Going Greek for A to Z!

This year, my A to Z theme on my secondary blog is Greek mythology! I got the idea last year, when my theme was The Divine Comedy. So many people in The Divine Comedy are figures from Greek mythology, and a number of the names I featured were among them.

I’ve loved Greek mythology since I first began learning about it in my sixth grade English class, and my parents (particularly my mother) really encouraged me to read more about it outside of the classroom. My mother even made me read The Iliad the summer before my senior year of high school, since The Odyssey was one of the books in my upcoming AP English class, and she wanted me to be prepared with background.

I deliberately chose names that aren’t so well-known, so you won’t be reading about names like Athena, Zeus, Odysseus, or Persephone. I also operated under the assumption that readers are familiar with mainstays like Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Hera, Helen of Troy, and Athena, the Trojan War, and the fact that Zeus can’t keep it in his pants!

I used Latinized forms for C, J, and U. For F, Q, V, W, and Y, I found names from other mythologies. I used original Greek spellings for K, in spite of the overwhelming predominance of Latinized spellings in the Anglophone world. I have my own style of transliteration.

In the interest of fairness, I always do a male and female name for each day. These are deities, mortals, heroes, villains, and everyone in between.

You’ll learn about characters like:

Xanthos, one of Achilles’s two immortal horses, who stood still on the battlefield and wept after the slaying of Achilles’s best friend Patroklos.

Argos, the loyal dog who waited twenty years for his master Odysseus to come home.

Zethos, who with his twin brother Amphion built the walls around Thebes.

Ixion, whose shocking violations of xenia (hospitality) earned him a terrible eternal punishment.

Hypnos, the kind, gentle god of sleep, who owns at least half of our lives.

Orestes, the only son of King Agamemnon and Queen Klytemnestra, who went crazy after the revenge killing of his mother and was relentlessly pursued by the Furies.

Whaitiri, the cannibalistic Maori goddess of lightning, who thought a mortal named Kaitangata would be a perfect husband for her because his name means “man-eater,” only to be extremely disappointed when he was a gentle person who wanted nothing to do with eating human flesh.

Wayland the Smith, a master blacksmith with a taste for gruesome revenge.

Leto, the mother of Artemis and Apollo, who searched far and wide for a place to give birth after Hera cursed her.

Rhea, the mother of Zeus, who hatched a plan to save him from being swallowed after birth by his father Kronos.

Yoŭnik, an adorable, hard-working, little Belarusian barn spirit who hides from humans and zealously protects the harvest.

I’m really looking forward to sharing all these stories during April! Do be warned, some posts feature paintings or statues with artistic nudity (full or partial), so if you’re offended by that, my posts might not be your style.