Greek Allusions #1

AP Lit

Bacchus aka Dionysus

Son of Zeus and Semele (Thebes).

Hera made Semele wish to see Zeus in his full glory, upon which she died.

Zeus nursed him for the remaining period of gestation and afterwards nymphs.

Known as the party god, wine god, etc.

Aeneas

One of Aphrodite’s sons.

Escaped Troy after the Trojan War thanks to Aphrodite.

Held to be the real founder of Rome.

Left Dido, who killed herself shortly after.

Traveled through the underworld.

Acheron River

The river of woe that one must cross to get into the Underworld.

Charon tends it.

“River into Hades.”

Those not buried properly are doomed to wander its banks forever.

Ares aka Mars

God of war, son of Zeus and Hera (they both detested him).

Throughout the Iliad, Homer calls him murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals, and a coward who bellows with pain and runs away when he’s wounded.

Ares has an affair with Aphrodite and is caught by her husband, Hephaestus.

Argonauts

Hercules, Orpheus (the master musician), Castor and Pollux, Achilles’ father (Peleus), and many others.

Led by Jason on the Argo.

All drank the “peerless elixir of valor.”

Apollo

Son of Zeus and Leto – the most Greek of all Gods.

He is a master musician who delights Olympus; the Archer-God; the Healer; God of Light; God of Truth; purifier.

He also served as a link between Heaven and Delphi.

With Troy in the Trojan War.

Calliope

Muse of epic poetry.

Amazons

A nation of "men-haters" who fought against the Greeks in the Trojan War.

Wonder Woman is an Amazon.

Antigone

Oedipus’ daughter who took care of him when he was expelled from Thebes.

She was executed after she disobeyed Creon and buried her brother, Polyneices.

The Last of the royal family of Thebes, the House of Oedipus, was gone.

Agamemnon

Agememnon's wife, Clytemnestra, plotted to kill him upon his return from the Trojan War.

Aegisthus and Clytemnestra poisoned his wine during the first welcome back feast, and he died.

Clytemnestra was fueled either to hide her affair, or because Agamemnon had killed their daughter as a sacrifice to the gods to help with the war effort.

He is one of two sons of Atreus, and the commander of the Greek forces at Troy.

He was the most prosperous from the Trojan war.

Orestes avenged him.

Arachne

Arachne challenged Minerva/Athena to a contest of weaving.

She was a simple peasant girl.

She tied with Athena, who beat her with a shuttle; Arachne hanged herself.

Athena felt badly and so turned her into a spider, and her skill in weaving was left to her.

Aphrodite

Daughter of Zeus and Dione; also said to have sprung from the “Foam of the sea” (Aphros=foam).

The Goddess of love and beauty; Hephaestus’ wife.

She took the side of the Trojans in the Trojan War.

Actaeon

He walked in on Artemis bathing in a forest while hunting one day, she got angry, turned him into a deer, and his own pack of hunting dogs ate/killed him.

Son of Autonoe and some king.

Artemis aka Diana

The Lady of Wild Things, Huntsman-in-chief to the Gods.

Fierce and revengeful.

Apollo’s twin sister; daughter of Zeus and Leto.

One of the three maiden goddesses of Olympus.

“Lover of woods and the wild chase over the mountain.”

Atalanta

Wanted to sail on the Argo, took part in the Calydonian boar hunt, married a man, Hippomenes, who beat her in a foot race, and changed into lionesses because Hippomenes forgot to honor Aphrodite.

Ariadne

Minos’ daughter.

She fell in love with Theseus, an Athenian prince.

He took her towards Athens, but they had to stop on an island and either Theseus left her or she died.

Either way, she never made it to Athens.

Argus

The giant with one hundred eyes who was tricked into sleep by Hermes, who killed him.

Hera’s lackey.

Achilles

Son of Thetis and Peleus.

Zeus and Athena watch over him during the Trojan War.

Patroclus was his lover.

Aegeus

An Athenian king (and one of the founders of Athens) whose son was Theseus. He almost let Medea kill his son (previously unknown) until he recognized the sword and shoes he had put in a cave many years before, only able to be reclaimed when Theseus was ready.

Minos, the ruler of Crete, sent his son Androgeus to Aegeus, who sent him on a mission to kill a dangerous bull, who instead killed Androgeus. Minos exacted a fee of seven dudes and seven ladies every nine years for the Minotaur.

When Theseus returned from his mission, he forgot to sail the black flag that signaled victory, and, thinking his son dead, Aegeus jumped off of a cliff. The Aegean is named after him.