Mythographia Editorial Team

The founding editorial team behind Mythographia, responsible for researching, writing, and reviewing all mythology reference content.

Entries authored

397

Reviewed

270

Specialties

Greek Mythology, Comparative Mythology

How This Work Is Done

Every entry cites the ancient works it rests on and labels the points where those traditions disagree. Line-level citations are checked against the Perseus Digital Library rather than taken on trust. The method is described in full on the editorial methodology page, and the rules for what counts as a source are on the sources policy page.

Entries by Collection

• Characters 191
• Stories 38
• Mythologies 2
• Glossary 87
• Names 39
• Topics 19
• Sources 1
• Compare 20

Recent Entries

• Fury

  Term

  A fury, in Greek myth, is an Erinys, a goddess who pursues anyone guilty of shedding the blood of kin. English translators call the Erinyes the Furies. Hesiod says they were born from the drops of blood that fell on Gaia when Kronos wounded his father Ouranos (Theogony 176-206). The longer entry on the Furies covers their names and parentage. Aeschylus gives the fullest picture of how a fury looks. In the Eumenides the Pythia at Delphi finds a band of sleeping women around Orestes. She says they are not women but Gorgons, and then that she cannot compare them to Gorgons either. They are wingless, black and disgusting. They snore with foul breath, and hateful drops fall from their eyes (Eumenides 46-59). Apollo calls them old women and ancient children, with whom no god, man or beast ever mingles (Eumenides 64-90). Homer shows what a fury can do. Iris tells Poseidon that the Erinyes always follow to aid the elder-born (Iliad 15.204). When Achilles's horse Xanthus begins to foretell his death, the Erinyes stop the horse's voice (Iliad 19.404-418). Aeschylus has Prometheus say that the Fates and the unforgetting Furies steer Necessity (Prometheus Bound 511-518). The Furies of the Eumenides add a claim of their own: there is a time when fear is good and should sit as a guardian of the heart (Eumenides 517-525). In Homer the fury is not yet the hunter of Orestes. The Odyssey praises Orestes for avenging his father and mentions a funeral feast for Aegisthus and for his hateful mother (Odyssey 3.303-310). Aeschylus makes the Furies the pursuers of Orestes and ends the pursuit at Athens. Athena offers them a cavernous sanctuary and shining thrones at their hearths (Eumenides 794-807). The Furies then go to the places below the earth (Eumenides 1021-1031). The whole sequence belongs to the House of Atreus and the Returns.

• Apollo in Rome

  god

  Apollo in Roman religion is the one major Greek god Rome took over under his Greek name, honoured as a healer, a source of oracles and the patron of Augustus.

• Callisto

  hero

  Callisto is the Arcadian huntress and companion of Artemis whom Zeus wronged, mother of Arcas, changed into a bear and set among the stars.

• Creon

  mortal

  Creon is the Theban ruler, son of Menoeceus and brother of Jocasta, who forbids the burial of Polynices and walls Antigone into a tomb.

• Saturn

  god

  Saturn is the Roman god of Latium's Golden Age, identified with the Greek Kronos and honored each December at the Saturnalia.

• Vulcan

  god

  Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and the forge, equivalent to the Greek Hephaestus.