About

Hi! My name is Abbot Henderson, and you’ve found my website devoted to Greco-Roman mythology. This website can be accessed two ways: either through www.mythologiaillustrata.com or through www.illustratedmythology.com for all you non-Latin speakers out there. The site is regularly updated, with new panels appearing every Monday and Thursday.

This website is my rather ambitious attempt to create a comprehensive illustrated resource for Greco-Roman mythology. As of May 2010 I have been working on this project for over a year, and have no doubt it will take many more to complete. Nevertheless, there are a finite number of Greco-Roman myths, and I hope to be able to finish one day before either old age or the ouzo can kill me.

For those of you curious about why I chose to start with the House of Thebes, it is because the house of Thebes is one of the more complicated royal families in mythology. It is practically connected everywhere! Through Laius (Oedipus’ father) it is connected to the House of Atreus. Through Thersander (Oedipus’ grandson) it is connected to the Trojan War! And these are only two out of many more connections. I figure that it I can get through all the assorted complications (and contradictions) of the House of Thebes then I should be able to pull the rest of it off eventually.

A couple of things should be said about anachronisms. I have taken great liberty with the architecture and armor in my illustrations, choosing to represent many of the temples and dwellings as being from classical 6th/5th century Greece. This was done merely for convenience, as depicting such dwellings in the Greek stone or bronze age style (which would be more accurate for the earlier myths) would not be recognized as “Greek” enough to the casual reader of mythology. And I want to make this site accessible for both casual and serious students of mythology.

I rationalize this by reminding myself that even the Roman poet Virgil (who was writing about a war that took place a millennium before his own time) was guilty of anachronisms. With that in mind I hope you enjoy my site and can pardon me for any historical inaccuracies. Feel free to send me any comments, criticisms, and/or questions through this link. Thanks for visiting!