Which Greek Hero are You?

He was the son of Apollo and Calliope and the agent of change in Greek religious thought. Orpheus was the world's greatest musician with a magical ability to charm people, animals, and gods with his music. When his wife, Eurydice, was bitten by a snake and died, he went down to the underworld, charmed his way past the three-headed monster dog, Cerebus, and charmed Hades with his music. Hades agreed to release Eurydice as long as Orpheus didn't look back. Orpheus almost made it but couldn't resist and when he looked back, Eurydice was sucked back in. He rescued her a second time but failed again and after that, he could only see her ghost when he played. The Orphic religion was based on his myths and the poetry he supposedly wrote. Its major contribution to religious thought was that good and evil exist in humans and that we must fight the evil to beat death and release our souls to the good side.

It was Theseus who gave us the word 'clue'. After many adventures and acts of heroism, he volunteered to slay the Minotaur in order to stop King Midas from feeding children to it. The king's daughter, Ariadne had fallen in love with Theseus and wanted him to be able to find his way back out of the labyrinth after killing the minotaur. She gave him a ball of thread called a clew which he unraveled behind him and then followed back out. Sadly, during one of his later adventures, he was gone so long that Ariadne thought he was dead and married someone else. He still had his share of the ladies, though! Greek historians believed that he was more than legend and was, in fact, one of their early kings.

Heracles's mother, Alcmene, was pretty cheeky. The name Heracles meant 'glorious gift of Hera'. Hera's oft-cheating husband Zeus tricked the human Alcmene into sleeping with him and even though that was common for him, Hera was furious and tried to kill the baby. His half-sister Athena, in turn, tricked Hera about his identity and she ended up nursing him giving him further supernatural power. When she tried to kill him again with snakes, she found the baby Heracles playing with them and then strangling them. Heracles is known for being the strongest of the Greeks. He went through 12 labors of killing monsters, stealing precious objects, and other physically and mentally demanding tasks.

The ultimate romantic hero, Perseus is the rider of Pegasus and the rescuer and husband of Andromeda. The goddess Athena treasured him both in life and in death when she placed him, as well as his wife, in the stars as constellations. Perseus was the slayer of Medusa and used her head to solve many of the challenges of his adventures. He killed a menacing sea serpent to save Andromeda who was chained to a rock in sacrifice to the serpent. He later became the king of Mycenae and his descendants are the Persians. Some Greek historians believed he was a real historical figure.

Jason is sort of an anti-hero. We root for him because he is the epitome of cool and his stories are so compelling, but - he's a cheat. He and his wife Medea were favorites of Hera who isn't known for being the nicest goddess on the mountain. Jason was raised by a centaur because his parents thought he would be killed by throne usurping uncle. When he came of age, to get the throne back he had to steal a golden fleece from an enchanted ram. He and his Argonauts battled monsters and sirens to get to it. The king that had it said he'd give it to Jason if he completed a few tasks. With the aid of Medea's magic, he cheated on each task and eventually just gave up and stole it!

Atalanta was the only female Argonaut and one of a very few female heroes in Greek mythology. Her father wanted a son and when she was born to him instead, he left her on a mountaintop to die. A bear came along and nursed her and taught her to fight and hunt. She caught the eye of the hero Meleager and adventured with him as one of Jason's Argonauts. Later, Meleager convinced other heroes to let her hunt the Calydonian Boar with them. A few of them died in the process but Atalanta was the first to hit the boar with an arrow. Meleager's uncles tried to take the boar hide from her so Meleager killed them, angering his mother who then killed Meleager in revenge. Atalanta reunited with her father who then wanted her to marry. She said the only way she would marry was if a man could beat her in a race. She was pretty fast and beat men in sports like wrestling all the time. Hippomenes, with the help of Aphrodite, won but only because of supernatural cheating. They didn't give Aphrodite her proper due, though, and were both turned into lions.