classical mythology midterm

Adonis

Mythological figure: while a child, was wounded and killed by artemis, was born so beautiful that aphrodite took him and showed him to persephone who wouldnt give him back, zeus split the year into three to compromise

Related attributes: fallen down amidst dogs and boar,

Significance: symbol of tragedy

Aeacus

Mythological figure: son of zeus, one of three human being demigods who judge the souls of the dead to see what their outcome will be

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Significance: just world— if people don’t suffer in life for the evils that they do, there needs to be some sort of reckoning in the afterlife

Amazons/Amazonomachy

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Aphrodite/Venus

Mythological figure: mother of eros, goddess of sexuality, 

• has many names, worshipped all over

• birth from ocean

Related attributes: linked to the sea, holding breasts, dove, cupid, diadem, nude,

Significance: she indicates love and sexuality,

Dione

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Eros/Cupid

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Related attributes: small baby with wings

Significance: concerns and represents sexual desire, emotion/desire being something that can take you over

Psyche

Mythological figure: really beautiful woman who starts being worshipped by divine ritual, aphrodite sends cupid to deal w her but she’s so beautiful he ends up shooting himself and falls in love with her, ends up marrying cupid

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Apollo

Mythological figure: child of zeus and leto, born on floating island of delos because hera forbids any land to give asylum to leto

Related attributes: wreath in hair, branch of long-leaved plant, young, no beard, bow, laurel tree, long curlyaaaav hair, instrument (lyre), crow, omphlos

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Daphne

Mythological figure: laurel tree, flees apollo, 

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Ares/Mars

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Related attributes: armed, helmet, 

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Artemis/Diana

Mythological figure: child of zeus and leto, born on floating island of delos because hera forbids any land to give asylum to leto

• born first, helps her mother give birth to apollo

• helper w/ childbirth, but also can bring swift death during childbirth

Related attributes: quiver and bow, torch, hair tied up, clothes pulled up, high hunting boots, deer

Significance: the other, outside urban, violating norms

Asclepius

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Hygeia

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Athena/Minerva

Mythological figure: helper of heroes, one of the most powerful gods,

Related attributes: weaponry (helmet, shield), aegis (chestplate w snakes), owl

Significance: myth is education— mini version of something grander

Metis

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Aegeus

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Cecrops

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Erechtheus/Ericthonius

Mythological figure: king of athens turned into serpent

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Aurora

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Chaos

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Charybdis

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Chthonic/Chthonic cult

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Cyclopes

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Demeter/Ceres

Mythological figure: agriculture and fertility

Related attributes: hair down, scepter, 

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Persephone/Kore/Despoina

Mythological figure: daughter of demeter

Related attributes: hair up, torch, normally in movement when being abducted

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Triptolemus

Mythological figure: prince, sent around the world by demeter to teach humans agriculture after the compromise between her and hades about persephone

Related attributes: snake chariot with wings, grain, normally around demeter/persephone 

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Dionysus/Bacchus/Liber

Mythological figure: child of Semele and Zeus, god of 

• sewn into zeus’ thigh once his mother is blighted— was a demigod, but everything but the divine spark was burned away

• has a special knowledge of afterlife— been to the underworld (returned his mother as an immortal), died himself

Related attributes: grapevines, ivy leaves (heart shaped), large cats, skins of large animals, long hair, musical instruments, theatre masks, thyrsus, cista mystica (basket of snakes), dolphins, high handled drinking vessel

Significance: god that allows/makes people transgress normal boundaries (bacchants, mixing of social classes), initiated in his worship is a way to figure out how to deal with mortality, likes humans but if you don’t respect him then you will face severe reprecussions

Maenads/Bacchae

Mythological figure: female worshippers of dionysus

Related attributes: long stick with a pine cone looking thing at the end (thyrsos), skins of panthers, often being harassed by satyrs, ivy in hair, contrerus

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Pentheus

Mythological figure: son of echion, rejected tireseus and dionysus, tried to stop people from worshipping him

• as a result, women of thebes were driven mad by dionysus

• dionysus tricks him into wanting to see what rituals of dionysus’ cult is, which is a major religious crime

• he’s torn limb from limb

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Significance: women are running around the countryside, drinking around wild animals— disturbing to patriarchal norms of greek culture

Satyrs

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Related attributes: pointed/big ears, tail, unkempt beards, 

Significance: representation of what not to do, sub-human creatures who don’t know how to behave

Semele

Mythological figure: daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, mother of Dionysus, from thebes

• died while pregnant with zeus, because of witnessing zeus’ full power

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Thyrsus

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Echidna

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Cerberus

Mythological figure: hades’ three headed dog, friendly when you’re entering the underworld and uncooperative if you try and leave

• hercules can’t hurt it bc if you kill hades dog, that isn’t going to turn out well for you

Related attributes: three headed dog

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Sphynx

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Chimera

Mythological figure: slain by Bellerophon

Related attributes: lion and goat, snake tail

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Five Ages of Man

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Furies

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Gaia

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Giants/Gigantomachy

Mythological figure: gaia-geneis (born from earth)

• overcome with the help of gods and hercules

Related attributes: snake leg giants, 

Significance: represent barbarism, chaos— gods represent orderliness and greekness

Hades/Pluto/Dis Pater

Mythological figure: god of everything in and below the ground, god of dead

Related attributes: often portrayed with persephone, cornacopia, roosters, cerberus, 

Significance: great fascination with death, 

Hecate

Mythological figure: helped demeter when she’s looking for persephone

Related attributes: double torches, three heads

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Helios/Phoebos

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Phaethon

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Hephaestus/Vulcanos

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Hera/Juno

Mythological figure: hates troy bc of ganymedes, paris not choosing her for the apple, etc. 

• capitoline triad

Related attributes: scepter, diadem, peacock

Significance: signifies marriage— without marriage, there are no romans

Eileithyia

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Hebe

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Hermes/Mercury

Mythological figure: zeus’ fixer, runs around fixing situations for him

Related attributes: caduceus (staff of hermes, two snakes), wide brimmed hat, winged sandals

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Caduceus

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Maia

Mythological figure: daughter of atlas, mother of hermes

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Hermaphrodite

Mythological figure: child of hermes and aphrodite, intersex

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Significance: play on the typical violence towards women portrayed in art, pan thought he was the aggressor, agency

Hestia

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Hubris

Mythological figure: pentheus defying dionysus, marsyas challenging apollo, niobe to leto

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Io

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Related attributes: bull

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Argus

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Epaphus

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Iris

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Ixion

Mythological figure: fell in love with hera and attempted to force her, zeus made a cloud that looks like hera to see how he would react, he boasted abt sleeping w her, zeus bound him to a wheel which he is whirled on through the air

the cloud gave birth to centaurus

Related attributes: wheel

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Centaurs/Centauromachy

Mythological figure: war with theseus and pirithous, can’t handle wine, super strong but crude and out of control

Related attributes: horse body man face

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Lapiths

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Leto

Mythological figure: mother of artemis and apollo

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Minos & Pasiphaë

Mythological figure: minos (son of europa and zeus), one of three human being demigods who judge the souls of the dead to see what their outcome will be

pasiphae cursed to love a bull, 

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Significance: just world— if people don’t suffer in life for the evils that they do, there needs to be some sort of reckoning in the afterlife

Daedalus & Icarus

Mythological figure: daedalus constructed the labyrinth, fled from athens bc he murdered his pupil who he thought might surpass him, tried in areopagus, after helping theseus w/ labyrinth, both confined in labyrinth- they construct the wax wings, icarus too close to the sun and dies

icarus is his son

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Europa

Mythological figure: princess europa, abducted by zeus as a white bull, loved by zeus who took her to crete, mother of minos, sarpedon, and rhadamanthys

Related attributes: grasping horns of the bull, white bull, sea creatures below,

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Rhadamanthys

Mythological figure: son of europa and zeus, one of three human being demigods who judge the souls of the dead to see what their outcome will be

Related attributes:

Significance: just world— if people don’t suffer in life for the evils that they do, there needs to be some sort of reckoning in the afterlife

Muses (the 9)

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Related attributes: nine women, each woman has diff. form of the arts,

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Mnemosyne

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Mystery Cults

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Related attributes: cista mystica (basket with snake)

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Narcissus & Echo

Mythological figure: narcissus said no to lots of potential lovers with arrogance, and  was thus cursed by nemesis 

• obsessed with his own reflection, stays there until he dies

Related attributes: reflection in water

Significance: blind folly, overwhelmed by emotions you can’t control

Nemesis

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Nereus

Mythological figure: old man of the sea, produce nereids who birth thetis,

Related attributes: fish scales, god looking (pointed beard)

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Nereids

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Thetis

Mythological figure: achilles’ mother, begs zeus for the sake of achilles 

Related attributes: begging zeus, submissive position

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Oceanus

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Oceanids

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Orpheus

Mythological figure: child of a muse, skilled at music, plays for hades/persephone and convinces them to release his dead wife, obviously looks back

Related attributes: lyre

Significance: don’t pity yourself too much, special knowledge of the underworld inspiring a cult 

Eurydice

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Ouranos

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Pan

Mythological figure: god of countryside, doesn’t like being disturbed, pentecost terror (scream of pan),

Related attributes: goat face, legs, horns, syrinx

Significance: countryside is dangerous, don’t venture out, particularly important to athenians because it is said he helped them defeat the persians,

Pelops & Hippodameia

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Poseidon/Neptunus

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Related attributes: muscular, intricate hair, trident, hippocamps (horse/fish), 

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Amphitrite

Mythological figure: wife of poseidon

Related attributes: surrounded by ocean stuff

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Prometheus & Epimetheus

Mythological figure: prometheus helped zeus win against the titans, name means foresight (knew zeus would win, and of a marriage that would overthrow zeus, and that a descendant of io will save him)

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Deucalion & Pyrrha

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Pandora

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Scylla

Mythological figure: sea monster, destroyed by minos, fought theseus

Related attributes: monster fish tail, lower part has dogs,

Significance: terror and power of the ocean, you can lose everything in the ocean

Sisyphus

Mythological figure: constantly has to roll a boulder up a hill because he evaded the punishment of zeus multiple times, 

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Significance: zeus is going to get you eventually, you can’t escape him

Tantalus

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Actaeon

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Amphion & Zetheus

Mythological figure: murder lycus who ruled over thebes for 20 years and his wife dirce, children of antiope and zeus but left to die, raised by a neatherd

• succeeded to sovereignty

• amphion is gifted a magical lyre from the gods— makes stones roll to form a wall

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Antiope

Mythological figure: daughter of nycteus, had sex with zeus, married epopeus, gave birth after her husband was killed and held captive by lycus, twins were left to die

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Significance: used to legitimize people as rulers, claim the child is exposed, they weren’t random people they were royalty

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Dirce

Mythological figure: married to lycus, imprisoned antiope and treated her badly, murdered by amphion and zetheus by tying her to a bull and flinging her body into a spring

• some say she was going to have that done to antiope

Related attributes: being trampled by bull probably 

Significance: don’t lay elaborate and vicious traps for other people, because you can fall into them yourself

Echi

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Laius & Jocasta

Mythological figure: laius expelled from thebes by amphion and zetheus

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Niobe & the Niobids

Mythological figure: killed by artemis bc niobe dissed leto

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Pentheus

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Spartoi

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Theseus

Mythological figure: on the way to athens kills evil doers, enters the labyrinth and kills the minotaur, able to do that bc of ariadne who went to daedalus who told abt the string

stop on naxos, leaves ariadne in the island and goes home

doesn’t change his sails to black so his father khs, becomes king of athens (father also poseidon tho)

attempts to kidnap helen of sparta

Related attributes: skinnier club

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