Answers to Your Questions About Ancient Greece
For students of Greek Myth & History
Many visitors to my Ancient Greece Travel Diary surf in through Google, looking for answers to questions like "What are the Roman names for Greek gods?" and "map of the Odyssey."
I hope you'll have a chance to browse my photos and ramblings about my Greek odyssey, but sometimes you just need the answer, right now. So I've checked the questions that keep popping up, and I've attempted to answer them below.
Some of them, anyway.
(Sorry, anonymous Google surfer. I have no idea how tall Medusa is.)
Timeline of Ancient Greece - Greek History at a Glance
Here's my Timeline of Ancient Greece.
I packed a lot of info there, but if you need more, here's some other good web pages on classical Greek history:
- Timeline on Ancient Greece.org
- Classical Greece for Kids
- History of Greece: see lectures 5 to 9.
Greek Gods, Goddesses, and Famous People
Chart of Greek names and Latin equivalents
Stars (*) mark the twelve gods of Olympus, the Olympian gods. Hover cursor over links for a quick rundown of each god, or click links for in-depth entries on The Theoi Project. Or test yourself with my Gods of Olympus Trivia Quiz.
- Greek Name / Roman name
- *Zeus / Jupiter
- *Hera / Juno
- *Poseidon / Neptune
- *Athena / Minerva
- *Demeter / Ceres
- *Aphrodite / Venus
- *Hermes / Mercury
- *Apollo / Apollo
- *Artemis / Diana
- *Ares / Mars
- *Hephaistos / Vulcan
- *Dionysos / Bacchus
- †Hestia / Vesta
- Hades / Pluto
- Persephone / Proserpina
- Eros / Cupid
- Asklepios / Aesculapius
- Nike / Victoria
- Ouranos / Uranus
- Gaia / Tellus
- Kronos / Saturn
- Rhea / Ops
- Helios / Sol
- Selene / Luna
- Herakles / Hercules
- Odysseus / Ulysses
- Kirke / Circe
- Oidipous / Oedipus
- Perikles / Pericles
- Aischylos / Aeschylus
Don't see the name you need? Check these charts on Encyclopedia Mythica or MessageNet.
† There was no Mythology Police in Greece, and some writers and localities had a slightly different list. Hades never gets to be on Mt. Olympus because he's god of the underworld, but in some myths Hestia is one of the twelve, while others name Dionysos, or even "also-rans" like Herakles, Leto (Apollo and Artemis' mom), Asklepios.
What about Apollo? The Romans and their predecessors, the Etruscans, had their own local gods and nature spirits before the Greeks colonized it. Usually, they'd equate local gods to the Greek god that matched. However, there was no exact equivalent for Apollo, god of light, medicine, knowledge and prophecy. Therefore, he was imported without a name change. (In classical Greece, Apollo was not the sun-god; that was Helios. It was only in the Hellenistic period that Apollo began to merge with Helios.)
Useful Maps of Ancient Greece
- Timeless Myths Website's Ancient Greece Map
Click names on the map to get short blurbs about what myths are connected to those places. - Greeklandscapes.com Ancient Greece Map
Clean, easy-to-read, somewhat simplified map of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, including Ionia. Lots and lots of sites marked. - AncientGreece.org's Greece Maps
Great maps of ancient Greece, with a main large map plus some maps for particular historical periods and a few floorplans of important buildings like the Parthenon. - History Link 101's Collection of Maps
A lot of historical maps designed for students. Several different time periods, especially Hellenistic.
How Do We Know Where Things Were 2500 Years Ago?
We know a lot about the geography of ancient Greece because of writing: coins, art and inscriptions identify places whose names have changed in the last 2500 years (in many cases, they haven't changed a bit). We know even more from archaeological sites: the ruins are still there, after all, often buried beneath the streets of modern towns. But a lot of places in mythology can't be pinpointed with certainty, either because they're made up and never existed, or they disappeared long ago.
Best Books on Ancient Greece - Art, Myth & Culture
It's hard to pick just five! But here's some of my top recommendations.
The Wanderings of Odysseus - Maps of Place Names in Homer's Odyssey
Where did Odysseus go? Where did Circe live? Where was the island of the Cyclops? We don't know for sure, but readers of Homer have been arguing about it for thousands of years!
- Interactive Map of Odysseus' Wanderings
Fun presentation from the UPenn Classics Department. - Map of Odysseus' Journey
Not as good a map, but it has pictures of famous characters in the Odyssey. - Wikipedia: Geography of the Odyssey
Wikipedia entries can be written, edited and changed by anybody, but right now -- Feb 2008 -- this article looks very helpful and informative.
Family Trees of Greek Gods and Heroes - Mythological Genealogy
Whew! I'd love to design my own well-researched mythological family trees for this website, but I've got a lot on the To Do List. So for the moment, I'm going to give you links to others I've found.
Like so much in ancient mythology, there are a lot of variant myths about who's related to whom and how, so these aren't set in stone.
- Timeless Myth's Family Trees of the Greek Pantheon
Easy-to-read chart. Also has a chart of the Orphic cult's version of Greek mythology, which differs from the mainstream version. - Theoi Project: Family Trees of the Greek Gods and Goddesses
Wow. These charts are complex but thorough. They give separate charts for family trees according to Homer, Hesiod, and a detailed chart of the gods' family trees combining many classical sources. - Timeless Myths' Family Trees of Greek Houses
Greek mythology is so huge, trying to put all the figures from Greek myth on one chart is a nightmare. So this website has different tables for different "houses" -- like Hogwarts houses, except houses in Greek mythology are based on family ties. Tha
How Do I Know All This Stuff?
When you find information on the internet, always ask yourself, "Who wrote this and how do I know what she's posted is accurate?" After all, ANYONE can post anything-- and that includes Wikipedia articles, by the way! I'm sure I've made a few mistakes, but here's my academic background:
- Bachelor's degree in classical languages (Greek and Latin), Bryn Mawr, cum laude
- Masters in classics, Tufts University; worked for the Perseus Project
- Masters in mythological studies, Pacifica Graduate Institute
- Taught at university level: First year Latin, Greek and Roman roots of English
- Teacher's assistant: Greek mythology, western art history (including art of Greece, Rome, Egypt)
- Bard/amateur storyteller in the Society for Creative Anachronism
So that's me, and that's all for now! I hope you've found this page useful. Now, to thank me, please observe the following simple rule:
Don't be a greedy
Charybdis! Always give credit when you use someone's words or pictures.
© 2008 Ellen Brundige