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Classical Mythology/Characters: Difference between revisions
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* [[Badass Grandpa]]
* [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]]: [[Trope Codifier]]
* [[The Cape (trope)]]: His most admirable qualities are his hate for liars, oath breakers and the unjust.
* [[Casanova]]
** [[Improbable Species Compatibility]]
** [[Incest Is Relative]]
* [[Cool Horse]]: He kept [[Pegasus]] after Bellerophon's fall.
* [[Depraved Bisexual]]: Usually goes for beautiful women but on occasion, ''extremely'' good-looking young men are included to his "diet". Just ask Ganymedes.
* [[Double Standard Rape (Divine on Mortal)]]: He's the trope image, and around a third of the examples are devoted to his exploits.
* [[Grandpa God]]: Was portrayed as this sometimes.
* [[Jerkass]]: However, his character in the myths is quite balanced, and this is not true in every story.
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* [[Virgin Power]]: According to a myth from Argos, Hera once every year restored her virginity by bathing in the spring of Kanathos. According to different myths, she birthed Hephaestus without any male involvement.
** According to a Roman myth, Juno gave birth to Mars (Ares) without any male involvement, but Vulcan (Hephaestus) was fathered by Jupiter.
* [[What Beautiful Eyes!]]: Much is made of her having large, dark eyes. Common epithets are "sloe-eyed" and "cow-eyed".
* [[Woman Scorned]]: Most myths about her focused on this aspect.
* [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]: To a certain extent; most of her crazy is generally turned against Zeus' paramours, though he felt the lash of her scorn as well. It's just that she couldn't ''do'' anything to Zeus besides yell at him.
'''Poseidon'''
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* [[Hair-Trigger Temper]]
* [[Making a Splash]]
** [[Giant Wall of Watery Doom]]
** [[Kill It with Water]]: Well, of course!
* [[Papa Wolf]]: [[Odyssey|Odysseus]] messed with one of his kids and lived to regret it.
* [[Physical God]]
* [[Prongs of Poseidon]]: The [[Trope Namer]], for his [[Weapon of Choice]].
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* [[Sadly Mythtaken]]: Hence [[Everybody Hates Hades]].
** The hilarious irony is that the Ancient Greeks hated him as well. Thanks to [[Values Dissonance]], he's become [[Unintentionally Sympathetic]] to modern audiences.
* [[The Stoic]]: He and his wife both have the emotional range of a statue. The one time he is driven to [[Tender Tears]], they are tears of ''iron''.
'''Hestia'''
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* [[Heart Is an Awesome Power|Hearth Is An Awesome Power]]: Although today, Hestia's domains are considered rather insignificant, she was one of the most important gods in the entire Greek Pantheon (though this isn't reflected in the myths).
* [[Maiden Aunt]]
* [[Overshadowed by Awesome]]: Subverted in that she never gave a shit about being ''awesome''.
* [[Physical God]]
* [[Proper Lady]]: You know the whole 'divine dignity' thing? She's the best example with her ''proper'' behavior. The other gods are too [[Jerkass]] to mortals and each other.
* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]
* [[Static Character]]
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* [[Sleeps with Everyone but You]]: Her relationship with her husband.
* [[Spontaneous Generation]]: Supposedly born when Kronos cut off Ouranos' genitals and threw them into the ocean. This lends to one of her other names ''Philommedes'' which translates as "lover of members". Because she was born from them, of course.
* [[Spear Counterpart]]: Her son Priapus, the [[Bigger Is Better in Bed|extremely well-endowed]] god of male sexuality and fertility, equally revered and feared but not as important since, back in those times, men weren't supposed to be interested in sexuality that much.
* [[Trickster]]: She can be underhanded, as seen in the tale of Eros and Psyche.
* [[Unkempt Beauty]]: Often said to be one of her characteristics.
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* [[War Is Glorious]]: Athena represents the elements of war coming together beautifully.
'''Apollon''' (Apollo)
God of "beardless youth", light, archery, the arts, etc. Associated with the Roman gods, Phoebus and Helios. Later, he also became a solar deity with the assimilation of Helios with Apollo. Romans also associated Phoebus with Helios and the sun itself. However, they also used the name legaced by the Greeks, Apollo.
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* [[The Archer]]
* [[Bi the Way]]
* [[Casanova]]
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: He skins the satyr Marsyas alive for daring to challenge him in music.
** He also cursed King Midas to have donkey ears for being the only guy who voted Marsyas the winner.
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* [[Light'Em Up]]
* [[Light Is Not Good]]: Like most of the other Olympians, he has a bad side.
* [[Momma's Boy]]: Was ''really'' protective of his mother. He killed Python when Hera sent the giant snake to kill Leto and later killed the giant Tityos for trying to rape his mother. When Niobe boasted of her superiority to Leto because she had fourteen children, he killed all her male 7 children
* [[The Medic]]: Not just Apollo, but some of his children, specifically Asklepios and Hygeia<ref>as in "hygeine" she taught humans about bathing</ref>. Even today, physicians swear by them.
* [[My Sister Is Off-Limits]]: Apollo disapproved of Orion's relationship with Artemis, so he created a [[Scary Scorpions|giant scorpion]] to kill him. Orion went looking for Artemis, who was practising her archery on an island, but Apollo beat him to her and [[Schmuck Bait|bet she couldn't snipe the distant object bobbing towards the island.]] She did, and was so furious with Apollo that she killed his scorpion and immortalized Orion as a constellation. Apollo turned the scorpion into stars as well so it could keep chasing Orion across the skies.
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Another god of war. While Athena ruled over strategy and wisdom, Ares ruled brute force and courage. His nearest Roman equivalent was '''Mars''', who however was also a god of agriculture. The more martial Romans put Mars in a much higher place in their religion than the Greeks put Ares, and in fact the Romans believed themselves to be Mars's descendants.
* [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]]: He and Aphrodite got along ''really'' well.
* [[Amazon Brigade]]: He was the father of the Amazons.
* [[Berserk Button]]: Attacking his children isn't a very good idea.
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** [[Light Is Not Good]]: [[Jerkass|Perhaps the best embodiment]] of this trope in the whole mythology.
* [[Momma's Boy]]
* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: In Nonnus's peom ''Dinoysiaca'' he killed Adonis for being Aphrodite's lover.
* [[Papa Wolf]]: Athenians explained the name of the Areopagus by saying the first trial there was when Poseidon prosecuted Ares for murder, over the death of his son Alirrothios. Ares was acquitted on the defense that he was protecting his daughter Alkippe from being raped by Alirrothios.
* [[Physical God]]
* [[Psychopathic Manchild]]: Homer's portrayal of Ares in his epic had this element; he'd charge into battle roaring and killing all who got in his way when on a mission, but when seriously injured he would run back to Zeus and complain about it.
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* [[Beast and Beauty]]: With his wife, Aphrodite.
* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: The inverse assumption, Ugly Is Evil, is played viciously straight by the other gods.
* [[Chained to a Bed]]: The method Hephaestus uses to prove she's cheating on him with Ares.
* [[Continuity Snarl]]: In some versions of Hephaestus' birth-myth, he was conceived by Hera without any help from Zeus; supposedly she was jealous over his [[Mister Seahorse]] act in bearing Athena. In some versions of ''Athena's'' birth-myth, Hephaestus helps dig her out of Zeus' head.
* [[Double Standard]]: Had multiple lovers himself but did not take his wife's infidelity well.
* [[Drop the Hammer]]
* [[Forged by the Gods]]: Everything he made; he endowed most of the Olympians with their [[Iconic Item|Iconic Items]].
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* [[Distaff Counterpart]]: Iris, the goddess of rainbow, also share the role of messenger with him.
* [[From a Certain Point of View]]: After stealing Apollo's cows as a toddler, he promised Zeus he would never lie again. As if a god of cunning and wit needs to ''lie'' to be dishonest...
* [[Good Parents|Good Parent]]: Hermes, in comparison to the rest of the gods aside from Ares, was a model parent. One could argue that he was even doting. Just see his reaction to Pan
* [[I Believe I Can Fly]]: His [[Iconic Item]] is his winged sandals.
* [[Loveable Rogue]]: He lies, cheats, steals, and whatnot, but is generally thought to be and portrayed as one of the nicest gods. Also see [[Angel Unaware]].
* [[Papa Wolf]]: Pelops killed Myrtilus. Hermes would damn all his descendants, essentially being the responsible for all the tragedies of The House Of Atreus
* [[Physical God]]
* [[Pretty Boy]]: His literary appearances describe him as looking young and very beautiful. Then again, plenty of vase paintings give him a full beard, so it depends on the author.
* [[Psychopomp]]: One of his duties was guiding souls to the Underworld.
* [[Staff of Authority]]: His winged staff
* [[Super Speed]]
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* [[Chest Burster]]: Born out of Zeus's thigh. Interestingly, Zeus had actually ''stitched him up in there'' after his mother had died, to preserve him before birth.
* [[Chivalrous Pervert]]
* [[Fun Personified]]: His definition of 'fun' varies from time to time. It isn't always pretty.
* [[The Hedonist]]
* [[King Incognito]]: He seems to spend half his time going around in disguise.
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* [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]
* [[Blow You Away]]: As the first of the Protogenoi and the god of the air
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The closest thing to it in [[Classical Mythology]]. [[Ovid]] described it as “a rather a crude and indigested mass, a lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed, of jarring seeds and justly Chaos named”
* [[The Older Immortal]]: If it even has sentience, which is unknown. It is the oldest being in the Greek Cosmology
* [[One-Scene Wonder]]: In ''[[Theogony]]'' where it birthed Gaia, Tartaros, Nyx and Eurebos .
* [[Power of the Void]]: Maybe. It is a bottomless gulf where anything falls endlessly and is a place without any possible orientation, where anything falls in every direction
* [[Primordial Chaos]]: [[Trope Namer]]
* [[Pronoun Trouble]]: For a "creature" that lacks [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]], and perhaps even gender, female pronouns are used a lot, though gender neutral one are common too.
* [[Truly Single Parent]]
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The underworld, or that special part of it where the dead suffer, and the personification there of. This makes him different from other gods of the under world in classical mythology in that while they rule, it is named after them only in the form of {ruler's} land(s)/domain/kingdom/what-have-you, [[Sadly Mythtaken|a common mistake]] made all the more difficult to correct by [[Speak of the Devil|the fear of speaking the name of such deities]]. He is located below the younger protogenoi; Gaea, Pontus and Ouranus. He is sometimes depicted as the father of Typhon, having had an affair with Gaia.
* [[Almighty Janitor]]: Powerful enough to hold the titans and several monsters prisoner for eternity, Tartarus is apparently content with his position as jailer/jail of the gods.
* [[Anthropomorphic Personification]]
* [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]]: As mentioned below, loyalty doesn't seem to be big on his list of priorities, yet he's constantly used to contain threats to the gods by whichever one is in power at the time, likely because he's simply the only one powerful enough to do so.
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]
* [[Hell]]
* [[I Fight for the Strongest Side]]: Was the divine prison under the reign of Uranus, Cronos, and Zeus.
* [[Sealed Evil in a Can]]: He ''is'' the can the gods used to seal evil in.
* [[True Neutral]]: Doesn't seem to have a preference as to what he's holding prisoner or who he's holding them prisoner for.
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** [[Misplaced Retribution]]
* [[Conflicting Loyalty]]: Trust her husband or trust her sisters; either way it came down to the protection of her unborn child.
** [[My God, What Have I Done?]]
** [[Tears of Remorse]]: As Eros flew off, Psyche was “prostrate on the ground, filling the place with mournful lamentations.”
* [[Curious as a Monkey]]: Grownup version.
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** [[Love Will Lead You Back]]: And it does. Eventually.
** [[To Hell and Back]]: One of only seven to succeed, as well as being the only woman and completely mortal (no [[Divine Parentage|Divine Ancestry]] whatsoever) to do so.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Frequent victim of this.
* [[Divine Date|Divine Marriage]]
** [[Love Before First Sight]]: She was [[Forbidden Fruit|forbidden to look upon her husband]] and still managed to fall for him.
** [[Eternal Love]]
** [[God Couple]]: By the end.
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* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: On one hand, she went through a [[Redemption Quest]] to get him back. On the other, her [[Curiosity Is a Crapshoot|curiosity]] had her fall into [[Faux Death|eternal sleep]] when she [[Forbidden Fruit|opened the box of beauty]]. On a third hand, technically they both needed to earn their happy endings so even if Psyche had finally [[Impossible Task|gained Aphrodite’s forgiveness and approval]] it would not change a thing if Eros had not forgiven her (he too had to earn his by coming to terms that his wife is fallible and standing up to his mother).
** [[Babies Ever After]]: Their daughter Hedone / Volupta (means either Delight or Pleasure).
* [[Every Thing Is Better With Princesses]]: Third daughter of a king of Sicily.
** [[Princess in Rags]]: While completing Aphrodite/Venus’s tasks.
* [[Faux Death]]: After opening the [[Shmuck Bait|Box of Beauty]].
** [[True Love's Kiss]]: How she is [[wikipedia:Psyche Revived by
* [[Forbidden Fruit]] /ShmuckBait: She nearly averted this. When her husband Cupid told her never to look upon his true form, she was perfectly fine with it until her sisters convinced her that he might be a horrible monster (despite that she had previously felt his body and had plenty chance to feel his face). At least she only had to deal with a [[Mama Bear]] that was already mad at her instead of the [[Deader Than Dead]] fate that usually befalls those who look upon undisguised gods.
** And then, when she was sent to bring back the beauty of Persephone in a box, she peeked.
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* [[Missing Mom]]: His nymph mother ran away after his birth. Fortunately, his dad (Hermes) thinks he's awesome and really loves him.
* [[Musical Assassin]]: His primary weapon is his flute.
* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]] : In a rather literal sense as he is the one that spreads ''Pan''ic.
** Greek warriors never knew why thousands of men would stand bravely for a long time and then suddenly stampede with no warning. All they knew was it was a great mystery so they attributed it to Pan.
* [[Physical God]]
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* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: "The Furies" is an obvious one. Tisiphone means "Vengeful destruction".
* [[Nightmare Face]]: [http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/F46.1.html And how!]
* [[Speak of the Devil]]: They were sometimes reffered to as "The Kindly Ones".
* [[Tears of Blood]]: In response to [[Magic Music|Orpheus]].
* [[Whip It Good]]: Their standard form of punishment.
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'''Flora'''
Roman goddess of spring, grain and flowers with no Greek equivalent, first worshipped by other Italic tribes. Her feast, the ''Floralia'' ran from April 28 to May 3 and was a bit raucous.
* [[Ethical Slut]]: One of her cognomina was ''meretrix'', "whore".
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* [[Boisterous Bruiser]]
* [[Book Dumb]]: He wasn't as clever as the likes of Nestor or Odysseus, but Heracles had a remarkable talent for thinking on his feet in situations when his strength alone wouldn't cut it. Examples include his defeating Antaeus, tricking Atlas to take back possession of the sky and his escaping from a sacrificial altar by using the claws of his lion cloak to cut through the bindings. Not for nothing did Athena like Heracles more than any other Olympian except Zeus. The guy wasn't terribly bright, but he was a natural battle strategist.
* [[Clothes Make the Superman]]: Heracles is already a tough guy, but the impenetrable Nemean Lion's pelt cloak made him almost invulnerable. He even dons the aegis of Zeus himself when he's in a pinch against Alebion, his brother Bergion and their army; with Zeus's aegis, he manages to come out on top.
* [[Death Glare]]: The reason Charon give him free ride for the twelfth labor.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: So many, but beating up Thanatos (the Greek god of '''Death''') is just one example. He takes it even further when he decides to sack Pylos. Hercules takes on '''Hera''', '''Ares''', '''Hades''' and '''Poseidon''' with only Artemis to aid him. He spears Ares in the thigh, wounds Hera in her right breast and shoots Hades in the shoulder with his arrows. If that wasn't overkill, he shoots Apollo in the shoulder just for trying to heal Ares.
* [[Trope Codifier|The]] [[The Hero|Hero]]
* [[Hot-Blooded]]: And holy SHIT, how. This guy would go stage a HUGE war for a mere verbal insult one day, and at the other he'd fight Thanatos to bring an old friend's dead wife back to life.
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* [[Our Founder]]: The Spartans claimed descent from him.
** It wasn't just the Spartans. Most Greek Kings claimed descent from him to justify their right to rule. Even Alexander the Great claimed descent from [[World's Strongest Man|Heracles]] through his father, and descent from [[Invincible Hero|Achilles]] through his mother.
* [[Parental Favouritism]]: Zeus liked to brag about Hercules to the extent that it intesified Hera's hatred of Hercules.
* [[Really Gets Around]]: Like father, like son. His "thirteenth" labour involved sleeping with 50 daughters in a single night. Every single one of them was knocked up.
* [[Shoot the Medic First]]: Inverted, as he only shoots Apollo after he starts healing Ares, whome Hercules had previously speared in the thigh.
* [[Super Strength]]: He's stronger than most gods, let alone mere mortals, [[Everybody Knows That|but you probably already knew that. It's even in the dictionary after all.]]
* [["Well Done, Son" Guy]]: Some interpretations of his character.
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* [[Psycho Ex-Girlfriend]]: Jason should have known what he was getting into; the woman ''killed and dismembered her own brother'' to slow down her father's pursuit.
* [[Woman Scorned]]: [[Trope Namer|The phrase comes from Euripides' play]] entitled, well, ''[[Medea]]'', making her the [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Yandere (disambiguation)]]
'''Orpheus'''
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* [[Bi the Way]]
* [[Determinator]]
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: On the receiving end: The Maenads, [[Ax Crazy]] followers of Dionysus, tore him apart for not singing happy songs.
* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: Hades did warn him that Orpheus would never meet Eurydice again if he failed the trial. Some text say he wasn't dead even when vivisected, his head still singing mournful songs. That's until inhabitants of Lesbos Island buried his head and built a shrine in his honour.
* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Has one since Eurydice's death; he recovered for a while but losing her for second time put him over the [[Despair Event Horizon]].
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* [[Eye Scream]]: Eat Odysseus' sailors and reap the consequences!
* [[Genius Bruiser]]
* [[Guile Hero]]: His most dangerous weapon by far was his tremendously sharp mind.
* [[Happily Married]]: In ''The Odyssey'', where all he wants to do is get home to his wife. Yes there are stories where he cheats on her and/or she cheats on him, but they're not by Homer, which makes them the ancient Greek equivalent of ''fanfiction''; in the real canon he is faithful to Penelope and she to him.
* [[Homoerotic Subtext]]: With Eurymachus.
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* [[Insane Troll Logic]]: [[Scylla and Charybdis]]. One will eat some of his men, the other will eat ''all'' his men.
* [[King Incognito]]: Before taking his final revenge on the suitors.
* [[Papa Wolf]]
* [[Rightful King Returns]]: He successfully got home and regained his throne.
* [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]]: Odysseus slaughters every suitor and twelve maids in his home once he returns.
* [[Royals Who Actually Do Something]]: He is king and warrior.
* [[Schmuck Bait]]: He thinks and plans the greatest one in recorded legend, the [[Trojan Horse]].
* [[The Smart Guy]]
* [[Supernatural Aid]]: Athena took a shine to him during the Trojan War and continued to help him on his journey home.
* [[The Trickster]]: Which makes sense when you remember that he is the grandson of [[Lovable Rogue|Autolycus, the world's greatest thief]], which makes Hermes, the [[Trickster Archetype]] himself, his great-grandfather. He may also be the son of [[Manipulative Bastard|Sisyphus]], the [[Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?|god-swindling]] SOB who seduced his mother on her wedding night, so no matter how you look at it, guile is [[In the Blood]].
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'''Achilles'''
* [[Achilles' Heel]]: [[Trope Namer]]
* [[Achilles in His Tent]]: Once again, the [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Anti-Hero]]: Bordering on [[Villain Protagonist]]. Achilles performs many acts of douchebaggery throughout the poem and is one of the biggest jerks in ancient literature. This makes for a good foil between him and Hector, who can be seen as much more heroic than his Greek opponent.
* [[A Real Man Is a Killer]]: Could be the [[Ur Example]] in ancient times and still hold up today. However, Achilles's experience in the battlefield was minimal compared to the rest of the kings taking part in the war, and he was more of a loose cannon at best.
* [[Badass]]: One of the biggest ones in literature.
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* [[The Berserker]]: One of the most widely known in literature.
* [[Break the Haughty]]
* [[Byronic Hero]]
* [[Death Is Dramatic]]: Chasing the entire Trojan army into the city, taken down by Paris with the help of Apollo? Achilles is just that [[Badass]].
* [[Divine Parentage]]
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: During his [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]] he beats down the local river god... while crossing his river.
* [[Doomed by Canon]]
* [[Fatal Flaw]]: Both pride and wrath.
* [[Glory Hound]]
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One of the worst of Tartarus' residents, Sisyphus was damned to eternally roll a rock up a hill. The rock would inevitably turn and roll back down just as he was achieving anything. This was ''not'' [[Disproportionate Retribution]] for his crimes.
* [[Cain and Abel]]: With his brother, Salmoneus, going so far as to consult the oracle at Delphi on how to kill Salmoneus without incurring any penalties, and seducing his neice Tyro just to hurt Salmoneus.
* [[The Casanova]]: In addition to seducing Odysseus' mother on her wedding night, Sisyphus had numerous other affairs, including one with his neice, Tyro.
* [[The Charmer]]
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'''Gigantes'''
The last children of Ouranus, born from his blood fertilizing Gaea when Kronos castrated him, possibly as Aphrodite was born from the sea. The didn't get involved much in the Titans affairs, including when the Olympians took power in the Titanomachy. However, they latter fought the Olympians in the Gigantomachy, which they would have won if not for Hercules' aiding the Olympians. Many individuals are named, though again their are multiple different accounts of just what occured with each of the Gigantes.
Eurymedon was their king. The brothers Ephialtes and Otus of Aloadae were either caused to kill each other by accident by Artemis after they captured her in an attempt to take her and Hera for their wives, or else slain by the arrows of Apollo and Hercules. Alcyoneus and Porphyrion where amoung the strongest of them and slain by Hercules in the Gigantomachy, the latter being first wounded by Zeus's lighning bolt before taking Hercules arrow. Athena killed Pallas and Enceladus, burying the latter under Mt. Etna like Typhon. Artemis killed Gration with her arrows. Poseidon crush Polybotes under an island. Hephestus killed Mimas with molten iron. Hermes turned invisible to kill Hippolytus with a sword. Dionysus killed Eurytus with his [[Simple Staff|thyrsus]]. Hecate immolated Clytius. Even the Moirae joined in, beating Agrios and Thoon to death with [[Carry a Big Stick|bronze clubs]].
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