Greek mythology

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Scenes from Greek mythology depicted in ancient art. Left-to-right, top-to-bottom: the birth of
Aphrodite, a revel with Dionysus and Silenus, Adonis playing the kithara for Aphrodite,
Heracles slaying the Lernaean Hydra, the Colchian dragon regurgitating Jason in the presence of
Athena, Hermes with his mother Maia, the Trojan Horse, and Odysseus's ship sailing past the
island of the sirens
Greek mythology

Deities
 Primordial
 Titans
 Olympians
 Nymphs
 Sea-deities
 Earth-deities

Heroes and heroism

 Heracles / Hercules
o Labors
 Achilles
 Hector
o Trojan War
 Odysseus
o Odyssey
 Jason
 Argonauts
o Golden Fleece
 Perseus
o Medusa
 o Gorgon
 Oedipus
o Sphinx
 Orpheus
o Orphism
 Theseus
o Minotaur
 Bellerophon
o Pegasus
o Chimera
 Daedalus
o Labyrinth
 Atalanta
 Hippomenes
o Golden apple
 Cadmus
o Thebes
 Aeneas
o Aeneid
 Triptolemus
o Eleusinian Mysteries
 Pelops
o Ancient Olympic Games
 Pirithous
o Centauromachy
 Amphitryon
o Teumessian fox
 Narcissus
o Narcissism
 Meleager
o Calydonian boar hunt
 Otrera
o Amazons

Related
 Satyrs
 Centaurs
 Dragons
 Demogorgon
 Religion in Ancient Greece
 Mycenaean gods

 Ancient Greece portal

 Myths portal
 v
  t
 e

Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of
Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and
activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the
ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on
the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of
myth-making itself.[1]

The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and
Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BC;[2] eventually the myths of the heroes of the
Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer's epic poems, the Iliad
and the Odyssey. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the
Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers,
the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices.
Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle,
in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BC, in writings
of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by
writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.

Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods,
heroes, and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase paintings and the decoration of
votive gifts and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC
depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding
Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes
appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.[3]

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western
civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient
times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered
contemporary significance and relevance in the themes.[4]: 43 

Achilles and Penthesileia by Exekias, c. 540 BC, British Museum, London

Contents
 1 Sources
o 1.1 Literary sources
o 1.2 Archaeological sources
 2 Survey of mythic history
o 2.1 Origins of the world and the gods
 2.1.1 Greek pantheon
o 2.2 Age of gods and mortals
o 2.3 Heroic age
 2.3.1 Heracles and the Heracleidae
 2.3.2 Argonauts
 2.3.3 House of Atreus and Theban Cycle
 2.3.4 Trojan War and aftermath
 3 Greek and Roman conceptions of myth
o 3.1 Philosophy and myth
o 3.2 Hellenistic and Roman rationalism
o 3.3 Syncretizing trends
 4 Modern interpretations
o 4.1 Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches
o 4.2 Origin theories
 5 Motifs in Western art and literature
 6 References
o 6.1 Notes
o 6.2 Citations
o 6.3 Primary sources (Greek and Roman)
o 6.4 Secondary sources
 7 Further reading
 8 External links

Sources
Greek mythology is known today primarily from Greek literature and representations on visual
media dating from the Geometric period from c. 900 BC to c. 800 BC onward.[5]: 200  In fact,
literary and archaeological sources integrate, sometimes mutually supportive and sometimes in
conflict; however, in many cases, the existence of this corpus of data is a strong indication that
many elements of Greek mythology have strong factual and historical roots.[6]

Literary sources

Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature.
Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was
the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the
poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.[7]: 1 
Apollodorus of Athens lived from c. 180 BC to c. 125 BC and wrote on many of these topics. His
writings may have formed the basis for the collection; however, the "Library" discusses events
that occurred long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus.

Prometheus (1868 by Gustave Moreau). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by Hesiod
and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of
Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, and Prometheus Pyrphoros.

Among the earliest literary sources are Homer's two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Other
poets completed the Epic Cycle, but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely.
Despite their traditional name, the Homeric Hymns have no direct connection with Homer. The
oldest are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called Lyric age.[8]: 7  Hesiod, a possible
contemporary with Homer, offers in his Theogony (Origin of the Gods) the fullest account of the
earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world, the origin of the gods, Titans, and
Giants, as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales, and aetiological myths. Hesiod's Works and
Days, a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of Prometheus, Pandora, and
the Five Ages. The poet advises on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet
more dangerous by its gods.[3]

Lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less
narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including Pindar, Bacchylides and Simonides, and
bucolic poets such as Theocritus and Bion, relate individual mythological incidents.[9]: xii 
Additionally, myth was central to classical Athenian drama. The tragic playwrights Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan
War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g. Agamemnon and his children, Oedipus, Jason, Medea,
etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright Aristophanes also used
myths, in The Birds and The Frogs.[8]: 8 

Historians Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, and geographers Pausanias and Strabo, who traveled
throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and
legends, often giving little-known alternative versions.[9]: xii  Herodotus in particular, searched the
various traditions presented him and found the historical or mythological roots in the
confrontation between Greece and the East.[10]: 60 [11]: 22  Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins
and the blending of differing cultural concepts.

The poetry of the Hellenistic and Roman ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than
cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost.
This category includes the works of:

1. The Roman poets Ovid, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Seneca and Virgil with Servius's
commentary.
2. The Greek poets of the Late Antique period: Nonnus, Antoninus Liberalis, and Quintus
Smyrnaeus.
3. The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: Apollonius of Rhodes, Callimachus, Pseudo-
Eratosthenes, and Parthenius.

Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths include Apuleius, Petronius,
Lollianus, and Heliodorus. Two other important non-poetical sources are the Fabulae and
Astronomica of the Roman writer styled as Pseudo-Hyginus, the Imagines of Philostratus the
Elder and Philostratus the Younger, and the Descriptions of Callistratus.

Finally, several Byzantine Greek writers provide important details of myth, much derived from
earlier now lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include Arnobius, Hesychius, the author
of the Suda, John Tzetzes, and Eustathius. They often treat mythology from a Christian
moralizing perspective.[12]

Archaeological sources

The Roman poet Virgil, here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the Vergilius Romanus,
preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.

The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich
Schliemann in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the Minoan civilization in Crete by
the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing
questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the
mythological details about gods and heroes. Unfortunately, the evidence about myths and rituals
at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form
of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories,
although certain names of gods and heroes have been