Wednesday, April 28, 2010

13 Characters from the Greek Myths TT #39

 

Today’s TT will be 13 characters from this book; Heroes, Gods and Monsters of the Greek Myths by Bernard Evslin.

I enjoyed the book so much and loved reading and finding out more about these characters, so I thought I’d feature them this TT. =)

So…

 

  1. Zeus: The king of the Gods who poisoned his father, Cronos, to released his brothers and sisters that Cronos swallowed, and led an army against Cronos to dethrone him.
  2. Poseidon: One of Zeus’ brothers, the God of the Sea. It’s said that he created the dolphins to appease one of his lover’s jealous rage, and the horse to give to Demeter so that she would accept his pursuits.
  3. Hades: One of Zeus’ brothers, the eldest, and the God of the Underworld. He kidnapped Demeter’s daughter, Persephone, to be his wife.
  4. Persephone: She was kidnapped by Hades, and tricked into eating 6 pomegranate seeds. Zeus ruled that she had to spend a month with Hades in the Underworld for every seed she ate.
  5. Arachne: She was a very talented weaver until she displeased the Goddess Athene when she said she could weave better than her. After she lost a weaving competition with Athene, she was turned into a spider, to weave her webs for eternity.
  6. Echo: Trying to save Zeus from Hera’s wrath, she lied to Hera and when Hera found out, she cursed Echo to forever only be able to repeat the last words that anyone says to her. Until today, we can still sometimes hear her repeating the last words we say. 
  7. Narcissus: He broke Echo’s heart when he spurned her, and because she was Aphrodite’s favorite, Aphrodite vowed that Narcissus will fall in love with someone who will never love him back. He fell in love with his own reflection by the river, and spent his days rooted by the river always staring at his own reflection.
  8. Perseus: Zeus’ son from one of his affairs with a mortal woman, he slayed Medusa and saved his mother from a lecherous old king who wanted her as his wife.
  9. Pandora: She was actually a gift given to the brother of Prometheus, who stole fire from the sun and gave it to humans. When she opened her wedding gift, a beautiful golden box that Hermes gave her, she let out all the evils that haunt mankind.
  10. Midas: A greedy king who had more gold than he needed and wanted more, Apollo decided to grant his wish that everything he touch turns to gold. He was not as upset over his daughter turning into gold, as he was about not being able to eat because everything that touched his lips turned into gold too.
  11. Theseus: The son of Poseidon from an affair with a mortal woman, Theseus was small but very intelligent. With his wits and using his enemies’ strength against them, he managed to kill the dreaded Minotaur.
  12. Orpheus: He was a musician whose music hypnotized audiences. When his wife, Eurydice, died, he went to Hades to begged that she be returned to him. Hades was so moved with Orpheus’ music that he agreed on the condition that Orpheus couldn’t look back to see if Eurydice followed him.
  13. Daedalus: Lesser known in the Greek myths, Daedalus was Icarus’ father, who made the wings that killed his son. They were trying to escape from their prison, the Minotaur’s labyrinth, which was also Daedalus’ creation on the request of the king.
     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had a lot of fun reading about the Greek myths, and I only wish there was more! I hope you enjoyed this week’s TT. =)

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