An encyclopedia of Greek myth
Every god, hero and monster, and how they connect
Short, plain-English entries with family, stories and the ancient sources they come from, plus eight great classics to read chapter by chapter. Tap any face to meet them.
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Which Greek are you?
Human nature hasn’t changed. Ten quick questions reveal your mythic match, your strength, your fatal flaw and your mirror in history.
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Myths are hiding in the words we use every day.
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Foreword
Human nature hasn’t changed. Neither have the stories.
We are running the same programming people were running 3,000 years ago. That is why the myths still work as a mirror, for ourselves, for history and for the people who lead us.
History’s mirrors
Real events the ancients saw coming. Each pairs a myth with a moment in history, and the warning that could have predicted it.
Explore by theme
Big ideas that run through all the myths. Great for projects and discussion.
Love and longing
Gods and mortals falling in love, and the trouble it causes: stolen brides, lost lovers and love that lasts beyond death.
15 figures
War and glory
Heroes who chose a short life with fame that lasts for ever, and the gods who took sides in their battles.
13 figures
Monsters and monster-slayers
Every monster needs a hero. Snake-haired Gorgons, a bull-headed man, a nine-headed serpent, and the heroes who faced them.
15 figures
Pride and punishment
The Greeks called it hubris: forgetting your place and challenging the gods. It almost never ended well.
12 figures
Transformations
People turned into spiders, flowers, stone, animals and stars. Ovid gathered over 250 of these stories in his Metamorphoses.
12 figures
Great journeys and quests
Long voyages, impossible tasks and the long road home. The original adventure stories.
10 figures
Trips to the Underworld
Few living people went down to the land of the dead and came back. These are the ones who tried.
14 figures
Tricksters and clever minds
Not every hero wins by strength. Some win with a lie, a disguise, a puzzle or a wooden horse.
12 figures
Prophecy and fate
Oracles, seers and prophecies. Can you escape your fate? In Greek myth, trying usually makes it come true.
12 figures
Cursed families
Some royal families passed down a curse like an heirloom, with each generation paying for the crimes of the last.
16 figures
Makers and inventors
Smiths, builders, weavers and inventors: the myths behind skill, craft and clever making.
10 figures
Gifts of the gods
Where fire, farming, wine, music and medicine came from, according to the Greeks.
10 figures
The sea and its dangers
The Greeks lived by the sea and feared it. Storms, whirlpools, singing monsters and the gods who ruled the waves.
12 figures
Remarkable women
Hunters, queens, warriors, witches and rebels: women who shaped their own stories.
13 figures
How it all began
Before the gods there was Chaos. How the Greeks explained the making of the world, the gods and people.
12 figuresFollow a story
Each of the great cycles, told step by step with everyone who takes part.
Creation and the Titans
How the world began and how the gods came to power, told mainly in Hesiod's Theogony (about 700 BC).
37 figures
The Olympians
The twelve great gods who ruled from Mount Olympus after defeating the Titans.
23 figures
The Underworld
The kingdom of the dead, ruled by Hades and Persephone, and the heroes who went there and came back.
20 figures
Heracles
The life and labours of Greece's greatest hero, son of Zeus and Alcmene.
17 figuresPerseus
The hero who beheaded Medusa, son of Zeus and Danae.
11 figures
Theseus and Crete
The hero of Athens, and the dark story of King Minos's Crete.
11 figuresJason and the Argonauts
Jason's voyage on the Argo to fetch the Golden Fleece, told by Apollonius of Rhodes.
20 figures
Thebes and Oedipus
The cursed royal house of Thebes, from Cadmus to Antigone.
17 figuresThe Trojan War
The ten-year war between the Greeks and Troy, told in Homer's Iliad and the lost epics around it.
97 figuresThe Odyssey
Odysseus's ten-year journey home from Troy, told in Homer's Odyssey.
28 figures
The Aeneid
Virgil's Roman epic of Aeneas, who escaped Troy to found the line of Rome.
14 figures
Other famous tales
Famous stories that stand outside the great cycles, many retold by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses ("Transformations").
20 figuresBrowse by kind
The most famous faces
Start with the stars of Greek myth.
Read the classics
Each one retold in plain modern English, with the full classic translation underneath.
The Iliad
A few weeks of the Trojan War: the anger of Achilles and the death of Hector.
24 parts retoldThe Odyssey
Odysseus's ten-year struggle to get home, and Penelope waiting for him.
24 parts retoldTheogony and Works and Days
How the world and the gods came to be, from Chaos to the rule of Zeus.
10 parts retold
The Homeric Hymns
Poems in praise of the gods, including Demeter and Persephone.
5 parts retoldThe Library
A handbook of almost the whole of Greek myth, from the gods to Troy.
18 parts retoldThe Argonautica
Jason and the Argonauts' voyage for the Golden Fleece.
4 parts retoldThe Aeneid
Aeneas escapes burning Troy and wanders to Italy.
12 parts retoldMetamorphoses
Over 250 myths of transformation.
15 parts retold