A king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the trojan war. His lineage is cursed with tragedy and misfortune. The curse begun with his great grand father Tantalus, who stole some ambrosia from the gods. As punishment, he was sent to Tartarus where he is submerged in a pool of water which drain every time he tries to drink, under a fruit tree whose branches retract every time he tries to eat. Upon Agamemnon’s return from Troy, he is killed by his wife Clytemnestra.
Born to king Laius and queen Jocasta of Thebes, he is sent to die by his father because of a prophecy that stated he would end up killing his father and marrying his mother. The servant tasked with killing him however took pity on him and gave him to king Polybus and queen Merope to be raised.
After hearing the prophecy from the Oracle of Delphi, Oedipus leaves for Thebes, believing Polybus and Merope to be his parents. He ends up killing a man who unbeknownst to him is his father, and winning the throne of Thebes by answering the sphynx’s riddle, as well as the hand of his mother in marriage. This begins a plague in Thebes.
Upon finding out he killed his own father Oedipus blinds himself with pins and his mother hangs herself.
Firstborn daughter of king Agamemnon, she is sacrificed by her father to appease Artemis after he hunted and killed one of her sacred deer. In the most well known version of the story, she is led to Aulis by her father, under the guise of being married to Achilles, and is unaware of her imminent demise up until the point of her death.
Princess of Calydon and married to Heracles, her name means “man-destroyer”. She unwittingly poisons her husband by smearing centaur blood on his shirt, thinking the potion’s effect will stop his infidelity. She kills herself after his death. Deianira is often associated with combat, and was said to ride a chariot and practice the art of war.
In some versions of the myth, she is raped by Heracles, who then promises to marry her, but is subsequently unfaithful and fathered illegitimate children all across Greece.
Son of Agamemnon, he is absent when his father is murdered after returning from the trojan war with Cassandra as his concubine. He returns from Athens years later and avenges his father’s death by killing his mother and her lover. He subsequently goes mad and is hunted down by the furies, who punish any violation of the ties of family piety.
The wife of king Priam of Troy during the Trojan war, and mother of Cassandra the prophetess.
He inherited the throne of Thebes from his grandfather and soon banned the worship of Dionysus. As punishment, the god caused his mother Agave and aunts to run to Mount Cithaeron in a Bacchic frenzy. He then took Pentheus disguised as a woman to spy on the rites being performed. The women saw him hiding in a tree and attacked him, tearing him limb from limb in a rite called Sparagmos (where an animal of human is sacrificed by dismemberment). The women then returned to Thebes with his head on a stick, and were subsequently exiled.
The ruler of Thebes after the death of Laius by the hand of Oedipus. During his reign his kingdom was challenged by the Sphynx. He offered whoever could defeat it the throne of Thebes and the hand of his sister Jocasta in marriage. This prize was later won by Oedipus.