Other Figures in the Greek Myths
Epaphus The Pleiades Nereus Doris Nereids Amphitrite Triton Teiresias MinosI
The Pleiades
The Pleiades are the daughters of Atlas seven in number: Electra, Maia, Taygete, Alcyone, Merope, Celaeno, and Sterope. They were always persued by Orion but, they always fled him successfully. Zeus took pity on them and placed them in heaven as stars, to keep them out of Orion's reach. Maia, was the mother of Hermes. Electra, was the mother of Dardanus, the founder of Troy.
Nereus
Nereus is also called The Old Man of the Sea. He is known as a gentle and trustworth god, who never lies, and is full of kind thoughts. He is the son of Pontus. With his wife Doris he fathers fifty lovely daughters, known as Nereids in his honor.
Doris
She is the daughter of Oceanus and the wife of Nereus. Together they have fifty lovely daughters, known as Nereids in her husbands honor.
The Nereids
They are the daughters of Nereus and Doris, fifty in number. They are named in honor of their father. All of them lovely, they are the nymphs of the sea. Some of the better known are Thetis and Amphitrite.
Amphitrite
One of the Nereids. She is the wife of Poseidon. Her son is Triton.
Triton
The trumpetor of the sea. His trumpet is a great shell. He is the son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.
Teiresias
A famous prophet of Thebes. Teiresias accidentally came across Athena while she was bathing, so she blinded him. At his mother pleading Athena gave Teiresias the gift of prophecy to compensate for his blindness. Amoung his prophecies were: A warning to Pentheus to recongnize and honor Dionysus when he first appeared in Thebes. A prediction of the greatness of Heracles. He reveled to Oedipus that Oedipus had unknowningly murdered his own father. Advice to Odysseus on how to placate Poseidon
Epaphus
Epaphus is the son of Zeus and Io. He founded the city of Memphis in Egypt.
Minos I
Minos was the King of Create. He was the son of Zeus and Europa. He created a famous legal code. His success as a law giver was such that after his death he was made one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld . During his rule Create became a major power with an excellent education system, wide spread trade, impressive buildings, and flourishing arts. It became the strongest navel power.
Rhadamanthus
Rhadamanthus was the son of Zeus and Europa. After his death he was made one of the three judges of the dead in the underworld.
Asclepius
Asclepius was the god of medicine and healing in ancient Greek mythology, according to which he was born a mortal but was given immortality as the constellation Ophiuchus after his death.
Charon
Charon is the ferryman of the dead. The souls of the deceased are brought
to him by Hermes, and Charon ferries them across the river Acheron. He only
accepts the dead which are buried or burned with the proper rites, and if they
pay him an obolus (coin) for their passage. For that reason a corpse had always
an obolus placed under the tongue.
Those who cannot afford the passage, or are not admitted by Charon, are doomed
to wander on the banks of the Styx for a hundred years. Living persons who
wish to go to the underworld need a golden bough obtained from the Cumaean
Sibyl. Charon is the son of Erebus and Nyx. He is depicted as an sulky old
man, or as a winged demon carrying a double hammer.
Sisyphus
Sisyphus (also Sísyphos or Sisuphos) son of Aeolus and Enarete, husband
of Merope, and King/Founder of Ephyra (Corinth)..
He was the father of the sea-god Glaucus by Merope. He was said to have founded
the Isthmian games in honour of Melicertes, whose body he found lying on the
shore of the Isthmus of Corinth.
He promoted navigation and commerce, but was avaricious and deceitful. He killed
travelers and wayfarers. From Homer onwards, Sisyphus was famed as the craftiest
of men. When Thanatos came to fetch him, Sisyphus put him into fetters, so
that no one died till Ares came, freed Thanatos, and delivered Sisyphus into
his custody.
But Sisyphus was not yet at the end of his resources. For before he died he
told his wife that when he was gone she was not to offer the usual sacrifice
to the dead. So in the underworld he complained that his wife was neglecting
her duty, and he persuaded Hades to allow him to go back to the upper world
and expostulate with her. But when he got back to Corinth he positively refused
to return, until forcibly carried off by Hermes.
In the underworld Sisyphus was compelled to roll a big stone up a steep hill;
but before it reached the top of the hill the stone always rolled down, and
Sisyphus had to begin all over again The reason for this punishment is not
mentioned in Homer, and is obscure; according to some, he had revealed the
designs of the gods to mortals, according to others, he was in the habit of
attacking and murdering travellers.
Tantalus
Tantalus, also Tántalos became a famous inhabitant of Tartarus, the
portion of the Underworld reserved for the punishment of evildoers.
He was the father of Pelops and Niobe.
Tantalus was a son of Zeus and the nymph Plouto (not to be confused with the
Roman name for Hades). Thus he was a king in the primordial world. He was associated
with Phrygia or Lydia in Asia Minor. Like Lycaon, Tantalus tried to trick the
Olympian gods back into their older identities by offering them a sacrifice-banquet
of human flesh. Already blamed for having stolen the dog of Hephaestus (god
of metals) (alternatively, he convinced his friend, Pandareus to do so), Tantalus
killed his own son Pelops just to test the powers of the gods. He mutilated
the dead body to make it unrecognisable, and served it as meat for the gods.
The gods were aware of his plan, so they didn't touch the offering; only Demeter,
disturbed by the rapture of her daughter Persephone, (or Dionysus) did not
realise what it was and had a little of the baby's shoulder. Hermes, ordered
by Zeus, brought the baby to life again (he collected the parts of the body
and boiled them in milk) and rebuilt his shoulder in dolphin's ivory.
The kernel of myth embodied in this tale reinforces Olympian suppression of
human sacrifice, which had apparently been offered in earlier times, especially
to Demeter in her earlier embodiment as the Great Goddess, but which was now
taboo.
Tantalus' punishment, now proverbial for endless efforts to achieve results,
was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever
he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp.
Whenever Tantalus bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could
get any.
Tantalus is the origin of the English word "tantalize." The idea
being that when a person tantalizes someone else, that person is making them
like Tantalus: there is something desirable that is always just out of that
person's reach.
A Tantalus, by an obvious analogy, is also the term for a type of drinks decanter
stand in which the bottle stoppers are firmly clamped down by a locked metal
bar, as a means of preventing servants from stealing the master's liquor.