Gaetulia Morocco.
Galen Greek physician (c. AD 129–99) whose medical knowledge was still respected in the sixteenth century.
Ganymede beautiful son of Tros, king of Troy, who was carried away by Jupiter to become his cup-bearer; he is usually regarded as an icon of homoerotic desire.
Gihon biblical name for a river flowing out of Eden, identified with the Nile.
Gorgon (i) Demogorgon, supposedly a primeval god (actually a post-classical invention), later a devil; (ii) the gorgon Medusa.
Graces three goddesses of gracious kindness.
Gruntland Greenland.
Guallatia Gualata, a town and province of western Libya.
Guyron town on the upper Euphrates, possibly a border outpost of Natolia.
Hainault county of Flanders near France.
Halla town to the south-east of Aleppo.
Harpies monsters with the faces of women but the bodies of vultures.
Hebe daughter of Zeus and Hera, the Greek goddess of youth and her father’s cup-bearer.
Hector most illustrious of all Trojan warriors, eventually killed by Achilles.
Hecuba wife of Priam and queen of Troy. The mother of many children; when her beloved son Polydorus was treacherously killed by Polymes-tor, she blinded the murderer and slew his children. In her inconsolable grief, she was transformed into a howling dog.
Helen (of Troy or Greece) the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta; reputedly the most beautiful woman in the world, her adultery with the Trojan Paris became the pretext for the Trojan War.
Hephaestion soldier, lover and adviser to Alexander the Great.
Hercules son of Jupiter and Alcmene, the greatest of mythic heroes, famed for physical strength, obedience to his father, and for performing the Labours (including the cleaning of the Augean stables) set him by King Eurystheus. Sometimes called Alcides, after his grandfather Alceus.
Hercynia wilderness in Persia. See Nigra Silva.
Hermes see Mercury.
Hesperia ‘the western land’, Italy.
Hesperides the daughters of Hesperus, nymphs of the setting sun who guarded the golden apples in the far west.
Hippolytus son of Theseus. When he rejected the advances of his stepmother Phaedra, she accused him of attempting to rape her, causing Theseus to call on Poseidon (Neptune) to destroy him. The god sent a monster to terrify his chariot-horses, which dragged him to his death.
Homer Greek epic poet, reputedly blind, and who composed the Iliad and the Odyssey.
Hyades daughters of Atlas who were turned into seven stars in the constellation of Taurus and who were believed to cause bad weather.
Hybla town in Sicily famous for its honey.
Hydra many-headed monster which lived in the Lernean swamp near Argos; each of its heads would be replaced by two more if cut off, but it was eventually killed by Hercules.
Hylas a beautiful boy kidnapped by water-nymphs from the expedition of the Argonauts; loved and lamented by Hercules.
Hymen Greek god of marriage, conventionally portrayed as a veiled young man bearing a flaming torch.
Iarbas son of Jupiter and Garamantis, king of Gaetulia.
Ibis sacred bird of Egyptian religion.
Icarus the son of Daedalus; he escaped from captivity with his father on a pair of wings held together with wax, but he flew too near the sun, the wax melted and he fell into the sea.
Ida (i) Mount Ida, near Troy, birthplace of Aeneas and site of the Judgement of Paris; (ii) Idalium in Cyprus.
Ilion, Ilium Troy.
Illyrians inhabitants of Illyria, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic.
Inde India or the West Indies.
Io a priestess of Juno, desired by Jupiter; for a time she was metamorphosed into a beautiful cow and then back to the human form in which she bore Jupiter a son, Epaphus.
Iphigen Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, who sacrificed her at Aulis to gain a favourable wind to sail for Troy.
Iris winged messenger of Juno.
Iras a beggar; one of the suitors of Penelope.
Jaertis the river Jaxartes which runs from Tartary into the Caspian Sea.
Janus Roman god of beginnings, doors and gates; the gates of his temple in the Forum stood open in times of war and closed in the rare interludes of peace.
Jason Greek hero who led the Argonauts in the quest for the Golden Fleece of Colchis.
Jebusite Canaanite tribe who were dispossessed of Jerusalem by David; the word became an abusive term for Jesuits.
Jerome St Jerome, 4th-century AD theologian, whose highly influential translation of the Bible into Latin (the Vulgate) was the standard text of the scriptures until the Reformation.
Jubalter Gibraltar.
Juno goddess of marriage, wife of the incessantly promiscuous Jupiter. She defended the sanctity of marriage by seeking the destruction of those who were implicated in his adultery. Saturnia was a cult name for Juno.
Jupiter most powerful of all the gods. The son of Saturn, who attempted to eat him in his infancy, he was protected by his mother Ops, and overthrew his father; famed for his use of thunderbolts to resolve disputes both human and divine, and his wide-ranging and insatiable sexual appetites; also frequently called Jove.
Justinian Flavius Petrus Justinianus (c. AD 482–565), Roman emperor at Constantinople who codified Roman law in his Corpus juris civilis.
Lacedaemon Sparta.
Lantchidol the Indian Ocean.
Laocoön Trojan priest who tried to prevent his countrymen from accepting the Trojan Horse, but who was killed with his sons by a monstrous sea-snake.
Larissa coastal town on the border between Syria and Egypt.
Latona beloved of Jupiter, mother to both Diana and Apollo.
Lavinia princess of Latium in Virgil’s Aeneid; she was destined to marry Aeneas, the destroyer of her betrothed, Turnus.
Leander the hero of Marlowe’s poem Hero and Leander, he swam the Hellespont to meet his beloved Hero, but died trying to swim home.
Lerna site of a swamp in Greece, home of the monstrous Hydra which Hercules killed.
Lesbia the woman addressed in the erotic poetry of Catullus.
Lethe one of the three rivers of the underworld; its waters induced forgetfulness.
Limnasphaltis bituminous lake near Babylon; its fumes supposedly killed birds which flew over it.
Lopus, Doctor Dr Roderigo Lopez, Elizabeth I’s physician, who was hanged in 1594 for his alleged involvement in a plot to poison the queen.
Machda Abyssinian town, capital of the legendary Christian king of Ethiopia, Prester John.
Machevil Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527), Italian historian and political thinker; reviled in Elizabethan England for supposed atheism and for the advocacy of ruthlessness in his manual for rulers, The Prince.
Manico Manicongo, an African province.
Mare Maggiore the Black Sea.
Mare Rosso the Red Sea.
Maro see Virgil.
Mars god of war and lover of Venus.
Mauritania province of north-west Africa.
Mausolus 4th-century BC king of Caria in Asia Minor, whose tomb, the Mausoleum, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Media province of the Persian empire.
Megaera one of the Furies.
Meleager a prince of Calydon, who heroically killed the wild boar Diana sent to ravage his land.
Memphis former capital of Egypt and site of the Pyramids.
Menelaus the king of Sparta, married to Helen, who was carried off by the Trojan prince Paris, thus precipitating the Trojan War. In Elizabethan literature he was commonly associated with ineffectualness and cuckoldry.
Mercury messenger of the gods, and god of travellers, lawyers and thieves.
Midas king of Phrygia, whose touch turned all things to gold (including, unfortunately, his food). He judged the music of the satyr Marsyas superior to that of Apollo, for which misjudgement the god made asses’ ears g
row on his head.
Minerva goddess of war, wisdom and handicrafts; her shield bore the head of the gorgon Medusa, who was killed by Perseus with her assistance.
Morpheus god of dreams.
Musaeus legendary poet whom Aeneas meets in his journey through the underworld in Virgil’s Aeneid (VI, 666–7).
Myrmidons the bodyguard of Achilles.
Natolia Anatolia, the entire promontory of Asia Minor. Marlowe sometimes uses it as the name of a town in the region.
Neoptolemus the son of Achilles; also called Pyrrhus.
Neptune god of all waters, including the sea; he shared the dominion of the world with Jupiter and Pluto.
Nigra Silva the ‘Black Forest’ of Hercynia, held to be highly dangerous in the 16th century.
Nilus the river Nile.
Ninus the first Assyrian king, founder of Nineveh; his queen was Semiramis.
Niobe in Greek myth, she boasted that her seven children made her superior to Leto (Latona), the mother of Apollo and Artemis; in revenge, these two killed all her children with their arrows. Niobe wept until she was turned to a pillar of stone, which continued to weep.
Nubia north African province between the Red Sea and the Nile.
Oblia Olbia, area near the Black Forest.
Oceanus god of the ocean.
Octavius (63 BC–AD 14), nephew of Julius Caesar; later known as Augustus; ruler of Rome.
Oenone a nymph of Mount Ida, who stabbed herself when her former lover, Paris, died at her feet during the Trojan War.
Olympus the highest mountain in Greece, reputedly the habitation of the twelve gods, as well as the birthplace and home of the Muses.
O’Neill Irish clan leader in the reign of Edward II.
Ops goddess of the earth, fecundity and riches, wife of Saturn, and mother of Jupiter, who eventually usurped Saturn’s throne.
Orcus Roman name for Hades, god of the underworld.
Orestes son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; he killed his mother in revenge for her murder of his father, and was subsequently pursued by the Eumenides (the Furies) but aided by his loyal friend Pylades and his sister Electra.
Orion a giant blind huntsman, transformed after his death into the constellation bearing his name, which is predominant in winter.
Orminius Mount Horminius, in Natolia (Asia Minor).
Ormus prosperous trading city in the Persian Gulf.
Padua north Italian town, famous for its university.
Paean cult-name of Apollo as god of healing.
Pampelonia Pamplona, capital of Navarre.
Paphos town in Cyprus.
Paris son of Priam and Hecuba. The most beautiful man in the world, he was chosen to decide which goddess should be awarded a golden apple inscribed ‘for the most beautiful’. Offered greatness by Juno, conquest by Minerva and the gift of the most beautiful woman in the world (Helen, the wife of Menelaus) by Venus, he gave the apple to Venus. He deserted his lover Oenone and abducted Helen, precipitating the Trojan War.
Parma, Prince of Tyrannical Spanish governor-general of the Netherlands (1579–92), who was a byword for Catholic cruelty.
Parthia Asian kingdom, south-east of the Caspian Sea.
Patroclus friend and possibly lover of Achilles.
Pegasus winged horse, associated with Mount Helicon, home of the Muses.
Penelope wife of Odysseus and archetype of marital fidelity who frustrated her many suitors by insisting that she would not remarry until she had completed a shroud for her father-in-law. During her husband’s absence she spent each night unravelling the shroud to ensure that it would never be finished.
Pergama (Pergamum) Troy.
Persepolis capital of Persia.
Phaethon ‘the shining one’, son of Apollo, the sun-god, who ignored warnings not to ride his father’s chariot. When he lost control, he burnt a scar in the sky (the Milky Way) and plummeted to earth; Jupiter destroyed him with a thunderbolt during his descent, and thus prevented the destruction of the earth.
Phalaris 6th-century BC tyrant of Acragas (Agrigento) in Sicily. He roasted his enemies to death in a brazen bull, which was later used to kill him. A series of improbably humane letters were attributed to him.
Pharsalus site of the most savage battle of the Roman civil wars, at which Julius Caesar defeated Pompey (48 BC). It gave its title to Lucan’s epic poem Pharsalia, of which Marlowe translated the opening book.
Philip Philip II, King of Spain 1556–98, briefly husband to ‘Bloody’ Mary Tudor, and the monarch responsible for the almost successful invasion of England by his Armada in 1588.
Phlegethon a river of fire, a boundary to the underworld.
Phoebe Diana, goddess of the moon.
Phoebus Apollo, god of the sun.
Phoenissa see Dido.
Phrygia the region of Troy in western Asia Minor.
Phyteus rare name for Apollo, i.e. the sun.
Pierides the daughters of King Pierus of Thessaly; they challenged the Muses to a song contest and were turned into magpies for their presumption.
Pliny Caius Plinius Secundus (AD 23–79), ‘the Elder’; Roman writer, compiler of an encyclopaedic Natural History.
Pluto the god who ruled the underworld; he abducted Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres, from Sicily, and made her his queen.
Podalia in the southern part of Russia, close to Romania.
Polony Poland.
Polyphemus Cyclops who ate people until his single eye was blinded by Ulysses.
Polyxena daughter of Priam and Hecuba; she was sacrificed by Neoptolemus on the tomb of Achilles.
Portingale, Bay of Bay of Biscay.
Priam king of Troy and father (in Homer) of fifty sons and many daughters.
Procne wife of the Thracian king Tereus; when he raped her sister Philomela she served up her own son Itys to him in a stew.
Prometheus Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans.
Proserpina daughter of Jupiter and Ceres, Proserpina (Greek Persephone) was abducted by Pluto, who made her queen of the underworld; her distraught mother persuaded Jupiter to allow Proserpina to live half the year with her (summer) and half with Pluto (winter).
Proteus omniscient sea-god who could change shape.
Pygmalion a king of Cyprus who created a statue with which he fell in love; at his entreaty Venus brought the statue to life.
Pylades devoted friend of Orestes.
Pyrrhus son of Achilles (also called Neoptolemus).
Pythagoras 6th-century BC Greek philosopher, ascetic and mathematician, who originated the doctrine of metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls.
Ramus Pierre de la Ramée (1515–72); French humanist and philosopher who advocated a simplification of Aristotelian logic and rhetoric; killed in the St Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
Rhadamanthus son of Zeus, whose just life was posthumously acknowledged by his being made a judge of the dead.
Rhamnus site of the temple of Nemesis in Attica.
Rhamnusia Nemesis, goddess of fate and retribution, whose temple stood at Rhamnus in Attica.
Rhesus Thracian ally of the Greeks at Troy.
Rhode Stadtroda, in eastern Germany.
Rhodope (i) mountain in Thrace, famed as the site of Orpheus’ dismemberment and for its silver mines; (ii) queen of Thrace; (iii) Greek courtesan.
Riso town on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor.
Roscius celebrated actor in 1st-century BC Rome.
Rutiles Italian tribe ruled by Turnus.
Saba in the Old Testament, Sheba, whose queen challenged Solomon with ‘hard questions’ (1 Kings 10:1).
Samarcanda Samarkand, central Asian town, south-east of the Aral Sea.
Samnites an ancient people of central Italy.
Sancina town on the Black Sea coast of Asia Minor.
Saturn god of time and leader of the Titans; father of Pluto, Neptune, Juno and Jupiter, the last of whom overthrew him and ended the Golden Age.
Saturnia see Juno.
Saul king of Israel; God ordered him to destroy the Amalekites completely, but he spared King Agag and the best of the flocks, until rebuked by Samuel for his disobedience (1 Samuel 15).
Scalonia Ascalon, usually called Scalonia on ancient maps, a Philistine city on the coast of Palestine.
Scheckius Jacob Shegk (1511–87); German logician, opponent of Ramus in a famous philosophical dispute over the value of Aristotle.
Scylla a monster from whose lower body grew the heads of barking dogs. She menaced ships in the Straits of Messina, opposite the whirlpool Charybdis.
Selinus Sicilian town, site of a temple to Jupiter.
Semele one of Jupiter’s lovers, who was consumed by lightning when she demanded that he should appear to her in his true form.
Semiramis legendarily beautiful Assyrian queen, wife of Ninus, she refortified Babylon and built its hanging gardens.
Shatillian Elizabethan spelling of Châtillon, town in France and the name of the prominent family of the Coligny.
Sichaeus (Sychaeus) Dido’s husband, whose murder at the hands of her brother Pygmalion drove her to flee to Africa.
Sidon city in Phoenicia.
Silvanus Roman god of the woods.
Sinon Greek agent who deceived the Trojans into taking the Wooden Horse into Troy.
Sinus Arabicus the Red Sea.
Sirens female sea-deities who lured sailors to their deaths with their song.
Sixtus Pope Sixtus V, pontiff 1585–90, who revolutionized and centralized the power of papal administration and virtually rebuilt Rome in the process; he also began the overtures to Henry of Navarre which eventually prompted his conversion to Catholicism.
Socrates philosopher and teacher in 5th-century BC Athens, eventually executed for allegedly corrupting the morals of Athenian youth.
Soldino coastal town opposite Cyprus.
Soria (i) Syria; (ii) Zor, i.e. Tyre.
Stoka Stoko, a town on the Dniester.
Styx the principal river of the underworld.
Tanaïs the river Don, the boundary of Europe and Asia.
Tenedos an island off the coast of Troy.
Terrene Sea the Mediterranean.
Tesella area south of Oran in North Africa.
Thebes Greek city in the province of Boeotia. The stones of its walls rose to the music of Amphion.
The Complete Plays Page 68