Curated playlist
Queens in Greek mythology
- HeraThe Greek goddess Hera renewed her virginity every year in a spring near Nauplia. The rites were not to be spoken of.
- BriseisBriseis, also known as Hippodameia, is a woman at the centre of the Iliad, and yet she is never the one who decides anything. Homer's epic sets its plot in motion with a quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, and her role as a status…
- ClytemnestraClytemnestra, a queen of Greek mythology, earned a blunt verdict from the author and classicist Madeline Miller. Miller wrote, "after Medea, Queen Clytemnestra is probably the most notorious woman in Greek mythology." That reputation rests…
- MetaniraMetanira, queen of Eleusis, walked in on a scene that made her scream: her infant son lay in the middle of a fire. She was the wife of King Celeus, and some tellers call her Meganira. Her father, Amphictyon, was the king of Athens. Her…
- PersephonePersephone was gathering flowers when Hades burst through the earth and carried her off.
- JocastaJocasta, queen of Thebes, had two husbands, and the second was the son she had given birth to. The Greeks knew her under more than one name. She appears as Iocaste in some tellings and as Epicaste in others. Her fate is tied to a prophecy…
- Leda (mythology)In Greek myth, Zeus became an injured swan to fall into Leda's lap. Hyginus says he was hiding from his wife Hera.
- PasiphaëMinos broke a vow to Poseidon, but Queen Pasiphaë paid the price. Her curse led to the birth of the Minotaur.
- Phaedra (mythology)Phaedra, a princess of Crete in Greek mythology, carried a name that comes from the Greek word phaidros, meaning bright. Her story is anything but bright. It is a tale of forbidden longing for her own stepson, and of a royal household that…
- Helen of TroyDid Helen of Troy go to Troy willingly, or at all? Ancient Greek writers gave conflicting answers.
- ChlorisChloris began as a word for a color, and Greek myth then handed it out to several different women. The Greek root, chlōrós, could mean greenish-yellow or pale green. It could also mean pale, pallid, or fresh. That is a wide range, running…
- NepheleNephele sent her two children flying east on a golden ram. She saved them from a false oracle's sacrifice order.
- Europa (consort of Zeus)Zeus disguised himself as a tame white bull and carried Europa off to Crete. She became its first queen.