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Jupiter (Jove)

King of the gods, who rules from a palatial hall of heaven reached by the Milky Way, shaking the earth and stars with a nod of his head. He destroys the impious race of men with a flood, transforms Lycaon into a wolf for serving him human flesh, and repeatedly takes disguised or bestial forms—a bull, a shepherd, Diana, Amphitryon-like guises—to seduce mortal women such as Io, Callisto, and Europa.

Juno

Jupiter's wife and queen of heaven, perpetually enraged by her husband's infidelities. She sets the many-eyed giant Argus to guard Io after transforming her into a cow, later placing his eyes in the peacock's tail; she also turns Callisto into a bear, destroys Semele using a disguise as the nurse Beroë, blinds the prophet Tiresias for a verdict against her, and drives Ino to madness resulting in Ino's leap into the sea.

Lycaon

A cruel king who tested the gods by serving Jupiter a meal of human flesh. Jupiter transforms him into a wolf as punishment and cites his crime as proof that mankind must be destroyed.

Deucalion and Pyrrha

The sole surviving pious couple after Jupiter's flood destroys the rest of humanity. When the waters recede, they repopulate the earth by throwing stones behind them, which become new men and women.

Phoebus Apollo

God of the sun, prophecy, music and archery. He slays the serpent Python and institutes the Pythian games; falls in love with the nymph Daphne and pursues her until she is transformed into the laurel tree; fathers Phaëton and Aesculapius; and punishes the raven and the satyr Marsyas for offending him.

Daphne

A nymph, daughter of the river god Peneus, who flees the amorous pursuit of Apollo. To escape him she is transformed into the laurel tree, which Apollo afterward adopts as his sacred emblem, binding his hair with its leaves.

Io

A daughter of the river god Inachus, ravished by Jupiter and transformed into a cow to hide her from Juno's jealousy. Guarded by the hundred-eyed Argus, she is freed after Mercury kills her captor, eventually regains human form, and becomes mother to Epaphus.

Argus

A giant with a hundred watchful eyes, set by Juno to guard the cow-form Io on a mountaintop. Mercury lulls him to sleep with pipe music and the story of Syrinx, then kills him; Juno places his eyes in the tail of the peacock.

Mercury

Messenger god and son of Jupiter and the Pleiad Maia, equipped with winged sandals, a cap, and a sleep-inducing wand. He slays Argus disguised as a shepherd playing pipes, seduces Herse the daughter of Cecrops, turns the informer Battus into the Touchstone for betraying him, and drives Agenor's herds toward the shore for Jupiter's abduction of Europa.

Phaëton

Son of Phoebus Apollo who, stung by Epaphus's mockery, begs to drive his father's sun-chariot for a day to prove his parentage. He loses control of the horses, sets the whole earth ablaze (scorching the Ethiopians black), and is struck down by one of Jupiter's thunderbolts, falling into the river Eridanus.

Cygnus (kinsman of Phaëton)

A kinsman of Phaëton who mourns his death alongside Phaëton's grieving sisters (the Heliades); he is transformed into a swan as a result of his grief.

Callisto

A nymph and follower of Diana, seduced by Jupiter disguised as the goddess herself. Juno transforms her into a bear out of jealousy, and she is nearly killed by her own son Arcas before Jupiter places both of them among the stars as constellations.

Coronis and the Talking Crow

A Thessalian woman loved by Apollo, whose infidelity is reported to him by a white raven; the raven itself was punished by Apollo and turned black for its role. Coronis is killed by Apollo in a jealous rage, but her unborn son Aesculapius is saved and raised by the centaur Chiron.

Chiron and Ocyrrhoë

Chiron is the wise centaur who raises the infant Aesculapius; his daughter Ocyrrhoë, gifted with prophecy, is transformed into a mare mid-prophecy as punishment for revealing too much of the future.

Europa

Daughter of Agenor, king of Tyre, abducted by Jupiter after he transforms himself into a gentle white bull. She is lured onto his back with flowers and garlands, then carried across the sea to the island of Crete.

Cadmus

Son of Agenor sent to find his lost sister Europa; instead he founds the city of Thebes after slaying a great dragon and sowing its teeth in the earth, from which armed men spring up to help build the city's walls.

Actaeon

Grandson of Cadmus, a hunter who accidentally glimpses the goddess Diana bathing. As punishment she transforms him into a stag, and he is torn apart by his own hunting hounds, whose names (Ichnobates, Pamphagus, Laelaps, and others) are individually recorded.

Semele

Daughter of Cadmus and favorite lover of Jupiter. Tricked by Juno (disguised as the old woman Beroë) into demanding Jupiter appear in his full divine glory, she is incinerated by his lightning, but her unborn son Bacchus is rescued from her womb and carried to term on earth.

Bacchus (Liber)

God of wine and ecstatic ritual, son of Jupiter and the mortal Semele, rescued from his mother's womb after her death and raised in secret. He later punishes his cousin Pentheus for denying his divinity, and turns a crew of Etrurian sailors into dolphins for trying to kidnap him.

Tiresias

A blind prophet who once lived as both a man and a woman, called on to settle a dispute between Jupiter and Juno over which sex enjoys love more. He sides with Jupiter, is blinded by Juno in retaliation, and is compensated with the gift of prophecy, later predicting the fates of Narcissus and Pentheus.

Narcissus

A strikingly beautiful youth who scorns all suitors, including the nymph Echo. Cursed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool, he wastes away from unfulfilled longing and is transformed into the flower that bears his name.

Echo

A talkative nymph punished by Juno and stripped of independent speech, able only to repeat the last words spoken to her. She falls hopelessly in love with Narcissus, is rejected, and fades away until only her voice remains.

Pentheus

King of Thebes and grandson of Cadmus who denies the divinity of his cousin Bacchus and mocks the blind prophet Tiresias. He is torn to pieces by frenzied Bacchantes (Maenads), among them his own mother, as punishment for his impiety.

Pyramus and Thisbe

Two young lovers from neighboring houses in Babylon, forbidden to marry, who arrange a secret meeting by a mulberry tree outside the city. A misunderstanding involving a lioness's bloody trail leads each to believe the other dead, and both die by suicide beneath the tree, whose berries turn dark red with their blood ever after.

Leucothoë

A young woman desired by the Sun god, who visits her disguised as her mother Eurynome. Her father buries her alive upon discovering the affair, and the Sun transforms her into a frankincense shrub.

Ino and Melicerta

Wife of Athamas and aunt of Bacchus, driven to madness (partly by Juno's malice) and leaps into the sea carrying her infant son Melicerta. Venus persuades Neptune to grant them divinity, transforming Ino into the sea-goddess Leucothea and Melicerta into the god Palaemon.

Perseus

Son of Jupiter and Danaë, hero who beheads the Gorgon Medusa and uses her petrifying head as a weapon. He rescues and marries Andromeda after slaying a sea monster, turns the Titan Atlas to stone (into a mountain) with Medusa's head after being refused hospitality, and later defeats his rival Phineus and a thousand of his men in a bloody hall battle.

Medusa

Once a beautiful maiden famed for her hair, ravished by Neptune in Minerva's temple; Minerva punishes her by turning her hair into venomous snakes and cursing her gaze to turn onlookers to stone. She is later beheaded by the hero Perseus.

Andromeda

An Ethiopian princess chained to a sea cliff as a sacrifice to a monster sent by Neptune, after her mother Cassiopeia boasted of her beauty rivaling the Nereids. Perseus slays the monster and marries her.

Atlas (Titan)

A Titan of immense size who rules the far western edge of the world and guards a golden-fruited orchard with a dragon, fearing an oracle that a son of Jupiter will one day steal his golden apples. When he refuses Perseus hospitality, Perseus turns him to stone using Medusa's head, transforming him into a mountain that now bears up the sky.

Ceres and Proserpina

Ceres is the goddess of agriculture whose daughter Proserpina is abducted by Pluto, god of the underworld, while gathering flowers near the city of Henna in Sicily. Ceres searches the world in grief, causing crops to fail, until a partial reconciliation is reached allowing Proserpina to divide her time between the underworld and the world above.

The Pierides / Emathian Sisters

Nine mortal sisters who challenge the Muses to a singing contest on Mount Helicon and lose. As punishment for their arrogance and subsequent insults, they are transformed into chattering magpies.

Niobe

A proud queen of Thebes who boasts that her seven sons and seven daughters make her superior to the goddess Latona. In vengeance, Apollo and Diana kill all fourteen of her children with arrows before her eyes, including Ismenus, Sipylus, Phaedimus, and Tantalus, and she is turned to stone in her grief.

Marsyas

A satyr who challenges Apollo to a musical contest on the flute and loses. As punishment for his presumption, Apollo flays him alive; the tears shed by mourning fauns, satyrs, and nymphs are said to form the river that bears his name.

Boreas and Orithyia

Boreas, the north wind god and king of Thrace, forcibly abducts Orithyia, daughter of King Erectheus of Athens, carrying her to his kingdom where she bears him the twin sons Calaïs and Zethes.

Medea

A powerful sorceress of Colchis, daughter of King Aeetes, who falls in love with Jason and aids the Argonauts using magical herbs, incantations, and a chariot drawn by dragons. She later travels to Thessaly, gathering herbs by moonlight under the power of three-faced Hecate to work her spells.

Cephalus and Procris

Cephalus, a hunter married to Procris, is abducted and desired by Aurora (the Dawn), but remains faithful in his love for his wife. He owns an unerring javelin, a gift that never misses its mark and returns to the thrower's hand unbidden, which later plays a tragic role in his marriage.

Thebes

A great city in Boeotia founded by Cadmus after he slays a dragon and sows its teeth to produce a race of warriors. The city becomes the site of numerous family tragedies for the house of Cadmus, including the deaths of Actaeon, Semele, and Pentheus.

The Milky Way and the Palace of Jupiter

A luminous path across the sky, easily seen on a clear night, that serves as the road for the gods to reach Jupiter's marble palace of assembly, flanked by the courts of the greater and lesser deities.

The Argonauts

A band of young Greek nobles, led by Jason, who sail on the ship Argo to Colchis to recover treasure and avenge the death of Phryxus, taken from King Athamas's line. Their voyage sets in motion Jason's fateful alliance with the sorceress Medea.

The Olympian Gods

The ruling pantheon headed by Jupiter, including Juno, Apollo, Diana, Minerva, Neptune, Mercury, Venus, and Bacchus, who intervene constantly and often capriciously in mortal and nymph affairs, dispensing transformation as both punishment and mercy.

The Chariot of the Sun

A golden, gem-studded chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses that carries Phoebus Apollo across the sky each day, housed in a palace of gold, ivory, and silver crafted by Mulciber (Vulcan). Its horses feed on ambrosia in western pastures and nearly destroy the world when Phaëton loses control of the reins.

The Head of Medusa

The severed, snake-haired head of the Gorgon Medusa, retaining the power to turn any living creature that looks upon it to stone. Perseus carries it in a pouch and uses it as a weapon, most notably to turn the Titan Atlas into a mountain and to defeat enemies at his wedding feast.

The Unerring Javelin

A magical hunting spear given to Cephalus, said to strike whatever it is aimed at without fail and fly back to its owner's hand covered in blood, requiring no one to retrieve it.

Chaos and the Ordering of the World

Before the world existed, sea, earth, and sky were one undigested mass called Chaos, in which hot fought cold and wet fought dry. A god (identified with the Deity/Creator) separated the four elements—fire, air, water, earth—and set them in their proper places, hanging the balanced Earth in the air and stretching the sea along the coasts. Mankind was then formed from earth and water, given an upright form to look toward the heavens.

The War of the Giants

In the last age, monstrous snake-footed Giants attempted to storm the heavens and seize the throne of Jupiter, piling mountains to reach the sky. Jupiter and the gods struck them down with thunderbolts, and a new, brutal race of men sprang up from their spilled blood.

The Great Deluge

Jupiter floods the entire earth to annihilate a corrupt human race, aided by Neptune's rivers and the sea; wolves are seen swimming harmlessly among drowned sheep, and Iris the rainbow goddess appears as the waters recede. Only Deucalion and Pyrrha survive atop a mountain, and from stones thrown behind them a new race of humans is born.

Syrinx and the Invention of the Pan-pipes

A nymph named Syrinx, fleeing the pursuit of a rustic god, was transformed into reeds; from these reeds the shepherd's pipe (syrinx) was fashioned. Mercury relates this story to lull the giant Argus to sleep.

The Heliades (Phaëton's Sisters)

The daughters of the Sun who mourn their brother Phaëton's death so intensely at his tomb that they are transformed into poplar trees, their endless tears becoming drops of amber.

The House of Athamas

Athamas, son of Aeolus, first married Ino, divorced her for her madness, then married Nephele and had Phryxus and Helle; upon remarrying Ino, jealousy led her to plot against Nephele's children. Phryxus and Helle fled by ship toward Colchis, but Helle drowned along the way in the strait later named the Hellespont after her.

Python

A monstrous serpent born from the mud and heat left after the great deluge, so enormous it occupied the side of a mountain and terrorized the newborn race of men. Phoebus Apollo kills it with a thousand arrows and founds the Pythian Games in commemoration, where victors were originally crowned with beech leaves since the laurel did not yet exist.

The Four Ages of Man

Humanity passed through Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, each progressively more violent and impious than the last. In the Iron Age, greed, war, and deceit became commonplace, setting the stage for divine punishment.