The gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome were far closer to human beings than some of the gods of other types of mythology. In fact, they constantly interacted with mankind on the human level whereas many other ancient gods remained “above” it all.
Because of this constant interaction between the gods and mankind, it was an unwritten law of the land that Greeks and Romans should be kind to all strangers, lest one of them prove to be a god who had taken on human form. The Egyptians often went a step further by equating certain humans like the pharaoh as the earthly form of a living god or goddess.
Some of the gods preferred interacting, and even mating, with humans over their own kind. Unfortunately, they weren’t always up front and honest about who they were when they chose to mate with a human, resulting in a range of half-human, half-god like creatures that didn’t fit into either world. In that respect, they weren’t that much different than the inter-racial or inter-culture pairings of modern time.
Many myths, of course, merged right into history itself. A good example of this would be the Trojan War. Historians of our era are still trying to prove that no such war ever took place. The problem is that there are also a lot of proof that points to the very real possibility that it did, albeit not necessarily as originally told in myth.
To get a clear understanding of how Greek mythology grew to eventually spout Roman, Norse, Egyptian and other mythical cultures, let’s take a look at the hierarchy of the Greek gods and goddesses. There was no “father” god among the Greek pantheon. In truth, Olympus became more of a tale of betrayal, conspiracy, and murder between parents and their children.
One god after another claimed total power. According to the Greeks, Gaia – – the earth mother – – was the giver of life and all beings and creatures of the earth. For more information on her, see my separate article that deals specifically with her mythology. Gaia was alone in the world until she gave birth to her son, Uranus. From their union was born the first of the Titans.
However, Uranus was afraid that his children would prove more powerful than he so he forced them to remain underground. This angered Gaia who eventually encouraged her children to overthrow their father. Cronus took on the challenge and did so, castrating his father to prevent him from giving birth to more children. He then took his father’s place as the ruler over all.
Cronus and the goddess Rhea had three male children – – Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus – – and three female children – – Hestia, Hera, and Demeter. He swallowed each of his first six children whole upon their birth and they supposedly remained as such within his stomach. However, Rhea, upon the birth of Zeus, tricked her husband by substituting a stone for the baby, which he promptly swallowed without noticing the deception.
Rhea hid the baby until he was strong enough to take on his father. Once he was old enough, Zeus forced Cronus to spit up the remaining six children. Once that was accomplished, Zeus sentenced his own father to live the remainder of his life in Tartarus.
Zeus married his sister Hera and granted his sister Hestia dominion over hearth and home. To Demeter he granted charge over fertility. Poseidon was given dominion over all the waters of the earth and Hades was made god of the underworld.
Only Hera, Hestia, Demeter, and Poseidon accepted Zeus’s role as king of the gods. Hades, unhappy with his kingdom underground, refused to recognize his baby brother in that way. Gaia’s other children, which included the Giants and Cyclopes, also refused to recognize Zeus’s power. It took ten years for Zeus to finally resolve the war with the Titans, but eventually he managed to dispatch them all.
Zeus and Hera had two sons – – Ares, god of war, and Hephaestus, god of the forge. But Zeus had a roving eye and was known to father many other children. With the goddess Leto, he fathered Apollo, the sun god, and Artemis, the moon goddess. With Maia, he fathered Hermes, the messenger god. With Demeter, he fathered Persephone, who would become queen on the underworld.
Zeus also mated with the Titan Metis. But when Gaia told him that the daughter of that union would grow up to overthrow him, Zeus swallowed the pregnant Metis whole like his father had done with his children before him. But Athene wasn’t about to remain inside of her father and she sprung from his body, completely dressed in armor and ready for battle. This so impressed Zeus, that the warrior goddess became her father’s favorite.
The birth of Athene put an end to suspicion and hate between parents and their children and ushered in a different period on Mount Olympus. It also began a history of rich tales and fables of heroism and tragedy; of love and deceit; and of intrigue and larceny. But that, is another story!
Here is a listing of the hierarchy of Greek gods and goddesses and their Roman counterparts:
King of the gods – Zeus (Greek) or Jupiter (Roman);
Queen of the gods – Hera (Greek) or Juno (Roman);
Goddess of love – Aphrodite (Greek) or Venus (Roman);
Goddess of the moon – Artemes (Greek) or Diana (Roman);
Goddess of war – Athene (Greek) or Minerva (Roman);
Goddess of fertility – Demeter (Greek) or Ceres (Roman);
God of wine – Dionysus (Greek) or Bacchus (Roman);
Goddess of the dawn – Eos (Greek) or Aurora (Roman);
God of love – Eros (Greek) or Cupid (Roman);
God of the forge – Hephaestus (Greek) or Vulcan (Roman);
Messenger god – Hermes (Greek) or Mercury (Roman);
Goddess of hearth and home – Hestia (Greek) or Vesta (Roman);
Queen of the underworld – Persephone (Greek) or Proserpina (Roman); and
God of the ocean – Poseidon (Greek) or Neptune (Roman).
Reference:
- The book Mythology: Myth, Legend and Fantasy was used as a reference.
