Mythology a summary myths we have read

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. 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 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. 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. **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…

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 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.