Greek mythology

{{Short description|Body of myths originating in ancient Greece}} {{pp|small=yes}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}} {{Greek mythology sidebar}} {{Mythology}}

'''Greek mythology''' is the body of [[myth]]s originally told by the [[Ancient Greece|ancient Greeks]], and a [[genre]] of [[ancient Greek folklore]], today absorbed alongside [[Roman mythology]] into the broader designation of [[classical mythology]]. These stories concern the [[Cosmogony|origin]] and [[Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology|nature of the world]], the lives of [[List of Greek deities|deities]], and [[Greek hero cult|heroes]] and the significance of the ancient Greeks' [[cult (religious practice)|cult]] and [[ritual]] practices. Modern [[scholars]] study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of mythmaking itself.<ref name="Helios">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Volume: Hellas, Article: Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia The Helios]]|year=1952}}</ref>

The Greek myths were initially propagated in an [[oral tradition|oral-poetic tradition]] most likely by [[Minoan civilization|Minoan]] and [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean]] singers starting in the 18th century BC;<ref>{{cite web|last1=Cartwirght|first1=Mark|title=Greek Mythology|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Mythology/|website=World History Encyclopedia|date=29 July 2012 |access-date=26 March 2018|archive-date=18 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418165021/https://www.worldhistory.org/Greek_Mythology/|url-status=live}}</ref> eventually the myths of the heroes of the [[Trojan War]] and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of [[Homer]]'s [[Epic poetry|epic poems]], the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]''. Two poems by Homer's near contemporary [[Hesiod]], the ''[[Theogony]]'' and the ''[[Works and Days]]'', contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of [[sacrifice|sacrificial]] practices. Myths are also preserved in the ''[[Homeric Hymns]]'', in fragments of epic poems of the [[Epic Cycle]], in [[Lyric poetry|lyric poems]], in the works of the [[Tragedy|tragedians]] and [[Ancient Greek comedy|comedians]] of the fifth century BC, in writings of scholars and poets of the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic Age]], and in texts from the time of the [[Roman Empire]] by writers such as [[Plutarch]] and [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]].

Aside from this narrative deposit in [[ancient Greek literature]], pictorial representations of gods, heroes, and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient [[pottery of ancient Greece|vase paintings]] and the decoration of [[votive deposit|votive gifts]] and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BC depict scenes from the Epic Cycle as well as the adventures of [[Heracles]]. In the succeeding [[Archaic period in Greece|Archaic]], [[Classical Greece|Classical]], and [[Hellenistic Greece|Hellenistic]] periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.<ref name="Br">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Mythology|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|date=2002|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-mythology|orig-year=1998|first1=A. W. H.|last1=Adkins|first2=John R. T.|last2=Pollard}}<br /></ref>

Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of [[Western culture|Western civilization]] and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes.<ref>Foley, John Miles (1999). "Homeric and South Slavic Epic". ''Homer's Traditional Art''. [[Penn State University Press|Penn State Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-271-01870-6}}.</ref>{{Rp|43}} [[File:Achilles Penthesileia BM B209.jpg|thumb|[[Achilles]] and [[Penthesileia]] by Exekias, {{circa|540 BC}}, [[British Museum]], London]]

==Sources== Greek mythology is known today primarily from [[ancient Greek literature|Greek literature]] and representations on visual media dating from the [[Geometric period]] from {{circa|900 BC|lk=on}} to {{circa|800 BC|lk=no}} onward.<ref name="Graf200">Graf, Fritz. 2009 [1993]. ''[[iarchive:greekmythologyin0000graf|Greek Mythology: An Introduction]]'', translated by T. Marier. Baltimore: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]]. {{ISBN|9780801846571}}.</ref>{{Rp|200}} Literary and archaeological sources often intersect either reinforcing each other or other times presenting contradictions. Despite the absence of complete consensus, the available evidence points to the historical roots of Greek mythology.<ref>Alms, Anthony. 2007. ''Theology, Trauerspiel, and the Conceptual Foundations of Early German Opera''. [[City University of New York]].</ref>

===Literary sources=== Mythical narration plays an important role in nearly every genre of Greek literature. Nevertheless, the only general mythographical handbook to survive from Greek antiquity was the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Library]]'' of Pseudo-Apollodorus. This work attempts to reconcile the contradictory tales of the poets and provides a grand summary of traditional Greek mythology and heroic legends.<ref name="Hard1">Hard, Robin (2003). "Sources of Greek Myth". ''The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology'': ''based on H. J. Rose's "A Handbook of Greek mythology''". London: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-415-18636-0}}.</ref>{{Rp|1}} [[Apollodorus of Athens]] lived from {{circa|180 BC}} to {{circa|125 BC|lk=no}} and wrote on many of these topics. His writings may have formed the basis for the collection; however, the "Library" discusses events that occurred long after his death, hence the name Pseudo-Apollodorus. [[File:Prometheus by Gustave Moreau.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Prometheus]]'' (1868 by [[Gustave Moreau]]). The myth of Prometheus first was attested by [[Hesiod]] and then constituted the basis for a tragic trilogy of plays, possibly by Aeschylus, consisting of ''[[Prometheus Bound]]'', ''[[Prometheus Unbound (Aeschylus)|Prometheus Unbound]]'', and ''[[Prometheus Pyrphoros]]''.]]

Among the earliest literary sources are [[Homer]]'s two epic poems, the ''[[Iliad]]'' and the ''[[Odyssey]]''. Other poets completed the [[Epic Cycle]], but these later and lesser poems now are lost almost entirely. Despite their traditional name, the ''[[Homeric Hymns]]'' have no direct connection with Homer. The oldest are choral hymns from the earlier part of the so-called [[Greek lyric|Lyric age]].<ref name="Miles7">Miles, Geoffrey (1999). "The Myth-kitty" in ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology''. Chicago: [[University of Illinois Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-415-14754-5}}.</ref>{{Rp|7}} [[Hesiod]], a possible contemporary with Homer, offers in his ''[[Theogony]] ''(''Origin of the Gods'') the fullest account of the earliest Greek myths, dealing with the creation of the world, the origin of the gods, [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]], and [[Giant|Giants]], as well as elaborate genealogies, folktales, and aetiological myths. Hesiod's ''[[Works and Days]]'', a didactic poem about farming life, also includes the myths of [[Prometheus]], [[Pandora]], and the [[Ages of Man#Hesiod's Five Ages|Five Ages]]. The poet advises on the best way to succeed in a dangerous world, rendered yet more dangerous by its gods.<ref name="Br" />

Lyrical poets often took their subjects from myth, but their treatment became gradually less narrative and more allusive. Greek lyric poets, including [[Pindar]], [[Bacchylides]] and [[Simonides of Ceos|Simonides]], and bucolic poets such as [[Theocritus]] and [[Bion of Smyrna|Bion]], relate individual mythological incidents.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii">Klatt, Mary J., and Antoinette Brazouski. 1994. "Preface" in ''Children's Books on Ancient Greek and Roman Mythology: An Annotated Bibliography''. [[Greenwood Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-313-28973-6}}.</ref>{{Rp|xii}} Additionally, myth was central to classical [[Theatre of ancient Greece|Athenian drama]]. The [[Tragedy|tragic]] playwrights [[Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles]], and [[Euripides]] took most of their plots from myths of the age of heroes and the Trojan War. Many of the great tragic stories (e.g. [[Agamemnon]] and his children, [[Oedipus]], [[Jason]], [[Medea]], etc.) took on their classic form in these tragedies. The comic playwright [[Aristophanes]] also used myths, in ''[[The Birds (play)|The Birds]]'' and ''[[The Frogs]]''.<ref name="Miles7" />{{Rp|8}}

Historians [[Herodotus]] and [[Diodorus Siculus]], and geographers [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]] and [[Strabo]], who traveled throughout the Greek world and noted the stories they heard, supplied numerous local myths and legends, often giving little-known alternative versions.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii" />{{Rp|xii}} Herodotus in particular, searched the various traditions he encountered and found the historical or mythological roots in the confrontation between Greece and the East.<ref>Cartledge, Paul A. 2004. ''The Spartans'' (translated in Greek). Livanis. {{ISBN|978-960-14-0843-9}}.</ref>{{Rp|60}}<ref>Cartledge, Paul A. 2002. "Inventing the Past: History v. Myth" in ''The Greeks''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-280388-7}}.</ref>{{Rp|22}} Herodotus attempted to reconcile origins and the blending of differing cultural concepts.

The poetry of the [[Hellenistic civilization|Hellenistic]] and [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] ages was primarily composed as a literary rather than cultic exercise. Nevertheless, it contains many important details that would otherwise be lost. This category includes the works of: # The Roman poets [[Ovid]], [[Statius]], [[Gaius Valerius Flaccus|Valerius Flaccus]], [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] and [[Virgil]] with [[Maurus Servius Honoratus|Servius]]'s commentary. # The Greek poets of the [[Late Antiquity|Late Antique]] period: [[Nonnus]], [[Antoninus Liberalis]], and [[Quintus Smyrnaeus]]. # The Greek poets of the Hellenistic period: [[Apollonius of Rhodes]], [[Callimachus]], Pseudo-[[Eratosthenes]], and [[Parthenius of Nicaea|Parthenius]].

Prose writers from the same periods who make reference to myths include [[Apuleius]], [[Petronius]], [[Lollianus]], and [[Heliodorus of Emesa|Heliodorus]]. Two other important non-poetical sources are the ''Fabulae'' and ''Astronomica'' of the Roman writer styled as Pseudo-[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], the ''Imagines'' of [[Philostratus the Elder]] and [[Philostratus the Younger]], and the ''Descriptions'' of [[Callistratus (sophist)|Callistratus]].

Finally, several [[Byzantine]] Greek and various other writers provide important details of myth, much derived from earlier now lost Greek works. These preservers of myth include [[Arnobius]], [[Hesychius of Alexandria|Hesychius]], the author of the ''[[Suda]]'', [[John Tzetzes]], and [[Eustathius of Thessalonica|Eustathius]]. They often treat mythology from a Christian moralizing perspective. <ref>Kaldellis, Anthony (2021). "The Reception of Classical Literature and Ancient Myth". In Papaioannou, Stratis (ed.). ''The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Literature''. Oxford University Press. pp. 162–179.</ref>

===Archaeological sources=== [[File:RomanVirgilFolio014rVergilPortrait.jpg|thumb|The Roman poet [[Virgil]], here depicted in the fifth-century manuscript, the ''[[Vergilius Romanus]]'', preserved details of Greek mythology in many of his writings.]] The discovery of the [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean civilization]] by the German amateur [[archaeology|archaeologist]] [[Heinrich Schliemann]] in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the [[Minoan civilization]] in [[Crete]] by the British archaeologist [[Arthur Evans]] in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing questions about Homer's epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the mythological details about gods and heroes. The evidence about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the [[Linear B]] script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.<ref name="Br" />

Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth-century  BC depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles.<ref>Jane Henle, ''Greek Myths: A Vase Painter's Notebook'' (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1973) {{ISBN|0-253-32636-2}}</ref> These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the [[Cerberus]] adventure occurs in a contemporary literary text.<ref name="HomerIliad366-369">Homer, ''Iliad'', 8. An epic poem about the Battle of Troy. [https://archive.today/20120526194909/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin//ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0134&layout=&loc=8.366 366–369]</ref> Secondly, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by several centuries.<ref name="Graf200" /> In the Archaic ({{circa|750|500 BC}}), Classical ({{circa|480}}–323 BC), and Hellenistic (323–146 BC) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.<ref name="Br" />

==Survey of mythic history== [[File:Phaedra-Color.jpg|thumb|[[Phaedra (mythology)|Phaedra]] with an attendant, probably her nurse, a fresco from [[Pompeii]], {{circa|60|20 BC}}]] Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their culture, of which mythology, both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions, is an index of the changes. In Greek mythology's surviving literary forms, as found mostly at the end of the progressive changes, it is inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson (1975) has argued.<ref group="lower-roman">Cuthbertson (1975) selects a wider range of epic, from [[Gilgamesh]] to Voltaire's ''[[Henriade]]'', but his central theme—that myths encode mechanisms of cultural dynamics structure community by the creation of moral consensus—is a familiar mainstream view that applies to Greek myth.</ref><ref>Cuthbertson, Gilbert (1975) ''Political Myth and Epic.'' Ann Arbor: [[Michigan State University Press]].</ref>

The earlier inhabitants of the [[Balkans|Balkan Peninsula]] were an agricultural people who, using [[animism]], assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human forms and entered the local mythology as gods.<ref name="Johnson17">Albala, Ken G, Claudia Durst Johnson, and Vernon E. Johnson. 2000. ''[[iarchive:bulfinchsgreekro00bulf|Understanding the Odyssey]]''. [[Courier Dover Publications]]. {{ISBN|978-0-486-41107-1}}.</ref>{{Rp|17}} When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new [[Pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older gods of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.<ref name="Johnson17" />{{Rp|18}}

After the middle of the Archaic period, myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes became more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of [[Pederasty in ancient Greece|pedagogic pederasty]] ({{Langx|grc|παιδικὸς ἔρως|translit=eros paidikos|label=none}}), thought to have been introduced around 630 BC. By the end of the fifth-century BC, poets had assigned at least one [[eromenos]], an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion, to every important [[god]] except [[Ares]] and many legendary figures.<ref name="Gallimach109">Calimach, Andrew, ed. 2002. "[[iarchive:loverslegends00cali|The Cultural Background]]." Pp. 12–109 in ''[[Lovers' Legends: The Gay Greek Myths]]''. New Rochelle, NY: Haiduk Press. {{ISBN|978-0-9714686-0-3}}.</ref> Previously existing myths, such as those of [[Achilles]] and [[Patroclus]], also then were cast in a [[List of myths associated with same-sex love|pederastic light]].<ref name="Percy">Percy, William A. 1999. "The Institutionalization of Pederasty" in ''Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece''. London: [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-0-252-06740-2}}.</ref>{{Rp|54}} Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often re-adapted stories of Greek mythological characters in this fashion.

The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles and, as a result, to develop a new sense of mythological chronology. Thus, Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the development of the world and of humans.<ref name="Dowden11">[[Ken Dowden|Dowden, Ken]]. 1992. "Myth and Mythology" in ''The Uses of Greek Mythology''. London: [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-0-415-06135-3}}.</ref>{{Rp|11}} While self-contradictions in these stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned. The resulting mythological "history of the world" may be divided into three or four broader periods: # ''The myths of origin'' or ''age of gods (Theogonies, "births of gods")'': myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race. # ''The age when gods and mortals mingled freely'': stories of the early interactions between gods, [[demigod]]s, and mortals. # '' The age of heroes (heroic age)'', where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the story of ''the Trojan War and after'' (which is regarded by some researchers as a separate, fourth period).<ref name="Miles7" />{{Rp|35}}

While the age of gods often has been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes, establishing a chronology and record of human accomplishments after the questions of how the world came into being were explained. For example, the heroic ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey'' dwarfed the divine-focused ''Theogony'' and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the "hero cult" leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the [[Chthonic]] from the Olympian.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205">Burkert, Walter. 2002. "Prehistory and the Minoan Mycenaen Era" in ''Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical'', translated by J. Raffan. [[Wiley-Blackwell|Blackwell Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-0-631-15624-6}}.</ref>{{Rp|205}} In the ''Works and Days'', Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four [[Ages of Man]] (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the [[Golden Age]] belonging to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races to the creation of [[Zeus]]. The presence of evil was explained by the myth of [[Pandora]], when all of the best of human capabilities, save hope, had been spilled out of her overturned jar.<ref name="Worksanddays">Hesiod, ''Works and Days'', [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm 90–105] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512080002/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm |date=12 May 2015 }}</ref> In ''[[Metamorphoses]]'', Ovid follows Hesiod's concept of the four ages.<ref name="Ovid89-162">Ovid, ''Metamorphoses'', I, [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml 89–162] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023183945/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml |date=23 October 2017 }}</ref>

===Origins of the world and the gods=== {{Further|Greek primordial gods|Family tree of the Greek gods}} [[File:Caravaggio - Cupid as Victor - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Amor Vincit Omnia (Caravaggio)|Amor Vincit Omnia]]'' (''Love Conquers All''), a depiction of the god of love, Eros. By [[Caravaggio|Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio]], circa 1601–1602.]] "Myths of origin" or "[[creation myth]]s" represent an attempt to explain the beginnings of the universe in human language.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii" />{{Rp|10}} The most widely accepted version at the time, although a philosophical account of the beginning of things, is reported by [[Hesiod]], in his ''[[Theogony]]''. He begins with [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]], a yawning nothingness. Next comes [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]] (Earth), "the ever-sure foundation of all", and then [[Tartarus]], "in the depth of the wide-pathed Earth", and [[Eros]] (Love), "fairest among the deathless gods".<ref name="Theogony116-138">Hesiod, ''Theogony'', [[s:Theogony|116–138]]</ref> Without male assistance, Gaia gave birth to [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] (the Sky) who then fertilized her. From that union were born first the [[Titan (mythology)|Titans]]—six males: [[Coeus]], [[Crius]], [[Cronus]], [[Hyperion (mythology)|Hyperion]], [[Iapetus (mythology)|Iapetus]], and [[Oceanus]]; and six females: [[Mnemosyne]], [[Phoebe (Titaness)|Phoebe]], [[Rhea (mythology)|Rhea]], [[Theia]], [[Themis]], and [[Tethys (mythology)|Tethys]]. After Cronus was born, Gaia and Uranus decreed no more Titans were to be born. They were followed by the one-eyed [[Cyclops|Cyclopes]] and the [[Hecatoncheires]] or Hundred-Handed Ones, who were both thrown into Tartarus by Uranus. This made Gaia furious. Cronus ("the wily, youngest and most terrible of [[Gaia (mythology)|Gaia]]'s children")<ref name="Theogony116-138" /> was convinced by Gaia to castrate his father. He did this and became the ruler of the Titans with his sister-wife, Rhea, as his consort, and the other Titans became his court.

A motif of father-against-son conflict was repeated when Cronus was confronted by his son, [[Zeus]]. Because Cronus had betrayed his father, he feared that his offspring would do the same, and so each time Rhea gave birth, he snatched up the child and ate it. Rhea hated this and tricked him by hiding Zeus and wrapping a stone in a baby's blanket, which Cronus ate. When Zeus was full-grown, he fed Cronus a drugged drink which caused him to vomit, throwing up Rhea's other children, including [[Poseidon]], [[Hades]], [[Hestia]], [[Demeter]], and [[Hera]], and the stone, which had been sitting in Cronus's stomach all this time. Zeus then challenged Cronus to [[Titanomachy|war]] for the kingship of the gods. At last, with the help of the Cyclopes (whom Zeus freed from Tartarus), Zeus and his siblings were victorious, while Cronus and the Titans were hurled down to imprisonment in Tartarus.<ref name="Theogony713-735">Hesiod, ''Theogony'', [[s:Theogony|713–735]]</ref> [[File:Amphora birth Athena Louvre F32.jpg|thumb|left|Attic black-figured [[amphora]] depicting Athena being "reborn" from the head of Zeus, who had swallowed her mother [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]], on the right, Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth, assists, circa 550–525 BC ([[Musée du Louvre]], Paris)]] Zeus was plagued by the same concern, and after a prophecy that the offspring of his first wife, [[Metis (mythology)|Metis]], would give birth to a god "greater than he", Zeus swallowed her.<ref name=":0">{{cite book|author=Guirand|first=Felix|title=New Larousse Encyclopedia of Mythology|publisher=Hamlyn|others=Translated by [[Richard Aldington|R. Aldington]] and [[Delano Ames|D. Ames]]|year=1987|isbn=978-0-600-02350-0|editor=Guirand|editor-first=Felix|chapter=Greek Mythology|orig-year=1959}}</ref>{{Rp|98}} She was already [[Pregnancy|pregnant]] with [[Athena]], however, and she burst forth from his head—fully-grown and dressed for war.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|108}}

The earliest Greek thought about poetry considered the theogonies to be the prototypical poetic genre—the prototypical ''mythos''—and imputed almost magical powers to it. [[Orpheus]], the [[archetypal]] poet, also was the archetypal singer of theogonies, which he uses to calm seas and storms in Apollonius' ''[[Argonautica]]'', and to move the stony hearts of the underworld gods in his descent to [[Hades]]. When [[Hermes]] invents the [[lyre]] in the ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', the first thing he does is sing about the birth of the gods.<ref name="Hermes">''Homeric Hymn to Hermes'', [http://mcllibrary.org/Hesiod/hymns.html 414–435] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025121210/http://mcllibrary.org/Hesiod/hymns.html |date=25 October 2008 }}</ref> Hesiod's ''Theogony'' is not only the fullest surviving account of the gods but also the fullest surviving account of the archaic poet's function, with its long preliminary invocation to the [[Muse]]s. Theogony also was the subject of many lost poems, including those attributed to Orpheus, [[Musaeus of Athens|Musaeus]], [[Epimenides]], [[Abaris the Hyperborean|Abaris]], and other legendary seers, which were used in private ritual purifications and [[Greco-Roman mysteries|mystery-rites]]. There are indications that [[Plato]] was familiar with some version of the Orphic theogony.<ref name="Betegh147">[[Gábor Betegh|Betegh, Gábor]]. 2004. "The Interpretation of the poet" in ''The Derveni Papyrus''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-80108-9}}.</ref>{{Rp|147}} A silence would have been expected about religious rites and beliefs, however, and that nature of the culture would not have been reported by members of the society while the beliefs were held. After they ceased to become religious beliefs, few would have known the rites and rituals. Allusions often existed, however, to aspects that were quite public.

Images existed on pottery and religious artwork that were interpreted and more likely, misinterpreted in many diverse myths and tales. A few fragments of these works survive in quotations by [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonist]] philosophers and recently unearthed [[papyrus]] scraps. One of these scraps, the [[Derveni papyrus|Derveni Papyrus]] now proves that at least in the fifth-century BC a theogonic-cosmogonic poem of Orpheus was in existence.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|236}}<ref name="Betegh147" />{{Rp|147}}

The first philosophical cosmologists reacted against, or sometimes built upon, popular mythical conceptions that had existed in the Greek world for some time. Some of these popular conceptions can be gleaned from the poetry of Homer and Hesiod. In Homer, the Earth was viewed as a flat disk afloat on the river of [[Oceanus]] and overlooked by a hemispherical sky with sun, moon, and stars. The Sun ([[Helios]]) traversed the heavens as a charioteer and sailed around the Earth in a golden bowl at night. Sun, earth, heaven, rivers, and winds could be addressed in prayers and called to witness oaths. Natural fissures were popularly regarded as entrances to the subterranean house of Hades and his predecessors, home of the dead.<ref name="BrAlga">[[Keimpe Algra|Algra, Keimpe]]. 1999. "The Beginnings of Cosmology" in ''The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek Philosophy''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-44667-9}}.</ref>{{Rp|45}} Influences from other cultures always afforded new themes.

====Greek pantheon==== {{Further|Ancient Greek religion|Twelve Olympians|List of Greek deities}} [[File:Leda - after Michelangelo Buonarroti.jpg|thumb|Zeus, disguised as a [[swan]], seduces [[Leda (mythology)|Leda]], the Queen of [[Sparta]]. A sixteenth-century [[Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)|copy of the lost original by Michelangelo]].]] According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new [[pantheon (gods)|pantheon]] of [[god (male deity)|gods]] and [[goddess]]es was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on [[Mount Olympus]] under the eye of Zeus. (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea.)<ref name="Stoll8">Stoll, Heinrich Wilhelm. 1852. ''Handbook of the Religion and Mythology of the Greeks'', translated by R. B. Paul. Francis & John Rivington.</ref>{{Rp|8}} Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped various gods of the countryside, the satyr-god [[Pan (mythology)|Pan]], [[Nymph]]s (spirits of rivers), [[Naiad]]s (who dwelled in springs), [[Dryad]]s (who were spirits of the trees), [[Nereid]]s (who inhabited the sea), river gods, [[Satyr]]s, and others. In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the [[Erinyes]] (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives.<ref name="BrRel">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Greek Religion|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=2 March 2020|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Greek-religion|last1=Adkins|first1=A. W. H.|last2=Pollard|first2=John R. T.|orig-year=2002}}</ref> In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs).<ref name="Cashford174">J. Cashford, ''The Homeric Hymns'', vii</ref> [[Gregory Nagy]] (1992) regards "the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with ''Theogony''), each of which invokes one god."<ref name="Nagy54">[[Gregory Nagy|Nagy, Gregory]]. 1992. "The Hellenization of the Indo-European Poetics" in ''Greek Mythology and Poetics''. [[Cornell University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8014-8048-5}}.</ref>{{Rp|54}}

The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to [[Walter Burkert]], the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that "the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts."<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|182}} Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of [[nectar]] and [[ambrosia]], by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.<ref name="Stoll8" />{{Rp|4}}

Each god descends from their own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods are called upon in poetry, prayer, or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and [[epithet]]s, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g., ''Apollo Musagetes'' is "[[Apollo]], [as] leader of the [[Muse]]s"). Alternatively, the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.

Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, [[Aphrodite]] was the goddess of love and beauty, [[Ares]] was the god of war, [[Hades]] the ruler of the underworld, and [[Athena]] the goddess of wisdom and courage.<ref name="Stoll8" />{{Rp|20ff}} Some gods, such as [[Apollo]] and [[Dionysus]], revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as [[Hestia]] (literally "hearth") and [[Helios]] (literally "sun"), were little more than personifications. The most impressive [[Greek temple|temples]] tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demigods) supplemented that of the gods.

===Age of gods and mortals=== Bridging the age when gods lived alone and the age when divine interference in human affairs was limited was a transitional age in which gods and mortals moved together. These were the early days of the world when the groups mingled more freely than they did later. Most of these tales were later told by Ovid's ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' and they are often divided into two thematic groups: tales of love and tales of punishment.<ref name="Miles7" />{{Rp|38}} [[File:Dionysos satyrs Cdm Paris 575.jpg|thumb|left|[[Dionysus]] with [[satyr]]s. Interior of a cup painted by the [[Brygos Painter]], [[Cabinet des Médailles]].]]

Tales of love often involve incest, or the seduction or rape of a mortal woman by a male god, resulting in heroic offspring. The stories generally suggest that relationships between gods and mortals are something to avoid; even consenting relationships rarely have happy endings.<ref name="Miles7" />{{Rp|39}} In a few cases, a female divinity mates with a mortal man, as in the ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', where the goddess lies with [[Anchises]] to produce [[Aeneas]].<ref>''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite'', [http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~clase116/txt_aphrodite.html 75–109] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060912125408/http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~clase116/txt_aphrodite.html |date=12 September 2006 }}</ref>

The second type (tales of punishment) involves the appropriation or invention of some important cultural artifact, as when [[Prometheus]] steals fire from the gods, when [[Tantalus]] steals nectar and [[ambrosia]] from Zeus' table and gives it to his subjects—revealing to them the secrets of the gods, when [[Prometheus]] or [[Lycaon (Greek myth)|Lycaon]] invents sacrifice, when [[Demeter]] teaches agriculture and the [[Eleusinian Mysteries|Mysteries]] to [[Triptolemus]], or when [[Marsyas]] invents the [[aulos]] and enters into a musical contest with [[Apollo]]. Ian Morris considers Prometheus' adventures as "a place between the history of the gods and that of man."<ref name="Morris291">Morris, Ian. 2000. ''Archaeology As Cultural History''. [[Blackwell Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-0-631-19602-0}}.</ref>{{Rp|291}} An anonymous papyrus fragment, dated to the third century, vividly portrays [[Dionysus]]' punishment of the king of [[Thrace]], [[Lycurgus (Thrace)|Lycurgus]], whose recognition of the new god came too late, resulting in horrific penalties that extended into the afterlife.<ref name="Weaver335">Weaver, John B. 1998. "Introduction" in ''The Plots of Epiphany''. Berlin: [[Walter de Gruyter]]. {{ISBN|978-3-11-018266-8}}.</ref>{{Rp|50}} The story of the arrival of Dionysus to establish his cult in Thrace was also the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy.<ref name="Bushnell28">Bushnell, Rebecca W. 2005. "Helicocentric Stoicism in the Saturnalia: The Egyptian Apollo" in ''Medieval: A Companion to Tragedy''. [[Blackwell Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-1-4051-0735-8}}.</ref>{{Rp|28}} In another tragedy, Euripides' ''[[The Bacchae]]'', the king of [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]], [[Pentheus]], is punished by Dionysus, because he disrespected the god and spied on his [[Maenad]]s, the female [[worship]]pers of the god.<ref name="Trobe195">Trobe, Kala. 2001. "Dionysus" in ''[[iarchive:invokegods00kala|Invoke the Gods]]''. [[Llewellyn Worldwide]]. {{ISBN|978-0-7387-0096-0}}.</ref>{{Rp|195}} [[File:Eleusinian hydria Antikensammlung Berlin 1984.46 n2.jpg|thumb|[[Demeter]] and [[Metanira]] in a detail on an Apulian red-figure hydria, circa 340 BC ([[Altes Museum]], Berlin)]] In another story, based on an old folktale motif<ref name="Nilsson50">Nilsson, Martin P. 1940. "The Religion of Eleusis" in ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm Greek Popular Religion] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201053257/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm |date=1 December 2017 }}''. New York: [[Columbia University Press]]. p. [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/gpr/gpr07.htm#fr_50 50].</ref> and echoing a similar theme, [[Demeter]] was searching for her daughter, [[Persephone]], having taken the form of an old woman called Doso, and received a hospitable welcome from [[Celeus]], the King of [[Eleusis]] in [[Attica, Greece|Attica]]. As a gift to Celeus, because of his hospitality, Demeter planned to make his son [[Demophon of Eleusis|Demophon]] a god, but she was unable to complete the ritual because his mother [[Metanira]] walked in and saw her son in the fire and screamed in fright, which angered Demeter, who lamented that foolish mortals do not understand the concept and ritual.<ref name="Demeter">''Homeric Hymn to Demeter'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:248-291 255–274] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220616045252/https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0013.tlg002.perseus-eng1:248-291 |date=16 June 2022 }}</ref>

===Heroic age=== The age in which the heroes lived is known as the [[Greek Heroic Age|Heroic Age]].<ref name="Kelsey30">Kelsey, Francis W. (1889). ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology''. [[Allyn and Bacon]]. p. 30.</ref> The epic and genealogical poetry created cycles of stories clustered around particular heroes or events and established the family relationships between the heroes of different stories; they thus arranged the stories in sequence. According to [[Ken Dowden]] (1992), "there is even a saga effect: we can follow the fates of some families in successive generations."<ref name="Dowden11" />{{Rp|11}}

After the rise of the hero cult, gods and heroes constitute the sacral sphere and are invoked together in oaths and prayers which are addressed to them.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|205}} Burkert (2002) notes that "the roster of heroes, again in contrast to the gods, is never given fixed and final form. Great gods are no longer born, but new heroes can always be raised up from the army of the dead." Another important difference between the hero cult and the cult of gods is that the hero becomes the centre of local group identity.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|206}}

The monumental events of Heracles are regarded as the dawn of the age of heroes. To the Heroic Age are also ascribed three great events: the [[Argonauts|Argonautic]] expedition, the [[Theban Cycle]], and the [[Trojan War]].<ref name="Kelsey30" /><ref name=":1">[[H. J. Rose|Rose, Herbert Jennings]]. 1991. ''A Handbook of Greek Mythology''. London: [[Routledge]]. {{ISBN|978-0-415-04601-5}}.</ref>{{Rp|340}}

====Heracles and the Heracleidae==== {{Further|Heracles|Heracleidae|Hercules}} [[File:Herakles and Telephos Louvre MR219.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Heracles]] with his baby [[Telephus]] ([[Louvre Museum]], Paris)]] Some scholars believe<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|10}} that behind Heracles' complicated mythology there was probably a real man, perhaps a chieftain-vassal of the kingdom of [[Ancient Argos|Argos]]. Some scholars suggest the story of Heracles is an allegory for the sun's yearly passage through the twelve constellations of the zodiac.<ref name="Dupuis">Dupuis, C. F. ''The Origin of All Religious Worship''. p. 86.</ref> Others point to earlier myths from other cultures, showing the story of Heracles as a local adaptation of hero myths already well established. Traditionally, Heracles was the son of Zeus and [[Alcmene]], granddaughter of [[Perseus]].<ref name="BrHer">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Heracles|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=6 February 2020|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Heracles|orig-year=1999}}</ref> His fantastic solitary exploits, with their many [[folklore|folk-tale]] themes, provided much material for popular legend. According to Burkert (2002), "He is portrayed as a sacrificer, mentioned as a founder of altars, and imagined as a voracious eater himself; it is in this role that he appears in comedy.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />

While his tragic end provided much material for tragedy—''[[Heracles (Euripides)|Heracles]]'' is regarded by Thalia Papadopoulou as "a play of great significance in examination of other Euripidean dramas."<ref name="PapadopoulouBurkert">Papadopoulou, Thalia. 2005. "Introduction" in ''Heracles and Euripidean Tragedy''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-85126-8}}. p. 1.</ref><ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|211}} In art and literature, Heracles was represented as an enormously strong man of moderate height; his characteristic weapon was the bow but frequently also the club. Vase paintings demonstrate the unparalleled popularity of Heracles, his fight with the lion being depicted many hundreds of times.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|211}}

Heracles also entered Etruscan and Roman mythology and cult, and the exclamation "mehercule" became as familiar to the Romans{{clarify|date=June 2021}} as "Herakleis" was to the Greeks.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|211}} In Italy he was worshipped as a god of merchants and traders, although others also prayed to him for his characteristic gifts of good luck or rescue from danger.<ref name="BrHer" />

Heracles attained the highest social prestige through his appointment as official ancestor of the [[Dorians|Dorian]] kings. This probably served as a legitimation for the Dorian migrations into the [[Peloponnese]]. [[Hyllus]], the eponymous hero of one Dorian [[phyle]], became the son of Heracles and one of the ''Heracleidae'' or ''Heraclids'' (the numerous descendants of Heracles, especially the descendants of [[Hyllus]]—other Heracleidae included [[Macaria (daughter of Heracles)|Macaria]], Lamos, [[Manto (Greek Mythology)|Manto]], [[Bianor]], [[Tlepolemus]], and [[Telephus]]). These Heraclids conquered the [[Peloponnese|Peloponnesian]] kingdoms of [[Mycenae]], [[Sparta]] and [[Ancient Argos|Argos]], claiming, according to legend, a right to rule them through their ancestor. Their rise to dominance is frequently called the "[[Dorian invasion]]". The Lydian and later the Macedonian kings, as rulers of the same rank, also became Heracleidae.<ref name="BurkertHer">Herodotus, ''The Histories'', I, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm 6–7] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116190118/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm |date=16 November 2017 }}.</ref><ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|211}}

[[File:Bellerophon riding Pegasus and killing the Chimera, Roman mosaic, the Rolin Museum in Autun, France, 2nd to 3rd century AD.jpg|thumb|[[Bellerophon]] riding [[Pegasus]] and slaying the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]], central medallion of a [[Roman mosaic]] from [[Autun]], [[Musée Rolin]], 2nd to 3rd century AD]] Other members of this earliest generation of heroes such as Perseus, [[Deucalion]], [[Theseus]] and [[Bellerophon]], have many traits in common with Heracles. Like him, their exploits are solitary, fantastic and border on [[fairy tale]], as they slay monsters such as the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]] and [[Medusa]]. Bellerophon's adventures are commonplace types, similar to the adventures of Heracles and Theseus. Sending a hero to his presumed death is also a recurrent theme of this early heroic tradition, used in the cases of Perseus and Bellerophon.<ref>[[Geoffrey Kirk|Kirk, Geoffrey Stephen]]. 1973. "The Thematic Simplicity of the Myths" in ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OFO_NQJh8L0C&dq=%22The+Thematic+Simplicity+of+the+Myths%22+kirk&pg=PA172 Myth: Its Meaning and Functions in Ancient and Other Cultures] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221227093144/https://books.google.com/books?id=OFO_NQJh8L0C&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=%22The+Thematic+Simplicity+of+the+Myths%22+kirk |date=27 December 2022 }}''. Berkeley: [[University of California Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-520-02389-5}}. p. 183.</ref>

====Argonauts==== {{Further|Argonauts}}

The only surviving Hellenistic epic, the ''[[Argonautica]]'' of Apollonius of Rhodes (epic poet, scholar, and director of the [[Library of Alexandria]]) tells the myth of the voyage of [[Jason]] and the Argonauts to retrieve the [[Golden Fleece]] from the mythical land of [[Colchis]]. In the ''Argonautica'', Jason is impelled on his quest by king [[Pelias]], who receives a prophecy that a man with one sandal would be his [[nemesis (mythology)|nemesis]]. Jason loses a sandal in a river, arrives at the court of Pelias, and the epic is set in motion. Nearly every member of the next generation of heroes, as well as Heracles, went with Jason in the ship ''[[Argo]]'' to fetch the Golden Fleece. This generation also included [[Theseus]], who went to [[Crete]] to slay the [[Minotaur]]; [[Atalanta]], the female heroine, and [[Meleager]], who once had an epic cycle of his own to rival the ''[[Iliad]]'' and ''[[Odyssey]]''. [[Pindar]], [[Apollonius of Rhodes|Apollonius]] and the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Bibliotheca]]'' endeavor to give full lists of the Argonauts.<ref name="ApApPin">Apollodorus, ''Library and Epitome'', 1.9.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=section%3D%2363;layout=;loc=1.9.17 16] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917053402/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=section%3D%2363;layout=;loc=1.9.17 |date=17 September 2008 }}.</ref><ref>Apollonius, ''Argonautica'', I, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm 20ff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512120923/http://sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm |date=12 May 2015 }}.</ref><ref>Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4.[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2e+P%2e+4%2e171ff%2e 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917012320/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2E+P%2E+4%2E171ff%2E |date=17 September 2008 }}.</ref>

Although Apollonius wrote his poem in the 3rd century BC, the composition of the story of the Argonauts is earlier than ''Odyssey'', which shows familiarity with the exploits of Jason (the wandering of Odysseus may have been partly founded on it).<ref name="BrArgGr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Argonaut|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=2002|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Argonaut-Greek-mythology}}</ref><ref name=":2">Grimal, Pierre. 1986. "Argonauts." P. 58 in ''The Dictionary of Classical Mythology''. [[Blackwell Publishing]]. {{ISBN|978-0-631-20102-1}}.</ref> In ancient times, the expedition was regarded as a historical fact, an incident in the opening up of the [[Black Sea]] to Greek commerce and colonization.<ref name="BrArgGr" /> It was also extremely popular, forming a cycle to which a number of local legends became attached. The story of [[Medea]], in particular, caught the imagination of the tragic poets.<ref name=":2" />

====House of Atreus and Theban Cycle==== {{Further|Theban Cycle|Seven against Thebes}} In between the Argo and the Trojan War, there was a generation known chiefly for its horrific crimes. This includes the doings of [[Atreus]] and [[Thyestes]] at Argos. Behind the myth of the house of Atreus (one of the two principal heroic dynasties with the house of [[Labdacus]]) lies the problem of the devolution of power and of the mode of accession to sovereignty. The twins Atreus and Thyestes with their descendants played the leading role in the tragedy of the devolution of power in Mycenae.<ref name="Bonnefoy103">[[Yves Bonnefoy|Bonnefoy, Yves]]. 1992. "Kinship Structures in Greek Heroic Dynasty" in ''[[iarchive:greekegyptianmyt00bonn|Greek and Egyptian Mythologies]]''. Chicago: [[University of Chicago Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-226-06454-3}}. p. 103.</ref>

The Theban Cycle deals with events associated especially with [[Cadmus]], the city's founder, and later with the doings of [[Laius]] and [[Oedipus]] at Thebes; a series of stories that lead to the war of the [[Seven against Thebes]] and the eventual pillage of that city at the hands of the [[Epigoni]].<ref name="Hard1" />{{Rp|317}} (It is not known whether the Seven figured in early epic.) As far as Oedipus is concerned, early epic accounts seem to have him continuing to rule at Thebes after the revelation that [[Jocasta|Iokaste]] was his mother, and subsequently marrying a second wife who becomes the mother of his children—markedly different from the tale known to us through tragedy (e.g. Sophocles' ''[[Oedipus Rex]]'') and later mythological accounts.<ref name="Hard1" />{{Rp|311}}

====Trojan War and aftermath==== {{Further|Trojan War|Epic Cycle}} [[File:Enrique Simonet - El Juicio de Paris - 1904.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.35|[[El Juicio de Paris (Simonet)|''El Juicio de Paris'']] by [[Enrique Simonet]], 1904. Paris is holding the golden apple on his right hand while surveying the goddesses in a calculative manner.]] [[File:The Rage of Achilles by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.jpeg|thumb|In ''The Rage of Achilles'' by [[Giovanni Battista Tiepolo]] (1757, Fresco, 300 x 300 cm, Villa Valmarana, [[Vicenza]]) [[Achilles]] is outraged that [[Agamemnon]] would threaten to seize his warprize, [[Briseis]], and he draws his sword to kill Agamemnon. The sudden appearance of the goddess Athena, who, in this fresco, has grabbed Achilles by the hair, prevents the act of violence.]]

Greek mythology culminates in the Trojan War, fought between Greece and [[Troy]], and its aftermath. In Homer's works, such as the ''Iliad'', the chief stories have already taken shape and substance, and individual themes were elaborated later, especially in Greek drama. The Trojan War also elicited great interest in the [[culture of ancient Rome|Roman culture]] because of the story of [[Aeneas]], a Trojan hero whose journey from Troy led to the founding of the city that would one day become Rome, as recounted in Virgil's ''[[Aeneid]]'' (Book II of Virgil's ''Aeneid'' contains the best-known account of the sack of Troy).<ref name="HeliosBr">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Trojan War|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia The Helios]]|year=1952}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Troy (Ancient City) |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=25 April 2019|orig-year=1998|url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Troy-ancient-city-Turkey}}</ref> Finally there are two pseudo-chronicles written in Latin that passed under the names of [[Dictys Cretensis]] and [[Dares Phrygius]].<ref>Dunlop, John. 1842. "Romances of Chivalry" in ''The History of Fiction''. Carey and Hart. {{ISBN|978-1-149-40338-9}}. p. 355.</ref>

The [[Epic Cycle|Trojan War cycle]], a collection of [[epic poetry|epic poems]], starts with the events leading up to the war: [[Eris (mythology)|Eris]] and the [[golden apple]] of [[Apple of Discord|Kallisti]], the [[Judgement of Paris]], the abduction of [[Helen of Troy|Helen]], the sacrifice of [[Iphigenia]] at [[Avlida|Aulis]]. To recover Helen, the Greeks launched a great expedition under the overall command of [[Menelaus]]'s brother, Agamemnon, king of Argos, or [[Mycenae]], but the Trojans refused to return Helen. The ''Iliad'', which is set in the tenth year of the war, tells of the quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles, who was the finest Greek warrior, and the consequent deaths in battle of Achilles' beloved comrade [[Patroclus]] and [[Priam]]'s eldest son, [[Hector]]. After Hector's death, the Trojans were joined by two exotic allies, [[Penthesilea]], queen of the [[Amazons]], and [[Memnon]], king of the [[People of Ethiopia|Ethiopians]] and son of the dawn-goddess, [[Eos]].<ref name=":3" /> Achilles killed both of these, but Paris then managed to kill Achilles with an arrow in the heel. Achilles' heel was the only part of his body which was not invulnerable to damage by human weaponry. Before they could take Troy, the Greeks had to steal from the citadel the wooden image of Pallas Athena (the [[Palladium (mythology)|Palladium]]). Finally, with Athena's help, they built the [[Trojan Horse]]. Despite the warnings of Priam's daughter [[Cassandra]], the Trojans were persuaded by [[Sinon]], a Greek who feigned desertion, to take the horse inside the walls of Troy as an offering to Athena; the priest Laocoon, who tried to have the horse destroyed, was killed by sea-serpents. At night the Greek fleet returned, and the Greeks from the horse opened the gates of Troy. In the total sack that followed, Priam and his remaining sons were slaughtered; the Trojan women passed into slavery in various cities of Greece. The adventurous homeward voyages of the Greek leaders (including the wanderings of [[Odysseus]] and Aeneas (the ''Aeneid''), and the murder of Agamemnon) were told in two epics, the Returns (the lost ''[[Nostoi]]'') and Homer's ''Odyssey''.<ref name="HeliosBr" /> The Trojan cycle also includes the adventures of the children of the Trojan generation (e.g., [[Orestes]] and [[Telemachus]]).<ref name=":3" />

The Trojan War provided a variety of themes and became a main source of inspiration for Ancient Greek artists (e.g. [[metope (architecture)|metopes]] on the [[Parthenon]] depicting the sack of Troy); this artistic preference for themes deriving from the Trojan Cycle indicates its importance to the Ancient Greek civilization.<ref name="HeliosBr" /> The same mythological cycle also inspired a series of later European literary writings. For instance, Trojan Medieval European writers, unacquainted with Homer at first hand, found in the Troy legend a rich source of heroic and romantic storytelling and a convenient framework into which to fit their own courtly and chivalric ideals. Twelfth-century authors, such as [[Benoît de Sainte-Maure]] (''Roman de Troie'' [Romance of Troy, 1154–60]) and [[Joseph of Exeter]] (''De Bello Troiano'' [On the Trojan War, 1183]) describe the war while rewriting the standard version they found in ''Dictys'' and ''Dares''. They thus follow [[Horace]]'s advice and Virgil's example: they rewrite a poem of Troy instead of telling something completely new.<ref>Kelly, Douglas. ''The Conspiracy of Allusion''. p. 121.</ref>

Some of the more famous heroes noted for their inclusion in the Trojan War were:

''On the Trojan side:'' * [[Aeneas]] * [[Hector]] * [[Paris (mythology)|Paris]] ''On the Greek side:'' * Ajax (there were two Ajaxes) * [[Achilles]] * [[Agamemnon|King Agamemnon]] * [[Menelaus]] * [[Odysseus]] * [[Diomedes]]

==Greek and Roman conceptions of myth== Mythology was at the heart of everyday life in Ancient Greece.<ref name="Johnson17" />{{Rp|15}} Greeks regarded mythology as a part of their history. They used myth to explain natural phenomena, cultural variations, traditional enmities, and friendships. It was a source of pride to be able to trace the descent of one's leaders from a mythological hero or a god. Few ever doubted that there was truth behind the account of the Trojan War in the ''Iliad'' and ''Odyssey''. According to [[Victor Davis Hanson]], a military historian, columnist, political essayist, and former [[classics]] professor, and John Heath, a classics professor, the profound knowledge of the Homeric [[epic poetry|epos]] was deemed by the Greeks the basis of their acculturation. Homer was the "education of Greece" (''{{lang|grc|Ἑλλάδος παίδευσις}}''), and his poetry "the Book".<ref name="Hanson37">[[Victor Davis Hanson|Hanson, Victor Davis]], and John Heath. 1999. ''Who Killed Homer'', with translations by R. Karakatsani. Kakos. {{ISBN|978-960-352-545-5}}. p. 37.</ref>

===Philosophy and myth=== [[File:Plato-raphael.jpg|thumb|Plato in [[Raphael]]'s ''[[The School of Athens]]'']] After the rise of philosophy, history, prose and [[rationalism]] in the late 5th century BC, the role of myth became less certain, and mythological genealogies gave place to a conception of history which tried to exclude the supernatural (such as the [[Thucydides|Thucydidean]] history).<ref name="Griffin80">[[Jasper Griffin|Griffin, Jasper]]. 1986. "Greek Myth and Hesiod" in ''The Oxford Illustrated History of Greece and the Hellenistic World'', edited by [[John Boardman (art historian)|J. Boardman]], J. Griffin, and [[Oswyn Murray|O. Murray]]. New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-285438-4}}. p. 80.</ref> While poets and dramatists were reworking the myths, Greek historians and philosophers were beginning to criticize them.<ref name="Miles7" /><ref> {{cite book |last1 = Veyne |first1 = Paul |author-link1 = Paul Veyne |translator-last1 = Wissing |translator-first1 = Paula |date = 15 June 1988 |orig-date = 1983 |title = Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths?: An Essay on the Constitutive Imagination |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EpbZLRPGgBsC |publication-place = Chicago |publisher = University of Chicago Press |page = 1 |isbn = 9780226854342 |access-date = 14 November 2023 |quote = Did the Greeks believe in their mythology? The answer is difficult, for 'believe' means so many things. Not everyone believed that Minos, after his death, continued being a judge in Hell or that Theseus fought the Minotaur, and they knew that poets 'lie' [...] [I]n the minds of the Greeks, Theseus had, nonetheless, existed. [...] Why did the Greeks go to the trouble of wishing to separate the wheat from the chaff in myth [...]? We see the extent of the problem when we realize that this attitude toward myth lasted for over two millennia. }} </ref>

By the 6th century BC, a few radical philosophers were already beginning to label the poets' tales as blasphemous lies: [[Xenophanes of Colophon]] complained that Homer and Hesiod attributed to the gods "all that is shameful and disgraceful among men; they steal, commit adultery, and deceive one another."<ref name="Graf200" />{{Rp|169–170}} This line of thought found its most sweeping expression in [[Plato]]'s ''[[The Republic (Plato)|Republic]]'' and [[Laws (dialogue)|''Laws'']]. Plato created his own allegorical myths (such as the vision of [[Myth of Er|Er]] in the ''Republic''), attacked the traditional tales of the gods' tricks, thefts, and adulteries as immoral, and objected to their central role in literature.<ref name="Miles7" /> Plato's criticism was the first serious challenge to the Homeric mythological tradition;<ref name="Hanson37" /> he referred to the myths as "old wives' chatter".<ref name="The176b">Plato, ''Theaetetus'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plat.+Theaet.+176b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170 176b] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210308012818/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plat.+Theaet.+176b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170 |date= 8 March 2021 }}</ref> For his part, [[Aristotle]] criticized the [[pre-Socratic]] quasi-mythical philosophical approach and underscored that "Hesiod and the theological writers were concerned only with what seemed plausible to themselves, and had no respect for us ... But it is not worth taking seriously writers who show off in the mythical style; as for those who do proceed by proving their assertions, we must cross-examine them."<ref name="Griffin80" />

Nevertheless, even Plato did not manage to wean himself and his society from the influence of myth; his own characterization of [[Socrates]] is based on the traditional Homeric and tragic patterns, used by the philosopher to praise the righteous life of his teacher:<ref name="Apology28b-d">Plato, ''Apology'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plat.+Apol.+28b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170 28b-d] {{Webarchive|url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210308104247/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Plat.+Apol.+28b&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0170 |date= 8 March 2021 }}</ref>

{{blockquote|But perhaps someone might say: "Are you then not ashamed, Socrates, of having followed such a pursuit, that you are now in danger of being put to death as a result?" But I should make to him a just reply: "You do not speak well, Sir, if you think a man in whom there is even a little merit ought to consider danger of life or death, and not rather regard this only, when he does things, whether the things he does are right or wrong and the acts of a good or a bad man. For according to your argument all the demigods would be bad who died at Troy, including [[Achilles|the son of Thetis]], who so despised danger, in comparison with enduring any disgrace, that when [[Thetis|his mother]] (and she was a goddess) said to him, as he was eager to slay [[Hector]], something like this, I believe,

{{Blockquote|My son, if you avenge the death of your friend [[Patroclus]] and kill Hector, you yourself shall die; for straightway, after Hector, is death appointed unto you. (Hom. Il. 18.96)}}

he, when he heard this, made light of death and danger, and feared much more to live as a coward and not to avenge his friends, and said,

{{Blockquote|Straightway may I die, after doing vengeance upon the wrongdoer, that I may not stay here, jeered at beside the curved ships, a burden of the earth.}}|multiline=false}}

Hanson and Heath estimate that Plato's rejection of the Homeric tradition was not favorably received by the grassroots Greek civilization.<ref name="Hanson37" /> The old myths were kept alive in local cults; they continued to influence poetry and to provide the main subjects of painting and sculpture.<ref name="Griffin80" />

More sportingly, the 5th-century BC [[tragedy|tragedian]] Euripides often played with the old traditions, mocking them, and through the voice of his characters injecting notes of doubt. Yet the subjects of his plays were taken, without exception, from myth. Many of these plays were written in answer to a predecessor's version of the same or similar myth. Euripides mainly impugns the myths about the gods and begins his critique with an objection similar to the one previously expressed by [[Xenocrates]]: the gods, as traditionally represented, are far too crassly [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]].<ref name="Graf200" />{{Rp|169–170}}

===Hellenistic and Roman rationalism=== [[File:CiceroBust.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Cicero]] saw himself as the defender of the established order, despite his personal skepticism concerning myth and his inclination towards more philosophical conceptions of divinity.]] During the [[Hellenistic period]], mythology took on the prestige of elite knowledge that marks its possessors as belonging to a certain class. At the same time, the skeptical turn of the Classical age became even more pronounced.<ref name="Gale89">Gale, Monica R. 1994. ''Myth and Poetry in Lucretius''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-45135-2}}.</ref>{{Rp|89}} Greek mythographer [[Euhemerus]] established the tradition of seeking an actual historical basis for mythical beings and events.<ref name="BrEuh">{{cite encyclopedia|title=Euhemerus|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=3 January 2020|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Euhemerus-Greek-mythographer|orig-year=1998}}</ref> Although his original work (''Sacred Scriptures'') is lost, much is known about it from what is recorded by Diodorus and [[Lactantius]].<ref name="Hard1" />{{Rp|7}}

Rationalizing [[hermeneutics]] of myth became even more popular under the [[Roman Empire]], thanks to the physicalist theories of [[Stoicism|Stoic]] and [[Epicureanism|Epicurean]] philosophy. Stoics presented explanations of the gods and heroes as physical phenomena, while the Euhemerists rationalized them as historical figures. At the same time, the Stoics and the [[Neoplatonism|Neoplatonists]] promoted the moral significations of the mythological tradition, often based on Greek etymologies.<ref name="Chance69">Chance, Jane. 1994. ''Medieval Mythography''. [[University Press of Florida]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8130-1256-8}}. p. 69.</ref> Through his Epicurean message, [[Lucretius]] had sought to expel superstitious fears from the minds of his fellow-citizens.<ref name="Walshxxvi">Walsh, Patrick Gerald. 1998. ''The Nature of the Gods''. New York: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-282511-7}}.</ref>{{Rp|xxvi}} [[Livy]], too, is skeptical about the mythological tradition and claims that he does not intend to pass judgement on such legends (fabulae).<ref name="Gale89" />{{Rp|88}} The challenge for Romans with a strong and apologetic sense of [[Religion in ancient Rome|religious tradition]] was to defend that tradition while conceding that it was often a breeding-ground for superstition. The antiquarian [[Marcus Terentius Varro|Varro]], who regarded religion as a human institution with great importance for the preservation of good in society, devoted rigorous study to the origins of religious cults. In his ''Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum'' (which has not survived, but [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]]'s ''[[City of God (book)|City of God]]'' indicates its general approach) Varro argues that whereas the superstitious man fears the gods, the truly religious person venerates them as parents.<ref name="Walshxxvi" />{{Rp|xxvi}} According to Varro, there have been three accounts of deities in the Roman society: the mythical account created by poets for theatre and entertainment, the civil account used by people for veneration as well as by the city, and the natural account created by the philosophers.<ref name="Barfield2011p76" /> The best state is, adds Varro, where the civil theology combines the poetic mythical account with the philosopher's.<ref name="Barfield2011p76">{{cite book|author=Barfield|first=Raymond|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientquarrelbe0000barf|title=The Ancient Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2011|isbn=978-1-139-49709-1|location=Cambridge|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientquarrelbe0000barf/page/75 75]–76|url-access=registration}}</ref>

Roman Academic Cotta ridicules both literal and allegorical acceptance of myth, declaring roundly that myths have no place in philosophy.<ref name="Gale89" />{{Rp|87}} [[Cicero]] is also generally disdainful of myth, but, like Varro, he is emphatic in his support for the state religion and its institutions. It is difficult to know how far down the social scale this rationalism extended.<ref name="Gale89" />{{Rp|88}} Cicero asserts that no one (not even old women and boys) is so foolish as to believe in the terrors of Hades or the existence of [[Scylla]]s, [[centaur]]s or other composite creatures,<ref name="CiceroTusc">Cicero, ''Tusculanae Disputationes'', 1.[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml 11] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015010833/http://thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml |date=15 October 2017 }}</ref> but, on the other hand, the orator elsewhere complains of the superstitious and credulous character of the people.<ref name="CiceroDiv">Cicero, ''De Divinatione'', 2.[http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml#81 81] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010121359/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml#81 |date=10 October 2017 }}</ref> ''De Natura Deorum'' is the most comprehensive summary of Cicero's line of thought.<ref name="Walshxxvi" />{{Rp|xxvii}}

===Syncretizing trends=== {{See also|Roman mythology}}

[[File:Lycian Apollo Louvre left.jpg|thumb|upright|Apollo (early Imperial Roman copy of a fourth-century Greek original, [[Louvre]] Museum)]]

Ancient Greek myths took inspiration from [[Folklore|folkloric]] portrayals of the [[Olympian gods]], as well as [[Dorians|Dorian]] and [[Ionians|Ionian]] deities and their associated folk tales.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Janson |first1=Horst Woldemar |title=History of Art: The Western Tradition |last2=Janson |first2=Anthony F. |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |year=2004 |isbn=0-13-182622-0 |editor-last=Touborg |editor-first=Sarah |edition=Revised 6th |volume=1 |location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey |page=111 |author-link1=Horst Woldemar Janson |editor-last2=Moore |editor-first2=Julia |editor-last3=Oppenheimer |editor-first3=Margaret |editor-last4=Castro |editor-first4=Anita}}</ref>

In [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]] times, a new Roman mythology was born through syncretization of numerous Greek and other foreign gods. This occurred because the Romans had little [[Roman mythology|mythology]] of their own, and inheritance of the Greek mythological tradition caused the major Roman gods to adopt characteristics of their Greek equivalents.<ref name="Gale89" />{{Rp|88}} The gods [[Zeus]] and [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] are an example of this mythological overlap. In addition to the combination of the two mythological traditions, the association of the Romans with eastern religions led to further syncretizations.<ref>North John A., Mary Beard, and Simon R. F. Price. 1998. "The Religions of Imperial Rome" in ''Classical Mythology in English Literature: A Critical Anthology''. Cambridge: [[Cambridge University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-521-31682-8}}. p. 259.</ref> For instance, the cult of Sun was introduced in Rome after [[Aurelian]]'s successful campaigns in [[Syria]]. The Asiatic divinities [[Mithraic Mysteries|Mithras]] (that is to say, the Sun) and Ba'al were combined with Apollo and Helios into one [[Sol Invictus]], with conglomerated rites and compound attributes.<ref>Hacklin, Joseph. 1994. "The Mythology of Persia" in ''Asiatic Mythology''. [[Asian Educational Services]]. {{ISBN|978-81-206-0920-4}}. p. 38.</ref> Apollo might be increasingly identified in religion with Helios or even Dionysus, but texts retelling his myths seldom reflected such developments. The traditional literary mythology was increasingly dissociated from actual religious practice. The worship of Sol as special protector of the emperors and the empire remained the chief imperial religion until it was replaced by Christianity.

The surviving 2nd-century collection of ''[[Orphic Hymns]]'' (second century AD) and the ''Saturnalia'' of [[Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius]] (fifth century) are influenced by the theories of rationalism and the syncretizing trends as well. The ''Orphic Hymns'' are a set of pre-classical poetic compositions, attributed to Orpheus, himself the subject of a renowned myth.<ref>Sacred Texts, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hoo/index.htm Orphic Hymns] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171118190156/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hoo/index.htm |date=18 November 2017 }}</ref> The stated purpose of the ''Saturnalia'' is to transmit the Hellenic culture Macrobius has derived from his reading, even though much of his treatment of gods is colored by Egyptian and North African mythology and theology (which also affect the interpretation of Virgil). In Saturnalia reappear mythographical comments influenced by the Euhemerists, the Stoics and the Neoplatonists.<ref name="Chance69" />

==Modern interpretations== {{Further|Modern understanding of Greek mythology}} The genesis of modern understanding of Greek mythology is regarded by some scholars as a double reaction at the end of the eighteenth century against "the traditional attitude of Christian animosity", in which the Christian reinterpretation of myth as a "lie" or [[fable]] had been retained.<ref>Ackerman, Robert. 1991. ''Introduction to [[Jane Ellen Harrison]]'s 'A Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion'.'' p. xv.</ref> In Germany, by about 1795, there was a growing interest in Homer and Greek mythology. In [[Göttingen]], [[Johann Matthias Gesner]] began to revive Greek studies, while his successor, [[Christian Gottlob Heyne]], worked with [[Johann Joachim Winckelmann]], and laid the foundations for mythological research both in Germany and elsewhere.<ref name="Graf200" />{{Rp|9}} About 100 years later the interest for Greek mythology was still alive when Hermann Steuding published his book ''[[Griechische und römische Götter- und Heldensage]]'' in 1897.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Griechische und römische götter- und heldensage; von dr. Hermann Steuding ... |url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.cu01992929?urlappend=%3Bseq=5 |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=HathiTrust | series=Sammulung Göschen | date=1897 | hdl=2027/nnc1.cu01992929?urlappend=%3Bseq=5 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=OGND - results/titledata |url=https://swb.bsz-bw.de/DB=2.104/DB=2.104/SET=1/TTL=1//CMD?ACT=SRCHA&IKT=2999&TRM=174070918&COOKIE=Us998,Pbszgast,I2017,B20728+,SY,NRecherche-DB,D2.104,E01e73d97-e1d,A,H,R102.182.132.112,FY |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=swb.bsz-bw.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek |url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=nid%3D174070918 |access-date=2023-08-25 |website=portal.dnb.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Theologische Literaturzeitung, 37 - OpenDigi |url=https://idb.ub.uni-tuebingen.de/opendigi/thlz_037_1912#p=346 |access-date=2023-09-05 |website=idb.ub.uni-tuebingen.de}}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Steuding |first=Hermann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YGDd7pwYq2MC&dq=hermann+steuding&pg=PR9 |title=Greek and Roman Mythology & Heroic Legend, by Prof. H. Steuding |date=1903 |publisher=J.M. Dent & Company |language=en}}</ref>

===Comparative and psychoanalytic approaches=== {{See also|Comparative mythology}} [[File:Max Muller.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Max Müller]] is regarded as one of the founders of comparative mythology. In his ''Comparative Mythology'' (1867) Müller analysed the "disturbing" similarity between the mythologies of "savage races" with those of the early Europeans.]] The development of comparative philology in the 19th century, together with ethnological discoveries in the 20th century, established the science of myth. Since the Romantics, all study of myth has been comparative. [[Wilhelm Mannhardt]], [[James George Frazer|James Frazer]], and [[Stith Thompson]] employed the comparative approach to collect and classify the themes of folklore and mythology.<ref name="Brmyth">{{cite encyclopedia|title=myth|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|date=2002|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/myth|last1=Buxton|first1=Richard G. A.|last2=Bolle|first2=Kees W.|author-link2=Kees W. Bolle|last3=Smith|first3=Jonathan Z.}}</ref> In 1871 [[Edward Burnett Tylor]] published his ''Primitive Culture'', in which he applied the comparative method and tried to explain the origin and evolution of religion.<ref>Segal, Robert A. 1999. ''Theorizing about Myth''. [[University of Massachusetts Press]]. {{ISBN|978-1-55849-191-5}}. p. 16.</ref><ref name="AllenSegal">Allen, Douglas. 1978. ''Structure & Creativity in Religion: Hermeneutics in Mircea Eliade's Phenomenology and New Directions''. Berlin: [[Walter de Gruyter]]. {{ISBN|978-90-279-7594-2}}.</ref>{{Rp|9}} Tylor's procedure of drawing together material culture, ritual and myth of widely separated cultures influenced both [[Carl Jung]] and [[Joseph Campbell]]. [[Max Müller]] applied the new science of comparative mythology to the study of myth, in which he detected the distorted remains of [[Aryan]] [[natural theology|nature worship]]. [[Bronisław Malinowski]] emphasized the ways myth fulfills common social functions. [[Claude Lévi-Strauss]] and other [[Structuralism|structuralists]] have compared the formal relations and patterns in myths throughout the world.<ref name="Brmyth" />

[[Sigmund Freud]] introduced a transhistorical and biological conception of man and a view of myth as an expression of repressed ideas. Dream interpretation is the basis of Freudian myth interpretation and Freud's concept of dreamwork recognizes the importance of contextual relationships for the interpretation of any individual element in a dream. This suggestion would find an important point of rapprochement between the structuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to myth in Freud's thought.<ref>Caldwell, Richard. 1990. "The Psychoanalytic Interpretation of Greek Myth" in ''Approaches to Greek Myth''. Baltimore: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8018-3864-4}}. p. 344.</ref> [[Carl Jung]] extended the transhistorical, psychological approach with his theory of the "collective unconscious" and the archetypes (inherited "archaic" patterns), often encoded in myth, that arise out of it.<ref name="Br" /> According to Jung, "myth-forming structural elements must be present in the unconscious psyche."<ref>Jung, Carl. ''The Psychology of the Child Archetype.'' p. 85.<br /></ref> Comparing Jung's methodology with [[Joseph Campbell]]'s theory, Robert A. Segal (1990) concludes that "to interpret a myth Campbell simply identifies the archetypes in it. An interpretation of the ''Odyssey'', for example, would show how Odysseus's life conforms to a heroic pattern. Jung, by contrast, considers the identification of archetypes merely the first step in the interpretation of a myth."<ref name="Segal">Segal, Robert A. (1990). "[https://web.archive.org/web/20070107075423/http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=766 The Romantic Appeal of Joseph Campbell]." [[The Christian Century|''Christian Century'']] (April 1990):332–5. Archived from the [http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=766 original] on 7 January 2007.</ref> [[Károly Kerényi|Karl Kerényi]], one of the founders of modern studies in Greek mythology, gave up his early views of myth, in order to apply Jung's theories of archetypes to Greek myth.<ref name="Graf200" />{{Rp|38}}

===Origin theories=== {{See also|Mycenaean religion|Mycenaean deities|Similarities between Roman, Greek and Etruscan mythologies}} [[Max Müller]] attempted to understand an [[Proto-Indo-European religion|Indo-European]] religious form by tracing it back to its Indo-European (or, in Müller's time, "[[Aryan]]") "original" manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that "the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century concerning the ancient history of mankind ... was this sample equation: [[Sanskrit]] [[Dyaus Pita|Dyaus-pitar]] = Greek Zeus = Latin [[Jupiter (mythology)|Jupiter]] = Old Norse [[Týr|Tyr]]".<ref name="AllenSegal" />{{Rp|12}} The question of Greek mythology's place in [[Indo-European studies]] has generated much scholarship since Müller's time. For example, philologist [[Georges Dumézil]] draws a comparison between the Greek [[Uranus (mythology)|Uranus]] and the Sanskrit [[Varuna]], although there is no hint that he believes them to be originally connected.<ref name="Poleman">H.I. Poleman, ''Review'', 78–79</ref> In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek [[Moirai]] and the [[Norns]] of [[Norse mythology]].<ref>A. Winterbourne, ''When the Norns Have Spoken'', 87</ref>

It appears that the [[Mycenaean religion]] was the mother of the [[Ancient Greek religion|Greek religion]]<ref>Nilsson, Martin Persson. 1967. ''Geschichte der Griechischen Religion'' (3rd ed.). Munich: [[C.H. Beck|C.H. Beck Verlag]]. Volume I, p. 339.</ref> and its pantheon already included many divinities that can be found in classical Greece.<ref>{{cite web|last=Paul|first=Adams John|title=Mycenaean Divinities|location=Northridge, CA|publisher=California State University|date=10 January 2010|access-date=25 September 2013|url=http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html|archive-date=1 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001091024/http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/mycen.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, Greek mythology is generally seen as having heavy influence of [[Pre-Greek substrate|Pre-Greek]] and Near Eastern cultures, and as such contains few important elements for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European religion.<ref>[[Jaan Puhvel|Puhvel, Jaan]]. 1987. ''Comparative Mythology.'' Baltimore: [[Johns Hopkins University Press]]. p. 138, 143.</ref> Consequently, Greek mythology received minimal scholarly attention in the context of Indo-European [[comparative mythology]] until the mid-2000s.<ref>[[J.P. Mallory|Mallory, J.P.]], and [[Douglas Q. Adams]]. 2006. ''Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World.'' London: [[Oxford University Press]]. p. 440.</ref>

Archaeology and mythography have revealed influence from Asia Minor and the Near East. [[Adonis]] seems to be the Greek counterpart—more clearly in cult than in myth—of a Near Eastern "dying god". [[Cybele]] is rooted in [[Anatolia]]n culture while much of Aphrodite's [[iconography]] may spring from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and [[Tiamat]] in the ''[[Enûma Eliš|Enuma Elish]]''.<ref name="SegaEdmunds">L. Edmunds, ''Approaches to Greek Myth'', 184</ref><ref>Segal, Robert A. 1991. "A Greek Eternal Child" in ''Myth and the Polis'', edited by D. C. Pozzi and J. M. Wickersham. [[Cornell University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-8014-2473-1}}. p. 64.</ref> According to Meyer Reinhold, "near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way…into Greek mythology."<ref>M. Reinhold, ''The Generation Gap in Antiquity'', 349</ref>

In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: [[Crete]], Mycenae, [[Pylos]], [[Thebes, Greece|Thebes]] and [[Orchomenus (Boeotia)|Orchomenus]].<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|23}} Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and [[Europa (consort of Zeus)|Europa]], [[Pasiphaë]] who yields to the bull and gives birth to the [[Minotaur]], etc.). Martin P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations and general function of the gods, that a lot of [[Minoan religion|Minoan gods and religious conceptions]] were fused in the Mycenaean religion.<ref>Martin P. Nilsson (1927) ''The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its Survival in Greek Religion''</ref> and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaean centres and anchored in prehistoric times.<ref>M. Wood, ''In Search of the Trojan War'', 112</ref> Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.<ref name="Raffan-Barket205" />{{Rp|24}}

==Motifs in Western art and literature== {{Further|Greek mythology in western art and literature}} {{See also|List of films based on Greco-Roman mythology|Greek mythology in popular culture}} [[File:Sandro Botticelli - La nascita di Venere - Google Art Project - edited.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Botticelli's ''[[The Birth of Venus (Botticelli)|The Birth of Venus]]'' c. 1485–1486, oil on canvas, [[Uffizi]], [[Florence]])—a revived ''Venus Pudica'' for a new view of pagan [[Ancient history|Antiquity]]—is often said to epitomize for modern viewers the spirit of the Renaissance.<ref name="Br" />]]

The widespread adoption of [[Christianity]] did not curb the popularity of the myths. The [[Matter of Rome]], one of the major literary cycles of Medieval Europe, covered material from ancient Greek myths as well as stories from Greek and Roman history. With the revival of interest in classical literature in the [[Renaissance]], the poetry of Ovid became a major influence on the imagination of poets, dramatists, musicians and artists.<ref name="Br" /><ref name="BrBurn">L. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75</ref> From the early years of Renaissance, artists such as [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Michelangelo]], and [[Raphael]], portrayed the [[Paganism|pagan]] subjects of Greek mythology alongside more conventional Christian themes.<ref name="Br" /><ref name="BrBurn" /> Through the medium of Latin and the works of Ovid, Greek myth influenced medieval and Renaissance poets such as [[Petrarch]], [[Giovanni Boccaccio|Boccaccio]] and [[Dante Alighieri|Dante]] in Italy.<ref name="Br" />

[[File:Herbert Draper - The Lament for Icarus - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1|''[[The Lament for Icarus]]'' (1898) by [[Herbert James Draper]]]]

In Northern Europe, Greek mythology never took the same hold of the visual arts, but its effect was very obvious on literature.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Classical Mythology in English literature: A Critical Anthology|date=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0415147557|editor=Miles, Geoffrey|oclc=912455670}}</ref> The English imagination was fired by Greek mythology starting with [[Geoffrey Chaucer|Chaucer]] and [[John Milton]] and continuing through [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] to [[Robert Bridges]] in the 20th century. [[Jean Racine|Racine]] in France and [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]] in Germany revived Greek drama, reworking the ancient myths.<ref name="Br" /><ref name="BrBurn" /> Although during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] of the 18th century reaction against Greek myth spread throughout Europe, the myths continued to provide an important source of raw material for dramatists, including those who wrote the [[libretto|libretti]] for many of [[George Frideric Handel|Handel]]'s and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s operas.<ref name="Burn75">l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75</ref>

By the end of the 18th century, [[Romanticism]] initiated a surge of enthusiasm for all things Greek, including Greek mythology. In Britain, new translations of Greek tragedies and Homer inspired contemporary poets (such as [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Alfred Tennyson]], [[John Keats|Keats]], [[Lord Byron|Byron]] and [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]]) and painters (such as [[Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton|Lord Leighton]] and [[Lawrence Alma-Tadema]]).<ref name="Burn75-76">l. Burn, ''Greek Myths'', 75–76</ref> [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Christoph Gluck]], [[Richard Strauss]], [[Jacques Offenbach]] and many others set Greek mythological themes to music.<ref name="Br" /> American authors of the 19th century, such as [[Thomas Bulfinch]] and [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], held that the study of the classical myths was essential to the understanding of English and American literature.<ref name="Klatt-Brazouskixii" />{{Rp|4}} In more recent times, classical themes have been reinterpreted by dramatists [[Jean Anouilh]], [[Jean Cocteau]], and [[Jean Giraudoux]] in France, [[Eugene O'Neill]] in America, and [[T. S. Eliot]] in Britain and by novelists such as [[James Joyce]] and [[André Gide]].<ref name="Br" />

==References==

=== Notes === {{Reflist|group=lower-roman}}

=== Citations === {{Reflist}}

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''See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080502122743/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022 |date=2 May 2008 }}''. * Apollonius of Rhodes, ''Argonautica'', Book I. ''See original text in [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm Sacred Texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512120923/http://sacred-texts.com/cla/argo/argo00.htm |date=12 May 2015 }}''. * Cicero, ''[[De Divinatione]]''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml Latin Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010121359/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/divinatione2.shtml |date=10 October 2017 }}''. * Cicero, ''Tusculanae resons''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml Latin Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171015010833/http://thelatinlibrary.com/cicero/tusc1.shtml |date=15 October 2017 }}''. * Herodotus, ''[[Histories (Herodotus)|The Histories]]'', I. ''See original text in the [http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm Sacred Texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171116190118/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hh/hh1000.htm |date=16 November 2017 }}''. * Hesiod, ''Works and Days''. ''[http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm Translated into English] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150512080002/http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/hesiod/works.htm |date=12 May 2015 }} by Hugh G. Evelyn-White''. * {{cite wikisource |title=Theogony |author=Hesiod |authorlink=Hesiod |translator=[[Hugh Gerard Evelyn-White]] |year=1914}} * Homer, ''Iliad''. ''See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133:book=1:card=1 Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080327214945/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0133:book=1:card=1 |date=27 March 2008 }}''. * ''Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite''. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20030202153600/http://courses.dce.harvard.edu/~clase116/txt_aphrodite.html Translated into English] by [[Gregory Nagy]]''. * ''Homeric Hymn to Demeter''. ''See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2 Perseus project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210211172708/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0138%3Ahymn%3D2 |date=11 February 2021 }}''. * ''Homeric Hymn to Hermes''. ''See the English translation in the [http://mcllibrary.org/Hesiod/hymns.html Medieval and Classical Literature Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081025121210/http://mcllibrary.org/Hesiod/hymns.html |date=25 October 2008 }}''. * Ovid, ''Metamorphoses''. ''See original text in the [http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml Latin Library] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023183945/http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/ovid/ovid.met1.shtml |date=23 October 2017 }}''. * Pausanias, ''[[Description of Greece]]'' ''See original text in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0159 Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210720174623/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0159 |date=20 July 2021 }}''. * Pindar, ''Pythian Odes'', Pythian 4: For Arcesilas of Cyrene Chariot Race 462 BC. ''See original text in the [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2e+P%2e+4%2e171ff%2e Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917012320/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Pind%2E+P%2E+4%2E171ff%2E |date=17 September 2008 }}''. * Plato, ''[[Apology (Plato)|Apology]]''. ''See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0169:text=Apol.:section=17a Perseus Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917053501/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0169:text=Apol.:section=17a |date=17 September 2008 }}''. * Plato, ''[[Theaetetus (dialogue)|Theaetetus]]''. ''See original text in [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0172%3Adiv1%3DTheaet. 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B. Paul) |title=Handbook of the religion and mythology of the Greeks |publisher=Francis and John Rivington |year=1852}} * {{cite book |last=Trobe |first=Kala |title=Invoke the Gods |publisher=Llewellyn Worldwide |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-7387-0096-0 |chapter=Dionysus |url=https://archive.org/details/invokegods00kala}} * {{cite encyclopedia |title=Trojan War |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopaedia The Helios]] |year=1952}} * {{cite encyclopedia |title=Troy |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |year=2002}} * {{cite encyclopedia |title=Volume: Hellas, Article: Greek Mythology |encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia The Helios |year=1952}} * {{cite book |last=Walsh |first=Patrick Gerald |title=The Nature of the Gods |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-19-282511-7 |chapter=Liberating Appearance in Mythic Content}} * {{cite book |last=Weaver |first=John B. |title=The Plots of Epiphany |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=1998 |isbn=978-3-11-018266-8 |chapter=Introduction}} * {{cite book |last=Winterbourne |first=Anthony |title=When the Norns Have Spoken |publisher=[[Fairleigh Dickinson University Press]] |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8386-4048-7 |chapter=Spinning and Weaving Fate}} * {{cite book |last=Wood |first=Michael |title=In Search of the Trojan War |publisher=University of California Press |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-520-21599-3 |chapter=The Coming of the Greeks}} {{refend}}

==Further reading== {{Portal|Ancient Greece|Myths|Religion|Mythology|History}} {{refbegin|30em}} * {{cite book |last=Gantz |first=Timothy |author-link=Timothy Gantz |title=Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources |url=https://www.academia.edu/29883249 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1993 |isbn=978-0-8018-4410-2 |access-date=6 November 2021 |archive-date=30 May 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530153137/https://www.academia.edu/29883249 |url-status=live}} * {{cite book |last=Hamilton |first=Edith |author-link=Edith Hamilton |title=Mythology |publisher=Back Bay Books |orig-year=1942 |edition=New |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-316-34151-6}} * {{cite book |last=Kerenyi |first=Karl |title=The Gods of the Greeks |publisher=Thames & Hudson |orig-year=1951 |edition=Reissue |year=1980 |isbn=978-0-500-27048-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/godsofgreeks00kerrich}} * {{cite book |last=Kerenyi |first=Karl |title=The Heroes of the Greeks |publisher=Thames & Hudson |orig-year=1959 |edition=Reissue |year=1978 |isbn=978-0-500-27049-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/heroesofgreeks00kerrich}} * {{cite book |last=Kokaisl |first=Petr |title=Legends and Heroes of Ancient Greece |publisher=NOSTALGIE |year=2025 |isbn=9788090888326 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C2poEQAAQBAJ}} * {{cite book |last=Luchte |first=James |title=Early Greek Thought: Before the Dawn |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-567-35331-3}} * {{cite book |last=Morford M.P.O. |first=Lenardon L.J. |title=Classical Mythology |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-19-530805-1}} * {{cite book |last=Pinsent |first=John |author-link=John Pinsent |title=Greek Mythology |publisher=[[Bantam Books|Bantam]] |year=1972 |isbn=978-0-448-00848-6}} * {{cite book |last=Pinsent |first=John |title=Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece |publisher=Peter Bedrick Books |year=1991 |isbn=978-0-87226-250-8 |series=Library of the World's Myths and Legends}} * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Barry |author-link=Barry B. Powell |title=Classical Myth |publisher=Prentice-Hall |year=2008 |edition=6th |isbn=978-0-13-606171-7}} * {{cite book |last=Powell |first=Barry |title=A Short Introduction to Classical Myth |url=https://archive.org/details/shortintroductio0000powe |url-access=registration |publisher=Prentice-Hall |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-13-025839-7}} * {{cite book |last=Ruck Carl |first=Staples Blaise Daniel |title=The World of Classical Myth |publisher=Carolina Academic Press |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-89089-575-7}} * [[William Smith (lexicographer)|Smith, William]] (1870), ''{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20051130005902/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology]}}''. * {{cite book |last=Veyne |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Veyne |others=(translated by Paula Wissing) |title=Did the Greeks Believe in Their Myths? An Essay on Constitutive Imagination |publisher=University of Chicago |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-226-85434-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EpbZLRPGgBsC}} * {{cite book |editor-last=Woodward |editor-first=Roger D. |title=The Cambridge Companion to Greek Mythology |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge; New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-84520-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TQyRX6WmMUMC}} {{refend}}

==External links== {{Library resources box |by=no |onlinebooks=yes |others=yes |about=yes |label=Greek mythology |viaf= |lccn= |lcheading= |wikititle= }} {{Spoken Wikipedia|En-Greek mythology-article.oga|date=2009-01-19}} * {{Commons category-inline|Greek mythology}} * {{In Our Time|Greek Myths|b0093z1k|Greek_Myths}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070915040106/http://www.library.theoi.com/ Library of Classical Mythology Texts] translations of works of classical literature * [http://www.limc-france.fr/ LIMC-France] provides databases dedicated to Graeco-Roman mythology and its iconography. * Martin P. Nilsson, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xQzlzYEUm2QC&dq=mycenaeans+chronology&pg=PA11 The Mycenaean Origin of Greek Mythology], on Google books * [https://hellenism.net/greece/greek-mythology/ Greek mythology, the age of gods, myths and heroes], Hellenism.Net

{{Greek religion}} {{Greek mythology (deities)}} {{Europe topic|Mythology of}} {{Roman religion|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}

[[Category:Greek mythology| ]]