Bulfinch's Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

  Calydon, home of Meleager,

  Calypso, queen of Island of Ogyia, where Ulysses was wrecked and held seven years,

  Camber, son of Brutus, governor of West Albion (Wales),

  Camelot, legendary place in England where Arthur's court and palace were located,

  Camenae, prophetic nymphs, belonging to the religion of ancient

  Italy,

  Camilla, Volscian maiden, huntress and Amazonian warrior, favorite of Diana,

  Camlan, battle of, where Arthur was mortally wounded,

  Canterbury, English city,

  Capaneus, husband of Evadne, slain by Jupiter for disobedience,

  Capet, Hugh, King of France (987-996 AD),

  Caradoc Briefbras, Sir, great nephew of King Arthur,

  Carahue, King of Mauretania,

  Carthage, African city, home of Dido

  Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and twin sister of Helenus, a prophetess, who foretold the coming of the Greeks but was not believed,

  Cassibellaunus, British chieftain, fought but not conquered by

  Caesar,

  Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda,

  Castalia, fountain of Parnassus, giving inspiration to Oracular priestess named Pythia,

  Castalian Cave, oracle of Apollo,

  Castes (India),

  Castor and Pollux—the Dioscuri, sons of Jupiter and Leda,—

  Castor a horseman, Pollux a boxer (SEE Gemini),

  Caucasus, Mount

  Cavall, Arthur's favorite dog,

  Cayster, ancient river,

  Cebriones, Hector's charioteer,

  Cecrops, first king of Athens,

  Celestials, gods of classic mythology,

  Celeus, shepherd who sheltered Ceres, seeking Proserpine, and whose infant son Triptolemus was in gratitude made great by Ceres,

  Cellini, Benvenuto, famous Italian sculptor and artificer in metals,

  Celtic nations, ancient Gauls and Britons, modern Bretons, Welsh,

  Irish and Gaelic Scotch,

  Centaurs, originally an ancient race, inhabiting Mount Pelion in Thessaly, in later accounts represented as half horses and half men, and said to have been the offspring of Ixion and a cloud,

  Cephalus, husband of beautiful but jealous Procris,

  Cephe us, King of Ethiopians, father of Andromeda,

  Cephisus, a Grecian stream,

  Cerberus, three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades, called a son of Typhaon and Echidna

  CERES (See Demeter)

  CESTUS, the girdle of Venus

  CEYX, King of Thessaly (See Halcyone)

  CHAOS, original Confusion, personified by Greeks as most ancient of the gods

  CHARLEMAGNE, king of the Franks and emperor of the Romans

  CHARLES MARTEL', king of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne, called Martel (the Hammer) from his defeat of the Saracens at Tours

  CHARLOT, son of Charlemagne

  CHARON, son of Erebos, conveyed in his boat the shades of the dead across the rivers of the lower world

  CHARYB'DIS, whirlpool near the coast of Sicily, See Scylla

  CHIMAERA, a fire breathing monster, the fore part of whose body was that of a lion, the hind part that of a dragon, and the middle that of a goat, slain by Bellerophon

  CHINA, Lamas (priests) of

  CHOS, island in the Grecian archipelago

  CHIRON, wisest of all the Centaurs, son of Cronos (Saturn) and

  Philyra, lived on Mount Pelion, instructor of Grecian heroes

  CHRYSEIS, Trojan maid, taken by Agamemnon

  CHRYSES, priest of Apollo, father of Chryseis

  CICONIANS, inhabitants of Ismarus, visited by Ulysses

  CIMBRI, an ancient people of Central Europe

  Cimmeria, a land of darkness

  Cimon, Athenian general

  Circe, sorceress, sister of Aeetes

  Cithaeron, Mount, scene of Bacchic worship

  Clarimunda, wife of Huon

  Clio, one of the Muses

  Cloridan, a Moor

  Clotho, one of the Fates

  Clymene, an ocean nymph

  Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, killed by Orestes

  Clytie, a water nymph, in love with Apollo

  Cnidos, ancient city of Asia Minor, seat of worship of Aphrodite

  (Venus)

  Cockatrice (or Basilisk), called King of Serpents, supposed to kill with its look

  Cocytus, a river of Hades

  Colchis, a kingdom east of the Black Sea

  Colophon, one of the seven cities claiming the birth of Homer

  Columba, St, an Irish Christian missionary to Druidical parts of

  Scotland

  Conan, Welsh king

  Constantine, Greek emperor

  Cordeilla, daughter of the mythical King Leir

  Corineus, a Trojan warrior in Albion

  Cornwall, southwest part of Britain

  Cortana, Ogier's sword

  Corybantes, priests of Cybele, or Rhea, in Phrygia, who celebrated her worship with dances, to the sound of the drum and the cymbal, 143

  Crab, constellation

  Cranes and their enemies, the Pygmies, of Ibycus

  Creon, king of Thebes

  Crete, one of the largest islands of the Mediterranean Sea, lying south of the Cyclades

  Creusa, daughter of Priam, wife of Aeneas

  Crocale, a nymph of Diana

  Cromlech, Druidical altar

  Cronos, See Saturn

  Crotona, city of Italy

  Cuchulain, Irish hero, called the "Hound of Ireland,"

  Culdees', followers of St. Columba, Cumaean Sibyl, seeress of Cumae, consulted by Aeneas, sold Sibylline books to Tarquin

  Cupid, child of Venus and god of love

  Curoi of Kerry, wise man

  Cyane, river, opposed Pluto's passage to Hades

  Cybele (Rhea)

  Cyclopes, creatures with circular eyes, of whom Homer speaks as a gigantic and lawless race of shepherds in Sicily, who devoured human beings, they helped Vulcan to forge the thunderbolts of Zeus under Aetna

  Cymbeline, king of ancient Britain

  Cynosure (Dog's tail), the Pole star, at tail of Constellation

  Ursa Minor

  Cynthian mountain top, birthplace of Artemis (Diana) and Apollo

  Cyprus, island off the coast of Syria, sacred to Aphrodite

  Cyrene, a nymph, mother of Aristaeus

  Daedalus, architect of the Cretan Labyrinth, inventor of sails

  Daguenet, King Arthur's fool

  Dalai Lama, chief pontiff of Thibet

  Danae, mother of Perseus by Jupiter

  Danaides, the fifty daughters of Danaus, king of Argos, who were betrothed to the fifty sons of Aegyptus, but were commanded by their father to slay each her own husband on the marriage night

  Danaus (See Danaides)

  Daphne, maiden loved by Apollo, and changed into a laurel tree

  Dardanelles, ancient Hellespont

  Dardanus, progenitor of the Trojan kings

  Dardinel, prince of Zumara

  Dawn, See Aurora

  Day, an attendant on Phoebus, the Sun

  Day star (Hesperus)

  Death, See Hela

  Deiphobus, son of Priam and Hecuba, the bravest brother of Paris

  Dejanira, wife of Hercules

  Delos, floating island, birthplace of Apollo and Diana

  Delphi, shrine of Apollo, famed for its oracles

  Demeter, Greek goddess of marriage and human fertility, identified by Romans with Ceres

  Demeha, South Wales

  Demodocus, bard of Alomous, king of the Phaeaeians

  Deucalion, king of Thessaly, who with his wife Pyrrha were the only pair surviving a deluge sent by Zeus

  Dia, island of

  Diana (Artemis), goddess of the moon and of the chase, daughter of

  Jupiter and Latona

  Diana of the Hind, antique sculpture in the Louvre, Pa
ris

  Diana, temple of

  Dictys, a sailor

  Didier, king of the Lombards

  Dido, queen of Tyre and Carthage, entertained the shipwrecked

  Aeneas

  Diomede, Greek hero during Trojan War

  Dione, female Titan, mother of Zeus, of Aphrodite (Venus)

  Dionysus See Bacchus

  Dioscuri, the Twins (See Castor and Pollux)

  Dirce, wife of Lycus, king of Thebes, who ordered Amphion and Zethus to tie Antiope to a wild bull, but they, learning Antiope to be their mother, so treated Dirce herself

  Dis See Pluto

  Discord, apple of, See Eris.

  Discordia, See Eris.

  Dodona, site of an oracle of Zeus (Jupiter)

  Dorceus, a dog of Diana

  Doris, wife of Nereus

  Dragon's teeth sown by Cadmus

  Druids, ancient Celtic priests

  Dryades (or Dryads), See Wood nymphs

  Dryope, changed to a lotus plant, for plucking a lotus—enchanted form of the nymph Lotis

  Dubricius, bishop of Caerleon,

  Dudon, a knight, comrade of Astolpho,

  Dunwallo Molmu'tius, British king and lawgiver

  Durindana, sword of Orlando or Rinaldo

  Dwarfs in Wagner's Nibelungen Ring

  E

  Earth (Gaea); goddess of the

  Ebudians, the

  Echo, nymph of Diana, shunned by Narcissus, faded to nothing but a voice

  Ecklenlied, the

  Eddas, Norse mythological records,

  Ederyn, son of Nudd

  Egena, nymph of the Fountain

  Eisteddfod, session of Welsh bards and minstrels

  Electra, the lost one of the Pleiades, also, sister of Orestes

  Eleusian Mysteries, instituted by Ceres, and calculated to awaken feelings of piety and a cheerful hope of better life in the future

  Eleusis, Grecian city

  Elgin Marbles, Greek sculptures from the Parthenon of Athens, now in British Museum, London, placed there by Lord Elgin

  Eliaures, enchanter

  Elidure, a king of Britain

  Elis, ancient Greek city

  Elli, old age; the one successful wrestler against Thor

  Elphin, son of Gwyddiro

  Elves, spiritual beings, of many powers and dispositions—some evil, some good

  Elvidnir, the ball of Hela

  Elysian Fields, the land of the blest

  Elysian Plain, whither the favored of the gods were taken without death

  Elysium, a happy land, where there is neither snow, nor cold, nor ram. Hither favored heroes, like Menelaus, pass without dying, and live happy under the rule of Rhadamanthus. In the Latin poets Elysium is part of the lower world, and the residence of the shades of the blessed

  Embla, the first woman

  Enseladus, giant defeated by Jupiter

  Endymion, a beautiful youth beloved by Diana

  Enid, wife of Geraint

  Enna, vale of home of Proserpine

  Enoch, the patriarch

  Epidaurus, a town in Argolis, on the Saronic gulf, chief seat of the worship of Aeculapius, whose temple was situated near the town

  Epimetheus, son of Iapetus, husband of Pandora, with his brother

  Prometheus took part in creation of man

  Epirus, country to the west of Thessaly, lying along the Adriatic

  Sea

  Epopeus, a sailor

  Erato, one of the Muses

  Erbin of Cornwall, father of Geraint

  Erebus, son of Chaos, region of darkness, entrance to Hades

  Eridanus, river

  Erinys, one of the Furies

  Eriphyle, sister of Polynices, bribed to decide on war, in which her husband was slain

  Eris (Discordia), goddess of discord. At the wedding of Peleus and

  Thetis, Eris being uninvited threw into the gathering an apple

  "For the Fairest," which was claimed by Hera (Juno), Aphrodite

  (Venus) and Athena (Minerva) Paris, being called upon for

  judgment, awarded it to Aphrodite

  Erisichthon, an unbeliever, punished by famine

  Eros See Cupid

  Erytheia, island

  Eryx, a mount, haunt of Venus

  Esepus, river in Paphlagonia

  Estrildis, wife of Locrine, supplanting divorced Guendolen

  Eteocles, son of Oeipus and Jocasta

  Etruscans, ancient people of Italy,

  Etzel, king of the Huns

  Euboic Sea, where Hercules threw Lichas, who brought him the poisoned shirt of Nessus

  Eude, king of Aquitaine, ally of Charles Martel

  Eumaeus, swineherd of Aeeas

  Eumenides, also called Erinnyes, and by the Romans Furiae or

  Diraae, the Avenging Deities, See Furies

  Euphorbus, a Trojan, killed by Menelaus

  Euphros'yne, one of the Graces

  Europa, daughter of the Phoenician king Agenor, by Zeus the mother of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Sarpedon

  Eurus, the East wind

  Euyalus, a gallant Trojan soldier, who with Nisus entered the

  Grecian camp, both being slain,

  Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, who, fleeing from an admirer, was killed by a snake and borne to Tartarus, where Orpheus sought her and was permitted to bring her to earth if he would not look back at her following him, but he did, and she returned to the Shades,

  Eurylochus, a companion of Ulysses,

  Eurynome, female Titan, wife of Ophlon

  Eurystheus, taskmaster of Hercules,

  Eurytion, a Centaur (See Hippodamia),

  Euterpe, Muse who presided over music,

  Evadne, wife of Capaneus, who flung herself upon his funeral pile and perished with him

  Evander, Arcadian chief, befriending Aeneas in Italy,

  Evnissyen, quarrelsome brother of Branwen,

  Excalibar, sword of King Arthur,

  F

  Fafner, a giant turned dragon, treasure stealer, by the Solar

  Theory simply the Darkness who steals the day,

  Falerina, an enchantress,

  Fasolt, a giant, brother of Fafner, and killed by him,

  "Fasti," Ovid's, a mythological poetic calendar,

  FATA MORGANA, a mirage

  FATES, the three, described as daughters of Night—to indicate the darkness and obscurity of human destiny—or of Zeus and Themis, that is, "daughters of the just heavens" they were Clo'tho, who spun the thread of life, Lach'esis, who held the thread and fixed its length and At'ropos, who cut it off

  FAUNS, cheerful sylvan deities, represented in human form, with small horns, pointed ears, and sometimes goat's tail

  FAUNUS, son of Picus, grandson of Saturnus, and father of Latinus, worshipped as the protecting deity of agriculture and of shepherds, and also as a giver of oracles

  FAVONIUS, the West wind

  FEAR

  FENRIS, a wolf, the son of Loki the Evil Principle of Scandinavia, supposed to have personated the element of fire, destructive except when chained

  FENSALIR, Freya's palace, called the Hall of the Sea, where were brought together lovers, husbands, and wives who had been separated by death

  FERRAGUS, a giant, opponent of Orlando

  FERRAU, one of Charlemagne's knights

  FERREX. brother of Porrex, the two sons of Leir

  FIRE WORSHIPPERS, of ancient Persia, See Parsees FLOLLO, Roman tribune in Gaul

  FLORA, Roman goddess of flowers and spring

  FLORDELIS, fair maiden beloved by Florismart

  FLORISMART, Sir, a brave knight,

  FLOSSHILDA, one of the Rhine daughters

  FORTUNATE FIELDS

  FORTUNATE ISLANDS (See Elysian Plain)

  FORUM, market place and open square for public meetings in Rome, surrounded by court houses, palaces, temples, etc

  FRANCUS, son of Histion, grandson of Japhet, great grandson of

&nb
sp; Noah, legendary ancestor of the Franks, or French

  FREKI, one of Odin's two wolves

  FREY, or Freyr, god of the sun

  FREYA, Norse goddess of music, spring, and flowers

  FRICKA, goddess of marriage

  FRIGGA, goddess who presided over smiling nature, sending sunshine, rain, and harvest

  FROH, one of the Norse gods

  FRONTI'NO, Rogero's horse

  FURIES (Erinnyes), the three retributive spirits who punished crime, represented as snaky haired old woman, named Alecto, Megaeira, and Tisiphone

  FUSBERTA, Rinaldo's sword

  G

  GAEA, or Ge, called Tellus by the Romans, the personification of the earth, described as the first being that sprang fiom Chaos, and gave birth to Uranus (Heaven) and Pontus (Sea)

  GAHARIET, knight of Arthur's court

  GAHERIS, knight

  GALAFRON, King of Cathay, father of Angelica

  GALAHAD, Sir, the pure knight of Arthur's Round Table, who safely took the Siege Perilous (which See)

  GALATEA, a Nereid or sea nymph

  GALATEA, statue carved and beloved by Pygmalion

  GALEN, Greek physician and philosophical writer

  GALLEHANT, King of the Marches

  GAMES, national athletic contests in Greece—Olympian, at Olympia,

  Pythian, near Delphi, seat of Apollo's oracle, Isthmian, on the

  Corinthian Isthmus, Nemean, at Nemea in Argolis

  GAN, treacherous Duke of Maganza

  GANELON of Mayence, one of Charlemagne's knights

  GANGES, river in India

  GANO, a peer of Charlemagne

  GANYMEDE, the most beautiful of all mortals, carried off to Olympus that he might fill the cup of Zeus and live among the immortal gods

  GARETH, Arthur's knight

  GAUDISSO, Sultan

  GAUL, ancient France

  GAUTAMA, Prince, the Buddha

  GAWAIN, Arthur's knight

  GAWL, son of Clud, suitor for Rhiannon

  GEMINI (See Castor), constellation created by Jupiter from the twin brothers after death, 158

  GENGHIS Khan, Tartar conqueror

  GENIUS, in Roman belief, the protective Spirit of each individual man, See Juno

  GEOFFREY OF MON'MOUTH, translator into Latin of the Welsh History of the Kings of Britain (1150)