Iphigeneia brought to the sacrifice (Pompeii, ca. 79 AD) Menelaus, Agamemnon, and their oath When Helen ran off with Paris, her husband Menelaus, the king of Sparta, was very upset. He went to visit his [...]
Kidnapping Helen of Troy (from Pompeii) Who was Helen of Troy? Helen, the daughter of Zeus and the queen of Sparta, was the most beautiful young woman in the world. She lived [...]
Jason and the Argonauts: Jason gets the Golden Fleece Jason's backstory Just as Jason was being born, his evil uncle Pelias overthrew his father and became king. Jason's mother hid [...]
Europa holding the horn of Zeus (disguised as a bull) - Athenian vase found in northern Italy, 480 BC Who was Europa? Europa, according to Greek mythology, was a girl who lived a long time [...]
Achilles debate: this is Achilles, on a Greek black-figure vase from around 530 BC Would Achilles choose life? Achilles, the hero of Homer's Iliad, learned that he had a choice. He [...]
Daedalus and Icarus: Icarus falling (on a wall painting from Pompeii,about 79 AD) Daedalus the inventor Once upon a time on the island of Crete, maybe about 1325 BC, there was a [...]
Herakles as a baby, on a red-figure vase from Athens (400s BC) Herakles/Hercules You might think you already know all about Hercules (the Greeks called him Herakles) from watching the Disney [...]
Herakles fights the Hydra (Athenian red-figure vase, ca. 475 BC, Palermo, Sicily) Another labor for Herakles King Eurystheus then told Herakles he had to go kill the Hydra for another one of [...]
Herakles (on the left) frees Prometheus (now in the Louvre) on his way to the Garden of Hesperides Another labor of Herakles Herakles was a Greek hero. He killed his [...]
Leander swimming to Hero (from Pompeii) Who was Hero? In this Greek version of an old story, Hero was a priestess of Aphrodite, whose father sent her to live alone in [...]
