Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and

heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece. Modern scholars refer to the myths and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece, its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself. What are we to say of the tellers of these quite unbelievable, although picturesque legends, and of those who heard and more or less credited them ? It is here that opinions differ most widely, and have differed in the past. One of the most ancient explanations is that these tales of wonder are allegories, concealing some deep and edifying meaning, which the wisdom of primeval sages prompted them to hide in this manner, either to prevent great truths passing into the hands of persons too ignorant or too impious to use them aright, or to attract by stories those who would not listen to a dry and formal discussion. As an example, I will cite the interpretation given of a well-known myth, the Judgment of Paris, by the so-called Sallustius. As he tells the story, the gods were at a banquet, when Eris (Strife, Emulation) cast among them a golden apple, inscribed For the Fairest. Three goddesses, Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, having all claimed it, the decision was referred by Zeus to Paris, son of Priam of Troy. Aphrodite having bribed him with the promise of the loveliest of mortal women as his wife, he decided in her favour. Here, says our author, the banquet signifies the supramundane powers of the gods, and that is why they are together; the golden apple signifies the universe, which, as it is made of opposites, is rightly said to be thrown by Strife, and as the various gods give various gifts to the universe they are thought to vie with one another for the possession of the apple; further, the soul that lives in accordance with sense-perception (for that is Paris), seeing beauty alone and not the other powers in the universe, says that the apple is Aphrodites. Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in Greek representational arts, such as vase-paintings and votive gifts. Greek myth attempts to explain the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines, and mythological creatures. These accounts initially were disseminated in an oral-poetic tradition; today the Greek myths are known primarily from Greek literature. The oldest known Greek literary sources, the epic poems Iliad and Odyssey, focus on events surrounding the Trojan War. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths also are preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians

of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias. Archaeological findings provide a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with gods and heroes featured prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence. Greek mythology has exerted an extensive influence on the culture, the arts, and the literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in these mythological themes.

The Olympian gods.

The Olympian gods were the main deities in Ancient Greece. After overthrowing their ancestors, the Titans, the Olympian gods became the rulers of the Cosmos representing the civilization of the world.The Olympian gods were majestically and democratically dwelling on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece, built by the Cyclopes. The leader of the Olympian gods was Zeus. The gods were born and grew just like human beings, some of them even married, however they were unaging and death never came to them. They lived inside human-like bodies with an ethereal fluid called ichor running in the veins. They had passions and human weaknesses and were many times at fault, but were then obliged to take the full responsibility of their actions. Greek myths always refer to the twelve Gods of Mount Olympus, but in total there were more Olympian Gods in Greek Mythology. However, there were never more than twelve at one time. The four alternative gods were Hestia, Hades, Dionysus and Demeter, depending on the location. In addition to the Greek gods of Olympus, there were also other greek deities and various spirits who were usually supplementing the Olympian gods' powers, but at times tended to dispute the Olympians' proposals.

The Titans of ancient Greece

According to Greek mythology, the Titans were a race of primordial, powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. The Titans were created by Gaea, the goddess of the Earth and Uranus, the god of the Heaven who embraced Gaea strongly with his starry mantle. Gaea and Uranus became the first divine couple of the World.

The Titans were the first dwelling in Mount Olympus in Ancient Greece, but were overthrown and expelled to the lower basement of Hades, the Tartarus, after their defeat in a huge battle with the Olympian Gods, known as Titanomachy.

Sources of Greek mythology

Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900800 BC onward.

Literary sources
Prometheus (1868 by Gustave Moreau). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by Hesiod and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus Pyrphoros Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.[5] Apollodorus lived from c. 180120 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection; however the "Library" discusses events that occurred long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus. Among the earliest literary sources are Homer's two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the "Homeric Hymns" have no direct connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age. Hesiod, a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods, Titans, and Giants; as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales, and etiological myths. The creation of the gods needs to be divided into four parts: 1. The Coming into Existence of Chaos First there was Chaos, a rough unordered mass of things, also considered as a void. Chaos was followed by Gaea (Earth) and Eros(Desire), who came to cancel every logical thought or act. Gaea then brought Uranus (the Heaven), Pontus (the Sea) and the Mountains to the world. 2. The Castration of Uranus

Uranus' task was to surround and cover Gaea with his starry coat, however, it very soon came to a union between Uranus and Gaea and they became the first divine couple in the world. Gaea bore Uranus twelve Titans and furthermore three Cyclops, Brontes, Steropes and heady Arges, and three Hecatonchires(Hundred-Handed creatures). Uranus was fearful of his children overthrowing him, so he pushed his children back one by one into the womb of Gaea. His wife Gaea was in deep grief and sorrow over the loss of her own children, so in the end she handed a sickle to her son Cronus, the youngest of the Titans, in order to castrate his father. Cronus castrated his father while he was sleeping; the blood from Uranus was collected by Mother Earth Gaea and she produced Erinyes (Furies), Giants and Melian nymphs. Cronus then threw his father's genitals into the sea, around which foams developed, that started in Kythera and then slowly made their way to the island of Paphos. In Paphos, the foams transformed into Aphrodite, the Olympian goddess of Love and Beauty. 3. Zeus' Escape from the Threat of Cronus Soon afterwards, Cronus rescues his brothers and sisters and shares the World (Cosmos) with them. He then marries Rhea and together they created children who later on would become the Olympian gods. But Cronus developed the same fear as his father so he started to swallow his own children as well. Rhea was highly discomforted so, on her attempt to save her youngest child, Zeus, she deceived Cronus by giving a huge stone to swallow. To protect her son afterwards, Rhea then sent Zeus to Crete. 4. The Victorious Battle of the Olympian Gods against the Titans (Titanomachy) Zeus grew up in Crete, fed by the goat Amaltheia and been taken good care of by the Nymphs. When he reached manhood, as prophesied, Zeus rescued his five elder brothers and sisters and then made war on his father and the Titans, also known as "Titanomachy". In this battle, Zeus succeeded in overthrowing Cronus, casting him and the other titans into the depths of the Underworld. A huge battle with the Giants followed, where the Olympian Gods excelled and then time had come for the Olympian gods to rule the world. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Four Ages. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods. Lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets including Pindar, Bacchylides, Simonides and bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents.[7] Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama. The tragic playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of

heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea, etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright Aristophanes also used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs. Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends, often giving little-known alternative versions.] Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East. Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins and the blending of differing cultural concepts. The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: 1. The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Seneca, and Virgil with Servius's commentary. 2. The Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus Smyrnaeus. 3. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-Eratosthenes, and Parthenius. 4. The ancient novels of Greeks and Romans such as Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus, and Heliodorus. The Fabulae and Astronomica of the Roman writer styled as Pseudo-Hyginus are two important, non-poetical compendiums of myth. The Imagines of Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the Younger and the Descriptions of Callistratus, are two other useful sources that were drawn upon for themes. Finally, Arnobius and a number of Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, much derived from earlier now lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include a lexicon of Hesychius, the Suda, and the treatises of John Tzetzes and Eustathius. The Christian moralizing view of Greek myth is encapsulated in the saying, / en panti muthi kai to Daidalou musos ("In every myth there is also the defilement of Daidalos"). In this fashion, the encyclopedic Sudas reported the role of Daedalus in satisfying the "unnatural lust" of Pasipha for the bull of Poseidon: "Since the origin and blame for these evils were attributed to Daidalos and he was loathed for them, he became the subject of the proverb."

Archaeological sources
The Roman poet Virgil, here depicted in the fifth century manuscript, the Vergilius Romanus, preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German amateur archaeologist, Heinrich Schliemann, in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the Minoan

civilization in Crete by British archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans, in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myth and ritual at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although the names of gods and heroes doubtfully have been revealed. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles.[2] These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons. For one, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the Cerberus adventure occurs in a contemporary literary text.[11] In addition, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by several centuries.[4] In the Archaic (c. 750c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480323 BC), and Hellenistic (323146 BC) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.