Tales of the Greek Heroes

Tales of the Greek Heroes is a 1958 children’s book by British author and biographer Roger Lancelyn Green. The book offers a concise retelling of key ancient Greek myths, providing young readers with an introduction to classical mythology. Green compiles important stories about well-known gods and heroes into a cohesive, chronological narrative, exploring the themes of The Significance of Heroism in Greek Mythology, The Complex Relationship Between Gods and Humans, and Free Will and the Limitations of Human Agency.

Green was a writer, scholar, and critic born in 1918 and known for his fascination with mythology from around the world. His works include retellings of British, Celtic, Egyptian, and Norse mythology, as in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956) and King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1954).

This study guide refers to the 2010 eBook edition by Puffin Classics.

Content Warning: The source material and guide include depictions of graphic violence, child death, illness, gender discrimination, death by suicide, animal death, and death.

Plot Summary

Green begins by describing the Greek landscape and the world of the Olympian gods. He introduces the 12 main Olympian gods, as well as deities like Dionysus and Hades. Green also mentions the key enemies of the Greek gods: the giants. By the time the main narrative, Zeus, the king of the gods, has already won the 10-year war against the Titans, a more primordial race of gods, and has brought peace to the world.

Zeus tasks Prometheus, a benevolent Titan, with creating humanity and teaching them the ways of life and respect for the gods. However, he forbids Prometheus from giving people fire. Around the same time, Hermes is born to Zeus and Maia, a nymph. After Hermes meets Apollo, Zeus’s child with the goddess Leto, Zeus instructs Hermes to give his brother the lyre, making Apollo the god of music; Hermes takes on the role of messenger for the gods.

Prometheus teaches humanity various arts, but the lack of fire halts human progress. Defying Zeus, he chooses to give humans fire with the help of Athena, the goddess of wisdom. Afterward, he faces Zeus’s anger and prophesies that only a mortal can help Zeus defeat the giants and save Olympus. Nevertheless, Zeus commands Hephaestus, god of the forge, to chain Prometheus on Mount Caucasus. To torment humanity, Zeus creates Pandora, the first woman, who marries Epimetheus, Prometheus’s brother, and opens a box where Prometheus has stored all evils. However, Prometheus has also placed Hope inside the box, giving humans the strength to endure their suffering.

Zeus seeks to find a way to save people after Pandora’s actions. He calls Hermes, and they travel across Greece searching for virtuous individuals. Along the way, they encounter much wickedness, but they also meet an elderly couple, Philemon and Baucis, who treat them kindly and host them at their simple home. Later, they meet Deucalion, King of Thessaly, and his wife, Pyrrha; impressed by their righteousness, Zeus decides to purify the world with a flood and then begin anew with Deucalion and Pyrrha.

The Age of Heroes begins for Greece, even though evil creatures still plague it. Typhon, a monster, leaves Zeus powerless after stealing his immortal sinews, but Prince Cadmus of Thrace recovers them under the guidance of Hermes and Pan, Hermes’s son. Cadmus then establishes his own kingdom following Zeus’s orders and builds the city of seven gates: Thebes.

Dionysus is born after Zeus marries Cadmus’s third daughter, Semele. Hera, jealous that Semele’s son might be more powerful than her own Ares (god of war) and Hephaestus, destroys Semele. However, Dionysus is safely raised by Semele’s sisters. When he grows up, he learns to make wine from the grapes of Mount Nysa, and the Satyrs, half-men and half-goats, become his followers. Dionysus makes it his mission to teach people how to make wine. He faces many challenges, such as being captured by pirates and imprisoned in Thebes. Still, he always escapes using his divine powers. Dionysus is eventually killed in Argos by King Perseus, but Zeus eventually welcomes him to Olympus.

Perseus is the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Danae. Danae’s father, King Acrisius, exiles mother and child due to a prophecy that Acrisius’s grandchild would kill him. Danae and Perseus end up in Seriphos, where King Polydectes challenges Perseus to bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa, a woman with snakes for hair, the mere sight of whom turns onlookers to stone. Athena and Hermes help Perseus by giving him a shield to protect himself from Medusa, and Perseus cuts off Medusa’s head. On the way back to Greece, he finds Andromeda, King Cepheus’s daughter, chained to a rock as a sacrifice to Poseidon, god of the sea, and Apollo. Using Medusa’s head, Perseus turns the sea monsters to stone and frees Andromeda. The two fall in love and return to Perseus’s home in Argolis. After Perseus turns Polydectes to stone and accidentally kills Acrisius, they rule for years.

Alcmena, Perseus’s granddaughter, goes on to become pregnant by Zeus; she will give birth to Heracles, the hero Prometheus foretold. However, Hera is resentful of Heracles and sends two serpents to kill him and his brother when they are infants; Heracles performs his first feat by seizing the snakes and killing them. Because of Heracles’s violent disposition, Zeus sends him to Mount Cithaeron to raise cattle. There, Heracles grows into manhood.

While Heracles is at Cithaeron, two maidens approach him with a dilemma. One of them, claiming her name is Happiness, promises him an easy and pleasant life, free of labor. The second tells Heracles that he will do great exploits and become a legendary hero but that his life will be tough. Heracles chooses the harder path.

Heracles eventually marries Megara, daughter of King Creon of Thebes. This worries Zeus, as Heracles does not perform any feats while in Thebes. Hera convinces Zeus to enslave Heracles to his cousin Eurystheus, ruler of Argolis. To accomplish this, Zeus arranges for Heracles to lose his reason and kill his children; Megara dies of grief, and Heracles, now exiled, is told by the oracle of Apollo that he must complete 10 labors for Eurystheus to atone for his actions.

Eurystheus sends Heracles to kill the Nemean Lion, the Lernean Hydra, the Hind with Golden Horns, the Erymanthian Boar, and the Stymphalian Birds. He also orders him to clean Augeas’s stables and kill the Cretan Bull. Heracles, with the help of Athena, emerges victorious in every challenge. While on his way to retrieve Kind Diomedes’s horses, another of his labors, Heracles visits Admetus, prince of Thessaly. He finds Admetus mourning a princess named Alcestis, who offered to die in Admetus’s place. When Heracles learns about the event, he wrestles with Death and releases Alcestis. Heracles goes on to steal the belt of Amazon warrior Hippolyta and sails back to Greece. On the way, he saves Hesione, daughter of King Laomedon of Troy. When he returns home, Eurystheus assigns him to retrieve Geryon’s cattle.

After this accomplishment, Eurystheus, prompted by Hera, announces two more labors. Heracles accordingly sets out for the Garden of Hesperides to bring back the golden apples guarded by a dragon. Zeus’s guidance leads him to Prometheus, who recognizes him as the expected hero. Heracles releases Prometheus and, following his advice, manages to find the garden. Next, Eurystheus demands Cerberus, the dog who guards the Underworld. Athena and Hermes lead Heracles to the Underworld, where the hero captures Cerberus.

After meeting a young man named Theseus in Troezen, Heracles recognizes him as the next great hero. Determined to reclaim his rightful inheritance in Athens, Theseus captures the dangerous Cretan Bull, but not before it kills the son of King Minos of Crete. In recompense, Minos demands that Theseus’s father, the king of Athens, send human tributes to be sacrificed to the monstrous Minotaur. Theseus volunteers to go and successfully slays the Minotaur. He eventually becomes king but, eager for more adventures, soon joins Jason’s Argonauts. Jason, son of the king of Iolcus, was raised away from home after his uncle, Pelias, seized the throne. To reclaim his rightful place, he eventually accepted Pelias’s demand that he fetch the legendary Golden Fleece. This led Jason to construct the ship Argo and assemble a group of heroes, the Argonauts.

After a series of battles, the Argonauts reach Colchis, where Jason encounters the princess Medea. Medea’s magic aids Jason in obtaining the Golden Fleece, and she joins the Argonauts when they depart, killing her brother to aid in the escape. The Argonauts eventually return to Crete, and Jason marries Medea, who desires to become queen. However, she continues her crimes, eventually killing her own sons and fleeing. Jason dies alone inside the rotting Argo.

Meleager, another Argonaut, was saved by his mother when one of the Three Fates, who determine the span of human lives, attempted to cut his life thread. Despite his various heroic feats, however, he meets a tragic end, his mother killing him in retribution for his murder of his uncles, her brothers.

Meanwhile, Heracles marries Meleager’s sister, Dianeira. He sails to Troy to confront King Laomedon, who refused to give Heracles his rightful rewards when Heracles aided him. Heracles defeats Laomedon’s army and kills him, sparing his youngest son, Podarces, who becomes King Priam of Troy. Soon after, Athena appears to Heracles, saying that the battle with the giants begins soon. When the giants indeed attack the Olympians. Heracles helps the gods, killing Alcyoneus, the giants’ leader, and the great giants Ephialtes and Otus. After a fierce battle, Zeus defeats the last two giants, and the gods prevail.

Despite his victory, Heracles dies after Dianeira gives him a robe that, unbeknownst to her, is poisoned. Following Heracles’s death, however, Zeus welcomes him to Olympus alongside the immortals.