Curated playlist
Personifications in Greek mythology
- Metis (mythology)Zeus swallowed his pregnant wife Metis for fear she would bear something stronger than his thunderbolt.
- NyxNyx is the Greek goddess who personifies the night, and in Homer's Iliad even Zeus, king of the gods, is said to be in awe of displeasing her. The Romans called her Nox, which also means Night. Poets placed her among the very first beings…
- ErosIn the earliest Greek sources, Eros was not a child at all. He was one of the first four things to exist.
- Uranus (mythology)In Greek myth, Cronus ambushed his father Uranus, the sky, with a sickle. His mother Gaia, the Earth, had made it.
- 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.
- Eris (mythology)Eris, the Greek goddess of strife, plants herself beside the ship of Odysseus and lets out a scream. In Book 11 of the Iliad, Zeus sends her to the Achaean camp carrying a portent of war. Odysseus's black ship sits in the middle of the…
- HeliosHeracles once aimed his bow at Helios, the Greek sun god, for scorching him. Helios then lent him a golden cup.
- 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…
- OceanusOceanus, a Titan, rode a winged steed to visit his chained nephew Prometheus. Prometheus mocked him anyway.
- GaiaIn the Iliad, a black lamb is sacrificed, and the oath sworn over it calls on Gaia as a witness. The Greeks believed she was listening. If a man broke his word, she would know. Gaia was the Greek personification of the Earth. Some writers…
- MnemosyneZeus visited the Titaness Mnemosyne for nine nights, and she bore the nine Muses. Her name is the Greek word for memory.
- HestiaGreek colonists carried fire from Hestia's public hearth to start new cities.