Hephaestus

Hephaestus, the son of Hera and Zeus, was the god of blacksmiths and fire.  He was different than the other gods because most gods are beautiful and handsome, but Hephaestus was big and ugly.  When Hephaestus was young Hera threw him off Mount Olympus just because he was ugly.  It took him one whole day to land and several more days to get back to Olympus.  After that he always walked with a limp.

Hephaestus spent a lot time at Mount Olympus but most of his time in his forge.  He made amazing weapons and beautiful jewelry.  He also made three golden "automatons" as helpers in his forge.  The robots were shaped as a human and could do things depending on what they were assigned.   Sometimes his wife, Aphrodite, came to watch him work.

Hephaestus was an important god in mythology.  What do you think?

Artemis

Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, was the goddess of the hunt and the moon.  She was the daughter of Leto, a titan woman, and Zeus.  When she was young she swore never to marry and asked her father Zeus for three things - to be an eternal maiden, to have fifty fine and swift nymphs, and to have a pack of dogs as companions.  Zeus gave her what she asked for. She got herself got a silver chariot drawn by four reindeer with silver horns.  She was a graceful and elegant goddess, but fierce as well.  Once, for example, a male hunter spied on her in the woods.  When she found out, she turned him into a stag and was attacked by his own pack of dogs.

Artemis and her twin, Apollo, were very different yet alike in some ways.  They were both Olympians and were very protective of their mother, Leto.  One myth went like this:  A kingdom was once ruled by a queen named Niobe who had 14 children, seven girls and seven boys.  They were celebrating and honoring Leto.  That's when Niobe made her mistake.  She suddenly shouted to her people, ''Foolish people!  Why honor Leto when you can honor me your queen!  I am far better than her for I have 14 children while she only has two!''  Leto heard this and called on her children, Artemis and Apollo.  When they found out about Niobe's disrespect they made their move quickly.  The twins flew down to the kingdom.  Furious, they shot the seven sons of Niobe with their powerful bows.  Before Niobe could finish a sentence, her seven daughters fell dead.  Niobe couldn't stop crying.  Finally, out of pity the gods turned her into a rock.  Even then the rock was wet everyday with tears of grief from Niobe.

What do you think of this story of Artemis?

Demeter

Demeter was the goddess of earth and harvest.  She was also one of the original goddesses.  In some cases she is the most important goddess.  Once, her daughter Persephone was kidnaped by Hades and was brought to the underworld.  This saddened her so much that she did not allow plants to grow and crops to be harvested.  It was a very hard time for the humans and they suffered greatly.  When Demeter got Persephone back everything was better.  This explains her importance in the world.  She allowed plants to grow and be harvested.  She was an interesting goddess because she almost made the seasons.  When her daughter Persephone was in the underworld, she ate only three pomegranate seeds which forced her to stay in the underworld for parts of year.  When Persephone was in the underworld, Demeter was sad and the weather turned cold.  When Persephone was on earth and with her mother, the earth was nice and flowers grew.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty.  She rose from the sea on soft pillows of sea foam.  In a previous blog post, I wrote that Cronus sliced Uranus to pieces.  The pieces of Uranus fell into the sea and created sea foam which made Aphrodite.  She was brought ashore by some nymphs and was dressed in beautiful clothing and jewelry.  She was sent to Mount Olympus.  When she arrived there, all of the gods were overwhelmed by her beauty.  Zeus was worried though.  He didn't want the other gods to fight over her marriage, so he quickly chose Hephaestus as her husband.  Hephaestus, overjoyed by his luck, gave her a lot of beautiful jewelry he made himself.  Aphrodite did not have children with Hephaestus, but had one child with Ares, the god of war.  Their son was named Eros, or Cupid, in Roman mythology.


I think Aphrodite is an amazing goddess.  How about you?

-Julie Shiroma

Athena

Athena is the goddess of weaving, strategy, and arts and crafts.  She is the daughter of Zeus and Metis. Metis, Athena's mother, lives in Zeus's head as a fly.  This is because Mother Earth warned Zeus that if he had a son with Metis, that he would overthrow him. Zeus could not let that happen so he asked Metis to turn herself into different creatures.  When she turned into a fly, he swallowed her.  She lived in his head.  After a while Zeus got terrible headaches from Metis pounding and making armor.  At last, Hephaestus took an axe and cut open his head.  Out sprung Athena.  She was in full armor with a spear in her hand.

Athena is a very fierce goddess.  She once had a contest with a girl named Arachne and turned her into a spider.

I think she is a very interesting goddess.

The Twelve Olympians

I ended with the Titans' defeat in my last post.  If you have not yet guessed, Zeus is now the lord of the universe.  Powers were given to different gods.  Zeus got the universe, Poseidon got the ocean, and Hades got the underworld, and so on.  They were built a palace by the Cyclopes' on the highest mountain in Greece, called Olympus.  There were twelve Olympian gods, whose backgrounds I will explain later.  The gods were: Zeus, Poseidon, Ares, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Hermes and Apollo.  The goddess' were: Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, Demeter, and Artemis.  All of the gods and goddess' but Hades lived on Olympus.  Some were children of gods, and the others were the original gods.  These are the major gods.  They ran Olympus.  Read about the backgrounds of all of the Olympians in future posts.  I will explain all of the gods and goddess' except Zeus.  I already explained Zeus's past in previous posts.

-Julie Shiroma

Gods vs. Titans

In my last blog post, I ended with Cronus' defeat.  Zeus still had problems though.  Cronus was angry at him and in time a war broke out.  The war was between the Gods and the Titans.  Only two Titans, Prometheus and his brother, joined the Gods.  The bloody war went on for ten long bitter years.  Zeus freed the Cyclopses in the wars. They were very grateful and gave them gifts that allowed the gods to win the war.  They gave thunderbolts to Zeus which he threw powerfully.  They gave the trident to Zeus' brother, Poseidon.  If he stuck it on the ground it would create an earthquake.  Lastly, they gave Zeus' brother, Hades, a helmet of invisibility.  Using these gifts they won the war.

This was a short blog post, but there will be more.  Remember keep reading !

-Julie Shiroma

The Defeat of Cronus

In my last blog post, I ended with Cronus being the lord of the universe.  This did not last for long.  After Cronus took command he married one of the other girl Titans, Rhea.  Gaea instructed Cronus to destroy his father, Uranus.  Even though he did this, Gaea was angry at Cronus because  he did not free his brothers, the Cyclopses like he promised.  Though she was angry she did not punish him for she knew that one day a son of his would overthrow him.  Unfortunately, Cronus knew this as well because each time they had a child he would swallow them.  He swallow several children, but Rhea decided to save her final child, for she could not bear to see her children being devoured by their father.  This was the moment Gaea had been waiting for.  When the child was born Rhea gave him to Gaea and she hid him on an island called Crete, far from Cronus.  In the meantime, Rhea wrapped a rock in blankets and gave it to Cronus.  As she thought, he swallowed it, because he thought it was the baby. She was now happy because she knew someday the little baby would overthrow him.  This baby's name was Zeus.

Mother Earth took baby Zeus to the island of Crete.  The nymphs in Crete took care of him, fed him nectar and ambrosia, the food of the gods.  The food came from a magical goat that had nectar pour out of one horn and ambrosia come out of the other.  He was well cared for and when he was grew older, he went back to his mother.  Together, they plotted Cronus' defeat.  Soon he was ready.  Zeus dressed up as one of Cronus' servants, and gave him a poisoned drink that Rhea made.  Cronus drank it, not knowing it was poisoned, and got very sick making him vomit up all of the now fully grown gods.  Zeus had saved them. This concludes the story of The Defeat of Cronus.

Remember to read my next epic tale!

-Julie Shiroma

The Beginning of Time

One of my topics this summer is Greek Myths and Legends.  I am going to write more about this, but I will first start with the beginning of time.  It all started like this.  Before anything there was complete nothingness called Chaos.  After a while, Earth was born from Chaos.  Her name was Gaea.  Earth did not have much on her yet.  She did not water, humans, or animals.  Soon though,  she fell in love with Uranus, the lord of the universe.  He loved her and rained water on her which created seas, rivers, ponds, lakes, and allowed plants to grow.  She became Mother Earth.  Gaea and Uranus had several children.  Their first set of children were three creatures that had fifty heads and one-hundred arms.  The second set were the one eyed Cyclopes.  These creatures were huge, good at blacksmithing, and had one eye in the middle of their foreheads.  There were six of these creatures.  One of the last children of Gaea were the twelve Titans (gods).  They were more human-like and were a bit wiser than their siblings.  There were six boys and six girls.  Mother Earth loved all her children, but Uranus was repulsed by the Cyclopses and threw them into the deepest pit in the Underworld, Tartarus.  Gaea was deeply saddened by the cruelty that was taken out on her children and decided to destroy Uranus.  She created a sickle and gave it to Cronus, the most powerful child of the Titans, and the god of time.  Cronus sliced his father to bits as his mother instructed him to do.  Finally, Uranus gave up his powers which made Cronus was the lord of the universe.  This was great, but he did not rule for long.
That concludes the first story, The Beginning of Time.  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this is not the end.  There will be more stories about these myths, but this is only the end of one.  Until next time!

-Julie Shiroma