# Bulfinch’s Mythology — Character guide

> Key figures in Bulfinch’s Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch.

- [King Arthur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/king_arthur.md): Arthur commands the loyalty of dukes, earls, and the knights of the Round Table, but his authority fractures when Launcelot fortifies himself in Joyeuse Garde with the queen's partisans. He lays siege with Gawain at his 
- [Sir Launcelot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/launcelot.md): Launcelot is the knight Arthur made, and the knight who will not raise his sword against his maker—even when besieged and called a mortal foe. He charges his own men to spare Arthur and Gawain, then lifts the fallen king
- [Charlemagne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/charlemagne.md): Charlemagne rules the Franks and gathers around him the paladins whose deeds fill the legends bearing his name. His authority holds the diverse warriors together, but the passions of his knights—rivalries, forbidden love
- [Orlando](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/orlando.md): Orlando stands first among the paladins, his prowess the pride of Charlemagne's court. But his love for Angelica becomes an obsession that neither duty nor honor can temper, and the discovery of her union with another dr
- [Rogero](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/rogero.md): Rogero rides among the Saracen host, feared for his prowess and prized by his commanders. His love for the Christian warrior Bradamante pulls him toward conversion and a future as founder of the house of Este—yet every s
- [Geraint](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/geraint.md): Geraint, son of Erbin, is a knight whose devotion to Enid becomes the proving ground of his honor. Suspecting her constancy after a careless word, he rides out with her in silence, forbidding her to warn him of dangers a
- [Aeneas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/aeneas.md): Aeneas belongs to the generation of heroes caught between a ruined homeland and a promised one, and Bulfinch introduces him as the son of Venus and Anchises whose wanderings the Roman poets claimed as their nation's orig
- [Tristram](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/tristram.md): Tristram moves through the Arthurian world as a knight of unmatched versatility, equally feared in tournaments and prized at court for his music. His marriage to Isoude of the White Hands is an attempt to escape a love h
- [Sir Owain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_owain.md): Owain's story turns on a broken promise: he wins the Lady of the Fountain, then lets his vow to return lapse while he seeks adventure, and her messenger publicly brands him a deceiver. He wanders half-mad among wild beas
- [Astolpho](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/astolpho.md): Astolpho stands apart from the grim warriors of the Carolingian cycle by virtue of his humor and his taste for the marvelous, and Bulfinch places him among the paladins whose adventures shade into romance and allegory. H
- [Rinaldo of Montalban](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/rinaldo.md): Rinaldo is the head of the house of Montalban, and his feud with the emperor over the horse Bayard and the grievances of his family drives some of the cycle's bitterest sieges. When starvation forces his garrison to cons
- [Ogier the Dane](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/ogier.md): Ogier enters the Carolingian court as a hostage for his father, a position that makes him vulnerable to the contempt of princes like Charlot. When Charlot sneers that a captive vassal cannot answer a challenge, Charlemag
- [Sir Perceval](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/perceval.md): Perceval rides among Arthur's fellowship as one of the few whose innocence and unworldliness mark him for the Sangreal's mysteries. His strength lies not in cunning but in a kind of holy simplicity that the world of cour
- [Sir Gawain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_gawain.md): Gawain moves through the Arthurian world as a figure of immense reputation, his name invoked alongside the greatest of the fellowship. Yet the Grail quest presses against even his formidable qualities, and his resolve fa
- [Sir Bohort](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_bohort.md): Bohort rides out from Camelot into a landscape of trials that test not his sword arm but his soul. When forced to choose between saving his brother Lionel and rescuing a threatened maiden, he weeps and chooses the maiden
- [Huon of Bordeaux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/huon.md): Huon of Bordeaux carries the weight of a great name into a world of imperial politics and supernatural tests. His courage is matched only by the misfortunes that dog his steps, earning him the epithet 'brave but unfortun
- [Jupiter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/jupiter.md): Jupiter rules Olympus with a sovereignty that is absolute but far from serene, his authority constantly asserted against giants, rivals, and the consequences of his own desires. He transforms himself into a ram to escape
- [Phoebus Apollo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/apollo.md): Apollo pursues Daphne with a passion that ends in her transformation into the laurel, a tree he claims as his own eternal emblem. His domain extends from the lyre to the healing arts, and the wise of ancient days adored 
- [Ulysses](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/ulysses.md): Ulysses is the Greek captain whose fame rests less on strength than on stratagems, the man whose cleverness wins wars and then prolongs his own voyage home. His story turns on a restless hunger for experience and a wife,
- [Angelica](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/angelica.md): Angelica is the elusive prize of the Orlando romances, a princess whose charms set paladins against one another even as her city falls around her. Trapped in a citadel with dwindling supplies, she rides out alone through
- [Achilles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/achilles.md): Achilles stands at the head of the Greek host before Troy, a warrior whose skill in battle is matched only by the fury that governs him. His quarrel with Agamemnon over honor and plunder drives a wedge through the Greek 
- [Sir Galahad](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_galahad.md): Galahad arrives at Arthur's court as the knight whose sinlessness singles him out for the Holy Grail, a destiny that separates him from the flawed companions he rides beside. Where Launcelot and Tristram are tangled in l
- [Thor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/thor.md): Thor is the strongest of the Norse gods, the defender of Asgard and Midgard whose hammer Mjolnir answers the giants' threats. At Ragnarok he kills the Midgard serpent, only to fall dead from its venom, a fate he meets wi
- [Sir Kay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_kay.md): Sir Kay is the seneschal of Arthur's household, the foster-brother raised alongside the king and entrusted with the practical running of the court. His tongue is famously cutting, and he often tests newcomers with scorn 
- [Psyche](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/psyche.md): Psyche is the youngest of three royal daughters, so radiant that crowds mistake her for Venus herself and leave the goddess's altars cold. That unintended rivalry sets a jealous deity against her, while her mysterious hu
- [Oliver](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/oliver.md): Oliver stands beside Roland in the emperor's household guard, matched to him in courage but not in temper. Where Roland charges ahead, Oliver reads the ground, counts the enemy, and begs for caution—advice that goes unhe
- [Niobe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/niobe.md): Proud queen turned to stone after boasting about her children, slain by Apollo and Diana.
- [Minerva](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/minerva.md): Minerva sits among the great Olympians as patron of crafts, strategy, and the disciplined side of battle, her counsel weighed against Neptune's and Juno's in the halls of Jupiter. She chooses her mortals carefully—Ulysse
- [Juno](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/juno.md): Juno reigns beside Jupiter as queen of gods and guardian of marriage, a position she defends with relentless energy. Her husband's endless affairs wound her pride, and she pursues his lovers and their children across lan
- [Vulcan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/vulcan.md): God of fire and metalworking, husband of Venus, forger of divine weapons.
- [Sir Lionel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sir_lionel.md): Knight of the Round Table, brother of Sir Bohort, known for his fierce temper.
- [Hector](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/hector.md): Trojan prince and greatest warrior of Troy, killed by Achilles.
- [Ovid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/ovid.md): Roman poet whose Metamorphoses is a major source for many myths in this book.
- [Antaeus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/antaeus.md): Giant wrestler of Libya, invincible while touching the earth, killed by Hercules.
- [Orpheus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/orpheus.md): Legendary musician who descended to the underworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice.
- [Cephalus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/cephalus.md): Hunter and husband of Procris, central figure in a tragic love story.
- [Pwyll](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/pwyll.md): Pwyll rules Dyfed with more courage than judgment, and one ill-considered exchange with Arawn, lord of the Otherworld, sends him to swap places with a king he has never met. He must govern a strange court for a year, sle
- [Proserpine](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/proserpine.md): Daughter of Ceres, queen of the underworld, abducted by Pluto.
- [Medea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/medea.md): Medea is daughter of the king who guards the Fleece, and her knowledge of herbs and incantations makes her the most dangerous ally Jason could gain. She betrays her father and her brother to help him, then uses her arts 
- [Enid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/enid.md): Wife of Geraint, known for her loyalty and patience in Arthurian romance.
- [Theseus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/theseus.md): Theseus enters the Cretan labyrinth as one of fourteen Athenian youths sent to feed Minos's monster, and walks out with a crown waiting in Athens. His heroism is real but tangled with obligation: he owes his survival to 
- [Manawyddan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/manawyddan.md): Welsh hero and magician, son of Llyr, central figure in the Mabinogi.
- [Queen Guenever](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/queen_guenever.md): Guenever moves through Arthur's hall as its social center — receiving wounded knights, judging insults done to her maidens, and dispensing the mercy that keeps feuds from hardening. Bulfinch shows her forgiving Edeyrn fo
- [Danaë](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/danae.md): Mother of Perseus, imprisoned by her father but visited by Jupiter in a golden shower.
- [Charlot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/charlot.md): Son of Charlemagne, a treacherous figure in the Charlemagne legends.
- [Arachne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/arachne.md): Mortal weaver who challenged Minerva and was turned into a spider.
- [Venus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/venus.md): Venus presides over the myths where desire becomes fate — the judgment of Paris, the passion of Adonis, the trials of Cupid's lovers. Bulfinch pauses on her statue in the Medici collection, noting that sculptors modeled 
- [Neptune](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/neptune.md): God of the sea, brother of Jupiter, often causing storms and earthquakes.
- [Merlin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/merlin.md): Merlin appears in Bulfinch's Welsh triads as Merlin Ambrose, son of Morfyn, called the Wild — a seer whose authority rests on verse and prophecy rather than arms. He belongs to the company of golden-tongued knights and b
- [Luned](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/luned.md): Handmaiden and confidante of the Lady of the Fountain in Welsh Arthurian tales.
- [Pyramus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/pyramus.md): Babylonian lover who died for love of Thisbe in a tragic tale of miscommunication.
- [Scylla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/scylla.md): Sea monster or maiden transformed; also a princess who betrayed her father for love.
- [Jason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/jason.md): Jason arrives at the edge of the Argo's story as a man with a claim and no throne, gathering heroes from across Greece for a quest that doubles as a political errand. Bulfinch places him in the company of the great exped
- [Melissa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/melissa.md): Wise enchantress who aids Bradamante and Rogero in the Orlando epics.
- [Gradasso](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/gradasso.md): Proud Saracen king who invades France seeking the best sword and horse.
- [Osiris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/osiris.md): Egyptian god of the underworld, killed by Set and resurrected by Isis.
- [Sir Palamedes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/palamedes.md): Saracen knight of the Round Table, rival of Tristram for Isoude's love.
- [Siegfried](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/siegfried.md): Siegfried stands at the center of the Nibelungen cycle, the dragon-slayer whose strength is matched only by the doom attached to what he wins. Bulfinch's Northern Mythology section places him among the Teutonic counterpa
- [Odin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/odin.md): Odin rules Valhalla as chief of the Aesir, god of wisdom, war, and poetry, the figure Germanic peoples renamed Wotan. His hunger for knowledge and victory sets the gods' course, yet that same foreknowledge binds him to a
- [Bellerophon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/bellerophon.md): Greek hero who tamed Pegasus and slew the Chimaera.
- [Mercury](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/mercury.md): Messenger of the gods, god of travelers, thieves, and commerce.
- [Atlas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/atlas.md): Titan condemned to hold up the sky, encountered by Perseus.
- [Baldur](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/baldur.md): Beloved Norse god whose death triggers the onset of Ragnarok.
- [Isoude](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/isoude.md): Isoude, called the fair and the gentle, is daughter to the Irish king and wife to Mark of Cornwall, a marriage meant to seal peace between rival courts. Around her gathers the chivalric legend's central knot: loyalty owe
- [Perseus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/perseus.md): Perseus moves through the Greek myths as a hero of divine parentage and practical nerve, claiming Jupiter as father and the conquest of the Gorgon as his credentials. Denied rest by the giant Atlas, he answers the refusa
- [Rodomont](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/rodomont.md): Proud Saracen king, a fierce warrior in the Orlando epics.
- [Malagigi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/malagigi.md): Enchanter and cousin of Rinaldo, skilled in magic in the Charlemagne legends.
- [Zerbino](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/zerbino.md): Scottish prince and lover of Isabella, a tragic figure in Orlando Furioso.
- [King Priam](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/king_priam.md): King of Troy during the Trojan War, father of Hector and Paris.
- [Triton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/triton.md): Sea god, son of Neptune, often depicted blowing a conch shell.
- [King Cadmus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/king_cadmus.md): Founder of Thebes, who slew a dragon and sowed its teeth to create warriors.
- [Pryderi](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/pryderi.md): Son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, a central figure in the Mabinogi.
- [Mandricardo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/mandricardo.md): Saracen king who seeks revenge and challenges Orlando.
- [Narcissus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/narcissus.md): Beautiful youth who fell in love with his own reflection and died.
- [Turnus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/turnus.md): Rutulian king who fought Aeneas for the hand of Lavinia.
- [Sacripant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/sacripant.md): Saracen king, one of Angelica's suitors in the Orlando epics.
- [Medoro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/medoro.md): Young Saracen soldier who wins Angelica's love, causing Orlando's madness.
- [Polyphemus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/polyphemus.md): One-eyed Cyclops who imprisoned Ulysses and his men.
- [Circe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/circe.md): Enchantress who turned Ulysses' men into swine on her island.
- [Paris](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/paris.md): Trojan prince who abducted Helen, sparking the Trojan War.
- [Cupid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/cupid.md): God of love, son of Venus, whose arrows cause irresistible desire.
- [Modred](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/modred.md): Traitorous knight who usurped Arthur's throne and caused the final battle.
- [King Mark](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/king_mark.md): King of Cornwall, husband of Isoude, uncle of Tristram.
- [King Agramant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters/agramant.md): Saracen king who leads an invasion of France against Charlemagne.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/bulfinch_s_mythology_se/characters