Curated playlist
Deeds of Zeus
- OdysseusOdysseus, the legendary king of Ithaca, spent ten years trying to get home after a war that had already lasted a decade. By the time he arrived, his wife had been fending off suitors for years, his son was grown, and the only creature to…
- TitanomachyThe Titanomachy was a ten-year war fought in ancient Thessaly to decide who would rule the cosmos. The older gods, the Titans, held Mount Othrys; the younger Olympians would come to hold Mount Olympus. Among the forces involved were giants…
- Metis (mythology)Metis, in the words of the poet Hesiod, was 'wiser than gods and mortal men.' Yet for most of her existence she was hidden beneath the inward parts of Zeus, the king of the gods. Her name, Μῆτις in ancient Greek, translates as Wisdom,…
- 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…
- Rhea (mythology)Rhea handed Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, and he swallowed it whole. The ruler of the cosmos had just been deceived by his own wife. The infant he believed he had consumed was already hidden in a cave on the island of Crete.…
- ThetisThetis is a figure from Greek mythology whose power ran deeper than most mortals, or even gods, ever understood. She was one of the fifty Nereids, daughters of the ancient sea god Nereus, but that description barely scratches the surface.…
- PerseusPerseus, the legendary founder of Mycenae and slayer of the Gorgon Medusa, occupies a place in Greek myth unlike almost any other hero. He stood alongside Cadmus and Bellerophon as the greatest monster-killers before the age of Heracles.…
- 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,…
- ArgonautsJason was 20 years old when an oracle told him to dress as a Magnesian and walk to the court of Iolcus. He arrived with only one sandal, having lost the other crossing the muddy Anauros river while carrying an old woman he did not…
- BellerophonBellerophon was ranked among the greatest heroes of ancient Greek mythology, placed alongside Cadmus and Perseus as one of "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters" before the days of Heracles. He rode a winged horse, killed a…
- 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 omniscience. Most deities refused the meat, appalled by its nature. Demeter ate unknowingly…
- 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…
- 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, Hesione, or Pronoia. The scholia to Odyssey 10.2 identifies Clymene as the commonly…
- HecatoncheiresThe Hecatoncheires were three giants so extreme in their form that the ancient Greeks had to invent a new word to name them. Each had fifty heads and one hundred arms. Their collective title comes from the Greek hekaton, meaning "hundred",…
- ThyestesPelops and Hippodamia gave birth to Thyestes in the city of Olympia. Their union carried a heavy burden from the moment Myrtilus died. The servant of King Oenomaus had been promised half the kingdom and the bride's virginity after Pelops…
- IxionIxion ruled the ancient tribe of Thessaly known as the Lapiths. His lineage traces back to Perimele and either Ares, Leonteus, Antion, or Phlegyas. The name Phlegyas connotes fire itself in Greek tradition. Ixion fathered Pirithous, a son…
- CadmusCadmus, the legendary Phoenician prince credited with founding Thebes, carried something far more consequential than a royal title: the alphabet. The ancient historian Herodotus credited him with introducing Phoenician letters to the…
- 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…
- TantalusTantalus stands in a pool of water, chin-deep, beneath boughs heavy with fruit. Every time he reaches upward, the branches pull away. Every time he bends to drink, the water drains beneath him. This image, drawn from the Odyssey, the…
- 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…
- MemnonMemnon, the king of Aethiopia, arrived at Troy with an army so vast that ancient sources described it as too large to be counted. He was no ordinary ally. He was the son of Eos, goddess of the dawn, and Tithonus, a mortal man once carried…
- 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…
- PrometheusPrometheus is a Titan from Greek mythology whose name may mean "forethought" -- and whose story has never stopped being told. He defied the Olympian gods by taking fire from them and delivering it to humanity in the form of technology,…
- SisyphusSisyphus, the founder and king of Ephyra, now known as Corinth, is one of the most recognizable figures in all of Greek mythology. Not for his power, not for his victories, but for a single, unending action: pushing an immense boulder up a…