Ovid - The Metamorphoses: Index - A

Abanteus

Of Abas, King of Argos. Argive.

Abantiades

Bk V:107-148Bk V:200-249. An epithet of Perseus, as the great-grandson of Abas.

Abaris

Bk V:74-106. A Caucasian. A companion of Phineus killed by Perseus.

Abas(1)

Bk IV:604-662BkXV:143-175. King of Argos, father of Acrisius, great grandfather of Perseus.

Abas(2)

Bk XIV:483-511. A companion of DiomedeVenus transforms him into a bird.

Abas(3)

Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.

Abas(4)

Bk V:107-148. A warrior friend of Perseus.

Absyrtus

Bk VII:1-74Medea’s young brother.

Acarnania

Bk VIII:547-610. A coastal region of western central Greece, bordering the Ionian Sea, bounded to the south-east by the River Acheloüs, and scene of the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Acastus

King of Iolchos in Thessaly, son of Pelias.

Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk XI:346-409. He absolves Peleus of blood-guilt.

Acestes

Bk XIV:75-100. A Trojan, a friend of Aeneas, living at Eryx on Sicily. Aeneas visits him, and sacrifices, and pays honour at his father, Anchises’s tomb, who had previously died there. (See Virgil, The Aeneid III 700, and V)

Achaemenides

Bk XIV:154-222. A companion of Ulysses, wrongly believed lost near Aetna.

Achaia

Bk III:511-527Bk V:294-331Bk VII:501-613. A name for the Greek mainland, derived from a region in the northern Peloponnese. Hence the Acheans, for the name of the people who fought against Troy in Homer’s Iliad.

Bk IV:604-662. Its peoples accept the worship of Bacchus.

Bk V:572-641Arethusa’s country.

Bk VII:100-158. The Argonauts are Achaeans.

Bk VIII:260-328. It is threatened by Diana’s avenging wild boar.

Bk XII:64-145. The country of the Greeks, who attack Troy.

Bk XV:259-306. It contained the destroyed cities of Helice and Buris.

Acheloïa

Bk IX:394-417Callirhoë, daughter of Acheloüs.

Acheloïdes

Bk V:533-571. The Sirens, the daughters of Acheloüs.

Acheloüs

Bk VIII:547-610. A river and river god, whose waters separated Acarnania and Aetolia. He offers hospitality to Theseus and his companions and tells the story of Perimele.

Bk VIII:611-678Pirithoüs accuses him of too much credulity concerning the power of the gods to alter human forms.

Bk VIII:725-776. He tells of Proteus, and of Erysichthon.

Bk VIII:843-884. He tells of Mestra.

Bk IX:1-88. He tells the story of how he wrestled with Hercules and lost one of his horns.

Bk IX:89-158. He is fortunate compared to Nessus.

Bk XIV:75-100. The Sirens are his daughters.

Acheron

A river of the underworld, the underworld itself.

Bk V:533-571. The god of the river, father of Ascalaphus by the nymph Orphne.

Bk XI:474-572. It is in the deepest pit of the infernal regions.

Achilles

The Greek hero of the Trojan War. The son of Peleus, king of Thessaly, and the sea-goddess Thetis, (See Homer’s Iliad).

Bk VIII:260-328. His father is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk XI:221-265. He is conceived when Peleus holds the shape-changing Thetis, and forces her to adopt her true form.

Bk XII:64-145. He is a Greek hero at Troy, and defeats the seemingly invulnerable Cycnus(3).

Bk XII:146-209. He sacrifices to Pallas, and asks Nestor to tell the story of Caeneus.

Bk XII:290-326. Nestor tells him of his father’s armour bearer.

Bk XII:579-628Bk XIII:481-575. He is killed by Paris’s arrow, at Apollo’s instigation. The Greeks dispute over the ownership of his armour.

Bk XIII:123-381. Victim of an unequal fate. (He famously wished for a short and glorious life, rather than a long, inglorious one.) Dolon was promised his horses for spying on the Greeks.

Bk XIII:429-480. He appears as a ghost demanding the sacrifice of Polyxena.

Bk XIII:576-622. He had killed Memnon in battle.

Bk XV:843-870. His achievements surpass those of his father Peleus.

Acis

The lover of Galatea. The son of Faunus and Symaethis.

(See Claude Lorrain’s painting – Landscape with Acis and Galatea – Gemäldegalerie, Dresden)

Bk XIII:738-788Galatea loves him.

Bk XIII:789-869Polyphemus threatens him.

Bk XIII:870-897. Polyphemus kills him with a rock and he is changed by Galatea into his ancestral form of a river.

Acmon

Bk XIV:483-511. A companion of Diomede. He insults Venus and is transformed into a bird.

Acoetes

Bk III:572-596. A Tyrrhenian from Maeonia, a ship’s captain and priest of Bacchus, captured by Pentheus. There is the suggestion later that Acoetes is a manifestation of Bacchus himself (‘nec enim praesentior illo est deus’). (See Euripides: The Bacchae)

Bk III:597-637. He tells of them finding Bacchus on Chios, and how he knew that the boy was a god, and tried to avoid sacrilege.

Bk III:638-691. He escapes the transformation of the ship and crew by Bacchus.

Bk III:692-733. He vanishes from Pentheus’s prison mysteriously.

Aconteus

Bk V:200-249. A companion of  Perseus, inadvertently turned to stone.

Acrisioniades

Bk V:30-73Perseus, as the grandson of Acrisius.

Acrisius

Bk III:528-571. King of Argos, the son of Abas, father of Danaë, and grandfather of Perseus. He opposed the worship of Bacchus-Dionysus.

Bk IV:604-662. He rejects the divine origin of Bacchus and Perseus, but will live to regret it. He is kin to Cadmus and to Bacchus son of Semele, Cadmus’s daughter, because Danaüs is his ancestor whose line runs back to Belus, brother of Agenor, who is father of Cadmus. Both Belus and Agenor are sons of Neptune.

Bk V:200-249. He is ousted by his brother Proetus, but has his kingdom restored to him, though little deserving it, by Perseus.

Acropolis

Confused with Areopagus.

Acrota

Bk XIV:609-622. A mythical Alban king.

Actaeon

Bk III:138-164. Grandson of Cadmus, son of Autonoë, called Hyantius from an ancient name for Boeotia.

Bk III:165-205. He sees Diana bathing naked and is turned into a stag.

Bk III:206-231. He is pursued by his hounds. The dogs are named.

Bk III:232-252. He is torn to pieces by his own pack. (See the Metope of Temple E at Selinus – the Death of Actaeon – Palermo, National Museum: and Titian’s painting – the Death of Actaeon – National Gallery, London.)

Actaeus

Bk II:531-565. Atticus, belonging to Attica in Greece.

Bk II:708-736. The Actaean hill, referring to the Athenian Acropolis.

Book VI:675-721. Used of Orithyia of Athens.

Bk VIII:152-182Minos demands a tribute of young men and girls selected by lot every nine years from Athens to feed the Minotaur.

Actium

The promontory in Epirus site of the famous naval battle in the bay between Octavian (later Augustus Caesar) and Antony in 31BC. (It lies opposite the modern port of Préveza on the Gulf of Amvrakia.)

Antony was defeated by Octavians’ admiral, Agrippa and the outcome led to Cleopatra’s downfall.

Bk XIII:705-737. Passed by Aeneas. Associated with Apollo.

Actorides

A descendant of Actor.

Bk V:74-106. Of Eurytus.

Bk VIII:260-328. Eurytus and Cleatus present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Admetus, see Pheretiades

Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Adonis

The son of Myrrha by her father Cinyras, born after her transformation into a myrrh-tree. (As such he is a vegetation god born from the heart of the wood.)

Bk X:503-559Venus falls in love with him.

Bk X:560-637. She tells him the story of Atalanta and Hippomenes.

Bk X:681-707. She warns him to avoid savage creatures.

Bk X:708-739. He ignores her warning and is killed by a wild boar that gashes his thigh. His blood becomes the windflower, the anemone.

Aeacides

Bk VII:453-500. The descendants of Aeacus.

Bk VII:796-865Phocus as a son of Aeacus.

Bk VIII:1-80. The troops mustered on Aegina to fight Minos.

Bk XI:221-265Bk XI:266-345Bk XI:346-409Bk XII:290-326Peleus son of Aeacus.

Bk XII:64-145Bk XII:579-628Bk XIII:481-575Achilles as the son of Peleus.

Bk XIII:1-122Ajax and Achilles whose fathers were the brothers Peleus and Telamon.

Aeacus

Bk VII:453-500. The son of Jupiter and Aegina, grandson of Asopus, the river-god of the north-eastern Peloponnese. He names his island, in the Saronic gulf, Aegina after his mother. Its ancient name was Oenopia. He refuses to ally himself with Minos against Athens.

Bk VII:501-613. He recounts the history of the plague at Aegina.

Bk VII:796-865. He provides Cephalus with men and weapons.

Bk IX:418-438Bk IX:439-516Jupiter recognising his piety wishes that he could remove the burden of old age from him.

Bk XI:194-220. The father of Telamon and Peleus.

Bk XI:221-265. The father of Peleus.

Bk XIII:1-122. The father of Telamon, and grandfather of Ajax. The acknowledged son of Jupiter by Aegina.

Aeas

Bk I:568-587. A river in Epirus.

Aeetes

King of Colchis, son of Sol and the Oceanid Perse, brother of Circe, and father of Medea.

Bk VII:1-73. The Argonauts reach his court, and request the return of the Golden Fleece. This fleece was that of the divine ram on which Phrixus had fled from Orchemonos, to avoid being sacrificed. Iolcus could never prosper until it was brought back to Thessaly. King Aeetes is reluctant and sets Jason demanding tasks as a pre-condition for its return.

Bk VII:159-178Medea regrets her betrayal of her father and country.

Aeetias

Medea, as the daughter of Aeetes.

Aegaeon

Bk II:1-30. Briareus, one of the hundred-handed giants. A name also for the earliest Heracles. He is depicted on the palace of the Sun.

Aegaeus, Aegean

The Aegean Sea between Greece and Asia Minor.

Bk IX:439-516Miletus crosses it to found the city of that name in Asia Minor.

Bk XI:650-709Ceyx is drowned there in a southerly gale.

Aegeus

Bk VII:350-403. The father of Theseus, a king of Athens, and son of Pandion. He gives refuge to Medea and marries her.

Bk VII:404-424. His son Theseus by Aethra, daughter of Pittheus of Troezen, is unknown to him, but comes to Athens. Aegeus recognises a sword he has left under a stone, as a trial, successfully attained by Theseus, in time to dash Medea’s poisoned cup from Theseus’s lips.

Bk VII:425-452. He gives thanks for Theseus’s escape.

Bk VII:453-500. He prepares for war with Minos of Crete.

Bk XV:843-870. He is surpassed by his son Theseus.

Aegides

Bk VIII:152-182Bk VIII:376-424Bk XII:290-326Theseus, son of Aegeus.

Aegina(1)

The daughter of the river god Asopus (of the north-eastern Peloponnese), hence called Asopis.

Bk VI:103-128 . Arachne depicts her rape by Jupiter in the form of a flame.

Bk VII:453-500Aeacus her son names the island of Aegina(2) after her.

Bk VII:614-660. Aeacus invokes her in his plea to Jupiter.

Bk XI:194-220. Her grandsons are Telamon and Peleus allowing them to claim Jupiter as their grandfather.

Aegina(2)

Bk VII:453-500. An island in the Saronic Sea between Attica and Argolis. Named by Aeacus after his mother. Once called Oenopia.

It refuses to aid Minos in his war on Attica. (The later conflict with Athens compelled the surrender of the island in 459BC and its destruction as an economic power.)

Aegyptius

Of Egypt, the north African country.

Bk V:294-331. Pretended by the Emathides to have given refuge to the gods in their war with the giants.

Bk XV:745-842. Ruled by Cleopatra.

Aëllo

Bk XIII:705-737. A harpy on the islands of the Strophades encountered by Aeneas.

Aeneades

Bk XV:622-745. A descendant of Aeneas. The Romans.

Aeneas

Bk XV:745-842. A Trojan prince, the son of Venus and Anchises, and the hero of Virgil’s Aeneid.

(See Turner’s etching and painting, The Golden Bough- British Museum and Tate Gallery)

Bk XIII:623-639. He leaves ruined Troy carrying his father, and the sacred icons of Venus, and, with his son Ascanius also, sails to Delos where he sacrifices to the Delian gods.

Bk XIII:640-674Bk XIII:675-704. He consults the oracle of Apollo and is told to seek out his ancient mother and ancestral shores. He receives the gift of a cup of Alcon’s design from King Anius of Delos.

Bk XIII:705-737. He reaches Crete, and then sails to Sicily. (See Virgil, The Aneid III)

Bk XIV:75-100. He reaches Carthage, deserts Dido, and reaches Cumae. (See Virgil, The Aeneid I, IV, and V)

Bk XIV:101-153. He visits the Sibyl, who conducts him to the Underworld, having plucked the golden bough. He sees his father’s shade in the fields of Elysium. (See Virgil, The Aeneid VI)

Bk XIV:154-222. Bk XV:622-745. He returns from the Underworld, and sails from Cumae north, along the western Italian coast, to Caieta (modern Gaeta) where he marks the funeral of Caieta his old nurse, who gives her name to the place. (See Virgil’s Aeneid, the opening lines of book VII.)

Bk XIV:435-444. He sets up Caieta’s tomb and inscribes an epitaph.

Bk XIV:445-482. He wins the throne of Latinus, and marries his daughter, Lavinia. He wages war with the Rutulians under Turnus, and is supported by Evander.

Bk XIV:566-580. He is deified as Indiges.

Bk XV:418-452Helenus prophesied that Aeneas carried the destiny of Troy and its descendant city, Rome.

Bk XV:745-842Venus once saved him from Diomede, by veiling him in a cloud.

Bk XV:843-870. Ovid calls on the gods friendly to Aeneas.

Aeolia virgo

Bk VI:103-128Canace, the daughter of Aeolus. Her rape by Neptune in the form of a bull is depicted by Arachne.

Aeolides

A descendant of Aeolus.

Book IV:512-542. Applied to his son Athamas.

Book VI:675-721. Applied to his grandson Cephalus.

Bk IX:439-516. The six sons of Aeolus by his wife Enarete, who married their six sisters. Robert Graves suggests they were all Titans, and not bound by the rules of incest, and that the parents and six pairs of children represented the seven planetary deities.

Bk XIII:1-122. Applied to Sisyphus.

Bk XIV:101-153. Applied to Misenus.

Aeolis

Bk XI:573-649Alcyone, the daughter of Aeolus.

Aeolius

Bk VII:350-403. Of Aeolis in Asia Minor.

Aeolus

Bk I:244-273Bk XIV:75-100. The king of the winds. His cave is on the islands of Lipari (the Aeolian Islands) that include Stromboli, off Sicily.

Bk IV:464-511Juno is angry at his son Athamas, and contemplates his other son, Sisyphus in Hades.

Bk IV:663-705. He imprisons the winds in the cave below Etna.

Bk VI:103-128. He is the father of Canace.

Bk VII:350-403Bk XI:410-473. The father of Alcyone.

Bk XI:474-572Ceyx calls to him, as his father-in-law, in extremis.

Bk XI:710-748. Aeolus calms the sea for seven days in winter, ‘the halcyon days’, while the transformed Alcyone rears his grandsons.

Bk XIV:223-319. He rules the Tuscan deep. He gives Ulysses the winds imprisoned in a bull’s hide bag.

Aesacus

Bk XI:749-795. The son of Priam and Alexirrhoë, a prince of Troy, and half-brother to Hector.

Bk XI:749-795. He chases Hesperie who is killed by a snake. In penance he tries to kill himself, but is turned by Tethys into a diving bird, probably the merganser, mergus serrator, from mergus, a diver.

Bk XII:1-38. His father Priam mourns for him thinking him dead.

Aesar

Bk XV:1-59. A river in Lower Italy. The site of Crotona.

Aesculapius

Bk II:612-632. The son of Coronis and Apollo. He is saved by Apollo from his mother’s body and given to Chiron the Centaur to rear. He is represented in the sky by the constellation Ophiucus near Scorpius, depicting a man entwined in the coils of a serpent, consisting of the split constellation, Serpens Cauda and Serpens Caput, which contains Barnard’s star, having the greatest proper motion of any star and being the second nearest to the sun.

Bk II:633-675. His fate is foretold by Ocyrhoë.

Bk XV:479-546. He restores Hippolytus to life.

Bk XV:622-745. He saves Rome from the plague, and becomes a resident god. His cult centre was Epidaurus where there was a statue of the god with a golden beard. Cicero mentions that Dionysius the Elder, Tyrant of Syracuse wrenched off the gold. (‘On the Nature of the Gods, Bk III 82)

Aeson

Thessalian prince of Iolchos, father of Iason. His half-brother Pelias usurped his throne.

Bk VII:74-99Bk VII:100-158 . Jason is his son.

Bk VII:159-178. He is near death, so Jason asks Medea to renew his life.

Bk VII:234-293. Medea restores his youth.

Aesonides, Aesonius heros

Bk VII:1-73Bk VII:74-99Bk VII:159-178.  Bk VII:234-293.

Bk VIII:376-424Jason, the son of Aeson.

Aethalion

Bk III:638-691. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.

Aethion

Bk V:107-148. An Ethiopian prophet, killed in the fight between Perseus and Phineus.

Aethiopia, Aethiops

Bk II:227-271. The country Ethiopia in north-east Africa bordering the Red Sea, containing the Mountains of the Moon. During Phaethon’s fatal chariot ride the sun burnt the skins of its peoples black. Aethiops, means Ethiopian.

Bk V:107-148. Culmination of the fight at Cepheus’s court. He is an Ethiopian king.

Bk XV:307-360. The country has lakes with waters that cause delerium.

Aethon

Bk II:150-177. One of the four horses of the Sun.

Aetna

Bk II:201-226. A volcanic mountain in Sicily.

Bk IV:663-705Aeolus imprisons the winds there.

Bk V:332-384Bk XIV:1-74. It covers the head of the giant, Typhoeus.

Bk V:425-486. Ceres lights her torches at Etna’s fires in her search for Persephone in the night.

Bk VIII:260-328. It is a distinguishing feature of Sicily.

Bk XIII:738-788Telemus the seer arrives there.

Bk XIII:789-869Polyphemus compares the fire of love to having Aetna’s fires inside his breast.

Bk XIII:870-897. His voice shakes Aetna.

Bk XIV:1-74Glaucus leaves it behind.

Bk XIV:154-222. Achaemenides was wrongly believed lost there.

Bk XV:307-360. Volcanic action.

Aetola arma

Bk XIV:527-565. The assistance of Diomede.

Aetolia

Bk XIV:445-482. The region of eastern mid-Greece containing Calydon and Chalcis. Diomede is its hero.

Bk XIV:527-565. He refuses help to the Rutuli.

Aetolius heros

Bk XIV:445-482Diomede.

Agamemnon

The king of Mycenae, son of Atreus, brother of Menelaüs, husband of Clytaemnestra, father of OrestesIphigenia, and Electra. The leader of the Greek army in the Trojan War. See Homer’s Iliad, and Aeschylus’s Oresteian tragedies.

Bk XII:579-628. He dares not compete for the arms of Achilles and passes the responsibility for choosing between Aiax and Ulysses to the assembled captains.

Bk XII:1-38Bk XIII:123-381. He sacrificed Iphigenia at Aulis.

Bk XIII:123-381. Prompted by a dream he was prepared to abandon the war.

Bk XIII:429-480. He moors the fleet on a Thracian beach returning from Troy, and there Achilles’s ghost appears demanding the sacrifice of Polyxena.

Bk XIII:640-674. He snatches the daughters of Anius.

Bk XV:843-870. He surpasses his father Atreus.

Aganippe

Bk V:294-331. A famous fountain of the Muses on Mount Helicon. Pausanias says (Bk IX:xxix, Boeotia) that Aganippe was a daughter of Termessos, another stream on the mountain

Agave

A daughter of Cadmus, who married Echion and was the mother of Pentheus.

Bk III:692-733. A Maenad, she destroys her son Pentheus, not recognising him in the madness of the sacred mysteries.

Agenor

Bk II:833-875Europa’s father. King of Phoenicia, son of Neptune, father of Cadmus and brother of Belus. His capital cities are Sidon and Tyre in the Lebanon.

Bk III:1-49. His son is Cadmus whom he sends to find Europa.

Bk III:50-94. His son Cadmus kills the Serpent.

Bk III:95-114. Cadmus sows the Dragon’s teeth.

Agenorides

A descendant of Agenor.

Bk IV:563-603Cadmus.

Bk IV:753-803Perseus.

Aglauros, Cecropides

Bk II:531-565. One of the three daughters of King Cecrops.

Bk II:737-751Mercury elicits her help.

Bk II:787-811Envy poisons her heart.

BkII:812-832. She is turned to stone by Mercury.

Agyrtes

Bk V:107-148. An Ethiopian killed in the fight between Perseus and Phineus.

Aiax(1)

A hero of the Trojan War, the son of Telamon and grandson of Aeacus.

Bk X:143-219Bk XIII:382-398. He shares with Hyacinthus the flower (hyacinthos grapta – the blue larkspur) that bears the marks of woe, AI AI, and that spells his name, ΑΙΑΣ.

Bk XII:579-628. He competes for the arms of Achilles.

Bk XIII:1-122. He speaks in his own cause, attacking Ulysses. He fought in single combat with Hector and was undefeated, rescued Ulysses, and saved the ships.

Bk XIII:123-381. Ulysses responds with a speech extolling intelligence above mere brawn and courage, and arguing that a man should be judged on his abilities not his ancestry. He was deceived by Achilles’s female disguise. He was ready to turn tail when Agamemnon gave the order to abandon the war.

Bk XIII:382-398. Defeated in the contest for the arms, he kills himself in his rage. From his blood a flower grows, see above.

Aiax(2)

Bk XII:579-628Bk XIII:1-122. Aiax moderatior ‘the lesser’. The son of Oileus. He dare not compete for the arms of Achilles.

Bk XIV:445-482. His rape of Cassandra brought the wrath of Minerva on the Greeks.

Alastor

Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.

Alba

Bk XIV:609-622Bk XIV:623-697. Of the early Latin kingdom. Also the king who succeeded Latinus.

Albula

Bk XIV:320-396. The Tiber. An ancient name for the river of Rome.

Alcander

Bk XIII:123-381. A Lycian, killed by Ulysses.

Alcathoüs

Bk VII:425-452. The son of Pelops, founder of the city of Megara, hence Megara is called urbs Alcathoï. Near Megara is the place where Theseus killed Sciron.

Bk VIII:1-80. A term for the city of Megara on the Isthmus.

Alcidamas

Bk VII:350-403. The father of Ctesylla. An inhabitant of Carthaea. His daughter gave birth to a dove.

Alcimedon

Bk III:597-637. A seaman, companion of Acoetes.

Alcides

A descendant of Alceus, father of Amphitryon, usually applied to Hercules his reputed son.

Bk IX:1-88Bk IX:89-158Bk IX:211-272Bk XI:194-220.

Bk XII:536-579. Of Hercules.

Alcinoüs

Bk XIV:527-565. The king of the Phaeacians (Phaeacia is probably Corcyra, =Corfu), on whose coast Ulysses was washed ashore. One of his ships was turned to stone. See Homer, The Odyssey XIII.

Alcithoë, Minyeïas

Bk IV:1-30. The daughter of Minyas, who opposed the worship of Bacchus.

Bk IV:274-316. She tells the story of Salmacis.

Alcmaeon

Bk IX:394-417. The son of Amphiaraüs and Eriphyle. He avenges his father’s death, and is in turn murdered in the chain of revenge following the war of the Seven against ThebesThemis prophesies  the events.

Alcmena, Alcmene

The daughter of Electryon king of Tiryns, wife of Amphitryon, and mother of Hercules by the god Jupiter.

Bk VI:103-128Arachne depicts her rape by Jupiter disguised as Amphitryon.

Bk VIII:515-546Deianira, wife of Hercules, sister of Meleager, is her daughter-in-law.

Bk IX:1-88. The mother of Hercules.

Bk IX:211-272. His funeral pyre attacks only the mortal part of him inherited from Alcmene.

Bk IX:273-323. She tells of Hercules’s birth and the transformation of her servant Galanthis.

Bk IX:394-417. She comforts Iole. Iolaüs, her grandson, appears to them, his youth renewed. (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.)

Alcon

Bk XIII:675-704. A Boeotian, and a famous engraver.

Alcyone

Bk VII:350-403. The daughter of Aeolus, granddaughter of Polypemon, and wife of Ceyx, changed into a kingfisher or halcyon. They foolishly compared themselves to Juno and Jupiter, for which the gods drowned Ceyx in a storm. Alcyone leapt into the sea to join him, and both were transformed into kingfishers. In antiquity it was believed that the hen-kingfisher layed her eggs in a floating nest in the Halcyon Days around the winter solstice, when the sea is made calm by Aeolus, Alcyone’s father. (The kingfisher actually lays its eggs in a hole, normally in a riverbank, by freshwater and not by seawater.)

Bk XI:346-409. She begs Ceyx not to fight the wolf from the marsh.

Bk XI:410-473. She reproaches him for leaving her in order to visit the oracle.

Bk XI:474-572. Ceyx calls to her as he is drowning.

Bk XI:573-649. She prays for his return at Juno’s shrine.

Bk XI:650-709. In a dream Morpheus reveals himself in the form of Ceyx and tells her of his death.

Bk XI:710-748. His body returns to her on the tide, and they are transformed into halcyons.

Alemon

Bk XV:1-59. The father of Myscelos, and founder of Crotona in Italy.

Alemonides

Bk XV:1-59Myscelos, son of Alemon.

Alexiroë, Alexirrhoë

Bk XI:749-795. A nymph, the daughter of the river god Granicus, and the mother of Aesacus by Priam.

Almo

Bk XIV:320-396. A tributary of the Tiber.

Aloïdae

The sons of Aloeus, namely Otus and Ephialtes, who are actually the children of Neptune by Iphimeida wife of Aloeus.

Bk VI:103-128Arachne depicts the rape by Neptune.

Alpes

Bk II:201-226Bk XIV:772-804. The Alps mountain chain in northern Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France etc.

Alpheïas

Bk V:487-532Arethusa, loved by Alpheus the river god.

Alphenor

Bk VI:204-266. One of Niobe’s seven sons killed by Apollo and Diana.

Alpheus

Bk II:227-271. A river and river-god of Elis in western Greece. Olympia is near the lower reaches of the river. (The idea for Coleridge’s ‘Alph, the sacred river’ in Kubla Khan?)

Bk V:487-532. He loves Arethusa.

Bk V:572-641. He merges with Arethusa after she has turned to water.

Althaea

Bk VIII:425-450. The mother of Meleager, and wife of Oeneus, king of Calydon. The sister of the ThestiadaePlexippus and Toxeus. She seeks revenge for their deaths at the hands of her own son, Meleager.

Bk VIII:451-514. She throws into the fire the piece of wood that is linked to Meleager’s life, and which she once rescued from the flames, at the time of the Fates prophecy to her.

Amathus

Bk X:220-242. Bk X:503-559. A city of Cyprus, sacred to Venus. A place with rich mineral deposits, famous for its mines.

Amazon

Bk XV:552-621. One of the Amazons, a race of warlike women living by the River Thermodon, probably based on the Scythian warrior princesses of the Black Sea area (See Herodotus). In particular Hippolyte the mother of Hippolytus by Theseus.

Ambracia

Bk XIII:705-737. A city of Epirus in north western Greece. The land there one fought over by the gods. The judge in the contest was turned to stone. Aeneas passes it.

Amenanus

Bk XV:259-306. A river of Sicily, subject to variable flow.

Ammon(1)

Bk IV:663-705Bk V:1-29. An Egyptian and Libyan god, worshipped in the form of a Ram-headed deity, identified by the Romans and Greeks with Jupiter and Zeus.

Ammon(2)

Bk V:107-148. A famous boxer, friend of Perseus, brother of Broteas, killed by Phineus.

AmorCupid

Bk I:473-503. God of love.

Bk I:601-621. Opposes Shame (Pudor) in Jupiter’s mind over the sacrifice of Io as a gift to Juno.

Bk IV:753-803. He waves the marriage torch with Hymen at Perseus’s marriage to Andromeda.

Bk V:332-384. His power is linked to that of Venus Aphrodite.

Bk X:1-85. He has power even in Hades.

Bk X:503-559. He is often portrayed naked with his quiver, and is compared to Adonis.

Amphiaraüs

A Greek seer, one of the heroes, the Oeclides, at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. The son of Oecleus, father of Alcmaeon, and husband of Eriphyle.

Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk IX:394-417. Fighting in the war of the Seven against Thebes he is swallowed up alive by the earth.

Amphimedon

Bk V:74-106. A Libyan follower of Phineus, killed by Perseus.

Amphion

Bk XV:418-452. The husband of Niobe, and son of Jupiter and Antiope. The King of Thebes.

Bk VI:146-203. His art is mentioned, that is his magical use of the lyre. His music enabled him to build the walls of Thebes.

Bk VI:204-266. The death of his seven sons.

Bk VI:267-312. He kills himself in grief.

Bk VI:401-438. He and his children are mourned, and Niobe blamed.

Amphissos

Bk IX:324-393. The son of Apollo and Dryope. He founded the city of Oeta and built a temple of Apollo there

Amphitrite

Bk I:1-30.  A sea-goddess, daughter of Nereus and wife of Neptune. The Nereid whom Poseidon married, here representing the sea. He had courted Thetis another of the Nereids but desisted when it was prophesied that any son born to her would be greater than his father. Thetis bore Achilles.

Amphitryon

The son of Alceus, and king of Thebes, husband of Alcmena and supposed father of Hercules.

Bk VI:103-128Arachne depicts how Jupiter disguised as Amphitryon raped Alcmene.

Bk IX:89-158Bk XV:1-59. Hercules is his reputed son.

Amphitryoniades

Bk XV:1-59. Hercules, as the supposed son of Amphitryon.

Amphrisia saxa

Bk XV:622-745. Unknown rocks in lower Italy, near to the cliffs of Cocinthus.

Amphrysus

Bk I:568-587. A river in Thessaly.

Bk VII:179-233Medea gathers magic herbs there.

Ampycides

Mopsus, son of Ampyx.

Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk VIII:329-375. He strikes the boar, but Diana has stolen his spear point in flight.

Bk XII:429-535. He is present at the battle of Lapiths and Centaurs.

Ampycus

Bk V:107-148. A priest of Ceres, killed by Phineus.

Ampyx(1)

Bk V:149-199. A follower of Phineus, turned to stone by the Gorgon’s head.

Bk VIII:260-328. His son Mopsus is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Ampyx(2)

Bk XII:429-535. One of the Lapithae.

Amulius

Bk XIV:772-804. The younger son of the Alban king Proca. He usurped his elder brother Numitor, but was dethroned by Romulus and Remus the grandsons of Numitor.

Amyclae

A town in Laconia.

Bk VIII:260-328. Home of Hippocoön, and of his sons who are present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk X:143-219. The home of Hyacinthus.

Amyclides

An epithet of Hyacinthus as the descendant of Amyclas, builder of Amyclae.

Amycus

Bk XII:245-289. A centaur. He kills Celadon and is killed by Pelates at the battle of the Lapiths and Centaurs.

Amymone

Bk II:227-271. A famous spring at Argos.

Amyntor

Bk VIII:260-328. King of the Dolopians of Thessaly, father of Phoenix.

Bk XII:290-326. Gives Crantor to Peleus to be his armour-bearer, as a peace-pledge after defeat in battle.

Amythaon

Bk XV:307-360. The son of Cretheus, and father of Melampus, noted for wisdom.

Anaphe

An island in the Cyclades.

Bk VII:453-500. Allied to Crete.

Anapis

Bk V:385-424. A river and river god of Sicily, who loves Cyane.

Anaxarete

Bk XIV:698-771. A maiden of Cyprus. She rejects Iphis, and is turned to stone.

Ancaeus

An Arcadian.

Bk VIII:260-328. He is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bk VIII:376-424. He is killed by the boar.

Bk VIII:515-546Meleager envies him his honourable death.

Anchises

The son of Capys and father of Aeneas by the goddess Venus.

Bk IX:418-438. Venus wishes to ward off old age from him.

Bk XIII:640-674. He asks after Anius’s children.

Bk XIII:675-704. Anius gives him the parting gift of a sceptre.

Bk XIV:75-100Aeneas pays honour at his tomb, he having died at Drepanum (Trapani) in Sicily. (Note: Trapani was the site of the naval battle of 241BC when the Roman fleet defeated the Carthaginians ending the first Punic War)

Bk XIV:101-153. Aeneas meets his ghost in Avernus.

Andraemon(1)

Bk IX:324-393. The father of Amphissus, and husband of Dryope.

Andraemon(2)

Bk XIII:1-122. An Aetolian king, father of Thoas.

Androgeos

Bk VII:453-500. A son of Minos, King of Crete. Killed while visiting Attica, Minos sets out to avenge him.

Andromeda

The daughter of Cepheus, the Ethiopian King, and Cassiope, who was chained to a rock and exposed to a sea-monster Cetus because of her mother’s sin. She is represented by the constellation Andromeda which contains the Andromeda galaxy M31 a spiral like our own, the most distant object visible to the naked eye. Cetus is represented by the constellation of Cetus, the Whale, between Pisces and Eridanus which contains the variable star, Mira.

Bk IV:663-705. She is chained to a rock for her mother’s fault and Perseus offers to rescue her. (See Burne-Jones’s oil paintings and gouaches in the Perseus series, particularly The Rock of Doom)

Bk IV:753-803. He kills the sea serpent and claims her as his bride.

Andros

Son of Anius, ruler of one of the Cycladic islands named after him.

Bk VII:453-500. The island is not allied to Crete.

Bk XIII:640-674. He holds the kingship of the island in his father’s place, has the power of prophecy, and surrenders two of his sisters to Agamemnon.

Anemone

Bk X:708-739. The flower that sprang from the blood of Adonis. The windflower.

Anguis, The Serpent

Bk II:111-149. The constellation of the Serpent, near the constellation Scorpius, and above the ecliptic (right of it, as the sun travels annually along it) in the northern hemisphere. It is separated into two parts, Serpens Cauda, and Serpens Caput, the tail and the head.

Anigrus

Bk XV:259-306. A river of Elis in south-western Greece. Its waters were said to be poisoned by the centaur Pylenor, shot by Hercules with a poisoned arrow. Pausanias gives the background and confirms the chemical foulness of the water. (See Pausanias V 5)   

Anio

Bk XIV:320-396. A river in Latium.

Anius

Bk XIII:623-639. The king, and high priest of Apollo, on Delos. He welcomes Aeneas.

Bk XIII:640-674. He tells of his son and daughters.

Antaeus

Bk IX:159-210. A Libyan giant killed by Hercules.

Antandrus

Bk XIII:623-639. A seaport in the Troad from which Aeneas leaves.

Antenor

Bk XIII:123-381. One of the older Trojan leaders. He sided with Priam when Ulysses addressed the senate.

Anthedon

A town in Boeotia on the Euboean Gulf.

Bk VII:179-233Medea gathers magic herbs there.

Bk XIII:898-968Glaucus is transformed there.

Antigone

Bk VI:70-102. The daughter of Laomedon of Troy (Ilium), who was turned into a stork by Juno for challenging her.

Antimachus

Bk XII:429-535. A centaur.

Antiope

The daughter of king Nycteus, so known as Nycteïs, the mother by Jupiter of Amphion and Zethus.

Bk VI:103-128. Her rape by Jupiter disguised as a Satyr, is depicted by Arachne. (See Hans von Aachen’s – Jupiter embracing Antiope – Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna)

Antiphates

Bk XIV:223-319Bk XV:622-745. The king of the Laestrygonians. He incites his people, who are cannibals, to attack Ulysses and his crew.

Antissa

Bk XV:259-306. A town on the northern coast of Lesbos. Once an island harbour, subsequently a peninsula. (Near modern Skalakhorió).

Antium

Bk XV:622-745. A town in Latium.

Antonius

Bk XV:745-842. Antony, the Roman general, and triumvir, who seized the inheritance at Caesar’s death, despite his will, and who was defeated by Octavian at Mutina in Cisalpine Gaul, and Octavian’s naval commander, Vispanius Agrippa, at the naval battle of Actium in 31BC. Lover of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt.

Anubis

Bk IX:666-713. The jackal-headed god Anpu of Egypt, identified with Mercury, and ‘opener of the roads of the dead’. He accompanies Isis.

Aonia

Bk I:313-347. Part of Boetia containing Mount Helicon.

Bk III:339-358. The region of Tiresias’s fame as a prophet.

Bk VII:759-795. It contains Thebes.

Bk IX:89-158. The country of Hercules.

Bk X:560-637. The country of Hippomenes.

Bk XIII:675-704. The country of Therses.

Aonides

BkVI:1-25. An epithet of the Muses from Mount Helicon in Aonia, an earlier name for Boeotia.

Aphareïa proles 

Lynceus and Idas, the sons of Aphareus, a king of the Messenians.

Bk VIII:260-328. They are present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Aphareus

Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.

Aphidas

Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.

Apidanus

Bk I:568-587. A river in Thessaly.

Bk VII:179-233Medea gathers magic herbs there.

Apis

Hapi, ‘the Bull Apis’, the Egyptian sacred animal, a reincarnation of the god Ptah. The Apis bull was tended and worshipped at Memphis where a visit to see the animal in his courtyard was a tourist attraction of the Graeco-Roman world. The mummified sacred bulls were entombed at the vast subterranean complex of Saqqarah. The temple above was the Serapeum. Worshipped as Osiris, Apis was later confused with Serapis and worshipped in the Serapeum at Alexandria.

Bk IX:666-713. He accompanies Isis.

Apollineus

Bk XI:1-145Orpheus, as the son of Apollo.

Bk XV:622-745Aesculapius as the son of Apollo.

Apollo, PhoebusDelius

Bk I:438-473. Son of Jupiter and Latona (Leto), brother of Diana (Artemis), born on Delos. God of poetry, art, medicine, prophecy, and of the sun. See also the extensive entry under Phoebus. (See the Apollo Belvedere, sculpted by Leochares?, Vatican: the Piombino Apollo, Paris Louvre: the Tiber Apollo, Rome, National Museum of the Terme: the fountain sculpture by Tuby at Versailles – The Chariot of Apollo: and the sculpture by Girardon and Regnaudin at Versailles – Apollo Tended by the Nymphs – derived from the Apollo Belvedere, and once part of the now demolished Grotto of Thetis)

Bk VII:350-403. Responsible for changing Cephisus’s grandson into a seal.

Bk IX:324-393. Raped Dryope. Rules at Delphi and Delos.

Bk XI:1-66Orpheus is his poet.

Bk XI:146-171. He competes with Pan’s reed-pipe on the lyre.

Bk XI:194-220. He helps Laomedon build the walls of Troy, with Neptune.

Bk XI:410-473. He has an oracular temple at Claros.

Bk XII:579-628. Neptune prompts him to help Troy. He encourages Paris to fire an arrow at Achilles and guides the bow. He is worshipped as Smintheus at Troy.

Bk XIII:123-381Chryse and Cilla, captured by Achilles, are cities of his in Asia Minor.

Bk XIII:399-428Cassandra is his head priestess at Troy.

Bk XIII:623-639Aeneas sacrifices to him on Delos.

Bk XIII:640-674. He gave Andros the power of prophecy.

Bk XIII:705-737. He is associated with Actium.

Bk XV:479-546Bk XV:622-745Aesculapius is his son.

Appeninus

Bk II:201-226. The Appenine mountain chain in northern Italy.

Bk XV:418-452. The source of the river Tiber.

Aquilo

Bk I:244-273. The north wind. As a god he is Boreas.

Bk VII:1-73.  His two winged sons are Calais and Zetes.

Ara

Bk II:111-149. The constellation, the Altar, in the Milky Way south of the constellation Scorpius, and below the ecliptic (left of it, as the sun travels annually along it) in the northern hemisphere. Ara represents the altar on which the gods swore an oath of allegiance before defeating the Titans.

Arabes

Bk X:431-502. The Arabians. Arabia.

Arachne

BkVI:1-25. The daughter of Idmon, skilled in weaving. She rejects the claim that she has been taught by Minerva.

Bk VI:26-69. She foolishly challenges Pallas Minerva to a contest in weaving.

Bk VI:103-128. She depicts the rapes perpetrated by the disguised gods. (See Velázquez’s painting – The Fable of Arachne, or Las Hilanderas, the Weavers – Prado, Madrid. The tapestry, that Velázquez shows Arachne weaving in the painting, is a copy of Titian’s painting of the Rape of Europa in the Gardner Museum, Boston, done for Philip II of Spain, the painting therefore revealing as Ovid does, a myth within a myth.)

Bk VI:129-145. Her work is so good, and so revealing, that Pallas destroys it and strikes the girl, who tries to hang herself. In pity Pallas Minerva turns her into a spider, and rules that her descendants shall hang and spin forever.

Bk VI:146-203Niobe had known her.

Arcadia

Bk I:689-721. A region in the centre of the Peloponnese, the archetypal rural paradise. [‘Et in Arcadia ego’, ‘and I too (Death) am here in paradise’. See the paintings by Nicholas Poussin, Paris, Louvre; and Chatsworth, England]

Bk VIII:376-424Ancaeus comes from there.

Bk IX:159-210. Land of the Erymanthian boar.

Bk XV:307-360Pheneus is a plain and city there, where the river Olbios ran.

Arcas

Bk II:466-495. The son of Jupiter and Callisto.

Bk II:496-507. Set in the heavens by Jupiter as the Little Bear.

Arcesius

Bk XIII:123-381. The grandfather of Ulysses. The son of Jupiter and the father of Laërtes.

Arctos

Bk II:111-149Bk III:1-49Bk III:572-596Bk IV:604-662.

Bk XIII:705-737. The twin constellations of the Great and Little Bear, Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, individually or together.

Bk XIII:123-381. The stars are engraved on Achilles’s shield.

Ardea

A city of the Rutulians, of Latium. (Its site was near modern Anzio, south of Rome.) It was the centre of a cult of Venus and Cicero mentions the procession around the sacred enclosure (‘On the Nature of the Gods’ BkIII 46)

Bk XIV:566-580. It is destroyed in the war, and the grey heron, ardea cinerea, is born from its ashes.

Areopagus

Bk VI:70-103. The hill of Mars at Athens, confused with the Acropolis.

Areos

Bk XII:290-326. A centaur.

Arestor, Arestorides

Bk I:622-641. Father of Argus, the hundred-eyed.

Arethusa

Bk V:385-424. A nymph of Elis, and attendant of Diana.

Bk V:487-532. She tells Ceres of having seen Persephone and promises to tell her own story later.

Bk V:572-641. She tells the story of her pursuit by Alpheus and her transformation into the waters of Syracusan Ortygia.

Argo

Bk XV:307-360. The ship of the Argonauts. They had to avoid the clashing islands of the Symphlegades.

Argolis

Bk I:722-746. A region in the Peloponnese.

Bk VIII:260-328. It is threatened by Diana’s avenging wild boar.

Bk IX:273-323. The country of Alcmena.

Bk XII:146-209. The land of the Greeks who attack Troy.

Argonauts

The band of heroes, lead by Iason, who sailed from Greece to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece. (See Gustave Moreau’s painting – The Return of the Argonauts – in the Gustave Moreau Museum Paris)

Book VI:675-721. Called Minyans since they sailed from Iolchos in Thessaly ruled at one time by Minyas of OrchomenusCalais and Zetes are two of their number.

Bk XIII:1-122Hercules was one of their number.

Argos

Bk I:601-621. The capital of Argolis in the Peloponnese.

Bk II:508-530. Argive, of Argos, as an epithet of Io.

Bk IV:604-662Acrisius closes its gates against Bacchus.

Bk V:200-249. The ancestral city of Abas, and Perseus.

Bk VI:401-438. Its ruler goes to Thebes to show sympathy for the death of Amphion and his children.

Bk XV:1-59. The city of Alemon.

BkXV:143-175. It has a temple of Juno containing the shield of Euphorbus, a previous incarnation of Pythagoras.

Bk XV:259-306. The river Erasinus reappears there.

Argus

Bk I:622-641. A creature with a thousand eyes, the son of Arestor, set to guard Io by Juno.

Bk I:689-721.  Killed by Mercury. (For an echo of the last lines here see Rilke’s poem and epitaph ‘Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust, Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel Lidern.’)

Bk I:722-746. After his death, Juno sets his eyes in the peacock’s tail.

Ariadne

A daughter of Minos. Half-sister of the Minotaur, and sister of Phaedra who helps Theseus on Crete.

Bk VIII:152-183. She flees to Dia with Theseus and is abandoned there, but rescued by Bacchus, and her crown is set among the stars as the Corona Borealis. (See Titian’s painting – Bacchus and Ariadne – National Gallery, London: and Annibale Carracci’s fresco – The triumph of Bacchus and Ariadne – Farnese Palace, Rome)). The Northern Crown, the Corona Borealis, is a constellation between Hercules and Serpens Caput, consisting of an arc of seven stars, its central jewel being the blue-white star Gemma.

Aricia

Bk XV:479-546. A town in Latium, (the modern La Riccia), at the foot of the Alban Mountain, three miles from Nemi. The lake and the sacred grove at Nemi were sometimes known as the lake and grove of Aricia, and were the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis, Diana of the Wood. (See Turner’s etching and painting, The Golden Bough- British Museum and Tate Gallery). Worship there was instituted by Orestes, who fled to Italy, after killing Thoas, king of the Tauric Chersonese, taking with him the image of Tauric Diana. The rites practised there are the starting point for J. G. Frazer’s monumental study in magic and religion, ‘The Golden Bough’. (See Chapter I, et seq.)

Aries

Bk X:143-219. The constellation of the Ram, between Taurus and Andromeda. It represents the ram whose Golden Fleece was sought by Jason and the Argonauts. In ancient times it contained the point of the spring equinox (The First Point of Aries) that has now moved into Pisces due to precession.

Arne

Bk VII:453-500. She betrayed her country, the island of Siphnos to Minos for gold, and was changed by the gods into a jackdaw.

Arsippe

Bk IV:31-54. One of the three daughters of Minyas who rejected the worship of Bacchus and was changed into a bat.

Bk IV:55-92. She tells the story of Pyramus and Thisbe.

Asbolus

Bk XII:290-326. A centaur with the power of prophecy. He tells Nessus that he will die at the hand of Hercules.

Ascalaphus

Bk V:533-571. The son of Orphne and the River Acheron. He sees Persephone eat the pomegranate seeds, informs on her, and is turned into a screech-owl.

Ascanius

Bk XIII:623-639. The son of Aeneas. He leaves Troy with his father and grandfather.

Bk XIII:675-704. King Anius gives him a cloak and quiver.

Bk XIV:566-580. He survives his father.

Bk XIV:609-622. He rules the Latin and Alban kingdom.

Asia

The Asian continent.

Bk IX:439-516. Asia Minor.

Bk XIII:481-575Hecuba embodies bright Asia.

Asopiades

Bk VII:453-500Aeacus, as the grandson of the river god Asopus.

Asopis

Bk VI:103-128Bk VII:614-660Aegina, as the daughter of Asopus.

Assaracus

Bk XI:749-795. King of Phrygia, son of Tros, brother of Ilus the younger and Ganymede, father of Capys, and grandfather of Anchises.

Assyrius

Bk XV:391-417. An Assyrian. From the ancient kingdom of Mesopotamia and the Upper Tigris River.

Asterie

Bk VI:103-128. The sister of Latona, and daughter of Coeus, raped by Jupiter disguised as an eagle.

Astraea

Bk I:125-150. Goddess of Justice, last of the immortals to abandon earth because of human wickedness. She is represented in the sky as the constellation and zodiacal sign of Virgo, which alternatively depicts Ceres-Demeter. Nearby are her scales of justice, the constellation and zodiacal sign of Libra.

Astraeus

Bk XIV:527-565. The Titan, husband of Aurora, and father of the winds, the Astraean brothers.

Astreus

Bk V:107-148. A companion of Phineus, killed in the fight with Perseus.

Astyages

Bk V:200-249. A companion of Phineus, turned to stone.

Astyanax

Bk XIII:399-428. The son of Hector and Andromache, killed by the Greeks at the sack of Troy.

Astypaleïus

Of the island of Astypalea, on of the Sporades.

Bk VII:453-500. Allied to Crete.

Atalanta(1)

The daughter of Iasos of Arcadia and Clymene, loved by Meleager. She joined in the Calydonian Boar Hunt, wounded the boar first and was awarded the spoils by Meleager. She is called Tegeaea, and Nonacria.

Bk VIII:260-328. She is present at the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Meleager falls in love with her.

Bk VIII:376-424. She wounds the boar.

Bk VIII:425-450Meleager gives her the spoils, which causes conflict.

Atalanta(2)

The daughter of King Schoeneus of Boeotia, famous for her swift running.

Bk X:560-637. Warned against marriage by the oracle, her suitors are forced to race against her on penalty of death for losing. She falls in love with Hippomenes.

Bk X:638-680. He races with her, and by use of the golden apples, wins the race and her.

Bk X:681-707. She, and Hippomenes, desecrate Cybele’s sacred cave and are turned into lions.

(See Guido Reni’s painting – Atalanta and Hippomenes – Naples, Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte)

Athamantiades

Bk XIII:898-968Palaemon, as the son of Athamas.

Athamas

The son of Aeolus, and husband of Ino. The uncle of Pentheus.

Bk III:528-571. He reproves Pentheus for attempting to capture the god Bacchus.

Bk IV:512-542. Maddened by Tisiphone he kills his child Learchus.

 

Athens, Athenae

Bk II:787-811. The chief city of Attica, sacred to Minerva(Pallas Athene).

Bk II:708-736. The Actaean hill, referring to the Athenian Acropolis.

Bk V:642-678. Minerva’s city and the home of Triptolemus.

Bk VI:401-438. Attacked by a Barbarian army fails to send a delegate to Thebes. Described as the city of Mopsopius.

Bk VI:70-102Pallas lays claim to the city.

Bk VII:350-403Medea flees there. Aegeus the king marries her.

Bk VII:404-424Theseus is Aegeus’s son and comes to Athens to find his father.

Bk VII:453-500. The city is allied to Aegina by treaty.

Bk VII:501-613Cephalus goes to Aegina as its ambassador.

Bk VII:661-758. Cephalus tempts Procris there, in disguise.

Bk VIII:260-328. It ceases to pay tribute to Crete thanks to Theseus.

Bk XV:418-452. A symbol of vanished power.

Athis

Bk V:30-73. An Indian youth, a companion of Phineus, killed by Perseus along with his friend and lover Lycabas.

Athos

Bk II:201-226Bk XI:474-572. A high mountain in Macedonia on a peninsula in the northern Aegean.

Atlantiades

Bk I:689-721Bk II:676-701Bk VIII:611-678. An epithet of Mercury as descendant of Atlas through his mother Maia.

Bk IV:346-388.  And to Hermaphroditus as Mercury’s son.

Atlantis

Bk II:676-701Maia, the Pleiad, daughter of Atlas and mother of Mercury.

Atlas

Bk II:272-300. The Titan who rules the Moon with Phoebe the Titaness. Leader of the Titans in their war with the gods. The son of Iapetus by the nymph Clymene. His brothers were Prometheus, Epimetheus and Menoetius. Represented as Mount Atlas in North-western Africa, holding up the heavens. Father of the PleiadesHyades and Hesperides. He struggles to support the sky when Phaethon loses control of the sun chariot.

Bk IV:604-662. He is turned to stone by Perseus wielding the Gorgon’s head.

Bk IV:753-803. The cave of the Graeae lies beneath his frozen slopes.

Bk VI:146-203. He is the grandfather of Niobe, since her mother Dione is one of the Pleiades, the daughters of Atlas.

Bk IX:159-210Hercules bribed him into bringing the apples of the Hesperides by offering to hold up the sky. On his return Hercules deceived him into taking back its weight.

BkXV:143-175Pythagoras compares philosophy to standing on Atlas’s shoulders.

Atracides

Bk XII:146-209Caeneus, from his home town of Atrax in Thessaly.

Atreus

Bk XV:843-870. King of Mycenae, the son of Pelops. The father of Agamemnon and Menelaüs. His son Agamemnon surpasses him.

Atrides

Son of Atreus.

Bk XII:579-628Menelaüs and Agamemnon.

Bk XIII:123-381Bk XIII:429-480Bk XIII:640-674. Agamemnon.

BkXV:143-175Bk XV:745-842. Menelaüs, the younger brother.

Attica, Atticus

Bk VII:453-500. The region of southern Greece containing Athens.

Attis

Phrygian shepherd, loved by Cybele. An incarnation of the vegetation god, the consort of the Great Goddess.

Bk X:86-105. He is embodied by the sacred pine, one of the trees that gather to hear Orpheus sing.

Augustus Caesar

Bk XV:745-842. Julius Caesar’s grand-nephew, whom he adopted and declared as his heir, Octavius Caesar (Octavian). (The honorary title Augustus was bestowed by the Senate 16th Jan 27BC). His wife was Livia. Jupiter prophesies his future glory: his defeat of Antony, who had seized the inheritance, at Mutina: his defeat of the conspirators Cassius and Brutus at the twin battles of Philippi: his (Agrippa’s) defeat of Antony at Actium: and his (Agrippa’s) defeat of Pompey’s son at Mylae and Naulochus off Sicily. (See the sculpture of Augustus, from Primaporta, in the Vatican)

He exiled Ovid to the Black Sea region for ‘a poem and a mistake’. The poem probably the Ars Amatoria, the mistake probably something to do with the notorious Julia the Younger’s set, that Ovid knew of and repeated. He seems to refer to it in a number of the stories, for example that of Coronis, where the talebearer is punished. As Naso, ‘the beaky one’, he may have personified himself as the garrulous bird.

Bk XV:843-870. Ovid prays that Augustus will outlive him, and being deified, grant entreaties from afar (! A subtle cry from exile -Augustus in fact died in 14AD, and Ovid in 17AD, and Ovid was never pardoned.)

Aulis

Bk XII:1-38Bk XIII:123-381. The Boeotian harbour where the Greek fleet massed prior to setting out for Troy and where Iphigenia was sacrificed. The area was a rich fishing-ground.

Aura

Bk VII:796-865. A breeze, invoked by Cephalus.

Aurora, Pallantias

Bk I:52-68Bk V:425-486.Bk VII:796-865. Goddess of the Morning, and wife of Tithonus, daughter of the Titan Pallas, hence called Pallantias or Pallantis, who fathered Zelus (zeal), Cratus (strength), Bia (force) and Nicë (victory) on the River Styx.

Bk II:111-149. Brings the dawn as Phaethon begins his ride.

Bk III:138-164Actaeon talks of her ‘saffron car’ bringing back the light. (See Guido Reni’s fresco –Aurora and the Chariot of the Sun – Casino Rospigliosi, Rome)

Bk III:165-205Bk VI:26-69. The radiant red of her dawn light referred to.

Bk IV:604-662Bk XI:266-345Lucifer wakes her fires to begin the day, and she summons the chariot of the dawn.

Bk VII:179-233. Pales at the sight of Medea’s poisons.

Bk VII:661-758. She seduces Cephalus and is angered by him. She foresees disaster for him. She changes his appearance to assist his testing of Procris’s loyalty.

Bk IX:418-438. Longs to renew the youth of her mortal husband Tithonus. She had gained eternal life for him but not eternal youth.

Bk XI:573-649Bk XV:176-198. The dawn.

Bk XIII:576-622. She sees her son Memnon killed by Achilles, and begs Jupiter to grant him honours. He creates the Memnonides, a flight of warring birds from the ashes.

Bk XIV:527-565. She is the mother by Astraeus, the Titan, of the four winds, the Astraean brothers.

Ausonia

Bk XIV:772-804Bk XV:622-745Bk XV:622-745. A country in lower Italy, or used for Italy itself. (Broadly modern Campania, occupying the Tyrrhenian coast and the western slopes of the Apennines, colonised by Greeks and Etruscans, and Calabria the ‘toe’ of the Italian ‘boot’ between the Tyrrhenian and Ionian Seas, colonised by the Greeks, and part of Magna Graecia)

Bk V:332-384. Referring to Pelorus on the north-east coast of Sicily nearest to Italy.

Bk XIII:705-737Bk XIV:75-100. The destination of Aeneas.

Bk XIV:1-74. Separated from Sicily by the Straits of Messina (Zancle).

Bk XIV:320-396. Picus is king there.

Bk XIV:772-804Amulius rules by force of arms but is deposed by Romulus, reinstating Numitor.

Auster

Bk I:52-68Bk VIII:1-80. The South Wind. Eurus is the East Wind, Zephyrus the West Wind, and Boreas is the North Wind.

Bk XI:650-709. A storm-wind.

Autolycus

The grandfather of Ulysses. He is the master trickster and thief, son of Mercury and Chione, father of Anticlea, Ulysses’s mother.

Bk VIII:725-776. His wife, the daughter of Erysichthon, had the power to change her shape at will.

Bk XI:266-345. Chione bore him to Mercury.

Autonoë

Bk III:165-205. The daughter of Cadmus and mother of Actaeon.

Bk III:692-733Pentheus calls on her to help him, invoking the shade of her dead Actaeon, but she helps the other Maenads to tear him apart. 

Autoneius heros

Bk III:165-205Actaeon, son of Autonoë.

Aventinus

Bk XIV:609-622. A mythical Alban king who gave his name to the Aventine hill from which he ruled.

Avernus, Averna

Bk V:533-571. A name for the Underworld. Averna is its entrance.

Bk XIV:101-153Aeneas enters it. Proserpina is its queen, and Dis (Orcus) its king.