Greek Heroes

Heracles/Hercules

often considered the greatest of the Greek heroes. He was the son of Alcmene and Zeus, which earned him the lifelong enmity of Zeus’s wife Hera. Hera struck him with a temporary madness so that he killed his wife Megara and their children. As penance, he served King Eurystheus for ten years and completed twelve labors. Some of his most famous labors were slaying the Nemean Lion, whose skin was impenetrable; slaying the nine-headed Lernaean Hydra, which would sprout new heads when one was cut off; redirecting two rivers to clean the massive Augean stables in one day; and capturing Cerberus, the three-headed guard dog of the Underworld. He was killed when the centaur Nessus tricked his wife Deianira into giving him a poisoned shirt. After his death, he was deified and married the goddess of youth, Hebe.

Theseus

a prince of Athens who was described as both the son of King Aegeus and the son of Poseidon. He was raised by his mother Aethra in Troezen, then as a young man took a land journey back to Athens, during which he defeated six foes, including the bandits Sinis, Sciron, and Procrustes. After he was sent by Medea to kill the Marathonian Bull, he voluntarily went to Crete to combat the Minotaur, a bull-headed monster who devoured the Athenian tributes demanded every nine years by King Minos. Minos’s daughter Ariadne gave him a ball of string to help him navigate the Labyrinth, and he successfully slew the Minotaur. He escaped with Ariadne, but later abandoned her on the island of Naxos. On the way back to Athens, he forgot to replace the black sails on his ship with white sails, which led his father King Aegeus to commit suicide because he believed he had been killed.

Perseus

the son of Danaë and Zeus. His grandfather, King Acrisius of Argos, had heard a prophecy that his grandson would kill him, so he banished Danaë and her son by setting them adrift in a chest on the ocean. He grew up on Seriphos, whose king Polydectes resolved to marry Danaë unless [he] could bring him the head of the gorgon Medusa, a monstrous woman with snakes for hair and a petrifying gaze. After securing advice from three sisters called the Graeae, he located Medusa, and using Hermes’s winged sandals, Hades’s Helm of Invisibility, and a mirrored shield from Athena, he was able to behead her. On his way back to Seriphos, he used the head of Medusa to rescue the Ethiopian princess Andromeda from the sea monster Cetus. He also killed Polydectes, whose advances on Danaë had turned violent in his absence. During an athletic competition later in life, he accidentally hit the spectating Acrisius with a discus, killing him and thus fulfilling the prophecy.

Jason

the son of Aeson, the rightful king of Iolcos who had been usurped by [his] uncle Pelias. In an attempt to kill him, Pelias offered him the throne if he completed a quest to Colchis and retrieved the Golden Fleece. He assembled a crew of heroes, named the Argonauts after their ship, the Argo, for the quest. When they arrived in Colchis, King Aeëtes agreed to give him the Fleece if he performed a series of daring tasks. With the help of Aeëtes’s daughter, the sorceress Medea, he yoked the fire-breathing Bulls of Colchis, plowed a field and sowed it with dragon’s teeth, defeated the Spartoi warriors that sprung from the teeth, and finally overcame the dragon guarding the fleece. When he and Medea returned to Iolcos, they murdered Pelias and were exiled to Corinth. He abandoned Medea for the Corinthian princess Glauce, and in revenge, Medea killed Glauce as well as her own children with him. For breaking his marriage vow, he lost favor with Hera and died unhappy.

Achilles

the greatest Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He was the son of King Peleus and the Nereid Thetis, who dipped him in the River Styx as a child to make his body invulnerable, except for the heel by which she held him. Thetis tried to keep him out of the Trojan War by disguising him as a girl on the island of Skyros, but his trickery was exposed by Odysseus. He refused to continue fighting in the Trojan War after the Greek commander, Agamemnon, seized his concubine Briseis. As the Trojans start to gain the upper hand, his friend (and, by many interpretations, lover) Patroclus donned his armor and led his Myrmidon warriors into battle. After Patroclus was killed by the Trojans’ best warrior, Hector, he flew into a berserk rage and massacred many of the remaining Trojans, including Hector. He was eventually killed by the Trojan prince Paris, who shot an arrow into his vulnerable heel.

Odysseus

a king of Ithaca and one of the Greek leaders during the Trojan War. He originally tried to avoid the war by pretending to be insane, but was exposed when Palamedes put his son Telemachus in front of his plow. During the war, he showcased his cunning by proposing the idea for the Trojan Horse. His ten-year journey home from the war is the subject of Homer’s Odyssey. He escaped and blinded the cyclops Polyphemus, foiled the enchantments of the sorceress Circe, was forced to live with the sea nymph Calypso for seven years, and much more. When he arrived back in Ithaca, he found that his loyal wife Penelope was being harassed by rowdy suitors who believed him to be dead. He disguised himself as a beggar, and when Penelope proposed an archery contest among the suitors, he revealed his identity and killed them. After he convinces Penelope that he truly is her husband, they happily reunite.

Diomedes

a king of Argos and a great Greek warrior, second only to Achilles in martial prowess during the Trojan War. Early in life, his father Tydeus, who was a member of the Seven Against Thebes, was killed during a rebellion against the city. He and the other Epigoni (the sons of the Seven) avenged their fathers by sacking and plundering Thebes. During the Trojan War, he and Odysseus participated in a daring night raid on the Trojan camp. One Trojan warrior named Glaucus challenged him to single combat, but after they realized that their grandfathers had been friends, they swapped armor instead of fighting. He was the only mortal other than Heracles to fight and injure gods, wounding both Ares and Aphrodite. After the war, he founded many cities in Italy.

Ajax the Great (Telamonian Ajax)

a massive and powerful Greek warrior during the Trojan War. He fought with a massive shield made of cow-hide and bronze, which he used to protect his half-brother Teucer, a potent archer. He fought the premier Trojan warrior, Hector, and wounded him, but the match was called a draw and he gave Hector a purple sash in exchange for Hector’s sword. He competed with Odysseus for the armor of Achilles after his death, but the armor was awarded to Odysseus. In a fit of rage and insanity, he slaughtered a herd of sheep, thinking they were the Greek leaders who had ruled against him. When he came to his senses and realized what he had done, he committed suicide in shame.

Bellerophon

a demigod son of Poseidon. He rejected the advances of Queen Stheneboea, who then falsely accused him of assault. King Iobates refused to directly murder a guest, so he instead sent him on a perilous quest to defeat the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, body of a goat, and tail of a snake. To aid in his quest, Athena visited him in a dream and gave him a golden bridle with which he tamed the flying horse Pegasus. He rode Pegasus up to the lair of the Chimera and threw a spear tipped with a block of lead into its mouth; the monster’s breath melted the lead, which suffocated it. His arrogance, or hubris, grew so much that he attempted to ride Pegasus up to Mount Olympus and live among the gods. Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, and he fell and was blinded from his landing. He lived the rest of his life wandering the land in misery.

Atalanta

abandoned on a mountain as a baby because her father wanted a son. She was raised by bears, which helped her become one of the greatest and fastest hunters. She joined the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, a giant wild boar that was ravaging the land. She drew first blood on the boar, and after it was killed, the leader of the hunt, Meleager, awarded its hide to her. After the hunt, she was recognized by her father, who wanted to arrange a marriage for her. A prophecy had foretold her doom if she married, so she agreed to only marry the man who could beat her in a race; all losers were killed. One suitor, Melanion, enlisted the help of Aphrodite, who gave him three golden apples which he used to distract her during the race and win the contest and her hand in marriage. After she and Melanion had sex in a temple of Zeus, the gods turned them into lions as punishment for their disrespect.