Lesser Known Gods and Characters

The Erotes

Expressions of aspects of love and desire, and part of the retinue of Aphrodite

• Anteros

• Pothos

• Himeros

Anteros

• Child of Aphrodite

• God of requited love, or "love returned or the punisher of those who scorn love

Pothos

• Child of Aphrodite

• Common houseplant

• God of sexual longing, yearning, and pining for someone absent.

Himeros

• Child of Aphrodite

• The god of impetuous sexual desire and lus

Hermaphroditus

• The child of Hermes and Aphrodite

• God of intersex people and the balance between the female and the male

Harmonia (Roman: Concordia)

• Child of Aphrodite and Ares

• Goddess of harmony and balance in the cosmos

Phobos

• Child of Aphrodite and Ares and twin of Deimos

• God of fear, panic, and flight in battle

• Phobia comes from this name

Deimos

• Child of Aphrodite and Ares, and twin of Phobos

• God of terror and dread

What two gods have moons names after them near the planet Mars?

Phobos and Deimos

Helios

God of the sun and of oaths

Perses

God of destruction

Iapetus

God of mortality

Coeus

God of intellect and the axis of heaven

Achlys

Goddess of poison, misery, and sadness

Tartarus

God of the deepest, darkest pit of the Underworld

Phanes

God of procreation

Thanatos

God of peaceful death

Hymen

God of the wedding feast (associated with Cupid/Eros)

Hebe

Goddess of youth

Iris

Goddess of the rainbow and a messenger (the into messenger in the Iliad)

Themis

God of divine justice

Dike

God of human justice

Thetis

One of the best known Nereids (children of Nereus and Doris) and the mother of Achilles

Amphitrite

A nereid and the wife of Poseidon

Triton

The trumpeter of the sea and son of Poseidon and Amphitrite

Proteus

Also sometimes known as the, “Old man of the sea,” he is said to be Poseidon’s son, was featured in Odyssey and can change his shape at will and tell the future

Glaucus

A mortal turned turned immortal merman who loved Scylla and rejected Circe

The Erinyes (or Furies)

• Tisiphone

• Megaera

• Alecto

Pan

A musical god, he is said to be fathered by Hermes and possibly a nymph. He is said to be associated with a sense of fear or dread known as…

Castor and Pollux (Polydeuces)

A pair of brothers with one being said to be mortal (then brother of Clytemnestra and the other said be immortal, the brother of Helen, but somehow both he sons of Zeus

• The were known as protectors of sailors

• Also know as the Dioscouri (striplings of Zeus) or Tyndaridae (sons of Tyndareus)

The Sileni

Half men, half horse, but with two legs

Satyrs

Goat-men like Pan

Nymphs (various)

• Oreads - of mountains (Echo is one of these)

• Dryads - of the trees

• Hamadryads - tied to the life of a single tree

• Meliae - of the ash tree born from Uranus

• Lampades - of the underworld; carry torches and work for Hecate

Aelous

The only King of Winds with his home in Aeolia

Boreas (Aquilo in Latin)

The North Wind

Zephyr (Favonius in Latin)

The West Wind and the one that bore Psyche to Cupid

Notus (Auster in Latin)

The South Wind

Eurus

The East Wind

The Graeae

Three sisters with one eye and one tooth between them

• Deino (dread)

• Enyo (horror)

• Pemphredo (alarm)

The Fates (the Moirae)

Maybe the strongest characters in Greek myth, they were three:

• Clotho

• Lachesis

• Atropos

Clotho

The fate responsible for spinning the thread of life

Lachesis

The fate known as the Disposer of Lots and who assigned a man his destiny

Atropos

The fate that cute the thread of life at death

Thanatos

The god of death and twin brother to Hypnos

Hypnos

The god of sleep and twin brother to Thanatos

Morpheus

The god of dreams and one of the Oneiroi (children of Hypnos, or sleep)

Phobetor (Icelos)

The god of nightmares usually in the shape of monsters and one of the Oneiroi (children of Hypnos, or sleep)

Phantasos

The god fantastical of surreal inanimate objects/illusions within dreams and one of the Oneiroi (children of Hypnos, or sleep)

Nyx

The god of night

Erebus

He god of darkness

Who is the goddess who guarded sacred oaths invoked during vows?

Horkos

Who was the goddess of fortune and chance?

Tyche

Who were the twin giants who tried to storm Mount Olympus and were slain by Apollo?

Otus and Ephialtes

Who is sad to be the goddess of childbirth and assist Hera?

Eileithyia