Characters from mythology •
Aeëtes was a king of
Colchis in
Greek mythology, son of the sun-god
Helios and the Oceanid
Perseis (a daughter of
Oceanus), brother of
Circe and
Pasiphaë, and father of
Medea,
Chalciope and
Absyrtus. The name means "
eagle" (aietos). His consorts were
Idyia and either
Asterodia the
Oceanid,
Neaera the Nereid. According to others, he was the brother of
Perses, a king of
Tauris, husband of his niece
Hecate, and father of Medea, Chalciope and Absyrtus. Yet other versions make Aeëtes a native of
Corinth and son of
Ephyra, or else of a certain Antiope. •
Medea is a sorceress who was the daughter of
King Aeëtes of
Colchis, niece of
Circe, granddaughter of the sun god
Helios, and later wife to the hero
Jason, with whom she had two children,
Mermeros and Pheres. In
Euripides's play
Medea, Jason leaves Medea when
Creon, king of
Corinth, offers him his daughter,
Glauce. The play tells of Medea avenging her husband's betrayal by killing their children. •
Absyrtus was in
Greek mythology the son of
Aeëtes and a brother of
Medea and
Chalciope. His mother is variously given:
Hyginus calls her Ipsia,
Hesiod and the
Bibliotheca call her
Idyia,
Apollonius calls her
Asterodeia, and others
Neaera or Eurylyte. When Medea fled with Jason, she took her brother Absyrtus with her, and when she was nearly overtaken by her father, she murdered her brother, cut his body into pieces and strewed them on the road, so that her father might thus be delayed by gathering the limbs of his child.
Tomi, the place where this occurred, was believed to have derived its name from
temno (, "cut"). •
Jason was an
ancient Greek mythological hero who was famous for his role as the leader of the
Argonauts and their quest for the
Golden Fleece. He was the son of
Aeson, the rightful king of
Iolcos. He was married to the sorceress
Medea. Because he belongs to mythology, he may have existed before the
Greek Dark Ages (1100–800 BC.) The people who wrote about Jason lived around 300 BC. Jason appeared in various literary works in the
classical world of Greece and Rome, including the epic poem
Argonautica and the tragedy
Medea. In the modern world, Jason has emerged as a character in various adaptations of his myths, such as the 1963 film
Jason and the Argonauts and the 2000 miniseries of the
same name. Jason is also the main character in the British television series
Atlantis. •
Minos he was the first
King of
Crete, son of
Zeus and
Europa. Every nine years, he made
King Aegeus pick seven young boys and seven young girls to be sent to
Daedalus' creation, the
labyrinth, to be eaten by the
Minotaur. After his death, Minos became a judge of the dead in the underworld. The
Minoan civilization of Crete has been named after him by the archaeologist
Arthur Evans. By his wife,
Pasiphaë (or some say
Crete), he fathered
Ariadne,
Androgeus,
Deucalion,
Phaedra,
Glaucus,
Catreus,
Acacallis and Xenodice. By a
nymph, Pareia, he had four sons,
Eurymedon,
Nephalion, Chryses and Philolaus, who were killed by
Heracles in revenge for the murder of the latter's two companions; and by Dexithea, one of the
Telchines, he had a son called
Euxanthius. By Androgeneia of
Phaistos he had Asterion, who commanded the Cretan contingent in the war between
Dionysus and the Indians. Also given as his children are Euryale, possibly the mother of
Orion with
Poseidon, and Pholegander,
eponym of the island
Pholegandros. •
Icarus – In
Greek mythology, Icarus (the Latin spelling, conventionally adopted in English; ,
Íkaros,
Etruscan:
Vikare) is the son of the master craftsman
Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Often depicted in art, Icarus and his father attempt to escape from
Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus's father warns him first of complacency and then of
hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea. This tragic theme of failure at the hands of
hubris contains similarities to that of
Phaëthon. •
Daedalus was a skillful craftsman and artist. He is the father of
Icarus, the uncle of
Perdix and possibly also the father of
Iapyx although this is unclear. == Major themes ==