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major figures in Greek mythology, the significant characters, including gods, goddesses, heroes, and other legendary figures, of Greek mythology. The personalities are known primarily from ancient Greek literature, including such classic works as Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod’s Works and Days and Theogony, and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The mythological figures are also featured in the dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. This body of stories has had an extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which is heir to much of Greek culture.
Greek name | Description | Also called | |
---|---|---|---|
gods and goddesses | |||
Aphrodite | goddess of sexual love and beauty | Venus* | |
Apollo | god of light, youth, music; twin of Artemis | Phoebus Apollo, Apollon | |
Ares | god of war in its savage and brutal aspects; lover of Aphrodite | Mars* | |
Artemis | goddess of the hunt and of the moon; twin of Apollo | Diana* | |
Athena | goddess of wisdom, crafts, and war, specifically in strategy and skill in battle | Minerva*, Pallas Athena | |
Demeter | goddess of agriculture, especially grain | Ceres* | |
Dionysus | god of wine and vegetation | Bacchus* | |
Hades | god of the underworld | Pluto*, Orcus, Dis | |
Hephaestus | god of fire and the forge; blacksmith to the gods; consort of Aphrodite | Vulcan* | |
Hera | protector of women and marriage; wife and sister of Zeus; queen of the gods | Juno* | |
Hermes | messenger of the gods | Mercury* | |
Hestia | goddess of hearth and home | Vesta* | |
Poseidon | god of the waters | Neptune* | |
Zeus | supreme ruler | Jupiter*, Jove, Jupiter Fulgur, Fulminator, Jupiter Tonans, Jupiter Pluvius, Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Jupiter Fidius | |
Titans | |||
Atlas | carried the world on his shoulders | N/A | |
Cronus | ruled the other Titans until his son Zeus dethroned him | Saturn* | |
Hyperion | father of sun, moon, and dawn | N/A | |
Iapetus | father of Atlas and Prometheus | N/A | |
Mnemosyne | goddess of memory; mother of the Muses | N/A | |
Oceanus | river that encircled the earth | N/A | |
Prometheus | savior of humankind, who brought them fire | N/A | |
Tethys | wife of Oceanus | N/A | |
Themis | personification of justice, goddess of wisdom and good counsel, and the interpreter of the gods’ will | N/A | |
lesser deities | |||
Aeolus | controller of the winds | N/A | |
Aristaeus | keeper of bees; son of Apollo and water nymph Cyrene | N/A | |
Asclepius | god of medicine | Aesculapius* | |
Castor and Pollux | twin deities of boxing, wrestling, and equestrian sports | Dioscuri | |
Eos | personification of the dawn | Aurora*, Hemera | |
Eros | god of love and friendship | Cupid*, Amor | |
Ganymede | Hebe’s successor as cupbearer of the gods | N/A | |
Hebe | goddess of youth; cupbearer of the gods | N/A | |
Hecate | chief goddess presiding over magic and spells | N/A | |
Helios | the sun god; sometimes called a Titan | N/A | |
Hygieia | goddess of health | Hygea, Hygia | |
Pan | a fertility deity concerned with flocks, pastures, fields, and forests | Faunus* | |
Persephone | goddess of death and spring; daughter of Zeusand Demeter; consort of Hades | Proserpine* | |
Phaëthon | son of Helios, the sun god | N/A | |
Proteus | shepherd of the sea’s flocks | N/A | |
Tyche | goddess of chance | Fortuna* | |
heroes and other legendary figures | |||
Achilles | hero of the Trojan War; the greatest warrior of the Greek army | N/A | |
Agamemnon | king of Mycenae and leader of the Greek forces in the Trojan War | N/A | |
Ajax | Greek hero of the Trojan War | N/A | |
Aeneas | Trojan hero of the Trojan War, second only to Hector in ability | N/A | |
Daedalus | Greek inventor, architect, and sculptor who is said to have built the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur | N/A | |
Hector | greatest of the Trojan heroes of the Trojan War | N/A | |
Helen of Troy | the most beautiful woman of Greece, who was carried off by the Trojan prince Paris and thus indirectly caused the Trojan War | N/A | |
Heracles | hero who was renowned for his great strength and who performed 12 seemingly impossible tasks called the Labours of Heracles | Hercules* | |
Jason | leader of the Argonauts who retrieved the Golden Fleece with the help of the enchantress Medea, whom he married | N/A | |
Medusa | Gorgon who was killed by Perseus and whose severed head had the power of turning all who looked upon it into stone | N/A | |
Midas | king of Phrygia who was granted his wish that everything he touched would turn to gold, with disastrous results | N/A | |
Minos | king of Crete, whose wife, Pasiphae, fell in love with a bull and gave birth to the Minotaur; Minos imprisoned the creature in the Labyrinth | N/A | |
Minotaur | a creature who had the body of a man and the head of a bull and who devoured the seven young men and seven young women from Athens who were sent every nine years into the Labyrinth | N/A | |
Odysseus | king of Ithaca, who, after capturing Troy in the Trojan War, endured nine years of wandering and adventures before he was able to return home | N/A | |
Oedipus | king of Thebes who unknowingly killed his father and married his mother | N/A | |
Orpheus | hero and musician who sang and played the lyre beautifully and who traveled to the underworld to try to bring his dead wife, Eurydice, back to life | N/A | |
Pandora | first woman on Earth, who unleashed misery and evil when she opened a mysterious jar | N/A | |
Paris | Trojan prince who judged a beauty contest between goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite (the “judgment of Paris”) and who carried off Helen, thereby starting the Trojan War | N/A | |
Perseus | hero who killed Medusa, a frightful Gorgon, and who also rescued the princess Andromeda from a sea monster | N/A | |
Sisyphus | king of Corinth who was punished in the underworld by having to roll a huge stone up a hill over and over again | N/A | |
Theseus | hero who killed the Minotaur | N/A | |
*Denotes the Roman name. |
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen.