LessoN TwO

[Ron Weasley]

as i'm sure that you know, we're doing greek and roman mythology, so where better to start then with the king of the gods, zeus or jupiter...

for extra credit - what is a THIRD name for zeus?

Io
Zeus fell in love with Io and seduced her. To try to keep Hera from noticing he covered the world with a thick blanket of clouds. This backfired, arousing Hera's suspicions. She came down from Mount Olympus and begain dispersing the clouds. Zeus did some quick thinking and changed Io's form from being a lovely maiden. So as the clouds dispersed Hera found Zeus standing next to a white heifer. He then swore that he had never seen the cow before, it had just sprang right out of the earth. Seeing right through this Hera complimented the cow and asked to have it as a present. As turning such a reasonable request down would have given the whole thing away, Zeus presented her with the cow.

She sent the cow away and arranged Arges to watch over it. Since Arges had a hundred eyes and could have some of them sleep while others were awake he made a fine watchman. Desperate, Zeus sent Hermes to fetch Io. Disgused as a shepard, Hermes had to employ all his skill as a musician and story teller to gain Arges confidence and lull him to sleep. Once asleep Hermes killed Arges. As a memorial, Hera took his eyes and set them into the tail of her favorite bird, the peacock.

While Io was now free Hera sent the mother of all gad-flys to sting the still bovine Io. This pushed her near madness, trying to escape she wandered the world. During her wanders she came across Prometheus while chained. He gave her hope. He predicted that she would have to wander for many years. But, she would eventually be changed back into human form and would bear a child. He predicted that a decendent of this child would be a great hero and set him free.

His predictions came true. During her wanderings many geographical features where named after her including the Ionian Sea, and the Bosphorus (which means ford of the cow). She eventually reached the Nile where Zeus did restore her to human form. She bore Epaphus and eleven generations later her descendant Hercules would set Prometheus free.

for homework, write your own myth similar to this one with zeus and a young lady

[Mithrandir Padfoot]

[glow=red,2,300]amazing job!! great story very well written - 20 full points to gryffindor [/glow]

((As the professor has asked me not to rewrite an existing myth, but rather be creative and invent one myself, this is what I do here. So to all readers: the following is no genuine Greek myth, don't get confused, I made it all up (except for some details). So don't add it to your general knowledge of ancient myth!))


Zeus and Iduna

One day, as Zeus was perched on his throne at the Olympus, he spotted a fair young maiden bathing in the river below. She was singing like a lark in the morning, her voice reaching up towards the divine spheres. Zeus watched her, bewitched by her beauty and her voice, and when she had done bathing he noticed she was taking an apple from a basket on the shore, and eating it.

Zeus was very interested in this maiden, but experience had taught him that it was very difficult to mislead his wife, Hera. Thus he decided to wait a while, and not take action yet. Maybe it would be possible to forget this girl. But the next morning, she was back, at the same spot, even more lovely than she had looked the day before. And every day she returned at sunrise, and her beauty seemed ever to grow, and she was always singing her enchanting songs.

This continued for years, and Iduna, for that was the maiden's name, did not seem to grow older. Zeus got really curious about that, and he suspected it had something to do with the apples she ate daily.
Finally he could no longer stand his unsatisfied curiosity and desire. He changed himself into a silvery carp and plunged down in the river, and he swum towards Iduna.

"Who are you, maiden, singing so lovely at break of day," the carp asked.
"I am Iduna," answered Iduna, "but what kind of fish are you, that you can speak?"
"A servant to your God Zeus I am," said the carp, "and straight from the Olympus I come. My master Zeus wants to know: how can you, being human, live for decades and not grow older? Is eternal youth not a privilege of the Gods?"
"That is my secret," said Iduna. "How am I to know if you were really sent by Zeus?"
"I will take you to him," said the carp, "if you agree to be transfigured into a beautiful lark."
"What?" cried Iduna. "And leave this earth behind me, with all my beloved?"
"Think about it," the carp whispered seducively. "You will see places that no living soul has seen. Zeus has taken great interest in you. He will fulfill your deepest desires."
"As far as I know," Iduna said briskly, "the God Zeus has his own divine wife at the Olympos, a goddess by the name of Hera. I will not come with you. My place is here, guarding the apples of youth for the human race."
With that, she had proven to be an honest maiden, but also very distractedly given away the secret of her everlasting youth.
The carp began to grow and Zeus appeared in his real huge, impressive shape. "You foolish earthly girl," he boomed, as he hated being rejected. "How dare you speak of the Gods like that. I will give you one last chance: come with me, or the human race will regret it for ever!"
Iduna shivered, she was very frightened but yet determined not to give in. And her answer was: "I will not come with you, my lord, I'd rather die."
In his anger, the rejected Zeus changed Iduna into a deer and had her shot by huntsmen soon after that. He took the apples of youth and hid them, and since then no human being has been able to retrace them.