Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Stories (34)

• Reign of Cronus, the Swallowing of the Children, and the Birth of Zeus
  Cosmogony / Theogony · Hesiodic (with Apollodorean Cretan enrichment clearly marked)
• Typhoeus Against Zeus (Hesiodic)
  Cosmogony / Theogony · Hesiodic
• Division of the Cosmos among Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades
  Cosmogony / Theogony · Homeric / Apollodorean (lots among the three brothers)
• Birth of the Olympian Generation: Overview (Hesiodic)
  Cosmogony / Theogony (bridge toward Olympian cycle) · Hesiodic catalogue after Zeus’s kingship
• Abduction of Persephone and Demeter’s Search
  Olympian gods · Homeric Hymn to Demeter
• Hecate in Demeter’s Search (Homeric Hymn)
  Olympian gods — Demeter / Persephone / Hecate · Homeric Hymn to Demeter (torch-bearing companion)
• Helios Tells Demeter about Persephone
  Olympian gods — Demeter / Persephone / Helios · Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Helios as all-seeing revealer)
• Persephone Eats the Pomegranate: The Return Bargain
  Olympian gods — Demeter / Persephone · Homeric Hymn to Demeter — pomegranate seed and compromise
• Minthe Trampled by Persephone
  Olympian gods — Persephone / Hades / plant aetiology · Strabonian / Oppianic Greek + Ovid-labeled Roman — river-nymph rival; mint plant
• Polydectes’s Demand: Hermes and Athena Equip Perseus
  Heroes — Perseus · Apollodorean / Pherecydian (wedding-gift trick; divine guides and gear)
• Visit to the Graeae and the Nymphs
  Heroes — Perseus · Apollodorean / Pherecydian (shared eye and tooth; path to the nymphs)
• Tenth Labor: The Cattle of Geryon (Helios’s Cup, Orthrus, Erytheia)
  Heroes — Heracles · Apollodorean (Erytheia/Gadira; triple-bodied Geryon; Orthrus and Eurytion; Helios’s golden cup; homeward cattle-drive with Eryx and Hera’s gadfly)
• Twelfth Labor: Cerberus and the Descent to Hades (Theseus and Pirithous)
  Heroes — Heracles · Apollodorean (Eleusinian initiation; Taenarum descent; Medusa phantom; Theseus raised, Pirithous left; Cerberus mastered without weapons; ascent via Troezen)
• Alcestis Rescued from Death
  Heroes — Heracles · Euripidean / Apollodorean (Admetus’s postponed death; Alcestis dies in his place; Heracles wrestles Thanatos or brings her back from the grave)
• Theseus and Pirithous in Hades: The Attempt on Persephone
  Heroes — Theseus · Apollodorean (descent to seize Persephone; binding on the Chair of Forgetfulness; Heracles frees Theseus)
• Orpheus and Eurydice: The Descent
  Heroes — Orpheus · Apollodorean Greek notice (+ Plato); fuller narrative is largely Roman (Vergil/Ovid)—labeled
• Heracles against Neleus and the Pylians
  Heroes — Heracles / side campaigns; Nestor’s background · Apollodorean / Homeric recollection (Neleus; eleven sons; Nestor spared)
• Pelops’s Ivory Shoulder
  Heroes — Pelopid origins / restoration after Tantalus’s feast · Apollodorean / Pindaric background — Demeter’s bite; ivory replacement
• Europa’s Sons in Crete: Minos, Rhadamanthys, and Sarpedon
  Heroes — Cretan royal foundations / Europa cycle aftermath · Apollodorean / Homeric — three sons of Zeus and Europa; Cretan kingship; Sarpedon’s dual identity
• Pterelaus and Comaetho: The Golden Hair
  Heroes — Amphitryon / Teleboan war / Taphian kingship · Apollodorean — Poseidon’s immortalizing hair; daughter’s betrayal
• Euphemus and the Clod of Libya
  Heroes — Argonautica / Theran–Cyrenean colonial charter · Apollonian / Pindaric — Triton gives Euphemus a clod; destiny of Thera and Cyrene
• Wedding of Peleus and Thetis: Eris and the Apple of Discord
  Trojan · Epic Cycle — *Cypria* (Proclus) / Apollodorean (+ Pindaric wedding background)
• Landing at Troy: Protesilaus and Cycnus
  Trojan · Epic Cycle — *Cypria* (Proclus) / Apollodorean (+ Homeric Protesilaus notice)
• Ajax and Hector: The Day’s Duel and Truce for Burial
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 7
• Trojans at the Ships; Patroclus Pleads for Achilles’ Armor
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 11–16 (compressed arc to Achilles’ concession)
• Achilles’ Aristeia and the Death of Hector
  Trojan · Homeric — *Iliad* 20–22
• Departure Disasters Begin: Athena’s Wrath and Locrian Ajax
  Trojan · Epic Cycle — *Iliou Persis* / *Nostoi* (Proclus) / Apollodorean (+ Euripides *Troades* prologue)
• Nekyia: Odysseus in the Underworld (*Odyssey* 11)
  Trojan — Odyssey / Nostoi · Homeric — *Odyssey* 11 (+ Apollodorean summary)
• Zeus Lifts the Ban: The Gods May Fight (*Iliad* 20)
  Trojan — Homeric *Iliad* / Book 20 · Homeric — revocation of the Book 8 ban; theomachy begins
• Catalogue of Heroines in the Nekyia (*Odyssey* 11)
  Trojan — Odyssey / Nekyia / heroic genealogy in Hades · Homeric — blood-drinking shades of famous women; Hesiodic-style catalogue embedded in nostos
• Adonis: Aphrodite and the Boar
  Local and lesser — Cypriot / Levantine cult myth in Greek dress · Apollodorean (birth from Myrrha/Smyrna; Aphrodite; Persephone; boar death); Bion’s *Lament*
• Sisyphus: Cheating Death and the Rolling Stone
  Local and lesser — Corinthian / underworld punishment · Homeric punishment + Apollodorean / Pherecydian crimes (Thanatos bound; Persephone tricked)
• Iambe / Baubo and Demeter’s Jest
  Local and lesser — Eleusinian / Demeter’s grief (short entry) · Homeric Hymn to Demeter (Iambe); Orphic / Eleusinian notices (Baubo)
• Aphrodite’s Lament for Adonis (Bion)
  Local and lesser — Adonis / bucolic lament · Hellenistic bucolic — Bion’s *Lament for Adonis* (Greek)

Places appearing with them

• Abderia
• Achaean camp
• Achaean ships
• Achaean wall and ditch
• Achilles’ hut
• Acrocorinth
• Amyclae
• Assembly
• Aulis / Chalcis
• Banks of the river Trito
• Beaches
• Bridal chamber
• Broad heaven
• Callichoron
• Cauldron of restoration
• Cave of Dicte
• Chair of Forgetfulness
• City
• Crete
• Cyprus
• Dim rugged glens of the mount
• Dwelling of the Graeae
• Dwelling of the nymphs
• Earth
• Earth and sea of the nine days’ search
• Edge of Ocean
• Eleusis
• Erytheia
• Ethiopia
• Gates of Acheron
• Gates of Hades
• Gates of the Achaean camp
• Gerenia
• Gods’ banquet
• Greek cities
• Grey sea
• Gyrae rocks
• Hades
• Heaven
• Hecate’s cave
• Helios’s heavenly seat
• Helios’s vantage
• Hellespont
• High Olympus
• House of Zeus
• Inland place of the winnowing-fan
• Ionian Sea
• Ithaca
• Libya and Europe
• Liguria
• Lycia
• Lyctus
• Maiden Well / Callichoron
• Messenia
• Midea
• Mint beds
• Misty sea
• Mount Abas
• Mount Aegeum
• Mount Etna
• Mount Ida
• Mount Pelion
• Murky darkness / Hades
• Mycenae
• Nestor’s hut
• Nether parts of the earth
• Ocean’s edge
• Ocean’s streams
• Olympia
• Olympus
• Ortygia
• Parthenion
• Path toward the Graeae and Ocean
• Pillars of Heracles
• Plain before Troy
• Plain of Eryx
• Plain of Nysa
• Pyres on the plain
• Rarian Field
• Rhegium
• River Anthemus
• River Scamander
• River Strymon
• Salamis
• Scheria
• Sea off Attica
• Seriphos
• Ships
• Styx
• Taphos
• Tartarus
• Tartessus
• Thera
• Thessaly
• Thorikos
• Thrace
• Thrinacia
• Tomb of Alcestis
• Triphylian Pylus region
• Troezen
• Trojan shore
• Troy
• Twice around the city
• Tyrrhenia
• Underworld
• Walls and Scaean Gates of Troy
• Wild hills
• Wilds where Adonis hunts

Themes

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