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120 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Achilles ......................
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Central character of the Iliad, the greatest Greek warrior in the Trojan War, who was initially hidden by his mother because she knew he was fated to die in the war
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Actaeon ......................
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Mortal hunter who accidentally saw Artemis, the chaste Greek goddess of the hunt, naked in her bath and was then by her hand turned into a stag and chased and killed by his own dogs
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Adonis ........................
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Handsome young man with whom both Aphrodite and Persephone, the goddess of the underworld, fell in love; he was killed by Ares in the form of a wild boar
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Aegisthus...................
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.Clytemnestra’s lover who helped her get revenge on her husband Agamemnon for the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia
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Aeneas........................
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Trojan prince, Aphrodite and Anchises’ son, who escaped the burning city of Troy and fled to Italy, where he became the founder of the Roman race
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Aeolus ........................
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Keeper of the winds on the island of Aeolia, where they are kept chained up in a huge cavern
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Agamemnon...............
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King of Mycenae and Argos who led the Greek forces in the Trojan War—he sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to gain a favorable wind after his forces were halted by the absence of winds in retaliation for his boast that he was as skilled a hunter as Artemis
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Ajax the Greater*.......
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Giant Greek warrior who killed himself after unsuccessfully fighting Odysseus for the armor of Achilles awarded to Odysseus after Achilles’ death
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Ajax the Lesser** ......
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Warrior who was drowned by Poseidon for offending Athena by boasting about his escape from the ship Athena had sunk with a thunderbolt
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Alcestis (Alceste).......
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Woman who volunteered to die in place of her husband Admetus
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Amazons.....................
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Race of warlike women who lived in the Black Sea region of Asia Minor
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Amphitrite ..................
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Ocean’s daughter or granddaughter, a Nereid, who was the goddess of the sea and the wife of Poseidon
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Amphitryon................
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.Alcmene’s husband who returned home the day after Zeus, disguised as her husband, had already impregnated his wife
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Anchises ....................
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Aeneas’ father whom he carried on his back or shoulders as they escaped from a burning Troy but who died before they reached Italy
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Andromache ...............
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Hector’s wife who following the fall of Troy becomes Neoptolemeus’ concubine, later bearing him 3 children
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Andromeda.................
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Ethiopian princess, daughter of Cassiopeia and Cepheus, who was chained to a rocky cliff and rescued from the sea monster Cetus by Perseus, later her husband, who turned the monster into a rock by showing it the head of Medusa
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Antaeus ......................
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Poseidon’s gigantic son who being invincible as long as he was in contact with his mother Gaea, the earth, challenged all passers-by to wrestle with him, killing all but one
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Antigone .....................
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Oedipus’ faithful daughter who served as his guide during his exile; she was buried alive by Creon after she symbolically buried the body of her brother, Polyneices, by sprinkling dirt over it
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Antiope .......................
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Amazons’ queen whom Theseus allegedly abducted and took to Athens, where she bore him a son, Hippolytus
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Arachne ......................
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Mortal Lydian woman, proud of her weaving ability, who challenged Athena to a weaving contest and after winning was changed by Athena into a spider so that she could spend the rest of her life weaving
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Argonauts ...................
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49 famous Greek heroes who accompanied Jason in the quest for the Golden Fleece
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Ariadne.......................
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King Minos of Crete’s daughter who married Dionysus after being abandoned by Theseus on the island of Naxos even though she had helped him escape from the Labyrinth
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Astyanax.....................
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Hector and Andromache’s child whom Neoptolemus killed during the sack of Troy by throwing him from the city’s walls onto the rocks below, thus executing Hector’s last male heir to the throne of Troy
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Atalanta ......................
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Huntress who promised to marry the suitor who could outrun her and was finally defeated by Hippomenes with the help of Aphrodite
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Atlas ...........................
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Titan condemned to hold the sky or heavens on his shoulders for all eternity for leading the Titans against the gods
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Augeas........................
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King of Elis whom Heracles killed for reneging on an agreement to grant him one tenth of the cattle he had cleaned as the fifth of his labors
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Autolycus....................
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Famous thief who had learned from his father Hermes the skill of making objects invisible or changing their appearance so that they were unrecognizable
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Bellerophon................
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Killer of the Chimera who was thrown from Pegasus and blinded while attempting to ride to Mount Olympus
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Boreas ........................
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The North Wind, the most violent of the 4 winds of the world
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Cadmus ......................
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Mortal who founded and became king of Thebes by following Athena’s instructions to sow, or plant, the teeth of the dragon he had just killed
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Calchas.......................
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Famous soothsayer who advised Agamemnon to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to appease Artemis in order to get a favorable wind for the Greek fleet
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Callisto .......................
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Nymph that Hera changed into a bear to punish for the offense of becoming Zeus’ lover or Zeus changed into a bear to protect her from Hera
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Cassandra ..................
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Priam’s daughter, also called Alexandra, to whom Apollo gave the gift of prophecy but whose prophecies were never believed because of a curse he placed on her after she refused his amorous advances
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Cassiopeia..................
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Andromeda’s mother who boasted that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids, Poseidon’s attendants, leading him to send Cetus, a sea monster, to ravage Ethiopia only to have it killed by Perseus
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Charon........................
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Old boatman who ferried the souls of the dead across the River Styx and other rivers into the underworld
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Chiron (Cheiron) ........
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Only immortal Centaur, who taught Asclepius the arts of healing and whom Zeus permitted to go to the Underworld rather than live in pain after Heracles accidently wounded him with a poisoned arrow
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Circe ...........................
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Beautiful island enchantress who turned Odysseus’ men into swine
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Clytemnestra..............
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Agamemnon’s wife who plotted with her lover, Aegisthus, to get revenge on her husband for the sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia
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Creon..........................
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King of Thebes who awarded the throne to Oedipus for getting rid of the Sphinx but later exiled him and condemned Antigone to death for disobeying his orders
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Cybele ........................
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Originally the principal Phrygian goddess, identified with Demeter and Rhea; Cronus’ wife, mother of the Olympian gods, served by priests called Corybantes
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Daedalus ....................
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Architect who invented carpentry and useful instruments, built a hollow bronze or wooden image of a cow for Pasiphaë in which she hid and mated with the bull, and then built the Labyrinth, the maze to house the Minotaur, the offspring of this union
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Daphne .......................
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Female spirit, or mountain nymph, who asked the gods to turn her into a laurel tree to escape the amorous advances of the god Apollo
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Deianeira....................
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Heracles’ second wife, who unwittingly killed him by sending him a shirt poisoned by the blood of the Hydra, a shirt given to her by the Centaur Nessus
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Deucalion ...................
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Prometheus’ son, called the “Noah” of Greek mythology, who floated in his wooden chest with his wife, Pyrrha, for 9 days until the waters of the great flood sent by Zeus receded, landing him on Mount Parnassus where he then repopulated the earth by throwing stones that turned into people
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Dido............................
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Legendary founder and queen of Carthage who had a year-long love affair with Aeneas before he resumed his journey, prompting her to curse him and his descendants and fall on her sword on a funeral pyre
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Dioscuri ......................
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Word meaning “the sons of Zeus,” designating Castor and Pollux (or Polydeuces), Tyndareus and Leda’s son and Leda and Zeus’ son, respectively—also called Gemini, or The Twins
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Echo............................
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Mountain nymph who helped Zeus in his carousing by distracting Hera with endless chattering, prompting a vengeful Hera to take away her ability to start a conversation, leaving her able only to repeat the words of others—when Narcissus rejected her love, she pined away until only her voice remained
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Electra ........................
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Clytemnestra’s daughter who helped her brother Orestes kill their mother and her lover, Aegistus, for having killed their father Agamemnon
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Endymion....................
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Very handsome young man loved by Selene and who, according to one myth, kissed him nightly as he slept so he would sleep forever and not die—they had 50 children together
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Eteocles......................
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Oedipus’ son who refused to rule Thebes jointly with his brother Polyneices after their father blinded himself—the brothers ended up killing each other during the War of the Seven against Thebes
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Europa ........................
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Beautiful Princess of Tyre, Agenor’s daughter, who was abducted by Zeus disguised as a white bull and then carried across the sea to the island of Crete
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Eurydice .....................
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Dryad who married Orpheus but died from a snake bite while fleeing the advances of Aristaeus—Orpheus charmed the deities in the underworld into releasing his wife but lost her forever by looking back when he no longer heard her footsteps
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Galatea.......................
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Beautiful statue carved by Pygmalion and transformed into a real woman by Aphrodite— Pygmalion married her after she was transformed
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Ganymede ..................
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Handsome Trojan youth carried off to Olympus by Zeus to be Hebe’s successor as cupbearer to the gods
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Glauce ........................
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Creon’s daughter whom Jason planned to marry when he divorced Medea after 10 years of marriage and 2 children—also known as Creüsa
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Hebe ...........................
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Zeus and Hera’s beautiful daughter who was cupbearer of the gods until she was replaced by Ganymede
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Hecate ........................
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Greek goddess of the moon, the earth, and the underworld who was later considered to be the goddess of black magic, ghosts, and witchcraft—she was accompanied by hellhounds at night when she ruled over the crossroads
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Hector.........................
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Leader of the Trojan army who was slain by Achilles during the Trojan War and whose body was then dragged 3 times around the walls of the city—son of Priam and Hecuba; husband of Andromache; father of Astyanax
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Hecuba (Hecabe) .......
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Priam’s second wife, who allegedly bore him 49 children, including Paris, her oldest, and Hector—she was enslaved by Odysseus at the end of the Trojan War
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Helen of Troy..............
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Beautiful Greek woman born from an egg and considered immortal because Zeus, in the form of a swan, had impregnated her mother—she ran off from Sparta to Troy with Paris, starting the 10-year Trojan War and she has become known as “the face that launched a thousand ships”
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Helle...........................
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Young girl who escaped the wrath of Ino, her stepmother, by flying away on the golden ram but fell into the sea and drowned in the straight between Europe and Asia, today known as the Dardanelles
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Heracles (Hercules)...
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Greek strongman who performed a series of 12 supposedly impossible tasks to atone for his crime of killing his wife Megara and their children under the influence of a madness inflicted on him by Hera
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Hippolyta ....................
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Queen of the Amazons abducted by Theseus, whom she later married—she was killed by Heracles for her girdle
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Hippolytus ..................
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Theseus’ son who was banished for rejecting the amorous advances of his stepmother, Phaedra, and later died when his horses, frightened by a sea bull sent by Poseidon, dragged him into the sea
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Hymen ........................
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Greek god of marriage and protector of virgins
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Icarus..........................
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Daedalus’ son who was imprisoned with his father in the Labyrinth but who escaped along with his father by tying feathers joined with wax to their arms and using them as wings, though he flew too close to the sun and plunged into the sea when the wax melted
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Io ................................
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Zeus’ mortal mistress whom he changed into a beautiful white cow to disguise her from his jealous wife, Hera
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Iphigenia ....................
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Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s daughter who was sacrificed by the father for the sake of the Greek fleet
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Iris ..............................
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Goddess of the rainbow and, in the Iliad, the messenger of the gods
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Janus..........................
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Roman god of doors and gateways, entrances and exits, and beginnings and endings— the month of January is named for him
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Jason..........................
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Leader of the Argonauts who sailed in the Argo in their successful quest to capture the Golden Fleece, which he accomplished with the help of Medea, daughter of the king of Colchis, whom he married—when he later abandoned her for Glauce, Medea killed their children and his bride-to-be, and he died when a beam from the Argo fell on his head
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Jocasta .......................
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Creon’s sister and Laius’ wife whom Oedipus married after being crowned king of Thebes, not knowing she was his mother—she hanged herself after learning she had married her own son
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Laius...........................
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King of Thebes, husband of Jocasta, and father of Oedipus, who unknowingly killed his father during an altercation at a crossroads on the road to Thebes
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Laocoön (Laocoon) ....
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Trojan priest of Apollo who proclaimed the Wooden Horse a deception and gave the warning, “I fear the Greeks even when bearing gifts”—while he was making a sacrifice at an altar to Neptune, he and his 2 sons were attacked and killed by snakes
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Leda............................
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Wife of Tyndareus, the king of Sparta, who was seduced by Zeus who came in the form of a swan; she bore quadruplets: Pollux and Helen by Zeus, and Castor and Clytemnestra by Tyndareus
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Lotus-Eaters ...............
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Very friendly people Odysseus and his men encountered in North Africa partaking of a local plant that made them forget their cares
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Medea ........................
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King Aeëtes’ daughter, a powerful sorceress and priestess of Hecate, who helped Jason capture the Golden Fleece, fell in love and married him, and then, after he abandoned her, killed their two children and his bride-to-be
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Menelaus....................
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King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen who sought the return of his wife after she left with Paris
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Mentor........................
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Friend and advisor to Odysseus and wise elder on Ithaca whose form Athena took when she went with Telemachus to Sparta in the search for his father
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Midas..........................
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Greedy Phrygian king who, when granted a wish by the gods, chose the power to turn everything he touched into gold—because even his food turned into gold, he asked the gods to remove this power and he was returned to live a normal life
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Minos..........................
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King of Crete who angered Poseidon by keeping for himself a bull Poseidon had sent him to sacrifice, prompting Poseidon to cause his wife Pasiphaë to fall in love with the bull, resulting in the union that produced the Minotaur—he captured Athens and promised to raze it unless the leaders sent him a yearly tribute of 7 maidens and 7 boys to sacrifice to the Minotaur
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Mnemosyne................
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Goddess of memory and the daughter of heaven and earth, or Uranus and Gaea, the Titaness with whom Zeus fathered the 9 Muses
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Morpheus ...................
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God of dreams and sleep
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Narcissus....................
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Handsome youth whom Nemesis punished for spurning the nymph Echo by making him fall in love with his own reflection in a pool, causing him to waste away and be changed into a flower
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Nemesis .....................
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Greek goddess of retribution or vengeance, who punished those who defied the gods or violated the natural order, especially through hubris, or excessive pride
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Nereus........................
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Sea god and father of the Nereids, who had the gift of prophecy and the ability to change shapes—known as the “Old Man of the Sea” and sometimes confused with Proteus
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Nessus........................
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Centaur who tried to make love to Deianeira, Heracles’ wife, leading Hera to kill him with an arrow poisoned with the blood of the Learnean Hydra—his bloodstained tunic later led to Heracles’ death
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Nestor.........................
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Wise old Greek counselor during the Trojan War
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Nike ............................
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Greek goddess of victory
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Niobe..........................
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Tantalus’ daughter who, after bragging that she was more worthy than Leto because she had more children, mourned their deaths at the hands of Apollo and Artemis; worn out from weeping, she was transformed into a stone
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Odysseus (Ulysses)....
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Greek hero who fought in the Trojan War for 10 years, then made a voyage of 10 years before returning to his throne on Ithaca, where he then killed all of his wife’s suitors
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Oedipus ......................
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Tragic Greek king who saved the city of Thebes by solving the riddle of the Sphinx but unwittingly fulfilled the Delphic prophecy that he would kill his father and marry his mother—he unknowingly killed his father, King Laius, on the road to Thebes; married his widow, the Queen of Thebes, who was indeed his mother Jocasta, and then blinded himself and went into exile in Colonus
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Orestes .......................
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Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s son who, after being acquitted in the killing of his mother and her lover, was hounded by the Furies until Athena cast the deciding vote in his favor during a session of the Areopagus and told them to stop
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Orion...........................
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Famous giant and handsome hunter whom Artemis killed and placed among the stars when he offended her by his boasting about his hunting skills
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Orpheus......................
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Great mortal musician who played the lyre so well that he charmed the deities in the underworld into releasing his wife Eurydice on the condition that he not look back upon leaving Hades—when he no longer heard footsteps, he looked back and his wife vanished forever
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Pan .............................
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Greek god of the fields and forest who was famous for the music he played on the musical instrument he invented that was known as the “pipes of Pan” or the panpipe
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Pandora .....................
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Woman whom Zeus ordered Hephaestus, the blacksmith of the gods, to create as the first female of the species, to whom was entrusted a box (or jar) containing all the ills that could plague mankind—when she opened it out of curiosity, all the world’s ills escaped, but hope remained
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Paris ...........................
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Handsome prince of Troy who fled Greece with Helen, resulting in the Trojan War, during which he killed Achilles and, in turn, was killed by Philoctetes; he was the judge in a famous beauty contest involving Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite
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Pasiphaë ....................
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Queen of Crete and Minos’ wife who had a lustful union with the great white bull of Poseidon and gave birth to the Minotaur
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Patroclus ....................
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Achilles’ close friend who when Achilles sulked in his tent borrowed his armor and was killed in battle by Hector
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Penelope ....................
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Odysseus’ long-faithful wife who kept many suitors at bay telling them to wait until she finished weaving a burial robe or shroud for Laertes, Odysseus’ father, which she wove by day and unraveled every night
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Perseus ......................
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Hero who killed Medusa by cutting off her head with a sword, striking the creature backwards while looking only at her reflection in Athena’s shield; he rescued Andromeda from a sea monster in Ethiopia, so impressing her and her parents that he won her hand in marriage
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Phaedra......................
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Minos and Pasiphaë’s daughter who, after she married Theseus attempted to seduce her stepson Hippolytus and upon his rejection hanged herself, leaving a note claiming he had raped her
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Phaëthon ....................
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Helios’ son who when granted his wish of driving the chariot of the sun for one day, lost control of it, nearly destroyed the earth, and was killed by a Zeus thunderbolt to stop him
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Polyphemus................
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Cyclops who killed and ate several of Odysseus’ men and was blinded by Odysseus, enabling his men to escape by strapping themselves to sheep
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Priam..........................
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King of Troy killed when the Greeks sacked the city during the Trojan War
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Procrustes ..................
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Attican giant, also called Damastes, whom Theseus killed by cutting off his limbs so that he would fit the iron bed that the giant had used for torturing his own victims by stretching them to fit it or hacking off their limbs if they were too long
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Proteus .......................
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Minor sea god, sometimes considered to be the son of Poseidon and Tethys, who had the power to speak the truth, to foretell the future, and to change his shape at will—he was also known as the “Old Man of the Sea” and was sometimes confused with Nereus
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Prometheus................
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Titan who stole fire from the gods, gave it to humans, and was punished by Zeus for his actions by being chained to a rock where an eagle or vulture came each day for 30 years to eat his liver
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Psyche........................
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Beautiful mortal princess whom Cupid forbade to look at his face when he visited her at night; when she discovered his identity and accidentally dropped oil from her lamp on him, he fled, but they were later married after she performed many difficult tasks for Venus and was made immortal by Jupiter
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Pygmalion ..................
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Sculptor and king of Cyprus whose prayers for a wife with the beauty of the statue of a woman he had sculpted were answered when Aphrodite brought the statue to life, creating the maiden Galatea
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Pythia .........................
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Famous priestess of Apollo at Delphi who delivered Apollo’s answers to whose who came to consult the oracle
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Sibyl (Cumean) ..........
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Prophetess through whom Apollo reveals the future and who, because she refused Apollo’s advances, was refused perpetual youth; she continued to age and ended her life shriveled inside a bottle hanging from the ceiling of her cave
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Sisyphus.....................
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Aeolus’ son who, for revealing that Zeus had abducted Aegina, was given the eternal punishment of rolling a stone to the top of a hill in the Underworld only to have it roll back down just before it reached the top
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Tantalus......................
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Zeus’ son who, for cutting up his son Pelops to serve to the gods at a banquet, was punished by them to stand for eternity in water that receded when he tried to drink and under branches of fruit he could never reach
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Teirisias......................
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Theban seer who, according to different myths, was blinded by either Hera or Athena as punishment for warning Oedipus of his fate
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Telemachus ................
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Odysseus and Penelope’s son who after a 20-year absence was reunited with his father and helped him kill his mother’s suitors
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Theseus......................
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Athenian hero, sometimes called “The Attic Heracles,” who accomplished 6 labors, overcoming and killing the Minotaur and robbers and murderers such as Procrustes by using their own methods; he married the Amazon queen Hippolyta
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Triton ..........................
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Half-man, half-fish creature called a merman who lived with his parents, Poseidon and Amphitrite, in a golden palace at the bottom of the sea
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Trivia ..........................
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Name given to Diana because she presided over places where 3 roads meet
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