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Some of the world’s most imaginative and adventurous stories about heroes and prophecies come from Ancient Greece. Our Greek ancestors adored storytelling and were highly religious; they fervently believed in the existence of their gods and learnt life lessons from the stories (known as myths) that were told. These gods were great supernatural beings that had the power to intervene in the lives of humans and, when necessary, punish us for our wrongdoings. So who were these majestic gods with magical powers for whom our ancestors built regal temples? Whilst there are numerous versions of each myth (they were narrated orally so there isn’t one solid version) the characters in these stories, the gods, remain the same; let’s take a look.

ZEUS (Jupiter in Roman):

Zeus is the king of all other gods and the power he has comes in multiple forms: he is a body-shifter and can take the shape of anything, he can cause serious damage with his lightning bolt and he has the authority to govern over the other gods.                                     

HERA (Juno):

Hera is the sister and wife of Zeus (the gods married their siblings too) and queen of all the gods. She is also the goddess of marriage and is extremely jealous of Zeus as you can tell from a few myths involving Zeus, Hera and Zeus’ lover!

POSEIDON (Neptune):

Brother of Zeus and Lord of the sea. His weapon is a mighty three-pronged trident which can shatter any object.  

HADES (Pluto):

Brother of Zeus and God of the underworld; Hades’ task is to rule the dead. He is also the god of wealth because of all the metals the Earth has.  Hades uses a helmet to make himself invisible and has a three-headed dog, Cerberus, as company. He captured Persephone, daughter of Demeter, and dragged her to the underworld making her his queen.

Other gods are:

Aphrodite (Venus in Roman): goddess of love

Ares (Mars): god of war

Hermes (Mercury): god of commerce

Athena (Minerva): god of wisdom

Artemis (Diana): goddess of hunt and goddess of the moon

Apollo (Apollo): god of light, truth and healing

Dionysus (Bacchus): god of wine

Pan (Faunus): god of flocks and the wild

In upcoming articles you can learn more about the gods and other mythical creatures of the Ancient Greek world through myths!

*Note that the names in brackets are the Roman names for the gods.

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