Cadmus, Phoenician prince
who founded the city of Thebes in Greece. When his sister Europa was kidnapped
by the god Zeus, Cadmus was ordered by his father, the king of Phoenicia,
to find her or not to return home. Unable to locate his sister, he consulted
the oracle at Delphi and was instructed to abandon his search and instead
to found a city. Upon leaving Delphi, the oracle advised, Cadmus would
come upon a heifer, follow her, and build the city where she lay down to
rest. Near the site of the new city Cadmus and his companions found a sacred
grove guarded by a dragon. After the beast killed his companions, Cadmus
slew the dragon and, on the advice of the goddess Athena, planted its teeth
in the ground. Armed men sprang from the teeth and fought each other until
all but five were killed. Cadmus enlisted the help of the victors in founding
the citadel of the new city of Thebes, and they became the heads of its
noble families. Before Cadmus could enjoy his new home, however, he had
to do penance for killing the dragon, which was sacred to Ares, god of
war. After eight years of servitude, Cadmus was made king of Thebes and
was given Harmonia, the daughter of Ares and of Aphrodite, the goddess
of love, as his wife. Although Thebes prospered under Cadmus's rule, misfortune
overcame his descendants. In his old age, after two of his daughters and
two of his grandsons had suffered violent deaths, Cadmus fled with his
wife to Illyria, where at his death he and Harmonia were changed into serpents.
According to tradition, Cadmus introduced the alphabet into Greece.
Caduceus, symbolic staff
surmounted by two wings and entwined with two snakes. Among the ancient
Greeks the caduceus was carried by heralds and ambassadors as a badge of
office and a mark of personal inviolability, because it was the symbol
of Hermes, the messenger of the gods. According to Book IV of Virgil's
Aeneid, the Greek god Apollo gave the staff to Hermes in return for the
lyre. In Roman mythology the symbol is associated with the god Mercury.
The staff of Asclepius, the Greek god of healing, which was entwined by
a single snake, was also called a caduceus. The caduceus has been adopted
as a symbol by the medical profession; it is also the emblem of the medical
branches of the United States Army and Navy.
Calchas, the most famous
soothsayer among the Greeks at the time of the Trojan War. When the Greek
fleet was stranded at Aulis because of a lack of favorable wind, Calchas
revealed that the goddess Artemis was offended and that King Agamemnon
must sacrifice his virgin daughter Iphigenia before the winds would rise.
Calchas predicted the 10-year siege of Troy, and shortly before the conclusion
of the war, when the Greeks were stricken with a plague, explained that
the god Apollo was angry because Agamemnon had taken as his mistress the
daughter of one of Apollo's priests. Calchas was highly respected because
of the accuracy of his prophecies, and at his suggestion the Greek commanders
built the Trojan horse by which the Greek forces gained access to the city.
Calypso, a sea nymph
and daughter of the Titan Atlas. Calypso lived alone on the mythical island
of Ogygia in the Ionian Sea. When the Greek hero Odysseus was shipwrecked
on Ogygia, she fell in love with him and kept him a virtual prisoner for
seven years. Although she promised him immortality and eternal youth if
he would stay with her, she could not make him overcome his desire to return
home. At the bidding of the god Zeus, she finally released Odysseus and
gave him materials to build a raft to leave the island. She died of grief
after he left.
Cassandra, daughter of King
Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. The god Apollo, who loved Cassandra, granted
her the gift of prophecy, but when she refused to return his love, Apollo
made the gift useless by decreeing that no one would believe her predictions.
Cassandra warned the Trojans of many dangers, including the wooden horse
by which the Greeks entered the city, but she was dismissed as a madwoman.
After the fall of Troy, she was dragged from her sanctuary in the temple
of the goddess Athena by Ajax the Lesser and brought to the Greek camp.
When the spoils were divided, Cassandra was awarded to King Agamemnon as
his slave and mistress. Cassandra warned him that he would be killed if
he returned to Greece; again she was not believed. Upon their arrival in
Mycenae she and Agamemnon were murdered by Clytemnestra, queen of Mycenae
and wife of Agamemnon.
Cassiopeia, the wife of
Cepheus, king of Ethiopia. When Cassiopeia boasted that she was more beautiful
than the Nereids, these water nymphs complained to Poseidon, the god of
the sea, who sent a sea monster to ravage the land. Poseidon demanded that
Cassiopeia's daughter Andromeda be punished for her mother's vanity by
being sacrificed to the monster, but the girl was rescued by the hero Perseus.
According to tradition, at her death Cassiopeia was changed into the constellation
that bears her name.
Castor and Polydeuces,
in Greek and Roman mythology, the twin sons of Leda, wife of the Spartan
king Tyndareus. Polydeuces is also called Pollux. They were the brothers
of Clytemnestra, queen of Mycenae, and Helen of Troy. Although both boys
were known as the Dioscuri, or Sons of Zeus, in most accounts only Polydeuces
was held to be immortal, having been conceived when Zeus appeared to Leda
in the form of a swan. Castor, his fraternal twin, was considered the mortal
son of Tyndareus. Both were worshiped as deities in the Roman world, however,
and were regarded as the special protectors of sailors and warriors. Living
just before the Trojan War, the brothers took part in many of the famous
events of the day, including the Calydonian boar hunt, the expedition of
the Argonauts, and the rescue of their sister Helen when she was carried
off by the Greek hero Theseus. Throughout their adventures the brothers
were inseparable, and when Castor was slain by Idas, a cattle owner, in
a dispute about his oxen, Polydeuces was inconsolable. In response to his
prayers for death for himself or immortality for his brother, Zeus reunited
the brothers, allowing them to be together always, half the time in the
underworld and half with the gods on Mount Olympus. According to a later
legend, Castor and Polydeuces were transformed by Zeus into the constellation
Gemini, or The Twins.
Cecrops, the founder
of Athens and of Greek civilization. Reputed to have sprung half man, half
serpent from the soil, he became the first king of Attica, which he divided
into 12 communities. He established marriage and property laws, introduced
bloodless sacrifice and burial of the dead, and invented writing. During
his 50-year rule he arbitrated a dispute over possession of Athens between
Athena and Poseidon, awarding it to Athena.
Centaurs, a race of
monsters believed to have inhabited the mountain regions of Thessaly and
Arcadia. They were usually represented as human down to the waist, with
the lower torso and legs of a horse. The centaurs were characterized by
savageness and violence; they were known for their drunkenness and lust
and were often portrayed as followers of Dionysus, the god of wine. The
centaurs were driven from Thessaly when, in a drunken frenzy, they attempted
to abduct the bride of the king of the Lapiths from her wedding feast.
An exception to their bestial behavior was the centaur Chiron, who was
noted for his goodness and wisdom. Several Greek heroes, including Achilles
and Jason, were educated by him.
Cerberus, a three-headed,
dragon-tailed dog that guarded the entrance to the lower world, or Hades.
The monster permitted all spirits to enter Hades, but would allow none
to leave. Only a few heroes ever escaped Cerberus's guard; the great musician
Orpheus charmed it with his lyre, and the Greek hero Hercules captured
it bare-handed and brought it for a short time from the underworld to the
regions above. In Roman mythology both the beautiful maiden Psyche and
the Trojan prince Aeneas were able to pacify Cerberus with a honey cake
and thus continue their journey through the underworld. Cerberus is sometimes
pictured with a mane of snakes and 50 heads.
Chaos, in one ancient Greek
myth of creation, the dark, silent abyss from which all things came into
existence. According to the Theogony of Hesiod, Chaos generated the solid
mass of Earth, from which arose the starry, cloud-filled Heaven. Mother
Earth and Father Heaven, personified respectively as Gaea and her offspring
Uranus, were the parents of the Titans. Other children of Chaos include
Tartatus and Eros. In a later theory Chaos is the formless matter from
which the cosmos, or harmonious order, was created.
Charon, the son of Night
and of Erebus, who personified the darkness under the earth through which
dead souls passed to reach the home of Hades, the god of death. Charon
was the aged boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across the River
Styx to the gates of the underworld. He would admit to his boat only the
souls of those who had received the rites of burial and whose passage had
been paid with a coin placed under the tongue of the corpse. Those who
had not been buried and whom Charon would not admit to his boat were doomed
to wait beside the Styx for 100 years.
Chimera, a fire-breathing
monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a she-goat, and the tail
of a dragon. It terrorized Lycia, a region in Asia Minor, but was finally
killed by the Greek hero Bellerophon.
Cimmerians, in the
poetry of Homer, a mythical people who lived in northwestern Europe, on
the shores of the ocean, where perpetual darkness reigned. The name is
also used to designate a historical people who settled along the northern
shore of the Black Sea and presumably made several inroads into Asia Minor
(the accounts are confused). The Cimmerians, driven from their homes, probably
in the 8th century BC by the Scythians, overran Asia Minor; they plundered
Sardis and destroyed Magnesia. After their defeat by the empire of Lydia
about the 7th century BC, the Cimmerians disappeared.
Circe, a sorceress, the
daughter of the sun god Helios and the sea nymph Perse. She lived on the
island of Aeaea, near the west coast of Italy. With potions and incantations
Circe was able to turn people into beasts. Her victims retained their reason,
however, and knew what had happened to them. In the course of his wanderings,
the Greek hero Odysseus visited her island with his companions, whom she
turned into swine. On his way to find help for his men, Odysseus met the
god Hermes, from whom he received an herb that made him immune to Circe's
enchantments. He forced her to restore his companions to human form, and
in amazement that anyone could resist her spell, Circe fell in love with
Odysseus. He and his friends stayed with her for a year. When they finally
determined to leave, she told Odysseus how to find the spirit of the Theban
seer Tiresias in the underworld in order to learn from him how to conduct
safely the homeward voyage.
Clytemnestra, queen
of Mycenae, a city in the Pelopónnesus, and wife of King Agamemnon.
The daughter of Tyndareus, king of Sparta, and his wife Leda, she bore
Agamemnon four children: Electra, Iphigenia, Orestes, and Chrysothemis.
After Agamemnon sacrificed Iphigenia so that his ships could sail to Troy,
Clytemnestra's love for her husband turned to hatred; while he led the
Greek forces in the Trojan War, she took Aegisthus as her lover. When Agamemnon
returned in triumph with the Trojan princess Cassandra, Clytemnestra sought
revenge for the death of Iphigenia, and, with the help of Aegisthus, she
killed both her husband and his Trojan mistress. She and her lover ruled
for seven years until they were both slain by Orestes, who had been commanded
by the god Apollo to avenge the death of his father.
Creon, brother of Jocasta,
queen of Thebes. After King Oedipus was exiled, Creon served as regent
of Thebes until his nephew Eteocles, Oedipus's younger son, claimed the
throne. The elder son, Polynices, angered at this usurpation of his legal
right, led an invading army in the battle of the Seven Against Thebes.
Both brothers were killed in combat, and Creon again took command of Thebes,
decreeing that all who had fought against the city would be denied burial
rites. Burial of the dead was regarded as a sacred duty, and Antigone,
sister of Polynices, defied Creon and buried her brother, claiming that
she owed a higher obedience to the laws of the gods than to the laws of
man. Enraged at her defiance of his authority, Creon ordered that his niece
be buried alive. His son Haemon, who had loved Antigone, killed himself
in despair at her death. In the story of Jason and Medea, the king of Corinth
is named Creon.
Cronus, ruler of the universe
during the Golden Age. He was one of the 12 Titans and the youngest son
of Uranus and Gaea, the personifications of heaven and earth. The first
sons of his parents were the three Hecatonchires, the 100-handed, 50-headed
monsters whom Uranus had imprisoned in a secret place. Gaea sought to rescue
them and appealed for help from her other offspring, including the Cyclopes.
Cronus alone accepted the challenge. He attacked Uranus and wounded him
severely; Cronus thus became the ruler of the universe. Cronus and his
sister-queen, Rhea, became the parents of 6 of the 12 gods and goddesses
known as the Olympians. Cronus had been warned that he would be overthrown
by one of his children, and he swallowed each of his first five children
as soon as it was born. Rhea, however, substituted a stone wrapped in swaddling
clothes for their sixth child, Zeus. Zeus was hidden in Crete, and when
he was grown, with the aid of Gaea, forced Cronus to disgorge the other
five children together with the stone. The stone was later removed to Delphi.
Zeus and his five brothers and sisters waged war on Cronus and the other
Titans. Zeus was aided by the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, whom he freed
from the prison where they were kept by Cronus. Cronus and the Titans were
thereafter confined in Tartarus, a cave in the deepest part of the underworld.
The Roman counterpart of Cronus is Saturn, the god of sowing and seed.
Cyclops, giants with
one enormous eye in the middle of the forehead. In Hesiod, the three sons—Arges,
Brontes, and Steropes—of Uranus and Gaea, the personifications of heaven
and earth, were Cyclopes. They were thrown into the lower world by their
brother Cronus, one of the Titans, after he dethroned Uranus. But Cronus's
son, the god Zeus, released the Cyclopes from the underworld, and they,
in gratitude, gave him the gifts of thunder and lightning with which he
defeated Cronus and the Titans and thus became lord of the universe. In
Homer's Odyssey, the Cyclopes were shepherds living in Sicily. They were
a lawless, savage, and cannibalistic race fearing neither gods nor humans.
The Greek hero Odysseus was trapped with his men in the cave of the Cyclops
Polyphemus, a son of Poseidon, god of the sea. In order to escape from
the cave after the giant devoured several men, Odysseus blinded him.
