Her Grief Nearly Ended the World | The Tragic Tale of Demeter, the Goddess of Fertility
The myth does not begin with the abduction. It begins with the flowers. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter, the oldest and most complete surviving account of the myth, opens in…
Latest from Mythic Essays
Diogenes in Corinth | The Philosopher Who Asked Alexander to Move Out of His Sunlight
The most powerful man in the world stood over the philosopher lying in the sun…
The Shield of Achilles | The World That the War Was Destroying
Hephaestus made the shield between a death and a killing. Patroclus was already dead when…
Pygmalion | The Story That Orpheus Told After He Lost Eurydice
Orpheus tells the Pygmalion story. This is the detail that the standard retellings of the…
Apollo | The God Who Came from Outside and the Order He Imposed
The Greeks did not always have Apollo. This is a claim the ancient sources themselves…
Hades | The God Who Was Never Evil and the Kingdom That Was Never Hell
Hades did not punish the dead. This is the single most important correction any honest…
Perseus | The Child of Light in the Sealed Chamber
Acrisius built the chamber to contain everything. The king of Argos had received the oracle's…