Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [96]
Finally, Zeus defeats Typhon (or Typhoeus), a monster with one hundred dragon heads, fire-blazing eyes, and many voices, using thunderbolts to blast him down to the Tartarus region, where he remained the source of hurricanes. (The word “typhoon” is actually a blending of this Greek name, adapted later in Arabic, with the Chinese words toi fung, for “big wind.”) With Titans, Giants, and monsters all reduced to notches on his godly belt, Zeus is chosen to be ruler by the other gods and goddesses, who agree to live with him on Mount Olympus. The highest mountain in Greece, Olympus rises 9,570 feet (2,917 meters) in northern Greece, and divides the region of Thessaly from Macedonia. The summit is usually covered with snow and hidden in clouds, adding to its mystery as the traditional home of the gods. (The first recorded climb to the summit was not made until 1913.)
The origins of Hesiod’s Greek Creation tale have been a source of debate. Historically, it is believed to be part of a much older oral tradition before Hesiod set it down in poetic form. However, symbolically, it has been thought that the story of Zeus gaining supremacy was an allegory of the gradual ascent of male power over female, with the warlike male Zeus supplanting a more primitive earth goddess. Part of this suggestion was that the Mycenaeans brought their macho mythology with them when they invaded Greece and replaced the kinder, gentler goddess worship of the Minoans. But many scholars believe that these Greek stories are actually rooted in other ancient Near Eastern myths, such as the Babylonian Enuma Elish or the myths of the Indo-European Hittites who ruled central Anatolia (now Turkey) and were in place before the Mycenaeans arrived. Either way, the fact remains that the Greek myths, like many other mythic systems, were drawn from earlier sources and beliefs, but were ultimately crafted into their own unique, classic Greek form.
WHO’S WHO OF THE OLYMPIANS
This list of the central gods of Mount Olympus shows their Greek name, followed in parentheses by the name used by the Romans, who later adapted much of Greek mythology as their own. Traditionally, twelve gods are called Olympians, but that list was not always the same, as some gods became more or less important at different times in Greek history. (The gods listed with a bullet are the twelve who appeared on a frieze on the Parthenon, the great temple to Athena in Athens.)
While Hesiod and Homer provided much of the earliest written source for Greek mythology, other later playwrights and poets added immensely to the traditions and stories of the gods. The famous trio of Greek tragedians—Aeschylus, Euripides, and Sophocles—took the old tales and transformed them into dramatic works of timeless power. During the Roman era, Roman poets took the Greek traditions and added new layers of complexity. Chief among these sources is Ovid (43 BCE–17 CE?), best known for his witty and sophisticated love poems, including The Art of Love, which is a verse “how-to” manual on finding and keeping a lover. More significant from the perspective of mythology was the Metamorphoses, which Ovid believed was his greatest work. In this narrative poem, largely filled with stories of mythical and magical “transformations,” Ovid moves from the creation of the world to his own time. The poem describes the adventures and love affairs of deities and heroes, with more than two hundred tales taken from Greek and Roman legends and myths.
The Roman poet Virgil added a Roman dimension to Greek myth by connecting the fall of Troy to the foundation of Rome (see below, Was Homer on the Romans’ reading list?). Other important sources for these Greek (and, later, Roman) myths were later