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Celeus (mythology)
Celeus or Keleus (Ancient Greek: Κελεός ''Keleós'') was the king of Eleusis in Greek mythology, husband of Metaneira and father of several daughters, who are called Callidice, Demo, Cleisidice and Callithoe in the ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', and Diogeneia, Pammerope and Saesara by Pausanias. Mythology In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Celeus was one of the original priests of Demeter, one of the first people to learn the secret rites and mysteries of Demeter's cult the Eleusinian Mysteries. Diocles, Eumolpos, Triptolemus and Polyxeinus were the others of the first priests. While Demeter was searching for her daughter, having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the king of Eleusis in Attica. He asked her to nurse Demophon, his youngest son by Metaneira. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family hearth every night. She ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Woodpecker
Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar regions. Most species live in forests or woodland habitats, although a few species are known that live in treeless areas, such as rocky hillsides and deserts, and the Gila woodpecker specialises in exploiting cacti. Members of this family are chiefly known for their characteristic behaviour. They mostly forage for insect prey on the trunks and branches of trees, and often communicate by drumming with their beaks, producing a reverberatory sound that can be heard at some distance. Some species vary their diet with fruits, birds' eggs, small animals, tree sap, human scraps, and carrion. They usually nest and roost in holes that they excavate in tree trunks, and their abandoned holes are of importance to other cavity-nesting birds. They sometimes com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eleusinian Mysteries
The Eleusinian Mysteries ( el, Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια, Eleusínia Mystḗria) were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Elefsina in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was an old agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period.Dietrich (1975) ''The origins of Greek Religion''. Bristol Phoenix Press pp. 166, 167Walter Burkert. (1985)''Greek Religion''. Harvard University Press. p. 285 The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the ''descent'' (loss), the ''search'', and the ''ascent'', with the main theme being the ''ascent'' () of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erichthonius Of Athens
In Greek mythology, King Erichthonius (; grc, , Erikhthónios) was a legendary early ruler of ancient Athens. According to some myths, he was autochthonous (born of the soil, or Earth) and adopted or raised by the goddess Athena. Early Greek texts do not distinguish between him and Erechtheus, his grandson, but by the fourth century BC, during Classical times, they are distinct figures. Etymology Erichthonius of uncertain etymology is possibly related to a pre-Greek form *''Erekteu-''. The connection of with ἐρέχθω, "shake" is a late folk-etymology; other folk-etymologies include , ''erion'', "wool" or ''eris'', "strife"+ ''chthôn or chthonos'', "earth". Mythology Birth According to the '' Bibliotheca'', Athena visited the smith-god Hephaestus to request some weapons, but Hephaestus was so overcome by desire that he tried to seduce her in his workshop. Determined to maintain her virginity, Athena fled, pursued by Hephaestus. He caught Athena and tried to rape h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Persephone
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Persephone ( ; gr, Περσεφόνη, Persephónē), also called Kore or Cora ( ; gr, Κόρη, Kórē, the maiden), is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She became the queen of the underworld after her abduction by and marriage to her uncle Hades, the king of the underworld.Martin Nilsson (1967). ''Die Geschichte der Griechische Religion'' Vol I pp 462–463, 479–480 The myth of her abduction, her sojourn in the underworld, and her temporary return to the surface represents her functions as the embodiment of spring and the personification of vegetation, especially grain crops, which disappear into the earth when sown, sprout from the earth in spring, and are harvested when fully grown. In Classical Greek art, Persephone is invariably portrayed robed, often carrying a sheaf of grain. She may appear as a mystical divinity with a sceptre and a little box, but she was mostly represented in the process of being carried off by Hades. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fasti (poem)
The ''Fasti'' ( la, Fāstī , "the Calendar"), sometimes translated as ''The Book of Days'' or ''On the Roman Calendar'', is a six-book Latin poem written by the Roman poet Ovid and published in AD 8. Ovid is believed to have left the ''Fasti'' incomplete when he was exiled to Tomis by the emperor Augustus in 8 AD. Written in elegiac couplets and drawing on conventions of Greek and Latin didactic poetry, the ''Fasti'' is structured as a series of eye-witness reports and interviews by the first-person ''vates'' ("poet-prophet" or "bard") with Roman deities, who explain the origins of Roman holidays and associated customs—often with multiple aetiologies. The poem is a significant, and in some cases unique, source of fact in studies of religion in ancient Rome; and the influential anthropologist and ritualist J.G. Frazer translated and annotated the work for the Loeb Classical Library series. Each book covers one month, January through June, of the Roman calendar, and was writ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metamorphoses
The ''Metamorphoses'' ( la, Metamorphōsēs, from grc, μεταμορφώσεις: "Transformations") is a Latin narrative poem from 8 CE by the Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its creation to the deification of Julius Caesar in a mythico-historical framework comprising over 250 myths, 15 books, and 11,995 lines. Although it meets some of the criteria for an epic, the poem defies simple genre classification because of its varying themes and tones. Ovid took inspiration from the genre of metamorphosis poetry and some of the ''Metamorphoses'' derives from earlier treatment of the same myths; however, he diverged significantly from all of his models. One of the most influential works in Western culture, the ''Metamorphoses'' has inspired such authors as Dante Alighieri, Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare. Numerous episodes from the poem have been depicted in works of sculpture, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ovid
Pūblius Ovidius Nāsō (; 20 March 43 BC – 17/18 AD), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a contemporary of the older Virgil and Horace, with whom he is often ranked as one of the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian considered him the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 Although Ovid enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, the emperor Augustus banished him to Tomis, a Dacian province on the Black Sea, where he remained a decade until his death. Overview A contemporary of the older poets Virgil and Horace, Ovid was the first major Roman poet to begin his career during Augustus's reign. Collectively, they are considered the three canonical poets of Latin literature. The Imperial scholar Quintilian described Ovid as the last of the Latin love elegists.Quint. ''Inst.'' 10.1.93 He enjoyed enormous popularity during his lifetime, but the emperor Augus ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of Caesar Augustus. He was elected superintendent of the Palatine library by Augustus according to Suetonius' ''De Grammaticis'', 20. It is not clear whether Hyginus was a native of the Iberian Peninsula or of Alexandria. Suetonius remarks that Hyginus fell into great poverty in his old age and was supported by the historian Clodius Licinus. Hyginus was a voluminous author: his works included topographical and biographical treatises, commentaries on Helvius Cinna and the poems of Virgil, and disquisitions on agriculture and bee-keeping. All these are lost. Under the name of Hyginus there are extant what are probably two sets of school notes abbreviating his treatises on mythology; one is a collection of ''Fabulae'' ("stories"), the other a "Poetical Astronomy". ''Fabulae'' The ''Fabulae'' consists of some three hundred very brief and plainly, even crudely, to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)
The ''Bibliotheca'' (Ancient Greek: grc, Βιβλιοθήκη, lit=Library, translit=Bibliothēkē, label=none), also known as the ''Bibliotheca'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus, is a compendium of Greek myths and heroic legends, arranged in three books, generally dated to the first or second century AD. The author was traditionally thought to be Apollodorus of Athens, but that attribution is now regarded as false, and so "Pseudo-" was added to Apollodorus. The ''Bibliotheca'' has been called "the most valuable mythographical work that has come down from ancient times." An epigram recorded by the important intellectual Patriarch Photius I of Constantinople expressed its purpose:Victim of its own suggestions, the epigraph, ironically, does not survive in the manuscripts. For the classic examples of epitomes and encyclopedias substituting in Christian hands for the literature of Classical Antiquity itself, see Isidore of Seville's ''Etymologiae'' and Martianus Capella. It has the follo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demophon Of Eleusis
In Greek mythology, Demophon or Demophöon (Ancient Greek: Δημοφῶν or Δημοφόων), was an Eleusis, Eleusinian prince as the son of King Celeus and Queen Metanira. Mythology While Demeter, having taken the form of an old woman called Demeter, Doso, searched for her lost daughter Persephone, she received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of Eleusis in Attica, Greece, Attica. He asked her to nurse Demophon - his son by Metanira. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon a god by anointing and coating him with ambrosia, breathing gently upon him while holding him in her arms and bosom, and making him immortal by burning his mortal spirit away in the family's hearth every night. She put him in the fire at night like a firebrand or ember - without the knowledge of his parents: :And thus it came to pass that the splendid son of bright-minded Keleos,Dêmophôn, who was born to well-girded Metaneira,was nourished in the pal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attica, Greece
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Sea, bordering on Boeotia to the north and Megaris to the west. The southern tip of the peninsula, known as Laurion, was an important Mines of Laurion, mining region. The history of Attica is tightly linked with that of Athens, and specifically the Golden Age of Athens during the Classical Greece, classical period. Classical Athens, Ancient Attica (Classical Athens, Athens city-state) was divided into deme, demoi or municipalities from the reform of Cleisthenes in 508/7 BC, grouped into three zones: urban (''astu'') in the region of Ancient Athens, Athens main city and Piraeus (port of Athens), coastal (''paralia'') along the coastline and inland (''mesogeia'') in the interior. The modern administrative regions of Greece, admini ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyxeinus
In Greek mythology, Polyxenus or Polyxeinus (, ''Poluxenos'', or , ''Poluxeinos'') is a name that may refer to: *Polyxenus, one of the first priests of Demeter and one of the first to learn the secrets of the Eleusinian Mysteries. *Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes and Peloris, king of Elis. He was counted among the suitors of Helen, and accordingly participated in the Trojan War, having brought 40 ships with him. He returned home safely after the war, and had a son Amphimachus, whom he possibly named after his friend Amphimachus (son of Cteatus), who had died at Troy. Polyxenus, king of Elis, was also said to have been entrusted with the stolen cattle by the Taphians under Pterelaus; the cattle was ransomed from him by Amphitryon. This Polyxenus, however, appears to be a figure distinct from Polyxenus, son of Agasthenes, since he lived two generations before the Trojan War. *Polyxenus, also called Medus, son of the hero Jason and the Colchian witch Medea, daughter of King Aeetes. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
_480-460_BC_(Sk_1761)_1.JPG "Click for more on -> Persephone")
