Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

The Public Sphere 205
idias, was regarded as one of the seven wonders of the world. His
biggest temple was erected in Athens. Begun around 520 b.c.e. ,
it took about 650 years to complete—“a great victory of time,” as
one ancient writer aptly put it.
Hera
Hera, Zeus’s wife and eldest sister, was the guardian of marriage
and queen of Olympos. Her symbol was the peacock, and the eyes of
its tail feathers were believed to be the eyes of Argos, her hundredeyed
spy. In The Iliad, Homer depicts Hera as a nagging wife, ever
suspicious that her husband is conniving behind her back but fully
capable of paying him back. As indicated above, she had good reason
to be suspicious of his philandering. Hera’s temple at Olympia
was older than that of Zeus, a fact that has suggested to some scholars
that her worship on the Greek mainland predated that of Zeus.
Another venerable shrine in her honor was erected at Argos. Oddly,
there was no significant temple in Athens dedicated to her.
Poseidon
Poseidon, Zeus’s brother, was god of the sea. His symbol was the
trident, which he used to spear fish and stir up tempests. By taking
the form of a colossal bull, he became the Earthshaker, capable
of making the earth rumble and quake. It was Poseidon’s animosity,
aroused by the blinding of his son the Cyclops Polyphemos,
that caused the detention of Odysseus on the island of Kalypso for
seven years. Poseidon was defeated by Athene in the contest for the
guardianship of Athens. His gift to Athens was a saltwater spring
that he miraculously caused to spurt up out of the Acropolis, symbolizing
Athens’s mastery of the sea.
Aphrodite
Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, personified male sexual
desire. The scene of her being awarded the golden apple by the
Trojan prince Paris in the divine beauty contest is a popular mythological
subject in Western art, one of the most notable examples
being a painting by Reubens. Aphrodite defeated her rivals Hera
and Athene by promising to bestow upon the judge the most beautiful
woman in the world. The fulfillment of this promise led to the
outbreak of the Trojan War, because Helen, the woman in question,
was both married and a Greek. According to Hesiod, Aphrodite