Arion was an ancient Greek poet and musician. He was born at Methymna, in Lesbos, and lived about 625 BC. He lived at the court of Periander of Corinth, and afterwards visited Sicily and Italy. Returning from Tarentum to Corinth with rich treasures, the avaricious sailors resolved to murder him. Apollo, however, having informed him in a dream of the impending danger, Arion in vain endeavoured to soften the hearts of the crew by the power of his music. He then threw himself into the sea, when one of a shoal of dolphins, which had been attracted by his music, received him on his back and bore him to land. The sailors, having returned to Corinth, were confronted by Arion, and convicted of their crime. The lyre of Arion, and the dolphin which rescued him, became constellations in the heavens. A fragment of a hymn to Poseidon, ascribed to Arion, is extant. Research Arion
Demosthenes was an ancient Greek orator. He was born in 382 or 385 BC at Athens and died in 322 BC. He was the son of a sword-cutler at Athens. His father left him a considerable fortune, of which his guardians attempted to defraud him. Demosthenes, at the age of seventeen, conducted a suit against them himself, and gained his cause. He then set himself to study eloquence, and though his lungs were weak, his articulation defective, and his gestures awkward, by perseverance he at length surpassed all other orators in power and grace. He thundered against Philip of Macedon in his orations known as the Phi lippics, and endeavoured to instil into his fellow-citizens the hatred which animated his own bosom. He laboured to get all the Greeks to combine against the encroachments of Philip, but their want of patriotism and Macedonian gold frustrated his efforts.
He was present at the battle of Chaeroneia in 380 BC in which the Athenians and Boeotians were defeated by Philip, and Greek liberty crushed. On the accession of Alexander in 336 Demosthenes tried to stir up a general rising against the Macedonians, but Alexander at once adopted measures of extreme severity, and Athens sued for mercy. It was with difficulty that Demosthenes escaped being delivered up to the conqueror.
In 324 he was imprisoned on a false charge of having received a bribe from one of Alexander's generals, but managed to escape into exile. On the death of Alexander next year he was recalled, but the defeat of the Greeks by Antipater caused him to seek refuge in the temple of Poseidon, in the island of Oalauria, on the coast of Greece, where he poisoned himself to escape from the emissaries of Antipater in 322 BC.
The character of Demosthenes is by most modern scholars considered almost spotless. His fame as an orator is equal to that of Homer as a poet. Cicero pronounces him to be the most perfect of all orators. He carried Greek prose to a degree of perfection which it never before had reached. Everything in his speeches is natural, vigorous, concise, symmetrical. We have under his name sixty-one orations, some of which are not genuine. The great opponent - and indeed enemy - of Demosthenes as an orator was AEschines. Research Demosthenes
In Greek mythology, Agenor was a son of Poseidon and Libya. He became king of Phoenicia. He married Telephassa who bore him Europa, Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix. When Zeus abducted Europa, Agenor sent his sons to find her, they went accompanied by their mother and none returned. In Greek mythology Agenor was a son of Antenor. He fought in the Trojan War, and saved the Trojans by challenging the Greek champion when Achilles was about to storm the Scaean Gates. Apollo kept Agenor safe, and later assumed the shape of
Agenor to divert Achilles' attention. In Greek mythology, Agenor was a king of Pleuron, and the father of Thestius. Research Agenor
Amymone was a daughter of Danaus. She and her sisters were sent to search for water when Poseidon caused a drought in the district of Argos. Whilst searching she threw a spear at a dear, missed it and hit a satyr which pursued her. She called to Poseidon for help. He came, drove off the satyr and produced a perennial spring for her at Lerna, where he met her. Research Amymone
Antaeos was the giant, wrestling son of Poseidon and Ge. He was invincible so long as he remained in contact with the earth. Hercules killed him by picking him up so that his feet were off the ground and then stifling him. Research Antaeos
Antaeus was the giant son of Poseidon and Ge. He was invincible so long as he remained in contact with the earth. Hercules killed him by picking him up so that his feet were off the ground and then stifling him. Research Antaeus
Cepheus was the king of Aethiopia. He displeased Poseidon by having a beautiful daughter, Andromeda. Poseidon then sent floods and a sea monster to terrorise the area until Cepheus gave his daughter as a sacrifice to the sea monster. Research Cepheus
In Greek mythology, Glaucus was a sea-god, the son of Anthedon and Alcyone or else Poseidon and Nais. In Greek mythology, Glaucus was the son of Sisyphus and Merope. He owned a team of mares which he kept high spirited by depriving them of the company of stallions. When he lost the chariot-race at Pelias' funeral games the mares became so angry that they killed and ate Glaucus, whose ghost subsequently haunted the stadium of the Isthmian Games near Corinth scaring horses. In Greek mythology Glaucus was the son of Minos. As a child he fell into a jar of honey and drowned, only to be brought back to life by the seer Polyidus using a herb. In Greek mythology Glaucus was son of Hippolochus, a Lycian and together with Sarpedon, the commander of the Lycian forces allied with Priam in the Trojan War. He was killed by Aias while they were fighting over the corpse of Achilles. Research Glaucus
In Greek mythology, the Gorgons; Stheino, Buryale, and Medusa, were daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. Two of them were believed to be immortal, while the third. Medusa, the youngest and most beautiful of them, was mortal. She loved Poseidon, and having met him once in the temple of Athene, to the desecration of that building, was punished by having her beautiful hair turned into snakes, thus making her appearance more ghastly than that of her sisters. Her face was terrible to behold, turning the spectator into stone. At last Perseus, finding her asleep, cut off her head with his curved sword, and presented it to Athene, who had assisted him in the enterprise, to be worn on her aegis or shield as a terror to her enemies.
The ancient poets describe the Gorgons generally as horrid, aged women, and frequently place them by the side of the Furies. In early times there was only one Gorgon - Medusa - instead of the three of later times. The winged horse, Pegasus, was the offspring of her and Poseidon. In art Perseus is represented standing with sword in one hand and the head of Medusa in the other, turning his face away to avoid seeing it. The subject of Perseus cutting off the head of Medusa occurs in one of the earliest examples of Greek sculpture - one of the metopes of the oldest temple at Selinus, in Sicily; and from the conventional manner in which her face is represented, compared with the other parts of the sculpture, it is agreed that the type must have been familiar for some time to Greek art. To possess a representation of a Gorgon' s face was to be provided with a charm against ills, and accordingly it was frequently employed as a personal ornament. Research Gorgons
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Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Arion
