The Mythology Book

23

many daughters, the Oceanids,

who were nymphs of springs, rivers,

lakes, and seas. Her younger sister

Theia, too, took a brother, Hyperion,

for her husband; she bore him

Helios, the sun, and his sister Eos,

goddess of dawn. Helios and Eos

had a sister, Selene, who was a

goddess of the moon, though her

aunt Phoebe—sister to Tethys,

Mnemosyne, and Theia—also

had lunar associations.

Themis, the youngest female

Titan, was associated with reason,

justice, and the orderly conduct of

existence in the universe. Like her

sister Mnemosyne, she would for a

time become consort to her nephew

Zeus. Of their children, the Horae

(“Hours”) would oversee the

measurement and passage of the

seasons and of time. Another

daughter, Nemesis, took her

mother’s association with justice

to violent extremes; as her name

suggests, she became notorious as

the personification of punishment

and divine retribution.

The name of the youngest male

Titan, Iapetus, comes from iapto,

a Greek word meaning “wound” or

“pierce.” The implications of this

translation have long been debated.

Ancient poets seem to have been

unsure whether he was given

this name because he sustained

an injury or because he made

the weapon that inflicted it.

Meanwhile, in classical literature,

Iapetus appears both as a deity of

mortality and of skill in crafts.

Patricidal patriarch

Artists in ancient Greece almost

invariably represented Kronos

carrying a sickle—an emblem

of his attack upon his father. The

sickle also has more mundane and

practical associations. Kronos came

to be seen as the godly guarantor

of a successful harvest. The

connection between these two

functions—the idea that one

generation had effectively to be

destroyed for its successor to

survive and thrive, took an early

hold on the Greek consciousness.

Kronos, having killed his father,

now replaced him as the head of

the household. He then married his

sister Rhea and began to produce

children of his own. Much like his

father, Kronos would soon confront

the idea that human life can only

advance through intergenerational

struggle. This theme runs through

the Greek mythological tradition,

and is most notoriously associated

with the story of King Oedipus. ■

Gaia

Ouranos

Coeus

Demeter

Mnemosyne

Poseidon

Iapetus Tethys

Crius

Hera

Phoebe

Zeus

Kronos Themis

Oceanus

Hestia

Theia

Hades

Hyperion

Thousands of Greek deities,

unanimously descended from Gaia

and Ouranos, all embodied the

values, virtues, and vices of humans,

vividly dramatized in the colorful

mythology of ancient Greece.

Rhea

ANCIENT GREECE

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