Greek mythology is one of the most commonly (along with Roman) known, and a good deal of this information is familiar, though I had forgotten that Hera was sister as well as wife to Zeus. An excellent lesson.
I'm very surprised that Aphrodite (beauty!) and Hephaestus (not handsome) were married. Kind of reminds me of Beauty and the Beast, actually. :)
I like the simple way you present things, and the way you allow for us to do our own research by leaving holes for us to fill. That is, after all, in my opinin, the point of NEWT level classes. We do our own learning!
Anyway, I'm rather cynical about Zeus. In all the interpretations I've read, he comes off as egocentric, arrogant, and altogether TOO powerful for his own good.
Hera, though, is not a nice woman, herself. The things she does...she's a downright vixen! I wouldn't blame her, though, married to such a player.
Sometimes, I think the gods were worse than humans themselves. Reminds me of celebrities nowadays, where they're allowed to do illegal things common people would get punished for (i.e. 16 year olds in clubs etc.)
Cheers!
Kumy
Adonis -sigh- is often used by Draco/Ginny writers to describe Draco Malfoy. -sigh- -fangirl squee-
Anyway, I like that you left some blanks for us to fill with our stories! I'd rather like to cover Adonis, I think, since I am such a Draco fan. :D
The list of the muses were interesting because I saw a few arts like painting and sculptures that were left out.
That rather surprised me. Beyond that, this chapter was breathtakingly short and concise with information.
Bravo!
Kumy
I, too, knew most of this already, but it was interesting to read it from a HP perspective. I love Greek mythology, and it would seem that Jo does, too, as she takes a lot of names, stories, and animals from Greek myth. Merope, for example, was a nymph who was disowned for marrying a mortal.
Although I've heard most of this, I was suprised to learn that Posideon once desired Demeter; that was a new bit of information.
Speaking of new information, there is a version of Athena's birth that states that she was the daughter of Zeus and a nymph (I forget the name). The nymph predicted that the child would be a boy and overthrow Zeus. Reasonably scared, Zeus swallowed his pregnant mistress whole. A few days later, he complained of a headache and out came Athena.
Not that different, but still.... I don't believe that even the gods could produce a child alone.
Okay now I need to reread this and make a flow chart....
I have a thick book full of Greek Myths standing on my book shelf and although I've read most of them, I wouldn't be able to retell a lot of them, simply because I always mix up the different gods, goddesses and heros. I know the most important ones and their stories, but all the lesser gods confuse me every time.
I like that you listed just the most important gods and goddesses because otherwise this could become really confusing very quickly.
I do have one question though: Am I right in thinking that Zeus didn't only cheat on Hera (for lack of better terms) with other goddesses but with mortals, too? Perhaps that might be an interesting thing to add when you metion those women (Leto, Artemis and Apollo's mother; Maia, Hermes's mother and Dione, Aphrodite's mother) I would be really interested in knowing if they were goddesses or mortals, but I suppose I can just look it up myself.
Ironically, He is also known to punish those that lie or break oaths.
That line made me laugh out loud. I'm learning ancient greek and my professor draw a simple family tree of the greek gods, and that quickly got very complex. Half of the reason was because of Zeus. I remember Athena sprung from his head, and there was somehow a titan involved, too. But when I read the Illiad my professor said there are so many different stories about the gods, that its almost impossible to keep them all straight because the stories differ.
I liked that you listed the names of the muses. I heard of them, but never more detail then that.
I once tried to make a list of all of Zeus' children - I'm quite glad that you're sticking to the major players here - one thing, if I remember correctly, Athena was actually birthed from Zeus' ear, not his forehead (though I suppose that varies depending on the source). Or perhaps I'm thinking of a different offspring...
