Curated category
Deities in the Iliad
- ZeusThe name Zeus appears in the earliest Greek records as di-we and di-wo, written in Linear B script on tablets from Mycenae.
- HeraThe name Hera appears on clay tablets from Pylos and Thebes written in the Linear B script, dating to the Mycenaean period.
- AphroditeThe name Aphrodite appears in the Cypriot syllabary as a-po-ro-ta-o-i, read right to left, during the eleventh century BC.
- ArtemisScholars have debated the linguistic origin of the name Artemis for centuries. R.S.P. Beekes suggested that the interchange between e and i in her name…
- DemeterDemeter once let everything on earth die. Not through carelessness or neglect, but through a grief so total that crops withered, harvests failed, and mortals…
- ApolloThe name Apollo appears in Linear B tablets as the fragment ]pe-rjo-[, yet scholars debate whether this represents the god himself or a different figure…
- HadesIn ancient Greek, the name Hades meant "the unseen one," a direct contrast to his brother Zeus who represented the brightness of day.
- PoseidonThe earliest written record of the name Poseidon appears on Linear B clay tablets from Mycenaean Greece, inscribed as Po-se-da-o or Po-se-da-wo-ne.
- AthenaThe name Athena likely comes from the city of Athens, which in ancient Greek is called Athenai. This plural toponym designates the place where she presided…
- DionysusClay tablets unearthed at Pylos in the twelfth or thirteenth century BC bear the inscription di-wo-nu-so. This Mycenaean Greek form appears twice on…
- HephaestusA clay tablet from Knossos bears the inscription A-pa-i-ti-jo. This Linear B script dates to the Mycenaean period and offers the earliest written evidence of…
- Rhea (mythology)The earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus gave birth to Rhea as one of their twelve or thirteen Titan children. She grew up alongside her siblings…
- ThetisA papyrus fragment discovered at Oxyrhynchus in the 19th century reveals a hymn by the Spartan poet Alcman from the seventh century BC.
- HermesThe earliest written record of Hermes appears in Linear B inscriptions from Pylos, Thebes, and Knossos dating to the Bronze Age Mycenaean period.
- CronusThe sky father Uranus hid his youngest children, the hundred-handed Hecatoncheires and one-eyed Cyclopes, deep within Tartarus.
- AresThe name Ares appears in Mycenaean Linear B tablets as the syllabic form a-re. This earliest attested version dates to the Bronze Age, long before classical…
- EosThe Proto-Greek form of the dawn goddess is reconstructed as auhōs. This linguistic root connects her to the Vedic goddess Ushas, the Lithuanian goddess…
- Tethys (mythology)In the ancient Greek cosmos, Tethys emerged as one of the Titans, the children born from the union of Uranus and Gaia. Hesiod lists her among twelve siblings…
- ErinyesUranus lay upon the earth as his son Cronus struck with a sickle. Drops of blood fell from the wound and stained the soil below.
- Eris (mythology)The name Eris derives from the ancient Greek noun eris, which carries the stem erid-. This root means strife or discord.
- HeliosThe word helios comes from a Proto-Indo-European root that ancient scholars trace back to the dawn of language itself. Walter Burkert noted in his 1985 book…
- Iris (mythology)The ancient Greek noun for rainbow also meant the halo of the Moon. An inscription from Corinth reveals an original form with a digamma that eventually…
- OceanusScholars have struggled for decades to explain the name Oceanus. M. L. West described its etymology as obscure and impossible to derive from Greek itself.