Greek Mythology 101
Olympian Gods What They are Gods of
Zeus
Poseidon Hades Hestia Hera Ares Hermes Athena Apollo Hephaestus Artemis Aphrodite |
Zeus is the God of the skies, and in turn is the King of the Gods. He was born from Kronos and Rhea (known as the "Mother of the Gods"), and only meant to be the God of the skies and thunder. A dispute about Uranus ("Father Sky") and his siblings being swallowed by Kronos, however, led Rhea to help Zeus overthrow Kronos on his throne and send him to Tartarus, which is a prison for the the Titans. His brothers, Hades and Poseidon, drew for the throne and other shares of the world once Zeus had overthrown Kronos, in which Zeus won. He was then dubbed the King of the Gods. Zeus is married to Hera, who is his sister, and had many children, including Athena, Hermes, and the Muses.
Poseidon is the God of the sea, as well as earthquakes, given his "Earth-shaker" title deemed to him. He is one of many offspring from Kronos and Hera, and his birth story is disputed among scholars. Some say he was swallowed by Kronos, only to be saved by Zeus later when he would overthrow the Titan; others suggest he was saved by Rhea from being eaten by Kronos and hid him with many horses, fooling Kronos into thinking she gave birth to a horse. When Kronos was overthrown, Poseidon drew for a share for the world with his brothers, and won the title of the King of the sea. He is married to Amphritite, an ancient sea-goddess, but has had many affairs, including one with the monster Medusa in Athena's temple, as well as pursuing Demeter's (Goddess of harvest; a sister to Poseidon) love as well. Hades is the God of the underworld, the ruler of the dead, and had pulled the worst share of the world among his brothers, Zeus and Poseidon. Many confuse him with him being the God of the dead, but that is in turn another God, Thanatos. The underworld is said to be gloomy and dismal, but others tend to agree on the fact that there are different realms within the underworld, which suggest souls are either rewarded or punished for the life they had. Hades did marry, and he married Persephone (daughter of Zeus and Demeter), but it was through abduction and a trick that caused her to marry him. It is said that the trick was Hades gave her food from the underworld, which a myth suggested that whoever ate from the underworld was cursed to reside there for eternity. Hestia is the Goddess of domesticity, which includes family and state, and also of the hearth, which is the home. She is a daughter of Rhea and Kronos, and she is the eldest of the siblings (a myth of Kronos eating the siblings suggests that she was the first to be eaten by him). Hestia does not attribute to any myths in Greek mythology, as she is rather portrayed as something physical (family and home). Her place with the Olympians has been disputed, and those from the time period have argued that since the hearth is immovable and cannot be removed, her place must be with the Olympians. She also has never married, thus never having children of her own, and vows to be the opposite of Aphrodite, who is the Goddess of love. Hera is the Goddess of marriage and women. She is also a wife and sister to Zeus, although their relationship is nothing but conflict. Most stories suggest Zeus resorted to trickery to get Hera to marry him, along with her caring for a bird that was Zeus in disguise. She cared for him as he was a bird, and when he changed back, she was ashamed and could only bring herself to marry him. Their relationship is not stable, as she has fought against him numerous times, and has been quite jealous of his affairs with other women. As for her children, while she is the Goddess of marriage, she was not claimed to be a fit mother. One story in particular involves Hephaestus, in which she practically disowned her child because he was too ugly, so she threw him from Mount Olympus. Ares is considered to be the Greek God of war, but he is very disliked by his parents, Zeus and Hera. He is known to be bloodthirsty and very hot-tempered, and continuously causes mayhem on Mount Olympus. But, despite being the God of war, he is considered to be a coward, and is often ridiculed. One story in particular is one that involves Aphrodite, with whom he was in an affair. Hephaestus, her husband, caught Ares and her red-handed in one of their acts, and mocked Ares about the whole affair in general. Despite the adultery, Ares was able to have numerous children, including some with Aphrodite. Hermes is the God of messengers, but he also is the God of thieves and commerce as well, and is the son of Zeus and Maia (forced to raise Hermes, despite hiding from the Gods and Zeus all her life). Hermes, though, is considered to be the cleverest and the fastest of all the Gods, as he wears most clothing and accessories decked with wings (winged helmet, winged shoes). Along with this mobility, however, most myths include him getting into many, many affairs with women, which in turn gives him many offspring in his name. His wits and clever charms come from him becoming the messenger of the Gods, mostly in part because of the news he hears from other Gods and speeches he must give to others when given the order. Athena is considered another virgin Goddess (along with Hestia), who is the Goddess of wisdom, literature, and reason. Athena is the daughter of Zeus and Metis, although the legend of her birth is odd. A prophecy had said Metis was a threat and an ally to Zeus, which she would come to bear a child that would overthrown Zeus in the long run. Afraid of this happening, Zeus tried swallowing Metis, but she already gave birth to one child. As she tried to make armor for the infant, Hephaestus noticed Zeus being dealt great pain by the hammering Metis was doing, so Hephaestus brought down a hammer on Zeus's head and Athena was brought forth decked in armor. Because she was born from the head, she was deemed the Goddess of wisdom. Apollo is one of the most famous Gods in Greek mythology, as he is the God of light and the Sun. His job, more or less, is to drive his chariot across the sky so as to move the sun throughout the day. This, however, is not the reason why Apollo is famous in the mythology. He is considered a prophecy, given the fact that he is also the God of truth, in which case he can never tell a lie to anyone that asks him a question. Most in the time era had traveled far and wide to see Apollo and either ask him questions about their future, or to hear one of his prophecies whenever he had one. As it has been mentioned, Hephaestus is the son of Zeus and Hera, and is the God of fire. Unlike other Gods, Hephaestus was born disfigured, which is why Hera threw her son off of Mount Olympus, because he was not particularly beautiful. This in turn had also turned him lame, although there are disputes about how he turned lame in the first place. Most say it was because of Hera throwing him off of Mount Olympus, but others say it was because of Zeus that threw him out. Nonetheless, be as it may, Hephaestus was brought back and considered one of the Olympians because of his blacksmith and forging skills, which was born in part from the revenge he wanted to set on Hera for throwing him out of Mount Olympus (thus the title of being the God of fire came forth). Artemis, who's twin brother is Apollo, is the Goddess of the wilderness (all animals are sacred to Artemis, especially the deer), virginity, and childbirth. Just like Athena and Hestia, she also is another virgin Goddess, which some say is odd, considering she is the Goddess of childbirth. The story behind her given the title, though, goes back to Artemis's mother giving birth to her and Apollo. While Apollo had caused great pain for Leto, Artemis did not. Her virginity is a sort of tragic story, given the fact that she was in love with Orion (her hunting companion), and he loved her back, but there are conflicting stories. One suggests Gaia killed him with a poisonous scorpion. The other, more tragic story is Artemis was tricked by Apollo into killing Orion, because he gripped her robe and Apollo was protective of her virginity, and told her to kill him. Aphrodite is the Goddess of love and beauty, although she was either born from Uranus or from Zeus and Dione, who is equivalent to Gaia. There is not much about her birth story if she were born from Zeus and Dione, but one account with Uranus suggests that she was born from Uranus because Kronos had castrated him and threw it into the sea. She arose from the sea and came from a beautiful scallop. She is famous for being a lover of Ares (who she deemed as her favorite lover because she was more attracted to the violent nature he possessed instead of Hephaestus's lack of temper), but she was married to Hephaestus. She was forced into the marriage by Zeus, because of her immense beauty causing riots for her, and Hephaestus gave her nothing but the finest jewelry he could make for her, but even with that, she was still unhappy and still went to love Ares. |
Endnote: I thought a dictionary on the basics of Greek mythology was a good choice for my second genre. I wanted to learn, myself, the popular stories associated with these Gods and Goddesses, but after learning about how much Rick Riordan was well immersed in the mythological world, I thought incorporating the Gods in the Olympian series would be a good idea. There are minimal descriptions in the books themselves, and perhaps a reader would be interested in something like learning more about the Gods without much research. This would be intended for a younger audience, preferably fifth and sixth graders, mainly because I think most adult readers could generally assume what the roles of the Gods are in Greek mythology. Personally, I found it interesting to read different stories from different sources all throughout. Some were the same stories over and over again, but other sources had more stories than others, and you get a sense of who the Gods are. You can also compare them to the characters in Riordan's work (which I think are pretty well characterized in the entire series) and wonder if the personality portrayed in the myths are the same portrayed in the novel. Riordan wants his readers to learn about mythology, and what better way to have young readers learn than with a basic dictionary on the twelve main Gods within his Olympian series.