Greek Mythology. Jessie M. Tatlock
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but for abundance. (Hesiod, Theogony, 585 ff. Translation by A. W. Mair.)
Although Prometheus (Forethought) had warned his brother Epimetheus (Afterthought) never to accept anything from Zeus, Epimetheus foolishly received this woman, Pando’ra, at the hands of the gods’ messenger, Hermes. She had with her a jar which she was commanded on no account to open. But curiosity was too strong. The instant the lid was raised out flew ten thousand little winged plagues, diseases, pains, and sins; no one on earth could escape them. Only Hope stayed within the mouth of the jar and never flew out. So in this Greek story the hitherto peaceful, innocent world received its burden of trouble through the curiosity of the first woman, just as in the Bible story the innocence of the Garden of Eden was lost through Eve.
The Greeks were not quite consistent in their explanations of the coming of sin and trouble into the world, for while in the one account it all came when Pandora opened her jar, the account of the Four Ages shows a gradual deterioration. For, first of all, in the Age of Gold mortal men lived like gods, knowing neither sorrow nor toil. The generous earth bore fruit of herself, and there was neither numbing frost nor burning heat to make shelter necessary. This was during the reign of Cronus, known among the Romans as Saturn. The men of this age never grew old and feeble, but when death came, it came like a peaceful sleep. And when this race was hidden in the earth Zeus made of them good spirits who watch over mortals. The second race, that of the Silver Age, the gods made inferior to the first in mind and body. The time of helpless infancy was long, and the time of manhood short and troubled, for they could not refrain from injuring one another, and they failed to give worship and sacrifice to the gods. Yet the men of this age, too, had some honor, and lived on as spirits under the earth. Next came the Age of Bronze, when men insolently delighted in war. Of bronze were their homes, of bronze their armor, and their hearts were as hard as their weapons. Last of all was the Age of Iron. By day there was no end to their weariness and woe, nor by night to their anxieties. Family love was lost, parents neglected, and friendship and the rights of hospitality forgotten. Might became right, and respect for truth and plighted faith was made of no account. Reverence and Justice, veiling their heads, forsook men and withdrew to Olympus.
When Zeus, then, saw how utterly wicked men had become, he resolved to clear the earth of them all. To the council summoned in heaven destruction by fire seemed a method too dangerous to the homes of the gods; a flood over the earth was a safer plan. To this end, Zeus shut up the north wind and all the others that drive away the clouds, and sent out the rainy south wind, and he called upon his brother Poseidon to let out the waters under his control. The flood spread over the fields and broke down the standing grain; it carried away the flocks with their shepherds, the houses and the holy shrines. Sea and land, all was one now, a limitless ocean. Fishes swam in and out among the branches of the trees, and awkward seals stretched themselves where lately the nimble goats had played. The water-nymphs swam wonderingly among the houses. The birds, flying long in search of a resting-place, fell exhausted in the watery waste. The human race perished, all but the son of Prometheus, Deu ca’li on, and his wife Pyrrha. These good people, taught beforehand by the wise Titan, had constructed a great chest in which they had gathered all that was necessary for life, and when the flood came they took refuge in it themselves, and floated for nine days until the chest touched ground once more on Mt. Parnassus. When Zeus looked down and saw all the violent race of men swept off the earth, and only this one man, a lover of justice and a devout worshiper of the gods, left alive with his wife, he called upon the north wind to disperse the clouds and upon Poseidon to recall his waters. Then Deucalion and Pyrrha stepped out of the chest and saw a waste and unpeopled earth about them, and in their loneliness they called upon the gods for help. The oracle made answer that they should cast behind them the bones of their mother. Knowing that the god could never order them to be guilty of the impiety of disturbing the tomb of their mortal parent, Deucalion divined the true meaning of the mysterious command. The earth is the mother of all and the stones are her bones. With heads reverently veiled they descended the mountain, casting stones behind them. Those that Deucalion threw assumed the forms of men, those that Pyrrha threw, the forms of women. So the earth was repeopled.
CHAPTER II THE GODS OF OLYMPUS: ZEUS
While the gods of the Greek religion were personifications of natural powers, yet they were conceived after the fashion of human beings, both in bodily form and in their needs and passions. They were born, grew, married, and suffered, though death never came to them. These beings, like men, only greater and more beautiful, must have cities and homes like those of men, only greater and more beautiful. So the Greeks of the mainland looked up to the cloud-capped peak of Mt. Olympus, majestic, mysterious, eternally enduring, and saw there, under the arch of heaven, the golden halls of the divine city.
There, as they say, is the seat of the gods that standeth fast forever. Not by winds is it shaken, nor ever wet with rain, nor doth the snow come nigh thereto, but most clear air is spread about it cloudless, and the white light floats over it. Therein the blessed gods are glad for all their days. (Odyssey, VI. 42 ff.)
It was a true celestial city, conceived after the model of the Greek city-states. At the gates of cloud the Hours stood as guardians, within the walls rose the palaces of the gods, and on the topmost peak, the acropolis, was the great hall where the members of the Olympic Council gathered for deliberation or for feasting. Ambrosia was the food served at these banquets, and nectar, poured into the cups by Hebe, the goddess of youth, nourished the ichor flowing in the gods' veins instead of blood. The nostrils of the feasters were filled with the rich odor of sacrifices offered on earth, and their ears charmed by the songs the Muses sang to the accompaniment of Apollo's lyre.
Fig. 3. Zeus.
In the place of honor sat Zeus on his golden throne, and Hera, his sister and wife, sat beside him, while about them assembled the other ten Olympians, all brothers, sisters, sons, or daughters of the " father of gods and king of men." For after his victory over the Titans Zeus ruled supreme over heaven and earth. He challenges the other Olympians to dispute his power:
Go to now, ye gods, make trial that ye all may know. Fasten ye a rope of gold from Heaven, and all ye gods lay hold thereof and all goddesses; yet could ye not drag from Heaven to earth Zeus, counselor supreme, not though ye toiled sore. But once I likewise were minded to draw with all my heart, then should I draw you up with very earth and sea withal. ... By so much am I beyond gods and beyond men. (Iliad, VIII. 18 ff.)
As sky-god he drew the clouds over the face of heaven, sending storm and rain upon the earth, or he dispersed them and looked down over all as a benignant father. The weapon of his anger was the thunderbolt; Victory stood at his right hand. Yet his rule was not one of arbitrary violence; he was the author and promoter of law and order, of a civilized and regulated intercourse between men, of hospitality and just treatment of man by man. Hesiod calls upon the Muses to sing of him in words that recall the song of the Virgin Mary:
Muses of Pieria, who glorify with song, come sing of Zeus your father, and declare his praise, through whom are men famed and unfamed, sung and unsung, as Zeus Almighty will. Lightly he giveth strength, and lightly he afflicteth the strong; lightly he bringeth low the mighty and lifteth up the humble; lightly he maketh the crooked to be straight and withereth the proud as chaff; Zeus, who thundereth in Heaven, who dwelleth in the height. (Hesiod, Works and Days, 1 ff.)
Zeus was married to his sister, "Hera of the golden throne," a beautiful, queenly goddess, yet, as Homer portrays her, a very human woman, implacably jealous of Zeus's other loves, intriguing to get her own way, using against her lord all the traditional weapons of a woman. For all his power and majesty, Olympian Zeus went in dread of his wife's reproaches and persistency and drew the thickest of clouds between them when he indulged in any pleasure of which she would not approve. Though she had no choice but to yield when he asserted his will, she reserved to herself the compensation of taunts and a sullen demeanor. On one occasion when he had promised a favor to another of the goddesses, this altercation took