Curated playlist
Helios in mythology
- OdysseusWhen Odysseus finally reached home, only his dog Argos recognized him. He had been away twenty years.
- TheiaTheia, the Titan goddess of light, barely speaks in the myths that survive. Sun, Moon and Dawn all descend from her.
- HephaestusHephaestus answered being thrown out of heaven by forging his mother a golden throne.
- MedeaMedea's famous crime may be Euripides's own invention. Earlier poets blamed Corinth's citizens, or an accident.
- AtreusAtreus was a king of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, and the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus. His two sons are the ones remembered for sailing against Troy. Yet the legends told about their father are far…
- HeraclesZeus made the sun god Helios hold off rising for three days. He wanted more time with Alcmene, mother of Heracles.
- Tethys (mythology)Hesiod counted three thousand river gods, and another three thousand Oceanids, among the children of the Titan Tethys. In his telling, three thousand simply means too many to count. Yet the mother of this vast family has almost no story of…
- ThyestesThe phrase "Thyestean feast" describes a meal at which human flesh is served. It comes from Thyestes, a king of Olympia in Greek mythology, and from the worst dinner of his life. His family tree reads like a chain of crimes, each one…
- AlcmeneZeus stretched one night into three days to fool Alcmene. He came to her looking like her husband.
- MemnonMemnon, king of Aethiopia, drew blood from Achilles at Troy. Achilles then killed him with a spear through the chest.