Studied by 298 people
Argonautica by Apollonius (3rd BC)
epic poem in 4 books; Apollonius lived part of life on Rhodes, native of Alexandria where great Museum/Library was founded, director at Library at one time
Phrixus & Helle
siblings who are saved by Hermes who sends a ram with golden fleece to save them from evil stepmother Ino; Phrixus makes it to Colchis (more specifically Aea); Phrixus gives the ram to King Aeetes who sacrifices it, skins it, and puts the golden in a tree guarded by a fierce serpent; Phrixus marries the king's daughter Chalciope
Aries
"Ram"; constellation based on the ram with golden fleece
Hellespont
"sea of Helle"; where Helle fell off the ram with the golden fleece and drowned; separates Europe and Asia
Jason
native of Iolcus in Thessaly (rightful heir, but throne was usurped by uncle Pelias from Jason's father Aeson); grew up in the woods/countryside with Chiron; Jason loses a sandal in a river after helping an old woman (Hera in disguise) cross it; Pelias sends Jason to retrieve the golden fleece when he realizes that Jason fits the oracle "Beware the man wearing only one sandal"; builds ship Argo and mans it with 50 men (Argonauts)
Chiron
centaur who raised Jason in seclusion after Jason's uncle usurped the throne
Ship Argo ('swift')
ship built by Jason to retrieve the golden fleece; Athena helps him build it with oak timber from Sanctuary of Zeus at Dodona, because of this the ship can speak
50 Argonauts (
Minyae) = "sailors of the Argo"; 50 men that man the Argo with Jason
Orpheus
son of Calliope; great musician who entered Underworld to retrieve wife
Admetus
cowardly husband of Alcestis
Mopsus
an "augur" = priest trained in interpreting behavior of birds
Peleus
father of Achilles
Hercules & Hylas (his squire (lover?))
trip as Argonaut was a parergon during 4th labor (Erymanthian Boar)
Idmon
another "augur" whose own bird-lore said he would die on voyage
Castor & Polydeuces (Pollux)
Dioscuri (sons of Leda); twin sons of Leda and Zeus; Castor was famous as great horseman and Pollux as a boxer; had two sisters Helen and Clytemnestra (wife of Agamemnon); Zeus came down to Earth disguised as a swan and seduces Leda; Leda produces 2 eggs which give birth to the 4 children
Cygnus
"Swan"; constellation for the swan that Zeus took the form of
Gemini
constellation for the twins Castor and Pollux
These twins fight with another pair of siblings Lynceus (keen eyesight: 'lynx') and Idas who also went on the Calydonian Boar Hunt, and Castor is killed, so Pollux prays to Zeus that he may be reunited with his brother in death
Augeias
son of Helios; owner of Stable cleaned by Hercules in 5th labor
Meleager
leader of Calydonian Boar Hunt
Zetes and Calais
"Boreads" = sons of Boreas; winged sons of the North Wind (Boreas)
Argus
builder of the Argo; not same as 100-eyed son of Hera
Hypsipyle
(FIRST EPISODE) women on Lemnos have slaughtered all men after being taken captive by them, and Hypsipyle is now ruler; daughter of Thoas who is son of Ariadne and Dionysus and only man not murdered by women because daughter couldn't do it and sent him drifting out to sea in a chest; debate among women of Lemnos as Argonauts come ashore (ward them off before they realize there are no men or seduce them in order to repopulate island); women decide to seduce them, but Hercules alone is not seduced (due to Hylas?) because he is the only one who did not come ashore; Lemnian women say that all the men went off to war and then lied saying that they locked them from the city and they left away; Jason forces men to leave in order to continue on in search of fleece
Cyzicus
(SECOND EPISODE) King of the Doliones (race of people being attacked by a race of giants called the sons of Gaia); offers hospitality (xenia) to the Argonauts; Hercules leads the victory against the giants; unintentional fight between Doliones and Argonauts during the night which ends up causing death of Cyzicus (their host); storms for 12 days after
halcyon
bird that is read by augur Mopsus as a magical sign that storms have ended; halcyon has a habit of nesting on the surface of the sea; can bring calm clear weather while it is nesting which gives the expression "halcyon days"
"halcyon days"
calm, peaceful days
Rhea
Magna Mater; mother of the Olympians; AKA "Cybele"; Argonauts give thanks to Rhea after the storm
Amycus
boxer; King of the Bebryces; challenges Argonauts to a boxing match, and Polyduces accepts the challenge; Polyduces wins and kills Amycus which incites Amycus' friends to start fighting the rest of the Argonauts; Argonauts win, celebrate victory, then move on
Phineus
had gift of prophesy from Apollo, but he abused it by revealing too much in his prophesies; Zeus took offense to this and punishes him with blindness and sends the Harpies to torture him; asks Jason for help with the Harpies, and the Boreads (Zetes and Calais) go after them because an oracle was given that says that "two sons of the North Wind" would help him; Jason asks him why he received his punishment, and Phineus swears that they "will not incur the wrath of heaven by helping him"; Argonauts trap the Harpies using food, and then chase after them; after the Harpies are gone, he baths to get rid of the Harpies' stench and eats a full meal; gives prophesy to the Argonauts (limited information) and tells them that they will come to the Cyanean Rocks (send a dove through first), the river Acheron (entrance to Underworld), the Amazons, and Colchis (where the fleece is; tells them to look for river Phasis, and on one side of river will be Aea and on the other side will be a tree in the grove of Ares guarded by a serpent); Phineus after being asked if they will return safely tells them they will return through a different route
Harpies
"Snatchers"; flying monsters with beaks and claws and hideous screeching, bird-women; word "harpy" means a shrewish, nagging, scolding woman (used as an insult now); Harpies steal the food of Phineus
Iris
goddess of the rainbow; sister of the Harpies; before the Boreads catch the Harpies, Iris intervenes and asks them not to kill her sisters; she swears by the river Styx that the Harpies will no longer bother Phineus, and she moves them to the island of Crete
Cyanean Rocks
Symplegades; "Clashing Rocks"; Phineus tells Argonauts to send a dove through first and if it makes it, then that is a sign that the Argo will be able to make it through; dove made it through the Rocks with only some damage to tail feathers, and the Argonauts make it through due to the help of Athena with only some slight damage to the back of the ship
Tiphys
helmsman; dies due to disease and Ancaeus takes his role
Amazons
daughters of Ares; Argonauts sail by the Amazons
Chalybes, etc.
Argonauts stop for the night and realize that the people of the land don't eat bread or drink wine, don't raise flocks, grow fruit from trees, but instead make their living mining and digging things from the earth; morals are different, things morally wrong to do in public are done and things in public are done in private
Ares' birds
Stymphalian birds; Argonauts run into the Stymphalian birds from Hercules' labor and get rid of them by making noise and shooting them down in 'testudo' formation
Argus
Aeetes' grandson; Argus and his three brothers are shipwrecked, and Jason picks them up; offers them hospitality when he realizes that they are the sons of Phrixus who had the golden fleece; Jason asks him to help
Prometheus
Argonauts hear the screams of Prometheus as the eagles are eating his liver
King Aeetes
Argus introduces Jason to the royal family; asks what Argus is doing back and Argus tells him of Jason's quest; angers and throws out Jason and his companions; he decides to set a test for the fleece (yoke the fire-breathing bulls, sow the fields of Ares, sow dragon's teeth in place of corn, and slay earth-born warriors); Jason accepts
Apsyrtus
brother of Medea; eventually killed by Jason and Medea when pursuing them with soldiers
Chalciope
sister of Medea; mother of Argus and wife of Phrixus
Medea
one of three daughters of Aeetes; spends days in temple of Hecate (goddess of witchcraft); witch; shot by Eros and falls in love with Jason; prays to Hecate to help Jason complete the test set by her father for the fleece; has a magic ointment made from the ichor (godly blood) of Prometheus
Hecate
patron goddess of sorcery; worshipped by Medea, a witch
Circe
Medea's aunt; Jason and Medea go to her in order to be purified after killing Medea's brother; lives on island Aea; a witch; kills a suckling pig and lets the blood wash over their hands; tells them to leave after she finds out who they killed/what they had done
Thetis
one of the Nereids; water nymph enlisted by Hera to help guide the Argonauts back home; wife of Peleus
Scylla & Charybdis
at Strait of Messina between Sicily and Calabria which has dangerous currents; danger to ships has been personified as monsters (Scylla on the Calabrian side and Charbydis on the Sicilian side); Argo is guided through safely
Wandering Rocks
counter part of previous ones in the East; clashing cliffs in the West; they safely sail past them
Sirens
3 sisters who are half-woman/half-bird and live on an island singing beautiful music; enchanting and sailors can't resist trying to get closer, which causes their deaths; Jason calls upon Orpheus to play his lyre and sing a song to drown out the song of the Sirens
"Siren Song"
an alluring utterance or appeal; especially one that is seductive or deceptive
Phaecians
island where the Argonauts run into the second half of the Colchian navy that split from Medea's brother and his soldiers; where Medea and Jason get married
Alcinous & Arete
King and Queen of Isle of the Phaecians; agree to give asylum to Jason and Medea if they are married
Hesperides
Argonauts follow the horse and carry the Argo to the Garden of the Hesperides; Hesperides tell them about how the day before Hercules killed Ladon; Orpheus begs for water because of their travel through the desert carrying the ship; Hesperides tell Argonauts of the spring that erupted from the ground from a rock that Hercules kicked
Ladon
serpent that guards the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides; killed by Hercules
Mopsus
bitten by a poisonous snake and dies; snake one of those born from blood of Medusa while Perseus carried her head back home
Triton
son of Poseidon; half-man/half-sea monster; guides the Argonauts back to the sea
Talos
"ankle"; Bronze Giant of Crete; ankle is the one vulnerable spot; the Argonauts attack the giant, but it is Medea that defeats him with her stare; a sharp rock injures his ankle and all the ichor in his body drains out of him
Aeson
Jason sees father after giving fleece to Pelias to find him old and dying; Jason asks Medea to help him, and she makes a potion to return him to youth; Aeson drink the potion and it works
Pelias
daughters watch Medea give Aeson back his youth, and ask Medea to do the same for Pelias; Medea tricks them to believe that they need to throw the target into the potion instead of drinking it; daughters kill their father by throwing him into cauldron
Creon of Corinth
King whose daughter Jason has an affair with; decides to send Medea into exile in fear that she will hurt his daughter; Medea kills his daughter and he dies while holding her because of the poison Medea put into the dress given to the princess as a wedding gift
Aegeus
King of Athens; offers Medea refuge in return for a cure for his childlessness
Argo Navis
"Ship Argo"; Constellation depicting the Argo
Cadmus
founder of the House of Thebes; "House of Cadmus"; sent by his father Agenor to find sister Europa; Cadmus goes to the oracle at Delphi who tells him to follow a cow and wherever it stops, to sacrifice it and establish a city named Boeotia ("cow land"); needs water for the sacrifice and sends people to find some; find a spring sacred to Mars guarded by a monstrous snake and are devoured; Cadmus goes and confronts the snake and kills it; Cadmus hears a voice say that he will one day be a "serpent for mortal men to sate at"; Minerva instructs him to sow the serpent's teeth into the earth, and the seeds will sprout from the earth as his future people (Spartoi); marries Harmonia (daughter of Venus and Mars) and has five children (4 daughters and 1 son); eventually turned into a snake along with his wife
Draco
constellation is also said to depict the serpent slain by Cadmus (Aonian serpent) instead of Ladon
Europa
sister of Cadmus, princess of Phoenicia; Zeus fell in love with her (lusts after her), and he comes down to Earth in disguise; Zeus turns himself into a beautiful white bull; Europa was scared at first, but eventually climbed up onto his back and as soon as she did he took off; he jumped into the sea and swam to Crete (Zeus' birthplace); once they get to Crete, Europa gives birth to Minos (eventual King of Crete)
Taurus
"Bull"; Constellation depicting the bull that Zeus took the form of to kidnap Europa
Spartoi
"sown-men"; earthborn warriors that sprout from the serpent's teeth that Cadmus sowed; they fight against each other as Cadmus and Minerva watch; fight until only five remain (one named Echion who married one of Cadmus' daughters Agave); 5 become the future rulers of Thebes
Autone
daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia; mother of Actaeon
Actaeon
a hunter who accidently sees Diana naked while she and her companions were bathing; Diana splashes some water on him which turns him into a stag; his hunting dogs don't recognize him, and he is attacked and dismembered (torn apart) by them
Sparagmos
"dismemberment"
Semele
daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia; mother of Dionysus; catches the eye of Zeus; Juno resents the fact that Zeus is having an affair and she takes her anger out on Semele; Juno comes down in the disguise of a maidservant and plants ideas in her mind; Jupiter/Jove swears by the Styx to complete whatever favor Semele asks; Semele asks him to come to her in the form he does Juno (full divine form); Jove tries to dissuade her, but can't; Jove comes in his true form (lightning bolt) and Semele is incinerated; child in her womb is saved by Jove and sown into his own thigh; he eventually gives birth to the child himself; to protect the child from Juno, he takes it to his aunt Ino in Nysa (remote island) from which comes his name Dionysus ("Dios" means god + "Nysa")
Dionysus
last born of the Olympian gods; AKA "Bacchus", "Bromius", "Liber"; god of wine; associated with Demeter as a god of agricultural fertility (god of grapes)
Bromius
"Thunder"; conceived in a clap of thunder
Bacchus
Roman form of Dionysus
Liber
"free"
Tiresias
Juno scolds husband for being so faithless, and Jove admits that he is promiscuous, but irritates Juno by saying that women enjoy love-making more; they summon Tiresias to settle the quarrel; Tiresias one day came upon two snakes mating and separates them, and he is turned into a woman, then the same thing happens again 7 years later and he becomes a man again; Tiresias says that it is true that women enjoy it more, and Juno takes away his sight; Jove feels sorry for him and he gives Tiresias "second sight" (gift of prophesy)
Ino
daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia; married to Athamas (father of Phrixus and Helle); had two children; took Dionysus from the thigh of Jove and raised him in Nysa; hated by Juno for rescuing Jove's illegitimate child and she must go into hiding; Juno goes into the Underworld and summons the Fury Tisiphone for help; driven to madness and runs from husband after he kills one son; jumps off of a cliff to escape; changed into a sea-goddess ("Leucothea") by Neptune who was asked by Venus to save her and her son
Athamas
in his madness, he hallucinates and thinks that his wife and children are a lioness and her cubs; kills one son by throwing him at a wall; chases his wife and other son until they jump off a cliff to escape
Tisiphone
a Fury in the Underworld; summoned by Juno to help punish Ino; comes up to earth and takes two snakes from her hair and places them on the breasts of Ino and Athamas; snake's venom drives them insane
Agave
daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia; married Echion, one of the five Spartoi
Pentheus
son of Agave and Echion; a skeptic who scoffs at the gods, especially his cousin Dionysus (doesn't believe that he could be a god); warned by Tiresias that if he persists then he will suffer sparagmos (torn apart and die); Dionysus returns to Greece along with a strange new eastern cult (wild, loud partying); Pentheus disapproves as King of Thebes, and orders Dionysus to be arrested; confronts Dionysus; servants sent to arrest him return instead with a priest because they couldn't catch Dionysus; Acoetes warns him about Dionysus, but he disregards the warning and orders Acoetes to be executed; Acoetes is freed by Dionysus when the chains holding him melt away and he is freed; Pentheus goes to Mt. Cithaeron (outside Thebes) to investigate Dionysus personally; there he finds the women of Thebes including his mother and aunts engaged in the orgiastic worship of Dionysus; he is attacked by them because they think he is a wild boar (under spell of Dionysus); they tear him apart (sparagmos, fulfilling prophesy of Tiresias)
Acoetes
a sailor who becomes a priest of Dionysus; sailed past the island Chios and saw a cast-away (Dionysus) who they decide to pick up and hold for ransom; when Dionysus wakes up he begins to question the sailors; when they won't take him, he begins to take control of the ship, then ivy and grape vines begin to climb up the ship, then large cats (tigers, panthers, etc.) begin to sprout, and though illusions, the crew jumps overboard to escape; the crew turns into dolphins
Satyrs
attendants of Dionysus; part-human/part-animal; spend time making and drinking wine; typically drunk and disorderly, lecherous
Satyromania
excessive, often uncontrollable male sexual desire or behavior ("nymphomania" in women)
Maenads
"insane"; female followers of Dionysus; entirely human; depicted carrying a thrysis (staff with pinecone on the end), snake, and fawnskin; practice sparagmos (dismemberment) and omophagia (eating raw flesh)
omophagia
eating raw flesh
"enthusiasm"
"en" = in + "theos" = god; god enters into them like a demonic procession and they become wild and uncontrollable
Bacchantes, Bacchae
AKA Maenads; "women dedicated to Bacchus"
"orgy"
secret rites
"ecstasy"
stand outside oneself; god enters and drives real personality out
"Bacchanalia"
wild, drunken, debauched party
Mt. Cithaeron
home of the cult of Dionysus; takes place out in the woods instead of a city
Thyrsus
a staff with a pinecone on the end; carried by the Maenads, and held by Dionysus at beginning of the Bacchae play; "weapon wreathed with ivy-shoots"
Dionysia
springtime festival in celebration of renewal of life cycle; worships Dionysus
Sophrosyne
moderation, temperance, chastity, sobriety, self-control, modesty
Hysterics/Hysteria
"womb"
Laius
King of Thebes; visits neighboring king and accepts xenia but betrays it by abducting his son; an oracle tells Laius that he will pay for this by having a son that will kill him; decides that he will never have children in order to avoid prophesy; his wife Jocasta seduces him while he is drunk, and she bears a son; Laius orders the son to be exposed on Mt. Cithaeron, but that he should have his ankles pierced with a spike; servant takes pity on baby and rescues him; servant names him Oedipus due to his pierced ankles
Jocasta
wife of Laius and mother of Oedipus; Queen of Thebes; eventually marries Oedipus and has 4 children with her
Oedipus
a shepherd takes baby Oedipus to Corinth where he is adopted and raised by the King and Queen; many years later, a drunk friend begins to tease Oedipus about being illegitimate; Oedipus goes to Delphi to ask if it is true, and oracle tells him that he is destined to kill his father; decides to leave Corinth and never return; on the way to Thebes he meets a man at the intersection of three roads who he quarrels with and kills; outside Thebes he runs into a Sphinx who gives him the riddle "who in the morning walks on four legs, at midday on two, and in the evening on three?"; correctly answers "man"; Sphinx throws herself off a cliff; Oedipus enters Thebes as a hero because creature had been terrorizing the road to Thebes; Creon, brother of the widowed Queen Jocasta, now acting as reagent, had decreed that whoever defeated the Sphinx could marry the widowed queen and become king; marries Jocasta not knowing she is his mother, and has 4 children
Sphinx
"Strangler"; "sphinx" = a puzzling or mysterious person; asks riddles; creature that is part-lion/part-bird/part-human
Creon
brother of Jocasta; reagent after Laius dies
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