76134976 | achilles | born to a mortal and zeus, mother dipped him in the river styx to give him immortality but forgot his heel. was shot and killed in the heel during the trojan war. achilles heel in the one vulnerable spot on an invulnerable person or thing. | |
76134977 | adonis | mortal youth who was loved by aphrodite for his beauty and killed by a wild boar | |
76134978 | aeneas | warrior on the trojan side in the trojan war. symbol of devotion to father because he carried his father out of troy on his back | |
76134979 | agamemnon | greek king who led his men in the trojan war. led tragic life and was finally murdered by his wife. | |
76134980 | amazon | female warriors in greek mythology who were extra strong, large and ferocious fighters. | |
76134981 | androcles | slave from "androcles and the lion" legend. took a thorn out of a lions foot and later, when he was thrown to the lions, he faced the same lion who helped him. | |
76134982 | antigone | daughter of oedipus. disobeyed the kings orders (not to bury her brother who was considered a traitor) and was put to death. | |
76134983 | aphrodite/ venus | goddess of love and beauty, and spring and bloom | |
76134984 | apollo/ sol | god of the son; patron of healing; drove a chariot that pulled the son so it rose and crossed the sky each day | |
76134985 | arachne | mortal who was a great weaver and was proud. challenged athena to a weaving contest and won. athena got angry and turned her into a spider. symbol of problems arrogance can cause. | |
76134986 | argonauts | jason's comrades in search for the golden fleece | |
76134987 | argus | a creature with many eyes who was supposed to watch over io. he finally closed all his eyes when music was played to him to sleep, and his eyes were put in the tail of a peacock | |
76134988 | atlanta | swift-running maiden who outran all her suitors until hippomenes (helped by venus) tricked her with the distraction of three golden apples | |
76134989 | athena/ minerva | goddess of wisdom and warfare; was "born" full-grown and wearing armor, by springing from head of zeus. her simble is the owl. great weaver and spinner, in charge of arts and crafts. | |
76134990 | atlas | a giant who had to hold the earth and sky on his shoulders forever because he rebelled against the gods. | |
76134991 | bacchus/ dionysus | god of wine and revelry. wild feasts were held in his honor, which usually turned into drunken orgies, since that was what he was in charge of. | |
76134992 | brunnhilde | germanic mythological servant who fell in love with siegfried but had him killed when she found out he deceived her. committed suicide. | |
76134993 | cassandra | prophet in troy during trojan war whom nobody believed | |
76134994 | centaur | a race of beings, half man half horse, known for fighting and lustiness, but sometimes for great wisdom | |
76134995 | cerberus | a dog with three heads who stood at the gates of the underworld and let souls in but not out | |
76134996 | charon | boatman who took the souls of the dead across the styx river to the underworld | |
76134997 | chimera | a monster who has a lion head, goat body and dragon tail | |
76134998 | circe | sorceress who turned men into swine if they looked at her | |
76134999 | cupid/eros | god of love, pictured as a winged boy | |
76135000 | cyclops | one eye giants made most famous by polyphemus, son of poseidon, blinded by odysseus | |
76135001 | daedalus and icarus | great inventor who fled to crete after murdering a rival. worked for king minos. designed the labyrinth and had to be put there with his son icarus. daedalus designed wings of wax and feathers and they both escaped. icarus ignored his father, flew close to the son, had his wings melt and he fell and drowned. daedalus escaped safely | |
76135002 | damon | greek legendary figure extraordinarily devoted to his friend, pythias, agreed to die in his place. | |
76135003 | diana/ artemis | sister of apollo; drives a chariot that carries the moon; goddess of the hunt and patron of virgins. seen as a huntress. | |
76135004 | dido | queen of carthage, africa who loved aeneas. committed suicide because she could not be forever with aeneas. | |
76135005 | electra | agamemnon's daughter who helped kill her mother and her lover | |
76135006 | europa | a princess whom zeus abducted and raped, when he was in the form of a bull | |
76135007 | eurydice | wife of orpheus | |
76135008 | gorgons | female monsters having tusks, claws and hair of snakes. perseus was successful in cutting off a gorgons head and used it to turn his enemies into stone | |
76135009 | graces | three greek goddesses of fertility; aglaia, euphrosyne and thalia | |
76135010 | hades/ pluto | god of the underworld; place itself is also called hades. also god of wealth (gold and silver came from the earth which he ruled) | |
76135011 | harpies | ferocious winged creatures with women's faces | |
76135012 | hector | trojan warrior and prince of troy | |
76135013 | helen of troy | a beautiful greek woman, daughter of zeus and leda, who was kidnapped by paris of troy. the trojan war began when the greks tried to get her back. | |
76135014 | hercules | a son of zeus and a mortal, famous for his great strength and endurance. he performed twleve amazing feats of strength called the "labors of hercules" | |
76135015 | io | one of zeus's lovers | |
76135016 | iseult (isolde) | english and irish legendary lover of tristan | |
76135017 | jason | greek mythological hero who sailed in his ship, the argo, with the arognauts, and found the famous "golden fleece" of a magical ram. | |
76135018 | king arthur | hero of legends about ancient england. head of the knights of the round table. | |
76135019 | knights of the round table | knights who sat around a round table designed by merlin so that no one had the most prestigious place in the stories of king arthur | |
76135020 | lady godiva | legendary english lady who rode nude on horseback through coventry, england, covered by her long, flowing hair. her husband agreed to annul the taxes he imposed on the city if she did this. | |
76135021 | lady of the lake | supernatural lady from malory's morte d'arthur who raises lancelot and gives king arthur the sword, excalibur | |
76135022 | laocoon | priest in troy during the trojan war who warned of greeks bearing gifts | |
76135023 | leprechaun | irish legendary elves who can disclose a treasure's legend if one is smart enough to catch them | |
76135024 | little john | one of robin hood's merry men. he was not little but brawny and big | |
76135025 | mars/ ares | god of warfare | |
76135026 | medea | sorceress who fell in love with jason. murdered his bride and others when jason left her. | |
76135027 | medusa | a monster with snakes for hair. when people look at her , they turn to stone. perseus killed her by aiming at her reflection in his shield. | |
76135028 | mercury | messenger of the gods, wears shoes with wings so he can fly quickly. known for living by wits and cleverness | |
76135029 | merlin | magician and advisor to king arthur | |
76135030 | midas | granted the wish that everything he touched turned to gold, but regretted once he killed his daughter and nearly starved. wish was eventually removed. | |
76135031 | minotaur | half man half bull. violent and demanded yearly sacrifices of youths and maidens. kept in the labyrinth because of king minos's wife. eventually slain by theseus with the help of the kings daughter, who helped by giving him balls of string so he could find his way out of the labyrinth. | |
76135032 | modred | king arthurs antagonist who caused his downfall | |
76135033 | muses | nine daughters of zeus and mnemosyne, each representing a different art such as music, astronomy and so forth. | |
76135034 | narcissus and echo | narcissus was a gorgeous male who admired himself, echo was in love with him, but she was ignored. she eventually was cursed with only being able to repeat what others said. this made narcissus make fun of echo more. she eventually wasted away so only her voice remained. he became so engulfed by himself that he got stuck peering into a pong and became a flower the grows there. | |
76135035 | nemesis | goddess of retributive justice or vengeance | |
76135036 | neptune/ poseidon | god of the sea; often pictured with a trident; he had a son named triton | |
76135037 | nereids | sea nymphs who came to the assistance of sailors in greek mythological tales | |
76135038 | nymph | beautiful female spirits | |
76135039 | odysseus | greek who faught in the trojan war. his ten year escapade is told in the odyssey, epic poem by homer. | |
76135040 | oedipus | abandoned by parents at birth due to a prophecy saying he would kill his father and marry his mother. raised in corinth and fled when he too heard the prophecy. on the road, he met and killed his father, solved the riddle of the sphinx and went to thebes and married his mother and had three children. when he learned the truth, he blinded himself and went into exile. died at colonus. | |
76135041 | orestes | son of clytemnestra and agamemnon | |
76135042 | orpheus | musician who got the ruler of the underworld to let his wife (eurydice) out, but since he broke his promise not to look at her until he got back to earth, eurydice disappeared forever. | |
76135043 | pan/ satyr | pan is one of the group of satyrs, half man half goat, who live in the woods. pan is the god of the forests, flocks and shepherds. he usually plays pipes. | |
76135044 | pandora | first mortal woman, sent to earth as a punishment to man for prometheus's theft of fire. she brought with her a box containing all human ills, which escaped into the world when she opened the box. only hope was left at the bottom. | |
76135045 | paris | son of the last king of troy. he awards a golden apple to aphrodite who promised love of the most beautiful woman. she helped him steal helen, married to menelaus of sparta, and takes her to troy. the greeks came to rescue her, starting the trojan war. | |
76135046 | pegasus | winged horse who flew above earth | |
76135047 | penelope | wife of odysseus; symbol of widely fidelity | |
76135048 | persephone and demeter/ ceres | demeter is the goddess of agriculture and fertility/ guardian of marriage. her daughter, persephone, is married to and lived with hades. demeter is so unhappy, that nothing could grow. they came to a compromise where persephone would spend six months with demeter and six months with hades, (winterfall / springsummer) | |
76135049 | phoenix | a bird that is immortal but dies every so often by bursting into flames and being reborn. symbol of rebirth and immortality. | |
76135050 | perseus | killed medusa and turned phineas, his rival, to stone | |
76135051 | pixies | sprites in english folklore that play pranks on people and lead the astray | |
76135052 | priam | king of troy. killed at end of trojan war | |
76135053 | procrustes | mean giant who stretched people or cut off their lefs to make them fit into a bed | |
76135054 | prometheus | a titan who gave mankind the gift of fire . had his liver eaten by an eagle everyday, and it grew back every night. eventually released by hercules. | |
76135055 | psyche | great mortal beauty whom venus was jealous of. cupid loved her, but didnt want her to know who he was, so only visited during dark. she was curious and eventually shone alight in his face. he was angry , but eventually made her immortal. she is the goddess of emotion. | |
76135056 | punch and judy | english puppet characters. punch continuously beats his wife and baby with a stick and is humped over with a crooked nose. | |
76135057 | pygmalion | mythological sculptor who fell in love with his statue, which later came to life, of his ideal woman. | |
76135058 | pythias | greek character who was very loyal to his friend, damon | |
76135059 | queen guinevere | king arthur's wife | |
76135060 | robin hood | legendary english hero/rogue who, with his merry band of men, robbed the rich and gave to the poor | |
76135061 | romulus and remus | twin boys who were raised by a mother wolf. romulus founded rome | |
76135062 | saturn | father of jupiter in roman mythology | |
76135063 | scylla | monster with six heads who devoured sailors caught between her and a whirlpool named charybdis | |
76135064 | sheriff of nottingham | antagonist in robin hood legends | |
76135065 | sir galahad | one of king arthurs knights of the round table. illegitimate son of sir lancelot and princess elaine | |
76135066 | sir gawain | one of the most courteous of king arthurs knights of the round table | |
76135067 | sir lancelot | one of the bravest of king arthurs knights of the round table | |
76135068 | sisyphus | king who had to roll a big boulder uphill forever as a punishment for cheating death | |
76135069 | sphinx | female monster with body of a lion and a womans head who asked a famous riddle and destroyed anoyone who could not answer is correct. oedipu solved it and she killed herself | |
76135070 | styx | river that divides the land of the living from the land of the dead | |
76135071 | the fates | three women who have the power to decide how long people live and what happen to them. one fate spins the thread, one measures, and the third cuts it. | |
76135072 | the sirens | a group of nymphs who lived on an island and lured men to their destruction with their sweet singing | |
76135073 | theseus | athenian hero who married hippolyta, queen of amazons | |
76135074 | titan | any of a group of giants who ruled the universe at one time. zeus and some other gods finally ousted them. | |
76135075 | tristan | lover of iseult in british and irish legends. both died tragically. | |
76135076 | troll | mythical norse dwarf who lived in caves, under bridges and other hidden places. | |
76135077 | unicorn | mythological horse like animal with a horn projecting from its forehead | |
76135078 | vampire | living corpse who needs human blood to live | |
76135079 | vulcan | god of fire; blacksmite; only god who is deformed | |
76135080 | werewolf | man changed into world who prowls during the night doing things such as killing babies and digging up dead bodies under the light of a full moon. | |
76135081 | william tell | legendary swiss archer who was forced to shoot an apple off the head of his son | |
76135082 | zephyr | the west wind which is known for being warm and soft |
ap lit mythology and legend allusions
Primary tabs
Need Help?
We hope your visit has been a productive one. If you're having any problems, or would like to give some feedback, we'd love to hear from you.
For general help, questions, and suggestions, try our dedicated support forums.
If you need to contact the Course-Notes.Org web experience team, please use our contact form.
Need Notes?
While we strive to provide the most comprehensive notes for as many high school textbooks as possible, there are certainly going to be some that we miss. Drop us a note and let us know which textbooks you need. Be sure to include which edition of the textbook you are using! If we see enough demand, we'll do whatever we can to get those notes up on the site for you!