Greek and Roman Classical Mythology

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, figures, geographic locations, and cultural terms from Greek and Roman mythology lectures.

Mythos

Story, tale, speech.

Logos

Word, reason, principle.

Myth (Walter Burkert, 1979)

Traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance.

Mythographers

Writers or collectors of myth; poets (e.g., Homer, Hesiod) and playwrights (e.g., Euripedes, Sophocles).

Divine myth

Explains the world as we perceive it; immortals and the supernatural.

Legends

Narrative stories; extraordinary mortals.

Etiological myths

Myths that explain nature and religion.

Historical myths

Myths that describe the past.

Psychological myths

Myths that explain feelings, actions.

Cosmogony

Explains the origins of the world and the cosmos.

Cosmos

Term used by Greeks to refer to the harmonious structure of the universe.

Theogony

Story that details the origins of the gods.

Epics

Lengthy, narrative poems about extraordinary characters and their journeys.

Fields of Punishment

Underworld realm for people who commit crimes against the gods.

Fields of Asphodel

Underworld realm for ordinary or indifferent souls.

Vale of Mourning

Underworld realm for men consumed by unhappy love.

Elysium

Underworld realm for the distinguished.

Isle of the Blessed

Underworld destination for those who reincarnate and achieve Elysium 3x.

River Styx

River of hatred; sworn upon as sacred oath.

River Acheron

River of pain; souls ferried across by Charon; unburied souls cannot be taken across.

River Lethe

River of forgetfulness; must be drank by those striving for Isle of the Blessed.

River Cocytus

River of lamentations.

River Phglegeton

River of fire; leads to Tartarus.

Chaos

Misty air between the heavens and the earth.

Tartarus

Subbasement to the earth, below the Underworld; a dark, fathomless abyss that serves as a prison for the greatest sinners.

Eros

Sexual impulse, motion that brings procreation.

Daimones (daimon, singular)

Personified spirits of human condition and abstract concepts.

The Furies (Erinyes)

Chthonic (Under-world associated) goddesses of vengeance, born from Ouranos' blood.

Atlas

Titan who bears the sky; gives us astronomy.

Prometheus

Titan associated with forethought and crafty council; gives us fire and made humans.

Epimetheus

Titan associated with afterthought and excuses; marries Pandora.

Titanomachy

Battle in which the gods fight the titans for rule over the Earth.

Typhoeus

Storm-giant who nearly defeats the gods, later imprisoned under Mt. Etna.

Golden Age

Age of man during Cronus' reign featuring perfect bliss and peace, with no labor or suffering.

Silver Age

Age of man during Zeus' reign marked as a time of strife where mortals refuse to worship the gods and are destroyed by Zeus.

Copper (or Bronze*) Age

Age during Zeus' reign made up of tough men of war; ends with a flood caused by Zeus.

Heroic Age

Age during Zeus' reign featuring heroes and demigods; ends after the death of the last child of Trojan War hero.

Iron Age

Time of toil and misery for humans; our time.

Oracle

Spiritual complex created by relationship between gods, prophecies, the temple, and interpreters.

Pythia/Pythoness

The Oracle's head priestess who interprets ambiguous messages from the gods.

Asclepius

The first physician; son of human princess Coronis and Apollo, raised by Chiron, smote by Zeus.

Pan

Son of Hermes; god of fields, groves, glens, fertility, spring, unrestrained sexuality, and the wild, whose shout inspires panic.

Katabasis

Descent into Underworld.

Chthonic

Underworld-related.

The Eleusinian Mysteries

Secret ceremonies and beliefs representing Persephone's descent into the Underworld, Demeter's search, and Persephone's ascent back into the upper world; promised mortals happy afterlife.

Apotheosis

Elevation to divine status; deification.

The Hesperides

Daughters of the evening who tend to a garden in the western corner of the world.

Gray Sisters (Graiai)

Guardians of secret knowledge possessing one eye and one tooth between them.

Chimera

Fire-breathing, part lion-goat-snake monster.

Gigantomachy

War in which giants fight Olympians for supremacy of the cosmos.

Hero (cult definition)

Deceased person who exerts good or evil power from his grave and demands appropriate honors.

Heroön

Grave set apart, grave of a hero, given votive gifts and sacrifices, maybe a monument.

Rites (sacra)

Cult practices and observations that all Romans participated in.

Haruspex (haruspices, pl.)

Diviners who interpret sacrificial animal entrails to see the future or relationship between gods and the people.

Evocatio

Ritual at the beginning of a siege in which Romans call out the enemy city's gods and invite them to Rome if they abandon their current worshippers.

The Lares

Spirits who guard the family in Roman religion.

The Penates

Spirits who guard the family in Roman religion.

Pietas

Duty to parents, the state, and the gods.

Gravitas

Roman heroic ideal meaning seriousness.

Frugalitas

Roman heroic ideal representing the simple life.

Gaia

Primordial Earth mother and foundation of the cosmos who birthed Ouranos, Pontos, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatonchires.

Ouranos

Primordial sky god who imprisoned his monstrous offspring within the earth until ambushed and overthrown by Cronus.

Hecatonchires

Hundred-handed, fifty-headed primordial beings born of Gaia and Ouranos who aided the Olympians during the Titanomachy.

Cyclopes

One-eyed primordial craftsmen who forged Zeus' thunderbolt, Hades' helm of darkness, and Poseidon's trident.

Mnemosyne

Titan goddess of memory who united with Zeus to give birth to the nine Muses.

The Muses

Nine patron goddesses of poetry, literature, music, and intellectual pursuits, born from Zeus and Mnemosyne.

Pandora

First mortal woman, crafted by the gods and sent with a jar that released evils and hardships into the mortal world.

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Survivors of Zeus' great flood who repopulated humanity by casting stones over their shoulders.

Metis

Titaness of wisdom and cunning counsel, swallowed by Zeus while pregnant with Athena.

Caduceus

Winged staff entwined with two serpents carried by Hermes, traditionally exchanged with Apollo for the lyre.

Thyrsus

Pinecone-topped staff carried by Dionysus and his maenad worshippers during ecstatic rituals.

The Brauronia

Sanctuary festival dedicated to Artemis at Brauron, in which young girls performed rites dressed as bears before entering puberty.

Hecate

Triple-bodied goddess of pathways, crossroads, ghosts, and witchcraft who assisted Demeter with torches in search of Persephone.

Spartoi

Fierce armed warriors who sprang from dragon teeth planted in the earth by Cadmus at Thebes.

Ariadne

Cretan princess who helped Theseus navigate the Labyrinth with a ball of thread, later wed by Dionysus on Naxos.

Dioskouroi (Castor and Pollux)

Twin brothers of Helen, hatched from an egg, who shared immortality between mortal Castor and divine Pollux.

Pontifex (pontifices, pl.)

High-ranking Roman priests who mediated between gods and mortals, regulating sacred law and burial rites.

The Aeneid

Epic poem by Virgil recounting the journey of Aeneas from Troy to Italy, highlighting Roman values such as pietas.

Metamorphoses (Ovid)

Narrative epic depicting creation and mythological history through physical transformations, presenting Chaos as discordant matter.

Vesta

Roman goddess of the hearth whose sacred eternal flame symbolized the safety and permanence of the state.

Nyx

Primordial goddess of night born from Chaos, who gave birth to daimon spirits of human affliction including Thanatos, Hypnos, and Eris.

Cerberus

Three-headed hound stationed at the entrance of the Underworld to prevent shades from escaping and mortals from entering.

Cronus

Titan ruler who ambushed Ouranos with a sickle and devoured his offspring at birth to avoid being deposed.

Rhea

Titan goddess of fertility and consort of Cronus who saved Zeus from being consumed by concealing him on Crete.

Python

Monstrous serpent terrorizing Mount Parnassus who was slain by Apollo, establishing the Pythian Games.

Daphne

Nymph who escaped Apollo's romantic pursuit by praying for preservation and transforming into a laurel tree.

Herm

Sacred boundary stone marker topped with a carved head of Hermes and a phallus, used along roads and frontiers.

Maenads

Ecstatic female worshippers of Dionysus who carried the thyrsus and participated in unrestrained wilderness rites.

Sisyphus

Mortal king condemned in Tartarus to push a heavy boulder up a steep hill for eternity after attempting to escape death.

Danae

Argive princess locked in a bronze chamber by her father, who conceived Perseus after Zeus visited her as a golden shower.

Medusa

Mortal Gorgon with serpentine hair whose direct gaze turned viewers to stone, ultimately beheaded by Perseus.

Pegasus

Winged horse sprung from Medusa's neck upon her death, ridden by Bellerophon in his battle against the Chimera.

Bellerophon

Hero who tamed Pegasus to destroy the Chimera, but was crippled after attempting to ascend Mount Olympus.

Jason

Leader of the Argonauts who sailed aboard the Argo to recover the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes of Colchis.

Medea

Colchian sorceress and princess who aided Jason with potions and murdered her brother to ensure their escape with the Golden Fleece.

Orpheus

Renowned musician and poet who traveled to the Underworld to recover Eurydice and was later torn apart by maenads.

Atalanta

Fierce virgin huntress raised by a she-bear who drew the first blood during the hunt for the Calydonian boar.

Caeneus

Lapith warrior originally born as a woman named Caenis, granted impenetrable skin and male sex by Poseidon.

Dido

Carthaginian queen whose tragic love affair with Aeneas led to her self-destruction and a lasting feud between Rome and Carthage.

Turnus

Leader of the Rutulians who went to war against the Trojans in Latium and fell to Aeneas in single combat.