Weekly Deity: Calliope

Calliope is the Greek goddess of epic poetry and one of the nine Muses.  Her name is pronounced “kha-lie-oh-pee” and in Greek: καλλιοπε.  She is considered to be the Muse of Homer when he wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad.

Attributes

This goddess is typical shown as a young, beautiful woman.  She is fully-clothed in robes.  Often she carries a writing tablet and may be shown with a scroll or book in hand instead.  Sometimes she wears a golden tiara.

Usually the nine Muses are shown together, but one or two are important enough for are prominent enough in various myths that at times they are shown on an individual basis.  Calliope is one of those who may be shown without her sisters because of her prominence in numerous myths.

Mythology

Calliope is the eldest of the nine Muses, and while the Muses are nonuplets (nine siblings at once), they aren’t generally said to look alike.  Her sisters are: Clio, Erato, Urania, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Melpomene, Thalia, and Polyhymnia.  Their parents are said to be Zeus and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory.

Calliope is perhaps the most active of the Muses in terms of mythology without her sisters.  She was a lover of Ares and bore him four sons: Biston, Mygdon, Odomantus, and Edonus.  All four grew up to become the founders of Thracian tribes that bore their names.  Later, she bore two more sons, Orpheus and Linus, to either Apollo (more likely) or the Thracian king Oeagrus.  Calliope does eventually marry Oeagrus, but her sons are more likely sons of Apollo given their talents with music.  Linus is known in mythology to be a great musician and he taught Orpheus and Heracles music.  Orpheus learned poetry from his mother and combined what he learned from her with the music he learned from Linus and became a great singer–so great that he moved Hades and Persephone to tears with his song when he went into the realm of Hades to fetch his wife back to the living.

Calliope is also said to mediate an argument over Adonis between Persephone and Aphrodite.  The two goddesses were so taken with Adonis’ beauty that they fought over who would be able to keep him.  So Calliope mediated on Zeus’ behalf and decided that Adonis should spend one-third of the year with each goddess and the remainder of the year in any place he chose.

Light and Dark Sides

The Muses are gentle, wise, and benevolent mistresses of their respective domains, and Calliope is no exception.  She is considered the wisest and most assertive of the Muses.

Calliope would be good to call on for aid in papers or projects, especially those projects that deal with writing, books, or poetry in some form.  Basically any task that requires patience, planning, and time could fall under her purview.  Epic poetry isn’t written in a day, which makes her a goddess of perseverance and patience as well as creativity and imagination.  She is particularly good for authors and musicians to call upon.

On her Dark side, she is perhaps a little too entrenched in her work.  It’s possible that she could be so involved in the project that other tasks get pushed aside to the point of neglect.  This is pure speculation, of course, since there are no myths about her actual work, only her relationships–but it’s not much of a stretch to imagine that this is a possibility.

Overall, Calliope, like her sisters, is a benevolent goddess who is willing to give aid when called upon for help with certain projects.

For more about the Muses as a whole, see my earlier post on the ladies.

Weekly Deity: Ganymede

Zeus (left) and Ganymede (right)

Ganymede is a Greek mortal-turned-deity.  He is the cupbearer to the gods and is associated with water, rain, life, and youth.  He is also the constellation Aquarius.

Attributes

Ganymede has often been portrayed as a young, attractive male, either shirtless or nude, and holding a pitcher.  Sometimes Ganymede is shown with the eagle that abducted him, and so he is associated with eagles.

Mythology

While out herding sheep for his father, Ganymede is abducted by a giant eagle who bears him away to Olympus.  There he is granted eternal youth and immortality and the job as cupbearer to the gods.  This position had once been filled by Hebe.  All the gods enjoyed Ganymede’s company and felt joy upon him taking his office as cupbearer; all except Hera, who disliked him not only for his place in Zeus’ affections, but also for supplanting her daughter, Hebe.  Being the cupbearer to the gods is a very important and distinguished role as the cupbearer brings the gods their life-giving nectar (or just purified and divine water in some stories).  By some stories, Hera became so enraged that Zeus eventually placed Ganymede’s image among the stars as the constellation Aquarius, which is also connected to an Egyptian god of the Nile and of water.

Ganymede doesn’t do very much in the myths.  He shows up in his own myth, of course, about his abduction.  It is unclear whether the eagle that stole him away was sent by Zeus or was Zeus in disguise.  Both are equally plausible.  It is clear that Ganymede was held in very high regard, not only by Zeus but also by other gods, except Hera.  He does appear in one story with Eros, in which Eros cheated him at a game of knucklebones and Ganymede became rather enraged.

Ganymede is never said to have mated or married, and so has no children.  His father is Tros, from Troy (other accounts say his father is Laomedon, a treacherous king of Troy).  His mother is never named.

Because of the affection (myths vary whether it was strictly affection or a sexual affair) between Ganymede and Zeus, Ganymede is often seen as a figure associated with homosexuality or a deity of homosexuality.

Light and Dark Sides

Ganymede is a figure that begins as a humble mortal but gains immortality.  However, he can’t be said to follow the “divine hero” path, as he was not granted immortality for being a hero–in fact, he never did anything heroic.  He was granted immortality for his handsome looks and for his mind.  Despite his mortal origins, he was granted immortality and raised to the status of a minor god.  His domains include libation, water, rain, life, youth, and homosexuality.

Water is almost always connected to the subconscious mind, the emotions, the soul, and psychic ability, whether in dreams or myths.  Ganymede is a giver of water to both gods and men.  It is not a stretch to say that on his Light side, Ganymede has influence over the subconscious and emotions and such because of this connection to water.  This deity is interesting because he is a minor god, yet he fulfills such an important role to the gods.  The water brings life and sustains life, among the gods and among men, and Ganymede carries the water and pours it out.  In a sense, he rations the water to each recipient, which mean he defines how much life is given at a time.

Water is a changeable element, and Ganymede is deeply connected with water.  He also displays the instability in his myth with Eros in which he becomes enraged at being cheated.  It would be easier to get a better sense of Ganymede’s personality if there were more stories about him; sadly, there are so few to go on that it’s hard to say if he was very changeable or if he mostly stuck to the easy-going nature that he seems to have, and also hard to say what constitutes his Dark side.

When working with Ganymede, I suggest keeping in mind his connection to the psyche, the emotions, etc.  He is largely a Light deity; his Dark side may consist of the potential to withhold water, and thus life.  It also may include a changeable or unstable nature, which may require some caution.  Overall, however, he seems to be more Light than Dark, so I would place him on the Light side of the deity spectrum.

Weekly Deity: Eos

Eos is the Greek goddess of the dawn. Her main domains are of the sun, new beginnings, and youthful vitality.  Aurora is the Roman equivalent.

Attributes

Eos is generally pictured as a beautiful young woman, with pale skin and golden hair.  Often she is shown with wings and wearing a saffron-colored robe, for the sun.  Flowers are commonly in paintings of her as well, and she wears a tiara or diadem.  Sometimes she is shown driving a golden chariot pulled by winged horses.

Mythology

Eos is not one of the major deities of ancient Greece, but she does figure in a great deal of poetry.  Her parents are either Hyperion (Titan, lord of light) and Theia (a Titan of brightness) or Pallas (a Titan associated with war) and Styx (the river to the underworld).  Thus Eos is a second-generation Titan goddess.  Regardless of her parentage, it is generally agreed that her brother is Helios (the sun) and her sister is Selene (the moon).

In the myths that center around Eos, the primary concern is the lovers she takes up with.  Her first love, and the one that may have caused her much grief, was Ares.  This made Aphrodite jealous, and some sources say that Aphrodite cursed Eos to be a nymphomaniac.  Eos moved on from Ares and fell in love with Orion, a handsome giant and renowned hunter.  However, he was transformed into a constellation by Artemis.  Another lover was Cephalus.  Eos kidnapped him and took him to Syria.  Cephalus was married to a woman named Procris, but he and Eos had three children from the affair, two of which were Phaeton and Hesperus.

The last lover is the most notable.  Tithonus became Eos’ final consort.  She loved him so much that she begged Zeus to grant Tithonus immortality, so he could stay with her forever–but she forgot to ask for eternal youth as well.  Tithonus lived so long that he became the size of an insect, and the gods took pity on him and transformed him into a grasshopper.  Eos bore Tithonus two sons: Memnon and Emathion.

Light and Dark Sides

This goddess is particularly interesting to me.  The more I consider her, the more I find to fascinate.

Eos is the goddess of new light.  Part of her domain includes new beginnings, emergence from the darkness, and vibrancy and vitality.  To me, she speaks of youthfulness and young energy.  The dawn is the start of a new day; it makes sense that as goddess of the new day, she is in charge of new beginnings.  And with the myth of Tithonus as an example, I can even see how that myth relates to her youthfulness–she didn’t think through her idea, a common ailment of the young, and neglected the youth that she could have commanded.

On the other hand, some of her mythos doesn’t make as much sense.  Why would a goddess of the dawn be so involved in tales wrapped with sexuality and/or love?  OK, as a goddess of new beginnings, I could maybe see how a new relationship every month would fit the bill, but I don’t see what that aspect has to do with her function–yet the sex and love aspects are largely what are focused on in the myths.

On the Light side, she would be great to call on for vibrant energy.  If you have a new beginning you want to make, I could see calling on her.  On the Dark side, she seems a bit rash, not thinking things through enough.  And I could even see how her energy might be a bit overwhelming at times, maybe be a bit much to handle because it’s so vibrant and radiant and energetic.

Still, all in all, I don’t see any huge negative effects of her, so I’m putting her on the Light side of the deity spectrum.

Weekly Deity: Februus

Februus is mainly known as the Roman god of purification.  The month of February is named after him, and his festival is the Februalia.

Attributes

I could find no descriptions of what Februus was thought to look like.  He was a male deity, that much is clear, but whether he was considered young, old, paunchy, bearded, etc., I have no idea.

Mythology

In Roman myth, Februus is the god of purification.  He lives in the underworld and eventually became synonymous with Pluto until the deity of Februus became so intertwined that he essentially was another name for Pluto rather than a separate deity.  However, the name of the month and the festival was kept the same.

In Etruscan myth, Februus was the god of purification, money, and death, the last of which made Februus very similar to Roman Pluto and may explain how and why Februus was absorbed into Pluto.  Februus was not native to the Romans; like many other deities, he was absorbed into the mythology and religion when the Romans conquered the native people.

The Februalia is the spring purification festival, similar to what we would call “spring cleaning” today.  This festival occurred on the fifteenth of the second month, Februarius.

Dark and Light Sides

Not much is really known about Februus, but we can make some guesses.  As a purification deity, we can assume that he would be good for driving away negativity or negative influences, and possibly good for some minor protection after the purification has occurred.  Not only would he be good for purification of people, but of spaces as well.  As a god of money and death, I envision him as being very patient, laid-back, and calm.  He doesn’t strike me as an excitable deity, which means that if you work with him for money purposes, don’t expect fast results.

That’s my impression, however, if anyone else has another interpretation, please share!

Weekly Deity: Ninkasi

Ninkasi is the Mesopotamian goddess of beer.  She sounds like tons of fun!

Attributes

No descriptions of Ninkasi have survived, so what she looked like is speculation.

Mythology

Ninkasi is the goddess of alcohol, specifically beer.  She would be at every party, banquet, and celebration, because the people and the gods would drink beer.  In Mesopotamian lore, it was mostly the gods who drank beer, but of course, humans would consume as well (of course).

Ninkasi was the brewer for the gods, but she was also actually the beer.  When people drank beer, they were drinking Ninkasi.  Women were often the brewers of beer in the household, and later tavern keepers as well.  Such women were sometimes priestesses of Ninkasi, though not always, but the act of brewing beer could be seen as an act honoring Ninkasi.

The family connections of Ninkasi are debatable.  One tradition says she is the child of Nin-ti and En-ki.  Another says Ninkasi’s parents are En-lil and Nin-khursag.  Siris or Sirash is either her brother or her spouse, and she had children of questionable number.

Light and Dark Sides

While there is some information about Ninkasi, there is very little actually known about her.  However, I get the sense that she is probably a very happy goddess.  I could see her being very enjoyable to work with, if perhaps a bit airy.  Her Dark side may come in the form of overindulgence, which can be a bad thing, especially if a person drinks to the point that it’s dangerous to life and limb.  Her Light side is probably something like allowing a freedom of spirit and loosening of limitations.