Greek Mythology
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MissVictoria on February 18, 2011
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This is an overview of 73 terms of Greek Mythology- all you will ever need to know.
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72 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 Achilles | This was a hero in the Trojan war who was very strong, except for one spot |
| Furies (Erinyes) | Wild uprsuers of sinners on earth (pursued Orestes after he killed his mother). Also, where we get the word furious. |
| Fates | Beings that decreed what would happen; even Zeus couldn't go against them (it was "fate"). |
| Muses | Nine beings who used the arts to make humans happy |
| Pandora | Opened the box that let evil into the world (only hope did not escape). |
| Cupid | Shot arrows into people to make them fall in love. |
| Psyche | A name that means "the soul," she was a uman who was finally made a goddess so Venus would be satisfied and her son, Cupid, could marry her. (Where we get psychology.) |
| Pyramus and Thisbe | A mythical couple after whom Shakespeare devised the story of Romeo and Juliet and also used their names in A Midsummer Night's Dream |
| Minotaur | Half bull half man... guarded the labyrinth in Crete. |
| Cyclops | Early created monsters, huge and strong, with one big eye in the middle of their foreheads. |
| Pegasus | A winged horse |
| Daedalus | This man, along with his son Icarus, escaped the Cretan labyrinth with wings he invented, but Icarus flew too close to the sun so the wings came off and he fell to his death. |
| Centaurs | Savage creatures who were half man, half horse |
| Sphinx | Asks riddles-- Oedipus finally guessed it |
| Aurora | Goddess of the dawn (aurora borealis-- the northern lights). |
| Tithonus | Aurora's husband-- Aurora asked Zeus to make him immortal but she meglected to ask that he would stay young, so he got old but could not die. He turned into a babbling husk of a man who lived in a basket. |
| Boreas/Zephyr | Two of the winds |
| Poseidon | Lord and ruler of the sea |
| Pan | Had goats' hoofs and horns (a satyr), played pipes, was god of the shepherds, and liked death (siren). |
| The Sirens | Lived on an island in the sea, had enchanting voices and lured sailors to their death (siren). |
| Scylla and Charybdis | Guarded a narrow strait and snatched the people going through it and killed them. Odysseus lost six of his men here. |
| The Gorgons | Dragon-like creatures with wings whose looks turned mankind to stone |
| Oceana | The lord of the great river that encircled the earth (ocean). |
| Alcyone | A myth of two people who got turned into birds... and the explanation for a week or so of calm weather where even the sea is still (today it is called 'halcyon days'). |
| Pygmalion | A sculptor who was a woman-hater, but he Hercules fell in love with a statue he made; finally Venus made the statue come alive (basis of "My Fair Lady"). |
| Hercules | The son of a god and a woman. Killed his wife and then was made to do 12 feats. |
| Atlas | Strong man who carried the world on his back (atlas, a collection of maps). |
| The Hydra | A nine-headed monster whose heads grew back if any were cut off. |
| Cerberus | A three-headed, dragon-tailed dog in the underworld. |
| The Amazons | A civilization of giant, athletic women (the Amazon jungle). |
| Venus/Aphrodite/Eros | Gods of love (erotic) |
| The Titans | The elder gods |
| Zeus | Ruler over other gods |
| Narcissus | A man who looked at his own reflection in a pool and fell in love with himself (narcissistic) |
| Echo | A happy, chattering nymph with whom Hera got upset and condemned her never to use her tongue again except to repeat what was said to her. |
| Nemesis | The goddess who answered a prayer from one who loved Narcissus... who scorned love. "May he that loves not others, love himself." |
| Aeolus | King of the winds.. helped Aeneas get back home |
| Prometheus | A defiant demi-god who gave fire to man, comforted Io, was humanity's benefactor and champion |
| Io | A girl whom Hera hated and turned into a heifer, doomed to wander the coasts of Greece and other lands in a frenzy but ultimately Zeus restored her to human form when she reached the Nile. Hercules was her descendant. |
| Europa | Zeus fell in love with this woman |
| Athena | Protector of a great city-state |
| Hades | God of the underworld and of the dead |
| Ares | God of war |
| Calypso | A goddess who tries to keep Odysseus on her island by offering him immortality |
| Circe | A woman who turned all of Odysseus' men itno pigs when they reached her island |
| Hermes | Messenger of the gods; appeared in the Odyssey |
| Iris | The goddess of the rainbow and also a messenger of the gods |
| Medusa | A gorgon who had snakes for her hair and turned anybody who looked upon her into stone. |
| The Acropolis | The tall, fortified hill in Athen which held the Parthenon and other religious and civic buildings. |
| Marathon | A bettle where the soldiers from Athens marched 26 miles north to this site and then turned around and fought immediately. |
| The River Styx | The famous river in Hades that you had to take to cross over into the underworld |
| Sparta | The polis which was disciplined and focused upon athletic and military and prowess. |
| Athens | The Greek polis protected by the goddess Athena |
| panHellenic | Means coming from all of Greece |
| Oracle | Someone who predicted the future. Most famous at Delphi |
| Hector | The main champion on the Trojan side-- says goodbye to his wife Andromache and his infant son as he goes into battle |
| Achilles | This man argues with King Agamemnon over the girl, Briseis, and he will not make amends, even when Agamemnon senss a council of wise men to try to persuade him. However, this man's rage is even greater toward Hector who kills his best friend, Patroclus, and he finally kills Hector and lashes his body to his chariot, dragging it through the dust. |
| Orestes | Clytemnestra's son who kills his mother to revenge his father's death. |
| Helen | Wife of King Menelaus of Sparta who was abducted by Paris, thus starting the Trojan War |
| Medea | Jilted by Jason who decides to marry King Creon's daughter, so she takes revenge by killing Creon's daughter and hers and Jason's two sons |
| Lysistrata | A character in a play by Aristophanes who had a unique way of forcing their husbands to declare peace by seizing the Acropolis and declaring a sex strike |
| Pelops | The great hero of the Olympic games |
| Aristotle | Student of Plato who categorized knowledge |
| Plato | Student of Socrates who started an Academy |
| Socrates | Questioning "gadfly" |
| Thermopylae | A mountain pass where every Spartan present was killed standing against the armies of Xerxes, king of the Persians |
| Solon | Law-giver in Athens, wanting everybody to have a say in this budding democracy |
| Penelops | Wife of Odysseus who stayed faithful |
| Cassandra | The trojan princess (in Aeschylus' Oresteia trilogy) who is given to King Agamemnon as a prize of war; she has the power of true prophecy and she is killed by Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra |
| Thespis | This very early Greek dramatist acted in his own plays and added the first masked actor to talk to the chorus |
| Mt. Olympus | The place where the gods lived |
| Oedipus | Killed father and married mother to fulfill prophecy |
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