Curated category
Deeds of Zeus
- OdysseusAncient vase inscriptions from Magna Graecia bear the variant name Oulixes, while other pottery shards display Oliseus or Olyteus.
- TitanomachyA great sickle forged from adamantine waited in a crevice on Mount Othrys. Gaia hid this weapon there to use against her husband Uranus.
- Metis (mythology)The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the hero Odysseus being the…
- HephaestusA clay tablet from Knossos bears the inscription A-pa-i-ti-jo. This Linear B script dates to the Mycenaean period and offers the earliest written evidence of…
- Rhea (mythology)The earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus gave birth to Rhea as one of their twelve or thirteen Titan children. She grew up alongside her siblings…
- ThetisA papyrus fragment discovered at Oxyrhynchus in the 19th century reveals a hymn by the Spartan poet Alcman from the seventh century BC.
- PerseusKing Acrisius of Argos kept his only child, a daughter named Danaë, locked inside a room atop a bronze tower. He feared the Oracle at Delphi had warned him…
- Trojan WarA golden apple inscribed with the words for the fairest landed in the lap of a shepherd boy named Paris on Mount Ida. This object sparked a quarrel between…
- 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…
- BellerophonThe name Bellerophon appears in ancient texts as a compound of Greek words meaning "slayer" and "Belleros." One theory suggests the root comes from the word…
- AtreusTantalus, son of Zeus and the maiden Pluto, sat at a dinner table with gods who understood his crime. He had slain his own son Pelops to test their…
- PandoraIn the 8th century BCE, Hesiod wrote lines 560 through 612 of his poem Theogony. He described a woman created by Hephaestus on Zeus's orders without ever…
- AnchisesAphrodite descended to the hills of Mount Ida while Anchises herded his cattle. The mortal man possessed beauty that rivaled an immortal god.
- DeucalionIn the shadowed halls of ancient genealogies, a young man named Deucalion stood as son to Prometheus. Ancient sources name his mother variously as Clymene…
- HecatoncheiresA political cartoon from 1890 depicts a three-headed giant with fifty heads and one hundred arms as an allegory for labor unrest.
- ThyestesPelops and Hippodamia gave birth to Thyestes in the city of Olympia. Their union carried a heavy burden from the moment Myrtilus died.
- IxionIxion ruled the ancient tribe of Thessaly known as the Lapiths. His lineage traces back to Perimele and either Ares, Leonteus, Antion, or Phlegyas.
- CadmusCadmus, the legendary Phoenician prince credited with founding Thebes, carried something far more consequential than a royal title: the alphabet.
- Judgement of ParisEris, the goddess of discord, arrived at a wedding feast she had not been invited to. She carried a golden apple from the Garden of the Hesperides and threw…
- TantalusThe name Tantalus appears in ancient Greek texts as a figure whose identity may stretch back to real rulers of Anatolia.
- AdonisThe name Adonis comes from a Canaanite word meaning lord. This single term connects the Greek god to ancient Near Eastern traditions stretching back…
- MemnonEos, the goddess of dawn, stood at the edge of the world and wept for her son. Her tears fell upon the black skin of Memnon, king of Aethiopia.
- AtalantaA newborn girl lay abandoned on the rocky slopes of Mount Parthenion. Her father Iasus had desired a son and ordered her exposure to die in the wild.
- PrometheusThe name Prometheus appears in the late 8th-century BC Greek epic poet Hesiod's Theogony. Scholars debate whether this name signifies forethought, as his…
- SisyphusThe name Sisyphus appears in ancient texts with no single agreed-upon meaning. R. S. P. Beekes proposed a pre-Greek origin linked to the root word for "wise".