Greek myths
Gods, heroes and monsters: the stories that shaped European culture, explained with fact boxes, family trees and maps.
Introduction to mythology
An introduction to Greek mythology for students, teachers and the curious: what a myth is, what myths were for, the ancient sources from Homer to…
The origin of the world
How the world began according to Greek myth: from Chaos to Gaia and Uranus, the reign of Cronus who swallowed his children, the stone, the birth of…
The Titans
Who the Titans of Greek mythology were: the twelve children of Gaia and Uranus, Cronus and Rhea, Oceanus, Hyperion, Mnemosyne mother of the Muses…
The twelve Olympians
Who the twelve Olympian gods are: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and Hestia or Dionysus…
Zeus
Zeus, king of the Olympian gods and lord of the sky and thunderbolt: his birth on Crete, the war against the Titans, his marriage to Hera, his loves…
Hera
Hera, queen of the gods and wife of Zeus, protector of marriage and women: her birth, symbols such as the peacock and pomegranate, her jealousy of…
Poseidon
Poseidon, god of the sea, earthquakes and horses: his birth, the trident, his wife Amphitrite, his contest with Athena for Athens, his anger against…
Demeter
Demeter, goddess of farming and grain, and the myth of her daughter Persephone carried off by Hades: the desperate search, the famine, the…
Athena
Athena, goddess of wisdom, strategy and crafts, protector of Athens: her birth from Zeus's head, the contest with Poseidon and the olive tree, the…
Apollo
Apollo, god of light, music, poetry, medicine and prophecy: his birth on Delos with his twin Artemis, the slaying of the Python and the oracle of…
Artemis
Artemis, goddess of the hunt, wild animals, forests and the moon, protector of girls and childbirth: her birth on Delos, her free and wild nature…
Ares
Ares, god of violent war and the fury of battle: son of Zeus and Hera, little loved by gods and Greeks, his affair with Aphrodite and Hephaestus's…
Aphrodite
Aphrodite, goddess of love, beauty and desire: the two versions of her birth, from the sea foam off Cyprus or from Zeus and Dione, her son Eros, her…
Hephaestus
Hephaestus, god of fire, metalwork and craftsmen: his fall from Olympus to the island of Lemnos, his lameness, his forge beneath the volcanoes with…
Hermes
Hermes, messenger of the gods and protector of travellers, merchants, shepherds and thieves: his birth in Arcadia, stealing Apollo's cattle on his…
Dionysus
Dionysus, god of wine, celebration, ecstasy and theatre: his double birth from Zeus's thigh, his travels to the East, the pirates turned into…
Hades
Hades, god of the dead and lord of the underworld: brother of Zeus and Poseidon, the realm he received after the Titanomachy, the helmet of…
Hestia
Hestia, goddess of the domestic and public hearth: the firstborn of Cronus and Rhea, her choice to remain a maiden, the sacred fire of homes and…
Minor deities
Beyond the twelve Olympians: the nine Muses and the arts they protect, the Graces, the Hours, the Fates who spin destiny, Nike, Eros, Pan, Helios…
Prometheus and Pandora
The myth of Prometheus, the Titan who shaped humans and stole fire from the gods to give it to humankind, his punishment chained to the Caucasus with…
Crete in myth
The myths of Crete: the birth of Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida or Dikti, the goat Amalthea and the Curetes, the abduction of the princess Europa by…
Heracles
Heracles, the Romans' Hercules, the most famous Greek hero: his birth to Zeus and Alcmene, the snakes strangled in his cradle, the madness sent by…
The twelve labours
The twelve labours of Heracles one by one: the Nemean lion, the Lernaean Hydra, the Ceryneian hind, the Erymanthian boar, the Augean stables, the…
Perseus and Medusa
The myth of Perseus: his birth to Zeus and Danaë, the journey to the Gorgons with the gods' gifts, beheading Medusa by looking at her in the shield…
Theseus
Theseus, national hero of Athens: his birth at Troezen, the sword and sandals under the boulder, six deeds against bandits on the road to Athens…
The Minotaur
The myth of the Minotaur, the half-man, half-bull monster shut in the labyrinth at Knossos: Poseidon's bull and King Minos, Pasiphaë, Daedalus and…
Daedalus and Icarus
The myth of Daedalus, the Athenian inventor who built the labyrinth at Knossos, and his son Icarus: the escape from Crete on wings of feathers and…
Jason and the Argonauts
The myth of Jason and the Argonauts: the usurped throne of Iolcus and the lost sandal, building the ship Argo, the crew of heroes, the stages of the…
Bellerophon and Pegasus
The myth of Bellerophon, the hero of Corinth who tamed the winged horse Pegasus with Athena's golden bridle, Stheneboea's false accusation, the…
The Trojan War
The Trojan War explained simply: the apple of discord and the Judgement of Paris, the abduction of Helen, the Greek fleet and the sacrifice of…
Achilles
Achilles, the mightiest Greek warrior of the Trojan War: his birth to Peleus and Thetis, the dipping in the Styx and the vulnerable heel, his…
Odysseus
Odysseus, Ulysses to the Romans, king of Ithaca: the feigned madness, the Trojan Horse, the stages of the homeward voyage told in the Odyssey…
Homer, Iliad and Odyssey
Homer and the two poems at the root of European literature: who Homer was and the Homeric question, when the poems were composed, the oral tradition…
Oedipus and Thebes
The myths of Thebes explained clearly: Cadmus and the dragon's teeth, the oracle given to Laius, Oedipus and the riddle of the Sphinx, the discovery…
Orpheus and Eurydice
The myth of Orpheus and Eurydice: Orpheus, the greatest musician of antiquity, aboard the Argo, the death of Eurydice, the descent to the underworld…
The underworld
How the ancient Greeks imagined the afterlife: the realm of Hades and Persephone, Hermes as guide of souls, Charon and the coin for the crossing…
Monsters of myth
A guide to the monsters of Greek mythology: who they were, what they looked like, who defeated them and where they lived. Medusa and the Gorgons, the…
Metamorphoses
The most famous transformations in Greek myth told briefly: Daphne into laurel, Narcissus into a flower, Echo into a voice, Arachne into a spider, Io…
Constellations and myths
The sky as the Greeks told it: why constellations have mythological names, Ptolemy and the 48 classical constellations, Orion and Scorpius, the Great…
Santorini and Atlantis
Is Santorini really Atlantis? What Plato tells in the Timaeus and Critias, the great Minoan eruption of the 2nd millennium BC, the caldera, the…
Places of myth
A journey to the real places of Greek mythology: Mount Olympus, Delphi navel of the world, Olympia, Agamemnon's Mycenae, Knossos and the Minotaur's…
Myths and words
English words and expressions born from Greek mythology, explained one by one: panic, museum, music, echo, narcissism, chimera, chaos, ocean, atlas…
Myth glossary
A concise dictionary of Greek mythology from A to Z: more than ninety entries for gods, Titans, heroes, heroines, monsters, places and objects, each…
Myths for schools
A guide for teachers, students and parents to the Greek myth pages on Grecia.cc: paths for primary, middle and secondary school, suggested reading…
Ancient religion
How the ancient Greeks practised religion: a religion with no holy book or church, the Olympian gods and heroes, prayer and sacrifice, temples and…