Mythology Version 1.2 SCOP Mythology
Olympian Gods Greek Roman Domain Zeus Jupiter God of the sky; chief of the gods Hera Juno Goddess of marriage; wife and sister of Zeus Poseidon Neptune God of the sea Hestia Vesta Goddess of hearth and home Demeter Ceres Goddess of earth and harvest Ares Mars God of war (Pallas) Athena Minerva Goddess of knowledge and invention Apollo (Phoebus) Apollo God of light, prophecy, healing, music, and archery Aphrodite Venus Goddess of love and beauty Hermes Mercury Messenger god; master thief and trickster Artemis Diana Goddess of the hunt Hephaestus Vulcan Deformed god of blacksmiths and skilled industry
Other figures Greek Roman Domain Hades Pluto God of the underworld Persephone Proserpina Queen of the underworld; daughter of Demeter Dionysus Bacchus God of wine and merrymaking Eros Cupid God of love Helios Sol God of the sun
Genealogy of the Olympian gods:
Scholastic Community Outreach Program 2010-2011
Mythology Version 1.2
Greco-Roman Mythology: Creatures
CentaursBody of a horse, torso of a man. Famous centaurs include Chiron and Nessus. Cerberus Three-headed dog who guards the gates of Hades. Charybdis Whirlpool sea monster who appears in the Odyssey. Chimaera Female monster killed by Belerophon. Lion’s front, goat’s middle, snake’s tail. Cyclops One-eyed humanoid, often a giant. Polyphemus appears in the Odyssey. Echidna Woman-snake. Mother of many other Greco-Roman monsters. Faun/Satyr Goat’s legs and horns, human torso. Most famous one is Pan. Gryphon Lion’s head and body, eagle’s wings. Hippogriff Lion’s head, eagle’s talons and wings, horse’s hind quarters. Hydra 100-headed monster who grew two heads whenever one was severed. Killed by Heracles. Minotaur Man with the head of a bull, son of Pasiphae and a white bull. Pegasus Winged horse. Ridden by Belerophon as he defeated the Chimaera. Phoenix Bird that bursts into flame and is reborn from its own ashes. Sirens Woman-birds who try to kill sailors by luring them to rocks with their sweet songs.
Greco-Roman Mythology: Stories
Heracles ● Son of Zeus and Alcmene, a mortal. Hera, angered by Zeus’s infidelity, sent a pair of serpents into Heracles’s crib, where he killed them. ● Hera caused the adult Heracles to go into a rage and kill his children and, in some accounts, his first wife Megara. ● To atone for the murder, he performed twelve labors. He: slew the Nemean lion; slew the Hydra; captured Artemis’s golden hind; captured the Erymanthian boar; cleaned the Augean stables; slew the Stymphalian birds; captured the Cretan bull; stole Diomedes’s mares; stole Hippolyta’s girdle; stole Geryon’s cattle; stole the apples of the Hesperides; and captured Cerberus. King Minos ● Poseidon sent him a white bull as a sign that he should rule Crete, but when he failed to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, Aphrodite caused Minos’s wife, Parsiphae, to fall in love with the bull. ● Parsiphae made Daedalus build her a wooden cow shell in which she could copulate with the bull. From this union, the Minotaur was born. ● Daedalus built the Labyrinth to house the brutish Minotaur, to which Minos regularly sent Cretan youths as food. Daedalus and Icarus ● To stop anyone from finding out about the plan for the Labyrinth, Minos shut Daedalus and Icarus up in a tower. They built wings of feathers and wax to escape, but Icarus flew too close to the sun, and the wax melted, sending him tumbling to his death in the sea. Theseus ● Theseus entered the Labyrinth and slew the Minotaur, then made his way out by following a string given to him by Ariadne. ● Founded Athens. Demeter and Persephone ● Persephone was stolen away by Hades, who wished to make her his queen. Zeus forced Hades to return her, only to discover that she had eaten several pomegranate seeds, which bound her to the underworld for one third of ever year. This causes winter, as Demeter causes plants to grow when she is happily reunited with her daughter, but allows the earth to remain barren when grieving her loss.
Scholastic Community Outreach Program 2010-2011