Mortals

The Mortals section covers the human characters of Greek mythology: kings and queens, heroes’ families, seers, lovers and victims of the gods. Their stories are mostly set in a few royal houses, and the pages below follow those houses and the wars that bound them together.

The house of Atreus and the Trojan War

Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Electra and Aegisthus belong to the family of Atreus. Around them stand the figures of the Trojan War: Helen, Hector, Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, Ajax and Laocoon. In Apollodorus’ Epitome, Cassandra and the seer Laocoon both warn the Trojans that the wooden horse holds armed men (Epitome 5.17), and when Troy falls Aeneas escapes carrying his father Anchises (Epitome 5.21).

Thebes and Athens

Cadmus, whom the Delphic oracle told to follow a cow and found a city where she lay down (Apollodorus, Library 3.4.1), is the founder of Thebes; its later stories bring in Jocasta, Antigone, Ismene, Creon and Eteocles. Athens is represented by Cecrops, Erechtheus and Aegeus, the king whose son was Theseus.

Crete and the voyage of the Argo

Ariadne and Daedalus, with his son Icarus, belong to the story of Minos and the labyrinth. Ariadne gave Theseus the thread that led him out of the labyrinth (Epitome 1.8–9). Aeetes, king of Colchis, who kept the Golden Fleece, belongs to the story of Jason and the Argonauts (Library 1.9.23).

See Also: Agamemnon, Helen, Hector, Cassandra, Cadmus, Antigone, Ariadne, Daedalus