WOMEN IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY
TROJAN WAR
GREEKS
Clytemnestra, sister of Helen and wife of Agamemnon, whom she kills, mother of
Iphigenia, Electra and Orestes who killed her in revenge for father’s death
Electra, sister of Iphigenia and Orestes, whom she goads into avenging the death of
their father, subject of plays by Sophocles and Euripides
Helen, wife of Menelaus abducted by Paris, subject of play by Euripides
Hermione, daughter of Menelaus and Helen, wife of Neoptolemos and Orestes
Iphigenia, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon sacrificed on Aulis by father to
appease Artemis, subject of two plays by Euripides
Penelope, wife of Odysseus who fends off suitors for 20 years during his absence at
the war and journey home, prominent in Homer’s Odyssey
TROJANS
Andromache, wife of Hector, mother of Astyanax, taken back to Greece by
Neoptolemos, Achilles’s son, and later married Helenus, Hector’s brother, subject of
play by Euripides
Briseis, loved by Achilles but seized by Agamemnon after giving up Chryseis
Cassandra, daughter of Priam, prophetess whose prophecies are doomed to be
disbelieved, taken back to Greece by Agamemnon and killed by Clytemnestra
Chryseis, war-concubine of Agamemnon given back to her father, the priest Chryses,
at the start of Homer’s Iliad
Hecuba, wife of Priam, mother of Hector, Paris, Cassandra, Polyxena and 46 others,
subject of play by Euripides
Polyxena, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, sacrificed by Greeks to get favourable wind
home
OTHERS
Calypso, nymph who holds Odysseus captive for many years on Ogygia until Hermes
persuades her to release him
Circe, sorceress who turned Odysseus’s men into pigs until he persuaded her to
release them; they stayed with her for a year
Eurycleia, the housekeeper who recognises Odysseus from an old scar
Nausicaa, girl who finds Odysseus after he is wrecked on Scherie after Calypso has
released him
Penthesilea, queen of the Amazons who fought for Trojans and was killed in single
combat by Achilles
OTHER MYTHS
Alceste, wife of Admetus for whom she died so he might be immortal but was
rescued by Herakles, subject of play by Euripides
Alcmene, mother of Heracles by Zeus and of Iphicles by Amphitryon
Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia rescued by Perseus from sea monster
Antigone, daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, who accompanied her father in exile,
subject of play by Sophocles
Arachne, she challenged Athene to weaving contest after which she was turned into a
spider
Ariadne, daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, helped Theseus escape the Minotaur’s
labyrinth but was abandoned on Naxos where she was rescued by Dionysos
Atalanta, huntress, took part in Calydonian boar hunt
Callisto, follower of Artemis seduced by Zeus and turned into a bear
Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda who boasted of daughter’s beauty
Danae, mother by Zeus in the guise of a shower of gold of Perseus cast adrift in a box
by father king Acrisius
Daphne, loved by Apollo and was turned into a laurel tree to escape him
Deianira, loved by Achelous and Herakles who fought over her, the latter winning
but whom she accidentally poisoned using a cloak given by the centaur Nessus,
subject of Sophocles’s Women of Trachis
Europa, mother by Zeus in the guise of a bull of Minos, of Rhadamanthus and
Sarpedon
Hippodameia, daughter of Oenomaus and wife of Pelops by whom she had many
children including Atreus, father of Menelaus and Agamemnon
Hippolyte, queen of Amazons whose girdle Herakles had to take, later married
Theseus
Io, mistress of Zeus who turned her into a white heifer to protect her from Hera
Jocasta, mother and wife of Oedipus who committed suicide when she learnt of her
incest
Leda, mother by Zeus in the guise of a swan of Helen and Castor and by her husband
Tyndareus of Clytemnestra and Pollux
Medea, sorceress who helped Jason obtain the golden fleece but was abandoned by
him and killed their children in revenge, subject of play b y Euripides
Medusa, gorgon killed by Perseus
Niobe, boasted with 14 children she was a better mother than Leto but they were
killed by Apollo and Artemis
Pandora, first woman created by Hephaistos for Zeus to punish man after
Prometheus gave him fire, she opened her box releasing all the evils but retaining
hope
Pasiphae, mother of Ariadne by Minos and the Minotaur by a bull
Phaedra, wife of Theseus who fell in love with her stepson Hippolytus, subject of the
play by Euripides
Semele, mother of Dionysus by Zeus who was incinerated when she insisted Zeus
appeared to her in his immortal guise