# Greek &. Roman Mythology (N-Z)

Na'iads
In Greek mythology, the Na'iads were nymphs of fountains and brooks.

Narcissus
In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a beautiful youth who rejected the love of the nymph Echo and was condemned to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool. He pined away and in the place where he died a flower sprang up that was named after him.

Nauplius
Nauplius was the son of Amymone and Poseidon. He was the wrecker of Nauplia.

Nemesis
Nemesis was the goddess of punishment.

Neptune
Neptune was the Roman name for the Greek god Poseidon.

Nereid
In Greek mythology, the Nereid were 50 sea goddesses, or nymphs, who sometimes mated with mortals. Their father was Nereus and their mother was Doris.

Nereus
In Greek mythology, Nereus was a sea god. He was a son of Pontys and Gaea.

Nike
Nike was the goddess of victory. She was the daughter of Pallas and Styx. She helped the gods in their battle against the titans and was rewarded by Zeus.

Niobe
In Greek mythology, Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus and wife of Amphion, the king of Thebes. She was contemptuous of the goddess Leto for having produced only two children, Apollo and Artemis. She died of grief when her own 12 offspring were killed by them in revenge, and was changed to stone by Zeus.

Notus
Notus was the south wind god.

Nymph
A nymph was a higher being than a human, but not immortal like a god. They were respected in mythology.

Nymphs
see "nymph"

Nyx
Nyx was a goddess of night. She was a daughter of Chaos. She married Erebus.

Oceanides
The oceanides were forty sea nymphs of the ocean. They were the daughters of Oceanus.

Oceanus
In Greek mythology, Oceanus was the son of Uranus and Gaea. He was the only Titan not to revolt against Uranus.

Ocypete
Ocypete was one of the harpies.

Odysseus
Odysseus was a Greek hero. He devised the strategy of the wooden horse used by the Greeks to conquer Troy.

Oedipus
Oedipus was the son of Laius. The Delphic oracle foretold that Laius would be killed by his son, so Oedipus was abandoned on mount Cithaeron with a nail through his feet. However, he was found by a shepherd and raised by Polybus. Hearing that he would kill his father, Oedipus left Corinth and met Laius on his travel. He killed him in an argument not knowing who he was.

Oeonus
In Greek mythology, Oeonus was a son of Licymnius. He was attacked by a dog belonging to the sons of Hippocoon, he threw a stone at the dog and in revenge the sons of Hippocoon killed him.

Oileus
Oileus was one of the Argonauts, he was the father of Ajax.

Omphale
Omphale was queen of Lydia. She bought Hercules as a slave who stayed with her for three years.

Oneiros
In Greek mythology Oneiros was one form of the god of dreams (the other being Morpheus). Oneiros was properly a personification of dreams, whether idle or deceptive or really prophetic. Dreams of the former class were supposed to issue from the ivory gates, tliose of the latter class from the horn gate, of the palace where they were kept, beside the Western Ooeanus. He was called a child of Night, sometimes a child of Sleep, and was directly under the control of the superior order of gods, who, as they pleased, despatched deceptive or prophetic dreams to men.

Ops
Ops was the Roman goddess of plenty and the personification of abundance.

Oreades
The oreades were mountain nymphs.

Orestes
Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. As a child he was smuggled out of Mycenae by his sister Electra when Clytemnestra and Aegisthus seized power. He later killed Clytemnestra with the help of Electra and Pylades and was punished by the Erinnyes.

Orion
Orion was a giant and son of Poseidon. He was a hunter and very handsome. He was promised the hand of Merope whom he loved if he could ride Chios. He did but was not given Merope so he seduced her. Apollo caused his death at the hands of Artemis who put his image in the stars.

Orpheus
Orpheus was a mythical Greek poet and musician. The son of Apollo and a muse (possibly Calliope), he married Eurydice, who died from the bite of a snake. Orpheus went down to Hades to bring her back and her return to life was granted on condition that he walk ahead of her without looking back. He did look back and Eurydice was irretrievably lost. In his grief, he offended the maenad women of Thrace, and was torn to pieces by them.

Ossipago
In Roman mythology, Ossipago was a minor goddess of skeletal structures and the strengthener of fetal bones.

Ourania
In Greek mythology Ourania was a mountain goddess of summer, especially mid-summer. The Queen of the winds and ruler of the night sky.

Pales
Pales was a Roman god of cattle-rearing.

Pallas
In Greek mythology Pallas was one of the Titans. He was a son of Crius and Eurybia and brother of Astraeus and Perses. He married Styx and fathered Zelus, Cratos, Bia and Nike.

Pan
Pan was the Greek god who looked after shepherds and their flocks. His parentage is unsure. In some accounts he is the son of Zeus, in others the son of Hermes. His mother was a nymph.

Pandarus
In Greek mythology, Pandarus was the leader of the forces of Zeleia in Lycia at the Trojan War. He was the second best Greek archer (next to Paris) and fought in the Trojan War as an archer.

Pandion
In Greek mythology, Pandion was a son of Erichthonius, the King of Athens.

Pandora
Pandora was a woman made by the gods. She was taken to Epimetheus by Hermes. He made her his wife, against his brother's advice. Pandora came with a sealed vase. Her husband was tempted and opened the vase from which came all the troubles, weariness and illnesses that mankind is now burderned with.

Paris
In Greek mythology, Paris was a prince of Troy whose abduction of Helen, wife of King Menelaus of Sparta, caused the Trojan War. Helen was promised to him by the goddess Aphrodite as a bribe, in his judgment between her beauty and that of two other goddesses, Hera and Athena. Paris killed the Greek hero Achilles by shooting an arrow into his heel, but was himself killed by Philoctetes before the capture of Troy.

Pasiphae
In Greek mythology, Pasiphae was the wife of King Minos of Crete and mother of Phaedra and of the Minotaur. After blaming Aphrodite for her husbands philandering, Pasiphae was punished by being filled with lust for an enormous fire-breathing white bull. Pasiphae persuaded Daedalus to build her a cow shaped wooden framework, and hid inside it while he trundled it into the bull's pasture. The bull mounted the framework and mated with Pasiphae inside. She then became pregnant with the Minotaur.

Patroclus
Patroclus was a cousin and close friend of Achilles. He was killed by Hector in the Trojan wars.

Pax
Pax is an alternative name for Eirene.

Pegasus
Pegasus was the winged horse offspring of Medusa and Poseidon.

Peirithous
In Greek mythology, Peirithous was a King of the Lapiths and a son of Ixion and Dia. He waged war against the Centaurs and helped Theseus carry off the Amazon Antiope and later Helen. He tried to abduct Persephone, but was bound to a stone seat by her husband Hades and remained a prisoner in the underworld.

Pelias
Pelias was king of Iolcus and half-brother of Jason.

Penelope
In Greek mythology, Penelope was the wife of Odysseus, the king of Ithaca; their son was Telemachus. While Odysseus was absent at the siege of Troy she kept her many suitors at bay by asking them to wait until she had woven a shroud for her father-in-law, but unraveled her work each night. When Odysseus returned, after 20 years, he and Telemachus killed her suitors.

Peneus
Peneus was a river god. He was a son of Oceanus and Tethys.

Persephone
Persephone was a Greek goddess. She was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Hades obtained sanction from Zeus to carry her off by force and marry her.

Perseus
Perseus found Medusa asleep and cut her head off which he presented to Athene. He married Andromeda.

Phaea
In Greek mythology, Phaea was the Crommyonium Sow a wild pig said to have been the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. It ravaged the town of Crommyon on the Isthmus of Corinth until it was destroyed by Theseus.

Phaedra
In Greek mythology, Phaedra was a daughter of Minos, King of Crete and Pasiphae. Her unrequited love for Hippolytus led to his death and her suicide. She became renowned as a minor goddess of the moon, barley, myrtle, rain-making and the death of kings. A siren-like Enchantress.

Pheme
In Greek mythology, Pheme was the goddess of fame. She was a daughter of Gaea.

Philyra
In Greek mythology, Philyra was the shape-shifting goddess of beauty, perfume, healing, writing and divination. She was the discoverer of paper.

Phoebe
In Greek mythology, Phoebe was the goddess of waxing and waning cycles. Ruler of the sapphire-regioned moon and cloven-hoofed animals.

Phoebus
Phoebus was the Greek god of enlightenment.

Phyllis
In Greek mythology, Phyllis was a goddess of spring, trees, wisdom, women's secrets and the genetic knowledge contained in seeds.

Picus
Picus was a Roman god. He was the son of Saturnus and father of Faunus. His wife was Canens. He was a prophet and god of the forest.

Pitho
Pitho was the daughter of Aphrodite. She was the goddess of persuasion.

Pleiades
The Pleiades were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. They were turned into doves by Zeus and and their image put into the stars to save them from the attentions of Orion.

Pleuron
In Greek mythology, Pleuron was a son of Aetolus and Pronoe and brother to Calydon. He married Xanthippe by whom he fathered Agenor, Sterope, Stratonice and Laophonte. He is said to have founded the town of Pleuron in Aetolia.

Pluto
Pluto was the Roman name for the Greek god Hades.

Podarces
see "Priam"

Poena
Poena was the attendant of punishment to Nemesis.

Polites
Polites was a son of Priam and Hecabe. He was killed before them by Neoptolemus.

Pollux
Pollux was the Roman name for Polydeuces.

Polybus
Polybus was king of Corinth. He raised Oedipus as his own son.

Polydeuces
Polydeuces was twin brother of Castor. He was a son of Zeus and Leda. He was born from an egg after Zeus visited Leda disguised as a swan.

Polydorus
In Greek mythology, Polydorus was a son of Cadmus and Harmonia. he was King of Thebes and husband of Nycteis by whom he fathered Labdacus.

Polymnia
Polymnia was the muse of song and oratory.

Polynices
In Greek mythology, Polynices was a son of Oedipus. He and his brother Eteocles were supposed to rule Thebes in alternate years, but Eteocles refused to relinquish the throne, and Polynices sought the help of Adrastus. Polynices and Eteocles killed each other in single combat.

Polyphemus
In Greek mythology Polyphemus was the most famous of the Cyclops. He is described as a giant cannibal living alone in a cave on Mount Etna. Odysseus and his companions unwarily sheltered in his cave, and Polyphemus killed and ate four of them before Odysseus intoxicated him with wine and when he fell asleep poked his eye out with a blazing stake. Polyphemus was also the despised lover of Galatea.

Pomona
Pomona was a Roman goddess of garden fruits.

Poseidon
Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea. He was a son of Cronus.

Priam
In Greek mythology, Priam was the son of Laomedon and Placia. He was originally called Podarces and was still a baby when his father promissed his sister Hesione to Heracles and then broke his word. Heracles sacked Troy and killed Laomedon and all his sons except Podarces whom he sold in the slave market. He was bought by Hesione and she changed his name to Priam.

Priapus
Priapus was the Greek god of fertility in nature. He was a son of Dionysus and Aphrodite. He was blighted in the womb by Hera, and was born impotent, ugly and so foul natured that the gods refused to have him in Olympus and threw him down to earth where he was brought up by shepherds.

Procne
In Greek mythology, Procne was a daughter of King Pandion and Zeuxippe. She married Tereus.

Procris
In Greek mythology, Procris was a daughter of Erechtheus and wife of Cephalus. Artemis gave her the hound Laelaps which she gave to her husband.

Procrustes
In ancient Greek legends, Procrustes was a robber. He robbed people whilst they slept. If his victim was too short for his bed he was stretched to death. If the victim was too long for his bed, his feet or legs were cut off. Theseus treated Procrustes in the same way.

Prometheus
Prometheus was a Greek hero. He was a son of the Titan Japetus and the sea nymph Clymene. Prometheus obtained fire for mankind from Zeus.

Proteus
In Greek mythology, Proteus was a son of Abas and the twin brother of Acrisius. In a dispute between the two brothers over the kingdom of Argos, Proteus was defeated and expelled. He fled to Iobates in Lycia and married his daughter Stheneboea. Iobates restored Proteus to his kingdom by force and Acrisius then agreed to share it, surrendering Tiryns to him. When Bellerophon came to Proteus to be purified for a murder, Sthenebeoa fell in love with him. Bellerophon refused her and she charged him with making improper proposals to her. Proteus then sent him to Iobates with a letter asking Iobates to murder Bellerophon.

Psyche
In Roman mythology, Psyche was the personification of the passion of love. She was the youngest daughter of the king and queen of Sicily. She was the most beautiful person on the island and suitors flocked to ask for her hand. In the end she boasted that she was more beautiful than Venus herself, and Venus sent Cupid to transfix her with an arrow of desire and make her fall in love with the nearest person or thing available. But even Cupid fell in love with her and took her to a secret place and eventually married her and had her made a goddess by Jupiter.

Pygmalion
In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was a king of Cyprus who made an image in ivory of a maiden. He fell in love with the image and asked Venus to endow it with life. She did, and Pygmalion married the maiden.

Pylades
In Greek mythology, Pylades was son of Strophius and Anaxibia. He assisted Orestes in murdering Clytemnestra and eventually married his sister Electra.

Pyrrhus
In Greek mythology, Pyrrhus was the birth name of Achilles' son who was renamed Neoptolemus when he went to Troy.

Rhadamanthus
Rhadamanthus was a son of Zeus and Europa. He was famed for his wisdom and justice, and so after his death was made one of the judges of the underworld.

Rhamnusia
Rhamnusia was an alternative name for Nemesis.

Rhea
Rhea was the Greek goddess of the earth, mountains and forests.

Sarpedon
Sarpedon was a son of Zeus and Europa. He went to Asia Minor and became the king of the Lycians after helping Cilix of Cilicia to defeat them. He helped Troy in the Trojan wars before being killed by Patroclus.

Saturnus
Saturnus was the Roman god of learning and agriculture. He appeared to king Janus and gave lessons on agriculture to his subjects.

Satyr
The satyrs were attendants to the god Dionysus.

Sceiron
In Greek mythology, Sceiron (Sciron) was a robber who haunted the frontier between Attica and Megaris. He robbed travellers and kicked them into the sea where they were eaten by a tortoise that lived there. He was killed by Theseus.

Selene
Selene was a Greek goddess of the moon.

Semele
In Greek mythology, Semele was a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. She was beloved by Zeus and bore him Dionysus.

Seminae
see "Erinys"

Silenius
Silenius was the oldest satyr.

Silvanus
Silvanus was a Roman god of the forest.

Sirens
The Sirens (Acheloides) were daughters of the river-god Achelous and a Muse. They had been nymphs and playmates of Persephone, and for not protecting her when she was carried off by Pluto, they were transformed into beings half-woman and chalf-bird by Demeter. Later they were transformed into half-woman and crhalf-fish.

Sisyphus
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was an evil King of Corinth. After he died he was condemned in the underworld to roll a huge stone uphill, which always fell back before he could reach the top.

Sol
Sol was the Roman name for the Greek god Helios.

Somnus
Somnus was an alternative name for the Greek and Roman god Hypnos.

Stheino
Stheino was one of the gorgons.

Strophius
In Greek mythology, Strophius was King of Phocis.

Styx
In Greek and Roman mythology, the Styx was the principal river in the underworld. Styx was the name of a nymph who was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys. She dwelt at the entrance to Hades in a lofty grotto which was supported by silver columns. Styx took her children to help Zeus in the fight against the Titans.

Suada
Suada is an alternative name for Pitho.

Talaus
In Greek mythology, Talaus was King of Argos. He was the son of Nias and Pero. Talaus sailed with the Argonauts.

Talos
In Greek mythology, Talos was a bronze man given to Europa by Zeus to guard Crete. He would clutch people to his breast and jump into a fire so that they were burnt alive. When the Argonauts in their wanderings came to Crete, and he resisted their landing, Medea killed him.

Tantalus
In Greek mythology, Tantalus was a son of Zeus. He was king of Phrygia, Lydia. He was admitted to the table of the gods, but displeased them and was punished by being put in a lake such that he just couldn't reach the water with his lips, and being tempted by fruit above him which again was just out of reach.

Tarpeia
In Roman legend, Tarpeia was a daughter of the governor of the Capitol, who when the Sabines were beseiging the fortress, was bribed by their golden bracelets and collars to open one of the gates to them. On entering they threw their shields on her, killing her. Her name was given to the Tarpeian rock, a cliff on the Capitol over which malefactors were thrown.

Tartarus
In Greek mythology, Tartarus was the part of Hades where the wicked were punished.

Telepylos
Telepylos was the capital city of the Laestrygones.

Telesphorus
Telesphorus was the god of that which sustains the convalescent. He is depicted with Aesculapius and Hygea.

Terminus
Terminus was the Greek and Roman god of boundaries.

Terpsichore
Terpsichore was the muse of dancing.

Tethys
Tethys was a Titan woman.

Teucer
There are two descriptions for Teucer, both refer to Greek mythology. The first is that Teucer was the first King of Troy. He was a son of the river god Scamander and Idaea. The second that Teucer was son of Telamon and Hesione and the best archer in the Greek army in the Trojan War. He would have shot Hector if Zeus had not broken his sbowstring.

Thalia
Thalia was the muse of comedy and burlesque.

Thanatos
In Greek mythology Thanatos (or Mors in Roman Mythology) was the god of death, a son of Night and the twin brother of Sleep. He was frequently regarded with submission, or as coming opportunely, and was represented in the form of a quiet, pensive youth, winged, standing with his legs crossed, often beside an urn with a wreath on it, and holding an extinguished torch reversed. Or, as a personification of endless repose, he appeared in the form of a beautiful youth leaning against the trunk of a tree, with one arm thrown up over his head - an attitude by which ancient artists usually expressed repose. It was probably owing to the spread of the belief that death was a transition from life to Elysium, that in later times this more attractive representation of the god of death took the place of the former repulsive representations, whether as a powerful and violent god, or as a black child in the arms of his mother, Night. Among the figures sculptured on the chest of Cypselus, a description of which we have still in Pausanias, was that of Night carrying twin children in her arms - the one white, representing Sleep, and the other black, representing Death.

Themis
In Greek mythology, Themis was a daughter of Uranus and Gaea. She was the Greek goddess of human rights.

Theseus
In Greek mythology, Theseus was a son of Aegeus and Aethra. He was king of Athens. Stories about him include his slaying of the Minotaur.

Thyrsus
A thyrsus was a wand wreathed with ivy leaves, and topped with a pine-cone carried by the Ancient Greeks as a symbol of Bacchus.

Tiresias
In Greek mythology Tiresias was a blind prophet. He was the son of Everus and Chariclo. There are at least two versions of how he became to be blind. In the first he was out hunting and found two snakes coupling in a clearing. He killed the female one at which point Gaia changed him into a woman. Seven years later by chance he (then a she) found another two snakes in the same place and this time killed the male, and was immediately changed back into a man. As he had several lovers while both a man and a woman, Zeus and Hera decided he could settle an argument over which gave better satisfaction in sex, a man or a woman. Tiresias agreed with Zeus that men do, and Hera blinded him in rage, but Zeus rewarded him with prophetic powers. In a second variation, he went blind after seeing Athene bathing, and after plees from his mother Athene compensated Tiresias for his blindness with prophetic powers.

Titan
In Greek mythology, the Titans were the 12 sons of Ge and Uranus.

Titanomachia
Titanomachia was the 10 year war waged in Thessaly by Zeus and the Olympian gods against Cronos and the Titans led by Atlas. The war deposed the Titans.

Titans
see "Titan"

Tithonus
In Greek mythology, Tithonus was a son or brother of Laomedon the king of Troy. He was made immortal by by Zeus at the request of Eos who loved him. However, she neglected to ask that Tithonus be given the gift of eternal youth, so that he withered away in an ever increasing decrepitude. The name Tithonus thus became proverbial for a decrepit old man.

Tityos
In Greek mythology, Tityos was a son of Gaea and one of the giants. He offered violence to Leto and was killed by Zeus or Apollo. By way of punishment in Tartarus he was stretched on the ground, while two vultures perpetually devoured his liver.

Tlepolemus
In Greek mythology, Tlepolemus was a son of Hercules. He became king of Argos, but after killing his uncle Licymnius, he had to flee the country. In obedience to an oracle, he settled in Rhodes, and there founded the cities of Lindos, Isalysos and Cameirus. He joined the Greeks in the Trojan war, and was killed by Sarpedon, king of Lycia.

Triton
Triton was a Herald of Neptune. In Greek mythology the Tritons were sea-gods with the upper half of a human and the lower part of the body that of a fish. They carried a trumpet which the blew to soothe the waves at the command of Poseidon.

Tros
Tros was the grandson of Dardanus and the father of Ilus. He gave his name to the city of Troy.

Turnus
In Roman mythology, Turnus was the son of King Daunus and the nymph Venilia. He was a favourite of Juno, who granted him invulnerability in battle so long as he was pure, honourable and steadfast. In the war between Turnus' people, the Rutulians and the Trojan settlers led by Aeneas, Turnus showed all these qualities, leading his troops with as much dignity and honour as Aeneas himself. But he let his guard slip for an instant, killing the young prince Pallas who had rashly challenged him to single combat and wore his belt as a trophy. Juno withdrew her protection and Aeneas killed him in hand-to-hand combat.

Tyche
Tyche was the Greek goddess of luck. She was the daughter of Zeus and identifoed by the Romans as Fortuna.

Tydeus
Tydeus was the son of Oeonus and Calydon. After commiting a murder whilst a youth he fled to the court of Adrastus.

Tyndareus
Tyndareus was the king of Sparta. He was deposed by his brother Hippocoon, and reinstated by Hercules.

Typhoeus
In Greek mythology Typhoeus was a hundred-headed monster who fought with Zeus and was slain by a thunderbolt. Zeus then caged him under Mount Etna.

Typhon
In Greek mythology, Typhon was the father of destructive and fierce winds. He is derived from the Egyptian Set or Seth. According to Homer, he was buried underground by Zeus.

Ultor
Ultor (the Avenger) was a title of the Roman god Mars.

Ulysses
Ulysses was the Roman name for Odysseus.

Urania
Urania was the muse of astronomy.

Uranus
In Greek mythology, Uranus was a son of Gaea. He later married Gaea.

Venus
Venus was the Roman name for the Greek goddess Aphrodite.

Vertumnus
Vertumnus was a Roman god of garden fruits and seasons. He was the husband of Pomona.

Vesta
see "Hestia"

Victoria
Victoria is an alternative name for Nike.

Vortumna
In Roman mythology, Vortumna was an oracular goddess of the year and destiny. The matron of gardeners and she who urges reproduction.

Vulcan
Vulcan was the Roman name for the Greek god Hephaestus.

Xuthus
In Greek mythology, Xuthus was a son of Helen by the nymph Orseis. He was King of Peloponnesus and the husband of Creusa. After the death of his father, Xuthus was expelled from Thessaly by his brothers and went to Athens, where he married the daughter of Erechtheus.

Zagreus
Zagreus was a son of Zeus. He was torn apart and eaten by Titans apart from his heart which Athene saved. He is sometimes identified with Dionysus.

Zelus
In Greek mythology, Zelus was son of the Titan Pallas and Styx. He was a constant companion of Zeus and personified zeal.

Zethus
In Greek mythology, Zethus was a son of Zeus and Antiope and twin brother of Amphion.

Zeus
Zeus was the third king of the Greek gods. He had his throne on mount Olympus. He was a son of Cronus.

Zeuxippe
In Greek mythology, Zeuxippe was the daughter of Eridanus and the wife of Pandion.

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