Apollo raped Creusa, a young princess of Athens, who gave birth to Ion in secret and in shame and fear exposed the infant to die. Apollo arranged to have the baby brought to his temple in Delphi and raised by his priestess. Creusa, now married to Xuthus but remained childless, came to Delphi with her husband to inquire of the oracle. While writing an intriguing story of love, abandonment, treachery, […]
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“Helen” by Euripides
The Real Cause of the Trojan War Hera, indignant at not defeating the goddesses, made an airy nothing of Helen’s marriage with Paris; she gave to the son of King Priam not Helen, but an image, alive and breathing, that she fashioned out of the sky and made to look like Helen; and Paris thinks he has Helen—an idle fancy, for he doesn’t have her. And in turn the plans […]
Read more“Brutus, Orator” by Cicero
“As reason is the glory of man, so the lamp of reason is eloquence.” The Origin and History of Oratory In “Brutus“, Cicero traces the origin and history of oratory in ancient Greece and Rome, and provides a concise and astute critique of various classes of individual orators, ranking their achievements in the five components of rhetoric (invention, arrangement, diction/expression, action/delivery and memory). Demosthenes is considered the greatest among the […]
Read more“Homeric Hymns” by Anonymous
The Art of the Lyre “Whoso with wit and wisdom enquires of it cunningly, him it teaches through its sound all manner of things that delight the mind, being easily played with gentle familiarities, for it abhors toilsome drudgery; but whoso in ignorance enquires of it violently, to him it chatters mere vanity and foolishness.” The Contest of Homer and Hesiod Hesiod: ‘Homer, son of Meles, if indeed the Muses, […]
Read more“Theogony” by Hesiod
The War of the Titans Hesiod wrote that the war between the Titans from Mount Othrys and the Olympians lasted for ten years, but he didn’t give an explanation of the cause or effect of the war, except that the Olympians defeated the Titans and became sovereign rulers of the world. “The life-giving earth crashed around in burning, and the vast wood crackled loud with fire all about. All the […]
Read more“Works and Days” by Hesiod
The Origin of Pandora Prometheus stole fire for men from Zeus in a hollow fennel-stalk, and Zeus in anger gave men as the price for fire “an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction”. Zeus sent “the gift” to Prometheus’ scatter-brained brother Epimetheus, who took it despite Prometheus’ bidding to never take a gift of Zeus, and evil came upon […]
Read more“The Shield of Heracles” by Hesiod
The Birth of Heracles But the father of men and gods was forming another scheme in his heart, to beget one to defend against destruction gods and men who eat bread. So he arose from Olympus by night pondering guile in the deep of his heart, and yearned for the love of the well-girded woman….So in one night Zeus shared the bed and love of the neat-ankled daughter of Electyron […]
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