Maia- Mother of Hermes

Maia, daughter of the titan Atlas and the Oceanid Pleione, was the oldest of the Pleiades- which were nymphs of companion to Artemis. Maia is mostly known as the mother of Hermes, god of messengers and thieves.

Arachne- A Sad Sorry Tradgedy

I am going to explain this myth in the form of a play. After all, I am a dramaturg.

(Curtains open onto a bright stage. A girl is sitting at a loom. Her weaving is dazzlingly beautiful. Tapestries sit at the girl's feet. Townspeople are bustling about, but many stop to stare at the weavings.) 
ARACHNE: (With a proud smile) My weavings are stunning aren't they?
OLD WOMAN: (Stops to gaze at the weaving) They are very beautiful.
ARACHNE: I bet that I can weave threads more colorful and patterns more extraordinary than Athena.
OLD WOMAN: Don't say that my child. The goddess might hear you.
ARACHNE: So what if she does? It wouldn't matter. All of Greece knows it's the truth.
OLD WOMAN: Hush! If she heard you, you could be in big trouble.
(Smoke billows and lights flicker as ATHENA suddenly appears beside the loom. The OLD WOMAN recoils. ARACHNE jumps to her feet. She curtsies frantically.)
ARACHNE: Lady Athena! I- I-
ATHENA: I believe I heard you say something that I disapprove of. Do you not realize that I myself am the goddess of weaving?
ARACHNE: Yes, m'lady. I do realize this. But, look! Are they not beautiful?
ATHENA: (Glances disdainfully at the weavings) You do have a talent for weaving.
ARACHNE: Could you do better?
ATHENA: (Sucks in her cheeks, irritated) Let the people decide. We shall have a contest. We each have 24 hours to weave the most intricate tapestry we ever have. When we're done, we'll let the people of this fine city decide whose is better. (She waves her hand and another loom appears. She sits at it and begins weaving. ARACHNE follows suit. As they work townspeople gather around them, mumbling and pointing. They cannot decide who's is better. When they are done both weavers stand and display their work. Both are viciously beautiful. More murmur from the crowd.)

ALTERNATE ALMOST-ENDING #1
OLD WOMAN: (Standing to represent the crowd) The people of the town have chosen a weaving. The most beautiful is... Athena's!
ARACHNE: (Throwing a tantrum) I'm the best weaver! Mine is way more fantastic than hers.

ALTERNATE ALMOST-ENDING #2
OLD WOMAN: (Standing to represent the crowd) The people of the town have chosen a weaving. The most beautiful is... Arachne's! (ARACHNE cheers and dances. ATHENA fumes.)

ALTERNATE ALMOST-ENDING #3
(Before the towns people can decide, ATHENA suddenly rushes to the looms and rips ARACHNE'S weaving in two. She stomps on it, thinking that ARACHNE'S weaving is better than her own.)

ENDING (Can be used with any alternate almost-ending)
ATHENA: (Turning viciously on the girl) Enough! For your insolent pride, I will teach you a lesson. From now on, you will weave always. And no one will ever want what you weave.  Your children will wander the world as you do. Let this teach you a lesson! (She taps ARACHNE'S shoulder and she shrivels down into a small black thing with eight legs- a spider. The spider scurries away. The towns people stand terrified. Athena is frowning, but seems proud. Curtains close.)

Picture from breakingthespidersweb.blogspot.com

And that is where a spider came from. Arachne is also where we get the word Arachnid. Cool, huh?

My Pet Peeves- Roman/Greek

One of my biggest pet peeves in Greek mythology, is when people say Hercules. It drives me crazy! The Romans took the Greek myths and changed them around a bit. The Greeks were first. They came up with it all. Yet the Romans get all the credit! Look at this list:

The planets are named after Roman gods, even the ones discovered in this century.
Cupid is the star of Valentines day, but no one knows who Eros is.
Who's the king of the sea? Neptune, never Poseidon.

But when people use the term Hercules in Greek mythology bugs me the most. Doesn't anyone know that Hercules is the Roman form? Does anyone realize that the first super-human hero was Heracles? That makes the plot thicker. Hera hates him even though he was named after her.
Yes, the true Greek name is Heracles. But even in Greek mythology does it betray itself by saying Hercules. It's sad really.

Jocasta- A Queen With Serious Family Issues

Jocasta- queen of Thebes, married to King Laius, was happy. That is, until an oracle warned her that her son would kill his father and marry his mother. Not surprisingly, Jocasta and her husband decided to avoid this horrid prediction. So they left their baby (Oedipus) with a shepherd and told him to leave him somewhere to die. The shepherd took pity on the baby though, and gave him to a passing traveler. Oedipus was soon adopted by King Polybus and Queen Periboea. Jocasta and Laius considered the matter closed.
Years later, Laius and four attendants were traveling in a chariot on a road to Thebes. They met a man on the road, whom they tried to move off of the road so that the chariot could go by. During this, Laius poked the man with his stick. The man quickly got upset and killed Laius and three of his attendants. The fourth ran and told Jocasta what had happened. Little did any of them know, that the man on the road was in fact Oedipus, Jocasta's own son.
But Jocasta had other things to worry about. Aside from the death of her husband, a monstrous sphinx was plaguing the city. She sat at the gates of Thebes and asked a riddle to everyone who tried to use them. If they couldn't answer the riddle correctly, the sphinx would eat them. Oedipus came to the gates of Thebes and was assaulted by the sphinx and her riddle. Lucky for Oedipus though, he answered the riddle smartly and correctly. The sphinx then died a pitiful death.
Jocasta and the rest of Thebes welcomed Oedipus as a hero into their town. Jocasta was so impressed with his smarts that she married him. Together they had two sons and two daughters: Polynices, Eteocles, Antigone, and Ismene. Everything was well.
Then a plague hit Thebes and the people begged their new king for help. Oedipus sent Jocasta's brother Creon to the Oracle at Delphi to ask for Apollo's help. The oracle said that the plague wouldn't go away into Laius's murder was punished. Oedipus asked Tiresias to help find the murderer, and Tiresias revealed Oedipus as the murderer.
Oedipus was completely shocked at what Tiresias had said. He went to Jocasta and asked her about it. She remembered the prophecy given so long ago. She told everything to Oedipus, even about how they had treated their first son. Later when Oedipus had returned to the palace, he found that Jocasta had devastatingly taken the noose to herself.
The oracle's prophecy was correct. Oedipus killed his father and married his mother. I would consider that problematic. Would you?

Rhadamanthus

Rhadamanthus was the son of Zeus and Europa. His brothers were Sarpedos, and King Minos of Crete. He was, after he died of course, a judge of the dead. He had two sons: Gortys and Erythus. He was said to have ruled Crete before Minos.

Cephalus- A Hunter with Girl Problems

Cephalus was a hunter with girl problems. He was the son of Hermes and Herse. He was married to Procris, a daughter of Erechtheus. When he was hunting one day he was kidnapped by the lovesick Eos, goddess of the dawn, cursed to love handsome young men. Unfortunately, Cephalus was both young and handsome, so she targeted him as one of her crushes. But Eos was unable to make him love her and not Procris. But Procris was jealous, very jealous, so she spied on her husband when he was hunting. Cephalus (this is where the tragic Greek twist comes in) mistook her for an animal and shot her. And then the angry Greek law banned him for his accident. Later he helped Amphityron and was given the island Cephallania in return.
Didn't I tell you? The dude's got some serious girl problems.

Iris- Goddess of the Rainbow

This is my favorite picture of Iris

Iris was the minor goddess (or personification) of the rainbow. She was the daughter of Thaumas, god of the wonders of the sea, and Electra, princess of Argos,  who also gave birth to Iris' lovely sisters, the Harpies.
She was never married, but she always had a thing going for Zephyrus, god of the west wind. Together they had Pothos, the god of yearning.
Iris had the job of Messenger on Mount Olympus. She shared her role with Hermes. Although she delivered messages for all the gods, she was especially partial to Hera, who soon adopted Iris as her personal messenger. When delivering messages Iris was thought to either ride on a rainbow, or become a rainbow. And when she was delivering messages to mortals she always took the form of someone they were familiar with.
Iris had a special job to go along with being Messenger. Whenever the gods wanted to swear an oath, they required water from the river Styx. If you were to break an oath sworn by the river Styx, well, you would suffer dire consequences. If you were to drink the water, you would be revealing your secrets to the world. By drinking it you could tell if a person was telling the truth. If you swam in the waters you could become invincible (to a point, see the story of Achilles). It was Iris' job to fetch the water when it was needed. Not another god wanted to go down to the Underworld to get it, and Zeus only trusted Iris with this job.
Her sacred symbols/animals are a golden pitcher, golden wings, or a staff. She is often depicted as a beautiful woman or a rainbow.

When Jason and the Argonaughts were on a quest to find the golden fleece, they needed information. They came across Phineas, a blind seer. Phineas was cursed to always have his food stolen by the hideous and smelly Harpies, sisters to Iris. Phineas told the Argonaughts that he would only give them the promised info if they would rid him of the Harpies. So the Argonaughts, being violent men, drew their swords and attacked the Harpies. But Iris wouldn't allow it. Before they could reach the ugly bird-women, Iris stopped the Argonaughts and told them that If they didn't kill the Harpies, her sisters would never bother Phineas again.