Curated playlist
Characters in the Argonautica
- ZeusZeus was hidden in a cave as a baby so his father could not swallow him. Rhea gave Cronus a wrapped stone instead.
- HeraThe Greek goddess Hera renewed her virginity every year in a spring near Nauplia. The rites were not to be spoken of.
- AphroditeAphrodite has two birth stories that contradict each other. One makes her Zeus's daughter, the other has no mother.
- ApolloApollo killed the serpent Python with a single arrow at Delphi. Then he had to be purified for the blood crime.
- MedeaMedea's famous crime may be Euripides's own invention. Earlier poets blamed Corinth's citizens, or an accident.
- ArgonautsOne missing sandal put a Greek king on edge and launched the Argonauts.
- JasonJason lost a sandal carrying an old woman who was really the goddess Hera. That sandal set his quest in motion.
- HeraclesZeus made the sun god Helios hold off rising for three days. He wanted more time with Alcmene, mother of Heracles.
- ScyllaSailors passing the sea monster Scylla had to choose between losing a few men or the whole ship.
- Siren (mythology)The sirens of Greek mythology are female humanlike beings, and in the Odyssey they make a bold promise to a passing ship. They tell the listener that they know the pains the Greeks and Trojans endured on the plain of Troy. Their song…
- HeliosHeracles once aimed his bow at Helios, the Greek sun god, for scorching him. Helios then lent him a golden cup.
- Iris (mythology)Iris, the Greek personification of the rainbow, has no temple, no shrine and no festival that anyone can name. Yet she turns up everywhere in ancient storytelling. She appears in epic poems, in tragedies, and even in a comedy about birds…
- OrpheusOrpheus walked into the underworld to bring back his dead wife, Eurydice. He lost her when he looked back.
- MeleagerMeleager was a Greek hero honored with his own sacred precinct, a temenos, at Calydon in Aetolia. According to the Fates, his life was bound to a single piece of wood burning in his family's hearth. Only when that wood was consumed by fire…
- PeliasAn oracle warned King Pelias to beware a man wearing one sandal. Then his nephew Jason arrived wearing one.
- HecateIn the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote of Hecate: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at the crossroads, one face looking in each direction." Hecate belonged to ancient Greek religion and mythology. Artists usually showed her with torches, a key,…
- CirceCirce, the enchantress of Greek mythology, is called by Homer "a dreadful goddess with lovely hair and human speech." The phrase captures the trouble with her. She is a witch, yet she is sometimes treated as a goddess and sometimes as a…