Eamon’s Book

Of
Greek Myths

By: Eamon
Barkhordarian
 Table of Contents
Ares------------------------------------------------1-2
Hades----------------------------------------------3-4
Zeus------------------------------------------------5-6
Chiron----------------------------------------------7-8
Bellerophon---------------------------------------9-10
Apollo-----------------------------------------------11-12
Melampus-----------------------------------------13-14
Eos--------------------------------------------------15-16
Ascelpius------------------------------------------17-18
Meleager------------------------------------------19-20
Seating chart of the gods---------------------21
Job of gods---------------------------------------22
Zen Zhen (my own myth) --------------------23-24
Picture of Greek Gods------------------------25-44
 Ares
Ares, the god of war, was tall, handsome, but very cruel. His
companion was Eris, the spirit of strife. Eris held the apple of discord.
When she threw it among enemies, war broke out for the apple. Once
the enemies clashed their swords, Ares would join the fight not on
either side, not caring who won or lost, only caring for the people to
die.
Sometimes the wars were so vicious, Ares himself would
become wounded. After he was wounded, he would run to Olympus,
where Zeus treated him with the ointment of the gods. Ares was
instantly healed, and immediately returned to war.
Because Ares killed so many people, no one was fond of him,
except for Aphrodite, who admired Ares for his handsome looks. This
just shows that no matter how evil Ares behaved, there was at least
one god in the world of myths that admired him, but some of those
who didn’t, suffered with their lives.
 Hades
Hades, lord of the dead, was a god that people were too scared to talk
about. Even though he was very scary, he still had a queen, named
Persephone.
Mortals feared Hades so much that they dared not speak his
name, for he might send them to the underworld. The process of how
the souls reached the underworld of Hades was that Hermes, the god
of commerce, invention, and theft, would guide the souls of the dead
to a river called Styx. There, Charon would send the souls over the
river, to the underworld of Hades.
There, the souls stayed in the dark, gloomy underworld forever.
The three headed dogs of Hades would let the souls enter the
underworld, but would never let them out.
This shows that when people are no helpful to the world, their
souls would be tortured somewhere like the underworld.
 Zeus
Zeus, the father of all Greek gods, grew rapidly, as all the gods did.
He was taken care of by Nymphs, and nurtured by the fairy goat,
Amalthia, even though Zeus’s real father was Cronos and his mother
was Rhea.
The young Zeus wanted to overthrow his child-devouring father
Cronos. Though his wife, Metis, told him he needed strong allies.
First, to do that, Metis tricked Cronos into eating a magical herb
which Cronos thought would make him invincible, but actually made
him vomit all his six children he devoured. Then, all the children
joined Zeus and became his allies.
The Cyclops, some other of Zeus’s allies, forged lightening
bolts for Zeus which made him the mightiest god of all. Together,
Zeus and his allies overthrew Cronos and justice was restored.
 Chiron
Chiron, was the only kind and wise centaur. The other centaurs were without law
and order, stormed over fields, and trampled over crops.
Chiron may have looked like other centaurs, but he wasn’t related to Ixion,
the king of the Lapith people, whose offspring were the nasty centaurs. Chiron
was actually related to Cronos, the titan. This was one of the reasons why Chiron
wasn’t cruel like the other centaurs.
He was so kind, that he cared for children at his cave in Mount Pelion.
This was where he taught manly sports such as how to use healing herbs and how
to read the stars. By teaching kids so many wonderful things the kids all exceeded
their father’s courage and knowledge.
The most important person Chiron cared for was Ascelpius, Apollo’s son,
and grandson of Zeus. Apollo, the god of sky and health, asked Chiron to raise his
son, Ascelpius, since Ascelpius’s mother, a Lapith princess, had died. Chiron
raised the boy to a wonderful person. A person, ho would someday become the
greatest healer, of all time.
No other centaur would ever do such kind things as Chiron did. Instead,
what they did was: kick and spank their children, wrestled, ate raw meat, and left
their children to take car of themselves.
All this leads up to one very important lesson: don’t let similar looks
deceive you. This is because even though Chiron may have looked like other
centaurs, he was the exact opposite.
 Bellerophon
Bellerophin, grandson of Sisyphus, was a great tamer of horses. He
wanted, more than anything in the world, to ride the winged horse,
Pegasus, who was born out of Medusa’s neck.
One day, he used his golden bridle to tame Pegasus, and
Pegasus became so tame that he let Bellerophon ride on him. They
instantly became partners, and the two of them fought the three
headed, fire breathing beast, Chimera, who was terrorizing a kingdom.
Chimera was scarier than a nightmare, and had a lion in front head,
serpent in back, and goat in middle.
To defeat this beast, Bellerophon stuck some lead to the end of
his spear. Then when Chimera breathed out her fire, the lead would
melt, and Bellerophon would choke Chimera with it.
He had saved the people of the kingdom that were held captive
by the beast, and everyone thought of him as a hero.
This shows that if you want to accomplish something, and you
try your best, you will overcome all the obstacles, and reach your
goal.
 Apollo
Apollo, the god of health and sky, grew rapidly. When he was fully
grown, his father, Zeus, gave him a chariot drawn by swans to get
himself the oracle of Delphi.
Delphi was the most scared place in Greece at the time. The
challenge to Apollo was that the oracle was guarded by the Python,
the darksome dragon. Python was mean, and ill-tempered, and if
Apollo wanted the oracle, he had to go through Python first.
The oracle, who could tell of the future, warned Python that
Apollo would someday kill him. And sure enough, Apollo came one
day hen Apollo tried to eat his mother, Leto, and so Apollo shot
python down with his thousand silver shafts. By killing Python,
Apollo had won himself the oracle of Delphi.
This story shows a very significant point: To overcome
something difficult, like taking the oracle from Python, Apollo must
have used all his strengths and abilities.
 Melampus
Melampus won glory, fame, and even one third of a kingdom, all by
being kind to animals.
When he was a child, he began to understand the language of
the animals because he spent so much time with them. But one time
he tried to steal some cows to prevent them from being slaughtered for
meat, though Melampus was caught and got thrown in jail. The ruler
of the kingdom told him that if he could cure the king’s ill son,
Melampus could have the cows. Because Melampus was so close to
animals, the animals taught him how to make a special brew for
curing the prince.
When the prince drank the brew, instantly he was cured, which
helped Melampus win great fame throughout the kingdom.
The king called Melampus again to cure his three daughters that
had a weird disease that made them act like cows. Melampus this time
said he would, in return for one third of the king’s kingdom. The king
had no choice and accepted. The girls were cured, and Melampus won
one third of the kingdom.
This shows that even though it might be hard to imagine,
animals can truly help when they are better cared for and understood.
 Eos
Eos, was the mother of the four winds. Whenever she awoke, nature awoke
also, happy to see her.
One morning, she saw a young prince whose name was Thithonus.
He was so amazingly handsome, that Eos wanted the prince as her husband.
But she wondered how she could marry a mortal, whose life span was so
short, while she was immortal and lived forever.
She immediately went to Zeus, to ask him to give the young prince
eternal youth. Zeus granted her wish, but she hadn’t known she had made a
terrible mistake. She forgot to ask Zeus to also grant the young prince
eternal youth!
They spent many wonderful years together. But after a while, the
prince was losing his strength, he shrank, and his voice became a little
squeak. He became so small and tiny; he turned into a grasshopper forever!
This leads up to one very important point: a little carelessness could
have big consequences. She was smart to go to Zeus for her wish to be
granted, she asked for a reasonable wish, and Zeus accepted to do it, so she
had an eternal living prince. But because she wasn’t very clear in asking for
her wish, she got a grasshopper instead.
 Ascelpius
Ascelpius, the first doctor that cured many people was born in Chiron’s cave on
Mount Pelion.
He was the son of Apollo and grandson of Zeus, the father of all gods.
When Ascelipus was fully grown, he left Chiron’s cave, and became the first great
physician.
He healed people near and far. People that came to him with crutches, left
skipping happily away. He was so amazing that soon, the people thought of him
as a god.
They built temples for Ascelpius which became the first hospitals. He had
a can that had two serpants on it, which often told Ascelpius the cure for diseases.
He had a wife and seven children who all followed their father’s footsteps
in curing people. His best accomplishment was to bring the dead back to life.
However, he began to desire being paid when he started accepting gold from
people for his work.
Zeus did not tolerate this, and threw a thunderbolt at Ascelpius. Ascelipus
perished and nothing was left of him but some ashes.
The moral of this story is that even a super powerful person capable of
healing and bringing the dead back to life, must not desire gold and money so
much, unless he is willing to lose his gifted talent.
 Meleager
Melager was one of the heroes of Calydonia and had the spear
throwing skill.
One day, the king of Calydonia forgot to include the name of
Artemis, the goddess of the moon and hunt, when he sacrificed to the
gods. In revenge, Artemis sent the biggest killer boar ever seen to the
kingdom. Everyone that came to hunt down the boar were men,
except for one woman, named Atalanta, the fastest runner in Greece,
and a great hunter. Many people died trying to kill the boar, but
Atalanta took her time and accurately shot the boar with a single
arrow followed by Melager who took the boar down with his powerful
spear.
After the fight, Melager gave the hide of the boar and its tusks
to Atalanta, for she was the one who got the most credit for taking
down the boar. Melager couldn’t take down the boar, without
Atalanta, and Atalanta couldn’t have taken it down without Melager.
This leads up to one very important point: teamwork between
men and women can overcome the most challenging obstacles.
 Zen Zhey
One day, on a mountainous island, a boy named Zen Zhey was born. He was
from the Lui Bao dynasty. He hadn’t known yet, but when he would become an adult, he
would be the ruler of his father’s empire.
When he was about 20 years old, he became the king and planned to take care of
his kingdom during his rule. But his first priority was to make his empire into a strong
military. His father had struggled to maintain the empire before Zen was ruler. This was
because of Alexander the Great, ruler of Greece, Rome, and mighty Persia. Alexander
owned all the land throughout Asia, except for Zen’s empire.
On his 20th birthday, the first day Zen was ruler, he got enough courage to go
fight Alexander the Great. This was the day of the fight, the fist week Zen was ruler. Zen
would probably lose to the heavily armed soldiers of Alexander. But Zen wasn’t doing
this for his empire, his people, or for mankind; he was doing this for his father.
He grabbed his armor, his helmet, and his sword. He also took his Book of
Knowledge; the only gift his father had left to him before his father went to war and
never returned. The book contained all the tactics to defeating Alexander. Zen charged
with his golden white horse, towards the army of Alexander, with his army following
behind him. The spirit of Zen’s father was with him, as he held the Book of Knowledge
in his hands.
The armies clashed. Soon, no one was left standing. No one, except for Zen and
Alexander, swords clashed, and teeth gritted. In the end, only one of them will be left
standing.
Slash! Clang! The two swords slammed at one another, each swing so powerful
that it sliced through the air. They repeatedly did this for what seemed hours, until Zen
grabbed Alexander’s sword with his empty hand. He grabbed Alexander’s sword so hard,
Alexander couldn’t move it. But gripping on Alexander’s sword made Zen’s hand squirt
out with blood. With Zen’s other hand gripping on his own sword, he put the blade next
to Alexander’s neck. This would be the end.
The only choice Alexander had been to fall to his knees. Suddenly Zen
remembered the time his father told him about how horrible Alexander was. “Terrifying
and filled with hatred,” Zen’s father had once told him. Then Zen’s memory switched to
remembering the Book of Knowledge. It was then that he remembered reading the book.
“If you take down your enemy, your problems will be gone,” the book read.
Zen wanted to protect his kingdom, and had no other choice but to take
Alexander down. Zen walked away not with a smile on his face, or a frown, but with a
tear streaking down his cheek, for even though he had just protected his empire, to do that
he had to kill someone. He had saved his kingdom in reality, but in his heart, he hadn’t
saved himself.