MythBranch · Read, trace, compare
Greek mythology family tree worksheet
Five tasks · Suggested working time: 15–20 minutes · Published
Use the companion chart and the source passages below. Write a source beside each answer. This exercise compares ancient accounts; it does not assume that every poem gives the same genealogy.
The print view includes the questions and writing space. The answer key stays on this page. Download or print the companion chart separately.
Name: __________________________ Date: ______________
Reading materials
- Hesiod, Theogony, translated by H. G. Evelyn-White (1914): the passage ranges listed in each task.
- Homer, Iliad, Book 5, translated by A. T. Murray (1924): lines 370–430.
- MythBranch Olympian guide and classroom family chart.
Teacher note: task 3 refers to the violent origin account in Hesiod. Review the passages before assigning them; you may substitute a comparison from the variants guide.
1. Build three generations
From Theogony 133–138 and 453–458, write the parent pair above Cronus and Rhea, then list their six children. Draw only the parent lines supported by those passages.
Check: Hesiod, Theogony 133–138; 453–458.
2. Test a membership claim
A classmate says: ‘All Twelve Olympians are children of Cronus and Rhea.’ Use your first answer and the Olympian guide to explain the mistake. Give one younger-generation counterexample and its parents.
Check: Hesiod, Theogony 918–920; MythBranch Olympian guide.
3. Preserve two accounts
Compare Aphrodite in Theogony 188–206 with Iliad 5.370–430. Write a separate, source-labeled origin statement for each. Explain why adding all the names to one parent pair would misrepresent the passages.
Check: Hesiod, Theogony 188–206; Homer, Iliad 5.370–430.
4. Tell a meeting from a family line
A chart connects Heracles with the Hydra because of their encounter. Does that line establish a parent–child relationship? Name the Hydra's parents in Hesiod's account and state what the connection with Heracles means.
Check: Hesiod, Theogony 295–318.
5. Write an answer someone can check
Choose one answer above. Rewrite it in two sentences: first a factual claim with the work and passage; then your interpretation, clearly labeled. Add one thing the chart alone cannot establish.
Check: Use a passage above and the chart legend.
Sources, chart, and answer key: mythbranch.com/learn/family-tree-worksheet
Teacher / self-check answer key
Compare the claim and its source, rather than grading only the spelling of a name. Transliteration varies between editions.
Show the five reference answers
- Generations: Gaia and Uranus are the parents of Cronus and Rhea. Cronus and Rhea's six children are Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus in Hesiod's sequence (Theogony 133–138, 453–458). Use two parent lines from Cronus and Rhea for each child.
- Membership: A divine group and a sibling group answer different questions. Apollo or Artemis is a suitable counterexample: Hesiod names Zeus and Leto as their parents (918–920). A chart's twelve-name selection must not be read as twelve siblings.
- Variants: Hesiod describes Aphrodite forming in foam associated with the severed genitals of Uranus (188–206). In Iliad 5, Dione receives her as a daughter and Zeus addresses her as his child (370–430). These accounts should be recorded separately; the foam account does not identify Dione as her mother.
- Encounter: A confrontation does not establish descent. In Hesiod, the Hydra is a child of Echidna and Typhaon (Theogony 295–318): their union at 306–312 leads into the offspring sequence. Heracles kills the Hydra with Iolaus and Athena's aid; his connection here is an encounter, not a parent line. The name Typhaon is often rendered Typhon.
- Checkable writing: One acceptable example is: “In Theogony 453–458, Hestia and Zeus belong to the children of Cronus and Rhea. My interpretation is that grouping these siblings first makes the later generation easier to follow.” The chart alone cannot show whether every other surviving account agrees. Other answers are valid when the cited passage supports the fact and the interpretation is labeled.