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Balius
Balius (; Ancient Greek: Βάλιος, ''Balios'', possibly "dappled") and Xanthus (; Ancient Greek: Ξάνθος, ''Xanthos'', "blonde") were, according to Greek mythology, two immortal horses, the offspring of the harpy, Podarge and the West wind, Zephyrus. In other traditions, Poseidon is the father of Xanthus along with another horse named Cyllarus to an unnamed mother. It is possible that Xanthus's ability to speak prophetically may be related to Arion, another mythical horse reported to have saved Adrastus from the war of the Seven against Thebes with his prophetic abilities in Statius's ''Thebaid''. Mythology Poseidon gave the two horses to King Peleus of Phthia, as a wedding gift when Peleus married the Ocean goddess, Thetis. Peleus later gave the horses to his son Achilles who took them to draw his chariot during the Trojan War. Book 16 of the ''Iliad'' tells us that Achilles had a third horse, Pedasos (maybe "Jumper", maybe "Captive"), which was yoked as a "trace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automedon
In Greek mythology, Automedon (; Ancient Greek: Αὐτομέδων), son of Diores, was Achilles' charioteer, who drove the immortal horses Balius and Xanthos. Mythology In Homer's ''Iliad'', Automedon rides into battle once Patroclus dons Achilles's armor, commanding Achilles' horses Balius and Xanthos. After Patroclus dies, Automedon is driven to the rear of the battle, where he tries to console the bereaved horses. Zeus finally intervenes, and Automedon resumes driving the chariot, but cannot aid the Achaeans until Alcimedon agrees to be his driver. He repels an attempt on his life by Hector, Aeneas, Chromios, and Aretos, killing Aretos''The New Century Classical Handbook''; Catherine Avery, editor; Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1962, p. 144: "Aretus...was slain by Achilles' charioteer, Automedon" and taking his armor in the process. He also appears in the ''Aeneid'' at line 477 of Book II, when the Greek forces break into the palace of Priam. Notes References ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpy
In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions They were generally depicted as birds with the heads of maidens, faces pale with hunger and long claws on their hands. Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness. Pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. Ovid described them as human-vultures. Hesiod To Hesiod, they were imagined as fair-locked and winged maidens, who flew as fast as the wind. Aeschylus But even as early as the time of Aeschylus, they are described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers carry their notions of the harpies so far as to represent them as most disgusting monsters. The Pythian priestess of Apollo recounted the appearance of the harpies in the following lines: Virgil Hyginus Functions and abodes The harpies seem originally to have been wind spirits (perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Podarge
In Greek mythology, Podarge ( grc-gre, Ποδάργη, English translation: "fleet-foot") referred to several different beings. *One of the Harpies is named Podarge and, due to her union with Zephyrus, the god of the West Wind, was the mother of Balius and Xanthus, the horses of Achilles. *The rainbow/messenger goddess Iris (sister of the Harpies) is sometimes also referred to as Podarge. *Podarces was Priam's birth name. He changed it after buying his life from Heracles with a golden veil embroidered by his sister, Hesione. Priam was interpreted as "ransomed" (as if from πρίασθαι "to have bought") by folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili .... Greek legendary creatures Legendary birds Harpies Mythological hybrids {{Greek myth index ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peleus
In Greek mythology, Peleus (; Ancient Greek: Πηλεύς ''Pēleus'') was a hero, king of Phthia, husband of Thetis and the father of their son Achilles. This myth was already known to the hearers of Homer in the late 8th century BC. Biography Peleus was the son of Aeacus, king of the island of Aegina, and Endeïs, the oread of Mount Pelion in Thessaly. He married the sea-nymph Thetis with whom he fathered Achilles. Peleus and his brother Telamon were friends of Heracles, and served in Heracles' expedition against the Amazons, his war against King Laomedon, and his quest for the Golden Fleece alongside Jason and the Argonauts. Though there were no further kings in Aegina, the kings of Epirus claimed descent from Peleus in the historic period. Mythology Peleus and his brother Telamon killed their half-brother Phocus, perhaps in a hunting accident and certainly in an unthinking moment, and fled Aegina to escape punishment. In Phthia, Peleus was purified by the city's ruler, E ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thetis
Thetis (; grc-gre, Θέτις ), is a figure from Greek mythology with varying mythological roles. She mainly appears as a sea nymph, a goddess of water, or one of the 50 Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus. When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of Nereus and Doris, and a granddaughter of Tethys with whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with Metis. Some sources argue that she was one of the earliest of deities worshipped in Archaic Greece, the oral traditions and records of which are lost. Only one written record, a fragment, exists attesting to her worship and an early Alcman hymn exists that identifies Thetis as the creator of the universe. Worship of Thetis as the goddess is documented to have persisted in some regions by historical writers such as Pausanias. In the Trojan War cycle of myth, the wedding of Thetis and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iliad
The ''Iliad'' (; grc, Ἰλιάς, Iliás, ; "a poem about Ilium") is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by modern audiences. As with the ''Odyssey'', the poem is divided into 24 books and contains 15,693 lines in its most widely accepted version, and was written in dactylic hexameter. Set towards the end of the Trojan War, a ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Mycenaean Greek states, the poem depicts significant events in the siege's final weeks. In particular, it depicts a fierce quarrel between King Agamemnon and a celebrated warrior, Achilles. It is a central part of the Epic Cycle. The ''Iliad'' is often regarded as the first substantial piece of European literature. The ''Iliad'', and the ''Odyssey'', were likely written down in Homeric Greek, a literary amalgam of Ionic Greek and other dialects, probably around the late 8th or early 7th century BC. Homer's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zephyrus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were the progeny of the goddess of the dawn Eos and her husband Astraeus. Etymology The earliest attestation of the word in Greek and of the worship of the winds by the Greeks, are perhaps the Mycenaean Greek word-forms , , , , i.e. 'priestess of the winds'. These words, written in Linear B, are found on the KN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets. Mythology The Anemoi are minor gods and are subject to the god Aeolus. They were sometimes represented as gusts of wind, and at other times were personified as winged men. They were also sometimes depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the ''Odyssey''. The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse to t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Characters In The Iliad
This is a list of principal characters in Homer's ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. Greeks in the Trojan War *Achilles (), the leader of the Myrmidons (), son of Peleus and Thetis, and the principal Greek champion whose anger is one of the main elements of the story. *Agamemnon (), King of Mycenae, supreme commander of the Achaean armies whose actions provoke the feud with Achilles; elder brother of King Menelaus. *Ajax or Aias (), also known as Telamonian Ajax (he was the son of Telamon) and Greater Ajax, was the tallest and strongest warrior (after Achilles) to fight for the Achaeans. *Ajax the Lesser, an Achaean commander, son of Oileus often fights alongside Great Ajax; the two together are sometimes called the "Ajaxes" (, ''Aiante''). * Antilochus (Ἀντίλοχος), son of Nestor sacrificed himself to save his father in the Trojan War along with other deeds of valor * Calchas (), a powerful Greek prophet and omen reader, who guided the Greeks through the war with his prediction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apostolos Athanassakis
Apostolos N. Athanassakis ( el, Αποστολος Αθανασάκης) is a classical scholar and formerly Argyropoulos Chair in Hellenic Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Professor Athanassakis, or "Professor A" as he is often referred to by students, served as the faculty in residence in Manzanita Village. Athanassakis taught at UCSB for nearly 30 years in the Classics Department. From 1984 to 1986 he served as head of the Humanities Division at the University of Crete, in Greece. Bibliography * ''Apocolocyntosis divi Claudii'' (translation, introduction and commentary, 1973) *''The Homeric Hymns'' (translation, introduction and notes). Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976. * ''Vita Sancti Pachomii'' (translation and introduction, 1977) * ''Hesiod: Theogony, Works and Days and Shield of Heracles'' (translation, introduction and commentary, 1983) * ''Essays on Hesiod, Volume I'' (editor, 1992) * ''Essays on Hesiod, Volume II'' (editor a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castor And Pollux
Castor; grc, Κάστωρ, Kástōr, beaver. and Pollux. (or Polydeukes). are twin half-brothers in Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri.; grc, Διόσκουροι, Dióskouroi, sons of Zeus, links=no, from ''Dîos'' ('Zeus') and '' koûroi'' ('boys'). Their mother was Leda, but they had different fathers; Castor was the mortal son of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, while Pollux was the divine son of Zeus, who raped Leda in the guise of a swan. The pair are thus an example of heteropaternal superfecundation. Though accounts of their birth are varied, they are sometimes said to have been born from an egg, along with their twin sisters Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra. In Latin the twins are also known as the Gemini (literally "twins") or Castores, as well as the Tyndaridae or Tyndarids.. Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together, and they were transformed into the constellation Gemini. The pair were regarded ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sarpedon (Trojan War Hero)
In Greek mythology, Sarpedon ( or ; grc, Σαρπηδών) was a son of Zeus, who fought on the side of Troy in the Trojan War. Although in the ''Iliad'', he was the son of Zeus and Laodamia, the daughter of Bellerophon, in the later standard tradition, he was the son of Zeus and Europa, and the brother of Minos and Rhadamanthus, while in other accounts the Sarpedon who fought at Troy was the grandson of the Sarpedon who was the brother of Minos. Hero cult There was a temple of Sarpedon in Xanthos, in Lycia, perhaps associated with a supposed burial site there. There was also a temple and oracle of Apollo Sarpedonios and Artemis Sarpedonia at Seleuceia in Cilicia. According to Tertullian there was a shrine and oracle of Sarpedon in the Troad, although Tertuliian might have been confusing this for the oracle in Cilicia. There is evidence to suggest that Sarpedon was the subject of pre-Homeric non-Greek worship. Genealogy There were three separate traditions concerning the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcman
Alcman (; grc-gre, Ἀλκμάν ''Alkmán''; fl. 7th century BC) was an Ancient Greek choral lyric poet from Sparta. He is the earliest representative of the Alexandrian canon of the Nine Lyric Poets. Biography Alcman's dates are uncertain, but he was probably active in the late seventh century BC. The name of his mother is not known; his father may have been called either Damas or Titarus. Alcman's nationality was disputed even in antiquity. Unfortunately, the records of the ancient authors were often deduced from biographic readings of their poetry, and the details are often untrustworthy. Antipater of Thessalonica wrote that poets have "many mothers" and that the continents of Europe and Asia both claimed Alcman as their son. Frequently assumed to have been born in Sardis, capital of ancient Lydia, the Suda claims that Alcman was actually a Laconian from Messoa. The compositeness of his dialect may have helped to maintain the uncertainty of his origins, but the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
