The Titans were a race of giant, powerful gods who ruled the earth before being overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians. The twelve original Titans were the descendants of Gaia, the Earth goddess, and Uranus, the sky god. Uranus was the son of Gaia but also married her, and together they created the first generation of Titans.

When Gaia was pregnant with her twelve children, Uranus trapped them within her womb, causing Gaia much discomfort. Cronus, the youngest, turned upon his father and castrated him, freeing Gaia to give birth to the children. With this act Cronus also established himself as the Titan king.

First Generation Titans

Cronus – The youngest of the Titans, this king earned his power by castrating his father. He married Rhea, who bore him children. However, fearing his safety, Cronus ate each one of his children as they were born.

Rhea was unhappy about the loss of her children, so she tricked Cronus into eating a rock when Zeus was born. Zeus was sent to Crete to be raised, but would eventually return to revolt against the Titans. Gaia helped Zeus gave Cronus a potion that caused him to regurgitate all of Zeus’ siblings. Cronus was viewed as destructive, and was the god of time.

Aided by the Cyclops and the Hecatonchires, Zeus won a ten year war against the older gods and banished many of them to Tartarus. Zeus became the king of Mount Olympus. Zeus eventually released them from Tartarus and made Cronus king of the Elysian Islands.

Rhea - Rhea was the goddess of motherhood and female fertility. She represented the flow of time and was the queen of heaven. Rhea became the wife of Cronus.

One myth says she helped Zeus by making a feast for Cronus, during which he became drunk on fermented honey. Cronus fell into a deep sleep and was taken to the cave of Nyx, or night, where he has slept ever since.

Iapetus - Iapetus is the only Titan mentioned in the Iliad. He married Clymene and was the father of Promethius, Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Atlas, who were ancestors of humankind.

Themis - The Titan of justice and order, she oversaw proper relationships between men and women. She built the Oracle at Delphi and was at Delos when Apollo was born. Themis coupled with Zeus and was the mother of the Seasons and the Three Fates.

Oceanus - Oceanus is the personification of the ocean. He married Tethys and together they produced all of the chief waters of the world. Their children included three thousand ocean nymphs. He is depicted as the river of water that encircles the world, never ending.

At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus he arrived with a fish and a serpent, representing bounty and prophecy.

Tethys – Tethys is the sea goddess who became the wife of Oceanus. She was the god mother of Rhea.

Hyperion – Hyperion married Theia, and is the Titan of light. Considered an early sun god, his children were Helius – the sun, Selene – the moon, and Eos – the dawn.

Theia – Theia was the goddess of shining light and sight. She was the wife of Hyperion and had an Oracle shrine in Thessaly. She is the goddess who bestows brilliance on gold, gems, and silver.

Crius – Crius fathered Perses and was the grandfather of Hecate. He also fathered Astraios and Pallas by joining with Eurybia.

Mnemosyne – She was the personification of memory. She slept with Zeus for nine nights, creating each of the nine Muses. Her gift to kings and poets is the power of speech and their special relationship with the Muses.

Coeus – He was the father of Leto and Asteria, and was the Titan of intelligence. Through Zeus and Leto he is the grandfather of Apollo and Artemis.

Phoebe – Married to Coeus, Phoebe was the Titan of the moon and of bright intellect. She was the third goddess to have the Oracle at Delphi, which she gave to her grandson Apollo on his birthday.

Following the war with Zeus and his followers, Oceanus continued to encircle the world. Phoebe earned the name “bright and shining” and was attached by name to Apollo. Those who had not fought against the Olympians became prominent figures on Mount Olympus.

Mnemosyne, Rhea, Hyperion, Themis, and Metis all had roles within the new society of gods.

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Persephone was at the same time the queen of the underworld and the representation of the fertility of the earth’s fertility. She was the goddess of the harvest, and possessed such great beauty that everyone wanted her.

Mythology

Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. As a young girl, Persephone had been pursued by the likes of Ares, Apollo, Hermes, and Hephaestus. Demeter hid her daughter from them among the gods of Olympus, where Persephone lived undisturbed for many years.

One day, Persephone was picking flowers in a field in Enna, in the company of nymphs, Artemis, and Athena, when Hades burst through a fissure in the earth and abducted her. With Persephone’s disappearance, life came to an abrupt stop and the earth began to wither.

Zeus was eventually able to persuade Hades to return Persephone, and he sent Hermes to escort her back. Before Hades released her, he tricked Persephone into eating pomegranate seeds, which bound her to the underworld where she was forced to return for one season each year.

Once Persephone had been reunited with Demeter, the earth was joyous and began to prosper. Flowers bloomed, grass grew, and the sun shone. Every year when Persephone was forced to return to Hades, the earth grew bleak and barren, and nothing would grow until she returned once again.

While she was the queen of Hades, Persephone found the music of Orpheus so incredibly sad that she agreed to release his wife Eurydice from the underworld. The only stipulation to Persephone’s gift was that Orpheus was not to look at Eurydice’s face until they had once again reached the surface of the earth. At the end of their journey, Orpheus broke his promise and looked back at his wife to make sure she was still with him, and with that she was pulled back into Hades forever.

During another of Persephone’s visits to the underworld, Pirithous and Theseus plotted to kidnap Persephone after agreeing they would both marry daughters of Zeus. They traveled to Hades, where they were offered a feast. When they sat down to eat, snakes bound them to their chairs. Heracles was able to travel to the underworld to save Theseus, but Pirithous was forced to remain in Hades forever.

When Adonis was born to Aphrodite he had been given to Persephone to watch over. Just as Aphrodite had been enthralled with Adonis’ beauty, so had Persephone been entranced by him. When Aphrodite asked to have Adonis back, Persephone refused. A quarrel ensued, which was eventually settled by Zeus. Aphrodite and Persephone agreed that Adonis would spend four months of each year with each of the women, and four months alone to do as he wished.

Persephone is the representation of the life/death/rebirth cycle, and many believe our observance of the changing of the seasons correlates with her cycle of moving between earth and Hades, as well as the cycle of Adonis’ time spent between Persephone and Aphrodite. For these reasons she is viewed by some as a goddess who represents the cycle of life.

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The Amazons were a race of warrior women who lived in a region known today as Turkey. They were known as Androktones, or “killers of men.” The Amazon name is derived from the word amazoi, which means “breast less” in Greek. It is believed they were given this name because they would remove the right breast of the young girls so as not to hinder the drawing of the bow.

In addition to the bow and arrows, the Amazons fought with swords, double sided axes, and carried a crescent-shaped shield. Their fighting was primarily from horseback and they were known to travel far from their homeland to fight.

Mythology

The Amazons worshiped Artemis, virgin goddess of the hunt, and Ares, the god of war. Once each year they would travel to a neighboring village to engage in sexual relations with the men in order to propagate the species and ensure their survival. When the babies were born, males would either be killed, returned to their fathers, or abandoned in the woods. The females were taken back to the Amazon village and raised as warriors.

Although they fought against Priam of Troy when he helped defend the Phrygians against an Amazon attack, they followed their queen Penthesilea to Troy and joined forces with him during the Trojan War. The queen was wounded in battle by Achilles, who is said to have immediately thereafter fallen in love with her great beauty.

Heracles traveled to the land of the Amazons to complete the ninth labor put upon him by Eurystheus, in which Heracles was to bring the girdle of Hippolyte back to Greece. The girdle had been given to the Amazons by Ares, and it was believed by many that the Amazons were descendants of Ares and Otrera.

Queen Hippolyta was killed by Heracles when he stole the girdle from her. Afterwards, the Athenian hero Theseus kidnapped the queen’s sister, Antiope, and took her back to Athens. Upon his return he married Antiope.

The legend continues by saying the Amazons went in search of their queen, and became embroiled in a fierce battle when they reached Athens. The famous battle scene between the Athenians and the Amazons has been captured in the marble carvings at the Parthenon.

While the Argonauts were traveling across the island of Lemnos they found only female inhabitants, ruled by Queen Hypsipyle. Jason and his men were invited to join the Amazon women and named the island Gynaikokratumene, meaning “reigned by women.” The Argonauts were told the men of the island had been killed during an invasion, and were invited to take the places of the husbands. Instead of taking the Amazons up on their offer, the men decided not to remain on the island. The Argonauts were unaware that the Amazons had killed all of the men on the island, and that they would have suffered the same fate had they remained. As the Argonauts sailed away, they realized they had narrowly escaped suffering a terrible fate.

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Pandora was the first woman in Greek mythology. She was created by Hephaestus as retribution after Prometheus stole fire from heaven. Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the god of craftsmanship, to create a woman whose descendants would torment all men.

Mythology

Hephaestus created Pandora from earth and water, and she was given gifts from the gods. Aphrodite bestowed beauty upon her, Apollo gave her the gift of music, and Hermes gave her the gift of persuasion.

Athena dressed Pandora in a silver gown and placed upon her head an ornate gold crown and an embroidered veil. She was adorned with garlands and then presented to the mortals, who were frozen in wonder.

In her hands, Pandora carried a jar filled with all of the evils of mankind – greed, vanity, envy, slander, pining, toil, sickness, disease, and pain.

Pandora was presented as a gift to Prometheus’ brother, Epimetheus, as a gift from the gods. Prometheus had feared Zeus’ retribution, and warned his brother not to accept the gift. Epimetheus ignored the warning and accepted Pandora, a name given to her by Hermes meaning “all gifted,” as she carried with her a gift from each of the gods.

Along with all of her other gifts, Pandora was given an intense curiosity. She had been told not to open the jar she held under any circumstances, but she wanted to know what was inside. She opened the jar, unleashing all of the evils held within into the world. She tried to close the lid, but was unable to put the lid back in place until after nearly everything has escaped. When she closed the jar, the only thing left inside was hope.

In his writing Works and Days, Hesiod writes this of Pandora:

From her is the race of women and female kind:
of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who
live amongst mortal men to their great trouble,
no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only wealth.

He continues on to say that no man can escape the evil of marriage, not even those who avoid marriage altogether. He ends by saying that a man may find a good wife, but still she will be beset by evil.

Other gifts said to have been bestowed upon Pandora included knowledge of weaving and needlework from Athena, grace and cruel longing that wearies a man from Aphrodite, and a shameful and deceitful nature combined with the power of crafty words and lies from Hermes. The Charities and Persuasion gave her the gifts of necklaces and jewelry, and Horae gave her the garlands. Her name was chosen by Hermes, because she was given gifts from each of the Olympians.

When Pandora opened the jar and unleashed all of the evil deeds into the world, the mortals realized it was the work of Zeus and that his punishment of the mortals was complete.

Epimetheus went on to marry Pandora and have many children with her. Their daughters were also said to be a curse to the good of mankind.

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Achilles has been described as the most handsome warrior to fight in the Trojan War. He was seen as a great hero and is the main character in the Iliad. Achilles was also the subject of great speculation with regard to his close relationship with Patroclus.

Mythology

Achilles was born in Farsala to the king of the Myrmidons, Peleus, and his immortal wife Thetis, a sea nymph. He was sent to Mt. Pelion where he was raised by a centaur named Chiron.

An ancient story by Statius claims that Thetis dipped Achilles in the river Styx, trying to make him immortal. The story goes on to tell that she forgot to dip the heel she had been holding him by, making it the only spot on his body vulnerable to attack.

Achilles was known as the only mortal man capable of experiencing extreme rage, which at times drove him into battle in order to seek revenge for a wrongdoing.

Many of the stories of Achilles are told during the Trojan war, of which Homer’s Iliad covers a few weeks. The story begins as Achilles refused to fight alongside the Greek forces any longer. He was angry at the Achaean commander for demanding that Achilles turn over Briseis to him.

With Achilles withdrawl from battle, the Trojans began gaining ground against the Greek forces. The Greek commander was blamed for making Achilles mad, which in turn was causing the Achaeans to lose ground to the Trojans. He sent Odysseus to try to bribe Achilles with gifts in exchange for his return to battle. Achilles refused and urged them to return to Greece.

Achilles finally relented and agreed to help the Achaean forces. He prayed to his mother that the Trojans could be defeated, although by this time the Greeks were teetering on the edge of destruction at the hands of the Trojans. Achilles consented to let Patroclus lead the Greek troops against the Trojan forces. Patroclus and his men were able to push back the Trojans, but was killed by the Trojan leader Hector.

In a rage, Achilles became a killing machine, seeking to exact revenge upon Hector. At one point Zeus had to have Achilles restrained to prevent him from taking on the city of Troy singlehandedly. Achilles finally found Hector, who had to be persuaded by Athena to fight Achilles rather than run from him. Achilles killed Hector, then dragged his body behind a chariot for nine days. The Iliad closes with Hector’s funeral, which takes place shortly before the fall of Troy.

Achilles had an affinity for boys, and had made advances toward a Trojan boy named Troilus. When Achilles was turned down by Troilus, he decapitated the boy inside the temple of Apollo. Troilus was killed just prior to his twentieth birthday, and myths told that should Troilus live past his twentieth birthday, Troy would be invincible. Apollo was enraged by the desecration of his temple, and swore revenge against Achilles.

Achilles was finally killed by an arrow, which struck his heel. Paris was the one who loosed the arrow, but many believe it was guided to its fatal mark by Apollo.

Following his death, Odysseus and Ajax competed for Achilles’ armor by telling why they were the bravest warriors, and therefore the most deserving of it. When Odysseus won the competition, Ajax lost his mind and went mad. After killing many sheep, believing them to be Greek soldiers, he killed himself.

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