Explore the pantheons

Sixteen-year-old son of Arjuna who knew how to enter the spiral battle-formation but not how to leave it, a lesson half-heard in the womb. Surrounded by six warriors at once, his death broke every rule of war and hardened the conflict past mercy.

Greatest warrior at Troy, son of the sea nymph Thetis, offered the choice of a long obscure life or a short one of everlasting glory. The Iliad is the story of his wrath, withdrawn from battle over an insult, returning only when it costs Patroclus's life.

Trojan son of Aphrodite, twice saved from death by the gods because his destiny lay elsewhere: to survive the fall of Troy. Roman tradition made him the ancestor of Rome, the one Trojan whose story is mostly told in Latin.

The towering "bulwark of the Achaeans," second only to Achilles, who fought Hector to a draw and shielded the ships alone. Denied Achilles' armor by vote, he went mad with shame, slaughtered flocks he took for the generals, and fell on his own sword.

Third of the Pandava brothers, son of Indra, the greatest archer of his age and Krishna's dearest friend. His collapse of will on the battlefield of Kurukshetra is the occasion for the Bhagavad Gita.

Tamer of the winged horse Pegasus with Athena's golden bridle, slayer of the fire-breathing Chimera. He tried at last to fly to Olympus itself; Zeus sent a gadfly, Pegasus threw him, and he ended his days lame and shunned, the textbook of hubris.

Second Pandava, son of the wind god Vayu, strongest of men. He swore to tear open Dushasana's chest and shatter Duryodhana's thigh for Draupadi's humiliation, and kept both terrible vows.

Son of Ganga who swore lifelong celibacy so his father could remarry, receiving in exchange the power to choose his moment of death. Grandsire of both armies, he fought for the throne he was bound to, against the family he loved, and died on a bed of arrows.

Crown prince and shield of Troy, the Iliad's great figure of duty, fighting a war he knows is lost, for a brother's fault, leaving wife and infant son at the gate. Killed by Achilles and dragged behind his chariot, ransomed at last by his old father's tears.

The greatest of Greek heroes, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. Driven to madness by Hera, he atoned through twelve impossible labors, and after death was raised to Olympus as a god.

Leader of the Argonauts on the quest for the Golden Fleece, which he won only through Medea's magic and betrayed love. He broke his oath to her at Corinth and lost everything, killed at last, in one tradition, by the rotting stern of his own famous ship.

Son of Surya and Kunti, abandoned at birth and raised by a charioteer. Scorned by the princes, befriended by Duryodhana, he fought his own brothers out of loyalty and died when his chariot wheel sank, the epic's great tragic figure.

Rama's younger brother and shadow, who chose fourteen years of exile rather than be parted from him, and is said never to have slept through them. Regarded as an incarnation of the serpent Shesha.

Fourth Pandava, twin son of the Ashvins by Madri, famed as the most beautiful man of his age and a master of horses and swordplay.

King of Ithaca and hero of the Odyssey, famed for the wooden horse that ended the Trojan War. His ten-year voyage home, past the Cyclops, Circe, and the Sirens, is the archetypal tale of wit against adversity.

The musician whose lyre moved stones and beasts, who sang his way into the underworld to reclaim his dead wife Eurydice. She was his on one condition, that he not look back before the light. He looked back.

Achilles' beloved companion since boyhood, who put on Achilles' own armor to save the burning ships and drove the Trojans back, until Apollo struck him and Hector finished it. His death brings Achilles back to battle, and dooms them both.

Son of Zeus by Danae, sent for the Gorgon's head as an impossible errand. Armed by the gods with winged sandals and a mirror-bright shield, he beheaded Medusa, rescued Andromeda from a sea monster, and founded the line that produced Heracles.

Prince of Ayodhya and seventh avatar of Vishnu, hero of the Ramayana. Exiled for fourteen years, he rescues his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. Held up as the ideal of dharma, the perfect son, husband, and king.

Youngest Pandava, twin of Nakula, the quiet scholar of the brothers. He knew the future through astrology but was bound, or chose, never to reveal it unasked.

Athens' national hero, who cleared the coast road of brigands, entered the Labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur, escaping by Ariadne's thread, then abandoning her on Naxos. As king he unified Attica; as a man he kept breaking what he saved.