GR E E K

MYT HO L O GY
Aphrodite &
Adonis

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Every year the Greek girls mourned for him and every year they rejoiced when
his flower, the bloodred anemone, the windflower, was seen blooming again.
Aphrodite loved him; the Goddess of Love, who pierces with her shafts the
hearts of gods and men alike, was fated herself to suffer that same piercing pain.
She saw him when he was born and even then loved him and decided he should be
hers. She carried him to Persephone to take charge of him for her, but Persephone
loved him, too, and would not give him back to Aphrodite, not even
when the goddess went down to the underworld to get him. Neither goddess
would yield, and finally Zeus himself had to judge between them. He decided that
Adonis should spend half the year with each, the autumn and winter with the
Queen of the Dead; the spring and summer with the Goddess of Love and
Beauty.

All the time he was with Aphrodite she sought only to please him. He was
keen for the chase, and often she would leave her swan-drawn car, in which she
was used to glide at her ease through the air, and follow him along rough
woodland ways dressed like a huntress.
But one sad day she happened not to be with him and he tracked down a mighty boar.
With his hunting dogs he brought the beast to bay. He hurled his spear at it, but he
only wounded it, and before he could spring away, the boar mad with pain rushed at
him and gored him with its great tusks.

Aphrodite in her winged car high over the earth heard her lover’s groan and flew to
him. He was softly breathing his life away, the dark blood flowing down his skin of
snow and his eyes growing heavy and dim. She kissed him, but Adonis knew not that
she kissed him as he died. Cruel as his wound was, the wound in her heart was deeper.
She spoke to him, although she knew he could not hear her:—

“You die, O thrice desired,

And my desire has flown like a dream.
Gone with you is the girdle of my beauty,
But I myself must live who am a goddess
And may not follow you.
Kiss me yet once again, the last, long kiss,
Until I draw your soul within my lips
And drink down all your love.”

The mountains all were calling and the oak trees answering,
Oh, woe, woe for Adonis. He is dead.
And Echo cried in answer, Oh, woe, woe for Adonis.
And all the Loves wept for him and all the Muses too.

But down in the black underworld Adonis could not hear them, nor see the
crimson flower that sprang up where each drop of his blood had stained the
earth.
Perseus & Medusa

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 s e u s a n d
t h o f P er
T h e M y
u s a
Med killed by Perseus is on as born
e o f t h e

d u s a w a s e r s e u s w
h o w M e h o l o g y . P a
o r y o f k m y t g h i m
The st s t o r i e s i n G re e
D a n a e , m a k i n
h ri l l i n g w o m a n , i t y . H e
most t d m o r t a l n t i n g e n u
Z e u s , a n i n t e l l i g e g y
e g o d , t h a n d y t h o l o
to t h g r e a t s t re n g
i n G r e e k m
g o d w i t h a t h e r o e s
de m i - f t h e g re M e d u sa .
m e o n e o e a d t h e ,
b e c o t o b e h
would o f h i s a b i l i t y
be c a u se
 Perseus was born to Zeus and Danae. Danae was the daughter of King Acrisius.
When Perseus was born, King Acrisius feared that Perseus would grow up and kill
him, so he cast Danae and Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest.
The chest came ashore on the island of Serifos, where a fisherman found them and
took them in. The fisherman was the brother of King Polydectes, who was a
malicious king. Perseus would grow into a strong young man with great power and
intelligence.
King Polydectes Falls in Love
King Polydectes had fallen in love with Danae and made her his slave. Perseus
wanted to protect his mother, and Polydectes knew Perseus would protect her at all
costs. Some versions of the myth describe Polydectes as requiring Perseus to bring
him a gift, while other versions of the myth send Perseus on a dangerous quest to
keep him from overpowering the king.
While the versions are different, they have the same outcome; Perseus is ordered by
King Polydectes to bring back the head of Medusa.
The Gorgon Medusa
Medusa was born a beautiful mortal woman with long flowing hair. Medusa was a temptress among
the gods, and Poseidon had impregnated the mortal while in the temple of Athena. Athena cursed the
mortal Medusa with a hideous face and snakes for hair. Medusa would be confined to a cave, and
anyone who made eye contact with the Gorgon would be turned to stone.

Perseus Receives Gifts from the Gods

Perseus, who was the son of Zeus, had help from the gods on his quest to find and behead Medusa.
Hades, god of the underworld, gave Perseus the cap of invisibility. Hermes, god of travel, gave Perseus
a pair of winged sandals. Athena, god of women, gave Perseus a reflective bronze shield, and
Hephaestus, god of fire and the forge, gave Perseus a sword.

Perseus Finds and Beheads Medusa

Using the gifts from the gods, Perseus locates and enters Medusa’s cave. Perseus finds Medusa asleep
inside her cave and makes sure not to wake her. Perseus takes the reflective bronze shield from Athena
and holds it up to use as a mirror to locate Medusa. Walking backward towards Medusa, Perseus
continues to hold the shield in the air to keep a clear view of Medusa, making sure to only look at
Medusa in the shield.
 As Perseus crept closer to Medusa, he wielded the sword that Hephaestus had
given him and beheaded the monster. As Medusa was beheaded, she birthed
Pegasus and Chrysaor from her neck, who were Poseidon’s children. Perseus
threw Medusa’s head into his satchel and journeyed home.

Perseus Uses Medusa’s Head as a Weapon

On his way home, Perseus came upon Andromeda, a beautiful woman embedded
into a rock on the shore. The Cetus was a sea monster in the water below that
was imminent to eat Andromeda. Perseus slew the monster and rescued
Andromeda from the rock.
Perseus desired to marry Andromeda, who had been promised to marry Phineus.
As Perseus and Andromeda were to be married, Phineus attempted to fight
Perseus. Perseus used the head of Medusa to turn Phineus into stone. Perseus and
Andromeda returned to see King Polydectes and set his mother free. Perseus
used the head of Medusa to turn Polydectes into stone.
Bacchus &
Ariadne

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 Bacchus & Ariadne
The story of Bacchus and Ariadne has its beginning, when princess Ariadne, daughter of the
King Minos of Crete, helps the Athenian hero Theseus to slay the Minotaur residing in the
center of the labyrinth. Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of thread whereupon Theseus ties one end
of the thread to the door of the labyrinth and unfurls it as he progresses inside He finds the
beast Minotaur and kills him in an ensuing fight. After escaping from the labyrinth using
Ariadne’s thread, he sets sail to return to Athens taking Ariadne with him. The ship stops on the
island of Naxos where Ariadne falls asleep and is abandoned by Theseus. In the painting by the
American painter John Vanderlyn Theseus boards his ship (far right in the middle) to abandon
the sleeping Ariadne. Now Ariadne disconsolately wanders the shores of Naxos, vainly looking
for her lost lover Theseus. She is surprised by Bacchus and his inebriated and noisy entourage.
Bacchus, the god of wine, falls in love with Ariadne and offers her marriage with the promise
of a crown of stars as a wedding gift. In another version of the story, he offers her the Sky as a
wedding gift where she later would become the constellation of the Northern Crown (Corona
Borealis).
Achilles &
Penelope
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Like most mythological heroes, Achilles had a complicated family tree. His father was Peleus, the mortal king
of the Myrmidons–a people who, according to legend, were extraordinarily fearless and skilled soldiers. His
mother was Thetis, a Nereid.

Thetis was extraordinarily concerned about her baby son’s mortality. She did everything she could to make
him immortal: She burned him over a fire every night, then dressed his wounds with ambrosial ointment; and
she dunked him into the River Styx, whose waters were said to confer the invulnerability of the gods.
However, she gripped him tightly by the foot as she dipped him into the river–so tightly that the water never
touched his heel. As a result, Achilles was invulnerable everywhere but there.
 the Trojan War began when the god-king Zeus decided to reduce Earth’s mortal population by arranging a war
between the Greeks (Homer calls them the Achaeans) and the Trojans. He did this by meddling in their political
and emotional affairs. At Achilles’ parents’ wedding banquet, Zeus invited the prince of Troy, a young man named
Paris, to judge a beauty contest between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. Each of the goddesses
offered Paris a bribe in exchange for his vote. Aphrodite’s was the most alluring: She promised to give the young
prince the most beautiful wife in the world. Unfortunately, the wife in question–Helen, the daughter of Zeus–was
already married to someone else: Menelaus, the king of Sparta. At Aphrodite’s urging, Paris went to Sparta, won
Helen’s heart and took her (along with all of Menelaus’ money) back to Troy.
Menelaus vowed revenge. He assembled an army of Greece’s greatest warriors, including Achilles and his
Myrmidons, and set off to conquer Troy and get his wife back. In Homer’s telling, this war lasted for 10 bloody
years.
 the internecine quarrel between his hero and Agamemnon, the leader of the Achaean armies and Menelaus’
brother. In a battle that took place before the poem begins, Agamemnon had taken as a concubine a young Trojan
woman named Chryseis. Chryseis’ father, a priest of the god Apollo, tried to buy his daughter’s freedom, but
Agamemnon mocked his entreaties and refused to release the girl.
Enraged, Apollo punished the Greek armies by sending a plague to kill the soldiers one by one. As his ranks
thinned, Agamemnon finally agreed to allow Chryseis to return to her father. However, he demanded a
replacement concubine in exchange: Achilles’ wife, the Trojan princess Breseis.
Achilles did as his commander asked and relinquished his bride. Then, he announced that he would no longer
fight on Agamemnon’s behalf. He gathered his belonging and refused to come out of his tent.
With the Greeks’ greatest warrior off the battlefield, the tide began to turn in favor of the Trojans. The Greeks lost one
battle after another. Eventually, Achilles’ best friend, the soldier Patroclus, was able to wrangle a compromise:
Achilles would not fight, but he would let Patroclus use his armor as a disguise. That way, the Trojans would think
that Achilles had returned to battle and would retreat in fear. The plan was working until Apollo, still seething about
Agamemnon’s treatment of Chryseis and her father, intervened on the Trojans’ behalf. He helped the Trojan prince
Hector to find and kill Patroclus.

Achilles vowed to take revenge. Thetis asked the divine blacksmith Hephaestus to
make a sword and shield that would keep him safe. Achilles chased Hector back to Troy, slaughtering Trojans all the
way. When they got to the city walls, Hector tried to reason with his pursuer, but Achilles was not interested. He
stabbed Hector in the throat, killing him.
Hector had begged for an honorable burial in Troy, but Achilles was determined to humiliate his enemy even in death.
He dragged Hector’s body behind his chariot all the way back to the Achaean camp and tossed it on the garbage heap.
However, in the poem’s last section Achilles finally relents: He returns Hector’s body to his father for a proper burial.

This was the funeral of Hector, tamer of horses. And with it the Iliad ends.
 Penelope was the wife of Odysseus, King of Ithaca, with whom she had a son named Telemachus. Penelope raised
Telemachus by herself while Odysseus was away with the Achaeans at war against Troy. She raised their son while
looking after their household, which incorporated a variety of responsibilities.

While the Odyssey focuses on the adventures of Odysseus as he journeys back home, some scenes examine life back
in Ithaca. These include Penelope’s attempts to ward off a horde of eager suitors. They actively seek to have her hand
in marriage on the assumption that Odysseus has already died, as he has been missing for twenty whole years.

Penelope’s clever deception of the suitors is revealed. She had been using the weaving of a great funeral shroud for
her father-in-law, Laertes, as an excuse to avoid picking a new husband out of the suitors. However, as we learn, this
was all a great ruse.
 Penelope was especially known for her strong character. While Odysseus was away, he is known for having taken

many lovers. Although not all of his experiences with these lovers were pleasant, the main point is that he still had

lovers. In contrast, Penelope stayed devoted and faithful to him the whole time he was gone. The story suggests that

she had plenty f opportunities to take a lover or get remarried, but she refused. Throughout Greek mythology and

within the Greek culture, the name “Penelope” has always been associated with fidelity.

As the story goes, Penelope was finally persuaded to take a new husband, but in her heart she still wanted to be

faithful to her marriage. Although she consented, she made her requirements next to impossible because she didn’t

want to be with anyone other than Odysseus. So, she organized a competition where the suitors needed to prove that

they were good at certain tasks. In her heart, she knew that only her husband, Odysseus, could pass the tests.
Eventually Odysseus returned to Ithaca after many trials and tribulations, and although his return was known to his son, the king

visited his own palace in the disguise of a beggar. After 20 years of separation, Penelope did not recognise her own husband, but

the tales that the beggar told of his encounter with Odysseus, heartened her after years of sorrow. The next day it seemed to the

suitors that Penelope was finally prepared to make a decision, for the Queen of Ithaca declared that whoever could string the

bow of Odysseus would be her new husband.

It was a test of strength, but when presented with the bow, suitor after suitor failed to string it, but suddenly the bow was in the

hands of the beggar, and with one easy movement the bow was strung, and shortly afterwards arrows were being unleashed by

the disguised Odysseus. Thus, all of the Suitors of Penelope were slaughtered by Odysseus and Telemachus. Odysseus then

revealed himself to Penelope, although Penelope initially refused to believe that her husband had at last returned home, but she

was finally convinced when details of their marital bed were revealed. Then Penelope and her husband were happily reunited,

and perhaps Penelope bore her husband two further sons, Ptoliporthes and Acusilaus
Orpheus &
Eurydice

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The story begins when Orpheus fell in love with a nymph called Eurydice. Orpheus played his lyre
while his wife danced and the two of them led a happy life.

They were so madly in love that soon they got married by the Hymenaios, the god of marriage
himself. However, at this moment of pure bliss, Hymenaios prophesized that happiness had an
expiration date.
 Eurydice’s Death
Eurydice was a nymph of uncontested beauty. According to Virgil’s Georgics, this great
beauty did not go unnoticed. A minor god named Aristaeus attacked Orpheus and attempted
to snatch Eurydice right after the wedding.

The nymph ran into the forest, where a venomous snake bit her. Hymenaios’ prophecy came
true. In Ovid’s version, Eurydice was bit by the snake after recklessly dancing with other
nymphs in the woods while celebrating her wedding.
 Orpheus Visits The Underworld
After Eurydice’s death, Orpheus was devastated. He understood that without her, life on earth
was meaningless and decided that he was ready to do whatever it takes for his beloved. He
then took his lyre and went to claim her back from the dead.

In Hades – the underworld of the Greek religion – Orpheus managed to go through the three-
headed guardian-hound Cerberus by enchanting him with his music. He then began
wandering amongst the souls of the dead until he reached the thrones of Pluto and
Persephone, the king and queen of the Realm of the Dead.

When they asked him what he was seeking, Orpheus played his lyre and sang. His song was
the saddest and most beautiful song to be ever played in the underworld. Orpheus sang about
his love for Eurydice and her tragic death. He then sang about his sorrow and how he wished
to get his wife back.
 Orpheus And Eurydice Get A Second Chance
Orpheus was successful in convincing the Gods of the underworld to return him to his wife.
However, Pluto and Persephone asked him to follow one simple rule. Orpheus would lead the way
out of Hades but he would not be allowed to look behind him until Euridice had left the
underworld completely.

Orpheus did not hesitate for a second and accepted the proposition. Pluto then presented him with
Eurydice and Orpheus began the long ascension to the world of the living.
Orpheus managed to remain calm and did not look back throughout the whole trip. However,
the closer they were getting to the light of the world of the living, the more enthusiastic and
impatient he was getting.

When the first beam of light touched his face, Orpheus immediately turned around to hug his
beloved. At that moment he realized his terrible mistake. He was standing in the world of the
living but Eurydice was still standing in the dark world of the dead.

As Virgil wrote, Orpheus immediately understood that “Poured out was all his labour, broken
the bond”. In horror he took a final look at Eurydice:

“Her last word spoken was, “Farewell!” which he could barely hear, and with no further sound
she fell from him again to Hades.” (Ovid, Metamorphoses)

Hermes – the soul guide – took Eurydice with him back to the underworld forever.
Arachne & Athena
Arachne was a young Lydian woman, daughter of a famous textile dyer called Idmon. When she was a
tiny girl she learned to weave and immediately her talent showed, even as a novice. As she grew, she
kept practicing and working on her craft for years.

Her fame spread across the land and many came to watch her weave. Arachne was such a talented and
dedicated weaver that she invented linen. She could weave so well that the images on her fabrics were
so perfect people thought they were real.

All the attention, fame, and adoration for her weaving made Arachne’s pride soar to the point that she
became conceited. When spectators called her talent divine and a gift of the gods, especially of Athena
who was the goddess of weaving, she scoffed at the notion.

“My talent does not come from the gods, nor Athena.”
The crowd gasped in horror because insolence in the face of the gods often incurred their wrath. One
of her fans urged her to take it back.

“Ask Athena to forgive your audacity,” the fan said, “and she might spare you.”
 At that, there was a bright light, and Athena appeared before her and the spectators.

“Will you say these things to my face, girl?” she asked Arachne.
Arachne nodded. “I will, goddess. And I will prove my words too, with my deeds, if you wish! We can have a
weaving competition!”

Athena accepted the challenge. The goddess and the mortal sat down to weave. People gathered more and more
to watch the wondrous spectacle. The weaving went on for days, until finally both Arachne and Athena had
produced a tapestry with scenes of the gods on it.

Athena’s tapestry was the most perfect thing mortal eyes had ever seen. As a goddess, the thread she used came
from the fabric of the earth itself. She had depicted the gods at Mount Olympus in all their splendor. Each one of
them were shown in glory doing heroic deeds. They were so lifelike that even the clouds and the sky looked
three-dimensional and with perfect color. Nobody believed that Arachne could top something so immaculate.

But Arachne remained confident, and she unfurled her own tapestry, letting it fall over Athena’s in a flurry.
The people gasped again because they couldn’t believe their eyes. The tapestry was divine.
Athena was surprised to see that even though she had used mortal threads, her scenes were
vivid and lifelike and powerful. Arachne, too, had depicted the gods in four different
scenes separated by exquisite designs.

But there was one big difference.

Arachne’s gods had no glory, no virtue, no kindness. The scenes Arachne chose to depict
were scenes where the gods were at their pettiest, their drunkest, their most abusive
towards mortals (alternatively, it is said she depicted Zeus and his philandering). To add
insult to injury, the tapestry was flawless, even to Athena’s godlike eyes. The detail and
complexity of the scenes she depicted were far superior to Athena’s too, and so Arachne’s
tapestry was the better one of the two.
This surprised Athena and enraged her. Not only was Arachne better than her but she also
had dared to call out the gods and their flaws for all to see! Such insult could not be
tolerated. In great, terrifying anger, Athena tore the tapestry to pieces, smashed her loom,
and beat Arachne three times, cursing her in front of everyone.

Arachne was shocked and ashamed, and she ran off in desperation. She couldn’t bear
what had happened, and so she hangs herself from a tree. That’s when Athena turned her
into a spider- a hairy, small creature with eight legs that was hanging from a tree by its
own web. Now a spider, Arachne immediately scurried up the web and started weaving
more.

“From now on and forever, this is how it will be for you and yours,” Athena said. “You
will forever weave your exquisite works, and people will destroy them when they see
them.”
And this is how spiders were created in the world.