greek allusions II

calypso

Virtually held Odysseus prisoner for a few years. Nymph who lived in Ethiopia.

cassandra

One of Priam’s daughters, a prophetess. Apollo had loved her and given her the power to foretell the future. Later he turned her against her because she refused his love, and although he could not take his divine gift back, he made it so that no one ever believed her. She foretold Troy’s downfall.

castor and pollux

Said to live half of their time on Earth, half in heaven. Leda’s sons; they are usually represented as gods, the special protectors of sailors. Sometimes said only half was mortal, or 24/7 was immortal. Argonauts.

centaurs

Half man, half horse, and for the most part they were savage creatures, more like beasts than men. One of them, however, Chiron, was known everywhere for his goodness and his wisdom.

cerberus

The three headed, dragon tailed dog, who permits all spirits to enter, but none to return.

ceres

The Goddess of the Corn. Her daughter, Persephone, went into the underworld by Hades’ force.

charon

An aged boatman who ferries the souls of the dead across the water to the farther bank, where stands the adamantine gate to Tartarus. Charon will receive into his boat only the souls of those upon whose lips the passage money was placed when they died and were duly buried.

charybdis

Once a nymph, Zeus changed her into a monster after she took so much land for her father he became enraged. She takes form as a huge bladder of a creature whose face was all mouth with flippers; swallows huge amounts of water three times a day before belching them back out again, creating whirlpools. Sometimes just a whirlpool.

chimera

A lion in front, a serpent behind, a goat in between. It can breathe fire. 

circe

A most beautiful and dangerous witch. She changed Odysseus’ men into animals/pigs. Odysseus, with help from Hermes, changed them back. Then he spent a few years with Circe. She helped him get through the Underworld and stuff.

clio

Muse of history

clytemnestra

Killed Agamemnon after he killed their daughter (before the Trojan War) after the Trojan War. Leda and Spartan King’s daughter.

creon

Ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. He had three children: Menoeceus, Megara, and Haimon with Eurydice. Descendent of Cadmus and of the Spartoi. Executed Antigone.

cupid

Aphrodite’s son. “Makes his home in men’s hearts, but not in every heart, for where there is hardness he departs. his greatest glory is that he cannot do wrong nor allow it; force never comes near him. For all men serve him of their own free will.” Sometimes portrayed as a child, or Aphrodite’s companion. Either a mischievous boy or much much worse.

cyclops

Each had only one enormous eye, as round and big as a wheel in the middle of the forehead. They were gigantic, towering up like mountains.

daedalus

The man who invented the Labyrinth. Icarus’ father. He was imprisoned their by King Minos after he learned Daedalus had given Theseus the way out.

danae

Bore Perseus by Zeus after she was locked up in a bronze cave underground because of a prophesy that foretold her father, Acrisus’, death. Her father shipped them off, in a chest, on the sea to the fisherman Dictys.

danaids

Fifty of them, all daughters of Danaüs. Fled from their cousins’ hands in marriage to Argos. 49 of 50 killed their grooms. The other, Hypermnestra, did not kill her husband, as her sisters and father commanded. Her father imprisoned her. 

The Danaids must forever fill jars riddled with holes as punishment.

delphi

Under towering Parnassus, where Apollo’s oracle was, plays an important part in mythology. Castalia was its sacred spring, Cephissus its river. Greek’s center of the world, a place of pilgrimage. No other shrine rivaled it.

dido

Dido founded Carthage. She got romantically involved with Aeneas and provided him with all she could — all of her wealth, city, and property was open to him. He left her when Zeus commanded him to, so he could found Rome, and she jumped off a cliff.