Arcadian Nights
Page 37
Strophios King of Phokis, married to Agamemnon’s sister Anaxibia. Father of Orestes’ friend and cousin Pylades.
Stygian Nymphs Guardians of the adamantine sickle, bat skin satchel and dragon-skin helmet of Hades. They lived beside the waterfall where the river Styx enters the underworld.
Styx The river in the underworld which the dead had to cross in Charon’s boat. When the gods swore an oath, it was on the water of the Styx, fetched for the purpose by Iris.
Tantalos Son of Zeus and a mortal woman, much favoured by the gods until he became so overconfident that he invited them to dinner and offered them a dish consisting of the cut-up pieces of his baby son Pelops. The gods restored Pelops to life and punished Tantalos with everlasting hunger and thirst in Tartaros.
Tartaros The deepest level of the underworld, reserved for the harshest punishments and divided from the rest of Hades by a river of fire, Pyriphlegethon.
Tauros Cretan general. He defeated the Athenians and imposed their annual tribute to Crete, but was overcome by Theseus in a wrestling match.
Teutamidas King of Larissa. Held funeral games for his father during which Perseus, competing at throwing the discus, accidentally killed his step-grandfather, Akrisios, as foretold by the Delphic oracle.
Thebes City state adjacent to Attica. Oedipus was its legendary king.
Thermopylae Pass in northern Greece where Leonidas and his small force of 300 Spartans held the mighty army of the invading Persians at bay in the early fifth century BC.
Thespios King of Thespiae in Boeotia. The young Herakles happened to be in the area looking after his stepfather’s cows and had killed a large lion which was harassing both Amphitryon’s cows and Thespios’ sheep. This was not the Nemean monster lion with its invulnerable skin, but a more ordinary one which lived on Mount Kithairon. Thespios had 50 daughters and, experienced shepherd that he was with an eye for a prize ram, liked the look of Herakles. So night by night for 50 nights he sent a different daughter in to Herakles and every one but the eldest bore a child. She bore twins.
Thesprotos King of Sikyon on the north coast of the Peloponnese. He and his wife adopted Thyestes’ daughter Pelopeia after she had been raped by an unknown man, who was actually her father.
Theseus Legendary hero, son of Aegeus, king of Athens, and Aithra, princess of Troezen in the Peloponnese. He killed the Cretan Minotaur, became king of Athens and married Phaedra.
Tiryns A great palace fortress in Argolis, near the port of Nauplia, seat of King Eurystheus, taskmaster of Herakles’ Twelve Labours.
Tisamenos Son of Orestes and his successor as king of Argos. Killed by the rival dynasty of Herakleidai, descendants of Herakles.
Troezen City on the easternmost peninsula of the Peloponnese, the so-called ‘Claw’. Theseus’ native city.
Trojan War The subject of Homer’s great epic poem, The Iliad. The story of how Agamemnon led the Greeks to Troy and fought the Trojans for ten years in order to take back Helen – ‘the face that launched a thousand ships’ – belongs to myth. But the city of Troy, sited near the mouth of the Dardanelles on the north-west coast of Asia Minor, dominated the trade route to the Black Sea and was indeed destroyed in about 1230 BC. So the war may have been about trade and profit rather than adultery and abduction.
Tyndareus King of Sparta, married to Leda. Leda was ravished by Zeus in the form of a swan. Tyndareus was the father of the formidable Clytemnestra, but his other daughter, the beautiful Helen, was the child of Zeus.
Xerxes Persian king who invaded Greece in the fifth century BC with an enormous fleet and army. The fleet was defeated by the Athenians in the battle of Salamis (480 BC) and the army by a mixed Greek force in the battle of Plataia (479 BC) in Boeotia.
Xouthos King of Athens, husband of Creousa. Lacking any children, the couple went to Delphi to get advice from Apollo’s oracle and found Ion, a temple servant, who was Creousa’s long-lost child by Apollo.
Zephyr The west wind.
Zeus King of the gods, son of Cronos, whom he displaced, husband of his sister Hera. Zeus was the god of the sky. His brothers Poseidon and Hades were the gods of the sea and underworld respectively, and his sister Demeter goddess of agriculture and plenty. It was altogether a family affair. Zeus was the father of Demeter’s daughter Persephone, who married her uncle Hades. Most of the other gods and goddesses – Ares, Athene, Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysos, Hephaistos and Hermes – were also the children of Zeus. So were many mortals, including Herakles and Perseus, by Zeus’ brief liaisons in various disguises with innumerable women on earth. The Romans called him ‘Jupiter’.
JOHN SPURLING is the author of many novels and plays, including The Ten Thousand Things, winner of the 2015 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, also available from Overlook. His plays have been performed on stage, television, and radio, including at the National Theatre. He lives in London and Arcadia, Greece, with his wife, biographer Hilary Spurling.
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