Family Tree Of The Greek Gods
From the Pantheon Of Gods and Goddesses, Heroes and Heroines.
The Twelve Olympians, in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. There were, at various times, fourteen different gods recognized as Olympians, though never more than twelve at one time.
Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis are always considered Olympians.
Hestia, Demeter, Dionysus, and Hades are the variable gods among the Twelve.
Hestia gave up her position as an Olympian to Dionysus in order to live among mankind (eventually she was assigned the role of tending the fire on Mount Olympus).
Persephone spent six months of the year in the underworld (causing winter), and was allowed to return to Mount Olympus for the other six months in order to be with her mother, Demeter.
And, although Hades was always one of the principal Greek gods, his home in the underworld of the dead made his connection to the Olympians more tenuous. The Olympians gained their supremacy in the world of gods after Zeus led his siblings to victory in war with the Titans; Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades were siblings; all other Olympians (with the exception of foam-born Aphrodite) are usually considered the children of Zeus by various mothers (except for Athena, who was possibly born of Zeus alone).
Additionally, it is also possible that Hephaestus was born of Hera alone as Hera's revenge for Zeus's solo birth of Athena.
Zeus is the highest ranking and most
powerful god, the ruler of Mount Olympus greatest of the Olympian
gods, and the father of gods and men, was a son of Cronus and Rhea, a brother of Poseidon, Hades (Pluto), Hestia, Demeter, Hera, and at the same time
married to his sister Hera. When
Zeus and his brothers distributed among themselves the government
of the world by lot, Poseidon obtained the sea, Hades the lower world, and Zeus the
heavens and the upper regions, but the earth became common to
all.
Poseidon, together with Hades is one of the
two next most senior gods, controlling the oceans the god of the
Mediterranean sea. His name seems to be connected with Trorauos,
according to which he is the god of the fluid element.
He was a son of Cronos and
Rhea (whence he is called
Kpovios and by Latin poets Saturnius.) He was accordingly a
brother of Zeus, Hades, Hera, Hestia and Demeter, and it was determined by lot
that he should rule over the sea.
Hades is the second of the next most senior gods,
taking care of all souls after they leave the earth
The god of the lower world; Plato observes that people preferred
calling him Pluton (the giver of wealth) to pronouncing the
dreaded name of Hades or Aides. Hence we find that in ordinary
life and in the mysteries the name Pluton became generally
established, while the poets preferred the ancient name Aides or
the form Pluteus.
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, the arts,
inner beauty, education and war and one of the great divinities
of the Greeks. Homer calls her a daughter of Zeus, without any allusion to her mother
or to the manner in which she was called into existence, while
most of the later traditions agree in stating that she was born
from the head of Zeus. According to Hesiod, Metis, the first wife of Zeus, was the
mother of Athena, but when Metis was pregnant with her, Zeus, on
the advice of Gaea and Uranus, swallowed Metis up, and
afterwards gave birth himself to Athena, who sprang from his
head.
Ares is the god of war and heroes and the
son of Zeus and Hera.
A later tradition, according to which Hera conceived Ares by
touching a certain flower, appears to be an imitation of the
legend about the birth of Hephaestus, and is related by
Ovid. Athena represents
thoughtfulness and wisdom in the affairs of war, Ares, on the
other hand, is nothing but the personification of bold force and
strength, and not so much the god of war as of its tumult,
confusion, and horrors.
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt,
animals, fertility and chastity.
Her name is usually derived from uninjured, healthy, vigorous;
according to which she would be the goddess who is herself
inviolate and vigorous, and also grants strength and health to
others. According to the Homeric account and the Theogony of Hesiod
she was the daughter of Zeus and
Leto. She was the sister of
Apollo, and born with him at
the same time in the island of Delos.
Hephaestus is the god of fire,
worksmanship, artisans and weaponry was, according to the Homeric
account, the son of Zeus and
Hera The Romans, when speaking
of the Greek Hephaestus, call him Vulcan or Vulcanus, although Vulcanus
was an original Italian divinity.
Later traditions state that he had no father, and that Hera gave birth to him independent of Zeus, as she was jealous of Zeus having given birth to Athena independent of her.
Apollo is the god of dance, music, healing and
medicine, archery and reason. The son of Leto by Zeus, had Artemis as his slightly older twin
sister. They were born on the island of Delos under the shade of
the only tree that grew on it, a palm. The Roman traveler
Pausanias said that there was a symbolic bronze palm tree in the
sanctuary of Apollo when he visited Delos in the second century
AD. Apollo was also the god of music, fine arts, poetry and
eloquence. Like his sister, Artemis, was a hunter.
Aphrodite is the goddess of love,
committed sexuality, outer beauty and attraction, and some
traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam of the sea,
which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the
sea by Cronus after he had
unmanned his father.
With the exception of the Homeric hymn on Aphrodite there is no trace of this legend in Homer, and according to him Aphrodite is the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
Hera, the consort of Zeus, and the goddess of
marriage, sacrifices and fidelity. Zeus himself listened to her
counsels, and communicated his secrets to her rather than to
other gods. Hera also thinks herself justified in censuring Zeus
when he consults others without her knowing it; but she is,
notwithstanding, far inferior to Zeus in power: she must obey him
unconditionally and she is chastised by him when she has offended
him.
The Romans identified their goddess Juno with the Greek Hera.
Hestia is the goddess of the home, family
and the hearth and a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. She was the first-born daughter of
Rhea, and was therefore the first of the children that was
swallowed by Cronus. She was, like Artemis and Athena, a maiden divinity, and when
Apollo and Poseidon sued for her hand, she
swore by the head of Zeus to
remain a virgin for ever. Originally listed as one of the Twelve
Olympians, Hestia gave up her seat in favour of Dionysus to tend
to the sacred fire on Mount Olympus.
Demeter is the
goddess of the earth, flowers and plants, food, preservation of
marriage and agriculture and she and her daughter Persephone were the central
figures of the Eleusinian Mysteries that also predated the
Olympian pantheon. The Roman equivalent is Ceres. Demeter is easily confused with
Gaia or Rhea. The goddess's epithets reveal
the span of her functions in Greek life. Demeter and Kore
("the maiden") are usually invoked as to theo "The
Two Goddesses", and they appear in that form at Mycenaean
Pylos in pre-Hellenic times.
Dionysus is
the youngest god of the Pantheon, and is the god of wine and open
sexuality
The youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus, that is, the noisy or riotous god, which was originally a mere epithet or surname of Dionysus, but does not occur till after the time of Herodotus.
According to the common tradition, Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, the daughter of Cadmus of Thebes; whereas others describe him as a son of Zeus by Demeter, lo, Dione, or Arge.
Family Trees
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