However, with her last child, Zeus, Rhea tricked Kronos by offering him a stone wrapped in swaddling instead. So he consumed each of his children as they were born. But as he had overthrown his own father, he feared his children would overthrow him. Because of this, Gaia had her youngest son, the Titan Kronos, castrate his father with a sickle and cast the testicles into the sea. Uranus was not pleased with Gaia’s monstrous children, and so attempted to force them back into her womb, causing her incredible pain. Among the Titans were both gods and monsters. Gaia and Uranus then had many children together, who were known as the Titans. Gaia birthed Uranus, the sky, from herself. #3: Tartarus, the empty abyss beneath the earth #1: Eros, who represented not only love but the power to reproduce In the Greek view, the main gods of Olympus were far from the original gods of the Universe. Mythic Origins of the Greek Gods and Goddesses Mount Olympus, the mythic home of the Greek gods. Their human aspects simply made them intelligible. But to the Greeks, the gods were not meant to behave better than humans or judge human conduct they were simply the absolute forces that ordered the universe and drove all phenomena. The gods seem petty and irrational-not benevolent or better than humans, but embodying the entire spectrum of human strengths and foibles while simultaneously ignoring human conventions (the Greek gods’ family tree is incredibly complicated-and incestuous). To the modern observer, ancient religions can seem truly bizarre. Mythology shows the gods both hurting and harming both mortals and each other in fairly equal measure, and not necessarily in accordance with modern conception of justice or fairness. They have hierarchical and familial relationships. These gods also marry, have children, fight, intermingle with mortals, insult each other, take vengeance, make war, and create great art. These gods were understood primarily as inexorable forces that governed human existence, but they also had a human aspect. There were also gods associated with agriculture and craftsmanship (like shepherding and blacksmithing) and the social order (i.e. These deities were mostly associated with abstract concepts like memory and justice and natural forces and features like rivers, seasons, death, and rebirth. Greek Gods and Goddesses: An IntroductionĪs in many ancient religions, there were hundreds of beings recognized as deities by the Greeks.
Then, we’ll do a deep dive on the Twelve Olympians, go over some other important minor deities, discuss Greek gods family tree, the history of their worship, and wrap up with all the places you might encounter this ancient pantheon today! You can find them in books and movies, company names and Halloween costumes, and even in space, where tons of astrological features are named after them!īut what if you want to know more about the Greek goddesses and gods than just their names and a vague idea of their function? In this article we’ll provide a comprehensive guide to the Greek pantheon, starting with an introduction to the Greek gods and their mythic origins. Few figures from ancient mythology are as popular and well-known today as the Greek gods.
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