There were twelve great Olympian gods that were part of the council: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Ares, Demeter, Hephaestus and Hestia.
Beside them there were other divinities on Olympus like Helios, Selene, Eos, Leto, Dione, Dionysos and Themis.
Of a lower rank where the helpers like the Horae, Morae, Nemesis, Graces, Muses, Iris, Hebe and Ganymedes. Hades, brother of Zeus, was not often at Olympus.
Zeus was the sovereign ruler.
The gods were seated around golden tables and dined on celestial nectar from golden cups and ambrosia.
Zeus called them together in counsel on the topmost peak of Olympus where he resided. The fair Hebe would give them nectar.
Their bodies were like mortal bodies but superior in stature, strength and beauty.
They did not have blood but ichor which made the body imperishable and incorruptible.
They were still vulnerable to weapons but their wounds always healed and their bodies retained eternal youth.
They had the power of metamorphosis: into animals or inanimate objects. They were subject to human passions and emotions like love, anger and envy.
They could punish and favour with gifts. Their hierarchy reflected that of Bronze Age Greece.
Apollo was the god of music, poetry, prophecy, medicine, art, light, order, sun, archery and protector of herds and cattle.
He was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus.
Apollo was the younger twin brother of Artemis. Their parents were Zeus and Leto.
Apollo was very high morally and intellectually developed. He was often shown as a philosopher next to the Muses. Apollo was accompanied by the Muses.
The Muses liked to visit Mount Parnassus where the oracle of Delphi of Apollo was located.
Sometimes Apollo was also accompanied by the Graces.
Apollo led the oracle of Delphi for a time where he gave prophesies through the priestesses: the Pythia.
Apollo's symbols were the sun, the swan and laurel. He wore a bow and arrows.
He rode in a chariot. Apollo was responsible for the death of men were Artemis was responsible for the death of women.
As god of music Apollo played at the banquets of the Olympian Gods on his lyre, with seven strings, accompanied by the voices of the Muses.
He was a sun-god but not the sun itself: that was Helios. Apollo's arrows would strike like sun rays.
Apollo was depicted as a young beautiful man with a broad chest and slim hips. He did not have a beard.
He had a high forehead and thick long blond hair with curls.
Titles of Apollo were Phoebus (his grandmother was the Titan Phoebe): the brilliant, Xanthus: the fair, and Chrysocomes: of the golden locks.
As archer god his title was Hecatebolos and Alexikakos was his title as healer god.
As a healer he had taken the place of Paeon.
Apollo liked high places like mountains. As a solar god he let the fruits of earth ripen.
Apollo also protected fields by destroying mice and driving away locusts.
That Apollo was god of prophecy was unusual because mostly underworld gods were gods of divination in Greek mythology.
Apollo liked to build towns. Lying could provoke the anger of Apollo.
Apollo was born on the island of Delos of the Cyclades. On the promise that Apollo would build a temple at Ortygia, his mother Leto was received there.
After the birth of Apollo the island Ortygia was named to Delos: the brilliant.
After his birth swans flew seven rounds around the island.
He was fed on ambrosia and nectar.
When he was four days old Apollo got a bow and arrows from Hephaestus.
He came to the valley of Crissa where he got advice of the treacherous nymph Telphousa.
He went to Mount Parnassus, were the monster Python, a son of Gaea, was attacking his mother Leto.
Because of the nymph he wandered into a gorge.
Apollo injured the snake but it fled to Delphi where it protected the oracle. Apollo killed the Python and took the oracle.
Apollo learned the art of prophecy from Pan to lead the oracle.
Artemis cleansed Apollo from the bloodguilt of the Python, because Apollo was banished by Zeus because of killing the Python, in the Vale of Tempe.
Afterwards Apollo went back to Delphi crowned with laurel.
Zeus set up the Pythian Games at Delphi to honour Apollo.
The Pythian Games were, and every year after, celebrated with sports and music contests.
The prize of the Pythian games was a crown of Apollo's sacred bay leaves.
Leto heard of the victory and went to Delphi with Artemis. The giant Tityos tried to assault her and was killed by Artemis and Apollo.
Tityos was sent to Tartarus.
The satyr Marsyas and Apollo had a music contest. The winner could do with the other as he liked.
The jury consisted of the Muses. First Apollo played a song on his lyre while holding it upside-down.
He asked Marsyas to do the same which he could not do with his flute.
Apollo killed Marsyas. Marsyas had played on the flute Athena had cursed.
It is said this flute could play beautiful music out of nothing.
In another version Marsyas had lost because Apollo had also sung.
In another game Apollo won against Pan. Tmolos was the jury. Only King Midas did not support Apollo.
Therefore Apollo changed his ears to the ears of a donkey, because his ears were so bad.
Apollo brought the first priests and priestesses to Delphi from Crete by guiding their boat as a dolphin.
Apollo spoke to the oracle through the priestesses: the Sibyls. The oracle was the center of the earth.
Zeus placed the omphalos at Delphi.
Apollo has had different loves.
Apollo and the mortal Leucippus both liked the mount nymph Daphne from Thessalia. Leucippus was killed by the nymphs.
Eros, god of love, took revenge on Apollo because Apollo was telling Eros he was better with bow and arrows.
Therefore Eros struck Apollo with an arrow of love for Daphne. He struck Daphne with an arrow of aversion against Apollo.
Her father Peneus or Gaea changed her into a laurel tree to help her.
To console himself Apollo made a laurel wreath of her leaves in both versions.
Apollo fell in love with Coronis, daughter of King Phlegyas, when she was bathing in a lake in Thessalia.
They loved each other and Apollo let Coronis be guarded by a crow.
The crow told Apollo Coronis was unfaithful to Apollo while he was away, with Ischys.
In other versions the crow was a stag or a raven.
Since then on the crow is the harbinger of bad news. Apollo also killed the crow because he had not separated the two.
Apollo or Artemis killed Coronis with an arrow. The angry Phlegias burned down the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
Therefore Apollo sent him to Tartarus.
Apollo saved the life of his child Asclepius. In a version Coronis gave birth to him in Epidaurus.
She left the child on a mountain. The goat herder Arestanas found it but he could not take the child because of the light.
He let Apollo take care of the child.
Asclepius was brought to the centaur Chiron, a good friend of Apollo, on Mount Pelion who taught him to hunt and medicine.
Asclepius made medicine to restore the dead to life which angered Hades who got Zeus on his side.
Zeus therefore killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt.
Apollo was angry about the death of his child and therefore killed the Cyclopes who had made Zeus' thunderbolt.
Apollo made sure Asclepius came to Olympus as god of medicine.
Zeus was angry at Apollo for having killed the Cyclopes.
He therefore sent Apollo into the service of King Admetus for a year.
Admetus was helped by Apollo for nine years.
Apollo tended to the mares and ewes.
Apollo helped Admetus with getting a chariot drawn by lions and wild boars to get the hand of Alcestis.
At the wedding Admetus forgot to offer to Artemis who therefore brought snakes to the bedroom of Alcestis and Admetus.
Apollo helped by not letting Admetus die if somebody would take his place. Alcestis was the one who died for Admetus but was brought back from the underworld by Heracles.
Apollo loved the Spartan Prince Hyancinthus. Apollo learned him to throw discus, archery and music.
Zephyrus, the west wind, threw the discus against Hyacinthus and killed him out of jealousy.
Out of the blood grew a hyacinth. The petals would have made the words "ai ai", a lament.
In memory the festival Hyacinthia was held every year in Laconia for the young hero who had become immortal.
In another version also Boreas was jealous and he and Zephyrus threw the discus together.
Apollo and Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, had the child Ion. Apollo had met Creusa for the first time while she was gathering flowers on the slopes of the Acropolis.
Apollo let Hermes bring his son to Delphi where he was raised as a servant to the temple.
Later Creusa married Xuthus. They did not have children. Therefore Xuthus went to the oracle of Delphi. The oracle advised him to adopt the first person he met when leaving the temple.
That was Ion. Creusa did not believe the story. She thought maybe Ion was a child of another woman of Xuthus. She tried to poison Ion but it did not work.
Ion tried to kill Creusa.
Creusa fled into a temple where the Pythia revealed Ion and Creusa the true identity of Ion. Athena told Xuthus the truth.
Xuthus received the promise from Apollo he would become father of two sons who became the ancestors of the Greek.
In another version Ion returned to Athens to become the ancestor of the Ionians of whom many settled in Ionia.
Apollo loved the huntress Cyrene. He saw her first wrestling a lion on the slopes of Mount Pelion.
He took her to Libya. Later he founded the city of Cyrene to honour her.
Their son was Aristaeus. In another version Aristaeus is the son of Gaea and Uranus.
By the same or another Cyrene, sometimes called Asteria, Apollo had the son Idmon who could see the future.
Apollo came to the nymph Dryope while she was taking care of the herds of her father with her friends, the hamadryads.
Their child was Amphissus.
Marpessa chose Idas as a lover instead of Apollo because Idas was a mortal. Apollo would stay young and would probably leave her.
Princess Acacallis and Chione were loved by both Apollo and Hermes. Chione and Apollo had the child Philammon.
It is said Philammon instituted choral dance in the temple of Delphi.
With Acacallis Apollo had the children Amphithemis or Garamas and Miletus.
Linus was Apollo's son by Psamathe. His mother wished to conceal his birth and he was devoured by dogs. Psamathe was overcome with grief.
Her father put her to death. Apollo struck the city of Argos with a terrible plague which ceased when Crotopus, King of Argus and father of Psamathe, was exiled.
Thyria and Apollo had the son Cycnus. Cycnus committed suicide when his love Phylius abondoned him. Then his mother Thyria commit suicide as well. Apollo changed them both into swans.
Apollo loved Cyparissus who we changed into a cypress because the man was heartbroken because he had killed his favourite stag.
Apollo and the Muse Thalia had the children the Curetes.
Evadne and Apollo had the son Iamus, a celebrated soothsayer.
Miletus was his son with Areia in a version. With the Oceanid Melia he had the child Ismenius. With Corycia he had the son Lycoreus.
With the nymph Acacallis he had Phylacides and Philandros.
Tenes and Erymanthus were sons of Apollo.
Calliope and Apollo had the sons Hymenaeus and Ialemus.
Hymen was the son of Apollo and Calliope or Dionysus and Aphrodite.
Some say Orpheus, son of Calliope, was the son of Apollo.
In a version Pan was the son Penelope and Apollo.
Apollo also loved Sinope.
Apollo was after the hand of Hestia but failed.
Hermes stole Apollo's cattle right after Hermes was born. In another version he had also stolen his bow and arrows.
In return Hermes gave his lyre to Apollo after the case came before Zeus.
Apollo then forgave him. Apollo loved the lyre and the play of Hermes. In exchange Apollo gave Hermes the caduceus.
Apollo made Hermes master over flocks, herds and pasturelands. They became good friends.
Apollo took part in the plot of Hera to overthrow Zeus with Poseidon and Athena.
Then Zeus hung Hera from Mount Olympus as a punishment.
Zeus set her free when the gods promised to never again rebel against him.
As a punishment Zeus sent Apollo and Poseidon to serve King Laomedon.
Apollo tended to the oxen of Mount Ida and Poseidon worked on the Trojan walls.
King Laomedon had promised to pay Apollo and Poseidon money.
King Laomedon however refused to pay after the work was done. As a punishment Apollo sent a plague.
Apollo asked Hermes laughing if he did not want to exchange places with Ares, being caught in the net with Aphrodite.
Apollo also asked Poseidon. Poseidon would take the place of Ares if Ares did not pay the fine.
Apollo saw how Eos loved Orion and he was scared the same would happen to his sister Artemis.
He was also jealous because Artemis was spending more time with Orion.
Therefore he sent a big scorpion after Orion. Orion took refugee with Eos because he could not kill the scorpion.
Apollo then misled Artemis by letting her send an arrow to something black on the sea. That was Orion swimming.
Artemis was very sad and put Orion in the sky as a constellation. The constellation Orion is being chased by the scorpion.
In another version it was Artemis who was angry at Orion and therefore sent the scorpion. The scorpion killed Orion and his dog.
With the support of Apollo, Nestor was King of Pylos for three generations. He lived very long.
Apollo had promised that Nestor would live for all the lives that were taken from his uncles.
Apollo gave Cassandra, daughter of King Priam of Troy, who was the son of King Laomedon, the gift of prophecy because he loved her.
When Cassandra was grown up Apollo tried to court Cassandra. He failed and she did not show him thanks for her gift.
He therefore made sure nobody believed her prophecies. She prophesied the fall of Troy.
Apollo supported Troy in the Trojan War.
Apollo punched Patroclus so hard on his back that his helmet flew off, revealing he was not Achilles. Hector drove a spear through his belly.
Apollo protected the body of Hector of Troy.
Apollo was responsible for the death of Achilles who made sure the arrow of Paris struck Achilles' heel.
Achilles had killed many of Apollo's followers like his son Tenes, King of Tenedos.
Achilles had had a warning from Thetis that if he killed Apollo's son, he would one day die by Apollo's hand.
Agamemnon offended the priest of Apollo, Chryses. Therefore Apollo sent arrows at the Greek army in the Trojan War for nine days.
Also Apollo sent a pestilence to the Greek to make Agamemnon give back the girl Chryseis.
Apollo gave a lyre to Orpheus. Apollo changed the snake that attacked Orpheus' head to stone.
The prophecies of the head of Orpheus in a cave became more popular than Apollo's temples in Delphi, Gryneium and Claros.
Apollo did something about it.
Hermes sold a flute similar to Pan's flute to Apollo.
Every year at the end of autumn Apollo went to Hyperborea in his chariot for the three winter months. It is said his mother Leto came from this land.
In his absence Dionysus ruled Delphi.
Apollo changed the Pierides into magpies because they had dared to challenge the Muses for the prize of poetry.
Niobe boasted to Leto, Apollo's mother, about her many (twelve) children. Leto had only two children.
Niobe also mocked Leto and the games held in her honour. Leto was angry and ordered her children to kill Niobe's children.
Apollo killed Niobe's sons with his arrows while they were hunting on Mount Cithaeron.
Only Amyclas survived who prayed to Leto. Therefore Apollo spared him. Artemis spared one daughter: Meliboea.
As a thank you they built a temple to Leto.
Niobe was turned to stone. Some say Niobe's husband Amphion attacked Apollo's temple at Delphi in grief.
Daphnis, son of Hermes, was a favourite of Apollo.
It is said Meleager was killed by Apollo during the battle between the Aetolians and the Curetes.
Apollo protected Orestes. The oracle of Delphi had counseled Orestes to get revenge on the death of his father.
After the murder he sought refugee at Delphi. In Athens there was a court case where Apollo defended Orestes.
Orested was not declared guilty. There is a picture of Apollo purifying Orestes in company of the Eumenides.
Apollo provided a bow to Heracles.
Apollo was angry at Heracles for stealing things from his temple and destroying things.
The oracle had refused audience to Heracles.
Zeus intervened and the oracle condemned Heracles to a year of slavery.
A fleet led by the great grand-sons of Heracles killed a prophet of Apollo. Out of anger Apollo destroyed the fleet and struck the expedition with famine.
When the oracle of Delphi was consulted the oracle told the expedition that they required a guide with three eyes.
Apollo killed Linus after Linus had challenged him to a song contest.
The gryphon was associated with the chariot of Apollo.
Diomedes faced Apollo and Aphrodite in battle.
It is said Apollo rained down rocks on the Persians in 480 BC and on the Gauls in 279 BC.
In a Homeric Hymn Apollo is said to have carried a golden sword.
It is said Apollo defeated Hermes and Ares at boxing at Olympia.
When Thebes was ravaged by a mysterious plague, the citizens called on the Healer from Delos: Apollo, to cure it.
A hymn sung to Apollo was the paean: the cure song.
Sometimes Apollo used the aegis of Athena.
The Alodae: Ephialtes and Otus, were killed by Apollo or Artemis. They were thrown in Tartarus for their crimes.
Zeus asked Apollo to clean the blood of his son Sarpedon in a river and to rub the body with ambrosia.
Apollo wrapped Aeneas in a cloud and brought him to Pergamon where he was taken care of by Artemis and Leto.
Apollo prophesied the future Rome. Aeneas went to the underworld with the seeress Sibyl as a guide.
It was said that Apollo had punished Sybele by giving her a year to live for every grain of sand she could get.
Apollo felled Phorbas, disguised as an athlete, with one blow of the fist.
Actaeon was a grandson of Apollo. Hygeia was a granddaughter of Apollo.
Pindar has said about Apollo: "He is the god who plumbs all hearts, the infallible, whom neither mortals nor immortals can deceive either by action or in their most secret thoughts."
Parnassus has founded the oracle of Delphi which quickly became Apollo's place. This was also the place where the Python had lived.
Originally the oracle had belonged to Gaea.
Gaea had held the oracle with Poseidon.
Poseidon had to cede the territory to Apollo to receive the island of Calauria.
In another version Phoebe gave the oracle as a birthday gift to Phoebus (Apollo).
Phoebe held the oracle after Gaea.
Apollo had many other oracles like in Thymbra, Clarus, Grynia and Didymus. Famous were his oracles in Tegyra and Thebes.
The oracle of Thebes was led by the priestess Manto who gave oracles from the seat of Manto. Later she went to Delphi.
It is said Apollo had sent her to found the oracle of Clarus.
There was a temple of Apollo at Paphos, Calydon and Corinth. There was a temple to Pythian Apollo at Argos.
Polycrates dedicated the island of Rhenea, nearby Delos, to Apollo. He linked it to Delos with a chain through which divine energy could flow.
King Louis XIV used Apollo's symbol, the sun, as his personal symbol. The nickname of Louis XIV was the Sun King.
Apollo was in Apollon Musagète, a ballet from Stravinsky.
Apollo Lycaeus was the wolf god.
Apollo was recognised as Lord of the sanctuary of Behdet in Egyptian Mythology. Behdety is another name for Horus.
The Egyptian Montu was identified by the Greek as Apollo. In Assyrian Mythology Apollo was similar as the sun god Shamash who was god of divination.
Apollo was also worshipped by the Romans as god of healing and prophecy. Under Augustus he became one of the most important gods of Rome.
Apollo made his way into Roman Mythology following an epidemic in 431 with the Sibylline Books, sold by Simyl of Cumae, priestess of Apollo, to King Tarquin.
Apollo was worshipped by the Celts as a healing god.
Athena was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus.
Athena was the protectress of Athene. She was the goddess of war, wisdom, learning, the arts and crafts.
She was the child of Zeus and Metis. The symbol of Athena was the owl: symbol of knowledge. Her item was the aegis.
In her right hand she often held a shield (the aegis) and a spear. In her left hand she held victory. She had grey eyes.
According to Homeros she had light blue eyes .
She was the personification of intelligence. She was much revered and respected. She was the goddess of the brilliant eyes. Titles of her were Promachos: who fights in the foremost ranks, and Alalcomeneis, who repulses the enemy.
She was the protectress of towns and acropolises. She was the Ergane, the working woman, the patron of architects, sculptors, spinners and weavers.
Athena helped heroes and adventurers like Perseus, Heracles, Jason and Odysseus. She loved the courage of the men on the battlefield.
She protected horses and oxen. She made the olive tree. Her wisdom gave her the title Pronoia, the foreseeing.
She also was the counselor goddess and the goddess of the Assembly. She taught the fine arts. She delighted in war but took no pleasure in the conflict itself.
She would engage in combat when the need arose.
Zeus was scared of the potential power of this child because he was warned for that. The child would become more important than himself.
Therefore he had changed Metis who was pregnant with his child into a fly and ate her with the child. He now also embodied wisdom.
Then Zeus got a headache at Lake Triton's shore in Libya. Therefore Hephaestus split the head of Zeus open with an axe.
Athena was born out of the head of Zeus, fully grown and armed by the god smith Hephaestus.
Athena inherited the wisdom of her mother. In another version Athena's birth is supposed to have taken place beside the stream Triton near Cnossus.
Therefore sometimes she is said to be the daughter of Lake Tritonis and Poseidon.
Some also say her father was the giant Pallas which she had killed because he wished to ravage her.
Athena was the favourite child of Zeus. He spoiled her a little which made the other gods jealous and annoyed: like Ares.
Ares thought Athena a rash and foolish daughter who did not listen. This is a little different than the view of Ares representing brutality and blind violence and Athena cool and intelligent courage.
Ares and Athena where thus often opposed. They often fought on opposite sides on the plain of Ilium. The sight of Athena one time set Ares in rage so much that he struck the aegis.
Athena in return threw a black boundary stone of the field at Ares. Athena became victorious.
Poseidon and Athena fought over who would be the protector of Athene and the land of Attica in the days of King Cecrops. Therefore they engaged in a contest.
They had to make the best gift for the city. Poseidon made a salt water source for the city of Athens which made Athens have access to the sea.
Athena made an olive tree sapling. The oil of this tree was also very important for lights, cooking and trade.
King Cecrops was called for as a witness and praised Athena's gift. Also the goddesses championed Athena.
The gift of Athena won and Athens was named after Athena.
As a reaction Poseidon flooded Attica.
The people of Athens built a sacred place for Athena on the Acropolis: the Parthenon, named after one of Athena's names:parthenos, which means virgin.
The tree was still seen in the days of Pericles despite that is was burned during the Persian invasion of Xerxes.
Poseidon and Athena fought more often. The city of Troezen was awarded to both Poseidon and Athena.
Hephaestus, the god smith also of Athena, tried to seduce Athena a couple of times. One time, when he came to her about making a suit of armour at the plain of Marathon, he attempted to violate her.
Some say his love for Athena was very old. Hephaestus had demanded the hand of a virgin who was to appear from Zeus.
Zeus was supposed to have consented but Athena herself refused him.
His seed fell on the ground of which the snake King Erichthonius was born from Gaea.
Athena let Erichthonius be raised by the three daughters of Cecrops, and old ruler supposed to be a snake himself.
Erichthonius was put in a box with the lid on. Athena refused the princesses to look into the box but two sisters were too curious.
When they saw the snake child they became very scared and they killed themselves. Outraged Athena dropped the rock she was carrying to augment the Acropolis.
The rock became Mount Lycabettus. Athena then took Erichthonius to her temple at the Acropolis and raised him herself.
He became King of Athens.
On Athena's advice Danaus embarked with his fifty daughters towards Greece. Perseus was from the family of Danaus.
Athena helped Perseus with his quest as enemy of the Gorgons. The Gorgon Medusa had desecrated her temple.
It is said Poseidon succeeded in seducing Medusa in the temple of Athena. Then Athena turned Medusa's hair into snakes.
Athena prevented Medusa from giving birth to Poseidon's children.
Athena warned Perseus not to look behind. Then he would turn to stone. She gave him a polished glittering magic mirror shield.
Through the shield Perseus could look at Medusa so he would not turn to stone.
She also guided Perseus' arm in the fight against Medusa.
After beheading Medusa Perseus gave the head of Medusa to Athena who wore it over her breast shield.
Athena's role in the legend of Perseus is so big that sometimes it is said Athena herself killed Medusa.
She is also said to have buried the head of Medusa under the marketplace in Athens. The blood she gave as a gift to Asclepius or Erichthonius.
Athena engaged in the plot of Hera with Poseidon and Apollo to overthrow Zeus.
Thetis summoned Briareus to come to Zeus' rescue .
Athena became known as Pallas Athena when her friend the giant Pallas was killed by accident when he was arguing with Athena.
This happened in the war against the giants. With the skin of Pallas Athena made the aegis. In other versions the aegis was made from the hide of the goat Amaltheia.
Zeus had used the aegis for the first time against the Titans and afterwards gave it as gift to Athena.
Cadmus offered a cow to Athena. Athena then gave him the counsel to get the teeth out of a monster and to sow half of them.
Out of the teeth came armed men: the Spartoi or seeded men. Cadmus had to serve Ares for eight years as punishment for killing the monster.
After the eight years were done Athena made him King of Thebes and gave him beautiful gifts.
Athena breathed soul and life on the first humans which Prometheus had made.
The oldest representations of Athena were the palladia, stones fallen from the sky with protective attributes.
Athena made a palladium of Pallas after accidentally killing him. Also the Greek realized they could never take Troy while the city had its palladium.
Therefore Odysseus plotted to steal the palladium of Athena from Troy.
These were later replaced by xoana, statues of wood.
Orestes fled to Athens where Athena build the first law court.
Orestes was not found guilty because of Athena but only if he would do a difficult task.
Athena made Teiresias blind when he saw her bathing naked.
After the prayers of his mother she compensated him with giving him the power of prophecy. She let her snake son Erichtonius lick his eyeballs.
In another version of the myth the power is given by Zeus after fighting with Hera.
As a reaction to that Zeus had birthed Athena alone: Hera gave birth to the monster Typhon.
Athena was the goddess who most favoured Heracles.
Athena gave Heracles the brazen cymbals whose sound frightened the birds of Lake Stymphalus.
She also gave him a woven robe. In the fight with the Hydra she advised him to burn the flesh of the bleeding necks to stop them from regrowing.
She also escorted him when he brought Cerberus from the underworld. She aided Heracles in defeating Erginus, King of Orchomenus.
Heracles seduced Auge, priestess of Athena. She hid her son Telephus in a temple of Athena. Athena was angry at this and sent a plague to the country.
After his death she welcomed Heracles on Olympus.
When Heracles won the golden apples of the Hesperides he offered them to Athena. Athena gave them back to the Hesperides.
Athena also revealed to Heracles that the giant Alcyoneus was invulnerable on the soil where he was born.
Athena defeated the giant Enceladus under the island of Sicily in a battle against the giants.
Athena tought the people of Cyrene the art of taming horses.
Athena saved the heart of Dionysos and put it into a gypsum doll from which Dionysos was brought back to life.
Athena showed Erichthonius how to harness the first war chariots.
Athena suggested to Aethra to go to island of Hiera where Aethra met Poseidon.
Athena helped Jason and the Argonauts with building the ship Argo. The Argonauts were under the protection of Athena.
Athena is said to have invented the flute. Olympians are said to have laughed at her when fluting. Then she put her musical efforts and the flute aside.
She cursed the flute. The satyr Marsys picked it up.
Athena sometimes was the goddess of health. The architect Mnesicles was healed by Athena who had fallen while working on the Propylaea.
Athena invested in the potter's wheel and made the first vases. Athena embroidered Hera's veil because she was very good in weaving.
Arachne, a girl from Lydia, wanted to engage in a contest with Athena in needle and spindle.
Athena came to Arachne in the disguise of an old woman and asked her to withdraw the challenge. Arachne refused.
Then Athena changed to her divine form and accepted the challenge. Athena could not find any imperfection in the work of Arachne.
According to Arachne nothing was due to divine inspiration.
Furious Athena destroyed Arachne's tapestry, changed Arachne into a spider, condemning her to spin eternally.
Athena was not under the influence of Aphrodite in rousing passionate desires like many other gods.
Athena gave a robe and a belt to Pandora, the first woman.
Athena brought the wounded Tydeus an elixer which would have cured him and made him immortal. But then the soothsayer Amphiraus appeared, a personal enemy of Tydeus.
He presented him with the head of Melanippus: the one that had wounded him. Tydeus was so angry that he split open the skull and devoured it.
Athena thought that savagery and let Tydeus die of his wounds.
Athena appeared to Bellerophon in a dream and gave him a golden bridle with which he could tame the horse Pegasus.
Pegasus was born from the Gorgon's blood of Medusa.
Paris had to decide if Athena, Aphrodite or Hera was the prettiest. Athena promised him to win every battle and to make him the most handsome and wise man of all.
She promised him to lead an army from out of Asia to destroy Greece.
Only Paris thought himself a herdsman instead of a soldier and liked the peace in his father's country: Troy and its surroundings. Paris chose Aphrodite.
Athena took the side of the Greek in the Trojan War on the chariot of Diomedes.
She did not forgave Paris and together with Hera she destroyed him, his family and the city of Troy and its surroundings.
In the Trojan War Athena, disguised as Deiphobus, persuaded Hector to stand his ground.
Cassandra was almost raped or raped in the temple of Athena by Ajax of Procris after the fall of Troy.
When she resisted a statue of Athena fell: a desecration of the temple.
Athena punished Ajax and the Greek for the fall of Troy on their return journey from Troy by killing them.
Athena misled Ajax and led him slaughter a herd of sheep instead of his own allies. He had been angry he had not been awarded Achilles' armour instead of Odysseus.
Ajax killed himself when he realized what he wanted to do.
There are different versions of this story.
Athena protected Odysseus against all perils on his return journey from Troy.
Athena helped Odysseus for example with giving him the disguise of a beggar in one of the quests on his journey.
Athena came to Telemachus, the son of Odysseus, in the disguise of the sage Mentor. She asked him to regulate the situation in the palace.
He had to sent the hundred men away who had came for the hand of his mother Penelope. They refused the order of Telemachus.
Athena also asked Telemachus to get to know where Odysseus was. He had been gone for many years. She gave a ship to Telemachus with men.
In Sparta Athena came to Telemachus in a dream. She warned him that the men who were after Penelope in marriage wanted to lay an ambush for him when he would come home to Ithaca.
The Odyssey, the book of Homerus about the journey home of Odysseus, ends with Athena's intervention between Odysseus and Penelope's suitors.
Pelopia was a priestess of Athena.
At the Acropolis Athena had three temples: the Parthenon, the temple of Athene Nike and the Erechtheum.
The goddess Nike often helped Athena and Zeus. At the Acropolis there was a small temple for both goddesses.
Athena had a temple at Delphi: the Tholos, the only temple not dedicated to Apollo there.
Also at Sunium, Tegea, Troy and Argos there were temples to Athena.
Her most important festivals were the Arrephoria, the Scirophoria and the Panathenea.
After the fall of Mycene around 1100 BC only the Acropolis could resist the attack. They thought this could have had something to do with Athena.
When Athene became a big trading center later the Greek thought Athena protected the craftsmen that brought wealth to the city.
The Roman equivalent of Athena was Minerva.
Demeter was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus. She was the goddess of agriculture, harvest, fruits, grain, the soil and fertility. Sometimes she was seen as goddess of structure and order.
Demeter was the archetype of the mother goddess.
She was the child of Cronus and Rheia.
Her siblings were Hestia, Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Hera. Her child was Kore, later named Persephone.
Demeter was one of the Alseids.
Demeter mostly lived separate in Eleusis or on Sicily as a nature goddess. She helped mortals wherefore she was called Thesmophorus: who gives laws.
She still was part of the Olympian Council.
She also stayed at Crete, Thracia and on the Peloponnese.
Persephone and Demeter were present at the initations of Eleusis, rituals on a plain near Athens.
Demeter was beautiful. Sometimes she was shown wearing flowing robes and wearing a veil.
Sometimes she was shown wearing a crown of corn and carrying a sheaf or shickle in one hand and a torch or sceptre in the other hand.
Sometimes she was shown with a plow and the horn of plenty: which gave her a rich amount of fruits and flowers.
She was also often shown with a basket full of corn and fruits. Other attributes of Demeter were poppies and snakes.
Sometimes she was also shown with a dolphin and a dove.
At birth she was eaten by her father, the Titan Cronus. She was rescued because Zeus gave a stone to Cronus that made him vomit the children he ate.
Demeter helped Zeus in the war against the Titans. She took no part in the war against the Giants.
Poseidon and Demeter had as children the horse Arion and the daughter Despoina. Arion had the gift of speech and the right feet of man.
Persephone was the daughter of Zeus and Demeter.
When Persephone was very young Zeus had given Hades permission to marry her, without Demeter knowing.
Persephone was abducted by Hades to the underworld when she was older. Then her name was changed from Kore to Persephone.
Demeter searched for Persephone, running with a torch in hand. She kept on going for nine days and nine nights without eating food or washing herself.
Hecate tried to help her but she had not seen who had taken Persephone. Hecate adviced Demeter to go to Helios.
Finally Demeter found the belt of Persephone near a river, washed ashore. From Helios she heard that Hades had taken Persephone and she now was queen of the underworld.
Helios also told her of what Zeus had promised Hades.
Defeated Demeter gave up and wandered long, seeking refugee, to finally come to Eleusis disguised as the old woman Doso. She wore a sombre veil.
In another version she looked as an old woman because of the grief she felt.
In Eleusis she was received by King Celeus and his wife Metaneira. Celeus' daughters had found her sitting grieving by a well.
Demeter told them that she had been carried off by Cretan pirates and she was a stranger here. She was in search of refugee and looking to work as a servant or nurse.
Their servant Iambe tried to cheer her up with jokes. They also persuaded her to drink a kykeon, a cocktail of fermented barley and pennyroyal.
In another version the drink was made of flour, water and mint.
As a thank you she wanted to give immortality to their son Demophon.
She gave Demophon ambrosia to feed him. At night she lay Demophon in the fire to destroy his mortality. The child grew like a god.
One night Metaneira saw this and was very upset. Metaneira or Demeter took Demophon out of the fire.
Demeter then told Metaneira Demophon would not become immortal now.
Then Demeter revealed her identity and left the palace. Before departing she ordered that there should come a temple where the initiated would celebrate her mysteries.
To their other son, Triptolemus, Demeter has teached agriculture. She also gave him a winged chariot with dragons.
She asked him to travel the world to spread the benefits of agriculture. Celeus plotted to have him slain but this was prevented by Demeter.
She also had initiated Celeus and his sons into the mysteries.
The Sirens Peisinoë, Aglaope and Ligeia were with Persephone when she was abducted.
Demeter punished the Sirens because they had not prevented the abduction of Persephone.
Demeter also stayed with Pelasgus in Argos in her many wanderings. She gave the olive tree to Phylatus.
In Attica she was received by Misme. His son Ascalabos joked about Demeter. He was punished by being turned into a lizard.
Then Demeter became very sad again and isolated herself in her temple at Eleusis.
Demeter refused to let something grow on earth as long as Persephone was in the underworld with Hades.
The fields became barren and there was no food. Demeter did nothing to solve it and there came a food crisis.
The people of earth begged to Zeus for a solution.
Zeus intervened and decided Demeter could go the underworld personally to get her daughter. In another version he ordered Hermes to get Persephone.
Only that morning Persephone had eaten some pomegranate seeds in the underworld. She was not allowed to eat in the underworld.
Therefore Zeus decided that Persephone had to stay a month every year in the underworld for every seed she had eaten.
She had eaten six seeds. The other half of the year Persephone could stay with her mother Demeter.
Rheia had brought the proposal to Demeter.
The time when Persephone was in the underworld, and Demeter was sad, became winter or the colder months. In the six months Persephone was with Demeter nature bloomed.
In another version Persephone stayed for 1/3rd of the year in the underworld.
It is said that Demeter loved Iasion and had with him the son Plutus. Sometimes it is said that Zeus was jealous and therefore struck Plutus with a thunderbolt.
Sometimes it is said he lived for a long time with Demeter in Sicily.
Erysichthon has cut trees that belonged to Demeter for a banquet hall. When Demeter appeared before him, disguised as a priestess, he threatened her with an axe.
Every tree had its own tree nymph of protection. The nymph would die with the tree when cut down.
The angry Demeter reacted sarcastic and told Erysichton to continue because he would need the banquet hall.
As a punishment she gave Erysichton a hunger that never faded. He kept on eating but kept on getting thinner.
He ate all he had and became very poor. Erysichton even sold his own daughter. In the end he ate himself.
Demeter ate the shoulder of Pelops, son of Tantalus. Tantalus had offered his own son to the gods.
Demeter, a little absent because of the disappearance of her daughter, did not know it was human flesh she ate.
Some gods noticed and Tantalus was punished. Pelops was brought back to life by Clotho. The shoulder of Pelops was replaced by one of marmer or ivory.
Some say Demeter taught Eumolpus how to cultivate the vine and trees. Eumolpus had then instituted the Eleusian mysteries in honour of Demeter.
Hephaestus made the golden sickle of Demeter.
The biggest festival of Greece, the Greater Eleusinia was held in honour of Demeter. It celebrated the mysteries of the goddess.
It was held in Athens and Eleusis.
In the Telesterion in Eleusis the mysteries of Demeter and Persephone were celebrated.
There is a sanctuary to Demeter at Dion. There is a statue of her at Eleusis.
At Thebes in Boeotia there was a grove sacred to Demeter and Persephone. Near the grove was a temple of the Cabeiri.
She was worshipped in Attica, Arcadia, Argolis, Crete, Delos, Asia Minor and Sicily. Her temples were called Megara, often found in forests.
Similar to Demeter in Roman mythology is the goddess Ceres.
Sometimes the Egyptian Isis is compared with Demeter.
Hera was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus. She was the queen of heaven, the mother goddess, goddess of marriage, fertility, the sky and birth.
Her husband was Zeus, king of heaven. She was the oldest daughter of Cronus and Rheia.
Hera was the sister of Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia and Hades.
Hera and Zeus had four children: Ares, Hephaestus, Eileithyia and Hebe. In another version Hephaestus was only the son of Hera, without a man.
This could be because Zeus and Hera were not married yet when Hera was pregnant with Hephaestus.
Hera drove a chariot. She sat on a golden throne besides her husband. Her divine messenger and servant was Iris who also carried out Hera's vengeance. Hera had pale skin. She was also named the oxed-eyed goddess.
She was often displayed with a diadem on her head or the high crown polos and a sceptre in her hand. She was shown as a young, fully developed beautiful woman.
She wore a long tunic and a veil. Athena wove a robe for her. She often wore ear-rings.
Holy symbols of Hera were the cow, crow, cuckoo, peacock and pomegranate.
At birth Hera was eaten by her father Cronus with her siblings.
She was born on the island of Samos on the banks of the river Imbrasos near a waterwillow.
Hera grew up on the island of Euboea under the care of the nurse Macris. According to others she was brought up by the daughters of the river Asterion or by the Horae or Seasons.
In another version Oceanus and Tethys cared for her.
After Zeus, who was the only one who was not swallowed, had saved her they got married.
He had seduced her east of Argos on Mount Thornax or Mount Cithaeron. The region was called the Argolid. They also met at Knossos on Crete.
All the gods of Olympus were there at their wedding. The Fates had chanted. Gaea gave Hera a tree with golden apples that was guarded by the Hesperides in Hera's garden next to Mount Atlas.
Zeus has extended their wedding night on Samos to last three hundred years.
She was the third wife of Zeus even though their love was older.
Hera helped Zeus with the battle against the Titans.
Her husband Zeus had many other loves which made Hera often jealous and angry. They often had fights so big that Mount Olympus shaked.
Sometimes Hera wore Aphrodite's belt to control Zeus. The belt made the wearer irresistably beautiful.
Shortly after their marriage Hera went back to Euboea because of Zeus' infdelity.
Therefore Zeus went around in a chariot with a veiled statue to arouse Hera's jealousy.
Hera arrested the chariot and discovered the trick. She returned to Olympus.
Zeus for example liked to visit the nymphs of Mount Cyllene when Hera was sleeping.
Hermes was born from Zeus and the nymph Maia. Hera was angry about this.
To escape the anger of Hera, Hermes dressed up as her own son Ares. Then she accepted him.
Hera was very angry when Athena was born from the head of Zeus, therefore she alone birthed the monster Typhon.
Hera changed Teiresias into a woman because he had killed two snakes. After seven years Zeus changed him back to a man.
A very bad fight of Zeus and Hera was about if women or men could get the most pleasure from sex.
Hera thought men while Zeus thought women.
Zeus used this as an argument for his infidelity.
They asked Teiresias who had been both male and female. Teiresias said women had nine times more pleasure from sex than men.
Hera became so angry she made Teiresias blind. As a compensation Zeus gave the gift of prophecy to Teiresias and he let him live for seven generations.
There was a mountain nymph, Echo, that kept on talking to Hera to distract her from the cheating Zeus with Echo.
Hera was so annoyed that she took Echo's own speech. After that she could only repeat what others had said.
Callisto, love of Zeus, was transformed into a bear by Hera or Artemis.
Hera sent a Python after Leto, the love of Zeus, so she could not go to land to give birth.
Hera made her pregnancy also as painful as possible. Leto could also not give birth in places where there was sun.
Hera ordered Ares and Iris to make sure no one on earth gave Leto refugee. Finally Leto reached shore with help from the south wind.
She had come to the island Ortygia which was not attached to earth. It had once been Leto's sister Asteria. Hera could do nothing about it and also respected Asteria for resisting Zeus.
Poseidon helped Leto by making sure there was no sun on the island.
Hera's daughter Eileithyia wanted to go for aid to Leto. Therefore Hera detained Eileithyia for nine days.
Finally Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis.
Hera's snake was then fought by Apollo and Artemis. Apollo killed the Python.
Zeus tried to protect his love Io from Hera by turning Io into a cow. Io was a priestess of Hera. Hera took the cow to her sanctuary.
She put the cow beneath an olive tree and let Argos Panoptes, the giant with the hundred eyes, guard him.
Hermes came Io to the rescue and killed Argos. Then Hera sent a gadfly after Io which tortured her everywhere she went.
After many years Zeus returned Io to her normal form in Egypt. Io gave birth to her son Epaphus and married the king of Egypt.
Epaphus was kidnapped by the Curetes on Hera's orders. He was returned.
It is said Io was later worshipped as Isis. Hera named her land after Argos Panoptes. She set his eyes in the tail of her favourite bird: the peacock, where they kept watch ever since.
Hera came to Semele, Zeus' love, as her old nanny Beroë. She asked Semele to let Zeus show all his might.
The godly power of Zeus was so much that Semele shrivelled. Zeus saved his child from Semele: Dionysus.
Zeus let the sister of Semele, Ino, take care of Dionysus with her husband Athamas.
Therefore Hera drove Athamas and Ino mad.
Hera sent the Titans after Dionysus. The beating heart of Dionysus survived and he finally was saved.
Hera finally accepted Dionysus as son of Zeus.
Hera, angry of Zeus' infidelity, helped by Poseidon, Athena and Apollo once tied Zeus up. He was saved when the sea nymph Thetis summoned Briareus.
Zeus was angry also because Hera had tortured the hero Heracles.
Then Zeus hang Hera from Mount Olympus with golden handcuffs. The gods wanted to free Hera but could not.
Zeus freed Hera when the gods promised to never rebel against him again.
Zeus once said he could not bear the harsh inflexibility of Hera.
Hera hated her son Hephaestus and threw him from Mount Olympus in the sea. He was saved by the nymphs Thetis and Eurynome. For nine years the nymphs took care of him and learned him how to work with metal.
Then Hephaeastus wanted revenge on his mother. He made a magic throne for Hera. It had too much power for Hera, the throne held Hera captive, and Hephaestus saved her.
After this Hephaestus got a beautiful working place from Hera and she helped him to get married to Aphrodite.
In another version Hephaestus was put back on Olympus after Thetis told Hera her beautiful brooch was made by Hepheastus.
Hera forced Thetis to tell the truth when she at first did not want to.
Hephaestus then criticized his father Zeus for hanging Hera from the mountain. Angry Zeus threw Hephaestus off Olympus.
Hephaestus then went to Lemnos.
Zeus has announced that a child that would be born on that day was destined to rule the Argolid, the special land of Hera.
Therefore Hera prolonged Alcmene's labour, the love of Zeus, and gave Sthenelus a premature birth.
Also here Hera's daughter Eileithyia wanted to go for aid to Alcmene. Hera detained her.
At last there came twins from Alcmene: one was Heracles. Ironically he was named after Hera: Hera's fame.
Not knowing Hera met Heracles she let him suckle from her breast. When she knew it was too late: her milk had already made him immortal.
Hera sent two snakes to the cracle of Heracles to kill him. Heracles strangled the snakes. Hera was annoyed by the cruel deeds of Heracles.
Hera then let Heracles become mad, by sending the Fury of madness Lyssa to Heracles, which made him kill his wife Megara, their sons and the sons of his twin brother Iphicles.
He had thought his sons were the sons of his enemy Eurystheus, the son of Sthenelus. Eurystheus was advised by Hera.
Hera gave Heracles back his sanity and then he realized what he had done.
The hydra of Lerna was raised by Hera. It was the second work of Heracles.
Hera also spread the rumour that Heracles wanted to kidnap Hippolyte, queen of the Amazones. Heracles ninth labour was to get the golden girle of Ares that was kept by Hippolyte.
Heracles had to get three apples out of the golden apple tree of Hera for his eleventh labour. The golden apple tree was standing on Mount Atlas.
The three daughters of Atlas, the Hesperides, had to take care of the tree. They tried to steal the apples for Heracles.
When Hera discovered this she put the dragon Ladon there to hold guard which was shot by Heracles.
On his return journey from rescuing Hesione Heracles was thrown on the shores of the island Cos by a storm caused by Hera.
Hera organized the kidnapping of Hylas, loved by Heracles.
Heracles was finally accepted to Olympus where he was reconciled with Hera. Hera accepted the marriage of Heracles and her daughter Hebe.
Hera had many suitors. Ixion tried to seduce Hera while he was invited by Zeus to Mount Olympus. Zeus found out and let Ixion make love to a false Hera in the form of a cloud.
Ixion was punished by being strapped to a burning wheel for eternity in the underworld.
Prince Paris of Troy had to choose if Hera, Athena or Aphrodite was the most beautiful of the goddesses.
Hera promised him to rule over the whole of Asia and Europe and to make him the richest man on earth. Paris was more of a shepherd and wanted peace.
He chose Aphrodite who promised him Helen.
The rejected Hera and Athena then gave support to the Greek in the Trojan War.
Hera came to Jason of the Argonauts in the form of an old woman. She begged to carry her across the ford. Jason carried her on his back.
Because Jason had helped her she promised aid to Jason in return.
Hera persuaded the Sirens to compete with the Muses in song.
Ceyx and Alcyone were turned into birds for having dared to compare themselves with Hera and Zeus.
In a version Zeus punished Endymion with eternal sleep for trying to win Hera's love.
The Horae are shown harnessing Hera's chariot with the celestial steeds which they fed with ambrosia.
Antigone, daughter of Laomedon has boasted having more beautiful hair than Hera. Hera turned her hair into serpents.
Lysippe and Iphianassa have treated a wooden statue of Hera bad. Therefore they were punished with leprosy and madness.
Melampus obtained from Hera restoration for the two girls.
In the war against the Giants Zeus inspired in the giant Porphyrion a passion for Hera.
While the giant pursued Hera, Heracles killed him with an arrow.
The city of Argos was awarded to Hera after a dispute with Poseidon.
Hera offered Themis, the previous wife of Zeus, the cup of nectar when Hera arrived at Olympus.
Every year Hera went to bathe in the spring Canathus at Nauplia.
It is said that Hera, jealous of Aphrodite, caused Pan of Mysia: Priapus, to be deformed.
Hephaestus refused to believe he had only a mother. In some versions he therefore put Hera on the chair of truth which he had made himself.
This is the same throne as from the other story.
Hera promised on the river Styx she was telling the truth.
At Hera's request Hypnos took the form of a night bird and sent Zeus to sleep on Mount Ida.
An old vulture told Melampus that the son of Phylacus had become disabled as a punishment of Hera.
Hera would have been angry because Phylacus had put a dagger into a holy pear tree of Hera.
Hera brought the brothers Kleobis and Biton to the Elysian Fields after their mother, priestess to Hera, had prayed to Hera for a favour for their sons.
The boys had helped their mother with going to the temple of Hera.
As an element Hera was air where Zeus was fire.
Medea buried her children to become immortal at the sanctuary of Hera in Corinth.
Hippodameia gave thanks to Hera by organizing the Heraia, a women's festival with a footrace.
There was a temple to Hera of wood at Olympia, built in 700 BC, and at Argos. Her most important place was Argos.
Hera was mostly honoured at Argos, Olympia, Crete, Samos, Sparta, Attica, Boeotia, Euboea and Heraeum.
Her greatest temples were on Crete and at Samos. It was said they were built by the Argonauts.
Temenus consecrated three temples to Hera at Stymphalus: to the child-goddess, the wife-goddess and the widow-goddess.
The Roman equivalent of Hera was Juno.
The Egyptian Mut was identified with Hera. The Egyptian Isis was sometimes identified with Hera.
Hermes was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus. He was the child of Zeus and the nymph Maia.
The half-brother of Hermes was Apollo. He was the god of travellers, which he guided.
Hermes became the messenger of Zeus: Diactoros and the other gods. He came to earth with orders from the king of the gods and for various missions.
He brought to men's hearts impressions which Zeus had inspired.
He also guided the souls to the underworld as the psychopompus, was the god of commerce, the wind and rain, business affairs, roads, thiefs, games of chance and speech/eloquence (Logios). Hermes was also honoured by athletes.
A title of him was Agonios, he who presides over contests. At the stadium of Olympia there stood a statue to him.
Hermes also protected flocks and herds. He was seen as good-hearted, cunning, serious, mischievous and charming.
Images of Hermes were placed at crossroads and road branches. He is mostly shown as an athlete god, a mature man with a thick, long beard, his hair bound and falling in curles to his shoulders.
He is often displayed with fine features, a graceful body and as if he were listening with friendly interest.
There was often a short cloak over his shoulder. On his feet were winged sandals: the talaria. With these sandals he could rapidly cross celestial spaces.
Later he also got a round, winged hat: the petasus. In his hand he held a winged staff made from an olive branch with entwined serpents: the caduceus. The caduceus had the power to reconcile battling elements and to induce sleep.
Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia at dawn. The Horae had helped to shelter him.
On the day of his birth he stole the cattle from Apollo without knowing it was his cattle. In another version he also stole his bow and arrows.
He had a mischievous kind of humour.
He found the cattle on the mountains of Pieria. In the night he brought fifty cows to the banks of the Alpheus. He made them walk backwards to not let the hoofmarks show were they went.
In another version he packed the hoofs in leaves and twigs. Hermes had put enormous sandals on his own feet.
He had eaten two of the cows because he had been hungry.
The next day Apollo discovered they were gone. Hermes denied everything. Apollo brought the infant before the tribunal of Olympus.
Zeus had to laugh but he also instructed Hermes to return the cows. As a gift Hermes made a lyre with seven strings for Apollo he had made from a tortoise shell.
The anger of Apollo went away because the instrument sounded good. Hermes had played a beautiful song about the good works of Apollo.
Then Hermes gave the lyre to Apollo. Apollo gave a golden wand to Hermes in exchange: the caduceus.
Hermes immediately tested the power of the caduceus and used it on two snakes who were fighting. That made the snakes circle around his staff.
From then on Apollo was the god of music and Hermes the protector of flocks and herds. They became good friends and their friendship was never broken.
Hermes had to promise Zeus not to tell lies anymore. Then Hermes became the messenger of Zeus.
The gods of Mount Olympus liked Hermes. Hermes was very helpful. During the war against the giants he made himself invisible with the helm of Hades and killed the giant Hippolytus.
He restored Zeus' strength by replacing the nerves which the giant had cut.
Hermes was the lover of Aphrodite, Persephone and Hecate. Aphrodite and Hermes had the child Hermaphroditus.
He had many children by nymphs like Saon of Phene, Daphnis, Polydorus of Polymele and Pan of Penelope or the daughter of King Dryops.
Hermes had come to Penelope as a goat on the slopes of Mount Cyllene while she was tending to the flocks.
Pan therefore had the horns and feet of a goat and was covered with hair. Therefore Penelepe abandoned Pan. Hermes carried Pan to Olympus.
Daphnis has asked the help of his father Hermes because he was made blind or changed to a stone.
Hermes then made a spring on the place were it had happened and took Daphnis to Olympus to take care of the flocks and herds.
Acacallis and Chione were loved by both Hermes and Apollo. Chione and Hermes had the child Autolycus.
Autolycus got as a gift from Hermes that what he touched became invisible.
With Acacallis he had the child Cydon.
Another child of Hermes was Myrtilus who was killed by Pelops. Hermes thus laid a curse on the descendants of Myrtilus.
One of the results of the curse was that Thyestes seduced the wife of his brother Atreus, Aerope, and stole from him a ram with a golden fleece that had been a gift from Hermes.
In a version Orion was born from the hide on which Hermes, Zeus and Poseidon had urinated and buried because Hyrieus had asked for a son.
The three gods were travelling together on earth and were received by King Hyrieus of Hyria in Boeotia.
In a version Silenus was the son of Hermes and the earth. There is no reference to Gaea.
Silenus ofter refers to a category of divinities similar to the Satyrs.
In a version Cephalus was the son of Hermes.
Another child of Hermes was Echion: messenger of the Argonauts.
Zeus was rescued by Hermes in his fight against the monster Typhoeus when he was imprisoned in the den of Typhoeus in Cilicia.
Zeus ordered Hermes to set his love Io free from the giant with the hundred eyes: Argus Panoptes. Hermes lulled the giant to sleep with his flute and then killed him with a short sword.
Hermes told the giant Argus stories like the one how the god Pan had made the flute: the syrinx. It could also be Hermes copied the flute of Pan.
The stories made Argus sleep more. By touching the eyes of Argus with his staff, he slept even deeper.
Hermes changed his flute for the gift of prophecy from Apollo.
Hermes entrusted the infant Dionysus to the care of the nymphs of Nysa on orders of Zeus after Semele was killed by seeing Zeus in full power.
First he brought him to Orchomenus who brought him to Ino, Semele's sister.
He amused the child with a bunch of grapes, as shown in the statue which was found in the temple of Hera at Olympia.
Hermes put the Greek into a deep sleep with his magic wand in the Trojan War. This way it was possible for Priam to bring back the body of Hector into the walls of Troy.
He also gave Odysseus, in his journey back from Troy, a magic herb: moly, which made him immune to the enchantments of Circe.
Hermes discovered the prison which held Ares who was held captive by the Aloadae and set him free.
Hermes protected the hero Perseus by restoring his courage and Heracles in his descent to the underworld. Hermes comforted Heracles by saying that what he saw were visions.
He also gave Perseus a sword: the harpe.
Hermes took the chilldren of Leucippus to Pellene on the Peloponnese.
Hermes has helped the Fates with making the alphabet. He has also created the musical scale, astronomy, boxing, gymnastics, the weights and measures and olive tree cultivation.
From the Thriai he learned to prophesize with stones.
As guider of the souls to the underworld Hermes could also lead back souls of the dead into the world of light.
Hermes re-assembled the son of Tantalus when he was cut into pieces and served to the gods by his father.
On the instructions of Zeus he restored the young man back to life.
Hermes also accompanied Orpheus who was looking for Eurydice in the underworld.
Hermes brought souls to the underworld by touching them with his caduceus on the eyes and the forehead.
Hermes led the three goddessesHera, Athena and Aphrodite to the judgment of Paris on Mount Ida that led to the Trojan War.
Hermes gave Pandora breath, lies, power and a human voice.
Hermes arrested Sisyphus who had escaped.
Hermes put himself at the head of the youths of the city Tanagra to repel the Euboean invaders.
Hermes saved Apollo's child Asclepius. He also saved the child of Apollo with Prinsess Creusa. He brought it to the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
Zeus ordered Hermes to bring Europa to the coasts of Tyrus in Libanon.
Hermes gave a ram to Nephele, mother of Phrixus and Helle. They fled on the ram from their stepmother Ino.
Zeus sent Hermes to Deucalion and Pyrrha to tell that their request would be granted.
Zeus and Hermes went to earth to test the hospitality of humans in the disguise of beggars. The humans did not help them.
The last hut of the village was very shabby but the old Philemon and Baucis received them. They were without children, very friendly and very poor.
They were very hospitable to the gods. Therefore the gods spared their hut in a flood that flooded the whole village as a reward among other things.
Zeus sent Hermes to Tros, the father of Ganymedes, to tell him Ganymedes was safe on Mount Olympus.
Hermes was sent by Zeus to get Protesilaos out of the underworld.
Hermes recommended Atreus to tell his brother he accepted his reign of Mycene: only not when the sun would go backwards along the sky.
Then Zeus made that happen and Atreus became King of Mycene.
Hermes found the golden dog in Tartarus with the help of Iris which had been stolen by Pandareus from Zeus.
In the punishment of Ixion because he had tried to seduce Hera when being invited by Zeus to Mount Olympus, Ixion was held before Zeus by Hermes and Ares.
Zeus condemned Ixion to be punished by Hermes. Ixion was then bound to a fiery wheel with snakes which rolled him eternally through the sky.
In Phoenician Mythology Hermes Trismegistus was the secretary and advisor of Cronus.
On the advice of Hermes Cronus buried his brother Atlas, fearing his schemes, in the depths of the earth.
In other versions Cronus is the uncle of Atlas.
In Roman Mythology Hermes was Mercurius.
In Egyptian Mythology Hermes was Thoth. Similar to Hermes was the Egyptian Anubis as conductor of souls.
Poseidon was one of the twelve upper gods from Mount Olympus. Poseidon was the god of water and the sea. He had his own appointed position at Olympus among the great gods. He was the son of Cronus and Rheia. His brothers were Zeus and Hades. His sisters were Hestia, Hera and Demeter.
His consort was Amphitrite. Their daughters were Rhode, who gave her name to the island of Rhodes, and Benthesicyme, who settled in Ethiopia.
Their son was Triton. It could be the name Poseidon comes from the Latin potens, which means powerful.
Poseidon ruled the salt waters except for the ocean: all seas, lakes and rivers. He could raise the waves with his trident which he got from the Cyclopes.
He could also make earthquakes. One of his titles was Enosichthon: the earth shaker. He could roll land.
At Sparta he was called Genethlios, the creator.
He lived in an underwater palace in the Aegean Sea.
Traditionally the palace was north of Sunium. His palace was gold and would endure for ever. He had a chariot driven by two bronze-hooved sea horses.
Poseidon was then dressed in gold with a golden whip. The creatures gathered around him were he went.
His symbols were the trident, bull and horse. He made the first horse at Thessaly with a blow of his trident. It was the symbol of springs.
The bull was the symbol of power to fertilise and the power to act quickly. The festival Taureiawas was dedicated to Poseidon and the bull.
Also horse races was celebrated in honour of Poseidon.
He had dark hair according to Homeros. He was displayed majestic with his chest bare holding the trident in one hand.
He often had a thick beard and disorderly hair.
He was especially worshipped in maritime area's.
Poseidon protected the Nereids. Poseidon fell in love with the Nereid Amphitrite when he saw her dancing with her sisters, the Nereids, near Naxos.
At first she did not like Poseidon. Amphitrite fled for him to Atlas. Poseidon then sent a dolphin to talk to her with success.
The dolphin brought back Amphritrite. As a reward Poseidon placed the dolphin in the constellations.
At their marriage Poseidon and Amphitrite were seated in a carriage drawn by two Tritons: one of them playing a conch-shell and the other a lyre.
Behind them was a procession of Tritons and Nereids.
Poseidon had other love affairs, over a hundred, as well. He had love affairs with Aphrodite and Demeter. Demeter hid from him disguised as a mare hiding among the herds.
Poseidon changed into a horse and tracked her down. Their children were Despoina and the immortal black horse Arion.
Poseidon also had a love affair with Scylla, daughter of the sea god Phorcys. Mostly Amphritite was not jealous but this time she was.
Amphitrite took vengeance by dissolving bad herbs into Scylla’s pool which turned Scylla into a monster.
There are different versions of this story. Sometimes Scylla is Poseidon's daughter and turned into a monster by Circe.
Her sister Medusa was loved by Poseidon too. He came to her in the shape of a horse or a bird. Poseidon made love to her in a temple of Athena which made Athena angry.
Her anger was turned on Medusa changing her into a monster and preventing her from giving birth to her children.
Poseidon’s children came when Perseus killed Medusa: the winged horse Pegasus and a giant Chrysaor.
Other children of Poseidon were his son Polyphemus the cyclops with Thoösa, the Molionids with Molione, Amycus with Melia, Lycus and Eurypylus with Celaeno, Aeolus with Arne, Cercyon, Sinis, Busiris with Anippe, Hippothous with Alope, Cycnus with Calyce
or Harpale, the whirlpool Charybdis and the giant Antaeus with Gaea, Aethusa, Hyperenor and Hyrieus with Alcyone, another Eurypylus and Ancaeus with Astypalaea, Eumolpus with Chione, Orion with Euryale, Halirrhothius with Euryte, Evadne with Pitane and two sons with Pirene.
Poseidon granted Hyrieus a wish while travelling with Zeus and Hermes. Hyrieus asked for a son.
The three gods urinated on the hide of a heifer and buried it. Orion was born from this.
To hide her shame Chione threw her child Eumolpus in the sea which was saved by Poseidon and carried to Ethiopia.
Eumolpus was confided to Poseidon's daughter Benthesicyme.
The Telchines are said to be the sons of Poseidon and Thalassa. In another tradition they are Poseidon's guardians.
In a version they are said to have made the trident of Poseidon instead of the Cyclopes.
Poseidon or Aloeus was the father of the two giants, the Aloadae: Otos and Ephialtes, with Iphimedeia.
Poseidon is the forefather of some creatures like the Echidna, Cerberus, the Hydra and the Sphinx.
In a version of the story Poseidon is the father of Athena with Lake Tritonis.
Another love of Poseidon was Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, King of Troezen. Aethra was surprised by Poseidon in the temple of Athena.
Because Aethra loved Aegeus, King of Athens at the same time, it was unclear who was the father of Aethra's child Theseus.
When he was old enough it was revealed to Theseus that Poseidon was his father.
Poseidon carried Theophane to the isle of Crinissa to protect her from her suitors because he loved her. Her suitors followed her.
Poseidon then turned himself into a ram, Theophane into an ewe and the suitors into sheep. He made love to her and their child was the ram with the golden fleece of the story of Jason and the Argonauts.
Poseidon loved Mestra and granted her the gift of metamorphosis so that she could escape her purchasers.
Poseidon rescued Amymone from a satyr during the draught which was sent by Poseidon as a result of Poseidon's fury with Inachus.
Poseidon and Amymone made love and out of gratitude Poseidon struck a rock with his trident which made the springs of Lerna. Their son was Nauplius.
Poseidon also loved the nymph Tyro. She had a passion for the river Enipeus. Poseidon approached her when she was strolling down the river.
Their sons were Pelias and Neleus.
Euphemus was his son with Europa. He gave to him the power of walking on water.
Poseidon saved Tenes and Hemithea, the children of his son Cycnus who had them locked up in a chest.
Poseidon also had his eye on Thetis, like Zeus. Only Themis declared that Thetis would give birth to a son more powerful than Zeus.
Then Poseidon and Zeus abandoned the chase for Thetis.
At birth Poseidon was swallowed by his father Cronus like his siblings except for Zeus.
He was vomited up when Zeus gave a draught to Cronus.
In another version Poseidon was sheltered by his mother Rheia in the midst of a flock of lambs near Mantinea.
Poseidon was confined to a nurse named Arne and grew up without his father's knowledge.
It is also said that Rheia gave Poseidon to Capheira, a daughter of Oceanus.
Capheira raised Poseidon in Rhodes with the help of the Telcines.
After the Titanomachy Zeus, Poseidon and Hades divided the realms. Poseidon got the seas.
In the war against the giants Poseidon pursued the giant Polybutes across the sea. Poseidon flung a fragment of the cliff torn from the island Cos at him which killed him.
The fragment became the island of Nisyros.
With Hera, Apollo and Athena he wanted to bind Zeus but Briareus came to the rescue of Zeus from Tartarus.
Zeus then sent Poseidon and Apollo as punishment to Troy to build the walls of Troy for a year for a modest rate.
Poseidon was helped by Aegina’s King Aecus. In the work of Homerus Poseidon is the enemy of the Trojans.
The cause of this was the lies spread by the Trojan King Laomedon, father of Priamus.
King Laomedon promised to give money to Poseidon and Apollo for building the Trojan walls. He however refused to pay after they built them.
Poseidon made the Greek plunder Troy. He also sent a sea monster to devour the daughter of Laomedon.
The gods swore an oath to never again rebel against Zeus.
The cities of Potidea and Poseidonia were named after Poseidon.
Poseidon and Athena often fought with each other. Athena and Poseidon had a fight, in the days of King Cecrops, over who was the protector of Athens and its territory Attica.
They engaged in a contest and the winner had to have the best gift for the city. They raced in their chariots to the Acropolis.
Poseidon made a salt water source from out of a rock at the Acropolis which made Athens have access to the sea by striking the ground with his Trident, which became Poseidon’s well.
Athena made a young sapling, the olive tree, which won the contest. The male gods supported Poseidon. Poseidon then flooded the Thriasian plain.
In another version of the story Poseidon made a horse in the contest. The tree of Athena was supposed to still be alive in the time of Pericles even though it had been burned to the ground by the Persians during the invasion of Xerxes.
When Argos was awarded to Hera, decided by the river-god Inachus assisted by the rivers Asterion and Cephissus, Poseidon caused three of its rivers to dry up in the summer as they still do today. He also failed to get Corinth.
Poseidon was forced to concede Acrocorinth to Helios, decided by Briareus, but won the lower city and port of Isthmia/Isthmus.
The Isthmian Games were held in his honour close to his temple. Poseidon later gave Ishtmus to Aphrodite. Troezen was awarded to both Poseidon and Athena.
Poseidon lost Aegina to Zeus and Naxos to Dionysos. He got the island of Calauria in exchange for the territory of Delphi, which until then he had held in common with Gaea.
Nobody ever contested Poseidon's rule over the sea.
Poseidon took Ares to justice before a tribunal of twelve gods because of murdering Poseidon's son Halirrhothius after Halirrhothius had raped Ares’ daughter.
They met on a hill in front of the Acropolis. Ares was not found guilty. After this the hill was called Areopagus.
Criminal cases continued to be justiced here.
Poseidon convinced Hephaestus to release the lovers Aphrodite and Ares by paying a fine. Ares had to promise to end the affair with Aphrodite.
The Nereids complained to Poseidon about Cassiopeia saying her daughter Andromeda was prettier than the Nereids.
Poseidon sent a flood and let loose a monster on the Philistines were they lived. The monster desolated Ethiopia.
Theseus called for Poseidon, his father, to punish Hippolytus because of the wrong accusations of Phaedra of Hippolytus raping her.
Poseidon let Hippolytus fall of his chariot, killing him, by sending a bull or dragon from the sea scaring the horses.
King Minos asked Poseidon for a sign who send him a bull. It could be this is the same bull. Minos spared the bull because of his beauty.
Poseidon cursed Minos because he did not offer the bull. Poseidon drove the bull mad. Then Minos’ wife fell in love with the bull. The result was the Minotaur.
Theseus overcame the Minotaur and sacrificed it to Poseidon. Heracles abducted Poseidon’s bull as one of his labours.
Minos let Theseus prove that he was Poseidon’s son by retrieving a gold ring that Minos hurled out to the sea. Theseus got the ring.
Poseidon gave a team of swift winged horses to Pelops.
Poseidon gave Heracles a team of horses.
Poseidon raised the waves over the island of Ortygia at the birth of Apollo. He anchored it over the depths of the sea with four pillars.
Poseidon and Athena helped Bellerophon bridle Pegasus.
Poseidon slew Erechteus with his trident because of slaying Poseidon’s son the Eleusian King.
Poseidon's son the Cyclops Polyphemus called on Poseidon to prevent Odysseus’ homecoming or to only reach Ithaca after many years in a strangers ship having lost all his men.
Poseidon released a storm seeing Odysseus building a raft from the island of Calypso.
Poseidon was coming home from a festival held in his honour in Ethiopia.
Poseidon was also angry at the sailors helping Odysseus at Scherie, an island sacred to Poseidon. He turned their ship to stone as it neared the harbour.
The oracle of Delphi had once been sacred to Poseidon who had torn the cleft apart.
Poseidon sent a wild bull to devastate the plain of Marathon.
Poseidon was a national god of the Ionians of the Peloponnese.
Heracles killed the sons of Poseidon who had attempted to steal the oxen of Geryon. He also fought the Molionids, sons of Poseidon.
Poseidon split Mount Ossa in two to make the river Peneius.
A temple for Poseidon was built in 444 BC as part of Pericles' programme to restore Attica’s destroyed sanctuaries.
Homeros claims that Poseidon is a Libyan importation while he is a very ancient Pelasgian deity according to the Larousse Mythologie Générale (1959).
Neptune is the Roman equivalent of Poseidon.
Zeus was the sovereign ruler of Mount Olympus. Zeus was god of the earth and sky. He was also god of the weather.
He was the third son of Cronus and Rheia. His brothers were Hades and Poseidon. His sisters were Hestia, Demeter and Hera.
His most known wife was Hera. Their children were Hebe, Ilithyia, Ares and Hephaestus. He was master of the gods and men. He ruled the realms of the Ether.
He was lord of the winds, the clouds, rain and thunder. Olympus was his home and that of the other gods. He resided in the air and on mountain tops.
He saw everything and knew everything.
Zeus inflicted severe penalties on gods who had displeased him like letting them serve as slaves to mortals or punishing them with his thunderbolts.
Zeus himself had to submit to the powers of Moros (destiny). He spoke in person at Olympus and Dodona and through his prophet Apollo.
He was kind and compassionate. He went after the wicked but was capable of pity. He averted threatened dangers and protected the weak.
He was also god of the hearth, marriage, friendship and people’s assemblies. He was the protector god of Greece. His messenger was Hermes.
He was normally depicted as a man in fullness of maturity with a broad forehead, deep eyes, thick waving hair and a curled beard.
Usually he wore a long mantle which left his chest and right arm free. In one hand he held a golden sceptre and in the other hand the thunderbolt.
Often he wore a crown of oak leaves. Eagles were the animals of Zeus which are his messengers.
There is a legend that says that Zeus set out two eagles on a journey from the opposite edges of the world to find the centre of the world.
The eagles met at Delphi were the location became marked with the Omphalos, the navel of the earth, the stone that once had been swallowed by Cronus.
The oracle of Delphi had predicted that the upper Titan god Cronus would one day be overthrown by one of his sons.
Cronus swallowed each child upon birth which made his wife Rheia very sad.
When pregnant with her last child Zeus she asked her parents Uranus and Gaea for help. On their advice she went to Crete where she gave birth to Zeus.
Rheia gave a stone to Cronus instead of Zeus.
Zeus was brought up at Mount Ida by the Curetes nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, King of Crete. These nymphs were the protectors of Zeus.
They put him in a golden cradle. Arasteia gave him a gold ball to play with.
They danced so Cronus could not hear him cry, beating their bronze shields with swords. Zeus grew up in a the forests of Ida.
His wet-nurse was the goat Amaltheia. In gratitude Zeus placed her among the constellations. This is supposed to be capricorn.
From her hide he made the aegis, which no one could pierce. One of the horns he gave to the nymphs.
This horn could refill itself with every food and drink that was wished for: the horn of plenty (cornucopia).
In other stories Zeus was fed with ambrosia and nectar brought to him by doves and an eagle.
There is also a story of the bees of Ida feeding Zeus with honey.
When Zeus reached manhood he wanted to go after this father.
Metis gave Cronus a draught that made him vomit the stone and the gods: Zeus’ siblings.
Cronus was driven from the sky and casted into the depths of the universe: in a region between the earth and fruitless sea.
In other stories he went to the ends of earth to dwell in bliss or went in slumber in Thule.
Zeus placed the stone in divine Pytho, at the foot of Parnassus as a monument. It was long preserved in Delphi in the tomb of Neoptolemus.
Cronus was destroyed at the site of Olympia. It is said in a story the Olympic Games were played here to celebrate the victory.
For ten years the Titans had fought with the new Olympian Gods in the Titanomachy.
The Olympian Gods that had helped Zeus for sure were Hestia, Hera, Demeter, Hades and Poseidon.
Also Hecate helped Zeus. From the stronghold at Mount Othrys the Titans launched their attacks.
Zeus went into Tartarus where he released the Hecatoncheires and the Cyclopes who were guarded by the monster Campe. They became his allies.
The Cyclopes gave him the thunderbolt. The Olympian Gods won against the Titans helped with the thunderbolts of Zeus.
The Titans were bound with chains in the depths of the earth.
The next struggle was against the giants. They appeared in glittering armour with enormous spears. Their leaders were Porphyrion and Alcyoneus.
They attacked Olympus. The gods alone could not triumph against the giants who besieged them.
The oracle had said that they could only be defeated by a mortal. The mortal became Heracles (Hercules).
Athena had revealed to Heracles that Alcyoneus was invulnerable on the soil which had given him birth.
When Heracles carried him away he could defeat him. Zeus inspired in the other leader a passion for Hera.
Then Heracles pierced him with a deadly arrow. One by one the other giants where overcome.
Gaea then gave birth to the monster Typhoeus, born from Tartarus. Only Zeus held his ground against the monster.
The monster imprisoned Zeus in his den at Cilicia. Zeus was rescued by Hermes.
Then Zeus continued against the monster with his thunderbolts and Typhoeus fled to Sicily.
Under Etna Zeus crushed him. Then Zeus’ supremacy was fully in place: he had vanquished the powers of evil with a triple victory.
His reign would never be seriously disturbed. Zeus, Poseidon and Hades divided the world between them.
Zeus came to rule the sky, Poseidon the seas and Hades the underworld.
Zeus punished Menoetius and Atlas, sons of the Titan Iapetus, for having taking part in the revolt of the Titans. Menoetius was put into Erebus.
Atlas had to stand for ever before the Hesperides on the edge of the world and bore on his shoulders the vault of the heavens.
Zeus’ first wife was Metis (wisdom). Gaea and Uranus had warned Zeus that if he had children by Metis they would be more powerful than him and dethrone him.
When Metis was about to give birth to Athena Zeus swallowed the pregnant Metis after he had changed her into a fly.
He then got a headache at Lake Triton’s shores in Libya. His pain was heard by the gods on Olympus.
To cure him Hephaestus split open Zeus' skull with a bronze axe, an idea of Hermes. Out came Athena. Athena was Zeus' favourite child.
Ares told Zeus that Zeus had fathered a rash and foolish daughter who did not listen probably because of Zeus’ indulgence towards her.
Zeus then married the Titaness Themis.
They got the children the Horae (seasons): Eunomia (wise legislation), Dike (justice) and Eirene (peace) and the Morae (fates) or daughters of the night.
When she was replaced by Hera Themis remained advisor of Zeus. Zeus had also been married to the Titaness Mnemosyne.
He stayed nine nights with her and then she gave birth to nine daughters: the Muses.
Zeus and Demeter (with whom he was not married) got the daughter Kore/Persephone.
Also the Oceanid Eurynome was a wife of Zeus and they got the children the three Graces or Charites.
Then Zeus married Hera. Zeus came to her long before when Cronus still reigned where she grew up on the island of Euboea.
He bore her to Mount Cithaeron between Attica and Boeotia where they lay together. In another version this was near Argos.
Their marriage that was celebrated on Olympus did not end Zeus other loves that often aroused Hera's jealousy.
Hera and Zeus often were fighting so much that the Olympus trembled. As for their children Hebe was easy but Ares and Hephaestus more difficult.
Zeus judged Ares for his focus on war and violence. Zeus once threw Hephaestus off the mountain by his foot for choosing Hera's side.
Zeus loved the goddess Selene and they got the children Pandia, Erse and Nemea.
Zeus loved to visit the nymphs on the mountain Cyllene when Hera was sleeping. Zeus was resisted by the nymph Asteria.
She changed herself into a quail to escape him, throwing herself into the sea and becoming the island Ortygia or Delos.
Then Zeus’ eye turned to her sister Leto. Leto surrendered to Zeus’ seductions which made her the subject of many misfortunes that Hera bestowed on her.
The children of Zeus and Leto were Apollo and Artemis. The nymph Maia was another love of Zeus but did not arouse Hera's jealousy.
They lay together in a cave in Mount Cyllene of Arcadia where she lived. Their child was Hermes.
Harmonia and Dardanus are said to be either the children of Zeus and Electra, daughter of Atlas, or Ares and Aphrodite.
Zeus also liked another daughter of Atlas: Taygete. She was protected by Artemis who turned her into a hind and later restored her to normal.
In other versions they lay together and they got the child Lacedaemon.
Zeus gave thirty cities to Artemis and appointed her guardian of the streets and harbours.
In older traditions Leto was the wife of Zeus before Hera.
Zeus also loved the nymphs Aegina and Antiope. Zeus carried off Aegina in the form of an eagle or flame and brought her to the island of Oenone or Oenopia.
Their child was Aeacus. Her father, the river god Asopus went looking for her. From Sisyphus he discovered Zeus’ name and the place where she hid herself.
He almost found her when Zeus struck Asopus with a thunderbolt. He had to return to his river.
In other versions he surprised the two lovers and then Zeus changed Aegina into an island to protect her against Asopus' anger and himself into a rock.
Zeus approached the other daughter Antiope in her sleep disguised as a satyr. Antiope gave birth to their twins Amphion and Zethus.
Zeus was captivated by the extraordinary beauty of the nymph Callisto. She was a companion of Artemis and had made a vow of chastity.
One day Zeus presented himself to her in the form of Artemis in the woods.
Artemis discovered what had happened when she saw that Callisto was pregnant when she was bathing with the other companions.
Zeus changed Callisto into a bear to shield her against the anger of Artemis. Artemis pierced the bear with arrows.
Callisto died while giving birth to her son Arcas: ancestor of the Arcadians. Callisto became the constellation the Great Bear.
Also Mera, companion of Artemis, slept with Zeus and was killed by Artemis for this.
Their child, born before she died, was Locri, ancestor of the Locrians.
Zeus also loved mortal women. The first was Niobe and their child Argos who founded the city of Argos.
Niobe’s father, Phoroneus, had a sister named Io who was priestess of Hera in Heraeum.
Zeus also fell in love with her. He came to her in the form of a cloud. Hera noticed this but Zeus pleaded innocence.
Zeus changed Io into a cow to protect her. Hera knew and asked for the cow as a gift. She placed the animal under the care of Argus Panoptes ‘who sees all’.
He was a giant. Zeus ordered Hermes to set Io free. Hermes made the giant sleep with his lute and cut off his head.
Hera sent a gadfly to torture the cow Io. Io fled across the world before the gadfly. At Egypt Zeus restored her to human form.
There she bore their son Epaphus. Hera ordered the Curetes to abduct Epaphus. They did this but were punished and slain by Zeus.
Io found her child back in Syria and returned to Egypt where she married King Telegonus.
In later days Io was compared with the goddess Isis and Epaphus with Apis.
Another human love of Zeus was Danae. Danae was locked into an underground chamber of bronze by her father.
An oracle had told her father Acrisius that he would be overthrown by Danae’s son. Therefore he locked her into this chamber.
Zeus was charmed by her and found a way into the chamber disguised as a shower of gold. He often came to her. She bore the son Perseus.
When he knew Acrisius put Danae and Perseus into a chest which was cast into the sea.
The chest came to the island of Seriphus where the fisherman Dictys caught it in his nets. They were saved.
As a gift Zeus gave an adamantine sickle to Perseus for his quest.
Princess Semele was another of Zeus’ human loves. The first time Zeus saw her she was bathing in the river Asopos.
Zeus disguised himself as a handsome young man and came to the palace of her father Cadmus, King of Thebes, to visit her regularly in her bedchamber.
When Hera knew she appeared to Semele disguised as an old nurse and told her to ask Zeus to appear to her in all his might.
Semele did this even though Zeus tried to talk her out of it. The sight of Zeus in all his splendour was too much for mortal eyes and Semele perished.
Zeus saved the child. Their child was Dionysos. Zeus let Dionysos live with Ino, sister of Semele.
Zeus also loved Europa, princess of Phoenicia. Zeus came to her into the form of a bull when she was playing at the waters edge.
Europa approached the animal which carried her to the southern coast of Crete where they made love beneath an evergreen tree at Gortyn.
Zeus gave Europa as a gift a spear which could choose direction, an invincible dog and a bronze man who could breath fire.
Their children were Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. They were adopted by Asterius, King of Crete who became Europa’s husband.
Zeus appointed Minos and Rhadamanthys as judges.
Zeus fell in love with Leda, wife of Tyndareus. Zeus came to her in the form of a swan when she was walking by the river Eurotas pursued by his own eagle.
Leda tried to protect the swan who turned out to be Zeus.
Their children, who came out of eggs, were two twins: the girls Helen and Clythemnestra and the boys Castor and Polydeuces.
In another version of the story Zeus followed the goddess Nemesis, who had some of Aphrodite’s beauty, over the whole world.
She kept changing form to escape him. Zeus overcame him as a swan when she was a goose. Helen of Troy was born out of the egg of the goose.
Zeus also wished to have a son who would one day be a powerful protector for gods and man. He chose the woman Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon.
But she would not sleep with hem while married so he took on the appearance of Amphitryon during his absence. Their twins were Heracles and Iphicles.
On the day Heracles should be born Zeus said before the Olympians that the descendant of Perseus who was about to be born was destined to one day rule in Greece.
Zeus gave Heracles a special shield with twelve snakes’ heads.
In the fight of Heracles against the Ligurians Zeus helped Heracles with raining down stones from the sky which covered the plain of the Crau so that Heracles could cross the river Strymon.
Zeus had to intervene in the quarrel between Heracles and Apollo.
Other affairs and children of Zeus were: the Oceanid Pluto with the child Tantalus, the Danaid Anaxithea with the child Olenus, the Danaid Hesione with the child Orchomenus, Elara (child of Orchomenus who was hidden under the earth by Hera) with the child giant Tityus, Protegenia with the child Opuns, Thyia with the child Macednos, Phthia, Thalia with the child Palici, Thymbris with the child Pan, Dia with the child Pirithous, Ganymedes, Carme with the child Britomartis, Cybele with the child Agdestis, the nymph Calyce with the child Endymion, Cassiopeia with the child Atymnius and Naera with the child Aegle.
There were more. Alexander the Great claimed to have learned from the oracle at Siwah in Egypt that he was the son of Zeus.
Zeus turned Lycaeus into a wolf because Lycaeus sacrificed his son to him.
Zeus resolved to destroy the human race out of anger. Zeus wanted to punish the humans in this flood myth. He sent out the flood to destroy all human life.
There fell so much rain that mankind was drowning. Prometheus advised Deucalion who made him and his wife the only mortals left alive.
Deucalion asked Zeus to renew the human race who sent Themis to help them. The human race was renewed and the anger of Zeus gone.
Deucalion built the temple of Zeus at Athens. There was again peace between gods and men but Prometheus was punished.
Zeus had taken the holy fire from the humans in his anger which Prometheus had given back to the humans.
Prometheus had stolen the holy fire from Zeus and deceived him. Zeus commanded Hephaestus to create Pandora out of clay to bring disaster to humans.
Zeus commanded Hephaestus to bound Prometheus to Mount Caucasus where an eagle picked at him. After thirty years of suffering Zeus let Heracles release him.
Prometheus then told Zeus that if he continued to court the Nereid sea nymph Thetis he would risk to get a son who would dethrone him.
Then Zeus allowed Thetis to marry the moral Peleus. Zeus consented to let Chiron take the place of Prometheus in Hades’ realm.
Prometheus begged Zeus to make Chiron mortal so he could die, because of heavy pain.
Prometheus was allowed on Olympus.
Zeus ordained that Apollo had to be ritually cleansed of the bloodguilt of the python.
Twice the god Apollo arose the wrath of his father Zeus.
The first time was when Apollo took part in the plot of Hera which failed thanks to Thetis, who summoned Briareus who freed Zeus.
Poseidon, Apollo, Hera and Athena had plotted to overthrow Zeus.
Zeus condemned Apollo to go to Troy with Poseidon into the service of King Laomedon for a year. Poseidon and Apollo had to build the walls of Troy.
Zeus bound Hera for a time from great height. In another story Zeus bound Hera because she had tortured the hero Heracles.
He set Hera free when the gods swore an oath to never rebel against him again.
The second time Zeus was angry with Apollo was when Apollo had killed the Cyclopes who had made Zeus’ thunderbolt.
Apollo had killed them because Zeus had murdered Apollo’s son Asclepius with a thunderbolt because Asclepius had managed to make a medicine to restore the dead to life.
This was going against the order of nature. Hades felt wronged and complained to Zeus who agreed with Hades. Mortals had to follow their destiny.
Zeus punished Apollo by sending him to serve King Admetus.
Zeus forgave Ixion for trying to kill Princess Ida’s father and invited him to a feast on Mount Olympus where he then tried to seduce Hera.
Zeus punished Ixion by letting him embrace a cloud in her image. Then Ixion was arrested by Hermes.
He was bound to a fiery wheel where he rolled for eternity. Meanwhile Zeus fathered a son by Dia: Peirithous.
It is said Aphrodite distracted Zeus with her attractiveness. Therefore Zeus inspired in Aphrodite the desire to be with the mortal man Trojan Anchises.
Zeus also blasted Anchises with a thunderbolt because he revealed when drunk his love with Aphrodite which she forbade him to.
To get revenge on Zeus Aphrodite send him chasing after nymphs and mortal women neglecting his wife Hera.
According to Homer Aphrodite was born as the daughter of Zeus and Dione, at Dodona in Epirus.
In a story Zeus tried to rape Aphrodite and in another they slept together and got the son Priapus.
Zeus also decided that Adonis had to spend 1/3rd of the year with Aphrodite and 1/3rd with Persephone and the other part he could choose himself.
In a version of the story Eros is the son of Zeus and Aphrodite. In the myth of Eros and Psyche Eros came to Zeus for permission for Psyche to re-join him.
Zeus consented and conferred immortality to Psyche.
Zeus had promised Persephone to Hades when she was still young.
Zeus placed the narcissus there that Persephone picked, when she was picking flowers with the daughter of Oceanus, which led her to the underworld.
When Demeter let earth refuse to give crops for a year Zeus intervened. He send his messenger Iris to Demeter but she continued with her plan.
Demeter would only give in if she could see her daughter Persephone again. Zeus commanded Hermes to descend into Hades’ kingdom and to return Persephone.
Persephone could only return from Zeus if she had not eaten during her stay in the underworld. Hades had let Persephone eat some pomegranate seeds.
Therefore Zeus decided a compromise: that Persephone should live with her husband Hades in the underworld one half of the year and the other part with Demeter.
In some versions it is 2/3rd of the year with Hades.
Zeus’ sister Hestia was under a vow of Zeus to remain virgin for ever. Therefore she got the richest part of sacrifices from him.
In some versions Zeus gave the Sirens their shape to escape Hades.
Zeus struck Charybdis with a thunderbolt because of stealing the oxen of Heracles and changed her into a whirlpool.
Zeus ordered Calypso to release Odysseus when she kept him on her island for seven years.
Zeus further commanded the Morae to see that the natural order of things was respected.
Zeus sent the Litae after the treacherous Ate who was either a daughter of Eris or Zeus. She suggested to Zeus the vow which caused misery for Heracles.
The Litae were daughters of Zeus.
During the war with the giants Hecate was the ally of Zeus. In a later tradition she was the daughter of Zeus.
In the Ilias is Nyx, the goddess of the night, the only god of who Zeus is afraid.
Hypnos let Zeus drift off to sleep on Mount Ida in one of the works of Heracles, after which there came a storm.
When Zeus awoke he was furious when he saw the storm took Heracles off his course. He threatened to throw Hypnos in Erebus.
Hypnos fled into the arms of Nyx which made Zeus take in his threat. He did not dare go against the goddess Nyx.
Zeus killed King Erichtonius with a thunderbolt.
Zeus showed benevolence toward the Dioscuri on the ship Argo with Jason and the Argonauts during a storm.
In one story Zeus placed the Dioscuri as the constellation Gemini.
Zeus changed certain ants into men after the prayers of Peleus who were called Myrmidons.
Minos asked the aid of Zeus when laying siege to Athens who send a plague to Athens.
Zeus’ intervention restored the flood of the Thriasian plain which Poseidon had flooded over a quarrel with Athena.
Zeus ordered Hermes to return the cattle to Apollo. Zeus wanted to punish Hermes but Apollo forgave him because he played beautifully on his lyre.
Zeus put great strength in the hands of Pylian men in the Homeric epic Pylos.
Zeus changed back Teiresias into a man who had been changed into a woman by Hera. Then Zeus and Hera argued if men or women had more pleasure from sex.
Hera said men while Zeus said women. Zeus suggested to ask Teiresias who replied women had nine times more pleasure.
Hera was then angry and made Teiresias blind. Zeus let him live for seven generations with the power of prophecy as a compensation.
Zeus gave the island of Rhodos to the sun god Helios as a compensation for forgetting him when dividing the universe.
Salmoneus thought himself Zeus’ equal. Zeus killed him with a lightning bolt.
Zeus commanded Paris to make the judgment on Mount Ida which led to the fall of Troy.
Zeus changed Atalanta and Hippomenes into lions.
According to Sophocles the gods were the four elements where Zeus was the element fire. Hera was air.
Zeus advised Atreus to challenge Thyestes.
Zeus banished his son Tantalus to the underworld because he had given the gods human flesh to eat.
Some claim that Zeus made Achilles immortal.
He was worshipped at elevated spots like Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia, Mount Apesas in Argolis, Parnassus and Hymettus in Attica, Helicon in Boeotia, Pelion in Thessaly, Olympus in Macedonia, Pangaea in Thrace, Ida in Crete and more places.
His most famous sanctuary was that of Dodona in Epirus. The oracle was a sacred oak. In AD 120 Hadrian completed the temple of Zeus.
In Roman mythology Zeus is Jupiter.
The goddess of dawn. She was the youngest child of the Titans Hyperion and Theia.
Eos drove in her chariot along the sky before her brother: the sun god Helios, and after her sister: the moon goddess Selene.
Eos became one of the goddesses of Mount Olympus but not one of the twelve main gods in the Council.
She was said to have rosy fingers, snowy eyelids, to rest on a golden throne and to have a saffran coloured tunique.
She is displayed young and lovely.
She lived east in the world where she got on her purple chariot with two horses at dawn.
The names of the horses were Phaëthon (shine) and Lampos (brillance). From there she went to Olympus before her brother Helios and after her sister Selene. When the sun had risen Eos changed to Hemera, goddess of the day.
Eos accompanied Hemera to the west under the name Hespera. Often she appeared as a winged goddess and sometimes with an urn from which fell the morning dew.
Sometimes she rode on the horse Pegasus with in her hand a torch.
Eos had an affair with the god Ares. Then Aphrodite, lover of Ares, cursed Eos. The curse was that Eos would continually desire mortals.
First she got together with the Titan Astraeus: the wind of dawn.
Astraeus and Eos had the children Hesperus: the morning star, Astraea, Phosporus and the four winds: Boreas, Zephyrus, Eurus and Notus. According to some they got all stars.
Then Eos loved Tithonus, Prince of Troy and son of Laomedon.
Eos married Tithonus and asked Zeus to make him immmortal. She forgot to ask for everlasting youth thus Tithonus became old in his immortality.
Eos gave him celestial ambrosia but it did not work. Tithonus was left by Eos when he did not look like a man anymore.
Legends say he had dried up to a cicada, or was transformed into a cicada by Zeus.
Tithonus and Eos had the sons Memnon and Emathion. Memnon was killed by Achilles.
Eos obtained immortality for Memnon.
Lovers of Eos were then Cleitus, the hunter Orion, Cephalus and Ganymedes.
Cleitus was the grandson of the soothsayer Melampus. Eos was admitted to Olympus by Melampus.
Cephalus was the son of Hermes or Deion. He was already married to Procris. Eos saw him hunting on Mount Hymettus.
They went to Syria.
Eos let Cephalus prove that Procris was unfaithful by giving Cephalus a disguise in which he tried to seduce Procris and he offered her many jewels. Procris gave in.
In another version she had an affair with King Minos.
Then Procris retired and went into the protection of Artemis. Artemis gave Procris a disguise which made Cephalus gave in. Then Procris and Cephalus got back together.
Procris stayed very untrusting and died as a result of it: hiding in a thicket Cephalus killed her by accident with a javelin.
With Cephalus, or Tithonus, Eos had the child Phaethon. Phaethon was carried off as a child by the goddess Aphrodite and became the nocturnal guardian of her sacred temples.
Zeus did not agree with Eos loving Ganymedes and made himself his lover.
Eos travelled to the holy place of Artemis on the island Delos or Ortygia with the giant Orion, son of Poseidon. This angered Artemis who killed Orion.
Eos then transformed Orion into a constellation that would announce the rain season.
In another version Apollo misled Artemis after which she killed Orion by accident. Apollo had sent a scorpion after Orion. Orion had sought refugee with Eos.
Out of sorrow Artemis put Orion in the sky.
Zeus forbid Selene, Eos and Helios to shine for a while so he could find the herb that Gaea had made to make her Giant children invisible to human eyes.
Eos opened the gates of Olympus together with the Horae.
The Roman equivalent of Eos was Aurora.
Selene was goddess of the moon. Her brother was Helios (the sun) and her sister was Eos (the dawn).
Their parents were Theia and Hyperion.
Selene was one of the goddesses of Mount Olympus but not one of the twelve main gods in the Council.
Selene was also called Mene. She wore a golden crown with which she gave light in the night. She began her journey every evening when her brother Helios had finished his.
The divine Selene of the broad wings did this after bathing her body in the ocean and putting on some splendid robes. Then she rose into the sky in her chariot drawn by shining steeds. Sometimes these were mulls or oxes.
Helios and Selene decided over the temperature of the air. They were associated with healing diseases and diverting death. Selene could also do magic and made love amulets.
With Zeus Selene had three daughters: Pandia, Erse (the dew) and Nemea. Some say the Nemean lion was a child of them. Killing this lion was the first labour of Heracles.
The god Pan has seduced Selene. He took the form of a ram when he came to her in the woods of Arcadia.
Selene fell in love with the shepherd Prince Endymion of Elis, son of Zeus (in some versions) and the nymph Calyce.
Endymion was tracking the phases of the moon.
Endymion got youth and immortality from Zeus but Zeus consented only if Endymion would sleep eternally. Endymion accepted to live in eternal sleep.
Every night Selene visited Endymion at Mount Latmus where he lived. They have gotten fifty children. One of these children was Naxos.
In another version the eternal sleep was a punishment from Zeus because Endymion was after Hera.
Zeus forbid Selene, Eos and Helios to shine for a while so he could find the herb that Gaea had made to make her Giant children invisible to human eyes.
Zeus also asked them not to shine when he was visiting Alcmene, disguised as Amphitryon.
In Egyptian Mythology Isis, goddess of the moon among other things, is sometimes identified with Selene.
Hera was more similar to Isis in being the mother goddess, the wife and protectress of the family.
The Egyptian moon god was Khensu.
The Roman version of Selene was Luna. Diana was the moon when it was sickle-shaped and Hecate when it was absent.