Tantalus, king of Lydia
and son of Zeus, ruler of the gods. Tantalus was honored above all other
mortals by the gods. He ate at their table on Olympus, and once they even
came to dine at his palace. To test their omniscience, Tantalus killed
his only son, Pelops, boiled him in a cauldron, and served him at the banquet.
The gods, however, realized the nature of the food. They restored Pelops
to life and devised a terrible punishment for Tantalus. He was hung forever
from a tree in Tartarus and afflicted with tormenting thirst and hunger.
Under him was a pool of water, but when he stooped to drink, the pool would
sink from sight. The tree above him was laden with pears, apples, figs,
ripe olives, and pomegranates, but when he reached for them the wind blew
the laden branches away. The word tantalize is derived from this story.
Tartarus, the lowest
region of the underworld. According to Hesiod and Vergil, Tartarus is as
far below Hades as the earth is below the heavens and is closed in by iron
gates. In some accounts Zeus, the father of the gods, after leading the
gods to victory over the Titans, banished his father, Cronus, and the other
Titans to Tartarus. The name Tartarus was later employed sometimes as a
synonym for Hades, or the underworld in general, but more frequently for
the place of damnation where the wicked were punished after death. Such
legendary sinners as Ixion, king of the Lapiths, Sisyphus, king of Corinth,
and Tantalus, a mortal son of Zeus, were placed in Tartarus.
Telamon, king of Salamis,
the son of Aeacus, king of Aegina, and the father of the hero and warrior
Ajax the Greater. After he and his brother Peleus were banished from Aegina
for murdering their half brother, Telamon went to Salamis, where he married
the princess Glauce and succeeded to the throne. Telamon fathered Ajax
by his second wife, Periboea, or Eriboea. He later helped the hero Hercules
kill Laomedon, king of Troy, and was given Laomedon's daughter Hesione
in return; she bore him Teucer, who also became a great warrior. Other
famous events in which Telamon took part include the Calydonian boar hunt
and the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece.
Telemachus, son of
Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and his wife, Penelope. The constant companion
of his mother during the long years of Odysseus's wanderings after the
fall of Troy, Telemachus watched with increasing unhappiness as the many
ill-mannered suitors for the hand of his mother lived riotously on his
father's estate. Unable to bear the taunts of these men any longer, the
youth set out for Pylos to learn from the old king Nestor the fate of Odysseus.
Although the old man could not help him, he sent Telemachus to Menelaus,
king of Sparta, from whom the boy learned that his father had been held
prisoner by the nymph Calypso. Still uncertain as to whether his father
was alive or dead, Telemachus returned to Ithaca only to discover that
during his absence Odysseus had returned home. The king had not revealed
himself, however, having been disguised as a beggar. After a joyous reunion,
Telemachus helped Odysseus kill the suitors and make himself known to Penelope.
According to a later legend, Telemachus married the sorceress Circe or
her daughter Cassiphone.
Tethys, a Titan, daughter
of Uranus, god of heaven, and Gaea, goddess of earth. Tethys was the wife
of her brother Oceanus and by him the mother of the 3000 Oceanids, or ocean
nymphs, and of all the river gods.
Teucer, the name of two
heroes, one Trojan and the other Greek. The Trojan Teucer was the son of
the river god Scamander and the nymph Idaea, and was the first king of
Troy. He is thought to be a hero invented by the Teucri, the founders of
the city of Troy. Teucer the Greek was the son of Telamon, king of Salamis,
and of Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. He accompanied his half
brother Ajax to the Trojan War, in which he distinguished himself by his
archery. After the war Teucer was banished by his father because he had
not prevented the death of Ajax, whereupon he sailed to the island of Cyprus
and there founded another Salamis.
Themis, one of the Titans,
the daughter of Uranus and Gaea, Heaven and Earth, and the mother of the
three Fates and the Seasons. The goddess of divine justice and law, Themis
was the constant companion of the god Zeus and sat beside him on Olympus.
In ancient art she is represented holding aloft a pair of scales on which
she weighs the claims of opposing parties.
Thersites, a member
of the Greek army in the Trojan War. Homer describes him in the Iliad as
the ugliest and most impudent of the Greeks. He was beaten by the Greek
hero Ulysses for reviling the Greek general Agamemnon, to the amusement
of the assembled Greeks. According to later writers, Thersites mocked the
Greek hero Achilles for mourning the death of the Amazon queen Penthesilea
and was slain by Achilles.
Theseus, the greatest
Athenian hero, the son of either Aegeus, king of Athens, or Poseidon, god
of the sea, and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, king of Troezen. At the age
of 16, Theseus, having been brought up in Troezen, went to Athens to claim
Aegeus as his father. The young man chose to make the hazardous journey
by land, clearing the road of bandits and monsters. Among the villains
whom Theseus killed, making each suffer the method of death he had inflicted
on others, were Sciron, Sinis, and Procrustes. Theseus arrived in Athens
wearing a sword and a pair of sandals that Aegeus had left for his son
in Troezen. Medea, Aegeus's wife, attempted to poison Theseus, but as soon
as Aegeus recognized the heirlooms, he proclaimed Theseus his son and heir
and banished Medea. His early adventures included his encounter with the
Minotaur, a monster half human, half bull, who was confined in a labyrinth
under the palace of Minos, king of Crete. With the help of Ariadne, Minos's
daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped from the maze. On his
return to Athens, however, he forgot to hoist a white sail signaling his
success against the Minotaur. Aegeus, seeing a black sail, believed his
son dead and threw himself from a rocky height into the sea, which has
since been known as the Aegean Sea. As king of Athens, Theseus was wise
and generous, but he retained his love of danger and adventure. He abducted
the Amazon Hippolyta, who bore him a son, Hippolytus. He took part in the
Calydonian boar hunt and in the quest of the Argonauts for the Golden Fleece.
He was a devoted friend of Pirithous, king of the Lapithae, whom he accompanied
to the underworld to rescue the goddess Persephone. Both men were imprisoned
by the god Hades for their rash deed, but Theseus was subsequently rescued
by Hercules. Returning to Athens, Theseus found his kingdom in disarray,
torn by rebellion and corruption. Unable to reestablish authority, he sent
his children away and sailed to the island of Skyros, where Lycomedes,
king of Skyros, murdered him by throwing him from a cliff into the sea.
Later the Delphic oracle commanded the Athenians to gather Theseus's bones
and bring them back to Athens. The Athenians then paid him great honor
by building him a tomb dedicated to the poor and helpless whom he had befriended.
Thetis, the daughter of
the sea divinities Nereus and Doris, and the most famous of the Nereids.
She was wooed both by Zeus, the supreme deity, and by Poseidon, god of
the sea, until they learned the prophecy that she would bear a son who
would be mightier than his father. She was then given to Peleus, ruler
of the Myrmidons, who was considered the most deserving mortal. By Peleus,
Thetis became the mother of the hero Achilles.
Thyestes, son of Pelops
and brother of Atreus. Thyestes was the rival of his brother for the throne
of Mycenae. He seduced Atreus's wife, Aërope, and persuaded her to
steal the fleece of a golden lamb that Atreus treasured. The people of
Mycenae decided that the possessor of the fleece should be their king,
and Thyestes was chosen. The god Zeus intervened, however, and, by causing
the sun to reverse its course and set in the east, gained Thyestes' abdication.
Atreus succeeded as king and banished his brother. Later he discovered
the infidelity of his wife and in revenge called Thyestes back from exile.
At a welcoming banquet, Atreus served his brother the flesh of Thyestes'
two murdered sons. When this was revealed to him, Thyestes laid a curse
on Atreus and his descendants. The oracle at Delphi then advised Thyestes
to ravish his own daughter, Pelopia. From the incestuous union was born
Aegisthus, who later helped fulfill the curse that Thyestes had placed
on the house of Atreus.
Tiresias, a Theban seer.
He was said to have been struck blind by the goddess Athena because he
had seen her bathing but to have been recompensed by her with the gift
of prophecy. According to another version, he was for a time transformed
into a woman. Later, having become a man again, he was asked by Zeus and
Hera, king and queen of the gods, to tell which sex had more pleasure in
love. When he replied that woman had nine times as much pleasure as man,
Hera, in anger, blinded him, but Zeus granted him long life. Tiresias played
a prominent part in Theban legends, delivering prophecies to Oedipus, king
of Thebes. He died while fleeing the wrath of the Epigoni, bellicose descendants
of the Argive heroes who were killed in the war of the Seven Against Thebes.
Titans, 12 children of
Uranus and Gaea, Heaven and Earth, and some of the children of the 12.
Often called the Elder Gods, they were for many ages the supreme rulers
of the universe and were of enormous size and incredibly strong. Cronus,
the most important of the Titans, ruled the universe until he was dethroned
by his son Zeus, who seized power for himself. The other important Titans
were Oceanus, the river that flowed around the earth; Tethys, his wife;
Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory; Themis, the goddess of divine justice;
Hyperion, the father of the sun, the moon, and the dawn; Iapetus, the father
of Prometheus, who created mortals; and Atlas, who carried the world on
his shoulders. Of all the Titans only Prometheus and Oceanus sided with
Zeus against Cronus. As a result, they were honored and the others were
bound in Tartarus. Eventually, however, Zeus was reconciled with the Titans,
and Cronus was made ruler of the Golden Age.
Tithonus, the son of
Laomedon, king of Troy, and the brother of Priam, Laomedon's successor.
He was loved by the dawn goddess, Eos, who bore him a son, the hero Memnon,
king of Ethiopia. Eos obtained the gift of immortality from the gods for
Tithonus, but, because she forgot to ask that he remain eternally young,
Tithonus in his old age withered away to a decrepit and shriveled old man.
A later account related his final transformation into a grasshopper.
Triptolemus, the
original priest of the corn goddess Demeter and founder of the Eleusinian
Mysteries celebrated in Demeter's honor. The son of King Celeus of Eleusis,
Triptolemus herded his father's cattle. One day he observed the daughter
of Demeter, Persephone, being carried off in the chariot of her abductor,
Hades, god of the underworld. Persephone was restored to her mother, and
Demeter gave Triptolemus the wooden plow and seed corn, and then sent him
to instruct mortals in the art of agriculture. She also taught him the
rites that became the most famous of all Greek religious festivals.
Triton, trumpeter of the
deep, the son of Poseidon, god of the sea, and of his wife Amphitrite.
He lived with his parents in a golden palace in the depths of the sea,
but sometimes went to the coast of Libya, where he once came to the aid
of the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. Human in form to
the waist, but with the tail of a fish, Triton blew loudly upon his large
seashell to raise great storms and blew gently to calm the waves. In later
legends, the attendants of the water deities were known as Tritons, and
they had a similar appearance.
