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Hera, Juno
A
Picture: Warner Bros
Dionysus, Bacchus
A coin depicting
Dionysus
Hades, Pluto
n The Greeks and the Romans told legends of being descended from the
gods so their tales of gods were actually considered to be ancestral tales
rather than stories of other-worldly beings. Unlike the Christian concept
of a god as a perfect being, the Greco-Roman gods could be petty, vain,
jealous, vengeful, nasty and even spiteful, because they were like
members of the family with the same kind of prejudices, squabbles and
needs that families all seem to have. Gods were not ideals to be copied,
they were reflections of the real world.
Poseidon, the brother of Zeus, abetted him in the overthrow of Cronos and
was given the seas as his domain. Poseidon carried a trident as his weapon,
possibly originally a fish spear. Although he is identified with the Roman god
Neptune, god of the seas and water, Poseidon was also a god of earthquakes
and was closely associated with horses. He had many children, including Orion
the hunter, Theseus the slayer of the Minotaur and Medusa, and Polyphemus
the one-eyed giant injured by Odysseus. In modern times he is also the father
of Percy Jackson, the demigod hero of the books by Rick Riordan and the film
Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning Thief.
Did you know?
Ares, Mars
Cronos, Saturn
n Gaea gave birth to triplet sisters known as the Moirae or the Fates. One of
them, Clotho, spun the threads of life, Lachesis would measure the threads
and Atropos would cut them when their life had run its course.
The Greek god of war, hate, brutality, spite and other general nastiness,
Ares was the son of Zeus and Hera and, according to some myths, sired
children by Aphrodite. Although he played a major part in Homer’s epic poem
The Illiad, Ares was not a very popular god in Greece, since he was seen as
the cause of strife and destruction. By contrast, the Roman counterpart
Mars, also god of war, was one of their most popular gods. Mars was originally
a fertility god who was worshipped at the beginning of spring, but since
that coincided with the start of the military campaign season, Mars came
to be identified most closely with war.
A mosaic
floor in
Cyprus,
depicting
Neptune
Did you know?
Ares, a Roman copy of a Greek statue
at the Villa Adriana near Rome
n Mars was believed to be the father of the legendary
founders of Rome, Romulus and Remus, by their
mother Rhea, a vestal virgin.
Phoebus, Apollo
The god of light, music, poetry, art, archery, intellectual
endeavours, medicine and prophecy, Phoebus, or Apollo,
was the son of Zeus. His mother was Leto, a mysterious
hidden goddess, and twin brother of Artemis, goddess
of hunting, wild animals, forests, childbirth, virginity and
childbirth (also later associated with the moon, similar to
the Roman equivalent Diana). He was also the god of divine
distance, communicating with people via prophecy and
presiding over religious laws and constitutions. Other gods
feared him and could not endure his presence. He became
associated with Helios, god of the sun, and was often
depicted riding a chariot across the sky as the sun, while his
sister Artemis/Diana was the moon. Apollo is one of the few
gods known by the same name by Greeks and Romans.
Did you know?
n Originally Artemis was not goddess of the moon, this
duty belonged to Selene, but since Artemis was the
twin sister of Apollo god of light she eventually became
associated with the moon.
A marble
statue of
Apollo
Bacchus was the
Roman god of wine
and drink
When the world was divided up between the
brothers who overthrew the father god Cronos
(Saturn), the god Zeus was given the sky,
Poseidon the ocean and Hades the underworld.
Far from being evil as he is sometimes depicted
in films, Hades performed the necessary job of
housing souls in his realm that would otherwise
wander the Earth. His Roman counterpart was
Pluto after whom the dwarf planet is named.
Neither god was worshipped as such because,
as the embodiment of death, it was thought they
were pitiless and deaf to any appeals.
Thomas Bullfinch, author of
Bullfinch’s Mythology (1855)
Poseidon, Neptune
The son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Semele, Dionysus was torn from his
mother’s womb when Hera forced Zeus to appear to the pregnant Semele in his
real form. But his real form was too powerful for Semele and Zeus had to save
his unborn son by sewing him into his thigh to protect him until he was ready
to be born. Dionysus performed miracles in his time on Earth but was later
invited to become a god after he rescued Hera from a throne created by
Hephaestus (see Hephaestus). He became the god of wine and in ancient
Rome, where he was known as Bacchus, was a popular cult figure for
rituals known as bacchanalia, involving a lot of wine drinking.
Did you know?
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Zeus is the father of the gods and god of the sky
and storm. In the original creation myth, Zeus was
born of the Titans, primordial gods, Rhea (Roman
Ops) a goddess of fertility, and her husband Cronos
(see Cronos). Zeus led a rebellion of his siblings
against Cronos, killing him and vanquishing his
brother and sister Titans to the depths of Hades.
Zeus then became the chief god. Many of the
other gods are the siblings or children of Zeus. His
brother Hephaestus fashioned him armour, a shield
and a lightning bolt to take on his enemies. He was
also renowned for assuming human or animal form
and visiting human women to sire children by them,
known as demigods. In Roman mythology he was
known as Jupiter or Jove (Giove).
The religions of ancient
Greece and Rome are extinct.
The so-called divinities of
Olympus have not a single
worshipper among living men.
They belong now not to the
department of theology, but to
those of literature and taste
Greco-Roman gods
The ancient Greeks and Romans believed in a range of gods who had
responsibility over many aspects of nature and humanity. Many Greek
gods were adopted by the Romans or were vaguely identified with Roman
gods, but not all the Greek pantheon (group of gods) were directly
translated into Roman gods, some had slightly different features.
For free teacher resources visit
Zeus, Jupiter, Jove
Zeus as portrayed
by Liam Neeson in
Clash Of The Titans
Hera, a Roman copy from
a Greek original at The
Louvre Museum, Paris
The Greek and
Roman pantheons
Saturn as
depicted by
Caravaggio in the
16th century
A silver statuette of Juno
from the 1st–2nd century
Hera was Zeus’s sister who became his wife.
Hera and Juno are often identified with each
other simply because they were the wives
of the father gods Zeus and Jupiter, but while
Hera was goddess of women and marriage,
Juno was mainly goddess of the Roman state
and state finances. In her case marriage
was a secondary concern.
lthough they have no real religious
adherents left, or at least none that really
believe in them, the Greek and Roman
gods have left an indelible mark on
our culture. Names such as Zeus or Jupiter,
Athena, Hades and Poseidon or Neptune are familiar even
to people who haven’t studied classical Greece or ancient
Rome. The names can be found in literary references and
in the names of planets and stars. In recent times films
such as Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The Lightning
Thief, based on a popular book series, have introduced a
new generation to the stories of the Olympian gods.
Cronos (also spelt Cronus or Kronos) was the primordial father of the gods,
god of time, born of the mother earth goddess Gaea (Ops in Roman stories)
and the father sky god Ouranos (Uranus). Cronos and his brothers and
sisters annoyed their father by making tumult and chaos across the world,
so Ouranos imprisoned them in their mother’s belly. Gaea took revenge
by creating iron and encouraging Cronos to attack Ouranos. Cronos severed
his father’s genitals and threw them into the ocean. This created foam on
the waves from which came the goddess Aphrodite (see Aphrodite). Drops
of blood also fell on Gaia from which sprang many creatures including
nymphs, giants and Erinyes,
the snake-haired guardians
of nature. It was foretold
that one of Cronos’s
children would overthrow
him, so he swallowed each
of them as they were born.
But Zeus was hidden at
birth and later gave Cronos
a drink that made him vomit
up his brothers and sisters.
The Roman god Saturn was
much the same as Cronos
but was celebrated as a
harvest god in a popular
festival called Saturnalia.
Cronos is also sometimes
known as Father Time.
Series 10
A coin showing
Poseidon from
the kingdom of
Macedonia in
Athens, circa
185BC-168BC
Hades, god of the
underworld, played
by Steve Coogan in
Percy Jackson And
The Olympians: The
Lightning Thief
Picture: 20th Century Fox
Poseidon, god of the
seas, played by Kevin
McKidd in Percy Jackson
And The Olympians: The
Lightning Thief
Picture: 20th Century Fox
Did you know?
n One myth tells that Hades was so lonely he
abducted Persephone, daughter of Demeter, the
goddess of agriculture, to be his wife. Persephone
was eventually released from the underworld by
Zeus but because she had eaten a pomegranate
during her stay she was bound forever to spend
four months of the year there. During their time
apart Demeter would mourn for her daughter,
neglecting agriculture so badly that nothing would
grow. The ancient Greeks believed this accounted
for the season of winter.
Aphrodite,
Venus
In the Greek mythology the
goddess of love was Aphrodite,
daughter of Ouranos, born
when Cronos attacked
Ouranos (see Cronos).
According to another story she
was the daughter of Zeus and
the little-known goddess Dione.
She was the most beautiful of the
gods but was anything but sweet
and lovely. She could be vain and
vengeful and sometimes she was
also worshipped as the goddess of
war. She was married to Hephaestus
so the other gods would not quarrel
over her, but she preferred to dally
with her lover Ares, god of war,
and it was he who fathered her
son Eros, who was also a god
of love. The Roman equivalent
Venus took Mercury, messenger
of the gods, as a lover, giving birth
to the winged Cupid who fired
magic arrows to make
people fall in love.
A sculpture of Vulcan
in marble by French
artist Guillaume
Coustou II, 1742
Statue of Aphrodite, near Pompeii
Sources and further study
n Greek Myths And Legends, by Diana
Ferguson (Collins)
Hephaestus,
Vulcan
The brother of Zeus, Hephaestus
was the god of fire. Born lame, he
was cast out of Olympus by his
mother, Hera, and took his revenge by
fashioning a throne that entrapped her. To release her
the demi-god Dionysus, son of mortal woman Semele
and the god Zeus, got Hephaestus drunk and took him
back to Olympus, winning Dionysus a place as the god
of wine. Hephaestus fashioned the lightning bolt that
Zeus used to menace his enemies and the armour
worn by Achilles in The Illiad. Both he and the Roman
equivalent Vulcan were worshipped by blacksmiths.
nM
yths of Greece And Rome, by
Thomas Bullfinch (Penguin)
nM
yths Of The World, edited by Tony Allan
(Duncan Baird)
n Encyclopedia Mythica pantheon.org
n Percy Jackson And The Olympians: The
Lightning Thief, available on Fox DVD
n Encyclopaedia Britannica
britannica.com
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