Greek mythology and Lepa Brena: Difference between pages

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{{Infobox Musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject Musicians -->
[[Image:Zeus Otricoli Pio-Clementino Inv257.jpg|thumb|The bust of [[Zeus]] found at [[Otricoli]] ([[Vatican Museums|Sala Rotonda, Museo Pio-Clementino, Vatican]])]]
| Name = Fahreta Živojinović | Img = Lepa brena.jpg
{{Ancient Greek religion}}
| Img_capt =
'''Greek mythology''' is the body of stories belonging to the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]] concerning their [[Polytheism|gods]] and [[hero]]es, the nature of the world and the origins and significance of their own [[Cult (religious practice)|cult]] and [[ritual]] practices. Modern scholars refer to the [[myth]]s and study them in an attempt to throw light on the religious and political institutions of Ancient Greece and on the Ancient Greek civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.<ref name="Helios">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Volume: Hellas, Article: Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}</ref>
| Img_size = 250
| Landscape =
| Background = solo_singer
| Birth_name = Fahreta Jahić
| Alias = Lepa Brena
| Born = {{Birth date and age|1960|10|20|mf=y}}
| Died =
| Origin = [[Brčko (city)|Brčko]], <br>[[Bosnia-Herzegovina]], [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]]
| Nationality = Serbian
| Instrument =
| Genre = [[pop-folk]], [[pop music|pop]], [[turbo folk]]
| Occupation = musician, actress
| Years_active = 1981 - present
| Label = [[PGP-RTB|PGP]], [[Diskoton]], [[ZaM]], [[Grand Production]]
| Associated_acts = Slatki greh
| Notable_instruments =
| URL = [http://www.jednajebrena.com www.jednajebrena.com]
}}
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Brena.jpg|frame|left|Lepa Brena]] -->


'''Fahreta Živojinović''' ([[Cyrillic]]: Фахрета Живојиновић; born [[October 20]], [[1960]]) or better known as '''Lepa Brena''' (or '''Brena Nacionale''' and '''Internacionale'''), (Cyrillic: Лепа Брена), name given by [[Serbia]]n showman [[Milovan Ilić|Minimax]] is arguably the most well-known and successful singer of the 1980s in the former [[SFR Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]] and nowadays the owner of a [[folk]]-[[pop (music)|pop]] label. She was born as Fahreta Jahić in [[Tuzla]], [[Bosnia-Herzegovina]], Yugoslavia. Lepa Brena sold over 40,000,000 records worldwide, which makes her the best selling female artist in history of [[Balkans]].
Greek mythology is embodied explicitly in a large collection of narratives and implicitly in representational arts, such as [[Pottery of ancient Greece|vase-paintings]] and [[Votive deposit|votive gifts]]. Greek myth explains the origins of the world and details the lives and adventures of a wide variety of [[List of Greek mythological figures|gods, goddesses, heroes, heroines]], and other [[List of Greek mythological creatures|mythological creatures]]. These accounts were initially disseminated in an [[oral tradition|oral-poetic tradition]]; the Greek myths are known today primarily from [[Greek literature]]. The oldest known Greek literary sources, the [[Epic poetry|epic poem]]s ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]'', focus on events surrounding the [[Trojan War]]. Two poems by [[Homer]]'s near contemporary [[Hesiod]], the ''[[Theogony]]'' and the ''[[Works and Days]]'', contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the [[Homeric Hymns]], in fragments of epic poems of the [[Epic Cycle]], in [[Lyric poetry|lyric poem]]s, in the works of the tragedians of the 5th century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic Age]] and in writers of the time of the [[Roman Empire]], for example, [[Plutarch]] and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].


==Career==
Archaeological evidence is a principal source of detail about Greek mythology, with Gods and heroes featuring prominently in the decoration of many artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th century BCE depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of [[Heracles]]. In the succeeding [[Archaic period in Greece|Archaic]], [[Ancient Greece|Classical]] and [[Hellenistic Greece|Hellenistic]] periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence.<ref name="Br">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref>
Lepa Brena and her band ''[[Slatki greh]]'' ("Sweet Sin") were the first to combine traditional Yugoslav [[folk music]] (in particular, the traditional Balkan "Kolo" dance) with modern pop elements, and went on to inspire and influence an entire generation of musicians. Songs such as "Mile voli disko" (1982), "Sitnije,Cile sitnije" (1983), "Hajde da se volimo" (1987) "Duge noge", "Četiri godine" are amongst the most well-known and popular songs in the history of Yugoslav music, and are definitive of the music of that era.


Brena and her band "Slatki greh" formed in 1981, gaining immediate success with their first album, which featured the hits "Čačak, Čačak," and "Ljubi me, Omere." The Yugoslav public quickly fell in love with the 21-year-old singer.
Greek mythology has had extensive influence on the culture, the arts and the literature of [[Western culture|Western civilization]] and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in classical mythological themes.<ref>J.M. Foley, ''Homer's Traditional Art'', 43</ref>


That success promptly reached unexpected heights with the release of their second album later that year, delighting the folk-loving masses with the enormous hits "Mile voli disko", "Duge noge" and "Dama iz Londona". They also achieved success with the song "Sitnije, Cile, sitnije", a contender for the Yugoslav spot in [[Eurovision 1983]].
==Sources of Greek mythology==


In 1984 Brena returned with a new album and hit song "Bato, Bato". Her sexy new image, along with the band's more refined musical style, took her to even greater levels of stardom. They toured relentlessly in support of the album, which also spawned the hits "Bosanac," "Igraj Boro, moje oro" and "Moj je Lola zvezda roken rola" amongst others. By now, the ensemble had become renowned for their catchy pop-folk styling and playful lyrics (the object of Brena's affection in "Moj je Lola..." is an Elvis Presley wannabe, whose obsession with rock music forces her to proudly declare her own devotion to traditional folk: "Waltz? NO! Disco? NO! Kolo? YES!").
{| border= "0" style="float: right;"
|[[Image:Gustave Moreau 006.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Prometheus]]'' (1868 by [[Gustave Moreau]]). The myth of Prometheus was first attested by Hesiodus and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', ''[[Prometheus Unbound]]'' and ''[[Prometheus Pyrphoros]]'']]
|-
|[[Image:RomanVirgilFolio014rVergilPortrait.jpg|thumb|right|The Roman poet [[Virgil]], here depicted in the 5th century manuscript the ''[[Vergilius Romanus]]'', preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.]]
|-
|[[Image:Akhilleus Charun Cdm Paris 2783.jpg|thumb|right|[[Achilles]] killing a Trojan prisoner in front of [[Charon (mythology)|Charon]] on a [[red-figure]] [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] calyx-krater, made towards the end of the 4th century-beginning of the 3rd century BC.]]
|}


Over the course of the next three years, another three albums would follow, which collectively featured the hits "Šeik," "Mače moje," "Nežna žena," "Lažu te, dušo moja" "Okrećeš mi leđa" and many more.
Greek mythology is known today primarily from [[Greek literature]] and representations on visual media dating from the [[Geometric Style|Geometric period]] (c. 900-800 BC) onward.<ref name="Graf200">F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 200</ref>
In addition to these albums, she also teamed up with fellow singer, [[Miroslav Ilić]], to record four duets, including the romantic "Jedan dan života." The highly successful collaboration also featured "Živela Jugoslavija" ("''Long live Yugoslavia''") which was equally hated as it was loved, due to its overtly political subject matter (Brena made no attempt to hide her support of a united Yugoslavia, despite the sensitivity of the issue). This controversy, however, did not deter the star from performing the song at the opening ceremony of the [[1984 Winter Olympics]] in [[Sarajevo]]. As well as at the Winter Olympics, Lepa Brena performed the song at a major concert in [[Romania]] in 1985, where she sang the song to the crowd while being lifted up in a fruitpicker crane.


By the end of 1986, Lepa Brena had become the most famous person in Yugoslavia, and had also well and truly cemented her status as a sex symbol. This success, however, showed no sign of waning, and in 1987 she continued to dominate popular culture with the release of her movie "Hajde da se volimo" ("Let's Love Each Other"), which featured songs from her album of the same name. With this release, her musical style took a gigantic leap forward, the songs containing a much more modern edge and stylish pop-infused production, without abandoning their traditional folk roots. The project was so successful that she went on to film parts 2 & 3 (in 1989 and 1990), each in support of a new album. This string of LPs produced an extraordinary number of hit songs, including "Hajde da se volimo", "Golube," "On ne voli me," "Udri Mujo," "Biseru beli," "Ja pripadam samo tebi," "Zaželi sreću drugima," and "Čik pogodi." In addition to these was the beautiful "Jablane," written by [[Dino Merlin]] (a hugely successful singer/songwriter) as well as "Jugoslovenka," another controversial collaboration, this time with three male singers, each from different parts of Yugoslavia ([[Alen Islamović]], [[Vlado Kalember]] and [[Danijel Popović]]).
===Literary sources===
Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'' of Pseudo-[[Apollodorus]], which attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.<ref name="Hard1">R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 1</ref>


After releasing yet another album, "Zaljubiška," in 1991, Brena took a well-earned break from her hectic touring and recording schedule, leaving wartorn Yugoslavia to start a family with new husband, tennis player [[Slobodan Živojinović]] in the [[United States]].
Among the literary sources first in age are [[Homer]]'s two epic poems, the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey''. Other poets completed the "epic cycle", but these later and lesser poems are now almost entirely lost. Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no connection with Homer. They are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called [[Lyric poetry|Lyric age]].<ref name="Miles7">Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7</ref> [[Hesiod]], a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in '' [[Theogony]] '' (''Origin of the Gods'') the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world; the origin of the gods, [[Titans]] and [[Giant (mythology)|Giants]]; elaborate genealogies and folktales and etiological myths. Hesiod's ''Works and Days'', a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of [[Prometheus]], [[Pandora]] and the [[Ages of Man|Four Ages]]. The poet gives advice on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world rendered yet more dangerous by its gods.<ref name="Br" />


She returned to audiences in 1994 with a highly successful solo album (her first without Slatki greh), which featured one of her biggest hits to date, "Ja nemam drugi dom" ("I Have No Other Home"). The song, her personal favorite, is a touching ode to her first son, Stefan, and also (one would suspect) a reference to the disintegration of her beloved homeland ("I have no other home, but the home inside your heart").
Lyrical poets sometimes take their subjects from myth, but the treatment becomes gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including [[Pindar]], [[Bacchylides]], [[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]], and bucolic poets, such as [[Theocritus]] and [[Bion]], provide individual mythological incidents.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii">Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek nad Roman Mythology'', xii</ref> Additionally, myth was central to classical [[Ancient Athens|Athenian]] [[drama]]. The tragic playwrights [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]] took their plots from the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (i.e. [[Agamemnon]] and his children, [[Oedipus]], [[Jason]], [[Medea]] etc.) took on their classic form in these tragic plays. For his part, the comic playwright [[Aristophanes]] used myths, as in ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]'' or ''[[The Frogs]]''.<ref name="Miles8">Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 8</ref>


Two more solo albums followed; "Kazna božija" (1995) and "Šta je bilo, bilo je," (1996) the latter featuring the songs "Luda za tobom" and "Ti si moj greh" (a cover of Elena Kostantopoulou's "Pia prosefhi - the Greek entry in Eurovision 1995), which would become two of the most successful songs of her career. After another three-year hiatus, the year 2000 saw Lepa Brena reuniting with "Slatki greh" for one last project, an upbeat collection of songs, reminiscent of their earlier material. Although the release failed to live up to the commercial expectations of its predecessors, it contained the fan favourites "Kolovođa" and "Meni je teško, najteže."
Historians [[Herodotus]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]], and geographers [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] and [[Strabo]], who traveled around the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths, often giving little-known alternative versions.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii" /> Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.<ref>P. Cartledge, ''The Spartans'', 60, and ''The Greeks'', 22</ref>


Lepa Brena's rumored and delayed comeback album for 2006 has been pushed to the end of 2007. Brena stated "New songs do not exist for me, I sang for a beautiful and united Yugoslavia. It is very hard for me to record a new album I have a few songs but far from what I would love to have." In 2004 Lepa Brena received 4 songs from Serbian songwriter Dejan Tadic, but Brena has put her album on hold.
The poetry of the [[Hellenistic]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] ages, which although composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise, nevertheless contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of:
#The Roman poets [[Ovid]], [[Statius]], [[Valerius Flaccus]], [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] and [[Virgil]] with [[Servius]]'s commentary.
#The Greek poets of the [[Late Antiquity|Late Antique]] period: [[Nonnus]], [[Antoninus Liberalis]] and [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]].
#The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], [[Callimachus]], [[Eratosthenes|Pseudo-Eratosthenes]] and [[Parthenius of Nicaea|Parthenius]].
#The ancient novels of Greeks and Romans such as [[Apuleius]], [[Petronius]], [[Lollianus]] and [[Heliodorus of Emesa|Heliodorus]].


==New album "Udji slobodno..."==
The ''Fabulae'' and ''Astronomica'' of the Roman writer styled [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Pseudo-Hyginus]] are two important, non-poetical compendiums of myth. The ''Imagines'' of [[Philostratus]] the Elder and Younger and the Descriptions of Callistratus, are two other useful sources.


New album "Udji slobodno..." was released on 28.06.2008. It contains 10 new songs, nine written by Brena's old song-writer Marina Tucakovic ("Pozeli srecu drugima", "Okreces mi ledja", "Evo zima ce", "Hajde da se volimo",...) and Aleksandar Milic Mili, and one song from Israel ("Dva asa").
Finally, the Christian apologist [[Arnobius]], quoting cult practices in order to disparage them, and a number of Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, some of it sourced from lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]]' lexicon, the ''[[Suda]]'', and the treatises of [[John Tzetzes]] and [[Eustathius]]. The Christian moralizing view of Greek myth is encapsulated in the saying {{Polytonic|ἐν παντὶ μύθῳ καὶ τὸ Δαιδάλου μύσος}} / ''en panti muthōi kai to Daidalou musos'' ("In every myth there is also the defilement of Daidalos"), on which subject the encyclopedic [[Sudas]] reported of the role of [[Daedalus]] in satisfying the "unnatural lust" of [[Pasiphae]] for the bull of Poseidon: "Since the origin and blame for these evils were attributed to Daidalos and he was loathed for them, he became the subject of the proverb."<ref>[http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Pasiphae.html Pasiphae], Encyclopedia: Greek Gods, Spirits, Monsters</ref>


Songs:
===Archaeological sources===
*1. Udji slobodno...
The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by German amateur [[archaeologist]] [[Heinrich Schliemann]] in the 19th century, and the discovery of the [[Minoan civilization]] in [[Crete]] by British archaeologist, [[Sir Arthur Evans]] in the 20th century, helped to explain many of the questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence of many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myth and ritual at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the [[Linear B script]] (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and Greece) was mainly used to record inventories, though the names of gods and heroes have been doubtfully revealed.<ref name="Br" />
*2. Pazi kome zavidis
*3. Kuca lazi
*4. Grad
*5. Zasto?
*6. Kralj
*7. Sledeci
*8. Dobra Gresnica
*9. Zrno tuge
*10. Dva asa


'Tour 2008' will start in November 2008!
Geometric designs on pottery of the 8th century BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles.<ref name="Br" /> These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons; on the one hand, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources (of the twelve labors of Heracles, only the [[Cerberus]] adventure occurs for the first time in a literary text<ref name="HomerIliad366-369">Homer, ''Iliad'', 8. An epic poem about the Battle of Troy. [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0134&layout=&loc=8.366 366–369]</ref>) and, on the other hand, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry by several centuries.<ref name="Graf200" /> In the Archaic (c. 750–c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear to supplement the existing literary evidence.<ref name="Br" />


==Private life==
==Survey of mythic history==
Lepa Brena throughout her career has lived in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 1990 she moved to the Serbian Capital Beograd and later in 1991 wed Serbian Tennis Star and Businessman [[Slobodan Živojinović]], Brena and Boba have a home in Coconut Creek in Pompano Beach, Florida where they lived for a while during the NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro. She also has a villa in Monte Carlo and another luxurious townhouse on Fisher Island in Florida.Lepa Brena has millions of fans throughout the world.
{{Ancient Greek religion}}
She currently resides in [[Belgrade]], [[Serbia]], together with her husband [[Slobodan Živojinović]] (Boba) and their two sons, Stefan and Viktor and is working on a comeback album rumoured to be released by the end of 2006. In 2004 she held a concert in her hometown [[Brčko]], as well as [[Tuzla]].
The Greeks' mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their own culture, of which mythology both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions, is an index. In the surviving literary forms in which we have them, they are inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson has urged.<ref>Cuthbertson, ''Political Myth and Epic'' (Michigan State university Press) 1975 has selected a wider range of epic, from [[Gilgamesh]] to Voltaire's ''[[Henriade]]'' , but his central theme, that myths encode mechanisms of cultural dynamics, structuring a community by creating a moral consensus, is a familiar mainstream view that applies to Greek myth.</ref>


==Discography==
The earlier inhabitants of the [[Balkan Peninsula]] were an agricultural people who assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human shape and entered the local mythology as gods and goddesses.<ref name="Johnson17">Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 17</ref> When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older deities of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.<ref name="Johnson18">Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 18</ref>
===Albums===
*''Čačak, Čačak'' (1981)- 350 000
*''Mile voli disko'' (1982)- 780 000
*''Sitnije, cile, sitnije / Hej, najluđe moje'' (12" Maxi, 1983)- 800 000
*''Bato, Bato'' (1984)- 1 100 000
*''Pile moje'' (1984)- 850 000
*''Jedan dan života'', (duet with [[Miroslav Ilić]]) (1985)- 800 000
*''Voli me, voli'' (1986)- 650 000
*''Okrećeš mi leđa'' (1986)- 600 000
*''Hajde da se volimo'' (1987)- 800 000
*''Četiri godine'' (1989)- 550 000
*''Boli me uvo za sve'' (1990)- 450 000
*''Zaljubiška'' (1991)- 150 000
*''Ja nemam drugi dom'' (1994)- 150 000
*''Kazna Božija'' (1995)- 100 000
*''Luda za tobom'' (1996)- 200 000
*''Pomračenje sunca'' (2000)- 120 000
*''The Best Of Lepa Brena'' (2004)- 400 000
*''Uđi slobodno...'' (28.06.2008)


== Filmography ==
After the middle of the Archaic period myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes become more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|pedagogic pederasty]] ''(Eros paidikos, παιδικός ἔρως),'' thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the 5th century BC, poets had assigned at least one [[eromenos]] to every important god except [[Ares]] and to many legendary figures.<ref name="Gallimach109">A. Calimach, ''Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths;'', 12–109</ref> Previously existing myths, such as that of [[Achilles]] and [[Patroclus]], were also cast in a [[Mythology of same-sex love|pederastic light]].<ref name="Percy">W.A. Percy, ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece'', 54</ref> Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often adapted stories of Greek mythological characters.


* [[Hajde da se volimo 3]], (1990)
The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles, and as a result to develop a sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds like a phase in the development of the world and of man.<ref name="Dowden11">K. Dowden, ''The Uses of Greek Mythology'', 11</ref> While self-contradictions in the stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The mythological history of the world can be divided in 3 or 4 broader periods:
* [[Hajde da se volimo 2]], (1989)
#''The myths of origin'' or ''age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods")'': myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race.
* [[Hajde da se volimo]], (1987)
# ''The age when gods and mortals mingled freely'': stories of the early interactions between gods, [[demigod]]s, and mortals.
* [[Nema problema]], (1984)
#'' The age of heroes (heroic age)'', where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the stories of ''the Trojan War and after'' (regarded by some researchers as a separate fourth period).<ref name="Miles35">G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 35</ref>
* [[Kamiondžije opet voze]], (1984)

* [[Kamiondzije 2]], (1983)(TV series)
While the age of gods has often been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes. For example, the heroic ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' dwarfed the divine-focused ''Theogony'' and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the Olympian from the [[Chthonic]].<ref name="Raffan-Barket205">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 205</ref> In the ''Works and Days'', Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four [[Ages of Man]] (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronus, the subsequent races the creation of Zeus. Hesiod intercalates the Age (or Race) of Heroes just after the [[Bronze Age]]. The final age was the [[Iron Age]], during which the poet himself lived. The poet regards it as the worst; the presence of evil was explained by Pandora's myth.<ref name="Worksanddays">Hesiod, ''Works and Days'', [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm 90–105]</ref> In ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.<ref name="Ovid89-162">Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', I, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml 89–162]</ref>
* [[Tesna koža]], (1982)

===Age of gods===
====Cosmogony and cosmology====
{{See also|Greek primordial gods|Family tree of the Greek gods}}
[[Image:Michelangelo Caravaggio 003.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio)|Amor vincit omnia]]'' (''Love Conquers All''), a depiction of the god of love, Eros. By [[Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio]], circa 1601–1602.]]
"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to render the universe comprehensible in human terms and explain the origin of the world.<ref name="Klattx">Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 10</ref> The most widely accepted account of beginning of things as reported by [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'', starts with [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]], a yawning nothingness. Out of the void emerged Ge or [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] (the Earth) and some other primary divine beings: [[Eros (god)|Eros]] (Love), the [[Abyss (religion)|Abyss]] (the [[Tartarus]]), and the [[Erebus]].<ref name="Theogony116-138">Hesiod, ''Theogony'', [[s:Theogony|116–138]]</ref> Without male assistance Gaia gave birth to [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] (the Sky) who then fertilised her. From that union were born, first, the [[Titans]]: six males and six females ([[Oceanus]], [[Coeus]] and [[Crius]] and [[Hyperion (mythology)|Hyperion]] and [[Iapetus (mythology)|Iapetus]], [[Theia]] and [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Themis]] and [[Mnemosyne]], [[Phoebe (mythology)|Phoebe]] and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]], and [[Cronus]]); then the one-eyed [[Cyclops|Cyclopes]] and the [[Hecatonchires]] or Hundred-Handers. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of [Gaia's] children"<ref name="Theogony116-138" />)castrated his father and became the ruler of the gods with his sister-wife Rhea as his consort and the other Titans became his court. This motif of father/son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, [[Zeus]]. After Cronus betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was grown, he fed his father a drugged drink which caused Cronus to throw up Zeus' brothers and sisters, and one stone, which had been sitting in Cronus' stomach all along. Then Zeus challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes, (whom Zeus freed from Tarturus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in [[Tartarus]].<ref name="Theogony713-735">Hesiod, ''Theogony'', [[s:Theogony|713–735]]</ref>

The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogony to be the prototypical poetic genre &mdash; the prototypical ''mythos'' &mdash; and imputed almost magical powers to it. [[Orpheus]], the archetypal poet, was also the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius' ''[[Argonautica]]'', and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to [[Hades]]. When [[Hermes]] invents the [[lyre]] in the ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', the first thing he does is sing the birth of the gods.<ref name="Hermes">''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', [http://omacl.org/Hesiod/hymns.html 414–435]</ref> Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods, but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the [[Muse]]s. Theogony was also the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, [[Musaeus]], [[Epimenides]], [[Abaris]] and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and [[mystery religion|mystery-rites]]. There are indications that [[Plato]] was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony.<ref name="Betegh147">G. Betegh, ''The Derveni Papyrus'', 147</ref> A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] philosophers and recently unearthed [[papyrus]] scraps. One of these scraps, the [[Derveni Papyrus]] now proves that at least in the 5th century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus was in existence. This poem attempted to outdo Hesiod's ''Theogony'' and the genealogy of the gods was extended back with [[Nyx (mythology)|Nyx]] (Night) as an ultimate beginning before Uranus, Cronus and Zeus.<ref name="BurkertBetegh">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 236<br />* G. Betegh, ''The Derveni Papyrus'', 147</ref>

The first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the river of [[Oceanus]] and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon and stars. The Sun ([[Helios]]) traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades, home of the dead.<ref name="BrAlga">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}<br />* K. Algra, ''The Beginnings of Cosmology'', 45</ref>

====Greek gods====
{{Seealso|Religion in ancient Greece|Twelve Olympians}}

[[Image:Olympians.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Twelve Olympians]] by [[Nicolas-André Monsiau|Monsiau]], circa late 18th century.]]

According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] of [[God (male deity)|gods]] and [[goddess]]es was confirmed. Among the principal Greek deities were the Olympians (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea),<ref name="Stoll8">H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 8</ref> residing atop [[Mount Olympus]] under the eye of Zeus. Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshiped various gods of the countryside, the goat-god [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], [[Nymphs]] (spirits of rivers), [[Naiads]] (who dwelled in springs), [[Dryads]] (who were spirits of the trees), [[Nereids]] (who inhabited the sea), river gods, [[Satyrs]], and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the [[Erinyes]] (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.<ref name="BrRel">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Religion|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs).<ref name="Cashford174">J. Cashford, ''The Homeric Hymns'', vii</ref> Gregory Nagy regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with ''Theogony''), each of which invokes one god".<ref name="Nagy54">G. Nagy, ''Greek Mythology and Poetics'', 54</ref>

In the wide variety of myths and legends that Greek mythology consists of, the deities that were native to the Greek peoples are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to [[Walter Burkert]], the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts".<ref name="Burkert182">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 182</ref> Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of [[nectar]] and [[ambrosia]], by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.<ref name="Stoll4">H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 4</ref>
[[Image:Leda.jpg|thumb|right|Zeus, disguised as a [[swan]] seduces [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], the Queen of [[Sparta]]. A sixteenth century copy of the lost original by [[Michelangelo]].]]
Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods were called upon in poetry, prayer or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and [[epithet]]s, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g. ''Apollo Musagetes'' is "[[Apollo]], [as] leader of the [[Muse]]s"). Alternatively the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.

Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, [[Aphrodite]] was the goddess of love and beauty, [[Ares]] was the god of war, [[Hades]] the god of the dead, and [[Athena]] the goddess of wisdom and courage.<ref name="Stoll20">H.W. Stoll, ''Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', 20ff</ref> Some deities, such as [[Apollo]] and [[Dionysus]], revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as [[Hestia]] (literally "hearth") and [[Helios]] (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive [[Temple (Greek)|temple]]s tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demi-gods) supplemented this of the gods.

===Age of gods and mortals===
[[Image:Hans Rottenhammer 001.jpg|right|thumb|The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis, by [[Hans Rottenhammer]]]]
Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' and they are often divided in two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of punishment.<ref name="Mile38">G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 38</ref>

Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.<ref name="Mile39">G. Mile, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 39</ref> In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', where the goddess lies with [[Anchises]] to produce [[Aeneas]].<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', [http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~clase116/txt_aphrodite.html 75–109]</ref>

[[Image:Dionysos satyrs Cdm Paris 575.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dionysus]] with [[satyr]]s. Interior of a cup painted by the [[Brygos Painter]], [[Cabinet des Médailles]]]]

The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when [[Prometheus]] steals fire from the gods, when [[Tantalus]] steals nectar and [[ambrosia]] from Zeus' table and gives it to his own subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when [[Prometheus]] or [[Lycaon (mythology)|Lycaon]] invents sacrifice, when [[Demeter]] teaches [[agriculture]] and the [[Eleusinian mysteries|Mysteries]] to [[Triptolemus]], or when [[Marsyas]] invents the [[aulos]] and enters into a musical contest with [[Apollo]]. Prometheus' adventures mark "a place between the history of the gods and that of man".<ref name="Morris291">I. Morris, ''Archaeology As Cultural History'', 291</ref> An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the third century, vividly portrays [[Dionysus]]' punishment of the king of [[Thrace]], [[Lycurgus (Thrace)|Lycurgus]], whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.<ref name="Weaver335">J. Weaver, ''Plots of Epiphany'', 50</ref> The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy.<ref name="Bushnell28">R. Bushnell, ''A Companion to Tragedy'', 28</ref> In another tragedy, Euripides' ''[[The Bacchae]]'', the king of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Pentheus]], is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his [[Maenads]], the female [[worshipper]]s of the god.<ref name="Trobe195">K. Trobe, ''Invoke the GOds'', 195</ref>

In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,<ref name="Nilsson50">M.P. Nilsson, ''Greek Popular Religion'', [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm#fr_50 50]</ref> and echoeing a similar theme, [[Demeter]] was searching for her daughter, [[Persephone]], having taken the form of an old woman called [[Doso]], and received a hospitable welcome from [[Celeus]], the King of [[Eleusis]] in [[Attica, Greece|Attica]]. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make Demophon as a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.<ref name="Demeter">''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138;query=card%3D%237;layout=;loc=2.213 255–274]</ref>

===Heroic age===
The age in which the heroes lived is known as the heroic age.<ref name="Kelsey30">F.W. Kelsey, ''An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology'', 30</ref> The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden, "there is even a saga effect: we can follow the fates of some families in successive generations".<ref name="Dowden11" />

After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths, and prayers which are addressed to them.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" /> In contrast to the age of gods, during the heroic age the roster of heroes is never given fixed and final form; great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead. Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205">;Raffan-Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 206</ref>

The monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are also ascribed three great military events, the [[Argonauts|Argonautic]] expedition and the Trojan War as well as the Theban War.<ref name="KelseyRose30">F.W. Kelsey, ''An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology'', 30<br />* H.J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 340</ref>

====Heracles and the Heracleidae====
:''For more details on this topic, see [[Heracles]] and [[Heracleidae]]''

[[Image:Herakles and Telephos Louvre MR219.jpg|left|thumb|Herakles with his baby Telephos ([[Louvre Museum]], [[Paris]]).]]

Some scholars believe{{Who|date=August 2007}} that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of [[Argos]]. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac.<ref name="Dupuis">C. F. Dupuis, ''The Origin of All Religious Worship'', 86</ref> Others point to earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and [[Alcmene]], granddaughter of [[Perseus]].<ref name="BrHer">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Heracles|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many [[folk tale]] themes, provided much material for popular legend. He is portrayed as a sacrificier, mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy, while his tragic end provided much material for tragedy &mdash; ''[[Heracles (Euripides)|Heracles]]'' is regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance in examination of other Euripidean dramas".<ref name="PapadopoulouBurkert">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211<br />* T. Papadopoulou, ''Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy'', 1</ref> In art and literature Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club. The vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times.<ref name="Burkert211">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211</ref>

Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks.<ref name="Burkert211" /> In [[Italy]] he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.<ref name="BrHer" />

Heracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as official ancestor of the [[Dorians|Dorian]] kings. This probably served as a legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the [[Peloponnese]]. [[Hyllus]], the eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle, became the son of Heracles and one of the ''Heracleidae'' or ''Heraclids'' (the numerous descendants of Heracles, especially the descendants of [[Hyllus]] &mdash; other Heracleidae included [[Macaria]], [[Lamos]], [[Manto (Greek mythology)|Manto]], [[Bianor]], [[Tlepolemus]], and [[Telephus]]). These Heraclids conquered the [[Peloponnesus|Peloponnesian]] kingdoms of [[Mycenae]], [[Sparta]] and [[Argos]], claiming, according to legend, a right to rule it through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the "[[Dorian invasion]]". The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.<ref name="BurkertHer">Herodotus, ''The Histories'', I, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm 6–7]<br />* W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 211</ref>

Other members of this earliest generation of heroes, such as Perseus, [[Deucalion]], [[Theseus]] and [[Bellerophon]], have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on [[fairy tale]], as they slay monsters such as the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]] and [[Medusa (mythology)|Medusa]]. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.<ref>G.S. Kirk, ''Myth'', 183</ref>

====Argonauts====
{{details|Argonauts}}

The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''[[Argonautica]]'' of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the [[Library of Alexandria]]) tells the myth of the voyage of [[Jason]] and the Argonauts to retrieve the [[Golden Fleece]] from the mythical land of [[Colchis]]. In the ''Argonautica'', Jason is impelled on his quest by king [[Pelias]], who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his [[Nemesis (mythology)|nemesis]]. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship ''[[Argo]]'' to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included [[Theseus]], who went to [[Crete]] to slay the [[Minotaur]]; [[Atalanta]], the female heroine; and [[Meleager]], who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. Pindar, Apollonius and Apollodorus endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.<ref name="ApApPin">Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome'', 1.9.[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=section%3D%2363;layout=;loc=1.9.17 16]<br />* Apollonius, ''Argonautica'', I, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm 20ff]<br />* Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4.[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2e+P%2e+4%2e171ff%2e 1]</ref>

Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than ''Odyssey'', which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded on it).<ref name="BrArgGr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Argonaut|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}<br />* P. Grimmal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', 58</ref> In ancient times the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident in the opening up of the [[Black Sea]] to Greek commerce and colonization.<ref name="BrArg">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Argonaut|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of Medea, in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets.<ref name="Grimmal58">P. Grimmal, ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology'', 58</ref>

====House of Atreus and Theban Cycle====
{{seealso|Theban Cycle|Seven Against Thebes}}
[[Image:Cadmus teeth.jpg|thumb|left|''Cadmus Sowing the [[Dragon's teeth (mythology)|Dragon's teeth]]'', by [[Maxfield Parrish]], 1908]]
In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of [[Atreus]] and [[Thyestes]] at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of [[Labdacus]]) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.<ref name="Bonnefoy103">Y. Bonnefoy, ''Greek and Egyptian Mythologies'', 103</ref>

The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with [[Cadmus]], the city's founder, and later with the doings of [[Laius]] and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Seven Against Thebes (it is not known whether the Seven against Thebes figured in early epic) and [[Epigoni]].<ref name="Hard317">R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 317</ref> As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have followed a different pattern (in which he continued to rule at Thebes after the revelation that [[Iokaste]] was his mother and subsequently married a second wife who became the mother of his children) from the one known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' "Oedipus the King") and later mythological accounts.<ref name="Hard311">R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 311</ref>

====Trojan War and aftermath====
[[Image:The Rage of Achilles by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.jpeg|thumb|In ''The Rage of Achilles'' by [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]] (1757, Fresco, 300 x 300 cm, Villa Valmarana, [[Vicenza]]) Achilles is outraged that Agamemnon would threaten to seize his warprize, Briseis, and he draws his sword to kill Agamemnon. The sudden appearance of the goddess [[Minerva]], who, in this fresco, has grabbed Achilles by the hair, prevents the act of violence.]]
:''For more details on this topic, see [[Trojan War]] and [[Epic Cycle]]''

Greek mythology culminates in the Trojan War, fought between the Greeks and [[Troy]], and its aftermath. In Homer's works the chief stories have already taken shape and substance, and individual themes were elaborated later, especially in Greek drama. The Trojan War acquired also a great interest for the [[Roman culture]] because of the story of [[Aeneas]], a Trojan hero, whose journey from Troy led to the founding of the city that would one day become Rome, is recounted in Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'' (Book II of Virgil's Aeneid contains the best-known account of the sack of Troy).<ref name="HeliosBr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Trojan War|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}<br />* {{cite encyclopedia|title=Troy|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> Finally there are two pseudo-chronicles written in Latin that passed under the names of [[Dictys Cretensis]] and [[Dares Phrygius]].<ref>J. Dunlop, ''The History of Fiction'', 355</ref>

The [[Trojan War cycle]], a collection of [[epic poems]], starts with the events leading up to the war: ([[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] and the [[golden apple]] of [[Kallisti]], the [[Judgement of Paris]], the abduction of [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], the sacrifice of [[Iphigenia]] at [[Aulis]]). To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of [[Menelaus]]' brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos or [[Mycenae]], but The Trojans refused to return Helen. The ''Iliad'', which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' friend [[Patroclus]] and Priam's eldest son, [[Hector]]. After Hector's death the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, [[Penthesilea]], queen of the [[Amazons]], and [[Memnon (mythology)|Memnon]], king of the [[Ethiopians]] and son of the dawn-goddess [[Eos]].<ref name="TrBr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Troy|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]]). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the [[Trojan Horse]]. Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter [[Cassandra]], the Trojans were persuaded by [[Sinon]], a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the [[horse]] inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of [[Odysseus]] and Aeneas (the ''Aeneid''), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (''[[Nostoi]]''; lost) and Homer's ''Odyssey''.<ref name="HeliosTr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Trojan War|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}</ref> The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g. [[Orestes (mythology)|Orestes]] and [[Telemachus]]).<ref name="TrBr" />
[[Image:El Greco 042.jpg|thumb|left|El Greco was inspired in his ''Laocoon'' (1608–1614, oil on canvas, 142 x 193 cm, [[National Gallery of Art]], [[Washington DC|Washington]]) by the famous myth of the Trojan cycle. [[Laocoon]] was a Trojan priest who tried to have the Trojan horse destroyed, but was killed by sea-serpents.]]
The Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main source of inspiration for Ancient Greek artists (e.g. [[Metope (architecture)|metope]]s on the [[Parthenon]] depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance for the Ancient Greek civilization.<ref name="HeliosTr" /> The same mythological cycle also inspired a series of posterior European literary writings. For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own courtly and chivalric ideals. 12th century authors, such as [[Benoît de Sainte-Maure]] (''Roman de Troie'' [Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and [[Joseph of Exeter]] (''De Bello Troiano'' [On the Trojan War, 1183]) describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in ''Dictys'' and ''Dares''. They thus follow [[Horace]]'s advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something completely new.<ref>D. Kelly, ''The Conspiracy of Allusion'', 121</ref>

==Greek and Roman conceptions of myth==
Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece.<ref name="Johnson15">Albala-Johnson-Johnson, ''Understanding the Odyssey'', 15</ref> Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace one's leaders' descent from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. According to [[Victor Davis Hanson]], a military [[historian]], [[columnist]], political essayist and former [[Classics]] professor, and John Heath, associate professor of Classics at [[Santa Clara University]], the profound knowledge of the Homeric [[epic poetry|epos]] was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education of Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry "the Book".<ref name="Hanson37">Hanson-Heath, ''Who Killed Homer'', 37</ref>

===Philosophy and myth===
[[Image:Plato-raphael.jpg|thumb|[[Raphael]]'s Plato in ''[[The School of Athens]]'' fresco (probably in the likeness of [[Leonardo da Vinci]]). The philosopher expelled the study of Homer, of the tragedies and of the related mythological traditions from his utopian Republic.]]

After the rise of philosophy, and history, prose and [[rationalism]] in the late 5th century BC the fate of myth became uncertain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the [[Thucydides|Thucydidean]] history).<ref name="Griffin80">J. Griffin, ''Greek Myth and Hesiod'', 80</ref> While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.<ref name="Miles7">G. Miles, ''Classical Mythology in English Literature'', 7</ref>

A few radical philosophers like [[Xenophanes of Colophon]] were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies in the 6th century BC; Xenophanes had complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another".<ref name="Graf169-170">F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 169–170</ref> This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in [[Plato]]'s ''[[Plato's Republic|Republic]]'' and ''[[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]]''. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the ''Republic''), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature.<ref name="Miles7" /> Plato's criticism was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition,<ref name="Hanson37" /> referring to the myths as "old wives' chatter".<ref name="The176b">Plato, ''Theaetetus'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172&layout=&loc=Theaet.+176b 176b]</ref> For his part Aristotle criticized the Pre-socratic quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us [...] But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them".<ref name="Griffin80" />

Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization for Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:<ref name="Apology28b-c">Plato, ''Apology'', [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170&layout=&loc=Apol.+28b 28b-c]</ref>

{{cquote|But perhaps someone might say: "Are you then not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed such a pursuit, that you are now in danger of being put to death as a result?" But I should make to him a just reply: "You do not speak well, Sir, if you think a man in whom there is even a little merit ought to consider danger of life or death, and not rather regard this only, when he does things, whether the things he does are right or wrong and the acts of a good or a bad man. For according to your argument all the demigods would be bad who died at Troy, including the son of [[Thetis]], who so despised danger, in comparison with enduring any disgrace, that when his mother (and she was a goddess) said to him, as he was eager to slay Hector, something like this, I believe,

:My son, if you avenge the death of your friend Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself shall die;
:for straightway, after Hector, is death appointed unto you (Hom. Il. 18.96) [...] "}}

Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization.<ref name="Hanson37" /> The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry, and to form the main subject of painting and sculpture.<ref name="Griffin80" />

More sportingly, the 5th century BC [[tragedy|tragedian]] Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's version of the same or similar myth. Euripides impugns mainly the myths about the gods and begins his critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as traditionally represented, are far too crassly [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]].<ref name="Graf169-170" />

===Hellenistic and Roman rationalism===
[[Image:CiceroBust.jpg|thumb|left|Cicero saw himself as the defender of the established order, despite his personal scepticism with regard to myth and his inclination towards more philosophical conceptions of divinity.]]
During the [[Hellenistic period]], mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced.<ref name="Gale89">M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 89</ref> Greek mythographer [[Euhemerus]] established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.<ref name="BrEuh">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Eyhemerus|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> Although his original work (''Sacred Scriptures'') is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and [[Lactantius]].<ref>R. Hard, ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'', 7</ref>

Rationalizing [[hermeneutic]]s of myth became even more popular under the [[Roman Empire]], thanks to the physicalist theories of [[Stoicism|Stoic]] and [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]] philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the [[euhemerism|euhemerists]] rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.<ref name="Chance69">J. Chance, ''Medieval Mythography'', 69</ref> Through his Epicurean message, [[Lucretius]] had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.<ref name="Walshxxvi">P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvi</ref> [[Livy]], too, is sceptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae).<ref name="Gale88">M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 88</ref> The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of [[Roman religion|religious tradition]] was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his ''Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum'' (which has not survived, but [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]'s ''[[City of God]]'' indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents.<ref name="Walshxxvi" /> In his work he distinguished three kinds of gods:
* The gods of nature: personifications of phenomena like rain and fire.
* The gods of the poets: invented by unscrupulous bards to stir the passions.
* The gods of the city: invented by wise legislators to soothe and enlighten the populace.

Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.<ref name="Gale87">M.R. Gale, ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius'', 87</ref> [[Cicero]] is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended.<ref name="Gale88" /> Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of [[Scylla]]s, [[centaurs]] or other composite creatures,<ref name="CiceroTusc">Cicero, ''Tusculanae Disputationes'', 1.[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml 11]</ref> but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people.<ref name="CiceroDiv">Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2.[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml#81 81]</ref> ''De Natura Deorum'' is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought.<ref name="Walshxxvii">P.G. Walsh, ''The Nature of Gods (Introduction), xxvii</ref>

===Syncretizing trends===
{{see also|Roman mythology}}
[[Image:Lycian Apollo Louvre left.jpg|thumb|In Roman religion the worship of the Greek god Apollo (early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth century Greek original, [[Louvre Museum]]) was combined with the cult of Sol Invictus. The worship of Sol as special protector of the emperors and of the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by [[Christianity]].]]
In [[Ancient Roman]] times, a new Roman mythology was born through syncretization of numerous Greek and other foreign gods. This occurred because the Romans had little [[mythology]] of their own and inheritance of the Greek mythological tradition caused the major Roman gods to adopt characteristics of their Greek equivalents.<ref name="Gale88" /> The gods [[Zeus]] and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] are an example of this mythological overlap. In addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with eastern religions led to further syncretizations.<ref>North-Beard-Price, ''Religions of Rome'', 259</ref> For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome after [[Aurelian]]'s successful campaigns in [[Syria]]. The Asiatic divinities [[Mithras]] (that is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one [[Sol Invictus]], with conglomerated rites and compound attributes.<ref>J. Hacklin, ''Asiatic Mythology'', 38</ref> Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice.

The surviving 2nd century collection of [[Orphism|Orphic Hymns]] and [[Macrobius]]'s ''Saturnalia'' are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing trends as well. The Orphic Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned myth. In reality, these poems were probably composed by several different poets, and contain a rich set of clues about prehistoric European mythology.<ref>Sacred Texts, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hoo/index.htm Orphic Hymns]</ref> The stated purpose of the ''Saturnalia'' is to transmit the Hellenic culture he has derived from his reading, even though much of his treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia reappear mythographical comments influenced by the euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists.<ref name="Chance69" />

==Modern interpretations==
{{details|Modern understanding of Greek mythology}}
The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or [[fable]] had been retained.<ref>Robert Ackerman, 1991. ''Introduction to [[Jane Ellen Harrison]]'s "A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion"'', xv</ref> In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In [[Göttingen]] [[Johann Matthias Gesner]] began to revive Greek studies, while his successor, [[Christian Gottlob Heyne]], worked with [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere.<ref name="Graf9">F. Graf, ''Greek Mythicalically'', 9</ref>

===Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches===
[[Image:Max Muller.jpg|thumb|left|Max Müller is regarded as one of the founders of comparative mythology. In his ''Comparative Mythology'' (1867) Müller analysed the "disturbing" similarity between the mythologies of "savage" races with those of the early European races.]]
{{seealso|Comparative mythology}}
The development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative. [[Wilhelm Mannhardt]], [[Sir James Frazer]], and [[Stith Thompson]] employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.<ref name="Brmyth">{{cite encyclopedia|title=myth|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}</ref> In 1871 [[Edward Burnett Tylor]] published his ''Primitive Culture'', in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.<ref name="AllenSegal">D. Allen, ''Structure and Creativity in Religion'', 9<br />* R.A. Segal, ''Theorizing about Myth'', 16</ref> Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both [[Carl Jung]] and [[Joseph Campbell]]. [[Max Müller]] applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of [[Aryan]] [[nature worship]]. [[Bronisław Malinowski]] emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions. [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] and other [[Structuralism|structuralists]] have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.<ref name="Brmyth" />

[[Image:kerenyi karoly.jpg|thumb|For Karl Kerényi mythology is "a body of material contained in tales about gods and god-like beings, heroic battles and journeys to the Underworld—''mythologem'' is the best Greek word for them—tales already well-known but not amenable to further re-shaping".<ref name="Jungkerenyi">Jung-Kerényi, ''Essays on a Science of Mythology'', 1–2</ref>]]
[[Sigmund Freud]] introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochment between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.<ref>R. Caldwell, ''The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth'', 344</ref> Carl Jung extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.<ref name="Br" /> According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche".<ref>C. Jung, ''The Psychology of the Child Archetype'', 85</ref> Comparing Jung's methodology with [[Joseph Campbell]]'s theory, Robert A. Segal concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the ''Odyssey'', for example, would show how Odysseus’s life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth".<ref name="Segal">R. Segal, ''The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell'', 332–335</ref> [[Karl Kerenyi]], one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.<ref name="Graf38">F. Graf, ''Greek Mythology'', 38</ref>

===Origin theories===
{{seealso|Similarities between Roman, Greek, and Etruscan mythologies}}
[[Image:IngresJupiterAndThetis.jpg|left|thumb|''Jupiter et Thétis'' by [[Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres]], 1811.]]
There are various modern theories about the origins of Greek mythology. According to the Scriptural Theory, all mythological legends are derived from the narratives of the [[Scriptures]], although the real facts have been disguised and altered.<ref name="Bulfinch241">T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 241</ref> According to the Historical Theory all the persons mentioned in mythology were once real human beings, and the legends relating to them are merely the additions of later times. Thus the story of [[Aeolus]] is supposed to have risen from the fact that Aeolus was the ruler of some islands in the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]].<ref name="Bulfinch241-242">T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 241–242</ref> The Allegorical Theory supposes that all the ancient myths were allegorical and symbolical. While the Physical Theory subscribed to the idea that the elements of air, fire, and water were originally the objects of religious adoration, thus the principal deities were personifications of these powers of nature.<ref name="Bulfinch242">T. Bulfinch, ''Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology'', 242</ref> Max Müller attempted to understand an [[Indo-European people|Indo-European]] religious form by tracing it back to its [[Indo-Aryans|Aryan]], "original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century with respect to the ancient history of mankind [...] was this sample equation: [[Sanskrit]] [[Dyaus]]-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] = Old Norse [[Tyr]]".<ref name="Allen12">D. Allen, ''Religion'', 12</ref> In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the comparison between Uranus and the Sanskrit [[Varuna]] or the [[Moirae]] and the [[Norns]].<ref>H.I. Poleman, ''Review'', 78–79<br />* A. Winterbourne, ''When the Norns Have Spoken'', 87</ref>
[[Image:Aphrodite Adonis Louvre MNB2109.jpg|thumb|[[Aphrodite]] and Adonis, Attic red-figure [[aryballos]]-shaped [[lekythos]] by Aison (c. 410 BC, Louvre, Paris).]]
Archaeology and mythography, on the other hand, has revealed that the Greeks were inspired by some of the civilizations of Asia Minor and the Near East. [[Adonis]] seems to be the Greek counterpart — more clearly in cult than in myth — of a Near Eastern "dying god". [[Cybele]] is rooted in [[Anatolia]]n culture while much of Aphrodite's [[iconography]] springs from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and [[Tiamat]] in the ''[[Enuma Elish]]''.<ref name="SegaEdmunds">L. Edmunds, ''Approaches to Greek Myth'', 184<br />* R.A. Segal, ''A Greek Eternal Child'', 64</ref> According to Meyer Reinhold, "near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way [...] into Greek mythology".<ref>M. Reinhold, ''The Generation Gap in Antiquity'', 349</ref> In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the pre-Hellenic societies: Crete, Mycenae, [[Pylos]], Thebes and [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]].<ref name="Burkert23">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 23</ref> Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connencted with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, [[Pasiphaë]] who yields to the bull and gives birth to the [[Minotaur]] etc.) Professor Martin P. Nilsson concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaen centres and were anchored in prehistoric times.<ref>M. Wood, ''In Search of the Trojan War'', 112</ref> Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.<ref name="Burkert24">W. Burkert, ''Greek Religion'', 24</ref>

==Motifs in Western art and literature==
{{details|Greek mythology in western art and literature}}
{{Seealso|List of movies based on Greco-Roman mythology}}
[[Image:Sandro Botticelli 046.jpg|left|thumb|Botticelli's ''[[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|The Birth of Venus]]'' (c. 1485–1486, oil on canvas, [[Uffizi]], [[Florence]]) &mdash; a revived ''Venus Pudica'' for a new view of pagan [[Ancient history|Antiquity]]—is often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.<ref name="Br" />]]
The widespread adoption of [[Christianity]] did not curb the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of classical antiquity in the [[Renaissance]], the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.<ref name="BrBurn">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}<br />* L. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75</ref> From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Raphael]], portrayed the [[paganism|pagan]] subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.<ref name="BrBurn" /> Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] and [[Dante]] in Italy.<ref name="Br" />

In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature. The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with [[Chaucer]] and [[John Milton]] and continuing through [[Shakespeare]] to [[Robert Bridges]] in the 20th century. [[Racine]] in [[France]] and [[Goethe]] in [[Germany]] revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths.<ref name="BrBurn" /> Although during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the [[libretti]] for many of [[Handel]]'s and [[Mozart]]'s operas.<ref name="Burn75">l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75</ref> By the end of the 18th century, [[Romanticism]] initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as [[Alfred Lord Tennyson]], [[Keats]], [[Byron]] and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]]) and painters (such as [[Lord Leighton]] and [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]]).<ref name="Burn75-76">l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75–76</ref> [[Christoph Gluck]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Jacques Offenbach]] and many others set Greek mythological themes to music.<ref name="Br" /> American authors of the 19th century, such as [[Thomas Bulfinch]] and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.<ref name="Klatt">Klatt-Brazouski, ''Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology'', 4</ref> In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists [[Jean Anouilh]], [[Jean Cocteau]], and [[Jean Giraudoux]] in France, [[Eugene O'Neill]] in America, and [[T. S. Eliot]] in Britain and by novelists such as [[James Joyce]] and [[André Gide]].<ref name="Br" />

==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}

==References==
{{commonscat|Greek mythology}}
===Primary sources (Greek and Roman)===
<div class="references-small">
*Aeschylus, ''[[The Persians]]''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0011:line=1 Perseus program]''.
*Aeschylus, ''[[Prometheus Bound]]''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0009 Perseus program]''.
*Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 Perseus program]''.
*Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'', Book I. ''See original text in [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm Sacred Texts]''.
*Cicero, ''[[De Divinatione]]''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml Latin Library]''.
*Cicero, ''Tusculanae resons''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml Latin Library]''.
*Herodotus, ''[[The Histories]]'', I. ''See original text in the [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm Sacred Texts]''.
*Hesiod, ''Works and Days''. ''Translated in English by [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm Hugh G. Evelyn-White]''.
*{{Cite wikisource|Theogony|Hesiod}}
*Homer, ''Iliad''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133:book=1:card=1 Perseus program]''.
*''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite''. ''Translated in English by [http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~clase116/txt_aphrodite.html Gregory Nagy]''.
*''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0137:hymn=2:line=1 Perseus project]''.
*''Homeric Hymn to Hermes''. ''See the English translation in the [http://omacl.org/Hesiod/hymns.html Online Medieval and Classical Library]''.
*Ovid, ''Metamorphoses''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml Latin Library]''.
*Pausanias.
*Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4: For Arcesilas of Cyrene Chariot Race 462 BC. ''See original text in the [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2e+P%2e+4%2e171ff%2e Perseus program]''.
*Plato, ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0169:text=Apol.:section=17a Perseus program]''.
*Plato, ''[[Theaetetus]]''. ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Adiv1%3DTheaet. Perseus program]''.
</div>

===Secondary sources===
<div class="references-small">
*{{cite book | last=Ackerman | first=Robert | title=Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion by Jane Ellen Harrison | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=1991—Reprint edition | id=ISBN 0-691-01514-7 | chapter=Introduction}}
*{{cite book | last=Albala Ken G, Johnson Claudia Durst, Johnson Vernon E. | title=Understanding the Odyssey | publisher=Courier Dover Publications | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0-486-41107-9 | chapter=Origin of Mythology}}
*{{cite book | last=Algra | first=Keimpe | title=The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-521-44667-8 | chapter=The Beginnings of Cosmology}}
*{{cite book | last=Allen | first=Douglas | title=Structure & Creativity in Religion: Hermeneutics in Mircea Eliade's Phenomenology and New Directions | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | year=1978 | id=ISBN 90-279-7594-9 | chapter=Early Methological Approaches}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Argonaut|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite book | last=Betegh | first=Gábor | title=The Derveni Papyrus | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0-521-80108-7 | chapter=The Interpretation of the poet}}
*{{cite book | last=Bonnefoy | first=Yves | title=Greek and Egyptian Mythologies | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=1992 | id=ISBN 0-226-06454-9 | chapter=Kinship Structures in Greek Heroic Dynasty}}
*{{cite book | last=Bulfinch | first=Thomas | title=Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology | publisher=Greenwood Press | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-313-30881-0 | chapter=Greek Mythology and Homer}}
*{{cite book | last=Burkert | first=Walter | title=Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical (translated by John Raffan) | publisher=Blackwell Publishing | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-631-15624-0 | chapter=Prehistory and the Minoan Mycenaen Era}}
*{{cite book | last=Burn | first=Lucilla | title=Greek Myths | publisher=University of Texas Press | year=1990 | id=ISBN 0-292-72748-8}}
*{{cite book | last=Bushnell | first=Rebecca W. | title=Medieval A Companion to Tragedy | publisher=Blackwell Publishing| year=2005 | id=ISBN 1-4051-0735-9 | chapter=Helicocentric Stoicism in the Saturnalia: The Egyptian Apollo}}
*{{cite book | last=Chance | first=Jane | title=Medieval Mythography | publisher=University Press of Florida | year=1994 | id=ISBN 0-8130-1256-2 | chapter=Helicocentric Stoicism in the Saturnalia: The Egyptian Apollo}}
*{{cite book | last=Caldwell | first=Richard | title=Approaches to Greek Myth | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=1990 | id=ISBN 0-8018-3864-9 | chapter=The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth}}
*{{cite book | last=Calimach | first=Andrew | title=Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths | publisher=Haiduk Press| year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-9714686-0-5 | chapter=The Cultural Background}}
*{{cite book | last=Cartledge | first=Paul A. | title=The Greeks | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-19-280388-3 | chapter=Inventing the Past: History v. Myth}}
*{{cite book | last=Cartledge | first=Paul A. | title=The Spartans (translated in Greek) | publisher=Livanis | year=2004 | id=ISBN 960-14-0843-6}}
*{{cite book | last=Cashford | first=Jules | title=The Homeric Hymns | publisher=Penguin Classics | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-14-043782-7 | chapter=Introduction}}
*{{cite book | last=Dowden | first=Ken | title=The Uses of Greek Mythology | publisher= Routledge (UK) | year=1992 | id=ISBN 0-415-06135-0| chapter=Myth and Mythology}}
*{{cite book | last=Dunlop | first=John | title=The History of Fiction | publisher=Carey and Hart | year=1842 | chapter=Romances of Chivalry}}
*{{cite book | last=Edmunds | first=Lowell | title=Approaches to Greek Myth | publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press | year=1980 | id=ISBN 0-8018-3864-9 | chapter=Comparative Approaches}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Euhemerus|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite book | last=Foley | first=John Miles | title=Homer's Traditional Art | publisher=Penn State Press | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-271-01870-4 | chapter=Homeric and South Slavic Epic}}
*{{cite book | last=Gale | first=Monica R. | title=Myth and Poetry in Lucretius | publisher=Cambridge University Press| year=1994 | id=ISBN 0-521-45135-3 | chapter=The Cultural Background}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Religion|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite book | last=Griffin | first=Jasper | title=The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World edited by John Boardman, Jasper Griffin and Oswyn Murray | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-19-285438-0 | chapter=Greek Myth and Hesiod}}
*{{cite book | last=Grimal | first=Pierre | title=The Dictionary of Classical Mythology | publisher=Blackwell Publishing | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0-631-20102-5 | chapter=Argonauts}}
*{{cite book | last=Hacklin | first=Joseph | title=Asiatic Mythology | publisher= Asian Educational Services | year=1994 | id=ISBN 81-206-0920-4 | chapter=The Mythology of Persia}}
*{{cite book | last=Hanson Victor Davis | first=Heath John | title=Who Killed Homer (translated in Greek by Rena Karakatsani) | publisher=Kaktos | year=1999 | id=ISBN 960-352-545-6}}
*{{cite book | last=Hard | first=Robin | title=The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek mythology" | publisher=Routledge (UK) | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-415-18636-6 | chapter=Sources of Greek Myth}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Heracles|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite book | last=Jung Carl Gustav | first=Kerényi Karl | title=Essays on a Science of Mythology | publisher=Princeton University Press | year=2001—Reprint edition | id=ISBN 0-691-01756-5 | chapter=Prolegomena}}
*{{cite book | last=Jung | first=C.J. | title=Science of Mythology | publisher=Routledge (UK) | year=2002 | id=ISBN 0-415-26742-0 | chapter=Troy in Latin and French Joseph of Exeter's "Ylias" and Benoît de Sainte-Maure's "Roman de Troie"}}
*{{cite book | last=Kelly | first=Douglas | title=An Outline of Greek and Roman Mythology | publisher=Douglas Kelly | year=2003 | id=ISBN 0-415-18636-6 | chapter=Sources of Greek Myth}}
*{{cite book | last=Kelsey| first=Francis W. | title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology | publisher=Allyn and Bacon | year=1889}}
*{{cite book | last=Kirk| first=Geoffrey Stephen | title=Myth | publisher=University of California Press | year=1973 | id=ISBN 0-520-02389-7 | chapter=The Thematic Simplicity of the Myths}}
*{{cite book | last=Klatt J. Mary | first=Brazouski Antoinette | title=Children's Books on Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography | publisher=Greenwood Press | year=1994 | id=ISBN 0-313-28973-5 | chapter=Preface}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae|publisher=Artemis-Verlag|date=1981–1999}}
*{{cite book | last=Miles | first=Geoffrey | title=Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology | publisher=University of Illinois Press | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-415-14754-9 | chapter=The Myth-kitty}}
*{{cite book | last=Morris | first=Ian | title=Archaeology As Cultural History | publisher=Blackwell Publishing | year=2000 | id=ISBN 0-631-19602-1}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=myth|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite book | last=Nagy | first=Gregory | title=Greek Mythology and Poetics | publisher= Cornell University Press | year=1992 | id=ISBN 0-8014-8048-5 | chapter=The Hellenization of the Indo-European Poetics}}
*{{cite book | last=Nilsson | first=Martin P. | title=Greek Popular Religion | publisher=Columbia University Press | year=1940 | chapter=[http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm The Religion of Eleusis]}}
*{{cite book | last=North John A., Beard Mary, Price Simon R.F. | title=Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-521-31682-0 | chapter=The Religions of Imperial Rome}}
*{{cite book | last=Papadopoulou | first=Thalia | title=Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2005 | id=ISBN 0-521-85126-2 | chapter=Introduction}}
*{{cite book | last=Percy | first=William Armostrong III | title=Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece | publisher=Routledge (UK) | year=1999 | id=ISBN 0-252-06740-1 | chapter=The Institutionalization of Pederasty}}
*{{cite journal|last=Poleman|first=Horace I.|title=Review of "Ouranos-Varuna. Etude de mythologie comparee indo-europeenne by Georges Dumezil" |journal="Journal of the American Oriental Society"|volume=63|issue=No.1|pages=78–79|month=March | url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0279(194303)63%3A1%3C78%3AOEDMCI%3E2.0.CO%3B2-T|publisher=American Oriental Society|month=Mar|year=1943}}
*{{cite journal|last=Reinhold|first=Meyer|title=The Generation Gap in Antiquity |journal="Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society"|volume=114|issue=No.5|pages=347–365|date=October 20, 1970|url=http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-049X(19701020)114%3A5%3C347%3ATGGIA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-I|publisher=American Philosophical Society}}
*{{cite book | last=Rose | first=Herbert Jennings | title=A Handbook of Greek Mythology | publisher=Routledge (UK) | year=1991 | id=ISBN 0-415-04601-7}}
*{{cite book | last=Segal | first=Robert A. | title=Myth and the Polis edited by Dora Carlisky Pozzi, John Moore Wickersham| publisher=Cornell University Press | year=1991 | id=ISBN 0-8014-2473-9 | chapter=A Greek Eternal Child}}
*{{cite journal|last=Segal|first=Robert A.|title=The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell |journal="Christian Century"|date=April 4 1990|url=http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=766|publisher=Christian Century Foundation}}
*{{cite book | last=Segal | first=Robert A. | title=Theorizing about Myth| publisher=Univ of Massachusetts Press | year=1999 | id=ISBN 1-55849-191-0 | chapter=Jung on Mythology}}
*{{cite book | last=Stoll | first=Heinrich Wilhelm (translated by R. B. Paul) | title=Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks| publisher=Francis and John Rivington | year=1852}}
*{{cite book | last=Trobe | first=Kala | title=Invoke the Gods| publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide | year=2001 | id=ISBN 0-7387-0096-7 | chapter=Dionysus}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Trojan War|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Troy|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|year=2002}}
*{{cite encyclopedia|title=Volume: Hellas, Article: Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios|year=1952}}
*{{cite book | last=Walsh | first=Patrick Gerald | title=The Nature of the Gods | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-19-282511-9 | chapter=Liberating Appearance in Mythic Content}}
*{{cite book | last=Weaver | first=John B. | title=The Plots of Epiphany | publisher=Walter de Gruyter | year=1998 | id=ISBN 3-11-018266-1| chapter=Introduction}}
*{{cite book | last=Winterbourne | first=Anthony | title=When the Norns Have Spoken | publisher=Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press | year=2004 | id=ISBN 0-8386-4048-6 | chapter=Spinning and Weaving Fate}}
*{{cite book | last=Wood | first=Michael | title=In Search of the Trojan War | publisher=University of California Press | year=1998 | id=ISBN 0-520-21599-0 | chapter=The Coming of the Greeks}}
</div>

==Further reading==
<div class="references-small">
*{{cite book | last=Gantz | first=Timothy | authorlink = Timothy Gantz | title=Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources | publisher=John Hopkins University Press | year=1993 | id=ISBN 080184410X}}
*{{cite book | last=Graves | first=Robert | author link = Robert Graves | title=The Greek Myths| publisher= Penguin (Non-Classics) | year=1955—Cmb/Rep edition 1993 | id=ISBN 0-14-017199-1}}
*{{cite book | last=Hamilton | first=Edith | authorlink = Edith Hamilton | title=Mythology| publisher= Back Bay Books | year=1942—New edition 1998 | id=ISBN 0-316-34151-7}}
*{{cite book | last=Kerenyi | first=Karl | title=The Gods of the Greeks | publisher= Thames & Hudson| year=1951—Reissue edition 1980| id=ISBN 0-500-27048-1}}
*{{cite book | last=Kerenyi | first=Karl | title=The Heroes of the Greeks | publisher= Thames & Hudson| year=1959—Reissue edition 1978| id=ISBN 0-500-27049-X}}
*{{cite book | last=Morford M.P.O. | first=Lenardon L.J. | title=Classical Mythology | publisher= Oxford University Press| year=2006| id=ISBN 0-19-530805-0}}
*{{cite book | last=Ruck Carl| first=Staples Blaise Daniel | title=The World of Classical Myth| publisher= Carolina Academic Press | year=1994| id=ISBN 0-89089-575-9}}
* [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]] (1870), ''[http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]''.
*{{cite book | last=Veyne| first=Paul| title=Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? An Essay on Constitutive Imagination (translated by Paula Wissing)| publisher= University of Chicago | year=1988| id=ISBN 0-226-85434-5}}
</div>


==External links==
==External links==
* [http://www.lepa-brena.net site]
{{portal|Mythology|Ddraig.svg}}
{{portalpar|Classical Civilisation|2006 01 21 Athènes Parthénon.JPG}}
* [http://www.theoi.com/ Theoi Project, Guide to Greek Mythology] biographies of characters from myth with quotes from original sources and images from classical art
* [http://www.library.theoi.com/ Library of Classical Mythology Texts] translations of works of classical literature
* [http://www.timelessmyths.com/classical Timeless Myths: Classical Mythology] provides information and tales from classical literature.
* [http://www.mae.u-paris10.fr/limc-france/ LIMC-France] provides databases dedicated to graeco-roman mythology and its iconography.
{{featured article}}

{{Greek religion}}


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[[Category:Greek mythology| ]]
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[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Bosnia and Herzegovina musicians]]
[[Category:Yugoslav musicians]]
[[Category:Pop folk singers]]


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[[yi:גריכישע מיטאלאגיע]]
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Revision as of 21:07, 10 October 2008

Lepa Brena

Fahreta Živojinović (Cyrillic: Фахрета Живојиновић; born October 20, 1960) or better known as Lepa Brena (or Brena Nacionale and Internacionale), (Cyrillic: Лепа Брена), name given by Serbian showman Minimax is arguably the most well-known and successful singer of the 1980s in the former Yugoslavia and nowadays the owner of a folk-pop label. She was born as Fahreta Jahić in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia. Lepa Brena sold over 40,000,000 records worldwide, which makes her the best selling female artist in history of Balkans.

Career

Lepa Brena and her band Slatki greh ("Sweet Sin") were the first to combine traditional Yugoslav folk music (in particular, the traditional Balkan "Kolo" dance) with modern pop elements, and went on to inspire and influence an entire generation of musicians. Songs such as "Mile voli disko" (1982), "Sitnije,Cile sitnije" (1983), "Hajde da se volimo" (1987) "Duge noge", "Četiri godine" are amongst the most well-known and popular songs in the history of Yugoslav music, and are definitive of the music of that era.

Brena and her band "Slatki greh" formed in 1981, gaining immediate success with their first album, which featured the hits "Čačak, Čačak," and "Ljubi me, Omere." The Yugoslav public quickly fell in love with the 21-year-old singer.

That success promptly reached unexpected heights with the release of their second album later that year, delighting the folk-loving masses with the enormous hits "Mile voli disko", "Duge noge" and "Dama iz Londona". They also achieved success with the song "Sitnije, Cile, sitnije", a contender for the Yugoslav spot in Eurovision 1983.

In 1984 Brena returned with a new album and hit song "Bato, Bato". Her sexy new image, along with the band's more refined musical style, took her to even greater levels of stardom. They toured relentlessly in support of the album, which also spawned the hits "Bosanac," "Igraj Boro, moje oro" and "Moj je Lola zvezda roken rola" amongst others. By now, the ensemble had become renowned for their catchy pop-folk styling and playful lyrics (the object of Brena's affection in "Moj je Lola..." is an Elvis Presley wannabe, whose obsession with rock music forces her to proudly declare her own devotion to traditional folk: "Waltz? NO! Disco? NO! Kolo? YES!").

Over the course of the next three years, another three albums would follow, which collectively featured the hits "Šeik," "Mače moje," "Nežna žena," "Lažu te, dušo moja" "Okrećeš mi leđa" and many more. In addition to these albums, she also teamed up with fellow singer, Miroslav Ilić, to record four duets, including the romantic "Jedan dan života." The highly successful collaboration also featured "Živela Jugoslavija" ("Long live Yugoslavia") which was equally hated as it was loved, due to its overtly political subject matter (Brena made no attempt to hide her support of a united Yugoslavia, despite the sensitivity of the issue). This controversy, however, did not deter the star from performing the song at the opening ceremony of the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. As well as at the Winter Olympics, Lepa Brena performed the song at a major concert in Romania in 1985, where she sang the song to the crowd while being lifted up in a fruitpicker crane.

By the end of 1986, Lepa Brena had become the most famous person in Yugoslavia, and had also well and truly cemented her status as a sex symbol. This success, however, showed no sign of waning, and in 1987 she continued to dominate popular culture with the release of her movie "Hajde da se volimo" ("Let's Love Each Other"), which featured songs from her album of the same name. With this release, her musical style took a gigantic leap forward, the songs containing a much more modern edge and stylish pop-infused production, without abandoning their traditional folk roots. The project was so successful that she went on to film parts 2 & 3 (in 1989 and 1990), each in support of a new album. This string of LPs produced an extraordinary number of hit songs, including "Hajde da se volimo", "Golube," "On ne voli me," "Udri Mujo," "Biseru beli," "Ja pripadam samo tebi," "Zaželi sreću drugima," and "Čik pogodi." In addition to these was the beautiful "Jablane," written by Dino Merlin (a hugely successful singer/songwriter) as well as "Jugoslovenka," another controversial collaboration, this time with three male singers, each from different parts of Yugoslavia (Alen Islamović, Vlado Kalember and Danijel Popović).

After releasing yet another album, "Zaljubiška," in 1991, Brena took a well-earned break from her hectic touring and recording schedule, leaving wartorn Yugoslavia to start a family with new husband, tennis player Slobodan Živojinović in the United States.

She returned to audiences in 1994 with a highly successful solo album (her first without Slatki greh), which featured one of her biggest hits to date, "Ja nemam drugi dom" ("I Have No Other Home"). The song, her personal favorite, is a touching ode to her first son, Stefan, and also (one would suspect) a reference to the disintegration of her beloved homeland ("I have no other home, but the home inside your heart").

Two more solo albums followed; "Kazna božija" (1995) and "Šta je bilo, bilo je," (1996) the latter featuring the songs "Luda za tobom" and "Ti si moj greh" (a cover of Elena Kostantopoulou's "Pia prosefhi - the Greek entry in Eurovision 1995), which would become two of the most successful songs of her career. After another three-year hiatus, the year 2000 saw Lepa Brena reuniting with "Slatki greh" for one last project, an upbeat collection of songs, reminiscent of their earlier material. Although the release failed to live up to the commercial expectations of its predecessors, it contained the fan favourites "Kolovođa" and "Meni je teško, najteže."

Lepa Brena's rumored and delayed comeback album for 2006 has been pushed to the end of 2007. Brena stated "New songs do not exist for me, I sang for a beautiful and united Yugoslavia. It is very hard for me to record a new album I have a few songs but far from what I would love to have." In 2004 Lepa Brena received 4 songs from Serbian songwriter Dejan Tadic, but Brena has put her album on hold.

New album "Udji slobodno..."

New album "Udji slobodno..." was released on 28.06.2008. It contains 10 new songs, nine written by Brena's old song-writer Marina Tucakovic ("Pozeli srecu drugima", "Okreces mi ledja", "Evo zima ce", "Hajde da se volimo",...) and Aleksandar Milic Mili, and one song from Israel ("Dva asa").

Songs:

  • 1. Udji slobodno...
  • 2. Pazi kome zavidis
  • 3. Kuca lazi
  • 4. Grad
  • 5. Zasto?
  • 6. Kralj
  • 7. Sledeci
  • 8. Dobra Gresnica
  • 9. Zrno tuge
  • 10. Dva asa

'Tour 2008' will start in November 2008!

Private life

Lepa Brena throughout her career has lived in Novi Sad, Serbia. In 1990 she moved to the Serbian Capital Beograd and later in 1991 wed Serbian Tennis Star and Businessman Slobodan Živojinović, Brena and Boba have a home in Coconut Creek in Pompano Beach, Florida where they lived for a while during the NATO bombing of Serbia and Montenegro. She also has a villa in Monte Carlo and another luxurious townhouse on Fisher Island in Florida.Lepa Brena has millions of fans throughout the world. She currently resides in Belgrade, Serbia, together with her husband Slobodan Živojinović (Boba) and their two sons, Stefan and Viktor and is working on a comeback album rumoured to be released by the end of 2006. In 2004 she held a concert in her hometown Brčko, as well as Tuzla.

Discography

Albums

  • Čačak, Čačak (1981)- 350 000
  • Mile voli disko (1982)- 780 000
  • Sitnije, cile, sitnije / Hej, najluđe moje (12" Maxi, 1983)- 800 000
  • Bato, Bato (1984)- 1 100 000
  • Pile moje (1984)- 850 000
  • Jedan dan života, (duet with Miroslav Ilić) (1985)- 800 000
  • Voli me, voli (1986)- 650 000
  • Okrećeš mi leđa (1986)- 600 000
  • Hajde da se volimo (1987)- 800 000
  • Četiri godine (1989)- 550 000
  • Boli me uvo za sve (1990)- 450 000
  • Zaljubiška (1991)- 150 000
  • Ja nemam drugi dom (1994)- 150 000
  • Kazna Božija (1995)- 100 000
  • Luda za tobom (1996)- 200 000
  • Pomračenje sunca (2000)- 120 000
  • The Best Of Lepa Brena (2004)- 400 000
  • Uđi slobodno... (28.06.2008)

Filmography

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Greek_mythology&oldid=244446278"