Curated playlist
Greek goddesses
- HeraHera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family in ancient Greek religion, and the protector of women during childbirth. She is the queen of the twelve Olympians and of Mount Olympus, the sister and wife of Zeus, and the daughter of the…
- DemeterDemeter once let everything on earth die. Not through carelessness or neglect, but through a grief so total that crops withered, harvests failed, and mortals began to starve. This is not a gentle story of a goddess tending fields. It is a…
- Phoebe (Titaness)Phoebe carries an epithet in Hesiod's Theogony that rarely gets much attention: khrysostephanos, golden-crowned. It is one of the few vivid details attached to a Titan who mostly stays offstage in her own myths. She is one of the Titans,…
- 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,…
- TheiaTheia is the Greek goddess from whom all light was said to proceed, and yet she barely speaks a line in the myths that survive. Pindar called her "Theia of many names," and the names pile up: Thea, Thia, Euryphaessa, Aethra, Basileia. She…
- 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.…
- PersephonePersephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter, holds two thrones in ancient Greek mythology: one in the sunlit world of the living, and one in the darkness beneath the earth. She is the goddess of spring, whose return from below signals flowers…
- ThemisThemis, the Greek goddess of divine law, had a name the scholar Moses Finley called "untranslatable." Writing about Homer's use of the word in the 8th century BCE, Finley found it could mean "right custom, proper procedure, social order."…
- 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…
- ErinyesThe Erinyes live in Erebus, older than any Olympian god, and their job is to make sure no oath goes unpunished. A formulaic curse in the Iliad names them directly as the forces that take vengeance underground on anyone who swears falsely.…
- Eris (mythology)The name Eris derives from the ancient Greek noun eris, which carries the stem erid-. This root means strife or discord. Scholars have debated its origin for centuries. R. S. P. Beekes found no strong evidence linking it to verbs meaning…
- 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…
- Iris (mythology)The ancient Greek noun for rainbow also meant the halo of the Moon. An inscription from Corinth reveals an original form with a digamma that eventually disappeared. Scholars suggest a Proto-Indo-European pre-form exists, though some…
- CybeleCybele was already ancient when Rome came for her in 204 BC. A Sibylline oracle had declared that a foreign enemy threatening Italy could be repelled if Rome brought the goddess of Pessinos to the city. The Roman Senate sent ambassadors to…
- MnemosyneMnemosyne was a Titaness in Greek mythology, and her name comes directly from the Greek word mnēmē, meaning remembrance or memory. That word did more work than most divine names ever have to. So why does a Titan, a category of god that…