Reflect

Through my blog posts about the Twelve Olympian Gods, I have learned a lot about many of them. I’ve learned that for each god there are many different stories told about them. I’ve also learned how people in the ancient world worshipped these gods and how they believed in them. At the Metropolitan Museum of Art I learned much about the god Zeus and how he was portrayed to humans in the ancient world.
My expectations at first for this blog assignment were to just learn a few things about the gods. Then when I read into the background of each god, I was then surprised about the stories that were behind these gods and how they all tie up to each other. Honestly after reading all these stories about the gods and everything, it just made me think of how gullible and wrong these people in the ancient world were of believing in these gods. Spending their whole life worshiping these gods that are not even real just stunned me.
After having done my blog on the gods, the word “classical” for me basically means ancient. Artifacts or stories dating back to 1,000 years and beyond all seem classical to me. It seems classical to me because that was the ancient world back then.
If I had unlimited resources and time to do more information on my topic then I would probably visit Greece. I would visit Greece because that’s where these gods were worshiped and there would be a lot of information there. I would want to visit the Coliseum and the Parthenon because those were temples for the gods and there would be a lot of information on them.
I do believe that this assignment did enhance my experience in the Classical World because it taught me about the Twelve Olympian Gods that were worshiped in the Classical World. I thought that the blogging experience helped me a lot in learning because it was much more fun than just writing a research paper. Having to do a blog made it more exciting and caught my attention more. The most valuable lesson that I learned from this blogging experience is that I learned a lot about the Twelve Olympian Gods. It also taught me how to blog things which I can defiantly use in other classes in high school or in college.

Zeus artifact

The artifact that I chose at the museum is a sculpture of Zeus’s head. Zeus is seen with a wavy beard and a wavy head hair. It seems that a piece of his nose and beard is missing probably being of misuse or old age. The age of this statue is either third or second century B.C. Also its civilization is Greek, Hellenistic. The artist is unknown but was just a statue to how Zeus was portrayed. There is also some brown spots on the statue which could be from old age as well.

You can tell that this is a classic piece of art because you can tell on the statue that the artist used chipping tools to create it and it shows how people in that time period portrayed Zeus. People today still make statues or drawings of Zeus that all look similar to this statue. We took their ideas of what Zeus looked like. Also many artists today use the same types of methods to making statues as this artist did to make this statue.

At the Metropolitan Museum, the statue of Zeus that I chose was lined up with many other statues of people. They had statues of Aristotle and Socrates right beside the statue of Zeus. Statues of Poseidon and Athena were also next to the statue of Zeus. I saw that Zeus and Poseidon were portrayed very similar and almost looked the same. I can tell that the museum has tried to show different views on what people back then looked like. For example, I saw two statues of Aristotle that had many differences between them. The artifacts that are being portrayed help me know that its whatever the statues of Zeus may have many other different looks to it.

Some things that I learned after the trip to the museum that I didn’t know before was that many of the statues of the gods who were guys were not that different. For example, Zeus and Poseidon looked very similar by the statues. I also learned that the artifacts in each section were very similar to one another.

Some preconceptions that were confirmed by my visit were that the statues of all the gods were all similar. Since know one has really seen them, I thought that many of the gods looked very similar in the face. After looking at the statues it confirmed it. Some preconceptions that changed were that I thought that the statues were in good condition but actually many of them had pieces missing and many had brown spots.

Zeus, Father of the Gods

Zeus is the god of sky and thunder. He is also known to be the father of gods and men, including some of the 12 Olympian gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty. Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera. He has many children including Athena, Apollo, Aphrodite, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses; by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

Cronus and Rhea was Zeus father. Coronus heard from Gaia and Uranus that he destined to be overthrown by his own son. When Coronus heard this, every time he had a child he swallowed them. So Coronus swallowed Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. Rhea, Zeus mother, didn’t want Cronus swallowing her children anymore so when Zeus was ready about to be born, her and Gaia devised a plan to trick Cronus. When Rhea gave birth to Zeus, Rhea hid Zeus and gave Coronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed. Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete and rose up to manhood. After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. As a token of their appreciation, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.

Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes defeated the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the titans that fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky. After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, and gave them jobs. Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon got the waters, and Hades got the world of the dead, the underworld.

Aphrodite- god of beauty

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and sexuality. Apparently she was born when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea and from the sea foam a rose Aphrodite. Because of her beauty other gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war and so Zeus married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers, like Ares and Adonis. Aphrodite was associated with, and often depicted with, the sea, dolphins, doves, swans, pomegranates, scepters, apples, myrtle, rose trees, lime trees, clams, scallop shells, and pearls. She was also called Kypris or Cytherea after her birth-places in Cyprus and Cythera, respectively, both centers of her cult. Some of her sons are Eros, Anteros, Hymenaios and Aeneasand in every sculpture or image she is an adult and apparently was born as an adult. Although she is one of the few gods that is married, she is frequently unfaithful to her husband. She is also so fixed on herself and not others as well as easily offended.

She also had a major part in the cause of the Trojan War. She offered Helen of Troy to Paris and the abduction was accomplished when Paris, seeing Helen for the first time, was inflamed with desire to have her, cause by Aphrodite. She caused the war between Greece and Troy which eventually led to the fall of Troy.

Her festival is the Aphrodisiac which was celebrated in various centers of Greece and especially in Athens and Corinth. Her priestesses were not prostitutes but women who represented the goddess and sexual intercourse with them was considered just one of the methods of worship. Aphrodite was originally an old-Asian goddess, similar to the Mesopotamian Ishtar and the Syro-Palestinian goddess. Aphrodite was one of the most unique of the Greek deities in the freedom of her sexual life. Aphrodite's charms came from her magic cestus, an embroidered girdle that, in both gods and men, aroused passion for the wearer. So great were Aphrodite's seductive abilities that every god, including the great Zeus, desired her as his wife. However, Aphrodite was too proud for any of her suitors and rejected them all. As a punishment, Zeus made her the wife of Hephaestus, the homely and lame smith-god. This union did nothing to curb Aphrodite's actions, and she discouraged Hephaestus from sharing her bed in addition to being unfaithful to him.

Aphrodite was often pictured sitting or riding on a variety of animals, particularly birds such as swans or geese. This association with the sky reinforces the existence of Aphrodite Urania, the heavenly goddess who also portrayed animals. In addition, such images also support Aphrodite as the Queen of Heaven, with an important place in the natural world. This also portrays that Aphrodite is a very powerful and important god.

Ares the god of war

Ares is the god of war, and a member of the Twelve Olympians, a son of Zeus and Hera, in Greek mythology. Though often referred to as the Olympian god of warfare, he is more accurately the god of blood thirst, or slaughter personified. Ares is apparently an ancient abstract noun meaning throng of battle, war. He also presides over the weapons of war, the defense and sacking of cities, rebellion and civil order, banditry, manliness and courage.Ares was the great Olympian god of war, battle lust, civil order and manly courage. In Greek art he was depicted as either a mature, bearded warrior dressed in battle arms, or a nude beardless youth with helm and spear. Because of his lack of distinctive attributes he is often difficult to identify in classical art.