NEFERTITI FOUND AKHENATEN

Nefertiti found Akhenaten irresistible

And wanted to jump his bones

She didn’t really know why at the time

But it was just his pharoahmones

CREATURES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – CHIMAERA

Prince Bellerophon traveled to distant Lycia

At King Proetus’s request to perform an errand

Arriving on his winged steed Pegasus he found

A pall had been cast over the once-joyful land

 

Each night, the Chimaera, a three headed monster

A combination of a lion, a goat and a serpent

Swept down and carried off terrified victims

Men, women, children, and livestock all went

 

The bones of the beasts many victims lay strewn

Along the valley and across the mountainside

The population were living in constant fear

And at night when possible they stayed inside

 

The errand for King Proetus was a letter delivery

And the letter was for Iobates of Lycia, the King

When he had read the letter the hero had delivered

He found that Proteus wished Bellerophon’s killing

 

Iobates was the father in law of King Proetus

And he accused Bellerophon of his wife’s seduction

In truth Proetus’ wife was in fact the guilty party

She falsely accused him after suffering rejection

 

Though he wanted to please his son-in-law,

He knew that he dare not risk an outright execution

As this would lead to war with the Corinthians

So he slyly set a challenge for young Bellerophon

 

Iobates set him the task of slaying the Chimaera

Almost certain that he would never return alive

Bellerophon had always longed for excitement

Fearless he rose to a challenge he may not survive

 

Iobates told him the monster was related to Cerberus

Watchdog of Hades and the many-headed Hydra

Even though the King described the beast in detail

He was not at all frightened of facing the Chimaera

 

So mounted upon his faithful winged Pegasus

Bellerophon set off to find the Chimeras lair

Believing a head on attack was too dangerous

He thought his only chance was from the air

 

Once they had the location of the hideous beast

Armed with his bow he rained arrows down below

The had the effect of unnerving the creature greatly

Pegasus just kept them out of reach of its fiery glow

 

Then Armed with a lance he charged the Chimaera

And the beast exhaled a plume of its horrible fire 

Pegasus darted backward to evade the burning breath

Then they had to strike before Pegasus began to tire

 

So they repeated the tactic for just one more time

This time before the Chimaera could breathe again,

Pegasus renewed its charge towards the great beast

And Bellerophon speared Chimaera's heart and brain

 

The next morning Pegasus and Bellerophon flew

Out of the dawn holding aloft the Chimaera’s head

There was great rejoicing though out the kingdom

And soon the news traveled that the beast was dead

 

With Chimaera dead Iobates knew he was unable

To fulfill King Proetus’s request to take the boys life

King Iobates embraced the young hero and then

Gave his willing daughter to Bellerophon as a wife

HEROIC BATTLES OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY - CHIMAERA THE DRAKON

There was a dreadful union

Between the giant immortal Typhon

And the black fearful eyed Echidne,

Half serpent, half woman

The terrifying result of this

Unnatural union was the Chimaera

A great beast strong and swift footed

Who snorted raging fire

The creature’s front

Was that of a lion with tooth claw and nail

The hindquarters and middle

Of a goat and a serpent for a tail

Her heads numbered three,

One of a Lion, a goat and a snake

A fire breathing powerful drakon

She left death in her wake

The Drakon Chimaera was in love

With Orthrus her own brother

And spawned the deadly Sphinx

And the Nemean Lion together

She ravaged the herds

And despoiled the Lycian countryside

The bones of her victims

Lay strewn across the mountainside

The creature allegedly reared

By Ambassados plagued Lycia

And many a heroic figure

Tried to rid that land of Chimaera

Then King Iobates sent

The gallant Corinthian hero Bellerophon

Mounted upon winged Pegasus

To do battle with the Drakon

He rained arrows down

With the help of the goddess Athena

And with his lead tipped lance

Bellerophon killed Chimera

HERO’S OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – ATALANTA

The birth of Atalanta daughter to King Iasus and Clymene begins our tale

But she was born into the world in the undesirable state of being female

Because of his yearning for a son and his disappointment with a daughter

He had her taken to the woods and left exposed somewhere in Arcadia

 

But for the fates intervention this could have been the end for her there

But they made it possible for the infant to be found by a passing mother bear

The gentle mother bear suckled young Atalanta until she became strong

Then the bear left her in a place where she knew hunters would come along

 

The hunters brought her up and as she grew older, she hunted with them

She spent most of her time hunting and she was soon the best amongst them

As Atalanta grew in stature as a hunter, she also grew up into a rare beauty

But she had no interest in men or marriage, so she chose to keep her virginity

 

As well as skill and beauty, she could out wrestle men and was hard to catch

For example, she beat Peleus who was to father Achilles in a wrestling match

And when two centaurs Rhoecus and Hylaeus attempted to rape Atalanta

She quickly killed them with her bow and arrows as she’d learned as a hunter

 

At the Calydonian Boar Hunt she drew first blood with an arrow from her bow

It was prince Meleager of Calydon however who delivered the mortal blow 

He was so infatuated with her that he gave her the trophy of the boar’s skin 

And such a row ensued it resulted in the death of Meleager and his mother’s kin

 

She loved hunting and the outdoors and had no use for a man in her life

And she felt she had more to offer the world than she would as a wife

Her reputation grew as a great warrior and especially her skill with a bow

Atalanta was so well respected she even sailed with Jason aboard the Argo

 

She did enough in the world that her Father forgave her for not being a son

On returning home however her remaining a virgin was the only condition

Iasus agreed, but because of her great beauty suitors soon came knocking

And so the king soon changed his mind but Atalanta continued blocking

 

She finally consented to wed any man who could beat her at a foot race

Such was her fleetness that she was confident she’d finish in first place

As she was one of the fastest mortals her maidenhood this appeared to insure

As an additional deterrent the losing suitor would be beheaded by Atalanta

 

Atalanta laughed confidently because she knew no man would ever beat her

Also, she knew the many executions would deter all but the most ardent suitor

The heads of the failed suitors stacked up and of course still they came to race

The vain, the arrogant, the brave but mostly the fool hardy lost the chase

 

Then one day a man came named Hippomenes and he was exceptionally smart

He knew he wasn’t fast enough, but he fell in love with Atalanta from the start

Knowing he wasn’t fast enough to win he did what all frustrated lovers do

He prayed to the goddess of love Aphrodite for help with how he should woo

 

Aphrodite had a weakness for lovers and an intense dislike of virgins in general

So the goddess gladly gave him three Golden Apples which were irresistible

Along with the golden apples Aphrodite presented Hippomenes with a plan

In return Hippomenes was to sacrifice to Aphrodite when he was a married man

 

Hippomenes stood on the start next to the woman he loved holding the apples

Atalanta just sighed that such a good-looking man would die like the other fools

Pausing to give just one last prayer to Aphrodite and then the race had begun

He got off to a good start and apart from being intelligent he could also run

 

Soon Atalanta sped ahead of him, so he threw the first of his golden apples

Slightly ahead of Atalanta and slightly off the track she found it irresistible

As soon as Atalanta saw it, she desired it and had to stop to pick up the fruit

Hippomenes passed her with delight, praying to Aphrodite along the route

 

But Atalanta soon caught him, and two-thirds of the way passed him again

This time Hippomenes through his Golden Apple deeper in the wooded terrain

As soon as Atalanta saw it she desired it and had to stop to pick up the fruit

Hippomenes passed her with delight again and still praying along the route

 

But Atalanta again caught him within sight of the finish line and passed by

This time Hippomenes through his Golden Apple ahead of her quite high

As soon as Atalanta saw it she desired it and had to stop to pick up the fruit

Hippomenes passed her with delight the crossed the finish line to win his suit

 

Despite her resistance once it was won marriage seemed to suit Atalanta.

And Hippomenes happiness and joy was so great he was devoted to her

Then one day he completely forgot his obligations to sacrifice to Aphrodite

When offending the Gods the punishment was severe and vengeance mighty

 

Aphrodite waited until Hippomenes and Atalanta were passing Zeus’s temple

Aphrodite sent flaming desire coursing through the veins of the young couple

The pair then lay together in Zeus' holy temple and they spent their passions

Zeus was horrified at the profanation and turned the young couple into lions

HERO’S OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY – BELLEROPHON

Bellerophon was born the son of Eurynome and the God Poseidon

And was raised by King Glaucus who thought he was his own son

Bred in Corinth as the son of the most skilled horseman of the day

He was taught by his father from a young age the equestrian way

And as an equestrian student young Bellerophon was quite precocious

And from a young boy he had yearned to ride the magic horse Pegasus

Pegasus was the immortal offspring of the Gorgon Medusa and Poseidon

The winged horse was born when Perseus cut the head off the Gorgon

Like everyone else he’d been unable to so much as approach Pegasus

But undeterred Bellerophon sought the advice of the seer Polyeidus

It was suggested that he spend the night in the temple by Athena's idol

And in a dream, the goddess came to him and gave him a golden bridle

On the next morning he found Pegasus drinking at the spring of Peirene

And slipped the bridle over his head and tamed him without difficulty

 

After his success he went to King Pittheus to seek the hand of Aethra

And Bellerophon received permission from Pittheus to marry his daughter

But before the marriage could take place, he accidentally killed a man

His punishment was banishment from Corinth after his confession

The young Bellerophon traveled in order to be purified of his sins

And was in due course absolved by King Proetus in neighboring Tiryns

The King's wife made a pass at the young hero, and when he repulsed her

She told her husband that it was Bellerophon who had tried to seduce her

Greatly upset, King Proetus feigning goodwill cloaked his indignation

And not wishing to harm his guest and violate the sacred obligation

But he contrived his revenge by asking Bellerophon to deliver a letter

On King Proetus’s behalf to his father-in-law King Iobates of Lycia

Bellerophon agreed to deliver it while not knowing the letters content

The message urged King Iobates to kill the bearer of the document

But Iobates was bound by the same strictures of hospitality as Proetus

Unable to comply he had to feast the hero and the winged Pegasus

Iobates decided that the solution to getting rid of his guest was to ask

Bellerophon on Pegasus to undertake many a n heroic and deadly task

However, the young hero Bellerophon's courage and archery skill

Combined with the winged Pegasus as a mount allowed him to prevail

In addition to his immortal parentage and his persistent sacrifices

His many acts of honor brought him the favor of Gods and Goddesses

His first task was to kill the terrible three headed fiery Chimaera

After Succeeding here, it was the Solymi tribe he was sent to conquer

The neighboring Solymi tribe were King Iobates traditional enemy

Victorious he was sent to fight the Amazons and had another victory

In desperation King Iobates laid an ambush against Bellerophon

Using his entire army and the hero again triumphed killing everyone

After this defeat Iobates realized that the Gods favored the Corinthian

And that the Gods would not show such favor to a dishonorable man

Iobates made peace with him giving him half of his kingdom of Lycia

Including the most fertile land and the hand of Philonoe his daughter

Queen Stheneboea the wife of King Proetus and the attempted seducer

Was appalled on hearing that Bellerophon had married her sister

Knowing this meant her slander would be reveled she chose suicide

It appeared that our hero would live happily ever after with his bride

They were happily married and had two sons, Hippolochus and Isander

And two daughters, Laodameia and Deidameia in the kingdom of Lycia

As King his subjects loved him, and his glorious deeds were widely sung

But all this was not enough for our arrogant hero King Bellerophon

In his arrogance King Bellerophon decided that he could ride Pegasus

To visit with the Gods and Goddesses high upon Mount Olympus

But Zeus quickly put an end to his audacity by sending the gadfly

And it stung Pegasus sending both of them tumbling down from the sky

Athena spared his life by causing him to land on a soft patch of weed

He survived the fall but was crippled and there was no sign of his steed

He wandered the earth the rest of his life alone searching for Pegasus

No man would help him because of his offense to the Gods on Olympus

After many years of searching, the magical Pegasus was never seen again

Bellerophon died with no one to record his fate in some foreign domain

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE MAUSOLEUM OF HALICARNASSUS

 

The mausoleum of Halicarnassus like the great pyramid of Giza was the burial place of an ancient king and qualified as one of the seven wonders because like the Temple of Artemis it had great beauty.

The building stood on a stepped podium whose sides were decorated with statues and in the burial chamber was surrounded by Ionic columns and the sarcophagus was of white alabaster decorated with gold.

The colonnade supported a pyramid roof which was in turn decorated with fine statues and the very top of the tomb was adorned by a statue of a chariot pulled by four horses.

The mausoleum was built in the city of Halicarnassus now called Bodrum in south western Turkey on the coast of the Aegean Sea.

King Maussollos of Caria reigned over all of western turkey as a governor or satrap for the Persian Empire from 377 to 353 BC.

Maussollos was a rather unremarkable ruler and but for the beautiful tomb conceived by his wife and sister he would probably have been completely forgotten.

It was three years after Maussollos death around 350 BC that The Mausoleum was completed and For 16 centuries, it remained in good condition until the roof and colonnade was damaged by an earthquake.

When the Knights of St John invaded the region in the early fifteenth century they built a huge crusader castle and when it was fortified in 1494 it was stones from the Mausoleum that they.

Over the next 30 years almost every block of stone and marble had been used by the crusaders for construction.

The great crusader castle still stands in Bodrum and the mausoleum’s polished stone and marble blocks are easy to see in the walls of the structure.

At the site of the Mausoleum only the foundations remain while some of the sculptures and parts of frieze are on display at the British Museum in London.

So the name of the unremarkable King Maussollos lives on all around the world where in every city families continue to place loved ones in tombs or more accurately mausoleums.

 

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE TEMPLE OF ARTEMIS AT EPHESUS

The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus was dedicated to the honour of the Greek goddess of hunting, wild nature, and fertility.

Ephesus was an ancient city in what is now modern Turkey near to the town of Selcuk.

The reason that a temple dedicated to lesser god, and compared to Zeus, Hera and Athena Artemis was a lesser god, was elevated to be one of the seven wonders is that it was the most beautiful structure on earth.

The construction of the temple began in around 550 BC and was designed by the Greek architect Chersiphron and was sponsored by Croesus the Lydian king neither architect or sponsor saw the project completed as it took about 120 years.

The magnificent Temple was decorated with bronze statues reputedly sculpted by some of the most skilful artists of their time such as Phradmon, Polycleitus, Kresilas, and Pheidias who also crafted the statue of Zeus at Olympia.

The temple was both a marketplace and a religious sanctuary a place visited by people from every corner of the ancient world and beyond and from every walk of life from kings and princes to paupers and vagabonds.

It was on the night of Alexander the Greats birth the 21^st July 356 BC, a man named Herostratus burned down the temple to ground in an attempt to immortalize himself which in a way he succeeded in doing.

When Alexander later conquered Asia Minor and he reached Ephesus he visited the site of the damaged temple and at once offered to have it rebuilt but it wasn’t until after Alexander’s death in 323 BC that work began on its restoration.

St Paul visited Ephesus to preach Christianity in the first century AD but the Ephesians were resolute in their devotion to Artemis.

It was in 262 AD when the next significant visitors to Ephesus arrived and they were the Goths who destroyed the temple.

By the time the crusaders came in the fourth century AD the old religions of ancient Greece had fallen from favour and most Ephesians’ had converted to Christianity.

The final nail in the temple’s coffin came when in 401 AD the once beautiful Temple of Artemis was torn down by the knights of St John.

Ephesus was then deserted, and the temple lost it was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century the temple’s foundations were discovered in the Turkish swamps what an ignominious end for what was once the most beautiful structure on earth.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE COLOSSUS OF RHODES

 

The Colossus of Rhodes was the youngest of the seven ancient wonders with the 12-year construction being completed in 282 BC. 

The 110 ft colossus was cast in bronze and stood on a huge white marble plinth on the eastern promontory of the Mandraki harbour by the entrance of the port on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Rhodes and contrary to popular belief the Colossus did not straddle the mouth of the harbour.

The huge bronze statue of the sun god Helios was cast by the Rhodian sculptor Chares of Lindos to celebrate the lifting of the siege of Rhodes by the Antigonids of Macedonia.

Not only was the colossus the youngest wonder it was also the most short lived only surviving for 56 years before it was felled by a severe earthquake in 226 BC that badly damaged the city.

The statue lay broken in ruins on the ground where it fell for almost a thousand years until the Arabs invaded Rhodes in 654 AD who sold the bonze remains to a Syrian Jew who had them transported home reportedly on 900 camels.

Although it physically survived for little more than half a century such was the statues magnificence it survived in people’s hearts and minds sufficiently to elevate it to become one of the seven wonders.

Even though we have no way of knowing the exact appearance of the Colossus it has none the less influenced other great artists over the centuries such as the great French sculptor Auguste Bartholdi best known for the Statue of Liberty.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE HANGING GARDENS OF BABYLON

 

If you asked anyone to name the seven wonders it is highly unlikely that they will be able to do so, but the majority will manage to name the hanging gardens of Babylon.

What makes that fact all the more remarkable is that the hanging gardens are the only wonder we have yet to locate.

It’s believed to have been on the east bank of the River Euphrates, approximately 30 miles to the south of Baghdad in modern Iraq but as yet archaeologists have failed to agree on its exact location.

There are some who go as far as to say the hanging gardens never existed but were instead figments of the imagination of Greek poets written on the back of tales from travellers and soldiers who had never set eyes upon such fertile land as Mesopotamia.

Even Babylonian writings from the time make no mention of their existence.

 

The Babylonian kingdom flourished for over a thousand years, but it was during the Neo-Babylonian dynasty that the Mesopotamian civilization reached its zenith.

It was during the rule of Nebuchadnezzar that the gardens are supposed to have been built and Nebuchadnezzar himself is credited with their conception although even this is disputed in some quarters.

The story goes that Nebuchadnezzar had the gardens built in around 600 BC to please his homesick wife who missed the mountain surroundings of her homeland.

The exact description of the gardens varies from account to account, but the gist seems to be an enormous multi-tiered structure generally square and supported from beneath by vast pillars and vaulted arches.

On the tiers were planted trees and plants of every kind as well as large, grassed areas and such was the irrigation system fed by pumped water from the river Euphrates that the grass was always green and the trees always in leaf.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE STATUE OF ZEUS AT OLYMPIA

 

The statue of Zeus at Olympia stood in the part of western Greece that gave its name to the Olympic Games and was to build to honour the greatest of the Greek gods.

The magnificent temple of Zeus was built around 450 BC and built in the simple Doric style

It was decided a majestic statue should be created and so The Athenian sculptor Pheidias was assigned the "sacred" task which he began in 440 BC.

The statue was created from metal, ivory and sculpted marble his head was wreathed with olive sprays in his right hand he held a gold and ivory victory figure and in his left an inlaid golden sceptre.

He wore golden sandals, and his throne was decorated with ebony and ivory gold and other precious metals and every kind of gemstone and when the throne figure was completed it was almost too big to fit in the temple.

Many worshippers visited the temple over the following 450 years and some work was needed to restore the ageing masterpiece and a hundred years earlier the roman emperor Caligula tried to have the statue transported to his palace in Rome, but he failed.

After the temple of Zeus was ordered closed and the Olympic Games banned in 391 AD by emperor Theodosius I, Olympia was struck repeatedly by earthquakes, landslides and floods.

By the time the temple was badly damaged by fire in the fifth century AD the statue had been transported to the city of Constantinople to the palace owned by a wealthy Greek.

Where it survived until 462 AD when a severe fire destroyed it.

Today nothing remains at the site of the old temple except fallen columns and debris and nothing remains at all of the greatest work of art in Greek sculpture.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD, THE LIGHTHOUSE OF ALEXANDRIA

 

I suppose you could say that The Lighthouse of Alexandria is the only one of the seven wonders that had a truly practical use in addition to it having architectural merit as well as being aesthetically pleasing.

The lighthouse was built on the ancient island of Pharos at the entrance to the great harbour of Alexandria.

Architecturally it was not merely the second tallest building on Earth but possessed great elegance.

Standing at a height of 384 ft it would have been equivalent to a modern forty story building.

A central shaft ran the full height of the structure which was used to lift fuel to the upper level and the whole of the outside was covered with shining white marble and a statue of Poseidon adorned the summit.

Its practicality was most felt by the men of the sea who risked their lives and who benefited as it ensured a safe return to the Great Harbour the great mirror housed in the light house was visible thirty-five miles out to sea there is even a Legend which says the mirror was also used to detect and burn enemy ships before they could reach the shore.

 

The lighthouse was the brainchild of Alexander the Greats commander Ptolemy Soter who assumed power in Egypt after Alexander’s death.

The architect for the project which began around 290 BC was Sostratus, but it was not completed until after the death of Ptolemy Soter when Egypt was ruled by his son Ptolemy Philadelphus.

For centuries the great mirror in the Lighthouse of Alexandria was used to reflect firelight at night and the sun’s rays during the day.

The lighthouse was even depicted on roman coins of the day such was its import.

When Egypt was conquered by the Arabs, they sacked the much-admired Alexandria for its wealth.

Alexandria and the Lighthouse was less important to the Arabs who emphasized this by moving their administrative centre to the lesser city of Cairo.

 

A violent earthquake shook Alexandria In AD 956 but caused very little damage to the Lighthouse but much later in 1303 and again in 1323 two successive stronger earthquakes inflicted greater damage on the structure.

The final indignity was visited upon the lighthouse in 1480 when the Egyptian Mamelouk Sultan, Qaitbay tore down the remains of the lighthouse and built a fort in its place using the stone and marble from its predecessor.

 

Although the Lighthouse of Alexandria has not survived to the present day, it has left its influence on the modern world the name of Pharos lives on as the name for lighthouse all around the Mediterranean.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD – THE GREAT PYRAMID OF GIZA

 

The great pyramid of Giza is not only the oldest of the seven wonders but is also the only one to have survived to the present day.

It stands near the ancient city of Memphis on the Giza plateau, a necropolis or tract of land used for burials now part of modern Cairo.

Although there are three pyramids standing on the Giza plateau it is only the largest of them that is actually one of the seven wonders, the great pyramid of Khufu more commonly referred to as the pyramid of Cheops.

The pyramid was built around 2560 BC by and for the pharaoh Khufu intended to be both his tomb and a great and lasting monument after his death.

The tombs construction is believed to have been achieved over a period of twenty years.

The exterior of the pyramid now have a stepped appearance though when it was completed it has a smooth covering of stone which the desert winds have worn away over nearly four and a half millennia.

When it was built, the Great pyramid stood 481 ft high but 30 ft has been worn off the top over its many years and the base consists of four equal sides 751ft in length.

It wasn’t until the latter part of the nineteenth century that the great pyramid was surpassed as the tallest structure on earth a position it had occupied for over four thousand three hundred years.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of the Pyramid is the incredible mathematical accuracy involved in its construction.

The great pyramid was built to such great precision using very rudimentary techniques which even with all of our 21^st century technology we cannot replicate.