Greek Myths Unveiled

BY MACKENZIE HAGERTY

You might be wondering what’s so special about Greek mythology? Well, Greek Mythology has a large variety of different stories and perspectives, which can be different depending on the source. But to understand these stories, you need to know the basics, such as the main family tree!

The main family tree has the most well-known gods, such as Zeus, the King of the gods, and the god of lightning. It also has the Olympians, or the other eleven main gods or goddesses that lived on Mount Olympus. Their names were Hera, queen of the gods, Ares, god of war, Hephaestus, god of fire, Aphrodite, goddess of love, Hermes, god of speed, Demeter, goddess of harvest, Poseidon, god of sea, Athena, goddess of wisdom, Apollo, god of light, Artemis, goddess of hunt, and finally, Dionysus, god of wine.

Mount Olympus was the home of the gods. However, one god refused to live there, and chose to live in the Underworld. His name was Hades, god of the dead and King of the Underworld. He lived with his wife Persephone, Queen of the Underworld and daughter of Demeter.

Kronos was the father to most gods and king of the Titans. He was married to Rhea, mother of most gods and queen of the Titans. Unfortunately, he had been told a prophecy, his own child would be the end of him! As you can imagine, Kronos wasn’t thrilled to find this out, so every child they had Kronos would eat.

All except one, Zeus. Rhea protected Zeus from his cruel father. She did this by tricking Kronos with a rock version of him. She sent Zeus far away, where he was raised in a cave all his childhood. Once he became an adult, he went out to destroy Kronos.

He intended to give his father a plant that would weaken him, and of course, he took the plant, but he then started to throw up Zeus’s siblings! They were all now young adults. They waged war on Kronos. The siblings defeated and sentenced Kronos to live in Tartarus as a prisoner forever, Tartarus is the deepest region of the earth and was a dark pit used as a prison.

Now that you know the basics, let me finally answer the question. Why is Greek mythology actually worth hearing about?

It’s worth hearing about because you can learn new morals and see how others see the world. Sure, some of it is unjust, but so is the world around us…In addition, the stories can transport you back in time because you might forget these stories are thousands of years old!

Some famous stories, like Medusa’s or Icarus’s, can be seen differently depending on where it’s told. But all of them still end up somewhat the same in the end. In conclusion, Greek mythology is part of Greek culture and teaches good morals to readers. So I hope you continue to do research with books like D’aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths, and many others! c