Hades (Ch 15)

Etymology and Epithets
     (g.) Hades, "unseen", "invisible"
     (l.) Pluto or Dis/Dives, "wealth" (referring to underground metals), "the enricher"
     (l.) Orcus, "confining place"
     Zeus Katachtonius (kata "under" + cthon "earth"), "underground Zeus"
     Polyxenos, "host to many"
     Polydegmon, "receiver of many"
     Erebus, "Darkness"
Domain: Underworld.
Genealogy: Cronus + Rhea, Brother to Zeus
Claim to Fame: God of Death and the Underworld, Abductor of Persephone/Proserpina, General Hardass.
Iconography: Rooster? Anything death related...
Literature: Homer's Odyssey, Book 11 (Nekuia/Book of the Dead/Spirit Summoning), Plato's The Republic (Myth of Er, Book 10), Hesiod's Isle of the Blessed, Vergil's Aeneid (Book 6)

The Greek View of Death: When psyche ("breath"/"soul"),  anima ("soul"/"spirit"), or anemos ("wind") is separated from the soma/corpus ("body"). Literally, when one breathes his/her last. If it is the breath that contains the soul, it can live on in spirit once set free from the body.

Homer's Odyssey (Nekuia, Book 11)

Katabasis ("descent into the underworld") occurs at the farthest reaches of Oceanus, where the sun [literally] sets on living souls. A summoning of spirits requires a libation of milk, honey, wine, water, blood and an animal sacrifice to rehydrate the shades of the dead.
As stated by the shade of Achilles when visited by Odysseus, a common Greek view was that it was better to be a slave on earth than the King of the Dead; Aristophanes furthered the idea that the best thing one could wish for is to never have been born at all; and Milton stated in Paradise Lost that it is better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.

Plato's Republic (Myth of Er, Book 10)

One's morality among the living earns proportional punishment and/or reward in the afterlife. Once dead, one's soul serves a quantified sentence whereby they can negotiate the circles of hell based on deed.
Metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, implies that one has the opportunity to choose a new life after sentence is served out. Souls are reincarnated after drinking from the River Lethe ("forgetfulness")

Vergil's Aeneid (Book 6)

A mixture of Greco-roman myth, religion, and philosophy follows the founder of Rome on his katabasis to illustrate hell.
     Aeneus, son of Aphrodite and Anchises, is ordered to escape the burning Troy and find the new civilization in the west known as Rome. To glimpse a prophecy of the future of his creation, which will outlive him, he descends into hell with the assistance of Cumaen Sybil. Equipped with the Golden Bough sacred to Proserpina, the two offer libations to gain entrance to the opening of the Underworld at the sulphuric Lake Avernus ("birdless") at Cumae. They then meets a series of mythological figures and places:
1. Personified Abstractions (ie. Grief, Cares, Old Age, Worry)
2. Monsters of the Deep (ie. Scylla, Gorgon, Harpies, Chimera)
3. River Acheron ("sorrowful"), which marks the boundary of Hades' realm
4. Charon, Ferryman of the Dead, who mans the only crossing (later traditions they cross the River Styx, "hate"). Golden bough serves as a golden ticket.
5. Cerberus, three-headed hell hound positioned at the far side of the river (no one gets out). Is drugged by meal and honey to allow passage.
6. Thanatos ("death") and Hypnos ("sleep"), winged psychopompous figures.
7. Fork in the road:
     I. Tartarus (left fork): place of punishment for sinners.
     - Surrounded by the flaming River Phlegethon
     - Guarded by the Fury Tisiphone ("punisher")
     - Jury of Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aeacus.
     II. Elesium (right fork) or the Elysian Fields: Reserved for the age of heroes, a paradise realm.
     - Reserved for pure souls, or those that have paid their sentence.
     - Purification ritual of 1000 years completes the circle of time before transmigration.

Sinners

Tityus: tried to rape Leto, mother of Artemis and Apollo. Eternal punishment of having his liver (seat of passion) devoured by vultures daily, only to have it regenerated the next morning.
Tantalus: fed his own son to feasting gods. Eternal punishment of insatiable hunger and thirst while being neck deep in water with sustenance just out of reach.
Sisyphus: cheats Thanatos by chaining him up when he is being claimed, orders wife not to perform burial rights. Eternal punishment of insurmountable task of pushing a boulder to the top of an incline, only to have it fall back again.
Ixion: lusted after Hera, raped Zeus's prototype Nephele Hera ("cloud Hera") but spills his seed on the ground (= birth of Centaurus, father of Centaurs). Eternal punishment of being bound to a rotating wheel of fire.
The Danaids (50 daughters of Danaus, King of Argos): married their cousins, 49 of them which murdered them on their wedding night (except Hypermnestra). Eternally punished of filling leaky water jars (symbolizing impotence, cannot hold seed).

Eros (Ch 9)

Etymology and Epithets:
     (g.)Eros, root of "erotic", "erotica, etc.
     (l.) Cupid
Domain: Athens.
Genealogy: Considered either a conceptual element to procreation, or the illegitimate love child of Ares and Aphrodite.
Claim to Fame: God of raw sexual energy, desire, and passion. Later became known as the god of homosexuality.
Iconography: Cupid's Bow, winged figures, arrows.
Literature: Hesiod's Theogony, Plato's Symposium, Speech of Socrates, Ovid's Metamorphosis

Myth

I. Birth: two traditions of his birth.
     1. Hesiod's Theogony: born from Chaos, one of the original elements to create life is lust.
     2. Eventually became known as the son of Aphrodite and Ares

II. Speech of Aristophanes (comedian): At Plato's Symposium, Aristophanes theorized there was originally 3 genders of humans (male, female, androgynous), and all were round in figure (ie. four hands, four legs, attached at the spine, etc.). The species grew so strong that they hubristically began to challenge the gods, so to weaken them Zeus cut them in two. From that day forward, each half-human walked the earth, longing for their other half. Those of androgynous sex became heterosexual, and those of a bisected same-sex became homosexual

III. Speech of Socrates: Socrates quotes a wise woman from Mantinea named Diotema, who claims that Eros, though he is not beautiful himself, is resourceful enough to obtain what he longs for but doesn't possess (ie. beauty, wisdom, goodness). He is an intermediary between human and divine, and though remarkably unremarkable, his pursuit of conceptual merit is what adds an intellectual aspect to love.
It is this example that inspires individuals to move beyond the appreciation of the physical realm of beauty, and more towards the beautiful soul, or beautiful concept, behind the outward representation.
Called "Platonic Love", this attraction may have its roots in sexuality, but is perpetuated by the desires of the mind and the soul to enrich the spirit.

IV. Psyche ("soul"): Once upon a time, Venus became envious of a Greek princess, named Psyche, and ordered Cupid to make her fall in love with the vilest of creatures. When he went to do his bidding, Cupid himself fell in love with her (ironic?). He abducted her and placed her in his palace, where the lovers visited each night but he departed before sunrise each morning. When her sisters came to visit, they tricked Psyche into thinking she was sleeping with a monster, so one fateful night she took a knife to bed along with her anonymous lover.
Before she was to slay the monster, Psyche lit a lamp to take one look at her lovers face. Upon realizing that it was Cupid Psyche starts, and a drop of wax spills on the sleeping God, waking him up.
Enraged, he takes flight, but not before Psyche grabs hold of his ankle. She ends up plummeting to the earth. In short, the only way Psyche could win back Cupid's love was to complete 4 impossible tasks set forth by Aphrodite, which she manages to complete with divine assistance.

Aphrodite (Ch 9)

Etymology and Epithets:
     (g.) Aphrodite
     (l.) Venus, ie. Venereal
     Cytherea (Island of Cythera), Cyprogenes (Island of Cyprus)
     Philommedes ("laughter loving") or Philomeides ("genital loving")
     Associated with Magna Mater (eastern fertility goddess), ie. Innana, Ishtar, Astarte, Cybele
Domain: See Epithets. Cyprus, Cythera, Near East
Genealogy:
     Aphrodite Urania ("celestial") Castration of Uranus by Cronos, genitals falling into the sea.
     Aphrodite Pendemos ("common"/"profane") Child of Zeus and Dione ("she-zeus")
Claim to Fame: Goddess of lust, romance, procreation of mammals, beauty and passion.
     A female Ares, passion without the bloodshed.
Iconography: Earliest depictions of her are of a polished cone. Attendants are Eros ("erotic"), the 3
     Gratiae/charites ("graces") personifications of femininity, and the 3 Horai ("hours"/"seasons")
     daughters of Zeus and Themis.
Literature: Hesiod's Theogony, Homer's Iliad, Ovid's Metamorphosis, Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite.

Myth

I. Priapus (bastard child of Aphrodite): A fertility daimon (demon, lesser god), Priapus is most often depicted as a small hunchbacked, ithyphallic ("erect penis") gnomelike figure. Used as an apotropaic bringer of luck commonly featured in gardens.

II. Pygmalion (King of Cyprus): Because the Cyprian women refuse to acknowledge her divnity, Venus drives them all to prostitution. Disgusted by their behaviour, Pygmalion carves an ivory statue of a nude women and subsequently falls in love with it. His prayer for it to become his wife is granted by Aphrodite, and the statue becomes flesh and blood (later versions named Galatea).

III. Myrrha: Child of Cinyras, the grandson of Pygmalion and Galatea, Myrrha is punished for her mothers hubristic claim that she is more beautiful than Venus, and falls in love with her own father. Suicidal, Myrrha's nurse arranges a secret meeting between father and child. Naturally, their identities are revealed to one another, and Cinyras attempts to strangle his own daughter, Myrrha is spared by the gods by being transformed into a Myrrh tree, whose resinous tears are collected as precious material.

IV. Adonis (adon, "lord"): The epitome of masculinity, symbol of a dying vegetative beloved.
      1. The incestuous child of Myrrha and her father, Adonis is stolen by Aphrodite at birth and given
      to Persephone to rear. When Persephone refuses to return him, Zeus interferes and arbitrates that
      Adonis shall receive 1/3 of the year with each goddess, and the last third wherever he wants.
      He decides to spend 2/3 of the year above ground, with 1/3 with Persephone, symbolic of the
      portion of the vegetative cycle reserved for fallow. He is later killed by a boar.
      2. Adonis is just another paramour of Aphrodite, who falls in love with him at first sight while he
      is out hunting. He chooses to ignore her warnings of injury, and he is gored in the groin by a wild
      boar. From the blood that drips on the earth, an Anemone ("wind" flower) sprouts, symbolizing
      the fragile beauty of moral human life.
Scenes of Adonis are often depicted on Sarcophagi, representing the idea of a rebirth within death and giving meaning to burial. The Ritual of Adonia honours the fertility goddess and a dying vegetation god through ritual wailing and singing, and effigies of dead youth, mourning those who die too young. The Gardens of Adonis, seeds planted in shallow soil that spring up quickly and die also carry this sentiment.

V. Anchises: Zeus attempts to shorten Aphrodite's leash by claiming that "no man can sleep with the divine and retain their manhood", so Aphrodite must disguise herself as a mortal to seduce her prey. Anchises unwittingly sleeps with her, only to wake up and realize his emasculation.
The Trojan hero and founder of Rome, Aeneas, is the result of their tryst.

Athena (Ch 8)

Etymology and Epithets:
     (g.) Athena
     (l.) Minerva, mens "mind"
     Tritogeneia ("daughter of Triton"), possibly a reference to Triton, god of River of Lake, birthplace?
     Panoply ("all armed")
     Glaukopis, "grey eyed"/"owl eyed"
     Pallas, "weapon brandishing" (See Myth.II)
     Parthanos, "virgin"/"maiden" (See Myth. III)
Domain: Athens. Panhellenic status.
Genealogy: Zeus + Metis. Delivered through Zeus' cracked skull.
Claim to Fame: Goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, craftsmenship, spinning and weaving, protectorate of cities and heros. Symbolic of a union between indigenous matriarchal cultures and the import of an indo-european sky god (snaky, but born from Zeus. An androgynous figure = warrior princess).
Iconography: Snake, aegis, helmet, owl, olive sprig
Literature: Homeric Hymn to Athena, Hesiod's Theogony, Linear B, Ovid's Metamorphosis

Myth

I. Birth: Zeus impregnates Metis ("wisdom") and swallows her in fear that her son will overthrow him. Instead a daughter is born from his splitting headache (either fights her way out, with a mighty war cry, or is freed by the hammer of Hephestus). Depicted on the East Pediment of the Parthanon.
II. Pallas: Athena's childhood friend, Pallas (daughter of Triton), is accidentally killed as they are at play. In remorse, a wooden statue is fashioned in her honor, adorned with the aegis. Zeus abducts the Palladium and places it in Troy, where it becomes on of the preconditions of Trojan defeat later on.
III. Parthanon ("house of the virgin"): Rested atop the acropolis ("high city") in Athens, the Parthanon was built in mid 5th century BCE under Pericles. It was said that Athena and Poseidon battled for patronage of the city, with the citizens as the jury. While Poseidon produces an immense salt spring/stampede of horses (variant), Athena touches the earth with her spear and the first olive tree sprouts. While her birth is depicted on the East Pediment, her victory over Poseidon is depicted on the west.
IV. Arachne: A mortal spinster by the name of Arachne boasts that she is better than Minerva at weaving. Upon hearing this hubris, Minerva appears under the guise of an old woman, and warns Arachne of her arrogance and to "know thyself". Arachne pays no heed to this warning, and is thus challenged to a weaving contest which she is defeated. Not only does Minerva smash Arachne's own loop over her head, she prevents her from completing suicide by transforming her into a spider

Sea Monsters (Ch 7)

Origin

Pontus (element), son of Gaia, fathered hundreds of monsterous deities with his own mother, most of them a mixture of human and animal.

I. Nereus: The archetypal "wise old man" from the sea, Nereus is a shape-shifting seer who aided Heracles in finding the Hespereiades to complete his 11th labour. He fathers 50 Nereids with Doris that bear significant offspring in their days.

     - Thetis, wife of Peleus (who had to wrestle her to win her), mother of Achilles

     - Galatea, wife of Acis, object of desire of Polyphemus (unrequited love results in wrath 

       of Polyphemus, deification of Acis)

     - Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon

Often compared to/synonymous with Proteus ("variable", "taking on different forms") which accounts for the unpredictability of their natures.

II. Thaumas: Manages to father three supernatural daughters.

     - Iris, Goddess of the Rainbow, messenger of Hera

     - Harpy ("snatcher"/"strong winds"), half women half bird vermin

     - Sphinx ("strangler"), the part woman/lion/bird riddler thwarted by Oedipus

III. Phorcys: Mated with his sister Ceto to have a bunch of monsterous kids daughters.

     - 3 Graeae, the "gray ones" from birth, personifications of old age, share 1 eye 1 tooth, thwarted 

       by Perseus on his quest for the head of Medusa, their sister.

     - Gorgans, two immortal, one mortal (Medusa). Said to turn people to stone with one glance.

     - Scylla, once the object of Poseidon's affection, forevermore a sailor's affliction.

Oceanus (titan), son of Uranus and Gaia, fathered over 3000 oceanids with his sister Tethys (One of them Doris, mother of the Nereids)

Literature: Ovid's Metamorphosis, Hesiod's Theogony

Works & Days, Hesiod

I. Origin of Women, Marriage, and Suffering: The gift/curse of Pandora (pan "all" + dor "gift"), the first woman, to mankind was a group project from Olympus sent to "punish" mankind for Prometheus' wiles. Haephaestas mixed together clay, water, and voice to give form, while Athena made her skillful, Aphrodite made her alluring and Hermes topped her off with the "soul of a bitch". She was delivered to Epimetheus with a Pyxis, an ornamental casing she was warned not to open. Of course, her curiosity gets the best of her (or, to some, she intentionally opens it) and she unleashes a plethora of scourges upon mankind. She is able to capture hope as is it is about to escape by shutting the jar tight, posing the idea that we need disillusion for a meaning in life.
The idea of a beautiful exterior, rank interior is recompensed by Prometheus's sacrificial gift.

II. Ages of Mankind:
1. Gold: Created by the Olympians, to live under Cronus' rule. Humankind was almost immortal, and lived to experience a painless death, whereby they became holy spirits that wandered the earth.
2. Silver: Again, created by Olympians, living under Zeus' rule. This prototype lived until 100, most of which in immaturity. Their prime was short and violent, and they refused to honor the gods, so in death they were only "blessed".
3a. Bronze: Created by Zeus from ash trees, this race was inherently violent and fashioned Bronze weapons to main and kill each other with. They often met mutual annihilation over political and cultural strife. In death they were sent to Hades to pay their dues in proportion to the good and evil they enacted.
3b. Heroes: Created by Zeus, these creatures were created in the image of the Gods (godlike demi heros) and lived out short but glorious lives. Most experienced death, but many legends were privileged to occupy the Isles of the Blessed (Elysium) in Hades.
4. Iron: Created by Deucalon and Pyrrha, this race experiences endless labour and strife, and only meet some good with much evil. We live under the threat of total destruction, and live out our short and numbered days awaiting a painful death. It is the iron age that adopted the adage "the best fate of all is to never have been born", as promoted by Arisophanes.

Zeus (Ch 5)

Etymology and Epithets:
     (g.) Zeus
     (l.) Jupiter, Ju "sky" + piter/pater "father"
     Dios, Di "bright"
     Imported sky-god with the the migration of patriarchal Indo -European cultures
Domain:
     Dodona, sanctuary worshipped of Dios and Dione (not Hera). Zeus' oracle interpreted the rustling
     of oak tree leaves, burnt offerings, and the cooing of doves to prophecy.
     Peloponnesus, worshipped at the Temple of Zeus in Olympia (Est. 5th c BC), the original site of
     the a sanctuary and temple complex that was the original site of the Olympic games in 776 BCE.
Genealogy: Cronus + Rhea. Husband of Hera, cuckold of many - mortal and immortal.
Claim to Fame: God of all, weather, storms, oaths, xenia ("guest/host relationship"), suppliants.
Iconography: Eagle, sceptre, crown, aegis
Literature: Hesiod's Theogony

Myth

I. Birth: Cronus swallowed each of his six children of Cronus and Rhea (Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus), paranoid that the prophecy of Uranus would continue. Rhea and Zeus conspire and substitute a swaddled stone when Zeus is "born" (came to be known as the omphalus, "navel"). While Cronus continues to rule unaware, Zeus is reared in Crete on Mt. Dicte by Amalthea ("goat") and Melissa ("bee"). His cries are hidden from Cronus by the clamouring of the Curetes ("young men"), devotees of the Mother Goddess who wield cymbals and drums. He subsists on the bounty of nature, a cornucopia ("horn of plenty"), until he is of age to overthrow his father.
Zeus symbolizes a fusion of Minoan and Mycenaean Cultures in that he integrates the existing earth religions with the dominant iIndo-European belief system. With his import follow a series of myths that replace indigenous social beliefs of matriarchy, polygamy, and transpomorphism, with patriarchy, monogamy, and anthropomorphism.

II. Coming of Age: Zeus returns to Mt. Othrys and rescues his siblings (and the omphalus) from his father Cronus, then seeks to establish his new rule.
     - Titanomachy: The Olympians, Themis (and her son Prometheus), the Cyclopes, and 100-handers,
        of Mt. Olympus, engage the Titans in a 10 year battle that results in their defeat. They are
        locked away in Tartarus for their misdeeds. Atlas (titan) is punished for his misalliance by the
        penalty of having to physically separate earth and sky, preventing the procreation of any more
        earthy beasts.
     - Gigantomachy: The Gegeneis ("earth born", "giants"), born from the spilled blood of Uranus, sent
       by the titans, and are defeated handily by the Olympians with the help of Heracles.
     - Typhonomachy: Zeus battles Typhon (a.k.a. Typhoeus, Typhaon, son of Gaia and Tartarus), a
       snaky, fire breathing, 100 head (subsequently 100 voices), that set the world aflame. He is
       defeated with some difficulty and is hurled beneath Mt. Etna to Tartarus.
With his nemesis' defeated, Zeus attains the throne on Mt. Olympus and ascends his new rule.

III. Affairs:
     - Metis ("wisdom"), swallowed by Zeus = Athena
     - Mnemosyne (titan, "memory") = Muses, the patron Goddesses of the Arts
     - Themis ("law") = 3 Fates: Clotho ("spinner"), Lachesis ("apportioner"), Atropos ("inflexible")
                                = 3 Horae: Eunomia ("good order"), Dike ("justice"), Eirene ("peace")
     - Eurynome ("wide dominion") = 3 Charites/Gratiae ("Graces"), associated with Aphrodite
     ... And much, much more.

IV. Zeus and Lycaon: Disguised as a mortal to calibrate the moral fibre of mankind, Zeus feasted at the castle of Lycaon, King of Arcadia. To test his divinity, Lycaon serves Zeus human flesh, which evokes the wrath of Zeus to destroy all of mankind. Lycaon is transformed into a wolf (Lykos "wolf"), and Zeus threatens to ignite the world. The Gods, fearful of their own annihilation, suggest he flood the earth instead, of which only the two mortals Deucalon (son of Prometheus) and Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus) are the sole survivors.
Wracked with guilt, Zeus looks to repopulate the earth. The couple visit the Oracle of Themis, who order them to cover their head, loosen garments, and "toss the bones of the earth over their shoulder". Wily Deucalon reasons that stones are the bones of the earth, so he and Pyrrha obey and form the iron age(his becomes man, hers become women).
The couple has a son, Hellen, who is the eponymous founder of the Hellenes (Greeks).

The Beginning of Time (Ch 3)

According to Hesiod's Theogony (theos "god" + gon "birth") and Works & Days, the cosmos ("order/arrangment") was spontaneously created out of Chaos ("chasm"), a conceptual entity with no order to lend itself to human understanding.
Out of Chaos came Gaia/Ge ("earth"), Erebus ("gloom"), Tartarus ("hell"), Eros ("sexual passion") and Night, the precedents of the foundations for the universe. Gaia's procreates with her children Pontus ("Sea") and Uranus ("Sky") in Hieros Gamos, or holy matrimony.
     + Pontus
     + Uranus = 12 titans, Oceanus-Tethys, Iapetus-Themis, Cronus-Rhea, Mnemosyne, Coeus-Phoebe,
                        Hyperion-Theia, Crius.
                     = 3 Cyclopes ("orb-eye"), Thunder, Lighting, and Shining.
                     = 3 Hecatonchires ("100-Handers" with 50 heads each)

Hyperion + Theia = Helius/Sol ("sun"), Selene/Luna ("moon"), Eos/Aurora ("dawn")
     - Phaethon, son of Helius and Clymene, questions his patronage. To affirm his son, Helius grants
       him one wish, in which Phaethon demands to drive Daddy's chariot. Helius abides, bound by oath,
       and Phaethon naturally loses control of the chariot, scorching the earth. Jupiter intervenes, and
       Phaethon is struck from the chariot and hurls to his death below. The Heliades, daughters of Helius,
       bury him, weeping, and are transformed into Poplar trees with tears of amber.
     - Selene falls in love with the handsome shepherd Endymion, bearing 50 daughters. In order to
       preserve him, she asks Zeus to grant him Eternal Sleep as well as Eternal Youth, and he is rests
       forevermore, beautiful in death. Now, he is a motif frequently found on sarcophagi as a symbol
       of the timelessness of youth in memory.
     - Eos, not as clever as her sister, asks for a similar gift for her Trojan prince Tithonus, but forgets
       to mention eternal youth along with his eternal life. His gift becomes a curse, as he becomes
       undesirable to the goddess and shrivels away to a Cicada.
Uranus + Gaia = 12 titans.
     - Uranus inseminates Gaia each night, but prevents her from giving birth. Gaia and Cronus conspire
       and Cronus emerges from the womb to castrate his father.
       From his spilled blood, that drips on Gaia, the Erinyes ("Furies"), Gigantes ("giants", "earth born")
       and the Ash-Tree Nymphs are born. From his severed genitals that are cast into the sea, the
       Goddess Aphrodite emerges from the foam
     - The prophecy repeats itself with the birth of Zeus from Cronus and Rhea, see Zeus.