Illustrations 1. The Olympians, triumphant on Mount Olympus. 2. Prometheus continues to endure his terrible punishment. 3. The shower of gold. 4. Danaë and Perseus, rescued from the wooden box. 5. Perseus holds the head of Medusa, whose body lies on the ground. 6. The Head of Medusa. 7. Perseus rescues Andromeda from the sea dragon Cetus. 8. The infant Heracles choking a snake. 9. The creation of the Milky Way. 10. Heracles’ First Labour, the great Nemean Lion. 11. Heracles holds the Erymanthian boar over Eurystheus, cowering in his stone jar. 12. An Amazon defending herself from one of Heracles’ men. 13. Heracles, with his lion skin, club and bow, navigates while standing inside the Cup of Helios. 14. The Garden of the Hesperides. 15. The Gigantomachy, or the Fall of the Giants. 16. Pegasus and Bellerophon. 17. Orpheus plays for love, before Hades and Persephone. 18. Orpheus turns too quickly. 19. The Pythia at Delphi. 20. Hylas and the nymphs. 21. The Clashing Rocks. 22. Jason taming the Khalkotauroi. 23. Medea. 24. Medea tames the Colchis Dragon. 25. Jason finds the Golden Fleece. 26. The Calydonian Hunt. 27. The Foot Race. 28. Oedipus answers the riddle of the Sphinx. 29. The Labours of Theseus. 30. Theseus and the Marathonian Bull. 31. The art of bull-leaping. 32. The Tribute. 33. The Cretan Labyrinth. 34. The Minotaur. 35. The Fall of Icarus. 36. Ariadne, abandoned. 37. Theseus in Athens’ Syntagma Square.
List of Characters
O LYMPIAN G ODS APHRODITE Goddess of love. Offspring of Ouranos’s blood and seed. Wife of Hephaestus. Mother (by Ares) of Eros and Phobos. Inflicts dreadful punishments on those who neglect her, such as Atalanta and Hippomenes, Hippolytus, and Medea. Lover (and lifesaver) of Butes, by whom she has Eryx.
C HILDREN OF K RONOS AND R HEA DEMETER Goddess of fertility and the harvest. Mother (by Zeus) of Persephone, whose absence in the underworld she mourns for six months each year. Worshipped in the Eleusinian Mysteries. HADESfn1 God of the underworld. Also known as Plouton. Abductor and husband of Persephone. Master of Cerberus; lends him to Heracles. Possessor of hood of invisibility and Chair of Forgetfulness. Abettor of Perseus. Grants Orpheus the chance to bring Eurydice back from the dead. Imprisons Pirithous and Theseus for attempting to kidnap Persephone. HERA Queen of the Gods. Wife of Zeus. Mother (by Zeus) of Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe and Hephaestus. Breastfeeding accident gives rise to Milky Way. Possessor of malevolent gadflies and ferocious giant crab. Persecutor of Heracles; later his mother-in-law. Her honour defended by Heracles during the Gigantomachy. Enemy of Neleus and Pelias. Abettor of Jason in his quest for the Golden Fleece. Sender of the Sphinx to punish Thebes in fulfilment of Pelops’s curse on Laius. POSEIDON God of the sea. Inventor (and god) of horses. Father of Antaeus (by Gaia), Bellerophon (by Eurynome), Chrysaor and Pegasus (by Medusa), Eurytus and Cteatus (by Molione), the golden ram (by Theophane), Neleus and Pelias (by Tyro), Theseus (by Aethra), and possibly of Cercyon, Procrustes, Sciron and Sinis. Grandfather of Aegyptus, Cepheus and Phineus, and of Hippolytus and Nestor. Persecutor of Andromeda. Abettor of Bellerophon and Heracles. Builds Troy’s walls with Apollo; then sends sea monster to devour Hesione when Laomedon reneges on payment. Sends Minos II the Cretan Bull; then sends Pasiphae mad with lust for it. Grants Caenis gender reassignment. Fulfils Theseus’s curse on Hippolytus. ZEUS King of the Gods. Overthrower of Kronos. Liberator of his siblings from Kronos’s captivity. Husband of Hera. Father of OLYMPIAN GODS. Father of the immortals Eileithyia and Hebe (by Hera), Persephone (by Demeter) and the Muses (by Mnemosyne). Father of the mortals Aeacus (by Aegina), Amphion and Zethus (by Antiope), Dardanus and Harmonia (by the Pleiad Electra), the Dioscuros Polydeuces and Helen (by Leda), Heracles (by Alcmene), Minos I and Rhadamanthus (by Europa), Perseus (by Danaë) and Pirithous (by Dia). Creator of Nephele. Punisher of Asclepius, Atlas and Prometheus. Wielder of thunderbolts. Possessor of the oracle at Dodona.
C HILDREN OF Z EUS APOLLO Archer god and god of harmony. Son of Zeus and the TITANESS Leto. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Twin of Artemis. Father of Aristaeus and Idmon (by Cyrene), Asclepius (by Coronis), Hymen (by the Muse Urania), Linus and Orpheus (by the Muse Calliope) and Lycomedes (by Parthenope). Grandfather of Eurytus. Slayer of Python and establisher of the Pythia’s oracle at Delphi. Slayer of the Cyclopes in revenge for Zeus’s smiting of Asclepius. Servant and lover of Admetus. Devises plan with the Moirai to grant Admetus immortality. Abettor of Heracles and Orpheus. Builds Troy’s walls with Poseidon; then infects the city with plague when Laomedon reneges on payment. ARES God of war. Son of Zeus and Hera. Brother of Hephaestus. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Father of Eros and Phobos (by Aphrodite); of the Amazons, notably Antiope and Hippolyta (by the nymph Harmonia); and of Alcon, Diomedes and Eurytion. Perhaps father (by Althaea) of Meleager. Forebear of the Thracians. Possessor of man-eating metal birds. Along with Dionysus, a curser of the house of Cadmus. ARTEMIS Goddess of chastity and the chase. Daughter of Zeus and the TITANESS Leto. Twin of Apollo. Half-sister of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Mistress of the Cerynaeian Hind; lends her to Heracles. Venerated by Atalanta and Hippolytus. Sensitive to slights: sends snakes to ruin the wedding night of Admetus and Alcestis; sends the Calydonian Boar and Atalanta to punish Calydon and the family of Oeneus, and transforms most of the Meleagrids into guinea fowl. ATHENA Goddess of wisdom. Daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Metis. Half-sister of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Patron of Athens. Abettor of Bellerophon, Heracles, Jason and Perseus. Possessor of Aegis (see Medusa). Imprisons the GIANT Enceladus under Mount Vesuvius. DIONYSUS God of dissipation and disorder. Son of Zeus and the mortal Semele. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Suckled by his aunt Ino. Along with Ares, a curser of the house of Cadmus. Drives his aunts Agave, Autonoë and Ino mad. Transforms Ino and his cousin Melicertes into sea deities. Causes Agave and Autonoë to help tear apart his cousin Pentheus. Orders Theseus to surrender Ariadne so that they can marry and produce numerous offspring. Restores Ariadne and Semele to life so that they can all live together on Olympus. HEPHAESTUS Smith god. Son of Zeus and Hera. Brother of Ares. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Possibly the father of Cercyon and Periphetes. Cast out of Olympus as an infant by Hera and lamed. Abettor of Heracles. Creator of marvels including a golden breastplate and bronze rattle for Heracles, the Khalkotauroi for Aeëtes, and (some believe) Talos. HERMES Messenger of the gods and arch-psychopomp. Son of Zeus and the Pleiad Maia. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Father of Abderus and Autolycus. Abettor of Heracles and Perseus. Possessor of caduceus (winged staff), petasus (winged helmet), talaria (winged sandals).