Euphemus was the son of Poseidon and is sometimes portrayed as the son of Europe. Europe was the daughter of the giant Tityos. Tityos was the son of a mortal princess named Elara and Zeus. He was not a good guy and got sent to Tartarus and sentenced to the Prometheus treatment during his stay.

Anyway, Euphemus was maybe married to Hercules’ sister, Laonome. His marriage to her changes depending on the source. He could walk on water and was pretty much perfect. He is not, I repeat, is not, the same Euphemus that was killed in the Iliad.

Euphemus isn’t known for much, except winning a chariot race at the funeral games of Pelias and starting the civilization of Cyrene in Libya. He met up with his half brother (on Poseidon’s side) and was given a dirt clod as a gift of hospitality (the Greeks were really odd about Hospitality). He was supposed to drop the clod in front of the Underworld, but it got washed overboard and through some really odd, kinky dreams about sleeping with one of Triton’s daughters while crying about it and nursing her, he gave birth to a civilization. The clod grew into an island called Thera, and Euphemus’ descendants ruled there.

The Greeks were fricken weird sometimes.

Atalanta is my favorite Argonaut, which is a shame because not all sources agree that she was one, but lets pretend, shall we? Atalanta was born to King Iasus, and possibly an Arcadian princess, but her mother is never really talked about in mythology. The king wanted a son, not a daughter, so he left her on the mountaintop to die. She was found and raised by a bear, so she grew up hunting like a bear would. She was a fierce huntress, and unsurprisingly, worshipped Artemis.

Artemis’ name/honor was left out of a major sacrifice by Oiuneus. Artemis took issue with being left out so she sent a wild, man-eating boar to wreak all kinds of havoc. This boar became known as the Calydonian Boar. A guy named Meleager (also an Argonaut) hosted a hunt for the boar, and Atalanta and a crap-ton of Argonauts and other famous heroes joined forces to hunt down the boar.

A brief side note about Meleager. When he was born, the fates predicted his life would only last as long as a specific piece of firewood hanging above the mantle. So his mother, Althea, doused the firewood and hid it, so no harm would come to her child. He grew up a hero, married Cleopatra (Not that one) and developed a *huge* crush on Atalanta. But she was a sworn virgin for Artemis and he was married. Fate can be so cruel.

Anyway, back to the hunt, the boar killed a lot of men, and two centaurs took advantage of the chaos to try to rape Atalanta, but Meleager came to her rescue. She wounded the boar, and Meleager killed it. Because she had drawn first blood, Meleager awarded her the boar’s head or hide or both which pissed off his brothers, who didn’t think a woman deserved the prize. Meleager killed his brothers for insulting Atalanta. When his mother heard he had killed her other sons, she tossed the firewood on the fire and Meleager died in a blaze of flame.

It’s worth noting that she knew Meleager well before the hunt. The two had been Argonauts together. Some sources say she joined out of love for Meleager, that she wouldn’t consummate because an Oracle had warned her losing her virginity would be disasterous for her.

Meleager continued to have adventures in the Underworld. When Hercules visited to find Cerberus, he took the opportunity to play matchmaker, and convinced Herc to marry his younger sister, Deianira.

Anyway, after the hunt, Atalanta’s father remembered he had a daughter and tried to arrange her marriage. She made a deal that she would only marry a man who could beat her in a footrace. Many men died in the attempt to outrun her until Hippomenes came along and asked Aphrodite for help. The goddess gave him three irresistible, shiny, golden apples. As they raced, Hippomenes would throw the apples and Atalanta would veer off course to collect and eat them. He won, they got married, had a son named Parthenopaios (more on him when we cover the seven against Thebes). They either failed to honor Aphrodite, or managed to piss off either Zeus, Hera, or Rhea, and got turned into lions.

At the time, by the way, the Greeks believed that lions only mated with leopards, so the two could never actually have sex again. She lived the remainder of her life alone as a lion. Poor girl.

The Gemini twins. I wanted to be a Gemini so badly when I was younger. Depending on the magazine, I’m either a Libra or a Scorpio. I also *really* wanted to be a twin. Alas, I am still neither.

Anyhow, Castor and Pollux were Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra’s half brothers. Pollux was the son of Leda and Zeus, and Castor was the son of Leda and Tydareus (Icarus’ brother and Penelope’s uncle). Apparently Zeus seduced/raped Leda in the guise of a swan while she was pregnant? OR Zeus was both of their parent’s and that’s just the way the genetics broke down. It depends on the myth. Tydareus was a father figure to all four of the children though. Anyway, Pollux was a full-blooded deity somehow and Castor was a complete human.

The two rescued Helen when Theseus kidnapped young Helen, but you’ll have to read her Mythology Monday for more details about that ;). The twins also took part in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, Pollux won a boxing match against King Amycus, and both were present for the attack on the city Iolcus. But we’ll get to Argonaut adventures on another week.

The twins wanted to marry the sisters Phoebe and Hilaeria, but they were already engaged to the twin’s cousins, Lyceus and Idas. Lyceus and Idas had special powers. Idas was gigantic and Lyceus had night vision. Both were also Argonauts. So they did the logical thing and kidnapped the women and took them to Sparta, where they both had one son. This caused a major family feud. They fought over everything and stole one another’s cattle, and it was just a huge mess. At one family gathering, Castor and Pollux attempted to steal back their herd of cattle, their cousins realized what they were up to and followed them. The cousins ambushed the twins and managed to kill Castor just after he shouted a warning to Pollux. The four were so busy fighting that they neglected to notice Paris sneaking away with Helen, which sparked the Trojan War.

When Castor was killed, Pollux asked Zeus if he could give up his mortality or share it with his brother so they would never have to be apart. Zeus transformed them into the constellation Gemini.

Isn’t it crazy how everything in Greek Mythology connects?

Telamon was brother a son of Aeacus, brother of Peleus, and friend of Hercules.

After he and Peleus killed their brother Phocus, Telamon went to Salamis, and married the kings daughter Periboea. They went on to have a son, Ajax the Great.

Telamon was the first to breach the wall of Troy when Hercules sacked the city (pre-Trojan war). Hercules wanted that honor for himself, so he very nearly killed Telamon in the fit of rage. The only thing that stopped him was that Telamon dropped everything and built an alter to Hercules to appease his “friend.” As a reward, Hercules gave Telamon a woman named Hesione to marry. Not sure what happened to Periboea, but he had another son by Hesione, who was named Teucer, an archer and another prominent figure in the Trojan War.

Did you know the New Year’s baby is an Ancient Greek thing? At the festival of Dionysus/Bacchus, a baby would be paraded around in a basket as a symbol of rebirth. There was lots of partying, plenty of drinking, and an overall good time to be had.

New Years hasn’t changed much. People forget, I think, that mythology can be a very modern thing. It’s still happening. Take New Year’s Eve as an example. It’s a ritual. A really fun, very positive, happy ritual. 😀 Now a days ini Greece, families turn off all the lights and reopen them to “enter the year with a new light”. After the fireworks show, they cut serve a New Year’s cake that has one coin baked into it that symbolizes luck to whoever gets it.

On New Year’s many people….

1) Go to parties
2) Make a wish at midnight.
3) Drink champaign
4) Believe that when the clock strikes twelve you get a clean slate
5) Set a goal for your future
6) Make a list of everything bad that happened in the last year and burn it
7) Count down and watch a giant ball, peach, or other large object drop or fireworks
8) Kiss that special someone
9) Believe that whatever you are doing at midnight is what you will be doing all year
10) Eat twelve grapes
11) Sing “Auld Lang Syne”
12) Reflect on the last year

What’s your mythology? Comment below with your New Year tradition 🙂