Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
band, Hephaestus, she and her cherubic son Eros (Cupid) were enflaming hearts and
causing trouble (cue the Trojan War).
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Apollo
God of music, the arts and fortune-telling, Apollo was also the god of light and
an expert shot with a bow and arrow. It was his steady hand which guided Paris' arrow to-
wards Achilles' only weak spot - his heel - thus killing him.
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Artemis (Diana)
The goddess of the hunt and twin sister of Apollo was, ironically, pat-
ron saint of wild animals. By turns spiteful and magnanimous, she was closely associated
with the sinister Hecate, patroness of witchcraft.
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Ares (Mars)
God of war. Zeus' least favourite of his progeny. Not surprisingly, Ares was
worshipped by the bellicose Spartans and may today have felt at home among soccer
hooligans.
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Hermes (Mercury)
Messenger of the gods, patron saint of travellers, the handsome one
with a winged hat and sandals. He was always on hand to smooth over the affairs of
Zeus, his father.
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Hephaestus (Vulcan)
God of craftsmanship, metallurgy and fire, this deformed and oft
derided son of Zeus made the world's first woman of clay, Pandora, as a punishment for
man. Inside that box of hers were the evils of mankind.
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Hestia (Vesta)
Goddess of the hearth, she protected state fires in city halls from where
citizens of Greece could light their brands. She remained unmarried, inviolate.
TOP FIVE MYTHICAL CREATURES
MMedus
dusaShe of the bad hair day, punished by the gods for her inflated vanity. Even
dead, her blood is lethal.
Cyclo
clopsA one-eyed giant. Odysseus and his crew were trapped in the cave of one
such cyclops, Polyphemus.
CerrberruusThe three-headed dog of hell, he guards the entrance to the underworld
- under his watch no one gets in or out.
Min
MinottauurThis half-man-half-bull mutant leads a life of existential angst in the
abysmal labyrinth, tempered only by the occasional morsel of human flesh.
HHyddraCut one of its nine heads off and another two will grow in its place. Heracles
solved the problem by cauterising each stump with his burning brand.
