In ancient mythology, the Greek realms of the dead were rich in lore, full of mystical places and inhabited by heroes and villains, powerful in equal measure. These were, however, places for the dead, and the dead were confined to their specific roles in their state of existence. Preserving this status quo were guardians who made sure everyone stayed in their place.

1. Cerberus, the Guardian Hound

One of the most famous legends from Greek myth is the three-headed hound, Cerberus, who guards the gates to Hades. Hesiod named Cerberus in literature in the 8th to 7th centuries BC, and gave the hound 50 heads, while Pindar (6th to 5th century BC) described Cerberus as having 100 heads. However, subsequent literary descriptions almost universally had the hound of Hades with three heads, while artistic depictions varied. Some sources also mention Cerberus having additional snake heads along his back. Given the animal’s parentage, this is not surprising. His mother was Echidna, whose lower half was that of a snake, and his father was the serpentine giant Typhon.

Cerberus was said to devour any spirit trying to leave Hades, and blocked passage to any living being trying to enter. Orpheus, however, was able to pass by the guard dog by charming him with music, while Heracles, in the last of his Twelve Labors, captured Cerberus and brought him up to the land of the living, after which the mighty hero returned him to the underworld.

2. Hermes, the Psychopomp Messenger

Although generally thought of as a messenger, Hermes played an important role as a guide, taking the dead to the underworld so they wouldn’t have to make the journey alone. In this, he was an important bridge between the land of the living and the deathly realm of Hades. Recognizable with his winged helmet and sandals, and wielding a caduceus, Hermes was the god of boundaries, and this included the boundary between the living and the dead.

In Classical Greece, images of Hermes were frequently depicted on funerary objects and offerings out of respect and in the hope that Hermes would take good care of the beloved deceased. Hermes took his wards as far as the boundary of Hades, by the waters of the Styx, where Charon would take over and ferry the dead into the afterlife.

3. Charon, the Ferryman

Known for his duty of ferrying the dead across the Styx (or the Acheron) into Hades is Charon, the grim and dutiful servant of the underworld. Exercising his mandate, he refused entry to the living and barred the dead from leaving.

In the Greek myths, he had several encounters where his duty in this regard was put to the test. Orpheus charmed all the guardians of the underworld with his lyre so that he could retrieve his wife Eurydice, while Heracles took a less subtle approach, refusing to pay the toll and overpowering Charon with his strength in order to enter Hades and retrieve Cerberus.

Later Roman poets described Charon as an unkempt character with a long, uncombed beard and dressed in greasy clothes. In Dante’s Inferno, written in the Late Middle Ages, Charon appeared as a vicious demon who beats the damned with his oar, forcing them into his boat.

People were often buried with a coin so that they could pay Charon to ferry them to Hades, and according to Virgil’s Aeneid, those who had not received proper burial rites had to wait on the shores for a hundred years before Charon would take them across.

4. Hades, the Ruler of the Underworld

A ruler of immense power, Hades reigned over the underworld, sharing a name with his domain. Along with his younger brothers, Poseidon and Zeus, Hades overthrew the Titans for control of the cosmos. Hades was given dominion over the underworld, where the dead would reside. Despite the negative associations with ruling over such a place, in Greek mythology, Hades was depicted as a passive figure concerned with maintaining balance, rather than the vindictive villain as portrayed in popular culture today.

Like his faithful hound, Cerberus, Hades was concerned with preventing the dead from leaving his realm and the living from entering it. Those who crossed him or tried to flee death were subject to Hades’ wrath.

5. The Erinyes, the Goddesses of Vengeance

A triad of fearsome goddesses, the Erinyes punished men for their crimes against the social order. Murderers, perjurers, blasphemers, and those committing acts of unbrotherly conduct were the unfortunate targets of the Erinyes’ attention. Of particular importance to these deities were crimes committed by children against their parents, as this was what created the Erinyes. According to Hesiod’s Theogony, they were born from the blood of Uranus when he was castrated by his son, Cronus.

They tormented their victims in life and punished them in death, as they served Hades and Persephone, organizing punishment for those condemned to suffer. Surviving the end of mythic Greek belief, they lived on, being mentioned when they confronted Dante and Virgil outside the Hellish city of Dis in Dante’s Inferno.

6. Hecate, a Chthonic Goddess of the Crossroads

A goddess associated with witchcraft, the night, liminal spaces, magic, plants and herbs, and the moon, Hecate was also a powerful deity of the Greek underworld, and by the 5th century BC, she was also strongly associated with ghosts. In later periods, and especially in Roman times, Hecate was seen as a triple-goddess, embodying three forms. Existing on the periphery rather than in the center of Greek and Roman mythology, Hecate’s cult prospered on the fringes of society.

Like Hermes, Hecate was also a psychopomp and guided the dead to the afterlife, lighting the way with her torches. She was revered as a guardian of travelers in the real as well as the mythic realms. The Roman poet Virgil wrote of Hecate in the first century BC as being equally powerful in Heaven and Hell and having authority over the Grove of Avernus at the entrance to Hades.

Today, Hecate is still revered as a goddess of witchcraft, and practitioners of Wicca seek her guidance in spellcraft and rituals.

7. Thanatos, the God of Death

As the god of death, Thanatos had significant ties to the underworld, acting as a guardian of cosmic order. Nyx, the primordial goddess of the night, was his mother, and Hypnos, the god of sleep, was his twin brother. His siblings also included the Keres, vicious spirits of slaughter and disease.

Quiet and ever-present, he was the god of peaceful death. His touch was soft, and his temperament was calm and silent. Nevertheless, he represented the end of life and was naturally feared by the ancient Greek people, all of whom had to eventually meet him.

While not a major figure in Greek myth, Thanatos did feature in a few stories, most notably that of Sisyphus, who tricked the god of death, binding him with chains so that he could not perform his duty. Without Thanatos, nobody could die, not even from brutal wounds inflicted in the most violent ways. Ares, incensed that without death battle would mean nothing, came to the aid of Thanatos and released him. Another version of the story had Hades as the god who was bound.

Appearing in funerary poetry and art, Thanatos was a representation of the Greeks’ desire for dignity in death and was depicted as young and beautiful.

8. Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus, the Judges of the Dead

Guarding against chaos and ensuring that order reigned in the afterlife, Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus stood as judges, deciding the eternal fate of those who passed into their realm. Each a mortal son of Zeus, they were kings who gained divine recognition for establishing order within their kingdoms. In death, they were granted ministerial positions as demigods, answerable to Hades in the underworld.

Aeacus guarded the keys of Hades and was responsible for judging Europeans, while Rhadamanthus judged Asians, and Minos cast his vote in the case of indecision.

Long after the end of pagan Greece, Minos lived on, finding a new home in Christian theology, being a monstrous judge in Dante’s Inferno.

In their own way, each of these beings guarded Hades, whether it was the physical form of the underworld or the principle of cosmic order and the boundaries of life and death. From the monstrous and terrifying to the beautiful and serene, Greek beliefs on death and the afterlife were complex, exemplifying a deeply philosophical engagement between the ancient Greeks and their own existence.

For the ancient Greeks, death wasn’t the end. It was the beginning of an eternity in the underworld where a soul could be rewarded, punished, or simply ignored depending on how they lived their life. Getting to the Underworld, however, was a journey; one that involved a ferryman named Charon, who demanded payment for his duty of ferrying souls across the dreaded waters of the Styx.

Who Is Charon?

The ominous nature of Charon is immediately apparent from his parentage. The traditionally accepted genealogy is that he is the son of Erebus, the primordial force of darkness, and his mother is Nyx, the primordial goddess representing night.

The explanation for his name is open to debate. It is thought to be a poetic form of the Greek χαρωπός, meaning “of keen gaze.” The Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus suggests the concept may have originated from an ancient Egyptian source, but there is no solid evidence to support this. However, it is salient to note that in ancient Egypt, there were close analogs to Greek deities that may have influenced the formation of Greek belief. In this case, the minor deity Aken stands out, as he was tasked with ferrying the dead across the waters to the Egyptian afterlife, and is mentioned several times in the Book of the Dead.

Although an Egyptian etymology for Charon is dismissed in modern academia, there is a plausible reason it has traction. It is a well-known fact that Greek belief was influenced to a certain degree by outside sources, including those of Egypt (especially in later eras). This much is even stated by Herodotus, who claims the appellations of the 12 gods were brought by the Egyptians and adopted by the Greeks.

Charon may also have been influenced by the Etruscan deity Charu, who was the god of Death itself and was believed to ferry the dead into the underworld. Likenesses, however, differ, and Charu was depicted as a fearful demon, often with a hooked nose and animal ears and even wings. He carried a hammer to break down the doors of tombs so he could retrieve the bodies.

Visions of Charon

Throughout the millennia, from ancient Greece into the modern era, even to today, Charon exists as a character of myth and fiction. Variations of his appearance have changed little, and they generally fit the dynamic of an angry boatman.

The origins of Charon in literary works are fragmentary, and much of it is lost to history. One of the oldest surviving mentions comes from Pausanias (2nd century AD), quoting the Minyas, a 6th-century BC poem that exists only in fragments. Here, Charon is mentioned simply as a ferryman.

“Then the boat on which embark the dead, that the old ferryman, Kharon (Charon), used to steer, they found not within its moorings.”

More vivid depictions followed in later centuries, especially in the Roman era. Virgil (70 BC to 19 BC) describes Charon in the Aeneid as having a long “hoary” beard, uncombed and unclean, while his eyes are like hollow furnaces, and his “obscene” clothes are greasy and full of dirt. His boat is an old rust-colored wherry (like a skiff), echoing the undignified journey of death and Charon’s task. He is a “surly” man, and the poor souls who have not undergone proper burial rites and have no resting place for their bones must wait for a hundred years on the shore before Charon takes them across.

1st century AD Roman poet Seneca paints a similar picture, writing of Charon being clad in foul garb, with haggard cheeks and an unkempt beard. He is a fierce character, brave enough to fight against Heracles (and lose).

Charon was also the subject of satirization, and Lucian (2nd century AD) does a good job of deriding the tradition of placing an obol (coin) in the mouth of the deceased to pay the ferryman. He notes that the living have no idea what currency is legal tender in the Underworld, and further states that even if it were possible to pay Charon, it would be better not to, because who wants to go to Hades anyway?

In the Middle Ages, Charon was largely absent from literary works and survived through commentary and an effort to record the beliefs of the ancients. That is, until Dante Alighieri came along and breathed new life into the ferryman of the dead.

Dante’s Charon is transported into and transformed in a Christianized setting. He is no longer simply a scruffy herder of the dead, but rather a demon employed in the grand carnival of Divine Justice.

“Charon the demon, with the eyes of glede,

Beckoning to them, collects them all together,

Beats with his oar whoever lags behind.”

Dante’s version certainly wasn’t the last mention of Charon. He is a popular character in modern fiction, crossing millennia of history to appear on modern television screens, largely unchanged in essence as a ferryman for the dead across the waters of the Underworld. From vases to ancient and modern literature and finally to cinema, Charon evolved from something functional to a fully developed character.

In the movie Percy Jackson & the Olympians, Charon makes an appearance as a pale figure in a dark robe who only accepts drachma as payment for his services of transportation across the Styx. This is in contrast to his character in the book, where he is portrayed as stylish and witty; a major break from traditional depictions, although the flashy exterior falls away upon entering the Underworld.

In Netflix’s Kaos (2024), Greek mythology is revisited in a comedic contemporary setting, and Charon is portrayed by Ramon Tikaram as a cynical, moody character (dressed in casual clothes) dealing with issues of betrayal. He is also portrayed as gay, as a former lover of Prometheus.

Paying the Ferryman

Traditionally, Charon was thought to demand coinage in the form of an obol, a coin of low value, to ferry the dead across the Styx (or the Acheron in some versions). As a result, the literary tradition suggests bodies were often buried with an obol in the mouth or in the hand, although in reality, archaeological evidence reveals that this practice wasn’t universal and very few burials actually contained any money. In even rarer cases, bodies were buried with two coins. In literary tradition, Charon could ferry people or the dead both ways, although this being tied into the two-coin burials is speculative rather than based on archaeological or written evidence of ancient Greek funerary practices.

The idea of covering the eyes with coins is a more modern invention that has little basis in ancient customs. Despite the lack of archaeological evidence, the custom was perpetuated in literature, if for nothing other than its poetic impact as an act of respect for the dead.

Famous Encounters

In ancient literature, many heroes and heroines had encounters with Charon, as only through him could one pass into the Underworld, a place which features significantly in the ancient Greek stories.

As part of his Labors, Heracles had to travel to the Underworld to capture Cerberus, the three-headed guardian dog. He avoided paying Charon for the journey across the Styx (or the Acheron) by using brute force. Charon’s failure angered Hades, who sentenced him to a year in chains.

In his quest to find his dead wife Eurydice, Orpheus charms Charon with his lyre rather than pay the fee, thus gaining entrance to the Underworld. This story, however, seems part of the broader mythological tradition as it is not mentioned (at least by naming Charon) in any of the ancient Greek texts. Orpheus does charm many in the Underworld, but charming Charon is a Roman elaboration based on assumption rather than any actual mention of the event in early sources.

In the Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius (2nd century AD), Psyche journeys to Hades and pays the covetous ferryman twice: once to enter the realm of the dead and once for the return journey. In Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas books passage across the waters with the help of the Sibyl of Cumae, who shows Charon a golden bough, sacred to Persephone, who rules over Hades.

Charon is not a central character in Greek myth, but he plays an important role, representing divine order and the debts that are owed to the dead. His reliable loyalty to his job echoes through the millennia, and he outlasted all the cultures that wrote of him, standing as a symbol of resilience to the present.

In 8 CE, the Roman poet Ovid published his magnum opus, his Metamorphoses, an epic poem that chronicles the history of the world through myth from creation to the recent deification of Julius Caesar. The poem’s central theme is change and transformation. Ovid shows that nothing remains fixed, that people, gods, and the world around them are in constant flux. Many of the tales he describes feature characters transformed physically or emotionally. They highlight themes such as illicit desire, grief, and excessive pride, plus fate and the role of divine intervention upon human lives. The 15 tales summarised here vividly illustrate the consequences of such actions and the unexpected ways in which identities can change.

1. Apollo and Daphne

Apollo, struck by Cupid’s arrow, becomes consumed by desire for Daphne, a nymph devoted to the goddess Diana. Like her goddess, Daphne has vowed to remain chaste. Despite her repeated attempts to flee and her clear rejection of his advances, Apollo continues to pursue Daphne through the countryside. When escape is no longer possible, Daphne calls upon her father, the river god Peneus, for help. In response, he transforms her body. Her limbs stiffen, her skin turns to bark, and she becomes rooted to the ground as a laurel tree. Apollo halts and declares the laurel sacred to him, adopting it as a symbol of honor and achievement. Thus, Daphne survives the pursuit, but only by surrendering her human form.

2. Narcissus

Narcissus is renowned for his beauty and remains indifferent to those who fall in love with him. While wandering through the forest, he comes upon a clear pool of water and pauses to drink. Seeing his reflection for the first time, he is captivated and becomes deeply absorbed by the image. He lingers by the pool, returning repeatedly and neglecting food and rest. Unable to possess what he sees, Narcissus gradually weakens and dies beside the water. After his death, a flower bearing his name grows in his place. His story serves as a cautionary reminder of the dangers of vanity and self-obsession.

3. Diana and Actaeon

Actaeon, a skilled hunter, strays from his companions and enters a secluded grove where the goddess Diana is bathing with her attendants. Ovid calls the goddess by the Roman name Diana, who was known as Artemis among the Greeks, but Ovid tells these myths through a Roman lens. Having unknowingly violated a divine boundary, he is swiftly punished. Enraged that a mortal has seen her unclothed, Diana transforms Actaeon into a stag. He flees in terror, but his own hunting dogs catch his scent and pursue him. Unable to speak or reveal his identity, Actaeon is torn apart by the pack.

4. Pyramus and Thisbe

Pyramus and Thisbe live in neighboring houses in Babylon, but are forbidden by their families from meeting. They communicate secretly through a crack in the wall and arrange to meet beneath a mulberry tree outside the city. Thisbe arrives first but encounters a lioness with blood around its mouth and flees in fear, accidentally dropping her veil, which the lioness tears apart.  When Pyramus arrives and finds the veil torn and bloodied, he assumes Thisbe has been killed. Overcome with grief, he takes his own life beneath the tree. When Thisbe returns and discovers Pyramus dead, she follows him in death. As a result, their blood is said to permanently darken the mulberries, marking the tragedy of their love. The story has additionally inspired several artistic works, including Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet.”

5. Perseus and Andromeda

Cassiopeia boasts that her daughter Andromeda is more beautiful than the Nereids, the 50 beautiful sea nymphs, angering the sea god Poseidon. In retaliation, Poseidon sends a sea monster to devastate the coast. An oracle declares that the destruction will only end if Andromeda is sacrificed, and she is chained to a rock by the sea. Perseus arrives while traveling and learns of her fate. Using the head of the recently killed Medusa, he turns the monster to stone and frees Andromeda.

6. Arachne

Arachne is a mortal renowned for her exceptional weaving skills and openly claims she surpasses the goddess Minerva, Athena to the Greeks. Minerva appears and challenges her to a weaving contest. Both produce intricate tapestries. Minerva depicts scenes of divine authority, while Arachne portrays the gods’ acts of deception and infidelity. Although technically flawless, Arachne’s work enrages Minerva. The goddess destroys the tapestry and transforms Arachne into a spider, condemning her to weave endlessly.

7. Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus and his son Icarus are imprisoned on the island of Crete by King Minos. Unable to escape by land or sea, Daedalus fashions wings from feathers and wax. Before they take flight, he warns Icarus not to fly too near the sun or the sea. During the escape, Icarus becomes exhilarated and flies higher than instructed. The heat melts the wax, the wings fail, and Icarus falls into the sea and drowns while Daedalus reaches safety alone. The tale is well known for highlighting the dangers of youthful folly and the tragic consequences of recklessly ignoring wisdom and limits.

8. Orpheus and Eurydice

This particularly heart-wrenching tale tells of Orpheus, the extraordinarily gifted musician, and his marriage to Eurydice. Soon after their wedding, their happiness is cut short when Eurydice is bitten by a snake and dies. Overcome with grief, Orpheus travels to the Underworld and pleads with Hades and Persephone to restore her to life. Moved by the power of his music, they agree on the condition that he must not look back as he leads her out. As they ascend, Orpheus is tormented by fear and doubt, questioning whether Eurydice is truly following him. Near the surface, he can no longer resist and turns to look. Eurydice vanishes instantly as she is pulled back into the Underworld, where she is cruelly lost to him forever.

9. Pygmalion

Pygmalion is a master sculptor who creates a statue of a woman of extraordinary beauty. He becomes deeply attached to his creation, treating it as though it were alive. During a festival honoring Aphrodite, he prays for a wife like his statue. The goddess answers by bringing the statue to life. Pygmalion marries her, and his artistic creation becomes his partner. His story emphasises the all-consuming nature of desire and the great lengths to which humans will go to satisfy their deepest longings.

10. Atalanta

Atalanta is a skilled huntress who rejects marriage and lives independently. Suitors pursue her nonetheless, and she challenges them to footraces, declaring she will marry only the man who can defeat her. Those who lose are put to death. Hippomenes seeks Aphrodite’s help, knowing he cannot win by speed alone. During the race, he drops three golden apples, distracting Atalanta and slowing her pace. Hippomenes wins the race, and Atalanta is bound by her own terms to marry him.

11. Hermaphroditus and Salmacis

Hermaphroditus enters a secluded pool inhabited by the nymph Salmacis. Captivated by his beauty, she attempts to embrace him, but he resists and struggles to escape. Undeterred, Salmacis clings to him and prays to the gods that they never be separated. The gods grant her wish, merging their bodies into a single form that combines both their features into one being. Distressed and frustrated by the transformation, Hermaphroditus later asks that the waters of the pool weaken any others who bathe in it.

12. Myrrha

After unknowingly entering into an incestuous relationship with her father, Myrrha flees and begs the gods to remove her from human existence. Her body stiffens as she is transformed into a myrrh tree. While enclosed within the trunk, she gives birth to Adonis, a mortal famed for his beauty. The resin that seeps from the bark serves as a poetic symbol of her suffering.

13. Callisto

Callisto is a devoted follower of Diana, the goddess of the hunt and the moon, who has vowed to remain chaste. Jupiter, or Zeus to the Greeks, is captivated by her beauty and deceives her by taking on Diana’s likeness so that Callisto will trust him. Believing she is still in the company of her goddess, she lets her guard down and is seduced. When Diana discovers Callisto’s subsequent pregnancy, she expels her from the group. Later, Callisto is transformed into a bear, and eventually the gods place her among the stars as the constellation Ursa Major. Callisto’s story is part of the wider mythic narrative concerning Jupiter’s frequent seductions of mortal women and demonstrates the vulnerability of humans to divine deception.

14. Niobe

Niobe, proud of her many children, boasts that she is superior to the goddess Leto, an act of excessive pride that invites divine retribution. In response, Leto sends Apollo and Diana (Artemis) to slay all of Niobe’s offspring. Stricken with grief, Niobe flees to the mountains and is eventually transformed into a weeping rock from which her tears flow eternally as a lasting reminder of the dangers of hubris.

15. Marsyas

The satyr Marsyas discovers a flute discarded by Minerva and becomes a masterful musician, gaining fame for his skill. Proud and confident, he challenges Apollo to a musical contest, convinced his talent can rival that of a god. When Marsyas loses, Apollo punishes him by flaying him alive, and his blood forms a stream. The myth of Marsyas not only warns of hubris but also influenced countless works of art, including Renaissance and Baroque paintings and sculptures, emphasizing the dramatic effects of challenging the divine.

Typhon, or Typhoeus, was a monstrous, serpentine creature with a hundred heads that could shoot fire from his eyes. He spoke with a myriad of sounds and voices, sometimes bellowing like a bull, barking like a dog, or roaring like a lion. He was the greatest and final challenger of Zeus for the throne of Mount Olympus and dominance of the world. His eventual defeat culminated in Zeus being crowned king of the gods and dividing the domains of power among the Olympians.

The Origins of Typhon

The earliest mention of Typhon comes from Hesiod’s Theogony, written in the 8th century BC. In it, the poet wrote that Typhon was the child of Gaia and Tartarus. He was the youngest son of Gaia, born after Zeus defeated and imprisoned the Titans and the Giants in Tartarus. It is a common misconception that Gaia was angry with Zeus over his treatment of her elder children and, therefore, gave birth to Typhon specifically so he could seek vengeance. However, there is no textual evidence for this story.

The birth of Typhon rather falls into the broader succession myth, which foretold Ouranos being overthrown by his son Cronos, and Cronos by his son Zeus. Zeus was also told that he would have a child by Metis, who would overthrow him and become the lord of heaven. To prevent this, he swallowed Metis while she was pregnant with their child, resulting in the goddess Athena being born from his head. Metis then lived inside Zeus, unable to give birth to a male child, breaking the cycle. With the cycle broken, Zeus’ triumph over Typhon was definitive and cemented his rule as eternal, unlike his predecessors.

Another version of Typhon’s origin came from the Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo. In the poem, it wasn’t Gaia who birthed the monster but Hera. She gave birth to Typhon through parthenogenesis, virgin birth, because she was angry at Zeus for giving birth to Athena on his own. She struck the ground with the flat of her hand and prayed to Gaia, Ouranos, and all the Titans sealed away in Tartarus that she might bear a son stronger than Zeus. Gaia heard her prayer and fulfilled it, and for a year, Hera did not share Zeus’ bed. When the year was done, Hera gave birth to Typhon. She then brought Typhon to Delphi, where he was raised by the she-dragon Echidna.

In both versions, Typhon was born with the express purpose of challenging Zeus, and he proved to be Zeus’ greatest challenger.

How Typhon Caused the Flight of the Gods

When Typhon attacked Olympus, the force of his assault filled the gods with a terror they had never known before. Luckily, they received advanced warning from Pan. They all fled to Egypt and the banks of the Nile River, where they hid disguised as animals. This is an aetiological myth that explains why the Egyptians practiced animal worship. Apollo became a hawk, like the god Horus; Hermes became an Ibis, like the god Thoth; Artemis became a cat, like Bastet; Hephaestus became an ox, like Ptah; and Dionysus became a goat, like Osiris.

To the Egyptians, Typhon was equated with their god Seth, the god of destruction. The 5th-century BC historian Herodotus reported that the Egyptians had a myth that Typhon was once the supreme king of the cosmos but was deposed by Apollo, Egyptian Horus, who became the last divine king of Egypt. While this is not part of Greek tradition, it is noteworthy that the Greeks found no conflict between their own cosmogony and that of their neighbors and were easily able to reconcile the two.

How Typhon Challenged Zeus

The main purpose of Typhon’s existence was to be a challenger to Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. This plays into the larger theme of the succession myth and also parallels the succession myths of the Near Eastern Hurro-Hittite culture, where the Greek version was thought to have originated. Hesiod’s version is brief, emphasizing the cosmic implications of Typhon’s potential victory, while later authors provide more detail.

In Apollodorus’ Library of Greek Mythology, Typhon stormed Olympus, throwing red-hot rocks at the heavens. They were warned of the danger by Pan, and when the gods saw Typhon approaching, they all fled to Egypt and hid by transforming into animals. Only Zeus, and sometimes Athena, remained to fend off the monster, hurling down lightning bolts at him. As Typhon drew nearer, Zeus attempted to attack him with an adamantine sickle, similar to the one used to castrate Ouranos, but Typhon fled to Mount Casium.

Zeus followed, hoping to finish the job, but Typhon captured him in his serpentine coils. The monster took the sickle and cut out the sinews from Zeus’ hands and feet, immobilizing him. He then took Zeus to Cilicia and left him in the Corycian cave, hiding the sinews and leaving a dragon to guard him.

Hermes stole back the sinews and implanted them back into Zeus. Regaining his strength, the king of the gods pursued Typhon, hurling lightning at him as he fled to Mount Nysa. There, Typhon was said to have been deceived by the Fates into eating the fruits of Dionysus (i.e., wine grapes). They told him that they would give him strength, but what they actually did was unclear.

Typhon fought Zeus desperately, throwing entire mountains at him, but the god blasted them apart with his thunderbolt. As Typhon fled to Sicily, Zeus cornered him and dropped Mount Etna on top of him, imprisoning him beneath.

Imprisonment of Typhon

Tradition holds that Typhon was imprisoned beneath Mount Etna in Sicily, guarded by Hephaestus. From his prison below, Typhon was said to send up flames out of the mountain, which Hephaestus used when smithing his many divine armaments.

Another account further connected Typhon with Egypt, stating that he was buried beneath the Serbonian Marshes, an area east of the Nile Delta between Mt. Casius, the Isthmus of Suez, and the Mediterranean Sea. This account also linked Typhon with Seth.

Typhon as Father of Monsters

Typhon was said to have fathered many of the strange and dangerous creatures that inhabited Greek mythology. His monstrous brood terrorized the mortal world, most of which were eventually dispatched by the generation of heroes. Some, like the three-headed hound Cerberus, who guarded the gates of the underworld, were incorporated into Zeus’ cosmic order. In Hesiod, the author named Typhoeus and Typhaon (both names for Typhon) as two distinct entities, though later authors often conflated the two.

Typhoeus was the last son of Gaia, who tried to overthrow Zeus and was imprisoned under Mount Etna. Typhaon was the consort of Echidna, a half-maiden, half-serpent nymph, and fathered by her a race of monsters. These monsters posed a similar threat to the order of the world as Typhon himself since they represent the same aspects of chaos. Once the last of Typhon’s brood were killed, the world took on its modern shape.

Typhon sired Orthos, the Lernaean Hydra, the Nemean Lion, the eagle that flew to the Caucasus mountains and ate Prometheus’ liver every day, and the dragon that guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides. All were killed by Heracles during his 12 labors. Typhon was also the father of the Chimera, which was killed by Bellerophon, and the dragon that guarded the golden fleece in Colchis, which was killed by Jason.

The Ordering of Sound

Hesiod’s Theogony explained the ordering of the world and how things came to be as they are, culminating in Zeus’ kingship. With each new succession of gods, the world took a more familiar, delineated shape as gods were born and given names and powers. The episode with Typhon explained the ordering of sound and methods of communication in the cosmos, with emphasis on mortal and divine voices. Hesiod made the threat of Typhon less of a physical threat than a sonic one. The poet spent many lines describing the chaotic and terrible sounds made by Typhon.

With Typhon’s chaotic and boundless voices, his challenge to Zeus represented an ordering of the cosmos where sounds are not delineated, and therefore there can be no communication between the gods and mortals. When Zeus battled the monster, the action again focused on sounds as Zeus overwhelmed Typhon with his lightning.

“[…]he thundered mightily
and fiercely, and the earth rang terribly,
broad heaven above, the sea, and Ocean’s streams
and Tartarus resounded.”

---

(839-841)

The death of Typhon was described as a necessary precursor for the birth of the Muses, who imparted ordered song and knowledge to Hesiod so that he could transmit it to others. In the poem, several words are used to describe the voices of Typhon. All are found elsewhere in epic poetry, used to describe the utterances of gods or the sounds of battle. The glaring omission is the word αυδε. This word is only used in epic poetry when describing communication between gods and mortals. In the Theogony, this is the word used to relate the utterances of the Muses to Hesiod. Only when they have converted their divine voice into αυδε is Hesiod able to understand them.

Αυδε is the singular voice not possessed by Typhon, but it seems that his many voices interfere with αυδε and, therefore, block the creation of the Muses and communication between the divine and mortal. He, therefore, poses a threat to the hierarchy Zeus sought to establish. Zeus’ victory over Typhon enabled the birth of the Muses and clear communication between gods and mortals.

References

• Clay, J. S. (1993). “The Generation of Monsters in Hesiod,” Classical Philology 88(2), 105–116
• Goslin, O. (2010). “Hesiod’s Typhonomachy and the Ordering of Sound,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 140(2), 351–373
• Griffiths, J. G. (1960). “The Flight of the Gods Before Typhon: An Unrecognized Myth,” Hermes 88(3), 374–376
• Hesiod, (8th century BC) Theogony and Works and Days (D. Wender, trans), Penguin Group, 1973

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, made a name for himself for his quick mind, trickiness, and guile. It earned him the nickname metis (wise). During the Trojan War, he was known by both his Greek allies and Trojan foes for his cunning intelligence. Across the Epic Cycle, several stories show off how Odysseus was the smartest guy in the room, helping his friends, tricking his enemies, and even challenging the gods.

1. Odysseus and the Oath of Tyndareus

King Tyndareus of Sparta had a beautiful daughter named Helen. When Helen came of age, King Tyndareus needed to find her a husband. If we combine the ancient sources — Hesiod, Hyginus, and Apollodorus — there were at least 45 named suitors all vying for the beautiful Helen’s hand. Odysseus was one of them.

Due to Helen’s popularity, King Tyndareus was worried that whomever he chose, the rest would feel vitriolic anger and develop inflexible grudges, resulting in vengeful bloodshed. Odysseus had an idea that would solve the king’s dilemma, but he wanted something from the king.

While in Tyndareus’ kingdom, Odysseus had fallen in love with Helen’s cousin, Penelope. Odysseus promised Tyndareus a solution to his problem in return for Penelope’s hand in marriage. Tyndareus agreed, and Odysseus recommended a particular oath be exacted from all the suitors, recorded by Apollodorus:

“All the suitors [pledged] that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage.”

---

Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3.10.9

Thus, all the suitors were bound by their word to defend and protect the chosen husband of Helen against any threat to the marriage. Odysseus married Penelope, Helen married Menelaus, and there was peace among the Greeks.

2. Recruiting Achilles 

Despite this oath of protection, war soon came to the Greeks. Whilst on a trip to Sparta, the young Trojan Prince Paris fell deeply in love with Helen. Paris rashly acted on his desire. He either abducted or convinced Helen (depending on the myth) to desert her husband and become his wife in Troy.

To retrieve his wife and get revenge for the insult against his house, Menelaus invoked the Oath of Tyndareus. Greek’s greatest warriors were obliged to help him in a great army led by his brother Agamemnon, king of Mycenae. There was one problem with his summons. Greece’s best warrior, Achilles, had not sworn the oath, as he had been too young at the time. It had been prophesied that the Trojan War could not be won without Achilles, so Menelaus sent Odysseus to recruit him.

Odysseus soon discovered that the prince was not home. Achilles had been warned that he would not return home from the war alive. Therefore, his mother, the goddess Thetis, had hidden him in the court of Scyros, disguised as a woman. Once Odysseus learned of this, he devised a plan to reveal Achilles’ identity.

In one version of the story, Odysseus feigns an attack on Scyros, and in the ensuing panic, only Achilles does not flee, revealing himself. In another version of the story, Odysseus disguises himself as a salesperson, selling women’s clothes and accessories. When presenting the items to the women of the court, Odysseus hides a sword among the goods. Achilles reveals himself by showing keen interest in the sword alone. Once revealed, Odysseus persuades the young prince to fight in the Trojan War, tantalizing him with the promise of undying fame and glory.

3. Stealing the Palladium

The Trojans had a sacred wooden image called the Palladium, carved in the form of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, war, and craft. This wooden figure was immensely important to the Trojans as a symbol of Athena’s protection of the city and Troy’s heritage.

When a Trojan seer named Helenus left the city walls, he was captured by Odysseus. During his interrogation, Helenus reveals to Odysseus the prophecy that Troy would not fall while the Palladium was safely behind its walls.

Odysseus, dressed as a beggar, slipped into Troy through a secret passage. Once inside, he came across Helen, who told Odysseus where to find the Palladium. According to this version of the myth, Helen was not happy about being abducted by Paris and was happy to help Odysseus break into the city. With Helen’s advice, Odysseus was able to return with his companion Diomedes to steal the Palladium.

4. Devising the Trojan Horse 

Odysseus’ most famous innovative plan was the Trojan Horse. The Greeks and Trojans were at an impasse. For ten years, their armies had been battling on the plains outside Troy’s walls. Legend had it that the walls of Troy were built by the gods Poseidon and Apollo, and that they were impenetrable. As ever, Odysseus had a plan. He came up with the idea to create a giant wooden horse that could hide soldiers inside.

“[The Greeks] build a horse of mountainous size, through Pallas’s divine art,
and weave planks of fir over its ribs:
they pretend it’s a votive offering: this rumour spreads.
They secretly hide a picked body of men, chosen by lot,
there, in the dark body, filling the belly and the huge
cavernous insides with armed warriors.”

---

Virgil, Aeneid 2

The Greek army feigned a retreat, harboring their ships at Tenedos, a nearby island. A Greek soldier named Sinon was left behind to sell the ruse. He pretended to have been deserted by the Greeks and told the Trojans that the wooden horse was left as a sacrifice to Athena. When the Trojans saw that the Greeks had retreated, they rejoiced! Just as Odysseus anticipated, the Trojans decided to take the wooden horse into the city.

Once darkness had fallen and the city was sleeping, a group of selected Greek soldiers emerged from the horse. Now inside the city, they could open the gates, allowing the Greek army to enter. A massacre ensued, and the great city of Troy finally fell.

5. “Nobody” and Polyphemus 

While traveling home from the Trojan War, Odysseus had many adventures. His journey home, or nostos, became one of the most memorable stories in Greek myth. His adventures are recorded in the Odyssey, composed by Homer.

In one adventure, Odysseus was captured with his crew by the Cyclops Polyphemus, in a cave with an enormous boulder over the entrance. This cave stored the food and produce of the Cyclopes, including cheese, wine, and goats. Right away, Polyphemus ate two of the crew members, but he saved the rest for later.

One night, Odysseus plied the Cyclops with the wine. Once drunk, Odysseus deceptively told the Cyclops that his name was “Outis” which means “Nobody” in ancient Greek. Later, when the Cyclops was heavily inebriated, Odysseus struck. He stabbed Polyphemus in his one eye with a stake, leaving him blinded.

Yelling for help, Polyphemus cried out to the other Cyclopes on the island. When they asked what was wrong, Polyphemus cried that Outis was hurting him. Hearing this, the other Cyclopes left, thinking that nobody was harming Polyphemus.

When Polyphemus went to leave the cave, Odysseus and his crew members hung onto the hairy underbellies of the rams stored there, escaping when the sheep were herded out to pasture. Unseen by the other inhabitants of the island, they fled back to their ship.

6. The Siren Song

According to legend, any sailor who heard the Sirens’ song would lose all rational thought and be lured to their death, drowned or eaten by the Sirens. However, to hear the Sirens’ song and survive would allegedly give the listener secret knowledge. The Sirens were ancient beasts who had gathered knowledge for eons. For a pursuer of knowledge like Odysseus, the risk was worth it.

Odysseus helped the crew to make wax molds for their ears so that they could not be harmed by the lure of the Sirens’ song. Odysseus himself wore no earplugs but instead commanded his crew to bind him to the mast of the ship. This way, when the ship sailed past the island of the Sirens, he would be able to hear the song without being tempted to jump ship. The following passage from the Odyssey captures the spell of the sirens:

“So [the sirens] spoke, sending forth their beautiful voice, and my heart was fain to listen, and I bade my comrades loose me, nodding to them with my brows; but they fell to their oars and rowed on… But when they had rowed past the Sirens, and we could no more hear their voice or their song, then straightway my trusty comrades took away the wax with which I had anointed their ears and loosed me from my bonds.”

---

Homer, Odyssey 12.192

Odysseus was able to successfully listen to the song of the Sirens, although the process required enduring temporary madness. The ship safely sailed past the dangerous, enchanted island successfully.

7. Arrival Home: Odysseus’ Disguise

When Odysseus finally reached Ithaca, alone, he had been away from home for twenty long years. Ten years for the Trojan War, and ten years on his return journey. He was unsure what home would be like. Would his family still be loyal to him? Would they have moved on? Presumed he was dead? With such uncertainty, Odysseus disguised himself as an old beggar with the aid of the goddess Athena’s magic to gauge the state of home life.

What Odysseus found on his return was an overrun house. In his absence, his wife Penelope had been swamped with suitors who had taken up residence in and around Odysseus’ home. Before revealing himself, Odysseus happened to meet his now-grown son, Telemachus, in a swineherd’s hut at the edge of the island. In a happy reunion, Odysseus revealed himself to his son, and then together they plotted the overthrow of the suitors.

8. Warnings and Revenge

Odysseus resumed his disguise to travel to the palace so as not to arouse suspicion. The suitors were also plotting Telemachus’ death, so it was vital that they evade attention. Telemachus snuck into the palace to retrieve his weapons and then hid them from the suitors.

When meeting the suitors, Odysseus was treated insultingly, ignoring the Greek rules of xenia (hospitality). The suitors reluctantly shared food with the “beggar” and pushed and kicked him around. Odysseus was immensely angered at the rudeness of the suitors, but he maintained his concealment until the time was right. One of the suitors behaved more cordially to Odysseus, and in response, Odysseus gave him a warning to leave, but the suitor did not listen. Odysseus’ foreboding words were, in part, a warning of the suitors’ impending doom, and a humble recognition of his own past mistakes:

“Of all that breathes and crawls across the earth,
our mother earth breeds nothing feebler than a man.
So long as the gods grant him power, spring in his knees,
he thinks he will never suffer affliction down the years.
But then, when the happy gods bring on the long hard times,
bear them he must, against his will, and steel his heart.
Our lives, our mood and mind as we pass across the earth,
turn as the days turn . . .”

---

Homer, Odyssey 18.150-157

Blessed by the Goddess Athena, Odysseus and Telemachus were close to ridding themselves of the proud and brutish suitors. The final step required Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, to set the elimination of the suitors in motion.

Bonus: Penelope’s Cleverness

Just like her husband, Penelope was blessed with discerning cleverness and great intelligence. Prior to Odysseus’ return, Penelope had been hounded with offers of marriage from a great host of suitors. However, Penelope was uninterested in their offers, as she was hopeful that Odysseus would return.

Facing increasing harassment from the men, she offered them a deal. She would choose a new husband when she had finished her weaving. She was making a burial shroud for the eventual death of her father-in-law. However, Penelope cleverly delayed the suitors:

“So by day she’d weave at her great and growing web—
by night, by the light of torches set beside her,
she would unravel all she’d done. Three whole years
she deceived [the suitors] blind, seduced us with this scheme.”

---

Homer, Odyssey 2.116-119

Eventually, Odysseus arrived on the island, disguised as a beggar. At this time, Penelope had another clever idea. She demanded that any decent suitor would give her lots of gifts as a wedding present. In this way, she managed to replenish the depleted stock of the palace, which the suitors had been exploiting for the past twenty years.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus appears to be very impressed by Penelope’s ruse, and Homer implies that their shared intelligence made them a perfect match. Her delaying ploys also proved to Odysseus her loyalty, so he was more confident in his planned surprise.

Penelope and Odysseus: A Clever Match 

Another of Penelope’s methods for delaying her remarriage was to challenge the suitors to a competition. Whoever could use her husband’s bow to shoot an arrow through twelve ax heads would win her hand. This feat had previously only ever been managed by Odysseus. When the suitors tried, each one of them failed the task. Finally, Odysseus, still in beggar form, stepped up and pulled off the task perfectly, shocking all.

He then proceeded to kill all the suitors with the help of Athena and his son Telemachus. Penelope immediately became suspicious of Odysseus’ true identity, but before getting her hopes up, she had one last test.

When building the palace many years ago, Odysseus had carved their marriage bed out of the olive tree that was central to the house. The bed was, therefore, immovable. This was only known to Odysseus, Penelope, and one servant. Penelope tested Odysseus by commanding her old nurse to move the bed:

“Come, Eurycleia,
move the sturdy bedstead out of our bridal chamber —
that room the master built with his own hands,
Take it out now, sturdy bed that it is.”

---

Homer, Odyssey 23

Overhearing this, Odysseus became angry and demanded to know why Penelope had replaced his wonderfully carved bed with a movable one. With the truth and his identity revealed, the house of Odysseus was happily reunited after many, many years.

Beliefs surrounding life and death for Greeks of the Ancient and Classical eras were not simple. Beyond an immensely complex pantheon of gods, filled with fantastical stories, there were mythic places that mortals could only imagine. Many of these places were reserved for the dead.

For the Greeks of antiquity, there were several possible destinations. Some were islands of paradise, while others were hellish nightmares. Here are 7 realms of the dead in Greek mythology.

1. Hades, the Primary Realm of the Dead

Certainly, the most recognizable name when discussing the Greek realms of the dead, Hades remains the most prominent example of the ancient Greek afterlife. Sharing a name with its patron god, Hades was the first realm of the dead written about in ancient Greek literature. It was thought to be either somewhere at the edge of the world or under the earth.

During the time of Homer, all the dead ended up in the gloomy fields of Hades, where spirits flitted about in a state of semi-consciousness. Homer, in the Iliad, describes it as a damp place accessed through gates guarded by the “hound,” after which the spirits must present themselves before the realm’s rulers, Hades and Persephone.

In the Odyssey, written around the late 8th or first half of the 7th century BC, Homer situates Hades at the edge of the world, beyond the Okeanos, the river which encircles the earthly realm. He notes that the dead are guided to Hades by Hermes and judged by Minos, a demigod who decides the eternal fate of the souls that pass into the afterlife.

There are several places within Hades where a soul can end up. The caveat is that not all Greek mythology was standardized, and this included its geography. Some ancient authors put certain realms of the dead outside of Hades, and other authors put those same realms within it.

Certain features, however, were always ascribed to Hades, and several rivers are of particular note. The Styx is the most prominent and serves as an entrance to Hades. The dead are ferried across by Charon, the ferryman.

The river Acheron is associated with misery and woe, while the Pyriphlegethon burns with fire, and according to Plato, leads into the realm of Tartarus. Also mentioned by Plato as emptying into Tartarus is the Cocytus (or Kokytos), the river of wailing, associated with the punishment for murderers. The fifth river, the Lethe, is the river of forgetfulness, which shares its name with the goddess of forgetfulness and oblivion, and was either situated within Hades or the Elysian Fields.

2. The Elysian Fields, a Paradise for Heroes

In contrast to the rest of the gloomy realm of Hades, the Elysian Fields (or Elysium) was a place where it never snowed or rained, and where life was easy for those who were chosen to reside there. This was according to Homer, who wrote of Elysium in his Odyssey. Over the centuries, poets and writers expanded on Homer’s ideas, adding their own descriptions to this place of paradise.

Initially, only mortals related to the gods could enter Elysium, but over time, concepts surrounding Elysium evolved, and those permitted to enter included heroes, the righteous, and those chosen by the gods. Those fortunate enough to be granted entrance to this paradise could live out eternity in blessed happiness, indulging in whatever they found joyful in life.

By the 5th century BC, Elysium had been conflated with the Isles of the Blessed.

3. The Isles of the Blessed

Introduced by Hesiod in the late 8th and early 7th centuries BC, the Isles of the Blessed were treated as a realm distinct from the Elysian Fields. In his Works and Days, Hesiod locates the Island of the Blessed as being on the banks of the “deep-swirling” Okeanos, and describes it as a place with life-giving land that produces honey-sweet harvest three times a year, feeding its inhabitants, untouched by sorrow.

The Theban poet Pindar (ca. 518 BC to 438 BC) does not use the names “Elysium” and the “Elysian Fields,” but ascribes their paradisal qualities to the Islands of the Blessed, thus merging the two conceptual places as one afterlife for heroes and those of righteous virtue.

Originally conceived as a number of islands, Pindar reduced the number of islands to one, and described it as being a place of shady parklands where residents indulged in music and athletic pursuits—ideal pastimes in ancient Greece.

In an attempt to rationalize the myth, writers of later eras tried to situate the Isle(s). Plutarch (ca. AD 50 to AD 120) states there are two islands and that they are located 1,250 miles west of Africa. He claims these islands constitute the Elysian Fields that Homer mentioned.

Pliny the Elder notes Snake Island at the mouth of the Dnieper as being called the Isle of the Blessed; however, this island is too small and unappealing to be conceived as being an eternal realm of paradise.

4. Tartarus, a Prison for the Damned

From eternal paradise to eternal suffering, Tartarus is a place of torment in Greek myth. A dark abyss, Tartarus was both a place and the concept of a being. As one of the primordial gods, Tartarus was one of the first generation of divine entities detailed in Hesiod’s Theogony.

Tartarus became the prison of the Titans after they were overthrown by Zeus and the Olympians, and is thought of as a place of abyssal depth, far beneath the Underworld.

It is also the home of King Sisyphus, who is forced to roll a boulder up a hill for all eternity, only for it to roll back down on every attempt. Zeus’ punishment for Sisyphus demonstrates the futility of challenging the gods, for Sisyphus considered himself cleverer than Zeus.

This realm is the polar opposite of Elysium and, according to Plato, exists as a place of punishment for the wicked after their souls are judged. While the damned spend eternity there, those with sins that can be atoned for spend a limited time in Tartarus as penitence.

Not confined to Greek mythology, Tartarus also makes an appearance in the Bible.

For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; 

— 2 Peter 2:4

5. Asphodel Meadows, an Afterlife for the Ordinary

There is nothing spectacular nor terrifying about Asphodel Meadow, for it is where those who led neither good nor bad lives go after they die. Those who live ordinary lives are also sent here.

The most common theory is that this afterlife is named after the asphodel flower, and while the plant is not particularly unusual as far as flowers go, the American classicist Edith Hamilton suggested that the asphodels in this realm were “pallid, ghostly flowers,” and not the usual flowers of reality. The ghostly color of these flowers is appropriate for this part of the Underworld.

The first mention of Asphodel Meadows comes from Homer, who ascribes to it little more than a neutral existence rather than a place of judgment. It sees little mention by later authors, and those mentions are derivative rather than foundational. The ordinary condition of the dead, as can be safely assumed to be in the Asphodel Meadows, is one of meaningless existence where the shades of people wander and float around without direction or purpose.

6. The Mourning Fields, a Misery of Earthly Grief

Mentioned by Virgil in the Aeneid, the Mourning Fields or Fields of Sorrow is a place of gloomy paths and myrtle groves, located near the waters of the Styx. Here, souls recall their earthly grief and unfulfilled love.

It is a place for those who died in sorrow, tied to tragic love. Among the people who dwell there are Dido, who fell in love with Aeneas and committed suicide after he left her, and Eriphyle, who convinced her husband to join a doomed expedition. Eriphyle was killed by her own son in vengeance.

Another soul who wanders the Mourning Fields is Phaedra. In Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus, Phaedra falls in love with Hippolytus and her love is revealed, but Hippolytus reacts with such revulsion that Phaedra, consumed with embarrassment and misery, kills herself.

7. Erebus, a Place of Primordial Darkness

A place of transition rather than any permanent residence, Erebus is the gloomy place that is a part of the Underworld. It can also be interpreted as a place through which souls pass on their way to Hades. Like Hades, Erebus is also a being, but he is one of the primordial cosmic forces before the Titans and the Olympians. Homer references Erebus as a place in both the Iliad and the Odyssey, but does not go into any detail other than inferring that it is a location where the dead dwell.

Apart from being beneath the earth, descriptions of Erebus are scant in the ancient texts, and it is only mentioned as a place of the dead.

From the depths of Tartarus to the bliss of Elysium, the afterlife was a concept rich in layered thought. For the ancient Greeks, the afterlife mirrored the complexity of life itself. It was shaped by morality, heroism, and fate—things that were of primary importance in ancient Greek culture.

Throughout European history, legends tell of a grim cavalcade of spectral riders, chasing prey across the night sky in an eternal procession of ghostly horror. Found in cultures from the Germanic peoples to the Slavs and the Celts, this phenomenon was, and still is, a portent of doom, preceding war, plague, and death.

Striking fear into the hearts of all those who witnessed it, this is the Wild Hunt.

What Was the Wild Hunt?

Found across many cultures of Europe, including Slavic, Germanic, and Celtic societies, the Wild Hunt was a motif that involved the common idea of a procession of ghostly hunters making their way across the night sky. While the details may have varied from culture to culture, and indeed, from person to person, the theme remained the same, and it was always ominous.

It was believed to precede great catastrophes, and those who saw it feared for their lives. Their spirits could be whisked away to join in the eternal procession, or they could be abducted and taken away to some horrific fate in unearthly realms.

Tied into regional myth, the Hunt could be led by a wide variety of figures, from gods to legendary heroes and the spirits of people who actually lived. Accompanying them were a host of spirits that were equally diverse across cultures.

The Origins of the Wild Hunt

The term “Wild Hunt” existed for many centuries, but was popularized in modern literature by Jacob Grimm, who documented tales relating to it in his Deutsche Mythologie of 1835. Variations on the theme saw it being referred to as a  “Wilde Jagd ” (Wild Hunt), a “Wütendes Heer” (Raging Host), and a “Wildes Heer” (Wild Army) in different parts of Germany.

Grimm researched medieval and modern texts, as well as oral narratives surrounding the myth, noting how these stories changed over time. He traced the tale back to ancient times before Christianity spread through Germany, and suggested that the leader of the Hunt was actually the god, Wodan (or the Norse version “Odin”), or a female counterpart named Holda or Berchta. The Hunt could also be led by Wodan’s wife, whom Grimm called “frau Gaude.”

He further suggested that the Hunt was not always ominous tidings. It was, in fact, quite the opposite and represented good fortune. It was thought that the Hunt visited the mortal realm during Yule and other special occasions, accepting offerings and blessing the land and its people. With the adoption of Christianity, the old ways were recast in an unflattering light, demonized to discredit their support within communities.

Grimm’s theories, however, have been challenged in modern times. Historian Claude Leconteux noted that there is no evidence of Odin’s association with the Wild Hunt prior to the early modern period. This is unsurprising given that early Germanic religion was one of oral tradition.

Much of what is believed is based on Grimm’s assumptions rather than rigorous academic research. There is no evidence that associates the Wild Hunt with similar beliefs across pre-Christian Europe, although certain pre-Christian figures were later incorporated into the myth. A perfect example of this was the god Wodan, also known as Odin in Germanic mythology.

The Re-Interpretation of Odin in the Wild Hunt

Germanic (including Norse) myths lent themselves to the Wild Hunt myth, and Odin was particularly well-suited to guide it in Christian interpretation over the ages. Odin was the leader of the Æsir and was immensely powerful, invoked for strength, courage, and wisdom by his worshipers and as an instrument of terror to his foes.

In Germanic mythology, Odin was also the god of war and death, who, along with his Valkyries, oversaw the recruitment of fallen warriors into his army. His domain fitted the Christian interpretation of the Wild Hunt, as it struck down mortals and took their spirits to join in its unholy cavalcade.

The caveat is that in pre-Christian beliefs, Odin oversaw only those who died in battle, and he did not ride around causing doom and destruction and mass killings of people who were not warriors. As such, Odin and his motives were reinterpreted rather than lifted from ancient beliefs.

Other Cultures, Gods, and Legendary Figures

The Wild Hunt is not limited to German tales, and it is found in cultures throughout Europe, from Germanic people to the Latin European countries, the Celtic peoples, and in Slavic culture.

In Old English, one of the leaders of the Hunt was “Herla,” who has been suggested as being a form of Wodan or Odin. The Hunt was referred to as “Herlaþing” (Herle’s assembly). Another major figure associated with the Hunt in England is Herne the Hunter, a Shakespearean character influenced by folktales around the county of Berkshire.

The Hunt has many other names in England, including Herod’s Hunt, likely referencing the biblical King Herod who murdered infants, as Herod makes an appearance in certain French tales of the Hunt as well.

Unsurprisingly, Odin appears in the Scandinavian myths, and the Hunt has many names, including “Åsgårdsrei” (Asgard’s Ride) or “Oskoreia” (also tentatively translated as Asgard’s Ride) in Norway, and “Odens Jakt” (Odin’s Hunt) and “Vilda Jakten” (Wild Hunt) in Sweden.

In Wales, the myth appeared in the Middle Ages, and is led by either Arawn, who is the king of the Otherworld, or Gwyn ap Nudd, who, according to the tales, ruled the realm in Arawn’s stead for some time. The Hunt is accompanied by Arawn’s red-eared hounds and can be found in the tale of “Cŵn Annwn” (Hounds of Annwn).

In Slavic cultures, the myth is also present, although it is usually considered to have been imported from Germanic culture. In Polish, it is known as “Dziki Łów” (Wild Hunt), in Czech, “divoký hon” or “štvaní” (Wild Hunt or Pursuit), and in Belarus, it is known as “Дзікае Паляванне” (Dzikaje Paliavannie—Wild Hunt).

In Spain, the myth is first mentioned in literature in 1260 by a deacon named Gonzalo de Berceo, who described the event as a “hueste antigua” (ancient host), led by the Devil. The Hunt has many references and variations of names, the most imaginative of which are “Cortejo de Gente de Muerte” (Deadly Retinue) in Extremadura, and “Hueste de Ánimas” (Troop of Ghosts) in León.

In the Northwest of Spain and in parts of Portugal, the Wild Hunt is manifested as the Santa Compaña (Holy Company) and involves tormented souls in hooded white cloaks being led through the parish by a cursed, entranced living person who has no recollection of the event.

Italy, too, has many variations. Some stories involve the Hunt being led by King Theodoric the Great, who ruled over vast areas of the former Roman Empire. This is in contrast to the  Germanic legend of Theodoric as a heroic figure with apocryphal stories. It is said he encountered the Wild Hunt while trying to rescue the maiden Babehilt from a giant named Fasolt.

In the Lunigiana region of Italy, the Wild Hunt (Caccia Selvaggia) is known as the “Caccia Infernale” (Infernal Hunt), and is preceded by icy gusts of wind and involves packs of ferocious hounds and violent spirits.

The Wild Hunt in Modern Times

The symbolic representation of the Wild Hunt is poignant in that it is malleable and can be interpreted to fit certain traditions. It has found a home in the modern rebirth of paganism, the Wiccan religion. Some Wiccan groups have used the Wild Hunt to inspire their own rituals. Such an example was noted by anthropologist Susan Greenwood, who provided an account of a Halloween ceremony in Norfolk involving a race through a forest.

So popular was the idea of the Wild Hunt that it became a widespread trope that endures to the present, if not as a believable phenomenon, then as a form of entertainment. Adapted for fantasy fiction, it forms a central plot of The Witcher books, video games, and television series, created by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. One of the biggest-selling video games, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, follows the story of Geralt of Rivia as he attempts to find his ward, Ciri, who is pursued by the Wild Hunt, a group of powerful elves.

Despite the immense popularity of the Witcher series, there is a possible derivative of the Wild Hunt that is even more famous—that of Santa Claus. In pre-Christian times, Yuletide was associated with Odin, and when Europe underwent a transition to Christianity, many of Yule’s traditions were adopted into the tradition of Christmas.

A common image of Odin is that of an old fatherly figure with a long white beard, riding his eight-legged horse, Sleipnir, across the night sky through the last days of December. It is easy to see how this would influence popular imagery of Santa Claus, and it is theorized that Odin was a direct inspiration for Santa Claus. Thus, Santa Claus may be connected to the Wild Hunt. The similarities between the Wild Hunt motifs and a reindeer-pulled sleigh riding across the night sky in midwinter are not easy to dismiss.

The Wild Hunt is a case in how mythology evolves, and elements of beliefs are preserved through the traditions of others. To this day, it persists in many forms, reflecting the human fascination with explaining death and the unknown.

The Greek afterlife wasn’t simply a shadowy realm of nothingness. Over time, from Homer to Hesiod, Plato, and Virgil, through stories and poetry, it developed features of its own, with forests, mountains, cities, and lakes being considered as part of its geography. Of great importance were the five rivers that were traditionally believed to run through the Underworld. Each had its own character, representing a particular aspect of death or suffering. And some were mythical representations of particular rivers in the real world.

Long after the ancient Greeks wrote their stories, Dante appropriated themes and wrote of the rivers of Hades as being in Hell, merging two very different belief systems. In his Divine Comedy, the source of each of the rivers is the same. They are formed from the tears of a statue named the Old Man of Crete. These tears represent the sins of humanity, and the rivers represent the wages of these sins.

The Styx, the Most Famous of the Rivers of Hades

The Styx is undeniably the most well-known of all the rivers that run through Hades. Like many geographical features (and concepts) in ancient Greek mythology, the Styx is also a being. In this case, she is an Oceanid whose parents were the Titans, Okeanos and Tethys. She supported Zeus in his war against the Titans, and for her service, Zeus designated the river as the place upon which gods took solemn oaths.

Ancient Greek and Roman authors, as well as more modern authors such as Dante, mention the Styx as forming a boundary around Hades, or at least an obstacle that has to be crossed to access the realm of the dead. Hesiod describes its source as a rock or a rugged place, and in its entirety it is a tenth of the waters of Okeanos. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes how the “dreary water” of the Styx circles around Hades nine times, and is perilous to gods who swear falsely by it.

Closely associated with the Styx is Charon, who ferries souls across the Styx into Hades, although some sources connect Charon with one of Hades’ other rivers, the Acheron.

Virgil’s (70 BC to 19 BC) depiction of Charon is unflattering, and he describes the boatman as having a long, unwashed beard and greasy attire, while his eyes burn like “hollow furnaces.” Similarly described by Roman philosopher and statesman, Seneca, Charon is depicted as a villain, obstructing Hercules, who overpowers him.

Burial traditions were important in ancient Greek culture, and literary sources speak of burying bodies with a coin to pay Charon to ferry them across into Hades. Archaeological evidence, however, paints a different picture, and only a comparatively small number of graves actually exhibit this practice. Nevertheless, Virgil writes in his Aeneid that those who were not buried properly have to wait on the shores of the Styx for a hundred years before Charon would take them across.

The Acheron, the River of Woe

While the Styx was described as the entrance to the underworld, the Acheron also held this title in several works, and as such, it was also depicted as being associated with Charon.

The Acheron is actually a river in the real world, existing in the Epirus region in northwest Greece, where it flows into the Ionian Sea. It was seen as an earthly manifestation of the mythological Acheron or an entrance point to the Underworld. Near its mouth is the Necromanteion, an ancient Greek temple devoted to Hades and Persephone, the rulers of the Underworld.

The only mention of the Acheron in Homer’s works comes from the Odyssey when Odysseus must travel to Hades. Circe tells the hero that he must travel to where the Pyriphlegethon and the Kokytos (a branch of the Styx) flow into the Acheron.

While death in Homeric and early Greek writings is permanent, Plato believed in reincarnation. In his Phaedo, the Acheron takes the dead under the earth and through desert places to the Acherusian Lake, where they await judgment and the reincarnation of the soul based on their deeds in life.

The Pyriphlegethon, a River of Fire

One of the two rivers that drain into the Acheron, the Pyriphlegethon (also known as the Phlegethon), is first mentioned by Homer and later described by Plato as being a stream of fire and boiling mud which flows into the depths of Tartarus. This fiery, hellish description certainly fits the idea of an underworld of pain and suffering encapsulated by eternal punishment.

The most vivid description of the Pyriphlegethon comes from Virgil’s Aeneid, where he writes:

“Suddenly Aeneas looks back, and under a cliff on the left sees a broad castle, girt with triple wall and encircled with a rushing flood of torrent flames – Tartarean Phlegethon, that rolls along thundering rocks.”

The powerfully ominous nature of the Pyriphlegethon lends itself to Christian depictions of Hell, if not named, then as the common theme of a river filled with fire. In Dante’s Inferno, however, the Pyriphlegethon is not burning with fire, but filled with boiling blood; a concept even more horrific than mere fire!

The Kokytos, the River of Lamentation

Flowing into the Acheron, the Kokytos is the river of lamentation and wailing. Homer first mentions this river as a branch of the Styx but does not go into any symbolic detail. Virgil describes it as containing a whirlpool “thick with mire and of fathomless flood,” which “seethes and belches into Kokytos all its sand.” In the very next line of the Aeneid, Charon makes an appearance as the grim ferryman guarding these waters.

For Plato, the river forms an exit route from Tartarus for those guilty of non-familial murder, where, after a year of punishment, they travel through the Kokytos to be deposited in the Acherusian Lake, where they beseech their victims for forgiveness.

Long after the time of the ancient Greeks, the Kokytos makes a grand reappearance in the works of Dante, who transforms it into a frozen river, trapping the damned who suffer in its icy embrace. Here, the Kokytos is in the ninth and lowest part of Hell and is associated with treachery. The Kokytos here is depicted more as a lake of several concentric levels than an actual river. Nevertheless, buried in its ice are traitors and those who committed various acts of fraud. At the center is Lucifer, who is buried up to his waist, and represents the center of the Earth.

The Lethe, the River of Forgetfulness

Not mentioned in the works of Homer, the Lethe is a later addition to the Underworld and is mentioned by Plato as an important part of the cycle of reincarnation and rebirth. He does not give the name “Lethe” explicitly, but calls the waters the River of Heedlessness, where souls must drink to forget their past before they are reborn. Like the Styx, the Lethe is also seen as a being. Lethe, in Greek mythology, is also the goddess or personification of forgetfulness and oblivion. Hesiod mentions that she is the daughter of Eris, the goddess of strife and discord.

In the Republic, Plato describes the river as running through the Plain of Forgetfulness, a barren wilderness “destitute of trees and verdure.” In the Aeneid, Virgil gives a contrasting description of the Lethe, echoing Plato’s usage of the Lethe as a part of the cycle of rebirth, but in a much more amenable setting. Unlike the other rivers of Hades, the Lethe’s surroundings are relaxing and pleasant. It runs through groves and forest thickets, past peaceful homes in meadows where bees alight on colorful blooms.

Roman poet Ovid places the Lethe in the land of the Cimmerians, where it runs by the cave of Hypnos, inducing sleep, while Statius (ca. AD 45 to ca. AD 96) situates the Lethe as bordering Elysium. Much later, Dante follows this theme, and has the Lethe in the Earthly Paradise (possibly the Garden of Eden), where humanity originally lived in innocence. Here, the waters of the Lethe flow, but unlike his Greek and Roman forebears, Dante’s Lethe does not wash away all memory. It only removes the memory of sin.

Other Rivers

The Styx, the Pyriphlegethon, the Kokytos, the Lethe, and the Acheron are generally considered the five rivers of Hades; however, there are other rivers that are associated with the realm of the dead. The Okeanos is the river that encircles the world and forms the boundary over which Odysseus must cross to reach Hades.

The Alpheus and the Arethusa are also mentioned by several of the ancient writers as having connections in the Underworld, and are major parts of the story between Alpheus and Arethusa in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The huntress and nymph, Arethusa, fleeing the river god Alpheus, is turned into a stream (or a spring in some texts) by Diana (Artemis), and she recounts her story, mentioning that she flows close to the Styx.

Rivers were powerful elements in ancient Greek myth, filled with concepts and ideas that explained the concerns of ancient Greek society. The rivers of Hades are a testament to this, as they represent justice, mortality, memory, and the limits of the living and the dead.

The maritime civilization of Carthage in North Africa was always looking for ways to expand its influence through trade and the establishment of colonies in new lands to secure access to luxury goods. Well before its clash with Rome, one such expedition was mounted under a man called Hanno, sailing from Carthage beyond the Pillars of Herakles (Straits of Gibraltar) and south along the western coast of Africa. The account of this wondrous voyage contains incredible information about these strange lands and the people inhabiting them in antiquity.

Setting the Stage

Before the grand voyages of exploration by the Portuguese and the Spanish in the Early Modern Period, the corners of the map, beyond the Mediterranean, were shrouded in mystery. Sea monstrosities indicating danger represented them, and for centuries after the end of antiquity, these warnings were very much heeded by mariners. While Arabs, Persians, and Indians traded by sea, across the Indian Ocean, for the Europeans, their only way out of the Mediterranean was the Atlantic, a seemingly endless stretch of water beyond the Pillars of Herakles (the Straits of Gibraltar), perceived as the domain of monsters, a place of oddities, and the bane of foolish captains.

Yet, more than a millennium before Columbus, a seafaring civilization braved the uncharted waters for much the same reasons: for trade and for the establishment of colonies in new lands. Anyone familiar with the various cultures straddling the ancient Mediterranean will not be surprised to find the Carthaginians behind this incredible feat.

With their seat in Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia), founded by Phoenicians from the Levant, the Carthaginians expanded their dominion across the coasts of the Western Mediterranean and North Africa, by establishing trade stations which soon developed into proper colonies. They grew rich and powerful by procuring and trading faraway commodities and luxuries, linking East and West with their ships. Indeed, the further away and the more difficult a product was to acquire, the more lucrative the profits for the merchant.

It is no wonder, then, that at some point, in the 5th century BC, they decided to explore even more distant trade opportunities, this time beyond the Pillars of Herakles! Enterprising, daring, and with a keen eye for profit, these were the Carthaginians who would one day be the greatest rival of the fledgling Roman Republic.

Hanno and His Account

The account of the voyage—the longest text we have from the Carthaginian civilization—comes down to us through several intermediaries. It was initially put up in the temple of Kronos (the Hellenized version of Baal Hammon) in Carthage, by Hanno himself after his voyage. Greek writers in the 5th century BC translated and recorded the text, references to which appear in the work of Herodotus and Arrian. Afterwards, the text was copied at different points by the Romans, the later Byzantines, and early modern scholars, and thus much of the information might have been lost or altered. It nonetheless makes for an incredibly interesting read, and its title, the Periplus of Hanno, already tells us that it was a voyage along the coast, in the ancient Greek manner.

The eponymous Hanno was chosen to lead the voyage, and not much more is known about him beyond this. He is referred to as “basileus,” king, in the Greek translation, and thus might have belonged to one of Carthage’s noble families and been a high-ranking official, also known as a “suffette.” Regardless, as the account suggests, his mission was to found a number of colonies along modern-day Morocco’s Atlantic coast.

For this, he was given “sixty fifty-oared ships” and “about thirty thousand men and women” along with the necessary supplies and equipment. The numbers, as is often the case with such accounts, are highly suspect, but what is conveyed without a doubt is the importance of this expedition to the Carthaginians. It was a substantial investment.

The Founding of the New Cities

The Pillars were reached uneventfully from Carthage, and after two days of sailing, the first city was founded, Thymiaterion. In Greek, “thymiaterion” means incense-altar, but this may be a misinterpretation of the Phoenician word “dumathir,” which means flatland or city-on-the-plain, and in fact, the account mentions that “below it was a large plain.” Scholars have placed it in the location of the modern-day Mehdya, relatively close to Morocco’s Rabat.

At a place called Soloeis, nearby, a temple to “Poseidon” was dedicated, and then, a slew of other cities were founded: Karikon Teichos, Gytte, Akra, Melitta, and Arambys. Karikon Teichos may, again, be a Greek interpretation of “Kir Chares,” meaning “Castle of the Sun,” and at its associated location, at Azzemour, Carthaginian-style tombs have been found. At the purported site of Gytte, in El-Jadida, a Carthaginian necropolis has been discovered. Akra may be the Greek rendition of “Hakra,” meaning castle in Phoenician, indicating a fortified colony. Melitta still retains its ancient name as Oualiddia, and Arambys might have been “Har Anbin” in Phoenician, meaning “Grape Mountain.” Its location has been identified with the islet of Mogador, across from Essaouira, and Carthaginian-style pottery has been recovered there.

Indeed, Arambys may be the city with the most long-term importance, as very soon it was turned into a site for the extraction of purpura from shellfish, the fabled Tyrian purple, which would one day become the color of imperial Rome’s senatorial elite and of the emperor himself. Under Augustus, a Roman presence may have been established on the island, where coinage and even the foundations of a Roman-style house have been found, no doubt to secure the supply of the precious dye.

The Lixites and Kerne

Soon after, they reached the Lixos River, whose location is disputed among scholars, but might have been the Draa River, across from the Canary Islands. There, favorable diplomatic contacts were made with a tribe of local pastoralists, the Lixites. Nearby, hostile tribes of “Ethiopians” dwelled, occupying a land full of wild animals. “Ethiopian” was what the ancient Greeks called native Africans, especially those of darker complexion, as opposed to the “Libyans” of North Africa. On a mountain range close to them, according to the Lixites, a “strange people” lived in caves, able to run faster than horses. These mountains might have been the Rif Mountains, but it is uncertain.

As a result of the positive relations with the Lixites, interpreters from their tribe accompanied the Carthaginian expedition as they sailed south along the desert coast. They then reached an island they called “Kerne,” from the Carthaginian “Chernah,” meaning “last habitation.” This island may have been Herne Island, in the bay of Rio de Oro (Dakhla, Morocco), or one of the islands in the Bay of Arguin, across the coast of Mauritania.

Hanno claims that this island lies at the opposite end of Carthage, as it took them the same time to sail from Carthage to the Pillars of Herakles, as it did from the Pillars to Kerne. The name “Chernah” was given to it because, as the account itself suggests, this was where they settled the last of their colonists. The rest of the voyage would be one of pure exploration.

After crossing a river called “Chretes,” possibly from the Phoenician word “Cheremat” for river, they reached a bay containing three islands, all of them larger than Kerne. At the end of the bay, and three days sailing later, they encountered “savages clad in animal skins” who threw stones at them and prevented them from making landfall.

Into the Gulf of Guinea

The location of the River Chretes is uncertain, and we must keep in mind that 2,500 years later, many aspects of the landscape may have changed. The river they reached sometime afterward, however, broad and “teeming with crocodiles and hippopotamuses,” is very likely the Senegal River. From there, they briefly returned to Kerne before continuing their journey to unknown shores.

From the Senegal River, they sailed twelve days south, encountering yet more “Ethiopians” who fled from them as they approached and whose language was unintelligible to the Lixite interpreters. This was undoubtedly new terrain for all involved. If one assumes that the distance they covered in a day was equal to 100 kilometers (62 miles), then these new lands might have been Guinea, around modern-day Sierra Leone. These were ancient indigenous people of the coastal regions of Guinea, possibly with some connections to the Limba, before the migrations and demographic changes of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods.

At the end of the twelve-day journey, the Carthaginians anchored “by some big mountains,” which, as Hanno, ever the intrepid trader, noted, were covered by trees of an aromatic and colorful wood. Past these mountains, possibly close to the modern-day Ivory Coast, it is mentioned that the land gave way to a large stretch of water, which might indicate that the southernmost tip of the coast the Carthaginians had been straddling opened up into the Gulf of Guinea to the east. Inland, during the night, they observed “big and small fires everywhere flaming up at intervals.” 

Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky

Having replenished their freshwater supplies, the Carthaginians continued eastward along the coast for five days, until they reached a bay which the Lixite interpreters called “the Horn of the West.” There was a large island there, with a saltwater lagoon containing yet another island! There, the expedition disembarked, and while the day was uneventful, the night was to be one of terror. Distant fires glowed in the tropical darkness, and flutes, pipes, cymbals, and great drums echoed across the island.

The Carthaginians were overcome by fear, and their soothsayers wisely advised them to abandon the island then and there. Its identification remains uncertain. W. H. Schoff, on whose translation we are relying, places it among the Bissagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau.

The terrors would not end there, however. As they sailed away, “quickly and in fear,” for four days, they saw the coast engulfed by flames. Red streaks of the inferno ran everywhere, and one of them appeared to be rising to the stars. Only by day could they infer that this fire came from the top of a very tall mountain, which was called “the Chariot of the Gods.” This has been identified with Mt. Cameroon, one of the largest volcanoes in Africa, at 4,040 meters (13,254 feet). Even today, in the language of the native Bakweri people, it is called “Monga-ma Loba,” which translates to “seat of the gods” or “mountain of the gods.” The ancient Greek rendering of this should have been “theon oikema,” which could have easily been corrupted by a later scholar into “theon ochema,” meaning “vehicle” or “chariot of the gods.” Terrifyingly, it is also one of Africa’s most active volcanoes, erupting often in the 20th and 21st centuries—most recently in 2012!

Hanno was right to fear this intimidating mountain, whose prowess inspired awe for more than 2,500 years after his visit. Three days sailing along the coasts of fire, the Carthaginians arrived at “the Horn of the South,” another bay, identified with Corisco Bay, close to Gabon. This was the site of the most interesting encounter of the journey—and the last to be mentioned.

The Voyage’s Eventful Conclusion

Here, according to Hanno, was an island which was inhabited by savages, most of them women, “with hairy bodies,” whom the Carthaginians’ interpreters called “gorillas.” The crew of the expedition chased them down, but to no avail, as they were very good climbers and threw stones at them. Despite this, three of their women were caught, but refused to come in peace, biting and scratching their assailers, and therefore were killed and flayed. Their skins, or rather, furs, were taken back to Carthage and, according to Pliny the Elder (Natural History, 6. 36), were displayed in the Temple of Tanit until the city’s razing by the Romans.

As gorillas cannot cross large bodies of water, this might have taken place on the mainland instead, mistaken by Hanno for an island due to its proximity to the sea. Moreover, gorillas are not known for throwing rocks, whereas chimpanzees are, which might have been what the Carthaginians actually encountered. In the 19th century, American physician and missionary Thomas Staughton Savage and naturalist Jeffries Wyman classified gorillas as such, based on the descriptions of Hanno!

This was the end of the Carthaginians’ voyage, as their provisions were running low, and by this point, Hanno had not mentioned any more lucrative trade prospects; only hostile locals, animals, and fiery death. The account abruptly ends there, and we are left wondering if there were any more interesting episodes accompanying their homeward voyage.

Nonetheless, the voyage of Hanno was an incredible feat of ancient seamanship. The brave and enterprising Carthaginians, through the words of their leader, showed us that well before Columbus and the explorers that followed him, there was no shortage of men willing to dare to challenge the dangers of the unknown!

Bibliography 

Lipiński, E., Itineraria Phoenicia, (Leuven, 2004).

Mauny, R., “La navigation sur les côtes du Sahara pendant l’antiquité,” Revue des Études Anciennes, Année 1955, 57-1-2, (1955), pp. 92-101.

Roller, D. W., Through the Pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman Exploration of the Atlantic, (United Kingdom, 2006).

Schoff, W. H., The Periplus of Hanno: A Voyage of Discovery down the African Coast, by a Carthaginian Admiral of the Fifth Century BC, (Philadelphia, 1912).

For the ancient Greeks, lineage was of prime importance. To a large extent, it determined one’s standing in society. It could be a badge of honor or a stain of ignominy beyond one’s control.

This dynamic was apparent in the mythologies as well, and ancestry meant as much to the gods as it did to the mortals in the real world. It defined successions, rivalries, and divine power.

From the Primordials to the Titans and the Olympians, lineage shaped the story of the Greek deities, defining their place in the cosmos.

The Primordials: The First Lineage in Greek Mythology

Before the Titans and the Olympians, there were the Primordials—immensely powerful forces rather than beings resembling stereotypical gods, and as such, they were never worshiped. These concepts were, however, personified with certain human characteristics in order for the Greeks to make sense of creation.

In the beginning, there was Chaos, the first “being” to exist, and from whom all others sprang. It was a formless mass that existed as the opposite of order, rendered as the idea of a yawning chasm or void. After the creation of Chaos, Gaia was formed. She was the personification of “Mother” Earth and parthenogenetically gave birth to the sky (Uranus/Ouranos), the sea, and the mountains. This method of reproduction is not understood as being in human terms, but rather as divine concepts far beyond the bounds of organic reproduction. Therefore, the fact that Uranus became Gaia’s husband is not considered an incestual taboo.

More Primordials were formed. Tartarus was the personification of a great abyss where night, darkness, sleep, and death made their home. Tartarus, as a deity and a place, later becomes the prison for the Titans. The other Primordials included Eros, the representation of love, and Erebus, the personification of darkness.

From these Primordials came all other life. Nyx, the personification of night, came from Chaos and was the mother of many deities listed by ancient authors such as Hesiod, Cicero, and Hyginus. Among them were Aether and Hemera, the personifications of air and day, respectively. She gave birth to a thousand daughters known as the Keres, who were the goddesses of cruel and violent deaths. She also had a thousand sons known as the Oneiroi, the gods of dreams who worked with Hypnos, the god of sleep.

Among her other children were Moirai—the Fates, Nemesis, the goddess of retribution, Geras, the god of old age, Thanatos, the god of death, and Philotes, the goddess of love, affection, friendship, and sex.

One of her daughters, Eris, the goddess of discord, went on to have many children of her own, each a deity representing an abstract concept.

The Titans

Representing the first godly dynasty in Greek myth were the Titans. They were 12 of the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, who also sired the Cyclopes. According to Hesiod, Uranus hid their giant offspring, the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, in Tartarus, and in an act of revenge, Gaia sought the help of her Titan children, but only Cronus helped her. They planned an ambush, and Cronus castrated his father with a sickle. This act marked the end of the Primordial era and the beginning of the age of the Titans.

Where Uranus’ blood met the ground arose the Gigantes, Erinyes, and Meliae, and from the mixture of blood and semen, Aphrodite was created.

Not much was written about the Titans regarding their domains. Six of the Elder Titans were male. Oceanus was the eldest and was the embodiment of water, as he formed the ocean or river that encircled the world. His brother, Coeus, based on his name, which means “question,” has been linked to intelligence and the pursuit of knowledge.

Crios was associated with the constellation Aries, and may have been further associated with the stars, while Hyperion was also associated with cosmology, fathering Helios (the Sun) and Selene (the Moon). Iapetus was linked to mortality and human lifespan, and Cronus, the youngest, ruled over destructive time, but was also seen as a deity of the harvest.

Of the six sisters, Theia was associated with sight, brightness, and the brilliance of precious metals, while Rhea was labeled a “mother goddess” linked to fertility and fruitfulness. Associated with oracles and prophecies, Themis also ruled over justice and order, while Mnemosyne was the mother of the Muses and the goddess of memory.

Also associated with prophecy, Phoebe was the goddess of intellect, while Tethys was associated with water, being the wife and sister of Oceanos, with whom she bore the Oceanids and the river gods.

At this point, the genealogy becomes more inconsistent and confusing, as the offspring of some of the Titans are considered a younger generation of Titans, while the offspring of other Titans are not considered Titans at all. Titans of note were Atlas and Prometheus, both sons of the Titan Iapetus and the Oceanid Clemene, whereas those not considered Titans were the Oceanids, the Muses, the Horae, the Moirai, and, fatefully, the first generation of Olympians, the children of Cronus and Rhea.

The designation of Titan here is malleable in certain cases due to the inconsistent and imaginative nature of the sources.

Zeus and the Olympians

Just as he had overthrown his father, Uranus, Cronus also feared being overthrown. He swallowed each of his children when they were born from his sister-wife, Rhea. However, Rhea managed to hide Zeus, and when her son was fully grown, she fed Cronus an emetic, which caused him to vomit forth his other children, now also fully grown. Zeus freed his siblings and led them in a war against the Titans.

Aided by the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires, Zeus, along with his Olympian brothers and sisters, and some of the Titans who turned against Cronus, spent ten years fighting until his final victory. As punishment, he threw the Titans into Tartarus and appointed the Hecatoncheires as the guards. The Olympians then split their conquered dominion three ways between Zeus, who controlled the sky, Poseidon, who controlled the sea, and Hades, who controlled the underworld.

Zeus’ rule was further challenged by Typhon, the monstrous serpentine offspring of Gaia and Tartarus, but he repelled this challenge and solidified his place as ruler of the cosmos.

The Legacy of Zeus

One of the primary features of Zeus in the mythological texts was his penchant for sexual relations. As a result, he fathered many deities that exist within the Greek pantheon. Zeus was certainly not interested in monogamy with his wife, Hera, and he spread his seed far and wide, creating a complex family tree.

Ares, the god of war, was the result of the union between Zeus and Hera, while Artemis, the goddess of hunting, and her brother, Apollo, were the children of Zeus and the Titaness, Leto. Athena was born directly from the head of Zeus after he swallowed a pregnant Titaness named Metis, and Dionysus was born to the union between Zeus and Semele, a mortal princess of Thebes.

Zeus also fathered many mortal children. Among them were the mighty Heracles, as well as Helen of Troy, whose mother, Leda, was seduced by Zeus, who took the form of a swan. Yet another of Zeus’ children was the hero Perseus, famed for slaying the gorgon, Medusa.

Naturally, Hera had a distaste for her husband’s infidelity, and her revenge was often guided towards Zeus’ mistresses and offspring. She drove Heracles mad, and in a state of frenzy, Heracles killed his own wife and son. And so began the twelve labors of Heracles, whereby he tried to atone for his sins, while Hera did her best to foil his efforts.

In another example of jealous plotting, when Hera discovered Leto’s pregnancy, she made all the earth promise that Leto could not give birth on solid ground. Thus, Artemis and Apollo were born on the floating island of Delos, which was believed not to be anchored to the ground.

Zeus even impersonated other gods, transforming himself into Artemis in order to seduce one of her chaste followers, Callisto. The sapphic episode ends with Callisto pregnant, giving birth to Arcas, the king of the Arcadians, and being transformed into a bear by Zeus’ angry wife. Callisto finally ascended to the heavens as the constellation Ursa Major.

Other Divine Relations

Of course, Zeus wasn’t the only Olympian to have children. Prominent and powerful deities were also born to the other gods.

While married to Hephaestus, Aphrodite (who is also considered an Olympian despite her lineage) had a passionate affair with Ares, and the result of their union was Harmonia, the goddess of harmony and concord. In some versions of the story, Aphrodite was also the mother of Eros, previously noted as a Primordial. This exemplifies the inconsistency of the myths. Harmonia marries the hero Cadmus, and one of their children is Semele, the mother of Dionysus.

Occupying a large portion of the Greek myths are the tales of Poseidon, who fathered many children. He had many lovers of both sexes, the most famous of which was Amphitrite, a sea-goddess and nymph.

With Amphitrite, Poseidon fathered the merman Triton, and with a mortal woman named Cleito, he fathered Atlas, who would become the first ruler of Atlantis. Poseidon is also said to have fathered the minotaur-slaying Theseus, as well as the cyclops Polyphemus.

Many of the ancient Greek myths were born out of issues with lineage, from fears of succession to tales of Hera’s jealousy. Territorial claims were also connected to belief in the divine lineages. Athens identified with Athena, who was believed to have fought Poseidon for patronage of the city, while the Spartan kings’ legitimacy was based on the claim of being the descendants of Heracles.

For the ancient Greeks, mythology and its genealogies were far more than entertainment. They were explanations and justifications of the world around them, as well as being instruments of authority and power.