Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Stories (13)

• Orphic Cosmogony (Brief — Distinct Tradition Note)
  Cosmogony / Theogony — Orphic tradition (not Hesiodic main line) · Orphic / late classical–Hellenistic notices (labeled distinct from Hesiod)
• Ophion and Eurynome: Alternative Primordial Rule
  Cosmogony / Theogony — Orphic / early alternative pair · Orphic / Apollonian (Orpheus’s song) — Ophion and Eurynome before Cronus and Rhea
• Youth of Heracles: Linus, Cithaeron, Thespius, and the Minyans
  Heroes — Heracles · Apollodorean (education; Linus’s death; Cithaeronian lion; Thespius; liberation of Thebes)
• Building of the Argo and Gathering of the Argonauts
  Heroes — Jason / Argonauts · Apollonian / Apollodorean (Athena’s design; Argus the builder; catalogue of heroes)
• Circe’s Purification; Libya and Triton’s Gift (Return Voyage)
  Heroes — Jason / Argonauts · Apollonian return (Circe cleanses kin-blood; later Libyan shoals and Triton)
• Orpheus and Eurydice: The Descent
  Heroes — Orpheus · Apollodorean Greek notice (+ Plato); fuller narrative is largely Roman (Vergil/Ovid)—labeled
• Death of Orpheus: The Maenads
  Heroes — Orpheus · Apollodorean / Pausanian (torn by Thracian/Macedonian women or Maenads; head and lyre)
• Butes and the Sirens
  Heroes — Argonautica / return voyage · Apollonian — Butes leaps toward the Sirens; Aphrodite saves him to Lilybaeum
• Linus: Aetiology of the Mourning Song
  Local and lesser — musical aetiology / harvest lament · Homeric / Hesiodic / Pindaric / Pausanian (multiple Linus figures; song *ailinon*)
• Cyparissus (Ovid-Labeled)
  Local and lesser — metamorphosis / Apolline favorite · Roman transmission (Ovid) of the Cean / Cypriot youth changed into the cypress
• Aristaeus, the Bees, and Eurydice (Vergil-Labeled)
  Local and lesser — pastoral / bee aetiology; Orphic hinge · Roman primary narrative (Vergil, *Georgics* 4) of a Greek hero (Aristaeus); Greek notices of Aristaeus as pastoral culture-hero noted
• Orpheus’s Head and Lyre Reach Lesbos
  Local and lesser — Orphic aftermath / Lesbian cult aetiology · Apollodorean / Pausanian / Hellenistic (head floats singing; Lesbian oracle; lyre catasterized or dedicated)
• Lyra: The Lyre of Orpheus (Catasterism)
  Local and lesser — astral aetiology / Orpheus · Catasterismic handbook — Orpheus’s lyre placed among the stars

Places appearing with them

• (No single civic locale
• Aegean sea-path
• Argo
• Ceos
• Circe’s land
• Colchis
• Cosmic egg
• Dodona
• Eleusis
• Ethiopia
• Garden of the Hesperides
• Gates of Hades
• Hades
• Hives of Aristaeus
• Iolcus
• Lake Tritonis
• Lesbos
• Lilybaeum
• Mount Cithaeron
• Mount Helicon
• Mount Pangaeum
• Mount Pelion
• Mycenae / Argolid
• Mysia
• Ocean’s streams
• Olympus
• Pasture
• Phoenicia
• River Hebrus
• River Peneus
• Riverbank of Eurydice’s flight
• Sea path from Tritonis
• Sirens’ island
• Styx
• The deep
• Thebes
• Thessaly
• Thrace
• Tombs and sanctuaries
• Underworld
• Vintage scene

Themes

• Binding
• Castration
• Contest
• Creation
• Divine Council
• Hospitality
• Marriage
• Metamorphosis
• Petrification
• Prophecy
• Sacrifice
• Succession
• Theft
• Underworld
• War