Download Gods & Goddesses - Los Angeles Unified School District

Gods & Goddesses
By
Student’s Name
Gaia {jee'-uh}
Terra Mater, Mother Earth
• The oldest of the goddesses
• She is the personification of the
"all-mother", she who gives and
takes life. She sprang from
Chaos, and in turn bore from
herself, Pontus (the sea), and
Uranus (the sky) and married
him. Their children are the
Titans, the Cyclopes, and the
Hecatonchires. With Tartarus
she is the mother of the monster
Typhon.
URANUS {yoo-ray'-nuhs}
Personification of the sky
•
Son and mate of Gaia.
•
Their children are the Hecatonchires
(Centimani), the Cyclopes and the Titans.
Uranus was jealous of the future power of
his children and feared he would lose his
rulership to them. He threw his children in
the underworld to prevent this. At the
instigation of Gaia, her son Cronus
castrated his father and dethroned him.
When Uranus' blood fell upon the Earth
(Gaia), the Erinyes (the goddesses of
vengeance) and the Gigantes (giants)
sprang forth, among many other divinities.
ZEUS
Supreme Ruler of Mount Olympus
Being the supreme ruler he
upheld law, justice and morals,
and this made him the spiritual
leader of both gods and men.
Zeus was a celestial god, and
originally worshipped as a
weather god by the Greek tribes.
Source: Stephane Mallarmé
Les Dieux Antiques, nouvelle mythologie illustrée.
Paris, 1880.
HERA
Queen of the Olympian Deities.
• She is the eldest
daughter of Cronus
and Rhea, and wife
and sister of Zeus.
Hera was mainly
worshipped as a
goddess of marriage
and birth.
Bibliography
•Encyclopedia Mythica
http://www.pantheon.org/mythica
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