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Greek and Roman Mythology

Table of Contents

This is the homepage for the Greek and Roman Mythology category, a subcategory of Belief.

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Titans and Titanesses

Prometheus

A Titan who stole fire for humans

Kronos

A Titan, he swallowed his children as well as a stone wrapped in cloth.

Mnemosyne

A Titan presides over the Lethe river and mothered the Muses with Zeus

Maia

A Titan who turned into a fly and was swallowed by Zeus, leading to the birth of Athena.

Gods and Goddesses

Zeus/Jupiter

God of thunder and the sky. Leader of the Olympian gods. Raped a lot of women.

Father of Sarpedon and Heracles.

Mount Ida on Crete is sacred to Zeus because he was raised there by the goat Amalthea after his mother Rhea hid him.

Hermes recovered Zeus’s sinews after Typhon tore them out.

Poseidon/Neptune

God of the sea

Athena/Minerva

Goddess of wisdom and strategy

Her olive tree beat Poseidon’s salt spring in a patronage contest for the Greek city-state that became Athens.

See Qwiz5’s article for more information

Hermes/Mercury

Messenger god. He helped Odysseus escape the island of Circe by giving him moly

Artemis/Diana

goddess of the hunt

Apollo

God of Poetry, Prophecy, Medicine, Music, and the Sun. He flayed the saytr marsayas alive as a punishment for being better at music than him.

Demeter/Ceres

Goddess of agriculture set Demophon in a fire in a failed attempt to make him immortal.

Hephaestus/Vulcan

God of smithing and fire

Aphrodite/Venus

Goddess of Love and Beauty. The oldest of the twelve Olympians having been born when the castrated remains of Ouranos made contact with the water.

Hera/Juno

Goddess of Marriage. The wife and sister of Zeus, she gets mad at his many affairs. One notable story is when she tricked Semele into forcing Zeus to reveal his true form thus Incinerating her. She (Hera) was tricked into marrying Zeus when he came to her in the form of a cuckoo

Dionysus/Bacchus

God of wine. Known as the twice born god because he was sewn into Zeus’ thigh after his mother was killed

Ares/Mars

God of war

Hades/Pluto

God of the underworld and riches under the earth

Cupid

See Qwiz5’s article for more information

Pan

Nature god who possessed the horns and lower body of a goat

Persephone

daughter of Demeter. She became queen of the underworld after being abducted by Hades and eating some pomegranate seeds. She is able to return to Olympus for two-thirds of the year, when Demeter is happy and it’s not winter.

Heroes and famous mortals

Achilles

Achilles was the greatest Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He was the son of King Peleus and the Nereid (sea nymph) Thetis, who dipped him in the River Styx as a child to make his body invulnerable, except for the heel by which she held him. Thetis tried to keep Achilles out of the Trojan War by disguising him as a girl on the island of Skyros, but his trickery was exposed by Odysseus. Achilles refused to continue fighting in the Trojan War after the Greek commander, Agamemnon, seized his concubine Briseis. As the Trojans start to gain the upper hand, Achilles’s friend (and, by many interpretations, lover) Patroclus donned Achilles’s armor and led his Myrmidon warriors into battle. After Patroclus was killed by the Trojans’ best warrior, Hector, Achilles flew into a berserk rage and massacred many of the remaining Trojans, including Hector. Achilles was eventually killed by the Trojan prince Paris, who shot a poisoned arrow into Achilles’s vulnerable heel.

Adonis

A beautiful Greek hero, a lover of Aphrodite. For much of his youth, Adonis was hidden inside of a chest that Aphrodite gave to Persephone for protection. Anemone flowers grew from his blood after he was killed by a boar.

Aeneas

This son of Aphrodite and Anchises often takes a beating but always gets up to rejoin the battle. Knocked unconscious by a large rock thrown by Diomedes, he is evacuated by Aphrodite and Apollo. He succeeds the late Hector as Trojan troop commander and is one of the few Trojans who survives the fall of Troy, ultimately settling in Italy. He carried his father Anchises out of Troy on his back. His son Iulus founds Alba Longa, near the site of Rome. That bloodline is the basis of Julius Caesar’s claim to have descended from Venus.

Agamemnon

The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon shares supreme command of the Greek troops with his brother, Menelaus. An epithet of his, “king of heroes,” reflects this status. As a commander, however, he often lacks good public relations skills, as shown by his feud with Achilles (book 1) and by his ill-considered strategy of suggesting that all the troops go home (book 2). Upon his return home, Agamemnon is murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus.

Ajax the Great

Ajax the Great, or Telamonian Ajax, was a massive and powerful Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He was the prince of Salamas and the son of Telamon. Ajax fought with a massive shield made of cow-hide and bronze, which he used to protect his half-brother Teucer, a potent archer. Ajax fought the premier Trojan warrior, Hector, all afternoon in single combat and wounded him, but the match was called a draw and Ajax gave Hector a purple sash in exchange for Hector’s sword and they parted as friends. Ajax’s most glorious achievement is fighting the Trojans back from the ships almost singlehandedly. Ajax competed with Odysseus for the armor of Achilles after his death, but the armor was awarded to Odysseus. In a fit of rage and insanity, Ajax slaughtered a herd of sheep, thinking they were the Greek leaders who had ruled against him. When Ajax came to his senses and realized what he had done, he committed suicide in shame.

Andromache

The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, she futilely warns Hector about the war, then sees both her husband and son killed by the Greeks. After the war she is made concubine to Neoptolemus, and later marries the Trojan prophet Helenus.

Arachne

Arachne was a talented Lydian weaver who constantly boasted that her skills were better than that of any of the gods. Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving competition, during which Arachne wove a tapestry depicting the gods’ transgressions against mankind and Athena depicted four contests between mortals and the gods. The result of the competition depends on the sources: some say that Arachne won but Athena was insulted by her images and destroyed Arachne’s work, and others say that Athena’s weaving was superior. In all versions, though, Athena turns Arachne into a spider.

Ariadne

Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphaë, making her a princess of Crete. Minos’s palace in Knossos is sometimes referred to as the “dancing ground of Ariadne.” When Theseus came to Crete to kill the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of twine to help him navigate the Labyrinth. Ariadne and Theseus left Crete together, but he later abandoned her on the island of Naxos where she was saved by Dionysus, whom she married. Her wedding diadem was placed in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis.

Atalanta

Atalanta was abandoned on a mountaintop as a baby because her father wanted a son. She was saved by a she-bear and raised by bears, which helped her become one of the greatest and fastest hunters. Atalanta joined the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, a giant wild boar that was ravaging the land. Atalanta drew first blood on the boar, and after it was killed, the leader of the hunt, Meleager, awarded its hide to her. After the hunt, Atlanta was recognized by her father, who wanted to arrange a marriage for her. At some point she became a hunter for Artemis. A prophecy had foretold Atalanta’s doom if she married, so she agreed to only marry the man who could beat her in a race; all losers were killed. One suitor, Melanion/Hippomenes, enlisted the help of Aphrodite, who gave him three golden apples which he used to distract Atalanta during the race and win the contest and her hand in marriage. After Atalanta and Melanion/Hippomenes had sex in a temple of Zeus, the gods turned them into lions as punishment for their disrespect. The son of Atlanta and Melanion/Hippomenes, Parthnopaios, was one of the Seven Against Thebes. According to some sources, Atalanta was the only female Argonaut.

Bellerophon

Bellerophon (also Bellerophontes) was a demigod son of Poseidon. He rejected the advances of Queen Stheneboea, who then falsely accused him of assault. King Iobates refused to directly murder a guest, so he instead sent Bellerophon on a perilous quest to defeat the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a snake. To aid in his quest, Athena visited Bellerophon in a dream and gave him a golden bridle with which he tamed the flying horse Pegasus. Bellerophon rode Pegasus up to the lair of the Chimera and threw a spear tipped with a block of lead into its mouth; the monster’s breath melted the lead, which suffocated it. Bellerophon’s arrogance, or hubris, grew so much that he attempted to ride Pegasus up to Mount Olympus and live among the gods. Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, and Bellerophon fell and was blinded from his landing. He lived the rest of his life wandering the land in misery.

Cassandra

Cassandra was a princess of Troy, one of the children of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. She and her twin brother Helenus were both priests of Apollo and thus blessed with the gift of prophecy; however, after Cassandra spurned the advances of Apollo, he cursed her to never have her prophecies believed. One of her warnings is that the Trojan horse contains Greeks. During the Trojan War, Cassandra was raped in the Temple of Athena by Ajax the Lesser, which led Athena to wreck his ship on his journey home. After the war, Cassandra was made the concubine of Agamemnon, who tactlessly brings her home to his wife Clymnestra at Mycenae. Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus then kill Agamemnon and Cassandra, leaving Agamemnon’s son Orestes (egged on by his sister Electra) to avenge the deaths and kill Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.

Clytemnestra

Clytemnestra was the wife of King Agamemnon and the sister of Castor, Polydeuces, and Helen. When Agamemnon’s troops were stuck at Aulis en route to Troy, he sacrificed their daughter Iphigenia, which made Clytemnestra very angry. She later began an affair with Aegisthus, Agamemnon’s cousin; when Agamemnon returned to Mycenae after the Trojan War, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered him and his concubine Cassandra. In response, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s son Orestes killed both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, continuing the curse of the House of Atreus.

Danaë

Danaë was the daughter of King Acrisius of Argos. The king consulted an oracle to ask if he would ever have a son, and the oracle replied that he wouldn’t, but his daughter would, and that grandson would overthrow him. In response, he shut Danaë up in a chamber in his palace, but Zeus appeared in the form of a shower of gold and impregnated her; shortly thereafter, her son Perseus was born. Acrisius then cast Danaë and Perseus out to sea in a chest, but with the assistance of Poseidon they were rescued by the fisherman Dictys. Danaë had no interest in marrying Dictys’s brother King Seriphos, who agreed not to pursue her if Perseus could kill the Gorgon Medusa.

Dido

The queen of Carthage, her doomed love for Aeneas is depicted in the Aeneid.

Diomedes

Diomedes was a king of Argos and a great Greek warrior, second only to Achilles in martial prowess during the Trojan War. Early in life, Diomedes’s father Tydeus, who was a member of the Seven Against Thebes, was killed during a rebellion against the city. Diomedes and the other Epigoni (the sons of the Seven) avenged their fathers by sacking and plundering Thebes. During the Trojan War, Diomedes and Odysseus participated in a daring and successful night raid against King Rhesus on the Trojan camp. He killed Pandarus and wounded Aeneas during the Trojan war. One Trojan warrior named Glaucus challenged Diomedes to single combat, but after they realized that their grandfathers had been friends, they swapped armor instead of fighting. Diomedes was the only mortal other than Heracles to fight and injure gods; he stabbed Aphrodite in the wrist and, with Athena as his charioteer, wounding Ares in the stomach. After the war, Diomedes founded many cities in Italy.

Hector

The son of Priam and Hecuba, he is probably the noblest character on either side. A favorite of Apollo, this captain of the Trojan forces exchanges gifts with Ajax after neither can conquer the other in single combat. He kills Patroclus when Patroclus goes into battle wearing the armor of his friend, Achilles. Killed by Achilles to avenge the death of Patroclus, he is greatly mourned by all of Troy. Funeral games take place in his honor.

Hecuba

Hecuba (or Hekabe) was the wife of King Priam, and therefore the Queen of Troy, during the Trojan War. Her children included Paris-who kidnapped Helen-and Hector, the great Trojan warrior who was slain by Achilles. In Book VI of the Iliad, she leads the Trojan woman in prayer to Zeus on behalf of the Trojan warriors. After the war, Hecuba was grief-stricken upon learning of the death of her youngest daughter Polyxena, and she was given to Odysseus as a slave. She is later turned into a dog.

Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy was considered the most beautiful mortal woman during the Age of Heroes. Helen was the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and her siblings were Castor, Polydeuces (or Pollux), and Clytemnestra. When Helen married Menelaus, the king of Sparta, Helen’s father Tyndareus forced the Greek kings to swear an oath to fight for her if she were kidnapped. When she was abducted by (or eloped with) Paris, a prince of Troy, the whole Greek world plunged into the Trojan War. For this reason, Christopher Marlowe had Doctor Faustus refer to Helen as “the face that launched a thousand ships.”

Heracles

Heracles (or, as the Romans referred to him, Hercules) is often considered the greatest of the Greek heroes. He was the son of Alcmene and Zeus, which earned him the lifelong enmity of Zeus’s wife Hera. Hera struck Heracles with a temporary madness so that he killed his wife Megara and their children. As penance, Heracles served King Eurystheus for ten years and completed twelve labors. Some of his most famous labors were slaying the Nemean Lion, whose skin was impenetrable; slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra, which would sprout new heads when one was cut off; redirecting two rivers to clean the massive Augean stables in one day; and capturing Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld. Heracles fought the river god Achelous while in the form of a bull causing Achelous to lose a body part. Heracles was killed when the centaur Nessus tricked Heracles’s wife Deianira into giving him a poisoned shirt. After his death, Heracles was deified and married the goddess of youth, Hebe.

Jason

Jason was the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos who had been usurped by Jason’s uncle Pelias. In an attempt to kill Jason, Pelias offered him the throne if he completed a quest to Colchis and retrieved the Golden Fleece. Jason assembled a crew of heroes, named the Argonauts after their ship, the Argo, for the quest. When they arrived in Colchis, King Aeëtes agreed to give Jason the Fleece if he performed a series of daring tasks. With the help of Aeëtes’s daughter, the sorceress Medea, Jason yoked the fire-breathing Bulls of Colchis, plowed a field and sowed it with dragon’s teeth, defeated the Spartoi warriors that sprung from the teeth, and finally overcame the dragon guarding the fleece. When Jason and Medea returned to Iolcos, they murdered Pelias and were exiled to Corinth. Jason abandoned Medea for the Corinthian princess Glauce, and in revenge, Medea killed Glauce as well as her own children with Jason. For breaking his marriage vow, Jason lost favor with Hera and died unhappy.

Laocoon

Yet another son of Priam and Hecuba, this priest of Apollo shares Cassandra’s doubt about the merits of bringing the Trojan horse into the city. “Timeo danaos et dona ferentes,” he says (according to Vergil), “I fear the Greeks, even bearing gifts.” Later, while sacrificing a bull, two serpents from the sea crush both him and his two young sons. The death of Laocoon is often blamed on Athena (into whose temple the serpent disappeared) but was more likely the act of Poseidon, a fierce Greek partisan.

Medea

Medea was a sorceress from the island of Colchis; her father was King Aeëtes, and her aunt was the witch Circe. Medea encountered the hero Jason when he and the Argonauts came to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, and she helped him yoke fire-breathing oxen and sow dragon’s teeth. Medea left Colchis with Jason, and on the voyage home she killed both her brother Absyrtus and the giant bronze automaton Talos. She and Jason had several children together, but Jason ultimately left Medea for the princess Glauce; in vengeance, she killed two of her children and fled on a golden chariot.

Menelaus

The king of Sparta, Menelaus is the first husband of Helen of Troy, the cause celebre of the Trojan War. During the war, he recovered Patroclus’ body. He tries to win Helen back by fighting Paris in single combat, but Aphrodite carried Paris off when it seemed that Menelaus would win. Despite his notionally equal say in commanding the troops with his brother Agamemnon, in practice Agamemnon often dominates. He captured Proteus in order to return home from the war.

Midas

Greek king who received the golden touch from Dionysus as a reward for helping Silenus and then had it taken away once he realized that it was a curse and not a blessing. He got the ears of an ass as a result of judging a music contest between Apollo and Pan and declaring Pan the winner.

Nestor

The king of Pylos, he is too old to participate in the fighting of the Trojan War, but serves as an advisor. He tells tales of “the good old days” to the other heroes.

Odysseus

Odysseus was a king of Ithaca and the son of Laertes, known for his cleverness and glib tongue. He was one of the Greek leaders during the Trojan War. Odysseus originally tried to avoid the war by pretending to be insane, but was exposed when Palamedes put his son Telemachus in front of his plow. During the war, Odysseus participated in a successful night raid against King Rhesus, won the armor of Achilles, and showcased his cunning by proposing the idea for the Trojan Horse. Odysseus’s ten-year journey home from the war is the subject of Homer’s Odyssey. He escaped and blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, foiled the enchantments of the sorceress Circe, was forced to live with the sea nymph Calypso for seven years, and much more. When Odysseus arrived back in Ithaca, he found that his loyal wife Penelope was being harassed by rowdy suitors who believed him to be dead. Odysseus disguised himself as a beggar, and when Penelope proposed an archery contest among the suitors, he revealed his identity and killed them. After Odysseus convinces Penelope that he truly is her husband, they happily reunite.

Oedipus

Blinds himself with two pins after he realized that he had slept with his mother Jocasta

Orpheus

A musician and lyre player.

Most notably attempted to bring his wife Eurydice back from the underworld after she died from a snakebite but failed because he looked back at her too early. He was torn to pieces by the Maenads after which his head floated to Lesbos singing the whole way.

He helps the Argonauts get safely past the sirens by drowning out their song with one of his own

Pandora

Pandora (meaning “gifted” or “all gifts”) was the first human woman in Greek mythology. Hephaestus sculpted her from clay as a punishment for humanity after Prometheus stole fire from the gods. The primary myth of Pandora relates how she released all the evils of the world by opening a jar (“Pandora’s Box”), and when she closed the lid only hope remained within. Pandora married the Titan Epimetheus, and their daughter Pyrrha survived the Greek flood with her husband Deucalion.

Paris

Also the son of Priam and Hecuba, he is destined to be the ruin of his country. He fulfills this destiny by accepting a bribe when asked to judge which of three goddesses is the fairest. When he awards Aphrodite the golden apple, Aphrodite repays him by granting him the most beautiful woman in the world; unfortunately, Helen is already married to Menelaus. Known less for hand-to-hand fighting than for mastery of his bow, he kills Achilles with an arrow but dies by the poisoned arrows of Philoctetes.

Patroclus

Achilles’ foster brother and closest friend. Although Patroclus is a formidable hero, he is valued for his kind and gentle nature. Patroclus is killed by Hector while wearing the armor of Achilles.

Penelope

Penelope was the ever-faithful wife of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca whose long journey home is the subject of The Odyssey. While Odysseus was away, Penelope was courted by dozens of suitors led by Antinous, but she held them off with cunning: she told them she’d wed one when she finished weaving a burial shroud for Odysseus’s father Laertes, but she unwove her progress each night. When Odysseus returned, she tested his identity by asking the maid to move their bed, which cannot be done since the bed—crafted by Odysseus—had one post that was a living olive tree. Her only child is a son, Telemachus.

Perseus

Perseus was the son of Danaë and Zeus.

Perseus’s grandfather, King Acrisius of Argos, had heard a prophecy that his grandson would kill him, so he banished Danaë and Perseus by setting them adrift in a chest on the ocean. Perseus grew up on Seriphos, whose king Polydectes resolved to marry Danaë unless Perseus could bring him the head of the gorgon Medusa, a monstrous woman with snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze. Perseus stole the eyes of three sisters called the Graeae to convince them to give him directions to Medusa’s location. Perseus found Medusa at Hyperborea, and using Hermes’s winged sandals, Hades’s Helm of Invisibility, and a mirrored shield from Athena, he was able to behead her. On his way back to Seriphos, Perseus used the head of Medusa to rescue the Ethiopian princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. Perseus also killed Polydectes, whose advances on Danaë had turned violent in his absence. During an athletic competition later in life, Perseus accidentally hit the spectating Acrisius with a discus, killing him and thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Priam

The king of Troy and son of Laomedon, he has 50 sons and 12 daughters with his wife Hecuba (presumably she does not bear them all), plus at least 42 more children with various concubines. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills him in front of his wife and daughters during the siege of Troy.

Theseus

Theseus was a prince of Athens who was described as both the son of King Aegeus and the son of Poseidon. He was raised by his mother Aethra in Troezen, then as a young man took a land journey back to Athens, during which he defeated six foes, including the bandits Sinis, Sciron, and Procrustes. After Theseus was sent by Medea to kill the Marathonian Bull, he voluntarily went to Crete to combat the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster who devoured the Athenian tributes demanded every nine years by King Minos. Minos’s daughter Ariadne gave Theseus a ball of string to help him navigate the Labyrinth, and he successfully slew the Minotaur. Theseus escaped with Ariadne, but later abandoned her on the island of Naxos. On the way back to Athens, Theseus forgot to replace the black sails on his ship with white sails, which led his father King Aegeus to commit suicide because he believed Theseus had been killed.

Tiresias

A blind prophet

Monsters

Asterion

The Minotaur (also Asterion) was a half-man, half-bull monster kept in the Labyrinth on Crete by King Minos. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a snow-white bull as a sign of support during Minos’ quarrel with his brothers for the throne of Crete, but instead of sacrificing the animal to the sea god, Minos kept it for himself. Angered, Poseidon caused Minos’ wife Pasiphaë to lust after the bull, so Daedalus built her a wooden cow so she could mate with the bull. The product of this encounter was the Minotaur (literally “Bull of Minos”). After Minos’ son Androgeus was killed by Athenians, Minos demanded seven Athenians male youths and seven Athenian female youths, to be selected by lots every seven or nine years (accounts vary) as retribution; these victims were fed to the Minotaur. On the third drawing of the lots, the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to vanquish the beast; with the help of Minos’ daughter Ariadne, who gave Theseus a ball of string so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth, Theseus slew the Minotaur. On the return voyage from Crete, Theseus forgot to change his sails from black back to white, and his father Aegeus jumped into the sea, believing his son had died.

The Calydonian Boar

The Calydonian Boar was a monstrous beast sent by Artemis to wreak havoc in Calydon after King Oeneus neglected to honor her while sacrificing to the gods. Oeneus’s son Meleager led a group of heroes-including Theseus, the twins Castor and Polydeuces (or Pollux), and Achilles’s father Peleus, as well as the huntress Atalanta-on what became known as the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Atalanta drew first blood, and Meleager finished off the beast. Meleager, who had fallen in love with Atalanta, then insisted on honoring her by giving her the hide. Meleager’s uncles protested, Meleager killed them, and Meleager’s mother avenged the death of her brothers by burning up the log that represented Meleager’s lifespan, killing him.

Cerberus

Cerberus was the three-headed (or, according to Hesiod’s Theogony, 50-headed) dog who guarded the gates to the Underworld. A child of Typhon and Echidna, Cerberus is described as a hellhound with a mane of snakes, the claws of a lion, and the tail of a deadly snake. As Heracles’ twelfth and final labor, he had to bring Cerberus back from the Underworld, which he did following an intense wrestling match. Prior to the task, Heracles was instructed in the Eleusinian Mysteries, and freed Theseus from being stuck on a chair in Hades. In Virgil’s Aeneid, the Cumaean Sibyl gives Cerberus three drugged honeycakes so that she and Aeneas can enter the Underworld.

Chimeron

The Chimera was a hybrid monster who was also a child of Typhon and Echidna. She is most commonly described as a lioness with a goat’s head protruding from her back and a tail that ended in a snake’s head. She was a fire-breathing menace to Lycia until Bellerophon slew her on orders from King Iobates. Flying on the back of Pegasus, Bellerophon shot at the Chimera and ultimately killed the beast by affixing a block of lead to his spear and causing the Chimera to melt the block with her fiery breath, suffocating her in the process.

The Lernaean Hydra

The Lernaean Hydra was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna. The Hydra was a multi-headed water serpent that breathed poisonous gas and had toxic blood, and every time one head was cut off, two more grew back in its place. The Hydra dwelled in the Spring of Amymone in the swamp or lake of Lerna near the Peloponnese, beneath which was said to be an entrance to the Underworld. The Hydra was killed by Heracles as his second labor for Eurystheus during a battle in which Heracles’ nephew Iolaus provided aid by cauterizing the neck stumps after Heracles cut each head off, preventing additional heads from growing back. After killing the monster, Heracles dipped his arrows in the Hydra’s blood; the poisoned arrows were later used against the Stymphalian Birds, Geryon, and the centaur Nessus.

Medusa

Medusa is the only mortal member of the Gorgons, a trio of monstrous daughters of Phorcys and Ceto who had brass hands, fangs, and venomous snakes for hair; the other two were Stheno and Euryale. Many early sources state that Medusa was born a monster, though Ovid’s Metamorphoses state that Medusa was a beautiful woman until she was raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple and cursed by the goddess. Gazing directly into Medusa’s eyes resulted in the onlooker being turned into stone. She was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who was sent to retrieve her head by the tyrant Polydectes, whom Perseus then killed with the head. Perseus gave the head of Medusa to Athena, who placed it on her shield, the aegis. When Medusa was beheaded, the winged horse Pegasus and the giant warrior Chrysaor emerged, her sons by Poseidon. According to Ovid, Medusa’s head was also used to petrify the Titan Atlas.

Polyphemus

Polyphemus, the most famous Cyclops in Greek mythology, is the son of Poseidon and the sea nymph Thoosa. The most notable myth involving Polyphemus is his appearance in Book IX of Homer’s Odyssey: after Odysseus and his crew land on Polyphemus’ island after escaping the Lotus-Eaters, Polyphemus eats two of Odysseus’ crew, imprisons the rest in his cave, and eats four more before the survivors can escape. To escape, Odysseus gets Polyphemus drunk on wine and blinds the one-eyed giant with a stick; the next morning, Odysseus and his crew ride out of Polyphemus’ cave, hiding underneath the Cyclops’ sheep. When Polyphemus asks Odysseus’ name, Odysseus responds “No one” or “No man” (translations vary), and Polyphemus prays to his father Poseidon to make Odysseus’ journey home treacherous. In another myth, Polyphemus falls in love with the nymph Galatea, who in turn loves the human Acis. Polyphemus then kills Acis with a boulder out of jealousy.

The Sirens

The Sirens were beautiful women who appeared harmless and sang a beautiful song to passing sailors, only to prove vicious and bloodthirsty when the sailors ventured too close. The Greeks often said that the Sirens were the daughters of the river god Achelous, while the Romans named their father as Phorcys. In the Argonautica, Chiron warns Jason that Orpheus will be instrumental on his journey, and Orpheus later saves all of Jason’s crew (save Butes) by playing his lyre when they pass the Sirens to drown out their beautiful and alluring song. Odysseus also encountered the Sirens, tying himself to the mast of his ship so that he could safely hear their song while his crew plugged their ears with beeswax, on the advice of the sorceress Circe.

The Sphinx

The Sphinx, identified in the Theogony as “Phix,” was a hybrid monster whose parentage varies widely from source to source. She was a lion-bodied, winged monster with the face of a human, who terrorized the city of Thebes in the generations before Oedipus. She would give a riddle-“What creature has one voice and yet becomes four-footed and two-footed and three-footed?”-and eat anyone who was unable to answer correctly. It is possible that the Sphinx was sent to Thebes from Ethiopia by either the goddess Hera or the war god Ares. Eventually, Oedipus correctly answered the riddle-“Man”-and the Sphinx threw herself off her mountainside perch to her death.

Typhon and Echidna

Typhon (also Typhoeus or Typhaon) and Echidna are known as the Father and Mother of All Monsters due to their numerous monstrous offspring, including the two-headed dog Orthrus, the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, the Chimera, and Cerberus. Typhon was the last son of Gaea and Tartarus, while Echidna’s parentage is obscured by ancient sources; most often, she is listed as a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. In the Theogony, Hesiod describes a climactic battle between Zeus and Typhon following Zeus’ defeat of the Titans: Typhon rips out Zeus’ sinews and is nearly victorious, but Hermes restores Zeus’s sinews and Zeus finally overpowers the giant monster. Typhon was then trapped under Mount Etna, where he is believed to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.