Uncategorized

Myths and Legends: Journeys Through Time

“Thunderbolts  and lightning- very, very frigtening me..”
Lyrics to Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen

Thunderbolts and lightning. What are they? Are they the same thing or are they different? Better yet why are they important? Thunderbolt…what is it? According to the dictionary a thunderbolt is a flash of lighting with a simultaneous crash of thunder…as  you see the lightning and immediately hear thunder. What’s lighting? It’s a series of electrons that forma chain going from the ground to the sky. The chain is seen as light and has many different shapes. Normally though it’s perceived as a quick flash, like the flash from a camera. Sometimes though during thunderstorms..especially severe ones, lighting can come in the form of forks or bolts. So thunderbolts and lighting…pure lightning aren’t the same thing. Similar..but not the same. As to why they’re important..now that’s where it gets fun.
Long ago in the times of Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome..pretty much in the time of the ancient civilizations..people didn’t know what caused thunder or lighting. To them, lightning was an act of the gods. Well technically everything to them was an act of the gods..but weather especially was attributed to the gods. Ever hear the phrase “May God strike me down if I’m lying?” that has roots in ancient mythology. We all know that the change of seasons are attributed to the Goddess Demeter in Ancient Greek mythology and Ceres in Ancient Roman mythology. The weather however was different altogether. As many as 10 different gods or goddess might be responsible for an aspect of the weather. Anything from the winds to the calm before a massive storm. The most fearsome and awe inspiring display of power though…lightning was reserved for one God and one God only. That God, my readers, was Zeus. In Roman mythology Zeus is known as Jupiter. His Norse counterpart would be Thor. Although Thor is not the king of the deities, (In Norse mythology Thor’s father Odin is the All-Father or king of the deities.) he does have control over the element of lightning. Aside from king and/or father of all the Olympian gods and goddess…who exactly was Zeus? In all technicality, Zeus is a titan. He’s the youngest son of the titans Cronus (Saturn in Roman mythology) and Rhea (Identified with the Goddess Ops in Roman mythology). Zeus was one six children. In the order of their birth from youngest to oldest his siblings are Hestia (virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture and the right  ordering  of domesticity and family), Hades (God of the Underworld, also known as Pluto to the Romans), Demeter (responsible for the growth of crops, and change of seasons. Known as Ceres to the Romans), Poseiden (God of the oceans, Neptune to the Romans) and Hera (goddess of women and marriage, Juno to the Romans). Zeus was born last. As each of his siblings was born, their father swallowed them because he had been told that one of his children would overthrow him as he had overthrown his father, Uranus. Rhea wouldn’t allow this to happen so she hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. From there the story branches out…one story says he was raised by his grandmother Gaia. Another story says that he was suckled by his cousin; a goat named Amalthea while a company of soldiers shouted and clashed their swords and shields together making such a noise that Cronus couldn’t hear the baby’s cries and the last story. This story says that he was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea who fed him goat’s milk and because Cronus ruled over the skies, earth and water, suspended baby Zeus from a rope on a tree so that was touching neither, earth, sky nor water thus rendering him invisible to his father. When Zeus was old enough it’s said that he forced his father to regurgitate the children he swallowed in reverse order thus making Zeus the oldest and Hestia the youngest. The accounts differ on how he managed this but the most common account is that he cut his father’s stomach open. Then to overthrow his father and all the other titans, Zeus released his uncles…The Giants, the Hecatonkheires and the Cyclops. The Hecatonkeheires and the Cyclops are the ones responsible for giving Zeus his thunder and lightning. Of all the Olympian Pantheon..Zeus was more…prolific then the others. Although married to Hera, he had many consorts, Goddess and mortal alike. Some of the children he’s fathered are Perseus, Athena, Hercules, Hermes, Aphrodite..pretty much the entire Olympian Pantheon aside from Hera are his children. Zeus is also the father of the fates, Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos. Sometimes that puts him in a difficult positions as not even he is directly allowed to interfere with Fate. When he was angry, he was said to have hurled lightning bolts..which led to the belief that to lie was to anger Zeus and thus get you struck by lightning. All in all though Zeus was a fair and wise ruler. Promiscuous perhaps, but still fair and worthy of being the King of all Gods and Goddess.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeus

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Zeus.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Zeus/zeus.html