Greek and Roman Myths
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Greek and Roman Myths’
After spending years besieging the city of Troy, the Greek armies suddenly decamp, leaving behind only an enormous wooden sculpture of a horse.
Greek kings leading a mighty host have for ten years laid siege to the city of Troy (in what is now northwest Turkey), demanding the return of Helen, a kidnapped princess. Dido listened with shining eyes, as Trojan hero Aeneas told how the Trojans looked out and saw the Greeks had gone, leaving nothing but an enormous wooden horse — to be placed in the temple of Athene, as a prayer for their journey home.
After safely negotiating the alluring Sirens, Odysseus and his crew must now decide which of Scylla and Charybdis would do the least damage.
Before Odysseus and his crew set sail from her island, Circe warned them all of the dangers they would face in returning to Ithaca. Assuming they passed safely by the alluring Sirens, they would then have to navigate a course between a gangly, voracious six-headed monster on one side and a ghastly, throbbing whirlpool on the other — a choice between bad and worse.
Armed with a length of stout cord and a large ball of wax, Odysseus and his crew prepare to face the music of the Sirens.
Odysseus and his crew have parted, not without misgivings, from the paradise island of the goddess Circe. Before they set off for home and the island of Ithaca, Circe warned them about the Sirens. The sailor who once listens to their music will be drawn irresistibly into their meadow, there to sit spellbound forever by song among the other little heaps of withered flesh and bleaching bone.
Niobe, daughter of Tantalus, was so proud of her fourteen children that she brazenly claimed the privileges of a goddess.
Niobe was a legendary Queen of Thebes with fourteen lovely children. In a moment of motherly pride, she scoffed at the goddess Leto, mother of just two. But they were Apollo and Artemis; and Niobe had unleashed an unstoppable divine feud that would make her name synonymous with tears.
A weary King Odysseus dozes off on his voyage home to Ithaca, but his crew are wide awake, wondering what is in his bag.
Odysseus, King of the island of Ithaca in the Ionian Sea, is on his way home after many years away fighting in the Siege of Troy. He has had a little trouble with one-eyed Polyphemus, the Cyclops, and a few weeks rest with the odd but hospitable family of Aeolus is just what he needs.
Young Theseus sets out for Athens on foot to claim his kingdom, but the road is infested with giants, bandits and a savage sow.
According to Castor of Rhodes (first century BC), Theseus inherited the crown of Athens in 1234 BC – just about the time of the Exodus and shortly before the Siege of Troy. As his name implies, during his reign he ‘gathered’ all Attica under Athens, and the overwhelming challenge posed by that task is symbolised by the mythical labours attributed to him.