D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Tended by nymphs and a fairy goat on Crete, Zeus grew quickly into “a great new god” (18). His first wife, Metis, was a Titan’s daughter and goddess of prudence. She advised Zeus to collect strong allies. Metis then tricked Cronus into vomiting up the stone and his other children. Cronus relinquished his power and fled, leaving Zeus “lord of the universe” (18).

Zeus shared his power with his siblings—goddesses Hestia, Demeter, and Hera and gods Hades and Poseidon—but the Titans rose against the new gods, except for brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus. Zeus freed the Cyclopes and their 100-armed brothers, who fought with him. The Cyclopes forged a cap of invisibility for Hades, a trident for Poseidon, and a thunderbolt for Zeus.

With his allies, Zeus defeated the Titans and sent them to Tartarus, angering Gaea, who sent two monsters, Typhon and Echidna, to destroy him. The gods fled, but Zeus returned, inspiring the others to do the same. He pinned Typhon under a mountain. Echidna escaped to a cave, where she protected Typhon’s children. Zeus allowed them to live “as a challenge to future heroes” (20).

Gaea gave up her struggle. The earth grew “green and fruitful,” and Zeus ruled “in peace” (23). The Cyclopes built a palace for the gods at the top of Olympus, hidden in clouds. Only the gods could dispel them when they wished to descend to earth. Messenger goddess Iris had a special path between Olympus and earth.

Zeus, the strongest god, ruled alongside his wife Hera, his other siblings, his children, and the goddess of love, Aphrodite.

Hera was jealous of Zeus’s other wives and initially did not want to marry him. During a storm, he disguised himself as a distressed cuckoo, and Hera took him into her arms. Zeus then transformed back into himself, and the two were married. Gaea gifted Hera a tree with “golden apples of immortality” (28), which she planted in a secret garden guarded by a 100-headed dragon and tended by Nymphs of the Hesperides.

Hera kept a close watch over “tricky Zeus” (28). She once caught Zeus with a lovely cow, which Hera knew was Zeus’s “newest bride Io” (28). Hera convinced Zeus to give her the cow, then set 100-eyed Argus to watch over her. Zeus dared not rescue her but sent Hermes to overcome Argus, which he did by boring him to death. Furious at the death of Argus, Hera placed his eyes into the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock, and sent a gadfly to torment Io. It chased her all the way to Egypt, where she was worshiped. Hera allowed Zeus to make her human again, provided he promised never to look at her again. Io became a goddess-queen of Egypt, and her descendants eventually returned to Greece as rulers.

Zeus and Hera’s son Hephaestus worked hard and loved peace. He soothed and protected his mother. When he came between her and Zeus during a quarrel, Zeus threw him off Olympus. Hephaestus fell for a whole day, after which Thetis found and cared for him, though he retained a limp. Zeus eventually allowed him to return to Olympus. His forges were in volcanoes, where the Cyclopes helped him. Hephaestus built two automatons of gold and silver to assist him. He crafted thrones and weapons for the gods.

Hephaestus’s wife was Aphrodite, goddess of love, who “rose out of the sea on a cushion of foam” (37). The West Wind blew her gently to the island of Cythera, where the three Graces attended her. Fearing the gods would fight over Aphrodite, Zeus chose Hephaestus as her husband. Her son was Eros, who delighted in shooting his arrows of love into “unwary victims” (37).

Aphrodite resented being married to Hephaestus and would have preferred his brother Ares, the god of war. His companion was Eris, “spirit of strife” (40). She would throw her golden apple of discord, causing strife or war to break out. Vicious Ares enjoyed battle and bloodshed but could not bear to be in pain himself. Aphrodite admired him for his handsome appearance, but the other gods disliked him, especially Athena.

Goddess of wisdom Athena was Zeus’s favorite child. Her mother was Metis. After Gaea warned Zeus that Metis could bear a son who would unseat his father as Zeus had unseated Cronus, Zeus tricked Metis into transforming into a fly so he could swallow her. Their daughter sprang from her father’s head wearing a robe and helmet.

Athena’s companion was Nike, “spirit of victory” (46). In war, Athena led armies fighting for just causes, and during peacetime, she was a patron of artists. Her specialties were weaving and pottery. One of her pupils, Arachne, claimed to be better at weaving than the goddess. After Arachne failed to heed Athena’s warning, the goddess competed with Arachne in a weaving contest. Arachne wove a beautiful tapestry, but it mocked Zeus and his wives, and Athena transformed her into a spider.

Athena and her uncle, Poseidon, loved the same city. Each presented it with a gift: Poseidon gave a saltwater spring, Athena an olive tree. The citizens deemed the olive tree more useful, and the city became Athens, named for the goddess and “famous for their arts and crafts” (47).

Zeus’s “moody and violent” brother Poseidon was “lord of the sea” (49). His predecessor was Nereus, who relinquished his underwater palace. Nereus’s daughter Amphitrite became Poseidon’s wife. Their son was Triton, who had a fishtail instead of legs. Poseidon had other wives and children, but “Amphitrite was not jealous like Hera” (49).

Poseidon raised Delos from the sea. There, goddess Leto, a wife of Zeus, gave birth to twins Apollo and Artemis. After their birth, Zeus fixed the island, and it bloomed abundant flowers and became home to temples and treasures that drew pilgrims from around the Greek world.

Apollo was “god of music, light, and reason” (52). When he grew up, he went to sacred Delphi, where a sibyl delivered prophecies to pilgrims. The dragon Python guarded the oracle. Python fought Apollo, but he triumphed, taking control of the oracle. Artemis, “goddess of the hunt and all newborn creatures” (52), asked her father to remain a maiden forever, and he granted her wish. She and her 50 nymph companions hunted by moonlight with their dogs, after which they would bathe. Hunter Actaeon once accidentally saw Artemis bathing, and she turned him into a stag. His own dogs devoured him.

The twins loved their mother. After Theban queen Niobe boasted that she had seven sons and seven daughters, Artemis and Apollo killed her children with their arrows. They turned her “into an unfeeling rock” (60), but a spring grew inside her, releasing tears.

Artemis once pretended that she would marry Otus, a giant son of Poseidon. He and his brother, Ephialtes, challenged Zeus. Since no one could defeat them, Apollo advised contriving for the brothers to defeat each other. Artemis lured Otus to Naxos, where she transformed into a white deer. While hunting her, the brothers shot each other. Having defeated each other, the brothers were tied together and “thrown into Tartarus” (62).

Orion, another of Poseidon’s giant sons, was modest and a skilled hunter. The king of the island of Chios promised Orion he could marry his daughter if he hunted the troublesome lions, wolves, and bears, but instead, he blinded Orion. A Cyclops boy to lead Orion to the sun, which restored his sight. On the island of Crete, he met Artemis, who favored Orion as she had no other man. Jealous Apollo sent a scorpion to kill Orion, angering his sister. Together, they ensured he “would never be forgotten” by hanging his image into the sky “as a constellation” (64).

God of shepherds, travelers, merchants, and thieves, Hermes was the son of Zeus and Maia, daughter of a Titan. When he was only a day old, Hermes stole Apollo’s cattle, disguised the route he took, made the first lyre, and then snuck back into his bed. Maia was not fooled, but Hermes assured her he would be “one of the twelve great gods” (69), and she would rise in importance with him.

The following day, Apollo accused Hermes of stealing his cows and chased him to Olympus. The brothers set their grievances before their father, Zeus. Apollo reiterated his accusation, and Hermes insisted he was just an innocent newborn baby being bullied by his older brother. Loving them both, Zeus compelled his sons to reconcile. Hermes returned Apollo’s cows and gifted him the lyre. All the gods loved him, even Hera, who was angry with him only once, when he bored Argus to death. The gods acquitted him of guilt after he spoke eloquently in his defense. Zeus made Hermes “the herald of the gods” (70), and he guided the souls of the dead to Hades.

Hermes led dead souls to the river Styx, across which Charon ferried them, provided they could pay the fare. Lord of the dead Hades was gloomy, quiet, and feared by mortals. He was wealthy, for all treasures under the earth belonged to him, and hospitable, since “he always had room for another dead soul” (74). The three-headed watchdog Cerberus guarded his realm, which he ruled with his queen, Persephone, daughter of Demeter.

While in the underworld, Persephone was joyless because Hades had kidnapped her, having fallen in love with the lovely and graceful girl. Knowing her mother would never let her go, he kidnapped her. On earth, as long as Demeter searched and grieved for Persephone, flowers, trees, and fields refused to grow. As humans and animals starved, the gods begged Demeter “again to bless the earth” (80), but she refused. When she discovered that Hades had kidnapped her daughter, “her grief turned to anger” (81). Zeus ordered Hades to return to Persephone, but while in the underworld, she had eaten a few seeds from a pomegranate tree. Having “tasted the food of the dead” (83), Persephone would have to return to Hades. As long as she is on earth with her mother, the earth blooms, but when she returns to Hades, nothing grows, and it is winter. Not wanting humans to starve during the winter, Demeter taught them how to grow, sow, reap, and store grain.

God of wine Dionysus, “youngest of the Olympians” (86), was the son of Zeus and mortal princess Semele. Jealous Hera convinced Semele to be suspicious of Zeus’s true identity and to make him reveal his true form, knowing this would burn Semele to ashes. Semele first made Zeus swear on the river Styx, the most sacred oath, to fulfill any wish for her. He could not deny her, but he saved her unborn son, Dionysius. Hermes brought the baby to a band of Maenads, who raised him “with tigers and leopards for playmates” (87). He learned to make wine from grapes and eventually returned to Greece to teach islanders the craft.

A band of pirates kidnapped him hoping to gain a ransom. They laughed at his gentle admonitions to return him since he was the wine god. Consequently, he caused grape vines to sprout from the ship, wine to drip from the sail, and the sound of wild animals to be heard. Dionysus grew until he filled the whole ship. The terrified sailors jumped overboard into the sea, but kind Dionysius saved them by turning them into dolphins. Having observed the joy Dionysus brought to humanity, Zeus wanted to give him a throne on Olympus. Hera objected, but Zeus threatened her with “his indomitable fist” (91). Gentle Hestia gave Dionysus her throne since her “place was at the hearth” (91). Zeus brought Semele back from the underworld, and Olympus rejoiced.