Name ▲▼ | Origin ▲▼ | Description ▲▼ |
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Hero name "Ananke" | Roman | The Protogenos of inevitability, compulsion and necessity and the personification of destiny, unalterable necessity and fate. She was also the mother of Adrasteia and of the Moirae. She was rarely worshipped until the creation of the Orphic mystery religion. In Roman mythology, she was called Necessitas ("necessity"). From Herodotus, The History Book Eight |
God name "Daffodil" | Greek / Roman | Or "Lent Lily," was once white; but Persephone, daughter of Demeter, delighted to wander about the flowery meadows of Sicily. One spring, throwing herself on the gråśś, she fell asleep. The god of the Infernal regions, Pluto, fell in love with the beautiful maid, and carried her off for his bride. His touch turned the white flowers to a golden yellow, and some of them fell in Acheron, where they grew luxuriantly; and ever since the flower has been planted on graves. Greek / Roman |
God name "Dionysus" | Greek | The youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus, that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus, but does not occur till after the time of Herodotus. Greek |
Goddess name "Helen" | Helen is frequently alleged, in Homeric tradition, to have been a mortal heroine or a demigoddess | Goddess [Greek] åśśociated with the city of Troy. In his Catalogues of Women Hesiod, the Greek contemporary of Homer and author of the definitive Theogony of the Greek pantheon, confounds tradition by making Helen the daughter of ZEUS and Ocean. Other Greek authors contemporary with Hesiod give Helen's mother as NEMESIS, the Greco-Roman goddess of justice and revenge, who was raped by Zeus. The mythology placing Helen as a demigoddess identifies her mother as Leda, the mortal wife of Tyndareus, also seduced by Zeus who fathered POLLUX as Helen's brother. However Hesiod strongly denied these claims. Homeric legend describes Helen's marriage to king Menelaus of Sparta and her subsequent abduction by Paris, said to have been the catalyst for the Trojan war. After her death, mythology generally places her among the stars with the Dioscuri (sons of Zeus), better known as Castor and Pollux, the twins of the Gemini constellation. Helen was revered on the island of Rhodes as the goddess Dendritis.See also DISKOURI.... |
God name "Heron" | Egypt | God appearing on the monuments of the Greek and Roman eras, thought to be a horseman god Egypt |
Goddess name "Hi'aika" | Hawaiian | Goddess. The daughter of HAUMEA and younger sister of PELE, the volcano goddess, Hi'aika is the mistress of the dance and especially of the hula. Separate traditions identify her with LAKA, the god of the hula and the son of KANE, the god of light; and with a goddess, Na Wahine, the daughter of the primordial creator principle KEAWE. The hula was designed to give a formalized structure to the enactment of myths and among the favorite topics is the romance between Pele and the hero Lohiau. According to mythology Hi'aika was entrusted with a mission to find Lohiau on Pele's behalf and to bring him back to her, a mission that subsequently enflamed the jealousy of Pele over her sister's developing relationship with Lohiau, and brought about his death in Pele's fiery lava.... |
Hero name "Peitho" | Greek | The personification of Persuasion (Suada or Suadela among the Romans), was worshipped as a divinity at Sicyon, where she was honoured with a temple in the agora. (The History of Herodotus, VIII) Peitho also occurs as a surname of other divinities, such as Aphrodite, whose worship was said to have been introduced at Athens by Theseus and of Artemis. Greek |
God name "Pluto" | Roman | God of the underworld. Derived from the Greek model of HADES, he abducted the daughter of CERES, PROSERPINA, to reign as his queen. The three-headed dog Cerberus was set to guard the gate of Hades and through the kingdom flowed the two rivers of death, the Cocytus and the Acheron which could be crossed only by the ferryman Charon. According to Roman tradition, the entrance to the underworld was at Avernus in Rome where the Christian church of St. Maria del Inferno was built.See also HADES.... |
Hero name "Ulixes" | Greek | Ulysses, Ulyxes. The Roman name for Odysseus, one of the principal Greek heroes in the Trojan war. |
God name "Vulcan" | Greek | The Roman smith god, identified with the Greek god Hephaestus. He was traditionally introduced to Rome by either Romulus or Titus Tatius. There were no specific legends concerning Vulcan but he played an important part in the success of various heroes by providing invincible armour for them. In Virgil's Aeneid, Vulcan made a superb suit of armour for Aeneas at Venus' request. He made a shield (called the Aegis) and thunderbolts for Jupiter and in return received Venus as his wife. |