Greek Gods - Artemis and Apollo

Zeus and the goddess Leto, daughter of Titans Coeus and Phoebe, bore two children who would rise up to take a place in the Olympic pantheon. The twins were named Apollo and Artemis, and their arrival in the world was not so simple.
Hera, wife of Zeus, was insanely jealous of Leto and sought to prevent the birth of Leto's two children. She antagonized Leto and sent a serpent to terrorize the goddess and stop her from finding a place to bear her children. It was the goddess Asteria who offered refuge to her sister on the island of Ortygia and there that Leto bore Artemis and Apollo.
Artermis was born first and immediately set about assisting her mother through the nine days of labor she endured to deliver her son Apollo. Leto's aunt, Themis, acted as caretaker to the twins, feeding them ambrosia and nectar, the food of the gods.
Apollo and Artemis loved their mother deeply and protected the safety and honor of their mother. On tale of Greek mythology tells how Artemis and Apollo prevented Leto from being raped by Titus in the grove of Delphi. Called by their mother, they attached the giant Titus with their arrows which rained down upon him and killed him in an instant. Zeus was outraged by Titus' actions and consigned him to Hades.
Another myth tells the story of how Artemis and Apollo killed all of the goddess Niobe's children when she boasted of her own children's superior beauty, insulting Leto. Though it's unclear if this was a defense of their mother or motivated by their own outrage.
At a young age, Artemis was told by Zeus to name the gifts that she desired. Artemis chose a bow and arrow, free reign of the mountains, a city to dwell in and eternal virginity. Zeus granted all these wishes. Artemis would come to be viewed as the virgin goddess of the hunt and wildlife. She was also seen as a protector figure of women in childbirth.
Apollo would become the god of archery, healing, music and youth. Greek mythology tells how Apollo took up the bow created for him by Hephaestus and pursued the serpent into Delphi where he killed it. Gaia was incensed at having her shrine, where the Oracle of Delphi resided, desecrated. Apollo was not punished for his crime and in time became the god of Prophecy, and the Oracle of Delphi became the Oracle of Apollo.
He would also become an influential god of music whose musicianship was unparalleled. Many challenged Apollo to contests of musical prowess, but all failed to best the god.
Apollo never married though he was definitely not an immortal virgin. He fathered more than a dozen children with many women both goddesses and mortals alike.
The twin god and goddess, Apollo and Artemis, were forever connected in Greek mythology. They are both expert archers and hunters who often enjoyed hunting together. They shared the capability of subjecting mortals to plague and pestilence as well.

Rob Mabry is a former military journalist, screenwriter, father of five and ecommerce entrepreneur. He owns Balance Bikes 4 Kids, the place to find a kids balance bike witha huge selection of balance bikes and wood bikes that help young children learn to ride a bike by focusing on mastering balance first.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rob_Mabry

Mythology's Extraterrestrial Gods: The Giant Cyclopes?

One of the major themes of mythologies around the world relate to the concept of giants. It's easy to extrapolate and super-size up the human body to giant proportions (Hollywood's done that a few times in Grade-B sci-fi flicks), and there are many tall tales and fairy tales/folklore about giants like the American Paul Bunyan or the kiddie favorite "Jack and the Beanstalk". However, while it's easy to imagine human giants, however, it becomes obvious pretty quickly that these giants can't be the case in reality without major anatomical alternations to the human physique.

Now let's say the average human is six foot tall. The maximum height for a human male is a fraction under nine feet; for a human female a fraction over 8 feet according to the "Guinness Book of Records", but humans much above 7 ½ feet are very rare indeed. 7 ½ feet and below isn't really giant-sized, just very tall. A real giant say is at least double the human average - say 12 foot high - and that and more is not all that uncommon in the mythological literature and all cultures have tales of people of exceptional size. However, most of the mythological giants tend to be under twelve feet - like Goliath cited as being somewhere from a bit under seven feet to just under ten feet.

The main problem regarding human giants is, if you double the height, and associated width and breadth as well, you increase the body's mass by a factor of eight. The person weighs eight times as much. However, the supporting structure, the cross-section (width and breadth) of the legs (muscle and bone) has only increased by a factor of four. So your legs are four times as thick, but they must support a weight eight times as great. If you triple the dimensions you have 27 times the mass, but only nine times the supporting area for that weight. A fourfold increase sees a massive increase in weight to 64 times normal; the supporting structure is however only 16 times greater. The ecological catchcry of 'limits to growth' takes on a new meaning here.

Thus, while human giants are grand Hollywood entertainment, films like "The Amazing Colossal Man" or "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" can't be taken for anything more than that - pure (put your brain on the shelf for the duration) entertainment.

So there are limits to growth. If some of the giants of mythology can't be human, and if they aren't purely figments of the imagination, then they are probably extraterrestrials.

It doesn't take too awfully long for giants to make their appearance on Earth according to the Bible.

Apparently way back towards the near beginning of all things, the Biblical 'sons of God' and the 'daughters of men' did their 'be fruitful and multiply bit'.

Now what's this 'sons of God' and 'daughters of men' bit? In Genesis 6:2 [New King James Version] we have: "that the sons of God saw the daughters of men; that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose."

According to the Old Testament [New King James Version], "There were giants [Nephilim] on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them." (Genesis 6:4). However, since these giants are the products of the sons of God* (who must therefore also be gods) and human women, these giants must only be demigods.

Now the 'sons of God' couldn't have been too giant-sized in their own right if they were to have their wicked way with the 'daughters of men', yet their giant-sized offspring were - well, giant-sized that is. Numbers 13:33 [New King James Version] states "There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight." If humans were like grasshoppers in size relative to the giants (the offspring of the 'sons of God' and the 'daughters of men') then something's screwy somewhere, unless either the 'sons of God' or their giant [Nephilim] offspring were shape-shifters. That something is screwy somewhere actually comes as no real surprise considering it's the Bible - the most contradictory text ever written.

Those other 'gods', the polytheistic deities, also spent a lot of time screwing each other and us humans. The sexual exploits of the 'gods' (especially the Greek 'gods') would put modern swinging and swingers to shame. The 'gods' were really quite a randy lot and not just the male 'gods' but a fair few of the fairer sex 'goddesses' as well. We're well acquainted with Eros (Cupid) and Aphrodite (Venus) as to their job descriptions.

For example, according to ancient Greek mythology, in the beginning there was the Earth Goddess Gaia and her son the Sky God Uranus who had a bit of a role in the hay together and produced not only the 12 Titans but also the Cyclopes trio of Arges (Bright), Brontes (Thunderer) and Steropes (Lightning-Maker). The Titans eventually went head-to-head with the Olympians (Zeus and company) for world (or at least Mediterranean) domination, but the Cyclopes, treated somewhat badly by daddy, all turned turncoats and helped Zeus defeat the Titans.

Now the Cyclopes were expert metal-smiths, and they fashioned the thunderbolts for Zeus, Poseidon's trident, and Hades' helmet of invisibility which played key roles in that epic war-in-heaven. The Cyclopes are said by the Roman epic poet Virgil to have been as tall as forest trees, so a height way more than 12 feet would not be out of order.

Now as gods in their own right (being the offspring of Gaia and Uranus), the Cyclopes are immortal (or quasi-immortal as nothing lives forever); but they, like most other quasi-immortal gods, well the various Cyclopes weren't invincible or invulnerable. In fact the Greek god Apollo bumped off our trio in revenge for Zeus killing Apollo's son with a thunderbolt that the Cyclopes had made for Zeus in the first place; Zeus then had to punish Apollo, but that's another story.

Odysseus did some major damage to the Cyclops Polyphemus (a second generation Cyclops fathered by the God of the Sea, Poseidon) in Homer's "The Odyssey", thus incurring the wrath of the Sea God who made Odysseus' life quite a miserable one for many years.

So why not consider Polyphemus purely fictitious? Well, "The Odyssey" is the sequel and companion volume to "The Illiad", and it was Heinrich Schliemann who had such faith in the historical accuracy of "The Illiad" that he used it has the historical text in which to find and uncover the apparent mythological or fictitious city of Troy. He did! So, if the "Illiad" isn't pure storytelling; perhaps the "The Odyssey" isn't either.

Now the Cyclopes are clearly too large to be based on the purely human anatomical plan. A real human the size of a forest tree would have to have leg bones made of metal or stone.

The one eye of the Cyclopes suggests something non-terrestrial. No terrestrial species has one eye, very rare mutations (called obviously enough 'cyclopia') aside.

The Cyclopes clearly possessed very advanced technology that enabled the Olympians to defeat the Titans.

Now more likely as not, the Cyclopes collectively were either an alien race in their own right and not literally the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, or the results of the 'gods' experiments in genetic engineering. The later makes the idea of a creation, of offspring, more understandable.

Now mother and son (Gaia and Uranus) weren't quite through producing giants. They actually parented another trio of giants, the Hecatoncheires, who had 50 heads and 100 arms/hands each! Perhaps these giants were again really the end result of some more genetic tinkering on the part of the 'gods'. Anyway, the Hecatoncheires were also treated badly by daddy, so they too ultimately joined forces with Zeus against the Titans. Daddy meantime came to a bad end having his private parts cut off, but again, that's another story.

As to the liaison between the Earth Goddess Gaia (mother) and the Sky God Uranus (son), well if they were both really extraterrestrials, then you couldn't expect their moral or ethical codes to mirror ours of necessity.

But the one-eyed creatures of mythology don't start and stop with the first and second generation of the Cyclopes of Greek (or Roman) mythology. While there's not room to make a detailed account of them all, there's the legendary Norse/German half-human character of Hagen who in a few accounts is one-eyed. Hagen is today probably best known for his role in the downfall and slaying of Siegfried in Richard Wagner's concluding opera of his epic Ring Cycle, "Gotterdammerung".

Then there's Balor of the Evil Eye, a god of death who was a king of the Fomorians, a race of giants in Irish mythology. Balor (or Balar or Bolar) had one eye in the middle of his forehead and you most certainly didn't want him looking at you! Fortunately, he too came to a sticky end at the hand of his grandson.

In conclusion, when it comes to giants in general or the Cyclopes in particular, we have yet again a universal theme in mythology. When it comes to mythology, my basic premise is that anytime you have near universal themes between wildly dispersed in space and/or time cultures, ethnic groups, nationalities, whatever, then you sit up and take notice that something more than just human imagination is at work.

*So Jesus Christ had brothers, presumably older and far larger brothers! The Big Question however is who was God's wife (or mistress) by which God fathered the 'sons of God', or does God reproduce asexually? Maybe there isn't a Mrs. God or she's kept well out of sight. God doesn't seem to be an equal opportunity player. His offspring are all male (J.C. and the 'sons of God'); so are his cast and crew (the angels) entirely male and he deals with males like Noah, Moses, Enoch, Abraham, etc. Even Adam came before Eve and those two only produced male offspring (which is another whole can of worms glossed over by the faithful). It would appear that the polytheistic gods are heads and shoulders above the monotheistic God when it comes to the status of women.

Science librarian; retired.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Prytz

Ancient Greece of Delphi

The fame and power of Delphi was based on its oracle, which was one of the oldest in Greece. Nearly all ancient authors mention it at some point, or record some story or incident relating to it. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to believe that we possess all the information we would wish to have, of all the details we consider necessary, concerning the procedure of divination at Delphi. A great many problems remain unsolved and numerous questions have not yet found an answer. We shall try, therefore, to set down as briefly as possible the results of recent research into the methods of divination at the Delphi oracle.

According to ancient tradition, Panassos, the eponymous hero of Mount Parnassos, discovered the art of reading auguries in the flight of birds: Delphos, the hero of the city Delphi, was the first to teach entrail-reading. and Amphiktyon, the hero of the Amphiktyony, introduced oneiromancy (dream-interpretation). We also know that there existed in the Delphic sanctuary a body priests named Pyrkooi, who could read auguries in the flames of sacrificial pyres. The Delphic myths mention the existence of nymphs known as Thriai - in ancient Greek this word denotes the pebbles used in divination; one can therefore assume that these nymphs were simply the personification of divination by lot. The Delphic myths provide clear enough evidence that every known method of divination was practised at Delphi. But Delphi owed its fame to the oracles delivered by the Pythia, who received direct inspiration from Apollo and spoke in his name; in other words, the god of divination himself delivered the oracle, using the Pythia as a medium.

The Pythia was a woman over 50 years old. She was not necessarily a , bur from the moment she undertook this highest of duties - serving the god - she was under the obligation to abandon her husband and children, to move into a house destined for her alone, within the sacred precinct, to be chaste and irreproachable, and to observe certain religious rules. In spite of her age, she wore the garments of a young girl, as a mark of the virginal purity of her life. We do not know how the Pythia was selected; but it is quite certain that she did not have to belong to a noble family, like the priests and priestesses who served at other Greek sanctuaries; nor did she have to go through special training or education. She was a simple, ordinary peasant woman, without any distinguishing mark until the moment Apollo allowed his inspiration to descend upon her. In the beginning there was only one Pythia; but when the requirements of the oracle grew more numerous, two more Pythias were added.

Until the Classical period, nobody had ever thought of questioning the Pythia's sudden -transformation and the fact that Phoibos spoke through her. All that has been written about the natural vapours emanating from the chasm in the sanctuary, or about the laurel leaves the Pythia munched and the water she drank is but an attempt to find answers to the mystery, at a time when the faithful began to lose their faith, thinking they could explain the divine miracle with the cold instrument of reason and encompass the supernatural within a recognizable human measure. However, the ancient Greeks were certain of one thing alone: the importance of Apollo's sacred tripod, in other words, his throne, which had once been equipped with wings and carried him across land and sea. Why had Apollo chosen such an unusual throne, nobody knew and nobody dared ask; nor have any modern scholars provided a certain answer to that question. It was upon this throne that the Pythia sat in order to become the god's instrument. It was enough for her to take Apollo's place, to shed her ordinary identity, fall into a trance and deliver the divine messages in a series of mysterious, inarticulate cries. But before the Pythia took her seat upon the tripod, it was necessary to find out whether the god consented to her practicing divination. A goat was therefore brought to sacrifice; but before sacrificing it, the animal was sprinkled with cold water: if it shivered from head to foot, it meant the god consented; if it did not, then the Pythia could not sit on the oracular tripod.

In early antiquity, before the 6th century B.C., divination took place only once a year, on the seventh day of the month Bysios (February-March), on Apollo's birthday. Later on it took place every month, again on the seventh day of the month, except for the three winter months, because during that time the god left the Delphic sanctuary in order to travel far away to the land of the Hyperboreans, conceding his place to Dionysos, who was worshipped next to Apollo in his own temple. On the sacred day appointed for divination, the Pythia was the first to visit at dawn the Kastalian Spring to cleanse herself. Then she burnt laurel leaves on the sacred hearth and immersed herself in smoke. Meanwhile the priests prepared the sacrificial goat; if the god gave his consent, the animal was sacrificed on the great altar - a dedication of the Chians - in front of the temple, and thus all the pilgrims knew an oracle would be delivered that day at Delphi. In the meantime, the Prophetai and the Hosioi (priests of both Apollo and Dionysos) and certain delegates from the township of Delphi also cleansed themselves in the sacred waters of Kastalia. Finally, all the pilgrims who wished to consult the oracle similarly purified themselves at the spring.

When everyone was ready, they advanced in a festive procession towards the temple, filled with awe and anticipation. Delegates from the cities (theopropoi) and private individuals stood outside the temple and offered the pelanos at the altar - a kind of consecrated bread sold on the spot at a high price, the pilgrims' first contribution to the sanctuary. Then they each advanced in turn towards the temple and placed a slaughtered animal as an offering upon the inner altar, where the undying flame burned. It was considered a great privilege to be the first to receive an oracle; this was known as 'promanteia'. The priority was always retained by the people of Delphi for their own city, but second place was offered as the highest sign of honour to cities and individuals who had proved worthy of it.

The Pythia was already seated on the tripod in the adyton or inner shrine. The Prophetai stood nearby, and the pilgrim - it could only be a man - sat in a corner at some distance from her, having already posed his question to one of the Prophetai, either in writing or orally. The Pythia, hidden by some kind of partition, was not visible to anyone. The Prophets put the question to her and she would give the god's response, deep in her trance. This was apparently unintelligible to others, but the Prophetes was able to comprehend it and write it down in hexameter verse; it was this written reply that was handed over to the pilgrim. The equivocal replies of the Delphic oracle have become famous in history; they were so obscure, so incomprehensible that additional divinatory gifts were required to interpret them correctly and avoid unfortunate mistakes. The case of Croesus is a good example: in answer to his question, the god said that if he waged war on the Persians, he would destroy a great power; he never suspected that Loxias (a surname of Apollo, meaning the Oblique One, because of the ambiguous replies he was giving) meant to convey that he would destroy his own kingdom if he fought the Persians.

Those nine days of the year when the Pythia spoke with the voice of the god must have had a tremendous impact on the pilgrims fortunate enough to be present in the Delphic sanctuary. Only a very small percentage of those who wished to consult the divine oracle had the privilege of receiving an answer within those nine days in the year when divination was performed. For this reason, since the Archaic age, most of the pilgrims' questions were answered in a different manner: by drawing lots. This kind of divination took place every day of the year, not in the adyton, but in public view; it was the most common method of divination as regards simple and concrete questions, that is to say questions that could be answered by a simple affirmative or negative. But when we refer to the Pythia and the celebrated oracles delivered at Delphi, we have in mind those great days, when the god himself let his voice be heard through the mouth of the entranced prophetess.

Among the best Athens Hotels are Athens Intercontinental Hotel and Electra Palace Hotel.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tryfon_Samaropoulos