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Classical Allusions to Know for the AP Literature Test
Aeneas: son of Aphrodite (goddess of love) and Anchises. He led the Trojan survivors
of the war between the Greeks and Trojans to Italy and thus became the legendary
founder of the Roman people.
Agamemnon: brother to Menelaus (husband of Helen of Troy). Agamemnon was a
leader in the Greeks’ attack on the Trojans to recover Helen from Troy. His wife,
Clytemnestra, plotted with her lover to murder Agamemnon when he returned from the
war with Troy. His daughter, Electra, then revenged his death at the hands of
Clytemnestra and her lover by killing Clytemnestra. The Electra Complex derives from
Electra’s obsession with her dad and her killing of her mother.
Achilles: the most illustrious Greek warrior in the Greek-Trojan War. His mother, who
was an immortal and a sea nymph, counseled him against going to the war because she
knew he was fated to die. He died by a wound to his heel, which was his only vulnerable
part.
Adonis: Greek god of rebirth and vegetation (like Osiris in Egyptian mythology). He
was loved by women for his beauty.
Ajax: one of the bravest of the Greek warriors in Homer’s Iliad, the story of the Greek
and Trojan wars. He was also dull-witted so has become a prototype of the strong but
dumb fighter.
Amazons: tribe of great women warriors in Greece. Their leader was named Hippolyta.
Aphrodite: Greek goddess of love; her Roman name is Venus.
Apollo: son of Zeus; the sun god or god of light. He was also the god of prophecy,
healing, and music and was protector of the herds.
Artemis: Greek goddess of fertility, virginity, the hunt, childbirth, and the moon. Her
Roman name is Diana.
Athena: Greek goddess of war and wisdom; daughter of Zeus who sprang full-grown
out of his head.
Aurora: Roman goddess of the dawn. Represents daybreak.
Bacchus: Roman god of wine; god of fertility. Also known as Dionysus. Associated
with fertility rites, orgies, and, eventually, by the Middle Ages, associated with Satanic
rituals and witchcraft.
Basilick (also called Cockatrice): this animal was called the King of the Serpents. He
had a crest or comb on his head and held himself upright, unlike other serpents. The
basilisk could kill by merely looking at the object it desired to kill.
Cassandra: daughter of Priam, King of Troy. She prophesied the conquest of Troy by
the Greeks and the destruction of Troy. She represents the idea of prophesying doom.
Cerberus: In Greek mythology, a monstrous dog that guarded the entrance to Hades.
Ceres: Roman fertility goddess (associated with grain/cereal). Demeter to the Greeks.
Circe: In the Odyssey, lover to Odysseus. A “Siren” or seductress.
Cupid: The son to Venus. He married Psyche. He was blind. His Greek name is Eros.
Daphne: In Greek mythology, a nymph who was turned into a laurel tree. The tree is
sacred to Apollo because he fell in love with Daphne and chased her until she was turned
into a tree to preserve her virginity.
Dido: Queen of Carthage and lover to Aeneas, founder of Rome. Their love ended
tragically when he betrayed her with another woman.
Elysium: The part of Hades where the heroic and noble live.
Epicurus: Greek philosopher who believed man should seek pleasure by attempting to
achieve peace and tranquility of spirit through a simple life. His philosophy, though,
became corrupted by some who professed it: some believed Epicurus taught just to live
for the day or for physical pleasure.
Eros: Greek god of love.
Eurydice: a beautiful mortal who was loved by Orpheus, the son of Apollo, the god of
music. Eurydice was taken to the underworld (e.g., died), and Orpheus loved her so
much he followed her there to save her. He was told by the god of the underworld,
Hades, that Eurydice could follow Orpheus out of the underworld but that if Orpheus
looked back to see if she was following, she would disappear. Orpheus did look back,
and Eurydice disappeared; he lost her forever.
The Furies: three goddesses who punished by their secret stings the crimes of those who
escaped or defied public justice. They are like the modern idea of conscience and its
“stings.”
Hades: Greek god of the underworld.
Hecate: Greek goddess of the underworld. She became equated later with witchcraft
and sorcery.
Hector: Son of King Priam; great Trojan warrior.
Helen of Troy: A beautiful Greek woman, wife of Menelaus. She was stolen by Paris,
the son of Priam, King of Troy. The Greeks then went after her, thus starting the Trojan
War.
Hymen: god of marriage.
Iphigenia: In Greek mythology, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. She
was sacrificed by Agamemnon in return for victory over the Trojans in the Greek and
Trojan War.
Isis: Egyptian goddess of the earth; Osiris, god of the sun, was her husband. Together,
they represented life, death, and rebirth.
Juno: chief goddess of the Romans, wife of Jupiter. Goddess of childbirth and good
counsel.
Jupiter: king of the Roman gods.
Lethe: River of oblivion/forgetfulness in Hades.
Mars: Roman god of war.
Medea: Greek sorceress. Wife of Jason. She got mad at him for betraying her with
another woman, so she killed his and her two sons to get revenge against Jason.
Midas: the mythical Greek king who was offered any wish he wanted by the god
Bacchus; Midas chose the ability to turn everything he touched to gold. After the water
he was trying to drink and the daughter he was trying to embrace turned to gold, Midas
realized his mistake and asked Bacchus to “rescind” the wish, which Bacchus did.
Minerva: Italian goddess of the arts and trade. Parallel to Athena, Greek goddess of war
and wisdom.
Muses: Greek goddesses of the arts.
Narcissus: beautiful Greek youth, son of the river god. He fell in love with his own
image when he saw it in a lake/river, and he died of anguish because he could not reach
this beloved whom he worshiped.
Neptune: Roman god of the sea. The Greek name for him is Poseidon.
Odysseus/Ulysses: Greek warrior in the Trojan War and wanderer after the war. His
wife was Penelope, known for her faithfulness to him in his absence. His son was
Telemachus.
Olympus: the mountain in Greece on which the gods and goddesses lived.
Orpheus: Greek god of music, lover of Eurydice.
Osiris: Egyptian god of the underworld. Husband/son of Isis, goddess of the
underworld. He experiences rebirth (and is succeeded mythologically by Dionysus and
Jesus in this).
Pandora: beautiful Greek woman of many charms or “gifts.” She was given a box filled
with evil things and told never to open it, but she did open it. She thus became the source
of all evils in the world; however, hope also dwelt in the box. (She is analogous in
biblical myth to Eve.)
Paris: Son of Priam, King of Troy, who steals Helen from her husband, Menelaus, thus
starting the Greek and Trojan wars.
Persephone (Proserpine in Greece): goddess of the underworld.
Phoenix: a mythical bird representing death and rebirth: when it burned to death, a new
bird rose out of the dead bird’s ashes.
Pluto: Roman god of the underworld.
Poseidon (Neptune in Roman): god of the sea.
Prometheus: a mortal who dared to go to the mountain of the gods to steal fire from the
gods to take down to humans. For this, he was punished by being tied to a rock and
having birds daily eat out his liver, which regrew each night, only to be eaten again. In
another version, his punishment is to roll a large stone up a mountain, let it roll back
down, and continue rolling it up in this manner eternally.
Psyche: A beautiful mortal girl loved by Cupid, the god of love.
Saturn: Roman god of agriculture.
Satyrs: goat-like creatures who lived in the forest with wood nymphs. Both nymphs and
satyrs were associated with lustfulness. Satyrs got to be associated with Satanism, as
well.
Styx: one of the rivers in Hades.
Tiresias: In Greek mythology, a blind Theban prophet who foretold many things,
including the tragic end of Oedipus’s story.
Venus: Roman goddess of love. Aphrodite for the Greeks.
Vulcan: Roman god of fire. Hephaestus for the Greeks.
Zeus: Greek king of the Gods. Jupiter to the Romans.