Greek Mythology T to Z

 Yes, this month's A to Z challenge ended today, so here are the last sketches o complete the alphabet.

T is for Theseus. The Athenian answer to Heracles. Theseus killed the Minotaur with the help of King Minos’ daughter Ariadne. On the way home the ship stopped briefly on Naxos where Ariadne was abducted by the God Dionysus. Stricken with grief, Theseus failed to remember to change the colour of his sails from black to white, and his father, King Aegeus, taking this as a sig of Theseus’ death, hurled himself to his death in the sea which now bears his name. Like other heroes, Theseus became proud and vain as he aged. With his drinking buddy Pirithous he first abducted the young Helen (later Hele of Troy) who was rescued by her brothers, the twins Castor and Polydeuces. Then they tried to abduct the Goddess Persephone from the Underworld. Pirithous was taken to eternal punishment. Theseus was sat on a rock from which he could not move, until rescued by Heracles who was on his final task at the time.

U is for Ulysses. Ulysses is essentially the Roman name for the hero Odysseus, and it’s by this name I will refer to him. Odysseus was a major player in the Trojan War, who came up with the strategy of using the wooden horse to defeat the Trojans. After he has blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus, son of Poseidon, Zeus forbids Poseidon from taking Odysseus’ life, but permits him to put obstacles in his path which prevent him from returning home for 10 years. Odysseus overcomes these obstacles through his great cunning and intelligence, primarily.

V is for Vesta. Vesta is the Roman equivalent of Hestia, the Goddess of hearth and home. Her worship was organised by the famous Vestals in Rome, the sacred virgins, and as a result Vesta had a much more exalted place within the Roman pantheon than Hestia had among the Olympians.

W is for Wisdom and also for War. The Goddess of Wisdom and also the Goddess of War, Athena, had a remarkable birth. Zeus learned that the next child of his first wife Metis might overthrown him. He swallowed her whole. One day he had a splitting headache and asked Hephaestos to open his head with an axe. Out sprang the fully formed Athena fully armed, with ever present helmet. Zeus has the utmost respect and pride for Athena. Athens was named after her. She helped the hero Perseus to kill the gorgon Medusa, and Medusa’s head has been placed on the boss of Medusa’s shield. Being Goddess of Wisdom, Athena is never swayed by love, and like Artemis remains a virgin.

X is for the  River StyX ferryman, Charon. Charon, whose name does start with X in the original Greek, is a psychopomp. Psychopomps are spirits in different mythologies whose duty it is to escort souls of the newly dead to the afterlife. He expected the fee of an obolos coin, and those buried without such a coin had to wait on the shore of the River Styx for 100 years before he would carry them. Charon also conveys the living Heracles and Theseus back to the living world across the Styx when Heracles is on his 12^th and last labour. Charon also fulfilled the same function in Dante’s Inferno in the Divine Comedy. Although a Christian story, The Inferno uses many images from Greek Mythology.

Y is for Iapetus . This is a bit of a cheat, but at least the name sounds as if it starts with a Y! Iapetus was a titan, and the father of both Prometheus and Atlas. Iapetus was a brother of Cronus and was imprisoned in Tartarus by Zeus and his brothers. His children were identified with the ancestors of mankind, and this has led to him also being connected with Japheth, Noah’s son.

Z is for Zeus – who else? Youngest and most powerful of the children of Cronus, when portioning out the three domains of the world following the deposition of the Titans, Zeus chose the Heavens where he resides in Olympus. Although married to his sister Hera, his Queen, he is prodigiously unfaithful, having a daughter with his other sister, Demeter, and other children with a whole army of minor goddesses, nymphs and human women. Zeus’ weapon is the thunderbolts, fashioned for him by the Cyclopes. He respects human bravery, but can be capricious, and is just as likely to place obstacles in a hero’s path. He can be quick tempered, and will punish pride and disrespect in those he has previously shown favour towards. Zeus looks especially kindly on the requests of his daughter Athena, and it is Zeus who decrees that the age of Heroes will end with the conclusion of the Trojan War.