Lockdown has been a trial for everyone, so Mrs Heritage and I decided to brush up on our Greek mythology – you remember, all those Titans, Gods, Furies, Gorgons, Nymphs, Hydra’s, Aphrodite, Poseidon etc. The whole scene is not an unreasonable explanation of how humankind came into being.
My favourite is Kronos. He was one of the twelve Titans who were the children of Gaia (earth) and Uranos (sky). Kronos ate his first five children because he thought they would put a curse on him, because his father had cursed him when he cut off dad’s testicles at the behest of his mother (who was his father’s sister, also a Titan) in order to rule the world – a New World Order if you like!
Krono’s last child was Zeus, king of the gods, and hurler of lightning bolts. Rhea, Kronos’ wife, substituted a stone when Kronos tried to eat him too, and later regurgitated it along with the five children he had previously swallowed, all of whom then became gods (but not the stone). One of those children was Ares, the god of war, a bit dim, but a real warrior.
Anyway, later on the Greek warrior state of Sparta was established (in modern day Laconia). You remember, the Spartans left their children out on the mountainside, and those that didn’t perish became the best warriors.
On the corner of Bentinck and Keppel Streets in Bathurst is the Sparta Building, now beautifully repainted (with the help of a small grant from Council). It has been a long and difficult process, a bit like the ten labours of Hercules, but the result is striking, and Sparta now stands proud as part of Bathurst built heritage.
Thought of the week “It’s all Greek to me”
