Bulfinch's Mythology

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Bulfinch's Mythology Page 98

by Thomas Bulfinch


  GERAINT, a knight of King Arthur

  GERDA, wife of Frey

  GERI, one of Odin's two wolves

  GERYON, a three bodied monster

  GESNES, navigator sent for Isoude the Fair

  GIALLAR HORN, the trumpet that Heimdal will blow at the judgment day

  GIANTS, beings of monstrous size and of fearful countenances, represented as in constant opposition to the gods, in Wagner's Nibelungen Ring

  GIBICHUNG RACE, ancestors of Alberich

  GIBRALTAR, great rock and town at southwest corner of Spain (See

  Pillars of Hercules)

  GILDAS, a scholar of Arthur's court

  GIRARD, son of Duke Sevinus

  GLASTONBURY, where Arthur died

  GLAUCUS, a fisherman, loving Scylla

  GLEIPNIR, magical chain on the wolf Fenris

  GLEWLWYD, Arthur's porter

  GOLDEN FLEECE, of ram used for escape of children of Athamas,

  named Helle and Phryxus (which See), after sacrifice of ram to

  Jupiter, fleece was guarded by sleepless dragon and gained by

  Jason and Argonauts (which See, also Helle)

  GONERIL, daughter of Leir

  GORDIAN KNOT, tying up in temple the wagon of Gordius, he who could untie it being destined to be lord of Asia, it was cut by Alexander the Great, 48

  Gordius, a countryman who, arriving in Phrygia in a wagon, was made king by the people, thus interpreting an oracle, 48

  Gorgons, three monstrous females, with huge teeth, brazen claws and snakes for hair, sight of whom turned beholders to stone, Medusa, the most famous, slain by Perseus

  Gorlois, Duke of Tintadel

  Gouvernail, squire of Isabella, queen of Lionesse, protector of her son Tristram while young, and his squire in knighthood

  Graal, the Holy, cup from which the Saviour drank at Last Supper, taken by Joseph of Arimathea to Europe, and lost, its recovery becoming a sacred quest for Arthur's knights

  Graces, three goddesses who enhanced the enjoyments of life by refinement and gentleness; they were Aglaia (brilliance), Euphrosyne (joy), and Thalia (bloom)

  Gradas'so, king of Sericane

  Graeae, three gray haired female watchers for the Gorgons, with one movable eye and one tooth between the three

  Grand Lama, Buddhist pontiff in Thibet

  Grendel, monster slain by Beowulf

  Gryphon (griffin), a fabulous animal, with the body of a lion and the head and wings of an eagle, dwelling in the Rhipaean mountains, between the Hyperboreans and the one eyed Arimaspians, and guarding the gold of the North,

  Guebers, Persian fire worshippers,

  Guendolen, wife of Locrine,

  Guenevere, wife of King Arthur, beloved by Launcelot,

  Guerin, lord of Vienne, father of Oliver,

  Guiderius, son of Cymbeline,

  Guillamurius, king in Ireland,

  Guimier, betrothed of Caradoc,

  Gullinbursti, the boar drawing Frey's car,

  Gulltopp, Heimdell's horse,

  Gunfasius, King of the Orkneys,

  Ganther, Burgundian king, brother of Kriemhild,

  Gutrune, half sister to Hagen,

  Gwern son of Matholch and Branwen,

  Gwernach the Giant,

  Gwiffert Petit, ally of Geraint,

  Gwyddno, Garanhir, King of Gwaelod,

  Gwyr, judge in the court of Arthur,

  Gyoll, river,

  H

  Hades, originally the god of the nether world—the name later used to designate the gloomy subterranean land of the dead,

  Haemon, son of Creon of Thebes, and lover of Antigone,

  Haemonian city,

  Haemus, Mount, northern boundary of Thrace,

  Hagan, a principal character in the Nibelungen Lied, slayer of

  Siegfried,

  HALCYONE, daughter of Aeneas, and the beloved wife of Ceyx, who, when he was drowned, flew to his floating body, and the pitying gods changed them both to birds (kingfishers), who nest at sea during a certain calm week in winter ("halcyon weather")

  HAMADRYADS, tree-nymphs or wood-nymphs, See Nymphs

  HARMONIA, daughter of Mars and Venus, wife of Cadmus

  HAROUN AL RASCHID, Caliph of Arabia, contemporary of Charlemagne

  HARPIES, monsters, with head and bust of woman, but wings, legs and tail of birds, seizing souls of the wicked, or punishing evildoers by greedily snatching or defiling their food

  HARPOCRATES, Egyptian god, Horus

  HEBE, daughter of Juno, cupbearer to the gods

  HEBRUS, ancient name of river Maritzka

  HECATE, a mighty and formidable divinity, supposed to send at night all kinds of demons and terrible phantoms from the lower world

  HECTOR, son of Priam and champion of Troy

  HECTOR, one of Arthur's knights

  HECTOR DE MARYS', a knight

  HECUBA, wife of Priam, king of Troy, to whom she bore Hector,

  Paris, and many other children

  HEGIRA, flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Medina (622 AD), era from which Mahometans reckon time, as we do from the birth of Christ

  HEIDRUN, she goat, furnishing mead for slain heroes in Valhalla

  HEIMDALL, watchman of the gods

  HEL, the lower world of Scandinavia, to which were consigned those who had not died in battle

  HELA (Death), the daughter of Loki and the mistress of the

  Scandinavian Hel

  HELEN, daughter of Jupiter and Leda, wife of Menelaus, carried off by Paris and cause of the Trojan War

  HELENUS, son of Priam and Hecuba, celebrated for his prophetic powers

  HELIADES, sisters of Phaeton

  HELICON, Mount, in Greece, residence of Apollo and the Muses, with fountains of poetic inspiration, Aganippe and Hippocrene

  HELIOOPOLIS, city of the Sun, in Egypt

  HELLAS, Gieece

  HELLE, daughter of Thessalian King Athamas, who, escaping from cruel father with her brother Phryxus, on ram with golden fleece, fell into the sea strait since named for her (See Golden Fleece)

  HELLESPONt, narrow strait between Europe and Asia Minor, named for

  Helle

  HENGIST, Saxon invader of Britain, 449 AD

  HEPHAESTOS, See VULCAN

  HERA, called Juno by the Romans, a daughter of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea, and sister and wife of Jupiter, See JUNO

  HERCULES, athletic hero, son of Jupiter and Alcmena, achieved twelve vast labors and many famous deeds

  HEREWARD THE WAKE, hero of the Saxons

  HERMES (Mercury), messenger of the gods, deity of commerce, science, eloquence, trickery, theft, and skill generally

  HERMIONE, daughter of Menelaus and Helen

  HERMOD, the nimble, son of Odin

  HERO, a priestess of Venus, beloved of Leander

  HERODOTUS, Greek historian

  HESIOD, Greek poet

  HESPERIA, ancient name for Italy

  HESPERIDES (See Apples of the Hesperides)

  HESPERUS, the evening star (also called Day Star)

  HESTIA, cilled Vesta by the Romans, the goddess of the hearth

  HILDEBRAND, German magician and champion

  HINDU TRIAD, Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva

  HIPPOCRENE (See Helicon)

  HIPPODAMIA, wife of Pirithous, at whose wedding the Centaurs offered violence to the bride, causing a great battle

  HIPPOGRIFF, winged horse, with eagle's head and claws

  HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons

  Hippolytus, son of Thesus

  HIPPOMENES, who won Atalanta in foot race, beguiling her with golden apples thrown for her to

  HISTION, son of Japhet

  HODUR, blind man, who, fooled by

  Loki, threw a mistletoe twig at Baldur, killing him

  HOEL, king of Brittany

  HOMER, the blind poet of Greece, about 850 B C

  HOPE (See PANDORA)

  HORAE See HOURS

  HORSA, with Hengist
, invader of Britain

  HORUS, Egyptian god of the sun

  HOUDAIN, Tristram's dog

  HRINGHAM, Baldur's ship

  HROTHGAR, king of Denmark

  HUGI, who beat Thialfi in foot races

  HUGIN, one of Odin's two ravens

  HUNDING, husband of Sieglinda

  HUON, son of Duke Sevinus

  HYACINTHUS, a youth beloved by Apollo, and accidentally killed by him, changed in death to the flower, hyacinth

  HYADES, Nysaean nymphs, nurses of infant Bacchus, rewarded by being placed as cluster of stars in the heavens

  HYALE, a nymph of Diana

  HYDRA, nine headed monster slain by Hercules

  HYGEIA, goddess of health, daughter of Aesculapius

  HYLAS, a youth detained by nymphs of spring where he sought water

  HYMEN, the god of marriage, imagined as a handsome youth and invoked in bridal songs

  HYMETTUS, mountain in Attica, near Athens, celebrated for its marble and its honey

  HYPERBOREANS, people of the far North

  HYPERION, a Titan, son of Uranus and Ge, and father of Helios,

  Selene, and Eos, cattle of,

  Hyrcania, Prince of, betrothed to Clarimunda

  Hyrieus, king in Greece,

  I

  Iapetus, a Titan, son of Uranus and Ge, and father of Atlas,

  Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius,

  Iasius, father of Atalanta

  Ibycus, a poet, story of, and the cranes

  Icaria, island of the Aegean Sea, one of the Sporades

  Icarius, Spartan prince, father of Penelope

  Icarus, son of Daedalus, he flew too near the sun with artificial wings, and, the wax melting, he fell into the sea

  Icelos, attendant of Morpheus

  Icolumkill SEE Iona

  Ida, Mount, a Trojan hill

  Idaeus, a Trojan herald

  Idas, son of Aphareus and Arene, and brother of Lynceus Idu'na, wife of Bragi

  Igerne, wife of Gorlois, and mother, by Uther, of Arthur

  Iliad, epic poem of the Trojan War, by Homer

  Ilioheus, a son of Niobe

  Ilium SEE Troy

  Illyria, Adriatic countries north of Greece

  Imogen, daughter of Pandrasus, wife of Trojan Brutus

  Inachus, son of Oceanus and Tethys, and father of Phoroneus and Io, also first king of Argos, and said to have given his name to the river Inachus

  INCUBUS, an evil spirit, supposed to lie upon persons in their sleep

  INDRA, Hindu god of heaven, thunder, lightning, storm and rain

  INO, wife of Athamas, fleeing from whom with infant son she sprang into the sea and was changed to Leucothea

  IO, changed to a heifer by Jupiter

  IOBATES, King of Lycia

  IOLAUS, servant of Hercules

  IOLE, sister of Dryope

  IONA, or Icolmkill, a small northern island near Scotland, where

  St Columba founded a missionary monastery (563 AD)

  IONIA, coast of Asia Minor

  IPHIGENIA, daughter of Agamemnon, offered as a sacrifice but carried away by Diana

  IPHIS, died for love of Anaxarete, 78

  IPHITAS, friend of Hercules, killed by him

  IRIS, goddess of the rainbow, messenger of Juno and Zeus

  IRONSIDE, Arthur's knight

  ISABELLA, daughter of king of Galicia

  ISIS, wife of Osiris, described as the giver of death

  ISLES OF THE BLESSED

  ISMARUS, first stop of Ulysses, returning from Trojan War

  ISME'NOS, a son of Niobe, slain by Apollo

  ISOLIER, friend of Rinaldo

  ISOUDE THE FAIR, beloved of Tristram

  ISOUDE OF THE WHITE HANDS, married to Tristram

  ISTHMIAN GAMES, See GAMES

  ITHACA, home of Ulysses and Penelope

  IULUS, son of Aeneas

  IVO, Saracen king, befriending Rinaldo

  IXION, once a sovereign of Thessaly, sentenced in Tartarus to be lashed with serpents to a wheel which a strong wind drove continually around

  J

  JANICULUM, Roman fortress on the Janiculus, a hill on the other side of the Tiber

  JANUS, a deity from the earliest times held in high estimation by the Romans, temple of

  JAPHET (Iapetus)

  JASON, leader of the Argonauts, seeking the Golden Fleece

  JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, who bore the Holy Graal to Europe

  JOTUNHEIM, home of the giants in Northern mythology

  JOVE (Zeus), chief god of Roman and Grecian mythology, See JUPITER

  JOYOUS GARDE, residence of Sir Launcelot of the Lake

  JUGGERNAUT, Hindu deity

  JUNO, the particular guardian spirit of each woman (See Genius)

  JUNO, wife of Jupiter, queen of the gods

  JUPITER, JOVIS PATER, FATHER JOVE, JUPITER and JOVE used interchangeably, at Dodona, statue of the Olympian

  JUPITER AMMON (See Ammon)

  JUPITER CAPITOLINUS, temple of, preserving the Sibylline books

  JUSTICE, See THEMIS

  K

  KADYRIATH, advises King Arthur

  KAI, son of Kyner

  KALKI, tenth avatar of Vishnu

  KAY, Arthur's steward and a knight

  KEDALION, guide of Orion

  KERMAN, desert of

  KICVA, daughter of Gwynn Gloy

  KILWICH, son of Kilydd

  KILYDD, son of Prince Kelyddon, of Wales

  KNEPH, spirit or breath

  KNIGHTS, training and life of

  KRIEMHILD, wife of Siegfried

  KRISHNA, eighth avatar of Vishnu, Hindu deity of fertility in nature and mankind

  KYNER, father of Kav

  KYNON, son of Clydno

  L

  LABYRINTH, the enclosed maze of passageways where roamed the

  Minotaur of Crete, killed by Theseus with aid of Ariadne

  LACHESIS, one of the Fates (which See)

  LADY OF THE FOUNTAIN, tale told by Kynon

  LAERTES, father of Ulysses

  LAESTRYGONIANS, savages attacking Ulysses

  LAIUS, King of Thebes

  LAMA, holy man of Thibet

  LAMPETIA, daughter of Hyperion LAOC'OON, a priest of Neptune, in Troy, who warned the Trojans against the Wooden Horse (which See), but when two serpents came out of the sea and strangled him and his two sons, the people listened to the Greek spy Sinon, and brought the fatal Horse into the town

  LAODAMIA, daughter of Acastus and wife of Protesilaus

  LAODEGAN, King of Carmalide, helped by Arthur and Merlin

  LAOMEDON, King of Troy

  LAPITHAE, Thessalonians, whose king had invited the Centaurs to his daughter's wedding but who attacked them for offering violence to the bride

  LARES, household deities

  LARKSPUR, flower from the blood of Ajax

  LATINUS, ruler of Latium, where Aeneas landed in Italy

  LATMOS, Mount, where Diana fell in love with Endymion

  LATONA, mother of Apollo

  LAUNCELOT, the most famous knight of the Round Table

  LAUSUS, son of Mezentius, killed by Aeneas

  LAVINIA, daughter of Latinus and wife of Aeneas

  LAVINIUM, Italian city named for Lavinia

  LAW, See THEMIS

  LEANDER, a youth of Abydos, who, swimming the Hellespont to see

  Hero, his love, was drowned

  LEBADEA, site of the oracle of Trophomus

  LEBYNTHOS, Aegean island

  LEDA, Queen of Sparta, wooed by Jupiter in the form of a swan

  LEIR, mythical King of Britain, original of Shakespeare's Lear

  LELAPS, dog of Cephalus

  LEMNOS, large island in the Aegean Sea, sacred to Vulcan

  LEMURES, the spectres or spirits of the dead

  LEO, Roman emperor, Greek prince

  LETHE, river of Hades, drinking whose water caused forgetfulness

  LEUCADIA, a promon
tory, whence Sappho, disappointed in love, was said to have thrown herself into the sea

  LEUCOTHEA, a sea goddess, invoked by sailors for protection (See

  Ino)

  LEWIS, son of Charlemagne

  LIBER, ancient god of fruitfulness

  LIBETHRA, burial place of Orpheus

  LIBYA, Greek name for continent of Africa in general

  LIBYAN DESERT, in Africa

  LIBYAN OASIS

  LICHAS, who brought the shirt of Nessus to Hercules

  LIMOURS, Earl of

  LINUS, musical instructor of Hercules

  LIONEL, knight of the Round Table

  LLYR, King of Britain

  LOCRINE, son of Brutus in Albion, king of Central England

  LOEGRIA, kingdom of (England)

  LOGESTILLA, a wise lady, who entertained Rogero and his friends

  LOGI, who vanquished Loki in an eating contest

  LOKI, the Satan of Norse mythology, son of the giant Farbanti

  LOT, King, a rebel chief, subdued by King Arthur, then a loyal knight

  LOTIS, a nymph, changed to a lotus-plant and in that form plucked by Dryope

  LOTUS EATERS, soothed to indolence, companions of Ulysses landing among them lost all memory of home and had to be dragged away before they would continue their voyage

  LOVE (Eros) issued from egg of Night, and with arrows and torch produced life and joy

  LUCAN, one of Arthur's knights

  Lucius Tiberius, Roman procurator in Britain demanding tribute from Arthur

  LUD, British king, whose capital was called Lud's Town (London)

  LUDGATE, city gate where Lud was buried, 387

  LUNED, maiden who guided Owain to the Lady of the Fountain

  LYCAHAS, a turbulent sailor

  LYCAON, son of Priam

  LYCIA, a district in Southern Asia Minor

  LYCOMODES, king of the Dolopians, who treacherously slew Theseus

  LYCUS, usurping King of Thebes

  LYNCEUS, one of the sons of Aegyptus

  M

  MABINOGEON, plural of Mabinogi, fairy tales and romances of the

  Welsh

  MABON, son of Modron

  MACHAON, son of Aesculapius

  MADAN, son of Guendolen

  MADOC, a forester of King Arthur

  MADOR, Scottish knight

 

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