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[FortuneCity]
Acheron,
river in Hades. It was also the name of a river in southern Epirus, Greece,
which flowed underground for part of the 58-km (36-mi) course to the Ionian
Sea.
Achilles,
greatest of the Greek warriors in the Trojan War. He was the son of the
sea nymph Thetis and Peleus, king of the Myrmidons of Thessaly. When he
was a child his mother dipped him into the River Styx to make him immortal.
The waters made him invulnerable except for the heel by which his mother
held him. Achilles fought many battles during the 10-year siege of Troy.
When the Mycenaean king Agamemnon seized the captive maiden Briseis from
him, Achilles withdrew the Myrmidons from battle and sulked in his tent.
The Trojans, emboldened by his absence, attacked the Greeks and drove them
into headlong retreat. Then Patroclus, Achilles' friend and companion,
begged Achilles to lend him his armor and let him lead the Myrmidons into
battle. Achilles consented. When Patroclus was killed by the Trojan prince
Hector, the grief-stricken Achilles returned to battle, slew Hector, and
dragged his body in triumph behind his chariot. He later permitted Priam,
king of Troy, to ransom Hector's body. Achilles fought his last battle
with Memnon, king of the Ethiopians. After killing the king, Achilles led
the Greeks to the walls of Troy. There he was mortally wounded in the heel
by Paris. The quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the subsequent battle,
and the ransoming of Hector's body are recounted in the Iliad.
Adonis,
beautiful youth beloved by the goddesses Aphrodite and Persephone. Born
of the incestuous union of King Cinyras of Cyprus and his daughter, Adonis
was concealed in a chest and placed in the custody of Persephone, queen
of the underworld. When Adonis was slain by a wild boar while hunting,
Aphrodite pleaded with the god Zeus to restore him to her. Zeus decreed
that Adonis should spend the winter months with Persephone in Hades and
the summer months with Aphrodite. The story of his death and resurrection
is symbolic of the natural cycle of death and rebirth. The name Adonis
is etymologically related to adon, a Semitic word meaning “lord” that occurs
in the Old Testament in the form Adonai (see Jehovah).
Aeacus,
king of Aegina (now Aíyina). He was the son of the nymph Aegina,
for whom his island kingdom was named, and the god Zeus. Hera, queen of
the gods, angry with Zeus for his love of Aegina, sent a plague that destroyed
most of the Aeginetans. Aeacus prayed to his father to change a group of
industrious ants into human beings to people his deserted city. Zeus granted
his wish, creating a race called the Myrmidons. Aeacus ruled over his people
with such justice that after his death he became one of the three judges
of the underworld. He was the father of Peleus and the grandfather of Achilles.
Aegis,
a garment of Zeus, the king of the gods, and of Athena, his daughter. A
short cloak with golden tassels, generally worn over the shoulders, the
aegis served as the symbol of Zeus's power; it not only protected him but
terrified his enemies. Originally made for Zeus by Hephaestus, the god
of artisans, it became the ordinary dress of Athena in later mythology.
In art, Athena's aegis was frequently depicted as a breastplate or as a
shield fringed with serpents. The garment was also occasionally used by
other gods.
Aegisthus,
the son of Thyestes and his daughter Pelopia. Desiring to avenge himself
upon his brother Atreus and acting on the advice of the oracle at Delphi,
Thyestes consummated an incestuous union with Pelopia. Shortly afterward,
Atreus married Pelopia, not knowing she was his niece. When Aegisthus was
born, Atreus accepted him as his own son. Aegisthus later learned his true
identity and, urged by Thyestes, killed Atreus. While Agamemnon, king of
Mycenae, was away fighting in the Trojan War, Aegisthus became the lover
of Queen Clytemnestra. He helped Clytemnestra kill her husband upon his
return from Troy. Together with the queen, Aegisthus then ruled Mycenae
for seven years; he was murdered by Agamemnon's son Orestes.
Aegyptus,
king of Arabia and Egypt, which he conquered and named for himself. He
was the twin brother of Danaüs, who became king of Argos.
Aeolus,
name of two figures in Greek mythology. The best known was keeper of the
winds. He lived on the floating island Aeolia with his six sons and six
daughters. The god Zeus had given him the power to still and arouse the
winds. When the Greek hero Odysseus visited Aeolus, he was welcomed as
an honored guest. As a parting gift Aeolus gave him a favoring wind and
a leather bag filled with all the winds. Odysseus's sailors, thinking the
bag contained gold, opened it and were at once swept back to Aeolia. There
Aeolus refused to help them again. Another Aeolus in Greek mythology was
the king of Thessaly. He was the son of Hellen, ancestor of the Hellenes,
the ancient Greek peoples. Aeolus was himself the ancestor of the Aeolian
Greeks.
Agamemnon,
king of Mycenae, and commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War. He
was the son of Atreus and suffered the curse laid on his house (see Atreus,
House of). When the Greeks had assembled in Aulis for their voyage to Troy,
they were held back by adverse winds. To calm the winds, Agamemnon sacrificed
his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess Artemis. His quarrel with Achilles
over the captive princess Briseis and the consequences of that quarrel
form much of the plot of Homer's Iliad. After a ten-year siege, Troy fell
and Agamemnon returned in triumph to Mycenae. With him came the Trojan
princess Cassandra, who had been awarded to him by the victorious Greek
army. Clytemnestra, Agamemnon's wife, greeted him with protestations of
love, but while he was in his bath she killed him with the assistance of
her lover, Aegisthus. His death was avenged seven years later by his son
Orestes. The story of Agamemnon's death is told in the first play of the
trilogy Oresteia, by ancient Greek poet Aeschylus.
Ajax,
mighty warrior who fought in the Trojan War. He was the son of Telamon,
king of Salamis, and led the Salaminian forces to Troy. An enormous man,
slow in speech but unshakable in battle, Ajax was called “bulwark of the
Achaeans” by Homer. Angered because he was not awarded the armor of the
dead Achilles, Ajax resolved to kill the Greek leaders Agamemnon and Menelaus.
To prevent this, the goddess Athena struck him with madness. In his delirium,
Ajax committed suicide by falling on his sword.
Ajax
the Lesser, chieftain from Locris in central
Greece. He fought in the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, he violated
the temple of Athena by dragging the prophet Cassandra from the altar of
the goddess. Athena appealed to the sea god Poseidon to avenge the sacrilege.
When the Greeks sailed for home, Poseidon sent a great tempest. Ajax was
shipwrecked, but managed to swim to shore. Clinging to a jagged rock, he
boasted that he was a man whom the sea could not drown. Angered by his
words, Poseidon split the rock with his trident, and Ajax was swept away
by the waves.
Alcestis,
daughter of Pelias, king of Iolcus in Thessaly. She married Admetus, king
of Pherae, whose herds the god Apollo was required to tend as punishment
for killing the Cyclopes. During this period of servitude, Apollo and Admetus
became friends. When it was time for Admetus to die, Apollo persuaded the
Fates to let him live if he could persuade another to die in his place.
Alcestis willingly died to spare Admetus's life. Later, Hercules rescued
her from Hades.
Alcmaeon,
son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. After Amphiaraus was killed in the expedition
of the Seven Against Thebes, Alcmaeon led the Epigoni (the sons of the
Seven) in a second expedition. To avenge his father's death, on his return
home he killed his mother, because she had coerced her husband to go on
the expedition. He afterwards went mad and wandered from place to place,
haunted by the avenging goddesses, the Erinyes, until he took refuge at
Psophis in Arcadia. There, he married Arsinoe, the king's daughter. When
the land was cursed with barrenness because of his presence, he fled to
the mouth of the Achelous River and married Callirrhoe, daughter of the
river god. The king and his sons pursued Alcmaeon and killed him.
Amazons,
a race of warlike women who excluded men from their society. The Amazons
occasionally had sexual relations with men of neighboring states, and all
male children born to them were either sent to live with their fathers
or killed. The girls were trained as archers for war, and the custom of
burning off the right breast was practiced to facilitate bending the bow—hence
the name Amazon, derived from the Greek word for breastless. In art, however,
in which they are frequently represented, they are depicted as beautiful
women with no apparent mutilation. Ancient art, such as that on temple
friezes, vases, and sarcophagi, usually presents them in battle scenes.
According to legend, they were almost constantly at war with Greece and
fought other nations as well. According to one version, they were allied
with the Trojans, and during the siege of Troy their queen was slain by
the Greek warrior Achilles. Some scholars who attribute a historical foundation
to the legends identify the country of the Amazons with Scythia or Asia
Minor on the shores of the Black Sea.
Amphitrite,
sea goddess, daughter of Nereus or of Oceanus, and wife of Poseidon. In
sculpture, she often appears sitting next to Poseidon in a chariot drawn
by Tritons.
Amphitryon,
prince of Tiryns. He married Alcmene, daughter of King Electryon of Mycenae.
During his absence on a military expedition, the god Zeus visited Alcmene
disguised as Amphitryon. Alcmene gave birth to twin sons: Hercules, the
son of Zeus, and Iphicles, the son of Amphitryon.
Andromache,
wife of Hector, the Trojan hero. Her husband was slain by the Greek warrior
Achilles shortly before Troy was captured by the Greeks in the Trojan War.
Astyanax, Andromache's only son, was hurled from the battlements of the
city, and Andromache was given to Neoptolemus, son of Achilles, as a prize
of war. She bore Neoptolemus three sons, and after he was slain at Delphi,
she married Helenus, brother of Hector and king of Epirus.
Andromeda,
princess of Ethiopia. Her mother, Cassiopeia, angered the god Poseidon
by boasting that she herself was more beautiful than the sea nymphs, the
Nereids. As punishment, Poseidon sent a horrible sea monster to ravage
the land. The Ethiopians learned from an oracle that they would be freed
of the monster only if they offered Andromeda as a sacrifice. The maiden
was chained to a rock on the seashore, but was rescued by the hero Perseus,
who slew the monster and claimed the hand of Andromeda as his reward.
Antigone,
daughter of Oedipus, king of Thebes, and Queen Jocasta. Antigone accompanied
her father into exile but returned to Thebes after his death. Oedipus left
the throne of Thebes to his sons, Eteocles and Polynices, Antigone's brothers.
The two came into conflict over who should rule, and after Eteocles succeeded
in establishing himself in power, Polynices led the expedition of the Seven
Against Thebes to unseat his brother. In the course of the siege, Eteocles
and Polynices killed each other. The new king, Creon, gave Eteocles an
honorable burial but ordered that the body of Polynices, whom he regarded
as a traitor, remain where it had fallen. Antigone, believing divine law
must take precedence over earthly decrees, buried her brother. Creon condemned
her to be buried alive. She hanged herself in the tomb, and her grief-stricken
lover, Haemon, Creon's son, killed himself. Antigone was the subject of
plays by ancient Greek playwright Sophocles and 20th-century French playwright
Jean Anouilh.
Aphrodite,
the goddess of love and beauty and the counterpart of the Roman goddess
Venus. In Homeric legend she is said to be the daughter of Zeus and Dione,
one of Zeus's consorts, but in the Theogony of Hesiod she is described
as having sprung from the foam of the sea, and etymologically her name
may mean “foam-risen.” According to Homer, Aphrodite is the wife of Hephaestus,
the
lame and ugly god of fire. Her lovers include Ares, god of war, who in
later mythology was represented as her husband. She was the rival of Persephone,
queen of the underworld, for the love of the beautiful Greek youth Adonis.
Perhaps the most famous legend about Aphrodite concerns the cause of the
Trojan War. Eris, the personification of discord—the only goddess not invited
to the wedding of King Peleus and the sea nymph Thetis—resentfully tossed
into the banquet hall a golden apple on which were inscribed the words
“for the fairest.” When Zeus refused to judge between Hera, Athena, and
Aphrodite, the three goddesses who claimed the apple, they asked Paris,
prince of Troy, to make the award. Each goddess offered Paris a bribe:
Hera, that he would be a powerful ruler; Athena, that he would achieve
great military fame; and Aphrodite, that he should have the fairest woman
in the world. Paris declared Aphrodite the fairest and chose as his prize
Helen of Troy, the wife of the Greek king Menelaus. Paris's abduction of
Helen led to the Trojan War. Probably of Near Eastern origin, Aphrodite
was identified in early Greek religious belief with the Phoenician goddess
Astarte and was known under a variety of cult titles, including Aphrodite
Urania, queen of the heavens, and Aphrodite Pandemos, goddess of the whole
people.
Apollo,
son of the god Zeus and Leto, daughter of a Titan. He also bore the epithets
“Delian” from Delos, the island of his birth, and “Pythian,” from his killing
of the Python, the fabled serpent that guarded a shrine on the slopes of
Mount Parnassus. In Homeric legend Apollo was primarily a god of prophecy.
His most important oracle was at Delphi, the site of his victory over the
Python. He sometimes gave the gift of prophecy to mortals whom he loved,
such as the Trojan princess Cassandra. Apollo was a gifted musician who
delighted the gods with his performance on the lyre. He was also a master
archer and a fleet-footed athlete, credited with having been the first
victor in the Olympian Games. His twin sister, Artemis, was the guardian
of young women, and Apollo was the special protector of young men. He was
also the god of agriculture and cattle and of light and truth. He taught
humans the art of healing (see Asclepius). Some tales depict Apollo as
stern or cruel. According to Homer's Iliad, Apollo answered the prayers
of the priest Chryses to obtain the release of his daughter from the Greek
general Agamemnon by shooting fiery, pestilential arrows into the Greek
army. He also abducted and ravished the young Athenian princess Creusa
and abandoned her and the child born to them. Perhaps because of his beauty,
Apollo was represented in ancient art more frequently than any other deity.
Arachne,
a young girl who was so skilled in the art of weaving that she dared to
challenge the goddess Athena, a patron of the arts and crafts, to a contest.
While Athena wove a tapestry depicting the gods and goddesses in all their
splendor, Arachne wove one illustrating their romances. Furious over the
perfection of the girl's work, Athena tore it to shreds, and Arachne hanged
herself in grief. Out of pity, however, Athena loosened the rope, turning
it into a cobweb, and transformed Arachne into a spider.
Ares,
god of war and son of Zeus, king of the gods, and his wife, Hera. The Romans
identified him with Mars, also a god of war. Aggressive and sanguinary,
Ares personified the brutal nature of war. He was unpopular with both gods
and humans. Among the deities associated with Ares were his consort, Aphrodite,
goddess of love, and such minor deities as Deimos (Fear) and Phobos (Rout),
who accompanied him in battle. Although fierce and warlike, Ares was not
invincible, even against mortals. The worship of Ares, believed to have
originated in Thrace, was not extensive in ancient Greece, and where it
existed, it lacked social or moral significance. Ares was an ancestral
deity of Thebes and had a temple at Athens, at the foot of the Areopagus,
or Hill of Ares.
Arethusa,
a wood nymph, the favorite of the nature goddess Artemis. One day, while
Arethusa was bathing in a stream belonging to the river god Alpheus, Alpheus
appeared and proclaimed his love for her. Arethusa fled under the ocean
to the island of Ortygia, where Artemis transformed her into a fountain.
But Alpheus pursued her beneath the sea and was himself changed into a
river whose waters united with those of the fountain. In ancient times,
it was thought that the Alpheus River ran under the sea from Greece and
emerged in the fountain of Arethusa in the Sicilian harbor of Syracuse.
Argonauts,
the band of heroes who sailed on the ship Argo to obtain the Golden Fleece.
The leader of the expedition was Jason, son of Aeson, king of Iolcus in
Thessaly. Aeson was deposed by his half brother Pelias, who then tried
to prevent Jason from claiming the throne. To this end, he persuaded Jason
to undertake the dangerous quest for the Golden Fleece, which was held
by Aeëtes, king of Colchis, a region located at the eastern end of
the Euxine (Black) Sea. Jason assembled 50 of the noblest young men of
Greece to accompany him on the voyage. The group that was chosen included
Hercules, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux, and Peleus. The Argo sailed from
Iolcus to the island of Lemnos, and on to the Euxine Sea by way of Mysia,
an area east of the Aegean Sea, and Thrace. Early in the voyage the crew
lost Hercules, who left the ship to search for Hylas, his friend and armor
bearer. The Argonauts saved a Thracian king, Phineus, from starvation caused
by the Harpies, flying creatures with heads of women, who were carrying
off and befouling his food. In gratitude, Phineus told them how to pass
through the Symplegades, the rocks that guarded the entrance to the Euxine
Sea by clashing against each other when anything went between them. As
Phineus had instructed them, the Argonauts released a dove that flew between
the Symplegades. As the rocks clanged together and began to return to their
positions, the Argo sailed swiftly through. When the ship finally reached
Colchis, Aeëtes refused to relinquish the fleece unless Jason could
first yoke and plow a field with two fire-breathing, brass-hoofed bulls.
He was then to sow a field with dragon teeth and vanquish the armed men
that would spring up from them. Helped by Aeëtes' daughter, the sorceress
Medea, who had fallen in love with him, Jason accomplished these tasks
and carried off the fleece. Medea, fleeing with him, slew her brother,
Apsyrtus, to delay the pursuit of her father. On the homeward voyage the
Argo safely passed between the six-headed monster Scylla and the whirlpool
Charybdis. Sea nymphs, sent by the goddess Hera, saved the ship from destruction
in a storm off the coast of Libya. From there the Argo sailed to Crete
and then home to Iolcus.
Argus,
a 100-eyed giant, also called Panoptes (Greek for “the all-seeing”). Argus
was assigned to guard Io, the mistress of Zeus, by Zeus's jealous wife
Hera, after Zeus had changed Io into a heifer to conceal her from Hera.
The god Hermes, dispatched by Zeus to rescue Io, slew Argus by lulling
him to sleep with music and then severing his head. In one version of the
story, Argus subsequently became a peacock; in another, Hera transplanted
his eyes onto the peacock's tail. Argus was also the name of the builder
of the Argo, the ship that carried the Greek hero Jason in his quest for
the Golden Fleece (see Argonauts). Also known by the name Argus was the
old dog of Odysseus, Greek leader during the Trojan War. When his master
returned to Ithaca after 19 years, Argus recognized him and promptly died.
Ariadne,
the daughter of Minos, king of Crete, and Pasiphaë, daughter of Helios,
the sun god. The hero Theseus came to Crete as one of the 14 victims that
the Athenians were annually required to offer to the Minotaur, a monster—half
bull, half human—that was confined in the mazes of the labyrinth. When
Ariadne saw Theseus, she fell in love with him and offered to help him
if he would promise to take her back to Athens and marry her. She then
gave him a ball of thread, which she had obtained from Daedalus, the designer
of the labyrinth. Fastening one end of the thread to the door and unwinding
it as he went along, Theseus was able to find and kill the Minotaur and
then to escape from the maze by rewinding the thread. Taking Ariadne with
them, Theseus and his companions fled over the seas toward Athens. On the
way they stopped at the island of Naxos. According to one legend, Theseus
deserted Ariadne, sailing without her while she was asleep on the island;
the god Dionysus found her and married her. According to another legend,
Theseus set Ariadne ashore to recover from seasickness while he returned
to the ship to perform some necessary task. A strong wind then carried
him out to sea. When he was finally able to return, he found that Ariadne
had died.
Aristaeus,
son of the god Apollo and the nymph Cyrene. He was worshiped as the protector
of hunters, herdsmen, and flocks and as the inventor of beekeeping and
olive culture. When Aristaeus tried to seduce Eurydice, the wife of the
celebrated musician Orpheus, she fled from him and received a fatal snake
bite. The nymphs punished him by causing all of his bees to die; but he
appeased the nymphs with a sacrifice of cattle, from whose carcasses emerged
new swarms of bees. Aristaeus was learned in the arts of healing and prophecy,
and he wandered over many lands sharing his knowledge and curing the sick.
He was widely honored as a beneficent god and was often represented as
a youthful shepherd carrying a lamb.
Artemis,
one of the principal goddesses, counterpart of the Roman goddess Diana.
She was the daughter of the god Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of the
god Apollo. She was chief hunter to the gods and goddess of hunting and
of wild animals, especially bears. Artemis was also the goddess of childbirth,
of nature, and of the harvest. As the moon goddess, she was sometimes identified
with the goddesses Selene and Hecate. Although traditionally the friend
and protector of youth, especially young women, Artemis prevented the Greeks
from sailing to Troy during the Trojan War until they sacrificed a maiden
to her. According to some accounts, just before the sacrifice, she rescued
the victim, Iphigenia. Like Apollo, Artemis was armed with a bow and arrows,
which she often used to punish mortals who angered her. In other legends,
she is praised for giving young women who died in childbirth a swift and
painless death.
Asclepius,
the god of medicine. He was a son of the god Apollo and Coronis, a beautiful
maiden of Thessaly. Angry because Coronis was unfaithful to him, Apollo
killed her and tore the unborn Asclepius from her womb. He later sent Asclepius
to the centaur Chiron to be raised. Asclepius learned all that Chiron knew
about the art of healing and soon became a great physician. Because Asclepius
threatened the natural order by raising people from the dead, the god Zeus
killed him with a thunderbolt. The cult of Asclepius was centered in Epidaurus,
but it was popular throughout the Greco-Roman world. The sanctuaries of
Asclepius functioned as health resorts, where therapeutic regimens such
as exercise and diets were prescribed. The most important practice associated
with the cures was the ritual of incubation, in which afflicted people
slept within a temple or sacred enclosure in the hope that the god would
come to them in dreams and prescribe cures for their illnesses.
Astarte,
Greek and Roman name of Ashtoreth, the supreme female divinity of the Phoenician
nations, the goddess of love and fruitfulness. Like that of Baal, the corresponding
male divinity, the name is frequently found in the earlier books of the
Old Testament in the plural form Ashtaroth; not until the time of King
Solomon of Israel (10th century BC) did the singular form Ashtoreth occur.
She symbolized the female principle in all its aspects, as Baal symbolized
maleness. Astarte has been identified with various Greek goddesses: the
goddess of the moon, Selene; the goddess of wild nature, Artemis; and the
goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite. The Babylonian and Assyrian counterpart
of Astarte was Ishtar.
Atalanta,
the daughter of Schoeneus of Boeotia or of Iasus of Arcadia. Disappointed
that she was not a boy, her father abandoned her on a mountainside shortly
after her birth. She was rescued and nursed by a she-bear and later raised
by hunters. By the time she had grown up, she was a skilled hunter herself.
The feat for which she became especially famous was her participation in
the boar hunt of Calydon, a city of Aetolia in central Greece. According
to another legend, Atalanta was a fleet-footed runner who offered to marry
anyone who could defeat her in a race. Those who lost were killed. The
youth Hippomenes (or Melanion) won with the aid of Aphrodite, goddess of
love, who gave him three golden apples of the Hesperides. He dropped them
one by one, and, by stopping to pick them up, Atalanta lost the race. She
and Hippomenes were later turned into lions because of an affront to the
gods. Parthenopaeus, their son, joined the expedition of the Seven Against
Thebes.
Ate,
daughter of the god Zeus and Eris, goddess of strife. Ate was the goddess
of rash actions and their consequences. Zeus banished her from heaven after
she had tricked him into taking a thoughtless oath. She is said to have
been responsible for the bitter quarrel between the Greek heroes Agamemnon
and Achilles during the Trojan War.
Athena,
one of the most important goddesses in Greek mythology. In Roman mythology
she became identified with the goddess Minerva. Also known as Pallas Athena.
Athena sprang full-grown and armored from the forehead of the god Zeus
and was his favorite child. He entrusted her with his shield, adorned with
the hideous head of Medusa the Gorgon, his buckler, and his principal weapon,
the thunderbolt. A virgin goddess, she was called Parthenos (“the maiden”).
Her major temple, the Parthenon, was in Athens, which, according to legend,
became hers as a result of her gift of the olive tree to the Athenian people.
Athena was primarily the goddess of the Greek cities, of industry and the
arts, and, in later mythology, of wisdom; she was also goddess of war.
Athena was the strongest supporter, among the gods, of the Greek side in
the Trojan War. After the fall of Troy, however, the Greeks failed to respect
the sanctity of an altar to Athena at which the Trojan prophet Cassandra
sought shelter. As punishment, storms sent by the god of the sea, Poseidon,
at Athena's request destroyed most of the Greek ships returning from Troy.
Athena was also a patron of the agricultural arts and of the crafts of
women, especially spinning and weaving. Among her gifts to man were the
inventions of the plow and the flute and the arts of taming animals, building
ships, and making shoes. She was often associated with birds, especially
the owl.
Atlas,
son of the Titan Iapetus and the nymph Clymene, and brother of Prometheus.
Atlas fought with the Titans in the war against the deities of Mount Olympus.
As punishment, he was condemned to bear forever on his back the earth and
the heavens and on his shoulders the great pillar that separates them.
Atlas was the father of the Hesperides, the nymphs who guarded the tree
of golden apples, and Hercules sought his help in performing one of his
labors. Hercules offered to assume Atlas's burden if Atlas would obtain
the golden apples for him. Atlas happily agreed, thinking to rid himself
forever of the wearying load. After Atlas returned with the apples, Hercules
asked him to take the burden back for a moment while he arranged a pad
to ease the pressure on his shoulders. Atlas assumed the load again, and
Hercules departed with the apples. Because the figure of Atlas supporting
the earth was often used in the title pages of early map collections, the
name now denotes a volume of maps. In classical architecture, atlantes
(the plural form of atlas) are male figures used as columns to support
a superstructure. Atlantes are the male counterpart of caryatids and are
sometimes also called telamones.
Atreus,
son of Pelops. When the king of Mycenae died without an heir, the notables
of the kingdom chose Atreus as their new king. Atreus's brother Thyestes,
a rival for the throne, seduced Aërope, wife of Atreus and mother
of Agamemnon and Menelaus. In revenge, Atreus murdered two of Thyestes'
sons and served them boiled in a cauldron to their father at a banquet.
When Thyestes had eaten the loathsome meal, Atreus ordered a dish holding
the bloody heads of the children brought in. Thyestes laid a curse on his
brother. Atreus later married Pelopia, daughter of Thyestes, not knowing
her true identity. Her son Aegisthus killed Atreus at the command of Thyestes.
Atreus,
House of, royal family of Mycenae, named
for Atreus, who was elected king by the Mycenaean notables. The ill-fated
house of Atreus was a favorite subject of ancient Greek writers, including
Homer, Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and Pindar. The cause of the misfortunes
that befell the house was the behavior of Tantalus, king of Lydia, who
offended the gods and was punished forever in Tartarus. His son Pelops
was cursed by the charioteer Myrtilus after accepting Myrtilus's assistance
in gaining the hand of Hippodamia in marriage and then throwing him into
the sea to drown. Niobe, the daughter of Tantalus, was punished by the
gods for her arrogance. Atreus, son of Pelops, and his children and grandchildren
felt the full weight of divine wrath. First, Atreus's brother Thyestes
seduced the wife of Atreus. In revenge, Atreus served the boiled flesh
of two sons of Thyestes to their father at a banquet. Thyestes' third son,
Aegisthus, later killed Atreus to avenge this deed. Of Atreus's sons, Agamemnon
and Menelaus were the most famous. The abduction of Menelaus's wife, Helen
of Troy, was the cause of the Trojan War. After the war, Menelaus and Helen
were reconciled and, following many adventures, returned to Sparta, where
they lived happily. Agamemnon, on the other hand, was killed on the day
of his triumphant homecoming by his wife, Clytemnestra, and Aegisthus,
whom she had taken as her lover. Agamemnon's death was avenged seven years
later by his children Electra and Orestes. When Orestes was at last acquitted
of blood guilt in the murder of his mother by the Areopagus in Athens,
the curse on the house of Atreus was finally lifted.
Augean Stables,
the stables owned by Augeas, who in some versions of the myth is a son
of the god Helios and king of Elis in northwest Peloponnesus. Augeas possessed
an immense herd of cattle, including 12 white bulls sacred to Helios, kept
in stalls that had not been cleaned for years. One of the 12 labors imposed
on the Greek hero Hercules was cleaning the stables, unaided, in a single
day. He did this by diverting the rivers Alpheus and Peneus to run through
them. Augeas had promised Hercules a tenth of his herd as payment but did
not keep his word. Hercules then sent an army against him, slaying Augeas
and his sons.
