Curated playlist
Helios in mythology
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- MedeaMedea, daughter of King Aeetes of Colchis, first appears in Hesiod's Theogony around 700 BC. She carries a lineage that traces back to Helios, the sun god, making her the granddaughter of a deity and the niece of Circe, the enchantress.…
- 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…
- HeraclesHeracles, born Alcaeus and later known to Rome as Hercules, is the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. His birth alone was the product of divine manipulation: Zeus ordered the sun god Helios to hold off rising for three days so…
- Tethys (mythology)In the ancient Greek cosmos, Tethys emerged as one of the Titans, the children born from the union of Uranus and Gaia. Hesiod lists her among twelve siblings including Oceanus, Coeus, Crius, Hyperion, Iapetus, Theia, Rhea, Themis,…
- 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…
- AlcmeneAlcmene, whose name in Greek means "strong in wrath," is one of the most remarkable mortal women in all of Greek mythology. She was a great-granddaughter of Zeus himself, and yet Zeus would deceive her, sleep with her, and father the most…
- 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…