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A group of islands off the mouth of the River Achelous,
in Acarnania, opposite the island of Cephallenia.
Bk VIII:547-610. They were nymphs turned
into islands by the river-god. |
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Bk III:339-358. A nymph whose voice gave
rise to the name for a reverberating sound.
Bk III:359-401. Juno
limits her powers of speech. She falls in love with Narcissus and is rejected. She dwindles to
sound alone.
Bk III:474-510. She pities Narcissus and
echoes his farewells and mourns for him and echoes his sister’s lamentations.
(See John William Waterhouse’s painting – Echo and Narcissus – Walker
Art Gallery, Merseyside, England) |
Edoni, Edonians, Edonides
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Bk XI:67-84. The Edonians were a Thracian
people, ruled at one time by Lycurgus
who was destroyed by Bacchus for opposing
his worship. The Edonides, the women of the Edoni, and worshippers of Bacchus,
murdered Orpheus, and were turned into
oak trees. |
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Bk XV:479-546. An Italian nymph, wife
of Numa. Unconsoled at his death she is
turned into a fountain, and its attendant streams (at Le Mole, by Nemi in
Aricia). She was worshipped as a minor deity of
childbirth at Aricia, and later in Rome.
(outside the Porta Capena: see Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ Chapter I.) |
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Bk XIV:223-319. A comrade of Ulysses. The Odyssey describes his death
when he tumbles from the roof of Circe’s
house, the morning after a heavy bout of drinking. His ghost begs Ulysses
for proper burial, and for the oar that he pulled with his comrades to be
set up over his grave. His ashes were entombed on Mount Circeo. |
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Bk XIV:101-153. The Paradise of the afterlife,
home of the blessed spirits in the Underworld. |
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Bk I:747-764. The son of Io
and Jupiter, grandson of Inachus,
worshipped as a god in Egypt alongside his mother. Io is
therefore synonymous with Isis (or Hathor the cow-headed
goddess with whom she was often confused), and Epaphus with Horus. |
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Bk III:273-315. A
city in Argolis, sacred to Aesculapius. (The pre-Greek god Maleas was
later equated with Apollo, and he and his son Aesculapius were worshipped
there. There were games in honour of the god every four years, and from 395
BC a drama festival. The impressive ancient theatre has been restored and
plays are performed there. From the end of the 5th c. BC the cult of Asklepios
spread widely through the ancient world reaching Athens in 420 BC and Rome
(as Aesculapius) in 293 BC.
Bk VII:425-452. The scene of Theseus’s defeat of Periphetes.
Bk XV:622-745.
Bk XV:622-745. The home of Aesculapius. |
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Bk I:381-415. A Titan, the brother of Prometheus. He was the father of Pyrrha, wife to Deucalion her cousin. He married Pandora
who opened the box that Prometheus had warned them to keep closed, releasing
illness, old age, work, passion, vice and madness into the world. |
Epopeus
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Bk XV:259-306. A river in Argolis. The river Stymphelos, in Arcadia, that reappears in the Argolis, on Mount
Chaon, after running underground. (See Pausanias II 24, and VIII 22) |
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Bk II:531-565. A son of Vulcan (Hephaestus), born without a mother
(or born from the Earth after Hephaestus the victim of a deception had been
repulsed by Athene). Legendary king of Athens
and a skilled charioteer. He is represented by the constellation Auriga the
charioteer, containing the star Capella. (Alternatively the constellation
represents the she-goat Amaltheia that suckled the infant Jupiter, and the
stars ζ (zeta) and η (eta) Aurigae are her Kids. It is a constellation
visible in the winter months.)
Bk IX:418-438. His father Vulcan (Mulciber) wishes he might have a second life.
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Bk II:301-328. God of the River
Po in northern Italy. His river receives the body of Phaethon
after the destruction of the sun chariot.
He is represented by the constellation Eridanus, south of Taurus, which
meanders across the sky.
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Bk VI:103-128. The daughter of Icarius,
loved by Bacchus, and depicted by Arachne on her web. Her country is Panchaia.
Bk X:431-502. She was set in the sky as the
constellation Virgo, after her suicide, by hanging, in despair at finding
her father Icarius’s body. Icarius is identified with the constellation Boötes. Ovid is contrasting her piety and love
for her father with Myrrha’s impiety
and carnal desire for hers. In northern latitudes Boötes and Virgo, which
are near to each other in the sky, would be declining from the zenith at midnight
in late April. Virgo, the second largest constellation, is associated with
the goddess of justice holding the scales, but she is also Ceres-Demeter and holds the ear of wheat, the
star Spica. (See the Ceres entry). It would not make sense for Virgo to be
in the sky at the time of the Greek harvest festival, the Thesmophoria, since
that took place in autumn when the sun was in Virgo. However it does make
sense for countries where the harvest time is different, as presumably in
Panchaia. (The Egyptian harvest for example, geared to the Nile flood-cycle,
was in March-April.) |
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Bk IX:394-417. The son of Oedipus and Iocasta,
brother of Polynices who fights against him in the war of the Seven against
Thebes. The two brothers kill each other. |
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Bk VIII:329-375. One of the heroes in the
Calydonian Boar Hunt. Knocked down by the boar’s charge. |
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Bk X:1-85. The wife of Orpheus,
died after being bitten by a snake. Orpheus went to the Underworld to ask
for her life, but lost her when he broke the injunction not to look back at
her. (See Rilke’s poem, ‘Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes’, and his ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’,
and Gluck’s Opera ‘Orphée’).
Bk XI:1-66. Orpheus finds her again after
his death. |
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Bk IV:190-213. The primal Goddess, mother
of the Graces (Charites). A goddess, with Thetis,
of the sea. Ovid makes her the mother of Leucothoe,
by Orchamus of Babylon and Persia. In
all her manifestations she is the Great Goddess.
Bk IV:214-255. Sol disguises himself as her to approach Leucothoe. |
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The king of Mycenae, son of Sthenelus.
Bk IX:159-210. Jupiter
boasted that he had fathered a son who would be called Heracles (Hercules) the ‘glory of Hera (Juno)’
and rule the house of Perseus. Juno made
him promise that any king born before nightfall would be High King. She then
hastened the birth of Eurystheus to Nicippe wife of King Sthenelus. Eurystheus
ruled Hercules and set him the Twelve Labours to perform. Hercules treates
him and Juno as endlessly hostile to himself.
Bk IX:273-323. He pursues his hatred of Hercules
through the generations. |
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Bk II:633-675. The three Fates were born of
Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin, measure out,
and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread. Lachesis
measures it. Atropos wields the shears.
Bk XV:745-842. The gods cannot overrule
them, and prevent Caesar’s assassination. |
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Bk I:177-198. The fauns. Demi-gods. Rural deities
with horns and tails. |
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Bk VI:313-381. A god of the fields
and flocks, identified with Pan. Worshipped by country people. |
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Bk II:111-149. Bk XIII:1-122. Goddess of fortune, chance,
fate. Her attributes are the wheel, the globe, the ship’s rudder and prow,
and the cornucopia. She is sometimes winged, and blindfolded. (See Leonardo’s
drawings.) |
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Bk IX:273-323. Handmaid to Alcmena. She deceives Lucina the goddess of childbirth, and is punished
by being turned into a weasel, with the same tawny hair. (Weasels in England
are reddish-brown. Ovid says ‘flava comus’ which suggests reddish-yellow.
The birth of its young through its mouth has, of course, no biological validity,
but Graves suggests it derives from the weasel’s habit of carrying its young
in its mouth from place to place!) |
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The son of Tros, brother of Ilus and Assaracus, loved
by Jupiter because of his great beauty.
Bk X:143-219. Bk XI:749-795. Jupiter, in the form of
an eagle, abducted him and made him his cup-bearer, against Juno’s
will. Ganymede’s name was given to the largest moon of the planet Jupiter. |
Gaul, Gallicus
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Bk I:525-552. The Roman province, in the region
of modern France. |
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Bk IX:159-210. The monster with three bodies,
killed by Hercules. In the Tenth Labour, Hercules
brought back Geryon’s famous herd of cattle after shooting three arrows through
the three bodies. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoe, and King of Tartessus in Spain. |
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The best known of the Three Gorgons, the daughters of Phorcys. A winged
monster with snake locks, glaring eyes and brazen claws whose gaze turns men
to stone. Her sisters were Stheino and Euryale.
Bk IV:604-662, Bk IV:663-705. Perseus has been helped by Athene and Hermes
to overcome Medusa. He was not to look at her head directly but only in a
brightly-polished shield. He cut off her head with an adamantine sickle, at
which Pegasus the winged horse and the
warrior Chrysaor sprang from her body.
He now uses her head to petrify Atlas, and
tells Cepheus and Cassiope of the exploit.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus tells of how he took her severed head,
and of how Minerva placed snakes on
her head, because Medusa was violated by Neptune
in Minerva’s temple.
Bk V:149-199 . Perseus uses the head against
his enemies. |
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Bk VII:759-795. From Gortyn in Crete, hence Cretan. Its bows noted for the swiftness
of the arrow in flight. |
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The three daughters of Ceto and Phorcys, sisters of the Gorgons,
fair-faced and swanlike but with hair grey from birth and one eye and one
tooth between them. Their names were Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus visits them in their cave under Mount
Atlas and steals the single eye. |
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Bk XI:749-795. A river and river god of
Asia Minor, father of Alexiroe. Site
of a famous victory of Alexander the Great. |
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The three sisters, daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome, attendants
to Venus, used collectively, Gratia.
Often depicted with arms entwined in dance (See Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’)
their names were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. They signified giving,
receiving, and thanking, later the Platonic triad, love,
beauty, truth.
Bk VI:401-438. Attendant on wedding
ceremonies. |
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Bk VII:1-73. The ‘snatchers’, Aellopus
and Ocypete, the fair-haired, loathsome, winged daughters of Thaumas and the
ocean nymph Electra, who snatch up criminals for punishment by the Furies.
They live in a cave in Cretan Dicte. They plagued Phineus
of Salmydessus, the blind prophet, and were chased away by the winged sons
of Boreas.
Bk XIII:705-737. An alternative myth
has Phineus drive them away to the Strophades
where Ovid has Aeneas meet the harpy Aello, and Virgil, Celaeno. They are foul-bellied
birds with girls’ faces, and clawed hands, and their faces are pale with hunger.
(See Virgil Aeneid III:190-220) |
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Bk IX:666-713. The infant Horus, the son of
Isis and Osiris. The
Egyptian god, misinterpreted as a god of silence by the Greeks, as he is represented
sitting on his mother’s lap with his thumb in his mouth. |
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The daughter of Iuno, born without
a father.
Bk IX:394-417. She is the wife of Hercules after his deification, and has the power to renew
life. |
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The daughter of the Titans Perses and Asterie,
Latona’s sister. A Thracian goddess of witches, her name is
a feminine form of Apollo’s title ‘the
far-darter’ . She was a lunar goddess, with shining Titans for parents. In Hades
she was Prytania of the dead, or the Invincible Queen. She gave riches, wisdom,
and victory, and presided over flocks and navigation. She had three bodies
and three heads, those of a lioness, a bitch, and a mare. Her ancient power
was to give to or withhold from mortals any gift. She was sometimes merged
with the lunar aspect of Diana-Artemis,
and presided over purifications and expiations. She was the goddess of enchantments
and magic charms, and sent demons to earth to torture mortals. At night she
appeared with her retinue of infernal dogs, haunting crossroads (as Trivia), tombs and the scenes of crimes.
At crossroads her columns or statues had three faces – the Triple Hecates
– and offerings were made at the full moon to propitiate her.
Bk VI:129-145. Goddess of magical herbs, used
by Minerva.
Bk VII:74-99. Medea the Thracian witch makes Jason
promise to marry her, taking his oath on the altar of Hecate, and gives him
magic herbs to carry out his tasks.
Bk VII:159-178. Medea invokes her aid in
her attempt to renew Aeson’s life.
Bk VII:179-233. Goddess of witchcraft.
Bk VII:234-293. Medea sacrifices to her.
Bk XIV:1-74. Bk XIV:397-434. Circe invokes her spells and her presence. |
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The daughter of Dymas, and wife of Priam, king of Troy.
Bk VII:350-403. Bk XIII:399-428. Changed to a black bitch
of Hecate, Maera,
and spreading terror with her barking.
Bk XI:749-795. The mother of Hector.
Bk XIII:399-428. She gathers Hectors’s
ashes as Ulysses takes her away
from Troy.
Bk XIII:429-480. She sees her daughter
Polyxena sacrificed to appease the ghost
of Achilles.
Bk XIII:481-575. She laments Polyxena,
finds and laments the body of Polydorus,
kills Polymestor, and turns into the
maddened dog, Maera. Here undeserved fate
is pitied by the Trojan women, the Greeks, and all the gods, even Juno (who sought the downfall of Troy).
Bk XIII:576-622. Only Aurora’s thoughts are elsewhere. |
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Bk II:329-343. The seven daughters
of the Sun god and Clymene.
Bk II 344-346.They mourn their brother
Phaethon. Two of them are named. Lampetia
and the eldest Phaethusa. Turned into poplars as they mourn Phaethon their
brother, their tears become drops of amber.
Bk X:86-105. The trees are among
those gathering to hear Orpheus’s song.
Bk X:243-297. They shed amber tears, and amber
adorns Pygmalion’s ivory statue. |
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Bk XV:259-306. A seaport of Achaea, near Aigion, on the Corinthian Gulf now
submerged after an earthquake. Pausanias gives the background. (See Pausanias
VII 24) |
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Bk V:385-424. Of Henna (Enna) a town in Sicily.
The plains around it. |
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Bk XV:622-745. The Roman town near Naples
on the slopes of Vesuvius, destroyed with Pompeii by the eruption of 79 AD
and rediscovered in 1709. It was a residential town surrounded by the villas
of wealthy Romans, with a rich artistic life. |
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The Hero, son of Jupiter. He was set in the sky as the constellation Hercules
between Lyra and Corona Borealis.
Bk VII:404-424. He drags the dog Cerberus out of the underworld.
Bk IX:1-88. The son of Jupiter and
Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon.
Called Alcides from Amphitryon’s father Alceus. Called
also Amphitryoniades. Called also
Tyrinthius from Tiryns his home
city in the Argolis. Jupiter predicted
at his birth that a scion of Perseus
would be born, greater than all other descendants. Juno
delayed Hercules birth and hastened that of Eurystheus,
grandson of Perseus, making Hercules subservient to him. Hercules was set
twelve labours by Eurystheus at Juno’s instigation, Bk IX:159-210:
1.
The killing of the Nemean
lion.
2.
The destruction of the Lernean
Hydra. - Bk IX:1-88.
He uses the poison from the Hydra for his arrows - Bk IX:89-158.
3.
The capture of the stag with golden antlers.
4.
The capture of the Erymanthian Boar.
5.
The cleansing of the stables of Augeas king of Elis.
6.
The killing of the birds of the Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia.
7.
The capture of the Cretan
wild bull.
8.
The capture of the mares of Diomede of Thrace, that ate human flesh.
9.
The taking of the girdle of Hippolyte,
Queen of the Amazons.
10. The
killing of Geryon and the capture of his oxen.
11. The
securing of the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides.
He held up the sky for Atlas in order to
deceive him and obtain them.
12. The
bringing of the dog Cerberus from Hades to the upper world.
Bk IX:1-88. He fights with Achelous
for the hand of Deianira.
Bk IX:89-158. Bk
XII:290-326. He marries Deianira, kills Nessus,
falls in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus
who has cheated him, and receives the shirt of Nessus from the outraged Deianira.
(See Cavalli’s opera with Lully’s dances – Ercole Amante)
Bk IX:159-210. He is tormented by the shirt
of Nessus.
(See T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets – Little Gidding:
‘Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire’)
Bk IX:159-210. He also killed Busiris, King of Egypt brother of Antaeus, who sacrificed strangers at the altars,
to fulfil a prophecy that an eight-year drought and famine would end if he
did so.
Bk IX:159-210. He killed King Antaeus of Libya, brother of Busiris, who was a giant, child of mother Earth,
by lifting him from the ground that gave him strength, and, cracking his ribs,
held him up until he died.
Bk IX:159-210. He fought the Centaurs.
Bk IX:159-210. Tormented by the shirt of Nessus
he rages among the mountains.
Bk IX:211-272. He kills the servant Lichas who brought the fatal shirt, then builds
a funeral pyre, and becomes a constellation and is deified. (See Canova’s
sculpture – Hercules and Lichas – Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome)
Bk IX:273-323. He had asked his son Hyllus, by Deianira
to marry Iole. His birth is described when the sun is
in the tenth sign, Capricorn, i.e. at midwinter, making him a solar god. His
mother’s seven night labour would also make his birth at the new year, a week
after the winter solstice.
Bk IX:394-417. His nephew and companion is
Iolaus.
Bk XI:194-220. Bk XIII:1-122. He captured Troy and rescued
Hesione, with the help of Telamon, and gave her to Telamon in marriage.
Bk XI:573-649. He is hero of the city of
Trachin.
Bk XII:536-579. Tlepolemus is his son. Hercules exploits
are retold by Nestor.
Bk XIII:1-122. Philoctetes received his bow and arrows
after his death, destined to be needed at Troy.
Bk XIII:399-428. Ulysses goes to fetch Philoctetes and
the arrows.
Bk XV:199-236. He is a symbol of strength.
Bk XV:259-306. He shot the centaur Pylenor
with a poisoned arrow. |
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Bk XI:85-145. The
three nymphs who tended the garden with the golden apples on a western island
beyond Mount Atlas. Their names were Hespere,
Aegle, and Erytheis, the daughters of Night, or of Atlas and Hesperis, the
daughter of Hesperus.
Bk IV:604-662. The orchard of Atlas described.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Eleventh Labour, Hercules obtains the golden apples by deceiving Atlas. |
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Bk XI:749-795. A nymph, daughter of the
river god Cebren, loved by Aesacus. She runs from him, and is killed by
the bite of a snake. |
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Bk VII:294-349. Hiberian, Spanish. Used to
denote the oceans of the west, where the sun sets.
Bk XV:1-59. Hercules returns from there
with the herds of Geryon. |
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Queen of the Amazons, warrior maidens living near the Rivers Tanais
and Thermodon in Scythia, based on Greek knowledge of the
Scythian princesses of the Sarmatian people of the Black Sea region. Burials
of warrior princesses have been excavated from the tumuli of the area around
Rostov, and north west of the Sea of Azov. See Herodotus IV 110-117, for the
Amazons and Scythians.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Ninth Labour, Hercules obtained the golden girdle of Hippolyte. |
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Bk XV:479-546. The son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyte. He
was admired by Phaedra, his step-mother,
and was killed at Troezen, after
meeting ‘a bull from the sea’. He was brought to life again by Aesculapius, and hidden by Diana (Cynthia,
the moon-goddess) who set him down in the sacred grove at Arician Nemi, where he became Virbius, the consort of the goddess (as
Adonis was of Venus, and Attis
of Cybele), and the King of the Wood
(Rex Nemorensis). All this is retold and developed in Frazer’s monumental
work, on magic and religion, ‘The Golden Bough’ (see Chapter I et seq.). (See
also Euripides’s play ‘Hippolytos’, and Racine’s ‘Phaedra’.) |
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The son of Megareus. Great-grandson of Neptune.
Bk X:560-637. Falling in love with Atalanta, he determines to race against
her, on penalty of death for failure.
Bk X:638-680. By means of the golden apples
he wins the race and claims Atalanta.
Bk X:681-707. He descrates Cybele’s sacred cave with the sexual act and
is turned, with Atalanta, into a lion. |
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Son of Amyclas, king of Amyclae, hence he is called Amyclides.
Bk X:143-219. His home was Amyclae, in Taenarus, near Sparta. Loved by Phoebus, he was killed by a discus while they
were competing. Phoebus turned him into a hyacinth (the blue larkspur, hyacinthos
grapta) that has the marks AI AI (woe! woe!) of early Greek letters on
the base of its petals, and was sacred to Cretan
Hyacinthus. Later it was linked to Ajax.
Sparta celebrated the Hyacinthia festival in his
honour.
Bk XIII:382-398. He shares the flower
with Ajax whose name has similar markings, ΑΙΑΣ. |
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Bk III:572-596. The daughters of Atlas and Aethra, half-sisters of the Pleiades. They lived on Mount Nysa and nurtured the infant Bacchus. The Hyades are the star-cluster forming
the ‘face’ of the constellation Taurus the Bull. The cluster is used
as the first step in the distance scale of the galaxy.
Bk XIII:123-381. The stars are engraved
on Achilles’s shield. |
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Bk II:633-675. The many-headed
water-serpent, born of Typhon and Echidna, that lived at Lerna
near Argos. Its destruction was the Second
Labour of Hercules(Heracles).
Bk IX:159-210.Hercules used the Hydra’s venom
to tip his poisoned arrows, and struck Chiron
his old friend inadvertently while fighting the Centaurs (The Fourth Labour). Chiron was
in agony but could not die. Prometheus
offered to die in his place. Zeus approved and Chiron was able to choose death.
Bk IX:1-88. Hercules describes his
fight with the Hydra while taunting Achelous. (See Gustave Moreau’s painting – Hercules
and the Lernean Hydra – in the Art Institute of Chicago)
Bk IX:89-158. The shirt of Nessus
is soaked with its venom. |
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Bk XII:393-428. A female centaur, loved
by Cyllarus. Inseparable in life, they
died together, she killing herself to join him. |
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A mountain in Attica south of Athens.
It was famous for its wild-flower pasture for bees (See Pausanias I 32 i.)
and had a shrine and statue of Zeus of Rain and Far-seeing. (The long Hymettos
ridge bounds the plain of Attica on the east, made up of bluish-grey Hymettian
marble overlying Pentelic marble, which was worked in ancient times. The hills
were then heavily forested.)
Bk VII:661-758. Aurora sees Cephalus
from there.
Bk X:243-297. Its bees’ wax is used for moulding
casts for statues etc. |
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Bk XV:259-306. A river in Sarmatia. A
main tributary of the Dnieper. The waters are sweet in their higher reaches,
but are joined by a bitter stream flowing out of Scythia.
See Herodotus IV 52. |
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Bk XV:307-360. Belonging to the extreme
north. The Hyperboreans, a mythical people living beyond the north wind. They
cover their bodies with feathers by plunging nine times in Minerva’s pool. Herodotus has some interesting
chapters on the Hyperboreans in IV 32-36. In 31 he speculates on the confusion
of feathers with snowflakes. (See also Robert Graves ‘The White Goddess’ p.284) |
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The Sun god himself. Heliopolis in Egypt, Hyperion’s city.
Bk VIII:547-610.
The sun.
Bk XV:391-417. The sun-god at Heliopolis,
to which the phoenix flies. |
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The daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos.
Bk XIII:399-428. Ulysses sails for the island to bring
back the arrows of Hercules. Thoas
was king there when the Lemnian women murdered their menfolk because of their
adultery with Thracian girls. His
life was spared because his daughter Hypsipyle set him adrift in an oarless
boat. |
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The Roman two-headed god of doorways and beginnings, equivalent to the
Hindu elephant god Ganesh. The Janus mask is often depicted with one melancholy
and one smiling face.
Bk XIV:320-396. The father of Canens.
Bk XIV:772-804. The naiades have a spring by his (later) temple. |
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Son of Jupiter and Corythus’s
wife Electra.
Bk IX:418-438. Ceres fell in love with him and lay with him
in the thrice-ploughed field. She wishes she could obtain a renewal of his
youth. |
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The son of Aeson, leader of the Argonauts, and hero of the
adventure of the Golden Fleece. The fleece is represented in the sky by the
constellation and zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram. In ancient times it contained
the point of the vernal equinox (The First Point of Aries) that has since
moved by precession into Pisces.
Bk VII:1-73. Reaches Colchis
and the court of King Aeetes.
Bk VII:74-99. Accepts Medea’s help and promises her marriage.
Bk VII:100-158. Completes the tasks and wins
the Golden Fleece, and marries Medea, before returning to Iolchos.
Bk VII:159-178. He asks Medea to lengthen
his father’s life.
Bk VII:350-403. He acquires the throne of
Corinth, and marries a new bride Glauce. Medea
in revenge for his disloyalty to her sends Glauce a wedding gift of a golden
crown and white robe, that burst into flames when she puts them on, and consume
her and the palace. Medea then kills her own sons by Jason, and flees his
wrath.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian
Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. He throws his spear at the
boar, but overshoots.
Bk VIII:376-424. He wounds a hound by accident. |
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Bk VIII:183-235.The
son of Daedalus for whom his father
fashioned wings of wax and feathers like his own in order to escape from Crete. Flying too near the sun, despite being
warned, the wax melts and he drowns in the Icarian Sea, and is buried on the
island of Icaria. ( See W H Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ referring
to Brueghel’s painting, Icarus, in Brussels) |
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The son of Somnus (Sleep), and a god of dreams.
Bk XI:573-649.
He takes the shape of creatures. |
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Proles Aphareia. A son of Aphareus, king of Messene.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian
Boar Hunt. |
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Bk IX:273-323. The Greek goddess of childbirth,
corresponding to Lucina who was an aspect
of Juno, as the Great Goddess. |
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Of Illyria (Illyris), a country on the Adriatic, north
of Epirus.
Bk IV:563-603. The country where Cadmus and Harmonia
are turned into serpents. |
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Bk XIV:75-100. An island off the coast
of Campania (Southern Italy). |
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Bk XV:843-870. Deified heroes, worshipped
as deities of their native countries. |
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The son of Iphicles, nephew and companion of Hercules.
Bk VIII:260-328.
He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk IX:394-417. He is returned to life by Hebe. (He is the grandson of Alcmene,
since his father Iphicles is her son by Amphitryon,
and Hercules mortal half-brother, the twin or tanist of the sun-god.
Iolaus’s renewal and appearance at the threshold may indicate his cult as
a representative of the risen sun of the new year. His cult was celebrated
in Sardinia where he was linked to Daedalus.)
Bk IX:418-438. Jupiter
explains that this is through the power of fate as well. |
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The region of ancient Greek territory bordering the Eastern Aegean,
containing Lydia and Caria and the islands of Samos and Chios. |
Ionium, aequor, mare
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Bk IX:666-713. Daughter of Ligdus, a Cretan
and his wife Telethusa. Her mother
is visited by a prophetic dream of Isis before her birth.
She is named after the grandfather, the father being deceived into believing
she is a boy.
Bk IX:714-763. She laments her inability to
consummate her passion for Ianthe whom she loves.
Bk IX:764-797. She is transformed into a boy,
by Isis, and marries Ianthe. |
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Bk IX:666-713. The Egyptian Goddess, in Greek
mythology the deified Io and identified also with Ceres-Demeter.
The wife of Osiris. Goddess of the domestic
arts. Her cult absorbed the other great goddesses and spread through the Graeco-Roman
world as far as the Rhine. Isis was the star of the sea, and the goddess of
travellers. She visits Telethusa in a dream. She is accompanied
by Anubis, the jackal-headed god, associated
with Mercury; Bubastis, or Bast (Bastet), the lion or cat-headed
goddess, associated with Diana; Apis the sacred Bull; Harpocrates
the child Horus; and Osiris her husband,
whom she searches for, in the great vegetation myth of Egypt. She has the
sacred rattle or sistrum; the serpent that she fashioned, that poisoned the
sun-god Ra, whom she cured in exchange for his true name; and on her forehead
she carries the horns, moon disc, and ears of corn symbolising her moon, fertility
and cow attributes.
Bk IX:764-797. She protects Paraetonium, Pharos, the Nile
and the Mareotic fields. |
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Bk XV:745-842. King of Numidia. Aligned
with Scipio and beaten by Caesar
in North Africa where the remnants of the Pompeian
party were being reorganised. |
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Bk I:244-273. The daughter of Rhea and Saturn, wife of Jupiter,
and the queen of the gods. A representation of the pre-Hellenic Great Goddess.
(See the Metope of Temple E at Selinus – The Marriage of Hera and Zeus – Palermo,
National Museum.)
Bk I: 601-621. Catching Jupiter deceiving her
with Io, asks the girl, transformed into a heifer by Jupiter,
as a gift.
Bk I: 722-746. Relenting, she returns
Io to human form.
Bk II:466-495. Turns Callisto
into a bear after her rape by Jupiter.
Bk II:508-530. After Callisto is set in the
heavens as the Great Bear by
Jupiter, she requests Tethys and
Oceanus not to allow the constellation to enter
their waters (and fall below the horizon).
Bk II:531-565. Her
chariot is drawn by peacocks.
Bk III:253-272. She
sets out to punish Semele.
Bk III:273-315. She
deceives Semele.
Bk III:316-338. She
blinds Tiresias for his judgement.
Bk III:359-401. She
limits Echo’s powers of speech.
Bk IV:167-189. Vulcan
is her son.
Bk IV:416-463. She
is angered by Ino sister of Semele.
Bk IV:464-511. She asks Tisiphone, the Fury,
to madden Ino and Athamas,
her husband, and sees them come to grief.
Bk IV:543-562. She turns Ino’s
protesting servants into stone.
Bk VI:70-102. Turned the Queen of the Pygmies into a crane and forced her to war against
her own people, and turned Antigone of
Troy into a stork.
Bk VI:313-381. She pursued Latona in jealousy.
Bk VI:401-438. She is the goddess who attends
brides in the wedding ceremony.
Bk VII:501-613. Jealous of Aegina, because of her affair with Jupiter, Juno sends a plague to the island of Aegina named after her where,
her son Aeacus is king.
Bk VIII:183-235. The island of Samos is sacred to her.
Bk IX:1-88. Bk
IX:159-210. The stepmother, and in some myths foster-mother of Hercules. She is inimical to him because of Jupiter’s adultery
with Alcmena his mother. She instigates
his Twelve Labours through Eurystheus.
Bk IX:211-272. She resents Hercules’s deification.
Bk IX:273-323. She had previously made Alcmena’s
labour difficult in giving birth to Hercules.
Bk IX:394-417. Her daughter is Hebe.
Bk IX:439-516. She married her brother Jupiter.
Bk IX:764-797. She attends weddings with Venus and Hymen.
Bk X:143-219. She objects to Ganymede becoming Jupiter’s cup-bearer.
Bk XI:573-649. She sends Iris
goddess of the rainbow, her messenger, to Somnus,
Sleep, ordering him to send a dream to Alcyone
telling her of the death of Ceyx.
Bk XII:429-535. Ixion
had attempted to seduce her.
Bk XIII:481-575. She admits that Hecuba does not deserve the fate that befell her.
Bk XIV:75-100. She sends Iris
to destroy Aeneas’s ships.
Bk XIV:101-153. Proserpina is ‘the Juno of Avernus’.
Bk XIV:566-580. She accepts Aeneas’s deification.
Bk XIV:772-804. She unbars the Roman citadel to the Sabines. (Pursuing her vendetta against
the descendants of Aeneas.)
Bk XIV:829-851. She sends Iris to Hersilia.
BkXV:143-175. She has a temple at Argos.
Bk XV:361-390. Her bird is the peacock.
Bk XV:622-745. She had a famous temple
at Lacinium.
Bk XV:745-842. Venus says she was on Turnus’s side during the wars in Latium. |
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Bk I:89-112. The sky-god, son of Saturn and Rhea, born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia
and nurtured on Mount Ida in Crete.
The oak is his sacred tree. His emblems of power are the sceptre and lightning-bolt.
His wife and sister is Juno (Iuno). (See the sculpted
bust(copy) by Brassides, the Jupiter of Otricoli, Vatican)
Bk I:113-124. Creates the seasons.
Bk I:587-600. Chases and rapes Io.
Bk I:668-688. Father of Mercury
by the Pleiad Maia.
Bk I:722-746. After Juno transforms Io into a heifer, he employs Mercury to dispose of Argus, and though Juno sets Io wandering, he eventually
prevails on her to return Io to human form, when she has reached the Nile.
Bk I:747-764. Father of Epaphus,
by Io.
Bk II:301-328. Rescues the earth by destroying
Phaethon and the runaway sun chariot.
Bk II:401-416. Sees Callisto
in the woods of Arcadia.
Bk II:417-440. He rapes Callisto.
Bk II:496-507. He sets Callisto
and her son Arcas among the stars as the
constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great and Little Bear.
Bk II:833-875. Jupiter abducts Europa.
Bk III:273-315. He unwillingly destroys Semele who has been deceived by Juno but rescues their son Bacchus
who is sewn into his thigh to come to full term.
Bk III:316-338. He gives Tiresias the power
of prophecy.
Bk III:359-401. He often lies with the mountain
nymphs.
Bk IV:274-316. He was guarded in his cradle
by the Dactyls (‘fingers’), one of whom was Celmis,
born when Rhea was bearing Jupiter and pressed her fingers into the earth.
Bk IV:663-705. As Jupiter Ammon his oracle sentenced Andromeda to be chained to the rock for her
mother’s fault.
Bk V:294-331. The Emathides
pretend that he fled to Egypt in the war between the giants and the gods,
and there as Libyan Ammon hid in the form of a ram.
Bk V:332-384. He is subject to Cupid, as are the other gods.
Bk V:487-532. Ceres asks him to restore their daughter Proserpine.
Bk V:533-571. He decrees that Proserpine must
spend half the year with Dis and half with
Ceres.
Bk VI:26-69. Minerva
( Pallas Athene) is his daughter.
Bk VI:70-103. He is head of the court
of the gods that judges between Neptune and Pallas
regarding their right to the city of Athens.
Bk VI:103-128. Arachne depicts his rapes of Europa,
Leda, Asterie,
Antiope, Alcmena,
Danae, Aegina, Mnemosyne, and Proserpine.
Bk VI:486-548. Bk XV:361-390. The eagle is his representative
bird.
Bk VII:350-403. He sank the Telchines of Rhodes under the sea.
Bk VII:501-613. The sacrifices to him during
the plague at Aegina have no effect.
Bk VII:614-660. He finally answers Aeacus’s prayer and repopulates the city by changing
the ants into people, the Myrmidons.
Bk VII:796-865. Procris would prefer Cephalus’s bed to his.
Bk VIII:81-151. Minos calls Crete
the cradle of Jove. Minos is his son by Europa.
Bk VIII:260-328. The Athenians pray to him, and the other gods.
Bk VIII:611-678. Disguised as a mortal he
visits Philemon and Baucis with
Mercury, his son.
Bk VIII:679-724. Jupiter is referred to as
Saturnius, the son of Saturn. He transforms Philemon and Baucis into trees, an oak and a lime-tree.
Bk IX:1-88. Bk
IX:89-158. Bk IX:211-272. Bk IX:273-323.
Bk XV:1-59. He is the father of Hercules by Alcmena.
Hercules sacrifices to him at Cenaeum
in Euboea.
Bk IX:211-272. He addresses the gods before
setting Hercules in the sky as a new constellation.
Bk IX:394-417. Themis prophesies he will intervene in
the war of the Seven against Thebes,
destroying Capaneus, and aiding the
subsequent chain of revenge.
Bk IX:418-438. Bk IX:439-516. He explains the power of fate
to the other gods. He recognises the piety and love for him displayed by Aeacus, and the just nature of the lawgivers Minos and Rhadamanthus.
Bk IX:439-516. Bk XIII:481-575. He married his sister
Juno.
Bk X:143-219. Bk XI:749-795. In the form of an eagle
he abducted Ganymede.
Bk XI:194-220. Bk XI:266-345. The grandfather of Peleus (through Aegina) and his father-in-law (through
Thetis). There was an altar of Panomphaean (‘source of all oracles’) Jupiter
the Thunderer (Tonaus) near Troy.
Bk XI:221-265. He yields Thetis to Peleus
because of a prophecy.
Bk XII:39-63. The creator of distant thunder.
Bk XIII:1-122. The father of Aeacus, by Aegina. He aids the Trojans in attacking
the Greek ships.
Bk XIII:123-381. Ajax and Ulysses are both great-grandsons of Jupiter
through the male line. Ajax through Telamon and Aeacus, Ulysses through Laertes and Arcesius.
Bk XIII:123-381. Agamemnon dreamed that Jupiter ordered him
to abandon the war.
Bk XIII:399-428. Priam is murdered at his altar as Troy falls.
Bk XIII:576-622. He grants Aurora’s request and creates the Memnonides, a flock of warring birds, to
commemorate Memnon.
Bk XIII:705-737. He plagues Aeneas’s people on Crete until they are forced to leave. (See Virgils’
Aeneid III:130-160)
Bk XIII:705-737. He saves Munichus, the
Molossian king, and his family changing
them into birds.
Bk XIII:789-869. Polyphemus compares himself in size to Jove.
Bk XIV:75-100. Jupiter changes the Cercopes into monkeys.
Bk XIV:566-580. He allows the deification
of Aeneas.
Bk XIV:805-828. He agrees to the deification
of Romulus.
Bk XV:60-142. Pythagoras questioned as to whether thunder
and lightning were merely natural phenomena, and not caused by Jupiter.
Bk XV:745-842. Jupiter grants Caesar deification, and prophesies Augustus’s achievements.
Bk XV:843-870. Jupiter surpasses his father
Saturn, as Augustus surpasses Julius
Caesar. He is worshipped on the Tarpeian
citadel, the Capitoline Hill.
Bk XV:871-879. Ovid’s work is secure from
Jupiter’s, and therefore also Augustus’s
anger, he being Jupiter incarnate, implying perhaps that Ovid may have retouched
the envoi after Augustus’s death in AD 14, and before his own death in AD
17, as his last word, never having been pardoned by Augustus, but claiming
now his own immortality. |
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