According To Greek Myth, Women Were Created To Punish Men

As the story goes, when the god, Prometheus, gave the gift of fire to man, the word “man” was meant to be quite literal. Apparently, when mankind accepted knowledge of fire, humans only consisted of men, with no female counter-parts being, as of yet, in existence. Zeus, the arch-god of the Greek religious pantheon, disapproved of mankind’s possession of fire, and he decided to punish mortal men for their receptiveness to Prometheus’ gift. The retribution of the gods, so the tale goes, came in a familiar form for humankind—the first woman, Pandora. At the outset of creating this new lifeform, Zeus reportedly proclaimed, “To set against the fire I shall give them an affliction in which they will all delight as they embrace their own misfortune” (Hesiod, Works and Days, line 58).

Pandora’s name translates to something akin to “Allgift,” a fitting name as all of the gods on Olympus reportedly contributed in some way or other to her creation. Zeus personally drew up the blueprints for how Pandora would physically look, and he allegedly used the appearances of the goddesses on Olympus for inspiration. When Zeus finished representing his vision through the artistic medium of his choice, he left it to Hephaestus—the master craftsman of the gods—to bring Pandora out of theory and into reality. Hephaestus succeeded in this task, resulting in the creation of Zeus’ dream woman.

When Pandora was brought to life, she was tutored by the gods in various crafts and skills. For her personality and social skills, Pandora was taught the principles of charm, grace and seductiveness by Aphrodite, whereas Hermes showed her how to be cunning, and how to use subtle intrigue to get whatever she may want. Athena, for her part, gave Pandora lessons in daily skills that ancient Greek women would be expected to know, such as the craft of weaving. Athena further contributed to the effort by working with the Graces and Temptation to design Pandora’s wardrobe. They went all-out, clothing Pandora in golden jewelry, accentuated with garlands of flowers. When the gods finished building and instructing Pandora, they, themselves were awed at what they created. According to Hesiod, “Both immortal gods and mortal men were seized with wonder when they saw that precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage. For from her is descended the female sex, a great affliction to mortals as they dwell with their husbands” (Theogony, line 589-590).

In addition to creating the enigma that spawned the age-old saying of can’t live with them, can’t live without them, Zeus added to the punitive power of the first woman by giving her an extra item—a jar. In this jar, so the story goes, were many of the mortal woes faced by humans to this very day. As told by Hesiod, “formerly the tribes of men on earth lived remote from ills, without harsh toil and grievous sicknesses that are deadly to men. But the woman unstopped the jar and let it all out, and brought grim cares upon mankind” (Works and Days, line 90-95).

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Pandora by Charles Edward Perugini (1839–1918), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• https://www.theoi.com/Heroine/Pandora.html 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pandora-Greek-mythology 
• https://www.ancient.eu/Pandora/ 

Who Was The Eldest Of The Twelve Great Olympian Gods?

While there were many deities, spirits and minions known to the ancient Greek religious world, usually twelve were touted above the rest. The ranking of which gods and goddesses should be in the top twelve Olympians was frequently contested, but certain gods always made the cut. Ten Olympians without fail made the list: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares and Aphrodite. Fighting over the last two coveted slots on the roster of the great Twelve were four more well-known deities: Hades, Hephaestus, Dionysus and Hestia—who among them received a place in the Twelve depended on the location, preference and motivation of the myth-teller. These fourteen powerful and respected deities are difficult to rank based on sheer might and influence, but many of the ancient sources claim that, if the question is who is the eldest among them, one of the fourteen can be easily singled out for being the first to be brought into creation. Curiously, the eldest among the fourteen is not necessarily the strongest, nor the tallest, or even the most magically destructive. The eldest of the fourteen mentioned above, according to many sources, is not even a male deity.

As the original Olympians had children, several of the Twelve can easily be crossed out. Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes and Dionysus were the offspring of the original Titan-born Olympians. The second generation came from the original six Olympians, listed in order of birth—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus, all of which were born to the Titan couple, Kronos and Rhea. Before settling down to father this first generation of Olympian gods, the Titan Kronos had been involved in a gruesome crime which led to the birth of the eldest deity among the Twelve.

For the birth of the eldest, we have to go back all the way to the reign of the primordial deities, Gaia (Earth) and Ouranos (Heaven). They were the parents of the Titans, as well as the Cyclopes and the monstrous-looking Hecatoncheires. Ouranos feared his children, especially the latter two groups, and began imprisoning his offspring in the earth without Gaia’s consent or approval. Gaia, suffering abuse and witnessing the mistreatment of her children, plotted with the Titan Kronos to punish Ouranos. She gave Kronos a specially-made weapon that could harm the primordial god of the heavens. With this blade in hand, Kronos waited in ambush for an intimate time when the god of the heavens would soon press down on the primordial earth goddess.

Ouranos, unfortunately, soon felt the temptation and went to Gaia. Yet, instead of love or release, the god would only find Kronos with a sickle. Pulling Ouranos’ delicate bits with one hand, and swinging the blade with the other, Kronos castrated his father and tossed what he had severed into the sea. At the spot where the mutilated member hit the water, foam bubbled up to cover the waves, and out of that froth came the eldest of the Twelve Olympian deities—Aphrodite.

Of course, Aphrodite’s origin was disputed even in ancient times, and even though the tale of her emerging from the gruesomely-produced seafoam was the most commonly told explanation of her birth, the poet Homer instead proposed a less-popular theory that she was a daughter of Zeus and Dione. Even if this were the case, a goddess would curiously still be the eldest among the Twelve, for, with Aphrodite out of the way, the goddess Hestia would be the next eldest.

Written by C. Keith Hansley

Picture Attribution: (Social media crop Venus painted by William Blake Richmond (1842–1921), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod, translated by M. L. West. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988, 1999, 2008.
• https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.html 
• http://perseus.uchicago.edu/perseus-cgi/citequery3.pl?dbname=GreekTexts&query=Hom.%20Il.%205.370&getid=1

Homer Wrote A Tortoise And Hare Fable Before Aesop

By the 5th century BCE, a collection of fables featuring a cast of personified animals with moral tales to tell became associated with a legendary figure called Aesop. One of the few pieces of information that the ancients could agree upon about Aesop was that the storyteller likely lived in the 6th century BCE and that he supposedly was born in some Greek-associated region. Because of Aesop’s vague or unknown background, he is widely regarded as a semi-legendary, or possibly purely-mythical, figure. Whatever the case, somebody (or some people) wrote the timeless stories. These scattered fables, like the collected works attributed to so many of the ancient sages in East Asia, were probably compiled by students and fans, eventually resulting in a collection of Aesop’s Fables often called the Aesopica.

Of Aesop’s many fables, the tale of the hare and the tortoise is one of the most popular. In the story, a slow tortoise challenges a speedy hare to a foot race. The hare, confident in the disparity of quickness between the two animals, eagerly accepted the challenge. After the race began, the tortoise fell so far behind in the race that the hare decided to take a nap on the side of the path. The clever tortoise, however, calmly kept crawling along the race path, eventually surpassing the sleeping hare to win the race.

Interestingly enough, Homer wrote a similar story centuries before Aesop. Homer’s tale, however, did not feature animals, but instead pitted the lame-legged god, Hephaestus, against the spry and lusty god, Ares. The story in question takes place in book VIII of The Odyssey, beginning around line 260.

As the story goes, Odysseus met an incredibly talented bard named Demodocus in the blessed community of Phaeacia. While Odysseus was staying in the region, Demodocus took up a lyre and began to perform a song about an embarrassing scandal that occurred at the home of the gods on Mount Olympus. This was Demodocus’ story:

According to the bard, Hephaestus, the talented craftsman of the Greek gods, won Aphrodite’s hand in marriage after producing a series of wondrous presents. These gifts, however, were sent to Zeus, not Aphrodite, and the resulting union was an arranged marriage. Consequently, Aphrodite did not return Hephaestus’ affection and was predisposed to extramarital affairs, especially with handsome Ares, the god of war.

Unfortunately for Aphrodite and Ares, one of the ablest informants in the Greek pantheon, the sun god Helios, was a close friend of Hephaestus. Helios spotted the two lovers fooling around in broad daylight while he was doing his daily rounds. Helios immediately sent this information to Hephaestus, who, upon receiving the news, stormed off to his workshop with revenge on his mind.

Channeling his rage and sense of betrayal, Hephaestus constructed a metallic masterpiece of a net. It was made of chains so fine that they could not be easily seen by the naked eye, while also being strong enough that even the gods could not pull the links apart. With this net in hand, Hephaestus returned to his home and marched into his bedroom. There, he threw the net around the feet of the bed, and also hung other sections to the rafters. When the trap was set, the invisible spider web of chains weaved all around the bed, just waiting for some unsuspecting prey to enter the room.

With his preparations done, Hephaestus loudly announced to his wife and neighbors that he was leaving on an impromptu vacation to Lemnos. Hephaestus, however, did not go very far. Instead, he found a hiding spot and contacted Helios to keep an eye on his house.

Ares, for his part, was completely fooled by Hephaestus’ sudden departure from town. When he could no longer see Hephaestus, the god of war quickly rushed over to Hephaestus’ house, where he eagerly found his beloved Aphrodite. Within moments of their clandestine encounter, the two flushed lovebirds inevitably fluttered over to the bedroom. Yet, as soon as they lay down on the bed, their hearts, which had been beating with longing and anticipation, suddenly began to thump with a cadence of terror. As soon as they hit the bed—in whatever state of dress they were in—the trap was triggered and the net caught its prey. Like the tortoise from Aesop’s fable, Hephaestus caught his rival sleeping.

By now, Helios had already informed Hephaestus that Ares was in the house. Accordingly, the craftsman of the gods returned home where he triumphantly found his wife and her lover entangled in his net, which was so tight that the two inside where stuck exactly as they were the moment the net fell. After seeing that his trap had worked, Hephaestus sent word to all of the gods, calling them forth to witness the sad creatures he had caught in his net. The goddesses, who had an inkling of what they would find, decided not to go to Hephaestus’ house. Zeus and Hades also interestingly ignored the craftsman’s call. Yet, many other important male gods curiously wandered over to the house to see why Hephaestus was shouting.

Poseidon, Apollo and Hermes were mentioned by name as having entered the home to see the spectacle inside. The gods in attendance, all except Poseidon, immediately began laughing at the chained lovers on the bed and started cracking jokes about the situation. Between these eruptions of laughter, one of the observers commented:

“The tortoise catches up the hare. See how our

slow-moving Hephaestus has caught Ares, though no god on

Olympus can run as fast. Hephaestus may be lame, but he has

won the day by his cunning.”

(The Odyssey, Book VIII, approximately line 330)

After the other gods had made their jokes, the unimpressed Poseidon finally convinced Hephaestus to release the captives. After the net was undone, the lovers fled Mount Olympus in disgrace, with Ares huffing and puffing off to Thrace and Aphrodite going into self-exile at Cyprus, where the Graces tried to comfort the distressed goddess with gifts of new clothing and oils.

Written by C. Keith Hansley.

Picture Attribution: (Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan, painted by Alexandre Charles Guillemot (1786 - 1831), [Public Domain] via Creative Commons).

Sources:

• The Odyssey (Book 8) by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009. 
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Aesop 
• https://www.biography.com/people/aesop-9176935 
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Aphrodite-Greek-mythology  

Hephaestus’ Wife In ‘The Iliad’ Was A Different Woman Than In ‘The Odyssey’

(Relief of the Charites Aglaea, Thalia and Euphrosyne, from the island Paros, ca. 570–560 BC, [Public Domain] via Creative Commons)

In The Iliad, Hephaestus, the smith of the Greek Gods, has a wife named Charis. It is thought that this ‘Charis’ that Homer mentioned in the epic poem was the youngest of three sisters known as the Charites—Charis’ actual identity was likely Aglaia (or Aglaea), a goddess of grace, beauty and splendor.

The name of Hephaestus’ betrothed, however, changed in Homer’s second epic, The Odyssey. Within the lines of poetry describing the life of Odysseus, Hephaestus was no longer married to Charis, but was instead married to Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

So what happened? That is a question that is still unclear even thousands of years after The Iliad and The Odyssey were written. Hephaestus’ change of spouses between the two texts has spawned multiple theories as to what brought about the shift from Charis to Aphrodite. Some claim that Charis in The Iliad can be associated with Aphrodite since they were both goddesses of beauty. Others assert that the change in spouses only occurred because of Homer’s use of different oral folklore sources. Whether the change in Hephaestus’ marital status came about because of differences in the sources Homer used, or by an undetailed divine divorce, all anyone can do is theorize.

Sources:

• The Iliad by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by Peter Jones. New York: Penguin Classics, 2014.  
• The Odyssey by Homer, translated by E. V. Rieu and edited by D. C. H. Rieu. New York: Penguin Classics, 2009.