Curated playlist
Planetary gods
- ZeusZeus was hidden in a cave as a baby so his father could not swallow him. Rhea gave Cronus a wrapped stone instead.
- Jupiter (god)Rome's high priest of Jupiter could not swear an oath. He also could not ride a horse or touch raw meat.
- Mercury (mythology)Two Roman consuls fought over who could dedicate the god Mercury's temple in 495 BC.
- Set (deity)The Egyptian god Set killed his brother, yet guarded the sun god's boat. He later became a symbol of evil.
- Mars (mythology)Mars, the Roman god of war, also guarded crops and cattle. Farmers asked him to drive off "rust" from the harvest.
- LuciferLucifer begins with a line of poetry. In a modern translation of the Book of Isaiah, it reads: "How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth." Centuries of readers heard in those…
- HermesOn his first day of life, the Greek god Hermes stole Apollo's cattle. He also invented the lyre by nightfall.
- Neptune (mythology)Neptune's Roman festival fell in the worst summer heat, not at sea. Romans drank spring water and wine in shelters.
- CronusCronus swallowed five of his own children to avoid a prophecy. Rhea saved the sixth, Zeus, by handing him a stone.
- Uranus (mythology)In Greek myth, Cronus ambushed his father Uranus, the sky, with a sickle. His mother Gaia, the Earth, had made it.
- AresZeus called his own son Ares, the war god, the most hateful of all the gods on Olympus.