The Olympians
Zeus
The king of the Gods and protagonist of the first installment.
- Awful Wedded Life: Hephaistos observes this between him and Hera, constantly bickering and unable to agree on anything.
- The Casanova: Like his mythical counterpart, he gets around a lot.
- Childhood Friend Romance: With Metis, his first wife. This didn't end well.
- God-Eating: Tricks Metis into turning into a fly and eats her while in the form of a bird, both to keep her from birthing a child who will overthrow him and to keep her wisdom with him at all times.
- Guile Hero: Zeus is a cunning guy, as shown when he realizes how powerful Aphrodite is and decides to nerf her before she can overthrow him.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Downplayed, as the Heart of Gold follows the words "Jerk With" in his case, but he used to have blond hair before the Cyclopes' gift of lightning turned it white.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: How the story ultimately portrays him. He's not the most moral god out there, but he isn't heartless either.
- KidAnova: As a teenager, he played around with the Oceanid Nymphs.
- Power Dyes Your Hair: Him gaining his lightning powers from the Cyclopes turns his hair white.
- Pretty Boy: In stark contrast to his usual portrayal, he's youthful and pretty here (though still white-haired and bearded).
- Really Gets Around: As always, he gets into sexual escapades all the time.
- Shipper on Deck: By the end of Hades: Lord of the Dead, it's clear he's this for Hades and Persephone.
- Shock and Awe: Naturally, he has powers of lightning.
- Team Dad: Unsurprising, given his status as the Greek pantheon's patriarch.
- Turn Out Like His Father: One of the comics' Arc Words is that Zeus "has too much of his father in him".
- Übermensch: He bucked the old established order by dethroning his father and rallying his siblings behind him as their new king. Forever changing the political landscape of the cosmos, and appointing himself as the source of objective morality and justice. Even if his sense of justice is rather arbitrary or hypocritical.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Never wears a shirt.
Athena
Goddess of wisdom and war and protagonist of the second installment.
- The Ace: The story makes it no secret that she excels at everything she does.
- Bifauxnen: Possibly, considering Aphrodite's initial reaction to her, though this may have been Aphrodite trying to get under her skin.
- Born as an Adult: She was born fully formed from Zeus' skull.
- Brainy Brunette: Has long brown hair and is the Goddess of wisdom.
- Celibate Hero: Has no interest in romance or children.
- Iconic Item: The Aegis, given to her by her father.
- Meaningful Rename: Takes on the epithet "Pallas" to honor her best friend who accidentally died by her hand.
- The Mentor: Acts as this to many heroes, Perseus in particular.
- My Greatest Failure: The death of her friend Pallas.
- Pride: Has a lot of it, and doesn't tolerate people wounding it. Isn't that right, Arachne?
- The Rival: With Poseidon and Ares.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: She can communicate with owls, apparently.
- Undying Loyalty: Towards her father, whom she knows better than anyone. It wavered only once, and she ceased her quarrels very quickly.
Hera
The queen of the Gods and the protagonist of the third installment.
- Actually Pretty Funny: Her response to hearing about baby Hermes' trickster shenanigans is to laugh and quip "Zeus, this one...this one I like."
- Adaptational Nice Guy: She never drives Heracles to madness so he'll kill his wife and children and enter his twelve labors to atone for it; instead, she decides that he'll do so to prove his worth as a god. George O'Connor confirmed this was an intentional choice on his part, as the original story made both Heracles and Hera feel a little too Unintentionally Unsympathetic.
- Animal Motifs: A subtle case — in the Apollo comic, Hera's outfit combined with her default hairstyle makes her look a bit like a peacock (one of her sacred animals).
- Awful Wedded Life: With Zeus.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: As per usual, she doesn't take well to Zeus' infidelities.
- God Save Us from the Queen!: Subverted, as despite her pettiness, jealousy and short temper, she can be a Reasonable Authority Figure when she wants to be.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She's like her husband in this regard.
- Mama Bear: Defends Ares when Zeus gives him a brutal "The Reason You Suck" Speech (though this may have also been because Zeus blamed her for his temper).
- Pet the Dog: Despite her usual attitude towards Zeus' illegitimate children, she adores Hermes, to the point of forgiving him for killing her trusted attendant Argus.Hera: Zeus was smart to send him. I just can't stay mad at that guy.
- Trickster Mentor: Is depicted s this for both Jason and Heracles.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: One of her epithets is "cow-eyed".
- Yandere: Oh yes. Just look at some of the stuff she puts Zeus' lovers and their children through!
Demeter
Goddess of the harvest and one of the three protagonists of the fourth installment.
- Absurdly Youthful Mother: She looks like she's in her thirties while Persephone could pass for her late teens to early twenties. Justified because, you know, she's a goddess.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Friendly when unprovoked and has curly, golden hair.
- Mama Bear: Drops everything to search for Persephone after she's kidnapped and promptly goes on a rampage when she learns the truth of her disappearance.
- Nice Girl: Outside of the whole, rampaging over her missing daughter thing, Demeter is usually pretty good-natured.
- Parents as People: In the end, it's clear that she was simply afraid of letting her daughter go. Persephone convinces her to.
Poseidon
God of the sea and protagonist and narrator of the fifth installment.
- Animal Motifs: Heavily associates himself with horses. Athena even mocks him for it.
- The Casanova: Almost as much as Zeus.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Fittingly for someone representing the ocean, his mood shifts like the waves.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's bitter and cynical, but not without his positive traits.
- Hidden Depths: The story delves very deep into Poseidon's personal dissatisfaction with his life.
- The Narrator: He narrates his own story.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Wears a long loincloth but no shirt. O'Connor admits in one vlog that Poseidon probably wouldn't have worn anything at all considering his domain, but he didn't go for that for...obvious reasons.
Aphrodite
Goddess of love and beauty and the protagonist of the sixth installment.
- Ambiguously Brown: Has a darker complexion than most takes on the character. Given that she spontaneously generated from a pair of severed testicles that fell into the ocean, the ambiguity is probably intentional.
- Born as an Adult: Born fully formed from the seafoam that enveloped Ouranos' severed testicles.
- Hidden Depths: Like Poseidon, Aphrodite's insecurities are explored in the story, with the implication that she went along with the golden apple contest because she believes that her beauty is all she has.
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: She can be catty and manipulative, but as Pygmalion learned, she can be kind to those in need of love help.
- Ms. Fanservice: She's the goddess of beauty for a reason.
- Really Gets Around: So much so that no one knows who Eros' father is.
- Shipper on Deck: And she'll gladly let people die for her ships.
Ares
The God of War and protagonist of the seventh installment.
- Blood Knight: The entire opening sequence of his comic details how big a Blood Knight Ares is, complete with riding a chariot that has blades everywhere, including its wheels, and bringing both his sister-in-arms Eris and his sons Deimos and Phobos to terrorize the soldiers on the battlefield as Ares slaughters soldiers left and right before letting out a battle cry covered in their blood.
- Brainless Beauty: He introduces himself to Aphrodite by telling her she's pretty. She responds with a genuine "You too".
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Once killed Aphrodite's lover Adonis in the form of a bull. Like mother, like son...
- Dumb Muscle: Boy is he ever.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's probably one of the biggest Jerkasses among the gods, but he's also a loving father.
- Papa Wolf: Is utterly furious when his son dies in the Trojan War.
Apollo
The God of art, light, music, prophecy and healing and the protagonist of the eighth installment.
- Byronic Hero: Handsome, popular and tragically, tragically flawed.
- Casanova Wannabe: Daphne ran for the hills when he went after her. He was slightly more successful with Hyacinth though.
- Disproportionate Retribution: He skinned Marsyas, a satyr friend of Dionysos, alive for trying to claim he was better at music than him. This is regarded as extreme even by Olympian standards by Melpomene, though Thalia finds it hilarious for some reason.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: He may be a jerk, but he loves his mother enough to do battle with the dragon that attacked her when she was pregnant.
- Half-Identical Twins: He's Artemis' twin brother, though played with as the two don't look anything alike in adulthood.
- Jerkass: As O'Connor notes at the end, Apollo is probably the most flawed of the Olympians by modern standards, and he's one of the few whose flaws can't be reworked into something positive quite as easily as those of Zeus, Poseidon or Ares. He does have some good points, of course, just ask Leto, Asklepios and Hyacinth, but his crueler moments are still glaringly obvious, including him skinning Dionysos' friend Marsyas alive for his hubris.
- Love Hurts: The death of Hyacinth hits him hard.
- Seers: Unsurprising, seeing as he's the god of prophecy.
Artemis
Goddess of the hunt and the wilds and protagonist of the ninth installment.
- Celibate Hero: As a child, she requested that Zeus never make her marry or have children. Zeus agreed to it.
- Half-Identical Twins: With Apollo, though in adulthood they don't look anything alike.
- Ms. Fanservice: Subverted. She gets a nude scene at one point...then kills the guy she catches leering at her. Hopefully you, the reader, didn't do the same...
- Platonic Life-Partners: Tried to be this with Orion. It didn't end well. Even after he gets angry at her for rejecting his advances, she confides in her mother that she "likes Orion, just not in that way".
- Single Tear: Sheds one after having to kill her former friend Orion when his Entitled to Have You attitude towards her gets out of hand.
Hermes
The God of thieves, liars, peacekeeping, shepherds, messengers and a whole lot of other things, as well as the protagonist and narrator of the tenth installment. Well, protagonist anyway...
- Adaptational Modesty: Not only does he wear pants (well, a chiton) in this version, but all references to his...ahem, impressive equipment is nowhere to be seen in the comic.
- Beware the Silly Ones: As Argus learns the hard way, Hermes is not to be underestimated.
- Hidden Eyes: For most of the series, his eyes are hidden under his helmet—as the god of lies, it makes sense that he'd keep anyone from seeing his eyes. We do finally see his eyes in the comic focusing on him, in which we learn they're sort of pale green.
- Mr. Fanservice: An athletic, muscular guy who never wears a shirt.
- The Narrator: Despite his clever disguise, he's clearly the one telling his own story. Except he's not!
- Nice Guy: He has his sinister moments, but otherwise is a pretty good guy.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Hermes' mortal disguise in Hermes: Tales of the Trickster is so similar to his divine form that eventually even Argus calls himself a fool for not seeing through it. Only it turns out that mortal isn't Hermes. The dog accompanying him is.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Provides most of the comic relief in the comic.
- Psychopomp: He guides the dead to the Underworld.
- Really Gets Around: It's noted he had many children with many lovers, is one of the candidates for the identity of Eros' father and expresses interest in Hekate.
- Sarcastic Devotee: He's intensely loyal to his father, but that doesn't mean he won't make snarky quips at him.
- Super-Speed: Moves so quickly that those who travel with him feel as though they're not moving at all.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: Wears a chlamys and a short chiton, but doesn't wear a shirt.
Hephaistos
The God of the Forge and Fire and protagonist of the eleventh installment.
- Abhorrent Admirer: Towards Athena.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Ares, Aphrodite and Hera all learn this the hard way.
- The Grotesque: He was born deformed and is a good guy as long as you don't anger him.
- Happily Adopted: By Thetis and Eurynome.
- Playing with Fire: His main power is being able to produce fire.
- Ultimate Blacksmith: His greatest strength.
Dionysos
The God of Wine, Revelry and Hedonistic Madness and the protagonist of the twelfth installment.
- Animal Motifs: Can be seen wearing leopard skins most of the time.
- The Hedonist: As the god of revelry and madness, this is a no-brainer. George O'Connor himself notes that Dionysos can be trusted to bring his own party everywhere he goes.
- Mad Eye: Has heterochromia, likely to reflect his domain of madness.
- Pretty Boy: He's a handsome guy.
Major Deities
Hades
The God of the Underworld and Wealth and one of the three protagonists of the fourth installment.
- Abduction Is Love: He actually does kidnap Persephone here, but she eventually starts to fall for him for real.
- Dark Is Not Evil: He's a good guy, even if he looks shadowy and gloomy.
- Decoy Protagonist: As lampshaded by the author, the story's more about Demeter and Persephone than it is about him.
- The Eeyore: He's often described as gloomy. This fades when he marries Persephone.
- Happily Married: With Persephone.
- No Social Skills: His demeanor towards Persephone implies that this is part of the reason why he kidnapped her.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: A tall, handsome man with dark hair.
- Uncle Pennybags: The God of wealth and surprisingly pleasant for the ruler of the realm of the dead.
Persephone (Kore)
Born Kore, the daughter of Demeter and queen of the Underworld and one of the three protagonists of the fourth installment.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Ultimately reconciles with her mother when returning to the surface.
- Happily Married: While she's initially (somewhat justifiably) angry about the whole "kidnapping" thing, she ultimately starts to like him, or at least, her new position.
- The High Queen: Persephone proves herself to be a good ruler when her guidance manages to make the Underworld a better place for the dead.
- Meaningful Rename: Kore ("The Maiden") is depicted as her birth name here, while Persephone ("Bringer of Destruction") is a new name she gives herself in the Underworld.
- Narrator All Along: The ending to Hades: Lord of the Dead strongly implies that Persephone was the story's narrator.
- Perky Goth: Becomes one in the Underworld.
- Purple Is Powerful: She wears a purple dress.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: She was actually already pretty cute, but she becomes gorgeous after giving herself a makeover in the Underworld.
Eros
Aphrodite's son by an unknown father and the God of Love.
- Age Lift: Considerably more childlike than the ancient Greek portrayals.
- Ambiguously Related: His father is unknown, but the story implies the most likely candidates are Hephaistos, Ares, Hermes and Ouranos.
- Cupid's Arrow: Obviously, seeing as he's the Trope Namer.
- Winged Humanoid: Has large, golden wings.
Hestia
The Goddess of the Hearth, Home and Family, eldest of the Olympians and narrator of the twelfth installment.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Depicted as a humanoid flame, whereas her mythical counterpart looked like a normal human. The narration claims she ended up this way because she was trapped in her father's stomach so long. Dionysos: The New God later shed light on this, revealing Hestia originally had a human form like her siblings when she was all alone in the void. But after the next sibling was devoured, Hestia changed to her fiery appearance to give light and warmth to her brothers and sisters.
- And I Must Scream: Dionysos reveals she was awake inside her father's void the entire time, while the rest of her devoured siblings were asleep.
- Body Horror: Her flamelike appearance is because she was horribly burned by her father's digestive juices. Subverted later when her narration in Dionysos explains she consciously took this form so her sleeping siblings could have light and warmth in the void.
- Cool Big Sis: Is nothing but polite and courteous to her younger siblings, and spent most of her life looking after their sleeping forms while they were trapped inside their father.
- The Determinator: She was awake the whole time within her father's void, but kept herself focused on watching over her younger brothers and sisters until they were freed.
- The Heart: Effectively the Goddess of this concept.
- Morality Pet: She is the one person who consistently brings out a kinder, gentler side to the Olympians. If someone is ever shown being rude or horrible towards Hestia, then you know that person is garbage. Like Priapus.
- Nice Girl: The nicest of the Olympians. When she offered her throne to Dionysos, everyone thought for a moment that she was leaving Olympus and were distraught at the very idea.
- Noodle Incident: Among the times she's been hit on by the male gods, she refers to something that happened with Priapus she doesn't want to talk about.
- Only Sane Man: She's by far the most rational and levelheaded of all the deities, acting as a listener to their problems but never getting wrapped up in the drama around her.
- Team Mom: To the other Olympians. Dionysos showed Hestia watched over her siblings while they all slept, trapped inside their father, until Zeus got them out.
Other Deities
Metis
Zeus' first wife and the mother of Athena.
- And I Must Scream: Trapped in Zeus' mind for all eternity.
- Eaten Alive: Zeus tricked her into becoming a fly and devoured her. Though she didn't die.
The Fates (Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos)
The triad of Goddesses representing both fate and retribution and narrators of the second installment.
- Born as an Adult: They were all born as adults from Ouranos' blood.
- Composite Character: The Fates and Furies are separate entities in the original myths. O'Connor explains his reasoning for this here.
- Hidden Eyes: Their eyes are covered up by their hoods, making them look all the more mysterious.
- The Omniscient: They know all.
- Primal Stance: As the Furies, they take on more animalistic poses.
- The Weird Sisters: A triad of menacing goddesses.
- Winged Humanoid: They take on a form resembling this when they become Furies.
Pallas
A daughter of Triton and Athena's closest friend growing up.
- Accidental Murder: She's accidentally killed by Athena when Zeus distracts her during mock combat.
- Death by Origin Story: Athena's best friend who tragically dies by accident.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Played for drama—Zeus distracts her with his Aegis while she and Athena are sparring, mostly just wanting Athena to win. It goes horribly right and Athena accidentally impales Pallas.
- Fangirl: She was one for Zeus, which ends poorly for her.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Athena.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How she dies.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for drama; as she's dying in Athena's arms, the first and last thing she can think to ask is if Zeus saw how good a fighter she was.
Hekate
The Goddess of Witchcraft and Crossroads.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: She's a bit strange, but she's also helpful and wise.
- Hot Witch: Hermes certainly thinks so.
The Charities (Aglaia, Euphrosyne and Thalia)
Goddesses of beauty and good will and Aphrodite's attendants. They act as the narrators for the sixth installment.
- Sassy Black Woman: Aglaia, though all three of them are equally sassy.
- The Weird Sisters: Another goddess triad.
Thetis
A shapeshifting nymph and the mother of Achilles.
- Good Parents: To both her biological son Achilles and her adoptive son Hephaistos.
- Happily Married: To Peleus.
Eris
Goddess of Strife and Discord and instigator of the Trojan War.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Ancient Greek art often portrayed her as beautiful, but here she's very...weird looking.
- Composite Character: She's conflated with Enyo in the comic.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Instigated the Trojan War over not being invited to a wedding.
- Jerkass: She causes problems just for the hell of it.
- Like Brother and Sister: Described as Ares' "sister-in-arms".
Deimos and Phobos
Fear and panic personified, Deimos and Phobos are the sons and companions of Ares.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Deimos and Phobos usually look humanoid, albeit sometimes somewhat bestial, but here they live up to their names being designed like a pair of wispy phantasms. O'Connor stated that this was intentional, as they're less like deities and more like personifications of abstract concepts.
The Muses (Polyhymnia, Kalliope, Euterpe, Terpsichore, Melpomene, Thalia, Erato and Ourania)
Goddesses of inspiration, art and culture, the Muses narrate the eighth installment.
- Black Comedy: Thalia finds the story of Apollo skinning a satyr alive hilarious.
- The Eeyore: Melpomene, being the Muse of Tragedy, is shown to be a bit cynical and pessimistic.
- Genki Girl: Thalia is energetic and perky, since she represents Comedy.
- Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: Thalia, the Muse of Comedy, is the Gleeful while Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy, is the Grumpy. They tell the story of Marsyas together.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: All of them are blond and pleasant.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: There's nine of them.
- Perpetual Frowner: Melpomene, fitting the Muse of Tragedy.
- Perpetual Smiler: Thalia, fitting the Muse of Comedy.
- Shipper on Deck: Erato, Muse of Mimicry and Love Poetry, gets very into the story of Apollo and Hyacinth. Though she might also be shipping herself with Apollo.
- Sibling Yin-Yang: Unsurprisingly, Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy and Thalia, the Muse of Comedy are polar opposites.
Pan
The satyr son of Hermes.
- Birds of a Feather: Gets along well with Dionysos.
- Nice Guy: He's beloved by all of Olympus.
Titans
Kronos
The father of the first six Olympians.
- Abusive Parents: Eating your children doesn't exactly make you a model parent.
- Big Bad: Of the first comic.
- Jerkass: He wasn't a pleasant guy.
Atlas
A titan punished by Zeus for the Titanomachy.
- And I Must Scream: Must hold up the sky for all eternity.
Leto
An old flame of Zeus' and the mother of Artemis and Apollo.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Sort of...in this version, Artemis and Apollo come up with the idea to slaughter Niobe's children on their own, with no evidence that Leto had anything to do with it—in fact, it's kind of implied that she didn't, as she seems to genuinely empathize with Niobe's loss. Though Leto does end up turning Niobe to stone shortly after.
- Amicable Exes: She genuinely loved Zeus but their relationship didn't last. She tells Artemis that while they're no longer together, she will likely never love anyone romantically like him again, but she doesn't regret this as her love for her children will always be stronger than that she feels for any man.
- Good Parents: Loves her children dearly and will do anything for them.
- Mama Bear: Do not mess with Artemis and Apollo. The inverse is true too—messing with her will get you struck down with arrows. Just ask Niobe and Tityos.
- Pregnant Badass: The trials she had to go through while pregnant (being forced to never give birth anywhere on dry land, chased by a dragon, spied on by Ares and Iris, etc.) were nasty, but she withstood them nonetheless.
Prometheus
A young Titan punished by Zeus.
- And I Must Scream: His punishment of being eternally pecked at by an eagle is brought up in Hephaistos.
- Seers: His punishment was brought on because he foresaw Zeus' downfall and refused to tell him how it would be brought about.
Protogenoi
Gaea
The primordial embodiment of the Earth.
- Earth Mother: The cast even calls her "Grandmother Earth".
- The Faceless: She's never given a face and usually only shows up as either a panning shot of the landscape or a circle.
- Mama Bear: She loves her children and hates it when people mess with them.
Ouranos
The primordial embodiment of the sky.
- The Faceless: He does briefly appear once as a humanoid shape in the sky, but otherwise doesn't have a real face.
- Greater-Scope Villain: In the first comic.
Hekatoncheires
Three giants born to Gaea and Ouranos with fifty heads and a hundred hands.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: They have a hundred arms and are extremely powerful.
Monsters
Cyclopes
Three one-eyed sons of Gaea and Ouranos.
- The Blacksmith: They created weapons for the Olympians and later worked as attendants for Hephaistos.
- Classical Cyclops: They're giants with one eye each.
Medusa
Formerly one of Athena's priestesses, Medusa is a gorgon slain by Perseus.
- Arch-Enemy: More or less treated as this for Athena.
- The Cameo: After taking center stage as an antagonist in Athena: Grey-Eyed Goddess, Medusa makes a brief appearance in Hades: Lord of the Dead, as a spirit terrorizing the other souls in the Underworld.
- Deadly Gaze: She can turn people to stone with a single glare.
- Forced Transformation: She was once a human, but was turned into a monster by Athena for entering a relationship with Poseidon.
- Gorgeous Gorgon: Even after her transformation, she's quite beautiful.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Before her transformation, she had flowing blond hair.
- Taken for Granite: Her visage can inflict this on people.
Pegasus
A winged horse born from Medusa's body after she died. Son of Medusa and Poseidon.
- Cool Horse: A radiant white horse with wings.
Cerberus
The guard dog of the Underworld and one of Typhon and Echidna's monstrous children.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Frightening and the son of the Olympians' Arch-Enemy, but he's the faithful pet of Hades.
- Hellhound: A gigantic, three-headed monster dog is pretty much going to be this regardless of how you slice it.
- Multiple Head Case: Played with, as while he has three heads, they all seem pretty identical to each other.
Polyphemos
A Cyclops born to Poseidon.
- Classical Cyclops: Though he looks more grotesque than his predecessors.
- Eye Scream: Has his eye gouged out by Odysseus and his crew.
- Jerkass: Significantly less pleasant than the other Cyclopes.
- Killer Gorilla: His design looks a fair bit like a gorilla.
- To Serve Man: Eats several of Odysseus' men.
Asterion the Minotaur
The monstrous son of Queen Pasiphae and the Cretan Bull, slain by Theseus.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Ariadne expresses sympathy for her monstrous step-brother's death.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: Born from a union between a human woman and a bull.
- Happily Adopted: Tragically subverted. Minos tried to take care of him as his son, but ultimately, Asterion's bloodthirsty nature took control.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Trope Maker, a monster with a human body and bull head.
- To Serve Man: Possibly I'm a Humanitarian; he eats humans.
Python
One of Gaea's daughters, a deadly serpent that Hera sends to chase after Leto during her pregnancy.
- Asshole Victim: You won't feel bad for her when Apollo kills her.
- Eye Scream: One of Apollo's arrows stabs out her eye.
- Our Dragons Are Different: This one is a huge, deadly snake that can talk.
- Smug Snake: Figuratively and literally! She's a literal giant snake that arrogantly underestimates Apollo right before he kills her.
- Snakes Are Sinister: She's a giant, evil snake.
- Sssssnake Talk: She hisses a lot when she speaks.
- Talking Animal: She's a serpentine dragon that can talk.
Ephialtes and Otus
A pair of Giants born to Poseidon who tried to kidnap Artemis.
- Asshole Victim: Both of them were Jerkasses.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Artemis tricks them into killing each other.
Typhon
The last son of Gaea and the monster sent to overthrow Zeus.
- Arch-Enemy: To Zeus, being created specifically to destroy and overthrow him.
- Breath Weapon: Belches fire out of his mouths.
- Eldritch Abomination: A massive creature with hundreds of bellowing, fire-breathing animal heads.
- Kaiju: He's so massive that he towers over Mount Olympus itself.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Echidna.
Echidna
Typhon's wife, a serpent woman who gave birth to all the nastiest monsters.
- Game Face: With her mouth closed, Echidna looks like a pretty monster woman. With it open, she looks like an actual snake extending its jaws.
- Long Neck: Her neck can wrap around her shoulders like a boa.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: The mother of all monsters.
- Snake People: She's a humanoid creature with a serpent's body.
- Unholy Matrimony: With Typhon.
- Villainous Cheekbones: Subverted—they're actually the hinges of her jaws.
Mortals and Demigods
Perseus
Son of Zeus and Danae and slayer of Medusa; featured in the second book.
- Accidental Murder: Accidentally kills Acrisus with a stray discus. Acrisus had it coming, and this also fulfilled a prophecy anyway.
- Happily Married: To Princess Andromeda.
- Momma's Boy: Went to slay Medusa to save his mother from the sleezeball who was trying to seduce her.
- Nice Guy: By modern standards, he's the most altruistic of Greek heroes.
- Rescue Romance: With Andromeda.
Arachne
A mortal weaver who challenged Athena. It doesn't end well for Arachne.
- Forced Transformation: Athena turns her into a spider to punish her hubris.
- Too Dumb to Live: She claimed to be better than Athena at weaving and proceeded to use her tapestry to make fun of Zeus. Given that Athena is the goddess of weaving AND a loyal Daddy's Girl on top of that, this does not end well for Arachne...
Io
A princess courted by Zeus and turned into a cow to "protect" her from Hera. She ends up stuck that way for a while.
- Amazing Technicolor Wildlife: Io's cow form is a pale shade of pink.
- Forced Transformation: Zeus tries to hide her from Hera by turning her into a cow. It doesn't work.
- What Beautiful Eyes!: Declared by Zeus as an attempt to appease Hera. Hera takes advantage of it to keep Io prisoner.
Heracles
Born Alcides. One of Zeus' demigod children and mortal enemy of Hera.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The murder of Megara and her children is excised from this adaptation. Heracles' Hair-Trigger Temper is still in there though.
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: In death, he attains full godhood.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Sort of—he and Hebe, his fourth and last wife, first met when they were babies, but they were separated quickly, so they didn't remember.
- Meaningful Rename: His birth name is Alcides, but he's renamed Heracles ("Glory of Hera") in an attempt to appease Hera. It doesn't work.
- Happily Married: To Hebe in the end.
- Hunk: He's huge and attractive.
Tantalos
Former favorite of the Olympians and demigod son of Zeus.
- Abusive Parents: Slaughtered his own son and boiled his flesh to serve to the gods.
- Adaptational Villainy: Tantalos was a bastard already, but here he's given the added motivation of wanting to spite the Gods over Demeter neglecting the harvest from her grief for Persephone.
- And I Must Scream: Subjected to a torturous eternity of starvation and thirst in the Underworld.
- Asshole Victim: You will not feel sorry for him when Zeus kills him and Hades gives him an eternal, torturous punishment.
- Dirty Coward: When Zeus figures out what he did, Tantalos is reduced to pathetically begging for his life. It falls on deaf ears and no one can blame Zeus for it.
- Jerkass: You don't get much jerkassy-er than killing your own son and trying to feed him to your guests.
- Offing the Offspring: Kills and tries to cannibalize his own son.
- Villains Want Mercy: Panics and begs Zeus for mercy when his trickery is found out. It doesn't work.
Theseus
A demigod son of Poseidon.
- Jerkass: Poseidon notes that most of his children are typically monsters. Despite being fully human, Poseidon does not consider Theseus to be an exception, as his abandonment of his fiancee Ariadne and him indirectly causing his adoptive father's suicide makes Theseus as much a monster as Poseidon's other children.
- Lack of Empathy: Cares little for the fates of his wife and his foster father (his wife does get a happy ending though).
- Ungrateful Bastard: How does he repay Ariadne for helping him kill the Minotaur? By leaving her on an island and forgetting about her, of course!
King Minos
The king of Crete, and the one sacrificing Athenian youths to the Minotaur.
- The Caligula: Well yeah, sending teenagers into a maze to get eaten by your monstrous stepson isn't exactly a Nice Guy move.
- Decomposite Character: It's only mentioned in supplementary material, but this Minos and the Underworld Judge introduced in Hades: Lord of the Dead are not the same person. More specifically, the first Minos is this one's grandfather.
- Papa Wolf: Part of the reason he goes to war with Athens is because his son was killed in a race there.
Ariadne
Daughter of King Minos, half-sister of the Minotaur and formerly Theseus' lover.
- Broken Bird: Waits for months for Theseus to come back to her before finally realizing he's abandoned her.
- Rebellious Princess: Helps Theseus kill the Minotaur and gets herself banished from her kingdom for Theseus. Theseus repays her by abandoning her on the Island of Naxos.
- Scenery Censor: Since she's dressed in period accurate Minoan attire, which often didn't cover up the chest area in women, the scenery and/or her arms frequently cover up her breasts.
Pygmalion
A mortal man who prays to Aphrodite to bring his beloved statue to life.
- Pygmalion Plot: The Trope Namer of course!
Achilles
The hero of the Trojan War.
- Achilles in His Tent: Obviously, this is how he's introduced.
- Achilles' Heel: Also obviously—this is how he dies in the Trojan War.
- Berserker Tears: Sheds them as he cuts through the Trojan Army and later desecrates Hector's corpse to avenge Patroclus.
- Manly Gay: Played with, as visually he's a Pretty Boy, but he's also without question the best soldier in the Greek army.
- Momma's Boy: Gets along well with his mother Thetis.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Ares and Hermes observe that if he fought like Ares, every single soldier on both sides of the war would be dead.
- Pretty Boy: He's got long blond hair and is pretty cute.
Daphne
An Oceanid Nymph who Gaea turned into a tree to keep her from being assaulted by Apollo.
- Transflormation: Into a laurel tree.
Hyacinth
A Spartan prince whom Apollo fell in love with.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: After Zephyrus kills him, he dies in the arms of Apollo.
- Flower Motifs: The flowers that bear his name sprouted from his blood.
- Killed Off for Real: Despite Apollo's attempt to save him, Hyacinth dies in his arms after Zephyrus, overcome with jealousy, threw a discus in his face.
- Last Kiss: Not shown, but strongly implied between him and Apollo.
Asklepios
Demigod son of Apollo and Koronis and the world's greatest healer.
- The Medic: The greatest of all healers. Ends poorly for him when he revives Theseus' son Hippolytus from the dead.
Niobe
Daughter of the aforementioned Tantalos, she committed blasphemy by claiming to be better than Leto for having fourteen children instead of two and even went so far as to command that Leto's temples be replaced with temples to her and her children instead. Artemis and Apollo took offense and... well...
- Blasphemous Boast: Claims the people should exult in her and her children because she had more than two, and even adds insult to injury by dismissing Leto as a "harlot of Zeus".
- Despair Event Horizon: After the deaths of her children and husband. She loses all motivation to do anything except sit upon a mountain and weep.
- Jerkass: She starts out as this, depicted as a grumpy old lady who thinks everyone should worship her over Leto. Then Artemis and Apollo found out...
- Outliving One's Offspring: Thanks to Artemis and Apollo.
- Sympathy for the Devil: "Devil" might be a bit extreme, but Leto seems to feel sorry for her after Artemis and Apollo kill her children, hence why she opts to relieve her of her grief by turning her to stone.
- Taken for Granite: A rare case where it's portrayed as something of a mercy; she's turned into a rock to relieve her of her grief.
Actaeon
A mortal hunter who was killed by Artemis.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Somewhat. Many tellings claim that Actaeon stumbled upon Artemis bathing by accident, but here, he’s unambiguously shown leering at her and her nymphs.
- Asshole Victim: Seeing as he’s a creep who spied on a bunch of women while they were bathing, it’s hard to feel bad for him when he dies.
- Forced Transformation: Turned into a stag.
- Karmic Death: He looked upon a goddess like a cut of meat. Said goddess ensured that his dogs would look upon him the same way.
- The Peeping Tom: Peeps on Artemis and her hunters while they’re bathing. And that’s why Artemis gets him killed.
Orion
A hunter who had a thing for Artemis. When she just wanted to be friends, he wasn't happy.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Zig-zagged. Some myths imply he had no sexual interest in Artemis and was fine with just being her friend; the reason he wanted to kill all wildlife was mostly just unrelated hubris. Here, he gets mad at her for refusing his advances and swears to kill all wildlife to spite her. That said, in the myths where he is sexually interested in Artemis, he usually just cuts out the middleman and tries to assault her, whereas here he at least pretends to be a nice guy in order to win her over.
- Entitled to Have You: He felt this way towards Artemis. It led to her, Apollo and Leto working to kill him.
- Extra Parent Conception: Three, actually. He was born from Zeus, Poseidon and Hermes urinating on a bear skin and burying it into the ground. Yes, really.
Argus Panoptes
The hundred-eyed giant and attendant of Hera, later slain by Hermes for disobeying Zeus and killing Echidna.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's never made clear why he killed Echidna.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: He's covered in eyes, all over his body.
- Off with His Head!: Hermes kills him this way.
- Punch-Clock Villain: He's merely doing his job. Hermes, in a way, was doing his too by killing him.
- Ship Tease: It's subtle, but there are some hints that there's more to Argus' loyalty to Hera than just being her servant and bodyguard, on both sides. O'Connor confirms that this was intentional.
Aesop
A mortal who unknowingly accompanies Hermes during his assassination of Argus Panoptes.
- The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: He claims that his dog told him the story about the dogs on Mount Olympus. Turns out he was right, because the dog was actually Hermes.
- Identical Stranger: Looks a lot like Hermes, complete with Hidden Eyes under his hat and when his eyes are visible, they're even the same color as Hermes' eyes. This leads both Argus and the readers to think he's Hermes in disguise.
- Nice Guy: He comes off as friendly and jovial.
- Red Herring: Initially, we're led to believe he's actually Hermes in disguise. We're wrong.
- Unwitting Pawn: For Hermes.
- Walking Spoiler: Knowing the truth about him, even his name, spoils the ending of Hermes' comic.
- Young Future Famous People: Implied to be the Aesop, as in the writer of the Aesop's Fables.
Pandora
The first mortal woman, created by the Gods for less than good purposes.
- Original Man: Original Woman, actually. The very first mortal woman.