It's all Greek to me!
Heroic Homecoming
Nostos
In a fit of divine madness, he murdered his family. To atone, he accomplished 12 deadly and barely feasible labors.
Hercules
“From my grandfather Verus I learned good morals and the government of my temper.”
Marcus Aurelius
He commissioned the Aeneid as a form of Roman propaganda
Augustus Caesar
Sacred bond between guest and host
The favored hero of Athens, known for his intelligence, good governance, and most notably the slaying of the minotaur.
Theseus
“Not a word, Antigone, of those we love, / either sweet or bitter, has come to me since the moment / when we lost our two brothers, / on one day, by their hands dealing mutual death.”
Ismene
Legend has it that this poet, upon his deathbed, asked for the manuscript of his greatest work to be burned. Thankfully, a servant plucked it from the fire.
Virgil
Battle glory
Kleos
With some pretty cool gifts from Athena and Hermes, he kills Medusa.
Perseus
“Therefore, I pay no attention to strangers, nor to suppliants, / nor yet to heralds, who are in the public service, but always / I waste away at inward heart, longing for Odysseus. / These men try to hasten the marriage. I weave my own wiles.”
Penelope
This poet was probably blind
Homer
The two motivations at odds in Aeneas
Furor and Pietas
She could keep up with the guys--she was the first to wound the Calydonian Boar, and she could beat anyone in a foot race. Those shiny apples were just too tempting...
Atalanta
"She tried, distraught, to beat her thighs and what she struck was oak, her breast was oak, her shoulders oak"
Death of Orpheus
This poet was exiled due to "an error and a poem"
Ovid
To thrust, to conclude, to found.
Condere
This powerful sorceress gets back at her husband Jason by killing their children.
Medea
"Don’t make the native Latin warriors change / Their ancient name to Teucrians. Don’t impose / The clothes and speech of Troy. Let Latium be…Troy fell. Now let her name lie fallen with her.”
Juno
His victory at this great naval battle against Antony and Cleopatra led to Augustus becoming the emperor of Rome. This event is depicted toward the center of Aeneas' shield.
The Battle of Actium