Bulfinch's Mythology

by Thomas Bulfinch

  MAELGAN, king who imprisoned Elphin

  MAEONIA, ancient Lydia

  MAGI, Persian priests

  MAHADEVA, same as Siva

  MAHOMET, great prophet of Arabia, born in Mecca, 571 AD, proclaimed worship of God instead of idols, spread his religion through disciples and then by force till it prevailed, with Arabian dominion, over vast regions in Asia, Africa, and Spain in Europe

  MAIA, daughter of Atlas and Pleione, eldest and most beautiful of the Pleiades

  MALAGIGI the Enchanter, one of Charlemagne's knights

  MALEAGANS, false knight

  MALVASIUS, King of Iceland

  MAMBRINO, with invisible helmet

  MANAWYD DAN, brother of King Vran, of London

  MANDRICARDO, son of Agrican

  MANTUA, in Italy, birthplace of Virgil

  MANU, ancestor of mankind

  MARATHON, where Theseus and Pirithous met

  MARK, King of Cornwall, husband of Isoude the Fair

  MARO See VIRGIL

  MARPHISA, sister of Rogero

  MARSILIUS, Spanish king, treacherous foe of Charlemagne

  MARSYAS, inventor of the flute, who challenged Apollo to musical competition, and, defeated, was flayed alive

  MATSYA, the Fish, first avatar of Vishnu

  MEANDER, Grecian river

  MEDE, A, princess and sorceress who aided Jason

  MEDORO, a young Moor, who wins Angelica

  MEDUSA, one of the Gorgons

  MEGAERA, one of the Furies

  MELAMPUS, a Spartan dog, the first mortal endowed with prophetic powers

  MELANTHUS, steersman for Bacchus

  MELEAGER, one of the Argonauts (See Althaea)

  MELIADUS, King of Lionesse, near Cornwall

  MELICERTES, infant son of Ino. changed to Palaemon (See Ino,

  Leucothea, and Palasmon)

  MELISSA, priestess at Merlin's tomb

  MELISSEUS, a Cretan king

  MELPOMENE, one of the Muses

  MEMNON, the beautiful son of Tithonus and Eos (Aurora), and king of the Ethiopians, slain in Trojan War

  MEMPHIS, Egyptian city

  MENELAUS, son of King of Sparta, husband of Helen

  MENOECEUS, son of Creon, voluntary victim in war to gain success for his father

  MENTOR, son of Alcimus and a faithful friend of Ulysses

  MERCURY (See HERMES)

  MERLIN, enchanter

  MEROPE, daughter of King of Chios, beloved by Orion

  MESMERISM, likened to curative oracle of Aesculapius at Epidaurus

  METABUS, father of Camilla

  METAMORPHOSES, Ovid's poetical legends of mythical transformations, a large source of our knowledge of classic mythology

  METANIRA, a mother, kind to Ceres seeking Proserpine

  METEMPSYCHOSIS, transmigration of souls—rebirth of dying men and women in forms of animals or human beings

  METIS, Prudence, a spouse of Jupiter

  MEZENTIUS, a brave but cruel soldier, opposing Aeneas in Italy

  MIDAS

  MIDGARD, the middle world of the Norsemen

  MIDGARD SERPENT, a sea monster, child of Loki

  MILKY WAY, starred path across the sky, believed to be road to palace of the gods

  MILO, a great athlete

  MLON, father of Orlando

  MILTON, John, great English poet, whose History of England is here largely used

  MIME, one of the chief dwarfs of ancient German mythology

  MINERVA (Athene), daughter of Jupiter, patroness of health, learning, and wisdom

  MINOS, King of Crete

  MINO TAUR, monster killed by Theseus

  MISTLETOE, fatal to Baldur

  MNEMOSYNE, one of the Muses

  MODESTY, statue to

  MODRED, nephew of King Arthur

  MOLY, plant, powerful against sorcery

  MOMUS, a deity whose delight was to jeer bitterly at gods and men

  MONAD, the "unit" of Pythagoras

  MONSTERS, unnatural beings, evilly disposed to men

  MONTALBAN, Rinaldo's castle

  MONTH, the, attendant upon the Sun

  MOON, goddess of, see DIANA

  MORAUNT, knight, an Irish champion

  MORGANA, enchantress, the Lady of the Lake in "Orlando Furioso," same as Morgane Le Fay in tales of Arthur

  MORGANE LE FAY, Queen of Norway, King Arthur's sister, an enchantress

  MORGAN TUD, Arthur's chief physician

  MORPHEUS, son of Sleep and god of dreams

  MORTE D'ARTHUr, romance, by Sir Thomas Mallory

  MULCIBER, Latin name of Vulcan

  MULL, Island of

  MUNIN, one of Odin's two ravens

  MUSAEUS, sacred poet, son of Orpheus

  MUSES, The, nine goddesses presiding over poetry, etc—Calliope, epic poetry, Clio, history, Erato, love poetry, Euterpe, lyric poetry; Melpomene, tragedy, Polyhymnia, oratory and sacred song Terpsichore, choral song and dance, Thalia, comedy and idyls, Urania, astronomy

  MUSPELHEIM, the fire world of the Norsemen

  MYCENAS, ancient Grecian city, of which Agamemnon was king

  MYRDDIN (Merlin)

  MYRMIDONS, bold soldiers of Achilles

  MYSIA, Greek district on northwest coast of Asia Minor

  MYTHOLOGY, origin of, collected myths, describing gods of early peoples

  N

  NAIADS, water nymphs

  NAMO, Duke of Bavaria, one of Charlemagne's knights

  NANNA, wife of Baldur

  NANTERS, British king

  NANTES, site of Caradoc's castle

  NAPE, a dog of Diana

  NARCISSUS, who died of unsatisfied love for his own image in the water

  NAUSICAA, daughter of King Alcinous, who befriended Ulysses

  NAUSITHOUS, king of Phaeacians

  NAXOS, Island of

  NEGUS, King of Abyssinia

  NEMEA, forest devastated by a lion killed by Hercules

  NEMEAN GAMES, held in honor of Jupiter and Hercules

  NEMEAN LION, killed by Hercules

  NEMESIS, goddess of vengeance

  NENNIUS, British combatant of Caesar

  NEOPTOLEMUS, son of Achilles

  NEPENTHE, ancient drug to cause forgetfulness of pain or distress

  NEPHELE, mother of Phryxus and Helle

  NEPHTHYS, Egyptian goddess

  NEPTUNE, identical with Poseidon, god of the sea

  NEREIDS, sea nymphs, daughters of Nereus and Doris

  NEREUS, a sea god

  NESSUS, a centaur killed by Hercules, whose jealous wife sent him a robe or shirt steeped in the blood of Nessus, which poisoned him

  NESTOR, king of Pylos, renowned for his wisdom, justice, and knowledge of war

  NIBELUNGEN HOARD, treasure seized by Siegfried from the Nibelungs, buried in the Rhine by Hagan after killing Siegfried, and lost when Hagan was killed by Kriemhild, theme of Wagner's four music dramas, "The Ring of the Nibelungen,"

  NIBELUNGEN LIED, German epic, giving the same nature myth as the

  Norse Volsunga Saga, concerning the Hoard

  NIBELUNGEN RING, Wagner's music dramas

  NIBELUNGS, the, a race of Northern dwarfs

  NIDHOGGE, a serpent in the lower world that lives on the dead

  NIFFLEHEIM, mist world of the Norsemen, the Hades of absent spirits

  NILE, Egyptian river

  NIOBE, daughter of Tantalus, proud Queen of Thebes, whose seven sons and seven daughters were killed by Apollo and Diana, at which Amphion, her husband, killed himself, and Niobe wept until she was turned to stone

  NISUS, King of Megara

  NOAH, as legendary ancestor of French, Roman, German, and British peoples

  NOMAN, name assumed by Ulysses

  NORNS, the three Scandinavian Fates, Urdur (the past), Verdandi (the present), and Skuld (the future)

  NOTHUNG, magic sword

  NOTUS, southwest wind

  NOX, daughter of Chaos and
sister of Erebus, personification of night

  Numa, second king of Rome

  NYMPHS, beautiful maidens, lesser divinities of nature Dryads and

  Hamadryads, tree nymphs, Naiads, spring, brook, and river nymphs,

  Nereids, sea nymphs Oreads, mountain nymphs or hill nymphs

  O

  OCEANUS, a Titan, ruling watery elements

  OCYROE, a prophetess, daughter of Chiron

  ODERIC

  ODIN, chief of the Norse gods

  ODYAR, famous Biscayan hero

  ODYSSEUS See ULYSSES

  ODYSSEY, Homer's poem, relating the wanderings of Odysseus

  (Ulysses) on returning from Trojan War

  OEDIPUS, Theban hero, who guessed the riddle of the Sphinx (which

  See), becoming King of Thebes

  OENEUS, King of Calydon

  OENONE, nymph, married by Paris in his youth, and abandoned for

  Helen

  OENOPION, King of Chios

  OETA, Mount, scene of Hercules' death

  OGIER, the Dane, one of the paladins of Charlemagne

  OLIVER, companion of Orlando

  OLWEN, wife of Kilwich

  OLYMPIA, a small plain in Elis, where the Olympic games were celebrated

  OLYMPIADS, periods between Olympic games (four years)

  OLYMPIAN GAMES, See GAMES

  OLYMPUS, dwelling place of the dynasty of gods of which Zeus was the head

  OMPHALE, queen of Lydia, daughter of Iardanus and wife of Tmolus

  OPHION, king of the Titans, who ruled Olympus till dethroned by the gods Saturn and Rhea

  OPS See RHEA

  ORACLES, answers from the gods to questions from seekers for knowledge or advice for the future, usually in equivocal form, so as to fit any event, also places where such answers were given forth usually by a priest or priestess

  ORC, a sea monster, foiled by Rogero when about to devour Angelica

  OREADS, nymphs of mountains and hills

  ORESTES, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, because of his crime in killing his mother, he was pursued by the Furies until purified by Minerva

  ORION, youthful giant, loved by Diana, Constellation

  ORITHYIA, a nymph, seized by Boreas

  ORLANDO, a famous knight and nephew of Charlemagne

  ORMUZD (Greek, Oromasdes), son of Supreme Being, source of good as his brother Ahriman (Arimanes) was of evil, in Persian or Zoroastrian religion

  ORPHEUS, musician, son of Apollo and Calliope, See EURYDICE

  OSIRIS, the most beneficent of the Egyptian gods

  OSSA, mountain of Thessaly

  OSSIAN, Celtic poet of the second or third century

  OVID, Latin poet (See Metamorphoses)

  OWAIN, knight at King Arthur's court

  OZANNA, a knight of Arthur

  P

  PACTOLUS, river whose sands were changed to gold by Midas

  PAEON, a name for both Apollo and Aesculapius, gods of medicine,

  PAGANS, heathen

  PALADINS or peers, knights errant

  PALAEMON, son of Athamas and Ino

  PALAMEDES, messenger sent to call Ulysses to the Trojan War

  PALAMEDES, Saracen prince at Arthur's court

  PALATINE, one of Rome's Seven Hills

  PALES, goddess presiding over cattle and pastures

  PALINURUS, faithful steersman of Aeeas

  PALLADIUM, properly any image of Pallas Athene, but specially applied to an image at Troy, which was stolen by Ulysses and Diomedes

  PALLAS, son of Evander

  PALLAS A THE'NE (Minerva)

  PAMPHA GUS, a dog of Diana

  PAN, god of nature and the universe

  PANATHENAEA, festival in honor of Pallas Athene (Minerva)

  PANDEAN PIPES, musical instrument of reeds, made by Pan in memory of Syrinx

  PANDORA (all gifted), first woman, dowered with gifts by every god, yet entrusted with a box she was cautioned not to open, but, curious, she opened it, and out flew all the ills of humanity, leaving behind only Hope, which remained

  PANDRASUS, a king in Greece, who persecuted Trojan exiles under Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas, until they fought, captured him, and, with his daughter Imogen as Brutus' wife, emigrated to Albion (later called Britain)

  PANOPE, plain of

  PANTHUS, alleged earlier incarnation of Pythagoras

  PAPHLAGNIA, ancient country in Asia Minor, south of Black Sea

  PAPHOS, daughter of Pygmalion and Galatea (both of which, See)

  PARCAE See FATES

  PARIAHS, lowest caste of Hindus

  PARIS, son of Priam and Hecuba, who eloped with Helen (which.

  See)

  PARNASSIAN LAUREl, wreath from Parnassus, crown awarded to successful poets

  PARNASSUS, mountain near Delphi, sacred to Apollo and the Muses

  PARSEES, Persian fire worshippers (Zoroastrians), of whom there are still thousands in Persia and India

  PARTHENON, the temple of Athene Parthenos ("the Virgin") on the

  Acropolis of Athens

  PASSEBREUL, Tristram's horse

  PATROCLUS, friend of Achilles, killed by Hector

  PECHEUR, King, uncle of Perceval

  PEERS, the

  PEG A SUS, winged horse, born from the sea foam and the blood of

  Medusa

  PELEUS, king of the Myrmidons, father of Achilles by Thetis

  PELIAS, usurping uncle of Jason

  PELION, mountain

  PELLEAS, knight of Arthur

  PENATES, protective household deities of the Romans

  PENDRAGON, King of Britain, elder brother of Uther Pendragon, who succeeded him

  PENELOPE, wife of Ulysses, who, waiting twenty years for his return from the Trojan War, put off the suitors for her hand by promising to choose one when her weaving was done, but unravelled at night what she had woven by day

  PENEUS, river god, river

  PENTHESILEA, queen of Amazons

  PENTHEUS, king of Thebes, having resisted the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into his kingdom, was driven mad by the god

  PENUS, Roman house pantry, giving name to the Penates

  PEPIN, father of Charlemagne

  PEPLUS, sacred robe of Minerva

  PERCEVAL, a great knight of Arthur

  PERDIX, inventor of saw and compasses

  PERIANDER, King of Corinuh, friend of Arion

  PERIPHETES, son of Vulcan, killed by Theseus

  PERSEPHONE, goddess of vegetation, 8 See Pioserpine

  PERSEUS, son of Jupiter and Danae, slayer of the Gorgon Medusa, deliverer of Andromeda from a sea monster, 116 122, 124, 202

  PHAEACIANS, people who entertained Ulysses

  PHAEDRA, faithless and cruel wife of Theseus

  PHAETHUSA, sister of Phaeton, 244

  PHAETON, son of Phoebus, who dared attempt to drive his father's sun chariot

  PHANTASOS, a son of Somnus, bringing strange images to sleeping men

  PHAON, beloved by Sappho

  PHELOT, knight of Wales

  PHEREDIN, friend of Tristram, unhappy lover of Isoude

  PHIDIAS, famous Greek sculptor

  PHILEMON, husband of Baucis

  PHILOCTETES, warrior who lighted the fatal pyre of Hercules

  PHILOE, burial place of Osiris

  PHINEUS, betrothed to Andromeda

  PHLEGETHON, fiery river of Hades

  PHOCIS

  PHOEBE, one of the sisters of Phaeton

  PHOEBUS (Apollo), god of music, prophecy, and archery, the sun god

  PHOENIX, a messenger to Achilles, also, a miraculous bird dying in fire by its own act and springing up alive from its own ashes

  PHORBAS, a companion of Aeneas, whose form was assumed by Neptune in luring Palinuras the helmsman from his roost

  PHRYXUS, brother of Helle

  PINABEL, knight

  PILLARS OF HERCULES, two mountains—Calpe, now the Rock of Gibraltar, southwest corn
er of Spain in Europe, and Abyla, facing it in Africa across the strait

  PINDAR, famous Greek poet

  PINDUS, Grecian mountain

  PIRENE, celebrated fountain at Corinth

  PIRITHOUS, king of the Lapithae in Thessaly, and friend of

  Theseus, husband of Hippodamia

  PLEASURE, daughter of Cupid and Psyche

  PLEIADES, seven of Diana's nymphs, changed into stars, one being lost

  PLENTY, the Horn of

  PLEXIPPUS, brother of Althea

  PLINY, Roman naturalist

  PLUTO, the same as Hades, Dis, etc. god of the Infernal Regions

  PLUTUS, god of wealth

  PO, Italian river

  POLE STAR

  POLITES, youngest son of Priam of Troy

  POLLUX, Castor and (Dioscuri, the Twins) (See Castor)

  POLYDECTES, king of Seriphus

  POLYDORE, slain kinsman of Aeneas, whose blood nourished a bush that bled when broken

  POLYHYMNIA, Muse of oratory and sacred song

  POLYIDUS, soothsayer

  POLYNICES, King of Thebes

  POLYPHEMUS, giant son of Neptune

  POLYXENA, daughter of King Priam of Troy

  POMONA, goddess of fruit trees (See VERTUMNUS)

  PORREX and FER'REX, sons of Leir, King of Britain

  PORTUNUS, Roman name for Palaemon

  POSEIDON (Neptune), ruler of the ocean

  PRECIPICE, threshold of Helas hall

  PRESTER JOHN, a rumored priest or presbyter, a Christian pontiff in Upper Asia, believed in but never found

  PRIAM, king of Troy

  PRIWEN, Arthur's shield

  PROCRIS, beloved but jealous wife of Cephalus

  PROCRUSTES, who seized travellers and bound them on his iron bed, stretching the short ones and cutting short the tall, thus also himself served by Theseus

  PROETUS, jealous of Bellerophon

  PROMETHEUS, creator of man, who stole fire from heaven for man's use

  PROSERPINE, the same as Persephone, goddess of all growing things, daughter of Ceres, carried off by Pluto

  PROTESILAUS, slain by Hector the Trojan, allowed by the gods to return for three hours' talk with his widow Laodomia

  PROTEUS, the old man of the sea

  PRUDENCE (Metis), spouse of Jupiter

  PRYDERI, son of Pwyll

  PSYCHE, a beautiful maiden, personification of the human soul, sought by Cupid (Love), to whom she responded, lost him by curiosity to see him (as he came to her only by night), but finally through his prayers was made immortal and restored to him, a symbol of immortality