ACHILLES
Son of Peleus and Thetis
Greek Hero, was Dipped in the River Styxx to become impervious (except for his heel)

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ACTAEON
Hunter in Ancient Greek Times.

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AGAMEMNON
Brother of Menelaus, father of Iphigeneia
King of Mycenae, Led the Battle of Troy

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AJAX
Greek Hero, Fought at Battle of Troy, Famously always wielded a War Hammer.

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ALCMENE
Mother of Hercules

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ATHENA

Although she had other attributes, such as crafts, and being a friend to adventurers,
Athena was best known as the goddess of the strategy of war. She was almost always
shown wearing the armor with which she was born, the Aegis breastplate given her by
her beloved father, Zeus, and carrying arms – either sword, spear, or sometimes, the
lightning bolts that only she was allowed by Zeus to share.

Athena was the daughter of Metis, a goddess of wisdom, by Zeus. Zeus fell in love with
Metis, and had his way with her. Afterwards, however, he repented of his actions,
because he remembered a prophecy that any child of Metis would rival Zeus in power
and godliness. In an effort to keep Metis from conceiving a child, Zeus either absorbed
her body into his by magic... or he simply ate her. Too late, however; she had already
conceived the child, and Zeus developed a crippling headache. The other gods used a
two-headed axe to cut open Zeus’s head, and out sprang Athena, full-grown, fully armed,
and crying for war.

Instead of becoming rivals, Athena became Zeus’s favorite child (possibly because she
had nothing to do with Zeus’s consort Hera, with whom he was constantly fighting!). He
gave Athena the Aegis, a breastplate made from the skin of the goat that had nurtured
him as a child, and allowed her to use his lighting bolts as weapons.

As a war goddess, Athena has little to do with Ares. Ares rejoices in the battle, the blood,
and the noise and chaos of war. Athena, however, is the goddess of strategy, of planning,
of the science of war. Nike, the goddess of victory, accompanies Athena, not Ares.
As you can probably guess from the name, the city of Athens had a special relationship
with Athena. She and Poseidon were in competition for the patronage of the city, and a
contest was arranged that whichever of them gave the city the most useful and glorious
gift would receive is favor. Poseidon immediately created a grand fountain, providing
water to the city day and night... but it was the salt water of the sea, and of little use to the
Athenians. Athena gave the city the olive tree, which provided shade and wood, and she
showed the Athenians how to use the olives, to eat them, and to crush them for the oil
that has so many uses, from food, to fire and light, to the anointing of their royalty.
Athena was always a virgin; her temple, the Parthenon, is named for a Greek word for
virgin. Her sacred animal is the owl, for its wisdom, and possibly for a Greek pun on the
word for owl being similar to a description of Athena’s wise, green-gray eyes.

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ANDROMEDA
Daughter of King Cepheus and Queen Cassiopeia of Joppa

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APOLLO - God of the Sun and Music.
Son of Jupiter and Leto, father of Orpheus, twin brother of Diana
Worshipped with many symbols such as the laurel wreath, sun, bow and arrows, chariot and horses or lyre. Apollo also lead the Muses.
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ARES

Ares is known as the god of war, with Athena. Athena, however, was goddess of strategy and tactics; Ares was god o the battle – and, as in battle, he was unpredictable and not to be trusted. Aphrodite loved him (and the two of them were tricked by her husband, Hephaestus), but none of the other gods did; they knew he would change allegiances as quickly as the tide on a battlefield could change.

As noted in the Hephaestus story, he and Aphrodite were trapped and shamed in front of the
other Gods when Hephaestus caught them together (Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus).
Ares is usually shown in armor and with weapons. He had two children, Deimos (Fear) and
Phobos (Terror), and would often travel the battlefield with Eris, goddess of discord, and Hades, lord of the underworld. Sacred to Ares were dogs and vultures, which would feed off the dead in the battlefield.

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CERBERUS

Cerberus was the guardian of Hades, the underworld, domain of the dead. He was the child of Echinda, a half-woman, half serpent, and Typhon, a fire-breathing giant. With three heads, and (some say) a serpent for a tail and snake's heads on his back, Cerberus had a double task - he would not allow any creature still living to enter earth's realm, and he would allow none to leave, whether alive or dead.

Only a few were ever able to get past Cerberus. One of these was Persephone, goddess of innocence and mistress of the underworld. She was the child of Demeter, goddess of the harvest, and Zeus, ruler of the gods. The ruler of Hades kidnapped Persephone to rule with him, but after Demeter threatened that nothing would ever grow again, the gods arranged that she would spend half the year in Hades, and the other half on earth, giving us winter and summer. Cerberus allows Persephone to pass each time the seasons change.

Another who got past was Orpheus, a musician. He played the lyre, a kind of harp. When his wife, Eurydice, died, he went to Hades to get her back. He played his lyre with such grace and skill that it lulled Cerberus to sleep. Orpheus was able to bring Eurydice to the gates of Hades, but in the growing light, he looked back to see if she was behind him (which he had been forbidden to do until they were both safely among the living), and she was returned to her place among the dead.)

Hercules, however, was the most famous to best Cerberus. As the last of his twelve labors, Hercules had to bring Cerberus to the king Eurystheus. Hercules went to the ruler of the underworld, who said that if Hercules could take Cerberus without the use of any weapons, Hercules would be allowed to leave the underworld with the beast and to return to the land of the living. Cerberus is one of the few monsters who ever met Hercules and survived.

PRONUNCIATION:
Cerberus: SIR- ber- uss
Echinda: eh- KIN- duh
Typhon: TIE- fon
Persephone: per- SEFF- uh- nee
Demeter: duh- MEE- ter
Zeus: ZOOSE
Orpheus: ORFF- ee- uss
Eurydice: you- RID- ih- see (that third syllable is the short "i", like in "sit".)
Hercules: HER- kyoo- leez
Eurystheus: you- RISS- thee- uss

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CYCLOPS

The Cyclops were a race of one-eyed giants. The name "Cyclops" comes from words meaning "wheel-eyed", because each of them was big enough that his eye was as big as a wagon wheel. Some Cyclops were responsible for making the thunderbolts used by Zeus as his favorite weapon, but the one you see here wasn't one of those.

This is Polyphemus, most famous of the Cyclops, a race of wild monsters.. A son of Poseidon, god of the sea, Polyphemus had a herd of giant sheep he tended in a remote part of Sicily, where he lived. The great Odysseus landed his ship there, and sought shelter in a cave (which they did no know was Polyphemus's home until they became trapped in there with him when he rolled a huge boulder in front of the door). Polyphemus caught two of Odysseus's men and ate them raw before going to sleep, and in the morning, ate two more for breakfast, before leaving with his sheep and rolling the boulder in front of the cave, trapping the men inside again. But Odysseus had his men take a huge pole that was inside the cave, sharpen one end of it, and heat it in a fire until it was hard and dry. When Polyphemus came back to the cave, the men drove the pole into the Cyclops's eye, blinding him. Polyphemus sealed off the cave again, and spent the night trying to catch the men, but he could not. He roared out, "Who has done this to me?" and Odysseus replied, "I am Noman, and Noman has done this to you!"

In the morning, Polyphemus rolled the boulder away from the door to let out the sheep. He felt the back of each sheep to see if the men were riding the sheep out - but Odysseus had each of his men hang underneath the sheep as they left the cave, and the blind Cyclops missed them. The Cyclops called to his brothers to come and help him, and when they asked who had harmed him, Polyphemus said "No man! No man has done this to me!" The others said, "If no man has done this to you, then it must be a god who has done it. We will not interfere in the affairs of the gods!" and they left him alone.

Odysseus got his men back to the ship, and made good his escape. When he was far enough away that he knew Polyphemus could not reach his ship, he shouted taunts at Polyphemus, which enraged the Cyclops so much that he tore off the top of a mountain and threw it at the ship. It missed, but the waves pushed the ship almost all the way back to shore. Odysseus got away again, and shouted back to Polyphemus, "I am not Noman, but Odysseus, ruler of Ithaca. Tell everyone that I, Odysseus, blinded the mighty Polyphemus!" Polyphemus cried out for vengeance to his father, Poseidon, who tried for the next ten years to destroy Odysseus, before Odysseus finally made it home to his island kingdom.

PRONUNCIATION:
Cyclops: SAI- clops
Polyphemus: Polly- FEE- mus
Odysseus: o- DISS- ee- us (or o- DEESE- ee- us)
Noman: Pronounce as you would "no man"
Ithaca: ITH- uh- kuh, like the city in New York State
Poseidon: po- SIGH- don

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DEMETER and PERSEPHONE

Demeter was goddess of grain and fertility. There are hints that she was the oldest of the gods
and goddesses, and, although she does not appear in the stories where the gods defeated the
Titans, she has power beyond many of the gods with more dramatic responsibilities.

But the most memorable story of Demeter has to do with her daughter, Persephone (who, in a mystical way, is also young Demeter herself). Persephone was beautiful, and beloved of all who met her. Stories of Persephone’s beauty and loveliness came to Hades, god of the underworld and ruler of the dead, who is, himself, the underworld. He broke open a crack in the earth, and stole Persephone to be his wife.

Persephone was heartbroken, and wept to be allowed back to the world of the living. But as sad as Persephone was, Demeter was even more bitter; she allowed the earth to fall into perpetual winter, and would not allow anything to grow. Finally, Zeus, most powerful of the gods, forced Hades to allow Persephone to return to the surface world. Before she left, however, Hades gave Persephone a pomegranate, and bid her eat it. It was a trap; too late, she swallowed six of the pomegranate seeds. Hades demanded that she return to his side for six months of every year, and allowed her to return to the land of the living and to her mother’s side.

Demeter was delighted to see Persephone, and once more, the crops grew and the world was in bloom. But every fall, as Persephone prepares to return to Hades, Demeter is lost in grief over her daughter, and allows the world to grow cold and wintry again… until the coming of spring when Persephone will return to her mother. Persephone herself is usually portrayed as melancholy, always aware, even in midsummer, that the day is coming all too soon when she will have to descend again to Hades.

GOLDEN FLEECE

Jason, Greek hero and great voyager, was the son of Aeson and Philyra. Aeson, the ruler of Jason's birth place, was deposed by his half-brother Pelias, and Jason's mother decided to place her son in the care of a wise centaur in woodlands of Thessalia. The Delphic Oracle warned Pelias that he would be turned off the throne by a man wearing only one sandal, so when one day Jason returned to the city wearing only one sandal, Pelias was understandably alarmed. To rid himself of the threat he offered to make Jason his successor if he could perform what Pelias regarded as an impossible task - to bring home the Golden Fleece of the fabulous ram, the gift of Hermes.

Jason immediately built a ship, gather together many famous heroes, and set out. After many adventures, the ship reached the kingdom of Aeetes where the Golden Fleece was. The king agreed to five up the Fleece but imposed a series of conditions. Jason was to plow a field using two wild bulls with breath of flame and hooves of bronze, and plant the fields with dragon's teeth. Medea, who was a magician and the daughter of Aeetes, fell in love with Jason and helped him overcome the fierce dragon, which guarded the Golden Fleece, by preparing a magic potion. The dragon fell into a deep sleep, enabling Jason to seize the precious trophy.




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HEPHAESTUS

Hephaestus was one of the gods of fire. His fires were the fires that people used to work metals, unlike Hestia, who claimed the fires for the hearth and for cooking. Hephaestus is usually pictured as lame and ugly, and one of the stories about him says that when he was born, he was so ugly that he was thrown from Olympus, and landed in a volcano (either on the island of Lemnos, or at Mount Aetna in Sicily, which is where he later set up his workshop).

Hephaestus became a great craftsman, and was the maker of all of the tools and weapons of the gods (even if they were not metal). Another of the stories about Hephaestus is that in order toprevent a fight among the gods over the beautiful Aphrodite, a marriage was arranged between her and Hephaestus. Aphrodite was not pleased to be promised to someone so ugly, and started to have an affair with Ares, god of war (and brother of Hephaestus). When Hephaestus found out, he made a great net, which he threw over Aphrodite and Ares when they were together Trapped in the net, they were dragged to Olympus by Hephaestus, and they were not pleased when the other gods laughed at their predicament!

Hephaestus also created Hermes’s helmet and sandals, Zeus’s Aegis shield, the armor of Achilles, Poseidon’s trident, and even the bow and arrows used by Eros.

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HERMES

Hermes was the messenger of the gods, and is frequently shown with a winged helmet and
sandals. Because he was a messenger, he had two other attributes: he was speedy (and was
therefore the god of roads and travel), and he could speak and translate (and was therefore a god of information, and a minor god of poetry). He also had a flair for music.

Hermes was the child of Zeus by Maia, a nymph who lived in Arcadia. On the day Hermes was born, he snuck away from Maia and stole some of Apollo’s cattle, hiding them and covering their tracks. Later that day, he found a tortoise shell and used it to make the first lyre, a kind of musical instrument similar to a harp. When Apollo found out his cattle were missing, he tracked down Hermes, and started to argue with Maia about whether Hermes had taken the cattle. While they were arguing, Hermes played the lyre so beautifully that Apollo decided Hermes could keep the cattle in trade for the lyre, and Apollo was never without the lyre after that.

There is also a story of Hermes that he freed Io from the hundred-eyed Argus. Hera had
discovered that Zeus was in love with Io, and, in her anger at yet another of Zeus’s infidelities, gave Io to Argus to guard. Since he had a hundred eyes, he could let some sleep while keeping the others awake. Hermes, however, had a flute, and played it so beautifully that Argus finally let all his eyes fall asleep, allowing Hermes to escape with Io. Whether from gratitude at his efforts, or anger at his failure, Hera took Argus’s hundred eyes, and scattered them over the tail of the peacock, one of her sacred birds.

Hermes was also responsible for guiding dead souls safely to Hades. He was the only god
allowed to come and go safely within the realm of the underworld – even Persephone could only leave for six months at a time.

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JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS.

Athamas was a child of Aeolus, god of the winds. Athamas was married to the nymph Nephele, and had two children by her: Helle, a girl, and Phrixus, a boy. However, when he saw the mortal Ino, he was smitten by her, and left Nephele. With Ino, he had two more children, Learches and Melicertes.

Ino, however, was always jealous of the two children Athamas had had by Nephele, and conspired to have them eliminated. She roasted all of the seed corn in the kingdom so that it would not sprout, and, when famine struck, she bribed the messengers who went to the oracle to say that the gods demanded that the two children, Helle and Phrixus, be sacrificed. The people prepared to kill Helle and Phrixus.

But Nephele tried to save her children. As they were about to be killed, she sent a flying golden ram into the crowd. The ram knocked the priests away, put Helle and Phrixus on its back, and flew away.

But they were not yet safe. As they were flying over a narrow body of water, Helle fell from the ram into the water and drowned. Now called the Dardanelles, for centuries this strait was called the Hellespont, for Helle who fell there.

Phrixus, however, was still safe on the back of the ram. The ram took him to Colchis, to the court of King AEtes. AEtes did not like visitors… but when he saw the fine, golden ram that Phrixus had ridden on, he allowed Phrixus to stay. AEtes sacrificed the ram, and saved its fleece, which he nailed to a tree. He set a dragon to guard the fleece, so that it might never be taken from him.

Now, Jason was born prince of Thessaly, but the kingdom was stolen by his uncle, Pelias. In order to prove that he was capable of ruling the kingdom (and thus, to win back the throne), Jason was to get the golden fleece from AEtes, a king of another land, who had it nailed to a tree, and protected by a dragon.

Jason had built, a ship, the Argo, on which he and his crew sailed. Jason came to the kingdom of Salmydessos, ruled by Phineas. Now, Phineas had a problem with the Harpies. These creatures were half-bird, half women. They had razor-sharp claws and beaks, strident calls, and the worst table manners - they would steal the food that was set out for Phineas and his family, and defecate over the rest of it, and, as a result, the king was starving to death. But two of Jason's crew were children of the North Wind, who had given them the ability to fly. They took swords and armor, and chased the Harpies so far away that they never came back.

In gratitude, Phineas told Jason the secret of the Symplegades, the crashing rocks. These rocks hid in the Euxine sea, and would wait for something to come between them… then they would crash together, destroying whatever was in their way. Jason, on the advice of Phineas, sent a dove to fly between the rocks, which crashed together in an attempt to crush the dove; however, oit escaped, losing only a single tailfeather. Then, when the rocks were sliding apart, the ship had just enough time to slip between the rocks before they crashed together again… but for the rest of its voyage, it had a scrape on the stern when the rocks had almost crushed it.

Jason finally found the kingdom of Colchis, and went to AEtes, the king, to ask for the golden fleece. AEtes hated Jason on sight, for considered the fleece his rightful property. In order to make Jason go away, he told Jason to do a simple task: plow a small field with two oxen, and sow it with the seeds in a bag AEtes would give to Jason.

But these were no ordinary oxen. They breathed fire… and the seeds Jason had to sow were dragon's teeth, which would immediately grow up into an army that would destroy him! Jason had a stroke of luck, however, and that was that AEtes's daughter, Medea, fell in love with him on sight. Out of the hearing of her father, they promised to marry each other, and Medea gave Jason a magic salve that would save him from the oxen. But what to do about the army?

The next day, Jason covered himself with the salve, and plowed the field. He sowed the dragon's teeth, and, when the army sprang up, he fought them as best he could, until he was almost exhausted. Then he had an idea. Unseen, he threw a rock at one of the soldiers fighting against him. The soldier thought one of the other soldiers had thrown it, and began to fight him instead of Jason. Soon, all the soldiers were fighting among themselves… and Jason easily took on the few who did not kill each other!

That night, Jason and Medea went to the tree where the dragon guarded the fleece. Jason wanted to kill the dragon with his sword, but Medea told him how he would never survive if he tried. Instead, she used a sleeping potion on the dragon, and, while it was asleep, they stole the fleece and went back to Jason's kingdom in Thessaly. There, he left Medea for another woman… but that's another story.

Pronunciation:
Athamas: uh- THAMM- as
Aeolus: ay- OH- lus
Nephele: NEFF- eh lee
Helle: HELL- ee
Phrixus: FRIX- uss
Ino: Either EE- no or EYE- no
Learches: lee- ARK- eez
Melicertes: Mel- i- SERT- eez
Colchis: KOL- keess
Thessaly: THESS- uh- lee
Pelias: PEE- lee- as
AEtes: ay- EE- tease
Salmydessos: Sal- me- DESS- os
Phineas: FINN- ee- as
Symplegades: sim- PLEG- uh- deez
Euxine: YEWK-seen
Medea: me- DEE- uh

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MINOTAUR

Behold the Minotaur, half-man, half bull. The myth says in the royal family of Crete were two brothers, Minos and Rhadamanthys, and each wanted to rule the city. Minos was sure that he was the favorite of the gods, and he would be able to overthrow the forces of Rhadamanthys and drive them from the city. To prove this, he made preparation for a sacrifice to Poseidon, god of the waters, and prayed that a bull for the sacrifice would emerge from the sea. A great wave crashed on the shore, and the white foam became a white bull, perfect for the sacrifice. But Minos admired the bull so, that he decided to keep it, and sacrificed a lesser one from his herd in its place.

Poseidon was angered by this subterfuge, and caused the wife of Minos, Pasipha, to fall in love with the bull. Pasipha conspired with Minos' great builder, Daedalus, to build a mechanical cow that would catch the eye of the bull, while Pasipha would hide inside it. From their union was born the Minotaur, neither bull nor human, both bull and human.

The Minotaur grew at a frightening rate, and demanded human sacrifice. Warriors tried to destroy the Minotaur and all lost their lives in the attempt. Minos had Daedalus build the Labyrinth, a huge maze, to contain the Minotaur, and keep the citizens of Crete safe from its wrath. But Minos arranged for young men and women to be led into the Labyrinth. Through its chambers they would wander, unable to find their way, until the Minotaur would discover them and devour them. Minos arranged that every nine years, the cities around him would have to give seven young men and seven young women to satisfy the Minotaur.

One of those condemned to die was the young warrior, Theseus. When he came off the ship in Crete, Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, saw him and fell in love with him immediately. Running to Daedalus, she asked for his help to save the strong, young Theseus. Daedalus gave Ariadne a ball of string, which Theseus would use to find his way back out of the labyrinth. Using a sword and shield which had been given him by the gods, Theseus slew the Minotaur, cut off its head, and used the string to lead his companions back out of the Labyrinth. When Ariadne saw Theseus, covered in the Minotaur's blood and carrying its head, she ran to him. Together, they fought their way out of Crete, and sailed away.

Pronunciation:

Minos: MEEN-aws (the second syllable rhymes with "boss", not "dose")
Rhadamanthys: Rad- uh- MAN- thees (the "th" is unvoiced, like in "Theseus" below)
Poseidon: po- SIGH-d'n
Pasipha: pa-SEEF-uh (If you want to be REALLY correct, it's pa-SEEF-uh-eh, with the last syllable having the sound of "e" in "bet")
Daedalus: DEAD-uh-luss
Theseus: THEE-see-us (The "th" is unvoiced, like in "with", not like "these"
Ariadne: AA-ree-ADD-nee

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HERCULES
a.ka. The Myths of Hercules or The Tasks of Hercules (Herculean Tasks)

Hercules was the name by which the Greek mythological character Heracles was known to the Romans. Heracles, to give him his proper Greek name, was the most famous of the Greek mythological heroes. To make amends for a crime, he was compelled to perform a series of heroic tasks, or Labors.

Amongst these were slaying the many-headed Hydra, retrieving the Golden Apples of the Hesperides and bringing the hellhound Cerberus up from the Underworld. Heracles was also an Argonaut.

Like most authentic heroes, Heracles had a god as one of his parents, being the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. Zeus's wife Hera was jealous of Heracles, and when he was still an infant she sent two snakes to kill him in his crib. Heracles was found prattling delighted baby talk, a strangled serpent in each hand.

When he had come of age and already proved himself an unerring marksman with bow and arrow, a champion wrestler and the possessor of superhuman strength, Heracles was driven mad by the goddess Hera. In a frenzy, he killed his own children. To atone for this crime, he was sentenced to perform a series of tasks, or "Labors", for his cousin Eurystheus, the king of Mycenae.

As his first Labor, Heracles killed the Nemean Lion. This was no easy feat, for the lion's skin was impenetrable by spears or arrows. Heracles blocked off the entrance to the lion's cave and throttled it to death with his bare hands. Ever afterwards he wore the lion's skin as a cloak and its gaping jaws as a helmet.

King Eurystheus was so afraid of his heroic cousin that he hid in a storage jar. From the safety of this hiding place he issued the order for another Labor. Heracles was to seek out and destroy the monstrous and many-headed Hydra.

The mythmakers agree that the Hydra lived in the swamps of Lerna, but they seem to have had trouble counting the monster's heads. Some said that the Hydra had eight or nine. Others counted between fifty and a hundred. And still others claimed as many as ten thousand. All agreed, however, that as soon as one head was beaten down or chopped off, two more grew in its place. Only one of the heads was immortal, but cutting it off was the challenge. To make matters worse, the Hydra's very breath was lethal. Even smelling its footprints was enough to bring death to an ordinary mortal. Fortunately, Heracles was no ordinary mortal.

The great hero sought out the monster in its lair and brought it out into the open with flaming arrows. Then he made sure to hold his breath while grappling with the beast. Heracles had the strength of ten, but the fight went in the Hydra's favor. The monster twined its many heads around the hero and tried to trip him up. It called on an ally, a huge crab which also lived in the swamp. The crab bit Heracles in the heel and further impeded his attack. Heracles was on the verge of failure when he remembered his nephew.

Heracles had a twin brother named Iphicles. Iphicles took part in a number of heroic exploits but generally remained in the shadow of his illustrious twin. Heracles employed Iphicles' son, Iolaus, as his charioteer. Iolaus had driven Heracles to the swamps of Lerna, and he looked on in anxiety as his uncle became entangled in the Hydra's snaky heads. Finally, Iolaus could no longer bear to stand aside. In response to his uncle's shouts, he grabbed a burning torch and dashed to the fray.

Now, as soon as Heracles cut off one of the Hydra's heads, Iolaus was there to sear the wounded neck with flame. This kept further heads from sprouting. In this fashion, Heracles cut off the heads one by one, with Iolaus cauterizing the wounds. Finally Heracles lopped off the immortal head and buried it deep beneath a rock.

This was not to be the hero's last experience of swamp warfare. A future Labor would pit him against the Stymphalian Birds, man-killers who inhabited a marsh near Stymphalus in Arcadia. Heracles could not approach the birds to fight them - the ground was too swampy to bear his weight and too mucky to wade through. Finally Heracles resorted to some castanets given to him by the goddess Athena. By making a racket with these, he caused the birds to take wing. And once they were in the air, he brought them down by the dozens with his arrows.

In the course of his Labors and afterwards, Heracles accomplished some amazing feats. He once forced the god Poseidon to give way in battle. He wounded Ares, god of war, in another encounter. And he wrestled the great god Zeus himself to a draw. The hero could move mountains that hindered the route of his cattle herd. He could and did toss boulders about like pebbles. He even relieved the Titan Atlas of the burden of holding up the heavens. This came about when Eurystheus challenged him to retrieve the Golden Apples of the Hesperides.

The Hesperides, or Daughters of Evening, were nymphs assigned by the goddess Hera to guard certain apples which she had received as a wedding present. These were kept in a grove surrounded by a high wall and guarded by a dragon named Ladon, whose many heads spoke simultaneously in a babel of tongues. The grove was located in some far western land in the mountains named for Atlas.

Atlas was a Titan, which is to say a member of the first generation of gods, born of Earth. One of his brothers was Cronus, father of Zeus. Atlas made the mistake of siding with Cronus in a war against Zeus. In punishment, he was compelled to support the weight of the heavens by means of a pillar on his shoulders.

Heracles had been told that he would never get the apples without the aid of Atlas. The Titan was only too happy to oblige, since it meant being relieved of his burden. He told the hero to hold the pillar while he went into the garden of the Hesperides to retrieve the fruit. But first, Heracles would have to do something about the noisily vigilant dragon, Ladon.

This was swiftly accomplished by means of an arrow over the garden wall. Then Heracles took the pillar while Atlas went to get the apples. He was successful and returned quickly enough, but in the meantime he had realized how pleasant it was not to have to strain for eternity keeping heaven and earth apart. So he told Heracles that he'd have to fill in for him for an indeterminate length of time. And the hero feigned agreement to this proposal. But he said that he needed a cushion for his shoulder, and he wondered if Atlas would mind taking back the pillar just long enough for him to fetch one. The Titan graciously obliged, and Heracles strolled off, omitting to return.

As his final Labor, Heracles was instructed to bring the hellhound Cerberus up from the infernal kingdom of Hades. Hades was god of the dead. His realm, to which all mortals eventually traveled, lay beneath the earth and was called the Underworld, or Hades, after its ruler. The first barrier to the deads' journey beyond the grave was the most famous river of Hades, the Styx. Here the newly dead congregated as insubstantial shades, mere wraiths of their former selves, awaiting passage in the ferryboat of Charon the Boatman.

The afterlife, as conceived by the early Greeks, was a grim and gloomy proposition. Although there was no religious dogma on the subject, most imagined that some part of a being lived on after death. What survived, however, was very insubstantial, a ghostly shadow - or shade - of the living being.

The surviving families did their best to provide for these wraiths, sending them off to the Underworld with a bribe for Charon the Boatman, to induce him to ferry them across the Styx to the kingdom of the dead. Here they would live on forever in soulless company - unless, that is, they had been guilty of some egregious sin, in which case they might be punished for eternity by the ruler of the Underworld. The only worse fate, perhaps, might be to lack the toll for Charon and be condemned to wander in lonely desolation on the near bank of the river Styx until the end of time.

The concept of the afterlife was vague and often contradictory. The blind poet Homer, who sang of the Heroic Age, said that the dead passed on to a gray and gloomy realm below the earth, ruled over by Hades. But Homer also spoke of the Islands of the Blessed, located somewhere at the far western edge of the world. Here the greatest heroes went when they died, to live on in comfort and pleasure. In time these two ideas were put together, so that entrance to the Underworld was situated in the west, near where the flat earth dropped off into nothingness. Later still, people began to speak of other entrances to the world of the dead below.

There were two ways to get to the Underworld. The first and simplest was to die. The other way was only open to gods or heroes, who could proceed with caution to Hades' realm via certain natural chasms and caves. The most popular of these seems have been Taenarum in Laconia. This was the portal chosen by Theseus and his companion Peirithous on their ill-fated venture to abduct Hades' queen Persephone. And some say that it was via Taenarum that Orpheus pursued his wife Eurydice when, bitten by a snake, she shared the common fate in journeying to the afterlife below. But others maintain that Orpheus's entrance was Aornum in Thesprotia.

Before becoming a fully fledged member of the godly council on Mount Olympus, the wine-god Dionysus brought his mother up from Hades. She was the heroine Semele, who had been consumed by lightning when she asked Zeus to reveal to her his true nature as storm god. To retrieve her from the Underworld, Dionysus went to Lerna and dove into the Alcyonian Lake, which has no bottom.

In being challenged to bring back Cerberus to the land of the living, Heracles was faced with one of his most difficult Labors. Descending to Hades via Laconian Taenarum, the first problem he encountered was a glowering Charon the Boatman. Charon wasn't about to ferry anyone across in his rickety craft unless they met two conditions. Firstly, they had to pay a fare or bribe. And secondly, they had to be dead. Heracles met neither condition, a circumstance which aggravated Charon's natural grouchiness and caused him to glower more fiercely than usual.

But Heracles simply glowered in return, and such is the perseverance of a proper hero - at least one of Herculean magnitude - that once having set about a task, said hero will not fail to achieve and excel. The task in this instance being glowering, Heracles accomplished it with such gusto that Charon let out a whimper and meekly conveyed the hero across the Styx.
The next and greater challenge was Cerberus himself. The dog had teeth of a razor's sharpness, three (or maybe fifty) heads, a venomous snake for a tail and for good measure another swarm of snakes growing out of his back. When Heracles closed and began to grapple with the hound, these snakes lashed at him from the rear, while Cerberus's multiple canines lunged for a purchase on the hero's throat. Fortunately, Heracles was wearing his trusty lion's skin, which had the magic property of being impenetrable by anything short of one of Zeus's thunderbolts. After a titanic struggle, Heracles got Cerberus by the throat and choked the dog into submission.

Taking care to secure the permission of Hades and his queen Persephone, the hero then slung Cerberus over his shoulder and carted him off to Mycenae, where he received due credit for the Labor. In its grueling nature, the entire adventure was so at variance with the experience of Orpheus that it bears noting.

When Orpheus' wife Eurydice was claimed by Hades for his kingdom of the dead, Orpheus determined to get her back. Journeying to the Underworld by the entrance chasm at Taenarum, he too fetched up on the banks of the Styx. But instead of out-glowering Charon, Orpheus won him over by song. Such was the sweetness of his singing and his strumming of the lyre that not only did Charon willingly submit to ferrying Orpheus across the River of Darkness, but Cerberus, beguiled by the melody, lay down, crossed his paws under his chin and listened entranced.

The mortal status of Greek mythological heroes was subject to varying interpretations. Most heroes were sons of gods, and as such at least semi-divine. But this by no means meant that they automatically got to go to heavenly Mount Olympus when they died. Perseus achieved immortality of a sort by being made into a starry constellation. The Dioscuri, or Hero Twins, were originally accorded a mixed blessing. Polydeuces (Pollux to the Romans) was deemed godly enough to be admitted to Olympus, while his brother Castor was dispatched to Hades as a mere mortal. But Polydeuces interceded on his twin's behalf, on the plea that he could not bear eternal separation. The gods relented to the extent that the two were allowed to remain together forever, spending half the year deep in the earth beneath their shrine in Sparta and the other half on the airy heights of Olympus.

Heracles was the only hero to become a full-fledged god upon his demise, but even in his case there was his mortal aspect to be dealt with. He received special consideration because he had aided the Olympians in their epic battle against the Giants. These titanic sons of Earth had stormed the godly citadel in a hail of flaming oaks and rocks. And the deities of Olympus would never have prevailed without Heracles and his bow. By virtue of his spectacular achievements, even by heroic standards, Heracles was given a home on Mount Olympus and a goddess for a wife. But part of him had come not from his father Zeus but from his mortal mother Alcmene, and that part was sent to the Underworld. As a phantasm it eternally roams the Elysian Fields in the company of other heroes.