The general issues in studying myths are discussed in the mythography article. While all cultures throughout the world have their own myths, the term mythology is a Greek coinage and had a specialized meaning within Greek culture. The Greek term muthologia is a compound of two smaller words: muthos — which in Homeric Greek means roughly "a ritualized speech act", as of a chieftain at an assembly, or of a poet or priest. logos — which in cla ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Belles and Beaus of Greek Mythology, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology

The general issues in studying myths are discussed in the mythography article. While all cultures throughout the world have their own myths, the term mythology is a Greek coinage and had a specialized meaning within Greek culture. The Greek term mythologia is a compound of two smaller words: mythos — which in Homeric Greek means roughly "a ritualized speech act", as of a chieftain at an assembly, or of a poet or priest. logos — which in cla ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology

In antiquity, authors like Herodotus speculated that the Greeks had borrowed their gods wholesale from the Egyptians. Later, Christian writers would attempt to explain Hellenic paganism as a degeneration of Biblical religion. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, however, the sciences of archaeology and linguistics were brought to bear on the origins of Greek mythology. To begin with, extant literary sources indicate that the ancient Greeks used the word Αιθιοπία to refer to a peoples: whom they considered sacred, favored by the gods, and li ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Belles and Beaus of Greek Mythology, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Theories of origin

In antiquity, historians such as Herodotus theorized that the Greek gods had been stolen directly from the Egyptians. Later on, Christian writers tried to explain Hellenic paganism through degeneration of Biblical religion. Since then, the sciences of archaeology and linguistics have been applied to the origins of Greek mythology with some interesting results. To begin with, extant literary sources indicate that the ancient Greeks used the word Αιθιοπία to refer to a peoples: whom they considered sacred, favored by the gods, and li ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Theories of origin

"Our own myths we call reality" is one of the axioms with which Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples commence The World of Classical Myth; to the Greeks, mythology was a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pri ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Belles and Beaus of Greek Mythology, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?

(Most of the gods and goddesses had Roman equivalents.) See also family tree of the Greek gods and the list of Greek mythological creatures. ...

See also:

List of Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Immortals, List of Greek mythological characters - The twelve gods of Olympus, List of Greek mythological characters - Other deities, List of Greek mythological characters - Primeval gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Titans, List of Greek mythological characters - The Hundred-Handed, List of Greek mythological characters - Cyclopes, List of Greek mythological characters - River gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Nymphs, List of Greek mythological characters - Giants, List of Greek mythological characters - Mortals, List of Greek mythological characters - A-B, List of Greek mythological characters - C-G, List of Greek mythological characters - H-L, List of Greek mythological characters - M-P, List of Greek mythological characters - R-Z

Read more here: » List of Greek mythological characters: Encyclopedia II - List of Greek mythological characters - Greek mythological characters

"Our own myths we call reality" is one of the axioms with which Carl A.P. Ruck and Danny Staples commence The World of Classical Myth; to the Greeks, mythology was a part of their history; few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the Iliad and Odyssey. The Greeks used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pri ...

See also:

Greek mythology, Greek mythology - Nature and sources of Greek mythology, Greek mythology - An overview, Greek mythology - The age of gods, Greek mythology - The age of gods and men, Greek mythology - The age of heroes, Greek mythology - Theories of origin, Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?, Greek mythology - Hellenistic rationalism, Greek mythology - Syncretizing trends, Greek mythology - Modern interpreters, Greek mythology - Greek cosmology, Greek mythology - Related subjects, Greek mythology - Sources

Read more here: » Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Greek mythology - Did the Greeks believe their myths?

Python, the oracular serpent of Delphi, was never confused with a dragon among the Greeks. It was the offspring of Gaia and the mud that was left over after the flood of Deucalion, or in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo Python was the offspring of Hera, the Olympian Lady, who bore him, to spite Zeus, out of her own being, parthegenetically, in the manner of Gaia. Apollo killed it and remade its former home his own oracle, the most famous in Greece. (But see also Dodona.) When Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she was to deliver Art ...

See also:

Dragons in Greek mythology, Dragons in Greek mythology - Ladon, Dragons in Greek mythology - Python, Dragons in Greek mythology - Others

Read more here: » Dragons in Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Dragons in Greek mythology - Python

"In the Greek pantheon, the antiquity of Iris is as great as her importance is small." Daughter of 1st generation gods Electra and Thaumas, Iris dresses in rainbow colors. As messenger of the gods, she flies on golden wings. Iris appears in nine of the twenty-four books of Homer’s The Iliad, always speeding with the winds, delivering news. Consistent with the rest of Greek myth, Iris’s swiftly delivered messages were rarely of peace or good fortune. One job of Iris was to fill a golden jug with holy water for Zeus, who made misbeh ...

See also:

Rainbows in mythology, Rainbows in mythology - Ancient beliefs, Rainbows in mythology - Sumerian mythology, Rainbows in mythology - Nordic mythology, Rainbows in mythology - Greek mythology, Rainbows in mythology - Australian aboriginal mythology, Rainbows in mythology - Biblical rainbows, Rainbows in mythology - Other mythologies

Read more here: » Rainbows in mythology: Encyclopedia II - Rainbows in mythology - Greek mythology

List of Greek mythological characters - The twelve gods of Olympus. Aphrodite - Goddess of beauty and Love Apollo - God of healing, light, and poetry, patron of scribes Arês - God of war Artemis - Goddess of the hunt and the moon Athena - Goddess of wisdom, strategy, and war, Zeus's favorite daughter Dêmêtêr - Goddess of agriculture Hephaestus (Hepháistos) - God of fire and the forge Hêra - Goddess of marriage, wife of Zeus Hermê ...

See also:

List of Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Immortals, List of Greek mythological characters - The twelve gods of Olympus, List of Greek mythological characters - Other deities, List of Greek mythological characters - Primeval gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Titans, List of Greek mythological characters - The Hundred-Handed, List of Greek mythological characters - Cyclopes, List of Greek mythological characters - River gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Nymphs, List of Greek mythological characters - Giants, List of Greek mythological characters - Mortals, List of Greek mythological characters - A-B, List of Greek mythological characters - C-G, List of Greek mythological characters - H-L, List of Greek mythological characters - M-P, List of Greek mythological characters - R-Z

Read more here: » List of Greek mythological characters: Encyclopedia II - List of Greek mythological characters - Immortals

Hesiod's Theogony (116ff) tells how, after Chaos, arose broad-breasted Gaia the everlasting foundation of the gods of Olympus. She brought forth Uranus, the starry sky, her equal, to cover her, the hills, and the fruitless deep of the Sea, Pontus, "without sweet union of love," out of her own self. But afterwards, Hesiod tells, she lay with Uranus and bore the World-Ocean Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and the Titans Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and Phoebe of the golden crown and lovely Tethys. "After them was born Cronos the wily, youngest and most te ...

See also:

Gaia mythology, Gaia mythology - In Greek mythology, Gaia mythology - Gaia in Neopaganism, Gaia mythology - Family tree, Gaia mythology - Interpretations, Gaia mythology - In other cultures, Gaia mythology - In modern ecological theory, Gaia mythology - In popular culture

Read more here: » Gaia mythology: Encyclopedia II - Gaia mythology - In Greek mythology

Orestes mythology - Homer. According to the Homeric story Orestes was absent from Mycenae when his father returned from the Trojan War and was murdered by his wife's lover Aegisthus. Eight years later Orestes returned from Athens and avenged his father's death by slaying his mother's paramour. According to Pindar, he was saved by his nurse (Arsinoe) or his sister, Electra, who conveyed him out of the country when Clytemnestra wished to kill him. He escaped to Phanote on Mou ...

See also:

Orestes mythology, Orestes mythology - Greek Literature, Orestes mythology - Homer, Orestes mythology - Greek Drama, Orestes mythology - Other Literature

Read more here: » Orestes mythology: Encyclopedia II - Orestes mythology - Greek Literature

Manto was the daughter of the prophet Tiresias and mother of Mopsus. During the War of the Epigoni, Manto was brought to Delphi as a war prize. Apollo sent her to Colophon to find an oracle devoted to him. She married Rhacius and gave birth to Mopsus (although by some accounts Apollo was the father). In Roman myth, she went to Italy and gave birth to Ocnus (father: Tiberinus), who founded Mantua (cur: Mantova) and named it after her. ...

See also:

Manto Greek mythology, Manto Greek mythology - Daughter of Tiresias, Manto Greek mythology - Daughter of Heracles

Read more here: » Manto Greek mythology: Encyclopedia II - Manto Greek mythology - Daughter of Tiresias

List of Greek mythological characters - The twelve gods of Olympus. Aphrodite - Goddess of beauty and Love Apollo - God of the Sun music, healing, light, and poetry, patron of scribes Arês - God of war Artemis - Goddess of the hunt and the moon Athena - Goddess of wisdom, strategy, and war, Zeus' favorite daughter Dêmêtêr - Goddess of agriculture Hephaestus (Hepháistos) - God of fire and the forge Hêra - Goddess of marriage, wife of ZeusSee also:

List of Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Greek mythological characters, List of Greek mythological characters - Immortals, List of Greek mythological characters - The twelve gods of Olympus, List of Greek mythological characters - Other deities, List of Greek mythological characters - Primeval gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Titans, List of Greek mythological characters - The Hundred-Handed, List of Greek mythological characters - Cyclopes, List of Greek mythological characters - River gods, List of Greek mythological characters - Nymphs, List of Greek mythological characters - Giants, List of Greek mythological characters - Mortals, List of Greek mythological characters - A-B, List of Greek mythological characters - C-G, List of Greek mythological characters - H-L, List of Greek mythological characters - M-P, List of Greek mythological characters - R-Z

Read more here: » List of Greek mythological characters: Encyclopedia II - List of Greek mythological characters - Immortals

In Greek mythology, Chrysaor (Greek Χρυσάωρ, "golden falchion", from χρυσός, gold, and ἄορ, sword, falchion) was a giant, the son of Poseidon and Medusa. He was conceived on the floor of a temple to Athena who, enraged at the desecration, turned Medusa into a Gorgon. As such, Chrysaor and his brother, the winged horse, Pegasus, were not born until Perseus chopped off Medusa's head. They were born from the drops of blood; some say that they sprang from Medusa's neck as Perseus beheaded her, a "higher" birth, like the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus. Chrysaor ...

See also:

Chrysaor, Chrysaor - Greek mythology, Chrysaor - The Faerie Queen

Read more here: » Chrysaor: Encyclopedia II - Chrysaor - Greek mythology

Hesiod is not, however, the last word on the Titans. Surviving fragments of Orphic poetry in particular preserve some variations on the myth. In one Orphic text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently. Instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus, so that he becomes drunk upon honey. Zeus chains him and castrates him. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged – still drunk – to the cave of ...

See also:

Titan mythology, Titan mythology - The Titans in Hesiod, Titan mythology - The Titans in other Greek sources, Titan mythology - The Titans in the twentieth century, Titan mythology - Titans in Neopaganism, Titan mythology - Titans in Modern Literature

Read more here: » Titan mythology: Encyclopedia II - Titan mythology - The Titans in other Greek sources

The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaeton, who drove the sun chariot to his own disaster. Helios was sometimes referred to with the epithet Helios Panoptes ("the all-seeing"). The names of the horses were Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon. Helios was worshipped throughout the Peloponnesus, and especially on Rhodes (an island he pulled out of the sea), where annual gymnastic tournaments were held in his honor. The Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to him. Helios was often depicted as a haloed youth in a chariot, wearing a cloak and with a globe and a whip. Roo ...

See also:

Helios, Helios - Greek mythology, Helios - Roman mythology, Helios - Helios and Apollo, Helios - Consorts/Children, Helios - Epitheta

Read more here: » Helios: Encyclopedia II - Helios - Greek mythology

In earlier Greek art Satyrs appear as old and ugly, but in later art, especially in works of the Attic school, this savage character is softened into a more youthful and graceful aspect. There is a famous statue said to be a copy of a work of Praxiteles, representing a graceful satyr leaning against a tree with a flute in his hand. Older satyrs were known as Sileni, the younger Satyrisci, and the hare was the symbol of the shy and timid satyr. Greecian spirits known as Calicantsars have a noticable resemblance to the ancient satyrs; they have goats' ears and the feet of asses or ...

See also:

Satyr, Satyr - Mythology, Satyr - Satyrs in Greek Mythology and Art, Satyr - Satyrs in Roman Mythology, Satyr - Other References, Satyr - Baby satyr

Read more here: » Satyr: Encyclopedia II - Satyr - Satyrs in Greek Mythology and Art

The best known story involving Helios is that of his son Phaeton, who drove the sun chariot to his own disaster. Helios was sometimes referred to with the epithet Helios Panoptes ("the all-seeing"). The names of the horses were Pyrois, Eos, Aethon and Phlegon. Helios was worshipped throughout the Peloponnesus, and especially on Rhodes (an island he pulled out of the sea), where annual gymnastic tournaments were held in his honor. The Colossus of Rhodes was dedicated to him. Helios was often depicted as a haloed youth in a chariot, wearing a cloak and with a globe and a whip. Roo ...

See also:

Helios, Helios - Greek mythology, Helios - Helios and Apollo, Helios - Consorts/Children, Helios - Epitheta

Read more here: » Helios: Encyclopedia II - Helios - Greek mythology

According to the Greek mythology, Colchis was a fabulously wealthy land situated on the mysterious periphery of the heroic world. Here in the sacred grove of the war god Ares, King Aeetes hung the Golden Fleece until it was seized by Jason and the Argonauts. Colchis was also the land where the mythological Prometheus was punished by being chained to a mountain while an eagle ate at his liver for revealing to humanity the secret of fire. Amazons also were said to be of Scythian origin from Colchis. The main mythical characters from Colchis are Aeetes, ...

See also:

Colchis, Colchis - Geography and toponyms, Colchis - History, Colchis - Earliest times, Colchis - Qulha Kolkha, Colchis - Greek colonization, Colchis - Under Pontus, Colchis - Under the Roman rule, Colchis - Rulers, Colchis - Colchis in Greek mythology

Read more here: » Colchis: Encyclopedia II - Colchis - Colchis in Greek mythology

Amazons were said to have lived in Pontus,which is part of modern day Turkey near the shore of the Euxine Sea, where they formed an independent kingdom under the government of a queen, often named Hippolyta ("she lets her horses loose"). They were supposed to have founded many towns, amongst them Smyrna, Ephesus, Sinope, Paphos. According to another account, they originally came to the Thermodon from the < ...

See also:

Amazons, Amazons - Etymology, Amazons - Amazons of Greek mythology, Amazons - Scythian origins, Amazons - Amazons in Greek art, Amazons - Legendary Amazons from Greek myth, Amazons - Amazon-like figures in history and folklore, Amazons - Modern depiction of Amazons, Amazons - Sources

Read more here: » Amazons: Encyclopedia II - Amazons - Amazons of Greek mythology