The Cabeiri cult spread throughout Greece from the coast of the Troad (Asia Minor). According to the tradition, they were the three children of Hephaestus with Cabeiro, daughter of Proteus. This would seem to associate them both with fire, of which Hephaestus was the god, and with the sea, since Proteus was a marine deity. The cult of Cabeiri was particularly highly developed on Lemnos, the sacred island of Hephaestus, where the god had his workshop. There, the Cabeiri were the protectors of metal workers and also the vines that grew in abundance on the volcanic soil of the island. The festivals in their honor were celebrated by the local people in a highly charged Dionysiac atmosphere. There was also an important sanctuary of the Cabeiri at Thebes, where an aged father called Cabeirus was worshipped with his son. These deities were also associated with fire, with fertility and with the vegetation of the earth, and they protected the transition from childhood into adolescence. The Careibium in Thebes was the scene of special initiation ceremonies involving the sacrificing of a bull and the drinking of wine. However, the exact content of the Cabeirian Mysteries is now lost, probably forever. Samothrace was the scene of another mystical cult. These divinities, whose names were Axierus, Axiocersus, Axiocersa and Casmilus, later became identified with Cabeiri, who in Samothrace were chthonic deities. Their initiation was looked upon as a general safeguard against misfortune. In the period after the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.), their cult reached its height.
Dictionary of Classical Mythology., Grimal, Pierre, , 1985 '); GodThing[49] = new CreateGod('Calliope','Kalliope','Greek muse of epic or heroic poetry, and chief of the nine Muses. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. In various accounts she was the mother of Orpheus and Linus by Apollo or Oeagrus, and of Hymen and Ialemus by Apollo. It was she who, on behalf of Zeus, judged the dispute between Aphrodite and Persephone over Adonis.'); GodThing[50] = new CreateGod('Callisto','Kallisto','A local Greek goddess of Arcadia. She was transformed by the gods into the Great Bear constellation.'); GodThing[51] = new CreateGod('Kalypso','Latin: Calypso','The most famous one was the Greek immortal nymph mentioned first by Homer in the Odessey.
Queen of the island of Ogygia, she kept Odysseus there for seven years and bore him four sons (Latinus, and Telemarchus), Nausithous (Hesiod Theogony 1017) and Nausinous (Hesiod 1017 again).
She offered him immortality but he wanted to return to his wife, Penelope, and finally on the instance of Zeus did so.
The whole seven years that Odysseus stayed with Kalypso began with Zeus striking dead the sailors who had eaten some of the immortal cattle when they stayed on the Island of the Sun. Helius was furious at them for their insolence and asked Zeus to destroy them, which he did while they were at sea so those who were not killed outright drowned, and it was only Odysseus lashed to a mast as a precaution against the singing of the Sirens Charybdis and Scylla who was washed alive ashore on he island of Ogygia. (He broke free of the bonds because they had been weakened by the swirling water.
When he washed ashore Kalypso came down from her cave sheltered by aspens, pines alders and cypress trees. This is a typical arrangment of temples to very ancient earth and fertility goddesses.
Also typical was the bower of grapes at the entrance to a garden in front of the cave and in the case of Kalypso there were four streams going into the four cardinal directions.
Because of the prayers of Odysseus was consant to return to his wife, Athena convinced Zeus that this was enough punishement and Zeus ordered Hermes to tell Kalypso to help Odysseus leave her island.
...Now Zeus bids you to send Odysseus off without delay. He is not doomed to end his days on this island, away from all his friends. On the contrary, he is destined to see them yet, to reach his native land, and to step beneath the high roof of his house.. She tried to persuade him to stay but he would not. When also persuasion failed Calypso, obeying the gods and keeping her oath, gave him tools and led him to the farthest part of the island, where Odysseus cut the timber down. She also brought him cloth to make the sail, and in the fifth day Odysseus left the island in the new built boat, which the goddess filled with provisions, such as wine, water, corn and meats.
[Hermes to Calypso 3. Homer, Odyssey 5.112]
Although no one mentioned who her mother was her father was Atlas.
She was a Nereid. There is another Nereid with the same name just mentioned by Apollodorus 1.2.7ff, and an Oceanid, with that name just mentioned by Hesiod in the Theogony (page 350).
The main references for the Nereid of Odysseus fame are: Apollodorus Ep.7.24; Hesiod Theogony 1017ff.;Homer Odessey 1.14, 1.52, 5. passim, 7.259; Hyginus, Fabulae 125, 243; The Telegony (The Epic Cycle) Eustathius, 1796. 35'); GodThing[52] = new CreateGod('Carpo','Karpo','In some versions, one of the Greek Horae (qv), or Seasons. The Athenians recognized only two Horae: Carpo and Thallo. Carpo was associated with autumn and the harvest of fruit.'); GodThing[53] = new CreateGod('Castor and Pollux','Greek Kastor and Polydeukes','Latin Dioscuri (Greek Dioskuroi), sons of Jupiter and Leda. See Kastor and Polydeukes.'); GodThing[54] = new CreateGod('Cecrops','@','Half-man half-snake ancestor of the Greeks.'); GodThing[55] = new CreateGod('Centaur','@','Creature of Greek mythology: half man and half horse.'); GodThing[56] = new CreateGod('Cerberus','@','Greek guardian of the entrance to the underworld, portrayed as a monstrous three-headed dog by many writers with a voice like a bronze bell, the tail of a scorpion and the hairs along his back are the hissing fanged heads of poisonous snakes. It prefers raw flesh to eat.
There is the famous story of how Herakles captured it and took above as his twelfth labor. The only other time was when it was fooled into eating some honey coated wheat cakes full of a tranquillizing substance and it fell asleep at the gates of hell.
There are two more Greek characters with this name.
There was a suitor from Dulichium who stayed around Penelope long enough to be killed by Odysseus.
A more famous Cerberus than number two was Cerberus is one of four brothers, the others being Laius, Celeus and Aegolius, who entered the cave of Zeus in Crete in order to gather the honey of the sacred bees that had nourished the child Zeus after his birth. They covered their bodies with a brazen armour to protect themselves but when the god cast a thunderbolt the armours melted, and as the Moerae and Themis had forbidden death in this cavern Zeus turned them into birds [Lib.Met.19].
[Apollodorus 2.5.12; Euripedes Herakles 25, 611; Hesiod Theogony 310ff.; Homer Odysseus 11.617ff.; Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 6.261; Statius, Thebaid 2.27, 8.56,; Strabo, Geography 8.5.1. ]'); GodThing[57] = new CreateGod('Chaos','@','Greek personification of the primordial void.'); GodThing[58] = new CreateGod('Charis','Aglaia, Aegle','Minor Greek Goddess. Consort of Hephaistos. As Aglaia, she was also one of the Gratiae (Graces), although the identification is uncertain.'); GodThing[59] = new CreateGod('Charon','@','In Greek mythology, the ferryman who transports the dead across the rivers Styx and Acheron to the underworld. A coin (obolus) was traditionally placed in the mouth of the deceased to pay Charon\'s fare. If the dead had no coin, then Charon forced them to wander on this side of the Styx (which in Greek means hate) for 100 years before he would ferry them over the river.
Son of Erebus and Nyx. He was depicted as an old and dishevelled man. Not strictly speaking a god, he can best be described as a demon of death, which was first done by Pausinaus in his History of Greece. Charon later became the demon of death Charun in Etruscan religion and the angel of death Charos or Charontas in modern Greek folklore who rides a black horse searching for the newly dead.
Charon is actually an Egyptian word meaning ferryman. His boat has the boring name (in Greek) of Kymba (or Cymba or Cumba in Latin form) which means boat. The whole legend may have been picked up by the Greeks from the Persians, who picked it up from the Babylonians, who in turn picked it from Sumeria. In Sumerian mythology there is a ferryman URHANIBAI who brings the dead across a river to immortal life. The last tablet of the Epic of Gilgamesh tells of Gilgamesh asking Urhanibai to take him to see the immortal UPNAPISHTIM'); GodThing[60] = new CreateGod('Chloris','Meliboea','There were three Chlorus in Greek Mythology.
1. Greek goddess of flowers. She was a Nymph and constant lover-companion to Zephyrus, the West Wind. Her Roman equivalent was the goddess Flora. [Ov.Fast.5.195ff]
2. Or she was the youngest daughter of Amphion and Niobe, a surviving Niobides. The Niobides were slain by children of Leto, Apollo and Artemis. This Chloris married Neleus and became Queen of Pylos. Her children by him were:
A.Periclymenus,
B, Pero,
C. Taurus,
D. Asterius,
D. Pylaon,
E. Deimachus,
F. Eurybius,
G. Phrasius
H. Eurymenes,
I. Evagoras,
J. Alastor,
K. Nestor,
L. Epilaus, and
M. Chromius.
This Chloris is among those whom Odysseus saw when he descended to the Underworld [Apollodorus 1.9.9; Homer Odysseus 11.281ff.; Hyginus Fabulae 11-14].
3. Another Chloris married the seer Ampycus, son of Elatus, and became the mother of the seer Mopsus, who was among the Argonauts and died in Libya [Hyginus Fabulae 14].'); GodThing[61] = new CreateGod('Clio','Cleio, Klio','Greek Muse of historical and heroic poetry. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Mother of Hyacinth by Pierus, king of Macedonia. Often depicted with a trumpet and the clepsydra (water clock). She could also be depicted with a writing implement, as she was credited with introducing the Phoenician alphabet to Greece. Other attributes included a wreath of laurel and a parchment scroll.
There is an Oceanid with the same name, who was part of the retinue of Cyrene, mentioned only by Virgil.'); GodThing[62] = new CreateGod('Coeus','@','A Greek Titan (people sometimes say of intelligence). He was a father with his wife Phoebe of two daughters: Asteria and Leto [Apollodorus.1.1.3, 1.2.2; Hesiod Theogony.134-136, 405ff.]'); GodThing[63] = new CreateGod('Coronis','@','Greek nymph, mother of Asklepios by Apollo.'); GodThing[64] = new CreateGod('Crius','@','Greek Titan.') GodThing[65] = new CreateGod('Cotys','Cotytto','Thracian goddess whose worship was marked by orgiastic rites. She was later accepted into Greece, notably at Corinth and Athens. She was represented either as a huntress goddess similar to Artemis or a mother goddess along the lines of Cybele.'); GodThing[66] = new CreateGod('Cybele','Kybele, Cybebe','Phrygian mother goddess, and goddess of fertility and of the mountains. Her consort was Attis.'); GodThing[67] = new CreateGod('Cyrene','Kyrene','A Thessalian nymph carried off by Apollo to the north African region which was named Cyrenaica after her.
Cyrene was a daughter of Hypseus br Calidanope. Hypseus was a son of the Peneius River and the Naiad Creusa, and king of the Lapiths. Cyrene\'s sisters were Alcaea, Themisto, and Astyageia. Themisto married Athamas, and Astyageia became the grandmother of Ixion. Cyrene was not interested in marriage and devoted herself to hunting on Mount Pelion. Aroused once by watching her wrestle with a lion, Apollo carried her off and made her a queen in Libya From her the city of Cyrene derived its name.
By Apollo she became the mother of Aristaeus. Apollo found her desirable enough to visit again, and she bore to him Idmon.
Aristaeus early displayed a talent for hunting and an interest in agricultural pursuits. When he grew up he went to Boeoria, where he married Autonoe, a daughter of Cadmus. He learned from Cheiron the Centaur and from the Muses the arts of healing and prophecy. He left Boeoria after the death of his son Actaeon, and lived in Sardinia and Sicily. Afterward he went to Thrace, where he disappeared. He was worshipped as a god by the Thracian and Greeks both.
Cyrene was also said to be the mother of Diomedes, the farther Arcs. He was king of the Bistones in Thrace and raised mares, which he fed with human flesh. One of the labors of Heracles was to return these mares to Greece. After the mares ate Herackles\' lover Abderus, he killed Diomedes and fed him to the animals.
Cyrene retuned to Boeotia at one point, probably because Aristaeus was there, and gave him advice on various matters. Later, for some reason she returned to Libya, and when Aristaeus left Boeotia she outfitted him with a fleet to go to Italy.
All her children were by gods. Two of them were worshipped, even though they died like other mortals. (Pindar, Pythian No 9.5; Apollonius Rhodius 1.500, 2.846; Diodorus Siculus 4.15,69,81; Hyginus, Fables 161; Apollodorus 1.9.2, 2.5.8; Pausanias 9.34.5-1)'); GodThing[68] = new CreateGod('Alpheus','@','A Greek river god who fell in love with the nymph Arethusa. She fled to the island of Ortygian, but Alpeus flowed under the sea to join her on the island.'); GodThing[69] = new CreateGod('Leucosia','@','Greek nymph, sang so that sailors would become confused and wreck their ships. Sister to Ligeia'); GodThing[70] = new CreateGod('Ligeia','@','A Greek nymph, sister to Leucosia, and sang duets with her to wreck the ships of sailors. Twisted sisters.') GodThing[71] = new CreateGod('Parthenope','@','Another nut case who sang sailors into confusion and thereby helped to wreck their ships. Odysseus ignored them by being lashed to the wheel or his ship, his ears stopped with wax. Orpheus sang so the sailors could ignore this siren, and the other two: Leucosia, and Ligeia.'); GodThing[72] = new CreateGod('Phorkys','Phorcys,Phorkos','Greek sea god. According to Hesiod, the son of Pontos (Okeanos) and Gaia. Consort of the sea-monster Ceto (Keto). Father of the Gorgons and the Graii.'); GodThing[73] = new CreateGod('Odysseus','@','Famous hero of the Trojan wars, who on the sea trip home offends Poseidon, who raises wind and sea to keep him from getting home. Homer, the blind poet recounts all of adventures the Odyesseus and his crew have. The poem "Ulysses" and the one about the Trojan wars, "The Illiad" are the longest poems in the Western world.'); GodThing[74] = new CreateGod('Orpheus','@','The husband of Eurydice. She dies while being pursed by bees. Aristeous sent the bees after her since she had spurned his sexual advances. Orpheus descends into Hades, and with his talented at singing and playing the lyre is able to persuade Hades to give back Eurydice if he does not look back at her until they are out of the underworld. He does look back at the threshold, and Eurydice returns forever to Hades. The tale is similiar to that of Persephone.'); GodThing[75] = new CreateGod('Eurydice','@','A Greek Dryad (woodland nymph); wife of Orpheus. She was bitten by a snake while fleeing Aristaeus, whence she died and descended to the Underworld. In a famous tale, her husband Orpheus descended to the Underworld to retrieve her. Hades allowed Eurydice to follow Orpheus to the surface, on condition that Orpheus refrained from looking upon Eurydice until they had left the Underworld. The two reached the threshold between the Underworld and the world of the living, but Orpheus turned to look at Eurydice before they had actually crossed the threshold, and Eurydice was immediately whisked back to the realm of Hades, condemned to eternal death.'); GodThing[76] = new CreateGod('Daimon','Daemon','Greek collective name for beings intermediate between gods and humans. Beginning with Hesiod the term designated the spirits of dead heroes. These spirits were later interpreted by the Christians as devils. The term also signified the spirit determining a person\'s fate (akin to the Roman term genius). '); GodThing[77] = new CreateGod('Daktyloi','@','Greek demonic beings who were associated with the working of metal, offspring of nymphs they included:
- Acmon (anvil)
- Daemoneous (Subjugator or Hammer)
- Celmis(casting)
- Delas (Bronze).');
GodThing[78] = new CreateGod('Daphne','@','There are three Daphnes mentioned in the ancient literarture.
One Daphne was a daughter of Teiresias, usually called Manto as mentioned by Diodorus Siculus 4.66.1
The next Daphne, and most famous became the goddess personifying the laurel tree. She is said to be the daughter of Creusa and a river god Peneius (in Thessaly). Legend has it that she was changed into a laurel to avoid the sexual advances of the god Apollo, to whom the laurel thus became sacred. This tragedy came about because her brother was Hypseus and her sister was Stilbe. Stilbe became by Apollo the mother of Lapithes and Centaurus, and the god was therefore brother-in-law to Daphne. During his visits to Stilbe he became attracted to Daphne. He treid to seduce her, which she rejected. Finally, he chased her in order to rape her. She prayed to her father (or to Gaia some authors say) to save her. She was changed into the laural tree. From that time on, the laural tree was sacred to Apollo. Every ninth year the Delphians sent to Tempe a procession of well-born youths. Their leader plucked a branch of laurel and brought it back to Delphi. On this occasion a solemn festival, in which the inhabitants of the neighboring regions took part, was celebrated in Tempe in honor of Apollo Tempeites.[Ovid, Metamorphoses 1.568, Amores 3.6.31;Diodorus Siculus 1.69; Hyginus, Fables 203]
The final Dapne mentioned was a daughter of the Ladon River in Elis (there is also a Ladon River in Arcadia). She was extremely beautiful, and Leucippus, the son of Oenomaus, king of Pisa, wanted to marry her. She would have nothing to do with males, and preferred to hunt with her female companions. He dressed up as a woman and befriended her. One day after hunting they thought to go for a skinny dip in the River Ladon and stripped Leucippus in spite of his attempts to avoid it. On seeing he was a man they killed him with their spears. [Pausinias 8.20.2].'); GodThing[79] = new CreateGod('Deimos','@','\"Panic\" or \"Fear\". Follower of the Greek god of war. Son of Ares and Aphrodite. His siblings were Anteros, Enyo, Eros, Harmonia, Phobos and Terror (Pallor). Deimos and Phobos accompanied Ares in battle.'); GodThing[80] = new CreateGod('Deino','@','One of the Greek Graiae, guardians of the Gorgons. Daughter of Phorkys and Ceto, she was the sister of Enyo and Pephredo. The three Graiae collectively had one eye and one tooth which they shared among themselves.'); GodThing[81] = new CreateGod('Demeter','@','Greek mother and corn (grain) goddess associated with the earth,vegetation and agriculture. She is also a goddess of death, as exemplified by the story of Persephone. Daughter of Kronos and Rhea. Sister of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades and Hestia. Mother of Persephone by Zeus, and of Plutos by Iasion. Demeter is particularly prominent in the Greek legend of the abduction of her daughter Persephone (Kore) by the underworld god Hades. Distraught at her loss, Demeter neglected her duties as a vegetation deity while she searched for her daughter. Fearing catastrophe, the gods intervened, and Hades agreed that Persephone would be returned provided that she had tasted nothing while in the underworld. However, Persephone had tasted a pomegranate. As a result, she was released only on condition that she should spend three months of each year in the underworld with Hades, the rest in the world of the living. The three months spent in Hades are believed to coincide with the three dry summer months in Greece. This legend formed the basis of an important Greek fertility cult, known as the Eleusinian Mysteries after the famous cult centre at Eleusis. Demeter was also honoured in the feast of the Thesmophoria, a fertility rite from which men were excluded and whose rites were a carefully guarded secret. She was depicted as a matronly figure, often riding a chariot or seated upon a throne. Her attributes included ears of corn (grain) and a basket filled with flowers, grain and fruit. The pig and the snake were sacred to her.'); GodThing[82] = new CreateGod('Despoina','Despoena','\"Mistress\". An honorific title among the Greeks, notably applied to the goddess of the underworld in Arcadia. We know of no other name for this Arcadian goddess, perhaps attesting to the secrecy of her rites. She was later identified with Persephone.'); GodThing[83] = new CreateGod('Dike','Asteraea','One of the Greek Horae (Seasons). Also a goddess of justice (Greek dike). Daughter of Zeus and Themis. Her sisters were the other Horae: Eirene and Eunomia. The main source of information about her is Hesiod. In it she is also called Asteraea. Her name means Justice in Greek. And her sisters names mean (Order) and (Peace).
Hesiod wrote that there were several ages on Mankind. The Golden One existed first, the Silver, then Bronze (and Dike hated the bronze one because people were so unjust, so she went to Olympus and refused to come to earth), and several more. Virgil goes on about how wonderful Dike is. Strangely enough there are no stories about her like there are about the other gods. '); GodThing[84] = new CreateGod('Diomedes','@','Probable origin as ancient war-god in Argos.'); GodThing[85] = new CreateGod('Dione','@','Cult partner of Zeus of Dodoma, ancient earth-goddess. Given variously as the daughter of Okeanos and Tethys (an Oceanid) or Ouranos and Gaea (a Titan). As an Oceanid she had an affair with Zeus and gave birth to Aphrodite (Homer and Hesiod)'); GodThing[86] = new CreateGod('Dionysos','Dionysus, Dionysius, Roman Bacchus','Greek god of wine and intoxication. Son of Zeus and Semele (although Demeter is sometimes given as his mother). His consort was Ariadne. His cult is believed to have originated in either Thrace, Phrygia or perhaps Lydia. Hera, out of jealousy, is said to have tricked Semele into asking Zeus to reveal his divinity to her. When Zeus complied, his divine majesty was too great for Semele, who was destroyed by his thunderbolts. Zeus retrieved Dionysus from his lover\'s dead body and sewed him up in his thigh until he reached full term. As a result, Dionysus was known as Dithyrambos (twice born). Zeus then sent the infant to be raised by Semele\'s sister Ino and her husband Athamas at Orchomenus. Hera discovered the child\'s hiding place, and drove Ino and Athamas mad. However, Hermes spirited the infant away to be raised by the nymphs on the legendary mountain of Nysa. Dionysos was educated in the art of agriculture by Aristaeus. He was credited with having the introduction of the vine and the art of making wine. In some legends he was said to have descended to the underworld to bring back his mother Semele, and this presumably led to his role in Orphism, which equated him with Zagreus. His worship was characterized by orgiastic and often violent rites. His female worshippers, known as Bacchants or Maenads, ran and danced through the woods in a drunken frenzy bearing torches and thyrsus staves (made of vine leaves and ivy). The frenzy was believed to give them occult powers as well as superhuman strength,with which they were said to tear sacrificial animals to pieces. Dionysos\' epithets included Bromios (thunderer), Lyaios (deliverer [from cares]), as well as Taurokeros (bull-horned) and Tauroprosopos (bull-faced) in reference to his incarnation as a bull at his feasts. Among his festivals were the Greater and Lesser Dionysia, the Anthesteria, the Agrionia and the Katagogia at Athens. Phallic symbolism was particularly prominent at the Dionysia, indicating that Dionysos was there being worshipped as a fertility god.'); GodThing[87] = new CreateGod('Dryads','Dryades, Hamadryads','Greek woodland nymphs. Each dryad was associated with a particular tree and died when that tree died.'); GodThing[88] = new CreateGod('Echidna','Echinda','Greek monster goddess.Half woman, half snake. Dependng on who you read she is daughter of Tartarus & Gaia (Hesiod), or of Piras & Styx Apollodorus), or of the sea-deities Phorcus & Ceto (Pausanias). Echidna produced a generation of monsters after consorting with Typhon:- Ladon,
- Cerberus,
- Orthus,
- Sphinx,
- Hydra,
- Scylla,
- Lion,
- Eagle,
- Sow (Theseus slew this one),
- Gorgon,
- Harpies.
Her stories are all affairs she had with other gods, or mortals. Unfortunately she was caught with Ares by his wife Aphrodite who cursed Eos to always want to have sex with young men, god or mortal. She had Orion, Cephalus, and Tithonas as lovers. Her saddest experience was with Tithonas, son of a Trojan king, she kidnapped him and after a while asked Zeus to make him immortal. Zeus did but forgot to make him stop aging as well. So Tithonas got older and older shrivelling up until she put her in one of her rooms and closed the door. He started to protest but his protests as he got smaller and smaller (because he was drying up in old age) sounded like chirps. He is considered by many to be the one of the insects of cicadas which chirps endlessly when it becomes dark. It is with Tithonas that she had Memnon one of the heroes of Troy, and who died there. The Romans referred to her as Aurora.'); GodThing[97] = new CreateGod('Erato','@','Greek muse of lyric poetry, particularly love poetry. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Usually depicted with a lyre.'); GodThing[98] = new CreateGod('Erebos','Erebus','The darkness of the underworld below Hades, personified as a deity in Hesiod. Son of Chaos and Nyx (night). He later became the consort of Nyx, by whom he fathered Aether (light) and Hemera (day).'); GodThing[99] = new CreateGod('Erechtheus','Erichthonos','Legendary god-king of Athens, and an earth or ancestor spirit of the Athenian people. He was said to be the son of Hephaistos, whose semen fell upon the earth (Gaea) when he attempted to rape the goddess Athena. Athena raised him at the Athenian Acropolis. Erechtheus was depicted either as a snake or with the tail of a snake.'); GodThing[100] = new CreateGod('Eridanus','@','Greek river god. It was into the river Eridanus that Phaethon plunged after his ill-fated attempt to drive the sun-chariot. Some have tentatively identified this as the river Po.'); GodThing[101] = new CreateGod('Erinyes','sing. Erinys, Eumenides, Roman Furies','Greek avenging goddesses. According to Hesiod, they were born from the blood of the castrated god Ouranos which fell upon Gaea, the earth. Euripedes was the first to give there number as three: Alekto (\"unceasing\"), Megaira (\"jealous\"), and Tisiphone (\"avenger of murder\"). They punished criminals, especially those who sinned against their parents. Depicted with snake-covered heads and bearing torches from the underworld, where they lived. Often referred to euphemistically as the Eumenides (\"the kind ones\") or as the Semnai (\"the venerable ones\").'); GodThing[102] = new CreateGod('Eris','@','Greek goddess of discord and strife. Daughter of Zeus and Hera. Sister and companion of Ares. Mother of Ate by Zeus. It was her Golden Apple (\"apple of discord\") which created the strife among the gods that ultimately led to the Trojan War. Because the gods did not want Eris to cause trouble they did not invite her to the wedding of the mortal Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis. Epis found out and swore to cause trouble. She choose one of her apples of Discord and threw the apple among the guests at a wedding feast, with the inscription \"to the fairest\". Hera, Aphrodite and Athena each claimed the apple. Zeus attempted to resolve the conflict by having Paris decide the issue calling him the most handsome of men so he could decide the most beautiful of the immortal women. See Paris to find out what his decision was. His decision however lead to him eloping with Helen to Troy. And feeling slighted, Hera and Athena vowed to bring destruction to Troy in revenge. Her Roman equivalent was Discordia. '); GodThing[103] = new CreateGod('Eros','Roman Amor','Greek god of love and fertility. In Hesiod, he was said to have been born of Chaos. He was later said to be the son of Aphrodite and one of Ares, Hephaistos, Zeus or Hermes. Eros was accompanied by Pothos (longing) and Himeros (desire). Depicted as a winged youth with bow and arrows. His arrows had the power to make both gods and mortals fall in love.'); GodThing[104] = new CreateGod('Erotes','@','Boy-like gods in late Classical art and poetry who derived from the god Eros.'); GodThing[105] = new CreateGod('Esenchebis','@','Greek name for Isis (Egyptian).'); GodThing[106] = new CreateGod('Eumenides','@','Greek Erinyes (qv), or Furies.'); GodThing[107] = new CreateGod('Eunomia','@','\"Good Order\". Greek goddess of law and order. One of the Horae (Seasons) along with Dike and Eirene. Daughter of Zeus and Themis.The Horae were entrusted with guarding the gates of Olympus. They were collectively honoured in the annual festival of the Horaea.'); GodThing[108] = new CreateGod('Euphrosyne','Euphrosine','\"Joy\". One of the Greek Charites (Graces). Euphrosyne was the personification of joy and festivity. The Charites were said to be the daughters of Zeus and either Hera or Eurynome.'); GodThing[109] = new CreateGod('Euryale','@','One of the Greek Gorgons, daughters of Ceto and Phorkys. Her sister Gorgons were Medusa and Stheno.'); GodThing[110] = new CreateGod('Eurydice','@','A Greek Dryad (woodland nymph), wife of Orpheus. She was bitten by a snake while fleeing Aristaeus, whence she died and descended to the Underworld. In a famous tale, her husband Orpheus descended to the Underworld to retrieve her. Hades allowed Eurydice to follow Orpheus to the surface, on condition that Orpheus refrained from looking upon Eurydice until they had left the Underworld. The two reached the threshold between the Underworld and the world of the living, but Orpheus turned to look at Eurydice before they had actually crossed the threshold, and Eurydice was immediately whisked back to the realm of Hades, condemned to eternal death.'); GodThing[111] = new CreateGod('Eurynome','@','One of the Greek Oceanids (Okeanides), daughters of Okeanos and Tethys. According to Apollonius of Rhodes, Eurynome was a primordial goddess who ruled Olympus with Ophion before the advent of Kronos. She had a cult centre at Phigaleia in Arcadia. For more detail:Eurynome and Orphis'); GodThing[112] = new CreateGod('Euterpe','@','Greek muse of flute playing, variously given as the patron of tragedy or of lyric poetry. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Her symbol was the double flute, which she was said to have invented.'); GodThing[113] = new CreateGod('Fates','Latin Fata or Parcae, Greek Moirae','Hesiod gives the Greek Moirae as Atropos, Clotho and Lachesis. Their Roman counterparts were Decima, Nona (goddesses of birth) and Morta (goddess of death).'); GodThing[114] = new CreateGod('Gaia','Gaea, Ge','Greek earth goddess and personification of the earth. She was said to be second in the order of existence after Chaos, or was said to be his daughter. She gave birth to Ouranos (heaven) and Pontos (sea). Ouranos then became her consort. Their children included Kronos, Okeanos, the Cyclops and the Titans. Later, when Ouranos was castrated by Kronos, his semen combined with Gaia to engender the Erinyes, the Giants, and perhaps Aphrodite as well. Similarly, when Hephaistos failed in his attempt to rape Athena, his semen fell to the earth and resulted in the birth of the Athenian serpent-king Erechtheus. By Tartarus she was the mother of the monster Typhon. Gaia\'s cult was particularly prominent in Attica. She was also said to have had an oracle at Delphi that predated the oracle of Apollo. Her attributes included the fruits of the earth and the Cornucopia. According to Homer, Gaia was invoked in oaths along with Helios (sun).'); GodThing[115] = new CreateGod('Galatea','@','Greek Nereid of Sicily. The Cyclops Polyphemes loved her but she loved Acis. Polyphemes threw a rock so that it would crush Acis, which it did and he became a river. Galatea stayed neared the river. She did not like Polyphemes any better after his rock throwing.'); GodThing[116] = new CreateGod('Gebeleizis','@','Thracian thunder god.'); GodThing[117] = new CreateGod('Glaukos','Glaucus','Greek sea god. He was said to have been a fisherman who became a god when he ate a magic herb. He then leaped into the sea where he developed a tail and remained as a guardian deity of fishermen. His cult was very popular among fishermen and sailors. Glaukos was also reputed to have a gift for prophecy.'); GodThing[118] = new CreateGod('Gorgons','@','Greek female monster figures. Homer spoke of only one Gorgon. In Hesiod, however, there were three Gorgons: Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa - the daughters of Phorkys and Ceto. They were winged, had hair consisting of snakes, and were depicted with large teeth and protruding tongues. Any mortal who looked upon would be turned to stone. Representations of their heads were used to ward off evil in Greek temples. Stheno and Euryale were immortal. Medusa,however, was mortal, and she was eventually killed by Perseus. Medusa\'s head was subsequently affixed to the Aegis, Athena\'s famous goatskin shield.'); GodThing[119] = new CreateGod('Graces','Charities','The Romans referred to them as the Gratiae,which differ little from the Charites.Their names and (sources) are:
AGLAIA mated with Hephaistos (Apollodorus 1.3.1; Hesiod Theogony 909, 945; Nonnus 33.57; Pausinias 9.35.5)
Auxo (Pausinias, Description of Greece 9.35.2-5.)
CHARIS mated with Hephaistos(Homer, Iliad 18.382ff. Nonnus 29.331, Pausinias 9.35.1-5. )
Cleta (Pausinias 9.35.1, 9.35.5
EUPHROSYNE (Apollodorus.1.3.1, Hesiod Theogony 909, Pausinias 9.35.5)
Hegemone (Pausinias 9.35.2)
Phaenna (Pausinias 9.35.1-5)
PASITHEA mated with Hypnos and hade three children: Morpheus, Phobetor, and Phantasus
(Homer Iliad 14.265ff. Nonnis 15.91, 31.186, 31.121ff., 33.21ff., Ovid Metamorphes 11.635, Pauinias 9.35.4-5; Statius Thebiad 2.286)
THAILIA (Appollodonus 1.3.1, Hesiod Theogony 909. Pausinias 9.35.5.)');
GodThing[120] = new CreateGod('Graii','Graeae','Greek grey goddesses who guarded the cavern of the Gorgons. Daughters of Phorkys and Ceto. Their names were Deino, Enyo and Pephredo. They were depicted as old hags who had one eye and one tooth among them, which they shared. Perseus stole both the eye and the tooth on his mission to kill the Gorgon Medusa.');
GodThing[121] = new CreateGod('Hades','Aides, Dis, Plutos','\"The Unseen One\". Greek god of the underworld. Since riches were commonly buried in the ground, he also figured as a god of wealth,Plutos, although the latter is often considered a separate deity. Son of Kronos and Rhea. Brother of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter and Hestia. After Zeus killed Kronos, dominion over the underworld fell to Hades, while Zeus claimed the heavens and Poseidon the seas. He became the husband of Persephone after abducting her (for this story see the entries for Demeter and Persephone). His home in the underworld was often referred to as the \"House of Hades\". The tasks of judging the souls of the deceased and of punishing sins were assigned to other underworld deities. His cult was restricted to Pylos. He was depicted as dark bearded, bearing a sceptre and a key.');
GodThing[122] = new CreateGod('Hamadryads','@','Greek tree nymphs. See Dryads.');
GodThing[123] = new CreateGod('Harpies','sing. Harpy','\"Snatchers\". Greek winged female monsters or demons. They may have originated as wind spirits: in Homer they were merely described as winds that swept people away. They were usually three in number, the most common names being Aello, Kelaino (Podarge) and Okypete. Daughters of Thaumas and Elektra, or of Poseidon and Gaia. In early myths they were described as beautiful, but later writers depicted them as ugly bird-like monsters with large claws. In one version, the Harpies were eventually killed by Calais and Zetes.');
GodThing[124] = new CreateGod('Hebe','@','\"Bloom of Youth\". Greek goddess of youth. Daughter of Zeus and Hera. Her consort was the deified Herakles. She was the cup-bearer of the gods at Olympus until replaced by Ganymede. Her Roman counterpart was Juventas. Her cult was most popular at Phlious and Sicyon.');
GodThing[125] = new CreateGod('Hecatoncheires','@','According to Hesiod,The Hecatonchires were born of Gaia and Uranus. They were stronger, more overbearing, and more fierce than even the mighty Cyclopes. They had 100 arms and 50 heads each. Their names were Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges.
Ouranus was disgusted by these children, so in a fit of outrage he cast them into Tartarus to be locked up forever. Gaia was distressed about this and asked the Titans for help in retrieving them. Only Cronus agreed to help. Cronus waited for Uranus under his bed. That night, when Uranus laid with Gaia, Cronus castrated Uranus and cast his genitals behind his head and into the sea. This caused foam in the sea and blood drops on the land. The foam was the birthplace of Aphrodite, and of horses. The blood drops gave birth to the Eyrines, the giants, and the nymphs.');
GodThing[126] = new CreateGod('Hekate','Hecate','Greek goddess associated with the underworld and with magic. Not mentioned in Homer, she is believed to have originated in Caria in southwest Anatolia. According to Hesiod she was the daughter of the Titan Perses and the nymph Asteria. Elsewhere she is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She was also a goddess of crossroads and waysides, and pillars known as Hekataea were commonly erected at crossroads and doorways,perhaps to ward off evil. She was especially associated with travel by night, although it is not clear whether she was regarded as the protectress of night travellers or their chief peril. Hekate was also considered a patron of Medea and of witches,and she had an occult following among women in Thessaly, where she was regarded as a moon goddess. She assisted in the search for Persephone after her abduction by Hades. In this connection, as well as in connection with her role in night travel, she was depicted bearing a torch. In later representations, she was shown as having three bodies, particularly in the Hekataea which allowed her to keep watch over all roads at once. Her epithets included Enodia, a reference to her role as a goddess of waysides, and Trioditis, a reference to her role as a triform goddess of crossroads.');
GodThing[127] = new CreateGod('Helene','Helen','Originated as goddess of vegetation.');
GodThing[128] = new CreateGod('Helios','Helius, Sol','\"Sun\". Greek sun god. According to Hesiod, he is the son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. His siblings were Eos (dawn) and Selene (moon). He drove his four-horsed chariot across the sky each day from east to west, descending beneath the ocean at night and returning by its northern stream to the east. According to one story, Helios was absent when Zeus divided the world among the gods, and he was given the island of Rhodes,which had just risen from the sea, in compensation. Rhodes was the center of his cult, where he was the dominant deity at least as early as the 5th century BC. The famous Colossus of Rhodes was an image of Helios. A festival of Helios was also celebrated on Rhodes, during which a four-horsed chariot was driven off a cliff,symbolizing the setting of the sun beneath the sea. He was depicted driving a four-horsed chariot, and with a halo of rays about his head. The Romans worshipped Helios as Sol.');
GodThing[129] = new CreateGod('Hemera','@','\"Day\". Greek goddess of the day. Hesiod gives her as the daughter of Erebus and Nyx. She may also have been the consort of her brother Aether.');
GodThing[130] = new CreateGod('Hephaistos','Hephaestus, Hephaestos','Greek god of fire and patron of blacksmiths. Son of Zeus and Hera. In the Iliad, Homer made him the husband of Charis. However, in the Odyssey he was said to be the consort of Aphrodite, and this rather unlikely pairing became the more widely accepted version. Although considered one of the twelve Olympians, he was thrown from the heavens by Hera, who could not accept a child born with deformed legs. According to one legend, he spent the first nine years of his life in the sea, cared for by Eurynome and Thetis. According to another legend, he was taken in and cared for by the people of Lemnos, on whose island he had an important sanctuary. The cult of Hephaistos appears to have originated in Greek Anatolia, or perhaps on Lemnos. His cult seems never to have been very popular in mainland Greece, although he did have a sanctuary in Athens. He also had an important shrine at Ephesus in Anatolia. Despite his lameness, Hephaistos was famed as a blacksmith of extraordinary skill. His smithy was said to be under Mt Aetna,where he was believed to work with his assistants, the Cyclops. He was credited with fashioning the sceptre of Zeus, the Aegis of Athena, the chariot of Helios, arms for Achilles and Aeneas, and the shield of Herakles. Hephaistos was never very lucky in love. His nominal consort,Aphrodite, was never faithful to him, and few if any of her children were fathered by the lame smith god. On one occasion,Hephaistos attempted to force himself on Athena, but she evaded him and his semen fell to the earth where it gave birth to the Athenian serpent-king Erechtheus.');
GodThing[131] = new CreateGod('Hera','@','Greek queen of heaven. Daughter of Kronos and Rhea. Sister and wife of Zeus. Mother of Ares, Hephaistos, Hebe and Eileithyia. Though widely worshipped throughout the Greek world, Hera was chiefly known as the jealous and often vindictive wife of the philandering Zeus. In her own right, she was worshipped as a goddess of marriage, of childbirth, and of the life of women in general. Her marriage was said to have resulted after Zeus seduced her in the form of a peacock, although in some versions it was Hera who seduced Zeus with the aid of a magic girdle. At Athens and Samos their marriage was celebrated as the hieros gamos (\"sacred marriage\"), even though the conduct of Zeus would seem to have made a mockery of this notion. The morality of Hera\'s conduct was also questionable by modern standards, as she mercilessly persecuted mortal women for the crime of having been raped by her husband. Her chief cult centre was at Argos, where the Heraeum boasted a statue of Hera in ivory and gold by Polycletus. Other important sanctuaries were at Athens and on Crete and Samos, although she had sanctuaries throughout the Greek world. A festival of women\'s games was also held in her honour every four years at Olympus. The cow and the peacock were sacred to her, and the apple and the pomegranate were her sacred fruits. She was often depicted as a matronly figure seated on a throne, bearing a diadem and a sceptre.');
GodThing[132] = new CreateGod('Herakles','Heracles, Roman Hercules','
Greek hero, worshipped as a deity. It has been variously speculated that the mythical Herakles may have derived from an actual Greek chieftain or shaman who protected his people from external dangers which later became the labours of Herakles. Some parallels can be seen with the Mesopotamian figures of Ninurta and Gilgamesh.
There are 6 Herakles in Greek mythology. The five not so famous ones are:
Heracles: one of the attendants of Rhea (see Dactyles).
Heracles: See Maceris in Pausinias Description of Greece 10.13.8,10.17.2.
The next Heracles was born very much earlier than the famous Heracles. But because both bore identical name the deeds of of the older Heracles were transferred to the famous Heracles. This older Heracles was son of Zeus and Lysithoe -- a girl raped by Zeus mentioned only Cicero in De Naturo Deos 3.42; and Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 5.76.2].
The next Heracles is said to have compiled the sacred books of Phrygia. He was the son of Nilus -one of the river gods again mentioned by Cicero in De Natura Deos 3.42].
Finally, the Heracles Son of Zeus and Asteria, was counted among the Titans (oddly enough). He was chiefly worshipped at Tyre, and had a daughter Carthago, counted among the Nymphs. again mentioned in De Natura by Cicero 42]
But the famous Herakles was the son of Zeus and Alkmene, and the husband of Megara and Deianeira and the lover of many many women.
Hera was very spiteful towards Herakles perhaps because Zeus supposedly brought Herakles to Olympus as an infant saying he had found this orphan. Hera breast fed the infant until she learned it was Herakles, whom she detested as another of the illegitimate offspring of Zeus. She pulled Herakles away from her breast and the gushing milk formed the Milky Way. Also his name (beloved of Hera) was a sarcastic jibe and she never forgave Alkmene for the slight.
Herakles was conceived by Zeus but at nearly the same time Eurystheus (also spelled Iphicles) was conceived in her womb by her husband Amphytrion. Eurystheus and Herakles are therefore twins. Hera retarded the birth of Herakles so that the prophecy of Zeus that the oldest son born of Alkmene would be king of Mycenae.
The jealous Hera sent two snakes to kill Herakles in his cradle, but the infant strangled them. Later Hera made him crazy and he strangled his wife Megara but when he recovered and overcame his remorse, he remarried.
While growing up he was taught to drive the chariot by Amphitryon, to wrestle by Autolycus, the art of archery by Eurytus , to fence by Castor, and to play the lyre by Linus. Unfortunately for Linus, one day Linus struck Herakles for punishment and Herakles struck Linus with the lyre killing him instantly.
As he grew older he received a sword from Hermes, bow and arrows from Apollo, a golden breastplate from Hephaestus, and a robe from Athena.
The first of his many lovers he had when he was still a older teenager. King Thespius of Thespiae in Boeotia entertained Heracles for fifty days and each night bedded one of his daughters with him. The children of Heracles by the daughters of Thespius were called Thespiades. Two of them remained in Thebes and seven in Thespiae. All the other Thespiades joined Iolaus in the founding of a colony in Sardinia.
Erginus was king of the Minyans. He imposed a tribute to the Thebans after his father was killed by Perieres. Heracles met the heralds on their way to Thebes to demand this tribute, and he cut off their ears, noses and hands, and send them back to Erginus. Indignant at this outrage, Erginus marched against Thebes. But Heracles, having received weapons from Athena and taken the command, killed Erginus, defeated the Minyans, and demanded to pay double the tribute to Thebes. In this war Amphitryon was killed. As a reward Thebes gave him Megara, daughter of the king of Thebes, Creon. His children were Therimachus, Deicoon, Creontiades and Ophites. To cleanse himself of the sin of killing all these children and his wife, the Delphi oracle sent him to labor under King Eurystheus (his twin brother) for 12 years.
Each year he performed a labour, and together they were:
(1) the slaying of the Nemean lion,Having completed the twelve labours, Herakles went on to have many more battles and escapades. It was also during this latter period that he wed Deianeira. On the way home, the centaur Nessus tried to rape her, and Herakles shot him with a poisoned arrow. The dying centaur told Deianeira to preserve some of the blood from his wound, as it had the power of making whomever she wished fall in love with her. Some years later, Herakles fell in love with Iole. Deianeira devised a robe with some of the centaur\'s blood smeared on it and sent it to Herakles, thinking to win back his love. Instead, the blood poisoned Herakles, causing a painful death. His body was burned on a pyre on Mt. Oita. After his death, Herakles was deified and given the task of guarding the gates to Olympus. There he became the consort of the goddess Hebe. The cult of Herakles was widespread, and he had sanctuaries on Thasos and Mt. Oita, where sacrificial fire festivals were held every four years to commemorate his death. The Dorian kings regarded Herakles as their ancestral god. He was commonly depicted wearing the skin of the Nemean lion, bearing either a bow or a club, or performing one of his labours.
(2) the slaying of the Lernaean Hydra,
(3) the capture of the Arcadian stag,
(4) the destruction of the Erymanthian boar,
(5) the cleansing of the Augean stables,
(6) the shooting of the man-eating birds of the Stymphalian marshes,
(7) the capture of the Cretan bull,
(8) the capture of the man-eating horses of Diomedes,
(9) the theft of the girdle of the Amazon queen Hippolyta,
(10) the capture of the cattle of Geryon,
(11) the acquisition of the golden apples of the Hesperides, and
(12) the capture of Cerberus.
The twelfth Labour which Eurystheus imposed on Heracles was to bring Cerberus from Hades [see Cerberus for a description of this peculiar dog]. Before performing this Labour Heracles went to Eleusis to be initiated and later he descended to Hades in Taenarum in Laconia. In Hades he saw Theseus, who was not supposed to be there yet, and he rescued him. When Heracles asked Hades for Cerberus, Hades told him to take it provided he mastered him without any weapons. Heracles flung his arms round Cerberus head (one of them!), and though the dragon in the dog\'s tail bit him, he did not released the beast. Having ascended in Troezen, he showed Cerberus to Eurystheus and carried him back to Hades.
Adephagos (the glutton) was a name for Herakles because of two incidents where he ate one, in one case even two oxen at a single meal.
Sources:Apollodorus.2.4.12, 2.7.7ff. , 2.8.3; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica.4.538; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities.1.27.1, 1.32.1,1.40.2, 1.43.1, 1.50.4; Dio.4.36.3, 4.37.2, 4.37.4, 5.24.2, 5.59.5; Euripides, Heraclides.210; Euripides, Heracles. passim; Herodotus, History.1.7, 1.94, 4.10; Hesiod, Theogony.315, Hesiod, Catalogues of Women and Eoiae.98; Homer, The Iliad.2.653; Homer, The Odyssey.11.601, 11.617ff; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica.2.6, 2.14, 2.15, 2.22, 2.24; Hyginus, Fabulae.14, 29, 72, 162, 219, 224 , 274; Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances.30.1-2; Pausinias.1.5.2, 1.32.6, 1.35.8, 2.6.6, 2.19.1, 2.21.3, 8.12.2-4, 8.24.2; Plutarch, Moralia (Greek Questions). .37; Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy.6.136; 5.645; Sophocles, Trachiniae.19, 61, 749ff. and passim; Statius Thebiad 5.442, 6.346, 6.837, 10.249; Strabo 5.2.2, 8.3.5, 8.3.30; Virgil Aenied 7.659. '); GodThing[133] = new CreateGod('Hermanubis','@','Syncretic deity combining the Greek Hermes with the Egyptian Anubis.'); GodThing[134] = new CreateGod('Hermaphroditos','Hermaphroditus','Greek androgynous deity. The cult of Hermaphroditos appeared first in Cyprus, but never became prominent in the rest of the Greek world until the Hellenistic period. Originally the son of Hermes and Aphrodite. The Naiad Salmakis (associated with a fountain of the same name in Caria, a region of Anatolia) fell so passionately in love with him that their bodies merged into one. In some versions, it was her entreaties to the gods that finally resulted in their becoming one being.'); GodThing[135] = new CreateGod('Hermes','@','Greek messenger of the gods. Son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. He was believed to have been born on Mt. Cyllene in Arcadia. His cult seems to have originated in Arcadia, where he was a god of fertility depicted in ithyphallic images. His name probably derives from hermaion (pl. herma), the Greek word for a pile of stones used to mark boundaries or as landmarks erected to guide travellers. Stone pillars called hermen were also erected in front of Greek houses, and Hermes was supposed to dwell in these pillars, guarding over the houses. Thus Hermes was considered a god of travellers and merchants, of roads and of doorways. Paradoxically, he was also a patron of thieves and gamblers, and of good fortune. In his capacity as messenger of the gods he was depicted with a broad-brimmed hat (petasus) appropriate for travel, winged sandals (talaria), and a herald\'s staff entwined with snakes (kerykeion, Latin caduceus). Hermes is credited with the invention of the lyre (kithara) and with the invention of fire. These feats he performed on the day of his birth, in addition to the theft of Apollo\'s cattle. His personality had much mischief and trickery about it. He also had the typical sexual appetites of a Greek god. Among the many errands the gods entrusted him with, it was Hermes who was sent to retrieve both Persephone and Eurydice from the underworld. He had many epithets, including Epimelios (guardian of flocks), Nomios (also a reference to his role as guardian of flocks), Hodios (patron of travellers). He was also known as Oneiropompos (conductor of dreams) and Psychopompos (leader of souls in the underworld) in his roles as god of dreams and of passage to the afterlife. In his role as god of doorways he was known as Pylaios or Propylaios. In his capacity as \"the good shepherd\", he was depicted carrying a sheep on his shoulders, with the epithet of Kriophoros (ram-bearer). In earlier Greek art, he was depicted as bearded, wearing a long tunic, and equipped with his cap, winged sandals and staff (the kerykeion). Later, he came to be portrayed as a beardless youth.'); GodThing[136] = new CreateGod('Hermes Trismegistos','@','Greek name for Thoth.'); GodThing[137] = new CreateGod('Heros','@','Thracian deity.'); GodThing[138] = new CreateGod('Hesperides','@','Greek nymphs who guarded the tree of the golden apples. According to Hesiod, they were the daughters of Erebos and Nyx (night). Other accounts make them the daughters of Atlas and Pleione, Atlas and Hesperis, Phorkys and Ceto, or of Hesperos. Their names were most commonly given as Aegle, Erytheia, and Hesperia (or Arethusa).'); GodThing[139] = new CreateGod('Hippolytus','@','Minor Greek god.'); GodThing[140] = new CreateGod('Horai','Horae','The Seasons. Greek goddesses associated with the three Greek seasons: spring, summer and winter. Daughters of Zeus and Themis. Their names were Eunomia (good order), Dike (justice), and Eirene (peace). The Athenians recognized only two Horai: Thallo,associated with the blossoms of spring, and Karpo, associated with the ripened fruit of summer or autumn. The Horai were honoured in the annual festival known as the Horaia. The Horai eventually developed into the four modern seasons.'); GodThing[141] = new CreateGod('Hesperos','Hesperus, Roman Vesper','Greek god of the evening star. In some versions, the father of the Hesperides.'); GodThing[142] = new CreateGod('Hestia','Roman Vesta','Greek goddess of fire and the hearth. Daughter of Kronos and Rhea. She remained a virgin all her life, on the assumption that she was wedded to the sacred hearth fire. Her worship was largely focused on household hearths, but public cults later emerged at the civic hearth. Small offerings of food and drink were typically made at household hearths before meals.'); GodThing[143] = new CreateGod('Hyakinthos','Hyacinthus','Commonly known as a hero from Greek myth, but generally believed to have originated as an ancient pre-Hellenic god, probably of vegetation. In the Greek legend, Hyakinthos was loved by Apollo,who accidentally killed him with a discus. This would suggest that Hyakinthos was originally a dying god like Adonis or the Mesopotamian Dumuzi whose death and resurrection symbolized the natural cycle of cereal vegetation. At Amyklai in Sparta Hyakinthos was regarded as a deified hero well into the Hellenic period. There he was worshipped in an annual festival, the Hyakinthia, where the worshippers passed from mourning for Hyakinthos to celebration for Apollo - certainly suggestive of a rite associated with cereal vegetation where the dead plant gives new life through its seed.'); GodThing[144] = new CreateGod('Hygieia','Hygeia','Greek goddess of health. Daughter of Asklepios, the god of healing. Some later writers made her the consort of Asklepios. Her sacred animal was the snake, depicted drinking from a saucer or other drinking vessel held in her hand. Her worship spread to Rome in 293 BC, where she came to be identified with Salus.'); GodThing[145] = new CreateGod('Hymen','Hymenaios, Hymenaeus','Greek god of marriage. He was traditionally said to be the son of Apollo and a Muse, while later writers made him the son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. He was invoked at weddings in the marriage song. He was depicted as a winged youth bearing a wedding torch and a garland.'); GodThing[146] = new CreateGod('Hyperion','@','Greek god of light. One of the Titans, son of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Theia. Father of Helios (sun) and Selene (moon). Hyperion may have been little more than a personification of the sun or an epithet of Helios.'); GodThing[147] = new CreateGod('Hypnos','Roman Somnus','Greek god of sleep. Son of Erebos and Nyx (night). Brother of Thanatos (death).'); GodThing[148] = new CreateGod('Iakchos','Iacchus','Minor Greek deity associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries. He was considered the son of Demeter or Persephone. Possibly the husband of Demeter. In the mysteries, his name was invoked in connection with those of Demeter and Persephone. Some believe Iakchos to be identical with Dionysos (as Bacchus) or Zagreus. He was depicted bearing a torch and leading the participants in the mysteries.'); GodThing[149] = new CreateGod('Iapetus','Iapetos','Greek Titan.'); GodThing[150] = new CreateGod('Ilythia','@','Greek goddess of childbirth.'); GodThing[151] = new CreateGod('Ino','@','Greek heroine who raised the infant Dionysos while herself a child. Later, Hera drove Ino and her husband Athamas mad, and Ino leaped to her death in the sea, carrying her son Melicertes. She was elevated to the rank of sea goddess under the name of Leukothea, and Melicertes became Palaemon.'); GodThing[152] = new CreateGod('Io','@','Greek priestess of Hera.'); GodThing[153] = new CreateGod('Iris','\"Rainbow\"',' Greek goddess of the rainbow, and messenger of the gods. She was particularly the agent of Hera. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of the Titan Thaumas and the nymph Electra. Also in Hesiod, it was her task to draw water from the River Styx which the gods used whenever declaring a solemn oath. She was depicted with wings and her attributes included a herald\'s staff and a water pitcher.'); GodThing[154] = new CreateGod('Kabeiroi','Kabiroi, Latin: Cabeiri','Greek fertility gods whose cult involved the celebration of mysteries typically associated with vegetation deities. They originated in Greek Anatolia, possibly in Phrygia, and subsequently spread to the islands of the Aegean, to Macedonia, and to northern and central Greece. In classical times they numbered two, though their numbers seem to have varied over time. They included the gods Axiocersus and his son Cadmilus. A female pair were also mentioned, Axierus and Axiocersa, although their role was of secondary importance. Their cult was particularly prominent on the islands of Lemnos and Samothrace, where their mysteries displayed an Orphic influence.
The Kabiroi are the children of Hephaestus and Kabiro, a Thracian woman, daughter of Proteus, the seer who is known as the Old Man of the Sea. The known names of the KabiroI are Alcon and Eurymedon. Three of them, unnamed, are said to be the children of Cadmilus, who is also a son of Hephaestus and Kabiro. But Stabo said that the Corybantes, and Kabiroi are sons of Zeus and Calliope. The Nymbs Cabiroides are the daughters of the Cabiroi, though three of them are said to be the children of Hephaestus and Kabiro. The Kabiroi were honored in Imbros, Lemnos, and some other cities of the Trojans.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities 1.23.5; Herodotus, History 3.37; Nonnus 14.19; Strabo Geography 10.3.21. '); GodThing[155] = new CreateGod('Ker','pl. Keres, Cer','In Greek belief, a destructive or malevolent female spirit of the dead. Although some sources seem refer to a single Ker, the more common belief was in a host of Keres. They were said to be the daughters of Nyx and Erebos. In the Attic festival of the Anthesteria, the spirits of the dead, or Keres, were driven from the house.'); GodThing[156] = new CreateGod('Klio','Latin Clio','Greek muse of history.'); GodThing[157] = new CreateGod('Kolanthes','@','Greco-Roman Egyptian god.'); GodThing[158] = new CreateGod('Kore','@','Greek: \'girl\', alias of Persephone.'); GodThing[159] = new CreateGod('Korybantes','@','Demonic companions of Phrygian Kybele.'); GodThing[160] = new CreateGod('Kouretes','Kuretes, Curetes','Semidivine beings who were believed to have been early inhabitants of Crete. It was the Kouretes who prevented Kronos from discovering the hidden infant Zeus by dancing and clashing their weapons to prevent his cries from being heard. They were often equated with the Korybantes. The Kouretes may have had their origin as worshippers of Zeus Kouros (Zeus as a young man), perhaps dating back to Minoan times.'); GodThing[161] = new CreateGod('Kratos','@','\"Power\". Greek god of strength. Brother of Bia (force).'); GodThing[162] = new CreateGod('Kronos','Cronos, Chronos, Cronus','Primeval Greek god of time and a former supreme god. One of the Titans. Son of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Rhea. Father of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades and Hestia. Little worshipped by the Greeks, Kronos may represent the vestiges of a pre-Hellenic god. The worship that was accorded him was generally associated with agriculture, such as the Attican harvest festival of the Kronia. Kronos overthrew his father Ouranos, castrating him with a sickle for good measure, perhaps as a symbolic separation of heaven and earth. Fearing that his own children might do the same to him,he proceeded to swallow them. Zeus, however, was saved by Rhea, who hid him in Crete and tricked Kronos into swallowing a stone wrapped in infant\'s clothing. When Zeus reached maturity, he forced Kronos to disgorge his brothers and sisters, then hurled him into Tartaros. Subsequently, Kronos remained a prisoner in Tartaros,although some accounts make him the king of the Golden Age. He was generally depicted with a sickle and an hourglass. Known to the Romans as Saturn.'); GodThing[163] = new CreateGod('Lachesis','@','One of the Greek Moirai , or Fates. According to Hesiod, the Moirai were daughters of Zeus and Themis. Lachesis was the \"caster of lots\" and it was she who spun out the thread of life.'); GodThing[164] = new CreateGod('Lada','@','Lycian mother or fertility goddess who was the probable original of the Greek Leto.'); GodThing[165] = new CreateGod('Ladon','@','Greek snake protector of the Golden Apples of Hera, and offspring of Gaia. Ladon was also to ensure that the Hesperides who lived under the tree did not eat the apples.'); GodThing[166] = new CreateGod('Lamia','@','A female demon in Greek belief who devoured children. According to some sources she was a queen of Libya who fell in love with Zeus. The jealous Hera deformed her and killed her children. Lamia then turned to hunting and devouring children whom she lured away from their parents. Alternatively, she took on the form of a beautiful woman, enticing young men whom she would subsequently devour.'); GodThing[167] = new CreateGod('Leda','@','Former Anatolian mother goddess. In Hesiod, taking the beliefs of the Spartans, said that Leda was mortal wife to King of Sparta, Tyndareus. Zeus was enamoured by Leda and seduced her, but in the form of a swan in an attempt to hide what he was doing from his very jealous wife-sister Hera. Leda gave birth to two eggs from which hatched Helen and Clytemnrdra, sisters and from the other egg, Polydeuces and Castor.'); GodThing[168] = new CreateGod('Lethe','@','Greek nymph associated with the underworld river of the same name. Daughter of Eris (strife). The Lethe was the river of forgetfulness or oblivion.'); GodThing[169] = new CreateGod('Leto','Latin Latona','Greek Titaness and possible mother goddess. Daughter of Coeus (Kois) and Phoebe. Mother of Apollo and Artemis by Zeus. Leto appears to have been derived from a Lycian goddess named Lada, and she had cults of local importance in Lycia and at Phaistos on Crete.
Because of her siring Apollo and Artemis the Romans particularly liked to create stories about her.
She was said to have played the lute for the Olympians. And after Zeus seduced her and impregnated her Leto had a long journey because of the jealous rage of Hera. Hera pursued her from Olympus into Asia Minor, harrassing her all the way.
She passed through Crete, Athens, to Aegina, Athos and Mount Pelion. Then to the Samos, and Peparethus and to Mount Ida. Still further to the city of Phocaea, Imbros island and to Lemnos, Lesbos, Chios and to Mount Mimas. Still fleeing (9 months is a long time), she also passed through Cos, Cnidos, Naxos, Parosand finally Delos, the ones of the Cyclades Islands where she gave birth to the twins.(whew).
Poseiden protected her by covering the island in waves for a while. Her sisters and cousins attended the birth: Rhea, Themis and Amphritite and eventually Ilithyia. As soon as Illythia appeared Leto holding herself steady with a fierce grip on a olive (or palm) tree gave brith to the twins: Artemis first then Apollo. The Curetes in the grove above Leto made lots of noise to distract Hera.
Leto arrived at a place in Asia Minor where the mean spirited villagers refused to let her drink from their lake and instead stirred up the mud by splashing in it. In return for their spite she turned them all into frogs so they could live happily splashing away in the lake for ever.
Apollo and Artemis avenge Leto by killing Phylos the dragon and Tityus the giant both (some say) sent by Hera. Less fairly Leto incited Artemis and Apollo against Niobe who claimed her children were better than those of Leto. Artemis killed all of Niobe\'s female children except for Chloris (who appealed for help from Leto, and Leto was always softhearted and granted any appeal to her). Apollo killed of the Niobe\'s male children, none of whom asked for help from Leto.
During the Trojan war Leto side with the Trojans
Apollodorus 1.2.2, 1.4.1; Col.35; Hesiod Theogony 404, 918; Homeric Hymn to Apollo 3.15, 3.62; Homer Odyssey 11.580; Ovid Metamorphes 6.185ff., 6.339ff.; Hyginus Fabulae 140; Strabo Geography 10.5.2, 14.1.20'); GodThing[170] = new CreateGod('Leukothea','Leucothea','\"White Goddess\". Greek sea goddess. The name given to the deified Ino. Daughter of Cadmus. As Ino, she had been the wife of Athamas. Having been driven mad by Hera in punishment for raising the infant Dionysos, Ino leapt to her death in the sea along with her son Melicertes. She was popular among sailors and fishermen. Believed to help sailors in distress, she was first mentioned in the Odyssey where she saved Odysseus from drowning.'); GodThing[171] = new CreateGod('Logos','@','\"Word\" or \"Reason\". For some Stoics of the Hellenistic age, Logos was the divine personification of the reason or plan underlying the cosmos. It was Philo of Alexandria (1st century AD) who first conceived of Logos in anthropomorphic terms. The Christians subsequently picked up the term and used it to refer to the \"Word\" which was made flesh in Jesus Christ.'); GodThing[172] = new CreateGod('Maia','@','Greek mother of Hermes fathered by Zeus. She was the most oldest and most beautiful of the Pleiade sisters. She was daughter of the Titans Atlas and Pleione (an Oceanid).Zeus had sex with her and she bore Hermes in a cave in Mount Cyllene of Arcadia. She defended her prodigy of a son against Apollo who knew that the prodigy had stolen some of his cattle. However as Hermes had made a lyre from a tortoise shell Apollo not only forgave him but gave his his cadeaus (cattle prod) and his godhood. Also he made Hermes member of the inner circle of gods, the Olympiads. Maia did alright but not much more is mentioned about her. The Romans named their 3rd month after her, and the pagans in the north celebrated the first day of this month as Beltaine. As the festival was about fertility Maia was then associated with fertility and rebirth. Something the Greeks never did associate her with.
[Apollodorus 3.8.2, 3.10.1-2; Hesiod Theogony 938; Ovid Fasti 4.174, 5.85; Virgil Aenid 8.140 '); GodThing[173] = new CreateGod('Medeia','Latin Medea','Likely she was a version of an ancient Thracian goddess. However anyone who knows Greek mythology knows the story of Medeia from a play of that name by Euripides.
Medea was a Colchian princess and priestess of Hecate. Colchis was a kingdom on the north east shore of the Caspian sea, nestled under the Caucasian mountains. She is called daughter of this goddess by Pindar, but Hesiod say that her mother was the Oceanid Idyia. Apparently her father Aeetes, son of Helius & Perseis (Perseis is one of the Oceanids) was once king of Ephyraea (Corinth) before he emigrated to Colchis, which makes Colchis a Greek colony. Aeetes is brother of Pasiphae, the wife of King Minos of Crete, and also he is the brother of Circe. Aeetes ruled in the city of Aea in Colchis.
When the Argonauts came to Aea in Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece she fell in love with the captain of the Argo, Jason, and helped him to get the Golden Fleece against the will of her father. In order to do this she, with the help of drugs, put to sleep the Ladon, offspring of Gaia, which guarded the Golden Fleece. Because of this and because of her love for Jason she fled from Colchis with the Argonauts.
During the flight she is said to have killed or have taken part in the murder of her brother Apsyrtus. As King Aeetes started off in pursuit of Medea and the Argonauts, she then murdered her brother and cut him limb from limb throwing the pieces into the sea. So, gathering Apsyrtus\' limbs, Aeetes fell behind in the pursuit. But Nonnus said that it was Jason who cut him into pieces, or after Cicero that Apsyrtus was, with Medea\'s help, treacherously killed by Jason on an island in the mouth of the river Ister (the Danube).
Still during their flight, the Argonauts and Medea came to Phaeacia (Corcyra). King Alcinous of the Phaeacians received them and protected Medea. The Colchians demanded of Alcinous that he should give her up. He answered that if she already had sex with Jason, he would give let her stay in his kingdom, but that if she were still a maid he would send her away to her father. However his wife Queen Arete anticipated matters by marrying Medea to Jason in the cave of Macris.
When they reached Crete, Medea was instrumental in destroying the bronze protector of Crete, Talos. Talos had been given to Europa by Zeus to guard Crete from intruders. However Medea found that there was a nail in the ankle of this Cyborg. Pulling it out the creature died as his life blood flowed out.
Leaving Crete the Argonauts went on to destroy Pelias. Medea told his daughters to chop into fine pieces and boil the chunks. Medeia would then restore the father to life. The father stayed dead. And as a reward for this gruesome party trick, his son Acastus became king shortly afterward he drove the Argonauts out of his kingdom.
Jason and Medeia then went to Cornith and lived happily for three years. Jason, unfortunately, divorced Medeia in order to marry Glauce, daughter of the King of Corinth, named Creon. Naturally this led to more bloodshed, and although there is different versions of the details, basically Medeia killed Glauce, Creon, Jason, and the two children she had had by him, Mermerus and Pheres.
Most people, born to kill like this would consider this a complete story. However the writers were not finished with her. She went to Athens from Corinth, and there she married the king Aegeus and had a son Medus. Another son of Aegeus, Theseus, returned and although Medeia tried to poison him to ensure he sons succession to the throne, she failed, and had to flee, and she fled to her original home Colchis. There she found her father had been displaced by his brother Perses. Naturally she poisoned him, and her son Medus became king.
There are different versions but none of the stories say how she died, or if she ever died. Perhaps this serial killer is still stalking the land. '); GodThing[174] = new CreateGod('Melete','@','Boeotian Muse of practice. The other Boeotian Muses were Aoide (Aeode) and Mneme.'); GodThing[175] = new CreateGod('Melicertes','@','Greek Palaemon adopted from the Phoenican Melkart.'); GodThing[176] = new CreateGod('Melpomene','@','Greek Muse of tragedy. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Her attributes include the tragic mask and the cothurnus (pl. cothurni), the boots traditionally worn by tragic actors.'); GodThing[177] = new CreateGod('Mese','@','In Greek mythology, the Delphic Muse associated with the middle string of the lyre. The other Delphic Muses were Hypate and Nete.'); GodThing[178] = new CreateGod('Metis','@','Greek goddess of wisdom. Daughter of Okeanos and Tethys. The first wife of Zeus whom he swallowed when he discovered that she was pregnant, fearing that she might give birth to a son mightier than he. Subsequently, Athena sprang fully armed from the head of Zeus. Metis is thus given as the mother of Athena, although some sources consider that, given the circumstances, Athena was the daughter of Zeus alone.'); GodThing[179] = new CreateGod('Minos','@','One of the three Greek judges of the underworld, along with Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. He was originally a king of Crete. His cult involved the worship of bulls or of Minos in the form of a bull.'); GodThing[180] = new CreateGod('Mneme','@','Boeotian Muse of memory. The other Boeotian Muses were Aoide (Aeode) and Melete.'); GodThing[181] = new CreateGod('Mnemosyne','@','Greek goddess of memory. According to Hesiod, mother of the nine Muses by Zeus. One of the Titans. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth).'); GodThing[182] = new CreateGod('Mnevis','Egyptian Mnewer','Sacred bull of Heliopolis.'); GodThing[183] = new CreateGod('Moira','@','Greek divine personification of fate, to whom even the gods were subject.'); GodThing[184] = new CreateGod('Moirai','Moires, Moirae','The Greek Fates. According to Hesiod, the daughters of Zeus and Themis. They were Atropos (the unbending, or the inevitable),Clotho (the spinner), and Lachesis (the caster of lots). As determiners of fate, they had supremacy even over the gods. Clotho spun out the thread of life, Lachesis determined its length, and Atropos cut it, resulting in death. The Romans called them the Parcae.'); GodThing[185] = new CreateGod('Momos','Momus','Greek personification of blame, censure. According to Hesiod, the son of Erebos and Nyx. A god of fault-finding and criticism, he was eventually banished from Olympus for mocking the other gods. '); GodThing[186] = new CreateGod('Moros','@','According to the ancient writer Hesiod, Moros was the son of Erebus and Nyx. Brother of Thanatos. Moros was the god of doom. Moros is doom in ancient Greek but in modern Greek it means foolish and that meaning is derived from moro meaning child. Some have taken doom to mean destiny but the fate of all creatures is usually assigned to the Moirai. Parents have been known to use this god to frighten their children. '); GodThing[187] = new CreateGod('Medusa','@','One of the Graii, but unlike them she was very beautiful but her vanity caused her to say she was more beautiful than Athena who made Medusa mortal unlike her sisters. To be nastier Athena also changed her hair into live snakes, and set a curse on her so when someone looked at Medusa they were to be turned into stone. The horse Pegesus is her offspring when she mated with Poseidon (before she offended Athena). There is also the famous story of Perseus slaying Medusa which is in Thomas Bulfinch\'s Mythology.'); GodThing[188] = new CreateGod('Morpheus','@','Greek god of dreams. Son of Hypnos, the god of sleep. His name derives from the Greek morphe (form, shape), and he was responsible for shaping dreams, or giving shape to the beings which inhabit dreams. See Oneiroi'); GodThing[189] = new CreateGod('Muses','Mousai, Moisai, Musae','Greek goddess of the arts and sciences. Nine in number. Hesiod was the first to give them individual identities, and gave their parents as Zeus and Mnemosyne. They included Calliope (epic poetry), Clio (history), Erato (love poetry), Euterpe (lyric poetry), Melpomene (tragedy), Polyhymnia (song), Terpsichore (dance), Thalia (comedy), and Urania (astronomy).'); GodThing[190] = new CreateGod('Doris','@','Greek sea goddess. Daughter of Okeanos and Tethys (see also Okeaninai). Doris was the mother of the Nereids.'); GodThing[191] = new CreateGod('Euros','Eurus','Greek god of the east wind. Son of Eos, possibly by Astraeus. Sometimes equated by the Romans with Voltumus,the god of the River Tiber.'); GodThing[192] = new CreateGod('Himeros','Himerus','Greek god of desire.'); GodThing[193] = new CreateGod('Naiads','Naiades','Greek nymphs of freshwater: lakes, rivers, springs and fountains. They were depicted as beautiful women, and believed to be long-lived, but not immortal.'); GodThing[194] = new CreateGod('Narisah','@','Manichaean \'god of the world of light\'.'); GodThing[195] = new CreateGod('Nemesis','@','Greek goddess of justice and vengeance. She was essentially an abstraction, although she is given as the daughter of Erebos and Nyx. She was responsible for punishing human misconduct and arrogance (hubris). One of the legends associated with her, that of her rape by Zeus in the form of a swan, by whom she subsequently gave birth to Helen, probably refers to a separate goddess who is the deified form of Leda. The cult of Nemesis was particularly prominent at Rhamnus in Attica and at Smyrna.'); GodThing[196] = new CreateGod('Nereids','@','Greek sea (Mediterranean) nymphs and attendants of Poseidon. Daughters of the sea god and the Oceanid Doris. The most famous Nereids were Amphitrite and Thetis. They all inherited the ability of their father to shape shift into different animals.'); GodThing[197] = new CreateGod('Nereus','@','Greek god of the sea. Son of Pontos and Gaia. Father of the Nereids by the Oceanid Doris. He was believed to live with the Nereids in the depths of the Aegean Sea. Homer referred to him as the \"Old Man of the Sea\". He was noted for his wisdom, his skill in prophecy, and for the ability to change his own shape. Herakles forced Nereus to divulge the location of the golden apples of the Hesperides by wrestling with Nereus in his many forms.
[Apollodorus The Library.1.2.6-7, 2.5.11; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.772; Euripides, Orestes.362; Hesiod Theogony 233].'); GodThing[198] = new CreateGod('Nete','@','Delphic Muse of the low note of the lyre. The other Delphic Muses were Hypate and Mese.'); GodThing[199] = new CreateGod('Nike','@','Greek goddess of victory. First mentioned in Hesiod\'s Theogony. She was the daughter of the giant Pallas and the underworld river Styx.
She seems originally to have been an attribute of Zeus or Athena (e.g.:Athena Nike), in which capacity she was wingless and often depicted as a small figure held in the hand of either deity. As an dependent deity, she was depicted as winged and bearing the laurel wreath which was delivered to the victor in a competition,whether in war, sport, artistic contests or any other endeavour. However, she was never entirely independent, as she remained the personification of victory delivered by Zeus or Athena.
She was known to the Romans as Victoria.
Apollodorus Library 1.2.5; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities 1.33.1; Hesiod Theogony 384; Homeric Hymns to Ares 8.4; Nonnus 2.205, 2.358, 2.418, 2.701, 5.108, 39.386; Sophocles Antigone 148.'); GodThing[200] = new CreateGod('Notos','Notus','Greek god of the south wind. In Greece, the south wind blows mainly in the autumn. Son of Astraeus and Eos. Brother of the other Winds (qv). Known to the Romans as Auster.'); GodThing[201] = new CreateGod('Nymphs','@','In Greek mythology, a class of female nature deities. They were usually associated with the fertile aspects of nature and with water. They were believed to be long-lived but not immortal. They were generally considered to be beneficent rather than destructive,and well disposed toward humans. The nymphs were commonly grouped into an array of subtypes:
- Oceanids (nymphs of the ocean),
- Nereids (Mediterreanan sea nymphs),
- Naiads (freshwater nymphs),
- Dryads or Hamadryads (associated with forests and trees, particularly tall trees including oak [which is what dryad means in Greek] trees. If the trees were fruit trees then they might be called Melidae, Meliades, or Hamamelides.),
- Heliads (ash tree nymphs)
- Heleads (Nymphs of the Fens)
- Oreads (mountain nymphs),
- Napaeae (nymphs of valleys),
- Epimeliads - (nymphs who protected sheep)
...In Troy\'s last hour...Electra shrouded her form in mist and cloud, and left the Pleiad-band...Still rises up...their bright troop in the skies; but she alone hides viewless ever since the town of her son Dardanus in ruin fell... [Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 13.555]
- Alcyone-had sex with Poseidon and had Aethusa (who had sex with Apollo), Hyrieus who had sex and fathered Orion, and finally the sons Hyperenor and Anthas who both founded cities so they must of had lots of sex.
[Apollodorus 3.10.1; Ovid Fasti 4.173] Pau.2.30.8. - Celaeno who also had sex with Poseidon and had Lycus, Nycteus and Euphemus all of whom no doubt had sex.
[Apollodorus 3.10.1; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Hyginus, Fabulae 157; Ovid Fasti 4.173] - Electra had sex with Zeus (for a change) and does not appear in the sky because one of her sons by Zeus (Dardanus, founder of the city of Troy) was killed in the Trojan war and she is therefore in perpetual mourning. Her other offspring was Harmonia, Iason (had sex with Demeter often), and Emathion (eventually king of Samothrace).
Apollodorus 3.10.1, 3.12.1; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 5.48.2; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Hyginus Fabulae 192; Nonnus 3.186, 3.332ff.; Ovid Fasti.4.31, 4.174-177; Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 13.552ff. - Maia-see separate description of this oldest of the sisters.
- Merope- Some say this is the one which cannot be seen as she married a mortal and afterward so ashamed of it (her being the youngest is no excuse) that she hides herself in the sky.
Sisyphus (see his entry) is the mortal and the offspring are Alcus, Glaucus (father of Bellephone) and Thersander
[Apollodorus 3.10.1; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Ovid Fasti 4.175; Pausinias 9.34.7-10. ] - Sterope who had more sexual partners than the other sisters. She had Oenomaus with Ares, and Hippodamia, Leucippus, and Dysponteus all from incestuous relationships with her son Aenomaus.
[Apollodorus 3.10.1; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Hyginus Fabulae 14; Ovid Fasti 4.172; Pausinias 6.22.4, 20.1.1. ] - Taygete consecrated Artemis the Cerynitian Hind with the golden horns that Heracles obtained.
She had sex with Zeus and their offspring Lacedaemon married Sparta.
[Apollodorus 3.10.1; Hyginus Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Nonnus 32.65; Ovid Fasti 4.174; Pindar Olympian (Odes). 3.28; Virgil, Georgics 4.231]
This page describes their myths.'); GodThing[227] = new CreateGod('Plutos','Plutus','\"Riches\". Greek god of wealth and abundance. Primarily a god of agricultural wealth. According to Hesiod, he was the son of Demeter and the Titan Iasion, and was born in Crete. Plutos was said to have been blinded by Zeus so that he might dispense his riches indiscriminately, although this seems to have been derived from a comedy by Aristophanes. He had a temple at Eleusis, and was worshipped in the Eleusinian Mysteries along with Demeter and Persephone. Depicted as a boy with a cornucopia.'); GodThing[228] = new CreateGod('Podaleirios','@','Minor Greek god of healing. Son of Asklepios. He was a doctor in the Greek army which besieged Troy. He was known as the \"Great Healer\" in Greek Anatolia and Thessaly.'); GodThing[229] = new CreateGod('Pluton','Pluto','An epithet of the Greek god of the underworld, Hades .'); GodThing[230] = new CreateGod('Polyhymnia','Polhymnia, Polymnia','Greek Muse of song. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. According to some traditions, she was the mother of Orpheus by Oeagrus.'); GodThing[231] = new CreateGod('Pontos','Pontus','\"Sea\". Greek sea god. Son of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). He may be identical with Okeanos (qv). His mother Gaia became his consort for a time, producing the sea gods Nereus and Phorkys.'); GodThing[232] = new CreateGod('Poseidon','@','Greek god of the sea. Son of Kronos and Rhea. He and his siblings were swallowed by Kronos, but they were later rescued by their brother Zeus. The brothers Zeus, Poseidon and Hades later divided the world among themselves, with Poseidon receiving dominion over the sea. His chief consort was Amphitrite. Father of Antaios,Orion and Polyphemos. Poseidon was secondarily a god of mariners (to whom he may send storms or a fair voyage), of waters in general, and of earthquakes. In the latter capacity he was known as Enosigaios or Enosichthon, meaning \"earth-shaker\".Athena defeated Poseidon in their famous contest for the allegiance of Athens. While Poseidon offered humanity the boon of the horse, Athena offered the olive. Elsewhere, he helped Apollo build the walls of Troy. However, he became an implacable enemy of Troy after Laomedon refused to pay him, and he sided with the Greeks in the Trojan War.Poseidon was closely associated with horses as Hippios (\"of horses\"), and the horse was sacred to him. He fathered many famous horses, including the winged Pegasus by the Gorgon Medusa, and another winged horse, Areon, by Erinys. In Corinth, horse-races were held in his honour. On Argos horses were sacrificed to him by drowning in a whirlpool.Poseidon was generally depicted as an older, bearded man carrying a trident (the three-pronged fisherman\'s spear). There were temples at Cape Sunium, the southern-most tip of Greece, at Pylos in Crete, and Mount Mykale in Greek Anatolia. Freshwater springs were often consecrated to Poseidon as well. As an oracular deity, he had an oracle at Cape Tainairon and, according to one tradition, he was the first keeper of the oracle at Delphi. Regattas were held in his honour off Cape Sunium. Poseidon\'s chief festival was the Isthmia, scene of the Isthmian Games, celebrated near the Isthmus of Corinth.
His offspring are legion: See Children of Poseidon
Sources:Apollodorus 1.2.1; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 5.69.4; Euripides, Daughters of Troy passim; Hesiod Theogony 453ff.; Homer Iliad15.187ff.; Nonnus 43.394ff.; Ovid Metamorphes 8.850; Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus 712.'); GodThing[233] = new CreateGod('Priapos','Priapus','Greek god of fertility. Son of Dionysos and Aphrodite. His cult originated in Phrygia and did not enter Greece proper until the rise of Macedonia under Phillip and Alexander. The cult remained most popular in Greek Anatolia, particularly at Lampsacus on the Hellespont, which was said to have been his birthplace. He was more popular in the country than in the cities. Priapos was depicted as an ugly, satyr-like man with an enormous phallus. His fertility aspect evidenced itself in an indiscriminate sexual appetite, as well as in his role as a god of fruitfulness, notably of gardens, flocks of sheep and goats, and of vines. Ithyphallic statues of Priapos were often placed in gardens. The donkey was his sacred animal, from its presumed sexual appetite. He was also a patron of seafarers and fishermen.'); GodThing[234] = new CreateGod('Prometheus','@','\"Forethought\". Greek god and culture hero. Son of the Titan Iapetos and Klymene. Prometheus is best known for the story of his conflict with Zeus. This began when Prometheus tricked Zeus into accepting the bones and fat of a sacrifice instead of the meat. Zeus retaliated by hiding fire from humanity, but Prometheus stole the fire and gave it to mankind. As punishment for this rebellion,Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains,where an eagle fed on his liver, which continually restored itself. Zeus also sent Pandora and her jar of evils to even the score with humanity. As for Prometheus, Herakles eventually killed the eagle and released him. As a culture hero, Prometheus was also given credit for teaching humanity various handicrafts and arts, and he was considered a patron of craftsmen and artisans. According to another tradition, Prometheus actually created humanity, shaping the first man and woman out of clay and water.Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound.passim; Apollodorus.1.2.3, 1.7.1-2, 2.5.4, 2.5.11; Dionysius of Halicarnassus, The Roman Antiquities.1.17.3; Hesiod, Catalogues of Women and Eoiae.1; Hesiod.Theogony.510; Hesiod, Works and Days.50; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica.2.6; Nonnus.7.59; Plato.Protagoras.320d et seq.; Strabo.11.5.5.'); GodThing[235] = new CreateGod('Proteus','@','Greek sea god. Commonly known as the \"Old Man of the Sea\". Son of Okeanos and Tethys. He was a shepherd of sea creatures , which were his particular concern as a god of the sea. Proteus had the ability to change shape at will, a common trait of Greek sea deities. He was also known for his oracular powers and vast knowledge, but had to be forced to divulge any of his knowledge. In such circumstances, he would use all his skills as a shape-shifter to escape. Proteus was said to live either on the island of Pharos near the mouth of the Nile, or on the island of Carpathus between Crete and Rhodes.'); GodThing[236] = new CreateGod('Rhadamanthys','Rhadamanthos, Rhadamanthus','Greek underworld god. Son of Zeus and Europa. Ruler of Crete who was succeeded as king by his brother Minos. After death he became one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld, along with Aiakos and Minos. '); GodThing[237] = new CreateGod('Rhea','Rheia','Greek mother of the gods. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Kronos. Mother of Demeter, Hades, Hera,Hestia, Poseidon and Zeus. When Kronos swallowed his children,Rhea spirited Zeus away to a cave on the island of Crete,substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling cloths for the infant. Rhea was later equated with the Anatolian mother goddess Kybele.'); GodThing[238] = new CreateGod('Satyrs','@','Greek woodland gods or spirits. They had a human upper body and the lower body of a goat. They were generally depicted as having dishevelled hair with goat horns and ears, and with an erect penis (ithyphallic). In early Greek art they were portrayed as grotesque in appearance, but Praxiteles began a later tradition in which they were shown as being handsome. The Satyrs were closely associated with Dionysos, and were related to the Silenes (qv).'); GodThing[239] = new CreateGod('Scylla','@','(See also Chabylis). She has an uncertain parentage. The oddest pair is Trienus & Cratais who are not known in any text. Alternately she is said to be the offspring of Phorcus (who is the sea-deity son of Pontus & Gaia) and Hecate. Or another source says she is the daughter of Typhone and Echidna. Finally she is said to be one of the offspring of Tartarus and Gaia or althernaely of Piras and Styx or even Phorcus and Ceto. There is even mention of her parents as Cratais (a river god) and someone unknown, or Apollo and Hecate. At least Hecate is twice mentioned as a possible mother.
The sad part is because of the curse described below she never had children.
It all started when she was young and so beautiful but loathe to go with anyone except the Neriads. Now a very strange former mortal named Glaucus fell in love with her. Because of her cautious nature she spurned him as well. In despair he turned to Circe for help in acquiring a love potion. Circe however found Claucus very attractive and so decided to get rid of her rival Scylla. The witch did that by poisoning the water of Rhegium (in toe of Italy) in which Scylla bathed. She was changed into a fish below her hips on which 6 dogs with 12 paws were joined.
In despair she sat on the cliff opposite Charybdis and wooed sailors to their doom.
The other Scylla mentioned is merely a princess of Megara.
Sources: Apollodorus.Epitome.7.20-21; [Orpheus], Argonautica Orphica.1254; Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.828ff.; Hesiod, The Great Eoiae.13; Homer Odysseus.12.85ff., 12.124, 12.223ff.; Hyginus Fabulae.151, 199; Hyginus Fabulae Preface.'); GodThing[240] = new CreateGod('Selene','@','Greek goddess of the moon. Daughter of the Titans Hyperion and Theia. Sister of Helios (sun) and Eos (dawn). Mother of Pandia by Zeus, and of fifty daughters by Endymion. She rode across the sky in a chariot drawn by two white horses. Also a tutelary deity of magicians. Selene was sometimes identified with Artemis as a moon goddess. She became syncretized with Hekate in later Greek mythology. The Romans equated her with Luna.'); GodThing[241] = new CreateGod('Semele','@','Minor Greek goddess. She may have originated as a Phrygian or Thracian earth goddess. Daughter of Cadmus (Kadmos) and Harmonia. According to some traditions, she was the mother of Dionysos by Zeus. The story goes that the jealous Hera tricked her into asking Zeus to prove his divinity to her. When Zeus revealed himself to her in his divine form, Semele, then a mortal, was burned to death by the intensity of his appearance. Zeus later deified her and she took her place among the gods under the name of Thyone.'); GodThing[242] = new CreateGod('Semnai Theai','@','Greek earth-goddesses.'); GodThing[243] = new CreateGod('Sileni','@','Greek woodland gods or spirits. Similar to the Satyrs (qv), except that they were sometimes said to be half horse, whereas the Satyrs were half goat. The Sileni tended to be depicted as lechers and drunkards, often bald-headed and pot-bellied.'); GodThing[244] = new CreateGod('Silenos','Silenus','Minor Greek woodland god. Son of Hermes and Gaia, or of Pan. King of Nysa, and the teacher of Dionysos. One of the Sileni, half-man and either half-horse or half-goat. He was a talented musician.'); GodThing[245] = new CreateGod('Sirens','@','Hybrid creatures in Greek mythology who were half bird and half woman. In Homer, there were two Sirens on an island in the western Mediterranean. Their number later increased to three or more. The names most commonly given are Parthenope, Ligeia and Leucosia. They were said to be the daughters either of the sea god Phorkys or of the river god Acheloos. They were depicted in Greek art either as birds with the heads of women, or as winged women with bird legs. They were known for luring sailors to their island with their bewitching song, where their victims starved to death. Odysseus managed to escape them by having his men stop up their ears with wax and tie him to the mast of his boat. When the Argonauts had to pass them,Orpheus sang a song that was even more enchanting than theirs, so that the sailors paid no attention to them.'); GodThing[246] = new CreateGod('Skylla','Latin Scylla','Greek monster.'); GodThing[247] = new CreateGod('Stheno','@','One of the Greek Gorgons. Daughter of Phorkys and Ceto. Her sisters were the Graii and her fellow Gorgons, Medusa and Euryale.'); GodThing[248] = new CreateGod('Styx','@','\"Hateful\". Greek goddess of the underworld river of the same name. According to Hesiod, she is the daughter of Okeanos and Tethys. Mother of Nike, Bia, Kratos and Zelos by the Titan Hyperion. When the gods swore their most solemn oaths, they drank water drawn from the Styx.'); GodThing[249] = new CreateGod('Syrinx','@','An Arcadian nymph or Hamadryad who turned herself into a reed to escape the advances of Pan (qv).'); GodThing[250] = new CreateGod('Teisiphone','Tisiphone','One of the Erinyes, the Greek avenging goddesses. Daughter of Gaia, impregnated with the blood of the castrated Ouranos. Her sisters and fellow Erinyes were Megaira and Alekto.'); GodThing[251] = new CreateGod('Telchines','@','Greek demon workers in metal.'); GodThing[252] = new CreateGod('Terpsichore','@','Greek Muse of dancing. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. She was depicted with a lyre. According to some traditions, she was also the mother of the Sirens by the river god Acheloos.'); GodThing[253] = new CreateGod('Tethys','@','Greek demi-goddess of the sea. One of the Titans. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of Okeanos. Mother of the Okeanides.'); GodThing[254] = new CreateGod('Thalia','Thaleia','Greek Muse of comedy. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Hesiod also made her one of the Charites (Graces), although this may have been a separate individual. As the Muse of comedy, her attributes were the comic mask and a shepherd\'s staff.'); GodThing[255] = new CreateGod('Thallo','@','One of the Athenian Horai (Seasons). Thallo was associated with the spring. Daughter of Zeus and Themis. Her sister was Karpo (autumn).'); GodThing[256] = new CreateGod('Thanatos','@','Greek god of death. More usually Thanatos was merely the abstract principle of death. According to Hesiod, he was the son of Nyx (night) and had no father. Twin brother of Hypnos (sleep). He was frequently regarded with resignation, or as coming opportunely, and was represented in the form of a quiet, pensive youth, winged, standing with his legs crossed, often beside an urn with a wreath on it, and holding an extinguished torch reversed. Or, as a personification of endless repose, he appeared in the form of a beautiful youth leaning against the trunk of a tree, with one arm thrown up over his head - an attitude by which ancient artists usually expressed repose. It was probably owing to the spread of the belief that death was a transition from life to Elysium, that in later times this more attractive representation of the god of death took the place of the former repulsive representations, whether as a powerful and violent god, or as a black child in the arms of his mother, Night. Among the figures sculptured on the chest of Cypselus, a description of which we have still in Pausanias, was that of Night carrying twin children in her arms - the one white, representing Sleep, and the other black, representing Death.'); GodThing[257] = new CreateGod('Theia','Thea, Euryphaessa','Minor Greek goddess. One of the Titans. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). Consort of her brother Hyperion. Mother of Helios (sun), Eos (dawn) and Selene (moon).'); GodThing[258] = new CreateGod('Themis','@','Greek goddess of justice and order. One of the Titans. Daughter of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). She was the second consort of Zeus, after Metis. Mother of the Horai (Seasons) and the Moirai (Fates). She had oracular powers, and was said to have started the oracle at Delphi, which she later gave to Apollo. Her cult was popular throughout Greece, and she shared a temple at Rhamnus in Attica with the goddess Nemesis. She was often represented holding a pair of scales. According to Apollodorus (The Library), she Themis is said to have laid down all laws and ordinances established by custom'); GodThing[259] = new CreateGod('Theseus','@','Athenian cult figure. There is a whole series of adventures that he went through. '); GodThing[260] = new CreateGod('Thetis','@','Greek nereid. Daughter of the sea god Nereus. Wife of the mortal Peleus. Mother of Achilles. Thetis attempted to make Achilles invulnerable by dipping him in the waters of the river Styx. It was at her wedding that the goddess Eris rolled the Golden Apple that began the dispute among the gods which eventually led to the Trojan War, in which Achilles died. She lived in the ocean depths attended by a retinue of other Nereids.'); GodThing[261] = new CreateGod('Titans','@','Secondary race of Greek gods. The children of Ouranos (heaven) and Gaia (earth). They formed six married pairs: Kronos and Rhea,Okeanos and Tethys, Hyperion and Theia, Coeus and Phoebe, Iapetos and Clymene, Crius and Eurybia. The Titans were also siblings of the Cyclops and Hekatoncheiroi. Led by Kronos, the Titans overthrew their father Ouranos. In turn, however, they were themselves overthrown by Zeus and the Cyclops. Zeus then hurled them into the underworld, where he kept them imprisoned.'); GodThing[262] = new CreateGod('Triphis','@','Greek name of Egyptian Repit.'); GodThing[263] = new CreateGod('Triton','@','Minor Greek sea god. He was depicted as a merman, with the upper body of a man and the tail of a dolphin or a fish. Son of Poseidon and Amphitrite. According to Hesiod, he lived with his parents in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea. The Greeks often thought of there being many Tritons rather than just one. His attribute was the conch shell, which he blew as a horn.'); GodThing[264] = new CreateGod('Tyche','@','Greek goddess of fate and fortune. According to Hesiod, she was the daughter of Okeanos and Tethys. In Pindar, Zeus is given as her father. She was often associated with Agathos Daimon, the \"Good Spirit\", and with Nemesis, the goddess of justice and vengeance. Tyche was depicted with a rudder or a cornucopia, and often with a wheel as a symbol of the transitory nature of fortune and of the fickle character of the goddess herself. She had a temple at Argos, where the first set of dice were said to have been invented. Her temple at Antioch remained intact at least until the reign of the Roman Emperor Theodosius (AD 379-95).'); GodThing[265] = new CreateGod('Typhon','Typhaon, Typhoeus','\"Whirlwind\". A monster in Greek mythology. Son of Gaia (earth) and Tartaros (underworld). He had a hundred dragon-heads and either snake\'s feet or a body covered in snakes. His sister and wife was the monster Echidna, by whom he was the father of Cerberus, the Chimaera, the Lernean Hydra, the Nemean Lion, and the Sphinx. At one point, he attacked and imprisoned Zeus, who had to be rescued by Hermes and Pan. Zeus then imprisoned Typhon either in the underworld or under Mt. Aetna. He was believed to cause dangerous winds and earthquakes. Typhon later came to be identified with the Egyptian god Seth.'); GodThing[266] = new CreateGod('Urania','@','Greek Muse of astronomy and astrology. Daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Her attributes were the globe (representing the heavenly sphere) and compass.'); GodThing[267] = new CreateGod('Zagreus','@','Chief god in Greek Orphism. Said in Orphism to be the son of Zeusm and Persephone. Zagreus seems to have originated as a pre-Hellenic god of animals and hunting.'); GodThing[268] = new CreateGod('Zalmoxis','Salmoxis','Supreme god of the Thracian Getae and Dacians. Known only from the writings of Herodotus. Zalmoxis was said to have taken human form and lived among humans for a time. He then disappeared into the underworld for three years before returning in the fourth year.'); GodThing[269] = new CreateGod('Zephyros','Zephyrus, Zephyr','Greek god of the west wind. Son of Astraios and Eos. Believed to live in a cave in Thrace. Known to the Romans as Favonius.'); GodThing[270] = new CreateGod('Zeus','@','Supreme Greek god and head of the Greek pantheon. In addition Zeus functioned as a sky god or weather god, and as a god of justice and freedom. Son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. Consort of Hera. His cult probably dates back to the Mycenean and Minoan civilizations. According to Homer, he lived on Mt. Olympus in Thessaly, where he gathered the other gods under his dominion.After his birth, Rhea saved the infant Zeus from being swallowed by Kronos along with his siblings by substituting a stone dressed in swaddling cloths. She then hid the child in a cave on the island of Crete, where the Kouretes performed a dance in which they clashed their weapons about him in order to drown out his cries. His nurse while in Crete was Amalthea, either a nymph or a goat. Upon reaching maturity, Zeus overthrew the Titans and forced Kronos to disgorge his siblings. Zeus then cast Kronos into Tartaros and established himself as head of a new pantheon in which he and his siblings had the most prominent roles. He divided dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades.Zeus\'s sexual prowess was legendary, and he either seduced or forced himself upon numerous goddesses, nymphs, and mortal women,fathering countless children in the process. He assumed many different forms in pursuit of his numerous affairs. He appeared to Leda in the form of a swan, to Danae as a shower of gold, and to Europa as a white bull. Ares, Eleithyia and Hephaistos were the most prominent of his children by his official consort Hera, whom he originally seduced in the form of a cuckoo (although some sources say that it was Hera who seduced Zeus). He fathered Apollo and Artemis by Leto, Persephone by Demeter, Hermes by Maia,Dionysos by Semele, the Horai and Moirai by Themis, the Muses by Mnemosyne, and Herakles by Alkmene. Athena was also said to have been born from his forehead after he had swallowed Metis. Zeus may also have had a homosexual relationship with Ganymede, whom he made the cupbearer of the gods. The cult of Zeus was of universal significance in the Greek world, although his cult was often secondary in individual locations to the local tutelary deity, such as Athena in Athens. Greek households typically had statues of Zeus in their forecourts,and he was often associated with mountaintop shrines. He had temples in every Greek city, two of the more notable being iAthens and at Olympia. His most important festival was at Olympia. The oracle at Dodona in Epirus was dedicated to Zeus. He was depicted as a bearded and physically imposing man of middle age. His most common attributes were the thunderbolt and the eagle.
And finally because so many asked, here is what we think is a complete list of the women he seduced or rape as required to satisfy his lust. Remember there were some men too, but why put them in a list of women?'); GodThing[271] = new CreateGod('Xrostag and Padvaxtag','@','Manichaean divinities.'); GodThing[272] = new CreateGod('Zibelthiurdos','@','Thracian storm god. There is evidence he was originally a sky god, personifying the intense elements like lightning and driving rain.'); GodThing[273] = new CreateGod('Clotho','@','One of the Moreia (Fates). She spun (from the base substance of the universe) the tapestry of fate.'); GodThing[274] = new CreateGod("Ajax","The Greater Ajax","Ajax was the son of Telamon, king of Salamis. After Achilles, Ajax was the mightiest of the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. Ajax is often called \"Telemonian Ajax\" or \"the greater Ajax\", to distinguish him from Ajax the Lesser the son of Oileus, who also fought for the Greeks at Troy.
Ajax was a huge man, head and shoulders larger than the other Greeks, enormously strong but somewhat slow of speech. In the Iliad, he is often called the \"wall\" or \"bulwark\" (herkos) of the Greeks. When Achilles had withdrawn from the fighting at Troy, it was Ajax who went forth to meet Hector in single combat; by the time darkness fell the fight was still a stalemate, but Ajax had wounded Hector without sustaining injury himself
After Achilles\' death, Ajax competed with Odysseus for the ownership of Achilles\' armor. Both men delivered speeches explaining their own merits, but Odysseus was by far the more eloquent and won the prize. Ajax was driven mad by his disappointment. According to one account, he vowed vengeance on the Greeks and began slaughtering cattle, mistaking them for his former comrades-in-arms. He finally committed suicide.
As submitted via email by a 7th grader identifying himself as Pogy_na_man
Here is some of the translated passages from the Illiad from Bulfinch:...Ajax performed prodigies of valour, and at length encountered Hector. Ajax shouted defiance, to which Hector replied, and hurled his lance at the huge warrior. It was well aimed and struck Ajax, where the belts that bore his sword and shield crossed each other on the breast. The double guard prevented its penetrating and it fell harmless. Then Ajax, seizing a huge stone, one of those that served to prop the ships, hurled it at Hector. It struck him in the neck and stretched him on the plain. His followers instantly seized him and bore him off, stunned and wounded....Thus far Patroclus had succeeded to his utmost wish in repelling the Trojans and relieving his countrymen, but now came a change of fortune. Hector, borne in his chariot, confronted him. Patroclus threw a vast stone at Hector, which missed its aim, but smote Cebriones,the charioteer, and knocked him from the car. Hector leaped from the chariot to rescue his friend, and Patroclus also descended to complete his victory. Thus the two heroes met face to face. At this decisive moment the poet, as if reluctant to give Hector the glory, records that Phoebus took part against Patroclus. He struck the helmet from his head and the lance from his hand. At the same moment an obscure Trojan wounded him in the back, and Hector, pressing forward, pierced him with his spear. He fell mortally wounded.
Then arose a tremendous conflict for the body of Patroclus, but his armour was at once taken possession of by Hector, who retiring a short distance divested himself of his own armour and put on that of Achilles, then returned to the fight. Ajax and Menelaus defended the body, and Hector and his bravest warriors struggled to capture it. The battle raged with equal fortunes, when Jove enveloped the whole face of heaven with a dark cloud. The lightning flashed, the thunder roared, and Ajax, looking round for some one whom he might despatch to Achilles to tell him of the death of his friend, and of the imminent danger that his remains would fall into the hands of theenemy, could see no suitable messenger. It was then that he exclaimed in those famous lines so often quoted,
\"Father of heaven and earth! deliver thou
Achaia's host from darkness; clear the skies;
Give day; and, since thy sovereign will is such,
Destruction with it; but, O, give us day.\"Cowper. Or, as rendered by Pope,
\"...Lord of earth and air!
O king! O father! hear my humble prayer!
Dispel this cloud, the light of heaven restore;
Give me to see and Ajax asks no more;
If Greece must perish we thy will obey,
But let us perish in the face of day.\"
Jupiter heard the prayer and dispersed the clouds. Then Ajax sent Antilochus to Achilles with the intelligence of Patroclus's death, and of the conflict raging for his remains. The Greeks at last succeeded in bearing off the body to the ships, closely pursued by Hector and AEneas and the rest of the Trojans.
...Achilles by chance had seen Polyxena, daughter of King Priam, perhaps on occasion of the truce which was allowed the Trojans for the burial of Hector. He was captivated with her charms, and to win her in marriage agreed to use his influence with the Greeks to grant peace to Troy. While in the temple of Apollo, negotiating the marriage, Paris discharged at him a poisoned arrow, which, guided by Apollo, wounded Achilles in the heel, the only vulnerable part about him. For Thetis his mother had dipped him when an infant in the river Styx, which made every part of him invulnerable except the heel by which she held him.
The body of Achilles so treacherously slain was rescued by Ajax and Ulysses. Thetis directed the Greeks to bestow her son\'s armour on the hero who of all the survivors should be judged most deserving of it. Ajax and Ulysses were the only claimants; a select number of the other chiefs were appointed to award the prize. It was awarded to Ulysses, thus placing wisdom before valour, whereupon Ajax slew himself. On the spot where his blood sank into the earth a flower sprang up, called the hyacinth, bearing on its leaves the first two letters of the name of Ajax, Ai, the Greek for \"woe.\" Thus Ajax is a claimant with the boy Hyacinthus for the honour of giving birth to this flower. There is a species of Larkspur which represents the hyacinth of the poets in preserving the memory of this event, the Delphinium Ajacis- Ajax\'s Larkspur.
1855 Thomas Bulfinch"); GodThing[275] = new CreateGod('Thaumas','@','Son of the Titan sea god Pontus, he was married to Electra (according to Hesiod) and had a generation of offspring called the Harpies, and the most socially acceptable Iris.'); GodThing[276] = new CreateGod('Electra','@','1 Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. After her mother and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon, Electra, eager for revenge, longed only for the return of her brother, Orestes. The reunion and vengeance of the brother and sister were dramatized by the three great tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. However, only in the work of Euripides did Electra take an active part in the killing of Clytemnestra. It is said that she later married Pylades, Orestes’ friend, and bore him two sons.
2 One of the Pleiades. She was the daughter of Atlas and Pleione and mother by Zeus of Dardanus, the founder of what was to become the house of Troy. According to one legend she was the lost Pleiad, disappearing in grief after the destruction of Troy.
3 After Hesiod, a sea nymph, daughter of Oceanus and Tethys and mother by Thaumus of Iris, the rainbow, and the Harpies.'); GodThing[277] = new CreateGod('Pandia','all-bright',' She was the daughter of Zeus and Selene. She was the sister of Ersa and Nemea. Pandia was the goddess of brightness, especially the sun. She might have also been the goddess of the full moon and the mate of Zeus Pandion, the full moon god.'); GodThing[278] = new CreateGod("Procrustes","Polypemon, Damastes, or Procuptus","Procrustes means \'he who stretches'\ in Greek. He was the thief who the hero Theseus killed by stretching him on his own bed. Procrustes had a nice home beside a busy highway. He would welcome people who were travelling on the road and needed accomodation. He would wine and dine them, and entertainment and then put them to bed. However if the traveller was not the same length as this bed then Procrustes would adjust the traveller to fit the bed. If he was too long Procrustes would chop the legs off the traveller. If he was too short then Procrustes would stretch the traveller on a rack until he was long enough. Either way the traveller was dead, and Procrustes had their goods. "); GodThing[280] = new CreateGod("Bellerophon","@","Bellerophon was the son of Glaukos and Eurynome of Corinth. He is exiled from Corinth after he accidently kills someone. He travels to Tiryns where he is purified of the killing by the king Proetus. The wife of Proetus, Stheneboea, tries to seduce Bellerophon but he rejects her. Incensed she tells her husband that Bellerophone has tried to rape her. Pretus believes her and decides to send Bellerophon to Lycia where Stheneboea\'s father Iobates is king. Proetus sends a letter to the king with Bellerophon telling him about the accusation and asking his brother in law to kill Bellerophon. Iobates decides to kill Bellerophon by sending him on very dangerous tasks.
Bellerophon is asked to kill the chimera. On his way he encounters Pegesos the winged horse that was created from sea foam and the blood of the slaughtered Medusa.He tames Pegesus, and uses the horse to help kill the chimera.
Iobates is pleased but unsatisfied since he wishes to avenge the insult to his sister. So he send Bellerophon to destroy the very savage people called the Somyoi. Again with the help of the Pegasos he does. Finally, as Homer describes, he is sent by Iobates to kill the Amazons who are harassing his kingdom. With the help of Pegasos he does.
Iobates realizes that Bellerophon is too blessed to be killed so he makes him his heir, and his son-in-law when he marries Bellerophon off to his daughter Philonoe.
Philonoe\'s sister, the Stheneboea who started all the trouble for Bellerophon is enraged and either kills herself (after the story by the writer Hyginus) or she confronts Bellerophon who takes her up on Pegasos and pushes her off (version by Euripedes).
However hybris does not allow Bellerophon to leave well enough alone, he decides to challenge Zeus and on Pegasos attacks Olympus. Zeus destroys Bellerophon by a lightning bolt which kills him and knocks him off the horse."); GodThing[281] = new CreateGod("Daedalus","@","Daedalus of Athens was a very skilled sculptor and inventor. He worked for the king of Knossos who had a creature called the Minotaur, a half humanhalf bull creature. To penalize the Athenians, King Minos of Crete, on which Knossos was situated, would demand as tribute seven young boys and girls who would be put in the labyrinth and when the Minotaur found them he would kill and eat them. King Minos had Daedalus build Labyrinth,a very complex structure to house the Minotaur and make escaping the Minotaur nearly impossible for the children of Athens.
However one year Theusus came as one of the young people to be sacrificed. Theseus was Daedalus\' cousin, so it did not take much persuading by Ariadene, who was enamoured by Theseus, to tell her a way to escape from the Labyrinth. The plan succeeded, the Athenians escaped from Knossos, and Midas knew who must have done it. He imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the tower to await sentencing. They did not wait, but see Icarus for that story."); GodThing[282] = new CreateGod("Icarus","Icarius","Icarus was young, and not cautious. When he was locked into the tower in Knossos with his father he was bored and petulant. Daedalus however found a way to make wings for him and Icarus in order to escape from the tower. He told Icarus not to fly too high as the sun would melt the wax and the wings would fall apart.
The wings worked and the pair flew away from the tower, and from the island of Crete. However Icarus got so excited by flying that he flew higher and higher until the sun melted the wax, the wings fell apart, and he fell to his death into the sea below. "); GodThing[283] = new CreateGod("Chimera","@","The chimera of Greek myth is the offspring of Echinda and Typhon. From the Greek meaning \"she-goat\" the Chimera is a fire breathing creature that has the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. Chimera was reared by Amisodarus. This creature devastated the country and harried the cattle because it had the power of three beasts Some have said that the Chimera has three heads, but the popular myth tells of the single, fire-vomiting head. The Chimera was slain by Belleraphone while he was on the winged horse Pegasus.
Some say that the Chimera is the offspring of the Hydra,and others cite the chimera as the mother of the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion by Orthus.
The myths of the Chimera can be found in Apollodorous\' Library (book 1-2.3.2), Vrigi\l's Aeneid (book 6),Homer\'s Iliad (book 6-6.179), Ovid\'s Metamorphoses (book 4) and Hesiod\'s Theogony (319).and Hesiod\'s.Catalogue of Women and Eoiae(Berlin Papyri 7497 and Oxyrhynchus Papyri, 421);Hyginus, Fabulae; Pindar\'s.Olympians.13.90"); GodThing[284] = new CreateGod("Paris","@","Paris was the son of Hecuba, Queen of Troy, and Priam, King of Troy. Before Paris was born she dreamed of giving birth to a flaming torch whose flames were snakes. She woke up screaming and called on her soothsayer. The soothsayer said that it meant the person she was going to give birth to was going to destroy Troy. So when the child Paris was born, Hecuba and Priam had him brought into the foothills to die of exposure to the elements. He did not die at all. A she bear suckled him, and a shepherd stumbling on them realized that it must be fate for this child to live. He took care of Paris, but did not tell him his royal past. So Paris was very surprised one day while tending the flock of sheep underr his care to have four gods visit him. See Eris to find out why they chose Paris.
Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite were there to find out which of them Paris would say was the fairest of them all. Hermes came along to hear the verdict. As Paris was quite young he picked Aphrodite which only led to the other two goddesses wanting to get revenge for this decision which hurt their feelings. Aphrodite was so pleased she asked what she could give Paris as a reward. He had heard of Helen, daughter of Zeus by the mortal Leda. He wanted her, and so eventually he eloped with her to Troy (as Paris finally learned his true birth from Hermes). See Clytemnestra, Helen\'s sister to find out why this led to the Trojan war,"); GodThing[285] = new CreateGod("Clytemnestra","@","Clytemnestra was daughter of Leda and Zeus. Her sister was Helen. Both are considered mortal. Clytemnestra married Tantalus and had a child. However her husband was defeated in a battle with Agamemnon. king of Mycenae. Agamemnon was not a nice person. He killed the child and took Clytemnestra as his wife. She was forced to have four children by him. Iphagenia, Electra, Chrysothemis, and Orestes. When Agamemnon sacrificed Iphagenia so he would get good sailing weather Clytemnestra vowed to have him killed. To get loot and battle glory Agamemnon said he would go to war with Troy to reclaim her sister Helen who had eloped with Paris to Troy. While he was away for fighting at Troy Clytemnestra took a lover Aegisthus, Tantalus\'s brother. When Agamemnon returned, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus axed him to death while he was taking a bath. Years later, the son Orestes killed both Aegisthus and his mother Clytemnestra to revenge his father\'s death. The Furies drove him mad to punish him for this crime."); GodThing[286] = new CreateGod("Circe","@","Circe living in the island of Aeaea was a powerful witch who, with the help of herbs, muttering incantations could turn men into animals or create images of beasts. She was able to darken the heavens by hiding the moon or the sun behind clouds, and destroy her enemies with poisonous juices, calling to her aid Nyx, Chaos or Hecate. In her presence and because of her enchantments the trees could move, the ground rumble and the trees around her turn white.
But as witchcraft may make a victim of those who practises it, the nights of Circe could be wasted in fear because of the uncontrolled visions which filled her house. And so, for example, the walls and chambers of her palace could seem to be bathing in blood, while fire could seem to devour her magic herbs. That is why it was a relief for her when daylight came and she could bathe and clean her garments forgetting the scaring nightly visions.
Circe is famous for her involvement in Homer's poem Odysseus, and for her appearance in the very long poem about the Argonauts.
Odysseus and his crew arrive exhausted from their escape from the Cyclops on this island where Circe lives. After a few days he sends a crew out to investigate some smoke seen. The sent crew are all turned into swine, except for Eurolychus who suspected a trap. Odysseus goes alone, but warned and given a herb (Moly) by Hermes, he is able to threaten Circe into releasing his enchanted crew members. Circe has 8 (according to Ovid) children by Odysseus.
- Telegonus
- Agrius
- Latinus
- Romanus
- Romus
- Anteias
- Ardeias.
In the Argonauts, Medeia visited her aunt, Circe, as Circe\'s brother Aeetes was Medea\'s father. Medeia and Jason visited in order to be ritualized cleansed (forgiven) for murding her brother Apsyrtus. Circe did this cleansing and the Argonauts moved on to other disasterous adventures.
Circe is central to the story in Ovid about how she fell in love with Picus, son of Kronos, who was himself in love with the singer Canens, daughter of Janus. Picus explained his own love, and Circe decided in a fit of jealousy to turn twice to the east, twice to the west, and touch him with her wand, and changed him into a woodpecker. His friends trying to find him was turned into other beasts by Circe. And Canens just dissolved away weeping for her missing love Picus."); GodThing[287] = new CreateGod("Cyclopes","@","According to Hesiod, they are of the offspring of Ouranos and Gaea. There were three: Arges, Brontes, and Steropes. Zeus freed them from Tartarus, killing the guardian Campes to do it. In return these Cyclopes gave Zeus thunderbolts, Hades a helmet that made him invisible, and Poseidon a trident to control the sea and land. With these weopens those three defeated the Titans, and ruled heaven thereafter. The Cyclopes were large and had only one eye in the center of their head. Zeus went to free them on the prophecy of Gaea that if Zeus had the help of the Cyclopes and the Hecatonchieries he would win in his battle against the Titans.
Other authors mentioned other Cyclopes born at a later time, including the one which captured Ulysses and his crew. His name was Polyphemes and was of course mentioned by Homer."); GodThing[288] = new CreateGod("Minotaur","Asterius","The head of a bull and the body of a man is what the minotaur was.
He was born because King Minos did not do as he promised. Minos of Crete promised that if the gods made a bull appear he would sacrifice it to them. He made this strange prayer because after a drunken arguement with some of his subjects he claimed that he held the throne of Crete because the gods respected him. He claimed that what ever he asked they would give him, so he prayed for a bull to appear and he would thank the gods by sacrificing it.
He prayed to Poseidon, who sent a beautiful bull which walked out of the sea. Minos thought it better if kept this bull around to show people what Poseidon had sent him, and sacrificed a different bull instead. Poseidon felt cheated, and so Poseidon and Aphrodite caused Minos\'ife Pasiphae to lust after the bull that Poseidon had sent. It is said Aphrodite went along with this idea since Pasiphae had not sacrficed to her for several years and so thought the Queen should be humiliated.
Pasiphae asked Daedalus, the engineer, to help her consummate her passion. Apollodonis describes in detail how that was done. The result was that Pasiphae gave birth to Asterius or Minotaur.
Minos was horrified and realized that this was punishment for his breaking his word. He asked Dadaelus to construct an undeground maze, the Labyrinth to keep his step son in, because he did not want to see him at all.
After Dadaelus constructed the Labyrinth Minos thought to punish the Athenians whom he had just defeated in war by requiring them to send 7 young children each year. He sent the children into the Labyrinth where the Minotaur would kill and eat them. The story of Theseus explains how the Minotaur was killed and the cruel tribute from Athens was stopped."); GodThing[289] = new CreateGod("Perseus","@","According to Hesiod, when once Danae\'s father King Acrisius of Argos questioned the oracle, the oracle said that Danae would give birth to a son who would kill him. Fearing that, he built a brazen chamber under ground and there he guarded Danae. But Zeus had intercourse with her in the shape of a stream of gold which poured through the roof into Danae's lap. When her father afterwards learned that she had got a child, he would not believe that she had been seduced by Zeus, and putting her with the child in a chest, he cast it into the sea.
The chest was washed ashore on the island of Seriphus, which is one of the islands called Cyclades, where Polydectes was king. Polydectes, who colonized Seriphus and there became king, fell in love with Danae but could not be with her because of young Perseus . To get the young man out of the way, and perhaps get rid of him permanently Polydectes sent young Perseus to fetch and bring back the head of Medusa, and so Perseus departed under the guidance of Hermes and Athena.
In order to find his way he met the Graea, who were sisters of the Gorgons. The Graeae were old woman even when they were born. The three Graeae had but one eye and one tooth total among the three of them, and these two things they passed to each other in turn. But Perseus, taking their tooth and eye, compelled them to show him the way to the Nymphs who had the winged sandals and a wallet (kibisis). So when the Graeae had shown him the way, he gave them back the tooth and the eye, and went to the Nymphs to get what he needed.
He slung the wallet about him, fitted the sandals to his ankles, and put the Helmet of Hades on his head, because wearing it, he saw everyone, but himself was invisible. And having received from Hermes an adamantine sickle he flew to the ocean and caught the Gorgons asleep, Athena guided his hand and he looked on a brazen shield, in which he could see the image of Medusa, but not be turned to stone. Using a backhanded thrust of his sword he deftly beheaded her and put the head in the wallet so that he would not have to look at her head and be turned to stone. The other two Gorgons pursued him, but because of the helmet, which made him invisible, they could not find him.
Perseus 1 came then to Ethiopia where he found the king\'s daughter Andromeda chained to a rock so she would be the prey of a sea monster. This situation occurred because the Nereids were offended by Andromeda\'s mother boasting that she herself was better than any Nereid. Poseidon their father was also offended and sent a flood and a monster to invade her kingdom. So Andromeda was exposed to the monster in order to appease both Poseidon and the Nereids. When Perseus saw Andromeda in danger he calmly asked the King (Cepheus) that if he killed the monster and saved the girl would King Cepheus give Andromeda to him as his wife? King Cepheus loved his daughter and seeing that this was a way to save his daughter agreed. All this negotiation was completed in time for Perseus to rush back and kill the monster and free Andromeda.
Andromeda had been promised to her uncle in marriage, and in a fit of pique the uncle plotted to kill Perseus. But Perseus discovered the plot and instead show the uncle Medusa\s head in his wallet and so the uncle turned to stone.
Andromeda was quite enchantered with her twice rescuer and was happy to go with him, and get away from the weird country she was born in.
Then Perseus went with Danae and Androme first to Argos and later to Larissa, to compete in athletic games. And in the course of the competition Perseus killed King Acrisius of Argos by accident, the same man to whom the oracle had said that his daughter would give birth to a son who would kill him. And in that way, during the games, the oracle was fulfilled. The death was accidental. Perseus threw a discus and the wind took it and when it struck the king it killed him instantly.
Perseus buried Acrisus then being ashamed to return to Argos to claim the inheritance of the man he had killed, Perseus went to Megapenthes at Tiryns and effected an exchange of kingdoms with him, surrendering Argos into his hands. So Megapenthes reigned over the Argives, and Perseus reigned over Tiryns. And, having taken over in this city, he also founded Mycenae. He died in Megapenthes and may have been placed in the sky to immortalize him."); GodThing[290] = new CreateGod("Dactyls","@","The 10 (some say 100) wizards, offspring of nymphs, who were attendents of Rhea and who protected the infant Zeus. According to Pausinaus their names were:
- Acmon
- Celmis
- Cyllenus
- Cyrbus
- Damnameneus
- Delas
- Epimedes
- Idaean Heracles
- Paeonaeus
- Titias
He was born a male, nursed by Neiads in the caves of Mount Ida in Asia Minor. At 15 he decided to wander and did so through the lands of Lycia and Caria. Some where in his travels he discovered a pool of clear water.
In that pool lived the Naiad Salmacius who preferred to gather flowers than keep up with Artemis in his hunting expeditions. She immediately sang to him her love, but he was not interested and so rejected she turned away. Hermaphroditus thinging he is safe decides to take a swim in the pool. Salmacius grabs him and tries to arouse him. He fights her but she beseeches the gods to make her one with him so that she can with him forever. The gods grant this wish, as selfish and one sided as it is, and so from that moment forth he is both man and woman. "); GodThing[292] = new CreateGod("Beroe","@","There are two of these named Oceanids. The first was named by Nonnus who stated that was why the city of Berytos (Beirut) came by its name. He said that she was offspring of Aphrodite and Adonis. He also mentioned that Beroe was wooed by both Dionysus and Poseidon, and Poseidon won her and so she became another of his consorts.
The other Beroe is mentioned by Virgil and said that she was in the retinue of Cyrene "); GodThing[293] = new CreateGod("Corybantes","@","These are a people from the Caucasian mountains who were said to be attendants of Rhea. A collection of them called the Curettes drowned out the cries of the infant Zeus, so that his father would not hear them, and come and swallow him as he did to the siblings of Zeus. All the Corybantes held wild festivals full of noisy festivals of war dances in which cymbels, drums and swords and spears banged against shields were used to make that noise.
Their names were: Acmon, Cyrbas, Damneus, Idaeus, Melisseus, Mimas, Ocythous, Prymneus, and Pyrrhichus. Some ancient authors considered them to be kin of the Cabaroi, the Telchines and the Daktyls. "); GodThing[294] = new CreateGod("Ganymedes","@","Ganymedes is said to have been a very handsome young man,
There are two versions of his parentage. In one he is the son of Tros & Callirhoe. Tros called the people he ruled Trojans. Callirrhoe is a daughter of the River God Scamander. The other story is that his parents are instead Assaracus & Hieromneme. Assaracus Assaracus was king of the Dardanians. eHieromneme is a Naiad, daughter of the River God Simois,
Zeus saw him one day and became infatuated with him. He either swooped down as an eagle, or he changed into a whirilwind, and either case took him to heaven, and raped him.
As compensation to Ganymedes Zeus made him a cupbearer to the Olympians, drawing red nectar for them, and being praised by him for his diligence and his beauty.
To compensate the father of Ganymedes for the loss of his son, he gave him some remarkable mares and had Hermes tell him that he would be immortal and forever beautiful like the gods.
It is the constellations of Aquarius that is said to be Ganymedes pouring water from an urn, and the Greek constellation Aquila is the eagle form Zeus took to abduct him with.
The sources are:Apollodorus 3.12.2; Colluthus, The Rape of Helen 19; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 4.75.1-3; Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis 1051; Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5.202; Homer, The Iliad 5.265, 20.232; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.29; Hyginus, Fabulae 224; Nonnus 8.94, 25.449; Virgil Aenide 1.28, 5.252. "); GodThing[295] = new CreateGod("Narcissus","@","A vain but very handsome man who died pining for Echo. See the whole story at Bullfinch\'s Echo and Narcissus"); GodThing[296] = new CreateGod("Acheon","Actaeon","He was a hunter, son of Aristaeus, the discoverer of honey, who is the son of Apollo & Cyrene.
One day while hunting with his dogs he went into the cave of Artemis in the vale of Gargaphia, The goddess of the wild woods was preparing to bathe in the waters of the spring Parthenius together with the nymphs that attended her. She was naked, and although her attendents tried to shield her from sight she was very tall, and they could not do so completely. Enraged at his gall of entering her personal cave she flung water in his face and said
\"Now you are free to tell that you have seen me all unrobed --if you can tell.\" [Artemis to Actaeon. Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.192]
With these words Acteon began to turn into a stag. The goddess planted fear within his heart and the stag Actaeon fled. His dogs confused chased him down and tore him apart.
In grief his father migrated to Sardinia, and his mother, Autonoe (daughter of Cadmus) lived the rest of her days in Megra, neither of them able to stay in Thebes as it reminded them too much of their son."); GodThing[297] = new CreateGod("Kastor and Polydeukes","Dioskuroi, Latin:Castor and Pollux, Discouri" ,"When Zeus raped Leda, she had sex with her husband the same day. So when she laid two eggs from one came the two brothers, one the immortal Polydeukes, and the other the mortal Kastor. Their sisters were the immortal Helen, and the mortal Clytaemnestra.
When Helen was a woman she was abducted by Theseus and her brothers went after him. He had taken her to Aphidnea in Attica. The two brothers stormed the city and took her back to her home. In revenge Helen took the mother of Theseus, Aethra,
The Dioscuri married by carrying off the daughters of Leucippus,. Anogon was the offspring of Hilaira, and Mnesileus was the offspring of Phoebe.
One day the brothers were stealing cattle in Arcadia with the two Messenian brothers, Idas and Lynceus. They allowed Idas to divide the spoil and he cut a cow in four pieces saying that one half of the booty should be his who ate his share first, and that the rest should be his who ate his share second. And before the Discouri could even react to that proposal Idas had swallowed his share, and his brother had done the same. The Discouri marched against Messenia, took the cattle they had lost and much else besides. Kastor was killed by Idas. Polydeuces attacked and chased them killing Lynceus, but was himself struck the head and passed out. Idas was killed by Zeus with a thunderbolt.
Polydeukes renounced his immortality (not actually possible) but Zeus put him and Kastor into the sky as the constellation the Greeks call Discouri and in English is now Gemini.
Main sources: Appollodonus 1.8.2, 3.11.2,Ovid Fasti 5.709.Pindar Nemean (Odes) 10.55ff, and 10.80, Virgil Aenids 6.20 "); GodThing[298] = new CreateGod("Basilisk","Cockatrice","A mythical snake with the head of a roster, wings of a fowl, and tail of a dragon; a legendary serpent that is hatched from a round, yolk-less egg laid by a seven-year-old rooster and hatched by a toad. According to legend there were two main types:
- 1. The golden basilisk poisoned everything with a stare from its evil eye.
2. The blood-red basilisk whose sting made the flesh fall off the bones of his victim.
Called the king of serpents because the comb on his head was considered a crown, the Basilisk was described by Pliny, the Roman naturalist, as a serpent that advanced lofty and upright, killed shrubs by touch or breath, and having enough power to split rocks.
It was believed that if slain from horseback the poison of the serpent would be conducted through the Weapon, killing the executioner and his horse. "); GodThing[299] = new CreateGod("Psyche","@","She is a made up character, born of an unknown king and queen having the offspring named Volupta by Eros. The fictional story of Psyche and Cupid is told by Apuleius. in his The Transformations or The Golden Ass. 4.28, 6.20. Their story is told here: Echo and Narcissis"); GodThing[300] = new CreateGod("Zacorus","@","A warrior in the army of Perses fighting against Aeetes during the Colchian civil war. He was killed by Argus [Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 6.554]."); GodThing[301] = new CreateGod("Xuthus","@","There were two.
First, there was the son of Hellen (who was Deucalion) and Orseis. He was expelled from Thessaly by his brothers, but settled in Athens. Having become influential he appointed Cecrops as successor of Erechtheus, but as his power grew he was banished by the brothers of Cecrops and came to Aegialus as an exile. Xuthus married Creusa, daughter of King Erechtheus of Athens, having children by her: Diomede, Achaeus, Ion, Aiclus, and Cothus. He died in Aegialus. [Apollodorus 1.7.2-3, 1.9.4, 3.15.1; Euripedes, Ion.passim; Pausinias 7.1.2-3; Plutarch.Moralia (Greek Questions) 22].
The second Xuthus was son of Aeolus and Cyane, and king over the land in the neighbourhood of Leontini (Xuthia, in Italy according to Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History 5.8.1-2]. "); GodThing[302] = new CreateGod("Xenodoce","@","She was daughter of Syleus, who lived in Aulis, Boeotia. She was killed by Heracles, who also killed her father [Apollodorus 2.6.3]."); GodThing[303] = new CreateGod("Xenodice","@"," There wre two of these,
First the daughter of Minos. Her mother was either Pasiphae, or Crete [Apollodorus 3.1.2], and secondly,
there was a Trojan captive with that name.[Pausinias 10.26.1]."); GodThing[304] = new CreateGod("Xenodamus","@","Son of Menelaus and Cnossia [Apollodorus 3.11.1]"); GodThing[305] = new CreateGod("Xenocleia","@","She was a seer at Delphi thusly for Apollo. When Herakles asked her for advice regarding his illness, she refused. He tried to steal the tripod (where the sacred flame burns) and Apollo appeared and as they started to fight, Zeus sent a thunderbolt to separate them. Apollo, though admiring his priestess still ordered Xenocleia to give advice. She told Herakles he had to sell himself into slavery as punishment for his murder of Iphitis (who gave his bow to Odysseus to kill the suitors of his wife) and to cleanse himself of it. He did and he became slave to the wierdo Omphale, daughter of Iardanes and queen of Lydia."); GodThing[306] = new CreateGod("Xanthus","@","There were 11 different characters with this name.
- King Xanthus of Temera
- A man-eating talking mare owned by Diomedes and brother to the horse Balios (offspring of Zephyrus and Podarge, one of the horses of Hector all in Hyginus, Fabulae 30 both of which were given to Achilles and which could pull Achilles chariot, but they could uncouple at will and fight along side Achilles.)
- A Trojan mentioned in the Illiad (20.38) as siding with Leto.
- A river in Lycia, sacred to Apollo.
- A river (Scamathes or Scamander, which flows past Troy) god son of Zeus extensively mentioned in the Illiad by Homer (02.877,05.479 ,06.004 ,06.172,08.561,11.499,12.021,12.313,14.434,20.040,20.073 ,21.002 ,21.015,21.145,21.332,21.337 .21.364,21.383,24.693 )
- King of Thebes. After him the Thebans thought it better to entrust the government to several persons, rather than let only one man rule, and a period of collective rule was initiated. He was son of Ptolemy, his predecessor on the throne. Xanthus was killed in a duel by Andropompus, or else Melanthus slew him [Pausinias 9.5.16; Strabo, Geography 9.1.7].
- An Arcadian, son of Erymanthus, son of Arcas who in turn was son of Zeus and Callisto. He was father of Psophis [Pausinias 8.24.1]
- One of the offspring of Pan who came to join Dionysus in his campaign against India. [Nonnus14.67ff.]
- A man from Samos (the Aegean island off the western coast of Asia Minor) with whom Alcinoe fell in love and fled, leaving husband and children. She repented and he did his best to comfort her, saying that he would make her his wife, but she would not listen to him and finally she threw herself into the sea [Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 27.1-2]
- King of Termera (in Lycia, Asia Minor) who received Apterus when he went into exile after having murdered Lycastus [Parthenius of Nicaea, Love Romances 36]
- One of the sons of Aegyptus (a Danaid).
The first was son of Deiphontes (one of the Heraclides) and Hyrnetho [Pausinias 2.28.6].
The second Xanthippus was son of Melas. Tydeus killed him for plotting against King Oeneus of Calydon, his father's brother [Apollodorus 1.8.5]."); GodThing[311] = new CreateGod("Xanthippe","@","There was two of these.
First, the daughter of Dorus, son of Apollo. She married Pleuron, having children by him: Agenor , Sterope , Stratonice, and Laophonte [Apollodorus.1.7.7].
The second Xanthippe nourished her father Mycon, who was in prison, with her own milk [similar to Eerie] [Hyginus Fabalae 254]."); GodThing[312] = new CreateGod("Xanthe","@","There was an Oceanid (Hesiod, Theogony 346-370) with this name, and also there was an Amazon named this, also mentioned by Hesiod."); GodThing[313] = new CreateGod("Amazons","@","The named Amazons were:
- Aella. The first of the Amazons to join battle with Heracles when he made his expedition in order to bring back the girdle of Hippolyte. She was killed by him.
- Agave is a name with no story.
- Alcibie came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War and was killed by Diomedes at Troy.
- Alcippe had taken a vow to remain a maiden. She was killed by Heracles.
- Antandre. One of the Amazons who came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War and was killed by Achilles at Troy.
- Antianira was one of the Queens of the Amazons. The Amazons maimed their male children by removing a leg or a hand. And when the Scythians, desiring to come to terms in their war against them, told them that they would find in them no maimed or mutilated bedfellows, Antianira replied that lame men make lusty husbands [Mimenos 23].
- Antibrote. One of the Amazons who came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. Killed by Achilles at Troy.
- Antioche, named but not explained.
- Antiope fell in love with Theseus. She was sister of Hippolyte or perhaps the same person [see also Hippolyte ]. She had a son Hippolytus by Theseus. Antiope was killed either by Molpadia or by Theseus.
- Asteria was killed by Heracles.
- Bremusa came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. Killed by Idomeneus at Troy.
- Celaeno was a companion of Artemis in the hunt who was killed by Heracles.
- Clonie. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War and was killed by Podarces at Troy.
- Clymene is just a name in the Illiad.
- Deianira was killed by Heracles.
- Derimacheia. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War and was killed by Diomedes at Troy.
- Derinoe. One of the Amazons who came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Ajax at Troy.
- Dioxippe is only known by name.
- Eriboea was killed by Heracles.
- Euryale was an Amazon fighting in Aeetes\' army against the troops of Perses.
- Eurybia was a companion of Artemis in the hunt. She was killed by Heracles.
- Evandre. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Meriones at Troy.
- Glauce is only a name.
- Harmothoe. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Achilles at Troy.
- Harpe was an Amazon fighting in Aeetes\' army against the troops of Perses.
- Hippolyte. One of the Queens of the Amazons. She owned the belt that Heracles had to fetch. She was killed by Heracles.
- Hippolyte was an Amazon who attacked Athens when Theseus was about to marry Phaedra; or else Theseus brought her with him. She is sometimes identified with Antiope [see above]. She mated Theseus and bore Hippolytus. Death: Some say that she was killed accidentally by Penthesilia. Others say that she was killed by Theseus. Still others say that she was killed by Molpadia, while fighting at Theseus\' side against the Amazons. But it is also said that she died of a broken heart in Megara.
- Hippothoe. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Achilles at Troy.
- Iphinome was named by Homer but not explained.
- Laomache is just a name with no story.
- Lyce was an Amazon fighting in Aeetes\' army against the troops of Perses. She was killed by Gesander.
- Marpe was killed by Heracles.
- Melanippe was taken captive by Heracles , but Hippolyte gave him her girdle as her sister\'s ransom.
- Menippe fought in Aeetes\' army against the troops of Perses.
- Molpadia is said to be the one who shot Hippolyte dead. She was herself killed by Theseus.
- Myrina is one of the Queens of the Amazons.
- Ocyale is just a name in Hesiod.
- Otrere. Queen of the Amazons and the first to raise a temple to Artemis in Ephesus. Mated with Ares bearing Penthesilia.
- Penthesilia is said to have killed Hippolyte and to have been purified by Priam, king of Troy. Achilles killed her during the Trojan War, then fell in love with her. She had come to aid the Trojans.
- Philippis was killed by Heracles.
- Phoebe. A companion of Artemis in the hunt. She was killed by Heracles.
- Polemusa. She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Achilles at Troy.
- Polydora was companion to Xanthe.
- Prothoe was killed by Heracles.
- Tecmessa was killed by Heracles.
- Thermodosa.She came with Penthesilia to the Trojan War. She was killed by Meriones at Troy.
- Thoe. An Amazon fighting in Aeetes\' army against the troops of Perses. She was killed by Gesander.
- Xanthe of which nothing is known except her name.
He also had two sons with Tyro, but she killed them as explained below. He had much more luck with his son with Anticlia. The son\'s name was Odysseus of the Iliad and Odysseus poems.
Sisyphus founded Ephyra, a city later called Corinth. He received the kingdom of Corinth from Medea.
Upon the death of Corinthus, they say, the Corinthians sent for Medea, who first ruled as queen but later handed over the kingdom to Sisyphus.
Sisyphus married Tyro (his niece) but she killed her children by him because it had been prophesied that they would kill Tyro\'s father Salmoneus, Sisyphus\' brother.
Sisyphus disliked Salmoneus, and asked a oracle how he might have him killed. She said that this could be done through having children by Tyro, because those children would kill their father. But then, when Tyro learned about the oracle, she killed her sons by Sisyphus.
Unfortunately for Tyro, Zeus struck Salmoneus with a thunderbolt for his impiety, after he had founded a city Salmonia in Elis.
Sisyphus came also into conflict with Hermes\' son Autolycus, who inherited from his father the skill of a thief so competent that he was never caught. For the god made him able to change whatever he stole into some other form or colour, from white to black, or from black to white, from a hornless animal to a horned one, or from a horned one to a hornless. So Autolycus kept continually stealing from the herds of Sisyphus without being detected.
However Sisyphus knew who the thief was because Autolycus\' property was increasing without any other cause. So, in order to catch the thief Sisyphus put a mark on the hooves of his cattle so that he could identify them.
Sisyphus took his cattle back, but while he did that he also seduced Autolycus\' daughter Anticlia, who became pregnant and married Laertes. She gave birth to Odysseus made famous by the poet Homer.
Sisyphus told the riber god Asopus where his daughter Aegina had disappeared to. She had been abducted by Zeus who raped her. Instead of being ashamed, the jerk Zeus punished Sisyphus by confining him to the underworld where he had to roll a large rock up a hill to push it to the other side. Just as Sisyphus would get it to the top, the rock, charmed by Zeus, would roll right back down again. So Sisyphus was never able to complete the task.
Sources: Apollodorus 1.7.3, 1.9.3, 3.12.6; Hesiod Catalogues of Women and Eoiae 4; Homer Iliad 6.154; Homer Odysseus 11.593ff.; Hyginus Poetica Astronomica 2.21; Hyginus Fabulae 60, 201; Pausinias 2.3.11, 2.4.3, 9.34.7-10."); GodThing[315] = new CreateGod("Danae","@","She is actually a mortal, born of King of Argos, Acrisius, and Eurydice (the okeanid). She grew up attending to another daughter to the king. Her uncle Proteus, twin brother to Acrisius, molested her. At the same time this bad event occured an oracle told her father that his grandson would kill him. Now worried that Danae may be pregnant from the rape, he imprisoned her in the a tower. There Zeus visited her as golden sunlight, from which she actually did become pregnant. Of course her father did not believe her story about Zeus, and did not believe her when she said that Proteus had not penetrated her successfully.
Acrisius faced with this severe family crisis did not kill her. He sent her and her unborn child away to sea while locked up in a sea chest. Virgil said sthat she floated to Italy where she was found by Pilumnus, who married her and founded the city of Ardea. She was mother of Daunus, who became the ancestor of Turnus.
Most other writers however say she went east in the chest to the island of Seriphos. Dicrys the fisherman found her. His brother Polydectes was king of the island. How this king treated her varies by author. Some say she was married by him, and her son raised in the temple of Athena. Most accounts say that he enslaved her and repeatedly tried to rape her(while still pregnant). When she did give brith it was to Perseus.
When Perseus grew up Polydectes (to get rid of this unwanted man) sent him to get the head of Medusa hoping he would fail. The reason he gave is that it would make a startling powerful wedding present for his bride-to-be Hippomedeia. When Perseus returned he found that Polydectes had continued to try to rape his mother, and she and Dictys were now hiding in the sanctuary of the temple of Athena.
Perseus got angry and showed the head to all the villians especially Polydectes. When they were turned to stone Perseus made the decent Dictys king and returned to Argos with his mother and former king\'s daughter Andromeda.
On arrival he accidentally killed his grandfather (thus fulfilling the prophecy).
[Apoolorus 2.2.1.4.1; Pausanias 2.5.6.16.2, 3.13.6, Hyginus Faves 63; Virgil, Aeneid 9.4.410; Servius on Virigi's Aenieid 7.372, 8.345, 9.14ff, Pindar, Pythian Odes 12.21; Ovid, Metamorposes 5.238; Tzetzes on Lycophron]. "); GodThing[316] = new CreateGod("Danaus","@","The father of fifty daughters, the Danaides.
He was grandson of Poseidon and Libya, son to Belos and Anchinoe. His twin brother was Aegyptus. Belus was king of a large amount of land, and gave Danaus the rule of Libya, and Aegyptus the rule of Arabia. Aegyptus wanted more so he took over Egypt as well. When Belus died, the brothers quarrelled over who should get what territory. Before Belus died Danaus had fathered fifty daughters with various wives. Aegyptus had fifty sons (also by various wives). A convenient matching number, Aegyptus thought. But Danaus felt that the sons would dominate the union and he would be left badly off. He fled, with all his daughters to Argos. When they saw a ship with 50 oars, each oar controlled by a princess (it might be said they manned the oars) the considered this a gift from the gods and made Danaus king.
For some time there was peace and prosperity in the land, then another ship with fifty princes showed up, the sons of Aegyptus. Danaus decided not to get into a war over this and so planned a large group wedding. But before the wedding he instructed all his daughters to take a dagger and slit the throat of their husbands on the first night of the wedding. The daughters did as their father told them, except for Hypermnestra and her husband Lynceus. Who ran away.
Danaus could NOT find suitors interested in being married to any of the remaining husband killing daughters, so he was forced to find Hypermnestra and Lynceus and convinced them to come back. After him they ruled Argos and had a son called Acrisius who fathered Danae.
]Apollodorus and Hyginus]. "); GodThing[317] = new CreateGod("Polydora","@","There are six of these in Greek Mythology.
1. She is a named Okeanid (Hesiod Theogony 354) but nothing else is told about her.
2. The mother of Idas and Lynccus (Apollonius Rhodius 1.151) although the same source suggested their mother was Arene.
3. This Polydora was a daughter of Danaus after he arrived in Argos, so she was not part of the Danaids. Spercheius, the river god loved her and their son Dryops became king of the Dryopes in Greece. Eventually these people were driven out by the Dorians and settled in varius places including the Argolid penisula, and to Asine.
[Antonius Liberalis 32; Scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius 1.1212; Tzetzes on Lycophron 480]
4. According to Pausinias (4.2.5) this Polydora (called Laodameia) was the daughter of Meleager and Cleopatra. Polydora married Protsilaus.
5. Daughter of Peleus and Antigone, and half sister to Achilles. Her mother committed suicide on receiving the note from Astydameia, wife of Acastus, that Peleus was about to marry the daughter of Acastus. There was no truth to it, and the note was sent because her (Astydameia) attempts to seduce Peleus had failed.
Polydora was loved by the river god Specheius and by Borus sone of Perieres. One of them was father to Menesthius who went to command position under Achilles in the Trojan War. Achilles was also his uncle because Polydora's father had remarried after the aforementioned suicide. He married Thetis who bore Achilles.
[Homer Illiad 2.3.142, 16.173-177; Apollodorus 3.13.1-4; Pausinias 1.37.2].
6. This Polydorus was one of the Amazons according to Hyginus in his Fabulae (163) but he said nothing more about her.");
GodThing[318] = new CreateGod("Dryope","@","There are five of these in Greek Mythology.
1. Dryope was a daugher of Eurytus (some say Dryops) and Iole was her half sister. In any event Dryope tended her father\'s flocks on Mount Oeta, playing with the Hamadryades. They taught her how to dance and how to sing hymns to the gods.
When Apollo was wandering he saw her playing with the dryads. He changed himself into a tortoise which all of them played with. When placed into Dryope\'s lap he changed into a snake which scared the nymphs away. He then changed into his god form and raped her.
She quickly married Andraemon, son of Oxylus, their son was Amphissus was very very powerful. He build the twon of Oeta and a temple to Apollo. While her mother was in it one day the nymphs carried her off, leaving an fountain head of fresh water and a popular tree grew on the site thereafter.
Amphissus deduced what happend and created a temple to the nymphs and refused to allow any woman to enter it, but where athletic games were held.
[Ovid, Metamorphoses 9.325, 363; Antoninus Liberalis 32; Stephanus Byzantium - the Dryope.
2. The second Dryope was a nymph and mother of Tarquirus by Faunus. Her son was a prince slain by Aeneas in his war with Turnus. Inspite of the pleas of the mother Aeneas beheaded him and would not allow burial of his corpse. [Virgil Aeneid 10.550-515]
3. This was a Phoenician mother to Chromis. He was born when his mother strained herself dragging a bull to the altar of Dionysus. Chromis was killed in the battle of the Seven against Thebes by being struck through the mouth with a spear.
[Statius, Thebaid 2.615-630]
4. The fourth was one of the Lemnian women who around when the Argonauts visited. These women had killed off all their men. When the Argonauts arrived they decided they had been without men long enough.
[Valerius Flaccus 2.174]
5.A patronymic name of a daughter of Dryops. This Dryope some claim is the father of Pan by Hermes.
[Homeric Hymn to Hermes;Apollodorus 1.4.3, Epitome 7.38; Ciciero, Nature of the Gods 3.56].");
GodThing[319] = new CreateGod("Euippe","@","There are 7 of these in Greek mythology.
1. The first was one of the Danaides, married to Argius (Apollodorus 2.15) or to Agenor (Hyginus Fabulae 170) but in either case she remained virgin.(See Danaids).
2. This Euippe was also a Danaides married according to Apollodorus to Imbrus, but not mentioned by Hyginus at all (or rather again).
3. This Euippe was a daughter of Daunus (not Danaus) king in Apulia in a region he named Daunia. Diomedes fleeing from Argos was shipwrecked in Daunia, where Daunia asked him to help in a war with the Mesapians and promised Euippe would marry him. When Diomedes won he had a son Diomedes (confusing as that is).[Pliny 3.11; Servius on Virgil 8.9, Antoninus Liberalis 37 and Strabo 6.3.9.
4. This was another name for Hippe, daughter of Cheron.
5. This Euippe was daughter of Leucon and grandaughter of Athamas, and brother to Eurythrus. She married Andreus but had a son from the river god Cephissus in Boeotia. That son was Eteocles first to offer sacrifieces to the Charities at Orchomenus.
[Pausanias 9.34.5,35.1; Theocritus 16.104; Higinus Fabulae 157, and Apollodorus 1.9.2]
6. This one was daughter of Tyrimmas of Epeirus. Odysseus, consulting with the oracle was entertained by Tyrimmas and seduced Euippe. Their son was Euryalus. She sent him to her father when he grew up with proof of his identity. Odysseus was away but Penelope who knew of the affair received him. She told Odysseus that he was part of a plot to kill him. So Odysseus killed Euryaus. His mother never learned about her sons death.
[Parthenius Love Stories 3.]
7. She was the wife of Pierus and mothr of nine daughters named for the Muses. (She was called Antiope often)");
GodThing[320] = new CreateGod("Polyxena","@","There are 2 of these.
The first was daughter of Priam and Hecabe. She was brethrothed to Eurymachus. During the Trojan War Achilles fell in love with her and sought her in marriage but first was killed by Paris and Deiphobus. After the war Polyxena was slaughtered on the grave of Achilles by the Achaeans and buried in the house of Antenor, father of Eurymachus.
[Apollodorus 3.12.5; Apollodorus Epitome 5.23; Euripides Hecabe 40, 174 and passim; Euripides, Daughters of Troy 622; Quintus Smyrnaeus, The Fall of Troy 14.267ff., 14.323; SI.1; Tryphiodorus, The Taking of Ilios 686].
The other Polyxena was one of the Danaids.");
GodThing[321] = new CreateGod("Eudora","@","There are 3 of these mentioned in Greek Mythology.
The first was a Nereides (Hesiod Theogony 244; Apollodorus 1.27)
The second was one of the Hyades.(Same sources) and
The third was one of the Oceanides (Hesiod, Theogony 360).");
GodThing[322] = new CreateGod("Pegasus","@","When Perseus killed the Gorgon Medusa this winged horse was born from the blood dripping from her neck. Bellephon rode him when he attacked the Chimera. Then Pegasus took Bellephon on his attack of Mount Olympus. He also used his front hoof to open up a spring on a mountain.
[ Apollodonus 2.3.2; Aratus of Soli, Phaenomena 218; Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica 2.18; Nonnus 25.40, 31.20; Ovid Fasti 3.450; Pindar Olympian (Odes) 13.64.].");
GodThing[323] = new CreateGod("Polyphemes","@","The famous cannibal cyclopes who ate many of the crew of Odysseus and would have eaten him too if Odysseus hadn't thought of a way to escape.
However there were two Polyphemes in Greek literature.
The first Polyphemes was an Argonaut whom Heracles left looking for Hylas, who was his friend, and himself went back to the ship. According to them Polyphemes remained in Mysia for good, founding a city Cius, which he ruled as king. He kept looking for Hylas until his death, but Hylas was never found again. He was son of Elatus and Hippea, daughter of Antippus [Apollodorus 1.9.19; Hyginus Fabulae14; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 26; Valerius Flaccus, Argonautica 1.457].
Now let us describe the famous cyclopes Polyphemes.
He was son of Poseiden and Thoosa (a sea nymph). For whatever reason he was rude and crude, preferring to live in a cave and ignore the gods (except his father) and eat whatever moved on legs.
We Cyclopes do not concern ourselves over Zeus...nor any of the rest of the blessed god, since we are far better than they...Now he and his brothers (all Cyclopes) were like this, living on various parts of what some think is Sicily.
[Polyphemes to Odysseus. Homer, Odyssey 9.275]
He fell in love with another sea nymph, his cousin Galatea, and was so smitten that when the seer Telemus made the following prophecy
Continued here "); GodThing[324] = new CreateGod("Philemon","and Baucis","He was a kind, pious elderly man, husband of Baucis. Despite their poverty, they gave a warm welcome to Zeus and Hermes. Before they came upon the elderly people, they had been refused hospitality by wealthier and more dignified people. As punishment, the gods turned the entire region into a swamp, but they changed the cottage of their hosts into a temple. The granted the elderly couple a wish, and Philemon and Baucis asked to serve the gods as guardians of the temple. When their life came to an end, they were turned into a oak and a lime tree. Ovid VIII, 611. "); GodThing[325] = new CreateGod("Teiresias","Manto","A famous prophet of Thebes. Teiresias accidentally came across Athena while she was bathing, so she blinded him. At his mother pleading Athena gave Teiresias the gift of prophecy to compensate for his blindness. Amoung his prophecies were:
A warning to Pentheus to recongnize and honor Dionysus when he first appeared in Thebes.
A prediction of the greatness of Hercules.
He revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus had unknowningly murdered his own father.
And he told Odysseus how to placate Poseidon.
He had a daughter Daphne, but this is not the Daphne who turned into a laural tree.
He is also famous for resolving the dispute between Hera and Zeus on who enjoyed sex more: men or women. Teiresias said women did more because they were more passionate. He was qualified to answer this because he had been both a man anda woman (as a cross dresser...Dionysus discovered this by accident one day, and in spite of how much he owed to Teiresias could not prevent himself from telling others.)
Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History"); GodThing[326] = new CreateGod("Adephagia","@","Gluttony personified had a temple in Sicily where she was worshipped together with Ceres. This is the only place some mention of her has been found."); GodThing[327] = new CreateGod("Damocles","Damacles","Damocles was a courtier of Dionysius the Elder. According to a legend, Damocles on one occasion commented to his ruler on the grandeur and happiness of rulers.
Dionysius soon thereafter invited his courtier to a luxurious banquet, where Damocles enjoyed the delights of the table until his attention was directed upward and he saw a sharp sword hanging above him by a single horsehair. By this device Dionysius made Damocles realize that insecurity might threaten those who appeared to be the most fortunate. (The phrase \'Sword of Damocles\" is used as a phrase to symbolize potential disaster.)"); GodThing[328] = new CreateGod("Arachne","@","Arachne was a young girl, daughter of Idmon. She lived in Maeonia, a region in Lydia about Mount Tmolus in Asia Minor. She had a high reputation in all Lydian cities for being the best at spinning and weaving wool. And she was so famous and good at her work that many came to see, not just her finished works, but also the deft ways by which she accomplished them.
Arachne felt offended when someone suggested that she was the disciple of Athena, known for having introduced all crafts. And in order to prove her self-sufficiency and independence, she declared that she could compete with the goddess herself and defeat her. This was a major mistake.
On hearing this Athena came disguised as an old woman and told Arachne to listen to her, for, she said, with old age comes experience. Athena as the old woman invited her to also acknowledge the goddess superiority for gods are not called gods for no reason. But famous Arachne, seeing just an unknown old woman, thought this was just a senile old crone. She told the old woman to give advice to someone else, for she Arachne, was quite able to advise herself, and in order to put the old woman in her right place she added:
\"It is too long life that is your bane... Why does your goddess avoid a contest with me?\" [Arachne to the disguised Athena. Ovid, Metamorphoses 6.37]Athena appeared in her own shape, causing everybody to worship her except Arachne who remained unafraid and unimpressed.
So there and then there was a weaving contest between them and Athene\'s.
Now Athena made a tapestry showing the City of Athens with the gods above and it was very beautiful[Note 1]. But Arachne showed the gods as drunken, and sex crazed, but it too was very beautiful[Note 2]. This also was not smart. Athena was honor bound as one of the gods to destroy Arachne's tapestry which said so many bad things about the gods, and then she turned Arachne into a spider.
The whole story of Arachne comes from just one ancient story: Ovid Metamorphoses 6.5-145.
Note 1: And Athena pictured the city of Athens and the gods sitting on thrones bearing their attributes, and among them she embroidered the olive-tree that she produced long ago, and which won her the patronage of the city of Athens. And crowning her work she depicted Nike (Victory).
But also she wove in the four corners of the web, miniature designs of four scenes of contest, so that her rival may learn from these images something about her own daring madness.
In one corner she depicted Haemus and Rhodope, audacious mortals who, for having offended the gods, were turned into the mountains which still can be seen in Thrace. In another corner she wove the Pygmaean queen whom Hera turned into a crane, and in the third corner she pictured Antigone, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy, who also set herself against Hera and was turned by the goddess into a stork. And in the last corner she depicted King Cinyras of Cyprus, whose daughters caused the wrath of Aphrodite and were turned by her into prostitutes.
And around her work Athena wove a border of olive-wreath, which still today is a symbol of peace.
Note 2: Arachne, who was an accomplished weaver, pictured Europa being carried away by Zeus the bull. And Asteria, whom Zeus approached having assumed the shape of an eagle. She also wrought Leda, who was conquered by Zeus the swan. And then she wove Antiope 3, mother of the twins Amphion and Zethus, together with Zeus, who took the shape of a Satyr in order to make love to her. And continuing her amazing embroidery Arachne added Zeus disguised as Amphitryon in order to delude Alcmena, the mother of Heracles. And in the same way she made even more fantastic pictures, including Zeus as the golden shower who seduced Danae, mother of Perseus , and Zeus the flame who loved Aegina, mother of Aeacus, father of Peleus, father of Achilles. And she pictured Zeus the shepherd who made love to Mnemosyne, the Titaness, without forgetting Zeus the spotted snake who seduced Demeter.
And having finished with Zeus, she proceeded to depict Poseidon when he, assuming the form of the river god Enipeus, seduced Iphimedia, who gave birth to the Giants called the Aloads. And then she depicted him as the ram who seduced Theophane, also called Bisaltis, who later gave birth to the Ram with the Golden Fleece. And she showed Poseidon the horse seducing Demeter, and also how he, assuming the shape of a bird made love to Medusa, who is the mother of the winged horse Pegasus. And she did not forget Melantho, who was seduced by Poseidon the dolphin.
And, having still place for Apollo, she depicted him and Amphissa, whom this god tricked assuming the form of a shepherd. And she pictured Dionysus deceiving Erigone with the grapes, and Cronos the horse seducing Philyron, mother of the Centaur Chiron.
And around all this she wove a lovely frame with flowers and ivy intertwined. "); GodThing[329] = new CreateGod("Tantalus","@","There are three Tantalus in Greek Mythology.
First there is Tantalus who is the first husband of Clytaemnestra. He was killed by the Mycenean king Agamemnon. Tantalus is either son of Broteas, or son of Thyestes. This Tantalus is in either case a descendant of the third Tantalus described lastly here. As son of Thyestes, Tantalus should have been killed as an infant by Atreus, and served to his own father as a meal at a banquet.
The second Tantalus is a Niobid, grandson of the next Tantalus described.
The last Tantalus described here is the most famous one.
Tantalus is son of Zeus and Pluto-daughter of Himas. Tantalus had the following offspring:
- Dione (daughter of Atlas) or Euryanassa begatting Niobe, mother of the Niobids, Broteus who sired the first Tantalus described here, husband of Clytemnestra, and finally they begat Pelop who was severely abused by his father as described below.
- He told his mortal friends what life was like with the gods and stole (or tried to ) some ambrosia to share with these mortals
- He lied about having or knowing who stole Hephaestus' golden dog which had protected Zeus as an infant. When Zeus sent Hermes to find the truth of the matter, Tantalus was shown to be a perjurer as well.
- But the crime that truly did him in was when he killed, diced, cooked, and served his son Pelop up to the gods at a banquet. For this he received his punishment so well described by Odysseus. The gods recoiled from the stew, all except Demeter who was still depressed about her missing daughter Persephone. She ate the meat of a whole shoulder before the other gods stopped her.
Sources: Apollodorus Epitome 2.1; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History.4.74.1-4; Homer Odyssey 11.582; Hyginus, Fabulae 82, 83, 155; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 36; Nonnus 1.146, 48.731; Ovid Metamorphus 4.458, 6.172, 6.404; Pausinaus 2.22.3, 3.22.4; Plato Euthyphro 11e; Plato Gorgias.525d; Plutarch, Moralia .33; Plutarch, Moralia (Superstition).11; The Returns (The Epic Cycle)Athenaeus 281B"); GodThing[329] = new CreateGod("Tantalus","@","There are three Tantalus in Greek Mythology.
First there is Tantalus who is the first husband of Clytaemnestra. He was killed by the Mycenean king Agamemnon. Tantalus is either son of Broteas, or son of Thyestes. This Tantalus is in either case a descendant of the third Tantalus described lastly here. As son of Thyestes, Tantalus should have been killed as an infant by Atreus, and served to his own father as a meal at a banquet.
The second Tantalus is a Niobid, grandson of the next Tantalus described.
The last Tantalus described here is the most famous one.
Tantalus is son of Zeus and Pluto-daughter of Himas. Tantalus had the following offspring:
- Dione (daughter of Atlas) or Euryanassa begatting Niobe, mother of the Niobids, Broteus who sired the first Tantalus described here, husband of Clytemnestra, and finally they begat Pelop who was severely abused by his father as described below.
- He told his mortal friends what life was like with the gods and stole (or tried to ) some ambrosia to share with these mortals
- He lied about having or knowing who stole Hephaestus' golden dog which had protected Zeus as an infant. When Zeus sent Hermes to find the truth of the matter, Tantalus was shown to be a perjurer as well.
- But the crime that truly did him in was when he killed, diced, cooked, and served his son Pelop up to the gods at a banquet. For this he received his punishment so well described by Odysseus. The gods recoiled from the stew, all except Demeter who was still depressed about her missing daughter Persephone. She ate the meat of a whole shoulder before the other gods stopped her.
Sources: Apollodorus Epitome 2.1; Diodorus Siculus, The Library of History.4.74.1-4; Homer Odyssey 11.582; Hyginus, Fabulae 82, 83, 155; Antoninus Liberalis, Metamorphoses 36; Nonnus 1.146, 48.731; Ovid Metamorphus 4.458, 6.172, 6.404; Pausinaus 2.22.3, 3.22.4; Plato Euthyphro 11e; Plato Gorgias.525d; Plutarch, Moralia .33; Plutarch, Moralia (Superstition).11; The Returns (The Epic Cycle)Athenaeus 281B"); GodThing[330] = new CreateGod("Oh Oh","Mistake","Tell webmaster"); GodThing[331] = new CreateGod("Oh Oh","Mistake","Tell webmaster"); MaxNumberGods = 331; } function checkBrowser() { window.status="Loading:DO NOT CLICK LINKS"; var version = parseFloat(navigator.appVersion); if (navigator.appName.indexOf('Netscape') != -1) { if (version < 3) {alert("Your browser is version: " + version + ". It must be at least 3.0 for this page."); window.location = unescape("classurl.html"); } else { initGod(); window.status="Done-click links"; } } else if (navigator.appName.indexOf('Microsoft') != -1) { if (version < 3) alert("Your browser is version: " + version + ". It must be at least 3.0 for this page."); else { initGod(); window.status="Done-click links"; } } else { alert("Your browser is unable to handle this page."); window.location = unescape("classurl.html"); } } function MakeGodPage(NumberOfGod) { if ( NumberOfGod < 1 ) { NumberOfGod = MaxNumberGods; } if ( MaxNumberGods - 1 < NumberOfGod ) { NumberOfGod = MaxNumberGods; } var content = '
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var GodName = (GodThing[NumberOfGod].Name);
var GodReplace=/(-|\s|\'|\(|\))+/g;
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var GodName2=GodName.replace(GodReplace,WithThis);
var win = window.open("",GodName2, "width=400,height=400,resizable=yes,scrollbars=yes");
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win.document.write(content);
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}