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World of The Ancients
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Gravity
Terms in this set (56)
WORLD OF THE ANCIENTS
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Aeolian
Of or relating to Aeolis or its people or culture
Antigone
The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. She performed funeral rites over her brother's body in defiance of her uncle Creon
Aphrodite
"Foam born" in the aftermath of Uranos' castration; goddess of love and beauty; she is also a fertility goddess, but of human fertility
Apollo
Considered to be the "most Greek" of the gods. Archer, poet, athlete, musician; god of prophecy and medicine. He catches Hermes stealing his cattle
Argus
giant with 100 eyes who was made guardian of Io and was later slain by Hermes
Athena
Daughter of Zeus and Metis (born of Zeus's head); goddess of war and strategy; she favored Hercules and Odysseus, helping them often. She is a good counter-weight to Ares
Atlantis
A legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean west of Gibraltar, said by Plato to have sunk beneath the sea during an earthquake
Bacchus
a god of wine and giver of ecstasy, identified with Dionysus
Calliope
The muse of heroic poetry
Centaur
one of a race of monsters having the head, trunk, and arms of a man, and the body and legs of a horse
Chimera
fire-breathing monster, commonly represented with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail
Cupid and Psyche
a story originally from Metamorphoses and their ultimate union in a sacred marriage. cupid is a god of love psyche is goddess of soul
Daedalus
an Athenian architect who built the labyrinth for Minos and made wings for himself and his son Icarus to escape from Crete
Electra
the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra who incited her brother Orestes to kill Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus
Eros
the Greek god of erotic love
Furies
a spirit of punishment, often represented as one of three goddesses who executed the curses pronounced upon criminals, tortured the guilty with stings of conscience, and inflicted famines and pestilences
Golden Fleece
a fleece of pure gold, kept at Colchis by King Aeëtes from whom it was stolen by Jason and the Argonauts with the help of Aeëtes's daughter, Medea
Gorgon
each of three sisters, Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa, with snakes for hair, who had the power to turn anyone who looked at them to stone
Halcyon
a story in Greek mythology about the halcyon bird, which had the power to calm the rough ocean waves every December so she could nest. Like those calm waters, halcyon has come to mean a sense of peace or tranquility
Hector
the eldest son of Priam and husband of Andromache: the greatest Trojan hero in the Trojan War, killed by Achilles
Helen of Troy
the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and was a sister of Castor, Pollux, and Clytemnestra. In Greek myths, she was considered the most beautiful woman in the world
Hercules
the son of Zeus, who performed the Twelve Labours after killing his wife and children in a fit of madness
Hydra
a many-headed serpent or monster in Greek mythology that was slain by Hercules and each head of which when cut off was replaced by two others
Icarus
is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth
Jason
a hero, the leader of the Argonauts, who at the request of his uncle Pelias retrieved the Golden Fleece from King Aeëtes of Colchis with the help of Medea
King Midas
mythological possessor of the "Midas touch", the power to transmute whatever he touched into gold. Midas was a king of Phrygia, a region nowadays part of Turkey
Leda and the Swan
Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda
Lethos? lithos
stone or rock
Madea
a sorceress from Colchis who helped Jason gain the Golden Fleece
Mercury/Hermes
the son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia, and the second youngest of the Olympian gods. Hermes is considered a god of transitions and boundarie
Mnemonics
memories or relation to memories
Morpheus
Morpheus was the God of Dreams, the one with the amazing ability of appearing in dreams of mortals in any form
Mount Olympus
the dwelling place of the greater gods also the highest mountain in greece
Muse
the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts
Narcissus
a beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool. Because he was unable to tear himself away from the image, he wasted away and died
Neptune
the god of freshwater and the sea in Roman religion. He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon
Odyssey
an ancient Greek epic by Homer that recounts the adventures of Odysseus during his return from the war in Troy to his home in the Greek island of Ithaca
Oedipus
a son of Laius and Jocasta, who was abandoned at birth and unwittingly killed his father and then married his mother
Orpheus and Eurydice
the ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice concerns the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace, son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, for the beautiful Eurydice
Pandoras Box
a box that Zeus gave to Pandora, the first woman, with strict instructions that she not open it. Pandora's curiosity soon got the better of her, and she opened the box. All the evils and miseries of the world flew out to afflict mankind
Pegasus
he is a winged divine stallion also known as a horse usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as horse-god, and foaled by the Gorgon Medusa
Perseus
the son of Danaë and Zeus and husband of Andromeda who killed the Gorgon Medusa. 2. A constellation in the Northern Hemisphere near Andromeda and Auriga
Phoenix
a long-lived bird that is cyclically regenerated or reborn. Associated with the sun, a phoenix obtains new life by arising from the ashes of its predecessor
Pyramus and Thisbe
two young lovers of Babylon who held conversations clandestinely, and in defiance of their parents, through a crack in a wall. On believing Thisbe dead, Pyramus killed himself. When Thisbe discovered his body she committed suicide
Prometheus
a Titan best known as the deity in Greek mythology who was the creator of mankind and its greatest benefactor, who stole fire from Mount Olympus and gave it to mankind
Pygmalion
a king of Cyprus who carved and then fell in love with a statue of a woman, which Aphrodite brought to life as Galatea
Pyrrhic victory
a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way; however, the heavy toll negates any sense of achievement or profit
Sisyphus
was the king of Ephyra. He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, repeating this action for eternity
River Styx
a deity and a river that forms the boundary between Earth and the Underworld
Tantalus
a Greek mythological figure, most famous for his eternal punishment in Tartarus. He was made to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches, with the fruit ever eluding his grasp, and the water always receding before he could take a drink
Theseus
a king of Athens in Greek mythology who kills Procrustes and the Minotaur before defeating the Amazons and marrying their queen
Titans
any of the older gods who preceded the Olympians and were the children of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaia (Earth). Led by Cronus, they overthrew Uranus; Cronus' son, Zeus, then rebelled against his father and eventually defeated the Titans
Trojan Horse
a gigantic hollow wooden horse, left by the Greeks upon their pretended abandonment of the siege of Troy. The Trojans took it into Troy and Greek soldiers concealed in the horse opened the gates to the Greek army at night and conquered the city
Vulcan
is the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, metalworking, and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth
Zeus
the supreme deity of the ancient Greeks, a son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Demeter, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Poseidon, and father of a number of gods, demigods, and mortals; the god of the heavens, identified by the Romans with Jupiter
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