Parallel Myths Read Online Free PDF Page B

the patroness of the home and hearth. She is as gentle and kind as Ares is cruel. She never causes strife and is said to have invented the arts of home building.
    Poseidon (Neptune)
    Robert Graves claims that Poseidon’s name is a derivative of
potidan
, or “he who gives to drink.” Poseidon is the god of the sea, brother of Hades and Zeus.
    Hades (Pluto)
    His name means “blind.” A brother of Zeus, he is the lord of the Underworld, the home of the dead. His Latin name, Pluto, means “rich” in Greek, reflecting that all the wealth of the mines under the earth is his. He is also therefore the god of wealth. His wife is Persephone or Kore, Proserpina in Latin.
    Athena (Minerva)
    According to Graves, her name comes from the Sumerian
anatha
, or “queen of heaven.” Another of her names, Pallas, means “maiden” in Greek. She was said to have been born in a curious way: Zeus was suffering from a terrible headache and Athena emerged from his head, fully grown, wearing a suit of armor.
    The patroness of the city of Athens, she is the goddess of wisdom and the inventor of the flute, the trumpet, the plow, the rake, the ox yoke, the horse bridle, the chariot, and the ship. She created numbers and mathematics, as well as cooking, weaving, and spinning. She is also the goddess of justice, and is the only Olympian to have ever defeated Ares in battle. She is a perpetual virgin, and the owl, still considered “wise,” is her symbol.
    Hephaestus (Vulcan)
    His name may be a contraction of
hemero-phaestos
, or “he who shines by day.” He is the son of Zeus and the husband of Aphrodite.
    Depicted as ugly, he is the lame god of the forge, inventor of metalworking, and patron of smiths. He is the force behind the
volcano
, which comes from his Latin name, Vulcan. Today, the process of making rubber durable, stable, and strong by heat treating is called “vulcanization.”
    The Two Earth Gods
    Demeter (Ceres)
    Her name means “barley mother.” She is the goddess of agriculture and may well be a survival of an ancient mother goddess. The word
cereal
comes from her Latin name, Ceres, as does the modern Spanish word
cerveza
, meaning “beer.” It is she who makes the seeds grow.
    Dionysus (Bacchus)
    His name means “lame deity.” He is the god of the vine, grapes, and wine, as well as the god of theater. His temple at Eleusis was the site of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Drunken revelries are still called “Bacchanalia,” recalling an ancient Roman celebration in his honor. Dionysus is a root of the common man’s name Dennis or Denis.
    The inclusion of Demeter and Dionysus in any list of important deities tells us much about the Greek way of life.
    Bread and wine were staples of the Greek and Roman diets. In the myths, one reads of someone becoming drunk by drinking “unmixed” wine, as wine was customarily cut with water to reduce its potency for ordinary household use, as is still common in France and Spain today.
    A Modern Pantheon?
    … though the West is nominally Christian, we have come to be governed, in practice, by the unholy triumdivate * of Pluto god of wealth, Apollo god of science, and Mercury god of thieves. To make matters worse, dissension and jealousy rage openly between these three, with Mercury and Pluto blackguarding each other, while Apollo wields the atomic bomb as if it were a thun derbolt;for since the Age of Reason was heralded by his eighteenth-century philosophers, he has seated himself on the vacant throne of Zeus (temporarily indisposed) as Triumdival Regent.
    —Robert Graves,
The White Goddess
     

THE NORSE PANTHEON
     
    Odin (in German, Wotan)
    Odin is the one-eyed ruler of the gods. He has one eye after bartering the other for a drink at Mimir’s well of wisdom. Two ravens fly around the world gathering information for him. He is portrayed as wise and generally just.
    Frey
    The German and Scandinavian god of agriculture, trade, and peace. The modern German words
frei
and
Freiheit
—and