Olympus

by Devdutt Pattanaik

  During the Olympic Games held to mark the victory of Olympians, Apollo, the sun god, beat Hermes, the messenger god, in the footrace, and Ares, the war god, in boxing. As a result Apollo, the embodiment of Greek male beauty, became the patron of all sports and the Olympic Games in particular. A laurel wreath, sacred to Apollo, has therefore been the victory trophy of the Games since.

  Greek mythology is full of stories of athletic games organized to mark the death of a warrior in battle. They also served as a ritual of cleansing for those who had killed someone. This was the hallmark of a masculine warrior society. Usually the weapons of the dead were distributed amongst the winners.

  Greek society was aristocratic and hierarchical as indicated by the treatment of the charioteer Myrtilus.

  Chrysippus

  Hippodamia bore Pelops two sons: Thyestes and Atreus. He had another son, Chrysippus, from his affair with the nymph Axioche. Chrysippus was extremely beautiful and talented and Pelops’s favourite, and thus resented by Hippodamia’s sons.

  Laius, prince of Thebes, whom Pelops had given shelter, fell in love with the beautiful Chrysippus. When he tried to make love to the boy, the boy resisted, so Laius took him by force. For this abuse of hospitality, Pelops banished Laius from Pisa and cursed that Laius’s own son would kill him.

  Soon after, Chrysippus was found dead. Some said it was suicide. Others said it was murder. Pelops held Hippodamia and her sons responsible. Had they not hated Chrysippus? Had they not shamed him after his rape?

  Pelops exiled Thyestes and Atreus and died soon after. Ashamed, Hippodamia killed herself.

  Unlike in Hindu mythology, where one has to spend one’s accumulated karma to be able to curse another, cursing in Greek mythology has nothing to do with karma; it is simply a manifestation of rage. Anyone—the gods, the wronged or the oppressed— can curse those who disrupt the cosmic order.

  Like gods, even humans can curse cities through their rulers. Myrtilus curses Pelops, hence Pisa, for not keeping his word. Pelops curses Laius, and by extension Thebes, for breaching the rules of hospitality.

  One reason for the Roman disdain for Greece was the love of older Greek philosophers and kings for young boys. Though the Romans absorbed much of Greek mythology and made it their own, they did not appreciate the frequent man–boy love stories, preferring instead a much more hetero-normative lifestyle. Many attribute the popularity of man–boy love found in medieval Persia and even in modern Afghanistan (a practice called bachcha-bazi) to the spread of Greek culture following Alexander’s invasion.

  Thyestes

  Thyestes and Atreus, exiled from Olympia, found refuge in the city of Mycenae, which, coincidentally, needed a new ruler since the sons of Heracles had slain their old king, Eurystheus.

  Now, the two sons of Pelops were fiercely competitive—neither brother wanted the other to sit on the throne.

  ‘Maybe it should be whoever can present a golden fleece to the people of Mycenae,’ suggested Thyestes. Atreus liked the idea because he already had a golden fleece in his possession. He had promised to offer this to the goddess Artemis but had later changed his mind.

  What Atreus did not know was that an angry Artemis had made his wife, Aerope, fall in love with Thyestes and she had already given her lover the golden fleece. This betrayal of Atreus by his wife Aerope was yet another outcome of Myrtilus’s curse on Pelops’s descendants.

  And so it was that Thyestes, and not Atreus, presented the people of Mycenae with a golden fleece, and was made king of the city.

  The story of brothers fighting over property is a recurring theme in Hindu epics as well. In the Ramayana, Vali fights Sugriva over the throne of Kishkinda, and Ravana challenges Kubera for the throne of Lanka. In the Mahabharata, the Kauravas and the Pandavas fight over Hastinapur.

  The golden fleece of Atreus is different from the Golden Fleece recovered by Jason from Colchis.

  Like Minos who has to secure a bull from the sea, Atreus has to present a golden fleece to show that he is favoured by the gods, and is therefore a legitimate king. As in many cultures, in the Greek world too, royal power is derived from the gods.

  A royal sceptre, which is essentially a shepherd’s staff, is created by Hephaestus, who gives it to Zeus. It then passes from Zeus to Hermes, to Pelops, to Atreus, who then gives it to Thyestes when the latter becomes king, a shepherd of sheep and humans. Sheep rearing was a popular economic activity in ancient Greece just as cattle rearing was in India. In Hindu mythology, a king is often called ‘go-pala’ or cowherd, protector of the cow, the cow being the primary source of livelihood of the people. The cow was also a metaphor for the earth. The sheep was more a metaphor for people, who were supposed to follow the shepherd-king.

  Atreus

  Atreus was furious at being betrayed by his wife. But he found an ally in Zeus who sent Hermes with a message. After hearing this message Atreus told the people of Mycenae, ‘Would you want as king a son of Pelops who gives you a golden fleece or a son of Pelops who makes the sun travel eastwards?’

  Then, to the surprise of all, Atreus was able to make the sun travel backwards. The people immediately rejected the kingship of Thyestes, and made Atreus king.

  As the first step in his revenge, Atreus killed his unfaithful wife. He then invited Thyestes to a feast in which he served the flesh of Thyestes’s sons, which he unknowingly devoured. Having thus hurt and humiliated his brother, Atreus exiled him.

  Unfaithful wives are a recurring theme in Greek mythology. By contrast, faithfulness is a recurring theme in Hindu mythology. Faithfulness grants magical powers to a woman, makes her a sati, enabling her to withstand fire and protect her husband from weapons.

  Tales of cannibalism frequently appear in Greek mythology, as in the stories of Lycaon, Tantalus and Thyestes. In Hindu mythology too, there are tales involving rakshasas and asuras who feed human flesh to humans. Asuras feed Shukra the flesh of Kacha, who is actually a spy of the devas. Shukra is then forced by his daughter to save Kacha by imparting to him the secret of resurrection, the sanjivani vidya. In another story, Ilavila feeds the sage Agastya the flesh of his own brother, Vatapi, who has the power to resurrect himself in a man’s stomach and burst out of his body. Unfortunately for Ilavila, Agastya digests Vatapi before he can resurrect himself.

  The story of the rivalry between Atreus and Thyestes tells us how the will of the Olympians overpowers all human strategies. Thyestes may seduce his brother’s wife to gain the throne of Mycenae, but Zeus ensures that only Atreus will rule Mycenae.

  The theme of killing a child and feeding it to a parent as punishment for the parent’s crime recurs in Greek mythology. In Ovid’s Metamorphosis, Procne’s husband, Tereus, rapes Philomela and then cuts out her tongue to silence her. Philomela then weaves a tapestry to tell her sister of her tragic situation. Enraged, Procne kills the son she bore Tereus, and serves him the child’s flesh. When he has finished the meal, she presents him with his son’s head. A disgusted Tereus runs after the sisters with a knife but the sisters appeal to the Olympians and are turned into birds: Procne into a swallow and Philomela into a nightingale, whose song communicates her lamentation.

  Pelopia

  The oracles told Thyestes that he could have his revenge if he fathered a son on his own daughter. A vengeful Thyestes did not think twice and raped his daughter, Pelopia.

  Pelopia kept her pregnancy secret when her uncle, Atreus, sought her hand in marriage. When she delivered Thyestes’s child, Atreus assumed it was his firstborn and named him Aegisthus. Later, Pelopia gave birth to two more sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus.

  In time, Atreus pardoned Thyestes and let him return to Mycenae. But Thyestes had not forgiven Atreus. He revealed to Aegisthus the truth about his birth, and motivated him to kill his stepfather.

  After Aegisthus murdered Atreus, Pelopia took her own life, for she was unable to decide what was worse: the death of her husband at her son’s hands, or public knowledge that her firstborn was a product of ince
st.

  Thyestes, now king of Mycenae, did not have the heart to kill his daughter’s sons, his grandsons who were also his nephews. So he sent Agamemnon and Menelaus into exile. The brothers went to Sparta, where King Tyndareus had invited suitors to marry his daughters, Helen and Clytemnestra.

  Incest is a common theme in Greek epics and plays. This is conspicuous by its absence in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain epics and plays. The only place where incest seems to appear in Indic works is when speaking of primordial twins, as in the story of Yama and Yami in the Rig Veda, or in Jain mythology where the Golden Age is described as a time when husbands and wives were born as twin pairs and so were also brothers and sisters.

  Perseus of Argos takes refuge in Mycenae. Laius of Thebes takes refuge in Pisa. Atreus and Thyestes of Pisa take refuge in Mycenae. Agamemnon and Menelaus of Mycenae take refuge in Sparta. Thus we find the interlinking of Greek cities through their heroes. There is also an interlinking of Europe and Asia—Pelops moves from Lydia to Pisa, and before that Io moves from Europe to Asia, and Europa moves from Asia to Europe, followed by her brother Cadmus who establishes Thebes. These are tales of migration.

  The adultery and incest and cannibalism are signs of the collapse of order and the rise of chaos. Things are spinning out of control and eventually lead to the Trojan War.

  Tyndareus

  Tyndareus of Sparta was married to Leda whose beauty so enchanted Zeus that he took the form of a swan and made love to her.

  Leda delivered two eggs. In each egg there were two children: one by her mortal husband and the other by her divine lover. From one egg emerged a pair of boys: the mortal Castor and the immortal Pollux. From the other egg emerged a pair of girls: the plain Clytemnestra and the enchanting Helen.

  Helen was so great a beauty that Theseus of Athens abducted her when she was still a child. Her brothers, Castor and Pollux, attacked Athens and brought her back. The people of Athens were so ashamed of what their king had done that they used their newly found democratic power to vote him out of kingship.

  Word spread across the Greek world of Helen’s beauty, of how she had effortlessly enchanted Theseus of Athens, and caused his fall. She became the subject of fascination and fear, inspiring many ballads.

  When Castor and Pollux did not return from Jason’s expedition to fetch the Golden Fleece, Tyndareus sought able sons-in-law who would inherit his kingdom. And so he invited the kings of Greece to come to his city so that he could choose husbands for his daughters. He who married Helen would also become king of Sparta.

  Every king of Greece arrived in Sparta bearing expensive gifts for Helen’s hand and the Spartan throne. On seeing Helen, they all fell so madly in love with her that each one was willing to kill all his rivals in order to win

  her hand. Fearing the dreadful violence of rejected suitors, Tyndareus turned to Odysseus of Ithaca for help. Odysseus, who was known for his cunning, agreed to help if he was given the hand of Penelope, Tyndareus’s niece, in marriage. When Tyndareus consented, Odysseus came up with an elegant solution.

  All suitors were asked to swear an oath to protect the body and honour of the man who would eventually marry Helen. When everyone agreed, straws were drawn and the choice of groom was left to the Fates. Thus did Menelaus win the hand of Helen in marriage.

  So as not to displease the powerful Agamemnon, Tyndareus gave him the hand of his other daughter, Clytemnestra, and his army to retake Mycenae by killing the pretender Thyestes.

  Thus the two grandsons of Pelops became rulers of Sparta and Mycenae. In time, both their wives would be unfaithful to them, for the curse of Myrtilus still clung to the House of Pelops.

  As in Greek stories, Hindu epics also speak of destitute men (the Pandavas, for example) who become powerful when they marry powerful women (Draupadi, princess of Panchala).

  A study of Krishna lore reveals many Greek influences. In Hindu stories, typically a man carries his own karmic burden and does not inherit the karma of his parents. But in Krishna’s story, he cannot be king as he is a Yadava, and all the Yadavas are cursed because their originator, Yadu, was cursed by his father, Yayati, that if he or his descendants assumed the crown they would find no peace. So the Yadava city of Mathura functioned democratically as a republic, rather than as a monarchy. The curse of Yayati, like the curse of Myrtilus, extends over generations.

  In one version of the birth of Helen, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, took the form of a goose and was raped by Zeus who took her in the guise of a gander. From that union was born Helen, who was raised by Leda in Sparta. This alternate story suggests that Helen was a tool used by the gods to crush the hubris of the Greeks and the Trojans.

  Another story speaks of the rivalry of Castor and Pollux with their cousins, Lynceus and Idas. The two sets of brothers fought over women, food and cattle and eventually killed each other.

  Not much is known about the character of Menelaus. Different authors present him differently—some as a simpleton under the shadow of Agamemnon who adores his indifferent wife; others depict him as a brute.

  Thetis

  Helen’s marriage to Menelaus did not matter to the Olympians, especially not to Aphrodite, who had actually offered her as a prize to another man: Paris, prince of Troy, also known as Alexander.

  It all started when Zeus fell in love with two nymphs: Aegina, whom he could seduce, and Thetis, whom he could not.

  Zeus took Aegina to a deserted island to protect her from the wrath of her father. He turned the ants on the island into its inhabitants, who came to be known as Myrmidons. They served Aegina, protected her, and followed her son, Aeacus, with the discipline and loyalty seen in ants.

  Meanwhile, Zeus approached Thetis, intent on seducing her, until he learned from Heracles and Prometheus that she would bear a child greater than the father. So he withdrew and ordered Aeacus’s son, Peleus, to take her as his wife.

  Aeacus had two sons: Peleus and Telamon, who had joined the Calydonian hunt, the Argonaut expedition, and accompanied Heracles when he attacked Troy. During the Calydonian hunt they had accidentally killed their half-brother, Phocus, and so had to leave the island of Aegina. Telamon moved to the island of Salamis, and Peleus north to faraway Phthia, where the Myrmidons followed him.

  Thetis did not appreciate being given away to a mortal man without her permission, and resisted the idea of marriage, refusing to even meet Peleus. But then, one day, Peleus—directed by Zeus—caught her off guard on the beach while she was dancing naked with other sea nymphs. He grabbed her tight and did not let her go though she tried to escape, wriggling furiously, and even changing her form. Finally, she submitted and accepted him as her husband. From this union would be born Achilles, the greatest hero known to the Greek world.

  Thetis is a sea nymph or Nereid. In Hindu mythology, the damsels who dance in paradise are called apsaras, which means born of water (apsa, in Sanskrit). The Greeks classified nymphs according to their origin. There were tree nymphs, water nymphs, mountain nymphs and cloud nymphs. Such a classification is not found in Hindu mythology.

  Thetis is one of the fifty daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus, who ruled the sea before Poseidon. Nereus is the son of Pontus, the oldest sea god, and husband of Gaia. Nereus is often confused with Triton, son of Poseidon, a man with a fish tail instead of feet, who blows conch shells.

  In her ability to shape-shift, Thetis is like Proteus, the ‘old man of the sea’ according to Homer, an old sea god who keeps changing forms, giving rise to the adjective ‘protean’. Fabulous shape-shifting creatures inhabit Hindu mythology too. Durga fights an asura who assumes multiple forms: from elephant to lion before being killed as a buffalo.

  According to Plato, when Aeacus died, he became a judge of the dead, responsible for the spirits that came from the West (Europe), complementing Rhadamanthus who judged the dead who came from the East (Asia), and Minos, who had the casting vote.

  Alexander the Great traced his ancestry, on his mother’s side, to Aeacus.


  Eris

  All the Olympians were invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis except Eris, the goddess of discord. An angry Eris decided to teach all the assembled gods a lesson. She threw amongst them a golden apple, known as the Apple of Discord, on which were engraved the words ‘For the most beautiful’.

  Hera, Athena and Aphrodite, all claimed the apple and fought over it. Their bickering worsened as no god, not even Zeus, dared judge which of the three goddesses was the most beautiful, and hence worthy of the apple. Finally, the goddesses were told to go to Paris, prince of Troy, known for his understanding of female beauty and his fair judgement.

  The three goddesses presented themselves to Paris and tried to impress him with their beauty. When he could not decide, each one of the goddesses tried to bribe him secretly. Hera promised to make him the ruler of the greatest kingdom in the world. Athena promised to make him the most admired warrior in the world. Aphrodite promised him the hand of the most beautiful woman in the world—Helen of Sparta.

  Paris accepted Aphrodite’s offer, and judged her to be worthy of the apple, but in doing so he and the land of Troy earned the enmity of Hera and Athena forever.

  The Hindu goddess of discord is called Kalaha. She is also known as Alakshmi, goddess of misfortune. While the Greek goddess of discord has Ares, the god of war, as a brother, the Hindu goddess of discord has Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, as a sister. In Roman mythology, Eris was called Discordia.

  Paris was famous for organizing bullfights. He had a bull that had defeated all other bulls in the land. He offered a golden crown to anyone who could defeat his bull. Ares, the god of war, took the form of a bull and defeated Paris’s bull. Without hesitation, the Trojan prince gave the promised golden crown to Ares. This fairness of the judgement of Paris earned him the respect of the Olympians, who therefore asked him to choose the most beautiful of the three goddesses.