Curated playlist
LGBTQ themes in Greek mythology
- ZeusZeus is the supreme deity of the Greek pantheon, and yet even the gods rise from their seats when he enters the room. That detail, preserved in ancient sources, says everything about the order of things on Mount Olympus. He is the king who…
- PoseidonPoseidon is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, a god of such terrifying breadth that sailors prayed to him for safe passage while farmers credited him with the growth of their crops. He ruled the sea,…
- DionysusDionysus stands as one of the most paradoxical figures in all of ancient Greek religion: the god who frees his followers from fear and self-consciousness, yet who also embodies ritual madness and the destruction of those who stand against…
- ErosEros, the Greek god of love and sex, has been worshipped, argued over, and reimagined for roughly three thousand years, and the figure most people picture today, a chubby cherub clutching a bow on Valentine's Day cards, barely resembles…
- AchillesAchilles, the central figure of Homer's Iliad, carried a name that meant something like 'he who has the people distressed' - a striking label for a warrior celebrated above all others for his glory in battle. His name combines the Greek…
- OrestesOrestes killed his own mother. The ancient spirits of vengeance came for him regardless of his reasons, and the question that followed had never been formally settled: what counts as justice, and who is authorized to decide? His name comes…
- HermesHermes is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion, and his story begins in a cave on Mount Cyllene, in the dead of night, where Zeus secretly made love to Maia. On the very first day of his life, the rapidly maturing infant crawled…
- AgamemnonAgamemnon, king of Mycenae, led the greatest military coalition the ancient Greek world had ever seen to the shores of Troy. He commanded the Achaean forces in a war that would become the defining myth of Western civilization. Yet when he…
- 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…
- LaiusThe year 320 to 310 BC captures a moment frozen in clay on an Apulian red-figure hydria. This ancient vessel depicts King Laius of Thebes carrying off the son of Pelops, king of Pisa. Laius taught the boy how to drive a chariot while…
- 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 accidentally killed his friend during a heated match. This single moment shattered his…
- OrpheusOrpheus was a Thracian bard whose music, the ancient Greeks believed, could move rivers from their courses and coax rocks into dance. Pindar called him "the father of songs." His mother was the Muse Calliope, and according to some…
- MarsyasMarsyas was a satyr from Phrygia, now central Turkey, and a devotee of the ancient Mother Goddess Cybele. He picked up a flute and became so accomplished on it that he challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest. He lost. What Apollo…