1.

Zeus, a god of the ancient Greek pantheon, is the son of titans; his father, Cronus, attempted to eat
Zeus once he was born, but his mother Rhea saved him by pulling him from Cronus's maw. It is then said
that Zeus was raised by nymphs on the island of Samos until he reached maturity. When he had grown,
with the help of his mother and siblings, Zeus overthrew and castrated his father. He then assumed
Cronus's position as king of the immortals, just as Cronus had once done to his own father, Ouranos.

Zeus is married to Hera, goddess of women and marriage. He also has many children, both god and
demigod. Among his progeny are Ares, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Hebe, Hermes,
Heracles, Helen, Hephaestus, Perseus and Minos.

Other than the battle for Olympus between the divinities, most of the surviving tales about Zeus concern
his interactions with mortals. More specifically, Zeus a number of tales related to Zeus refer to his
pursuits of mortal women with whom to sow his seed. He is also known for casting spontaneous,
generally harsh judgements upon mortals and immortals alike. He banishes men and punishes gods
furiously when he is disobeyed.

In Roman mythology, which borrows liberally from the Greek pantheon, Zeus became Jove or Jupiter. By
the time Christianity arose in Rome, the bearded image of Zeus had become the de facto
characterization of God, and remains so to this day.

2. She was also known to turn her anger towards mortals who crossed her as well – for example, Paris,
who chose APHRODITE over Hera as the most beautiful goddess at the marriage of the sea-nymph Thetis
to a mortal called Peleus.

In images and statues, Hera is portrayed as being majestic and solemn, crowned with the polos – a high
cylindrical crown worn by many of the Great Goddesses.

Even before her marriage with Zeus, she ruled over the heavens and the Earth. This is one reason why
she is referred to as ‘The Queen of Heaven’ – ruling over Mount Olympus where all the gods and
goddesses live.
Even the great Zeus feared his wife Hera. Her never-ending hatred of Heracles, the illegitimate son of
Zeus and the mortal Alcmene stemmed from his continuous adultery and, amongst other things, Hera
raised a storm at sea in order to drive Heracles out of his course to kill him.

Zeus became so angry that he hung her in the clouds by a golden chain, and attached heavy anvils to her
feet. Her son Hephaestus tried to release his mother from her humiliating position, for which Zeus threw
him out of heaven, and his leg was broken by the fall.

3. Although there were various rivers personified as gods, these would have been technically under
Poseidon's sway. Similarly, Nereus, the Old Man of the Sea, wasn't really considered on a par with
Poseidon, who was known to drive his chariot through the waves in unquestioned dominance. Poseidon
had married Nereus's daughter, the sea-nymph Amphitrite.

The Romans' name for Poseidon was Neptune.

In dividing heaven, the watery realm and the subterranean land of the dead, the Olympians agreed that
the earth itself would be ruled jointly, with Zeus as king. This led to a number of territorial disputes
among the gods. Poseidon vied with Athena to be patron deity of Athens. The god demonstrated his
power and benevolence by striking the Acropolis with his three-pronged spear, which caused a spring of
salt water to emerge. Athena, however, planted an olive tree, which was seen as a more useful favor. Her
paramount importance to the Athenians is seen in her magnificent temple, the Parthenon, which still
crowns the Acropolis. The people of Athens were careful, all the same, to honor Poseidon as well.

Poseidon was father of the hero Theseus, although the mortal Aegeus also claimed this distinction.
Theseus was happy to have two fathers, enjoying the lineage of each when it suited him. Thus he
became king of Athens by virtue of being Aegeus's son, but availed himself of Poseidon's parentage in
facing a challenge handed him by King Minos of Crete. This monarch threw his signet ring into the depths
of the sea and dared Theseus to retrieve it. The hero dove beneath the waves and not only found the
ring but was given a crown by Poseidon's wife, Amphitrite.
Poseidon was not so well-disposed toward another famous hero. Because Odysseus blinded the Cyclops
Polyphemus, who was Poseidon's son, the god not only delayed the hero's homeward return from the
Trojan War but caused him to face enormous perils.

Poseidon similarly cursed the wife of King Minos. Minos had proved his divine right to rule Crete by
calling on Poseidon to send a bull from the sea, which the king promised to sacrifice. Poseidon sent the
bull, but Minos liked it too much to sacrifice it. So Poseidon asked Aphrodite, the goddess of love, to
make Minos's queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. The result was the monstrous Minotaur, half-
man, half-bull.

As god of horses, Poseidon often adopted the shape of a steed. It is not certain that he was in this form
when he wooed Medusa. But when Perseus later killed the Gorgon, the winged horse Pegasus sprang
from her severed neck.

Poseidon sometimes granted the shape-shifting power to others. And he ceded to the request of the
maiden Caenis that she be transformed into the invulnerable, male warrior Caeneus.

4.

Hence, all the gold, diamonds, gems and rubies in existence were the property of Hades - that's one rich
dude! Made him real popular with the ladies, no doubt.

Another reason that the people called him Pluto is because they did not like to pronounce the dreaded
name of Hades or Aides. The ancients thought that if they uttered his name, he would hear them and
come for their souls.

They preferred to call him Pluto, the more benign 'Giver of Wealth'.

The name Pluto was used by both the Greeks and the Romans, and it translates into Latin as Dis - "Rich".
The Romans also substituted Orcus and Tartarus as synonymous to Pluto.
Although Hades was an Olympian, he spent most of the time in his dark castle in the Underworld. This
Lord of Hell, who was formidable in battle, proved his ferociousness in the famous battle of the
Olympians versus the Titans, which established the rule of Zeus.

His father was the Titan Cronus, ruler of the universe, and his mother was Rhea. Cronus had a bad habit
of eating his kids as they were born!

The Titan Cronus had been warned by an oracle that one of his children would grow up to overthrow
him, just as he had done to his father, Uranus.

Fearful of meeting the same fate as his father, Cronus would swallow his children alive, as they were
born to his wife, Rhea.

This made Rhea angry, so when Zeus was born, instead of the baby she presented Cronus with a large
stone wrapped in baby blankets.

The Titan Cronus swallowed the stone and thought himself safe, but when Zeus grew up, with the help
of his mother and Metis he made Cronus disgorge his swallowed siblings and declared war on their
father.

Wearing the famous Helmet of Invisibility given to him by the Cyclops in gratitude for being freed from
their prison in Tartarus, Hades snuck up unseen on his father Cronus.

That was near the end of this ten year war. Assisted by his brother Poseidon, who held Cronus immobile
with his Trident, and his younger brother Zeus, who had stunned Cronus with a barrage of thunderbolts,
Hades managed to castrate the Titan and thus end his reign.

Following the fall of Cronus, lots were drawn, with Zeus getting the heavens, Poseidon the seas, and
Hades the Underworld, which was the 'abode of the shades', home to departed souls.
In this epic division of spoils between the brothers, the earth remained common to all three gods, to be
shared evenly.

Because of his dark and morbid personality Hades was not especially liked by neither his fellow gods, nor
the mortals who lived on earth.

His character is described as "fierce and inexorable", and of all the gods, he and the god of war, Ares,
were the two deities most feared and hated by mortals.

He was not however an evil god, for although he was stern, cruel and unpitying, still he was just.

Hades ruled the Underworld and therefore was most often associated with death and was feared by
men, but he was not Death itself - The actual embodiment of Death was another god, Thanatos.

5. Persephone was titled Kore (Core) (the Maiden) as the goddess of spring's bounty. Once upon a time
when she was playing in a flowery meadow with her Nymph companions, Kore was seized by Haides and
carried off to the underworld as his bride. Her mother Demeter despaired at her dissappearance and
searched for her the throughout the world accompanied by the goddess Hekate (Hecate) bearing
torches. When she learned that Zeus had conspired in her daughter's abduction she was furious, and
refused to let the earth fruit until Persephone was returned. Zeus consented, but because the girl had
tasted of the food of Haides--a handful of pomegranate seeds--she was forced to forever spend a part of
the year with her husband in the underworld. Her annual return to the earth in spring was marked by
the flowering of the meadows and the sudden growth of the new grain. Her return to the underworld in
winter, conversely, saw the dying down of plants and the halting of growth.

In other myths, Persephone appears exclusively as the queen of the underworld, receiving the likes of
Herakles and Orpheus at her court.

Persephone was usually depicted as a young goddess holding sheafs of grain and a flaming torch.
Sometimes she was shown in the company of her mother Demeter, and the hero Triptolemos, the
teacher of agriculture. At other times she appears enthroned beside Haides.
6.Because of her beauty and uncontrollable desire, she was seen as a threat to interrupt peace between
gods because of jealousy. Zeus married Aphrodite to Hephaestus, when the god demanded her in order
to release Hera from a magical trap. Zeus also saw this marriage as a solution to prevent others from
their rivalry to possess the goddess of beauty. This, however, didn't stop Aphrodite to have her affairs.
Most notably and most desirable was the one with Ares, with whom Aphrodite was having a passionate
but secret love affair. The fruits of this affair were Phobos(god of fear) and Deimos(god of terror).Venus
and Mars They usually accompanied Ares into a battle, causing fear and terror before destruction. And
there were also Erotes which include Eros (love), Anteros(counter-love), Himeros(sexual-desire),
Pothos(yearning) and Harmonia(harmony). However, for each of these, there are many sources
connecting them to other origins and bloodline. For example, according to Hesiod, Eros is a primeval god
and there are no reference to him by Homer. Aphrodite is also noted for having an affair with Poseidon
who showed her support when Aphrodite and Ares were chained on the bed by Hephaestus for
displaying adultery in his chambers. She was grateful to Poseidon who managed to get them released
from the chains and she mated with the god of the Sea. Allegedly, she bore him a daughter Rhodos, a
sea-nymph of the island Rhodes. She was also having a short affair with Dionysus, a god of wine and
pleasure. They succumbed into having the pleasures of love under the influence of wine and Aphrodite
then allegedly gave birth to Priapus(minor god of fertility). She was also seduced by Hermes and gave
birth to Hermaphroditus(minor god of bisexuality and effeminacy). Unlike other gods, except Ares,
Aphrodite was the one who made her move when it came to Nerites, a young sea-god. She was trying to
seduce him and was on the right course, until she asked him to join her at Olympus. When the god
refused, she in revenge transformed him into a shell-fish.

7.As goddess of wisdom and battle, Athena naturally has a soft spot for the brave and wily Odysseus. She
helps him out of many tough situations, including his shipwreck in Book 5 and the mismatched battle of
Book 22. She does not merely impart sense and safety to her passive charge, however. She takes an
interest in Odysseus for the talents he already has and actively demonstrates. Although she reassures
Odysseus during the battle with the suitors, she does not become fully involved, preferring instead to
watch Odysseus fight and prevail on his own.

She also often helps Telemachus—as when she sends him off to Pylos and Sparta to earn a name for
himself—but she has the most affection for Odysseus. Athena is confident, practical, clever, a master of
disguises, and a great warrior, characteristics she finds reflected in Telemachus. Her role as goddess of
the womanly arts gets very little attention in the Odyssey. Penelope works at the loom all the time but
rarely sees Athena, and then usually only in dreams.

8. The principal subject of the The Bacchae, Dionysus, possesses a multitude of powers and can take a
variety of forms. In Euripides's conception of the god, however, his numerous forms conform to the logic
of duality, that is, they are both one thing and its opposite simultaneously. Thus, Dionysus is presented
as being both inside and outside the play's action. Physically, he is both beautiful and fearful. By birth, he
is both divine and human, the son of Zeus and a mortal woman. By origin, he is both Greek and Asiatic,
his cult associated with Asia Minor. His cult names provide insight into the nature of his relationship with
humankind: the bacchants call him Bromios, "the roaring one", and also Lysios, "the god of letting go".
Dionysus's gifts allow humans to let go of their troubles through wine, to let go of their identities
through theater, and to let go of their individuality through cult worship. For humans, his ability to allow
them to let go, when practiced in moderation, opens them to the festive, communal side of life. As the
Stranger, or Dionysus's human form, says, "Dionysus, as a god in perfect essence: a terrible one, but to
men most gentle."

But this letting go, like everything associated with Dionysus, also has its potential dark aspect. There is no
inherent limit to the powers of bellowing Dionysus. Festivity can turn to destructive excess, and instead
of providing a necessary temporary release, can overpower life itself. Without self-control, Dionysus's
powers can drive humans to let go of their sanity, to let go of their judgment and, in the end, to let go of
their very humanity. The supreme importance of self-control is embodied by none other than the
disguised Dionysus. While Euripides vividly illustrates the full extent of Dionysus's ecstatic powers upon
his followers, the Stranger himself is calm, self-possessed and patient. He alone displays self-control and
wisdom, and these traits distinguish him from the mortals who surround him. While he is able to sting
men with madness, he is the picture of sanity, suggesting that he is not the agent of the tragedy, but
perhaps that mortals themselves are responsible for their bloody discord.

10.Among the rural populace, Artemis was the favourite goddess. Her character and function varied
greatly from place to place, but, apparently, behind all forms lay the goddess of wild nature, who
danced, usually accompanied by nymphs, in mountains, forests, and marshes. Artemis embodied the
sportsman’s ideal, so besides killing game she also protected it, especially the young; this was the
Homeric significance of the title Mistress of Animals.

The worship of Artemis probably flourished in Crete or on the Greek mainland in pre-Hellenic times.
Many of Artemis’ local cults, however, preserved traces of other deities, often with Greek names,
suggesting that, upon adopting her, the Greeks identified Artemis with nature divinities of their own. The
virginal sister of Apollo is very different from the many-breasted Artemis of Ephesus, for example.

Dances of maidens representing tree nymphs (dryads) were especially common in Artemis’ worship as
goddess of the tree cult, a role especially popular in the Peloponnese. Throughout the Peloponnese,
bearing such epithets as Limnaea and Limnatis (Lady of the Lake), Artemis supervised waters and lush
wild growth, attended by nymphs of wells and springs (naiads). In parts of the peninsula her dances were
wild and lascivious.