Prominent Events in Greek Mythology (Part 2)
I was originally planning to talk more about the gods, specifically the goddesses, however, I realize that not a single human has been mentioned so far, so let us start with the story: The Creation Of Mankind.
The story begins with someone mentioned before. The famous Prometheus and Epimetheus, Titans who sided with the Olympians during the Titanomachy. Prometheus actually means the one who thinks ahead or the fore-thinker, pro meaning before and methane meaning to learn. Epimetheus on the other hand, is derived from the word “afterthought.” This meant that Prometheus was the smart one, while Epimetheus appeared as foolish.
The two brothers received the task of creating creatures for Earth. Prometheus made the shapes of the creatures from clay, and the goddess Athena breathed life into them.
Epimetheus was tasked with giving each a special feature, however, by the time came to make men, Epimetheus had used up all the good qualities. In this dilemma, Prometheus decided to just make man standing upright, and gave them fire.
Unfortunately for him though, Zeus was not pleased by men and said that they must sacrifice a portion of the animal they ate. Prometheus, loving his creation of man, decided to trick Zeus. He wrapped an ox’s bones in meat, and made another where he placed meat inside the bones. Surely enough, Zeus picked the bones wrapped in meat. This allowed humans to keep the meat for themselves, and sacrifice only the bones to the gods.
Angered, Zeus took fire from men, but of course Prometheus stole the fire and gave it back to men.
This turn of events allowed two things to happen. The first being that Prometheus was punished, he was chained to a rock on the Caucasus, where an eagle tore a part of Prometheus’ liver. Every night the liver would grow back so the torment could start all over again the next morning. Later he was freed by Hercules and Chiron.
The other even that happened was that the gods created the first woman. Hephaestus used clay to mold her, and once again Athena breathed life into the clay. Together they released an evil as the price of fire: Pandora.
I’m sure everyone is familiar with Pandora’s box. A box sent to her that she could never open. Curiosity taking over, and chaos being released. All the evils and diseases the Gods had trapped into the jar released upon the world. Finally, when she shut the lid, the only thing that remained was hope.
There are details that people are not aware of though. One is that Pandora was actually Epimetheus’ wife. The gods gave Pandora, with the jar in hand, as a gift to Epimetheus, and despite his brother’s warnings about not to take any gifts from the gods, Epimetheus accepted. In fact, they even bore a child together, Pyrrha, another important character.
Pyrrha married Deucalion, the son of Prometheus. When the time came that Zeus decided to end the Bronze Age of Man, Prometheus foresaw that there would be a flood to wipe out mankind. He told his son to build an ark where he and his wife could refuge. In the end, they were the only two to survive.
This left them with the burden of repopulating the Earth. Deucalion asked an oracle of the goddess Themis for help, who told him to “throw the bones of his mother behind his shoulder.” The couple believed that by mother the oracle meant Mother Gaea and bones meant rocks. So they threw rocks behind their shoulders, and when one touched the ground it became human. The rocks Deucalion threw turned into men, and the ones that Pyrrha threw became women.
This was the creation of mankind, a story that technically starts with a woman. Pandora is even known as the grandmother of all humans!
Ages of Men
Since I mentioned the Bronze Age of Men, why not go through all of them? In fact, we have actually talked about most of them, we just did not refer to them as an Age. In order for a deeper understanding, it is necessary to have read “Prominent figures and events in Greek Mythology Part 1.”
Hesiod (dated between 750 and 650 BCE) was a famous Greek poet, who recognized five ages, unlike Ovid (a Roman poet) who recognized only four. His most famous poem is Theogony, written in the Epic dialect of Ancient Greek.
The first was the Golden Age of Man. During this age the Titans ruled, and the ruler of men and gods was none other than Cronus. Here men and gods interacted with each other, and men lived for a very long time. They did not have to work, and so their deaths were peaceful.
The next was the Silver Age of Man. During this time, Zeus ruled over gods and men. When humans were children they would live for centuries, however, when they became adults they did not live very long as they clashed with each other. They did not offer anything to the gods, and so Zeus killed them.
Now is the Bronze Age of Man. We know how the age comes to an end, through the great flood. Men during this time were tough and warlike. Bronze was used to make weapons, which were then used to kill each other.
Known as an improvement for the Bronze Age, the Heroic Age of Man came next. This time was as it sounds, the age where heroes and demigods existed. Where they fought their battles and became key in the myths told later.
The last Age is perhaps the worst: the Iron Age of Man. The age full of destruction. The age where men fought against each other and caused great pain to one another. The age where no one cared for anyone but themselves. The age where humankind would destroy themselves and where they would be abandoned by the gods.
And I suppose I will end it on this depressing note, for now.
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