It's not hard to see why Zeus was such a popular god with the ancient Greeks. He not only wielded a thunderbolt, but he also got into all sorts of trouble, including liaisons with humans and goddesses - much to the annoyance of his wife, Hera.Greek gods were figures people could relate to, said archaeologist David Romano of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. And worshiping Zeus apparently involved some serious partying. Working at the remote Mount Lykaion in Greece, Romano has found"evidence of a drinking party and possibly feasting" around a famous altar built on the 4,500-foot peak.
These relics go back 3,200 years, about the time the earliest stone tablets started to refer to Zeus as the godfather of the gods."What's new is this mountaintop altar had cult activity that's continuous from the Mycenaean to the Hellenistic periods," Romano said, meaning between the 14th and second centuries B.C. At various depths, he and colleagues have unearthed silver coins and other Zeus icons, including a tiny bronze hand with a silver lightning bolt.
Romano will speak on his latest finds tomorrow at 6 p.m. at the Penn Museum.
Mount Lykaion is mentioned
in myth as the birthplace of Zeus,Romano said, and it appears no one
lived on the desolate peak, though the view is spectacular. For
hundreds of years, people apparently hiked there for religious
ceremonies and feasts.
Last year, Romano announced
that the site contained primitive pottery shards that go back to the
end of the Neolithic or New Stone Age period, more than 5,000 years
ago, before the first Greek-speaking people arrived. He suspects this
material stems from some sort of religious or cult activity. But no one
knows if the deity before Zeus was a party animal, too.
Apollo drew his bow and fired arrow after arrow into the deadly pythondragon guarding the sacred ground of Ge, the goddess of the earth. With his victory, Apollo gained the right to call the slopes of Delphi his earthly sanctuary. It is a beautiful myth. Out of it grew the story of the Oracle of Delphi, a soothsayer who inhaled the breath of Apollo. The Pythia, the priestess who sat on a tripod inhaling fumes from the bowels of the earth, went into trances and muttered incomprehensible phrases, ...Legend of Perseus
By
Farid Alakbarli
Legends about the Amazons - a
warlike tribe of women warriors - have existed in various cultures throughout
the world. Not many people realize, however, that Amazons are closely associated
with Azerbaijan. Yes, ancient Greeks believed that Caucasian Albania was the
native land of the Amazons. Perhaps, much of what has been written about Amazons
is only a legend; however, it is true that many Albanian women really did serve
in the armies of Caucasian Albania wh...Ancient Greek Religion, Gods, & Oracles
Archaeologists have discovered the place where Aeneas is believed to have first set foot in Italy. It is the closest point on the Italian peninsula to Albania and, until efforts by the coastguard some years ago, was the destination of choice for Albanians fleeing poverty for the glamour and prosperity of their wealthy neighbour. But suddenly, the little town of Castro in the province of Lecce has something much more exciting to shout about. Archaeologists at the University of Lecce have discover...Pandoras Box
At first the life of man on earth was happier
than it is now, and then miseries and discontents gradually crept in. Prometheus
and Epimetheus created men only, not women.
When Zeus was angry with mankind, he devised
the worst punishment he could think of, and invented Woman. Hephaestus, the
smith of the gods, was instructed to form her from the earth and make her
irresistibly beautiful. Each of the gods gave her his own special gift of skill,
and from this she was called Pandora, ...Ancient Greek Gods
...In the
beginning, Hesiod says, there was Chaos, vast and dark. Then appeared Gaea,
the dep-breasted earth, and finally Eros, ' the love which softens hearts ',
whose fructifying influence would thenceforth preside over the formation of
beings anthings. . From Chaos were born Erebus and Night who, uniting, gave
birth in their turn to Ether and Hemera, the day. On her part Gaea first
bore Uranus, the sky crowned with stars, ' whom she made her equal in
...Evidence of pre-Zeus deity found
Submitted by Da Verminator: Before Zeus hurled his first thunderbolt from Olympus, the pre-Greek people occupying the land presumably paid homage and offered sacrifices to their own gods and goddesses, whose nature and identities are unknown to scholars today. But archaeologists say they have now found the ashes, bones and other evidence of animal sacrifices to some pre-Zeus deity on the summit of Mount Lykaion, in the region of Greece known as Arcadia. The remains were uncovered last summer at ...
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Scienctists turns to Greek mythology
Legend of Perseus
Oriclae of Delphi
Legend of Hercules
Amazons - The Mythical Race of Warrior Women
Ancient Greek Religion, Gods, & Oracles
Following in the steps of a Trojan hero
Pandoras Box
Ancient Greek Gods
Evidence of pre-Zeus deity found
