D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths

Tantalus was a wealthy king and favored son of Zeus. Wanting to thank the gods, he hosted a feast for them with a stew made from his son Pelops, “his greatest treasure” (146), but the gods “detested human sacrifice” (146) and sentenced him to eternal punishment in Tartarus: He could neither quench his thirst nor sate his hunger.

The gods brought Pelops back to life and gave him splendid gifts. Poseidon’s, “a team of fast horses” (146), enabled him to win the hand of Hippodamia. She was the daughter of Oenomaüs, king of Elis, on the Olympian plain, to whom Ares had given a team of horses. Wanting to keep his beloved daughter close, he challenged each of her suitors to a chariot race, knowing that he would win. With Poseidon’s horses, and the help of an over-eager stable boy, Pelops defeated the king and married Hippodamia, who had fallen in love with him. The king was killed, and Pelops held funeral games for him, which recurred every four years and “were called the Olympic games” (148).

King of Libya Danaüs had 50 daughters, and his brother Aegyptus had 50 sons. The sons wanted to marry the daughters, but Danaüs found them too rowdy and fled with them to Argos in Greece, where the people made him king. Aegyptus sent his sons to claim their brides, but Danaüs gave his daughters daggers to slay their husbands. Only Hypermnestra refused, having fallen in love with Lynceus. They fled together, but when Danaüs was left without an heir, he brought them back to become Argos’s king and queen. Their son, Acrisius, succeeded them. He had one child, Danaë. After an oracle prophesied that Acrisius would be killed by his daughter’s son, he locked her in a sealed room.

Seeing the lovely maiden alone, Zeus visited her as a golden shower and made her his bride; they had a son, Perseus. Angry but fearful of Zeus, Acrisius placed mother and son in a chest and threw them out to sea. They washed up on an island. When Perseus had grown up, the local king fell in love with Danaë and contrived to send Perseus away. When Perseus pledged his service to the king, he demanded the head of Medusa, one of three Gorgon sisters. Anyone who looked at her immediately turned to stone.

Athena and Hermes helped Perseus on his quest. Athena lent him her brightly polished shield, and Hermes lent his sharp sword. They instructed him to find the Gray Sisters, who directed him to the nymphs of the north. They provided further essential gifts: winged sandals, a cap of invisibility, and a magic bag that grew to the size of whatever was put in it. Using his gifts, Perseus cut off Medusa’s head and escaped her two sisters. On his way home, he passed Ethiopia, where he saved the local princess, Andromeda, from a vicious sea monster, whose blood dyed the sea red, giving it the name the Red Sea.

Perseus and Andromeda returned to Greece, where Medusa’s head turned the king and his men to stone. Since it was too dangerous for a mortal to keep, Perseus gave Medusa’s head to Athena and returned the other gifts he had borrowed. Perseus returned to Argos, but Acrisius fled before he arrived, fearing the oracle. The prophecy was later fulfilled when Perseus was participating in athletic games, and his discus was blown off course, killing a man—Acrisius—who was watching the games. No longer wishing to rule Argos, Perseus founded a new city, Mycenae. When he and Andromeda died, Zeus made them constellations.

Athena placed Medusa’s head in her breastplate and made a double flute with two of Medusa’s bones, but when she realized how silly she looked playing it, she cursed it and threw it to earth. Satyr Marsyas found it and challenged Apollo to a music contest, which would be judged by King Midas of Phrygia and the nine Muses.

Dionysus had once granted Midas a wish to have everything he touched turned to gold, but he quickly begged for the wish to be undone after his own daughter was turned to gold while hugging him. Midas again showed poor judgment: He alone voted for Marsyas. However, when Apollo insisted that they play their instruments upside down, Marsyas’s flute was silent, and even Midas had to vote for Apollo. He flayed Marsyas and turned Midas’s ears into those of a donkey.

King of Corinth Sisyphus was so clever that he could trick even the gods. He ran afoul of Zeus when he revealed to the river god Asopus that Zeus had carried off his daughter. Zeus instructed Hades to take him to the underworld to punish him, but Sisyphus distracted Hades and then tied him in chains. No one could die as long as Hades was chained, leading to worldwide confusion. Finally, the gods threatened Sisyphus so severely that he released Hades. Hermes tried to lead him to the underworld, but Sisyphus ordered his wife not to hold a funeral feast for him or provide a coin for passage. Hades sent Sisyphus back to earth to teach his wife respect, but instead, Sisyphus remained happily with his wife until old age finally claimed his life. When he finally went to the underworld, he was punished by having to push a boulder up a hill eternally.


Sisyphus’s grandson Bellerophon tamed horses. After sleeping in Athena’s temple one night, he woke up with a golden bridle that he used to tame Pegasus, the winged horse. Riding Pegasus, Bellerophon slayed the Chimera, a part-lion, part-serpent, and part-goat monster that was terrorizing Lycia. The king of Lycia allowed Bellerophon to marry his daughter, and he became a beloved king. However, his success made him so vain that he tried to fly up to Olympus, but Pegasus threw him off, and he wandered the earth “an unknown beggar until he died” (169). Zeus made Pegasus his thunderbolt carrier.

The most famous descendant of Danaüs, Heracles, also known as Hercules, was the son of Zeus and the mortal princess Alcmene. Hera hated Heracles and sent two serpents to strangle him in his crib, but baby Heracles squeezed them to death with his powerful hands.

After he accidentally killed his music teacher with his dangerous strength, Heracles was sent to the mountains. There, he rid the area around Thebes of lions and wolves and eventually returned a hero. The king gave him his daughter in marriage, angering Hera. She caused Heracles to go mad and murder his own children. Horrified, Heracles sought an oracle from Delphi, which said he must spend 10 years enslaved to his cousin Eurystheus, “who hated his strong cousin” and conspired with Hera to give him “the hardest tasks (173).

His first four labors involved killing “dangerous beasts and monsters” (174). First was the Nemean lion, which Heracles skinned to death, taking its hide. His second labor was the nine-headed Hydra of Lerna, who sprouted a new head each time one was cut off. With his charioteer’s help, Heracles seared the neck of each head he cut off, preventing them from growing back. Heracles defeated the boar terrorizing Mount Erymanthus for his third labor and the Stymphalian birds for his fourth.

Heracles had to bring one of Artemis’s sacred hinds to Eurystheus for his fifth labor. Sixth, he cleaned mountains of dung from the stables of King Augeas, which he achieved by redirecting two rivers. For his final four labors, Eurystheus sent Heracles east. First he captured the golden girdle of Amazon queen Hippolyta then the four man-eating horses of Diomedes. Next, he went to Crete to capture a fire-breathing bull. When he brought it back to Mycenae, Eurystheus was terrified and hid in an urn. His 10th labor was to capture the monster Geryon’s herd of red cows.

Hera convinced Eurystheus to demand two more labors since Heracles’s charioteer and the rivers helped him complete two of his previous 10. Eurystheus sent him to fetch three golden apples from Hera’s secret garden. To discover its location, Heracles captured Nereus, the old man of the sea, who could transform his shape at will. Since only a god could pick the apples, Heracles held the sky for Atlas long enough to do so, but he had to trick Atlas into taking the sky back. His final labor was to capture Cerberus and bring him to Mycenae, again frightening Eurystheus so badly that he jumped into his urn to hide.

Having “atoned for his sins” (186), Heracles pleased his father and became admired throughout Greece, until Hera again inflicted him with murderous madness. Zeus sentenced him to three years of enslavement to Queen Omphale of Lydia, who ordered him to spin and sew dressed in women’s clothing while the queen wore his lion skin and carried his club.

Heracles’s great friend was king of Thessaly Admetus, who was so happy with his wife, Alcestis, that he did not want to die. He tried to find someone who would die in his stead, but neither his men nor his parents would agree to do so. Only his beloved Alcestis gave her life for him. Hearing the story, Heracles went to Hades and asked him to release Alcestis. Moved by her devotion, Hades agreed.

Heracles himself married Deianira, and they were happy together. While crossing a swollen stream, however, a centaur called Nessus tried to carry her off. Heracles shot him with his poisonous arrows, and as he was dying, Nessus convinced Deianira that she could use his blood as a love potion should she ever fear losing Heracles. When she did so, the centaur’s blood poisoned Heracles, and he ordered his men to burn him atop a pyre, giving his bow and arrows to Philoctetes. As the flames encircled Heracles, Zeus ordered that he be brought to Olympus to be honored. The gods welcomed him, and he eventually saved them from Mother Earth’s “fifty snake-legged giants” (190). Heracles became Olympus’s hero, beloved even by Hera, who allowed him to marry her daughter Hebe, “goddess of eternal youth” (191).

A son of Zeus and Europa, King Minos of Crete was married to Pasiphaë, a daughter of Helios. Minos instructed Athenian architect Daedalus to build him a great palace decorated with gold bulls’ horns. The Cretans worshiped bulls since Zeus had brought Europa there in the guise of one. Since Crete was an island, Poseidon also wanted to be worshiped. He sent a white bull to be sacrificed to him, but Pasiphaë liked it so much that they refused. Angry Poseidon caused the bull to go mad and Pasiphaë to give birth to the half man, half-bull Minotaur, who feasted on human flesh.

Daedalus built a labyrinth to contain him, and Minos supplied him with human sacrifices. Minos’s son had been killed while visiting Athens, and Minos demanded seven young women and seven young men as annual tributes. The Athenian king was forced to comply to save the city, but after 18 years, Theseus of Troezen made his way to Athens, killing “monsters and highwaymen” (191) along the way. Theseus’s mother was the secret wife of Aegeus whom he left behind. Now, Theseus arrived in Athens a hero and pledged to accompany the Athenian tributes, kill the Minotaur, and bring them all back safely. His ship sailed with black sails, and Theseus promised to hoist white ones if he succeeded.

In Crete, Minos’s daughter Ariadne admired Theseus and secretly helped him find his way through the labyrinth. After killing the Minotaur, Theseus escaped the labyrinth and fled Crete with Ariadne. They landed on the island of Naxos, where Dionysus appeared to Theseus, ordering him to leave Ariadne behind since he wanted her for his wife. Unable to oppose a god, Theseus obeyed, and Dionysus married Ariadne, setting her into the sky as a constellation when she died. Grieving the loss of Ariadne, Theseus forgot to hoist the white sails. Seeing the black sails, Aegeus “threw himself into the sea in despair” (199), and the Athenians named the sea the Aegean after him.

Minos punished Daedalus, who had helped Ariadne and Theseus escape, keeping him prisoner, but he fashioned wax wings to fly himself and his son, Icarus, to freedom. After Icarus failed to heed his father’s warning not to fly too close to the son, his wings melted, and he fell to his death. Daedalus sadly flew on the Sicily, where the king warmly welcomed him. Minos tracked him down, but the king protected him. Minos was killed, and Daedalus remained in Sicily.

Crete and Athens established a peace, and Theseus married Ariadne’s sister Phaedra, becoming a renowned king and hero. His dear friend was Lapith king Pirithoüs. Together, they battled and defeated brutal centaurs who tried to kidnap Pirithoüs’s bride. After many happy years of marriage, his wife died, and Pirithoüs wanted to marry Persephone. Theseus accompanied him to the underworld to claim her, but Hades trapped them until Heracles arrived. He was able to release Theseus, but Pirithoüs could not be released, since his irreverence was too great.

Oedipus was the son of Theban king Laius and his queen, Jocasta. An oracle had prophesied that their son would kill his father, so when Oedipus was born, his parents gave him to a servant to abandon in the mountains. A shepherd from Corinth heard the baby’s cries and brought him to his king and queen, who had no children and adopted Oedipus. When he grew up, he went to Delphi and heard the oracle that he would kill his father. Determined to avoid it, he left Corinth. On his journey, he fought with other travelers, all of whom were killed, with the exception of one servant.

Oedipus next came to Thebes, which was being terrorized by the Sphinx, whose riddles no one could solve. Oedipus, however, solved the riddle, and the Thebans invited him to marry their recently widowed queen, Jocasta, who remained youthful by wearing the necklace of Harmonia. Oedipus agreed, ruling “justly and wisely for many years” (210).

After the death of the king of Corinth, a plague broke out in Thebes, and a seer prophesied that the plague would continue until the previous king’s death was avenged. The surviving servant subsequently revealed Oedipus’s parentage. In despair, Jocasta died by suicide; Oedipus took out his eyes and left Thebes for Athens with his daughter Antigone. Theseus offered Oedipus a place to “die in peace” (211). Back in Thebes, his sons Polynices and Eteocles fought over the throne and were both killed.