ancient Greek mythology

Magic in the ancient Greek world appears predominantly in its mythology in relation to certain gods and demigods, namely Orpheus, Hecate, Circe, and Hermes, who had magical powers. The demigod Orpheus, the brilliant musician and poet, was the son of...

When scientists of the International Commission on Stratigraphy describe the Hadean Eon, the earliest age of our planet, what strikes us is how familiar this chaos feels when compared to Greek mythology. The ICS, a global body of geologists,...

The Trojan War was the legendary conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans. However, it did not just involve Greeks from the mainland. A large part of the Grecian army came from some Greek islands in the Aegean, such...

The Bible's story of Adam and Eve serves to explain how death and suffering entered the world. The ancient Greeks also had stories about this same issue. However, beyond just having stories about the same general idea, can we...

The impious King Ixion, who attempted to seduce Hera, queen of the gods, incurred the wrath of Zeus, who condemned him to one of the cruelest eternal punishments in Greek mythology. The myth of Ixion is one of the many...

Mount Olympus, the mythical home of the ancient Greek gods and one of Greece’s most important natural environments, has secured UNESCO World Heritage status following a historic unanimous decision. The World Heritage Committee added the wider Mount Olympus area to...

In Homer's Odyssey, the main character Odysseus embarks on a journey to various destinations as he endeavors to return home following the Trojan War. There are lots of different theories about the places that he visited. However, scholarly research in...

Odysseus' ship, which took him home to Ithaka from Corfu, was turned into rock by an angry god, according to legend. And where might a desperate Odysseus have washed ashore in Corfu on his journey back from Troy? Long before...

The representation of females in Greek mythology, including Medusa, has often showed men's fear of female power and their need to control it.

Greek mythology is full of unknown gods that remained in the shadows of the more well-known ones, such as Zeus, Ares, or the patroness of hunting, Artemis. They did not spend their days on Olympus, and relatively little was known...