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Classical mythology is sometimes referred to as [[Greek Mythology]] by people who don't think the Romans contributed much, and those who prefer not to lump Greek and Roman myths together.
 
For the record: the main alteration of the Romans was to rename all the characters, and produce the ''[[AeneidThe (Literature)Aeneid|Aeneid]]'', a [[Anvilicious|piece of imperial propaganda]] which chronicles [[Fanfic|the Romans' claim to a Trojan pedigree]] and fabricate prophecies of the rise of the Caesars (this is not to deny the ''Aeneid'''s widely recognized literary merits, just to say that it was also an [[Anvilicious]] piece of imperial propaganda).
 
However, contrary to common belief, Roman mythology isn't ''completely'' identical; according to Rome's own legends became closer to Greek mythology around the end of the monarchy and the foundation of [[The Republic]]. Before that, Roman mythology was ''probably'' (though records are sparse) more similar to that of their closer neighbors - the Etruscans. Take, for instance, the emphasis on complicated divination methods that were alien to the Greeks or the fact that some of their gods, such as [[Germans Love David Hasselhoff|Mars]] or [[Hero Withwith Bad Publicity|Saturn]], are largely different from their Greek counterparts. The Roman religion (the actual practice of worshiping the gods in question) was also extremely different from the Greek one, dealing more with human representatives of the remote gods rather than stories of the gods themselves.
 
Essentially, think of the Roman version as a [[Continuity Reboot]] if that helps. It's not really, but it's a close enough analogy.
 
The ''Aeneid'' was a sequel to and imitation of the Greek ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|Iliad]]'', which is attributed to [[Homer (Creator)|Homer]]. The ''[[Odyssey (Literature)|Odyssey]]'' was the original (surviving) sequel to the ''Iliad'', written in Greek and supposedly by the same guy who wrote the ''Iliad'', though we really don't know (especially since Homer was a blind, illiterate poet who relied solely on oral recitations). Both were part of the [[The Trojan Cycle (Literature)|Trojan Cycle]], which included six other lost epics.
 
The central figures of Greek mythology were the [[Classical Mythology/Characters|Twelve Olympians]]: '''Zeus''', '''Hera''', '''Poseidon''', '''Demeter''', '''Ares''', '''Hermes''', '''Hephaestus''', '''Aphrodite''', '''Athena''', '''Apollo''', '''Artemis''', and '''Hestia'''. '''Hades''' lived in the Underworld and thus was not an Olympian; Hestia was sometimes not counted because she gave up her seat to '''Dionysus'''.
 
In Homer's portrayal, they were basically [[Physical God|super-powered humans]] without [[Comes Great Responsibility|the super-]] that comes standard with powers these days. Zeus, for example, was a philandering rapist, responsible for a large share of the [[Half-Human Hybrid|god-human hybrids]] running around. Many of these became great heroes, the most famous of which was '''Hercules/Heracles/Herakles'''. Though you'd think Zeus's wife and [[Brother-Sister Incest|sister]] Hera would be a sympathetic character, she spends most of her time taking out her frustrations on said heroes, probably because Zeus, said to be more powerful than all the other gods and goddesses combined, was beyond her ability to take any meaningful revenge on. Other gods engaged in similar behavior. Hades, while [[Hijacked Byby Jesus|not as]] [[Everybody Hates Hades|evil as his]] [[Theme Park Version]], got his wife by kidnapping his niece '''Persephone''' (with Zeus's approval and assistance). This prompted the girl's mother, Demeter, to [[Just-So Story|create summer in retaliation]]. Greece and Italy are considerably warmer than other parts of Europe, and their summers are much hotter, so as the myth moved north, it became the explanation for winter instead. And [[War God|Ares]]... Well, he ''defines'' [[Jerkass]].
 
The '''Titans''' were a previous generation of gods overthrown by Zeus, though in [[The Theme Park Version]] they tend to be treated as another class of beings entirely. There were also minor gods such as the '''Muses''', '''Graces''', and countless nymphs, plus various monsters which you can today read about in the ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]'' Monster Manual.
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While the Romans generally tried to identify their deities with the Greek ones, there were a few Roman/Italic ones for which no exact Greek equivalent could be found, e.g. '''Flora''' and '''Bellona'''. The former was a nymph-like goddess of flowers and spring (most similar to '''Chloris'''), and the latter was a goddess of war variously identified as Mars' wife or sister (most similar to '''Enyo''').
 
It should be noted that Greek and Roman religious ideas were not monolithic. In later years, people began worshiping all kinds of newfangled eastern gods. [[Plato]] wanted to outlaw [[Homer (Creator)|Homer]]'s epics because [[Moral Guardians|he thought their gods were bad role-models]]. Considering their ''lack'' of [[Comes Great Responsibility]], he may have had a point. Philosophers exercised various degrees of skepticism towards the old myths, to the point that the Epicureans were accused of atheism (though some scholars say that atheism in those days meant a lack of worship for the gods and not a lack of belief). Some historians, notably Euhemerus, tried to reinterpret the gods as having originally been great kings. The Epicurean writer Lucian of Samosata was already [[Deconstruction|deconstructing]] popular religious stories in the second century AD. Belief in classical mythology gradually waned between the second and fifth centuries, largely due to the spread of the then-new religion [[Useful Notes/Christianity|Christianity]]. In fact the Romans' dislike of Christians stemmed from the fact that Christians refused to accept any god but their own, which the Romans considered arrogant.
 
In addition to all this, the Greeks (and, later, the Romans) had a habit of identifying and referring to other people's gods by the names of their own deities. So a Germanic tribe might be said to said to worship Mercury if their principal god was similar enough to the guy; it helped that many of the peoples they came in contact with (the Celts and Germans in particular) were Indo-European and thus their mythologies [[wikipedia:Proto-Indo-European religion|shared a common origin]]. There was also strong regional variation in worship of individual gods, both in emphasizing individual gods and particular attributes of the various gods.
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== Greek ==
* ''[[Theogony (Literature)|Theogony]]''
* ''[[The Trojan Cycle (Literature)|The Trojan Cycle]]''
** ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]''
** ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]''
* Most of the works of ancient Greek tragic playwrights [[Aeschylus (Creator)|Aeschylus]], [[Sophocles (Creator)|Sophocles]] and [[Euripides (Creator)|Euripides]].
 
== Roman ==
* ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]''
* ''[[The Metamorphoses (Literature)|The Metamorphoses]]''
----
=== Tropes: ===
 
== A-C ==
* [[Achilles Heel]]: [[Trope Namer]] that is surprisingly not ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]''. That is the story of his rage, but it doesn't cover many of the famous parts of the [[Trojan War]], including his death and the creation of the Trojan Horse (those are narrated in lost epics of the [[The Trojan Cycle (Literature)|Trojan Cycle]]). In fact, the Achilles Heel myth is not even referenced in the text, and Achilles is more known for his skill, strength, speed, and ferocity than for being nigh-invulnerable.
* [[Achilles in His Tent]]: [[Trope Namer]] again, though not the only example.
* [[Actually, I Am Him]]: Odysseus disguised as a tramp.
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** Also Hephaestus, to his half-sister Athena.
** There's also Atalanta, who, after making a vow of chastity to Artemis, had to kill two centaurs, Rhaecus and Hylaeus, who tried to rape her (some accounts say Meleager killed them). In fact, Centaurs are a common victim (or criminal?) of this trope. They go around trying to rape just about anything with a vagina. The whole Centauromachy happened because the centaur Eurytion tried to rape a woman in a wedding and that woman happened to be the bride. One centaur with amazingly big balls called Nessus tried to rape Deianeira, Heracles' wife. Heracles killed him.
* [[At the Crossroads]]: The Ur-example and [[Trope Maker]] is probably the goddess Hecate who was goddess of the crossroads as well as her prominent realms of the dead, ghosts, magic, night and moonlight (if you didn't live in a region big on Artemis or Selene). Like other deities of paths such as Hermes or the Roman Janus, her offerings would be placed at the crossroads so she would control the evil spirits that walked along them. The Romans had a comparable deity Trivia (though one a bit [[Darker and Edgier]]) so this aspect continued strongest. This rite survived for quite a while into the Christianisation of Europe which leads to religious figures specifically demonising the practice which leads to the strong [[Deal Withwith the Devil]] associations throughout Western Civilisation.
* [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny]]: Atalanta, who's distracted from a footrace by [[How Do You Like Them Apples?|sparkly golden apples.]]
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]]: While [[Hypocritical Heartwarming|Zeus himself]] does a lot of morally ambiguous things to [[Casanova|mortals]], if anyone besides him tries to make a move on Hera (or Leto), he reacts instantly and violently.
* [[Back From the Dead]]: Bacchus, [[Alcestis (Theatre)|Alcestis]], and Orpheus, just to name a few.
** Though in Orpheus's case, he came back from Hades, and hadn't really died.
** Persephone does this every year, but doesn't count since she's a goddess.
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Athena, goddess of [[Gadgeteer Genius|arts and crafts (or possibly technology, depending on your translation)]], [[The Philosopher|philosophy]], and [[The Strategist|strategy]].
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: Medusa, Scylla, Arachne, Io and the [[Exactly What It Says Onon the Tin|major theme of]] Ovid's ''[[The Metamorphoses (Literature)|Metamorphoses]]''. Many of these transformations are afflicted by the [[Jerkass Gods|gods]].
** Not to mention the sailors who landed on Circe's Island...
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: Midas.
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** Eros, every version of him is described as 'the fairest of the deathless gods'.
* [[Blasphemous Boast]]: the gods are quick to take offense and retaliate when they catch anybody doing this.
** [[The Odyssey (Literature)|Ulysses]] would have saved himself several years of hardships had he not bragged to Poseidon to the point of refusing him a sacrifice, or mocking his son Poliphemus after blinding him. As a man of proverbial wit, you'd expect him to know better than anger the god of seas, [[What an Idiot!|especially if you and home sweet home are hundreds miles of sea apart]].
** Queen Niobe brags in public that she has more children than "poor" Leto (the mother of Apollo and Artemis!). The two promptly take it upon themselves to [[Disproportionate Retribution|avenge their mother]] by [[Revenge Byby Proxy|killing each and every one of the queen's children]] and she turns to stone from grief.
** A certain Arachne claims she's a better weaver than Athena? Let's just say there's a reason we call spiders 'arachnids' today...
*** This myth is referenced in [[Cryptonomicon]], where the teller of the tale points out that Athena plays fair during the challenge and actually admits Arachne is as good as she thinks she is. It's not Arachne's blasphemy, but rather her hubris, that results in her being cursed.
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** In one version of the story, Medusa got turned into a monster after having an affair with Hepaestus, and then claiming that she was more beautiful than his wife Aphrodite, goddess of beauty.
** Aphrodite had to deal with this a lot, apparently, since suitors were saying that Psyche (who ended up being [[Misplaced Retribution|the one to catch flack for their boasting]]) was more beautiful than her.
* [[Born Asas an Adult]]: Athena, who is perhaps one of the most [[Just for Pun|classic]] examples of this trope.
* [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu]]: Sisyphus managed to cheat death by chaining up Thanatos. However, doing so messed up the whole cycle of life and death. So eventually the impulsive Ares frees Thanatos (because a war without death would be boring), and Sisyphus was dragged to underworld. He then gets back again by telling Hades that he has to punish his wife because she didn't bury him properly (he told her to do so, the cheater) and lived on like some insurance cheater for some decades until finally dying once and for all. His punishment? Sisyphus must roll a boulder up a steep hill... But it will always roll back down again whenever he's almost at the top, forcing him to perform this pointless task forever.
* [[Broken Aesop]]: Considering how many of the gods and goddesses are [[Karma Houdini|Karma Houdinis]] in their stories, there aren't really any good lessons taught by them, aside from "Don't piss us off." Not to mention that they were frequently pissed by people just being born as beautiful as they are or more.
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* [[Calling the Old Man Out]]: Uranus cruelly imprisoned his children - including the Titans - until one Titan, Kronos, attacked and castrated him. Kronos then proved to be just as bad a ruler, swallowing his own children whole, until his son Zeus successfully overthrew him. Zeus proved to be as bad as his father and grandfather, but [[Karma Houdini|avoided their fate]].
* [[Casanova]]: Zeus's appetite for pretty mortal girls (and occasionally boys, according to a few authors) is quite storied. And with Hera breathing down his neck, he got ''very'' creative with disguises for his conquests. He once did the deed as an ''ant''.
* [[Canon Welding]]: The Roman Pantheon was originally distinct from the Greek one, but as Rome came under the influence of Greek culture, the Roman gods were equated with the Greek ones and by and by adopted all their attributes. The ''[[AeneidThe (Literature)Aeneid|Aeneid]]'' finally extended the lineage of Rome's foundational hero, Romulus, to the Trojan Aeneas, and thus connected Roman legend to the Greek myths about the [[Trojan War]].
* [[The Cassandra]]: Cassandra.
* [[Cassandra Truth]]: [[Trope Namer]].
* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Arguably, Hades.
* [[Chained to Aa Rock]]: Andromeda and Hesione.
* [[Clingy Jealous Girl]]: Hera is a Jealous Wife, but rightfully so, because her job as goddess of family and marriage runs in direct opposition to her husband's ''very'' promiscuous ways. She even torments the poor girls Zeus rapes.
** Persephone turned the nymph Minthe into the mint plant as revenge for trying to sleep with her husband.
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* [[Dark Is Not Evil]]: Usually it is, but [[Sadly Mythtaken|Hades]] and a few other death related entities appear as being neutral if not downright helpful towards humans.
** Contrary to modern portrayals, Hades is supposed to be [[Tall, Dark and Handsome]] as well.
* [[Death Byby Sex]]: Most of the immortals' human consorts... [[Fate Worse Than Death|if they were lucky]].
* [[Death Takes a Holiday]]: Sisyphus and Thanatos.
* [[Depending Onon the Writer]]: [[Loads and Loads of Characters|Lots of characters]], lots of writers, lots of variation.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: A character, Paris, who (if he had) might have realized that his current squeeze, Helen of Sparta, was actually protected by an oath amongst many leading Greek heroes, all of whom had competed for her hand in marriage but feared that, if they won, the others would gang up on him. Finally Odysseus said, "Let's all swear that, whoever she chooses, we'll all defend that man against interlopers if necessary." They did. This is how her husband Menelaos managed to convince a not-really-unified collection of city-states to go to war against Troy.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: In the [[Alcestis (Theatre)|myth of Admetus and Alcestis]], Hercules tackles Death... and wins.
** In the ''Iliad'', with the help of Athena the mortal hero Diomedes wounds both Aphrodite and Ares and drives them off the battlefield. But Aphrodite got her revenge, making Diomedes' wife fall in love with another men, which led to him being driven into exile.
* [[Different for Girls]]: Achilles in a disguise.
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* [[Does Not Like Men]]: Artemis. While Athena and Hestia were also virgin goddesses, at least they weren't hostile towards the idea of even ''meeting'' a man. Ask poor Achteon, who was transformed into a deer, then eaten ''by his own hunting dogs'' for ''accidentally'' peeping on her...
** Sometimes averted in the myth of Orion, the greatest hunter in the history of the world, who she fell in love with and was going to marry. However, her [[My Sister Is Off-Limits|jealous brother]] Apollo bet her she [[Schmuck Bait|couldn't shoot that far-off round object bobbing in the river]], [[Downer Ending|while poor Orion was off bathing]]...
*** Another version of the myth had him create [[Scary Scorpions|Scorpio]] to kill Orion, who, when he couldn't beat it by himself, sought Artemis for help while she was practising archery on an island. Apollo still tricked her into sniping him, and she got revenge by killing Scorpio and [[Ascend to Aa Higher Plane of Existence|immortalizing Orion as a constellation.]]
* [[Don't Look Back]]: The Orpheus story.
* [[Double Standard]]: See Calypso's rant at the beginning of the ''Odyssey'' about how gods get to sleep around, but goddesses don't. Note that bad things can happen to consorts of either.
** The [[Double Standard]] was reversed in those days from what we're used to: [[All Women Are Lustful]].
** On the other hand, in Homeric Hymns, we are told that while Hestia, Athena, and Artemis are immune to Aphrodite's power, Aphrodite had mated every god with mortal women, and every other goddess with mortal men. The hymn then recounts how Zeus saw to it that she got mated to a mortal man, to avoid too much trouble in Olympus.
* [[Double Standard Rape (Divine Onon Mortal)]]: The poster boy for this trope (that's putting it mildly). See [[Karma Houdini]].
* [[Downer Ending]]: Many myths have this kind of ending, although there are some that have a [[Bittersweet Ending|somewhat happy ending]].
** Even the great heroes like Perseus, Theseus, Hercules, Jason and Bellerophon always meet unfortunate ends.
* [[Dressing Asas the Enemy]]: ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' and ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]''.
* [[Driven to Suicide]]: When Oedipus answers the riddle correctly, the sphinx is ''so'' upset that she kills herself.
** Also Narcissus, who was cursed to fall in love with his own reflection by Aphrodite as punishment for cruelly rejecting all the girls (and [[Erastes Eromenos|guys]]) who fancied him. Realising he could never love anyone else so much, he either stabbed himself or threw himself into a river.
** This trope is hardly uncommon, especially in Greek tragedy: going back to Oedipus, Jocasta did not take the news of the revelation well. Then later we have Antigone, Haemon, Eurydice... and that's just the Oedipus trilogy.
* [[Dude, She's Like, in Aa Coma]]: Endymion and Selene, except that it's ''Endymion'' (the ''[[Gender Inverted Trope|dude]]'') who is asleep.
* [[Due to Thethe Dead]]: Good guys bury the dead properly. Always. Insofar as you fail, you are not a good guy until you straighten out your act.
** Or you die because you actually DID it (or because of laws that want to prevent that)... ask [[Antigone (Theatre)|Antigone]]...
* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: Chaos, according to [[Ovid (Creator)|Ovid]], is "rather a crude and indigested mass, a lifeless lump, unfashioned and unframed, of jarring seeds and justly Chaos named." And also Typhon.
** Really, every single one of the protogenoi, specially Ouranos and Nix, fall into this, when not manifesting themselves as [[Humanoid Abomination|pretty people]].
** The Hekatonkheires. Embodiments of natural disasters like Tsunamis, Earthquakes & Volcanic Eruptions, born with fifty heads and one hundred arms, and big enough that mountains are literally throwing rocks to them.
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* [[Enthralling Siren]]: Between two and five of them, and they lured sailors to their death on the rocks.
* [[Eye Scream]]: Oedipus, and HOW.
** Polyphemus (the Cyclops in ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]'') as well...
* [[The Fatalist]]
* [[Father Neptune]]: Or should we say Poseidon.
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** Heracles is mostly recalled as a [[Hot-Blooded]] [[Leeroy Jenkins]], but whenever he ''did'' allow himself to think things a little more, he would be a ''master'' of the [[Indy Ploy]].
** Hephaestus bested Ares using his skills as a smith, considerable wit and formidable strength. Not bad for a guy often considered a joke by the other Gods.
* [[Girl in Aa Box]]: Danae.
* [[God Is Evil]]: Zeus, the king of the gods, appears often as a rapist and a [[Manipulative Bastard]] in some myths, despist his modern [[Sadly Mythtaken|usually benevolent portrayal]]. His father Chronus/Kronos and his grandfather Uranus weren't any better... if not worse. See also [[Jerkass Gods]].
* [[The Great Flood]]: Deucalion and Phyrra again, as well as two other stories.
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* [[Happily Married]]: Baucis and Philemon. Also Hades and Persephone.
** As previously mentioned, Eros and Psyche, surprisingly.
* [[Happy Ending]]: Though often overshadowed by [[Bittersweet Ending|Bittersweet Endings]] or [[Downer Ending|Downer Endings]], especially considering Greek [[Tragedy]], there are actually several stories with happy endings in Greek and Roman mythology, including the story of [[The Metamorphoses (Literature)|Baucis and Philemon]] and that of [[Alcestis (Theatre)|Admetus and Alcestis]], among others.
* [[Has Two Mommies]]: According to a Roman myth, Juno (Greek name: Hera) became pregnant with Mars (Ares) after being touched by a herb grown by the goddess Flora. She did this to get her own back at Jupiter (Zeus) for giving birth to Minerva (Athena).
* [[Hereditary Curse]]: Tantalus prepared his own son Pelops as food for the gods. Not only was he himself punished for this gruesome act (but this is another story...) but also a curse was laid upon the next four generations of his house. How did this curse manifest itself? Let's just say that the House of Atreus (named after Tantalus' grandkid) took being a [[Dysfunctional Family]].
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** This is averted by the likes of Hestia (the goddess of the hearth), Helios (the god of the sun), and Selene (the goddess of the moon), who were all actually pretty benign. (Note however that Helios and Selene weren't part of the main pantheon.) Demeter and Hades were slightly different in that Hades never harassed mortals who didn't screw with ''him'' first, while Demeter was quite understandably upset by the loss of Persephone. When Persephone comes back for six months of the year in spring and summer, Demeter cheerfully attends to her duties as a fertility goddess.
* [[Karma Houdini]]: Many gods and goddesses have a tendency to screw up the lives of various people and get away with it. One example, when Medusa had sex with Poseidon (or in some versions of the story, got raped by Poseidon) in Athena's temple, Athena punished the mortal Medusa by turning her into a snake-haired monster... Poseidon was never punished for this.
** Also worth noting is ''[[Medea (Theatre)|Medea]]'', who was deeply and tragically screwed by Jason, stitched together an [[Disproportionate Retribution|over-the-top revenge]] and left Jason alone. The Gods sided with Medea instead, and Jason was left in a [[Fate Worse Than Death]]. Many historians, [[Divine Comedy|Dante]] included, agreed that Jason was the bad guy and also sided with Medea.
*** She's sided with for a few reasons: First, Jason's patron goddess was Hera, goddess of marriage - fairly obvious why Jason betraying Medea after marrying her didn't go over well with Hera. Second and more importantly, Jason had initially been so moved by Medea's devotion to him that he swore an oath to all the Twelve Lords of Olympus that he would stay with her forever. Meaning that when he abandoned her later, ''this was a direct affront to the entire pantheon,'' and Medea was considered a tool of divine vengeance instead of a murdering psycho. Essentially, her actions are the result of Jason having his [[Karma Houdini]] privileges revoked.
* [[Kill It Withwith Fire]]: The Hydra's heads will regenerate if you destroy them. When Heracles fought the monster, he was assisted by his nephew Iolaus, who seared the heads with a burning torch and prevented them from growing back.
* [[Light Is Not Good]]: Light gods like Apollo and, possibly, Hyperion, are no better than the other gods (Apollo, for instance, is also a god of plague). Also Aethon, the giant eagle that was sent to punish Prometheus, has a name meaning "burning" or "blazing".
** Both Hesiod and Homer described the god of war Ares with light attributes, such as having golden armour and light.
* [[Loads and Loads of Races]]: Easily has more fantastical races than any other mythology.
* [[Lotus Eater Machine]]: [[Trope Namer]] from ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]''.
* [[Love At First Sight]]: A few examples, usually caused directly by some god or goddess [Usually Eros and/or Aphrodite].
** Eros, after a quarrel with Apollo, got back at him by shooting him with an arrow that made him fall in love with Daphne at first sight, after he shot Daphne with an arrow that made her (in simplest terms) hate at first sight.
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* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]: Hera, Hera, Hera... well she ''is'' goddess of marriage, so she can't exactly let that go...
* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: The names of many of their Roman equivalents are far more known (Hercules being the most famous example).
** [[The Spirit (Filmfilm)|"Heracles"? I always thought it was pronounced "Hercules"!]]
* [[Naked First Impression]]: Never peep on a goddess. '''IT WILL NOT END WELL'''.
** Referring to the myth where a hunter is out in the woods and comes upon a spring where Artemis is bathing. She catches him gawking, goes all "YOU PEEPING TOM!!!" and turns him into a stag. Then his own hounds tear his throat out.
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* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: Prometheus.
* [[Oh Crap]]: Several mortals have experienced this when they realize they've just crossed one of the gods, with Lycaon being just one example.
** Subverted with Acoetes, who repeatedly tried to talk his fellow pirates out of kidnapping Dionysus. Dionysus destroys the rest of the crew [[Depending Onon the Writer|(or turns them into dolphins, depending on the myth)]] and Acoetes has this reaction. Fortunately, Dionysus spares Acoetes for trying to talk the rest of the crew out of kidnapping him.
* [[Only Sane Woman]]: Hestia, who is well aware her family is [[Incredibly Lame Pun|divinely]] [[Big Screwed-Up Family|messed up]], and so abdicated her place among the Olympians to Dionysus.
* [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]]
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== S-U ==
* [[Sacred Hospitality]]: Very, ''very'' sacred. As [[What an Idiot!|noted below]], Ixion breeched this trope in the most stone-cold retarded way.
* [[The Scrappy]]: Ares is an in universe example. Zeus flat out tells him in ''[[The Iliad (Literature)|The Iliad]]'' that he hates him most out of all his children, and that if he saw reason for it, he wouldn't hesitate to kill the God of War and never regret it. Ares' actions that caused Zeus's outburst? Complaining that Athena had helped the mortal Diomedes try to kill him, causing him to suffer a severe stomach wound. A severe stomach wound he was suffering ''at that same moment''.
* [[Scylla and Charybdis]]: [[Trope Namer]] from ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]''.
* [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can]]: Pandora's Box, the Titans and Typhon.
* [[Self Fulfilling Prophecies]]: No kidding. Someone along the line should have learned that trying to prevent, kill, or throw away an infant with [[Incredibly Lame Pun|bad prophecy]] is a surefire way of it coming back and, often completely unaware, do exactly what you tried to prevent it from doing (e.g. Perseus, Paris, Oedipus, Romulus and Remus, and many more).
* [[Semi-Divine]]: Many, many demigods. Heracles is only the most famous.
* [[Shapeshifter Mashup]]: What happened to Scylla.
* [[The Smart Guy|The Smart Gal]]: Athena. She is the goddess of [[The Philosopher|wisdom]], [[Gadgeteer Genius|craftsmanship]], and [[The Strategist|strategy]]. Oh, yes and Athens named themselves after her which shows that Athenians were [[Insufferable Genius|not humble]] about their reputation in such matters.
* [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"]]: Not impossible considering the fact that Greek did and still does use a different alphabet than English. An example would be Heracles often being spelled Herakles as well.
* [[Swallowed a Fly]]: Zeus swallows Metis after she transforms into a fly. Cranial pregnancy ensues.
* [[Taken for Granite]]: The Gorgon's victims, Niobe (turned to stone), Amethyst (turned to crystal). Daphne is a variation - she chooses to be turned into a tree to escape from Apollo's amorous advances.
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*** Some texts note that after a couple of peaceful years of crossdressing and housework, Heracles became a much more calm person. What are the odds?
*** Other texts state: At first he was her slave, as punishment for killing a guy when he (Heracles, that is) was insane. Then, she married him when she recognized who he was. Then, he became decadent, and the whole cross-dressing thing started. Later, he got better and left her again.
* [[Who's Onon First?]]: Odysseus.
* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: Tithonos, who was granted eternal life as a favour to his lover Eos, the goddess of the dawn. He was not granted eternal youth, so the gods decided to turn him into a cicada, [[Just-So Story|which sheds its skin to remain eternally young, and chirps at the sign of his love]].
* [[Wild Child]]: Romulus and Remus.
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* [[Yandere]]: Medea. ''Sweet merciful Zeus, Medea''. {{spoiler|what she does to her own kids, and their father, is almost too gruesome to believe.}}
** Hera, too. Doesn't help that her husband is none other than Zeus.
* [[You Can't Go Home Again]]: ''[[The Odyssey (Literature)|The Odyssey]]'', ''[[The Aeneid (Literature)|The Aeneid]]''.
* [[You Can't Fight Fate]], because
** [[You Cannot Change the Future]]: An [[Aesop]] in just about every Greek story. Otherwise unstoppable [[Designated Hero|Designated Heroes]] are brought down by the gods for [[Hubris]] for merely ''thinking'' they can change their future.
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