ANCIENT GREEKS
THE TITANS
According to the Greek myths, the gods were descended from a race of giants known as the Titans. The Titans were the children of the earth and the sky. Huge, handsome and powerful, they ruled the world during a long ago golden age. The chief Titan, Cronus, knew he would be overthrown by one of his children, so he swallowed them as soon as they were born. Eventually his wife Rhea tricked him into sparing one, by giving him a stone wrapped blanket to swallow instead. The child Cronus who didn't swallow, was named Zeus.
When Zeus grew up, he forced Cronus to spit out his other children. These children became the first Greek gods.
They wrested control of the world from the Titans in a battle that lasted ten years. After defeating the Titans, Zeus and his brothers divided the world between them. Zeus took the sky, Poseidon the seas, and Hades the Underground realm known as the Underworld. The earth they agreed to share.
(2 THE MONSTERS
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The monsters that interest me are Medusa, the Minotaur and the Graeae sisters. +
Medusa had hair for snakes and her gaze turned living creatures to stone. She was one of the three sisters, known as the Gorgons.
The Minotaur was a man eating monster, half man half bull. It was kept locked away in a labyrinth by king Minos of Crete,who fed it with victims from nearby Athens.
The Graeae sisters were the three old crones who had only one eye and one tooth, which they passed between them.
(3 THE UNDERWORLD
In the Greek myths, the underworld was a spooky underground kingdom, ruled by Zeus' brother, Hades. The dead lived here, their spirits ferried over from the land of the living by a fiery-eyed boatman, Charon.
The entrance to the underworld was guarded by a fierce three headed dog named Cerberus. He made sure that no one escaped.
The underworld was surrounded by a river, which could be only crossed in Charon's boat. Charon always asked for a coin in exchange for carrying the dead.
The Greeks put coins inside the mouths of the dead people, so they would be able to pay him.
The Underworld was divided into three main parts. The dead ended up in different places, depending on what they done during their lives. Heroes and those loved by the gods went to a beautiful garden known as the Elysian Fields. Ordinary people ended up in the drab, shadowy Asphodel Fields. Evildoers were plunged into the dark pit of Tartarus.
