the olympians and some immortals

Lord Zeus 

sky and weather, law, order and fate. He was depicted as a regal man, mature with sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, royal sceptre and eagle.

Some of the more famous myths featuring the god include:--

• His birth and upbringing in the Diktaion cave, where he was nursed by Amaltheia and guarded by the shield-clashing Kouretes;
• The Titan War in which he overthrew the Titanes and imprisoned them in Tartaros;
• His battle with Typhoeus, a hundred headed, monstrous giant who attempted to capture heaven;
• The War of the Giants who attempted to storm Olympos but were slain by Zeus and the gods;
• The Great Deluge in which he flooded the earth to destroy mankind and begin the world anew;
• His conflict with Prometheus over the theft of benefactions for mankind;
• The punishment of Salmoneus, Tantalos and Ixion, men who offended the god with their impiety;
• The birth and life of Herakles, his favoured son, who he had transferred to Olympos at death;
• His extramarital affairs with women such as Leda, seduced in the form of a swan; Europa, as a bull; Danae, as a golden shower; Kallisto, as Artemis; and Antiope as a satyr;
• The Trojan War which he orchestrated from start to end, including the casting of the golden apple of discord.

ATHENE (or Athena) 

was the great Olympian goddess of wise counsel, war, the defence of towns, heroic endeavour, weaving, pottery and other crafts. She was depicted crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the snake-trimmed aigis cloak wrapped around her breast and arm, adorned with the monstrous head of the Gorgon.

The more famous myths featuring the goddess Athene include:--

• Her birth from the head of Zeus, fully-grown and arrayed in arms;
• Her contest with Poseidon for dominion of Athens in which she produced the first olive tree and he the first horse;
• The War of the Giants in which she buried Enkelados beneath Mount Etna and made her aigis from the skin of Pallas;
• The attempted rape of the goddess by Hephaistos, who spilled his seed upon the earth and produced Erikhthonios, who she then adopted as her own;
• The assisting of Perseus in his quest to slay the Gorgon and the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece;
• The assisting of Herakles with his twelve labours;
• The weaving contest with Arakhne who was transformed by the goddess into a spider;
  The blinding of Teiresias for viewing her naked in the bath;
• The Judgement of Paris in which she competed with Hera and Aphrodite for the prize of the golden apple;
• The Trojan War where she sided with the Greeks in battle, but attacked their ships with a storm when they failed to punish Oilean Ajax for violating her Trojan shrine.

This site contains a total of 9 pages describing the goddess, the content of which is outlined in the table below. N.B. The At

[1.1] ZEUS & METIS (Hesiod Theogony 887, 924; Apollodorus 1.20)
[1.2} Born from the head of ZEUS (Hesiod Theogony 887, 924; Apollodorus 1.20, and others)

Apollo

APOLLON (or Apollo) was the great Olympian god of prophecy and oracles, healing, plague and disease, music, song and poetry, archery, and the protection of the young. He was depicted as a handsome, beardless youth with long hair and various attributes including:--a wreath and branch of laurel; bow and quiver; raven; and lyre.

The most famous myths of Apollon include:--

• His birth on the island of Delos;
• The slaying of the serpent Pythonwhich guarded the oracular shrine of Delphoi;
• The slaying of the giant Tityoswho attempted to carry off the god's mother Leto;       
• The destruction of the Niobideswhose mother had offended Leto with her boasts;
• His music contest with the satyr Marsyas who lost and was flayed alive;
• His love for the youth Hyakinthos who was killed by a discus throw and transformed into a flower;
• His love for the nymph Daphne who fled from him and was transformed into a laurel tree;
• His love for Koronis who was slain by Artemis for her infidelity;
• The murder of the Kyklopes who had forged the lightning bolt used to destroy his son Asklepios;
• His service as bondsman to the mortal Admetos;
• His struggle with Herakles for the Delphic tripod;
• The Trojan War in which he brought plague to the Greeks and helped Paris slay Akhilleus.

HMPH - =P         

KRONOS (or Cronus) was the Titangod of time and the ages, especially time where regarded as destructive and all-devouring. He ruled the cosmos during the so-called Golden Age, after castrating and deposing his father Ouranos (the Sky). In fear of a prophecy that he would be in turn be overthrown by his own son, Kronos swallowed each of his children as soon as they were born.Rhea managed to save the youngest, Zeus, by hiding him away on the island of Krete, and fed Kronos a stone wrapped in the swaddling clothes of an infant. The god grew up, forced Kronos to disgorge his swallowed offspring, and led the Olympians in a ten year war against the Titanes, before driving them defeated into the pit of Tartaros.
Many human generations later, Zeus released Kronos and his brothers from this prison, and made the old Titan king of the Elysian Islands, home of the blessed dead. Kronos was essentially the same as Khronos, the primordial god of time in the Orphic Theogonies.
I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I PUT KRONOS, BUT HES STILL PART OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY, IF U READ TILL HERE, THAT IS HAHA

heres another olympian as the featured god / hero!

PERSEUS was one of the most celebrated of the Greek heroes. His story was as follows:--Perseus' mother Danae was locked in a bronze chamber by her father Akrisios, where she was impregnated byZeus in the form of a golden shower. Akrisios put both mother and child in a chest and set them adrift in the sea, but they washed safely ashore on the island of Seriphos. Later when Perseus was grown, King Polydektes, command he bring back the head of Medousa. With the help of the gods, Perseus first obtained an invisible helm, magical sword, and winged sandals. He then stole the single eye of the Graiai, three ancient hags, who told him where to find the Gorgones. The hero approached the sleeping Medousa, and beheaded her with eyes turned away, to avoid her petrifying visage. On his way back to Greece, he spied the princess Andromeda chained to the rocks as a sacrifice to a sea-monster. Perseus slew the monster, and rescued the girl, bringing her back to Greece as his bride. On Seriphos, he turned King Polydektes to stone, then travelled to his grandfather's kingdom to claim the throne. The old man fled, and was later accidentally killed by Perseus at some Games with an awry discus throw.

Perseus was the ancestor through his sons and daughter of the royal houses of Mykenai, Elis, Sparta, Messenia, and distant Persia. His most famous descendant of all was Herakles.

ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos. There were several versions of her story. In one, Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Krete, assisted Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, and then fled with him aboard his ship. However, when they landed on the island of Naxos, Theseus abandoned her as she was sleeping. It was here that the god Dionysos discovered her and made her his wife. Some say that she was later slain byArtemis, or else granted immortality. In another account, Ariadne's bridal with Dionysos occurred several generations before, when the god was still wandering the earth introducing his cult. But when he rode into battle against the Argives with his band of sea women, she was slain or turned to stone by King Perseus. The god then descended to the underworld through Lerna to bring her back, before ascending to Olympos.

Ariadne was often depicted alongside Dionysos in Greek vase painting: either amongst the gods of Olympos, or in Bacchic scenes surrounded by dancing Satyrs and Maenads. The discovery of the sleeping Ariadne on Naxos was also a popular scene in both vase painting and mosaic....

Read on! Welcome to the site yeah!

HESTIA was the virgin goddess of the hearth (both private and municipal) and the home. As the goddess of the family hearth she also presided over the cooking of bread and the preparation of the family meal. Hestia was also the goddess of the sacrificial flame and received a share of every sacrifice to the gods. The cooking of the communal feast of sacrificial meat was naturally a part of her domain.

In myth Hestia was the first born child ofKronos and Rhea who was swallowed by her father at birth. Zeus later forced the old Titan to disgorge Hestia and her siblings. As the first to be swallowed she was also the last to be disgorged, and so was named as both the eldest and youngest of the six Kronides. When the gods Apollon and Poseidon sought for her hand in marriage, Hestia refused and asked Zeus to let her remain an eternal virgin. He agreed and she took her place at his royal hearth.

Hestia was depicted in Athenian vase painting as a modestly veiled woman sometimes holding a flowered branch (of a chaste tree ?). In classical sculpture she was also veiled, with a kettle as her attribute.

HE′STIA (Hestia, Ion. Histiê),

 the goddess of the hearth, or rather the fire burning on the hearth, was regarded as one of the twelve great gods, and accordingly as a daughter of Cronus and Rhea. According to the common tradition, she was the first-born daughter of Rhea, and was therefore the first of the children that was swallowed by Cronus. (Hes. Theog. 453, &c.; Hom. Hymn. in Ven. 22; Apollod. i. 1. § 5.) 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 (Hom. Hymn. in Ven. 24, &c.), and in this character it was that her sacrifices consisted of cows which were only one year old. The connection between Hestia and Apollo and Poseidon, which is thus alluded to in the legend, appears also in the temple of Delphi, where the three divinities were worshipped in common, and Hestia and Poseidon appeared together also at Olympia. (Paus. v. 26. § 26, x. 5. § 3; Hom. Hymn. xxxi. 2.) As the hearth was looked upon as the sacred centre of domestic life, so Hestia was the goddess of domestic life and the giver of all domestic happiness and blessings, and as such she was believed to dwell in the inner part of every house (Hom. Hymn. in Ven.30; Callim. Hymn. in Del. 325, in Cer. 129), and to have invented the art of building houses. (Diod. v. 68; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 735.) In this respect she appears often together with Hermes, who was likewise a deus penetralis, as protecting the works of man. (Hom. Hymn. xxxii. 10: Paus. x. 11. § 3.) As the hearth of a house is at the same time the altar on which sacrifices are offered to the domestic gods (hestiouchoi or ephestioi), Hestia was looked upon as presiding at all sacrifices, and, as the goddess of the sacred fire of the altar, she had a share in the sacrifices in all the temples of the gods. (Hom. Hymn. in Ven. 31.) Hence when sacrifices were offered, she was invoked first, and the first part of the sacrifice was offered to her. (Hom.Hymn. xxxii. 5; Pind. Nem. xi. 5; Plat. Cratyl. p. 401, d. ; Paus. v. 14. § 5; Schol. ad Aristoph. Vesp. 842 ; Hesych. s. v. aph hestias archomenos.) Solemn oaths were sworn by the goddess of the hearth, and the hearth itself was the sacred asylum where suppliants implored the protection of the inhabitants of the house. (Hom. Od.xiv. 159; Eustath. ad Hom. p. 1579.) A town or city is only an extended family, and therefore had likewise its sacred hearth, the symbol of an harmonious community of citizens and of a common worship. This public hearth usually existed in the prytaneium of a town, where the goddess had her especial sanctuary (thalamos), under the name of Prutanitis, with a statue and the sacred hearth. There the prytanes offered sacrifices to her, on entering upon their office, and there, as at a private hearth, Hestia protected the suppliants. As this public hearth was the sacred asylum in every town, the state usually received its guests and foreign ambassadors there, and the prytanes had to act the part of hosts. When a colony was sent out, the emigrants took the fire which was to burn on the hearth of their new home from that of the mother town. (Pind. Nem. xi. 1, &c., with the Scholiast; Parthen. Erot. 18; Dion. Hal. ii. 65.) If ever the fire of her hearth became extinct, it was not allowed to be lighted again with ordinary fire, but either by fire produced by friction, or by burning glasses drawing fire from the sun. The mystical speculations of later times proceeded from tile simple ideas of the ancients, and assumed a sacred hearth not only in the centre of the earth, but

 even in that of the universe, and confounded Hestia in various ways with other divinities, such as Cybele, Gaea, Demeter, Persephone, and Artemis. (Orph. Hymn.83; Plut. de Plac. Philos. 3, 11, Numa, 11.) There were but few special temples of Hestia in Greece, as in reality every prytaneum was a sanctuary of the goddess, and as a portion of the sacrifices, to whatever divinity they were offered, belonged to her. There was, however, a separate temple of Hestia at Hermione, though it contained no image of her, but only an altar. (Paus. ii. 35. § 2.) Her sacrifices consisted of the primitiae of fruit, water, oil, wine, and cows of one year old. (Hesych. l. c. ; Hom.Hymn. xxxi. 3, xxxii. 6; Pind. Nem. xi. 6.) The Romans worshipped the same goddess, or rather the same ideas embodied in her, under the name of Vesta, which is in reality identical with Hestia; but as the Roman worship of Vesta differed in several points from that of Hestia in Greece.

Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology

Demeter

goddess of agriculture, grain, and bread, the prime sustenance of mankind. She also presided over the foremost of the Mystery Cults which promised its intiates the path to a blessed afterlife. Demeter was depicted as a mature woman, often crowned and holding sheafs of wheat and and a torch.

Some of the more famous myths featuring the goddess include:--

• The abduction of her daughterPersephone by Hades, and the great dearth she brought down upon the earth;
• The nursing of Demophoon, the young son of King Keleus of Eleusis;
• The journeys of Triptolemos, a hero sent by the goddess to instruct mankind in agriculture;
• Her assault by Poseidon who forcefully coupled with her in the form of a horse;
• The punishment of Erysikhthon who was cursed with an unquenchable hunger by the goddess for cutting down her holy grove.
• 

DEMETER, one of the great divinities of the Greeks. Tho name Demeter is supposed by some to be the same as gê mêtêr, that is, mother earth, while others consider Deo, which is synonymous with Demeter, as connected with dais and dainumi, and as derived from the Cretan word dêai, barley, so that Demeter would be the mother or giver of barley or of food generally. (Hom. Il. v. 500.) These two etymologies, however do not suggest any difference in the character of the goddess, but leave it essentially the same.

Demeter was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and sister of Hestia, Hera, Aides, Poseidon, and Zeus. Like the other children of Cronus she was devoured by her father, but he gave her forth again after taking the emetic which Metis had given him. (Hesiod. Theog. 452, &c.; Apollod. i. 2. § 1.)

By her brother Zeus, Demeter became the mother of Persephone (Proserpina) and Dionysus (Hesiod. Theoq.912; Diod. iii. 62), and by Poseidon of Despoena and the horse Arion. (Apollod. iii. 6. § 8; Paus. viii. 37. § 6.) The most prominent part in the mythus of Demeter is the rape of her daughter Persephone by Pluto, and this story not only suggests the main idea embodied in Demeter, but also directs our attention to the principal seats of her worship. Zeus, without the knowledge of Demeter, had promised Persephone to Pluto, and while the unsuspecting maiden was gathering flowers which Zeus had caused to grow in order to tempt her and to favour Pluto's scheme, the earth suddenly opened and she was carried off by Aïdoneus (Pluto). Her cries of anguish were heard only by Hecate and Helios. Her mother, who heard only the echo of her voice, immediately set out in search of her daughter.

The spot where Persephone was believed to have been carried into the lower world is different in the different traditions; the common story places it in Sicily, 

in the neighbourhood of Enna, on mount Aetna, or between the wells Cyane and Arethusa. (Hygin. Fab. 146, 274; Ov.Met. v. 385, Fast. iv. 422; Diod. v. 3; Cic. in Verr. iv. 48.) This legend, which points to Sicily, though undoubtedly very ancient (Pind. Nem. i. 17), is certainly not the original tradition, since the worship of Demeter was introduced into Sicily by colonists from Megara and Corinth. Other traditions place the rape of Persephone at Erineus on the Cephissus, in the neighbourhood of Eleusis (Orph. Hymn. 17.15), at Colonus in Attica (Schol.ad Soph. Oed. Col. 1590), in an island of the Atlantic near the western coast of Spain (Orph. Argon. 1190), at Hermione in Peloponnesus (Apollod. i. 5. § 1; Strab. viii. p. 373), in Crete (Schol. ad Hesiod. Theog. 914), or in the neighbourhood of Pisa. (Paus. vi. 21. § 1.) Others again place the event at Pheneus in Arcadia (Conon,Narr. 15), or at Cyzicus (Propert. iii. 21. 4), while the Homeric hymn on Demeter places it in the plain of Nysa in Asia. In the Iliad and Odyssey the rape of Persephone is not expressly mentioned.

Demeter wandered about in search of her daughter for nine days, without taking any nectar or ambrosia, and without bathing. On the tenth she met Hecate, who told her that she had heard the cries of Persephone, but did not know who had carried her off. Both then hastened to Helios, who revealed to them thai Pluto had been the ravisher, and with the consent of Zeus. Demeter in her anger at this news avoided Olympus, and dwelt upon earth among men, conferring presents and blessings wherever she was kindly received, and severely punishing those who repulsed her or did not receive her gifts with proper reverence. In this manner she came to Celeus at Eleusis. As the goddess still continued in her anger, and produced famine on the earth by not allowing the fields to produce any fruit, Zeus, anxious that the race of mortals should not become extinct, sent Iris to induce Demeter to return to Olympus. (Comp. Paus. viii. 42. § 2.) But in vain.

At length Zeus sent out all the gods of Olympus to conciliate her by entreaties and presents; but she vowed not to return to Olympus, nor to restore the fertility of the earth, till she had seen her daughter again. Zeus accordingly sent Hermes into Erebus to fetch back Persephone. Aïdoneus consented, indeed, to Persephone returning, but gave her a part of a pomegranate to eat, in order that she might not always remain with Demeter. Hermes then took her in Pluto's chariot to Eleusis to her mother, to whom, after a hearty welcome, she related her fate. At Eleusis both were joined by Hecate, who henceforth remained the attendant and companion of Persephone. Zeus now sent Rhea to persuade Demeter to return to Olympus, and also granted that Persephone should spend only a part of the year (i. e. the winter) in subterraneous darkness, and that during the rest of the year she should remain with her mother. (Comp. Ov. Met. v. 565, Fast. iv. 614; Hygin. Fab. 146.)

Rhea accordingly descended to the Rharian plain near Eleusis, and conciliated Demeter, who now again allowed the fruits of the fields to grow. But before she parted from Eleusis, she instructed Triptolemus, Diocles, Eumolpus, and Celeus in the mode of her worship and in the mysteries. These are the main features of the mythus about Demeter, as it is contained in the Homeric hymn; in later traditions it is variously modified.

HERMES was the great Olympian God of animal husbandry, roads, travel, hospitality, heralds, diplomacy, trade, thievery, language, writing, persuasion, cunning wiles, athletic contests, gymnasiums, astronomy, and astrology. He was also the personal agent and herald of Zeus, the king of the gods. Hermes was depicted as either a handsome and athletic, beardless youth, or as an older bearded man. His attributes included the herald's wand or kerykeion (Latin caduceus), winged boots, and sometimes a winged travellers cap and chlamys cloak.

Some of the more famous myths featuring the god include:--

• The theft of Apollon's cattle which he accomplished as a toddler in the crib;
• The transformation of the tell-tale Battos to stone;
• The slaying of Argos Panohptes, the hundred-eyed guardian of the nymph Io;
• The assisting of Perseus in the hero's quest to slay Medousa;
• The seduction of Khione on the same night as his brother Apollon;
• The assisting of Odysseus in his encounter with the witch Kirke.

This site contains a total of 13 pages describing the god, including general descriptions, mythology, and cult. The content of the various pages is outlined in the table below. Quotes for these pages are still being compiled (see bottom of this page for the current status of this project).

[1.1] ZEUS & MAIA (Hesiod Theogony 938 & Astronomy Frag 1, Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes, Homeric Hymn 17, Alcaeus Frag 308, Simonides Frag 555, Aeschylus Libation Bearers 683 & Frag 212, Apollodorus 3.112, Philostratus Elder 1.46, Ovid Fasti 5.79)
[1.2] ZEUS (innumerable references)
[2.1] DIONYSOS & APHRODITE (Orphic Hymn 57)

Poseidon!

Artemis Yeah !

APHRODITE was the great Olympian goddess of beauty, love, pleasure and and procreation. She was depicted as a beautiful woman usually accompanied by the winged godling Eros (Love). Her attributes included a dove, apple, scallop shell and mirror. In classical sculpture and fresco she was often depicted nude.

Some of the more famous myths featuring the goddess include:--

• Her birth from the sea foam;
• Her adulterous affair with the god Ares;
• Her love for Adonis, a handsome Cypriot youth who was tragically killed by a boar;
• Her love for Ankhises, a shepherd-prince;
• The judgement of Paris in which the goddess was awarded the prize of the golden apple in return for promising Paris Helene in marriage;
• The Trojan War in which she supported her favourites Paris and Aeneas and was wounded in the fighting;
• The race of Hippomenes for Atalanta, which was won with the help of the goddess and her golden apples;
• The death of Hippolytos, who was destroyed by the goddess for scorning her worship;
• The statue of Pygmalion which was brought to life by Aphrodite in answer to his prayers;
• The persecution of Psykhe, the maiden loved by the goddess' son Eros.