The Supreme Twelve Olympians

Zeus:

The name Zeus (Ζεύς Zeús, genitive: Διός Díos) is also the Greek word for “God”, (not to be confused with the hebrew god, YHVH). The Romans called him Jupiter (IOVIS PITER —Father God), the paternal thunder god of numerous nations. In the Greek version, he is the highest ranking god among the Olympian gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky and thunder. His attributes included thunder and the lightning bolt, the oak, and the eagle.

The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was the youngest of his siblings. He was married to Hera in most traditions, although at the oracle of Dodona his consort was Dione, the “goddess”: Homer tells us in the Iliad, that he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. He is known for his numerous conquests of nymphs, including deities whose cult actually preceded his, and one pederastic relationship, with Ganymedes. His trysts resulted in many offspring: Athena by Metis, Apollo and Artemis by Leto, Hermes by Maia, Persephone by Demeter, Dionysus by Semele, Perseus by Danae, Heracles by Alcmene, Helen by Leda, Minos by Europa and the Muses by Mnemosyne; by Hera he is usually said to have sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus. He was the father of the heroes Perseus and Heracles, the latter of whom once wrestled him to a draw.

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 Aigaion ("Goat Mountain") in Crete, though others say Mount Dicte. (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.) He was fed milk by a goat, Amalthea (in Greek, Αμαλθεια — "tender goddess"). In order that Cronus should not hear the wailing of the infant, Amalthea gathered about the cave the Kuretes or the Korybantes to dance and shout and clash their spears against their shields.

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.

Eagle and oak tree are sacred to him.

Hera:

In the Olympian pantheon of classical Greek Mythology, Hera (IPA pronunciation: [ˈhiːrə]; Greek Ἥρα or Ἥρη) was the wife and older sister of Zeus. She also presided as goddess of marriage, the patriarchal bond of her own subordination: her resistance to the conquests of Zeus is rendered as Hera's “jealousy”, the main theme of literary anecdotes that undercut her ancient cult. Her equivalent in Roman Mythology was Juno.

Portrayed as majestic and solemn, often enthroned and crowned with the polos, the high cylindrical crown worn by several of the Great Goddesses. In her hand she may bear the pomegranate, emblem of fertile blood and death and a substitute for the narcotic capsule of the opium poppy. “Nevertheless, there are memories of an earlier, aniconic representation, as a pillar in Argos and as a plank in Samos”.

The Milky Way (Latin Via Lactea, in turn derived from the Greek Γαλαξίας Galaxias), was formed by Hera, who spilled milk in the sky after discovering that Zeus had tricked her into feeding young Heracles. In another variant, Hermes snuck Heracles into Olympus to drink from the breasts of Hera who was asleep. Heracles bit Hera's nipple shooting her milk into the skies forming the Milky Way. The Milky Way is 20-25 years old.

Cow and peacock are sacred to her.

Poseidon:

Poseidon (Greek: Ποσειδών) was the god of the sea, as well as horses and, as “Earth-Shaker”, of earthquakes. He figured as Rodon in Illyrian, Nethuns in Etruscan, and Neptune in Roman mythology.

In Mycenean culture, Poseidon's importance was greater than that of Zeus. At Pylos he is the chief god, if surviving Linear B clay tablets can be trusted; the name PO-SE-DA-WO-NE (Poseidon) occurs with greater frequency than does DI-U-JA (Zeus). A feminine variant, PO-SE-DE-IA, is also found, indicating the existence of a now-forgotten consort goddess. Tablets from Pylos record sacrificial goods destined for “the Two Queens and Poseidon” and to “the Two Queens and the King”. The most obvious identification for the “Two Queens” is with Demeter and Persephone, or their precursors, goddesses who were not associated with Poseidon in later periods. Poseidon is already identified as “Earth-Shaker”— E-NE-SI-DA-O-NE— in Mycenaean Knossos, a powerful attribute where earthquakes had accompanied the collapse of the Minoan palace-culture. In the heavily sea-dependent Mycenean culture, no connection between Poseidon and the sea has yet surfaced; among the Olympians it was determined by lot that he should rule over the sea (Hesiod, Theogony 456): the god preceded his realm.

Demeter and Poseidon's names are linked in one Pylos tablet, where they appear as PO-SE-DA-WO-NE and DA-referred to by the epithets Enosichthon, Seischthon and Ennosigaios, all meaning “earth-shaker” and referring to his role in causing earthquakes. Poseidon was a major civic god of several cities: in Athens, he was second only to Athena in importance; while in Corinth and many cities of Magna Graecia he was the chief god of the polis.

According to Pausanias, Poseidon was one of the caretakers of the Oracle at Delphi before Olympian Apollo took it over. Apollo and Poseidon worked closely in many realms: in colonization, for example, Apollo provided the authorization to go out and settle from Delphi, while Poseidon watched over the colonists on their way, and provided the lustral water for the foundation-sacrifice. Xenophon's Anabasis describes a groups of Spartan soldiers singing to Poseidon a paean —a kind of hymn normally sung for Apollo.

Like Dionysus and the Maenads, Poseidon also caused certain forms of mental disturbance. One Hippocratic text says that he was blamed for certain types of epilepsy.

Ares:

Ares (in Greek, Άρης — “battle strife”) is the son of Zeus (king of the gods) and Hera. Though often incorrectly referred to as the Olympian god of war, he is more accurately the god of savage war, or bloodlust. The Romans identified him as Mars, the Roman god of war (whom they had inherited from the Etruscans) with Hellenic Ares, but among them, Mars stood in much higher esteem.

Among the Hellenes, Ares was always mistrusted. His birthplace and true home was placed far off, among the barbarous and warlike Thracians (Iliad 13.301; Ovid). And he withdrew to Thrace after he was discovered on a couch with Aphrodite (Odyssey 8.361). Though Ares' half-sister Athena was also considered to be a war deity, Athena's stance was that of strategic warfare while Ares' tended to be the unpredictable violence of war with all its potential outcomes.

“Ares” remained an adjective and epithet in Classical times: Zeus Areios, Athena Areia, even Aphrodite Areia. In Mycenaean times, inscriptions attest to Enyalios, a name that survived into Classical times as an epithet of Ares.

Vulture and dog are sacred to him.

Hermes:

Hermes (Greek ʽἙρμῆς IPA: [herˈmeːs]), is the Olympian god of boundaries and of the travellers who cross them, of shepherds and cowherds, of orators and wit, of literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and invention and commerce in general, and of the cunning of thieves and liars. The Homeric hymn to Hermes invokes him as the one

of many shifts, blandly cunning, a robber, a cattle driver, a bringer of dreams, a watcher by night, a thief at the gates, one who was soon to show forth wonderful deeds among the deathless gods."

As a translator, Hermes is the messenger from the gods to humans, a duty which he shares with Iris. An interpreter who bridges the boundaries with strangers is a hermeneus. Hermes gives us our word “hermeneutics” for the art of interpreting hidden meaning. In Greek a lucky find was a hermaion.

Hermes, as an inventor of fire, is a parallel of the Titan, Prometheus. In addition to the syrinx and the lyre, Hermes was believed to have invented many types of racing and the sport of boxing, and therefore was a patron of athletes. Modern mythographers have connected Hermes with the trickster gods of other cultures.

Rooster and tortoise are sacred to him.

Hephaestus:

Hephæstus (IPA pronunciation: [hɪfiːstəs]; Greek Ἥφαιστος Hêphaistos) is the Greek god whose approximate Roman equivalent is Vulcan; he is the god of technology including, specifically blacksmiths, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy, and fire. He was worshipped in all the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, especially Athens.

Though his forge traditionally lay in the heart of Lemnos, Hephæstus was quickly identified by Greek colonists in southern Italy with the volcano gods Adranus of Mount Etna and Vulcanus of the Lipara islands and his forge moved here by the poets; the first-century sage Apollonius of Tyana is said to have observed, “there are many other mountains all over the earth that are on fire, and yet we should never be done with it if we assigned to them giants and gods like Hephaestus” (Life of Apollonius of Tyana, book v.16).

Aphrodite:

Aphrodite (Greek: Ἀφροδίτη, pronounced in English as /ˈæfrəˌdaɪti/ and in Ancient Greek as /apʰroditɛ/) was the Greek goddess of love, lust, beauty, and sexuality. Her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Myrtle, dove, sparrow, and swan are sacred to her.

Athena:

Athena (Greek: Ἀθηνᾶ, Athēnâ, or Ἀθήνη, Athénē; Doric: Ἀσάνα, Asána) was the goddess of civilization, specifically wisdom, weaving, and crafts . Athena's wisdom encompasses the technical knowledge employed in weaving, metal-working, but also includes the cunning intelligence (metis) of such figures as Odysseus. The owl and the olive tree are sacred to her.

She is attended by an owl, wears a goatskin breastplate called the Aegis given to her by her father, Zeus,[1] and is accompanied by the goddess of victory, Nike. She is often shown helmeted and with a shield bearing the Gorgon Medusa's head, a votive gift of Perseus. Athena is an armed warrior goddess, and appears in Greek mythology as a helper of many heroes, including Heracles, Jason, and Odysseus. She never had a consort or lover, and thus was often known as Athena Parthenos ("Athena the virgin"), hence her most famous temple, the Parthenon, on the Acropolis in Athens. In her role as a protector of the city, Athena was worshipped throughout the Greek world as Athena Polias ("Athena of the city"). She had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city.[2]

In Roman mythology, the goddess of wisdom was Minerva, who originated in the association of the Etruscan goddess Menerva with Hellenic iconography of Athena. Quite apart from Minerva, the Romans knew her as Athena as well.

Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times.[3] Athena was probably already a goddess in the Aegean in prehistoric times.[4] There is evidence that in early times, Athena was an owl herself, or a bird goddess in general. In Book 3 of the Odyssey, she takes the form of a sea-eagle. Her tasseled aegis may be the remnants of wings:[5] she is depicted with wings on Archaic red-figure pottery.

In the Olympian pantheon, Athena was remade as the favorite daughter of Zeus, born fully armed from his forehead after he swallowed her mother, Metis. The story of her birth comes in several versions. In the one most commonly cited, Zeus lay with Metis, the goddess of crafty thought and wisdom, but immediately feared the consequences. It had been prophesied that Metis would bear children more powerful than the sire,[6] even Zeus himself. In order to forestall these dire consequences, Zeus transformed Metis into a fly and swallowed her immediately after lying with her. He was too late: Metis had already conceived a child. Metis immediately began making a helmet and robe for her fetal daughter. The hammering as she made the helmet caused Zeus great pain and Prometheus, Hephaestus, Hermes or Palaemon (depending on the sources examined) cleaved Zeus's head with the double-headed Minoan axe (the labrys of the Great Goddess). Athena leaped from Zeus's head, fully grown and armed, and Zeus was none the worse for the experience.

Fragments attributed to the semi-legendary Phoenician historian Sanchuniathon, said to have written before the Trojan war, make Athena the daughter of Cronus, a king of Byblos who is said to have visited 'the inhabitable world' and bequeathed Attica to Athena.

Apollo:

Apollo (Ancient Greek Ἀπόλλων, Apóllōn; or Ἀπέλλων, Apellōn), the ideal of the kouros, was the archer-god of medicine and healing, light, truth, archery and also a bringer of death-dealing plague; as the leader of the Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, he is a god of music and poetry. Hymns sung to Apollo were called Paeans.

As the patron of Delphi ("Pythian Apollo") Apollo is an oracular god; in Classical times he took the place of Helios as god of the sun. Apollo was also considered to have dominion over colonists, over medicine, mediated through his son Asclepius, and was the patron defender of herds and flocks.

Apollo is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of the chaste huntress Artemis, who took the place of Selene as goddess of the moon. As the prophetic deity of the Delphic oracle, Apollo was one of the most important and many-sided of the Olympian deities. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced Etruscan mythology as Apulu. In Roman mythology he is known as Apollo and increasingly, especially during the third century BC, as Apollo Helios he became identified with Sol, the Sun.

Artemis:

Artemis (Greek: nominative Ἄρτεμις, genitive Ἀρτέμιδος), in Greek mythology was daughter of Zeus and of Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. In later times she was conflated with the Roman goddess Diana. In Etruscan mythology, she took the form of Artume. Deer and cypress are sacred to her.

Heracles:

Heracles or Herakles ("glory of Hera", or Alcides, original name) "Ἥpα + κλέος, Ἡpακλῆς)" was a divine hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, stepson of Amphitryon[1] and great-grandson of Perseus. He was the greatest of the Greek heroes, a paragon of masculinity, the ancestor of royal clans and a champion of the Olympian order against chthonic monsters. In Rome and the modern West, he is known as Hercules, with whom the later Roman Emperors, in particular Commodus and Maximinus, often identified themselves. The Romans adopted the Greek version of his life and works essentially unchanged, but added anecdotal detail of their own, some of it linking the hero with the geography of the Central Mediterranean. Details of cult were adapted to Rome as well.

Extraordinary strength, courage, ingenuity, and sexual prowess with both males and females were among his characteristic attributes. Although he was not as clever as the likes of Odysseus or Nestor, Heracles used his wits on several occasions when his strength did not suffice, such as when laboring for King Augeias, wrestling the giant Antaeus, or tricking Atlas into taking the sky back onto his shoulders. Together with Hermes he was the patron and protector of gymnasia and palaestrae.[2] His iconographic attributes are the lion skin and the club. These qualities did not prevent him from being regarded as a playful figure who used games to relax from his labors and played a great deal with children.[3] By conquering dangerous archaic forces he is said to have "made the world safe for mankind" and to be its benefactor.

Hebe:

Hêbê (Greek: Ἥβη) was the goddess of youth (Roman equivalent: Juventas). She was the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hêbê was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles (Roman equivalent: Hercules); her successor was the young Trojan prince Ganymede. She also drew baths for Ares and helped Hera enter her chariot.

In Euripides' play Heracleidae, Hebe granted Iolaus' wish to become young again in order to fight Eurystheus. Hebe had two children with her husband Heracles: Alexiares and Anicetus. In Roman mythology, Juventas received a coin offering from boys when they put on the adult men's toga for the first time.

The name Hebe comes from Greek word meaning "youth" or "prime of life". Juventas likewise means "youth".

In art, Hebe is usually depicted wearing a sleeveless dress. There is a statue of Hebe, by Robert Thomas; (1966), in Birmingham city centre, England. Antonio Canova also sculpted four different statues of Hebe: one of them is in the Museum of Forlì, in Italy.

Helios:

The sun was personified as Helios or Helius (Greek Ἥλιος / ἥλιος). Homer often calls him Titan and Hyperion.

He was a son of the Titans Hyperion and Theia and brother of the goddesses Selene the moon and Eos the dawn. The names of these three were simply the Greek words for sun, moon and dawn.

Helios was imagined as a handsome god crowned with the shining aureole of the sun, who drove a chariot across the sky. Homer described it as drawn by solar bulls (Iliad xvi.779); later Pindar saw it as drawn by "fire-darting steeds" (Olympian Ode 7.71). Still later, the horses were given fiery names: Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon and Phlegon.

As time passed, he was increasingly identified with the god of light Apollo. The equivalent of Helios in Roman mythology was Sol, whose name was simply the Latin word for sun.

Hestia:

Virginal Hestia (ancient Greek Ἑστία) is the goddess of the hearth, of the right ordering of domesticity and the family, who received the first offering at every sacrifice in the household. In the public domain the hearth of the prytaneum or town hall functioned as her official sanctuary. With the establishment of a new colony, flame from Hestia's public hearth would be carried to the new settlement.

In Roman mythology her more civic approximate equivalent was Vesta, who personified the public hearth, and whose cult round the ever-burning hearth bound Romans together in the form of an extended family. The similarity of names, apparently, is misleading: "The relationship hestia-histie – Vesta cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European linguistics; borrowings from a third language must also be involved," Walter Burkert has written (1985, III.3.1 note 2). At a very deep level her name means "home and hearth": the household and its inhabitants. "An early form of the temple is the hearth house; the early temples at Dreros and Prinias on Crete are of this type as indeed is the temple of Apollo at Delphi which always had its inner hestia" (Burkert p 61). It will be recalled that among classical Greeks the altar was always in the open air with no roof but the sky, and that the oracle at Delphi was the fane of the Goddess before it was assumed by Apollo. The Mycenaean great hall, such as the hall of Odysseus at Ithaca was a megaron, with a central hearthfire.

The hearth fire of a Greek or a Roman household was not allowed to go out, unless it was ritually extinguished and ritually renewed, accompanied by impressive rituals of completion, purification and renewal. Compare the rituals and connotations of an eternal flame and of sanctuary lamps.

At the more developed level of the polis Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their mother-cities.

Hestia is one of the three Great Goddesses of the first Olympian generation: Hestia, Demeter and Hera. She is the oldest of the three daughters of Rhea and Cronus, the sisters to three brothers Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. Originally listed as one of the Twelve Olympians, Hestia gave up her seat in favour of new-comer Dionysus to tend to the sacred fire on Mt. Olympus. Her altars included every family hearth.

Demeter:

Dêmêtêr (or Demetra) /də'miː.tɚ/ (Greek: Δημήτηρ, "mother-earth" or perhaps "distribution-mother", perhaps from the noun of the Indo-European mother-earth *mater) is the Greek goddess of grain and agriculture, the pure nourisher of youth and the green earth, the health-giving cycle of life and death, and preserver of marriage and the sacred law. She is invoked as the "bringer of seasons" in the Homeric hymn, a subtle sign that she was worshiped long before the Olympians arrived. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter has been dated to sometime around the Seventh Century BC.[1] She and her daughter Persephone were the central figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the Olympian pantheon.

The Roman equivalent is Ceres.

Demeter is easily confused with Gaia or Rhea, and with Cybele. The goddess's epithets reveal the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter and Kore ("the maiden") are usually invoked as to theo ('"The Two Goddesses"), and they appear in that form in Linear B graffiti at Mycenaean Pylos in pre-classical times. A connection with the goddess-cults of Minoan Crete is quite possible.

According to the Athenian rhetorician Isocrates, the greatest gifts which Demeter gave were cereal (thus the Latin name for Ceres; also known as corn to the British) which made man different from wild animals, and the Mysteries which give man higher hopes in this life and the afterlife.

Dionysus:

Dionysus and Dionysos or Dionysius (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος or Διόνυσος; also known as Bacchus in both Greek and Roman mythology and associated with the Italic Liber), the Thracian god of wine, represents not only the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. He is viewed as the promoter of civilization, a lawgiver, and lover of peace — as well as the patron deity of agriculture and the theater. He was also known as the Liberator (Eleutherios), freeing one from one's normal self, by madness, ecstasy, or wine.1 The divine mission of Dionysus was to mingle the music of the flute and to bring an end to care and worry.2 There is also an aspect of Dionysus on his relationship to the "cult of the souls", and the scholar Xavier Riu writes that Dionysus presided over communication between the living and the dead.3

Within Greek mythology Dionysus is made to be the son of Zeus and Semele; other versions of the story contend that he is the son of Zeus and Persephone.

The name Dionysus is of uncertain significance; it may well be non-Greek in origin, but it has been associated since antiquity with Zeus (genitive Dios) and with Nysa, which is either the nymph who nursed him, or the mountain where he was attended by several nymphs who fed him and made him immortal as directed by Hermes; or both.

Hades:

Hades (from Greek ᾍδης, Haidēs, originally Ἅιδης, Haidēs or Ἀΐδης, Aïdēs; of uncertain origin[1], although it has been ascribed to Greek "unseen"[2]) refers to both the ancient Greek Underworld and the God of the Dead. The word originally referred to just the god; ᾍδού, Haidou its genitive, was short for "the house of Hades". Eventually, the nominative, too, came to designate the abode of the dead.

Hades was also known as Pluto (from Greek Πλούτων, Ploutōn), and was known by this name, as well as Dis Pater and Orcus, in Roman mythology; the corresponding Etruscan god was Aita. "Hades" is employed by Christians as a residing place for souls that have fallen from grace.

Persephone:

Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Persephónē) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter— and Zeus, in the Olympian version.

Persephone is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. In other dialects she was known under various other names: Persephassa, Persephatta, or simply Kore (Greek κόρη, "daughter") (when worshipped in the context of Demeter and Kore).

The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who use the dialectal variant Proserpina. Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, and as a revived Roman Proserpina she became an emblematic figure of the Renaissance.

In Greek art, Persephone/Kore is invariably portrayed robed. She may be carrying a sheaf of grain and smiling demurely with the "Archaic smile" of the Kore of Antenor.

The figure of Persephone is well-known today. Her story has great emotional power: an innocent maiden, a mother's grief at the abduction, and the return of her daughter. It is also cited frequently as a paradigm of myths that explain natural processes, with the descent and return of the goddess bringing about the change of seasons.

In a text ascribed to Empedocles describing a correspondence between four gods and the classical elements, the name Nestis for water apparently refers to Persephone.[1] "Now hear the fourfold roots of everything: Enlivening Hera, Hades, shining Zeus. And Nestis, moistening mortal springs with tears".

Of the four gods of Empedocles' elements it is the name of Persephone alone that is taboo, for the Greeks knew another face of Persephone as well. She was also the terrible Queen of the dead, whose name was not safe to speak aloud, who was named simply "The Maiden". In The Odyssey, when Odysseus goes to the Underworld, he refers to her as the Iron Queen. Her central myth, for all of its emotional familiarity, was also the tacit context of the secret initiatory mystery rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to their awe-struck participants — an immortality in her world beneath the soil, feasting with the heroes beneath her dread gaze (Kerenyi 1960, 1967).