Apollo was also unforgiving when his own honor was insulted. As the god of music, he was proud of his skill. One day the satyr Marsyas was watching over his flocks when he found a flute that had been cast aside and cursed by Athena. He was enchanted by the sounds it made. He practiced and became so good that he challenged Apollo to a contest. Apollo accepted and asked King Midas of Phrygia to be the judge.
Marsyas and Apollo both played beautifully. The satyr was a better musician than the god and matched every trick that Apollo came up with. At last, Apollo turned his flute upside down and played just as well—a skill that Marsyas could not match. As soon as Apollo was judged the winner, he hung the satyr from a tall pine tree and stripped the skin from his body. No one ever again challenged Apollo to a contest of musical skill.
Apollo did not forget that King Midas favored Marsyas until the end of the contest. He gave Midas the ears of an ass. The king was so ashamed that he always wore a cap. Only his barber knew his secret. The strain of keeping such a secret was too much. The barber dug a hole in the earth, whispered the news into it, and covered the hole again. When spring came, reeds grew from the hole. When anyone passed by, the wind blowing though the reeds gave voice to the secret. Soon everyone knew what Apollo had done.
For a handsome young god, Apollo was often unlucky in love. The nymph Daphne, daughter of a river god, was his first romantic failure. It started when Apollo told Cupid that he should leave the bows and arrows to him.
“My arrows may not be able to pierce everything,” Cupid answered, “but they can pierce you.”
Cupid then flew down to Arcadia where he spied the beautiful maiden Daphne. He shot her with a special arrow to make her turn away from love. From that moment, Daphne wanted nothing to do with men. She was courted by many suitors.
“Father, dearest, please let me remain a virgin all my life,” Daphne pleaded.
Daphne’s father said she would never have to marry. Then Cupid flew to Olympus and shot Apollo with an arrow that made him fall madly in love with Daphne. Nothing Apollo did could win her heart. Finally he came to her in the hills of Arcadia and tried one last time to speak with her. She fled, but Apollo cried out for her to wait and listen to him. Daphne only ran faster.
“Father, help!” she cried. “Let your waters change this beauty of mine into something the god will despise.”
In an instant her limbs became numb and her skin began to harden. Her hair sprouted green leaves and her arms turned into branches.
The legs that had run so fast became fixed in the earth and her head became the top of a laurel tree.
Apollo loved Daphne even in this new form. He pressed his lips to her bark and wept.
“You will always be my love.
My hair will forever-more be entwined with your laurel.”
The god plucked a sprig from her boughs and wove it into a crown that he placed on his head. The tree seemed to agree to this honor and nodded in the breeze.
Another of Apollo’s early loves rejected his advances. Sibyl was a young prophetess. Apollo offered her anything she might wish.
Sibyl laughed and pointed to a heap of sand. “Grant me then that I might have as many years of life as there are grains of sand in that pile.”
Apollo said the gift was hers even if she did not agree to be his lover. Then he offered her immortality if she would be his. Sibyl saw little need to live forever when she had so many years stretching before her, so she refused.
But Sibyl had forgotten to ask for eternal youth to go along with her long life. She had a thousand years to grow old. Her hair and teeth fell out, her limbs shriveled, and she shrank to the size of a speck. Toward the end of her life she lived in a bottle hanging from the ceiling of her shrine, wanting nothing more than to die.
Apollo’s other romantic attempts were just as disappointing. A young woman named Marpessa chose a mortal man named Idas over the god. Apollo wanted to kill the mortal, but Zeus intervened and granted Marpessa the right to choose Idas. A maiden named Sinope tricked Apollo into granting her any request. When Apollo agreed, she asked to remain a virgin all her life. The last maiden to catch Apollo’s eye was Cassandra, the daughter of King Priam of Troy. Apollo taught her the art of prophecy, but once Cassandra learned to foresee the future, she rejected Apollo. In revenge, Apollo made sure that no one would believe any prediction she made. Cassandra paid a terrible price for rejecting Apollo’s love.
The god was just as unlucky with men. Apollo fell in love with the handsome young man named Hyacinth. The god and the boy spent every day in the woods and fields around Sparta, hunting and playing sports. One day they had a discus-throwing contest. Apollo threw the iron disk so hard it soared through the clouds. Zephyrus, the west wind, was also in love with Hyacinth and jealous of Apollo. As the discus sailed back to earth, Zephyrus directed it toward Hyacinth, crushing his skull. Hyacinth died. Then Apollo made a beautiful flower spring from the drops of blood on the grass. From that day forth the flowering hyacinth was a tribute to Apollo’s lost friend.
Another young man named Cyparissus was also lost to Apollo. Cyparissus loved a sacred stag. He led it to water and made sure it had the finest grass to eat. One hot summer day the deer lay down to rest in the cool forest while Cyparissus was out hunting. The boy had no idea when he threw his spear that the stag was nearby. The weapon pierced the animal’s heart and it died in the boy’s arms. Apollo tried to comfort him, but Cyparissus asked that he might be allowed to be sad forever. Apollo granted his wish and turned him into a cypress tree with dark limbs and drooping branches, forever mourning for his lost friend.
Apollo was usually kind to the objects of his love, but he could be brutal and violent, too. When Princess Creusa refused him, he dragged her to a cave and forced himself upon her. The young woman hid her pregnancy and bore a child, named Ion, in secret. She brought the baby in a cradle to the deserted cave and left him there to die.
Apollo sent Hermes to bring the infant to his shrine at Delphi. Ion grew up in Apollo’s temple, not knowing who his parents were. Creusa meanwhile married a man named Xuthus who became king of Athens, but they were childless.
One day Creusa came to Delphi to discover if she would have another child. She met Ion, now a young man, and the two were drawn to each other. She told Ion that, years before, a friend of hers had left her baby to die. She wanted to ask the oracle about the child, but was afraid.
Xuthus also came to Delphi to ask if he would ever be a father. The Pythia told him that the first person he met as he left the temple would be his son. As soon as he stepped out of the door, Xuthus saw Ion and convinced him to return to Athens as his heir. Creusa suspected a trick and decided to poison Ion with a drop of Gorgon’s blood, but Apollo stepped in and saved the boy.
Ion accused Creusa of attempted murder, and she fled to Apollo’s sacred temple. The Pythia entered carrying the very cradle in which Creusa had abandoned her son. She confessed that she had left her child to die in that cradle, and Ion realized that Creusa was his mother.
Mother and son happily returned to Athens. Ion became the ancestor of the Ionian tribe of the Greeks.
There was no happy ending for a young maiden named Chione when both Apollo and Hermes fell in love with her. She had just turned fourteen, the age when Greek girls married. Hermes put her to sleep with a magic spell and forced himself upon her. That very night, Apollo disguised himself as an old woman to gain her trust, and then did the same. The young woman became pregnant with the sons of two gods. Hermes’s son was named Autolycus. He became a thief and the father of Odysseus. Apollo was the father of her son Philammon, a famous musician.
Chione began to boast of her good fortune in being the mother of the sons of two gods. She even mocked Artemis, saying that she must be more beautiful than the goddess. Artemis shot an arrow through her head, piercing her tongue and killing Chione instantly. When her father came to look for her, he found Chione’s body burning on a funeral pyre. He ran to the top of Mount Parna
ssus and threw himself off the summit. Apollo, in an act of mercy, changed him into a hawk to soar among the clouds.
HEPHAESTUS
No one was sure where Hephaestus, the god of the forge, came from. Some say he was a child of Zeus and Hera. Others that he was born of Hera alone. The rest of the gods at Mount Olympus laughed at him because he was crippled. But Hephaestus was respected for his magical ability to bend metal into any shape he chose. When the other gods needed a new shield or sword, Hephaestus was the one they turned to.
Some stories say that when Hera saw that her baby, Hephaestus, was lame, she threw him from Mount Olympus in disgust. The goddesses Thetis and Eurynome rescued the child and raised him in a cave by the sea. For nine years he learned the art of forging metal. Then he sent magnificent golden thrones to the gods on Olympus. He didn’t forget his mother’s cruel treatment. Hera’s throne held her fast when she sat in it. Zeus commanded Hephaestus to free the goddess who gave birth to him, but Hephaestus said he didn’t have a mother. Dionysus got Hephaestus drunk and finally talked him into setting Hera free.
Another story tells us that Hephaestus was the healthy child of Zeus and Hera. One day when the couple was having one of their quarrels, Hephaestus tried to protect his mother from Zeus. Zeus was so angry that he grabbed his son by the ankle and hurled him from Mount Olympus. Hephaestus fell for a whole day and crashed onto the island of Lemnos. The natives could not mend his crippled leg.
One of the few myths about Hephaestus tells us that he married the beautiful Aphrodite. The god suspected that his wife was unfaithful, so he forged a net and fixed it to the top of their bed. As soon as he left to visit the mortals on Lemnos, Aphrodite welcomed Ares, the god of war, into her bedroom. Hephaestus’s net came down and trapped the pair in an embrace.
Warned by the sun god, Helios, Hephaestus came home and caught them. Then he went to Zeus to complain. Zeus and all the other gods rushed to Hephaestus’s house to laugh at the couple. Poseidon talked Hephaestus into letting the lovers go, and they fled away to hide in shame.
ARES
Aside from sneaking into Aphrodite’s bedroom, there are few stories about Ares, the god of war. The Greeks hated Ares almost as much as Hades. To the citizens of Greece, Ares was the spirit of war for its own sake. He was a bully and a coward who cried to Zeus whenever he lost a fight. Even during the Trojan War, Zeus wanted nothing to do with his own son: “Don’t come complaining to me you lying, wretched creature. I hate you more than any of the gods on Olympus. Conflict and fighting are all you care about. You’re as heartless as your mother, Hera!”
The Greeks turned to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, as the divine being to rule over military matters. With Athena, war was a sad but necessary means of settling conflicts between cities.
Ares had no wife of his own, but he fathered four children with Aphrodite. These were Deimos and Phobus—also known as Fear and Panic—a daughter Harmonia, and, according to some authors, Cupid. Ares also had children with mortal women, including several of the Argonauts who would one day sail with Jason, as well as the Amazon queen Penthesileia and the beautiful maiden Alcippe. When Poseidon’s son Halirrhothius forced himself on Alcippe, Ares killed him and was brought to trial for murder in Athens. At a hill just below the Acropolis, he was tried by the gods and set free. Thereafter the site was known as the Areopagus or “Hill of Ares.”
HERMES
One of Zeus’s loves was the nymph Maia, daughter of Atlas, who lived in a cave in Arcadia. When Hera was asleep, Zeus would secretly visit Maia. In time, she gave birth to Hermes.
On the morning of his birth, Hermes sprang from his cradle and left the cave to explore. The first thing he saw was a tortoise. The baby laughed. “Where did you get that pretty shell? I think you could be useful to me. It’s dangerous here in the wild mountains. Let me carry you inside my cave where it’s safe. We could make wonderful music together.”
Hermes picked up his new toy and carried it home. Then he took a sharp knife and cut off its legs and hollowed out its flesh until only the shell remained. He stretched seven strings across the back and plucked them with his fingers. He sang songs and rejoiced in the beautiful sound of the instrument he invented.
Soon he grew bored and placed the lyre in his cradle. Hermes left the cave again and wandered north until he came to fertile land below Olympus. He spotted Apollo’s sacred herd of cattle. With a wicked grin, Hermes led fifty of the beasts away. He saw the animals’ tracks would be easy to follow, so he made the cattle walk backward and padded his own feet with leafy sandals.
Along the way, he met an old shepherd tending his vineyard. Hermes said the man’s vines would always bear sweet wine if he told no one what he saw. Back in Arcadia, Hermes placed the cattle in a hidden stable. Then he slipped back into the cave and crawled into his cradle.
To the world he looked like an innocent babe, but his mother knew the truth: “I know what you’ve been up to. Leto’s son Apollo is going to be pounding down our door looking for his cattle. Oh, your father is to blame! He begot you to be a nuisance and a trickster to men and gods alike.”
Baby Hermes told his mother that he would handle Apollo. At that moment, the sun was rising on a new day. Apollo searched for his missing cattle. The tracks seemed to lead in the wrong direction and he lost the trail. The old shepherd confessed that he had seen a baby with feet wrapped in leaves and a herd of cattle walking backward. Apollo followed the strange trail over the mountain to Maia’s cave. He saw a baby sleeping peacefully in his cradle, but he wasn’t fooled. “Get up you cunning thief! I know you stole my cattle. Tell me what you have done with them or I will hurl you down to Tartarus.”
Hermes replied: “Son of Leto, what are you saying? I’m just a little baby. I have no idea where your cattle are.”
Apollo carried Hermes off to a council of gods on Mount Olympus. Zeus asked the child what had happened. The young god swore he had never seen the cattle.
Zeus laughed, but he knew little Hermes was lying. Hermes was forced to lead Apollo to his secret stable and return the animals. Apollo was ready to throw Hermes into Tartarus, but the baby began to pluck his tortoise-shell lyre. Apollo was enchanted. He agreed to set aside his anger if Hermes would give him the lyre and teach him to play. The young god agreed, and from that day forth, Apollo became the god of music.
Hermes grew up to become the trusted messenger of Zeus as well as the god of travelers and thieves. He fathered many children, including the god Pan. The Greeks looked for Hermes at their final breath to guide them down to Hades.
PAN
Hermes fell in love with a nymph named Dryope, and she became pregnant. When it was time for her to give birth, no one was prepared for the newborn babe they saw. The laughing child had the feet of a goat and two horns, along with a full beard. The nurse screamed and ran away, but the proud father took the boy in his arms. He carried him to the halls of Mount Olympus and presented him to the other gods. They named him Pan because he brought joy to everyone.
Pan grew up to have a goatish nature. One day he saw the nymph Syrinx in the forest of Arcadia and chased her. She was used to being chased by satyrs, but Pan was faster. She ran as fast as she could until she came to a river she could not cross. Pan was closing in and she prayed to the nymphs of the river to transform her. Pan grabbed her from behind, but all he found in his hands were water reeds. Disappointed but curious, Pan cut the reeds to different lengths and sealed them with wax to make a musical instrument.
When he wasn’t chasing nymphs, Pan was the god of goatherds and shepherds. He could also bring terror to the hearts of anyone who offended him. Among such unlucky souls he inspired uncontrollable fear—better known as panic.
HELIOS
Helios, the god of the sun, was born of the Titans Theia and Hyperion when the world was still young. Each morning he drove his chariot across the sky. Each evening he journeyed back across the ocean to his palace in the east.
Without him all plants, animals, and
humans would die, ice would cover the lands, and darkness would descend upon the world forever. Helios was so busy that when Zeus gave portions of the earth to all the gods, Helios missed out. So, Zeus raised the island of Rhodes from the Aegean Sea to be the sacred land for Helios.
Aphrodite was angry with Helios for telling Hephaestus about her and Ares. She made the sun god fall hopelessly in love with Leucothoe, a daughter of the Persian king. Every day as he soared across the sky, Helios watched her. One night as Leucothoe was weaving, Helios took the form of the girl’s mother and dismissed her attendants. Then he revealed himself and told the princess he loved her. Leucothoe fell into his arms.
Clytie, a nymph who loved Helios, burned with jealousy. She sent word to the king that his daughter had taken a lover. The king had Leucothoe buried alive. Helios couldn’t do anything until he had finished his journey across the sky. That night he tried to revive her, but it was too late. He sprinkled Leucothoe with divine nectar until her body smelled sweet and she turned into a shrub of frankincense, the finest perfume in all the world.
Clytie continued to love the sun, but he scorned her. She sat beneath the open air, neither eating nor drinking, watching Helios sail across the heavens. Her limbs became fixed to the ground and her face burned away until she was nothing but a small flower, the heliotrope, forever following the sun across the sky.
Clymene, a daughter of Ocean and the wife of an Egyptian king, was another of Helios’s lovers. She bore Helios a son named Phaethon. Phaethon told his best friend who his father was, but the friend called him a fool. Clymene swore that her words were true and urged Phaethon to journey to the palace of his father.
Phaethon traveled east to the farthest borders of the world. He found the palace of the sun and climbed the stairs to the throne room, but he could not bear to gaze at the bright god.
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