ANCIENT GREEK

what did the greeks value?

THE GREEKS VALUED

• hospitality
• strategy/cleverness
• fighting skills
• sea worthiness
• inventiveness/creativity

before the gods

gaea (earth) &
ouranos (heaven)
married & had kids
who were known as the titans & giants

the titans kronos & rhea gave birth to the first olympians. kronos was scared of his childrens' power & ate all but zeus, who later (with the help of rhea & gaea) defeated kronos.

THE TWELVE OLYMPIANS

THE OLYMPIANS

• are recognized in A LOT of famous literature & art
• were thought to be immortal
• represent things important to the civilization
• did what they wanted
• mostly didn't care about humans

ZEUS

zeus carried a thunderbolt as his symbol. his animal was the eagle & his tree the oak. zeus was known for having many children (mostly with humans). he was in charge of the weather. he had a bad temper & was sometimes tricked by hera & poseidon. while highly respected, he wasn't always the best example of greek values.

poseidon

poseidon was also god of horses, storms & earthquakes. in most stories, he was just as strong as (& more widely worshipped than) zeus. the trident was his symbol. he was also known for having a temper, which caused shipwrecks at sea. sailors would sacrifice animals to him before long voyages so as not to be cursed with bad luck.

hades

hades was king of the dead but not death himself. he lived in the underworld with all of the dead. he had a helmet which allowed him (or anyone who wore it) to be invisible. hades was not evil, but he wasn't considered a good omen either. there were groups that worshipped him & other underworld deities called chthonic cults.

hera

hera was queen of the gods & respected as much as zeus. her animals were the cow & peacock. she was beautiful but extremely jealous, cursing anyone who claimed they were moreso. she hated all of zeus' mistresses & cursed most. she would also try to kill zeus' other children, even hercules.

hestia

hestia was widely acknowledged in daily life but played little to no role in the myths. she symbolized the home & was mentioned before & after every meal. every town & city had a public fire to her, which was never allowed to go out.

aphrodite

born of the sea foam caused by the defeated titans, aphrodite is often shown in a sea shell in art. aphrodite was a goddess who laughed a lot and was loved by many. she was married to hephaestus but loved ares. as the oldest olympian, she was very powerful.

athena

one day zeus decided to pop a full-grown goddess out of his head, & he named her athena. athena was zeus' favorite child & he gave her his aegis shieldplate. she was a strategic genius, undeniably the smartest of the greek pantheon. she liked clever mortals & supported them. her tree was the olive tree & her symbol the owl.

hephaestus

jealous that zeus popped a kid out of his head, hera decided to pop out her own. thus hephaestus was born -- with an unfortunate limp. in her disgust at his deformity, hera threw him off olympus (he survived because he's immortal). despite this treatment, he was very popular for being kind. he, along with athena, were patrons of city life & civilization.

hermes

hermes was the son of zeus & maia, the daughter of the titan atlas. when he was only a day old, he stole a herd of cows sacred to apollo. zeus made hermes give the cows back. to make up for it, hermes made the lyre & gifted it to apollo. he is the fastest of the gods & was a very popular subject of sculptors.

ares

ares was son of zeus & hera but even they didn't always like him. ares was a fierce warrior but because he did not use strategy, he represented pure bloodlust & adrenaline more than victory in battle.

apollo

apollo was the son of zeus & a mortal named leto. his twin sister was artmis. apollo, who represented light & truth, fulfilled greek values more roundly than any other of the pantheon. his oracle at delphi passed on guidance to mortals. his tree was the laurel & his animals the dolphin & crow.

artemis

artemis was the daughter of zeus & a mortal named leto. her twin brier was apollo. just as apollo represented daylight, artemis represented the moonlight. she was a patron of the innocent & revered for her archery & hunting skills. her tree was the cypress & animal the deer.

the earthly deities

dionysus

dionysus was the god of vines, which mainly means grapes. he was originally a mortal & later made a god. he represented joy & madness, & was (along with demeter) one of two important earth deities. he was not always included in the 12 olympians of the greek pantheon, but he was still very important.

demeter

demeter represented the harvest & new life on earth. her daughter persephone was goddess of the spring. demeter would be happy in the summer & sad in the winter, so according to the stories, her moods determined the seasons. grains were her primary plant & she was patron of agriculture.