Introduction

A myth is a story—usually involving supernatural elements—that conveys a moral idea, explains a natural phenomenon, or unravels the mysteries of the past. The ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome left behind a tradition of myth that represents their ideas about religion, history, and the world. Two millennia later, we have inherited these myths in the form of art and literature. The characters and myths summarized in this chart can be found richly rendered on ancient vases and statues and in the works of the following poets, playwrights, historians, and philosophers.

Greek

Homer: The Iliad, the Odyssey

Hesiod: Works and Days, Theogony

Pindar: Odes

Herodotus: Histories of the Persian Wars

Aeschylus: The Oresteia

Sophocles: Oedipus Rex, Antigone, Oedipus at Colonus

Euripides: The Bacchae

Aristophanes: The Birds, The Clouds, The Frogs

Plato: The Republic, Symposium, Gorgias

Apollonius of Rhodes: The Argonautica

Roman

Catullus: Poems

Horace: Odes, Epodes

Virgil: The Aeneid

Livy: Histories

Propertius: Love elegies

Ovid: Metamorphoses, The Art of Love

In modern times, Thomas Bulfinch and Edith Hamilton both have written volumes in English that compile and attempt to sort through the myths of Greece and Rome. The Oxford Classical Dictionary is an excellent reference on the subject.