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This week's #MythologyMonday theme is work.
Four deities spring to my mind when I think of work: #Demeter, #Hermes, #Hephaistos, and #Athena. #AncientGreece was an agricultural society with 80% of the population being involved in this line of work. In Greek mythology, it was Demeter who invented agriculture but according to Diodorus Siculus she burnt all the grain when her daughter #Persephone vanished out of grief and anger.
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Fired with love for Admetos, #Apollon made all the cows bear twins. But then #Hermes was born and built the first lyre and Apollon traded his cattle whip for the instrument, making Hermes keeper of herds.
Hermes is also the god of trade and merchants, watching over the marketplace in the agora, a natural extension of his role since animals and their by-products were brought to the market to sell. Thievery and scams, of course, are also tools of the trade...
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The artisans under the patronage of #Hephaistos and #Athena built their workshops nearby. Homer writes in the #Odyssey:
"As when a man adds gold to a silver vessel, a craftsman taught by Hephaistos and Athene to master his art through all its range, so that everything that he makes is beautiful."
Hephaistos and Athena seem to share most of the crafts. Only metalurgy and smithing seems to be Hephaistos' domain alone, just as weaving is the sole sphere of Athena.
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Animal husbandry, a sign of power and wealth, was less well developed in #ancientGreece. Goats and sheep were the most common livestock and the flocks were protected (and sometimes stolen) by #Hermes. He cares for and increases the flocks and thus gives wealth.
Before Hermes was born, his brother #Apollon was herder of the flocks. When he was sentenced to a year of servitude as a young god for killing Python, Apollon served the mortal king Admetos as his herdsman.
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While searching for #Persephone, Demeter was received by Eleusinian prince #Triptolemos and his family and after she had found Persephone, she taught him how to grow crops and provided him with a winged, serpent-drawn chariot to spread her gift across the earth. Triptolemus was the favourite of #Demeter, and it is said that he became the inventor of the plough. Pausanias even tells of a temple of Triptolemos at #Eleusis.
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