Iris, Zephyros and Eros: A Genealogy of Winged Beings and Winds

2019

they would be invaluable allies for Zeus in the struggle against the Titans. Since they were sent down to Tartaros afterwards to act as guards to the defeated Titans, they make no further appearance in myth, at least as a group. One of the brothers, BRIAREOS (the Mighty One, also called Ombriareos), has independent stories nonetheless which are set during the period of Olympian rule. He is marked out from his brothers even in the Theogony, for it is stated there that Poseidon made him his son-in-law at some point after the fall of the Titans by offering him his daughter Kymopoleia (Wavewalker, otherwise unknown) as a wife. 14 The Iliad reports that he was once summoned to Olympos by Thetis to save Zeus from a threatened revolt by Hera, Poseidon and Athena 15 (see p. 82); since Thetis was a seanymph, this would suggest that he lived in the sea, as might also be inferred from his relationship with Poseidon in the Theogony. Homer also remarks that he was called Briareos by the gods but was known to mortals as Aigaion. 16 In the Titanomachy, an early epic now lost, Aigaion was apparently described as a son of Gaia and Pontos (Sea) who lived in the sea and fought as an ally of the Titans. 17 If this Aigaion can be identified with Briareos, as seems likely, this account of him clearly differed in crucial respects from that in the Theogony. A Corinthian tradition suggested that Briareos had acted as arbitrator when Helios and Poseidon had competed for possession of the land in early times (see p. 103). 18 He was honoured in cult on Euboea under two different names, as Briareos at Karystos and as Aigaion at Chalkis. 19 All in all, he is a most intriguing figure, and one would like to know more of him than can be gathered from these surviving scraps.

Erôs in Ancient Greece (eds. Ed Sanders, Chiara Thumiger, Chris Carey & Nick Lowe), 2013

What is erôs?' One might wonder whether this question is still in need of being addressed, with several studies on the topic available, and more generally with the degree of scholarly attention that Greek erôs (the emotion) and Eros (the god) have attracted in the past. The present collection, which arose out of a conference on 'Erôs in ancient Greece' (University College London, March 2009), 1 aims to contribute to this strand of research by offering an altogether new approach: a keen focus on the ancient emotion, as opposed to the mythological or philological item. Eros (the god) and erôs (the emotion), as we are well aware, cannot be simplistically isolated from one another: as the internal organization of the volume will show, the mythological, literary, and visual representations are the very flesh and bones of the emotion we set out to explore. The primary aim of these essays, however, is to analyse and problematize the ancient emotion of which the literary (and occasionally figurative) representation is a medium, mindful of the theoretical challenges and caveats that such enterprises notoriously entail. In order to do this, we have succeeded in covering very broad ranges of sources and theoretical approaches, both in the chronological and the generic sense, but firmly located in the context of ancient Greek culture. All important thinking about the nature of erôs across the entire span from Hesiod to the Second Sophistic is considered, including the input offered by figurative arts; in this sense, this volume is surely an unprecedented contribution. 2 Scholarship on erôs has burgeoned in the last few decades. It is useful to offer a panoramic view of this large corpus of material, which can generally be divided into the categories below. This is a working division, of courseboundaries are often crossed, and interconnections are essential:

It is well known that the pre-Hellenic, Minoan civilization was characterized by matriarchy, an obvious trait in the religious field as well, represented by a pantheon governed by a Magna Mater. The male deities were not missing, but they were usually inferior to the female ones, playing rather the part of a drone in a hive, by the almighty queen. One of these male deities, perhaps the most prominent one, was the one that the Greeks would name Zeus the Cretan (Velchanos, by his autochthonous name), whose worship has left important traces in Crete, the cradle of the Minoan civilization. Far from being the thunderous Zeus of the Greeks, Velchanos was represented as a fragile adolescent, seated between the branches of a willow and holding a cock in his hand, image a long while maintained on the coins. The intention of our paper is to highlight the characteristics of this deity, the simbolistics of the objects which define him and the domain he was patronizing, as well as the way Velchanos becomes Vulcan, the patron of fire and thus of handicrafts, once he penetrates the Roman pantheon. Over the last few years, our interest and research has been focusing on the pre-hellenic mythology and religion (deities, rites, places of worship, customs, etc.), insofar as they can be guessed from a few literary testimonies that have come to our hands or from certain objects which are the result of excavations. This is a paper in which comparative mythology needs to rely on graphic representations: mural or ceramic paintings, figurines or other tridimensional objects, which come from or bring evidence of the Minoan Age, as late relics of this era, which preceded and significantly influenced classical Greek mythology and religion. We have payed additional attention to masculine gods, more interesting and not so well outlined within a matriarchal civilization. We have already dealt with Hephaistos, with Dionysos, with Hermes, whose names are written on the Linear B tablets 1. We

(actes de RICAN 5, colloque de Rethymnon), Ancient Novel Suppl. 17, Michael Paschalis and Stelios Panayotakis eds, p. 127-145.

Natur-Mythos-Religion im antiken Griechenland. Nature-Myth-Religion in Ancient Greece, 2019

This essay examines evidence for the nature of the winds and for the relations between winds and mortals in Ancient Greek culture. In T. Scheer, ed. Natur-Mythos-Religion im antiken Griechenland. Nature-Myth-Religion in Ancient Greece, 113-132. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2019.

Mythologically, wings and flying are Godly, divine endowments and have particular importance in ancient Iran. They symbolize speed, strength, and protection and may refer to the life of souls in the world after death. This study attempts to appreciate the significance of these two issues via exploring a mythic source, the Yašts (Yts). The Yts, a part of later Avesta, are hymns in praise of the gods of ancient Iran such as flying Tištar. According to a thorough study of the Avesta, Yts are proved to be crucially important due to the insightful information they carry about the concept of wings and flying, winged creatures, and changing into a bird to gain flying power. Regarding the frequent mentions of the wings and flying in different sections of the Yts, the purpose and the interpretation of wings and flying will become partly evident.

This series provides sophisticated and authoritative overviews of periods of ancient history, genres of classical literature, and the most important themes in ancient culture. Each volume comprises between twentyfive and forty concise essays written by individual scholars within their area of specialization. The essays are written in a clear, provocative, and lively manner, designed for an international audience of scholars, students, and general readers.

Note that a completely updated version of this article has now been published in J.N. Bremmer, The World of Greek Religion and Mythology (Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2019) 511-531.