Children of Nyx

Nyx/Nox- as mentioned in Creation was sometimes seen as the first goddess, sometimes a child of Panes, sometimes of Chaos, her consort was Erebus with whom she had many children, she also had some through parthenogenesis. She was the goddess of night and rarely appeared in myth. The most prominent tale she featured in was told by Homer, when Hypnos, her son, fled to her to escape Zeus' rage after he put him to sleep at the behest of Hera so she could send a storm to plague Heracles' ship. Zeus would have thrown Hypnos into the sea if he had not hid behind his mother Nyx but fearing Nyx's wrath, Zeus left Hypnos alone.

Erebus/Erebos- was the personification of darkness, sibling and consort to Nyx. A region in the Underworld was also named for him. He was said to envelope the edges of the world and the Underworld with dark mists.

The children linked to these deites are: Aether, Hemera, Eros, Momus, Moros, Thanatos, Hypnos, Oneiroi, Charon, Eris, Ponos, Hesperides, Keres, Moirai, Nemesis, Apate, Dolus, Lyssa, Maniae, Eleos, Sophrosyne, Philotes, Geras, Epiphron, Hybris, and Oizys.

Aether/Aither/Acmon- The first born, he was the personification of upper air, that is the air that the gods' breathed, not ordinary air. His name meant light and as such the air he personified was considered bright and glowing. This was also the boundary that seperated Tartarus from the rest of the world. Ouranos the Titan of the sky, depicited as a brass dome, was above him and the ordinary air was below him, this was known as Aer/Khaos and was seen as another aspect of the first Chaos/Khaos, the invisible air between heaven and earth. Erebus/Erebos was the third personification of air, the dark mists in the land of the dead.
Normally seen as a child of Nyx and Erebus, he was also sometimes just a child of Erebus, a child of Anake and Khronos, just Khronos, or Chaos.
He a female counterpart in Aithre/Thea the Titaness of sight and shining light who was associated with gold, silver and jewels. He was paired with his sister Hemera and with her he was parent to Thalassa, sometimes Gaea/Gaia, and sometimes Ouranos. Gaia was also given to either have just appeared or to be a child of Hydrus, whilst Ouranos was sometimes just a child of Aether, or of Aether and Gaia, or of just Gaia, or of Nyx.
With Gaia he may have also been parent to the Algea, Dolus, Lyssa, Penthos, the Pseudologoi, Horkos/Horcus, Poena/Poine, Lethe, Aergia, and the Hysminae/Hysminai. The Algea, Horucs, Lethe, the Hysminae and the Pseudologoi may have been children of just Eris, Dolus of Erebus and Nyx, Lyssa of just Nyx.
By himself Aether was also possibly parent to the Nephelae/Nephelai, cloud nymphs, alternatively they were daughters of Tethys, or Okeanos.

Hemera- a daughter of Nyx and Erebus, or sometimes a daughter of Nyx and Chronos, or Chaos, and the personification of day. She was consort to her brother Aether and with him parent to Gaia, Ouranos and Thalassa, or just Thalassa.
She lived in Tartarus with her mother and left it as her mother was returning. She was displaced by the dawn goddess Eos in myth with Eos taking greater importance.

Eros/Cupid- the personification of procreation, also a god of love and desire, sometimes he had no parents, other times he was a child of Chaos or Nyx or Erebus and Nyx, or he was a later god and a child of Aphrodite and Ares, though it is possible there were too Eros, one the primordial deity and the other the playful child of Aphrodite.
According to Hesiod, he emerged without parents after Chaos, Gaia and Tartarus. Aristophanes says he hatched from an egg laid in Erebus and that he had golden wings. Thus he could be linked to Phanes/Protogonos, a primordial deity of procreation and new life who emerged from an egg with gold wings and was entwined with a serpent. He was a child of Ananke and Chronos.

Momos/Momus- the god of daimon (spirit) of satire, mockery, blame, censure, ridicule, complaint, scorn and criticism. A child of Nyx and Erebus or just Nyx.
He criticised the gods and was exiled from Olympus for it. He criticised Hephaestus for making man without a door in breast through which his thoughts could be seen, and when he was asked to judge a contest between Zeus, Poseidon and Athena over their creations- man, a bull and a house, he criticised all of them.  He criticised man for lacking a window in his heart so his neighbour could see his plans, the bull for not having eyes under its horns so it could see what it was attacking, and the house for being made without wheels. He mocked Zeus for his violent nature and his lust and for having two sons equally villainous. He also either viewed only Aphrodite as blameless or insulted her sandals. His twin was Oizys.
Interestingly he is now linked with Mardi Gras.
His counterpart is Eupheme the daimon of praise and good omens.

Moros- a son of Nyx and Erebus or just Nyx he was the god of doom.

Hypnos and Thanatos

Thanatos/Thanatus/Mors/Letus/Letum- the god of death, usually said to be specifically non-violent death as the Keres dealt with violent death, and twin of Hypnos/Somnus and son to Nyx and Erebus. Homer says Zeus charged him and his brother with taking the body of the hero Sarpedon from Troy and returning it to his homeland, Lycia. When Zeus ordered Thanatos to chain up King Sisyphus in Tartarus, as Sisyphus had told the river god Asopus that it was Zeus who took his daughter Aegina, Sisyphus asked Thanatos to demonstrate how his chains worked. Thanatos complied and was trapped until Ares freed him, tired of there being no death in warfare.
When King Admetus was to die Apollo persuaded the Moirai to take another in his place, when his parents refused his wife Alcestis offered herself. When Thanatos came for Alcestis Heracles wrestled him for her life and won.
He was often depicted as a winged youth or a youth carrying a butterfly, poppies or an upside down torch and with a sword, and was usually with his twin. He was displaced by Hermes who as a psychopomp guided the dead to the Underworld. Sometimes he was depicted as bearded.
His Roman counterpart Mors/Letus/Letum was in Roman art a male but in poetry a female, usually pale and clothed in black.

Hypnos and Nyx

Hypnos/Somnus- the god of sleep and twin to Thanatos, a son of Erebus and Nyx. He dwelt in a cave without a door and with poppies growing outside it. The sun did not shine in this cave and it was usually said to be in Erebus, said to have river of forgetfulness, Lethe, flowing through it.
With his brother Thanatos he was charged by Zeus to carry Sarpedon's body from Troy to Lycia.
He put Zeus to sleep at Hera's behest so that she could send a storm to attack Heracles' boat. When Zeus awoke he was in a rage and would have thrown Hypnos into the sea if he had not hid with his mother Nyx, who even Zeus feared. When Hera asked Hypnos to again put Zeus to sleep, during the Trojan War, promising him a throne of gold he refused until she offered him the Charite Pasithea as a wife. He then went to Poseidon letting him know that Zeus was asleep and that Poseidon could thus take action in the Trojan War.
He put Endymion to sleep with his eyes open at his own request, either so Endymion could watch his lover Selene or so that Hypnos could see his eyes.
He was depicted as a youth either bearded or beardless with wings on his shoulders or head, carrying an inverted torch or poppies or a jar with water from the river Lethe in it.
The Oneiroi were his brothers or children and helpers.

Morpheus

Oneiroi- The daimons of dreams they were said to be a thousand in number and dark winged. Either the children of Hypnos or of Nyx or Erebus and Nyx. They lived in a cave in Erebus and passed through a gate of horn to deliver prophetic dreams or a gate of ivory to deliver meaningless dreams. Ovid named three- Morpheus, Icelus/Icelos/Ikelos/Phobetor and Phantasos/Phantasus.
Morpheus was the leader of the Oneiroi and he appeared in the dreams of rulers in the form of a human, and he shaped dreams. He may have been the dream spirit sent by Zeus to Agamemnon in the Illiad. There was a wilted elm tree in his domain on which he hung fashioned dreams, which appeared as winged phantom shapes.
Phobetor was associated with nightmares and animals and monsters in dreams and he appeared in the mortal realm in the form of any animal he wished. His true name was Icelus/Icelos/Ikelos, which means semblance. The word phobia comes from his name.
Phantasos was associated with inanimate objects in dreams and it is from his name that the words fantasy and phantom likely come from.
There was also another daimon of nightmares- Epiales/Epialos/Epioles/Epialtes who may have been another of the Oneiroi.

The ferryman Charon

Charon/Kharon- a son of Erebus and Nyx he was a servant of Hades and ferryman to the dead. He received the dead from Hermes and ferried them across the river of pain Acheron/Akheron in exchange for an obol/danake coin that was placed in their mouth when they were buried. Those unburied or buried without the coin were left to wander the other side of Acheron for a hundred years and appeared as ghosts on earth.
He was shown as an ugly seaman in reddish-brown clothes with a ferryman's pole, bearded and with flashing, angry eyes possibly of a bluish-grey colour.
He could be linked with the Etruscan god Charun/Charu/Karun, he had pointed ears, snakes around his arms, blue skin, snakes in his hair, a vulture's hooked nose, tusks, fiery eyes, wings, and a beard, and he guarded the Underworld with a hammer. He guided the dead and may have punished or protected them with his hammer as well, and he was helped by Vanth a female demon who was a winged, benevolent guide to the dead.

Discord from Xena/ Hercules the Legendary Journeys

Eris/Discordia- the goddess of strife and discord. A daughter of Nyx or of Zeus and Hera. Hesiod said there were in fact two Strife's, one who was cruel and linked to war and battle, and one a daughter of Zeus who was kinder. She was linked with the war goddess Enyo, and Homer viewed them as one and the same.
She was given many children- Ponos (hard labour and toil, who may have been a son of Erebus and Nyx), Lethe (forgetfulness and oblivion, who may have been a daughter of Aether and Gaia), Limos/Limus (hunger), and Ate (delusion, folly, reckless impulse) whose father was Zeus, the Algea/Algos (pain, suffering, grief, distress), the Hysminae (non-martial fighting and combat), the Neikea/Neicea (quarrels, feuds, grievances), the Pseudologi (lies), and Horkos/Horcus (oath) (who all may have been children of Aether and Gaia as well), the Amphilogiai (disputes, debate), Dysnomia (lawlessness), the Phonoi (murder, killing, slaughter), the Androctasiae/Androktasiai (battlefield slaughter), and the Machae/Makhai (battle and combat).
Her most famous story is about the golden apple that started the Trojan War. Angry at not being invited to Peleus and Thetis' wedding, Eris threw a golden apple into the party, The Apple of Discord, which was enscribed kalliste/kallisti meaning for/to the most beautiful/the fairest. Athena, Hera and Aphrodite all laid claim to it and Zeus charged the prince of Troy Paris/Alexander with judging the winner as he had promised to award a golden crown to whoever had a bull better than this and when Ares disguised himself as a bull, Paris fairly awarded him the prize, thus it was the fairness that prompted Zeus to pick him to decide the fairest goddess. Paris picked Aphrodite when she promised him Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world, for a wife.
When the couple Aedon and Polytechnos boasted to love each other more than Zeus and Hera, Hera sent Eris to cause trouble. She caused them to have a competition when Polytechnos was making a chair and Aedon was doing embroidery, whoever finished first should present the other with a female slave. Aedon finished first, furious Polytechnos went to Aedon's father and tricked him into giving over her sister Chelidonis on the pretence that Aedon wanted to see her. He raped Chelidonis and then dressed her as a slave, swore her to silence and gave to Aedon. Chelidonis then lamented her fate and was overheard by Aedon, they plotted revenge and killed Polytechnos' son Itys and fed him to Polytechnos. Polytechnos was then bound, smeared in honey and exposed to insects. Zeus then turned him into a pelican, Aedon into a nightingale and Chelidonis into a swallow. This story was very like that of the princesses Procne and Philomela.

Ponos- a son of Eris or of Eerebus and Nyx, he was the personification of hard labour and toil.


Hesperides- goddess or nymphs of the evening, they tended a garden at the far west at the edge of Okeanos. Daughters of Nyx, Nyx and Erebus, Atlas and Hesperis, Hesperos, Zeus and Themis, or Phorcys/Phorkys and Ceto. They guarded Hera's garden of golden apples, which a gift to her from Gaia on her wedding day to Zeus, they guarded this with a hundred-headed dragon called Ladon, who was placed there by Hera because she did not fully trust the Hesperides.
They were three or seven in number and their given names were- Aigle/Aegle, Arethusa/Arethousa, Erytheia/Erytheis/Erythea, Hesperia/Hespereia/Hespere/Hespera/ Hesperusa/Hesperethoosa/Hesperthousa/Hesperthusa, Chrysothemis/Khrysothemis, Lipara, and Asterope. They were said to be good singers.
They also guarded the winged sandals, the kibisis (knapsack), and the helmet of invisibility that Perseus needed. Athena told him to find them for these items and he went to the Graeae who gave him directions after he took their tooth and eye from them. Alternatively Perseus just received a knapsack from the Hesperides and the sandals, a sword and the helmet from Hermes, or the sandals from Hermes and the sword and helmet from Zeus. The Gorgons lived near them.
For his Eleventh Labour, Heracles had to retrieve some apples from the Hesperides' Garden. He got directions from the Old Man of the Sea (Pontus, Glaucus, Phorcys or Nereus) and then finding it asked Atlas to fetch them. He held the sky up whilst Atlas did this and then when Atlas refused to take his burden back, after obtaining the apples, Heracles tricked him into it by asking him to hold it while he adjusted his cloak. In another version Heracles slew Ladon. Athena then returned the apples once Heracles' labour was completed.
Ovid mentioned how Atlas guarded the garden and was warned that a son of Zeus would take the apples from them. When Perseus arrived and asked for sanctuary Atlas tried to throw him out and Perseus used Medusa's head to turn him to stone.
The golden apple that Eris threw into the party at Peleus and Thetis' wedding 'for the fairest' may have come from this garden, as may have the golden apples that caused Atalanta to lose the race against Melanion. Melanion received these apples from Aphrodite and threw them down to distract Atalanta so that he might win the race against her and gain her as a bride.

Keres- female daimons of violent death. They were children of just Nyx or of Nyx and Erebus. They were bloodthirsty with gnashing teeth, claws and wings. They ripped out souls on the battlefields with their claws. Their names were: Anaplekte (quick death), Akhlys (mist of death), Nosos (disease), Ker (destruction), and Stygere (hateful).
Their Roman equivalents were Letum (death) and Tenebrae (shadows).

The Fates from Xena

Moirai/Moiraie/Moerae/Fates/Parcae/Fata- daughters of Nyx, Nyx and Erebus, Chronos and Nyx, Zeus and Themis, Ananke, Chaos, or Okeanos and Gaia. They were three in number- Clotho/Klotho/Nona, the spinner, Lachesis/Lakhesis/Decima, the allotter, and Atropos/Aisa/Morta, the inevitable.
They controlled the thread of mortals' lives from birth to death, deciding how long they should live, and even Zeus was subject to their will. They appeared three nights after a child's birth to determine their fate. As such they appeared to Althaea after the birth of her son Meleager with a burning brand and determined he would live until it burned out. Althaea doused the brand and hid it until Meleager killed his uncles when they stole the pelt of the Calydonian Boar from Atalanta after Meleager had gifted it to her. Furious at her brothers' deaths, Althaea threw the brand into a fire.
Apollo got them drunk in order to get them to prolong the life of his friend Admetus, they agreed that another could take his place. His wife Alcestis agreed to take his place and was saved from Thanatos by Heracles.
They were white robed, ugly, old women who were sometimes lame. They assisted Hermes' with inventing the alphabet, killed the Gigantes Agrius/Agrios and Thoas/Thoon with bronze clubs, and in some versions poisoned the monster Typhon with fruit.

Clotho sang of things that are and carried a spindle and the book of fate. She was the youngest and chose who was born and when. She brought Pelops back from the dead after his father Tantalus killed him and tried to trick the gods into eating him.
Lachesis sang of things that were and carried a measuring rod. She was the middle of the three and decided how much time each person was allowed in life. Hesiod says she also allowed people to choose their next life.
Atropos sang of things that would be and carried a scroll, a wax tablet, a sundial, a pair of scales and shears. She was the oldest and chose how people would die.
They were linked to the Erinyes, who punished people for wrongful murders as murder went against fate, the childbirth goddess Eileythia, the Keres, and sat at the throne of Zeus or Hades. According to Plato they had their own thrones and sang with the Sirens.
Their Roman equivalents were the Parcae- Nona, Decima and Morta. Nona was also a goddess of pregnancy, Decima of childbirth and Morta of pain and death.

Nemesis from Hercules the Legendary Journeys

Nemesis/Rhamnousia/Rhamnusia- was the goddess of retribution and vengeful fate. She was a daughter of Nyx, Nyx and Erebus, Okeanos or Zeus. She was neither good nor bad, granting that which was deserved. She was associated with resentment for those who had obtained good fortune unfairly.
Her names Rhamnousia and Rhamnusia came from being worshipped at Rhamnous in Attica.
Sometimes she is said to be the mother of Helen of Troy, and also her siblings Clytemnestra, and the Dioscuri Castor and Pollux, having conceived them in the form of a goose to Zeus in the form of a swan. In other versions she lays the egg from which Helen is hatched and it is found by Leda. Alternatively, Leda is simply her mother.
The Telchines/Telkhines, four sea demons who invented metalworking are sometimes given as her children with Tartarus, at other times they are children of Pontus and Gaia, Ouranos and Gaia, Thalassa, or Poseidon.

Apate/Fraus- a child of Nyx, or Nyx and Erebus, she was the personification of deceit, guile, fraud and deception. Her counterpart was her sibling Dolus/Dolos, and her companions were her siblings the Pseudologoi. She may have been one of the evils in Pandora's jar.
Fraus was her Roman counterpart, the personification of treachery and fraud she had a woman's head, a snake's body and a scorpion's tail and helped Mercury.

Dolus/Dolos- the personification of trickery, craftiness, treachery, and guile he was a child of Nyx and Erebus, or Aether and Gaia. An apprentice of Prometheus, he accompanied his siblings the Pseudologoi, and his counterpart was his sister Apate.

Lyssa/Lytta/Ira/Furor/Rabies- a daughter of Nyx and Ouranos or of Aether and Gaia. The goddess/daimon of rage, fury, frenzy, rabies and raging madness. She was linked to the Maniae. Hera asked her to make Heracles insane and though she obeyed it was with reluctance. She was also sent by Dionysus to drive the Minyades mad, daughters of Minyas who neglected the worship of Dionysus and were driven mad as a consequence. She was also linked to the hunter Actaeon/Aktaion, specifically his maddened dogs who tore him apart after he was turned into a stag by Artemis.
Her Roman name was Ira, Furor or Rabies, sometimes she was seen as multiple deities- Irae/Furores.

Maniae/Maniai- daughters of Nyx though no source states this. The personification of madness, insanity and crazed frenzy. They worked with Lyssa and the Erinyes. They are also called nursemaids of Eros but whether in jest, irony or simply truth as Eros can be cruel, is unknown.

Eleos- a child of Nyx and Erebus, either the god or goddess of mercy, pity and compassion. The goddess Anaideia (ruthlessness, shamelessness) was their opposite. Heracles' children sought refuge at his altar in Athens from Eurystheus who was Heracles' rival and set his Twelve Labours, he sought to kill them after their father Heracles died. They survived and Eurystheus and his sons were killed.
Adrastos/Adrastus/Adrestus, a king of Argos during The Seven Against Thebes, went to the same altar after he lost and fled to Athens to beseech Theseus for aid.

Sophrosyne- daughter of Erebus and Nyx, and the goddess of moderation, temperance, self-control and restraint. She may have been one of the good things that escaped Pandora's jar. Her Roman equivalents were Continentia and Sobrietas.

Philotes- a daughter of just Nyx or Nyx and Erebus, she was the goddess of friendship, sexual intercourse and affection. The Neikea (quarrels, feuds) opposed her.

Geras/Senectus- a son of just Nyx or Nyx and Erebus and the personification of old age. He was viewed as a shrivelled, old man. His opposite was the goddess of youth, Heracles' last wife- Hebe, daughter of Zeus and Hera. He was shown on vases with Heracles though the story behind it is unknown. His Roman equivalent was Senectus.

Epiphron- a son of Erebus and Nyx and the personification of prudence, thoughtfulness, carefulness, shrewdness and sagacity.

Hybris/Petulantia- a daughter of Nyx and Erebus, or of Dyssebia (impiety) she was the goddess of impiety, wantonness, recklessness, pride, arrogance and outrageous behaviour. She was the mother of Corus/Koros the personification of insolence and distain, and of Dyssebia sometimes. Her Roman equivalent was Petulantia.

Oizys/ Miseria- a daughter of Nyx or Nyx and Erebus, she was the goddess of misery, woe, suffering and distress. Her twin was Momos. Her Roman name was Miseria.

The Other Olympians- Boys- Hermes

Hermes/Mercury- god of trickery, messengers, thieves, trade, travelers and athletes. A herald of the gods and a guide to the Underworld. Also the inventor of the lyre and fire.

Born the son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia, he was born in a cave on Mt. Kyllini/Cyllene and showed himself to be a thief and a trickster from an early age. On the day of his birth he slipped away from his mother, came across a tortoise, killed it and with reeds turned its shell into the first lyre. Next he went to Pieria where he stole Apollo's cattle. He then either made them wear boots or led them backwards to disguise/confuse their tracks. On his way he came across a man called Battos and asked him to stay silent about what he saw. Battos vowed silence in exchange for a reward. Untrusting of him, after Hermes had hidden the cattle in a cave he returned to Battos in disguise and offered him a reward for information on stolen cattle. Battos told him of the theft and Hermes struck him with his wand/caduceus turning him into a stone as punishment. Alternatively, it was Apollo who came across the man and asked him for information and he confessed to him, betraying Hermes.
Hermes then sacrificed two cattle, he then gathered sticks together and created a fire to cook them on, thus inventing fire. After he returned to his swaddling blankets in the cave. Discovering the theft, Apollo accused Hermes but Maia refused to believe a newborn infant was capable of such deeds. Apollo got Zeus to intervene and Zeus sided with Apollo seeing his trickster son for what he was and compelled him to reveal the cattle. When Hermes revealed his lyre however, Apollo was happy to pardon the theft in exchange for it and let Hermes keep the remaining cattle. In some versions Hermes also received Apollo's shepherd's crook and thus became a god of shepherds.

He was always doing favours and delivering messages for Zeus, one of which led to him being called Argeiphontes (Argus/Argos slayer/killer). Argus Panoptes (all-seeing) was a multi-eyed giant who always had some eyes eternally awake. Apollodorus says he slayed the mother of monsters Echidna in her sleep. He was a loyal servant of Hera's and charged by her to guard Io, Zeus' lover whom he had been forced to disguise as a cow to hide her from Hera but Hera was not fooled and demanded the cow as a gift. Zeus sent Hermes to liberate her and he did so in disguise as a shepherd. He got close to Argus and struck him with caduceus putting him to sleep, he then killed him with a sword or a rock. Hera placed Argus' eyes in the tail of a peacock as thanks for his service.
In one version of the story a man, Hierax, warned Argus and was turned into a hawk by Hermes as punishment.

Zeus gave him the infant Dionysus to find a minder for and Hermes took him to either his aunt Ino and her husband Athamas and instructed them to raise him as a girl, or he took him to the nymphs of Nysa. Alternatively he took him to Ino first and when she and her husband were driven mad by Hera, he then took him to the nymphs.

Zeus also charged him with taking Aphrodite, Athena and Hera to Paris/Alexander when they quarreled over the golden apple labelled 'for the fairest'.

Again under Zeus' bidding he aided several heroes. He gave Zeus' son Heracles a sword, and according to Homer and Apollodorus he aided him in the Underworld by helping him with Cerebus and telling him that Medusa was only a shade. He loaned another son of Zeus, Perseus, his sandals, and with Athena guided him to the Graiai. He aided Odysseus, his own great-grandson, son of his granddaughter Anticlea, daughter of his son Autolycus, by giving him a herb to protect him from Circe's potions, and on Zeus' orders, he told the nymph Calypso/Calipso to allow Odysseus, who had become her lover, to return home.

He fought in the Gigantomachy killing the giant Hippolytos/Hippolytus with a sword whilst wearing the cap of invisibility.

He helped with the creation of Pandora, the first woman, giving her a deceitful nature, speech and a name.

He rescued Ares from the giants Otus and Ephialtes when he was trapped in a bronze urn/jar for thirteen months when their stepmother Eriboea told Hermes what they had done.

He also recovered Zeus' sinews after Typhon cut them off and hid them.

In a strange story Callimachus said he disguised himself as the cyclops Steropes or as Argus to frighten the Oceanids/Okeanids when they were disobeying their mother Tethys.

During the Trojan War he fought on the side of the Greeks though he refused to battle against Leto. He also guided Priam to his son Hector's body, protecting him, and then guided him back to Troy.

He was given the title of Logios as he was a good orator and good at persuasion.

He travelled with Zeus to view mortals, often in disguise and twice, with Zeus, honoured a select few. One was Hyrieus, a king who was a son of Poseidon and Alycone, a Pleiade, thus making him a cousin of Hermes. In some accounts, Zeus and Hermes visited him with Poseidon. In gratitude for his hospitality they agreed to grant him a wish, as he was childless he asked for a child. So the gods filled a bull's hide with urine or sperm and told him to bury it for nine months, he obeyed and later found a boy there, whom he named Orion. In other accounts Hyrieus is his natural father or Poseidon is.
In disguise as peasants Hermes and Zeus sought sanctuary in a village but were barred from every home save one, that of Baucis and Philemon, an elderly couple who offered them sanctuary and what food and wine they had. When they noticed the wine bowl never drained and realised their guests were gods. Zeus and Hermes commanded them to go to the mountains and when they did the village was flooded and the people who had rejected the gods, drowned. Their home was safe however and transformed into a temple. Zeus then asked them what they wanted and the asked to be priests in the temple and to die at the same hour. Their wish was granted and when their time came to die they were turned into trees.

He was associated with two golden rams. The first was the golden ram Chrysomallus, a son of Poseidon and Theophane, a granddaughter of Helios and Gaia who was very beautiful. Poseidon abducted her and took her to an island where he turned her into an ewe to hide her from her suitors amongst a flock, he then turned himself into a ram and mated with her. When her suitors became to slaughter the flock he turned them into wolves. Hermes was said to have sent Chrysomallus to Phrixus and Helle's mother Nephele, to carry them away from their evil stepmother Ino who was trying to kill them/have them sacrificed. The ram carried them over the sea but Helle fell off and drowned, the ram then spoke to Phrixus giving him courage. In some versions of the myth it is actually Helle and Phrixus' mother Nephele that sends the ram to them. When Phrixus reached safety in King Aeetes' domain he sacrificed the ram to him and King Aeetes kept his Golden Fleece until Jason stole it.
In another tale Hermes sets a golden ram in King Atreus' flock. Arteus was king of Mycenae and father to Agamemnon and Menelaus. His parents Pelops and Hippodamia were cursed by Hermes for bringing about the death of his son Myrtilus. Myrtilus was Hippodamia's father's charioteer and he sabotaged her father Oenomaus' chariot out of love for her and when Oenomaus died he cursed Myrtilus. Myrtilus then either tried to claim Hippodamia's virginity as he had been promised for his treachery or simply tried to rape her and was killed by Pelops.
Atreus had vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to Artemis or Hermes and upon finding the golden lamb he either hid it entirely, giving it to his wife or he killed it but hid the fleece for himself. His wife, Aerope gave it to his brother Thyestes, who was her lover. When there was a dispute between the brothers, Atreus agreed that whoever had the golden fleece should be king, not realising it had been taken from him, and so Thyestes became king. With Hermes help however, or on his advice, he won back his throne by getting Thyestes to agree he should have it when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that either Zeus or Hermes brought about.
Atreus killed his brother's sons and tricked him into eating all but their hands and feet, which he kept as proof. For his cannibalism, Thyestes was forced into exile, he consulted an oracle who told him to have a son with his own daughter Pelopia to bring about his revenge. Pelopia exposed the infant and killed herself out of disgust but not before giving her son, Aegisthus, her father and his father's sword. It was this sword that possibly helped her realise who she was lying with as presumably she had done it unwittingly. Aegisthus was found and raised by Atreus and sent to kill Thyestes but the sword made Thyestes realise who he was and reveal himself as the boy's true father. Aegisthus then killed his uncle, exiled his cousins to Sparta and ruled with his father.

Protesilaus and Laodamia were newlyweds just before Protesilaus was killed in the Trojan War, because she was so aggrieved Hermes returned Protesilaus' spirit to her for three hours. It was not enough however, and she either stabbed herself or built a bronze likeness of him and worshipped it until her father threw it on a pyre to end her grief and she threw herself on the pyre.

Amphion was a son of Zeus and Antiope, a daughter of a river god or a princess who was raped by Zeus in the form of a satyr. He and his twin, Zethus were exposed by their mother after she was dragged back by her uncle Lycus after fleeing to King Epopeus and marrying him after her rape. Amphion was taught singing and music by Hermes and gifted a golden lyre by him, when he played his lyre his brother's stones (for walls) followed after him. Together with his brother he founded Thebes, he later married Niobe a Lydian princess and had fourteen children with her, they were killed by Artemis and Apollo when Niobe boasted that she was greater than their mother Leto because she had more children. Amphion then killed himself in grief.

He attended the wedding of Cadmus/Kadmos and Harmonia with the other gods and gave them either a lyre or a sceptre.

Hermes from God of War 3

Though he often held the image of a playful trickster Hermes could be cruel to lovers as well as to people who affronted the gods. Agron was a man who scorned Hermes, Athena and Artemis, refusing to worship them and declining on behalf of his family to take part in rituals to them. The three visited him at night disguised as a shepherd and maids. Hermes invited him and his father Eumelus to a ritual in his honour and suggested his sisters Byssa and Meropis go to the grove where the other girls were worshipping Artemis and Athena. Meropis mocked Athena's name and was turned into an owl by the goddess, Byssa was turned into a byssa bird and Agron was turned into a plover by Hermes. When Eumelus scorned Hermes he turned him into a raven.

When asked by Zeus to punish the twins Orius and Agrius, giants who were half-bear, cannibals and disrespectful of the gods, Hermes planned to dismember them but their great-grandfather Ares intervened and so the gods turned them into an eagle owl and a vulture, and their mother Polyphonte into a small owl.

He turned the nymph Chelone/Khelone into a tortoise when she was too lazy or too ignorant to attend the wedding of Zeus and Hera.

He was said to have inspired Aesop who wrote famous fables, including several about the god.

He took many lovers, some willing and some not, and had many children.
With Acacallis/Acalle/Akalle, the daughter of King Minos, he had Cydon who founded Cydonia. In other versions he is a son with Apollo, who also had Naxos, Miletus, Oaxes, Amphithemis and Garamas, and possibly Phylacides and Phylander though these may have been sons with a nymph who bore the same name.

He also raped Minos' granddaughter Apemosyne. She tried to flee from him and when he could not catch her he lay animal skins in her path causing her to slip. When she told her brother, Althaemenes, what had happened he refused to believe her and kicked her to death.

With Aglaurus/Agraulos he had a son, Ceryx/Keryx who was a messenger. Aglaurus was a princess, a daughter of the Athenian king Cecrops and with her sisters Herse and Pandrosus she was charged by Athena to guard a box but to not open it. Temptation got the better of Aglaurus and Herse and they opened it and found an infant entangled with snakes or an infant half-man and half-serpent, Hephaestus and Gaia's son Erichthonius, the result of Hephaestus' failed rape of Athena, who rubbed his semen off her leg and dropped it on Gaia. In another version, she was jealous of Hermes' love for her sister Herse and barred his entrance to Herse, Hermes asked her to relay a message of his desire for Herse's hand to Herse and for gold Aglaurus agreed to but then Athena, disgusted with her greed, asked the goddess Envy/Invidia to poison her and so Aglaurus began to waste away and blocked Hermes entry to her sister's room. In rage Hermes turned her to stone or into a marble statue. Sometimes her sister Pandrosus/Pandrosos is said to be Ceryx's mother.

With Herse Hermes had Cephalus/Kephalos. Sometimes he is said to be the same Cephalus that Eos fell in love with and abducted. He loved another however, Procris and despite having a son, Phaëthon, with Eos, he pined for Procris. Eventually, Eos returned him to her after eight years but put in his mind the idea that Procris had betrayed him. He disguised himself as a hunter and seduced her, and in shame she fled to either become a follower of Artemis or to Minos. They reconciled and she gifted him with a javelin that never missed its mark and a hound that always caught its prey. Later she had doubts as Cephalus always sneaked off to worship a Nephele, she thought it was a lover when it fact it was a deity and when to spy on him. Sensing something in the bushes he threw his javelin and killed Procris. He then went into exile after she made him swear not to marry Eos. He did marry again and had a son, Arcesius, but he never forgot Procris and killed himself in grief. He may have been a son of Deion/Deioneos/Deioneus a king of Phocis, and Diomede.

Bounos/Bunus was a son with Alcidamia/Alkidameia who became king of Ephyra.

With either Antianeira, Aptale or Laothoe he had Erytus/Eurytus/Eurytos and Echion/Ekhion who were Argonauts and participated in the Calydonian Boar Hunt.

With Eupolemeia, granddaughter of Zeus, he had the Argonaut Aethalides/Aithalides. Aethalides acted as the Argonauts' herald and he had been gifted by Hermes with the ability to remember everything. Even in Hades the waters of the river of forgetfulness Lethe could not effect him.

He fell in love with the goddess Aphrodite but she rejected his advances. Zeus felt sorry for him and sent an eagle to steal her sandal and gave to Hermes. Glad to have it returned she made love to the god, the result of which was Hermaphroditus. He was raised by naiads in Mt. Ida in Phrygia
but left at fifteen. In Caria the nymph Salmacis spotted him and made advances but he rejected her. Thinking her gone he stripped and bathed in her pool, she grabbed and begged the gods to never let them part, they granted her wish and their bodies became one. Hermaphroditus then begged his parents that anyone else who bathed in the pool would be similarly cursed and they granted this. Eros is sometimes given as their son though more popularly he is a son of Aphrodite and Ares or an ancient deity born of Chaos.
Priapus/Priapos is another son though Dionysus is sometimes given as his father, or Zeus, or Pan, or Dionysus and Chione are his parents. Hera was said to have cursed the infant with ugliness and foul-mindedness while he was still in Aphrodite's womb as vengeance for Paris having picked the goddess as most beautiful over her and Athena. He was born with a large phallus but he was impotent. The gods threw him to earth in disgust and he was raised by shepherds before joining Pan and the satyrs.
Tyche the deity of fortune and prosperity for cities was sometimes said to be a daughter of Hermes and Aphrodite though other sources claim she is an Oceanid.

With the nymph Carmentis/Karmentis he had Euandros/Evander/Euander, a Greek hero who introduced the Greek pantheon, laws and alphabet to Italy and founded Pallantium, a city that would become Rome.

Chione/Khione was a beautiful woman with many suitors including Apollo and Hermes. Apollo came to her disguised as an old woman whilst Hermes put her to sleep and raped her. As a result she had twins, Philammon, the son of Apollo and Autolycus/Autolykus, the son of Hermes. She then boasted of her beauty, comparing herself to Artemis who killed her with an arrow for her vanity. Her father, Daedalion, in grief flung himself from a peak and was turned into a hawk by Apollo.
Philammon became a musician whilst Autolycus became a master thief who could turn objects into different things, could never be caught, was good with the lyre and at song. He was sometimes given as the grandfather of Jason of the Argonauts fame through his daughter Polymede/Polymele/Polypheme and was the grandfather of Odysseus through his daughter Anticlea, who had him either with Laërtes or with Sisyphus after he raped her or seduced her when he learned that it was Autolycus who had stolen his cattle.
He stole a helmet from Odysseus to test his skills, taught Heracles to wrestle and was sometimes said to be an Argonaut, though that may have been a different Autolycus. He also stole cattle or mares from Eurytus and he accused Heracles of the theft, Eurytus' son Iphitus believed Heracles was innocent and tried to help him, Heracles threw him from the walls in a fit of anger however and for this had to serve the Lydian queen Omphale for three years in penance. He later killed Eurytus and his sons and took his daughter Iole as a concubine.
Stilbe, a daughter of the morning star Eosphorus/Phosphorus/Heōsphoros, is sometimes given as Autolycus' mother.

With the princess Chthonophyle of Sicyon, he had a son, Polybus, who became king. She either also had Philas with Dionysus or married Philas.

With the Oceanid Daeira he had a son, Eleusis, a king of Eleusis whose son was was fed divine milk and placed in the fire nightly by Demeter who was in disguise. When Eleusis intervened she killed him. Sometimes Ogyges/Ogygos/Ogygus a primeval first king of Attica is given as his father. Sometimes Brimo is given as Eleusis' mother, Pausanias says she gave her virginity to Hermes. Brimo is said to be another name for the witch goddess Hecate/Hekate. She was connected with Hermes being a psychopomp like him (guide to the dead) and sometimes considered to be his consort because of their connection to the Underworld.

Dryope/Driope was a nymph, a daughter of Dryops a king and son of a river god, or a daughter of Eurytus, the king Heracles killed, or a Pleiade. She was seduced by Apollo in the form of a tortoise who bound her in the form of a snake and raped her, resulting in her outcast from the nymphs and a son, Amphissus, then later Apollo returned when she was serving at his temple, coiled about her in snake form again turning her into a poplar tree.  According to Ovid she was turned into a tree by the nymph Lotis after plucking from her tree. Sometimes she is given as the mother of Pan with Hermes.
Pan was the god of shepherds, the wild, flocks and rustic music, depicted as a satyr he was usually accompanied by nymphs and satyrs. Sometimes his mother is given as a nymph called Penelope or as the Penelope who was wife to Hermes' great-grandson Odysseus.

Penelope the nymph is also said to be mother to Nomios with Hermes. Nomios was a shepherd, seducer and player of the panpipes. He was a Pane, a follower or aspect of Pan shaped like a human with goat horns who followed Dionysus.

With the nymph Sose, a prophetess, Hermes had another Pane, Agreus/Argeus who was a prophet and a skilled hunter.

With Erytheia, a princess of Iberia or a daughter of Geryon/Geryones, a giant who was the son of the naiad Callirrhoe and Chrysaor (the giant brother of Pegasus) who had one head but three bodies joined together or three heads and one body and owned cattle Heracles was sent to fetch, Hermes had a son, Norax. Norax became a prince of Iberia and colonised Sardinia.

With Iphthime, daughter of Dorus the founder of the Dorians, Hermes had the satyrs Lycus/Lykos, Pherespondus and Pronomus/Pronomos. They were known as the Satyroi and were messengers to Dionysus.

With Libye a princess of Libya he had a son, Libys.

With the nymph Ocyrhoe/Okyrrhoe he had a son Caicus/Kaikos who became Lord of Teuthrania.

Servius told of how Hermes loved a princess of Arcadia, Palaestra, whose brothers, Plexippus and Enetus, invented wrestling. When Palaestra divulged this to Hermes her father was furious and ordered his sons to punish the god so they dismembered him in his sleep. Hermes complained to Zeus who had the father, Choricus, eviscerated. Another version gives Palaestra as the daughter of Pandocus who lived at a crossroads and killed all passersby until Hermes suffocated him at the will of his daughter.

Philostratus spoke of another Palaestra, a manly daughter of Hermes who looked boyish, was unwomanly and invented wrestling.

Sometimes Peitho, the goddess of persuasion and seduction, an attendant of Aphrodite, and an Oceanid, is given to be Hermes' bride, according to Nonnus.

With Ares, Apollo and Hephaestus he unsuccessfully wooed Persephone, Hermes offered her a rod.

With the Danaide, one of the fifty daughters of the king Danaus, Phylodameia Hermes had a son, Pharis.

With Polymele/Polymela he had Eudoros/Eudorus. Hermes fell for Polymele when he saw her dancing to Artemis. Eudoros was raised by his grandfather Phylas and was the second of Achilles' five commanders during the Trojan War.

With the nymph Rhene, who was also a lover of the Argonaut Oileus, Hermes had a son, Saon who became king of Samothrake/Samothrace, he unified the people here and then divided them into five tribes. Sometimes his father is said to be Zeus.

With an unnamed nymph he had a son, Daphnis, a shepherd who invented pastoral poetry. He was exposed and found and raised by shepherds. A naiad Echenai/Nomia loved him but when he was drunk he betrayed her with a princess and for that she blinded him or turned him to stone.

Tanagra was a naiad Ares and Hermes competed for in a boxing match, which Hermes won. Hermes then carried her away. She was a daughter of the river god Asopus, her sisters  Aegina, Thebe, and Plataea were abducted by Zeus, Corcyra, Salamis, and Euboea were abducted by Poseidon and  Sinope and Thespia were abducted by Apollo.

With Theobule/Cleobule he was father to the ill-fated Myrtilos/Myrtilus who betrayed his master Oenomaus for love of his daughter Hippodameia and was subsequently cursed by Oenomaus for it before being betrayed by Hippodaemeia's husband Pelops and murdered by him. According to the myth he sabotaged Oenomaus' chariot leading to his death, so that Hippodaemeia and Pelops might marry as Oenomaus forced all of Hippodaemeia's suitors to race him and killed them if they lost. Myrtilus did this because he loved Hippodaemeia and was possibly promised her virgnity in exchange. When he tried to take his prize or rape her, he was killed by Pelops and died cursing their family.

With Thronia/Thronie, a princess of Egypt he had a son, Arabus/Arabos, the first king of Arabia.


Abderus/Abderos a prince of Opous and companion of Heracles was sometimes said to have been a son of Hermes' or of Thromius or Opian Menoetius making him Achilles' infamous companion Patroclus' brother. When Heracles captured the man-eating mares of Diomedes and left them in the care of Abderus they devoured him.

Angelina the personification/daimon of messages, tidings and proclamations was his daughter.

Dolops was another son, he died in Magnessa.

Hermes was also said to have male lovers- Amphion the son of Zeus who he granted a golden lyre to, Krokus/Krokos a companion Hermes accidentally killed with a discus and turned into a flower, much like the myth of Apollo and Hyakinthos, and Perseus who Hermes loaned his winged sandals to.

His symbols were the caduceus, which had two snakes coiled around it, his winged sandals and winged helmet and his animals were the tortoise, ram, hare, snake and hawk. He was depicted either as a bearded traveller or herald or as an athletic youth usually nude with his helmet, caduceus and winged sandals or with a cloak.

His Roman counterpart was Mercury/Mercurius who was similar to the Etruscan god Turms, god of messengers and travel, his mother was Maia Maiestas who was more important than her Greek counterpart, she was associated with growth and seen as an Earth goddess linked to Fauna, Magna Mater (a title for her and Cybele), she was also linked to Vulcan. Like Hermes he had winged sandals, talaria and a broad brimed hat with wings, petasos.
According to Ovid he carried Morpheus' dreams from Somnus' valley to dreamers.
He was sent by Jupiter to Aeneas to remind him to continue with his journey thus compelling him to leave his lover Dido, which he did in secret leading to her suicide.
Ovid also mentioned a lover, a nymph called Larunda/Larunde/Laranda/Lara, a naiad, daughter of the river god Almo. Larunda was beautiful and talkative and revealed to Juno Jupiter's affair with the wife of Janus, the nymph Juturna. For this Jupiter cut out her tongue and ordered Mercury to take her to the gateway to the Underworld, Avernus. Mercury fell in love with her on the way and either made love to her or raped her resulting in two sons, Lares/Lases, invisible guardians of the house, hearth, fields and other boundaries. Hermes then hid her from Jupiter in a cottage in the woods.
In Orlando Furioso he took Vulcan's net, which he used to capture his wife Venus committing adultery with Mars, and used it to capture the nymph Cloris. Cloris followed the sun scattering flowers after it and it was while she was doing this that Mercury caught her in the net.
There were very few differences between Mercury and Hermes, as they were both gods of thieves, travellers and merchants.

The Other Olympians- Boys- Hephaestus

Hephaestus/Hēphaistos/Vulcan- a god of blacksmiths, technology, fire, sculpting, metals and volcanoes.

The craftsman for the gods he was the son of Zeus and Hera or just Hera alone according to some sources. When Zeus birthed Athena from his head without a parent (her mother was Metis, swallowed by Zeus) Hera was jealous and so conceived Hephaestus without help but he was lame and she cast him down from Olympus in disgust, or he was ugly and she cast him down possibly resulting in his lameness. He was then rescued and raised by Thetis and/or Eurynome.
Some sources argue with this as it is sometimes said that it was he who cracked open Zeus' skull to free Athena, thus making him older than Athena. In this case he was cast down from Olympus by Zeus for trying to save Hera when Zeus bound her by her wrists and ankles for trying to overthrow him with Poseidon and Athena. Hephaestus was then rescued by the Sintians on Lemnos.

In revenge for casting him out, Hephaestus carved a golden throne for Hera and gifted it to her. When she sat on it however she became permanently stuck and Hephaestus abandoned her to this fate. Ares came after him to try and force him back by Hephaestus chased him away with torches. Dionysus then came and got him drunk and brought him back in this state and/or promised him Aphrodite as a bride. Hephaestus freed Hera and Hera welcomed Dionysus as an Olympian in thanks.

He was married to Aphrodite but she was unfaithful to him, particularly with Ares. When Helios informed Hephaestus of their affair he set a trap for them, an invisible net about their bed. When the lovers were trapped he brought the other gods to shame them. Only the males came and Poseidon offered to pay Ares' adulter's fee if Ares did not. Homer, Pseudo-Apollodorus and Nonnus all suggested that Hephaestus divorced Aphrodite for this affair.
He then punished the lovers further by gifting their daughter Harmonia with a cursed necklace on her wedding day. The curse did his work damning her and her descedants.

As a craftsman he crafted many things- weapons, armour, jewellery, palaces, automans- and in one case, a person, specifically the first woman Pandora. He made her from clay and all the gods gifted her with something- Athena robed her, Hermes named her and gave her a voice and trickery, Aphrodite gave her grace and longing, the Charites gave her necklaces, the Horae a crown and Zeus gave her a jar/urn/box/pithos with all the evils in it. She married Prometheus' brother Epimetheus despite Prometheus' warnings and opened the urn unleashing evil onto the world.
Feeling that Prometheus was not yet punishing enough for stealing fire for humans and helping them earn the better part of meat, Zeus had Hephaestus chain Prometheus to a rock where he suffered an eagle feeding on his regenerating liver daily. Hephaestus may have had extra motive as Prometheus was said to have taken the fire from Hephaestus' own forge.
He drove out Adranus/Adranos a fire god from Mt. Etna/Aetna and put his forge there. This mountain was believed to have been named after one of his lovers, the nymph Aetna.



Like many of the other gods he fought in the war against the Gigantes, killing the giant Mimas with molten lava (sometimes Ares is said to have killed him).


His side during the Trojan War is unclear, Homer describes him as having a deep loyalty to his mother Hera who was on the side of the Greeks but he saved the son of Trojan priest Dares, Idaios from Diomedes and yet forged armour for the Greek Achilles at his mother Thetis' request. During the war he also fought the river god Skamandros/Xanthos when he tried to drown Achilles.

He could be kind as well as vengeful as demonstrated by his saving of Idaios. He also aided Orion after he had been blinded by Oenopion for raping his daughter when drunk. Hephaestus gave him his servant Cedalion to be his guide and Orion carried him on his shoulders until he guided to him Helios who cured his blindness, he then returned Cedalion to Hephaestus after that.
When Pelops was killed and served up as food by his father Tantalus and Demeter ate a shoulder, after the gods restored him it was Hephaestus who gave him a new shoulder, of ivory.

For the gods he built palaces and thrones of marble, gold and bronze. For himself he made golden maidens and automans to help him with his work. For Helios he made a golden boat. For Apollo and Artemis he made bows and arrows. For Athena and/or Zeus the Aegis. For Hermes his winged sandals and helmet. For Aphrodite her girdle.
He built things for mortals as well as the immortals, fashioning gold and silver dogs to guard King Alcinous' palace. He also built a palace for King Aeetes as thanks to his father Helios, who had rescued Hephaestus during the war with the Gigantes. He also made for him fountains with gold, silver, bronze and iron basins that gushed out water, milk, wine and oil, and bulls with bronze hooves that breathed fire. For King Minos he built the bronze giant Talos who ran round the island of Crete three times a day guarding it. He made a wine bowl for Menelaus and a sceptre for his brother Agamemnon.
For many heroes he made weapons. For Perseus his sword, for Achilles' armour, for Heracles' armour, a quiver and bronze rattles to chase off the Stymphalian Birds, for Eos' son Memnon armour,  for Diomedes a cuirass, and for Aphrodite's son Aeneas, armour.
He was helped in his forge by the Cyclopes, his automans and his sons/helpers the Cabeiri/Cabiri/Kabiri/Kabeiroi.

Aphrodite and Hephaestus from Hercules The Legendary Journeys




Though Aphrodite is his most infamous partner Hephaestus, despite being lame and ugly, did have other lovers, even another wife. Aglaea/Aglaia was the youngest Charite/Grace (daughters of Zeus and Eurynome) and was given as either an alternative wife for Hephaestus or his second wife after he divorced Aphrodite. She was a goddess of beauty, splendor, glory, magnificence and adornment and in an interesting twist was a handmaiden of Aphrodite along with her sisters, she was also sometimes a messenger for Aphrodite. With him she had four children- Eucleia/Eukleia (Good Repute and Glory), Plutarch strangely said she was a child of Heracles and Myrto (whose brother was Patroclus) who died a virgin and became a goddess; Eupheme (Acclaim, Praise, Good Omen), her opposite was Momus the god of satire and mockery, and sometimes she was said to have nursed the Muses and had a son Krotos/Crotus, a hunter who kept company with the Muses and invented applause, with Pan; Euthenia (Prosperity), her opposite was Penia/Penae, the personification of poverty and need and Philophrosyne (Welcome, Friendliness, Kindness). These sisters became members of the younger Charites and attendants of Aphrodite.
Hephaestus attempted to rape Athena when she came to him for weapons and he was overcome by beauty. She fled from him but his seamen spilt on her leg, she wiped it off and cast it down to earth, causing Gaia to be impregnated by it. From this union Erichthonius/Erichthonios a future king of Athens was born. He was put in a box by Athena and given to the Athenian king Cecrops' daughters- Herse, Pandrosus and Aglaurus to mind but Herse and Aglaurus opened the box and went mad from the sight killing themselves. They saw the infant either with two snakes or in a form half human and half serpent.
Along with Apollo, Hermes and Ares he tried to woo Persephone with a gift. He offered her a colourful necklace but either she or her mother Demeter turned the suitors away.
Aitna/Aetna was a nymph, a daughter of Ouranos and Gaia or Gaia and the Hecatonchire Briareus. She was arbitrator between Demeter and Hephaestus over Sicily and with Zeus or Hephaestus became mother to the Palici/Palaci/Palikoi, gods associated with geysers, and Thalia/Thaleia a nymph associated with plant life and shoots who was abducted by Zeus in the form of an eagle and is sometimes said to be the mother of the Palici rather than the sister, sometimes Adranus/Adranos is given as the father of the Palici with Thalia.
With Cabeiro/Kabeiro, a sea nymph, he had the Cabeiri/Cabiri/Kabeiroi/Kabiri and the Kabeirides, they were a mystery group of deities who varied in number and were chthonic (associated with the underworld). They varied in depiction, starting out as deities who protected sailors then becoming an old man and his son, Axiocersus and Cadmilus and a female duo, Axierus and Axiocersa. Strabo said their mother was a daughter of Proteus and Rhea but that they had no father. They became craftsmen who helped Hephaestus.
With Anticleia/Antikleia, a mortal woman, he had the bandit Periphetes/ Corynetes a bandit who was lame like his father and had one eye. He killed travellers with a bronze club and was killed by a boulder by Theseus.

Ardalos/Ardalus was a son who invented the flute and built a temple to the Muses.
Cerycon/Kerykon a bandit and king of Eleusis was given as another son though sometimes his father was Poseidon or Branchus. He challenged people to a wrestling match and killed the loser. Theseus killed him.
Olenos/Olenus was another son and a king who fathered Helice/Helike and Aex, nymphs who nursed Zeus when he was an infant. (Obviously this would mean he was around before Zeus and therefore could not be a son of Hephaestus who came after Zeus was grown).
Palaimonios/Palaemonius was a son and one of the Argonauts.
Philottus/Philottos was another son, possibly the same Philottus who was married to Niobe and killed himself when she brought down the wrath of Apollo and Artemis after insulting their mother Leto, leading to the death of all their sons and daughters.
Pylius/Pylios was another son, who cured Philoctetes/Philocthetes of his wound when a snake bit him when he trespassed on the shrine of the nymph Chryse. (In other sources it was Machaon or Podalirius, both sons of Asclepius, who healed Philoctetes.)
Hyginus gives him another son, Spinther, but says nothing about him.

He was depicted as a cripple, usually ugly and at work over his forge or anvil. Sometimes his feet were back to front and he had a stick to aid him. The donkey, crane and fennel plant were sacred to him. The fennel plant was used as a torch in ancient times as it burnt slowly. His symbols were the tongs, anvil and hammer.

His Roman counterpart was Vulcan/Vulcanus, initially a god of fire he was associated with it as both a useful and harmful element. People prayed to him to prevent harmful fires. He was linked to male fertility as well. He was the patron of trades linked to ovens. He was thought to originate from Velchanos, a Cretan god of fire who accompanied the Great Goddess (Cybele), and who was associated with vegetation and springtime.
He was also father to Cacus/Kakos a fire breathing giant who ate humans and nailed their heads to his door who was killed by Hercules after he stole some of the cattle that Hercules had stolen from Geryon for his Tenth Labour. He was given a sister Caca, who some say betrayed him to Hercules. Another son was Caeculus/Kaikalos, a king whose mother was impregnated by a stray spark from her hearth. She exposed her son and he was found by a fire by a group of girls who brought him to his real uncles, the Depidii. He grew up with shepherds before founding the city Praeneste. He could conjure and extinguish fire and was unharmed by it though his eyes were damaged by smoke, making them smaller than normal. He fought against Aphrodite's son Aeneas with Turnus. A third son was another Roman king, Servius Tullius. His mother was Ocrisia, a noblewoman who became slave to Tanaquil, wife of king Tarquinius but was still treated with respect. She either became wife to a friend of Tarquinius or a Vestal Virgin. She was impregnated by a phallus that appeared within the flames she was tending.

The Other Olympians- Boys- Ares

Ares/Mars- the god of war and violence. He was the son of Hera and Zeus, brother to Hebe, the goddess of youth, and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth. Sometimes Eris the goddess of strife is his sister, though other times she is a daughter of Nyx not Zeus and Hera. Enyo a goddess of war is sometimes given as another sister.

He was the god of the dangerous, physical more bloody aspects of war whilst his sister and rival Athena was the goddess of the military aspect and generalship. Despite his status as a god of war he suffered loss and humiliation more often than not. He was on the side of the Trojans when they lost the Trojan War and was wounded during the war by Athena and by Diomede.

In the Illiad he was captured by the giants Otus and Ephialtes and held in a bronze urn for thirteen months until their stepmother Eriboea betrayed them and Hermes rescued him. It was then Artemis who tricked them into killing one another.

Hesiod says that Heracles beat him too, knocking him down three times and wounding him in his thigh.
He also failed to bring Hephaestus back when he tricked Hera into sitting on a charmed throne he had built, causing her to be permanently stuck to it. Ares tried to force Hephaestus back to free her but was driven away by flaming torches. In the end Dionysus brought him back drunk and possibly bribed him with Aphrodite as a bride, which angered both she and Ares leading to them being forced to have an affair.
Apollo beat him at boxing during the Olympic games.

Ares could be brave however, he killed Echidna's giant son Ekhidnades and killed Mimas during the Gigantes war. When Sisyphus came for Thanatos and Sisyphus tricked the death god into chaining himself up it was Ares who rescued him. Ares was tired of there being no death on the battlefield.

He showed favour to several people usually in war and especially family members. He gave Aeëtes, the son of Helios and king of Colchis, the sleepless dragon Drakon to guard the Golden Fleece, which hung in a grove sacred to Ares. He gave his son Diomedes, king of Thrace, four man-eating horses, which Diomedes fed strangers to. Heracles fed Diomedes to them and then captured the mares for his Eighth Labour.
The Amazons were his daughters, including their queen Hippolyte/Hippolyta who he gifted his belt/girdle. Heracles had to take this for his Ninth Labour, Hippolyte gave him to him willingly but Hera disguised herself as an Amazon and told the others that Heracles was kidnapping her queen so they attacked him and his men. Heracles killed Hippolyte in the struggle, alternatively they attacked because Heracles' companion Theseus kidnapped the Amazon Antiope for a wife or Hippolyte herself, which case he married her.
He gave his son-in-law Kadmus/Cadmus/Kadmos a spear at his wedding to his daughter Harmonia.
He supported his son Kyknos/Cycnus who killed his guests when he challenged Heracles to single combat.When Cycnus was killed by Heracles Ares tried to avenge him but was stopped by Zeus throwing a lightning bolt between them.
Another Kyknos/Cycnus, in the Shield of Heracles, was a son of Ares who was riding with Ares when they met Heracles and Iolaus. Apollo urged Heracles to fight Cycnus and Athena appeared telling Heracles that Zeus permitted him to kill Cycnus so long as he took no spoils from the fight. Heracles killed Cycnus and Ares attacked him but Athena deflected the blow. Heracles then wounded Ares in the thigh. Ares was then rescued by his sons Phobos and Deimos.
Oenomaus/Oinomaos/Oenamaus was another son of Ares and a king of Pisa. Ares gave him armour, weapons and a chariot. He raced against suitors for his daughters hand in this chariot and when they lost he killed them. He met his comeuppance when Pelops came for his daughter's hand, he asked his lover Poseidon to help and Poseidon gave him a chariot with winged horses. Hippodamia, who loved Pelops, got Oenomaus' charioteer Myrtilus to replace the linchpins in the chariot. The chariot broke and Oenomaus died cursing Myrtilus who was killed by Pelops.
Polyphonte was Ares' granddaughter, she forsook Aphrodite for Artemis becoming a chaste huntress. In outrage Aphrodite made her fall in love with a bear, the result was Artemis turning her and the wilderness on her and two half-bear sons- Orius and Agrius. The sons were cannibals who scorned the gods resulting in Zeus sending Hermes to punish them however he chose. Hermes was going to dismember them but Ares intervened and turned them into an eagle owl and a vulture and their mother into a small owl.

Ares showed his wrath to plenty of people too including his son-in-law Kadmus/Cadmus/Kadmos. Kadmus slayed a dragon, Drakon, sacred to Ares that guarded a spring sacred to him. The dragon killed Kadmus' companions. After killing it Kadmus sowed its teeth on Athena's instructions and from the teeth sprang warriors. Ares made Kadmus serve him for eight years as punishment. Kadmus cursed the fact that a dragon was so highly valued and that he should wish for that life himself, as a result he and Harmonia were turned into snakes by the gods, probably Ares himself.
Alcippe was a daughter of Ares raped by Halirrhothius/Halirrhothios, a son of Poseidon. Ares murdered him and had to stand trial for it. He was acquitted.
He was sometimes said to have killed Adonis, Aphrodite's lover, in the form of a boar out of jealousy. Occassionally Artemis is said to have killed him either jealous of his hunting skills or in revenge for the death of her follower Hippolytus.

He, Apollo and Hermes all tried unsuccessfully to woo Persephone. Ares offered her his spear and cuirass (armour which protects the torso) according to Panopolis Nonnus in the Dionysiaca.
He took many lovers, his most infamous being the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite. In one infamous incident her husband Hephaestus trapped the two in bed together in an invisible net after Helios reported their infedelity. With Ares he was sometimes the parent of Eros, a god of love, and Anteros, Deimos, Phobos and Harmonia. Anteros the god of unrequited love, Deimos the god of terror and twin of Phobos, the god of fear, and Harmonia the goddess of harmony and concord.
He had an affair with Eos, which led to Aphrodite cursing her with an insatiable appetite.
Enyo, the goddess of war and his female counterpart had Enyalius/Enyalio a minor war god sometimes equated with Ares himself.
Harmonia was a nymph with whom he had the Amazons.
Cyrene/Kyrene a nymph bore him Diomedes and possibly Kyknos/Cyncus.
Sterope/Asterope, another nymph or Pleiad, bore him Oinomaos and possibly Euenos.
Tanagra was a Naiad Ares and Hermes competed for in a boxing match, which Hermes won.
Tereine was a daughter of the river god Strymon, son of Okeanos, with Ares she had a daughter, Thrassa.
With Triteia, daughter of Triton, he had a son, Melanippus.
Aerope was a princess of Arcadia with whom Ares had a son, Aeropus. She died in childbirth but Ares had her corpse continue to supply milk for their son.
With princess Aglaulus, daughter of the Athenian king Cecrops, he had Alcippe/Alkippe, a daughter Poseidon's son raped. Aglaulus also had a son with Hermes, Ceryx/Keryx. With her sisters Herse and Pandrosus she was charged by Athena to guard a box and to never open it. Aglaulus and Herse opened and saw an infant with snakes or an infant half-human and half-snake, Erichthonius, they went insane and killed themselves. In another version, an oracle said a war Athens was at would end if someone sacrificed themselves so Aglaulus killed herself.
Althaea/Althaia, daughter of King Thestius and wife of King Oeneus of Calydon with Ares she had a son, Meleager. She also had Deianeira with Dionysus.
With Astyoche/Astyocheia/Astyokche, a granddaughter of Zeus, he had twins- Askalaphos/Ascakalaphus and Ialmenos/Ialmenus. They were Argonauts, suitors of Helen and warriors in the Trojan War, during which Ascalaphus perished. Ialmenus founded a colony in Colchis.
Parthenopeus is sometimes given as a son of Ares with Atalanta the huntress, other times he is her son with Meleager or Hippomenes. He was exposed by his mother and rescued by a shepherd and possibly raised with Heracles' son Telephus. He died attacking Thebes.
Demonice/Demonike/Demodice/Demodoce was a princess who gave Ares four sons-  Evenus, Molus, Pylus, and Thestius.
With Dotis he had Phlegyas, a son who became king of the Lapiths and father of Ixion who killed his father-in-law Deioneus when he stole Ixion's horses when Ixion failed to pay him for his daughter Dia. Zeus invited him to dine with the gods and he lusted after Hera, Zeus tricked him sleeping with the cloud form of Hera, Nephele, as a result Centauros the first centaur was created and Ixion was punished by being bound to a fiery wheel in Tartarus. Phlegyas was also the father of Coronis who was a lover of Apollo but betrayed him for Ischys, Apollo killed her and in anger Phlegyas torched his temple and Apollo killed him.
Otrere/Otrera was an Amazonian queen who with Ares had the Amazons Hippolyta, Antiope, Melanippe and Penthesilea.
With the princess Phylonome he had the twins Lykastos/Lycastus and Parrhasios/Parrhasius. He seduced her in the form of a shepherd and she exposed her twins, fearful that her father would find them. A she-wolf suckled them and a shepherd raised them, and they became kings of Arcadia. The story is similar to that of Romulus and Remus, the Roman twin sons of Mars.
Protogeneia was a princess with whom Ares had the son Oxylus/Oxylos.
With Pyrene/Pelopia he had Cycnus, she may have been just another name for Cyrene/Kyrene.
With Calliope/Callirrhoe he had three sons- Biston, Odomas and Edonus.
He also had Lycus/Lykos, a Libyan king who sacrificed strangers to his father. His daughter Callirrhoe who rescued Diomedes from being sacrificed to her father. Diomedes sailed off without thanks and she killed herself.
Dryas was another son, part of the Calydonian Boar Hunt and fought with the Lapiths against the centaurs. His brother Tereus, thinking Dryas wanted to kill his son, killed him.
Tereus was a Thracian king married to Procne. He desired Procne's sister Philomela, he raped her, cut her tongue out and held her captive. She wove the story of her rape into a tapestry and sent it to Procne in secret. Procne killed their son Itys in revenge and fed him to Tereus. Tereus tried to kill the sisters but the gods turned all three into birds, Tereus became a hoopoe, Procne a swallow and Philomela a nightingale.
Sithon was possibly another son of Ares and Achiroe, a naiad, (who may have actually been Sithon's wife), or Poseidon and Ossa. He promised his daughter Pallene's hand to whoever could beat him in combat. He beat all suitors until he became old then he had the suitors fight each other. She fell in love with Cleitus and her tutor bribed his rival Dryas' charioteer to loosen the wheels of the chariot. As a result Dryas lost. Sithon found out what happened and planned to kill Pallene but Aphrodite either appeared in front of the inhabitants or sent a heavy shower causing him to change his mind. Alternatively Dionysus seduced her and killed Sithon.

He was given a list of attendants- Achlys, the personification of misery and sadness, possibly a daughter of Nyx; Androktasiai, personifications of manslaughter and daughters of Eris; Alala, the personification of war-cry daughter of the daemon (spirit) of war Polemos, Enyo's brother; Eris; Enyo; Hebe; Homados, the personification of battle noise; the Hysminai, personifications of battle; Kydoimos/ Cydoemus, personification of confusion; Keres, death spirits and daughters of Nyx; Machai/Mache/Makche, daughters of Eris and daemons of battle and combat; Palioxis, personification of backrush in battle; and Proioxis, the personification of onrush in battle.

He was described in the Illiad as being hated by Zeus and was usually seen as a weak, petty, angry god who was driven by rage. His symbols included the shield, spear and his animals were the boar, dog and serpent.

His Roman counterpart was Mars, the god of war and agriculture. Unlike Ares, Mars was held in high regard, second only to Jupiter. He was part of the Archaic Triad with Jupiter and Quirinus (a Roman god of state and possibly war). Mars was not a force of brutal warfare but rather war to bring about peace. He was a son of just Juno (according to Ovid) as Hephaestus was sometimes just a son of Hera, brought about when Jupiter gave birth to Minerva. Juno asked the goddess Flora for help and Flora, after testing a magical flower on a cow, used on Juno thus impregnating her.

He was given Nerio as a wife. She was a goddess of war and the personification of valor and was sometimes linked to Bellona and Minerva. Bellona was Enyo's Roman counterpart and as Enyo was sometimes given as a daughter of Zeus and Hera so Bellona was sometimes said to be a daughter of Jupiter and Juno.

His role as a war god and agriculture god were linked in that he was said to drive off forces hostile to crops. Thus unlike Ares he was a defender and ironically more like Athena.

His most famous children were Romulus and Remus, brothers who founded Rome. They were born after Mars' affair with Rhea/Rea Silvia a princess of Alba Longa forced to become a Vestal Virgin by her uncle Amulius after he seized the throne from her father Numitor and killed her brother. Mars seduced her in the forest and once she had the twins her uncle imprisoned her and ordered a servant to kill the babes. The servant cast them into a river and they were found and suckled by the she-wolf Lupa before being rescued by the shepherd Faustulus who raised them with his wife Acca Larentia. Sometimes Larentia and the she-wolf are said to be one, a prostitue called lupa by the shepherds.
Romulus and Remus overthrew their uncle and reinstated their grandfather and presumably freed their mother. Ovid says the river Anio took Rhea in whilst other sources imply she became or was a minor deity of the forest.
Romulus and Remus argued over where to found Rome and Remus insulted Romulus' walls leading to Romulus murdering him.

Mars' sacred animals were the woodpecker and the wolf. His spear was considered as symbolic and sacred as Jupiter's lightning bolt and Poseidon's trident.

The Other Olympians- Boys- Apollo

Apollo from Hercules the Legendary Journeys/Young Hercules

Apollo/Apollon/Phoebus Apollo- god of music, poetry, healing, prophecy and disease and the sun. He gradually took over the role as sun god from Helios just as his twin sister Artemis took over the role as moon goddess from Selene.

The son of Zeus and the titaness Leto, and twin to Artemis. His mother had to flee from the wrath of Hera, seeking a land that would have her, eventually she found sanctuary on the island of Delos, because it moved it was technically not land. Artemis was born first and acted as a midwife for her brother's birth.

Shortly after his birth he received a bow and arrows from Hephaestus and with them he killed the dragon/serpent Pytho/Python, which had pursued his mother when she was pregnant. He later had to be purified for this as Python was a child of Gaia and was appointed by Gaia to guard the oracle. The dragon guarded the oracle of Delphi, after its death Apollo lay claim to the shrine and the oracle was renamed the Pythian. Hera then sent the giant Tityos/Tityus to assault and possibly kill Leto. Apollo fought the giant with his sister and either they killed him or Zeus intervened and sent him to Tartarus. In Tartarus the giant was pegged to the ground and suffered two vultures eating on a liver that regenerated.

He also helped to avenge a slight to his mother with his sister Artemis. Queen Niobe said she was greater than Artemis because she had fourteen children whilst Leto only had two. In anger, Artemis killed all the girls and Apollo killed all the boys, though some sources say one boy and one girl were spared. Niobe's husband killed himself in grief and Niobe turned to stone.

He also slayed Delphyne, a half-maiden half-snake creature, sometimes said to be another name for Python, in another story she guarded the sinews of Zeus after Typhon took them. Hermes stole the sinews back and Apollo killed Delphyne.

During the Trojan War he fought on the side of the Trojans. He sent a plague to the Greeks' camp because Agamemnon had taken the daughter of his priest Chryses, she was returned and the plague ended. He also rescued Aphrodite's son Aeneas when Aphrodite failed to save him from Diomedes as he injured her. He also guided Paris' arrow to striking Achilles and killing him. This was possibly in revenge for the death of Troilus/Troilos/Troylus who was a Trojan prince sometimes said to be the son of Apollo and Hecuba.

His son Asclepius was a great healer but he went too far and raised the dead, some say he raised Theseus' son Hippolytus on behalf of Artemis. As a result of this Hades complained and Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt. In outrage Apollo killed the Cyclopes who made the thunderbolts and Apollo was sentenced to a year of labour, he was possibly spared worse because of his mother's interference. He served Admetus, king of Pherae, as a shepherd and was treated well by him. In thanks for his good treatment, Apollo helped him win the princess Alcestis for a bride. Her father, Pelias, promised her to the man who could yoke a bear/boar and a lion to a chariot. Admetus forgot to thank Artemis on his wedding and was damned by the goddess. Apollo intervened again by getting the Moirae drunk and goading them into bargaining that if someone else was willing to die for Admetus then they would allow it. Alcestis offered her life and was saved by Heracles who fought Thanatos for her.

During his exile Apollo helped Poseidon, who was exiled for rebelling with Athena and Hera against Zeus, to build the walls of Troy for King Laomedon. He promised to reward them but didn't, they got their revenge later, Poseidon sent a sea monster and Apollo a plague.

The satyr Marsyas took up flute playing after finding the instrument when Athena cast it down after inventing it because it made her look ugly when she played. He challenged Apollo who played his lute and won when they had to play upside down. In punishment, for the satyr's hubris, Apollo tied the satyr to a tree and had him flayed alive. Apollo received his lute from his half-brother Hermes after Hermes' invented it and Apollo took it in exchange for the cattle the newborn stole off him.

Pan also challenged Apollo on his panpies. The mountain god Tmolus, a son of Ares, was asked to judge. He was in favour of Apollo but King Midas, a follower of Pan, argued about the outcome and outraged, Apollo gave him the ears of a donkey.

Cinyras was a king of Cyprus who promised fifty ships to Agamemnon but only sent one. Apollo beat him in a lyre playing contest and killed him. Sometimes he is considered a son of Apollo who created art and musical instruments. He fathered Adonis with his daughter Myrrha.

He had made lovers both male and female. Daphne is the most infamous, she was a nymph and the daughter of river god Peneus. Ovid says Eros struck Apollo with a gold arrow making him love Daphne when he mocked Eros for playing with a weapon suited for a man, he then struck Daphne with a lead arrow filling her heart with hate for the god. Apollo chased her and she begged her father for help, he turned her into a laurel tree and Apollo made the laurel his sacred plant after. Apollo also brought about a rival suitor's death. Leucippus/Leukippos disguised himself as a nymph to get close to Daphne but Apollo betrayed his true gender and the nymphs killed him.

He fell for Leucothoe/Leucothea/Leukothoe, a princess who was the daughter of Orchamus and sister of Clytia/Klytie. Apollo disguised himself as her mother to enter her chambers but Clytia, jealous, betrayed them and Orchamus had Leucothoe buried alive. Clytia continued to pine for Apollo, always staring up at the sun but he ignored her and she became a heliotrope or a sunflower, flowers that follow the sun. Sometimes the myth is attributed to Helios not Apollo and the princess is Persian.

Marpessa, a granddaughter of Ares and a princess, who was kidnapped by Idas, who may have done this because they loved each other but their father refused the marriage. He was an Argonaut and possibly a son of Poseidon and kidnapped her with the use of Poseidon's chariot. Her father pursued them and died. Apollo also desired her and chased her, forcing Zeus to intervene and make her choose. Marpessa chose Idas believing that when she grew old Apollo would no longer desire her.

He chased the nymph Castalia who dove into a spring at Delphi to escape him and became the spring. Water from the spring was used to cleanse the temple and she could inspire poetry in those who drank from her or listened to her.

With Cyrene/Kyrene who was either a nymph and the daughter of the river god Peneus or the daughter of King Hypseus, king of the Lapiths and a son of Peneus. She was a huntress kidnapped by Apollo who fell in love with her when he witnessed her fighting a lion. She bore him two sons, demigod Aristaeus/Aristaios who invented beekeeping and Idmon, a seer and an Argonaut who was killed by a boar. Idmon is sometimes given different parents.

He fell in love with doomed Trojan princess Kassandra/Cassandra and promised her the gift of prophecy. When she spurned him he cursed her with prophesying the truth but never being believed.

Coronis/Koronis was a daughter of Phlegyas, king of the Lapiths who was a lover of Apollo. She betrayed him with Ischys and was discovered by a crow who reported the news to Apollo. In rage, Apollo turned the crow to black and asked Artemis to avenge him. Artemis killed her. In regret, when was on the pyre, Apollo had Hermes rescue their unborn child (or did it himself), the healer Asclepius, which Hermes did. Hermes then gave him to the centaur Chiron to raise.  Phlegyas burned the temple of Apollo in anger and Apollo killed him. In a different version Coronis was a princess who Poseidon tried to rape, Athena turned her into a crow to save her. It was also Athena who turned a crow from white to black, for telling her that Kekrops' daughters had disobeyed her.

Euripides says he fathered Ion with the princess Creusa, though Apollodorus gives her husband Xuthus as the father. Her sister Chthonia was sacrificed by their father Erechtheus who was told he would win the battle against Eleusis, headed by Poseidon's son Eumolpos/Eumoplus. He did this and her sisters Protogeneia and Pandora killed themselves as they had promised they would if one of them died. It was their sister Orithyia who was the grandmother of Eumolpos, having his mother Chione/Khione with Boreas after he abducted her. Creusa's other sister Procris was the wife of Cephalus who was accidentally killed by him when she thought he was having an affair, spied on him and was killed by a spear she had gifted him when he thought she was a wild animal.
Following the tragedy of her sisters, Creusa was seduced by Apollo before she married and fearing punishment, she exposed the baby. Xuthus met him in a temple of Apollo and was told by a prophecy that Ion was his, he took him in and Creusa suspected he was a result of an affair Xuthus had and tried to poison him. Ion discovered this and was about to kill her but was stopped when she realised he was her son.

Acantha was a nymph Apollo tried to rape, she fought him back, clawing at his face and he turned her into an acanthus plant.

Thalia, the Muse of comedy and idyllic poetry (short, rustic poetry) was said in the Biblioteca to be the mother of the Corybantes/Korybantes/Kurbantes/Corybants with Apollo. These were male armed dancers who worshipped the goddess Cybele with drumming and dancing. Although they were said to have guarded the infant Zeus and made noise to drown out his cries so that Cronus would not hear them, making it unlikely that they were the children of Apollo. They were also present for Dionysus infanthood. Ovid gives Ouranos and Gaia as their parents.

Acacallis was a daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae. With Apollo she had either Cydon and/or Naxos, or Miletus, or/and Amphithemis and Garamas, or Oaxes. Sometimes Hermes is given as Cydon's father. Miletus she exposed but Apollo had him suckled by she-wolves and taken in by shepherds. When he grew up Minos desired him and he fled to escape him. Amphithemis and Garamas were born in Libya where Acacallis was banished to by Minos.

Another Acacallis/Akakallis is a nymph or a daughter of the demigod Carmanor/Karmanor and Demeter. Apollo met her when he came to Carmanor to be purified for killing Python, with him she had the twins Phylacides and Phylander.

Aethusa/Aithousa was a nymph, a daughter of Poseidon and Alcyone, a Pleiade. With her Apollo had a son, Eleuther, who was an excellent singer and won a victory at the Pythian Games.

Amphissa was a Cretan princess, he seduced her in the disguise of a shepherd and with her had a son, Agreus. With the princess Euboea, sister to Amphissa, he had a son, Agreus.

Arsinoe was a princess who bore Apollo a daughter, Eriopis, and was sometimes given as the mother of Asclepius. Her sisters  Phoebe and Hilaeira were priestesses of Athena and Artemis, and betrothed to Idas (the same who abducted Marpessa and was chosen by her over Apollo) and Lynceus. Castor and Pollux abducted and wed them and when Idas and Lynceus came for them they were slain but killed Castor too.

Bolina/Boline was a woman who fled from Apollo's advances and lept into the sea to avoid him. He turned her into an immortal nymph.

Calliope/Kalliope was the Muse of epic poetry and considered the wisest of the Muses. With Apollo or the Thracian king Oeagrus she had the infamous poet Orpheus and the muscian Linus who was killed by his pupil Heracles with his own lyre. Ialemus is also given as their son.

Psamathe was a princess, daughter of the king of Argos, Crotopus, who Apollo impregnated. She exposed their son Linus, fearing her father's wrath, and he was killed by sheepdogs, alternatively she gave him to shepherds and he was killed by sheepdogs as an adult. Her father found out and refusing to believe she'd had intercourse with a god, he killed her. Apollo sent Poine/Poene (punishment/vegeance) who snatched children from their mothers unti Coroebus killed her. Apollo them inflicted Argos with a plague, Coroebus went to Delphi asking to be punished himself to save the city, the Pythia told him not to return and to wander with a tripod, settling where he dropped it. He founded Tripodiscoi.

With Chione/Khione, daughter of Daedalion she had the muscian Philammon, Hermes raped her the same night impregnating her with the thief Autolycus, Autolycus and Philammon were twins. She compared herself to Artemis and was killed for her hubris. Her father threw himself off a cliff and Apollo turned him into a hawk.

Delphus/Delphos was a son of Apollo's by one of three women- Celaeno, Apollo's great-granddaughter, her grandfather was his son Lycorus; Thyia, a priestess sacrificed to Dionysus who was a naiad (fresh water nymph) or a daughter of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who had to repopulate the world after the deluge; or Melaina one of the Corycian nymphs, naiads of the Corycian Cave, daughters of river god Pleistos or Kephisos, they were also known as the Thriae/Thriai.

With another Corycian nymph, Corycia, Apollo had Lycorus/Lycoreus.

With the princess Khrysorthe/Chrysorthe she had Koronos/Coronus, a king of the city Sicyon.

With Khrysothemis/Chrysothemis, who was married to Staphylus, a son of Dionysus, she had a daughter, Parthenos. Sometimes Staphylus is given has her father. With her sister Hemithea/Molpadia she was charged with guarding her father's wine, they fell asleep and a pig broke the jar. In fear of their father they threw themselves of a cliff, Apollo carried them off because he loved their third sister Rhoeo, and they became local goddesses in the cities he left them in.

Rhoeo had a son, Anius, with Apollo. Disbelieving she was pregnant by a god, her father put her in a chest and cast her out to sea. They arrived in Delos and Anius was born and grew up to become a priest of Apollo. His daughters, the Oenotropae were given talents by Dionysus and were eventually turned into doves by him.

With Dia he had a son, Dryops. He tricked Dryope, a princess or a nymph, when she was playing with the hamadryads (dryads who were believed to be trees whilst ordinary dryads were simply spirits of trees). He chased her then turned himself into a tortoise that they made a pet of, when he was on Dryope's lap he turned into a snake, wrapped himself around her and then raped her. The nymphs abandoned her and she had a son, Amphissus. In another version of the tale she was tending sheep when Apollo spied her and took the form of a turtle, when she fell asleep he raped her and when she awoke she found herself in the arms of a god. Amphissus founded Aphissa and built a temple to his father here. Dryope became a priestess here and her nymphs returned to talk to her. Apollo returned to her in serpent form while she was by a spring, wrapped around her and turned her into a poplar tree. Ovid says she was turned into a poplar when she was suckling her baby and saw some flowers on a lotus tree, which belonged to the nymph Lotis, she plucked them for her infant and the tree bled on her. She tried to flee but found her feet rooted to the ground, she turned into a black poplar and her son was rescued by her husband, Andraemon. Sometimes she was given as the mother of Pan, with Hermes.

Evadne was a princess born of Poseidon and the nymph Pitane who was raised by the king of Arcadia, Aepytus. Apollo impregnated her and Aepytus was furious causing her to go to the wilderness to give birth. She abandoned the child there. Five days later Aepytus learned from the Pythia that the child was the son of Apollo and destined to be a prophet. He asked for the child and Evadne retrieved him finding that he had been nurtured by the honey of bees given to him by snakes amongst violets. She called him Iamus and he founded the Iamidai/Iamidae, a family of seers at Olympia.

He consorted with the Amazon Gryne. With Hyrie/Thyrie he had a son, Cycnus/Kyknos. He was an arrogant hunter who spurned all those who would love him. Phylius was the only one who stayed with him. Cycnus challenged him to kill a lion without weapons, he did so by vomiting up wine and food, which the lion devoured, then strangled the beast with his clothes while it was intoxicated. Next he had to capture two giant man-eating vultures without weapons, he did this by smearing himself with a dead hare's blood, playing dead and catching the vultures by the feet when they came for him. Finally, Cycnus demanded he bring a bull to the altar of Zeus with his bare hands. He prayed to Heracles and found two bulls fighting over a heifer and waited until they had worn each other down and they seized one by the horns. After this Heracles made it so that Phylius would no longer obey Cycnus. Cycnus committed by drowning, his mother followed him and Apollo changed them both to swans. Ovid had Phylius refuse the final task and Cycnus throw himself off a cliff and turn into a swan whilst his mother, unaware of his fate, dissolved into tears.

Manto was a daughter of the prophet Tiresias and a war prize sent to Delphi, she was sent by Apollo to Colophon to find an oracle devoted to him. With him or her husband Rhacius she had a son, Mopsus/Mopsos, a seer.

Apollo from Clash of the Titans (remake)

With the nymph Othreis he had a son, Phager, a shepherd who was told by a prophecy to take care of a relation nurtured by bees. He found this relative, a son of Zeus, Meliteus, adopted and raised him. With Parthenope he had Lycomedes. With Phthia he had Laodocus/Leodocus, Dorus and Polypoetes, all of whom were killed by Aetolus, a son of Endymion (the lover of Selene) and the nymph Iphianassa, when he was colonising Aetolia.

With Apollo or King Cycnus (a son of Poseidon) Proclia/Proclea a princess and daughter of Laomedon, king of Troy, had a son, Tenes. He was accused of rape by his stepmother Philonome, who used her flutist Eumolpus as her witness, and put in a chest at sea with his sister Hemithea by Cycnus. The island the siblings arrived on, Leucophrye, made Tenes their king and the island was renamed Tenedos. Cycnus learned the truth, had Eumolpus executed and Philonome buried alive and went to the island for forgiveness. Tene spurned him and cut the moorings of the ship. Tenes was slain during the Trojan War by Achilles, which along with the death of Troilus, gave Apollo a reason to hate Achilles. Achilles then tried to rape Hemithea, she fled from him and was swallowed by the earth.

Sinope was a daughter of the river god Asopus/Asopos who was either abducted by Apollo and gave him a son, Syrus, whom the Syrians are named after, or was abducted by Zeus who offered her, her dearest wish prompting her to request virgnity, she made the same request of Apollo and the river god Hayls.

Stilbe was a nymph, the daughter of river god Peneus and sister of Daphne and aunt to Cyrene/Kyrene. With Apollo she had twins Centaurus/Centauros, the first of the centaurs, and Lapithus, the first of the Lapiths, and a third son, Aineus. Centaurus was usually given as a son of Ixion and Nephele (the cloud form of Hera).

With the nymph Syllis or Hyllis, daughter of Iole and Hyllus (son of Heracles) he had a son, Zeuxippus. With Thero he had Chaeron.

Trophonius was a son who built his temple at Delphi with his brother Agamedes. They laboured for six days, promised by the oracle that they would have their greatest wish on the seventh day. On the seventh day they died. Pausanias says they built a treasure chamber for King Hyrieus and stole his fortune using the secret entrance. Hyrieus laid a trap and Agamedes was caught, Trophonius cut off his head so the body could not be identified and then fled.

Melaneus was a son of Apollo who was a famous archer who fathered the famous archer Eurytus who taught Heracles and challenged Apollo and was slain for his hubris. His bow passed to Odysseus. Alternatively he promised his daughter Iole to whoever could beat him in an archery contest, Heracles won but fearing his daughter would be killed, Eurytus did not honour the promise. Heracles killed him and his sons and took Iole as a concubine.

Oncius was a son of Apollo who owned a herd of horses in which Demeter hid to avoid Poseidon. Demeter and Poseidon's son, the talking horse Arion/Areion was kept by Oncius and later given to Heracles. Phemonoe was a poetess, a daughter of Apollo and the first Pythia. He also fathered three Muses (not any of the initial nine)- Cephisso, Apollonis and Borysthenis. Branchus was a son or lover of Apollo. His mother, when she was pregnant, had a vision of being pierced with a beam of light. He was a prophet.

His most famous male lover was Hyacinth/Hyacinthus a Spartan prince. They were practising discus together when Apollo's discus was blown off course by Zephyrus who loved Hyacinth and courted him but was spurned for Apollo. The discus struck and killed the man. Apollo created the flower Hyacinth in his honour.

He loved Cyparissus/Kyparissos and gifted him with a tame stag which he accidentally killed with a javelin. He asked Apollo to let his tears fall forever and was turned into a cypress tree.

Hymen, the god of marriage ceremonies and son of Dionysus and Aphrodite, or Apollo and a Muse, was loved by Apollo. Iapis/Iapyx was loved by Apollo who wanted to grant him the gift of prophecy but he asked for healing so he could prolong the life of his father. He healed Aeneas during the Trojan War.

He and Poseidon both wooed Hestia but she turned them down and asked Zeus to let her remain a virgin.

He and Zeus favoured Amphiaraus/Amphiaraos a king of Argos and a seer. His wife Eriphyle was bribed with Harmonia's necklace by Polynices to persuade Amphiaraus to fight in the Seven Against Thebes. He agreed, knowing he would die, and asked his sons to kill their mother should he die. He swallowed in the earth when it opened up when Zeus threw a thunderbolt at it during the battle. His son Alcmaeon killed Eriphyle and was pursued by the Erinyes and later killed.

Through his oracle he told Orestes to kill his mother Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus to avenge Agamemnon. He did and the Erinyes followed him. Apollo came to Orestes defence and the matter was brought before Athena who sided with Apollo.

He was considered the leader of the Muses being a god of music and poetry. His symbols were the kithara (a type of lyre), the bow and arrows, and the plectrum. The laurel and palm tree were sacred to him as were cicadas, deer, wolves, snakes, crows, and hawks. He was shown as a beardless, handsome, toned youth, athletic and usually naked with curly hair and a laurel wreath often in his hair. He was called Phoebus Apollo by the Romans, Phoebus meaning radiant or beaming. He shared many lovers with his half-brother Hermes and had failure with love more than success. Most of his dalliances were with nymphs. Amongst the Greeks he was more greatly associated with prophecy, healing, music and the arts than the sun, it was only around the 3rd century that he displaced Helios as the sun god.

He had no Roman equivelant. As a sun god though he and Helios were both linked to the Roman god Sol. Initially thought of as two gods- Sol Indiges, who disappeared from myth quickly, and Sol Invictus (Sol Invincible). The latter was linked to the Syrian sun god Elagabalus/Heliogabalus.