It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
Meet Etruscan #Zeus or #Tinia watch his adult son #Hercle being breastfed by his wife #Uni [Hera] as a sign of adoption. #Aplu [#Apollon] and another god and goddess are present to witness the ritual too.
🏛️ #Hera breastfeeding #Herakles, drawing of an #Etruscan mirror case engraving from Volterra, 4th century BCE, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, #Florence
It's the Day of Zeus / Jupiter's Day / #Thursday! ⚡
A late #DayOfZeus entry today because I didn't manage to post before work:
It's the birth of #Athena: The tiny goddess jumps from #Zeus' head in full armour!
On the left, #Hermes and a rare bearded #Apollon watch the scene. On the right, an unknown goddess and #Ares look on.
🏛️ Black-figure vase painting dated about 540 BCE. Today in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is trees 🌲
Many stories in #GreekMythology have trees in it, some of which I will be telling in this thread.
The most famous tree-related myth must be the transformation of Daphne. Hit with Eros' fiery arrows, #Apollon was burning with desire for the nymph and pursued her when she fled from his advances. Feeling her strength wane, Daphne prayed for help from either her father or Gaia and was turned into the first laurel tree.
@mythology Another target of #Apollon's desire, but one that willingly became his lover, is Kyparissos, a beautiful boy from the island of Keos. #Kyparissos accidentally killed his beloved pet stag and begged of Apollon that he would mourn forever. Apollon tried to comfort him but no words nor gentle touch would soothe Kyparissos' grief until the god finally relented and turned his lover into a cypress tree, still associated with grief and mourning in Greece.
Silver #coin depicting the god #Dionysos sitting in his biga, a chariot drawn by a team of two animals. Dionysos is holding his iconic thyrsos, a staff of giant fennel. #Apollon Kitharoidos, Apollon the kithara player, is sitting beside him. The biga is drawn by a panther and a goat, both of which are animals sacred to Dionysos.
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is artworks featuring mythology. There are, of course, countless depictions of mythological scenes from ancient times. Some myths, in fact, are ONLY known through artwork, for example the drinking contest between #Herakles and #Dionysos.
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In the 19th century, the popularity of Graeco-Roman myths was still going strong. This is a 19th century painting of #Apollon, catching his lover #Hyakinthos who has been hit fatally by the discus they played with. It can be seen lying on the ground. Apollon is identified by a quiver of arrows on his back.
The scene is tender and incredibly sad. I like to think Apollon and the Muses inspired it.
🎨 La mort d'Hyacinthe (The Death of #Hyacinthus), by Jean Broc, dated 1801
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
Animal husbandry, a sign of power and wealth, was less well developed in #ancientGreece. Goats and sheep were the most common livestock and the flocks were protected (and sometimes stolen) by #Hermes. He cares for and increases the flocks and thus gives wealth.
Before Hermes was born, his brother #Apollon was herder of the flocks. When he was sentenced to a year of servitude as a young god for killing Python, Apollon served the mortal king Admetos as his herdsman.
Fired with love for Admetos, #Apollon made all the cows bear twins. But then #Hermes was born and built the first lyre and Apollon traded his cattle whip for the instrument, making Hermes keeper of herds.
Hermes is also the god of trade and merchants, watching over the marketplace in the agora, a natural extension of his role since animals and their by-products were brought to the market to sell. Thievery and scams, of course, are also tools of the trade...
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is healing. The God of Healing is #Apollon but there are other gods who share in a subset of his power. Apollon's son #Asklepios famously brought dead people back to life. Deified after his untimely death by Zeus' thunderbolt, he received a cult of his own, the Temples of Asklepios serving as hospitals. Asklepios had children of his own, among them Panacea (Cure-all), and Hygieia (Health).
But he is not the only healing god associated with Apollon.
In fact, #Asklepios learned the art of medicine from #Chiron, a centaur raised and educated by #Apollon. Chiron in turn raised and educated many famous heroes in their youth, among them #Achilles, Apollon's son Aristaios, and Kokytos, whom Chiron had taught medicine and who cared for #Adonis when he was wounded by the wild boar.
Chiron was wounded by an arrow dipped in the blood of the hydra, giving up is immortality to end his agony. The healer could not heal himself. 😔
An older god of healing who appears in the #Iliad as the Healer of the Gods is #Paian. In the Iliad, Paian heals #Ares after the latter is injured by #Diomedes and #Athena through medicine that produces instant relief. #Hades is healed in a similar fashion after #Herakles' arrow (thankfully without hydra blood) pierces him.
Paian is later reduced to an epithet of both #Apollon and his son #Asklepios.
A god that is not usually associated with medicine but has a healing aspect is #Dionysos.
Dionysos Hygiates, Dionysos the Dispenser of Health, is Dionysos’ healing aspect. In #GreekMythology, he originally titled himself #Dionysos Iatros, (Doctor), but the Pythia of Delphi declared that he is not a doctor, but rather a dispenser of health. While #Apollon ensures the health of the city and the people, Dionysos spreads good health because wine has healing properties, as well as the vegetation he rules over.
Source: Forgetting Delphi between Apollo and Dionysus, by Marcel Detienne
Today, the gods of healing are still alive in the Hippocratic Oath:
"I swear by #Apollon Iatros (the Doctor), and #Asklepios, and #Hygeia, and Panakeia (Panacea), and all the gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability and judgment, I will keep this Oath."
The original oath was written in Ionic Greek, between the fifth and third centuries BCE. It still influences current medical ethics and alternative modern versions of the oath like the Declaration of Geneva.
"He [Magnes of Thessalia] had a son of remarkable beauty, Hymenaios. And when #Apollon saw the boy, he was seized with love for him, and would not leave the house of Magnes."
"We call him [#Apollon] the gods of herds since that time
When by the Amphryssus he tended the yoked pair of horses
And was fired with love for young #Admetos."
Meet a Greek silver tetradrachm with the head of #Helios or #Apollon.
The words [ΘΕΟΔΟ]ΤΟΣ / ΕΠΟΕΙ can be deciphered left of the beautiful god, "Theodotos made this".
🏛️ Dated ca. 375-360 BCE, Münzkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
This week's #MythologyMonday theme is #flowers. In #GreekMythology, several flowers are the result of transformations. The most well-known examples are #Aphrodite turning her dying lover #Adonis into a flower after he had been mauled by a boar, Apollon turning #Hyakinthos into a flower after he fatally wounded him with a discus, and the nymph Daphne turning into the first laurel tree to escape the unwanted amorous advances of #Apollon.