Robert Graves - The Greek Myths: Complete Edition

Robert Graves The Greek Myths

1955, revised 1960

Robert Graves was born in 1895 at Wimbledon, son of Alfred Perceval Graves, the Irish writer, and Amalia von Ranke. He went from school to the First World War, where he became a captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers. His principal calling is poetry, and his Selected Poems have been published in the Penguin Poets. Apart from a year as Professor of English Literature at Cairo University in 1926 he has since earned his living by writing, mostly historical novels which include: I, Claudius ; Claudius the God ; Sergeant Lamb of the Ninth ; Count Belisarius ; Wife to Mr Milton (all published as Penguins); Proceed, Sergeant Lamb ; The Golden Fleece ; They Hanged My Saintly Billy ; and The Isles of Unwisdom . He wrote his autobiography, Goodbye to All That (a Penguin Modem Classic), in 1929. His two most discussed non-fiction books are The White Goddess , which presents a new view of the poetic impulse, and The Nazarene Gospel Restored (with Joshua Podro), a re-examination of primitive Christianity. He has translated Apuleius, Lucan, and Svetonius for the Penguin Classics. He was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1962.

Contents

Foreword

Introduction

I. The Pelasgian Creation Myth

2. The Homeric And Orphic Creation Myths

3. The Olympian Creation Myth

4. Two Philosophical Creation Myths

5. The Five Ages Of Man

6. The Castration Of Uranus

7. The Dethronement Of Cronus

8. The Birth Of Athene

9. Zeus And Metis

10. The Fates

11. The Birth Of Aphrodite

12. Hera And Her Children

13. Zeus And Hera

14. Births Of Hermes, Apollo, Artemis, And Dionysus

15. The Birth Of Eros

16. Poseidons Nature And Deeds

17. Hermess Nature And Deeds

18. Aphrodites Nature And Deeds

19. Aress Nature And Deeds

20. Hestias Nature And Deeds

21. Apollos Nature And Deeds

22. Artemiss Nature And Deeds

23. Hephaestuss Nature And Deeds

24. Demeters Nature And Deeds

25. Athenes Nature And Deeds

26. Pans Nature And Deeds

27. Dionysuss Nature And Deeds

28. Orpheus

29. Ganymedes

30. Zagreus

31. The Gods Of The Underworld

32. Tyche And Nemesis

33. The Children Of The Sea

34. The Children Of Echidne

35. The Giants Revolt

36. Typhon

37. The Aloids

38. Deucalions Flood

39. Atlas And Prometheus

40. Eos

41. Orion

42. Helius

43. The Sons Of Hellen

44. Ion

45. Alcyone And Ceyx

46. Tereus

47. Erechtheus And Eumolpus

48. Boreas

49. Alope

50. Asclepius

51. The Oracles

52. The Alphabet

53. The Dactyls

54. The Telchines

55. The Empusae

56. Io

57. Phoroneus

58. Europe And Cadmus

59. Cadmus And Harmonia

60. Belus And The Danaids

61. Lamia

62. Leda

63. Ixion

64. Endymion

65. Pygmalion And Galatea

66. Aeacus

67. Sisyphus

68. Salmoneus And Tyro

69. Alcestis

70. Athamas

71. The Mares of Glaucus

72. Melampus

73. Perseus

74. The Rival Twins

75. Bellerophon

76. Antiope

77. Niobe

78. Caenis And Caeneus

79. Erigone

80. The Calydonian Boar

81. Telamon And Peleus

82. Aristaeus

83. Midas

84. Cleobis And Biton

85. Narcissus

86. Phyllis And Carya

87. Arion

88. Minos And His Brothers

89. The Loves Of Minos

90. The Children Of Pasipha

91. Scylla And Nisus

92. Daedalus And Talos

93. Catreus And Althaemenes

94. The Sons Of Pandion

95. The Birth Of Theseus

96. The Labours Of Theseus

97. Theseus And Medea

98. Theseus In Crete

99. The Federalization Of Attica

100. Theseus And The Amazons

101. Phaedra And Hippolytus

102. Lapiths And Centaurs

103. Theseus In Tartarus

104. The Death Of Theseus

105. Oedipus

106. The Seven Against Thebes

107. The Epigoni

108. Tantalus

109. Pelops And Oenomaus

110. The Children Of Pelops

111. Atreus And Thyestes

112. Agamemnon And Clytaemnestra

113. The Vengeance Of Orestes

114. The Trial Of Orestes

115. The Pacification Of The Erinnyes

116. Iphigeneia Among The Taurians

117. The Reign Of Orestes

118. The Birth Of Heracles

119. The Youth Of Heracles

120. The Daughters Of Thespius

121. Erginus

122. The Madness Of Heracles

123. The First Labour: The Nemean Lion

124. The Second Labour: The Lernaean Hydra

125. The Third Labour: The Ceryneian Hind

126. The Fourth Labour: The Eryminthian Boar

127. The Fifth Labour: The Stables Of Augeias

128. The Sixth Labour: The Stymphalian Birds

129. The Seventh Labour: The Cretan Bull

130. The Eighth Labour: The Mares Of Diomedes

131. The Ninth Labour: Hippolytes Girdle

132. The Tenth Labour: The Cattle Of Geryon

133. The Eleventh Labour: The Apples Of The Hesperides

134. The Twelfth Labour: The Capture Of Cerberus

135. The Murder Of Iphitus

136. Omphale

137. Hesione

138. The Conquest Of Elis

139. The Capture Of Pylus

140. The Sons Of Hippocon

141. Auge

142. Deianeira

143, Heracles In Trachis

144. Iole

145. The Apotheosis Of Heracles

146. The Children Of Heracles

147. Linus

148. The Argonauts Assemble

149. The Lemnian Women And King Cyzicus

150. Hylas, Amycus, And Phineus

151. From The Symplegades To Colchis

152. The Seizure Of The Fleece

153. The Murder Of Apsyrtus

154. The Argo Returns To Greece

155. The Death Of Pelias

156. Medea At Ephyra

157. Medea In Exile

158. The Foundation Of Troy

159. Paris And Helen

160. The First Gathering At Aulis

161. The Second Gathering At Aulis

162. Nine Years Of War

163. The Wrath Of Achilles

164. The Death Of Achilles

165. The Madness Of Ajax

166. The Oracles Of Troy

167. The Wooden Horse

168. The Sack Of Troy

169. The Returns

170. Odysseuss Wanderings

171. Odysseuss Homecoming

FOREWORD

SINCE revising The Greek Myths in 1958, I have had second thoughts about the drunken god Dionysus, about the Centaurs with their contradictory reputation for wisdom and misdemeanour, and about the nature of divine ambrosia and nectar. These subjects are closely related, because the Centaurs worshipped Dionysus, whose wild autumnal feast was called the Ambrosia. I no longer believe that when his Maenads ran raging around the countryside, tearing animals or children in pieces and boasted afterwards of travelling to India and back, they had intoxicated themselves solely on wine or ivy ale. The evidence, summarized in my What Food the Centaurs Ate (1958), suggests that Satyrs (goat-totem tribesmen), Centaurs (horse-totem tribesmen), and their Maenad womenfolk, used these brews to wash down mouthfuls of a far stronger drug: namely a raw mushroom, amanita muscaria , which induces hallucinations, senseless rioting, prophetic sight, erotic energy, and remarkable muscular strength. Some hours of this ecstasy are followed by complete inertia; a phenomenon that would account for the story of how Lycurgus, armed only with an ox-goad, routed Dionysuss drunken army of Maenads and Satyrs after its victorious return from India.

On an Etruscan mirror the amanita muscaria is engraved at Ixions feet; he was a Thessalian hero who feasted on ambrosia among the gods. Several myths are consistent with my theory that his descendants, the Centaurs, ate this mushroom; and, according to some historians, it was later employed by the Norse berserks to give them reckless power in battle. I now believe that ambrosia and nectar were intoxicant mushrooms: certainly the amanita muscaria ; but perhaps others, too, especially a small, slender dung-mushroom named panaeolus papilionaceus , which induces harmless and most enjoyable hallucinations. A mushroom not unlike it appears on an Attic vase between the hooves of Nessus the Centaur. The gods for whom, in the myths, ambrosia and nectar were reserved, will have been sacred queens and kings of the pre-Classical era. King Tantaluss crime was that he broke the taboo by inviting commoners to share his ambrosia.