THE GREAT

Olympians
 Jupiter
Zeus was the supreme ruler of
Mt. Olympus, the Lord of the Sky,
the Rain-god, and the Cloud
Gatherer. His power was greater
than that of all the other divinities
together.
 Jupiter
His breastplate was the Aegis. His bird
was the Eagle, his tree the Oak. His
oracle was Dodona in the land of the
oak trees.
 Juno
She was Zeus’s wife and sister. She was
the protector of marriage, and
married women were her peculiar care.
 Juno

The cow and peacock

were sacred to her. Argos
was her favorite city.
 Neptune
He was the ruler of the
Sea. His wife was Amphitrite,
a granddaughter of the Titan
Oceanus.
 Neptune
He was commonly called “Earth-shaker”
and was always shown carrying his trident, a
three-pronged spear, with which he would
shake and shatter whatever he pleased.
 Neptune
He had some connection with the
bulls as well as his horses, but the
bull was connected with many other
gods too. His symbols were
trident, dolphins, and horses.
 Pluto
He was also called Pluto, the God of Wealth, of
precious metals hidden in the earth. He had a far-
famed cap or helmet which made whoever wore it
invisible.
 Pluto
His wife was Persephone (Proserpine)
whom he carried away from the earth
and made Queen of the Lower
World. He was King of the Dead –
not Death himself.
Minerva
She was the Goddess of the City,
the protector of civilized life, of
handicrafts and agriculture; and the
inventor of bridle. She was also the
Goddess of War.
Minerva
She was the daughter of Zeus.
No mother bore her. Full-grown
and in full armor, she sprang
from his head.
Minerva
She was Zeus’s favorite child. He
trusted her to carry the awful aegis,
his buckler, and his devastating
weapon, the thunderbolt. Athens
was her special city; olive was her
tree; owl was her bird.
 Minerva
The word oftenest used to describe
her is “gray-eyed” or “flashing-eyed.”
Her temple was the Parthenon. In
later poetry, she is the embodiment
of wisdom, reason, and purity.
 Apollo
He is the God of Light and Truth. He
has been called “the most Greek of
all gods.” He is the master musician.
He is also the lord of the silver bow,
the Archer-god, far-shooting; the
Healer.
 Apollo
He was called Delian from Delos,
the island of his birth, and
Pythian from his killing of a
serpent, Python, which once lived
in the caves of Parnassus.
 Apollo
Another name often given him was
“The Lycian,” variously explained as
meaning Wolf-god, God of Light, and
God of Lycia. His name Phoebus
means brilliant or shining.
 Apollo
The laurel was his tree. Many
creatures were sacred to him,
chief among them the dolphin
and the crow.
 Diana
She was the Lady of Wild
Things, and Huntsman-in-
chief to the gods. She was
the protectress of the
dewy youth.
 Diana
The cypress was sacred to her and all
wild animals, especially the deer.
Venus
The Goddess of Love and Beauty.
Her name was explained as meaning
“seafoam-risen.” Aphros is seafoam
in Greek. The myrtle was her tree;
the dove her bird; sometimes, the
sparrow and the swan, too.
 Mercury
He is the God of Commerce and the
Market, protector of traders. Of all the gods,
he was the shrewdest and most cunning; in
fact he was the Master Thief.
 Mercury
With the ability to move freely between
worlds, he also served as Divine Herald –
the guide of the souls of the dead to the
underworld and the afterlife.
 Mercury
On his feet were winged sandals; wings were
on his low-crowned hat, and on his magic
wand, the Caduceus. He was Zeus’s son and
Messenger, who “flies as fleet as thought to
do his bidding.”
 Mars
The God of War, son of Zeus and Hera, was
described by Homer as murderous,
bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals;
and strangely, a coward, too, who bellows with
pain and runs away when he is wounded.
 Mars
He had no cities where he was
worshipped. The Greeks said
vaguely that he came from
Thrace, home of rude, fierce
people in the northeast of
Greece. His bird was the vulture;
his animal was the dog.
 Vesta
Hestia was the virgin goddess of
the hearth, family, and domestic
life. Her name meant both a
house and a hearth, symbolizing
the home and its residents.
 Vulcan
He was the Greek god of fire,
blacksmiths, sculptors, metallurgy,
volcanoes; thus, he is symbolized
with a hammer, an anvil and a pair
of tongs.
Vulcan
According to Homer's epics, the
Iliad and the Odyssey, he was the
son of Zeus and Hera. However,
Hesiod informs us that Hera bore
Hephaestus alone.
 Vulcan
According to an account, after
Hephaestus was born, Hera threw him
from Olympus because he was
crippled; he fell into the ocean and
was raised by Thetis and Eurynome.
 Vulcan
He was later accepted back to
Olympus, and became the craftsman
of the gods, creating majestic armors,
shields and weapons. Among the
perfectly beautiful immortals, he only
was ugly.
Ceres
Demeter was the goddess of
agriculture. She was the daughter of
Cronus and Rhea. Sacred to her are
livestock and agricultural products,
wheat and the poppy.
Ceres
Demeter was intimately associated
with the seasons. Her daughter
Persephone was abducted by Hades
to be his wife in the underworld.
 Bacchus
He was the god of fertility and
wine, later considered a patron of
the arts. He had a dual nature;
on one hand, he brought joy and
divine ecstasy; or he would bring
brutal and blinding rage, thus
reflecting the dual nature of wine.
 Bacchus
The festival for Dionysus was held
in the spring when vines would
start bearing leaves. It became
one of the most important events
of the year
THE EROTES
 Eros
He was the God of Love (Cupid in Latin).
Homer described him as the Fairest of the
deathless gods. His greatest glory is that he
cannot do wrong nor allow it; force never
comes near him. He is often represented as
blindfolded, because love is often blind.
 Anteros
Anteros is the god of mutual love (his name
means "counter love", anti-Eros). He was
also the avenger of slighted love, sometimes
the one who opposes love. He punished
anyone who betrayed true love. He was also
known as the avenger of unrequited love
and as the joiner of two hearts.
 Himeros
Himeros is usually depicted as a winged
and muscular youth, and his signature
piece of clothing was his taenia, a colorful
headband usually worn by Greek athletes.
He was also the god of uncontrollable
sexual desires.
 Pothos
The only confirmed information about
him is that he was the god of
yearning. When two lovers were
separated they yearned for each other
and this is where Pothos came in.
 Phanes
With golden wings, and surrounded by snakes,
Phanes was one of the main gods in Orphic
tradition. In their cosmogony, he was called
Protogonus, or first-born, because he had been
born from a cosmic egg, and he was
responsible for all the procreation and
generation of life in the world.
 Phanes
With golden wings, and surrounded by snakes,
Phanes was one of the main gods in Orphic
tradition. He was called Protogonus, or first-
born, because he had been born from a cosmic
egg, and he was responsible for all the
procreation and generation of life in the world.
He was androgynous, as was Hermaphroditus.
 Phanes
He was one of the Erotes. He was also
the god of creation and procreation.