NAMES EASILY CONFUSED
- EROS: oldest of the gods (or youngest) “Attraction” “Desire”
- ERIS: one of two goddesses (Hesiod): Competition and Strife
- DIKE: daughter of Zeus and Themis (“Justice”), one of the SEASONS, sister of Eunomia (Good Customs) and Eirene (Peace)
- NIKE: Victoria, daughter of Styx, sister of Thanatos (death) and Morpheus (sleep).
- PERSES: the brother of Hesiod who cheated him of his inheritance (Hesiod, Works and Days)
- PERSEUS: son of Zeus and Danae, the hero who killed Medusa and founded Mycenae.
- THEMIS: mother of Prometheus (Aeschylus) daughter of Heaven and Earth; a Titaness.
- THETIS: wife of Peleus, king of the Myrmidons, and mother of Achilles; daughter of Oceanus; an Oceanid
- METIS: a Titaness, Zeus' first girl-friend, and mother of Athena.
- CHARON: Ferryman of the Dead on the River Styx; son of Erebos
- CHEIRON: centaur: Headmaster of School for Young Heroes
- SINIS: The “Pine Tree” man, who attempted to kill young Theseus on his way to Athens. A doublet of Humbaba, death in the forest
- SINON: the Greek warrior who was selected to be a double agent, to convince the Trojans that the Wooden Horse was just an offering to the gods (either Athena or Poseidon)
- LYCAON king of Arcadia; visited by Zeus; served up his son as stew; changed into “the Wolf” (Powell p. 128)
- LYCURGUS son of Dryas and king of Thrace. Harassed Dionysus and Maenads. Driven mad, he killed his own son, thinking he was a tree (dryas), and hacked himself to death too.
- LYNKOS king of Sarmatians (?) visited by Triptolemus. Tried to murder Triptolemus to get secret of wheat growing. Changed into Lynx by Demeter.
- LYNKEUS son of Aegyptus; only one of the new husbands not killed by his new wife (Hypermnestra), one of the 50 Daughters of Danaus (Danaids)
- LETO (Latona) Titaness: mother of Apollo and Artemis, by Zeus.
- LEDA “The Swan”: mother of Clytamnestra and Castor; wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta. Debauched by Zeus (in the form of swans).
- MEDEA of Colchis, the girl-friend of Jason of Iolcus, who helps him to steal the Golden Fleece, who murders King Creon of Corinth and his daughter, and who attempts to murder Prince Theseus.
- MEDUSA daughter of Phorcys and Ceto (or maybe of GE), one of the three Gorgon sisters (Medusa, Stheno and Euryale); sister of the Graiai and of Ladon (the snake who guards the Apples of the Hesperides) and of Echidna.
- METANEIRA Queen of Eleusis, employer of Demeter, mother of Triptolemus and Demophon (Homeric Hymn to Demeter; Powell, pp. 225-228).
- DEIANEIRA daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon, and sister of Meleager. last wife of Herakles (Ovid Metamorphoses IX; Powell pp. 398-402)
- HARMONIA Cadmus' wife, mentioned in Euripides' Bacchae (sometimes, in fact, called Hermione)
- HERMIONE Daughter of Helen “of Troy” and Menelaus
- HESIONE daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy; rescued by Herakles from a sea monster (after he spent three days in its belly); he gave her as a wife to his friend Telamon, by whom she had a son Teucer (half-brother of Ajax and the best archer at Troy)
- HELEN “of Troy”: daughter of Zeus and Leda, sister of Pollux, and half-sister of Castor and Clytamnestra; Married Menelaus the brother of Agamemnon. Mother of Telemachus.
- HELLEN the son of Deucalion and Pyrrha (daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora). The original “Hellene” and thus ancestor of all the Greeks; his sons were Doros (the Dorians), Aeolus (the
Aeolians) and Xuthus (whose son was Ion, the Ionians).
- HELENUS a son of King Priam of Troy and Hecuba. He (and his sister Cassandra) had prophetic powers, which gave him much information about the course of the war at Troy. He survived the war, went to Epirus, and founded the town of Buthrotum; he married Andromache, the widow of Hector.
November 30, 2014 8:14 PM
John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu