Curated playlist
Metamorphoses characters
- ZeusZeus was hidden in a cave as a baby so his father could not swallow him. Rhea gave Cronus a wrapped stone instead.
- HeraThe Greek goddess Hera renewed her virginity every year in a spring near Nauplia. The rites were not to be spoken of.
- AphroditeAphrodite has two birth stories that contradict each other. One makes her Zeus's daughter, the other has no mother.
- Jupiter (god)Rome's high priest of Jupiter could not swear an oath. He also could not ride a horse or touch raw meat.
- ArtemisNo ancient Greek records describe the goddess Artemis as a moon deity. Romans linked her to the moon through Diana.
- Juno (mythology)The words money and mint trace back to a Roman goddess, Juno. Her title Moneta named the place where coins were made.
- DemeterGrief over her stolen daughter made the goddess Demeter let crops wither and mortals starve.
- Mercury (mythology)Two Roman consuls fought over who could dedicate the god Mercury's temple in 495 BC.
- CoeusCoeus, also called Koios or Polus, was one of the Titans, the children of Uranus, the Sky, and Gaia, the Earth. Among the old gods of Greek myth, he is one of the quietest. He takes no active part in the stories. He turns up in lists of…
- ApolloApollo killed the serpent Python with a single arrow at Delphi. Then he had to be purified for the blood crime.
- 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."
- AeneasTwice in Homer's Iliad, gods snatch the Trojan Aeneas from death. He was a minor warrior who became Rome's first hero.
- AthenaThe Greek goddess Athena won Athens by offering the first olive tree. Poseidon's gift was a spring of salty water.
- Mars (mythology)Mars, the Roman god of war, also guarded crops and cattle. Farmers asked him to drive off "rust" from the harvest.
- DionysusZeus sewed the unborn Dionysus into his thigh after the child's mother died. That is why Dionysus is called twice-born.
- HephaestusHephaestus answered being thrown out of heaven by forging his mother a golden throne.
- ErosIn the earliest Greek sources, Eros was not a child at all. He was one of the first four things to exist.
- AchillesAchilles's famous weak heel is not in Homer's Iliad. In Book 21, a thrown spear draws blood from his elbow.
- MedusaPerseus was sent to kill Medusa so a king could marry his mother. King Polydectes wanted the young man out of the way.
- ThetisAn early Spartan hymn by Alcman calls Thetis the creator of the universe. Later myths made her Achilles's mother.
- HermesOn his first day of life, the Greek god Hermes stole Apollo's cattle. He also invented the lyre by nightfall.
- MedeaMedea's famous crime may be Euripides's own invention. Earlier poets blamed Corinth's citizens, or an accident.
- CronusCronus swallowed five of his own children to avoid a prophecy. Rhea saved the sixth, Zeus, by handing him a stone.
- PersephonePersephone was gathering flowers when Hades burst through the earth and carried her off.
- AresZeus called his own son Ares, the war god, the most hateful of all the gods on Olympus.
- AgamemnonIn myth, King Agamemnon led Greece's greatest army to Troy, then his own wife killed him in his bath.
- JasonJason lost a sandal carrying an old woman who was really the goddess Hera. That sandal set his quest in motion.
- ThemisAphrodite asked the goddess Themis why her son Eros would not grow. Themis said he was lonely and needed a brother.
- EosEos got her lover Tithonus immortality but forgot eternal youth. In the end she turned him into a cicada.
- IphigeniaAgamemnon killed a deer in Artemis's sacred grove, and every wind stopped. His fleet could not reach Troy.
- 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…
- DeucalionDeucalion, a figure from Greek mythology, once received an order that sounded like nonsense: "cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder." An oracle gave him this instruction after a flood had swept across the…
- 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…
- ErinyesIn Aeschylus's Oresteia, Athens put a man on trial for killing his mother. The Erinyes accused him.
- HeliosHeracles once aimed his bow at Helios, the Greek sun god, for scorching him. Helios then lent him a golden cup.
- PasiphaëMinos broke a vow to Poseidon, but Queen Pasiphaë paid the price. Her curse led to the birth of the Minotaur.
- Iris (mythology)Iris, the Greek personification of the rainbow, has no temple, no shrine and no festival that anyone can name. Yet she turns up everywhere in ancient storytelling. She appears in epic poems, in tragedies, and even in a comedy about birds…
- IxionIxion, king of the Lapiths, ruled the most ancient tribe of Thessaly. In Greek mythology he became a byword for punishment without end. His ruin did not begin with a war or a curse. It began with a promise to a father-in-law that he never…
- OceanusOceanus, a Titan, rode a winged steed to visit his chained nephew Prometheus. Prometheus mocked him anyway.
- Atlas (mythology)Atlas is a Titan of Greek mythology, and his name is printed on the spines of books in homes and libraries everywhere. Yet the myths describe him doing one thing for all eternity: carrying a burden that never lifted. What was it? Why was…
- CadmusCadmus sowed a dragon's teeth, and armed warriors rose from the ground.
- CybeleIn 204 BC, Rome fetched the goddess Cybele in the form of a black lump of meteoric iron.
- AlcmeneZeus stretched one night into three days to fool Alcmene. He came to her looking like her husband.
- AdonisEvery midsummer, ancient Greek women set tiny gardens in the sun to watch them wither. The festival mourned Adonis.
- CassandraApollo gave Cassandra true foresight, then made sure no one would believe her.
- MarsyasIn Rome, a statue of the satyr Marsyas stood as a symbol of liberty. Poets posted verses against the powerful there.
- HecateIn the 1st century CE, Ovid wrote of Hecate: "Look at Hecate, standing guard at the crossroads, one face looking in each direction." Hecate belonged to ancient Greek religion and mythology. Artists usually showed her with torches, a key,…
- MemnonMemnon, king of Aethiopia, drew blood from Achilles at Troy. Achilles then killed him with a spear through the chest.