When Persephone returned, Demeter cared for the earth again and things began to grow and this cycle was said to create the seasons. This 2nd-century AD statue shows Demeter bearing a torch, which is associated with her endless search for her daughter. You can visit this object on display in the Enlightenment gallery. Apollo is the only god in the classical pantheon to share the same name in both Greek and Roman traditions.
The twin brother of Artemis — or Diana — Apollo has many associations including the sun, music, archery, prophecy and healing. His symbols include naturally enough the sun, a bow and arrow, a lyre, and a swan. He is shown on this 4th-century BC Paestan bell krater, or large wine-mixing bowl, with a white sun shining brightly above his head.
Apollo and Artemis were the children of Zeus and Leto. When the twins were born, swans are said to have circled the island seven times — hence their association with Apollo — and the island later became sacred to him. Zeus also gave his son a golden chariot pulled by swans as a gift. She is often shown with a stag or hunting dog, and you can recognise her as the only goddess who wears a shorter dress, with the hem lifted and tied with a belt so she could run with ease.
One of her most famous myths is the story of the hunter Actaeon. In retribution, she splashed him with water, cursing him and transforming him into a deer, and he was subsequently killed by his own hunting dogs. This bronze figure of Artemis from Ephesus on the west coast of modern-day Turkey dates to the second or first centuries BC and shows the goddess with her skirt raised up, ready to run.
Goddess of love, sex, and beauty, Aphrodite — or Venus — is said to have emerged from the white foam generated when the Titan Cronos threw the severed testicles of his father, Ouranos, into the sea. This marble relief shows the goddess with a dove next to her right foot, holding a palm branch — symbolic of victory — in her left hand. Although Aphrodite was married to Hephaistos, the master blacksmith, she had multiple affairs including with the god Ares.
She is almost always accompanied by Eros, the god of love or lust, or Cupid in the Roman tradition. His symbols include the anvil, hammer and tongs, and this earthenware saucer shows him forging an arrow, accompanied by his wife and three putti — winged infants.
Hephaistos became the patron of craftsmen, and volcanic fires were often considered to be his workshops. The messenger of the gods was Hermes, known as Mercury in ancient Roman religion, and he was also a pastoral god, protecting livestock and travellers. Hermes was the second youngest of the Olympian gods, older only than Dionysos, and was the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. He could travel quickly between divine and mortal worlds with his winged sandals and was responsible for transporting souls to the underworld.
He was also the patron god of merchants and thieves. The Farnese Hermes shows the god wearing his winged sandals, holding the caduceus in his left hand, and wearing a chlamys — a small Greek cloak which was often the sole item of clothing for young soldiers and messengers, hence its association with Hermes. Finally, we come to Dionysos, the youngest of the Olympian gods and son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele.
In some versions, Hestia one of the children of Cronos and Rhea is counted as the twelfth Olympian, instead of Dionysos. Dionysos was the god of wine, vines, fertility, and festivity. He is most often shown with grapes and vines, as well as big cats like panthers, leopards and tigers. For Romans he was known as Bacchus, and the Bacchanalia — or Dionysia — were raucous festivals celebrating the god.
This Pompeiian wall painting shows the god accompanied by a panther, holding a wine cup with vines and grapes in his hair. Read more sensational stories of gods and goddesses, mortals and monsters from Greek mythology in this book. You can find replicas of some of these objects, and other products inspired by the Greek and Roman gods, in our online shop here.
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The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. Learning the truth later, he faces fate and blinds himself as penance. As a result, the horrible Furies plague him until he atones for his crime.
Aphrodite arranges for Paris to marry the beautiful Helen, but Helen is already married. Paris is only a minor figure in the Trojan War battles and is usually portrayed as weak and unheroic. The most beautiful woman who has ever lived, Helen is promised to Paris after his judgment of Aphrodite.
Her kidnapping causes the Trojan War. Helen is peculiarly silent in the Iliad, living with Paris for ten years before returning home with Menelaus, her original husband. Helen is treated as more of an object than a person. Another son of King Priam, Hector is the bravest and most famous of the Trojan warriors. Unlike his brother Paris, he faces challenges with great strength and courage.
His death ends the Iliad. The only great Trojan warrior who survives the war, Aeneas is protected by Aphrodite, his mother. He flees Troy, carrying his father on his back and leading his child by the hand. His values are more Roman than Greek, as he is first and foremost a warrior. One the great kings who leads the Greeks in the Trojan War and whose story continues in the Oresteia. The most famous Greek in the Trojan War, whose strength and bravery are unrivaled. Achilles is selfless, courageous, and devoted to the gods—he is the finest Greek warrior.
His mother, the sea-nymph Thetis, has made him invulnerable everywhere except his heel, and that is where he is struck and killed. The first and most famously foolish woman of Greek myth. Pandora peeks inside the box, unleashing evil into the world. A son of one of the Muses, Orpheus is the greatest mortal musician who has ever lived. His most famous exploit is his journey to Hades to retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice.
Orpheus also travels on the Argo and protects Jason and the others from the Sirens. He is killed by a pack of roving Maenads, and his head floats to Lesbos, where it becomes a magical icon. A priestess of Apollo and the most famous prophet in all of Greece. She most often appears at the beginning of a story, as a character asks his fate, finds it unpleasant, and then tries to change it—only to become a victim of fate precisely because of his efforts to change it.
The daughter of King Minos of Crete. Ariadne falls in love with the hero Theseus and uses a golden thread to help him defeat the Labyrinth of the dreaded Minotaur. Along with Circe, Medea is one of two famous sorceresses in Greek myth. Medea selflessly helps Jason defeat her own father and obtain the Golden Fleece. After Jason turns on her, she kills his new wife and then her own children. The daughter whom Agamemnon offers at Aulis as the human sacrifice that Artemis demands.
In one version of the myth, Artemis saves Iphigenia and makes her a priestess who conducts human sacrifices. In this version, Iphigenia is rescued by her brother, Orestes. One of the three Gorgons. Medusa is a horrible woman-beast with snakes for hair. Her gaze turns men to stone. She is killed by Perseus. It is killed by Theseus. A beast with the head of a woman and the body of a winged lion. The Sphinx blocks entry to the city of Thebes, refusing to budge until someone answers her riddle and eating anyone who fails.
When Oedipus solves the riddle, the Sphinx promptly kills herself. Fearsome one-eyed giants, of whom Polyphemus is the most famous. In some myths they are the children of Heaven and Earth; in others they are the sons of Poseidon. They forge the thunderbolts of Zeus, who favors them. The terrible Cyclops who imprisons Odysseus and his men and eats them alive.
They escape only after blinding him. In later myths, he becomes a pitiful character who recovers his sight but chases after the cruel nymph Galatea who mocks him. The counterpart of Zeus in Norse mythology. Odin is a quiet, brooding figure. He trades one of his eyes and suffers for nine nights to attain the insights of the Well of Wisdom, which he passes on to men along with the mystical powers of the runes and poetry. Odin rewards fallen warriors with a place in Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain.
He bears the burden of delaying Ragnarok, the day of doom for both the gods and mortals, as long as possible. The fact that a female occupies this position is a significant and striking difference from Greek and Roman myth.
Signy, wronged by her husband, conceives a son with her brother Sigmund. She bides her time until the son is old enough to help Sigmund kill her husband. Signy then kills herself by walking into the fire that also consumes her husband and her other children. Sigmund is always honest, brave, fierce, and giving, thus embodying the ideal Norse warrior.
A Valkyrie who angers Odin and is punished with imprisonment in a ring of fire. She is a dazzling character, with strength both of soul and body. She is the prototype for Wagner's Brunnhilde, the most famous Valkyrie in opera. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Themes Motifs Symbols. Important Quotes Explained. Characters Character List.
Read an in-depth analysis of Zeus.
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