idea based on greek mythology... chronological problem

[asher marquering]

hi i wasn't sure where to post this you guys can move it if you want

i have this idea 'bout this sword that Hephaestus creates from the remains of a centaur, Amycus, the sword is too powerful to be wield by any being so Hephaestus asks Dionysus to create a drink that will help the user wield the sword, the sword finds its way to Agapios (my fictional character) and he becomes a guardian/watcher of gods and men alike

now here it is that i sit with my problem i've identified certain characters that were directly involved with the three primary ones (Hephaestus, Dionysus and Amycus the centaur) they are Achilles, Acis, Acoetes, Aegis, Aeschylus, Aetna, Agamemnon, Agave, Aglaea, Althaea, Ampelos,Aphrodite, Ares, Ariadne, Ate, Athamas, Athena, Autonoe, Cabeiro, Cadmus, Callirhoe, Cedalion, Charites, Deianeira, Demeter,Erichthonius, Eros, Euphrosyne, Euripides, Eurynome, Harmonia, Helios,Hera, Heracles, Hermes, Hyades, Hymenaios, Ino, Lycurgus, Maro, Nysiads, Nyx, Oenopion, Ophion, Orion, Palici, Pandora, Pelates, Pelops, Pentheus, Periphetes, Persephone, Perseus, Phthonus, Pirithous, Polymnus, Poseidon, Priapus, Prometheus, Rhea, Semele, Thalia, Theseus, Thetis, Zeus o i did a lot of reading)

but now the problem is i can't seem to place there beings into a chronological order any ideas?? mayb a website i could try??

thanks a mil

 

[Dragonlady]

Hi

All I can suggest is a good book on greek mythology, of the sort 'encyclopoedia of greek mythology' rather than 'collection of greek myths', that should explain how all the stories are related.

 

[iansales]

There's always wikipedia...

 

[Marky Lazer]

There's always wikipedia...

Which of course is a very unreliable source...

Anyway, the little I know about Greek mythology is that a lot of myths get told differently. For example, the myth where Icarus gets wings from Daedalus from wax and when he gets too close to the sun, the wings burn he drowns in the sea. As far as I know they escaped from King Minos. Daedalus built the labyrinth for Minos to protect his treasures, then Minos wanted him dead so he couldn't tell people the way into the maze to steal the gold, etc. On the other hand, there is the myth about the same maze where Minos needs it built for his son, which is hideous and the King doesn't want anyone to know (the son is a minotaur). Then there also is the one where the minotaur isn't the King's son but a child of one of the King's mistresses when she had an affair with a bull. Another myth says that Minos prayed at one time to Poseidon and he got a bull to offer to Poseidon. But Minos swapped it with a different bull, Poseidon got so mad he cursed Minos's wife with zoophilia, and the resulted in the minotaur son.

Okay, what I'm trying to say is, Myths have the tendency to change quite a bit, and when you're writing a "myth" of your own, you can do a bit of that yourself, I guess.

Edit: I like this idea, however...

 

[iansales]

Which of course is a very unreliable source...

Not at all. As a first point of call, it's very useful. More and more articles now have citations, so you can check up on the facts should you wish to do so. At the very least, it gives you access to a great deal more info than you would otherwise have access to. And it's free.

Studies have shown that in some cases, Wikipedia is as accurate - and occasionally moreso - than traditional printed matter encyclopaedias. It certainly boasts a range of subject matter found nowhere else - after all, you would never expect The Encylopaedia Britannica to include the discography of Czech doom metal band Silent Stream of Godless Elegy. But it's there on Wikipedia.

 

[The Ace]

It's a pity you're not American. The writers of, 'Xena,' just didn't care.

 

[chrispenycate]

Well. myths don't come time stamped, but if we eliminate gods (as being uninterested in time scales, and unchangeable, so no help in ordering things), tone down nymphs, muses and other immortals (Prometheus, being a Titan, is long lived, possibly immortal; but he's spent most of eternity chained to a rock as a liver dispenser, so gives us a reference) and concentrate on the mortals, we still have pretty wide spacing; Pandora, through Theseus to the Trojan war, at least. (No, I don't recognise them all)
This is going to make for a very long period covered by the story, and some long-lived protagonists.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Well, you could always stretch it by having some of them being released from/visited in the underworld.

Also, Greek myths can be quite flexible. (For example, Sarpedon leader of the Lycians in the Iliad is referred to both as the brother of Rhadamanthys and Minos, given long life by a golden hair in his head, or as the same man's descendent).

 

[Lith]

It's a pity you're not American. The writers of, 'Xena,' just didn't care.

Hey now! The kiwis had a hand in that show too!

I'm not that well versed in Greek mythology, but can you get a single chronology? A fair number of myths overlap and conflict with each other, given small changes over time.