Greek mythology

Creation and the Titans

Zeus

Olympian

King of the gods and god of the sky, thunder and justice. He led his brothers…
Gaia

Primordial

The Earth herself. She bore the sky, the mountains and the sea, and was mother of…
Pandora

Mortal

The first woman, made by Hephaestus on Zeus’s orders. She opened the jar (not originally a…
Prometheus

Titan

The Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans. Zeus chained him…
Atlas

Titan

Condemned by Zeus to hold up the sky at the western edge of the world. Heracles…
Cronus

Titan

Youngest of the Titans. He overthrew his father Uranus, then swallowed his own children so none…
Eros

God or spirit

God of love. Hesiod makes him one of the first beings in the universe. Later writers…
Helios

God or spirit

The Sun, who drives his fiery chariot across the sky each day and sees everything below.
The Fates

God or spirit

Clotho spins the thread of each life, Lachesis measures it and Atropos cuts it. Hesiod calls…
Uranus

Primordial

The Sky, born of Gaia and then her husband. He hid his monstrous children inside the…
Chaos

Primordial

The first thing to exist, according to Hesiod: a vast, dark gap before anything else.
Nyx

Primordial

Night, born from Chaos. In the Iliad even Zeus is afraid to anger her. Mother of…
Rhea

Titan

Mother of the Olympians. She saved the baby Zeus by giving Cronus a stone wrapped in…
The Cyclopes

Monster or creature

In Hesiod, three giant one-eyed smiths, Brontes, Steropes and Arges, who forged Zeus’s thunderbolt. Homer’s Cyclopes…
Themis

Titan

Titaness of divine law and right order. Her blindfolded figure with scales still stands outside law…
Typhon

Monster or creature

The most terrible monster of all, with a hundred serpent heads. He challenged Zeus for the…
Amphitrite

Nymph

Queen of the sea and wife of Poseidon.
Deucalion

Mortal

Son of Prometheus. Warned by his father, he built a chest and survived Zeus’s great flood…
Eos

God or spirit

The Dawn, “rosy-fingered” in Homer, who opens the gates of heaven each morning. Mother of Memnon.
Mnemosyne

Titan

Titaness of memory. She spent nine nights with Zeus and gave birth to the nine Muses.
Oceanus

Titan

The great river that encircles the world. Father of all the rivers and of three thousand…
Selene

God or spirit

The Moon, who drives her silver chariot across the night sky.
Tartarus

Primordial

The deep pit far below the Underworld where the defeated Titans were imprisoned, and the god…
Echidna

Monster or creature

Half woman, half serpent, the “mother of monsters” with Typhon.