Tales of the Greek Heroes

Zeus summons Prometheus, a good Titan, and commands him to create humanity. He decrees that people should learn how to honor the gods and that after death, they will be under Hades’s care. Prometheus shapes humans from clay. Zeus tells him to teach people how to live but forbids him from giving them fire, warning that Prometheus will face severe punishment if he does.

Meanwhile, Zeus dwells in Arcadia with Maia, a nymph, and they welcome a son named Hermes. The other gods remain unaware of this until Apollo finds young Hermes. After Apollo’s cattle disappear, he sends Silenus, leader of the Satyrs (creatures that are half-human, half-goat), to retrieve them. Silenus and his Satyrs explore Arcadia’s valleys, guided by the sound of a lyre to a cave. There, they meet the mountain-nymph Cyllene, Maia, and Hermes, whom Silenus accuses of stealing Apollo’s cattle.

Apollo follows the Satyrs but finds the cattle first. Furious about the missing two, he arrives at Maia’s cave. Hermes reveals that he’s Apollo’s brother, but Apollo is still enraged and in disbelief. When Hermes begins playing the lyre, Apollo envies the music, wanting the lyre himself. He asks Hermes for the instrument, claiming that he will be the god of music and the Muses, with Hermes as the god’s messenger. Zeus confirms Apollo’s words. Apollo then goes to Parnassus, where Delphi, his famous temple, stands, and where a priestess gives prophecies. Hermes grows into a man and falls in love with Dryope, a nymph. They have a son named Pan.

Meanwhile, Zeus discovers that Prometheus has defied him and given fire to humans.

Following the creation of humans, Prometheus teaches them “the arts and crafts of life” (31). He also teaches them language and speech. However, the lack of fire impedes their progress. Prometheus calls his brother, Epimetheus, asking for his help in bringing fire to the people. Because he loves humans, Prometheus is determined to endure Zeus’s rage. He sets out for Olympus, leaving Epimetheus as the people’s protector.

In Olympus, Prometheus meets Athena, the goddess of wisdom, who aids him in his efforts with humans. Athena, born from Zeus’s head, is as wise and gentle as she is fierce. She decides to help Prometheus and leads him to Olympus’s summit to gather a spark from the golden wheel of Helios’s chariot. Prometheus then quickly descends to Arcadia and soon lights some wood.

Prometheus teaches humans to use fire, leading to cultural development in Greece. Zeus, furious, summons Prometheus, who argues that fire can’t be taken away from humanity since an immortal gave it. He also warns Zeus not to destroy humans, because Zeus’s son, born of a mortal, will one day aid him in future wars with the giants. Finally, he predicts that Zeus will fall like his father, Cronos. Zeus, enraged, orders Hephaestus to chain Prometheus on Mount Caucasus. While being chained, Prometheus warns that Zeus can still change his fate if he heeds Prometheus’s advice. Hermes later offers Prometheus freedom in exchange for revealing what Zeus might do, but Prometheus refuses to answer.

Zeus visits the humans in disguise, looking for a way to punish them. He soon creates the first woman: Pandora. After the gods shape her, she is sent to Epimetheus, who falls in love with her. The couple marries and has a daughter named Pyrrha. However, Pandora soon causes trouble for humanity. She disobeys Epimetheus and opens the golden box that Prometheus left for his brother, which contained all kinds of evils, which now escape and afflict people. However, Prometheus placed Hope among all the ills to lessen people’s suffering, and it too goes out into the world.

While Zeus is at first pleased with the world, Pandora’s act causes suffering among the people, troubling Greece. Zeus begins to notice a lot of “wickedness” and wonders if he should create a new race of humans. He calls Hermes and tells him to transform into a poor wanderer to see how humans treat him. Hermes suggests that if just two people show kindness and virtue, Zeus should permit humankind as a whole to live. However, he should still destroy the wicked.

Zeus and Hermes travel to Arcadia, where Lycaon, a cruel ruler, rules. He and his 50 sons are cannibals. When the two immortals arrive at his palace, Lycaon welcomes them, probably thinking that young Hermes might serve as a “feast.” However, when his son Nyctimus objects to this idea, Lycaon kills Nyctimus. Zeus becomes furious and reveals himself. He banishes Lycaon and his other sons into the wilderness and brings Nyctimus back to life.

Zeus and Hermes then arrive in Phrygia and find a poor elderly couple, Philemon and Baucis, in a small cottage. The couple hosts them with a generous meal. When Philemon sees that their cups refill with wine, he realizes that they are gods and bows. Zeus, grateful, turns their home into a temple. The couple wishes to serve Zeus as priest and priestess, and Zeus grants this, promising them that when the time comes for them to die, he will transform them into trees beside his temple.

Zeus and Hermes continue their journey, making one final visit before they decide the future of humankind. They meet Deucalion, king of Thessaly, and his wife, Pyrrha. Seeing that the king and queen are pious, Zeus sends a flood to cleanse the earth but instructs Deucalion to build a boat and save his family. After the flood, their boat arrives at Delphi, where Apollo tells them to cast stones behind them, from which new men and women will be born.

A new age begins for the people of Greece, which Zeus declares “the Age of the Heroes” (54). Still fearing the attack Prometheus warned of, Zeus hopes a hero will be born to help him. However, he makes a mistake while calling the animals to repopulate the world, as the Earth also creates the giants and a terrible monster called Typhon.

As the terrifying Typhon grows stronger, he travels from Asia Minor, where he was born, to mainland Greece. There, he heads directly to Olympus to destroy the gods. Many escape, but Zeus stays behind to confront the monster in a fierce battle. While Zeus wounds Typhon, the creature manages to cut off his immortal sinews; Zeus falls and cannot move.

Typhon escapes to Thrace in northern Greece and hides Zeus’s sinews there. Hermes and Pan find Zeus powerless and come up with a plan when Zeus remembers that Prince Cadmus is in Thrace. Hermes and Pan meet Cadmus, disguise him as a shepherd, and send him to Typhon. When Cadmus plays Pan’s pipes, the music enchants Typhon. Cadmus claims that the lyre’s music is even better but says that he needs sinews for strings. Typhon therefore gives Zeus’s sinews to Cadmus and falls asleep to his music.

Cadmus restores the sinews, and Hermes and Pan revive Zeus, who chases after Typhon, striking him with a thunderbolt and causing him to flee to Sicily. As a result, the monster is forever imprisoned in Mount Etna.

Zeus then tells Cadmus to establish his own kingdom and leads him to the island of Samothrace. There stands a palace that Hephaestus has built; it is where Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, lives. Cadmus and Harmonia fall in love. Soon, Hermes instructs them to set sail, as Apollo’s oracle will lead them to the place where Cadmus should reign.

The pair sails toward Corinth. Once there, Apollo instructs Cadmus to follow a cow until it stops to rest; there, Cadmus must build a city of seven gates, naming it Thebes. After building his palace, Cadmus marries Harmonia, and all the immortals attend their wedding feast. Cadmus and Harmonia die together and are placed by Zeus in the Elysian Fields, along with others chosen for eternal bliss.