Curated playlist
Women of the Trojan war
- 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.
- ArtemisNo ancient Greek records describe the goddess Artemis as a moon deity. Romans linked her to the moon through Diana.
- 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…
- AthenaThe Greek goddess Athena won Athens by offering the first olive tree. Poseidon's gift was a spring of salty water.
- Rhea (mythology)Rhea tricked her husband Cronus into swallowing a stone instead of their baby. The real baby was hidden on Crete.
- 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…
- ThetisAn early Spartan hymn by Alcman calls Thetis the creator of the universe. Later myths made her Achilles's mother.
- 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.
- 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…
- Helen of TroyDid Helen of Troy go to Troy willingly, or at all? Ancient Greek writers gave conflicting answers.
- CassandraApollo gave Cassandra true foresight, then made sure no one would believe her.
- AmazonsIn 2019, a grave near Voronezh held armed female Scythian warriors. Greeks told of Amazons.