Skip to content
Curated category

Shapeshifters in Greek mythology

  • ZeusThe name Zeus appears in the earliest Greek records as di-we and di-wo, written in Linear B script on tablets from Mycenae.
  • HeraThe name Hera appears on clay tablets from Pylos and Thebes written in the Linear B script, dating to the Mycenaean period.
  • ArtemisScholars have debated the linguistic origin of the name Artemis for centuries. R.S.P. Beekes suggested that the interchange between e and i in her name…
  • DemeterDemeter once let everything on earth die. Not through carelessness or neglect, but through a grief so total that crops withered, harvests failed, and mortals…
  • ApolloThe name Apollo appears in Linear B tablets as the fragment ]pe-rjo-[, yet scholars debate whether this represents the god himself or a different figure…
  • PoseidonThe earliest written record of the name Poseidon appears on Linear B clay tablets from Mycenaean Greece, inscribed as Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne.
  • AthenaThe name Athena likely comes from the city of Athens, which in ancient Greek is called Athenai. This plural toponym designates the place where she presided…
  • DionysusClay tablets unearthed at Pylos in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC bear the inscription di-wo-nu-so. This Mycenaean Greek form appears twice on…
  • Metis (mythology)The Greek word metis meant a quality that combined wisdom and cunning. This quality was considered to be highly admirable, the hero Odysseus being the…
  • Rhea (mythology)The earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus gave birth to Rhea as one of their twelve or thirteen Titan children. She grew up alongside her siblings…
  • ThetisA papyrus fragment discovered at Oxyrhynchus in the 19th century reveals a hymn by the Spartan poet Alcman from the seventh century BC.
  • HermesThe earliest written record of Hermes appears in Linear B inscriptions from Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos dating to the Bronze Age Mycenaean period.
  • CronusThe sky father Uranus hid his youngest children, the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and one-eyed Cyclopes, deep within Tartarus.
  • HeraclesThe story of Heracles began in the Neolithic hunter culture, where traditions of shamanistic crossings into the netherworld shaped his mythological…
  • HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…