TFBT: Racism Among the Gods

Introduction 

Generally, the Titanomachy is looked upon as an intra-family struggle; the Olympians versus their second-generation Titan-cousins for control of the universe after the removal of Cronus from the scene.  I would like to suggest, that the war between the forces of the Iapetides and the forces of Cronides was racially-based. The premise for this paper is;  

“Among the Olympians there is a deep-set racial prejudice against the Pontides and by affiliation other water-gods.”

There is a precedent for such racial prejudice.  Jenny Strauss Clay observed “Gaia, whose lineage remains completely separate from that of Chaos – intercourse between these two fundamentally opposite cosmic entities seems impossible”.  The Fates decreed that some specific members of these clans could not meet. (Please see TFBT: The Divine Aversion to Death and Nyctophobia

The Titanomachy

In the beginning Earth, Gaia, produced the primordial god of the sea, Pontus.  Their children were the ancient sea gods of the Aegean and Mediterranean, among them Nereus and the great sea-monsters that frolicked there.  These are the Pontides.  Next, she produced Uranus, the starry sky.  Their children would include Cronus, future king of the gods and Oceanus, the personification of the great fresh-water river that encircled the world.  These are the Titans.  The Titans in turn were parents of the second-generation Titans including those latter called Olympians.    

Let’s leave out the gruesome details and just say there was trouble between King Cronus and his children the Olympians.  (According to Graves) when Cronus’ time had passed a family of second generation of Titans took over the leadership in their battle against the Olympians.  These were the four sons of Iapetus; the Iapetides.  These “mixed-blood” Titans took over the leadership of their cause; these were the sons of a water nymph rather than Titanesses. 

Gaia and Uranus were the proud parents of 12 Titans; six sons and six daughters.  Generally, Titan married Titaness with two exceptions;

·      Crius wed a daughter of Pontus, were born sons of mixed-blood great Astraios, and Pallas, husband of Styx, and the son-less Perses.  Several goatish giants named Pallas are slain by Zeus’ daughter Athena. None of the three sons of Crius are heard of after the Titanomachy and Eos (wife of Astraios) is husbandless.

·      Iapetos son of Uranus took to wife Klymene, daughter of Okeanos, And she bare him, Atlas, Menoitios, Prometheus, and Epimetheus.  All the Iapetides (sons of Iapetus) married Oceanides like their father did.  

These then are the major opponents to the Olympians in the power struggle called the Titanomachy, the sons of water nymphs 

Oceanus was one of the original Titans.  He is the Great River that encircles the world and defines the boundary of the universe.  . Oceanus is not of this world in many ways, which might explain his neutrality in the war that followed. None of his sons; the Rivers; second-generation Titans themselves participated in the war either.  All the Titanesses and Olympian goddesses took shelter on his banks during the ten year conflagration.   Nereus and the other sons of Pontus took no part in the war. The sole exception to the Pontides neutrality was the daughters of Thaumas: Iris and Arce.   

Mecone

Hesiod says at Theogony [881] that it was after the Titanomachy that the blessed gods “pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them…So he divided their dignities amongst them.”   The gods of the sea, great Thaumas and proud Phorcus, and their brother truthful Nereus seemed to retain their honors, but it is noteworthy that the Olympian Poseidon became “ruler of the deep, briny-swirling seas”.  Presumably all the victorious gods and their allies came to Mecone as they do to other divine gatherings; “There was no river that came not, save only Oceanus, nor any nymph, of all that haunt the fair copses, the springs that feed the rivers, and the grassy meadows. (Iliad 20.5)     

The Rivers

Oceanus’ Titan-brothers fade from view or end up in Tartarus.  He seems to remain a major deity. But he and his sons seem to be second class citizens as witnessed by;  

"Not powerful [river-god] Achelous matches his strength against Zeus, not the enormous strength of Oceanus with his deep-running waters, Okeanos, from whom all rivers are and the entire sea and all springs and all deep wells have their waters of him, yet even Okeanos is afraid of the lightning of great Zeus and the dangerous thunderbolt when it breaks from the sky crashing."  Homer, Iliad 21. 194 

Witness too the harsh treatment of Xanthus in the Iliad, “Asopus, heavy-kneed, for he was marred by a thunderbolt."[i] Ares threat against Peneus, Poseidon’s drying up of the Peloponnesian rivers, Apollos’……. 

In an odd way the Olympians treatment of the River Styx indicates an adversarial position between the two entities.  The goddess Styx is one of the Olympians first allies in the Titanomachy.   

"Nike, Kratos, Zelos, and Bia were born to Pallas and Styx. Zeus instituted and oath to be sworn by the waters of Styx that flowed from a rock in Haides' realm, an honor granted in return for the help she and her children gave him against the Titanes."  Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 9  

Being the oath keeper of the Olympians seems like a great honor, but you generally appoint a neutral third party to such roles.  Someone in this case who was not part of the Olympian circle.  Additional, her children all remain sterile and infertile.  There are no recorded grandchildren for the goddess Styx, widow of Pallas.  

Misalliance 

According to Hesiod, to Nereus and his wife were born in the barren sea fifty daughters greatly beautiful even among goddesses including “Ploto and Eukrante and Amphitrite and Sao, Eudora and Thetis…” (Theogony 240)  Thetis’ father Nereus was the proverbial “Old Man of the Sea” and son of Pontus the primordial sea.  In contrast most of the divine monsters in Greek Mythology are descended from Pontus.  In the same source Clay states the Pontides; “can be considered anti-gods.”    

Clay suggest that through “intermarriage, the Pontides are rapidly integrated into the Ouranid clan.”   The rapid part of intermarriage would consist of Poseidon taking Nereid mates to add legitimacy to his lordship over the sea.  In fact for all the talk of the Poseidon and Zeus competing for Thetis’s hand, none of the other deathless gods who lived upon Olympus chose a lover or a bride from this bevy of prophetic beauties.  In fact Thetis was married off to a second-rate mortal hero who lost a wrestling match to a girl.  Helios and Selene refused to attend, possibly as the most “skyish” of the Ouranides they most represent this racial bias against the children of Pontus.   

Water Gods on Mt Olympus 

Athena’s re-birth from Zeus head disguises the fact that she is the daughter of the water nymph Metis.  Athena put great effort in distancing herself from her watery ancestry going so far as to say she was totally for the father (Eumenides).    

 Hera was the foster daughter of Tethys (Iliad 14) and in turn she fostered Thetis (Iliad 24.59.  Hera was by adoption a water goddess. He calls Oceanus and Tethys      Hence her alliance with the vast non-symmetric sons and daughters of the Pontides. As a matter of face refers to Pontus’ nine-headed great-grandchild; “the evil-minded Hydra of Lerna, whom the goddess, white-armed Hera nourished.” 

“Thus were they gathered within the house of Zeus; nor did the Shaker of Earth fail to heed the call of the goddess, but came forth from the sea to join their company; and he sate him in the midst” (Iliad 20.12) It seems odd to mention Poseidon’s arrival and not Hades who would have come further, unless there was a possibility of Poseidon, a sea-god, not coming.  There seems to be a really dislike for Poseidon, King of the Sea as witness how commonly he was rejected as a city patron; Athens as judged by the populace, the Argos as judged by the local rivers, Corinth to Helios as judged by Briareus and Trozezen as judged by Zeus.  (The Fates gave him the island of Cos.)  

 "Achilles addresses his mother Thetis ‘You only among the immortals beat aside a shameful destruction from Cronus' son Zeus the dark-misted that time when all the other Olympians sought to bind him, Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene.”  Homer, Iliad 1. 393 ff 

Interesting that the rebelling Olympians are a water-god and two Oceanides

Conclusion  

There was racism on Mt. Olympus.  It is clear from the battle lines in the Titanomachy, the lack of new honors presented to the water-gods at Mecone and Oceanus refusal to attend, the subsequent abuse of the river gods and maintenance of distance between the Olympians and the river-goddess Styx, the abhorrence of intermarriage with the Pontides and the racially drawn battle lines in the revolt on Mt. Olympus at the beginning of the Iliad.  Apparently racism has been around for a long time and sadly you know what they say, “As above, so below.” 

PS

Maya,  Brought up the notion that the sea gods are “colored”  So I did a little research on; sea-blue Doris[i] , sea-green Galatea,[ii] Proteus’ sea-blue beard,&the sea-blue the Naiad Cyrene, [iii]Proteus, of sea-green hue,[iv] the sea-blue throng of Nereides[v], and ye too, Nereides, sea-blue horde of ocean,[vi]  Glaucus…bronze-green beard and sea-blue arms,[vii]  Zeus’ sea-blue brother Poseidon,[viii]  the wave-blue water-nymph Liriope, [ix] Father Ismenos with a dark-blue beard, [x] Arethusa her green tresses drying[xi]  and the sky-blue Tiber[xii]    All the sources for the “colored” water gods are Roman, not Greek.

To Bed a Sea Monster

“Who would go to bed with a sea monster if he could help it?” Menelaus asks rhetorically at  Od 4:443.  Of course the immediate answer was; he did,  laying down with Proteus.  If in fact the Cronides have an abhorrence to sleeping with “sea monsters” that is Pontides, Oceanides and other water gods, it might explain “Maya’s Law”.  

"And Prometheus had a son Deucalion. He reigning in the regions about Phthia, married Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora . . . Deukalion had children by Pyrrha, first (a son) Hellen...Hellen had (sons) Dorus, Xuthus, and Aeolus by a nymph Orseis. Those who were called Greeks he named Hellenes after himself, and divided the country among his sons” Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1. 7. 2 – 3 

Maya’s Law simple put states, “Zeus doesn’t like real women!”  By real women, Maya meant Greek women, descendants of Hellen.  These women being descended from a water nymph, it only make sense that Zeus would not mate with them.  Further analysis discovered that “Maya’s Law” more spefically meant that the Olympian male had a marked preference for Ionian and Barabarian women. Probably ones whose pure blood line were untainted by the ichor of Pontides, Oceanides or Posideon. 

  

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[i] Ovid, Metamorphoses 13. 742

[ii] ." Statius, Silvae 2. 2. 14  "

[iii] Ovid, Fasti 1. 363 ff   

[iv] Virgil, Georgics 4. 387 ff    

[v] Seneca, Phaedra 335 ff :

[vi] Statius, Silvae 3. 2. 1 ff :

[vii] Ovid, Metamorphoses 13. 949  

[viii] Ovid, Metamorphoses 1. 275 & 332  

[ix] Ovid, Metamorphoses 3. 342 ff

[x] Statius, Thebaid 9. 404  

[xi]

[xii] “ Aeneid 8

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[i] Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 75 ff (trans. Mair)

TFBT: Titanophobia

Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown


Zeus is the King of the Greek gods on Mount Olympus, but “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” In the first book of The Iliad the hero Achilles tells the tale of his mother the goddess Thetis rescuing the divine king from a conspiracy of Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athena. The poet Hesiod tells us about the second generation of Titans, sons of the elder gods revolting against Zeus (Bulfinch uses the word revolt). Of course, the victorious Olympians hurled the Titans into far Tartarus in the black abyss of the netherworld. Next “because of her anger over the Titans, Earth gave birth to the Giants “ After a battle so desperate that for the first time in Greek mythology the goddesses took up arms, the Giants were defeated. Next "Now after Zeus had driven the Titans out of heaven, gigantic Gaia, in love with Tartarus…bore the youngest of her children, Typhoeus." Typhon in turn was defeated.


Those Gods Beneath the World with Cronus Heard our Quarrel

So at this point you would think Zeus’ reign should be secure, but maybe the Olympians have reason for concern.
Starting in Iliad XIV there are several references to the Titans and their King Cronus bound in the world below. As Sara S at Hour 25points out Hera at Iliad XIV.275 swears by the Styx and “invoked all the gods of the nether world, who are called Titans, to witness.” Tritogenia at Hour 25 points out that Theogony 780 Cronion sends the goddess Iris to fetch a golden ewer of water from the dread Styx “when by chance strife and quarrel shall have arisen among the immortals” And finally “It is better for both that he (Poseidon) yielded to my power despite his indignation, before those gods beneath the world with Cronus heard our quarrel,” (Maya M. - Iliad 15.220 ) It is the goddess Iris who delivers the message to Poseidon and uses her own arguments to convince him of the wisdom of Zeus’ words. So it appears that the gods take care to minimize strife and quarrels amongst themselves invoking their most awesome oaths. IIris would be the joiner or conciliator, or the messenger of heaven, who restores peace in nature. In Statius’ Thebaid 8.42 “Hades speaks of “ the Giants, and of the Titans, eager to force their way to the world above, and his own unhappy sire”


　

　


Unbar the Bolts of the Darksome Hollows

So the gods had reason to fear their strife being overheard by the Titans and arousing them into revolt. They appointed processes and goddess to handle their quarrels and placed “warders” like Lord Hades and the Hekatonkheires, namely Kottos and Gyes; and Briareos, to guard them.

But how could they escape? Hera called upon them to help with the creation of Typhon and to destroy Zagreus. Colluthus in the Rape of Helen 48 says [Eris was furious at being turned away from the wedding of Peleus & Thetis :] Fain would she unbar the bolts of the darksome hollows and rouse the Titans from the nether pit and destroy heaven the seat of Zeus, who rules on high." Although it all sounds a little ludicrous and un-Homeric it does remind us that Zeus all on his own slew the jailress Campe and released the Hekatonkheires and Cyclopes from Tartarus.

In addition to the examples of Hera, Eris and Zeus releasing prisoners from Tartarus, we know mortals similarly escaped from Hades; Theseus, Semele and almost Eurydice.

Finally we can recall Thetis releasing Zeus from captivity. None of the rebel gods spoke out against her or took up arms against Briareus her faithful ally. But if she could release Cronion so easily, how much more so the Titans if she wished since Briareaus is the “trusty warder” of the Titans.

This might explain the silence around her rescue of Zeus. The gathered Olympians; rebel or loyalist could not make known “strife and quarrel … arisen among the immortals” for fear of the Titans.


Even Immortal Cronion Released the Titans
Wondering what became of the Olympians’ dread of the ancient forces lying beneath the earth waiting, waiting for the first falling out among the allies of Zeus in order to return to power themselves? The riddles is answer in an Ancient proverb used by Pindar in Pythian 4.2; “Even Immortal Zeus released the Titans” Hesiod places them eventually on the Isles of the Blest ( Works and Days 156 )and Aeschylus makes them free to be the chorus in the lost “Prometheus Unbound”.

TFBT: The Event at Mecone

“to see Mecone, the seat of the blessed gods, again

Where the gods threw lots and for the first time divided

The domain among themselves after the war of the Giants”

Callimachus, frag 119 Pfeiffer

 

Hesiod says at Theogony [881] that it was after the Titanomachy that the blessed gods “pressed far-seeing Olympian Zeus to reign and to rule over them…So he divided their dignities amongst them.”  Presumably all the victorious gods and their allies came sort of like other divine gatherings; “There was no river that came not, save only Oceanus, nor any nymph, of all that haunt the fair copses, the springs that feed the rivers, and the grassy meadows. (Iliad 20.5)   

 

 So all the gods came to Mecone except Oceanus, (too big I presume) and Helios, who had to work as it were.  Pindar says at Olympian Ode 7. 54   "when Zeus and the immortals made division of the lands of earth …But for Helios (the Sun) no lot was drawn; for he was absent”.  Helios was given the island of Rhodes with the Fates assistance.

 

At Iliad 15.187 Poseidon attests that he casts lots with his two brothers to determine their realms  I “won for my portion the grey sea to be my habitation forever, and Hades won the murky darkness, while Zeus won the broad heaven amid the air and the clouds; but the earth and high Olympus remain yet common to us all”

 

Presumably Zeus reaffirmed the traditional honors of the elder gods like he promised Hecate at Theogony [410] and reconfirmed promised honors like those give to Styx prior to the war (Theogony 383)

 

Finally Hesiod (Theogony 545) references “For when the gods and mortal men had a dispute at Mecone.”  The dispute was over which group got which portion of the burn offerings.  Jenny Strauss Clay offers a slightly different translation “In Mekone it was decide what is a god and what a human being”

 

Clay writes well and extensively in “Hesiod’s Cosmos” and “The Politics of Olympus”

TFBT: The God Demophon

(Dēmophōn) was nourished in the palace, and he shot up equal to a superhuman force, not eating grain, not sucking from the breast. But Demeter used to anoint him with ambrosia, as if he had been born of the goddess, and she would breathe down her sweet breath on him as she held him to her bosom. Homeric Hymn to Demeter 235-238

When I read “and he shot up equal to a daemon”, I recalled (Iliad 18) where Thetis says, “I gave birth to a son who was without fault and powerful conspicuous among heroes; and he shot up like a young tree.”  Thetis lovingly brought “forth a son, of strength mightier than his father, whose hand should launch a shaft more powerful than the bolt of thunder or the fearsome trident” (Pindar, Isthmian Ode 8)

Demeter was not in a loving mood. “ But grief yet more terrible and savage came into the heart of Demeter, and thereafter she was so angered with the dark-clouded Son of Cronus that she avoided the gathering of the gods” (HHD 90)  When Hera was once angry with Zeus, she too went apart from the gods and giving notice to the powers below prayed; “ Harken you now to me, one and all, and grant that I may bear a child apart from Zeus, no wit lesser than him in strength--nay, let him be as much stronger than Zeus as all-seeing Zeus than Cronus.’(Homeric Hymn 3 to Pythian)  The product of Hera’s terrible, savage anger with Zeus was the giant monstrous Typhon; conqueror of Olympus

Although Demeter appeared to be doing something good in the way she brought up Demophon, not all the gods’ gifts are freely given.  The Titan Prometheus was one of the sons of Iapetus.  These brothers led the second generation Titans in the war against the Olympians called the Titanomachy.  He ended up switching side, becoming the benefactor of mankind and the cause of Thetis’ marriage to Peleus.   In “Hesiod's Cosmos”  Jenny Strauss-Clay suggests that Prometheus gifts to us of fire and the best cuts of the sacrifice were not altruistic, but rather "presupposes a reciprocal counter-gift on the part of men, presumably their support of Prometheus in the contest between the Titan and Zeus" (p107)

The poets give no ulterior motive into Demophon’s baptism into ambrosia and fire.  But, what future did this terrible goddess, savagely starving mankind to death, angry with Zeus, standing apart from the gods intend when her foster son, the god Demophon, reached maturity?

 

 

 

TFBT: Symbolism in Greek Mythology

French psychologist Paul Diel wrote “Symbolism in Greek Mythology: Human Desire and Its Transformations” in 1966.  It was translated from the French in 1980. 

Diel references solar mythology early on, confounds the Titanomachy and the Gigantomachy, adds Medusa to the brood of Echidna, thinks Chiron was the only centaur with a name, believes baby Oedipus’ tendons were cut by his father, says Cerberus has two heads...

His un-referenced work provides interpretations of the classical myths that are more esoteric in nature than I am use to seeing in scholarly works.  But, that’s okay; I bought the work to learn new perspectives.  Early on Diel states, “…mythical explanation must follow a strict rule…This rule is:  never be satisfied with an isolated translation of a symbolic feature. The meaning of a symbol is considered to be substantiated only if the assumed meaning explains not only the myth in question, but all myths containing that symbol.”  I found that rule encouraging, but rarely followed. Rather Diel states the meaning and uses that definition throughout the series of myths he studies without further discussion.

Starting with page, Diel begins laying out his world neatly. 
·        The super conscious or spirit is represented by mountains, Olympus, the sky and the sky-gods. 
·        Consciousness and intellect occupy the earth. 
·        And the subconscious is “represented by monsters which emerge from the underground regions from a dark cavern, from a den…” and “monsters which rise the ocean depths.”

So;
·       “The radiant sun…becomes a symbol of the illuminating spirit."
·    “Intellect is symbolized by terrestrial fire”
 ·     And the “subconscious…where infernal fire burns.

The book then analyzes a dozen or so Greek heroes based on their futile attempt to become “sublime”.  As often happens with scholarly tomes, the greatest arguments are submitted at the beginning of the book. At which point you can look at the rest of the book as supporting arguments.  Or, and I’m sorry to have to say this, the accumulation of mis-information and false logic because such a burden in later chapter the exhausted reader sets down the book and walks away.  That’s what I did at page 125 of 208.

But along the way I read some interesting things;

Of Tantalus the author says, “A man cannot be “the guest of the gods” at every moment of his life.”  He says we shouldn’t even wish to live in that sublime sphere, but must be able to   “come down earth” to fulfill our earthly needs.  He also suggests that “Tantalus…offers this abominable food to the gods, (his son Pelops in a stew)because, wishing to become their equal but being unable to rise to their level, he tries to bring them (the gods) down to his own.”

Diel says, “(Phaeton) dissatisfied with being only the mortal son, means to play the god; he wants to become the equal of the divinity.”  Phaeton’s wish is to drive the solar chariot across the sky. “The horse is the symbol of impetuous desire…Helios begs his son to give up his immoderately exalted wish” but Phaeton “is reluctant to school himself according to the counsel of the spirit(his father a sky-god).”  “Just as he tame and controls the horse, man must be able to bridle his desires”.

Of the Earth Goddesses
·        Demeter represents the earth populated by man.
·        Gaea is the symbol of the undefiled and monstrously wild
land.
·        Rhea, the symbol of the earth over flowing with wildlife.

TFBT; Inspiring Burkert

I needed definitive information on Ancient Greek prayer and sacrifice.  There is only one place to go; Greek Religion by Walter Burkert.  .  Burkert follows the faith of the Hellenes from archaic and inspired to modern and mundane.  He enlightens the reader on the evolution of Greek religion from its misty Minoan-Mycenaean beginning, through ancient rituals and sanctuaries, past the divergent worship of the Olympian, Heroic and Chthonic, on to the impact of cities, mysteries and philosophy. 

All this might seem like too much information and suggest a dry rush of the finish line, but Burkert’s prose often dallies in the sublime.  As in; “they speak of the towering heights, the rocky cliffs of Delphi and the sweet charm of sacred groves with their rustling leaves, singing birds and murmuring brooks…If ever a breath of divinity betrays some spot as the sphere of higher beings, then this is evoked by the institutionalized cult.”

Gods

 

Along with his explanation of the basic forms of sacrifice he enlightens us with further asides. Like mentioning that, sacrificial animals are; sheep, ox, goat and pig.  Ass and horse are excluded because they are late arrivers to Greece.  This answers in my mind the odd occurrence of horse sacrifice.  Though I still have to wonder if cost didn’t have something to do with it.  And explaining that “what is important is not that the libation reaches its destination, but that the offerer surrenders himself to the higher will in the act of serene wastefulness…What distinguishes the outpouring from other gifts of food is it’s irretrievability; what is spilled cannot be brought back.  The libation is there the purest ad and highest form of renunciation. “  

We learn a lot about the gods in general and their attitude;

·        It would be a grievous matter to rescue all the race and offspring of men.

·        the beds of the immortals are never barren - every act has issue.

·        the archaic smile becomes the gesture of sublime inevitability

·        the inextinguishable Homeric laughter of the blessed gods;

·        (In the Iliad) the gods join battle with one anther but this is no more than a harmless farce...an expression of the unique , unconstrained natural sublimity of the gods. 

·        The gods are and remain the Stronger Ones. 

Of Zeus he observes; the tragedians did not present him on stage.  And quotes for the reader’s pleasure Thetis’ visit to Zeus in the Iliad;  

“He spoke; and with blue-black brows the son of Cronus nodded,

And the ambrosial locks of the ruler flowed, waving

From his immortal head; he shook great Olympus” 

Of Apollo, “The colossal cult statue of Apollo on Delos held the three Charites, the Graces in his right hand and the bow in his left hand: according to …Callimachus, this signified that the favor of the god is prior to and stronger than the destructive power.”   “In the sixth century the temple at Delphi was engraved with… gnothi sauton, know thyself…not intended in a psychological sense or in the existential-philosophical sense…but in an anthropological sense; know that you are not a god.” “It seemed from a time to be firmly established that Apollo was an Asia Minor or specially a Lycian god… and besides he is an enemy of the Greeks in the Homeric Greek.”  “ That Delphi manifestly failed to foresee the Greek Victory in the Persian Wars and all to clearly recommended surrender badly damaged its reputation.“

Burkert jokingly refers to  “Hephaestus, the violent obstetrician”  in reference to Athena’s birth.  An odd little aside here (and there will be plenty more listed later) is  “The craftsman god becomes the model of the all-fashioning creator: perhaps the Iliad poet was also thinking of himself in this image.”  Is this to suggest that Homer was blind and lame? 

In referencing Hades during the Titanomachy a touch of the poet comes out in Burkert again, “During the battle of the gods, Hades leaps from this throne and roars in terror least the earth break open and his realm be exposed to the light...as when a stone is overturned revealing putrefaction and teeming larvae.” 

Heroes 

Burkert does a masterful job of handling that twilight realm between Olympian and Heroic worship; where demi-gods become immortals and the historic realm where Olympic athletes  and Athenian poets gain heroic honors.  The greatest example of man to god, Olympian god is of course Heracles.  Burkert recognizes that “Heracles contained the potential to shatter the limits of Greek Religion.”  Adds that, “Heracles cults are spread throughout almost the entire Greek world - Crete is the only notable exception.”  Then shares that "when the Cretans show a Grave of Zeus it only serves to prove that they are liars."   Some of his numerous examples of historic men to heroes include; “Temesa where every year the most beautiful maiden had to be taken to the (sanctuary of the local) Hero to be deflowered until the (three time boxing champion at the Olympics)  Euthymos appeared and overpowered him.  And also tells us that, “Sophocles offered shelter to the god (the recently introduced Aesculapius) in his own house until the temple was built and this brought heroic honors on Sophocles himself." 

Men 

Of men, Burkert tells us; “Thebes was destroyed about 1250 B.C”  a little historical tidbit I never heard definitively.  He says, “at Plataea (they) remained...for ten days because the omens... did not advise either side to attack. "  And that “ After the battle of Plataea, the Greeks all decide to fetch new fire from Delphi."  And that in the hubristic golden age to follow; "the Acropolis cost the city of Athens no more than did two years of the Peloponnesian War.” And finally he mentions that  “A god bewailed as dead, such as Adonis is always felt to be foreign. (to the Greeks)”   Hence, “  The dismemberment of Dionysus (Zagreus) …was consciously kept secret…because of the uneasiness of speaking in the light of day about the death of a god.”  “Among the Greeks: to doubt the arts of divination is to fall under suspicion of godlessness." With a  touch of humor he adds (based I assume on the similarity between the Greek word for rampart and that for veil) that  “to conquer a city is to loosen her veils”  

Superstition 

Of superstition Burkert reports; “ For a distinction between chance and causal nexus there is at first neither theory nor methods; experiments can scarcely be risked.  Furthermore the gain in confidence which the signs bring as an aid to decision-making is not  so considerable that occasional falsification through experience does not tell against them.. .” The observation of the flight of birds…whether from right or left, is always of significance…right – good, left – bad is unequivocal; as a rule the seer faces north.   “Faith in signs can persist without religious interpretation  as superstitions.”  Examples are;

·        "Hesiod...warns against crossing a river without washing wickedness and one's hands."

·        "A cult image or sanctuary must always be given a  friendly greeting...even if one is simply passing by.”

·        "a sudden burst of flame from the altar fire is seen as a sign of divine presence"

·        "Pythagoreana: they could not only hear daemons, but even see them…( they were;) “not to poke the fire with a knife; not to step over a broom…not to look into mirror by light…"    The taboos listed hear strike me as odd since a number of them are taboos associated with witches ad vampires. 

Odds and Ends 

·        He mentions, ”The tree marks a sanctuary, is surrounded by a sacral enclosure and is sacred; but when a procession approaches the tree the anthropomorphic goddess is enthroned beneath it.”  “The Acropolis…the enclosed olive tree in the precinct of the Dew Goddess”.  I am reminded that this is an archetypal image, like the High Priestess in the Rider-Waite tarot deck or Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3.6)

·        Speaking of Artemis of Ephesus, he mentions “A society of men, set apart for a year and bound to sexual abstinence…they are called essenes.”  This sounds oddly like the Essene on the shores of the Dead Sea, but clearly couldn’t be.

·        “It is open to question whether the early Greeks ever had a chance to see a live lion.”  A quick Google search came up an unreferenced date of  100 A.D. for the last lion in Greece.

·        “On Mt Ida near Troy cornel-cherry trees growing in the grove of Apollo were cut down by the Greeks to make the Wooden Horse.”

·        “Birth, choes (the jug you drink wine from the first time), ephebia and marriage  these were the milestones in life.  An infant who had died had a little choes jug placed in its grave to make up for what it had missed.”  I went to see a performance of Antigone recently and in the final act I was probably the only person in the audience who understood why the title character wore a wedding dress.  

Walter Burkert built a wonderful review here of gods, heroes and men.  The book is well researched and beautifully written.  Whatever your particular interest in Greek Religion you will find it here in clear prose, moving poetry and interesting bits of knowledge.