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Phorcys
In Greek mythology, Phorcys or Phorcus (; grc, Φόρκυς) is a primordial sea god, generally cited (first in Hesiod) as the son of Pontus and Gaia (Earth). Classical scholar Karl Kerenyi conflated Phorcys with the similar sea gods Nereus and Proteus. His wife was Ceto, and he is most notable in myth for fathering by Ceto a host of monstrous children. In extant Hellenistic-Roman mosaics, Phorcys was depicted as a fish-tailed merman with crab-claw forelegs and red, spiky skin. Parents According to Hesiod's ''Theogony'', Phorcys is the son of Pontus and Gaia, and the brother of Nereus, Thaumus, Ceto, and Eurybia. In a genealogy from Plato's dialogue ''Timaeus'', Phorcys, Cronus and Rhea are the eldest offspring of Oceanus and Tethys. Offspring Hesiod's ''Theogony'' lists the children of Phorcys and Ceto as the Graeae (naming only two: Pemphredo, and Enyo), the Gorgons ( Stheno, Euryale and Medusa), probably Echidna (though the text is unclear on this po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ceto
Ceto (; grc, Κητώ, Kētṓ, sea monster) is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of Pontus and his mother, Gaia. As a mythological figure, she is considered to be one of the most ancient deities, and bore a host of monstrous children fathered by Phorcys, another child of Gaia and Pontus. The small Solar System body 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite after Phorcys. Ceto was also variously called Crataeis (Κράταιις, ''Krataiis'', froκραταιίς"mighty") and Trienus (Τρίενος, ''Trienos'', froτρίενος"within three years"), and was occasionally conflated by scholars with the goddess Hecate (for whom Crataeis and Trienus are also epithets). This goddess should not be confused with the minor Oceanid also named Ceto, or with various mythological beings referred to as '' ketos'' (plural ''kētē'' or ''ketea''); this is a general term for "sea monster" in Ancient Greek. Family Besides Ceto, Gaia (Earth) and P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Echidna (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Echidna (; grc-gre, Ἔχιδνα, "She-Viper") was a monster, half-woman and half-snake, who lived alone in a cave. She was the mate of the fearsome monster Typhon and was the mother of many of the most famous monsters of Greek myth. Genealogy Echidna's family tree varies by author. The oldest genealogy relating to Echidna, Hesiod's ''Theogony'' (c. 8th – 7th century BC), is unclear on several points. According to Hesiod, Echidna was born to a "she" who was probably meant by Hesiod to be the sea goddess Ceto, making Echidna's likely father the sea god Phorcys; however the "she" might instead refer to the Oceanid Callirhoe, which would make Medusa's offspring Chrysaor the father of Echidna. The mythographer Pherecydes of Athens (5th century BC) has Echidna as the daughter of Phorcys, without naming a mother. Other authors give Echidna other parents. According to the geographer Pausanias (2nd century AD), Epimenides (7th or 6th century BC) had Echidna ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pontus (mythology)
__NOTOC__ In Greek mythology, Pontus (; grc-gre, Πόντος, Póntos, Sea) was an ancient, pre-Olympian sea-god, one of the Greek primordial deities. Pontus was Gaia's son and has no father; according to the Greek poet Hesiod, he was born without coupling, though according to Hyginus, Pontus is the son of Aether and Gaia.Hyginus, ''Fabulae'Preface/ref> Mythology For Hesiod, Pontus seems little more than a personification of the sea, ''ho pontos'' ("the sea"), by which Hellenes signified the Mediterranean Sea. After the castration of his brother, Uranus, Pontus, with his mother Gaia, fathered Nereus (the Old Man of the Sea), Thaumas (the awe-striking "wonder" of the Sea, embodiment of the sea's dangerous aspects), Phorcys and his sister-consort Ceto, and the "Strong Goddess" Eurybia.Hesiod, ''Theogony'233–239 Gantz, p. 16; Grimal, s.v. Pontus. For a genealogical table of the descendants of Gaia and Pontus, see Gantz, p. 805. With the sea goddess Thalassa (whose own name ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graeae
In Greek mythology the Graeae ( grc, Γραῖαι; ; English translation: "old women", "grey ones", or "grey witches"; alternatively spelled Graiai and Graiae) were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys") (not to be confused with the three Gorgons, who were also daughters of Phorcys and were also called Phorcides). Names Their names were: # Deino (or Dino) (Δεινώ) # Enyo (Ἐνυώ) # Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ) or Pephredo (Πεφρηδώ) Etymology The word Graeae is probably derived from the adjective "old woman", derived from the Proto-Indo-European root , "to grow old" via grk-x-proto, gera-/grau-iu. Mythology The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Ceto and Phorcys (from which their name the Phorcydes derived) and sisters to the Gorgons.Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. ''Classical Mythology: Images and Insight ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pemphredo
In Greek mythology the Graeae ( grc, Γραῖαι; ; English translation: "old women", "grey ones", or "grey witches"; alternatively spelled Graiai and Graiae) were three sisters who had gray hair from their birth and shared one eye and one tooth among them. They were also called the Grey Sisters and the Phorcides ("daughters of Phorcys") (not to be confused with the three Gorgons, who were also daughters of Phorcys and were also called Phorcides). Names Their names were: # Deino (or Dino) (Δεινώ) # Enyo (Ἐνυώ) # Pemphredo (Πεμφρηδώ) or Pephredo (Πεφρηδώ) Etymology The word Graeae is probably derived from the adjective "old woman", derived from the Proto-Indo-European root , "to grow old" via grk-x-proto, gera-/grau-iu. Mythology The Graeae were daughters of the sea-deities Ceto and Phorcys (from which their name the Phorcydes derived) and sisters to the Gorgons.Harris, Stephen L., and Gloria Platzner. ''Classical Mythology: Images and Insights ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Sea Gods
The ancient Greeks had numerous water deities. The philosopher Plato once remarked that the Greek people were like frogs sitting around a pond—their many cities hugging close to the Mediterranean coastline from the Hellenic homeland to Asia Minor, Libya, Sicily, and southern Italy. Thus, they venerated a rich variety of water divinities. The range of Greek water deities of the classical era range from primordial powers and an Olympian on the one hand, to heroized mortals, chthonic nymphs, trickster-figures, and monsters on the other. Types Primordial powers Oceanus and Tethys are the father and mother of the gods in the ''Iliad'' while in the seventh century BC the Spartan poet Alcman made the nereid Thetis a demiurge-figure. Orpheus's song in Book I of the ''Argonautica'' hymns Eurynome, a daughter of Oceanus, as first queen of the gods and as wife of Ophion, first king of the gods. The pre-Socratic cosmogony of Thales, who made water the first element, may be seen a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Gorgons
A Gorgon ( /ˈɡɔːrɡən/; plural: Gorgons, Ancient Greek: Γοργών/Γοργώ ''Gorgṓn/Gorgṓ'') is a creature in Greek mythology. Gorgons occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary, the term most commonly refers to three sisters who are described as having hair made of living, venomous snakes and horrifying visages that turned those who beheld them to stone. Traditionally, two of the Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale, were immortal, but their sister Medusa was not and was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus. Etymology The name derives from the Ancient Greek word (), which means 'grim or dreadful', and appears to come from the same root as the Sanskrit word (), which means a guttural sound, similar to the growling of a beast, thus possibly originating as an onomatopoeia. Depictions Gorgons were a popular image in Greek mythology, appearing in the earliest of written records of Ancient Greek religious beliefs such as those of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaia (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants; as well as of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. Etymology The Greek name Γαῖα (''Gaia'' or ) is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic (''Gē'' ), and Doric (''Ga'' ), perhaps identical to (''Da'' ), both meaning "Earth". The word is of uncertain origin. Beekes suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Robert S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 269–270 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Theogony
The ''Theogony'' (, , , i.e. "the genealogy or birth of the gods") is a poem by Hesiod (8th–7th century BC) describing the origins and genealogies of the Greek gods, composed . It is written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek and contains 1022 lines. Descriptions Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is a large-scale synthesis of a vast variety of local Greek traditions concerning the gods, organized as a narrative that tells how they came to be and how they established permanent control over the cosmos. It is the first known Greek mythical cosmogony. The initial state of the universe is chaos, a dark indefinite void considered a divine primordial condition from which everything else appeared. Theogonies are a part of Greek mythology which embodies the desire to articulate reality as a whole; this universalizing impulse was fundamental for the first later projects of speculative theorizing. Further, in the "Kings and Singers" passage (80–103) Hesiod appropriates to himself the a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Hesperides
In Greek mythology, the Hesperides (; , ) are the nymphs of evening and golden light of sunsets, who were the "Daughters of the Evening" or "Nymphs of the West". They were also called the Atlantides () from their reputed father, the Titan Atlas.Diodorus Siculus. ''Library4.27.2' Etymology The name means ''originating from Hesperos'' (evening). ''Hesperos'', or ''Vesper'' in Latin, is the origin of the name Hesperus, the evening star (i.e. the planet Venus) as well as having a shared root with the English word "west". Mythology The nymphs of the evening Ordinarily, the Hesperides number three, like the other Greek triads (the Three Graces and the Three Fates). "Since the Hesperides themselves are mere symbols of the gifts the apples embody, they cannot be actors in a human drama. Their abstract, interchangeable names are a symptom of their impersonality", classicist Evelyn Byrd Harrison has observed. They are sometimes portrayed as the evening daughters of Night (Nyx) ei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaia
In Greek mythology, Gaia (; from Ancient Greek , a poetical form of , 'land' or 'earth'),, , . also spelled Gaea , is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother—sometimes parthenogenic—of all life. She is the mother of Uranus (the sky), from whose sexual union she bore the Titans (themselves parents of many of the Olympian gods), the Cyclopes, and the Giants; as well as of Pontus (the sea), from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. Etymology The Greek name Γαῖα (''Gaia'' or ) is a mostly epic, collateral form of Attic (''Gē'' ), and Doric (''Ga'' ), perhaps identical to (''Da'' ), both meaning "Earth". The word is of uncertain origin. Beekes suggested a Pre-Greek origin. Robert S. P. Beekes, ''Etymological Dictionary of Greek'', Brill, 2009, pp. 269–270 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oceanus
In Greek mythology, Oceanus (; grc-gre, , Ancient Greek pronunciation: , also Ὠγενός , Ὤγενος , or Ὠγήν ) was a Titans (mythology), Titan son of Uranus (mythology), Uranus and Gaia, the husband of his sister the Titan Tethys (mythology), Tethys, and the father of the Potamoi, river gods and the Oceanids, as well as being the great river which encircled the entire world. Etymology According to Martin Litchfield West, M. L. West, the etymology of Oceanus is "obscure" and "cannot be explained from Greek". The use by Pherecydes of Syros of the form "Ogenos" (''Ὠγενός'') for the name lends support for the name being a loanword. However, according to West, no "very convincing" foreign models have been found. A Semitic derivation has been suggested by several scholars, while Robert S. P. Beekes, R. S. P. Beekes has suggested a loanword from the Aegean Pre-Greek substrate, Pre-Greek non-Indo-European languages, Indo-European Stratum (linguistics), substrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
