The Olympians

Anthony, Leigha, Matt, Madeline, Shane, Mary Jess, Jaclyn, Mikayla,

and Katie V.

Gods

The gods were created so when something went wrong on Earth the people would

"blame" it on the gods. They had a huge impact on humans because the humans would worship and give offerings to the

gods, so that the gods would help them with their troubles, or not give anymore

punishments.

Zeus

God of the gods and of the sky, pictured with a

thunderbolt or lightning in his hand, Zeus was the most

powerful god. He had overturned his father Cronus

and seized power, and everything was ultimately in

his hands. Zeus was a weather god, as well as the

protector of the law, the state, the society, the city, the

family and strangers.

Hera

Zeus' sister and wife, daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Hera was the

queen of heaven and the gods and goddess of women and marriage.

She was generally described as an avenging goddess, punishing those that had displeased her severely. Her husband Zeus was constantly

unfaithful to her, and she had a lot of persecuting to do because of this.

Her children were Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe and Illyria and the Romans

called her Juno. Hera was the patron goddess of the landscape Argolis. In

Olympia her temple is even older than that of Zeus, and games to her honor were held there for women.

Poseidon

Poseidon is god of the sea and protector of all waters. Poseidon

is the brother of Zeus and Hades. When their father died they drew lots for shares of the earth. His prize was to become

lord of the sea. He was worshiped by seamen.

Poseidon married Amphitrite. Poseidon’s weapon is the

trident, which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He is second to Zeus in power amongst the gods. Poseidon is

very greedy. He had some fights with other gods when he tried to

take over their cities.

Hades

Hades is the brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When three

brothers drew lots of the world, Hades got the worst pick, the

underworld. He is now the god of the underworld, ruler of the

dead. He is also the god of wealth, due to the precious

metals mined from the earth. He has a helmet that makes him invisible. He rarely leaves the

underworld. His wife is Persephone whom Hades

abducted.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite [Roman name Venus] was the goddess of

love, beauty and fertility. When the Trojan prince

Paris was asked to judge which of three Olympian goddesses was the most

beautiful, he chose Aphrodite over Hera and Athena. She is the wife of

the ugliest of the gods, Hephaestus.

Cupid

Cupid was the god of love in Roman mythology. It was

commonly believed that Cupid was the son of Venus - the

Roman goddess of love . The ancient Romans often depicted Cupid as winged child or baby who carried a bow and quiver full of arrows. One story about

Cupid story is his relationship with the beautiful woman named Psyche. His Greek

name is Eros.

Apollo

Apollo is the god of the sun and he is the patron god of musicians and poets. Son of Zeus and Leto, twin

brother of Artemis. He is considered the ideal of manly beauty. He replaced the Titan Helios as the Sun god. He was

believed to bring about epidemics of disease.

That is because Artemis and Apollo were believed to shot arrows at

people to make them sick. So they would pray to Apollo and hope that

the epidemic would be stopped.

Ares

Ares (or Mars) has a planet named after him. The third

month of the year, March, in his honor. He was also a

god of agriculture. He is the patron god of the Romans because they were warlike people. He was a god who

took a savage delight in slaughter, and the hordes of

slain upon the battlefield filled him with a fierce joy. (He loved war and killing

others.)

Artemis

Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin of Apollo.  Artemis is the great Olympian goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. She is also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage. Artemis is also bringer of sudden death and disease, she targeted mostly females.

Athena

Daughter of Zeus, and only by him. She leaped from the head of Zeus, already adult, dressed with her armor.  Zeus chose Metis as his first wife.  As she was about to give birth to Athena, Zeus deceived his pregnant wife with cunning words and took her into his own body. She is, above all, the Goddess of the City, the protectress of civilized life, of artesian activities, and of agriculture.   

Hephaestus

Hephaestus was the God of fire, especially a blacksmith's

furnace. He made all of the armor and weapons for the

gods. He was a very peaceful man. He was the son of Zeus

and Hera. He married Aphrodite but she never fully committed

herself to him. Hephaestus was also called Vulcan, son of

Jupiter and Juno. He was the God of fire and of volcanoes. He

was the husband of Maia and Venus.

Hestia

Hestia was the most gentle and charitable of all the gods. She is the goddess of the hearth, and doesn't play a role in any of the

myths. She was the sister of Zeus and the oldest of the Olympians.

Her Roman name was Vesta. Vesta was just like Hestia, but

she also was the goddess of the personification of the ceremonial flame. Vestal virgins took a vow of chastity for 30 years during

which they honored her.

Hermes

Hermes supposedly invented boxing and

gymnastics. He was the son of Zeus and the constellation Maia. He was the fastest of all the gods. Hermes carries around a magic wand and

wears a winged sandals and hat. His roman name is Mercury. Hermes is the

messenger god. He was a trickster and a friend of

thieves.

Demeter

Demeter is the goddess of harvest. Her Roman

name is Ceres. She was the sister of Zeus. Her

daughter is Persephone. Her daughter lives with Hades each winter and

during that time no crops will grow.

Persephone

Persephone is the daughter of Demeter and Zeus (before Zeus' marriage with Hera). Her sisters are Athena and Aphrodite. After

she was kidnapped, Hades (Zeus' brother) tricked her into eating a pomegranate, which made her

Queen of the dead. Also by eating it, it meant she couldn't return to

her mother, so she made a compromise she would visit her

mother occasionally, but when she was in the underworld, it was

winter- which her mother made terrible because of her grief of her

daughter. She was married to Hades.

Dionysus

Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Semele (a mortal). God of wine

and festivities. Dionysus is called "twice born. "He is called this

because of the unusual manner in which he grew, which was in the

womb, and the thigh. Hera tricked Semele to prove her knowledge of Zeus being a God. So, Zeus had no choice but to reveal himself.

The lightning brightness that was his divinity killed Semele, but first,

Zeus took the unborn from her womb and sewed it inside his thigh. There it developed until it was time

for birth. His symbols are ivy, snakes, and grapes.

PanPan was the son of Hermes and

Penelope in some myths and the son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto in

others. He was the god of flocks and shepherds. He is mostly human in

appearance but with goat horns and goat feet. He is a musician and plays the pipes. He is merry and playful. He

is at home in any wild place but is favorite is Arcady where he was born. He is always in pursuit of one of the

nymphs but always rejected because he is ugly.

His name is the basis for the word "panic". There are two differing

explanations for this. The first is that he was present when Zeus defeated the Titans and claimed that it has his yelling that caused the Titans to flee. However, this seems at odds with his being Hermes son. The second is that he created the noises in the woods at

night the scared travelers.

Janus Janus was used to symbolize change

and transitions. Janus was worshipped at the beginnings of the harvest and planting times, as well as marriages, births and other beginnings. He was representative of the middle ground between barbarity and civilization, rural country and urban cities, and

youth and adulthood. They had many children, including Tiberinus. Janus and his later wife, Juturna, were the parents of Fontus. Another wife was

named Jana. Historically, however, he was one of the few Roman gods who

had no ready-made Greek counterpart, or analogous mythology.

As the sole ruler of Latium, Janus heralded the Golden Age, introducing money, laws and agriculture (making

him a culture hero).