Achilles is the grandson of Aeacus of Aigina and son of Peleus and the Nerei.d Thetis. He rules the Myrmidons of Phthia in southern Thessaly and is generally considered the best (aristos) of the Greeks in the Trojan War. In Homer’s Iliad he is said to have led fifty ships to Troy (2.681–685). The Iliad’s plot turns on his withdrawal from battle in anger at the Greek commander Agamemnon and his return to take vengeance on Hector for killing his close friend Patroclus. Many episodes in the life of Achilles, including his early life and death at Troy, were popular in Greek and Roman literature and iconography. Summaries of mythological events found in the life of Achilles can be found in the Epitome of Apollodorus and the Fabulae of Hyginus (1st century
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Achilles
Jonathan S. Burgess
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Alcestis
Ken Dowden
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Amphiaraus
Hanne Eisenfeld
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Antigone (1)
Andrew Brown
Antigone (1), daughter of *Oedipus and Iocasta, sister of *Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene.
*Sophocles (1)'s Antigone deals with events after the Theban War, in which Eteocles and Polynices killed one another (see
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Antinous (1), mythical suitor of Penelope in the Odyssey
Nicholas J. Richardson
Antinous (1), son of Eupeithes (Od. 1. 383), ringleader of *Penelope's suitors, and first to be killed by *Odysseus, whose kingship he is said to have wished to usurp (Od. 22. 8–53).
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Apollonius (1) Rhodius
Richard Hunter
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Argonauts, mythical hero group from Greek epic
Richard Hunter
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cosmogonies and theogonies
Carolina López-Ruiz
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Demodocus
Ken Dowden
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Derveni papyrus
Valeria Piano
As one of the most ancient Greek papyri ever found (it dates back to the second half of the 4th century
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Dionysia
Richard Seaford
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Erichthonius (2), mythical Trojan king
Adam Rappold
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Euhemerus
Herbert Jennings Rose and Simon Hornblower
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folktale
William Hansen
Folktales are traditional fictional stories. Unlike works of original literary fiction, they are normally anonymous narratives that have been transmitted from one teller to another over an uncertain period of time, and have been shaped by multiple narrators into the form and style that are characteristic of oral narratives. The transmission of traditional tales is predominantly oral, but in literate societies such as Greece and Rome, transmission also takes place via written works.
“Folktale” is an umbrella term for a number of subgenres: the wonder tale (commonly known as the fairytale), the religious tale, the novella, the humorous tale (with its subforms the joke and the tall tale), the animal tale, and the fable. Since there was no ancient notion of folktales as such, no compilation of folktales exists from antiquity—only compilations of particular genres of folktales such as the fable and the joke.
Unlike myths and legends, folktales are narrative fictions, make no serious claim to historicity, and are not ordinarily accorded credence. They differ from myths and especially from legends in their handling of the supernatural.
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Getty Hexameters, the
Roy D. Kotansky
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ghosts
Esther Eidinow
Identifying a ghost in Greek literature and distinguishing it from what we might call a delusion or a supernatural entity can sometimes pose difficulties: *Homer tends to use the term psyche to describe his spirits, but we also find skia. In later writers, eidolon is used (Hdt. 5.92.η and Pl. Leg. 959b of the corpse), which can also mean a phantom of the mind, or even just a likeness. Later still, *daimōn, alone, or combined with other words to evoke particular forms of demon (see below) appears. Other terms (which will appear throughout the entry) evoked the particular ways in which individuals died and became ghosts. This entry will focus on appearances in the mortal realm of spirits connected to a death, indicating where there are any ambiguities of spectral terminology. As the move from psyche to daimōn might suggest, there seems to be a gradual development in the strength, substance and presence of ghosts in the ancient world; while living mortals seem, in turn, to find increasingly sophisticated ways to manipulate their spectral visitors and their needs for their own ends.
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Hesiod
Jenny Strauss Clay
Hesiod, epic poet from Ascra in Boeotia, usually considered later than Homer, is author of the Theogony and the Works and Days (Erga); other works attributed to him in antiquity include the Catalogue of Women and the Shield of Heracles (Aspis). The Theogony recounts the origins of the cosmos and the genealogy of the gods from the beginning to the establishment of the Olympian order; it is prefaced by a lengthy proem that recounts Hesiod’s meeting with the Muses and a hymn to the goddesses. The genealogical catalogues are interrupted by narratives of the Succession Myth, with antecedents from the Near East. The Works and Days, which also has Near Eastern parallels, is addressed to Hesiod’s brother Perses and advises him how to live in the world Zeus has established for human beings by pursuing justice and practicing agriculture; it also includes advice on sailing, social behavior, and lucky and unlucky days. Famous and influential passages include Hesiod’s encounter with the Muses, the Prometheus-Pandora story, and the Myth of the Five Races.
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hubris
N. R. E. Fisher
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Jocasta
Andrew Brown
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Laestrygones
Nicholas J. Richardson
Laestrygones, cannibal giants encountered by *Odysseus (Od. 10. 80–132), and perhaps derived from a pre-Homeric poem about the *Argonauts (A. Heubeck, Comm. on Homer's Odyssey ii (1989), 47–8 on Od. 10. 80–132). They inhabit ‘the lofty city of Lamus’, ruled by King Antiphates, who eats two of Odysseus' men. The nights are so short there that one can earn a double wage, which suggests the distant north (Crates in schol. Od. 10. 86). Greek tradition located them in *Sicily (Hes. fr. 150. 26 MW, Thuc. 6. 2. 1, etc. ), especially *Leontini (Theopompus, FGrH 115 F 225, etc. ), but the Romans placed them at *Formiae in *Campania (Cic. Att. 2. 13. 2, etc. ). *Horace playfully connects Lamus with the family of the Aelii Lamiae (Carm. 3. 17).