Prometheus
Prometheus is sometimes credited with creating man by sculpting him out of clay. Other versions simply credit him with bringing man fire, an act for which he was terribly punished.
Jove
Also called Jupiter, Jove is the king of the Gods. He controls the thunderbolt and has the power to transform himself into many other things. Juno is both his sister and his wife.
Saturn
Jove's father. Jove fulfilled a prophecy by overthrowing his father to become king of the gods.
Augustus
The adopted son of Julius Caesar, Augustus becomes a Roman Emperor and oversees the greatest period of peace and prosperity in Roman history. He was the emperor throughout Ovid's life.
Lycaon
King Lycaon plots to kill Jove while he is a guest in his house, and first he attempts to trick him into consuming human flesh. Jove destroys his house with a thunderbolt and Lycaon goes mad and thinks he is a wolf.
Neptune
God of the sea, one of the most powerful gods after Jove.
Deucalion
A pious man, he and his wife are the only two to survive after Jove floods the earth.
Pyrrha
Deucalion's wife
Themis
One of the race of ancient Titans born of Gaia and Uranus, she is an ancient goddess worshipped by all believers in the immortals.
Python
A gigantic snake killed by Apollo, inspiring the Pythian games.
Apollo
Phoebus Apollo, often referred to as Phoebus; The son of Zeus and Leto and the twin brother of Artemis. Apollo is the God of Music, Medicine, Prophecy and the arts. In the Metamorphoses, Apollo is also portrayed as the sun god, but this characterization contradicts most mythology which names a distinct sun-god named Helios.
Cupid
His origins are somewhat unclear, but Ovid represents him as Venus's son. Cupid has the power to instill or destroy love with his bow and arrows.
Daphne
Daughter of the river-god Peneus, Daphne is a wood nymph who wishes to live chaste, like Diana. When she flees the love of Apollo, she prays to her father to save her and he transforms her into a Laurel tree.
Peneus
A river god, father of Daphne.
Diana
Goddess of the moon and the hunt, she foreswears all men and remains a virgin.
Inachus
A river god whose daughter, Io, is seduced by Zeus.
Io
Daughter of inachus, the river god, she is seduced by Zeus, who then turns her into a cow to protect her from Juno.
Juno
Jove's sister and wife, Queen of the gods.
Argus
A man with one hundred eyes whom Juno sets to keep guard over Io in cow form. He is killed by Mercury and Juno sets his eyes into the tail of the peacock.
Mercury
Sometimes, but not always, equated with the Greek Hermes, Mercury is the god of trade and profit.
Syrinx
A river nymph who was transformed into a reed so she might escape Pan.
Pan
A satyr, the god of shepherds, Pan invents the reed pipe and is generally pictured with it.
Epaphus
The son of Jove and Io.
Phaethon
The son of Clymene and Apollo, when Apollo offers to grant any wish to prove he is his father, Phaethon asks to drive the chariot of the sun. He is killed in the process.
Clymene
Phaethon's mother
Eridanus
A river god
Cycnus
Phaethon's friend, he mourns him for so long that he is turned into a swan, a bird which fears flying.
Callisto
One of Diana's handmaids, she is raped by Jove. When her pregnancy is discovered, she is banished. When Juno discovers their affair, she turns Callisto into a bear.
Arcas
Callisto and Jove's son. When he is fifteen he almost kills his mother, who has been transformed into a bear, and as a result he and his mother are turned into constellations.
Tethys
One of the goddesses of the Ocean, mother of all the other bodies of water.
Oceanus
God of the ocean.
Coronis
Apollo's lover and mother of his son Aesculapius. She betrays him with another before their son is even born, and when the raven tells Apollo, he kills her, but saves their son.
Athena
Also called Pallas and Minerva, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts and justice. She is Jove's favorite daughter.
Aesculapius
Apollo's son by Coronis, he is the god of healing.
Chiron
Hercules's teacher, a centaur known for his wisdom and learning, especially in medicine.
Ocyrhoe
Chiron's daughter, she has the gift of prophecy.
Battus
The shepherd that promised Mercury he would not reveal the location of the herd Mercury stole; when his lie is revealed, Mercury turns him into stone.
Herse
A beautiful maiden who is raped by Mercury and gives birth to Cephalus.
Aglauros
Herse's sister, Juno sends Envy to infect her, and she tries to prevent Mercury from gaining access to her sister. She is turned to stone.
Europa
A princess whom Jove fell in love with and successfully kidnapped by disguising himself as a beautiful, white bull.
Agenor
Europa's father
Cadmus
Europa's brother, he is banished for being unable to recover his sister. He founds a new city called Boeotia.
Actaeon
Cadmus's grandson, he accidentally stumbles upon Diana bathing, is turned into a stag, and is torn apart by his own dogs.
Semele
A beautiful girl seduced by Jove, she is tricked by Juno into asking to see him in his full glory, which kills her.
Beroe
Semele's nurse
Bacchus
God of wine and Intoxication. He is the son of Jove and Semele, and he comes to term in Jove's thigh, after Semele is killed. Worship of him inspires frenzy in groups of revelers, but many also disputed his claims to divinity.
Tiresias
A man who has also been a woman, he is blinded by Juno and given the gift of prophecy by Jove.
Liriope
Narcissus's mother
Narcissus
A beautiful young man who fell in love with his own reflection and died from the pain of being unable to be with himself.
Echo
A nymph who angered Juno by helping Jove hide his infidelities. Juno punished her by making her only able to repeat the words said by others. She falls in love with Narcissus, who ignores her until she fades away to nothing but her voice.
Pentheus
A king who scorns the power of the gods, especially Bacchus, and in punishment is torn apart by his wife and daughters.
Acoetes
A priest of Bacchus
The daughters of Minyas
A group of women that refuse to worship Bacchus and are turned into bats as a result.
Arsippe
One of the daughters of Minyas.
Pyramus
A young man who falls in love with the girl next door (Thisbe), and who runs away with her, but tragic misunderstanding leads to both of their deaths.
Thisbe
A young girl who falls in love with Pyramus, and who runs away with him, but a tragic misunderstanding leads to their deaths.
Leuconoe
One of the daughters of Minyas
Mars
God of War
Venus
Goddess of Love
Vulcan
God of fire and the forge, Venus's husband.
Leucothoe
A mortal lover of Apollo.
Clytie
Passionately in love with Apollo, she betrays Leucothoe to her father.
Alcithoe
One of the daughters of Minyas
Hermaphroditus
The son of Aphrodite and Hermes, Hermaphroditus was incredibly beautiful. Salmacis, a nymph, fell desperately in love wtih him, and one day while he was swimming, she cleaved to him and begged that the gods transform them into one person. Her wish was granted and Hermaphroditus became a person both male and female.
Salmacis
The nymph that falls in love with Hermaphroditus and brings about his transformation.
Athamos
Ino's husband and part of Cadmus's line, because of Juno he is driven mad by the furies and kills his own son.
Ino
After her husband kills her son, she takes him and jumps into the sea. At Venus's request, Neptune turns her and her child into sea-gods.
Acrisius
A man who closed his city, Argos, to Bacchus and then later refuses to acknowledge the divinity of Perseus. His city is infected with snakes that spring up from the blood of Medusa's head, after Perseus flies over the city.
Perseus
A hero who kills Medusa, saves Andromeda from sacrifice and performs a number of other impressive deeds.
Medusa
Once a beautiful girl, she is raped by Neptune in Athena's temple and Athena punishes her for desecrating her temple by turning her hair into snakes. Medusa turns people into stone when she looks at them. She is killed by Perseus.
Atlas
One of the Titans, his punishment for storming heaven was to hold up the heavens on his shoulders. Perseus turns him into stone with the head of Medusa.
Andromeda
When Andromeda's mother insults the Nereids, Neptune demands her sacrifice as payment. Perseus rescues her and marries her.
Pegasus
A winged horse born from the blood of Medusa when Perseus cut off her head.
Chrysaor
A giant born from the blood of Medusa when Perseus cuts off her head.
Phineus
Andromeda's uncle, whom she was originally supposed to marry.
Cepheus
Andromeda's father
the Muses
A group of nine goddesses of art and science. They are believed to inspire all artistic creation.
Pyreneus
An evil king who tried to imprison the muses, but who fell from a tower and died after they fled.
Calliope
One of the Muses
Ceres
Goddess of the harvest, Proserpine's mother.
Dis
Also called Pluto, king of the Underworld.
Proserpine
Ceres daughter, she becomes Queen of the Underworld.
Cyane
A nymph that tries to save Proserpine from being kidnapped by Dis.
Ascalaphus
One of the Argonauts, he is killed at Troy.
Arethusa
: A nymph who tells Ceres where her daughter has disappeared to, who is stuck inside a spring since she asked Diana to help her escape the unwanted advances of Alpheus.
Alpheus
The man who pursued Arethusa.
Triptolemus
A follower of Ceres.
Lyncus
King of the Scythians, he is angry when Triptolemus brings him magic seeds from Ceres, because he wants all the credit for himself.
Arachne
A girl renowned for her skill at weaving who dares to challenge Athena to a contest. Her hubris is punished by her transformation into a spider.
Leda
A girl whom Jove rapes in the form of a swan; she gives birth to the twins Castor and Pollux.
Niobe
Wife of Amphion and Queen of Thebes, she dared to suggest that she was more worthy of worship than Latona, because she had fourteen children while Latona only had two. In response, Latona had all of her children killed.
Amphion
Niobe's husband, he kills himself after his children are killed.
Manto
Tiresias's daughter, she also has the gift of prophecy.
Latona
Mother of Apollo and Diana
Marsyas
The satyr who challenges Apollo to a flute-playing contest, whom Apollo flays as punishment when the satyr loses.
Tereus of Thrace
He marries Procne, but then falls in love with her sister Philomela. He kidnaps and rapes her, and he cuts out her tongue when she threatens to betray him. Procne finds out, kills their son, and feeds him to her husband.
Pandion
King of Athens, father of Procne and Philomela, he dies when he finds out what happened to his daughters.
Procne
Daughter of Pandion and wife of Tereus.
Hymen
God of marriage.
the Three Graces
Daughters of Jove, the goddesses of beauty and charm, also known as the Three Charities.
the Eumenides
Another name for the Furies.
Philomela
Procne's sister, she is raped by Tereus and has her tongue cut out, but she still manages to get word to Procne.
Orithyia
one of Erectheus's daughters, she marries Boreas god of the North wind, without her father's consent.
King Aeetes
The father of Medea, Jason is sent to get the golden fleece from him.
Jason
At the demand of King Pelias, Jason is sent to get the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes. He succeeds only with the help of Aeetes daughter, Medea, who falls in love with him.
Medea
The daughter of King Aeetes and a powerful sorceress, Medea falls in love with Jason and helps him gain the Golden Fleece on the condition that he will marry her and take her away. When she discovers that Jason has remarried, she kills her children and his new wife.
Hecate
The goddess of the crossroads, often invoked by those doing dark magic.
Aeson
Father of Jason, his youth and health are restored by Medea's magic arts.
Pelias
The king who stole Aeson's throne; Medea tricks his daughters into thinking she will restore his youth, then kills him.
Glauce
The woman that Jason marries while Medea is fleeing punishment for Pelias's death.
Aegeus
King of Athens, he gives sanctuary to and marries Medea, until she almost kills his son, Theseus.
Theseus
Theseus is one of the victims chosen to be sacrificed to the minotaur. Princess Ariadne falls in love with him and helps him conquer the minotaur, but he abandons her at Athena's behest. He later becomes king of Athens.
Minos
King of Crete; Minos's wife is infected with an unnatural passion for a bull which was supposed to be a sacrifice for Neptune. She gives birth to a minotaur, half-bull and half-man, and Minos forces the captive Daedalus to build a labyrinth for it. He demands that every nine years seven Athenian youths and girls be sent as a sacrifice to the minotaur.
Cephalus
A prince of Athens who seeks help from Aeacus, king of Aegina, in Athens' war against Crete.
Aeacus
King of Aegina, he helps Cephalus in Athens' war against Crete.
Androgeos
Minos's son; his death inspires Minos's war against Athens.
Procris
Daughter of Erechteus, married to Cephalus.
Aurora
Goddess of the Dawn
Oedipus
A tragic hero of Greek literature. Despite all attempts to avoid it, he inadvertently fulfills a prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother.
Laelaps
Cephalus's hound
King Nisus
King of Alcathous, Minos defeats him after his daughter Scylla betrays him.
Scylla of Alcathous
Daughter of King Nisus, she falls in love with King Minos and betrays the city to him. He rejects her, and she is transformed into a bird.
Daedalus
A famous inventor and architect, after Daedalus killed his nephew Telus, he fled to Minos's court at Crete. When he tires of working for Minos, he escapes with his son Icarus by building wings out of feathers and wax. His son Icarus is killed when he flies too close to the sun.
Minotaur
Child of Pasiphae (wife of King Minos) and a bull, the minotaur is half-man and half-bull.
Ariadne
Daughter of King Minos, she falls in love with Theseus and helps him defeat the minotaur. They flee together, but he abandons her on the journey home.
Icarus
Son of Daedalus, he dies when he flies too close to the son and the wax in his wings melt.
Telus
Daedalus's nephew who was sent to him as an apprentice. Daedalus was jealous of his talent and killed him.
King Oeneus
After he forgets to sacrifice to Diana, she sends a wild boar to ravage his land.
Malaeger
King Oeneus's son, he kills the wild boar sent by Diana, but then kills his uncles in a fight over the spoils and is murdered by his mother.
Atalanta
A Greek athlete, Atalanta wishes to stay chaste like Diana. She determines that she will only marry the man who can beat her in a race, and those who lose must be willing to lose their life as well. She is happily conquered by Hippomenes thanks to Venus's help.
Achelous
A river god who shelters Theseus during a storm.
Triton
A god of the sea.
Baucis
A pious women; she and her husband are the only two to take in Jove and Mercury when they wander the earth disguised as lonely travelers.
Philemon
Baucis's husband.
Proteus
A sea god with the power to change his shape as well as the power of prophecy.
Mestra
Daughter of Erysichthon, she as the power to change her shape. Her father uses this ability to satisfy his insatiable hunger.
Famine
The personification of hunger.
Deianira
A woman that Achelous and Hercules fought over. Hercules won and married her.
Nessus
A centaur who is killed by Hercules when he tries to run off with his wife, Deianira.
Alcmena
Hercules' mother.
Iole
The woman Hercules marries to his son, Hyllus.
Hyllus
Hercules' son.
Lucina
The goddess of childbirth.
Galanthis
One of Alcmena's maidservants, she tricks Lucina and allows her mistress to give birth.
Dryope
Iole's half-sister; she is turned into a tree after accidentally picking flowers from a tree that was actually a nymph.
Iolaus
Hercules nephew, he is brought back to life by Hebe, Hercules' wife.
Hebe
The goddess of youth, she becomes Hercules' wife after he becomes a god.
Byblis
Caunus's twin sister, she feels an unnatural passion for her brother, and eventually she is turned into a fountain.
Caunus
Byblis's twin brother; he rejects her strange advances.
Ligdus
The man who tells his pregnant wife that is she has a daughter, she must put her to death.
Telethusa
Ligdus's wife
Iphis
Ligdus and Telethusa's daughter who is disguised as a son and eventually turns into a boy.
Ianthe
The woman Iphis loves and marries.
Orpheus
A skilled poet and singer, especially sacred to Bacchus, he becomes heartbroken after his wife is killed by a snakebite.
Eurydice
Orpheus's wife
Ganymede
June's cup-bearer, whom Jove steals away.
Hyacinthus
Apollo's lover, he is accidentally killed by a discus thrown by Apollo.
Pygmalion
A talented sculptor who became disgusted by women and spent all his time working on an ivory statue of a woman. During a festival to Venus, he prayed that the statue would come to life and it did.
Cinyras
Myrrha's father
Myrrha
Myrrha falls in love with her own father and tricks him into sleeping with her. When he discovers what happened, she flees, and eventually she is turned into a Myrrh tree. Her son, Adonis, is born from the tree.
Adonis
Myrrha's son by her father, grows up to be a beautiful youth. Venus falls in love with him, but he is killed by a wild boar.
Hippomenes
Hippomenes wins Atalanta with Venus's help and three golden apples.
Silenus
Bacchus's foster-father.
King Midas
He returns Silenus, accidentally taken hostage, to Bacchus and is rewarded with one wish. He asks that everything he touch turn into gold, but soon after he must beg to have the wish taken back.
King Tmolus
A mountain god, he judges who is the better musician, Apollo or Pan.
Laomedon
The dishonest king who founds Troy.
Hesione
Neptune demands her sacrifice but she is saved by Hercules, who marries her to his companion, Telamon.
Telamon
Hercules companion, he marries Hesione.
Peleus
Telamon's brother, he is married to Thetis.
Achilles
The son of the mortal Peleus and the Nereid Thetis, when he is born, Thetis uses fire to burn the humanity out of him, but she is prevented from finishing. Achilles heel is still vulnerable to wound. He is a Greek hero, and he fights valiantly in the Trojan war, before Paris kills him by shooting an arrow into his heel.
Ceyx
King of Thessaly, he perishes at sea, but his body is returned to his wife, and when she receives it they are both turned into birds.
Phocus
Phocus is killed by his brothers, Peleus and Telamon.
Daedalion
He is so sad when his daughter Chione is killed, he throws himself off a cliff; his death is prevented when Apollo changes him into an eagle.
Chione
Chione is seduced by both Apollo and Mercury, and she gives birth to twins, each child fathered by a different god. She is too proud and compares herself favorably to Diana, who kills her.
Onetor
One of Peleus's men.
Psamathe
Phocus's mother.
Alcyone
Ceyx's wife.
Morpheus
One of the gods of sleep.
Aesacus
one of Hector's brothers; he is turned into a bird.
Hector
The eldest son of Priam and Hecuba, he is the mightiest warrior on the side of the Trojans in the Trojan war.
Priam
King of Troy, father of Hector and Paris.
Paris
The youngest son of Hecuba and Priam, he steals Helen and starts the Trojan war.
Helen
The daughter of Jove and Leda, when Helen was married to Menelaus, all her other suitors became his allies. When Paris stole Helen and took her to Troy, all these cities came together to fight and get her back.
Agamemnon
The brother of Menelaus, he agreed to sacrifice his daughter to Diana in order to gain a favorable wind to sail to Troy.
Iphigenia
Agamemnon's daughter who he is supposed to sacrifice, many versions of the myth state that at the last minute, Diana switched her with a calf.
Rmour
The personification of rumor or gossip.
Nestor
A wise Greek general in the Trojan war.
Caenis
A victim of Neptune's lust, he grants her a wish and she wishes to be made a man. He throws in invincibility, but Caenis is eventually killed or at least destroyed in a fight with a number of centaurs.
Tlepolemus
A Greek who fights in the Trojan war.
Ulysses
One of the Greek Generals, Ulysses is considered the wisest and wiliest of all the fighters. He is the hero of the Greek epic, the Odyssey.
Cassandra
A daughter of Hecuba and Priam, she has the gift of prophecy. She is taken by Agamemnon as a hostage after the war.
Polydorus
Priam and Hecuba's son, he was sent to Polymestor during the Trojan War, but Polymestor kills him.
Polymestor
Kills Polydorus for a cache of gold and is torn apart by Hecuba's women.
Polyxena
Hecuba and Priam's son, she is sacrificed by Agamemnon to Achilles.
Memnon
Aurora's son, he is killed during the Trojan war.
Aeneas
Son of Anchises and Venus, he survives the Trojan war and found the country of Italy after a long and dangerous journey.
Anchises
Aeneas's father
Helenus
A Trojan seer
Scylla
Once a beautiful girl, Circe turned her into a monster out of jealousy. Now she is an ocean obstacle that sailors must pass, including Ulysses and Aeneas.
Charybdis
A whirlpool near Scylla that makes that area of the ocean particularly dangerous.
Galatea
A Nereid who falls in love with the handsome Acis, but is tormented by the love of the Cyclops Polyphemus. He kills Acis, but she is able to turn him into a river-god.
Acis
A young man whom Galatea loves.
Polyphemus
A Cyclops who fights with Ulysses and loses an eye. He also falls in love with the nymph Galatea.
Glaucus
A fisherman who becomes a sea-god, falls in love with Scylla and inadvertently causes her to be turned into a monster.
Circe
A powerful sorceress who is most famous for turning men into animals. She has a love affair with Ulysses.
Queen Dido
Queen of Carthage, she falls in love with Aeneas and kills herself when he leaves her.
Acestes
Aeneas's half-brother
Sibyl at Cumae
One of Apollo's seers; when the Sibyl was young and beautiful, Apollo loved her and granted her a wish. She wished to live as long as their were grains of dust in a pile, but she forgot to wish for eternal youth.
Macareus
One of Ulysses companions, he settles at Cumae.
Achaemenides
A Greek whom Ulysses abandons to Polyphemus and who is rescued by Aeneas.
Aeolus
God of the winds.
Laestrygonians
man-eaters
Picus
A son of Saturn, he is turned into a woodpecker by Circe when he rejects her.
Canens
Picus's beloved wife; after he disappears, she cries until she melts into a puddle.
Lavinia
The woman that Aeneas marries when he finds the land for his new city.
Turnus
The man whom Lavinia was supposed to marry, he engages Aeneas in a long and bloody war.
Julus
Aeneas's son, he becomes the first king of Latium.
Pomona
A nymph who excels at gardening, she wishes to remain unmarried and locks herself away from men.
Vertumnus
A man who falls in love with Pomona and manages to woo her successfully.
Poor Iphis
A poor man who falls in love with the noble Anaxarete and kills himself when he can no longer take her rejection.
Anaxarete
A cold and noble woman who turns to stone, after she fails to feel any pity for Iphis, who kills himself for love of her.
Romulus
The founder of Rome, he is deified by Jove after Tatius's death.
Tatius
The Sabine leader who shares the throne with Romulus.
Hersilia
Romulus's wife.
Iris
Goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the gods, especially Juno.
Numa
He becomes King of Rome after Romulus's death.
Myscelus
Founder of the city Crotona, on Hercules's orders.
Pythagoras
A Greek philosopher.
Egeria
Numa's wife
Hippolytus
Theseus's son, banished after his step-mother Phaedra attempts to seduce him and then accuses him of the same crime. He is then thrown from his chariot and killed. Even after Aesculapius restores his life, he is not able to return to civilization, for fear that too many would be jealous of his second chance.
Cipus
The praetor who sprouts horns from his head and convinces the Roman Senators to banish him from the city so he does not become a tyrant.
Julius Caesar
A great Roman leader who, before he can become emperor, is killed by his own Senate. Augustus, his adopted son, inherits the empery.
Tiberius
Augustus's son and Emperor after his death.
