Edward Ferrie
More Tales from the Greek Legends
Bellerophon & Pegasus • Orpheus & Eurydice
and other tales from Ancient Greece
Many words from ancient Greece are used
every day in modern English. For example,
alphabet is a Greek word which we use for
our letters—even though we don’t use the
Greek alphabet but the Roman alphabet!
Then there is academy and athlete and
amazon. Some more: aristocrat, barbarian,
cathedral, cemetery, chorus, crocodile,
cosmos, democracy, drama, echo, economy,
genesis, history, idea, mathematics, myth,
and marathon.
And scientists and explorers down the
ages who had studied Greek liked to make
up their own Greek names when they
discovered things. So when archeological
remains of massive creatures were
discovered they were named by putting two
Greek words together: dinosaur (which
means ‘terrible lizard’); and Australia means
Southern Territory.
Among ancient Greek words, though it
is not so widely known, is hubris. Hubris
changed its meaning as the centuries rolled by (as words do—their meaning is not fixed
forever). Hubris now means a reckless pride
which results inevitably in downfall. There
are a number of cases of this in the stories
on this recording, one of the most striking is
the story of Bellerophon.
Time and time again, through the tales
from Ancient Greece, the gods issue a
warning. They help a hero to achieve
something exceptional. He has to be
courageous to start with, and be skilled with
weapons or cunning or have other qualities,
and this provides the basis for great heroic
deeds.
But if, having killed the dragon or saved
a maiden or conquered a city, the hero then
starts to get above himself, woe betide! The
gods don’t like that. In the case of
Bellerophon, he did achieve great things, in
killing the dreadful Chimera; in the case of
Niobe, her boasts about her twelve beautiful
children resulted in the terrible vengeance of
Artemis; Orion, the mighty hunter, thought he was a match for Artemis, the goddess of
the hunt, but he was bitten by one of her
scorpions for his pride, and died; and
Arachne, fine weaver though she was,
found that hubris spelled her doom to spin
to the end of time—as a spider.
The ancient Greeks—and the ancient
Romans—knew that it is only too easy for a
winner to be full of overblown pride. In the
days of ancient Rome, when a general had
won a great battle, he was allowed to have
a Triumph. This was a stately procession into
the city with the city-dwellers lining the
streets and throwing flowers and cheering
wildly. The general would ride in a gilded
chariot at the head of his troops.
But it was decreed that, just in case the
general became too puffed up with pride—hubris!—a slave stood beside him all the
way, whispering repeatedly in his ear,
‘Remember! You are just a man, remember!
You are just a man!’
One great modern Japanese judo
champion had his own way of preventing
hubris. ‘I always say, when I win a
competition, I have won today—but if the
competition were run tomorrow with exactly
the same fighters, perhaps I wouldn’t win. So,
I am a champion, but only for that one day.’
The gods of Ancient Greece would have
approved!
Notes by Nicolas Soames
Glossary
Acteon: a huntsman who had a famous
pack of dogs who chanced upon Artemis
while she was bathing and naked. The
goddess punished him for spying on her by
transforming him into a stag to be ripped
apart by his own pack of hounds
Aphrodite: the goddess of love and wife of
Hephaistos, the blacksmith of the gods.
Apollo: the sun god, the god of music,
archery and disease, the brother of Artemis.
Ares: the god of war and lover of Aphrodite.
Artemis: the virgin goddess of the hunt and
the moon, she was dedicated to hunting and
the chase. She could give men good fortune
but expected their worship and adoration
and could be vindictive and cruel towards
any who offended her. She was a goddess to
be feared and revered. Those who offended
her usually paid with their lives or the lives of
their loved ones. The giant hunter Orion and
Acteon were just two of those who fell foul
of her.
Athena: the goddess of wisdom.
Atalanta: a huntress and athlete, the fastest
runner of her times. She refused to marry
any man who could not beat her in a foot
race. Many died in the attempt until she
finally succumbed to Menanion, who slowed
her down by dropping golden apples to
distract her, enabling him to win the race.
She was the first to shoot an arrow into the
great Calydonian boar, allowing Melager to
kill it.
Bellerophon: great Corinthian hero who
fought and slew the terrible Chimera.He was
assisted by the goddess Athena who helped
him to bridle the winged horse Pegasus.
The Chimera: a terrifying beast with three
different heads, a lion, a goat and a snake.
Demeter: the goddess of the earth, the
harvest and the hearth and the mother of
Persephone.
Echo: a wood nymph cursed by Hera, wife
of Zeus and queen of the gods for deceiving
her. She had loved talking a lot so her curse
was to be able only to repeat the last words
anyone said to her. She fell hopelessly in love with a beautiful young man called Narcissus
who only loved himself and she faded away.
Eos: the beautiful goddess of the dawn.
Eurydice: the wife of Orpheus, the greatest
of all mortal musicians.
Hades: the lord of the underworld, brother
of Zeus and one of the most powerful gods,
lord of the dead and of all that was in the
earth. He carried off Persephone, the
daughter of Demeter and married her.
Hephaestos: the blacksmith of the gods,
lame and hunchbacked he was married to
Aphrodite, the goddess of love.
Hera: the queen of the gods, long suffering
wife of Zeus, who often became angry and
jealous at her husband’s philandering.
Melanion: the husband of Atalanta.
Meleager: the hunter who slew the
monstrous Calydonian boar sent by Artemis
to ravage the kingdom when she was
overlooked when the seasonal offerings to
the gods were carried out.
Narcissus: A beautiful young man who fell
in love with his own reflection.
Orion: the giant huntsman, son of
Poseidon, Zeus and Hades who was
destroyed by Artemis for daring to desire
her.
Orpheus: the greatest mortal musician ever
to live. He helped Jason win the golden
fleece and when his wife Eurydice was bitten
by a poisonous snake and killed he went to
Hades to play his love songs to the lord of
the underworld and try to get her back.
Pegasus: the winged horse used by
Bellerophon to kill the monstrous Chimera.
Persephone: the daughter of Demeter,
carried off by Hades whom she eventually
fell in love with and married.
Sirius: the faithful hound of Orion the
huntsman.
Thanatos: the god of death.
Zeus: the king of the gods, the thunderer,
the husband of Hera, the queen of the gods.
The music on this recording is taken from the NAXOS and MARCO POLO catalogues
TANEYEV Symphony No 4
8.223196
Polish State Philharmonic Orchestra / Stephen Gunzenhauser
CIURLIONIS The Sea
8.223323
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Juozas Domarkas
RUBINSTEIN Symphony No 5
8.223320
George Enescu State Philharmonic Orchestra / Horia Andreescu
CIURLIONIS Prelude for String Orchestra
8.223323
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Juozas Domarkas
RUBINSTEIN Symphony No 4
8.555979
Czecho-Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra (Kosice) / Robert Stankovsky
GLUCK Orpheée et Euridice Overture
8.660185–86
Opera Lafayette Orchestra / Ryan Brown
CIURLIONIS In the Forest
8.223323
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Juozas Domarkas
GLINKA Nocturne for Harp
8.555791
Elizabeth Hainen
RUBINSTEIN Symphony No 2
8.555392
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Bratislava / Stephen Gunzenhauser
LIADOV Baba Yaga
8.220348
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra / Stephen Gunzenhauser
