The best Greek myths

Greek mythology can be called the original fables, stories told so long ago that teach us valuable lessons that still resonate in the present. Many Greek myths are indeed centered around the act of revenge, as Gods were very petty entities. With that in mind, Greeks myths are a great way to teach people right from wrong and are more often than not very entertaining, varied, and always capturing the reader’s attention. Here are some of my all-time favorite Greek myths.

1. Orpheus and Eurydice

The story of Orpheus and Eurydice is a sad one. Its a story about how far one will go for the one they love.

Orpheus was a great demigod hero who went on the expedition with Jason and the Argonauts. Once home, he was playing the lyre that was gifted to him by his godly father, Apollo. A beautiful wood nymph named Eurydice heard his sweet music and they fell in love. They quickly got married, and that’s when tragedy struck because almost nobody in Greek mythology can have a happily ever after. Soon after their marriage, Eurydice got bit by a venomous snake and died from the bite. 

Orpheus, so overtaken by grief decided to use his talents (one might dare say powers) to charm everyone in the underworld to get his wife back. Everything was going according to plan. Ge would get Eurydice back on one condition: they had to walk out of the underworld together without Orpheus looking back at Eurydice, who was to walk behind him. Orpheus got extremely close to the exit but at the last second lost faith and looked behind him, dooming Eurydice to spend eternity in the underworld again. 

Now, the reason why this mace the list is because of how romantic it is. Orpheus, although he failed, went through all that work and trouble to try and get his wife back. He didn’t want death to do them part. That’s true commitment. 

Then, other pieces of media influenced my fondness for this myth. Two of the most important ones are the musical “Hadestown” and the video game “Hades.” While Orpheus and Eurydice are who the musical is based around, in the video game “Hades,” they are just supporting characters who at first do not even want to reconnect. Although the player can help the two to reconcile, just interacting with the two characters (especially Eurydice and her delicious cooking, and Orpheus and his gullibility) made me love them and their tragic story even more. 

2. Birth of Athena

The story of Athena’s birth is a very unconventional one. The most important person to know is her father, the king of the gods, Zeus. So a long Greek story short, Zeus was given a prophecy that declared that any child of Metis (who was Athena’s mother) would be stronger than its father and Zeus did not like that. So he ate Metis and their unborn child. This was a very bizarre thing to do as his father. He’s not the only who ate his way out of problems, Cronos ate his other siblings and kept them in his stomach for a long time because he shared the same fear. Anyways, Zeus started having horrible headaches, so unbearable in fact that he made Hephaestus cut open his head to see what the issue was.

Then boom! Out pops Athena, fully grown and dressed in battle armor, ready to fight. Turns out that Metis raised her in Zeus’s mind before she eventually died, so Athena was the cause of his headaches.

I remember when I first read her myth, I thought about how much of a power move it would be to just be born like that. Like you’re getting some form of revenge on your father who wronged your mother, and makes a super awesome appearance because as we all know, first appearances are everything. 

With such a cool origin story like that, it’s no wonder why this is in my opinion, one of the top Greek myths. 

3. Poseidon and horses

This myth made the list because Poseidon is my favorite Greek God, and it has the creation of an insanely cool creature.

So basically, there are two different versions when it comes to why Poseidon made horses. Most people know the more popular one, about how he created them to try and win a contest against his niece Athena for the city of Athens. (FYI, Athena won and that’s why it’s called Athens) But there’s another version that I never learned of.

It goes like this: Poseidon became enamored by Demeter, who some might know as the mother of Persephone, or the Goddess of agriculture. So, to try and win her love and affection, he began trying to create land animals for her, since she lived on the land. I didn’t know this either, but in his quest, Poseidon made camels, hippos, giraffes, donkeys, and zebras. Which is to say, that all of that led to (or at least I believe it did) the creation of one of the coolest mythological creatures ever. The hippocampus! Which is also the name of a part of our brain, but I don’t think there’s a correlation. 

Anyways, Hippocampus is a giant seahorse! That’s so cool! And often, Poseidon had his chariot pulled by Hippocampus, which I can imagine looked super majestic! In addition to that, I remember the hippocampus being referenced in the Percy Jackson books when I used to read them growing up, and the way they were described was so vivid that I loved them. Also, even though I love all animals, I have a soft spot for sea creatures so they quickly became one of my favorite creatures in the series.

So this is one of my favorites because it eventually led to the creation of two awesome animals, horses and seahorses (but giant!) 

4. Icarus

Almost everybody, if not everybody, knows of the boy who flew too close to the sun. But if you don’t, let me give you a quick rundown.

Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a very renowned inventor who created the maze that held the minotaur of Crete. After some point, Daedalus fell out of favor with Minos, the king of Crete. As a punishment, he put both Daedalus and Icarus into the maze, which even Daedalus, the creator, did not know how to escape.

To try and escape, Daedalus created wings that were made of feathers and wax so that he and his son could fly up and out of the maze. Like the caring father he was, Daedalus warned his darling son Icarus to not fly too high or too low as his wings would get ruined in either event.

And as we all know, Icarus didn’t listen to his dear old dad and flew too close to the sun and fell to his death.

While the myth itself is grim, I put it on this list because it teaches a valuable lesson as we all know. But also because of the creativity of Daedalus to come up with such an idea. I also did not know the story behind the wings being made, or I did not remember because I probably learned the story a long time ago. Also, I recently watched Marvel’s Eternals and was delighted to (spoiler warning ahead) see Ikaris, just like the boy he’s named after, fly into the sun at the end. It’s great that Greek myths are still being referenced in media and such.

5. Apple of Discord

Once again, everyone knows some rendition of Snow White, but in the mainstream one we know that after not being declared the fairest of them all by her talking mirror, she creates a poison apple to get rid of her. Well, this is like the origin story to that story.

The story of the Apple of Discord is a very petty one. There was a giant wedding thrown, and only one person was not invited. Eris, the goddess of quarrel. Which, if you’re asking me, sounds like a recipe for disaster already. So, of course, she became angry and picked a golden apple and then the best part happened. Eris, went to the wedding invisible and threw the golden apple onto the table with “to the fairest one” written on it.

There were three goddesses who thought they each deserved the apple. They asked Zeus to choose, but in fear of the wrath from the two that he didn’t pick, he decided to give the responsibility to Paris, prince of Troy, who at the time did not know he was the prince of Troy.

This then led to the Judgment of Paris. In the end, Paris chose Aphrodite and was promised the right to have the prettiest woman.

Long story short, this resulted in the Trojan war. Now, this myth made the list because it was very funny to see how desperate the goddesses were for such a trivial thing, but also because it was connected to multiple other myths as well. It’s interesting when stories intertwine like that. Not only that, it’s still a great commentary on the present. There are plenty of women, just like the goddesses, who put the weight of their beauty over everything else, and some will do or say anything just to be perceived as the most beautiful or “the fairest.” 

6. Sisyphus

Sisyphus is one of the rare few in mythology who have managed to do this one thing: trick or cheat death.

There are many interpretations of how he gets to the point of encountering death, but they all go the same way. Sisyphus chained the spirit of death, making it so that during that time period no one on earth died. Eventually, the gods freed death, and naturally, he went after Sisyphus. He also told his wife to not give him proper burial rights, which was a big deal in the Greek afterlife and Greek mythology. So because she didn’t give him proper burial rights when he died, he was allowed to go back to earth to scold his wife but instead, he just stayed and never went back to the underworld until he died of old age.

As a result of his trickery, Sisyphus had an eternal punishment waiting for him in the underworld. And just like most Greek eternal punishments, his was very harsh. He was forced to roll a giant boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down when he gets close to the top, forever.

Sisyphus and his myth made it on my list because he’s a very cool guy considering he tricked death, not once, but multiple times and was very creative about his methods. Trust me, I’ve read many Greek myths and not many are able to accomplish such a feat. Then there’s also the obvious lesson to not take advantage of people, especially not multiple times because there will a price to pay for your actions. In addition to that, as I’ve said before, I’ve played the video game Hades and Sisyphus was in the game. In fact, he was rather wholesome and helpful. He even became friends with the rock, who he affectionately named “Bouldy.” So their depiction of Sisyphus made me love him even more. 

7. Circe

I’m pretty sure most people have heard the name Circe, but many do not her myth.

Circe is a very cool sorceress, who was also the daughter of Helios, the sun god, and Perse, an Oceanid. So her family was already powerful, which definitely helped her abilities. Her abilities included being able to turn humans into animals and being really good with herbs and such.

Most know her from Homer’s Illiad, where she did just that. She turned all of Odysseus’s men into animals. Odysseus, with help from Hermes, was immune to her magic and eventually became her lover.

She is not a major figure in Greek mythology, but her abilities make her incredibly cool, and she gets to have an island full of animals! Plus, once again there was a reference to her, just as there was to Icarus, in the movie Eternals. Her movie counterpart was not able to turn humans into animals (or at least not that we saw during the movie,) and she was even asked by her boyfriend to turn him into an animal and she had to break the news that she was not capable of doing that to him. In Eternals, the mythology-inspired character was able to change non-sentient matter into another form of non-sentient matter. So essentially, she could turn bronze into gold, water into silver, things like that.

So basically, Circe is just a really cool witch, with an island full of animals and that’s why she’s on the list.

8. Apollo and Daphne

This story is actually pretty tragic and sad, but I’m putting it here because the end of it makes me laugh.

So basically, Apollo got really cocky and disrespected Eros, who also used a bow and arrow. In revenge, Eros shot both Apollo and Daphne, a nymph huntress of Artemis with arrows, but they were slightly altered. 

Daphne’s arrow made her despise Apollo, and Apollo’s arrow made him fall head over heels for Daphne. So while she could not stand to be remotely close to him, he followed at her heels. 

As a result, Daphne ran away from Apollo, which caused him to chase her. Their chase went on for a while, and when she got caught by Apollo, she called out for her father to help her. 

Well, her father did help…by turning her into a tree. Best part of it all, Apollo was still in love with her after she became a tree. 

Now I do not endorse trying to force people to like you back, but this story is funny because out of all the things that her father could have done to help, he turned his daughter into a tree. Just imagining that makes me laugh, in addition to Apollo still being in love with Daphne the tree. Also while reading this myth, it once again made me think back to Percy Jackson, where there was a character later on in the series who was turned into a tree. So bonus points for making me remember one of my favorite book series and making that connection.

Myths, but Greek myths, in particular, are a gateway to another world. They are fascinating insights into how people thought and justified things back then, and relate some of those thoughts to the present. They also (most of the time) teach you a lesson, and some of those lessons can stay with you for the rest of your life. Plus, they’re just cool stories about deities and are funny and interesting to read when you put aside the other factors. I highly recommend reading the ones I listed and even others that are not on my list!