MACLEOD'S GREEK MYTHOLOGY PAGE



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CRONOS
Father of Zeus and lord of the universe.

GAEA
Gaea is the earth goddess. With Uranus she bore the rest of the Titans. She is regarded as all producing and all nourishing, and one of the deities of presiding over marriage.

MNEMOSYNE
The goddess of Memory, she mated with Zeus to produce the 9 Muses.

PHOEBE
By her brother Coeus she is the mother of Asteria and Leto. Through Leto, she is the grandmother of Apollo and Artemis. The 18th moon of Saturn is given the name Phoebe.

PROMETHeUS
Titan who brought fire to mankind against Zeus' wishes. The 3rd moon of saturn is given the name Prometheus.

RHEA
Rhea was the wife of the Titan Cronus, who made it a practice to swallow their children. When Zeus was about to be born, she bore him in secret and gave Cronus a stone wrapped as an infant to swallow. The 14th moon of Saturn is given the name Rhea.

TETHYS
Tethys the wife of Oceanus and gave birth to around 3,000 river-gods and the Oceanides. Hera was raised by Tethys until she was ready to marry Zeus. The 9th moon of saturn is given the name Tethys.

THEIA A beautiful goddess of light.

THEMIS
Themis is the goddess of the order of things established by law, custom and ethics. By Zeus' command, she convenes the assembly of the gods, and she is invoked when mortals assemble. She is the mother of the Horae (seasons), the Hesperides and Prometheus.

APHRODITE
A goddess of love and beauty.

APOLLO
A proud, youthful god of music, he rides a chariot because of his association with the sun god Helios

ARES
God of war

ARTEMIS
Goddess of the hunt and the moon, and of forests and wild animals.

ATHENA
Goddess of wisdom and war

DEMETER
Goddess of the harvest

DIONYSUS
God of wine

HERA
Jealous wife of Zeus and Queen of the gods

HERMES
God of travelers, and thieves, and messenger of Zeus.

HEPHAESTUS
God of fire and metalworking, architecture, arts, and crafts.

HESTIA
Goddess of the hearth

POSEIDON
God of the sea

ZEUS
Ruling sky god

AEOLUS
Keeper of the winds

ALECTO
Alecto is one of the three Furies or Erinyes and sometimes known as a Greek goddess of war and death.

ALCYONE
Symbolized by a kingfisher, she is a Pleaide seduced by Zeus.

ALECTRONA
An early Greek goddess, Alectrona is the daughter of the sun. No beast of burden could enter her sanctuary in Rhodes. Anyone bringing an ass, horse, or mule to her shrine had to undergo ritual purification.

AMPHIRITE
Amphirite is a Nereid, a water nymph confined to the waters surrounding Greece. Poseidon chose her as his wife, but she was repulsed and ran. When Delphinus came to plead on Poseidon's behalf, she consented and became his wife.

ANANKE
Plato called Ananke the mother of the Moriae or Fates and is the personification of necessity or the force of destiny. One of Jupiter's moons is given the name Ananke.

ARETE
Arete is the Greek goddess of justice and teacher of Heracles.

ATE
Ate is the embodiment of folly, moral blindness, infatuation, and mischief. It was her Apple of Discord which caused the Trojan War.

CELAENO
Celaeno was a Pleiade seduced by Poseidon.

THE CHARITIES
The Charities are personifications of aspects of grace and beauty. They are called Aglaia (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Good Cheer). While the Muses inspire artists, the Charities apply the artists' works to the embellishment of life.

CHARON
Charon ferries the dead across the river Styx to Hades.

CER The Greek goddess of violent death, Cer (or Ker) is the daughter of Nyx ("night") and sister of the Moriae ("fates"). This name was also used of the malevolent ghost of any dead person.

COTYS
Coyts the goddess of sexuality was revered in Thrace. There her servants, the baptai ("baptized ones"), celebrated secret festivals in her honor.

DEIMOS
Deimos (fear or terror) is Poseidon's son. Mars' smaller moon is called Deimos.

DEUCALION
Son of Promethius

DRYADS
Dryads (Hamadryads) are elemental forces incarnated in a bark-like body. They were usually female and mortal, dying when the tree died. A dryad will punish mortals for thoughtlessly breaking her branches or harming her.

ELECTRA
Electra was one of the Pleiades seduced by Zeus. She gave birth to Dardanus, founder of Troy.

ENYO
Enyo is the goddess of war and takes delight in carnage and destruction of towns. She is usually considered the daughter of Ares whom she accompanies in battles.

EOS
Goddess of the dawn

THE ERINYES
The Erinyes (Eumenides) names are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. They are solemn maidens dressed as huntresses, wear bands of serpents around their heads, and carry torches. They pursue wrongdoers and torment them in ways that make the criminals wish they were dead. Crimes that especially draw their attention are disobedience toward parents, ill treatment of the elderly, murder, violation of the law of hospitality, and improper conduct toward suppliants.

ERIS
Eris is the goddess of discord and the spirit of strife, and the daughter of Zeus and Hera. She is obsessed with bloodshed, havoc, and suffering. She calls forth war and her brother Ares carries out the action. She had a golden apple that was so bright and shiny everybody wanted to have it. When she threw it among friends, their friendship came to a rapid end. When she threw it among enemies, war broke out, for the golden apple of Eris was an apple of discord.

EROS
The son of Aphrodite and the mischeivious god of love, he darted about with a quiver full of arrows. They were arrows of love and he delighted in shooting them into the hearts of unwary victims. Whoever was hit by one of his arrows fell head over heels in love with the first person he saw, while Eros laughed mockingly.

EUROPA
Europa is the goddess of the moon from which the name "Europe" comes from. One of Jupiter's moons is called Europa.

HADES
Hades is the brother of Zeus and Poseidon and god of the underworld. He kidnapped Persephone, and she became the Queen of the dead during winter.

HARMONIA
The "uniter"

HECATE
A goddess often associated with witchcraft

HELIADES
The daughters of the sun, these seven sisters were poplar tree goddesses who cried amber tears at the death of their brother Phaethon.

HELIOS
A god of the sun.

HEMERA
The personification of day, she was the daughter of Erebus and Nyx, who were brother and sister. Her own brother was Aether, by whom she became the mother of Thalassa, the personification of the Mediterranean Sea. In the ancient cosmogenies she was a kind of forerunner of Eos, goddess of the dawn. She is often identified with Eos, even being called by some the mother of Memnon and Phaethon. She was also said to have carried off Cephalus, son of Hermes and Herse, although most accounts name Eos as the one responsible. It is somehow surprising there are so few references to her.

HESPERIDES
Hesperides were the guardians of the golden apples Hera received from Gaea at her marriage to Zeus. They were said to be the daughters of Nyx, the goddess of night. Some accounts say their names were Aegle, Erytheia, Hestia and Arethusa. They were regarded as comely and talented singers. The location of the Hesperides' garden was a mystery and was the destination of one of Heracles' most difficult tasks, the acquisition of the golden apples.

THE HORAE The Horae are the goddesses of the seasons and the orderly procession of things in general. They are also the collective personification of justice. Hesoid, who saw them as givers of the law, justice and peace, gave them the names Eunomia (Discipline), Dice (Justice) and Eirene (Peace). At Athens two of the Horae, were called Thallo and Carpo, and to the Athenians, represented the budding and maturity of growing things. As a result, Thallo became the protectress of youth.

HYGIA
Hygia is the Greek goddess of health and the daughter of Asclepius, the god of medicine and healing.

HYPNOS
The god of sleep, Hypnos was the son of Nyx (Night) and the brother of Thanatos (Death). He is variously described as living in the underworld, in the land of the Cimmerians, or in a dark, misty cave on the island of Lemnos. The waters of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness and oblivion, flowed through this chamber. Hypnos lay on his soft couch, surrounded by his many sons, who were the bringers of dreams. Chief among them were Morpheus, who brought dreams of men; Icelus, who brought dreams of animals; and Phantasus, who brought dreams of inanimate things. In Homer's Iliad, Hypnos is enlisted by Hera to lull Zeus to sleep so that she can aid the Greeks in their war against Troy. As a reward for his services, Hypnos is given Pasithea, one of the Graces, to wed.

IASO
Iaso is a Greek goddess of healing and the sister of Hygia.

IRENE
Irene is the Greek goddess of peace and is worshipped with bloodless sacrifices at Athens. Some legends say she is one of the Horae.

IRIS
The winged, rainbow goddess Iris is Hera's messenger. When she is not delivering messages she is asleep under Hera's bed. She is one of the few who can journey at will to the underworld where she fetches water for solemn oaths, and wears a dress of iridescent drops.

KAKIA
Kakia is vice personified invented to foil Arete, the goddess of virtue. The two fought over Hercules. His teacher was Areta and Kakia attempted to seduce him with promises of love, ease, and riches.

LETO
Leto is the mother of a Apollo and Artemis and is mostly worshipped in conjunction with her children. The daughter of the Titan Cronus and Phoebe, she was one of Zeus' lovers, to whom she bore Apollo and Artemis. As such, she was also the object of Hera's persecution. When Niobe bragged she was better than the goddess because she had many sons and daughters while Leto had only two, Leto called her punishment. Apollo killed Niobe's sons and Artemis killed her daughters.

LYSSA
Lyssa's name means "canine madness," and she is the Greek underworld goddess who drove her dogs through the world prodding the divine intoxication of the Maenads to destructive fury.

MAIA
Goddess of the spring, she was the eldest and most beautiful of the Pleaide sisters. Seduced by Zeus, she gave birth to Hermes and later became foster-mother to Arcas, son of Zeus and Callisto, during the period while Callisto was a bear, and before she and Arcas were placed in the heavens by Zeus (she as Ursa Major, he as either Bo䥳 or Ursa Minor).

MALOPHOROS
A goddess of the underworld.

MAELIA
In one of the Greek creation myths, Mother Gaea had her son Uranus castrated. Drops of his blood fell on her and from those spots, Gaea conceived tree spirits called Maelia. As the world's original women, they were the mothers of humankind.

MELISSA
Melissa is the nymph who cared for the infant Zeus while he was being hid from Cronus. She often plundered beehives to feed Zeus, who then developed a permanent sweet tooth. When Melissa's role in protecting Zeus was discovered, she was turned into a lowly insect. Zeus took pity on her and turned her into a honeybee.

MEROPE
One of the Pleidaes, she married Sisyphus, son of Aeolus, grandson of Deucalion, and great-grandson of Prometheus. Sisyphus founded the city of Ephyre (Corinth).

METIS
Metis, a Titans' daughter, is Zeus' wife and the goddess of prudence. She helped overthrow Cronus by feeding him herbs that caused him to, in effect, regurgitate his children. Jupiter's innermost moon is named after Metis.

THE MOIRAE
The Moirae are the Fates, the personification of the destiny of humans. The three Moirae are Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Clotho ("spinner") spins the thread at the beginning of one's life, Lachesis ("measurer") weaves the thread into the fabric of one's actions, and Atropos ("inevitable") snips the thread at the conclusion of one's life. Gods as well as mortals have to submit to the will of the Moirae. Their sister, Nemesis, saw to it that all evil and all good on earth were justly repaid.

THE MUSES
The nine Muses are the goddesses of arts and sciences and inspire those who excel in these pursuits. They are the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Their names are Clio (History), Urania (Astronomy), Melpomene (Tragedy), Thalia (Comedy), Terpsichore (Dance), Calliope (Epic Poetry), Erato (Love Poetry), Polyhymnia (Songs to the Gods), and Euterpe (Lyric Poetry). Apollo is the leader of the Muses.

NEMESIS
Goddess of divine vengence, sister to the Moirae.

NEREIDES
Nereides are marine nymphs of the Mediterranean Sea. They are distinguished from the Oceanides by being confined to the seas around Greece.

NIKE
Winged goddess of victory

NYX
Nyx is the night personified. She is among the very oldest of the gods, having been born from Chaos. She is regarded as the subduer of men and gods alike. She is winged and rides in a chariot wearing a dark dress with blinking stars surrounding her. Her residence is Hades.

OREADS
Oreads are sweet-singing nymphs of mountains and rocks. They are slender, pale women who wear thin robes woven in caves on fine looms only visible to the second-sighted. To honor these elementals, the Greeks used to anoint rocks with fragrant oils, hang attractive belts on rocks, and leave offerings in caves.

PAN
A god of flocks and music, he was once confronted by the dreaded Typhon. He escaped by turning his lower half into that of a fish and swimming away. Saturn's first moon is called Pan.

PANDORA
Beautiful and curious, she is responsible for the world's ills. Saturn's fourth moon is called Pandora.

PEITHO
Peitho is the personification of seduction and persuasion. She is said to be the daughter of Aphrodite and Hermes.

PERSEPHONE Daughter of demeter, a goddess of both spring and the underworld.

PHILYRA
Daughter of Oceanus (the river that encircles the world) and the Titan Tethys. Cronos, while searching for Zeus, seduced her in the form of a horse. Rhea's discovery of the affair forced her into hiding, where she bore Cheiron. Her shame was so great that she asked Zeus to turn her into a linden tree, a request he granted.

PHOBOS
Phobos (dismay) is Poseidon's son. Mars' largest moon is named Phobos.

THE PLEIADES
The Pleiades are the daughters of Atlas by Pleione, half-sisters to the Hyades, and are called Electra, Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaena, Sterope, and Merope. The great hunter Orion once saw them walking through Boetian countryside and took their fancy. He pursued them for seven years until the gods intervened and transformed them into doves and placed them in the stars. When Orion was killed he was placed in the heavens behind the Pleiades to immortalize the chase. The Seven Sisters, as they are also called, were also nymphs in the train of Artemis.

PYHHRA Deucalion's wife

SELENE
Goddess of the moon

STEROPE
Also known as Asterope, she was one of the Pleiades. She was ravished by Ares and gave birth to Oenomaus, king of Pisa.

STYX The goddess of the River Styx that wound beneath the earth in the land of the dead is called is also called Styx "the hated one," who prevented the living from crossing into the realm of Persephone without first undergoing death's torments.

TAYGETE
Also known as Taygeta, she was one of the Pleiades and was seduced by Zeus to gave birth to Lacedaemon, founder of Sparta.

TELPHASSA Telphassa the "wide-shiner," is an early Greek goddess of light who was probably imported from Phoenicia. She is the mother of Europa.

TYCHE
Tyche is the personification of luck and chance.