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.

The Story of Athens

This post is originally from my other blog: A Dramaturg Fantasy

One day in Greece a new city was underway. The city was big and beautiful. The only thing left to do was to find a patron god for the new city. Both Poseidon and Athena wanted to take this position. The people of the city held a contest to choose their patron god. Whoever gave the greatest gift would win.
Poseidon stabbed his trident in the ground and gave a saltwater spring, and Athena gave the first olive tree. The people saw Athena's gift to be more useful so they chose her as their patron. They named the city Athens in her honor. They built an Acropolis or the Parthenon for her too.

The Parthenon
Picture from http://www.greece-athens.com

How the Gorgons Came to Be

This post is also on my other blog: A Dramaturg Fantasy

The story of the gorgons is actually quite pathetic. It goes something like this:
Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman named Medusa (don't freak, just hear me out). Medusa caught the attention of Poseidon, god of the sea. So together they planned a date. It was to take place in Athena's temple. Medusa acquired the help of her two sisters, Stheno and Euryale, to get her into the temple. This entire thing generally upset Athena, goddess of wisdom and war. Athena already had a rocky history with Poseidon (see The Story of Athens), so, as you can imagine, Athena did not take pleasure with him bringing his latest fling in for a date in her house. As punishment, Athena turned Medusa and her sisters into the three gorgons. Medusa got an extra-special punishment with her petrifying (literally) eyes.
Later, Medusa was killed by the hero Perseus and out of her severed neck came the beautiful winged-horse Pegasus, and our favorite 'golden boy' Chrysaor.
Sad huh?
We have never been quite clear on the appearance of Medusa and her sisters except the fact that they are absolutely hideous. Here is a list of some popular gorgon attributes:

Snake hair
Fangs
Boar tusks
Chicken legs
Wings
Scaled skin
Serpent body
Bronze hands/claws

They sound like happy beings don't they?