Among the many traditions that have preserved the principal elements of Greek myth, a special place has to be assigned to the Theogony, the epic in which the poet Hesiod, who lived between the eighth and ninth century BC, recounted the origins of the universe and the race of the gods.
In the beginning was Chaos, a formless, dark, and primordial state that required no independent and preexisting creator. Out of Chaos emerged Gaea (the earth), followed by specific attributes of the cosmos: Eros, original impulse and generative force; the grim figures of Erebus and Night, manifestations of the unbounded emptiness and darkness; and Pontus (the sea), with whom Gaea, the universal mother, generated monsters and semi-divine figures linked to the cycles of life, and who would be the ancestors of the human race. The appearance of Uranus, the starry sky, introduced a male element as a counterweight to Gaea, earth and mother.
>From the union of Gaea and Uranus were born the different forces of the universe. These represented atmospheric and volcanic phenomena, rivers and seas, celestial bodies, or even abstract concepts like justice.
As soon as Gaea gave birth to her children, Uranus hid them in the depth of the earth, inside their own mother, until Gaea, exhausted, incited her progeny to rebel. Cronus placed himself at their head, seizing power and castrating his father: the blood from Cronus's mutilated genitals fertilized the earth and gave birth to the Giants and the Erinyes, or Furies, while his seed, spilled into the sea, produced the foam from which Aphrodite was born.
But Cronus, who married his sister Rhea, took the same attitude toward his children as his father had done: as soon as they were born he devoured them. Like Uranus, he was to be overthrown by one of them.
Zeus, who had escaped his father's ferocity, forced him to vomit up his brothers and sisters and they recognized him as the supreme deity. Finally, after a series of struggles with the "old" gods, Zeus, his brothers and sisters, and their progeny imposed the rule of Olympus on the universe.
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Aphrodite, known to the Roman world as Venus, was the goddess of love.
There are various traditions about her birth: according to one version she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione. Others claim that she was a daughter of Uranus whose sexual organs, thrown into the sea by Cronus, generated the goddess. When Aphrodite appeared she was carried by Zephyr first toward Cythera and then to the coast of Cyprus, where the Horae dressed her before presenting her to the Immortals. Accepted among the gods of Olympus, she became the adopted daughter of Zeus. In another version of the same myth, Aphrodite was born from a shell and rose naked out of the foam of the sea.
In his philosophical interpretation of the myths, Plato imagined the existence of two different Aphrodites: Aphrodite Urania, the goddess of pure love, and Aphrodite Pandemia (Popular), the daughter of Dione and the goddess of ordinary love.
Various groups of legends arose from that of Aphrodite in which she played a leading or secondary role, though they were not consistent with one another. She became the wife of Hephaestus, but loved Ares and had affairs with other gods, including Dionysus, Hermes, and Poseidon. She did not disdain giving herself to ordinary mortals like Anchises and Adonis. Numerous children were born from these unions: to Ares she bore Harmonia, Phobos (Fright) and Deimos (Fear), Eros and Anteros; Dionysus fathered Priapus, Hermes, Hermaphroditus, and Anchises was father of Aeneas.
Wherever Aphrodite appeared, love was kindled. She even had this effect in effigy, as Pygmalion discovered. The scorning of love moved her to anger and famous curses. She punished the women of Lemnos, who did not worship her, by afflicting them with an unpleasant odor that prompted their husbands to seek solace in the arms of Thracian prisoners. The women of Lemnos then killed all the men on the island and created a society made solely of women, until the Argonauts arrived to correct the situation. Even her favor was dangerous, as the Trojans discovered when Paris, awarding her the palm of beauty, earned them the enmity of Hera and Athena, deities of much greater power and vindictiveness than the goddess of love. Yet Aphrodite, though she could not save Paris or Troy, managed to preserve the Trojan race by helping Aeneas to take the Penates to Italy. This is why she was venerated as Mother Venus in Rome.
The cult of the goddess of love undoubtedly grew out of a pre-Greek foundation. In particular, the tradition of her birth and her power over the hearts of men can be linked to Oriental myths and to deities like Ashtoreth or Ishtar, known in the West as Astarte-linked linguistically with the name Aphrodite. The many versions of the legend of her birth and the fact that she is sometimes placed among the daughters of Uranus, those of Cronus, or among the Oceanids, the Moerae, and the Erinyes, are further testimonies to the antiquity of her cult, in which several different myths are bound together by the theme of fertility and love.
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The son of Zeus and Leto, Apollo was the twin brother of Artemis and belonged to the second generation of Olympian gods. To avoid the jealous rage of Hera, who had pursued her all over the earth, Leto sought, in vain, a place to give birth. Only the island Asteria or Ortygia, barren and floating, was prepared to accept her. Assisted by Athena and all the other goddesses of Olympus, the mother remained in labor for nine days and nine nights, until Hera agreed to let Ilithia, the goddess who presided over childbirth, descend from Olympus to help her. The moment that Ilithia set foot on Ortygia, Leto started to give birth. She seized hold of a palm, the only tree that grew on the wandering isle, and brought into the world first Artemis and then her twin brother Apollo. At the moment of the god's birth sacred swans flew over Ortygia. Apollo, in gratitude for the refuge the island had granted his mother, fixed it at the center of the Greek world and gave the new name of Delos (the Brilliant).
Zeus immediately made gifts to his new son and smoothed away Hera's resentment. Themis nursed Apollo with nectar and ambrosia for four days, enough time for him to prepare to take revenge on his mother's enemies. Making his way to Delphi, he used his arrows to kill the serpent Python, who on Hera's orders had persecuted Leto while she was carrying the divine twins. He then seized the oracle kept by the monster and consecrated a tripod in the temple; the Pythia gave out her oracles while seated on this stool.
The giant Tityus, who had tried to rape Leto at Hera's instigation, was also brought down by the arrows of Apollo (or of Apollo and Artemis) and banished by Zeus to Tartarus, where his liver was devoured eternally by two serpents or two vultures.
Apollo was very fond of his mother, whom he defended tenaciously not only from physical violence but also from insults and sarcasm: on Niobe, who dared to mock her, he wreaked a terrible vengeance. His relationship with Zeus was one of esteem and respect, and only on two occasions did Apollo incur the wrath of his father. The first time was when, at the instigation of Hera, all the gods of Olympus with the exception of Hestia tried to overthrow Zeus by taking him prisoner. The situation was resolved by Thetis, who sent Briareus to free him, but Apollo and Poseidon were condemned to serve King Laomedon, for whom they built the walls of Troy. On another occasion, Zeus and Apollo clashed over Asclepius, the son of Apollo who was worshipped at Epidauros and eventually burned to ashes with a lightning bolt for having dared to bring several dead people back to life. Apollo took his revenge by killing the Cyclopes, but his father punished him by forcing him to remain in the service of Admetus, King of Thessaly, tending his herds and flocks for nine years. He cannot have been a very conscientious herdsman if the newborn Hermes was able to carry off fifty heifers.
Though he refused to marry, Apollo had many loves, and not always happy ones. His passion for the nymph Daphne and the Trojan princess Cassandra was not returned; he was betrayed by Coronis, who preferred a mortal but bore him Asclepius; even Marpessa left him for Idas. He had more success with the nymph Cyrene and the Muses who were associated with his cult (Apollo Musagetes). His love affairs with the young men Hyacinth and Cyparissus are also famous.
Though the powers attributed to Apollo were apparently very different in kind, they were in reality linked to one another. This made him the most complete expression of the divine conceived by the Greeks. He was, as we have seen, the god who punishes, so that all unexpected deaths were attributed to his arrows, but he was also the god who gave succor with medicine. He had the power of prophecy and presided over the arts, especially those of song and music in which he was closely connected with the Muses: Marsyas, who doubted his supremacy, paid , who doubted his supremacy, paid a cruel price for his pride.
Apollo was also the god who protected the foundation of cities and defended the civil institutions of society. In the Greek world, he personified the rational mind and his figure was deliberately contrasted with personages or aspects of myth that represented passion, or animal instincts.
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The son of Zeus and Hera, Ares belonged to the second generation of Olympians and was numbered among the twelve main deities. He was the god of war, identified with the Italic Mars and represented wearing armor, a helmet and bearing a shield, spear, and sword. He usually fought alone, but sometimes on a chariot drawn by four fiery horses and accompanied by his sons Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Fright); the sisters Eris (Discord) and Enyo, a lover of massacres and destroyer of cities whom the Romans called Bellona, also fought alongside him.
Ares never favored one side or another in battle and, as the whim took him, fought first against one and then against the other. For him it was sufficient to provoke slaughter and plunder, to see blood flow and hear the sound of clashing arms. For this reason and the contempt that he showed for the law, Ares was disliked by the other gods, including his parents. However, he was much appreciated by Hades, who was happy to receive those who fell in battle. Aphrodite also nursed a strong passion for him that roused the ire of Hephaestus. The goddess of love bore him (in addition to the already mentioned Phobos and Deimos) Harmonia, (The Unifier), Eros and Anteros (Love and Love returned, respectively). The Amazons were also considered to be his offspring.
The majority of the myths that feature Ares are tales of war or armed challenges and duels, but the god did not always emerge the victor. Diomedes, with the help of Athena, defeated him beneath the walls of Troy, and the gigantic Aloadae twins succeeded in capturing him and holding him prisoner for thirteen months in a bronze vessel, until Hermes came to free him. Poseidon even brought a suit against him for willful murder, though he was acquitted.
The various myths reveal two aspects of Ares: on the one hand, he was seen as greedy for war and destruction and, on the other as the young athlete and lover of Aphrodite. This apparent duplicity can be traced back to an original unity, if we remember that in the setting where the god's ult first developed, before moving from Asia Minor to the archaic and classical Greek world. Ares was probably conceived as the tutelary deity of female fertility. This may be the source of the tradition of warlike rites sacred to the god, which were in reality ritual combats linked with initiation and fertility. When the cult of Ares reached the Greek world through Thrace, his characteristics underwent a change over the course of time, until they assumed the apparently twofold connotations attributed to the god in the classical era.
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Artemis, or Diana to the Romans, was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and, therefore, belonged to the second generation of Olympian gods. The circumstances of her birth, which took place on the island of Delos, were the same as those of her twin brother Apollo, except that she was the first to emerge from her mother's womb and then assisted her in the birth of her brother. The cult and mythical traditions associated with Artemis took on different nuances in the different eras and regions in which she was venerated. Indeed in some places (such as Ionia) she was even considered the daughter of Demeter and linked to the great rites of fertility and the earth. In general, however, she was regarded as the female counterpart of Apollo and embodied the same characteristics.
The virgin goddess par excellence, Artemis' severe and wild character had a youthful quality. Armed with a silver bow, arrows, and quiver, given to her by the Cyclopes, she took pleasure only in the hunt, in long pursuits of the stags that she hunted in woods and ravines, along with her dogs and the wild beasts that obeyed her. She was accompanied in her activities by the Nymphs and by a group of girls called arktoi (she-bears), who devoted their lives to her and took strict vows of chastity. Any of the virgins who lost their virginity, as happened to Callisto, invoked the wrath of Artemis. She used her bow to inflict sudden and painless death on mortals and was the means by which disease and plague were spread among human beings and animals. On women, she caused death in childbirth.
She fought against the Giants and with her brother devoted herself to the systematic persecution of their mother's enemies. She transfixed Tityus when he tried to rape Leto and took part in the extermination of Niobe's children. Her victims included the hunter Actaeon, who had seen her bathing naked, and the giant Orion, who figures in many myths. In some of these he sought to use violence against the goddess or dared to challenge her at discus throwing (both acts which called for revenge); other sources declare that the killing of Orion by Artemis was involuntary.
Artemis appears in many legends, all connected with the theme of hunting.
From Heracles, she demanded a justification for the killing of her sacred hind. She punished Agamemnon for the same reason by ordering him to sacrifice Iphigenia. As goddess of the hunt she was honored in all wild and mountainous regions, such as Arcadia, Laconia, and Elis, and for this reason, as well as her refusal to submit to any man, was seen as the protectress of the Amazons. But she was also Selene, personification of the moon, just as her brother Apollo was a personification of Phoebus, the sun.
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Identified with Minerva by the Romans, Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis and one of the greatest deities of Olympus. Since Uranus and Gaea had predicted that one of Metis' children would one day rule over the Olympians, Zeus swallowed his wife so that the child in her womb would not be born from her body. When Athena was ready to be born, Zeus ordered Hephaestus to open his head with a blow of his hammer and from the wound sprang Athena, fully armed and shouting a terrible war cry. This miraculous birth was supposed to have taken place on the banks of the river Triton (or Lake Tritonis), perhaps located in Libya, and Athena was therefore given the epithet Tritogeneia.
Athena was raised by Triton and grew up with his daughter Pallas, who became the goddess' unfortunate playmate. It is told that while the two girls were practicing the art of war, Pallas was about to strike Athena. Her father Zeus immediately intervened, placing his aegis, a goatskin capable of inspiring terror, between the two combatants. Pallas was so horrified by this that she was unable to avoid her friend's blow and was killed. In despair over the loss of Pallas, Athena made a statue of her, the Palladium, and assumed Pallas as one of her epithets.
Athena was portrayed as a virgin, with a heart untouched by human passions. It is told that she bore Erichthonius to Hephaestus without uniting with him. She was also a warrior goddess who played an important part in the Gigantomachia (war of the giants). Her hatred of Paris prompted her to fight on the side of the Achaeans in the Trojan War, and she was particularly fond of Ulysses, Achilles, Diomedes, and Menelaus. She protected Heracles while he was carrying out his labors and, as a mark of his gratitude, received the gift of the golden apples of the Hesperides.
However, Athena, as the daughter of Metis, was considered the most cultivated and the wisest of the gods. She devoted herself chiefly to peaceful works. She introduced the olive to Attica and was patron of all the arts, including those of practical utility, such as weaving, spinning, and embroidery. She invented the flute and the trumpet, the terra-cotta vase, the yoke for oxen, and the ship. She gave Bellerophon the bit that he used to tame Pegasus.
As time passed, writers came to identify Athena as the goddess of wisdom and reason, and it is in this role that she exercised her authority over the laws of the state. Order, the administration of justice, and the people' assembly were placed under her protection. It was claimed that she was responsible for the creation of the Areopagus, the highest political body in Athens. It was at Athens that the Panathenaea festivals were held in her honor.
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Demeter, known to the Romans by the name of Ceres, belonged to the first generation of the gods of Olympus, like her brothers Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon and her sisters Hera and Hestia. Thus she was the daughter of Cronus, who swallowed her, and Rhea, alter ego of Cybele and Gaea, all of whom were identified with the Great Mother. While Gaea represented the primordial element and Rhea the power of generation, Demeter was the divinity of cultivated land and the goddess of grain. With the gift of agriculture and the foundation of civilization, Demeter also laid down the rules by which humanity should live and, as a consequence, its laws.
In her dual aspect as Rhea-Demeter, the Orphic legends refer to her union with Zeus, which resulted in the birth of Kore or Persephone, Demeter's only child according to the classical tradition.
In legend, as in her cult, Demeter was closely bound to her daughter Persephone, who was abducted by Hades. In her desperate search for her daughter, Demeter left Olympus and renounced her divine functions, with the result that the earth grew barren and ceased to yield fruit until her daughter was returned to her, at least for part of the year. The ancients saw this myth as an implicit allusion to the cycles of nature, to the seasons, the harvests, and, in particular, the produce of the earth which spent part of the year hidden beneath its surface before blossoming and bearing fruit. There were also references (to which attention was drawn in more than one philosophical text and, in all probability, in the Mysteries as well) to the destiny of the human being, whose body, buried under the ground like Persephone, did not prevent the soul from attaining immortality in a continuous cycle of death and rebirth.
The central core of the legend of Demeter, whose significance was revealed only to initiates of the Eleusinian Mysteries, was supplemented over the course of time by various secondary myths, such as that of her rape by Poseidon. Another legend relates that Demeter fell in love with Iasion and bore him a son called Plutus (Wealth).
All the myths, however contradictory, are in agreement that she had no husband and that Demeter bore her children outside the ties of marriage.
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The stories of Dionysus, who was also called Bacchus by both the Greeks and Romans, are extremely complicated since they combine elements borrowed from a variety of cults, some of them of Oriental, or at least Anatolian and Syrian origin.
In the classical era, Dionysus was the god of the productive force of the earth and, in particular, of wine, the vine, and mystical ecstasy. The son of Zeus and the Theban princess Semele, he was known as Dithyrambos, the "twice-born", because, taken prematurely from his mother's womb, he was incubated in his father's thigh until he was ready to enter the world. To preserve him from the jealousy of Hera, Zeus took him far away from Greece, to the country called Nysa (which may be the source of the name Dionysus), identified by some as Asia and others as Ethiopia. Here Dionysus was raised by the local nymphs who were later rewarded with a place in heaven as the constellation of the Hyades.
He was already full-grown and had invented wine when he was stricken with madness by Hera. In the grip of his delirium he wandered for a long time through Egypt and Syria, and then followed the coasts of Asia as far as India, where he was welcomed by the goddess Cybele, who purified him of his madness and initiated him into the rites of her cult. During these travels Dionysus taught the cultivation of the vine to the inhabitants of the regions he passed through and, at the same time, laid the foundations of civilization. On his return to Europe he went to Thrace and, then, his native Thebes, where he asserted his power. King Pentheus, who tried to oppose him, was harshly punished. At Argos, his next destination, Dionysus displayed his power in a similar way, driving King Proetus daughters along with all the women of the country mad, causing them to devour their children.
The god then decided to visit Naxos and boarded a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. The treacherous crew, who set sail for Asia with the intention of selling their illustrious passenger into slavery, found themselves witnesses to an extraordinary prodigy, and all the sailors were changed into dolphins. After gradually imposing his cult in this way, the divine nature of Dionysus was recognized by all and the god was able to ascend into heaven and take his place among the Olympians. One of his first acts as a god was to abduct Ariadne, abandoned on Naxos by Theseus, who became his bride. There is also a tale of his love affair with Aphrodite, to whom Priapus was born.
In the oldest legends, Dionysus is accompanied by the Charities or Graces, but very soon the frenzied Bacchantes, also known as Maenads, and Sileni began to appear at his side during his expeditions and long journeys. In the later, stories Silenus was the tutor of Dionysus who kept him company on all his travels. King Midas' kindness to him was rewarded by Dionysus with the gift of the golden touch.
Not very widespread in Homeric Greece, the cult of Dionysus grew stronger in the Hellenistic era, roughly in the period following Alexander the Great's expedition to India. In Rome it assumed more unrestrained and orgiastic aspects, leading the Senate to prohibit celebration of the Bacchanalia in 186 BC. However, the cult was preserved by the mystic sects that celebrated the Dionysian Mysteries.
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The son of Cronus and Rhea, Hades, along with his brother Poseidon and sisters Hera, Hestia, and Demeter, was swallowed by his father until being delivered by Zeus, his other brother. He took part in the struggle with the Titans wearing a helmet given to him by the Cyclopes that made him invisible. The name Hades originally meant "Invisible."
When the universe was divided among the gods, he received the Underworld, known as Hades or Tartarus, while Zeus was given the Sky and Poseidon lordship over the Sea.
Although he belonged to the new generation of gods, Hades was not numbered among the Olympians because he never emerged into the light of day. His only direct contact was with Hermes, who had the task of accompanying the dead into the next world.
In the Infernal Regions, Hades ruled with an iron hand and permitted none of his subjects to return to the world of the living, apart from a few rare exceptions.
He was assisted in his task by demons and various spirits subject to his orders: Charon, Minos, Cerberus, and so on. By his side, and no less cruel, reigned Persephone, whom Hades abducted from her mother Demeter. Later, the god of the dead was obliged to return her but succeeded in binding her to his world for a third of the year. No children were born from their union, although one tradition asserts that the infernal couple had generated the Erinyes.
Hades appears rarely in legends, and his name was usually not spoken to avoid arousing his anger. He was mostly referred to by his epithets. The most common of these was Pluto, which means "the Wealthy" and alludes to the riches hidden in the earth. This was the name that the Romans used for Hades.
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Called Vulcan by the Romans, Hephaestus was the Greek god of fire and, therefore, of metals and metalworking. For Homer he was the son of Zeus and Hera, but it was sometimes said that Hera had generated him alone, through parthenogenesis, out of her anger over the birth of Athena, who had emerged from Zeus' head and not the womb of a woman.
Unlike the other gods of Olympus, all beautiful and of remarkable proportions, Hephaestus was born so frail and ungainly that his mother immediately threw him down from the heights of Olympus out of embarrassment at his appearance. He fell into Oceanus, where he was taken in by Thetis and Eurynome, who looked after him for nine years. He then went to live in an undersea grotto, where he made jewelry for them.
The relationship between Hephaestus and his mother was ambivalent. To take his revenge for his rejection by Hera, he bound her to a throne that he had constructed for her, but then took her side several times during the frequent disputes she had with Zeus. On one occasion his interference earned him a second fall; Zeus seized him by one foot and flung him from Olympus. His flight lasted one day and ended on the island of Lemnos, where the god was picked up and revived by the inhabitants. He was crippled by his impact with the ground, but it was also said that he was lame at birth.
His work as a blacksmith gave Hephaestus great muscular strength in his arms and great manual skill. He took part in the struggle against the Giants, but was also capable of creating extremely sophisticated mechanisms, such as the net that trapped Aphrodite and Ares and the fire-breathing bulls of Aeδtes, not to mention the form that he was able to give to Pandora. As well as Olympus, where forty bellows were operated on his orders, his forges were located under volcanoes, where the Cyclopes worked as his assistants.
In spite of his appearance, his shy and surly character, it seems that Hephaestus was able to attract women of great beauty. Two of the Charities were supposed to have been his wives, but most astounding of all was his marriage to Aphrodite, the epitome of beauty. Various sources also mention Athena as one of his wives, granted to him by Zeus in gratitude for the help the smith gave him in bringing her into the world. However, at the moment of their union Athena vanished without becoming his wife, and from Hephaestus' seed that spilled on the earth was born Erichthonius, the legendary hero of the Athenians. Other sons of Hephaestus included Palaemon, one of the Argonauts, and the celebrated sculptor Ardalus, who inherited his father's manual dexterity. With Periphetes, an infamous brigand killed by Theseus, he passed on the dark side of his character.
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Hera, or Juno in the Latin world, was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was swallowed by her father along with Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, and Demeter and liberated by her brother Zeus, who also became her husband. There are various legends dealing with this union, the most common of which speaks of a secret marriage that took place on Mount Ida in Troas or Mount Cithaeron in Boeotia. The inhabitants of Samos claimed that the marriage was consummated on their island and lasted for three hundred years before it was made public. Another version speaks instead of a magnificent ceremony held in the palace of Oceanus at the westernmost edge of the earth, attended by all the gods who brought gifts: Gaea offered to Hera the golden apples kept in the garden of the Hesperides. Some say that it was Hera who seduced her younger brother, having chosen him at the moment of his birth; others that Zeus possessed the evasive Hera when, during a storm, she held him in her lap in the form of a frightened cuckoo.
Hera fought at Zeus' side against the Titans and then against the Giants, causing the death of Porphyrion who was seized by a violent passion for her. This later happened to Ixion as well, but he met an even worse fate. When Zeus had established his sovereignty, Hera sat by his side at the councils and banquets of the gods. Rather than queen of the immortals, Hera was considered the consort of the king of the gods and men, to whom she owed unquestioning obedience like all the other Olympians. She was a faithful and sensible wife, though jealous and petulant. From their union were born Ares, Ilithia, and Hebe. As for her fourth son, Hephaestus, there is also the myth that Hera conceived him on her own without her husband's involvement to repay him for having given birth to Athena from his own head instead of from a woman's womb. In fact, Hera was considered the protectress of brides and birth.
Hera's relationship with her husband was not always straightforward. Zeus listened to her advice and made his own secret thoughts known to her, but Hera sometimes behaved toward him like an independent deity and did not hesitate to oppose him and to act against his will. In such cases Zeus sometimes reacted with a heavy hand. Once he even suspended her among the clouds, with her hands bound and two anvils tied to her feet. On that occasion, Hephaestus' defense of his mother aroused the anger of his father, who cast him down from Olympus. Prompted by her fierce ambition, Hera even organized, with Apollo and Poseidon, a mutiny against Zeus, in which all the gods of Olympus took part with the exception of Hestia. The master of the gods was tied to his bed with leather thongs, knotted a hundred times, but the rebellion was brought to an end by Thetis who, fearing a civil war over the succession, sent Briareus to free him.
Hera's jealous, violent, and vindictive character resulted in some memorable clashes with her husband, whom she was unable to forgive for his numerous infidelities, which she took as personal insults. Her hatred was directed not just toward her husband's lovers (willing or not), as Semele discovered too late, but also at those who gave them succor, such as Echo, and even the children born from those liaisons. The most famous of these was Heracles whose mother, Alcmene, had the misfortune of attracting Zeus. Numerous other legends in which Hera played a leading or secondary role portrayed her along the same lines: she was responsible for the tragic fate of Io, drove Athamas and Ino out of their minds, incited Artemis against Callisto, and so on.
The rages and revenges of Hera were also prompted by more petty motives, as was discovered by the soothsayer Tiresias who contradicted her, or by the Trojans who earned her undying enmity as a result of the preference that Paris had given to the beauty of Aphrodite. Zeus, who was afraid of her, was obliged to deal with her anger and, when he could, correct her excesses.
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The son of Cronus and Rhea, Poseidon (Neptune to the Romans) was one of the Olympians, equal to Zeus in dignity, if not power. When, after the deposition of Cronus, who had swallowed him along with his brother Hades and sisters Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, lots were cast to divide power among the brothers, he received the kingdom of the sea, while Zeus was given the heavens and Hades the underground kingdom of the dead. The earth remained a common domain. Poseidon did not just command the sea, but was able to cause storms and tidal waves and to shake the earth with his trident, a gift of the Cyclopes. His underwater palace stood off Aeges, in Euboea, with its stables housing his horses with bronze hooves and golden manes. When Poseidon appeared on his golden chariot drawn by these horses storms ceased and sea monsters emerged from the waves to act as his escort.
Though a gloomy and quarrelsome figure, Poseidon maintained good relations with his brother Zeus, fighting alongside him against the Titans and in the Gigantomachia. However, on one occasion he attempted to overthrow Zeus with the complicity of Hera and Apollo. Zeus was set free by the intervention of Thetis, who sent Briareus with his one hundred hands to untie the bonds that imprisoned him, and Poseidon was forced to undergo the humiliation of serving King Laomedon, for whom he raised the walls of Troy.
As he needed a wife who would be at ease in the depths of the sea, Poseidon courted the powerful Thetis, but when he learned of an ancient prophecy that a child born to her would depose its father, he renounced the marriage and allowed the goddess to wed the mortal Peleus. He then set his sights on the haughty Amphitrite, whom he eventually succeeded in marrying. But it was a stormy and difficult relationship, since Poseidon continued to run after nymphs, goddesses, and mortal women. He united with Theophane in the form of a ram and possessed his sister Demeter in that of a stallion.
>From his many unions, all of them fertile, he had, like Zeus, many children. But while Zeus' sons were generally beneficent heroes, Poseidon's were often rough giants, violent monsters, or treacherous beings. They included the Cyclops Polyphemus, Chrysaor generated from Medusa, Nauplius, and Cercyon, the notorious tyrant of Eleusis who was killed by Theseus. Yet he was very fond of these offspring, as was discovered by Ulysses when he blinded Polyphemus and by Cassiopeia, whose own pride nearly led to the loss of her daughter Andromeda.
When human beings organized themselves into cities and each god, desiring to receive special honors, wished to become a poliadic deity (protector of a polis, or city), Poseidon too entered the contest, though he generally failed. He fought for the city of Argos with Hera, but was unsuccessful. He desired the island of Aegina, but was defeated by Zeus. He tried again with Naxos, but this went to Dionysus. The most famous dispute was with Athena over the possession of Athens and Attica, but Poseidon lost once again. However, no one was able to take away his marvelous island, Atlantis, hidden in the midst of the River Oceanus.
[8]
In the whole of the Greek literary tradition, and subsequently in the Roman world where he was known by the name of Jupiter, Zeus is presented as the highest and most powerful of the immortals, the one to whom all owed obedience. It was by his will that good and evil were distributed among the men whom Prometheus had created out of mud, but even Zeus was subject to Fate.
Armed with thunder and lightning ("the Thunderer" or "the Archer"), Zeus was able to unleash storms by striking his shield and, at least up until the classical era, many natural phenomena were attributed to his direct intervention. The oak tree was sacred to him, and it was through the rustling of its leafy branches that he revealed his presence at the oracular sanctuary of Dodona. Another of his oracles was at the grove in Olympia called Altis. His seat was the peak of Mount Olympus.
Son of the Titan Cronus and Rhea, Zeus belonged, like all the Olympians, to the second generation of gods. Cronus, warned by an oracle that one of his children would depose him, devoured them one by one as they came into the world, but Rhea, after having fed him Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, asked Uranus and Gaea to help her to save the life of the unborn child, Zeus. The ancient gods took Rhea to Lictos on the island of Crete, where she gave birth to the divine infant in a cave on Mount Ida. After the birth of Zeus, Rhea deceived Cronus by presenting him with a huge stone wrapped in cloth, which he swallowed, believing he had gotten rid of another possible rival. The nymph (or goat) Amalthea raised the future king of the gods, nursing him on honey provided by the nymph Melissa.
As predicted by the oracle, when Zeus reached manhood he desired to seize the power held by Cronus. On the advice of Gaea or Metis, he convinced his father to take a drug that made him vomit the children he had swallowed and the stone that had taken Zeus' place. This was later placed by Zeus himself at Delphi, where it became an object of veneration as the omphalos, the navel or center of the earth and the universe.
With the support of his revived brothers and sisters, Zeus overthrew Cronus and then fought the Titans. After the victory they drew lots to divide their power. Zeus received the sky, while his brothers Poseidon and Hades were assigned the sea and the underworld respectively; the earth remained a common domain. After putting down the revolt of the Giants, who had attacked Olympus (Gigantomachia), Zeus faced his last trial before establishing absolute mastery of the world, a terrible struggle with the monster Typhoeus or Typhon.
A providential god, conscious of his responsibilities, Zeus did not allow himself to be carried away by his own whims as did the other gods of Olympus, except in matters of love. From his unions were born gods and goddesses who took their seats in the great assembly of the Olympians; his affairs with mortal women generated other gods or races of heroes (see genealogical table).
The first of Zeus' wives was Metis, followed by Themis. The latter marriage had an obvious symbolic value as it generated eternal Order and Law. One tradition states that Zeus fathered Aphrodite to Dione. There were other divine unions with Hermione, Demeter, Mnemosyne and Leto. It was at this point that came Zeus' "sacred marriage" with his sister Hera, his official wife.
Zeus also had fleeting relationships with innumerable mortal women. The most famous of the children born from these unions, apart from Heracles and Dionysus who were accepted among the Olympians, were the heroes Tantalus and Perseus. There was no region of the Hellenic world that did not boast an eponym from among the children of Zeus: the Lacedaemonians claimed descent from the god and the nymph Taygete; the Argives recognized Argus as their ancestor; the Cretans boasted of originating from the children of Europa. The great protagonists of the legends and many of the heroes were connected with him: Agamemnon and Menelaus, for instance, were said to be descended from Tantalus, and Achilles from Aeacus.
The master of the world often chose his lovers on a whim, taking them by subterfuge in different aspects or forms, and left his victims exposed to the revenge of his jealous and outraged wife Hera. This is what happened to the tender Io, to Callisto, and to Europa. It was also the fate of Semele, though she bore him the divine Dionysus. On other occasions, poets and mythographers have tried see Zeus' desire to beget children on mortal women as a providential act: Leda, whom he united with in the form of a swan, had to give birth to Helen in order to provoke a bloody war that would reduce the excessive population of Greece and Asia; the trick he played on Alcmene led to the birth of Heracles, the hero destined to rid the world of monsters.
[12]
The Greek Hermes, corresponding to the Roman Mercury, was born to Zeus and Maia, one of the Pleiades, in a cave on Mount Cyllene. Within a few hours of his birth the god started to reveal some of the characteristics that were to make him famous: ingenuity, cunning, adulation, and a propensity for larceny. "Born early in the morning," we are told by Homer, "he was already playing the lyre by midday and stealing the cattle of Apollo by evening."
Hermes plays a leading role only in the myths of his childhood. Later he almost always appears in legends as a secondary figure, mainly as the messenger or intermediary of the gods. In fact, Zeus wanted him as his herald and gave him the task of maintaining contact between Olympus and the world of Hades, to which Hermes guided the shades of the dead.
In the guise of an emissary he accompanied King Priam of Troy to Achilles' tent to ask for the body of Hector for burial; saved Ulysses from the enchantments of Circe and ordered Calypso to set the hero free; was entrusted by Zeus with the task of liberating Io, who had been turned into a cow and placed under the surveillance of Argus; led Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena to Paris for the famous judgment; and took Pandora to earth for the damnation of men.
As always, there are conflicting versions of the stories of Hermes' loves. According to one tradition he fathered Eros to Aphrodite, or alternatively Hermaphroditus, whose name is a fusion of those of both parents. Another of Hermes' children was Pan, born to the daughter of King Dryops who abandoned him immediately after she gave birth, frightened by the sight of his hairy body. The envious Aglauros paid the consequences of his love for Herse.
Hermes proclaimed himself king of thieves and was also the god of commerce and the protector of gamblers. He guided travelers on the road and his images (herms) were set up at crossroads and city gates. He watched over herdsmen because he knew about rustling. He was also the tutelary deity of all the gymnastic games in Greece and was considered the originator of sacrifices to the gods.
[1009]
While Persephone was still the "maid" Kore, Hades fell desperately in love with her and asked Zeus for her hand in marriage. Zeus did not wish to offend his elder brother by refusing, but knew that her mother Demeter would never forgive him if he allowed her to be confined in Tartarus. So, he responded, diplomatically, that he could neither reject nor comply with the request. Hades took this as an authorization to take what he wanted by force. One day, while Persephone was gathering flowers on the plain of Nysa, in Boeotia (or near Enna, in Sicily), the earth opened up and Hades emerged from the dark depths of the kingdom of the dead. He seized Kore and carried her away on his golden chariot, drawn by immortal black horses. The girl cried out to her father Zeus, who did not hear her, or pretended not to. But her ineffectual cry did reach Hecate and Helios, who told Demeter of the abduction. As long as she remained beneath the vault of heaven, Kore did not give up the hope of returning to her mother and seeing the other gods again, but when her uncle dragged her into the depths of the earth she resigned herself to reigning over the kingdom of the dead.
[1038]
The bold Actaeon, from the Theban stock of Cadmus, was unbeatable at the art of hunting, which he had been taught by the centaur Chiron, and his hunts became legendary throughout Boeotia. One blazing midday, the young man put down his bow and entered an unfamiliar valley in search of relief from the heat. Here, he surprised Artemis who, with her band of companions, was bathing naked in a spring. This occurred by chance, not malice, but the punishment took no account of his intentions. The goddess reddened with shame and, to protect herself, splashed water into Actaeon's face. At once, a great set of antlers sprouted on his head, his neck grew longer, his members turned into slender legs, and his body was cloaked with fur. He had become a magnificent stag who was then attacked and torn to pieces by the fifty hounds of his own pack.
[1031]
The fate of Adonis was sealed from his birth. He was generated from the forbidden passion that his mother Smyrna, or Myrrha, conceived for her own father Cinyras, King of Cyprus, in whose bed she lay for twelve nights in a row as an unknown maid. In the end, Cinyras discovered, by lamplight, the identity of his lover and, horrified, pursued his daughter with his sword in hand to wash away the shame of both with blood. But Smyrna, who was carrying an incestuous child in her womb, cried out for protection from the gods and was changed into the tree of myrrh whose bark oozes with scented tears. Ten months later a child of extraordinary beauty emerged from the trunk of the tree and was given the name of Adonis, "fruit of the wood."
Aphrodite, struck by the beauty of the young Adonis, wished to conceal him from the gaze of all women, whether divine or mortal, and, placing him in a coffer, gave him to Persephone for safekeeping. But, Persephone, too, became infatuated with Adonis and refused to give him back. The question was brought before Zeus, who expressed the same judgment as he had once done with Persephone herself, when she was disputed between Demeter and Hades. Thus, it was decided that Adonis would spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third with Persephone, and a third wherever he himself chose. In reality Adonis always spent two thirds of the year in the loving company of Aphrodite, until he was killed by the tusk of a boar that was set on him, for unknown reasons, by an angry Artemis. From the blood of his wounds sprang a fragile but beautiful flower, the anemone.
[1052]
One day, flying low over Attica, Hermes saw Herse, the most beautiful of the girls taking part in the Panathenaea. The god followed the maid, who had smitten his heart, as far as her father's house. Here, he met Herse's sister Aglauros, who had the impudence to ask him who he was and what he wanted. Hermes answered politely and clearly explained his intentions, but instead of being flattered by the honor paid to her sister, Aglauros was filled with envy and plotted to prevent their union. Out of love of the fair Herse, the god tried gently to persuade her jealous sister, but finally, his patience exhausted, he raised the caduceus, the staff that he carried as herald of the gods, and brought down the door. Aglauros tried to get up but was overcome by great weariness: all her members grew stiff until she turned into a stone statue.
[1032]
Having used her power to rouse passions to incite the lord of the gods to pursue earthly women, Zeus took his revenge by inspiring Aphrodite herself to desire the embrace of a mortal, the king and shepherd Anchises. When she saw him for the first time, the young man was pasturing his flocks in solitude on Mount Ida, near Troy, and his beauty made Aphrodite fall in love with him at once. The goddess presented herself to him in the guise of a beautiful girl from the retinue of Artemis, lost in the woods. The pair made love on the skins of bears and lions that had been killed by the young man. Afterwards, Aphrodite revealed herself in all her immortal splendor and Anchises, terrified, covered his face and begged for salvation: for no mortal man could continue to live after having lain with a goddess. Aphrodite assured him of his safety, as long as he kept the secret, and revealed to him that she had conceived a child. One feast day, however, Anchises drank too much wine and boasted of his loves, provoking Zeus to strike him with a thunderbolt, laming him. He died as an old man at Drepanum, when he was traveling to Italy with Aeneas, the son born to him by Aphrodite, after the destruction of Troy.
[1053]
Cassiopea, queen of Ethiopia, claimed to be more attractive than many of the immortals, and unquestionably more so than all the Nereids. Challenging them to a beauty contest, she afterward claimed to be the winner. The nymphs demanded satisfaction from Poseidon, and the god responded by unleashing a terrible flood against Ethiopia and, then, a sea monster that devastated the country. An oracle declared that the only way to placate the terrifying creature was to sacrifice the princess Andromeda, and the people forced her father Cepheus to chain the girl to a rock. It was there, on the seashore, that Perseus saw her on his way back from his expedition against the Gorgons and fell in love with her at once. He told Cepheus that he would free his daughter if he gave her to him in marriage. The hero killed the monster and wedded Andromeda, but then had to fight the forces of Phineus, the girl's uncle and betrothed, who demanded that she keep her word. Perseus got the better of his adversaries by holding up the head of the Medusa and turning them to stone.
[1028]
Arachne was neither a nymph nor a queen, but an ordinary mortal girl who had earned great fame for her skill in the weaving of wool, an art that she must have learned directly from Athena. But Arachne claimed otherwise, and even said that she could teach a thing or two to the goddess. So Athena appeared at her loom in the guise of an old woman and, smiling, advised her to be more prudent so as not to anger the goddess. The girl replied with harsh words and challenged Athena, wherever she might be, to compete with her in the use of the spindle and needle. The goddess revealed herself and the contest began. Athena chose to represent the twelve gods of Olympus in all their glory and then, as a warning to the girl, added examples of the punishment of human pride in the four corners of the fabric. Arachne, working with speed, wove a picture of the loves of the gods, depicting those unions which were not to their credit: Europa deceived by Zeus in the form of a bull, Leda lying beneath the wings of the swan, and Poseidon mounting his sister Demeter in the guise of a stallion. Her work was so perfect that Athena, in rage, tore it to pieces and struck her rival with the shuttle. In humiliation and desperation, Arachne hung herself, but the goddess changed her into a spider so that she could go on living and weaving her thread.
[1012]
Ares and Aphrodite were united for the first time in the palace of Hephaestus: the god of war, handsome in appearance, must have derived a perverse pleasure from violating the marriage and bed of his ill-favored brother. Without their realizing it, Phoebus observed the lovers from above and reported the betrayal to Aphrodite's husband. Hephaestus was devastated and abandoned what he was working on, but as soon as he had recovered began to plot his revenge. With great care he forged slender chains of bronze and a net that could neither be disentangled nor broken. He secretly attached this to the supports of the bed and then pretended to leave for Lemnos, the island where he was most venerated. When Aphrodite and Ares lay on the bed, they were caught in the marvelous trap and were unable to rise. At this point Hephaestus threw open the bronze doors, followed by the gods of Olympus whom he had called as witnesses: modestly, the gods refrained from entering the chamber. All of them laughed uproariously, however, and the lovers, exposed to this mockery, were thrown into great confusion. After he had been freed, the touchy Ares withdrew into the mountains of Thrace. The more shameless Aphrodite flew calmly to Paphos, where she was welcomed by the Charities, or Graces.
[1063]
While Cadmus was searching all over Greece for his sister Europa, abducted by Zeus in the guise of a bull, the oracle at Delphi told him to follow a cow that bore the white mark of the full moon on both flanks: in the place where she first rested her head, he was to build his city, Cadmea, nucleus of the future Thebes
The animal led him step by step to a region that from that time on was known as Boeotia, the "land of the cow." When, exhausted, she lay down and rested her head on the grass, Cadmus realized that the oracle's prediction had been fulfilled and decided to offer the heifer as a sacrifice to Athena. In order to draw the lustral water, however, he had to fight the dragon, a son of the god Ares, that guarded the spring Areia. Armed not with a sword or a spear, but with no more than a stone in his fist, he succeeded in killing the dragon.
He then sowed the dragon's teeth and, at once armed men, the Sparti or "Sown Men," sprang from the ground. Cadmus shrewdly attacked them by throwing stones. Convinced that they had been struck by their own companions, the Sparti turned on one another, until only five of them were left alive. Cadmus, an unarmed man, had created the nucleus of a warrior people (the Spartans), famous in the classical era for their military skill. His work as a founder complete, Cadmus was made the king of Thebes by Athena and received Harmonia as his bride from Zeus, in recompense for the loss of his sister Europa.
[1039]
Callisto, or the "most beautiful", was a nymph of the Arcadian woods who had chosen to live far from men, among the band of virgin companions of Artemis, whose favorite she was. Zeus saw her and fell in love, but in order to unite with her was obliged to resort to an unusual stratagem, that of assuming the appearance of the goddess of the chase herself. Callisto's transgression was discovered shortly afterward, when she undressed to bathe in a spring. Her now obvious pregnancy offended Artemis, who expelled her from the band, withdrawing her protection and leaving her exposed to the vengeance of Hera, who was patiently waiting for the moment to strike. When Callisto bore Zeus a son, called Arcas, Hera made her move: first she changed Callisto into a shaggy bear and then, not content with that, caused her to be hunted by Artemis, who killed her with her arrows. However, some say that it was Arcas, inspired by Hera, who killed his mother fifteen years later, when she was still wandering desperately in the form of an animal. Zeus set Callisto among the stars by making the constellation of the Great Bear appear in the sky.
[1060]
Tired of his lengthy confinement on Crete after having planned and built the labyrinth, Daedalus dreamed of returning to his native land, from which he was kept away by the vigilant fleets of Minos. Yet, while Minos may have been master of the land and sea, he had no dominion over the air.
So the great architect built a bizarre device, unknown to the science of the day: he took a bundle of feathers and skillfully arranged them to resemble the wings of a bird, bound them with cord, and fixed them at the base with wax. When the work was finished, Daedalus attached a pair of these wings to his shoulders and did the same with his son Icarus, warning him not to fly too high, close to the blaze of the sun. He then launched himself into the air, his son following behind.
They had already passed Delos on their left when the young man began to take delight in their daring feat: fascinated by the sky, he flew higher, toward the burning sun. Its heat melted the wax and the feathers came unstuck. Icarus beat his arms frantically, but plummeted straight into the waters off Samos, into the sea that is still known by his name.
[1034]
It is told that the nymph Daphne was Apollo's first love. If this was so, the god of the silver bow did not get his lively amorous career off to a good start.
The fault seems to have been that of Eros who, irritated by a cutting remark made by Apollo, struck him with the golden arrow that stirred the fires of passion at the very moment that he transfixed Daphne with the blunt dart that inspired revulsion. Thus, Apollo fell desperately in love with the nymph, but she would have nothing to do with him: she consecrated herself to Artemis and sought refuge in the depths of the woods, where she found happiness only while hunting wild animals. Apollo, more and more ardent, began to follow her, trying to make her yield with flattery and promises until, his patience exhausted, he chased her without respite, like a dog hunting its prey. The pursuer was on the point of seizing her when Daphne called upon Gaea, the goddess of the Earth, to save her. At once the members of her body grew heavy, her hair grew into leafy fronds, and her feet turned into roots: nothing was left of her beauty but its sheen and Apollo found himself embracing a plant scented with laurel.
[1020]
When Demeter heard, with a sharp pang in her heart, the cry of her daughter Persephone as she was torn from the world of the living by the burning love of Hades, she flew like a bird over lands and sea in search of her, wandering for nine days and nights with two flaming torches in her hands. She refused to touch either nectar or ambrosia, which are the food of the gods.
Enraged with the whole of Olympus, Demeter's anger turned to fury when, on the tenth day of her search, Poseidon dared to rape her. She then decided never to mount into Heaven again and to abdicate her divine function. This resulted in a world-wide drought and the lack of new harvests. Zeus was forced to send Hermes to the world of the dead and bring Persephone back to her mother. However, as she had eaten food while in the kingdom of Hades (a pomegranate seed that her husband had given her on purpose), Persephone was obliged to spend a third of the year in the Underworld, remaining on earth with her mother for the other two thirds.
[1008]
Poseidon, who was still anxious to get hold of realms on land, put forward a claim to Attica and, in token of his possession, struck the acropolis of Athens with his trident, causing a spring of salt water to gush forth. Another version states that Poseidon offered a horse to the city. Whether the gift was a spring or a horse, the goddess Athena, who also desired religious supremacy over Attica, took possession of the acropolis in a more practical and gentle way: she planted an olive tree next to the spring or, at any rate, brought that beneficial plant into the region. Furious, Poseidon challenged her to a duel and Athena would undoubtedly have accepted if Zeus had not intervened and ordered his daughter and brother to submit to a higher judgment. Thus the two adversaries appeared before the divine court, made up of all the gods of Olympus. Though by only one vote, the verdict went in favor of Athena, who from then on made the rock of the Acropolis her seat. The frustrated Poseidon took his revenge by flooding the plain of Eleusis.
[1044]
After he had imposed his own cult in Thebes, causing the death of his cousin Pentheus, Dionysus also made an appearance at sea, even though this was the place "where no grapes are harvested." In order to reach Naxos, he set sail on a sturdy Tyrrhenian ship but, as soon as he had come aboard, the sailors seized him and attempted to bind him with cords. They thought him to be the son of a king and hoped for a ransom, or otherwise to sell him as a slave in Egypt or on Cyprus. Dionysus let them do as they wished, amused at the way in which the bonds fell to his feet without impeding his movements. This made the helmsman realize that they were dealing with no ordinary mortal and recognize him as one of the gods of Olympus. In fact, sweet and scented wine began to flow over the deck of the ship, and a vine loaded with ripe grapes, ready for harvest, grew over the sail; a sturdy ivy plant wound around the mast and the vessel's oars were transformed into slippery snakes, while the air was filled with the sweet music of divine flutes. Dionysus turned into a lion that threatened the sailors with powerful roars, and a shaggy bear appeared among the rowers. The maddened pirates leaped into the sea and were changed into dolphins; only the helmsman was saved and enjoyed the benevolence of the god forever.
[1015]
On the very day of his birth, Hermes freed himself from the bands in which he had been wrapped by the divine Maia and, climbing out of the sieve that served him as a cradle, planned his first exploit: to steal the cattle that his brother Apollo was tending for King Admetus of Thessaly. He made off with fifty heifers, making them walk backwards from the pasture (or binding their hooves with twigs of myrtle). Driving them all night, he took them to Pylus and hid them in a cavern. He was seen by the herdsman Bathus, who promised to keep quiet. Hermes turned him into a stone when he discovered his betrayal. At Pylus, the young thief sacrificed two of the finest animals, dividing them into twelve portions to be offered to each of the twelve gods of Olympus, including himself, and then returned to Cyllene. At the entrance to his cave he came across a turtle and, instinctively, fashioned a musical instrument out of it: he emptied the shell, attached two canes to it and stretched seven strings made from the guts of the cows over them. And then, having invented the lyre, he got back into his cradle and awaited events.
Apollo was not slow in arriving (he had spoken to Bathus) and complained to Maia about the theft, threatening to hurl the little thief into Tartarus if he did not reveal the hiding place of the loot. She showed him her son, peacefully wrapped up in his cradle: a newborn child, it was plain to anyone, could not be guilty of stealing cattle. But Apollo did not allow himself to be deceived: he picked up Hermes and carried him to Olympus, where he accused him of the theft in front of his father Zeus. Greatly amused, the god ordered the baby to give back the animals he had stolen, ignoring his repeated denials and terrible tantrums. Peace between Hermes and Apollo was sealed with the gift of the lyre that the new god made to his elder brother.
[1033]
The handsome Hyacinth had drawn the eyes and the interest of Zephyr, the west wind, and Apollo, who both fell in love with him. But Hyacinth preferred Apollo, who deserted Delphi and the oracle for him, arousing the jealousy of the wind god. One day, in the sultry heat of noon, Hyacinth and Apollo stripped on the banks of the river Eurota and, their bodies glowing with oil, began to compete in the throwing of iron quoits. The lethal missiles whistled across the grass and embedded themselves in a distant pole. Zephyr, who was watching from a hidden vantage point, could no longer bear the friendship between the two athletes and caused one of the quoits thrown by Apollo to strike the head of Hyacinth. The young man turned white and fell lifeless to the ground. Apollo sought desperately to bring him back to life but could do nothing against Fate, to which even the gods are subject. And so, as a constant reminder of the fair Hyacinth, he caused a purple flower with a lament engraved on its petals to spring from his blood.
[1003]
The beautiful Io, princess of Argos, was loved by Zeus, who wrapped her in a dense mist so that he could lie with her. This did not escape the notice of the suspicious Hera, who descended from heaven and ordered the mist to recede. Foreseeing the arrival of his wife, however, Zeus had time to change the figure of Io into that of a white heifer. Hera, pretending ignorance, praised the animal's appearance and obliged her husband to make her a gift of it. She then set the hundred-eyed Argus to guard the heifer. But Zeus, who could not bear to see Io humiliated in this way, asked Hermes to set her free. Even though the youthful god was the most skillful of thieves, he was forced to put Argus to sleep with the magic sound of his flute before cutting off his head. Hera placed the hundred eyes of Argus on the feathers of her sacred bird, the peacock, and then sent a gadfly to torment the heifer Io, forcing her to wander from one region of the world to another in her frenzy. The unhappy creature eventually found rest and relief on the banks of the Nile, where she was restored to her original form and bore Zeus a son, Epaphus. The people of Egypt worshipped Io under the name of Isis.
[1026]
Ixion was the son of the sacrilegious Phlegyas, burner of temples, but proved no less wicked than his father. He began by making his father-in-law fall into a hidden well filled with burning coals, solely in order to avoid having to present him with wedding gifts. Since the murder of a relation cried out to the gods for vengeance, no one was prepared to purify him of his crime. Only Zeus was ready to offer him hospitality, carrying him up to Olympus, but Ixion, far from showing gratitude, attempted to seduce Hera. To see just how far he would go, the lord of heaven fashioned a cloud in the likeness of Hera. Ixion used violence on the phantom, committing a new and more serious sacrilege, that of ingratitude to a god, and Zeus was forced to punish him. Hermes chained him to a fiery wheel that turned unceasingly in the sky; there was no hope of relief as on Olympus Ixion had tasted the ambrosia that rendered the gods immortal. The Centaurs were born from the union of Ixion with the cloud.
[1013]
While Peleus and Thetis were celebrating their marriage, to which all the gods of Olympus had been invited, Eris, the goddess of discord, became infuriated at being the only one to have been omitted from the guest list. The revenge that she took was to have devastating consequences for the whole of the Hellenic world. Furtive and cunning, she tossed a golden apple bearing the words "for the fairest" into the middle of the hall, immediately causing an argument. Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite each claimed the precious trifle for herself, but none of the gods wished to take on the dangerous task of deciding which of them deserved it. The question was difficult, and Zeus, in his wisdom, declared that the choice should be made by a mortal. He ordered Hermes to accompany the three beauties of Olympus to Mount Ida in Troas, where Paris, still unaware that he was the son of King Priam, was tending his flocks.
On the appearance of the deities, the young man was seized with dread, but Hermes, the arch-deceiver, persuaded him that he had nothing to fear: he looked at and listened to the goddesses and awarded the trophy according to his own judgment. In addition to the arguments of their beauty, each of the immortals tempted the young man with seductive promises: Hera offered him sovereignty over the whole of Asia; Athena, wisdom and success on the battlefield; Aphrodite, who knew men, promised him the love of Helen, considered the most beautiful of mortal women. Without reflecting, Paris handed the apple and the victory to Aphrodite, who assured him of her benevolence. Athena and Hera retired with wounded pride, swearing their undying hatred of the judge and all his people.
[1004]
Zeus, pretending to be a swan pursued by an eagle, took refuge in the lap of Leda on the banks of the river Eurota, near Sparta, and then raped her. In the due course of time, Leda laid an egg the color of hyacinth from which Pollux and the beautiful Helen were hatched. Since Tyndareus, Leda's husband and the king of Sparta, slept with his wife on the same night, she laid another egg from which Castor and Clytemnestra were hatched. Some claim that all of Leda's children were of divine origin, while others say that the only progeny of Zeus was Helen. It is also said, moreover, that it was not Leda who laid the egg, but the goddess Nemesis. According to this version, Nemesis, fleeing from the lust of Zeus, turned herself into a series of different animals until, while flying in the guise of a wild goose, she was triumphantly mounted by Zeus. Hermes placed the egg laid by Nemesis between the thighs of Leda, who was seated with her legs spread on a stool. Thus, Tindareus' wife, who brooded the egg, was only the nursing mother of the fatal Helen.
[1037]
One day Athena made herself a double flute from a stag's horn and played it at the banquet of the gods. During the performance she had the distinct impression that Hera and Aphrodite were laughing at her behind her back but she did not understand why: the sound of the instrument was harmonious and the concert had pleased everyone. It was only when she caught sight of her reflection in a pool, with her cheeks swollen and her face red with the effort of blowing into the instrument, that she grasped the reason for such hilarity and, in vexation, threw away the flute, adding a curse against anyone who picked it up.
The innocent victim of this curse was the satyr Marsyas, who came upon the instrument by chance. As soon as he brought it to his lips, sweet notes came forth that made a great impression on the peasants of Phrygia, where Marsyas was accompanying the chariot of Cybele. It was they who proclaimed that the divine Apollo could do no better with his lyre, but Marsyas was foolish enough not to contradict them. The god was enraged and challenged the satyr to a musical contest: the winner of the tournament, to be judged by the Muses, would be able to subject the loser to whatever treatment he wished. The result was a tie, but Apollo was not satisfied and told his rival to play the instrument upside down, as was done with the lyre, and to sing at the same time. Naturally poor Marsyas was unable to accept the challenge and was declared the loser. Apollo, in spite of his vaunted indulgence, hung him from a tree and flayed him alive, suspending his woolly hide at the spring of the river that now bears his name.
[1042]
One day, the peasants of Phrygia brought a satyr tottering with age and wine, whom they had found sleeping on the bank of a river, to King Midas. Midas recognized him as Silenus, companion and teacher of the god Dionysus, and honored him as such before taking him back to the Bacchic procession from which he had strayed in his drunkenness. The god was pleased by this gesture of kindness and invited the gentle Midas to choose a reward: the king asked that everything he touched should turn to gold. Dionysus agreed, with an enigmatic smile. Midas went away happy, and whenever he brushed against a leafy branch, picked up a stone, or gathered ears of grain, they were transformed into gold. But when he sat down to eat, the bread, the meat, and even the water mixed with wine that he poured down his throat turned into yellow gold. Midas ran the risk of dying of hunger and thirst and begged Dionysus to rid him of the dangerous gift. The god relented and sent him to purify himself in a spring, which, from then on, flowed with specks of gold.
[1035]
Niobe, queen of Thebes, was proud of many things, but if she boasted of one it was not her ancestry or her lineage, but the fact of being the mother of many children. She would have been the happiest woman in the world if she had concealed her pride and curbed her tongue. But when the priestess Manto invited the women of Thebes to offer prayers and incense to Leto and her divine twins, Niobe recalled her father and grandfather and, above all, compared her host of children to the mere two that Leto had brought into the world. Leto, who had to endure the persecution of Hera and the affronts of Tityus, could not bear another insult: she turned to her children and demanded vengeance. Apollo and Artemis flew swiftly to Thebes and, while the goddess headed for the palace that had once belonged to Cadmus, the god climbed Mount Cithaeron where Niobe's six sons were out hunting. But, that day it was their destiny to be the prey, and Apollo slew them one by one with his silver bow. Artemis did the same to the six daughters in the women's quarters of the palace. When she heard of the death of all her children, Niobe stiffened with grief and turned into a rock.
[1064]
Three times the oracle at Delphi had warned Laius, king of Thebes, not to have children, for he would die at the hands of one of them. So when his Jocasta gave birth, it was decided to expose the newborn child on Mount Cithaeron, after he had been weakened by piercing his feet with an iron nail. The child was taken in by some shepherds, who gave him the name Oedipus, or "the swollen footed," and took him as a gift to the king of Corinth, who brought him up as his own son. When Oedipus, now grown up, was told that he was a foundling, he decided to go to Delphi to find out the identity of his true parents from the oracle. But the Pythia spoke to him in words that filled him with horror: he was destined to murder his father and marry his mother.
Still believing that he was the son of the ruler of Corinth, the young man decided never to set foot in that city again and set off for Thebes, but along the way he met Laius, the father whom he had never known. A trivial argument over who had precedence on the narrow road degenerated into a brawl and Oedipus killed Laius; he then forgot all about the incident. As he continued on his way to Thebes, Oedipus freed the region from the affliction of the Sphinx and the grateful Thebans made him their king, giving him Laius's widow as his wife, who bore him four children. In this way, with the dreadful crimes of patricide and incest, the prediction of the oracle of Delphi was fulfilled. Much later, when the awful truth came to light, Jocasta hanged herself from a beam of the palace and Oedipus put out his eyes with the pin of his mother cum wife.
[1040]
By the time he was killed by an arrow loosed by Artemis, even though she loved him, the hunter Orion, renowned for his beauty and extraordinary strength, had already suffered his share of misfortunes. One day on the island of Chios he fell in love with Merope, but, befuddled by wine, raped her instead of courting her. To efface this dishonor her father blinded him with the help of Dionysus. Orion appealed to an oracle, who informed him that he could only regain his sight by exposing his eyes to the rising sun in the East. When Orion reached Lemnos, the site of Hephaestus' forge, the god placed his son Cedalion on his shoulders as a guide. Cedalion led him toward the east where the rays of the sun instantly healed his eyes. Orion then went back to his life as a hunter, attracting the attention of Artemis and rousing the suspicions of Apollo. The god, fearing that his sister's chastity was under threat, challenged her to an archery contest. Cunningly, he suggested a distant point, far out to sea, as a target. Artemis hit it without difficulty, but the point was actually the head of Orion, who was swimming to meet her. After his death the handsome hunter was given a place in the heavens, where he shines as the constellation that bears his name.
[1048]
Orpheus was one of the few mortals to descend alive into the kingdom of the dead and to obtain permission to return to the light of the sun. He was the greatest of bards, musician and poet par excellence. At the sound of his lyre, given to him by Apollo, wild beasts were tamed and trees and rocks swayed in time to the rhythm. On his return from the expedition of the Argonauts he settled in Thrace and married the nymph Eurydice, who died shortly afterward from the bite of a serpent. In despair, Orpheus descended into the Underworld to seek his wife and, with the plaintive notes of his lyre, stopped the wheel of Ixion, assuaged the hunger of Tantalus, and balanced the boulder of Sisyphus. Even the cruel Hades and solemn Persephone were enchanted by his song and agreed to let him take Eurydice back to the world of the living, on condition that he did not look back to see his wife. Orpheus accepted this and began to climb back toward the light, keeping his gaze fixed firmly in front of him, but at the very moment of crossing the threshold, doubt and the impatience of his love induced him to look back just in time to see Eurydice being drawn back into the depths of the Underworld.
[1014]
When Zeus saw the glimmer of the fire that Prometheus had given to men by means of a trick, he was outraged and immediately prepared a calamity for the whole of their race. On his orders, Hephaestus made the shape of a girl out of clay and all the gods were summoned to give her attributes and qualities. Aphrodite made her dazzlingly beautiful and Athena taught her the domestic arts, but Hermes placed flattery, untruth, and deception in her heart, all qualities of which he himself was proud. The first woman had been created, and she was ambiguously called Pandora or the "All-gifted." After the Graces and Horae had dressed her sumptuously, Hermes took her to Epimetheus who, seduced by so much beauty, wished to make her his wife. This was a mistake: Prometheus had warned him to reject any gift from Zeus, which would certainly conceal a trap. Pandora had brought a large vase (the incorrectly named "Pandora's Box") with her, and when she opened it, all the evils it contained escaped and were inflicted on humanity. Only Hope remained at the bottom of the jar, which Pandora managed to close in time by the will of Zeus.
[1043]
The tragic story of Pentheus began when his cousin Dionysus, having conquered Asia, decided to return to his native Thebes to establish his cult there. Despite the cautious advice of his grandfather Cadmus and the warnings of the soothsayer Tiresias, Pentheus was opposed to the orgiastic rites of the cult, which he considered improper, and treated Dionysus as an impostor and charlatan. He even tried to put him in chains, but the god freed himself from the bonds and set the royal palace on fire. To put an end to the situation, Pentheus went personally to Mount Cithaeron with the aim of surprising the women of Thebes who were taking part in the rites, but they caught sight of him hidden among the branches of a pine tree. Seized by the frenzy of the Bacchic ecstasy, they tore him to pieces with their bare hands. The first to attack him was his own mother Agave who, mistaking him for a mountain lion, tore off his head and bore it back proudly to Thebes, impaled on a thyrsus.
[1061]
While Perseus was living on Seriphos with his mother Danaδ, the local tyrant Polydectes insisted that he carry out an extraordinary and extremely dangerous exploit: cutting off the head of Medusa, one of the terrible Gorgons.
Guided by Hermes and Athena, Perseus went to the Graeae and, taking from them the single tooth and one eye that they shared between them, forced them to show him the way to find the nymphs who kept the instruments he needed to succeed in his adventure: the winged sandals, the helmet of Hades that made its wearer invisible, and the kibisis, the magic wallet in which he would carry his trophy. Hermes also gave him a sharp sickle of steel and Athena presented him with a polished bronze shield.
When the hero came to the place where they lived, the Gorgons with their wings of gold, who could turn anyone who looked them in the face into stone, were sleeping soundly on the ocean shore, in the vicinity of the Pillars of Hercules. Perseus, rendered invisible by the helmet of Hades, approached Medusa with his winged sandals and, using her reflection in the polished shield to guide his hand, cut off her head with Hermes's sickle, without ever looking at her directly. He put the lethal head in the wallet and fled. On his way back he used the severed head of Medusa to win the hand of Andromeda and then gave the trophy to the goddess Athene, who set it in the middle of her own shield, or on the armor that protected her.
[1065]
Until his adolescence Phaδthon was unaware that he was the son of Helios, the sun god, but when he found out he demanded to be given a sign in recognition of his birth. So he left his native Ethiopia and went to the eastern limits of the Earth, where the sun rose, and asked to be allowed to drive the chariot of fire for a day. His father was afraid and sought to dissuade him, but in the end, forced to choose between giving in and denying his son, he allowed Phaδthon to take the chariot, a gift from Hephaestus, and resigned himself to Fate.
When the last star left the sky, the young man took the bridle in hand and set off at a gallop with the fiery winged horses that not even Zeus was capable of controlling. And the feared disaster occurred: the inexpert driver lost control of the horses and, terrified by the height and the sight of the terrible figures of the Zodiac, lost his way and threatened to set fire to heaven and earth. Zeus had no choice but to bring him down with a thunderbolt and he fell into the river Eridanus. The Heliads, sisters who wept over his loss, were turned into poplars by the god of the river.
[1046]
Prometheus was said to have created the first men, molding them out of clay, and he was always their benefactor. Since Zeus had refused them the gift of fire, he climbed Mount Olympus and, with the aid of Athena, took a glowing spark from the chariot of the sun god Helios. He smuggled this down to earth in the hollow of a stem of wild fennel. Zeus became aware of the theft only when he saw from afar the light of the fire burning among men. Enraged at being so deceived, he decided to punish both the thief and the recipients. To men he sent Pandora, the source of all evil. For Prometheus, he devised a suitable punishment, ordering Hephaestus to chain him to the summit of Mount Caucasus. Every day, an eagle descended from the sky to feed upon his liver which, being immortal, grew back again every night, rendering the torment interminable. He was released, after many generations, by Heracles, who killed the eagle.
[1030]
King Pygmalion of Cyprus refused to marry since his heart and his senses had been captured by an ivory statue, as white as snow, representing Aphrodite, which was as perfect in its nudity as he imagined the goddess must be. He had carved it himself and the passion that he had infused into it had made the material appear almost alive: the hand that caressed it could not tell whether it was ivory or real flesh that lay beneath its fingers. Pygmalion covered the statue with kisses and embraced it with the feeling that his passion was returned. At night he lay it by his side in the bed and in the daytime he dressed it in clothes and jewelry. Then the time came for the festival of Aphrodite, celebrated with great enthusiasm all over Cyprus. After making the sacrifices required by ritual, Pygmalion approached the altar and, having paid due homage, timidly asked the gods to find a wife for him who would resemble the girl he had carved. He did not dare to say that what he really wanted was the ivory girl herself, but Aphrodite, who was present at her own festival, understood the meaning of his prayer and brought the effigy to life. The creature granted to him by Aphrodite gave birth to Paphos.
[1021]
When Hera discovered that Princess Semele of Thebes was expecting Zeus' child she shook with rage and immediately wanted to prevent the birth. Semele had certainly not undergone a divine marriage, for the lord of the gods had united with her in the guise of a drink, but Hera still demanded her revenge. To show that she was just as capable of playing tricks as her husband, she came down from Olympus and, assuming the appearance of Semele's own wet nurse, began to instill desires and ambitions in the girl's heart: why did her divine lover not come to her in the same form as he showed himself to Hera? Why could not Semele experience the embrace of a god? Troubled by the urgings of the false wet nurse, the heedless maid got Zeus to promise to satisfy one of her desires. When he found out what it was she wanted, he came to see her in his divine form, clothed in lightning. Semele did not survive this sight, but Zeus took up the child, Dionysus, from her womb and concealed him in his thigh, closing it with clasps of silver, until he was ready to be born.
[1062]
Tantalus, the wealthy ruler of a small kingdom in Asia Minor, not far from Smyrna, was the favorite of the gods and often invited to their banquets. When it was his turn to hold a feast, he wanted to serve the celestials something completely out of the ordinary, and decided that his son Pelops would serve the purpose. His decision was influenced by his desire to put the omniscience of the gods to the test by serving them this dish.
In fact all the Olympians recognized the flesh they were served and refused to eat it, with the exception of Demeter who, distracted and disturbed by thoughts of the loss of her daughter Persephone, devoured a shoulder before she realized what it was.
For this outrageous act Tantalus was cast into Hades, condemned to eternal hunger and thirst: immersed up to his neck in water and with a branch laden with fruit hanging just above his head, the water receded when he moved his mouth toward it and the branches rose when he stretched out his hand to pick the fruit. It is from his name that the English word "tantalize" is derived. Pelops's body was put back together and restored to life by the gods; as a replacement for the shoulder that had been eaten, he was given one made of ivory.
[1045]
It is told that Ariadne had been abandoned by Theseus, perhaps out of calculation and ingratitude though it may have been on the orders of Dionysus, who had seen her and fallen in love. What happened was that Theseus had come to Crete as one of the group of seven young women and seven young men that the city of Athens sent as tribute to Minos every nine years. The youths had to take part in contests with bulls before being sacrificed to the Minotaur. Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and, in exchange for a promise of marriage, let him into the Labyrinth and supplied him with a ball of string that he unrolled as he made his way toward the monster's cell. After killing it (perhaps by blows of the fist), he was able to retrace the string and find his way out of the Labyrinth. Fleeing with Theseus to escape the anger of Minos, Ariadne woke to find herself alone on the beach of Naxos where their ship had made a call. It was here that Dionysus, riding on a chariot drawn by panthers, met her and took her to Olympus.
[1051]
Thetis and Eurynome, who brought up Hephaestus, at once realized that he was a skilled craftsman, but Hera, the mother who had rejected him, was soon to receive a demonstration of his prowess as well. To revenge himself on her, not only for having refused him her affection but, also, for having denied him a blissful existence on Mount Olympus, Hephaestus made a wonderful golden throne. But the throne concealed a trap: anyone who sat on it would be imprisoned by slender but strong chains that no one, apart from their maker, was capable of breaking. When it was finished he sent it to his mother and, as he had planned, Hera was trapped. With the failure of all attempts to free her, the gods were forced to turn to Hephaestus and sent Dionysus to fetch him. The god of wine had to resort to his favorite weapon to overcome his resistance: he made Hephaestus drunk, set him on an ass, and brought him back to Olympus. Once the fumes of the wine had dispersed, Hephaestus freed his mother and took his place among the other immortals.
[1001]
For ten long years the Titans had been fighting with the new generation of Olympians for power. The conflict took place in Thessaly where the old gods had their stronghold on Mount Othrys, while Zeus and the other new gods held Olympus: it was a stalemate that proved hard to break, until Zeus descended into the depths of the earth where the Hecatoncheires (or Centimanes) had been imprisoned by Uranus and set them free. There were three of these, enormous monsters with fifty heads and a hundred arms each. Seizing equally huge boulders in their powerful hands, they hurled them against the Titans, who were crushed. It is told that the outcome of the battle was also decided by the thunderbolts given to Zeus by the Cyclopes, whom he had freed as well. After their defeat the Titans were bound with chains and cast into Tartarus.
[1049]
While the nymph Alcippe was drawing water from the spring of Asclepius in Athens, she was roughly accosted by Halirrothius who, like his father Poseidon, was direct when it came to courting women. But the victim's father, the touchy Ares, was equally arrogant and decided to wipe out the offense with blood. Hallirhothius' body was still warm when Poseidon arrived brandishing his trident but, since the culprit was an immortal, summoned him before the tribunal of the gods, by which he too had been judged during the dispute with Athena over the possession of Attica. The trial was held on the hill in front of the Acropolis in Athens, which was henceforth known as the Areopagus (hill of Ares) and used by the Athenians to judge crimes of a religious nature. The gods acquitted Ares and Poseidon, who had many other children, and chose, for once, to let the matter rest.
[1050]
When Demeter was wandering the earth in the guise of a common mortal in a desperate search for her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades, she was given hospitality in the royal palace of Eleusis by King Celeus and his wife Metaneira. To thank them for their kindness she tried to make the youngest of their children, the infant Demopho÷n, immortal and, in order to burn away his mortal parts, secretly placed him in the fire every night. But the human apprehension of Metaneira brought about the ruin of her son. One night, peeping into the room, Metaneira saw the treatment to which the child was being subjected and, screaming with terror, hurled herself at Demeter. The goddess seethed with anger and let the baby be consumed by the flames. To repay the parents for their loss, however, she bestowed her favor on another of their children, Triptolemus, to whom she gave a stock of seeds and a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Triptolemus used these gifts to teach humanity how to till fields and reap the benefits of agriculture.
[1007]
Demeter was roaming in search of her daughter Persephone, who had been abducted by Hades, when her brother Poseidon began to pursue her in order to satisfy his lust. But the goddess, tired and disheartened after so much wandering and angry with the Olympians who had tacitly assented to her daughter's abduction, had no wish to unite with anyone, least of all a god. In order to be left in peace, she turned herself into a mare and hid herself among the herds of King Oncus, the grandson of Apollo, which were grazing in Arcadia. But Demeter's trick did not deceive Poseidon: the god recognized her and at once turned himself into a stallion to mount her. The outraged goddess was overcome with fury, so that in Arcadia she was as one of the Eumenides or Furies (Demeter Erinys), until she washed away her anger in the river Ladon. Out of this bestial union came the horse Arion and a daughter whose name was never pronounced as it formed part of the mysteries linked to the cult of the goddess.
[201]
Despite the heartfelt protests of Laoco÷n and the unheeded predictions of Cassandra, the Trojans had brought the trap hidden within the Trojan Horse inside the walls of Troy, and proud Ilium was in flames. Aeneas, warned by the shade of Hector and protected by his mother Aphrodite, was able to reach safety with his father Anchises and son Ascanius, also known as Julus, taking with him the sacred ornaments and the Penates. The ghost of his wife Creusa, who had perished during the sack of the city, showed him the goal of his exile: the Land of the Sunset, where the tawny Tiber flows.
Beneath the peaks of Mount Ida in Phrygia, Aeneas built a fleet of twenty ships, with which he set sail from Antandrus along with his people.
[202]
Reaching the Thracian coast, Aeneas set about founding a city, Aenead, but an ill omen induced him to give up: when he picked twigs of myrtle to adorn an altar for a sacrifice to Aphrodite and Zeus, they immediately began to bleed. It was the tomb of Polydorus, the youngest of the Trojan princes, murdered out of the greed of the Thracians who were supposed to have raised him far away from the war. There was no alternative but to give the victim his funeral honors and go back to sea.
[203]
Favorable winds took the fleet to the sacred island of Delos, whose people were ruled by Anius, priest of Apollo and old friend of Anchises. The Trojans consulted the oracle of the god about their destination and were told to seek the "ancient mother" where Aeneas and his descendants would reign forever. Anchises interpreted this as the island of Crete, the cradle of Helladic civilization, where Rhea, the Great Mother, had brought Zeus into the world. So the fleet sailed on through the islands of the Cyclades and came in sight of the beaches of the ancient Curetes.
[204]
Aeneas at once raised the walls of the city that he thought was going to be his new and final home and called it Pergamum after the stronghold of Troy. His people divided up the fields, built houses, and were happy to return to normal life in a land that appeared fertile, but this was not the will of Fate. A plague destroyed all that had been built with such effort, and the Penates spoke to Aeneas in a dream, telling him that Crete was not the place meant by the oracle: his people had been assigned the fertile land of Italy, "ancient mother" because it was from there that the Etruscan Dardanus, the ancestor of the Trojans, had come. Anchises, who remembered the old stories, confirmed the prediction, and the refugees set sail once more.
[205]
After three days of storm had blown the ships off course, Aeneas landed on the Strophades Islands, where the Harpies had taken refuge after being driven from the house of Phineus. The Trojans had to use their weapons to defend their food from attacks by the foul creatures, and the queen of the Harpies, Celeno, to get her revenge, predicted to Aeneas that the Trojans would found a new city in Italy only after many hardships, when hunger had compelled them to "devour the tables."
[206]
Having sailed past Zacynthus and avoided the cursed Ithaca (the home of Ulysses, the destroyer of Troy), Aeneas came to Actium, where he offered a sacrifice to Zeus and held games in honor of his abandoned homeland. He then consecrated the famous shield of Abanthes, taken from the Achaeans during the war.
[207]
Beyond the island of the Phaeacians, Aeneas landed at Butrotus, on the coast of Epirus, where he made an astounding discovery: the land was ruled by Helenus, the son of Priam, who had inherited Pyrrhus' scepter and wife. That wife was none other than Andromache, who had formerly been married to the hero Hector, taken as a slave by Pyrrhus, and then abandoned for Hermione. Aeneas was welcomed with full honors in the city, which had been built on the model of Troy, and asked Helenus, famous for his gifts of prophecy, what perils the refugees would have to face before reaching the end of their journey. Helenus admitted that he was unable to reveal all the secrets to him as he was prevented from doing so by Hera, but offered him useful advice.
[208]
Leaving Epirus and crossing the short stretch of sea that separated it from Italy, the Trojans landed at the extreme tip of the land of the Sallentines, near a large temple dedicated to Athena. Their stay was a short one for the whole coast was inhabited by Achaean peoples and the Trojans preferred to move on quickly: they sailed across the Gulf of Tarentum, rounded the promontory of Lacinium, and, avoiding the treacherous Charybdis, arrived in Trinacria (Sicily).
[209]
They landed at the foot of Mount Etna, said to have crushed the body of Enceladus. This was the land of the Cyclopes, visited by Ulysses not long before. And it was one of that crafty hero's companions, Achaemenides of Ithaca who had been abandoned in that region, who told Aeneas of the tragic encounter between the Greeks and Polyphemus. When the now blind monster appeared on the mountainside and descended toward the beach with his flock, feeling his way with the uprooted trunk of a pine tree, the Trojans quickly put out to sea, taking Achaemenides with them.
[210]
Sailing along the coast of Ortygia, where Alpheus was finally reunited with his beloved Arethusa, the Trojan ships reached Pachynus, the southernmost point of Trinacria, and, bypassing the Greek cities of Camarina, Gela, Acragas (Agrigento), and Selinus, came to the coast of Lilybaeum (Marsala) and landed at the port of Drepanum (Trapani). Here, worn out by seven years of hardship, the aging Anchises met his death: neither Celeno of the Harpies nor the seer Helenus had foreseen his end.[211]
As soon as the Trojans resumed their voyage, Juno, seeing them enter the Tyrrhenian Sea and approach the land that had been destined for them, grew angry. Zeus's consort then asked Aeolus to unleash his strongest winds. At once, the fleet was struck by a storm, and many ships were lost before the storm was calmed by Poseidon, irritated with the meddling of Aeolus who had disturbed the sea without his permission. The survivors of the storm landed on the coast of Libya, where they received a welcome at the new city of Carthage, founded by the Phoenician Queen Dido. Venus sent Eros to her in the guise of Ascanius, making her fall in love with Aeneas so that she would not harass him at the instigation of Juno.
[212]
So Dido was caught in the web that Aphrodite had woven for her, urged on by her sister Anna Perenna. The news of her union with Aeneas spread through all the cities of the coast and reached the ears of Iarbas, son of Zeus and king of the Getulians, who had been seeking the hand of Dido for some time. Iarbas asked his father to intervene and the latter, using Hermes as a messenger, peremptorily ordered Aeneas back to sea so that his destiny might be fulfilled. Thus, after a year's stay in Carthage, Aeneas was obliged to resume his voyage. As the ships left the harbor, the abandoned Dido impaled herself on a sword on the funeral pyre that she had prepared for herself.
[213]
When Aeneas' ships were already far from the coast, a sudden storm forced them to land in Sicily again, where they were welcomed by Acestes, king of nearby Eryx. Solemn games were held in memory of Anchises, but after the contests, the Trojan women, provoked by Iris on behalf of Hera, set fire to the fleet because they were tired of roaming the seas. Zeus was able to limit the damage and Aeneas only lost four ships, but founded the city Segesta for those who did not wish to continue the voyage. Nine days later the Trojans set sail again.
[214]
Aphrodite persuaded Poseidon to allow the Trojans to bring their voyage to a peaceful close, but, in exchange, one of them had to be sacrificed. Fate chose the pilot Palinurus who, yielding to Sopore, the god of sleep, off the coast of Campania, vanished into the sea. But the fleet went on safely, passing the rocks once inhabited by the Sirens, and came to the shore of Cumae, dominated by the magnificent temple of Apollo, in whose recesses was hidden the cave of the Sibyl. Interrogated by Aeneas, she told him of the grave dangers and battles that he would have to face in Latium before final victory.
[215]
Before resuming his voyage Aeneas held a funeral for Misenus and then descended into the kingdom of the dead from Lake Avernus to meet the shade of his father in the Elysian Fields. Back among the living, Aeneas turned his ships north and sailed to a harbor that he gave the name Gaeta, in honor of his own wet nurse, Caeta, whom he buried on that beach.
[216]
The ships then rounded the promontory on which Circe made her home, which Aeneas decided prudently to avoid. Not far off, the waters of the tawny Tiber flowed into the sea, and it was on the banks of this river that the Trojans landed. When, to refresh themselves, they spread wild fruit on flat loaves of wheat and bit into them voraciously, they realized that they were "devouring the tables" just as the Harpies had predicted, and understood that they had reached the end of their long journey. Solemn confirmation was provided by the roll of Zeus' thunder.
[101]
I
A large number of heroes, all young men of divine descent, had gathered at the port of Iolcus in Thessaly to take part in Jason's expedition. The first to arrive was Orpheus who assumed the role of marking time for the rowers with his singing. He was followed by, among others, Peleus, Heracles, and the divine twins Castor and Pollux. The ship was built by Argus, from whom it took its name, but the instructions as to how it should be built came from the goddess Athena. A roll of thunder from a clear sky, a sure sign of divine approval for the venture, gave the signal for departure to the fifty-three heroes who represented the whole of Greece.
[102]
After a few days of sailing, mostly along the coast, the heroes came to Lemnos, where Queen Hypsipyle reigned over a strictly female population. A year previously, all the men of the island had been killed as punishment for their continual unfaithfulness. The Argonauts settled happily on the island, and Hypsipyle offered Jason her love and throne. But Heracles reminded them of their task and persuaded them to return to sea.
[103]
The ship sailed swiftly on to Samothrace of the Cabiri and, rounding the Chersonesus, arrived at the mouth of the Hellespont. Beyond the straits, in the Propontid Sea rose the Island of the Bears, linked to Phrygia by no more than a narrow wooded isthmus. Here, the Argonauts received a warm welcome from Cyzicus, the young King of the Dolyones, but as soon as they set sail again, a treacherous current brought them back to the other side of the isthmus. They landed in the dark and no one realized that it was the same island; nor did the Dolyones recognize the Argonauts and, fearing a trap, took up arms and gave battle. The hospitable King Cyzicus died at Jason's own hand.
[104]
After a contest of endurance at the oars, the Argonauts reached Cius, in Mysia, in a state of exhaustion. Here the hero Hylas, whom Heracles loved, was carried off by the Naiads, charmed by his beauty. After searching for him in vain, the Argonauts resumed their voyage, but Heracles stayed behind to look for his companion. This was all according to the design of Zeus, who wished the hero to interrupt his journey and go on to other labors before being accepted among the immortals on Mount Olympus.
[105]
The Argonauts next came to Bithynia, the land of the Bebryces ruled by the arrogant Amycus. Any stranger who landed on those coasts was not allowed to go back to sea until he had had a wrestling match with the king. Pollux accepted the challenge in the name of all the heroes. Amycus, defeated, was tied to a tree and killed.
[106]
In Thrace, Jason and two of his companions, Calais and Zetes, freed the blind soothsayer King Phineus from persecution by the Harpies, who at every meal snatched the food from his mouth and soiled the table with their excrement. It was Zeus who had sent the Harpies to torment Phineus because the soothsayer had dared to reveal the sacred thoughts of the lord of Olympus to mortals.
[107]
At the mouth of the Euxine Sea, the Argonauts heard the thunder of the Cyanean Rocks, also known as the Symplegades. Having no roots, these free-floating islands ceaselessly crashed together, making the passage of ships impossible. The hand of Athena gave the Argo the push it needed to pass through the strait, and from that time on, in amazement, the Cyanean Rocks stopped their deadly movement.
[108]
Sailing within sight of the southern coast of the Pontus Euxinus or Euxine Sea, the Argonauts came first to the island of Thynia, where they saw Apollo pass by on his way to the land of the Hyperboreans. Then, having rounded Cape Acherusia, where Hydmon died on the tusks of a wild boar, they came within sight of the tomb of Stenelus, the hero who had fought alongside Heracles against the Amazons. Stenelus rose from his grave as the Argonauts passed, and Orpheus consecrated his lyre in honor to him. That place was known as Lyra from that time on. They then sailed beyond the river Halis and landed at Themiscyra where their stay was brief. The danger of a clash with the Amazons loomed, and, beyond the land of the Moschynecians (who did in public what all other people do in private), the Island of Ares was already in sight.
[109]
The evil birds that Heracles had driven away from Lake Stymphalus had taken refuge on the island. The Argonauts were met by a hail of feathers, as sharp as darts, and had to defend themselves with their helmets and shields when landing. The sons of Phrixus, the young Greek who had brought the Golden Fleece to Colchis, had also been shipwrecked on the island. Setting sail again and now within sight of their goal, the Argonauts saw the eagle of Zeus high above their ship and, shortly afterward, heard the cries of Prometheus as the eagle devoured his liver. Later, the donor of fire would be freed from his torment by Heracles.
[110]
At last the Argonauts reached the city of Aea in Colchis, ruled by Aeδtes, the custodian of the celebrated fleece. Along with the king, they were greeted by his children Absyrtus, called "the brilliant," and Medea the sorceress, a favorite of Hecate. Jason, with the aid of a divine philter given to him by Medea, overcame the terrible trials to which Aeδtes subjected him. First, he yoked the fire-breathing bulls of Hephaestus and then used them to plow four large plots of land. He sowed the furrows with dragon's teeth form which sprang armed men. The hero mowed them down with his sword like a reaper at harvest time. The slaughter over, Jason swore on the gods to honor Medea as his wife and, having taken the precious fleece from the dragon that guarded it, fled with her to the ship that had already hoisted its sails.
[111]
Medea's treachery enraged Aeδtes, who sent his son Absyrtus with many ships to block the straits, but the fugitives, having reached Themiscyra, turned toward the western coast of the Pontus, sailing to the broad delta of the river Istrus. Absyrtus guessed their intentions and entered the river before Jason's ship arrived. He sailed up the river, unaware that the Argo was behind him rather than ahead. No one in those lands had ever seen a ship before, nor did they know the use of the oar: the inhabitants were Scythians, Getae, Thracians, Malvensians, and other barbarian people. They mounted the river until they came to the place where it flowed into the Chronius Sea, along whose coasts were strung the Brygian Isles, sacred to Artemis.
[112]
It was in the temple of Artemis that Medea set a trap for her brother Absyrtus, whom Jason killed by a ruse. For this reason, Zeus, when the Argo began to descend toward the Ionian Sea, did not allow it to pass beyond the sanctuary at Dodona: Jason and Medea first had to be purified by the sorceress Circe, whom they could reach at her home in the Tyrrhenian Sea by sailing along the course of the Eridanus. So, the Argo entered the river, shrouded in the mists caused by the tragic end of Phaeton, and followed it until its waters tumbled into the Rhone, which flowed rapidly into the Ausonian Sea. Nearby those places passed the road known as the Heraclean Way, as it was the route Heracles had taken on his return from the edges of the world with the cattle he had stolen from the monster Geryon.
[114]
The ship Argo set sail again and, avoiding the Sirens from whose song Ulysses had escaped , overcame the peril of Scylla and Charybdis with the help of the Nereids. At Hera's bidding the ship was steered by Thetis, visible only to her husband Peleus who remained bent over his oar.
[115]
The ship now plowed through calm waters. The Argonauts soon reached Drepane, the beautiful island of the Phaeacians, ruled by Alcinous and his wife Arete. Here, Jason and Medea celebrated their wedding and laid on a nuptial bed covered with the Golden Fleece.
[116]
Unlike the journey of Ulysses, however, the island of the Phaeacians was not the last stop on the voyage of the Argonauts. In sight of the Greek coast, a storm from Boreas drove them toward the sea of Libya, to the marshy Syrtis covered with seaweed that prevented them from sailing further. At the command of Poseidon, the monster Triton came to the aid of the Argonauts, setting them back on course for Crete.
[117]
Jason thought he would find a hospitable land there but, at the bidding of Europa, the man of brass, Talus, prevented ships from landing by hurling great rocks at them. Once again the situation was resolved by Medea's magical powers, and the adventure was now near a happy ending. With the assistance of Phoebus, who dispersed the great pall of darkness that emerged from deep recesses, the Argo finally entered the familiar waters that separated Attica from Euboea: the port of Iolcus was in sight.
[401]
Ulysses set sail from the shores of Troy, heading for Ithaca with twelve ships and 500 companions who had survived the war. The enemy city had been burned to the ground thanks to the trick of the wooden horse that he had devised. This was how the hero's adventurous voyage through the Mediterranean began.
[402]
Sailing along the coast, Ulysses' fleet reached Thrace, in the land of the Cicones, old allies of the Trojans. Ulysses sacked their capital Ismarus, but the arrival of other enemies forced him to take flight after loosing seventy-two of his companions.
[403]
Doubling Cape Malea, in the Peloponnesus, Ulysses' ships were caught by the winds of Boreas from the north that drove them past Cythera. For nine days they were in the grip of the storm and on the tenth made the coast of Africa, landing in the country of the Lotus-eaters. A very sweet fruit, the lotus made them forget their sorrows and pains, but it also banished all thought of their native land from their minds, along with all desire to return to it. Two of his companions who tasted the fruit had to be brought back to the ships by force.
[404]
Heading back to the north, Ulysses' ships reached the land of the Cyclopes, monstrous giants with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads. Leaving the fleet in a safe harbor on the nearby Island of Goats, Ulysses set off with a ship and twelve men for the cave of Polyphemus, the son of Poseidon, who devoured six of his companions. After befuddling the Cyclops with wine, the hero blinded him with a sharpened and heated olive stake and escaped from the cave by binding himself and his companions underneath the bellies of rams in the giant's flock of sheep.
[405]
Ulysses came next to the island of Aeolia, the home of Aeolus, lord of the winds, who gave him a leather bag in which all the winds that might hinder his voyage back to Ithaca were imprisoned. Driven by the favorable breeze of Zephyr, from the west, the ships came within sight of their homeland. But his companions, curious about the contents of the leather bag, opened it, causing a terrible tempest that drove them back to the kingdom of Aeolus. The god of the winds, offended, chased them away.
[406]
After six days and six nights of navigation the fleet landed in the inhospitable land of the Laestrygonians, cruel giants who ate human flesh. Eleven of the twelve ships were sunk with all their crew and only Ulysses' vessel managed to row to safety.
[407]
Sailing onward with a broken heart, Ulysses reached the island of Aeaea, the home of Circe, a sorceress whose habit it was to turn all those who came to visit her into animals. Several of his companions were turned into pigs, but Ulysses, with the aid of Hermes, broke the enchantment and made the sorceress submit. He remained as a guest in her palace for a year. Before going back to sea and on Circe's advice, the hero decided to descend into Hades, the subterranean world of the dead, in order to question the shade of the prophet Teiresias about the fate of his voyage.
[408]
Teiresias revealed to Ulysses that Poseidon, enraged at what had happened to his son Polyphemus, was hindering his return to Ithaca. And yet, it was still possible for them to reach their home if, when they came to Thrinacie, his companions did not touch the sacred cattle of the Helios. If they were harmed, however, the hero would not see his native land for a long time and would arrive there alone, upon a foreign ship.
[409]
Resuming his voyage, Ulysses managed to avoid the seduction of the magical song of the Sirens, though without renouncing the opportunity to hear the sound of their voices. He plugged his companions' ears with wax and had himself bound to the ship's mast so that he could not yield to the desire to join the Sirens.
[410]
To avoid the Wandering Rocks, cliffs that crashed together and crushed ships passing between them, Ulysses' ship headed for the caves of Scylla and Charybdis, which faced the sea. Slipping by the dreadful Charybdis, the hero also escaped Scylla, but six of his companions were snatched from the deck by the monster and devoured.
[411]
After their terrible experience with the monsters of the straits, Ulysses and his companions landed on Thrinacie, the large island where the heifers of the Sun-god (Helios) grazed. For a whole month the breath of Notus, the south wind, prevented the ship from setting sail again and, in spite of Ulysses' heartfelt warnings, the sailors, wracked with hunger, killed the finest of the cows and aroused the anger of the Sun-god. Threatening to rise no longer to illuminate the earth and the sky, the enraged god obtained the promise of a prompt revenge from the immortals: when a favorable wind at last permitted the ship to leave Thrinacie, Zeus sent a terrible storm that destroyed the ship and swept all of Ulysses' crew into the sea.
[412]
Clinging to the ship's shattered mast, Ulysses, the only survivor of the shipwreck, was swept back toward Charybdis. He then drifted for nine days at the mercy of the currents until, on the tenth night, he was washed ashore on the remote Isle of Ogygia, home of the nymph Calypso. The divine maiden kept the hero at her side, but after seven years was forced to submit to the will of the gods and allow Ulysses to resume his voyage so that his destiny could be fulfilled.
[413]
Ulysses then sailed for seventeen days on a raft built with the aid of Calypso and had come within sight of the island of the Phaeacians when Poseidon unleashed a violent tempest against him. The raft was smashed to pieces but the hero, thanks to the intervention of the sea goddess Ino, reached land and was led by the lovely Nausicaa to the court of her father Alcinous . Here, Ulysses told the story of his wanderings and was given a ship that took him back to his homeland.
[414]
Disguised as a beggar Ulysses at last came to the royal palace of Ithaca where, with the help of his son Telemachus, he took on and killed the young suitors of his wife Penelope who had moved into his home. After ten years of war beneath the walls of Troy and ten years of roaming the treacherous seas, Ulysses' adventure came to an end.
[301]
Heracles had been ordered by Eurystheus to free the valley of Nemea from a monstrous lion, the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. After trying in vain to kill it with his club and arrows, the hero managed to overcome the beast by strangling it with his bare hands. He then took the carcass on his back and returned to Tiryns. According to one tradition, the lion skin that is one of Heracles' constant attributes is in fact that of the Nemean lion.
[302]
A hydra with nine heads, one of which--he central one--was immortal, was laying waste to the region of Lerna. The monster was another of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and had been raised by Hera precisely to serve as a test for Heracles. The hero attacked it with his club, but every time he managed to strike off a head, two more grew in its place. In the end, Heracles was able to get the better of the hydra, with the help of his faithful nephew Iolaus, by burning each head that he struck off and burying the immortal one under a rock. Dipping the heads of his arrows in the monster's bile, he made them deadly.
[303]
On Mount Ceryneia, in the region of Arcadia, lived a hind with horns of gold and hooves of bronze that was consecrated to Artemis. Heracles did not want to kill her and chased her for a whole year, but was then forced to kill her. When Artemis appeared before him to ask why he had performed such a sacrilege, Heracles managed to calm her by shifting the responsibility for the hunt onto Eurystheus.
[304]
On Mount Erymanthus there was a terrible wild boar that Eurystheus ordered Heracles to bring back to Tiryns alive. First, the hero drove the beast into the open with his loud cries, and then pushed it into the thick snow that covered the land. In this way, he was able to tire it out and capture it with his nets. When Heracles dumped the wild boar in front of Eurystheus' palace, the cowardly king was so terrified that he ran away and hid in a jar, which he had prepared as a refuge in case of danger.
[305]
The stables of Augeas, King of Elis, housed three thousand head of cattle and had not been cleaned for thirty years. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to clean them in a single day. Without mentioning the order, Heracles offered to Augeias to carry out the thankless task in exchange for the tenth part of the herd. He then altered the course of the rivers Alpheus and Peneius and made them pass through the stables, washing them rapidly. But when Augeias learned that Heracles had done the job on the orders of Eurystheus, he refused to give him the cattle he had promised. Later, the hero would take his revenge by invading Elis.
[306]
Ares had raised a flock of birds that had claws, wings, and beaks of bronze, feathers fired like arrows, and fed on human flesh. They lived on the shores of the marshes near the city of Stymphalus. Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to drive them away. He was aided in this task by Athena, who gave him brazen cymbals that the hero used to make the birds take flight, killing them with his arrows. The ones that escaped him flew toward Pontus, and found refuge on the island of Ares.
[307]
The bull had emerged from the sea on the shore of Crete the day on which Minos had promised a sacrifice to Poseidon. Captivated by the animal's beauty, the king decided to keep it, sacrificing a bull of lesser value to the god. Enraged at this affront, Poseidon drove the bull mad. In the grip of its fury, the animal caused immense damage. Heracles was ordered to capture the bull, and this he did, swimming back to Greece with it or, perhaps, riding on its back as Europa had done. Eurystheus wanted to consecrate it to Hera, but the goddess would not accept a gift that came from the hands of Heracles and the beast was set free. We come across it again in the region of Marathon in the legends connected with Theseus.
[308]
Diomedes, the son of Ares and Pelopeia, was the ruler of the Bistones, a people who lived in Thrace. He possessed four mares that he fed on human flesh, but Heracles, on Eurystheus' orders, succeeded in capturing them. Taking them to the seashore, he was surrounded by the Bistones. While engaged in battle, he entrusted the mares to his friend Abderus, whom they dragged away and tore to pieces. Heracles defeated the Bistones and killed Diomedes. He fed Diomedes' body to the mares, which immediately grew docile. When he took them to Eurystheus, the king set them free and they were later devoured by the wild beasts of Mount Olympus.
[309]
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, had been given a girdle by Ares that Admete, daughter of Eurystheus, desired above any other object. Heracles was, therefore, ordered to retrieve it. At first, he was given a warm welcome by the queen in Themiscyra, but Hera turned the Amazons against him and a battle commenced. Heracles killed Hippolyta and seized the girdle. On his way back, he landed in Troad, where he rescued Hesione from a monster that Poseidon had sent to kill her. In exchange for his aid, Hesione's father Laomedon had promised Heracles the horses that he had been given by Zeus to compensate him for the loss of Ganymede. Since he failed to keep this promise, Heracles swore, as he left Troad, that he would wage war on Troy, which he later did.
[310]
On the far-off island of Erythaea or Erythaea the Red, so-called because it was located where the sun sets, Geryon kept his immense herds of oxen. Eurystheus commanded Heracles to bring them to him. To reach the western limits of the world the hero journeyed along the coast of Libya but, troubled by the fierce heat of the desert, threatened to shoot Helios if he did not lend him the golden cup in which the sun god set sail every evening when he reached the Ocean. In memory of his passage, he erected a pillar on each side of the straits that separate Libya from Europe, the Pillars of Hercules. On reaching Eritea, he killed Geryon and the two guards of the oxen, a Giant and the dog Orthrus. Heracles returned to Greece by the northern route, following the coasts of Spain, and then passing through Gaul, Italy, Illyria, and Thrace. At the end of the journey he handed over what was left of the animals to Eurystheus, who sacrificed them to Hera.
[311]
At her divine marriage with Zeus, Hera had been given some golden apples by Gaea, which she then entrusted to the Hesperides, in the unknown land of the Hyperboreans. Since Eurystheus wanted them, Heracles set off to the north, passing through Macedonia and Illyria until he reached the banks of the Eridanus, where the nymphs of the river revealed to him that only Nereus could tell him where the golden apples were located. Nereus had the power to assume all sorts of shapes and tried to elude him by doing so, but Heracles surprised him in his sleep and kept him bound until he gave him the information he needed. He then went to Mount Atlas and here, after fighting and defeating the monster Triton and the dragon Ladon, asked Atlas to pick the apples for him, offering to hold up the vault of heaven for him. The Titan returned with the golden apples, but refused to reassume his burden. Heracles then asked him to hold up the sky for a moment while he placed a cushion on his shoulders, and as soon as he was free seized the apples and fled. When Eurystheus was given the golden apples he offered them to Athena, who put them back in their place.
[312]
n a last, desperate attempt to get the better of Heracles, Eurystheus demanded that he capture Cerberus. To perform this task, the hero had to descend into Hades with the help of Hermes and Athene. After being initiated into the mysteries at Eleusis, Heracles took the way leading down from Cape Taenarum, in Laconia, and, reaching the Underworld, freed Theseus, who had had the temerity to try and abduct Persephone. Pluto gave him permission to carry off Cerberus on the condition that he overcome him without using weapons. So Heracles seized Cerberus by the neck and maintained his grip despite the wounds inflicted on him by the dog's tail, which ended in a sting like that of a scorpion. He took the monster back to the surface, emerging from the Mouth of Hell situated at Troezen, in Argolis. But when Eurystheus saw the infernal beast, he hid in his jar again, just as he had done when presented with the wild boar of Erymanthus. Heracles, not knowing what to do with Cerberus, took the dog back to his master.
[10100]
Abanthes
Twelfth king of Argos and father of Proetus. He possessed a shield, given to him by Hera, that had the power of reducing a rebellious people to submission and obedience. The shield came into the hands of Aeneas who, on his voyage to Italy, offered it to the temple of Apollo at Actium.
[10101]
Absyrtus
Son of Aeδtes, king of Colchis, and brother of Medea. When the latter fled from her land with the Argonauts, who had seized the Golden Fleece, Absyrtus was sent in her pursuit and was killed by Jason through a ruse.
[10102]
Acestes
King of the city of Eryx, he claimed Trojan descent through his mother Acesta. It was in her honor that Aeneas gave the name Segesta to the city he founded in Sicily.
[10103]
Achaeans
The name that Homer used, in general, for all the Greeks. Properly speaking, it referred to the people that occupied almost all of the Peloponnesus (Achaea) with the exception of Arcadia.
[10104]
Achilles
Son of the mortal Peleus and the goddess Thetis, he was educated by the centaur Chiron. Fate allowed him to choose between a long, but insignificant life or a glorious, but short one. Achilles chose the second alternative and met his death beneath the walls of Troy. Some later traditions tell of his mother's attempt to render him immortal; as a child, Achilles was dipped in the waters of the Styx, a river in the Underworld, but the heel by which Thetis held him during the immersion was not touched by the miraculous water. It was in his heel that he received a mortal wound from the arrow shot by Paris (or by the god Apollo).
[10105]
Actaeon
Son of Aristaeus and Autonoδ. Trained in the art of the chase by the centaur Chiron, while out hunting one day he surprised the goddess Artemis bathing naked in a fountain. For this she changed him into a stag and he was torn to pieces by his own pack of dogs.
The Myth of Actaeon
[10106]
Admetus
King of Pherae, in Thessaly, the god Apollo served him for nine years. Admetus treated him with respect and kindness and the god rewarded him with a privileged destiny; he would be freed from death on condition that his father, mother, or wife were willing to die in his stead. His wife Alcestis agreed to make the sacrifice and was brought back to the world of the living by Heracles.
[10107]
Adonis
The incestuous son of Cinyras and Smyrna, or Myrrha. His beauty led to a dispute between Aphrodite and Persephone and it was necessary for Zeus to make a judgment about which of the two goddesses he should spend his time with. He greatly preferred the company of Aphrodite, whose lover he became. When he died during a hunt, the anemone flower sprang from his blood.
The Myth of Adonis
[10108]
Aeacus
Son of Zeus and Aegina, born on the island named after his mother. Since the island was still uninhabited at the moment of his birth, Zeus turned its ants into human beings who became the people of the Myrmidons.
[10109]
Aeaea
1. Island off the Tyrrhenian coast that took its name from the sorceress Circe (or Aeaea), which later became linked to the mainland and was called Mount Circeus. 2. City in Colchis ruled by King Aeδtes, Circe's brother, where the Golden Fleece was kept before it was brought back to Greece by the Argonauts.
1. The Voyage of Argonauts: Aeaea Circea
2. The Voyage of Argonauts: Aea of Colchis
[10110]
Aeδtes
Son of Helios, Circe's brother, and father of Medea and Absyrtus. He was king of Aeaea in Colchis at the time of the expedition of the Argonauts.
Voyage of the Argonauts: Aea of Colchis
[10111]
Aegina
Island in the Aegean Sea not far from Attica, which took its name from a nymph loved by Zeus. Since the island was deserted at the time, Zeus changed its ants into human beings (the Myrmidons) who were ruled by Aeacus, the son born from that union.
[10112]
Aeneas
Son of Anchises and Aphrodite, he was, along with Hector, the main Trojan hero, protected by his mother and Poseidon. After the destruction of Troy he took the Penates of the city and the Palladium with him and led his people to Latium, where he was warmly welcomed by King Latinus, whose daughter, Lavinia, he married. He ruled over the Latins and Trojans until he was killed fighting the Rutuli and Etruscans. Legend has it that he was taken to heaven.
The Voyage of Aeneas
[10113]
Aeolus
Son of Poseidon, he was considered the guardian of the winds. He lived with his numerous children in his palace on the Aeolian Islands, where they held an eternal banquet. When Ulysses arrived at the island Aeolus gave him a bag in which all the winds that might have hindered his return to Ithaca were bottled up. Aeneas, too, had an encounter with Aeolus, who tried to prevent him from entering the Tyrrhenian Sea by means of a storm.
The Voyage of Ulysses: Aeolus
The Voyage of Aeneas: The region of Storms
[10114]
Aeson
Father of Jason, the leader of the Argonauts, and brother of Pelias, on whose orders the expedition was launched.
[10115]
Agamemnon
Homer says that he was the son of King Atreus of Mycenae, descended from Tantalus. He won the hand of the Spartan princess Clytemnestra, while his brother Menelaus married her sister, Helen, over whom the Trojan War was fought. The most powerful ruler in the whole of Greece, Agamemnon commanded the Achaean armies during the expedition. On his return home he was killed by Thyestes' son Aegisthus, who had seduced Clytemnestra.
[10116]
Agave
Daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, rulers of Thebes. Along with her sisters, Ino and Autonoδ, she was possessed by the Bacchic frenzy and tore her son Pentheus to pieces on Mount Cithaeron.
The Myth of Pentheus
[10117]
Aglauros
The daughter of King Cecrops of Athens, she was given custody, along with her sister Herse, of the basket in which Athena had hidden Erichthonius, born out of Hephaestus' desire for the goddess and fecundated by the Earth. In spite of being warned not to open the basket, the two sisters wished to see the child, who appeared to them in the form of a serpent. Stricken with madness, Aglauros and Herse threw themselves from the Acropolis. There is another tradition which states that Aglauros was turned into a stone statue because she tried to come between Hermes and her sister.
The Myth of Aglauros
[10118]
Alcinous
Son of Poseidon, he ruled the Phaeacian people with his wife Arete. It was at his court that the shipwrecked Ulysses arrived and the wedding of Jason and was held.
The Voyage of Ulysses: The Phaeacians
The Voyage of the Argonauts: Drepane of the Phaeacians
[10119]
Alcippe
A nymph and daughter of Ares, she was assaulted by Halirrothius, a son of Poseidon. Ares responded to the offense by killing the rapist and, as a result, was placed on trial and then acquitted by the tribunal of the gods.
The Trial of Ares
[10120]
Alcmene (or Alcmena)
Daughter of King Electryon of Mycenae, she was seduced by Zeus who came to her in the guise of her husband Amphitryon. The god lay in her bed for an extremely long night in which the moon rose and set three times. Alcmene did not become aware of the deception until the following night, when she received the real Amphitryon. To Zeus she bore Heracles; to Amphitryon she bore another son, Iphicles, one night younger than Heracles.
[10121]
Aloadae
The twins Otus and Ephialtes, born from one of Poseidon's fleeting love affairs. The name derives from their earthly father, Aloeus, himself the son of Poseidon. Endowed with proverbial strength and courage, they fought in the Gigantomachia and succeeded in capturing Ares, keeping him prisoner in a bronze vessel for thirteen months. The god of war was set free by Hermes.
[10122]
Alpheus
The largest river in the Pelopponesus that flows not far from Olympia. Its course was diverted by Heracles to clean the Augean stables. The god of the river, who had fallen in love with the nymph Arethusa, pursued her across the sea as far as the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse.
The Labors of Heracles: The Stables of Augeias
The Voyage of Aeneas: Drepanum
[10123]
Amalthea
The terrifying goat (or nymph according to some traditions) that nursed Zeus during his childhood on the island of Crete. To prevent the child's cries reaching the ears of Cronus, Amalthea gathered the Curetes around the cave to make a great racket with their singing and dancing. Amalthea's horn, broken off by Zeus, became the cornucopia, or horn of plenty, and her hide the armor (aegis) that the god used in the struggle against the Titans. After her death she was placed among the constellations.
[10124]
Amazons
A mythical race of female warriors, descended from the god Ares, living around the city of Themiscyra in Asia Minor. Their name signifies "without breast" as they had their right breast removed in childhood to make it easier for them to draw the bow and throw the javelin. The Argonauts landed in their realm. Heracles, when he visited them, caused the death of their queen Hippolyta.
The Voyage of the Argonauts: The Pontus Euxinus
The Labors of Heracles: The Girdle of Hippolyta
[10125]
Amycus
Son of Poseidon and king of the Bebryces, he was celebrated for his skill as a wrestler and had the habit of challenging any stranger landing on the shores of Bithynia to mortal combat. He was beaten and killed by Pollux while he was taking part in the expedition of the Argonauts.
[10126]
Anchises
King of Dardanus in Troas and father of Aeneas. He was loved by Aphrodite but, since he dared to boast of this, lamed by a thunderbolt from Zeus. When Troy was destroyed, Anchises was already an old man and fled from the city riding on his son's shoulders. He died in Sicily before reaching the new home destined for his race.
The Myth of Anchises
[10127]
Andromache
Wife of the Trojan hero Hector, who was killed by Achilles beneath the ramparts of Troy. After the victory of the Achaeans she was given to Pyrrhus (also known as Neoptolemus) as a spoil of war and taken to Epirus. Later, she married Helenus, one of Hector's brothers who ruled at Butrotus. It was here that Aeneas found her on his voyage to Italy.
[10128]
Andromeda
Daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia. Because her mother had offended the Nereids, Poseidon demanded that she be sacrificed to a sea monster, but she was saved by Perseus who married her and took her to Tiryns. After her death she was placed among the constellations in the sky.
The Myth of Andromeda
[10129]
Anius
Son of Apollo, he was the god's priest on Delos. He made a prediction to Aeneas about the destination of his voyage but his oracle was wrongly interpreted.
[10130]
Anna
Sister of Queen Dido of Carthage, she encouraged Dido in her love for Aeneas. After Dido's death, she fled to Italy, where she was received with great courtesy by Aeneas. Turned into a nymph by the god of the river Numicus, she was honored by the Romans as Anna Perenna (the Eternal).
[10131]
Arachne
A girl of Lydia, she was the daughter of the famous dyer of purple Idmon of Colophon. A highly skilled weaver, she challenged Athena to a contest and was changed into a spider.
The Myth of Arachne
[10132]
Arethusa
One of the Nereids who, to escape the attentions of the river god Alpheus, was turned into the famous fountain on the island of Ortygia, near Syracuse. Alpheus joined her there by flowing under the sea.
[10133]
Argo
Name of the ship that took the Argonauts on their quest for the Golden Fleece.
The Voyage of the Argonauts
[10134]
Argonauts
The sailors of the ship Argo, the heroes who followed Jason to Colchis to obtain the Golden Fleece. The various traditions that list their names differ considerably, but are in agreement on the fact that the number of members of the expedition was between fifty and fifty-three, since the long galleys of the time (pentakontoroi) had fifty oarsmen.
The Voyage of the Argonauts
[10135]
Argos
Capital of Argolis and, after Sparta, the most important city in the Peloponnesus.
[10136]
Argus
1. Son of Zeus and Niobe, he was the third king of the city of Argos and ruler of the Peloponnesus. 2. Great-grandson of the former, "he who sees all," a creature with a hundred eyes who was killed by Hermes while, on the orders of Hera, he watched over Io after she had been changed into a cow. 3. The builder of the ship Argo. (Note: the names Argus and Argos are often interchangeable.)
[10137]
Ariadne
Daughter of King Minos of Crete and Pasiphaδ, she was the sister of the Minotaur, the monster of the labyrinth that Theseus killed with her aid. She married Dionysus and, as his wife, was accepted on Mount Olympus. The golden diadem, made by Hephaestus, that the god gave to her, later became a constellation.
The Myth of Theseus and Ariadne
[10138]
Ascanius
Son of Aeneas and Creusa, he left the city of Troy, burned down by the Achaeans, with his father and grandfather. After his father's death he ruled over the Latins and founded Albalonga, the mother city of Rome. Called Ilus or Julus by some sources, he was recognized by the Roman world as the founder of the Julian people, to which Caesar belonged.
[10139]
Asclepius (or Asklepios)
Born to Apollo and Coronis, he was raised by the centaur Chiron, who taught him the art of medicine. He gained the power to work miraculous cures but when he became so skilled that he was able to raise the dead, Zeus struck him down with a thunderbolt as his work was upsetting the order of nature. At Apollo's request, he was transformed into the constellation of Serpens and was henceforth venerated as a god. His most famous sanctuary was at Epidaurus, the seat of a historical school of medicine. He was known to the Romans as Aesculapius.
[10140]
Asteria
Goddess of the stars, she was the sister of Leto and mother of the goddess Hecate. She changed herself into a quail to escape the lust of Zeus, but he was able to pursue her by assuming the form of an eagle. Asteria then threw herself into the sea and turned into a small island in the Cyclades that also took the name of Ortygia (from ortyx, a quail). Apollo, who was born on that island, changed its name to Delos.
[10141]
Athamas (or Athamus)
Son of Aeolus, god of the winds, he was the king of Orchomenus in Boeotia. On the orders of Hera, he had married Nephele, a divine creature who gave him two children, Phrixus and Helle, but he fell in love with the mortal Ino, one of the daughters of Cadmus and Harmonia, who bore him Learchus and Melicertes. The goddess Hera, who felt slighted, sent a terrible drought to Boeotia, and Ino took advantage of this to demand the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle. Nephele was able to arrange their escape to Colchis on the back of the ram with the golden fleece, and Hera, more enraged than ever, drove Athamas out of his mind and he killed Learchus. Ino, in desperation, threw herself into the sea with their other son Melicertes: both were turned into marine deities.
[10142]
Atlantis
The legendary name of a great island located to the west of the Pillars of Hercules. It was swallowed up by the ocean in the course of a day and a night owing to the wickedness of its inhabitants.
[10143]
Atlas
A Titan and the son of Iapetus and Clymene, he was the brother of Prometheus and Epimetheus. He was one of those who waged war against Zeus and, after their defeat, was condemned to support the vault of the heavens on his shoulders. Heracles took his place while he went to pick the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides and was nearly obliged to carry his burden forever. According to another version, Atlas' punishment had a different reason; when he refused to help Perseus, the latter showed him the head of Medusa and he was turned into Mount Atlas (in North Africa), on whose peak rested the sky and the stars.
Titanomachia
[10144]
Augeas
Son of the god Helios, he was king of Elis and owned stables that housed three thousand oxen and had not been cleaned for thirty years. By a clever stratagem, Heracles was able to clean them in a single day.
[10145]
Avernus
Name of a lake situated close to the promontory of Cumae, in Campania. It was, according to Roman tradition, one of the entrances to the Underworld, and the cave of the Cumaean Sibyl was located close by.
[10200]
Bacchantes
The retinue of women crowned with vine leaves who followed the chariot of Dionysus (Bacchus) during his wanderings in the East. Later, the name was used for the priestesses (also known as Bacchae) who celebrated rituals in his honor. They carried the thyrsus, a staff tipped with a pine cone and twined with ivy and vine leaves.
[10201]
Bacchus
Another name used by the Greeks for Dionysus and by which the god was known in the Roman world.
[10202]
Bebryces
Mythical people of Bithynia whose king, Amycus, was killed by Pollux in a wrestling match.
[10203]
Bellerophon
Corinthian hero and descendant of Sisyphus. He was given the task of killing the monster Chimera, which was one third lion, one third goat, and one third serpent. He succeeded with the help of the winged horse Pegasus, a gift from Poseidon, which he tamed with the bit that Athena had provided him.
[10204]
Bellona
The Latin equivalent of Enyo, the Greek goddess of war.
[10205]
Boreas
The name of the god of the north wind, son of the Titan Astraeus and Eos (the dawn, called Aurora by the Romans) and the brother of Zephyr (or Zephyrus), Eurus, and Notus. He abducted the Attic princess Oreithyia, who bore him several children including Calais and Zetes.
[10206]
Briareus
Also known by the name of Aegeon, he was the son of Uranus and Gaea, an enormous monster with fifty heads and a hundred arms. With his brothers Gyges and Cottus - the three of them were called the Hecatoncheires or Centimanes, both of which mean the "hundred-handed" - he helped Zeus in the war against the Titans and came to his aid when the Olympians, at Hera's instigation, attempted to overthrow him.
[10300]
Cabiri
Deities linked to the cult of the Great Mother, also known as Curetes and Corybantes. Their mysteries were celebrated at Samothrace, where Orpheus and Harmonia were initiated, among others. They were represented as primordial beings, but their names were sometimes used to refer to entire peoples.
[10301]
Cadmus
Son of the Phoenician king Agenor and Telephassa, he was the brother of Europa, the girl carried off by Zeus in the form of a bull. He founded the first nucleus of Thebes and married Harmonia, who bore him four unfortunate daughters, Autonoδ, Ino, Agave, and Semele. Toward the end of their lives Cadmus and Harmonia mysteriously disappeared from Thebes, leaving the throne to their grandson Pentheus. It was said that Cadmus brought the alphabet from Phoenicia to Greece.
The Myth of Cadmus
[10302]
Calais
A winged being, son of the wind god Boreas. He was, along with brother Zetes, one of the Argonauts.
[10303]
Callisto
Nymph of the woods. She was one of Artemis' companions, but was tricked into losing her virginity to Zeus. As a consequence, she was changed into a bear and, after her death, placed among the constellations.
The Myth of Callisto
[10304]
Calypso
A nymph and daughter of the Titan Atlas, she lived on the island of Ortygia. She kept the hero Ulysses with her for seven years but was then forced to let him go by the gods.
[10305]
Carthage
Phoenician city founded on the Mediterranean coast of Africa by Queen Dido, an exile from Tyre. Aeneas stayed there, as the guest and lover of Dido.
The Voyage of Aeneas: Carthage
[10306]
Cassandra
Daughter of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba, she was Helen's twin sister. She rejected the advances of Apollo, who had given her the gift of prophecy, and he punished her by preventing anyone from believing her predictions. Thus, when she denounced the horse left by the Achaeans outside the walls of Troy as a trap, her word went unheeded. After the city's destruction, she was taken back to Mycenae by Agamemnon as a slave. Here, before Agamemnon himself was killed by Aegisthus, Cassandra was murdered by Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra.
[10307]
Cassiopeia
Wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. Her claim to be more beautiful than the Nereids angered Poseidon, who demanded the sacrifice of her daughter Andromeda. She was then turned into a constellation.
[10308]
Castor
Son of Leda and King Tyndareus of Sparta. With his brother Pollux (the two of them were known as the Dioscuri) he took part in the expedition of the Argonauts. Since, unlike his brother, he was mortal, he persuaded Zeus to let him reside on Olympus on alternate days to Pollux.
[10309]
Celeno (or Coeleno)
One of the Harpies who soiled the table of Phineus at Salmydessos. Encountered by Aeneas on the Strophades Islands, she predicted that he would face difficulties and sorrows.
[10310]
Celeus
King of Eleusis, husband of Metaneira and father of Demopho÷n and Triptolemus. He was the first priest of the temple of Demeter in Eleusis.
[10311]
Centaurs
The race of the Centaurs was descended from Ixion. They were creatures with the body of a horse, with four legs, hooves, and a tail, and the trunk and head of a human being. They led a proud and wild life on Mount Pelion in Thessaly and had the reputation of being cruel and quarrelsome. They fought a famous battle with the Lapiths when, drunk on wine, they tried to abduct all the women at a wedding feast. The hero Theseus also played a part in the battle, driving the Centaurs as far as Mount Pindus, on the borders of Epirus.
[10312]
Centimanes
Also known as the Hecatoncheires, they were beings with fifty heads and a hundred arms. It is said that there were three of them: Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges. Sons of Uranus and Gaea, they belonged to the same generation as the Cyclopes and took Zeus' side in the war against the Titans.
[10313]
Cephalus
Son of Hermes and the Attic princess Herse, Aglauros' sister.
[10314]
Cepheus
King of Ethiopia, husband of Cassiopeia, and father of Andromeda. Like all the other protagonists of this myth, he was turned into a constellation.
[10315]
Cerberus
Son of Typhoeus and Echidna, he was the monstrous dog that guarded the entrance to Hades. He was generally described as having three heads and a serpent's tail. Hercules captured him with his bare hands and took him up to earth to show to Eurystheus before sending him back to Hades.
[10316]
Cercyon
Tyrant of Eleusis and son of Poseidon. An invincible wrestler, it was his custom to challenge all foreigners passing through his land and then put them to death. He was defeated and killed by Theseus.
[10317]
Ceres
Roman name for the Greek goddess Demeter.
[10318]
Charities
Called the Graces by the Romans, they were said, in different regions, to be the two (or three) daughters of Zeus and Eurynome, of Night and Erebus, or of Hecate and Hermes. Their names also changed according to the author and place, but the most commonly used are the ones given by Hesiod, Aglaia (Ornament), Euphrosyne (Joy), and Thalia (Abundance).
[10319]
Charon
The ferryman who took the shades of the dead across the rivers of the Underworld, for which service he was paid by an obolus carried by the dead.
[10320]
Chiron
The wisest and most just of the Centaurs, he was the son of Cronus who had conceived him with a daughter of Oceanus. He lived in a cave on Mount Pelion, in Thessaly, where he taught the art of hunting to Actaeon and many heroes including Jason, Peleus, Achilles, and Diomedes. He also taught Asclepius medicine. He had been given the gift of prophecy by Apollo and was also a virtuoso musician. Accidentally struck by a poisoned arrow shot by Heracles, he renounced his immortality in favor of Prometheus.
[10321]
Chrysaor
Son of Poseidon and Medusa, he was born, together with the horse Pegasus, from the blood of his mother when she was decapitated by Perseus.
[10322]
Cicones
Tribe in Thrace whose city was the first place visited by Ulysses after his departure from Troy. It was here that the priest Maron gave him the wine he later used to intoxicate Polyphemus. Orpheus lived among the Cicones and was torn to pieces by their women.
The Voyage of Ulysses: The Cicones
The Voyage of Ulysses: The Cyclopes
[10323]
Cinyras
Son of Paphos, he was king of Cyprus and founder of the city of Paphos. He had an incestuous relationship with his daughter Smyrna (Myrrha), who bore him Adonis.
[10324]
Circe
Daughter of the god Helios, she was the sister of King Aeδtes of Colchis. A powerful sorceress, she lived on the island of Aeaea where she changed any visitors into animals. Ulysses landed on the coast of the island, as did Jason and Medea, who was Circe's niece.
The Voyage of Ulysses: Circe
The Voyage of the Argonauts: Aeaea Circea
[10325]
Cithaeron
Chain of mountains separating Boeotia from Megaris and Attica, sacred to Dionysus and the Muses. It was on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron that Pentheus and Actaeon met their deaths. Zeus and Hera are said to have consummated their secret marriage there, although other traditions indicate the island of Samos or Mount Ida in Troas.
[10326]
Clytemnestra
Daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, she was the sister of Helen and of the Dioscuri, Castor and Pollux. She married Agamemnon, but while her husband was away fighting beneath the walls of Troy, became the lover of Aegisthus, perhaps to get her revenge for the sacrifice of her daughter, Iphigenia. On Agamemnon's return from the war, Clytemnestra killed him with the help of her lover, though not before putting to death Cassandra, her husband's slave, who might have put him on his guard with her prophetic arts.
[10327]
Colchis
A region of Asia, on the shores of the Euxine (Black) Sea. It was the theater for the exploits of the Argonauts.
[10328]
Corcyra
The island known today as Corfu and which is identified with the ancient Scherie. It took its name from a nymph loved by Poseidon. Phaeace, the son born from their union, was the ancestor of the Phaeacians.
[10329]
Corinth
The city founded by Sisyphus, set on the isthmus linking the Peloponnesus with the continent. It was here that Oedipus grew up and Jason and Medea found refuge when they were expelled from Iolcus. Here too the sorceress caused the death of Creusa out of jealousy.
[10330]
Coronis
Arcadian princess loved by Apollo, but who was unfaithful to him. The god was told of her infidelity by a white crow, his sacred bird, and decided to punish her by having her killed by the arrows of his sister Artemis. Drawing her last breath, Coronis begged the god to save the child she had conceived, and Apollo took his son Asclepius from her womb, handing him to the centaur Chiron to be raised. As for the crow, bearer of the bad news, Apollo changed his plumage from white to black.
[10331]
Creusa
1. Daughter of Priam and Hecuba, she married Aeneas and became the mother of Ascanius. She died during the sack of Troy, and her shade told her husband that the goal of his exile would be the Land of the Sunset. 2. Daughter of King Creon of Corinth and also known by the name of Glauce. Jason left Medea for her, and Medea avenged herself by giving her a robe that burst into fire and consumed her.
[10332]
Cronus (or Kronos)
The youngest of the Titans, called Saturn by the Romans. He was the son of Uranus and Gaea (the Sky and the Earth), husband of Rhea, and father of Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. He castrated and killed his father Uranus. Afraid that his children would become more powerful than him, he devoured them as soon as they were born, but Rhea managed to save the last, Zeus. She gave birth to him in secret on the island of Crete and then gave Cronus a stone wrapped in cloth to swallow. Once he was fully grown, Zeus forced his father to vomit up all the children he had swallowed and then seized power from him, putting down the revolt of the Titans, Cronus' brothers. The Titans were all cast into Tartarus but Cronus was given lordship over the Island of the Blessed.
[10333]
Curetes
There is no clear distinction between the Curetes and the Corybantes in the ancient literary sources. One tradition holds that they were the priests of the child Zeus on Crete who, with the noise of their singing and dancing, concealed the cries of the baby from Cronus. The myth claims between three and nine priests.
[10334]
Cyanean Rocks
Also known as the Symplegades, they were two rocky islands at the mouth of the Euxine Sea that clashed together, crushing any ship that attempted to pass.
[10335]
Cybele
Considered the "Great Mother" and regarded by mythographers as an incarnation of Rhea, the mother of Zeus and of Cronus' other children.
[10336]
Cyclopes
The race of the Cyclopes, gigantic and savage beings with only one eye, was descended from Uranus and Gaea. Cronus had confined them in Tartarus, but during the war with the Titans they were set free by Zeus, to whom they gave the thunderbolt. They worked as Hephaestus' assistants in his forges located beneath volcanoes, but because of their strength they were said to have built the powerful walls of Mycenae and Tiryns. One of them, Polyphemus, was the protagonist of one of Ulysses' most celebrated adventures.
[10337]
Cyllene
The highest mountain in the Peloponnesus, on the border between Arcadia and Achaea. The mountain was sacred to Hermes, who was born on its peak.
[10338]
Cyparissus
A descendant of Heracles, he was loved by Apollo. After killing his favorite stag while out hunting, he fell into a state of despair so deep that he was consumed by it. Apollo then turned him into a cypress.
[10339]
Cyrene
Nymph loved by Apollo. The god took her on a chariot drawn by swans from Mount Pelion to Libya, where she gave her name to the city of Cyrene.
[10340]
Cythera
A Greek island to the southeast of the furthermost tip of Laconia, celebrated for the cult of the goddess Aphrodite who was held to have emerged from the foam of the sea in the vicinity of its coast.
[10341]
Cyzicus
He reigned in Propontis over the people of the Dolyones, descendants of Poseidon. He was killed by mistake by Jason.[10400]
Daphne
Daughter of the river god Ladon (or the river god Peneius) and the Earth. To escape the attentions of Apollo she got her mother to change her into a laurel tree.
[10401]
Dardanus
Son of Zeus and Electra, he was the mythical ancestor of the Trojans and, through them, the Romans. He founded the city in Troas that took his name and the Dardanelles, the ancient Hellespont, are also named after him. According to the Italic tradition, Dardanus was the son of Corithus, the Etruscan prince of Cortona, who emigrated to Phrygia.
[10402]
Daedalus
An Athenian aristocrat and architect, he fled to Crete to escape a conviction and placed himself in the service of King Minos, for whom he built the labyrinth, a palace with a complicated maze of corridors in which the Minotaur was shut up. When Theseus found his way through the labyrinth with the help of Ariadne, Daedalus was accused of being his accomplice and imprisoned along with his son Icarus. He managed to escape from Crete with the aid of artificial wings held together by wax. Pursued relentlessly by Minos, he found refuge in Sicily, with King Cocalus of Camicus.
[10403]
Delos
One of the smallest islands in the Cyclades, it was summoned from the depths of the sea by Poseidon's trident and remained afloat until Leto gave birth to Artemis and Apollo on it. Before this, the island was known as Asteria or Ortygia.
[10404]
Delphi
Town in Phocis, on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, and the location since ancient times of one of the most famous and venerated sanctuaries in Greece, linked to the cult of Apollo. It contained the omphalos, the navel of the world, the stone that Cronus was supposed to have swallowed instead of the newborn Zeus. At Delphi, purifications were carried out, auspices were taken for the foundation of colonies, and the celebrated Pythian Games were held.
[10405]
Demopho÷n
Son of Celeus and Metaneira, the rulers of Eleusis, he was the subject of the maternal attentions of Demeter, who wished to make him immortal.
[10406]
Diana
Ancient Italic deity whom the Romans identified with the goddess Artemis.
[10407]
Dido
Daughter of King Belus of Tyre, she was forced by her brother to flee her native city, accompanied by a large group of nobles who remained loyal to her. Taking refuge in the territory occupied by the historical city of Carthage, she asked Iarbas, the king of that place, permission to found a new city. Scornfully, he granted her as much land as could be enclosed by an ox hide. Dido cut the hide into thin strips and made a long rope out of them. She used this to mark out a large area on which the city of Carthage, "new city," was built. The prosperity that it attained within a short period aroused the envy of Iarbas, who demanded the hand (and realm) of Dido, threatening to wage war on Carthage if he was rejected. Dido preferred to immolate herself on her funeral pyre in the presence of her entire people, who from then on worshipped her as a goddess. Virgil, in the Aeneid, took this tradition and turned it into the story of the love between Dido and Aeneas, even though over three centuries had passed between the fall of Troy and the foundation of Carthage.
[10408]
Diomedes
1. King of Thrace, son of Ares, and famous for his mares, which he fed on strangers who ventured into his land. The animals were captured by Heracles and then let loose on Mount Olympus. 2. Hero of Aetolia and king of Argos. He contributed eighty ships to the expedition against Troy and was, after Achilles, the most courageous of the Achaean warriors. Protected by Athena, he fought with Hector and Aeneas and on one occasion even wounded Aphrodite and Ares.
[10409]
Dione
Sometimes said to be the daughter of Uranus and Gaea, at others one of the Oceanids, she bore Tantalus Dione and Pelops. One tradition held her to be the mother of Aphrodite, fathered to her by Zeus.
[10410]
Dioscuri
The name given to the twins Castor and Pollux. It means "sons of Zeus."
[10411]
Dodona
Ancient seat of the oracle of Zeus located in Epirus. The oracle's responses were given through the rustling of branches in the nearby sacred grove of oaks and the flight of the doves that nested there.
[10412]
Dryops
King of Arcadia whose daughter was loved by Hermes and bore him Pan. Apollo also fell in love with her, approaching her in the form of a turtle.
[10500]
Echidna
A monstrous creature, half woman and half serpent, she was the daughter of Chrysaor, wife of Typhoeus, and mother of most of the monsters of classical mythology. These included the sleepless dragon that guarded the Golden Fleece, the dragon that watched over the golden apples of the Hesperides, Cerberus, Scylla, the Lernaean Hydra, the Nemean Lion, the dog Orthrus, and even the eagle that tormented Prometheus. She was killed in her sleep by Argus.
[10501]
Echo
Nymph of the woods and springs, she was deprived of the capacity of speech by Hera because, by arrangement with Zeus, she used to distract her with her chatter while her divine husband was paying court to other nymphs. She could only make sounds by repeating the words that she heard, but retained her body until she fell in love with Narcissus. The young man, wholly absorbed by his own beauty, spurned Echo's love and she was so consumed by her sorrow that nothing was left but her voice, the echo.
[10502]
Eleusis
City in Attica, to the northwest of Athens. It was a religious center of primary importance because of its temple dedicated to Demeter. Great festivities (Eleusinia) were held there, as well as the Eleusinian Mysteries that evoked the wanderings of the goddess on earth in search of her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades.
[10503]
Elysian Fields
The Happy Land of the Blessed which, according to Homer, was not really part of the kingdom of the dead as it was located to the west of the earth, close to the Ocean. In the Roman world, the Elysian Fields were a privileged area of Hades.
[10504]
Enceladus
Son of Tartarus (or Uranus) and Gaea, he was one of the giants who rebelled against Zeus. He was killed by Athena who crushed him beneath Mount Etna.
[10505]
Enyo
Female deity of war and companion of Ares, whose daughter or sister she was considered to be. In Rome, she was identified with Bellona.
[10506]
Epaphus
Son of Zeus and Io, he was born on the banks of the Nile after his mother's long wanderings.
[10507]
Epidaurus
Sanctuary of the god of medicine Asclepius, located in Argolis, in the Peloponnesus. Here, pilgrims lay under the porch (abaton) and waited to be visited during their sleep (or a state of trance) by Asclepius, who handled the diseased part of the body and gave indications about the treatment to be followed.
[10508]
Epimetheus
Belonging to the race of the Titans, he was the brother of Atlas and Prometheus, his exact opposite (Prometheus was he "who foresees," Epimetheus the one "who reflects after the event"). He accepted Zeus' insidious gift, Pandora, the source of all humanity's ills.
[10509]
Erichthonius
He was born from Hephaestus' desire for Athena. The god's seed, falling on the ground, inseminated Gaea who gave birth to Erichthonius. The child was hidden in a basket by Athena and given into the care of Aglauros, Pandrosos, and Herse, the daughters of King Cecrops of Athens. Despite Athena's orders to the contrary, the girls were unable to resist peeping into the basket and, terrified by the sight of Erichthonius, who appeared to them in the form of a serpent, were stricken by madness casting themselves from the top of the Acropolis. Tradition made Erichthonius protector of the Acropolis of Athens, King of Attica, and founder of the Panathenaea.
[10510]
Eridanus
River in the West sometimes identified with the Po or the Rh⌠ne. It was in its waters that Phaδthon fell when he tried to drive the chariot of his father Helios.
[10511]
Erinyes (or Erinnyes)
Also known as the Eumenides, they were the goddesses of vengeance, the righters of human wrongs. Some considered them daughters of Hades and Persephone, but the majority of the sources state that they were born from the drops of blood shed on the Earth when Uranus was mutilated. Three of them were usually named, Alecto, Megara, and Tisiphone, and they were represented as female winged creatures with serpents winding through their hair and drops of blood trickling from their eyes. The Romans called them the Furies.
[10512]
Eris
Goddess of discord, it was she who threw the golden apple into the midst of the gods at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, leading to the judgment of Paris and the consequences that ensued.
[10513]
Eros
God of love whose mother was Aphrodite and father, according to different versions, Zeus, Ares, or Hermes. He was represented as a capricious youth who, with his arrows that had different powers, controlled love among human beings and gods. The Romans called him Cupid. His counterpart was Anteros (Love Opposed).
[10514]
Erymanthus
Mountain in the Peloponnesus, on the frontier between Arcadia and Elis. The boar killed by Heracles lived in the woods on its slopes.
[10515]
Etna
The volcano considered to be one of the forges of the god Hephaestus, where the Cyclopes fashioned the thunderbolts of Zeus.
[10516]
Europa
Daughter of King Agenor of Phoenicia and sister of Cadmus. Zeus was struck by her beauty and, in order to approach her, assumed the shape of a bull and mingled with the herd that the girl was tending on the seashore. Europa climbed on his back and was carried over the waves to the island of Crete. Here, she bore Zeus three sons, Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon.
[10517]
Eurota
River in the Peloponnesus that flows not far from Sparta. It was on its banks that Zeus united with Leda in the form of a swan and that the youth Hyacinth, loved by Apollo, met his death.
[10518]
Eurydice
The wife that Orpheus tried to bring back from the world of the dead.
[10519]
Eurynome
Daughter of Oceanus and mother of the Charites. Together with her sister, Thetis, she rescued and raised Hephaestus after he had been hurled from Olympus by his mother, Hera.
[10520]
Eurystheus
Grandson of Perseus. His birth was hastened by Hera to prevent Heracles, the son of his cousin Alcmene, from gaining the primogeniture. He ruled over Tiryns, Argos, and Mycenae. It was he who, on Hera's instructions, imposed on Heracles the "labors" that were to earn him glory. He died in battle against the Athenians and his head was brought to Alcmene, who tore out his eyes. Other traditions hold that he was killed by the shade of Iolaus, Heracles' nephew and friend.
[10600]
Fate
The Destiny that not even the gods could evade.
[10700]
Gaea (or Ge)
Personification of the earth, the first being to emerge out of the primordial chaos. She was the sister and wife of Uranus, to whom she bore the Titans. Uranus, who hated and feared his children, concealed them in the depths of the earth (of Gaea) as soon as they were born. Angered by this, Gaea extracted iron from her own bowels and fashioned a sickle. She gave this weapon to Cronus, the last of her children to be born, who used it to emasculate his father and seized power. From the drops of Uranus' blood that fell on the earth were born the Erinyes and Giants; according to one tradition, the drops that fell in the sea created Aphrodite.
[10701]
Ganymede
Young hero from the royal house of Troas, perhaps the son (or grandson) of Laomedon. His extraordinary beauty made a great impression on Zeus who had him carried off by an eagle, a bird sacred to the god, and brought to Olympus, where he became cup bearer to the gods. To compensate Ganymede's father, Zeus presented him with the divine horses that caught the interest of Heracles.
[10702]
Geryon
Son of Chrysaor, he was a monster with three heads or, according to some traditions, three bodies fused together. He reigned over the Western lands and was the owner of the magnificent red oxen that were stolen by Heracles.
[10703]
Giants
Creatures of much larger size than human beings, born from the drops of Uranus' blood that fell to the earth when he was mutilated by his son Cronus. Thus, their mother was Gaea, and it was at her instigation that they attempted to storm Olympus and dethrone Zeus (Gigantomachia). After their defeat, many of them were buried beneath volcanoes.
[10704]
Gigantomachia
The great and primordial struggle between the Giants and the Olympians that took place on the peninsula of Pallene, in Thrace. Although they were of divine origin, the Giants were mortal or, at least, could be killed if struck simultaneously by a god and a mortal. For this reason, the presence of Heracles, who had not yet been accepted among the gods, was decisive. The Giants were vanquished one by one: Alcyoneus, for instance, who was invincible as long as he remained on his native soil, was killed by Athena and Heracles after the hero had carried him out of Pallene; Ephialtes was struck by an arrow from Apollo in the left eye and one from Heracles in the right; Porphyrion, who attacked Hera, was brought down by Zeus' thunderbolt and Heracles' arrows.
[10705]
Golden Fleece
This was the fleece of the ram born to Theophane and Poseidon, which was then given by Hermes to Nephele, wife of Athamas and mother of Phrixus and Helle. When the two children were to be sacrificed as a result of the intrigues of Ino, their mother arranged their escape riding on the back of the sacred animal. During the journey, Helle fell into the sea and died (at the Hellespont), but Phrixus reached Asia Minor, where he sacrificed the ram to Zeus. Its fleece, which brought wealth and power to anyone who possessed it, was given to King Aeδtes of Colchis and hung from an oak tree in the grove sacred to Ares, where it was guarded night and day by a dragon. It was to bring this treasure back to Greece that the expedition of Jason and the Argonauts was mounted.
[10706]
Gorgons
Three terrible female figures, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, daughters of the marine deities Phorcys and Ceto. They were represented with their heads covered with hissing serpents and with golden wings, bronze hands, and gigantic teeth. The only one of the three who was mortal, Medusa, was killed by Perseus.
[10707]
Graces
Latin name for the Charities.
[10708]
Graeae, the
Daughters of the marine divinities Phorcys and Ceto and sisters of the three Gorgons, they belonged to the race of pre-Olympian deities. Their names were Enyo, Pephredo, and Dino. They were born old and had only one tooth and one eye between then, which they used in turn. As only they knew how Medusa could be killed, Perseus forced them to reveal the secret which allowed him to cut off her head.
[10800]
Hades
The name refers not only to the god, but also to his home, the world of the dead that was also known as Tartarus. The place was said to be as far beneath the earth as the sky is above it. In his Theogony, Hesiod states that "an anvil, falling from the sky, would take nine days and nine nights to reach the earth on the tenth day; it would take the same anvil another nine days and nine nights to reach Tartarus from the earth."
[10801]
Halirrothius
Son of Poseidon, he raped Alcippe and was killed by her father, Ares. Ares was tried for murder by the tribunal of the gods and acquitted.
[10802]
Harmonia
Commonly held to be the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite, though some traditions have her parents as Electra and Zeus. She lived in Samothrace, and it was here that she met Cadmus when he was looking for his sister Europa, abducted by Zeus. The young couple married at Cadmea, the original nucleus of the city of Thebes founded by Cadmus, and all the gods were present at the solemn ceremony. Among the wedding gifts was a necklace, made by the jealous Hephaestus, which was to prove fatal to all those who possessed it. It was to prove so for Harmonia's four daughters, all of whom met a tragic fate: Semele, Agave, Ino, and Autonoδ. At the end of their lives, Harmonia and her husband left Thebes and went to Illyria, where they assumed the form of serpents.
[10803]
Harpies
Winged monsters, daughters of the primordial marine god Thaumas and the Oceanid Electra. They belonged to the pre-Olympian generation of gods and were represented as women with wings, or birds with a women's heads. The gods used them to inflict punishments on men and heroes whom they wanted to persecute for one reason or another. This was the case with Phineus, but on that occasion they were defeated by Calais and Zetes and forced to take refuge on the Strophades Islands. It was here that Aeneas encountered them.
[10804]
Hebe
Daughter of Zeus and Hera, she was the cup bearer to the gods and was herself the goddess of youth. When Heracles ascended to Olympus she became his wife.
[10805]
Hecate
Daughter of Perses and Asteria, she belonged to the race of the Titans and was the only one to retain her powers even under the reign of Zeus. She played a part in the search for the abducted Persephone and was her assistant and a friend of Hades. She became a deity of the Underworld, skilled in all kinds of magic. She was said to wander over the earth at night with the shades of the dead, halting at crossroads. Her approach was heralded by the barking of dogs.
[10806]
Hecatoncheires
Also known as the Centimanes, they were beings with fifty heads and a hundred arms. It is said that there were three of them: Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges. Sons of Uranus and Gaea, they belonged to the same generation as the Cyclopes and took Zeus' side in the war against the Titans.
[10807]
Hector
The greatest of the Trojan heroes, first born son of Priam and Hecuba and affectionate husband of Andromache. He caused the death of Patroclus and fought in single combat with Achilles, who wanted to avenge the death of his inseparable friend. He was killed in the fight and his mangled body was returned to his father Priam on the orders of Zeus. His shade advised Aeneas to flee from Troy with the Penates, his family, and the survivors of the massacre.
[10808]
Helen
Daughter of Zeus and Leda, sister of Clytemnestra and the Dioscuri, she was considered the most beautiful woman of the Greek world. While still very young she was carried off by Theseus, who took her to Attica and married her, but was brought back to Sparta by the Dioscuri. She then attracted the attention of many nobles, from whom she chose the obscure Menelaus. Subsequently, she was seduced by Paris, whom she followed to Troy, arousing the ire of her former suitors. This was the pretext for the ten-year Trojan War. On the death of Paris, she married her brother-in-law Deiphobus but, after the capture of the city, was reconciled with Menelaus. She went back to Sparta with him, where she bore Hermione and became a paragon of all the domestic virtues. The accounts of her death are divergent. One tradition holds that she was deified along with her husband Menelaus, another that she was banished from Sparta and sought refuge in Rhodes, but was hanged there. In the tales of the Mysteries, she married Achilles and lived with him forever on the island of Leuca, located at the mouth of the Danube.
[10809]
Helenus
Son of Priam and Hecuba and a member of the Trojan royal dynasty, he was endowed, like his twin sister Cassandra, with the gift of prophecy. During the Trojan War, he deserted and went over to the side of the Greeks, perhaps because, after the death of Paris, he was unable to obtain Helen, who married Deiphobus. After the city's fall he followed Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, who took Andromache with him as a spoil of war. When Pyrrhus died he received part of his kingdom and married Andromache. Aeneas met the couple in Epirus.
[10810]
Helios
The sun god, also known as Phoebus (though this was more properly the epithet of Apollo), he was son of the Titan Hyperion and the Titaness Theia and brother of Eos (the Dawn) and Selene (the Moon). In the morning Helios rose from the Ocean in the east, where his splendid palace was located, crossed the sky in a golden chariot (or bowl), and in the evening descended into the Ocean again to the west. He was the god who saw everything that happened on heaven and earth. He told Hephaestus of Aphrodite's adultery, informed Demeter of Persephone's abduction, and discovered the theft of his own oxen, killed in Trinacria (Sicily) by Ulysses' companions. He was the father of Aeδtes and Circe. Clymene bore him Phaδthon and his sisters the Heliads. Pasiphaδ, the wife of Minos, was also his daughter.
[10811]
Heracles
Called Hercules by the Romans, he was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon of Thebes. The day Heracles was due to be born, the jealous Hera flew to Argos to speed up the birth of Heracles' cousin Eurystheus, while she sent Ilithyia to delay Alcmene's delivery. Thus, Eurystheus was born first and became the head of the house of the Perseids to which both the newborn children belonged. The divine nature of Heracles (who was then known as Alcides or Alcaeus) was revealed straight-away when, still in swaddling clothes, he strangled two serpents that Hera had sent to attack him. He spent his childhood in Thebes and at the age of eighteen was sent by Amphitryon to herd the flocks of King Thespius on Helicon. As the king wished the hero to give him a grandson, he placed one of his fifty daughters in his bed each night and Heracles united with all of them, believing them to be the same girl (another tradition holds that he lay with them all in a single night!). The fifty children born as a result were called the Thespiads. He also begot several children with his wife Megara, daughter of King Creon of Thebes, but, struck with madness by Hera, killed them. He then went to Delphi to purify himself and was told by the Pythia to place himself in the service of Eurystheus at Tiryns for twelve years. It was the Pythia who gave him the name of Heracles, or "he who receives glory from Hera." And, in fact, glory did come to him from the famous twelve labors, imposed on him by Eurystheus but at the behest of Hera. His subsequent exploits saw Heracles struggling with Apollo for possession of the tripod at Delphi; the slave of Queen Omphale of Lydia, who forced him to wear women's clothes; a sailor on the ship Argos during the expedition in search of the Golden Fleece; and a leading combatant in the Gigantomachia. As well as Megara, whom he gave up to his friend and nephew Iolaus after the murder of their children (though it is also said that she was killed along with them), he was married to Deianeira, who was the cause of his earthly death. While, again in exile, Heracles was wandering with his new bride, he killed the centaur Nessus, who tried to rape her, with a poisoned arrow. Nessus, as he died, told Deianeira to collect his blood as it would preserve her husband's love forever. Later on, when Heracles fell in love with Princess Iole of Euboea, Deianeira soaked her husband's tunic in the centaur's blood and the poison of the arrow, still present in the blood, caused him atrocious suffering. At the sight of this, Deianeira killed herself. Heracles, racked with pain, also sought relief in death. He lay down on a stack of wood and ordered it to be set alight, but as soon as the flames began to lap his body, he was transported to Olympus where he was endowed with immortality, reconciled with Hera, and married to her daughter, Hebe.
[10812]
Hercules
Roman name for Heracles.
[10813]
Hermaphroditus
He was, as his name suggests, a son of Hermes and Aphrodite. A youth of extraordinary beauty, he fell in love with the nymph of the spring Salmacis, near Halicarnassus. One day, when the young man was bathing naked in the spring, the nymph threw her arms around him and prayed to the gods that they might remain united forever. Her desire was granted and their two bodies were fused into one, though it retained the characteristics of both.
[10814]
Hermione
The beautiful daughter of Helen and Menelaus, whose hand was given to Achilles' son Pyrrhus (Neoptolemus).
[10815]
Herse
Daughter of King Cecrops of Athens and sister of Aglauros, with whom she was given custody of the basket in which Athena had concealed Erichthonius. She was loved by Hermes.
[10816]
Hesione
Daughter of Laomedon, King of Troy. She was offered as a sacrifice to the monster sent to Troas by Poseidon to punish her father, who had refused to pay him for the construction of the walls of Troy. She was saved by Heracles.
[10817]
Hesperides
The custodians of the golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. They were three (or four) daughters of Atlas, also known as the odians of the golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. They were three (or four) daughters of Atlas, also known as the "daughters of the Sunset" because their odians of the golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. They were three (or four) daughters of Atlas, also known as the "daughters of the Sunset" because their land was located in the far west. Later on, odians of the golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. They were three (or four) daughters of Atlas, also known as the "daughters of the Sunset" because their land was located in the far west. Later on, they were said to live on Mount Atlas or in odians of the golden apples that Gaea gave to Hera on the occasion of her marriage to Zeus. They were three (or four) daughters of Atlas, also known as the "daughters of the Sunset" because their land was located in the far west. Later on, they were said to live on Mount Atlas or in various other locations in North Africa.
[10818]
Hestia
The first child born to Cronus and Rhea, she was swallowed and then vomited up by her father as were her brothers (Hades and Poseidon) and sisters (Hera and Demeter) when they were liberated by Zeus. She was one of the great deities of Olympus, which she never left, unlike the other gods who used to come and go in the world. She rejected the love of Apollo and Poseidon and was granted permission by Zeus to remain a virgin forever. She was the patron of the domestic hearth and her sacred fire burned in all temples. The Romans called her Vesta.
[10819]
Hippolyta
Daughter of Ares and queen of the Amazons. She was killed by Heracles, who had been ordered to bring back her girdle.
[10820]
Horae
Daughters of Zeus and Themis and sisters of the Moerae. There were three of them, Eunomia (Law), Dike (Justice), and Irene (Peace), and they presided over the order of nature.
[10821]
Hyacinth
Handsome young Spartan loved by Apollo and Zephyr. When he was killed, a new flower was born from his blood. Its petals bear marks reminiscent of both Apollo's cry of lamentation (AI) and the initial of the young man's name (Y, for Yakinthos).
[10822]
Hyades
The nymphs of Nysa who raised Dionysus and were changed by Zeus into a constellation.
[10823]
Hylas
A very handsome youth loved by Heracles and captured by the Naiads.
[10824]
Hyperboreans
A fabulous people believed to live in a state of perfect happiness in an unknown land where the sun never set. According to other traditions, the garden of the Hesperides, where the golden apples were kept, was located in their country.
[10825]
Hypsipyle
Queen of Lemnos who ruled over a people made up solely of women. During the Argonauts' stay on her island, she fell in love with Jason and offered him her throne.
[10900]
Iarbas
King of the Getulians, born to Zeus and the nymph Libya. He granted Dido the land on which she built the city of Carthage and was a suitor for her hand.
[10901]
Iasion
Son of Zeus and Electra, who was one of the Pleiades, he was loved by Demeter who lay with him on the island of Crete, in a field that had been plowed three times. The son born to them was Plutus, "Wealth."
[10902]
Icarus
Son of the architect Daedalus and Neucrate, one of Minos's slaves, he attempted to flee from Crete with the wings constructed by his father. He fell into the sea near Samos, and ever since the place has been known as the Icarian Sea.
[10903]
Ida
1. Chain of mountains in Troas, in Asia Minor, where Paris made his judgment, Anchises met Aphrodite, and Ganymede was carried off by Zeus. One tradition holds that the secret marriage between Zeus and Hera was celebrated there. 2. Mountain on the island of Crete where Zeus was born and then raised by the goat, Amalthea.
[10904]
Idas
He was Apollo's rival in love for Marpessa. He took her from the god, using a winged chariot given to him by Poseidon and, since Apollo had no intention of renouncing her, Zeus allowed Marpessa herself to decide which of them she wanted. The girl chose Idas as she feared that Apollo would abandon her when she began to grow old.
[10905]
Ilithyia
Daughter of Zeus and Hera, and therefore sister of Hebe, Ares, and Hephaestus, she presided over childbirth. A faithful servant of her mother, she was also the instrument of her hatred. She was not permitted to assist Leto until nine days after the beginning of her labor pains. In the same way, the delivery of Alcmene, hated by Hera, was delayed to ensure the primogeniture of Eurystheus.
[10906]
Ilium
The name given by the Greeks to the city of Troy.
[10907]
Infernal Regions
The term used in Roman mythology to refer to the world of the dead, otherwise known as Hades, Tartarus, or the Underworld.
[10908]
Ino
Daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, she was the sister of Semele, Agave, and Autonoδ and the mother of Actaeon. She was the second wife of Athamas, who abandoned Nephele for her, and bore him Learchus and Melicertes. When Hera sent down a terrible drought on the fields of Boeotia, Ino bribed the ambassadors her husband had sent to consult the oracle at Delphi to bring back a false response, claiming that the god demanded the sacrifice of Phrixus and Helle, Athamas' sons by his first wife Nephele. The two children escaped from Greece riding on the back of the ram with the golden fleece. Athamas and Ino were driven mad by Hera. Athamas killed Learchus and Ino threw herself into the sea with Melicertes. But the mother and child were changed into marine divinities called Leucothea and Palaemon.
[10909]
Io
Daughter of Inachus, the first king of Argos, she was loved by Zeus and turned by him into a cow.
[10910]
Iolaus
The son of Iphicles, who was Heracles' half-brother, he accompanied his uncle on some of his exploits and married his wife, Megara, when Heracles left her for Deianeira. One tradition holds that after his death he was allowed to return among the living to kill Heracles' persecutor, Eurystheus. His mission accomplished, he went back to the kingdom of the dead.
[10911]
Iolcus
The present-day Volos, in Thessaly, from where the Argonauts set out on their quest for the Golden Fleece.
[10912]
Iphigenia
Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Since Agamemnon had killed a hind sacred to Artemis, the goddess prevented the departure of the Achaeans for Troy, demanding the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Agamemnon had his daughter sent to Aulis, where the fleet was blocked, but the sacrifice did not take place because, at the last moment, Artemis put a hind in the girl's place on the altar.
[10913]
Iris
Personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. She was sent by Hera to stir up the revolt of the Trojan women who burned Aeneas' fleet in Sicily.
[10914]
Isis
One of the main Egyptian deities, wife of Osiris and mother of Horus. The Greeks identified her with Io.
[10915]
Istrus
The river now called the Danube that the Argonauts ascended to escape the ships of Colchis after the conquest of the Golden Fleece.
[10916]
Ithaca
Small Greek island in the Ionian Sea, off the coast of Epirus. It was ruled by Ulysses, who returned there after a ten-year voyage following the destruction of Troy.
[10917]
Ixion
King of the Lapiths and son of Phlegyas. He was condemned to eternal torment by Zeus for having tried to rape Hera.
[11000]
Jason
Son of Aeson, the king of Iolcus in Thessaly, whose throne had been usurped by his half-brother Pelias. Jason was given to the care of the centaur Chiron and, when he was grown, returned to claim the kingdom that had been his father's. Pelias agreed to hand it over to him on the condition that he brought the Golden Fleece to Iolcus. This was now in the possession of King Aeδtes of Colchis and guarded by a dragon that never slept. Jason undertook his famous expedition on the Argo, taking with him the flower of Hellenic youth and returning with the Golden Fleece and his bride Medea. In the meantime, Pelias had killed Aeson, and Jason used the magic arts of his wife to avenge him. Forced to leave Iolcus, the couple settled in Corinth where, ten years later, Jason abandoned Medea for Creusa, daughter of Creon, king of the city. There are differing accounts of the hero's end: some sources claim that he died of a broken heart after Medea killed his children out of revenge, others that he was crushed beneath the hull of the Argo, where he was resting in the shade after he had regained Iolcus.
[11001]
Jocasta
Wife of King Laius of Thebes, to whom she bore Oedipus. Later, without recognizing her son and without him recognizing her, she married Oedipus and bore him several children. When she discovered the truth, she hanged herself in the palace of Thebes.
[11002]
Juno
Roman counterpart of the goddess Hera.
[11003]
Jupiter (or Jove)
Roman name for Zeus.
[11100]
Kore
"The Maiden," an epithet by which Persephone was known, especially in Attica.
[11200]
Lacinium
Name of a famous promontory to the south of Croton in Italy that was visited by Aeneas during his voyage from Troy to the mouth of the Tiber.
[11201]
Ladon
1. Name of the monster sent to guard the golden apples of the Hesperides and killed by Heracles. 2. River in Arcadia in whose waters Demeter purified herself after being possessed by Poseidon.
[11202]
Laestrygonians (or Lestrigons)
A savage race of cannibals encountered by Ulysses during his wanderings in the Mediterranean.
[11203]
Laius
King of Thebes, he was the son of Labdacus and the great grandson of Cadmus. He abducted Pelops's son, with whom he had fallen in love, earning the enmity and curse of the goddess Hera, who hated all those who spurned women. It may have been for this reason that he was fated to die at the hands of his son Oedipus.
[11204]
Laoco÷n
Trojan priest of Apollo. He tried in vain to dissuade the Trojans from bringing within the walls of Troy the famous wooden horse that the Greeks, pretending to leave the city, had left on the beach. In order for the city to meet its destiny, however, two terrible serpents emerged from the sea while he was sacrificing to Poseidon and crushed him and two of his sons in their coils.
[11205]
Laomedon
King of Troy for whom Poseidon erected the walls of the city. Since he refused to pay the god his due, he was forced to offer his daughter in sacrifice to a sea monster. Heracles offered to save her in exchange for the horses of Zeus but, as Laomedon once again failed to keep his word, Heracles killed all his sons with the exception of Priam and vowed to wage war on the city.
[11206]
Leda
Wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta. She was loved by Zeus who united with her in the form of a swan.
[11207]
Lemnos
One of the largest islands in the Aegean, sacred to the god Hephaestus who fell there after he had been flung from Olympus by his father Zeus. His main workshop was supposed to be located there. The Argonauts made a long stay on the island.
[11208]
Lerna
Plain in Argolis, close to the city of Argos. It was famous for the Hydra killed by Heracles.
[11209]
Leto
Called Latona by the Romans, she was the Titaness who bore Apollo and Artemis to Zeus. The goddess Hera began to torment her even before she had given birth, forbidding any land to receive her at the moment of delivery. Wandering from place to place, Leto came at last to Delos, which at that time was a floating island called Ortygia that Poseidon had raised from the depths of the sea for the occasion, and there gave birth to the divine twins. Zeus' wife did not renounce her vengeance and sent the giant Tityus to rape her, but he was killed by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis. Tired of so much persecution, Leto was unable to bear the scorn and pride of Niobe and asked her children to avenge her.
[11210]
Lotus Eaters (or Lotophagi)
People who ate the fruit of the lotus tree and lived a life of idleness, and who were visited by Ulysses on his wanderings.
[11300]
Maenads
Another name for the Bacchantes or Bacchae.
[11301]
Maia
Daughter of Atlas, she was the oldest and fairest of the Pleiades. She bore Zeus his son Hermes in a cave on Mount Cyllene.
[11302]
Manto
Daughter of the soothsayer Tiresias and herself a prophetess. She sent the women of Thebes to honor Leto, provoking the scornful pride of Niobe.
[11303]
Marpessa
Princess of Aetolia, her love was sought by both the god Apollo and the mortal Idas. Marpessa chose Idas because she feared that Apollo would abandon her when she grew old.
[11304]
Mars
Ancient Roman divinity who was later identified with Ares.
[11305]
Marsyas
Satyr of Phrygia, defeated by Apollo in a musical contest.
[11306]
Medea
Daughter of King Aeδtes of Colchis, sister of Absyrtus, and niece of the sorceress Circe. She helped Jason overcome the trials which allowed him to win the Golden Fleece. They married at Drepane and she followed him to Iolcus. On the pretext of restoring his vigor and youth, she convinced the daughters of the usurper Pelias to cut their father's body into pieces and cook it, and for this was forced to flee to Corinth with her husband. Here, Jason left her for Creusa, to whom Medea gave a robe that burst into flames as soon as she put it on. To render her vengeance even more pitiless, she killed the two children she had born to Jason. She then fled to Athens on a chariot drawn by winged serpents and became the wife of King Aegeus. She was unmasked by Theseus and went back to Colchis, where she ruled her father's kingdom.
[11307]
Medusa
One of the Gorgons, the only mortal of the three, and daughter of the marine divinities Phorcys and Ceto. She was originally a beautiful girl, but her hair was changed into serpents by Athena, who wanted to punish her for having given herself to Poseidon in one of the temples dedicated to the goddess. Her appearance became so terrifying that anyone who looked her in the face was turned to stone. For this reason, Perseus, when he cut off her head, used a bronze shield in which the monster's image was reflected. Even when severed, Medusa's head retained its terrible powers so that Perseus was able to use it to vanquish Phineus when he tried to prevent him from marrying Andromeda. Atlas, according to some versions, met with the same fate. After a series of adventures, Athena placed the Gorgon's head at the center of her own shield.
[11308]
Melissa
Nymph said to have discovered honey, which she used to nurse the child Zeus when he was being raised on Crete by the goat Amalthea.
[11309]
Menelaus
Son of Atreus, King of Mycenae, and brother of Agamemnon. When he married Helen he was given the throne of Sparta by Tyndareus. It is his wife, abducted by Paris and the cause of the Trojan War, that earned him his fame. He fought with Paris and would have dealt him a mortal blow if Aphrodite had not carried him away wrapped in a cloud, and killed Deiphobus, the man Helen married after the death of Paris. After the city's fall he was reconciled with his wife and was the first to leave the shores of Troy with his ships. He reached his home only after eight years of wandering, but, from that moment on, led a tranquil existence in Sparta. There are several different accounts of his death, as of Helen's; according to some he was taken to the Elysian Fields, and to others to Tauris where he had attempted to sacrifice Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis.
[11310]
Mercury
The Roman deity identified with Hermes.
[11311]
Merope
Princess of Chios. She was raped by Orion, who was then blinded by her father Oenopion with the aid of Dionysus.
[11312]
Metaneira
Wife of Celeus, King of Eleusis. She took in Demeter while she was wandering the earth in search of her daughter Persephone, abducted by Hades. She was the mother of Demopho÷n and Triptolemus.
[11313]
Metis
Daughter of Oceanus and personification of Wisdom. It was she who gave Zeus the drug that made Cronus vomit her children and was his first wife. She conceived Athena, but since an oracle had predicted that the child born to her would be wiser and more powerful than its father, Zeus swallowed Metis so that her daughter would not come into the world from her womb. In fact, Athena emerged from Zeus' head, fully armed and uttering a battle cry.
[11314]
Midas
King of Phrygia who received the dangerous gift of the "golden touch" from Dionysus.
[11315]
Minerva
Roman counterpart of the Greek goddess Athena.
[11316]
Minos
Son of Zeus and Europa, he was King of Crete and, after his death, became judge of the dead in the Underworld. When Poseidon, out of benevolence, sent a beautiful bull to Crete to be sacrificed to him, Minos kept it for himself, offering the god an animal of lesser value. Poseidon took his revenge by driving the bull wild. It devastated the island until it was captured by Heracles. This was the same bull for which Minos' wife Pasiphaδ conceived an unnatural passion. The Minotaur was born from their union. Since one of Minos' children, Androgeus, had been killed in Athens during the Panathenaea, Minos demanded that the city send a tribute every nine years, consisting of seven young women and seven young men who were to take part in contests with bulls before being sacrificed to the Minotaur. One of them was Theseus, who killed the monster and carried off Princess Ariadne.
[11317]
Minotaur
A monstrous creature, half man and half bull, born from the union of Pasiphaδ, the wife of King Minos of Crete, with a bull sent to the island by Poseidon. It lived in the labyrinth of the palace where, with the assistance of Ariadne, it was tracked down and killed by the hero Theseus.
[11318]
Misenus
Companion of Aeneas and trumpeter of the Trojan expedition, he was dragged from a rock by Triton, jealous of the skill with which the young man blew a conch. He was buried in Campania, on a promontory that took his name.
[11319]
Mnemosyne
Daughter of Gaea and Uranus, she was considered the goddess of memory. She bore Zeus nine daughters, the Muses.
[11320]
Moerae (or Moirai)
Daughters of Night, or of Zeus and Themis, they were the three goddesses, or Fates, who watched over the destiny of human beings and numbered the days of their lives. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis untangled it, and Atropos cut it at the moment of death. Not even Zeus could influence their decisions. The Romans called them the Parcae.
[11321]
Muses
The nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne who presided over the arts and sciences. For this reason, they were linked to Apollo and resided on Mount Parnassus, not far from the sanctuary of Delphi. Clio was the muse of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Thalia of comedy, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of dance, Erato of heroic poetry and mime, Polyhymnia of sacred song and oratory, Urania of astronomy, and Calliope of epic poetry and eloquence.
[11322]
Mycenae
City in Argolis, to the northwest of Argos, which reached the peak of its power during the reign of Agamemnon. Its walls were said to have been built by the Cyclopes.
[11323]
Myrrha
Another name for Smyrna, the daughter of King Cinyras to whom she bore Adonis. She was turned into the myrtle tree from which myrrh is produced.
[11400]
Naiads
Nymphs of springs, rivers, lakes, fountains, and waterfalls. They carried off and kept Hylas, the young man loved by Heracles.
[11401]
Nauplius
Son of Poseidon and King of Euboea. To avenge himself for the death of his son, killed beneath the walls of Troy, he waited for the return of the Greek fleet and caused it to founder by lighting fires along a piece of coast traversed by dangerous currents and strewn with rocks.
[11402]
Nausicaa
Daughter of King Alcinous and Queen Arete of the Phaeacians, she was the first person to meet Ulysses when he was washed up on the shore of Corcyra and took him to her father's court.
[11403]
Naxos
Island in the Aegean Sea, the largest of the Cyclades, linked to the story of Dionysus and Ariadne.
[11404]
Nemea
Valley on the northern borders of Argolis where Heracles killed the ferocious lion. The Nemean festivals, similar to the Olympic Games, were held there every two years.
[11405]
Nemesis
Daughter of Night and considered, in some traditions, to be the mother of Helen. To escape the attentions of Zeus, Nemesis assumed various forms until, having taken the shape of a marsh bird, she was overtaken by Zeus in the form of a swan. She also personified "Divine Vengeance" and as such was linked with the Erinyes.
[11406]
Nereids
The fifty daughters of the god Nereus, sea nymphs of the Mediterranean as distinct from the Naiads, who were nymphs of fresh waters, and the Oceanids, nymphs of the Ocean. The most famous of the Nereids was Thetis, the mother of Achilles. Offended by Cassiopeia, the Nereids were avenged by Poseidon, who demanded the sacrifice of Andromeda.
[11407]
Nereus
The "Old Man of the Sea," son of Gaea and Pontus, he was a male personification of the sea. His sister and wife Doris bore him fifty daughters, the Nereids. Like other marine divinities, he had the power to see into the future and to take on different forms.
[11408]
Niobe
Daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, King of Thebes. She was the mother of numerous children and consequently considered herself superior to Leto, who had only borne two children. She was severely punished for her pride and then turned to stone.
[11409]
Notus
The south wind, son of the Titan Astraeus and Eos (the Dawn).
[11410]
Nymphs
Secondary female divinities of classical mythology who populated every part of the natural world and were divided into various classes. The Oceanids and Nereids were sea nymphs. The Naiads were nymphs of fresh water and the Oreads nymphs of the mountains. The nymphs of trees were called Dryads and Hamadryads. There were other sorts of nymphs associated with specific places, such as the Nysiads and the Lemniae.
[11500]
Oceanids
The nymphs who were daughters of Oceanus. They had power over marine waters, with the exception of the Mediterranean which was presided over by the Nereids.
[11501]
Oceanus (or Ocean)
Deity and personification of the endlessly flowing river of water that surrounded the earth, which was conceived as a circular flat surface. The sun and stars rose from the Ocean and set in it. As geographical knowledge progressed the term was used to refer to the waters that bordered the known world, as opposed to those of the Mediterranean.
[11502]
Odysseus
"The Hated," Greek name of Ulysses.
[11503]
Oedipus
The son of King Laius of Thebes and Queen Jocasta, he is the hero of numerous legends that have become mixed up and superimposed. At the base of them all, however, lies the story of his having murdered his father and married his mother. The most famous account of his tragic fate is to be found in Sophocles's Oedipus Rex.
[11504]
Ogygia
The island of the nymph Calypso who rescued the shipwrecked Ulysses. The authors locate it in the Western Mediterranean, perhaps at what is now the peninsula of Ceuta.
[11505]
Olympia
Plain in Elis watered by the river Alpheus where an oracle of the gods Zeus and Cronus was venerated. Hera had an important temple there as well. There was never a real city of this name, but its universal fame derives from the group of sacred buildings linked to the celebration of the pan-Hellenic Olympic Games every four years from 776 BC onward.
[11506]
Olympians
The twelve major deities of Mount Olympus, all linked to the stock of Zeus. They were: Zeus himself, Poseidon, Apollo, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and Artemis.
[11507]
Olympus
Mountain chain separating Macedonia from Thessaly: more specifically the eastern part, whose tallest and eternally snow-covered peak was considered the residence of the divine race of Zeus.
[11508]
Orion
Gigantic and mythical hunter of Boeotia, killed by an arrow from Artemis even though she loved him. He became a constellation.
[11509]
Orpheus
Considered the son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope, an unsurpassable poet and singer. Apollo made him the gift of the lyre and the Muses taught him to play it. He lived in Thrace at the time of the Argonauts and accompanied them on their expedition. He descended into Hades to seek his wife Eurydice and through his art managed to bring her back to the world of the living. His impatience ruined everything in the end. His desperation over the definitive loss of Eurydice made him adopt a contemptuous and offensive attitude toward the women of Thrace who, in the end, exasperated and caught up in the Bacchic frenzy, tore him to pieces.
[11510]
Orthrus
The two headed dog of Geryon, killed by Heracles.
[11511]
Ortygia
1. The old name of the island of Delos on which Apollo and Artemis were born. Its name derived from ortyx, or quail, because it was said that the goddess Asteria (another name for the place) changed into a quail to escape the lust of Zeus before falling into the sea and turning into an island. 2. Small island off Syracuse on which rises the spring that Arethusa became in order to escape the love of the river god Alpheus.
[11512]
Othrys
Mountain in Thessaly from which the Titans challenged the Olympians during the Titanomachia.
[11600]
Palinurus
Pilot of Aeneas' ship who fell into the water off the Campanian promontory that took his name.
[11601]
Palladium
The effigy of Athena kept in Troy. Its name may derive from Pallas, Athena's playmate whom she killed by mistake.
[11602]
Pallas
1. Daughter of Triton and Athena's playmate. One day, while the two girls were pretending to fight a duel, she was accidentally killed by the goddess who, in despair at her loss, reproduced her features in the Palladium. 2. One of the Titans, whom Athena flayed, using his skin as a covering.
[11603]
Pan
Greek pastoral deity, son of Hermes and the daughter of King Dryops (or Penelope, in another version). The god of pastures, flocks, herds, and wild beasts, he was considered the inventor of the syrinx, or panpipe, which he used to accompany the dances of the nymphs. Half man, half goat, he so frightened his mother at birth that she abandoned him. His sudden appearance caused panic in mortals. In Rome, he was identified with Faunus.
[11604]
Panathenaea
One of the main festivals in the Athenian sacred calendar. The Little Panathenaea were held every year and the Great Panathenaea every four years. The climax of the festival was the solemn procession that wound its way through the city and up to the Acropolis, where an embroidered peplos was offered to the statue of Athena. Games and gymnastic contests were held at the same time as the procession.
[11605]
Pandora
The first woman and the ancestor of the female of the human species, created by Hephaestus on the instructions of Zeus.
[11606]
Paris
Second-born son of King Priam of Troy and his wife Hecuba. Since it was predicted at his birth that he would be the cause of the city's destruction, he was exposed on the slopes of Mount Ida. But he was found by a shepherd who brought him up as his son. It was during this time that he acted as judge in the beauty contest between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera. Afterward, he was recognized by his father through his sister Cassandra's powers of divination and accepted at court. From there he went to Sparta to abduct Helen, the woman promised him by Aphrodite. The war that followed brought the old prophecy true, for Troy was burned and destroyed as a result of Helen's abduction. He was killed by Philoctetes, the shield bearer of Heracles who shot him with one of the hero's arrows soaked in the blood of the Lernaean Hydra.
[11607]
Parnassus
Chain of mountains running in a southeast direction through Doris and Phocis as far as the Gulf of Corinth. The mountain, on whose slopes stands the sanctuary of the oracle of Delphi, was sacred to Apollo and the Muses.
[11608]
Paphos
1. City on the western coast of the island of Cyprus, one of the main centers of the cult of Aphrodite who landed on the island immediately after her birth. 2. Son of Pygmalion and father of Cinyras.
[11609]
Pegasus
Winged horse born, along with Chrysaor, from the severed head of Medusa, killed by Perseus. Later he was captured by Bellerophon, to whom Athena gave the bit, previously unknown to the Greeks.
[11610]
Peleus
Son of Aeacus, the ruler of Aegina. After killing his half-brother, Peleus fled to Thessaly, but killed King Eurytion by accident. He then took refuge in Iolcus and joined the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. He married the Nereid Thetis, granted to him by Zeus because none of the gods would unite with her because of the prophecy that she would be the mother of a son whose power would be greater than his father's. That son, whom Thetis bore to Peleus, was Achilles.
[11611]
Pelias
Son of Poseidon, he was the half-brother of Aeson from whom he wrested the throne of Iolcus. When his nephew Jason turned up to claim his rights, Pelias sent him to Colchis to bring back the Golden Fleece. He was killed by his daughters, who were tricked by Medea into believing that they could restore his youth by cutting him into pieces and boiling him in a cauldron.
[11612]
Pelops
The son of Tantalus and brother of Niobe, he was served as a dish at the banquet held by his father for the gods. Restored to life by them, he emigrated to the Peloponnesus (to which he gave the name) where he established the first Olympic Games, later revived by Heracles in his honor.
[11613]
Penates
For the Romans, these were the household gods of the family and the state. They are sometimes referred to in Latin sources as the Lares.
[11614]
Peneius
River of Elis, in the Peloponnesus. Heracles used its waters and those of the Alpheus to clean the Augean Stables.
[11615]
Penelope
Originally from Sparta, she was Ulysses' wife and waited ten years for his return. Pestered by suitors, she was able to keep them at bay with the excuse that she wanted to finish weaving a shroud for her father-in-law, Laertes, before making her choice. The work was never-ending because Penelope, in the secret hope that her husband would one day return to Ithaca, at night unraveled everything that she had woven during the day.
[11616]
Pentheus
Son of Agave and Aechion, who was one of the Sparti born from the teeth of the dragon killed by Cadmus. As his mother was the sister of Semele, Pentheus was Dionysus' cousin, but opposed his cult. It was this that led to his tragic death.
[11617]
Persephone
Called Kore in Arcadia and Proserpina by the Romans, she was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. When she was abducted by Hades, her mother set out in a desperate search for her. Eventually she was allowed to return, though only for part of the year.
[11618]
Perseus
Hero of Argolis, the son of Zeus and Danaδ. His mother was visited by Zeus in the form of a shower of gold that poured through the roof of the underground chamber - or inaccessible tower - in which her father Acrisius had imprisoned her, after it was predicted that she would bear a son who would be the cause of his death. Acrisius got rid of mother and child by shutting them in a chest and throwing it in the open sea. The chest floated to the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by the tyrant Polydectes. It was he who sent Perseus to fetch the head of Medusa, the Gorgon who turned anyone whose gaze fell on her into stone. Perseus killed her by showing her her reflection in a polished bronze shield, given to him by Athena. On his way back from this adventure, he saved Andromeda from the vengeance of Poseidon and then returned to Argos. As the oracle had foretold, he accidentally killed his grandfather Acrisius and for this reason exchanged the kingdom of Argos for that of his cousin, who ruled over Tiryns. He was also said to have founded Mycenae.
[11619]
Phaeacians
The mythical people of the island of Scherie, identified with Corcyra (Corfu), ruled by King Alcinous and Queen Arete. They welcomed Ulysses on the last stage of his voyage, and the marriage of Jason and Medea was celebrated on their island.
[11620]
Phaδthon (or Phaeton)
Son of Helios and the Oceanid Clymene, he asked for permission to drive his father's chariot across the sky. Lacking in skill, and frightened by the terrible figures of the Zodiac, he lost control of the chariot and threatened to set fire to heaven and earth. Zeus was forced to bring him down with a thunderbolt and he fell into the river Eridanus.
[11621]
Phineus
1. King of Salmydessos in Thrace, he was deprived of his sight by the gods for having blinded his children following a false charge leveled against them by their stepmother, Idea. He became a famous soothsayer, but was persecuted by the Harpies for having revealed the thoughts of the gods to humans. He was freed from the monsters by the Argonauts. 2. Uncle and betrothed of Andromeda, turned into stone by the sight of the Medusa's head when it was shown to him by Theseus.
[11622]
Phlegyas
Son of Ares and father of Ixion and Coronis. To get his revenge on Apollo, who had seduced and killed his daughter, he set fire to the god's temple at Delphi.
[11623]
Phobos
Fright, god of fear, son of Ares and Aphrodite.
[11624]
Phoebus
Epithet of Apollo. The name (which means the "Brilliant") was also used for Helios.
[11625]
Pillars of Hercules
The pillars, called Calpe and Abyla, were set on the opposite shores of the Strait of Gibraltar by Heracles, and are usually referred to by the Latin version of his name, Hercules. They marked the westernmost edge of the world.
[11626]
Pleiades
Daughters of Atlas and sisters of the Hyades, they formed the retinue of Artemis. Pursued by the hunter Orion, they asked Zeus to be turned into doves. They then flew into the sky to form the constellation that bears their name.
[11627]
Pluto
1. Ninth daughter of Cronus (or Atlas) who bore Zeus' son, Tantalus. 2. An attribute of the god Hades ("he who gives wealth," perhaps in reference to the riches hidden in the earth), the name was then used by the Romans to refer to the king of the Infernal Regions.
[11628]
Plutus
Son of Iasion and Demeter, conceived on Crete in a thrice-plowed field. He was the god of wealth and abundance.
[11629]
Pollux
One of the Dioscuri, the brother of Castor whose adventures he shared. His sisters were Helen and Clytemnestra. He took part in the expedition of the Argonauts, distinguishing himself as an unbeatable wrestler.
[11630]
Polydorus
The youngest son of Priam. When Troy was about to fall, he was sent to the Thracians so that he might survive but was killed by them. His tomb was discovered accidentally by Aeneas, who paid him the honors due to him.
[11631]
Polyphemus
The Cyclops blinded by Ulysses. This earned him the hatred of Poseidon, Polyphemus' father, who used every means to hinder his return to his homeland. The Cyclops, now blind, was glimpsed by Aeneas during his voyage to Italy. He chose to avoid him and sail on.
[11632]
Porphyrion
One of the Giants who fought against the Olympians. Zeus confused him by inspiring him with a sudden passion for Hera, and then killed him with the aid of Heracles.
[11633]
Priam
The celebrated king of Troy who lived at the time of the Achaean siege. He was the son of Laomedon and brother of Hesione, and the only male left alive by Heracles when his father refused to pay the hero for his services. He had fifty daughters and fifty sons, born to his concubines and his wife Hecuba. Priam's sons included Hector, Paris, Helenus, and Deiphobus, his daughters Creusa and the prophetess Cassandra. When Troy fell, he was killed by Pyrrhus, the son of Achilles, on the altar of the temple of Apollo.
[11634]
Priapus
Son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. To punish his mother for her flirtatiousness, Hera gave Priapus a monstrous appearance, with the markedly phallic characteristics for which he is famous. He was considered a divinity of fertility.
[11635]
Proetus
King of Argos and father of Lysippe, Iphion, and Iphianissa who, as a consequence of their having treated the cult of Dionysus with contempt, were driven mad along with all the other women in the kingdom. Another tradition attributes their madness to Hera.
[11636]
Prometheus
Son of the Titan Iapetus and the nymph Clymene, brother of Atlas and Epimetheus, he was linked to the myth of the creation of humanity. He was continually in conflict with Zeus ever since the time when, sharing out the parts of a bull that had been sacrificed between the mortals and immortals, he had prepared two apparently identical bags out of the animal's hide, but with one containing only the bones covered by a layer of fat and the other the best pieces of meat, hidden so that they could not be seen. When he presented the bags to Zeus, the god fell into the trap and chose the less succulent part for the gods. Angered, he took his revenge on men by depriving them of fire, but Prometheus succeeded in smuggling it down to the earth. Men were punished yet again by means of Pandora. Prometheus himself was chained by Hephaestus to one of the peaks of Mount Caucasus, and each day an eagle came down to devour his liver, which grew back again during the night. After thirteen generations he was set free by Heracles, who killed the eagle.
[11637]
Pygmalion
King of Cyprus, he fell in love with an ivory statue of Aphrodite.
[11638]
Pylos
Name of three cities in the Peloponnesus, the most famous of which was Pylos of Messenia.
[11639]
Pyrrhus
Better known to the Greeks by the name of Neoptolemus, he was the son of Achilles and Deidamia, princess of the island of Skyros. After his father's death he was summoned to fight at Troy, where he distinguished himself by his heroism and bravery. He was one of the warriors hidden in the belly of the wooden horse brought inside the walls of the city and he killed King Priam. In the division of the spoils, he was assigned Hector's wife Andromache. He married her, but then left her for Hermione, the daughter of Helen and Menelaus. He died at the hands of Apollo, who had not forgiven him for killing Priam on the altar of his temple.
[11640]
Pythia
The name given to the priestesses of Apollo at Delphi. Intoxicated by the fumes that emerged from a cleft in the ground, the Pythia delivered the oracles of the god while seated on a bronze tripod.
[11641]
Python
Serpent that lived in the caves of Mount Parnassus, born from the mud there. It was slain by Apollo, who founded the Pythian Games in its memory.
[11800]
Rhea
Extremely ancient Greek goddess linked to the worship of the earth. She was considered the daughter of Uranus and Gaea and the wife of Cronus, to whom she bore the main deities of Olympus: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Since Cronus had the habit of swallowing all his children as soon as they were born out of fear that one of them would overthrow him, Rhea gave birth to the last in hiding, on Crete, and presented Cronus with a stone wrapped in cloth to swallow. When the time came, Zeus deposed his father and made him vomit up his brothers and sisters.
[11900]
Samos
Island in the Aegean linked to the cult of Hera, who had a large and ancient sanctuary there. It was here that the goddess celebrated her secret marriage with Zeus, although other traditions held that it took place on Mount Cithaeron or Mount Ida in Troas.
[11901]
Samothrace
Island in the northern Aegean Sea, not far from the coast of Thrace, celebrated for the cult of the Cabiri and for the mysteries that were, along with those of Eleusis, the most important of the Greek world.
[11902]
Satyr
Another name for the Sileni, creatures half man and half goat who were the attendants of Dionysus or Bacchus.
[11903]
Scylla and Charybdis
Two rocks set between the Italian peninsula and Sicily, facing onto the Strait of Messina, famous since ancient times for the danger that they represented to navigation and considered the homes of two terrible monsters called by those names. Scylla, who lived on the rock closest to Reggio Calabria, had twelve feet and six long necks bearing the same number of heads. She had three rows of teeth in each mouth and barked like a dog. Charybdis, on the Sicilian coast, lurked invisibly beneath a fig tree and swallowed the waters of the strait three times a day, regurgitating them subsequently into the sea.
[11904]
Segesta
Sicilian city linked to the wanderings of Aeneas, whom the Romans held to be its founder. The name derived from Acesta, a Trojan princess sent to that place to escape the monsters that infested Troas.
[11905]
Selene
Goddess of the Moon, sister of Eos (the Dawn) and Helios (the Sun). She was often identified with Artemis, just as Apollo was identified with the Sun.
[11906]
Semele
Daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia and sister of Agave, Ino, and Autonoδ. She was loved by Zeus and bore him Dionysus, but was consumed by his splendor.
[11907]
Sibyl
The name of the first and most ancient priestess of Apollo, which was then used to indicate the women with prophetic powers who interpreted his oracles. Some sources say there were four, others ten. The most famous was the Cumaean Sibyl, who lived in Campania.
[11908]
Sileni
Also known as satyrs, these were beings with pointed ears, curly hair, a snub nose, horns on their foreheads, and a horse's tail who, along with the Bacchantes, were the attendants of Dionysus.
[11909]
Silenus
One of Dionysus' attendants, known in general as Sileni or satyrs, he was the son of Hermes and the tutor of Dionysus.
[11910]
Sirens
Marine creatures, said by some to number two, by others three. They were considered the daughters of Phorcys, a divinity of the sea, or of the Muses Terpsichore, Melpomene, and Calliope. They were represented as creatures with the bodies of women and the heads of birds, with powerful talons, resembling the Harpies. They lived on an island in the Mediterranean and charmed sailors with their song, causing their ships to crash on the rocks. Ulysses was able to hear them without losing his ship. When the Argos approached their coasts on its return voyage from Colchis, the Sirens tried to enchant the Argonauts, but their song was easily overcome by Orpheus. Humiliated, they threw themselves into the sea and were turned into rocks.
[11911]
Sisyphus
Mythical founder and king of Corinth, he was so cunning that he managed to keep death at bay. For this reason he was, in the end, subjected to a torment that has become proverbial. He was condemned to roll a huge stone up the side of a mountain, only to have it roll down again on nearing the top, so that he was obliged to repeat his effort for eternity.
[11912]
Smyrna (or Myrrha)
The daughter of King Cinyras. She had an incestuous relationship with her father and gave birth to Adonis. She was turned into the myrtle tree from which myrrh is produced.
[11913]
Sopore
The Roman god of sleep.
[11914]
Sparta
City in the Peloponnesus, called Lacedaemon by the Greeks and linked chiefly to the myth of the beautiful Helen. It was here that she was born daughter of Leda and then ran away with Paris, starting the Trojan war. The city venerated Artemis and Athena, as well as the local heroes Castor and Pollux, known as the Dioscuri.
[11915]
Sphinx, the
A female monster with the head and breasts of a woman, the feet and tail of a lion, and the wings of a bird of prey, she was the daughter of Echidna and the dog Orthrus. Sent by Hera to Thebes to punish King Laius for his passion for the son of Pelops, the Sphinx terrorized the country, devouring human beings who were unable to answer her riddles. The most celebrated of these was "What goes on four feet, on two feet, and three, but the more feet it goes on the weaker it be?" It was solved by Oedipus, who responded "man" (because man, as an infant, crawls on all fours, then walks upright on two feet, and finally supports himself with a staff in old age). In despair at her defeat, the Sphinx killed herself by jumping from the rock on which she stood.
[11916]
Strophades
Greek islands in the Ionian sea south of Zacynthus (Zante). It was here that the Harpies found refuge after they had been driven from Thrace by the Argonauts. Aeneas met them here on his voyage to Italy.
[11917]
Stymphalus
City in northeastern Arcadia on the shore of the river or marsh in which the birds hunted by Heracles lived.
[11918]
Symplegades
Mythological name for two rocky islands, also known as the Cyanean Rocks, set at the mouth of the Thracian Bosphorus. According to legend they floated on the water and clashed together, crushing any ship that attempted to pass between them.
[12000]
Taenarum
Promontory of Laconia (now called Mani) that forms the southernmost tip of the Peloponnesus. It was the location of an underground passage leading to Hades that Heracles took on his way to capture Cerberus.
[12001]
Talus (or Talos)
Tutelary deity and guardian of the island of Crete. He was a living statue of bronze or brass, often known as the Man of Brass, made by Hephaestus. He was killed by Medea who used her magic arts to break a vein in his leg, his only vulnerable point.
[12002]
Tantalus
The extremely rich king of Sipylos, near Smyrna, he is supposed to have been the son of Zeus and the nymph Pluto, as well as the husband of Dione and father of Niobe and Pelops. Cast into the Underworld for having offended the gods by offering the young Pelops to them as a dish, he was condemned to eternal hunger and thirst or, according to other authors, placed under an enormous stone, always teetering on the brink of falling.
[12003]
Tartarus
Another name for Hades, the kingdom of the dead.
[12004]
Taygete (or Taygeta)
One of the Pleiades who bore Zeus' son Lacedaemon. It was from him the Lacedaemonians or Spartans took their name.
[12005]
Telemachus
Son of Ulysses and Penelope. When his father left for the Trojan War, Telemachus had just been born. Then, while Ulysses was kept far away from Ithaca by the hatred of Poseidon. Telemachus kept his mother's suitors at bay and set off to find out what had happened to his father. When Ulysses returned home, his son helped him to drive away the arrogant suitors.
[12006]
Thebes
The capital of Boeotia, it was said to have been founded by Cadmus. It was here that, among others, the god Dionysus, Heracles, and the soothsayer Tiresias were born. The tragic destinies of Semele, Pentheus, Niobe and her children, and Oedipus all unfolded against the background of Thebes.
[12007]
Themis
Daughter of Uranus and Gaea, she took care of Zeus when he was born on Crete and then became his wife. She bore him numerous divinities, including the Horae and Moerae.
[12008]
Themiscyra
The city of the Amazons on the banks of the river Thermodon in Asia Minor. It was visited by the Argonauts and Heracles.
[12009]
Theophane
Macedonian princess whom Poseidon abducted from her numerous suitors. He carried her to an unknown island and, to conceal her from her pursuers, turned her into a ewe while he assumed the shape of a ram. In these forms, they celebrated their marriage, and Theophane gave birth to the ram with the Golden Fleece.
[12010]
Theseus
Attic hero, son of King Aegeus of Athens. He was born at Troezen where, for a night, Aegeus had lain with Aethra, Theseus' mother. At the age of sixteen, he set off on foot for Athens and, on his way, cleared the region of the Strait of Corinth of monsters and brigands. Recognized by his father and proclaimed his heir, he foiled an attack by the sorceress Medea, who had married his father, and then killed the fierce Cretan bull that Heracles had left to run free on the plain of Marathon. His most famous exploit was the killing of the Minotaur with the help of Ariadne. In subsequent adventures, whose chronological sequence is extremely uncertain, he abducted a series of divine female figures or heroines. One of these was Helen, whom Theseus carried off from Sparta with the aid of his friend Peirithous. This prompted Castor and Pollux, the victim's brothers, to wage war on Athens. To reward Peirithous, who had decided to abduct Persephone, he descended into the kingdom of the dead, but was kept prisoner by Hades. He was unable to get out until rescued by Heracles. A revolt forced him to flee Athens and take refuge on Skyros, where he was treacherously thrown into the sea from a cliff.
[12011]
Thetis
One of the most powerful divinities of Greek mythology, the daughter of the marine god Nereus. She was brought up by Hera and courted by Poseidon and Zeus, but since an oracle foretold that her son would surpass his father in valor and strength, was given in marriage to the mortal Peleus, to whom she bore Achilles. All the gods were invited to the wedding with the exception of Eris, the goddess of Discord, who gained her revenge by throwing the golden apple into the banquet hall, an act that led to the beauty contest between Aphrodite, Hera, and Athena at which Paris was the judge. Thetis lived in a palace at the bottom of the sea where she took in Hephaestus when he was cast down from Olympus by his mother Hera and looked after him for nine years. She intervened to stop the revolt of the Olympians led by Hera, sending Briareus to loosen the knots of the bonds with which Zeus was tied. She protected the Argonauts, one of whom was her husband and tried to make her son Achilles immortal.
[12012]
Tiresias (or Teiresias)
One of the most celebrated soothsayers of antiquity, originally from Thebes of Boeotia. As he had lived for seven years in the shape of a woman, he was asked by Zeus and Hera whether men or women derived the most pleasure from the act of love. Tiresias sided with women and was struck blind by Hera for having revealed the secret of her sex. In recompense, Zeus gave him the gift of prophecy. He predicted the end of Pentheus and warned him not to oppose the cult of Dionysus. Ulysses descended into the Underworld to ask him about the fate of his return journey to Ithaca.
[12013]
Tiryns
City in Argolis to the southeast of Argos. Its walls were built by the Cyclopes for King Proetus, who was succeeded on the throne by the hero Perseus. Heracles spent his childhood there and was thus called Tirynthius.
[12014]
Titans
The children of Uranus and Gaea, six males and six females whose names are given differently in various sources. As soon as they were born, their father buried them in the bowels of their mother, the earth, where they remained until Cronus freed them by castrating his father and seizing power from him. When Zeus overthrew Cronus in turn, the Titans rose against him. After their defeat they were imprisoned in Tartarus under the guard of the Hecatoncheires.
[12015]
Tityus
One of the Giants, the son of Gaea (or of Elara). At the instigation of Hera he tried to rape Leto, but was killed by the arrows of Apollo and Artemis. Cast into Tartarus, he remained forever lying on the ground while two vultures or two serpents devoured his liver, which grew back every new moon.
[12016]
Triptolemus
Son of Celeus and Metaneira. After the death of his brother Demopho÷n, he was the recipient of Demeter's benevolence.
[12017]
Triton
Son of Poseidon and Celeno, he was the father of Athena's playmate Pallas. He was an enemy of Heracles but helped the Argonauts to find their way out of the marshy Syrtis. He caused the death of Misenus because he was jealous of the skill with which Aeneas' trumpeter blew a conch.
[12018]
Troezen
City in Argolis, on the Gulf of Saronikos, opposite the island of Aegina. It was here that the hero Theseus was born. In its vicinity was located an entrance to Hades, which Heracles used to return to the surface after capturing the dog Cerberus.
[12019]
Troy
City in Troas, called Ilium by the Greeks, and the battleground of the ten-year war. Its walls were said to have been built by Apollo and Poseidon in expiation of their attempt to overthrow Zeus. The stronghold of Troy was called Pergamum.
[12020]
Tyndareus
Greek hero of uncertain lineage. He was king of Sparta and the husband of Leda, who was loved by Zeus in the form of a swan. He gave up his throne to Menelaus, the husband of Helen.
[12021]
Typhoeus (or Typhon)
A primordial monster, sometimes he is described as a devastating storm, a dragon or a giant. Zeus overcame him with his thunderbolts when he challenged him for dominion over the world. Echidna, his sister, bore him a large number of monstrous children, including the Nemean lion, the Lernaean Hydra, and Cerberus.
[12100]
Ulysses
Called Odysseus "the hated" by the Greeks, he was the king of Ithaca, son of Laertes and Anticlea, and husband of Penelope, by whom he had Telemachus. As he had been told by an oracle that if he left for the Trojan War he would be kept away from his homeland for twenty years, he tried to avoid taking part by pretending to be mad, but was unmasked by Palamedes and Agamemnon. He in turn unmasked Achilles, whose mother had dressed him in girl's clothes in the royal palace of Skyros. During the siege of Troy he distinguished himself by his bravery, prudence, and eloquence. He obtained Achilles' armor, wrought by Hephaestus, after his death instead of the Telamonian, Ajax . He devised the trick of the wooden horse that led to the fall of the city and was one of the Greeks who seized the Palladium. After the end of the war, in spite of the protection of Athena, it took him ten years to make his way home.
[12101]
Underworld
A name used for the kingdom of the dead, otherwise known as Hades, Tartarus, or the Infernal Regions.
[12102]
Uranus
The name, which means "heaven," was given to the son of Erebus and Gaea, who also became his wife. She bore him the Titans, Cyclopes, and Hecatoncheires. Ruler of the world until the advent of Cronus, he was castrated by the latter with a sickle and deposed. From the drops of his blood that fell to the earth were born the Giants, while those that fell into the sea generated Aphrodite.
[12200]
Venus
Roman goddess of love identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite.
[12201]
Vulcan
The Roman counterpart of the Greek god Hephaestus.
[12600]
Zephyr (or Zephyrus)
The west wind, son of the Titan Astraeus and Eos (the Dawn). He welcomed Aphrodite on her birth and carried her first to Cythera and then Cyprus. He was the only wind left free by Aeolus so that he could drive Ulysses' ship toward Ithaca. Out of jealousy he caused the death of the youth Hyacinth who preferred Apollo to him.
[12601]
Zetes
A winged being and son of Boreas. He was, with his brother Calais, one of the members of the expedition of the Argonauts.
