Kleobis and Biton Kleobis and Biton: examples of happy lives The Greek historian Herodotus tells a story about two young men named Kleobis and Biton (KLEE-oh-biss and BYE-ton) who lived near [...]
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 [...]
Herakles fighting the monster Geryon who had three heads and three bodies, on a black-figure vase from Athens (500s BC) Another of Herakles' labors As another of the labors he [...]
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 [...]
