Chaos
In Greek cosmology, the infinite and empty space that existed before the creation that also came to be associated with Tartarus, the lowest and most infernal region of the Underworld. Out of Chaos sprang Ge, "the Earth," who gave birth to Uranos, thus starting the creation.
Chara
"Beloved"; a greyhound who was held on leash, along with Asterion (Starry) by Bootes in pursuit of the she-bear Callisto.
Astronomical: The name applied to the secondary, or beta, star of the constellation Canes Venatici (6 CVn), which lies next to the constellation Bootes in the northern celestial hemisphere. This particular star may be found at approximate celestial coordinates right ascension 12h35m, declination +42°. However, this star, type dG0, magnitude 4.32, 30 light-years away, is also sometimes referred to as Asterion, though this is usually the alpha or primary star that was renamed by Sir Edmund Halley in honor of King Charles II of England.
Charis
The wife of Hephaistos according to Iliad, a role normally taken by Aphrodite. Originally she had been the sole personification of Grace until later replaced by the three Graces or Charites.
Charites
The three goddesses of charm and beauty; daughters of Zeus who are also known as the Graces. They were Euphrosyne (representing joy), Aglaia (the radiance of beauty), and Thalia (the flowering of beauty). They lived on Mount Olympus with the Muses, with whom they were especially friendly. The Romans equated them with their Gratiae.
Charon
The surly ferryman of the Underworld; son of Erebos who ferried the souls of the dead across the River Styx, though some accounts say he crossed the River Acheron instead. Payment to Charon was made in the form of a bronze coin, an obolos, that was placed under the tongue of the corpse during the burial service. Without this coin he would refuse to ferry them across the river, leaving their soul in permanent limbo.
In modern Greek folklore he has become Charos or Charontas, the spirit of death himself, riding on his black charger across the plains and the mountains, scooping up heroes and maidens alike and setting them on his saddlebow. Great heroes, such as Digenis Akritas, wrestle with him for mastery of death itself.
Astronomical: The sole satellite of the planet Pluto.
Charybdis
A daughter of Poseidon and Ge who stole the cattle of Heracles and was hurled by Zeus into the sea, where she created a whirlpool. Said to lie in a narrow channel, later identified with the Strait of Messina (where there is no such whirlpool) opposite the cave of Scylla, she swallowed up many ships. Both Jason and Odysseus managed to negotiate her menace, the latter losing his ship but managing to escape by clinging to a tree in the cliff’s face until the sucking subsided.
Chim(a)era
A fabulous fire-breathing monster that had the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent or dragon. The son of Typhon (Typhoeus) and Echidne; brother of Cerberus, the Hydra, and the Sphinx. Living on Mount Chimaera in the Taurus, he seems to be a representation or personification of the volcanic fires that still burn near the summit. It has been said that the form of the Chimaera was an allegory of the volcanic mountain on which it was said to live, with fire at its peak, lions and goats roaming its slopes, and snakes at its base.
The Chimaera was killed by Bellerophon while it was ravaging the countryside of Lycia. Riding above the monstrous beast on the back of Pegasus, Bellerophon shot a lead-tipped arrow into his mouth. The lead melted and burned away his insides.
Ch(e)iron
The wisest of all the centaurs and completely opposite to their ilk, who were wild and uncivilized. Not of the same breed as the other centaurs, the offspring of Ixion and a cloud, Cheiron was the son of Cronos and Philyra; hence called Philyrides, he lived on the slopes of Mount Pelion. Taught by the twins Apollo and Artemis, he was skilled in medicine, music, prophecy, hunting, and gymnastics and taught many heroes, such as Jason, Achilles, Peleus, Asclepios, Actaeon, Castor and Polydeuces, and Heracles. He helped Peleus to escape from the wild centaurs and taught him how to win the hand of the Nereid Thetis. His death was accidentally caused by Heracles, who shot him during his struggle with the centaurs in Arcadia. Being immortal Cheiron was unable to die despite the pain he suffered until he relinquished his immortality to Prometheus. After his death Zeus placed his image in the heavens as either Sagittarius or Centaurus.
Astronomical: The name Chiron has been given to an asteroid discovered in 1977 (1977UB) that lies in an orbit between Saturn and Uranus. For details of the constellations Centaurus and Sagittarius see the relevant entries.
Chione
1. The daughter of Oreithyia and Boreas and mother of Poseidon of Eumolpus; hence called Chionides.
2. The mortal mother of Autolycus by Hermes; killed by Artemis.
Chloris
1. The goddess of spring.
2. The only daughter of Niobe, hence a Niobid, who was not killed.
3. The mother of Nestor.
Chrysaor
The warrior son of Medusa fathered on her by Poseidon; he was born, fully grown, along with the winged horse Pegasus, from the body of the Gorgon after she had been beheaded by Perseus. Chrysaor became the father, by the Oceanid Callirrhoe, of Geryon, the three-headed giant whose cattle had to be stolen by Heracles as one of his Great Labors.
Chryseis
Daughter of the Trojan priest Chryses. She was taken by the Greek commander in chief, Agamemnon, as his concubine during the siege of Troy. When her father came to ransom her he was rudely repulsed by Agamemnon, so Apollo sent a plague among the Greeks. Seeking the advice of Calchas, Agamemnon returned Chryseis to her father but took Briseis as recompense, an act that led to the famous quarrel between Agamemnon and Achilles that almost turned the course of the Trojan War back in favor of Troy.
Chryses
A priest of Apollo Smintheus at Troy and father of Chryseis. When his daughter had been seized by the Greek commander Agamemnon during the course of the Trojan War, his prayers propitiated Apollo to spread a pestilence among the Greek forces until the girl was returned.
Chrysippus
Son of Pelops and half-brother of Atreus and Thyestes. Loved by Laius, who raped him, that act being the probable cause of the ancestral curse on the house of Laius, which features in the events of the Oedipus saga. He was murdered by his half-brothers at the instigation of their mother to prevent him from inheriting the throne, after which they had to flee their home.
Chrysothemis
The daughter of Agamemnon and Clytem-nestra. She featured as the gentle foil to the tough Electra, her sister, in Sophocles’ play Electra.
Chthonic gods
Gods born of earth. Being so conceived, chthonic deities are usually closely linked with the ideas of death and regeneration. The sinister figures of the Erinnyes and the Keres are also thought of as spirits of earth. In direct contrast to the chthonic deities were those of Olympus, gods who were conceived and lived in the rarified heights of Heaven.
Chthonius
One of the five Sparti, or "Sown Men," who survived their infighting and went on to help Cadmos to build the Cadmea, the citadel of the city that was later to become known as Thebes. The other four to survive were Echion, Udaeus, Hyperenor, and Pelorus. See also: Sparti
Cicones
Islands visited by Odysseus and his men following their departure from Troy at the end of the Trojan War and where Odysseus received several jars of a sweet and particularly potent wine.
Cilix
King of Cilicia who was helped in his fight against the Lycians by Sarpedon.
Cim(m)erii
A mythical people who dwelled on the boundary of the Western Ocean. It was in their land that Odysseus, on the advice of Circe, sought the advice of the dead seer Teiresias. Preparing a libation of blood he summoned the spirits of the dead. First to appear was Elpenor, one of his crew who died when he fell from the roof of Circe’s palace in a drunken stupor. Later came Teiresias, who gave him prophetic advice before Anticleia, his mother, appeared before him. In some Latinized texts the Cimerii are referred to as Cimmerians.
Cimmerians
Alternative reference for Cimerii found in some Latinized source texts.
Cinyras
Son of Apollo and king of Cyprus, possibly being born in Cilicia, and husband of the daughter of Pygmalion. He was said to have founded the cult of the Paphian Aphrodite, which practiced sacred prostitution. This has led to an alternative tradition that says that Cinyras had a daughter, possibly by another wife, named Myrrha or Smyrna. Aphrodite made the girl fall in love with her father as punishment for her mother having boasted of the girl’s beauty. Under cover of darkness, Myrrha’s nurse helped the helpless maiden sleep with her father, the result of their illicit union being Adonis. When Cinyras discovered what had happened he committed suicide.
Circe
The enchantress daughter of Helios and Perse, sister of King Aeetes, and mother of Comus who lived on the island of Aeaea, identified by some with Malta. She had the power to turn men into animals, on one occasion turning Picus, who rejected her love, into a woodpecker. When Glaucus came to her to obtain a magic potion to make Scylla love him, she instead gave him one that turned her into a monster. She also purified Jason and Medea of murder, but she is best known for her association with Odysseus.
Having lost all but one of his ships on his eventful journey home after the end of the Trojan War, Odysseus landed on Aeaea and sent his men to explore. All but one, Eurylochus, were turned into swine by Circe. When Odysseus set off to rescue his men, he was given the plant moly by Hermes as a charm against the sorcery of Circe. She relinquished to Odysseus, restored his men to their original form, and then lavishly entertained them for a whole year. At the end of the year she advised Odysseus to seek the advice of the dead seer Teiresias, whom he would have to propitiate in the land of the Cimerii. Having done that, Odysseus returned to Aeaea to gain further help from her. She now advised him on how he might circumvent the Sirens and the monstrous Scylla and Charybdis, and so return home.
One tradition says that Circe had a son by Odysseus, Telegonus. While this son was searching for his father he landed on Ithaca and began to plunder for food. When opposed by his father and Telemachus, neither party recognizing the other, Telegonus unwittingly killed his father. He then took Telemachus and Penelope back to Aeaea with him and there married Penelope while Telemachus married Circe.
Appearing in both Odyssey of Homer and the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius, Circe also appeared in the medieval legends of King Arthur, in which she is said to have brought the Romans to England.
Ciris
The bird into which Scylla, daughter of King Nisus of Megara, was turned after she killed her father; his soul, in the form of an eagle, pounced on her. Other traditions say that Scylla was changed into a fish named Ciris when she was drowned by Minos, who had been horrified by her parricide. She is not to be confused, though often is, with another named Scylla, the daughter of Phorcys who was turned into a monster with six heads.
Cithaeron
The lofty mountain, named after a king of Plataea, which lies at its foot, that separates Attica from Boeotia and that is sacred to the Muses and Dionysos. When just 18 years old Heracles set out to rid the area of a savage lion that was ravaging the herds of both Amphitryon and his neighbor Thespius, the latter acting as Heracles’ host for the 50 days of the hunt. Finally Heracles killed the lion with a wild olive club and made himself a garment from the pelt with the head as a helmet, though some say that it was the skin of the Nemaean Lion that he wore. As a reward, Thespius gave Heracles his 50 daughters. Cithaeron was also the location of many episodes connected with Thebes, including the exposure of the infant Oedipus. It was also where both Pentheus and Actaeon were killed.
Claudii
One of the five powerful families that dominated the early Roman republic, probably toward the end of the fifth century B.C. The other families were the Aemilii, Cornelii, Manlii, and Valerii. Each family decisively affected the Roman myths and legends in attempts to make theirs the most prominent family.
Cleobis
Son of a priestess of Hera at Argos; brother of Biton. In a display of filial devotion the brothers once dragged their mother’s chariot to the temple, where she prayed to Hera that they should be granted the best boon for mortals. Hera granted it by allowing them to die while asleep within the confines of her temple, though some say that they simply expired from the sheer exhaustion of dragging their mother’s chariot to the temple.
Cleonaean Lion
An alternative name for the lion dispatched by Heracles as his first Great Labor; better known as the Nemaean Lion. The name derives from the fact that Nemea lay close to Cleonae, both being troubled by this monstrous creature, another of the offspring of Typhon and Echidne.
Clio
Greco-Roman One of the nine Muses, being that of epic poetry, which she was said to have invented, prophecy, and history. In art she was represented with a roll of paper, a chest of books, or with musical instruments. She was the mother of Orpheus and Hyacinthos.
Cloelia
One of the hostages taken by Porsenna when he agreed to a truce with Rome. She requested that she and her fellow hostages should be allowed to go for a swim, but once the guards’ backs were turned she swam back to Rome with her companions. Porsenna was so impressed by Cloelia’s daring and cunning that he allowed all the hostages to remain at liberty.
Clotho
One of the three Fates or Moirae, associate of Lachesis and Atropos, and the one who spun the thread or web of life, thus controlling men’s lives. After Tantalus had killed Pelops to feed the gods at a banquet, a crime for which he was duly punished, Zeus ordered Hermes to boil the limbs in a cauldron. Clotho took Pelops from the cauldron and restored him to life.
Clusium
The home of Lars Porsenna, a city that rose toward the end of the sixth century B.C. and controlled the route through central Italy.
Clymene
1. A nymph, the daughter of Oceanos and Tethys, wife of Iapetus, and mother of Atlas and Prometheus.
2. The wife of Merops, king of Aethiopia, and mother of Phaethon by Helios.
Clyt(a)emnestra
Daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, half-sister to Helen and the Dioscuri, Castor and Poly-deuces. Hesiod referred to her and Helen as the lipesanores, the "husband-deserters." She was forcibly married by Agamemnon after he had killed her first husband and became the mother by him of Iphigeneia, Orestes, and Electra.
While Agamemnon was away for the ten years of the Trojan War, Clytemnestra was seduced by Aegisthus, though she was the stronger of the two in character, and the weak-willed Aegisthus may have actually been seduced by Clytemnestra. Together they plotted to murder Agamemnon on his return from Troy, a resolve strengthened when Clytem-nestra heard of Agamemnon’s sacrifice of Iphigeneia at Aulis.
On Agamemnon’s return, Clytemnestra welcomed him regally; later, while he was in his bath, she entangled him in a net, and after Aegisthus had struck him twice Clytemnestra beheaded him. She then went out to kill Cassandra, the daughter of Priam who had fallen to Agamemnon as booty upon the fall of Troy. Cassandra had refused to enter the city when, in a visionary trance, she was horrified to smell the ancient shedding of blood and the curse of Thyestes.
Clytemnestra now seized power of Mycenae, and she and Aegisthus ruled for many years, Aegisthus living in constant fear of vengeance. He wanted to kill Electra, but Clytemnestra refused. Instead he married her to a peasant who was fearful of consummating their union. Orestes had been smuggled out of the city and took refuge with Strophius, king of Phocis. There he planned his revenge, and when he and Pylades, the son of Strophius, had come of age they returned to Mycenae and, with Electra’s help, killed both Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.
These events are recounted in Aeschylus’s great trilogy the Oresteia, which begins at the point when Agamemnon returned to Mycenae with Cassandra.
Clytie
A nymph who was loved and then jilted by Helios. Revealing their secret to her next lover, Helios began to hate her, so she transformed into a heliotrope, thus following his course across the sky with her gaze, day after day, forever.
Cnidos
Greek colony in Caria, Asia Minor, where the statue of Aphrodite by Praxiteles was once displayed. A fine statue of Demeter, dating from c. 330 B.C., was found at Cnidos and is today in the British Museum.
Cnossos
Variant of Knossos, the important archaeological site on the island of Crete; this site contains the remains of the magnificent, unfortified, and labyrinthine so-called Palace of Minos.
Cocal~os, ~us
King of Sicily. He welcomed Daedalus after he fled to his realm from Cumae, where he landed after flying away from Crete on wings he made himself, a flight that led to the death of his son, Icarus. When Minos came in pursuit of the craftsman, Cocalos’s daughters delayed Minos to enable their father and Daedalus to kill him.
Cocles, Publius Horatius
Hero who protected the Pons Sublicus, the wooden bridge over the River Tiber that gave direct access to the heart of Rome, against the attacking hordes under the leadership of Lars Porsenna. Holding the attackers at bay while the bridge was demolished, Publius Horatius Cocles had the help of Spurius Lartius and Titius Herminus for a while. As the bridge was set to fall, Cocles ordered his helpers back to safety while single-handedly holding the enemy at bay until the bridge finally collapsed. Then, with a prayer to Father Tiber, he leaped fully armed into the raging river and swam to safety beneath a cloud of Etruscan missiles. Though denied easy entry to Rome in this manner, Lars Porsenna still laid siege to it.
The story of Publius Horatius Cocles is dramatically related in the immensely popular Lays of Ancient Rome by Thomas Babington Macaulay, published in 1842.
Cocytus
The "River of Wailing"; one of the five rivers in the Underworld realm of Hades. The other rivers encountered in this realm were the Styx, Phlegethon, Acheron, and Lethe. There is an actual River Cocytus in Epirus that flows for a portion of its course underground, and was thus said to lead directly to the Underworld.
Codrus
Mythical king of Athens who, in order to save his country from invading Dorians, disguised himself in Dorian costume and penetrated the enemy camp, killing their leaders and so routing them. This story seems to have later been used by the Romans when Scaevola was said to have disguised himself and crept into the camp of Lars Porsenna who was, at that time, laying siege to Rome. This is further supported by Dionysus of Halicarnassus, who said that Scaevola’s surname was Cordus, an obvious derivation of Codrus.
Coeus
One of the offspring of Uranos and Ge, and thus a Titan.
Colchis
Ancient country to the south of the Caucasus at the eastern end of the Euxine, or Black, Sea. Dominated by Persia, Greece, and Rome, it was, during the sixth century A.D., disputed by Byzantium and Persia. Today the region forms a part of the independent Russian state of Georgia. It was most famous in Greek tradition as the destination of Aries, the winged ram sent by Zeus who carried away Phrixus and Helle from their cruel and heartless stepmother. Helle fell off en route, but Phrixus reached Colchis, where Aeetes, king of Colchis and father of the sorceress Medea, sacrificed the ram and hung its fleece on an oak tree in a grove that was sacred to Ares, whereupon it turned to gold; it was protected by a sleepless dragon, possibly Draco.
Jason and the Argonauts sailed to Colchis aboard the ship Argo Navis to carry away the Golden Fleece, and after overcoming many perils they arrived at Phasis. They successfully accomplished their quest with the help of Medea.
