The Greek civilization was the most influential civilization in the history of the world. All of today’s thoughts and ideas can be traced back to the Greeks. They gave us democracy, mathematics, drama, philosophy, Olympics and a whole bunch of Gods.

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Here are some interesting facts revolving around Greek mythology.

Hercules gave us the saying “Taking the bull by its horns”:

The saying, “Taking the bull by its horns”, comes from Greek mythology. It was one of the 12 labors of Hercules that he had to perform to repent for..
..killing his own wife and children in a fit of madness caused by Hera. He saved the city of Crete from a raging bull by seizing its horns.
Athena defeated Poseidon to become the guardian of Athens:
Athena and Poseidon both wanted to become the guardian of a certain city so they decided to give a gift each to please the residents of the city. Poseidon gave them water in the form of a spring but the water was salty..
... and of no use. Athena gave them an olive tree which was much more useful as it gave food, oil and wood and so she won and since then that city has been known as Athens.
Hera restored her virginity each year:
Hera was the sister of Zeus who later became his wif,she was very much in love with him.She got a love charm from Aphrodite to make Zeus fall in love with her.She restored her virginity each year by bathing in a sacred spring called Kanathos
Apollo commandeered a ship in his dolphin form:
Delphinius was the dolphin form of Apollo which was worshiped at Delphi. This is strange because Delphi is in the mountains away from the sea but apparently, Apollo in his dolphin form jumped up on the deck of a ship and...
...commandeered it to the coast at Delphi. According to the Greek mythology, the sailors became the first priests there.
Athena’s thousands of grey eyes:
Athena is supposed to have a thousand eyes in the form of the leaves of the olive tree. She gifted the olive tree to the city of Athens and became its guardian goddess. The leaves of the olive tree are grey at the back and when the wind blows..
... and lifts the leaves up, it looks like a thousand eyes are watching over the city.
Pandora was the first mortal women:
Pandora was made by Zeus and was the first mortal woman according to Greek mythology. She received a gift from each of the Gods to make her perfect. Zeus gave her to Epimetheus who had been warned by his brother Prometheus to not take any..
... gifts from Zeus but he got enchanted by Pandora’s beauty and accepted. He gave her a box and told her never to open it. But she couldn’t resist and opened it, letting out all evil and mistrust in the world.
Atlas was punished to hold the heavens not the Earth:
Atlas was a Titan who fought and led a battle of Titans against Zeus but got defeated and was punished by Zeus to hold up heavens on his shoulders for all eternity. For a while he got Hercules to hold it up for him but..
...then later resumed his duties when Hercules cheated him into holding the weight of the heavens again. He is wrongly portrayed to be holding up the earth.

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