December — Hermes (Quoted Poem)

This is a concrete poem. It is about Hermes. Can you feel my sarcasm dripping through the writing? I am tired, and explaining these poems are very hard to do. I only really studied Greek mythology in grade 7; I’m having to often refer to websites and figure out the “real meaning” behind these more abstract poems than the obvious hymns. Anyway, Hermes is the god of travel, hospitals, and the likes. The first stanza refers to, potentially, the magic staff (also known as the “Caduceus”) that he closes and opens the eyes of mortals.

Makes no sense? Well, Hermes is basically Zeus’s right-hand man. Dreams (to the morals) are sent by Zeus, and Hermes “conducts” them. He, in this sense, is described as the god who had it in his power to send refreshing sleep to mortals, or take it away, seeing as how REM sleep (deep sleep, the kind that is refreshing) is usually with dreams, leading into the second stanza.

The second stanza refers to the dreams that come to this poet, on behalf of what she believes to be due to Hermes. She doesn't ask for these dreams, but they come, and she is thankful (in the last line, her enjoyment is what I consider as a form of appreciation). "old voices / old messages" (11-12) refers back to what I believe is the age of Greek mythology, in which they are now delivered to her in present time - due to Hermes.

On a completely unrelated note, the two serpents on his magical staff have a strange Greek myth as to how it came into Hermes’s possession. There is a story about Tiresias (a blind prophet), who found two snakes copulating, in which Tiresias then killed the female snake with his staff. Immediately after, Tiresias was turned into a woman, and remained so until he repeated the same act with the male snake seven years later. Later, this staff fell into the possession of Hermes (through Apollo as an act of friendship), in which the staff now has transformative powers. Interesting, huh?

Anyway, so this is a concrete poem, where the appearance contributes to the meaning. This poet’s placement of words all has meaning, to show emphasis like lines 11 and 12. Without having seen the poem, just hearing it would only be half the magic.  With no rhyme scheme, this falls under free verse; it does resemble the “cadence of speech” (Mrs. Patrick’s notes on free verse), hence the breaking of lines for emphasis. It would just as we would say it, especially with no strict rhyme scheme. But it doesn’t resemble a paragraph, hence it mainly being under the category of a concrete poem.

The second stanza is filled with imagery, with words such as “wild and knowing” (8) which gives me a sense of a free spirit. I love the second stanza especially.

November — Hephaestus (Quoted Poem)

Hephaestus, son of Zeus and Hera, was the only one of the Olympians that was born small, sickly, and deformed. As time went on, it is said that Hephaestus has no father, as Hera wanted a child without Zeus, since Zeus had Athena without Zeus (she came from his head, and Hera was jealous). This stanza is an excerpt from this awesome long poem, refers to the second time he was thrown from Olympus. Not by Hera this time (initially, he was thrown off when he was first born, because he was too ugly, but the nymphs took care of him when he landed in the sea), but by Zeus. Hephaestus stupidly took his mother's side during an argument between his parents (he returned to Olympus some time after his initially falling by Hera), and Zeus, out of anger, threw him from Olympus the second time. this time, he didn't land in the sea, but on solid  earth, and broke both legs. He was a cripple thereafter.

Though he was ugly, he learned the arts of metal-work, and his objects were so beautiful, that was how he got to come back to Olympus. His work was admired by all. And with his skill, he fashioned for himself strong legs, and other things for both gods and men. 

This is a free verse poem, where there is no metric pattern and no rhyme. I feel like this can also be considered as a concrete poem, where the use of splitting up these lines create a sense of repetition (like lines 9 and 10), and thereby, more emphasis. I personally really like it. I like how the last few lines really show how he is all in support of the underdogs, and how no one should ever really give up, no matter what difficulties a mortal or god goes through. He after had his legs crippled by his own father, and survived that. The last three lines, "so they too / can stand up / for themselves" is really powerful, and can be taken in a literal meaning as well. His legs were crippled, but he fashioned metal legs that allowed him to stand.

Amazing, huh?

October — Aphrodite (Written Poem)

Wish You Weren't Anchises

She was beautiful, a woman of the sea,

Born from the foam, floating upon a scallop shell.
What a beautiful woman - many remarked,
The loveliest goddess of all. She was beautiful,
And she embodied all that was simple, and truthful.
Narcissism was hard to picture in her, though it be true.
Come to the field where she lays, are you Anchises?

The lush green field, close but never matching to her beauty,
Where the shepherds roam, to feed the flocks they own,
Are you Anchises? Will you have her love today?
Be careful - though those were simple times,
There were many a jealous lover.
Let us sit in the fields, don't be Anchises.
He didn't lead a simple life - boastful, foolish.
Careful not to intervene.

So let us watch, let us admire the beauty of the fields,
Let us admire the beauty of her, goddess from the sea.
Over hills, and valleys, the goddess of love sees to it the beauty of all things.
Birds will sing, doves will cry, and the day that she comes,
The day that she comes from the sea, will be one of the better days.
With all the pleasures of life, one could not ask for more.
The blue sky, the shepherds that roam, the green field,
Birds will sing, doves will cry, Pandora be made -
A beauty lost, forever sealed. 

– V

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Aphrodite was born from the foam of the sea, in which she came to the island of Cythera, floating upon the scallop shell mentioned in the poem. She was highly narcissistic, understanding just how beautiful she was. She was the goddess of love, and was the loveliest of all of the goddesses. She, was in fact and highly ironically married to Hephaestus, the only god to not have been gifted with any beauty. 

In this poem I've written, it mainly focuses the beauty of her, in comparison to the beauty of nature back then (without the buildings, the pollution, and the 6 billion population we are now currently surrounded in), as well as the suffering of one her lovers, named Anchises.

Anchises was a shepherd, who foolishly admitted to his friends that he had won the love of a goddess. Zeus heard this, and tried to punish him dead with a thunderbolt, but Aphrodite saved him at the last minute, leaving him only crippled, but not dead. Though not mentioned in my poem, their son (Aphrodite and Anchises's) named Aeneas, led a band of Trojans to later found the city of Rome.

I threw in the second to last line about Pandora, and in reference to Pandora's box, where the evils are all released and the beauty of such is gone, and has shaped our lives today - losing such a simpler time we once had. That's a classical allusion right there!

This is a pastoral, where it celebrates how simple and natural our world once was. It also mentions shepherds, specifically (and obviously, wittily) incorporates the obvious symbol of a pastoral by using Anchises specifically. It helped with the comparison of what was simple and good, and complex and harmful. This can also fall under free verse, where there is no rhyme scheme, and looks like a paragraph per stanza, at first glance.

September — Ares (Written Poem)

If Only

Beautiful lover, angry warrior.
Death for him was welcome by everyone.
Now if only Gods could die.

– V

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This is an epitaph, which is, basically an elegy for an inscription on a gravestone. This is precisely what I would see on Ares, if he could even have a gravestone. But gods and goddesses can't die, so this is really technically, for the sake of humour. I personally find it quite witty. 

Ares had a serious blood-lust, and fought for the sake of fighting. He often instigated conflict between two men, and really did not believe in fighting for any cause. He often switched sides in a battle; his only intention was to prolong battles for as long as possible. 

Nobody liked him, not even his parents - Zeus and Hera. Hence my second line, of how everyone welcomed his death but him. I should've mentioned Aphrodite in that second line, but that would be too wordy, and wouldn't necessarily - in reality - fit on a gravestone. Why the first line uses "beautiful lover" (1), when nobody liked him, was that Aphrodite was the only one who loved him, especially for his strong, muscular form. He was a man's man. Ruthless, violent, manipulative. But to Aphrodite? He was cunning, strong, persuasive. You can see how I've used euphemisms to really emphasize how enamored she was with him, hence, "beautiful lover" (1).

He was the most warlike, the most bloodthirsty, the most disliked. The death of him would not affect anyone in any negative way, except for maybe Aphrodite. Anyway, there was no rhyme scheme, no aspect of any concrete poem, it was simply broken up by the end of statements. Could the first line be taken as an euphemism? I mean, by "angry warrior", I meant bloodthirsty, soulsucking, terrible, rash god of war.. but that was really to just fit under gravestone constraints.

...I don't think that's an euphemism, no. Nevermind.

August — Artemis (Written Poem)

Selfish Virgin Beauty

Of her beauty, of her strength,
Of her sharp wit, of her known modesty,
Of all these things that make up Artemis.

What a woman, what a goddess!
What a hunter, what a lover!

She protects the young, in both children and animals.
She loves the maidens, in those young virgins.
She enjoys the chase, in hunting - like a boy's love.
She demands the same, in being modest amongst her companions.

And just once,
She falls in love, in the shepherd, Endymion.
She falls in love; she's a virgin.
She's a virgin; she kisses him.
She's a virgin; she's modest.

With eternal youth, and eternal sleep,
With the man of her dreams, and her heart:

Endymion sleeping gently in the mountains,
Endymion, now forever sleeping.
Artemis, selfishly, now can descend from the sky to watch him slumber.
Artemis can preserve her modesty, and still love him from above,
But Endymion's life is lost - no choice, no care, just slumber.

– V

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 With Artemis, she was a modest, strong, boyish huntress. She was the goddess of the moon, protector of young maidens. She loved the chase in terms of hunting, as well as her love of the outdoors. Stanzas 1-3 simply describe what kind of a goddess she is, and the things she cares about.

There is much emphasis on her modesty with due reason. She is a virgin, and punishes her maiden followers who do not follow the same mindset. She does, however, falls in love once, with a shepherd sleeping in the mountains named Endymion. So that she would always be able to love him, but not lose her virginity, she decided to give Endymion eternal youth and sleep (other sources say that it was Zeus who sent him the gift of eternal sleep), so that she would always be able to watch from the sky as he slept forever in his youth.

I find it quite selfish, because he had no choice, and it was simply out of bad luck for her to see him. I don't really like how he had no choice, but I'm a young leftist who believes in choices. As a list poem, it is a type of free verse with no rhyme scheme, and there is lots of repetition to give it more of an easy rhythm to follow, but it does change up frequently throughout the poem. The lines are arranged for common topics, or emotions, for the reader to understand more. It's a bit like cause and effect, where who she is, dictates how she reacts with such a beautiful shepherd sleeping in the mountains.

July — Apollo (Quoted Poem)

After awhile, all these quoted poems begin to look the same. Let me tell you, there aren’t many parodies or ballads for Greek gods or goddesses. They’re all generally the same, either a hymn, ode, or free-verse. This is a hymn, but is only one stanza out of the full three. View the full one here. This poem is probably one of the easier ones I’ve talked about so far (at this point, I’ve talked about the poems I found for January and April), as it simply describes what Apollo is.

Apollo relates to the theme because he is a Greek god and has a seat on Mount Olympus, serving as the God of healing, music, protection of the young, archery, and a few more. There were many items associated with him, such as the bow, lyre, and wreath, as mentioned in the poem.

I’m confused by lines 5-8; I’ve been looking, and am unsure as to what it refers to, except for that he owns a wreath. I know that the reason why Apollo is called “Delphic Apollo” in line 12, is because he fought a serpent that haunted his mother for endlessly while she was pregnant with Apollo (a curse set by Hera, since Zeus liked Apollo’s mother), out of vengeance. The serpent, dragon-type, thing, was appointed by Mother Earth (Rhea/Gaia) to guard the oracle at Delphoi. Apollo defeated the serpent there.

I’m unsure as to why this is considered a hymn, as it is neither written in quatrains nor have the rhyme scheme of ABAB, except for lines 1-4, which do have that. The rest however, is all over the place. I would consider this free verse, but I am not the extrodinary John Keats.

There is obviously repetition, in lines 1-4, as well as the repetition of “thy” 4 times in lines 9-10. “Thine ire” (7) seems like a half example of assonance; the i sound are very similar, almost the same, but the “th” in “thine” throws me off, thereby rendering me unsure. I do enjoy the rhyming couplet here: “Thy laurel, thy glory / Thy light of thy story” (9-10). My favourite throughout this stanza of the poem.

This poem leaves not much impact with me; it’s too uninteresting. There holds no story, unless that is what lines 5-8 are referring to – some famous tale that I can’t seem to find. Anyone know? Well, regardless, researching to find the rest of the meaning of this poem was knowledgeable. Learning each of these Olympian gods and goddesses is fascinating; I really do enjoy suspending disbelief.

June — Dionysus (Written Poem)

In Wine, There is Love

Born from the thigh, twice-born I am called,
These nymphs that follow, don't be appalled.
Oh, these nymphs - sublime!
Not me, just my wine.
Do I call? Come and find yourself enthralled. 

– V

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Dionysus had devoted female worshipers, known as Bacchae or Maenads. They held orgies (over time, these rituals performed gradually became more defined, and less orgie-like), roamed the forests and fields, performing wild ritualistic dances, killing any wild creature they met and ate it raw. They were wild, and crazy, hence line 2 and 3. They were many outrageous worshipers of Dionysus.

Dionysus was in the womb of Semele, but she was killed when she begged Zeus to allow her to see him in his true godly form. And at the sight of him in his true form, she was destroyed. But Hermes came to save her unborn child, in which he then sewed fetus Dionysus into Zeus's thigh, where he was then born later. He was then dubbed "twice-born" as such. 

With his invention of wine, I feel like it'd be something very enticing, hence his many crazy followers, and the creation of the last line. Also, Dionysus traveled the world, and the men who received him with courtesy received wine, and the knowledge as to how to cultivate it. Hence, the potential of being enthralled if you so welcomed him.

This poem is a limerick, where the rhyme scheme is AABBA, and the syllables per line is 9-9-5-5-10. Although most limericks are 9-9-5-5-9, not all have to be as such, and I felt there was more fluidity to be had if I left it at 10 syllables in the last line. The main purpose of this limerick is to entertain (like most limericks) but also to be a little scandalous (so as to show that truly, back then, many were orgies were had in the name of Dionysus), and to tread carefully on the line of sex, but in the most classiest manner possible.

May — Athena (Written Poem)

War and Wisdom

He swallowed Metis,
How foolish, I still was born,
Not a son, Zeus thanked.
Goddess of war, and wisdom.
I can fight you, and teach you.

– V

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Athena's mom was swallowed by Zeus, because he feared that a son made with Metis (with her wisdom and his strength) would overthrow him. He still wanted her wisdom, thereby swallowing Metis whole. However, Zeus would soon find himself with a splitting headache, in which Hephaestus would crack open his head with a hammer. And out would come beautiful Athena, strong like her father, wise like her mother. She was known to be boyish, and while she didn't have the love of blood that Ares had, she still enjoyed war and fighting. But while she chose to become the goddess of war, she preferred her function as the goddess of wisdom and justice more. 

This is a tanka, with the number of syllables per line as 5-7-5-7-7. With no rhyme scheme, there was more freedom to be had, in terms of writing this. There isn't much depth to the poem, but I enjoyed writing it. It is descriptive anyway.

April — Demeter (Quoted Poem)

This poem is about the Greek Goddess, Demeter, and her daughter, Persephone. This is merely a stanza from the original poem. View the original here. But it fits with my theme because Demeter has a seat on Mount Olympus, and is considered the Goddess of agriculture, grain, and bread. She was what controlled the harvest and the seasons, and when Persephone was taken from her – without Demeter’s knowledge of where she had gone, Demeter stopped the harvest out of sadness and bitter despair, in which mankind suffered from starvation. 

This poem itself is the reunion, because later in the Greek tale, it was decided that Persephone spend 1/3 of the year with Hades, where on Earth, Demeter would grieve and there would be no crops, but Persephone would then return to Earth and the Heavens where she and her mother, Demeter, would spend their time together and with the other Gods and Goddesses on Mount Olympus. 

Their reunion together is not the first, because it is told that with the line, “...we stand again” (1). The “...black blur of earth / Left by that closing chasm, thro’ which the car / Of dark Aidoneus rising...” (4-6) seem to be dropping her off back to Earth from the Underworld, and upon Persephone’s return, Demeter allows the flowers to bloom and life to grow – “...all the space / Of blank earth-baldness clothes itself afresh / And breaks into the crocus-purple hour / That saw thee vanish” (15-18).

This is a free-verse poem, with no rhyme and no strict metric pattern. It lacks rhythm, and resembles more of what Demeter would say, not what a narrator viewing their reunion would write for a poem. It resembles much like a paragraph, as they are very long stanzas, which assures me further that it is a free-verse. There is no rhyme scheme. Line 3 and 11 are lines of imagery, while Aidoneus in line 6 refers to Hades. Is that considered an allusion? Greek mythology is often a place where many authors classically allude to, but if writing about Greek mythology itself, is that still considered an allusion? Hm.

March — Poseidon (Quoted Poem)

Neptune is the Roman equivalent to Poseidon. So don't fret, I didn't get it wrong. Anyway, this poem (which is part of a very long incomplete English epic poem by Edmund Spenser, titled The Faerie Queene) is actually in the form of a Spenserian Sonnet, which I will explain later. In fact, this stanza is part of the longest poems ever written in the English language. Thankfully, Googling up "Poseidon" and "poem" worked out quite well. Let me elaborate on this sonnet, which is a little unforgiving to our minds seeing as how we're used to more modern English. It's quite obvious once having looked up a few words, and understanding who Poseidon is, and what he represents. Poseidon was the Olympian god of the sea, rivers, flood, drought, earthquakes, and horses.

Being from the water, he's covered in "brackish deaw" (3) as he emerges from the water. His "threeforkt pyke" (4) is the trident that Poseidon is well-known for. He's often depicted as mature, strong, wise, hence words such as "sternly" (5), "fierce" (5), and "raging" (6) are used. Lines 5-7 indicate his great power as he splits the water for his chariot - "charet" (8) to come out through, for a "passage wyde" (8), which is given. Hippodames, as listed in the Webster's 1828 American Dictionary, means a sea-horse, which should be taken literally, seeing as how actual seahorses in reality are quite small and adorable. But Poseidon's chariot was led by great sea-horses, which now makes the poem have more sense.

While not having much depth, the imagery with such strong adjectives is powerful, as with the words that imply Poseidon’s great strength in the paragraph above. It has a rhyme scheme of ababbcbcc, which is a dead giveaway to it being a Spenserian sonnet. The stanza’s main meter is in iambic pentameter; it has elements of both the Petrarchan sonnet and Shakespearean sonnet together. It is similar to the Petrarchan in the sense that it follows and conclude the initial topic of “Neptune”, or Poseidon.

February — Hera (Written Poem)

Pretty Boy, Pretty Girl

Zeus is one of them pretty boys,
I was just one of his games.
He said I was his love, his joy!
We wed, but my eyes are to blame.

I was blind, that man, he fooled me -
Trapped me in a wedding too!
A cuckoo bird, did no one see?
Now I've got the wedding blues.

I was a pretty girl - gracious, kind,
But often, Zeus wayward strays.
So I've been angry - is that a crime?
I've lost respect, to my dismay.

I ask to be wed to a diff'rent man,
Oh, holy Hell - of course, Hades can.

– V

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A Shakespearean sonnet, contemporary take on the relationship leading up to, and between Hera and Zeus. She is the queen of heaven because of her marriage to Zeus, and was a daughter to Cronus and Rhea, like he was their son. They are siblings.

There are 14 lines, with the rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The final couplet in this poem really was just for humour, there is no classical allusion to some strange Hera x Hades relationship, though that would be interesting. In stanza 2, the cuckoo bird refers to how Zeus got her to finally love him. Though she had rejected his many advances, finally, he disguised himself as a cuckoo bird, in which she cared for.

Her married life was not a happy one, and their fighting was a joke amongst both mortals and gods. Perhaps she has shame in this, I'm unsure; it's unmentioned, but I'd feel like it would be shameful, seeing as how she presented herself (and is described as such) initial with such beauty and grace before meeting him. It must be hard for her to be so virtuous, while he's playing the dirty with any woman (goddess or mortal) who catches his eye. Over time, all this cheating, it is said that she became more and more jealous, cruel, and having less of the inner beauty she once owned. 

January — Zeus (Quoted Poem)

This poem is obviously about Zeus, his great power, as well as how mythology is perceived in modern times. The poem itself is very clear, referring to famous tales of Zeus, and the narrator’s own thoughts on how the world perceives Greek mythology, where readers now have to really suspend disbelief and judgement upon reading Greek mythology, and how Greek mythology is a lost culture. The poem referred to the many tales of him changing shape to catch the attention of any woman (mortal or goddess), trying to work the situation into his benefit. The poem also referred to his involvement in the Trojan War, for example, it was him giving the power to Paris, to choose whether Hera, Aphrodite, or Athena was the fairest. Paris’s choice later invoked the wrath of two of the goddesses, and later, the 10 year Trojan War. 

There is a personal connection to the poem for me, due to my reading Greek mythology when younger, and how foreign the stories of Greek myths felt to me. It was hard to suspend disbelief, like Hera and Zeus marrying, even though they were related. The tales, however, never cease to be interesting.

The rhyme scheme would be ABCBDD I would consider this either free verse, or a hymn. I am confused as to which it is, seeing as how hymns are often dedicated to the gods; there is a sense of respect, admiration, and love for the Greek mythology, and Zeus himself in this poem. It is free verse in the sense that it is not written in quatrains, and while the rhyme scheme is often ABCB for hymns, this rhyme scheme has ABCBDD.

There is repetition, “so foreign, ...so familiar” (9) and “we learn..., and learn...” (11). There is assonance in “...aimed to entertain” (14). Also, while some may digress, I feel like there is imagery to be had in the line, “...garden of the Gods” (18) because I feel like after reading about Elysian Fields, I can just imagine all the gods and goddesses residing there, in green fields and constant warming sunlight.

So Electric, So Electric - The Beginning

Welcome to the Pantheon, as this site is dubbed, is in fact, a double entendre, which I recently learned, means "having two meanings". A pantheon can be defined as "a group of gods", but it can also refer to a temple built to dedicate "all deities", being able to praise them all in one general place. Two meanings. Witty, isn't it? Sadly, my double entendre was an accident. I'd elaborate further, but I'd like to at least compensate my idiocy for an air of mystique by not explaining.

If you haven't been able to tell from the title, my theme surrounds the twelve Greek gods and goddesses, known as the Twelve Olympians. I'm entirely unsure whether or not "gods" and "goddesses" should be capitalized, but I'll assume it isn't. From that statement alone, you should then realize that this will be a highly informal, yet hopefully, eloquent blog that will fill all the criteria necessary.. and then some.

There are many versions of which gods and goddesses are considered as the Twelve Olympians. For example, the Roman scheme (created by Ennius, a writer considered the father of Roman poetry) of these gods and goddesses were similar to the classical scheme (I'll elaborate later), with their Roman equivalents, except for one change - that Bacchus (the Roman equivalent to Dionysus) be replaced with Vesta (the Roman equivalent to Hestia), to make it 6 gods, and 6 goddesses.

There are differences, and at first, I was simply going to pick and choose which gods and goddesses I wanted to write about. But then the common theme of the "Twelve Olympians" wouldn't necessarily work, and I wanted to challenge myself, instead of using the theme "Greek Gods" where I could write about Gods that may not necessarily had a seat on Mount Olympus, which is where these Twelve Olympians resided.

I decided then, to go with the classical scheme (the Canonical Twelve of art and poetry), which comprised of these 12 gods and goddesses:

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Hermes.

On with the blog!