Characters from Greek Legend

When you're reading the literature and history of Ancient Greece, there are a few names that should be as familiar to you as Shakespeare, the Bible, Kennedy, or Hitler. Below you will find a list of such major names from legend for quick reference.

The first alphabetical group consists of heroes from before the Trojan War; then come Trojan War names beginning with Achilles. After the Trojan War heroes come to the legendary non-humans.

Atalanta

A rare item in Greek mythology - a woman hero. Atalanta was the lone woman on the quest for the Golden Fleece and the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

Bellerophon

Bellerophon was a Greek hero who rode on the winged horse Pegasus; killed the Chimera monster, and tried to fly Pegasus to Olympus.

Cadmus

Cadmus was sent on a vain quest to find his sister Europa. He settled in Boeotia and founded the city of Thebes, instead.

Hercules

Hercules or Heracles (Herakles) was a strong man and son of Zeus, who performed 12 labors; his nemesis was Hera.

Jason

Jason was the Argonaut leader who captured the golden fleece and married the witch Medea.

Perseus

Perseus was the Greek hero who decapitated Medusa; founded Mycenae. His biological father was Zeus who impregnated Perseus' mother Danae in a shower of gold.

Theseus

Theseus was the Athenian hero who volunteered to be one of the victims of the Minotaur. With the help of one of the Minotaur's half-sisters, Theseus put an end to the Minotaur and found his way out of the labyrinth, built by Daedalus (of wax-wings fame), in which the Minotaur had been hidden. Theseus reorganized the country of Attica.

Achilles

Achilles is the quintessential Greek hero. During the Trojan War, Achilles was the Greek's best warrior; his nymph mother held him by his heel when she dipped him in the River Styx making him immortal everywhere but there.

Agamemnon

Agamemnon was a Mycenean king, the brother-in-law of the infamous Helen, and the leader of all the Greek forces who went to Troy (to fight the Trojan War) for the purpose of recovering Helen for her Greek husband, Menelaus.

Ajax

During the Trojan War, Ajax was the second-best Greek warrior. When he was denied the honor of the armor of the dead Achilles, he tried to kill the Greek leaders but was driven mad, instead.

Hector

Hector was a son of King Priam of Troy and the best warrior of the Trojans in the Trojan War. He killed Patroclus and was killed by Achilles.

Helen of Troy and Menelaus

Helen and Menelaus on at Attic red-figure crater from c. 540-440 B.C. at the Louvre. — Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons.

Helen of Troy known as the face that launched a thousand ships for starting the Trojan War. Helen was married to King Menelaus of Sparta when Paris took her.

Homer

The blind bard believed to have written at least one if not both of the Iliad and Odyssey.

Iliad

Set in the tenth year of the Trojan war the Iliad tells the story of Achilles' wrath. It ends with Achilles returning Hector's body.

Odysseus

Odysseus was the cunning Greek who devised the Trojan Horse; subject of the Odyssey.

Odyssey

Odyssey The 10-year return voyage taken by Odysseus from the Trojan War to Ithaca.

Paris

Paris (aka Alexander) was a Trojan prince who took Helen from Menelaus.

Patroclus

Patroclus was responsible for Achilles' rejoining the battle of the Trojan War, at first by proxy and then for revenge. While Achilles was still refusing to fight for the Greeks, he let his friend Patroclus wear his armor and lead his troops. The Trojans, who thought Patroclus was Achilles, killed him. To avenge the death of Patroclus, Achilles rejoined the battle.

Trojan Horse

The Trojan Horse was a device conjured by Odysseus to get the Greek troops inside the Trojan Walls. The Trojans took the horse as a gift not knowing it was filled with warriors. After the Trojans welcomed the gift into their city, they celebrated what they thought was the departure of the Greeks, but while they slept, the Greeks poured forth from the horse's belly and destroyed Troy.