Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Stories (15)

• Abduction of Persephone and Demeter’s Search
  Olympian gods · Homeric Hymn to Demeter
• Demeter and Triptolemus: The Gift of Grain
  Olympian gods / Eleusinian · Apollodorean / Pausanian Eleusinian (mission of Triptolemus); Homeric Hymn foundation noted as rite-only
• Demeter Nurses Demophon: Celeus and Metaneira (Homeric Hymn)
  Olympian gods — Demeter / Eleusinian prelude · Homeric Hymn to Demeter — Demophon episode (distinct from Triptolemus grain-mission)
• Persephone Eats the Pomegranate: The Return Bargain
  Olympian gods — Demeter / Persephone · Homeric Hymn to Demeter — pomegranate seed and compromise
• 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)
• Road Labor: Sciron and the Megarian Cliffs
  Heroes — Theseus · Apollodorean / Attic (Sciron forced travelers to wash his feet, then kicked them to a turtle; Theseus hurls him down)
• Road Labor: Cercyon the Wrestler at Eleusis
  Heroes — Theseus · Apollodorean (Eleusinian wrestler-king; crushed by Theseus’s skill)
• Orpheus and Eurydice: The Descent
  Heroes — Orpheus · Apollodorean Greek notice (+ Plato); fuller narrative is largely Roman (Vergil/Ovid)—labeled
• Erechtheus, Eumolpus, and the Sacrifice of the Daughters
  Heroes — Attic kings / Eleusinian war · Apollodorean / Euripidean (*Erechtheus*) / Lycurgan oratory
• Capaneus: Blasphemy and the Thunderbolt
  Heroes — Theban / Seven Against Thebes · Aeschylean / Euripidean / Apollodorean
• Shade of Heracles in the Underworld (*Odyssey* 11)
  Heroes — Heracles / Odyssey nekyia · Homeric — eidolon in Hades while the god feasts on Olympus
• Theseus and the Suppliants: Recovery of the Seven’s Bodies
  Heroes — Theseus / Theban aftermath / Attic tragic charter · Attic tragic — Euripides *Suppliants* (Adrastus and the mothers at Eleusis)
• Evadne Leaps onto Capaneus’s Pyre
  Heroes — Seven against Thebes aftermath / Euripidean *Suppliants* · Euripidean — widow’s suttee at Eleusis against her father’s will
• 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)

Characters in shared stories

• Adrastus
• Aegina
• Aeolus
• Aethra
• Ajax
• Amphitrite
• Argiope
• Artemis
• Ascalaphus
• Asopus
• Athena
• Baubo
• Branchus
• Calliope
• Capaneus
• Celeus
• Centaurs
• Cerberus
• Cercyon
• Ceuthonymus
• Chione
• Creon
• Daughters of Celeus
• Daughters of Erechtheus
• Demeter
• Demophon
• Diocles
• Electra
• Erechtheus
• Eteocles
• Eumolpus
• Eumolpus, Diocles
• Eurydice
• Evadne
• Gaia
• Giant turtle
• Gorgons
• Hades
• Hebe
• Hecate