The Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch (autobiographies to read TXT) 📕

Ares, called Mars by the Romans, the Greek god of war, and one of the great Olympian gods,

Arethusa, nymph of Diana, changed to a fountain,

Argius king of Ireland, father of Isoude the Fair,

Argo, builder of the vessel of Jason for the Argonautic expedition,

Argolis, city of the Nemean games,

Argonauts, Jason’s crew seeking the Golden Fleece,

Argos, a kingdom in Greece,

Argus, of the hundred eyes, guardian of Io,

Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, who helped Theseus slay the Minotaur,

Arimanes SEE Ahriman.

Arimaspians, one-eyed people of Syria,

Arion, famous musician, whom sailors cast into the sea to rob him, but whose lyric song charmed the dolphins, one of which bore him safely to land,

Aristaeus, the bee keeper, in love with Eurydice,

Armorica, another name for Britain,

Arridano, a magical ruffian, slain by Orlando,

Artemis SEE Diana

Arthgallo, brother of Elidure, British king,

Arthur, king in Britain about the 6th century,

Aruns, an Etruscan who killed Camilla,

Asgard, home of the Northern gods,

Ashtaroth, a cruel spirit, called by enchantment to bring Rinaldo to death,

Aske, the first man, made from an ash tree,

Astolpho of England, one of Charlemagne’s knights,

Astraea, goddess of justice, daughter of Astraeus and Eos,

Astyages, an assailant of Perseus,

Astyanax, son of Hector of Troy, established kingdom of Messina in Italy,

Asuias, opponents of the Braminical gods,

Atalanta, beautiful daughter of King of Icaria, loved and won in a foot race by Hippomenes,

Ate, the goddess of infatuation, mischief and guilt,

Athamas, son of Aeolus and Enarete, and king of Orchomenus, in Boeotia, SEE Ino

Athene, tutelary goddess of Athens, the same as Minerva,

Athens, the capital of Attica, about four miles from the sea, between the small rivers Cephissus and Ilissus,

Athor, Egyptian deity, progenitor of Isis and Osiris,

Athos, the mountainous peninsula, also called Acte, which projects from Chalcidice in Macedonia,

Atlantes, foster father of Rogero, a powerful magician,

Atlantis, according to an ancient tradition, a great island west of the Pillars of Hercules, in the ocean, opposite Mount Atlas,

Atlas, a Titan, who bore the heavens on his shoulders, as punishment for opposing the gods, one of the sons of Iapetus,

Atlas, Mount, general name for range in northern Africa,

Atropos, one of the Fates

Attica, a state in ancient Greece,

Audhumbla, the cow from which the giant Ymir was nursed. Her milk was frost melted into raindrops,

Augean stables, cleansed by Hercules,

Augeas, king of Elis,

Augustan age, reign of Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar, famed for many great authors,

Augustus, the first imperial Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire 31 BC—14 AD,

Aulis, port in Boeotia, meeting place of Greek expedition against Troy,

Aurora, identical with Eos, goddess of the dawn,

Aurora Borealis, splendid nocturnal luminosity in northern sky, called Northern Lights, probably electrical,

Autumn, attendant of Phoebus, the Sun,

Avalon, land of the Blessed, an earthly paradise in the Western Seas, burial place of King Arthur,

Avatar, name for any of the earthly incarnations of Vishnu, the Preserver (Hindu god),

Aventine, Mount, one of the Seven Hills of Rome,

Avernus, a miasmatic lake close to the promontory between Cumae and Puteoli, filling the crater of an extinct volcano, by the ancients thought to be the entrance to the infernal regions,

Avicenna, celebrated Arabian physician and philosopher,

Aya, mother of Rinaldo,

Aymon, Duke, father of Rinaldo and Bradamante,

B

Baal, king of Tyre,

Babylonian River, dried up when Phaeton drove the sun chariot,

Bacchanali a, a feast to Bacchus that was permitted to occur but once in three years, attended by most shameless orgies,

Bacchanals, devotees and festal dancers of Bacchus,

Bacchus (Dionysus), god of wine and revelry,

Badon, battle of, Arthur’s final victory over the Saxons,

Bagdemagus, King, a knight of Arthur’s time,

Baldur, son of Odin, and representing in Norse mythology the sun god,

Balisardo, Orlando’s sword,

Ban, King of Brittany, ally of Arthur, father of Launcelot,

Bards, minstrels of Welsh Druids,

Basilisk SEE Cockatrice

Baucis, wife of Philemon, visited by Jupiter and Mercury,

Bayard, wild horse subdued by Rinaldo,

Beal, Druids’ god of life,

Bedivere, Arthur’s knight,

Bedver, King Arthur’s butler, made governor of Normandy,

Bedwyr, knightly comrade of Geraint,

Belisarda, Rogero’s sword,

Bellerophon, demigod, conqueror of the Chimaera,

Bellona, the Roman goddess of war, represented as the sister or wife of Mars,

Beltane, Druidical fire festival,

Belus, son of Poseidon (Neptune) and Libya or Eurynome, twin brother of Agenor,

Bendigeid Vran, King of Britain,

Beowulf, hero and king of the Swedish Geats,

Beroe, nurse of Semele,

Bertha, mother of Orlando,

Bifrost, rainbow bridge between the earth and Asgard

Bladud, inventor, builder of the city of Bath,

Blamor, a knight of Arthur,

Bleoberis, a knight of Arthur,

Boeotia, state in ancient Greece, capital city Thebes,

Bohort, King, a knight of Arthur,

Bona Dea, a Roman divinity of fertility,

Bootes, also called Areas, son of Jupiter and Calisto, changed to constellation of Ursa Major,

Boreas, North wind, son of Aeolus and Aurora,

Bosporus (Bosphorus), the Cow-ford, named for Io, when as a heifer she crossed that strait,

Bradamante, sister to Rinaldo, a female warrior,

Brademagus, King, father of Sir Maleagans,

Bragi, Norse god of poetry,

Brahma, the Creator, chief god of Hindu religion,

Branwen, daughter of Llyr, King of Britain, wife of Mathclch,

Breciliande, forest of, where Vivian enticed Merlin,

Brengwain, maid of Isoude the Fair

Brennus, son of Molmutius, went to Gaul, became King of the Allobroges,

Breuse, the Pitiless, a caitiff knight,

Briareus, hundred armed giant,

Brice, Bishop, sustainer of Arthur when elected king,

Brigliadoro, Orlando’s horse,

Briseis, captive maid belonging to Achilles,

Britto, reputed ancestor of British people,

Bruhier, Sultan of Arabia,

Brunello, dwarf, thief, and king

Brunhild, leader of the Valkyrie,

Brutus, great grandson of Aeneas, and founder of city of New Troy (London), SEE Pandrasus

Bryan, Sir, a knight of Arthur,

Buddha, called The Enlightened, reformer of Brahmanism, deified teacher of self abnegation, virtue, reincarnation, Karma (inevitable sequence of every act), and Nirvana (beatific absorption into the Divine), lived about

Byblos, in Egypt,

Byrsa, original site of Carthage,

C

Cacus, gigantic son of Vulcan, slain by Hercules, whose captured cattle he stole,

Cadmus, son of Agenor, king of Phoenicia, and of Telephassa, and brother of Europa, who, seeking his sister, carried off by Jupiter, had strange adventures—sowing in the ground teeth of a dragon he had killed, which sprang up armed men who slew each other, all but five, who helped Cadmus to found the city of Thebes,

Caduceus, Mercury’s staff,

Cadwallo, King of Venedotia (North Wales),

Caerleon, traditional seat of Arthur’s court,

Caesar, Julius, Roman lawyer, general, statesman and author, conquered and consolidated Roman territory, making possible the Empire,

Caicus, a Greek river,

Cairns, Druidical store piles,

Calais, French town facing England,

Calchas, wisest soothsayer among the Greeks at Troy,

Caliburn, a sword of Arthur,

Calliope, one of the nine Muses

Callisto, an Arcadian nymph, mother of Arcas (SEE Bootes), changed by Jupiter to constellation Ursa Minor,

Calpe, a mountain in the south of Spain, on the strait between the Atlantic and Mediterranean, now Rock of Gibraltar,

Calydon, home of Meleager,

Calypso, queen of Island of Ogyia, where Ulysses was wrecked and held seven years,

Camber, son of Brutus, governor of West Albion (Wales),

Camelot, legendary place in England where Arthur’s court and palace were located,

Camenae, prophetic nymphs, belonging to the religion of ancient Italy,

Camilla, Volscian maiden, huntress and Amazonian warrior, favorite of Diana,

Camlan, battle of, where Arthur was mortally wounded,

Canterbury, English city,

Capaneus, husband of Evadne, slain by Jupiter for disobedience,

Capet, Hugh, King of France (987-996 AD),

Caradoc Briefbras, Sir, great nephew of King Arthur,

Carahue, King of Mauretania,

Carthage, African city, home of Dido

Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, and twin sister of Helenus, a prophetess, who foretold the coming of the Greeks but was not believed,

Cassibellaunus, British chieftain, fought but not conquered by Caesar,

Cassiopeia, mother of Andromeda,

Castalia, fountain of Parnassus, giving inspiration to Oracular priestess named Pythia,

Castalian Cave, oracle of Apollo,

Castes (India),

Castor and Pollux—the Dioscuri, sons of Jupiter and Leda,— Castor a horseman, Pollux a boxer (SEE Gemini),

Caucasus, Mount

Cavall, Arthur’s favorite dog,

Cayster, ancient river,

Cebriones, Hector’s charioteer,

Cecrops, first king of Athens,

Celestials, gods of classic mythology,

Celeus, shepherd who sheltered Ceres, seeking Proserpine, and whose infant son Triptolemus was in gratitude made great by Ceres,

Cellini, Benvenuto, famous Italian sculptor and artificer in metals,

Celtic nations, ancient Gauls and Britons, modern Bretons, Welsh, Irish and Gaelic Scotch,

Centaurs, originally an ancient race, inhabiting Mount Pelion in Thessaly, in later accounts represented as half horses and half men, and said to have been the offspring of Ixion and a cloud,

Cephalus, husband of beautiful but jealous Procris,

Cephe us, King of Ethiopians, father of Andromeda,

Cephisus, a Grecian stream,

Cerberus, three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to Hades, called a son of Typhaon and Echidna

CERES (See Demeter)

CESTUS, the girdle of Venus

CEYX, King of Thessaly (See Halcyone)

CHAOS, original Confusion, personified by Greeks as most ancient of the gods

CHARLEMAGNE, king of the Franks and emperor of the Romans

CHARLES MARTEL’, king of the Franks, grandfather of Charlemagne, called Martel (the Hammer) from his defeat of the Saracens at Tours

CHARLOT, son of Charlemagne

CHARON, son of Erebos, conveyed in his boat the shades of the dead across the rivers of the lower world

CHARYB’DIS, whirlpool near the coast of Sicily, See Scylla

CHIMAERA, a fire breathing monster, the fore part of whose body was that of a lion, the hind part that of a dragon, and the middle that of a goat, slain by Bellerophon

CHINA, Lamas (priests) of

CHOS, island in the Grecian archipelago

CHIRON, wisest of all the Centaurs, son of Cronos (Saturn) and Philyra, lived on Mount Pelion, instructor of Grecian heroes

CHRYSEIS, Trojan maid, taken by Agamemnon

CHRYSES, priest of Apollo, father of Chryseis

CICONIANS, inhabitants of Ismarus, visited by Ulysses

CIMBRI, an ancient people of Central Europe

Cimmeria, a land of darkness

Cimon, Athenian general

Circe, sorceress, sister of Aeetes

Cithaeron, Mount, scene of Bacchic worship

Clarimunda, wife of Huon

Clio, one of the Muses

Cloridan, a Moor

Clotho, one of the Fates

Clymene, an ocean nymph

Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, killed by Orestes

Clytie, a water nymph, in love with Apollo

Cnidos, ancient city of Asia Minor, seat of worship of Aphrodite (Venus)

Cockatrice (or Basilisk), called King of Serpents, supposed to kill with its look

Cocytus, a river of Hades

Colchis, a kingdom east of the Black Sea

Colophon, one of the seven cities claiming the birth of Homer

Columba, St, an Irish Christian missionary to Druidical parts of Scotland

Conan, Welsh king

Constantine, Greek emperor

Cordeilla, daughter of the mythical King Leir

Corineus, a Trojan warrior in Albion

Cornwall, southwest part of Britain

Cortana, Ogier’s sword

Corybantes, priests of Cybele, or Rhea, in Phrygia, who celebrated her worship with dances, to the sound of the drum and the cymbal, 143

Crab, constellation

Cranes and their enemies, the Pygmies, of Ibycus

Creon, king of Thebes

Crete, one of the largest islands of the Mediterranean Sea, lying south of the Cyclades

Creusa, daughter of Priam, wife of Aeneas

Crocale, a nymph of Diana

Cromlech, Druidical altar

Cronos, See Saturn

Crotona, city of Italy

Cuchulain, Irish hero, called the “Hound of Ireland,”

Culdees’, followers of St. Columba, Cumaean Sibyl, seeress of Cumae, consulted by Aeneas, sold Sibylline books to Tarquin

Cupid, child of Venus and god of love

Curoi of Kerry, wise man

Cyane, river, opposed Pluto’s passage to Hades

Cybele (Rhea)

Cyclopes, creatures with circular eyes, of whom Homer speaks as a gigantic and lawless race of shepherds in Sicily, who devoured human beings, they helped Vulcan to forge the thunderbolts of Zeus under Aetna

Cymbeline, king of ancient Britain

Cynosure (Dog’s tail), the Pole star, at tail of Constellation Ursa Minor

Cynthian mountain top, birthplace of Artemis (Diana) and Apollo

Cyprus, island off the