The Pilgrim of Castile

People

Click to Highlight: Historical
Mythological
Fictional
Biblical

Actaeon

In Greek mythology, he was the son of the priestly herdsman Aristaeus and Autonoe in Boeotia, a famous Theban hero. Like Achilles in a later generation, he was trained by the centaur Chiron.

Tubal, Adam's nephew

According to the Bible, Tubal is the son of Lamech and Zillah, who formed tools out of bronze and iron.

Aeneas

In Greco-Roman mythology, Aeneas was a Trojan hero, the son of the prince Anchises and the goddess Venus (Aphrodite).

Amphion

There are several different mentions of an Amphion in Greek mythology. Amphion could be the son of Zeus and Antiope and twin of Zethus, the son of Iasus and Persephone, the son of Hyperasius, or the Epean, of Elis, who took part in the Trojan War on the side of the Greeks

Archduke Albert

Albert VII was the ruling Archduke of Austria for a few months in 1619 and, jointly with his wife, Isabella Clara Eugenia, sovereign of the Habsburg Netherlands between 1598 and 1621.

Architas

Architas of Tarentum was a Greek mathematician, political leader and philosopher, active in the first half of the fourth century BC (i.e., during Plato’s lifetime). He was the last prominent figure in the early Pythagorean tradition and the dominant political figure in Tarentum, being elected general seven consecutive times.

Argus

The son of Arestor, he is a hundred-eyed giant in Greek mythology.

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist born in the city of Stagira, Chalkidice, on the northern periphery of Classical Greece. His father, Nicomachus, died when Aristotle was a child, whereafter Proxenus of Atarneus became his guardian.

Athenaeus

Athenaeus of Naucratis was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century AD.

Aulus

Aulus is a Latin praenomen, or personal name, which was common throughout Roman history from the earliest times to the end of the Western Empire in the fifth century. The feminine form is Aula.

Avicenna

Avicenna was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.

Boetius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius, was a Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, and philosopher of the early 6th century.

Budeus

Guillaume Budé, 16th century French Humanist who studied ancient Greek and was associated with the court of François I.

Caelius the Rhodian

Lucius Coelius Antipater, 2nd century B.C. Roman historian. He did write about music, and "Rhodian" is a style of oratory.

Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar, known as Julius Caesar, was a Roman politician, general, and notable author of Latin prose. He played a critical role in the events that led to the demise of the Roman Republic and the rise of the Roman Empire.

Cassian

Saint John Cassian, John the Ascetic, or John Cassian the Roman, was a Christian monk and theologian celebrated in both the Western and Eastern Churches for his mystical writings.

Chrysippus

Chrysippus of Soli was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was a native of Soli, Cilicia, but moved to Athens as a young man, where he became a pupil of Cleanthes in the Stoic school.

Cicero

Cicero (Jan 3 106 BC-Dec 7 43 BC) was a Roman politician, philosopher, orator, laywer and constituionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family and he is considered as one of the greatest orators and prose stylists. He also had an immense influence on the Latin language.

Circe

In Greek mythology, Circe is the daugther of Helios, the god of the sun, and Perse, an Oceanid. She transforms Odysseus's men into pigs in the Odyssey and in the Golden Age was referenced as an archetypical practitioner of magic.

Clement the Eight

Pope Clement VIII, born Ippolito Aldobrandini, was Pope from 2 February 1592 to his death in 1605.

Cortes

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of the King of Castile in the early 16th century. Cortés was part of the generation of Spanish colonizers who began the first phase of the Spanish colonization of the Americas.

Darius

Darius I (c. 550–486 BCE) was the third king of the Persian Achaemenid Empire.

David

David, king of ancient Israel (c.1010–970 B.C.), successor of Saul. The Book of First Samuel introduces him as the youngest of eight sons who is anointed king by Samuel to replace Saul, who had been deemed a failure.

Democritus

Democritus was an influential Ancient Greek pre-Socratic philosopher primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe. Democritus was born in Abdera, Thrace, around 460 BC, although, some thought it was 490 BC.

Deucalion

Pyrrha's husband.

Dido

According to ancient Greek and Roman sources, she was the founder and first queen of Carthage.

Diomedes

A hero in Greek mythology, he is known for his participation in the Trojan War. He was born to Tydeus and Deipyle and later became King of Argos, succeeding his maternal grandfather, Adrastus.

Dion

In Greek mythology, he was a King in Laconia and husband of Amphithea.

Dionysus

The god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy.

English Drake

Sir Francis Drake, vice admiral was an English sea captain, privateer, navigator, slaver, and politician of the Elizabethan era.

Emperor Adrian

Also known as Hadrian, he was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian is known for building Hadrian's Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma.

Epicurus

Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher as well as the founder of the school of philosophy called Epicureanism. Only a few fragments and letters of Epicurus's 300 written works remain.

Eusebius

Eusebius of Caesarea, also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. He became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima about 314 AD.

Gregory Gerand

Lope mentions this person as a historian of music.

Peter Gregory

Lope mentions this person as an author of a history of hunting.

Hector

In Greek mythology, Hector was a Trojan prince and the greatest fighter for Troy in the Trojan War.

Helen

Helen of Troy, a beautiful woman said to be the cause of the Trojan War.

Hercules

Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek divine hero Heracles, who was the son of Zeus (Roman equivalent Jupiter) and the mortal Alcmene. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures.

Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer.

Homer

Homer is the name ascribed by the Ancient Greeks to the semi-legendary author of the two epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the central works of Greek literature.

Hystaspes

Vishtaspa, known under his Hellenized name Hystaspes, was a Persian satrap of Bactria and Persis, and the father of Darius I, king of the Achaemenid Empire, and Artabanus, a trusted adviser to both his brother and later his nephew.

Josephus

Titus Flavius Josephus, born Joseph ben Matityahu, was a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar, historian and hagiographer, who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly descent and a mother who claimed royal ancestry.

Jupiter

Jupiter, the chief god of the Greco-Roman pantheon, is the god of sky and thunder and the king of all gods.

Philip of Lianho

Lope mentions this person as a famous painter.

Titus Livius

Titus Livius was a Roman historian who wrote a monumental history of Rome and the Roman people covering the period from the earliest legends of Rome before the traditional foundation in 753 BC through the reign of Augustus in Livy's own time.

Louis the Twelfth

Louis XII was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1498 to 1515 and King of Naples from 1501 to 1504.

Lucretius

Titus Lucretius Carus was a Roman poet and philosopher. His only known work is the epic philosophical poem De rerum natura about the tenets and philosophy of Epicureanism, and which is usually translated into English as On the Nature of Things.

Raymundus Lullius

Raymundus Lullius was a philosopher, logician, Franciscan tertiary and Majorcan writer. He is credited with writing the first major work of Catalan literature.

Macrobius

Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, commonly referred to as Macrobius, was a Roman who lived during the early fifth century.

Jerome Manchy

Jerome de Monchy, French nobleman.

Mercury

Mercury is a major Roman god, being one of the Dii Consentes within the ancient Roman pantheon. He is the patron god of financial gain, commerce, poetry, messages, travelers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves; he is also the guide of souls to the underworld.

Moses

The man from the Bible who God used to part the Red Sea and led Israel out of Egypt. He is accredited to bringing laws to Israel.

Orpheus

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music.

Ovid

Publius Ovidius Naso, known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus.

Parmenides

Parmenides of Elea was a pre-Socratic Greek philosopher from Elea in Magna Graecia. He was the founder of the Eleatic school of philosophy. The single known work of Parmenides is a poem, On Nature, which has survived only in fragmentary form.

Parquae

In Roman mythology, she is the female personification of destiny, also known as the Fates.

Penelope

The wife of Odysseus, she is known for her faithfulness to Odysseus while he is absent, despite having many suitors.

Phaedrus

The son of Pythocles, he was an ancient Athenian aristocrat associated with the inner-circle of the philosopher Socrates. He is best remembered for his depiction in the dialogues of Plato.

Philon

Philon, Athenian architect of the 4th century BC, is known as the planner of two important works: the portico of twelve Doric columns to the great Hall of the Mysteries at Eleusis (work commissioned by Demetrius Phalereus about 318 BC) and, under the administration of Lycurgus, an arsenal at Athens.

Philostratus

Philostratus or Lucius Flavius Philostratus, called "the Athenian", was a Greek sophist of the Roman imperial period. His father was a minor sophist of the same name.

Plato

Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece and the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.

Plautus

Titus Maccius Plautus, commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety.

Pliny

Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23 – August 25, AD 79), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian.

Plutarch

Plutarch was a Greek biographer and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.

Polyxena

The youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy and his queen, Hecuba.

Prometheus

A Titan from Greek mythology.

Propertius

Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium and died shortly after 15 BC. Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of Elegies.

Michel Pselho

Michael Psellos is an 11th century Byzantine philosopher.

Ptolemy

Claudius Ptolemy was a Greco-Egyptian writer, known as a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology.

Pyrrha

Pyrrha is the daughter of Pandora.

Pythagoras

Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and the putative founder of the movement called Pythagoreanism.

Saul

Saul, according to the Hebrew Bible, was the first king of a united Kingdom of Israel and Judah. His reign, traditionally placed in the late 11th century BCE, would have marked a transition from a tribal society to statehood.

Duke of Savoy

Charles Emmanuel I (Italian: Carlo Emanuele di Savoia; 12 January 1562 – 26 July 1630), known as the Great, was the Duke of Savoy from 1580 to 1630. He was nicknamed Testa d'feu ("the Hot-Headed") for his rashness and military aggression.

Scaliger

Joseph Justus Scaliger was a French religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish and ancient Egyptian history.

Scianus

The Equus Scianus is a mythical jewel associated with Argos that brings bad luck upon its possessor.

Scipio

Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (236–183 BC), also known as Scipio the African, Scipio Africanus-Major, Scipio Africanus the Elder, and Scipio the Great, was a Roman general and later consul who is often regarded as one of the greatest generals and military strategists of all time.

Sisyphus

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was the king of Ephyra. He was punished for his self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it come back to hit him, repeating this action for eternity.

Terence

Publius Terentius Afer, better known in English as Terence, was a Roman playwright during the Roman Republic, of Berber descent. His comedies were performed for the first time around 170–160 BC

Themiserus

Lope mentions this person as a Roman writer.

Titius

The son of Brutus and brother of Tiberius.

William Totan

An author who published in 1511 an anti-Semitic treatise.

Ulysses

Also known as Odysseus, Ulysses is the legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's poem Odysseus

Vitruvius

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, commonly known as Vitruvius or Vitruvi or Vitruvio, was a Roman author, architect, civil engineer and military engineer during the 1st century BC, known for his multi-volume work entitled De architectura.

Xenophon

Xenophon of Athens was an ancient Greek philosopher, historian, soldier and mercenary, and a student of Socrates.