The Greatest Rivalries in Greek Mythology
When Gods and Heroes Clashed
Greek mythology thrives on conflict between competing visions of power and justice. Athena versus Poseidon fought over patronage of Athens — she offered the olive tree, he a saltwater spring. Athens chose Athena.
Achilles versus Hector was the defining duel of the Trojan War. Achilles was the greater warrior, but Hector the better man. Zeus versus Prometheus represented authority versus rebellion — Prometheus stole fire for humanity and was chained to a rock for eternity, yet never submitted. Hera versus Zeus's lovers was a one-sided campaign of persecution — she tormented his lovers and their children because she could not punish Zeus directly.
Apollo and Marsyas competed in a music contest. When Marsyas lost, Apollo flayed him alive — a brutal reminder that challenging a god, even in art, meant risking everything. Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and was transformed into a spider when her work proved equal to the goddess's.
Gods competing for cities
The contest for Athens was not unique. Greek cities liked to tell how two gods had fought over them, and the loser usually stayed angry. The Athenian contest itself has several versions. Herodotus says the olive tree and the salt spring could still be seen inside the Erechtheion on the Acropolis. Apollodorus says the judges were either the twelve gods or Cecrops, the first king, and that Poseidon in rage flooded the Thriasian plain. A version reported by Augustine from Varro has the citizens vote, with women outnumbering men by one; Poseidon then flooded the land and, to appease him, Athenian women lost the vote. More on that story is on the Poseidon vs Athena page.
Poseidon lost many such contests. In Argos, according to Pausanias, the river-god Inachus and other local rivers judged the land to belong to Hera, so Poseidon dried their waters up, which explained why Argive rivers run dry in summer. At Corinth he disputed the land with Helios; the hundred-handed Briareus arbitrated, giving the Isthmus to Poseidon and the heights of Acrocorinth to the sun-god, who later passed them to Aphrodite. Plutarch lists further defeats: Aegina went to Zeus and Naxos to Dionysus, while Delphi, according to Pausanias, Poseidon handed over to Apollo in exchange for the island of Calauria.
Rivalries between heroes
The Iliad is built on a rivalry that is not Achilles versus Hector but Achilles versus Agamemnon. Their quarrel over the captive Briseis in Book 1 sets the whole plot in motion, and Achilles's withdrawal leads directly to the death of Patroclus. After Achilles died, his armour became the prize in a second fatal quarrel. In the lost epic Little Iliad and in Sophocles's Ajax, the Greeks award it to Odysseus rather than to Ajax, who goes mad with humiliation, slaughters livestock thinking they are the commanders, and kills himself. In the Odyssey his ghost refuses to speak to Odysseus in the underworld, the most famous silence in Homer.
Brothers made the bitterest rivals. Atreus and Thyestes of Mycenae fought over the throne and the golden lamb that symbolised it; Thyestes seduced his brother's wife, and Atreus served Thyestes his own sons at a banquet, launching the curse that destroyed Agamemnon's house. In Thebes, Oedipus's sons Eteocles and Polynices agreed to rule in alternate years, but Eteocles refused to step down. The war of the Seven against Thebes ended with the brothers killing each other at the seventh gate, the subject of Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes and the background to Antigone.
Long grudges between gods and mortals
Some rivalries ran across a whole lifetime. Hera's hostility to Heracles began before he was born, when she delayed his birth so that Eurystheus would gain the power Zeus had promised; it continued through the serpents in his cradle, the madness that made him kill his children, and storms against his ships. Only after his death and deification did she accept him, giving him her daughter Hebe as a wife. Poseidon's grudge against Odysseus for blinding his son Polyphemus lasts most of the Odyssey; Zeus says early on that Poseidon will relent only because he cannot fight all the gods at once.
Heracles himself fought Apollo. When the Delphic priestess refused to answer him, he tried to carry off the sacred tripod, and the two half-brothers struggled over it until Zeus parted them with a thunderbolt. Athenian vase-painters loved the scene. Among the gods, Hermes and Apollo began as rivals in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, when the infant Hermes stole Apollo's cattle; the quarrel ended with Hermes giving Apollo the lyre and the two becoming close allies. Not every rivalry ended in blood.
Contests of skill, and the price of losing
Marsyas and Arachne were not alone in challenging gods to artistic contests. The nine daughters of Pierus challenged the Muses to a singing match and were turned into magpies, a story told in Ovid. In another version the Sirens competed against the Muses and lost the feathers they wore. When Pan matched his pipes against Apollo's lyre, the mountain-god Tmolus judged for Apollo, but King Midas preferred Pan, and Apollo gave him donkey's ears. The pattern is consistent: a mortal or lesser being may compete, but the higher god must win, and arrogance (hubris) is punished with a transformation. The goddesses' own beauty contest, set off by Eris's golden apple, is covered in the Judgement of Paris, and Ares and Athena's long antagonism in Athena vs Ares.
Ancient sources
- Homer, Iliad 1 — the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon over Briseis that drives the epic's plot.
- Homer, Odyssey 1.68–79 and 11.543–567 — Poseidon's grudge against Odysseus over Polyphemus, and the silent ghost of Ajax still angry about Achilles's armour.
- Sophocles, Ajax — Ajax's madness and suicide after the arms of Achilles are awarded to Odysseus.
- Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes — the attack on Thebes and the mutual killing of Eteocles and Polynices.
- Pausanias, Description of Greece 2.1.6 and 2.15.5 — Poseidon's dispute with Helios over Corinth and with Hera over Argos, and the drying of the Argive rivers.
- Ovid, Metamorphoses 5.294–678 and 11.146–193 — the Pierides' contest with the Muses, and Pan's contest with Apollo judged by Tmolus, with Midas's donkey ears.
Frequently asked questions
What is the biggest rivalry in Greek mythology?
For consequences, few match the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, which the Iliad calls the cause of countless deaths. Among the gods, Hera's persecution of Heracles and Poseidon's pursuit of Odysseus are the longest-running feuds.
Why did Hera hate Heracles?
He was a son of Zeus by the mortal Alcmene, a living reminder of her husband's infidelity. Since she could not punish Zeus, she directed her anger at the child, and his very name, usually read as "glory of Hera", was explained by some ancient writers as arising from that conflict.
Who won the contest between Athena and Poseidon?
Athena, in every version. Her olive tree was judged the more useful gift, though accounts differ over whether the gods, King Cecrops or the citizens made the decision.
Did Apollo and Hermes stay enemies?
No. After the cattle theft Hermes gave Apollo the lyre he had invented, and in return Apollo gave him authority over herds and a golden staff. They became one of the friendliest pairs of half-brothers on Olympus.