Judgement of Paris

Eris the goddess of strife ( trouble of struggle) was offended that she had not been invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. In revenge, she threw a golden apple inscribed with the words " to the fairest"slyly knowing that this would cause an argument amongst other goddess. Aphrodite, Hera and Athena all asked the king of the gods Zeus to decide whom the apple belonged to. Zeus didn't want to cause any more trouble. He knew that by choosing one of the goddess he would incur the resentment of the other two. Instead he decided that the mortal Paris should decide.

All three goddess went before Paris. All three goddess promised Paris different prizes if he picked them. Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. The woman was called Helen, the wife of king Menelaus of Sparta. Aphrodite made Helen fall in love with Paris. The couple ran of together. Menelaus called together his allies in Greece. They set of to recapture Helen. The resulting war lasted for ten years.

Poseidon and Odysseus

Poseidon never forgave the Greek hero, Odysseus, for blinding Poseidon's son, Polyphemos, the cyclops. When Odysseus was nearly home after many years of being franticly lost at sea, Poseidon created a massive storm. The huge waves wrecked the ship Odysseus was sailing on. Odysseus would of certainly have died if Athena hadn't helped him.

Demeter and Persephone

Persephone was Demeter's daughter. One day while Persephone was gathering flowers, Hades, the god       of the underworld, captured her. No one had any idea where she had gone neither did they know what had happend to her.

Demeter persephone's mother was sick with worry and grief. She asked Helios the sun god what had happened. When she learned that Hades had captured her daughter Persephone Demeter became very angry. For a year Demeter caused crops and plants to wither and die. A terrible famine gripped the earth.

The king of the gods Zeus commanded that Hades should release Persephone. Persephone was overjoyed that she would see her mother Demeter again. However Hades tricked Persephone into eating some pomegranate seeds before she left the underworld. Hades knew that if Persephone ate anything from the land of the dead, she would have to return to him for a part of each year.

Demeter was delighted that her daughter Persephone had returned to her. However every time Persephone had to return to Hades, Demeter mourned terribly again. This is why for a part of each year the plants and crops stop growing. When Persephone returns to earth, the land once again bursts with life.

Apollo and Daphne

Apollo had made one too many jokes at Eros' expense. To punish him, Eros shot Apollo with one of his golden arrows which made Apollo fall madly in love with the nymph Daphne. unfortunately for Apollo, Eros had shot Daphne with a lead arrow, which made Daphne reject the god Apollo.

Apollo pursued Daphne and she tried to run away to to escape Apollo. Daphne called out to her father, the river god, for help. He changed her into a laurel tree just as Apollo was about to catch Daphne.

Apollo was heartbroken. Even as a tree Daphne shuddered at the sad god Apollo's touch.

                       

The birth of Athena

The king of the gods Zeus was the father of Athena and her mother was Metis, which means wisdom. Zeus was told before Athena was born, that any child girl or boy born of Metis would be more powerful than it's father. Zeus was very worried by this and decided to swallow Metis before she gave birth to the child.

Some time later Zeus began to have terrible headaches. The pain grew so unbearable that Zeus asked ( the god of fire, volcanoes, blacksmiths and craft workers) Hephaistos to cut open Zeus' head to see what was wrong.

When Hephaistos opened Zeus' head Athena emerged from Zeus' skull, fully grown and dressed for battle.

Hera and Herakles

The king of the gods Zeus fell in love with the mortal woman Alkmene. She had Zeus' child and he was called Herakles. Hera Zeus' wife was so jealous of the child, she stopped him becoming a king by sneakily delaying Herakles date of birth so that a different woman's child became king. She also placed two snakes in the baby Herakles cot. Herakles was survived by strangling the two serpents. Even at such a young age the baby Herakles had superhuman strength.

Zeus and Kronos

Kronos was the king of the Titans ( the Titans were a group of older gods who ruled before Zeus became king. They were led by Zeus' father, Kronos). He was very afraid that one of his children would try to murder him just as he had murdered his own father. He was so worried he started to EAT his own children just after they were born, much to his wife Rhea's horror!

After the birth of his sixth child, Zeus, Rhea played a sly trick on her husband Kronos. She gave Kronos a stone to swallow instead of the little baby Zeus. She hid baby Zeus in a cave and the young god was brought up by a goat.

When Zeus was older he asked to become his father's cup-bearer. Zeus put a special potion into his father's wine that caused Kronos to vomit up his five children that he had eaten. He also vomited up the stone which he was tricked into swallowing instead of swallowing Zeus.

Then Zeus led his brothers and sisters into battle against his father Kronos and the rest of the Titans. Zeus and his brothers and sisters won the battle and Zeus became the almighty king of the Greek gods.