine and grapes which is vital to the commerce of the region. women and children are forbidden on the mountain. there are two versions of how mount athos came to be:

- first theory, athos threw a mountain at poseidon and missed. when poseidon threw the mountain back at athos, mount athos was created.

- second theory, athos never threw the mountain and it was poseidon throwing it at athos and killing him that created the mountain

[mythology-facts]

aitna

“mount etna”

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- goddess of the volcanic mount etna

- aitna was a sicilian nymph in greek and roman mythology. she had acted as arbitrator between hephaestus and demeter respecting the possession of sicily. mount aetna in sicily was believed to have derived its name from her, and under it zeus buried typhon, enceladus, or briareus. their restless turnings were the cause of earthquakes and lava-flows. the mountain itself was believed to be the place in which hephaestus and the cyclops made zeus’ thunderbolts.

- she was an ouros (a part of the ourea), along with her brothers and sisters. they were the offspring of gaia.

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ananke

“force, constraint, necessity”

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- goddess of inevitability, compulsion and necessity

- at the beginning of the universe in orphism, she emerged self-formed at the dawn of creation— a ghost-like, serpentine being whose outstretched arms encompassed the width of the cosmos. ananke and khronos (her mate) entwined their serpentine coils which crushed the primal egg of creation. thus, it split into its constituent parts of earth, heaven, and sea to form the ordered universe. after their act of creation, ananke and khronos encircled the cosmos to drive the rotation of the heavens and the eternal passage of time. they were beyond the reach of the younger gods whose fates they were sometimes said to control. she is said to have given birth to the first beings to exist.

- ananke is considered the most powerful dictator of fate and circumstance; mortals as well as gods respected her power and paid her homage. sometimes considered the mother of the fates, she is thought to be the only being to influence their decisions.

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aion

“age”

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- god of eternity

- aion was also associated with the zodiac and the constellations. the ancient greeks did play a part in developing astrology, and aion was part of that. aion is also often standing at the center of the image with a hoop or spherical object encircling him. it is believed that the circular shape characterizes either the zodiac or the cyclical nature of time. the hoop is sometimes depicted as being held up by a man standing underneath aion.

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achlys

“mist, darkness”

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- goddess of the mist of death, misery, sadness, and deadly poisons

- she was represented on the shield of heracles: pale, emaciated, and weeping, with chattering teeth, swollen knees, long nails on her fingers, bloody cheeks, and her shoulders thickly covered with dust

- hera obtained treacherous flowers from achlys that shed a sleeping charm over the sons of the nymphs lamusides. she then distilled poisoned drugs over their hair and smeared a magical ointment over their faces, changing their human shape into that of the horned centaur

- the mist of death was the incoming darkness of a person closing their eyes for the final time, which caused the greeks to entitle her as 'the eternal night.’ she was believed to have existed before khaos

[mythology-facts]

aglaea

“the shining one”

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- goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, and adornment

- the youngest and most beautiful of the three kharites, which oversaw all feasts and dances. aglaea acted as a messenger for aphrodite’s retinue. she is the wife of hephaestus after the divorce between him and aphrodite.

[mythology-facts]

apate

“fraud”

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- goddess of deceit

- when the box of pandora was opened by the first ever woman to exist, apate was one of the evil spirits that came out of it. apate and her siblings escaped, which gave the reason for all the evils in the world; hope was the only virtue (or moral behavior) to stay behind.

- in one story involving apate, hera, the wife of zeus (god of gods), learned about her husband’s affair with the theban princess, semele, and looked to apate for help in punishing the princess. to make matters worse, the princess had a child by zeus named dionysus, who would become the god of wine. apate agreed to help and gave hera a magical girdle which she used to trick semele into asking zeus to see his real self, and the princess died as a result; whenever the gods approached humans, they would appear as something else and hide their true forms because no mere mortal could survive looking directly at a god.

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attis

meaning unknown

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- god of vegetation and rebirth

- as punishment for his infidelity, kybele drove him into a mad frenzy which caused him to castrate himself.

- the origins of attis were linked to the figure agdistis. agdistis was a daemon that possessed both male and female reproductive organs, which instilled fear in the olympian gods. so, they plotted to kill the daemon; after agdistis was brought to sleep with a sleeping potion given by dionysus, the god tied agdistis' foot to his own male genitalia with a rope. when agdistis woke up and stood, he castrated himself; the blood from his genitals fell onto the earth, which was fertilised, and an almond tree grew. at some later point, nana, daughter of the river god sangarius, picked up almonds from the tree and kept them in her bosom. the almonds disappeared and nana became pregnant with attis. attis was beautiful and when he grew up, agdistis fell in love with him. however, attis was to marry the daughter of the king of pessinus. during the wedding, agditis appeared in front of the guests and drove everyone mad. both attis and the king castrated themselves, while the bride cut off her breasts. agditis quickly repented, and asked zeus to keep attis' body intact, so that it would not decompose at all. he was then reborn as the evergreen pine.

[mythology-facts]

atropos

“unalterable, inflexible”

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- one of the goddess of the moirai (the three fates)

- she was the oldest of the three fates. she chose the mechanism of death and ended the life of mortals by cutting their threads with her shears. she worked along with her two sisters, clotho , who spun the thread, and lachesis, who measured the length.

[mythology-facts]

athena

“bright-eyed, with gleaming eyes”

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- goddess of wisdom, poetry, art, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice, strategic warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, skill

- believed to have no mother, she was born from zeus’ head. he had a strong headache and she came out in full armor. she was zeus’ favorite child.

- she was a virgin goddess, not love nor passion swayed her in any sort. she never had any child, but some say she adopted erichthonius. hephaestus tried to violate her, but she fought him off. he ended up spilling his semen over the earth.

- poseidon and athena had a very public argument on who would be best to be the patron of athens. to prove that poseidon would be more fitting for this role, he struck his trident at a rock which created a seawater stream. in result, the streamed welled up in the temple of erechtheion. on the other hand, athena just planted an olive tree. she won the contest because the olive tree provided fruit, oil, and wood.

- a mortal craftswoman, arachne, once boasted how she was more skillful than athena. athena gave her a chance to repent, but after arachne refused, she challenged her to a weaving duel. athena wove a beautiful tapestry that illustrated the fate of mortals who challenged the gods. meanwhile, arachne wove a piece about mortals being unjustly victimized by the gods. she couldn’t finish her piece because of athena’s anger. athena tore the fabric into pieces and turned arachne into a spider.

[mythology-facts]

até

“delusion, folly”

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- goddess of mischief, delusion, ruin, folly

- based off of hera’s idea, até trucked zeus into swearing an oath that the day zeus fathered a mortal, the mortal would become a great leader. hera then delayed the birth of hercules and caused the premature birth of eurystheus. zeus was infuriated and threw até from the heavens, telling her to never return. ever since, até wandered among the mortals on earth, causing problems and ruin. the litai follow everywhere she goes to repair the harm done by her.