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In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus is the "Father of Gods who rules the Olympians of
Mount Olympus as a father rules the family. He is the god of sky and thunder in Greek
mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and Etruscan counterpart is Tinia. His Hindu
equivalent is Indra. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, and the youngest of his siblings. In
most traditions he is married to Hera, although, at the oracle of Dodona, his consort is Dione:
according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his erotic
escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo and
Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos,
and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera, he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe and
Hephaestus. As Walter Burkert points out in his book, Greek Religion, "Even the gods who are
not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." For the
Greeks, he was the King of the Gods, who oversaw the universe. As Pausanias observed, "That
Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". In Hesiod's Theogony Zeus assigns the
various gods their roles. In the Homeric Hymns he is referred to as the chieftain of the gods. His
symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance,
the classical "cloud-gatherer" also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the
Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two
poses: standing, striding forward, with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in
majesty.
Ares was the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus
and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent aspect of war, in
contrast to the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military
strategy and generalship. The Greeks were ambivalent toward Ares: although he embodied the
physical valor necessary for success in war, he was a dangerous force, "overwhelming, insatiable
in battle, destructive, and man-slaughtering." Fear (Phobos) and Terror (Deimos) were yoked to
his battle chariot. In the Iliad his father Zeus tells him that he is the god most hateful to him. An
association with Ares endows places and objects with a savage, dangerous, or militarized quality.
His value as a war god is even placed in doubt: during the Trojan War, Ares was on the losing
side, while Athena, often depicted in Greek art as holding Nike (Victory) in her hand, favored
the triumphant Greeks. Ares plays a relatively limited role in Greek mythology as represented in
literary narratives, though his numerous love affairs and abundant offspring are often alluded to.
When Ares does appear in myths, he typically faces humiliation. He is well known as the lover
of Aphrodite, the goddess of love who was married to Hephaestus, god of craftsmanship, but the
most famous story involving the couple shows them exposed to ridicule through the wronged
husband's clever device. The counterpart of Ares among the Roman gods is Mars, who as a
father of the Roman people held a more important and dignified place in ancient Roman religion
for his agricultural and tutelary functions. During the Hellenization of Latin literature, the myths
of Ares were reinterpreted by Roman writers under the name of Mars. Greek writers under
Roman rule also recorded cult practices and beliefs pertaining to Mars under the name of Ares.
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Thus in the classical tradition of later Western art and literature, the mythology of the two figures
becomes virtually indistinguishable.
Hades was the ancient Greek god of the underworld. The genitive was an elision to
denote locality: "[the house/dominion] of Hades". Eventually, the nominative came to designate
the abode of the dead. In Greek mythology, Hades is the oldest male child of Cronus and Rhea.
According to myth, he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans and claimed ruler
ship over the cosmos, ruling the underworld, air, and sea, respectively; the solid earth, long the
province of Gaia, was available to all three concurrently. Hades was also called "Plouton", a
name which the Romans Latinized as Pluto. The Romans would associate Hades/Pluto with their
own chthonic gods, Dis Pater and Orcus. The corresponding Etruscan god was Aita. Symbols
associated with him are the Helm of Darkness, the bident and the three-headed dog, Cerberus.
The term hades in Christian theology (and in New Testament Greek) is parallel to Hebrew Sheol
and refers to the abode of the dead. The Christian concept of hell is more akin to and
communicated by the Greek concept of Tartarus, a deep, gloomy part of hades used as a dungeon
of torment and suffering.
Poseidon is one of the twelve Olympian deities of the pantheon in Greek mythology. His
main domain is the ocean, and he is called the "God of the Sea". Additionally, he is referred to as
"Earth-Shaker" due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the "tamer of horses”.
The name of the sea-god Nethuns in Etruscan was adopted in Latin for Neptune in Roman
mythology; both were sea gods analogous to Poseidon. Linear B tablets show that Poseidon was
venerated at Pylos and Thebes in pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, but he was integrated into
the Olympian gods as the brother of Zeus and Hades. There is a Homeric hymn to Poseidon, who
was the protector of many Hellenic cities, although he lost the contest for Athens to Athena.
Hera was the wife and one of three sisters of Zeus in the Olympian pantheon of Greek
mythology and religion. Her chief function was as the goddess of women and marriage. Her
counterpart in the religion of ancient Rome was Juno. The cow and the peacock were sacred to
her. Hera's mother was Rhea and her father Cronus. Portrayed as majestic and solemn, often
enthroned, and crowned with the polos (a high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great
Goddesses), Hera may bear a pomegranate in her hand, emblem of fertile blood and death and a
substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. A scholar of Greek mythology Walter
Burkert writes in Greek Religion, "Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier aniconic
representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos”. Hera was known for her jealous
and vengeful nature, most notably against Zeus's lovers and offspring, but also against mortals
who crossed her, such as Pelias. Paris offended her by choosing Aphrodite as the most beautiful
goddess, earning Hera's hatred.
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in ancient
Greek and Roman religion, Greek and Roman mythology, and Greco–Roman Neopaganism. The
ideal of the kouros (a beardless, athletic youth), Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of
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light and the sun, truth and prophecy, healing, plague, music, poetry, and more. Apollo is the son
of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin sister, the chaste huntress Artemis. Apollo is known in Greekinfluenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. As the patron of Delphi, Apollo was an oracular god—
the prophetic deity of the Delphic Oracle. Medicine and healing are associated with Apollo,
whether through the god himself or mediated through his son Asclepius, yet Apollo was also
seen as a god who could bring ill-health and deadly plague. Amongst the god's custodial charges,
Apollo became associated with dominion over colonists, and as the patron defender of herds and
flocks. As the leader of the Muses and director of their choir, Apollo functioned as the patron
god of music and poetry. Hermes created the lyre for him, and the instrument became a common
attribute of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were called paeans. In Hellenistic times, especially
during the 3rd century BCE, as Apollo Helios he became identified among Greeks with Helios,
Titan god of the sun, and his sister Artemis similarly equated with Selene, Titan goddess of the
moon. In Latin texts, on the other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any
conflation of Apollo with Sol among the Augustan poets of the 1st century, not even in the
conjurations of Aeneas and Latinus in Aeneid XII. Apollo and Helios/Sol remained separate
beings in literary and mythological texts until the 3rd century CE.
In Greek religion and mythology, Athena or Athene, is the goddess of wisdom, courage,
inspiration, civilization, law and justice, just warfare, mathematics, strength, strategy, the arts,
crafts, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is
also a shrewd companion of heroes and is the goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the virgin
patron of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her namesake city,
Athens, in her honor. Athena’s veneration as the patron of Athens seems to have existed from the
earliest times, and was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural
changes. In her role as a protector of the city (polis), many people throughout the Greek world
worshiped Athena as Athena Polias. The city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear
the same name, "Athenai" meaning "many Athenas".
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Demeter is the goddess of the harvest, who presided
over grains and the fertility of the earth. Her cult titles include Sito as the giver of food or
corn/grain and Thesmophoros as a mark of the civilized existence of agricultural society. Though
Demeter is often described simply as the goddess of the harvest, she presided also over the
sanctity of marriage, the sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. She and her daughter
Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that predated the Olympian
pantheon. In the Linear B Mycenaean Greek tablets of circa 1400-1200 BC found at Pylos, the
"two mistresses and the king" are identified with Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. Her
Roman equivalent is Ceres.
Hermes, an Olympian god in Greek religion and mythology, Hermes was the son of Zeus
and the Pleiade, Maia, a daughter of the Titan, Atlas. The second youngest of the Olympian
gods, he was born before Dionysus. His symbols include the rooster and the tortoise, his purse or
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pouch, winged sandals, winged cap, and held in his left hand, the herald's staff, the Greek
kerykeion or Latin caduceus. Hermes was the herald, or messenger, of the gods to humans,
sharing this role with Iris. A patron of boundaries and the travelers who cross them, he was the
protector of shepherds and cowherds, thieves, orators and wit, literature and poets, athletics and
sports, weights and measures, invention, and of commerce in general. In the Roman adaptation
of the Greek pantheon, Hermes was identified with the Roman god Mercury, who, though
inherited from the Etruscans, developed many similar characteristics, such as being the patron of
commerce.
Dionysus was the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness and
ecstasy in Greek mythology. His name in Linear B tablets shows he was worshipped from c.
1500—1100 BC by Mycenaean Greeks: other traces of Dionysian-type cult have been found in
ancient Minoan Crete. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are
described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In some cults, he arrives from the
east, as an Asiatic foreigner; in others, from Ethiopia in the South. He is a god of epiphany, "the
god that comes", and his "foreignness" as an arriving outsider-god may be inherent and essential
to his cults. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, and is included in
some lists of the twelve Olympians. His festivals were the driving force behind the development
of Greek theatre. He is an example of a dying god.
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman
equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself were
originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the
wild land, Mistress of Animals". The Arcadians believed she was the daughter of Demeter. In the
classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and
Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals,
wilderness, childbirth, virginity and young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she
often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were
sacred to her. In later Hellenistic times, she even assumed the ancient role of Eileithyia in aiding
childbirth.
In Ancient Greek Religion 'Hestia' is the virgin goddess of the hearth, architecture, and
the right ordering of domesticity, the family and the state. In Greek mythology she is a daughter
of Cronus and Rhea. Hestia received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the
public domain, the hearth of the prytaneum functioned as her official sanctuary. With the
establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth in the mother city would be
carried to the new settlement. She sat on a plain wooden throne with a white woolen cushion and
did not trouble to choose an emblem for herself. Her Roman equivalent is Vesta.
Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. Her Roman
equivalent is the goddess Venus. Historically, her cult in Greece was imported from, or
influenced by, the cult of Astarte in Phoenicia. According to Hesiod's Theogony, she was born
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when Cronus cut off Uranus' genitals and threw them into the sea, and from the sea foam arose
Aphrodite. Thus Aphrodite is of an older generation than Zeus. Because of her beauty, other
gods feared that jealousy would interrupt the peace among them and lead to war, and so Zeus
married her to Hephaestus, who was not viewed as a threat. Aphrodite had many lovers, both
gods like Ares, and men like Anchises. Aphrodite also became instrumental in the Eros and
Psyche legend, and later was both Adonis' lover and his surrogate mother. Many lesser beings
were said to be children of Aphrodite. Aphrodite is also known as Cytherea (Lady of Cythera)
and Cypris (Lady of Cyprus) after the two cult-sites, Cythera and Cyprus, which claimed her
birth. Myrtles, doves, sparrows, horses, and swans are sacred to her. The Greeks further
identified the Ancient Egyptian goddess Hathor with Aphrodite. Aphrodite also has many other
local names, such as Acidalia, Cytherea and Cerigo, used in specific areas of Greece. Each
goddess demanded a slightly different cult but Greeks recognized in their overall similarities the
one Aphrodite. Attic philosophers of the fourth century separated a celestial Aphrodite of
transcendent principles with the common Aphrodite of the people.
Hephaestus was a Greek god whose Roman equivalent was Vulcan. He is the son of Zeus
and Hera, the King and Queen of the Gods - or else, according to some accounts, of Hera alone.
He was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals, metallurgy,
fire and volcanoes.Like other mythic smiths but unlike most other gods, Hephaestus was lame,
which gave him a grotesque appearance in Greek eyes. He served as the blacksmith of the gods,
and he was worshipped in the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, particularly in
Athens. The center of his cult was in Lemnos. Hephaestus's symbols are a smith's hammer, an
anvil and a pair of tongs, although sometimes he is portrayed as not known to all.