According to the myth told by Ovid, when Aphrodite met the infant Adonis, she was immediately smitten with him. She decided to take care of him by hiding him in a chest, and asked Persephone, the queen of the underworld, to educate him. However, Persephone also fell in Love with Adonis.
On the day Aphrodite descended into the underworld to retrieve the young Adonis, Persephone refused to return the boy, who had become her lover. The two women turned to Zeus to judge who should have Adonis, and Zeus asked the muse Kalliope to make the decision.
In the end, it was decided that Adonis would spend fourth months with Aphrodite, four with Persephone, and four alone to rest. However, Adonis decided - either on his own or through Aphrodite's magical influence - to spend his four months of “rest” with Aphrodite.
Aphrodite and Adonis continued their passionate relationship until one day, Adonis was mortally wounded while hunting a boar. Aphrodite heard her lover's moans of pain from her flying chariot, but by the time she arrived by his side, it was too late to save him. The goddess cried tears of blood that fell onto the ground, and from them sprouted either the purple anemone flower or the rose, depending on the version of the story.
In mythology, Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaistos, the god of metallurgy. However, she also had an affair with Ares, the god of war.
One night, after spending too long together, Ares and Aphrodite were caught by Helios, who informed Hephaistos of his wife's infidelity. In a fit of rage, Hephaistos captured Ares and Aphrodite in an unbreakable net, then summoned the rest of the gods to bear witness to his dishonor.
Afterwards, Aphrodite went to Paphos to renew her virginity in the sea. This virginity did not last, however, as she later had a relationship with Hermes which resulted in the birth of Hermaphroditos, a being of two sexes.
Eurystheas asked Herakles to bring him the belt of Hippolyta for the ninth labor; it would be offered to his daughter Admete.
The belt was a gift from the god Ares to his daughter Hippolyta, the queen of Amazons - a tribe of women-warriors. With a group of companions, Herakles reached Themiskyra, the city in the Black Sea were Hippolyta lived, and convinced the Amazon to give him the belt. However, Hera had spread rumors amongst the Amazons, so they attacked him. Herakles had no choice but to kill Hippolyta. He then brought the belt back to Eurystheas.
The banner of Korinthia was inspired by the coinage of Korinth, which depicts Pegasos.
Pegasos, the mythical winged horse, was captured in Korinth by Bellerophon near the Peirene fountain. The hero then rode him to defeat the monstrous creature Chimera. When Bellerophon fell from Pegasos while trying to reach Mount Olympos, Zeus gave Pegasos the task of carrying thunderbolts. The god later granted Pegasos the honor of becoming a constellation.
(Behind the scenes)
"To produce our Merchant Boat, we were really pleased to be able to use as reference the remains of the very well preserved “Kyrenia Ship” found in 1965. Having this boat replicated with the highest historic fidelity helped us to give life to our beautiful world and to show that there was not only war ships sailing in the great ancient Greek Sea." - David Therrien
Four methods were used to harvest olives. Picking the fallen fruits on the ground was the easiest, and could be sufficient to meet the needs of a small household.
Another method was to have men shake the branches, while others collected the olives in wide baskets.
Handpicking was preferable for preserves since it does not damage the fruits, but it was a long process.
A less labor-intensive method was to beat the branches with long sticks to make the olives fall on the ground or onto pieces of cloth. However, this method damaged the branches and a rough beating could hinder the following year's production.
Olives were a widespread and traditional food staple, often consumed with bread and onions. They could be bought in almost every city from street peddlers.
Olive production was an important feature of the ancient Greek agrarian economy. Both olives and olive oil were used on many significant occasions.
Olive trees generally only produce a crop every other year, and production is very variable from harvest to harvest. This unpredictability was a reason against farmers becoming exclusive olive producers, so mixed farming remained the norm.
Planting olive trees was one of the most important means of increasing the productivity of land and its long-term value. It allowed landowners to create usable farmland from slopes and other marginal land that would otherwise have been left for grazing.
While an olive tree might produce a small return after eight to ten years, it may take twenty or thirty years to come into full production.
But, olive trees live for a very long time. If a landowner planted olives on his land, it was his children and grandchildren that would harvest the fruit.
Greece is known for its monuments, temples, and statues, some of which still exist today. But even in 431 BCE, Greece had ruins of even older civilizations. In Phokis, thought of as the Land of the Gods and center of the world, stands the Sanctuary of Delphi, sitting on the slopes of Mount Parnassos, along with other temples and structures from the pre-classical Greek age. While drawing on real-life examples, historical research, plus popular culture in the form of movies and comics, the art team also had to construct some monuments from nothing but myth, and to give life to these magnificent structures.
Greek Mythology is a fascinating and enduring collection of fantastical stories, ones that the art team had great fun recreating for Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Drawing on the myths, Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, and representations in classic artwork and popular culture, the mythological world becomes real for the Hero.
The myths are instantly recognizable in the artwork on these pages. The Titan Tityos, who attempted to violate Leto, the daughter of Titan Coeus and Phoebe, was punished for his transgression by being tied to a rock in Tartarus. His liver was eaten each day by two vultures, only to regrow overnight to begin the torment again.
Oedipus was son of Laius and lokasta of Thebes. His father was terrified of a prophecy from Delphi predicting that Oedipus would end up killing him and marrying his wife, so he banished his newborn to the mountains to die.
The baby was saved by a shepherd, who gave him to King Polybos and Queen Merope of Korinth to raise him as their own. As he grew, Oedipus heard of the Delphic prophecy, and, believing that it was related to Polybos and Merope, fled Korinth and directed himself to Thebes.
Laius had died by then - killed by Oedipus, who did not yet know the king was his father - and the city was at the mercy of a monster, the Sphinx, with a human head and a body of a lion. She consumed those who couldn't solve her riddle: “Which creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?” It was Oedipus who replied that the creature was man: they crawl on all fours as a baby, walk with two feet as they age, and use a cane for support when they grow old.
Oedipus solved the riddle, and the defeated Sphinx either fell from a high rock or ate herself and perished, depending on the legend. Oedipus became king of Thebes and married none other than lokasta, his mother. He unknowingly fulfilled the prophecy and became one of the most tragic figures in Greek mythology.
The main buildings where athletes trained were the gymnasion and the palaistra.
In the gymnasion, athletes trained for races and pentathlon events. In the palaistra, they trained for wrestling and boxing. Wrestlers and boxers could train in the Korykeion room, where a suspended leather bag full of sand [korykos] served as a sort of punching bag.
All athletes competed and trained nude. The reason for the introduction of athletic nudity is not immediately clear. The etymology of gymnasion pointed to nudity, as the Greek word gymnos means “nude”. According to Thucydides, this innovation came from Sparta. He says that Lakedaimonians were the first to practice sports naked. Tradition says that Acanthos of Sparta, who won the diaulos and the dolichos races in the Olympic Games of 720 BCE, would have been the first to do this.
But Pausanias had another version of the story. He tells that the first to run naked in Olympia was Orhippos of Megaris in 720 BCE. He supposedly did this believing that nudity would help him run faster.