Arachne was a mortal, gifted in weaving, who boasted that her work was superior to that of the goddess Athena, patroness of crafts. Incensed, the goddess, disguised as an old woman, appeared to Arachne and counseled her to repent her pride and acknowledge Athena’s greater skill.
Asbolus was a centaur, a seer, augur, or prophet for his people, who read signs in the flight of birds. He anticipated the devastating battle with the Lapiths at the wedding of their king, where many centaurs died, and warned them against attending, but went unheeded.
Asclepius was a god of medicine and healing, a son of Apollo by a mortal woman, who died while pregnant. Apollo saved the unborn child from her womb when she was on her funeral pyre, and gave him into the keeping of the centaur Chiron, who taught him the healing arts.
Askalaphus was a gardener for Hades, god of the dead, in the underworld. When Hades abducted Persephone, her mother Demeter searched for her in vain, until Hekate told her of the kidnapping. Demeter went to Zeus and demanded the return of her daughter, who decreed that, so long as Persephone had eaten none of the food of the dead, she could be freed.
Plato created the myth of Atlantis, an island of the ancient world which he used as an allegory of aggression and superior force. Plato presented his story as a history, wherein the fictional locale was reputed to have a strong navy which threatened the Greek city-states, and was finally defeated by Athens, Plato’s home, due to its superior style of government. At the end of the story, Plato asserts that the island fell out of favor with the gods, and was submerged beneath the seas.
Atropos was one of the three Moirai, sisters known in English as “the Fates”. The Fates were the daughters of Erebus (“Darkness”) and Nyx (“Night”), and even Zeus was subject to their dictates. Atropos was known as “the Cutter”, for it was her responsibility to determine the means of one’s demise, and to sever the thread of life at death.
