Ovid - The Metamorphoses: Index - EFGHI
Echeclus
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Echidna
A monster half-woman, half-snake mother of Cerberus, Chimacra, the Hydra, and the Sphinx.
Bk IV:464-511. Her venom is part of Tisiphone’s poisonous brew.
Bk VII:404-424. Mother of Cerberus.
Echinades
A group of islands off the mouth of the River Acheloüs, in Acarnania, opposite the island of Cephallenia.
Bk VIII:547-610. They were nymphs turned into islands by the river-god.
Echion(1)
Bk III:115-137. One of the five surviving heroes sprung from the dragon’s teeth sown by Cadmus. He married Agave, the daughter of Cadmus.
Bk III:511-527. Bk III:692-733. He was the father of Pentheus.
Bk X:681-707. He built a temple to Cybele.
Echion(2)
Son of Mercury. The swiftest runner.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. He throws his spear ineffectually at the boar.
Echionides
Bk III:511-527. Bk III:692-733. An epithet of Pentheus as son of Echion.
Echo
Bk III:339-358. A nymph whose voice gave rise to the name for a reverberating sound.
Bk III:359-401. Juno limits her powers of speech. She falls in love with Narcissus and is rejected. She dwindles to sound alone.
Bk III:474-510. She pities Narcissus and echoes his farewells and mourns for him and echoes his sister’s lamentations.
(See John William Waterhouse’s painting – Echo and Narcissus – Walker Art Gallery, Merseyside, England)
Edoni, Edonians, Edonides
Bk XI:67-84. The Edonians were a Thracian people, ruled at one time by Lycurgus who was destroyed by Bacchus for opposing his worship. The Edonides, the women of the Edoni, and worshippers of Bacchus, murdered Orpheus, and were turned into oak trees.
Eetion
Bk XII:64-145. The king of Thebes, in Mysia, and father of Andromache the wife of Hector.
Egeria
Bk XV:479-546. An Italian nymph, wife of Numa. Unconsoled at his death she is turned into a fountain, and its attendant streams (at Le Mole, by Nemi in Aricia). She was worshipped as a minor deity of childbirth at Aricia, and later in Rome. (outside the Porta Capena: see Frazer’s ‘The Golden Bough’ Chapter I.)
Elatus
Bk XII:146-209. Bk XII:429-535. A prince of the Lapithae, father of Caenis.
Eleleus
Bk IV:1-30. A name for Bacchus from the wild cries of the Bacchantes.
Eleusin, Eleusis
A city in Attica, famous for the worship of Ceres-Demeter.
Bk V:642-678. Triptolemus is the son of the king there, though Eleusis is not mentioned by name at this point in the Latin text.
Bk VII:425-452. Sacred to Ceres, the Mother, and Persephone, the Maiden. The place where Theseus defeated Cercyon.
Elis
Bk II:676-701. A city and country in the western Peloponnese.
Bk V:487-532. The native country of Arethusa.
Bk V:572-641. Land of the river-god Alpheus.
Bk V:572-641. The city reached by Arethusa in her flight.
Bk VIII:260-328. Sends Phyleus to the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Fifth Labour Hercules cleanses the stables of King Augeas of Elis.
Bk XII:536-579. Hercules destroyed the city.
Bk XIV:320-396. Site of the quinquennial games.
Elpenor
Bk XIV:223-319. A comrade of Ulysses. The Odyssey describes his death when he tumbles from the roof of Circe’s house, the morning after a heavy bout of drinking. His ghost begs Ulysses for proper burial, and for the oar that he pulled with his comrades to be set up over his grave. His ashes were entombed on Mount Circeo.
Elymus
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Elysium
Bk XIV:101-153. The Paradise of the afterlife, home of the blessed spirits in the Underworld.
Elysius
Bk XIV:101-153. Of Elysium, the paradise of the Underworld.
Emathides, The Pierides
The daughters of Pierus, king of Emathia in Macedonia.
Bk V:294-331. They challenge the Muses to a contest, and one sings of Typhoeus and the flight of the gods to Egypt.
Bk V:642-678. They are defeated and turned into magpies for their insolence.
Emathion
Bk V:74-106. An old man killed by Chromis in the fight between Phineus and Perseus.
Emathius
Bk XII:429-535. Bk XV:745-842. Of Emathia, a district of Macedonia.
Enaesimus
Bk VIII:260-328. Bk VIII:329-375. Son of Hippocoön, killed at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Enipeus
Bk I:568-587. A river in Thessaly.
Bk VI:103-128. Disguised as the river-god, Neptune rapes Iphimedia and begets the Aloïdae.
Bk VII:179-233. Medea gathers magic herbs there.
Ennomus
Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.
Envy, Invidia
Bk II:752-786. She is sent by Minerva to punish Aglauros.
Eoüs
Bk II:150-177. One of the four horses of the Sun.
Epaphus
Bk I:747-764. The son of Io and Jupiter, grandson of Inachus, worshipped as a god in Egypt alongside his mother. Io is therefore synonymous with Isis (or Hathor the cow-headed goddess with whom she was often confused), and Epaphus with Horus.
Ephyre, Corinth
Bk II:227-271. Bk VII:350-403. The city north of Mycenae, on the Isthmus between Attica and the Argolis. Ephyre is an ancient name for the city.
Epidaurus, Epidaurius, Epidauros
Bk III:273-315. A city in Argolis, sacred to Aesculapius. The pre-Greek god Maleas was later equated with Apollo, and he and his son Aesculapius were worshipped there. There were games in honour of the god every four years, and from 395BC a drama festival. The impressive ancient theatre has been restored and plays are performed there. From the end of the 5th c. BC the cult of Asklepios spread widely through the ancient world reaching Athens in 420BC and Rome (as Aesculapius) in 293BC.
Bk VII:425-452. The scene of Theseus’s defeat of Periphetes.
Bk XV:622-745. Bk XV:622-745. The home of Aesculapius.
Epimetheus
Bk I:381-415. A Titan, the brother of Prometheus. He was the father of Pyrrha, wife to Deucalion her cousin. He married Pandora who opened the box that Prometheus had warned them to keep closed, releasing illness, old age, work, passion, vice and madness into the world.
Epimethis
Bk I:381-415. Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus, brother of Prometheus.
Epirus
A region in northern Greece containing Dodona.
Bk VIII:260-328. Described as grassy. Noted for its massive bulls.
Bk XIII:705-737. Contains the city of Buthrotos.
Epopeus
Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.
Epytus
Bk XIV:609-622. One of the Alban kings.
Erasinus
Bk XV:259-306. A river in Argolis. The river Stymphelos, in Arcadia, that reappears in the Argolis, on Mount Chaon, after running underground. (See Pausanias II 24, and VIII 22)
Erebus
Bk V:533-571. Bk X:1-85. Bk XIV:397-434. A name for the underworld.
Erectheus
King of Athens, son of Pandion, father of Orithyia and Procris.
Book VI:675-721. He inherits the kingdom from Pandion, and is noted for his sound government and military effectiveness.
Bk VII:425-452. Used to signify Athens and the Athenians.
Bk VII:661-758. He married his daughter Procris to Cephalus.
Bk VIII:547-610. His kingship of Athens remembered.
Erichthonius
Bk II:531-565. A son of Vulcan (Hephaestus), born without a mother (or born from the Earth after Hephaestus the victim of a deception had been repulsed by Athene). Legendary king of Athens and a skilled charioteer. He is represented by the constellation Auriga the charioteer, containing the star Capella. (Alternatively the constellation represents the she-goat Amaltheia that suckled the infant Jupiter, and the stars ζ (zeta) and η (eta) Aurigae are her Kids. It is a constellation visible in the winter months.)
Bk IX:418-438. His father Vulcan (Mulciber) wishes he might have a second life.
Eridanus
Bk II:301-328. God of the River Po in northern Italy. His river receives the body of Phaethon after the destruction of the sun chariot.
He is represented by the constellation Eridanus, south of Taurus, which meanders across the sky.
Erigdupus
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Erigone
Bk VI:103-128. The daughter of Icarius, loved by Bacchus, and depicted by Arachne on her web. Her country is Panchaia.
Bk X:431-502. She was set in the sky as the constellation Virgo, after her suicide, by hanging, in despair at finding her father Icarius’s body. Icarius is identified with the constellation Boötes. Ovid is contrasting her piety and love for her father with Myrrha’s impiety and carnal desire for hers. In northern latitudes Boötes and Virgo, which are near to each other in the sky, would be declining from the zenith at midnight in late April. Virgo, the second largest constellation, is associated with the goddess of justice holding the scales, but she is also Ceres-Demeter and holds the ear of wheat, the star Spica. (See the Ceres entry). It would not make sense for Virgo to be in the sky at the time of the Greek harvest festival, the Thesmophoria, since that took place in autumn when the sun was in Virgo. However it does make sense for countries where the harvest time is different, as presumably in Panchaia. (The Egyptian harvest for example, geared to the Nile flood-cycle, was in March-April.)
Erinys, Erinnys, Eumenides
Bk I:199-243. A Fury. The Furies, The Three Sisters, were Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera, the daughters of Night and Uranus. They were the personified pangs of cruel conscience that pursued the guilty. (See Aeschylus – The Eumenides). Their abode is in Hades by the Styx.
Bk IV:416-463. Juno summons them at the gate of hell.
Bk IV:464-511. Tisiphone maddens Ino and Athamas.
Bk VI:401-438. They attend (invisibly) the wedding of Tereus and Procne.
Bk VI:653-674. Tereus calls on them in his grief and desire for revenge.
Bk VIII:451-514. Althaea calls on them to aid her vengeance.
Bk X:1-85. They weep for the first time at the sound of Orpheus’s song.
Bk X:298-355. They pursued Myrrha.
Bk XI:1-66. A synonym for the madness of the Maenads.
Eriphyle
The wife of Amphiaraüs whom she betrayed to Polynices.
Bk VIII:260-328. Her husband is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk IX:394-417. Themis prophesies her murder by her son Alcmaeon in vengeance for his father’s death.
Erycina
An epithet of Venus from Eryx, a mountain in Sicily sacred to her.
Bk V:332-384. She asks Cupid to make Dis fall in love with Proserpine.
Erymanthus
Bk II:227-271. A river and mountain in Arcadia.
Bk II:496-507. Arcas meets his mother Callisto, who is transformed into a bear, while hunting in the woods of Erymanthus.
Bk V:572-641. Passed by Arethusa in her flight.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Fourth Labour, Hercules captured a giant wild boar that lived there.
Erysichthon
The son of the Thessalian king Triopas. His daughter is Mestra.
Bk VIII:725-776. He violates the grove of Ceres.
Bk VIII:777-842. In punishment Ceres torments him with Hunger.
Bk VIII:843-884. After living off Mestra’s skills he ends by consuming himself.
Erytus, Eurytus(4)
Bk V:74-106. The son of Actor, companion of Phineus. There is possibly confusion here with Eurytus(3).
Eryx(1)
Bk II:201-226. A mountain on the north-western tip of Sicily sacred to Venus Aphrodite. Daedalus made a golden honeycomb for her shrine there, after fleeing from Crete via Cumae.
Eryx(2)
Bk XIV:75-100. Acestes. A son of Venus (Eryx), half-brother of Aeneas.
Eryx(3)
Bk V:149-199. An opponent of Perseus, petrified by the Gorgon’s head.
Eteocles
Bk IX:394-417. The son of Oedipus and Iocasta, brother of Polynices who fights against him in the war of the Seven against Thebes. The two brothers kill each other.
Ethemon
Bk V:149-199. A Nabatean opponent of Perseus, killed by him.
Ethiopia, Aethiopia
Bk I:765-779. The country in northeast Africa.
Bk II:227-271. The people acquire black skins.
Bk IV:663-705. The country of Cepheus.
Etna, Aetna
Bk II:201-226. The volcanic mountain in eastern Sicily.
Etruria, Etruscus
A country in Central Italy. Its people are the Etrurians or Etruscans. Hence Tuscany in modern Italy.
Bk XIV:445-482. The Tyrrhenians. They go to war with Aeneas and his Trojans.
Bk XV:552-621. Noted for their seers’ ability to tell the future.
Euagrus
Bk XII:290-326. One of the Lapithae.
Euander
The son of Carmentis, emigrated from Pallantium in Arcadia before the Trojan War and founded the city of Pallanteum in Latium, on the future site of Rome (The Palatine Hill).
Bk XIV:445-482. He gives help to Aeneas in the war.
Euboea
Bk VII:179-233. Bk XIII:898-968. The large island close to eastern Greece separated from it by the Euboean Gulf. It contains Eretria and Aegae. Anthedon is on the mainland across the Gulf from Euboea.
Bk IX:89-158. Hercules conquers King Eurytus at Oechalia and sacrifices to Jupiter at Cenaeum in the north-west of the island.
Bk IX:211-272. Lichas becomes an island of that name in the Euboean Gulf.
Bk XIII:123-381. Aulis faces it.
Bk XIII:640-674. Two of Anius’s daughters flee there from Delos.
Bk XIV:1-74. Glaucus fishes its waters.
Bk XIV:154-222. Euboean colonists founded Cumae in Italy.
Euenus
Bk VIII:515-546. A river of Aetolia near Calydon.
Bk IX:89-158. The scene of the rape of Deianira.
Euhan
Bk IV:1-30. An epithet for Bacchus from the cries of his followers.
Euippe
Bk V:294-331. The wife of Pierus, and mother of the Pierides.
Eumelus
Bk VII:350-403. The father of Botres.
Eumenides, Erinyes, Furies
Bk VI:401-438. ‘The kindly Goddesses’, an ironic euphemism for the Furies or Erinyes.
Bk VIII:451-514. Althaea calls on them to aid her vengeance.
Bk IX:394-417. Themis prophesies that they will pursue Alcmaeon.
Bk X:1-85. They weep for the first time at the sound of Orpheus’s song.
Eumolpus
A mythical Thracian singer, priest of Ceres-Demeter, who brought the Eleusinian mysteries to Attica.
Bk XI:85-145. He was taught the rites along with Midas by Orpheus.
Eupalamas
Bk VIII:329-375. One of the heroes in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Knocked down by the boar’s charge.
Euphorbus
The son of Panthoüs, a Trojan killed by Menelaüs.
BkXV:143-175. A previous incarnation of Pythagoras.
Euphrates
Bk II:227-271. The river of ancient Babylon in modern Iraq.
Europa
Bk II:833-875. Daughter of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and sister of Cadmus, abducted by Jupiter disguised as a white bull. (See Paolo Veronese’s painting – The Rape of Europa – Palazzo Ducale, Venice)
Bk VI:103-128. Depicted by Arachne.
Bk VIII:1-80. Minos is her son.
Eurotas
Bk II:227-271. A river in Laconia in southern Greece.
Bk X:143-219. Phoebus haunts it when in love with Hyacinthus.
Eurus
Bk I:52-68. Bk VIII:1-80. The East Wind. Auster is the South Wind, Zephyrus the West Wind, and Boreas is the North Wind.
Eurydice
Bk X:1-85. The wife of Orpheus, who died after being bitten by a snake. Orpheus went to the Underworld to ask for her life, but lost her when he broke the injunction not to look back at her. (See Rilke’s poem, ‘Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes’, and his ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’, and Gluck’s Opera ‘Orphée’).
Bk XI:1-66. Orpheus finds her again after his death.
Eurylochus
Bk XIV:223-319. A companion of Ulysses, who escapes Circe’s transformation of Ulysses’s crew.
Eurymides
Bk XIII:738-788. Telemus, son of Eurymus.
Eurynome
Bk IV:190-213. The primal Goddess, mother of the Graces (Charites). A goddess, with Thetis, of the sea. Ovid makes her the mother of Leucothoë, by Orchamus of Babylon and Persia. In all her manifestations she is the Great Goddess.
Bk IV:214-255. Sol disguises himself as her to approach Leucothoë.
Eurynomus
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Eurypylus(1)
Bk VII:350-403. A king of Cos, slain by Hercules. His city was Astypalaea.
Eurypylus(2)
A Thessalian hero at Troy.
Bk XIII:1-122. He does not compete for the arms of Achilles.
Eurystheus
The king of Mycenae, son of Sthenelus.
Bk IX:159-210. Jupiter boasted that he had fathered a son who would be called Heracles (Hercules) the ‘glory of Hera (Juno)’ and rule the house of Perseus. Juno made him promise that any king born before nightfall would be High King. She then hastened the birth of Eurystheus to Nicippe wife of King Sthenelus. Eurystheus ruled Hercules and set him the Twelve Labours to perform. Hercules treats him and Juno as endlessly hostile to himself.
Bk IX:273-323. He pursues his hatred of Hercules through the generations.
Eurytides
Bk VIII:329-375. Hippasus, son of Eurytus, one of the heroes in the Calydonian Boar Hunt. His thigh is ripped open by the boar’s tusk.
Eurytion
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Eurytis
Bk IX:394-417. Iole, daughter of Eurytus.
Eurytus(1)
Bk IX:89-158. Bk IX:324-393. The father of Iole and Dryope. The king of Oechalia. He names his grandson, Dryope’s child, Amphissus.
Eurytus(2)
Bk XII:210-244. The centaur. He precipitates the battle between the Lapithae and the Centaurs by attempting to carry off Hippodamia.
Eurytus(3)
Bk VIII:260-328. The son of Actor, and the father of Hippasus and brother of Cleatus. Possibly there is confusion here with Eurytus(4).
Eurytus(4), Erytus
Bk V:74-106. The son of Actor. A companion of Phineus. He is killed by Perseus, with a heavy mixing bowl. Possibly there is confusion here with Eurytus(3).
Exadius
Bk XII:245-289. One of the Lapithae. He killed Gryneus at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs.
Fama
Bk IX:89-158. Rumour, personified. She comes to Deianira.
Bk XII:39-63. The House of Rumour described.
Bk XV:1-59. The harbinger of glory.
Fames
Bk VIII:777-842. Famine, a hag, the personification of hunger. Ceres sends her to torment Erysichthon.
Bk VIII:843-884. She leaves him with an incurable and growing hunger.
Farfarus
Bk XIV:320-396. A tributary of the Tiber.
Fates, The Three Goddesses, The Moirai, The Parcae
Bk II:633-675. The three Fates were born of Erebus and Night. Clothed in white, they spin, measure out, and sever the thread of each human life. Clotho spins the thread. Lachesis measures it. Atropos wields the shears.
Bk XV:745-842. The gods cannot overrule them, and prevent Caesar’s assassination.
Faunigena
Bk XIV:445-482. Latinus, son of Faunus.
Fauni
Bk I:177-198. The fauns. Demi-gods. Rural deities with horns and tails.
Faunus(1)
Bk XIII:738-788. Father of Acis. An ancient king of Latium.
Bk XIV:445-482. Father of Latinus.
Faunus(2)
Bk VI:313-381. A god of the fields and flocks, identified with Pan. Worshipped by country people.
Faunus(3)
Bk I:177-198. Bk VI:382-400 . Fauni, Demi-gods, ranked with Satyrs.
Favonius
Bk IX:595-665. The west wind, bringer of warmth and spring.
Fortuna
Bk II:111-149. Bk XIII:1-122. Goddess of fortune, chance, fate. Her attributes are the wheel, the globe, the ship’s rudder and prow, and the cornucopia. She is sometimes winged, and blindfolded. (See Leonardo’s drawings.)
Furies
Galanthis
Bk IX:273-323. Handmaid to Alcmena. She deceives Lucina the goddess of childbirth, and is punished by being turned into a weasel, with the same tawny hair. (Weasels in England are reddish-brown. Ovid says ‘flava comus’ which suggests reddish-yellow. The birth of its young through its mouth has, of course, no biological validity, but Graves suggests it derives from the weasel’s habit of carrying its young in its mouth from place to place!)
Galatea
A sea nymph, daughter of Nereus and Doris. (See the fresco ‘Galatea’ by Raphael, Rome, Farnesina)
Bk XIII:738-788. She tells her story to Scylla. Loving Acis, she is pursued by Polyphemus.
Bk XIII:789-869. She hears Polyphemus’s complaint.
Bk XIII:870-897. When Acis is crushed by the rock, thrown at him by Polyphemus, she changes Acis into his ancestral form of a river.
Bk XIII:898-968. She ends her story to Scylla and departs.
Ganges
Bk II:227-271. Bk IV:1-30. Bk V:30-73. The sacred river of northern India.
Bk VI:619-652. The area along its banks is inhabited by tigers.
Ganymedes
The son of Tros, brother of Ilus and Assaracus, loved by Jupiter because of his great beauty.
Bk X:143-219. Bk XI:749-795. Jupiter, in the form of an eagle, abducted him and made him his cup-bearer, against Juno’s will. Ganymede’s name was given to the largest moon of the planet Jupiter.
Gargaphie
Bk III:138-164. A valley and sacred spring in Boeotia sacred to Diana, where Actaeon sees her bathing.
Gaul, Gallicus
Bk I:525-552. The Roman province, in the region of modern France.
Geryon
Bk IX:159-210. The monster with three bodies, killed by Hercules. In the Tenth Labour, Hercules brought back Geryon’s famous herd of cattle after shooting three arrows through the three bodies. Geryon was the son of Chrysaor and Callirhoë, and King of Tartessus in Spain.
Gigantes, The Giants
Bk I:151-176. Bk I:177-198. Bk X:143-219. Monsters, sons of Tartarus and Earth, with many arms and serpent feet, who made war on the gods by piling up the mountains, and overthrown by Jupiter. They were buried under Sicily.
Bk X:143-219. Orpheus sang their war with the gods.
Glaucus
Bk VII:179-233. A fisherman of Anthedon in Boeotia.
Bk XIII:898-968. He is transformed into a sea god, and tells the story of his transformation to Scylla who rejects him.
Bk XIV:1-74. He asks Circe for a charm to make Scylla love him, but she transforms Scylla into a sea-monster instead.
Gorge
The daughter of Oeneus, king of Calydon, sister of Meleager.
Bk VIII:515-546. She is spared by Diana from being turned into a bird.
Gorgo, Medusa
The best known of the Three Gorgons, the daughters of Phorcys. A winged monster with snake locks, glaring eyes and brazen claws whose gaze turns men to stone. Her sisters were Stheino and Euryale.
Bk IV:604-662, Bk IV:663-705. Perseus has been helped by Athene and Hermes to overcome Medusa. He was not to look at her head directly but only in a brightly-polished shield. He cut off her head with an adamantine sickle, at which Pegasus the winged horse and the warrior Chrysaor sprang from her body. He now uses her head to petrify Atlas, and tells Cepheus and Cassiope of the exploit.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus tells of how he took her severed head, and of how Minerva placed snakes on her head, because Medusa was violated by Neptune in Minerva’s temple.
Bk V:149-199 . Perseus uses the head against his enemies.
Gortyniacus
Bk VII:759-795. From Gortyn in Crete, hence Cretan. Its bows noted for the swiftness of the arrow in flight.
Gradivus
Bk VI:401-438. Bk XIV:805-828. An epithet of Mars.
Bk XV:843-870. Mars, the father of Romulus (Quirinus).
Graeae
The three daughters of Ceto and Phorcys, sisters of the Gorgons, fair-faced and swanlike but with hair grey from birth and one eye and one tooth between them. Their names were Deino, Enyo and Pemphredo.
Bk IV:753-803. Perseus visits them in their cave under Mount Atlas and steals the single eye.
Graecia, Greece
Bk XIII:123-381. The country in southern Europe, bordering on the Ionian, Cretan and Aegean Seas.
Graïus
Bk XV:622-745 et.al. Grecian.
Granicus
Bk XI:749-795. A river and river god of Asia Minor, father of Alexiroë. Site of a famous victory of Alexander the Great.
Gratiae, The Graces
The three sisters, daughters of Jupiter and Eurynome, attendants to Venus, used collectively, Gratia. Often depicted with arms entwined in dance (See Botticelli’s ‘Primavera’) their names were Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. They signified giving, receiving, and thanking, later the Platonic triad, love, beauty, truth.
Bk VI:401-438. Attendant on wedding ceremonies.
Gryneus
Bk XII:245-289. A centaur. He kills Broteas, and Orios the son of Mycale. He is killed by Exadius at the battle of Lapiths and Centaurs.
Gyarus
Bk V:250-293. An island of the Cyclades.
Bk VII:453-500. Not allied to Crete.
Hades
Bk IV:416-465. The underworld, the kingdom of Dis.
Haedi
Bk XIV:698-771. The Kids, two stars in Auriga the Charioteer, treated as a constellation by the ancients. See Erichthonius.
Haemonia
Bk I: 568-587. Bk V:294-331. The ancient name for Thessaly from Haemon father of Thessalos.
Bk II:63-89. Used as an adjective for the constellation Sagittarius the Archer, the zodiacal sign formed when the Thessalian centaur Chiron was placed among the stars by Zeus.
Bk VII:159-178. The parents of the Argonauts are Haemonians.
Bk VIII:777-842. The land of Erysichthon.
Bk XI:221-265. Thetis’s cave is on its shores.
Bk XI:346-409. The land of Acastus, king of Iolchos.
Bk XI:650-709. Trachin in Haemonia.
Bk XII:210-244. The country of Caeneus and Pirithoüs.
Haemonius
Thessalian, from Haemonia.
Bk VII:100-158. Used of Jason.
Bk XII:64-145. Used of Achilles.
Haemus
Bk II:201-226. A mountain in Thrace.
Bk VI:70-102. Supposed to be a mortal turned into a mountain for assuming the name of a great god.
Bk X:1-85. Orpheus flees there after losing Eurydice a second time.
Halcyoneus
Bk V:107-148. A companion of Phineus from Bactria, killed by Perseus.
Halesus
Bk XII:429-535. One of the Lapithae.
Halius
Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.
Hamadryas
Bk I:689-722. A wood nymph.
Hammon
See Ammon.
Harmonia, Harmony
Bk III:115-137. The wife of Cadmus and daughter of Mars and Venus.
Bk IV:563-603. She is turned with him into a snake.
Bk IX:394-417. At her marriage to Cadmus, Venus gave her the fatal necklace that conferred irresistible beauty.
Harpies
Bk VII:1-73. The ‘snatchers’, Aellopus and Ocypete, the fair-haired, loathsome, winged daughters of Thaumas and the ocean nymph Electra, who snatch up criminals for punishment by the Furies. They live in a cave in Cretan Dicte. They plagued Phineus of Salmydessus, the blind prophet, and were chased away by the winged sons of Boreas.
Bk XIII:705-737. An alternative myth has Phineus drive them away to the Strophades where Ovid has Aeneas meet the harpy Aëllo, and Virgil, Celaeno. They are foul-bellied birds with girls’ faces, and clawed hands, and their faces are pale with hunger. (See Virgil Aeneid III:190-220)
Harpocrates
Bk IX:666-713. The infant Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. The Egyptian god, misinterpreted as a god of silence by the Greeks, as he is represented sitting on his mother’s lap with his thumb in his mouth.
Hebe
The daughter of Iuno, born without a father.
Bk IX:394-417. She is the wife of Hercules after his deification, and has the power to renew life.
Hebrus
Bk II:227-271. Bk XI:1-66. The river in Thrace down which Orpheus’s head was washed to the sea.
Hecate
The daughter of the Titans Perses and Asterie, Latona’s sister. A Thracian goddess of witches, her name is a feminine form of Apollo’s title ‘the far-darter’ . She was a lunar goddess, with shining Titans for parents. In Hades she was Prytania of the dead, or the Invincible Queen. She gave riches, wisdom, and victory, and presided over flocks and navigation. She had three bodies and three heads, those of a lioness, a bitch, and a mare. Her ancient power was to give to or withhold from mortals any gift. She was sometimes merged with the lunar aspect of Diana-Artemis, and presided over purifications and expiations. She was the goddess of enchantments and magic charms, and sent demons to earth to torture mortals. At night she appeared with her retinue of infernal dogs, haunting crossroads (as Trivia), tombs and the scenes of crimes. At crossroads her columns or statues had three faces – the Triple Hecates – and offerings were made at the full moon to propitiate her.
Bk VI:129-145. Goddess of magical herbs, used by Minerva.
Bk VII:74-99. Medea the Thracian witch makes Jason promise to marry her, taking his oath on the altar of Hecate, and gives him magic herbs to carry out his tasks.
Bk VII:159-178. Medea invokes her aid in her attempt to renew Aeson’s life.
Bk VII:179-233. Goddess of witchcraft.
Bk VII:234-293. Medea sacrifices to her.
Bk XIV:1-74. Bk XIV:397-434. Circe invokes her spells and her presence.
Hector
Bk XI:749-795. The Trojan hero, eldest son of Priam and Hecuba.
Bk XII:1-38. Sacrifices at the empty tomb of Aesacus his half-brother.
Bk XII:64-145. He killed Protesilaüs, the first Greek to fall in the Trojan War. His own fate is delayed till the end of the war.
Bk XII:429-535. Nestor compares himself in his prime with Hector.
Bk XII:536-579. Nestor cites him as a famous enemy of the Greeks.
Bk XII:579-628. Neptune reminds Apollo of Hector’s body dragged around the walls of Troy.
Bk XIII:1-122. He torched the Greek ships, and terrifies the Greeks in battle, bringing the gods with him to the battlefield.
Bk XIII:123-381. He promised Dolon the horses of Achilles.
Bk XIII:399-428. Hecuba takes his ashes with her from Troy. His son Astyanax is murdered as the city falls.
Bk XIII:481-575. The agony of his mother Hecuba.
Bk XIII:640-674. His presence had allowed Troy to hold out for so long.
Hecuba
The daughter of Dymas, and wife of Priam, king of Troy.
Bk VII:350-403. Bk XIII:399-428. Changed to a black bitch of Hecate, Maera, and spreading terror with her barking.
Bk XI:749-795. The mother of Hector.
Bk XIII:399-428. She gathers Hectors’s ashes as Ulysses takes her away from Troy.
Bk XIII:429-480. She sees her daughter Polyxena sacrificed to appease the ghost of Achilles.
Bk XIII:481-575. She laments Polyxena, finds and laments the body of Polydorus, kills Polymestor, and turns into the maddened dog, Maera. Her undeserved fate is pitied by the Trojan women, the Greeks, and all the gods, even Juno (who sought the downfall of Troy).
Bk XIII:576-622. Only Aurora’s thoughts are elsewhere.
Helena, Helen
The daughter of Leda and Jupiter (Tyndareus was her putative father), sister of Clytemnaestra, and the Dioscuri. The wife of Menelaüs.
Bk XIII:123-381. She was taken, by Paris, to Troy, instigating the Trojan War. Ulysses and Menelaüs demanded her return in front of the Trojan senate.
Bk XIV:623-697. Noted for her many suitors.
Bk XV:199-236. She bemoans old age, and the ravages of time.
Helenus
Bk XIII:1-122. The son of Priam, an augur, captured by Ulysses and Diomede along with Pallas’s sacred image, the Palladium.
Bk XIII:705-737. Aeneas visits him at Buthrotos in Epirus where he has built a second Troy, and Helenus foretells his future.
Bk XV:418-452. He prophesied Aeneas’s future, and that of Rome.
Heliades, The Heliads
Bk II:329-343. The seven daughters of the Sun god and Clymene.
Bk II 344-346. They mourn their brother Phaethon. Two of them are named. Lampetia and the eldest Phaethüsa. Turned into poplars as they mourn Phaethon their brother, their tears become drops of amber.
Bk X:86-105. The trees are among those gathering to hear Orpheus’s song.
Bk X:243-297. They shed amber tears, and amber adorns Pygmalion’s ivory statue.
Helice(1)
Bk XV:259-306. A seaport of Achaea, near Aigion, on the Corinthian Gulf now submerged after an earthquake. Pausanias gives the background. (See Pausanias VII 24)
Helice(2)
A name for the constellation of the Great Bear, Ursa Major.
Bk VIII:183-235. Icarus is warned not to fly too near the constellation.
Helices
Bk V:74-106. A companion of Phineus, killed by Perseus.
Helicon
Bk II:201-226. The mountain in Boeotia near the Gulf of Corinth where the Muses lived. The sacred springs of Helicon were Aganippe and Hippocrene, both giving poetic inspiration. The Muses’ other favourite haunt was Mount Parnassus in Phocis with its Castalian Spring. They also guarded the oracle at Delphi.
Bk V:250-293. Minerva visits it to see the fountain of Hippocrene sprung from under the hoof of Pegasus, the winged horse.
Bk V:642-678. A haunt of the Muses.
Bk VIII:515-546. The domain of poetic genius.
Helle
Bk XI:194-220. The daughter of Athamas and Nephele, sister of Phrixus. Escaping from Ino on the golden ram, she fell into the sea and was drowned, giving her name to the Hellespont.
Hellespont, Hellespontus.
The straits that link the Propontis with the Aegean Sea.
Bk XI:194-220. Named after Helle, and close to the site of Troy.
Bk XIII:399-428. The scene of Hecuba’s appearance as the black bitch Maera.
Helops
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Hennaeus
Bk V:385-424. Of Henna (Enna) a town in Sicily. The plains around it.
Herculaneum
Bk XV:622-745. The Roman town near Naples on the slopes of Vesuvius, destroyed with Pompeii by the eruption of 79AD and rediscovered in 1709. It was a residential town surrounded by the villas of wealthy Romans, with a rich artistic life.
Hercules, Heracles
The Hero, son of Jupiter. He was set in the sky as the constellation Hercules between Lyra and Corona Borealis.
Bk VII:404-424. He drags the dog Cerberus out of the underworld.
Bk IX:1-88. The son of Jupiter and Alcmena, the wife of Amphitryon. Called Alcides from Amphitryon’s father Alceus. Called also Amphitryoniades. Called also Tyrinthius from Tiryns his home city in the Argolis. Jupiter predicted at his birth that a scion of Perseus would be born, greater than all other descendants. Juno delayed Hercules birth and hastened that of Eurystheus, grandson of Perseus, making Hercules subservient to him. Hercules was set twelve labours by Eurystheus at Juno’s instigation, Bk IX:159-210:
1. The killing of the Nemean lion.
2. The destruction of the Lernean Hydra. - Bk IX:1-88. He uses the poison from the Hydra for his arrows - Bk IX:89-158.
3. The capture of the stag with golden antlers.
4. The capture of the Erymanthian Boar.
5. The cleansing of the stables of Augeas king of Elis.
6. The killing of the birds of the Stymphalian Lake in Arcadia.
7. The capture of the Cretan wild bull.
8. The capture of the mares of Diomede of Thrace, that ate human flesh.
9. The taking of the girdle of Hippolyte, Queen of the Amazons.
10. The killing of Geryon and the capture of his oxen.
11. The securing of the apples from the Garden of the Hesperides. He held up the sky for Atlas in order to deceive him and obtain them.
12. The bringing of the dog Cerberus from Hades to the upper world.
Bk IX:1-88. He fights with Acheloüs for the hand of Deianira.
Bk IX:89-158. Bk XII:290-326. He marries Deianira, kills Nessus, falls in love with Iole, daughter of Eurytus who has cheated him, and receives the shirt of Nessus from the outraged Deianira. (See Cavalli’s opera with Lully’s dances – Ercole Amante)
Bk IX:159-210. He is tormented by the shirt of Nessus.
(See T. S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets – Little Gidding:
‘Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire’)
Bk IX:159-210. He also killed Busiris, King of Egypt brother of Antaeus, who sacrificed strangers at the altars, to fulfil a prophecy that an eight-year drought and famine would end if he did so.
Bk IX:159-210. He killed King Antaeus of Libya, brother of Busiris, who was a giant, child of mother Earth, by lifting him from the ground that gave him strength, and, cracking his ribs, held him up until he died.
Bk IX:159-210. He fought the Centaurs.
Bk IX:159-210. Tormented by the shirt of Nessus he rages among the mountains.
Bk IX:211-272. He kills the servant Lichas who brought the fatal shirt, then builds a funeral pyre, and becomes a constellation and is deified. (See Canova’s sculpture – Hercules and Lichas – Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Rome)
Bk IX:273-323. He had asked his son Hyllus, by Deianira to marry Iole. His birth is described when the sun is in the tenth sign, Capricorn, i.e. at midwinter, making him a solar god. His mother’s seven night labour would also make his birth at the new year, a week after the winter solstice.
Bk IX:394-417. His nephew and companion is Iolaüs.
Bk XI:194-220. Bk XIII:1-122. He captured Troy and rescued Hesione, with the help of Telamon, and gave her to Telamon in marriage.
Bk XI:573-649. He is hero of the city of Trachin.
Bk XII:536-579. Tlepolemus is his son. Hercules exploits are retold by Nestor.
Bk XIII:1-122. Philoctetes received his bow and arrows after his death, destined to be needed at Troy.
Bk XIII:399-428. Ulysses goes to fetch Philoctetes and the arrows.
Bk XV:199-236. He is a symbol of strength.
Bk XV:259-306. He shot the centaur Pylenor with a poisoned arrow.
Hermaphroditus
Bk IV:274-316. The son of Mercury and Venus, loved by Salmacis.
Bk IV:346-388. Salmacis dives into the pool to pursue him, and is merged with him, and he prays for the waters of the pool to weaken anyone who bathes there.
Herse
Bk II:531-565. One of the three daughters of King Cecrops.
Bk II:708-736. The most beautiful of the Athenian virgins and admired by Mercury.
Hersilia
Bk XIV:829-851. The wife of Romulus, deified as Hora.
Hesione
A daughter of Laomedon, exposed to a sea monster at Neptune’s command.
Bk IX:211-272. Hercules rescued her when passing by Troy.
Bk XI:194-220. She was given in marriage to Telamon.
Hesperides
Bk XI:85-145. The three nymphs who tended the garden with the golden apples on a western island beyond Mount Atlas. Their names were Hespere, Aegle, and Erytheis, the daughters of Night, or of Atlas and Hesperis, the daughter of Hesperus.
Bk IV:604-662. The orchard of Atlas described.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Eleventh Labour, Hercules obtains the golden apples by deceiving Atlas.
Hesperie
Bk XI:749-795. A nymph, daughter of the river god Cebren, loved by Aesacus. She runs from him, and is killed by the bite of a snake.
Hesperus
Bk II:111-149. Bk IV:604-662. Bk V:425-486. The evening star (the planet Venus). It sets after the sun.
Hiberus
Bk VII:294-349. Hibernian, Spanish. Used to denote the oceans of the west, where the sun sets.
Bk XV:1-59. Hercules returns from there with the herds of Geryon.
Hippalmus
The correct reading for Eupalamas.
Hippasus(1)
Son of Eurytus.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. His thigh is ripped open by the boar’s tusk.
Hippasus(2)
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Hippocoön
Bk VIII:260-328. King of Amyclae, father of Enaesimus, and others of his sons who were at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. Enaesimus is killed by the boar.
Hippocrene
Bk V:250-293. A famous spring on Mount Helicon, sacred to the Muses.
Hippodamas
Bk VIII:547-610. The father of Perimele.
Hippodame, Hippodamia
The daughter of Adrastus, and wife of Pirithoüs.
Bk XII:210-244. Bk XIV:623-697. Eurytus attempts to carry her off at her wedding and precipitates the battle between Lapiths and Centaurs.
Hippolyte
Queen of the Amazons, warrior maidens living near the Rivers Tanaïs and Thermodon in Scythia, based on Greek knowledge of the Scythian princesses of the Sarmatian people of the Black Sea region. Burials of warrior princesses have been excavated from the tumuli of the area around Rostov, and north west of the Sea of Azov. See Herodotus IV 110-117, for the Amazons and Scythians.
Bk IX:159-210. In the Ninth Labour, Hercules obtained the golden girdle of Hippolyte.
Hippolytus
Bk XV:479-546. The son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyte. He was admired by Phaedra, his step-mother, and was killed at Troezen, after meeting ‘a bull from the sea’. He was brought to life again by Aesculapius, and hidden by Diana (Cynthia, the moon-goddess) who set him down in the sacred grove at Arician Nemi, where he became Virbius, the consort of the goddess (as Adonis was of Venus, and Attis of Cybele), and the King of the Wood (Rex Nemorensis). All this is retold and developed in Frazer’s monumental work, on magic and religion, ‘The Golden Bough’ (see Chapter I et seq.). (See also Euripides’s play ‘Hippolytos’, and Racine’s ‘Phaedra’.)
Hippomenes
The son of Megareus. Great-grandson of Neptune.
Bk X:560-637. Falling in love with Atalanta, he determines to race against her, on penalty of death for failure.
Bk X:638-680. By means of the golden apples he wins the race and claims Atalanta.
Bk X:681-707. He desecrates Cybele’s sacred cave with the sexual act and is turned, with Atalanta, into a lion.
Hippotades
Bk XI:410-473. Bk XIV:75-100. Bk XIV:223-319.
Bk XV:622-745. Aeolus, as son of Hippotas.
Hippothoüs
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Hister, Danube
Bk II:227-271. The Lower Danube running to the Black Sea.
Hodites(1)
Bk V:74-106. An Ethiopian in the court of Cepheus, the most senior next to the king, killed by Clymenus a follower of Phineus.
Hodites(2)
Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.
Hora
Bk XIV:829-851. The name given to Hersilia after her deification and reunion with Romulus.
Horae
Bk II:1-30. The Hours, attendants of the Sun.
Bk II:111-149. Yoke up the Sun-god’s horses to his chariot.
Hyacinthia
Bk X:143-219. A festival in honour of Hyacinthus, at Amyclae.
Hyacinthus
Son of Amyclas, king of Amyclae, hence he is called Amyclides.
Bk X:143-219. His home was Amyclae, in Taenarus, near Sparta. Loved by Phoebus, he was killed by a discus while they were competing. Phoebus turned him into a hyacinth (the blue larkspur, hyacinthos grapta) that has the marks AI AI (woe! woe!) of early Greek letters on the base of its petals, and was sacred to Cretan Hyacinthus. Later it was linked to Ajax. Sparta celebrated the Hyacinthia festival in his honour.
Bk XIII:382-398. He shares the flower with Ajax whose name has similar markings, ΑΙΑΣ.
Hyades
Bk III:572-596. The daughters of Atlas and Aethra, half-sisters of the Pleiades. They lived on Mount Nysa and nurtured the infant Bacchus. The Hyades are the star-cluster forming the ‘face’ of the constellation Taurus the Bull. The cluster is used as the first step in the distance scale of the galaxy.
Bk XIII:123-381. The stars are engraved on Achilles’s shield.
Hyale
Bk III:165-205. One of Diana’s nymphs.
Hyantëus, Hyantius
Bk III:138-164. Boeotian, applied to Actaeon.
Bk V:294-331. Applied to the Heliconian fountain of Aganippe.
Bk VIII:260-328. Home of Iolaüs, present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Hydra
Bk II:633-675. The many-headed water-serpent, born of Typhon and Echidna, that lived at Lerna near Argos. Its destruction was the Second Labour of Hercules(Heracles).
Bk IX:159-210. Hercules used the Hydra’s venom to tip his poisoned arrows, and struck Chiron his old friend inadvertently while fighting the Centaurs (The Fourth Labour). Chiron was in agony but could not die. Prometheus offered to die in his place. Zeus approved and Chiron was able to choose death.
Bk IX:1-88. Hercules describes his fight with the Hydra while taunting Acheloüs. (See Gustave Moreau’s painting – Hercules and the Lernean Hydra – in the Art Institute of Chicago)
Bk IX:89-158. The shirt of Nessus is soaked with its venom.
Hyles
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Hyleus
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Hyleüs
Bk XIII:675-704. From Hyle, a town in Boeotia. The home town of Alcon the engraver.
Hyllus
Bk IX:273-323. The son of Hercules and Deianira. Hercules has him marry Iole.
Hylonome
Bk XII:393-428. A female centaur, loved by Cyllarus. Inseparable in life, they died together, she killing herself to join him.
Hymen, Hymenaeus
Bk I: 473-503. Bk IV:753-803. Bk VI:401-438. God of marriage.
Bk IX:764-797. He attends the wedding with Venus, the goddess of love, and Juno, the goddess of brides.
Bk X:1-85. He attends the wedding of Orpheus and Eurydice but fails to bring his usual blessings.
Hymettus, Hymettos
A mountain in Attica south of Athens. It was famous for its wild-flower pasture for bees (See Pausanias I 32 i.) and had a shrine and statue of Zeus of Rain and Far-seeing. (The long Hymettos ridge bounds the plain of Attica on the east, made up of bluish-grey Hymettian marble overlying Pentelic marble, which was worked in ancient times. The hills were then heavily forested.)
Bk VII:661-758. Aurora sees Cephalus from there.
Bk X:243-297. Its bees’ wax is used for moulding casts for statues etc.
Hypaepae
BkVI:1-25 A town in Lydia. The home of Arachne.
Bk XI:146-171. It is overlooked by Mount Tmolus.
Hypanis
Bk XV:259-306. A river in Sarmatia. A main tributary of the Dnieper. The waters are sweet in their higher reaches, but are joined by a bitter stream flowing out of Scythia. See Herodotus IV 52.
Hyperboreüs, Hyperborean
Bk XV:307-360. Belonging to the extreme north. The Hyperboreans, a mythical people living beyond the north wind. They cover their bodies with feathers by plunging nine times in Minerva’s pool. Herodotus has some interesting chapters on the Hyperboreans in IV 32-36. In 31 he speculates on the confusion of feathers with snowflakes. (See also Robert Graves ‘The White Goddess’ p.284)
Hyperion(1)
Bk IV:214-255. A Titan, the son of Coelus and Terra, and father of the sun-god.
Hyperion(2)
The Sun god himself. Heliopolis in Egypt, Hyperion’s city.
Bk VIII:547-610. The sun.
Bk XV:391-417. The sun-god at Heliopolis, to which the phoenix flies.
Hypseus
Bk V:74-106. A companion of Phineus killed by Lyncides.
Hypsipyle
The daughter of Thoas, king of Lemnos.
Bk XIII:399-428. Ulysses sails for the island to bring back the arrows of Hercules. Thoas was king there when the Lemnian women murdered their menfolk because of their adultery with Thracian girls. His life was spared because his daughter Hypsipyle set him adrift in an oarless boat.
Hyrie
Bk VII:350-403. A lake and the town near it in Boeotia, named from the mother of Cycnus(2) by Apollo. She turns into a lake weeping for her son, whom she thinks dead.
Iacchus
Bk IV:1-30. A name for Bacchus from the shouts of his worshippers.
Ialysius
Bk VII:350-403. Of Ialysos, a city on the north eastern coast of the island of Rhodes.
Ianthe
Bk IX:714-763. The daughter of Telestes of Dicte, who is loved by Iphis, a girl reared as a boy, and betrothed to her.
Bk IX:764-797. Iphis is transformed into a boy by Isis, and marries her.
Ianus
The Roman two-headed god of doorways and beginnings, equivalent to the Hindu elephant god Ganesh. The Janus mask is often depicted with one melancholy and one smiling face.
Bk XIV:320-396. The father of Canens.
Bk XIV:772-804. The naiades have a spring by his (later) temple.
Iapetionides
Bk IV:604-662. Atlas, the son of Iapetus.
Iapetus
Bk I:68-88. Bk IV:604-662. A Titan, father of Prometheus, Atlas and Epimetheus.
Iapygia
Bk XIV:445-482. Bk XIV:483-511. Bk XV:1-59.
Bk XV:622-745. The region in the heel of Italy. Apulia. Its king was Daunus. Named after Iapyx.
Iapyx
Bk XV:1-59. A son of Daedalus, who ruled in Apulia in southern Italy.
Iasion
Son of Jupiter and Corythus’s wife Electra.
Bk IX:418-438. Ceres fell in love with him and lay with him in the thrice-ploughed field. She wishes she could obtain a renewal of his youth.
Iason, Jason
The son of Aeson, leader of the Argonauts, and hero of the adventure of the Golden Fleece. The fleece is represented in the sky by the constellation and zodiacal sign of Aries, the Ram. In ancient times it contained the point of the vernal equinox (The First Point of Aries) that has since moved by precession into Pisces.
Bk VII:1-73. Reaches Colchis and the court of King Aeetes.
Bk VII:74-99. Accepts Medea’s help and promises her marriage.
Bk VII:100-158. Completes the tasks and wins the Golden Fleece, and marries Medea, before returning to Iolchos.
Bk VII:159-178. He asks Medea to lengthen his father’s life.
Bk VII:350-403. He acquires the throne of Corinth, and marries a new bride Glauce. Medea in revenge for his disloyalty to her sends Glauce a wedding gift of a golden crown and white robe, that burst into flames when she puts them on, and consume her and the palace. Medea then kills her own sons by Jason, and flees his wrath.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk VIII:329-375. He throws his spear at the boar, but overshoots.
Bk VIII:376-424. He wounds a hound by accident.
Icarus(1)
Bk VIII:183-235. The son of Daedalus for whom his father fashioned wings of wax and feathers like his own in order to escape from Crete. Flying too near the sun, despite being warned, the wax melts and he drowns in the Icarian Sea, and is buried on the island of Icaria. (See W. H. Auden’s poem ‘Musée des Beaux Arts’ referring to Brueghel’s painting, Icarus, in Brussels)
Icarus(2), =Icarius
Bk X:431-502. The father of Erigone.
Icelos
The son of Somnus (Sleep), and a god of dreams.
Bk XI:573-649. He takes the shape of creatures.
Ida
Bk II:201-226. One Mount Ida is near Troy. There is a second Mount Ida on Crete.
Bk IV:274-316. Hermaphroditus is raised there.
Bk VII:350-403. Liber hides his son’s theft of a bullock by changing the animal to a stag.
Bk X:1-85. Olenus and Lethaea are turned to stones there.
Bk XI:749-795. Birthplace of Trojan Aesacus.
Bk XII:429-535. The scene of Nestor’s tale at Troy.
Bk XIII:1-122. The mountain near Troy.
Bk XIV:527-565. Trojan Ida is sacred to Cybele. Aeneas’s ship timbers were felled there.
Idalia
Bk XIV:623-697. An epithet of Venus from Mount Idalium, her sacred mountain in Cyprus.
Idas(1)
Proles Aphareïa. A son of Aphareus, king of Messene.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Idas(2)
Bk V:74-106. A courtier of Cepheus, killed by Phineus, though a neutral in the fight with Perseus.
Idas(3)
Bk XIV:483-511. A companion of Diomede. Venus transforms him into a bird.
Idmon
BkVI:1-25. Bk VI:129-145. Of Colophon, the father of Arachne.
Idomeneus
King of Crete, leader of the Cretan contingent fighting against Troy.
Bk XIII:1-122. He does not compete for the arms of Achilles.
Iliades(1)
Bk X:143-219. An epithet of Ganymedes, son of Tros. Trojan.
Iliades(2)
Bk XIV:772-804. Bk XIV:805-828. An epithet of Romulus, as son of Ilia.
Ilion, Ilium, Troy
Bk XIII:123-381. Bk XIII:399-428. Bk XIV:445-482. See Troia.
Bk XIII:481-575. Hecuba mourns the end of Troy.
Ilioneus
Bk VI:204-266. One of Niobe’s seven sons killed by Apollo and Diana.
Ilithyia
Bk IX:273-323. The Greek goddess of childbirth, corresponding to Lucina who was an aspect of Juno, as the Great Goddess.
Illyricus
Of Illyria (Illyris), a country on the Adriatic, north of Epirus.
Bk IV:563-603. The country where Cadmus and Harmonia are turned into serpents.
Ilus
Bk XI:749-795. The son of Tros, builder of Troy (Ilium). The father of Laomedon.
Imbreus
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Inachides
A male descendant of Inachus.
Bk IV:706-752. Perseus as deriving from the royal line of Argos.
Inachis
Bk IX:666-713. Io, the daughter of Inachus, worshipped as a manifestation of Isis, the Egyptian goddess.
Inachus
Bk I:568-587. A river in Argolis. The river-god, father of Io (Inachis).
Inarime
Bk XIV:75-100. An island off the coast of Campania (Southern Italy).
Indiges
Bk XIV:566-580. The name under which the deified Aeneas was worshipped (the national deity).
Indigetes
Bk XV:843-870. Deified heroes, worshipped as deities of their native countries.
Indus
Bk I:765-779. Bk V:30-73. Bk VIII:260-328. Bk XI:146-171 Of India.
Ino
Bk III:273-315. The daughter of Cadmus, wife of Athamas, and sister of Semele and Agave. She fosters the infant Bacchus.
Bk III:692-733. She participates in the killing of Pentheus.
Bk IV:416-463. She incurs the hatred of Juno.
Bk IV:512-542. Maddened by Tisiphone, and the death of her son Learchus, at the hand of his father, she leaps into the sea, and is changed to the sea-goddess Leucothoë by Neptune, at Venus’s request.
Io
Bk I:587-600. Daughter of Inachus a river-god of Argolis, chased and raped by Jupiter.
Bk I:601-621. Changed to a heifer by Jupiter and conceded as a gift to Juno.
Bk I:622-641. Guarded by hundred-eyed Argus.
Bk I:722-746. After Mercury kills Argus, and driven by Juno’s fury Io has reached the Nile, she is returned to human form.
Bk I:747-764. With her son Epaphus she is worshipped in Egypt as a goddess. Io is therefore synonymous with Isis (or Hathor the cow-headed goddess with whom she was often confused), and Epaphus with Horus.
Bk IX:666-713. Worshipped in Crete as a manifestation of Isis.
Iolaüs
The son of Iphicles, nephew and companion of Hercules.
Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.
Bk IX:394-417. He is returned to life by Hebe. (He is the grandson of Alcmene, since his father Iphicles is her son by Amphitryon, and Hercules mortal half-brother, the twin or tanist of the sun-god. Iolaüs’s renewal and appearance at the threshold may indicate his cult as a representative of the risen sun of the new year. His cult was celebrated in Sardinia where he was linked to Daedalus.)
Bk IX:418-438. Jupiter explains that this is through the power of fate as well.
Iolchos, Iolciacus
A seaport town in Thessaly from which the Argonauts sailed.
Bk VII:100-158. They return there with Medea and the Golden Fleece.
Iole
Bk IX:89-158. The daughter of Eurytus, king of Oechalia, whom Hercules was enamoured of.
Bk IX:273-323. Hercules asks his son Hyllus, by Deianira, to marry her.
Bk IX:324-393. She tells her mother-in-law Alcmena the story of her half-sister Dryope.
Bk IX:394-417. She weeps for Dryope and is comforted by Alcmena.
Ionia
The region of ancient Greek territory bordering the Eastern Aegean, containing Lydia and Caria and the islands of Samos and Chios.
Ionium, aequor, mare
The Ionian Sea, west of the Greek mainland.
Bk IV:512-542. Ino leaps into its waters.
Bk XV:1-59. Myscelus sails it.
Bk XV:622-745. Aesculapius crosses it to Italy.
Iphigenia
The daughter of Agamemnon, king of Mycenae, and Clytaemnestra. She is called Mycenis.
Bk XII:1-38. Bk XIII:123-381. She is sacrificed by her father at Aulis, to gain favourable winds for the passage to Troy but snatched away by Diana. (to Tauris)
Iphinoüs
Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.
Iphis(1)
Bk IX:666-713. Daughter of Ligdus, a Cretan and his wife Telethusa. Her mother is visited by a prophetic dream of Isis before her birth. She is named after the grandfather, the father being deceived into believing she is a boy.
Bk IX:714-763. She laments her inability to consummate her passion for Ianthe whom she loves.
Bk IX:764-797. She is transformed into a boy, by Isis, and marries Ianthe.
Iphis(2)
A youth of Cyprus who loved Anaxarete.
Bk XIV:698-771. He commits suicide when she disdains him.
Iphitides
Coeranus, the son of Iphitus.
Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.
Iris
Bk I:244-273. Juno’s messenger, the Rainbow. (See Shakespeare’s Tempest – the masque).
Bk IV:464-511. Purifies Juno after her visit to Hades.
Bk XI:573-649. Goes to Somnus, god of Sleep, to command him to send a dream to Alcyone.
Bk XIV:75-100. At Juno’s command she attempts to destroy Aeneas’s ships (see Virgil The Aeneid V 600)
Bk XIV:829-851. Juno sends her to Hersilia.
Isis
Bk IX:666-713. The Egyptian Goddess, in Greek mythology the deified Io and identified also with Ceres-Demeter. The wife of Osiris. Goddess of the domestic arts. Her cult absorbed the other great goddesses and spread through the Graeco-Roman world as far as the Rhine. Isis was the star of the sea, and the goddess of travellers. She visits Telethusa in a dream. She is accompanied by Anubis, the jackal-headed god, associated with Mercury; Bubastis, or Bast (Bastet), the lion or cat-headed goddess, associated with Diana; Apis the sacred Bull; Harpocrates the child Horus; and Osiris her husband, whom she searches for, in the great vegetation myth of Egypt. She has the sacred rattle or sistrum; the serpent that she fashioned, that poisoned the sun-god Ra, whom she cured in exchange for his true name; and on her forehead she carries the horns, moon disc, and ears of corn symbolising her moon, fertility and cow attributes.
Bk IX:764-797. She protects Paraetonium, Pharos, the Nile and the Mareotic fields.
Ismarius
Bk II:227-271. From Mount Ismarus in Thrace. Thracian.
Bk IX:595-665. The Bacchantes perform the rites there.
Bk X:298-355. The Thracian race to which Orpheus belongs.
Bk XIII:481-575. Polymestor is the king of Thrace.
Ismenis
Bk III:165-206. Crocale, the daughter of Ismenus, the Boeotian river god.
Ismenus(1), Ismenides
Bk II:227-271. The river and river-god of Boeotia, near Thebes. The women of Thebes, being near the river. Crocale one of Diana’s nymphs is the daughter of the river-god and therefore called Ismenis.
Bk III:692-733. Bk IV:31-54. The women of Thebes, who now worship the new religion of Bacchus.
Bk IV:543-562. Followers of Ino who are turned to stone.
Bk VI:146-203. The women of Thebes exhorted to worship Latona, and her children, Apollo and Diana.
Bk XIII:675-704. The country of Therses.
Bk VI:204-266. One of Niobe’s seven sons killed by Apollo and Diana.
Isse
The daughter of Macareus(1).
Bk VI:103-128. Raped by Phoebus, disguised as a shepherd, and depicted by Arachne.
Isthmus
Bk VI:401-438. The Isthmus of Corinth between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Sea.
Bk VII:404-424. Cleansed of robbers by Theseus.
Bk XV:479-546. Crossed by Hippolytus at his death.
Italia
Bk XV:622-745. Italy.
Ithaca
The island off the coast of Greece, in the Ionian Sea (to the west of mainland Greece), home of Ulysses.
Bk XIII:481-575. Home of Penelope.
Bk XIII:705-737. Passed by Aeneas.
Bk XIV:154-222. Dear to Macareus of Neritos.
Ithacus
Bk XIII:1-122. A name for Ulysses, as king of Ithaca.
Itys
Bk VI:401-438. The son of Tereus and Procne. His birthday is named as a festival.
Bk VI:619-652. Bk VI:653-674. He is murdered by his mother in revenge for Tereus’s rape of Philomela, and his flesh is served to his father at a banquet.
Iuba
Bk XV:745-842. King of Numidia. Aligned with Scipio and beaten by Caesar in North Africa where the remnants of the Pompeian party were being reorganised.
Iulus
Bk XIV:566-580. Ascanius, the son of Aeneas, from whom the Iulian clan claimed their origin.
Bk XV:418-452. Bk XV:745-842. The ancestor of Julius Caesar.
Iuno, Juno
Bk I:244-273. The daughter of Rhea and Saturn, wife of Jupiter, and the queen of the gods. A representation of the pre-Hellenic Great Goddess. (See the Metope of Temple E at Selinus – The Marriage of Hera and Zeus – Palermo, National Museum.)
Bk I: 601-621. Catching Jupiter deceiving her with Io, asks the girl, transformed into a heifer by Jupiter, as a gift.
Bk I: 722-746. Relenting, she returns Io to human form.
Bk II:466-495. Turns Callisto into a bear after her rape by Jupiter.
Bk II:508-530. After Callisto is set in the heavens as the Great Bear by Jupiter, she requests Tethys and Oceanus not to allow the constellation to enter their waters (and fall below the horizon).
Bk II:531-565. Her chariot is drawn by peacocks.
Bk III:253-272. She sets out to punish Semele.
Bk III:273-315. She deceives Semele.
Bk III:316-338. She blinds Tiresias for his judgement.
Bk III:359-401. She limits Echo’s powers of speech.
Bk IV:167-189. Vulcan is her son.
Bk IV:416-463. She is angered by Ino sister of Semele.
Bk IV:464-511. She asks Tisiphone, the Fury, to madden Ino and Athamas, her husband, and sees them come to grief.
Bk IV:543-562. She turns Ino’s protesting servants into stone.
Bk VI:70-102. Turned the Queen of the Pygmies into a crane and forced her to war against her own people, and turned Antigone of Troy into a stork.
Bk VI:313-381. She pursued Latona in jealousy.
Bk VI:401-438. She is the goddess who attends brides in the wedding ceremony.
Bk VII:501-613. Jealous of Aegina, because of her affair with Jupiter, Juno sends a plague to the island of Aegina named after her where, her son Aeacus is king.
Bk VIII:183-235. The island of Samos is sacred to her.
Bk IX:1-88. Bk IX:159-210. The stepmother, and in some myths foster-mother of Hercules. She is inimical to him because of Jupiter’s adultery with Alcmena his mother. She instigates his Twelve Labours through Eurystheus.
Bk IX:211-272. She resents Hercules’s deification.
Bk IX:273-323. She had previously made Alcmena’s labour difficult in giving birth to Hercules.
Bk IX:394-417. Her daughter is Hebe.
Bk IX:439-516. She married her brother Jupiter.
Bk IX:764-797. She attends weddings with Venus and Hymen.
Bk X:143-219. She objects to Ganymede becoming Jupiter’s cup-bearer.
Bk XI:573-649. She sends Iris goddess of the rainbow, her messenger, to Somnus, Sleep, ordering him to send a dream to Alcyone telling her of the death of Ceyx.
Bk XII:429-535. Ixion had attempted to seduce her.
Bk XIII:481-575. She admits that Hecuba does not deserve the fate that befell her.
Bk XIV:75-100. She sends Iris to destroy Aeneas’s ships.
Bk XIV:101-153. Proserpina is ‘the Juno of Avernus’.
Bk XIV:566-580. She accepts Aeneas’s deification.
Bk XIV:772-804. She unbars the Roman citadel to the Sabines. (Pursuing her vendetta against the descendants of Aeneas.)
Bk XIV:829-851. She sends Iris to Hersilia.
BkXV:143-175. She has a temple at Argos.
Bk XV:361-390. Her bird is the peacock.
Bk XV:622-745. She had a famous temple at Lacinium.
Bk XV:745-842. Venus says she was on Turnus’s side during the wars in Latium.
Iunonigena
Bk IV:167-189. Vulcan, the son of Iuno.
Iuppiter, Jupiter, Jove
Bk I:89-112. The sky-god, son of Saturn and Rhea, born on Mount Lycaeum in Arcadia and nurtured on Mount Ida in Crete. The oak is his sacred tree. His emblems of power are the sceptre and lightning-bolt. His wife and sister is Juno (Iuno). (See the sculpted bust (copy) by Brassides, the Jupiter of Otricoli, Vatican).
Bk I:113-124. Creates the seasons.
Bk I:587-600. Chases and rapes Io.
Bk I:668-688. Father of Mercury by the Pleiad Maia.
Bk I:722-746. After Juno transforms Io into a heifer, he employs Mercury to dispose of Argus, and though Juno sets Io wandering, he eventually prevails on her to return Io to human form, when she has reached the Nile.
Bk I:747-764. Father of Epaphus, by Io.
Bk II:301-328. Rescues the earth by destroying Phaethon and the runaway sun chariot.
Bk II:401-416. Sees Callisto in the woods of Arcadia.
Bk II:417-440. He rapes Callisto.
Bk II:496-507. He sets Callisto and her son Arcas among the stars as the constellations of Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great and Little Bear.
Bk II:833-875. Jupiter abducts Europa.
Bk III:273-315. He unwillingly destroys Semele who has been deceived by Juno but rescues their son Bacchus who is sewn into his thigh to come to full term.
Bk III:316-338. He gives Tiresias the power of prophecy.
Bk III:359-401. He often lies with the mountain nymphs.
Bk IV:274-316. He was guarded in his cradle by the Dactyls (‘fingers’), one of whom was Celmis, born when Rhea was bearing Jupiter and pressed her fingers into the earth.
Bk IV:663-705. As Jupiter Ammon his oracle sentenced Andromeda to be chained to the rock for her mother’s fault.
Bk V:294-331. The Emathides pretend that he fled to Egypt in the war between the giants and the gods, and there as Libyan Ammon hid in the form of a ram.
Bk V:332-384. He is subject to Cupid, as are the other gods.
Bk V:487-532. Ceres asks him to restore their daughter Proserpine.
Bk V:533-571. He decrees that Proserpine must spend half the year with Dis and half with Ceres.
Bk VI:26-69. Minerva (Pallas Athene) is his daughter.
Bk VI:70-103. He is head of the court of the gods that judges between Neptune and Pallas regarding their right to the city of Athens.
Bk VI:103-128. Arachne depicts his rapes of Europa, Leda, Asterie, Antiope, Alcmena, Danaë, Aegina, Mnemosyne, and Proserpine.
Bk VI:486-548. Bk XV:361-390. The eagle is his representative bird.
Bk VII:350-403. He sank the Telchines of Rhodes under the sea.
Bk VII:501-613. The sacrifices to him during the plague at Aegina have no effect.
Bk VII:614-660. He finally answers Aeacus’s prayer and repopulates the city by changing the ants into people, the Myrmidons.
Bk VII:796-865. Procris would prefer Cephalus’s bed to his.
Bk VIII:81-151. Minos calls Crete the cradle of Jove. Minos is his son by Europa.
Bk VIII:260-328. The Athenians pray to him, and the other gods.
Bk VIII:611-678. Disguised as a mortal he visits Philemon and Baucis with Mercury, his son.
Bk VIII:679-724. Jupiter is referred to as Saturnius, the son of Saturn. He transforms Philemon and Baucis into trees, an oak and a lime-tree.
Bk IX:1-88. Bk IX:89-158. Bk IX:211-272. Bk IX:273-323.
Bk XV:1-59. He is the father of Hercules by Alcmena. Hercules sacrifices to him at Cenaeum in Euboea.
Bk IX:211-272. He addresses the gods before setting Hercules in the sky as a new constellation.
Bk IX:394-417. Themis prophesies he will intervene in the war of the Seven against Thebes, destroying Capaneus, and aiding the subsequent chain of revenge.
Bk IX:418-438. Bk IX:439-516. He explains the power of fate to the other gods. He recognises the piety and love for him displayed by Aeacus, and the just nature of the lawgivers Minos and Rhadamanthus.
Bk IX:439-516. Bk XIII:481-575. He married his sister Juno.
Bk X:143-219. Bk XI:749-795. In the form of an eagle he abducted Ganymede.
Bk XI:194-220. Bk XI:266-345. The grandfather of Peleus (through Aegina) and his father-in-law (through Thetis). There was an altar of Panomphaean (‘source of all oracles’) Jupiter the Thunderer (Tonaus) near Troy.
Bk XI:221-265. He yields Thetis to Peleus because of a prophecy.
Bk XII:39-63. The creator of distant thunder.
Bk XIII:1-122. The father of Aeacus, by Aegina. He aids the Trojans in attacking the Greek ships.
Bk XIII:123-381. Ajax and Ulysses are both great-grandsons of Jupiter through the male line. Ajax through Telamon and Aeacus, Ulysses through Laërtes and Arcesius.
Bk XIII:123-381. Agamemnon dreamed that Jupiter ordered him to abandon the war.
Bk XIII:399-428. Priam is murdered at his altar as Troy falls.
Bk XIII:576-622. He grants Aurora’s request and creates the Memnonides, a flock of warring birds, to commemorate Memnon.
Bk XIII:705-737. He plagues Aeneas’s people on Crete until they are forced to leave. (See Virgils’ Aeneid III:130-160)
Bk XIII:705-737. He saves Munichus, the Molossian king, and his family changing them into birds.
Bk XIII:789-869. Polyphemus compares himself in size to Jove.
Bk XIV:75-100. Jupiter changes the Cercopes into monkeys.
Bk XIV:566-580. He allows the deification of Aeneas.
Bk XIV:805-828. He agrees to the deification of Romulus.
Bk XV:60-142. Pythagoras questioned as to whether thunder and lightning were merely natural phenomena, and not caused by Jupiter.
Bk XV:745-842. Jupiter grants Caesar deification, and prophesies Augustus’s achievements.
Bk XV:843-870. Jupiter surpasses his father Saturn, as Augustus surpasses Julius Caesar. He is worshipped on the Tarpeian citadel, the Capitoline Hill.
Bk XV:871-879. Ovid’s work is secure from Jupiter’s, and therefore also Augustus’s anger, he being Jupiter incarnate, implying perhaps that Ovid may have retouched the envoi after Augustus’s death in AD14, and before his own death in AD17, as his last word, never having been pardoned by Augustus, but claiming now his own immortality.
Ixion
King of the Lapithae, father of Pirithoüs, and of the Centaurs.
Bk IV:416-463. Punished in Hades for attempting to seduce Juno. He was fastened to a continually turning wheel.
Bk VIII:376-424. Bk VIII:611-678. The father of Pirithoüs.
Bk IX:89-158. The father of Nessus and the other centaurs.
Bk X:1-85. His punishment in the underworld ceases for a time at the sound of Orpheus’s song.
Bk XII:210-244. Bk XII:290-326. His son is Pirithoüs.
Bk XII:429-535. He had attempted to seduce Juno, but Jupiter created a false image of her, caught Ixion in the act with this simulacrum, and bound him to a fiery wheel that rolls through the sky (or turns in the Underworld).
Ixionides
Bk VIII:547-610. Pirithoüs, as the son of Ixion.