Intro to Greek Mythology

If you’re from North America, you’re probably at least passingly familiar with Greek mythology. The influence Greek culture has had upon the world, but notably North America, is fascinating. We have been inspired by Greek architecture, sculpture, politics, drama...the list goes on. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that the names of the Greek gods and demigods are familiar to us. I grew up watching the Ray Harryhausen movies with my dad; to this day, Jason and the Argonauts is one of my favorite movies. More recently, Clash of the Titans was remade with Liam Neeson as a glorious Zeus. 300 brought the Spartans of Greece to the big screen. Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series introduced Greek mythology to a new generation. Troy showed part of the story of the Iliad.
Despite the saturation of our culture by Greek mythology, not everyone knows all of the pantheon. Beyond the pantheon lie the innumerable demigods, who are as important to the myths as the gods are. That having been said, lets take a look at some of the major players in the Greek myths.

First and most important is Zeus. Zeus is king of the gods. He rules over the skies and is responsible for lightning and thunder. Zeus is to blame for a ton of the demigods that are born, since he is incapable of staying faithful to his wife, Hera - who is, ironically, the goddess of marriage.

Also important is Hades, god of the dead. He is Zeus’ brother, and arguably is more important, since he rules over all those who have ever died. The Greeks rarely talked about Hades, since death was something they feared, but he is never depicted as evil. Hades had a job to do, and he got it done, however unpleasant the task was.

Greek mythology is interesting in that it has a female goddess of war - Athena. This is intriguing because Greek women were afforded very few rights, and certainly could not go off to battle - but apparently the same rules did not apply to this goddess. Athena shares the reign of war with the male god Ares, but each represents a different aspect of battle. Ares rules over ruthless, brutal war, whereas Athena represents intelligent, tactical warfare. She is also the goddess of wisdom, and one of the goddesses of virgins.

There are other members of the pantheon that we’ll talk about in future posts, but for now I’d like to focus on the demigods. Demigods are the children of a god and a mortal, and are the heroes of the Greek myths. They slay monsters, save damsels, and often face tragedy in their lives. They occupy almost as many of the myths as the gods do. The Greeks named a lot of their constellations after these demigods and their stories. If a demigod’s father is Zeus, a jealous Hera almost always tries to make their life a living hell.

Perhaps the most famous demigod is Achilles, for whom a part of our heel is named. The son of a minor sea goddess and a mortal, Achilles was the hero of the Iliad, a written account by Homer of the oral stories of the Trojan War. If you’ve seen the movie Troy, let me tell you that Brad Pitt is not nearly whiny enough for the role of Achilles. Seriously. The “hero” of the Iliad is more whiny than Luke in the first Star Wars! Whiny, emo Anakin Skywalker comes close, but still falls short of Achilles.

We’ll talk more about these characters and more in later posts. For now, please put questions or comments below, and feel free to email me! Next post I’ll be talking about Zeus, and his inability to not sleep with a pretty lady.