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Homer is the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. The Iliad is set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek kingdoms. It focuses on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles lasting a few weeks during the last year of the war. The Odyssey focuses on the ten-year journey home of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, after the fall of Troy. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity, the most widespread being that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus was sometimes identified with a god worshipped by the followers of Orphism, the "first Dionysus", a son of Zeus and Persephone, who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn. However, in the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is paired with Gaia (Earth) and called the "highest" god [of the underworld?] and Aeschylus links Zagreus with Hades, possibly as Hades' son, or Hades himself. Noting "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios alter ego", Timothy Gantz thought it "likely" that Zagreus, originally, perhaps the son of Hades and Persephone, later merged with the Orphic Dionysus, the son of Zeus and Persephone.
In Greek mythology, Campe or Kampe was a female monster. She was the guard, in Tartarus, of the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers, whom Cronus, the ruler of the Titans, had imprisoned there. When it was prophesied to Zeus that he would be victorious in the Titanomachy—the great war against the Titans—with the help of Campe's prisoners, he killed Campe, freeing the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers, who then helped Zeus defeat Cronus.
In Greek mythology, the goddess Pandia or Pandeia was a daughter of Zeus and the goddess Selene, the Greek personification of the moon. From the Homeric Hymn to Selene, we have: "Once the Son of Cronos [Zeus] was joined with her [Selene] in love; and she conceived and bare a daughter Pandia, exceeding lovely amongst the deathless gods." An Athenian tradition perhaps made Pandia the wife of Antiochus, the eponymous hero of Antiochis, one of the ten Athenian tribes (phylai).
Argus Panoptes or Argos is a many-eyed giant in Greek mythology. The figure is known for having generated the saying "the eyes of Argus", as in to be "followed by the eyes of Argus", or "trailed by" them, or "watched by" them, etc. These terms are used to describe being subject to strict scrutiny in one's actions to an invasive, distressing degree. The monstrous entity has been either directly included or indirectly alluded to in a wide variety of works influenced by Greco-Roman thought.
The Aethiopis, also spelled Aithiopis, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Aethiopis comes chronologically immediately after that of the Homeric Iliad, and is followed by that of the Little Iliad. The Aethiopis was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus. The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter.
The Iliupersis, also known as The Sack of Troy, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Iliou persis comes chronologically after that of the Little Iliad, and is followed by the Nostoi ("Returns"). The Iliou persis was sometimes attributed by ancient writers to Arctinus of Miletus. The poem comprised two books of verse in dactylic hexameter.
The Nostoi, also known as Returns or Returns of the Greeks, is a lost epic of ancient Greek literature. It was one of the Epic Cycle, that is, the Trojan cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic verse. The story of the Nostoi comes chronologically after that of the Iliou persis, and is followed by that of the Odyssey. The author of the Nostoi is uncertain: ancient writers attributed the poem variously to Agias, Homer, and Eumelos. The poem comprised five books of verse in dactylic hexameter. The word nostos means "return home".
The Cypria is a lost epic poem of ancient Greek literature, which has been attributed to Stasinus and was quite well known in classical antiquity and fixed in a received text, but which subsequently was lost to view. It was part of the Epic Cycle, which told the entire history of the Trojan War in epic hexameter verse. The story of the Cypria comes chronologically at the beginning of the Epic Cycle, and is followed by that of the Iliad; the composition of the two was apparently in the reverse order. The poem comprised eleven books of verse in epic dactylic hexameters.
The Theban Cycle is a collection of four lost epics of ancient Greek literature which tells the mythological history of the Boeotian city of Thebes. They were composed in dactylic hexameter verse and believed to be recorded between 750 and 500 BC. The epics took place before the Trojan War and centered around the Theban royal family.
Cinaethon of Sparta was a legendary Greek poet to whom different sources ascribe the lost epics Oedipodea, Little Iliad and Telegony. Eusebius says that he flourished in 764/3 BC.
Eumelus of Corinth, of the clan of the Bacchiadae, is a semi-legendary early Greek poet to whom were attributed several epic poems as well as a celebrated prosodion, the treasured processional anthem of Messenian independence that was performed on Delos. One small fragment of it survives in a quote by Pausanias. To Eumelus was also attributed authorship of several antiquarian epics composed in the Corinthian-Sicyonian cultural sphere, notably Corinthiaca, an epic narrating the legends and early history of his home city Corinth. The Corinthiaca is now lost, but a written version of it was used by Pausanias in his survey of the antiquities of Corinth.
Minyas was the title of an early Greek epic poem, probably dating to the 6th century BC. The poem survives only in fragments. It may have concerned genealogical myths of Orchomenus, where Minyas was a legendary early ruler. However, the surviving fragments come from a description of the descent into the underworld of Theseus and Pirithous. The connection between this story and Minyas is unknown. The poem is possibly the same as one mentioned by Pausanias on the descent of Theseus and Pirithous as being attributed to Hesiod.
The "Melampodia" is a now fragmentary Greek epic poem that was attributed to Hesiod during antiquity. Its title is derived from the name of the great seer Melampus but must have included myths concerning other heroic seers, for it was at least three books long.
In Greek mythology, the Hecatoncheires, or Hundred-Handers, also called the Centimanes,, named Cottus, Briareus and Gyges, were three monstrous giants, of enormous size and strength, with fifty heads and one hundred arms. In the standard tradition they were the offspring of Uranus (Sky) and Gaia (Earth), who helped Zeus and the Olympians overthrow the Titans.
In Greek mythology and legendary history, Callithyia (; Ancient Greek: Καλλίθυια; also Callithoe, Callithea, or Io, "the best among women as well as among men", was the daughter of Peiras or Peiranthus and the first priestess of Argive Hera in history.
The Descent of Perithous is a fragmentary epic poem that was ascribed to Hesiod by the 2nd-century CE geographer Pausanias. The eponymous topic of the poem would have been the myth of Theseus and Perithous' trip to Hades seeking to win Persephone as bride for Perithous.
In Greek mythology, Mycene or Mykene, was a daughter of Inachus, king of Argos, the sister of Phoroneus, and the wife of Arestor. She was said to be the eponym of Mycenae.
In Greek mythology, according to the mythographer Apollodorus, the Oceanid nymph Melia was the mother of culture hero Phoroneus, and Aegialeus, by her brother Inachus, the river-god of Argos. According to the Latin mythographer Hyginus however, Inachus fathered Phoroneus by an Oceanid nymph named Argia. According to Argive tradition, Phoroneus was the first man, or first inhabitant of Argos, who lived during the time of the Great Flood, associated with Deucalion.
The Phoronis is a lost work by the fifth-century Greek historian Hellanicus of Lesbos. It takes its title from the local Tirynthian culture hero Phoroneus. It was an account of Argolic tradition, consisting mostly of genealogies, with short accounts of various events included, from the time of Phoroneus, the "father of mortal men", to the "Return of the Heracleidae".
References
- Tsagalis, Christos, Early Greek Epic Fragments I: Antiquarian and Genealogical Epic, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017. ISBN 9783110532876
- West, M. L. (2003), Greek Epic Fragments: From the Seventh to the Fifth Centuries BC. Edited and translated by Martin L. West. Loeb Classical Library No. 497. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-674-99605-2. Online version at Harvard University Press.