Below is a list of classical music compositions which are based on or inspired by Greek or Roman mythology, religion, or philosophy.

Ludwig van Beethoven
The Creatures of Prometheus (ballet)

Hector Berlioz
The Trojans (opera: based on Virgil's Aeneid)

Francesco Cavalli
Hercules in Love (opera)

Luigi Cherubini
Medea (opéra-comique)

Claude Debussy
Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun (symphonic poem)

Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf
Six Symphonies After Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Gabriel Fauré
Prométhée (cantata)

César Franck
Psyché (symphonic poem)

Christoph Willibald Gluck
Alceste (opera)
Iphigenia in Tauris (opera)
Orpheus and Eurydice (opera)
Paris and Helen (opera)

Reynaldo Hahn
Andromeda Resigned (poem for piano)
Eros Hidden in the Woods (poem for piano)
Ouranos (poem for piano)
Prometheus Triumphant (choral poem)

G.F. Handel
Acis and Galatea (pastoral opera)
Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus (serenata)
The Choice of Hercules (oratorio)
Hercules (oratorio)
Semele (oratorio)

Gustav Holst
The Planets (orchestral suite)

Leonardo Leo
The Marriage of Iole and Hercules (cantata)

Franz Liszt
Symphonic Poem No. 4 "Orpheus"
Symphonic Poem No. 5 “Prometheus”

Jean-Baptiste Lully
Phaëton (opera)

Felix Mendelssohn
Oedipus at Colonus (incidental music for the Sophocles play)

Wolfgang Mozart
Symphony No. 41 "Jupiter" (note: "Jupiter" is a nickname and not the noscript given by Mozart himself)
Apollo and Hyacinthus

Claudio Monteverdi
The Coronation of Poppaea (opera: features numerous Roman gods as well as the philosopher Seneca)
L'Orfeo (opera)
The Return of Ulysses to his Homeland (opera)

Jacques Offenbach
Daphnis et Chloé (operetta)

Carl Orff
Antigone (opera)

Henry Purcell
Dido and Aeneas (opera)

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Hippolytus and Aricia (opera)

Maurice Ravel
Daphnis et Chloé (ballet)

J.F. Rebel
Ulysses (opera)

Albert Roussel
Bacchus and Ariane (ballet)

Erik Satie
Socrates (symphonic drama)

Alexander Scriabin
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (tone poem)

Gaspare Spontini
The Vestal Virgin (opera)

Johann Strauss II
Echoes of Rhadamantus (waltz)

Richard Strauss
Ariadne on Naxos (opera)
The Love of Danae (opera)
Daphne (opera)

Igor Stravinsky
Apollo (ballet)
Oedipus Rex (opera)

Karol Szymanowski
Myths (violin & piano)
The Fountain of Arethusa
Narcissus
Dryads and Pan

Antonio Vivaldi
Hercules in Thermodon (opera)

“It is well to be guest at a feast and sit beside a good man who knows all learning; you should listen to him when he says any truth, so that you may learn and go home with so much gained.” Theognis, Elegies 563–566

Mozart wrote a one-act opera based on Cicero's Dream of Scipio.

“Therefore, no athlete is so called upon to train his body as is a king to train his soul; for not all the public festivals in the world offer a prize comparable to those for which you who are kings strive every day of your lives.” Isocrates, To Nicocles 12

"The things that go towards the maintenance of human life can be classified as follows: Certain of them are inanimate, for example gold and silver and the products of the earth and other objects of the same kind. Others are animate, endowed with their own impulses and appetites. Some of these animate objects are rational, others irrational. The irrational subdivision includes horses, oxen and other animals which labour for the service and subsistence of mankind. The rational category is divided into two sections, gods and men. The gods will be satisfied if one lives a devout and pure life. Next to the gods, and after them, the greatest contribution to the lives of mankind is made by men themselves. And if we then turn to things of the opposite type, those which can hurt and damage human beings, and if we attempt a similar classification here, we have to record our belief that the gods are not capable of doing harm to mortals. They, therefore, must be left out of account in this connexion; and it has to be concluded that the greatest source of harm to man is man."

-Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC), On the Good Life.
Image by The Chad Pastoralist.

“Mere reputation is a great ill, trial is best; many have a reputation for good who have never been tried.” Theognis, Elegies 571–572

"Let everyone dearly love his lawful wife and beget children by her. But let none shed the seed due his children into any other person, and let him not disgrace that which is honorable by both nature and law. For nature produced the seed for the sake of producing children, and not for the sake of lust.

A wife should be chaste and refuse impious connection with other men, for otherwise she will subject herself to the vengeance of the daimons, whose office it is to expel those to whom they are hostile from their house, and to produce hatred."

Preface to the Laws of Charondas the Catanean

“As for sexual pleasure, abstain as far as you can before marriage, but if you do indulge in it, do it in a way that is lawful. Do not, however, be disagreeable to those who indulge in these pleasures, or reprove them, and do not often boast that you don’t indulge in them yourself.” Epictetus, The Handbook 33

"You will also find in Homer other principles and origins of all-various names, which are considered by the stupid as nothing more than fables, but are regarded by the philosopher as realities. There is also in him the principle of virtue, but it is called Minerva, and is present with its possessor in all-various labours. There is likewise the principle of love, but it is ascribed to Venus, who presides over the cestus, and imparts desire. The principle of art too is to be found in him, but it is Vulcan who governs fire and communicates art. But with him Apollo rules over the choir, the Muses over the song, Mars over war, Aeolus over the winds, Ocean over rivers, and Ceres over fruits; and there is nothing in Homer without deity, nothing without a ruler, nothing without a principle, but all things are full of divine speeches, and divine names, and divine art."

Maximus Tyrius, Dissertation 16

And if someone assumed that the origin of love was the longing for beauty itself which was there before in men's souls, and their recognition of it and kinship with it and unreasoned awareness that it is something of their own, he would hit, I think, on the truth about its cause. For the ugly is opposed to nature and to God. For nature when it creates looks towards beauty, and it looks towards the definite, which is "in the column of the good"; but the indefinite is ugly and belongs to the other column. And nature has its origin from above, from the Good, and obviously, from Beauty.

Plotinus, Enneads 3.5.1

"One after another the roots prevail as the cycle goes around,
Fading into one another and increasing as their appointed turn arrives.
For they are just themselves, and by running through one another
They become men and all the other kinds of creatures,
Now being brought together by love into a single orderly arrangement,
Now being borne asunder by the hostility of strife,
Until they grow together as one and the totality is overcome.
Thus, in that they have learnt to become one from many
And turn into many again when the one is divided,
In this sense they come to be and have an impermanent life;
But in that they never cease from alternation,
They are for ever unchanging in a cycle."

Empedocles, fragment DK 31B26

Homeric Hymn 10 to Aphrodite

Of Kythereia (Cytherea) [Aphrodite], born in Kypros (Cyprus), I will sing. She gives kindly gifts to men: smiles are ever on her lovely face, and lovely is the brightness that plays over it. Hail, goddess, queen of well-built Salamis and sea-girt Kypros; grant me a cheerful song. And now I will remember you and another song also.

Giving Honor to the Gods

The Golden Verses of the Pythagoreans begin: “First, honor the immortal gods, as set down by the law, and revere the oath.” This foundational rule invites us to consider the essence of honoring the gods.

The commentary on these verses by Hierocles offers clear guidance: "You will not honor God by giving anything to Him, but by becoming worthy of accepting His gifts. … Only he knows how to pay honor [to the gods] who does not confuse the worth of those being honored and who renders above all himself as a sacrifice, crafting his own soul into a divine sculpture and making his own intellect a temple for the reception of the divine light."

Hierocles continues: "Pious is he who has knowledge of the divine and offers his own perfection as the best gift of honor to those who are the sources of good things; he earnestly strives to possess these goods, turning to those naturally constituted to provide them, and by his ability to receive them he honors those who forever bestow them. But he who chooses to honor the divine in some other way, and not through himself, turns his honor into a waste of his external resources, and instead of offering his own virtue he tries to acquit himself before the gods through outward means. Such gifts are not even pleasant for a good person to receive unless they have been given out of the best disposition."

In essence, authentic reverence arises not from outward gifts, but from purposeful self-transformation: the disciplined refinement of one’s soul into a worthy recipient of the divine. This inner work prepares the self as a fitting vessel for theurgic receptivity, ready to participate in rituals dedicated to the gods through purified alignment.

This year we will be releasing the book The Flower of the Mind, a guide meant for regular use in purifying the soul. A free PDF edition is available for download [here].

"God has no place on the earth more suitable to his nature than a pure and holy soul." The Pythagorean Sentences of Demophilus 44

"We worship God rightly if we render our intellect pure from all vice, as from some stain." Iamblichus, Exhortation to Philosophy Chapter 2 gnômê 11

Or haven’t you remembered that in that life alone, when he looks at Beauty in the only way that Beauty can be seen - only then will it become possible for him to give birth not to images (because he’s in touch with no images), but to true virtue (because he is in touch with the true Beauty). The love of the gods belongs to anyone who has given birth to true virtue and nourished it, and if any human being could become immortal, it would be he.

Plato, Symposium 212a

“First of all, then, show devotion to the gods, not merely by doing sacrifice, but also by keeping your vows; for the former is but evidence of a material prosperity, whereas the latter is proof of a noble character. Do honor to the divine power at all times, but especially on occasions of public worship; for thus you will have the reputation both of sacrificing to the gods and of abiding by the laws.” The Orations of Isocrates, To Demonicus 14

"Never step across the sweet-flowing water of ever-rolling rivers until you have prayed, gazing into the soft flood, and washed your hands in the clear, lovely water. Whoever crosses a river with hands unwashed of wickedness, the gods are angry with him and bring trouble upon him afterwards."

Hesiod, Works and Days 737-741

"It is well to invoke God at the beginning and end both of supper and dinner, not because he is in want of anything of the kind, but in order that the soul may be transfigured by the recollection of divinity. For since we proceed from him, and participate in a divine nature, we should honor him. Since also God is just, we should act justly in all things."

Diotogenes, On Sanctity

“No one is free who does not rule over himself.” The Pythagorean Sentences of Demophilus 32