Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient
Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical
mythology. These stories concern the ancient Greek religion's view of the origin and nature of the world;
the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures; and the origins and significance of
the ancient Greeks' cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the
religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of mythmaking
itself.[1]

The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and
Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC;[2] eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan
War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain
accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the
origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric
Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and
comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts
from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods, heroes, and
mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase paintings and the decoration of votive gifts and
many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Epic
Cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods,
Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.[3]

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization
and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present
have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and
relevance in the themes.[4]: 43

Sources
Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual media
dating from the Geometric period from c. 900 BC to c. 800 BC onward.[5]: 200 In fact, literary and
archaeological sources integrate, sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes in conflict; however, in
many cases, the existence of this corpus of data is an indication that many elements of Greek mythology
have strong factual and historical roots.[6]

Literary sources
Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of
Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical
handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the Library of
Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the
contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of
traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.[7]: 1 Apollodorus
of Athens lived from c. 180 BC to c. 125 BC and wrote on many
of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the
collection; however, the "Library" discusses events that occurred
long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus. Achilles and Penthesileia by
Exekias, c. 540 BC, British Museum,
Among the earliest literary sources are Homer's two epic poems, London
the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other poets completed the Epic Cycle,
but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely.
Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no direct
connection with Homer. The oldest are choral hymns from the earlier part
of the so-called Lyric age.[8]: 7 Hesiod, a possible contemporary with
Homer, offers in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest account of
the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world, the origin
of the gods, Titans, and Giants, as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales,
and aetiological myths. Hesiod's Works and Days, a didactic poem about
farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and the Five
Ages. The poet advises on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world,
rendered yet more dangerous by its gods.[3]

Lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment
became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets,
including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and bucolic poets such as
Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents.[9]: xii Prometheus (1868 by
Gustave Moreau). The myth
Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama. The tragic
of Prometheus first was
playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides took most of their plots attested by Hesiod and then
from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great constituted the basis for a
tragic stories (e.g. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea, tragic trilogy of plays,
etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright possibly by Aeschylus,
Aristophanes also used myths, in The Birds and The Frogs.[8]: 8 consisting of Prometheus
Bound, Prometheus
Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers Pausanias Unbound, and Prometheus
Pyrphoros.
and Strabo, who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories
they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends, often giving
little-known alternative versions.[9]: xii Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions he
encountered and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the
East.[10]: 60 [11]: 22 Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins and the blending of differing cultural
concepts.

The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than cultic
exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category
includes the works of:
 1. The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Seneca and Virgil with Servius's
commentary.
2. The Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus
Smyrnaeus.
3. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-
Eratosthenes, and Parthenius.
Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths include Apuleius, Petronius, Lollianus,
and Heliodorus. Two other important non-poetical sources are the Fabulae and Astronomica of the
Roman writer styled as Pseudo-Hyginus, the Imagines of Philostratus the Elder and Philostratus the
Younger, and the Descriptions of Callistratus.

Finally, several Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, much derived from earlier
now lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include Arnobius, Hesychius, the author of the Suda,
John Tzetzes, and Eustathius. They often treat mythology from a Christian moralizing perspective.[12]

Archaeological sources
The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German
amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the nineteenth
century, and the discovery of the Minoan civilization in Crete by
the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the twentieth century,
helped to explain many existing questions about Homer's epics
and provided archaeological evidence for many of the
mythological details about gods and heroes. The evidence about
myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely
monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek
found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to
record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes The Roman poet Virgil, here
have been tentatively identified.[3] depicted in the fifth-century
manuscript, the Vergilius Romanus,
Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth-century BC depict preserved details of Greek
scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of mythology in many of his writings.
Heracles.[13] These visual representations of myths are important
for two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are attested on vases
earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the Cerberus adventure
occurs in a contemporary literary text.[14] Secondly, visual sources sometimes represent myths or
mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known
representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by
several centuries.[5] In the Archaic (c. 750 – c. 500 BC), Classical (c. 480–323 BC), and Hellenistic (323–
146 BC) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing
literary evidence.[3]

Survey of mythic history

Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the
evolution of their culture, of which mythology, both overtly and in
its unspoken assumptions, is an index of the changes. In Greek
mythology's surviving literary forms, as found mostly at the end of
the progressive changes, it is inherently political, as Gilbert
Cuthbertson (1975) has argued.[i][15]

The earlier inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula were an

agricultural people who, using animism, assigned a spirit to every
aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human Phaedra with an attendant, probably
her nurse, a fresco from Pompeii,
forms and entered the local mythology as gods.[16]: 17 When tribes
c. 60 – c. 20 BC
from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with
them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess
in battle, and violent heroism. Other older gods of the agricultural world fused with those of the more
powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.[16]: 18

After the middle of the Archaic period, myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes
became more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of pedagogic pederasty (παιδικὸς
ἔρως, eros paidikos), thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the fifth-century
BC, poets had assigned at least one eromenos, an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion, to
every important god except Ares and many legendary figures.[17] Previously existing myths, such as those
of Achilles and Patroclus, also then were cast in a pederastic light.[18]: 54 Alexandrian poets at first, then
more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often re-adapted stories of Greek
mythological characters in this fashion.

The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles and, as a result, to develop a new sense of
mythological chronology. Thus, Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the development of the world and
of humans.[19]: 11 While self-contradictions in these stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an
approximate chronology may be discerned. The resulting mythological "history of the world" may be
divided into three or four broader periods:

1. The myths of origin or age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods"): myths about the origins of
the world, the gods, and the human race.
2. The age when gods and mortals mingled freely: stories of the early interactions between
gods, demigods, and mortals.
3. The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine activity was more limited. The last and
greatest of the heroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and after (which is regarded by
some researchers as a separate, fourth period).[8]: 35
While the age of gods often has been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek
authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes, establishing a
chronology and record of human accomplishments after the questions of how the world came into being
were explained. For example, the heroic Iliad and Odyssey dwarfed the divine-focused Theogony and
Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a
restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the
dead (heroes), of the Chthonic from the Olympian.[20]: 205 In the Works and Days, Hesiod makes use of a
scheme of Four Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are
separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races to
the creation of Zeus. The presence of evil was explained by the myth of Pandora, when all of the best of
human capabilities, save hope, had been spilled out of her overturned jar.[21] In Metamorphoses, Ovid
follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.[22]

Origins of the world and the gods

"Myths of origin" or "creation myths" represent an attempt to explain the
beginnings of the universe in human language.[9]: 10 The most widely
accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the
beginning of things, is reported by Hesiod, in his Theogony. He begins
with Chaos, a yawning nothingness. Next comes Gaia (Earth), "the ever-
sure foundation of all", and then Tartarus, "in the depth of the wide-pathed
Earth", and Eros (Love), "fairest among the deathless gods".[23] Without
male assistance, Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the Sky) who then fertilized
her. From that union were born first the Titans—six males: Coeus, Crius,
Cronus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Oceanus; and six females: Mnemosyne,
Phoebe, Rhea, Theia, Themis, and Tethys. After Cronus was born, Gaia
and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed
Amor Vincit Omnia (Love
by the one-eyed Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires or Hundred-Handed Conquers All), a depiction
Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia of the god of love, Eros. By
furious. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of Gaia's Michelangelo Merisi da
children")[23] was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this and Caravaggio, circa 1601–
became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife, Rhea, as his consort, 1602.
and the other Titans became his court.

A motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, Zeus.
Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time
Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and
wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was full-grown, he fed Cronus a
drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children, including Poseidon, Hades,
Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, and the stone, which had been sitting in Cronus's stomach all this time. Zeus
then challenged Cronus to war for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom
Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled
down to imprisonment in Tartarus.[24]

Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, Metis,
would give birth to a god "greater than he", Zeus swallowed her.[25]: 98 She was already pregnant with
Athena, however, and she burst forth from his head—fully-grown and dressed for war.[25]: 108

The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogonies to be the prototypical poetic genre—
the prototypical mythos—and imputed almost magical powers to it. Orpheus, the archetypal poet, also
was the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius'
Argonautica, and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to Hades. When Hermes
invents the lyre in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, the first thing he does is sing about the birth of the
gods.[26] Hesiod's Theogony is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods but also the fullest
surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the Muses.
Theogony also was the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, Musaeus,
 Epimenides, Abaris, and other legendary seers, which were used in
private ritual purifications and mystery-rites. There are indications
that Plato was familiar with some version of the Orphic
theogony.[27]: 147 A silence would have been expected about
religious rites and beliefs, however, and that nature of the culture
would not have been reported by members of the society while the
beliefs were held. After they ceased to become religious beliefs,
few would have known the rites and rituals. Allusions often
existed, however, to aspects that were quite public.

Attic black-figured amphora Images existed on pottery and religious artwork that were
depicting Athena being "reborn" interpreted and more likely, misinterpreted in many diverse myths
from the head of Zeus, who had and tales. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by
swallowed her mother Metis, on the Neoplatonist philosophers and recently unearthed papyrus scraps.
right, Eileithyia, the goddess of
One of these scraps, the Derveni Papyrus now proves that at least
childbirth, assists, circa 550–525 BC
(Musée du Louvre, Paris)
in the fifth-century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus
was in existence.[20]: 236 [27]: 147

The first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical
conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be
gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the
river of Oceanus and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars. The Sun (Helios)
traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth,
heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were
popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades and his predecessors, home of the
dead.[28]: 45 Influences from other cultures always afforded new themes.

Greek pantheon
According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the
Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed.
Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on
Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. (The limitation of their
number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern
idea.)[29]: 8 Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped various
gods of the countryside, the satyr-god Pan, Nymphs (spirits of
rivers), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits
of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, Satyrs, Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces
and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the Leda, the Queen of Sparta. A
underworld, such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those sixteenth-century copy of the lost
original by Michelangelo.
guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.[30] In order to honor the
Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a
group of thirty-three songs).[31] Gregory Nagy (1992) regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple
preludes (compared with Theogony), each of which invokes one god."[32]: 54

The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to
Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are
persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts."[20]: 182 Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient
Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease and can
be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the
distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the
constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.[29]: 4

Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of
expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity
of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods are called upon in
poetry, prayer, or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, that identify them
by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g., Apollo Musagetes is "Apollo, [as]
leader of the Muses"). Alternatively, the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god,
sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.

Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love
and beauty, Ares was the god of war, Hades the ruler of the underworld, and Athena the goddess of
wisdom and courage.[29]: 20ff Some gods, such as Apollo and Dionysus, revealed complex personalities
and mixtures of functions, while others, such as Hestia (literally "hearth") and Helios (literally "sun"),
were little more than personifications. The most impressive temples tended to be dedicated to a limited
number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual
regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-
known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown
elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demigods) supplemented that of the gods.

Age of gods and mortals

"The origins of humanity [were] ascribed to various figures, including Zeus and Prometheus."[33]

Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was
limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the
world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by
Ovid's Metamorphoses and they are often divided into two thematic groups: tales of love, and tales of
punishment.[8]: 38

Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a

mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The
stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and
mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships
rarely have happy endings.[8]: 39 In a few cases, a female divinity
mates with a mortal man, as in the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite,
where the goddess lies with Anchises to produce Aeneas.[34]

The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation

or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when
Prometheus steals fire from the gods, when Tantalus steals nectar
Dionysus with satyrs. Interior of a and ambrosia from Zeus' table and gives it to his subjects—
cup painted by the Brygos Painter, revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when Prometheus or
Cabinet des Médailles. Lycaon invents sacrifice, when Demeter teaches agriculture and
the Mysteries to Triptolemus, or when Marsyas invents the aulos
and enters into a musical contest with Apollo. Ian Morris considers Prometheus' adventures as "a place
between the history of the gods and that of man."[35]: 291 An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the
third century, vividly portrays Dionysus' punishment of the king of Thrace, Lycurgus, whose recognition
of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.[36]: 50 The
story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean
trilogy.[37]: 28 In another tragedy, Euripides' The Bacchae, the king of Thebes, Pentheus, is punished by
Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his Maenads, the female worshippers of the
god.[38]: 195

In another story, based on an old folktale-motif,[39] and echoing a

similar theme, Demeter was searching for her daughter,
Persephone, having taken the form of an old woman called Doso,
and received a hospitable welcome from Celeus, the King of
Eleusis in Attica. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality,
Demeter planned to make his son Demophon a god, but she was
unable to complete the ritual because his mother Metanira walked
in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which
angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not
understand the concept and ritual.[40]
Demeter and Metanira in a detail on
an Apulian red-figure hydria, circa
340 BC (Altes Museum, Berlin)
Heroic age
The age in which the heroes lived is known as the Heroic age.[41]
The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events
and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the
stories in sequence. According to Ken Dowden (1992), "there is even a saga effect: We can follow the
fates of some families in successive generations."[19]: 11

After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in
oaths and prayers which are addressed to them.[20]: 205 Burkert (2002) notes that "the roster of heroes,
again in contrast to the gods, is never given fixed and final form. Great gods are no longer born, but new
heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead." Another important difference between the
hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.[20]: 206

The monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are
also ascribed three great events: the Argonautic expedition, the Theban Cycle, and the Trojan
War.[41][42]: 340

Heracles and the Heracleidae

Some scholars believe[42]: 10 that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man,
perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of Argos. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an
allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac.[43] Others point to
earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths
already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and Alcmene, granddaughter of
Perseus.[44] His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many folk-tale themes, provided much material for
popular legend. According to Burkert (2002), "He is portrayed as a sacrificer, mentioned as a founder of
altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy.[20]
While his tragic end provided much material for tragedy—Heracles is
regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance in
examination of other Euripidean dramas."[45][20]: 211 In art and literature,
Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate
height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club.
Vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his
fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times.[20]: 211

Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the
exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans as
"Herakleis" was to the Greeks.[20]: 211 In Italy he was worshipped as a god
of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his
characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.[44]

Heracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as

official ancestor of the Dorian kings. This probably served as a
Heracles with his baby
legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the Peloponnese. Hyllus, the
Telephus (Louvre Museum,
eponymous hero of one Dorian phyle, became the son of Heracles and one Paris)
of the Heracleidae or Heraclids (the numerous descendants of Heracles,
especially the descendants of Hyllus—other Heracleidae included
Macaria, Lamos, Manto, Bianor, Tlepolemus, and Telephus). These Heraclids conquered the
Peloponnesian kingdoms of Mycenae, Sparta and Argos, claiming, according to legend, a right to rule
them through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the "Dorian invasion". The
Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.[46][20]: 211

Other members of this earliest generation of heroes such as

Perseus, Deucalion, Theseus and Bellerophon, have many traits in
common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary,
fantastic and border on fairy tale, as they slay monsters such as the
Chimera and Medusa. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace
types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending
a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early
heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.[47]

Argonauts
The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the Argonautica of Apollonius
Bellerophon riding Pegasus and
of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the Library of
slaying the Chimera, central
Alexandria) tells the myth of the voyage of Jason and the medallion of a Roman mosaic from
Argonauts to retrieve the Golden Fleece from the mythical land of Autun, Musée Rolin, 2nd to 3rd
Colchis. In the Argonautica, Jason is impelled on his quest by king century AD
Pelias, who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would
be his nemesis. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court
of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as
Heracles, went with Jason in the ship Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included
Theseus, who went to Crete to slay the Minotaur; Atalanta, the female heroine, and Meleager, who once
had an epic cycle of his own to rival the Iliad and Odyssey. Pindar, Apollonius and the Bibliotheca
endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.[48][49][50]
Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts
is earlier than Odyssey, which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus
may have been partly founded on it).[51][52] In ancient times, the expedition was regarded as a historical
fact, an incident in the opening up of the Black Sea to Greek commerce and colonization.[51] It was also
extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of
Medea, in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets.[52]

House of Atreus and Theban Cycle

In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes.
This includes the doings of Atreus and Thyestes at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of
the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of Labdacus) lies the problem of the devolution of
power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants
played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.[53]

The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with Cadmus, the city's founder, and later with
the doings of Laius and Oedipus at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the war of the Seven against
Thebes and the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the Epigoni.[7]: 317 (It is not known whether
the Seven figured in early epic.) As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have him
continuing to rule at Thebes after the revelation that Iokaste was his mother, and subsequently marrying a
second wife who becomes the mother of his children—markedly different from the tale known to us
through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' Oedipus Rex) and later mythological accounts.[7]: 311

Trojan War and aftermath

Greek mythology culminates in the Trojan War,
fought between Greece and Troy, and its aftermath. In
Homer's works, such as the Iliad, the chief stories
have already taken shape and substance, and
individual themes were elaborated later, especially in
Greek drama. The Trojan War also elicited great
interest in the Roman culture because of the story of
Aeneas, a Trojan hero whose journey from Troy led to
the founding of the city that would one day become
Rome, as recounted in Virgil's Aeneid (Book II of
Virgil's Aeneid contains the best-known account of El Juicio de Paris by Enrique Simonet, 1904.
the sack of Troy).[54][55] Finally there are two pseudo- Paris is holding the golden apple on his right hand
chronicles written in Latin that passed under the while surveying the goddesses in a calculative
names of Dictys Cretensis and Dares Phrygius.[56] manner.

The Trojan War cycle, a collection of epic poems,

starts with the events leading up to the war: Eris and the golden apple of Kallisti, the Judgement of Paris,
the abduction of Helen, the sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis. To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great
expedition under the overall command of Menelaus's brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos, or Mycenae,
but the Trojans refused to return Helen. The Iliad, which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the
quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths
in battle of Achilles' beloved comrade Patroclus and Priam's eldest son, Hector. After Hector's death, the
Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons, and Memnon, king of the
Ethiopians and son of the dawn-goddess, Eos.[55] Achilles killed
both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an
arrow in the heel. Achilles' heel was the only part of his body
which was not invulnerable to damage by human weaponry.
Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the
citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the Palladium).
Finally, with Athena's help, they built the Trojan Horse. Despite
the warnings of Priam's daughter Cassandra, the Trojans were
persuaded by Sinon, a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the
horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest
Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-
serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from
the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed,
Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women
In The Rage of Achilles by Giovanni
passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous
Battista Tiepolo (1757, Fresco, 300
homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings x 300 cm, Villa Valmarana, Vicenza)
of Odysseus and Aeneas (the Aeneid), and the murder of Achilles is outraged that
Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (the lost Nostoi) Agamemnon would threaten to
and Homer's Odyssey.[54] The Trojan cycle also includes the seize his warprize, Briseis, and he
adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g., Orestes draws his sword to kill Agamemnon.
The sudden appearance of the
and Telemachus).[55]
goddess Athena, who, in this fresco,
has grabbed Achilles by the hair,
The Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main
prevents the act of violence.
source of inspiration for Ancient Greek artists (e.g. metopes on the
Parthenon depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for
themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance to the Ancient Greek civilization.[54] The
same mythological cycle also inspired a series of posterior European literary writings. For instance,
Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a
rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own
courtly and chivalric ideals. Twelfth-century authors, such as Benoît de Sainte-Maure (Roman de Troie
[Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and Joseph of Exeter (De Bello Troiano [On the Trojan War, 1183])
describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in Dictys and Dares. They thus follow
Horace's advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something
completely new.[57]

Some of the more famous heroes noted for their inclusion in the Trojan War were:

On the Trojan side:

Aeneas
Hector
Paris
On the Greek side:

Ajax (there were two Ajaxes)

Achilles
King Agamemnon
 Menelaus
Odysseus
Diomedes

Greek and Roman conceptions of myth

Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece.[16]: 15 Greeks regarded mythology as a
part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional
enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace the descent of one's leaders from a
mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War
in the Iliad and Odyssey. According to Victor Davis Hanson, a military historian, columnist, political
essayist, and former classics professor, and John Heath, a classics professor, the profound knowledge of
the Homeric epos was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education
of Greece" (Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις), and his poetry "the Book".[58]

Philosophy and myth

After the rise of philosophy, history, prose and rationalism in the
late 5th century BC, the role of myth became less certain, and
mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history
which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the Thucydidean
history).[59] While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths,
Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize
them.[8][60]

By the sixth century BC, a few radical philosophers were already

beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies:
Xenophanes of Colophon complained that Homer and Hesiod
attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among
Plato in Raphael's The School of
men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one
Athens
another."[5]: 169–70 This line of thought found its most sweeping
expression in Plato's Republic and Laws. Plato created his own
allegorical myths (such as the vision of Er in the Republic), attacked the traditional tales of the gods'
tricks, thefts, and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature.[8] Plato's criticism
was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition;[58] he referred to the myths as "old
wives' chatter."[61] For his part, Aristotle criticized the pre-Socratic quasi-mythical philosophical
approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what
seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us ... But it is not worth taking seriously writers
who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must
cross-examine them."[59]

Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his
own characterization of Socrates is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the
philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:[62]
 But perhaps someone might say: "Are you then not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed such
a pursuit, that you are now in danger of being put to death as a result?" But I should make to
him a just reply: "You do not speak well, Sir, if you think a man in whom there is even a little
merit ought to consider danger of life or death, and not rather regard this only, when he does
things, whether the things he does are right or wrong and the acts of a good or a bad man. For
according to your argument all the demigods would be bad who died at Troy, including the son
of Thetis, who so despised danger, in comparison with enduring any disgrace, that when his
mother (and she was a goddess) said to him, as he was eager to slay Hector, something like this,
I believe,

My son, if you avenge the death of your friend Patroclus and kill Hector, you yourself
shall die; for straightway, after Hector, is death appointed unto you. (Hom. Il. 18.96)

he, when he heard this, made light of death and danger, and feared much more to live as a
coward and not to avenge his friends, and said,

Straightway may I die, after doing vengeance upon the wrongdoer, that I may not stay
here, jeered at beside the curved ships, a burden of the earth.

Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by
the grassroots Greek civilization.[58] The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to
influence poetry and to provide the main subjects of painting and sculpture.[59]

More sportingly, the 5th century BC tragedian Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking
them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were
taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's
version of the same or similar myth. Euripides mainly impugns the myths about the gods and begins his
critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by Xenocrates: the gods, as
traditionally represented, are far too crassly anthropomorphic.[5]: 169–70

Hellenistic and Roman rationalism

During the Hellenistic period, mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its
possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became
even more pronounced.[63]: 89 Greek mythographer Euhemerus established the tradition of seeking an
actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.[64] Although his original work (Sacred Scriptures)
is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and Lactantius.[7]: 7

Rationalizing hermeneutics of myth became even more popular under the Roman Empire, thanks to the
physicalist theories of Stoic and Epicurean philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and
heroes as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same
time, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition,
often based on Greek etymologies.[65] Through his Epicurean message, Lucretius had sought to expel
superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.[66]: xxvi Livy, too, is skeptical about the
mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends
 (fabulae).[63]: 88 The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic
sense of religious tradition was to defend that tradition while conceding
that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian Varro,
who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the
preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of
religious cults. In his Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum (which has not
survived, but Augustine's City of God indicates its general approach) Varro
argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly
religious person venerates them as parents.[66]: xxvi According to Varro,
there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the
mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil
account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and the
Cicero saw himself as the natural account created by the philosophers.[67] The best state is, adds
defender of the established Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with
order, despite his personal the philosopher's.[67]
skepticism concerning myth
and his inclination towards Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of
more philosophical
myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.[63]: 87
conceptions of divinity.
Cicero is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic
in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to
know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended.[63]: 88 Cicero asserts that no one (not even
old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of Scyllas,
centaurs or other composite creatures,[68] but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the
superstitious and credulous character of the people.[69] De Natura Deorum is the most comprehensive
summary of Cicero's line of thought.[66]: xxvii

Syncretizing trends
Ancient Greek myths took inspiration from folkloric portrayals of the Olympian gods, as well as Dorian
and Ionian deities and their associated folk tales.[70]

In Ancient Roman times, a new Roman mythology was born through syncretization of numerous Greek
and other foreign gods. This occurred because the Romans had little mythology of their own, and
inheritance of the Greek mythological tradition caused the major Roman gods to adopt characteristics of
their Greek equivalents.[63]: 88 The gods Zeus and Jupiter are an example of this mythological overlap. In
addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with
eastern religions led to further syncretizations.[71] For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome
after Aurelian's successful campaigns in Syria. The Asiatic divinities Mithras (that is to say, the Sun) and
Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one Sol Invictus, with conglomerated rites and
compound attributes.[72] Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even
Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary
mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice. The worship of Sol as special
protector of the emperors and the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by
Christianity.
The surviving 2nd-century collection of Orphic Hymns (second century
AD) and the Saturnalia of Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius (fifth
century) are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing
trends as well. The Orphic Hymns are a set of pre-classical poetic
compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned
myth.[73] The stated purpose of the Saturnalia is to transmit the Hellenic
culture Macrobius has derived from his reading, even though much of his
treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology
and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia
reappear mythographical comments influenced by the Euhemerists, the
Stoics and the Neoplatonists.[65]

Modern interpretations
The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by
some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century
against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity", in which the
Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or fable had been retained.[74]
In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Apollo (early Imperial
Greek mythology. In Göttingen, Johann Matthias Gesner began to revive Roman copy of a fourth-
Greek studies, while his successor, Christian Gottlob Heyne, worked with century Greek original,
Johann Joachim Winckelmann, and laid the foundations for mythological Louvre Museum)
research both in Germany and elsewhere. [5]: 9 About 100 years later the
interest for Greek mythology was still alive when Hermann Steuding
published his book Griechische und römische Götter- und Heldensage in 1897.[75][76][77][78][79]

Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches

The development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in
the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been
comparative. Wilhelm Mannhardt, James Frazer, and Stith Thompson employed the comparative
approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.[80] In 1871 Edward Burnett Tylor
published his Primitive Culture, in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the
origin and evolution of religion.[81][82]: 9 Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and
myth of widely separated cultures influenced both Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell. Max Müller applied
the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted
remains of Aryan nature worship. Bronisław Malinowski emphasized the ways myth fulfills common
social functions. Claude Lévi-Strauss and other structuralists have compared the formal relations and
patterns in myths throughout the world.[80]

Sigmund Freud introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an
expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and
Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation
of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochement
between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.[83] Carl Jung
extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and
the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that
arise out of it.[3] According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements
must be present in the unconscious psyche."[84] Comparing Jung's
methodology with Joseph Campbell's theory, Robert A. Segal (1990)
concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the
archetypes in it. An interpretation of the Odyssey, for example, would
show how Odysseus's life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast,
considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the
interpretation of a myth."[85] Karl Kerényi, one of the founders of modern
studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to
apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.[5]: 38
Max Müller is regarded as
one of the founders of
Origin theories comparative mythology. In
his Comparative Mythology
Max Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European religious form by (1867) Müller analysed the
tracing it back to its Indo-European (or, in Müller's time, "Aryan") "disturbing" similarity
"original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important between the mythologies of
discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century concerning "savage races" with those
the ancient history of mankind ... was this sample equation: Sanskrit of the early Europeans.
Dyaus-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr".[82]: 12 The
question of Greek mythology's place in Indo-European studies has
generated much scholarship since Müller's time. For example, philologist Georges Dumézil draws a
comparison between the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna, although there is no hint that he believes
them to be originally connected.[86] In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a
common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek
Moirai and the Norns of Norse mythology.[87]

It appears that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the Greek religion[88] and its pantheon already
included many divinities that can be found in classical Greece.[89] However, Greek mythology is
generally seen as having heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern cultures, and as such contains
few important elements for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European religion.[90] Consequently,
Greek mythology received minimal scholarly attention in the context of Indo-European comparative
mythology until the mid-2000s.[91]

Archaeology and mythography have revealed influence from Asia Minor and the Near East. Adonis
seems to be the Greek counterpart—more clearly in cult than in myth—of a Near Eastern "dying god".
Cybele is rooted in Anatolian culture while much of Aphrodite's iconography may spring from Semitic
goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its
children) and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish.[92][93] According to Meyer Reinhold, "near Eastern theogonic
concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their
way…into Greek mythology."[94]

In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of
Greek mythology to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes and
Orchomenus.[20]: 23 Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient
configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to
the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur, etc.). Martin P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations and
general function of the gods, that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the
Mycenaean religion.[95] and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaean
centres and anchored in prehistoric times.[96] Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the
Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.[20]: 24

Motifs in Western art and literature

The widespread adoption of Christianity did not curb
the popularity of the myths. With the rediscovery of
classical antiquity in the Renaissance, the poetry of
Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of
poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.[3][97] From
the early years of Renaissance, artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael,
portrayed the Pagan subjects of Greek mythology
alongside more conventional Christian themes.[3][97]
Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Botticelli's The Birth of Venus c. 1485–1486, oil
Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance on canvas, Uffizi, Florence)—a revived Venus
poets such as Petrarch, Boccaccio and Dante in Pudica for a new view of pagan Antiquity—is often
Italy.[3] said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of
the Renaissance.[3]

In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of

the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature.[98] The
English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with
Chaucer and John Milton and continuing through Shakespeare to
Robert Bridges in the 20th century. Racine in France and Goethe
in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient
myths.[3][97] Although during the Enlightenment of the 18th
century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe,
the myths continued to provide an important source of raw
material for dramatists, including those who wrote the libretti for
many of Handel's and Mozart's operas.[99]
The Lament for Icarus (1898) by
By the end of the 18th century, Romanticism initiated a surge of
Herbert James Draper
enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In
Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired
contemporary poets (such as Alfred Tennyson, Keats, Byron and Shelley) and painters (such as Lord
Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema).[100] Christoph Gluck, Richard Strauss, Jacques Offenbach and
many others set Greek mythological themes to music.[3] American authors of the 19th century, such as
Thomas Bulfinch and Nathaniel Hawthorne, held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the
understanding of English and American literature.[9]: 4 In more recent times, classical themes have been
reinterpreted by dramatists Jean Anouilh, Jean Cocteau, and Jean Giraudoux in France, Eugene O'Neill in
America, and T. S. Eliot in Britain and by novelists such as James Joyce and André Gide.[3]
References

Notes
i. Cuthbertson (1975) selects a wider range of epic, from Gilgamesh to Voltaire's Henriade,
but his central theme—that myths encode mechanisms of cultural dynamics structure
community by the creation of moral consensus—is a familiar mainstream view that applies
to Greek myth.

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Further reading
Ancient Greece
portal
Myths portal

Religion portal

Mythology portal

History portal

Gantz, Timothy (1993). Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources ([Link]
[Link]/29883249). Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-4410-2.
Archived ([Link]
49) from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
Graves, Robert (1993) [1955]. The Greek Myths (Cmb/Rep ed.). Penguin (Non-Classics).
ISBN 978-0-14-017199-0.
Hamilton, Edith (1998) [1942]. Mythology (New ed.). Back Bay Books. ISBN 978-0-316-
34151-6.
Kerenyi, Karl (1980) [1951]. The Gods of the Greeks ([Link]
s00kerrich) (Reissue ed.). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-27048-6.
Kerenyi, Karl (1978) [1959]. The Heroes of the Greeks ([Link]
eeks00kerrich) (Reissue ed.). Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-27049-3.
Luchte, James (2011). Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn. Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-
567-35331-3.
Morford M.P.O., Lenardon L.J. (2006). Classical Mythology. Oxford University Press.
ISBN 978-0-19-530805-1.
Pinsent, John (1972). Greek Mythology. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-448-00848-6.
Pinsent, John (1991). Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece. Library of the World's Myths
and Legends. Peter Bedrick Books. ISBN 978-0-87226-250-8.
Powell, Barry (2008). Classical Myth (6th ed.). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-606171-7.
Powell, Barry (2001). A Short Introduction to Classical Myth ([Link]
ntroductio0000powe). Prentice-Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-025839-7.
Ruck Carl, Staples Blaise Daniel (1994). The World of Classical Myth. Carolina Academic
Press. ISBN 978-0-89089-575-7.
 Smith, William (1870), Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology ([Link]
[Link]/web/20051130005902/[Link]
Veyne, Paul (1988). Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? An Essay on Constitutive
Imagination ([Link] (translated by Paula
Wissing). University of Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-85434-2.
Woodward, Roger D., ed. (2007). The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology ([Link]
[Link]/books?id=TQyRX6WmMUMC). Cambridge; New York: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-84520-5.

External links
Media related to Greek mythology at Wikimedia Commons
Greek Myths ([Link] on In Our Time at the BBC
Library of Classical Mythology Texts ([Link]
[Link]/) translations of works of classical literature
LIMC-France ([Link] provides databases dedicated to Graeco-Roman
mythology and its iconography.
Martin P. Nilsson, The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology ([Link]
ks?id=xQzlzYEUm2QC&dq=mycenaeans+chronology&pg=PA11), on Google books
Greek mythology, the age of gods, myths and heroes ([Link]
thology/), [Link]

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