Characters

Gods, heroes, titans, and mortals. Each entry opens with a one-sentence definition, then sets out the core myth, the later traditions it passed through, and the sources behind both.

112 characters published

Gods

Aeolus
god
Warden of the winds who gives Odysseus a bag of storms his own crew opens too soon.
Apollo
god
Olympian god of light, music, prophecy, healing, and archery.
Ares
god
Olympian god of war, violence, and the raw brutality of battle.
Asclepius
god
God of medicine, taught by Chiron, killed by Zeus for raising the dead.
Bacchus
god
Roman wine god merged with the native Liber, counterpart to Dionysus, whose cult the state suppressed in 186 BCE.
Boreas
god
God of the North Wind who abducted an Athenian princess and, Athenians believed, wrecked a Persian fleet.
Chaos
god
The formless first being in Hesiod's cosmogony, ancestor of primordial Darkness and Night.
Charon
god
Ferryman who rows the dead across the water into the underworld, paid with a coin placed in the mouth.
Dionysus
god
Olympian god of wine, festivity, theater, and ecstatic experience.
Erebus
god
Primordial god of darkness, born of Chaos, whose name Homer also uses for the underworld itself.
Eros
god
God of desire, primordial in Hesiod but Aphrodite's mischievous son in almost every later source.
Hades
god
God of the dead and ruler of the underworld.
Hephaestus
god
Olympian god of fire, the forge, metalworking, and craftsmanship.
Hermes
god
Olympian messenger god, patron of trade, travel, thieves, and eloquence.
Hypnos
god
God of Sleep, twin brother of Death, who once helped Hera deceive Zeus for a price.
Jupiter
god
Roman king of the gods, guarantor of oaths and state religion, counterpart to the Greek Zeus.
Mars
god
Rome's premier war god and mythical father of Romulus, ranked second only to Jupiter.
Mercury
god
Roman god of trade and merchants, patron of commerce, counterpart to the Greek Hermes.
Neptune
god
Roman sea and horse god, counterpart to Poseidon, honored at the July Neptunalia.
Nereus
god
The truthful "Old Man of the Sea," eldest son of Pontus and Gaia, father of the fifty Nereids.
Ouranos
god
The sky, first ruler of the cosmos, father of the Titans and overthrown by Kronos.
Pan
god
Goat-legged god of the wild, son of Hermes, whose birth delighted every god who saw him.
Pluto
god
Roman ruler of the dead, a fusion of the native Dis Pater and Orcus with the Greek Hades/Pluto.
Pontus
god
The primordial sea, born of Gaia alone, father of Nereus and the sea's oldest divine lineage.
Poseidon
god
Olympian god of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses.
Proteus
god
The shape-shifting, unerring "Old Man of the Sea" whom Menelaus wrestles into prophecy in Egypt.
Thanatos
god
God of Death, twin brother of Sleep, who carries the fallen to their rest.
Triton
god
Poseidon and Amphitrite's son, herald of the sea and father of the Palladium's Pallas.
Vulcan
god
Roman god of fire and the forge, counterpart to the Greek Hephaestus, worshipped chiefly to prevent fire rather than to celebrate it.
Zephyrus
god
God of the west wind, brother of Boreas, father of Achilles's immortal horses.
Zeus
god
King of the Olympian gods, ruler of the sky and thunder, and upholder of justice and cosmic order.

Goddesses

Titans

Nymphs

Heroes

Mortals

Monsters

Creatures