Curated category
Deities in the Iliad
- ZeusZeus is the supreme deity of the Greek pantheon, and yet even the gods rise from their seats when he enters the room. That detail, preserved in ancient…
- HeraHera is the goddess of marriage, women, and family in ancient Greek religion, and the protector of women during childbirth.
- AphroditeAphrodite, the ancient Greek goddess of love, has two birth stories that contradict each other, and the people who told them knew it.
- ArtemisArtemis was one of the most widely venerated goddesses in the ancient Greek world, and she contained contradictions that still puzzle scholars today.
- 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…
- ApolloApollo carries more names than any other Olympian. He is the archer god, the healer, the prophet, the musician, the shepherd's patron, the founder of cities…
- HadesHades is the god of the dead and the King of the underworld in ancient Greek religion and mythology. His name became so feared that by around the 5th century…
- PoseidonPoseidon is one of the twelve Olympians in ancient Greek religion and mythology, a god of such terrifying breadth that sailors prayed to him for safe passage…
- AthenaAthena leaped from the forehead of her father Zeus, fully grown and armed, and the gods stood awestruck. Helios, the god of the sun, stopped his chariot in…
- DionysusDionysus stands as one of the most paradoxical figures in all of ancient Greek religion: the god who frees his followers from fear and self-consciousness…
- HephaestusHephaestus refused to come home. The Greek god of artisans, blacksmiths, and fire had been thrown out of heaven by his own mother, Hera, and his answer was…
- 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…
- ThetisThetis is a figure from Greek mythology whose power ran deeper than most mortals, or even gods, ever understood. She was one of the fifty Nereids, daughters…
- HermesHermes is an Olympian deity in ancient Greek religion, and his story begins in a cave on Mount Cyllene, in the dead of night, where Zeus secretly made love…
- CronusCronus, leader of the Titans and ruler of the mythological Golden Age, was the deity Greeks credited with bringing the harvest and feared for devouring his…
- AresAres, the Greek god of war, was one of the most feared and least loved of the Twelve Olympians. Son of Zeus and Hera, he embodied something that made even…
- EosEos, the Greek goddess of the dawn, rose every morning from the edge of the river Oceanus and scattered light across the sky before her brother Helios, the…
- 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…
- ErinyesThe Erinyes live in Erebus, older than any Olympian god, and their job is to make sure no oath goes unpunished. A formulaic curse in the Iliad names them…
- 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…
- OceanusOceanus once heard himself mocked by his own kin: "How did you summon courage to quit the stream that bears your name and the rock-roofed caves you yourself…