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Podarge
In Greek mythology, Podarge ( grc-gre, Ποδάργη, English translation: "fleet-foot") referred to several different beings. *One of the Harpies is named Podarge and, due to her union with Zephyrus, the god of the West Wind, was the mother of Balius and Xanthus, the horses of Achilles. *The rainbow/messenger goddess Iris (sister of the Harpies) is sometimes also referred to as Podarge. *Podarces was Priam's birth name. He changed it after buying his life from Heracles with a golden veil embroidered by his sister, Hesione. Priam was interpreted as "ransomed" (as if from πρίασθαι "to have bought") by folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili .... Greek legendary creatures Legendary birds Harpies Mythological hybrids {{Greek myth index ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpies
In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions They were generally depicted as birds with the heads of maidens, faces pale with hunger and long claws on their hands. Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness. Pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. Ovid described them as human-vultures. Hesiod To Hesiod, they were imagined as fair-locked and winged maidens, who flew as fast as the wind. Aeschylus But even as early as the time of Aeschylus, they are described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers carry their notions of the harpies so far as to represent them as most disgusting monsters. The Pythian priestess of Apollo recounted the appearance of the harpies in the following lines: Virgil Hyginus Functions and abodes The harpies seem originally to have been wind spirits (perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harpy
In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, a harpy (plural harpies, , ; lat, harpȳia) is a half-human and half-bird personification of storm winds. They feature in Homeric poems. Descriptions They were generally depicted as birds with the heads of maidens, faces pale with hunger and long claws on their hands. Roman and Byzantine writers detailed their ugliness. Pottery art depicting the harpies featured beautiful women with wings. Ovid described them as human-vultures. Hesiod To Hesiod, they were imagined as fair-locked and winged maidens, who flew as fast as the wind. Aeschylus But even as early as the time of Aeschylus, they are described as ugly creatures with wings, and later writers carry their notions of the harpies so far as to represent them as most disgusting monsters. The Pythian priestess of Apollo recounted the appearance of the harpies in the following lines: Virgil Hyginus Functions and abodes The harpies seem originally to have been wind spirits (perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zephyrus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, the Anemoi (Greek: , 'Winds') were wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came (see Classical compass winds), and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions. They were the progeny of the goddess of the dawn Eos and her husband Astraeus. Etymology The earliest attestation of the word in Greek and of the worship of the winds by the Greeks, are perhaps the Mycenaean Greek word-forms , , , , i.e. 'priestess of the winds'. These words, written in Linear B, are found on the KN Fp 1 and KN Fp 13 tablets. Mythology The Anemoi are minor gods and are subject to the god Aeolus. They were sometimes represented as gusts of wind, and at other times were personified as winged men. They were also sometimes depicted as horses kept in the stables of the storm god Aeolus, who provided Odysseus with the Anemoi in the ''Odyssey''. The Spartans were reported to sacrifice a horse t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balius
Balius (; Ancient Greek: Βάλιος, ''Balios'', possibly "dappled") and Xanthus (; Ancient Greek: Ξάνθος, ''Xanthos'', "blonde") were, according to Greek mythology, two immortal horses, the offspring of the harpy, Podarge and the West wind, Zephyrus. In other traditions, Poseidon is the father of Xanthus along with another horse named Cyllarus to an unnamed mother. It is possible that Xanthus's ability to speak prophetically may be related to Arion, another mythical horse reported to have saved Adrastus from the war of the Seven against Thebes with his prophetic abilities in Statius's ''Thebaid''. Mythology Poseidon gave the two horses to King Peleus of Phthia, as a wedding gift when Peleus married the Ocean goddess, Thetis. Peleus later gave the horses to his son Achilles who took them to draw his chariot during the Trojan War. Book 16 of the ''Iliad'' tells us that Achilles had a third horse, Pedasos (maybe "Jumper", maybe "Captive"), which was yoked as a "trace ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Balius And Xanthus
Balius (; Ancient Greek: Βάλιος, ''Balios'', possibly "dappled") and Xanthus (; Ancient Greek: Ξάνθος, ''Xanthos'', "blonde") were, according to Greek mythology, two immortal horses, the offspring of the harpy, Podarge and the West wind, Zephyrus. In other traditions, Poseidon is the father of Xanthus along with another horse named Cyllarus to an unnamed mother. It is possible that Xanthus's ability to speak prophetically may be related to Arion, another mythical horse reported to have saved Adrastus from the war of the Seven against Thebes with his prophetic abilities in Statius's ''Thebaid''. Mythology Poseidon gave the two horses to King Peleus of Phthia, as a wedding gift when Peleus married the Ocean goddess, Thetis. Peleus later gave the horses to his son Achilles who took them to draw his chariot during the Trojan War. Book 16 of the ''Iliad'' tells us that Achilles had a third horse, Pedasos (maybe "Jumper", maybe "Captive"), which was yoked as a "trac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Mythology
A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself. The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC; eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems, the '' Iliad'' and the '' Odyssey''. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the ''Theogony'' and the '' Works and Days'', contain accounts of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the island of Great Britain. Existing on a dialect continuum with Scots, and then closest related to the Low Saxon and Frisian languages, English is genealogically West Germanic. However, its vocabulary is also distinctively influenced by dialects of France (about 29% of Modern English words) and Latin (also about 29%), plus some grammar and a small amount of core vocabulary influenced by Old Norse (a North Germanic language). Speakers of English are called Anglophones. The earliest forms of English, collectively known as Old English, evolved from a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century and further mutated by Norse-speaking Viking settlers starting in the 8 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Achilles
In Greek mythology, Achilles ( ) or Achilleus ( grc-gre, Ἀχιλλεύς) was a hero of the Trojan War, the greatest of all the Greek warriors, and the central character of Homer's '' Iliad''. He was the son of the Nereid Thetis and Peleus, king of Phthia. Achilles' most notable feat during the Trojan War was the slaying of the Trojan prince Hector outside the gates of Troy. Although the death of Achilles is not presented in the ''Iliad'', other sources concur that he was killed near the end of the Trojan War by Paris, who shot him with an arrow. Later legends (beginning with Statius' unfinished epic ''Achilleid'', written in the 1st century AD) state that Achilles was invulnerable in all of his body except for one heel, because when his mother Thetis dipped him in the river Styx as an infant, she held him by one of his heels. Alluding to these legends, the term " Achilles' heel" has come to mean a point of weakness, especially in someone or something with an otherwise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iris (mythology)
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Iris (; ; grc-gre, Ἶρις, Îris, rainbow, ) is a daughter of the gods Thaumas and Electra, the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods, a servant to the Olympians and especially Queen Hera. Iris appears in several stories carrying messages from and to the gods or running errands but has no unique mythology of her own. Similarly, very little to none of a historical cult and worship of Iris is attested in surviving records, with only a few traces surviving from the island of Delos. In ancient art, Iris is depicted as a winged young woman carrying a caduceus, the symbol of the messengers, and a pitcher of water for the gods. Iris was traditionally seen as the consort of Zephyrus, the god of the west wind and one of the four Anemoi, by whom she is the mother of Pothos in some versions. Etymology The ancient Greek noun ' means both the rainbow and the halo of the Moon. An inscription from Corinth provides evidenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priam
In Greek mythology, Priam (; grc-gre, Πρίαμος, ) was the legendary and last king of Troy during the Trojan War. He was the son of Laomedon. His many children included notable characters such as Hector, Paris, and Cassandra. Etymology Most scholars take the etymology of the name from the Luwian 𒉺𒊑𒀀𒈬𒀀 (Pa-ri-a-mu-a-, or “exceptionally courageous”), attested as the name of a man from Zazlippa, in Kizzuwatna. A similar form is attested transcribed in Greek as ''Paramoas'' near Kaisareia in Cappadocia. Some have identified Priam with the historical figure of Piyama-Radu, a warlord active in the vicinity of Wilusa. However, this identification is disputed, and is highly unlikely, given that he was known in Hittite records as being an ally of the Ahhiyawa against Wilusa. A popular folk etymology derives the name from the Greek verb , meaning 'to buy'. This in turn gives rise to a story of Priam's sister Hesione ransoming his freedom, with a golden veil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heracles
Heracles ( ; grc-gre, Ἡρακλῆς, , glory/fame of Hera), born Alcaeus (, ''Alkaios'') or Alcides (, ''Alkeidēs''), was a divine hero in Greek mythology, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the foster son of Amphitryon.By his adoptive descent through Amphitryon, Heracles receives the epithet Alcides, as "of the line of Alcaeus", father of Amphitryon. Amphitryon's own, mortal son was Iphicles. He was a great-grandson and half-brother (as they are both sired by the god Zeus) of Perseus, and similarly a half-brother of Dionysus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, the ancestor of royal clans who claimed to be Heracleidae (), and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximian, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hesione
In Greek mythology and later art, the name Hesione ( /hɪˈsaɪ.əniː/; Ancient Greek: Ἡσιόνη) refers to various mythological figures, of whom the Trojan princess Hesione is most known. Mythology According to the '' Bibliotheca'', the most prominent Hesione was a Trojan princess, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, sister of Priam and second wife of King Telamon of Salamis. The first notable myth Hesione is cited in is that of Hercules, who saves her from a sea monster. However, her role becomes significant many years later when she is described as a potential trigger of the Trojan War. Apollo and Poseidon were angry at King Laomedon because he refused to pay the wage he promised them for building Troy's walls. Apollo sent a plague and Poseidon a sea monster to destroy Troy.Smith, p. 34 Oracles promised deliverance if Laomedon would expose his daughter Hesione to be devoured by the sea monster Cetus (in other versions, the lot happened to fall on her) and he exposed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
