Mythology the Past and Present Essay

Nike is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. She sat at the side of Zeus, the ruler of the Olympic pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence, symbolizing victorious encounters, Nike presided over history’s earliest battlefields. A Greek would say, â€Å"When we go to battle and win, we say it is Nike. † Synonymous with honored conquest, Nike is the twentieth century footwear that lifts the world’s greatest athletes to new levels of mastery and achievement. The Nike ‘swoosh’ embodies the spirit of the winged goddess who inspired the most courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization. In Greek mythology, Nike was a goddess who personified victory, also known as the Winged Goddess of Victory. The Roman equivalent was Victoria. Depending upon the time of various myths, she was described as the daughter of Pallas (Titan) and Styx (Water), and the sister of Kratos (Strength), Bia (Force), and Zelus (Zeal). Nike and her siblings were close companions of Zeus, the dominant deity of the Greek pantheon. According to classical (later) myth, Styx brought them to Zeus when the god was assembling allies for the Titan War against the older deities. Nike assumed the role of the divine charioteer, a role in which she often is portrayed in Classical Greek art. Nike flew around battlefields rewarding the victors with glory and fame. Nike is seen with wings in most statues and paintings. Most other winged deities in the Greek pantheon had shed their wings by Classical times. Nike is the goddess of strength, speed, and victory. Nike was a very close acquaintance of Athena, and is thought to have stood in Athena’s outstretched hand in the statue of Athena located in the Parthenon. Nike is one of the most commonly portrayed figures on Greek coins. Nike has a legacy that lives on today, not through the field of battle but through clothing, shoes, and apparel. Nike paints the perfect portrait of what the goddess set out to do, and that was to turn out victorious in the end no matter how grueling the battle may be. When people hear the word Mercury they might think of a nice care or even the planet. Hear I will explain the origin of this Greek god. Mercury was a messenger, and a god of trade, the son of Maia Maiestas and Jupiter in Roman mythology. His name is related to the Latin word merx (â€Å"merchandise†; compare merchant, commerce, etc. ), mercari (to trade), and merces (wages). In his earliest forms, he appears to have been related to the Etruscan deity Turms, but most of his characteristics and mythology were borrowed from the analogous Greek deity, Hermes. Latin writers rewrote Hermes’ myths and substituted his name with that of Mercury. However there are at least two myths that involve Mercury that are Roman in origin. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Mercury reminds Aeneas of his mission to found the city of Rome. In Ovid’s Fasti, Mercury is assigned to escort the nymph Larunda to the underworld. Mercury, however, fell in love with Larunda and made love to her on the way; this act has also been interpreted as a rape. Lara thereby became mother to two children, referred to as the Lares, invisible household gods. Mercury has influenced the name of many things in a variety of scientific fields, such as the planet Mercury, and the element mercury, which it was formally associated. The word mercurial is commonly used to refer to something or someone erratic, volatile or unstable, derived from Mercury’s swift flights from place to place. Zeus is probably one of the most well know mythological god out there. People may not know but he inspired a very interesting logo that we all know today as Gatorade. It works out good because Gatorade is often used in competition, and Zeus was a competitive and powerful god. In Greek mythology Zeus is the â€Å"Father of Gods and men†, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family; he was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, â€Å"Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence. † For the Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, â€Å"That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men†. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Zeus assigns the various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical â€Å"cloud-gatherer† also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty. His Roman counterpart was Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart Tinia. Zeus was the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In most traditions he was married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.