Greek mythology is the body of stories told by the ancient Greeks about their gods, heroes and the origin and nature of the world. Passed down orally and then in poetry, drama and art from before the time of Homer, it formed part of Greek religion and education. Its gods, monsters and heroes have remained central to Western literature, art and thought.
Greek Mythology at a glance
| Culture | Ancient Greece, from the Bronze Age to late antiquity |
|---|---|
| Earliest literary sources | Homer's Iliad and Odyssey; Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days (c. 8th-7th century BCE) |
| Chief gods | The Twelve Olympians, ruled by Zeus |
| Key handbook | The Library attributed to Apollodorus |
| Major heroes | Heracles, Perseus, Theseus, Jason, Achilles, Odysseus |
| Roman counterpart | Roman mythology, which adopted many Greek myths |
Sources
Greek myths were told long before they were written down, and no single sacred text fixed them. Our knowledge comes from many sources of different dates. The earliest are the epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the poems of Hesiod: the Theogony, the fullest early account of the origin of the gods, and the Works and Days, which tells of Prometheus, Pandora and the ages of humankind. The Homeric Hymns honor individual gods such as Demeter, Apollo and Hermes.
The Athenian tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides drew most of their plots from myth, and lyric poets such as Pindar retold heroic legends. Later writers collected and organized the stories, especially the Library attributed to Apollodorus, the only general handbook of myths to survive from antiquity, and the travel writer Pausanias, who recorded local legends. Latin poets, above all Ovid in the Metamorphoses, transmitted many Greek myths to later Europe. Vase painting and sculpture provide further evidence, sometimes preserving versions not found in texts.
Creation and the Succession of the Gods
According to Hesiod, the world began with Chaos, a yawning void, followed by Gaia (Earth), Tartarus and Eros. Gaia produced Ouranos (Sky), and their children included the Titans. Ouranos was overthrown by his son Cronus, who in turn swallowed his own children to avoid the same fate. The youngest, Zeus, was saved by his mother Rhea, forced Cronus to release his siblings and led them to victory in a ten-year war against the Titans, the Titanomachy.
Zeus then divided the world with his brothers: Zeus took the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the underworld. Later challenges from the Giants and the monster Typhon were defeated, establishing the order of the Olympian gods. Other traditions, such as those of Orphism, offered different accounts of creation, showing that Greek myth was never a single fixed system.
The Olympian Gods
The major gods were believed to live on Mount Olympus. The traditional twelve Olympians are usually listed as Zeus, king of the gods; Hera, his wife and goddess of marriage; Poseidon, god of the sea; Demeter, goddess of grain; Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts; Apollo, god of prophecy, music and healing; Artemis, goddess of the hunt; Ares, god of war; Aphrodite, goddess of love; Hephaestus, the smith god; Hermes, the messenger; and either Hestia, goddess of the hearth, or Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy. Hades, though a brother of Zeus, lived in the underworld and was not usually counted among them.
Some of these gods are very old: Linear B tablets from the Mycenaean Bronze Age already mention Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hermes and Dionysus. The gods were imagined in human form, with human passions, rivalries and love affairs, as in the story of Apollo's pursuit of Daphne. Alongside them stood a vast population of lesser divinities, nymphs, satyrs and monsters.
Heroes and Their Adventures
A large part of Greek mythology concerns heroes, mortals of often divine descent who performed extraordinary deeds. Heracles completed his twelve labors; Perseus beheaded the Gorgon Medusa; Theseus killed the Minotaur in the Cretan labyrinth; and Jason led the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece. The story of Oedipus and the house of Thebes, and the curse on the house of Atreus, provided material for tragedy.
The heroic age culminated in the Trojan War, told in part in the Iliad, and the homecomings of its warriors, most famously the long voyage of Odysseus. Heroes were also the object of real cult: many Greek cities honored the tombs of local heroes with offerings. Myths often explained the origins of rituals, place names, families and cities.
Religion, Mysteries and Interpretation
Myth was closely tied to worship, festivals and oracles such as Apollo's at Delphi. Mystery cults offered initiates special knowledge and hope for the afterlife, the most famous being the Eleusinian Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. Philosophers were often critical: Xenophanes objected to the immoral behavior of Homer's gods, and later thinkers read myths as allegories of nature or the soul, a tradition continued by Pythagorean and Neoplatonic writers.
Modern scholars have interpreted Greek myth in many ways: as distorted history, as reflections of ritual, as expressions of the unconscious in the work of Freud and Jung, or as structures of thought in the approach of Claude Levi-Strauss. Most today emphasize that myths had many functions and changed over time. Greek mythology can be compared with Roman mythology, which adapted many Greek gods under Latin names, and with Egyptian mythology, which Greek writers often tried to match with their own gods.
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Frequently asked questions
Who are the twelve Olympian gods?
The usual list is Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus. Ancient lists varied somewhat. Hades, although a brother of Zeus and a major god, lived in the underworld and was generally not counted among the Olympians.
What are the main sources of Greek mythology?
The earliest are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Hesiod's Theogony and Works and Days. Later sources include the Homeric Hymns, the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, the Library attributed to Apollodorus, Pausanias, and Roman writers such as Ovid, along with ancient vase paintings and sculpture.
Did the ancient Greeks believe their myths?
Belief varied. Myths were bound up with worship, festivals and civic identity, and many Greeks accepted the gods and heroes as real. Yet philosophers and historians from early times criticized or reinterpreted myths, reading them as allegory or as distorted history, so attitudes ranged from devotion to skepticism.
Sources and further reading
This entry replaces an article from the original Mystica encyclopedia (online since 2001). It was rewritten from the sources above by The Mystica Editorial Team under our editorial standards. Last reviewed: September 30, 2026.