This week Zeus was the main focus of our studies, so I have decided to explore his relationship to Hermes and what this may have meant to the ancient Greeks, as a father/son relationship. It is originally a complicated relationship with Zeus not recognising Hermes as his son, possibly because of mother Maia and not being of legitimate birth. As already previously discussed in blog week two, Hermes goes on a mission to be recognised legitimately as Zeus’s son by, bettering his half brother Apollo, and he is then legitimised by Zeus. This shows that it must be the father that recognises his offspring as legitimate, no one else. Firstly before I give two more examples of Zeus’ divine legitimizing, it is important, I feel, to note that Greek mythology, especially the Homeric Hymns, seem to have no real chronological order. In Apollo’s Homeric hymn he already has the lyre, though in Hermes he gives the lyre to Apollo in trade for the cattle whip. Due to different authorship and no centralised power, like the Catholic Church has in the Vatican, it seems that the Greeks ran riot with their mythology.
As Apollo has already been mentioned I will start with him. After Zeus impregnates Leto with both Artemis and Apollo, Hera interferes with the birth, terrorizing the world that there is nowhere for Leto to give birth. It is only after Athena’s timely intervention that Hera allows Eileithyia, the Olympian midwife, to leave Olympus and see to the safe delivery of the children (Harris & Platzner 2008: 244). Graf says that Apollo was so obviously Zeus’ favourite son that Leto even eclipsed his legitimate wife. Furthermore Leto stays calm when Apollo arrives and, takes his weapons; only then does Zeus offer him a drink in a golden cup (Graf 2009: 27). This shows that Zeus always intended for Apollo to be legitimised, he was too powerful to not be; having killed a huge female snake at Delphi, bringing in parallels with Zeus’ own struggle with Typhon, who nearly overthrew him (Graf 2009: 30-31).
The second example is that of the god Dionysus. He has a very engaging opening, where Hera manages to trick his mother, Semele, getting Zeus to appear to her in his purest and most powerful form; the lightning bolt. Dionysus is then sewn into Zeus’ thigh and becomes “twice born”. From here his first enemy becomes Hera who punished anyone that tries to help him. Hermes is then called upon by Zeus to take him away to Semele’s sister, Ino and her husband King Athamas. Hera finds the infant Dionysus though and drives his protectors mad, he is then saved by Zeus himself who turns him into a goat and transports him far away (Harris & Platzner 2008: 273). This again shows another example of Zeus legitimising his children against the will of his wife Hera. More interestingly though it has also shown that only Hermes had to convince Zeus of his worth before being accepted into the Pantheon.
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| This picture is of Apollo when he confronts Hermes in Maia's cave |
Bibliography
Apollodorus, ‘Library of Greek Mythology’, Trans, Hard, R, Oxford University, 1997
Hesiod, ‘Theogony’, trans, West, M, Oxford University, 2008
Graf, F, ‘Apollo’, Routledge, 2009
Harris, S & Platzner, G, ‘Classical Mythology: Images & Insights’, McGraw-Hill, 2008
Price, S & Kearns, E, ‘Oxford Dictionary of Classical Myth & Religion’, Oxford University, 2004
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