Curated category
Characters in the Argonautica
- ZeusThe name Zeus appears in the earliest Greek records as di-we and di-wo, written in Linear B script on tablets from Mycenae.
- HeraThe name Hera appears on clay tablets from Pylos and Thebes written in the Linear B script, dating to the Mycenaean period.
- AphroditeThe name Aphrodite appears in the Cypriot syllabary as a-po-ro-ta-o-i, read right to left, during the eleventh century BC.
- ApolloThe name Apollo appears in Linear B tablets as the fragment ]pe-rjo-[, yet scholars debate whether this represents the god himself or a different figure…
- MedeaMedea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, first appears in Hesiod's Theogony around 700 BC. She carries a lineage that traces back to Helios, the sun god…
- ArgonautsKing Pelias of Iolcus sat upon a throne he had stolen from his half-brother Aeson. An oracle warned him that a descendant of Aeolus would seek revenge for…
- JasonA newborn son named Jason lay swaddled among female attendants who cried as if he were stillborn. Alcimede, his mother, had hidden him from Pelias, the…
- HeraclesThe story of Heracles began in the Neolithic hunter culture, where traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld shaped his mythological…
- ScyllaOdysseus and his crew sail through a narrow channel of water where Scylla lives on one side. The distance between her lair and the whirlpool of Charybdis…
- HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…
- Iris (mythology)The ancient Greek noun for rainbow also meant the halo of the Moon. An inscription from Corinth reveals an original form with a digamma that eventually…
- OrpheusA two-word fragment from the 6th-century BC lyric poet Ibycus offers the earliest literary reference to Orpheus. The words translate simply as 'Orpheus…
- MeleagerA Calydonian prince named Meleager stood at the center of a family tree that ancient sources could not agree upon. Apollodorus records him as the son of…
- PeliasPelias, king of Iolcus in Greek mythology, owes his entire reign to a single missing sandal. When a young stranger arrived in Iolcus wearing only one shoe…