Mythology 5 Flashcards
the last king of Troy, killed at its fall; father by Hecuba of Hector, Paris, and Cassandra
Priam
a Titan, who stole fire from Olympus to give to mankind and in punishment was chained to a rock, where an eagle tore at his liver until Hercules freed him
Prometheus
a sea god, son of Oceanus and Tethys, noted for his ability to assume different forms and to prophesy
Proteus
a personification of the soul, which in the form of a beautiful girl was loved by Eros
Psyche
a sculptor and king of Cyprus who carved an ivory statue of a maiden and fell in love with it; it was brought to life, in response to his prayer, by Aphrodite
Pygmalion
twin brothers who were raised by a she-wolf and founded the city of Rome; they came from a city founded by the son of Aeneas; during the construction of Rome, Romulus became incensed at Remus and killed him; the Romans later made Romulus into a god
Romulus and Remus
one of a class of woodland deities, attendant on Bacchus, represented as part human, part horse, and sometimes part goat and noted for riotousness and lasciviousness
Satyrs
One was a horrible six-headed monster who lived on a rock on one side of a narrow strait; the other was a whirlpool on the other side; when ships passed close to the first’s rock in order to avoid the second, she would seize and devour their sailors; Aeneas, Jason, and Odysseus all had to pass between them
Scylla and Charybdis
an ancient Roman god of agriculture, the consort of Ops, believed to have ruled the earth during an age of happiness and virtue, identified with the Greek god Cronus
Saturn
one of several sea nymphs, part woman and part bird, who lure mariners to destruction by their seductive singing
Sirens
a king of Corinth, punished in Hades for his misdeeds by eternally having to roll a heavy stone up a hill: every time he approached the top, the stone escaped his grasp and rolled to the bottom
Sisyphus
a monster with a woman’s head and a lion’s body; she lay outside Thebes, asking travellers a riddle and killing them when they failed to answer it; Oedipus answered the riddle and the Sphinx then killed herself
Sphinx
a river in the underworld, over which the souls of the dead were ferried by Charon, and by which the gods swore their most solemn oaths
Styx
a Phrygian king who was condemned to remain in Tartarus, chin deep in water, with fruit-laden branches hanging above his head: whenever he tried to drink or eat, the water and fruit receded out of reach
Tantalus
a hero of Attica, noted for his many great deeds, among them the slaying of the Minotaur, the conquest of the Amazons, whose queen he married, and participation in the Calydonian hunt
Theseus
