Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks

206 Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks
was born from the semen of Ouranos’s castrated genitals, which
his son Kronos had tossed into the sea. Homer, however, makes
her the daughter of Zeus and Dione. According to some accounts,
she was the mother of Eros, the winged boy who shoots arrows of
desire into humans and gods.
Phoibos Apollo
Phoibos Apollo presided over a variety of activities including
music, healing, plague, purification, and sunlight. In wartime, he
carried a bow, in peace a lyre. It was he who sent a plague upon
the Greek army encamped outside the walls of Troy in response to
a prayer from his insulted priest at the beginning of Homer’s The
Iliad. He afflicted Thebes with plague when its people unknowingly
harbored the parricide Oedipus. Apollo’s two foremost sanctuaries
were located on the tiny island of Delos, where he was born, and
at Delphi, where he established his oracle. In art, he is depicted as
a beautiful youth eternally poised on the threshold between adolescence
and manhood. Despite his good looks, Apollo was consistently
unlucky in love, often choosing partners who resisted
his advances. One was Daphne, who prayed to Zeus to preserve
her virginity and was transformed into a bay tree in consequence.
Apollo is often regarded as the incarnation of the Hellenic spirit
and embodiment of spiritual and intellectual enlightenment. This
simplistic view ignores the darker side of his personality as the god
of plague and unrequited love.
Artemis
Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister, was both huntress and protectress
of wild animals. She was also closely identified with the moon.
Being a confirmed virgin, she was bitterly opposed to sexual intercourse.
Women in childbirth were therefore advised to placate her
fury by presenting her with offerings in advance of and after delivery.
When the hunter Aktaion inadvertently observed her bathing,
the goddess turned him into a stag and set his own dogs upon him.
Artemis’s temple at Ephesos on the coast of Asia Minor was one of
the seven wonders of the world.
Athene
Athene, the daughter of Zeus and Metis (the personification of
cunning), was born from her father’s head when he was struck by