The Mesopotamians were very religious, and their civilizations shared the same deities with different identities, names, and Mesopotamian myths.
Myths in Mesopotamia
Sumerian mythology refers to Mesopotamian myths, religious texts, and other literature that originated in the region of ancient Mesopotamia in modern-day Western Asia. In particular, the societies of Sumer, Akkad, and Assyria, all of which existed shortly after 3000 BCE and disappeared mostly by 400 CE.
Greek mythology has had a major influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of the Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have drawn inspiration from Greek mythology and discovered the importance and contemporary relevance of its themes.
Here are three long Greek myths you should know about.
1. Long Greek myths: Zeus and Callisto
The myth of Zeus and Callisto is another of the long Greek myths that deals with love and jealousy, a common theme in Greek mythology. According to Greek mythology, Zeus had many human girlfriends, and one of his favorites was Callisto. He used to visit her often, arousing the jealousy of his wife Hera, who was also determined to take revenge on this woman.
One day, while Zeus and Callisto were walking through the forest, Zeus saw Hera approaching, but he did not know how to hide Callisto in time. Therefore, he transformed her into a large bear. When Hera approached them, she saw Zeus walking alone in the forest. She saw the bear, but knowing her husband quite well, she did not believe that he was alone there.
She insisted that they both return together to Mount Olympus. Zeus did not want to leave, because he knew that he had to return Callisto to her human form before returning to Olympus. But Hera insisted, and so it happened.
Zeus returned to the mountain with his wife, leaving Callisto transformed into a bear. However, on the same day, Callisto’s son Arcas was also in the forest hunting. He saw the large bear in front of him and shot his arrows at its heart.
His shot was successful, and the bear was mortally wounded. Before his astonished eyes, the bear began to die, but it began to turn back into his mother Callisto. Arcas saw his mother with an arrow in her heart and began to cry loudly for what he had done to his mother.
Arcas understood that Zeus had played a trick on his mother by transforming her into a bear. He became even angrier and began to cry even louder. Zeus heard him and realized that Hera could also hear the man, so he returned to earth to persuade Arcas not to reveal the secret.
Zeus turned Callisto back into a bear and made her the largest constellation in the northern sky, known as the Big Dipper. He also turned Arcas into a smaller constellation, known as the Little Dipper or Ursa Minor.
Arcas turned to look at his mother as she was placed in the sky; this is the main reason why, according to Greek mythology, the Little Dipper curves toward the Big Dipper.
A Variation of the Myth of Zeus and Callisto
According to a different version of the long Greek myths of Zeus and Callisto, Zeus transformed himself into his sister, the goddess Artemis (Diana), the goddess of Nature and Hunting, to mate with Callisto. Once again, the goddess Hera (Zeus’ wife), accustomed to her husband’s deceptive ways, discovered what was happening and tried to catch them in the act, but Zeus again transformed Callisto into a bear.
2. Long Greek myths: Pygmalion and Galatea
The second of the long Greek myths tells of Pygmalion and Galatea. This legend is probably one of the best-known stories in Greek mythology. The myth of Pygmalion and Galatea is also one of the oldest, most influential, and inspiring long Greek myths, and it became the main theme of plays, films, and artistic paintings.
As the myth tells:
Pygmalion was a talented Greek sculptor from Cyprus. After becoming disgusted by some local prostitutes, he lost all interest in women and avoided their company altogether.
Act I: The Creation of Galatea
Pygmalion saw women as flawed creatures and vowed never to waste any time in his life with them. He devoted himself to his work and soon created Galatea, a beautiful statue of a woman made of ivory.
Ironically, his life’s masterpiece was this statue of a woman. Perhaps he tried to correct in marble the flaws he saw in flesh-and-blood women. In any case, Pygmalion worked so long and so inspirationally on the statue of Galatea that she became more beautiful than any woman who ever lived or was carved in stone.
When he finished the statue’s features, they were exquisitely charming, and he found himself applying the hammer and chisel strokes with increasing affection. When his chisel finally fell silent, there before him stood a woman of such perfection that Pygmalion, who had professed his disdain for all women, fell deeply in love.
Act II: Pygmalion’s Obsession
Long Greek myths tell that such was his infatuation and obsession with Galatea that he brought her gifts, caressed her, kissed her, and talked to the statue every day. He brought her gifts that he thought women would enjoy, such as pretty seashells, beads, songbirds, ornaments, and flowers.
He dressed the statue in fine clothes and placed rings on her fingers, necklaces around her neck , and even earrings. However, how ironic that the man who had despised women fell in love with a woman who could never love him back!
Act III: Pygmalion and Aphrodite
Such passion could not go unnoticed by the goddess of love, Aphrodite. She took pity on the young man, and when Pygmalion went to her temple to sacrifice a bull, Aphrodite gave him a sign. As the offering burned in the temple, the flames shot up three times.
Pygmalion went home, wondering what to make of the manifestation he had seen. However, when he entered his study and saw the statue, all other thoughts were banished from his mind. He rushed to his statue and embraced it. Did it feel warm to the touch, or was it just the residual heat from the sunset that had warmed the stone? He thought, then kissed it.
“Did the statue’s lips feel soft? ” he thought nervouslyagain , stepping back and looking at it.
“Did the glow of life appear from within the marble form? Was he imagining it?” He thought and questioned himself a third time.
No. Aphrodite had brought the statue to life, and her name was Galatea.
Act IV: Pygmalion and Galatea
Pygmalion’s mind wavered between doubt and joy. Fearing that he might be mistaken, he touched the object of his hopes again and again with the ardor of a lover.
“She’s alive!” he exclaimed joyfully. As he touched her skin, it became soft to the touch and hardened when he let go. Slowly, Pygmalion realized that the reanimation of his sculpture was the result of his prayers to the goddess Aphrodite, who knew his desire. At last, the devotee of Aphrodite found words to thank the goddess, and Pygmalion knelt and worshipped the goddess of love.
Soon Pygmalion and Galatea were married, Aphrodite blessed the union she had formed, and this union between Pygmalion and Galatea produced a son named Paphos, thus giving rise to the great city of Paphos in Cyprus. The city most sacred to Aphrodite.
Pygmalion and Galatea brought gifts to her temple throughout their lives, and Aphrodite blessed them with happiness and love in return. The unusual love that blossomed between Pygmalion and Galatea captivates all who read or hear these long Greek myths. To fall in love with one’s own creation and then obtain the desired object as a wife—perhaps this was destined for Pygmalion.
Even to this day, countless people and young lovers are mesmerized by this exceptional love that existed between two people at a time when civilization was in its infancy.
3. Long Greek myths: Calypso and Odysseus
The third of the long Greek myths tells of one of the sea nymphs of the Oceanids named Calypso, who was the daughter of the Titan god Atlas and her mother was Thetis. Her name is related to the Greek word καλύπτω, which means “to hide” and symbolizes the forces that divert men from their goals.
The long Greek myth of Calypso and Odysseus is full of intrigue and moments of seduction.
Calypso, in Greek mythology, seduced Odysseus and kept him away from his wife, Penelope, for years until Athena intervened; Calypso finally had to let him go and even helped him build his boat. She has both negative and positive connotations in Greek mythology: as a corrector and seductress, Calypso is a negative Greek symbol, but as a rescuer she is positive. She is always compared to Penelope, therefore ending up as a force of diversion and distraction.
Calypso and Odysseus in Ogygia
Calypso lived in Ogygia, where she was banished as a prisoner because she supported her father in the battles between the Titans and the Olympic athletes. The location of the island is still unknown, and there are many versions of its possible location. The story of Calypso and Odysseus in Ogygia was presented by Homer and is the common belief among many historians and scholars.
Some believed that the island was located in the western Mediterranean Sea, or more precisely, in the Ionian Sea. In any case, on the island of Ogygia, Calypso welcomed the exhausted Greek hero Odysseus, who had been drifting for nine days in the open sea after losing his ship and his army to the monsters of Italy and Sicily while returning home from Troy.
The mythical Calypso fell in love with Odysseus and wanted to make him her immortal husband and give him eternal youth. But Odysseus did not accept her generosity: he was dreaming of returning to Ithaca and his wife. Calypso was so in love with him that, despite his refusal of her offers, she continued to wait and seduce Odysseus. Until finally, she made him her lover.
They lived together for seven years in her impressive cave, and according to Hesiod, Calypso even gave birth to two children: Nausithous and Nausinous. Apollodorus said that Calypso gave birth to a son named Latinus by Odysseus. Was Odysseus really imprisoned by Calypso, or did his desires weaken over the years and the comfort and love that Calypso provided him?
If the goddess Athena had not asked Zeus to “save” Odysseus from Ogygia and Calypso, what might have happened? Zeus sent the messenger of the gods, Hermes, to persuade Calypso to let Odysseus go. Calypso could not refuse Zeus, the King of the gods, but fearing Zeus’ powers and somewhat angry at her impending loss, she had something to say to Hermes: “You are a cruel person, unrivaled in jealousy, gods who cannot bear to let a goddess sleep with a man, even if it is done openly and she has chosen him as her lawful consort.”
Then she helped Odysseus build the boat that would take him back to his wife and his home, Ithaca. She provided enough food and wine for the long journey, and good winds. Calypso, who believed she had saved Odysseus, after losing her lover for seven years, tried to commit suicide. But being immortal, she only went through terrible pain and suffering.
