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Laestrygonians
In Greek mythology, the Laestrygonians or Laestrygones () were a tribe of man-eating giants. They were said to have sprung from Laestrygon, son of Poseidon. Hesiod, '' Ehoiai'' fr. 40a as cited in ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'' 1358 fr. 2 According to Thucydides (6.2.1.) and Polybius (1.2.9) the Laestrygones inhabited southeast Sicily; Pliny the Elder in the ''Natural History''7.2 places them "in the very centre of the earth, in Italy and Sicily". The name is akin to that of the Lestriconi, a branch of the Corsi people of the northeast coast of Sardinia (now Gallura). Mythology Odysseus, the main character of Homer's ''Odyssey'', visited them during his journey back home to Ithaca. The giants ate many of Odysseus's men and destroyed eleven of his twelve ships by launching rocks from high cliffs. Odysseus's ship was not destroyed because it was hidden in a cove near shore. Everyone on Odysseus's ship survived the incident. "His soldiers, with a dozen ships, arrive at 'the rocky ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laestrygonians Hurling Rocks At The Fleet Of Odysseus
In Greek mythology, the Laestrygonians or Laestrygones () were a tribe of man-eating giants. They were said to have sprung from Laestrygon (mythology), Laestrygon, son of Poseidon.Hesiod, ''Catalogue of Women, Ehoiai'' fr. 40a as cited in ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'' 1358 fr. 2 According to Thucydides (6.2.1.) and Polybius (1.2.9) the Laestrygones inhabited southeast Sicily; Pliny the Elder in the ''Natural History (Pliny), Natural History''7.2 places them "in the very centre of the earth, in Italy and Sicily". The name is akin to that of the Lestriconi, a branch of the Corsi people of the northeast coast of Sardinia (now Gallura). Mythology Odysseus, the main character of Homer's ''Odyssey'', visited them during his journey back home to Homer's Ithaca, Ithaca. The giants Cannibalism in literature, ate many of Odysseus's men and destroyed eleven of his twelve ships by launching rocks from high cliffs. Odysseus's ship was not destroyed because it was hidden in a cove near shore. Ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telepylos
Telepylos or Telepylus ( ''Tēlépylos'', meaning "far-off port" or "big-gated") was the mythological city of the Laestrygonians. Mythology In the ''Odyssey'' it is described as the rocky stronghold of Lamos. When Odysseus reaches the city in the ''Odyssey'', he sends three scouts to explore the island. They come across the king, a giant cannibal, who then eats one of the men, causing the other scouts to run away. Most of Odysseus' men are killed in the incident, but his boat is moored outside the Laestrygonians' harbour. He is able to sail away, without the bombardment of rocks received by the rest of the fleet who did moor within the harbour. Only forty-five men escape. It has been identified with Mezapo, located on the Mani Peninsula. Iman Jacob Wilkens makes a less likely identification: the harbour of Havana, Cuba, believing that Ulysses had in fact crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The harbour, about which on both sides a sheer cliff runs continuously, and projecting headlands ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divided into 24 books. It follows the heroic king of Ithaca, Odysseus, also known by the Latin variant Ulysses, and his homecoming journey after the ten-year long Trojan War. His journey from Troy to Ithaca lasts an additional ten years, during which time he encounters many perils and all of his crewmates are killed. In Odysseus's long absence, he is presumed dead, leaving his wife Penelope and son Telemachus to contend with a group of unruly suitors competing for Penelope's hand in marriage. The ''Odyssey'' was first written down in Homeric Greek around the 8th or 7th century BC; by the mid-6th century BC, it had become part of the Greek literary canon. In antiquity, Homer's authorship was taken as true, but contemporary sch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lamus (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Lamus (Ancient Greek: Λαμος or Λάμου ''Lamos'') may refer to the following personages: * Lamus, one of the 3,000 river gods, children of the Titans Oceanus and his sister-wife Tethys. He was the Cilician river-god who fathered the naiads, Lamides, caretakers of the child Dionysus. These nymphs were maddened by Hera. * Lamus, a Lydian son of Heracles by Queen Omphale. In some accounts, he was called Agelaus. * Lamus, a defender of Thebes against the Seven Against Thebes. He was killed by Parthenopaeus who pierced him in the face during the battle. * Lamus, a Trojan warrior who was killed by Thoas, leader of the Aetolians, during the Trojan War. * Lamus, a former king of the Laestrygonians, the cannibalistic giants who were later met by the hero Odysseus in one of his journeys. He was the son of Poseidon. Lamus was said to have built Formiae, the ancient seat of his people. * Lamus, an ally of Turnus, the man who opposed Aeneas in Italy. He was kill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Odysseus
In Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, Odysseus ( ; , ), also known by the Latin variant Ulysses ( , ; ), is a legendary Greeks, Greek king of Homeric Ithaca, Ithaca and the hero of Homer's Epic poetry, epic poem, the ''Odyssey''. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's ''Iliad'' and other works in that same epic cycle. As the son of Laertes (father of Odysseus), Laërtes and Anticlea, husband of Penelope, and father of Telemachus, Acusilaus, and Telegonus (son of Odysseus), Telegonus, Odysseus is renowned for his intellectual brilliance, guile, and versatility (''polytropos''), and he is thus known by the epithet Odysseus the Cunning (). He is most famous for his ''nostos'', or "homecoming", which took him ten eventful years after the decade-long Trojan War. Name, etymology, and epithets The form ''Odys(s)eus'' is used starting in the epic period and through the classical period, but various other forms are also found. In vase inscriptions, there are the varian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: ''wiktionary:gigas, gigas'', cognate wiktionary:giga-, giga-) are beings of humanoid appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 from Robert of Gloucester (historian), Robert of Gloucester's chronicle. It is derived from the ''Giants (Greek mythology), Gigantes'' () of Greek mythology. Fairy tales such as ''Jack the Giant Killer'' have formed the modern perception of giants as dimwitted and violent Ogre, ogres, sometimes said to eat humans, while other giants tend to eat livestock. In more recent portrayals, like those of Jonathan Swift and Roald Dahl, some giants are both intelligent and friendly. Literary and cultural analysis Giants appear many times in folklore and myths. Representing the human body enlarged to the point of being monstrous, giants evoke terror and remind humans of their body's frailty and mortality. They are ofte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyclopes
In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; , ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''Theogony'', the Cyclopes are the three brothers, Brontes, Steropes, and Arges (Cyclops), Arges, who made Zeus's weapon, the thunderbolt. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', they are an uncivilized group of shepherds, the brethren of Polyphemus encountered by Odysseus. Cyclopes were also famous for being the builders of the Cyclopean masonry, Cyclopean walls of Mycenae and Tiryns. In ''Cyclops (play), Cyclops'', the fifth-century BC play by Euripides, a satyr play, chorus of satyrs offers comic relief based on the encounter of Odysseus and Polyphemus. The third-century BC poet Callimachus makes the Hesiodic Cyclopes the assistants of smith-god Hephaestus, as does Virgil in the Latin epic ''Aeneid'', where he seems to equate the Hesiodic and Homeric Cyclop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laestrygon (mythology)
In Greek mythology, Laestrygon (Ancient Greek: Λαιστρυγών ''Laistrygon'') was the son of PoseidonHesiod, '' Ehoiai'' fr. 40a as cited in ''Oxyrhynchus Papyri'' 1358 fr. 2 ' and possibly of Gaia. He was the father of Telepora or Telepatra, wife of Aeolus, keeper of the winds.Scholia on Homer, ''Odyssey'' 10.6 Mythology According to one account, the giant cannibal race of the Laistrygonians was said to have borne from Laestrygon in the isle of Ortygia, Italy. : Harpies all the way to Italy:] — and about the steep Fawn mountain and rugged Mount Etna, Etna to the isle Ortygia and the people sprung from Laestrygon who was the son of wide-reigning Poseidon. Note References * Hesiod Hesiod ( or ; ''Hēsíodos''; ) was an ancient Greece, Greek poet generally thought to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.M. L. West, ''Hesiod: Theogony'', Oxford University Press (1966), p. 40.Jasper Gr ..., ''Catalogue of Women'' from ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homer's Ithaca
Ithaca (; , ) was, in Greek mythology, the island home of the hero Odysseus. The specific location of the island, as it was described in Homer's ''Odyssey'', is a matter for debate. There have been various theories about its location. Modern Ithaca (island), Ithaca has traditionally been accepted to be Homer's island. The central characters of the epic, such as Odysseus, Achilles, Agamemnon and Hector, are traditionally considered fictional figures from folklore, but aspects of the Homeric story may have some basis in actual historical events or people. This, and the extremely detailed geographic descriptions in the epic itself, have invited investigation of the possibility that Homer's heroes might have existed and that the location of the sites described therein might be found. Heinrich Schliemann believed he tracked down several of the more famous traditions surrounding these heroes. Many locations around the Mediterranean were claimed to have been the heroes' "homes", such ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giants Of Mont'e Prama
The Giants of Mont'e Prama (; ) are ancient stone sculptures created by the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia, Italy. Fragmented into numerous pieces, they were discovered in March 1974 on farmland near Mont'e Prama, in the comune of Cabras, province of Oristano, in central-western Sardinia. The statues are carved in local sandstone and their height varies between 2 and 2.5 meters. After four excavation campaigns carried out between 1975 and 1979, the roughly five thousand pieces recovered – including fifteen heads and twenty two torsos – were stored for thirty years in the repositories of the National Archaeological Museum of Cagliari, while a few of the most important pieces were exhibited in the museum itself. Along with the statues, other sculptures recovered at the site include large models of nuraghe buildings and several baetyl sacred stones of the "oragiana" type, used by Nuragic Sardinians in the making of " giants' graves". After the funds allocation o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Circe
In Greek mythology, Circe (; ) is an enchantress, sometimes considered a goddess or a nymph. In most accounts, Circe is described as the daughter of the sun god Helios and the Oceanid Perse (mythology), Perse. Circe was renowned for her vast knowledge of potions and herbs. Through the use of these and a magic wand or staff, she would transform her enemies, or those who offended her, into animals. The best known of her legends is told in Homer's ''Odyssey'' when Odysseus visits her island of Aeaea on the way back from the Trojan War and she changes most of his crew into swine. He manages to persuade her to return them to human shape, lives with her for a year and has sons by her, including Latinus and Telegonus (son of Odysseus), Telegonus. Her ability to change others into animals is further highlighted by the story of Picus, an Italian king whom she turns into a woodpecker for resisting her advances. Another story tells of her falling in love with the sea-god Glaucus, who prefe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aeaea
Aeaea, Ææa or Eëä ( or ; ) was a mythological island said to be the home of the goddess-sorceress Circe. In Homer's ''Odyssey'', Odysseus tells Alcinous that he stayed here for one year on his way home to Ithaca. Before leaving Aeaea, Odysseus was given instructions by Circe about how to cross the ocean and assisted by the North Wind to reach the underworld: Description Homer describes Aeaea as covered with a mixture of pasture and dense woodland of oak and beech. There were high hills or bluffs from which the sea could be seen encircling the island in all directions. Circe's stone house was located in a "dense forest of trees" "in a place that could be seen from far." Location The somewhat inconsistent geography of Homer's ''Odyssey'' is often considered more mythic than literal, but the geography of the Alexandrian scholar and poet Apollonius of Rhodes is more specific. In his epic ''Argonautica'', he locates the island somewhere south of ''Aethalia'' (Elba), with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
