And welcome to the Classical world of ancient Greece. Well, not really... but please use your imagination! Mythology is my favourite part of my course and I hope by showing some of my favourite myths that you'll be able to see why I'm so fond of them. A surprising number of people actually find these Gods to be fairly interesting. Even if you aren't really into all this stuff about supernatural humans having total rule and control over the human race, I think that one could still find that reading about their lifestyles and such matters could be rather intriguing. The ancient Greeks firmly believed in the existence of Gods and blamed them for all types of occurrences. The loss or win of a battle would be thought to have been the work of the gods and they made sacrificial rituals continuously in order to win their favour. Festivals would be held throughout the year to honour them, including the still-traditional Olympic Games. Of course, no one has believed in these Gods for well over a hundred years now but yet they still remain in our society at some sort of level. The Gods even had a history of origin which I thought fitting to begin my page with...
The Story of the GodsIt all began at the beginning when there was nothing but a mass of everything mixed together: darkness and light, cold and heat, nothing was separated from anything else.
This mass of everything was given the name 'Chaos'. Mother Earth was the first to appear out of Chaos and Father Sky followed her. As the first rains fell from Sky to Earth, flowers and trees began to appear; then rivers began to flow and lakes and seas were created. Next, Mother Earth produced the hundred-handed giants and the Cyclopes, giants with only one eye. Together, these giants rebelled against Father Sky so he shut them up in a gloomy underground prison named Tartarus. Earth and Sky then produced twelve more giants called Titans. The Titans released the Cyclopes from Tartarus and with their help, overthrew Father Sky. Cronus was the leader of the Titans and now became ruler of the universe. He first imprisoned the Cyclopes again and then married his sister Rhea. They had six children but Cronus swallowed each as they were born as Mother Earth had foretold to him that he would one day be overthrown by his own children, just like Father Sky. However, Cronus had been tricked when his sixth child had been born. Rhea had given him a stone wrapped in baby clothes and he swallowed this instead. Thus, the child named Zeus was saved. He was hidden from his father in a cave on the island of Crete and was fed on honey and goats. When he cried, a band of men called Curetes clashed their spears and shields together so he would not be heard by Cronus. When Zeus grew up, his mother gave him a magic potion that he put in Cronus' drink to make him sick. Cronus first coughed up the stone wrapped in baby clothes and then all of Zeus' brothers and sisters who were still alive. They all joined in battle against Cronus and overthrew him with the help of the Cyclopes and the hundred-handed giants. In this way, the Titans were defeated and their battle leader, Atlas, was given the punishment of holding the sky on his shoulders for eternity.
After much searching and surfing on the internet, I actually found a table of the gods plus a really good picture of them all on Mount Olympus inside the Palace of Zeus. Of course, a detailed family tree would take forever as Zeus had many children who weren't mothered by Hera... Many, many children...
Following is a list of the above gods and goddesses with their roles in mythology. Among them are also lesser gods and a couple of the supernaturals that not many people know about. Just to help a little I decided to add in pronunciations so you can actually say the names correctly!