Curated category
Chthonic beings
- DemeterThe name Demeter appears in Linear A documents as da-ma-te, written on three separate tablets dedicated to religious situations.
- HadesIn ancient Greek, the name Hades meant "the unseen one," a direct contrast to his brother Zeus who represented the brightness of day.
- DionysusClay tablets unearthed at Pylos in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC bear the inscription di-wo-nu-so. This Mycenaean Greek form appears twice on…
- OsirisThe first evidence of the worship of Osiris appears in the middle of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt during the 25th century BC.
- HermesThe earliest written record of Hermes appears in Linear B inscriptions from Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos dating to the Bronze Age Mycenaean period.
- PersephoneA clay tablet from Pylos, dated between 1400 and 1200 BC, bears the reconstructed name *Preswa. John Chadwick identified this as a goddess who could be…
- AtumAncient Egyptian priests spoke the word tm to describe a verb meaning to complete or to finish. This linguistic root shaped how they understood Atum, the…
- TriptolemusA young boy named Triptolemus lay sick in the palace of Eleusis. Demeter, disguised as an old woman named Doso, found him weak and dying.
- ErinyesUranus lay upon the earth as his son Cronus struck with a sickle. Drops of blood fell from the wound and stained the soil below.