This is a good example of how Greek mythology can shift between different sources and traditions. The same figure may have different parents, names, appearances and deeds depending on place, period and author. Sometimes different stories also merge and overlap.

In Part 3 of our series on Greek mythology’s strange beings and forgotten legends, we follow some of these side paths further: from the Idaean Dactyls to the three-bodied giant Geryon, and on to the multi-headed dogs Orthrus and Cerberus.

The Idaean Dactyls

The Dactyls were male divine or semi-divine beings associated with the Great Mother goddess, especially in the forms of Rhea and Cybele. They were also linked with metalworking, fire and magic. Beyond that, however, the ancient sources describe the Dactyls in very different ways. Their number varies, as do their names and places of origin, and in some traditions they almost merge with other mythological groups.

Mount Ida does not always refer to the same place either. One Mount Ida lies on Crete, while another stood in ancient Phrygia in Asia Minor. There were also other local traditions concerning the Dactyls, including on Rhodes.

Another widespread tradition says that the Dactyls came into being when Rhea was about to give birth to Zeus. She was trying to save the newborn Zeus from his father Cronus, who devoured his own children to prevent any of them from one day overthrowing him. When Rhea pressed her fingers into the earth during the birth, the Dactyls were born – and the Greek word daktyloi means “fingers”.

The Greek geographer Pausanias, writing in the 2nd century AD, records an Elean tradition in which the Dactyls are five in number and individually named. Heracles corresponds to the thumb, Paeonius to the forefinger, Epimedes to the middle finger, Iasius to the ring finger, and Idaios – also called Acesides – to the little finger.

This Heracles, the eldest of the brothers, was said to have organised a footrace between them and crowned the winner with a wreath of wild olive. According to the same tradition, this was the origin of the later Olympic Games. The Dactyl Heracles was also said to have brought the wild olive itself from the mythical land of the Hyperboreans, far to the north.

The traditions surrounding the different figures named Heracles later began to overlap, and accomplishments originally attributed to older figures could eventually be transferred to the more famous hero Heracles.

The Dactyls are also often associated or confused with the Curetes, Corybantes and Cabeiri – other groups of mythical beings connected, among other things, with the Mother Goddess, ritual and metalworking.

In our next story, about the fearsome giant Geryon, we will encounter the more famous Heracles: the son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the hero who performed the Twelve Labours.

Geryon – the Fearsome Giant at the Western Edge of the World

In his tenth labour, Heracles was sent to steal the cattle of the fearsome giant Geryon. This was no ordinary herd, but a magnificent collection of red cattle grazing on the island of Erytheia, at the western edge of the world as imagined in Greek mythology. Heracles’ voyage across the sea later became a popular subject among ancient vase painters.

What the giant Geryon himself looked like depends, as so often, on which source you read.

One body with three heads? Three bodies with one head? Six arms and six legs? Wings? All of these versions appear. What they have in common is that Geryon is portrayed as a huge and terrifying figure, often armed like a warrior – and that the number three somehow seems to be part of his nature.

His family tree is just as strange as his appearance. According to myth, Geryon’s father Chrysaor was born when the hero Perseus cut off the head of Medusa, the monster whose gaze could turn people to stone. At the same moment, the winged horse Pegasus was also born. The giant Geryon therefore forms an important link in one of the best-known stories of Greek mythology.

Geryon’s cattle were guarded by the herdsman Eurytion and the two-headed dog Orthrus. Heracles killed Orthrus with a single powerful blow from his olive-wood club and then killed Eurytion as well. When Geryon heard the commotion, he rushed into action, according to one version, carrying three shields, three spears and wearing three helmets. Heracles met him with an arrow dipped in the poisonous blood of the Lernaean Hydra and brought the giant down.

Palaephatus, a Greek mythographer who often sought rational explanations behind ancient myths, suggested that the idea of Geryon having several heads may have arisen from a misunderstanding connected with the place the giant came from. It was called Tricarenia, a name that can be interpreted as “Three Heights” or “Three Heads”.

Geryon continued to appear in literature long after antiquity. More than a thousand years later, he turns up again in Dante’s Inferno – this time in a new and even stranger form.

Orthrus – the Dog in the Shadow of His Famous Brother

Orthrus is much less famous than his brother Cerberus, the dog who guarded the entrance to the realm of the dead. Both were children of Typhon and Echidna, two of the great primordial monsters of Greek mythology and the parents of a long line of other terrifying creatures.

Orthrus’ task was to guard Geryon’s precious red cattle on the island of Erytheia.

He is most often described as two-headed, but here too the sources vary. In some he has only one head, in others three. Depictions of Orthrus are rare and are almost always connected with Heracles’ theft of Geryon’s cattle.

Accounts of his death also differ. In the version we have just followed, Heracles kills Orthrus with his club. In some ancient depictions, however, Orthrus is shown pierced by arrows.

His brother Cerberus is an even clearer example of how a mythological figure’s appearance could change over time. In the earliest literary sources, he could have fifty – or even a hundred – heads. Only later did the three-headed version become dominant and the one best known today.

Orthrus’ family tree also has its surprises. A passage in the poet Hesiod can be interpreted as making Orthrus and the Chimera the parents of both the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion, two other feared creatures of Greek mythology. Here too, however, the sources are ambiguous and different traditions offer varying versions.

From Orthrus to the Underworld

Cerberus belongs above all to another story. Not long after the encounter with Geryon, Heracles is sent down into Hades, the realm of the dead, where the many-headed watchdog plays a much larger role.

In this part, we have seen how closely the different strands of Greek mythology are connected. The Dactyl Heracles led us to the Olympic Games, the hero Heracles to Geryon, and Geryon’s cattle to Orthrus.

Cerberus will lead us into the next part of the series: “The Geography of the Underworld”.

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Sources

Diodoros Siculus, Bibliotheca historica, book 5

Pausanias, Description of Greece, book 5, 5.7.6–9

Wikipedia various posts

Palaiphatos, On Unbelievable Tales

Related articles

In Part 1 of our series exploring those who dwell in the shadows of Greek mythology, we looked at enigmatic figures such as Silenus and Gitauros. Today, we turn to three fascinating but lesser-known motifs from the epos of Homer: Aeolus’s bag, Zeus Xenios, and the faithful Argos.

Aeolus’s Bag

After years of war and wandering, Odysseus was finally so close to Ithaca that he could see the watchfires burning on the shore. His journey home was almost over. All that was required was that no one opened the bag tied securely to the ship—the bag that held the storms.

Earlier, Odysseus had arrived at Aeolia, a floating island surrounded by an impregnable wall of bronze. There lived Aeolus, son of Hippotas and keeper of the winds. He could both unleash the winds and make them die down.

Aeolus welcomed the strangers warmly and let them stay for an entire month. When it was time for them to leave, he gave Odysseus an unusual farewell gift: a bag sewn from the hide of a nine-year-old ox. Inside, he had imprisoned the wild winds that could blow the ships off course. The bag was tied shut with a gleaming silver cord, while the west wind was left free to carry them home.

In the Odyssey, they sailed for nine days without stopping. On the tenth day, Ithaca came into view. Odysseus, who had tended the sail himself the entire time, finally fell asleep from exhaustion.

Then his men began to whisper. They believed that Aeolus had filled the bag with gold and silver that Odysseus intended to keep for himself. While he slept, they untied the cord.

All the winds burst out at once. The storm seized the ships and drove them all the way back to Aeolia. When Odysseus asked for help a second time, Aeolus refused. A man plagued by such misfortune must be hated by the gods, he reasoned, and sent him away.

Aeolus’s bag has become a symbol of how forces, once unleashed, can become impossible to control. In the Odyssey, it is also a story of how close disaster can be. Odysseus’s men did not have to defy a monster or anger a god. They only had to be curious, envious, and open the wrong bag.

The Law of Zeus in the Odyssey

In Christopher Nolan’s film, a solemn phrase recurs again and again: the law of Zeus. It sounds like a divine prohibition carved in stone, but it concerns something seemingly simple—how you receive a stranger at your door.

In the world of Homer, a journey could be deadly. There were no hotels to book and no way to announce that you were coming. Travelers depended on strangers to offer them food, rest, and shelter.

This sacred hospitality was called xenia. A host was expected to welcome strangers, give them something to eat, and let them rest before any questions were asked. Guests, in turn, were obliged to respect the household and not abuse their host’s generosity. An exchange of gifts could turn the encounter into the beginning of a bond of friendship between two families.

Hospitality was protected by Zeus Xenios, Zeus in his role as protector of guests. No one could be entirely certain who was standing outside the door. A poor wanderer might be a god in disguise.

The entire Odyssey can almost be read as a test of xenia. The Phaeacians rescue the shipwrecked Odysseus and help him return home. The poor swineherd Eumaeus shares his food with an unknown beggar and explains that all strangers and those in need come from Zeus.

The Cyclops Polyphemus does the opposite. When Odysseus invokes the protection of Zeus, the Cyclops mocks both the law and the gods—and then begins eating his guests. The suitors in Ithaca violate xenia from the opposite direction. They have been received as guests, yet they refuse to leave the palace, consume the family’s wealth, and plot to kill Telemachus.

The word philoxenia was already used in antiquity and survives in modern Greek. It is formed from philos, friend, and xenos, stranger: kindness toward the stranger. For many travelers in Greece, the idea is still easy to recognize—in the extra chair brought to the table, the offer of something to eat, and the help given without fanfare.

The law of Zeus, then, was more than a rule about good table manners. It made it possible to meet an unknown person without immediately drawing your sword. In the Odyssey, both humans and monsters are therefore revealed by a simple question: What do they do when a stranger stands at the door?

Argos

When Odysseus returned to Ithaca after twenty years of war and wandering, almost no one recognized him. Athena had transformed him into an old beggar, dressed in rags and leaning on a staff. But someone was waiting at the palace gate who could not be fooled.

Argos, the dog Odysseus himself had raised before sailing for Troy, lay on a manure heap outside the palace. He had once been a swift and powerful hunting dog. No hare, deer, or wild goat could escape him when he followed a trail through the forest.

Now he was old, weak, and covered in vermin. With his master gone and Odysseus’s palace in the hands of Penelope’s overbearing suitors, no one cared for him anymore.

When the disguised Odysseus approached, Argos did not have the strength to stand. Yet he immediately recognized his master’s voice and form. He lowered his ears and gently wagged his tail. Odysseus turned his face away and wiped away a tear, because he could not greet the dog without revealing who he was.

Shortly afterward, Argos died. Homer writes that the darkness of death took him after he had finally seen Odysseus again, twenty years later.

And so, amid the Odyssey’s monsters, gods, and bloody vengeance, one of its most powerful scenes is the meeting between a man and an old dog. Argos needed neither divine signs nor a glimpse of the hero’s famous scar.

Argos knew who had come home.

In our series about those who live in the shadow of Greek mythology, the previous installment explored enigmatic figures such as Silenus and Gitauros. Today, it is time for three fascinating but lesser-known motifs from the Odyssey: Aeolus’s bag, Zeus Xenios, and the faithful Argos.

Sources

Centre for the Greek Language, The Odyssey

Homer, The Odyssey, Books 9, 10, 14 and 17 – original text

Greek Ministry of Education, The Odyssey

Greek mythology is not, and has never been, a single cohesive narrative. It was shaped and reshaped over millennia by poets, sailors, priests, villagers, and wandering storytellers. While some figures became famous throughout the ancient world, others faded over time, surviving only in scattered references, regional folklore, or half-forgotten traditions from marshes, mountain ranges, and remote sanctuaries.

In this new series, we explore some of the lesser-known layers of Greek mythology – the strange, the overlooked, and the elusive, not through heavy academic analysis, but through stories, images, and motifs that still carry a peculiar allure thousands of years later.

In this first article, we meet, among others:

• Silenus – the old, constantly drunken companion of Dionysos, somewhat comical but with a wisdom that feels almost unsettling.
• Gitauros (Γίταυρος) – a shadowy being from Greek folklore, associated with misty marshes and bull-like cries in the night.
• The shield of Achilles – forged by Hephaestus himself, not just as a weapon but as an entire world in metal: oceans, cities, stars, harvests, war, and the cosmos itself.

And this is just the beginning. Behind these first figures, many more strange characters, symbols, and stories are waiting to emerge once again from the shadows of mythology.

Silenus – Dionysos’s enigmatic companion

Among the wild retinue of Dionysos moved Silenus, a figure long associated with ecstasy, wine, and a dark view of human existence. But who was Silenus? A constantly drunken old man wobbling along on a donkey, or one of Greek mythology’s misunderstood figures?

The wise straggler in the shadow of Dionysos

When imagining the procession of Dionysos, one often pictures ecstatic maenads and lithe satyrs dancing through the forest. But at the very back of the clamorous retinue, wobbling on the back of a tired donkey because his legs can no longer carry him, we find Silenus. He is one of Greek mythology’s most paradoxical figures: a constantly drunken, stout old man with a snub nose, whose exterior conceals a wisdom deeper than that of most gods.

Silenus was Dionysos’s teacher and foster father, and he belonged to an older generation of nature spirits, the satyrs. While the ordinary satyrs were young and wild, Silenus represented the mature, almost overripe, force of nature. In art, he is often depicted with a leather wine flask slung over his shoulder and a wreath of ivy around his bald head. He is a figure who lives on the margins; he is never the center of the party, but rather the strange shadow that lingers when the wine begins to run out.

There is, however, something enigmatic and mysterious beneath this comical and grotesque exterior. Silenus possesses the gift of prophecy – an ability he only shares if caught asleep or forced into it through trickery.

The most famous legend tells of how King Midas poisoned a spring with wine to lure Silenus into a trap. Once the drunken old man was captured, the king forced him to reveal his deepest insight. Silenus’s response became one of antiquity’s most famous and darkest truths:

“The very best thing for a human being is not to be born at all. The next best thing is to die as soon as possible.”

This is the core of Silenus. In Greek mythology, he represents not just happy, superficial intoxication, but the Dionysian insight into the fleeting nature and pain of life. His wisdom is not the cool logic found among the Olympian gods, but an earthy, instinctive understanding of the chaos of the universe. In ancient Greece, he was a reminder that truth is often found where we least expect it – in intoxication, in the shadows, and in the ones the world uses to laugh at.

Silenus remains one of mythology’s most fascinating figures: a divine fool straggling behind in history, bearing a truth that is just as heavy as he himself is drunk.

Gitauros – the mist-shrouded being of Thessaly

Far from the gleaming marble halls of Olympus, many older and stranger creatures continued to live on in Greek folklore. In the misty marshes and river landscapes of Thessaly, Gitauros (Γήταυρος) was said to roam, his bull-like cries echoing through the night. Who was this Gitauros, and where did he come from?

The mysterious sound of the nocturnal wetlands

Where the great epics fall silent, folklore takes over. Gitauros is not a figure found in classical dramas or on the finest vases; he belongs to oral storytelling, to the warnings whispered among villagers in ancient Thessaly. The name suggests a creature with traits of both human and bull, but unlike the Minotaur in his labyrinth, Gitauros is bound to water and mist.

He is often described as a shadowy being that frequents the deep marshes and the reedy banks of rivers. He is a creature that is rarely seen but often heard. The characteristic “lowing” echoing over the water during the darkest nights gave rise to stories of a lonely wanderer doomed to haunt the borderlands between land and sea. In folklore, he became a symbol of the unknown and dangerous lurking in nature’s hidden recesses – the places where humans are vulnerable and disoriented.

Few clear descriptions of Gitauros have been preserved. Instead, the figure appears fragmentarily in older encyclopedias, folk traditions, and regional stories, particularly linked to Thessaly – an area that even during antiquity was surrounded by rumors of magic, witchcraft, and strange rituals.

The strange thing about Gitauros is how this ancient, primal fear of nature’s own forces has managed to survive in the collective memory, proving to be more resilient than the classical temples of ancient Greece.

Hearing Gitauros was an omen that you had come too close to a dangerous place, or that the mist was about to swallow the path. His cry was not just a sound, but a reminder that we are not alone in the darkness, and that some beings prefer to remain precisely sounds and shadows.

Through Gitauros, we see another side of Greek mythology: the regional, down-to-earth horror that is less about gods and more about the actual environment people lived in. He is the voice of the marsh, a primal force that cannot be tamed or explained away by heroic tales, but instead continues to wander through the mist as long as there are nights quiet enough to carry his cry.

The shield of Achilles

When Hephaestus forged Achilles’s new shield, he did not just create a weapon for war. But what did the shield of Achilles actually look like? In the Iliad, it is described as an entire world in shimmering metal – filled with cities, oceans, starry skies, harvests, processions, armies, and the eternal rhythm of human life.

A microcosm in bronze and gold

In the eighteenth book of the Iliad, the roar of war pauses for a moment. Achilles has lost his armor, and his mother Thetis seeks out Hephaestus, the god of metallurgy, to ask for a new set. What emerges from the god’s forge is not merely a shield against arrows and swords, but one of the most magnificent motifs in literary history: a microcosmic mirror of the entire ancient world. Hephaestus was regarded as the master smith of the gods, but in the story of Achilles’s shield, he appears almost as something more: a creator of worlds.

The description of the shield occupies a surprisingly large part of the Iliad. In the middle of the narrative of Troy’s bloody war, Homer pauses the action to let the reader contemplate this strange object, where layer after layer of scenes emerge from the metal.

At the center of the shield, Hephaestus forged the earth, the sky, and the sea, along with the sun, the moon, and the constellations that guide sailors: the Pleiades, the Hyades, and Orion. Around this center, scenes from ancient life unfold in concentric circles.

We see two cities. In one, wedding celebrations are underway with torchlit processions and singing to flutes and lyres, while men gather in the marketplace to resolve a legal dispute. The other city is surrounded by two armies; here, ambushes by a river are depicted, along with battles with spears and figures personifying hatred and panic in the turmoil of war.

Then follow scenes from the countryside. Plowmen drive their oxen across fertile fields, harvesters work with their sickles, and youths carry baskets of dark grapes from a vineyard of gold. There are also images of grazing cattle being attacked by lions, as well as a large dancing floor where young men and women dance in a ring with their hands around each other’s wrists.

All of this is framed by the outermost edge, where the river Oceanus flows – the great waterway that the people of antiquity believed encircled the entire universe.

The shield of Achilles has fascinated everyone from archaeologists to poets through the centuries. Countless attempts have been made to reconstruct it, but its true nature remains literary. It is a reminder that mythology is not just about monsters and heroes, but also about the art of capturing the entire universe on a round surface of hammered metal.

At the fringes of Greek mythology

Behind the most famous gods and heroic tales of Olympus lies another mythological landscape – more fragmented, elusive, and often stranger than the stories that have remained in textbooks and pop culture. There we find figures like Silenus, whose laughter conceals one of antiquity’s darkest insights into life, mist-shrouded beings like Gitauros, and objects like the shield of Achilles, where the entire universe seems to be contained in metal and fire.

It is also here that Greek mythology perhaps feels most alive. Not as a closed system of finished narratives, but as fragments from different times and places – sometimes grand, sometimes unsettling, sometimes almost dreamlike.

In upcoming parts of the series, we will continue to move through these lesser-known layers of mythology. More strange beings, forgotten symbols, and overlooked stories still wait in the margins, far beyond the most well-trodden paths through ancient Greece.

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Goddess Artemis, Cult and Sanctuary

The sanctuary at Brauron is one of the most significant archaeological sites in Attica. It was expanded to its final form around the 6th century BC. This was the site of one of the most important festivals in antiquity, the Βραυρώνια/Brauronia, which was dedicated to the Olympian goddess Artemis.

The festivities were held every five years and were considered almost as important as the Eleusinian Mysteries, which we looked at in a previous article.

Artemis is one of the most versatile and fascinating goddesses in Greek mythology. Her cults were spread throughout the ancient Greek world. She was associated not only with hunting and wilderness but also with childbirth, women’s health, children, and youth, especially girls before they reached adulthood. At Brauron, Artemis seems to have been worshiped primarily in this role.

An important element of the Brauronia cult was the ritual ceremonies and processions of young girls approaching marriageable age. The girls were called άρκτοι (arktoi)/bears, symbolizing their transition from childhood to adulthood.

They honored Artemis through sacred dances, dressed in saffron-colored garments. They ran races and made offerings to the goddess. Sometimes, nudity was part of these rites of passage, symbolizing the girls’ preparation for adult life.

Before getting married, the girls also sacrificed their childhood toys to Artemis, and many of these objects have been found in the temple area.

During the later classical period, Artemis was also identified with Σελήνη/Selene, the personification of the moon. She was often said to wander in forests and mountains, accompanied by her nymphs. The Roman equivalent of Artemis is Diana.

Artemis temple

The temple dedicated to Artemis itself was built on the slope of a 78-foot-high hill where a spring, considered sacred, still flows. Today, only the foundations of the temple remain, as it has been destroyed over time by wars and natural disasters.

In the 15th century, the Byzantine chapel of Agios Georgios was built on the same site, partially carved into the rock. Nearby, the remains of an ancient church dated to the 5th century AD have also been found.

Stoa – The Colonnade

North of the temple, around the 5th century BC, what now dominates the site was built: a στοά/stoa – a colonnade or open hall, in the shape of a “Π” (Pi). It served as a central gathering place during religious festivals and promoted a sense of community among those honoring Artemis. Important ceremonies were performed here, and meals were held in honor of the goddess.

Adjacent to this was a smaller stoa that housed several rooms where the arktoi girls lived. Although this smaller stoa was never fully completed, it was actively used during the festivities in classical times. Several of the girls’ names have been found as inscriptions on the remains of the walls in this stoa.

In both colonnades, gifts and small statues were also placed, which parents offered as sacrifices when they put their children under the goddess’s protection.

Iphigenia’s tomb

The remains of what is said to be the mythological tomb of Iphigenia can be seen just east of the Temple of Artemis. The tomb was originally located inside a cave, whose roof collapsed already during the Classical period.

Iphigenia was the daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra in Greek mythology. As told in the Iliad, before the Greeks could sail to Troy, the goddess Artemis demanded that Iphigenia be sacrificed to ensure favorable winds for the fleet.

At the last moment, Artemis saved Iphigenia and took her to the land of Tauris, on the coast of the Black Sea. With the help of her brother Orestes, she later returned to Greece. According to one version of the myth, retold by Euripides, Iphigenia arrived in Brauron, where she became the high priestess of Artemis.

A cult site since the Stone Age

Numerous archaeological finds have shown that the area of Brauron has been inhabited since ancient times. The hill and the sacred spring have played an important role in religious rituals as early as the Neolithic period and throughout the Bronze Age. The cult of Artemis is believed to have emerged and developed around the 9th century BC.

Unfortunately, much of the sanctuary was destroyed during the Persian invasion in 480 BC, but the site was partially rebuilt later during the Classical period. The festivities at Brauron began to decline after the 3rd century BC.

Sanctuaries near Athens: the museum in Brauron

The Archaeological Museum of Vravrona is located just a few hundred meters from the sanctuary. The permanent exhibition showcases finds from the excavations of the temple area and other nearby archaeological sites.

The exhibition focuses on the history of Brauron, from prehistoric settlements to ancient monuments, as well as traditions linked to the cult of Artemis. The museum also houses antiquities and finds from surrounding municipalities.

The museum has five exhibition halls, an inner courtyard, as well as storage and workshops for the preservation and conservation of archaeological finds.

Opening hours: Every day except Tuesday, 08:00 – 15:30.

You can download the museum guide in PDF format here (English/Greek) >>

The wetland of Brauron

The natural riverbed environment that still dominates the area around the mouth of the Erasinos River provides the land with an abundant water supply, and the Brauron area today forms an important wetland protected under Natura 2000, a European network for biodiversity conservation.

The Brauron wetland is home to a wide variety of plants and animals, many of which are very rare. Many herons find refuge here, while rare birds of prey nest on the surrounding hills. This ecological richness makes the area a central point for both history and nature conservation in the region.

Artemis – a versatile goddess

Artemis was a complex and versatile deity in Greek mythology. Her cults varied depending on the location and local traditions. In Ephesus, on the coast of Asia Minor, she was worshiped as a maternal fertility goddess. Her temple, the Artemision, was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and an important center for the veneration of the goddess as a protector of motherhood and fertility.

In Sparta, she appeared as Artemis Orthia, a strict goddess who oversaw the education and physical training of young Spartans. Here, her role was closely tied to discipline and strength, qualities that were important in Spartan culture.

On the island of Delos, where according to mythology she and her twin brother Apollo were born, grand festivals were held in their honor. The island was a significant religious center, and Artemis was worshiped here as a powerful deity associated with birth and rites of passage.

Artemis was worshiped in many different ways, but everywhere she remained a powerful symbol of nature’s wild beauty and the female life cycle. She was a central figure in ancient Greece’s religious life and one of the oldest deities to be worshiped.

Brauron – Βραυρώνα

Sources

Greek Wikipedia, Greek Ministry of Culture, archaiologia.gr, Archeological Museum in Brauron

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The ancient Olympic Games were more than just athletic competitions – they were a crucial part of Greek culture, where sports, religion, and society intertwined. At the sacred site of Olympia, Greek tribes had gathered since time immemorial to honor their gods, compete in sports, and strengthen their unity.

Note: This is a reworked article written by Georgios Xyftilis, originally published in the Swedish journal Sport & Affärer, year 2008. You can download the complete event issue of the journal in PDF format here>>

The Games were held in honor of the god Zeus at the sanctuary in Olympia every four years. They were documented from 776 BC until the end of the 4th century CE, when they were discontinued.

Ode to the Olympic Games, freely adapted from Pindar:

As water is the most precious of the elements,
and gold the most valuable of substances,
as the sun shines brightest among the stars,
so Olympia outshines and overshadows all other competitions.

The Sanctuary of Olympia

Olympia was not an ancient Greek city-state or even a city, but it was one of the holiest places for the Hellenes since ancient times. The various Greek tribes had gathered here from the earliest recorded history to offer sacrifices to the gods and reinforce the Panhellenic identity.

In classical times, Olympia was an impressive and magnificent sight. In addition to the numerous sports facilities, there was also the Olympic Parliament, the magnificent Town Hall – Prytaneion, where the eternal Olympic Flame was kept. There were also waterworks, hot springs, bathing facilities, residences, training rooms, hundreds of temples, statues, and monuments dedicated to heroes, gods, and former Olympic victors.

The most magnificent of all temples was the Temple of Zeus, where the giant statue of Zeus stood. This was the masterpiece of the sculptor Pheidias and one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

The Games in time

Scholars are still not entirely in agreement on when the very first games in Olympia took place. However, several ancient writings and archaeological finds indicate that their roots can be traced back to ancient burial or fertility rituals, long before 776 BC, when the first games are believed to have occurred.

This year was also the beginning of the so-called Olympic calendar. The calendar was based on four-year periods between the Olympic Games, and each such period was called an Olympiad. However, the roots of the ancient Olympic Games go back to the mysterious and obscure landscapes of the mythological era.

In several myths, it is told that the area around the sacred grove Altis in Olympia was the place where the young god Zeus finally defeated his father, the Titan Kronos, and took his place as the father of gods and humans. He founded the Games in memory of this great victory.

Still, other myths attribute the founding of the ancient Olympic Games to the Panhellenic hero Heracles. According to tradition, it was Heracles who planted the sacred olive tree in Altis, with whose branches the kotinos – the wreath with which the Olympic victors were crowned – was woven.

It is also said that it was Heracles who measured out the later standardized ancient Greek length measurement stadium with his strides, which in Olympia’s arena has been measured to be 632 feet (192.7 meters).

Hero worship and legends

For the ancient Greeks, hero worship was extremely important, and many local heroes were celebrated as much as the Olympic gods. In Olympia, on the eastern side of the Temple of Zeus, the legend of the hero Pelops was prominently inscribed. Pelops has given his name to the entire large peninsula of Peloponnese (Pelops’ island).

Pelops, son of Tantalus and prince of Lydia, sought the hand of Hippodameia, daughter of Oinomaos, king of the city of Pisa, near Olympia. The king challenged Pelops to a chariot race with his life at stake. None of Hippodameia’s previous suitors had survived this sport.

But Pelops was cunning. He bribed the charioteer Myrtilos to sabotage the royal chariot’s wheels. In this way, King Oinomaos was killed, and the Lydian prince married Hippodameia, became king of Pisa, and founded the Olympic Games in memory of this triumph.

The ancient Olympic Games: international flavor

The ancient Olympic Games were major festivals attracting tens of thousands of participants. It is estimated that 45,000 spectators could fit inside the stadium building alone. During the classical period, the festivities lasted five days and culminated with the magnificent Olympic procession.

The first day was dedicated to the god Zeus, with important ceremonial rituals where the Olympic oath was sworn, and 100 oxen were sacrificed in the god’s honor. Olympia was bustling with people and life during these colorful festivals. Visitors came from as far away as the distant Greek colonies in North Africa, Sicily, and the Black Sea.

In addition to the athletic competitions, there were also singing and music competitions, poets recited poetry, philosophers presented their theories, plays were performed, commerce thrived in the market, speakers spread their messages to the people, grand banquets and other gatherings were held.

The ancient Greek nudity

In most contests, athletes competed naked. The naked and well-trained human body was, for the ancient Greeks, nature’s perfect creation in terms of harmony and beauty. The word gymnasium comes from the Greek γυμνός/gymnos, which means naked. Gymnasiums were originally the facilities where both body and soul were trained, with a combination of sports and music. In ancient times, body and soul were considered an inseparable whole.

Women

As is perhaps well known, women were not allowed to participate in the ancient Olympic Games. Married women were not even allowed to be spectators. Lesser known, is that women had their own games at Olympia, which were also held every four years. They were called the Heraean Games and were dedicated to the great goddess Hera. It is still unknown whether men were allowed to attend the women’s games.

The truce that wasn’t peace

The ancient Olympic Games were always held in the summer, but scholars disagree on the exact time. Most of them claim that they coincided with the first full moon after the summer solstice.

One month before, spondoforoi – special envoys – were sent throughout ancient Greece to proclaim the famous Olympic truce.

It is known that this truce did not mean any comprehensive and universal peace between the city-states. It was more of an old convention that allowed athletes, coaches, officials, and spectators to travel through war zones to Olympia safely and undisturbed.

The various sports disciplines

At the very early ancient Olympics, there was only one athletic event: running on a straight track of one stadium length, 632 feet, (192.7 meters). However, throughout the Olympiads, several events were added: running longer distances up to 24 stadia, about 15,092 feet (4,600 meters), horse races, chariot races, wrestling, boxing, the popular but dangerous combat sport Pankration, running in full armor, and pentathlon, including long jump, javelin, and discus, among others.

The Games were led by specially selected judges, the Hellanodikai who had great authority and were highly respected. Dressed in shining purple and with laurel wreaths around their heads, they led the Olympic procession. The Hellanodikai not only supervised the games. They also oversaw the training and lifestyle of the athletes.

The devastation of Olympia

The ancient Olympic Games, which had lasted for 1,116 years without interruption, were finally discontinued at the end of the 4th century CE. The last documented Games took place in 393. A few years later, a great fire devastated the sanctuary. The remaining monuments were either destroyed or transported to the capital of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople.

A series of later earthquakes buried the rest of the buildings, and the sacred Olympia was eventually covered in mud and forgotten. 1500 years later, Olympia’s ruins were discovered by German archaeologists, and with the initiative of the Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Games were revived in 1896 in Athens. The winners of these first modern Olympic Games received, in addition to a medal, a wild olive branch from Olympia.

Sources other than those mentioned in the text: Greek Wikipedia, Greek Mythology, Andreas Georgiou, Olympia-Greece

You can find more articles about ancient Greece at the Expedition here>>

The mythology developed slowly over millennia, and each story often has several versions. Greek mythology is estimated to encompass over 30,000 deities, heroes, and other mythological figures. With such enormous diversity, the subject can easily feel overwhelming. Therefore, this article series on Greek gods aims to provide an overview of the Greek divine world and its most central figures.

The Twelve Olympian Gods

When we hear the words “Greek gods,” the Olympian gods most often come to mind. They are the most powerful gods in mythology and are called Olympians because, according to tradition, they resided on Mount Olympus.

According to most sources, these twelve are considered to be: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Hestia, and Hermes. In some writings, the god Dionysus is mentioned as one of the twelve, instead of the goddess Hestia. Another of the most powerful and important gods was Hades, who, however, was not counted among the Olympians, because he did not have Olympus as his dwelling. Hades was the god of death and ruler of the underworld.

Click here for an overview table of the largest and most powerful Greek gods and their attributes.

Cosmogony

To truly understand the place of the Olympian gods in the great puzzle of Greek mythology, we must go back to the beginning of everything, to cosmogony – the origin of the cosmos, according to early ancient Greek tradition.

The Birth of the Gods

The first divine couple in Greek mythology was Uranus and Gaia. Their union created the first dynasty of gods.

The events that preceded the creation of Gaia and Uranus are not entirely clear. The most important and almost only source preserved for this first period in Greek mythology is the Theogony, a work written by Hesiod around 700 BC.

Hesiod wrote that before everything else, there was Χάος – Chaos. Within Chaos was the seed of everything that would later constitute the cosmos. Chaos gave birth to Erebus – the darkness of the underworld, Nyx – the night, and Gaia – the earth. Gaia then gave birth to Uranus, the sky, who covered her with his star-studded vault. This son became Gaia’s husband. And thus, mythology transitions into the “era of the gods”.

Interestingly, Hesiod also says that from Chaos, together with Gaia, Eros was also born – in his original form. Eros is presented here as a principle of utmost importance and unlimited power, that existed before the gods and led the elements to their unions and compositions.

Uranus and Gaia

Uranus and Gaia had many children who are usually called Ουρανίδες/Uranides. One category of Uranides is the Titans. They are twelve in number, six men and six women. Some of the Titans who will play an important role in the following dramatic events are Oceanus, Hyperion, Rhea, Metis, Iapetus, and finally Cronus, the youngest of the Uranides.

Other children of Uranus and Gaia were also the three Cyclopes, man-eating giants with only one eye on their foreheads. They were strong and skilled, but selfish and arrogant.

The Hecatoncheires – the hundred-handed ones – are also usually counted among the Uranides. They were monstrous giants of inconceivable size, with a hundred invincible arms and fifty heads growing from their shoulders.

Finally, the Giants are sometimes also called Uranides, but they were born differently, as explained below.

Uranus is Overthrown

Uranus, fearing that his children would one day overthrow him from the throne, cast his offspring down into Tartarus, in the darkest innards of the earth. Gaia was inconsolable and decided to take cruel revenge. She made a large diamond-sickle intending to mutilate her husband, with the help of her children. But none of the Uranides dared to help her in this endeavor. Only Cronus, the youngest of them all, agreed to cooperate with his mother. So one night he lay in wait when his father went to bed, and with the sickle, he cut off Uranus’s member.

From the drops of the spilled blood, the Giants, the Erinyes, and the Nymphs were born. Cronus threw the severed member into the waves of the sea. The sea kept it for a long time. One day, foam began to well up from the member, and from the foam, a new great deity was born: Aphrodite.

Cronus and Rhea

Cronus took his father’s throne and made one of his Titan sisters, Rhea, his wife. Together they had many children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and, later, Zeus. There was a prophecy that also Cronus would be toppled from his throne by one of his offspring. Therefore, Cronus swallowed his children immediately after their birth.

Rhea could not bear this situation. When she became pregnant again, she fled to Crete, gave birth to Zeus, left him there, and returned to her husband. She pretended to give birth and presented Cronus with a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. Cronus swallowed it immediately, believing he had once again defeated fate.

Zeus Overthrows His Father

Ancient authors tell us very little about how Cronus was overthrown and how Zeus when he grew up, took power. The most accepted version is that of Apollodorus of Athens, who says that Zeus received help from Metis, daughter of Oceanus. She provided Zeus with an emetic which they managed to give to Cronus, causing him to vomit up the stone first, and then the rest of his children.

But after Zeus took power, he had to, as we shall see, fight terrible battles to consolidate his rule. The older deities did not submit immediatly, and frightful, fierce clashes ensued.

Battles for the Celestial Throne

The Titan-battle

When Zeus took the throne, the Titans began to wage war against the new king. This clash is known as Τιτανομαχία/The Titanomachy and lasted for ten years. Zeus freed the Hundred-Handed Ones and the Cyclopes from Tartarus to fight on his side. This resulted in an epic battle that has been vividly described in both ancient and contemporary art. According to Hesiod, the earth shook, the waves of the sea roared, and the sky was split by lightning. The Titan War ended with Zeus’s triumph. The defeated Titans were finally imprisoned in Tartarus, in the depths of the earth.

The Battle Against the Giants

The next challenge came from the Giants, born from Uranus’s blood drops. These monstrous creatures had large beards, long hair, and legs covered with reptile scales. The battle was fought in Pallene, in western Chalkidiki. On his side, Zeus had many Greek gods and heroes, such as Athena, Hera, Heracles, and Poseidon. Zeus won by destroying an herb that would have made the Giants immortal.

The Battle Against Typhon

The last and most terrible enemy was Typhon, a monster with a hundred dragon heads and eyes that hurled flames. His head reached up to the stars, and his body was covered with feathers. In the first battle, Typhon defeats Zeus. But with the help of Hermes, he recovered and re-entered the fight. The final clash shook the cosmos to its foundations. Typhon tore up entire mountains with his enormous hands and hurled them at his opponent. Zeus responded with a rain of lightning bolts from his chariot, drawn by winged horses. The hard battle ended with Zeus burying Typhon under Mount Etna, in Sicily, where, according to tradition, he still lives and spews fire and lava.

Typhon was defeated, but his offspring remained on earth: Cerberus, Chimera, the Sphinx, the Lernaean Hydra, and others. He had these children through his union with the mother of all monsters, Echidna.

The Gods of Olympus

With Zeus established as the supreme ruler among Greek gods, the first part of our journey through Greek mythology comes to an end. We have followed the lineage of the gods from Chaos to the founding of Olympus, a story that we have seen is largely based on Hesiod’s work Theogony.

In the second part of the series, we will delve deeper into the Olympian pantheon. We will explore the roles of the Greek gods, their attributes, and the myths surrounding them. This closer examination will give us an overview and a more nuanced understanding of the Greek divine world and its significance.

As we leave the Theogony – the story of the birth of the gods – behind us, a new rich landscape of mythological personalities, legends, and traditions opens up. Their influence extends far beyond the boundaries of Olympus.

Keep an eye on our blog for part 2 of the series, Greek Gods – An Overview>>

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Table of the most powerful Greek gods

Roman Names for the Greek Gods

As Rome expanded across the ancient Hellenic world, the Romans adopted the Olympian gods and gradually renamed them with Roman equivalents. This can create some confusion. Therefore, here is an overview table of the Roman equivalents of the Greek names.

Sources

The article series Greek Gods – an overview is based on the book “Ελληνική Μυθολογία/Greek Mythology” by Andreas Georgiou, published in 1960. It was the first book on Greek mythology written directly in Modern Greek (dimotiki), which was not a translation from other languages. You can reach the author’s website here>> (in Greek).

Other sources: Swedish, Greek, English Wikipedia