"Mortals
worshipped the gods and the gods honored Mother Earth. They all had sprung from her, for she was the
beginning of all life."... Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire, Book of Greek Myths, 1962
Ordinary men in ancient Greek times did their
best to avoid speaking of Hades, brother of Zeus and Poseidon...
This was not because he was particularly
cruel. It certainly wasn't because he
ruled the hidden treasures of the earth, its gold and silver and the minerals
which made men rich. (He was sometimes
called "Pluto" from a word meaning "riches".) And he was honored by farmers for bringing
them agricultural wealth...
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| Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Abduction of Proserpina |
But Hades was also Lord of the Underworld,
the grim place where shades of the dead journey after this life-- the righteous
to the blissful Elysian Fields, the ordinary souls who were just as often good
as they were bad to the monotony of the Asphodel Meadows where they had no
memory of their earthly existence, the wicked to the pit of Tartarus and
eternal suffering. And it was for this
reason that men trembled at the mention of his name and that few dared swear
oaths invoking his wrath...
Greeks told few stories in which Hades left
his gloomy domain. One occasionally told
tale suggested he left to receive treatment for an arrow wound inflicted upon
him by the hero Heracles (Hercules). But
it was Hades' abduction of Persephone from the land of the living to become his
queen that was known throughout Greece...
Centuries later, Gian Lorenzo Bernini
captured the drama of this world-altering event in a work finally completed in
1625. The sculptor was a versatile
artist-- known to us today for his role in the emergence of Roman Baroque
architecture in addition to stints as a painter and playwright. Deeply religious, Bernini used light and
shadow to intensify the spiritual experience of those who viewed his work. Few people can look at his sculpture and not
be amazed by his ability to create a sense of fluid motion from stone.
 |
| Tintoretto: Vulcan Surprises Venus and Mars |
Critics tell us his Rape of Proserpina (Persephone) unfolds as a narrative in three acts. From the left, we see the struggle and ultimately
futile resistance of Demeter's daughter.
A frontal view shows us Hades entering the underworld with his subdued
bride-to-be. Looking at the sculpture
from the right reveals the aftermath of abduction: the tears of a goddess and
the inevitability of her future in the darkness of a realm guarded by Cerberus,
the three-headed dog who sees that none save his master enter or exit the
Underworld...
A sense of humor helps in theological matters
and the Greeks likely applied theirs in choosing Hephaestus as the husband of
Aphrodite. The personification of flawless female beauty found herself wedded
to the least handsome or attractive god living on Mount Olympus-- a deity lame,
barrel-chested, and sweaty from physical labor.
In earliest times, Hephaestus was a fire god whose cult arose on the
volcanic island of Lemnos. He came to
personify beneficial fire as a celestial blacksmith who made the lives of gods
more beautiful and the lives of mortals more tolerable as a teacher of
mechanical arts...
 |
| Roman copy from a Greek original: Ares Ludovisi |
Hephaestus was not lame at his birth but
became so almost immediately. The son of
Zeus and Hera, his ugliness so horrified his mother that she tossed him to
earth from Olympus shortly after he took his first breath. He was adopted by the sea-goddesses Thetis and
Eurynome. Myth tells us he eventually
exacted revenge on Hera. Biding time,
Hephaestus let years pass before he crafted a golden throne as a gift for his
not-so-loving mother. Delighted at the
throne's beauty, Hera sat on it.
Invisible bands sprang forth and clamped her down. No other Immortal had the knowledge or
cunning to release the Queen of Gods.
After a few fistfights with his divine brothers, an undefeated
Hephaestus set Hera free-- after Zeus agreed to give him Aphrodite as his
bride. Oddly enough, after Hephaestus
had his revenge, he became Hera's most loyal son, never hesitating to step
between her and his father when Zeus raised his hand in anger...
One might expect Aphrodite had no desire to
marry Hephaestus. She didn't, taking the
god of war as her lover. Ares commanded
the least respect among his fellow divine beings and mortals. Brutal and savage, he was a vain and arrogant
coward. His father Zeus calls him a
whiner and a double-faced liar in the Iliad
and says he would gladly cast him from the heavens if it were not for the fact Ares was his
son. His cult merged with that of Mars
after Rome conquered Greece and brought her gods home with them. But the ancient Roman god was held in high
regard in the Latin world, second only to Jupiter/Zeus in importance. His original duties were to protect fields
and farmers, using military force only to secure peace and prosperity. Our illustration, Ares Ludovisi, is a Roman
copy of a Greek original dating to circa 320 BCE...
 |
| Jean Boulogne: The Flying Mercury |
[We should note the warlike Spartans honored
Ares greatly. Some classical writers say
they even honored him with human sacrifices but these claims may have been made
to cement opposition against them.
Archaeologists have found no firm evidence of human sacrifice as a
common practice in ancient Greece although some myths suggest it took place in
very olden times. For the most part,
Greeks and later Romans shuddered at the mere thought of either human sacrifice
or cannibalism.]
Popular opinion held Hermes in far higher
regard than it did his bellicose brother.
Our illustration, Giovanni da Bologna's The Flying Mercury, ranks among the better known sculptures
completed in 1580. Most people recognize
it if only because it inspired the trademark for the FTD florist network. Hermes aka Mercury in Rome can be found in
crossword puzzles asking for a 6 letter messenger of the gods. He was far more-- the patron of travelers and
protector of thieves, the divine sponsor for inventors and poets and athletes,
the guide for souls of the dead into the underworld. This last would be appropriate for some myths
carry a hint that he was once, early in his career, a god of the twilight...
 |
| Bas relief at Eleusis: Demeter, Persephone, and Triptolemus |
Mythologists believe Hermes' cult originated
in Thrace, an area that is now the extreme northeastern corner of Greece and
the south-central part of Bulgaria, as a protector of shepherds and their
flocks and simple huts. He later became
the guardian of travelers (and commerce, by extension, since few people
wandered the roads in ancient times unless they had business to conduct). Since Hermes came to be associated with
profit, he also kept a kindly eye on gamblers and others involved in risky
ventures...
Jean Boulougne, sometimes called Giovanni da
Bologna, was a Frenchman influenced by Michelangelo. He developed his own Mannerist style that
emphasized elegance, beauty, and refined surfaces while downplaying the
emotional. He grew rich thanks to the
patronage of the Church and the Medici banking family. The Medicis were so afraid he would go to
work for Hapsburgs in Spain or Austria that they forbade him to leave Florence,
effectively making him a prisoner in a very golden and very luxurious cage...
Winter came into the world as one of the
earth-shattering consequences we mentioned earlier in connection with Hades'
abduction of Persephone. This was
because Demeter was Persephone's mother and Demeter was the beloved goddess who
nourished the crops of the earth and made its fields fertile...
 |
| Amphora: Dionysus and Ariadne |
Demeter wandered the earth, half mad with
grief, searching for her lost daughter who had vanished without a trace. She heard Persephone's cries for help since
they were loud enough to reach the heights of Mount Olympus. But no one seemed to have any useful
information until Hecate, goddess of magic and crosswords, advised her to
demand answers of Helios, the Sun god.
He finally admitted that Zeus had agreed to give Persephone to his
brother Hades to become his wife.
Unfortunately, neither girl nor mother was consulted...
Zeus demonstrated fraternal loyalty and was
not inclined to ask his sibling to give up his bride. Utterly inconsolable, Demeter abandoned
Olympus, going to live at her temple at Eleusis. Crops withered and the winds grew cold as
Demeter's tears became more bitter. One
by one, every god, even the vain and cowardly Ares, traveled to Eleusis to
plead with her to show mercy to the dying earth and its creatures...
The solution to this cosmic disaster became
part of the Mysteries of Eleusis, a scene of which is depicted in a bas relief,
dating to about 440 BCE, from the temple in that town. Hades eventually relented and returned
Persephone to her mother. But since his
wife had eaten a pomegranate and since six of its seeds remained in her teeth,
Hades had claim to her company for six months of the year. And for this reason we have autumn and winter
while Demeter grieves the temporary loss of her daughter each year...
Dionysus, the wine god, had his own
connection to the Mystery Religions.
Followers of his cults entranced themselves, drunk or drugged, seeking
liberation from the drudgery of ordinary life or the pain they felt daily. It is no surprise many of his worshippers
were slaves and women given the status of both in ancient times. But he had believers from among the wealthy
classes who felt trapped by social constraints.
In a sense, he was a democratic god who closed the doors to liberation
to none who accepted the freedom he offered...
 |
| Guido Renaldi: Hercules Slays The Hydra |
Our illustration is a decorated amphora
dating to around 525 BCE and shows Dionysus in the company of his wife
Ariadne. Her name means "most
holy" and some scholars, including Robert Graves, believe she was originally
the Great Goddess of Crete whose province was to embody the entire Earth,
fertility, and motherhood...
Early Christianity benefitted from the
widespread cult of Dionysus who took on a Greek form in Thrace after borrowing
traits from the Cretan deity Zagreus, the Phoenician god Sabazius, and the
Lydian divinity Bassareus. Missionaries
spreading the gospel of the new messiah had but to retell the story of Jesus
transforming water into wine and speak of the Nazarene's message that all men
and women were brothers and sisters, each a uniquely precious soul loved by the
One God who made all things...
Not all, of course, embraced Dionysus...
Pentheus, king of Thebes and whose name means
"Man of Sorrows", was a puritanical soul who had been warned by the
blind seer Tiresias to accept the rule of Dionysus lest his mother and sister
be covered in his blood. He didn't
listen...
The great strength of Greek myths which has
allowed them to endure for century after century is their humanity. Unlike the deities of many other lands, the
Greek gods looked like men and women, only more perfectly so. They were not half hippopotamus or half hawk
or a giant snake demanding the burned bodies of babies as sacrifices. And the Greeks told rousing tales of heroes,
most of them sons of an immortal god and a mortal woman, who appeared at the
very last minute of mankind's darkest hour on the backs of flying horses to do
battle with titanic monsters bent on utter destruction...
 |
| D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths: The Family Tree of Olympus |
Heracles was one of the most popular heroes
in Greece. Romans called him Hercules
and they too celebrated his strength and courage. We see him here in Hercules Slays The Hydra, a 1620 painting by Guido Reni, which takes
as its inspiration the second of twelve "Labors" imposed upon him as
penance for killing his own sons after Hera drove him to madness. Truth be told, Hera wanted the nine-headed
serpent with poisonous breath to kill Heracles simply because he was one of the
many sons of mortal women fathered by her philandering husband-brother Zeus...
Guido Reni, our painter, was born in 1575 to
a family of musicians living in Bologna but was apprenticed at the age of nine
to Flemish painter Denys Calvaert who found a new home in Italy after leaving
his native Antwerp. Both master and
apprentice belonged to the Baroque school of painting-- as did Peter Paul
Rubens. These artists utilized clear
detail and exaggerated motion to create the drama and tension. Many Baroque artists were deeply religious
men-- like Calvaert and Reni-- whose paintings of Biblical scenes hint at the ecstasy
born of faith...
Great was his hardship, long was his journey
but no other man traveled the same roads he traveled. And no other man, save Odysseus, earned quite
the same degree of chaste affection from Athena who first sends him on his
wanderings as punishment for desecrating her temple and then comes to admire
his courage and quick wit as he faces all the woe heaven can hurl at him...
 |
| Alfred Drury: Circe |
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CREDITS
Note:
All photographs for this essay were located through Google Images or Wikipedia,
without authoritative source or ownership information except as noted: Circe
from http://www.victorianweb.org/sculpture/drury/50.html; information about the
Greek gods, goddesses, and their cults from the Larousse Encyclopedia
of Mythology, London, 1959; critical
assessment of Bernini's The Rape of Proserpina from http://maitaly.wordpress.com/2011/03/02/bernini-galleria-borghese-the-rape-of-persephone/; the family tree of Olympus from D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, New York, 1962
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