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Guide to the Gods
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APHRODITE (a-fro-DYE-tee; Roman name Venus) was the goddess of
love, beauty and fertility. She was also a protectress of sailors.
The poet Hesiod said that Aphrodite was born from sea-foam. Homer, on
the other hand, said that she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
When the Trojan prince Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian
goddesses was the most beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and
Athena. The latter two had hoped to bribe him with power and victory in
battle, but Aphrodite offered the love of the most beautiful woman in the
world.
This was Helen of Sparta, who became infamous as Helen of Troy when
Paris subsequently eloped with her. In the ensuing Trojan War, Hera and
Athena were implacable enemies of Troy while Aphrodite was loyal to
Paris and the Trojans.
APOLLO (uh-POL-oh; Roman nameApollo) was the god of prophesy,
music and healing.
Like most of his fellow Olympians, Apollo did not hesitate to intervene in
human affairs. It was he who brought about the demise of the mighty
Achilles. Of all the heroes besieging the city of Troy in the Trojan War,
Achilles was the best fighter by far. He had easily defeated the Trojan
captain Hector in single combat. But Apollo helped Hector's brother Paris
slay Achilles with an arrow.
When someone died suddenly, he was said to have been struck down by one
of Apollo's arrows. Homer's epic of the Trojan War begins with the god
causing a plague by raining arrows down upon the Greek camp.
As god of music, Apollo is often depicted playing the lyre. He did not
invent this instrument, however, but was given it by Hermes in
compensation for cattle theft. Some say that Apollo did invent the lute,
although he was best known for his skill on the lyre.
He won several musical contests by playing this instrument. In one case
he bested Pan, who competed on his own invention, the shepherd's pipe.
On this occasion, King Midas had the bad sense to say that he preferred
Pan's music, which caused Apollo to turn his ears into those of an ass.
ARES (AIR-eez; Roman name Mars) was the god of war, or more
precisely of warlike frenzy. Though an immortal deity, he was bested by
Heracles in battle and was almost killed when stuffed into a jar by two
giants. When another hero wounded him during the Trojan War, he
received scant sympathy from his father Zeus.
Taken from: http://www.mythweb.com/gods/index.html
In appearance, Ares was handsome and cruel. He is often depicted carrying a bloodstained spear.
His throne on Mount Olympus was said to be covered in human skin.
The Roman god Mars, with whom Ares was identified, was the father of Romulus and Remus,
the mythological founders of Rome. Thus he was more important to the Romans than his Greek
counterpart. He was also more dignified.
ARTEMIS (AR-ti-mis; Roman nameDiana) was the virgin
goddess of the hunt. She helped women in childbirth but
also brought sudden death with her arrows.
Artemis and her brother Apollo were the children of Zeus
and Leto. In some versions of their myth, Artemis was
born first and helped her mother to deliver Apollo.
Niobe, queen of Thebes, once boasted that she was better
than Leto because she had many children while the
goddess had but two. Artemis and Apollo avenged this
insult to their mother by killing all or most of Niobe's children with their arrows. The weeping
Niobe was transformed into stone, in which form she continued to weep.
When Apollo noticed that Artemis was spending a great deal of time hunting with the giant
Orion, he decided to put an end to the relationship. He challenged Artemis to prove her skill at
archery by shooting at an object floating far out at sea. Her shot was perfect. The target turned
out to be the head of Orion.
Artemis is generally depicted as a young woman clad in buckskins, carrying a bow and a quiver
of arrows. She is often accompanied by wild creatures such as a stag or she-bear.
ATHENA (a-THEE-nuh; Roman name Minerva) was the goddess of crafts and the domestic arts
and also those of war. She was the patron goddess of Athens.
Her symbol was the owl. She was originally the Great Goddess
in the form of a bird. By the late Classic, she had come to be
regarded as a goddess of wisdom.
Zeus was once married to Metis, a daughter of Ocean who was
renowned for her wisdom. When Metis became pregnant, Zeus
was warned by Earth that a son born to Metis would overthrow
him, just as he had usurped his own father's throne.
So Zeus swallowed Metis. In time he was overcome with a
splitting headache and summoned help from the craftsman god
Hephaestus (or, some say, the Titan Prometheus). Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's forehead with an
ax, and Athena sprang forth fully armed.
Athena aided the heroes Perseus, Jason, Cadmus, Odysseus and Heracles in their quests.
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Guide to the Gods
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Both Athena and Poseidon wanted to be patron deity of Athens. To prove her worthiness for the
honor, Athena caused an olive tree to spring up on the citadel of Athens, the Acropolis. Poseidon
sought to outdo her by striking the ground with his trident and causing a spring of water to gush
forth. But as he was god of the sea, the water was salty. Athena's gift to the Athenians was
considered to be more useful, so she became the city's patron deity.
Athena sponsored Perseus in his quest to slay Medusa because she wanted the Gorgon's head to
decorate her shield.
DEMETER (dee-MEE-tur; Roman name Ceres) was the
goddess of agriculture. Demeter as the sister of Zeus and the
mother of Persephone.
Persephone was gathering flowers in a meadow one day
when a huge crack opened up in the earth and Hades, King of
the Dead, emerged from the Underworld. He seized
Persephone and carried her off in his chariot, back down to
his his realm below, where she became his queen. Demeter
was heartbroken. She wandered the length and breadth of the
earth in search of her daughter, during which time the crops
withered and it became perpetual winter.
At length Hades was persuaded to surrender Persephone for one half of every year, the spring
and summer seasons when flowers bloom and the earth bears fruit once more. The half year that
Persephone spends in the Underworld as Hades' queen coincides with the barren season.
When depicted in art, Demeter is often shown carrying a sheaf of grain.
DIONYSUS (dye-oh-NYE-sus; Roman
name Bacchus) was the god of wine. Dionysus was
the son of Zeus and the mortal heroine Semele.
Dionysus rescued Ariadne after she had been
abandoned by Theseus. Dionysus also saved his
mother from the Underworld, after Zeus showed
her his true nature as storm god and consumed her
in lightning.
It was Dionysus who granted Midas the power to
turn whatever he touched into gold, then was kind enough to take the power back when it proved
inconvenient.
Taken from: http://www.mythweb.com/gods/index.html
HEPHAESTUS (he-FEE-stus or he-FESS-tus; Roman
name Vulcan) was the lame god of fire and crafts or the two
together, hence of blacksmiths. Hephaestus was the son of Zeus
and Hera or, in some accounts, of Hera alone. He limped because
he was born lame, which caused his mother to throw him off
Mount Olympus. Or in other accounts he interceded in a fight
between Zeus and Hera, and Zeus took him by the foot and threw
him from Olympus to the earth far below.
Hephaestus accomplished numerous prodigies of craftsmanship,
such as the marvelous palaces that he built for the gods atop
Mount Olympus, or the armor that he made for Achilles during
the siege of Troy (the description of which occupies a great many
lines of Homer's epic of the Trojan War).
Hephaestus also created the first woman, Pandora, at the command of Zeus, in retaliation for the
various tricks by which the Titan Prometheus had benefited mortal men at the expense of the
gods. Pandora was given to the Titan's brother, Epimetheus, as his wife. For her dowry she
brought a jar filled with evils from which she removed the lid, thereby afflicting men for the first
time with hard work and sickness. Only hope remained inside the jar.
HERA (HEE-ruh; Roman nameJuno) was the goddess of marriage.
Hera was the wife of Zeus and Queen of the Olympians.
Hera hated the great hero Heracles since he was the son of her
husband Zeus and a mortal woman. When he was still an infant, she
sent snakes to attack him in his crib. Later she stirred up the Amazons
against him when he was on one of his quests.
On the other hand, Hera aided the hero Jason, who would never have
retrieved the Golden Fleece without her sponsorship.
In Greek mythology, Hera was the reigning female goddess of
Olympus because she was Zeus's wife. But her worship is actually far
older than that of her husband. It goes back to a time when the creative force we call "God" was
conceived of as a woman. The Goddess took many forms, among them that of a bird.
Hera was worshipped throughout Greece, and the oldest and most important temples were
consecrated to her. Her subjugation to Zeus and depiction as a jealous shrew are mythological
reflections of one of the most profound changes ever in human spirituality.
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Guide to the Gods
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HERMES (HUR-meez; Roman name Mercury) was the messenger of
the gods and guide of dead souls to the Underworld. A prankster and
inventive genius from birth, Hermes aided the heroes Odysseus and
Perseus in their quests.
Hermes was the son Zeus and a mountain nymph. As a newborn he
was remarkably precocious. On his very first day of life, he found the
empty shell of a tortoise and perceived its utility as a sounding
chamber. Stringing sinews across it, he created the first lyre.
Hermes was known for his helpfulness to mankind, both in his
capacity as immortal herald and on his own initiative. When Perseus
set out to face the Gorgon Medusa, Hermes aided him in the quest.
According to one version of the myth, he loaned the hero his own
magic sandals, which conferred upon the wearer the ability to fly.
Some say that Hermes loaned Perseus a helmet of invisibility as well. Also known as the helmet
of darkness, this was the same headgear that Hermes himself had worn when he vanquished the
giant Hippolytus. This was on the occasion when the gargantuan sons of Earth rose up in revolt
against the gods of Olympus.
Hermes' symbol of office as divine messenger was his staff, or caduceus. This was originally a
willow wand with entwined ribbons, traditional badge of the herald. But the ribbons were
eventually depicted as snakes. To support this mythologically, a story evolved that Hermes used
the caduceus to separate two fighting snakes which forthwith twined themselves together in
peace.
It was Hermes' job to convey dead souls to the Underworld. And as patron of travelers, he was
often shown in a wide-brimmed sun hat of straw. Hermes was known to the Romans as Mercury.
His most famous depiction, a statue by Bellini, shows him alight on one foot, wings at his heels,
the snaky caduceus in hand and, on his head, a rather stylized combination helmet-of-darkness
and sun hat.
POSEIDON (puh-SYE-dun or poh-SYE-dun; Roman name Neptune)
was the god of the sea, earthquakes and horses. Although he was
officially one of the supreme gods of Mount Olympus, he spent most of
his time in his watery domain.
Poseidon was brother to Zeus and Hades. These three gods divided up
creation. Zeus was ruler of the sky, Hades had dominion of the
Underworld and Poseidon was given all water, both fresh and salt.
Although there were various rivers personified as gods, these would
have been technically under Poseidon's sway. Similarly, Nereus, the
Old Man of the Sea, wasn't really considered on a par with Poseidon,
Taken from: http://www.mythweb.com/gods/index.html
who was known to drive his chariot through the waves in unquestioned dominance. Poseidon had
married Nereus's daughter, the sea-nymph Amphitrite.
In dividing heaven, the watery realm and the subterranean land of the dead, the Olympians
agreed that the earth itself would be ruled jointly, with Zeus as king. This led to a number of
territorial disputes among the gods. Poseidon vied with Athena to be patron deity of Athens. The
god demonstrated his power and benevolence by striking the Acropolis with his three-pronged
spear, which caused a spring of salt water to emerge.
Because Odysseus blinded the Cyclops Polyphemus, who was Poseidon's son, the god not only
delayed the hero's homeward return from the Trojan War but caused him to face enormous perils.
At one point he whipped up the sea with his trident and caused a storm so severe that Odysseus
was shipwrecked.
Poseidon similarly cursed the wife of King Minos. Minos had proved his divine right to rule
Crete by calling on Poseidon to send a bull from the sea, which the king promised to sacrifice.
Poseidon sent the bull, but Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it. So Poseidon asked Aphrodite,
the goddess of love, to make Minos's queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. The result was
the monstrous Minotaur, half-man, half-bull.
As god of horses, Poseidon often adopted the shape of a steed. It is not certain that he was in this
form when he wooed Medusa. But when Perseus later killed the Gorgon, the winged horse
Pegasus sprang from her severed neck.
ZEUS (zoose or zyoose; Roman name Jupiter) was the supreme god
of the Olympians. He was the father of the heroes Perseus and
Heracles, the latter of whom once wrestled him to a draw.
Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. When he
was born, his father Cronus intended to swallow him as he had all
of Zeus's siblings: Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. But
Rhea hid the newborn in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete. (To this
day, the guides at the "cave of Zeus" use their flashlights to cast
shadow puppets in the cave, creating images of baby Zeus from the
myth.)
When he had grown up, Zeus caused Cronus to vomit up his sisters
and brothers, and these gods joined him in fighting to wrest control of the universe from the
Titans and Cronus, their king. Having vanquished his father and the other Titans, Zeus
imprisoned most of them in the underworld of Tartarus.
Then he and his brothers Poseidon and Hades divided up creation. Poseidon received the sea as
his domain, Hades got the Underworld and Zeus took the sky. Zeus also was accorded supreme
authority on earth and on Mount Olympus.
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Guide to the Gods
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There were many OTHER GODS besides the Olympians. A number of them were said to live
atop Mount Olympus with the supreme twelve.
For instance, Heracles was made into a god when he died, and he was given the goddess Hebe as
his wife. They lived together in a palace on Olympus. Only the Olympians themselves, however,
met in supreme council, seated together in Zeus's royal hall on twelve ornate thrones.
For that matter, the composition of the Olympians changed over time. Originally Hestia, goddess
of the hearth, was one of the twelve, but she grew tired of the godly bickering and gladly gave
her place to the god of wine, Dionysus.
On the other hand, Hades, god of the dead and brother of Zeus and Poseidon, isn't included in
our assembly because he dwelt in the Underworld and not on Olympus. His Roman name was
Pluto.
PAN
Pan (who is pictured above in the act of sneaking into a gathering of
the twelve Olympians) was a god of shepherds and flocks. Pan was
the son of Hermes and a nymph. He was born with the legs and horns
of a goat, which caused his own mother to spurn him.
Nor was the adult god more popular with the nymphs. Echo ran away
from him and lost her voice as a consequence, being condemned only
to repeat the words of others. Another fleeing nymph was transformed into a reed, which
inspired Pan to invent the shepherd's pipe of bound reeds of varying lengths.
Pan was considered to be the cause of the sudden fear that sometimes comes for no reason,
especially in lonely places. That's why it's called "panic".
Taken from: http://www.mythweb.com/gods/index.html