Amphion and Zethus. LAIUS King of Thebes with poor impulse control. Son of Labdacus. Cousin of Creon and Jocasta. Husband of Jocasta. Father of Oedipus. Scion and forebear of a much-cursed house. After his father overthrown by Amphion and Zethus, raised in exile by Pelops. Repays that trust by grooming Chrysippus. Cursed by Pelops for role in Chrysippus’s death, causing Hera to send the Sphinx to Thebes. Reclaims throne. Exposes the infant Oedipus to avoid an oracle of the Pythia. Victim of unfortunate road rage incident. LAOMEDON King of Troy. Son of Ilos. Grandson of Tros. Tricks Apollo and Poseidon out of payment for building Troy’s walls; then Heracles when rescues Hesione from Poseidon’s sea monster. Later slain by Heracles in revenge. LICHAS Servant of Heracles. Helps him put on the shirt of Nessus. Slain by Heracles for his pains. LINUS Son of the Muse Calliope and Apollo (or possibly Oeagrus). Brother of Orpheus; half-brother of Apollo’s other progeny; possibly stepbrother of Marsyas. Cousin of the Sirens. Short-tempered music teacher, slain by his pupil Heracles. LYCOMEDES King of Skyros. Son of Apollo and Parthenope. Half-brother of Apollo’s other progeny. Host of the exiled Theseus, then slayer of him in a clifftop quarrel. MEDUS Son of Aegeus and Medea. Half-brother of Theseus. Accompanies his mother when she flees Athens after failing to secure the succession of the Athenian throne in his favour. Gives his name to the Medes. MELEAGER Son of Althaea and Oeneus (or Ares). Brother of Deianira and the other Meleagrids. Nephew of the Thestiades. Cousin of the Dioscuri. Neglectful husband of Cleopatra. Cursed with a life the duration of a flaming brand. One of the Argonauts. Smitten by Atalanta. Leads the hunt for the Calydonian Boar. Awards Atalanta the trophy for slaying the boar; then slays the Thestiades for protesting; and is slain by Althaea in revenge, fulfilling his natal prophecy. Posthumous matchmaker between Deianira and Heracles. MELICERTES Son of Athamas and Ino. Half-brother of Helle, Phrixus and Schoeneus. Cousin of Jason. Killed during his mother’s suicide. Transformed by his cousin Dionysus into the dolphin-riding deity Palaemon. MINOS I King of Crete. Son of Zeus and Europa. Half-brother of Zeus’s plethora of progeny. Grandfather of Minos II. With his brother Rhadamanthus and half-brother Aeacus, one of the three Judges of the Underworld. Charmed by the music of Orpheus. MINOS II King of Crete. Grandson of Minos I. Husband of Pasiphae. Father of Androgeus, Ariadne, Deucalion and Phaedra. Defies Poseidon by not sacrificing the Cretan Bull. Demands Athenian tribute for the Minotaur in compensation for Aegeus’s role in the Cretan Bull’s slaying of Androgeus. Patron, then persecutor, of Daedalus; boiled alive in a bath designed by him. NELEUS King of Pylos. Son of Poseidon and Tyro. Brother of Pelias; half-brother of Aeson and Pheres, and of Poseidon’s other progeny. Father of twelve sons, including Nestor. (Half-)uncle of Jason. With Pelias earns Hera’s enmity for slaying their stepmother Sidero. Aids Pelias in seizing Iolcos from Aeson. Refuses to purify Heracles for the slaying of Iphitus; later slain by Heracles in revenge. NESTOR Youngest son of Neleus. Nephew of Pelias. Grandson of Poseidon. Inherits throne of Pylos after Heracles slays his father and eleven elder brothers. One of the wisest and longest-lived of kings. Joins the Argonauts. Advises Jason to take the long way home from Colchis. Hunter of the Calydonian Boar. Counsellor of the Greeks during the Trojan War. OEAGRUS King of Thrace. Thought by some to be father of Linus, Marsyas and Orpheus. OEDIPUS ‘The swollen footed’. King of Thebes. Son of Laius (whom unwittingly murders) and Jocasta (whom unwittingly marries). Father of Antigone, Eteocles, Ismene and Polynices. Scion and forebear of a much-cursed house. Exposed as an infant by Antimedes at the command of Laius. Rescued by Phorbas and Straton. Fostered by Polybus and Merope, who raise him as their own son. Flees Corinth thinking to escape the Pythia’s prophecy. Fatally outwits the Sphinx, earning first a hero’s welcome then a royal one in Thebes. Blinds and exiles himself after discovering his unnatural, prophesied crimes. OENEUS King of Calydon. Husband of Althaea. Father of Deianira and the other Meleagrids, and probably of Meleager. His neglect of Artemis in favour of Dionysus punished by the Calydonian Boar. OENOMAUS King of Pisa. Thought by some to be son of Ares. Husband of the Pleiad Sterope. Father of Hippodamia. Slain by Pelops in chariot race to win Hippodamia’s hand in marriage. ORPHEUS ‘The obscure’. Greatest of all musicians. Son of the Muse Calliope and Apollo (or possibly Oeagrus). Brother of Linus; half-brother of Apollo’s other progeny; possibly stepbrother of Marsyas. Husband of Eurydice. Favoured by Apollo with music lessons, a golden lyre and strings braided from the god’s golden hair. Charms denizens of the underworld with his music. Fails in quest to bring Eurydice back to life. Joins the Argonauts. Out-sings his cousins the Sirens. Torn apart by the women of Thrace. Severed head serves as an oracle on Lesbos. Finally reunited in death with Eurydice. His golden lyre catasterized. PALLANTIDAE The fifty sons of Pallas, brother of Aegeus. Cousins of Medus and Theseus, and rivals with them for the throne of Athens. Slain in battle by