Curated category
Greek gods
- ZeusThe name Zeus appears in the earliest Greek records as di-we and di-wo, written in Linear B script on tablets from Mycenae.
- CoeusLatona, that Titaness whom Coeus sired, whoever he may be. Ovid in Metamorphoses VI.185 poses this question about a figure who played no active part in Greek…
- ApolloThe name Apollo appears in Linear B tablets as the fragment ]pe-rjo-[, yet scholars debate whether this represents the god himself or a different figure…
- 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…
- 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…
- HomerHomer is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, yet no one can say for certain that he ever lived. He was possibly born around the 8th century…
- CronusThe sky father Uranus hid his youngest children, the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and one-eyed Cyclopes, deep within Tartarus.
- Uranus (mythology)Most linguists trace the name Uranus to a Proto-Greek form called Worsanós. Originally reconstructed by Johann Baptist Hofmann, this root expands from Worsó-.
- HeraclesThe story of Heracles began in the Neolithic hunter culture, where traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld shaped his mythological…
- CriusAncient Greek speakers used the word krios to describe a ram. The same syllables also formed kreios, which meant a type of mussel in that language.
- HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…
- AdonisThe name Adonis comes from a Canaanite word meaning lord. This single term connects the Greek god to ancient Near Eastern traditions stretching back…
- 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…