Today we talk about Greek God’s Aphrodite, Apollo & Geras. Greek mythology. Ready to know something new?
Aphrodite
My gift to man is love, not only erotic love, but also of nature, of frendship, between kin, of oneself. My gift to man is beauty, within the exotic, within the mundane, with laughter, and with tears. My gift to man is strife, strife born of jealousy, strife born of desire. My gifts to man are many, they carry pleasure, they carry pain.
Aphrodite, the olympian goddess of affection, beauty, and pleasure. The enchanting one, one who is desirable but infinitely out of reach. To her devotees, she is understood as “the smile-loving,” “the merciful,” and therefore the “one who postpones adulthood,”.
While to those that scorn her worship, she is understood as “the unholy one,” “the dark one,” the doom of men, “the killer of men.” the goddess is identified by the Romans with the name, venus. consistent with hesoid, aphrodite was born from the castrated genitals of Uranus, which fell into the ocean, near the coast of Cythera. She had risen from the froth of the waters, on a shell, fully-grown, and more beautiful than anything, or anyone within the universe.
However, consistent with a homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus, and therefore the Titaness do, thus, the stepsister to the opposite Olympians, Athena, Artemis, ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Hermes, and Dionysus. Whichever the story is, the goddess of affection was the fairest of all the opposite goddesses. She was a deity of flawless beauty. Lovely, enchanting, and sometimes appearing nude, having a symmetrically perfect body.
Sometimes, the goddess is depicted alongside her children, the erotes, who were capable of sparking up passion in mortals and gods alike, at her will. Her symbols are myrtles, roses, a dove, a magical girdle, and a shell. So lovely was the goddess of affection that no man or god could resist her. Only the three virgin goddesses, Artemis, Athena, and Hestia, were resistant to her charms, tactics, and power. Thus, when aphrodite arrived on Olympus, her beauty caused great confusion amongst the opposite gods, as each of them wanted her for himself.
So to bring back peace and order, Zeus quickly married her off to the smallest amount attractive olympian, Hephaestus, the god of the forge. Although married to Hephaestus, aphrodite had affairs with all the olympian gods, except hades (the reserved, aloof god), and Zeus, who was supposedly her father. Her most famous lover was the god of war, ares, whom she bore as many as 8 children. For Poseidon, she bore one daughter, Rhode. And for Hermes, she bore the hermaphrodites. The goddess also consorted with mortals, the foremost famous of whom were, Anchises, and adonis.
Apollo
God of music, playing the golden lyre. God of archery shooting with a golden bow. God of medicine & spreading the art of healing and God of truth, who speaketh not a lie. I am apollo, leader of the muses, patron of delphi.
Apollo, the olympian god of the sun and light, music and poetry, prophecy and divination, healing, and diseases. The archer, the bright one who speaks crookedly and the charioteer of the patient-year. Apollo was the son of the king god, Zeus, and the Titaness, leto. And twin brother of Artemis, goddess of the hunt.
His mother, leto was one of Zeus’ many lovers, and thus, incurred the wrath of hera, queen of the gods. When the Titaness was heavily pregnant with Apollo and Artemis, hera sent a ferocious dragon python to pursue her throughout the earth and cursed all the lands to shun her, so she would not find any place on solid earth, to give birth.
But the sea god, Poseidon took pity on leto and showed her the floating island of Delos, where she first delivered Artemis, while balancing her body on an olive branch. Artemis grew up instantly, then helped her mother deliver Apollo. Apollo grew strong and tall, after being fed with ambrosia and nectar for 4 days. Every single day, he would mount his chariot of four horses, and drive across the sky, dragging the sun along with him. The sun god was the most good-looking male, among the Olympians, having golden hair, a beardless face, blue eyes, and a muscular build.
He was often shown with a crown of laurel on his head, carrying in his hands, either a bow and an arrow, a sacrificial tripod, or a lyre. The lyre is perhaps, his most famous symbol, which was given to him by then little messenger god, Hermes, as appeasement for stealing apollo’s favorite cattle. Although he was a cool and calm-headed god, apollo was also quick to anger, a trait shared by almost all the members of his olympian family.
He punished severely, whoever dared to disrespect him or his family or question his honor. To avenge his mother’s suffering, apollo trailed the dragon python that once terrorized his mother, to its place of abode. And shot it with his arrows, wounding it. He pursued the dragon python to Gaea’s ancient sanctuary, in Delphi, where the monster had hidden, and finally killed it. Apollo decided to remain in Delphi afterward and claimed the sanctuary to his name. There, he used his gifts of prophecy to answer the questions of mortals, and divine their future. The high priestess, Pythia, was then chosen, to preside over the temple of Apollo at Delphi, serving as its oracle.
Geras
One day. When you wake up and look in the mirror. Only to see wrinkles appearing on your skin. When you realize you’ve lost the agility of your youth. When your memory begins to fail you. There, you will know, that you have been visited, by geras. In Greek mythology, geras was the god and personification of old age. A total opposite to hebe, the goddess of youth. Known as senectus, among the Romans.
He was the son of the night, NYX. And the darkness, Erebus. He often appeared as an old and shriveled-up man, holding a staff, in his hands. Geras was a wise spirit. The spirit of excellence. Who gifted mankind, with the wisdom of old age. The sageness, the insight, the serenity, the prudence, that comes with age. The more geras a man acquired, the more fame and excellence, he had. But at the same time. Geras was a loathsome god. A dreaded spirit. Who also brought to mankind, the unpleasantness and difficulties of old age.
When loathsome old age (geras) presses fully upon a man, a man could not move, nor lift his limbs. He brings forth the wrinkles, the sagging bodies, and the frustrating forgetfulness. Harsh old age (geras) waits for every child. The bear, and yet to be born. He will enshroud every man, every woman. The rich and the poor. The attractive and the ugly. The intelligent and the ignorant. No man is exempted from geras. He brings Thanatos, the spirit of death, right to your doorstep. He is the ruthless age which stands someday and at the side of every man, deadly, wearying, dreaded even by the gods. Geras is both a blessing and a curse to mankind.
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Originally posted 2020-08-24 20:43:00.
