Let's
talk about Hebe; the eventual wife of
the Theban hero turned god – Heracles. In Greek myth Hebe passes up cups of nectar;
which insured youth and beauty In Norse
myth Iduna passed out apples with the same affect. In Norse myth the Aesir and Vanir exchanged
hostages. In some societies, such hostages are brides. Could Hebe be such a
hostage? Heracles could have accomplished a lot of damage if he hadn't be
treated nicely and welcomed into the family and even adopted by Hera when
ascending to Olympus
We
wonder about Ares and Aphrodite's daughter Harmonia. Zeus weds Cadmus' sister Europa
and produces three long-lived demi-gods. After helping Zeus slay Typhon, Cadmus
weds Zeus granddaughter and they produce two divine daughters and two divine
grandsons. Were these cross-marriages an attempt to keep peace between the
Theban and Olympian deities?
The
Theban deities were actually offspring from the Cadmus-Harmonia marriage and possibly
became the cause for divine vendetta against Cadmus and his descendants. The
divine potentiality of the house of Cadmus in combination with Theban land to
breed deities does not seem to be apparent until after Harmonia was given to
Cadmus (and his sister Europa’s sons came of age.) There must have been much
alarm on Olympus, and then peace was kept by allowing Dionysus into the
Olympian family.
Dionysus
does not integrate well. We don't know any story of him having a divine friend.
In Homer, he seems to be a minor deity who does not dwell on Olympus or even
visit it. However, he returned
Hephaestus to Olympus, was rescue by Thetis (like Hephaestus and their mutual
father) and in one relief sculpture, Themis drops off Dionysus at the
Gigantomachy. You know that some source said that the first incarnation of
Dionysus (Zagreus) was scheduled by Zeus to be his heir - maybe this child was
"meant by destiny" to be Zeus' heir.
Oh
by the way, Dionysus rescued and wed Adriane, grand-daughter of Europa, sister
of Cadmus. Their mom was Telephassa, wife of Agenor. See the Divine Descendants of Telephassa
for further information
Telephassa is said to mean "far-shining". The same lady is
also called Argiope, "silver-faced" or "silver-eyed". Looks
like the Moon. The Greeks assigned very important descendants to minor lunar
quasi-deities such as Io and Telephassa. Some sources say Telephassa was a mere
mortal, or the daughter of Nile. (It seems that all mythological figures that
are even remotely interesting either descend from water deities or marry them or
both. You can see the family tree here listed under her brother-in-law’s
name. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belus_(Egyptian)
Libya,
granddaughter of Zeus and Io, has two sons, Agenor (husband of Telephassa) and
Belus. Both have a dose of divine genes, both marry daughters of Nile, both
live in far-away countries but their children are lured back to Greece. We all
know about the royal house of Thebes and Sarpedon's death at Troy. At the same
time, the fate of the sons of Aegyptus is rarely discussed. Whose plan were
their deaths? Of Danaus and his daughters, or of Zeus himself? It seems that 50
male and 50 female of divine ancestry were too many, and a drastic reduction
was needed.
Even
still two of the Theban gods made it into Olympus; four counting Dionysus’
mother Semele (Thyone) and wife Adriane.
This is part of a continuing series of articles passed on conversations between WilliamMoulton2 and Maya M.
