Myth & Legend Flashcards
King of Crete
Palace at Knossos
Refused to sacrifice a white bull to Poseidon
As punishment, his wife Pasiphae fell in love with it and fathered the Minotaur
Ordered Daedalus to build the labyrinth to contain it
MINOS
Wife of Minos
Mother of Ariadne & Phaedra
Fell in love with the white bull and gave birth to the Minotaur
PASIPHAE
Bull-man
Placed in the labyrinth by Minos
Slain by Theseus
MINOTAUR
Lydian king
Sentenced in the afterlife to always be out of reach of fruit & water
TANTALUS
Daughter of Tantalus
Turned to stone while weeping over her children’s deaths
NIOBE
Princess of Crete
Daughter of Minos
Helped Theseus escape the labyrinth with thread
Abandoned on Naxos by Theseus
Became wife of Dionysus (or Bacchus, as in a Titian work)
ARIADNE
Muse of astronomy
URANIA
Muse of love poetry
ERATO
Muse of sacred poetry
POLYHYMNIA
Muse of epic poetry
Mother of Orpheus
Shares name with a hummingbird & a musical instrument
CALLIOPE
Muse of comedy
(sometimes of pastoral poetry)
THALIA
Muse of tragedy
MELPOMENE
Muse of music
(sometimes the flute)
EUTERPE
Muse of dance
TERPSICHORE
(a dancer is a TERPSICHOREAN)
Muse of history
Shares name with an advertising award
CLIO
King of Thebes
Solved the Sphinx’s riddle
As foreseen by Delphi oracle, kills his father and weds his mother unwittingly and then blinds himself upon the realization
Subject of Sophocles’ plays “____ Rex” (or “Tyrannos”) & “____ at Colonus”
OEDIPUS
King of Thebes
Father of Oedipus
Slain by Oedipus
LAIUS
Mother of Oedipus
Spouse of Oedipus
Mother of Eteocles, Polynices, Antigone, & Ismene
JOCASTA
After a weaving contest against Athena, the goddess turns her into a spider
ARACHNE
Craftsman and inventor
Banished from Athens
Built Pasiphae’s wooden cow (to mate with the white bull)
Built Minos’ labyrinth, in which he was later imprisoned
Built wax & feather wings for him and his son Icarus to escape Crete
DAEDALUS
Son of Daedalus
Did not heed his father’s warning
Flew too high and melted his wax wings
Subject of a Serge Lifar ballet, a Pieter Bruegel painting, and a W. H. Auden poem
ICARUS
Son of Theseus
HIPPOLYTUS
Daughter of Crete’s King Minos & his wife Pasiphae
Wife of Theseus
Falls in love with stepson Hippolytus, he rejects her, she hangs herself
Subject of Jean Racine’s 1677 tragedy
PHAEDRA
Amazon queen
Her belt/girdle was one of Hercules’ labours
Wife of Theseus
Appears in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and in Wonder Woman (as her mother)
HIPPOLYTA
Father of Theseus
Thinking his son dead, threw himself into the sea that now bears his name
AEGEUS
(AEGEAN Sea)
Mythical founder of Athens
Slew Minotaur of Crete (with aid from Ariadne, whom he later abandoned on Naxos)
Married Hippolyta (Amazon queen) & Phaedra
Duke of Athens in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Portrayed by Henry Cavill in “The Immortals” (2011)
THESEUS
Son of Helios
Took sun chariot & ended up crashing it
Now the name for a certain kind of car or horse carriage
PHAETON
Legendary founder of Russia
Viking who settled in Novgorod, 862 CE
His dynasty lasted until 1598, when the Time of Troubles began
RURIK
Sister & daughter of Oedipus, daughter of Jocasta
Forbidden from burying her brother Polynices, commits suicide
Subject of a Sophocles play (& a later adaptation by Jean Anhouil)
ANTIGONE
Last Lydian king
Defeated by Cyrus of Persia
Incredibly wealthy
Part of a saying, “As rich as…”
CROESUS
Previously a nymph
Now a monster with 6 dog heads
Sits on mainland Italian side of Strait of Messina
SCYLLA
Whirlpool monster
Lies on the Sicily side of the Strait of Messina
CHARYBDIS
Wife of Orpheus
Dies of a snake bite
He rescues her from Hades, only to lose her by looking back
EURYDICE
Thracian musician
Son of Apollo (god of music) & Calliope (muse of epic poetry)
Sailed with the Argo, saved them from sirens
Calmed the furies and Cerberus
Subject of Offenbach’s him “in the Underworld” and Rilke’s “Sonnets to” him
ORPHEUS
Constellation that supposedly belonged to Orpheus
LYRA
THE LYRE
Creation of Pygmalion
Shares name with Nereid who loved Alcis the Shepherd
Also title of a Cervantes work & a moon of Neptune
GALATEA
Mythical sculptor
Carved Galatea out of ivory, whom he fell in love with
She was given life by Aphrodite
Inspired a G.B. Shaw play
PYGMALION
Handsome youth loved by Aphrodite
Guarded by Persephone
A hunter, killed by a wild boar
His blood became red anemones
Shakespeare wrote a 1593 poem of “Venus &” him
ADONIS
One of the 5 rivers of Hades
River of forgetfulness or oblivion
LETHE
Son of Poseidon & Amphitrite
Subject of a Bernini fountain in Rome
Namesake of Neptune’s biggest moon, Ariel’s dad, a sea snail, nuclear submarine that circumnavigated the world
TRITON
Brother of Zeus & Hades
husband of Amphitrite
father of Triton, Pegasus, Orion, Polyphemus, Percy Jackson
Associated with Atlantis, tridents, horses, the Cretan bull
POSIEDON (Greek)
NEPTUNE (Roman)
Shape-changing sea god
Also namesake of 2nd-largest moon of Neptune, one of the “Two Gentlemen of Verona”, and a syndrome
PROTEUS
Kind of sea nymph associated with Poseidon
Name means “unmistakable”
Also the name of Neptune’s 3rd largest moon
NEREID
River nymph
Name comes from “to flow”
Also a moon of Neptune
NAIAD
Wood nymph
Eurydice (Orpheus’ wife) was one
Keats called the nightingale “light-winged ____ of the trees”
DRYAD
Queen of Ethiopia
Wife of Cepheus
Mother of Andromeda
CASSIOPEIA
Nymph loved by Zeus
Turned into a bear by Hera
Associated with Ursa Major and Arcas, her son by Zeus, with Ursa Minor
Namesake of a moon of Jupiter
CALLISTO
Character appearing in a German town
Leads away rats but, when stiffed on payment, does the same to the kids
Subject of a Robert Browning poem
Namesake of a fictional tech company
Nowadays refers to one who makes false promises
PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN
Twin children of Mars & Rhea set adrift on the Tiber
Suckled by a she-wolf on Palatine Hill
The former kills the latter after a disagreement over augury, and then founds a city
ROMULUS & REMUS
Pacific goddess of fire & volcanoes
Associated with Kilauea
PELE
