:: Greek Mythology: Greece Gods of the Mount Olympus
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Greek Mythology: The Greece Gods of the Mount Olympus in the Greek Mythology
After having overthrown his father, Cronus, Zeus divided the universe, their father’s kingdom, in parts he shared between himself and his brothers. Poseidon gained the sea, Hades the underworld and Zeus the heavens. He founded his proper kingdom, on the top of the Mount Olympus, were he lived with his sisters, brothers and children.
The Olympian Gods were living on the Mount Olympus, associated, today, with the higher peak of the tallest mountain range, Olympos, in Greece. It is located 100 kilometres southwest of Thessaloniki, in the north of Greece.
The most famous and important Olympian Gods inhabiting Olympus are twelve, but other minor deities and gods were also welcome to live there.
 Zeus
 Lord of the heavens and king of all gods, Zeus is the most famous ancient god. He was worshiped everywhere in Greece and people loved him and feared him in the same time.
He is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea; because he is the supreme ruler he is represented as a personification of law, justice and morals, which made him the spiritual leader for gods and men. His weapon is a thunderbolt which he used against everyone who displeased him. Zeus controlled thunder, lightning and rain, which made him also a weather god.
Zeus is married to Hera and is famous for his many infidelities to her, being the first and most infidel husband in history.
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Poseidon
 Lord of the sea, he is the second in power amongst the gods. His weapon is a trident which he uses, when he is in great anger, to strike the ground, causing earthquakes, drowning and ship wrecks. He is a very moody and querulous divinity, often really violent, bursting into furious anger; however, sometimes he can be a real help to those who ask for his good will.
In the same way as his brother Zeus, Poseidon is objectifying masculinity, and therefore had many love affairs and fathered numerous children.
His first wife was a Nereid (nymphs of the sea) called Amphitrite, with whom he had a son, Triton, a creature half-human and half-fish. Amphitrite was one of the fifty daughters born from the union of the ocean nymph, Doris (daughter of Oceanus and Thetys) and the Old Man of the Sea, Nereus (son of Pontus, son of Gaea). Poseidon’s other lovers were Medusa (one of the three Gorgons) with whom he conceived Chrysaor and Pegasus (a winged horse); he raped Caenis (who, after her rape, asked the god to transform her into an invincible man, Caeneus), Amymone and Aethra who gave birth to the famous Theseus (once King of Athens, Theseus is the hero who killed the Minotaur in Crete).
Other children of Poseidon are Eumolpus, Polyphemus, Orion (a constellation has his name in honour of his hunting skills), King Amycus, Proteus (a prophetic sea divinity), Agenor (the father of Europa), Belus, Pelias and Busiris, the King of Egypt.
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Hades
Another of Zeus’ brothers, he is the Lord of the underworld. Hades is a greedy and rich god, thanks to the precious metals mined from under the earth. His symbols are a sceptre and the helmet that the Cyclopes gave him, which can turn him invisible whenever he wishes to. Hades is assisted by various demoniac helpers such as Thanatos , the personification of Death, Hypnos, the twin brother of Thanatos, the winged personification of sleep, and Charon, the ferryman of the dead, who takes their souls in his boat to cross the river Acheron and takes them to the other side, in the kingdom of Hades. There is also the famous Cerberus, the three-headed dragon-tailed dog who guards the gates of the underworld. The ferocious Erinyes, avengers of the wrong, were his favourite guests.
Hades’ kingdom is divided into two regions: Erebus, where the souls of the dead come as soon as they die, and Tartarus, the deeper region.
Many heroes of the Greek mythology have descended to Hades’ kingdom, either to question him or the dead souls or trying to free some of them.
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Hestia
She is the eldest sister of Zeus, goddess of the House, the domestic life. She is a virgin goddess and the gentlest and most charitable of all Olympians Gods.
She usually plays no part in Greek myths.
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Hera
She is the sister and wife of Zeus. Queen of the Olympian Gods, she was also worshipped as the goddess of marriage and birth.
Zeus, after trying unsuccessfully to seduce her, turned himself into an ill cuckoo; Hera took pity of the bird and placed it close to her breast to warm it; then Zeus suddenly retook his proper shape and raped her. She married him to cover her shame.
Hera gave birth to Hephaestus (god of fire and volcanoes), Hebe (goddess of youth) and Ares (god of war).
Most mythological tales concerning Hera are about her jealousy of Zeus’s various infidelities. Whenever she discovered one of her husband’s love affairs, she would enter in great fury and rage and punish her rivals and their children. Zeus had to invent different sorts of stratagems to hide his lovers and illegitimate children.
Hera’s attributes are a diadem and a veil. She is described and portrayed as a majestic, solemn woman.
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Aris
He is the god of war, a very handsome and tall figure, but very cruel and bloodstained; nevertheless, he was quite a coward. Whenever he ran into a battle bringing Pain, Panic, Oblivion and Famine and when hurt he would run to his father, Zeus, to be healed. Hera and Zeus were both quite disgusted of their cowardly son.
A myth says that he was caught by his kind brother, Hephaestus, in an act of adultery with his wife, the beautiful Aphrodite, and as a revenge made Ares look ridicule in public.
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Athena
 Athena, or Pallas-Athena, is the virgin goddess of wisdom, war, intelligent activity, justice, arts and literature; she is one of the most famous gods in Greek mythology.
She was born in a very original way: Zeus fell in love with Metis, a Titan of wisdom and knowledge, and after chasing her for a long time, he managed to make love to her. Metis become pregnant but an Oracle said to Zeus that her first child will be a girl, but the second would be a boy who will overthrow Zeus, as had happened to his father Cronus and his grandfather Uranus. To avoid the prophecy, Zeus ate Metis, and it is said that it is she who was the source of Zeus’s wisdom, giving him advices from his belly. After a while, Zeus started to have huge headaches. Advised from Hermes, Hephaestus took a wedge and split open Zeus’s head. Athena came out from it, fully armed and wearing her helmet. Because of her way of birth, she becomes the favourite child of Zeus, who was allowing her to use his weapons, including his thunderbolt.
Athena gave her name and became owner of the city of Athens after winning a contest with Poseidon, in which she offered to the city the gift of an olive tree, symbol of her and her city.
Athena’s companion is the goddess of Victory, Nike, her attribute is the owl and she is wearing on her breast the protective device of the Aegis.
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Apollo
 Apollo is the god of music, who delighted everyone with his performance at the golden lyre, the god of healing, and the god of light and truth. He was also known as the Archer, as he was a master in archer and excellent athlete, and for being the god of prophecy: the divination centre of Delphi is dedicated to Apollo.
He is the son of Zeus and Leto (daughter of the Titans Phoebe and Coeus) and his twin sister is Artemis, goddess of hunting and wilderness. Mythology said that when Hera found out about her husband’s infidelity with Leto, she forced Zeus’s lover to roam the earth to find somewhere to give birth; Hera had forbidden Leto to rest anywhere on the earth, the islands and the sea; the only place for Leto to go was Delos, which was then a floating island and not one of Hera’s prohibitions. Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis there. Since then, Delos became one of the most important sanctuaries dedicated to Apollo.
Apollo’s tree is the laurel; his bird is the crow and his animal the dolphin.
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Aphrodite
 Aphrodite is the goddess of love, desire, sex and beauty.
There are two different versions of her birth: the first one is that she was born from Uranus’s genitals thrown to the sea by Cronus when he overthrew his father; foam (in Greek, aphros) was created by the severed genitals in the sea and Aphrodite aroused from it.
The second myth of the goddess’s birth comes from Homer, who claims that she is the daughter of Zeus and the goddess Dione.
After Aphrodite’s birth, Zeus, afraid that all the gods would fight over her, married her to Hephaestus, who was the steadiest of the gods and who made, as a gift for his wife, a magic golden girdle; every time she wore it, no one could resist her.
Aphrodite had many lovers among which both mortals and gods. Her most famous mortal lover was the extremely handsome Adonis.
Her sons are Eros, the god of love and sexual desire, whose father is Ares, Anteros, the god of return or opposite love who punishes those who doesn’t love back, Hymenaeus, a son of Dionysus and god of marriage, and Aeneas, a Trojan hero, founder of Roman culture and son of Aphrodite’s Trojan lover Anchises.
Aphrodite’s tree is the myrtle; her birds are the dove, the swan and the sparrow. She is always accompanied by the three Graces, Aglaea (Splendor), Euphrosyne (Mirth) and Thalia (Good Cheer), who are the personifications of charm and beauty in nature and human life.
The Aphrodisiac festival was held in honour of the beautiful goddess in various parts of Greece, especially in Corinth and Athens. During these festivals, the priestesses were having sexual intercourses with men to worship there goddess Aphrodite.
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Hermes
 Hermes is the cleverest of all the Olympian Gods and Messenger of the gods; that is why he’s wearing winged golden sandals, a winged hat and a magic wand. He is the god of commerce and thieves, the guide to the souls of the dead to the underworld (psychopomp) and was the one who brought dreams to the mortals. He invented the lyre, the musical scale, astronomy and weights and measures.
Hermes is the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia (one of the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione).
As many of the gods, Hermes also had many love affairs with goddesses, nymphs and mortals. Pan, half man half goat, was born of his union with Dryope (King Dryops’s daughter). Abderus is also Hermes’s son; he was the companion of the hero Heracles. Hermaphroditus was born from the union of Hermes and Aphrodite and was an androgynous deity.
Hermes was worshiped in the entire Greece, especially in Arcadia; the festivals that took place in his honour were called Hermoea.
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Artemis
 Goddess of chastity, virginity, hunting and wilderness, Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto and Apollo’s twin sister. Like her brother, she hunts with silver arrows. She is associated to the moon.
When she was just a child, Artemis asked Zeus to give her eternal virginity; all her companions, mostly nymphs (lovely female spirits of nature) were as well virgins. She was very protective of her and her friends’ purity and severely punished every man who tried to attempt or dishonour her and them.
The goddess was very possessive and punished with great anger and wrath everyone who disobeyed her wishes. The great king Agamemnon was one of her victims; after he killed one of her sacred deer, she stopped the winds when he tried to sail for the Trojan war; the only way for him to undo the spell was to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to the goddess; at the last minute, Artemis exchanged the girl with one of her deer and took her to the land of the Taurus to serve her as a priestess.
One of her most elaborated temples was in Ephesus.
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Hephaestus
Hephaestus is the god of fire, volcanoes and the forge, patron of all craftsmen; he is the kindest and most peaceful of all the Olympian Gods. He is the son of Hera who conceived him without male fertilization, in response to Athena’s birth. Because he was really ugly, the only god to be physically unattractive, Hera threw him from Mount Olympus into the sea, breaking his legs, which is why he is lame. The nymphs saved him and took him to the island of Lesvos. When he grew up, Hephaestus, in an act of vengeance for his mother’s action, made her a golden chair; when Hera sat on it, she became prisoner of the chair. The other gods called Hephaestus to sent free Hera but he refused to. He released his mother only when Zeus gave him Aphrodite as a wife.
Hephaestus was the best craftsman, and he made wonderful items for the gods, helped by the Cyclopes, who were his assistants. Some of his works were Zeus’s thunderbolts and sceptre, Athena’s aegis, Eros’s arrows, the golden chariot of the sun god Helios and the invincible armour of the hero Achilles. He also helped create the first woman, Pandora (all gifts), a gift from Zeus to Prometheus, for his race only included male gender. She was the revenge of Zeus over Prometheus, as she accidentally released from a supernatural jar the evils of the world on mankind…
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