Myths are stories that help explain people’s beliefs about the world.

Symbols are things that stand for something else. For example, the crescent moon is often a symbol of the moon goddess Diana.

Diana fell in love with the shepherd Endymion. Some say that during the nights of a new moon—when we cannot see the moon in the sky—Diana has left the sky to visit Endymion on earth.

Apollo is the god of reason, music, and poetry. After he was hit by Cupid’s golden love dart, he fell in love with the nymph Daphne and chased her. Daphne finally escaped when her father turned her into a laurel tree. Apollo was so upset that he vowed always to wear a laurel wreath in her honor. This is why winners of competitions in music, poetry, and sports were crowned with laurel leaves.

Phaeton’s father was the sun god. He drove the chariot of the sun across the sky each day. When Phaeton tried to take the reins, he lost control and the chariot plunged too close to earth. The burned lands became deserts. The maids who found Phaeton’s body turned into trees because of their sadness. Their tears became amber, the fossilized resin of trees.

Pandora opened a forbidden box. She did not know that it contained all the things that make people suffer. When she lifted the lid, sadness, disease, violence, greed, madness, old age, and death were released into the world.

Relief sculpture is said to have been invented by a potter in Corinth, Greece. The potter’s daughter traced the outline of her boyfriend’s shadow while he slept. The potter used the drawing to create a baked-clay relief of the young man for her to remember him by.