MYTHOLOGY – A SUMMARY

MYTHS WE HAVE READ:

1. JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS p1-42. THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR p4-63. THE ODYSSEY p6-134. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA p13-145. HERCULES’ 12 TASKS p14-186. TROY p18-227. GENERAL – WHAT IS A HERO? BRIEF and DETAILED p22-248. GENERAL – PERSEUS/THESEUS p259. Extra detail for the Odyssey p25-2710. KEY WORD SUMMARIES OF EVERY POSSIBLE C.E. QUESTION p28-3611. LIST OF EVERY MYTHOLOGY EXAM QUESTION SINCE JUNE 2005 p37-40

1. JASON + ARGONAUTS

The Early Years Jason was the son of the lawful king of Iolcus, but his uncle Pelias had usurped the throne. Pelias lived in constant fear of losing what he had taken so unjustly. He kept Jason's father a prisoner and would certainly have murdered Jason at birth. But Jason's mother deceived Pelias by mourning as if Jason had died. Meanwhile the infant was bundled off to the wilderness cave of Chiron the Centaur. Chiron tutored Jason in the lore of plants, the hunt and the civilized arts. When he had come of age, Jason set out like a proper hero to claim his rightful throne.

Unknowingly, Jason was to play his part in a plan hatched on lofty Mount Olympus. Hera, wife of almighty Zeus himself, nursed a rage against King Pelias. For Jason's uncle, the usurper king, had honoured all the gods but Hera. Rashly had he begrudged the Queen of Heaven her due. Hera's plan was fraught with danger; it would require a true hero. To test Jason's mettle, she contrived it that he came to a raging torrent on his way to Iolcus. And on the bank was a withered old woman. Would Jason go about his business impatiently, or would he give way to her request to be ferried across the stream?

The Oracle's Warning Jason did not think twice. Taking the crone on his back, he set off into the current. And halfway across he began to stagger under her unexpected weight. For the old woman was none other than Hera in disguise. Some say that she revealed herself to Jason on the far shore; others claim that he never learned of the divine service he'd performed. Jason had lost a sandal in the swift-moving stream, and this would prove significant. For an oracle had warned King Pelias, "Beware a stranger who wears but a single sandal." When Jason arrived in Iolcus, he asserted his claim to the throne. But his uncle Pelias had no intention of giving it up, particularly to a one-shoed stranger.

The Challenge Under the guise of hospitality, he invited Jason to a banquet. And during the course of the meal, he engaged him in conversation. "You say you've got what it takes to rule a kingdom," said Pelias. "May I take it that you're fit to deal with any thorny problems that arise? For example, how would you go about getting rid of someone who was giving you difficulties?" Jason considered for a moment, eager to show a kingly knack for problem solving. "Send him after the Golden Fleece?" he suggested. "Not a bad idea," responded Pelias. "It's just the sort of quest that any hero worth his salt would leap at. Why, if he succeeded he'd be remembered down through the ages. Tell you what, why don't you go?"

The Adventure Begins Argus had divine sponsorship in his task, Hera having enlisted the aid of her fellow goddess Athena. This patroness of crafts secured a prow for the vessel from timber cutat the sacred grove of Zeus at Dodona. This prow had the magical property of speaking - and prophesying - in a human voice. And so one bright autumn morning the Argo set out to sea, her benches crewed by ranks of heroic rowers. And true to Pelias's fondest aspirations, it wasn't long before big troubles assailed the company.

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Hylas and Lemnos First of all they stopped at an island where Hylas, a close friend of Hercules, wandered off in search of water. He found a lovely pond with still, clear water, and he bent over it to fill his pitcher. The water nymphs in the pond found him so attractive that they wanted to keep him – so they pulled him into the water. This may work okay for nymphs but humans need air so we can presume they drowned him (maybe by accident). Hercules called out his name, and got no reply, and he got so desperate searching for Hylas that he wandered miles away from the boat and the Argonauts, in a rush to leave, couldn’t wait any longer and left him behind. Next, they arrived at Lemnos, an island that only had women. There were no males on the island at all. The women welcomed them warmly, but there are two versions of what happened next. In one version, the women are plotting to kill them, and one man finds out when the woman who has become close to him admits the plan. He manages to alert the rest and they escape. In another version, the women are truly welcoming and they hang around for a couple of weeks enjoying themselves before they reluctantly move on. Then they put in at Salmydessus.

The Harpies The king welcomed them but was in no mood for festive entertainment. Because he'd offended the gods, he'd been set upon by woman-headed, bird-bodied, razor-clawed scourges known as Harpies. These Harpies had disgusting table manners. Every evening at dinnertime, they dropped by to defecate [poo] upon the king's meal and hung around making such a noise that he wouldn't have been able to eat had he the stomach for it. As a result, King Phineus grew thinner by the hour. Fortunately two of Jason's crew were direct descendants of the North Wind, which gave them the power to fly. And they kindly chased the Harpies so far away that the king was never bothered again.

The Clashing Rocks In thanks, Phineus informed the Argonauts of a danger just ahead on the route to the Golden Fleece - two rocks called the Symplegades, which crashed together upon any ship passing between

them. The king even suggested a mechanism by which one might avoid the effects of these Clashing Rocks. If a bird could be induced to pass between the crags first, causing them to clash together, the Argo could follow quickly behind, passing through safely before they were ready to snap shut again. By means of this device, Jason caused the rocks to spring together prematurely, nipping only the tail feathers of the bird. The Argo was able to pass between them relatively

unscathed. Only her very stern was splintered. Athene helped them at the end – it looked like the boat was going to get crushed, and she pushed the boat to help it escape.

Journey: Why is Jason a hero? Brave; supported by gods, especially Juno; does Mission Impossible. But he’s a minor hero compared to the biggies like Hercules – it’s mainly Medea who does the hard work.

The Flying Ram Once arrived in Colchis, Jason had to face a series of challenges meted out by King Aeetes, ruler of this barbarian kingdom on the far edge of the heroic world. He and his people were not kindly disposed toward strangers, although on an earlier occasion he had extended hospitality to a visitor from Jason's home town. This may have been due to the newcomer's unorthodox mode of transportation. For he arrived on the back of a golden-fleeced flying ram. The stranger's name was Phrixus, and he had been on the point of being sacrificed when the ram carried him off. Having arrived safely in Colchis, he sacrificed the ram to the gods and hung its fleece in a grove. Aeetes gave him the hand of one of his daughters in marriage.

Medea King Aeetes had taken a disliking to Jason on sight. He had no particular fondness for handsome young strangers who came traipsing into his kingdom on glorious quests featuring the trampling of his sacred grove and the carrying off of his personal property. For King Aeetes considered the Golden Fleece to be his own, and he was in the midst of telling Jason just what he could do with his precious quest when he was reminded of the obligations of hospitality by another of his daughters named Medea. Medea was motivated by more than good manners. For Hera had been looking out for Jason's interests, and she had succeeded in persuading her fellow goddess Aphrodite to intervene on Jason's behalf.

A Farmyard Chore It was no problem at all for the Goddess of Love to arrange that Medea be stricken with passion for Jason the moment she first saw him. And it was a good thing for Jason that this was so. For not only was he spared a kingly tongue-lashing and a quick trip to the frontier, but Medea quietly offered to help him in his latest

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predicament. For once her father had calmed down, he had turned suspiciously reasonable. Of course Jason could have the Fleece and anything else he required in furtherance of his quest - Aeetes couldn't imagine why he’d been so unhelpful. All he needed of Jason as a simple token of good faith was the small farmyard chore.

The Fire-Breathing Bulls There were two bulls standing in the nearby pasture. If Jason would be so kind as to put a yoke on them, plough the field, sow it and reap the harvest in a single day, King Aeetes would be much obliged - and only too happy to turn over the Golden Fleece. Oh, and there was one trifling detail of which Jason should be aware. These bulls were a bit unusual in that their feet were made of brass sharp enough to rip open a man. [In another version they’re actually made totally of bronze.] And then of course there was the matter of their bad breath. In point of fact, they breathed flames. Medea took him gently aside and suggested that she might be of help.

Ploughing and Sowing Quite conveniently for Jason, Medea was a famous sorceress, magic potions being her stock in trade. She slipped Jason an ointment which, when smeared on his body, made him proof against fire and bronze

hooves. And so it was that Jason boldly approached the bulls and brooked no bullish insolence. Disregarding the flames that played merrily about his shoulders and steering clear of the hooves, he forced the creatures into a yoke and set about ploughing the field. Nor was the subsequent sowing any great chore for the now-heartened hero. Gaily strewing seed about like a nymph flinging flowers in springtime,

he did not stop to note the unusual nature of the seed.

The Dragon's Teeth Aeetes, it turns out, had got his hands on some dragon's teeth with unique agricultural properties. As soon as these hit the soil they began to sprout, which was good from the point of view of Jason accomplishing his task by nightfall, but bad in terms of the harvest. For each seed germinated into a fully-armed warrior, who popped up from the ground and joined the throng now menacing poor Jason. Aeetes, meanwhile, was standing off to the side of the field chuckling quietly to himself. It irked the king somewhat to see his daughter slink across the furrows to Jason's side, but he didn't think too much of it at the time. Having proven herself polite to a fault, maybe Medea was just saying a brief and proper farewell.

Conquest of the Seed Men In truth, she was once more engaged in saving the young hero's posterior. This time there was no dealing in magic potions. Medea merely gave Jason a tip in basic psychology. Jason, who it was quite clear by now lacked the heroic wherewithal to make the grade on his own, at least had the sense to recognize good advice. Employing the simple device suggested by Medea, he brought the harvest in on deadline with a minimum of personal effort. He simply threw a stone at one of the men. The man, in turn, thought his neighbour had done it. And in short order all the seed men had turned on one another with their swords until not one was left standing.

The Golden Fleece Aeetes had no choice but to make as though he'd give the Fleece to Jason, but he still had no intention of doing so. He now committed the tactical error of divulging this fact to his daughter.

And Medea, still entranced by the Goddess of Love, confided in turn in Jason. Furthermore, she offered to lead him under cover of darkness to the temple grove where the Fleece was displayed, nailed to a tree and guarded by a dragon. And so at midnight they crept into the sacred precinct of Ares, god of war. Jason, ever the hothead, whipped out his sword, but Medea wisely restrained him.

View of Medea: [nicer] loves Jason, chooses him over family; saves his life several times; mission could not succeed without her; (later) makes Jason’s dad younger. [nastier] butchers brother – psycho; (later) murders her own children, murders Jason’s new wife; gets daughters to murder their own dad (king)

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The Escape Instead, Medea used a sleeping potion, chanting a spell three times, to knock the dragon out. [In another version, Orpheus, a great singer, sings the dragon to sleep.] Together they made off with the Fleece and escaped to the Argo. They were joined by Medea’s brother Absyrtus, along with the Argonauts,

of course. Setting sail at once, they were chased by Aeetes’ ships – which were faster than theirs. The ships started catching them – they knew they would all be killed – and Medea did a desperate thing. In one version, she chops up her brother (yuck, how cruel) and throws his body parts into the sea. In another version, she just threw her brother (still alive) into the sea. In both versions, Aeetes has to stop and this slows him down enough to let the Argonauts escape, for a while. They sailed round the northern edge of the Black Sea,

and then went dashing up a river, hiding there. They then landed on an island with a friendly king who swore to protect them, and this was the man who saved them – he ordered Aeetes to leave, and as he had a bigger fleet than Aeetes, Aeetes left. So Jason and the Argonauts were saved. Jason and Medea after the Fleece So, Jason succeeded in his heroic challenge, with a lot of help from Medea. They got back to Iolcus and were treated really well, and lived happily together for a while. Medea was soon up to her magic tricks. She started with some kind magic. Aeson, the father of Jason, was getting old and doddery, and Jason felt sorry for him; he begged Medea to take some years from him and give them to his dad. She had a better plan – she flew off in a chariot pulled by dragons and collected herbs. She came back, brewed up a magic potion, took the old man – and slit his throat. She let all the blood pour out, then replaced it with the magic potion, and he became young again.

Then she got nasty. She didn’t like the nasty king Pelias, who had stolen the throne from Jason’ family, and she went to Pelias’ daughters, offering to make him young again like she’d done to Aeson. They daughters loved the sound of it. She cut an old ram’s throat, replaced it with the magic potion, and it became a lamb. The daughters of Pelias fell for it – they slit Pelias’ throat, but this time of course she didn’t use magic potion. So she got Pelias’ daughters to murder him. The people of Iolcus heard about this and banished Medea and Jason, who went to Corinth. There they had two children.

But although Jason had promised to love Medea for ever, he fell in love with the daughter of the King of Corinth, Glauce. He decided to leave Medea and marry Glauce. Medea pretended she was happy for them and offered Glauce a wedding dress and golden diadem (small crown). The princess put on the clothes and diadem and started screawming – the dress was clinging to her flesh and burning it! Her hair was all in flames, and the more she tried to put the fires out, the more they burned. Creon, the King, tried to help, and he too burned to death. She then KILLED HER OWN CHILDREN to get her own back on Jason and fled away with their bodies so he couldn’t

bury them, staying at Athens. NASTY WOMAN…

2.THESEUS AND THE MINOTAUR

Theseus – the early years and the journey to Athens

Aegeus, king of Athens, once went to a city called Troizen, and while there had an affair with Aethra, daughter of the local king. They had a son called Theseus. The king of Athens had already left, but he had put a sword under a rock and told Aethra to get her son to lift the rock and bring the sword to his father in Athens.

When Theseus turned 16 he was ready. He lifted the rock and took the sword. He had two choices on how to get to Athens – to sail, an easy journey, or to go overland through dangerous bandit-infested country. Nobody dared to travel this way because it had become too risky. But Theseus was a mini-Hercules and liked the idea of killing baddies, so he went overland.

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First, he met Periphetes, a giant who was son of Hephaestus, god of fire, and carried a huge iron club which he used to beat out the brains of all travellers who went near him. He was big, strong and slow, and Theseus was too fast for him, and he was soon dead. Theseus took the club as a souvenir. Next, he met Sinis the Pine Bender, who used to grab travellers, bend down two pine trees, and tie their arms or legs to both pine trees. Then he would let go, the

pine trees would spring back, and the traveller would be ripped in two. Theseus smacked him with the club, tied him to the trees, and pyoing, Sinis was ripped in half. The roads were getting safer! Soon he was walking on a narrow cliff path, and he came across Sciron and his pet man-eating turtle. Sciron would force travellers at knife point to kneel down near the edge of the cliff, in front of a bowl of water. They had to wash his feet, and while they did this he would suddenly kick them over the edge of the cliff into the sea. There they were eaten by a giant turtle that liked human flesh. Theseus had heard of this man, and he pretended to agree to wash his feet. Sciron lifted his foot to

kick Theseus over the cliff, but Theseus grabbed the foot and pulled him over the cliff. He ended up as food for his own favourite turtle.

Nearing Athens, he came across an inn that he decided to stay in for the night. The inn was run by a strong man Procrustes who had the habit of wrestling travellers onto his bed. If their bodies were too short for the bed he would use a rack (tying ropes to their hands and feet and pulling until the sinews stretched and popped) to make them long enough, and if they were too tall to fit he would chop bits off them until they fit. Theseus wrestled with him for a while and then tied him to his own bed. He fitted exactly, so he just chopped his head off. Finally, just near Athens he heard of a monstrous sow (female pig) which was terrifying the locals. With their sharp tusks they’re more dangerous than they sound, but one whack of his club sorted her out.

When he got to Athens Medea, who had fled here after murdering her sons, decided to have him killed. She had a son with Aegeus the king and didn’t want Theseus taking his place. So she pretended to the king that she had found out Theseus intended to murder him. She told him to give Theseus a cup of poisoned wine, which he did, but just as he was about to drink it, Aegeus saw the sword… And dashed the cup from his son’s lips. Medea knew she was busted and fled again, maybe back to Colchis.

Theseus had a bit more tidying up to do. First, a hero Pallas with his 50 sons tried to seize Athens, but Theseus with a small band of men defeated them. Next, he captured a bull that was causing mayhem outside Athens, and brought it back in triumph. He was doing tasks similar to Hercules… But next comes the main part of the story, the Minotaur.

Is Theseus a hero? Yes – he’s like a mini-Hercules, tidies up a lot of baddies and monsters; Yes – although not as impressive as Hercules, he does do heroic things, especially the Minotaur; Yes – later he even goes to the underworld (rescued by Hercules) No – the gods don’t seem that interested in him; No – he’s just a brave man doing brave but relatively ordinary things – he’s too overhyped.

The Minotaur and the Labyrinth of Crete

The Minotaur was the son of Pasiphae, wife of King Minos of Crete.

Queen Pasiphae slept with a bull sent by Zeus, and gave birth to Minotaur, a creature half man – half bull. King Minos was embarrassed, but did not want to kill the Minotaur, so he hid the monster in the Labyrinth constructed by Daedalus at the Minoan Palace of Knossos.

According to the myth, Minos was imprisoning his enemies in the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could eat them. The labyrinth was such a complicated construction that no one could ever find the way out alive.

A son of Minos, Androgeus, went to Athens to participate to the Panathenaic Games, but he was killed during the Marathon by the bull that impregnated his mother Pasiphae. Minos was infuriated, and demanded Aegeus the king of Athens to send seven men and women every year to the Minotaur to advert the plague caused by the death of Androgeus.

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The third year, Theseus, son of Aegeus decided to be one of the seven young men that would go to Crete, in order to kill the Minotaur and end the human sacrifices to the monster. King Aegeus tried to make him change his mind but Theseus was determined to slay the Minotaur.

Theseus promised his father that he would put up white sails coming back from Crete, allowing him to know in advance that he was coming back alive. The boat would return with the black sails if Theseus was killed.

Theseus and the Minotaur

Theseus announced to King Minos that he was going to kill the Monster, but Minos knew that even if he did manage to kill the Minotaur, Theseus would never be able to exit the Labyrinth.

Theseus met Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who fell madly in love with him and decided to help Theseus. She gave him a thread and told him to unravel it

as he would penetrate deeper and deeper into the Labyrinth, so that he knows the way out when he kills the monster. She also gave him a dagger to stab the Minotaur with.

Theseus followed her suggestion and entered the labyrinth with the thread. Theseus managed to kill the Minotaur with the dagger and save the Athenians, and with Ariadne’s thread he managed to retrace his way out. She was waiting for him at the door to the Labyrinth.

Theseus took Princess Ariadne with him and left Crete sailing happily back to Athens.

Is Ariadne right to help him? No – she betrays both her father and her king No – Athens deserves the punishment because King Minos’ son was murdered there Yes – she loves Theseus and thinks he doesn’t deserve to die Yes – the Minotaur eating young people is a cruel and unnecessary punishment.

Aegeus and the Sails Theseus’ boat stopped at Naxos and the Athenians had a long celebration dedicated to Theseus and Ariadne. After long hours of feasting and drinking, Ariadne fell asleep on the shore and didn’t enter the boat that sailed to Athens. Theseus figured out that Ariadne was not with them when it was too late and he was so upset that he forgot the promise made to his father and did not change the sails. [NOTE. A different version of the myth mentions that Theseus deliberately left Ariadne on Naxos, and the god Dionysus found her, took pity on her and married her.]

King Aegeus was waiting at Cape Sounion to see the sails of the boat. He saw the black sails from afar and presumed his son was dead. He dropped himself to the waters, committing suicide and since then, this sea is called the Aegean Sea.

3.THE ODYSSEY (** = most likely to turn up in exam)

Years after the end of the Trojan War, the Greek hero Odysseus still hasn't come home to Ithaca. Most people figure he's dead. But we don't: Homer lets us know right away that Odysseus is being held as a captive on the island of the goddess Calypso. Oh, and sea god Poseidon is ticked off at Odysseus, and sees no reason to let him get home.

Back in Ithaca, Odysseus's wife Penelope is getting swarmed by a horde of unwanted suitors. Odysseus and Penelope's son, Telemachus, now a typically moody teenager, gets a visit from the goddess Athene (who was always chummy with Odysseus). She tells him to go looking for news of his missing father, so he heads to Pylos to visit King Nestor. Nestor takes him in, gives him a dinner—and then tells him to go see King Menelaus in Sparta. Once again, he does as he's told.

In Sparta, Telemachus learns from Menelaus that Odysseus is alive and…well, being held captive on Calypso's island. Menelaus also tells Telemachus about how his brother, King Agamemnon, was murdered when he got home from Troy by his unfaithful wife, Clytamnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus. It's cool, though: Agamemnon's son Orestes killed the murderers. This fun story raises the question of whether Odysseus will be killed when he gets home, and, if so,

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whether Telemachus will step up to avenge his father's death. Meanwhile, back in Ithaca, Penelope's suitors plot to ambush and kill Telemachus when he returns home. Oh, the tension!

Up on Mount Olympus, where the gods all hang out, the goddess Athene asks her father, Zeus, the King of the gods, to have mercy on Odysseus and force Calpyso to release him. Zeus says whatevs, and in no time, Odysseus sails off on a makeshift raft. Unfortunately, Poseidon whips up some storms, and instead of getting home, Odysseus washes ashore in the land of the Phaeacians. Fortunately, Athene makes the resident princess, Nausicaa, develop a crush on him. Nausicaa takes him home to meet her parents, the King and Queen of Phaeacia. In return for their hospitality, Odysseus tells them (and us) everything that's happened to him since the end of the Trojan War, which is this:

Lotus Eaters Odysseus left Troy with 12 ships of his Ithacan men, and about 50 people in each boat. At their first stop, they plundered the locals' stuff. Several storm-tossed days later, they landed on the island of the Lotus-eaters. The locals were friendly and peaceful and a bit dopy, and offered them something called the lotus flower to eat. A few guys ate this, and discovered it was a strong drug, so strong they forgot their homes and families, and could only think of having more of the drug. They had to be tied up and taken back to the ship by force.

**Cyclops The next place they came to was the land of the giant one-eyed Cyclopes. They were careful this time; they kept the boats moored on an island off the mainland and only sent one boat as a small scouting party to the

mainland. They stumbled into a Cyclops cave, where they found a well-tended cave with sheep pens and cheese. Thinking the owner might be welcoming they waited, and the resident Cyclops (Polyphemus) sealed the entrance to the cave with a huge boulder and ate one of the crew for supper. The men wanted to kill him at once, but Odysseus realised there was no way they could move the boulder, so they would be trapped. The Cyclops then went to sleep, woke up and ate another man for breakfast before going out with his sheep, closing the door behind him – no escape. He returned that evening and ate another man, but Odysseus had a plan. He introduced himself as ‘Nobody’ and offered

the Cyclops wine. The Cyclops had never drunk wine before and was so grateful he offered to eat Odysseus last (how kind). Once he fell into a nice deep drunken sleep, Odysseus used his sword to sharpen a stick lying in the cave, and then he put the point in the fire until it was blackened and nice and hard. This he plunged into the Cyclops’ eye. ‘Nobody has blinded me!’ roared the Cyclops to his not-very-clever brothers. They heard him screaming but thought ‘If nobody has blinded you, then you must have some kind of illness sent by the gods – not much we can do about that. We’ll just go back to sleep.’ The next morning, he and his men escaped by riding under the bellies of

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Polyphemus's flock of sheep. Odysseus tied them together in pairs and put a man under each pair, and he himself cling under the biggest sheep, who was the ram that led the flock. Ironically the blind Polyphemus, who was feeling the backs of the sheep as they went out, realised his ram was walking unusually slowly, and talked sadly to him about the nasty ‘Nobody’. But as Odysseus was sailing away with his men, his ego got the better of him. He taunted the Cyclops, telling him his real name. Turns out, Polyphemus was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea. Oops. This is part of the reason why Poseidon hates our hero so much. The Cyclops aims a couple of rocks at Odysseus’ voice, and he only just misses. Odysseus is too much of a boaster here, even if he has good reason

Qualities – Good: wise – moors ships away from mainland; clever – ‘No body’ – has worked out there are neighbours; clever – blinding rather than killing Cyclops; clever – wine to make him sleep; calm – no panic even as men are being eaten; loyal – crew get 2 sheep, he gets one. Bad – silly to wait inside cave.

Aeolus Next, Odysseus and his men came to the island of Aeolus, god of the wind. He helped Odysseus out by putting all the winds—except for the westbound breeze they needed—into a nice little bag. Unfortunately, Odysseus didn't tell his men what's in the bag. On the way home, they opened it up, thinking it was full of treasure. Big mistake. All the winds jumped out and ran riot, thus driving them first back to Aeolus, who won’t help them a second time.

Laestrygonians Next, Odysseus and his men came to the land of the Laestrygonians. All the boats sailed into big bay with a narrow entrance, shaped like a C. Only Odysseus had the sense to land just outside this bay, as it was hard to get out of. Some of the crew went inland to meet the locals, and met a bunch of giants. The giants were man-eaters, and they grabbed the scouts, and also worked out pretty quickly that there must be more people where the scouts came from, so they came pouring down to the seafront, and all the way around the bay. They used huge spears and stabbed all the crew and the boats, sinking them all before they had a chance to escape. Only Odysseus’ one boat managed to escape. Gutted.

**Circe Next they came to Circe the witch’s island. When they landed on her island (Aeaea), they stayed on the beach for a bit but decided to look for food, water and people inland. They were a bit wary of strangers now, and

Odysseus divided his crew into two and cast lots (e.g. short straw) to see who would go inland. Eurylochus led the other half of the crew inland – they had spotted smoke in some forest inland – and they came to a house with a sweetly singing voice inside. The men thought whoever sung like that must be a Goodie and when she welcomed them in they happily followed her. She offered them sweet wine, which happened to be drugged. All the men were turned into pigs. However, Eurylochus had been a bit more wary and had hidden behind a tree; when he saw what happened he went running back to Odysseus and told him. Odysseus, being loyal to his crew but a bit

stupid too, put on his sword and said he go alone to get his men back. He had no chance against a witch, and Hermes was sent to show him a plant, moly, that was the antidote to the drug Circe used. He also told Odysseus to drink the wine, then draw a sword and threaten Circe with death unless she freed his men. He would have to go to bed with her before she would undo the magic. [Imagine Odysseus explaining this one to his wife!] Everything happened as Hermes said; the magic didn’t work, he threatened her, she offered him her bed, he had to say yes, and only then did Odysseus get his men turned back into humans. They stayed with Circe, for a year. Finally, one of his men said, "Can we please get going?" and Odysseus said, "OK." Wait—first they had to go the Underworld and get advice from the prophet Teiresias.

Good leader? Yes – he cares for his men; he wants to save them; he splits crew in two for scouting trip, which is careful; No – he’s a bit dumb to go alone to a witch who’s turned half his men to pigs

At the Underworld, Teiresias prophesied that Odysseus would make it home, but not without difficulty. Odysseus spoke to several other famous dead people (like his war buddies Achilles and Agamemnon). He also met the ghost of his mother, Anticleia, who had died of grief over her son's prolonged absence. Then, after a quick pit stop back at Circe's island for more directions (who says men don't ask for directions?), Odysseus and his men sailed on for a series of adventures:

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(1) **Sirens When they passed by the Sirens, monstrous bird-like women with beautiful voices who try to lure sailors to their deaths, Odysseus made his men plug their ears with wax and tie him to the mast so he could listen to the song without chasing after it. He became the only man to hear the Sirens' song and survive. He begged his men to release him but he had asked one of his crew to tie the ropes even tighter if he begged to be set free. This the man did, so Odysseus was saved. They were all deaf so rowed happily past the island without hearing a thing. The Sirens committed suicide in one version, as they were fated to die if any man heard their song and lived.

Qualities – Good = bravery, intelligence in knowing how to make his plan work, self-knowledge, cunning, curiosity. Bad = risks men to hear Sirens; forgets main job which is to get men home.

(2) **Scylla and Charybdis Next, they met two horrible monsters (weirdly, also female) named Scylla and Charybdis. Circe had told Odysseus not to tell the rest of the crew about the two monsters as they’d be too scared; she also told

him to pick Scylla rather than Charybdis. Scylla and Charybdis lived near each other in some narrow waters that they had to sail through. On the left was Scylla, high up in a cave. She had seven heads, and each of them would grab a man and munch him. Charybdis lived a little further on, on the right, and above her on the rocks grew a fig tree. She was a giant monster on the sea bed who sucked all the water down in a giant whirlpool and chomped anything that went down, and then vomited the water (and splintered bits of ships) back up again. So Odysseus’ choice was simple – lose seven men, or everyone. Circe also told him not to bother fighting Scylla, as he

couldn’t beat her, but the hero in him couldn’t resist fighting her, so he put on all his armour and waved his sword uselessly at her as her heads swished down and grabbed seven men. She did this twice. Still, they didn’t lose the ship, and they avoided Charybdis, just.

Qualities – Good: cunning – doesn’t tell men truth as they would panic; brave – sails into certain death for some men without fear. Bad – a bit reckless – Circe said don’t fight Scylla but he can’t resist it.

(3) Cattle of Sun Next, they landed on the island of Helios, the sun god, where his very special cattle were kept. Despite having been warned by Teiresias and Circe not to eat the cattle, Odysseus's men couldn't control their hunger. They’d actually been advised to stay off the island, but the men were so tired from rowing that they begged and pleaded and ended up almost mutinying. Odysseus, with a heavy heart, let them stop off at the island, but warned them to leave the cows alone. It was fine for a while, but the winds were all wrong and they were stuck on the island for day after day. At first they had supplies, then they ran out and resorted to picking up shellfish on the beach. All the while, fat cows were mooing nearby. In the end, the men, who were starving, reckoned they would rather be killed by an angry Sun God than starve to death, so they killed a cow, chopped it up and put it on a spit. The flesh mooed even though it was dead, and they knew they’d done a Bad Thing. Not long afterward, when the winds finally favoured them, they sailed away and zap! everyone drowned in a storm—except for Odysseus.

(4) **Calypso But he was in for his own bad luck: winding up on Calypso's island of Ogygia to be held prisoner for seven years. She only saw a mortal very occasionally and as the island was really isolated and had no men on it – she only had nymphs for company – she promptly fell in love with Odysseus. She then tried to make Odysseus fall in love with her, and offered him immortality [if he stayed on the island]. She tried to tell him his wife would be getting old and ugly, his son wouldn’t know him, blah blah, but he kept on sitting on the seashore looking out to home, pining for his family. Still, he couldn’t escape – Calypso wouldn’t let him leave and he had no way of sailing away – and eventually Athene went to Zeus and complained bitterly that Calypso had no right to keep him stuck on the island. Hermes went down and ordered Calypso to let him go or get her island sunk, so reluctantly she told Odysseus she didn’t fancy him any more and he could go. Odysseus was too clever for her and knew she must have been ordered to let him go. She showed him some trees on the other side of the island and gave him an axe to cut them down. He did so, made a little raft, and set sail. He was soon shipwrecked, but landed chez the Phaeacians, where he's telling this story.

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Most dangerous person and why? Calypso – there’s no way he can escape, needs gods’ help – though she doesn’t want to kill him, just won’t let him go; Laestrygonians – man-eating giant savages, no way of fighting them; Circe – witch with spells – he needs gods’ help – though she ends up nice; Cyclops – no escape from cave [Take your pick!]

And that's it for Odysseus's story to the Phaeacians. They're so moved by his suffering that they load him up with treasure and ferry him back to Ithaca. (Unfortunately, in return for their trouble, the god Poseidon turns them and their ship into stone.) But the fun isn't over yet—he still has all those pesky suitors to deal with.

Odysseus at home – old man Once Odysseus gets home, Athene disguises him as an old man, a beggar, so he can scope out the situation. Odysseus then recruits the assistance of the swineherd, Eumaeus, who puts him up for the night while Athene flies to Sparta to retrieve Telemachus. When Telemachus gets back, Odysseus reveals himself to his son and then heads to the palace, still disguised as a beggar. Without revealing his true identity, he tries to convince Penelope that Odysseus is on his way home and susses out which of his servants are still loyal to the household and which have joined the suitors. He also watches the suitors to see who’s good and who’s bad – the two leaders, Antinous and Eurymachus, are definitely baddies…

Penelope has always hoped that Odysseus will turn up so she comes up with cunning plans to delay the marriage that all the suitors are pressing for. First of all, she says she’ll only be ready when her son reaches manhood (18). Then she says she’ll only be ready to marry when she’s finished the funeral shroud (to wrap a body in) for Odysseus. She works at the loom all day weaving, then secretly unpicks the weaving at night, so it takes ages. Eventually a disloyal maid who fancies one of the suitors grasses her up, and she gets caught out by Eurymachus, the chief suitor.

**The Bow Challenge Finally, Penelope decides to take action: she'll marry the winner of a content of physical prowess. The challenge? String Odysseus's old bow and shoot it through the heads of twelve axes. Odysseus hears of this and puts together a Cunning Plan. He has 4 loyal friends: his son; Eumaeus the swineherd; Philoetius the cowherd; and Eurycleia, his nurse (who recognised him by a scar on his knee, but has vowed to keep quiet). They sneak all the weapons out of the hall, so the suitors have nothing decent to fight with, and hide them in the armoury. Then on the day of the trial, when Odysseus gets his hand on the bow, slam! All the doors are shut so there is no way out of the hall. Everyone tries and fails with the bow, until the beggar (Odysseus in disguise) steps up.

**The death of the Suitors He succeeds, drops the disguise, and, with the help of Telemachus, his loyal servants, and Athene's protection, he kills all the suitors in a massive and bloody slaughter. Not quite all – he spares a minstrel, who just sang songs, and a herald who just made announcements – neither of them are really suitors. The first person to die is Antinous, a main suitor, with an arrow through his throat; Odysseus fires arrow after arrow into them, and his son and servants throw spears into people. The Suitors do fight back a bit – they use the axes, and spears thrown at them. They also get help from a treacherous goatherd (Melanthius) who sneaks into the armoury and gets some swords and shields, but he gets caught by Telemachus when he tries a second time. After the battle, several disloyal maids are hanged, and the goatherd is hanged after having his ears and nose cut off. Not nice. Odysseus reunites with his wife, and everything is back to normal—except that he's just killed all the young noblemen of Ithaca and their parents are furious.

The next morning, Odysseus leaves the palace, reunites with his father Laertes, and lays low while the angry moms and dads start looking for vengeance. Just when it looks like more violence is on the way, Athene appears and asks why we can't all get along. This sounds like a great idea to everyone, and peace is restored in Ithaca.

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Mythology Extra: Odysseus getting home, Bow Contest, Penelope

ODYSSEUS GETS HOME

1. Odysseus lands on Ithaca. Meets Athene in disguise. Doesn’t trust her as she’s a stranger, and she’s impressed at how cautious he is. Hides presents from Phaeacians.

2. Athene turns him into an old man so he’s disguised as an old beggar.3. He goes to Eumaeus, his shepherd. Tests his loyalty. Eumaeus loyal. Misses Odysseus, hates the suitors.

Nice man, feeds Odysseus, kind to him. Od asks about the palace, his wife + son, his dad.4. Telemachus arrives. Athene changes Odysseus back to normal, Odysseus reveals himself to his son.

Telemachus suspicious like his dad, thinks Od is a god. Eventually Telemachus believes him.5. Changed back to a beggar. Goes to palace.

ODYSSEUS GETS INTO HIS PALACE

1. On the way meet Melanthius, baddie goatherd, who insults and kicks Od-beggar.2. On the way in, meets his old dog Argos (21 years old!) who feebly wags his tail and dies.3. Od finds all suitors feasting [on his food!] and partying. Goes round begging food; all give him something

except Antinous who insults him and throws a footstool at him.4. Irus the beggar insults Od-beggar and they end up fighting. Od wins.5. Od finds out most of suitors are baddies – rude, insolent, greedy.6. Od and Telemachus remove ALL weapons + shields from the hall except the ones they’ll need.7. Penelope talks with Od-beggar after suitors have left. Od cannot reveal himself yet. Tells her to get a move

on with the great bow contest.8. Eurycleia recognises him. She was his nurse when he was a child; washes his legs and recognises a childhood

scar on his knee. Od makes her swear silence.9. [Next day] Philoetius the cowherd turns up – shows himself to be loyal.10. Telemachus puts a chair for Odysseus by the main door to block anyone trying to escape.11. Another suitor [Ctesippus] insults Od-beggar and throws a big bone at him.12. Seer has a vision – foretells the suitors’ death. All ignore him. He runs away.

THE BOW CONTEST

1. Plan: String Odysseus’ bowSet up a row of 12 axes in the hallFire an arrow through all of the axes

2. Telemachus tries first – fails.3. Antinous puts wax on bow to make it bendier.4. Odysseus reveals himself to Eumaeus and Philoetius. Plots with them.5. Lots of suitors fail with bow.6. Odysseus asks to try. Lots of suitors resist but Penelope insists.7. Penelope and maids leave the hall.8. Eumaeus takes the bow to Odysseus.9. Doors locked. Eurycleia locks door to women’s quarters. Philoetius locks doors to courtyard. Eumaeus locks

door to store-room.10. Odysseus strings bow and fires arrow through all axes.11. Telemachus stands by dad with spear and sword.

THE MASSACRE

1. Od shoots arrow through Antinous’ neck2. Odysseus reveals himself to suitors

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3. Suitors look for weapons in hall – but they’re all gone. Some try to escape – doors locked4. Od starts shooting suitors.5. Telemachus goes to store room and gets more weapons.6. Baddie goatherd sneaks into store room and gets suitors weapons7. Telemachus catches him second time and tie him up8. Telemachus, Odysseus, Eumaeus, Philoetius kill all suitors. Two spared: the musician Phemius, and the

servant Medon who is a goodie.9. Hall cleaned. 12 baddie servants hanged, Melanthius has nose and ears cut off and then killed.10. Odysseus and Penelope get together eventually. She tests him first. Then he goes to meet dad Laertes. Then

final showdown with families of killed suitors – Zeus throws a thunderbolt to say “Enough!” and stop fight.

SUITORS

Mainly baddies. Chief baddies Eurymachus and Antinous [Penelope calls him ‘most hateful of all’].

BAD – plot to kill Telemachus on his journey to Sparta.

BAD – Antinous wants to kill Telemachus even after the plot fails. Plans to kill him in the countryside.

BAD – extravagant, reckless and rude; eat loads of Penelope’s animals

BAD – Antinous and others don’t want Penelope, they want the money and power that comes with marriage

BAD – Antinous throws footstool at Od-beggar; another throws big bone at Od-beggar

But wanting to marry someone whose husband is presumed dead isn’t so bad. Do they all deserve to die?

Yes – most of them are guilty of the plot to murder Telemachus; they are planning to take over Od’s possessions; they are greedy and unpleasant; in heroic times death as punishment was much more common

No – many of them are just suitors, not involved in worst stuff; many nice to Od-beggar

PENELOPE

She is stuck with the suitors. Odysseus vanishes after Troy, and as the years drag on he is presumed dead.

Odysseus was king of Ithaca so Penelope is Queen. Lots of people want to marry her.

108 suitors arrive eventually. She cannot send them away, as she has to remarry if Odysseus is dead.

She remains LOYAL to Odysseus:

1. She is always thinking of him and hoping he’ll get back. She is always asking travellers if they have heard about him – she even talks about this to Odysseus in disguise

2. She delays the wedding as much as possible – if she wasn’t loyal she would have got married quickly.

She is CLEVER and she delays the possible wedding:

1. ‘Wait until Telemachus comes of age’ – this delays things for a few years2. ‘Wait until I’ve finished the funeral shroud for Odysseus’

She works at her loom all day, and then secretly at night she undoes the work.Eventually she gets busted by the suitors when one of her maids grasses her up.

3. Contest – ‘string the bow and fire an arrow through the 12 axes’Only Odysseus is strong enough to string the bowOnly Odysseus is a good enough archer to fire an arrow through the axesHer excuse; ‘I want a man who is the equal of Odysseus’ [there isn’t one on Ithaca]

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She is also CLEVER with Odysseus:

1.When he’s in disguise as a beggar she tests if his stories are true [he claims he met Od, and she asks what clothes he wore; Od describes a brooch that she gave him]

2.Even after the massacre she is not convinced that Odysseus is really back so she says to him, “Go and move my bed”. He gets upset – “What’s happened to the bed? I used a live olive tree as one of the bedposts – how could I move it?” Trick – she was testing him.

4. PERSEUS AND MEDUSA

Acrisius, king of Argos, had been told in a prophecy that his grandson would kill him. He locked his daughter Danae in a brass tower, but Zeus sneakily visited her in a shower of golden rain, and she had a baby son, Perseus. Acrisius was angry and wanted to kill them both, but they were his family, so he couldn’t bring himself to kill them directly. Instead, he put them both in an open casket (box with a lid) and put them into the sea, hoping they would drown or starve to death.

After a long time they drifted ashore in a new kingdom. Perseus and his mother Danae stayed there while Perseus grew up. But after a while the king of the new place, Polydectes, wanted to marry Danae, but she didn't want to marry him. This king wanted to get rid of Perseus for a while so he could make Danae marry him.

So the king sent Perseus on a quest, to kill the Gorgon Medusa and bring back her head. At this point the gods stepped in as he couldn’t do it alone. Hermes gave him a special sword, and winged sandals to wear so he could fly to where the Graeae, Nymphs and then Medusa lived, and fight from the air. And he met the goddess Athena, who gave him a shiny shield. Athena told Perseus not to look at Medusa or she would turn him to stone. Instead he should use the shield as a mirror and look in that to cut off Medusa's head. Her look turned men and animals to stone and her

head was covered in snakes instead of hair. She also gave him the first stage of his journey – how to find the Graeae.

Off Perseus went and asked the three Graeae. The Graeae were very old and they only had one eye and one tooth between them and they took turns every day, passing the eye and the tooth between them. When Perseus came to them, at first they didn't want to tell him where Medusa was. But Perseus waited until they were passing the eye from one to another, and so none of them could see. Then he quickly grabbed the eye! The Graeae had to tell Perseus where Medusa was in order to get their eye back. They told him to go to the Stygian Nymphs in the North, who knew where Medusa lived.

So Perseus flew to where the Nymphs lived. He stayed with them a while and they told him where to go. In one version they then give him a special bag that was Medusa-blood-proof, and a helmet of invisibility from Hades. Then he flew on to where the three Gorgons, Medusa and her sisters, lived. Her two sisters, unlike her, were immortal and had scales on their heads, and wings. When Perseus got there all three sisters were asleep. Perseus remembered not to look at them and he looked in the shiny shield and cut off Medusa’s head! Then Perseus took Medusa’s head and put it in a bag and flew away, chased for a while by her sisters who couldn’t see him but could smell him.

Andromeda As Perseus was flying home he heard somebody screaming and crying so he flew down lower to see. It was a woman who was tied to a big rock on the edge of the ocean! Perseus saw that she was screaming because a huge sea monster was about to eat her up. So he flew down to the rock and just as the monster was about to get them he pulled Medusa’s head out of the bag and showed it to the monster and the monster turned into stone, just like that!

So Perseus untied the woman. She said her name was Andromeda, and her father, who was king there, had tied her up there so the monster would take her and leave the rest of the family alone. So Perseus took Andromeda with him back to his home, but only after some resistance from her fiancé, Phineus, the

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brother of the king, who didn’t like Perseus taking his future wife. He stormed into the hall with soldiers, and there was quite a fight. Perseus eventually pulled out Medusa’s head and turned them to stone.

When Perseus finally did get home, he found that the bad king was still trying to get Danae to marry him. Perseus was angry about that, so he went right into the palace. The bad king Polydectes asked Perseus why he had come back. Perseus said because he had killed Medusa. The king laughed and said he didn’t believe it, so Perseus showed him Medusa’s head – and the king turned to stone too! So Perseus became the king, and he married Andromeda, and they all lived happily ever after.

Ironically, Acrisius, when he had heard of the return of Perseus, ran away from Argos to hide. He went to a place called Larissa that was having an athletics contest. Perseus took part in the discus throwing and a gust of wind caught his discus and blew it smack bang into the head of – you guessed it, his grandpa Acrisius. By trying to escape the prophecy he’d actually brought it to pass.

Is Perseus a hero? Yes: son of a god = demigod; has lots of support from gods; has to do Mission Impossible – though with gods’ help it’s all quite easy; brave; kills a monster.

5. HERCULES

How It (Supposedly) Went Down

Hercules' hometown of Thebes has had to pay a tribute every year to Erginus, the King of the Minyans. This ticks Hercules off, so when he meets some Minyans on the road he cuts off their ears, noses, and hands. As you might guess, this makes King Erginus pretty darned mad, and he charges toward Thebes with his

whole army behind him. Hercules isn't scared at all and raises an army of his own. Our hero leads the charge, obliterating the Minyans and killing the King Erginus himself. King Creon of Thebes is more than a little grateful to Hercules, so he gives Hercules his daughter, Megara, as

a bride. Ever thing is happy for a while, and Hercules and Megara have a bunch of kids. Eventually though, Hercules' archenemy Hera, Queen of the Gods, steps in to ruin his life. (Hera hates

Hercules because he's the illegitimate son of her husband, Zeus.) The Queen of the Gods gets seriously nasty and causes Hercules to go crazy and kill all of his children

(Whoa.) Needless to say, Hercules feels more than a little guilty about killing his kids and all. Our hero goes to the Oracle of Delphi to figure out how to atone for the damage he's done. The Oracle tells him that he has to submit himself to be the servant of King Eurystheus of Argos. Eurystheus tells Hercules that he has to perform ten labours for him. "Okey doke," says Hercules, "What do you want me to do?"

The First Labour: The Nemean Lion

So, there was this place called Nemea, which was being troubled by a giant lion that couldn't be pierced by sword or spear.

Eurystheus orders Hercules to go and kill this monster. Hercules goes to Nemea, finds the lion, who lives in a cave with 2 entrances. He blocks

one entrance and goes in through the other, and tries his sword – boing! Tries his club – boing! Bullet-proof hide. Tries his arrows – yup, boing again…

Hercules wrestles with it – lion bites off his little finger – strangles it to death. After he kills the lion, Hercules skins it with its own claw and wears its hide as a cloak. (This turns out to be

Hercules' signature look; he wears his lion skin cloak for the rest of his life.)

Qualities – brave; strong; clever to work out how to kill it; persistent – doesn’t give up

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The Second Labour: The Lernean Hydra

Eurystheus orders Hercules to go kill the Hydra. This monster was a huge venomous snake with a hundred heads (some say less, some say

more). It lived in a cave in the middle of marshland. The Hydra was particularly hard to kill because when you cut off one head, two more

sprouted in its place. It also had venomous breath. Hercules defeats this nasty creature with the help of his nephew Iolaus. He tried the basic method of thump!

with his club, smashing the head, and slice! with his sword, cutting off the head, but both times pop! pop! two heads sprouted back. Uh oh.

When Hercules slices off one of the Hydra's heads, Iolaus – sizzle - cauterizes [burns] the stub with a flaming torch, which keeps the head from growing back.

Hera sends a giant crab to attack him too but Hercules crushes this with his club. The last head is immortal and has to be buried under a big rock. After the Hydra was dead and totally headless, Hercules dipped his arrows in its venom, making them deadly

poisonous.

Did he cheat? Yes – help from friend No – couldn’t have done it without help, and did king ever say ‘no help’? Qualities – clever to come up with fire plan; wise to bring friend; brave to face Hydra

The Third Labour: Erymanthian Boar

Next, Eurystheus orders Hercules to capture a giant boar and bring it back alive. This is actually a lot harder than killing it, because after Hercules captures the vicious thing he's got to carry it

all the way back to Argos. In the main version, he manages to chase it off a cliff and it falls into a big snowdrift. No escape from that.

Of course, Hercules totally pulls it off and shows up carrying the boar over his shoulders. It's said that Eurystheus was so scared when he saw the boar that he ran and hid in a big jar.

The Fourth Labour: Ceryneian Hind

Now the wimpy king orders Hercules to capture an incredibly fast deer with golden horns. Some say that Hercules snared the deer with nets, others say he pounced on it while it was asleep, and still

others say that he just ran behind it until it got too tired to run anymore. The best version has Hercules being so skilful with bow and arrow that he fires an arrow between the deer’s legs that trips the deer up, allowing him to catch it up.

No matter who you talk to, though, everybody agrees that Hercules caught the hind and brought it back to Eurystheus.

The Fifth Labour: Augean Stables

Okay, so this Labour is totally disgusting. Hercules has to go to the stables of a King named Augeas, who apparently had more

oxen than anybody else in the world [3,000], but had also never bothered to clean up after them.

Yep, that's right. The Augean stables are filled with massive amounts of dung, and guess who has to clean it up? The poo is so caked and so disgustingly smelly that the herdsmen would barely go near the stables. He is only given a day in which to do it… MISSION IMPOSSIBLE.

Hercules strikes I deal – I clear the poo, you give me a tenth of your cattle. Hercules manages to pull this off by diverting the course of the Alpheus River. He does this by digging a

trench from the river through the stables [he knocks holes in the front and back of the stables] and back to the river.

The diverted river washes through the stables and takes away all the poo. 15

He then fills in the trenches, mends the stables and puts the river back to its natural course. The King tries to avoid paying him. Oops. Hercules declares war on him, and deposes him.

Cheat? Yes, he asked for payment; yes, he used a river rather than his own muscle power; No – king refused to pay him; what’s wrong with river use? Qualities – clever with river idea; strength + speed

The Sixth Labour: Stymphalian Birds

Hercules is ordered to go to the Stymphalian Lake and rid it of a flock of man-eating birds.

The birds have bronze beaks and sharp bronze feathers that they can drop on humans. He covers himself in his lion skin to protect him from the feathers. He then shakes a bronze rattle which Athene gives to him. He shakes and shakes it until they’re all scared

and fly away from the lake. He then shoots lots of them with his Hydra-poisoned arrows. In one version he kills all of the birds, in

another most of them fly away.

Helped by Athena with rattle. Does this make him a cheat as he got help, or is it okay with gods’ help?

The Seventh Labour: The Cretan Bull

Next, Hercules has to travel to the island of Crete and captures the divine bull, who is said to be the father of the Minotaur, the monster that the hero Theseus later defeats.

He manages this with the help of King Minos of Crete, and again uses his great strength to wrestle it. He travels back to Greece on the back of the bull as it swims across the Mediterranean.

The Eighth Labour: Horses of Diomedes

Next, Hercules is sent to capture the horses of King Diomedes. "Capturing Horses," you say, "That doesn't seem too hard." Oh yeah, what if those horses just happen to be man-eaters? That's right... King Diomedes is in the habit of

feeding his horses the flesh of people that get on his nerves. When Hercules shows up, though, he turns the tables and feeds Diomedes to his own horses. After that, the

vicious horses chill out a bit, and Hercules takes them away.

The Ninth Labor: The Belt of Hippolyte

Ninth on the agenda is obtaining the belt of Hippolyte (a.k.a. Hippolyta), Queen of the Amazons.

The Amazons were a tribe of warrior women, who only dealt with men when they felt like having babies. They either killed or got rid of any male children that came along and only raised the females; or they hobbled boys (broke their ankles) so they were weak but could still work.

Hercules goes to their queen and asks her nicely for her belt. Amazingly, she agrees. However, Hera decides that this one was way too easy for Hercules, and she appears in the form of an

Amazon and rallies the warrior women against Hercules. Hercules thinks Hippolyte has betrayed him and, after kicking a lot of Amazon butt, he kills her before sailing

away with her belt.

Qualities – reasonable, asks Queen first; charming – she fancies him; good fighter in the end; maybe cruel to kill the Queen after she’s been nice; not her choice to attack men; but he thinks she betrayed him

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The Tenth Labour: Cattle of Geryon

The tenth labour is a pretty intense one. Hercules has to sail all the way to an island called Erytheia, which is way out in what we now call the Atlantic Ocean.

(To the ancient Greeks, this was the end of the world. They called the Atlantic "Oceanus" and thought of it as a giant river that encircled the world.)

On the island of Erytheia there is a giant named Geryon, who has three bodies and three sets of legs all connected at the waist. It's Hercules' job to fetch Geryon's beautiful herd of cattle, which are coloured red by the sunset.

To get the job done, Hercules borrows a giant golden cup from the sun god Helios and sails across the Mediterranean to the island of Erytheia.

Before he can take the cattle, Hercules has to kill the giant Erytion and his two-headed dog who guards them.

After that, Geryon himself comes to fight him, but Hercules takes out the three-bodied giant with some massive whacks of his trusty club. In another version he fires arrows into all 3 bodies.

Then Hercules herds the cattle into his golden cup-boat and sails back to Greece.

The Eleventh Labour: The Golden Apples of the Hesperides

Whoa, wait a minute. Didn't Eurystheus say there's only supposed to be ten labours?

When Hercules gets back with the red cattle of Geryon, Eurystheus pulls a fast one on him. The wimpy king tells Hercules that he's not going to count the killing of the Hydra because Iolaus helped Hercules. He also won't count Hercules' cleaning of the Augean stables either because he used a river to do it, instead of his own manpower, or because he tried to get paid.

"Whatever," says Hercules "I can do anything." Eurystheus tells Hercules to go fetch some golden apples from the nymphs known as the Hesperides, who

were said to represent the sunset. Incidentally, these golden apples were Hera's wedding gift when she married Zeus.

The apples are hard to get at. They’re behind a wall that can’t be climbed by mortals, and they’re protected by the nymphs of the Hesperides and a giant dragon with a hundred heads called Ladon. To get the apples, Hercules enlists the help of the Titan Atlas, who is doomed by Zeus to hold the sky up on his back. Hercules tells Atlas that he'll hold the sky up for a little while if the Titan wouldn't mind fetching some of those lovely golden apples.

Atlas, who is seriously sick of holding up the sky, agrees. First, Hercules kills the dragon with an arrow. Simple. Then Atlas goes off to pick the apples. When he comes back with the apples, however, he suggests that Hercules keep the sky on his shoulders

while Atlas delivers the apples to Eurystheus. Hercules thinks this sounds suspiciously like a trick. Our hero "agrees" with Atlas, but tells the Titan to take

back the sky for a second while Hercules puts a pad on his shoulders to ease his burden. When Atlas takes the sky back, Hercules says, "See ya!" and heads off with the apples.

After Hercules takes the apples to Eurystheus, Athena returns the golden fruit to the Hesperides. In other versions, Hercules doesn’t even know where the garden is, and he has to track down Proteus, a sea

god, and wrestle him to get the truth. Athene and some nymphs in Italy help point out how to find Proteus. Trouble is, Proteus can change into anything, so Hercules wrestles with a lion, a boar, water, even fire, but he doesn’t let go and in the end Proteus is exhausted and tells him where to go.

En route, he also meets an Earth-born baddie who challenges all comers to a wrestling match and kills the losers. He beats everyone. Hercules is better but every time the baddie seems to be getting tired, he gets his energy back. Hercules works out that he gets strength from the earth, so he lifts the guy up into the air and strangles him up there.

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Qualities – cunning – tricks Atlas; strong – holds up sky; good shot – kills dragon; persistent with Proteus

The Twelfth Labour: Cerberus

For the twelfth and final labour, Eurystheus thinks up pretty much the worst thing he can imagine: Hercules has to bring back the three-headed hellhound, Cerberus, Hades' vicious beast that guards the gates of the underworld. Mortals don’t visit the Underworld unless they’re dead, and no one normally comes back from it either, so it’s quite a daunting task, but not for a demi-god…

Hercules makes his way down under and pops in on Hades, god of the dead.

The boatman Charon doesn’t want to take him but Hercules scares him into letting him cross. While in the palace, Hercules comes across his fellow Greek hero, Theseus, and another dude name Pirithous

with their butts stuck to a bench. The story goes that Theseus had pretty stupidly agreed to help his buddy, Pirithous, try to woo Persephone, Hades' wife. As punishment, Hades magically glued them to a bench.

Hercules pulls with all his might and yanks Theseus from the bench, leaving only a thin layer of his bottom on bench. (Ouch.)

When Hercules tries to pull Pirithous up, however, the underworld starts shaking – Hades is not happy. Hercules and Theseus ditch Pirithous and head on their way.

Hercules goes before Hades and asks to borrow Cerberus for a bit, so that the hero can complete his final labour.

Hades is cool with it as long as Hercules can wrestle the three-headed dog into submission without using any weapons. "No worries," says Hercules.

Our hero finds Cerberus and squeezes the animal with his muscle bound arms. Cerberus bites, scratches, and puts up quite a fight, and his snake tail bites Hercules, but Hercules doesn’t let go.

Eventually, Cerberus realizes he's been beaten and chills out. Hercules takes Cerberus back for Eurystheus to see and then returns the hellhound to Hades. With that Hercules' Twelve Labours are complete. He has finally atoned for killing his children. When he gets back to Thebes he gives his wife Megara to his friend Iolaus (hmm) and goes on his merry way. Some say that he was made immortal as a reward for completing all of the ridiculously hard tasks that

Eurystheus assigned him.

Most difficult – Yes: no mortal had ever returned from the Underworld; Yes: not allowed to use weapons to get Cerberus; No: Hades nice to him; No: he’s a demigod hero so gets special treatment; No: X Labour is harder because… e.g. Hydra is harder as he could never have done it without help

6.TROY ** = most likely parts to turn up in exam

History The history around Troy is a little more practical than the myth. Troy is based on the western edge of Turkey, well placed for the trade route between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. Gold and wheat were two of the main exports from the Black Sea, and there was a lot of profit. The Trojans got rich from this trade, and ended up as a powerful city, with a lot of local influence. The Greeks, who developed a good navy, wanted a piece of the action. The Trojans rose to power in around 1500BC and archaeologists found a level in the ruins of Troy that was burned, and which they dated to around 1300BC. This is the history – Troy was burned in 1300BC, probably by the Greeks.

**The Judgement of Paris In the myths, the war starts because Helen, queen of Sparta, is taken from Sparta and ends up in Troy. Her hubby Menelaus, King of Sparta, wants her back, and takes a huge Greek army to Troy, led by his brother Agamemnon.

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How did Helen end up in Troy? Well, the story goes back a little and starts with the marriage of the human Peleus and the sea goddess Thetis. They invited all the immortals to the party except Eris, the goddess of strife (arguments and disagreement), which seems fair enough – she sounds a party pooper. But Eris was good at revenge, and she got a beautiful golden apple made which had written on "For the fairest." She threw the apple into the wedding party. A lot of the goddesses had big opinions of themselves and thought they were the most beautiful, and a massive argument erupted as they all wanted the apple. In the end the Big Three were left as the main rivals - Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite. Zeus

was too scared to make the decision, as the two who he didn’t give the prize to would hate him, and so he chickened out and got a human to do it. He picked Paris, a Trojan prince who was herding sheep on Mount Ida near Troy. Hermes came to warn Paris, and then the three goddesses appeared in front of him [in most versions, naked]. Paris was a young man, and there was no way he could decide between three goddesses, who would be more beautiful than supermodels. The goddesses attempted to bribe him. Hera, Goddess of Power and wife of the top god Zeus, offered him huge power over armies and men. Athena, Goddess of Wisdom, said “Power without wisdom isn’t a great idea – you could easily make mistakes and lose your power.” She offered him great wisdom, so he would make the right choices, and if it was power he wanted, he’d have the wisdom to get it. Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, offered him beauty – the most beautiful woman in the world. This happened to be Helen of Sparta, who was married to King Menelaus, but Aphrodite wouldn’t bother about little details like that. Paris chose Aphrodite, and Hera and Athena became, from that time onward, the enemies of the whole Trojan race.

Bad choice by Paris? He is a young man so his hormones are strong, drawn by pretty woman. You might think Wisdom is better (then he would always make good choices) or Power is better.

The Greeks React: Paris sailed to Sparta from Troy on a ‘trade mission’, hung around the palace, chatted to Menelaus, and then sailed away with Helen on his boat, back to Troy. Her husband Menelaus was understandably upset. He happened to be brother to Agamemnon, the greatest king among the Greeks, and the two of them visited all the Greek chieftains and convinced them to take part in a great expedition which they were preparing to avenge the wrong. Agamemnon was chosen commander-in-chief; next to him the most prominent Greek heroes are his brother Menelaus, Achilles and Patroclus, two unrelated men named Ajax, Teucer, Nestor and his son Antilochus, Odysseus, Diomedes, Idomeneus, and Philoctetes, who, however, at the very outset of the expedition had to be left behind, and does not appear on the scene of action until just before the fall of Troy. The entire host of 100,000 men and 1,186 ships assembled in the harbor of Aulis. Here, while they made sacrifices to secure the good will of the gods for the expedition, a snake darted out from under the altar, ascended a tree, devoured a brood of eight young sparrows and the mother-bird, and finally was turned into stone. This omen Calchas, the seer of the army, interpreted to mean that the war would last nine years, and terminate in the tenth with the destruction of Troy [Iliad ii 299-332]. Agamemnon had already received an oracle from Delphi that Troy would fall when the best of the Greeks quarreled.

The sacrifice of Iphigenia: The Greeks waited at Aulis – and waited, and waited. The winds just wouldn’t blow for them. In desperation they turned to Calchas, the prophet, who said that Artemis was angry for killing a deer sacred to her (even though he hadn’t known it was sacred) and that she demanded Agamemnon sacrificed his own daughter to calm her. Agamemnon had a choice – abandon the War against Troy or kill his own daughter. As the leader, he felt he had to fight. He pretended that he had arranged a marriage between his daughter and Achilles, and summoned her to Aulis. Once she got there, she found it odd that everyone looked sad and the priests were dressed in drab clothes – and where was Achilles? The next thing she knew, she was on an altar, though some stories say Artemis replaced her with a stag at the last minute and took her off. That was the last

Agamemnon saw of his daughter. His wife found out about it and hated him, and plotted a nasty revenge…Qualities – Agamemnon good for putting his men and his brother above his own needs/desires; bad for killing his daughter – there’s no excuse?

After landing, skirmishing, and pitching their camp, Odysseus and Menelaus proceed as ambassadors to Troy, to demand the surrender of Helen. But this proposal, in spite of the inclination of Helen herself and the admonition of

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the Trojan Antenor, never takes hold, owing to the opposition of Paris. War is declared. The number of the Trojans is scarcely one tenth that of the besiegers; and although they possess many brave heroes, such as Aeneas, Sarpedon, Glaucus, and especially Hector, in their fear of Achilles they dare not risk a general engagement, and remain holed up behind their walls. On the other hand, the Achaeans can do nothing against the well-fortified and defended town, and don’t do much more than ambush Trojan patrols and conquering neighbouring towns and cities. Achilles of course is the leader in many of the conquests they make.

**The anger of Achilles At last the decisive tenth year arrives. Over the course of the war, the Greeks have taken many war prizes from the surrounding countryside. One of these prizes happens to be a girl Chryseis, the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo. He comes in priestly garb into the camp of the Greeks to ransom his daughter from Agamemnon. Agamemnon refuses to free the girl and is rude to the priest, threatening him with death if he ever returns to the camp, so the priest prays to Apollo for revenge. Apollo consequently visits the Greeks with a plague. In an assembly of the Greeks summoned by Achilles, the seer Calchas declares the only means of calming the god will be the return of the girl without ransom. Agamemnon and Achilles argue at this point – it’s all about honour and prizes. Agamemnon does not want to

give up a prize without getting something in return, and Achilles calls him greedy and a dog. Agamemnon gets very angry and throws his weight about – “I’m the top king, you’re just a soldier, you must obey me” and Achilles gets angry back – “You’re not my king and I can leave if I want”. Agamemnon agrees in the end and hands the girl back; but he takes from Achilles his favourite slave Briseis. This is really insulting, making Achilles feel really small and powerless, and it doesn’t seem fair that he should lose his slave. His HONOUR is damaged, and all these ancient heroes lived for was honour. Achilles withdraws in a rage to his tent, goes on strike and begs his mother Thetis to get from Zeus a promise that the Greeks should suffer in fighting the Trojans until Agamemnon returns the girl and restores Achilles' honour. The Trojans immediately take the open field, and Agamemnon is lured by a promise of victory, conveyed in a lying dream from Zeus, to start the fight.

Is his anger justified? Yes – Achilles is dishonoured. He’s chief warrior, does most of the fighting; why should he lose his prize? Yes – Agamemnon being unfair, trying to make an example of Achilles. No – Achilles is being self-centred; lots of Greeks die when he’s on strike as Trojans fight better.

Paris – v – Menelaus The armies are standing opposed to one another, prepared for fight, when they agree to a treaty that the whole conflict will be decided by a duel between Paris and Menelaus. Paris is overcome in the duel, and is only rescued from death by the intervention of Aphrodite. When Agamemnon presses for the fulfillment of the treaty, the Trojan Pandarus breaks the peace by shooting an arrow at Menelaus, and the agreement falls apart. Proper fighting - Diomedes fights gods The first open engagement in the war begins, in which, under the protection of Athena, Diomedes performs miracles of bravery and wounds even Aphrodite and Ares. Diomedes and the Lycian Glaucus are on the verge of fighting, when they recognize one another as hereditary guest-friends and stop their duel, a marker of how important is the concept of hospitality (XENIA, in Greek). The day ends with an indecisive duel between Hector and Ajax son of Telamon. They call a truce to bury their dead, and the Greeks, acting on the advice of Nestor, surround their camp with a wall and trench. When the fighting begins again, Zeus forbids the gods to take part in it, and ordains that the battle shall end with the defeat of the Greeks. Failed meeting Ag – Ach On the following night Agamemnon already begins to think about fleeing, but Nestor advises reconciliation with Achilles. Agamemnon sends an embassy, including Odysseus, to make amends with Achilles. The efforts of ambassadors are fruitless. Then Odysseus and Diomedes go out on a night-time reconnaissance mission, kill many Trojans, and capture a Trojan spy. On the succeeding day Agamemnon's bravery drives the Trojans back to the walls of the town; but he himself, Diomedes, Odysseus, and other heroes leave the battle wounded, and the Greeks retire behind the camp walls. Trojans attack Greek camp The Trojans advance and attack the Greek walls. The opposition of the Greeks is brave; but Hector breaks the rough gate with a rock, and the stream of enemies pours itself unimpeded into the camp. Once more the Greek heroes who are still capable of taking part in the fight, especially the two Ajaxes and Idomeneus, succeed with the help of Poseidon in repelling the Trojans, while Telamonian Ajax dashes Hector to the ground with a stone; but the latter soon reappears on the battlefield with fresh strength granted to him by Apollo at the command of Zeus. Poseidon is obliged to leave the Greeks to their fate; they retire again to the ships, which Ajax in vain defends. The Trojans advance still further to where they are able to begin torching the Greek ships.

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Patroclus dies At this point, Achilles allows his friend Patroclus to borrow his armour and enter the battle with the Myrmidons, Achilles’ soldiers, to help the distressed Greeks. Achilles tells Patroclus to drive Hector back but not do any more than that. Supposing it to be Achilles himself, the Trojans in terror flee from the camp before Patroclus, who pursues them to the town, and lays low vast numbers of the enemy, including the brave Sarpedon, whose corpse is only rescued from the Greeks after a severe fight. Patroclus struts round the city walls, which Achilles told him not to do (too risky) and finally Patroclus himself is killed by Hector with the help of Apollo; Achilles' arms are lost, and even the corpse is only with difficulty saved. **Achilles fights, Hector dies Now Achilles is raging with fury at the death of his friend Patroclus and only lives for one thing – revenge. All he wants to do is kill Hector, even if he dies in the process. So he drops his anger against Agamemnon, makes peace with him, and asks his mum to get him new armour. The next day, wearing new and splendid armour made by Hephaestus at the request of Thetis, he rages around the battlefield avenging the death of his friend. He kills countless Trojans, and finally tracks down Hector. The gods have decided that it’s time for Hector to die; Zeus is sad as he liked him. Achilles stands outside the gates calling for Hector to come down and

fight. Hector’s mum Hecuba and dad Priam know he’ll lose and beg him not to go, but Hector says ,”I can preserve my honour and either kill Achilles or be killed by him” – even Hector, a true gent and family man, has that hero’s desire for honour, even if it is pretty much suicide going to face Achilles. Achilles chases Hector around the city three times, until Athena takes on the disguise of Hector’s brother Deiphobus and tells him to stop running and face Achilles – two against one. Hector agrees, Achilles catches up, and Athena vanishes – Hector knows he’s stuffed now, even the gods are against him. Hector asks that whoever loses gets a decent burial but Achilles is so

angry he says the dogs will eat his corpse. They throw spears at each other, then Hector runs out of spears and charges at him with his sword; Achilles whacks a spear in his neck. Achilles strips the body and then drags the corpse around the city… You were meant to respect dead bodies, so this is a huge insult and Achilles is acting badly.

Priam gets his son back The Iliad concludes with the burial of Patroclus and the funeral games established in his honour. Priam sneaks into the camp of the Greeks (He knows the area round Troy better than the Greeks), with the help of Hermes. He is desperate to get his son’s body back. He then goes into Achilles’ tent and kisses the hands that killed his son. He begs Achilles to remember his own father and how sad he would be if he could not get his son’s body for burial. Achilles cries at the thought of this and of Patroclus, and there is a moving scene where both men sit there weeping for their own dead loved ones. Priam gives Hector’s weight in gold and then Achilles gives him the body back. Amazingly after days lying around it’s still fresh, thanks to the gods.

Last throes of the War Next is the burial of Hector, for which Achilles allows an armistice of eleven days. Immediately after the death of Hector the later legends bring the Amazons to the help of the Trojans, and their queen Penthesilea is slain by Achilles. Then appears Memnon at the head of an Ethiopian contingent. He slays Antilochus son of Nestor, but is himself slain by Achilles. And now comes the fulfillment of the oracle given to Agamemnon at Delphi; for at a sacrificial banquet a violent quarrel arises between Achilles and Odysseus, the latter declaring craft and not valour to be the only means of capturing Troy. Soon after, in an attempt to force a way into the hostile town through the Scaean gate, Achilles falls, slain by the arrow of Paris, directed by the god. After his burial, Thetis offers the arms of her son as a prize for the bravest of the Greek heroes, which provokes a fight among the Greeks for the title and the arms. Odysseus wins, and his main competition, the Telamonian Ajax, kills himself.

Odysseus captures Helenus, son of Priam, who advises the Greeks that Troy could not be conquered without the arrows of Heracles and the presence of someone related to Achilles. They fetch Philoctetes, the heir of Heracles, whom the Greeks had abandoned and left for dead on the island of Lemnos, and Neoptolemus, the young son of AchilLes, who had been brought up on Seyros. The latter, a worthy son of his father, slays the last ally of the Trojans, Eurypylus, the brave son of Telephus; and Philoctetes, with one of the arrows of Heracles, kills Paris. Even when the last condition of the capture of Troy, the removal of a small statue of Athena, called the Palladium, from the temple of Athena on the citadel, has been successfully fulfilled by Diomedes and Odysseus, the town can only be taken by treachery.

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**The Wooden Horse On the advice of Athena, Epeius, son of Panopeus, builds a gigantic wooden horse, in the belly of which the bravest Greek warriors conceal themselves under the direction of Odysseus. The rest of the Greeks pretend to abandon the fight. They burn their camp and leave the beach deserted, sailing off but only going

as far as a nearby island, Tenedos, where they lie in wait. The Trojans, streaming out of the town, find the horse, and are in doubt as to what to do with it. They are deceived by the treacherous Sinon, who has of his own free will remained behind. He pretends that he has escaped from an evil plan of Odysseus to use him as a human sacrifice, and that the horse has been erected as an offering to Athena. To destroy it would be fatal to Troy, he claims, but should it be brought into the city, the Trojans would conquer Europe. The Trojan priest Laocoon sees through this story and warns against the Greek gift; he even suggests that there might be Greeks inside and throws a spear at the horse that makes a hollow thunk when it lands – but the gods have decided that Troy must now fall and

they make the Trojans deaf to the sound. Athens or Poseidon sends a giant sea snake that kills Laocoon and his two sons, and then slides off to hide in Athena’s temple, so the Trojans take it as a sign and decide to bring the horse into the city.

The Trojans are overjoyed and celebrate their victory and the departure of the Greeks. Sinon in the night opens the door of the horse. The heroes descend, open the gates and climb a tower to wave a burning torch which is the agreed-upon signal for the return of the Greek fleet. Thus Troy is captured; all the inhabitants are either slain or carried into slavery, and the city is destroyed.

Qualities – cunning in hiding; bravery in risking lives in horse; deceit in getting Sinon to lie to Trojans; perhaps blasphemy in misusing gods (Sinon pretends horse sacred to Athena).

7a. MORE GENERAL – WHAT IS A HERO? [brief]

There is a difference between a MODERN hero and a CLASSICAL hero.

CLASSICAL HERO – 1. Favoured by the gods [ideally, a demi-god], and the gods get heavily involved 2. Brave and a good fighter 3. Does near-impossible tasks 4. Honour code – this is more relevant for people like Achilles and Hector, who are full-time soldiers.

Most of the heroes get direct help from the gods. Some also get lots of help from people with supernatural powers, which isn’t quite as heroic. Theseus only gets help from a princess, which isn’t as heroic. Most of the heroes have to do things that would be impossible to a mere normal human, though in some cases they only manage it with a load of help. There’s a sliding scale of heroes from the really big impressive ones like Hercules [strength off the scale], chosen to help the gods against the Titans and a demigod himself, and Achilles, best warrior ever known, down a little bit to Odysseus, famed for his wisdom and cunning, down quite a lot to Jason and Theseus. Jason at least has Hera clearly on his side; Theseus does some pretty challenging tasks but doesn’t seem to grab the gods’ attention much…

MODERN HERO – in the Christian world they tend to have to be moral too. Set a good example, do good tasks that help people.

Hercules ticks all the boxes but he is not a great moral example – he kills his own children in a fit of anger, and has a general anger management issue. He does do good tasks but they are set for him by someone else, and he is doing it to make up for killing his own kids. Achilles is not a great moral example – he kills relentlessly, is selfish when he goes on strike; he even sacrifices Trojans to the dead Patroclus. Theseus is the most ‘Christian’ of the heroes as he does choose to clear the highway of baddies and volunteers to sort out the Minotaur – but then he abandons Ariadne and accidentally causes his dad’s death…

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7b. WHAT IS A HERO? [more detail]

If a hero is properly defined as somebody who does something dangerous to help somebody else, then the heroes of Greek mythology do not qualify. They were a pretty selfish bunch, often with additional antisocial tendencies thrown into the bargain--in other words, not exactly role models for the younger generation of today. But knowing their names and exploits is essential for understanding references in literature and even popular culture today. So let's recognize and celebrate Hercules and Perseus and the others by their proper dictionary definition: "In mythology and legend, a man or woman, often of divine ancestry, who is endowed with great courage and strength, celebrated for his or her bold exploits, and favoured by the gods."

So checklist for an ancient Greek hero:

divine parents favoured by the gods celebrated for bold exploits great courage/strength often live for honour [e.g. Achilles]

A hero (masculine or gender-neutral) or heroine (feminine) (Ancient Greek: ἥρως, hḗrōs) is a person or main character of a literary work who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through impressive feats of ingenuity, bravery or military strength, often sacrificing his or her own personal concerns for some greater good.

The concept of the hero was first founded in classical literature. It is the main or revered character in heroic epic poetry celebrated through ancient legends of a people; often striving for military conquest and living by a continually flawed personal honour code. The definition of a hero has changed throughout time, as the Merriam Webster dictionary defines a hero as "a person who is admired for great or brave acts or fine qualities." Examples of heroes range from mythological figures, such as Gilgamesh and Achilles, to historical figures, such as George Washington and Gandhi, to modern societal heroes, such as police and firefighters.

A classical hero is considered to be a "warrior who lives and dies in the pursuit of honor" and asserts his or her greatness by "the brilliancy and efficiency with which they kill". [6]Each classical hero's life focuses on fighting, which occurs in war or during an epic quest. Classical heroes are commonly semi-divine and extraordinarily gifted, like Achilles, or, alternatively, are like Beowulf, evolving into heroic characters through their perilous circumstances. While these heroes are incredibly resourceful and skilled, they are often foolhardy, court disaster, risk their followers' lives for trivial matters, and behave arrogantly in a childlike manner.

During classical times, people regarded heroes with the highest esteem and utmost importance, explaining their prominence within epic literature. The appearance of these mortal figures marks a revolution of audiences and writers turning away from immortal gods to mortal men, whose heroic moments of glory survive in the memory of their descendants, extending their legacy. Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War, which is known primarily through Homer's The Iliad. Hector acted as leader of the Trojans and their allies in the defense of Troy, "killing 31,000 Greek fighters," offers Hyginus. Hector was known not only for his courage but also for his noble and courtly nature. Indeed, Homer places Hector as peace-loving, thoughtful as well as bold, a good

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son, husband and father, and without darker motives. However, his familial values conflict greatly with his heroic aspirations in The Iliad, as he cannot be both the protector of Troy and a father to his child. Hector is ultimately betrayed by the gods when Athena appears disguised as his ally Deiphobus and convinces him to take on Achilles, leading to his death at the hands of a superior warrior.

Achilles was a Greek Hero who was considered the most formidable military fighter in the entire Trojan War and the central character of The Iliad. He was the child of Thetis and Peleus, making him a demi-god. He wielded superhuman strength on the battlefield and was blessed with a close relationship to the Gods. Achilles famously refuses to fight after his dishonoring at the hands of Agamemnon, and only returns to the war due to unadulterated rage after Hector kills his close friend Patroclus. Achilles was known for uncontrollable rage that defined many of his bloodthirsty actions, such as defiling Hector's corpse by dragging it around the city of Troy. Achilles plays a tragic role in The Iliad brought about by constant de-humanization throughout the epic, having his menis (wrath) overpower his philos (love).

Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Gods. Perhaps the most striking example is the Athenian king Erechtheus, whom Poseidon killed for choosing Athena over him as the city's patron god. When the Athenians worshiped Erechtheus on the Acropolis, they invoked him as Poseidon Erechtheus.

Fate, or destiny, plays a massive role in the stories of classical heroes. The classical hero's heroic significance stems from battlefield conquests, an inherently dangerous action. The gods in Greek Mythology, when interacting with the heroes, often foreshadow the hero's eventual death on the battlefield. Countless heroes and gods go to great lengths to alter their pre-destined fate, but with no success, as no immortal can change their prescribed outcomes by the three Fates. The most prominent example of this is found in Oedipus the King. After learning that his son, Oedipus, will end up killing him, the King of Thebes, Laius, takes huge steps to assure his son's death by removing him from the kingdom. But, Oedipus slays his father without an afterthought when he unknowingly encounters him in a dispute on the road many years later. The lack of recognition enabled Oedipus to slay his father, ironically further binding his father to his fate.

Stories of heroism may serve as moral examples. However, classical heroes often didn't embody the Christian notion of an upstanding, perfectly moral hero. For example, Achilles character-issues of hateful rage lead to merciless slaughter and his overwhelming pride lead to him only joining the Trojan War because he didn't want his soldiers to win all of the glory. Classical heroes, regardless of their morality, were placed in religion. In classical antiquity, cults that venerated deified heroes such as Heracles, Perseus, and Achilles played an important role in Ancient Greek religion. These ancient Greek hero cults worshipped heroes from oral epic tradition, with these heroes often bestowing blessings, especially healing ones, on individuals.

Checklist of a modern (Christian) hero: upstanding, moral person

does good deeds, often for no reward often does these deeds in the face of danger

[Note Roman heroism was also quite moralistic – if you read Roman history, the people celebrated as heroes tended to do brave acts, often involving self-sacrifice, in defence of Rome. Doing your heroic thing on behalf of other people, especially on behalf of the State, was the important Roman twist.]

8.MORE GENERAL – WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ADVENTURE OUT OF THESEUS/PERSEUS?

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Perseus + Medusa: she turns people to stone; she lives in an unknown place; she has two immortal sisters who can fly; it’s truly a Mission Impossible. With the gods’ help, it becomes Mission Quite Simple, though he does still need to guts to fly up there and do it.

Minotaur: nobody has ever survived the Minotaur and the labyrinth is un-get-out-of-able. However, it doesn’t need a god’s help – a girl with some thread and a dagger is enough. Again, it still needs guts to do the task, and enough fighting ability to kill the bull. In one version he doesn’t even get the dagger and has to wrestle the monster – some Greek heroes seem to have a thing about wrestling…

MORE DETAIL – CYCLOPS

Next we beached in the land of the Cyclopes. We'd put in at a little island off their coast. And since they don't know the first thing about sailing they'd left it uninhabited, though it teemed with wildlife.

We made a pleasant meal of wild goat, then next day I left everyone else behind and took my own crew over to the mainland. The first thing we saw was a big cave overlooking the beach. Inside were milking pens for goats and big cheeses aging on racks.

My men were for making off with the cheeses and the lambs that we found in the cave, but I wanted to see what manner of being made this his lair.

When the Cyclops -- Polyphemus was his name -- came home that afternoon, he blotted out the light in the doorway. He was as tall and rugged as an alp. One huge eye glared out of the center of his forehead.

He didn't see us at first, but went about his business. The first thing he did was drag a huge boulder into the mouth of the cave. Twenty teams of horses couldn't have budged it. Then he milked his ewes, separating out the curds and setting the whey aside to drink with his dinner. It was when he stoked his fire for the meal that he saw us.

'Who are you?' asked a voice like thunder.

'We are Greeks, blown off course on our way home from Troy,' I explained. 'We assume you'll extend hospitality or suffer the wrath of Zeus, protector of guests.'

'Zeus? We Cyclopes are stronger than Zeus. I'll show you hospitality.'

With that he snatched up two of my men and bashed their brains out on the floor. Then he ate them raw, picking them apart and poking them in his mouth, bones and guts and all.

We cried aloud to Zeus, for all the good it did our comrades. The Cyclops washed them down with great slurps of milk, smacked his lips in satisfaction and went to sleep. My hand was on my sword, eager to stab some vital spot. But I realized that only he could unstopper the mouth of the cave.

We passed a miserable night and then watched the Cyclops make breakfast of two more of our companions. When he went out to pasture his flock, he pulled the boulder closed behind him.

It was up to me to make a plan. I found a tree trunk that the Cyclops intended for a walking stick. We cut off a six-foot section, skinned it, put a sharp point on one end and hardened it in the fire. Then we hid it under a pile of manure.

When the Cyclops came home and made his usual meal, I spoke to him. 'Cyclops, you might as well take some of our liquor to savor with your barbarous feast.'

I'd brought along a skin of wine that we'd been given as a gift. It was so strong that we usually diluted it in water twenty to one. The Cyclops tossed it back and then demanded more.

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'I like you, Greek,' he said. 'I'm going to do you a favor. What's your name?'

'My name is Nobody,' I told him.

It turned out that the favor he intended was to eat me last. But when the wine had knocked him out, I put my plan into effect. Heating the end of the pole until it was glowing red, we ran it toward the Cyclops like a battering ram, aiming it for his eye and driving it deep. The thing sizzled like hot metal dropped in water while I twisted it like an auger.

Polyphemus came awake with a roar, tore the spike from his eye and began groping for us in his blindness. His screams of frustration and rage brought the neighboring Cyclopes to the mouth of the cave.

'What is it, brother?' they called inside. 'Is someone harming you?'

'It's Nobody!' bellowed Polyphemus.

'Then for the love of Poseidon pipe down in there!'

They went away, and Polyphemus heaved the boulder aside and spent the night by the open door, hoping we'd be stupid enough to try to sneak past him. Getting past him was the problem alright, but by morning I'd worked out a solution.

Tying goats together with ropes of willow, I hid a man under each group of three. When it was time to let them out to pasture, the Cyclops ran his hands over their backs but did not notice the men underneath. Myself, I clutched to the underbelly of the biggest ram.

'Why aren't you leading the flock as usual?' asked Polyphemus, detaining this beast at the door and stroking its fleece. 'I wish you could talk, so you could point out those Greeks.'

He let the ram go, and we beat it down to the ship as fast as our legs would carry us. When we were a good way out to sea, I could not resist a taunt. I called out, and Polyphemus came to the edge of the seaside cliff. In his fury he tore up a huge boulder and flung it at us.

It landed in front of our bow, and the splash almost drove us back onto the beach. This time I waited until my panicked men had rowed a good bit further before I put my hands to my mouth to call out again. The men tried to hush me, but I was aquiver with triumph.

'If someone asks who did this, the name is Odysseus!'

That brought another boulder hurtling our way, but this one landed astern and only hastened our departure. The Cyclops was left howling on the cliff, calling out to his father Poseidon for vengeance.

CIRCE

When we came to Circe's island, no one was eager to go exploring, but I divided the company in two and we drew lots. My group stayed behind while the other set out under my kinsman Eurylochus to reconnoiter.

Before long they came to a stone house in the middle of a tangled wood. Strange to tell, it was surrounded by lions and wolves of extraordinary meekness. Hearing singing from within, the men saw no harm in making their presence known.

Circe came out and welcomed them inside. All but Eurylochus accepted the invitation. He had a premonition. And sure enough, after she had given them food and honeyed wine mixed with a pinch of something, she waved her wand and turned them into swine.

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Eurylochus came running back to the ship and spread the alarm. I now shouldered the burden of command and set out to investigate.

Fortunately I met Hermes along the way. Zeus's herald warned me that I too would be transformed by Circe's witchery unless I followed his instructions. I was to accept the potion that she gave me, knowing that I would be protected by a godly charm -- a sprig of herb called moly that mortals dare not harvest. Then when she raised her wand I was to draw my sword.

Hermes gave me the moly, then departed. I made my way to the house in the clearing and Circe bade me enter. I downed the potion. Then just as she showed her wand, I unsheathed my sword and held it to her throat.

She fainted to the ground and clutched my knees. 'You can only be Odysseus. Hermes warned me that this day would come. Let me be your friend and lover.'

First I made her swear an oath.

Later we feasted splendidly and her servants danced attendance. But she could see that I was in no mood for levity. Divining the cause, she waved her wand once more and restored my shipmates to human form. She even sent me to summon the men from the ship, who never thought they'd see me again alive.

When many months had passed, the crew reminded me of home. Now it was my turn to take Circe's knees in supplication. The goddess was willing to let me go, but it was not as simple as that.

'You will never see your home again,' she said, 'by sailing there directly. You must detour to the land of Death, there to consult the blind prophet Tiresias. He alone can chart your course.'

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GREEK MYTHS – SUMMARY NOTES (CE LIST)

Odyssey – Circe Odyssey – women Hercules – Cerberus Jason – Escape from ColchisOdyssey – Calypso Troy – Judgement of Paris Hercules – Nemean Lion Theseus – Journey to AthensOdyssey – Sirens Troy – Achilles’ anger Hercules – Stymphalian Birds Theseus – MinotaurOdyssey – Cyclops Troy – Wooden Horse Hercules – Amazonian Belt Perseus – MedusaOdyssey - Scylla Hercules – Hydra Jason – Journey to Colchis Perseus – AndromedaOdyssey – suitors Hercules – Golden Apples Jason – Fleece (Medea) Theseus/Perseus - help

Odyssey – Circe 8 Good leader 2IslandSee smokeCast lotsHalf crew go inlandVisit houseCirce gives drugged winePigsOne escapes (Eurylochus)Od goes aloneMagic herb (moly – Hermes)Ok after wineDraws swordPigs to men‘Come to bed’1 year – men ask to leave

YES – cares for men (goes to find them) / brave (goes alone) / careful (only half men go looking)NO – reckless: goes alone to witch, needs Hermes’ help

Odyssey – Calypso 8 Most dangerous to Od – why 2Shipwrecked [Ogygia]Calypso goddessLovely cave + nymphs‘Loves’ OdysseusOffers Od immortalityOd pines for wifeSits on beach sighingOd prisoner (years)Zeus says ‘Free Od!’ (sends Hermes)Calypso shows Od treesOd builds raft

Up to you.Laestrygonians – man-eating savage giants, no lawsDestroy almost all of Od’s shipsCyclops – stuck in cave, Cyclops too big to fight, eats men; but using cunning can escapeCalypso – no escape from island, not even his cunning can help – he won’t die but is trapped.Charybdis – no escape once drawn into it, but easy to avoid once you know about it

Odyssey – Sirens 8 Qualities 2Siren islandBird womenKiller songOd wants to hearEarwax in men’s earsOd tied to mastOd no wax – hears songMen row pastTie Od tighter

GOODBraveryIntelligenceSelf-knowledgeCunning CuriosityBADRisks menForgets main job (get home)

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Sirens kill themselves

Odyssey – Cattle of Sun [Helios] 8 Qualities 2Island of sun god [Helios]‘Don’t touch the sacred cattle’No winds for a month – trappedFood runs out, men starvingChoice – starve or risk gods’ angerMen kill cattle when Od asleepDead meat moos on kebab spitsZeus punishes menThunderbolt destroys shipOnly Odysseus survives, drifts to Calypso’s island [Ogygia]

Respect of gods – avoids cowsObedient crew – they only disobey when really hungry

Odyssey – Cyclops 8 What impression 2[Park ships on small island][Takes one boat to mainland]CaveSheep, cheeseGiant, one eye (Polyphemus)Boulder (door)Chomp WineNobodySizzle – poleAargh blindNobody’s blinded meSheep Escape!

Od wise – moors ships away from mainlandCunning – wine to make Cyclops sleepyCunning – tells Cyclops no other men except those in caveNaïve – sits in cave waiting for owner to arrive, gets trappedClever – ‘nobody’ – has worked out neighboursCalm – no panicLoyal – lets men get 2 sheep, he only has 1

Odyssey – Scylla and Charybdis 8 Good leader 2Prophet in Hades (Teiresias) says ‘one or other’Od doesn’t tell crewScylla 6 snake headsLives in cliff nestNarrow waters‘Don’t fight – immortal’2 x 6 chomp aarghThen escapeAvoid CharybdisCharybdis = giant whirlpool monsterWould eat whole ship

Cunning – don’t tell men hard truthBrave – sails into certain death for someImpetuous – attacks Scylla

Odyssey – HomecomingWhen the Phaeacians carry Od home, he is met by Athene disguised as a shepherd. She tells him to reveal his identity to nobody except his son Telemachus (now 20). Athene turns him into an old man. Od tests Eumaeus, his old shepherd, and finds him loyal so reveals himself.Od and Telemachus return to the palace. During Od’s absence 108 suitors, led by Antinous and Eurymachus, had come to the palace to try to marry Penelope. They had spent many years in the palace being riotous and eating Od’s food. During this time Penelope had tricked them by promising to marry one of them when she had finished making a funeral shroud for Od’s old dad Laertes. Every night she unpicked the shroud so it was never finished. A disloyal maid grassed her up, and the angry suitors made her agree to marry. Deal: she would marry anyone who

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could draw O’s bow and shoot arrows through 12 axe heads. All failed. Then Od, still disguised as an old man, took up the bow and easily did the task. Then there was a great battle, and all the suitors died except 2 who were spared (a herald and a musician). Penelope refused to believe that Od had returned so she tested him. She asked a servant to bring out Od’s bed for the stranger to sleep in, and Od said this was impossible as the bed was made out of a tree and could not be moved. She was convinced as only she and Od knew this secret.The remaining suitors and the families of the dead suitors vowed revenge and tried to get support from other Ithacans. They marched on the palace and a fight started, but Athene intervened and commanded peace.

Odyssey – suitors 8 Suitors deserve to die? 2Penelope sets up archery competitionString Odysseus’ bowFire arrow through 12 axesGoodies: Odysseus, Telemachus, shepherd [Eumaeus], cowherd [Philoetius]Night before, hide weapons from hallAll men fail to string bowOdysseus-beggar strings bow and shoots arrow through axesOdysseus turns back to real formAll doors to hall lockedShoots arrow through Antinous’ throatKills suitors with arrows and spears (all goodies fight)Baddie goatherd [Melanthius] sneaks into armouryOdysseus spares a singer [Phemius] and a herald [Medon]Hang 12 maids who betrayed Penelope / slept with suitorsMultilate and kill goatherd

YESCultural – more violent then and execution normalSuitors try to take away his lifeSuitors disrespect to king (Od) and king’s wifeSuitors try to kill TelemachusNOOd away for 20 years – fair enough to presume deadDidn’t kill anyone – so why kill themSuitors’ families think it’s unfair – want revenge against Od

Odyssey – women 8 Role of women 2Penelope - Stays loyal for 20 years / cunning with tapestry (‘only wedding when finished’, unpicks every night) / impossible challenge for suitors / loves husband / tests Odysseus at end (‘move bed’)Eurycleia [nurse] - Recognises Od’s scar / helps shut doors for massacreCirce - Witch, too powerful for Od / Od gets Hermes’ help against spell / turns men to animals for fun / ‘friendly’ disguise / only frees men if he goes to bed / entertains Od for year so he must have liked her / men ask to go, not OdCalypso - Nymph, too powerful for Od / keeps him imprisoned on island / loves Od / takes Zeus via Hermes to get Od free / she tries to persuade him to stay / no violence but total control over OdSirens - Once women, now deadly song / sing so sweetly, men forget all else / Od survives song by being tied to mastAthene - Likes Od / helps him - turns him into old man for disguise / helps Telemachus – persuades him to go to Sparta, helps him find ship + crew / makes Penelope not hear nurse when she blows Od’s disguise / prompts Penelope to do archery competition / helps Od in battle with suitors / brings peace between Od and suitors’ families

Powerful goddesses – Circe, Calypso, AtheneClever – PenelopeLoyal – PenelopeWomen don’t use violence, use their wits or their magic

Troy – Judgement of Paris 8 Good choice? 2[Goddess of Arguments][not invited to wedding]Apple ‘for the prettiest’Hera Athena AphroditePower Wisdom LoveZeus backs off

Hormonal – same reaction by many young menThinking about it – (a) wisdom probably best choice (b) power also possible

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Paris Trojan shepherd (and prince)Goddesses appear [Mt Ida]Bribes offered him: Hera offers power Athena offers wisdom Aphrodite offers prettiest womanParis goes for ‘prettiest woman’Helen of Sparta is prize

Troy – Achilles’ anger 8 [versus Agamemnon] Justified anger? 2Ach best warrior + PROUDAg top leader + PROUDHate each otherAg has slave – father priest to Apollo – begs girl back – Ag rude – Apollo sends plaguePriest + Ach blame AgAg + Ach argueAg ‘I’ll give girl back’Ag ‘I’ll take your slave’Ach DISHONOURAch STRIKETrojans reach Greek ships / Patroclus pretends to be Ach / Pat killed by HectorAch RAGE – REVENGE / Ach kills Hector

Yes – Ach dishonouredAg unfairNo – self-centred – lots of Greeks die as he’s on strike

Troy – death of Patroclus 8 Qualities 2Achilles goes on strike / Greeks do badly / Thetis asked Zeus for Greeks to be punished for upsetting Ach / Ach refuses gifts from Ag / Trojans get to Greek camp / Trojans set fire to a Greek ship / Patroclus persuades Ach to let him wear Ach’s armour / Patroclus looks like Achilles so Trojans are scared, retreat / Ach tells Patroclus ‘stay away from Hector, don’t chase Trojans’ / Patroclus challenges Hector by walls of Troy and gets killed / Hector takes armour

Patroclus – braveAchilles – selfishPatroclus – too ‘heroic’, chases personal glory and dies

Troy – death of Hector 8 Qualities 2Achilles’ mum [Thetis] gets new armour for Achilles / Asks god of fire [Hephaestus] to make it / Achilles wants REVENGE for Patroclus’ death / makes peace with Agamemnon / gets his slavegirl [Briseis] back / Achilles leads Greeks again and routs Trojans / Athene tricks Hector into thinking his brother [Deiphobus] was standing with him / Hector waits outside walls for Achilles / Achilles kills Hector / ties body to chariot / drags him round Troy 3 times

Gods – deceitful, Athene tricks Hector into staying outHector – foolish to do one-to-one with Achilles – GLORY Achilles – angry but defiles Hector’s body, breaks rules

Troy – Wooden Horse 8 Qualities 2Horse hollowMen insideShips hidden [island Tenedos]Empty beachGreek liar [Sinon]Priest ‘lies!’ throws spearSea snakes chomp [priest + 2 sons]Horse taken into TroyPartyGreeks open gatesSignalOther Greeks return – SACK TROY

Cunning in hidingBravery in horseDeceit in lyingBlasphemy in misusing gods

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HERCULES: son of Zeus and Alcmene. Strong and lots of adventures. In rage kills his wife and kids and to make amends has to do 10 Labours for King Eurystheus [Tiryns]. ‘Cheats’ in two so ends up doing 12: 1.Lion 2.Hydra 3.Hind 4.Boar 5.Stables 6.Birds 7.Bull 8.Mares 9.Amazon Belt 10.Geryon cattle 11.Golden Apples 12.Cerberus.

Hercules – Lernaean Hydra 8 Cheated? 2Swamp/lair in middleSnake many heads (9 or 50)Uses club or club/swordThump slice pop pop [2 new heads]Friend helps (Iolaus)TorchThump slice sizzle [no new heads]Giant crab (Hera)Thump crunch Last head immortalBuries last headDips arrows in venomous blood

Yes – help from friend IolausNo – stuffed without help – and who said no help?

Also ‘cheated’ –Birds – Athene gives him rattleStables – paid for work so it doesn’t count

Hercules – Golden Apples 8 Qualities 2Apples belong to HeraBehind unclimbable wallGuarded by giant serpentNymphs of Hesperides (West) stay in gardenHercules asks Atlas to get applesHercules shoots serpentHercules holds sky for AtlasAtlas gets apples, doesn’t want to returnHercules ‘I’m uncomfortable – show me’Atlas tricked, shows Hercules how to hold skyHercules leaves himBONUS Hercules doesn’t know wayHas to catch ProteusProteus changes shape many waysFire, lion, waterHercules keeps holdProteus gives up + tells him

Cunning – tricks AtlasStrong – holds up skyPersistent – outwrestles Proteus

Hercules – Cerberus 8 Most difficult? 2Cerberus – 3 headed dogCerberus – lives in UnderworldCharon takes Hercules across StyxMeets Hades + PersephoneHades ‘take him if you overcome him’Hades ‘no kill’Overcomes Cerberus Sees Medusa – ghost Sees Theseus – butt stuck to rock – frees himTakes Cerberus to bad king [Eurystheus]King jumps into potTakes dog back to Hades

Yes – Underworld – no return allowedNo – Hades nice to him[Another task] harder than Cerberus because __________

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Hercules – Nemean Lion 8 Qualities 2‘Kill terrifying lion’Wait at lion cave2 entrancesLion – bulletproof skinArrow no effectClub no effectStrangle himLose thumbSkins lion with lion clawWears skin

Brave – taking on lionStrong – strangling it and wrestling itPersistent – won’t give up

Hercules – Augeian Stables 8 Qualities 2‘Clean stables of King Augeas’ [ruler of Elis]3000 oxen Stables not cleaned for 10 yearsHas to do task in one dayKing offered 1/10th of herd as rewardHercules digs channel through stablesDiverts river [Alpheus] through stablesAugeas refuses to pay Hercules drives him out and makes son king

Clever – riversStrong – digging channelsThoughtful – putting rivers back to usual courseMistake – in taking up offer of payment, Hercules breaks rules

Hercules – Stymphalian Birds 8 Cheat? 2Task – drive away big flock of birds at lakeBirds have bronze beaksBirds have bronze feathers which they drop on people[Vicious man eating birds]Athene lends him bronze castanetsHercules climbs nearby hillScares birds into air with castanet noiseShoots them with arrowsDrives them away

Athene helps him – cheating?Too many birds to do it any other wayDivine help doesn’t count?

Hercules – Amazonian Belt 8 Qualities 2Task – get belt of Amazonian queen (Hippolyte)Amazons are tribe of women warriorsBelt given to queen by AresWore it across her chestHercules travels with friendsHippolyte welcoming, offers beltHera becomes Amazon womanHera persuades women men are baddiesAmazons attack menHercules kills HippolyteHercules takes belt, men escape

Peaceful at firstDiplomatic – charms Hippolyte into wanting to give beltCareful – takes boatload of menDecisive – when battle starts, kills Hippolyte

Too violent – why kill Hippolyte when she liked him?

JASON: son of King Aeson and Alcimede. Pelias, Jason’s uncle, takes power in Iolcus. Jason taken away to safety. ‘Beware man with one sandal’. Jason returns after losing sandal in river. ‘What would you ask someone who you thought was going to kill you?’ asked Pelias. ‘Send him for the Golden Fleece,’ said Jason. ‘Go get,’ says Pelias.

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Jason – Journey to Colchis 8 Why hero 21.HarpiesBlind king [Phineus] knows way Starving kingTable of food Harpies – half woman half birdSteal food from him Poo on foodSons of wind god chase Harpies offKing tells them way2.HerculesCrew get off to fix oarHercules’ mate [Hylas] goes for walkWater nymph fancies matePulls him into pondHercules looks for himLeave without Hercules3.Women on LemnosIsland with no men Women invite crew homeOne bloke finds out – Women intend to kill menBloke tells crew They escape4. Clashing RocksRocks like automatic doorsCrush anything that goes throughJason releases doveJust gets through minus tailfeatherThey row as rocks reopenAthene gives pushJust get through minus back bit of boatRocks never move again

BraveSupported by godsDoes Mission Impossible

But minor compared to big heroes – it’s mainly Medea really

Jason – Fleece in Colchis (Medea) 8 View of Medea 2King Aeetes gives 3 tasksBulls – bronze, fire, yoke Medea magic ointmentSeeds – dragon teethSeeds – have to be sownWarriors – kill Medea says ‘throw stone’ Warriors attack stone then each otherMedea leads him to Fleece at nightFleece – guarded by dragonMedea – sleepy dragon drug [or Orpheus music sleep]Kill/avoid dragonEscape on ship

[Nicer] In love with Jason, chooses him over familyHelps Jason with bullHelps Jason with warriors[Nastier] Butchers brother – bit of a psychoBetrays family and country

Jason – Escape from Colchis 8 View of Medea 2Jason + Medea sneak off at nightTakes brother with them (kid) [Absyrtus]Faster ships – catching up[Medea kills brother][Medea chops up brother]Medea throws brother in waterKing slows down to pick up brotherChases them round the Black SeaLand in a friendly area

[Nicer] In love with Jason, chooses him over familyHelps Jason with bullHelps Jason with warriors[Nastier] Butchers brother – bit of a psychoBetrays family and country

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King protects themSirens: Orpheus plays louder and more beautifully – drowns their songTalos: Crete – bronze giant attacks them with rocks. Medea cast a spell on him so he goes quiet, then removes bronze nail that keeps his blood in his one vein. He bleeds to death.Jason – Medea later years 8 View of Medea 2Jason + Medea return to Iolcus / Medea drains his dad Aeson of blood and adds magic herbs, makes him younger / Pelias bad king – says she can make him younger / shows daughters an old ram that she chops up, puts in a cauldron with herbs, reborn young / daughters chop up Pelias but no herbs / exiled to Corinth / Jason betrays Medea and marries Glauce [Creusa] daughter of king Creon / Medea gives wedding gift of poisoned dress / this kills Creusa + Creon / Medea kills her sons with Jason / flees to Athens

Helpful – makes Aeson youngerHelpful – gets rid of PeliasPsycho – kills her own sonsPsycho – poisons Creusa/CreonPsycho – gets daughters to kill their own father

THESEUS – son of Aethra of Troezen and Aegeus King of Athens. Aegeus goes home. Puts sandals and swords under rock – ‘when Jason moves rock, let him come’. Theseus comes to Athens, Medea tries to get him poisoned, but dad sees sword and knocks cup from hand. Theseus welcomed but wants to save Athens from Minos tribute.

Theseus – Journey to Athens ‘The Six Labours’ 8 Hero? 2Sword under rockMeets Club Man (Periphetes) Thump with clubMeets Pinebender (Sinis) Bend – tie – pyoing – ripKills giant Crommyonian SowMeets Turtle Man (Sciron) Wash feet, cliff, push off, feed turtle Pulls TM over cliffMeets Bearhug Man (Cercyon)Wrestles him and kills himMeets stretch or cut Bed Man (Procrustes)Puts Bed Man on his bed and cuts head offGets to Athens

Like a mini-HerculesTidies up banditsBut all minor baddiesAnd a bit tit for tat, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth behaviour

Theseus - Minotaur 8 Ariadne right to help? 2Arrives [in Crete] with captives from AthensAriadne loves Theseus [she’s daughter of King Minos]Maid gives him dagger and stringGoes into mazeString behind himFinds MinotaurKills with swordBack out – follows stringAriadne lets him outEscapes with AriadneLeaves her on island of Naxos (Ariadne meets + marries Dionysus)Black sail =’failed’ (white sail = ‘passed’)Dad [Aegeus] jumps off cliff

Disloyal to father and country?Athens to blame for it – son of king was murdered by AthenianShe loves TheseusHuman sacrifice not right

PERSEUS: son of Zeus and Danae. First hero. Grandpa Acrisius told he would be killed by grandson. So locked daughter in bronze chamber. Zeus comes in shower of gold. Acrisius puts daughter in box in sea. Rescued by Dictys in Seriphos. His brother Polydectes is king and loves Danae, tries to get rid of Perseus. Demands wedding presents, Perseus too poor, says name gift and I’ll get it. Polydectes says ‘Great, head of Medusa please.’

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Perseus - Medusa 8 Help? 2Bad King [uncle Polydectes] – Mission ImpossibleAthena + Hermes help Sword (Zeus) / sickle (Hermes)Flying sandals (Hermes) Bag (Tardis)Shiny shield Helmet of invisibility (Hades)Goes to 3 Graiae (witches)One eye, one tooth Nicks eye + toothWitches give directions to Nymphs of HesperidesHangs out with Nymphs Then on to Medusa LandMedusa – 3 Gorgon sisters in all2 others immortal, winged, scaly headsMedusa – snakes on head Medusa – turns people to stoneGorgons asleep when arrivesInvisible when kills her Looks at her via shieldFlies off, chased by sisters[Pegasus grows from Medusa blood]

List all the help the gods gave him.He couldn’t have done it without divine help.

Perseus - Andromeda 8 Hero? 2Perseus flying home with head in a bagSees girl [Andromeda] chained to rock by seaKing and family offering her as sacrificeHe waits for monster [he’s invisible + flying]Monster sees shadowDives on monsterKills monsterMarries AndromedaFiancé gets annoyed, enters with soldiersPerseus pulls out Medusa, all baddies to stone[Then home, turns uncle Polydectes to stone]

Yes – braveYes – support of godsYes – kills some major baddies

Theseus/Perseus – help from gods/women? 8 More dangerous baddie? 2Theseus – girl (Ariadne) princess loves himSent into labyrinthShe gives him sword and stringWithout sword Minotaur would kill himWithout string lostShe lets him outShe helps him leavePerseus – gods give him winged shoes (Hermes),Helmet (Hades), shield, sickle/sword, bagGets advice from 3 GraiaeGets helps from nymphs of northGets help from AtheneJason – witch princess (Medea) loves himHelp from Medea – [Medea has help of Hecate, goddess of night] Talks king out of killing Jason Magic ointment for bulls Trick with stone/warriors Kills own brother Later, kills various other people

Medusa – turns people to stone, unknown place, immortal sisters who fly. (Mission Impossible but with gods’ help becomes easy). Minotaur – labyrinth un-get-out-of-able, Minotaur too dangerous. (Only needs a woman’s help to make the mission possible, not a god’s.)Colchis – Fire-breathing bronze bulls and Warriors would kill Jason. (Needs magic and witch to make mission possible.)

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MYTHOLOGY QUESTIONS – PAST PAPERS

June 2015

(a) (i) Tell the story of Jason and the Harpies. (8)(ii) Do you think this was Jason’s most difficult adventure during his voyage? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Explain what happened when Odysseus returned to his palace after his 20-year absence from Ithaca. (8)(ii) How would you describe Odysseus’ character to someone who had never heard of him? Make two points and briefly explain your answers. (2)

January 2015

(a) (i) Tell briefly the stories of any two of Hercules’ labours. (8)(ii) Which of your chosen labours do you think was more difficult? Give two reasons. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops. (8)(ii) Which qualities did Odysseus show in his encounter with the Cyclops? Make two points. (2)

November 2014

(a) (i) Tell the story of Theseus and the Minotaur from Ariadne’s point of view. (8)(ii) Who do you think was the greater hero, Theseus or Jason? Give reasons for your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of Odysseus in the Cyclops’ cave from the viewpoint of one of his surviving companions. (8)(ii) Do you think Odysseus was a good leader during the Cyclops episode? Give reasons for your answer. (2)

June 2014

(a) (i) Tell the story of any one of Hercules’ labours. (8)(ii) Of the other labours, which, in your opinion, was Hercules’ most difficult? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops. (8)(ii) Which qualities did Odysseus show in his encounter with the Cyclops? Make two points. (2)

January 2014

(a) (i) Write a description of Perseus’ encounter with the Gorgons. (8)(ii) What qualities did Perseus display during his adventures? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Write a description of Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. (8)(ii) Do you think that the Sirens were the most dangerous of the monsters which Odysseus encountered? Explain your answer. (2)

November 2013

(a) (i) Describe Jason’s adventures in Colchis. (8)(ii) Whose tasks do you think were harder, Jason’s or Hercules’? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of how the Golden Apple led to the Trojan War. (8)(ii) Do you think that Paris made a good decision? (2)

June 2013

(a) (i) Describe the contest of the axes devised by Penelope for her suitors. (8)(ii) What qualities of Penelope do you admire? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the challenges set by King Aeetes for Jason. (8)(ii) What qualities did Jason show in his quest for the fleece? (2)

January 2013

(a) (i) Describe any encounter which Odysseus had with a member of the opposite sex. (8)(ii) Name two qualities which Odysseus showed during this encounter. (2)

(b) (i) Describe the escape of Jason and Medea from Colchis. (8)

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(ii) What impression do you have of Medea from this episode? (2)

November 2012

(a) (i) Write a description of Jason’s encounter with the Clashing Rocks. (8)(ii) What were the most impressive qualities that Jason showed in his quest for the Golden Fleece? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Write a description of Odysseus’ homecoming to Ithaca. (8)(ii) Do you think this episode shows Odysseus’ best qualities? (2)

June 2012

(a) (i) Write a description of Theseus’ encounter with the Minotaur. (8)(ii) Do you think Theseus was the bravest of the Greek heroes you have studied? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Write a description of Odysseus’ encounter with Circe. (8)(ii) Odysseus was sometimes regarded by later Greeks as selfish and unreliable. Do you agree? Give your reasons. (2)

January 2012

(a) (i) Describe Hercules’ encounter with the Hydra. (8)(ii) Was King Eurystheus justified when he later claimed that Hercules had cheated on this labour? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Describe Odysseus’ encounter with Circe. (8)(ii)Who or what do you think posed the most danger to Odysseus on his voyage home to Ithaca? Explain your answer. (2)

November 2011

(a) (i) What was Hercules’ most difficult labour? Describe it. (8)(ii) Describe two qualities Hercules showed in accomplishing it. (2)

(b) (i) Describe how Odysseus was able to listen to the Sirens’ music safely. (8)(ii) Describe two qualities which Odysseus showed in achieving this. (2)

June 2011

(a) (i) Tell the story of Hercules’ penultimate labour, involving Atlas and the golden apples of the Hesperides. (8)(ii) What, in your opinion, was Hercules’ easiest labour? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops. (8)(ii) Describe two qualities which Odysseus displayed in his encounter with the Cyclops. (2)

January 2011

(a) (i) Describe any encounter which Odysseus had with a member of the opposite sex. (8)(ii) Which two qualities did Odysseus show during this encounter? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the escape of Jason and Medea from Colchis. (8)(ii) What impression do you have of Medea from this episode? (2)

November 2010

(a) (i) Describe the contest of the axes devised by Penelope for her suitors. (8)(ii) Which qualities of Penelope do you admire, and why? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the challenges set by King Aeetes for Jason. (8)(ii) Which qualities did Jason show in his quest for the fleece? Explain your answer. (2)

June 2010

(a) (i) Describe Hercules’ encounter with the Hydra. (2)

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(ii) Was King Eurystheus right to say that Hercules had cheated in this labour? Explain your answer. (2)(b) (i) Describe the fall of Troy. (8)

(ii) What qualities did the Greeks show in capturing Troy? (2)

January 2010

November 2009

June 2009

(a) (i) Describe Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. (8)(ii) Which two qualities did Odysseus show during this encounter? (2)

(b) (i) Describe any two of Jason’s adventures on his way to Colchis. (8)(ii) Why do you think Jason has been described as a Greek hero? (2)

January 2009

(a) (i) Describe Hercules’ encounter with the Hydra. (8)(ii) Was King Eurystheus justified when he later claimed that Hercules had cheated? Explain your answer. (2)

(b) (i) Describe Odysseus’ encounter with Circe. (8)(ii) Who or what do you think posed the most danger to Odysseus on his voyage home to Ithaca? Explain your answer. (2)

Practice Paper 2009 – 10

(a) (i) Imagine you are Circe. Describe your encounter with Odysseus and his men. (8)(ii) What qualities did Odysseus show in his dealings with Circe? (2)

(b) (i) Explain why Achilles withdrew his men from the fighting at Troy and say why he changed his mind. (8)(ii) Do you think Achilles was the greatest of the Greek heroes at Troy? Explain your answer. (2)

January 2008

(a) (i) Describe Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. (8)(ii) Which two qualities did Odysseus show during this encounter? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the fall of Troy. (8)(ii) Which qualities did the Greeks show in capturing Troy? (2)

Practice Paper 2008 – 9

(a) (i) Describe Odysseus’ visit to Polyphemus. (8)(ii) What impression of Odysseus does this incident give? State your reasons. (2)

(b) (i) Describe the help given to (i) Theseus and (ii) Perseus in their missions to kill the Minotaur & Medusa. (8)(ii) Which of the two monsters do you think was more dangerous, and why? (2)

March 2007

(a) (i) Tell the story of Perseus and the Gorgon Medusa. (8)(ii) Which qualities do you think the Greeks would have admired most about Perseus? Name two qualities, and briefly explain each of them. (2)

(b) (i) Tell the story of Odysseus and Circe. (8)(ii) Apart from the story which you have just described, which of Odysseus’s adventures on his way home from Troy do you consider the most dangerous, and why? Give two reasons. (2)

Practice Paper 2007 – 8

(a) (i) Explain how Perseus was able to find and kill Medusa. (8)(ii) Do you think Perseus was brave or foolish to undertake this task? Give one reason for your answer. (2)

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(b) (i) Imagine you are Medea. Tell the story of Jason’s arrival in Colchis and his achievements there from your point of view. (8)(ii) How do you think Jason felt about the way in which Medea helped him to escape from King Aeetes? Explain your opinion. (2)

Practice Paper 2006 – 7

(a) (i) Describe the adventures of Theseus from his arrival in Crete until his return to Athens. (8)(ii) Why do you think some people feel sorry for the Minotaur? (2)

(b) (i) Describe how Troy was eventually captured by the Greeks. (8)(ii) Who do you think contributed most to the capture of Troy? (2)

June 2006

(a) (i) Describe Odysseus’ encounter with the Sirens. (8)(ii) Which two qualities did Odysseus show during this encounter? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the fall of Troy. (8)(ii) Which qualities did the Greeks show in capturing Troy? (2)

March 2006

(a) (i) Describe two of Hercules’ Labours. (8)(ii) How well do you think he dealt with the problems in one of these encounters? Explain your opinion. (2)

(b) (i) Give an account of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon during the Trojan War, and what the results were. (8)(ii) Was Achilles or Agamemnon more to blame for the quarrel? Explain your opinion. (2)

June 2005

(a) (i) Describe any encounter which Odysseus had with a member of the opposite sex. (8)(ii) Which two qualities did Odysseus show during this encounter? (2)

(b) (i) Describe the escape of Jason and Medea from Colchis. (8)(ii) What do you think of Medea in this story? (2)

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