Other_Myths

__Medusa__
The story of Medusa starts off with a beautiful young maid in the temple of Athena. Her name was Medusa, a mortal daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. Many suiters were after her, but being a maid of Athena she refused all of them, including Posidon the god of the sea. This enraged Posidon so he went after her at the temple when she was alone. There he seduced her and Athena was enraged. Athena cursed Medusa. Her hair started to fall out and was replaced with writhing snakes. Her beautiful face turned grotesque and wrinkled. The curse then made it so that if anyone would look upon her again they would be turned into a living stone statue. Many Greek heros tried to slay the Gorgon and and ended up as statues. All failed until Perseus, the son of Zeus, was sent to get the head of Medusa for King Polydectes and was almost turned to stone as you couldn't get near her without looking at her. So he used a very shiny sheild to see a reflectioin of her to get close enough to cut off her head to cut it off. He took the head back and gave it to Athena who placed it in the front of Zeus' sheild. When Medusa's head was cut off, two creatures sprang from her neck. Her two children, Pegasus (the winged horse) and Chrysaor (a giant with a golden sword.)

__**The Creation**__
Before time began there was only nothingness. This was called Chaos. Then slowly from the Chaos emerged Gaia, The mother earth and Uranus, the sky. Uranus loved Gaia very much and shone sunlight and let rainfall onto her to let the earth be warm and the plants to grow. Then Gaia gave birth to her first children; the cyclopses and the one-hundred-headed-monsters. These ugly, monstorous creatures that roamed the earth displeased Uranus so he hid them in hidden parts of the earth, Gaia's womb. This caused pain and anger to Gaia. During this, Gaia gave birth to the twelve Titans. She told, the biggest, strongest one, Cronus that he was to hunt down Uranus and rid of him. After severing Uranus's genitals from his body Cronus cast him and the severed genitals into the ocean. From the blood, Giants, Ash Tree Nymphs and the goddess Aphrodite (goddess of love and beaty) was created.

Crete is an island in the Mediterranean which has a lot of ancient Greek history behind it involving the gods. One of the first times it is mentioned in the greek stories is when Reah hid her new baby (Zeus) there, to stop Cronos from swallowing him. He grew up on the island before realising he was a god, and returning to defeat his father.
 * Crete **

Then, a few hundred years later, the Minoans (the native people), found themselves in trouble. They were a great civilization and had invented great things, and because of this they were very wealthy. But being a peaceful race, they didn't have any defences against robbers and other nations who would want to steal from them. In particular, they were worried about Greece, who was a fast developing nation.

Their king Minos decided to pray to Zeus to ask for a gift. The people walked up the mountain to the cave where Zeus had grown up and gave gifts and sung to him. Minos went into the cave and Zeus spoke to him. Minos asked for a wall to protect the island, an army to fight for it and a warrior that no man can defeat. Zeus was pleased by the gifts and so granted the wish, telling the king to go to the beach where he will find his wish.

The people ran to the beach and saw nothing. Suddenly ships rounded the headland. Pirates. the people were scared but then one of the ships smashed in two. Another boulder flew above them and smashed a ship. The pirates fled and the Minoans turned to see what had saved them. It was a bronze giant. He named himself Talus and was Zeus' gift. He was the wall to protect the island, an army to fight for it and a warrior no man can defeat.

From then on Talus protected the shores of Crete and every four years the people of Crete climbed to the cave and prayed to Zeus to thank him for Talus.

The myth Crete is most famus for has to be the Minotaur. Hundreds of years after Minos had died, one of his descendants, also called Minos, was crowned king. However, when it came to the year when he was to lead the people to Zeus' cave, he did not go. Zeus became angry and sent a witch to trick Talus. She opened a plug in his foot and let his ichor (blood of the gods) run out. When Minos learn what had happened he was furious and rode out to the beach where Talus lay rusting. Minos knew Zeus would not help him so he stood in the surf and prayed to Poseidon. He promised to worship him even more than Zeus if Poseidon watched over his Kingdom. In answer, Poseidon sent a magnificent white bull out of the sea. It became Minos' most prized possession and he looked after it as it were his family. Then, Poseidon wishing to know if Minos would keep his promise, told him to sacrifice the bull to him. But Minos wouldn't. He sacrificed hundreds of other bulls but Poseidon wasn't satisfied. One stormy night the bull went wild and stormed through the palace, killing guards and burst into Minos' room and attacked his wife. She was terrified. The bull then ran out into the countryside.

A few months later she gave birth to Minos' child, but Poseidon had cursed the child. He had the head of a bull. The mother was terrified of him and fled with all the Palace staff, leaving just Minos, the child and the guards. The child became known as the Minotaur. It cried for its mother but no-one came. As the Minotaur grew it became violent and killed guards, having to be chained up. Minos could not banish it or kill it as it was his son. He called magicians, soothsayers and finally inventors in an effort to come up with a solution. He called upon the inventor Daedalus to help.

Daedalus came up with a solution. He built a giant maze under the palace and called it the Labyrinth. He let the Minotaur lose in the maze as he could never find his way out, but was still in the palace. It was here that the Minotaur stayed until it was later captured by the Greeks.

Minos was a horrible man and knew that Daedalus, the inventor, was the only on who knew the way out of the maze and he couldn't risk anyone finding out as he fed the Minotaur on human sacrifices from the mainland. The other kingdoms paid him with these sacrifices so that King Minos would not wage war on them. They sent these people away on a boat and King Minos then put them in the Labyrinth where the Minotaur would find them and eat them.

If the sacrifices found out how to get out from this maze then he would have nothing to feed the Minotaur on. So he locked the inventor and his son in his most luxurious wing, guarded day and night. But Daedalus had invented a new masterpiece. Wings. He glued feathers on to a metal frame and made two sets, one for him and one for his son, Icarus. They put on the wings and jumped from the roof of their prison, soaring out to sea.

Daedalus flew steadily, but Icarus wanted to test his wings and flew as high as he could. However, the sun melted the glue and the feathers fluttered to the sea. Icarus fell to his death and Daedalus was powerless to save him.

= = =**__Heracles and his Twelve Labours__**= You may know this particular character as Hercules but in Greek mythology this is wrong, in actual fact when Walt Disney made the film "Hercules" they changed Heracles to Hercules. Presumably to make it easier to say!

One day down on Earth a baby was born. He was named Heracles (Greek for "Glory to Hera") and he was a very special baby. Heracles was the son of Zeus. His mother was a mortal called Alcemene and she lived in the town of Thebes with her husband Amphitryon. He was not very happy about his wife’s adultery but agreed to be the father figure for Heracles. Zeus' wife, Hera, was enraged by his affair with Alcmene. However, Hera was powerless to take her anger out upon Zeus, so she took it out on Heracles. Heracles and the Hydra. =**Apollo The Sun God**=

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Apollo was born on the island of Delos. Myth says he became a man in four days. Apollo had a twin sister named Artemis, the moon goddess. A queen named Niobe boasted she was better than his mother Leto because she had seven sons and seven daughters and Leto only had one of each, so Apollo and Artemis decided to punish her by killing all except two of her children. Zeus took pity on her and turned her to stone on Mount Sipylus. Apollo tamed nine Muses (Wild goddesses that inspired artists.) And he became the god of Arts; he loved music and played the Lyre. =====

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Apollo fell in love with a nymph named Daphne, who didn’t like him back. She ran away begging the mother earth to save her. Just as Apollo caught her, her prayers were answered and she turned into a Laurel tree. Apollo wore a wreath of Laurel in her memory. =====

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He gave the Greek priestesses the gift of seeing the future and they were called Oracles. Apollo’s arrows brought plague and death but he also had healing powers too, which he passed to his son Asclepius. =====

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