To DeathŞiir
Hear me, you who steer
the path of all mortals
and give sacred time to all
from whom you are distant.
Your sleep tears the soul
free from the body’s hold,
whenever you undo
nature’s powerful bonds,
bringing the long slumber,
the endless one, to the living.
Common to all,
you are unjust to some,
when you bring swift end
to youthful life
at its peak.
In you alone is executed
the verdict common to all,
for to entreaties and to prayers
you alone are deaf.
In general, though, it was customary to give Hestia offerings before other gods. Sokrates, about to embark on a discussion on the etymology of gods’ names, asks his interlocutor if they should start with Hestia, as is the custom, and later notes that Hestia is the first divinity invoked at sacrifices. It is not hyperbole to state that she was the most worshipped divinity in the ancient world as well as the most important divinity in the daily lives of the majority of people.
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Hephaistos makes Okeanos the outer rim on the shields of Akhilleus and of Herakles. It is not, however, the absolute limits of the world, at least not the world of the living. Odysseus must cross Okeanos to reach Hades, and Hesiod places a number of monsters beyond its stream such as the Hesperides, the Gorgons, and Geryon.
Hesiod says that three winds, Boreas (north), Notos (south), and Zephyros (west), were born from Astraios and Dawn, along with the stars; the other, “evil” winds arose from Zeus’ defeat of Typhon, who seems to have originally been a wind daimōn.
The word “Mouseion” means “place of the Muses,” and, via Latin, is the source of our “museum.”
Madness was also associated with the moon in antiquity, as can be seen in the etymology of the English word “lunatic,” which is derived from Latin “luna” (“moon”).
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