101 Facts About Greek and Roman Mythology

  1. All beings came from Chaos.
  2. Ge and Uranus were the first couple.
  3. Cronus overthrew his father, Uranus.
  4. Zeus and the younger gods overthrew the Titans.
  5. Poseidon controlled the seas.
  6. Prometheus created man, gave them fire, angering Zeus. He was stretched out on a mountain and chained down. An eagle ate his liver, which regenerated, each day.
  7. Oceanus and Tethys parented the Oceanids(3000 boys, 3000 girls).
  8. Helius had Phaethon by Clymene. Phaethon tried to drive the sun- chariot, but could not control it. He was shot down by Zeus's thunderbolt, and crashed into the Eridanus River.
  9. Eos got Tithonus eternal life without youth. He withered away and became a grasshoper.
  10. Otus and Ephialtes(the Aloidae) tried to raid Olympus.
  11. Typhon, a 100-headed dragon, took Zeus's sinews in a fight, but Zeus later defeated him.
  12. Ages of man: Gold, Silver, Bronze, (Heroes,) Iron
  13. Deucalion and Pyrrha survived the flood, their son Hellen was the ancestor of all the Greeks.
  14. Xuthus and Creusa adopted Ion, son of Creusa and Apollo.
  15. Zeus(Juppiter) king of the gods, aegis, eagle.
  16. Hera(Juno) Queen, white armed, ox-eyed, peacock, cuckoo.
  17. Poseidon(Neptune) sea god, earthshaker, trident, horse.
  18. Hestia(Vesta) hearth, virgin.
  19. Hades(Pluto, Dis, Orcus) underworld, bident.
  20. Hephaestus(Vulcan) forge, fire, crippled when thrown from Olympus.
  21. Apollo(Apollo) sun, music, archery, colonization, Phoebus.
  22. Artemis(Diasna)moon, forest, deer, wild animals, virgin.
  23. Demeter(Ceres) grain.
  24. Aphrodite(Venus) Love, Myrtle, Dove.
  25. Athena(Minerva) wisdom, craft, owl, snake, virgin.
  26. Hermes(Mercury) messenger, winged sandals, Cadeuceeus.
  27. Dionysus(Bacchus, Liber) wine, thyrsus, leopard, grape.
  28. Zeus birthed Athena from his head. He had swallowed her mother, Metis, because she was destined to have a child greater than its father.
  29. Ares, Eilytheia, Hebe, Hephaestus-kids of Zeus and Hera
  30. Aphrodite married Hephaestus. Hephaestus caught Aphrodite cheating on him with Ares, and captured the two in a net. He put them on display for all the gods to see. Finally, Poseidon convinced him to let them go.
  31. The muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne Clio-history, Erato-love poetry, Polyhymnia-sacred music Euterpe-lyric poetry, Calliope-epic poetry, Melpomene- tragedy, Urania-astronomy, Terpsichore-choral dance, Thallia-comedy.
  32. Zeus and Leto had Apollo and Artemis.
  33. Zeus and Maia had Hermes
  34. Zeus had Dionysus(his son by Semele) out of his thigh
  35. Nereus & Doris have 50 sea-nymph daughters, the Nereids
  36. Nereus and Proteus are both old men of the sea.
  37. Thetis, wife of Peleus, Amphitrite, wife of Poseidon, and Galatea, loved by Acis and Polyphemus, were Nereids.
  38. Iris was goddess of the rainbow and messenger of Hera.
  39. Poseidon and Demeter mated as horses and had Arion, the talking horse.
  40. Pegasus, the winged horse was son of Poseidon and Medusa.
  41. Cecrops, 1st king of Athens, gave Athena stewardship of the city over Poseidon.
  42. Athena built the Paladium after accidentally killing her playmate, Pallas.
  43. Arachne got turned into a spider for challenging Athena in a weaving contest.
  44. Aphrodite brought the statue, Galatea to life for Pygmalion.
  45. Adonis, loved by Aphorodite and Persephone, was gored by a boar and became a sea-anemone.
  46. Cybele fell in love wth Atys, her son by Nana.
  47. Cupid got Psyche immortalized, even though Aphrodite hated her.
  48. Leto got Apollo and Artemis to kill Niobe for insulting her.
  49. Zeus and Callisto, follower of Artemis, have Arcas, and both the mother and the son became bears.
  50. Oenopion blinded the giant, Orion, for raping his daughter Merope, but Helius renewed Orion's sight.
  51. Hippolytus, son of Theseus and follower of Atrenis, was falsely accused of adultery by T's wife Phaedra and punished with death. Artemis later hed him revived. Aesclepius was killed for reviving Hippolytus.
  52. Delphi is Apollo's greatest oracle, there is another at his birth-place, Delos, and another at Cumae.
  53. Hermes stole the cattle of Apollo, invented sandals, firesticks and the lyre, and performed the first blood- sacrifice to the 12 Olympians on his first day.
  54. Hermes(Argeiphantes) slew Argus to get Io back for Zeus.
  55. Dionysus drove the aunts and mother of Pentheus to rip him apart because he refused to worship th god.
  56. Europa, raped by Zeus in the form of a bull, had Minos.
  57. Pan was the goat-man god of shepherds.
  58. Echo pined away for Narcissus and became a voice, Narcissus died looking into a river at his reflection.
  59. A centaur is a horse-man, a satyr is a goat-man.
  60. Hades raped Persephone, daughter of Demeter, she stayed 1/2 the year with him in the underworld, Demeter's grief during this time caused winter.
  61. Eleusis was the center of Demeter-worship.
  62. Thre Styx(hate), Lethe(forgetfullness), Acheron(woe), Cocytus(wailing), and Phlegathon(fire) are the rivers of the underworld.
  63. In the underworld, Tityus was tied and livered for trying to rape Leto.
  64. In the underworld, Sisyphus had to push a rock up a hill, Tantulus was taunted with unreachable food and drink, and Ixion was chained to a wheel opf fire.
  65. Orpheus was a great musician. Eurydice, his new wife was killed by a snake while running from Aristaeus. Orpheus went to Hades, and petitioned successfuily to get her back with song, but lost her again when he looked back at her as they came up from the underworld.
  66. Following orders from Delphi, Cadmus founded Thebes where a cow, that he was following, lay down. He angered, but later befriended Ares, & married the god's daughter Harmonia.
  67. Oedipus, king of Thebes, beat the Sphinx, killed his father, Laius, and married his mother, Jocasta.
  68. Tiresius, the blind prophet of Thebes, lived seven generations, was both a man and woman(at different times), and advocated the suicide of Menoeceus to save the city from the Seven Against Thebes, and the leaving of the city before the attack of the Epigoni.
  69. Pelops, son of Tantalus, had an ivory shoulder(Deneter ate it). He won Hippodemeia in a race.
  70. Atreus and Thyestes, sons of Pelops, fought over Mycenae. Zeus hepefd Atreus win.
  71. Clytemnestra and Castor were kids of Leda and Tyndarus. Helen and Pullux were kids of Leda and Zeus.
  72. Paris abducted Helen and started the Trojan war.
  73. Priam and Hecuba were king and queen of Troy during the Trojan War.
  74. Hector, the best Trojan warrior was killed by Achilles.
  75. Cassandra was given the gift of divination by Apollo, but she spurned his romantic advances. Apollo added the curse that her prophecies were never believed.
  76. Andromache, wife of Hector, was given to Neoptolemus as a concubine. Her son Astyanax was thrown from the walls in the sack of Troy.
  77. Atalanta was first to wound the Calydonian boar. Meleager killed it. Meleager's mother, Althaea, burned a stick which killed Meleager.
  78. Bellerophon tamed Pegassus and killed the Chimaera.
  79. Perseus killed Medusa, serving Polydectes. He put Dictys on the throne of Seriphos, and Dioctys married Perseus's mom, Danae, then Perseus acciddentattl killed his grandfather, Acrisius.
  80. Zeus & Alcmene(wife of Amphitryon) have Heracles, who served 12 labors to Eurystheus. His wives were Megara, Dejanira, and Hebe.
  81. Heracles is killed by a robe with the blood of Nessus, which Dejanira hoped would make him ignore Iole.
  82. Chiron, the kindly centaur, tutored many heroes.
  83. Jason was the son of Aeson. He captained the first ship, the Argo, in search of the golden fleece.
  84. Pelias, having been told to beware the man with one sandal, sent Jason after the golden fleece. Jason had lost a sandal carrying Hera across a river.
  85. Tiphys and Ancaeus were the two helmsmen of the Argo. Euphemus could run so fast, he could run on water. The Argonaut saved Phineas from the Harpies.
  86. Aeetres, king of Colchis, was the father of Medea and the guardian of the golden fleece.
  87. When she and the Argonauts stole the golden fleece, Medea chopped her brother, Apsyrtus, up to aid the getaway.
  88. Baucis and Philemon were kind to Zues and Hermes. Upon their death, they were turned into an oak and a linden tree.
  89. Theseus slew the Minotaur with the help of Minos's daughter Ariadne. Aegeus killed himself when he saw kis son's black sail.
  90. Odysseus, king of Ithaca, spent ten years getting home from Troy. His wife was Penelope, his son was Telemachus.
  91. The Greek gods had ichor for blood and drank nectar and ate ambrosia.
  92. Apollo loved the laurel tree because he pursued Daphne, and she became one.
  93. The lovers Ceyx and Alcyone were turned into sea birds.
  94. Procne's husband, Tereus, raped her sister Philamela and ripped out her tongue. When Philamela told her sister by weaving a tapestry, they cookeed and served Tereus his son, Itys.
  95. The Trojan, Aeneas seduced, then left, Dido at Carthage. He went on to found the Roman race.
  96. Homer wrote the Illiad and the Odyssey.
  97. Hesiod wrote Theogany and Works and Days about Greek myth.
  98. Empedocles thought that the universe was composed of 4 elements: earth, air, water, fire.
  99. Apollo and Coronis had Aesclepius. Coronis was kkilled for cheating on him. Marpessa chose Idas over Apollo.
  100. Apollo fathered Aristaeus by Cyrene, because she looked good wrestling lions.
  101. Laomedon, king of Troy, cheated Apollo and Poseidon, who built his walls, then didn't pay Heracles for saving his daughter, Hesione, from Poseidon's sea monster. Tryy was sacked and his son, Priam left as king.

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