Greco: Roman Mythology Greco-RomanEncyclopedia of Mythology Mike Dixon-Kennedy B Santa Barbara, California Denver, Colorado Oxford, England Copyright © 1998 by Mike Dixon-Kennedy All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or trans- mitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dixon-Kennedy, Mike, 1958– Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman mythology / Mike Dixon-Kennedy. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Mythology, Classical—Encyclopedias. I. Title. BL715.D56 1998 292.1'3'03—dc21 98-40666 CIP ISBN 1-57607-094-8 (hc) ISBN 1-57607-129-4 (pbk) 0403020100999810987654321 ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 Typesetting by Letra Libre This book is printed on acid-free paper I . Manufactured in the United States of America. For my father, who first told me stories from ancient Greece and Rome K Contents k Preface, ix How to Use This Book, xi Greece and Greek Civilization, xiii Encyclopedia of Greco-Roman Mythology, 1 Bibliography, 331 Appendix 1: Chronologies for Ancient Greece and Rome, 341 Appendix 2: Roman Emperors, 343 Index, 345 vii K Preface k Perhaps more words have been written, and now contains a mass of information about over a longer period of time, about the classi- each and every world culture, from the Aztecs cal Greek and Roman cultures than any other. to Zoroastrianism. The time is right, however, for a book that The most extensive part of the database cov- takes the legwork out of finding reliable infor- ers the classical cultures of Greece and Rome. I mation about Greek and Roman beliefs. attribute this fact to three main factors. First, Obviously this volume cannot cover each and these cultures have permeated the very every character, event, and place that may be essence that is present-day Europe (indeed, if found in the classical Greek and Roman myths it had not been for the story of Europa, Europe and legends. To do so would involve a great might have had an altogether different name). many more words, and thus a great many Second, the teachings of the classical thinkers more pages (and volumes). However, this vol- have, to a large extent, shaped not only Europe ume does cover all the major players, places, but the rest of the world. Third, a large number and events and includes many of the lesser of texts from the period have survived into the known or more obscure so as to enable you— modern day, along with the archaeology to the reader, the student, the like-minded— support them. From all this comes a relative quick and relatively painless access to the ease of research, and it is that ease, the sim- information. plicity with which students or researchers can Additionally, so that further independent lay their hands on the information, that has led research might be facilitated with the mini- to a plethora of books (good and bad) on the mum of fuss, this book has been researched, to subject. a great extent, from the works of the essential Love of mythology and legend leads to classical authors and Robert Graves, with the research of people themselves, and as a result I remainder of the information coming from have been drawn into those personal histories— original personal research. This approach will their cultures, their wars, their laws, their very enable readers to find further information existences. This further research has, to a small without having to look for obscure publica- degree, been incorporated within the pages of tions and to decide on their own course for fur- this volume so that you can, without having to ther research. look further afield, get a feeling for the people The myths and legends of ancient Greece and their times—and, I hope, a feeling for the and Rome have been close to my heart from a reasons why the classical Greeks and Romans very early age, when my father, a classical revered their deities as no other civilizations scholar, would tell me the myths as most have or possibly ever will. I hope that one day I fathers would tell their children bedtime sto- will be asked to write a history of the classical ries. I grew up with the stories of Heracles and peoples. his amazing adventures, of the perils of I hope you will find this volume of consid- Odysseus as he spent ten years traveling home erable use. It has taken many painstaking from the Trojan War, of Theseus and the years of solitary research. I have not relied on Minotaur, of Perseus and Medusa, of Romulus the contributions of anyone other than myself, and Remus, and many, many more. This child- so only I can take blame for any mistakes that hood knowledge led to my starting a database may have found their way into the text. No of my own research in the mid-1970s, and doubt some exist; after all, it is only human to since then that database has grown until it make mistakes. However, should you wish to ix x Preface bring these mistakes to my attention, or to you now hold, along with Jon Howard for his make any other points or suggestions, I should copyediting. Finally my thanks go to the five only be too happy to hear from you. If you people most important to me: my wife, Gill, address your letters to me in care of the pub- and our four children, Christopher, Charlotte, lisher of this book, I will be sure to receive Thomas, and Rebecca. I thank them for their them. patience, love, and understanding as I have Finally it remains for me to thank those immersed myself in my passion—and for who have helped to bring this volume to light. keeping the house quiet enough for me to First and foremost my thanks have to go to work. One should always remember that my father, for without his storytelling I might even though writing is a solitary occupation, never have developed an interest in mytholo- it is the writer’s partner who endures the true gy. Next I have to thank Robert Neville and solitude. everyone at ABC-CLIO, whether in Oxford, Denver, or Santa Barbara, for taking the raw Mike Dixon-Kennedy text and turning it into the finished product Lincolnshire, England K How to Use This Book k This book is organized as a straightforward A- Citations to-Z encyclopedia, accompanied by two Unusually for a book of this nature you will appendices. However, to make the encyclope- not find citations following the entries. This dia as simple as possible to use, a number of omission has not been made to hinder your conventions have been adopted. research. Rather it is because the volumes All entries start with a relevant head- required to facilitate further research would be word. Where these headwords have alterna- endlessly repeated for a huge number of tive spellings, they are included. If the vari- entries, as research was done in a minimum of ant spellings are widely different, then each volumes. Those used to research this volume, variant spelling is given its own, shorter and thus those needed for further research, are entry directing you to the main entry. Where as follows: the variant is simply a matter of the omis- sion or addition of a letter or letters, then Robert Graves, The Greek Myths (2 vols.), those letters affected are enclosed in paren- Penguin Books theses within the headword. For example, Homer, Odyssey the entry Asop(h)us gives two versions, Homer, Iliad Asophus and Asopus, both of which are Virgil, Aeneid acceptable. Where the variation is a different ending, All the other information within the book then the most common or proper is given first. comes from original personal research. For example, the entry Ereb~os, ~us means However, each and every volume listed with- that the most common or proper is Erebos, the in the bibliography contains essential informa- lesser so Erebus. This variation occurs fre- tion to some degree or another, and it is my quently, particularly among the Greek entries, hope that my restricting my own research to as the ~os ending is the original, the ~us end- these four essential works will stimulate your ing a Latinization. own original research. The works by Homer Where the addition is s for plural, this too and Virgil are available in a large number of is given in parentheses. Where the difference translations and from almost as many publish- is a complete word, that word is enclosed in ers. Those I used were published by Penguin parentheses. This usually occurs when an Books, but that does not mean that you should epithet or surname is a part of the full title but not use any translation that is easy for you to is not commonly used: for example, Argo locate. Excellent modern translations have (Navis). been done by Robert Fagles, but it is up to you Italic words in headwords, following stan- to decide on the version you wish to put your dard editorial conventions, indicate the title of faith in and use to further your own original a book or poem or the name of a ship or that a research. foreign language is being used. Words appear- ing in italics as subheadings give the origin of Spelling and Pronunciation the myth or legend.