My focus of this "thread" to begin with, shall be the early mythology, but eventually, should it prove engaging enough, I hope to broaden it into a discussion of the wider Greek mythology as a whole. My ideal plan would be for it would to move in a linear fashion and maintain some semblance of chronology, if at all possible.

I have noted, as have others, that some of the responses seem to wander off topic. While I am certain that these other points have some merit, please confine the discussion to one concerned with soley with Greek mythology. A line of research similar to the ones I see developing in the threads "Sea People" and the "Tribes of Atlantis" threads would be much appreciated.

The Titans

The Titans, also known as the elder gods, ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronus who was de-throned by his son Zeus. Most of the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished to Tartarus. During their rule the Titans were associated with the various planets.

Gaea
Uranus
Cronus
Rhea
Oceanus
Tethys
Hyperion
Mnemosyne
Themis
Iapetus
Coeus
Crius
Phoebe
Thea
Prometheus
Epimetheus
Atlas
Metis
Dione

Gaea
Gaea is the Earth goddess. She mated with her son Uranus to produce the remaining Titans. Gaea seems to have started as a neolithic earth-mother worshipped before the Indo-European invasion that eventually lead to the Hellenistic civilization.

Uranus
Uranus is the sky god and first ruler. He is the son of Gaea , who created him without help. He then became the husband of Gaea and together they had many offspring, including twelve of the Titans.

His rule ended when when Cronus, encouraged by Gaea, castrated him. He either died from the wound or withdrew from earth

Cronus
Cronus was the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his Father Uranus. His wife was Rhea. There offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronus ate each of the children as they were born. This worked until Rhea, unhappy at the loss of her children, tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus. When he grew up Zeus would revolt against Cronus and the other Titans, defeat them, and banish them to Tartarus in the underworld.

Cronus managed to escape to Italy, where he ruled as Saturn. The period of his rule was said to be a golden age on earth, honored by the Saturnalia feast.

Rhea
Rhea was the wife of Cronus. Cronus made it a practice to swallow their children. To avoid this, Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, saving her son Zeus.

Oceanus
Oceanus is the unending stream of water encircling the world. Together with his wife Tethys produced the rivers and the three thousand ocean nymphs.

Tethys
Tethys is the wife of Oceanus. Together they produced the rivers and the three thousand ocean nymphs.

Hyperion
Hyperion is the Titan of light, an early sun god. He is the son of Gaea and Uranus. He married his sister Theia. Their children Helius (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn).

Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne was the Titan of memory and the mother of Muses.

Themis
Themis was the Titan of justice and order. She was the mother of the Fates and the Seasons.

Iapetus
Iapetus was the father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Atlas by Clymene.

Coeus
Titan of Intelligence. Father of Leto.

Crius
No details available.

Phoebe
Titan of the Moon. Mother of Leto.

Thea
No details available.

Prometheus
Prometheus was the wisest Titan. His name means "forethought" and he was able to foretell the future. He was the son of Iapetus . When Zeus revolted against Cronus Prometheus deserted the other Titans and fought on Zeus side.

By some accounts he and his brother Epimetheus were delegated by Zeus to create man. In all accounts, Prometheus is known as the protector and benefactor of man. He gave mankind a number of gifts including fire. He also tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep the best part of the animals sacrificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts.

For this Zeus punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with an eagle tearing at his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to disclose to Zeus which of Zeus children would try to replace him. He was eventually rescued by Heracles without giving in to Zeus.

Epimetheus
Epimetheus was a stupid Titan, whose name means "afterthought". He was the son of Iapetus. In some accounts he is delegated, along with his brother Prometheus by Zeus to create mankind. He also accepted the gift of Pandora from Zeus, which lead to the introduction of evil into the world.

Atlas
Atlas was the son of Iapetus. Unlike his brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus, Atlas fought with the other Titans supporting Cronus against Zeus. Due to Cronus's advance age Atlas lead the Titan's in battle. As a result he was singled out by Zeus for a special punishment and made to hold up the world on his back.

Metis
Metis was the Titaness of the forth day and the planet Mercury. She presided over all wisdom and knowledge. She was seduced by Zeus and became pregnant with Athena. Zeus became concerned over prophecies that her second child would replace Zeus. To avoid this Zeus ate her. It is said that she is the source for Zeus wisdom and that she still advises Zeus from his belly.

It may seem odd for Metis to have been pregnant with Athena but, never mentioned as her mother. This is because the classic Greeks believed that children were generated solely from the fathers sperm. The women was thought to be nothing more than a vessel for the fetus to grow in. Since Metis was killed well before Athena's birth her role doesn't count.

Dione
According to Homer in the Iliad she is the mother of Aphrodite.

J.M.Hunt

AURA
 
Greek: Aurh Transliteration: Aurê Translation: Breeze

AURA was a beautiful virgin huntress and the younger TITANIS-goddess of the breeze. She was excessively proud of her maidenhood and in her arrogance she compared her body with that of Artemis, saying that the body of the goddess was far too womanly to be that of a virgin. Nemesis avenged the dignity of Artemis by bringing about Aura's rape at the hands of Dionysos. This crime drove the maiden to madness and she became a ruthless. slayer of men. When her twin sons were born, she swallowed one whole and was subsequently transformed into a spring or her namesake breeze.

Parents

(1) LELANTOS & PERIBOIA (Dionysiaca 48.264)
(2) KYBELE (Dionysiaca 1.28)

Offspring

IAKKHOS & HIS TWIN (Dionysiaca 48.887)

“Thyone’s son [Dionysos] lovesick for Aura the desirable, boarslayer, daughter of Kybele, mother of the third Bakkhos late-born [Iakkhos].” –Dionysiaca 1.28

'[Dionysos'] brother Eros came to console him in his jealous mood [having lost the contest for the hand in marriage of Beroe to Poseidon]: ‘ ... You must leave the mountains of Lebanon and the waters of Adonis and go to Phrygia, the land of lovely girls; there awaits you a bride without salt water, Aura of Titan stock." -Dionysiaca 43.420

“There [in Phrygia] grew Aura the mountain maiden of Rhyndakos, and hunted over the foothills of rocky Dindymon. She was unacquainted with love, a comrade of the Archeress [Artemis]. She kept aloof from the notions of unwarlike maids, like a younger Artemis, this daughter of Lelantos; for the father of this stormfoot girl was ancient Lelantos the Titan, who wedded Periboia, a daughter of Okeanos; a manlike maid she was, who knew nothing of Aphrodite. She grew up taller than her yearsmates, a lovely rosy-armed thing, ever a friend of the hills. Often in hunting she ran down the wild bear, and sent her swift lance shooting against the lioness, but she slew no prickets and shot no hares. No, she carried her tawny quiver to shoot down hillranging tribes of ravening lions, with her shafts that were death to wild beasts. Her name was like her doing: Aura the Windmaid could run most swiftly, keeping pace with the highland winds.
One day in the scorching season of thirsty heat the maiden was asleep, resting from her labours of hunting. Stretching her body on Kybele’s grass, and leaning her head on a bush of chaste laurel, she slept at midday, and saw a vision in her dreams which foretold a delectable marriage to come – how the fiery god, wild Eros, fitted shaft to burning string and shot the hares in the forest, shot the wild beasts in a row with his tiny shafts; how Kypris came laughing, wandering with the young son of Myrrha [Adonis] when he hunted, and Aura the maiden was there, carrying the quiver of huntsman Eros on the shoulder which was ere now used to the bow of Artemis. But Eros went on killing the beasts, until he was weary of the bowstring and hitting the grim face of a panther or the snout of a bear; then he caught a lioness alive with the allbewitching cestus, and dragged the beast away showed her fettered to his merry mother. The maiden saw in the darkness how mischievious Eros teased herself also as he leaned her arm on Kythereia and Adonis, while he made his prey the proud lioness, bend a slavish knee before Aphrodite, as he cried loudly, ‘Garlanded mother of the Erotes (Loves)! I lead to you Aura, the maiden too fond of maidenhood, and she bows her neck. Now you dancers of lovestricken Orkhomenos [the Kharites], crown this cestus, the strap that waists on marriage, because it has conquered the stubborn will of this invincible lioness!’ Such was the prophetic oracle which Aura the mountain maiden saw. Nor was it vain for the loves, since they themselves bring a man in to the net and hunt a woman.
The maiden awoke, raved against the prudent laurel, upbraided Eros and the Paphian – but bold Hypnos (Sleep) she reproached more than all and threatening the Oneiros (Dream) …
And once it happened that Artemis queen of the hunt was hunting over the hills, and her skin was beaten by the glow of the scorching heat, in the middle of flowing summer … Artemis hillranger fastened her prickets [the golden horned deer that drew her chariot] under the yokestraps. Maiden Aura mounted the car, took reins and whip and drove the horned team like a tempest ... until she reached the place where the heavenfallen waters of Sangarios river are drawn in a murmuring stream.
Then Aura checked her swinging whip, and holding up the prickets with the golden bridles, brought the radiant car of her mistress to a standstill beside the stream. The goddess leapt out of her car ... [and] in the midday heat still guarded her maiden modesty in the river, moving through the water with cautious step, and lifting her tunic little by little from foot to head with the edge touching the surface, keeping the two feet and thighs close together and hiding her body as she bathed the whole by degrees. Aura looked sideways through the water with the daring gaze of her sharp eyes unashamed, and scanned the holy frame of the virgin who may not be seen, examining the divine beauty of her chaste mistress; virgin Aura stretched out her arms and feet at full length and swam by the side of the swimming divinity. Now Artemis lady of the hunt stood half visible on the river bank, and wrung out the dripping water from her hair; Aura the maid of the hunt stood by her side, and stroked her breasts and uttered these impious words:
‘Artemis, you only have the name of a virgin maid, because your rounded breasts are full and soft, a woman’s breasts like the Paphian, not a man’s like Athena, and your cheeks shed a rosy radiance! Well, since you have a body like that desirous goddess, why not be queen of marriage as well as Kythereia with her wealth of fine hair, and receive a bridegroom into your chamber? If it please you, leave Athena and sleep with Hermes and Ares. If it please you, take up the bow and arrows of the Erotes (Loves), if your passion is so strong for a quiver full of arrows. I ask pardon of your beauty, but I am much better than you. See what a vigorous body I have! Look at Aura’s body like a boy’s, and her step swifter than Zephyros! See the muscles upon my arms, look at my breasts, round and unripe, not unlike a woman. You might almost say that yours are swelling with drops of milk! Why are your arms so tender, why are your breasts not round like Aura’s, to tell the world themselves of unviolated maidenhood?’
So she spoke in raillery; the goddess listened downcast in boding silence. Waves of anger swelled in her breast, her flashing eyes had death in their look. She leapt up from the stream and put on her tunic again, and once more fitted the girdle upon her pure loins, offended. She betook herself to Nemesis .... [and] said to the goddess who saves men from evil:
‘[Nemesis] Virgin allvanquishing, guide of creation ... that sour virgin Aura, the daughter of Lelantos, who mocks me and offends me with rude sharp words. But how can I tell you all she said? I am ashamed to describe her calumny of my body and her abuse of my breasts. I have suffered just as my mother did: we are both alike – in Phrygia Niobe offended Leto the mother of twins, in Phrygia again impious Aura offended me. But Niobe paid for it by passing into a changeling form, that daughter of Tantalos whose children were her sorrow, and she still weeps with stony eyes; I alone am insulted and bear my disgrace without vengeance, but Aura the champion of chastity has washed no stone with tears, she has seen no fountain declaring the faults of her uncontrolled tongue. I pray you, uphold the dignity of your Titan birth. Grant me a boon like my mother, that I may see Aura’s body transformed into stone immovable; leave not a maiden of your own race in sorrow, that I may not see Aura mockingme again and not to be turned – or let your sickle of beaten bronze drive her to madness!’
She spoke, and the goddess replied with encouraging words:
‘Chaste daughter of Leto, huntress, sister of Phoibos, I will not use my sickle to chastise a Titan girl, I will not make the maiden a stone in Phrygia, for I am myself born of the ancient race of Titanes [Nemesis was a daughter of Okeanos], and her father Lelantos might blame me when he heard: but one boon I will grant you, Archeress. Aura the maid of the hunt has reproached your virginity, and she shall be a virgin no longer. You shall see her in the bed of a mountain stream weeping fountains of tears for her maiden girdle.’
So she consoled her; and Artemis the maiden entered her car with its team of four prickets, left the mountain and drove back to Phrygia. With equal speed the maiden Adrasteia pursued her obstinate enemy Aura. She had harnessed racing Grypes (Griffins) under her bridle; quick through the air she coursed in the swift car, until she tightened the curving bits of her fourfooted birds, and drew up on the peak of Sipylos in front of the face of Tantalos’s daughter [Niobe] with eyeballs of stone. Then she approached haughty Aura. She flicked the proud neck of the hapless girl with her snaky whip, and struck her with the round wheel of justice, and bent the foolish unbending will. Argive Adrasteia (the Unavoidable) let the whip with its vipers curl round the maiden’s girdle, doing pleasure to Artemis and to Dionysos while he was still indignant [at losing his love Beroe to Poseidon]; and although she was herself unacquainted with love, she prepared another love [Aura for Dionysos] ...
Nemesis now flew back to snowbeaten Tauros until she reached Kydnos again. And Eros drove Dionysos mad for the girl with the delicious wound of his arrow, then curving his wings flew lightly to Olympos.
And the god roamed over the hills scourged with a greater fire. For there was not the smallest comfort for him. He had then no hope of the girl’s love, no physic for his passion; but Eros burnt him more and more with the mindbewitching fire to win mad obstinate Aura at last.
With hard struggles he kept his desire hidden; he used no lover’s prattle beside Aura in the woods, for fear she might avoid him. What is more shameless, than when only men crave, and women do not desire? Wandering Bakkhos felt the arrow of love fixt in his heart if the maiden was hunting with her pack of gods in the woods; if he caught a glimpse of a thigh when the loving winds lifted her tunic, he became soft as a woman. At last buffeted by his tumultuous desire for Aura, desperate he cried out in mad tones –
‘I am like lovelorn Pan, when the girl flees me swift as the wind, and wanders, treading the wilderness with boot more agile than Ekho never see! … This love is different from all others, for the girl herself has a nature not like the ways of other maidens. What physic is there for my pain? Shall I charm her with lovers’ nod and beck? Ah when, ah when is Aura charmed with moving eyelids? … What man could charm the mind of Aura proof against all charms? What man could charm her – who will mention marriage, or the cestus which helps love, to this girl with no girdle to her tunic? Who will mention the sweet sting of love or the name of Kyprogeneia [Aphrodite]? I think Athena will listen sooner; and not intrepid Artemis avoids me so much as prudish Aura. If she would only say as much as this with her dear lips – ‘Bakkhos, your desire is vain; seek not for maiden Aura.’
So he spoke to the breezes of spring, while walking in a flowery meadow. Beside a fragrant myrtle he stayed his feet for a soothing rest at midday. He leaned against a tree and listened to the west breeze whispering, overcome by fatigue and love; and as he sat there, a Hamadryas Nymphe at home in the clusters of her native tree, a maiden unveiled, peeped out and said, true both to Kypris and to loving Lyaios:
‘Bakkhos can never lead Aura to his bed, unless he bends her first in heavy galling fetters, and winds the bonds of Kypris round hands and feet; or else puts her under the yoke of marriage in sleep, and steals the girl’s maidenhood without brideprice.’
Having spoken she hid again in her tree her agemate, and entered again her woody home …
He [Dionysos] remembered the bed of the Astakid Nymphe [Nikaia] long before, how he had wooed the lovely Nymphe with a cunning potion and made sleep his guide to intoxicated bridals [he made her drunk and then raped her].
While Bakkhos would be preparing a cunning device for her bed, Lelantos’s daughter wandered about seeking a fountain, for she was possessed with parching thirst. Dionysos failed not to see how thirsting Aura ran rapidly over the hills. Quickly he leapt up and dug the earth with his wand at the foundation of a rock: the hill parted, and poured out of itself a purple stream of wine from its sweet-scented bosom. The Horai, handmaids of Helios, to do grace to Lyaios, painted with flowers the fountain’s margin, and fragrant whiffs from the new-growing meadow beat on the balmy air. There were the clustering blooms which have the name Narkissos the fair youth … there was the living plant of Amyclain iris; there sang the nightingales over the spring blossoms, flying in troops above the clustering flowers.
And there came running thirsty at midday Aura herself, seeking if anywhere she could find raindrops from Zeus, or some fountain, or the stream of a river pouring from the hills; and Eros cast a mist over her eyelids: but when she saw the deceitful fountain of Bakkhos, Peitho dispersed the shadowy cloud from her eyelids, and called out to Aura like a herald of her marriage –
‘Maiden, come this way! Take into your lips the stream of this nuptial fountain, and into your bosom a lover.’
Gladly the maiden saw it, and throwing herself down before the fountain drew in the liquid of Bakkhos with open lips. When she had drunk, the girl exclaimed:
‘Naiades, what marvel is this? Whence comes this balmy water? Who made this bubbling drink, what heavenly womb gave him birth? Certainly after drinking this I can run no more. No, my feet are heavy, sweet sleep bewitches me, nothing comes from my lips but a soft stammering sound.’
She spoke, and went stumbling on her way. She moved this way and that way with erring motions, her brow shook with throbbing temples, her head leaned and lay on her shoulder, she fell asleep on the ground beside a tallbranching tree and entrusted to the bare earth her maidenhood unguarded.
When fiery Eros beheld Aura stumbling heavyknee, he leapt down from heaven, and smiling with peaceful countenance spoke to Dionysos with full sympathy:
‘Are you for a hunt, Dionysos? Virgin Aura awaits you!’
With these words, he made haste away to Olympos flapping his wings, but first he had inscribed on the spring petals – ‘Bridegroom, complete your marriage while the maiden is still asleep; and let us be silent that sleep may not leave the maiden.’
Then Iobakkhos seeing her on the bare earth, plucking the Lethaean feather of bridal Sleep, he crept up noiseless, unshod, on tiptoe, and approached Aura where she lay without voice or hearing. With gentle hand he put away the girl’s neat quiver and hid the bow in a hole in the rock, that she might not shake off Sleep’s wing and shoot him. Then he tied the girl’s feet together with indissoluble bonds, and passed a cord round and round her hands that she might not escape him: he laid the maiden down in the dust, a victim heavy with sleep ready for Aphrodite, and stole the bridal fruit from Aura asleep. The husband brought no gift; on the ground that hapless girl heavy with wine, unmoving, was wedded to Dionysos; Hypnos (Sleep) embraced the body of Aura with overshadowing winds, and he was marshal of the wedding for Bakkhos, for he also had experience of love, he is yokefellow of Selene (the Moon), he is companion of the Erotes (Loves) in nightly caresses. So the wedding was like a dream; for the capering dances, the hill skipt and leapt of itself, the Hamadryas half-visible shook her agemate fir – only maiden Ekho did not join in the mountain dance, but shamefast hid herself unapproachable under the foundations of the rock, that she might not behold the wedding of womanmad Dionysos.
When the vinebridegroom had consummated his wedding on that silent bed, he lifted cautious foot and kissed the bride’s lovely lips, loosed the unmoving feet and hands, brought back the quiver and bow from the rock and laid them beside his bride. He left to the winds the bed of Aura still sleeping, and returned to his Satyroi with a breath of the bridal still about him.
After these caresses, the bride started up; she shook off limbloosing sleep, the witness of the unpublished nuptials, saw with surprise her breasts bare of the modest bodice, the cleft of her thighs uncovered, her dress marked with the drops of wedlock that told of a maidenhood ravished without bridegift. She was maddened by what she saw. She fitted the bodice again about her chest, and bound the maiden girdle again over her round breast – too late! She shrieked in distress, held in the throes of madness; she chased the countrymen, slew shepherds beside the leafy slopes, to punish her treacherous husband with avenging justice – still more she killed the oxherds with implacable steel … still more she killed the goatherds, killed their whole flocks of goats, in agony of heart, because she had seen Pan the dangerous lover with a face like some shaggy goat; for she felt quite sure that shepherd Pan tormented with desire for Ekho had violated her asleep: much more she laid low the husbandmen, as being also slaves of Kypris … The huntsmen she killed believing an ancient story; for she had heard that a huntsman Kephalos, from the country of unmothered Athena, was husband of rosecrowned Eos (Dawn). Workmen of Bakkhos about the vintage she killed, because they are servants of Lyaios who squeeze out the intoxicating juice of his liquor, heavy with wine, dangerous lovers. For she had not yet learnt the cunning heart of Dionysos, and the seductive potion of heady love, but she made empty the huts of the mountainranging herdsmen drenched the hills with red blood.
Still frantic in mind, shaken by throes of madness, she came to the temple of Kypris [Aphrodite]. She loosed the girdle from her newly spun robe, the enemy of the cestus, and flogged the dainty body of the unconquerable goddess; she caught up the statue of marriage-consumating Kythereia, she went to the bank of Sangarios, and sent [the statue of] Aphrodite rolling into the stream, naked among the naked Naiades; and after the divine statue had gone with the scourge twisted round it, she threw into the dust the delicate image of Eros (Love), and left the temple of Kybelid Foamborn empty. Then she plunged into the familiar forest, wandering unperceived, handled her net-stakes, remembered the hunt again, lamenting her maidenhood with wet eyelids, and crying loudly in these words:
‘What god has loosed the girdle of my maidenhood? If Zeus Allwise took some false aspect, and forced me, upon my lonely bed, if he did not respect our neighbour Rheia, I will leave the wild beasts and shoot the starry sky! If Phoibos Apollon lay by my side in sleep, I will raze the stones of wordfamous Pytho wholly to the ground! If Kyllenian Hermes has ravished my bed, I will utterly destroy Arkadia with my arrows, and make goldchaplet Peitho [Hermes’ wife] my servant! If Dionysos came unseen and ravished my maidenhood in the crafty wooing of a dream-bridal, I will go where Kybele’s hall stands, and chase that lustmad Dionysos from highcrested Tmolos! I will hang my quiver of death on my shoulders and attack Paphos, I will attack Phrygia – I will draw my bow on both Kypris [Aphrodite] and Dionysos! You, Archeress [Artemis], you have enraged me most, because you, a maiden, did not kill me in my sleep still a virgin, yes and did not defend me even against my bedfellow with your pure shafts!’
She spoke, and then checked her trembling voice overcome by tears. And Aura, hapless maiden, having within her the fruitful seed of Bakkhos the begetter, carried a double weight [twins]: the wife maddened uncontrollably cursed the burden of the seed, hapless maiden Aura lamented the loss of her maidenhood; she knew not whether she had conceived of herself, or by some man, or a scheming god; she remembered the bride of Zeus Berekyntian Plouto, so unhappy in the son Tantalos whom she bore. She wished to tear herself open, to cut open her womb in her senseless frenzy, that the child half made might be destroyed and never be reared. She even lifted a sword, and thought to drive the blade through her bare chest with pitiless hand. Often she went to the cave of a lioness with newborn cubs, that she might slip into the net of a willing fate; but the dread beast ran out into the mountains, in fear of death, and hid herself in some cleft of the rocks, leaving the cub alone in the lair. Often she thought to drive a sword willingly through the swelling womb and slay herself with her own hand, that self-slain she might escape the shame of her womb and the mocking taunts of glad Artemis. She longed to know her husband, that she might dish up her own son to her loathing husband, childslayer and paramour alike, that men might say – ‘Aura, unhappy bride, has killed her child like another Prokne.’
Then Artemis saw her big with new children, and came near with a laugh on her face and teased the poor creature, saying with pitiless voice:
‘I saw Sleep, the Paphian’s chamberlain! I saw the deceiving stream of the yellow fountain at your loving bridal! The fountain where young girls get a treacherous potion, and loosen the girdle they have worn all their lives, in a dream of marriage which steals their maidenhood. I have seen, I have seen the slope where a woman is made a bride unexpectedly, in treacherous sleep, beside a bridal rock. I have seen the love-mountain of Kypris, where lovers steal the maidenhood of women and run away.
‘Tell me, you young prude, why do you walk so slowly today? Once as quick as the wind, why do you plod so heavily? You were wooed unwilling, and you do not know your bedfellow! You cannot hide your furtive bridal, for your breasts are swelling with new milk and they announce a husband. Tell me heavy sleeper, pigsticker, virgin, bride, how do you come by those pale cheeks, once ruddy? Who disgraced your bed? Who stole your maidenhood? O fair-haired Naiades, do not hid Aura’s bridegroom! I know your furtive husband, you woman with a heavy burden. I saw your wedding, clearly enough, though you long to conceal it. I saw your husband clearly enough; you were in the bed, your body heavy with sleep, you did not move when Dionysos wedded you.
‘Come then, leave your bow, renounce your quiver; serve in the secret rites of your womanmad Bakkos; carry your tambour and your tootling pipes of horn. I beseech you, in the name of that bed on the ground where the marriage was consummated, what bridegifts did Dionysos your husband bring? Did he give you a fawnskin, enough to be news of your marriage-bed? Did he give you brazen rattles for your children to play with? I think he gave you a thyrsos to shoot lions; perhaps he gave cymbals, which nurses shake to console the howling pains of the little children.’
So spoke the goddess in mockery, and went away to shoot her wild beasts again, in anger leaving her cares to the winds of heaven.
But the girl went among the high rocks of the mountains. There unseen, when she felt the cruel throes of childbirth pangs, her voice roared terrible as a lioness in labour, and the rocks resounded, for as a lioness in labour, and the rocks resounded, for dolorous Ekho gave back an answering roar to the loud-shrieking girl. She held her hands over her lap like a lid compressing the birth, to close the speedy delivery of her ripening child, and delayed the babe now perfect.
For she hated Artemis and would not call upon her in her pains; she would not have the daughters of Hera [the Eileithyiai], lest they as being children of Bakkhos’s stepmother should oppress her delivery with more pain. At last in her affliction the girl cried out these despairing words, stabbed with the pangs of one who was new to the hard necessity of childbirth:
‘So may I see Archeress [Artemis] and wild Athena, so may I see them both great with child! Reproach Artemis in labour, O midwife Horai (Seasons), be witness of her delivery, and say to Tritogeneia – ‘O virgin Brighteyes, O new mother who mother had none!’ So may I see Ekho who loves maidenhood so much, suffering as I do, after she has lain with Pan, or Dionysos the cause of my troubles! Artemis, if you could bring forth some consolation to Aura, that you should trickle woman’s milk from your man’s breast.’
So she cried, lamenting the heavy pangs of her delivery. Then Artemis delayed the birth, and gave the labouring bride the pain of retarded delivery.
But Nikaia, the leader of the rites of Lyaios, seeing the pain and disgrace of distracted Aura, spoke to her thus in secret pity:
‘Aura, I have suffered as you have [Nikaia was also raped by Dionysos whilst in a drunken sleep], and you too lament you your maidenhood. But since you carry in your womb the burden of painful childbirth, endure after the bed to have the pangs of delivery, endure to give your untaught breast to babes. Whey did you also drink wine, which robbed me of my girdle? Why did you also drink wine, Aura, until you were with child? You also suffered what I suffered, you enemy of marriage; then you also have to blame a deceitful sleep sent by the Erotes (Loves), who are friends of marriage. One fraud fitted marriage on us both, one husband was Aura’s and made virgin Nikaia the mother of children. No more have I a beastslaying bow, no longer as once, I draw my bowstring and my arrows; I am a poor woman working at the loom, and no longer a wild Amazon.’
She spoke, pitying Aura’s labour to accomplish the birth, as one who herself had felt the pangs of labour. But Leto’s daughter [Artemis], hearing the resounding cries of Aura, came near her again in triumph, taunted her in her suffering and spoke in stinging words:
‘Virgin, who made you a mother in childbed? You that knew nothing of marriage, how came that milk in your breast? I never heard or saw that a virgin bears a child. Has my father changed nature? Do women bear children without marriage? For you, a maiden, the friend of maidenhood, bring forth young children, even if you hate Aphrodite. Then do women in childbed under the hard necessity of childbirth no longer call on Artemis to guide them, when you alone do not want Archeress the lady of the hunt? Nor did Eileithyia, who conducts your delivery, see your Dionysos born from his mother’s womb; but thunderbolts were his midwives, and he only half-made! Do not be angry that you bear children among the crags, where Rheia queen of the crags has borne children. What harm is it that you bear children in the mountains, you the mountaineer wife of mountainranging Dionysos!’
She spoke, and the Nymphe in childbirth was indignant and angry, but she was ashamed before Artemis even in her pains. Ah poor creature! She wished to remain a maiden, and she was near to childbirth. A babe came quickly into the light; for even as Artemis yet spoke the word that shot out the delivery, the womb of Aura was loosened, and twin children came forth of themselves; therefore from these twins (didymoi) the highpeaked mountain of Rheia was called Dindymon. Seeing how faire the children were, the goddess again spoke in a changed voice:
‘Wetnurse, lonely ranger, twinmother, bride of a forced bridal, give your untaught breast to your sons, virgin mother. Your boy calls daddy, asking for his father; tell your children the name of your secret lover. Artemis knows nothing of marriage, she has not nursed a son at her breast. These mountains were your bed, and the spotted skins of fawns are swaddling-clothes for your babies, instead of the usual robe.’
She spoke, and swiftshoe plunged into the shady wood. Then Dionysos called Nikaia, his own Kybeleid Nymphe, and smiling pointed to Aura still unbraiding her childbed; proud of his late union with the lonely girl, he said:
‘Now at last, Nikaia, you have found consolation for your love. Now again Dionysos has stolen a marriage bed, and ravished another maiden: woodland Aura in the mountains, who shrank once from the very name of love, has seen a marriage the image of yours. Not you alone had sweet sleep as a guide to love, not you alone drank deceitful wine which stole your maiden girdle; but once more a fountain of nuptial wine has burst from a new opening rock unrecognised, and Aura drank. You who have learnt the throes of childbirth in hard necessity, by Telete your danceweaving daughter I beseech you, hasten to lift up my son, that my desperate Aura may not destroy him with daring hands – for I kno wshe will kill one of the two baby boys in her intolerable frenzy, but do you help Iakkhos: guard the better boy, that your Telete may be the servant of son and father both.’
With this appeal Bakkhos departed, triumphant and proud of his two Phrygian marriages, with the elder wife and the younger bride, And in deep distress beside the rock where they had been born, the mother in childbed held up the two boys and cried aloud –
‘From the sky came this marriage – I will throw my offspring into the sky! I was wooed by the breezes, and I saw no mortal bed. Breezes (Aurai) my namesakes came down to the marriage of Aura, then let the breezes take the offspring from my womb. Away with you, children accursed of a treacherous father, you are none of mine – what have I to do with the sorrows of women? Show yourselves now, lions, come freely to forage in the woods; have no fear, for Aura is your enemy no more. Hares with your rolling eyes, you are better than hounds. Jackals, let me be your favourite; I will watch the panther jumping fearless beside my bed. Bring your friend the bear without fear; for now that Aura has children her arrows in bronze armour have become womanish. I am ashamed to have the name of bride who once was virgin; lest I sometime offer my strong breast to babes, lest I press out the bastard milk with my hand, or be called tender mother in the woods where I slew wild beasts!’
She took the babes and laid them in the den of a lioness for her dinner. But a panther with understanding mind licked their bodies with her ravening lips, and nursed the beautiful boys of Dionysos with intelligent breast; wondering serpents with poisonspitting mouth surrounded the birthplace, for Aura’s bridegroom had made even the ravening beasts gentle to guard his newborn children.
Then Lelantos’s daughter sprang up with wandering foot in the wild temper of a shaggycrested lioness, tore one child from the wild beast’s jaws and hurled it like a flash into the stormy air: the newborn child fell from the air headlong into the whirling dust upon the ground, and she caught him up and gave him a tomb in her own maw – a family dinner indeed! The maiden Archeress [Artemis] was terrified at this heartless mother, and seized the other child of Aura, then she hastened away through the wood; holding the boy, an unfamiliar burden in her nursing arm.
After the bed of Bromios, after the delirium of childbirth, huntress Aura would escape the reproach of her wedding, for she still held in reverence the modesty of her maiden state. So she went to the banks of Sangarios, threw into the water her backbending bow and her neglected quiver, and leapt headlong into the deep stream, refusing in shame to let her eyes look on the light of days. The waves of the river covered her up, and Kronion [Zeus] turned her into a fountain: her breasts became the spouts of falling water, the stream was her body, the flowers her hair, her bow the horn of the horned River-god in bull-shape, the bowstring changed into a rush and the whistling arrows into vocal reeds, the quiver passed through to the muddy bed of the river and, changed to a hollow channel, poured its sounding waters.
Then the Archeress stilled her anger. She went about the forest seeking for traces of Lyaios in his beloved mountains, while she held Aura’s newborn babe [Iakkhos], carrying in her arms another’s burden, until shamefast she delivered his boy to Dionysos her brother ... They honoured him as a god next after the son of Persephoneia [Zagreus], and after Semele’s son [Dionysos]; they established sacrifices for Dionysos lateborn and Dionysos first born, and third they chanted a new hymn for Iakkhos. In these three celebrations Athens held high revel; in the dance lately made, the Athenians beat the step in honour of Zagreus and Bromios and Iakkhos all together." -Dionysiaca 48.240f

Sources:

* Nonnos, Dionysiaca - Greek Epic C5th AD

If we demythologize this information, it seems to mean that Rhea was the Great Goddess of ancient Turkey, before the patriarchal Olympian deities came to power.

quote from: http://alexm.here.ru/mirrors/www.enteract.com/jwalz/Eliade/096.html
A SACRIFICE TO RHEA
THE PHRYGIAN MOTHER-GODDESS

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(Apollonius Rhodius, 'Argonautica,' I, 1078-1150)

After this, fierce tempests arose for twelve days and nights together and kept them there from sailing. But in the next night the rest of the chieftains, overcome by sleep, were resting during the latest period of the night, while Acastus and Mopsus the son of Ampycus kept guard over their deep slumbers. And above the golden head of Aeson's son there hovered a halcyon prophesying with shrill voice the ceasing of the stormy winds; and Mopsus heard and understood the cry of the bird of the shore, fraught with good omen. And some god made it turn aside, and flying aloft it settled upon the stern-ornament of the ship. And the seer touched Jason as he lay wrapped in soft sheepskins and woke him at once, and thus spake:

'Son of Aeson, thou must climb to this temple on rugged Dindymum and propitiate the mother (i.e., Rhea) of all the blessed gods on her fair throne, and the stormy blasts shall cease. For such was the voice I heard but now from the halcyon, bird of the sea, which, as it flew above thee in thy slumber, told me all. For by her power the winds and the sea and all the earth below and the snowy seat of Olympus are complete; and to her, when from the mountains she ascends the mighty heaven, Zeus himself, the son of Cronos, gives place. In like manner the rest of the immortal blessed ones reverence the dread goddess.'

Thus he spake, and his words were welcome to Jason's ear. And he arose from his bed with joy and woke all his comrades hurriedly and told them the prophecy of Mopsus the son of Ampycus. And quickly the younger men drove oxen from their stalls and began to lead them to the mountain's lofty summit. And they loosed the hawsers from the sacred rock and rowed to the Thracian harbour; and the heroes climbed the mountain, leaving a few of their comrades in the ship. And to them, the Macrian heights and all the coast of Thrace opposite appeared to view dose at hand. And there appeared the misty mouth of Bosporus and the Mysian hills; and on the other side the stream of the river Aesepus and the city and Nepian plain of Adrasteia. Now there was a sturdy stump of vine that grew in the forest, a tree exceeding old; this they cut down, to be the sacred image of the mountain goddess; and Argos smoothed it skillfully, and they set it upon that rugged hill beneath a canopy of lofty oaks, which of all trees have their roots deepest. And near it they heaped an altar of small stones and wreathed their brows with oak leaves and paid heed invoking the mother of Dindymum, most venerable, dweller in Phrygia and Titas and Cyllenus, who alone of many are called dispensers of doom and assessors of the Idaean mother-the Idaean Dactyls of Crete, whom once the nymph Anchiale, as she grasped with both hands the land of Oaxus, bare in the Dictaean cave. And with many prayers did Aeson's son beseech the goddess to turn aside the stormy blasts as he poured libations on the blazing sacrifice; and at the same time by command of Orpheus the youths trod a measure dancing in full armour, and dashed with their swords on their shields, so that the ill-omened cry might be lost in the air-the wail which the people were still sending up in grief for their king. Hence from that time forward the Phrygians propitiate Rhea with the wheel and the drum. And the gracious goddess, I ween, inclined her heart to pious sacrifices; and favourable signs appeared. The trees shed abundant fruit, and round their feet the earth of its own accord put forth flowers from the tender grass. And the beasts of the wild wood left their lairs and thickets and came up fawning on them with their tails. And she caused yet another marvel; for hitherto there was no flow of water on Dindymum, but then for them an unceasing stream gushed forth from the thirsty peak just as it was, and the dwellers around in after times called that stream, the spring of Jason. And then they made a feast in honour of the goddess on the Mount of Bears, singing the praises of Rhea most venerable; but at dawn the winds had ceased and they rowed away from the island.

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Atlas in Greek Mythology

Atlas was a legendary Titan in Greek mythology. Indeed, this mythological character appears in many compelling stories, from the tale of the exploits of the hero Herakles (Hercules), to the myth that claims he supported the sky on his shoulders. Why is Atlas so popular in myth and legend? Read on to learn the answer.
According to the Greek poet Hesiod, Atlas was the son of Iapetos and the Oceanid Clymene. This makes Atlas the brother of some notable Titans, including Prometheus and Epimetheus. Hesiod's Theogony features this information about the birth of Atlas:

"Iapetos took as his wife the fair-ankled Clymene,
daughter of Okeanos, and shared her bed,
and she bore him Atlas, a son of invincible spirit..."

After this brief mention of Atlas's birth, Hesiod continues his description of the Titan with one of the most memorable stories about Atlas - the tale of how he was forced to hold up the heavens. According to Hesiod:

"By harsh necessity, Atlas supports the broad sky
on his head and unwearying arms,
at the earth's limits, near the clear voiced Hesperides,
for his is the doom decreed for him
by Zeus the counselor."

Aphrodite, born from the white foam which spread around Uranus' genitals

Uranus was the first ruler of the universe. He reigned until his son Cronos, revolting against his rule, castrated him.

Son and husband Uranus (Sky) is first of all the son of Gaia (Earth), but secondly he is also her husband. And having wedded his mother, Uranus had by her an impressive offspring:

HECATONCHEIRES First the HECATONCHEIRES, who were of great size and might, each of them having a hundred hands and fifty heads.

Uranus hated this terrible offspring, and used to hide them away in a secret place of earth as soon as each was born. It has been asserted that, in addition, Uranus rejoiced in his evil doing.

CYCLOPES Thereafter Gaia gave birth to the CYCLOPES, who are known for having one eye on their foreheads. Though they were strong like gods, Uranus, repeating his previous deed, bound them and cast them into Tartarus, a gloomy place in the Underworld, as far distant from earth as earth is distant from heaven.

The Takeover Then Uranus had more children by Gaia: the TITANS. But Gaia, who had never accepted the fate of her former children, persuaded the TITANS to attack their father, and for that purpose she armed Cronos with an adamantine sickle. And when the opportunity came, all TITANS except Oceanus attacked him, and Cronos cut off his father's genitals, throwing them into the sea behind his back, some say at Cape Drepanum in Achaea.

From the drops of Uranus' flowing blood which fell upon earth, the ERINYES were born, and the GIANTS, and those NYMPHS called MELIADS. The genitals that Cronos threw away were first swept away over the sea a long time, but finally, from the white foam which spread around them, Aphrodite was born.

Regime changes but opression remains Having dethroned their father, the TITANS brought up their brethren from Tartarus, and gave the rule to Cronos, who wedded his sister Rhea 1. However, once in power, Cronos bound the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES, and shut them up in Tartarus again.

Titanomachy

The war between the TITANS and the OLYMPIANS

"... for it is a disease that is somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in friends." [Prometheus 1. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 225]

Cronos dethroned his father, but as he ruled with the same evil spirit he was himself dethroned by his own son.

Uranus dethroned

It is told that Uranus, the first ruler of the universe, hated his own offspring and kept the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES imprisoned in the depth of the earth.

This cruelty grieved their mother Gaia who encouraged the TITANS to revolt against their father. They did overthrow him, but the new ruler Cronos abstained from restoring justice, and shut his brethren up in the same dark depth again.

Revolt breeds revolt in ever swifter succession, and that may be the reason why both Gaia and Uranus foretold Cronos that in turn he would be dethroned by his own son.

Attempting to escape fate Having heard the prophecy, Cronos began to swallow his children at birth, a method that, while seeming to prevent fate, enraged his wife Rhea 1, who saw herself always pregnant and yet never a mother. So while expecting Zeus, she went to Crete, and gave him birth in a cave, giving Cronos a stone wrapped in clothes to swallow, as if it were the newborn child.

This is how Zeus escaped being devoured by his father. When he had grown up, he asked Metis 1 to help him against his father, and she gave Cronos a drug that forced him to disgorge first the stone, and then the children he had previously swallowed.

Some affirm that Cronos did not swallow all of them, but cast Hades in Tartarus, and Poseidon under the sea. Others assert that Rhea 1, having given birth to Poseidon, declared to Cronos that she had given birth to a horse, and gave him a foal to swallow instead of the child.

The prophecy begins to materialize When Zeus grew to maturity, he decided to wage the war against Cronos and the TITANS, declaring that he who was without office or right under Cronos, should be raised to both office and rights. And on becoming the ruler of the universe, Zeus did not deprive Hecate of the privileges either.

So Styx came first to Olympus, and together with her children rallied to his side. This is why Zeus granted her special honours, and appointed her to be the great oath of the gods [see Underworld for details about the oath], and her children Nike, Zelos, Cratos, and Bia, to live near him always.

Prisoners released The TITANS fought from Mount Othrys, and the gods from Mount Olympus, but after ten years of continuous fight, the issue of the war hung evenly balanced.

It was then that Gaia prophesied victory to Zeus if he should have as allies those who had been hurled down to Tartarus by Cronos: the CYCLOPES and the HECATONCHEIRES. Cronos had imprisoned the HECATONCHEIRES because he was jealous of their manhood and comeliness, as they say. He made them live beneath the earth, being set to dwell under the ground for a long time and with great suffering. But Zeus and his brothers decided to bring them up again at Gaia's advising. Consequently, Zeus slew their jailoress Campe, and freed them.

Zeus then provided the HECATONCHEIRES with nectar and ambrosia, and their spirit revived. Then he addresed them:

"Hear me, bright children of Earth and Heaven, that I may say what my heart within me bids. A long while now have we, who are sprung from Cronos and the Titan gods, fought with each other every day to get victory and to prevail. But show your great might and unconquerable strength, and face the Titans 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." [Zeus to the HECATONCHEIRES. Hesiod, Theogony 645]

The CYCLOPES gave Zeus thunder and lightning and a thunderbolt, with which the god smote Menoetius 1 (brother of Atlas and Prometheus 1). And they gave Hades a helmet, and Poseidon a trident.

The war It is told that during this great war the sea rang terribly, the earth crashed loudly, heaven was shaken, and Olympus reeled from its foundation:

The HECATONCHEIRES held huge rocks with their hundred arms, and Zeus hurled his lightning, while the earth burned and the woods crakled with fire. The streams of Ocean seethed, and the vapor lapped round the TITANS. A huge flame rose to the upper air, and that the glare of thunderstone and lightining blinded the eyes of the TITANS. And it is said that heat seized Chaos, and that it seemed as if earth and heaven came together in a mighty crash, amid earthquakes and dust storms.

But the HECATONCHEIRES overshadowed the TITANS with the many rocks that their hundred arms hurled at them, and having defeated them, they chained them as far beneath the earth as heaven is above earth. That is, in Tartarus, a place of deep darkness with a bronze fence around it that even the gods abhor.

Two TITANS who sided with Zeus

The titaness Themis sided with Zeus because she knew that neither the brute nor the violent would prevail, but the clever. Prometheus 1 listened to her words, and sided with Zeus too. However, after the war, when Zeus had Prometheus 1 chained for having given fire to mortals, he lamented his choice:

"Thus I helped the tyrant of the gods and with this foul payment he has responded; for it is a disease that is somehow inherent in tyranny to have no faith in friends." [Prometheus 1. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 225]

The victors divide the spoil Zeus appointed the HECATONCHEIRES to guard them, and in time Poseidon gave the hecatoncheire Briareus his daughter Cymopolea as wife.

Having thus won victory, the gods cast lots for the sovereignty, and to Zeus was allotted the dominion of the sky, to Poseidon the dominion of the sea, and to Hades the dominion of the Underworld.

It is also told that, as time went by, Zeus issued an amnesty and set the TITANS free, except for Atlas, who still holds the sky.

A rumour has it that the TITANS, encouraged by Hera who was jealous on account of Io, once tried to mount to heaven and restore the kingdom to Cronos, but that Zeus aided by Athena, Apollo, and Artemis, cast them back to Tartarus. It is said that it was then that the gods put the vault of the sky on Atlas, for having been their leader.

The Titans are a race of godlike giants who were the personifications of the forces of nature. They are the twelve children (six sons and six daughters) of Gaia (Mother Earth) and Uranus (the god of the sky). Each son married (or had children of) one of his sisters. Two of them were Cronus and his wife Rhea.

But Cronus was warned, that one of his children would depose him. He knew the consequences, as he had overthrown his father Uranus. So he tried to secure his dominion by eating his own children. He took them immediately after birth and swallowed them whole, retaining them inside his body. He ate Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon this way.

Cronus' wife Rhea did not want to loose all her children, and with the help of her mother Gaia, she managed to rescue one son, Zeus. She hid him in a cave on Crete and gave Cronus a stone, wrapped in the clothes of the infant, which he swallowed. Thus Rhea succeeded in making him believe that he had killed all of his children.

Some versions of the legend tell, Zeus was born in the last chamber of this cave, and he somtimes has the epithet "the one born on Crete".

The Nymphs Adrasteia and Ida raised Zeus, feeding him wild honey and milk from the divine goat Amaltheia. Adrasteia is an epithet of Rhea Cybele in her attribute of the Mother who punishes human injustice, which is a transgression of the natural right order of things. She is also called Nemesis. Other legends tell, Amaltheia suckled and raised Zeus. Some legend say, Amaltheia was a nymph, who nourished Zeus with honey and the milk of a goat.

When Zeus cried, the Kourites (five Cretans) covered his cries by hitting their swords against their shields.

When Zeus reached maturity he overpowered and dethroned his father Cronus and made him disgorge his siblings. Again there are several versions of the legend. Some tell that he compelled his father with the help of Gaia to regurgitate them. In other version his first wife Metis helped him by giving Cronus an emetic potion, which made him vomit up the children.

Zeus led a revolt against his father and the dynasty of the titans, called Titanomachy. He defeated them in a ten year war and placed them in Tartarus, where they are guarded for eternity by the Hecatonchires.

This tale is part of the Greek mythology and was told many times. A important version was written by Hesiod in his Theogony.

The cave where Zeus was risen, is described as being a cave on Crete, on Mount Dicte. Two caves in Crete consider as well to be this palce, the Dictean Cave near Psichro and the Idaian Cave at Mount Psiloritis.

Zeus imprisonsed the Titans in Tartarus, somewhere in the west. And Tartarus had 3 bronze walls around it.

Gaia
by Ron Leadbetter

Gaia, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga). She was an early earth goddess and it is written that Gaia was born from Chaos, the great void of emptiness within the universe, and with her came Eros. She gave birth to Pontus (the Sea) and Uranus (the Sky). This was achieved parthenogenetically (without male intervention). Other versions say that Gaia had as siblings Tartarus (the lowest part of the earth, below Hades itself) and Eros, and without a mate, gave birth to Uranus (Sky), Ourea (Mountains) and Pontus (Sea).

Gaia took as her husband Uranus, who was also her son, and their offspring included the Titans, six sons and six daughters. She gave birth to the Cyclopes and to three monsters that became known as the "Hecatonchires". The spirits of punishment known as the Erinyes were also offspring of Gaia and Uranus. The Gigantes, finally, were conceived after Uranus had been castrated by his son Cronus, and his blood fell to earth from the open wound.

To protect her children from her husband, (the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, as he was fearful of their great strength), Gaia hid them all within herself. One version says that Uranus was aghast at the sight of his offspring so he hid them away in Tartarus, which are the bowels of the earth. Gaia herself found her offspring uncomfortable and at times painful, when the discomfort became to much to bear she asked her youngest son Cronus to help her. She asked him to castrate Uranus, thus severing the union between the Earth and Sky, and also to prevent more monstrous offspring. To help Cronus achieve his goal Gaia produced an adamantine sickle to serve as the weapon. Cronus hid until Uranus came to lay with Gaia and as Uranus drew near, Cronus struck with the sickle, cutting the genitalia from Uranus. Blood fell from the severed genitals and came in contact with the earth and from that union was born the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees).

After the separation of the Earth from the Sky, Gaia gave birth to other offspring, these being fathered by Pontus. Their names were the sea-god Nereus, Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto and Eurybia. In other versions Gaia had offspring to her brother Tartarus; they were Echidna and Typhon, the later being an enemy of Zeus. Apollo killed Typhon when he took control of the oracle at Delphi, which Gaia originally provided, and then the "Sibyl" sang the oracle in Gaia's shrine.

It was Gaia who saved Zeus from being swallowed by Cronus, after Zeus had been born, Gaia helped Rhea to wrap a stone in swaddling clothes, this was to trick Cronus in to thinking it was Zeus, because Cronus had been informed that one of his children would depose him, and so to get rid of his children he had swallowed them, Gaia's trick worked and Zeus was then taken to Crete.

Uranus
by Ron Leadbetter

Uranus, also known as Ouranos, was the embodiment of the sky or heavens, and known as the god of the sky. He was the first son of Gaia (the earth) and he also became her husband. According to Hesiod, their children included the Titans: six sons (Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus and Cronus) and six daughters (Theia, Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoebe and Tethys). There were other offspring: the Cyclopes, (who were named Brontes, Steropes and Arges and were later known as "one eyed giants"), and also the three monsters known as the Hecatonchires, who each had one hundred hands and fifty heads. Their names were Briareus, Cottus and Gyes. Other offspring of Uranus and Gaia were the Erinyes, who were spirits of punishment and goddesses of vengeance. The Erinyes avenged wrongs which were done to family, especially murder within a family. After Uranus had been castrated, his blood fell to earth (Gaia) and conceived the Giants. These were of monstrous appearance and had great strength . Similiarly, in some versions Aphrodite is believed to have risen from the foam created by the sex organs of Uranus after they were thrown into the sea by his son Cronus.

Uranus was aghast by the sight of his offspring, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. (In a differing version Uranus was frightened of their great strength and the fact that they could easily depose him). He hid them away in Tartarus (the bowels of the earth) inside Gaia, causing her intense pain. The discomfort became so great that she asked her youngest son, Cronus, to castrate his father, as this would cease his fertility and put an end to more monstrous offspring. To accomplish this deed Gaia made an adamantine sickle, which she gave to Cronus. That night Uranus came to lay with Gaia. And as the sky god drew close, Cronus struck with the sickle and cut off Uranus's genitals. From the blood that fell from the open wound were born nymphs and giants, and when Cronus threw the severed genitals into the sea a white foam appeared. From this foam Aphrodite the goddess of love and desire was born.

A slightly differing version tells of Uranus being so vast that he could cover Mother Earth (Gaia) and easily take advantage of her fruitfulness, but Gaia tired of her exuberant fertility and begged her sons to free her from the excessive embrace of Uranus. All refused except Cronus. Armed with a sickle he castrated Uranus, and the blood which fell from the mutilation gave birth to the Erinyes (Furies), the Giants and the Meliae (Nymphs of the manna ash trees). And when Cronus threw the sickle into the sea the island of Corfu, home of the Phaeacians, sprang up).

Here is a link that perhaps better explains the geography of the Olympian heaven:
http://www.desy.de/gna/interpedia/greek_myth/place.html

Places in the Greek Myths

* Mount Olympus
* The Underworld
* Tartarus

Mount Olympus
Mount Olympus towers up from the center of the earth. Here the major gods live and hold court. The myths are somewhat vague on weather it is an actual mountain or a region of the heavens.

The Underworld
The underworld is hidden in the earth. It is the kingdom of the dead and ruled over by Hades. Hades is a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects. Those whose calling increase the number of dead are seen favorably. The Erinnyes are welcomed guests. He is exceedingly disinclined to allow any of his subjects leave.

For most, life in the underworld is not particularly unpleasent. It is rather like a miserable dream, full of shadows, without sunlight or hope. A joyless place where the dead slowly fade into nothingness.

Geographically, the underworld is surrounded by a series of rivers: The Acheron (river of woe), The Cocytus (river of lamentation), The Phlegethon (river of fire), The Styx (river of unbreakable oath by which the gods swear), and The Lethe (river of forgetfulness). Once across the rivers an adamantine gate, guarded by Cerberus, forms the entrance to the kingdom. Deep withen the kingdom is Hades vast palace, complete with many guests.

Upon death a soul is lead by Hermes to the entrance of the underworld and the ferry across the Acheron. There is a single ferry run by Rhadamanthus, Minos I, and Aeacus, who pass sentence. The very good go to the Elysian Fields. Others are singled out for special treatment. Sisyphus and Tantalus being prime examples of the later.

Tartarus
Tartarus lies far beneth the disk of the world. Deeper then Hades kingdom of the underworld. It is used as the ultimate of prisons, unpleasent and inaccessable.

Tartarus

In Greek mythology, Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld - even lower than Hades.

The Greek poet Hesiod asserts that a bronze anvil falling from heaven would fall 9 days before it reached the Earth. The anvil would take 9 more days to fall from Earth to Tartarus. As a place so far from the sun and so deep in the earth, Tartarus is hemmed in by 3 layers of night, which surrounds a bronze wall which in turn encompasses Tartarus. It is a dank and wretched pit engulfed in murky gloom. It is one of the primordial objects, along with Chaos, Earth, and Eros, that emerged into the universe.

While, according to Greek mythology, Hades is the place of the dead, Tartarus also has a number of inhabitants. When Cronus, the ruling Titan, came to power he imprisoned the Cyclopes in Tartarus. Zeus released them to aid in his conflict with the Titan giants. The gods of Olympus eventually defeated them and they were cast into Tartarus. They were guarded by giants, each with 50 enormous heads and 100 strong arms, who were called Hecatonchires. Later, when Zeus overcame the monster Typhus, the offspring of Tartarus and Gaia, he threw it, too, into the same pit.

Tartarus is also the place where the punishment fits the crime. For example Sisyphus, who was both a thief and murderer, was condemned for eternity to push a boulder up a hill only to have it roll down at the top. Also found there was Ixion, the first human to spill the blood of a relative. He caused his father in-law to fall into a pit of burning coals to avoid paying the bride-price. The fitting punishment was to spend eternity on a flaming wheel. Tantalus, who enjoyed the confidence of the gods by conversing and dining with them, shared the food and the secrets of the gods with his friends. The fitting punishment was to be immersed up to his neck in cool water, which disappeared whenever he attempted to quench his thirst.

Rhadamanthus, Aeacus and Minos were the judges of the dead and chose who went to Tartarus. Rhadamanthus judged Asian souls; Aeacus judged European souls and Minos was the deciding vote.

Hesiod, Theogony; Homer, Odyssey, XI, 576 ff; Virgil, Aeneid, VI, 539-627.

Another worthy link:
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Underworld.html

"Zeus banished Cronus and the Titans who had supported him to Tartarus, an underground region. This is the where Tartarus first enters Greek Mythology.
"Tartarus, pronounced TAHR tuhr uhs, was a deep pit below the surface of the earth in early Greek mythology. It was as far below the surface as heaven was above the earth. High walls and a river of fire called Phlegethon encircled Tartarus.

"Styx, pronounced stihks, was a gloomy river of the underworld in Greek and Roman mythology. The Styx supposedly began as an actual waterfall in the region of ancient Greece called Arcadia. Its waters, which were said to be poisonous, plunged down a steep gorge to the underworld
"In later Greek and Roman belief, Tartarus was a place of punishment for the most wicked sinners and was part of Hades, the kingdom of the dead. In some ways, Tartarus resembled the Christian idea of hell."

The Bible Hell
Part 5

TARTARUS

We now consider the word Tartarus: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell (Tartarus), and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment." II Peter 2:4. The word in the Greek is Tartarus, or rather it is a very from that noun. "Cast down to hell" should be tartarused, (tartarosas). The Greeks held Tartarus, says Anthon, in his Classical Dictionary to be "the fabled place of punishment in the lower world." "According to the ideas of the Homeric and Hesiodic ages, it would seem that the world or universe was a hollow globe, divided into two equal portions by the flat disk of the earth. The external shell of this globe is called by the poets brazen and iron, probably only to express its solidity. The superior hemisphere was called Heaven, and the inferior one Tartarus. The length of the diameter of the hollow sphere is given thus by Hesiod. It would take, he says, nine days for an anvil to fall from Heaven to Earth; and an equal space of time would be occupied by its fall from Earth to the bottom of Tartarus. The luminaries which give light to gods and men, shed their radiance through all the interior of the upper hemisphere, while that of the inferior one was filled with eternal darkness, and its still air was unmoved by any wind. Tartarus was regarded at this period as the prison of the gods and not as the place of torment for wicked men; being to the gods, what Erebus was to men, the abode of those who were driven from the celestial world. The Titans, when conquered were shut up in it and Jupiter menaces the gods with banishment to its murky regions. The Oceanus of Homer encompassed the whole earth, and beyond it was a region unvisited by the sun, and therefore shrouded in perpetual darkness, the abode of a people whom he names Cimmerians. Here the poet of the Odyssey also places Erebus, the realm of Pluto and Proserpina, the final dwelling place of all the race of men, a place which the pet of the Iliad describes as lying within the bosom of the earth. At a later period the change of religions gradually affected Erebus, the place of the reward of the good; and Tartarus was raised up to form the prison in which the wicked suffered the punishment due to their crimes." Virgil illustrates this view, (Dryden's Virgil, Encid, 6): 'Tis here, in different paths, the way divides: -- The right to Pluto's golden palace guides, The left to that unhappy region tends. Which to the depths of Tartarus descends - The scat of night profound and punished fiends.

The gaping gulf low to the centre lies,
And twice as deep as earth is from the skies.
The rivals of the gods, the Titan race,
Here, singed with lightning, roll within th'unfathomed space.

The Sea Goat carried the caduceus as a symbol of the DNA, the codes of which humanity was formed.

In Greek mythology the white Goat nymph goddess Amaltheia was the glorious nurse of the supreme god, Zeus and his foster brother Goat Pan; and it was one of her horns that Zeus gave to the nymphs. It was "the horn of plenty’’ which became the symbol of all good things of a spiritual as well as a material nature and the symbol also of their divine source.

When Zeus became lord of the universe he set Amaltheia’s image among the stars as Capricorn.

It was with a goatskin that Hephaestus covered Pallas Athena’s shield and it was with the help of the goats 0f Parnassus that Apollo showed the devotees of his sanctuary at Delphi the generative source of the vapors that caused the ecstatic trance states in which the Pythonesses received their inspirations and transmitted the divine oracles.

In ancient Cretan art, the Mother Goddess appeared in the form of a she-goat suckling a child she is the Earth-Nourisher.

In Syria and Chaldea, the celestial she-goat plays an important and favored role in opposition to the invisible evil forces which she puts to flight; an Assyrian bas-relief shows her chasing a lion-centaur spirit. And under the aspect of Capricorn, in these same countries, the goat takes a leading place in the symbolism of the sky and of the air.

Christian symbolists took advantage of the beliefs of the naturalists of the ancient world, which endowed the goat with an extraordinary and increasing power of vision: and like the pre-Christian, included in this privilege both domestic goats and the wild creatures of the mountains.

They said that in proportion to the heights they attained in climbing the peaks, they acquired not only a greatly extended field of vision, but also an extraordinary increase in its power and acuteness, to such a degree that no other creature on earth could equal their ability to embrace with one glance the most immense spaces and to distinguish perfectly all the details. In the same way, the inner vision of the seeker becomes more penetrating as his understanding attains higher degrees".

More references of NANNY-GOAT as Mother-Progenitor.

Helios, thank you for staying with, even expanding the chronology I established. I especially liked your emphasis on the geography Tartarus and the Greek underworld.

Rockessence,

"More references of NANNY-GOAT as Mother-Progenitor."

It is my thought that all of the original "gods" were the Fallen Angels. They took humans & had children by them, therefore, the giants of legend (Titans) were born - up to and including Atlas, etc..

The problem we have is the location of Atlantis. We have only Plato's writings to go by, with bits and pieces of recitation from other cultures confirming the location as the Atlantic Ocean, w/the main island close to the West Coast of Europe/Africa, just outside the Pillars of Heracles.

I believe that Georgeos is correct in the general location of Atlantis (the metropolis).

However, I believe that it was actually within the Atlantic Ocean itself which would be international waters of today. And, I do believe that Cadiz was one of the islands of Atlantis right along with many others stretching across to the Americas as well. This is extremely clear citing Plato's description of Atlas receiving the best of the lands with his siblings receiving the others.

These were the Titans (giants) of which are described in the Bible.

It is unnecessary for us to argue any points about the giants for they were real & did exist & were born from the "gods" of mythology (Fallen Angels). The similarities are just too uncanny.

They have different names according to the different versions, but it is not uncommon for different languages to have different names.

I believe the original name of Atlas is the real name of this Titan. That is why Atlantis was named after him.

But, Atlantis is no longer a physical place. It was destroyed. However, it is highly probable that perhaps bits and pieces were thrown miles into the air, or simply were deposited close to the mainlands just like other inundations & explosions of the Earth throughout time. We may find bits & pieces, but that doesn't mean that all of them belong to that particular culture or sunken or buried city.

The others, Rhea, Oceanus, Tethys, Mnemosyne, Themis, Iapetus, Epimetheus, Metis are fair game as well, but at this point, I've found, at least, there comes a certain levelling off of good material. Very little other than the general information seems to be known of Coeus and Phoebe, and, in the case of Crius and Thea, very little at all.

Ideally, I should like this document to proceed along a linear fashion commencing along these lines:

* The Titans, especially in terms of the ones just mentioned.

* "Titanmochy", the war the Titans fought with the Olympians, explored in greater detail.

* Zeus and his generation, including Hades, Demeter, Hera, and, of course, Poseidon.

* The second war with the Titans, as I like to call it, or rather "Gigantomchy", the war with the giants.

* The second generation that evolved rom the gods of Olympus. This would include, of course, Artemis, Apollo, Aphrodite etc.

* The role the gods played in other Greek tales, such as the tales of Troy and Atlantis.

* The demise of the gods, both literally and what Greek literature tells us about it.

"Could the later greeks have adapted the word tyrant to the meaning of their earlier rulers uranus,and the titans, borrowed from a lydian word tyrannos, meaning ruler?"

A valid point, we should, in fact, explore whether there is evidence of an actual race of Titans that walked upon the earth. There are stories that the war between the Olympic gods and the Titans was, in actuality, a war between the original settlers of Greece (Zeus and his band), and those that were already present (Chronos and his). This, of course, requires much more research. However, actual proof shall be hard to come by since the time that this event happened most likely occurred well before the Greeks even had writing and oral tradition would have most certainly had to have been the only method for transference. Like the Atlantis story, this, of course, leaves it open to many errors and exaggerations.

Smiley,

"It is my thought that all of the original "gods" were the Fallen Angels. They took humans & had children by them, therefore, the giants of legend (Titans) were born - up to and including Atlas, etc.."

I'm convinced that there is a linkage, too, and at any time during this thread, anyone can feel free to explore the notion of "giants." All ancient cultures make mention of them in their mythologies, from the Irish to the Indians. The Titans had to belong to that more solitary group of giants, though, wherein they stood not only twelve or thirteen feet tall, but hundreds of feet tall, if not larger. Ouranos and Gaia were perhaps even bigger.

It's worth noting that Christian angels could also take immense size, possessed as they are of all the power of God, and from them sprung their monstrous offspring. There are indeed, many similarities between the "Nephilim" and the Greek "Titans." Let's fee free to explore the Bible, the Book of Enoch, any other Christian source that details these giants.

By Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology

Chronos

"Chronos and Cronos The name Chronos appears on occasion, but he is considered to be the same as Cronos, who once ruled the universe but now is said to rule Elysium. When the name Chronos is used, he is called the father of the HORAE (regarded as Hours instead of Seasons), of Aether (Upper Sky), and of Eros.

Time rules perception Chronos is Time, a god who has never been underrated. For all-consuming Time, who for the human mind increases endlessly, cannot in any way be separated from the orderly experience of life, which is not conceivable without him. Therein lies the power of this god, who rules, not only the appearance of things—making them look newer or older—, but also the Soul, who would not be capable of apprehending anything without his gifts. That is why it has been said:

"Ever-ageing Time teaches all things." [Prometheus 1 to Hermes. Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound 982]

Past, Present and Future Time plants in the human mind the basic sequence of Past, Present and Future, without which there would neither be 'before' nor 'after', nor anything depending on them, such as 'causes' and 'effects'. Without them, all things would be perceived at once, and the human mind would fall into confusion. The greatness of Time is such that nothing can be done about him, except to take him for granted just in the way he pleases to appear. For if he shortened the length of the day, no one would notice anything, since there is no way of checking Time by means of comparison. Similarly, if he reversed his course, the whole physical world would be altered, since causes and effects are dependent on Time's direction; and then Death would come before birth, and Old Age would precede youth and childhood [see also AUTOCHTHONOUS].

The first to exist The immensity of the power of Time is such that there have been those—as Orpheus (if the Argonautica were his)—, who have asserted that Time was the first to exist. For they could not imagine any beginnings without him, apparently reasoning that whatever happens must happen according to Time, and that nothing could ever take place as an event, without the acquiescence of this god, "father of days" [Euripides, Suppliants 786]. But Time cannot be found in the physical world, except for the effects of his actions.

Effects are perceived always in the segment of Time called 'Present', but causes could be either in the past or in the future.

"Chronos (or Chronus) is the personification of time, which is what the word means. It is used in "chronology" and other modern words. It was used originally in a solely poetic sense. There isn't a god or goddess directly associated with time per se in Greek myth. But there may have been a Titan of time...

"From these stories and other facts it is believed that Cronus was a harvest god from long ago, worshipped by a culture before the Greeks. His sickle is a tool used in harvesting grain. Many people believe that the story of his overthrow by Zeus represents the overthrow of the culture that worshipped Cronus and the old gods by the people who worshipped Zeus and the other more familiar Greek gods.

"The Romans identified Cronus with their god Saturn. Saturn, the Sower, was also a god of agriculture. The Roman god's festival, called the Saturnalia, was held from the 17th to the 19th of December and was quite popular.

"Cronus and Saturn were also identified with time. Harvest and time might be related in the first place, but some suspect this relationship may have happened because of a confusion between the words Cronus and Chronus.

"Harvest was also associated with death because of the end of growing season. Kronos eating his children was used in a poetic sense for time devouring all things, as in
The three Greek words that were either related originally or related through confusion later were: Chronus (meaning "time"), Cronus (the god of harvest before the Greek gods took over), and corone (meaning "crow"). Sometimes just having words similar to each other is enough to mix stories up with one another. Whether they are connected because they sound similar or because they have similar roots is unknown.

"All three words are definitely now linked in some fashion. Images of the Grim Reaper in engravings in the Middle Ages that show a skeletal figure holding a scythe and hourglass with a crow nearby show this connection.

"Also note that the origins of words in Ancient Greek are uncertain. It could be that Chronus and Cronus were supposed to be the same thing originally, or that Cronus originally did mean crow. We don't have enough information on the beliefs of the pre-Greeks to know if Cronus was intended to be a crow or not. Many people think the three words coming together was just a silly coincidence, but there's no firm proof one way or another.

"Crows were sometimes associated with fertility figures in other cultures, but that doesn't necessarily prove anything. Also, crows could be associated with death (by going after corpses) as well as harvest (by going after grain).

Prometheus was the wisest Titan. His name means "forethought" and he was able to foretell the future. He was the son of Lapetus. When Zeus revolted against Cronos, Prometheus deserted the other Titans and fought on Zeus side.

By some accounts he and his brother Epimetheus were delegated by Zeus to create man. In all accounts, Prometheus is known as the protector and benifactor of man. He gave mankind a number of gifts including fire. He also tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep the best part of the animals scarificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts.

For this Zeus punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with an eagle tearing at his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to disclose to Zeus which of Zeus's children would try to replace him. He was eventually rescued by Hercules without giving in to Zeus.
The Creation of Man by Prometheus
Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus, whose names mean "forethought" and "afterthought." They were the sons of Lapetus and Clymene. Epimetheus had already given all the best gifts to animals and discovered he had nothing left to give man. So he asked his brother for help. Prometheus agreed and thought of ways to make man superior to animals. So, he made them walk upright like the gods and gave them fire. And for a long time, only man roamed the earth. There were no women...yet.

Prometheus and Epimetheus were spared imprisonment in Tatarus because they had not fought with their fellow Titans during the war with the Olympians. They were given the task of creating man. Prometheus shaped man out of mud, and Athena breathed life into his clay figure. Prometheus loved man more then the Olympians, who had banished most of his family to Tartarus. So when Zeus decreed that man must present a portion of each animal they scarified to the gods Prometheus decided to trick Zeus.

He created two piles, one with the bones wrapped in juicy fat, the other with the good meat hidden in the hide. He then told Zeus to pick, Zeus picked the bones. Since he had given his word Zeus had to accept that as his share for future sacrafices. In his anger over the trick he took fire away from man. However, Prometheus lit a torch from the sun and brought it back again to man. Zeus was enraged that man again had fire. He decided to inflict a terrable punishment on both man and Prometheus. To punish man, Zeus had Hephaestus create a mortal of stunning beauty from clay . The gods gave the mortal many gifts of wealth.

He then had Hermes give the mortal a deceptive heart and a lying tongue. This creation was Pandora, which means "gift to all," and she was the first woman. A final gift was a jar which Pandora was forbidden to open. Thus, completed Zeus sent Pandora down to Epimetheus who was staying amongst the men. Prometheus had warned Epimetheus not to accept gifts from Zeus but, Pandora's beauty was too great and he allowed her to stay. Eventually, Pandora's curiosity about the jar she was forbidden to open became to great. She opened the jar and out flew all manor of evils, sorrows, plagues, and misfortunes.

However, the bottom of the jar held one good thing...hope. Zeus was angry at Prometheus for three things: being tricked on scarifices, stealing fire for man, and for refusing to tell Zeus which of Zeus's children would dethrone him. Zeus had his servants, Force and Violence, seize Prometheus, take him to the Caucasus Mountains, and chain him to a rock with unbreakable adamanite chains. Here he was tormented day and night by a giant eagle tearing at his liver. Zeus gave Prometheus two ways out of this torment. He could tell Zeus who the mother of the child that would dethrone him was. Or meet two conditions: First, that an immortal must volunteer to die for Prometheus. Second, that a mortal must kill the eagle and unchain him. Eventually, Chiron the Centaur agreed to die for him and Heracles killed the eagle and unbound him.

HYPERION was the TITAN-god of watching and observation, the husband of Theia goddess of sight.
At the end of the Titan-War he was cast into Tartaros with the rest of his brothers. Zeus later released them from this prison and Kronos became King of Elysium. Presumably the other Titanes settled in Elysium as well.

Parents

OURANOS & GAIA (Theogony 132, Homeric Hymn To Helios, Apollodorus 1.8, Diodorus Siculus 5.66.1, Hyginus Pref)

Offspring

(1) HELIOS, SELENE, EOS (by Theia-Euryphaessa) (Theogony 371, Homeric Hymn To Helios, Apollodorus 1.9, Hyginus Pref)
(2) HELIOS (Odyssey 12.168, Homeric Hymn to Demeter 19, Homeric Hymn to Athena 12, Pindar Olympian 7 str3, Metamorphoses 4.170)

"She [Gaia] lay with Ouranos and bare deep-swirling Okeanos, Koios and Krios and Hyperion and Iapetos, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoibe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Kronos." -Theogony 132-137

"And Theia was subject in love to Hyperion and bare great Helius (Sun) and clear Selene (Moon) and Eos (Dawn)." -Theogony 371-374

"Helios whom mild-eyed Euryphaessa, the far-shining one [phaithonta], bare to the Son of Gaia and starry [asteroentos] Ouranos. For Hyperion wedded glorious Euryphaessa, his own sister, who bare him lovely children, rosy-armed Eos and rich-tressed Selene and tireless Helios." -Homeric Hymn XXXI To Helios

"The Titanes had children ... Hyperion and Theia had Eos, Helios, and Selene." -Apollodorus 1.8-9

“The Titanes numbered six men and five women, being born, as certain writers of myths relate, of Ouranos and Ge, but according to others, of one of the Kouretes and Titaia, from whom as their mother they derive the name they have. The males were Kronos, Hyperion, Koios, Iapetos, Krios and Okeanos, and their sisters were Rhea, Themis, Mnemosyne, Phoibe and Tethys [he omits Theia]. Each one of them was the discover of things of benefit to mankind, and because of the benefaction they conferred upon all men they were accorded honours and everlasting fame.” –Diodorus Siculus 5.66.1

“Of Hyperion we are told that he was the first to understand, by diligent attention and observation, the movement of both the sun and the moon and the other stars, and the seasons as well, in that they are caused by these bodies, and to make these facts known to others; and that for this reason he was called the father of these bodies, since he had begotten, so to speak, the speculation about them and their nature.” –Diodorus Siculus 5.67.1

"From Hyperion and Aethra [were born]: Sol [Helios], Luna [Selene], Aurora [Eos]." -Hyginus Preface

Sources:

Sacred Texts  Atlantis 
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p. 283

CHAPTER II

THE KINGS OF ATLANTIS BECOME THE GODS OF THE GREEKS.

LORD BACON said:

"The mythology of the Greeks, which their oldest writers do not pretend to have invented, was no more than a light air, which had passed from a more ancient people into the flutes of the Greeks, which they modulated to such descants as best suited their fancies."

This profoundly wise and great man, who has illuminated every subject which he has touched, guessed very close to the truth in this utterance.

The Hon. W. E. Gladstone has had quite a debate of late with Mr. Cox as to whether the Greek mythology was underlaid by a nature worship, or a planetary or solar worship.

Peru, worshipping the sun and moon and planets, probably represents very closely the simple and primitive religion of Atlantis, with its sacrifices of fruits and flowers. This passed directly to their colony in Egypt. We find the Egyptians in their early ages sun and planet worshippers. Ptah was the object of their highest adoration. He is the father of the god of the sun, the ruler of the region of light. Ra was the sun-god. He was the supreme divinity at On, or Heliopolis, near Memphis. His symbol was the solar disk, supported by two rings. He created all that exists below the heavens.

The Babylonian trinity was composed of Idea, Anu, and Bel. Bel represented the sun, and was the favorite god. Sin was the goddess of the moon.

The Phœnicians were also sun-worshippers. The sun was

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represented by Baal-Samin, the great god, the god of light and the heavens, the creator and rejuvenator.

"The attributes of both Baal and Moloch (the good and bad powers of the sun) were united in the Phœnician god Melkart, "king of the city," whom the inhabitants of Tyre considered their special patron. The Greeks called him "Melicertes," and identified him with Hercules. By his great strength and power he turned evil into good, brought life out of destruction, pulled back the sun to the earth at the time of the solstices, lessened excessive beat and cold, and rectified the evil signs of the zodiac. In Phœnician legends he conquers the savage races of distant coasts, founds the ancient settlements on the Mediterranean, and plants the rocks in the Straits of Gibraltar. ("American Cyclopædia," art. Mythology.)

The Egyptians worshipped the sun under the name of Ra; the Hindoos worshipped the sun under the name of Rama; while the great festival of the sun, of the Peruvians, was called Ray-mi.

Sun-worship, as the ancient religion of Atlantis, underlies all the superstitions of the colonies of that country. The Samoyed woman says to the sun, "When thou, god, risest, I too rise from my bed." Every morning even now the Brahmans stand on one foot, with their hands held out before them and their faces turned to the east, adoring the sun. "In Germany or France one may still see the peasant take off his hat to the rising sun." ("Anthropology," p. 361.) The Romans, even, in later times, worshipped the sun at Emesa, under the name of Elagabalus, "typified in the form of a black conical stone, which it was believed had fallen from heaven." The conical stone was the emblem of Bel. Did it have relation to the mounds and pyramids?

Sun-worship was the primitive religion of the red men of America. It was found among all the tribes. (Dorman, "Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 338.) The Chichimecs called the sun their father. The Comanches have a similar belief.

But, compared with such ancient nations as the Egyptians

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and Babylonians, the Greeks were children. A priest of Sais said to Solon,

"You Greeks are novices in knowledge of antiquity. You are ignorant of what passed either here or among yourselves in days of old. The history of eight thousand years is deposited in our sacred books; but I can ascend to a much higher antiquity, and tell you what our fathers have done for nine thousand years; I mean their institutions, their laws, and their most brilliant achievements."

The Greeks, too young to have shared in the religion of Atlantis, but preserving some memory of that great country and its history, proceeded to convert its kings into gods, and to depict Atlantis itself as the heaven of the human race. Thus we find a great solar or nature worship in the elder nations, while Greece has nothing but an incongruous jumble of gods and goddesses, who are born and eat and drink and make love and ravish and steal and die; and who are worshipped as immortal in presence of the very monuments that testify to their death.

"These deities, to whom the affairs of the world were in trusted, were, it is believed, immortal, though not eternal in their existence. In Crete there was even a story of the death of Zeus, his tomb being pointed out." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 2.)

The history of Atlantis is the key of the Greek mythology. There can be no question that these gods of Greece were human beings. The tendency to attach divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implanted in human nature. The savages who killed Captain Cook firmly believed that he was immortal, that he was yet alive, and would return to punish them. The highly civilized Romans made gods out of their dead emperors. Dr. Livingstone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a Bushman for some time about the Deity, he found that the savage thought he was speaking of Sekomi, the principal chief of the district.

We find the barbarians of the coast of the Mediterranean regarding

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the civilized people of Atlantis with awe and wonder: "Their physical strength was extraordinary, the earth shaking sometimes under their tread. Whatever they did was done speedily. They moved through space almost without the loss of a moment of time." This probably alluded to the rapid motion of their sailing-vessels. "They were wise, and communicated their wisdom to men." That is to say, they civilized the people they came in contact with. 'They had a strict sense of justice, and punished crime rigorously, and rewarded noble actions, though it is true they were less conspicuous for the latter." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 4.) We should understand this to mean that where they colonized they established a government of law, as contradistinguished from the anarchy of barbarism.

"There were tales of personal visits and adventures of the gods among men, taking part in battles and appearing in dreams. They were conceived to possess the form of human beings, and to be, like men, subject to love and pain, but always characterized by the highest qualities and grandest forms that could be imagined." (Ibid.)

Another proof that the gods of the Greeks were but the deified kings of Atlantis is found in the fact that "the gods were not looked upon as having created the world." They succeeded to the management of a world already in existence.

The gods dwelt on Olympus. They lived together like human beings; they possessed palaces, storehouses, stables, horses, etc.; "they dwelt in a social state which was but a magnified reflection of the social system on earth. Quarrels, love passages, mutual assistance, and such instances as characterize human life, were ascribed to them." (Ibid., p. 10.)

Where was Olympus? It was in Atlantis. "The ocean encircled the earth with a great stream, and was a region of wonders of all kinds." (Ibid., p. 23.) It was a great island, the then civilized world. The encircling ocean "was spoken of in all the ancient legends. Okeanos lived there with his wife

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[paragraph continues] Tethys: these were the Islands of the Blessed, the garden of the gods, the sources of the nectar and ambrosia on which the gods lived." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 23.) Nectar was probably a fermented intoxicating liquor, and ambrosia bread made from wheat. Soma was a kind of whiskey, and the Hindoos deified it. "The gods lived on nectar and ambrosia" simply meant that the inhabitants of these blessed islands were civilized, and possessed a liquor of some kind and a species of food superior to anything in use among the barbarous tribes with whom they came in contact.

This blessed land answers to the description of Atlantis. It was an island full of wonders. It lay spread out in the ocean "like a disk, with the mountains rising from it." (Ibid.) On the highest point of this mountain dwelt Zeus (the king), "while the mansions of the other deities were arranged upon plateaus, or in ravines lower down the mountain. These deities, including Zeus, were twelve in number: Zeus (or Jupiter), Hera (or Juno), Poseidon (or Neptune), Demeter (or Ceres), Apollo, Artemis (or Diana), Hephæstos (or Vulcan), Pallas Athena (or Minerva), Ares (or Mars), Aphrodite (or Venus), Hermes (or Mercury), and Hestia (or Vesta)." These were doubtless the twelve gods from whom the Egyptians derived their kings. Where two names are given to a deity in the above list, the first name is that bestowed by the Greeks, the last that given by the Romans.

It is not impossible that our division of the year into twelve parts is a reminiscence of the twelve gods of Atlantis. Diodorus Siculus tells us that among the Babylonians there were twelve gods of the heavens, each personified by one of the signs of the zodiac, and worshipped in a certain month of the year. The Hindoos had twelve primal gods, "the Aditya." Moses erected twelve pillars at Sinai. The Mandan Indians celebrated the Flood with twelve typical characters, who danced around the ark. The Scandinavians believed in the twelve gods, the Aesir, who dwelt on Asgard, the Norse Olympus.

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[paragraph continues] Diligent investigation may yet reveal that the number of a modern jury, twelve, is a survival of the ancient council of Asgard.

"According to the traditions of the Phœnicians, the Gardens of the Hesperides were in the remote west." (Murray's "Manual of Mythology," p. 258.) Atlas lived in these gardens. (Ibid., p. 259.) Atlas, we have seen, was king of Atlantis. "The Elysian Fields (the happy islands) were commonly placed in the remote west. They were ruled over by Chronos." (Ibid., p. 60.) Tartarus, the region of Hades, the gloomy home of the dead, was also located "under the mountains of an island in the midst of the ocean in the remote west." (Ibid., p. 58.) Atlas was described in Greek mythology as "an enormous giant, who stood upon the western confines of the earth, and supported the heavens on his shoulders, in a region of the west where the sun continued to shine after he had set upon Greece." (Ibid., p. 156.)

Greek tradition located the island in which Olympus was situated "in the far west," "in the ocean beyond Africa," "on the western boundary of the known world," "where the sun shone when it had ceased to shine on Greece," and where the mighty Atlas "held up the heavens." And Plato tells us that the land where Poseidon and Atlas ruled was Atlantis.

"The Garden of the Hesperides" (another name for the dwelling-place of the gods) "was situated at the extreme limit of Africa. Atlas was said to have surrounded it on every side with high mountains." (Smith's "Sacred Annals, Patriarchal Age," p. 131.) Here were found the golden apples.

This is very much like the description which Plato gives of the great plain of Atlantis, covered with fruit of every kind, and surrounded by precipitous mountains descending to the sea.

The Greek mythology, in speaking of the Garden of the Hesperides, tells us that "the outer edge of the garden was slightly raised, so that the water might not run in and overflow the land." Another reminiscence of the surrounding mountains of Atlantis as described by Plato, and as revealed by the deep-sea soundings of modern times.

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Chronos, or Saturn, Dionysos, Hyperion, Atlas, Hercules, were all connected with "a great Saturnian continent;" they were kings that ruled over countries on the western shores of the Mediterranean, Africa and Spain. One account says:

"Hyperion, Atlas, and Saturn, or Chronos, were sons of Uranos, who reigned over a great kingdom composed of countries around the western part of the Mediterranean, with certain islands in the Atlantic. Hyperion succeeded his father, and was then killed by the Titans. The kingdom was then divided between Atlas and Saturn--Atlas taking Northern Africa, with the Atlantic islands, and Saturn the countries on the opposite shore of the Mediterranean to Italy and Sicily." (Baldwin's Prehistoric Nations," p. 357.)

Plato says, speaking of the traditions of the Greeks ("Dialogues, Laws," c. iv., p. 713), "There is a tradition of the happy life of mankind in the days when all things were spontaneous and abundant. . . . In like manner God in his love of mankind placed over us the demons, who are a superior race, and they, with great care and pleasure to themselves and no less to us, taking care of us and giving us place and reverence and order and justice never failing, made the tribes of men happy and peaceful . . . for Cronos knew that no human nature, invested with supreme power, is able to order human affairs and not overflow with insolence and wrong."

In other words, this tradition refers to an ancient time when the forefathers of the Greeks were governed by Chronos, of the Cronian Sea (the Atlantic), king of Atlantis, through civilized Atlantean governors, who by their wisdom preserved peace and created a golden age for all the populations under their control--they were the demons, that is, "the knowing ones," the civilized.

Plato puts into the mouth of Socrates these words ("Dialogues, Cratylus," p. 397): "My notion would be that the sun, moon, and stars, earth, and heaven, which are still the gods of many barbarians, were the only gods known to the aboriginal Hellenes. . . . What shall follow the gods? Must not demons

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and heroes and men come next? . . . Consider the real meaning of the word demons. You know Hesiod uses the word. He speaks of 'a golden race of men' who came first. He says of them,

But now that fate has closed over this race,
They are holy demons upon earth,
Beneficent averters of ills, guardians of mortal men.'

He means by the golden men not men literally made of gold, but good and noble men; he says we are of the 'age of iron.' He called them demons because they were ???????? (knowing or wise)."

This is made the more evident when we read that this region of the gods, of Chronos and Uranos and Zeus, passed through, first, a Golden Age, then a Silver Age--these constituting a great period of peace and happiness; then it reached a Bronze Age; then an Iron Age, and finally perished by a great flood, sent upon these people by Zeus as a punishment for their sins. We read:

"Men were rich then (in the Silver Age), as in the Golden Age of Chronos, and lived in plenty; but still they wanted the innocence and contentment which were the true sources of bu man happiness in the former age; and accordingly, while living in luxury and delicacy, they became overbearing in their manners to the highest degree, were never satisfied, and forgot the gods, to whom, in their confidence of prosperity and com fort, they denied the reverence they owed. . . . Then followed the Bronze Age, a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence. Instead of cultivated lands, and a life of peaceful occupations and orderly habits, there came a day when every where might was right, and men, big and powerful as they were, became physically worn out. . . . Finally came the Iron Age, in which enfeebled mankind had to toil for bread with their hands, and, bent on gain, did their best to overreach each other. Dike, or Astræa, the goddess of justice and good faith, modesty and truth, turned her back on such scenes, and retired to Olympus, while Zeus determined to destroy the human race by a great flood. The whole of Greece lay under water, and none but Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha were saved." (Murray's "Mythology" p. 44.)

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It is remarkable that we find here the same succession of the Iron Age after the Bronze Age that has been revealed to scientific men by the patient examination of the relies of antiquity in Europe. And this identification of the land that was destroyed by a flood--the land of Chronos and Poseidon and Zeus--with the Bronze Age, confirms the view expressed in Chapter VIII. (page 237, ante), that the bronze implements and weapons of Europe were mainly imported from Atlantis.

And here we find that the Flood that destroyed this land of the gods was the Flood of Deucalion, and the Flood of Deucalion was the Flood of the Bible, and this, as we have shown, was "the last great Deluge of all," according to the Egyptians, which destroyed Atlantis.

The foregoing description of the Golden Age of Chronos, when "men were rich and lived in plenty," reminds us of Plato's description of the happy age of Atlantis, when "men despised everything but virtue, not caring for their present state of life, and thinking lightly of the possession of gold and other property;" a time when, as the chants of the Delaware Indians stated it (page 109, ante), "all were willingly pleased, all were well-happified." While the description given by Murray in the above extract of the degeneracy of mankind in the land of the gods, "a period of constant quarrelling and deeds of violence, when might was right," agrees with Plato's account of the Atlanteans, when they became "aggressive," "unable to bear their fortune," "unseemly," "base," "filled with unrighteous avarice and power,"--and "in a most wretched state." And here again I might quote from the chant of the Delaware Indians--"they became troubled, hating each other; both were fighting, both were spoiling, both were never peaceful." And in all three instances the gods punished the depravity of mankind by a great deluge. Can all these precise coincidences be the result of accident?

May we not even suppose that the very word "Olympus" is a transformation from "Atlantis" in accordance with the laws

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that regulate the changes of letters of the same class into each other? Olympus was written by the Greeks "Olumpos." The letter a in Atlantis was sounded by the ancient world broad and full, like the a in our words all or altar; in these words it approximates very closely to the sound of o. It is not far to go to convert Otlontis into Oluntos, and this into Olumpos. We may, therefore, suppose that when the Greeks said that their gods dwelt in "Olympus," it was the same as if they said that they dwelt in "Atlantis."

Nearly all the gods of Greece are connected with Atlantis. We have seen the twelve principal gods all dwelling on the mountain of Olympus, in the midst of an island in the ocean in the far west, which was subsequently destroyed by a deluge on account of the wickedness of its people. And when we turn to Plato's description of Atlantis (p. 13, ante) we find that Poseidon and Atlas dwelt upon a mountain in the midst of the island; and on this mountain were their magnificent temples and palaces, where they lived, separated by great walls from their subjects.

It may be urged that Mount Olympus could not have referred to any mountain in Atlantis, because the Greeks gave that name to a group of mountains partly in Macedonia and partly in Thessaly. But in Mysia, Lycia, Cyprus, and elsewhere there were mountains called Olympus; and on the plain of Olympia, in Elis, there was an eminence bearing the same designation. There is a natural tendency among uncivilized peoples to give a "local habitation" to every general tradition.

"Many of the oldest myths," says Baldwin (" Prehistoric Nations," p. 376), "relate to Spain, North-western Africa, and other regions on the Atlantic, such as those concerning Hercules, the Cronidæ, the Hyperboreans, the Hesperides, and the Islands of the Blessed. Homer described the Atlantic region of Europe in his account of the wanderings of Ulysses. . . . In the ages previous to the decline of Phœnician influence in Greece and around the Ægean Sea, the people of those regions must have had a much better knowledge of Western

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Europe than prevailed there during the Ionian or Hellenic period."

The mythology of Greece is really a history of the kings of Atlantis. The Greek heaven was Atlantis. Hence the references to statues, swords, etc., that fell from heaven, and were preserved in the temples of the different states along the shores of the Mediterranean from a vast antiquity, and which were regarded as the most precious possessions of the people. They were relics of the lost race received in the early ages. Thus we read of the brazen or bronze anvil that was preserved in one city, which fell from heaven, and was nine days and nine nights in falling; in other words, it took nine days and nights of a sailing-voyage to bring it from Atlantis.

The modern theory that the gods of Greece never had any personal existence, but represented atmospheric and meteorological myths, the movements of clouds, planets, and the sun, is absurd. Rude nations repeat, they do not invent; to suppose a barbarous people creating their deities out of clouds and sunsets is to reverse nature. Men first worship stones, then other men, then spirits. Resemblances of names prove nothing; it is as if one would show that the name of the great Napoleon meant "the lion of the desert" (Napo-leon), and should thence argue that Napoleon never existed, that he was a myth, that he represented power in solitude, or some such stuff. When we read that Jove whipped his wife, and threw her son out of the window, the inference is that Jove was a man, and actually did something like the thing described; certainly gods, sublimated spirits, aerial sprites, do not act after this fashion; and it would puzzle the mythmakers to prove that the sun, moon, or stars whipped their wives or flung recalcitrant young men out of windows. The history of Atlantis could be in part reconstructed out of the mythology of Greece; it is a history of kings, queens, and princes; of love-making, adulteries, rebellions, wars, murders, sea-voyages, and colonizations; of palaces, temples, workshops, and forges; of sword-making, engraving and

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metallurgy; of wine, barley, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, and agriculture generally. Who can doubt that it represents the history of a real people?

Uranos was the first god; that is to say, the first king of the great race. As he was at the commencement of all things, his symbol was the sky. He probably represented the race previous even to the settlement of Atlantis. He was a son of Gæa (the earth). He seems to have been the parent of three races--the Titans, the Hekatoncheires, and the Kyklopes or Cyclops.

I incline to the belief that these were civilized races, and that the peculiarities ascribed to the last two refer to the vessels in which they visited the shores of the barbarians.

The empire of the Titans was clearly the empire of Atlantis. "The most judicious among our mythologists" (says Dr. Rees, "New British Cyclopædia," art. Titans)--"such as Gerard Vossius, Marsham, Bochart, and Father Thomassin--are of opinion that the partition of the world among the sons of Noah-Shem, Ham, and Japheth--was the original of the tradition of the same partition among Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto," upon the breaking up of the great empire of the Titans. "The learned Pezron contends that the division which was made of this vast empire came, in after-times, to be taken for the partition of the whole world; that Asia remaining in the hands of Jupiter (Zeus), the most potent of the three brothers, made him looked upon as the god of Olympus; that the sea and islands which fell to Neptune occasioned their giving him the title of 'god of the sea;' and that Spain, the extremity of the then known world, thought to be a very low country in respect of Asia, and famous for its excellent mines of gold and silver, failing to Pluto, occasioned him to be taken for the 'god of the infernal regions.'" We should suppose that Pluto possibly ruled over the transatlantic possessions of Atlantis in America, over those "portions of the opposite continent" which Plato tells us were dominated by Atlas and his posterity, and which, being far beyond or below sunset, were the "under-world" of

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Click to view
THE EMPIRE OF ATLANTIS.

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the ancients; while Atlantis, the Canaries, etc., constituted the island division with Western Africa and Spain. Murray tells us ("Mythology," p. 58) that Pluto's share of the kingdom was supposed to lie "in the remote west." The under-world of the dead was simply the world below the western horizon; "the home of the dead has to do with that far west region where the sun dies at night." ("Anthropology," p. 350.) "On the coast of Brittany, where Cape Raz stands out westward into the ocean, there is 'the Bay of Souls,' the launching-place where the departed spirits sail off across the sea." (Ibid.) In like manner, Odysseus found the land of the dead in the ocean beyond the Pillars of Hercules. There, indeed, was the land of the mighty dead, the grave of the drowned Atlanteans.

"However this be," continues F. Pezron, "the empire of the Titans, according to the ancients, was very extensive; they possessed Phrygia, Thrace, a part of Greece, the island of Crete, and several other provinces to the inmost recesses of Spain. To these Sanchoniathon seems to join Syria; and Diodorus adds a part of Africa, and the kingdoms of Mauritania." The kingdoms of Mauritania embraced all that north-western region of Africa nearest to Atlantis in which are the Atlas Mountains, and in which, in the days of Herodotus, dwelt the Atlantes.

Neptune, or Poseidon, says, in answer to a message from Jupiter,

No vassal god, nor of his train am I.
Three brothers, deities, from Saturn came,
And ancient Rhea, earth's immortal dame;
Assigned by lot our triple rule we know;
Infernal Pluto sways the shades below:
O'er the wide clouds, and o'er the starry plain
Ethereal Jove extends his high domain;
My court beneath the hoary waves I keep,
And hush the roaring of the sacred deep.

Iliad, book xviii.

Homer alludes to Poseidon as

"The god whose liquid arms are hurled
Around the globs, whose earthquakes rock the world."

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Mythology tells us that when the Titans were defeated by Saturn they retreated into the interior of Spain; Jupiter followed them up, and beat them for the last time near Tartessus, and thus terminated a ten-years' war. Here we have a real battle on an actual battle-field.

If we needed any further proof that the empire of the Titans was the empire of Atlantis, we would find it in the names of the Titans: among these were Oceanus, Saturn or Chronos, and Atlas; they were all the sons of Uranos. Oceanus was at the base of the Greek mythology. Plato says ("Dialogues," Timæus, vol. ii., p. 533): "Oceanus and Tethys were the children of Earth and Heaven, and from these sprung Phorcys, and Chronos, and Rhea, and many more with them; and from Chronos and Rhea sprung Zeus and Hera, and all those whom we know as their brethren, and others who were their children." In other words, all their gods came out of the ocean; they were rulers over some ocean realm; Chronos was the son of Oceanus, and Chronos was an Atlantean god, and from him the Atlantic Ocean was called by tho ancients "the Chronian Sea." The elder Minos was called "the Son of the Ocean:" he first gave civilization to the Cretans; he engraved his laws on brass, precisely as Plato tells us the laws of Atlantis were engraved on pillars of brass.

The wanderings of Ulysses, as detailed in the "Odyssey" of Homer, are strangely connected with the Atlantic Ocean. The islands of the Phæacians were apparently in mid-ocean:

We dwell apart, afar
Within the unmeasured deep, amid its waves
The most remote of men; no other race
Hath commerce with us.--Odyssey, book vi.

The description of the Phæacian walls, harbors, cities, palaces, ships, etc., seems like a recollection of Atlantis. The island of Calypso appears also to have been in the Atlantic Ocean, twenty days' sail from the Phæacian isles; and when Ulysses

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goes to the land of Pluto, "the under-world," the home of the dead, he

"Reached the far confines of Oceanus,"

beyond the Pillars of Hercules. It would be curious to inquire how far the poems of Homer are Atlantean in their relations and inspiration. Ulysses's wanderings were a prolonged struggle with Poseidon, the founder and god of Atlantis.

"The Hekatoncheires, or Cetimæni, beings each with a hundred hands, were three in number--Kottos, Gyges or Gyes, and Briareus--and represented the frightful crashing of waves, and its resemblance to the convulsions of earthquakes." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 26.) Are not these hundred arms the oars of the galleys, and the frightful crashing of the waves their movements in the water?

"The Kyklopes also were three in number--Brontes, with his thunder; Steropes, with his lightning; and Arges, with his stream of light. They were represented as having only one eye, which was placed at the juncture between the nose and brow. It was, however, a large, flashing eye, as became beings who were personifications of the storm-cloud, with its flashes of destructive lightning and peals of thunder."

We shall show hereafter that the invention of gunpowder dates back to the days of the Phœnicians, and may have been derived by them from Atlantis. It is not impossible that in this picture of the Kyklopes we see a tradition of sea-going ships, with a light burning at the prow, and armed with some explosive preparation, which, with a roar like thunder, and a flash like lightning, destroyed those against whom it was employed? It at least requires less strain upon our credulity to suppose these monsters were a barbarian's memory of great ships than to believe that human beings ever existed with a hundred arms, and with one eye in the middle of the forehead, and giving out thunder and lightning.

The natives of the West India Islands regarded the ships of Columbus as living creatures, and that their sails were wings.

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Berosus tells us, speaking of the ancient days of Chaldea, "In the first year there appeared, from that part of the Erythræan Sea which borders upon Babylonia, an animal endowed with reason, by name Oannes, whose whole body (according to the account of Apollodorus) was that of a fish; that under the fish's head he had another head, with feet also below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the fish's tail. His. voice too and language was articulate and human, and a representation of him is preserved even unto this day. This being was accustomed to pass the day among men, but took no food at that season, and he gave them an insight into letters and arts of all kinds. He taught them to construct cities, to found temples, to compile laws, and explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge. He made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them how to collect the fruits; in short, be instructed them in everything which could tend to soften manners and humanize their laws. From that time nothing material has been added by way of improvement to his instructions. And when the sun set, this being, Oannes, retired again into the sea, and passed the night in the deep, for he was amphibious. After this there appeared other animals like Oannes."

This is clearly the tradition preserved by a barbarous people of the great ships of a civilized nation, who colonized their coast and introduced the arts and sciences among them. And here we see the same tendency to represent the ship as a living thing, which converted the war-vessels of the Atlanteans (the Kyklopes) into men with one blazing eye in the middle of the forehead.

Uranos was deposed from the throne, and succeeded by his son Chronos. He was called "the ripener, the harvest-god," and was probably identified with the beginning of the Agricultural Period. He married his sister Rhea, who bore him Pluto, Poseidon, Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera. He anticipated that his sons would dethrone him, as he had dethroned his father, Uranos, and he swallowed his first five children, and would have swallowed the sixth child, Zeus, but that his wife Rhea deceived him with a stone image of the child; and Zeus was conveyed to the island of Crete, and there concealed in a cave

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and raised to manhood. Subsequently Chronos "yielded back to the light the children he had swallowed." This myth probably means that Chronos had his children raised in some secret place, where they could not be used by his enemies as the instruments of a rebellion against his throne; and the stone image of Zeus, palmed off upon him by Rhea, was probably some other child substituted for his own. His precautions seem to have been wise; for as soon as the children returned to the light they commenced a rebellion, and drove the old gentleman from his throne. A rebellion of the Titans followed. The struggle was a tremendous one, and seems to have been decided at last by the use of gunpowder, as I shall show farther on.

We have seen Chronos identified with the Atlantic, called by the Romans the "Chronian Sea." He was known to the Romans under the name of Saturn, and ruled over "a great Saturnian continent" in the Western Ocean. Saturn, or Chronos, came to Italy: he presented himself to the king, Janus, "and proceeded to instruct the subjects of the latter in agriculture, gardening, and many other arts then quite unknown to them; as, for example, how to tend and cultivate the vine. By such means he at length raised the people from a rude and comparatively barbarous condition to one of order and peaceful occupations, in consequence of which he was everywhere held in high esteem, and, in course of time, was selected by Janus to share with him the government of the country, which thereupon assumed the name of Saturnia--'a land of seed and fruit.' The period of Saturn's government was sung in later days by poets as a happy time, when sorrows were unknown, when innocence, freedom, and gladness reigned throughout the land in such a degree as to deserve the title of the Golden Age." (Murray's Mythology," p. 32.)

All this accords with Plato's story. He tells us that the rule of the Atlanteans extended to Italy; that they were a civilized, agricultural, and commercial people. The civilization of Rome

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was therefore an outgrowth directly from the civilization of Atlantis.

The Roman Saturnalia was a remembrance of the Atlantean colonization. It was a period of joy and festivity; master and slave met as equals; the distinctions of poverty and wealth were forgotten; no punishments for crime were inflicted; servants and slaves went about dressed in the clothes of their masters; and children received presents from their parents or relatives. It was a time of jollity and mirth, a recollection of the Golden Age. We find a reminiscence of it in the Roman "Carnival."

The third and last on the throne of the highest god was Zeus. We shall see him, a little farther on, by the aid of some mysterious engine overthrowing the rebels, the Titans, who rose against his power, amid the flash of lightning and the roar of thunder. He was called "the thunderer," and "the mighty thunderer." He was represented with thunder-bolts in his hand and an eagle at his feet.

During the time of Zeus Atlantis seems to have reached its greatest height of power. He was recognized as the father of the whole world; he everywhere rewarded uprightness, truth, faithfulness, and kindness; be was merciful to the poor, and punished the cruel. To illustrate his rule on earth the following story is told:

"Philemon and Baukis, an aged couple of the poorer class, were living peacefully and full of piety toward the gods in their cottage in Phrygia, when Zeus, who often visited the earth, disguised, to inquire into the behavior of men, paid a visit, in passing through Phrygia on such a journey, to these poor old people, and was received by them very kindly as a weary traveller, which he pretended to be. Bidding him welcome to the house, they set about preparing for their guest, who was accompanied by Hermes, as excellent a meal as they could afford, and for this purpose were about to kill the only goose they had left, when Zeus interfered; for he was touched by their kindliness and genuine piety, and that all the more because he had

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observed among the other inhabitants of the district nothing but cruelty of disposition and a habit of reproaching and despising the gods. To punish this conduct he determined to visit the country with a flood, but to save from it Philemon and Baukis, the good aged couple, and to reward them in a striking manner. To this end he revealed himself to them before opening the gates of the great flood, transformed their poor cottage on the hill into a splendid temple, installed the aged pair as his priest and priestess, and granted their prayer that they might both die together. When, after many years, death overtook them, they were changed into two trees, that side by side in the neighborhood--an oak and a linden." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 38.)

Here we have another reference to the Flood, and another identification with Atlantis.

Zeus was a kind of Henry VIII., and took to himself a number of wives. By Demeter (Ceres) he had Persephone (Proserpine); by Leto, Apollo and Artemis (Diana); by Dione, Aphrodite (Venus); by Semele, Dionysos (Bacchus); by Maia, Hermes (Mercury); by Alkmene, Hercules, etc., etc.

We have thus the whole family of gods and goddesses traced back to Atlantis.

Hera, or Juno, was the first and principal wife of Zeus. There were numerous conjugal rows between the royal pair, in which, say the poets, Juno was generally to blame. She was naturally jealous of the other wives of Zeus. Zeus on one occasion beat her, and threw her son Hephæstos out of Olympus; on another occasion he hung her out of Olympus with her arms tied and two great weights attached to her feet--a very brutal and ungentlemanly trick--but the Greeks transposed this into a beautiful symbol: the two weights, they say, represent the earth and sea, "an illustration of how all the phenomena of the visible sky were supposed to hang dependent on the highest god of heaven!" (Ibid., p. 47.) Juno probably regarded the transaction in an altogether different light; and she therefore united with Poseidon, the king's brother, and his daughter

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[paragraph continues] Athena, in a rebellion to put the old fellow in a strait-jacket, "and would have succeeded had not Thetis brought to his aid the sea-giant Ægæon," probably a war-ship. She seems in the main, however, to have been a good wife, and was the type of all the womanly virtues.

Poseidon, the first king of Atlantis, according to Plato, was, according to Greek mythology, a brother of Zeus, and a son of Chronos. In the division of the kingdom he fell heir to the ocean and its islands, and to the navigable rivers; in other words, he was king of a maritime and commercial people. His symbol was the horse. "He was the first to train and employ horses;" that is to say, his people first domesticated the horse. This agrees with what Plato tells us of the importance attached to the horse in Atlantis, and of the baths and race-courses provided for him. He was worshipped in the island of Tenos "in the character of a physician," showing that he represented an advanced civilization. He was also master of an agricultural people; "the ram with the golden fleece for which the Argonauts sailed was the offspring of Poseidon." He carried in his hand a three-pronged symbol, the trident, doubtless an emblem of the three continents that were embraced in the empire of Atlantis. He founded many colonies along the shores of the Mediterranean; "he helped to build the walls of Troy;" the tradition thus tracing the Trojan civilization to an Atlantean source. He settled Attica and founded Athens, named after his niece Athena, daughter of Zeus, who had no mother, but had sprung from the head of Zeus, which probably signified that her mother's name was not known--she was a foundling. Athena caused the first olive-tree to grow on the Acropolis of Athens, parent of all the olive-trees of Greece. Poseidon seems to have had settlements at Corinth, Ægina, Naxos, and Delphi. Temples were erected to his honor in nearly all the seaport towns of Greece. He sent a sea-monster, to wit, a ship, to ravage part of the Trojan territory.

In the "Iliad" Poseidon appears "as ruler of the sea, inhabiting

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a brilliant palace in its depths, traversing its surface in a chariot, or stirring the powerful billows until the earth shakes as they crash upon the shores. . . . He is also associated with well-watered plains and valleys." (Murray's "Mythology," p, 51.) The palace in the depths of the sea was the palace upon Olympus in Atlantis; the traversing of the sea referred to the movements of a mercantile race; the shaking of the

POSEIDON, OR NEPTUNE.

earth was an association with earthquakes; the "well-watered plains and valleys" remind us of the great plain of Atlantis described by Plato.

All the traditions of the coming of civilization into Europe point to Atlantis.

For instance, Keleos, who lived at Eleusis, near Athens, hospitably received Demeter, the Greek Ceres, the daughter of Poseidon, when she landed; and in return she taught him the use of the plough, and presented his son with the seed of barley, and sent him out to teach mankind how to sow and utilize that grain. Dionysos, grandson of Poseidon, travelled "through all

p. 306

the known world, even into the remotest parts of India, instructing the people, as be proceeded, how to tend the vine, and how to practise many other arts of peace, besides teaching them the value of just and honorable dealings." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 119.) The Greeks celebrated great festivals in his honor down to the coming of Christianity.

"The Nymphs of Grecian mythology were a kind of middle beings between the gods and men, communicating with both, loved and respected by both; . . . living like the gods on ambrosia. In extraordinary cases they were summoned, it was believed, to the councils of the Olympian gods; but they usually remained in their particular spheres, in secluded grottoes and peaceful valleys, occupied in spinning, weaving, bathing, singing sweet songs, dancing, sporting, or accompanying deities who passed through their territories--hunting with Artemis (Diana), rushing about with Dionysos (Bacchus), making merry with Apollo or Hermes (Mercury), but always in a hostile attitude toward the wanton and excited Satyrs."

The Nymphs were plainly the female inhabitants of Atlantis dwelling on the plains, while the aristocracy lived on the higher lands. And this is confirmed by the fact that part of them were called Atlantids, offspring of Atlantis. The Hesperides were also "daughters of Atlas;" their mother was Hesperis, a personification of "the region of the West." Their home was an island in the ocean," Off the north or west coast of Africa.

And here we find a tradition which not only points to Atlantis, but also shows some kinship to the legend in Genesis of the tree and the serpent.

Titæa, "a goddess of the earth," gave Zeus a tree bearing golden apples on it. This tree was put in the care of the Hesperides, but they could not resist the temptation to pluck and eat its fruit; thereupon a serpent named Ladon was put to watch the tree. Hercules slew the serpent, and gave the apples to the Hesperides.

Heracles (Hercules), we have seen, was a son of Zeus, king of Atlantis. One of his twelve labors (the tenth) was the carrying

p. 307

off the cattle of Geryon. The meaning of Geryon is the red glow of the sunset." He dwelt on the island of "Erythea, in the remote west, beyond the Pillars of Hercules." Hercules took a ship, and after encountering a storm, reached the island and placed himself on Mount Abas. Hercules killed Geryon, stole the cattle, put them on the ship, and landed them safely, driving them "through Iberia, Gaul, and over the Alps down into Italy." (Murray's "Mythology," p. 257.) This was simply the memory of a cattle raid made by an uncivilized race upon the civilized, cattle-raising people of Atlantis.

It is not necessary to pursue the study of the gods of Greece any farther. They were simply barbarian recollections of the rulers of a great civilized people who in early days visited their shores, and brought with them the arts of peace.

Here then, in conclusion, are the proofs of our proposition that the gods of Greece had been the kings of Atlantis:

1. They were not the makers, but the rulers of the world.

2. They were human in their attributes; they loved, sinned, and fought battles, the very sites of which are given; they founded cities, and civilized the people of the shores of the Mediterranean.

3. They dwelt upon an island in the Atlantic,." in the remote west. . . . where the sun shines after it has ceased to shine on Greece."

4. Their land was destroyed in a deluge.

5. They were ruled over by Poseidon and Atlas.

6. Their empire extended to Egypt and Italy and the shores of Africa, precisely as stated by Plato.

7. They existed during the Bronze Age and at the beginning of the Iron Age.

The entire Greek mythology is the recollection, by a degenerate race, of a vast, mighty, and highly civilized empire, which in a remote past covered large parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America.

Coeus
Crius
Cronus
Hyperion
Iapetus
Mnemosyne
Oceanus
Phoebe
Rhea
Theia
Themis
Thetys.

The Titans Cronus and Rhea were the parents of Zeus and the other Olympian gods and goddesses.

To the Greeks, mythology was literally a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's descent from a mythological hero or a god.

On the other hand, philosophers like Xenophanes were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th century BC; this line of thought found its most sweeping expression in Plato's Republic and Laws. More sportingly, the 5th century BCE tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. In other cases Euripides seems to be directing pointed criticism at the behavior of his gods.

[edit]
Hellenistic Rationalism
The skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced in the Hellenistic era. Most daringly, the mythographer Euhemerus claimed that stories about the gods were only confused memories of the cruelty of ancient kings. Although Euhemerus's works are lost, interpretations in his style are frequently found in Diodorus Siculus.

Rationalizing hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the Roman Empire, thanks to the physicalist theories of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy, as well as the pragmatic bent of the Roman mind. The antiquarian Varro, summarizing centuries' worth of philosophic tradition, distinguished three kinds of gods:

The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.
Cicero's De Natura Deorum is probably the most comprehensive summary of this line of thought.

[edit]
Syncretizing Trends
One unexpected side-effect of the rationalist view was a popular trend to syncretize multiple Greek and foreign gods in strange, nearly unrecognizable new cults. If Apollo and Serapis and Sabazios and Dionysus and Mithras were all really Helios, why not combine them all together into one Deus Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and compound attributes? The surviving 2nd century AD collection of Orphic Hymns and Macrobius's Saturnalia are products of this mind-set.

But though Apollo might in religion be increasingly identified with Helios or even Dionysus, texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.

[edit]
Christian Views
By the time Christian evangelism and Greek mythology collided, Greek mythology was already being viewed primarily as literature, not religion. This view persisted among the Church fathers, and can still be found among most Christian educators, where Greek mythology is taught as a subset of the Classics.

However, there is a contrary view that has always existed side by side with this idea. Some Christians fear that all gods other than the God of Abraham are real, and are representations of Satan, other fallen angels, or demons, and appeared in the form of false gods in order to lure human beings away from monotheism and other spiritual truths. Among Christians who hold this belief, Greek mythology is understood to be a subset of the subject of demonology.

[edit]
The Fate of Mythology
In addition to the continuing use of and allusion to mythology in literature, Greek mythology today makes for some wonderful stories that remain enjoyable. Greek mythology continues to be an important cultural reference long after the Greek religion with which it was entwined ceased to be practiced. There was, to be sure, a Christian move to deface or destroy idols and other images that reflected the public cult of the gods when Christianity replaced paganism as the official faith of the Roman Empire. Literature posed a harder problem to the Christians; it would be impossible to erase the influence of Greek mythology there without casting aside the Iliad and Odyssey, Theocritus, Virgil, Ovid, and many other authors that most were not willing to cast aside. Greek mythology thus has persisted for more than a millennium after Greek religion became extinct. Even much classical Christian literature contains allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, as a glimpse at parts of Dante's Inferno or most of Milton's Paradise Lost makes plain.

Sources
Several types of primary source are available for the study of Greek mythology.

The poetry of the Archaic and Classical eras — composed primarily for performance at cultic festivals or aristocratic banquets, and thus part of muthos in the Homeric sense (see Etymology above). This includes:
the Homeric Odyssey, Iliad and Hymns
the Hesiodic Theogony.
the dramatic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Aristophanes
the choral hymns of Pindar and Bacchylides.
The work of historians, like Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers, like Pausanias and Strabo, who made travels around the Greek world and noted down the stories they heard at various cities.
The work of mythographers, who wrote prose treatises based on learned research attempting to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets. The Bibliotheke by Apollodorus of Athens is the largest extant example of this genre.
The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:
The Hellenistic poets Apollonius of Rhodes and Callimachus.
The Roman poets Hyginus, Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus and Virgil.
The Late Antique Greek poets Nonnus and Quintus Smyrnaeus.
The ancient novels of Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus and Heliodorus.

Modern Interpreters
The developers of modern mythography and hermeneutics, starting from Bulfinch's genteel Christian tradition, in approximate chronological order:

I submit this:

It is to be noted that giants didn't just occur pre-flood, but today.
http://www.hazardkentucky.com/wadlow.htm

Of course, today, there is an "explanation" of "giants" such as with Robert Wadlow, the tallest man in recorded history.

quote:

---

Robert's unique size was attributed to an over active pituary gland, which produced much higher than normal levels of growth hormone. Today's medical science can compensate for such problems - but in the 1930s there was no therapy available.

---

PLACES IN THE UNITED STATES
NAMED FROM MYTHOLOGY

Mythology is everywhere! There are hundreds of places in the United States (and Canada, not to mention the entire world!) named from Greek Mythology. Odds are you'll find a few good examples right in your own state, wherever you live.

Consider that there are at least 16 cities named Athens in the United States! Or, even more amazing, there exist no less than 26 American cities that contain Troy in their names!

I've researched each of the 50 States and have put together a huge list of American cities whose names relate to mythology. Let me know if I've missed any and I'll be happy to add them.

Athens, the capital city of Greece, is named after the goddess Athena:

Athens, Georgia

Athens, Ohio

Athens, Alabama

Athens, Indiana

Athens, Maine

Athens, New York

Athens, Pennsylvania

Athens, Tennessee

Athens, Texas

Athens, West Virginia

Athens, Wisconsin

Athens, Louisiana

Athens, Michigan

Athens, Illinois

Athens, Pennsylvania

New Athens, Illinois

Athens County, Ohio

Athens, Wisconsin

Attica, New York

Athena's Roman equivalent was Minerva:

Minerva, Kentucky

Minerva, New York

Minerva, Ohio

Achilles was the greatest warrior of the Trojan War, killed only when an arrow struck his heel, the only vulnerable spot on his body:

Achille, Oklahoma
(a reader mentioned that this is a Native American derivation, not Greek)

Achilles, Virginia

Ajax was the name of two famous warriors of the Trojan War:

Ajax, South Dakota

Apollo was another Olympian, the god of music and light. After him is named:

Apollo, Pennsylvania

North Apollo, Pennsylvania

Apollo Beach, Florida

Apollo Annex, Florida

Apollo Theater, Chicago

Apollo Theater, New York

Amazons in Greek mythology were a ferocious race of warrior women:

Amazonia, Missouri

Arcadia was a famous place in ancient Greece:

Arcadia, California

Arcadia, Florida

Arcadia, Indiana

Arcadia, Iowa

Arcadia, Kansas

Arcadia, Louisiana

Arcadia, Michigan

Arcadia, Missouri

Arcadia, Nebraska

Arcadia, Pennsylvania

Arcadia, South Carolina

Arcadia, Wisconsin

Ares was one of the 12 Olympians, the despised god of war:

Ares Peak, New Mexico

Argo was the name of the famous ship that Jason and the Argonauts used to sail on their voyage to get the Golden Fleece.

Argo, Texas

Argos was the hundred-eyed watchman of Hera, slain by the Greek messenger god Hermes:

Argos, Indiana

Arion was the poet tossed overboard by Pirates who was saved by a dolphin:

Arion, Iowa
Arion, Ohio

Atlas was the hapless Titan who was doomed to support the heavens on his shoulder forever. Many variations of his name have given us a number of American place names:

Atlantic Beach, Florida

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta, Idaho

Atlanta, Illinois

Atlanta, Indiana

Atlantic, Iowa

Atlanta, Kansas

Atlas, Kansas

Atlanta, Louisiana

Atlanta, Michigan

Atlas, Michigan

Atlanta, Missouri

Atlanta, Nebraska

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Atlanta, New York

Atlantic Beach, New York

Atlantic, North Carolina

Atlantic Beach, North Carolina

Atlantic, Pennsylvania

Atlasburg, Pennsylvania

Atlanta, Texas

Atlantic, Virginia

Aurora was the Roman goddess of the dawn, similar to the Greek Eos:

Aurora, Colorado

Aurora, Illinois

Aurora, Indiana

Aurora, Iowa

Aurora, Kansas

Aurora, Kentucky

Aurora, Maine

Aurora, Minnesota

Aurora, Missouri

Aurora, Nebraska

Aurora, New York

East Aurora, New York

Aurora, North Carolina

Aurora, Ohio

Aurora, Oregon

Aurora, South Dakota

Aurora, Utah

Aurora, West Virginia

Daphne was a beautiful woman who was pursued by the god Apollo. She turned into a laurel tree in order to escape from his amorous advances. After her is named:

Daphne, Alabama

Castor and Polux were famous twins of Greek mythology:

Castor, Louisiana

The Nymph Calypso was a witch who tried to convince the hero Odysseus to stay with her on her island, rather than sailing home:

Calypso, North Carolina

Cassandra was the seer who was cursed by Apollo, so that her prophecies were never believed:

Cassandra, Pennsylvania

Ceres was the Roman goddess of the harvest, similar to the Greek goddess Demeter:

Ceres, California

Ceres, Virginia

Clio was one of the nine Muses of Greek mythology:

Clio, Alabama

Clio, California

Clyo, Georgia

Clio, Iowa

Clio, Michigan

Clio, South Carolina

Clio, West Virginia

Corinth was a famous place in Greek mythology, figuring in numerous myths:

Corinth, Kentucky

Corinth, Mississippi

Corinth, New York

Corinth, Texas

Corinth, Vermont

East Corinth, Vermont

Crete was the island where Zeus was raised as a baby while hiding from the wrath of his father, Cronus:

Crete, Illinois

Crete, Nebraska

Diana was the Roman name for the Greek Artemis, goddess of the forest and the hunt:

Diana, Texas

Diana, West Virginia

Fortuna was the Roman goddess of luck, similar to the Greek Tyche:

Fortuna Ledge, Alaska

Fortuna, California

Fortuna, Missouri

The Oracles in mythology were respected seers who foretold the future:

Oracle, Arizona

The most famous Oracle was Apollo's, at a place called Delphi:

Delphi, Indiana

Delphia, Kentucky

Delphi Falls, New York

Hector was a brave warrior who fought on the Trojan side against the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was killed by Achilles:

Hector, Arkansas

Hector, California

Hector, New York

Homer was the ancient poet and writer who gave us the famous books the Iliad and the Odyssey:

Homer, Alaska

Homer, Georgia

Homerville, Georgia

Homer, Illinois

Homer, Indiana

Homer, Louisiana

Homer, Nebraska

Homer, New York

East Homer, New York

Homer, Ohio

Homerville, Ohio

Hymera was the Greek personification of the Day:

Hymera, Indiana

Hesperia was the Greek goddess who personified the Evening:

Hesperia, California

Hesperus was the elusive god who personified the Evening:

Hesperus, Colorado

Irene was the ancient Greek personification of Peace:

Irene, South Dakota

Irene, Texas

Iris was the Greek goddess of the Rainbow:

Iris, South Carolina

Ithaca was the island home of the Trojan War hero, Odysseus; the Odyssey by Homer detailed his voyage back home to Ithaca:

Ithaca, Nebraska

Ithaca, New York

Ithaca College, New York

Ithaca, Ohio

The Parthenon in Athens was the splendid temple at the Acropolis, built in honor of the great goddess Athena:

Parthenon, Arkansas

Dike (or Dyke, pronounced DEE-key) was the Greek mythological personification of Justice:

Dike, Iowa

Dike, Texas

Dyke, Virginia

Echo was the beautiful maiden who fell in love with the vain Narcissus and was reduced to just an echo:

Echo Lake, California

Echo, Louisiana

Echo, Minnesota

Echo, Oregon

Echo, Texas

Echo, Utah

The Elysian Fields was the final resting place of famous heroes:

Elysian, Minnesota

Elysian Fields, Texas

Eros was the Greek god of love, similar to the mischievous Roman Cupid:

Eros, Louisiana

Eros, Arizona

Flora was the Roman name for the Greek Chloris, goddess of plants and vegetation:

Flora, Illinois

Flora, Indiana

Flora, Louisiana

Flora, Mississippi

Glen Flora, Texas

Glen Flora, Wisconsin

The Griffin was a mythical creature with the face, beak, talons and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion:

Griffin, Georgia

Griffin, Indiana

Hades was the feared god of the Underworld:

Hades Creek, Washington

Hercules (Heracles) was the greatest hero of ancient Greece. He performed the famous 12 labors:

Hercules, California

Luna was the Roman goddess of the moon, equivalent to the Greek goddess Selene:

Luna, New Mexico

The city of Marathon was the setting for a magnificent battle, and where we get the modern day race called the marathon:

Marathon, New York

Mars was the Roman god of war, the equivalent of the Greek god Ares:

Mars Hill, Maine

Mars, Pennsylvania

Medusa was the monster who would turn to stone whomever happened to look upon her:

Medusa, New York

Mentor was a famous tutor/teacher in ancient Greek mythology:

Mentor, Minnesota

Mentor, Ohio

Mercury was the Roman name for the Greek god Hermes, winged messenger to the gods:

Mercury, Nevada

Mount Olympus was the lofty home of the ancient gods. From Olympus we get place names such as:

Olympic Valley, California

Olympia Heights, Florida

Olympia Fields, Illinois

Olympia, Kentucky

East Olympia, Virginia

Olympia, Washington

The nine Muses in Greek mythology were the ones who inspired the arts, sciences, music and all things cultural:

Muse, Pennsylvania

Neptune was the Roman name for Poseidon, Greek god of the sea:

Neptune Beach, Florida

Neptune, New Jersey

Neptune City, New Jersey

Orestes was the tragic figure who killed his mother, Clytaemnestra, and was pursued by the Furies, in the tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus:

Orestes, Indiana

Pandora (all-gifted) was the first mortal woman. Her curiosity made her open up a jar (box), which unleashed all the world's evils upon the earth:

Pandora, Ohio

Pandora, Texas

Paris was the Trojan prince who ran away with beautiful Helen, an act which caused the famous Trojan War:

Paris, Tennessee

Paris, Texas

Penelope was the faithful wife to Odysseus, of Trojan War and Odyssey fame:

Penelope, Texas

Sparta was a famous city state in ancient Greece, renowned for its highly disciplined and ferocious warriors:

Sparta, Georgia

Sparta, Illinois

Sparta, Kentucky

Sparta, Michigan

Sparta, Mississippi

Sparta, New Jersey

Sparta, New York

East Sparta, Ohio

Sparta, Tennessee

Sparta, Virginia

Sparta, Wisconsin

Thebes was another famous city state, with a storied mythical history:

Thebes, Illinois

Troy was the ancient mythological city where the famous Trojan War took place. Many US places are named Troy:

Troy, Alabama

Troy, Idaho

Troy, Illinois

Troy Grove, Illinois

Troy, Indiana

Troy Mills, Iowa

Troy, Kansas

Troy, Maine

Troy, Michigan

New Troy, Michigan

Troy, Missouri

Troy, Montana

Troy, New Hampshire

Troy, New York

Troy, North Carolina

Troy, Ohio

Troy, Pennsylvania

Troy, South Carolina

Troy, Tennessee

Troy, Texas

Troy, Vermont

North Troy, Vermont

Troy, Virginia

Troy, West Virginia

East Troy, Wisconsin

Venus was the Roman name for gorgeous Aphrodite, Greek goddess of Love:

Venus, Florida

Venus, Pennsylvania

Venus, Texas

Vesta was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Hestia, ancient goddess of the home and hearth. Her attendants were called the Vestal virgins:

Vesta, Minnesota

Vesta, Virginia

Vestal, New York

Victoria was Roman for the Greek Nike, winged goddess of Victory:

Victoria, Minnesota

Victoria, Mississippi

Victoria, Texas

Victoria, Virginia

Vulcan was the Roman name for Hephaestus, Greek god of the forge:

Vulcan, Michigan

Vulcan, Missouri

Vulcan, West Virginia

Zephyr was one of the wind gods, the West Wind:

Zephyrhills, Florida

Zephyr Cove, Nevada

Zephyr, Texas

Notus was another wind god, this one the South Wind:

Notus, Idaho

Orion was a giant in Greek mythology who was placed in the stars as the Constellation Orion:

Orion, Illinois

Orion, Michigan

Juno was the Roman name for Hera, wife to Zeus, the supreme Greek Olympian:

Juno Beach, Florida

Jupiter was the Roman name for the King of the Olympians, Zeus:

Jupiter, Florida

Helen of Troy was the most beautiful woman on earth, and the cause of the Trojan War:

Lake Helen, Florida

Helen, Georgia

Helena, Georgia

Helen, Maryland

Helena, Missouri

Helena, Montana

Helena, New York

Helena, Oklahoma

Helen, West Virginia

Helenville, Wisconsin

Marathon was another famous Greek place and the scene of a decisive ancient battle. We get the modern 26 kilometer Marathon Race from this city:

Marathon, Florida

Marathon Shores, Florida

Marathon, Iowa

Marathon, Texas

Marathon, Wisconsin

The Phoenix was the legendary bird that would perish every few hundred years, only to be reborn from the ashes:

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Maryland

Phoenix, New York

Phoenix, Oregon

Phoenixville, Pennsylvania

Phenix, Virginia

Ulysses was the Roman name for Odysseus, hero of Homer's epic saga The Odyssey:

Ulysses, Kansas

Ulysses, Kentucky

Ulysses, Nebraska

Ulysses, Pennsylvania

Urania was the one of the nine Muses, the Greek Muse of astronomy, astrology and Universal love.

Urania, Louisiana

Uranus (Sky) was an original Titan, husband to Gaea (Mother Earth):