Greek Mythology - The Creation of Man

Greek Gods and Goddesses

The Greeks have several deities originating from their homeland. Some of the Greek gods and goddesses names being worshipped or identified by ancient Greek History also originated from some other origins, like Rome and Egypt.

In this write-up, you will learn about many of the gods related one way or the other to the Greek mythology and religion. They were also known as gods of olympus.

ancient greek gods and goddesses

Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses names list

Hercules

Hercules is a Roman god and hero. He is equivalent to Heracles in the Greek mythology. Heracles was the son of Alcmena and Zeus, who is also comparable to Jupiter. Hercules was a powerful man and known for his numerous daring adventures. Many literary works prefer to use the word Heracles than Hercules, especially in popular culture and western art. Hercules is multifaceted and has different characteristics also. Consequently, writers and artists can choose and pick how they desire to represent him.

The daring adventures of Hercules took him as far as the Greco-Roman world. One cycle of such adventures is termed the Twelve Labours, which include the following

Capture and bring back Cerberus
Steal the apples of the Hesperides
Obtain the cattle of the monster Geryon
Obtain the girdle of Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons
Steal the Mares of Diomedes
Capture the Cretan Bull
Slay the Stymphalian Birds
Clean the Augean stables

Zeus

Zeus was the ruler of the Olympian gods and god of the sky. The name of his father was Cronus, and he overthrew his father to divide his kingdom. He won Hades and Poseidon, his brothers, to his side. A lot was cast to determine who would succeed their father on the thrown and Zeus won. Consequently, he became the supreme leader of the gods. He also became the god of the rain and sky. If anyone defied or displeased him, he would haul thunderbolt, his preferred weapon, at the offender. His primary targets were oathbreakers and liars. The name of his wife was Hear, whom patience he was known to test repeatedly.

He is considered as the most important of the gods because he was the presiding deity of the entire universe. He was also the ruler of the earth and skies. The Greeks call him the ruler of all natural phenomena found in the sky. Other titles include:

Father of gods and men
Ruler of the state
The personification of the laws of nature

Achilles

Achilles was a Greek hero, and he is well known for his roles during the Trojan War. He was equally a well-known protagonist of the Illiad, Homer’s epic. The name of his father was Peleus, who was also the king of Myrmidons. The name of his mother was Thetis, who was a nymph. His mother attempted to make him immortal after his birth. Therefore, she dipped him in the river Styx, but she also failed to dip his heels into the river since she was holding him by the heels. As a result, all parts of his body became immortal except the heels.

Another version of that story has it that the mother covered him with ambrosia after which she put him on top of a fire that burned away his mortality. The process was said to be interrupted by Peleus, forcing her to abandon the entire process.

Adonis

Adonis is described as the god of desire and beauty in Greek mythology. He was worshipped originally in Phoenicia, now called Lebanon. The Greek alter adopted him, however.

The name of his father was Theias, who was the king of Syria. On the other hand, the name of his mother was Myrrha, also called Smryna, who was Theias’ daughter. His mother fell in love with her father and then tricked him to have sex with her. This resulted in a pregnancy that gave birth to Adonis.

The father did not like the fact that his daughter tricked him to have sex with her. Consequently, he tried to track her down so that he could kill her. However, Myrrha was transformed into a myrrh tree after she pleaded with the god of mercy. She gave birth to her son, Adonis while she was in the form of the myrrh tree.

Agathos Daimon

Agathos Daimon is referred to as the god of demons. He is also called the god of fortune. He is undoubtedly a Greco-Roman god because both the Greek and Romans worshipped him. In Greece, the city of Alexandria is the primary location where it was worshipped, and his symbol is that of a snake. He had his origin from the androgynous fertility spirit. However, he was later identified as the consort of Agathe Tyche. His worshipers made librations to him on a regular basis after meals. He was equally seen as a friendly household guardian.

This deity is mostly worshipped in privacy, and few drops of wine are poured out to him after each meal. At times, small offerings were also left for him. He usually appeared as a snake around the home of his worshipers. He is among one of the most worshipped deities in Greek mythology. However, the number of worshipers has reduced over time.

Amphion

Amphion was the twin of Athena, and the two built the city of Thebes. They built the city via the help of Zethus, who drew the plan of the town. History has it that Amphion played the lyre while the city was being built. As a result, the stones used in erecting the buildings leapt on one another in response to the music and the buildings were completed without any human help.

The city was named by Zethus after his wife called Thebe. The husband and wife were having a great time until they started having kids. Amphion got married to Niobe, and the cute looks of the kids got Thebe jealous. She, therefore, planned to kill the kids. She entered the nursery armed with a knife but only ended up killing her one baby. She was then turned by the gods to a nightingale as punishment for her offence. Zethus also killed himself out of depression. The traumatic happening did not affect Niobe and Amphion. They spent their time grooming their kids. Then after a while, they declared their daughters to be more beautiful than Artemis and their sons to be more handsome than Apollo. This angered Apollo, who killed the children using his bows.

See also the best greek mythology books.

Other

A list of some of the most important ancient greek gods and goddessses.

Achilles
Adonis
Agathos Daimon
Amphion
Amphitrite
Aphrodite
Apollo
Ares
Artemis
Asclepius
Asklepios
Athena
Atlas
Bacchus
Chaos
Circe
Kronos
Cybele
Cyclopes
Daphne
Demeter
Dionysus
Doris
Eileithyia
Epimetheus
Erebos
Erinys
Eris
Eros
Fates
Furies
Gaia
Gorgons
Graces
Hades
Hebe
Hecate
Hekate
Helios
Hephaestus
Hera
Hercules
Hermes
Hestia
Horae
Hyacinthus
Hygieia
Hyperion
Hypmenaios
Hypnos
Hypsistos
Jason
Klotho
Kore
Leto
Leukothea
Mandulis
Medea
Meter
Metis
Muses
Napaeae
Narkissos
Nereides
Nereus
Nike
Nyx
Okeanides
Okeanos
Olympus
Palaemon
Pan
Paris
Perse
Persephone
Phanes
Phorkys
Phosphoros
Plutos
Polydeukes
Pontos
Poseidon
Posis Das
Prometheus
Psyche
Rhea
Selene
Styx
Tethys
Thanatos
Thea
Theseus
Thetis
Tyche
Uranus
Zagreus
Zeus

How many gods are there in greek mythology

Even Greek myths always talk about 12 main Greek gods the total number is higher. They were more than 3.000.

Ganymedes

Ganymedes was the son of Tros, the founder of Troy, or Laomedon, the father of Priam, king of Troy during the war with the Greeks, according to the myth.
He was a man of extraordinary beauty to whom Zeus, who not only noticed female beauty, seduced him by the appearance of an eagle. Zeus made love with the boy and guaranteed him immortality and eternal youth, as well as granting him the constellations of Aquarius and Aquila, the eagle. Ganymede became one of Zeus lovers.

This myth is considered one of the origins for homosexuality and sodomy. Also it is an example of greek life and culture at that time.

Ganymede

This myth is considered one of the origins for homosexuality and sodomy. Also it is an example of greek life and culture at that time.

Zeus

Greek God

Zeus is a greek god. He was called the master of the gods in greek mythology and “father of men.” The title may be more impressive than meritorious.

It seemed applicable to the Zeus of the philosophers who regarded him as a supreme god and sculptor of the universe. The notion was not primitive; Zeus was master of men as Agamemnon was the half-imposed, half-elected king of the Achaeans.

Within this capacity he was the guarantor of contracts, oaths, the protector of guests that was involved in the human activity unfolding beneath his vigilant gaze. It was also known as god of thunder.

Powers

Zeus was the sky and thunder god in greek mythology. The mighty deity was thought to be god of the sky and master of the celestial fire, a side of Zeus’ personality that the Homeric verses amply portrayed.

As “king” of heaven he exercised a sort of providence; but his will was held in check by the immutable laws of fate, and his rule was often limited by these laws and respected.

Although inhibited by this restriction, Zeus could govern and follow a policy; his decisions were rarely arbitrary or set forth with passion; they corresponded to hidden intentions, the wisdom of which was ultimately revealed. He was the ultimate dispenser of good and evil to all mortals.

Family

Fathers

Zeus was the son of Cronus and his sister, Rhea. Also from this relationship had came Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. But a curse had been put on Cronus, who being of a dishonest and violent nature, when he refused to plicate Gaia after he had turned his father off of the thrown.

Instead of setting free his brothers, condemned by Uranus never to see the light of day, Cronus kept them shut away in their subterranean prison, which enraged Gaea. Gaea vowed that he would know the very fate that he had put upon his father by being dethroned by his own children.

So in order to protect himself from this curse he devoured his offspring as soon as Rhea bore them. The first five he swallowed, but when Zeus was born Rhea decided to save the child.

With Gaea’s help she found shelter in a Cretan cave where she delivered the infant. Then taking a stone Rhea wrapped it in swaddling clothes and took it back to Cronus, who, without question, seized it and swallowed it. Zeus had been saved, and with the same stroke Cronus sealed his own fate.

Wifes and sons

In a similar tradition established by his father, Cronus, Zeus soon took a divine wife. Hesoid says Zeus first wife was Metis, and from this union Athena was born.

His second wife was Themis, the incarnation of law or equality. The first offspring was Horae (the Hours or the Seasons). The Horae were three in number: Eunonia, Dice and Eirene (Order, Justica and Peace), but the Athenians knew them as Thallo, Auxa and Garpo. Their names evoked the principle stages of vegetation: the plant’s spouting, growth, and fructification.

However, the agricultural aspects of the cults gradually took on social concepts, and the spirits who principally presided over the land were transformed into social concepts pertaining to city life.

Then came three daughters known as the Fates or Morae: Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos who determined the destiny of every human being. This destiny was symbolized by a thread, which the first Fate drew up from her distaff, the second Fate wound, and the third Fate cut at the end of the lifespan that it represented was over.

Zeus’ third wife, Eurynome, bore him three more daughters, the Graces (Charites): Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia. Similar to the Horae the Graces were vegetation spirits and spread the joys of nature in the hearts of men. They lived on Olympus, together with the Muses, with whom they loved to sing and dance. Like the Muses they were companions of Athena and presided over her feminine tasks.

After this Zeus was companion with his daughter Demeter from which union Persephone was born. Then he attached to Mnemosyne who bore him nine daughters, the Muses. Leto was his next wife who bore Zeus Artemis and Apollo. Next the god Hermes was born to Maia, daughter of Atlas.

Last in line of Zeus’ divine wives was Hera, his sister, who bore him a son Ares, the god of war, and two daughters: Hebe, who personified youthfulness, and whose task for a long time was to serve nectar at celestial banquets until she became the wife of Hercules; and Eileithyia, the female spirit presiding over childbirth.

Even after marrying Zeus was not a faithful husband, for he loved many mortals. These included Alcmene, who bore him Hercules, and a daughter Semele with whom Zeus fathered Dionysus. Furious by his abandonment, Hera bore the god Hephaestus by herself without the help of Zeus.

Story

Myths

The young Zeus grew from infancy in the cave being nursed by the nymphs of Amalthea, and protected by the Curetes, which mean “Young men,” who were warriors with spears and shields that performed a war dance around the grotto. T

his was to drown out the infant’s wailing so Cronus would not discover that he had been tricked and devour his son. In this instance, it appears, as frequently happened, the myth grew from a rite: a ritual war dance was practiced in Crete, also in other Hellenized countries, by people imitating the supposed actions of the spirits of the storm in the mountains and sky; such dancing probably gave rise to Rhea’s ruse.

While being protected Zeus matured receiving all of his divine powers. When the time came for Gaea’s prophecy to be fulfilled Zeus consort was Metis, a daughter of Oceanus, whose name means “Prudence” or more often “Perfidy.”

She gave him a drug that would make his father vomit up the five children that he had previously devoured and still carried in his body. They all emerged, and with these allies Zeus attacked Cronus and his comrades, the Titans. The war in which they battled each other lasted ten years. Finally, Gaea’s oracle promised Zeus victory if he would accept help from the monster that Cronus had imprisoned in Tartarus. Zeus agreed, thus permitting Gaea’s wish that Cronus disregarded.

Zeus delivered the monsters and was victorious. Accounting for this victory were the weapons that the monsters gave to the young gods that in the future would bear their emblems, which included the thunderbolts that the Cyclopes forged for Zeus. Cronus and the Titans were then confined in the depths of the underworld and took the place of the monsters who became their guards.

Hesiod’s Theogony, written shortly after 700 BC, relates the most accepted tradition regarding the birth and childhood of Zeus. But there were others: Arcadia in particular prided itself on having been the cradle of this god. It became easy to deduce the past-Hellenic Zeus was formed by absorbing many local “great gods.”

For example, in Crete itself Zeus probably replaced a vegetation god, since the Cretans exhibited a “tomb of Zeus,” and few but vegetation deities were believed to be subject to periodic deaths and rebirths.

Zeus, the supreme sky-god of the Greeks and a composite figure, was believed to be involved in the daily affairs of people, but was never thought of as a creator deity. As Hesiod notes, the origins of things were related in other myths concerning Uranus, the sky, and Gaea, the earth.

The Dorian invasion of Greece around 1200 BC resulted in the superimposition of the Indo-European sky father cult on an indigenous Minoan-Mycenaean tradition in which the earth goddess was predominant, just as in India the Aryans submerged the Hindus valley culture. Even though traces of pre-Greek tradition are seen in Hera being the wife of Zeus, it was he as Nephelogeretes, “the cloud gatherer,” who reigned over all things. He was given other names as well that depicted his different aspects and functions; they included Ombrios, “rain god”; Kataibates, “the descender”; Keraunos, “lightening”; Gamelios, “god of marriage”; Teleios, “giver of completeness”; Pater, “father”; and Soter, “savior.” Hades, the god of the dead, and Poseidon, the god of the sea, were distinguished from Zeus because their powers were seen as extensions of his in their special realms. They were granted separate mythical forms, yet the writ of the Olympian Zeus, “the wolfish,” Lykaios, ran everywhere, and he alone judged the winners and losers.

Roman Name

Zeus’ Roman name was Jupiter. A.G.H.

Sources:

Grimal, Pierre, Larousse World Mythology, Secaucus, New Jersey, Chartwell Books, 1965, pp. 103-104, 115-116 Cotterell, Arthur, A Dictionary of World Mythology, New York, G. P. Putman’s Sons, 1980, p. 163

Zagreus

The legend of Zagreus is one of the strangest stories in Greek mythology. Zagreus was born after Zeus disguised himself as a serpent and ravished Persephone. The god wanted to make Zagreus his heir and eventually confer world royalty upon himself. But the Fates decided otherwise. In order to escape Hera’s jealousy, Zeus entrusted the little child to the care of Apollo and the Curetes, who hid him in the forests of the Parnassus. But Hera discovered where the child was concealed and ordered the Titans to abduct him. Zagreus changed into a bull, but failed to escape the Titans, who cut him to pieces and devoured him, half raw and half cooked. Athena
and Apollo rushed to the scene of the disaster, but they were too late; they were able to save only pieces of the divine child. But these included the heart of Zagreus, which was still beating. Zeus absorbed it and regenerated the child within his own body, and then he took the name of Iacchus. Following this he became more or less confused with Dionysus and figured in the mysteries of Eleusis. His previous fate made him able to be the patron of any religion of rebirth and immortality, because in the Titan’s banquet he had lost his entire mortal life and in returned obtained divine life. A.G.H.

Sources:

Grimal, Pierre, Larousse World Mythology, Secaucus, New Jersey, Chartwell Books, 1965, p. 121