Liliana Mongelli Essays - Greek Mythology, Mythology, Fiction

Liliana Mongelli Professor Kenner Writing through Literature 13 December 2017 In Greek mythology there is no god who is more powerful than Zeus. He is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea, ruler of the Titans. Cronus was told that one of his children would overthrow him, taking control of his kingdom. To be sure this would not happen, Cronus swallowed his first five children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Rhea could not bear to see another one of her children, devoured so she replaced Zeus with a rock wrapped in swaddling. Cronus, thinking he ate Zeus, left Rhea time to leave Zeus in a cave where he was raised by a divine goat, Amaltheia. After Zeus was grown he went back to Cronus with the help of Gaia and Metis, who made an elixir to cause Cronus to vomit his brothers and sisters. Zeus then led the fights against the Titan dynasty. Afterwards they banished the Titans to Tartarus, the lowest place on earth, even lower than the underworld. Zeus and his brothers then drew straws to find who would rule where. Zeus had rule of the sky, Po seidon ruled the seas, and Hades ruled the underw orld. Zeus is the god of law, justice, morals, thunder, lightning, and rain. It was his job to oversee and make sure laws were being kept. He was worshipped originally as a weather god. He was a middle-aged man with a youthful appearance . Like Zeus, Odin is the god of storms and lightning (less so than Thor his son), but in addition has a rather extensive list of attributes to him. He is also the god wisdom, magic, learning, He is generally depicted as an older man with a full beards and long hair, in addition he is general depicted as missing one of his eyes. Odin carries a spear named Gungnir, which cannot miss it's target, this is a parallel to Zeus's lightning bolt. Odin is the son of Bor, son of Buri, who was born from a cow on back of Ymir's the Titan. Like Zeus, Odin is the direct descendant of the Titans, and when Ymir eventually turned evil, Odin and his two brothers killed Ymir in order to create the world o f man and gods alike. Following the creation of the world, the three brothers created human man from drift wood on the shore. A contrast between the Greek and Norse gods is that the Norse gods were smart and had mortal limitations when it came to wisdom. Odin took the limitations and found ways using his might and wit to overcome them and become the most powerful of the Norse gods. In order to achieve more wisdom, Odin sought out the well of Mimir beneath the world tree Yggdrasil and as a sacrifice to the all knowing Mimir he had to cut out his own eye. Odin ha d qualities, like Zeus's ability to shape shift into animal forms, he is capable of commanding animals. Odin has two ravens who are his eyes and ears on the mortal realm, named Hugin and Munin , thought and desire respectively.