This is a brief and incomplete set of notes on the Greek gods. Its only purpose is to suggest some general ideas concerning Greek myths and help you avoid outdated generalizations and preconceptions. The view of myths represented here is one widely accepted nowadays by scholars in several related disciplines. Those who have brought the greatest clarity to the study of myth are students of Greek religion, especially Walter Burkert, as well as other scholars who integrate in their approach the findings of anthropology, modern views of ancient history, and literary criticism. Of course these notes will not replace the specific information you may need in order to understand your readings; for that purpose you should refer to notes in the back of some translations, online materials for which there are links on these pages, and to reference works such as Grimal's Dictionary of Classical Mythology

Greek myths and cults were local. As the city-states of the historical period developed, each maintained its own traditions concerning the god or gods (I will say "god" meaning "god or goddess") that protected them and the heroes who had founded them or had delivered them from some threat or calamity. Athena, for example, was the goddess chosen by the Athenians over Poseidon (who also aspired to the title of patron of the city) because she offered them a better gift, the olive tree. Hera was worshipped as the highest deity in Argos. Apollo had his great temple and oracle in Delphi. There were many more than twelve gods, but the twelve (more or less) known as Olympians attained panhellenic prestige and were worshipped in many cities. This is especially, of course, the case of Zeus, the supreme god. Remember, however, that ancient Greece was full of minor gods and goddesses, and of heroes, ghosts, and spirits. There were many different versions of myths of many gods and heroes, and they were given worship by different groups and in different places.

A few words about cult and worship are indispensable. Not only gods but heroes as well were object of cult. There were public altars, sanctuaries, and temples in public places, where public religious ceremonies were performed. In Athens, for instance, the Panathenaic Festival was an annual celebration including a procession, contests, and the presentation of a new robe to Athena. Once a year there was a great procession from Athens to the important sanctuary of Demeter at Eleusis. But hearths also stood in the homes, and statues of gods at crossroads or at the entrance to houses, where private rituals were carried out (for instance, an animal might be sacrificed to a god or hero in order to obtain his protection).

The following roster of gods mentions only some of their main attributes and powers, and refers both to myths and cults. Heroes are not included.

Zeus: weather-god, supreme master of the universe after he defeated gods of earlier generations. He had immense sexual power: myth has him mating incessantly with immortals and mortals. Some of his children were also gods or great heroes. He had an oracle at Dodona, great temples at Olympia and Athens. In the translations that you will read you will find that he is sometimes referred to as "the god" or "god." He had many different names according to the particular aspect of life that he ruled or protected: e.g. Zeus Xenios (Protector of Guests), Zeus Boulaios (Protector of the Council, in Athens).

Hera: sister and wife of Zeus. They were the most important "holy couple." In myth she appears as a jealous and vengeful wife. When Athena was born without a mother, from the head of Zeus, out of spite she bore Hephaistos without a father. She also engendered a terrible monster, Typhaon. She hated Dionysos and Herakles because they were bastard sons of Zeus. A very ancient temple of Hera stood in Argos, and at Olympia women celebrated their own races in her honor.

Poseidon: god of the sea and of horses. He caused earthquakes, one of his names was Earthshaker. A brother of Zeus, Poseidon was to some extent Zeus's counterpart, for the world was divided between the two of them and Hades. Zeus was given authority over the sky, Poseidon at sea, Hades in the underworld. Earth and Mount Olympus (the abode of the gods) were to be held in common by all three. Poseidon was worshipped in Corinth, but an imposing temple of Poseidon was built also near Athens, even though (or perhaps because) he lost to Athena the contest to become the city's patron.

Apollo: god of the lyre and music, often surrounded by the Muses or Graces. Also the god of prophecy: his oracle at Delphi was a place of panhellenic pilgrimage. He was a punishing god (had bow and arrows) yet also a healer and a purifier who would tell a transgressor what to do to be cleansed from the pollution of a crime. Initiation rituals of male adolescents were inspired by Apollo and the groups training for initiation invoked him. In myth this god himself seems to act as an adolescent: many stories tell of his frustrated loves.

Artemis: a virgin goddess, twin sister of Apollo. Also had a bow and arrow, and with them joined her brother in punishing transgressors, or punished on her own those who attempted to impose upon her their sexual favors. She was a goddess of girls' initiation groups and initiation rituals. Artemis was a huntress who protected, however, the young of wild animals. Paradoxically, women in labor invoked Artemis, asking her to help them.

Hermes: a traveller and messenger among the gods, and a trickster. He protected herds and flocks and gave prosperity. Was thought in myth to convey the dead to the underworld. Hermes is a god of boundaries. Private sacrificial rituals took place at stone pillars ("herms") with a bearded head and an erect phallus. Hermes carries the herald's staff, actually the image of copulating snakes taken over from an ancient Near Eastern tradition.

Athena: goddess of war, daughter of Zeus who was born from his head when he devoured her mother Metis (= Intelligence). In myth she protected heroes and fostered tasks that required inventive skill (building chariots, ships, etc.) She was also the mentor of women in their domestic task of weaving at the loom. Patron deity of Athens. Her temple, the Parthenon, stood majestically on the Acropolis (top of hill where temples and statues of gods were built).

Aphrodite: in her most widespread myth, born from the foam created when Ouranos (a primeval god of the sky) was castrated by his son Cronos, and his genitals fell into the water of the sea. Goddess of love. Sometimes accompanied by Eros, who was not always an independent god. In a myth with Oriental parallels she mourns the death of a young lover, Adonis. Important cults were connected with this myth.

Hephaistos: god of the forge, i. e. of fire that is not destructive but serves to melt metals and build marvelous objects. Myth makes him lame and tells how he was kicked down from Olympus (by his mother Hera) because he was a misfit or because he interfered in a quarrel between his parents. He creates in myth robots, gold-inlaid crowns, headbands, and in the Iliad he fashions the shield of Achilles. Hephaistos also made a gift for his mother intended to punish her: a pair of sandals which upended Hera.

Ares: god of war, destructive, frightening. According to Zeus in the Iliad, everybody hated him. There were few myths concerning Ares, and his cult was rare.

Demeter: goddess of grain, usually represented, and worshiped, with her daughter by Zeus, Persephone or Kore (= "the Girl"). When Persephone was carried off by Hades, the god of the underworld, Demeter was inconsolable. While she wandered, searching for her daughter, nothing grew in the fields. Eventually a compromise was reached so that Persephone spent two thirds of the year with her mother and one third with her husband Hades in the underworld. Marriage and death are thus connected in this myth and in the poetry inspired by it. Festivals in honor of Demeter were widespread. Women honored her with rituals in which fertility of the earth and sexuality were identified.

Dionysos: god of wine and ecstasy, of masks, and of the theater. In myths he was represented as coming from far away (even though there is evidence that his cult dates from Mycenean times), as punishing those who rejected his cult, and as a god who inspired ritual madness, especially in his women followers, the "maenads." Myth says that these mythic maenads went at night in procession to the mountains, where they danced frantically, killed and dismembered animals and ate their flesh raw. There is no evidence to suggest that anything of the sort took place in prehistoric or historical times, yet in the past it was customary to confuse the myth of Dionysos with the history of his religion. There are those who still cling to such notions. We do know about an important act of public worship of Dionysos: the annual dramatic festival in Athens.
 

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