＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49) on X
(Reference) Original article in Japanese
・ギリシャ神話の「オリュンポス１２神」以外の男神たち（その３）
Previously, I introduced the “Twelve Olympians” of Greek mythology, but there are many other gods and goddesses as well.
Therefore, this is the third installment in our series introducing the male gods of Greek mythology in Japanese alphabetical order.
1. Gods beginning with the letter “N”
① Nereus: God of the Sea
Nereus is a god of the sea, but he particularly personifies calm inland seas. Note that he is different from the “hero Nereus” in Greek mythology, and the spelling is also different.
He is the son of Pontus (sea) and Gaia (earth), and the brother of Thaumas, Phorcys, Ceto, and Eurybia.
He fathered a group of sea goddesses known as the Nereides with Doris (daughter of Oceanus).
2. Gods beginning with the letter “H” “P”
① Harpocrates: God of Silence. A Greek version of Horus from Egyptian mythology.
In ancient Egypt, Horus represented the newborn sun, that is, the sunrise that rises every day. During the Hellenistic period after the conquest of Egypt by Alexander the Great, the Egyptian words “Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered (meaning Horus the child)” were Greekized to Harpocrates.
② Pan (Pan, Aegipan): A half-human, half-animal shepherd
Pan is the god who watches over shepherds and flocks of sheep. Like the satyrs, he has quadrupedal hips and legs, and goat-like horns.
There are various theories about his parents, but his father is said to be either Zeus or Hermes, and his mother is said to be a nymph.
③ Phantasos: God of Dreams
He is one of the three children (Oneiros, the master of dreams) of Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Pasithea, the goddess of relaxation, meditation, and hallucinations (or Nyx, the god of night, or Erebus, the god of darkness).
His brothers include Morpheus, who excels at providing images to humans, and Phobetor, who provides dreams to animals.
Phantasos is an unrealistic dream god who provides images of the earth, rocks, water, and trees, as well as prophetic dreams, to inanimate objects.
④ Hyperion: One of the Titan gods. Considered the sun god and god of light.
The name Hyperion means “the one who goes to the heights.”
According to Hesiod’s “Theogony,” he is the son of Uranus and Gaia. He is also the husband of Theia and the father of Helios, Selene, and Eos.
According to Diodorus of Sicily, Hyperion is credited with first teaching people about the relationship between the movement of celestial bodies and the changing seasons.
⑤ Hymenaeus (Hymen): God of Wedding Celebrations
Hymenaeus was believed to appear at every wedding, and his absence was thought to foreshadow the tragedy of the marriage.
Therefore, the Greeks would call out Hymenaeus’s name. In Greek mythology, he is credited with officiating numerous weddings for all the gods and their children.
⑥ Priapus (Priapus): Patron God of Shepherds, Gardens, and Orchards
Priapus is the patron god of shepherds, gardens, and orchards, and presides over reproduction and fertility. He is the god of male fertility.
He is believed to have been born to Dionysus and Aphrodite (or a nymph), but there are also theories that he was born to Zeus (or Adonis) and Aphrodite, or to Hermes and Aphrodite.
⑦ Pluto: God of Wealth and Harvest
He was the son of Demeter, the goddess of agriculture, and Iasion, and was blind. He possessed a “horn of plenty,” and is sometimes depicted as a winged infant in paintings.
He declared to Zeus that he would bestow wealth only upon the good. Zeus, arguing that this would only increase the gap between rich and poor, deprived him of his sight so that he could not discern good from bad.
⑧ Proteus: God of the Sea
He cares for seals on the island of Paros, located offshore in the delta of the Nile River.
He is called one of the “Old Men of the Sea” along with Phorcys and Nereus, and is sometimes considered a son of Pontus and Gaia, but Apollodorus excludes Proteus and presents the theory that he is a son of Poseidon.
In old vase paintings, he is depicted with a body that has a fish’s tail, from which lions, deer, and vipers peek out. These “Old Men of the Sea” were the rulers of the Greek seas before Poseidon.
He possessed the ability to prophesy, but he disliked using this power, so to hear his prophecies, one had to capture him and force him to reveal them.
However, he also had the ability to transform into other things, making capture itself extremely difficult. A similar myth exists about him to that of Nereus and his daughter Thetis, in that he is captured after a struggle by heroes seeking his prophecies.
The name Proteus is also the origin of the name of Neptune’s moon, Proteus.
⑨ Prometheus: One of the Titan gods. He gave fire to humankind.
He was the son of Iapetus and the brother of Atlas, Menoetius, and Epimetheus. He was the father of Deucalion.
He is known for defying Zeus’s objections, stealing fire from the heavens, and giving it to humankind. He is also said to have created humankind.
Alongside Hermes, he is a “trickster” figure in Greek mythology and possesses aspects of a “cultural hero.”
⑩ Hesperus: Presides over the evening star
The name Hesperus means “twilight, west.”
He is the son of Astraeus and Eos (or, according to one theory, the son of Cephalus and Eos), and the brother of Phosphorus, the morning star. However, there are alternative theories that he was the son or brother of Atlas.
⑪ Helios: God of the Sun
The name Helios is identical to the common Greek noun meaning “sun.” His symbolic sacred bird is the rooster. Ancient Greeks believed the sun was the four-horse chariot of the god Helios soaring through the sky.
From around the 4th century BC, Helios came to be identified (syncretized) with Apollo, who was also a god of light.
Similarly, Selene, Helios’s sister and the goddess of the moon, came to be identified with Artemis, Apollo’s twin sister.
⑫ Hermaphroditus (Hermaphroditus) (Androgynous): The son of Hermes and Aphrodite, a hermaphroditic god.
Hermaphroditus was an exceptionally beautiful boy, born to Hermes and Aphrodite. However, while bathing, he was raped by the nymph Salmacis, and they literally merged into one, making him hermaphroditic.
The name Hermaphroditus not only derives from his parents, but also means a beautiful boy with a beautiful female body (Hermes and Aphrodite).
It is also the origin of the word “hermaphrodite,” meaning “hermaphrodite” or “male-female hybrid.”
⑬ Phosphorus (Heosphorus): Presides over the morning star
The name Phosphorus means “bringer of light.”
He is the son of Astraeus and Eos (or, according to one theory, the son of Cephalus and Eos), and the brother of Hesperus, the evening star.
He is also the father of Ceyux and Daedalion.
⑭ Potamoi: River Gods
The Potamoi are the children of Oceanus and Tethys, and include numerous gods, such as Chebren and Peneus. Their daughters are all considered to be Naiads.
Paintings depicting the Potamoi have distinctive features, primarily portraying them in three forms: a human male with the head of a bull and the lower half of a slender, snake-like fish; a bull with the head of a human and the lower half of a slender, snake-like fish; or a figure with their arms resting on an amphora from which water constantly flows.
⑮ Phobos: God of Terror
The name Phobos means “flight,” and originally represented a god of defeat, but later became a god of confusion, bewilderment, and terror.
He was the son of Ares, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, and his siblings were Deimos (fear) and Harmonia (harmony). He was also a sibling of Eros.
Along with Deimos, Enyo (goddess of war), and Eris (goddess of strife and discord), he was always subordinate to Ares and roamed the battlefield.
⑯ Phorcys (Porcus): Son of Gaia and Pontus
Phorcys was the son of Gaia, the earth goddess, and Pontus, the god of the sea, and a sibling of Nereus, Thaumas, Ceto, and Eurybia.
He lived in quiet coves and beaches. He married Ceto, his sister, and became the father of the three Graeae and the three Gorgons.
Incidentally, the Phrygian warrior Phorcys of the same name played an active role in the Trojan War.
3. Gods beginning with the letter M
① Momus (Momos): Deification of “Criticism” and “Sarcasm”
According to the lost epic poem “Cypria,” the Trojan War, which lasted for 10 years, began at the suggestion of Momus.
That is, Zeus wanted to destroy humanity using lightning or a great flood, but Momus objected, advising instead to start a great war and reduce the human population through the marriage of the goddess Thetis to Peleus and the birth of the exceptionally beautiful Helen.
Momos also appears in Aesop’s Fables in the fable that “nothing is perfect and without flaws.”
When Zeus built the bulls, Prometheus built the humans, and Athena built the house, Momus, chosen as the judge, criticized them, saying, “The bulls should have their eyes above their horns because they can’t see where they’re going with their horns, the humans should have their hearts outward because they can’t notice bad people, and the house should have been built on a chariot because you can’t easily move if a bad person lives next door.” Zeus was angered by this and banished Momus from Mount Olympus.
② Morpheus (Morpheus, Morphe): God of Dreams
Morpheus’s name comes from the Greek word “morphe,” meaning “former” or “shaper.” His father, Hypnos, was the god of sleep, and his mother, Nyx, was the goddess of night.
According to Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” he sleeps in a dimly lit cave on an ebony bed, surrounded by poppies, and possesses a special power that allows him to mimic human form in his dreams.
He is also deeply associated with the dreams of kings and heroes, and is often referred to collectively as “Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams,” encompassing both himself and his brothers.
The drug morphine (formerly known as morphium) is named after Morpheus due to its dream-inducing properties.
③ Moros: The one who governs the fate of death
According to Hesiod’s Theogony, Moros is the only son born to Nyx, the goddess of night, and is the brother of Geras, Cer, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiros, Momos, Oijus, Hesperides, Moirai, Nemesis, Aphate, Philotes, and Eris.
He is said to dwell in darkness and to define and control human death.