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In Greek mythology Abaris was a Scythian priest to the god Apollo. Apollo gave him a golden arrow - known as the dart of Abaris - which rendered him invisible, enabled Abaris to ride through the air, and also cured diseases and gave oracles. Abaris gave the arrow to Pythagoras.
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Abas was the son of Celeus and Metaneira. He mocked Demeter and was turned into a lizard. By some accounts he was the 12th king of Argolis who owned a magic shield.
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Abdera was an ancient Greek city supposedly founded by Hercules in honour of his friend Abderus.
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Abderus was a son of Hermes and friend of Hercules. Hercules, loved Abderus and made him his armour-bearer. Hercules left Abderus to look after the man-eating mares of Diomedes, which ate him. Hercules founded the city of Abdera in Thrace in honour and memory of his friend Abderus.
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Absyrtus (Apsyrtus) was a son of Aeetes, King of Colchis and brother of Medea. When Medea fled with Jason she took Absyrtus with her and when her father nearly overtook them she murdered Absyrtus and cut his body into pieces and threw it around the road so that her father would be delayed picking up the pieces of his son.
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Acacetus (meaning one who does nothing badly) is a name sometimes given to Hermes because of his eloquence.
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Acamas was a son of Theseus and Phaedra. He went to Troy with Diomedes to demand the return of Helen, only to fall in love with Laodice, daughter of Priam, who subsequently bore him a son, Munychus.
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Acastus was a son of Pelias. He was one of the Argonauts. When Medea caused his father's death he banished her and Jason. He was hospitable towards Peleus, but suspecting him of making advances towards his wife he left Peleus to die at the hands of the Centaurs. Peleus later returned to slay the couple.
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In Greek mythology, Acestes was a Sicilian bowman who in a trial of skill discharge an arrow with such force that it ignited.
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In Greek mythology, Achaeus was a son of Xuthus and Creusa. He returned to Thessaly and recovered the dominions of which his father had been deprived.
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In Greek mythology Achates was a companion of Aeneas in his wanderings subsequent to his flight from Troy. He typified a faithful friend and companion.
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In Greek mythology, Achelous was a river god, a son of Oceanus and Tethys, who changed into a snake and later a bull while fighting Hercules for the hand of Deianira, however despite his shape-changing ability he was defeated when Hercules broke off one of his horns.
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In Greek mythology, Achemon and his brother Basalas were two Cercopes who were for ever arguing. One day they insulted Hercules, who tied them by their feet to his club and marched off with them like a brace of hares.
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Acheron - the River of Sorrows - was one of the five rivers of Hades.
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In Greek mythology, Acherusia was a cave on the borders of Pontus which led to the infernal regions. It was through this cave that Hercules dragged Cerberus to earth.
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In Greek mythology, Achilles was a Greek hero. He is the chief character in Homer's Iliad. His father was Peleus, ruler of Phthia in Thessaly, his mother the sea-goddess Thetis. When only six years of age he was able to overcome lions and bears. His guardian, Cheiron the Centaur, having declared that Troy could not be taken without his aid, his mother, fearing for his safety, disguised him as a girl, and introduced him among the daughters of Lycomedes of Scyros. Her desire for his safety made her also try to make him invulnerable when a child by anointing him with ambrosia, and again by dipping him in the river Styx, from which he came out proof against wounds, all but the heel, by which she held him.
His place of concealment was discovered by Odysseus (Ulysses), and he promised his assistance to the Greeks against Troy. Accompanied by his close friend, Patroclus, he joined the expedition with a body of followers (Myrmidons) in fifty ships, and occupied nine years in raids upon the towns neighbouring to Troy, after which the siege proper commenced. On being deprived of his prize, the maiden Briseis, by Agamemnon, he refused to take any further part in the war, and
disaster attended the Greeks.
Patroclus now persuaded Achilles to allow him to lead the Myrmidons to battle dressed in his armour, and he having been slain by Hector, Achilles vowed revenge on the Trojans, and forgot his anger against the Greeks. He attacked the Trojans and drove them back to their walls, slaying them in great numbers, chased Hector, who fled before him three times round the walls of Troy, slew him, and dragged his body at his chariot-wheels, but afterwards gave it up to Priam, who came in person to beg for it. He then performed the funeral rites of Patroclus, with which the Iliad closes. He was killed in a battle at the Scasan Gate of Troy by an arrow from the bow of Paris which struck his vulnerable heel. In discussions on the origin of the Homeric poems the term Achilleid is often applied to those books (i. viii. and xi.-xxii.) of the Iliad in which Achilles is prominent, and which some suppose to have formed the original nucleus of the poem.
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Achmon is an alternative spelling for Achemon.
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In Cyrenean mythology, Achor was the god of flies. Pacifying Achor prevented the worshipper from being pestered by flies.
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In Greek mythology, Acis was a beautiful shepherd of Sicily. He was the son of Faunus and a river nymph. He loved the sea-nymph Galatea and was killed by his jealous rival Polyphemus, who crushed him under a huge rock. According to Sicillian tradition he was then turned into the river of the same name which runs at the foot of Mount Etna, or else his escaping blood turned into the river which now bears his name.
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In Greek mythology, Acontius was a beautiful youth of Ceos. To win the love of Cydippe, daughter of a noble Athenian, he threw before her, in the precinct of the temple of Artemis, an apple on which he had written the vow: 'I swear by the sanctuary of Artemis to marry Acontius.' Cydippe read the words aloud and threw the apple away but the goddess had heard her, and when Cydippe was about to marry another she fell so ill that her father married her to Acontius by order of the Delphic oracle.
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In Greek mythology, Acrisius was a son of Abas and the twin brother of Proteus with whom he quarrelled even in the womb. He was the father of Danae. When Abas died, Acrisius expelled Proteus from his inheritance, but Proteus returned supported by Iobates and Acrisius was compelled to give him Tiryns while he kept Argos.
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In Greek mythology, Actaeon was a great hunter who was turned into a stag by Artemis for looking on her while she was bathing. He was subsequently torn to pieces by his own dogs.
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The addanc was a dwarf or marine monster which lived near lake llyon. He was killed in some accounts by Peredu who obtained a magic stone which made him invisible.
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In Greek mythology, Admetus was the king of Pherae in Thessaly, and the husband of Alcestis, who gave signal proof of her love by consenting to die in order that her husband may live.
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Adonis was a Phoenician god symbolising vegetation scorched by the heat of the sun, adopted by Greek mythology as a mortal favourite of Aphrodite. According to Greek mythology, Adonis was a son of Myrrha who had been changed into a myrtle tree by the gods. When Adonis was born, Aphrodite hid him in a chest which she gave to Persephone for safe keeping. Persephone, upon opening the chest was so struck by the beauty of the infant Adonis that she decided to keep him. Aphrodite appealed to Zeus, who decided that Adonis should spend a third of each year with Zeus, Aphrodite and Persephone. When Adonis grew up, Aphrodite fell in love with him but he was killed by a wild boar while out hunting. Upon finding him Aphrodite caused the plant the anemone to rise from his blood.
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Adrastea was an alternative name for Nemesis.
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Adrastus was the son of Talaus and the king of Argos. He attempted to restore Polynices to his throne at Thebes, he failed but led a second assault leading the Epigoni. He died of grief when he heard that his son had been killed in the Epigoni assault.
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In Greek mythology, Aeacus was a son of Zeus and Aegina, born on the island of Aegina, of which he became the ruler. His sons Telamon and Peleus abandoned the island, Telamon going to Salamis and Peleus to Phthia. After his death, Zeus made him a judge of the shades in Hades with Minos and Rhadamanthus.
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Aegeus was a king of Athens. He gave his name to the Aegean sea. His son, Theseus, went to Crete to free Athens from the tribute exacted by Minos. Theseus pledged that if he succeeded he would hoist a white sail upon his return voyage as a signal of his safety. Neglecting to hoist the signal, king Aegeus seeing Theseus' ship returning assumed Theseus was dead and committed suicide by throwing himself into the sea.
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In Roman mythology, the aegis was a shield which Jupiter gave to Minerva.
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Aello was one of the harpies.
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Aeneas was a Trojan hero. According to Homer, he was, next to Hector, the bravest of the warriors of Troy. When that town was taken and set on fire, Aeneas, according to the narrative of Virgil, with his father, son, and wife Creusa, fled, but the latter was lost in the confusion of the flight. Having collected a fleet he sailed for Italy, but after numerous adventures he was driven by a tempest on the coast of Africa, where Queen Dido of Carthage received him kindly, and would have married him. Jupiter, however, sent Mercury to Aeneas, and commanded him to sail for Italy. Whilst the deserted Dido ended her life on the funeral pile Aeneas set sail with his companions, and after further adventures by land and sea reached the country of King Latinus, in Italy. The king's daughter Lavinia was destined by an oracle to a stranger, this stranger being Aeneas, but was promised by her mother to Turnus, king of the Rutuli. This occasioned a war, after the termination of which, Turnus having fallen by his hand, Aeneas married Lavinia. His son by Lavinia, Aeneas Sylvius, was the ancestor of the kings of Alba Longa, and of Romulus and Remus, the founders of the city of Rome.
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Aeolus was the son of Hippotes. He lived on a rocky island where the winds were trapped in caves. He let the winds out as commanded by the gods.
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Aesculapius was the Greek god of medicine and latterly adopted by the Romans, usually said to have been a son of Apollo. He was worshipped in particular at Epidaurus, in Peloponnesus, where a temple with a grove was dedicated to him. The sick who visited his temple had to spend one or more nights in the sanctuary, after which the remedies to be used were revealed in a dream. Those who were cured offered a sacrifice to Aesculapius, commonly a cock. He is often represented with a large beard, holding a knotty staff, round which is entwined a serpent, the serpent being specially his symbol. .Near him often stands a cock. Sometimes Aesculapius is represented under the image of a serpent only.
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In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was a Greek hero of the Trojan wars, son of Atreus, king of Mycenae, and brother of Menelaus. He married Clytemnestra, and their children included Electra, Iphigenia, and Orestes. He sacrificed Iphigenia in order to secure favourable winds for the Greek expedition against Troy and after a ten years' siege sacked the city, receiving Priam's daughter Cassandra as a prize. On his return home, he and Cassandra were murdered by Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus. His children Orestes and Electra later killed the guilty couple.
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In Greek mythology, Agave was a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. She married Echion. Agave, along with her sisters refused to recognise Dionysus and mocked their sister Semele's claims that Dionysus was the son of Zeus. As a result
Agave and her sisters were punished with madness, a madness that caused Agave to tear her own son Pentheus to pieces.
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In Greek mythology, Agenor was a son of Poseidon and Libya. He became king of Phoenicia. He married Telephassa who bore him Europa, Cadmus, Phoenix and Cilix. When Zeus abducted Europa, Agenor sent his sons to find her, they went accompanied by their mother and none returned. In Greek mythology Agenor was a son of Antenor. He fought in the Trojan War, and saved the Trojans by challenging the Greek champion when Achilles was about to storm the Scaean Gates. Apollo kept Agenor safe, and later assumed the shape of
Agenor to divert Achilles' attention. In Greek mythology, Agenor was a king of Pleuron, and the father of Thestius.
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In Greek mythology, Aglaophone was one of the Sirens.
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In Greek mythology, Aglaos was the poorest man in Arcadia, and yet was declared by Apollo to be far happier than Gyges because he was contented with what he had.
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In Roman-Jewish mythology, Agna was a virgin incarnation of the Ewe goddess. She was adopted by Christians as Saint Agnes, and heavily embellished with untrue tales of her persecution and worship at a time when actually it was Agna, a goddess of divine prostitutes who was worshipped.
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In Greek mythology, Ajax was son of Telamon, king of Salamis, he was second only to Achilles among the Greek heroes in the Trojan War. According to subsequent Greek legends, Ajax went mad with jealousy when Agamemnon awarded the armour of the dead Achilles to Odysseus. He later committed suicide in shame.
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In Greek mythology, Alastor is a name applied to any avenging demon, but principally to Zeus as the vindicator.
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Alcaeus was a son of Perseus and Andromeda.
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Alcestis was the wife of Admetus in Greek mythology. Her husband was ill, and according to an oracle would not recover unless someone vowed to die in his place. Alcestis made the vow and her husband recovered. After she died Hercules brought her back from the infernal regions.
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Alcides is an alternative name for Hercules.
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In Greek mythology, Alcmene is the virgin goddess of midwinter, midwinter's moon, the new year, stateliness, beauty and wisdom.
Alcmene was the wife of Amphitryon. Zeus visited Alcmene in the form of her husband, and the child of their union was the Greek hero Hercules.
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In Greek mythology, Alcyone is the goddess of the sea, the moon, calm and tranquillity; She who brings life to death and death to life.
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Alecto was one of the Furies. Her head was covered with snakes.
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In Greek mythology, Alphito was a white goddess of barley flour, destiny and the moon. The hag of the mill and the lady of the nine heights.
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In Greek mythology, Amalthea was a mountain-spirit, half goddess and half goat, the mother of Pan and the foster mother of Zeus.
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in Greek mythology, the Amazons were a group of female warriors living in Africa or near the Black Sea. The tribe contained no men, the men living in an adjoining nation where the boy children were sent to live with their father. The women allegedly had their right breast burned off (hence the name Amazon, meaning 'deprived of a pap') so that they might use the bow more easily - this legend arose from the Greeks supposing the name was from a, not , mazos, breast. It is probably from a, together, and mazos, breast, the name meaning therefore sisters and the idea of removing a breast false. Their queen, Penthesilea, was killed by Achilles at the siege of Troy. The Amazons attacked Theseus and besieged him at Athens, but were defeated, and Theseus took the Amazon Hippolyte captive; she later gave birth to Hippolytus.
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In Greek mythology, ambrosia was the food of the gods which was supposed to confer eternal life upon all who ate it.
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Amor was the Roman god of love. He was the son of Mercury and Venus and was generally represented as a beautiful naked boy, winged, blind, and armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows with which he transfixed the hearts of lovers, kindling desire in them. He was equivalent to, but not identical to the Greek Eros.
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In Greek mythology, Amphictyonis was the goddess of wine and friendship between nations.
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In Greek mythology, Amphion was a son of Zeus and Antiope. He was the husband of Niobe. Amphion had great skill in music which he was taught by Hermes. He helped build the walls of Thebes, the stones moving themselves into position at the sound of his lyre.
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Amphitrite was the Greek goddess of the sea and wife of Poseidon. She was the personification of the sea.
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In Greek mythology, Amphitryon was King of Thebes, son of Alcaeus and husband of Alcmena.
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Amymone was a daughter of Danaus. She and her sisters were sent to search for water when Poseidon caused a drought in the district of Argos. Whilst searching she threw a spear at a dear, missed it and hit a satyr which pursued her. She called to Poseidon for help. He came, drove off the satyr and produced a perennial spring for her at Lerna, where he met her.
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Anadyomene is a name of Aphrodite when she was represented as rising from the sea.
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In Roman mythology, Androcles was a Roman slave who fled from a cruel master into the African desert, where he encountered a crippled lion and took a thorn from its paw. The lion later recognized the recaptured slave in the arena and spared his life. The emperor Tiberius was said to have freed them both.
The story, known as Androcles and the lion, originates with Aulus Gellius who wrote it down after hearing the tale from Plistonices who claimed to have witnessed the encounter. A similar story occurs in Aespos Fables.
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In Greek mythology, Andromache was the wife of Hector.
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Andromeda was a daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopea. Perseus found her bound to a rock as a sacrifice to a sea monster. Perseus rescued her after killing the sea monster so that she might become his wife.
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In Roman mythology, Annona was the Goddess of the circling year and its harvest produce; Matron of commerce and the market place.
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Antaeos was the giant, wrestling son of Poseidon and Ge. He was invincible so long as he remained in contact with the earth. Hercules killed him by picking him up so that his feet were off the ground and then stifling him.
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In Greek mythology, Anteros was the god of mutual love. He was said to punish those who did not return the love of others. According to some, however, Anteros is the enemy of love, or the god of antipathy.
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In Crete, Antheia was the goddess of vegetation, lowlands, marshlands, gardens, blossoms, the budding earth and human love.
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Anthesteria was a Greek festival held each year in honour of the gods, particularly Bacchus and to celebrate the beginning of spring.
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In Greek mythology Antigone was a daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. She was celebrated for her devotion to her father and her brother Polynices.
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In Greek mythology, Antilochus was a son of Nestor. He was a hero of the Trojan war and was renowned for his speed of foot. He was killed by Memnon.
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In Greek mythology, Antiope was a daughter of Nycteus, King of Thebes. Zeus was attracted by her beauty and came to her in the guise of a Satyr. Antiope conceived twins by Zeus, and scared of her father's wrath fled to Sicyon where she married King Epopeus. Antiope was the goddess of the new moon, the gad-fly dance and fecundity; Mother of the morning and evening star.
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Anubis was an ancient Egyptian god adopted by the Romans, and like the Egyptian original, the Roman Anubis also had the head of a jackal and judged the dead in the underworld.
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Aphrodisia was the festival in celebration of Aphrodite celebrated throughout Greece and Cyprus.
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In Greek mythology, Aphrodite was the goddess of love (equivalent to the Roman Venus, Phoenician Astarte and the Babylonian Ishtar). She is said to be either a daughter of Zeus or to have sprung from the foam of the sea. She was the unfaithful wife of Hephaestus, the god of fire, and the mother of Eros. Aphrodite surpassed all the other goddesses in beauty, and hence received the prize of beauty from Paris. She likewise had the power of granting beauty and invincible charm to others. In the vegetable kingdom the myrtle, rose, apple, and poppy, among others, were sacred to Aphrodite, as, in the animal world, were the sparrow, dove, swan, and swallow.
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In Greek and Roman mythology, Apollo was the god of the sun, music, poetry, prophecy, agriculture, and pastoral life, and leader of the Muses. He was the twin child of Zeus and Leto.
Apollo, being persecuted by the jealousy of Hera, after tedious wanderings and nine days' labour, was delivered of him and his twin sister, Artemis, on the island of Delos. Skilled in the use of the bow, he slew the serpent Python on the fifth day after his birth; afterwards, with his sister Artemis, he killed the children of Niobe. He aided Zeus in the war with the Titans and the giants. He destroyed the Cyclopes, because they forged the thunderbolts with which Zeus killed his son and favourite Asklepios.
According to some traditions he invented the lyre, though this is generally ascribed to Hermes. Apollo was originally the sun-god; and though in Homer he appears distinct from Helios (the sun), yet his real nature is hinted at even here by the epithet Phoebus, that is, the radiant or beaming. In later times the view was almost universal that Apollo and Helios were identical. from being the god of light and purity in a physical sense he gradually became the god of moral and spiritual light and purity, the source of all intellectual, social, and political progress. He thus came to be regarded as the god of song and prophecy, the god that wards off and heals bodily suffering and disease, the institutor and guardian of civil and political order, and the founder of cities. His worship was introduced at Rome at an early period, probably in the time of the Tarquins. Ancient statues show Apollo as the embodiment of the Greek ideal of male beauty. Apollo epitomized the transition between adolescence and manhood in Greek male society.
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In Greek mythology, the apple of discord was a golden apple thrown into an assembly of the gods by the goddess of discord (Eris) bearing the inscription 'for the fairest.' Aphrodite, Hera and Pallas became competitors for it, and its adjudication to the first by Paris so inflamed the jealousy and hatred of Hera to all of the Trojan race (to which Paris belonged) that she did not cease her machinations until Troy was destroyed.
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In Greek mythology, Arachne was a Lydian woman who was so skilful a weaver that she challenged the goddess Athena to a contest. Athena tore Arachne's beautiful tapestries to pieces and Arachne hanged herself. She was transformed into a spider, and her weaving became a cobweb. She was therefore related to the textile industries. The matron of spinning, weaving and dyeing and the weaver of destiny.
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Arcadia was a green mountainous isolated region in the centre of Peloponnese inhabited by shepherds and peasants.
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Ares was the Greek god of storms and tempests. He was a son of Zeus and Hera. He became symbolic with storms and turmoil in human relationships and hence to being the god of war. The Romans called him Mars.
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In Greek mythology, Arethusa was a daughter of Nereus and Doris. She was a nymph changed by Artemis into a fountain to enable her to escape the pursuit of Alpheus.
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In Greek mythology, the Argo was the ship which carried Jason and his fifty- four companions to Colchis, in quest of the Golden Fleece.
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In Greek mythology the Argonauts were heroes who made a hazardous voyage to Colchis with Jason in the ship the Argo to get the golden fleece.
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In Greek mythology the Argus was a beast and son of Arestor with a hundred eyes of which he could only close two at a time. He was placed by Juno to guard Io, whom Jupiter had changed into a heifer. But Mercury, who was sent to carry her off, managed to surprise and kill Argus whereupon Juno transferred his eyes to the tail of a peacock, her favourite bird. In Greek mythology, Argus was the name of the builder of the Argo, the ship that carried the hero Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece
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In Greek mythology Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos. She fell in love with Theseus and helped him out of the labyrinth with a thread in exchange for him promising to take her back to Athens and marry her. She was abandoned by Theseus on the Isle of Naxos where she subsequently met and married Bacchus.
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In Greek mythology the Arimaspians were a one-eyed people who conducted a perpetual war against the griffins in an attempt to steal the griffin's gold. They lived in the extreme northeast of the ancient world.
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In Greek mythology Aristaeus was the son of Apollo and Cyrene. He introduced bee-keeping.
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In Greek mythology, Arne was a Thracian woman who betrayed the island of Siphnos to Minos in return for gold and subsequently for her greed she was turned into a jackdaw.
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Artemis was a Greek goddess of the moon identified with the Roman Diana. The Great Virgin Goddess of fertility, vegetation, the wilderness, wild animal life and the chase, she was the daughter of Zeus and Leto or Latona, and was the twin sister of Apollo, born in the island of Delos. She is variously represented as a huntress, with bow and arrows; as a goddess of the nymphs, in a chariot drawn by four stags; and as the moon goddess, with the crescent of the moon above her forehead. She was a maiden divinity, never conquered by love, except when Endymion made her feel its power. She demanded the strictest chastity from her worshippers, and she is represented as having changed Actaeon into a stag, and caused him to be torn in pieces by his own dogs, because he had secretly watched her as she was bathing. The Artemisia was a festival celebrated in her honour at Delphi. The famous temple of Artemis at Ephesus was considered one of the wonders of the world, but the goddess worshipped there was very different from the huntress goddess of Greece, being of Eastern origin, and regarded as the symbol of fruitful nature.
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The Aruspices (Haruspices) were a class of priests in ancient Rome. Their job was to foretell the future from the entrails of sacrificial victims.
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Ascanius was a son of Aeneas and Creusa. He escaped from Troy with his father.
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Asclepius was a Greek god of healing. He was the son of Apollo and Coronis. He was taught the art of healing by Cheiron. Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt as a punishment for bringing a dead man back to life.
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In Greek mythology Astraea was the daughter of Zeus and Themis, the goddess of justice. During the golden age she dwelt on earth, but on that age passing away she withdrew from the society of men and was placed among the stars, where she forms the constellation Virgo.
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In Greek mythology Atalanta was a famous huntress of Arcadia. She was to be married only to someone who could outrun her in a race, the consequence of failure being death. One of her suitors obtained from Aphrodite three golden apples, which he threw behind him, one after another, as he ran. Atalanta stopped to pick them up, and was not unwillingly defeated. There was another Atalanta belonging to Boeotia, who cannot very well be distinguished, the same stories being told about both.
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Ate was the Greek goddess of hate, injustice, crime, and retribution, daughter of Zeus according to Homer, but of Eris (Strife) according to Hesiod.
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Athena, or Athene was a Greek goddess, identified by the Romans with Minerva, the representative of the intellectual powers. She was the daughter of Zeus and Metis (that is, wisdom or cleverness). According to the legend, which is perhaps allegorical, before her birth Zeus swallowed her mother, and Athena afterwards sprang from the head of Zeus with a mighty war shout and in complete armour. In her character of a wise and prudent warrior she was contrasted with the fierce Ares. In the wars of the giants she slew Pallas and Enceladus. In the wars of the mortals she aided and protected heroes. She is also represented as the patroness of the arts of peace. The sculptor, the architect, and the painter, as well as the philosopher, the orator, and the poet, considered her their tutelar deity. She is also represented among the healing gods. In all these representations she is the symbol of the thinking faculty, the goddess of wisdom, science, and art; the latter, however, only in so far as invention and thought are comprehended. In the images of the goddess a manly gravity and an air of reflection are united with female beauty in her features. As a warrior she is represented completely armed, her head covered with a gold helmet. As the goddess of peaceful arts she appears in the dress of a Grecian matron. To her insignia belong the AEgis, the Gorgon's head, the round Argive buckler; and the owl, the cock, the serpent, an olive branch, and a lance were sacred to her. All Attica, but particularly Athens, was sacred to her, and she had numerous temples there. Her most brilliant festival at Athens was the Panathenaea.
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Atlantiades was another name for Hermes.
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Atlantides was name given to the Pleiades who were fabled to be the seven daughters of Atlas.
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In Greek mythology, Atlantis was an island continent, said to have been claimed by the sea following an earthquake. The Greek philosopher Plato created what was once thought to be an imaginary early history for it and described it as a utopia. Research during the early and mid-20th centuries suggested very strongly that the Empire of Atlantis refers to the Minoan empire based on the island of Crete, an empire which was destroyed - as Plato described it 1000 years later - by an enormous volcanic eruption on a nearby island which left a crater over 80 km square, and caused massive tidal waves which washed the people of the surrounding islands to their deaths. Excavated buildings reveal frescoes on their walls with scenes which match the descriptions of a tranquil life based around commerce and the sea described by Plato. However, the Minoan civilisation did not die out with the destruction of the empire. Writings found in Crete which predate the ancient Greek civilization refer to many of the gods associated with later Greek mythology, suggesting that the Greeks adopted at
least some Minoan culture.
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In Greek mythology, Atlas was one of the Titans. The son of Iaperus and Clymene, he was originally the guardian of the Pillars of Heaven, but later became known as a giant who had to support the heavens upon his shoulders.
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In Greek mythology Atreus was the son of Pelops and Hippodamia. He was King of Mycenae. To seek revenge on his brother Thyestes for seducing his wife, Atreus gave a banquet at which Thyestes dined on the flesh of his own sons. Atreus was killed by AEgisthus, a son of Thyestes. The tragic events connected with this family furnished materials to some of the great Greek dramatists.
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In classical mythology, Attis (also called Atys, Attys) was a Phrygian god whose death and resurrection symbolized the end of winter and the arrival of spring. He was loved by the goddess Cybele, who drove him mad as a punishment for his infidelity, he castrated himself and bled to death.
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in Greek mythology, the Augean stables were the stables of Augeas, king of Elis in southern Greece. One of the labours of Hercules was to clean out the stables, which contained 3,000 cattle and had never been cleaned before. He was given only one day to do the task so he diverted the river Alpheus through their yard.
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In Greek mythology, Augeas was king of Elis, in Greece. His stable contained 3000 cattle, and had not been cleaned for thirty years. Hercules undertook to clear away the filth in one day in return for a tenth part of the cattle, and executed the task by turning the river Alpheus through it. Augeas, having broken the bargain, was deposed and slain by Hercules.
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Aurora was goddess of the dawn. She was the daughter of Hyperion and Theia, and sister of Helios and Selene.
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In Greek mythology, Autolycus was an accomplished thief and trickster. He was a son of the god Hermes, who gave him the power of invisibility.
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Abbreviations
Mythology
