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| Greek goddess of grain; mother of Persephonê, who is abducted by Hades. |
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| Daughter of Demeter and consort of Hades |
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| Mesopotamian goddess of heaven, love and war; with Dumuzi, she is the other half of the Mesopotamian cycle-of-nature myth |
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| "Daughter"; "Young girl"; often used as an equivalent of Persephonê. |
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| Elaborate rites in honor of Demeter and Persephonê, conducted in the town of Eleusis near, and later a part of, Athens. |
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| A prince of Eleusis to whom Demeter taught her secret rites and the art of growing grain. |
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| Consort of Inanna; the Mesopotamian dying male god of fertility. |
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| "Sacred marriage"; also refers to the ritual recreation of the original divine sexual union that guarantees the continuing fertility of the earth. |
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| Brother and consort of Isis; the Egyptian dying male god of fertility. |
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| Phrygian mother earth goddess |
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| Beautiful young boy and favorite of Cybelê, the Phrygian Great Mother. |
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| Beautiful young son of Myrrha and favorite of Aphrodite |
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| God of the "sap" of life and male fertility. |
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| Mother of Dionysus; tricked by Hera into asking to see Zeus in his full glory, which killed her. |
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| Wife of Athamas of Orchomenus, sister of Semelê; given the infant Dionysus to raise. Driven insane by Hera. |
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| Raised Dionysus after he was rescued from Orchomenus. |
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| "Bacchic women"; the frenzied women followers of Dionysys; also called Maenads. "Raving women"; the frenzied women followers of Dionysus; also called Bacchae |
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| "Wand" carried by the followers of Dionysus. |
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| Half-animal followers of Dionysus. |
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| King in Phrygia; given the power by Dionysus to turn everything he touched into gold |
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| Wife of Dionysus; abandoned by Theseus on Naxos on his way from Crete to Athens. |
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| Thracian king who resisted Dionysus; his is the earliest myth of many that record the fate of those who resisted the god. |
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| Daughters of King Minyas of Orchomenus who rejected Dionysus; punished by being driven to consume their own children. |
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| Daughters of King Proetus of Argos who were punished by being deluded into thinking they were crows. |
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| Sister of Semelê and mother of Pentheus; punished in the Bacchae for having doubted the divinity of Semelê's lover and that of their child, Dionysus. |
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| King of Thebes in the Bacchae; tried to stamp out Dionysus' cult in his city; punished by being dismembered by the Maenads. |
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| The first actor, according to Aristotle; played a key role in the evolution from dithyramb to tragedy. |
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"Unseen"; the Olympian god of the underworld.
Pluto "Enricher"; an alternate name for Hades, indicating his nature as the god of the fertility of the soil. |
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| "Furies"; creatures who seek revenge on the living members of a ghost's family. |
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| Prophet to whom Odysseus is sent by Circê to consult in the underworld. |
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| Figure being punished in the underworld for having tried to deceive the gods. |
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Figure being punished in the underworld for, among other things, having captured Death, pushing the boulder uphill that always rolls back
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| A place of the blessed afterlife; at first restricted to mortals who were favored by the gods, later became a reward for virtue. |
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| Musician, prophet; central figure in a religion emphasizing reincarnation and asceticism. Orpheus's lost love. |
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| The Orphic name for Dionysus; is devoured by the Titans. |
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| "Springtime"; in Plato's myth, given a view of the afterlife, which he reports. |
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| River between the human world from the the underworld in Vergil and Dante. |
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| The ferryman who takes souls across the river Acheron in Vergil and Dante. |
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| Figure being punished in the underworld by being tired to a fire wheel for having attempted to seduce Hera, ejaculated into a cloud and produced the centaurs |
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| Philosopher of a number mysticism; his teachings are very similiar to those of Orphism. |
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| Noble figure from the remote past; often the object of a hero cult. |
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| Gilgamesh, Enkidu, Humbaba, Utnapishtim |
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King of Uruk whose legend is preserved in the cuneiform Epic of Gilgamesh, first traditional hero.
Male best friend and side kick to hero.
"Dragon" of the dragon combat motif.
Only human to ever gain immortality- drives quest motif for Gilgamesh. |
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| Fertile area in the Peloponnesus; site of Mycenae, Argos, Tiryns, site of the labors of Heracles |
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| Son of Danaë and Zeus; important local hero of the Argolid, locked in a box and sent down river with his mom, cuts off the head of Medusa, rescues Andromeda and marries her |
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| City in the Argolid; built of enormous stones, which, according to myth, were set in place by the Cyclopes |
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| Ancestress of many civilizations; tormented by Hera after having attracted the attention of Zeus, turned into a cow, returned to human form and bears Epaphus who becomes king of Egypt |
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| Progeny of Io; brought his fifty daughters to Argos to try to prevent their being married to the fifty sons of his brother Aegyptus. |
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| The fifty daughters of Danaüs; brought to Argos by their father to try to prevent their being married to the fifty sons of his brother Aegyptus. |
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| Progeny of Io; tried to forestall the prophecy that he would be killed by his grandson. |
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| Daughter of Acrisius and mother of Perseus by Zeus via the "golden shower." |
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| King of the island of Seriphos, where the box containing Danaë and Perseus was brought ashore by Zeus; tried ignominiously to seduce Danaë. |
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| Ancient apotropaic hags; Medusa acquires their characteristics and is the most famous of the Gorgons. |
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| Most famous of the Gorgons, whose stare turned men into stone; killed by Perseus. |
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| "Gray-women"; old witches whom Perseus needed to consult on his quest to kill Medusa. |
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| Daughter of Cassiopeä and Cepheus of Joppa; rescued from Ceto by Perseus and given to him as his bride. |
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| Vain Queen mother of Andromeda whose boast that her daughter was more lovely than the Nereid- brought the wrath of Poseidon upon their city of Joppa. |
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| Pattern of folktale motifs that tell the story of a young girl; the story of Danaë follows it, Prohibition- Seclusion- Violation of the Prohibition- Threat of punishment or death- Liberation |
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| Son of Aethra and Aegeus/Poseidon; national hero of the Athenians, 6 labors rather than 12, son of Aethra and Poseidon |
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| First king in Athens; brought civilization to the Athenian people; depicted as half-man, half-snake. |
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| Half-man, half-snake product of the spilled semen of Hephaestus; and early king of Athens. |
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| Son of Hersê, a daughter of Cecrops, and Hermes; his marriage with Procris was fraught with suspicion and ended in disaster. |
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| Daughter of Erechtheus, and early king of Athens, and wife of Cephalus; her marriage with Cephalus was fraught with suspicion and ended in disaster. |
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| The magical dog who always caught what it was chasing; given as a gift to Procris by Minos, king of Crete; ended in a paradoxical pursuit with the magical fox that could never be caught. |
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| Daughter of Pandion, and early king of Athens, and wife of Tereus; killed her own son Itys to avenge Tereus's rape and mutilation of her sister Philomela. |
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| Daughter of Pandion, an early king of Athens, and sister of Procnê; she was raped and mutilated by Tereus, Procnê's husband. |
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| King of Thessaly; given Procnê as his wife by Pandion; his rape and mutilation of her sister Philomela led to the death of his son Itys by Procnê. |
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| Son of Tereus and Procnê; killed by his mother in revenge for Tereus's rape and mutilation of Philomela, Procnê's sister. |
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| An early king of Athens; best known for his children: Procris, Orithyia, and Cecrops II, the latter of whom is the grandfather of Aegeus, father of Theseus. |
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| Son of Pandion II and father of Theseus; sonless, he traveled to Delphi; stopping in Troezen on the way back, he impregnated Aethra, daughter of the king, their son was Theseus |
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| Mother of Theseus and daughter of Pittheus, the King of Troezen, who, understanding the meaning of Delphi's obscure oracle to Aegeus, connived to have her impregnated by him. |
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| Villain overcome by Theseus on his way from Troezen to Athens; murdered his victims by putting them on a bed that never fit. |
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| Battle of the Athenians and the invading Amazons; battle provoked by Theseus's abduction of their Queen Antiopê; later comes to symbolize Athens's victory over the Persians. |
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| Son of Theseus by Antiopê, Queen of the Amazons; falsely accused by Phaedra, Theseus's new wife, of having attempted to rape her, he is killed by Poseidon, who answers Theseus's prayer. |
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| Wife of Theseus and stepmother to Hippolytus; inflicted with a shameful lust for Hippolytus and rebuffed by him, she kills herself, leaving behind a letter falsely accusing Hippolytus of having tried to rape her. |
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| Parallel to the Hippolytus false-accusation motif; having rebuffed the wife of the king at Corinth, the king tries to kill him. |
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| King in Thessaly, opponent of Theseus who, like Enkidu and Gilgamesh, becomes his companion in a number of adventures. |
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| Thessalian people, whose king Pirithoüs, is a companion of Theseus; involved in a famous battle against the Centaurs that erupts at a wedding: the "Battle of the Centaurs and the Lapiths" (aka the Centauromachy). |
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| Race of half-man half-horse creatures; offspring of Ixion; mostly dangerous and wild, some are good. |
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| Democratic tyrant of late 6th century Athens; responsible for promoting the myths of Theseus and identifying them with democratic ideology. |
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| representative of the struggle between barbarianism and civilization, Theseus and Lapiths verse centaurs after they try to rape Hippodamia at her wedding |
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| Great strongman hero of the Greeks; son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. |
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| Daughter of Electryon and mother of Heracles. |
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| Son of Sthenelus; cousin of Heracles, for whom the hero had to perform the twelve labors. |
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| Son of Alcaeus; husband of Alcmena, the mother of Heracles. |
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| Daughter of Creon of Thebes, and first wife of Heracles; killed by him in a fit of madness brought on by Hera |
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| One of the twelve labors, from which he got his customary lion's pelt and club. |
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| One of the twelve labors, from which he got the poison which he used on his arrows. |
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| One of the twelve labors, which led to a quarrel with Artemis and Apollo |
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| One of the twelve labors; one of the many monsters plaguing the earth destroyed by Heracles. |
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| A parergon of Heracles; a centaur accidentally killed by one of Heracles's poisoned arrows, his blood eventually kills Heralces because its poisoned with Gorgon blood |
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| One of the twelve labors; Augeas owned a filthy barn that needed a good cleaning. |
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| One of the twelve labors; bronzed-beaked, man-eating birds shot by Heracles with his poisoned arrows. |
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| One of the twelve labors; Diomedes was thrown by Heracles to his own man-eating horses. |
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| Needed to find someone to die in his place; his wife Alcestis volunteered. |
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| Devoted wife of Admetus; willingly dies in his place. |
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| One of the twelve labors; her breastplate was demanded by Eurystheus's daughter. |
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| One of the twelve labors; his red cattle were demanded by Eurystheus; during the course of which, Heracles set up the Pillars of Heracles. |
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| A parergon of Heracles; monster who tried to steal some of the cattle Heracles had taken from Greyon. |
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| One of the twelve labors; apples of the nymphs of the west demanded by Eurystheus; during the course of which, Heracles battled Antaeus, overcame Busiris, and outwitted Atlas. |
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| A parergon of Heracles; giant wrestler who drew his strength from contact with the earth; overcome by Heracles, who crushed him while holding him in the air. |
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| A parergon of Heracles; king in Egypt who tried to sacrifice Heracles, but who was himself killed. |
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| One of the twelve labors; monstrous dog who guarded the entrance to the underworld, dragged to the upper world. |
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| Daughter of Eurytus and sought by Heracles; brings about his death when Deianira sees her in a train of captive women, causes Deianira to give Heralces the love potion that ultimately kills him |
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Queen of Lydia whom Heracles served as "punishment" for having killed Iphitus in violation of Xenia.
Cercopes Highwaymen defeated by Heracles. |
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| River god and competitor for Deianira; defeated by Heracles. |
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| Sister of Meleager and second wife of Heracles; mistakenly brought about his death when deceived by the dying Nessus. |
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| Sons of Heracles; thought to be the ancestors of the Dorians by the ancient Greeks. |
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| male nudity found in Greek art, distinguished heroes from nonheroes and Persians, derived from naked athletics |
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| Highwaymen defeated by Heracles. |
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