Greek Mythology The Gods, the creation and the earliest in Greek Myths! P.S. Guys kindly click like if the article is helpful and IF you're going to download the slides/presentation.Thank you.

1. PART 1

2. The Gods
THE TITANS AND THE TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS
 Elder Gods
 They were enormous size and of incredible strength.
 CRONUS (Saturn)

3. THE TITANS AND THE TWELVE GREAT
OLYMPIANS
Other notable Titans:
 OCEAN ( river that was supposed to encircle the earth)
 TETHYS (wife of OCEAN)
 HYPERION (father of the sun, the moon and the dawn)
 MNEMOSYNE (which means memory)
 THEMIS ( translated by justice)
 IAPETUS (father of ATLAS)
 ATLAS (bore the world on his shoulders)
 PROMETHEUS (savior of mankind)

4. Who are the
TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS?

5. THE TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS
o Were supreme among the gods who succeeded to the Titans.
o They were called “the OLYMPIANS” because OLYMPUS was their home.
o OLYMPUS
o It was held to be a mountain top, and generally identified with Greece’s highest
mountain, Mt Olympus in Thessaly, in the northeast of Greece.
o In one passage of the Iliad Zeus talks to the gods from “the topmost peak of
many ridged Olympus” clearly a mountain. But only a little further on he says
that if he willed he could hang earth and sea from a pinnacle of Olympus,
clearly no longer a mountain. Even so it is not heaven.
o Homer makes Poseidon says that he rules the sea, Hades the dead, Zeus the
heavens, but Olympus is common to all three.

6. Mount Olympus, Greece
Mount Olympus
in northern
Greece is the
highest peak in
the country.
In Greek
mythology it was
the home of the
gods.

7. Mount Olympus, Greece
o The entrance to it was a great gate of clouds kept by the Seasons.
o Gods’ dwellings and where they lived and slept,
o Feasted on ambrosia and nectar, and listen to Apollo’s lyre
o It was an abode of perfect blessedness.
o No wind,
o No rain ever falls there or snow;
o But the cloudless firmament stretches around it on all sides and the white
glory of sunshine is diffused upon its walls.

8. THE TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS
The TWELVE GREAT OLYMPIANS made up a divine family:
1. ZEUS (Jupiter) - the chief;
2. POSEIDON (Neptune) - one of the brother of Zeus;
3. HADES (Pluto) - one of the brother of Zeus;
4. HESTIA (Vesta) - their sister;
5. HERA (Juno) - Zeus wife and sister
6. ARES (Mars) - their son;
Zeus’s children:
7. ATHENA (Minerva) 10. HERMES (Mercury)
8. APOLLO 11. ARTEMIS (Diana)
9. APHRODITE (Venus) 12. HEPHAESTUS (Vulcan)

10. ZEUS (JUPITER)

11. ZEUS (JUPITER)
 Zeus became the supreme ruler.
 He was the Lord of the sky, the Rain-god and the Cloud- gatherer.
 He use the awful thunderbolt.
 His power was greater than that of all the other divinities together.
 “I am mightiest of all”.
 He was not omnipotent (almighty) or omniscient (all-knowing), either. He
could be opposed (different) and deceived (mistaken).
 He is represented as falling in love with one woman after another and
descending to all manner of tricks to hide his infidelity from his wife.
 In earliest record Zeus had grandeur.
 His breastplate was the AEGIS – awful to behold;
 His bird was the EAGLE,
 His tree the OAK,
 His oracle was DODONA in the land of oak trees.

12. Statue of Zeus
The Greek sculptor Phidias
created the 12-m (40-ft) tall
Statue of Zeus in about 435
bc. The statue, depicted in
this engraving by 16th-
century Dutch artist Maarten
van Heemskerck, stood in
Olympia and was perhaps
the most famous sculpture
in ancient Greece. Phidias
made the god’s robe and
ornaments from gold and
carved the body out of ivory.
ZEUS (JUPITER)

13. HERA (JUNO)

14. HERA (JUNO)
 She was Zeus’s wife and sister.
 She was the protector of marriage, and married women were her peculiar
care.
 She is chiefly punishing the many women Zeus fell in love with, even
when they yielded only because he coerced or tricked them.
 Her implacable anger- she never forgot an injury
* Her hatred of a Trojan who had judged another goddess lovelier
than she. The wrong of her slighted beauty remained with her until Troy
fell in ruins.
 The Quest of the Golden Fleece
 She was venerated in every home.
 She was the goddess married women turned to for help.
 ILITHYIA ( EILEITHYIA), goddess of childbirth and daughter of Hera,
 The COW and PEACOCK were sacred to her.
 ARGOS was her favorite city.

15. POSEIDON (NEPTUNE)

16. POSEIDON (NEPTUNE)
 He was the ruler of the sea.
 Zeus’s brother and second only to him in eminence.
 His wife was AMPHITRITE (sea goddess and granddaughter of the Titan
OCEAN)
 He had a splendid palace beneath the sea, but he was oftener to be found
in Olympus.
 He gave the first horse to man and he was honored as much for the one as
for the other
 Storm and calm were under his control
 Commonly called “Earth- shaker” and he was always shown carrying his
trident (a three-pronged spear), with which he would shake and shatter
whatever he pleased.
 He had some connection with the BULLS as well as with HORSES.

17. HADES (PLUTO)

18. HADES (PLUTO)
 He was the third brother among the Olympians
 His share is the underworld and the ruler of the dead
 PLUTO- the God of Wealth and the precious metals hidden in the Earth.
 Romans and Greeks called him by this name, but often they translated it
into Dis, latin word for rich.
 He had a far- famed cap or helmet which made whoever wore it invisible.
 He was unpitying, inexorable, but just; a terrible, NOT AN EVIL GOD.
 His wife was PERSEPHONE (Proserpine)- daughter of Zeus and
Demeter, whom he carried away from the earth and made Queen of the
Lower World.
 He was the King of the Dead – not Death himself,
Greeks called THANATOS and the Romans called ORCUS.

19. PALLAS ATHENA (MINERVA)

20. PALLAS ATHENA (MINERVA)
 She was the daughter of Zeus alone. No mother bore her.
 Full-grown and in full armor, she sprang from his head.
 Earliest account of her, the Iliad, she is fierce and ruthless battle-goddess, she is
warlike only to depend the State and the home from outside enemies.
 She was pre-eminently the Goddess of the City,
 the protector of civilized life, of handicrafts and agriculture; the inventor of the
bridle, who first tamed horses for men to use.
 She was Zeus’s favorite child .
He trusted her to carry the awful AEGIS, his BUCKLER and his devastating
weapon, the THUNDERBOLT.
 “gray-eyed”, or “flashing-eyed”
 was called the MAIDEN, PARTHENOS. And her temple the PARTHENON.
 embodiment of wisdom, reason, purity
 ATHENS was her special city,
 she created the OLIVE tree,
 the OWL was her bird.

21. PALLAS ATHENA (MINERVA)
Parthenon
The Parthenon in Athens,
Greece, was dedicated to
the goddess Athena
Parthenos (the Virgin
Athena). The sculptural
decoration on the east
pediment (gable) depicted
the birth of Athena from
the head of Zeus, and that
on the west pediment
depicted her contest with
Poseidon for possession
of Attica, the territory of
Athens.

22. PHOEBUS APOLLO

23. PHOEBUS APOLLO
 son of the god Zeus and Leto (daughter of a Titan)
 “the most Greeks of all Gods”
 Golden lyre,
 lord of silver bow,
 Archer-god, far shooting,
 the HEALER
 He was the first to taught men the healing art.
 He is the God of Light, in whom is no darkness at all
 He is the God of truth
 No false word ever falls from his lips.
 Delphi under towering Parnassus, where Apollo’s oracle was. CASTALIA was its
sacred spring; CEPHISSUS its river. Delphi, Greece, was held the center of the world.
 DELIAN and PYTHIAN, LYCIAN, Iliad- SMINTHIAN, PHOEBUS (means brilliant or
shining)
 Sun-god
 LAUREL was his tree.
 Many creatures was sacred to him, chief among them the DOLPHIN and the CROW.

24. PHOEBUS APOLLO
Ruins at Delphi
Delphi, Greece, was
considered by the ancients to
be the center of the world.
Private citizens and public
officials would come to
consult the oracle there, who
was said to speak the words
of the god Apollo. The temple
brought great wealth to the
town and was repeatedly
attacked from as early as 595
BC. Excavations began in
1892 and many fine buildings
were uncovered. Shown here
is the sanctuary of Athena
Pronaos, with its remaining
three columns topped with a
section of the frieze and
cornice.

25. ARTEMIS (DIANA)

26. ARTEMIS (DIANA)
 Apollo’s twin sister, daughter of god Zeus and Leto (daughter of a Titan)
 Artemis, goddess of the bow and of hunting.
 Also called Cynthia (Mount Cynthus in Delos)
 One of the three maiden goddesses of Olympus.
 She was lady of Wild Things,
 Huntsman-in-chief to the gods.
 Like a good huntsman, she was careful to preserve the young;
“protectress of dewy youth” everywhere.
 She kept the Greek fleet from sailing to Troy until they sacrificed a maiden.
 She is fierce and revengeful.
 As Phoebus was the sun, she was the MOON. (Phoebe and Selene)
 HECATE (Goddess of the Dark of the moon)
 CYPRESS was sacred to her;
 All wild animals are also sacred to her but especially the DEER.

27. APHRODITE (VENUS)

28. APHRODITE (VENUS)
 Goddess of love and beauty
 She beguiled all, gods and men alike;
 The laughter loving goddess (she laughed sweetly or mockingly at those
her wiles had conquered).
 Irresistible goddess
 Daughter of Zeus and Dione
 “Aphros” is foam in Greek. (poem risen)
 CYTHERA and CYPRUS were sacred to her.
 She was called CYTHEREA or the CYPRIAN
 Homeric Hymns- Beautiful, golden goddess.
 She is a soft, weak creature there, whom a mortal need not fear to attack.
 As treacherous and malicious, exerting a deadly and destructive power over
men.
 Wife of HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN) – the lame and ugly god of the forge.
 MYRTLE was her tree,
 DOVE her bird- sometimes the SPARROW and the SWAN too.

29. APHRODITE (VENUS)
 Romans wrote of her in the same way-
Winds flee before her, and the storm clouds;
sweet flowers embroider the earth;
the waves of the sea laugh;
she moves in radiant light.
Without her there is no joy nor loveliness anywhere.

30. HERMES (MERCURY)

31. HERMES (MERCURY)
 Son of Zeus and Maia (daughter of Atlas)
 He is more familiar to us than that of any other god.
 He was graceful and swift of motion.
 On his feet were winged sandals; wings were on his low-crowned hat
too and on his Magic Wand, CADUCEUS.
 He was Zeus’s Messenger
 Flies as fleet as thought to do his bidding .
 He was the shrewdest and most cunning of all the gods.
 He was the Master Thief.
 He won also Apollo’s forgiveness by presenting him with lyre (made of
tortoise’s shell)
 He was the God of Commerce and the market, protector of traders.

32. ARES (MARS)

33. ARES (MARS)
 God of War
 Son of Zeus and Hera
 He is hateful throughout the Iliad poem.
 The heroes rejoice in the delight of Ares battle, but far oftener in having escaped “the
fury of the ruthless god”
 Homer calls him- murderous, bloodstained, the incarnate curse of mortals and
strangely a coward too, who bellows with pain and runs away when he is wounded.
 Her sister is there, ERIS (goddess of Discord) and STRIFE (her son).
 ENYO/BELLONA (goddess of war)- she walks beside Ares and with her are terror,
trembling and panic.
 The Romans liked Mars.- He never was to them the mean whining deity but
magnificent in shining armor, redoubtable, invisible.
 He is the lover of Aphrodite.
 He is not a distinct personality, like Hermes or Hera or Apollo.
 He had no cities where he was worshipped.
 THRACE (home of rude)
 His bird was the VULTURE

34. HEPHAESTUS
(VULCAN AND MULCIBER)

35. HEPHAESTUS
(VULCAN AND MULCIBER)
 God of Fire
 Hephaestus was the god of technology, blacksmiths, craftsmen,
artisans, sculptors, metals and metallurgy and fire.
 Sometimes said to be the son of Zeus and Hera, sometimes Hera
alone.
 He was ugly and lame
 In Homer he is no danger of being driven from Olympus; he is highly
honored there, workman of the immortals, their armorer and smith,
who makes their dwellings and furnishing as well as their weapons.
 His forge said to be under this or that volcano.
 His wife is one of the three Graces in the iliad called Aglaia, In Hesiod
in the Odyssey she is Aphrodite.
 He was kind, peace-loving god, popular on Earth as in heaven.

36. HESTIA (VESTA)

37. HESTIA (VESTA)
 She was Zeus sister.
 A virgin goddess
 She was the goddess of the Hearth (the symbol of the home).
 Every meal began and ended with an offering to her.
 In Rome her fire was cared for six virgin priestesses, called VESTALS.

38. LESSER GODS OF OLYMPUS

39. EROS (CUPID)
 God of Love
 Homer knows nothing of him, but to Hesiod he is - “Fairest of the
deathless gods.”
 He is oftenest a beautiful serious youth who gives good gifts to
men.
 In early accounts EROS was not APHRODITE’S son, but merely
her occasional companion.
 He was often represented as blindfolded, because love is often
blind.
 ANTEROS – sometimes to avenger of slighted love,
 HIMEROS or LONGING – who opposes love
Pothos (“longing”) or Himeros (“desire”)
 HYMEN (god of Wedding Feast)

40. HEBE
 Goddess of Youth.
 Daughter of Zeus and Hera.
 She served for a long time as cupbearer to the gods;
 She was replaced in the office by the Trojan prince GANYMEDE
 she resigned as cupbearer to the gods upon her marriage to Hercules
 Her marriage to HERCULES (son of the god Zeus and Alcmene)
IRIS
 Goddess of Rainbow
 daughter of the Titan Thaumas and Electra
 Messenger of the gods (god Zeus and Hera)
LESSER GODS OF OLYMPUS

41. THE GRACES
 AGLAIA (SPLENDOR),
 EUPHROSYNE (MIRTH) and
 THALIA (GOOD CHEER)
 three goddesses of joy, charm, and beauty
 daughters of Zeus and Eurynome (a child of the Titan Ocean)
 Aglaia married Hephaestus (god of fire and metalwork)
They are not treated as separate personalities, but always together,
a triple incarnation of grace and beauty.
 They danced enchantingly to Apollo’s lyre
 They “give life its bloom”
 Queens of song
TWO BANDS OF LOVELY SISTERS

42. THE MUSES
 Nine goddesses
 daughters Zeus and Mnemosyne (goddess of memory)
 At first they were not distinguished from each other
 “they are all”
 CLIO (muse of History), URANIA (of astronomy), MELPOMENE (of
tragedy), THALIA (of comedy), TERPSICHORE (of dance), CALLIOPE
(of epic poetry), ERATO (of love-poetry), POLYHYMNIA (of songs to the
gods), EUTERPE (of lyric poetry).
 They were companions of Apollo (the god of truth) as well as of the
Graces.
 2 august forms sat beside Zeus in Olympus- THEMIS (means the right
or Divine Justice), DIKE (Human Justice)
 NEMESIS (Righteous Anger)
 AIDOS (reverence)
TWO BANDS OF LOVELY SISTERS

43. THE GODS OF WATERS

44. THE GODS OF WATERS
POSEIDON (NEPTUNE)
 Lord ruler of the Sea (Mediterranean) and
 the Friendly Sea (the Euxine, now the Black Sea)
 Underground rivers
OCEAN
 A Titan, Lord of the river Ocean (great river encircling the earth)
 His wife Tethys (also a Titan)
 OCEANIDS (nymphs of this great river an their daughters)
 Gods of all the rivers on earth were their sons.

45. THE GODS OF WATERS
PONTUS
 means Deep Sea
 Son of mother Earth and the father of NEREUS (sea-god)
NEREUS
 was called the Old Man of the Sea (the Mediterranean)
 His wife was DORIS (daughter of OCEAN)
 They had fifty (50) lovely daughters
 The nymphs of the Sea (called NEREIDS from their father’s name)
 Thetis (mother of ACHILLES)
 AMPHITRITE (Poseidon’s wife)

46. THE GODS OF WATERS
TRITON
 was the trumpet (great shell) of the Sea.
 Son of Poseidon and Amphitrite.
PROTEUS
 Sometimes said to be Poseidon’s son, sometimes his attendant
 He had the power both of Foretelling the future and changing his shape
at will

47. THE GODS OF WATERS
THE NAIADS
 Water nymphs
 They dwelt in brooks and springs and fountains.
LEUCOTHEA - once mortals and became divinities of the sea
PALAEMON(son of Leucothea) - once mortals and became divinities
of the sea
GLAUCUS - king of Corinth

48. THE UNDERWORLD

49. THE UNDERWORLD
HADES
 One of the 12 Great Olympians and Ruler of the Dead
 His wife was PERSEPHONE
UNDERWORLD
 Kingdom of the dead
 The Iliad says, beneath the secret places of the Earth
 In the Odyssey, the way to it leads over the edge of the world
across Ocean
 In later poets- there are various entrances to it from the earth
through caverns and beside deep lakes.

50. THE UNDERWORLD
UNDERWORLD
TARTARUS AND EREBUS
 Two divisions of the underworld
TARTARUS the deeper of the two, the prison of the Sons of Earth
EREBUS where the dead pass as soon as they die.
 There is no distinction between the two
 In HOMER THE UNDERWORLD is vague, a shadowy place inhabited by
shadows. Nothing is real there. The ghosts’ existence- is like a miserable.
 The world of the dead, more clearly as the place where the wicked are
punished and the good rewarded.
 Virgil- poet who gives clearly the geography of the underworld
ACHERON (river of woe) pours into COCYTUS (river of lamentation)
CHARON (aged boatman),

51. THE UNDERWORLD
CERBERUS (three headed, dragon- tailed dog)
RHADAMANTHUS, MINOS, AEACUS (judges of the dead in the underworld)
3 OTHER RIVER (besides ACHERON and COCYTUS)
* PHLEGETHON (river of fire)
* STYX (river of unbreakable oath by which the gods swear)
* LETHE (river of forgetfulness)
THE ERINYES (the FURIES)
 Where they punish evildoers
 the three avenging deities
 TISIPHONE (the avenger of murder),
 MEGAERA (the jealous one), and
 ALECTO (unceasing in anger).

52. THE UNDERWORLD
SLEEP AND DEATH
 His brother, live in the lower world.
 They passed through two gates
 One of horn through which true dreams went
 One of ivory for false dream.

53. THE LESSER GODS OF EARTH

54. THE LESSER GODS OF EARTH
 Earth herself was called the “All-Mother”, but she was not really a
divinity.
 She was never separated from the actual Earth and personified.
 Supreme deities of the Earth and of great importance in Greek and
Roman mythology:
DEMETER (goddess of the corn) – daughter of Cronus and Rhea.
DIONYSUS (god of the wine)- also called BACCHUS

55. PAN
 Was the chief.
 He was Hermes’s son:
 He was noisy, merry god, the Homeric Hymn in his honor calls him.
 He was part animal too (with goat’s horns and hoofs)
 He was the Goatherds’ god and the shepherds’ god and also the gay
companion of the woodland nymphs when they danced.
 All wild places were his home (thickets, forest and mountains)
 Born in ARCADIA (the best place for pan)
 He is a wonderful musician
 He was always in love with one nymph or another, but always rejected.

56. SILENUS
 Sometimes said to be Pan’s son; sometimes his brother.
 He was a jovial fat old man who usually rode an ass because he was
too drunk to walk.
 Associated with Bacchus as well as with Pan.
 He thought him when the Wine-God was young and as is shown by his
perpetual drunkenness, after being his tutor he became his devoted
follower

57. CASTOR AND POLLUX (Polydeuces)
 Very popular pair of brothers
 Were said to live half of their time on earth and half in heaven.
 Sons of LEDA.
 Usually represented as being gods, special protectors of sailors.
 They were also powerful to save in battle,
 They were especially honored in Rome.
 Their accounts are sometimes contradictory.
 Sometimes POLLUX alone is held to be divine, and CASTOR a
mortal who won a kind of half-and-half immortality merely
because of his brother’s love.

58. LEDA
 wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta
 She bore two mortal children to him CASTOTR and CLYTEMNESTRA
(Agamemnon’s wife)
 Zeus had wooed Leda in the guise of a swan, she laid two eggs. Two
immortals POLLUX and HELEN, the heroine of Troy.
 CASTOR AND POLLUX were often called “sons of Zeus”.
Dioscouri (means “the striplings of Zeus”)
Tyndaridae (they are also called “sons of Tyndareus”)
 Story of IDAS and LYNCEUS (cattle owners) and CASTOR AND
POLLUX

59. THE SATYRS
 Goat-men and like Pan they had their home in the wild places of the
Earth.
 OREADS (nymphs of the mountain)
 DRYADS/HAMADRYADS (nymphs of the trees)

60. AEOLUS
 King of the Winds, also lived in Earth
 Aeolia was his home.
 He was only regent of the Winds
 The four chief Winds were
 BOREAS (AQUILO) - the North Wind
 ZEPHYR (FAVONIUS) – the West Wind
 NOTUS (AUSTER) - the South Wind
 EURUS – East Wind

61. THE CENTAURS
 half man, half horse
 They were savage creatures
 CHIRON (known for his goodness and wisdom)
THE GORGONS
 Earth- dwellers
 There were three (3), two (2) of them were immortal.
 They were dragon like creatures with wings, whose look turned
men to stone.
 PHORCYS – son of the Sea and the Earth
CENTAURS AND GORGONS

62. GRAIAE AND SIRENS
THE GRAIAE
 Three gray women who had but one eye between them.
 They lived on the farther bank of Ocean
THE SIRENS
 Lived on an island in the Sea.
 They had an enchanting voices and their singing lured sailors to their
death.
 Not known what they looked like, for no one who saw them ever
returned..

63. THE FATES
THE FATES
 MOIRAE (Moirai) in Greek mythology, the three goddesses who
determined human life and destiny, PARCAE in Latin.
 the goddesses were often thought of as weavers
 CLOTHO (the Spinner, spun the thread of life);
 LACHESIS (the Dispenser of Lots, decided its span and assigned a
destiny to each person);
 ATROPOS (the Inexorable, carried the dread shears that cut the
thread of life at the appointed time).
 The decisions of the Fates could not be altered, even by the gods.

64. THE ROMAN GODS

65. THE ROMAN GODS
 It was simple matter to adopt the Greek gods because Romans did not
have definitely personified gods of their own.
 They were a people of deep religious feeling, but they had little
imagination.
 They could never have created Olympians.
 Their gods, before they took over from the Greeks, were vague, hardly
more than.
NUMINA (Powers or the Wills)- the will power perhaps.

66. THE ROMAN GODS
 LARES AND PENATES
 The most prominent and revered of them all
 LAR (was the spirit of an ancestor)
 PENATES (gods of the hearth and guardians of the
storehouse)
 They were never worshipped in temples, but only in
the home.

67. THE ROMAN GODS
 TERMINUS (guardian of Boundaries)
 PRIAPUS (cause of Fertility)
 PALES (strengthener of cattle)
 SYLVANUS (helper of Plowmen and Woodcutters)
 SATURN (originally the Protector of the Sowers and the Seed)
 OPS (wife of Saturn, was a Harvest helper)

68. THE ROMAN GODS
JANUS
 Originally one of the Numina :the god of good beginnings” which are sure
to result in good endings.
 He became personified to a certain degree
 His chief temple in Rome ran East and West.
FAUNUS
 Was Saturn’s grandson.
 Rustic god.
 He was a prophet too and spoke to men in their dreams.
FAUNS
 Roman satyrs.

69. THE ROMAN GODS
QUIRINUS
 Name of the deified ROMULUS (the founder of Rome)
MANES
 Were the spirits of the good dead in HADES
 Sometimes they were guarded as divine and worshipped.
THE LEMURES OR LARVAE
 The spirits wicked dead and were greatly feared
THE CAMENAE
 Useful and practical goddesses who cared for springs and wells and
cured disease and foretold the future

70. THE ROMAN GODS
LUCINA
 Roman EILEITHYIA (goddess of childbirth)
POMONA AND VERTUMNUS
 Begin as NUMINA
 As power protecting Orchards and Gardens.
 Personified later how they fell in love with each
other.

71. MYTHOLOGY AND FOLKLORE

72. PRESENTED BY:
Anne Bernadette E. Laudato
BSE English
PRESENTED TO:
Mrs. Glenda Perey