Dione

Dione1
 In Greek mythology, Dione was the  Titan goddess of the oracle of Dodona in Thesprotia. Is some versions, Dione was described as the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys, an according to other version, the daughter of Oceanus and Gaea. 

Dione

                                        According to some version, Dione was beloved by Zeus, by whom she became the mother of Aphrodite.  In some versions, Dione was described as Zeus wife and in other version, as one of the Zeus's adulterous partners. In one version (perhaps in error), Dione was described as the mother of Dionysus.
                                    In some versions, when goddess Aphrodite was wounded by Diomedes, Dione received her daughter in Olympus, and pronounced the threat respecting the punishment of Diomedes. In some verions, Dione was present, with other divinities, at the birth of Apollo and Artemis in Delos.
Dione2 
                  In greek mythology, Dione  was described as the daughter of Atlas and an Oceanid nymph (either Pleione or Aethra). Dione was one of the Hyades, the rain-bringing nymphs.

Dione

 Dione became the wife of king Tantalus, and they had two sons, Pelops and Broteas, and a daughter, Niobe2.

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Ananke

In Greek mythology, Ananke ( or Anance) was the primeval goddess of necessity, compulsion, and inevitability. According to some versions, Ananke was described as the daughter of Hydrus and Gaea.
             

Ananke

                                     Ananke was the powerful deity that rules compulsion, constraint, restraint, or coercion, and presides over all forms of slavery and bonds, starting with the basic necessities of life. Consequently, when someone was cast into prison, or fastened by chains, her name was evoked. For she was behind all bonds, and had a share even in the ties of kinship, friendship and love. She was called Necessity, since once the attachment was established there can not but follow what necessarily was derived from it, her might allowing no resistance.
               Ananke's dominion was mainly experienced in the physical world, and therefore she had been held responsible for the ugliness of all violent dealings deriving from her compelling power. Accordingly, her rule was, not seldom, fought against violently by ignorance. And when this occurs new necessary bonds may appear as a result.
                               Ananke was seen as the most powerful dictator of all fate and circumstance which meant that mortals, as well as the Gods, respected her and paid homage. According to some versions, Ananke was described as the mother of  Fates (Moirai). In one version, Ananke was described as the mother of Nemesis.
                               
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Anchises

In Greek mythology, Anchises was described as the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite.  Anchises was a member of the junior branch of the royal family of Troy, son of  Capys and Themiste.
                                                                             
                                                    According to Greek legend, when Anchises was tending cattle on Mount Ida, the goddess of love, Aphrodite, saw him, and was seized by desire. Aphrodite went immediately to her homeland Paphos, in Cyprus, where the Graces bathed  her with heavenly oil. Aphrodite, goddess of love, put on rich clothes and decked herself with gold, she returned to Ida, flying among the clouds. In some versions, it was described that wolves, lions, bears, leopards, and deer came and seeing them,  Aphrodite, goddess of love, put desire in their breasts so that they all mated.

Anchises and goddess Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess

                                 When  Aphrodite came to Anchises, appeared before him with the looks and height of a mortal woman, but still wearing a robe of gold enriched with all kinds of needlework, twisted brooches, earrings in the form of flowers and several necklaces round her throat. 
Anchises saw her and known she was a goddess. But Aphrodite denied being a goddess, saying that she was a mortal woman and the daughter of Otreus, princess from Phrygia (Turkey). She explained to the Anchises, that she spoke his language because she had been brought up by a Trojan nurse, and that it had been god Hermes who told her to become Anchises's wedded wife. This was how Anchises, not knowing what he did, lay with an immortal goddess. In some version, Aphrodite pretended to be a Phrygian princess and seduced Anchises for nearly two weeks of lovemaking.

Anchises and goddess Aphrodite

                                             After the love making, when Aphrodite revealed her true identity, Anchises feared the gods would destroy him for having slept with one of the immortals. But Aphrodite, who herself grieved for having laid in the bed of a mortal man, assured him that he was dear to the gods and nothing would happen to him, provided he would say their child was the offspring of a Nymph, for Aphrodite disposed that the Nymphs would rear Aeneas and that, as soon as he was a boy, he would be restored to his father. In some versions, Aphrodite bore him two sons Aeneas and Lyros.

                     According to other version, Anchises learned that his lover was a goddess only nine months later, when she revealed herself and presented him with the infant Aeneas. Aphrodite had warned him that if he boasted of the affair, he would be blasted by the thunderbolt of Zeus. 

               According to some versions,  Zeus sought to punish  Aphrodite, goddess of love, with a lowly mate for causing the gods to fall in love with an endless string of mortal women.
                                         Later, Anchises got drunk and started boasting to friends that he was loved by the goddess Aphrodite herself.  When Zeus, the king of the gods, found out about his arrogance, he became very annoyed. Angrily, he struck Anchises with his thunderbolt and Anchises was scorched and/or crippled.

Aeneas carrying his old father, Anchises .....burning Troy...

                                     After the defeat of Troy in the Trojan War, the elderly Anchises was carried from the burning city by his son Aeneas, accompanied by Aeneas' wife Creusa, who died in the escape attempt, and small son Ascanius.  Anchises himself died and was buried in Sicily many years later. Aeneas later visited Hades and saw his father again in the Elysian Fields.

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Aegisthus

   In Greek mythology, Aegisthus was described as the son of Thyestes and his daughter. Pelopia. 

Aegisthus

                                 Thyestes had been fighting with his brother, Atreus, for the throne of Mycenae for some time, as well as having an affair with Atreus' wife, Aerope. Atreus then learned of Thyestes' and Aerope's adultery and plotted revenge. He killed Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and heads. He served Thyestes his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and heads.  Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. 
                             Thyestes  visited the Oracle of Delphi, asking how he could have vengeance on his brother, and the Oracle answered that he must lie with his daughter Pelopia  and beget a son who would avenge him. Thyestes raped Pelopia after she performed a sacrifice, hiding his identity from her.But while  Thyestes stole her virginity, Pelopia stole his sword. Soon after that, Atreus came to Sicyon in search of his brother, met Pelopia in the court, and believing that she was Thesprotus's daughter, asked the king that she be given to him in marriage. The king granted Atreus' wish, Atreus married Pelopia, and she afterward bore Aegisthus. Atreus believed this child to be his own, but Aegisthus was in fact the son of Thyestes. 
                            According to other version, when Aegisthus was born, his mother abandoned him, ashamed of his origin, and he was raised by shepherds and suckled by a goat, hence his name Aegisthus.  Atreus, not knowing the baby's origin, took Aegisthus in and raised him as his own son. 
                                       After many years, Thyestes was captured by Agamemnon and Menelaus at Delphi and brought to Atreus, who ordered Aegisthus to kill him.   Aegisthus came to the prison to carry out Atreus' order, but he appeared in front of the prisoner wearing the sword that Thyestes had lost when he ravished his own daughter Pelopia. When Thyestes asked him where he had got it, Aegisthus replied that his mother Pelopia had given it to him. They then summoned Pelopia, who declared that she had stolen it from the unknown man who had raped her by night, the same who was Aegisthus' father. This is how father and son learned who they were, but Pelopia, realising who the father of her son was, snatched the sword and plunged it in her breast. Aegisthus then killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.
                                               During this period Agamemnon and his brother, Menelaus, took refuge with Tyndareus, King of Sparta. There they respectively married Tyndareus' daughters Clytemnestra and Helen. Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had four children: one son, Orestes, and three daughters, Iphigenia, Electra3 and Chrysothemis. Menelaus succeeded Tyndareus in Sparta, while Agamemnon, with his brother's assistance, drove out Aegisthus and Thyestes to recover his father's kingdom. He extended his dominion by conquest and became the most powerful prince in Greece.

                               Later, when Trojan War began, Agamemnon left Mycenae for the Trojan War, Aegisthus returned to Mycenae. Agamemnon had left Clytemnestra with a minstrel (singer), to guard his wife during his absence. As long as the minstrel (singer) was present, Clytemnestra resisted Aegisthus. Aegisthus tricked minstrel (singer), took him to a deserted island, and leave him to be the prey of birds. Aegisthus seduced Clytaemnestra and made her his mistress. When Agamemnon return from Trojan war, after the ten-years, Clytemnestra and Aegisthus murdered Agamemnon. 

Cassandra and Aegisthus plotting to kill Agamemnon

                 According to some versions, Clytemnestra is driven to murder Agamemnon partly to avenge the death of her daughter Iphigeneia, whom Agamemnon had sacrificed for the sake of success in the war, partly because of her adulterous love for Aegisthus and partly as an agent for the curse on Agamemnon’s family, the House of Atreus. 
                                           Aegisthus and Clytaemnestra, also killed his prisoner and concubine Cassandra. In some versions, Cassandra's sons by Agamemnon, the babes Teledamus  and Pelops , were killed by Aegisthus.     After the murders, Aegisthus replaced Agamemnon as king and ruled for seven years with Clytemnestra as his queen. Aegisthus and Clytemnestra had three children: a son Aletes, and daughters Erigone1 and Helen2. According to some version,  when Aegisthus was drunk, he used to jump on Agamemnon's grave, shouting insults against the dead king and his children.
                          After seven years of reign, Agamemnon's son Orestes, following the instructions he received in the Oracle at Delphi, returned to Mycenae, with the help of his sister Electra3 and his friend Pylades, avenged his father by killing both Aegisthus and his own mother. In some versions,  the royal guard, had recognized the son of Agamemnon, did not intervene but instead applauded the usurper's murderer.

Orestes slaying Aegisthus and Clytemnestra

                                          In some versions, when Aegisthus was trapped, Orestes led him to the place in the palace where Aegisthus had murdered Agamemnon, killing him on that same spot.   

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Aerope

Aerope1
In Greek mythology, Aerope was described as the daughter of  Catreus, the king of Crete (son of Minos) and sister of Clymene, Apemosyne and Althaemenes.

Aerope

                     According to some versions, Catreus caught his daughter, Aerope, in bed with a slave and handed her over to Nauplius (son of Clytoneusson) to be drowned, but Nauplius spared Aerope's life and she married Atreus (or Pleisthenes, son of Atreus), the son of Pelops, and king of Mycenae.

                         According to some versions, Catreus received an oracle saying that he would be killed by one of his children, so Catreus gave Aerope and her sister Clymene to Nauplius to be sold off in foreign lands. Aerope another sister, Apemone, and her brother, Aethemenes, who had heard of the oracle, had fled from Crete and went to Rhodes. Nauplius kept Clymene for himself and Aerope was sold to Atreus or Atreus' son Pleisthenes. 
                                                                    In some version, Aerope married Pleisthenes, by whom she became the mother of Agamemnon, Menelaus and Anaxibia. Because Pleisthenes was sickly, he died young, and so Atreus decided to marry his daughter-in-law and adopt his grandchildren. In other version, by Atreus,  Aerope became mother of Agamemnon, Menelaus and Anaxibia.

Aerope and Thyestes

                                                 Later Aerope had secret love affair with her husband brother, Thyestes.  
  Atreus, the king of Mycenae, vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to goddess Artemis. Upon searching his flock, however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope, to hide from the goddess. Thyestes, then convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Aerope stole the golden lamb from her husband Atreus and gave it to Thyestes, so that the Myceneans would choose Thyestes as their king. Thyestes produced the lamb and claimed the throne.
                             But Zeus sent Hermes to instruct Atreus to make a new agreement with Thyestes by which Atreus should be king if the sun should go backwards. And when Thyestes  agreed to this impossibility, the sun set in the east, as nothing was impossible for Zeus, the king of gods.
                                             Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes. Atreus then learned of Thyestes' and Aerope's adultery and plotted revenge. He killed Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and feet. He tricked Thyestes into eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet. Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. 

   In some versions, Aerope was the mother by Thyestes of two sons, Tantalus and Plisthenes. According to some version, it may have been these children that Atreus famously fed to Thyestes.
                                      According to some versions, Atreus cast Aerope into the sea in revenge for her adultery and theft of the golden lamb.

Aerope2
In Greek mythology, Aerope was described as the daughter of Cepheus of Arcadia. She was loved by Ares, god of war, and had by him a son Aeropus, but herself died in labor. By the will of Ares, Aerope's dead body was still able to produce an abundance of breastmilk to feed the newborn Aeropus.
Index

Thyestes

                     In Greek mythology, Thyestes was described as the son of  Pelops and his wife, Hippodamia1, and and father of Pelopia and Aegisthus.

Thyestes

                                      Thyestes and his brother, Atreus, were exiled by their father (Pelops)  for having murdered their half-brother, Chrysippus, in their desire for the throne of Olympia. They took refuge in Mycenae, where they ascended the throne upon the absence of King Eurystheus, who was fighting the Heracleidae. Eurystheus had meant for their lordship to be temporary, and it became permanent because of his death in conflict.
                                               Atreus, Thyestes' brother became the king of Mycenae, vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to goddess Artemis. Upon searching his flock, however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope, to hide from the goddess. But Atreus' wife, Aerope, had secret love affair with Thyestes, gave golden lamp to Thyestes. 
                                    Thyestes, then convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Thyestes produced the lamb and claimed the throne.
                             But Zeus sent Hermes to instruct Atreus to make a new agreement with Thyestes by which Atreus should be king if the sun should go backwards. And when Thyestes  agreed to this impossibility, the sun set in the east, as nothing was impossible for Zeus, the king of gods.
                 Atreus again became the king, but Atreus couldn't let it go at that. He was still very angry at his wife and Thyestes. So he pretended to be friendly and invited Thyestes to come over for a special dinner according to family tradition,  (one resembling the dinner that his grandfather Tantalus had once offered to the gods).  Atreus  slaughtered two or three of Thyestes's sons, and cutting them limb from limb, boiled them and served them up to Thyestes, except the extremities, which he showed to Thyestes, once the latter had eaten what he thought to be a delicious meal. Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. 

Pelopia..........

                                                                               Thyestes  visited the Oracle of Delphi, asking how he could have vengeance on his brother, and the Oracle answered that he must lie with his daughter Pelopia  and beget a son who would avenge him. Later, when Thyestes  came to Sicyon, he found that they were sacrificing to goddess Athena by night, and fearing to profane the rites, he hid in a grove. Pelopia, who happened to lead the dancing groups during the sacrifice, slipped and stained her clothes with the blood of the slain victim, and when she went to a nearby stream to wash off the blood, she was raped by her own father who suddenly came out of the grove. But while he stole her virginity, she stole his sword.

                                                              Soon after that, Atreus came to Sicyon in search of his brother, met Pelopia in the court, and believing that she was Thesprotus's daughter, asked the king that she be given to him in marriage. The king granted Atreus' wish, Atreus married Pelopia, and she afterward bore Aegisthus. Atreus believed this child to be his own, but Aegisthus was in fact the son of Thyestes. 
                            In other version, when Aegisthus was  born, he was abandoned by his mother. He was suckled by a she-goat and survived. A shepherd found the infant Aegisthus and gave him to Atreus, who raised him as his own son.
                                                     After many years, Thyestes was captured by Agamemnon and Menelaus at Delphi and brought to Atreus, who ordered Aegisthus to kill him.   Aegisthus came to the prison to carry out Atreus' order, but he appeared in front of the prisoner wearing the sword that Thyestes had lost when he ravished his own daughter Pelopia. When Thyestes asked him where he had got it, Aegisthus replied that his mother Pelopia had given it to him. They then summoned Pelopia, who declared that she had stolen it from the unknown man who had raped her by night, the same who was Aegisthus' father. This is how father and son learned who they were, but Pelopia, realising who the father of her son was, snatched the sword and plunged it in her breast. Aegisthus then killed Atreus and restored the kingdom to Thyestes.
                             While Thyestes ruled Mycenae, the sons of Atreus, Agamemnon and Menelaus, were exiled to Sparta. There, King Tyndareus accepted them as the royalty that they were. Shortly after, he helped the brothers return to Mycenae to overthrow Thyestes, forcing him to live in Cytheria. As a token of good will and allegiance, King Tyndareus offered his daughters to Agamemnon and Menelaus as wives, Clytemnestra and Helen respectively.

Index                                                           

Atreus

   In Greek mythology, Atreus was described as the son of Pelops and his wife, Hippodamia1.  

Atreus

                      Atreus and his brother Thyestes murdered Chrysippus (son of Pelops and the nymph Axioche), who was their half-brother.They had been sent by their mother, Hippodamia, who feared Chrysippus would inherit Pelops's throne instead of her sons. Atreus and Thyestes, together with their mother, were banished by Pelops and took refuge in Mycenae. There Hippodamia hung herself.
                                       In some version, Alcathous,Atreus and Thyestes murdered Chrysippus. After the crime the three brothers fled, Alcathous went to Megara, and Atreus and Thyestes stopped at Mycenae.
                                       In any case, Atreus became king of Mycenae. Atreus vowed to sacrifice his best lamb to goddess Artemis. Upon searching his flock, however, Atreus discovered a golden lamb which he gave to his wife, Aerope, to hide from the goddess. Atreus and Aerope had had two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus, and a daughter Anaxibia. Aerope had an extramarital affair with her husband brother,Thyestes, gave golden lamb to Thyestes. 
                   Thyestes then convinced Atreus to agree that whoever had the lamb should be king. Thyestes produced the lamb and claimed the throne. Atreus retook the throne using advice he received from Hermes. Thyestes agreed to give the kingdom back when the sun moved backwards in the sky, a feat that Zeus accomplished. Atreus retook the throne and banished Thyestes.
 Atreus then learned of Thyestes' and Aerope's adultery and plotted revenge. He killed Thyestes' sons and cooked them, save their hands and feet. He tricked Thyestes into eating the flesh of his own sons and then taunted him with their hands and feet. Thyestes was forced into exile for eating the flesh of a human. 

 Then Thyestes visited the Oracle of Delphi, asking how he could have vengeance on his brother, and the Oracle answered that he should have a son by his daughter, Pelopia, who would then kill Atreus. Pelopia, at the time was staying in Sicyon at the court of king Thesprotus,  came to the bank of a river to wash her clothes that had been stained with blood during a sacrificial rite, Thyestes, covering his face, attacked and raped her. She managed to pull out his sword and kept it so she could recognize her offender.

Atreus and Pelopia.....

                 Soon after that, Atreus came to Sicyon in search of his brother, Atreus thought that Pelopia was daughter of king Thesprotus. Atreus married Pelopia, and she afterward bore Aegisthus. Atreus believed this child to be his own, but Aegisthus was in fact the son of Thyestes.
                                In other version, when Aegisthus was  born, he was abandoned by his mother. He was suckled by a she-goat and survived. A shepherd found the infant Aegisthus and gave him to Atreus, who raised him as his own son.
                      Later, Thyestes was captured by Agamemnon and Menelaus at Delphi and brought to Atreus, who sent Aegisthus to kill him. Aegisthus happened to be carrying the sword that once belonged to Thyestes and was later given to him by Pelopia. Thyestes recognized the sword and asked Aegisthus about it. Aegisthus called for Pelopia, who told him how the weapon had got to her. Upon recognizing Thyestes and the fact that he was the rapist, Pelopia stabbed herself with her father's sword.  While Atreus was sacrificing on the shore, Aegisthus slew him and restored his father to the throne, forcing Agamemnon and Menelaus to go into exile to the court of King Polyphides of Sicyon. But the Atrides returned after some years, Agamemnon reigning in Mycenae and Menelaus in Sparta, and Atreus was buried in Mycenae, along with the treasures that he and his children stored in underground chambers.


Index

Erigone

Erigone1
    In Greek mythology, Erigone  was described as the daughter of  Aegisthus (son of Thyestes and his daughter, Pelopia) and Clytemnestra  (daughter of Leda and Tyndareus) , rulers of Mycenae.

Erigone 

                      According to some versions, Erigone was seduced by her half-brother, Orestes (son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon) and became the mother of  Penthilus. Erigone would have been slain by Orestes along with her brother Aletes if not for the intervention of goddess Artemis, who rescued her and made her a priestess in Attica.
            In some versions, Erigone  hangs herself after the child was born. According to others, Hermione (daughter of Menelaus, king of Sparta and his wife, Helen of Troy) and Orestes were married, and she gave birth to his heir Tisamenus.  After Hermione died, Erigone was married Orestes and gave birth to Penthilus.
In some version, Erigone  sued Orestes to murder of her parents.
Erigone2
             In Greek mythology,  Erigone  was described as the daughter of Icarius, an Athenian.  Icarius hospitably received Dionysus on his arrival in Athena. The god of wine, Dionysus showed him his gratitude by teaching him the cultivation of the vine (grape plant),  make wine and giving him bags filled with wine. Icarius  gave some wine to several shepherds, who became intoxicated. Their companions, thinking they had been poisoned, killed Icarius and buried him under a tree or threw his body into the well Anygrus.His daughter, Erigone, and her dog, Maera, found his body. Erigone hanged herself over her father's grave. Maera jumped into a well and drowned.

Dionysus, Erigone and Icarius..

Dionysus was angry and punished Athens with a plague, inflicting insanity on all the unmarried women, who all hung themselves like Erigone did. Icarius, Erigone, and Maera were set among the stars as Bootes (or Arcturus), Virgo, and Procyon. The plague did not cease until the Athenians introduced honorific rites for Icarius and Erigone.

Erigone 

                        In some version, Dionysus was attracted towards  Erigone beauty.  Dionysus in the form of bunches of false grapes deceived and seduced Erigone.  
Index

                               

Anticlea

    In Greek mythology, Anticlea (or Anticleia) was described as the daughter of Autolycus (son of Hermes and Chione3) and Amphithea.  Anticlea got married to Laertes, an Argonaut, participated in the hunt for the Calydonian Boar and  King of the Cephallenians. 
                                                                 

Anticlea

                                                            Anticlea  was the mother of Odysseus and Ctimene by her husband Laertes . According to other version, Odysseus father was Sisyphus.  Anticlea father, Autolycus, was a notorious thief, would steal anything he could get his hands on. But Autolycus always escaped detection because he could change the form or color of anything he stole. Autolycus repeatedly stole cattle from Sisyphus’s herd. Sisyphus noticed that cattle were missing and that the herd of Autolycus seemed to be expanding in number, but could not prove any theft.
                                                 In an attempt to catch Autolycus in the act, Sisyphus secretly marked the inside of the hooves of his cattle.  The later discovery of his mark on cows in Autolycus’s herd proved that his neighbor was a thief. Sisyphus was not satisfied merely with proving Autolycus a thief and recovering his cattle. Seeking revenge, he seduced Anticleia, the daughter of Autolycus and later the mother of Odysseus.

                                         Later, when Odysseus makes a trip to the underworld to seek the advice of the dead prophet Tiresias. In the underworld, he encounters many spirits, including that of his mother, Anticlea. Initially, he rebuffs her since he is waiting for the prophet to approach.

Anticlea waits her turn while Tiresias foretells the future to Odysseus

                              After speaking with Tiresias, however, Odysseus allows his mother to come near and lets her speak. She asks him why he is in the underworld while alive, and he tells her about his various troubles and failed attempts to get home. Then he asks her how she died and inquires about his family at home. She tells him that she died of grief, longing for him while he was at war. Anticlea also says that Laertes (Odysseus' father) "grieves continually" for Odysseus and lives in a hovel in the countryside, clad in rags and sleeping on the floor. Anticlea further describes the condition of Odysseus' wife Penelope and son Telemachus.
                                  Penelope has not yet remarried but is overwhelmed with sadness and longing for her husband while Telemachus acts as magistrate for Odysseus' properties. Odysseus attempts to embrace his mother three times but discovers that she is incorporeal, and his arms simply pass through her. She explains that this is how all ghosts are, and he expresses great sorrow.

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Calypso

Calypso1
In Greek mythology, Calypso was described as the daughter of Titan Atlas.   

Calypso

                            Calypso lived in the remote island of Ogygia, where she was ousted as a prisoner because she supported her father in the battles between Titans and Olympians. When Zeus sent a storm that destroyed Odysseus's ship and drowned all his remaining companions, Odysseus was washed ashore on the island of Ogygia.  

Calypso and Odysseus

                    Calypso fell  in love with Odysseus and wanted to make him her immortal husband and give him the eternal youth. But Odysseus did not accept her generosity,as he was dreaming about going back to his Ithaca and his wife, Penelope. Calypso was so much in love with him that despite his refusal of her offers, she kept hoping and seducing Odysseus. Eventually, she made him her lover.

                         During the day the inconsolable Odysseus sat on the Ogygian shore, giving himself to tears and heartache as he looked across the sea, and at night Calypso took him into her cave, a lovely place with many trees and a garden where she had sex with him. In some version Calypso gave birth to two sons-Nausithous and Nausinous. In other version, Calypso bore Odysseus a son, Latinus. 
                              For many years (about 7 or 9 years) Odysseus remain in island of Ogygia, as a prisoner and lover of Calypso. Goddess Athena, who never desert her favorites asked Zeus to save Odysseus from Ogygia and Calypso. Zeus sent the messenger of the gods, Hermes, to persuade Calypso to let Odysseus go. 

Calypso and Hermes

Calypso then gave him leave to make a boat, and promised to stock it herself with bread, water and wine, and send a following wind so that he may reach Ithaca without difficulties. And as Odysseus could not believe what he was hearing, and instead suspected some mischief, she gave him the greatest and most solemn oath that the gods can take:
"Now let Earth be my witness, with the broad Sky above, and the falling waters of the Styx ... that I harbour no secret plans against you ..." 
                             Straight away after this oath, Calypso, disregarding the fact that just a little while ago she had protested against Zeus' decision, told Odysseus that she did this because after all she had a righteous mind and a heart that, not being indeed of iron, had compassion. 
Calypso had both negative and positive connotation in Greek mythology......as a concealer and seductress, Calypso is a negative symbol, but as a rescuer she is a positive one.
Calypso2
In Greek mythology, Calypso was described as one of the Oceanid daughters of Tethys and Oceanus.
Calypso3
In Greek mythology, Calypsoas was described one of the Nereid daughters of Nereus and Doris.

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Penelope

Penelope1
         In Greek mythology, Penelope was described as the daughter of Icarius of Sparta and the nymph Periboea and wife of the hero Odysseus. They had one son, Telemachus.

Penelope

                                                                               When Helen was to be married, many suitors came from the whole of Greek, wishing to win her hand, and among them came Odysseus. King Tyndareus of Sparta, Helen's stepfather, feared then that the preference of one suitor might provoke the enmity of the others, and so Odysseus promised him that, if Tyndareus would help him to win the hand of  Helen's cousin Penelope, he would suggest a way by which there would be no dispute among the suitors. When Tyndareus agreed, promising to help him, Odysseus told him to exact an oath from all the suitors of Helen that they would defend the favoured bridegroom against any wrong that might be done him in respect of his marriage. So when Menelaus won the hand of Helen, all accepted it in virtue of the oath, and thus Odysseus married Penelope, who was the prize of such a wise advice.
                     According to some versions, Odysseus won Penelope in a foot-race for her wooers, organized by Icarius. Icarius gave his daughter in marriage to Odysseus, and  tried to make Odysseus settle in Lacedaemon. However, Odysseus refused, and he could not persuade Penelope either. So when the newly-weds set forth to Ithaca, the king followed the chariot begging her to stay. Odysseus ordered Penelope either to come with him willingly, or else go back with her father to Lacedaemon, if she preferred to do so.  Penelope did not reply, but instead covered her face with a veil, and by that sign they both understood that she wished to depart with her husband.

Odysseus and Penelope

                                                                       Odysseus, who was the king of Ithaca and the husband of a loving queen, not wishing to waste his life in wars and fights, decided to feign madness instead of honouring the oath of Tyndareus, and thereby join the alliance that was determined to sail against Troy in order to demand, either by persuasion or by force, the restoration of Helen and the property.
                                   Odysseus pretended to be crazy, put on a cap and yoked a horse and an ox to the plow. But Palamedes, who had come to Ithaca with Nestor and Menelaus in order to remind the king of his oath, snatched little Telemachus from Penelope's bosom or  from the cradle, and put him in front of the plow, forcing Odysseus to give up his pretence. In some versions, Palamedes threatened the child with his own sword, but in any case Odysseus was outwitted and had to join the alliance. However, clever Palamedes later paid with his own death for having spoiled Odysseus' sweet home life.
                          Penelope and Odysseus had spent together about a decade when the Trojan War broke up and Odysseus left. The war itself lasted ten years, but when it was over and nothing was known of him, a group of scoundrels known as the suitors of Penelope came to the palace wishing to marry the queen.

Penelope and the suitors.......

Penelope fooled them several years, declaring that she would marry one of them once she had completed the shroud of Laertes (father of Odysseus). However, Penelope had no intention of ever finishing her work, and so what she wove during the day, she unravelled by night. Until one of her maids reveals the secret, she unravels the piece that she has woven by day so that she will not have to give up hope for the return of her beloved husband and remarry.

Penelope and the suitors.......

So, realizing that they had been fooled by her in the course of several years, the suitors of Penelope decided that for as long as she maintained her attitude, they would continue to feast in the palace at the palace's expenses. Otherwise they used to amuse themselves in a free and easy way outside the palace with quoits and javelin-throwing, a nice and entertaining activity which they could consent to interrupt when supper was ready. Their banquets were prepared by slaughtering sheep, goats, hogs, and heifers from Odysseus' herd. And since banquets and music go together, there was always someone playing the lyre.

 Penelope

                             When Penelope's son Telemachus sailed to Pylos and Sparta in order to meet Nestor and Menelaus, with the hope of having news of his father.  The suitors of Penelope planned to slay Telemachus on his homeward way. However, Telemachus escaped the suitors of Penelope plot.
                             
                                                  When Odysseus return, looking as a distressful beggar, limping along with the aid of his staff, Odysseus came to the palace, where only his old dog recognized him, dying immediately after having seen his master in the twentieth year.  Penelope sent for the beggar; for such a stranger who seemed to have traveled far, she thought, might have heard of her husband. And not recognizing Odysseus, but being impressed by the stranger, she told him the whole story of her misery, how she had fooled the suitors with the web, how they loaded her with reproaches on discovering her trick, and how now she would be forced by time and circumstances to take the sad step of marrying one of the scoundrels.

Odysseus and Penelope

Odysseus- the beggar  not wishing Penelope to know his identity yet, fabricated a tale about how he had met Odysseus, giving proof, through many details, of his truthfulness. Penelope ordered the maids to wash the visitor's feet, spread a bed for him, and the next morning give him a bath and rub him with oil, so that he would be ready to eat breakfast with Telemachus in the palace's hall. Euryclia, the nurse of both Odysseus and Telemachus, was appointed to wash the visitor's feet. Odysseus had an old scar just above the knee, and when the old woman passed her hands over the scar, she recognized the feel of it at once, and knew that this stranger was indeed Odysseus. However, he ordered her to keep silent.

Odysseus and Euryclia

           Penelope and Odysseus son,Telemachus, actually desired Penelope to remarry, for otherwise the suitors would eat up his estate. Penelope proposed a trial of strength, and that she was prepared to marry whichever among the suitors proved the best at stringing the bow and shooting an arrow.

Odysseus kills the suitors....

                                   Penelope delivered to her suitors the bow of Odysseus, saying that she would marry him who bent the bow. And when none of them could bend it, Odysseus took it and shot down the suitors during a great battle in the hall of the palace. This is how Odysseus, won his wife for a second time while she slept in her chamber upstairs.When the massacre was completed, Euryclia, following Odysseus' instructions, woke up Penelope with incredible words:

"Wake up, Penelope, dear child, and see a sight you have longed for all these many days. Odysseus has come home … and he has killed the rogues who turned his whole house inside out, ate up his wealth, and oppressed his son." 

Penelope and Euryclia

                    Penelope, thus taken out of her sleep, thought that her old servant had lost her brains, or that some god had performed the killing. But Euryclia told her about the scar, and nothing else could Penelope do but go downstairs and see with her own eyes what had happened by meeting her son Telemachus, the dead suitors, and the man who had killed them.

This was not what Telemachus had expected. For he had imagined that his mother would sit at his father's side, asking questions and talking. For after all, he reasoned, here was the absent husband back, and there was so much to say and to know. And that is why he reproached his mother, telling her that her heart was harder than flint. But Penelope replied:

"My child, the heart in my breast is lost in wonder … I cannot find a word to say to him; I cannot ask him anything at all; I cannot even look him in the face. But if it really is Odysseus home again, we two shall surely recognize each other, and in an even better way; for there are tokens between us which only we two know and no one else has heard of."

Such a token was their own bed, which Odysseus himself had constructed, a detail only known by them. And now he described how he had built it, bringing to memory the olive tree, thick as a pillar, which grew inside the court. For round this tree he built the room, and lopping all the twigs off, he trimmed the stem and used it as a basis for the bed itself. Then he finished it off with an inlay of gold, silver and ivory, and fixed a set of purple ox-hide straps across the frame.When Odysseus had described all these details for Penelope. It was then that Penelope, seeing the complete fidelity of the description, burst into tears, and running up to Odysseus, threw her arms round his neck and kissed him.

Odysseus and Penelope

    In Greek mythology, Penelope had been associated with marital faithfulness. But according to one version, Penelope was seduced by Antinous, the greatest scoundrel among the suitors. In one version, Penelope was not seduced by Antinous, but instead by the more gentle suitor Amphinomus, who was known to enjoy Penelope's special approval for being an intelligent man and behaving correctly. According to one version, (perhaps in error) Penelope was seduced by the god Hermes and became the mothe og the god Pan.
                                    Later, when Odysseus was accidentally killed by Telegonus, his own son by the witch Circe. After Odysseus' death, Penelope was made immortal by Circe. In some version, Telegonus returns to his mother’s island with Penelope, whom he marries, and Telemachus, who marries Circe. Telegonus and Penelope have one son, Italus.

Penelope2
                            In Greek mythology, Penelope (or Penelopeia) was described as the tree nymph, of Mt Cyllene in Arkadia, southern Greece. Hermes fell in love with Penelope and seduced her. 

Penelope.....tree nymph.......

In some versions,by Hermes  she became the mother of Pan. Penelope is related to the nymphs Sose and Thymbris, who are both named as the mother of Pan in  different versions in Greek mythology.

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