WAR IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY

"The higher Greek poetry did not make up fictitious plots: its business was to express the heroic saga, the myths." - Gilbert Murray. Even though war, and conflict generally, feature prominently in Greek mythology, and are heavy with symbolism and laden with meaning and significance - historical, political, social and cultural. The gods and goddesses of war are prominent members of the Greek pantheon: the battles fought by and between Olympians, Titans who rule the world, giants and battles for the Cosmos, and Amazons, between centaurs and lapiths, Zeus, wedding guests from Hell, the Theban and Epigoni Wars, Heracles, the Trojan War and battle for Helen, incest and infanticide were pivotal in Greek civilization. The Trojan War itself had huge and far-reaching consequences for subsequent Greek culture. The ubiquity of war themes in the Greek myths is a reflection of the prominence of war in everyday Greek life and society, which makes the relative obscurity of published literature all the more puzzling. This book redresses this by showing how conflict in mythology and legend resonated loudly as essential, existentialist even, symbols in Greek culture and how they are represented in classical literature and theatre, philosophy, religion, feminism, art, statuary, ceramics, architecture, numismatics, etymology, astronomy, even vulcanology to this day. 20 colour illus. 228 pages.