Mythology Terms

Front 1

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Back 1

Survivors of Jupiter’s flood--repopulate world with stones thrown over backs (advised by Themis).

Nature=sculptor.

Pyrrha is wife of Deucalion

Front 2

Arachne

Back 2

She was a weaver whose skill rivaled that of Minerva. She beat the goddess in a weaving contest and was turned into a spider as a result.

Front 3

Philomela

Back 3

Raped by her sister’s husband Tereus. Tereus silences her by cutting out her tongue. She tells her sister Procne what happens by weaving the story into a cloth and sending it to her sister. Procne kills her child from Tereus, and her and Philomela serve him to Tereus. They all become birds.

Front 4

Iphis

Back 4

Was born to her parents as a girl, but her mother told her father that she was a boy to save Iphis from being left to die. Arranged marriage to another girl, and she fell in love. Her mother prayed to the goddess Isis to make Iphis a man

Front 5

Pythagoras

Back 5

Philosophical thinker. Principle of the universe: everything rises and falls.

People: Hercules’ muscles will sag, Helen will have wrinkles

Cities: Sparta, Mycenae, and Thebes were great then fell

Future: Rome will become a great city (implied: it’s downfall)

Front 6

Aeneas

Back 6

Protagonist in Aeneid, travels to underworld, ancestor of RomulusA Trojan hero and the founder of Rome. Aeneas is the son of Anchises and Venus and the father of Ascanius. Aeneas is the second person in the Metamorphoses to be deified.

Front 7

Galatea

Back 7

Lover of Acis. The Cylcops Poylphemos tries to court Galatea. He is jealous of Acis, and kills him by throwing a part of the mountain at him Galatea is heartbroken

Front 8

Katabasis

Back 8

journey to the underworld

Front 9

Myth of Er

Back 9

story about how a man died in battle and he came back to life, he told everyone how good people are rewarded in the afterlife and bad people are punished

Front 10

transmigration of souls (metempsychosis)

Back 10

when a soul is transported into another body; reincarnation

Front 11

Cumaean Sibyl

Back 11

prophesies to Aeneas, guides him to father in underworld

Front 12

Charon

Back 12

: Ferryman of the river styx. Carries the spirits of the dead across the dead waters.

Front 13

Lake Avernus

Back 13

Cave entrance to the underworld, used by Aeneas

Front 14

Anchises

Back 14

Aeneas’ father; in the Underworld he gave Aeneas the prophecy of Rome’s founding and gloryThe father of Aeneas and a lover of Venus.

Front 15

Cerberus

Back 15

Three headed dog who guards the entrance to the Underworld

Front 16

Labyrinth

Back 16

Ordered to be made by King Minos. Contains the monster the MinotaurBuilt by Daedalus

Front 17

Aesop

Back 17

Ancient Greek storyteller best known for writing Aesop’s Fables, with many of his stories having anthropomorphic animals as the main characters (for children, ie the tortoise and the hare).

Front 18

Xanthus

Back 18

Philosopher and master to Aesop, constantly challenged by Aesop’s wit.

Front 19

Nectanabo

Back 19

Last Pharaoh of Egypt

Front 20

Theoclymenus

Back 20

the Egyptian king/emperor/pharaoh who was hot for Helen and who wanted to marry her

Front 21

Theonoe

Back 21

Theoclymenus’ sister, had some sort of future vision

Front 22

Stesichorus

Back 22

lyric poet, author of Helen

Front 23

Etymos

Back 23

real; or the study of the true sense of a word