In Greek mythology, there is no single original text like the Christian Bible or the Hindu Vedas that introduces all of the myths’ characters and stories. Instead, the earliest Greek myths were part of an oral tradition that began in the Bronze Age and their plots and themes unfolded gradually in the written literature of the archaic and classical periods.
Around 700 BC, the poet Hesiod’s Theogony offered the first written cosmogony, or origin story, of Greek mythology. The Theogony tells the story of the universe’s journey from nothingness to being, and details an elaborate family tree of elements, gods, and goddesses who evolved from Chaos. Later Greek writers and artists used and elaborated upon these sources in their own work. For instance, mythological figures and events appear in the 5th-century plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and the lyric poems of Pindar.
At the center of Greek mythology is the group of deities who were said to live on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece. From Olympus, they ruled every aspect of human life. Olympian gods and goddesses looked like men and women, although they could change form to animals.
The main Olympians are:
- Zeus: the king of all the gods and god of weather, law, and fate
- Hera: the queen of the gods and goddess of women and marriage
- Aphrodite: goddess of beauty and love
- Apollo: god of prophesy, music and poetry and knowledge
- Ares: god of war
- Artemis: goddess of hunting, animals and childbirth
- Athena: goddess of wisdom and defense
- Demeter: goddess of agriculture and grain
- Dionysos: god of wine, pleasure and festivity
- Hephaistos: god of fire, metalworking and sculpture
- Hermes: god of travel, hospitality, and trade and Zeus’s personal messenger
- Poseidon: god of the sea
- Hades: god of the underworld
Greek mythology does not just tell the stories of gods and goddesses, though. Human heroes are also mentioned. Heroes such as Pandora, the first woman, whose curiosity brought evil to mankind and Midas, the king with the golden touch. Monsters and “hybrids” (human-animal forms) are also featured prominently in these tales: the winged horse Pegasus, the horse-man Centaur, the lion-woman Sphinx and the bird-woman Harpies, the one-eyed giant Cyclops, minotaurs, and dragons of all sorts. Many of these creatures have become almost as well known as the gods, goddesses and heroes who share their stories.
photo of a statue of Poseidon from:
www.memrise.com
