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.

191 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.
Apollo in Rome

god
The Greek god Rome kept under his own name: healer of a plague-struck city, patron of the Sibylline oracles and games, and the god of Augustus.
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.
Cupid

god
Roman god of love, Venus's son and archer, who strikes gods and mortals with desire in Ovid, Virgil and Apuleius.
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.
Janus

god
Two-faced Roman god of doorways and beginnings, first in every prayer, whose gates stood open in war.
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.
Saturn

god
Roman god of Latium's Golden Age, lord of the Saturnalia, whose Forum temple housed the state treasury.
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