GLOSSARY OF MYTHOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

Information given here is not normally reproduced in the notes on particular passages.

 

ACHAEA a region in the N Peloponnese, south of the Corinthian Gulf.

ACHAEAN one of the racial sub-groups of the Greeks, particularly those resident in the N Peloponnese.

ACHAEUS according to Euripides, son of Creusa and Xuthus, and brother of Dorus; ancestor of the Achaean peoples.

ACHERON one of the rivers of the underworld. Its name signifies grief and lamentation.

ACHILLES son of the hero Peleus and the sea-nymph Thetis; greatest of the Greek heroes who fought at Troy; clad in armour forged by Hephaestus, he killed the Trojan champion Hector, but died in battle later, slain by Paris’ arrow.

ACTE an old name for Attica, the area of Greece surrounding and controlled by Athens.

AEACUS grandfather of Theoclymenus in Helen. This may well be a Euripidean invention. There was a better-known Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles.

AEGEAN the part of the Mediterranean Sea separating Greece from Asia Minor.

AEOLUS father of Xuthus in Ion.

AEROPE wife of Atreus, seduced by his brother Thyestes.

AGAMEMNON king of Argos and Mycenae, leader of the Greek expedition against Troy. Father of Iphigenia, Orestes and Electra (also, in some versions, of Chrysothemis). Killed by his wife Clytemnestra.

AGLAURUS normally daughter of Cecrops, one of the earliest kings of Athens, and one of three sisters to whom the infant Erichthonius was entrusted;

according to Euripides in Ion, however, Aglaurus is the mother of the three girls.

AJAX there were two heroes of this name, both of whom fought at Troy. The one mentioned in this volume is the ‘greater’ Ajax, son of Telamon, second only to Achilles among the Greek warriors at Troy. After Achilles’ death he was denied the armour of the dead hero, and went mad with rage and disappointment, finally killing himself.

ALCAEUS son of Perseus, father of Amphitryon, and grandfather of Heracles.

ALCMENA wife of Amphitryon and mother (by Zeus) of Heracles, mightiest of the Greek heroes.

ALEXANDROS see ‘Paris’.

ALPHEUS a river originating in Arcadia in the Peloponnese and passing by the great cult-site of Zeus at Olympia; flows into the Ionian Sea.

ALTHAEA wife of Oeneus, a king of Calydon. She was successfully wooed by Dionysus, while her husband tactfully turned a blind eye.

AMAZONS a race of warrior women, who hunted, fought and governed themselves like men; usually located in remote Asia. Various Greek heroes, including Heracles, challenged them, sometimes celebrating victory by sleeping with their queen.

AMPHANAE a town NE of Thebes, near the Gulf of Pagasai.

AMPHION son of Zeus and Antiope; a marvellous singer and player of music, whose songs enchanted wild beasts and even moved the stones forming the walls of Thebes, which he ruled jointly with his twin brother Zethus.

AMPHITRITE one of the sea-nymphs known as Nereids; wife of Poseidon, god of the sea.

AMPHITRYON mortal father of Heracles, who was in fact the son of Zeus, who slept with Amphitryon’s wife Alcmena.

ANAURUS a river that rises on Mount Pelion in NE Greece.

APHRODITE daughter of Zeus; goddess of love and desire.

APOLLO son of Zeus and Leto, brother of Artemis; one of the most powerful and dignified of the Olympian gods. He was famous for his good looks, his prowess as an archer, his musical gifts, and above all his power of prophesying the future through his oracles, of which that at Delphi was the most famous.

ARCADIA a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese.

ARCTUS the constellation Ursa Major or the Great Bear.

ARES god of war, usually regarded as a cruel and threatening figure.

ARGOLIS or ARGOLID region in the NE Peloponnese dominated by Argos.

ARGOS city in the N Peloponnese, often conflated in tragedy with the older site nearby, Mycenae.

ARTEMIS daughter of Zeus and Leto; sister of Apollo, and like him an archer; virgin goddess, associated with hunting and wild animals.

ASIA in Euripides a fairly vague term for the lands east of Greece, from the Hellespont as far as India. More specifically, Asia Minor, what is now mostly Turkey.

ASOPUS a river near the border between Attica and Boeotia, running south of Thebes.

ATHENA daughter of Zeus; virginal goddess of wisdom and patroness of Athens.

ATHENS the main settlement in Attica, in central Greece. See further, General Introduction and Preface to Ion.

ATLAS a gigantic figure or Titan, who was thought to have been punished by Zeus with the perpetual task of holding up the sky. He was located in the far west, at the Pillars of Heracles.

ATREUS former king of Argos and Mycenae, father of Agamemnon and Menelaus.

ATTICA the country around Athens and controlled by her, in central Greece.

AULIS a Greek town in Boeotia, opposite Euboea; the place where the great fleet of Greek forces assembled to set out for Troy. Because of unfavourable winds, Agamemnon was forced to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia before they could leave there.

BACCHANT(E) a follower (usually female) of Bacchus, inspired with irrational ecstasy, often wild and violent in action.

BACCHUS another name for Dionysus, god of wine and associated with other wild and sensuous pleasures.

BRAURON (modern Vraona), in E Attica, one of the twelve ancient Attic townships united by Theseus into the Athenian state. Artemis had a particularly important temple and festival there.

BROMIUS a cult title of Dionysus, meaning ‘the roaring one’.

BYBLUS a town in Phoenicia, north of Tyre and Sidon; famous for its wine.

CADMEANS the Thebans, so called because Cadmus founded Thebes and brought their race into being.

CADMUS son of Agenor from Tyre; founder of Thebes after he had slain a monstrous dragon guarding the site. He sowed the dragon’s teeth, from which sprang forth warriors, the Sown Men, the first men of Thebes.

CALCHAS the prophet and adviser of the Greek army during the Trojan war. Although sympathetically presented in Homer, he gains a more sinister reputation in later times.

CALLICHORUS one of the sacred springs of Eleusis in Attica.

CALLISTO a nymph in the service of Artemis, who was loved by Zeus and seduced by him. She was changed into a bear, either by Hera or Artemis as a punishment, or as a disguise to protect her from Hera. Eventually she was placed among the stars.

CALYPSO a beautiful nymph who fell in love with Odysseus and tried to make him stay with her forever. She inhabited an idyllic island called Ogygia, far from Greece.

CAPHEREUS (or CAPHAREUS) a promontory to the SE end of Euboea.

CARYSTIAN associated with Carystus, a town in southern Euboea.

CASTALIA a sacred spring on Mount Parnassus, near Delphi. Those who wished to consult the Delphic oracle were required to purify themselves in this spring first.

CASTOR like his brother Pollux (or Polydeuces), a son of Zeus by Leda; brother of Helen and Clytemnestra. In some stories only one of them was immortal, but they are normally paired as the Dioscuri or Heavenly Twins, elevated after death to divine status and placed among the stars (the constellation Gemini, ‘the Twins’). They were thought to watch over sailors at sea.

CECROPS early mythical king of Athens, allegedly half man, half snake, and said to have been born from the earth itself.

CENTAURS mythical creatures, half horse, half man. They were ambiguous in other ways: some (particularly the wise Chiron, tutor of Achilles) were kind and benevolent to men, while others were dangerous or potentially violent. This violent side was notoriously revealed when the Centaurs got drunk at the marriage of Pirithous and Hippodamia; a pitched battle ensued (the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs).

CEPHALLENE one of the islands ruled by Odysseus, near Ithaca off the mainland of NW Greece.

CEPHISUS the main river of the plain of Athens. Like many rivers, he is sometimes invoked as a god.

CHALCODON an early ruler of the Abantes, on the island of Euboea, who gave his name to a town or region here.

CHARON the sinister ferryman who, in mythology, transported the dead across the river Styx to their eternal abode in the underworld.

CLASHING ROCKS one of the supernatural obstacles faced by travellers to the Black Sea, notably Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece – massive rocks which moved in the water to smash any ship passing between them. They were vaguely located in the Bosphorus area.

CLYTEMNESTRA wife of Agamemnon, whom she murdered on his return from Troy, partly because of his treatment of Iphigenia, her daughter. Also mother of Orestes and Electra.

CREON one of the royal family of Thebes, brother of Jocasta. After the deaths of Oedipus’ sons, he assumed the kingship.

CRETE large Mediterranean island to the SE of Greece.

CREUSA daughter of Erechtheus, an early king of Athens, and mother of Ion by Apollo; married to the Euboean Xuthus.

CYCLADES a group of islands in the SE part of the Mediterranean; the most important in mythological terms is Delos, birthplace of Apollo and Artemis.

CYCLOPS (plural Cyclopes) a one-eyed giant, hostile to men. The most famous Cyclops was Polyphemus in Homer’s Odyssey, who trapped Odysseus and his men on their wanderings, and ate many of them before the hero managed to devise an escape. Cyclopes were thought to have helped in the building of some of the most ancient Greek cities, including Mycenae and Tiryns.

CYNTHUS a mountain on the island of Delos; hence associated with Apollo and Artemis, who were born there. Sometimes they are given the title ‘Cynthian’.

CYPRIAN, THE Aphrodite, who was born from the sea off Cyprus, and who was held in special honour there.

CYPRUS large island in the eastern Mediterranean.

DANAUS father of the fifty girls known as the Danaids, and more generally conceived as the ancestor of the Danaans (which is sometimes a general title for Greeks but often more specifically means Argives).

DARDANUS first founder and king of Troy; hence the Trojans are sometimes called ‘Dardanians’.

DELOS an island (one of the Cyclades), in the middle of the Aegean sea; birthplace of Apollo and Artemis and a major cult-centre.

DELPHI a town in the mountainous region of Phocis, location of the temple and oracular shrine of Apollo.

DEMETER goddess of fertility in nature, presiding over the crops and other products of the earth; mother of Persephone.

DICTYNNA ( ‘lady of the net’) a title of Artemis the huntress.

DIOMEDES a Thracian king, son of Ares, and king of the Bistonians. His man-eating horses were captured by Heracles as one of his labours. He should be distinguished from Diomedes, son of Tydeus, one of the Greek heroes at Troy.

DIONE one of the senior goddesses on Olympus and in some contexts treated as wife of Zeus; mother of Aphrodite.

DIONYSUS son of Zeus by Semele; god of wine and other natural forces; often seen as a wild and irrational deity, bringer of madness.

DIOSCURI ( ‘sons of Zeus’) Castor and Pollux, the Heavenly Twins; see ‘Castor’.

DIRCE a wicked queen of Thebes, killed by Amphion and Zethus. After her death her name was associated with a stream near Thebes.

DIRPHYS a mountain in Euboea, origin of the tyrannical Lycus.

DORIANS one of the sub-groups of Greeks, often contrasted with the Ionians. Sparta and Argos were Dorian states, Athens Ionian.

DORUS according to the genealogy given in Euripides’ Ion, son of Xuthus and Creusa, brother of Achaeus, and ancestor of the Dorians.

EARTH-MOTHER, THE a title for Demeter, who is linked to the earth through her concern with crops and fertility.

EIDO According to Euripides’ Helen, the original name of the prophetess Theonoe (whose name means ‘knowing the divine’). Her new name was given to her when her gifts as a seer were discovered.

ELECTRA daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; sister of Orestes, whom she supports in the murder of their mother. She subsequently married Orestes’ friend Pylades.

ELECTRYON a king of Mycenae, father of Alcmena and consequently grandfather of Heracles.

ENCELADUS one of the Giants who in early mythical times staged a rebellion against Zeus and were defeated in battle by the united forces of Olympus, assisted by Heracles.

ERECHTHEUS an early king of Athens, father of Creusa. Hence the Athenians are sometimes called Erechtheids or ‘sons of Erechtheus’.

ERICHTHONIUS son of Athena by supernatural means, and a figure in the early royal line of Athens; sometimes identified with Erechtheus, though Euripides distinguishes them.

ERYTHEIA an island in the great Ocean beyond the Pillars of Heracles (for us, the Atlantic), inhabited by the monstrous herdsman Geryon. One of Heracles’ labours was to travel there and take the cattle from Geryon.

ETNA volcanic mountain in Sicily.

EUBOEA a large island off the coast of Attica and Boeotia.

EURIPUS the narrow strait separating Euboea from Boeotia.

EUROTAS a major river in the southern Peloponnese, running through Spartan territory.

EURYSTHEUS son of Sthenelus; tyrannical king of Argos, persecutor of Heracles and his family. He was responsible for setting Heracles his twelve labours.

FURY a daemonic and dangerous creature who was thought to persecute evil-doers in life and after death; hence any horrific and avenging figure, especially female. The Furies’ most famous role in mythology is as pursuers of Orestes, whom they hounded after he had killed his mother.

GANYMEDE a beautiful Trojan boy who was carried away by Zeus because of his beauty; he became the cup-bearer of Zeus on Olympus as well as sharing his bed.

GELEON son of Ion; founder-member of one of the ancient tribes of Athens.

GERAESTUS a promontory at the southern tip of the island of Euboea.

GORGON a type of hideous female monster with snakes for hair, so horrible that to look at one outright would turn a man to stone. The most famous Gorgon, Medusa, was slain by Perseus who chopped off her head by looking not at her, but at her reflection in his shield. A Gorgon’s head adorned the shield of Athena.

GRACES minor goddesses who embody the graceful beauty and pleasure of life, often associated with the Muses and represented singing or dancing.

HADES (a) one of the three most powerful Olympians, the others being Zeus and Poseidon; they divided up the universe, and Hades drew the underworld as his domain; (b) the underworld itself.

HALAE a small village on the E coast of Attica, on the Euboeic Gulf.

HEBRUS a river in eastern Thrace, flowing into the northernmost Aegean.

HECATE a sinister goddess associated with darkness, witchcraft and ghosts. Sometimes, however, she is identified with Artemis and viewed more positively.

HELEN daughter of Zeus and the mortal woman Leda; wife of Menelaus and mother of Hermione. According to the usual legend (deliberately avoided by Euripides in his Helen), she was carried away or seduced by the Trojan Paris. The Trojan war was fought to get her back. She eventually returned to Sparta and lived with her husband.

HELENUS son of Priam and Hecabe; a prince of Troy who had prophetic powers. He survived the Trojan war and eventually married Andromache and became king in part of Epirus.

HELICON mountain in Boeotia, thought to be a favourite place of the Muses.

HELIOS the sun, personified as a god. He is sometimes associated with or even identified with Apollo, who was also often regarded as a god of light (and whose sister Artemis presided over the moon).

HELLAS (a) a small area of southern Thessaly; (b) in classical times, often used to denote the Greek nation as a whole.

HEPHAESTUS son of Zeus and Hera; god of fire and of the arts of craftsmanship, especially metalwork, but lame and often treated disparagingly by his fellow divinities. His forges were thought to be located under Mount Etna.

HERA queen of the gods and consort of Zeus; presides over marriage; often associated with Argos, one of her favourite cities. Her jealousy of Zeus’ love-affairs motivates many vengeful acts, especially against Heracles.

HERACLES son of Zeus and Alcmene; greatest of the Greek heroes, famous for his many victories over monsters and barbaric peoples; enslaved by Eurystheus and compelled to perform twelve labours.

HERMES son of Zeus and the nymph Maia; messenger of the gods.

HERMIONE daughter of Helen and Menelaus; she remained in Sparta while Helen went with Paris to Troy.

HERMIONE town in the SE Argolid.

HESPERUS the Evening Star.

HESTIA goddess of the hearth and hence almost a symbol of the home. Most Greek houses would have an altar to Hestia.

HIPPODAMEIA daughter of Oenomaus, who organized contests for her hand and slew her unsuccessful suitors, until Pelops was victorious and killed him.

HOMOLE, MOUNT a mountain in Thessaly, in N Greece.

HYACINTHUS a handsome Spartan youth beloved by Apollo, who accidentally killed him as they played with a discus. A cult was instituted in his memory.

HYADES (‘the rainy ones’) nymphs associated with water and rain. Like the Pleiades, they were imagined as goddesses enshrined in the stars and influencing the earth’s weather.

HYDRA a monstrous and many-headed creature that appeared indestructible, as a new head grew whenever one was chopped off. Heracles eventually killed it by burning away the stumps of the heads with torches.

IACCHUS sometimes a title of Dionysus, sometimes a god distinct from him. He was closely associated with Demeter and Persephone, and was invoked in the festivities surrounding the Eleusinian mysteries.

IDA A mountain in Asia Minor, near Troy, where according to legend Paris was brought up as a shepherd.

ILIUM another name for Troy.

IOLAUS nephew of Heracles; he assisted him in some of his labours.

IONIANS descendants of Ion; one of the major ethnic divisions among the Greeks. The Athenians were Ionian, and in classical times claimed an ascendancy over other Ionian states.

IPHIGENIA daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Her father was forced to sacrifice her in order to gain favourable winds for the Greek fleet; according to the version followed in Iphigenia among the Taurians, she was rescued by Artemis and carried off to the remote land of the Tauri.

IRIS a minor goddess who is often represented as messenger of the gods, especially of Hera. She was the personification of the rainbow, and a rainbow in the sky was thought to mean that Iris was descending to earth.

ISMENUS a river in Theban territory.

ISTHMIAN GROVE a grove of pines which grew by the temple of Poseidon on the Isthmus.

ISTHMUS the narrow stretch of land connecting central Greece with the Peloponnese. The Isthmian Games were celebrated here.

ITHACA an island off western Greece, part of the kingdom of Odysseus.

IXION king of the Lapiths; one of the great sinners of myth, traditionally the first Greek to kill a kinsman. He also attempted to rape Hera, and was punished in the underworld by being bound forever to a rotating wheel of fire.

LACEDAEMON an ancient name for Sparta and its surrounding territory.

LAERTES former king of Ithaca and father of Odysseus.

LEDA wife of the Spartan Tyndareus, mother of Helen, Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux.

LERNA a marshy area near Argos, chiefly famous as the abode of the monstrous Hydra.

LETO a goddess or Titaness who bore Apollo and Artemis to Zeus on the island of Delos.

LEUCADIAN ROCK Leucas was an island near Ithaca, off western Greece; the Leucadian rock refers to a promontory at its southern tip.

LEUCIPPUS son of Oenomaus, king of Pisa.

LEUCOTHEA a goddess of the sea, formerly the mortal Ino.

LIBYA part of N Africa, sometimes loosely used to refer to the whole continent other than Egypt.

LOXIAS a title of Apollo, perhaps meaning ‘crooked’ or ‘slanting’, with reference to his ambiguous oracles.

LYCUS (a) a wicked Theban king, husband of Dirce, overthrown by Amphion and Zethus; (b) son of the first Lycus, a usurper of power in Thebes and persecutor of Heracles’ family. The second figure is probably a Euripidean invention. The name Lycus, implying ‘wolf-like’, is suitable for any bad king.

MAENADS another name for the Bacchantes, followers of Dionysus. The name means ‘mad ones’.

MAEOTIS, LAKE an inner lake at the far N of the Black Sea, on the border of Scythia. It was here, according to the chorus of Heracles, that Heracles was involved in combat with the Amazons.

MAIA one of the Pleiades, daughters of Atlas; mother of Hermes by Zeus.

MAID, THE (or ‘Maiden’) Persephone, consort of Hades. Although she had a kinder face, as daughter of Demeter and bringer of fertility, she is often regarded with awe, and ‘the Maid’ is a way of avoiding use of her name.

MALEA, CAPE a promontory at the south-easternmost point of the Peloponnese. It was a region notorious for unsettled weather, and many sailors in legend, as no doubt in life, were driven off course off Malea.

MALIA the Gulf of Malia is an inlet S of Achaea, in central Greece.

MARON a priest who, according to the Odyssey and Euripides’ Cyclops, befriended Odysseus and gave him a gift of strong wine.

MEGARA in Euripides’ Heracles, wife of Heracles and slain by him in his madness.

MEMORY mother of the Muses.

MENELAUS son of Atreus and younger brother of Agamemnon; king of Sparta; husband of Helen. The Trojan war was fought by the Greeks on his behalf, to recover her.

MENOECEUS a Theban, father of Creon and Jocasta.

MEROPS in an obscure story, mother of a companion of Artemis.

MIMAS a giant, one of those (like Enceladus) who opposed the Olympian gods and was defeated at Phlegra.

MINOTAUR, THE the monstrous offspring of Minos’ queen Pasiphae, who made love to a bull; the child was half bull, half man, and was imprisoned by Minos in the Labyrinth. It was eventually slain by Theseus.

MINYANS legendary heroes of N Greece. Heracles’ reference to past combat with the Minyans in Heracles seems to allude to his conflicts with the town of Orchomenos, in Boeotia.

MOTHER OF THE GODS, THE Cybele, a great goddess of nature and fertility, worshipped was in Phrygia and was absorbed into Greek myth, where she was sometimes identified with Demeter. Her genealogical relation to the Olympians is left vague. A major cult-centre was at Mount Dindyma.

MOUNTAIN MOTHER see previous entry. This title arises from Cybele’s association with Mount Dindyma.

MUSES nine in number, goddesses of the arts and especially poetry; daughters of Memory.

MYCENAE in very ancient times, a great centre of power and wealth in the Peloponnese. By Euripides’ time it was eclipsed and indeed destroyed by Argos, with which in some passages it is virtually identified.

NAUPLIA a town in the Peloponnese near Argos, serving as its port.

NAUPLIUS father of Palamedes. Because the Greeks (especially Odysseus) had brought about his son’s death at Troy, Nauplius lit misleading beacons along the rockiest shores of Euboea and lured many of the returning Greek ships to destruction.

NEMEA a town in the Argolis, most famous for its sanctuary of Zeus, the centre

of the Nemean Games. One legend held that the games had been founded by Heracles to commemorate his slaying of the Nemean lion.

NEREIDS sea-nymphs, daughters of Nereus; often associated with Thetis, mother of Achilles.

NEREUS a sea-divinity, often conceived as part man and part fish. He had the gift of prophecy. In Helen a Nereus, probably the same, is said to be one of Theonoe’s grandparents.

NESTOR king of Pylos; one of the oldest Greeks to go to Troy, and because of his age and wisdom highly respected by Agamemnon and the other leaders.

NILE the chief river of Egypt and one of the great rivers of the world. In ancient times, as in modern, the question of its source was one which fascinated travellers and poets.

NISUS former king of Megara, who gave his name to the port of that city, Nisaea.

NYSA a mountain of uncertain location, usually referred to as a place where Dionysus is celebrated.

OCEAN in early Greek thought, conceived as a vast river circling the known world, and often personified as the greatest of river gods.

ODYSSEUS one of the chief leaders of the Greeks at Troy; son of Laertes, king of Ithaca, husband of Penelope. He was the favourite of Athena, and a cunning deviser of plans; often he was represented as too clever for his own good, and even as an immoral schemer.

OECHALIA a town rather vaguely located (in some versions in Euboea), sacked by Heracles on campaign.

OENOE’S HUNTRESS GODDESS Artemis. Oenoe is a place on the borders of the Argolid and Arcadia. Heracles slew the hind of Artemis but offered it to her here to placate her anger.

OENOMAUS a tyrannical king of Pisa, father of Leucippus and Hippodameia; slain by Pelops, Hippodameia’s suitor.

OLYMPUS a mountain in N Greece, on the borders of Macedonia and Thessaly. Because of its majestic height, it was considered the home of the gods, though the name is sometimes used more loosely to describe a remote heavenly realm.

ORESTES son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, brother of Electra and Iphigenia. After growing up in Phocis near Delphi, he returned to Argos to avenge his father’s death.

ORION a gigantic hunter, who pursued the Pleiades, a group of nymphs; both pursuer and pursued were transformed into constellations.

ORPHEUS a gifted poet and musician whose singing could spellbind even wild

beasts and who endeavoured to charm the powers of the underworld into releasing his dead wife – in some versions successfully.

PALAEMON a sea-god, formerly a mortal called Melicertes whom Poseidon saved from drowning.

PALLAS = Athena.

PAN son of Hermes; half goat, half man, this lesser deity is a figure of the wild and is often thought to induce frenzy and fits of madness (hence ‘panic’).

PARIS Alexandros, son of Priam and prince of Troy. Paris was the name given to him by the shepherds who rescued him when he was exposed in infancy on Mount Ida. He judged Aphrodite the most beautiful of all goddesses, and was rewarded with Helen; but the consequence was the Trojan war.

PARNASSUS a mountain north of Delphi, sacred to Apollo and the Muses.

PELASGIA a term loosely used to refer to the area occupied by the original pre-Greek inhabitants of the Greek mainland; hence Greece generally.

PELEUS son of Aeacus, king of Phthia, in Thessaly; a hero of the generation before the Trojan war; married to the sea-nymph Thetis, he became the father of Achilles.

PELION a mountain in Thessaly, in NE Greece.

PELOPID of or associated with Pelops, and hence with his family, which included Atreus, Agamemnon and Orestes.

PELOPS son of Tantalus and an early king of Pisa; father of Atreus and Thyestes. He gave his name to the Peloponnese, the massive southern part of mainland Greece.

PENEUS the chief river of Thessaly in NE Greece.

PERSEPHONE daughter of Demeter, and often associated with her in cult. Abducted by Hades, she was eventually obliged to spend part of the year on earth and part in the underworld with her husband. See also ‘Maid’.

PERSEUS one of the great heroes of Greek myth, slayer of the Gorgon, Medusa. He was a forebear of the even greater hero Heracles.

PHINEUS a Thracian king who was persecuted by the Harpies, monstrous winged women who stole his food. The Argonauts visited him on their journey to Colchis and brought an end to the Harpies’ attacks.

PHLEGRA the ‘Phlegrean plain’ was the battleground for the conflict between the Gods and the Giants, located in the southern part of the region known as Chalcidice, a large peninsula in the NW Aegean sea.

PHOCIS the large territory surrounding Delphi, to the west of Boeotia.

PHOEBUS another name for Apollo.

PHOENICIA the territory at the easternmost end of the Mediterranean; its chief ancient cities were Sidon and Tyre.

PHOLOE a mountain in Elis, in the NW Peloponnese.

PHRYGIA area in W Asia Minor; often used more loosely to refer to Asia and the ‘barbarian’ territories generally. Hence ‘Phrygians’ often = ‘Trojans’.

PHTHIA region in Thessaly, the kingdom of Achilles’ father Peleus and subsequently of his son Neoptolemus.

PISA the area around Olympia in the W Peloponnese, and sometimes used to refer to Olympia itself. The name is especially associated with the festivals involving the Olympic Games. Oenomaus and Pelops were successive kings there.

PLEIAD ( plural PLEIADES) the seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and of Pleione; they were pursued by Orion and turned into a constellation. They are associated with the marking of the seasons for farming activity.

PLUTO another name for Hades, ruler of the underworld and husband of Persephone.

PLUTUS the name means ‘wealth’, and Plutus is the name of a god who is a personification of prosperity.

POLYDEUCES Latinized as ‘Pollux’; one of the Dioscuri or Heavenly Twins; see ‘Castor’.

POLYPHEMUS son of Poseidon; one of the gigantic and one-eyed Cyclopes; blinded by Odysseus.

POSEIDON god of the sea and also of other threatening natural forces such as earthquakes.

PRIAM king of Troy, husband of Hecabe. He was the father of many children, especially Hector, Alexandros (also called Paris), Polyxena, Cassandra. At the sack of Troy he was killed by Neoptolemus.

PROCNE wife of Tereus; she killed her son and served him up to her husband to eat, in revenge for his rape and mutilation of her sister Philomela.

PROMETHEUS a Titan, who assisted Zeus in seizing power on Olympus and helped him in other ways (including enabling him to give birth to Athena); in some myths the creator of mankind, whom he befriended and to whom he gave the gift of fire. He was famous for his wisdom and ingenuity.

PROTEUS the old man of the sea; like Nereus, an immortal sea-god and prophet. He had the power to change into any shape, hence the term ‘protean’. In Euripides’ Helen he is rationalized as a human king, father of Theoclymenus and Theonoe.

PSAMATHE a sea-nymph, married first to Aeacus, then to Proteus, king of Egypt; mother of Theoclymenus and Theonoe.

PYLADES son of Strophius, king of Phocis, and close friend of Orestes, who was brought up in Strophius’ court. He accompanied Orestes in disguise to Argos, joined him in the killing of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, and subsequently married Electra.

PYTHIA the title of the priestess of Apollo at Delphi.

PYTHIAN a title of Apollo, commemorating his slaying of the snake Python that previously guarded the oracle at Delphi; hence also an adjective meaning ‘to do with Apollo, or Delphi’.

PYTHO another name for Delphi. The story was that Apollo had killed a huge snake (python), who had possessed the shrine before him. Hence Apollo bore the title ‘Pythian’. The Pythian Games were held at Delphi.

RHADAMANTHUS one of the sons of Zeus who judged the dead in the underworld; hence proverbial for stern but fair judgement.

RHION a place on the promontory at the southern entrance to the Corinthian Gulf.

ROARER, THE, or THE ROARING ONE a title of Dionysus, who was thought sometimes to transform himself into a wild beast.

SALAMIS an island off the coast of Attica, home of Telamon and his sons Ajax and Teucer. When Teucer was sent into exile, he found a new home in Cyprus and called his settlement by the same name.

SCAMANDER one of the rivers of the plain of Troy.

SIDONIAN of or from Sidon, in Phoenicia in the eastern Mediterranean.

SILENUS an old man who accompanies Dionysus on his revels and is often regarded as his teacher. Though not a satyr himself, he is sometimes called ‘father’ of the satyrs.

SIMOIS a river of the plain of Troy.

SINGING MAIDENS, THE daughters of Hesperus, guardians of the Golden Apples that Heracles sought as one of his labours.

SIRENS a group of female creatures, part human and part bird, dwelling on a remote island, who entranced passing sailors with their song, luring them to their deaths.

SISYPHUS a king of Corinth with a reputation for cleverness and unscrupulousness. He was sometimes said to be the real father of Odysseus. He was said even to have tried to cheat death itself. In the end he was imprisoned in the underworld and set the perpetual task of pushing a gigantic boulder up a hill; the reason for his punishment is variously reported.

SOWN MEN, THE the original citizen warriors of Thebes, who sprang up from the earth when Cadmus sowed the dragon’s teeth (see under ‘Cadmus’). The myth symbolizes the ferocity of the Thebans.

SPARTA chief city of Laconia, kingdom of Menelaus and Helen; in historical times one of the dominant cities of the Peloponnese and regularly opposed to Athens. This antagonism is often projected back into the mythical period.

STROPHIUS king of Phocis and ally of Agamemnon; father of Pylades.

SUNIUM a cape at the southernmost end of Attica.

TAENARUM or TAENARUS a cape in southern Laconia, which was believed to have caves which gave access to the underworld.

TANTALUS son of Zeus and father of Pelops; ancestor of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus. He was a great sinner who was punished in the underworld after death; the misfortunes of the house of Agamemnon are sometimes traced back to his actions.

TAPHIANS a people in NW Greece.

TAURI, TAURIANS, TA URIC LAND these terms refer to the remote nation to which Iphigenia was transported after her father sacrificed her at Aulis. It is located on the north coast of the Black Sea, in the modern Crimea.

TELAMON son of Aeacus, brother of Peleus and father of the greater Ajax and of Teucer; king of the island of Salamis, and one of the heroes of the generation before the Trojan war.

TEUCER bastard son of Telamon, and brother of Ajax. Ajax killed himself at Troy, whereas Teucer survived. His enraged father exiled him, and he eventually founded a new settlement in Cyprus, which he called Salamis after his former home.

THEBES chief city of Boeotia, north of Athens.

THEMIS an ancient goddess, daughter of Earth and Sky, and protectress of justice. Her name means ‘order, law, propriety’. In early times she presided over the Delphic oracle.

THEOCLYMENUS in Euripides’ Helen, son of Proteus and king of Egypt; brother of Theonoe.

THEONOE The name means something like ‘divine in knowledge’; according to Helen this was the name given to Eido, daughter of Proteus, when her prophetic gifts were discovered.

THESEUS son of Aegeus and Aethra; most famous of the mythical kings of Athens.

THESSALY region of NE Greece.

THESTIOS king of Aetolia and father of Leda, Helen’s mother.

THETIS a sea-nymph, who married Peleus and bore him the hero Achilles. She abandoned Peleus and returned to the sea, but never entirely forgot her mortal connections.

THOAS in Euripides’ Iphigenia among the Taurians, king of the Tauric people.

THRACE a region to the extreme NE of the Greek mainland, beyond Macedonia; southern Greeks regarded it as primitive and savage.

THYESTES son of Pelops and brother of Atreus; father of Aegisthus, whose usurpation of Agamemnon’s throne was partly a form of revenge for the crime of Atreus, who had killed Thyestes’ sons and served them up to their unsuspecting father for dinner.

TITANS an earlier race of immortals overthrown and replaced by Zeus and his fellow Olympians.

TRITON a sea-god, attendant on Poseidon.

TRITONIAN LAKE, LAKE TRITON a lake in N Africa, said to have been the birthplace of Athena; hence she is often called ‘lady of Triton’ or the like.

TROJANS the people of Troy, defeated by the Greeks in the Trojan war. Most famous are their king Priam and his sons Hector, the outstanding warrior killed by Achilles, and Paris, who started the war by abducting Helen.

TROPHONIUS originally a Boeotian prophet; he had an oracle not far from Delphi.

TROY city in Asia Minor, ruled by Priam and his family. In earlier times its kings included Dardanus and Laomedon. Its citadel was known as Pergama or Pergamon. The Greeks destroyed it at the end of the ten-year Trojan war.

TUSCAN another word for Etruscan, one of the peoples of early Italy. Tuscan pirates tried to abduct Dionysus in his youth.

TYNDAREUS father of Helen and Clytemnestra, Castor and Pollux (some of these had Zeus as their real father, particularly Helen, but terms such as ‘daughter of Tyndareus’ are still used in a loose way).

TYPHON a fire-breathing monster who defied Zeus and was struck down but not slain by the god’s thunderbolt. In some accounts he was imprisoned under Mount Etna, and the volcanic eruptions were said to be his fiery breath.

UNFRIENDLY SEA, INHOSPITABLE SEA, etc. pejorative names applied to the Black Sea, also called euphemistically the Euxine (‘Kind to Strangers’).

URANUS the name means ‘sky’ in Greek. The sky was personified as one of the oldest of the pre-Olympian gods, with Earth as its consort. Cronus overthrew Uranus, and was subsequently overthrown in his turn by Zeus.

XUTHUS in Euripides’ Ion, a Euboean general who is rewarded for helping Athens in war with the hand of the princess Creusa.

ZEPHYRUS the west wind, usually gentle and favourable.

ZETHUS see Amphion.

ZEUS the most powerful of the Olympian gods and head of the family of immortals; father of Apollo, Athena, Artemis and many other lesser gods, as well as of mortals such as Heracles.