10 Famous Greek Mythology Couples

10 Famous Greek Mythology Couples

Greek myths tell of many pairs whose stories were told again and again by the ancient poets. Some are marriages of gods, such as Zeus and Hera, Poseidon and Amphitrite, and Hades and Persephone. Others are love affairs of gods and mortals or of mortals alone, from Orpheus and Eurydice to Odysseus and Penelope. Ten of the best known are told below, each from the ancient authors who tell it.

Zeus and Hera

Zeus, the king of the gods, and Hera, the queen of the gods, were brother and sister, children of Cronus and Rhea (Hesiod, Theogony 453–458). Hesiod calls Hera Zeus’ last wife, and says that she bore Hebe, Ares and Eileithyia (Theogony 921–923). Hesiod also says that Hera bore Hephaestus without Zeus, in anger at the birth of Athena (Theogony 927–929); in the Iliad, Hephaestus is the son of Hera and Zeus (Iliad 1.577–579). Apollodorus lists Hebe, Eileithyia and Ares as the children of the marriage (Library 1.3.1).

Zeus had children by many other goddesses and mortal women, and the Iliad shows Hera as a jealous and quarrelsome wife: in the first book she argues with Zeus on Olympus, and Zeus threatens her (Iliad 1.536–567). In another scene she borrows the girdle of Aphrodite and deceives him, so that Poseidon can help the Greeks (Iliad 14.153–353). Both remain the central pair of Olympus.

Poseidon and Amphitrite

Poseidon, the sea god, married Amphitrite, one of the Nereids (Hesiod, Theogony 243–244). Their son was Triton, a great god who lives in the depths of the sea with his mother and father in a golden house (Theogony 930–933). Apollodorus also names two daughters, Rhode, who married the Sun (Library 1.4.5), and Benthesicyme (Library 3.15.4).

The way Poseidon won Amphitrite is told in a story about the constellation of the Dolphin. According to Hyginus, who cites Eratosthenes, Amphitrite wished to keep her virginity and fled to Atlas when Poseidon wanted to marry her. Poseidon sent many to look for her, among them a dolphin, who travelled through the islands, found her and persuaded her to marry; Poseidon then set the dolphin among the stars as a reward (Astronomica 2.17). The Odyssey speaks of the great waves of dark-eyed Amphitrite (Odyssey 5.421–422, 12.59–60).

Hades and Persephone

Hades, the god of the underworld, married Persephone, the daughter of Zeus and Demeter. The oldest full account is the Homeric Hymn to Demeter. Zeus agreed that his brother Hades should have the girl; Hades seized her as she gathered flowers and carried her down in his chariot while she cried out for her father (Homeric Hymn to Demeter 1–32). Demeter searched for nine days, and in her grief withheld the harvest until Zeus sent Hermes to bring her daughter back (Hymn to Demeter 47–89, 334–374).

Before Persephone left, Hades gave her a pomegranate seed to eat, so that she would not stay for ever with her mother (Hymn to Demeter 371–374, 411–413). The agreement that followed was that she would spend a third of the year in the misty darkness below and the rest of the year with her mother and the other immortals (Hymn to Demeter 398–403, 463–469); Apollodorus says the same (Library 1.5.3). In the Hymn, Hades addresses her as his wife and promises her honour among the gods as queen of the dead (Hymn to Demeter 358–369).

Aphrodite and Ares

Aphrodite was the wife of Hephaestus, but her lover was Ares. The best-known story is the song of Demodocus in the Odyssey: the Sun told Hephaestus of the affair, and he forged a net of invisible chains and trapped the lovers in bed; he called the gods to see them, and Poseidon persuaded him to release them (Odyssey 8.266–366). Aphrodite went to Paphos, and Ares to Thrace.

Their children, according to Hesiod, were Phobos (Fear) and Deimos (Terror), and Harmonia, who became the wife of Cadmus (Theogony 933–937; Apollodorus, Library 3.4.2).

Odysseus and Penelope

Odysseus, king of Ithaca, and Penelope, the daughter of Icarius, were one of the most famous married couples in Greek myth. Odysseus was away from Ithaca for twenty years, ten at Troy and ten on the way home, and in his absence Penelope held off the suitors who crowded his house, promising to choose one when she had finished weaving a shroud for Laertes, and unpicking the work each night (Odyssey 2.93–110). Their son was Telemachus.

When Odysseus returned in disguise and killed the suitors, Penelope tested him before accepting that he was her husband: she told the maid to move their bed out of the chamber, and Odysseus, angry, said that the bed was made around a living olive tree and could not be moved. At this secret known only to the two of them, she knew him (Odyssey 23.177–230). Odysseus himself says that nothing is better than when man and woman keep a home with one mind (Odyssey 6.182–184).

Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus was the poet and singer of Thrace, and Eurydice was his wife. The oldest full telling of the story that survives is Virgil’s: as Eurydice fled from Aristaeus, who was pursuing her, she trod on a water snake and died of its bite (Georgics 4.453–527). Ovid also tells that she was bitten by a snake as she walked in the grass with her nymph companions (Metamorphoses 10.1–10).

Orpheus went down to the underworld through the entrance at Taenarum, and his song charmed the dead and their rulers, so that Hades and Persephone allowed Eurydice to follow him up to the upper world on the one condition that he not look back until they were out (Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.11–63; Apollodorus, Library 1.3.2). At the very edge of the upper air he turned to see her, and she was drawn back, with only a last farewell (Metamorphoses 10.50–63; Virgil, Georgics 4.485–503). Plato says that the gods showed Orpheus only a phantom of his wife, because he was a coward and did not dare to die for love (Symposium 179d).

Theseus and Ariadne

Ariadne was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae (Apollodorus, Library 3.1.2). When Theseus came to Crete as one of the Athenian youths sent as tribute to the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him and offered to help him if he would take her away to Athens and marry her. Theseus agreed on oath. She asked Daedalus how to find the way out of the Labyrinth and, on his advice, gave Theseus a thread to unwind as he entered; he followed it back after killing the Minotaur (Apollodorus, Epitome 1.8–9).

Theseus then sailed away with Ariadne and the children, but did not take her to Athens. In Apollodorus’ account, they landed at Naxos, where Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off (Epitome 1.9). Hesiod says that Dionysus made golden-haired Ariadne his wife, and that Zeus made her deathless and ageless (Theogony 947–949). A much older version, in the Odyssey, says that Theseus was taking Ariadne to Athens but did not enjoy her, since Artemis killed her on the island of Dia because of the testimony of Dionysus (Odyssey 11.321–325).

Eros and Psyche

The only full ancient telling of this story is Apuleius’ Latin novel, the Golden Ass (4.28–6.24), a Roman work of the second century AD, in which the god is called Cupid and the goddess Venus; the Greek names are Eros, Aphrodite and Psyche. Psyche is the youngest daughter of a king, so beautiful that people honour her in place of Venus. Venus is jealous and sends Cupid to make her fall in love with a wretched man, but Cupid is wounded by his own arrow and falls in love with her himself.

He visits Psyche only at night, in secret, and forbids her to see him. Persuaded by her sisters, she lights a lamp to look at him and a drop of hot oil wakes him; he leaves. Psyche then wanders in search of him, and Venus sets her tasks: to sort a huge heap of mixed seeds, to take golden wool from savage sheep, to bring water from the Styx, and to fetch a box of beauty from Proserpina in the underworld. Psyche opens the box and falls into a deathlike sleep, from which Cupid wakes her. Jupiter then makes her immortal and she marries Cupid; their daughter is called Voluptas (Pleasure).

Apollo and Hyacinth

Hyacinth was a Spartan youth, the son of Amyclas and Diomede according to Apollodorus (Library 3.10.3), and Apollodorus says that Apollo loved him and killed him involuntarily with the cast of a quoit, or discus (Library 1.3.3, 3.10.3). Pausanias saw Hyacinth’s tomb at Amyclae, beneath the statue of Apollo, and the festival of the Hyacinthia was held there in his honour (Pausanias 3.1.3, 3.19.3–4).

In another version, the discus was blown off course: Ovid tells that Apollo’s discus struck the boy on the face, and that from his blood Apollo made a flower marked with the cry of grief AI AI (Metamorphoses 10.162–219). According to Lucian, the discus was blown down on the boy’s head by Zephyrus, the west wind, who had loved Hyacinth and been rejected; Apollo buried him at Amyclae and made the flower that bears letters of mourning spring from his blood (Dialogues of the Gods 16).

Perseus and Andromeda

Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus, king of Ethiopia, and Cassiepeia. Cassiepeia boasted that she was more beautiful than the Nereids, and in anger Poseidon sent a flood and a sea monster against the country. The oracle of Ammon said that the trouble would end if Andromeda were exposed to be eaten by the monster, and the Ethiopians forced Cepheus to chain her to a rock by the sea (Apollodorus, Library 2.4.3).

Perseus, returning from killing the Gorgon Medusa, saw her there and fell in love; he promised Cepheus to kill the monster if he gave her to him as his wife. The oath was taken, and Perseus killed the monster and freed Andromeda. Phineus, to whom she had earlier been betrothed, plotted against Perseus, but Perseus showed him the Gorgon’s head and turned him and his fellow conspirators to stone. They had a son, Perses, whom Perseus left with Cepheus when he took Andromeda back to Argos, and later sons born in Greece, among them Alcaeus, Sthenelus and Electryon (Library 2.4.3–5). Perseus had Medusa’s head and winged sandals with the help of Athena and Hermes (Library 2.4.2).

10 Famous Greek Mythology Couples Sources

The couples above come from Hesiod’s Theogony (243–244, 453–458, 921–937, 930–933, 947–949), Homer’s Iliad (1.536–579, 14.153–353) and Odyssey (2.93–110, 5.421–422, 6.182–184, 8.266–366, 11.321–325, 12.59–60, 23.177–230), the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, Apollodorus’ Library (1.3.1–3, 1.4.5, 1.5.3, 2.4.2–5, 3.1.2, 3.4.2, 3.10.3, 3.15.4) and Epitome (1.8–9), Hyginus’ Astronomica (2.17), Plato’s Symposium (179d), Virgil’s Georgics (4.453–527), Ovid’s Metamorphoses (10.1–219), Apuleius’ Golden Ass (4.28–6.24), Lucian’s Dialogues of the Gods (16) and Pausanias (3.1.3, 3.19.3–4).

See Also: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Amphitrite, Hades, Persephone, Aphrodite, Ares, Odysseus, Penelope, Orpheus, Eurydice, Theseus, Ariadne, Eros, Psyche, Apollo, Hyacinth, Perseus, Andromeda