The Olympians are a group of 12 gods who ruled after the overthrow of the Titans.

All the
Olympians are related in some way. They are named after their dwelling place, Mount
Olympus. Note that the Roman names for the Olympian Gods are in brackets.

Zeus (Jupiter)
Poseidon (Neptune)
Hades (Pluto)
Hestia (Vesta)
Hera (Juno)
Ares (Mars)

Athena (Minerva)
Apollo
Aphrodite (Venus)
Hermes (Mercury)
Artemis (Diana)
Hephaestus (Vulcan or Mulciber)

Zeus
Zeus (Jupiter) overthrew his Father Cronus to become the supreme ruler of the gods. He
was lord of the sky, the rain god and the cloud gatherer. His weapon was a thunderbolt
which he hurls at those who displease him. He was married to Hera but, was famous for
his many affairs. An eagle attended him as a minister of his will and for page and cupbearer he had Ganymede, a boy so beautiful that Zeus had him stolen from Mount Ida to
make him immortal in heaven. He was also known to punish those that lie or break oaths.
His tree was the oak and his oracle was at Dodona, the land of the oak trees.
Read about Zeus' rise to power in the story of The Creation of the World and Mankind.

Poseidon
Poseidon (Neptune) was the brother of Zeus. Poseidon was a son of Cronus and Rhea.
Like his brothers and sisters except for Zeus, Poseidon was swallowed by his father. Find
out more about this in the The Creation of the World and Mankind.
He was the lord of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite,
a granddaughter of the Titan Oceanus. His weapon was a trident, which could shake the
earth, and shatter any object. He was second only to Zeus in power amongst the gods.
Under the ocean, he had a marvelous golden palace, its grottos adorned with corals and
the sea-flowers, and lit with a phosphorescent glow. He rose forth in a chariot drawn by
dolphins, sea-horses other marine creatures.

Hades
Hades (Pluto) was the brother of Zeus. He was made lord of the underworld, ruling over
the dead. He was a greedy god who was greatly concerned with increasing his subjects.

Those whose calling increase the number of dead were seen favorably by him.
TheErinyes were welcomed guests.
He was also the god of wealth, due to the precious metals mined from the earth. He had
a helmet that made him invisible. He rarely left the underworld. He was unpitying and
terrible, but not capricious. His wife was Persephone whom Hades abducted. He was the
King of the dead but, death itself is another god, Thanatos.
Hades obtained his eventual consort, Persephone, through trickery, a story that connected
the ancient Eleusinian Mysteries with the Olympian pantheon. Hades ruled the dead,
assisted by demons over whom he had complete authority. He strictly forbade his subjects
to leave his domain and would become quite enraged when anyone tried to leave, or if
someone tried to steal his prey from him. Very few have gone to the underworld and
returned.

Hestia
Hestia (Vesta) was Zeus' sister. She was a virgin goddess. She was the Goddess of the
Hearth, the symbol of the house around which a new born child was carried before it was
received into the family. In the Greek and Roman households, the hearth fire was not
allowed to go out, unless it was ritually extinguished and ritually renewed, accompanied
by impressive rituals of completion, purification and renewal. Each city also had a public
hearth sacred to Hestia. Hestia symbolizes the alliance between the colonies and their
mother-cities.

Hera
Hera (Juno) was Zeus' wife and sister. She was raised by the Titans Oceanus andTethys.
She was the protector of marriage and takes special care of married women.
Most stories concerning Hera have to do with her jealous revenge for Zeus' infidelities.
Her sacred animals were the cow and the peacock. Her favorite city was Argos.

Ares
Ares (Mars) was the son of Zeus and Hera. He was disliked by both parents. He was the
god of war. He is considered murderous and bloodstained but, also a coward. When
caught in an act of adultery with Aphrodite, her husband Hephaestus was able publicly
ridicule him. His bird was the vulture. His animal was the dog.

Athena
Athena (Minerva) was the daughter of Zeus. She sprang full grown in armor from his
forehead, thus has no mother. She was fierce and brave in battle but, only fights to
protect the state and home from outside enemies. She was the goddess of the city,
handicrafts, and agriculture. She invented the bridle, which permitted man to tame
horses, the trumpet, the flute, the pot, the rake, the plow, the yoke, the ship, and the
chariot. She was the embodiment of wisdom, reason, and purity. She was Zeus's favorite
child and was allowed to use his weapons including his thunderbolt. Her favorite city was
Athens. Her tree was the olive. The owl was her bird. She was a virgin goddess.

Apollo
Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto. His twin sister was Artemis. He was the god of
music, playing a golden lyre. He was the god of the archer, far shooting with a silver bow.
The god of healing who taught man medicine. The god of light. The god of truth, who can
not speak a lie. Apollo was considered to have dominion over disease, beauty, light,
healing, colonists, medicine, archery, poetry, prophecy, dance, reason, intellectualism,
and shamans, and was the patron defender of herds and flocks.
One of Apollo's more important daily tasks was to harness his chariot with four horses an
drive the Sun across the sky.
He was famous for his oracle at Delphi. People traveled to it from all over the Greek world
to divine the future.
His tree was the laurel. The crow was his bird. The dolphin was his animal.

Aphrodite
Aphrodite (Venus) was the goddess of love, desire and beauty. In addition to her natural
gifts, she had a magical girdle that compelled anyone she wished to desire her. There
were two accounts of her birth.
One says she was the daughter of Zeus and Dione.
The other went back to the time when Cronus castrated Uranus and tossed his severed
genitals into the sea. Aphrodite then arose from the sea foam on a giant scallop and
walked to shore in Cyprus.

Aphrodite, in many of the myths involving her, is characterized as vain, ill-tempered and
easily offended.
She was the wife of Hephaestus. The myrtle was her tree. The dove, the swan, and the
sparrow were her birds.

Hermes
Hermes (Mercury) was the son of Zeus and Maia. He was Zeus' messenger. He was the
fastest of the gods. He wore winged sandals, a winged hat, and carried a magic wand. He
was the god of boundaries and of the travelers who cross them, of shepherds and
cowherds, of orators, literature and poets, of athletics, of weights and measures and
invention and commerce in general, of liars, and of the cunning of thieves. He was the
guide for the dead to go to the underworld. He invented the lyre, the pipes, the musical
scale, astronomy , weights and measures, boxing, gymnastics, and the care of olive trees.

Artemis
Artemis (Diana) was the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her twin brother was Apollo. She was
the lady of the wild things. She was the huntsman of the gods. She was the protector of
the young. Like Apollo, she hunted with silver arrows. She became associated with the
moon. She was a virgin goddess, and the goddess of chastity. She also presided over
childbirth, which may seem odd for a virgin, but goes back to causing Leto no pain when
she was born. The cypress was her tree. All wild animals were scared to her, especially
the deer.

Hephaestus
Hephaestus (Vulcan or Mulciber) was the son of Zeus and Hera. Sometimes, it was said
that Hera alone produced him and that he had no father. He was the only god to be
physically ugly. He was also lame. He was the god of fire and the forge. He was the smith
and armorer of the gods. He used a volcano as his forge. He was the patron god of both
smiths and weavers. He was kind and peace loving. His wife was Aphrodite. Sometimes,
his wife was identified as Aglaia.

The poems attributed to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, seem to have been sung in their
final form during about the eighth century B.C., although contradictory Greek traditions
offered many alternative datings. A number of cities asserted that they were the poet's
birthplace, but the strongest claims were those of the island of Chios, off the west coast
of Asia Minor, and the city of Smyrna (Izmir) on that coast. The internal evidence of the
poems on the whole supports the belief that this was the region of the Greek world from
which he came. The tradition that he was blind is not implausible, since the bards who
earned a livelihood by singing at Greek courts were often blind.
Homer possessed an exceptionally powerful and imaginative visual sense, which prompted
Voltaire to define him as a "sublime painter." The color, vividness, and tenderness of his
similes, for example - drawn as they are from an extensive range of nature and life convey the pictorial and emotional appeal of everyday scenes and doings with a deep
sympathy and intuitive power. The rapidly moving, picturesque, imaginative diction in
which the poet enlarges on these and many other themes is always suited to its various
subjects.
Homer's unique descriptive talent enables him to present each personage as a strongly
differentiated individual. The most formidable in the Iliad is Achilles. Savage, sulky and
vindictive, at times, but also the most handsome, eloquent, courteous, generous, wise
and cultured of all heroes, possessing in extreme degree all their virtues and faults. He is
by turns lustful for imperishable fame, valorous in battle, and furiously sensitive to insults
- in short, he is the most nearly complete exponent of the Homeric code of honor, which,
for good or evil, is one of the Iliad's outstanding contributions to the social history of the
world.
Virgil, Latin poet, was born in 70 B.C. and died in 19 B.C. His birthplace was Andes near
Mantua (Mantova) in northern Italy. He seems to have been partly of Etruscan stock. His
father was a farmer or a potter; his mother's name was Magia Polla. They were well
enough off to send their son to be educated at Cremona and Mediolanum (Milan); later,
he studied philosophy, rhetoric, and literary subjects at Rome, where he became a friend
of the historian Pollio. Virgil made one appearance as speaker at the bar but soon
abandoned public life - possibly when the civil war broke out in 49 B.C. - and moved to
Neapolis (Naples) to study philosophy under the Epicurean Siro, whose property he
subsequently inherited. When land in Italy was confiscated for settlement by ex-soldiers in
41 B.C., Virgil's father was one of those whose holdings were expropriated (perhaps
permanently, despite ancient reports to the contrary) and he went to live with his son

near Neapolis. At the time of the publication of the Eclogues (37 B.C.), however , Virgil
was living Rome; he became a member of the literary circle of Maecenas, trusted
counselor of Augustus and literary patron, to whom he dedicated the Georgics. He also
recommended his friend Horace to Maecenas, whom the two poets accompanied on a
journey to Brundusium (Brindisi) in 37.
Soon afterward Virgil withdrew again to Campania, where he spent most of the rest of his
life, keeping away from Rome as much as possible: he had residences at Neapolis and
Nola by favor of Augustus, to whom Maecenas had introduced him. After working for
eleven years on the Aeneid, he left Italy in 19 B.C. to travel in Greece and Asia Minor,
with the intention of staying away for three years while he polished the poem - after
which he proposed to devote himself to philosophy. At Athens, however, he met
Augustus, who asked him to return home to him. But Virgil, whose health was never
good, fell ill at Megara and was brought back as far as Brundusium, where he died. His
body was buried outside Neapolis, where his tomb was greatly revered in later ages. He
left instructions that the Aeneid, which was still incomplete, should be burned, but
Augustus ordered Virgil's friends Varius Rufus and Plotius Tucca to publish it, with
excisions where necessary.
According to Suetonius' On Poets, Virgil had a tall, large figure and looked like a
countryman; he was subject to frequent stomach and throat troubles and headaches, and
often suffered from hemorrhages.

Ovid, Latin poet, was born in 43 B.C. and died in A.D. 17. His birthplace was Sulmo
(Sulmona) in the territory of Paeligni, east of Rome, where he came of a family of knightly
(equestrian) rank. He learned rhetoric at Rome from Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro, the
foremost rhetoricians of the time. He also studied at Athens and visited Asia Minor and
Sicily. The, for a time, he held minor judicial posts at Rome. Subsequently he abandoned
the legal career for poetry, becoming a member of the circle of the statesman and literary
patron Messalla, like his fellow poet Tibullus. Ovid's literary activity gained him a
considerable reputation among the fashionable Roman upper class. He married three
times; it was probably his second wife who bore him a daughter (unless the girl was a
stepdaughter); his third was related to Paullus Fabius Maximus, a close friend of the
emperor Augustus.
In A.D. 8, however, when Ovid was the leading poet of the capital, Augustus suddenly
banished him to Tomis on the Black Sea (now Constanta in Rumania). The reasons for the
imperial decision are not fully known, but Ovid himself described his offenses as a "poem"

(perhaps the Art of Love) and an "indiscretion" (error): possibly he was an accomplice in
the adultery of the emperor's granddaughter Julia, who was exiled at the same time, for
adultery. At Tomis, a small superficially Hellenized place on the extreme fringe of the
empire, perilously subject to barbarian attacks, Ovid remained: neither Augustus (d. A.D.
14) nor his successor Tiberius (14-37) ever recalled him.
Ovid is the poet of the middle and later years of Augustus. He was younger than the other
leading elegists. (Propertius and Tibullus) and long outlived them. Much of his work
belongs to a different era from theirs and displays a different character as well, for he was
born too late to feel emotional commitment to the Augustian regime. He belonged to a
new, smart, sophisticated society, less serious in its interests, that now flourished in the
capital. His verse reflects his elaborate rhetorical education. It moves lightly and speedily,
exploiting to perfection the elegiac meter the Ovid employed for all his major works
(except the Metamorphoses) and transformed into the scintillating instrument of a novel
refinement. The elegy was traditionally "tearful": but he calls it "festive" instead.

Click a flag for a translation:

Hesiod
Aeschylus
Apuleius
Apollonius of Rhodes
Theocritus

Hesiod
Hesiod, a poor farmer, was believed to have written in the ninth, sometimes eighth
century. Hesiod was the author of several significant poems, the most meaningful being
the Iliad, Odyssey, and Theogony. Hesiod was believed to have been the first man in
Greece to wonder how everything had happened, the world, the sky, the gods,
mankind, and to think out an explanation. TheTheogony is an account of the creation
of the universe and the generations of gods, and this has been proven to be very useful
in increasing our knowledge about Greek mythology.

Aeschylus

Aeschylus was the oldest of the three tragic poets, the other two being Sophocles and
Euripides. Except for Aeschylus' Persians, written to celebrate the Greeks victory over
the Persians, all of his plays contain mythological subjects. Along with Homer, these
works provide the main foundation of our knowledge of Greek mythology.

Apuleius
Apuleius, a Latin writer, was believed to have written in the second century AD. The
famous love story of Cupid and Psyche is told only by Apuleius, who writing style and
patterns have often said to have mimicked Ovid.

Apollonius of Rhodes
Apollonius of Rhodes is said to part of a class of poet's known as the Alexandrian poets.
They were called this because when they wrote the center of Greek Literature moved
from Greece to Alexandria in Egypt. Apollonius of Rhodes has been given credit for
telling the tale of Jason and his search for the Golden Fleece, in the everlasting tale
of The Quest of the Golden Fleece.

Theocritus
Theocritus is said to be part of the group classed as the Alexandrian Poet's, along
with Apollonius of Rhodes, Bion and Moschus. His writing style maintained a median
level between the gravity of the deeply religious writers and the frivolous writers, such
as Ovid. He maintained a balance that has given us a different perspective on Greek
mythology.

The Titans, also known as the elder gods, ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew
them. The ruler of the Titans was Cronuswho was de-throned by his son Zeus. Most of
the Titans fought with Cronus against Zeus and were punished by being banished
toTartarus.

Gaea
Cronus
Rhea
Oceanus
Tethys
Hyperion

Uranus
Crius
Phoebe
Thea
Prometheus
Epimetheus

Mnemosyne
Themis
Iapetus
Coeus

Atlas
Metis
Dione

Gaea
Gaea was Mother Earth. She mated with her son Uranus to produce the remaining Titans.
Gaea seemed to have started as a neolithic earth-mother worshipped before the IndoEuropean invasion that eventually lead to the Hellenistic civilization.

Uranus
Uranus was the sky god and first ruler. He was the son of Gaea, who created him without
help. He then became the husband of Gaea and together they had many offspring,
including the Cyclopes, the Hecatoncheires, and twelve of the Titans.
His rule ended when when Cronus, encouraged by Gaea, castrated him. He either died
from the wound or withdrew from earth.

Cronus
Cronus was the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his Father Uranus. His wife
was Rhea. Their offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety, Cronus ate
each of the children as they were born. This worked until Rhea, unhappy at the loss of
her children, tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus. When he grew up,
Zeus would revolt against Cronus and the other Titans, defeat them, and banish them
to Tartarus in the underworld.
Cronus managed to escape to Italy, where he ruled as Saturn. The period of his rule was
said to be the golden age on earth, a time of peace and happiness that was honored by
the Saturnalia feast. During the golden age, the people of the time had no need for laws
or rules; everyone did right and as such, there was no need.

Rhea
Rhea was the wife of Cronus. She was the Titan of the earth and fertility. Cronus made it
a practice to swallow their children. To avoid this, Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a
rock, saving her son Zeus.

Rhea's symbol is the moon. She has another symbol, the swan, because it is a gentle
animal. Also, her other symbol is two lions, supposedly the ones that pull her chariot.

Oceanus
Oceanus was the Latin word for the ocean, which the Greeks and Romans believed to be
an enormous river encircling the world. Strictly speaking, it was the ocean-stream at the
Equator in which floated the habitable hemisphere. This world-ocean was personified as a
Titan, a son of Uranus and Gaea. Together with his wife Tethys, they produced the rivers
and six thousand offsprings called the Oceanids.

Tethys
Tethys was the wife of Oceanus. She was mother of the chief rivers of the universe, such
as the Nile, the Alpheus, the Maeander, and about six thousand daughters called the
Oceanids.

Hyperion
Hyperion was the Titan of light, an early sun god. He was the son of Gaea andUranus. He
married his sister Thea. Their children were Helius (the sun), Selene (the moon),
and Eos (the dawn).

Mnemosyne
Mnemosyne was the Titan of memory. She slept with Zeus for nine nights and gave birth
to the nine Muses.

Themis
Themis was the Titan. Her name meaning "law of nature" rather than "human ordinance"
was "of good counsel," was the embodiment of divine order, law and custom. She fought
with Zeus against the other Titans. She was the mother of the Fates and
the Horae (Seasons).

Iapetus
Iapetus was the father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Atlas by Clymene.

Coeus
Coeus was the Titan of Intelligence. He was the father of Leto and Asteria.

Cruis
Cruis married his sister Eurybia and became the father of Astraeus, Pallas and Perses.

Phoebe
Phoebe was Titan of the Moon. She was the mother of Leto and Asteria.

Thea
She, along with her brother Hyperion, was the mother of Helios, Selene and Eos. She
seems here a goddess of glittering in particular and of glory in general.

Prometheus
Prometheus was the wisest Titan. His name meant "forethought" and he was able to
foretell the future. He was the son of Iapetus. When Zeus revolted against Cronus,
Prometheus deserted the other Titans and fought on Zeus' side.
By some accounts, he and his brother Epimetheus were delegated by Zeus to create man.
In all accounts, Prometheus was known as the protector and benefactor of man. He gave
mankind a number of gifts including fire. He also tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep
the best part of the animals sacrificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts.
For this Zeus punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with an eagle tearing
at his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to disclose to Zeus
which of Zeus' children would try to replace him. He was eventually rescued
byHercules without giving in to Zeus.

Epimetheus
Epimetheus was a stupid Titan, whose name meant "afterthought". He was the son
of Iapetus. In some accounts, he was delegated, along with his
brother Prometheus by Zeus to create mankind. He also accepted the gift of Pandora from
Zeus, which lead to the introduction of evil into the world.

Atlas
Atlas was the son of Iapetus. Unlike his brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus, Atlas
fought with the other Titans supporting Cronusagainst Zeus. Due to Cronus's advance
age, Atlas led the Titan's in battle. As a result, he was singled out by Zeus for a special
punishment and was forced to hold up the world on his back.

Metis
Metis was the Titaness of the forth day and the planet Mercury. She presided over all
wisdom and knowledge. She was seduced byZeus and became pregnant with Athena.
Zeus became concerned over prophecies that her second child would replace Zeus. To
avoid this Zeus ate her. It was said that she was the source for Zeus' wisdom and that
she still advises Zeus from his belly.
It may seem odd for Metis to have been pregnant with Athena but, never mentioned as
her mother. This was because the classic Greeks believed that children were generated
solely from the father's sperm. The women was thought to be nothing more than a vessel
for the fetus to grow in. Since Metis was killed well before Athena's birth, her role doesn't
count.

Dione
According to Homer in the Iliad, she is the mother of Aphrodite.

Click a flag for a translation:

Aeacus
Aeolus
Amphitrite
Asclepius
Asopus
Castor
Charon
Clymene
Demeter
Dionysus
Eos

Erinyes
Eris
Eros
Fates
Graces
Hebe
Helius
Horae
Iris
Leto
Maia

Muses
Nereus
Nemesis
Pan
Persephone
Pollux
Selene
Thanatos
Thetis
Triton

Aeacus
Aeacus was the son of Aegina and Zeus. He
became king of the island of Aegina. Hera,
jealous that Zeus had carried on with Aegina,
sent a plague to the island. Zeus repopulated the
island by turning ants into humans. Aeacus
became the leader of these people, who were
known as Myrmidons. Aeacus had two sons,
Telamon and Peleus. After his death, he became
a judge in the Underworld.

Aeolus
Aeolus was the god of winds. He lived on a
floating island. He had six daughters and six
sons, who were married to one another. He
gave Odysseus a bag of winds to aid him on his
journey home from Troy. When Odysseus' men
opened the bag and released the winds, Aeolus
refused to help him again.

Amphitrite
A Nereid, granddaughter of Oceanus who was
the wife of Poseidon. She was the mother
of Triton. She was often a frequent subject in

Roman mosaics.

Asclepius
The god of healing. His symbol was a snake. His
parents were Apollo and Coronis. His birth was
accompanied by scandal. While carrying him,
Coronis slept with Ischys. This was considered an
insult. The act was reported to Apollo by a crow.
Apollo turned all crows, until then white, to black
to mark that they were untrustworthy. Apollo
then felt compelled to slay Coronis with his
arrows. He rescued Asclepius from her funeral
pyre.
Asclepius was raised by Chiron. Chiron taught
him healing which he went on to
perfect. Athena gave him two vials
of Gorgon's blood. Blood from the right side of
the Gorgon revived life. Blood from the left killed.
Asclepius started using the blood to raise dead
mortals. For this overstepping of
bounds, Zeus killed him with a thunderbolt.
Apollo could not take revenge on Zeus himself.
So he killed the Cyclopes that forged the
thunderbolt.

Asopus
Asopus was a river god. Sometimes, he was
called the son of Oceanus and Tethys,
sometimes the son of Poseidon and Pero, and
sometimes the son of Zeus and Eurynome. He
married Metope and became the father of
Aegina. He caught Zeus lying with his daughter.
Zeus fled, but later blasted Asopus with a
thunderbolt. Aegina became the mother
of Aeacus.

Castor
Castor was the brother of Pollux and Helen. Leda
was their mother. Castor and Pollux lived half of
their time on earth and half of the time in
heaven. Both Castor and Pollux were the
protectors of sailors. They were also very
powerful in battle.
It was said that only Pollux was divine but
because of Pollux's love for Castor, the Gods
allowed them to spend alternate days onMount
Olympus and in the underworld.

Charon
Charon was the ferryman who takes the souls of
the dead across the River Styx on a barge. It was
customary in antiquity to bury a person with a
coin between his or her teeth to pay Charon for
passage across the river. Several living people
managed to gain passage from
Charon; Orpheus accomplished it by charming
Charon with his singing, Hercules intimidated
him, and Aeneas bribed him with the Golden
Bough.

Clymene
Clymene was the daughter
of Oceanus and Tethys. She was the mother
of Atlas, Menoetius, Prometheus,
and Epimetheus by Iapetus. She was the mother
ofPhaethon and a number of girls known as the
Heliades by Helius. She was married to King
Merops of Egypt.

Demeter
Demeter was the goddess of corn, grain, and the
harvest. She was the daughter
ofCronus and Rhea. It was Demeter that makes
the crops grow each year. The first loaf of bread
from the harvest was sacrificed to her.
Demeter was intimately associated with the
seasons. Her daughter, Persephone, was
abducted by Hades to be his wife in
the underworld. In her anger at her daughter's
loss, Demeter laid a curse on the world that
caused plants to wither and die, the land became
desolate. Zeus became alarmed and sought
Persephone's return. However, because she had
eaten while in the underworld, Hades had a claim
on her. Therefore, it was decreed that
Persephone would spend four months each year
in the underworld. During these months Demeter
grieved her daughter's absence, and withdrew
her gifts from the world, creating winter. Her
return brought the spring.
Demeter was also known for founding the
Eleusinian Mysteries. These were huge festivals
held every five years. They were important
events for many centuries. Yet, little was known
of them as those attending were sworn to
secrecy. The central tenant seemed to have been
that just as grain returns every spring after its
harvest and wintery death, so too the human
soul could be reborn after the death of the body.

Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the vine. He invented
wine and spread the art of tending grapes. He
had a dual nature. On one hand, he brought joy
and divine ecstasy. On the other hand, he
brought brutality, thoughtlessness and rage. This
reflected both sides of wine's nature. If he
chooses, Dionysus can drive a man mad. No

normal fetters can hold him or his followers.

Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele. He
was the only god to have a mortal parent. Zeus
came to Semele in the night, invisible, felt only
as a divine presence. Semele was pleased to be a
lover of a god, even though she did not know
which one. Word soon got around
and Hera quickly assumed who was responsible.
Hera went to Semele in disguise and convinced
her she should see her lover as he really was.
When Zeus next came to her, she made him
promise to grant her one wish. She went so far
as to make him swear on the River Styx that he
would grant her request. Zeus was madly in love
and agreed. She then asked him to show her his
true form. Zeus, was unhappy, and knew what
would happen but, having sworn he had no
choice. He appeared in his true form and Semele
was instantly burnt to a crisp by the sight of his
glory. Zeus did manage to rescue Dionysus and
stitched him into his thigh to hold him until he
was ready to be born. His birth from Zeus alone
conferred immortality upon him.
Dionysus' problems with Hera were not yet over.
She was still jealous and arranged for
the Titans to kill him. The Titans ripped him into
to pieces. However, Rhea brought him back to
life. After this, Zeus arranged for his protection
and turned him over the mountain nymphs to be
raised.
Dionysus wandered the world actively
encouraging his cult. He was accompanied by the
Maenads, wild women, flush with wine, shoulders
draped with a fawn skin, carrying rods tipped
with pine cones. While other gods had temples,
the followers of Dionysus worshipped him in the
woods. Here, they might go into mad states
where they would rip apart and eat raw any
animal they came upon.
Dionysus was also one of the very few that was

able to bring a dead person out of

the underworld. Even though he had never seen
Semele, he was concerned for her. Eventually he
journeyed into the underworld to find her. He
faced down Thanatos and brought her back
to Mount Olympus.
Dionysus became one of the most important
gods in everyday life. He became associated with
several key concepts. One was rebirth after
death. Here his dismemberment by the Titans
and return to life is symbolically echoed in
tending vines, where the vines must be pruned
back sharply, and then become dormant in
winter for them to bear fruit. The other is the
idea that under the influence of wine, one could
feel possessed by a greater power. Unlike the
other gods, Dionysus was not only outside his
believers but, also within them. At these times, a
man might be greater then himself and do works
he otherwise could not.
The festival for Dionysus is in the spring when
the leaves begin to reappear on the vine. It
became one of the most important events of the
year. It's focus became the theater. Most of the
great Greek plays were initially written to be
performed at the feast of Dionysus. Those who
took part including writers, actors and spectators
were regarded as scared servants of Dionysus
during the festival.

Eos
Eos was the goddess of the dawn. She rode
on Helius' chariot each day. Her first mate was
Astraeus. Their offspring was Boreas (the North
Wind), Notus (the South Wind), Zephyrus (the
West Wind), and Eosphorus (the Morning Star).
She became a goddess with the bad habit of
carrying off handsome young mortals to be her
lovers. This may have been the result of a curse

by Aphrodite who was angry with Eos for having

an affair with her lover Ares. These included:
Orion, Cleitus, Cephalus, and Tithonus.
Cephalus, a happily married man who was
allowed to return to his wife only after he
fathered Phaethon (not to be confused with
Helius' son by the same name).
Tithonus was of royal Trojan blood. Their two
sons were Emathion and Memnon. Tithonus
came to an unfortunate end. Eos was so happy
with him that she asked Zeus to make him an
immortal. This Zeus granted. Unfortunately, she
forgot to ask that he be made ageless as well. As
a result he eventually ended up as a horribly
shriveled, paralyzed, babbling old man. Eos
finally changed him into the first cicada to put
him out of his (and her) misery.

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