Plots

Some stories of classical mythology can be put together into cycles that span generations or define era-ending sequences. The Theban Cycle tells the story of Thebai from its foundation by Kadmos to its destruction in the War of the Epigoni. The Epic Cycle ends the Fourth Age and includes events surrounding the Trojan War, including the Odyssey and other journeys home from the war's aftermath. For my purposes, I'm putting the life of Herakles into a Heraklean Cycle and the stories of Pyrrha into a Pyrrhic Cycle.   When writers of antiquity attempted to make these cycles overlap, it often created continuity issues. For example, the journey of the Argonauts may be set either a generation before or a generation after the Kalydonian Boar Hunt.