1. Serving the gods as the supreme scribe, the ibis-headed Thoth was known as the 'tongue of Ptah' for his knowledge of hieroglyphics, and as the 'Heart of Re' for his creative powers. His knowledge of science and calculation made him the creator of the calendar, and his symbol was the moon due to his knowledge of how to calculate its path. His knowledge of magic led to his association with the Greek Hermes. Thoth was consulted by Isis when attempting to resurrect Osiris, and was again consulted when the young Horus was stung by a scorpion.

2. Also called the Asterion, it was a half-man, half-bull monster kept in the Labyrinth on Crete by King Minos. Minos prayed to Poseidon to send a snow-white bull as a sign of support during Minos' quarrel with his brothers for the throne of Crete, but instead of sacrificing the animal to the sea god, Minos kept it for himself. Angered, Poseidon caused Minos' wife Pasiphaë to lust after the bull, so Daedalus built her a wooden cow so she could mate with the bull. The product of this encounter was the Minotaur (lit. 'Bull of Minos'). After Minos' son Androgeus was killed by Athenians, Minos demanded seven Athenians male youths and seven Athenian female youths, to be selected by lots every seven or nine years (accounts vary) as retribution; these victims were fed to the Minotaur. On the third drawing of the lots, the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered to vanquish the beast; with the help of Minos' daughter Ariadne, who gave Theseus a ball of string so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth, Theseus slew the Minotaur. On the return voyage from Crete, Theseus forgot to change his sails from black back to white, and his father Aegeus jumped into the sea, believing his son had died.

3. Also known as Wodin or Wotan. The 'All-Father,' he is the leader of the Aesir, the principal group of Norse gods. He is a god of war, death, wisdom, poetry, and knowledge, and rides the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. He hung himself for nine days on the world-tree Yggsdrasil, pierced by his own spear, to gain knowledge, and traded one of his eyes for a drink from Mimir's well to gain wisdom.

4. The wife of Hector and mother of Astyanax, she futilely warns Hector about the war, then sees both her husband and son killed by the Greeks. After the war she is made concubine to Neoptolemus, and later marries the Trojan prophet Helenus.

5. Also known as Freyr. The son of Njord, and twin brother of Freya. He is one of the Vanir, a second group of Norse gods, but lives with the Aesir as a hostage. The god of fertility, horses, sun, and rain, his possessions include the magic ship Skidbladnir. He travels in a chariot drawn by the golden boar Gullinbursti, and had to give away his magic sword to win the hand of the giantess Gerda.

6. The first human woman in Greek mythology. Hephaestus sculpted her from clay as a punishment for humanity after Prometheus stole fire from the gods. The primary myth of Pandora relates how she released all the evils of the world by opening a jar ('Pandora's Box'), and when she closed the lid only hope remained within. Pandora married the Titan Epimetheus, and their daughter Pyrrha survived the Greek flood with her husband Deucalion.

7. A Knight of the Round Table renowned for his purity and honor. Galahad is the illegitimate son of Sir Lancelot and King Pelles's daughter Lady Elaine of Corbenic. Sir Galahad is the only member of Arthur's corps who can sit in the Siege Perilous, a seat at the Round Table set aside by Merlin for the knight who would complete the quest for the Holy Grail. Galahad's quest for the Holy Grail, which he completed alongside Sir Percival and Sir Bors, ended when he encountered the Fisher King, who asked him to take the chalice to Sarras. Galahad is supposedly descended from the brother-in-law of Joseph of Arimathea, who later visits him and allows him to ascend to Heaven.

8. The daughter of Njord and twin sister of Frey, she is also a Vanir hostage living with the Aesir. The goddess of love, passion, and human fertility, her possessions include a cloak that allows her to turn into a falcon, and the necklace Brisingamen. She travels in a chariot drawn by two cats.

9. Beautiful women who appeared harmless and sang a beautiful song to passing sailors, only to prove vicious and bloodthirsty when the sailors ventured too close. The Greeks often said that the Sirens were the daughters of the river god Achelous, while the Romans named their father as Phorcys. In the Argonautica, Chiron warns Jason that Orpheus will be instrumental on his journey, and Orpheus later saves all of Jason's crew (save Butes) by playing his lyre when they pass the Sirens to drown out their beautiful and alluring song. Odysseus also encountered the Sirens, tying himself to the mast of his ship so that he could safely hear their song while his crew plugged their ears with beeswax, on the advice of the sorceress Circe.

10. This 'swift-footed' warrior is the greatest on the Greek side. His father is Peleus, a great warrior in his own right, and his mother is Thetis, a sea nymph. The consequences of Achilles' rage at Agamemnon for confiscating his geras (prize of honor) are the subject of the Iliad. Achilles kills Hector, but is killed by a poisoned arrow in the heel, the only vulnerable place on his body.

11. A talented Lydian weaver who constantly boasted that her skills were better than that of any of the gods. Arachne challenged the goddess Athena to a weaving competition, during which Arachne wove a tapestry depicting the gods' transgressions against mankind and Athena depicted four contests between mortals and the gods. The result of the competition depends on the sources: some say that Arachne won but Athena was insulted by her images and destroyed Arachne's work, and others say that Athena's weaving was superior. In all versions, though, Athena turns Arachne into a spider.

12. This son of Laertes is known for his cleverness and glib tongue. His accomplishments include a successful night raid against King Rhesus, winning the armor of Achilles, and engineering the famous Trojan Horse. His ten-year trip home to Ithaca (where his wife, Penelope, awaits) is the subject of the Odyssey.

13. Osiris took Isis, his sister, for his wife, and ruled over the earth. Set grew jealous of his brother and killed him, afterwards cutting his body into fourteen pieces and hiding them in various places around Egypt. He then claimed kingship over the land. Isis searched the breadth of the land until she had recovered all of the pieces and, with the help of Anubis, embalmed the body. She conceived a son, Horus, by the (still dead) Osiris, then resurrected him. Horus defeated Set to regain the kingship, and all subsequent pharaohs were said to be aspects of him.

14. A sorceress from the island of Colchis; her father was King Aeëtes, and her aunt was the witch Circe. Medea encountered the hero Jason when he and the Argonauts came to Colchis in search of the Golden Fleece, and she helped him yoke fire-breathing oxen and sow dragon's teeth. Medea left Colchis with Jason, and on the voyage home she killed both her brother Absyrtus and the giant bronze automaton Talos. She and Jason had several children together, but Jason ultimately left Medea for the princess Glauce; in vengeance, she killed two of her children and fled on a golden chariot.

15. King Arthur's illegitimate son by his half-sister Morgause (they were unaware of their shared parentage), possibly making him the rightful heir to Camelot. Mordred is best known as a traitorous figure who crowns himself King of the Britons while King Arthur is in Gaul fighting the mythical Emperor Lucius of Rome. Mordred is also frequently linked with Queen Guinevere: some accounts say that he reported the queen's affair with Lancelot to Arthur, some say that Mordred took Guinevere as a concubine during his usurpation of Arthur's throne, and some say that Mordred's wife was Guinevere's sister Gwenhwyfach. Arthur killed Mordred at the Battle of Camlann.

16. He's actually giant-kin, but lives with the Aesir and is Odin's blood-brother. The god of fire and trickery, his many pranks include duping Hoder into killing Balder. His children include the wolf Fenrir, the Midgard Serpent Jormungandr, Hel (the ruler of the underworld), and Sleipnir. After killing Balder he was chained to three boulders with snakes dripping poison onto him.

17. The king of Troy and son of Laomedon, he has 50 sons and 12 daughters with his wife Hecuba (presumably she does not bear them all), plus at least 42 more children with various concubines. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, kills him in front of his wife and daughters during the siege of Troy.

18. Hathor (or Athor or Athyr) was the patron of women. Hathor was the daughter of Ra and the wife of Horus. She fulfilled many functions as goddess of the sky, goddess of fertility, protector of marriage, and goddess of love and beauty. In that final role she became equated with Aphrodite and Venus. Pictures of Hathor show the goddess with the head of a cow.

19. A Knight of the Round Table who accompanies Sir Galahad and Sir Bors on the successful quest for the Holy Grail. Percival is one of the sons of King Pellinore. He was raised in the woods by his (unnamed) mother until he turned 15. Although Percival fails to identify the Holy Grail during an early encounter with the wounded Fisher King that involved a bleeding lance, he later heals the Fisher King's wound at the end of the quest. In some stories, Percival loves a woman named Blanchefleur, and he is named as the father of Lohengrin in many Germanic sources.

20. Created in opposition to the forces of Ma'at, Set (termed Typhon by Plutarch) fought the demon Apopis each day, emerging victorious, symbolic of the struggle of forces that brought harmony. In later times, this struggle led Set to be associated with the serpent itself, and Set became the personification of violence and disorder, and the cause of all disasters. Having killed his brother Osiris, Set did battle with Osiris' son Horus, being emasculated in the fight. His cult was diminished over time, due to reaction against violence. His effigies were destroyed by some, while others were changed into representations of Amon, by replacing the ears with horns.

21. The foremost among the Knights of the Round Table, an expert swordsman and jouster who is the primary figure of the Vulgate Cycle. The son of King Ban of Benwick, Lancelot was raised by the Lady of the Lake, which earned him the epithet 'du Lac' or 'of the Lake.' Another of his epithets is 'Knight of the Cart,' which he earned for riding in a dwarf's cart while searching for Guinevere after she was kidnapped. Aside from his adulterous affair with Queen Guinevere, Lancelot is known for fathering Sir Galahad with Elaine of Corbenic, who had tricked Lancelot into sleeping with her by disguising herself as Guinevere. After his betrayal of Arthur was revealed, Lancelot fled to France and was therefore not present during the Battle of Camlann.

22. This is actually a historical episode: during the reign of Amenhotep III (1390-1353 BC), worship of the god Aton (or Aten) — a representation of the disk of the sun — was resurrected. This process was carried to its extreme conclusion by his successor, Amenhotep IV, who eventually declared Aton to be the only god, thereby creating one of the earliest known monotheistic religions. The pharaoh even changed his name to Akhenaton, meaning 'Aton is satisfied.' The worship of Aton was centered on the capital city Tell-el-Amarna, and was largely confined to upper classes and the pharaonic court; it did not survive Amenhotep. Under his successor, Tutankhamen (King Tut), traditional religious practices were restored.

23. The daughter of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae, making her a princess of Crete. Minos's palace in Knossos is sometimes referred to as the 'dancing ground of Ariadne.' When Theseus came to Crete to kill the Minotaur, Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of twine to help him navigate the Labyrinth. Ariadne and Theseus left Crete together, but he later abandoned her on the island of Naxos where she was saved by Dionysus, whom she married. Her wedding diadem was placed in the heavens as the constellation Corona Borealis.

24. The wife of Priam, she suffers the loss of most of her children but survives the fall of Troy. She is later turned into a dog.

25. Known as the Father and Mother of All Monsters due to their numerous monstrous offspring, including the two-headed dog Orthrus, the Nemean Lion, the Hydra, the Chimera, and Cerberus. Typhon was the last son of Gaea and Tartarus, while Echidna's parentage is obscured by ancient sources; most often, she is listed as a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. In the Theogony, Hesiod describes a climactic battle between Zeus and Typhon following Zeus' defeat of the Titans: Typhon rips out Zeus' sinews and is nearly victorious, but Hermes restores Zeus's sinews and Zeus finally overpowers the giant monster. Typhon was then trapped under Mount Etna, where he is believed to cause earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.