INCIDENT 12: The Twins-- Apollo and Artemis

Zeus and the goddess Leto, daughter of Titans Coeus and Phoebe, bore two children who would rise up to take a place in the Olympic pantheon. The twins were named Apollo and Artemis, and their arrival in the world was not so simple.

Hera, wife of Zeus, was insanely jealous of Leto and sought to prevent the birth of Leto's two children. She antagonized Leto and sent a serpent to terrorize the goddess and stop her from finding a place to bear her children. It was the goddess Asteria who offered refuge to her sister on the island of Ortygia and there that Leto bore Artemis and Apollo.

Artermis was born first and immediately set about assisting her mother through the nine days of labor she endured to deliver her son Apollo. Leto's aunt, Themis, acted as caretaker to the twins, feeding them ambrosia and nectar, the food of the gods.

Apollo and Artemis loved their mother deeply and protected the safety and honor of their mother. On tale of Greek mythology tells how Artemis and Apollo prevented Leto from being raped by Titus in the grove of Delphi. Called by their mother, they attached the giant Titus with their arrows which rained down upon him and killed him in an instant. Zeus was outraged by Titus' actions and consigned him to Hades.

Another myth tells the story of how Artemis and Apollo killed all of the goddess Niobe's children when she boasted of her own children's superior beauty, insulting Leto. Though it's unclear if this was a defense of their mother or motivated by their own outrage.

At a young age, Artemis was told by Zeus to name the gifts that she desired. Artemis chose a bow and arrow, free reign of the mountains, a city to dwell in and eternal virginity. Zeus granted all these wishes. Artemis would come to be viewed as the virgin goddess of the hunt and wildlife. She was also seen as a protector figure of women in childbirth.

Apollo would become the god of archery, healing, music and youth. Greek mythology tells how Apollo took up the bow created for him by Hephaestus and pursued the serpent into Delphi where he killed it. Gaia was incensed at having her shrine, where the Oracle of Delphi resided, desecrated. Apollo was not punished for his crime and in time became the god of Prophecy, and the Oracle of Delphi became the Oracle of Apollo.

He would also become an influential god of music whose musicianship was unparalleled. Many challenged Apollo to contests of musical prowess, but all failed to best the god.

Apollo never married though he was definitely not an immortal virgin. He fathered more than a dozen children with many women both goddesses and mortals alike.

The twin god and goddess, Apollo and Artemis, were forever connected in Greek mythology. They are both expert archers and hunters who often enjoyed hunting together. They shared the capability of subjecting mortals to plague and pestilence as well.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3658676

INCIDENT 11: Hades, the God of underworld

HAIDES (Aides, Aidoneus, or Hades) was the King of the Underworld, the god of death and the dead. He presided over funeral rites and defended the right of the dead to due burial. Haides was also the god of the hidden wealth of the earth, from the fertile soil with nourished the seed-grain, to the mined wealth of gold, silver and other metals.
Hades was devoured by Kronos as soon as he was born, along with four of his siblings. Zeus later caused the Titan to disgorge them, and together they drove the Titan gods from heaven and locked them away in the pit of Tartaros. When the three victorious brothers then drew lots for the division of the cosmos, Hades received the third portion, the dark dismal realm of the underworld, as his domain.
Hades desired a bride and petitioned his brother Zeus to grant him one of his daughters. The god offered him Persephone, the daughter of Demeter. However, knowing that the goddess would resist the marriage, he assented to the forceful abduction of the girl. When Demeter learned of this, she was furious and caused a great dearth to fall upon the earth until her daughter was returned. Zeus was forced to concede lest mankind perish, and the girl was fetched forth from the underworld. However, since she had tasted of the pomegranate seed, she was forced to return to him for a portion of each year.

INCIDENT 10: The Cronus and Rhea Story

According to Greek mythology, in the beginning there was nothing. This was called Chaos. From this nothingness came light, Mother Earth (Gaia) and Sky (Uranus) were formed. From Gaia and Uranus came six twins known as the Titans. The six twin Titans were named Oceanus and Thethys, Coeos and Phoebe, Hyperion and Thea, Creos and Themis, Iapetos and Clymene, and finally Cronos and Rhea.
Gaia and Uranus also gave birth to three Cyclopes, three giants, each with fifty heads and one-hundred arms. Uranus disliked his offspring, so he forced them to return to their mother’s womb. The pain of carrying the numerous children angered Gaia, and she made a plan for revenge against Uranus. She called upon the Titans to help her. The youngest, Cronos (master of time), came to her aid. Cronos, with his mother’s help, created a sickle and cut off his father’s genitals when his father came to be with his mother.
Cronos cast the cut off genitals into the sea. According to some versions of the myth, the goddess Aphrodite was created from the blood that dropped into the sea. In addition some of the blood dropped on to the earth creating all types of scary offspring.
After defeating his father, Cronos married his sister Rhea. The two had six children: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. Cronos, after each birth, swallowed the first five children because of a prophecy that climed one of his children would overthrow him. Rhea tricked Cronos with the sixth child. Zeus, instead of handing Cronos the child, she gave him a rock in a blanket. Cronos swallowed it believing it was the baby. Rhea then smuggled the baby Zeus to the island of Crete to be raised by nymphs. Later Zeus would return to defeat his father in the battle between the Olympians and the Titans.


source: http://historylink102.com/greece2/creation.htm

INCIDENT 9: Zeus and Hera

Armed with his lightning bolts, Zeus was the strongest and often the bravest of the gods.  However, his leading role came simply from drawing straws with his brothers, Hades and Poseidon.  Zeus drew the longest straw and thus became the ruler of the heavens and earth.  We will speak of his brothers a bit later.  You will notice that many of the gods are interconnected within one another’s stories and play important roles in the activities of the other.  

On his second marriage, Zeus married Hera.  Hera was the supreme goddess, goddess of marriage and childbirth and took special care of married women.  

Hera did not desire to be married to Zeus, who was also her brother, as she did not see him fit for marriage.  After all, he did swallow his first wife, Titaness Metis.  Because of this and Zeus's known attractiveness to women other than his wife, Hera refused to marry Zeus for three hundred years.

One spring, Zeus caused a terrible thunderstorm and turned himself into a disheveled cuckoo.  He flew in through Hera’s window, all wet and ruffled, causing Hera to feel sorry for the small bird.  She held the bird against her chest and hugged it tenderly.  Zeus took this opportunity to immediately turn back into himself and wooed her with such passion that she finally decided, after three hundred years, to marry him. 

As a wedding gift, Gaia, the earth-mother, gave Zeus and Hera golden apples.  Hera took the wedding gifts and planted them in her garden, close to Mount Atlas.  She sent the immortal monster with a 100 heads, Ladon, to guard the tree along with the Hesperides.  We will come back to golden apples, just wait and see what they can stir up in another famous wedding!

The wedding of Zeus and Hera was a grand event and everyone was expected to join them in their ceremony of matrimony in a showing of their respect for the couple.  I sure bet Chelone lived to regret not attending the wedding!  Chelone was a nymph who decided against attending the wedding of Zeus and Hera and was in turn punished.  Chelone was turned into a turtle for ridiculing and or refusing to attend the wedding.  For her insulting words, the gods condemned to her to eternal silence. For choosing to stay home, instead of attending the ceremony, she was forced to carry her home with her for eternity.  Talk about an event you wished you hadn't missed!  

After their marriage, Zeus continued with his wooing, but it was not Hera he was wooing.  Instead Zeus was marrying young attractive women, mostly mortals.  Zeus, being the gentleman that he was known for being, told Hera that he was doing these chores for the sake of humankind.  The sons, that these mortals were blessed to have by him, would be great heroes but the mortals did not mean anything to him because they would grow old and die.  In his attempt to woo Hera as before, he maintained that she would be his young, beautiful queen forever and that their marriage was the real thing.

Now surely, you don't believe that Hera would fall for that line!  She felt very insulted and was unhappy with the marriage, but was unable to pay Zeus back for these other marriages because his powerful lightning bolts could dispose of her at any time.  However, she could surely take her anger out on his wives!  Just wait and see what she does!

source: http://faculty-staff.ou.edu/M/Erika.D.Mitchell-Deluca-1/ZeusandHera1.html

INCIDENT 8: Ares, Aphrodite and Hephaestus Love Triangle

Aphrodite:

APHRODITE was the great Olympian goddess of pleasure, joy, beauty, love and procreation.

This page describes the goddess' sexual liaisons with various gods. Although she was paired with half of the Olympians by poets through centuries, only the story of her marriage to Hephaistos and adulterous affair with the god Ares is elaborated upon in any detail. The rest were mostly genealogical pairings. In classical art and literature she was almost always paired with Ares.

Ares:

ARES was the great Olympian god of war, battlelust and manliness.

He had a number of lovers in mythology, although most of these appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story.

The most significant of his love stories is the famous tale of his affair with the goddess Aphrodite, first described by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey, and expanded upon by later writers. The couple were also frequently paired together in ancient art: from archaic paintings and reliefs of the gods of Olympos to Roman mosaic scenes.

Hephaestus:

HEPHAISTOS was the great Olympian god of fire, metalworking, building and the fine arts.

He had a short list of lovers in myth, although most of these appear only in the ancient genealogies with no accompanying story

The two most famous of the Hephaistos "love" stories were the winning of Aphrodite and her subsequent adulterous affair, and his attempted rape of the goddess Athene, which seeded the earth and produced a boy named Erikhthonios.