Curated playlist
Deeds of Aphrodite
- HephaestusHephaestus refused to come home. The Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, and fire had been thrown out of heaven by his own mother, Hera, and his answer was to forge her a golden throne. When she sat on it, invisible fetters locked her in…
- Paris (mythology)Paris of Troy was condemned before he was born. His mother Hecuba dreamed she gave birth to a flaming torch. The seer Aesacus read this as a verdict, not a vision: the child would destroy Troy. Priam ordered his chief herdsman, Agelaus, to…
- Trojan WarThe Trojan War began, according to Greek mythology, not with an army or a fleet, but with a wedding invitation that was never sent. When Eris, the goddess of discord, was excluded from the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, she arrived anyway,…
- EosEos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, rose every morning from the edge of the river Oceanus and scattered light across the sky before her brother Helios, the sun god, could begin his own journey. She is rosy-fingered, saffron-robed,…
- PandoraPandora was, according to Greek myth, the first human woman ever made. Not born, but built: molded from earth by Hephaestus on the direct orders of Zeus, then passed from god to god like a package being assembled, each deity tucking in a…
- AnchisesAphrodite descended to the hills of Mount Ida while Anchises herded his cattle. The mortal man possessed beauty that rivaled an immortal god. She bathed in Cyprus before returning to the Troad disguised as a Phrygian princess. Hermes had…
- HeliosHelios, the Greek god who personifies the Sun, is invoked in one ancient ritual text with remarkable vividness: "a youth, fair to behold, with fiery hair, clothed in a white tunic and a scarlet cloak and wearing a fiery crown." The same…
- PasiphaëPasiphaë was the queen of Crete, a daughter of the sun god Helios, and one of the most unsettling figures in all of Greek mythology. Her story raises a question that ancient audiences found deeply troubling: what happens when a god's…
- Judgement of ParisThe Judgement of Paris begins not with armies or heroes, but with a snub at a wedding. Eris, the goddess of discord, was left off the guest list for the marriage of Peleus and Thetis. Her response was to arrive uninvited, carrying a golden…
- Phaedra (mythology)In Greek mythology, Phaedra was a Cretan princess. Her name derives from the Greek word phaidros, which means bright. She stood as the daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë of Crete. This royal union produced eight children together.…
- Helen of TroyHelen of Troy was said to be the most beautiful woman in the world. Around the year 1604, the playwright Christopher Marlowe gave her the line most people still know. In Doctor Faustus, a character asks whether this was the face that…
- AdonisAdonis's earliest appearance in Greek writing comes from Sappho of Lesbos, around 630 BC. In a surviving poem fragment, a chorus of young girls asks Aphrodite what they should do to mourn Adonis. The goddess replies: beat your breasts and…
- AtalantaAtalanta is a heroine from Greek mythology who was left on a mountain to die as a newborn, raised by a bear and hunters in the wild, fought monsters with her bow, sailed with the Argonauts, and still became the subject of a Greek tragedy…