A Compendium of the Ancient Gods

Sources, Volume III

The Olympian Order

How to weigh the evidence for this room, where to read the texts, and what survives for each of its eight bays.

How to read the evidence

Evidence for the poetic, civic, mystery, and heroic traditions of the Greek-speaking world should be read in a hierarchy: dated and provenanced primary objects first; critically edited literary or ritual texts second; ancient reception and interpretation third; modern synthesis last.

Read the texts online

Further reading

  • Athanassakis, Apostolos N., and Benjamin M. Wolkow, trans. The Orphic Hymns. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.
  • Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion. Translated by John Raffan. Harvard University Press, 1985.
  • Fowler, Robert L. Early Greek Mythography. 2 vols. Oxford University Press, 2000–2013.
  • Gantz, Timothy. Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources. 2 vols. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993.
  • Graf, Fritz, and Sarah Iles Johnston. Ritual Texts for the Afterlife: Orpheus and the Bacchic Gold Tablets. 2nd edition. Routledge, 2013.
  • Hard, Robin, trans. Apollodorus: The Library of Greek Mythology. Oxford University Press, 1997.
  • Most, Glenn W., ed. and trans. Hesiod. 2 vols. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press, 2006–2007.
  • Ogden, Daniel. Drakōn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford University Press, 2013.
  • West, M. L., trans. Homeric Hymns, Homeric Apocrypha, Lives of Homer. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press, 2003.
  • West, M. L. The Orphic Poems. Clarendon Press, 1983.

The Primordial Powers

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Hesiod, Theogony
Base text for the familiar generational order, with manuscript and interpretive problems of its own.
Orphic fragments and Derveni Papyrus
Evidence for alternative cosmogony whose poems and dates remain debated.
Philosophical doxography
Preserves interpretation and fragments, not always the original wording or ritual context.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Chaos §1.1 Hesiod, Theogony 116–125, is the foundational text.
  • Nyx §1.4 Hesiod, Theogony 211–232, gives the catalogue of Night's offspring.
  • Tartarus §1.6 Hesiod, Theogony 116, 717–745, 821–822, is the principal source; the figure of Tartarus as a divine person is treated in Theogony 821–822 (where Tartarus mates with Gaia to produce Typhon).
  • Hemera §1.9 Hesiod, Theogony 124–125, 748–757, gives Hemera as daughter of Erebus and Nyx and describes her shared house with her mother.
  • Thalassa §1.11 Thalassa appears in Aesop (Fable 217), in the Suda, and in late Roman mosaic art (the so-called "Thalassa mosaics" from Antioch and elsewhere, 4th–6th c. CE).
  • Ananke §1.14 The Orphic identification of Ananke with Adrasteia and as a primordial wound about the cosmic spindle with Chronos is in the Orphic Rhapsodies and is reported by Damascius (De Principiis).
  • Aion §1.16 The distinction between Aion (eternity, unbounded age) and Chronos (passing time) is principally Platonic; Plato, Timaeus 37c–38c, is the foundational text.
  • Philotes §1.19 Hesiod, Theogony 224, gives Philotes as daughter of Nyx.
  • Dolos §1.21 Dolos as the apprentice of Prometheus is in Aesop, Fable 530 (Perry index); the figure is otherwise minor, appearing chiefly in mythographic catalogues of the children of Night or of Eris.
  • Geras §1.24 Hesiod, Theogony 225.
  • Python §1.26 The Python myth is preserved in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (lines 300-374, the great hymn that is our earliest sustained narrative of Apollo's foundation of the oracle), in Hyginus (Fabulae 140), in the Pseudo-Apollodoran Bibliotheca (1.4.1), and in Pausanias (Description of Greece 10.6, which preserves a different and probably older version in which Apollo's adversary was a male serpent named Delphyne or Drakon).
  • The Gigantes §1.29 The Gigantomachy is recounted in fragments throughout Greek literature; the fullest single source is Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 1.6.1-2), which preserves the catalog of Giants and the manner of each one's death.

The Titans and Their Children

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Hesiod, Theogony
Primary genealogy and succession narrative.
Prometheus Bound and related tragedy
A literary recasting whose authorship and relation to a trilogy remain debated.
Apollodorus and later mythography
Useful for systematized family trees, but chronologically late.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Cronus §2.1 The principal sources for Cronus are Hesiod, Theogony 137–187, 453–506, 617–735; Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 1.1–2; Pausanias for cult notices.
  • Oceanus §2.3 Hesiod, Theogony 133, 337–370; Homer, Iliad 14.201, 246, 302.
  • Theia §2.6 Hesiod, Theogony 135, 371–374; Pindar, Isthmian 5.1–3.
  • Selene §2.8 Selene appears in Hesiod, Theogony 371; the Endymion narrative is in Apollodorus 1.7.5, Pausanias 5.1.4, and is a stock subject of Hellenistic and Roman art and poetry.
  • Themis §2.10 Hesiod, Theogony 135, 901–906 (the begetting of the Horae); Aeschylus, Eumenides 1–8 (Themis at Delphi).
  • Leto §2.12 Leto's labor on Delos is in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo 25–139, the principal text.
  • Atlas §2.15 Hesiod, Theogony 517–520 (Atlas's punishment); Apollodorus 2.5.11 (the Heracles encounter); Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.624–662 (the Perseus encounter and petrification).
  • Coeus §2.17 Hesiod, Theogony 134, 404–410.
  • Crius §2.19 Hesiod, Theogony 134, 375–377.
  • Asteria §2.21 Hesiod, Theogony 409–411; the transformation into a quail is in Apollodorus 1.4.1 and Hyginus, Fabulae 53.
  • Perses §2.24 Hesiod, Theogony 376, 409–411.
  • Styx §2.26 Hesiod, Theogony 383–403, 775–806; the Achilles dipping is in Statius (Achilleid 1.269) and other late sources, but is implicit in older traditions about his vulnerability.

Hades and the Lesser Olympians

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Homeric epic and hymns
Principal early narratives for divine personality and selected cult foundations.
Hesiod
Genealogical organization and divine succession.
Cult calendars and inscriptions
Correct the literary bias by documenting local epithets, offerings, and civic priority.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Zeus §3.1 The principal sources for Zeus are Homer (Iliad and Odyssey throughout), Hesiod (Theogony 886–929 for the wives and children, scattered references throughout), the Homeric Hymns (especially the Hymn to Zeus, brief), Pindar (the great Olympian Odes, celebrating victors at Zeus's games), and the tragic poets.
  • Hera §3.2 Homer, Iliad and Odyssey throughout (Hera is one of the most active divine characters in both poems); Hesiod, Theogony 921–924; Apollodorus 1.3.1, 2.4.8 (the snakes against Heracles); Pausanias for the Argive Heraion.
  • Poseidon §3.3 Homer, Iliad and Odyssey throughout (Poseidon is the principal divine antagonist of Odysseus); Hesiod, Theogony 453–457, 930; Apollodorus 1.4.6, 3.14.1 (the contest for Athens).
  • Hestia §3.5 Hestia appears in Hesiod (Theogony 454) and the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 21–32 (the account of her vow of virginity).
  • Hades §3.6 Homer, Iliad 15.187–193 (the lottery), Odyssey 11 (Odysseus's visit to the borders of Hades' realm); Hesiod, Theogony 455, 768–774; Apollodorus 1.5.1, 2.5.12 (the Heracles descent).
  • Athena §3.7 The principal sources for Athena are Homer (Iliad and Odyssey throughout — she is the principal divine sponsor of Odysseus, with whom she has one of the most warmly characterized relationships in the poems), the Homeric Hymns to Athena (Hymns 11 and 28), Hesiod (Theogony 886–926), Apollodorus (1.3.6, 3.14.1), Pausanias on Athenian cult, and the great archaeological complex of the Acropolis.
  • Apollo §3.8 The principal sources are the Homeric Hymn to Apollo (one of the longest and finest of the Homeric Hymns, treating both the Delian and the Pythian Apollo), Apollodorus 1.4.1, 3.10.2; Pindar (numerous Pythian Odes); Aeschylus, Eumenides; Pausanias on Delphi; the abundant archaeological remains at Delphi, Delos, and Didyma.
  • Artemis §3.9 The Homeric Hymn to Artemis (Hymn 27, brief); Homer, Iliad and Odyssey passim; Apollodorus 1.4.1, 3.4.4 (Actaeon), 3.8.2 (Callisto); the Iphigeneia narrative is in Aeschylus's Agamemnon and in Euripides's two Iphigeneia plays.
  • Ares §3.10 Homer, Iliad 5 (the wounding by Diomedes), Iliad 21 (Ares's loud voice when wounded by Athena), Odyssey 8.266–366 (Demodocus's song of Ares and Aphrodite); Hesiod, Theogony 921–923, 933–937 (the children of Ares and Aphrodite); Apollodorus 1.7.4.
  • Hephaestus §3.12 His parthenogenetic birth from Hera is in Hesiod, Theogony 924–929; the various accounts of his lameness are scattered (Iliad 1.591–594; 18.394–399).
  • Hermes §3.13 The principal source is the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (Hymn 4, late seventh or early sixth century BCE), one of the great comic religious poems of antiquity, treating his birth, the cattle-theft, the invention of the lyre, and his admission to Olympus.
  • Dionysus §3.14 The principal sources include the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus (Hymn 7, the abduction by pirates and his transformation into a panther); Euripides's Bacchae (one of the supreme works of Greek tragedy, treating the Pentheus episode); Apollodorus 3.4.3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3, 4, 11; Diodorus Siculus 3, 4 (extensive treatment); Pausanias for cult notices.

The Sea, the Wild and the Wind

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Hesiodic genealogies
Core map for Pontus, Oceanus, winds, and related descendants.
Homeric Hymns and local cult
Essential for Artemis, Hecate, and seasonal figures.
Medical and sanctuary inscriptions
Asclepian cure records document practiced healing religion.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Persephone §4.1 Persephone's principal narrative is given in the Homeric Hymn to Demeter (see also Demeter's entry above); cf. Hesiod, Theogony 912–914; Apollodorus 1.5.1– 3; Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.341–571.
  • Eileithyia §4.3 Homer, Iliad 11.270, 16.187; the Homeric Hymn to Apollo 97–119 (the detention by Hera).
  • Eros (Later) §4.4 The Cupid-and-Psyche narrative is told in Apuleius, Metamorphoses (The Golden Ass) 4.28–6.24, where it is presented as a story told by an old woman to a kidnapped girl.
  • Hecate §4.6 Hesiod, Theogony 411–452 (the unusual Hecatic hymn, sometimes treated by scholars as an interpolation favoring a particular cult-tradition); the Homeric Hymn to Demeter 24–58 (Hecate aiding Demeter); the Greek Magical Papyri (PGM, edited by Preisendanz and others) and the Chaldean Oracles for the Hecate-Selene-Artemis triplication of late antiquity.
  • Pan §4.8 The Homeric Hymn to Pan (Hymn 19) gives his birth-narrative; Herodotus 6.105 gives the Pheidippides encounter and the establishment of his cult at Athens.
  • Nereus §4.9 Hesiod, Theogony 233–264 (parentage and the Nereids); Apollodorus 2.5.11 (the Heracles encounter).
  • Triton §4.11 Hesiod, Theogony 930–933 (parentage); Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 4.1551–1619 (the Argonauts' encounter); Herodotus 4.179.
  • Glaucus §4.12 Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.898–14.74 (the principal source for the transformation); Pausanias 9.22.6–7.
  • The Anemoi §4.14 The genealogy of the winds is given in Hesiod, Theogony 378-382 (Astraeus and Eos), and the four are catalogued there.
  • Hyacinthus §4.16 The Hyacinthus story is told in Ovid (Metamorphoses 10.162-219), Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 1.3.3 and 3.10.3), and Pausanias (3.1.3, 3.19.4-5 — the description of the throne at Amyclae).
  • Echo §4.17 The Echo and Narcissus tale is preserved chiefly in Ovid (Metamorphoses 3.339-510), which is our most extensive narrative; a separate version, in which Echo is loved by Pan rather than Narcissus, is given by Longus (Daphnis and Chloe 3.23).
  • Morpheus And The Oneiroi §4.19 Morpheus and the three sons of Sleep appear in Ovid (Metamorphoses 11.633-676, the Ceyx-and-Alcyone narrative), which is our principal source for the names and specializations of the three.

The Margins and the Monsters

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Hesiod, Theogony
Principal archaic genealogy for groups and monsters.
Lyric and cult evidence
Important for Muses, Graces, Hours, and local personifications.
Vase painting and sculpture
Sometimes earlier or more explicit than surviving literary narratives.
Entry by entry (12)
  • The Erinyes §5.1 Hesiod, Theogony 184–187 (their birth from Uranus's blood); Aeschylus, Eumenides (the Orestes trial and the conversion to Eumenides) is the principal extended treatment.
  • The Charites §5.3 Hesiod, Theogony 907–911 (parentage and naming).
  • The Horae §5.4 Hesiod, Theogony 901–906; Works and Days 220–224 (Dike).
  • Calliope §5.6 Hesiod, Theogony 79; the assignment of the epic specialty is post-classical.
  • Clio §5.7 Hesiod, Theogony 77; her historical specialty is post-classical.
  • Euterpe §5.9 Hesiod, Theogony 77.
  • Melpomene §5.10 Hesiod, Theogony 77; the assignment to tragedy is late and reflects the Hellenistic codification.
  • Terpsichore §5.12 Hesiod, Theogony 78.
  • Thalia (Muse) §5.13 Hesiod, Theogony 77; the comic specialty is late assignment.
  • The Sirens §5.15 The Sirens are first mentioned in Odyssey 12 (lines 39-54 in Circe's instructions, lines 165-200 in the actual passage); Homer gives no number and no parentage.
  • The Hesperides §5.16 The Hesperides are introduced by Hesiod (Theogony 215-216, 274-275, 333-336), and their genealogy and number vary widely in subsequent sources: Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 2.5.11) gives four (Aegle, Erytheia, Hesperia, Arethusa); Hyginus (Fabulae Praefatio) gives seven; Diodorus Siculus (4.27.2) gives seven and discusses the rationalizing tradition that they were maiden-keepers of literal sheep, the 'golden apples' being a confusion (mela in Greek can mean either fruit or sheep).
  • The Gorgons §5.18 The Gorgons are first named in Hesiod (Theogony 274-283), where their parentage and the immortality of two of them are fixed.

The Mysteries

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Eleusinian archaeology and inscriptions
Institutional evidence without disclosure of a complete secret doctrine.
Bacchic gold tablets
Short funerary instructions with regional and textual variation.
Orphic Hymns and fragments
Late ritual-poetic witnesses that cannot automatically date every belief to the archaic period.
Entry by entry (8)
  • Hypnos §6.1 Hesiod, Theogony 211, 758–766; Homer, Iliad 14.231–360 (the Hera narrative).
  • Thanatos §6.2 Hesiod, Theogony 211, 758–766; Homer, Iliad 16.671–683 (Sleep and Death carrying away the body of Sarpedon, an iconic image often reproduced in vase-painting).
  • Eris §6.3 Hesiod, Theogony 225–232 and Works and Days 11–26 (where Hesiod distinguishes a good Eris of healthy competition from a bad Eris of destructive strife); the apple of discord is principally in Hyginus, Fabulae 92, and in scholiastic traditions on the Iliad; the Judgment of Paris is implicit throughout the Iliad and was treated in the lost Cypria (a poem of the Trojan Cycle, surviving in summary).
  • Enyo §6.4 Homer, Iliad 5.333, 592 (her appearances at Troy); Hesiod, Theogony 273 (a different Enyo, one of the Graeae).
  • Phobos And Deimos §6.5 Hesiod, Theogony 933–937; Homer, Iliad 11.36–37 (the shield of Agamemnon), 13.299 (with Ares).
  • Nike §6.6 Hesiod, Theogony 383–388; the Temple of Athena Nike is well-preserved on the Acropolis; the Nike of Samothrace was discovered by Charles Champoiseau in 1863.
  • Nemesis §6.7 Hesiod, Theogony 223; the Cypria (lost epic) for the Helen-of-Nemesis tradition, surviving in summary; Pausanias 1.33 (the Rhamnous temple and the Persian-marble tradition); Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.339–510 (Narcissus).
  • Tyche §6.8 Hesiod, Theogony 360 (the Oceanid); Pindar, Olympian 12 (a developed treatment of Tyche as the divine principle behind individual fortunes).

The Heroic Bestiary

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Hesiodic catalogue
Core genealogical witness for Typhon, Echidna, and descendants.
Epic and tragedy
Narrative contexts for encounters and moral meaning.
Early visual art
Independent evidence for form, chronology, and regional circulation.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Typhon §7.1 Hesiod, Theogony 820–880, is the principal source; Apollodorus 1.6.3 gives the elaborated narrative including the cutting of the sinews.
  • Echidna §7.2 Hesiod, Theogony 295–336 (the principal text, with the catalogue of her monstrous offspring).
  • Cerberus §7.3 Hesiod, Theogony 310–312, 769–774; Apollodorus 2.5.12 (the Heracles encounter); the descent and the bringing-up is the matter of the twelfth labor in the standard catalogue.
  • Medusa §7.4 Hesiod, Theogony 270–283 (the Gorgons and the parentage); Apollodorus 2.4.2 (the Perseus narrative); Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.604–803 (the elaborated version with the rape and the punishment-by-Athena).
  • Minotaur §7.5 Apollodorus 3.1.4 (Minos and the bull); Plutarch, Life of Theseus 15–19 (the principal connected narrative); Ovid, Metamorphoses 8.169–182.
  • Sphinx §7.6 The genealogical connection of the Sphinx to Echidna and Typhon (Hesiod, Theogony 326) makes her a sister of the other great Greek monsters; Apollodorus gives her a different parentage.
  • Scylla §7.7 Homer, Odyssey 12.73–126, 222–259 (the principal source); Ovid, Metamorphoses 13.730–14.74 (the transformation narrative).
  • Charybdis §7.8 Homer, Odyssey 12.101–110, 235–259, 426–446; the personified parentage is in Servius's commentary on Vergil's Aeneid (3.420).
  • Lamia §7.9 Diodorus Siculus 20.41 (the Libyan-queen origin); Aristophanes, Wasps 1035 (the use as bogey); Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25 (the source for Keats); Keats's poem of 1820 is the principal modern instantiation.
  • Empusa §7.10 Aristophanes, Frogs 285–311 (the comic encounter); Philostratus, Life of Apollonius 4.25 (where Empusa is the demon Apollonius drives off, with elements that Keats reused for his Lamia).
  • The Harpies §7.11 The Harpies are introduced in Hesiod (Theogony 265-269), where they are two in number (Aello and Ocypete) and described as 'lovely-haired' — an interesting detail, since later iconography emphasizes their grotesqueness.
  • Pegasus §7.12 Pegasus's birth from Medusa's blood is given in Hesiod (Theogony 280-281).

The Heroic Cycle and the Tragic Houses

What survives

Linear B records
Administrative offerings establish early cult names but rarely support a full later biography.
Archaic epic and Hesiod
Foundational poetic witnesses with distinct agendas, performance histories, and variant genealogies.
Hymns and lyric
Cultic praise and local myth often preserve material absent from epic narrative.
Tragedy and comedy
Literary reworking is evidence for fifth-century reception, not a neutral transcript of timeless myth.
Inscriptions and sanctuaries
Calendars, dedications, curse tablets, votives, and archaeological contexts document practiced religion.
Mythographers and geographers
Apollodorus, Pausanias, Hyginus, and others are indispensable late organizers whose chronology must remain visible.
Homer and epic fragments
Early narrative anchors for Troy, Thebes, returns, and lost cycles.
Tragedy
Variant civic-literary reworkings, not transparent family chronicles.
Hero cult and local genealogy
Sanctuaries, tomb claims, and city traditions show how communities owned heroes.
Entry by entry (12)
  • Heracles §8.1 The principal source for the connected biography of Heracles is Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 2.4.5–2.7.7, which gives the canonical version of the Twelve Labors and the subsequent exploits.
  • Theseus §8.3 The principal connected source is Plutarch's Theseus, the first of his Lives, written c. 100 CE; Apollodorus 3.16.1–Epitome 1.24 gives a parallel account.
  • Cadmus §8.6 Apollodorus 3.4–5 gives the principal narrative; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.1– 137, 4.563–603.
  • Achilles §8.8 The Iliad is the principal source for the central episode (the Wrath of Achilles) and provides characterization that no later writer surpassed.
  • Tiresias §8.10 The principal sources are Sophocles's Oedipus Tyrannus and Antigone; Euripides's Bacchae and Phoenissae; Homer, Odyssey 11; Apollodorus 3.6.7; Ovid, Metamorphoses 3.316–338 (the seven-years-as-woman).
  • Orpheus §8.12 The principal sources for the underworld-descent are Vergil, Georgics 4.453–527, and Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.1–85, 11.1–84 (a continuous narrative covering both the descent and the death).
  • Helen §8.15 Herodotus (2.112-120) discusses the Egyptian tradition with great respect and reports that he saw the temple of Helen at Memphis.
  • Paris §8.17 Ovid's Heroides 16-17 contains a literary exchange of letters between Paris and Helen at the moment of decision.
  • Cassandra §8.19 Cassandra appears throughout Greek literature: in the Iliad (24.699-706, recognizing the body of Hector returning), in Aeschylus's Agamemnon (the great prophecy-scene at 1072-1330, one of the most famous passages of Greek tragedy), in Euripides's Trojan Women, in Lycophron's Alexandra (a deliberately obscure third-century BCE poem of more than 1400 lines spoken in her voice), in Pseudo-Apollodorus (Epitome 5.22-23, 6.23), and in Virgil's Aeneid 2.246-247, 403-406.
  • The Great Sinners §8.21 Sisyphus's punishment is described in Odyssey 11.593-600 (the Nekyia); his stratagems are in Theognis 700-718, Pherecydes (FGrH 3 F 119), and Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 1.9.3, 3.12.6).
  • Medea §8.24 Medea's story before her arrival in Greece is told in Apollonius of Rhodes (Argonautica), the great Hellenistic epic of Jason's voyage.
  • Actaeon §8.26 The Actaeon story is preserved in Ovid (Metamorphoses 3.138-252) — the locus classicus, who frames it carefully so that Actaeon's offense is innocent, the punishment grossly disproportionate.

Floor plan

The rooms follow one another in the order their peoples first appear in the written record.

  1. The Cradle of Citiesc. 3400 BCE to 395 CE. 115 works
  2. The Gift of the Nilec. 4000 BCE to 395 CE. 73 works
  3. The Olympian Orderc. 1600 BCE to 750 CE. 152 works
  4. The Persian Worldc. 2000 BCE to 1010 CE. 30 works
  5. The Levantine Borderlandsc. 1200 BCE to 500 CE. 20 works
  6. The Edges of Empirec. 2000 BCE to 1500 CE. 33 works
  7. The Etruscan Worldc. 900 BCE to 750 CE. 22 works
  8. The Roman Inheritancec. 1200 BCE to 500 CE. 58 works
  9. The Northern Inheritancec. 2000 BCE to 1600 CE. 131 works