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Zeus
Zeus was, for many Greeks, the king of the gods. He is shown this
way in Homer's Iliad, for example.
He is a sky god: people thought of him as living on top of a
mountain (Mount Olympus), and when he is angry he throws
lightning bolts out of the sky at people. Zeus probably was not
worshipped in Greece before the Indo-European Greeks arrived
there in the Middle Bronze Age.
He is an Indo-European god, and he is basically the same as other
Indo-European sky gods like Jupiter (this is really even the same
word: Ju= Zeus and piter means father) or Odin. Or some Hindu sky
gods.
and the child of Zeus and Demeter is Persephone, the grain.
In other ways, people thought of Zeus as representing the Father in
psychological terms. People who had real problems with their own
fathers might think of Zeus as a sort of ideal father, for instance. In
the story of Phaethon, we see Zeus playing the part of the wise
father.
Hera
Hera is the sister and wife of Zeus (the Greeks did not approve of
this arrangement for real people but they thought it was okay for
gods). So Hera is also the daughter of Earth (Rhea) and Time
(Chronos). Hera is usually thought of as responsible for marriage
and the family, and Greek men thought of her as mean and selfish
and generally unpleasant to be around. She's always getting mad at
Zeus about something. But people did sacrifice to her, especially at a
wedding.
Hera is the mother of Hephaistos, the god of volcanoes and
blacksmithing. That's appropriate, because she is an Earth goddess
and volcanoes are born out of the earth. She's also the mother of
Hebe, the goddess of youth, and Ares, the god of war. Different
Greek story-tellers disagreed about whether Hera's husband Zeus
was the father of these children, or maybe Hera just made them on
her own, with no father.
Throughout all the stories, Hera spends a lot of her time trying to get
back at Zeus for having other girlfriends besides her. When one of
Zeus's girlfriends has a baby, Hera hates that baby and tries to get
rid of it. The most famous of these babies is Hercules, who was the
son of Zeus and a human woman named Alcmena. Another famous
story about Hera is the one about Echo and Narcissus - here's a
video of it:
Poseidon
The Greeks thought of Poseidon as a
god of violent, unpredictable movement.
He is most often the god of the ocean,
which is of course the biggest, most
unpredictable, and most dangerous
thing around. Many Greeks spent a lot
of time sailing on the ocean, and they
paid a lot of attention to Poseidon.
But Poseidon is also the god of
earthquakes, and earthquakes are also
very common in Greece. He stamps his
foot, or he hits the earth with his trident
(like a pitchfork) to make an earthquake.
Hades
Hades was the god of the dead, who ruled the place where dead
people went after they died. He is a rather shadowy figure in more
ways than one, spooky, and the Greeks preferred not to talk about
him too much. Generally people who had good intentions did not
sacrifice to Hades either. When they did, instead of burning the fat
and the bones so the smoke would go up to Heaven, instead they
poured blood into pits or ditches dug into the ground (as in the part of
Homer's Odyssey where Odysseus visits the Underworld).
Hades was thought of as the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and
therefore also the brother of Demeter and Hera.
Like Poseidon, Hades does not appear in very many Greek myths.
The best-known of the myths he is in are those of Persephone and
Orpheus.
People sacrificed to Hades when they wanted something bad to
happen, like if they were trying to get revenge on an enemy.
Hermes
Hermes is known as the messenger of the gods;
Zeus often sends Hermes to earth when he has
something to say to a person. For instance,
Hermes carries messages to Odysseus in Homer's
Odyssey, and to Alcmena in Plautus' Amphitryo.
But Hermes also has the power to heal the sick,
and it is his caduceus (ka-DOO-shuss) (a stick with
a snake wound around it) that is the symbol of
medicine both in antiquity and today. Hermes is
thought of as being younger than the other gods,
clever, quick and tricky.
This statue by Praxiteles shows Hermes playing
with the infant Dionysos (300's BC)
Aphrodite
Aphrodite from Cnidos (Roman copy)
Aphrodite (a-fro-DIE-tee) was the Greek goddess of love.
Naturally she was always falling in love with somebody, or
somebody was falling in love with her. She is one of the oldest
goddesses, the daughter of Ouranos. The most famous story
about Aphrodite is that she started the Trojan War.
Another story is the one about Actaeon. She is supposed to
have had Ares for her boyfriend, and to have been married to
Hephaistos.
Nobody is sure yet what the relationship is between Aphrodite
and West Asian love goddesses like Astarte.
The Romans thought Aphrodite was like their goddess Venus.
And the Germans thought she was like their goddess Freya.
Aphrodite is a fertility goddess, like Demeter. But while
Demeter makes the earth grow grain, Aphrodite makes
women have babies. She herself, however, does not have
children.
Athena
is the goddess of wisdom; her symbol is the owl (the
wise bird). She's the patron goddess of the city of
Athens, and her owl appears on Athenian silver
coins. She is also a war goddess, which is why she
is usually shown fully armed, with her shield and
sword.
Myths about Athena: the stories of Arachne and
Medusa. Athena also plays a big part in the
Odyssey.
Ares
Ares is the god of war, and so he
is a rather irrational god. He
enters into people and causes
rage, so that they want to go fight.
He is sometimes said to be
Aphrodite's boyfriend (though it's
not clear what it means, that love
and war would be attached to
each other). Ares doesn't appear
in stories much.