Aletheia

The abstract concept Aletheia, Truth, is personified in literature as a daughter of Zeus (Pind. Ol. 10.3–4 and fr. 205) and nurse of Apollo (Plut. Symp. 657e).

Ananke

Ananke, Homeric “compulsion,” becomes an important philosophical term among the pre-Socratics. To Thales it is the natural necessity that powers all phenomena and compels divinities to epiphany (71 A12 DK).

Eros/Cupid

Eros, sexual love, is personified as an adolescent boy, as are his Latin equivalents, Amor and Cupido.

Graces

The Graces, known by their Greek name Charites (sing. Charis) are young and benevolent models of feminine grace. Homer does not specify their number and ages, but Hesiod explains that they are three daughters of Zeus and Eurynome (a daughter of Okeanos), named Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thaleia (Theog. 907–9); they live with Himeros (Desire) on Olympos, beside the Muses (Theog. 64); and they assisted with the birth of Pandora (Op. 73).

Homonoia

Homonoia, “oneness of mind,” brings together unrelated groups, including poleis. This political ideal was contrasted with stasis, civil strife, in the fifth century bce (Funke 1980; Rosler 2005: 210–14).

Muses

The Muses are goddesses and teachers of divine wisdom evoked in dance, music, and poetry. Late sources suggest that they invented the alphabet (Diod. Sic. 7.74.1) and the arts and sciences (Anth. Lat. 1.1.88; 1.2.664).

Personifications

Artists as early as Homer created personifications – representations of nouns in human form – to explain aspects of the primary characters, particularly Olympian divinities: the Litai (Prayers) as daughters of Zeus, for example, express an aspect of Zeus' broad-ranging powers.

Tyche

The word tyche (plural tychai) denotes an ancient Greek concept encompassing many aspects of fortune – chance, fate, luck, occurrence, even achievement, success, and wealth – both good and bad. As a personification of that concept, the goddess Tyche came to symbolize the fate and fortune of rulers and through them their cities; she thus emerged as the preeminent city goddess throughout the Hellenistic and Roman worlds. Her name is etymologically related to the verb tynchanein (“to hit, meet with, be favored with, happen accidentally”). The connection between the noun and verb is so close that it is difficult to distinguish in Greek literature between the deity and the abstraction.