Homer Hesiod Hymns Tragedy Remythologizing Tools Blackboard Info
Dictionary
 
THANATOS 100.00%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
The Greek personification of death. (See DEATH.)
 
DEATH 100.00%
In the Homeric poems Death is called the twin brother of Sleep. In Hesiod he is barn of Night without a father, with Ker (the goddess of mortal destiny), Moros (the fatal stroke of death), Hypnos, (sleep) and the Dreams. Hesiod represents Death, the hard-hearted one, hated by the immortal gods, as dwelling with his brother Sleep in the darkness of the West, whither the sun never penetrates either at his rising or his setting. On the chest of Cypselus at Olympia is a representation of Night, holding in each hand a sleeping boy; the one in the right hand being white, and symbolizing Sleep; the other in the left hand, black, and symbolizing Death. Euripides introduces Death on the stage in his Alcestis. He has a black garment and black wings, and a knife to cut off a lock of hair as an offering to the gods below. In works of art he appears as a beautiful boy or youth, sometimes with, sometimes without, wings, and often with his brother Sleep. He is usually in slumber, and holds a torch, either lowered, or reversed and extinguished.
 
CER 32.85%
In Greek mythology, a goddess of death, especially of violent death in battle. In Hesiod she is the daughter of Nyx (night), and sister of Moros (the doom of death), Hypnos (sleep), and Dreams. The poets commonly speak of several Keres, goddesses of different kinds of death. Homer and Hesiod represent them as clothed in garments stained by human blood, and dragging the dead and wounded about on the field of battle. Every man has his allotted Doom, which overtakes him at the appointed time. Achilles alone has two, with the power to choose freely between them. In later times the Keres are represented generally as powers of destruction, and as associated with the Erinyes, goddesses of revenge and retribution.
 
PODARCES 30.64%
Brother of Proteslaus (q.v.), and after his death commander of his troops.
 
NYCTEUS 29.08%
Son of Poseidon and the Pleiad Celaeno, brother of Lycus (q.v., 1) and father of Antiope (q.v.). After the early death of Cadmus' son Polydorus he administered the government of Thebes for Labdacus, who was a minor, until be met his death in battle with Epopeus, his daughter's husband.
 
DEIPHOBUS 24.42%
Son of Priam and Hecuba, and one of the chief Trojan heroes, next to, Hector, after whose death he was the leader of the Trojan army. It was he and Paris who were said to have slain Achilles. In the later story he is the husband of Helen, after Paris' death, and is betrayed by her to Menelaus n the taking of Troy. According to Homer's account he was surprised by Odysseus and Menelaus in his own house, and overcome only after a hard struggle.
 
GRANIUS LICINIANUS 22.13%
A Roman historian, who probably flourished in the 2nd century A.D. He was the author of a work compiled in the style of annales, ending with the death of Caesar. Some considerable fragments have been found in modern times of books 28-36, covering the history of the years 163-78 B.C.
 
EUPHORION 21.87%
Son of Aeschylus, the great tragedian. He flourished about 450 B.C., and after his father's death put on the stage four of his pieces, which had not yet been performed, and gained the prize. He also exhibited tragedies of his own, not without success.
 
NEOPTOLEMUS 21.74%
Son of Achilles and Deidamia. He was brought up by his grandfather Lycomedes in Scyros. After Achilles' death, however, he was taken by Odysseus to Troy, since, according to the prophecy of Helenus, that town could be taken only by a descendant of Aeacus. Here, like his father, he distinguished himself above all by a courage which none could withstand. He slew Eurypylus, son of Telephus, and was one of the heroes in the Wooden Horse, where he alone remained undaunted. Later legend depicted him as fierce and cruel: at the, taking of Troy he killed the aged Priam at the altar of Zeus, hurled Hector's son. Astyanax, down from the walls, and offered up Polyxena, upon his father's tomb. In Homer he arrives safely with much booty at Phthia, his father's home, and weds Menelaus' daughter Hermione, who was promised him during the siege of Troy [Od. iv 5]. Later legend represents him as accompanied by Andromache, Hector's wife, who is allotted him as part of his booty, and Helenus, and then, on the strength of a prophecy of Helenus, as going to Epirus and settling there. It was to a son of his by Lanassa, granddaughter of Heracles, that the later kings of Epirus traced back their descent, and accordingly styled themselves Aeacidoe, while from his son by Andromache, Molossus, the district of Molossia was said to derive its name. He afterwards went to Phthia, to reinstate his grandfather Peleus in his kingdom (whence he had been expelled by Acastus), and wedded Hermione. He soon, however, met his death at Delphi, whither, according to one story, he had gone with dedicatory offerings, or, according to another, to plunder the temple of Apollo in revenge for his father's death. The accounts of his death vary, some attributing it to Orestes, the earlier lover of Hermione; others to the Delphians, at the instance of the Pythian priestess; others again to a quarrel about the meat-offerings. The scene of his death was the altar, a coincidence which was regarded as a judgment for his murder of Priam. His tomb was within the precincts of the Delphic temple, and in later times he was worshipped as a hero with annual sacrifices by the Delphians, as he was said to have vouchsafed valuable assistance against the Gauls when they threatened the sacred spot [B.C. 279; Pausanias, x 23].
 
DEIANIRA 20.89%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
Daughter of OEneus king of Calydon, and Althaea. She was the wife of Heracles, whose death was brought about by her jealousy (see HERACLES).
 
NARCISSUS 19.81%
The beautiful son of the river-god Cephisus. He rejected the love of the Nymph Echo (q.v.), and Aphrodite punished him for this by inspiring him with a passion for the reflexion of himself which he saw in the water of a fountain. He pined away in the desire for it: to see one's reflexion in the water was hence considered as a presage of death. The flower of the same name, into which he was changed, was held to be a symbol of perishableness and death, and was sacred to Hdd6s, the divinity of the world below. Persephone had just gathered a narcissus, when she was carried off by Hades.
 
LAODAMEIA 19.74%
The daughter of Acastus, and wife of Protesilaus (q.v.). She was celebrated for her attachment to her husband, whom she followed to death of her own free will.
 
LIVIUS 18.98%
Titus Livius, the celebrated Roman historian, was born at Patavium, (59 B.C.), apparently of good family. He was carefully educated, and betook himself early (certainly before 31 B.C.) to Rome, where he soon became acquainted with the most distinguished men of the time. Even Augustus entertained friendly relations towards him in spite of his openly expressed republican convictions, for which he called him a partisan of Pompey. He does not seem to have taken public office, but to have lived exclusively for literature. Esteemed by his contemporaries, he died in his native town in 17 A.D. He must have begun his great historical work between 27 and 25 B.C.; it can only have been completed shortly before his death, as he did not publish the first twenty-one books until after the death of Augustus (14 A.D.). He recounts the history of Rome in 142 books, extending from the foundation of the city (whence the title Ab Urbe Condita libri) to the death of Drusus (9 A.D.). His own death must have prevented its continuation to the death of Augustus, as he doubtless proposed. He published his work from time to time, in separate parts. He arranged his material--at least for the first ninety books--as far as possible in decads (portions consisting of ten books), and half-decads; the division into decade was however first carried through in the 5th century, probably for convenience of handling so vast a series of books. There still remain only the first decad (to 293 B.C.), the third, fourth, and half of the fifth decad (218-167); of the remainder, with the exception of a fairly large portion of book 91, only inconsiderable fragments. We also possess from an unknown pen, summaries (periochoe) of all the books except 136 and 137, and a scanty extract from the account of the portents (prodigia), which appeared in 249 B.C. and following year; this is by a certain Iulius Obsequens, and perhaps dates from the 4th century. Livy's importance rests more on the magnitude of his patriotic undertaking and the style of his narrative than upon his thoroughness as a historic inquirer. His preliminary studies were inadequate, and his knowledge of Roman law, and still more of the military system of Rome, was insufficient. He was content to select what seemed to him the most probable and reasonable statement from the authorities which happened to be familiar and accessible to him, without regard to completeness, and without severely scrutinising their value,--a method which necessarily led to numerous inaccuracies and serious errors. Primarily, his great aim was not critical research into the history of his country. He desired rather by a lively and brilliant narrative, which should satisfy the more exacting taste of the time, to rekindle the flagging patriotism of his countrymen, and to raise his politically and socially degraded contemporaries to the level of their ancestors' exploits. And his narrative in fact deserves the fullest admiration, especially for its descriptions of events and the actors in them, and for the speeches which are inserted in the work. The latter show his rhetorical training in all its brilliance. His language is choice and tasteful, although in details it marks a decline from the strictly classical standard. Asinius Pollio, in allusion to the author's birthplace, charged it with a certain patavinitas. This can only mean a provincial departure from the peculiar language of the metropolis, which is to us no longer perceptible. Livy's work enjoyed the greatest renown down to the latest days of Roman literature, and has been the great mine of information for knowledge of the past to all succeeding generations.
 
SLEEP 18.40%
 
HELENUS 17.69%
The son of Priam and Hecuba, who, like his sister Cassandra, was endowed with the gift of prophecy. When Deiphobus, after the death of Paris, took Helena to wife, Helenus went over to the Greeks; or (as another story has it) was caught by Odysseus in an ambush. He revealed to the enemy the fact that Troy could not be taken without the aid of Neoptolemus and Philoctetes; and he is also said to have suggested the plan of out-witting the Trojans by means of the wooden horse. After the fall of Troy he was carried away by Neoptolemus, and advised him to settle in Epirus. After his death Helenus took Andromache to wife, and became king of the Chaonians.
 
HERODIANUS 17.25%
A Greek historian, about 170-240 A.D., who lived (for a time at any rate) in Rome, and filled offices both at court and in the state. We still possess his history of the Roman emperors, from the death of Marcus Aurelius to the accession of Gordianus 111 (180-238); it is distinguished by its impartiality, and its clear and pleasing style.
 
IOLE 17.16%

Deprecated: Function split() is deprecated in /www/www-ccat/data/classics/myth/php/tools/dictionary.php on line 64
Daughter of Eurytus of (Echalia. She came into the power of Heracles as a captive of war, and was on his death (of which she was the innocent cause) married to his son Hyllus. (See HERACLES.)
 
TALOS 17.04%
A brazen giant in Crete whom Hephaestus had given to Minos. This giant guarded the island. He went round the island three times a day and scared away those who approached it by throwing stones at them; or, if they landed, he sprang into the fire with them and pressed them to his glowing bosom till they were burnt to death. A vein of blood ran from his head to his foot, where it was closed by a nail. When the Argonauts came to Crete, Medea caused the nail to fall out by means of a magic song. According to another account, Poeas, the father of Philoctetes, shot it out with his bow, whereupon Talos bled to death.
 
HIERONYMUS 16.94%
A Greek historian born at Cardia in Thrace; he fought under Alexander the Great, and after his death attached himself to his compatriot Eumenes. They were both captured in B.C. 316, but Hieronymus found favour with Artigonus and was appointed governor of Syria. Demetrius, the son of Antigonus, entrusted him with the governorship of Boeotia. He survived Pyrrhus (ob. 272), and died, at the age of 104, at the court of Antigonus Gonatas. At an advanced age he composed a history of the Diadochi and their successors down to and beyond the death of Pyrrhus; which, although of small value in point of style, was an original work of great value, and the foundation of all the accounts of the successors of Alexander that have come down to us. The work exists in fragments only.
 
AESCHINES 16.17%
The Socratic, son of a sausage-maker at Athens, lived in the most pinching poverty, but would not let it discourage him in his zeal for learning. Some time after the death of Socrates, to whom he had clung with faithful affection, in B.C. 399, Aeschines, probably to mend his fortunes, removed to Syracuse, and there found a patron in the younger Dionysius. On the fall of that tyrant, he returned to Athens, and supported himself by writing speeches for public men. He composed Dialogues, which were prized for their faithful descriptions of Socrates, and the elegance of their style. Three pseudo-Platonic dialogues are conjecturally ascribed to him; That Virtue can be Taught; Axiochus, or on Death, and Eryxias, or on Riches. But it is doubtful whether they are really from his hand.
 
Query:
Type: Standard
SoundEx
Results:
  
gutter splint
gutter splint
gutter splint