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.
photo of the greek gods on Mount Olympus provided by www.greek-island.us
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
photo of a statue of Poseidon from: www.memrise.com
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