Greek Mythology

1. Greek Mythology

2. ZEUS • Lord of the heavens and king of all gods, Zeus is the most famous ancient god. He was worshiped everywhere in Greece and people loved him and feared him in the same time.He is the youngest son of Cronus and Rhea; because he is the supreme ruler he is represented as a personification of law, justice and morals, which made him the spiritual leader for gods and men. His weapon is a thunderbolt which he used against everyone who displeased him. Zeus controlled thunder, lightning and rain, which made him also a weather god.Zeus is married to Hera and is famous for his many infidelities to her, being the first and most infidel husband in history. Zeus is father to Helen of Troy.

3. Mount Olympus • After having overthrown his father, Cronus, Zeus divided the universe, their father’s kingdom, in parts he shared between himself and his brothers. Poseidon gained the sea, Hades the underworld and Zeus the heavens. He founded his proper kingdom, on the top of the Mount Olympus, were he lived with his sisters, brothers and children.The Olympian Gods were living on the Mount Olympus.The most famous and important Olympian Gods inhabiting Olympus are twelve, but other minor deities and gods were also welcome to live there

4. ATHENA • The Greek goddess Athena is usually portrayed as one of the most benevolent goddesses . . .strong, fair, and merciful. • Athena is known as one of the three virgin goddesses, referred to as virgin because they were able to remain independent, unswayed by the spells of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and the consequent pull of marriage and motherhood. Romance and marriage did not feature in Athena's mythology. In Greek mythology Athena was, in essence, the prototype of the contemporary "career woman". • The birth of the Greek goddess Athena was more than unusual, it was truly amazing! • It was the headache to end all headaches! Zeus, the mighty king of the Olympian deities, regretted having swallowed his first wife, Metis. When Zeus had learned that she was pregnant, he feared that she was carrying the son that had been prophesied to supplant him on the throne. • Though swallowing Metis had seemed a good idea at the time, it was now causing him great suffering which eventually proved to be totally unnecessary.  • Ready to risk anything to get rid of the pain that tormented him, he allowed one of the other gods to split open his head, and . . . Voila! Out came, not the son he feared, but a beautiful full-grown daughter, dressed in golden battle armor, who instantly became the "apple of her father's eye".

5. ARES • AresHe is the god of war, a very handsome and tall figure, but very cruel and bloodstained; nevertheless, he was quite a coward. Whenever he ran into a battle bringing Pain, Panic, Oblivion and Famine and when hurt he would run to his father, Zeus, to be healed. Hera and Zeus were both quite disgusted of their cowardly son.A myth says that he was caught by his kind brother, Hephaestus, in an act of adultery with his wife, the beautiful Aphrodite, and as a revenge made Ares look ridicule in public.

6. Apollo and Artemis • Apollo is the god of music, who delighted everyone with his performance at the golden lyre, the god of healing, and the god of light and truth. He was also known as the Archer, as he was a master in archer and excellent athlete, and for being the god of prophecy: the divination centre of Delphi is dedicated to Apollo. • He is the son of Zeus and Leto and his twin sister is Artemis, goddess of hunting and wilderness. Mythology said that when Hera found out about her husband’s infidelity with Leto, she forced Zeus’s lover to roam the earth to find somewhere to give birth; Hera had forbidden Leto to rest anywhere on the earth, the islands and the sea; the only place for Leto to go was Delos, which was then a floating island and not one of Hera’s prohibitions. Leto gave birth to Apollo and Artemis there. Since then, Delos became one of the most important sanctuaries dedicated to Apollo.

7. PERSEPHONE • Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeusand Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it. • Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began.

8. CRONOS • Cronos was the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his Father Uranus. His wife was Rhea. Their offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronos ate each of the children as they were born. This worked until Rhea, unhappy at the loss of her children, tricked Cronos into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus. When he grew up Zeus would revolt against Cronos and the other Titans, defeat them, and banish them to Tartarus in the underworld. • (Cronos is Zeus’s Father!!)

9. ATLAS • Atlas was the son of Iapetus. Unlike his brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus, Atlas fought with the other Titans supporting Cronus against Zeus. Due to Cronus's advance age Atlas lead the Titan's in battle. As a result he was singled out by Zeus for a special punishment and made to hold up the world on his back.

10. HERMES • Known for his swiftness and athleticism, Hermes was given credit for inventing foot-racing and boxing. • Hermes, the messenger of the Olympian gods, is the son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. • According to legend, Hermes was born in a cave on Mount Cyllene in Arcadia. Zeus had impregnated Maia at the dead of night while all other gods slept. When dawn broke amazingly he was born.

11. Poseidon and Hades • Poseidon is a god of many names. He is most famous as the god of the sea. The division of the universe involved him and his brothers, Zeus and Hades. Poseidon became ruler of the sea, Zeus ruled the sky, and Hades got the underworld. The other divinities attributed to Poseidon involve the god of earthquakes and the god of horses. The symbols associated with Poseidon include: dolphins, tridents, and three-pronged fish spears. • Hades is the lord of the dead and ruler of the nether world, which is referred to as the domain of Hades or, by transference, as Hades alone. • Hades possesses the riches of the earth, and is thus referred to as 'the Rich One'. Possibly also because -- as Sophocles writes -- 'the gloomy Hades enriches himself with our sighs and our tears'. • Of all the gods, Hades is the one who is liked the least and even the gods themselves have an aversion of him. People avoided speaking his name lest they attracted his unwanted attention. With their faces averted they sacrificed black sheep, whose blood they let drip into pits, and when they prayed to him, they would bang their hands on the ground.

12. GREEK MONSTERS

13. THE HARPIES Smelly bird-like creatures with women’s faces

14. In Greek mythology a Gorgonis a monstrous feminine creature whose appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. Medusa was a Gorgon.

15. The Cyclopes were giant beings with a single, round eye in the middle of their foreheads. According to Hesiod, they were strong, stubborn, and "abrupt of emotion." The Cyclopes’, the Titans and the Giants were considered the first three races of human beings according to Greek Myth.

16. Greek mythology, Cerberus or Kerberoswas the hound of Hades, a monstrous three-headed dog[2]with a snake for a tail and snakes down his back like a mane, whose analogs in other cultures are hellhounds.