The Heavenly Twins
Known as the Dioscuri (sons of Zeus), Castor and Polydeuces grew up to be great horsemen and bold adventurers, taking part in the boar hunt at Calydon and sailing …
Category: Greek Mythology
Foundations of Troy & Divine Interventions
There are several contradictory myths about Troy’s foundation. One tells that Cretans escaping famine first occupied the land. When mice overran their camp, they recalled an oracle advising them …
The Elysian Fields
As Tartarus became more democratic’, so Elysium (or more properly the Elysian Fields), once the exclusive domain of heroes, increasingly admitted the souls of the mundanely virtuous. Its location …
Odysseus on Ithaca
Still disguised, Odysseus entered the palace. Only his dog Argos – now old and frail – knew him. Laying back his ears and wagging his tail joyfully he died, …
Meleager, Atalanta & the Boar Hunt
When Meleager, son of Calydon’s king Oineus (and brother of Tydeus), was born, the three Fates appeared miraculously in his mother Altheia’s bedroom. One promised that Meleager would be …
Charon
In the fifth century bc one of the most memorable of all Hades’ inhabitants is first mentioned: Charon, the ferryman who punts dead souls across the Acheron. Again, local …
Odysseus in Limbo
The daughter of Atlas, Calypso (‘Concealer’) spent her days weaving at her loom, singing in her cave surrounded by: alders and poplars and sweet-scented cypress, the nesting-place of long-winged …
Calydon in History & Today
Despite being the setting of a well-known myth, little is known of Calydon until the time of its abandonment. Signs of occupation from the eleventh century bc suggest that …