Zeus

Greek Mythology is the set of stories about the gods, goddesses, heroes and rituals of Ancient Greeks.
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Greek Mythology was part of the religion in Ancient Greece. The most popular Greek Mythology figures
include Greek Gods like Zeus, Poseidon & Apollo, Greek Goddesses like Aphrodite, Hera & Athena and
Titans like Atlas.

Popular Greek Myths include the Creation of Man by Prometheus, while Perseus and Hercules are
amongst the most popular Greek Heroes.

Greek Mythology

Olympian Gods

Aphrodite :: Apollo :: Ares :: Artemis :: Athena :: Hades :: Hephaestus :: Hera :: Hermes :: Hestia ::
Poseidon :: Zeus

Titans

Asteria :: Astraeus :: Atlas :: Clymene :: Coeus :: Crius :: Cronus :: Dione :: Eos :: Epimetheus :: Eurybia ::
Eurynome :: Hyperion :: Iapetus :: Lelantos :: Menoetius :: Metis :: Mnemosyne :: Oceanus :: Ophion ::
Pallas :: Perses :: Phoebe :: Prometheus :: Rhea :: Selene :: Styx :: Tethys :: T

hea :: Themis
Zeus is the Olympian god of the sky and the thunder, the king of all other gods and men, and,
consequently, the chief figure in Greek mythology. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he is probably most
famous for his infidelity to his sister and wife, Hera. Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Dionysus,
Heracles, Helen of Troy, and the Muses are all children of his numerous erotic affairs. Hephaestus, Hebe,
and Ares are his legitimate children.

Zeus’ Role

Name

Zeus’ name is thought to have originated from the Ancient Greek word for “bright.” The word has a
close connection with dies, which is the Latin word for “day” and has a very ancient history. Therefore,
many mythologists believe that Zeus is one of the oldest Greek gods.

Portrayal and Symbolism

Usually, Zeus is portrayed with a scepter in one hand and a thunderbolt in the other – both symbols of
his authority. Sometimes he wears a crown of oak leaves – the oak was deemed to be his sacred tree.
Homer repeatedly describes him as “aegis-bearing”: the Aegis was an enormous shield which Zeus
frequently carried with him, lending it to his daughter Athena from time to time. In addition, he owns a
pet: a giant golden eagle called Aetos Dios.

s the Olympian goddess of wisdom and war and the adored patroness of the city of Athens. A virgin
deity, she was also – somewhat paradoxically – associated with peace and handicrafts, especially
spinning and weaving. Majestic and stern, Athena surpassed everybody in both of her main domains. In
fact, even Ares feared her; and all Greek heroes asked her for help and advice.

Athena’s Role

Name
Athena’s name is closely linked with the name of the city of Athens. The Ancient Greeks debated
whether she got her name after the city or the other way around. Modern scholars usually agree that
the former was the case.

Portrayal and Symbolism

In art and literature, Athena is usually depicted as a majestic lady, with a beautiful, but stern face,
unsmiling full lips, grey eyes and a graceful build, emanating power and authority. She is always regally
clad in either a chiton or a full armor. In the former case, she is sometimes represented with a spindle. In
the latter case, she wears an elaborately crested Corinthian helmet and holds a long spear in one hand
and an aegis in the other.

Hermes is the winged herald and messenger of the Olympian gods. In addition, he is also a divine
trickster, and the god of roads, flocks, commerce, and thieves. A precocious newborn, he invented the
lyre and stole Apollo’s cattle on the very first day of his life. Hermes was the only Olympian capable of
crossing the border between the living and the dead.

Hermes’ Role

Name

Most scholars think that Hermes’ name derives from the Greek word herma, which means “a heap of
stones” or “cairn.” Cairns were a common sight in the Ancient world, serving as trail- or boundary-
markers. Some say that the first cairn was erected by the gods, when they cast all their stones in favor of
Hermes, during his trial for slaying Argus Panoptes.

Portrayal and Symbolism

Archaic artists portrayed Hermes as a mature bearded man. However, later on, he was represented as
an athletically built nude youth, immediately recognizable by four attributes: a broad-brimmed hat
(petasos), winged sandals (talaria), a purse, and a herald’s wand (kerykeion, or caduceus in Latin).
Hermes’ wand – a short-winged staff, entangled by two identical serpents – had magical powers,
bringing sleep upon people or rousing them from it. It is very similar and frequently confused with the
Rod of Asclepius, which is why Hermes’ wand is often incorrectly used as a symbol of medicine.

The Graeae were three sisters in Greek mythology, who shared one eye and one tooth among them.
Their names were Deino (dread), Enyo (horror) and Pemphredo (alarm). They were the daughters of the
sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and sisters of the Gorgons. They took turns using their eye and their tooth.
They appeared in the myth of Perseus, who was trying to find out where three magical objects were
located, in order to kill Medusa. He went to the Graeae's cave, and stole their eye. He then told them he
would return it if they told him where the three objects were.

Medusa as one of the three Gorgons, daughters of Phorcys and Ceto, sisters of the Graeae, Echidna, and
Ladon – all dreadful and fearsome beasts. A beautiful mortal, Medusa was the exception in the family,
until she incurred the wrath of Athena, either due to her boastfulness or because of an ill-fated love
affair with Poseidon. Transformed into a vicious monster with snakes for hair, she was killed by Perseus,
who afterward used her still potent head as a weapon, before gifting it to Athena.

Family · Portrayal

Medusa – whose name probably comes from the Ancient Greek word for “guardian” – was one of the
three Gorgons, daughters of the sea gods Phorcys and Ceto, and sisters of the Graeae, Echidna, and
Ladon. All of Medusa’s siblings were monsters by birth and, even though she was not, she had the
misfortune of being turned into the most hideous of them all.

From then on, similarly to Euryale and Stheno, her older Gorgon sisters, Medusa was depicted with
bronze hands and wings of gold. Poets claimed that she had a great boar-like tusk and tongue lolling
between her fanged teeth. Writhing snakes were entwining her head in place of hair. Her face was so
hideous and her gaze so piercing that the mere sight of her was sufficient to turn a man to stone.

Poseidon and Perseus

It wasn’t always like that. Medusa – the only mortal among the Gorgon sisters – was also distinguished
from them by the fact that she alone was born with a beautiful face. Ovid especially praises the glory of
her hair, “most wonderful of all her charms.” The great sea god Poseidon seems to have shared this
admiration, for once he couldn’t resist the temptation and impregnated Medusa in a temple of Athena.
Enraged, the virgin goddess transformed Medusa’s enchanting hair into a coil of serpents, turning the
youngest Gorgon into the monster we described above.

Soon after this, trying to get rid of Perseus, Polydectes, the king of Seriphos, sent the great hero on a
quest which he believed must be his final one. “Fetch me the head of Medusa,” commanded Polydectes.
With the help of Athena and Hermes, and after compelling the Graeae for Medusa’s whereabouts,
Perseus finally reached the fabled land of the Gorgons, located either in the far west, beyond the outer
Ocean, or in the midst of it, on the rocky island of Sarpedon. Medusa was asleep and Perseus, using the
reflection in Athena’s bronze shield as a guide (so as to not look directly at the Gorgons and be turned
into stone), managed to cut off her head with his sickle.
The Gorgons were three monsters in Greek mythology, daughters of Echidna and Typhon, the mother
and father of all monsters respectively. Their names were Stheno, Euryale, and the most famous of
them, Medusa. Although the first two were immortal, Medusa was not. Weirdly, Medusa was also not
considered the child of Echidna and Typhon, but of Phorkys and Keto. Their faces were ugly and their
hair was replaced by snakes; anyone who would gaze into their eyes would be turned to stone instantly.