Greek Mythology

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"I came to the Greeks early, and I found answers in them. Greece's great men let all their acts turn on the immortality of the soul. We don't really act as if we believed in the soul's immortality and that's why we are where we are today."

– Edith Hamilton, Mythology

"AND THEN ALONG CAME ZEUS"

– What happens in 99% of all Greek Myths

In the days when printing was not a thing, when people partook in wars and fought in arenas, there were poets and scriptors who's pen is yet unmatched by modern orators. In the ancient times of the Bronze Age, and even before, were forged tales of might, gods and heroes. Tragedies written in the name of immortal beings who ruled over every element of this very world. This was an age undreamed of. Without these tales, perhaps men would have not heard of magical stories, of divinity, of fantastic beasts and impressive feats beyond all that is earthly and orderly... And the many tall tales of gods fucking like rabbits.

This is Greek Mythology. Also known as Roman Mythology since they 'adapted' the stories.

No seriously, perhaps the closest we ever got to ancient ass fantasy lore (along with the lost texts of Norse Mythology) is this. Greek poets and artists from all across the land spent centuries, perhaps even beyond a millenia, forging the stories that would inspire modern authors, which would in time lead to the creation of the Fantasy genre as a whole.

The Roman Connection

"The Greeks shape bronze statues so real they seem to breathe,
And carve cold marble until it almost comes to life.
The Greeks compose great orations, and measure
The heavens so well they can predict the rising of the stars.
But you, Romans, remember your great arts;
To govern the peoples with authority,
To establish peace under the rule of law,
To conquer the mighty, and show them mercy once they are conquered."

– Virgil, Aeneid VI, 847-853

The civilization of Rome had its own original native mythology. However, they also hugely admired the Greeks, their neighbors and also the guys who kind of beat them to the civilization game. With both civilizations being polytheists, the result was that the Romans did a lot of mythological cross-pollination, adopting many of the Greek gods as their own, just giving them different names and sometimes putting different spins on them. For example, we draw the current names of the planets in Earth's solar system - Mercury, Mars, Venus, Uranus, Neptune, Saturn, Jupiter, Pluto - from the Roman names for Greek gods, such as Hermes, Ares, Aphrodites, Poseidon, Zeus and Hades. Greeks viewed Ares with disdain, denouncing him as the embodiment of bloodlust, savagery and the ugly brutalities of War, whilst the Roman Mars was a revered god of honor, courage, strength and leadership, closer more to the Greek Athena. A similar thing happened across the post-Alexander Hellenistic world, in which local dieties that loosely matched the Greek pantheon might be referred to by Greek names; one such example being "Zeus Olympios" to refer to the Greek Zeus as the leader of the gods, who would resemble various sun gods such as "Zeus Helioupolites" (Ba'al of Canaan), "Zeus Labrandos" (Teshub of Mesopotamia), etc, so this was a very common practice in the classical world.

Classical Mythology?

A common alternative name for Greek Mythology, after "Greco-Roman Mythology", is "Classical Mythology". That's because Greco-Roman Mythology is the one ancient pre-Christian religion that survived best during the rise of the Christian powers of Europe during the Dark Age. Whilst the Christians of the Roman Empire had stamped out the political powers once held by the pagan priesthoods, the lore of Rome and through it Greece was still very strongly baked into Roman culture, and it resisted the erasure that other pagan cultures like the various Celtic peoples of Europe or the Vikings would experience. Plus, the Greeks and the Romans wrote shit down, so there were lots and lots and we mean lots of texts written by pagan Greeks and Romans rather than all of the responsibility for passing on that lore being instead left to Christian monks who had... shall we say a certain bias about what they actually wrote down? That helped a lot in making sure there Greco-Roman myths and tales were never lost like the Celtic lores would be.

Enter the Renaissance, when the newly emerging non-Christian Monk-based scholarly class looked to these ancient Greek and Roman texts (often copies of copies traded over from the Islamic world), and basically went "wow, that's really neat!" Add to it the huge importance that being able to trace their roots back to the Roman Empire was given by the early Christian monarchies of Europe and the end result was that Greek and Roman Mythology experienced a resurgence of popularity throughout Europe, often being romanticised in all sorts of ways

This meant in turn that, until the mid-1900s or so, the Greek and Roman Mythologies were the only Pre-Christian Mythology that European students had to study, so they became associated heavily with the lost "golden age" of the Classical Period.

Now, bear this in mind; Classical Mythology is no way how the Greek saw their own mythology. Matter of fact, every single city/tribe/civilization saw their own stories and creation myths differently. The remnants of those stories that were compiled and translated during the Dark Age are merely compilations and reinterpretations made to suit our modern view of mythology and story-writing. Also, thanks to a concept called "Syncretism", we are perhaps missing out on gods, heroes or creatures because they were reappropriated by other cultures. Zeus could be fifteen different gods fused into one, explaining in due parts his massive body of work, but also his very fucked up behavior. And the same goes for other gods.

Everything explained in this here article is the "time-line" or great myths that the Classical revisionist period created. So take all of this with a grain of salt. Do yourself a favor and search the origins of myths. This is worth your time, we swear.

The "Canon" Timeline of Greek Mythos

Buckle up folks, this is going to be a wild ride. Greek mythos weren't written by nerds the likes of those working for the Black Library. These were mostly the results of decades of philosophical musings and rewritings. Prepare your anus.

Part I - Creation

In the begining, there was nothing... but Chaos, a complete hazardous mess of nothingness and random, and also a girl. From it were born the first primordial deities; Gaea, personification of the Earth, and Tartarus, personification of the Underworld. Both female, they didn't do a lot of shit from there, only creating the land on which we walk by making it rain atoms. And then, Eros was born, the literal embodiment of love, the sexual one. So naturally, Gaea and Chaos banged. Whether they're sisters or mother and daughter, we'll leave that your incestual imagination.

From this copious amount of fornication were born other personifications; Erebus, the embodiment of Darkness, and Nyx, the embodiment of Night. They fucked, too. From this forbidden union were born Aether, the upper air (or the sky, depending on who you ask), and Hemera, the embodiment of Day. Later on, perhaps Nyx realised that incest wasn't wincest and decided to make children by her own means, thus creating Thanatos (Quiet and peaceful death), Hypnos (Sleep), Oneiroi (Dreams), Ker (DOOOOOOOOOM), Geras (Old age), Oizus (Pain), Nemesis (Revenge), Eris (Strife), Apate (Deceit), Philotes (Sexual Pleasure, oh yeah you thought it was Aphrodites who was in charge of this one, huh?), Momos (Blame!) and FINALLY the Hesperides, Daughters of the Evening.

So all of this were mostly the tall tales of Hesiod, and it's pretty clear that lot of these name dropped deities aren't gonna pop back up any time soon. Think of all of them as the Endless from Sandman. They're here, but not very active.

Now things got a lot more physical. There's a world now, and the Titans are born. And unlike Nyx's offspring or the rest of the Primordial ones, they have some form of physicality. So Gaea birthed Uranus and consequently married him. With this union, they birth three of the first Cyclops, three of the Hecatoncheires (that's a mouthful) and the twelve Titans. Uranus being a shit dad, he stuck 'em all up Gaea's womb, as in deep underground. This obviously made Mother Earth particularly mad. She gave her children an adamant sickle, called the Harpe, and told them to go hog wild on their dad. None of them had the balls to do it, except one; madlad Cronus. So him and Gaea ambushed Uranus and cut off his balls and threw 'em in the ocean. Depending on who you ask either Uranus died or he became Italian, although that's not really important. What is important however is thanks to this incident, the blood of his balls permitted the birth of the Giants, the Meliae and the Erinyes. Later on down the line, Aphrodites would be born from Ura's balls.

Now that the place of supreme ruler was free, Cronus took it and became King of the Titans. He even married one; Rhea, his sister mind you, and had children with her. Cronus' first decision was to imprison the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires in Tartarus. Good so far. And then Cronus, being a humanitarian, started to eat his children because he thought someone would depose him just like he did Uranus. Rhea wasn't too please about this. She decided to plot against him, just like he did with his own father, and went into hiding with her sixth child; Zeus. Yes, that Zeus.

Turns out eating children to stop a prophecy just makes it self-fulfilling, who knew?

Part II - The Titanomachy

Once Zeus grew of age, he began serving Cronus as the Titan's cupbearer and waiting for the opportunity to earn his trust. When that moment came, Zeus fed his dad a mixture of mustard and wine that was apparently so repulsive that it caused the Titan to vomit out his other children (Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Hestia, and Demeter), all of them having apparently matured in Cronus' gut. After freeing the Cyclopes and Hecatonchires, the three races waged wars against their Titan forebears.

This massive war took ten years before it ended, but once it did the Olympians had secured dominion of the world while the surviving Titans were either exiled or banished to Tartarus. With the world theirs, the three sons of Cronus decided to divvy up their territories amongst themselves, with Zeus owning the skies and becoming undisputed leader of the gods, Poseidon laying claim to the seas and the other bodies of water, and Hades was given wardenship of the Underworld. The earth, meanwhile, was left as a common space shared between all the gods where they could do as they pleased unless one of the big three was forced to intervene.

Part IV - The Five Ages of Man

Hesiod, being the depressed schmuck he is, came up with a very interesting concept to say that the antique zoomers were lazy bums and his generation was the best. He went on to tell the tale of the five ages of men. Because you see, the Olympians didn't just create humanity once, but at least five times. Buckle up, there's a lot to unravel.

First, let's go back to the time of daddy Cronos. Yes, because we were actually always there, the entire time. Well, "we", the golden men were. To have some company, the Olympians created the Men of Gold. And they actually lived with them. They danced, and sung, sunbathed, mused, wrote, played and even, possibly, did the deed with the gods themselves. They lived for a very long time and never actually showed any sign of age. They weren't immortal though, as at some point, they would die of old age, although peacefully and without knowing illness or crippleness. Plato later precised that they weren't literally made out of gold, but that they were gentle and noble. Some even hinted at the idea that they were very adventurous and carefree. But eventually, the Men of Gold never struggled in life and rarely reproduced, and now their spirits dwell as Daemons. Well, another variant of Daemons, serving as protectors of future mortals. Basically guardian angels.

Then, the Silver Age kicked in. When Zeus took control, the Men of Silver came forth. Nobody knows who actually made them, but they did live exactly one hundred years under the juridiction of their mothers. They were... Pretty violent. Matter of fact, they had a very short time of adulthood, and they mostly spent it fighting each other. More likely dueling than actual going onto wars, because they themselves were very few in numbers. Just like their predecessors, some might say. However, Zeus never took a liking in them because they were filthy atheists. So, absolutely reviled by their lack of worship and their impiety, Zeus fucking whipped them out of existence. Well, not entirely because they soon came back as the "blessed spirits of the Underworld". Probably serving as Hades' underlings... If he really every needed that.

Enter the Bronze Age. And Oh boy, the Men of that era had absolutely zero fucks to give. Because you see, in the grimdarkness of the Bronze Age of Men, there is only war. Not that is has anything to do with the actual bronze age, but this era was marked by one thing. The Men loved a good fight, and they loved bronze. Their armor was bronze, their houses were made out of bronze, their tools were fabricated with bronze, and they forged their weapons with bronze. They had bronze everywhere. This is probably because bronze was very sought after at the time of Hesiod. Zeus didn't even bother with them. For they were already good at destroying themselves. They bashed each other's heads all the time. War was their whole life. They just couldn't live without it. Which is why their petty wars ended when they all died... In a flood. You know who caused it? Zeus. Because he was absolutely reviled by the idea of human sacrifices. So when King Lycaon of Arcadia sacrificied a boy in his name, the god of all gods said "fuck this" and brought a deluge. The sole survivor of this world ending catastrophe was Deucalion, the son of Prometheus, who escape with the flood by the use of chest that carried him the entire timem.

And then finally, we have the Heroic Age. And it was an age undreamed of. Tragedies, battles, heroes vanquishing tyrants, gods brawling other gods, monsters slaying... That's when every Greek Myth happened. But alas, to Hesiod, that was all in the past. All the men of this age went to Elysium and are now enjoying a lofty afterlife. Hesiod stated that now men are living in the Iron Age and are doomed to make even worse mistakes than the men of previous ages. Because they deserve nothing and are all corrupt and terrible. And young people are stupid too. Typical Hesiod take.

Why Hesiod and many other classical Greek considered thier time of the iron age to be a downgrade to the achievement of the past? Is the same Mythologizing relationship the late Romans had after/during the slow-mo implosion of the Roman Empire and the basis of the often-used fantasy trope Tolkien codified. Before classical Greece, everyone knows, thier was Mycenaean Greece, the civilization that defined Greece's bronze age (as they had the infrastructure to mass produce bronze). Of course, because of a poorly documented economic collapse, as people do during a system crash, everyone fled the slowly denigrating cities for the more stable rural life and new smaller fiefdoms. With population centers and the trade economy in shambles, of course, the art of bronze forging became impractical and lost, forcing everyone to downgrade to rudimentary and cruddy iron tools (thus the iron age). If you were a sheep farmer and, say, crumbling pre-apocalypse irreplaceable engineering feats, of course, you would say the past was superior and be the setting for your epics (even if their own mythology was different by cultural evolution over time). Even when technology caught back up to pre-collapse, you always have pessimists and romantics like Hesiod that believed the height of technology and the quality of humans were at a specific point in the past and could never be reached again.

So yeah, that's where we came from... Or IS IT? You see, there is another story, this time told by Socrates, that says that men actually had a different origin. Once, Men and Women were the same beings. We were all tough, independent, and so strong we could rival the gods. We had two heads, four legs, and four arms. At one point, we wanted to take Mount Olympus for ourselves, and Zeus kicked our ass so hard that we split into two. So now Men and Women existed as two separate beings. Bear in mind that Socrates used this story to explain how Love came to be, saying that we are basically always looking for who is our other half. Yeah, have we told you yet that Greek Mythology can get weird? It can get weird sometimes.

Part V - The Trojan Wars

How you might sound like when explaining this shit

The poetic epic. And, of course, we... Lost it. The biggest cycle of all of mythology, and all we got are just mere scraps. Not even Norse Mythology has it this bad. Well, you could argue the Epic of Gilgamesh is similar, but at least we have most of the text and not just a summary made by a guy born hundreds of years after it was written. Because that's how much we know of the Trojan Wars. Well, we know about the real deal but don't know the full deets of the myths themselves.

To put it simply, the myths were written in eight different parts. Some were written and/or collected by Homer (assuming he was a single real person), some by other unknown authors who contributed to the sheer mess that this Cycle is. In any case, the following parts were Cypria, The Illiad, Aethiopis, the Little Illiad, the Sack of Troy, the Returns, The Odyssey and Telegony. They detailed the reasons why the war broke out and the first nine years that preceded the day Odysseus pulled the horse trick on the Trojans, and then the returns of every king that took part in the war effort, Odysseus' trip being the most notable of them all. Of these eight works, we only have two of them, namely the Illiad and the Odyssey. Why weren't the other ones preserved? We don't know. Perhaps by negligence, or simply by the fact that these stories were orally transmitted, something the Celts and the Gauls also did for all of their myths, and you know how much we have of their actual mythology, eh? (Nothing)

What we do know is that SOMETHING did happen. The excavated foundations of Troy VII indicate it was burned to the ground. There were a lot of people, weapons, and arrows in the rubble, and it happened sometime between 1220-1180 BC.

Lettuce begin.

Act I - Olympian affairs

A long time ago, Themis, goddess of Justice, came to Zeus to tell him of a prophecy. Just like his father before him, and his grandfather too, he would be thwarted from the throne of Olympus by one of his sons. Another version says that Prometheus, one of the former Titans freed by Heracles as part of his Twelve tasks, told him about that. Which makes sense, given that his leader was killed and castrated by the lightning bolt douche in charge. In any case, Zeus wasn't exactly thrilled by this, given how this almost happened with Zagreus, one of his illegitimate sons (with Persephone, mind you), did sit on the throne and was thought to be the next ruler of the gods. Granted, Hera had him blasted across the Mount for this, and he was just a baby. Another part of the prophecy stated that said son would not one birthed by Hera, but by a sea-nymph named Thetis. To make sure Zeus actually does not do anything stupid, he arranges a wedding between her and Peleus, an elderly king. Not that marriages really stopped Zeus from sogging his biscuit before, but hey, if it works...

The Olympians were invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding. This made Hera reasonably happy. Each of the gods brought their own gifts and blessings to the couple. But Zeus, feeling that the literal embodiment of disorders was going to ruin everything at the last minute, ordered that Eris should not come to the wedding. Hermes tried to prevent her from entering, and although he did manage to stop her, she threw her own gift at the door. It was a single golden apple, with on it inscribed the words "To the fairest". By all logic, this gift must have been for Thetis, right? Well no, because Aphrodite, Hera, and, strangely enough, Athena started to quarrel over it. Given that neither of them could properly decide who should get it, they assigned Paris to choose a worthy contender for the apple. He was a prince of Troy living on Mount Ida as a shepherd so to escape a possible horrible fate after hearing a prophecy which said that Troy would fall.

The Three goddesses arrived and ask him who actually deserved it. Paris, having absolutely no idea why three Olympians would come to him to make a decision, could not actually provide a concrete answer. So to actually settle things, the three goddesses decided to bribe him with gifts and blessings matching their respective field of expertise. However, Aphrodites hit the spot, because she promised him to be married to the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris chooses her. And let's be honest, he's right. Because, hey, goddess of love and everything. But anyway, remember this because this is going to come back to bite him in the ass at the worst possible moment. Thanks, Eris.

Later, Zeus lets out a sigh of relief because Thetis has a child, and its not one of his. Thus canceling the prophecy. This kid is Achilles. It was foretold (yes, again) that he would die old after an uneventful life or die young on the battlefield after which his name would be sung and celebrated in poetry forever and ever. Neither prospects sound particularly good, but to add salt to injury, when Achilles was nine years old, another fortune-telling seer prophesized that Troy would not fall without his help. Yes, that's the second prophecy related to Troy falling thus far. If this is starting to sound like it was all premeditated, Hesiod might have a word or two to say about that.

Anyway, Thetis was absolutely frightened by the idea of losing her precious infant so soon, so to make sure that neither prophecies happened at all, she decided to make him immortal. Either Thetis washed him with ambrosia every night until Peleus discovered it and threw a hissy fit, or Thetis bathed Achilles in the Styx. Why the Styx specifically? Well, it is told that while the dead cross the stream to join the place they belong to after they pass Hades' gates, mortals would actually become immortal by simply swimming in the stuff. Of course, Thetis absolutely fucked it by awkwardly holding him while he was being soaked by the river, and his heel was not affected by the River. Meaning he was completely indestructible... Except for one, itty, bitty part of him. Keep that in mind too, that detail is gonna come back later.

So after that, Thetis decided to hide Achilles in the court of Lycomedes, lord of Skyros and disguised him as a girl. Achilles grew up to become of the most accomplished warriors in Greece. - Yes, Achilles was a femboy twink. This is Ancient Greece, that was perfectly normal back in those days.

Now, remember Aphrodite's bribe? Her name is Helen. The daughter of Tyndareus, King of Sparta. Allegedly. Some sources say that her real father was Zeus, who slept with his wife in the form of a swan (no, really). But the important thing is that Tyndareus is looking to marry her, and boy does she have a lot of suitors. But the king was afraid that actually choosing one would cause a fucking riot. That's how hot Helen was. Odysseus, king of Ithaca and one of the suitors, told him to keep it cool and make an agreement with him and the other suitors so that when he finally chooses who gets to marry Helen, all of them must agree to protect and endorse the couple. They all accepted, begrudgingly.

The suitors drew lots to decide who would marry Helen, and the lucky husband-to-be was Menelaus, the king of Sparta and brother to Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae. The latter, being a powerful king in his own right, was married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra.

Things went well between Menelaus and Helen for a while, and then Eros, or Cupid (sent by Aphrodite) struck Paris and Helen with his arrow while the former was visiting Sparta on a diplomatic mission. They fell in love on the spot. Eventually, the Trojan prince showed up while Menelaus was away attending his grandfather's funeral and ran off with Helen.

The results were predictable.

Act II - The Gatherings

So what do you get when you have a couple who's been made to artificially fall in love with one another and their love is technically impossible/forbidden? A kidnapping of course. Maybe their love wasn't so artificial, given how Helen didn't had much to say in the matter of her wedding. That being said, she and Paris fled the place on boat. This made Hera extremely fucking mad and she sent a storm to make matters worse. They landed in Sidon. Paris was once again shook with terrible visions and a sudden stream of paranoia and decided to sail back to Troy. And took Helen with him. Like that was going to solve anything.

Now just so that we're clear. No, the war was not caused by a love triangle. This is a diplomatic incident most foul. The alliance between Sparta and the other fiefdoms was at stakes, and if Paris, the fucking prince of Troy, was going to ruin what actually solidified this alliance in the first place, this meant war. Understandably, Menelaus was angry. Very much so. So he and Odysseus travelled to Troy to solve the issue with at least some form of diplomacy. It failed. And we think you know what this means. Menelaus decides to gather up a team, namely the suitors who swore to protect the couple at all costs even though they weren't chosen. So he tasks Agamemnon to sent emmisaries to every Archaean clan to summon them to war.

We should warn you though, this where the myths get extremely confusing. Because things went differently depending on the author and the traditions. So we will try our best efforts to give you a concise idea of what happened.

And we open these confusing retellings with the biggest points of contension of this entire cycle. Homer retconning everything the other writers did. Odyseus, despite coming up with the idea of forming an alliance with the suitors, was not too thrilled about joining the war. He tried to feign madness but was quickly outsmarted by Palamedes who put him in a situation where he had to kill his son. Refusing to do so, he revealed his sanity and was forced to join the war... But then again, according to Homer, he was already willing to join the war effort in the first place, given how he himself anticipated it. And then we have Achilles. Well, what part of the story do you want to believe? Choose between the following possible scenarios;

• Homer said that Achilles never hide in Skyros and actually conquered the island once the war broke out.
• Phoenix (not the creature, the guy) went to retrieve him and revealed him as a man when he blew an horn to ring the alarm and have him slashing his way through for a good fight instead of fleeing like the rest of the girls.
• Phoenix, again, came to retrieve him, but disguised as a merchant. Recognizing Achilles because out of all the girls, he was the only one actually inspecting weapons instead of silk and clothes.

See? Those are just two massive plot holes of this cycle. And there are many like these two. But we're going to spare you the details because otherwise shit will get confusing. Now, let's get back to business.

The forces of the suitors gathered at Aulis, a greek port town. All responded to the call except Cinypras who sent breastplates and fifty ships to Agamemnon, one made of wood, the rest being made of clay. Once everyone was assembled, they all prepared for the war and made accomodations. Designating leaders, ranks and the pecking order of the suitors army's hierarchy. Achilles was the last one to join them, to everyone surprise, actually. Especially when they revealed who he was and explained why was he unheard of for so long... And that it turned out he was 15 years old. After a sacrifice to Apollo, a snake slithered from the altar and ate nine sparrow chicks before turning into stone. This was interpreted as a sign that Troy would fall after nine years of war. Good old foreshadowing.

And so the army marched to Troy, or rather sailed to. A big, powerful army of hundreds of thousands of men, armed to the teeth with weapons and a lot whole lot of military expertise, with the biggest, most impressive armade of all Ancient Greece... And they forgot where Troy was, and so they got lost. They ended up debarking in Mysia, a land ruled by Telephus, the son of motherfucking Heracles of all people, who had a bunch of Archadians under his command. Oops. They end up battling, and during the conflict, Achilles ends up wounding Telephus, because he himself killed a close friend of his. The wound would not heal. Telephus asked an oracle about this, to which he replied with; "He that wounded shall heal". After the battle was settled, the army set sailed once again... Only to be scatterd by a big storm. We're off to a great start.

And now its time for another great point of contingency! This time, we don't know how Telephus was healed! What we do know is that Achilles went back to Skyros to marry Deidamia and organize another gathering. And here's where you choose the course of events;

• Telephus went to Aulis disguised as a beggar and asked absolute bro Agamemnon to heal his wound... Which is dumb because Agamemnon didn't even brawl with him.
• Telephus went there, undisguised, and held Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, as hostage so to force Achilles into healing him. He refused, explaining that he has no medical knowledge. Until Odysseus, in a moment of pure troll logic, told him that if he managed to wound Telephus with his spear, then it should also be able to heal him. So they broke the spear, scattered the remains on his wound, and miraculously, it worked.

In any case, judging by how things went, they decided to take the dark premonition of Apollo's sacrifice seriously, and wait eight more years before setting sail to Troy and finally finish what Paris started. As payment for his healing, Telephus indicated the way to Troy, so that next time they shoudln't end up fucking up his crib instead.

EIGHT YEARS LATER

The fleet gathered again. This time in bigger numbers because now there were thousands of ships involved into this. However, the winds were bad, big time, actually. So bad in fact that it turned out this was all a punishment. Agamemnon had apparently killed a sacred deer or a perfectly regular deer in an otherwise sacred grove that belonged to Artemis, but also boasting that he was a better hunter. As punishment, Artemis turned the winds against him, given the fact that he was in the fleet's commander. Unless he sacrified his own daughter to her, he shall never actually sail to Troy. Refusing to sacrifice Iphigenia, his crew had to threaten his position to actually change his mind. AND GUESS WHAT TIME IS IT ONCE AGAIN!? Yes! More "Choose your own greek myth bullshittery! So, depending on who you ask;

• Agamemnon went "well, if you can't beat 'em, sacrifice your daughter to 'em" and relunctantly killed her.
• Agamemnon decided to kill another deer instead.
• Artemis took pity on the girl and decided to make her one of her maidens instead, which is a big deal because she otherwise works alone. According to Hesiod, Iphigenia later became Hecate, for some reason.

Anyway after... That, they finally sailed for Troy, this time for real. Now, surpringly speaking, there exist a catalogue of ships that detail the exact lists of ships present in the fleet. But then again, it could be a complete invention by Homer. What we will tell you though is an interesting tid-bit about Greek ships. True to their tendency to explain certain phenomenons occuring in the world, the Greeks believed that there was a hidden world filled with magical things that even most the gods were seemingly unaware of. A part of this world were the spirits of ships. They believed that every vessel that they created had a soul. Hence why they were given a name and a pair of eyes on the prow, so that they could see. It has been theorized that the ships has supernatural capabilities in the myths, but given how they can't even sail without the wind on their side... Maybe not. Also another thing to note; maybe the Argos was a part of the expedition. You know, the ship of the Argonauts? Ain't that awesome?

You might actually be wondering what the Trojans were up to this entire time. After hearing of the shenanigans that happened eight years prior, they let out a sight of relief because the gods were on their side that day, and they decide to gather some allies from all around Greece... More or less. The second book of the Illiad details that they managed to get the help of enemies of the suitors, people who had a grudge against either Agamemnon, Odysseus or any of the other kings, nymphs and a literal mountain goddess (contested), a whole plethora of tribesmen and warriors castes from the northern castes who gladly joined the Trojans for a good fight. Even Celts joined in. And another city-state led by a fucking son of Zeus. We don't have the details of that particular part of the story. But we could only wish we actually did.

And now, for the main course of this here event.

Gods

Gods in Greek Mythology aren't omnipotent or omniscient... Most of the time. They're even physical beings! Matter of fact, Odysseus managed to catch and outwit one with a fucking fishing net. To put it simply, Gods are like super-powered immortal humans with a plethora of abilities. Their powers aren't necesarily tied to their respective fields, but they use them in order to better manipulate what they rule over. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades all share the same abilties, but you'll remark that none of them use theirs in the same manner or for the same goals, Poseidon needs his trident to manipulate the waves, and Hades prefers to use his powers as a last resort. Their titles and ancestry changes little as to how they function, and let's be real, the Greeks weren't Nerds obsessed with consistency or deep lore and magic systems that would make a normie's head dizzy.

Primordial Gods

• Chaos : the original being, let alone god. Both a goddess and literal primordial universe stuff, and is ultimately responsible for everything due to well, allowing it all to happen. More directly responsible for starting the divine incest train by spawning Gaea and proceeding to perform PROMOTIONS with her.
• Uranus/Ouranos: Father Heaven himself. Gaea's son-husband, presumably produced by her fling with Chaos. His own fling with Gaea was responsible for the birth of the Titans. Kind of a dick (hiding away the non-god children between him and Gaia, even if said children were, say, master smiths like the Cyclopes were), which is why Gaea got Cronus to cut his literal one off. Whether he survived CBT's final form is up for interpretation. Whatever's the case, his blood spawned the Giants, the Erinyes, and few other monsters while his ballsack fell in the ocean and his foaming sperm created Aphrodite(s).
• Gaia : Mother Earth herself. Directly responsible for the first changing of what gods were in charge and indirectly helped with the second. She's mainly known for being the mother of the Titans and several monsters like Cyclopes, with Uranus hiding the monster kids as they were born being the catalyst for her giving Cronus a sickle. Has a (modern) reputation of being a bitch, given her track record of betraying her own family members for her own ends.

Titans

• Cronos : The leader of the Titans by right of being the one to take charge when tasked to castrate Uranus. While he initially started off as a well-respected ruler of the world, eventually he grew paranoid that his own children would overthrow him like he did to his own father, hence the baby-swallowing. This would eventually prove to be his undoing when Zeus fed him something to throw up his children and then united the Olympians, Cyclopes, and Hecatonchires against the Titans. He would eventually lose, though his punishment is a bit unclear between Tartarus or being locked away in a dungeon for eternity.
• Rhea : Wife and sister to Cronos, meaning that she is also the mother of the original Olympians. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Cronos from swallowing all of her children so she replaced Zeus with a rock while hiding her last son in Crete to grow up. After the Titanomachy, her fate was rather kind, as she remained a steadfast ally of Olympus.
• Atlas : Another Titan who was a significant leader of the Titans during the Titanomachy. When the Titans lost, Atlas was punished by being forced to uphold the heavens for eternity, being the origin of both astronomy and the root of the term for a collection of maps.

• Oceanus : The Titan ruler of the seas before Poseidon. Decided to wait out the war between Titans and Olympians as a neutral, and so, while he wasn't imprisoned with the other Titans, he still lost control of the sea to Poseidon. Still ruled over lakes, ponds, rivers, you know,freshwater areas. Was also the father of the Oceanids.

Olympian Gods

• Zeus : The Big Guy in Charge, the man who hurls his thunderbolt. Ruling over the Olympians on Mount Olympus, Zeus has a habit of being a very undecisive but very effective leader. Effective because problems tend to stop whenever he steps in, undecisive however because he has tough time wondering when is the right time to strike. Rulers of the Sky as well, he's in charge of the weather! Somewhat. The Greeks considered that everytime there was thunder or a massive shitstorm, that was because Zeus was beyond pissed. Other than that, Zeus has a reputation of being a womanizer and a rapist, being practically incapable of keeping it in his pants. And also an otherkin god. He banged all kinds of women as all kinds of animals and other types of stuff; Bulls, Birds, Clouds, Fishes, Ants... And in most cases it gave birth to either a monster or a demi-god.
• Hera : The All-powerful queen of the Gods, and goddess of marriage. Most ironic that she has the most unfaithful husband in all of mythology (and arguably, all of fiction). As a consequence of her domain is the vow of marriage, and punisher of those that break it, being at odds with Zeus's endless philandering, thus Hera is known as a foul-mouthed jealous goddess who has gone to punish women who end up attracting her husband's attention for "absolutely no reason", and torment poor Heracles and his many wives because he was born off the wrong guy. (Can't punish the king of the gods, so victim-blame the mortal that couldn't say no or outrun a horny god, it still ends either way badly).
• Ares : The God of War. Although not like her sister Athena, he's more like Khorne or Gork and Mork. The Greeks disliked him (except Sparta) for being a bringer of utter bullshit (being the father of the gods that personify them), yet unlike other badass war gods, he is an utter wuss and a crybaby if you prick him and has never won a fight against anyone important (being the popular pro-Athens interpretation). Whereas the Romans absolutely adored the guy and hallowed his name, being the father of the city's founder (though Mars is originally a different god that purposefully conflated with Ares because Greek culture was in vogue). Arguably because both nations had very different views on war.
• Aphrodite : The Goddess of Love... In every sense of the term. Also a worshipped Warrior Goddess in Laconia. She doesn't do much, besides being one of the three reasons why the War of Troy began (the two other being Hera and Athena, funnily enough), although she's been known as the Goddess of beauty in general. So consider the fact that the mere sight of her might be enough to put your dick in a wheelchair. Which is fairly tame by the standards of this article. She's also known for being the wife of Hephaestus, though since Heph is a forge-dwelling Neckbeard (and the polar opposite of her beauty) she tried to sneak out with Ares. Only for the forge god to trap them both in a golden net and make them the laughing stock of Olympus.
• Apollo : God of Arts, Music, Poetry, Hunks and Light. There's not much to him, but he's known as the conductor of the Muses, and also a famous proclaimer of Heroes. Among other things, he's also famous for having spent a significant amount of time in none other than fucking Hyperborea. He's also one of the few who sided with the Trojans during the siege of Troy.
• Athena : Goddess of Wisdom, Strategy, Handicraft and School teachers. Usually depicted as an Owl when disguised. Wisest of the Olympians, and definetely one of the reverred Gods along with Poseidon and Zeus. Perhaps even moreso than these two since she got her own city. And that's a pretty huge prestige. She has been guiding a whole lot of heroes, most famously Odysseus during the Siege of Troy and during his escapades on the high seas. She's also directly responsible for punishing Medusa for being more beautiful than she is, proving that all the Greek gods are jealous and petty.
• Artemis : Goddess of Hunting, the Moon, and Birthing. Odd job, right? One of the first bastard child of Zeus, she made a name for herself as one of the busiest gods out there. She's capable of creating plagues and sicknesses, but also giving the cure to treat them. Kind of like a second hand great equalizer. She's very close to young children and animals. And also a great protector of roads, ports and the likes.
• Demeter : Goddess of Agriculture. Famously known as the mother of Hades' wife, Persephone. Besides the myth of her daughter getting kidnapped, there ain't much about her. That being said, she gave birth to a whole lot of other gods, like Ploutos the God of Wealth, and is one of the most level-headed Olympians. She was very much adored by the Greek, as if it weren't for her, they would all starve to death.
• Dionysius : Aight, so -hic- th-this fella righ- right there? -hic- He's da -hic- God of Parties and -hic- Alcohol! -hic- He's actually not a lazy bum, -hic- and he's more like -hic- a softcore Slaanesh, right? -hic- Just minus the boobs -hic-. Anyway, like, he gave birth to -hic- a bunch of lesser Olympians by fucking with -hic- Aphrodites, maybe? -hic-, I dunno anymore. Oh! -hic- Being a god of booze, he's -hic- in charge of all the Ambrosia -hic-, the drink that makes you -hic- immortal... -hic-!
• Hades : God of the Underworld, which also shares his name and wears a helmet of invisibility. Though he's often considered to be a massive asshole (and to be fair, the incident with Persephone was a massive dick move), he's usually a lot more chill.
• Hephaestus : God of Blacksmithing. While he was born to Zeus and Hera, he was thrown off Olympus for his deformities. Despite this, he's an incredibly talented artisan, creating everything from thrones and weapons to the first Automata. Managed to hit the jackpot and marry Aphrodites, though he had to teach her a lesson after she committed adultery at least once. He is considered a patron god of Dorfs and Neckbeards by /tg/.
• Hermes : Herald of the Olympians and god of boundaries, shepherds, flocks, messengers, merchants, travellers, thieves, other heralds and orators. Busy god, indeed. Among his siblings, he's the fastest. So fast in fact that he's always given the most jobs by Zeus. Yeah, even in Antiquity, the Greeks knew speedsters were busted. For some strange reasons, he was also reverred as a fertility and cthonic god.
• Poseidon : God of the Seas and Storms, but his portfolio also curiously contains horses as well, which is why he has his own chariot carried by Hippocampuses, horses with the back halves of their bodies being those of fish. Wields a magical Trident which allows him to control the tides. While he hadn't stirred up as much controversy over what he's banged, he's also managed to create his own harem and array of bastard children and monsters.

Cthonic Gods

• Persephone: Queen of the Underworld, Goddess of Spring, grain and nature. She was the certain of the kerfuffled that was her abduction by Hades (which was more-or-less arranged by Zeus). They eventually ended up appreciating one another and becoming the most sincere and most solid couple of all Greek Mythology. While she isn't directly tied to the seasons themselves, Spring and Summer come everytime she visits Mount Olympus to see her mother Demeter, and Autumn and Winter when she goes back to the Underworld. Demeter is doing all of this season-changing business actually, because of the strong bond between them.
• Angelos: Contrary to what her name indicates, she is not an angel. Daughter of Zeus and Hera, she was casted into the Underworld for stealing Hera's annointments. We don't know much about her or what her role was in the myths or in ancient greek religions. She's also tied with other enigmatics cthonic gods such as the Cabeiroi of which we know next to nothing about. What we do know is that her actions eventually led to the birth of Hecate.
• Charon: The Ferryman of the Underworld. Either an old man or a skeleton transporting the dead (or the living) on the Styx for the very good price of two coins for the trip. Famously led Orpheus to get his chick back, but also Heracles, Odysseus... Well a whole lot of peeps really. He's Thanatos and Hypno's brother, surprisingly enough. Yes, he's not a god, but he's the almighty janitor of the Underworld. Nobody disrespect Charon. Nobody.
• The Erinyes/The Furies: The Goddesses/Personifications of Vengeance. Daughters of Nyx. Or Hades and Persephone. Or Cronus. Nobody knows. Their role is to make sure grudges and oaths are properly settled. They go to all sorts of lenghts to make sure that they are enforced, and they take pride in setting them all right. They live in the Underworld and are known to be absolutely relentless. So much so that even the fucking Romans feared them. Yeah, the Greek ones, not their version called the Dirae.
• Hecate: Goddess of Boundaries, the Moons, death, ghosts and necromancy of all things. A three-faced lady of many origins, some greek, some egyptian, and who's role in Greek religion was oddly diversed. Nonetheless, she was one of the most reverred Cthonic gods, as she was tied directly to the dead themselves and magic as well. It is often theorized by historians that she precedes gods like Zeus because of how frequently her name is found in scriptures and sanctuaries. Which is funny for a goddess that has such a minor role in Mythology.
• Melinoë: A Goddess, or a nymph, with a stange elvish-sounding name. Daughter of Hades (or Zeus) and Persephones, sister of Zagreus Tied to magic and witchcraft. Her role in the Underworld was tied to the passage of souls into the different realms of Hades. Not much is known about her aswell, but we do know that she served as a psychopomp. That, and as an omen of how mysterious and eerie the world can be. The Greeks believed in magic, but it was a form of knowledge that no mortal should know. Only Melinoë and the other goddesses of magic truly know what sort of dark world lies silent.
• Zagreus: Possibly a Cthonic god. We don't know much about him besides the fact that he was destined to become the new leader of the Olympians by thwarting them all off of the Mount. Hera turned him into divine giblets and Zeus made poriddge out of him. Because he was just that powerful. And he was just a kid at that time. Would later become famous as the main character of the highly acclaimed rogue-like Diablo-esque action game Hades, lover of Thanatos and Megara, a Fury.

Personifications

• Hypnos : Personification of Sleep. Twin brother of Thanatos (with whom he shares the same bed). Depending on the myth, he either lives in the Underworld near the Lethe, the lake that makes you forget things, or on the Isle of Lemnos, in a cave. One of the most benevolent Gods and certainly a very powerful deity as well. This guy managed to knock Zeus into sleeping. Is married to Pasithea, and is the cutest character in Hades. 'Nuff said.
• Ker : Personification (or goddesses, this time call Keres) of cruel and violent deaths. Drawn to bloody battles and thirsting for blood. They have been compared to the Valkyries from Norse Mythology, although unfairly, because the latter is actually benevolent, while the former clearly is not.
• Kratos : Personification of Strength, being one of Zeus' enforcers alongside his siblings and being a massive dick. More famous because of a certain video game by Sony Santa Monica, which radically shifts his story to that of an asshole of a (demi)god who killed Ares for his place only to become manipulated by the rest of Olympus before getting fed up and destroying it all and fleeing elsewhere...to repeat with the Norse pantheon.
• The Moirai/The Fates : Personifications of... Well, fate. It's unclear who exactly gave them birth, but one thing is for sure; Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos are tending to the thread of your life, and you better not trashtalk them unless you want your ass handed over to Hades prompto.
• Nemesis : Personification of Retribution and Revenge, often sent by the Gods to punish those who showed arrogance before the Gods (Ironic). We also don't know who her actual parents are, but given the nature of Mythologies, that's a given. She's described as a Woman with wings. Feel free to see her as a precursor to Angels. Kind of.
• Thanatos : Personification of Death. Quiet Death that is. He's not the only one in that department, but he's usually the one who peacefully guides the souls of those who lived the good life and died safe and tranquil to the Underworld. Could technically qualify as a Cthonic God since he's usually seen dwelling there. There aren't many myths surrounding him, and that is because the Greeks were very much afraid of talking shit to deities tied to Death.

Demi-Gods

You'd be surprised, but Demi-Gods aren't exactly a thing in Greek Mythology. And you might think that it's a bit stupid, because Zeus keeps on putting his wedding vegetable in non-divine pussy, so there must be fuckery being done there and actually produce some weird human/god hybrids, right? First of all, remember how we said that Greek Mythos rarely had any sort of consistency? We're talking about the different interpretations of different stories made by different authors, some even separated by distance and centuries. Second of all, most of the children of Zeus were either outright gods or plain old mortal. Race-mixing isn't a thing among the Olympians. But alas, the only one who is really considered a demi-god is, without any surprise:

• Heracles : Or Hercules if you're roman or uncultured (Honey, you mean HUNKules?). Illegitimate son of Zeus and bearer of the greatest power that ever was in Greek Mythology: Plot Armor! Just kidding, it's his super strenght. Heracles had a number of misadventures and a whole lot of extremely terrible stuff happened to his loved ones, primarily because he was the favorite torture toy of Hera, absolutely livid goddess that she is. He lost all of his wives (and arguably husband too), and was forced to do the dirtiest of jobs around Greece. While he still has some qualities and definitely is one of the most "Goodie-two-shoes" heroes of Greek myths, his stories are quite anti-climatic. Well, it is pretty tragic to see him enter a fenzy because of Hera's fuckery, but the guy just dispose of every adversary he meets by punching them once. His fight with the Lion of Nemea? He strangled him. That's all he did. Eventually, when he was done with his twelve tasks, he was poisoned by his fourth wife (although it was all a misunderstanding), but was allowed Immortal life and a place on Olympus by his dad. Much to Hera's chagrin.

Greek Heroes and Zeroes

The Ancient Greeks had a rather different idea of what constitutes a hero than we do today. To us, a hero not only does exceptional things but does so because they are the right thing to do. Spider-Man got his powers, but what made him a hero was when he learned that with Great Power comes Great Responsibility. He also faces down individuals who have their own powers and abilities, but are not heroic as use them to harm people (steal stuff, get revenge, turn the population of New York into Lizards against their will, be a callous asshole unconcerned with collateral damage, etc).

To the Ancient Greeks a hero was exceptionally capable (strong, skilled or intelligent) and might have superhuman abilities which they used to great ends for themselves and their people. Being a good person was in no way a requirement. Heroes could and often did do evil or dickish things to either get their way or once the dust had settled.

Note that there's a lot of overlap between heroes and demigods; many heroes were either able to become demigods for their deeds, or were able to perform their heroic deeds because they were the sons (or, in very rare cases, daughters) of gods and morals.

• Achilles: Most remembered for his role in the story of the Trojan War, Achilles was the son of a human and a nymph whose mom tried to keep him safe from all harm by dunking him in the water of the Styx when he was a baby; as a result, he became invulnerable everywhere except the heel she held to keep hold of him as she was dipping him like a donut. So of course he got killed in the war when an enemy stabbed him in the heel with a poisoned spear. Hence the term "Achilles heel" to refer to a weakspot.
• Bellerephon: A hero who slew the dreaded chimera with the aid of pegasus, only to be slain by Zeus when he got arrogant and tried to fly up to Olympus to demand immortality.
• Jason: A prince whose evil uncle stole his throne, Jason proved his claim as the rightful king by leading the Argonauts, a team of heroes and demigods, to retrieve the Golden Fleece, a sacred relic guarded by a many-headed dragon. He seriously screwed himself over by wedding and then betraying a powerful sorceress named Medea.
• Odysseus: Renowned for his cleverness. Partook in the Trojan War, then angered Poseidon and was cursed to roam across the monster-infested islands of remote seas for years, a series of tales collectively known as the Odyssey.
• Perseus: One of the great monster-slaying heroes of Greek myth, though the one he's most remembered for killing is Medusa, an act that also created Pegasus.
• Theseus: The famed slayer of the Minotaur. Mythology also makes him the founder-hero of Athens.
• Orpheus: A legendary Bard and prophet. His music was so good that it could drown out the song of the Sirens when he guest-starred on the Argo. It even convinced Hades and Persephone to give him a chance to retrieve his wife Eurydice from the underworld, but he screwed it up at the last minute.
• Oedipus: The hero who answered the Sphinx's famous riddle and killed her, which earned him the throne of Thebes. He's also infamously remembered for unknowingly murdering his father and marrying his mother.
• Daedalus: A genius inventor. His most notable creations are a giant robot, a bull costume that allowed the queen of Crete to mate with a bull, the labyrinth that housed the resulting Minotaur, and the wings that let him escape imprisonment right after.
• Icarus: Daedalus' son and more of a zero. He's famous for falling to his death by not heeding his father's warning and flying too close to the sun, which melted the wax holding his wings together.
• Atalanta: A huntress devoted to Artemis. She swore to defend her virginity, and killed two centaurs trying to rape her. Eventually, she consented to marry whoever could beat her in a footrace. With Aphrodite's help, that person would be Hippomenes, who distracted her using golden apples. And then they were turned into lions, the end. (It's supposed to be tragic because ancient greeks thought lions couldn't mate with each other, only with leopards.)
• Castor and Pollux: The twin sons of Leda from two different fathers: the mortal king Tyndareus, and Zeus disguised as a Swan. Thus, Castor was mortal and Pollux was immortal, and you can probably guess their respective fathers. Eventually, Pollux chose to share his immortality with his brother so they wouldn't be separated, and they became the constellation of Gemini.

Monsters and Nonhuman Races

• Minotaur - Originally known as "King Minos' Beast", a towering giant man with a bull's head and a hunger for flesh. In the beginning, Minos ruled Crete with his wife, but when he refused to sacrifice a white bull in order to fulfill a bargain with Posiedon, the spiteful god forced his wife to fuck the bull and give birth to a monster that was promptly locked in a maze dungeon, where it was fed several young men and women every few years as sacrifices. Was eventually slain when Theseus entered the dungeon. The personal name of the minotaur was "Asterion", after Minos' father.
• Medusa and the Gorgons - The Gorgons were a race of snake-like women with serpents for hair and petrifying gazes. Medusa was merely the most famous among them alongside her sisters Stheno and Euryale, but unlike them, she was originally a beautiful human woman. When Posiedon raped her in Athena's temple, Athena cursed her to become a gorgon for...some reason. Was slain by Perseus, with her head being turned into a shield-mounting and her body turning into a freaking Pegasus for some reason (since Posideon is associated with horses we can assume he's why).
• Harpy - Massive birds with the bodies of human women. Essentially considered spirits of the wind and often spirited away people to feed to the Erinyes.
• Centaur - Horses with men (or, more rarely, women) for upper bodies. Largely representative of being untamed animals, though some like Chiron were actually incredibly intelligent.
• Nymph - An all female race of spirits embodying varying aspects of nature. There are a lot of specific nymph variants, but some of the most well known are the Dryad (spirits of forests - the "tree spirit" version is due to confusion with the Hamadryad, essentially reversing their statuses), the Oread (spirits of mountains), the Naiad (spirits of rivers, and often conflated with the Oceanids, who were sea nymphs that were rhe children of Oceanus).
• Satyr - Half man, half goat, drunken party animals heavily associated with Pan and Dionysius. A closely related creature with horse parts instead of goat parts was called the Ipotane.
• Faun - Younger, prettier, gentler versions of satyrs.
• Hydra - The multi-headed monstrosity who grew more heads when one gets cut off. Was slain as one of Heracles' Labors.
• Scylla & Charybdis - A pair of cursed nymphs warped into monstrous forms; Scylla was cursed into a many-headed dragon/wolf thing that was stranded on a rocky island cave, from which she would extend her many necks to grab sailors and devour them. Charybdis became a fish-thing that was chained up in the water a short way over from Scylla's lair; she would take enormous drinks of the ocean, and then spew up everything she had drunk, creating an enormous whirlpool. One of Odysseus' challenges was wending a course between the two.
• Siren - Sea-dwelling women with hypnotically beautiful singing voices that would lure sailors to their doom on the rocky shore, either for kicks or because they ate them. Originally portrayed as either nymphs or merfolk, they became conflated with harpies for some reason.
• Chimera - A tripartite beast with the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a goat, the tail of a serpent or dragon, the heads of all three, and the ability to breathe fire.
• Cyclops - One-eyed giants. Some worked for Zeus or Hephaestus, forging thunderbolts and other miraculous works. Others, like Polyphemus the son of Poseidon, lived on islands where they tended to giant sheep and ate sailors.
• Hecatonchires - Towering giants with fifty heads and one hundred arms. Were assigned to keep the Titans in Tartarus following the Titanomachy.
• Pegasus - Winged horse that emerged from Medusa's body when she was decapitated. Said to be her son by Poseidon, who was trapped in her womb until Perseus killed her.
• Hippocampus - Half-fish, half-horse sea creature kept in great herds by Poseidon.
• Men of Gold - First race of humans, created by Kronos to be free of sin. Sadly, this meant they were celibate and they all died out within a generation. Their souls became the first Daemons, which in Greek Mythology are quite different from Daemons as we've come to know them. If the name sounds familiar, this is from where Geedubs ripped off their own Men of Gold for the Dark Age of Technology.
• Daemons - Spirits of Earth and Air, born of the souls of Just and Noble men, which is a lot more than can be said about their more modern iterations. Basically, every humanoid nature personification that was not a big-name god (which you could technically call greater Daemons as the line of separation is a modern attempt to draw hard lines in places that had none), Nymphs, River gods, god of the house, other gods of a very specific location can be considered Daemons. The first were the souls of the Men of Gold.
• Men of Silver - Second Generation of humans. Created to replace the Men of Gold. Unfortunately, too much sin was added into the batch this time, and whilst they could reproduce, they were apparently Always Chaotic Evil, and the gods were so horrified at what they had created they wiped them out. Other versions of the tale say that, whilst they were sinful, their worst offense was actually just refusing to worship or make sacrifices to the gods. If the second one was true, it wouldn't be a surprise, with how much of a bunch of dicks the Greek Gods were. These more sympathetic versions of the tale state that the souls of the Men of Silver also became Daemons after death.
• Cerberus - The massive three-headed hound that guards the gates of the underworld and prevents the dead from fleeing. Was captured as the last of Heracles' labors.
• Sphinx - The greek version, which was a lion with the head and breasts of a woman and the wings of an eagle. She gave out riddles, and would devour those who answered incorrectly.

/tg/ relevance

As the single most well-known mythology to the Western Audience until the very late decades of the 1900s, Greek Mythology casts a vast shadow over fantasy gaming as a whole. One could argue the very idea of the adventurer traces back to the Greek Hero...although admittedly that's a stretch, since slaying monsters and questing for treasure is a pretty damn common motif in myths the world over. Seriously, even Buddhism has the Journey to the West.

Dungeons & Dragons owes a massive debt to Greek Mythology. Most of its iconic monsters are rooted in either Greek Mythology, Norse Mythology, or European Mythology, with a smattering of exotic foreign creatures like the rakshasa and the genie. In many ways, D&D could be said to be the biggest redefiner of Greek Mythology in all of /tg/ culture, since concepts like creating entire races from singular Greecian monsters were born in D&D.

Arkadia and Odyssey of the Dragonlords are D&D settings that double-down on D&D's roots in Greek mythology. Theros was similarly Magic the Gathering's take on Greek Mythology.