When we learn about Greek mythology in school, we hear a lot about the heroes.
But it turns out that there's a lot of little details — and entire stories — that are
super dark, and slip through the cracks of higher learning.
Here are stories from Greek mythology they couldn't teach you in school.
Tantalus, the king of Sipylus, was insanely rich and incredibly evil.
Given that his father was Zeus and his mother was the daughter of two Titans, maybe genetics
had something to do with it.
Regardless, he was afforded certain privileges.
Among them was a standing invitation to enter Mount Olympus, where he would join the gods
for their meals.
Three different stories emerge about what happened next, but they all agree that Tantalus
screwed up.
In the first story, Tantalus tells his fellow mortals what the gods are planning for them.
In another, he steals the gods’ food, ambrosia and nectar, and gives it to those same mortals.
The third story is a bit more... extreme.
To test whether the gods really did know everything, he decides to kill his son, Pelops, and cook
him for dinner.
He serves his special Pelops stew, and no one eats it, except for Demeter, who is distracted
and mourning the loss of her daughter to the Underworld.
As punishment for the act, Zeus condemns Tantalus to eternal hunger and thirst.
He’s even forced to stand in a pool of water that drains when he tries to drink, and beneath
a tree with fruit that hangs just out of reach.
One tale about the hero-king and founder of Athens, Theseus, begins as he’s making his
way through the Parnes Mountains.
On his journey, he’s approached by a kindly stranger who invites Theseus to dinner and
a nap.
Theseus accepts and follows the stranger to his home.
As he waits outside for his room to be prepared, Theseus is approached by a young girl.
She warns him, "Men call him Procrustes, or the Stretcher.
[…] No one who comes into his house ever goes out again."
Theseus asks the girl why Procrustes is called the Stretcher.
The girl tells him that the Stretcher boasts that his iron bed perfectly fits anyone who
lies in it.
If the guest is too short, Procrustes stretches them until they fit.
If they are too tall, he lops off their legs.
Procrustes finally returns and shows Theseus into his room.
There, Theseus sees axes, pulleys, and the bloodstained floor.
He confronts the Stretcher, who admits to everything.
As punishment, Theseus traps the bandit on his own iron bed and leaves him to die.
Theseus then frees victims of the Stretcher being held as slaves, and gives them his treasure
before sending them on their way.
Erysichthon is a Thessalian king who forgot the most important rule of all: Respect the
gods.
When he decides to build a banquet hall, he chooses to use wood from a nearby forest.
Despite the fact that this forest happens to be sacred to the goddess Demeter, he begins
cutting down trees.
He doesn’t stop even when he comes to a poplar tree in the middle of a grove that’s
sacred to Demeter and the Nymphs.
As he cuts it down, the sacred poplar screams in pain, which gets Demeter’s attention.
Upon descending to the Earth, Demeter condemns Erysichthon for his thoughtless disrespect.
She taunts him to build his banquet hall, because he’s going to need it.
He builds his grand structure and feasts within it, but nothing can sate his hunger.
In fact, the more he eats and drinks, the hungrier he becomes.
He eats entire cows, vermin, and garbage, but he’s still hungry.
He spends his entire fortune on food, and even sells his daughter into slavery.
He winds up bankrupt, destitute, and begging on the streets for scraps.
Eventually, Erysichthon begins to consume himself.
He devours more and more of his own flesh until he literally eats himself to death.
The god of hunters and shepherds, Pan, lives out in the farthest reaches of the fields
and mountains.
Half man and half goat, Pan is almost always portrayed as holding his pan pipes and playing
music.
However, the story of where he got his instrument is rather dark.
Legend says that Pan falls in love with a Nymph named Syrinx, who wants nothing to do
with him.
Despite her lack of interest, Pan continues to pursue her and ultimately calls on the
gods for help in winning over the object of his affection.
The gods never help in ways you would expect.
Instead of telling Pan to get over his crush, they turn the Nymph, who was standing alongside
the river Ladon at the time, into reeds.
Pan is despondent by the unexpected turn of events until he hears the wind whistling through
the reeds that are all that’s left of his love.
The human-goat god decides to cut down the reeds and lash them together to create his
famous flute, which he names Syrinx.
Dionysus might be the god of wine, but he’s also the god of things like…madness.
So, it might seem like common sense that you don’t mess with him.
Bad things can happen, but for Pentheus, king of Thebes, it’s a lesson he learns far too
late.
When the cult of Dionysus passes through his city, Pentheus calls it an evil that needs
to end.
Needless to say, Dionysus isn’t a fan of this particular declaration.
While dressed as a priest in his own cult, Dionysus is arrested by Pentheus.
However, when placed in his cell, Dionysus’s shackles fall off, and the cell door swings
freely open, allowing for an easy escape.
Then, disguised as a woman, Dionysus lures Pentheus into the woods to see what actually
occurs at the wild parties held in the god’s honor.
Pentheus is spotted hiding in a tree by the party goers, one of which is his own mother.
Believing the king to be a wild animal, the women pull him from the tree and tear him
limb from limb.
It’s said that his mother strikes the first blow by tearing off his right arm.
Eventually, Pentheus’s mother ends his torment by ripping off his head, which she sticks
on a stick.
She carries her impaled son’s head back to Thebes, not knowing that it’s her child
until Pentheus’s father Cadmus reveals to her the truth.
Zeus is known to be a promiscuous one, and has had innumerable affairs and illegitimate
children.
Often, the women who fell under his lustful gaze were caught between him and his ever-jealous,
long-suffering wife Hera in some truly terrible ways.
Take Lamia, for instance.
She was the daughter of Poseidon and the queen of Libya when she caught Zeus’s eye.
She was truly beautiful, until Hera got involved.
There are a few different versions of Hera’s revenge, but regardless of the telling, it
always involves the goddess stealing or murdering Lamia’s children.
The loss of her kids drives Lamia mad with grief, which ends in her gouging out her own
eyes.
And it only gets worse from there.
Zeus, in a strange attempt to make things right, grants Lamia new eyes, though they
can be taken out and put in again at will.
No one really knows why, or why he then turned her into a monster.
Zeus transforms Lamia into a creature described as a woman with shark-like features.
Stories vary on whether she was cursed to kidnap or murder any children she met, or
if she just decided to do that on her own.
However, the results are the same.
Lamia ends up a murderous, monstrous creature that becomes widely known as a nightmarish
horror.
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