2. THE ILIAD POEM
• (August 2008)The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song
of Ilium) is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to
Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy
(Ilium) by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during
the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles.
3. •
HOMER Greek: , Hómēros), is
In the Western classical tradition, Homer ( ; Ancient
the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest
ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the
Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the
history of literature.
• When he lived is controversial. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400
years before Herodotus' own time, which would place him at around 850 BC
;1 while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the
supposed time of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC.2
4. THE ODYSSEY
• The Odyssey (Ancient Greek: , Odysseia) is one of two major ancient
Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the
other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern
Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of
Western literature. It was probably composed near the end of the
8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.1
5. The Trojan War
• In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by
the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband
Menelaus, the king of Sparta. The war is among the most important events
in Greek mythology and was narrated in many works of Greek literature,
including the Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer.
6. ANCIENT GREECE
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging
to a period of Greek history that lasted from
the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th
centuries BC to the end of antiquity (ca. 600
AD). Immediately following this period was
the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and
the Byzantine era.1 Included in Ancient
Greece is the period of Classical Greece,
which flourished during the 5th to 4th
centuries BC. Classical Greece began with
the repelling of a Persian invasion by
Athenian leadership. Because of conquests
by Alexander the Great,
Hellenistic civilization flourished from
Central Asia to the western end of the
Mediterranean Sea.
Classical Greek culture had a powerful
influence on the Roman Empire, which
carried a version of it to many parts of the
Mediterranean region and Europe, for which
reason Classical Greece is generally
considered to be the seminal culture which
7. GREEK MYTHOLOGY
• Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the
ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world,
and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They
were a part of religion in ancient Greece and are part of religion in modern
Greece and around the world as Hellenismos. Modern scholars refer to, and
study the myths in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political
institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of
the nature of myth-making itself.
9. ZEUS
Zeus
1King of the Gods
God of the Sky, Thunder and Lightning and Law,
Order and JusticeAbodeMount
OlympusConsortHera, and othersParentsCronus and
RheaSiblingsHestia, Hades, Hera, Poseidon and
DemeterChildrenAres, Athena, Apollo, Artemis,
Aphrodite,2 Dionysus, Hebe, Hermes, Heracles, Helen
of Troy, Hephaestus, Perseus, Minos, the Muses, the
GracesRoman equivalentJupiterIn the ancient Greek
religion,
10. ZUES (Continued)
Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In
most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona,
his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by
Dione.2 He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly
and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes,
Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy,
Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have
fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus
11. •
HERA in the Olympian pantheon of
was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus
Greek mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of
women and marriage. Her counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was
Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her. Hera's mother was
Rhea and her father Cronus .
• Hera was known for her jealous and vengeful nature, most notably against
Zeus's lovers and offspring, but also against mortals who crossed her, such
as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful
goddess, earning Hera's hatred.
12. APOLLO
• is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in
ancient Greek and Roman religion, Greco–Roman Neopaganism, and
Greek and Roman mythology. The ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic
youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun,
truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the
son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis.
Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu.
13. APRODITE
• is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her
Roman equivalent is the goddess . Historically, her cult in Greece was
imported from, or influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia
• Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the
peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus married her to
Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers,
both gods like Ares, and men like Anchises. Aphrodite also became
instrumental in the Eros and Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis'
lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings were said to be children
of Aphrodite.
14. HADES
• was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive , Haidou, was an
elision to denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the
nominative came to designate the abode of the dead. In Greek mythology,
Hades is the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea. According to myth, he
and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans and claimed
rulership over the cosmos, ruling the underworld, air, and sea, respectively;
the solid earth, long the province of Gaia, was available to all three
concurrently.
15. ARES
• was the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son
of Zeus and Hera.1 In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or
violent aspect of war, in contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as
a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.2
16. ATHENA
• is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, law and justice,
just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, and skill.
Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes.4 Athena
is also a shrewd companion of heroes and is the goddess of heroic
endeavour. She is the virgin patron of Athens. The Athenians founded the
Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city, Athens (Athena
Parthenos), in her honour
17. HERMES
• An Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, Hermes was the son of
Zeus and the Pleiade, Maia, a daughter of the Titan, Atlas. The second
youngest of the Olympian gods, he was born before Dionysus.
• Hermes was the herald, or messenger, of the gods to humans, sharing this
role with Iris. A patron of boundaries and the travelers who cross them, he
was the protector of shepherds and cowherds, thieves,3 orators and wit,
literature and poets, athletics and sports, weights and measures, invention,
and of commerce in general.4
18. POSEIDON
• was the god of the sea, and, as "Earth-Shaker,"1 of the earthquakes in
Greek mythology.2 The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was
adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman mythology: both were sea gods
analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was venerated
at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, but he was
integrated into the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades.2
Poseidon has many children. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who
was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for
Athens to Athena
19. HEPHAESTUS
• He is the son of Zeus and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else,
according to some accounts, of Hera alone. He was the god of technology,
blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy, fire and
volcanoes. Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus
was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek eyes. He
served as the blacksmith of the gods, and he was worshipped in the
manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly in Athens. The
center of his cult was in Lemnos.1 Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's
hammer, an anvil and a pair of tongs, although sometimes he is portrayed
as not known to all.
20. THETIS
• is encountered in Greek mythology mostly as a sea nymph or known as the
goddess of water, one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient one of
the seas with shape-shifting abilities who survives in the historical vestiges
of most later Greek myths as Proteus (whose name suggests the "first", the
"primordial" or the "firstborn").
• When described as a Nereid in Classical myths, Thetis was the daughter of
Nereus and Doris (Hesiod, Theogony), and a granddaughter of Tethys with
whom she sometimes shares characteristics. Often she seems to lead the
Nereids as they attend to her tasks. Sometimes she also is identified with
Metis.
21. •
THEMIS
She is described as "of good counsel", and is the embodiment of
divine order, law, and custom. Themis means "divine law" rather
than human ordinance, literally "that which is put in place", from the
verb τίθημι, títhēmi, "to put". To the ancient Greeks she was
originally the organizer of the "communal affairs of humans,
particularly assemblies".1 Moses Finley remarked of themis, as the
word was used by Homer in the 8th century, to evoke the social
order of the 10th- and 9th-century Greek Dark Ages:
