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Pygmalion

(Encyclopedia)Pygmalion pĭgmālˈyən [key]. 1 In Greek mythology, king of Cyprus. He fell in love with a beautiful statue of a woman. When he prayed to Aphrodite for a wife like it, the goddess brought the statue...

Glaucus

(Encyclopedia)Glaucus glôˈkəs [key], in Greek mythology. 1 Sea god who loved Scylla. 2 Trojan hero who, according to Homer, exchanged his golden armor for the bronze armor of Diomedes. 3 Son of Sisyphus and fath...

Ixion

(Encyclopedia)Ixion ĭkˈsēən [key], in Greek mythology, king of the Lapithes. Ixion murdered his father-in-law to avoid paying a price for his bride. When no one on earth would purify him, Zeus took Ixion to Oly...

Leto

(Encyclopedia)Leto lēˈtō [key], in Greek mythology, daughter of the Titans Coeus and Phoebe and mother of Artemis and Apollo. When she conceived twins by Zeus, Hera sent the serpent Python after her and forbade ...

Aeacus

(Encyclopedia)Aeacus ēˈəkəs [key], in Greek mythology, son of Zeus and the nymph Aegina. He was the father of Peleus and Telamon. After a plague had nearly wiped out the inhabitants of his land, Zeus rewarded t...

Cyclops

(Encyclopedia)Cyclops sīklōˈpēz [key], in Greek mythology, immense one-eyed beings. They appear in at least two distinct traditions. According to Hesiod the Cyclopes were smiths, the sons of Uranus and Gaea. Th...

Antigone

(Encyclopedia)Antigone ăntĭgˈənē [key], in Greek mythology, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta. In Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, she and her sister Ismene follow their father into exile at Colonus. When her brot...

Alpheus, river, Greece

(Encyclopedia)Alpheus älfēôsˈ [key], river, c.70 mi (110 km) long, rising in the Taygetus Mts., S Greece. The longest river in the Peloponnesus, it flows northwest through gorges, past Olympia, and onto the Oly...

Gordius

(Encyclopedia)Gordius gôrˈdēəs [key], in Greek mythology, king of Phrygia. An oracle had told the Phrygians that the king who would put an end to their troubles was approaching in an oxcart, and, thus, when Gor...

Euripides

(Encyclopedia)Euripides yo͝orĭpˈĭdēz [key], 480 or 485–406 b.c., Greek tragic dramatist, ranking with Aeschylus and Sophocles. Born in Attica, he lived in Athens most of his life, though he spent much time o...