#Argolid

[druidicentropy]

Abas

The son of Hypermnestra and Lynceus was King Abas of Argos. His two sons, Acrisius and Proetus, followed him as king after his father's death. Following their father's death, his children ruled in turns until Acrisius banished his brother. They had battled while still in their mother's womb. Acrisius was forced to give Proetus half of the kingdom when he returned with an army, dividing the Argolid in two.

[deathlessathanasia]

Apparently the ancient Athenians REALLY hated Hera as well, not just Ares. You'd think those people had nothing better to do than pick fights with random gods and purposefully rewrite the Iliad to make them look bad and what not.

[mothmiso]

Ermioni (2) (3) (4) by solerab

[whencyclopedia]

Mycenaean Civilization

The Mycenaean Civilization flourished in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700-1100 BCE), peaking from the 15th to the 13th century BCE. The Mycenaeans extended their influence throughout the Peloponnese in Greece and across the Aegean from Crete to the Cycladic islands. They are named after their chief city of Mycenae in the Argolid of the northeast Peloponnese.

The Mycenaeans were influenced by the earlier Minoan civilization (2000-1450 BCE) which had spread from its origins at Knossos, Crete to include the wider Aegean. Architecture, art and religious practices were assimilated and adapted to better express the perhaps more militaristic and austere Mycenaean culture. The Mycenaeans came to dominate most of mainland Greece and several islands, extending trade relations to other Bronze Age cultures in such places as Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt. The culture made a lasting impression on later Greeks in the Archaic and Classical periods, most tangibly in their myths of Bronze Age heroes like Achilles and Odysseus and their exploits in the Trojan War.

Major Mycenaean Centres

The Mycenaeans were indigenous Greeks who were likely stimulated by their contact with Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. Major Mycenaean centres included Mycenae (traditional home of Agamemnon), Tiryns (perhaps the oldest centre), Pylos (traditional home of Nestor), Thebes, Midea, Gla, Orchomenos, Argos, Sparta, Nichoria, and probably Athens. In time, the Mycenaeans would even establish themselves on Crete and especially at Knossos, thus superseding the Minoans as the dominant culture in the southern Aegean by the second half of the 15th century BCE.

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[orchestrated-haunting]

using my classics degree for good. i cannot wait for 3.0

my notes from my first watch through of "Amphororeus' Saga of Heroes" under the cut. please note that i did this at 8am with minimal double and triple checking of sources

Aglaea- Aglaea in mythology is the child of zeus and is one of the three Charities in Greek myth; according to Dionysiaca she is one of the "dancers of Orchomenus" who tend to Aphrodite. Helped Aphrodite in her attempt to weave better than Athena by holding and passing Aphrodite the yarn. She also acts as Aphrodite's messanger. Her drip marketing also mentioned her connection to romance so her being a stand in for Aphrodite feels like a easy call

Tribbie- hermes or hecate (likely a combination) she's a messenger like hermes, however the description of "the three-faced" is usually used in description of Hecate goddess of the crossroads

Anaxa- likely the athena parallel as said to have enough knowledge to refute faith and is capable of killing gods. this is in line with athena's domains of wisdom and the logical side of combat; eyepatch is similar to odin of norse mythology as he exchanged one of his eyes for all the knowledge in the world; Anax is the attic greek word for "tribal cheif, lord, or military leader"; there are also several notable figures who have the prefix anax- in their name Anaxandridas II (a king of sparta) and anaxagoras and anaxarchus (both philosphers)

Hyacine - name from hyacinthus, lover of apollo and where we get the name of hyacinths from; she also "severs dawn from dusk" which makes me feel more than confident in her being the apollo parallel

Mydei- ares parallel, lion symbolism is common with warriors in ancient greece; hercules wore the skin of a lion he killed. the rest of it is vibes based but look at him; could not find any strong name parallels immediately as both Medea and Midas do not have many war-like contributions; however medea is close enough to mydei in pronunciation. medea was the daughter of Aeetes and lover of Jason from the argonauts and granddaughter to the sun god Helios; fire motifs, could be connection to hephaestus but i'd need more before i make that call; japanese version uses Mydeimos which points to Deimos, the god of terror and twin brother of Phobos the god of fear, both of which are children of Ares and Aphrodite (thank you @/integraseras for connection)

Cipher- fleet-footed hunter and said to "make time stop" while i can't think of any deity that specifically can do that the fleet-footed hunter aspect along with her being feminine strongly implies to me an artemis parallel; "make time stop" is interesting because in some stories and accounts the gods could stop time to communicate with a single hero or person without others noticing their presence

Castorice- "daughter of the river styx" and other death motives makes her almost certainly Hades; this is likely unrelated but one of the twins of the Diocusi (gemini twins) is named Castor however they are the children of Zeus, however castor was born mortal and pollux was born immortal, eventually they made a deal in which they would spend half of the time with the gods and the other half in the underworld

Phainon- couldnt find one of the olympians that fight however the god Phaenon is the sky god of Cronus (the planet Saturn); name means "bright" or "shining"; this could also be our Zeus figure due to Phaenon being called "the star of Jove" (Jove being another name for Zeus in roman myth)

(following names were from the video description but no other info was given)

Hysilens- name possibly comes from the combination of the gods Silenus and Hysminai; silenus is the god of wine, drunkenness, and the forest while also the foster father of Dionysus. Hysminai is the personification of combat; likely stand in for Dionysus

Cerydra- name has some parallels to the hydra the lake monster of Lerna in the Argolid, cer- could possibly (very unlikely) come from cerberus; my money would be on them being the parallel for posideon; the hydra was also one of hercules 12 labors and the lake Lerna was said to be an enterence to the underworld, possibly connecting cerberus in there, as cerberus is the guard dog of the underworld

Two unnamed characters: also there Gods that haven't been explicitly shown: Hera, Hestia, Demeter and Hephaestus. I could see hoyo combining Hera and Hestia into a single character of marriage, hearth and home

Other notes:

the gods were said to have gold blood

Amphoreus from the greek vessel style of a container with a long neck and two handles used to store oil, wine, milk, or grain. Amphorae were sometimes used as grave markers or as containers for funeral offerings or human remains and Amphora was also used as a unit of measure

the titans in the trailer = titans in myth; the conflict that follows is basically the equivalent of the war in mythology between the olympians and the titans

[ashaismz]

Sansa chose a pear instead, and took a small delicate bite. It was very ripe. The juice ran down her chin. That she is known to be in favour of Argos and the Argolid, a land known also for pears, and that people hailing from her region were known to be apian, show a possible strong link between the worship of Hera and apia.

ASOS SANSA IV + HERA AND HER ASSOCIATION WITH PEARS

[vickysaurus]

So I was talking with a friend about how Europe is not so much a continent and more of a nested peninsula - a peninsula made of peninsulas, most of which are made of peninsulas. So I ended up fucking around on Google Earth, picking a likely spot in Greece, and seeing just how deep the rabbit hole goes.

As a first-order peninsula, we have Europe, one of Eurasia's larger peninsulas.

Within Europe, we have a second-order peninsula, the Balkans.

Next up is the Pelopponese, a third-order peninsula (I am kind of ambivalent on whether I skipped a step here - arguably it's fourth-order and most of Greece is a third-order peninsula in itself rather than just the Balkans' tip)

Fourth-order peninsula: the Argolid peninsula (has the word peninsula lost all meaning for you as it has for me?)

Then we get this fifth-order peninsula.

Which is dominated by the sixth-order Methana volcano peninsula.

Which has a seventh-order peninsula.

And an eighth-order peninsula.

Which has a rocky outcropping that I think can generously be called a ninth-order peninsula. Looks like a nice cliff.

And even that has this rock poking out of it, if you want to get real fractal-ly about it. And this is just me eyeballing the map, I'm sure there's like, fourteenth-order peninsulas somewhere up in Norway or Croatia.

[verdantlyviolet]

Kanathia Festival

Every year there was a procession from Argos to Nauplia. Priestesses of Hera and attendants would escort the statue of Hera to the spring Kanathos where they would bathe her image according to the sacred purification rites. It is said when the statue emerged from the water Hera Teleia became a maiden once more, Hera Parthenos, pure and virginal.

Come now, graceful Horai, goddesses of the heavenly chorus  come to Hera’s grove with your pitchers and oils  Let us cleanse the great queen of the seasons past  and cover her in the softest silks  until, shining anew, she emerges in all her glory

It is assumed this purification ritual is to prepare Hera for her marriage to Zeus. In modern day it is believed the spring is the one that runs through a nunnery, Agia Moni.

Please note: a name for this ritual is not currently known. I chose Kanathia among other suggestions for this ritual as a nod to its namesake, the Kanathos spring. This is a festival specific to the Argolid. Pausanias 2.38.2-3

[ancestorsalive]

Hydra wall painting from an Etruscan tomb at the Necropolis of Pianacce, Siena, dated to the 4th century BC.

The Lernaean Hydra or Hydra of Lerna, more often known simply as the Hydra, is a serpentine water monster in Greek and Roman mythology. Its lair was the lake of Lerna in the Argolid, which was also the site of the myth of the Danaïdes. Lerna was reputed to be an entrance to the Underworld, and archaeology has established it as a sacred site older than Mycenaean Argos. In the canonical Hydra myth, the monster is killed by Heracles (Hercules) as the second of his Twelve Labors.

According to Hesiod, the Hydra was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. It had poisonous breath and blood so virulent that even it's scent was deadly. The Hydra possessed many heads, the exact number of which varies according to the source. Later versions of the Hydra story add a regeneration feature to the monster - for every head chopped off, the Hydra will regrow two heads.

[marvel-and-dc-geek]

The Labours of Alcides

The Nemean Lion

Gods could, of course, hear the prayers of mortals, and knew which beasts and ailments tormented them.That made it quite easy to choose the tasks.

After Alcides left his home, the chief hindu god, Shiva, left him as task that he didn’t expect the boy to complete: he was to murder a monstrous lion, grandchild of Typhon himself, and bring its skin back. The lion lives in Nemea, a region close to the Argolide.

The creature was so evil that it wouldn’t kill humans and cattle just for food: as if it has learned from humans themselves, the beats seemed to do so just for fun.

Many villagers tried to beg him not to go, even showing Alcides the shield of the last man who tried to slay it, which had been cut in half by a single blow with its paws. He didn’t even need to ask what had happened to the poor man, but he still wouldn’t back down.

He asked them to give him thirty days to come back, and if he didn’t, they could assume he was dead. None of the villagers expected to see him alive again, so, in desperation, they made plans to sacrifice a child to the gods to get rid of the beast.

It took weeks to find the creature’s track, until one day…

“Hurry up kid! We don’t have all day!” A white crow complained

“Shh, solo debemos vigilar !” The black crow complained

“I’m sorry if this has taken too long, but I need to see where the lion is. “ the redhead youth apologized.

Many gods didn’t believe that his strength was at such level. Sure, he had drank the ambrosia, but did that guarantee he could live through all the tasks? So, a one-eyed god had send the duo to observe the tasks, and send the word in case the boy ended up being the cat’s latest meal.

As to be fair, some gods of the pantheon he was supposed to join had given him some weapons that, while powerful, would be useless if he didn’t have the ability or the strength to use them properly. The one he expected to be most useful for that particular task had been a gift from Apollo himself: a beautiful golden bow, which carried equally beautiful arrows.

Tracking a creature was never easy, but there was a method that never failed; searching for a source of water. Every animal, from the smallest mouse to the biggest bear, needed to drink in order to live.

“Shh…” he told the crows as they got closer. It would be better not to startle it and kill the animal with the least amount of pain as possible.

He drew back the bow to set his target and shoot him straight to the heart, which should have given it a quick and painless death. Should’ve have, as the creature kept drinking as if nothing had happened.

“Ha, you missed !” The white crow laughed

“The human is going to fail!” The black crow laughed.

He observed, quite perplexed, that the arrow was simply on the ground. Maybe if he aimed for a leg, he would just need to get close and give it the killing blow.

So he targeted a leg, and he was sure he hit it, but instead of sticking, the arrow simply bounced. The lion stopped drinking and decided to take a nap. The young man took the chance to sneak close to it.

The god Hermes had given him a fine sword. Maybe he didn’t use the right amount of strength for the arrows, as, being a gift from Apollo himself, there was no way they could’ve just failed like that.

The beast didn’t wake up, so young Alcides tried to cut its head off, but all that came off was his blade. The lion woke up, not because of the hit, but because of the noise the metal made as it hit the ground it roared angrily and tried to scratch the hero with his claws, but the redhead stomped another one of his paws. The lion felt something new: pain.

“How did that hurt him?” Asked the white crow

“Not even the gods’ gifts harmed him!” The black crow commented.

The beast managed to get free and run back to his hideout, but that allowed the young man to think of a way to slay it.

Luckily, this time it was easier to track it down, as it had been close to the water and so his paws were covered in mud. So, he found the lion’s cave.

He couldn’t let it get away again: that would only make it be more fearful and careful, which would make him harder to find. Not to mention that the creature would keep killing innocents. Alcides checked the place as well as he could on the outside and found it had two entrances: he covered the one in the back with a huge rock to make sure the beast couldn’t get out. Going up front against an animal that couldn’t escape was usually a terrible idea, but in that case, it would be for the best.

Now, his strength could harm the lion, but his weapons couldn’t: he wouldn’t need a new one. After breaking a tree in half, Alcides used the remains of the sword to carve himself a clover. It was simple, yet effective.

“Not even the weapons the gods gave you worked, why would that thing work?” One of the crows laughed at him

“Oh it also won’t be an exact fit for the job, but it’s all part of the plan” answered young Alcides as he went into the cave. The crows decided to stay in a nearby tree to observe.

The lion was still scared about the fate of his poor little paw, so when he saw the hero peaking into his cave, he tried to run away, but the exit was blocked. Seeing that wasn’t possible, the lion roared and tried to leap against him, which gave the hero the chance to hit him as hard as possible on the head with the club.

That wasn’t enough to break his school and much less for killing him, but it left the lion stunned. It was so confused that the beast couldn’t even react when Alcides used the lion’s own strategy against him and jumped to grab the cat, putting his arms around his throat.

That was a rather cruel form to go, and much slower than the hero would’ve liked to used in order to slay the creature, but it was the only option he had. The lion squirmed and tried to free itself, making the hero squeeze his neck more and more until the lion breathed for one last time.

Hearing no more noise, the crows went to investigate and the saw dead lion on the Greek youth’s arms.

“You made it?” The white and black crow asked.

“Yes…” now he just had to take the body and leave, but the crows didn’t let him go through.

“Only the skin!” Said the white crow

“You will have to peel it off!” Said the black one, but that was pretty much impossible, seeing nothing could pierce jt.

So, wanting to test a theory he thought about, Alcides grabbed the cat’s paws: if his paws could pierce through a shield, maybe it would pierce its skin.

It worked: the skin bleed, and after a while, he had the lion’s intact skin. He grabbed it and started his journey to present the god’s his first accomplished mission.

It was just the thirty day after he had left the village: the people were about to sacrifice a young boy to the gods, so they would send help, but they saw the youth who they believed death return, and, even more astonishingly, with the lion’s skin. They immediately let the boy go and killed some cows instead.

“For our hero, Alcides!” They threw a feast in his honor, which he couldn’t refuse and so stayed with them for the rest of the night.

The crows stayed far away, as they shouldn’t draw any attention. The feast lasted until the next morning, and the hero came back with a piece of meat for both birds.

“What is that?” Asked the white crow

“Are you taking provisions?” Asked the black crow.

“They are for you: you kept me company during the whole hunting and it would be unfair if you went hungry “ Alcides had even made sure to ask for two raw pieces, as that type of bird preferred.

The people of Nemea wrote and told the story of the hero, just as it had happened. Of course they changed a detail, which was a lie that everyone, even a certain kid, accepted: the boy had offered to sacrifice himself of the hero didn’t return, in order to save his people.

[readysetimready]

“O'Brien, who deals extensively with Hera's role in the Argolid, 16 states that, ironically, while the Argives were building the Heraion, Hera's status was actually in decline due to the penetration of the Homeric epic tradition, which represented Hera as part of the "Panhellenic family" and as a less than sovereign "wife and sister". 17 This conclusion partially converges with my conclusions, but, to my mind, the critical question that emerges from this fact is why should the Argives choose to build such a magnificent temple to a weak goddess whose status was in decline?

In answer, my working hypothesis is formulated in terms of the tension between aristocratic particularism and Panhellenic tendencies. The aristocrats in the Argive plain shaped Hera's cult and temple as a response to the postulated Panhellenic wave that swept through many areas of Greece. For them, Hera was not only a mediator with the past but a symbol of their exclusive heroic past, and thereby of their identity. Devotion to Hera enabled them to mark their uniqueness in the face of the changes occurring in the Greek world. Based on this interpretation, there is nothing 'ironic' in the building of the Heraion: Rather, it was part of an effort to construct and preserve an aristocratic identity and ethos that would assist regional aristocrats in maintaining the distinction between themselves and the rest of their local society. Hera was given an important role in this campaign. Her cult was the local aristocratic alternative, the answer to an emerging Panhellenic tradition which centered around the idea of the powerful god, Zeus, who married his wife and sister, Hera.”

- Marrying Hera: Incomplete Integration in the Making of the Pantheon

Neta Aloni-Ronen

[fugengulsen]

Map of the Coast of Andalusia with the City of Grenada

Sardinia

Rhodes

Mykonos

Alanya

Argolid Peninsula

Piri Reis was a 16th century Ottoman Admiral famous for his maps and charts collected in his Kitab-ı Bahriye (Book of Navigation), a book which contains detailed information on navigation as well as extremely accurate charts describing the important ports and cities of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1513 he produced his first world map, based on some 20 older maps and charts which he had collected, including charts personally designed by Christopher Columbus which his uncle Kemal Reis obtained in 1501 after capturing seven Spanish ships off the coast of Valencia in Spain with several of Columbus’ crewmen on board.

[deathlessathanasia]

Was the myth of Io originally about Hera as a cow goddess?

This is a pretty old theory, not sure if it is still in vogue among scholars. I think the new tendency is to look for deeper explanations behind such myths rather than simply assuming that they are misinterpretations of a supposed original theriomorphic conception of the gods.

I suppose it is possible and the connections between Hera and Io are obvious, but the arguments I've seen for it aren't particularly convincing to me and I just haven't found solid enough evidence to support the idea that Hera was ever worshipped as an actual cow. So in short I don't really know, but here are some excerpts:

"Although we have had reason to question the usefulness of the concept of the hypostasis or avatar [ch. 2.5.2], on the grounds that it makes the mortal a superfluous reflection of the immortal, mortal and immortal can still come close in profile. Io the cow-maid priestess plainly invites comparison with Hera the cow-faced goddess. But, more than that, Zeus in myth and in rituals of the Argolid is sexual partner of Hera, and likewise of Io. Io may be a maiden, but so is Hera, who becomes a parthenos anew every year at the spring Kanathos in Nauplia. Thus to say in the Argolid that a priestess of Hera ends her maidenhood by intercourse with Zeus is immediately to associate that maiden with Hera. Hera, being a goddess, operates on a high level: hers is a sort of cosmic marriage, to be associated no doubt with her Demeter-like control of agriculture in the Argolid. Io is a mortal, whose function is to associate the initiands with the workings of divinities and to offer them a model at a point of crisis. There is more in their similarity than a blunt ‘originally Io was probably Hera herself’." - Death and the Maiden: Girls Initiation Rites in Greek Mythology by Ken Dowden

"Io is a priestess of Hera at Argos who is seduced by Zeus and then turned into a cow by, or in fear of, Hera.37 As Callisto is considered to be a double of Artemis, so Io is considered to be in origin Hera herself; her union with Zeus and her transformation are, according to this view, a sacred mariage of the great gods in cow form similar to the marriage of Ningirsu and Bau celebrated in an annual ritual in Sumeria.38 An obvious question is why Hera should be replaced in the myth by a mortal, even though, unlike Artemis, Hera did not develop a role as a virgin goddess but rather continued to be the regular partner in the Greek sacred marriage.39 It is therefore argued that the direct source of the myth was a ritual in which the priestess impersonated the cow-goddess Hera in the sacred marriage, as a sacred slave represented the goddess in the Sumerian form of the rite.40

Hera clearly had a close connection with cows. In Homer she is known as boopis ('cow-eyed') and her image at Samos appears to be decorated with horns. Her cult at Argos involved cows in a number of different ways: they were offered to her in sacrifice, her priestess was brought to the city on a cart drawn by oxen, her temple stood on a hill called Euboea ('rich in cows'), and a herd of cattle belonging to the goddess was kept nearby.41 It is also true that some accounts suggest a sacred mariage of the traditional Eastern type. Io is described as the 'famous wife' of Zeus,42 and her cow form is sometimes seen as a symbol of fertility and motherhood, and linked with the general fertility of the land.43 Most striking perhaps is the version of the story in which the earth brings forth flowers for the cow Io after her union with Zeus in a way that recalls not only Eastern hymns and myth but the union of Zeus and Hera in the Iliad.44 However, again the theory is very implausible. First of all, as with Callisto, the evidence falls short of suggesting that Hera was ever an animal-goddess. The Argive evidence points to her ownership of, and wealth in, cows rather than to identity with the cow and can perfectly well be understood in terms of the more limited concept of the holy animal.45 It makes sense that Io, the human servant or property of a goddess whose holy animal is a cow, becomes that holy animal in a myth; … The epithet boopis and the horned image do not take us very far either. In Homer boopis is used of other women and clearly refers to no more than their beauty; and the horns at Samos seem more likely to be a decorative feature borrowed from Eastern models than to reflect the original animal nature of the goddess46: no Minoan-Mycenaean evidence suggests the existence of a cow-headed goddess47 As_ for the sacred marriage with a masked priestess, the sacred mariage was a feature of Greek religion; however, we simply do not know what role was played by the priestess of the god,48 and we have no evidence at all that animal masks ever played a part in such rites … The fact that the myth plays upon ideas associated with the traditional sacred marriage does not require us to imagine that Io is Hera herself. In fact, whereas Hera is above all the goddess of the order of marriage, the story of Io celebrates (in so far as there is any celebration) the more basic themes of fertility and motherhood in the context of an illegitimate liaison." - Metamorphosis in Greek Myths by P. M. C. Forbes Irving

[secretsfromwholecloth]

Understanding Greek Religion by Jennifer Larson has a great chapter on Hera in particular (and how the differing demands of narrative compositions, such as epics like Homer's, on the one hand and the situation of her worship in places like the Argolid on the other pushed portrayals of her and her marriage in different directions), Panhellenic vs. local views of deities more generally, and how the stories and conceptions of the deities came to be the way we know them, though its chief focus is ritual and worship practices rather than myth per se (also fascinating!).

"in the original myth medusa was actually -" "well in the homeric version, achilles wasn't -" "no but in the real myth -"

read what you have just written. in the myth. myth.

these were not real people. myths change and shape to their contemporary situations with every retelling. whoever was telling or writing the myth put in or took out something different and new every time it was told. "accurate myths" are not a thing, I'm sorry. 'accurate to homer's version'? sure, go nuts. but they were never histories, and modern adaptations are not wrong for being different.

[archaeologs]

The Dendra panoply or Dendra armour is an example of Mycenaean-era panoply (full-body armor) made of bronze plates uncovered in the village of Dendra in the Argolid, Greece. Learn more / Daha fazlası Dendra: https://www.archaeologs.com/w/dendra/

[theancientwayoflife]

~ Ring with Greek Inscription to Hera.

Culture: Greek (Argive)

Place of origin: Argolid, Greece

Date: 575 B.C.

Medium: Gold