All Stories

Read mythology stories, myths, legends, and sagas from every world in the archive, with characters, places, and symbols connecting each tradition.

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The Division of the World and the Order of Olympus

After the Titan War ended, Zeus and his brothers divided the powers of the world among themselves: Zeus received the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the realm below. The new king of the gods then settled the immortals upon Mount Olympus, so that the old chaos of struggle gave way, for a time, to a new order in which each god had a place and the world had new masters.

The Thing on the Doorstep

Daniel Upton first believed that his friend Edward Derby had been broken by marriage and a strange illness. Only later did he understand that the thing drawing near his doorstep was not merely a dead body, but a sorcery that stole bodies and identities. In the end, he shot his friend's body dead, because his friend was no longer inside it.

The War of the Giants

After the blood of Ouranos fell into the earth, Gaia gave birth to terrifying Giants. Years later, they launched an assault on Mount Olympus, and Zeus and the gods could save their heavenly throne only with the help of the mortal hero Heracles.

The Battle with Typhon

After the Titans were defeated, Gaia, goddess of the earth, brought forth the terrible Typhon and sent him storming into the sky to challenge Zeus. Zeus was wounded and trapped for a time, but he recovered his strength, pursued Typhon with thunderbolts, and at last buried him beneath Mount Etna.

Prometheus Creates Humankind

The earth already had seas, forests, birds, and beasts, but no creature yet stood upright to gaze at the sky and think. Prometheus shaped human forms from clay and river water, then asked Athena to breathe divine spirit into them. So humankind came into the world, and under his teaching learned how to live.

The Sacrificial Portions at Mekone and the Theft of Fire

At Mekone, Prometheus divided the sacrificial ox on humanity’s behalf, setting before Zeus one heap of white bones and another of good meat. From that choice came the custom by which mortals offer sacrifice to the gods. Enraged, Zeus took fire away from humankind, but Prometheus stole it back—and in doing so brought a far heavier punishment upon himself.

Pandora

After Prometheus brought fire to humankind, Zeus refused to let the deed go unanswered. He ordered the gods to fashion Pandora, the first woman, and sent her to the house of Epimetheus. When the jar she brought with her was opened, suffering scattered through the human world, and only Hope remained inside.

The Ages of Humankind

In the ages ruled first by Kronos and then by Zeus, humankind appeared upon the earth generation after generation: gold, silver, bronze, heroes, and at last the age of iron. Each race lived differently and met a different end, until there remained the world of mortals as we know it—hard-working, mixed with good and evil, still struggling to live amid sorrow.

Lycaon and the Judgment of Zeus

Lycaon, king of Arcadia, heard that Zeus had come down among mortals and deliberately set a dreadful feast before him to test the god. Zeus saw through the crime, burned the palace, changed Lycaon into a wolf, and brought judgment upon the wickedness of humankind.

Deucalion and Pyrrha

Zeus, disgusted by the cruelty of humankind, sent a great flood over the earth. Only Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha survived, carried in a wooden chest. When the waters withdrew, they obeyed an oracle and cast stones behind them; from those stones, the desolate earth brought forth a new race of human beings.

The Wanderings of Io

Io was a young woman from the land around Argos. When Zeus desired her, she was drawn into the wrath of the queen of the gods. Changed into a white heifer and guarded by the hundred-eyed Argus, she escaped only to be driven on by a gadfly, wandering far from home until at last she recovered her human form in Egypt.

The Birth of Athena

Zeus married the wise Metis, but then heard a dreadful prophecy: the child she bore would threaten his throne. To escape that fate, Zeus swallowed Metis. Later, when a terrible pain split his head, Athena sprang from his skull, fully armed.

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