Curated category
Greek mythological heroes
- MenelausMenelaus stood as a descendant of Pelops, son of Tantalus. His family history began with the House of Atreus. Agamemnon and Menelaus were sons of Atreus and…
- OdysseusAncient vase inscriptions from Magna Graecia bear the variant name Oulixes, while other pottery shards display Oliseus or Olyteus.
- AeneasAeneas is the Romanization of the hero's original Greek name Aineías. This name first appears in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite when Aphrodite gives him his…
- HectorThe name Hector derives from the Greek verb meaning to hold or possess. This root suggests a man who holds fast during siege or one who possesses princely…
- AchillesLinear B tablets from the Mycenaean period record the name Achilleus in forms like a-ki-re-u and a-ki-re-we. These inscriptions appear on clay documents…
- TheseusA young man named Theseus stood before a massive stone on the road from Troezen to Athens. It was a rock with a hollow just large enough to receive objects…
- OrestesThe Greek name Orestes derives from two ancient words. The first word means mountain. The second word means to stand. Ancient scholars believed the combined…
- 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…
- OedipusIn 476 BC, the poet Pindar wrote a Second Olympian Ode that described the infant son of King Laius. The child's ankles were pierced and tethered together so…
- TriptolemusA young boy named Triptolemus lay sick in the palace of Eleusis. Demeter, disguised as an old woman named Doso, found him weak and dying.
- AgamemnonScholars have debated the meaning of Agamemnon for centuries. One theory suggests the name means very steadfast or unbowed.
- JasonA newborn son named Jason lay swaddled among female attendants who cried as if he were stillborn. Alcimede, his mother, had hidden him from Pelias, the…
- 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…
- HeraclesThe story of Heracles began in the Neolithic hunter culture, where traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld shaped his mythological…
- IphigeniaThe name Iphigenia means strong-born or born to strength. Ancient lexicons define it as she who causes the birth of strong offspring.
- PatroclusIn the quiet town of Opus, a young boy named Patroclus stood over the body of his playmate Clysonymus. The game of dice had turned deadly when Patroclus…
- DiomedesA young boy named Diomedes stood four years old when his father Tydeus died in the battle against Thebes. His grandfather Oeneus ruled Calydon, but Tydeus…
- OrpheusA two-word fragment from the 6th-century BC lyric poet Ibycus offers the earliest literary reference to Orpheus. The words translate simply as 'Orpheus…
- CadmusCadmus, the legendary Phoenician prince credited with founding Thebes, carried something far more consequential than a royal title: the alphabet.
- MeleagerA Calydonian prince named Meleager stood at the center of a family tree that ancient sources could not agree upon. Apollodorus records him as the son of…
- Seven against ThebesA young man named Polynices stood outside the walls of Thebes, his eyes fixed on a city that had once been his home. He wore a lion's pelt and carried a…
- TelephusIn the Louvre, a marble statue from the mid second century AD shows Heracles holding an infant named Telephus alongside a deer.
- 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.