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Taken from A Pride of Princesses, by Shirley Climo.
Once upon a time, so the mythmakers said, there lived a Greek king who had three daughters. The oldest princess was very pretty. The second princess was quite charming. The youngest princess, whose name was Psyche, was so lovely that even the flowers turned their heads to look at her.
Praise for Psyche's beauty spread throughout Greece and soon reached the ears of the gods and goddesses who dwelled high on Mount Olympus.
"Ridiculous!" scoffed the goddess Aphrodite. "This princess is only a girl. I am the Goddess of Beauty."
Aphrodite pushed aside the curtain of clouds and inspected the earth below. No people worshipped in the temples built to honor her. No scented smoke curled up from the altars.
"Psyche is to blame!" The goddess clenched her teeth. "But she shall pay for stealing my glory."
Day by day, as Psyche became lovelier, her friends became fewer. Other maidens, even her own sisters, were jealous of her. Men, dazzled by her beauty, were afraid to speak to her.
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Solar Apollo with Helio's halo
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“Helios” is just the Greek word for sun. He was also worshipped as a god by the Greek, especially in Rhodes. He is connected with horses and chariots and sometimes with cattle. He is usually called the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia or Euryphaesssa. Prominent children ascribed to him are Phaeton, King Aeetes of Colchis, and Circe.
“Apollo” (when we first see him in Homer and other early sources) is a god of archery, hunting, prophecy, lyre-music, and dancing. He is also god of cattle-herding and plague. He is never connected with the sun. And this stays almost entirely true in mythological texts until they end. How could a sun god sbe banished to earth for a year to serve as a cattle-herder at Troy and again in the sevice of King Admetus. Are we to imagine the sky without a sun for two years? Apollo is normally the son of Zeus by Leto. Prominent children ascribed to him are Trophonius, Amphiaraus, and Asclepius.
However in Greek religious belief (as opposed to mythological tradition) Apollo was increasingly connected or identified with the sun. Dionysos was also sometimes connected with the sun. Even Zeus was...
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Taken from The Greek Gods, by Evslin, Evslin, & Hoopes.
No one celebrated the birth of Hephaestus. His mother, Hera, had awaited him with great eagerness, hoping for a child so beautiful, so gifted, that it would make Zeus forget his heroic swarm of children from lesser consorts. But when the baby was born she was appalled to see that he was shriveled and ugly, with an irritating bleating wail. She did not wait for Zeus to see him, but snatched the infant up and hurled him off Olympus.
For a night and a day he fell, and hit the ground at the edge of the sea with such force that both of his legs were broken. He lay there on the beach mewing piteously, unable to crawl, wracked with pain, but unable to die because he was immortal. Finally, the tide came up. A huge wave curled him under its arm and carried him off to sea. And there he sank like a stone, and was caught by the playful Thetis, a naiad, who thought he was a tadpole.
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