Mythology

Zeus was the god of the sky and ruler of the gods of Mount Olympus. He displaced his father, and assumed the leadership of the gods of Olympus. His weapon was a thunderbolt. His favorite child was Athena.

Zeus is the son of Crones, King of the Titans and Rhea. Crones was afraid that his daughter and sons would throw him out of throne so he ate all his kids. Only Zeus survived. Zeus rescued his siblings and got to be king of the Gods and Goddesses and God of the Sky. Zeus married many women. Zeus was the youngest son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. When he was born, his father Cronus intended to swallow him as he had all of Zeus's siblings: Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera. But Rhea hid the newborn in a cave on Mount Dicte in Crete.

The Cyclopes were the three sons of Uranus and Gaea. Their names were Argues, Brontes, and Steropes. They were the ones who helped Zeus defeat his brother Crones by forging lightning bolts. The Cyclopes were giants, with a single eye in the middle of their forehead.

Uranus and Gaea were the parents of the three Cyclopes. Their children are the Hecatonchires, the Cyclopes, and the Titans. Uranus was the god of the heavens, and the husband of Gaea.

Gaea is the goddess of earth and Mother Earth herself. She is the first goddess to be in Greek mythology. Gaea arises from Chaos and is said to be its daughter. Gaea is the mother to all living: the humans, the gods, the four elements - earth, fire, air and water,... etc. She has also given birth to the sky itself; what a birth! Besides from giving birth to one of the first gods Uranus, who is personified as the god of the sky or heaven, she also the mother of the twelve mighty Titans, the Cyclopes and the Hundred handed as well as the Giants and the Erinyes, the goddesses of fate, even though they come in to the world in a somewhat controversial way. The father of these children is Uranus.

Uranus is the god of sky and heaven. Before he dies Uranus is the first ruler of all rulers. He is overthrown and killed by his youngest son the Titan Cronus. Uranus is the son of Gaea and at the same time her mate. He is not a Titan but the Titans are the children Uranus have with Gaea. Other children Uranus have with Gaea are the Cyclops and the Hundred handed (Hecatomcheires).

Athena was the most important goddess of Greece mythology. She was the goddess of wisdom, war, the arts, industry, justice and skill. She was the goddess of the city, handcrafts, and agriculture. She invented the bridle which permitted man to tame horses, the trumpet, the flute, the pot, the rake, the plow, the yoke, the ship, and the chariot.

Zeus was once married to Metis, a daughter of Ocean who was renowned for her wisdom. When Metis became pregnant, Zeus was warned by Earth that a son born to Metis would overthrow him, just as he had usurped his own father's throne. Zeus swallowed Metis. In time he was overcome with a splitting headache and summoned help from the craftsman god Hephaestus (or, some say, the Titan Prometheus). Hephaestus cleaved Zeus's forehead with an ax, and Athena sprang forth fully armed.

Hera is the Queen of the Gods and Goddesses. She is the sister and wife of Zeus. Together, they had many children and had an extremely bad jealous streak of all the other wives that Zeus had. Marriage and birth was what Hera was worshipped for. Her children were not conceived by the help of a man, but with either slapping her hand, or eating lettuce.

They were born not out of love but of envy and hatred. Hera hated the great hero Heracles since he was the son of her husband Zeus and a mortal woman. When he was still an infant, she sent snakes to attack him in his crib. Later she stirred up the Amazons against him when he was on one of his quests. On the other hand, Hera aided the hero Jason, who would never have retrieved the Golden Fleece without her sponsorship.

DIONYSUS

Dionysus was the god of wine. He was the son of Zeus and the mortal heroine Semele. Dionysus rescued Ariadne after she had been abandoned by Theseus. Dionysus also saved his mother from the Underworld, after Zeus showed her his true nature as storm god and consumed her in lightning.

It was Dionysus who granted Midas the power to turn whatever he touched into gold, then was kind enough to take the power back when it proved inconvenient.

ARTEMIS

Artemis was the virgin goddess of the hunt. She helped women in childbirth but also brought sudden death with her arrows. Artemis is the sister of Apollo. Artemis and her brother Apollo were the children of Zeus and Leto. In some versions of their myth, Artemis was born first and helped her mother to deliver Apollo.

Niobe, queen of Thebes, once boasted that she was better than Leto because she had many children while the goddess had but two. Artemis and Apollo avenged this insult to their mother by killing all or most of Niobe's children with their arrows. The weeping Niobe was transformed into stone, in which form she continued to weep.

When Apollo noticed that Artemis was spending a great deal of time hunting with the giant Orion, he decided to put an end to the relationship. He challenged Artemis to prove her skill at archery by shooting at an object floating far out at sea. Her shot was perfect. The target turned out to be the head of Orion. Artemis is generally depicted as a young woman clad in buckskins, carrying a bow and a quiver of arrows. She is often accompanied by wild creatures such as a stag or she-bear.