Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Stories (42)

• Birth of the Olympian Generation: Overview (Hesiodic)
  Cosmogony / Theogony (bridge toward Olympian cycle) · Hesiodic catalogue after Zeus’s kingship
• Aphrodite as Daughter of Zeus and Dione
  Olympian gods · Homeric (Olympian parentage; distinct from Hesiodic foam-birth)
• Ares and Aphrodite Caught by Hephaestus
  Olympian gods · Homeric — Demodocus’s song in *Odyssey* 8
• Marriage of Hephaestus and Aphrodite
  Olympian gods — Hephaestus / Aphrodite · Homeric marital pairing (beyond the net-song) / handbook olympian household
• Ares and Halirrhothius: Trial on the Areopagus
  Olympian gods — Ares / Attic aetiology · Apollodorean / Pausanian Attic (first murder trial; Areopagus named)
• Poseidon and Halirrhothius (Father of the Victim)
  Olympian gods — Poseidon / Attic · Apollodorean / Atthidographic (Poseidon as avenging father)
• Leto’s Wanderings Seeking a Birthplace (before Delos)
  Olympian gods — Leto / birth of Apollo and Artemis · Homeric Hymn / Apollodorean / Callimachean enrichment
• Dione Comforts Wounded Aphrodite (*Iliad* 5)
  Olympian gods — Aphrodite / Dione · Homeric (*Iliad* 5) — maternal consolation on Olympus after Diomedes’ wound
• Iris Fetches the Water of Styx for Oaths (Hesiod)
  Olympian gods — Iris / divine ritual · Hesiodic — Iris as bearer of Styx-water when gods swear
• Phobos and Deimos: Children of Ares
  Olympian gods — Ares / personified war-terrors · Hesiodic / Homeric — Fear and Terror as Ares’s sons and attendants
• Eileithyia: Goddess of Childbirth
  Olympian gods — Hera’s daughter / birth-aid · Hesiodic / Homeric — Eileithyia (or Eileithyiae) as birth-goddess
• The Aloadae: Otus and Ephialtes against the Gods
  Olympian gods — early threats to Olympus / Poseidon’s line · Homeric / Apollodorean (Aloadae; binding of Ares; assault on heaven)
• Iris and the Harpies: Children of Thaumas
  Olympian gods / sea-born messengers — Thaumas’s line · Hesiodic — Iris and the Harpies as siblings from Thaumas and Electra
• Homeric Hymn to Ares (8)
  Olympian gods — Ares / short Homeric Hymn · Homeric Hymn VIII — praise and ethical petition to Ares
• Homeric Hymns to Athena (11 and 28)
  Olympian gods — Athena / short Homeric Hymns · Homeric Hymns XI and XXVIII — city-protector praise; birth from Zeus’s head
• The Aloadae Bind Ares in a Bronze Jar
  Olympian gods — Ares / Aloadae humiliation · Homeric digression (*Iliad* 5) — Otus and Ephialtes imprison Ares thirteen months
• Madness of Heracles: Murder of Wife and Children (Euripidean, after the Labors)
  Heroes — Heracles · Attic tragic — Euripides (madness *after* return from the labors; Lycus episode; Megara slain; Theseus as comforter)
• Ninth Labor: Hippolyte’s Belt (Hera’s Rumor and the Death of the Queen)
  Heroes — Heracles · Apollodorean (Admete’s desire; Hippolyte first willing; Hera as Amazon spreads rumor; Heracles kills Hippolyte and takes the belt of Ares)
• Eleventh Labor: Apples of the Hesperides (Nereus, Atlas Holds the Sky)
  Heroes — Heracles · Apollodorean / Pherecydian (apples among Hyperboreans by Atlas; Nereus compelled for guidance; Atlas fetches fruit while Heracles bears the sky; craft-return of the burden; Ladon present as guardian but not slain in this plot)
• Cycnus Son of Ares: Combat on the Way to the Hesperides (or at Itonus)
  Heroes — Heracles · Hesiodic *Shield* / Apollodorean (Cycnus waylays pilgrims; Heracles kills him; Ares engages and is wounded or parted by Zeus)
• Phineus and the Harpies; the Boreads; Advice for the Symplegades
  Heroes — Jason / Argonauts · Apollonian (blind seer; Harpies driven off; guidance for the Clashing Rocks)
• Cadmus and the Founding of Thebes (Dragon’s Teeth)
  Heroes — Cadmus / Theban cycle gateway · Apollodorean (Europa search; Delphic cow; Castalian dragon; Spartoi; Harmonia)
• Phrixus and Helle: The Golden Ram to Colchis
  Heroes — Aeolid / Golden Fleece origin (pre-Argonautica) · Apollodorean / Apollonian background (ram flight; Hellespont; Aeetes)
• Zeus’s Promise to Thetis and the False Dream
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 1–2 (divine plot; Agamemnon’s dream; army tested)
• Fight over Patroclus’s Body; Thetis and the New Armor
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 17–18
• Funeral of Patroclus and the Games
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 23
• Ransom of Hector: Priam in Achilles’ Tent
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 24
• Helen and Paris: First Night under Aphrodite
  Trojan — abduction / Aphrodite’s gift · Homeric (*Iliad* 3 bed scene as paradigm) + Cypria/Apollodorean elopement context
• Iris Summons the Winds for Patroclus’s Pyre (*Iliad* 23)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / funeral of Patroclus / divine messengers · Homeric (*Iliad* 23)
• Priam Leaves Troy to Ransom Hector (*Iliad* 24)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / ransom of Hector · Homeric (*Iliad* 24) — decision and departure from Troy (before the night crossing)
• Iris Summons Helen to the Wall (*Iliad* 3)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Book 3 · Homeric — Iris (as Laodice) fetches Helen for the teichoscopia
• Hera and Athena Blocked by Zeus (*Iliad* 8)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Book 8 · Homeric — armed descent aborted by Zeus’s threat
• Agamemnon’s Aristeia (*Iliad* 11)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Book 11 · Homeric — Agamemnon’s morning rampage until wounded
• Diomedes Wounds Aphrodite (*Iliad* 5)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Diomedes’ aristeia · Homeric — Athena’s leave; spear to Aphrodite’s wrist; Aeneas rescued
• Ceyx and Alcyone
  Local and lesser — Trachinian / Aeolian metamorphosis · Roman transmission (Ovid) of a Greek pair; Apollodorean brief notice of Ceyx
• Amymone and Poseidon: The Lernaean Spring
  Local and lesser — Argive / Danaid prelude · Apollodorean / Aeschylean satyr-play tradition (Amymone)
• Aeacus, Aegina, and the Myrmidons (Peleus’s People)
  Local and lesser — Aeginetan / Phthian · Apollodorean / Ovid-labeled ant metamorphosis; Hesiodic and Pindaric Aeacus notices
• Tityos: Assault on Leto and the Vultures
  Local and lesser — underworld punishment / Letoids · Homeric (*Odyssey* 11) / Apollodorean (birth; assault; death by Apollo and Artemis)
• Empusa and the Lamiae
  Local and lesser — daimonic / Hecate’s train; folk-bogey in classical comedy and philosophy · Aristophanic / Philostratean / Diodoran (Empusa; Lamia as child-devouring bogey; Hecate connection)
• Cleobis and Biton (Herodotus)
  Local and lesser — Argive piety legend (Herodotean) · Herodotean classical legend (Solon’s exemplum of a happy life)
• Tiresias: Snakes, Gender Change, Blindness, and Prophecy
  Local and lesser — Theban seer / gender and sight · Apollodorean (double sex; Hera–Zeus quarrel; blindness; prophetic gift)
• Callisto Catasterism: Arctos (Ursa Major)
  Local and lesser — Arcadian / astral aetiology · Eratosthenic / Hyginus astral (+ Apollodorean / Pausanian Arcadian frame)

Places appearing with them

• Achaean camp and ships
• Achaean ditch
• Achaean shore
• Achilles’ hut in the Achaean camp
• Achilles’ shelter by the ships
• Acropolis
• Aenus
• Air
• Amyclae
• Antenorid sphere
• Arabia
• Areopagus
• Argos
• Assembly
• Banks of the river Trito
• Bathing spring
• Battlefield over Patroclus
• Bronze jar
• Bronze jar / detention of Ares
• Caucasus
• Cities
• Colchis
• Crete
• Cyllene
• Cyprus
• Earth / Euboea
• Egypt
• Elysium
• Ethiopia
• Garden of the Hesperides
• Garden of the Hesperides road
• Gates and ditch of the camp
• Gates of Hades
• Gates of heaven
• Hades
• Hades’ gates
• Heaven
• Heaven and Earth
• Helen’s chamber in Troy
• Hellespont
• Hephaestus’s house on Olympus
• Heraclea
• House of Heracles
• House of Phineus
• House of Zeus
• House of the Winds
• Illyria
• Iolcus
• Itonus
• Land of the Hyperboreans
• Lerna
• Lycia
• Mid-air path
• Molossia
• Mount Helicon
• Mycenae
• Mysia
• Naxos
• Night
• Ocean stream
• Ocean’s stream
• Oenone
• Olympia
• Olympus
• Olympus, Ossa, Pelion
• Ortygia
• Outer sea
• Panopeus
• Paros
• Pergamus
• Phoenicia
• Plain before Troy
• Pleuron
• Priam’s palace in Troy
• Pytho
• Rhamnus
• River Echedorus
• River Eridanus
• Road to Delphi
• Road to Hades
• Rock and fall of Styx
• Rock struck by the trident
• Salamis
• Sardis
• Scaean
• Scheria
• Shore
• Shore of Trachis
• Sky / Ursa Major
• Smyrna
• Spercheius
• Spring of Ares
• Stadium of the games
• Starry heaven
• Strophades
• Styx
• Symplegades
• Thasos
• The deep
• Thebes
• Themiscyra
• Thermodon
• Thermydrae
• Thessaly
• Thrace
• Thracian sea
• Tomb of Patroclus
• Torone
• Trojan battlefield
• Trojan camp on the plain
• Trojan shore
• Troy
• Underworld
• Wall of Troy
• Walls of Troy

Themes

• Abduction
• Binding
• Birth
• Contest
• Divine Council
• Exile
• Hospitality
• Hubris
• Marriage
• Metamorphosis
• Petrification
• Prophecy
• Revenge
• Sacrifice
• Succession
• Theft
• Underworld
• War