Cyclops

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Polyphemus, by Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Tischbein, 1802 (Landesmuseum Oldenburg)

This article is about the mythical creature. For other uses, see Cyclops (disambiguation).

A cyclops ( /ˈsaɪklɒps/; Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kuklōps; plural cyclopes /saɪˈkloʊpiːz/; Greek:Κύκλωπες, Kuklōpes), in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead.^[1] The name is widely thought to mean "circle-eyed".^[2]

Hesiod described one group of cyclopes and the epic poet Homer described another, though other accounts have also been written by the playwright Euripides, poet Theocritus and Roman epic poet Virgil. In Hesiod's Theogony, Zeus releases three Cyclopes, the sons of Uranus and Gaia, from the dark pit of Tartarus. They provide Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' helmet of invisibility, and Poseidon's trident, and the gods use these weapons to defeat the Titans. In a famous episode ofHomer's Odyssey, the hero Odysseus encounters the Cyclops Polyphemus, the son of Poseidonand Thoosa (a nereid), who lives with his fellow Cyclopes in a distant country. The connection between the two groups has been debated in antiquity and by modern scholars.^[3] It is upon Homer's account that Euripides and Virgil based their accounts of the mythical creatures.

Contents  [hide] 1 Mythology and literature 1.1 Hesiod 1.2 Callimachus 1.3 Euripides 1.4 Theocritus 1.5 Virgil 2 Origins 3 Cyclopean walls 4 See also 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit]Mythology and literature

Various ancient Greek and Roman authors wrote about the cyclopes. Hesiod described them as three brothers who were primordial giants. All the other sources of literature about the cyclopes describe the cyclops Polyphemus, who lived upon an island populated by the creatures.

[edit]Hesiod

The Cyclops, gouache and oil by Odilon Redon, undated (Kröller-Müller Museum)^[4]

In the Theogony by Hesiod, the Cyclopes – Brontes ("thunderer"), Steropes ("lightning") and the "bright" Arges (Greek: Ἄργης, Βρόντης, and Στερόπης) – were the primordial sons of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth) and brothers of the Hecatonchires.^[5] They were giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead and a foul disposition. According to Hesiod, they were strong, stubborn, and "abrupt of emotion". Collectively they eventually became synonyms for brute strength and power, and their name was invoked in connection with massive masonry. They were often pictured at their forge.

Uranus, fearing their strength, locked them in Tartarus. Cronus, another son of Uranus and Gaia, later freed the Cyclopes, along with the Hecatonchires, after he had overthrown Uranus. Cronus then placed them back in Tartarus, where they remained, guarded by the female dragon Campe, until freed by Zeus. They fashioned thunderbolts for Zeus to use as weapons, and helped himoverthrow Cronus and the other Titans. The lightning bolts, which became Zeus's main weapons, were forged by all three Cyclopes, in that Arges added brightness, Brontes added thunder, and Steropes added lightning.

These Cyclopes also created Poseidon's trident, Artemis's bow and arrows of moonlight, Apollo's bow and arrows of sun rays, and Hades's helmet of darkness that was given to Perseus on his quest to kill Medusa.

[edit]Callimachus

According to a hymn of Callimachus,^[6] they were Hephaestus' helpers at the forge. The Cyclopes were said to have built the "cyclopean" fortifications at Tiryns and Mycenae in the Peloponnese. The noises proceeding from the heart of volcanoes were attributed to their operations.

[edit]Euripides

According to Alcestis by Euripides, Apollo killed the Cyclopes, in retaliation for Asclepius's murder at the hands of Zeus. According to Euripides' play Alkestis, Apollo was then forced into the servitude of Admetus for one year. Zeus later returned Asclepius and the Cyclopes from Hades.

[edit]Theocritus

The Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus wrote two poems circa 275 BC concerning Polyphemus' desire for Galatea, a sea nymph. When Galatea instead married Acis, a Sicilian mortal, a jealous Polyphemus killed him with a boulder. Galatea turned Acis' blood into a river of the same name in Sicily.

[edit]Virgil

Virgil, the Roman epic poet, wrote, in book three of The Aeneid, of how Aeneas and his crew landed on the island of the cyclops after escaping from Troy at the end of the Trojan War. Aeneas and his crew land on the island, when they are approached by a desperate Greekman from Ithaca, Achaemenides, who was stranded on the island a few years previously with Odysseus' expedition (as depicted in The Odyssey).

Virgil's account acts as a sequel to Homer's, with the fate of Polyphemus as a blind cyclops after the escape of Odysseus and his crew.

[edit]Origins

Skull of a dwarf elephant displayed in thezoo of Munich, Germany.

Walter Burkert among others suggests that the archaic groups or societies of lesser gods mirror real cult associations: "it may be surmised that smith guilds lie behind Cabeiri, Idaian Dactyloi,Telchines, and Cyclopes."^[7] Given their penchant for blacksmithing, many scholars believe the legend of the Cyclopes' single eye arose from an actual practice of blacksmiths wearing an eyepatch over one eye to prevent flying sparks from blinding them in both eyes. The Cyclopes seen in Homer's Odyssey are of a different type from those in the Theogony and they have no connection to blacksmithing. It is possible that independent legends associated with Polyphemus did not make him a Cyclops before Homer's Odyssey; Polyphemus may have been some sort of local daemon or monster originally.

Another possible origin for the Cyclops legend, advanced by the paleontologist Othenio Abel in 1914,^[8] is the prehistoric dwarf elephant skulls – about twice the size of a human skull – that may have been found by the Greeks on Cyprus, Crete, Malta and Sicily. Abel suggested that the large, central nasal cavity (for the trunk) in the skull might have been interpreted as a large single eye-socket.^[9] Given the inexperience of the locals with living elephants, they were unlikely to recognize the skull for what it actually was.^[10]

Veratrum album, or white hellebore, an herbal medicine described by Hippocrates before 400 BC,^[11] contains the alkaloids cyclopamine and jervine, which are teratogens capable of causingcyclopia (holoprosencephaly). Students of teratology have raised the possibility of a link between this developmental deformity and the myth for which it was named.^[12]

[edit]Cyclopean walls

Cyclopean walls at Mycenae.

Main article: Cyclopean masonry

After the "Dark Age", when Hellenes looked with awe at the vast dressed blocks, known asCyclopean structures, which had been used in Mycenaean masonry (at sites such as Mycenaeand Tiryns or on Cyprus), they concluded that only the Cyclopes had the combination of skill and strength to build in such a monumental manner.

[edit]

Adventures of Bull turns Round

A Blackfoot Legend

Once the camp moved, but one lodge stayed. It belonged to Wolf Tail; and Wolf Tail's younger brother, Bull Turns Round, lived with him. Now their father loved both his sons, but he loved the younger one most, and when he went away with the big camp, he said to Wolf Tail: "Take care of your young brother; he is not yet a strong person. Watch him that nothing befalls him."

One day Wolf Tail was out hunting, and Bull Turns Round sat in front of the lodge making arrows, and a beautiful strange bird lit on the ground before him. Then cried one of Wolf Tail's wives, "Oh, brother, shoot that little bird." "Don't bother me, sister," he replied, "I am making arrows." Again the woman said, "Oh, brother, shoot that bird for me." Then Bull Turns Round fitted an arrow to his bow and shot the bird, and the woman went and picked it up and stroked her face with it, and her face swelled up so big that her eyes and nose could not be seen. But when Bull Turns Round had shot the bird, he went off hunting and did not know what had happened to the woman's face.

Now when Wolf Tail came home and saw his wife's face, he said, "What is the matter?" and his wife replied: "Your brother has pounded me so that I cannot see. Go now and kill him." But Wolf Tail said, "No, I love my brother; I cannot kill him." Then his wife cried and said: "I know you do not love me; you are glad your brother has beaten me. If you loved me, you would go and kill him."

Then Wolf Tail went out and looked for his brother, and when he had found him, he said: "Come, let us get some feathers. I know where there is an eagle's nest;" and he took him to a high cliff, which overhung the river, and on the edge of this cliff was a dead tree, in the top of which the eagles had built their nest. Then said Wolf Tail, "Climb up, brother, and kill the eagles;" and when Bull Turns Round had climbed nearly to the top, Wolf Tail called out, "I am going to push the tree over the cliff, and you will be killed."

"Oh, brother, oh, brother, pity me; do not kill me," said Bull Turns Round.

"Why did you beat my wife's face so?" said Wolf Tail.

"I didn't," cried the boy; "I don't know what you are talking about."

"You lie," said Wolf Tail, and he pushed the tree over the cliff. He looked over and saw his brother fall into the water, and he did not come up again. Then Wolf Tail went home and took down his lodge, and went to the main camp. When his father saw him coming with only his wives, he said to him, "Where is your young brother?" And Wolf Tail replied: "He went hunting and did not come back. We waited four days for him. I think the bears must have killed him."

Now when Bull Turns Round fell into the river, he was stunned, and the water carried him a long way down the stream and finally lodged him on a sand shoal. Near this shoal was a lodge of Under Water People, an old man, his wife, and two daughters. This old man was very rich: he had great flocks of geese, swans, ducks, and other water-fowl, and a big herd of buffalo which were tame. These buffalo always fed near by, and the old man called them every evening to come and drink. But he and his family ate none of these. Their only food was the bloodsucker. Now the old man's daughters were swimming about in the evening, and they found Bull Turns Round lying on the shoal, dead, and they went home and told their father, and begged him to bring the person to life, and give him to them for a husband. "Go, my daughters," he said, "and make four sweat lodges, and I will bring the person." He went and got Bull Turns Round, and when the sweat lodges were finished, the old man took him into one of them, and when he had sprinkled water on the hot rocks, he scraped a great quantity of sand off Bull Turns Round. Then he took him into another lodge and did the same thing, and when he had taken him into the fourth sweat lodge and scraped all the sand off him, Bull Turns Round came to life, and the old man led him out and gave him to his daughters. And the old man gave his son-in-law a new lodge and bows and arrows, and many good presents. Then the women cooked some bloodsuckers, and gave them to their husband, but when he smelled of them he could not eat, and he threw them in the fire. Then his wives asked him what he would eat. "Buffalo," he replied, "is the only meat for men."

"Oh, father!" cried the girls, running to the old man's lodge, "our husband will not eat our food. He says buffalo is the only meat for men."

"Go then, my daughters," said the old man, "and tell your husband to kill a buffalo, but do not take nor break any bones, for I will make it alive again." Then the old man called the buffalo to come and drink, and Bull Turns Round shot a fat cow and took all the meat. And when he had roasted the tongue, he gave each of his wives a small piece of it, and they liked it, and they roasted and ate plenty of the meat.

One day Bull Turns Round went to the old man and said, "I mourn for my father."

"How did you come to be dead on the sand shoal?" asked the old man. Then Bull Turns Round told what his brother had done to him.

"Take this piece of sinew," said the old man. "Go and see your father. When you throw this sinew on the fire, your brother and his wife will roll, and twist up and die." Then the old man gave him a herd of buffalo, and many dogs to pack the lodge, and other things; and Bull Turns Round took his wives, and went to find his father.

One day, just after sunset, they came in sight of the big camp, and they went and pitched the lodge on the top of a very high butte; and the buffalo fed close by, and there were so many of them that they covered the whole hill.

Now the people were starving, and some had died, for they had no buffalo. In the morning, early, a man arose whose son had starved to death, and when he went out and saw this lodge on the top of the hill, and all the buffalo feeding by it, he cried out in a loud voice; and the people all came out and looked at it, and they were afraid, for they thought it was Under Water People. Then said the man whose son had died: "I am no longer glad to live. I will go up to this lodge, and find out what this is." Now when he said this, all the men grasped their bows and arrows and followed him, and when they went up the hill, the buffalo just moved out of their path and kept on feeding; and just as they came to the lodge, Bull Turns Round came out, and all the people said, "Here is the one whom we thought the bears had killed." Wolf Tail ran up, and said, "Oh, brother, you are not dead. You went to get feathers, but we thought you had been killed." Then Bull Turns Round called his brother into the lodge, and he threw the sinew on the fire; and Wolf Tail, and his wife, who was standing outside, twisted up and died.

Then Bull Turns Round told his father all that had happened to him; and when he learned that the people were starving, he filled his mouth with feathers and blew them out, and the buffalo ran off in every direction, and he said to the people, "There is food, go chase it." Then the people were very glad, and they came each one and gave him a present. They gave him war shirts, bows and arrows, shields, spears, white robes, and many curious things.

The Cretan Labyrinth

The fabled tale of the minotaur, the half-human half-bull creature, who lived within a maze, hidden from the world.
Part I: The Labyrinth and the Minotaur, Part II: The Slaying of the Minotaur.
The Labyrinth and the Minotaur
In Athens, there lived the inventor Daidalos. He was an ingenious man who invented sails for ships, amongst many other things. No task was too hard for him, with his only competition being from his young nephew. Jealous at his nephew's ability, Daidalos took him on a walk one day, and pushed him over the steep rocks of the Acropolis. After this heinous act, he fled to Crete with his son Ikaros, where King Minos ruled.
In his earlier days, King Minos struggled with his brothers for the throne. Minos had prayed to the god Poseidon for a white bull, as an indication that the gods favoured him, and that he would sacrifice the bull as a sign of his subservience. However, when the white bull finally rose out of the sea, Minos instead sacrificed the best of his herd, while keeping the white bull for himself. Angry at the mortal's defiance, Poseidon made the king's wife, Queen Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. The Queen, as an act of desperation, summoned Daidalos and asked him to get the bull to make love to her. Not wishing to offend the Queen, he made a wooden frame of a cow, and had Pasiphae lie inside, with which the bull mated.
When King Minos found out, he was livid, and sentenced Daidalos to imprisonment, but Pasiphae was pregnant, and Minos had to hide her. Therefore, he had no choice but to enlist Daidalos' help once again, in exchange for his freedom, to hide Pasiphae from the world. Daidalos created an underground maze, in which passages ran like a spider web of tunnels. A labyrinth, whose secret only Minos and Daidalos knew.
So the pregnant Pasiphae was put into the centre of the maze, and there she bore a child- half bull, half human. It was the Minotaur, and its bellowing could be heard from time to time, from deep within the maze. No one who went in ever came out, for the Minotaur fed on flesh.
After the completion of the labyrinth, Daidalos wanted to leave. Minos barred Daidalos from leaving Crete, for fear he might let out the secret of the labyrinth. That night, Daidalos made wings for himself and his son, Ikaros. He fashioned the wings out of feathers stuck together bywax. The following morning, they rode on the first up currents of air as the sun warmed the earth, and flew away from Crete. Unfortunately, Daidalos' son, Ikaros, flew too near to the sun, and the wax in his wings melted and he plummeted towards the sea. Daidalos was distraught, but he flew on and finally landed in Sicily.
Back in Athens, King Aigeus was childless, and was wary of the many factions after his position. He seeked advice from an oracle, where the priest told him not to unfasten a wineskin's foot until he reached the Acropolis, or he would cause his own death. Not knowing what to make of it, he went to visit his friend, the King of Troizen, to see if he knew what it meant. Along the way, he visited Corinth where his friend Medea was furious because her husband had obtained a mistress. She told Aigeus if he gave her shelter in Athens, she would bear him a child, to which Aigeus readily agreed.
When he finally reached the city of Troizen, King Pittheus was overjoyed to see him and held a banquet in his honour that night. Wineskin after wineskin he drank. He had forgotten all about the oracle's advice. In a drunken stupor, he went to bed that night only to find himself sleeping with King Pittheus's daughter, Aithra. Ashamed of what he had done, he left the city in the morning, but not before burying a sword and a pair of sandals under a rock. He told Aithra if she bore a son, to tell him about the items when he was old enough. If he could lift the rock, he should go to Athens, and be welcomed as his heir.
Aithra did bear a son, and she named him Theseus. Throughout his childhood, Aithra refused to divulge who his father was, saying that he was a son of Poseidon. When Theseus did come of age, his mother told him about the rock. The rock was heavy and all who tried it were unable to lift it, but Theseus managed to lift it, and he set off for Athens with the sword and sandals, to find his father.
  

The Slaying of the Minotaur
Meanwhile in Athens, Aigeus had taken Medea in, and she bore him a son named Medos. Medea knew the dark arts and she kept the factions contesting Aigeus'power at bay. When Theseus arrived at Athens, Aigeus did not yet know of his parentage, but Medea knew, and she wanted to kill Theseus to preserve her son's position as future King.
Medea thus convinced Aigeus that Theseus was a spy and laced his wine cup with poison during supper that night. However, just before he drank the wine, he drew out his sword to cut his meat. Aigeus immediately recognized the sword and threw the poisoned cup onto the floor. Angered, Theseus tried to kill Medea, but she cast a spell of invisibility and she and her son escaped.
With Medea and her magic gone, the fifty sons of Aigeus' brother immediately prepared an attack to usurp the throne. Theseus single-handedly killed half the brothers, which left the rest cowering. Poseidon gave Theseus the chance to prove himself as his son, and told him how to outwit the white bull. With this knowledge, he set out to capture the bull whom Minos had called forth. Thesues finally did so, and brought it to the Acropolis, where he sacrificed it, finishing what Minos should have done a long time ago.
After his sacrifice, he found a procession towards the port, and on further questioning he realised that these were sacrifices for the Minotaur. Theseus, having killed the father of the Minotaur, thought it simple enough to kill the Minotaur itself. He took the place of one of the young men and sailed to Crete. Aigeus did not want his newfound son to leave, and told him to hoist a white flag when he returned, if he had survived.
So the ship left the port, and when it arrived in Crete, the sacrifices were thrown into prison, to be led into the labyrinth the next day. Minos' daughter, princess Ariadne, had seen Theseus, and fallen in love with him. He went to his prison cell that night, and offered him the secret of the labyrinth in exchange for a promise to bring her back to Athens and to marry her. Theseus agreed, and so she gave him the secret of the labyrinth.
It was a spindle of thin, strong thread, made by Daidalos himself. Everyone had thought the maze to be a horizontal puzzle of passageways, but in fact it was vertical, spiralling down into the earth, when it finally reached the centre of the maze, where the Minotaur was. Gravity itself would guide the spindle to the centre of the maze, and to leave would be a matter of having tied the thread to the start of the maze, and following the thread back up.
So that night, Theseus set out along the labyrinth and used the spindle to find his way into the heart of the labyrinth, where the Minotaur was fast asleep. The chamber was filled with human bones and the stench of death. He stabbed the Minotaur so many times he was sure it was dead, before hurrying back to the entrance as a feeling of disgust filled him.
Once out of the maze, he ran to unlock all the Athenians with him. He brought Ariadne along, and they sank every Cretan ship at the port before getting on their own ship and sailing back to Athens. Along the way, they stopped over at an island for water, while everyone rested and Ariadne slept along the beach. The god, Dionysos, was enchanted by Ariadne's beauty, and made Theseus forgetful such that he forgot to wake the sleeping Ariadne and left the island without her.
Ariadne awoke, angry that Theseus had deserted her. Not long after appeared Dionysos, who filled her with love for him, and removed all memory of Theseus. Ariadne became his queen and they travelled the world together.
Theseus was afflicted with Dionysos' dose of forgetfulness, and forgot his promise to hoist a white flag if he survived. When Aigeus saw the ship sailing with a black flag, he was overcome with grief and jumped off the steep rocks of the Acropolis and killed himself. He had fulfilled the prophecy that the oracle told to him many years before: not to unfasten a wineskin's foot until he reached the Acropolis, lest causing his own death.

Trojan War

The City of Troy has an uncertain past, but for sure, it was founded by Ilos, son of Zeus and Electra. Ilos drove a cow across the plains until it collapsed, and at that location he built the city of Troy. That same night, a statue of a goddess fell from Olympus into the city. It was the Palladion, and as long as it was in the city, Troy would never fall. Ilos had a son, Laomedon, who later succeeded him. When the gods, Poseidon and Apollo, rebelled against Zeus near the beginning of time, Zeus punished them by later turning them into servants of King Laomedon for a period of time. The king, during this brief period, commanded the two to build walls for the city, which no enemy could ever breach. The two gods, not wanting to endow invulnerability to the city, had a section of the wall built weaker than the rest, the only part of the wall liable to attack.
The king, Laomedon was happy with the job, but when payment was due, he conveniently hid inside the city and refused payment, thinking that the walls would hold fast. Poseidon and Apollo were enraged, and they returned to Mount Olympus in a huff. Revenge was finally meted out to King Laomedon later when he tried to trick the hero, Herakles. Herakles stormed through the vulnerable section of the city walls, and killed Laomedon. Troy was left under the rule of Laomedon's baby son: Priam. Time passed, and Priam grew up, and had himself a son, Paris.
Then came the wedding of the gods, Thetis and Peleus. A golden apple was rolled between the goddesses Aphrodite, Athene and Hera, on it written 'for the fairest'. Each goddess wanting the apple for themselves, approached Zeus, who directed them to Paris, who was mortal and would thus be able to see clearer. Paris did not wish to offend any of the goddesses, and refused to judge, until he was threatened by Hera, and so he finally agreed.
The goddess' took their turn before Paris in private, and each one would offer Paris a bribe for his vote. Hera offered Paris royal power and Athene offered him wisdom. But Paris was finally swayed by Aphrodite's offer, the most beautiful woman in the world, Queen Helen of Sparta. Hera and Athene were furious, but there was nothing they could do. So to fulfill her promise, Aphrodite brought Paris to Greece. Helen was made to fall in love with Paris, and together they left for Troy.
The Greeks felt violated at the departure of their Queen, and many Greek princes like Aias, Diomedes and Nestor gathered to form a fleet of ships to attack Troy. Achilles had other considerations, though. Achilles was the child of Zeus and Thetis, and Thetis had made Achilles immortal by dipping him into the River Styx: the river that marked the boundary of the underworld. Knowing from prophecies that Achilles would die if he fought in the war, she tried to hide it from him, but he finally found out and he too joined the fleet along with Odysseus. Finally the contingent was ready to set out from Greece to attack Troy.
They had many obstacles and casualties along the way, but finally they reached Troy. On landing, they were attacked by defending soldiers. Achilles leapt off the ship and ran straight at the oncoming arrows unhurt, for his skin was immortal. He cleared the soldiers' encampment, and the Greeks proceeded to land safely on the shore and set up camp. The Siege of Troy had begun.
The war was not going to be a quick one, as Zeus had planned. The power on each side was perfectly balanced, with equal armies and heroes on both sides. Even the gods were split, with the spurned Hera and Athene, helping the Greeks against Paris, and with Ares and Apollo giving aid to Troy. Furthermore, Troy and Greece were not alone in the war. Allies from all around helped Troy attack the Greeks, while the Greeks themselves diffused their attention on Troy by pillaging nearby islands. At times, the gods were personally involved in the war, like Aphrodite who went raiding with her son, Aeneas. Diomedes attacked Aeneas, but Aphrodite took part of the blow, injuring her wrist. They needed Apollo to save them later.
After ten long years, neither side had scored any major victory. Agamemnon, the leader of the Greek contingent, grew weary, and gathered all his forces to concentrate on attacking Troy. With all the Greek leaders arriving outside the walls of Troy, there was much strife as quarrels between the heroes grew out of proportions. At one point, Achilles and Agamemnon had an argument, and eventually Achilles refused to fight for Greece anymore.
It was when the Trojans were gaining an upper hand, led by the hero Hector, that the gods decided to interfere again. Hera charmed Zeus to bed, as Poseidon guided a falling boulder, thrown by the Greek Hero Aias, towards Hector, whom it killed instantly. The Trojans retreated, and Zeus, realizing this, jumped out from bed and resurrected Hector, while warning Poseidon never to interfere again.

With Hector alive again, the Trojans were out to war again. Achilles, seeing this from his tent, had his friend Patroklos wear his armour and push back the Trojans. Patroklos rode out into the battlefield, and everyone mistook him for Achilles and rallied around him and the Trojans fled. The Greeks pursued them closely, and the Trojans retreated into their city and closed the gates.
The Greeks now set up ladders against the high city walls and started scaling it. Patroklos was the first to reach the top, and when Hector saw him he was terrified, as he thought he was Achilles. Hector knew that if Achilles jumped into the city, Troy would fall. He prayed for intervention from the gods, and Apollo answered his prayer. Apollo tipped Patroklos from his position on the wall, with him falling backwards outside of the city. The impact of the fall threw the helmet off his head, and everyone then realized that he was not Achilles after all. The Trojans pushed forward again, and killed Patroklos, now without his helmet.
Patroklos' death spurred Achilles to fight again. His goddess mother, Thetis, made him a new set of armour, which he wore and strode onto the battlefield in. He called Hector out for a duel. Any god would have easily settled the duel, but Zeus forbade all interference, and realizing this, Hector knew that the first to tire would be the first to lose. He tried to tire Achilles, weighed down by his armour, by running around the city. Eventually, on the third round, Achilles caught up with Hector and killed him. He fastened Hector's body to a chariot and drove around the city three times. All the soldiers stopped in their steps and grew afraid of the savagery of the hero.
Every morning thereafter, Achilles would drag Hector's body around Patroklos' grave three times,until finally when the Trojans could take it no more, Hector's father approached Achilles and demanded the body. Achilles would only give up the corpse for its equal weight in treasures, and so the exchange was made, and Hector was brought into Troy, and buried.
The prophecy of Achilles death was soon to be fulfilled, when Prince Memnon from Ethiopia arrived. Memnon was on the side of the Trojans, and he killed many Greek heroes. When he finally killed another of Achilles' friend, Achilles was enraged, and went out to do what he had done to Hector. However, after his savage slaughter of Memnon, he bent down to strip the body, and the gods took the opportunity to exploit Achilles' only vulnerability- his heel. When his mother Thetis had rendered him immortal by dipping him into the River Styx, she had held him by his heel, which was not put into the river, thus leaving his heel mortal. Apollo guided Paris' hand to shooting a poisoned arrow towards his heel. The arrow hit and poison filled Achilles' body. Achilles had finally died, and Thetis and the sea nymphs mourned, as the Greeks did. His funeral was held for eighteen days and he was finally burned and his ashes kept in a golden urn made by the god Hephaistos.
Even Achilles, the immortal son of Thetis had fallen. The Greeks were disillusioned and weary after ten years of fighting. Many had left home for many years, and yearned to return home. The Prophet Kalchas beckoned them to hold on, for Troy was fated to fall soon enough. There were a few conditions that had to be in place first: another Greek hero Philoketes had to fire an arrow from the unerring bow of Herakles, which would spark the start of the Trojan defeat. Philoketes had been exiled to a faraway island, and troops were immediately sent to fetch him.
Philoketes soon arrived outside Troy where the Greeks attended to him quickly. When he was told what had happened, Philoketes was furious. He took Herakles bow and went to the gates of Troy and challenged Paris to a duel of bows, to which Paris agreed. Paris took the first shot, and missed. Philoketes took his turn and shot a poisoned arrow, which hit Paris in the ankle. The poison filled his body as Paris screamed in pain. The Trojans hastily dragged their prince into the city and shut the gates. Inside Troy, the soldiers tried to persuade the mountain nymph Oinone,who had been Paris' wife before he left for Helen, for herbs to cure the poison. In spite, she refused, asking him to get help from Helen instead, since he had left her for Helen. So Paris died, and Oinone later was overcome with grief and threw herself onto the funeral pyre and died together with Paris.
Once Paris was dead, his brothers started quarreling about who should have Helen. Helen wanted neither of them, and she tried to escape, but was discovered by one of the brothers and was eventually threatened into marriage. The other brothers were insanely jealous, and they started trying to find ways to betray the Trojans to the Greeks.

One of Paris' brother was Antenor. Antenor sought advice from a prophet of Apollo. The prophet told Antenor that the heavens had three conditions which had to be fulfilled for Troy to fall. Firstly, Pelop's ivory shoulder-bone had to be taken from Pisa. Secondly, Achilles' son had to arrive in Troy to avenge his father's death. Lastly, the Palladion had to be stolen from Troy. The Palladion was the statue that had fallen into the city the night it was founded, and as long as the statue was in Troy, Troy would never fall.
The Greeks found out about this, and they quickly set out to completing the tasks. The first two were relatively simple, but when it came to the stealing of the Palladion, they faced much frustration. The statue was locked in a citadel in the centre of the city, and was guarded by soldiers and shamans well versed in the way of defensive magics. After much futile planning, help came in the form of Antenor, who offered to help them steal the Palladion. Antenor guided them into the city, and bribed the shamans to giving the Palladion to Odysseus and Diomedes when they came for it. So with the three conditions fulfilled, the fall of Troy loomed just over the horizon.
At the end, Odysseus came up with the idea of building a hollow wooden horse to get into Troy. The Greeks hurried to construct a large hollow wooden horse, with a trapdoor concealed so well that only the carpenters knew how it opened. Twenty-four heroes were chosen to hide in the horse, while the rest of the Greeks got onto their ships and sailed away. Before that however, they had piled everything: weapons, tents, food and more, and burned it in one smouldering pile. The Greek ships sailed to a nearby island and moored the ships there, out of sight from the city.
The next morning when the sun lit the sky, the Trojans wandered out of the city in curiosity. They knew not what had driven the Greeks from their city, but what bewildered them more was the large wooden horse that stood outside the city. On the side of the horse was the word 'Offered to Athene, to grant the Greeks safe voyage home'. That was all there was left. There were no Greeks, only the debris which they had left behind, and the horse.
The Trojans were split over what to do with the horse. Some thought the horse sacred to Poseidon, and that they should burn it by the sea to sacrifice it to him. Others thought that the horse should be moved into the city itself where there was a large temple to Athene, since the horse, after all, was for Athene. The prophet Laokoon warned King Priam against moving the horse into the city, for he knew the Greeks had an ulterior motive, unknown to him. Laokoon threw a spear at the horse, and the spear jabbed into the wood noisily, followed by the faint clanging of weapons from within. Priam was unconvinced and decided to move the horse into the city.
Laokoon was not about to give up. He set up an altar by the sea, hoping to pray to Poseidon to know the true intent of the Greeks. Unfortunately, before he was able to carry out the ritual, sea snakes snatched Laokoon off the shore, leaving behind a bloody trail towards the sea. When the Trojans saw this, they thought Poiseidon was angry, and changed their mind to sacrificing the wooden horse to the sea. Just as the command was going to be given to drag the horse away, along came a Greek soldier. Like an actor on stage he had waited patiently for the right moment to deliver his act.
The soldier's name was Sinon, and he begged Priam to spare him. The Greeks had wanted to leave the city for a long time, but were unable to, due to unfavourable winds. Now that the winds had changed, they had left, leaving him behind. Priam was taken in, and he inquired after the purpose of the horse. In a tone of total disdain for the Greeks, he told Priam that the horse was to pacify Athene for stealing the Palladion. The horse was made so large, the Trojans would not be able to pull it into their city. If they did, and dragged the horse into Athene's temple, then the whole Greek fleet would sink beneath the waves.
Just as the Greeks had imagined, Priam was elated and immediately ordered a section of the city walls to be knocked down so that the horse could enter the city, for it was too high for the gates. They had forgotten all about Laokoon's warning, and the rattling within the horse.
That night was of celebration like no other since the war had started ten years ago. Drunk on wine and silly with relief, the Trojans slept soundly that night, as the trapdoor of the horse opened. Out streamed the Greeks who had hidden inside. They lit a beacon by the beach, which signalled to the fleets waiting at the nearby island, to come. The Greeks were merciless. They pillaged and killed the people of Troy, who awoke in shock to see Greeks throughout their city. Slowly, the people of Troy were rounded up, and the loot was brought back to Greece.
The war that was started ten years before by Helen had finally ended with Troy broken. Troy, which had taken many generations to build, and had been at war for ten years, was finally felled overnight. The walls of the city that had been built by the gods had crumbled, and all that the Greeks left behind was Antenor, to rule a small number of peasants who were spared by the Greeks.

The Tale of Perseus

As part of King Acrisius' attempt to rid himself of Perseus, the King sent him to slay the gorgon Medusa, whom he thought would kill Perseus. However, not only did he manage to kill the Medusa, he also rescued the princess, Andromeda, and took her as his wife. Part 1, 2.



A prophet once told King Acrisius that his grandson would kill him. Terrified that the prophet's advice might come true, he locked his daughter, Danae, in the deep dungeons of his castle not allowing her to have any male contact. Danae spent a long time in that dreary dungeon before Zeus, from his place in Olympus, noticed the beautiful creature. Immediately, she enchanted Zeus, and he entered the chamber in a shower of gold. Soon, Danae was pregnant.
When the guards reported that they heard a baby crying in the dungeon, King Acrisius was appalled. He immediately set out to getting rid of the mother and child. He did so by putting the two of them into a chest and floating it out into sea, hoping that they would die from hunger or thirst in the sea. When Zeus learnt of this, he was furious at the way his son was treated. He asked Poseidon to guide the chest safely to the town of Seriphus, where a fisherman found the chest.
Mother and child were taken to the king Polydectes, and Polydectes, learning of their plight, took the two in. Apart from that, Polydectes was also enchanted by Danae's beauty, and wanted to take her as his wife, but was refused by Danae repeatedly.
Danae's child was named Perseus, and he soon grew up to be a fine young man. The king's requests for marriage were getting impatient and more violent, but Perseus now defended his mother from the overbearing king. Finally, the king decided that once and for all he should get rid of Perseus so he could force Danae to marry him, and so he sent Perseus on a quest to kill the gorgon Medusa.
Medusa had once been a beautiful woman. However, when Poseidon seduced her and lay with her in Athene's temple, Athene was furious and turned her into a gorgon, to be with two other gorgons who lived at the world's end. Her beautiful locks of hair were turned into snakes, and her stare alone, would turn people into stone.
Perseus knew not how to get to the gorgon's lair. Thankfully, his father, Zeus, who sent the gods Athene and Hermes to help him, aided him. Perseus was led to the cave of three old witches where he would find directions to Medusa. The three old witches were blind and shared one eye between them. At first, the three witches refused to tell Perseus of the location of the gorgon, wishing more to devour Perseus by tricking him to approach them. Perseus was faster than them though, and he snatched the eye that they shared between them. Without the eye, the witches were completely blind, and Perseus managed to blackmail the witches to divulging the location of the gorgon.
Medusa dwelt near the River Styx, at the boundary of the underworld. The gods helped him again, by lending him a pair of winged sandals from Hermes, which would help him get to the lair. Athene lent him a shield that was smoother than any other, and that would allow him to slay the gorgon without looking at it, using the shield as a mirror. Hades lent him the cap of darkness, which would render him invisible. Perseus set out across the sea with his immortal gifts.

While entering the lair of the gorgon, Perseus saw many statues: the petrified bodies of valiant heroes that had come before him to kill Medusa, and who had failed. Perseus entered the lair quietly, with the cap of invisibility on and with his shield and sword. He found the gorgon sleeping alongside its two sisters. Looking into his shield, Perseus sliced off the head of Medusa, who let out a huge scream. When the blood of Medusa touched the floor, out came the winged horse Pegasus. Medusa's sisters woke up and were terrified by their invisible assailant, and tried to hit him but to no avail. Perseus took Medusa's head and put it into a pouch he had brought along for the purpose. He then rode the horse Pegasus into the sky.
Along the way back, he flew past the titan Atlas, who had been condemned to holding up the earth until the end of time by Zeus, after he led the rebellion of the Titans. Taking pity on the Titan, Perseus held up Medusa's head to him so that he might be relieved of his burden forever, and be turned into cold hard stone, forming the Atlas Mountain, as we know it today.
Continuing on his journey, Perseus found a beautiful woman chained to a rock beside the sea. Just as he would find out what was going on, a large sea monster rose out of the sea to take the woman. Perseus flew up on Pegasus and stabbed the monster repeatedly between its scales, eluding it with the aid of the swift Pegasus. After many deep strokes, the monster finally fell into the sea, and the woman was safe.
He later found out that the woman was the princess of the city, named Andromeda. Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother, had the nerve to boast of her beauty even surpassing the sea nymphs. The sea nymphs were angry at the comparison, and they asked Poseidon to release the sea monster to destroy the city. The King was alarmed at learning of that, and he sought advice from an oracle, who told him that the only way to avert the crisis was to offer his daughter as sacrifice to the monster, to appease it.
Now that Perseus had saved Andromeda's life, the two fell in love. Their wedding was soon held, and a great feast was held in their honor. However, in the middle of the ceremony, in strode Phineus the betrothed of Andromeda, who claimed the bride for himself. The King reproached him for not saving her when the monster rose, but Phineus did not bother and he threw a javelin at Perseus, but it flew past him harmlessly.
What ensued next was a battle where those on the side of Perseus fought against those on the side of Phineus. However, the number on Perseus' side fell quickly as Phineus gained the upper hand. Finally, Perseus shouted 'Let all who are my friends turn away their eyes', whence he held up the head of Medusa, turning all those who looked upon it into stone.
So Perseus married Andromeda, and together they returned to Seriphus. There, Danae had been forced by Polydectes to be his wife. Perseus was enraged and killed the king, saving his mother from it. Time passed, and many years later, when Perseus took part in a series of athletic competitions, Perseus threw the discus way beyond its target and hit King Acrisius who had been in the spectator's stand. Perseus had finally fulfilled the prophecy that many years ago had been told to his grandfather- that Acrisius would die at the hands of his grandson.