Curated playlist
Kings in Greek mythology
- ZeusZeus was hidden in a cave as a baby so his father could not swallow him. Rhea gave Cronus a wrapped stone instead.
- PriamPriam, the last king of Troy, kissed the hands of his son's killer. He crossed enemy lines at night for Hector's body.
- OdysseusWhen Odysseus finally reached home, only his dog Argos recognized him. He had been away twenty years.
- HadesBy around the 5th century BC, the Greeks had largely stopped saying Hades's name aloud.
- PoseidonThe oldest records of Poseidon do not show a sea god at all. Bronze Age tablets from Pylos call him "earth shaker."
- OedipusOedipus, king of Thebes, blinded himself with a pin from his dead wife's gown.
- CeleusCeleus was the king of Eleusis, a town in Attica, and the husband of Metaneira. In Greek myth, his household received a guest who looked like nothing more than an old woman. The king welcomed her anyway. That kindness set in motion a story…
- CronusCronus swallowed five of his own children to avoid a prophecy. Rhea saved the sixth, Zeus, by handing him a stone.
- Uranus (mythology)In Greek myth, Cronus ambushed his father Uranus, the sky, with a sickle. His mother Gaia, the Earth, had made it.
- BellerophonBellerophon carried a sealed letter ordering his own death to a king. The king feasted him for nine days first.
- 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…
- AnchisesIn Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Cassius tries to talk Brutus into murdering Caesar by pointing to a famous rescue from a burning city. The man saved in that story is Anchises, a Trojan of royal blood from Greek and Roman mythology. He was…
- DiomedesThe great albatrosses carry the name of a Greek hero. Their genus is Diomedea and their family is Diomedeidae, both drawn from Diomedes, a hero of Greek mythology known above all for his part in the Trojan War. Homer's Iliad ranks him with…
- 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…
- TlepolemusTlepolemus, a son of Heracles, split the island of Rhodes into three city-states.
- CadmusCadmus sowed a dragon's teeth, and armed warriors rose from the ground.
- TantalusIn the earliest named crime, Tantalus asked Zeus to let him live as the gods do.
- TelephusAn oracle told wounded Telephus that his assailant would heal him. The cure came from rust on Achilles' spear.
- MemnonMemnon, king of Aethiopia, drew blood from Achilles at Troy. Achilles then killed him with a spear through the chest.
- PentheusKing Pentheus of Thebes was torn apart by his own mother. She carried his head home, believing it was an animal's.
- SisyphusSisyphus chained up Thanatos, the god of death, and no one on Earth could die.
- Nestor (mythology)Nestor talked Patroclus into disguising himself as Achilles, and Patroclus died.