Ra was regarded as the creator of everything, the god of the sun. Ra is usually represented with the body of a man and the head of a hawk, holding an ankh & sceptre. The chief location of Ra worship was Heliopolis (a Greek word meaning city of the sun).

Horus: The ancient Egyptian god of the sun, son of Osiris and Isis, represented as having the head of a hawk or falcon.
Osiris: One of the principal divinities of Egypt, the brother and husband of Isis. The god of the underworld and judge of the dead.

Isis: The principal goddess worshiped by the Egyptians. She was regarded as the mother of Horus, and the sister and wife of Osiris. The Egyptians adored her as the goddess of fecundity, and as the great benefactress of their country, who instructed their ancestors in the art of agriculture.

Re - (Ra)
Egyptian sun god and creator god. He was usually depicted in human form with a falcon head, crowned with the sun disc encircled by the uraeus (a stylized representation of the sacred cobra). The sun itself was taken to be either his body or his eye. He was said to traverse the sky each day in a solar barque and pass through the underworld each night on another solar barque to reappear in the east each morning. His principal cult centre was at Heliopolis ("sun city"), near modern Cairo. Re was also considered to be an underworld god, closely associated in this respect with Osiris. In this capacity he was depicted as a ram-headed figure.

By the third millennium B.C. Re's prominence had already become such that the pharaohs took to styling themselves "sons of Re". After death, the Egyptian monarch was said to ascend into the sky to join the entourage of the sun god. According to the Heliopolitan cosmology, Re was said to have created himself, either out of a primordial lotus blossom, or on the mound that emerged from the primeval waters. He then created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), who in turn engendered the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut. Re was said to have created humankind from his own tears and the gods Hu (authority) and Sia (mind) from blood drawn from his own penis. Re was often combined with other deities to enhance the prestige of the latter, as in Re-Atum, Amun-Re, or in the formula "Re in Osiris, Osiris in Re".

Site Guide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Topics

Introduction
Akhenaten
Nefertiti
Aten
Akhetaten
Art
Literature
Digging
Glossary

Features

New & Cool
Bookshop
Discussion
Events
Postcards

Further

Web Links
References
For Students
For Teachers
Re-Creation
FAQ

Misc

Welcome
Guest Book
Site Map
Thanks
Email me

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Search Site

powered by FreeFind

The Aten - The Sun Disc

The Aten is shown here reaching down with rays in the form of hands to touch Nefertiti and Akhenaten.

Ra lives, the ruler of the horizon, rejoicing in the horizon in his aspect of Ra the father who returns as the Aten

- later reading of the name of the Aten, appearing in the ninth year of Akhenaten's reign
The Aten was not a new invention of Akhenaten - rather, it was portrayed as a sun disc even in his father's time. It has been identified with various pharaohs in previous times, and it has even be argued that Akhenaten equated the Aten with his father, Amenhotep III. Others believe Akhenaten hated his father, as he removed his name from monuments when he took power.

Armenian:
Mihr
Mehr
Meher

Aztec:
Tonatiuh
Huitzilochtli

Basque:
Lur
Ekhi
Eguzki

Bella Coola:
Alk'umta'm

Celts:
Lugh

Chinese:
Ten Suns

Egyptian:
Horus
Horus Harmenti
Horus Harakte
Horus Bahdety
Horus Harmakhis
Horus Haroeris

Estruscan:
Cautha

Fon:
Lisa

Greek:
Apollo

Hindu:
Dhatar
Ansoi
Surya Dev
Garunda
Vivasvat

Hittite:
Arinna
Ariniddu
Arinnitti
Warusemn
Istaru

Hurrite:
Smimigi

Inca:
Inti
Punchau

Inuit:
Malina

Japanese:
Wakahiru-me
Hiruko
Amaterasu
Marisha-Tzn

Mamairuan:
Kuat

Mayan:
Ah Kin
Kinich Ahua
Mayan:
Kinich Kakmo
Ah Kinchil

Navajo:
Tsohanoai

Norse:
Freyr

Polinesian:
Maui

Pueblo:
Tawa

Roman:
Apollo

Seran:
Tuwak

Slavs:
Radogast

Sumerian:
Shamash

Tibetan:
Kyun-gai mGo-can

Ugaritic:
Shapash

Uratian:
Siwini

Greek tradition contains many stories similar to those of the first eleven chapters of the Bible: legends of a "Golden Age", like that of Eden, which ended through the first woman's disobedience; characters resembling Cain and the sons of Lamech from Genesis 4; Stories of a great flood and a "Noah," The Greeks also had traditions of mass migrations throughout the eastern Mediterranean shortly after their great flood. These stories have passed down to us through the often conflicting genealogies of the many early Greek states. Such is their similarity to Scripture that these legends must have been rooted in the same events described in Genesis 1 to 11.

Biblical Model Resolves Contradictions
Many apparent contradictions in Greek mythology are resolved through a Biblical interpretation, The classical writers and most mythologists since have assumed they could erect a chronology of these myths merely by adding up the names of the various kings cited by the various kinglists. As a result we find four generations allotted to what many archaeologists now believe is over 2,000 years of Trojan history. Similarly, while most Greek accounts stress a single great flood, at least three flood dates can be compiled from the various genealogies. From a Biblical perspective it seems obvious that the true key to mythic chronology lies not in adding up kinglists, but rather by starting from the event most common to all genealogies: the flood. Ancient Greek traditions of their beginnings easily break into preflood, flood and postflood eras. For the most part these traditions contain striking parallels to the corresponding Biblical era. One area where this is not true is the Greek belief that their nation was occupied from preflood times to the present and here, once again, the Scriptural model resolves many discrepancies. For example: an obscure tribe called the Leleges were cited as the original inhabitants of the Greek states Laconia, Boetia, Euboea and Arcarnis.1 This means that the Leleges lived before the flood, but other myths refer to their creation immediately after the flood.2 In a similar fashion the southern Greek city of Argos had traditions of seven kings who ruled it before the flood and of its foundation by an immigrant four generations after the flood.3 Such discrepancies appear to reduce Greek tradition to gibberish, but easily harmonise with a Scriptural model of history: When Greece was colonised after the flood the immigrants brought their own historical notions with them and, in time, these stories were recast in Greek settings. Later generations were faced with a chronological nightmare as they attempted to harmonise the many differing accounts, but the key lies in Genesis I to 11.

The Greek Fall Story
Both Greek tradition and the Bible mention the fall of the first human couple from paradise. The Greeks believed that men originally lived "like the gods": free from disease, sorrow or work. Then the first woman was made and, together with her husband, entrusted with a jar that was not to be opened. As long as the couple obeyed the "Golden Age" lasted. But the woman's curiosity finally overcame her and she decided to peek inside. As Eve's eating of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3) resulted in the expulsion of mankind from paradise and the entrance of death to the world, the Greek woman's peek ended the "Golden Age" and allowed all this world's evils to escape out of the jar.4

The "Ungodly Line" in Greek Tradition
Various attributes of the scriptural family of Cain (Genesis 4) appear in Greek myths of the preflood era. The southerly genealogies of Argos and Arcadia seemingly allude to Cain in their accounts of one of mankind's second generation who founded the first city and performed the first sacrifice. The Arcadian account repeats the Biblical theme of this man's evil and his committing murder;5 the stories from Argos are reminiscent of a Hebrew legend that Cain established the first market6. The chief Greek god Zeus appears to be a preflood Biblical character named Lamech. While Genesis 4:19-22 describes the three sons of Lamech as the inventors, respectively, of cattle herding, the lyre and pan pipes (NAS) and forging of bronze and iron implements, these same accomplishments are paralleled by Zeus' sons (the sun god) Apollo, (the messenger god) Hermes and (the blacksmith god) Hepaistos7. That the Greeks should elevate the memory of Lamech to such heights is understandable when we consider the immense innovations of his sons (presumably carried out during his majority) and the position implied by the literal translation of Lamech: "powerful"8,

The Flood
The flood of Greek tradition was as singular and as shattering an event as that of the Bible. As one account states; "All men were destroyed except for a few who fled to the high mountains of the neighbourhood. It was then that the mountains of Thessaly parted and that all the world outside the Isthmus and the Peloponnesus was ~ Another ancient author mentions the destruction of all plant life and elsewhere Speculates as ~o whether the lack of rainfall in the arid regions of upper Egypt may have allowed that region to escape.10

The Greek Noah
There can be no mistaking the principal Greek flood hero, Deucalion, for anyone other than Noah. Deucalion, like the Scriptural hero, was prewarned of the deluge to come and built an ark into which he escaped with his wife; was washed, in his ark, to the top of a mountain by the flood waters; released a dove to test conditions before landing; upon disembarking performed a sacrifice to the Almighty and was blessed right after this. Such similarities are too striking to ignore; even secular authorities such as Robert Graves admit the common origin of the Greek and Scriptural tales.11 Genesis 9:20-27 continues Noah's biography with an anecdote concerning his invention of wine. While there is no corresponding Story about Deucalion, Graves states that "Deucalion's claim to the invention has been suppressed by the Greeks in favour of (their wine god) Dionysus".12 Deucalion's true part in the discovery is revealed by the literal translation of his name: "new wine sailor".13

Postflood Migrations
Both the Bible and Greek tradition refer to massive migrations in the first few generations after the flood. Genesis 10 outlines the repopulation of the earth by Noah's descendants. The Greeks believed that the nations of Egypt, Libya and Phoenicia 14 derived their names from immigrants of this period. The effect of these immigrations on the Greek area itself was astronomical. The island of Crete was first occupied, 15 the cities of Athens, 16 Thebes and Argos were founded on the mainland, Asia Minor (modern Turkey), the Aegean islands and most of the Greek states were occupied.

Biblical Pattern of Settlement
The essential pattern of these Greek migration Stories assumes many Biblical aspects. As Genesis 10:21-25 indicates, it was in the fourth postflood generation that mankind dispersed to colonise the earth. The family of Von, usually translated as Javan, 17 is usually associated with the Greek area and the names of three of Von's sons are significant to this study: Elishah (who is sometimes identified with the Aeolian Greeks), Dodanim (who is sometimes identified with the island of Rhodes) and Tarshish (who is sometimes identified with the city of Tarshish in Asia Minor). is The name Von itself, finds quick parallels in several Greek names of the postflood era: Ion, Io and Ino. Of these three names, Io is the most significant: four generations after the flood the descendants of a mythical lady named 10, from Argos, settled much of the Greek area. Two of Io's descendants stopped on the island of Rhodes, already associated with Biblical Dodanim, prior to their arrival on the Greek mainland and a third colonised that same area of Asia Minor that the patriarch Tarshish is said to have reached.20 The patriarch Elishah finds a quick agreement in a Greek postflood hero named Aeolis. Their names (ELIS hah & a IE 0 LIS) bear a resemblance which is further strengthened in the name of Aeolis' kingdom, Hellas (h ELLAS) and in the fact that one of Aeolis' sons founded a colony in the southern Greek state of Elis. Aeolis is perhaps the most prominently mentioned of Deucalion's descendants and it seems significant that his sons were to establish kingdoms in areas as far apart as the northern Greek states of Macedonia, Magnesia and Thessaly and the southern states of Corinth and Elis. Such a wide dispersal of descendants, in positions of power, is precisely what we might expect from the patriarch Elishah.

Conclusion
The chronology of the Greek myths is very close to that of the Bible. These stories contain a great many personalities and details unheard of in Scripture, Vet of the eight people mentioned in the Biblical ark five (Noah, his wife and the wives of their three Sons) presumably had totally different family trees though only that of Noah's father and one family descended from Cain is recorded in Genesis. Greek tradition could contain any number of historically based legends Which are not Scriptural. More important, however, is the fact that when the Greeks talked of a time before their great flood, they referred to a fall from paradise, and they mentioned characters resembling Cain and Lamech's three sons from Genesis 4. The Greek flood legends sometimes come so close to Scripture that they mention things like a dove being Sent out from the ark, or the sacrifice Noah made when he disembarked on the top of a mountain. After the flood the Greeks have Stories of mass migrations which resemble Genesis 10 even down to the names of some of the participants. Modern scholarship has tended to downplay the fabulous elements of Greek tradition, the stories of Pandora's box and the flood, yet to the ancient Greeks and to those who believe Scripture, they are history.

FOOTNOTES
1 Connop ThirIwall, History of Greece (London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans, 1855) vol.1, p.94.
2 Strabo7.7,1-2,
3 Horace Leonard Jones (trans) The Geography of Strabo (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, MCMLXVlI) vol.2, p.345 states that the text of Strabo 5.2.4 could be rendered as Danaus "founded" the city of Inachus or else that he "took up his abode" there. Most translators prefer to write he "founded" the city of Inachus (which was Argos) because Strabo 8.6.9 States that "the acropolis of the Argives is said to have been founded by Danaus." For further support of the idea Danaus founded Argos see Flavius Josephtis Against Apion 1.16 & Diodorus Siculius 1.28.
4 Hesiod, Work and Days 42-1 OS; Theogony 565-619. re Lycaon the "Cain" of Arcadia see Pausanias VIII.1; Apollodorus 111.8.1; ThirIwall, p.65.
6 re Phoroneus, the "Cain" of Argos, see Pausanias 11.15.4 & 11.19.5; Hyginus, Fabulae 143, Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, Penguin Books, 1980) vol.1, pps. 193-4; Apollodorus 11.1.1.
7 Carl Kerenyi, The Gods of the Greeks (Harmondsworth, Penguin Books, 195B) pps. 144-50, Graves, vol.1, pps. 63-67.
8 The Companion Bible (London, Samuel Bagster & Sons, 1 970) fn on Genesis 4: 18.
9 Apollodorus 1.7.1-2.
10 Diodorus Siculius 111.62.10 & 1.10.4.
11 "The myth of Deucalion's flood… has the same origin as the Biblical legend of Noah," Graves, vol. I. p.141.
12 Graves, loc cit.
13 Ibid. vol.11. p.338.
14 ApoIlodorus 11.1.4.
15 Diodorus Siculius IV.60; V.80.
16 ThirIwall, p.76, mentions a lesser known Greek legend that Athens was founded by an Egyptian immigrant named Cecrops 100 years after the flood. The more usual account is that Cecrops was a native Athenian and Apollodorus 111.14.1 represents him as preflood.
17 As David Livingston, Director of the Associates for Biblical Research, pointed out to this author: (1) there were no vowels in the early Semitic languages, (2) The J of Jvn is better represented as Y. (3) The "v" of Yvn could just as easily be translated as an 0, U or "w." Later Greek writings would differentiate between these letters with vowel points, but there were no vowel points when this passage was written, (4) "Therefore Yavan could just as easily be Yon or even Ion of Greece. The lonians".
18 Josephus, Antiqufties of the Jews l.iv.1 & C.H. Gordon, "Dodanim" The Interpreters Dictionary of the Bible (Nashville & New York: Abingdon Press, 1962) vol.1, p.861.
19 Danaus, founder of Argos, & Cadmus, founder of Thebes. See Graves 195,200-204.
20 Josephus, Antiquities, loc cit & Apollodorus 111.1.1.
21 Apollodorus 1.9 & Thirlwall, pp.102-ill.

http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v07n4p20.htm

15 Ancient Greek Heroes
from Plutarch's Lives

PLOUTARCOU

A modern English edition, abridged and annotated by Wilmot H. McCutchen

Theseus The Athenian Adventurer (c. 1300 B.C.)
Theseus suppressed crime and brought the natives of Attica together into the first democracy. He saved the Athenian children from the Minotaur, but his kidnap of the queen of the Amazons brought trouble, and he ended his days in disgrace.

Lycurgus The Father of Sparta (c. 800 B.C.)
Lycurgus established harmony, simplicity, and strength in Sparta. This warrior society tamed its youth through systematic education aimed at developing leadership, courage, public spirit, and wisdom.

Solon The Lawmaker of Athens (c. 600 B.C.)
Athens, unlike Sparta, was a money-mad commercial city. The constitution framed by Solon mitigated the class struggle between the rich and the poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic institutions.

Aristides "The Just" (530 - 468 B.C.)
Aristides was so respected throughout Greece for his fairness that Athens assumed the leadership of the alliance against the Persian invaders. His character is a model for all ages.

Pericles "The Olympian" (495 - 429 B.C.)
By the power of his eloquence, and the money embezzled from Athens' unwilling allies, Pericles built Athens into a beautiful city and a powerful empire. Athenian imperialism, however, led to war with Sparta, known to history as the Peloponnesian War.

Nicias The Slave of Fear (died 413 B.C.)
The turning point of the war with Sparta was the disastrous Sicilian Expedition eagerly undertaken by the greedy Athenians. Nicias was the reluctant leader in this debacle.

Agesilaus The Lame King of Sparta (444 - 360 B.C.)
Agesilaus inherited the Spartan throne after Sparta had defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War. At that time, Sparta was the undisputed master of Greece and the Aegean. Because of his stubborn lust for conquest, Agesilaus violated the laws of Lycurgus against imperialistic ventures and fighting too much with the same enemy. By the time Agesilaus died, Sparta had lost most of its prestige and power.

Pelopidas The Freedom Fighter (410 - 364 B.C.)
Pelopidas led the Thebans to recover their liberty, then he led them to victory over the invincible Spartans. From beginning to end, his was the life of a hero.

Dion The Savior of Syracuse (409 - 354 B.C.)
Sicily was an important part of the Greek world. Dion led the struggle against tyranny in its largest city, Syracuse. Betrayal and ingratitude were his reward for indulging the democrats of Syracuse.

Timoleon The Friend of Fortune (411 - 336 B.C.)
Against heavy odds, but with the help of the gods, Timoleon took up where Dion had left off, and liberated Sicily from barbarians and tyrants. His courage and wisdom established peace and prosperity where before there had been desolation and war.

Alexander "The Great" (356 - 323 B.C.)
In an amazing eleven-year journey of conquest, young Alexander of Macedonia conquered all the way from Egypt to India. Behind him came Greek institutions and the Greek language, which became the standard of the ancient world. The intoxication of power caused Alexander to become strange to his friends, and he died unhappy.

Phocion "The Good" (402 - 318 B.C.)
After her defeat in the Peloponnesian War, and her surrender to the power of Macedonia, Athens became a decadent democracy. Phocion did his best to save his fellow citizens from their own foolishness, and at last he earned the reward of Socrates.

Pyrrhus The Fool of Hope (319 - 272 B.C.)
In Pyrrhus' wild career of restless trouble-making, we see a soul incapable of satisfaction. He was a mighty man of war, and nearly conquered Rome, but he could never finish what he started before getting distracted by a new project.

Agis The Reformer of Sparta (reigned 245 - 241 B.C.)
The love of money had virtually destroyed the laws of Lycurgus in Sparta by the time Agis became king. This idealistic young man tried to restore the old way of life that had made Sparta great, but he was defeated by the power of greed.

Philopoemen "The Last of the Greeks" (252 - 182 B.C.)
Philopoemen led the last remnants of resistance to the creeping domination of Rome in Greece. In this austere general, we see an indomitable character, superior to his circumstances.

S O L W N
by Plutarch

Athens, unlike Sparta, was a money-mad commercial city. The constitution written by Solon mitigated the class struggle between rich and poor, and allowed for the growth of democratic institutions.

Go to Home Page for 15 Greek Heroes from Plutarch's Lives

Solon was born into a well-to-do family of Athens. He worked as a merchant in the export-import trade, and he considered himself relatively poor. He did not worship money, as is evident from these poems of his:

The man whose riches satisfy his greed
Is not more rich for all those heaps and hoards
Than some poor man who has enough to feed
And clothe his corpse with such as God affords.

I have no use for men who steal and cheat;
The fruit of evil poisons those who eat.

Some wicked men are rich, some good men poor,
But I would rather trust in what's secure;
Our virtue sticks with us and makes us strong,
But money changes owners all day long.

Poetry was for Solon a way to entertain himself, and he also used poetry to give his ideas easy access to the minds of the Athenians.

* * *

The seven wise men of Greece were well-known, both to each other and to the general public. 1 Anacharsis, who was one of these wise men, came to visit Solon in Athens. When Anacharsis saw Athenian democracy at work, he remarked that it was strange that in Athens wise men spoke and fools decided. Solon admired this man's ready wit and he entertained Anacharsis as his guest for a long time. Solon showed Anacharsis some laws that he was drafting for the Athenians. Anacharsis laughed at Solon for imagining that the dishonesty and greed of the Athenians could be restrained by written laws. Such laws, said Anacharsis, are like spiderwebs: they catch the weak and poor, but the rich can rip right through them.

When Solon went to visit another of the seven wise men, Thales of Miletus, Solon asked why Thales did not get married and have children. Thales gave no reply, but he hired an actor, who a few days later pretended to have just arrived from Athens. Solon asked this actor for the latest news, and the actor replied as he had been instructed by Thales. He said that nothing important had happened, except there was a funeral of some young man who had died while his famous father happened to be away. "Poor man," said Solon, "but what is his name?" With every question and answer, Solon got more and more worried, until finally he mentioned his own name. "That's the man!" said the actor, and Solon went into all of the usual expressions of grief while Thales watched impassively. After a while, Thales said to Solon: "You asked why I did not marry and have children. You now see the reason. Such a loss is too much for even your brave spirit to bear. But don't worry, it was all nothing but a lie."

Nevertheless, it shows a lack of judgment and courage to avoid having good things because we are afraid of losing them. Even our virtue, which is by far our most valuable possession, can be lost through sickness or drugs. The soul has an innate tendency of affection, and when it cannot fix itself on a child it seeks some other object, and grief comes just the same. When a dog dies, or a horse, smug bachelors collapse in sorrow, but some fathers can bear the loss even of a child without extravagant grief.

It is not affection, but weakness, that brings a man -- unarmed against fortune by reason -- into these endless pains and terrors. Because they are always worrying about what might go wrong, most are unable to enjoy their present opportunities for happiness.

* * *

For a long time, the Athenians and the Megarians had been fighting over the island of Salamis. The Athenians got tired of the war and passed a law that anyone who advocated possession of Salamis would die. Solon saw that most of the young men wanted to finish the fight, but were afraid to speak out because of this law.

So Solon pretended to go crazy. A rumor spread that Solon had made up some crazy poems and was now totally out of his mind. Then one day he appeared in the marketplace and stood in the speaker's place. All of the Athenians swarmed to hear the crazy man speak. Still keeping up the act of insanity, Solon sang a song of over a hundred verses about Salamis. The poem was so well done that the people forgave him for violating the new law. Before long, the law was repealed, and the Athenians prosecuted the war with greater vigor than ever before. Solon, who meanwhile had recovered, was chosen to be the general to lead them in it.

Salamis was occupied at the time by the Megarians. Solon sent a spy there to tell the Megarians of a great opportunity to kidnap the most noble ladies of Athens, who were celebrating a festival at the temple of Venus. This was true, but what the Megarians failed to realize was that Solon knew that they would be coming.

When he saw their sails coming from Salamis, Solon replaced the women with beardless men dressed in women's clothes. From a distance, the Megarians could not tell the difference. They landed and anchored their ships, jumping out into the water in their eagerness to get at the women. The last thing on their minds was defense, and every one of them was killed. Then the Athenians sailed to Salamis in the Megarians' ships and took the island by surprise.

* * *

Athens at this time had three factions: the people of the hills, who favored democracy; the people of the plains, who favored oligarchy; and the people of the shore, who favored a mixed sort of government and prevented either of the other two factions from prevailing. The political turmoil had come to the point where it appeared that the only way any government at all could be established would be for some tyrant to take all power into his own hands.

Under Athenian law at that time, if a loan went into default, the creditor could seize the debtor and his family and sell them as slaves to get money to pay off the debt. The cruelty and arrogance of the rich caused the poor to form into gangs to save themselves and rescue those who had been made slaves through usury. The best men of the city saw Solon as someone who was partial to neither the rich nor the poor, and they asked him to lead. The rich consented because Solon was wealthy, and the poor consented because he was honest.

Solon's task was dangerous and difficult because of the greediness of one side and the arrogance of the other. To placate both sides, Solon said: "Fairness breeds no strife." To the poor, "fairness" meant equal wealth; and to the rich, "fairness" meant keeping what they owned. 2

Both rich and poor, therefore, believed for a while that Solon was on their side. But soon the poor people became disgusted that Solon would not use his power to seize the property of the rich. Solon's friends advised him that he would be a fool if he did not take advantage of the opportunity that fate had presented. Now that he had this power, they said, he should make himself a tyrant. Solon, who was a wise man, replied that tyranny is indeed a very pleasant peak, but there is no way down from it.

* * *

Unlike Lycurgus, Solon could not change the state from top to bottom, so he worked only on what it was possible to improve without a total revolution. He only attempted what he thought he could persuade the Athenians to accept, with a little compulsion. Wherever possible, Solon made use of euphemisms, such as calling taxes "contributions." With a judicious mixture of sweet with sour, justice with force, he managed to achieve some success. When afterwards Solon was asked whether he had made the best laws he could for the Athenians, he answered: "The best they were able to receive."

Solon's first reform was forbidding mortgages on bodies. Even with the consent of the debtor, the creditor could no longer legally enslave him and his family. Those who had already become slaves were liberated, and those who had been sold to foreigners returned to Athens as free men. Solon also ordered that all outstanding debts were forgiven, so all mortgages on land disappeared.

But here Solon was disappointed by his friends. Shortly before he published his law releasing all mortgages, he told some of his most trusted friends. They immediately went out and borrowed money to buy land, giving the purchased land as security for repayment of the loan. When the law was published, they had their land free and clear. For this, Solon was suspected, but when it came to be known that he himself had lost fifteen talents by his own law, he managed to escape serious damage to his reputation.

Neither the rich nor the poor got all they wanted from Solon's reforms. There was no complete redistribution of wealth as the poor had demanded, and the rich were angry about the loss of the money they were owed. Both the rich and the poor now hated Solon for not obeying their desires. Even those who had been friendly to him before now looked at him with grim faces, as an enemy. But with time and success came forgiveness. When the Athenians saw the good result of the release of debts, they appointed Solon general reformer of their law.

Solon repealed the laws of Dracon, 3 which punished even small offenses with death, so it was said that the laws of Dracon [codified 621 B.C.] were written in blood instead of ink. When someone asked Dracon why he had made his laws so severe, he answered: "We need the death penalty to prevent small crimes, and for bigger ones I can't think of any greater punishment." Solon reserved the death penalty for murder and manslaughter.

Solon made it a law that anyone who refused to take sides in a revolution would lose all civil rights. By this law he made sure that the good would resist the bad and not hide hoping to save themselves, or wait until they could see which side will win.

When Solon was asked once which city he thought was well-governed, he said: "That city where those who have not been injured take up the cause of one who has, and prosecute the case as earnestly as if the wrong had been done to themselves." Accordingly, he allowed anyone to take up the cause of a poor man who had been injured.

* * *

Solon was willing to allow the rich men to continue to be the officers, but he wanted to allow the poor citizens to participate in the government. 4 He therefore classed the citizens according to income. The lowest class, the thetes, were ineligible for election to any office. However, the thetes were allowed to come into the assembly, and as jurors they decided cases submitted to their vote. Since Solon's laws were deliberately obscure and ambiguous, the courts had significant powers of interpretation. What had seemed an insignificant concession to the poor turned out to be a significant privilege.

Solon created a supreme court, whose members were former archons [annual presidents] of Athens. Seeing that after the release of debts the people were beginning to be unruly and arrogant, Solon also created a council of four hundred -- one hundred from each of the four tribes in Athens. This was an additional legislative body, whose powers were limited to debating matters before they were submitted to the people for a vote. Nothing could be voted on until it had been vetted by the four hundred. With the supreme court and the council of four hundred as anchors, the turbulence of the people was restrained within safe limits.

Solon made it a crime to defame the dead. As for the living, attacks on character were prohibited in the council-chambers of the city and at certain festivals. Solon knew that spite is part of human nature, but he established certain places where it was illegal to indulge this weakness. To suppress it completely would have been impossible.

If the aim is to punish a few, moderately, as an example -- rather than many, severely, to no purpose -- the lawmaker must confine his law to the limits of human nature, and not try to legislate perfection.

* * *

Many people had come to Athens rather than struggle to scratch a living from the barren land of Attica. Without something to sell, Athens could not feed itself. Therefore crafts became essential to the city's prosperity. Solon made it a law that a son was not bound to relieve his father's old age unless the father had set him up in some craft. He also made it a law that every man had to report each year how he made his living, and anyone found to be unemployed was punished.

The laws promulgated by Solon were written on boards. Every one of the leading citizens publicly swore to observe them. But now Solon was besieged every day by people asking for an interpretation of some provision, or complaining about how a law affected them. Solon decided that he should leave the Athenians for a while so that they would cease bothering him, and work things out by themselves. He got permission to leave Athens and took a ship to Egypt [590 B.C.].

* * *

The priests of Egypt told Solon the ancient story of the lost continent of Atlantis. 5 Solon translated the story of Atlantis into Greek verse, thinking that it would be a very good thing for the Greeks to know.

King Croesus of Sardis, who was at this time the richest man in the world, invited Solon to come and visit him at his palace. Solon arrived, and upon entering the palace he saw a man magnificently dressed and accompanied by a retinue of slaves and soldiers, so he assumed that this man must be Croesus. But he turned out to be only a minor official in Croesus' court. As Solon proceeded through the palace, he saw several other officials just as grand. Finally Solon was admitted to the king's chamber for the interview, and there was Croesus dressed in his most splendid clothes and jewelry.

Solon was not dazzled by this display of barbaric magnificence, which had awed so many others. So King Croesus commanded that his treasure houses be opened so that Solon could see how many beautiful clothes he had, and how much gold. Solon politely looked at everything, then came back to the king. "Well, Solon," said Croesus, "have you ever seen a man who was more fortunate than Croesus?"

Solon replied: "Yes, I have, and that was Tellus, a citizen of Athens. He was an honest man who left his children well provided for and with good will in the city. He lived to see grandchildren by his sons. Then he died gloriously, fighting for his country."

This frank answer enraged Croesus, but Solon pacified him by adding: "Oh mighty king of the Lydians, the gods have given us Greeks only small things, and our wisdom is only of small things and not the business of men as important as you. We consider how a man's life is so much subject to chance, and how disaster can come to us completely by surprise, so we don't consider any man to be successful until he has died well, with his good fortune intact to the end. Otherwise, if we should say that a living man is a success, when there is so much that can still happen to him, we would be like soldiers celebrating victory before the battle is over." After that speech, Solon made his exit and saved his life.

He happened to meet Aesop, the author of the famous fables, who also had been invited to the palace of Croesus. Aesop said: "Either we must not come to mighty men at all, or we must try to please them." But Solon replied: "Either we must not come to mighty men, or we must tell them the truth."

Afterwards, King Croesus was defeated by King Cyrus of Persia. Croesus lost his kingdom and was taken prisoner. He was tied to a stake, and was about to be burned alive for the amusement of Cyrus, when Croesus cried out Solon's name three times. Cyrus stopped the proceedings and asked Croesus whether this Solon was a man or one of the gods. Croesus answered: "He was one of the wise men of Greece, whom I invited to my palace. Not that I might learn anything, but so that he might witness my good fortune at that time. The loss of it now is more painful than its enjoyment was pleasant. My riches were really only words and opinion, and now they have brought me to be burned at the stake. Solon saw me in my foolish prosperity and foresaw my present misery. He warned me that I should consider the end of my life, and not boast on slippery ground, since no man is happy until he has died well." Cyrus saw the teaching of Solon confirmed by such a notable example. He released Croesus and kept him at his court as one of his most honored counselors.

* * *

While Solon was gone, the three factions [Hill, Plain, and Shore] began to quarrel again. Although they kept his laws, each one looked forward to some kind of change that might give an advantage over the others. Solon was too old to take an active role when he arrived back in Athens, but he met privately with the leaders and tried to calm down the partisan rancor.

Pisistratus, who led the poor, seemed to be the most willing of all. Pisistratus was a smooth talker and a master of fraud. He fooled the poor and even old Solon, who said that if only the worm of ambition could be plucked from the head of Pisistratus there would be no better citizen.

One day, Pisistratus smeared blood over himself and dramatically appeared in the marketplace. He told the people that their enemies, the rich, had done this to him because he was the friend of the poor. One of his followers then made a motion to appoint a fifty-man bodyguard to protect this martyr of the people's cause. Solon saw through this trick, but the poor were determined to gratify Pisistratus, and the rich were afraid to resist him.

Solon told the Athenians that they were indeed shrewd as individuals, but collectively they made one big fool. And with that parting shot, Solon went away, saying that he was wiser than some and braver than others -- wiser than those who had fallen for the trick, and braver than those who understood what was happening but did not dare to speak out against the coming of a tyrant. 6

No one questioned Pisistratus as he gathered many more than fifty armed men around him. No one noticed what Pisistratus was doing until one day he seized the strongholds of the city and made himself tyrant [561 B.C.]. The rich saved their lives by fleeing Athens. Solon was weak and old, and he had no man willing to stand by him, but he went to the marketplace and scolded the Athenians for being too afraid of Pisistratus and his gang to take back their liberty. "Before," he said, "you might have more easily stopped this tyranny, but now that it is already in place you can win even more glory by rooting it out."

But the Athenians did nothing, and Solon stayed home and wrote bitter poems. His friends warned him to get out of Athens, or at least not to anger Pisistratus with his free speech. They asked him why he thought he was safe to speak so boldly against the tyrant, and Solon answered: "My age." Pisistratus, however, continued to pay great respect to Solon, and continually consulted him. He kept most of Solon's laws, and even obeyed them himself.

Finishing the story of Atlantis proved to be too great a task for Solon in his old age. Instead, as he wrote:

But now the powers of Beauty, Song, and Wine,
Which are most men's delights, are also mine.

Go to Home Page for 15 Greek Heroes from Plutarch's Lives

Go to Life of Aristides

NOTES:

1. Solon was one of these seven wise men.

2. Land reform was much more difficult in Athens than in Sparta. The principal agricultural product of Athens was olive oil, a cash crop traded for commodities from the rest of the world. It was used not only for cooking but more importantly for burning in lamps for illumination. Greek olive trees take 16 years to mature and reach peak production after 40 years, so cultivation is labor-intensive and produces no reward for a long time. Athenian land reform would mean someone reaps where he has not sown.

3. From Dracon we get the modern adjective "draconian," which is used to describe laws where the penalties are extreme in relation to the harm of the crime. The same Draconian approach is taken today with regard to current political fads in crime, and the same flimsy justification is offered.

4. The poor in Athens had been powerless until Solon instituted his reforms.

5. Solon consulted the ancient records kept by the Egyptians and made a start on the story of Atlantis. Plato (427-347 B.C.), who was a relative of Solon, inherited the task, and his dialogue the Timaeus and a fragment entitled Critias tell part of this story. Nine thousand years (according to Plato) before Solon's visit to Egypt, a great civilization on an island in the Atlantic Ocean disappeared on a day of great rain and earthquakes. Plato did not finish the story, and what Solon wrote has disappeared.

Atlantis remains a controversial topic. Even extra-sensory perception has been offered as evidence. See W. Scott-Eliot, The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Continent of Lemuria (London: Theosophical Publishing House, 1925). The classic in the field is Donnelly's Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, first published in 1882 and frequently reprinted. Donnelly claimed that Greek mythology is merely a remnant of Atlantean history, and he adduced voluminous evidence (which, as Donnelly's critics gleefully point out, is not all reliable) in support of the existence of Atlantis as described by Plato. Recent attempts by scientists to place Atlantis in the Aegean, and at a more recent time, have failed. See Edwin S. Ramage, Atlantis: Fact or Fiction (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978).

6. The tyranny of Pisistratus and his sons lasted from 561 to 510 B.C. Cleisthenes and a group of exiled Athenian nobles, aided by an army from Sparta, liberated the Athenians from their tyrant.

The case of Pisistratus illustrates the paradigm of revolution turning into tyranny. The resentment of the poor against the arrogance of the rich empowers a dictator to reform the society. Supported by the parasites and criminals, the tyrant's gang of hired soldiers gradually kills off anyone who might threaten his control, and he disregards justice. No one's life and property are secure from the tyrant's power. No one dares to be the least bit original or ambitious because an army of professional informants directs the tyrant's paranoia against anyone who stands out from the crowd. With enthusiasm and innovation chilled by fear, the society becomes technologically retarded, morally timid, and artistically numb.

The Ancient Olympics
Their Origin in Greek Mythology and Religion
copyright 2001, 2002 by Tracy Marks

What is the origin of the Olympics?
The Olympic Games, originally created to honor Zeus, was the most important national festival of the ancient Greeks, and a focus of political rivalries between the nation-states. However, all competitions involved individual competitors rather than teams. Winning an Olympic contest was regarded more highly than winning a battle and was proof of an individual arete or personal excellence. The winners were presented with garlands, crowned with olive wreaths, and viewed as national heroes.

Although records of the Olympics date back to 776 BC when the Olympics were reorganized and the official "First Olympiad" was held, Homer's Iliad suggests that they existed as early as the 12th century BC. The games were held every four years in honor of Zeus, in accordance with the four year time periods which the Greeks called olympiads. Emperor Theodosius I of Rome discontinued them in the 4th century AD, and they did not occur again until they were reinstated in Athens in 1896.

Originally, the Olympics was confined to running, but by the 15th Olympiad, additional sports were added the pentathlon (five different events), boxing, wrestling, chariot racing, as well as a variety of foot races of varying lengths, including a long-distance race of about 2.5 miles.

Athletes usually competed nude, proudly displaying their perfect bodies. Women, foreigners, slaves, and dishonored persons were forbidden to compete; women, once they were married, were not even allowed to watch any Olympic events, except for chariot races. However, every four years, women held their own games, called the Heraea after Hera, held at Argos, and beginning as early as the 6th century B.C. and lasting at least six centuries until Roman rule.

How was the Olympics a sacred festival?
Unlike our modern Olympic games, the ancient Greek Olympic games was a religious rather than secular festival, celebrating the gods in general and Zeus in particular. The contests themselves alternated with altar rituals and sacrifices, as well as processions and banquets. Individual competitors trained rigorously not only for personal glory, but also to impress and please a god through demonstrating strength and agility.

Although one legend suggests that Heracles won a race at Olympia and decreed that races should be instituted every four years, the most common legends suggest that Zeus originated the games after he defeated Cronus in battle. Many events occurred at the Olympic stadium near the temple of Zeus in Olympia southwest of Athens. Inside the temple was the 42 foot high gold and ivory statue of Zeus sculpted by Pheidias, considered to be one of seven wonders of the ancient world.

Eventually the games were also held at other sacred spots in the Greek city-states, such as Delphi and Corinth. These games honored the ruling god of the particular locality, most notably Apollo and Poseidon in addition to Zeus. Apollo from the start had an indirect role in the festivities, since the winners were always lauded with garlands of laurel, the tree most sacred to Apollo ever since his beloved Daphne was transformed into a laurel tree.

The noteworthy classics web site, Perseus, from Tufts University, has a mini-site on the ancient Olympics at http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/. According to Perseus scholars:

"The Games were held in honor of Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, and a sacrifice of 100 oxen was made to the god on the middle day of the festival. Athletes prayed to the gods for victory, and made gifts of animals, produce, or small cakes, in thanks for their successes.

According to legend, the altar of Zeus stood on a spot struck by a thunderbolt, which had been hurled by the god from his throne high atop Mount Olympus, where the gods assembled. Some coins from Elis had a thunderbolt design on the reverse, in honor of this legend.

Over time, the Games flourished, and Olympia became a central site for the worship of Zeus. Individuals and communities donated buildings, statues, altars and other dedications to the god."

SOURCES and RECOMMENDED LINKS http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/ http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/Olympics/rel.html http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sports/A0860127.html http://www.hickoksports.com/history/olancien.shtml http://www.sltrib.com/2001/feb/02032001/saturday/68198.htm http://kids.infoplease.lycos.com/ce6/sports/A0860127.html http://scsc.essortment.com/athleticshistor_rjzj.htm http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa021798.htm

Celtic:
Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay upon the Earth so that their children were crowded between them, and the children and their mother were unhappy in the darkness. The boldest of the sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into many pieces. From his skull they made the firmament. His spilling blood caused a great flood which killed all humans except a single pair, who were saved in a ship made by a beneficent Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans. The son who led in the mutilation of Heaven was a Titan and became their king, but the Titans and gods hated each other, and the king titan was driven from his throne by his son, who was born a god. That Titan at last went to the land of the departed. The Titan who built the ship, whom some consider to be the same as the king Titan, went there also. [Sproul, pp. 172-173]

Egypt:
People have become rebellious. Atum said he will destroy all he made and return the earth to the Primordial Water which was its original state. Atum will remain, in the form of a serpent, with Osiris. [Faulkner, plate 30] (Unfortunately the version of the papyrus with the flood story is damaged and unclear. See also Budge, p. c

Greek:
Zeus sent a flood to destroy the men of the Bronze Age. Prometheus advised his son Deucalion to build a chest. All other men perished except for a few who escaped to high mountains. The mountains in Thessaly were parted, and all the world beyond the Isthmus and Peloponnese was overwhelmed. Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora), after floating in the chest for nine days and nights, landed on Parnassus. When the rains ceased, he sacrificed to Zeus, the God of Escape. At the bidding of Zeus, he threw stones over his head; they became men, and the stones which Pyrrha threw became women. That is why people are called laoi, from laas, "a stone." [Apollodorus, 1.7.2]

The first race of people was completely destroyed because they were exceedingly wicked. The fountains of the deep opened, the rain fell in torrents, and the rivers and seas rose to cover the earth, killing all of them. Deucalion survived due to his prudence and piety and linked the first and second race of men. Onto a great ark he loaded his wives and children and all animals. The animals came to him, and by God's help, remained friendly for the duration of the flood. The flood waters escaped down a chasm opened in Hierapolis. [Frazer, pp. 153-154]

An older version of the story told by Hellanicus has Deucalion's ark landing on Mount Othrys in Thessaly. Another account has him landing on a peak, probably Phouka, in Argolis, later called Nemea. [Gaster, p. 85]

The Megarians told that Megarus, son of Zeus, escaped Deucalion's flood by swimming to the top of Mount Gerania, guided by the cries of cranes. [Gaster, p. 85-86]

An earlier flood was reported to have occurred in the time of Ogyges, founder and king of Thebes. The flood covered the whole world and was so devastating that the country remained without kings until the reign of Cecrops. [Gaster, p. 87]

Nannacus, king of Phrygia, lived before the time of Deucalion and foresaw that he and all people would perish in a coming flood. He and the Phrygians lamented bitterly, hence the old proverb about "weeping like (or for) Nannacus." After the deluge had destroyed all humanity, Zeus commanded Prometheus and Athena to fashion mud images, and Zeus summoned winds to breathe life into them. The place where they were made is called Iconium after these images. [Frazer, p. 155]

"Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years" since Athens and Atlantis were preeminent. Destruction by fire and other catastrophes was also common. In these floods, water rose from below, destroying city dwellers but not mountain people. The floods, especially the third great flood before Deucalion, washed away most of Athens' fertile soil. [Plato, "Timaeus" 22, "Critias" 111-112]

Scandinavian:
Oden, Vili, and Ve fought and slew the great ice giant Ymir, and icy water from his wounds drowned most of the Rime Giants. The giant Bergelmir escaped, with his wife and children, on a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk. From them rose the race of frost ogres. Ymir's body became the world we live on. His blood became the oceans. [Sturluson, p. 35]

 http://ce.eng.usf.edu/pharos/wonders/zeus.html

In his right hand a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold. In his left hand, his scepter inlaid with all metals, and an eagle perched on the sceptre. The sandals of the god are made of gold, as is his robe.

Pausanias the Greek (2nd century AD)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is the statue of the god in whose honor the Ancient Olympic games were held. It was located on the land that gave its very name to the Olympics. At the time of the games, wars stopped, and athletes came from Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and Sicily to celebrate the Olympics and to worship their king of gods: Zeus.

Location

At the ancient town of Olympia, on the west coast of modern Greece, about 150 km west of Athens.

History

The ancient Greek calendar starts in 776 BC, for the Olympic games are believed to have started that year. The magnificent temple of Zeus was designed by the architect Libon and was built around 450 BC. Under the growing power of ancient Greece, the simple Doric-style temple seemed too mundane, and modifications were needed. The solution: A majestic statue. The Athenian sculptor Pheidias was assigned for the "sacred" task, reminiscent of Michelangelo's paintings at the Sistine Chapel.

For the years that followed, the temple attracted visitors and worshippers from all over the world. In the second century BC repairs were skillfully made to the aging statue. In the first century AD, the Roman emperor Caligula attempted to transport the statue to Rome. However, his attempt failed when the scaffolding built by Caligula's workmen collapsed. After the Olympic games were banned in AD 391 by the emperor Theodosius I as Pagan practices, the temple of Zeus was ordered closed.

Olympia was further struck by earthquakes, landslides and floods, and the temple was damaged by fire in the fifth century AD. Earlier, the statue had been transported by wealthy Greeks to a palace in Constantinople. There, it survived until it was destroyed by a severe fire in AD 462. Today nothing remains at the site of the old temple except rocks and debris, the foundation of the buildings, and fallen columns.

Description

Pheidias began working on the statue around 440 BC. Years earlier, he had developed a technique to build enormous gold and ivory statues. This was done by erecting a wooden frame on which sheets of metal and ivory were placed to provide the outer covering. Pheidias' workshop in Olympia still exists, and is coincidentally -- or may be not -- identical in size and orientation to the temple of Zeus. There, he sculpted and carved the different pieces of the statue before they were assembled in the temple.

When the statue was completed, it barely fitted in the temple. Strabo wrote:

".. although the temple itself is very large, the sculptor is criticized for not having appreciated the correct proportions. He has shown Zeus seated, but with the head almost touching the ceiling, so that we have the impression that if Zeus moved to stand up he would unroof the temple."

Strabo was right, except that the sculptor is to be commended, not criticized. It is this size impression that made the statue so wonderful. It is the idea that the king of gods is capable of unroofing the temple if he stood up that fascinated poets and historians alike. The base of the statue was about 6.5 m (20 ft) wide and 1.0 meter (3 ft) high. The height of the statue itself was 13 m (40 ft), equivalent to a modern 4-story building.

The statue was so high that visitors described the throne more than Zeus body and features. The legs of the throne were decorated with sphinxes and winged figures of Victory. Greek gods and mythical figures also adorned the scene: Apollo, Artemis, and Niobe's children. The Greek Pausanias wrote:

On his head is a sculpted wreath of olive sprays. In his right hand he holds a figure of Victory made from ivory and gold... In his left hand, he holds a sceptre inlaid with every kind of metal, with an eagle perched on the sceptre. His sandals are made of gold, as is his robe. His garments are carved with animals and with lilies. The throne is decorated with gold, precious stones, ebony, and ivory.

The statue was occasionally decorated with gifts from kings and rulers. the most notable of these gifts was a woollen curtain "adorned with Assyrian woven patterns and Pheonician dye" which was dedicated by the Syrian king Antiochus IV.

Copies of the statue were made, including a large prototype at Cyrene (Libya). None of them, however, survived to the present day. Early reconstructions such as the one by von Erlach are now believed to be rather inaccurate. For us, we can only wonder about the true appearance of the statue -- the greatest work in Greek sculpture.

The twelve Olympians were the 3rd dynasty of gods that succeeded The Titans, and were so called because it was believed that they inhabited the top of a mountain called Olympus. The twelve Olympians comprised the following deities:

Zeus    The supreme god
Hera    Goddess of marriage, and married women
Poseidon    God of the sea
Demeter    Goddess of corn, fruit and agriculture in general
Apollo God of the sun, music and poetry
Artemis    Goddess of the moon, hunting and chastity
Athene    Goddess of wisdom
Aphrodite    Goddess of love and beauty
Hermes    God of eloquence and speech
Ares God of war
Hephaestus    God of fire and the chief workman of the gods
Dionysus    God of wine and merrymaking

The Olympians

Zeus Zeus overthrew his Father Cronus. He then drew lots with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. Zeus won the draw and became the supreme ruler of the gods. He is lord of the sky, the rain god. His weapon is a thunderbolt which he hurls at those who displease him. He is married to Hera but, is famous for his many affairs. He is also known to punish those that lie or break oaths.

Poseidon Poseidon is the brother of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Hades, another brother, for shares of the world. His prize was to become lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter of the Titan Oceanus. At one point he desired Demeter. To put him off Demeter asked him to make the most beautiful animal that the world had ever seen. So to impress her Poseidon created the first horse. In some accounts his first attempts were unsuccessful and created a variety of other animals in his quest. By the time the horse was created his passion for Demeter had cooled. His weapon is a trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He is second only to Zeus in power amongst the gods. He has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy. He had a series of disputes with other gods when he tried to take over their cities.

Hades Hades is the brother of Zeus. After the overthrow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon, another brother, for shares of the world. He had the worst draw and was made lord of the underworld, ruling over the dead. He is a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects. Those whose calling increase the number of dead are seen favorably. The Erinyes are welcomed guests. He is exceedingly disinclined to allow any of his subjects leave. He is also the god of wealth, due to the precious metals mined from the earth. He has a helmet that makes him invisible. He rarely leaves the underworld. He is unpitying and terrible, but not capricious. His wife is Persephone whom Hades abducted. He is the King of the dead but, death itself is another god, Thanatos.

Hestia Hestia is Zeus sister. She is a virgin goddess. She does not have a distinct personality. She plays no part in myths. She is the Goddess of the Hearth, the symbol of the house around which a new born child is carried before it is received into the family. Each city had a public hearth sacred to Hestia, where the fire was never allowed to go out.

Hera Hera is Zeus wife and sister. She was raised by the Titans Ocean and Tethys. She is the protector of marriage and takes special care of married women. Hera's marriage was founded in strife with Zeus and continued in strife. Zeus courted her unsuccessfully. He then turned to trickery, changing himself into disheveled cuckoo. Hera feeling sorry for the bird held it to her breast to warm it. Zues then resumed his normal form and taking advantage of the surprise he gained, raped her. She then married him to cover her shame. Once when Zeus was being particularly overbearing to the other gods, Hera convinced them to join in a revolt. Her part in the revolt was to drug Zeus, and in this she was successful. The gods then bound the sleeping Zeus to a couch taking care to tie many knots. This done they began to quarrel over the next step. Briareus overheard the arguments. Still full of gratitude to Zeus, Briareus slipped in and was able to quickly untie the many knots. Zeus sprang from the couch and grabbed up his thunderbolt. The gods fell to their knees begging and pleading for mercy. He seized Hera and hung her from the sky with gold chains. She wept in pain all night but, none of the others dared to interfere. Her weeping kept Zeus up and the next morning he agreed to release her if she would swear never to rebel again. She had little choice but, to agree. While she never again rebelled, she often intrigued against Zeus's plans and she was often able to outwit him. Most stories concerning Hera have to do with her jealous revenge for Zeus's infidelities. Her sacred animals are the cow and the peacock. Her favorite city is Argos.

Ares Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera. He was disliked by both parents. He is the god of war. He is considered murderous and bloodstained but, also a coward. When caught in an act of adultery with Aphrodite her husband Hephaestus is able publicly ridicule him. His bird is the vulture. His animal is the dog.

Athena Athena is the daughter of Zeus. She sprang full grown in armor from his forehead, thus has no mother. She is fierce and brave in battle but, only fights to protect the state and home from outside enemies. She is the goddess of the city, handicrafts, and agriculture. She invented the bridle, which permitted man to tame horses, the trumpet, the flute, the pot, the rake, the plow, the yoke, the ship, and the chariot. She is the embodiment of wisdom, reason, and purity. She was Zeus's favorite child and was allowed to use his weapons including his thunderbolt. Her favorite city is Athens. Her tree is the olive. The owl is her bird. She is a virgin goddess.

Apollo Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto. His twin sister is Artemis . He is the god of music, playing a golden lyre. The Archer, far shooting with a silver bow. The god of healing who taught man medicine. The god of light. The god of truth, who can not speak a lie. One of Apollo's more important daily tasks is to harness his chariot with four horses an drive the Sun across the sky. He is famous for his oracle at Delphi. People traveled to it from all over the Greek world to divine the future. His tree was the laurel. The crow his bird. The dolphin his animal.

Aphrodite Aphrodite is the goddess of love, desire and beauty. In addition to her natural gifts she has a magical girdle that compels anyone she wishes to desire her. There are two accounts of her birth. One says she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. The other goes back to when Cronus castrated Uranus and tossed his severed genitals into the sea. Aphrodite then arose from the sea foam on a giant scallop and walked to shore in Cyprus. She is the wife of Hephaestus. The myrtle is her tree. The dove, the swan, and the sparrow her birds.

Hermes Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maia. He is Zeus messenger. He is the fastest of the gods. He wears winged sandals, a winged hat, and carries a magic wand. He is the god of thieves and god of commerce. He is the guide for the dead to go to the underworld. He invented the lyre, the pipes, the musical scale, astronomy , weights and measures, boxing, gymnastics, and the care of olive trees.

Artemis Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her twin brother is Apollo . She is the lady of the wild things. She is the huntsman of the gods. She is the protector of the young. Like Apollo she hunts with silver arrows. She became associated with the moon. She is a virgin goddess, and the goddess of chastity. She also presides over childbirth, which may seem odd for a virgin, but goes back to causing Leto no pain when she was born. She became associated with Hecate. The cypress is her tree. All wild animals are scared to her, especially the deer.

Hephaestus Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera. Sometimes it is said that Hera alone produced him and that he has no father. He is the only god to be physically ugly. He is also lame. Accounts as to how he became lame vary. Some say that Hera, upset by having an ugly child, flung him from Mount Olympus into the sea, breaking his legs. Others that he took Hera's side in an argument with Zeus and Zeus flung him off Mount Olympus. He is the god of fire and the forge. He is the smith and armorer of the gods. He uses a volcano as his forge. He is the patron god of both smiths and weavers. He is kind and peace loving. His wife is Aphrodite. Sometimes his wife is identified as Aglaia.
http://www.webgreece.gr/greekmythology/olympiangods/

quote:

"Traditionally regarded as the heavenly abode of the Greek gods and the site of the throne of Zeus, Olympos seems to have originally existed as an idealized mountain that only later came to be associated with a specific peak. The early epics, the Illiad and the Odyssey (composed by Homer around 700BC) offer little information regarding the geographic location of the heavenly mountain and there are several peaks in Greece, Turkey and Cyprus that bear the name Olympos. The most favored mythological choice is the tallest mountain range in Greece, the Olympos massif, 100 kilometers southwest of the city of Thessaloniki in northern Greece. The highest peak - shown in the photograph - is Mytikas at 2918 meters (9570 feet).

"The deities believed to have dwelled upon the mythic mount were Zeus, the king of the gods; his wife Hera; his brothers Poseidon and Hades; his sisters Demeter and Hestia; and his children, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes and Hephaestus. It is interesting to note that these Olympian gods and goddesses were understood in ancient times as archetypes representing idealized aspects of the multi-faceted human psyche. Worship of the deities was a method of invoking and amplifying those aspects in the behavior and personality of the human worshipper. Zeus was the god of mind and the intellect, and a protector of strangers and the sanctity of oaths; Hera was a goddess of fertility, the stages of a woman's life and marriage; Apollo represented law and order, and the principles of moderation in moral, social and intellectual matters; Aphrodite was a goddess of love and the overwhelming passions that drove humans to irrational behavior; Hermes was the god of travelers, of sleep and dreams and prophecy; Athena was spiritual wisdom incarnate; Hephaestus was the god of the arts and fire; and Ares represented the dark, bloodthirsty aspect of human nature.
These gods and goddesses did not actually live upon Olympos, rather the ancient myth can be understood to be a metaphor for the power of the sacred mountain. This spiritual power had drawn hermits and monks to live in the caves and forests of the mountain since long before the dawn of the Christian era. With the coming of Christianity the myths and legends of the old Greeks were suppressed and forgotten, and the holy mountain was seldom visited. Today, weekend hikers and young travelers on the vagabond trail through Europe dash up and down the peak in a single day. It is certainly a beautiful place for such a hasty hike, yet to draw upon the real magic of Olympos one must come as a pilgrim and stay some quiet days in the woods. The author has lived for a month in the forests of the sacred peak and experienced that the spirits of the old gods and goddesses are still powerfully present."
http://www.sacredsites.com/europe/greece/mt_olympus.html

In Greek mythology, was the abode of the gods, their home and the site of the throne of Zeus, the chief deity. The highest mountain peak in Greece, it reaches 9,570 feet (2,917 meters) above sea level.

Mount Olympus is part of the broader Olympus mountain mass near the Thermaic Gulf on the Aegean Sea. On the border of Macedonia and Thessaly, Olympus touches both northern and southern Greece.

Mount Olympus is sometimes called Upper Olympus, to be distinguished from Lower Olympus, a connecting peak to the south that is 5,210 feet (1,588 meters) high.
http://www.occultopedia.com/o/olympus_mount.htm

"OPHIOTAUROS" was a monster born with the foreparts of a black bull and the rearparts of a serpent. During the Titan-War it was revealed that whoever fed the innards of this creature to flame would be victorious over the gods. So Zeus' ally, the goddess Styx, then imprisoned the beast near her home in the Underworld. When Briareus, an ally of the Titanes, came and slew the creature, Zeus sent a kite-bird to steal the innards away to heaven and thwart the prophecy.

(This story appears to be part of the lost Greek epic known as the Titanomachia (War of the Titanes), in which the giant AIGAION appears as an ally of the Titanes. Ovid here calls Aigaion Briareus, the name of his son in both the Titanomachia and the Iliad).

Parents

GAIA (Ovid Fasti 3.793)

“The Kite star Milvus … If you want to know what bestowed heaven on that bird: Saturnus [Kronos] was thrust from his realm by Jove [Zeus]. In anger he stirs the mighty Titanes to arms and seeks the assistance owed by fate. There was a shocking monster born of Mother Terra (Earth) [Gaia], a bull, whose back half was a serpent. Roaring Styx [as an ally of Zeus] imprisoned it, warned by the three Parcae [Moirai the Fates], in a black grove with a triple wall. Whoever fed the bull’s guts to consuming flames was destined to defeat the eternal gods. Briareus [Aigaion] slays it with an adamantine axe and prepares to feed the flames its innards. Jupiter [Zeus] commands the birds to grab them; the kite brought them to him and reached the stars on merit.” –Ovid Fasti 3.793

Sources:

THE HEKATONKHEIRES were three GIANT sons of Ouranos and Gaia who each had a hundred arms and fifty heads. Ouranos fearing their strength threw them into Tartaros. Zeus later killed their jailor Kampe and enlisted them in his war against the Titanes.
After the war they were given palaces in the River Okeanos and set to guard the gates of Tartaros, prison of the Titanes.

Parents

OURANOS & GAIA (Theogony 147, Titanomachia Frag 1, Apollodorus 1.1, Hyginus Pref)

Names

BRIAREOS-OBRIAREOS, KOTTOS, GYES (Theogony 147, Apollodorus 1.1, Suidas 'Tritiopatores')
Greek: BriarewV
ObriarewV
KottoV
GuhV Transliteration: Briareos / Obriareos
Kottos
Gyes Translation: Strong

.

"And again, three other sons were born of Gaia and Ouranos, great and doughty beyond telling, Kottos and Briareos and Gyes, presumptuous children. From their shoulders sprang an hundred arms, not to be approached, and each had fifty heads upon his shoulders on their strong limbs, and irresistible was the stubborn strength that was in their great forms. For of all the children that were born of Gaia and Ouranos, these were the most terrible, and they were hated by their own father from the first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Gaia (Earth) so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Ouranos rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Gaia (Earth) groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons [the Titanes]. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:
`My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you mwill obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things." -Theogony 147-163

"But when first their father [Ouranos] was vexed in his heart with Obriareos and Kottos and Gyes, he bound them in cruel bonds, because he was jealous of their exceeding manhood and comeliness and great size: and he made them live beneath the wide-pathed earth, where they were afflicted, being set to dwell under the ground, at the end of the earth, at its great borders, in bitter anguish for a long time and with great grief at heart. But the son of Kronos [Zeus] and the other deathless gods whom rich-haired Rhea bare from union with Kronos, brought them up again to the light at Gaia's advising. For she herself recounted all things to the gods fully, how that with these they would gain victory and a glorious cause to vaunt themselves. For the Titan gods and as many as sprang from Cronos had long been fighting together in stubborn war ... fighting continually with one another at that time for ten full years, and the hard strife had no close or end for either side, and the issue of the war hung evenly balanced. But when he had provided those three with all things fitting, nectar and ambrosia which the gods themselves eat, and when their proud spirit revived within them all after they had fed on nectar and delicious ambrosia, then it was that the father of men and gods spoke amongst them: `Hear me, bright children of Gaia and Ouranos, that I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are sprung from Kronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But do you show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the Titanes in bitter strife; for remember our friendly kindness, and from what sufferings you are come back to the light from your cruel bondage under misty gloom through our counsels.'
So he said. And blameless Kottos answered him again: `Divine one, you speak that which we know well: nay, even of ourselves we know that your wisdom and understanding is exceeding, and that you became a defender of the deathless ones from chill doom. And through your devising we are come back again from the murky gloom and from our merciless bonds, enjoying what we looked not for, O lord, son of Kronos. And so now with fixed purpose and deliberate counsel we will aid your power in dreadful strife and will fight against the Titanes in hard battle.'
So he said: and the gods, givers of good things, applauded when they heard his word, and their spirit longed for war even more than before, and they all, both male and female, stirred up hated battle that day, the Titan gods, and all that were born of Kronos together with those dread, mighty ones of overwhelming strength whom Zeus brought up to the light from Erebos beneath the earth. An hundred arms sprang from the shoulders of all alike, and each had fifty heads growing upon his shoulders upon stout limbs. These, then, stood against the Titanes in grim strife, holding huge rocks in their strong hands. And on the other part the Titanes eagerly strengthened their ranks, and both sides at one time showed the work of their hands and their might. The boundless sea rang terribly around, and the earth crashed loudly: wide Heaven was shaken and groaned, and high Olympus reeled from its foundation under the charge of the undying gods, and a heavy quaking reached dim Tartaros and the deep sound of their feet in the fearful onset and of their hard missiles. So, then, they launched their grievous shafts upon one another, and the cry of both armies as they shouted reached to starry heaven; and they met together with a great battle-cry ...
And amongst the foremost [in the battle] Kottos and Briareos and Gyes insatiate for war raised fierce fighting: three hundred rocks, one upon another, they launched from their strong hands and overshadowed the Titanes with their missiles, and buried them beneath the wide-pathed earth, and bound them in bitter chains when they had conquered them by their strength for all their great spirit, as far beneath the earth to Tartaros ... There by the counsel of Zeus whodrives the clouds the Titan gods are hidden under misty gloom, in a dank place where are the ends of the huge earth. And they may not go out; for Poseidon fixed gates of bronze upon it, and a wall runs all round it on every side. There Gyes and Kottos and great-souled Obriareos live, trusty warders of Zeus who holds the aegis." -Theogony 617-735

"And there [at the ends of earth, sea & sky] are shining gates [to Tartaros] and an immoveable threshold of bronze having unending roots and it is grown of itself. And beyond, away from all the gods, live the Titanes, beyond gloomy Khaos. But the glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Okeanos' foundations, even Kottos and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring Earth-Shaker [Poseidon] made his son-in-law, giving him Kymopolea his daughter to wed." -Theogony 807-819

'The Epic Cycle begins with the fabled union of Ouranos and Ge, by which they make three Hekatontacheiroi sons and three Kyklopes to be born to him." -Titanomachia Frag 1 from Plotius

"Ouranos was the first to rule over the entire world. He married Ge and sired first the Hekatonkheires, who were names Briareos, Gyes and Kottos. They were unsurpassed in both size and power, and each had a hundred hands and fifty heads. After these he sired the Kyklopes, by name Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, each of whom had one eye in his forehead. But Ouranos bound these and threw them into Tartaros ( a place in Hades’ realm as dark as Erebos, and as far away from the earth as the earth is from the sky).
Now Ge, distressed by the loss of her children into Tartaros, persuaded the Titanes to attack their father, and she gave Kronos a sickle made of adamant. So all of them except Okeanos set upon Ouranos, and Kronos cut off his genitals, tossing them into the sea. (From the drops of the flowing blood Erinyes were born, named Alekto, Tisiphone, Megaira.) Thus having overthrown Ouranos’ rule the Titanes retrieved their brothers from Tartaros and gave the power to Kronos. But Kronos once again bound the Kyklopes and confined them in Tartaros.
After ten years of fighting Ge prophesied a victory for Zeus if he were to secure the prisoners down in Tartaros as his allies. He thereupon slew their jail-keeper Kampe, and freed them from their bonds. In return the Kyklopes gave Zeus thunder, lightning, and a thunderbolt, as well as a helmet for Pluto and a trident for Poseidon. Armed with these the three gods overpowered the Titanes, confined them in Tartaros, and put the Hekatonkheires in charge of guarding them. " -Apollodorus 1.1-7

"Tritopatores: Demon in the Atthis says that the Tritopatores are winds ... Phanodemos in [book] 6 maintains that only [the] Athenians both sacrifice to them and pray to them, when they are about to marry, for the conception of children ... But the author of Explanation claims that they are [the offspring] of Ouranos (Heaven) and Ge (Earth), and that their names are Kottos, Briareon and Gyges." -Suidas 'Tritiopatores'

Sources:

* Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th BC
* Homerica Titanomachia, Fragments - Greek Epic BC
* Apollodorus, The Library - Greek Mythography C2nd BC
* Suidas - Byzantine Greek Lexicography C10th AD

.

BRIAREOS
 
Greek: BriarewV
BriarhoV
ObriarewV Transliteration: Briareôs
Briarêos
Obriareôs Translation: Strong
Latin Spelling: Briareus        

BRIAREOS was one of the HEKATONKHEIRES, the hundred-armed, fifty-headed sons of Ouranos. After the Titan-War he married Poseidon's gigantic daughter Kymopoleia and settled with her in a palace in the River Okeanos.
A firm ally of Zeus, he was summoned by Thetis to assist the god when Hera, Athene and Poseidon had bound him in chains.

Parents

(1) OURANOS & GAIA (Theogony 147, Titanomachia Frag 1, Apollodorus 1.1, Hyginus Pref)
(2) AIGAIOS (Iliad 1.397, Ion of Chios Frag 741)
(3) THALASSA (Ion of Chios Frag 741)

Offspring

OIOLYKA (Ibycus Frag 299)

"But the glorious allies of loud-crashing Zeus have their dwelling upon Okeanos' foundations, even Kottos and Gyes; but Briareos, being goodly, the deep-roaring Earth-Shaker [Poseidon] made his son-in-law, giving him Kymopolea his daughter to wed." -Theogony 817-819

“You [Thetis] said you only among the immortals beat aside shameful destruction from Kronos’ son [Zeus] the dark-misted, that time when all the other Olympian gods sought to bind him, Hera and Poseidon and Pallas Athene. Then you, goddess, went and set him free from his shackles, summoning in speed the creature of the hundred hands to tall Olympos, that creature the gods name Briareos, but all men Aigaios’ son, but he is far greater in strength than his father. He rejoicing in the glory of it sat down by Kronion, and the rest of the blessed gods were frightened and gave up binding him.” –Iliad 1.397-406

"Ion says in a dithyramb that Aigaion was summoned from the ocean by Thetis and taken up to protect Zeus, and that he was the son of Thalassa (Sea) [the author here confuses Briareus with his father Aigaion, son of Thalassa]." -Greek Lyric IV Ion of Chios Frag 741 (from Scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes)

“The mount of Aitna smoulders with fire and all its secret depths are shaken as the Gigantos under the earth, even Briareos, shifts to his other shoulder, and with the tongs of Hephaistos roar furnaces and handiwork withal; and firewrought basins and tripods ring terribly as they fall one upon the other.” -Callimachus, Hymn IV to Delos 140

”The Korinthians say that Poseidon had a dispute with Helios about the land, and that Briareos arbitrated between them, assigning to Poseidon the Isthmos and the parts adjoining, and giving to Helios the height above the city.” –Pausanias 2.1.5

”The Akrokorinthos [at Korinthos] is a mountain peak above the city, assigned to Helios by Briareos when he acted as adjudicator [between Helios & Poseidon over the land of Korinthos].” –Pausanias 2.4.5

"She [Thetis] was sent to follow Aegaeon freed [Zeus] from his stubborn bonds and to count the hundred fetters of the god.” –Achilleid 1.209

"O Lord Zeus! If thou hast gratitude for Thetis and the ready hands of Briareus, if thou hast not forgot Aigaion the protector of thy laws.” –Dionysiaca 43.361

See also The Hekatonkheires

Sources:

* Hesiod, Theogony - Greek Epic C8th-7th BC
* Homer, The Iliad - Greek Epic C9th-8th BC
* Greek Lyric IV Ion of Chios, Fragments - Greek Lyric BC
* Callimachus, Hymns - Greek C3rd BC
* Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd AD
* Statius, Achilleid - Latin Epic C1st AD
* Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD

THE ELDER KYKLOPES were three one-eyed GIANTS, known as craftsmen and builders. Their father Ouranos feared their strength and locked them away in Tartaros. Zeus later freed them from this prison enlisting them in the war against the Titanes.
They forged thunderbolts for Zeus, a trident for Poseidon, a helm of invisibility for Hades, and constructed the first altar as well as numerous walls and battlements.

Some say there were a total of seven Kyklops craftsmen - the usual Arges, Brontes and Steropes and four others named Euryalos, Elatreus, Trakhios and Halimedes who were presumably sons of the first three.

It is said that Apollon killed those Kyklopes that forged the thunderbolt that Zeus used to kill Asklepios.
One would suppose that the three eldest were immortal, so perhaps the Kyklopes Apollon killed were their sons.

The tribe of Younger Kyklopes, that Odysseus encountered on his travels, were a different breed, probably born from the blood of the castrated Ouranos. See The Kyklopes (2)

Parents

OURANOS & GAIA (Theogony 139, Titanomachia Frag 1, Apollodorus 1.1)

Names

(1) BRONTES, STEROPES, ARGES (Theogony139, Apollodorus 1.1 Callimachus Hymn to Artemis)
(2) BRONTES, STEROPES, AKMONIDES (Ovid Fasti 4.287)
(3) BRONTES, STEROPES, PYRAKMON (Aeneid 8.414)
(4) BRONTES, STEROPES, ARGES, EURYALOS, ELATREUS, TRAKHIOS, HALIMEDES (Dionysiaca 14.52)
(5) BRONTES, STEROPES (Silvae 1.1.3)
Greek: BronthV
SterophV
ArghV ArgilipoV Transliteration: Brontês
Steropês
Argês Argilipos Translation: Thunder
Lightning
Vivid-Flash
Greek: EurualoV
ElatreuV
TracioV
‘AlimhdhV Transliteration: Euryalos
Elatreus
Trakhios
Halimedes Translation: Wide-Stepping
Forged-Iron
Rugged
Sea-Lord

BIRTH & NAMES OF THE KYKLOPES

"And again, she bare [Gaia to Ouranos] the Kyklopes, overbearing in spirit, Brontes, and Steropes and stubborn-hearted Arges, who gave Zeus the thunder and made the thunderbolt: in all else they were like the gods, but one eye only was set in the midst of their fore-heads. And they were surnamed Kyklopes (Orb-eyed) because one orbed eye was set in their foreheads. Strength and might and craft were in their works. And again, three other sons were born of Gaia and Ouranos, [the Hekatonkheires] ...
For of all the children that were born of Gaia and Ouranos, these were the most terrible, and they werehated by their own father from the first. And he used to hide them all away in a secret place of Gaia (Earth) so soon as each was born, and would not suffer them to come up into the light: and Ouranos rejoiced in his evil doing. But vast Gaia (Earth) groaned within, being straitened, and she made the element of grey flint and shaped a great sickle, and told her plan to her dear sons [the Titanes]. And she spoke, cheering them, while she was vexed in her dear heart:
`My children, gotten of a sinful father, if you mwill obey me, we should punish the vile outrage of your father; for he first thought of doing shameful things." -Theogony 139-163

"The Epic Cycle begins with the fabled union of Ouranos and Ge, by which they make three Hekatontacheiroi [Hundred-handed] sons and three Kyklopes to be born to him." -Titanomachia Frag 1 from Plotius

"Ouranos was the first to rule over the entire world. He married Ge and sired first the Hekatonkheires, who were names Briareos, Gyes and Kottos ... After these he sired the Kyklopes, by name Arges, Steropes, and Brontes, each of whom had one eye in his forehead. But Ouranos bound these and threw them into Tartaros, a place in Hades’ realm as dark as Erebos, and as far away from the earth as the earth is from the sky.
Now Ge, distressed by the loss of her children into Tartaros, persuaded the Titanes to attack their father, and she gave Kronos a sickle made of adamant. So all of them except Okeanos set upon Ouranos, and Kronos cut off his genitals, tossing them into the sea ... Thus having overthrown Ouranos’ rule the Titanes retrieved their brothers from Tartaros and gave the power to Kronos. But Kronos once again bound the Kyklopes and confined them in Tartaros." -Apollodorus 1.1-7

“The Trinacrian sea, where Brontes, Steropes and Acmonides dip the white iron.” –Ovid Fasti 4.287

“Was the effigy moulded in Sicilian furnaces, leaving Brontes and Steropes weary?” –Silvae 1.1.3
------------------------------------------------------------------------

KYKLOPES & THE TITAN-WAR

"And he [Zeus] set free from their deadly bonds the brothers of his father [Kyklopes], sons of Ouranos whom his father in his foolishness had bound. And they remembered to be grateful to him for his kindness, and gave him thunder and the glowing thunderbolt and lightening: for before that, huge Earth had hidden these. In them he trusts and rules over mortals and immortals." -Theogony 492-506

"All mine [Zeus'] armoury [lightning] which the Kyklopes' might to win my favour wrought with tireless hands." -Quintus Smyrnaeus 14.445

"After ten years of fighting Ge prophesied a victory for Zeus if he were to secure the prisoners down in Tartaros as his allies. He thereupon slew their jail-keeper Kampe, and freed them from their bonds. In return the Kyklopes gave Zeus thunder, lightning, and a thunderbolt, as well as a helmet for Pluto and a trident for Poseidon. Armed with these the three gods overpowered the Titanes, confined them in Tartaros, and put the Hekatonkheires in charge of guarding them." -Apollodorus 1.1-7

“Altar. On this altar the gods are thought to have first made offerings and formed an alliance when they were about to oppose the Titanes. The Cyclopes made it. From this observance men established the custom that when they plan to do something, they make sacrifices before beginning the undertaking.” –Hyginus Astronomica 2.39

“[The giant Typhoeus declares his intentions to Zeus when he seizes the throne of heaven:] And cannibal Kronos I will drag up once more to the light ... and bring back the Titanes to heaven, and settle under the same roof in the sky the Kyklopes, sons of Gaia.” –Dionysiaca 2.336
------------------------------------------------------------------------

KYKLOPES FASHION THE LIGHTNING-BOLTS OF ZEUS

“Here were the Kyklopes sitting at work on an imperishable thunderbolt for Zeus the King. One ray was lacking to complete its splendour, and this lay spurting flame as they beat it out with their iron hammers.” -Argonautica 1.731

“The earthborn Kyklopes had given him [Zeus] the bolt, the thunder and lightning that form his glorious armament today.” –Argonautica 1.498

"[Zeus] soared ascending to the ethereal sky, and by his nod called up the trailing clouds and massed a storm, with lightnings in the squalls, and thunder and the bolts that never miss ... he tried, as far as he had power, to curb his might, and would not wield [against his love Semele] the fire with which he’s felled hundred-handed Typhoeus. That was too fierce. There is another bolt, a lighter one, in which the Cyclopes forged a flame less savage and a lesser wrath, called by the gods his second armament. With this in hand he went to Semele in Cadmus’ palace.” –Metamorphoses 3.302

“And the Cyclops’ caverns [in Sicily] scorched by fixed forges.” –Ovid Fasti 4.473

“In nightly vigil the master [Hephaistos] marks the labours of his workmen and the Cyclops prepares the metal for the thunderbolt, while cities echo the clang of stricken anvils.” –Valerius Flaccus 4.286

“A Cyclops all black from the hot furnaces where the glowing bolts are forged finds respite and refuge in the Sicilian sea.” –Valerius Flaccus 7.648

“I [Jove-Zeus] am wearing of venting my anger with flashing brand, long since are the busy arms of the Cyclopes failing, and the fires droop that serve Aeolian anvils.” –Thebaid 1.216

"Not so loud is Aetna’s din, when the anvils are busy and Brontes and Steropes ply the hammer, nor greater noise from the Lemnian caves when Mulciber [Hephaistos] amid his flames forges the aegis and makes chaste gifts for Pallas." -Silvae 3.1.130

“Set foot in Sikelia (Sicily), put your prayer, if you please, to the Kyklopes standing by their forge. They are in the secrets of Hephaistos the master craftsman, they can rival his clever work.” –Dionysiaca 29.348

See also: KYKLOPES & THE TITAN WAR (above) & KYKLOPES SLAIN BY APOLLON (below)
------------------------------------------------------------------------

KYKLOPES FASHION THE ARROWS OF ARTEMIS

“[Artemis to Zeus] ‘Father, I ask thee not for quiver or for mighty bow: for me the Kyklopes will straightway fashion arrows and fashion for me a well-bent bow.” –Callimachus, Hymn III to Artemis 10

“And straightway she [Artemis] went to visit the Kyklopes. Then she found in the isle of Lipara – Lipara in later days, but at that time its name was Meligounis – at the anvils of Hephaistos, standing round a molten mass of iron. For a great work was being hastened on: they fashioned a shores-trough for Poseidon. And the Nymphai [companions of Artemis] were affrighted when they saw the terrible monsters like unto the crags of Ossa: all had single eyes beneath their brows, like a shield of fourfold hide for size, glaring terribly from under; and when they heard the din of the anvil echoing loudly, and the great blast of the bellows and the heavy groaning of the Kyklopes themselves. For Aitna cried aloud, and Trinakie cried, the seat of the Sikanians, cried too their neighbour Italie, and Kyrnos therewithal uttered a mighty noise, when they lifted their hammers above their shoulders and smote with rhythmic swing the bronze glowing from the furnace or iron, labouring greatly. Wherefore the Okeaninai could not untroubled look upon them to face n