The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and an eagle's talons as its front feet. The lion was considered the king of the beasts and the eagle the king of birds, so the griffin was thought of as king of all creatures. Griffins are known for guarding treasure. There is evidence of representations of griffins in ancient Iranian and ancient Egyptian art dating to before 3000 BC.
Romans often associated the mythical creatures with the sun god Apollo, giving the Griffin an air of power and dominance. A Griffin is 'as fiery as the Sun,' and was a creature to be feared and given respect. In Medieval Europe, the Griffin became a Christian symbol for the Church's ideals on marriage. According to legend, Griffins mated for life and in the event of the death of a partner, the surviving griffin would never seek another mate. The creature was also used to symbolize Jesus. The griffin's association with Christianity meant they became protectors of the dead.
In the eastern world, a part-man, part-bird creature, the Garuda, served as a mount for the Hindu god Vishnu.
The griffin has been part of human culture since ancient times and persists today, as seen in various school emblems, mascots, and popular literature and movies.
The Furies were the three goddesses of vengeance: Tisiphone (avenger of murder), Megaera (the jealous) and Alecto (constant anger). They were also called the Daughters of the Night, but were actually the daughters of Uranus and Gaea. Another name for them is the Erinyes.
The Erinyes live in Erebus and are more ancient than any of the Olympians. Their task is to hear complaints brought by mortals against the insolence of the young to the aged, of children to parents, of hosts to guests, and of householders or city councils to suppliants—and to punish such crimes by hounding culprits relentlessly.
The Erinyes are crones and often described as having snakes for hair, dog's heads, coal black bodies, bat's wings, and blood-shot eyes. Their victims die in painful torment.
A victim seeking justice could call down the curse of the Erinys upon the criminal. The Roman Furies were originally nothing but a personification of curses pronounced upon a guilty criminal.
In Greek mythology, Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origin of high lineage, and after whom the continent Europe was named. She was abducted by Zeus in the form of a white bull. Europa's earliest literary reference is in the Iliad, which is commonly dated to the 8th century BC.
Zeus was enamored with Europa and decided to seduce and ravish her. He transformed himself into a tame white bull and mixed in with her father's herds. While Europa and her helpers were gathering flowers, she saw the bull, caressed his flanks, and eventually got onto his back.
Zeus took that opportunity and ran to the sea and swam, with her on his back, to the island of Crete. He then revealed his true identity, and Europa became the first queen of Crete. Zeus later re-created the shape of the white bull in the stars, which is the constellation Taurus.
Europa is featured on a circulating commemorative €2 coin first issued in Greece in 2002.
Later she bore Zeus three sons, one of whom, Minos, became ruler of Crete.
Europa is featured on EU five-euro notes. The "Europa series" of banknotes started with the €5 note introduced on May 2, 2013. Her portrait is incorporated into the hologram and watermark as a security feature.
To the Greeks he was Hermes. To the Etruscans, he was Turms. To the Romans he was Mercurius.
He played many roles in the myths of ancient people, but as a god of profit and commerce, he was often represented on money. Possibly the earliest coin to depict Hermes is a silver stater of Kaunos dated to c. 490 BCE.
Populonia, an important center of iron production, was one of the few Etruscan cities that issued silver coinage in the fourth century BCE. A didrachm – one of only three known – depicts Turms.
The facing head of Hermes, dated to c. 402-399 BCE.
Perhaps the finest image of Hermes on any ancient coin appears on the reverse of a silver stater of Pheneos, c. 360-350 BCE
C. Mamilius Limetanus denarius serratus c. 82 BC. Bust of Mercury
One of the last appearances of Mercury on Roman coinage came during the brief reign of the emperor Trajan Decius. (249-251)
Pheneos produced a small silver obol c. 370-340 BCE
Hermes was often depicted as a young man, wearing traveling clothes, a flat hat known as 'petasus' and winged sandals on his feet. Often, he was depicted having wings attached to his shoulders and hat.
He usually held a caduceus, a winged staff with snakes wrapped around it so he could gain access everywhere. This staff helped Hermes to charm the gods. The staff is often mistakenly used as a symbol of medicine.
Typhon
Typhon was a monstrous giant and the most deadly creature in Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia, and was fathered by Tartarus.
According to Hesiod, Typhon was "terrible, outrageous and lawless", and on his shoulders were one hundred snake heads, that emitted fire and every kind of noise.
Typhon and his mate Echidna were the progenitors of many famous monsters. Hera, angry at Zeus for having given birth to Athena by himself, prayed to Gaia to give her a son as strong as Zeus, then slapped the ground and became pregnant. Hera gave the infant Typhon to the serpent Python to raise. Typhon become a bane to all mortals.
"Strength was with his hands in all that he did and the feet of the strong god were untiring. From his shoulders grew a hundred heads of a snake, a fearful dragon, with dark, flickering tongues, and from under the brows of his eyes in his marvellous heads flashed fire, and fire burned from his heads as he glared." Typhon "was joined in love" to Echidna, a monstrous half-woman and half-snake, who bore Typhon "fierce offspring"
Typhon challenged Zeus for rule of the cosmos. Angered, Zeus used his thunderbolt to overcome Typhon, who was cast down into Tartarus. Most accounts have the defeated Typhon being the cause of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Typhon mythology is part of the Greek succession myth, which explained how Zeus came to rule the gods.
Sisyphus
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra (now Corinth).
He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll a boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeating this action for eternity. Sisyphus promoted navigation and commerce but was avaricious and deceitful. He killed travelers and guests, a violation of xenia, which fell under Zeus's domain. He took pleasure in these killings because they allowed him to maintain his iron-fisted rule.
Persephone supervising Sisyphus in the Underworld.
Hades with Cerberus - Pluto Carricci painting
Sisyphus's greatest triumph came at the end of his life, when the god Hades came to claim him personally for the kingdom of the dead. Hades had brought a pair of handcuffs, and Sisyphus expressed such an interest that Hades was persuaded to demonstrate their use - on himself. The lord of the Underworld was kept locked up by Sisyphus, which meant nobody could die. As a punishment for his trickery against the Gods, Sisyphus was made to toil endlessly.
The maddening nature of the punishment was reserved for him due to his belief that his cleverness surpassed Zeus.
His hubris ended up consigning Sisyphus to an eternity of useless effort. Pointless or interminable activities are described today as sisyphean.
A hellhound is a supernatural dog in folklore. A wide variety of hellish dogs occur in mythologies around the world. Some European legends state that if someone stares into a hellhound's eyes twice or more, that person will surely die.
Hellhounds often have fire-based abilities and appearance. They are often assigned to guard the entrances to the world of the dead, such as graveyards and burial grounds, or undertake other duties such as hunting lost souls. In European legends, seeing a hellhound or hearing it howl is an omen or even a cause of death. They are said to be the protectors of the supernatural. Hellhounds of myth is common across Great Britain and Western Europe.
In southern Mexico and Central America folklore, the Cadejo haunts travelers who walk late at night.
The Bearer of Death is a term often used in describing the Hellhound. Hellhounds are said to be as black as coal with a smell of burning brimstone. They leave behind a burned area wherever they go. In Greek mythology the hellhound belonged to Hades, the Greek god of death and the underworld. It's name in Greek mythology is Cerberus. It has three heads and guards the gates of hell. The three heads were meant to symbolize the past, present and future.
Hades with Cerberus - Pluto Carricci painting
Cerberus is a well known creature in ancient mythology. Hades’ loyal guard dog, Cerberus only had an appetite for living flesh and so would only allow dead spirits to pass, while consuming any living mortal who was foolish enough to come near. Cerberus was the offspring of the monsters Echidna and Typhon, and was usually described as having a serpent for a tail, and snakes protruding from his body.
Cerberus is best known as the twelfth and final labor of Heracles. Heracles must enter the underworld, wrestle the beast using no weapons, and then bring Cerberus to the surface world, alive, to present to the Mycenaean king Eurystheus. Although Eurystheus commanded him to bring back Cerberus, it was not from any desire to see Cerberus, but only because Eurystheus thought that the task was impossible. Heracles made his descent into the underworld through an entrance at Tainaron, the most famous of the various Greek entrances to the underworld. It took its name from the mythical son of Zeus, Taenarus, who built a town named Taenarum after himself. A cave network was believed to be an entrance to Hades. This gate was guarded by Cerberus, a beast that prevented the dead from escaping and the living from entering.
Heracles tackled the beast, throws it over his shoulder and drags him to the mortal world. Upon seeing Cerberus, Eurystheus was so terrified that he hid in a large vase and begged Heracles to return the hell hound back to Hades.
The domain of Hades in Greek mythology was not only hell, but was the whole of the afterlife. The realm was Tartarus (hell), the Asphodel Meadows (nothingness), and the Elysian Fields (paradise).
Charon's obol
Charon's obol is a term for the coin placed in the mouth of the dead before burial.
Literary sources specify the coin as an obol, and explain it as a payment for Charon, the ferryman who conveyed souls across the river that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Examples of these coins have been called "the most famous grave goods from antiquity."
Charon and Psyche (1883) An obol was originally a small silver coin, valued at one-sixth of a drachma. After the Greeks were absorbed into the Roman empire, obol was used to describe any low-value bronze coin.
The custom is primarily associated with the ancient Greeks and Romans, though it is also found in the ancient Near East. In Western Europe, a similar usage of coins in burials occurs in regions inhabited by Celts of the Gallo-Roman, Hispano-Roman and Romano-British cultures, and among the Germanic peoples. In Latin, Charon’s obol is sometimes called a viaticum, which in everyday usage means "provision for a journey"
Greek and Roman literary sources from the 5th century BC through the 2nd century AD are consistent in attributing four characteristics to Charon’s obol: it is a single, low-denomination coin; it is placed in the mouth; the placement occurs at the time of death; and it represents a boat fare.
In Greek mythology, Charon is the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the rivers Styx and Acheron that divided the world of the living from the world of the dead. Those who could not pay the fee, or those whose bodies were unburied, wandered the shores for one hundred years.
Charon is depicted in the art of ancient Greece. He holds his ferryman's pole in his right hand and uses his left hand to receive the dead.
Venus Victrix - Venus the Victorious
In the second or third century a gold ring bearing the likeness of the Roman goddess Venus was lost on a road in what is now Brittany, France. Researchers excavated an 11-acre site ahead of planned development in the French commune of Pacé and found the relic.
Roman generals were known to call on Venus Victrix before battle. The ring dates to Brittany’s occupation by the Romans, which began with Julius Caesar’s conquest of the region in 56 B.C.E.
In Roman mythology, Venus was the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility. She was the Roman counterpart to the Greek Aphrodite. The Roman Venus had many abilities beyond the Greek Aphrodite; she was the goddess of victory and even prostitution.
According to Hesiod, Aphrodite was born of the foam from the sea after Saturn castrated his father Uranus and threw his genitals into the sea. Her beauty became a source of tension among the gods, all of whom desired her.
Botticelli's Birth of Venus
To calm matters, Zeus decided that Aphrodite would marry Hephaestus, the crippled smith god. Hephaestus fashioned a magic girdle to ensure her fidelity. However, she proved unfaithful and had multiple affairs with both mortals and gods. Some of her offspring were the Cupids (Erotes) who were a collection of winged love deities who represented the different aspects of love. Images of Venus can be found in countless forms. Venus, due to her beauty and sexual nature, was often depicted nude. Venus continued to be a popular subject matter for artists into modern times.
Talos
Talos was a giant automaton made of bronze that protected Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders.
Phaestus Stater circa 300-270 BC. EF $29,500
He circled the island's shores three times daily. Talos threw rocks at any approaching ship. Stories of his origin vary. One tale is that Hephaistos crafted the bronze android Talos for Minos, the son of Zeus.
Some accounts describe him as the last survivor of an ancient race of bronze men, but the more popular versions attribute his creation to Hephaestus, god of the forge. Talos had one vein, which went from his neck to his ankle, bound shut by one bronze nail. The Argo, transporting Jason and the Argonauts, approached Crete after obtaining the Golden Fleece. Talos kept the Greeks at bay by hurling boulders.
Talos was slain when Medea the sorceress either drove him mad with drugs, or deceived him into believing that she would make him immortal by removing the nail. He dislodged the nail, and "the ichor ran out of him like molten lead", killing him.
5th-century BCE Greek vase depicts the death of Talos
Talos makes an appearance in the 1963 motion picture "Jason and the Argonauts" thanks to stop-motion wizardry. The film, however, cast Jason as the automaton's slayer instead of Medea.
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