Greek mythology

Greek mythology is filled with all kinds of interesting characters. It contains petty gods, demi-god heroes, and vicious monsters. The youngest generation of the gods are the Olympians and their offspring. These are the most famous deities, but there used to be another generation of gods that ruled over the universe. That generation is referred to as “Titans (male) and Titanides (female)”. The majority of Greek mythology revolves around the Olympians and their offspring, some of them demi-gods that were fathered on mortals. We attempt to provide a clear overview of all interesting characters down below.

The mythology of the Greek world spread to the Romans and found syncreticsim with the Egyptian mythology. Where the Greco-Roman mythology was largely the same, both would borrow elements from the Egyptian pantheon and its stories.

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The Olympians

  • Aphrodite – Goddess of love and beauty.
  • Apollo – God of many, many things.
  • Ares – God of war and courage.
  • Artemis – Goddess of hunting, animals, nature, childbirth, and chastity.
  • Athena – Goddess of wisdom, strategy, and craftsmanship.
  • Demeter – Goddess of harvest, fertility, and agriculture.
  • Dionysus – God of festivals, booze, madness, human arts, civilization, law, and innovation.
  • Hephaestus – God of the smithy, forging, fire, and volcanoes.
  • Hera – Goddess of family, fertility, femininity, and marriage.
  • Hermes – Messenger god of Olympus. Also a god of many, many things.
  • Hestia – Goddess of the household, hearth, sacrifice, and state.
  • Poseidon – God of the seas, earthquakes, storms, and horses.
  • Zeus – Supreme god of the Greek pantheon. God of the skies, thunder, and natural order.

Other gods and goddesses (that did not live on Olympus)

  • Aeolus – Ruler of the winds.
  • Asclepius – God of medicine and healing.
  • Charon – the ferryman of the Underworld.
  • Eirene – Goddess of peace
  • Eris – Goddess of strife and discord.
  • Eros – God of love, especially erotic and romantic love.
  • Hades – God of the Underworld and the dead.
  • Harmonia – Goddess of harmony and concord.
  • Hebe – Goddess of youth and cupbearer to the gods.
  • Hecate – Goddess of magic, witchcraft, necromancy, and crossroads.
  • Hypnos – God of sleep.
  • Iris – Goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods.
  • Melinoe – Goddess of ghosts.
  • Morpheus – God of dreams.
  • Nemesis – Goddess of retribution and revenge.
  • Pallas – A giant associated with war.
  • Pan – God of the wild, shepherds, flocks, nature of mountain wilds, and rustic music.
  • Persephone – Queen of the Underworld and goddess of spring growth.
  • Phobetor – personification of nightmares.
  • Plutus – God of wealth.
  • Selene – Goddess of the moon.
  • The Charites (Graces) – Goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity, and fertility.
  • The Erinnyes (Furies) – Female deities of vengeance.
  • The Fates (Moirae) – Three sisters who control the destiny of both mortals and gods.
  • The Horae – Goddesses of the seasons and natural portions of time.
  • The Keres – Female death-spirits.
  • The Muses – Nine goddesses who preside over the arts and sciences.
  • The Oneiroi – Black-winged daimons that personify dreams.
  • Thanatos – Personification of death.
  • Triton – Messenger of the sea and the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.
  • Tyche – Goddess of fortune and prosperity of a city.

Titans and Titanides (Cronus and his siblings, nephews, and nieces)

  • Coeus – Titan personification of intelligence.
  • Crius – Titan personification of leadership and heavenly constellations.
  • Cronus – Titan personification of time; former ruler of the universe.
  • Eos – Titanide personification of dawn.
  • Helios – Titan (or god?) personification of the sun.
  • Hyperion – Titan personification of light (and the sun).
  • Iapetus – Titan personification of mortality.
  • Metis – Titanide personification of wisdom and deep thought.
  • Mnemosyne – Titanide personification of memory.
  • Oceanus – Titan personification of the oceans that surround the world.
  • Phoibe – Titanide personification of intelligence.
  • Prometheus – Titan creator of humanity; he who stole the fire of the gods.
  • Rhea – Titanide personification of earth, which she took over from Gaia.
  • Tethys – Titanide personification of underground rivers and springs.
  • Thea – Titanide personification of light.
  • Themis – Titanide personification of law and order.

Primordial beings (those that came before the Titans and Titanides, and some of their offspring)

  • Aether – Primordial god of the upper air, light, and atmosphere.
  • Ananke – Primordial goddess of inevitability, compulsion, and necessity.
  • Ceto – Primordial sea goddess
  • Chaos – Primordial personification of chaos: the primordial being in Greek cosmology.
  • Chronos – Primordial god of time, not to be confused with Cronus, the Titan king.
  • Erebus – Primordial deity of darkness, born from Chaos.
  • Erinyes – the Furies, goddesses of vengeance.
  • Eros – Primordial personification of love.
  • Gaia – Primordial personification of Earth; Mother Earth.
  • Hemera – Primordial goddess of day, daughter of Erebus and Nyx
  • Nyx – Primordial personification of darkness.
  • Phanes – Primordial god of procreation and the generation of new life.
  • Phorcys – Primordial sea god.
  • Pontus – Primordial personification of oceans.
  • Tartarus – Prison of Titans.
  • Thalassa – Primordial spirit of the sea, often associated with the sea surface.
  • Thesis – Primordial god/goddess of creation, sometimes thought to be a child of Chaos
  • Ouranus – Primordial personification of the heavens.

Demigods and other special mortals

  • Achilles – one of the most formidable warriors of Greece.
  • Adonis – the lover of Aphrodite.
  • Aeacus – legendary king and one of the judges of souls in Hades.
  • Aegina – lover of Zeus, mother of Aeacus and Telamon.
  • Aeneas – A Trojan hero, the ancestor of Romulus and Remus, founders of Rome
  • Agamemmnon – King of Mycenae, who led the Greek army in the Trojan war.
  • Ajax the Greater – Son of Telamon, known for his strength and courage during the Trojan War
  • Ajax the Lesser – Son of Oileus, also a hero of the Trojan War
  • Amphiaraus – A seer and a king who participated in the Seven Against Thebes and the Argonauts’ expedition.
  • Amphion – Son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin brother of Zethus
  • Althaea – the mother who committed infanticide for a good reason.
  • Antigone – daughter of Oedipus, known for her tragic defiance
  • Antilochus – Son of Nestor, known for his role in the Trojan War and his friendship with Achilles.
  • Arachne – the girl who challenged Athena.
  • Arcas – Son of Zeus and Callisto, a nymph and minor goddess associated with Aphrodite
  • Ariadne – princess of Crete who helped Theseus escape the labyrinth.
  • Asclepius – Son of Apollo and Coronis, who became the god of healing and medicine after death
  • Atalanta – fierce huntress, one of the Argonauts.
  • Bellerophon – tamer of the Pegasus and challenger of the gods.
  • Cadmus – Founder and first king of Thebes, who introduced the Phoenician alphabet to the Greeks.
  • Cassandra – princess of Troy who was both gifted and cursed with foresight.
  • Cephalus – A mortal loved by the dawn goddess Eos.
  • Cephissus
  • Circe – powerful sorceress who transformed humans into animals.
  • Deucalion – A survivor of the Great Flood in Greek mythology.
  • Diomedes – Another prominent warrior in the Trojan War.
  • Electra – Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, involved in the revenge against her mother
  • Eumaeus – The loyal swineherd who helps Odysseus reclaim his throne after his return to Ithaca.
  • Euphemus – A son of Poseidon and a member of the Argonauts with the gift of walking on water.
  • Europa – the princess who was abducted by Zeus in a bullish endeavor.
  • Hector – prince of Troy and its most skilled warrior.
  • Helen of Troy – the most beautiful woman in the world, her abduction sparked the Trojan war.
  • Heracles – son of Zeus, famous for completing the twelve labors.
  • Hippomenes
  • Icarus – known for his fatal flight too close to the sun.
  • Idomeneus – King of Crete who led the Cretan armies to the Trojan War.
  • Jason – Leader of the Argonauts, whose quest was to acquire the Golden Fleece.
  • Laertes – Father of Odysseus, who eventually aids in the slaughter of the suitors.
  • Leitus – A Boeotian hero and one of the leaders of the Greeks during the Trojan War.
  • Lycaon – the king who was turned into a werewolf by Zeus.
  • Machaon – A son of Asclepius, he was a healer in the Trojan War.
  • Meleager – the hunter who killed the Calydonian boar.
  • Menelaus – King of Sparta, husband of Helen.
  • Minos – King of Crete, later judget of the dead in Hades.
  • Narcissus – known for his beauty and his tragic end, falling in love with his own reflection.
  • Nausicaa – The Phaeacian princess who encounters Odysseus when he washes ashore on her island.
  • Nestor – King of Pylos, noted for his wisdom, longevity, and eloquence, participant in the Trojan War.
  • Odysseus – King of Ithaca, famed for his cunning and the Odyssey.
  • Oedipus – King of Thebes, who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother.
  • Orion – A giant huntsman whom Zeus placed among the stars as the constellation of Orion
  • Orpheus – famous musician and poet, one of the Argonauts.
  • Palamedes – A Greek hero who is credited with several inventions, including dice and the Greek alphabet.
  • Paris – the prince of Troy who abducted Helen of Sparta.
  • Patroclus – Achilles’ closest companion whose death precipitated Achilles’ return to battle.
  • Peleus – father of Achilles, associated with teh story of the golden apple.
  • Pelops – Famous for his chariot race with King Oenomaus of Pisa and the namesake of the Peloponnese.
  • Penelope – The faithful wife of Odysseus who waited for his return from the Trojan War.
  • Perseus – son of Zeus, slayer of Medusa.
  • Pirithous – King of the Lapiths and a close friend of Theseus, known for his wedding where the battle between the Lapiths and Centaurs occurred.
  • Philoctetes – Holder of Heracles’ bow and arrows, he played a key role in the Trojan War
  • Priam of Troy – King of Troy during the Trojan war.
  • Protesilaus – The first Greek hero to jump ashore at Troy and the first to die in the war.
  • Psyche – A mortal woman who becomes the wife of Eros and is granted immortality.
  • Rhadamanthus – another son of Zeus, judge of the dead.
  • Sarpedon – son of Zeus, fought at Troy
  • Semele – mother of Dionysus by Zeus.
  • Sisyphus – King of Corinth known for his punishment in the underworld of eternally rolling a boulder uphill.
  • Telamon – father of Ajax, one of the Argonauts.
  • Telemachus – Son of Odysseus, who goes on a journey to find his father.
  • Teucer – Half-brother of Ajax the Greater, an excellent archer.
  • Theseus – Hero of Athens who defeated the Minotaur.
  • Tiresias – Blind prophet of Thebes, transformed into a woman for seven years.

Nymphs

  • Acantha – A nymph whose name means “thorn” in Greek.
  • Amalthea – The nymph who nursed the infant Zeus with goat’s milk.
  • Arethusa – A nymph associated with a sacred spring.
  • Calypso – The nymph who detained Odysseus on her island for several years in Homer’s Odyssey 
  • Clytie – A water nymph who was in love with the sun god Helios.
  • Daphne – A nymph who was transformed into a laurel tree to escape Apollo.
  • Dryope – A nymph known for her tragic transformation into a tree.
  • Echo – Known for her love for Narcissus and being cursed to only repeat the words of others.
  • Egeria – A nymph attributed with prophetic powers and associated with the Roman king Numa Pompilius.
  • Endeis – A nymph who was the wife of King Aeacus and mother of the heroes Telamon and Peleus. 
  • Galatea – A sea nymph loved by the Cyclops Polyphemus and later by the shepherd Acis.
  • Lampetia – A nymph who tended her father Helios’s flocks of sheep on the island of Thrinacia.
  • Leucothea – A sea goddess who aided Odysseus, once a mortal princess named Ino.
  • Melinoë – A nymph of the underworld, associated with nightmares and madness.
  • Melissa – Nymphs who discovered and taught the use of honey and from whom bees were believed to have received their name.
  • Liriope – A naiad nymph who was the mother of Narcissus
  • Nephele – A cloud nymph created by Zeus from a cloud in the image of Hera
  • Nicaea – A nymph known for her story involving the god Dionysus 
  • Pitys – A nymph beloved by Pan. She was pursued by the god of the wind.
  • Pleiades – The seven daughters of the Titan Atlas and the sea-nymph Pleione, transformed into a cluster of stars.
  • Salmacis – known for her story with Hermaphroditus where they were merged into one being 
  • Syrinx – A nymph known for her chastity and devotion to Artemis.
  • Syke – Mentioned as a nymph who was transformed into a fig tree 
  • Thetis – sea nymph, mother of Achilles.
  • Thoosa – sea nymph, lover of Poseidon and mother of Polyphemus.

Monsters and other special creatures

  • Alcyoneus – A giant who was immortal within the boundaries of his homeland, Pallene.
  • Aloadae – A pair of giants who attempted to storm Olympus.
  • Amphisbaena – A serpent with a head at each end.
  • Antaeus – A giant who was invincible while he touched the ground.
  • Argus Panoptes – A giant with a hundred eyes, known as the all-seeing guardian.
  • Cacus – A fire-breathing giant and the son of Vulcan who was killed by Hercules.
  • Campe – A dragon tasked with guarding the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires in Tartarus.
  • Calydonian boar – a wild beast that terrorized the region of Calydon.
  • Cercopes – Mischievous forest spirits, known for their tricks and thievery.
  • Charybdis – A sea monster whose giant whirlpool swallows huge amounts of water three times a day.
  • Chimaera – A fire-breathing hybrid creature with the body of a lioness, the head of a goat, and the tail of a serpent.
  • Cerastes – A horned serpent.
  • Cetus – A sea monster that terrorized Ethiopia.
  • Chimera – vicious monster that faced off against Bellerophon.
  • Colchian Dragon – Guarded the Golden Fleece at Colchis.
  • Crommyonian Sow – A gigantic pig that terrorized the region of Crommyon.
  • Dracaenae – Female monsters with the lower body of a serpent.
  • Echidna – monster that was mother to many other legendary monsters.
  • Empusa – A monstrous female creature with one leg of bronze and the other of a donkey, known to seduce and feed on travelers.
  • Enceladus – A giant who was buried under Mount Etna in Sicily by Athena.
  • Erymanthian Boar – A monstrous boar captured by Heracles during one of his labors.
  • Gegenees – Six-armed giants encountered by the Argonauts in the land of the Doliones.
  • Geryon – A giant monster with three bodies who was killed by Heracles during his tenth labor.
  • Gorgons – Sisters with hair of living snakes, whose gaze could turn people to stone; Medusa is the most famous.
  • Griffin (or Gryphon) – A creature with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle.
  • Harpies – Winged spirits known for stealing food and tormenting Phineus.
  • Hecatoncheires
  • Hydra – multi-headed menace that formed one of the twelve labors of Heracles.
  • Ichthyocentaurs – Sea creatures with the upper body of a man, the lower front of a horse, and the tail of a fish.
  • Karkinos – A giant crab that assisted the Hydra in its battle with Heracles.
  • Kerberos – the hellhound we all know and love.
  • Keres
  • Ladon – A dragon that guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides.
  • Laestrygonians – A tribe of giant cannibals encountered by Odysseus.
  • Lamia – A child-devouring monster or night-haunting daemon.
  • Lernaean Hydra – A multi-headed serpent slain by Heracles; often simply referred to as the Hydra.
  • Lotus Eaters – People who ate the narcotic lotus plant and lived in a state of forgetful bliss.
  • Maeonian Drakon – A dragon that lived in the river Maeander and was slain by the gods.
  • Medusa – the Gorgon who could petrify with her eyes.
  • Minyades – Three sisters who were transformed into bats and owls, becoming monstrous after denying Dionysus.
  • Moirai – the Fates, the three sisters who watched over the strings of Fate.
  • Minotaur – half-man, half-bull, complete terror.
  • Manticore – A creature with the body of a lion, a human head with three rows of sharp teeth, and a trumpet-like voice.
  • Nemean Lion – A monstrous lion defeated by Heracles as his first labor.
  • Ophiotaurus – A creature that was part bull and part serpent.
  • Orthrus – A two-headed dog and sibling to Cerberus.
  • Pegasus – the winged horse that served as a mount for Bellerophon.
  • Polyphemus – the fierce cyclops that assaulted Odysseus and his men.
  • Python – savage snake that guarded the oracle of Delphi.
  • Scylla – A sea monster with multiple heads that lived on one side of a narrow channel of water, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis.
  • Skylla – Often confused with Scylla, a different sea monster associated with similar myths.
  • Sirens – Creatures with the head of a woman and the body of a bird, known for their enchanting song that led sailors to their doom.
  • Sphinx – head of a human, body of a lion, wings of a bird: the famous riddler.
  • Stymphalian Birds – Man-eating birds with bronze beaks, claws, and feathers.
  • Talos – A giant automaton made of bronze that protected Europa in Crete.
  • Teumessian Fox – A giant fox destined never to be caught.
  • Therianthropes
  • Tityos – A giant punished in Tartarus by having two vultures eat his liver every day.
  • Typhon – A monstrous serpentine giant and one of the deadliest creatures in Greek mythology.
  • Vrykolakas – A creature similar to a vampire in later Greek folklore.