Greek Gods & Goddesses

Roman Name: Apollo

Appearance: A young man with curly golden hair.

Symbol or Attribute: The Sun itself, the lyre (a type of musical instrument), the bow, and the chariot he drives across the sky daily.

Strengths: Creative, handsome, supportive of all the arts of civilization.

Weaknesses: Like his father Zeus, Apollo gets in trouble over love.

Birthplace: On the sunny Greek island of Delos, where he was born along with his twin sister, Artemis. Another tradition gives the islands of Lato, now called Paximadia, off the southern coast of Crete.

Spouse: Apollo was never married. 

Children: The enchanting semi-divine singer Orpheus and Asklepios, god of healing, are the most famous of Apollo's offspring.

Basic Story: Apollo was the son of the supreme Greek god Zeus and Leto, a nymph. Zeus's wife Hera was outraged and convinced the earth to refuse to allow Leto to give birth anywhere on its surface. But the island of Delos allowed Leto to take refuge there and give birth to Apollo and his twin sister, Artemis, goddess of the hunt and wild things. The goddess Themis assisted in raising him by feeding him ambrosia, the sacred nectar of the gods.

Roman Name: Diana

Appearance: An eternally young woman, beautiful and vigorous.

Symbol or Attribute: Her bow, which she uses to hunt, and her hounds. She often wears the lunar crescent on her brow.

Animal: Deer

Strengths/Talents: Physically strong, able to defend herself, defender and guardian of women in childbirth and of wildlife in general.

Weaknesses/Flaws/Quirks: Dislikes men, whom she sometimes orders torn apart. Opposes the institution of marriage and the subsequent loss of freedom it entails for women.

Parents: Zeus and Leto

Birthplace: The island of Delos, where she was born under a palm tree along with her twin brother Apollo.

Spouse: None. She runs with her maidens in the forests.

Children: None

Basic Story: Artemis is a freedom-loving young woman who likes to roam the forests with her female companions. She doesn't care for city life and keeps to the natural, wild environment.

Roman Name: Minerva

Appearance: A young woman wearing a helmet and holding a shield.

Symbol or Attribute: the aegis (small shield) showing the snaky head of Medusa. Olive Tree.

Animal: The Owl, signifying watchfulness and wisdom

Strengths: Rational, intelligent, a powerful defender in war but also a potent peacemaker.

Weaknesses: Reason rules her; she is not usually emotional or compassionate but she does have her favorites, such as the beleaguered hero Odysseus.

Birthplace: From the forehead of her father Zeus.

Spouse: None.

Children: None.

Basic Story: Athena was born fully-armed from the forehead of her father Zeus - according to one story, this is because he swallowed her mother, Metis, while she was pregnant with Athena. Although Zeus's daughter, she could also oppose his plans and conspire against him, though she generally supported him.

Athena and her uncle, the sea god Poseidon, competed for the affections of the Greeks, each providing one gift to the nation. Poseidon provided either a wonderful horse or a salt-water spring rising from the slopes of the Acropolis, but Athena provided the olive tree, giving shade, oil, and olives. The Greeks preferred her gift and named the city after her and built the Parthenon on the Acropolis where Athena is believed to have produced the first olive tree.

Roman Name: Ceres

Appearance: Pleasant-looking mature woman, generally with a veil over her head though her face is visible. Often carrying wheat or her Horn.

Symbols or Attributes: An ear of wheat and the Horn of Plenty (Cornucopia).

Strengths: Demeter controls the fertility of the earth as goddess of Agriculture; also gives life after death to those who learn her Mysteries.

Weaknesses: Not one to cross lightly.

After the kidnapping of her daughter Persephone, Demeter blights the earth and won't let the plants grow. But who can blame her? Zeus gave Hades permission to "marry" Persephone but whoops! didn't mention it to her or her Mom.

Birthplace: Not known

Spouse: Not married.

Children: Persephone-  Zeus is generally said to be her father.

Basic Story: Persephone is snatched by Hades; Demeter searches for her but can't find her, and finally stops all life from growing on the earth. Pan spots Demeter in the wilderness and reports her position to Zeus, who then starts negotiations. Ultimately, Demeter gets her daughter for a third of the year, Hades gets her for a third, and Zeus has her services as a handmaiden the rest of the time. Sometimes this is a simpler split, with Mom getting six months and Hubby getting the other six.

Roman Name: Vulcan

Appearance: A dark haired man who has difficulty walking due to misformed feet. Some accounts make him small in stature.

Symbol or Attribute: The forge and fire.

Strengths: Creative, cunning, an able metal worker

Weaknesses: Drink too much  liquor; can be crafty and vindictive.

Parents: Usually said to be Zeus and Hera.   Hera is also said to have thrown him into the sea, where he was rescued by Thetis and her sisters.

Spouse: Aphrodite.

Children: He created Pandora of the famous box.

Basic Story: Feeling rejected by his mother Hera, Hephaestus made a lovely throne for her and sent it to Olympus. She sat in it and discovered she could not get up again. Then the chair levitated. The other Olympian gods tried to reason with Hephaestus, but even Ares was driven off with his flames. He finally was given wine by Dionysus and, drunk, was brought to Olympus. Drunk or not, he still refused to free Hera unless he could have either Aphrodite or Athene as wife. He ended up with Aphrodite, who in this instance was not a quick learner. When she lay with his brother Ares in the bed Hephaestus had made, chains emerged and they could not leave the bed, exposing them to the laughter of the rest of the Olympians when Hephaestus called them all together to witness his adulterous wife and brother.

Roman Name: Juno

Appearance: A young beautiful woman, maybe even beating out Aphrodite in some opinions.

Symbol or Attribute: Pomegranate

Animal: The peacock.

Strengths: Determined defender of the sanctity of marriage.

Weaknesses: Determined defender of marriage- married Zeus.

Birthplace: Said to be born on the island of Samos or at Argos.

Parents: Rhea and Kronos.

Siblings Zeus, Hestia, Demeter, Hades, and Poseidon.

Spouse: Zeus.

Children: With Zeus, Ares. Hephaestus-by Zeus.  Her daughters were Hebe, goddess of health, and Eileithyia, the Cretan goddess of childbirth.

Basic Story:Zeus was the brother of Hera, who fell in love with him from the first moment she saw him, and eventually got a love charm from Aphrodite to seal the deal. She is very relationship-oriented and spends much of her time driving off Zeus's innumerable nymphs, mistresses, and other dalliances. She also sometimes torments the offspring of those unions, especially Hercules. To her credit, she's gorgeous and kept Zeus busy on his honeymoon on Samos for three hundred years, so she rightfully wonders why on earth he needs to go anywhere else. When she's really fed up, she wanders off by herself, always hoping Zeus will miss her and seek her, usually eventually relenting and returning without being so sought.

Roman Name: Mercury

Appearance: A handsome young man with a winged hat, winged sandals, and a golden staff twined with serpents.

Symbol or Attribute: His staff, called kerykerion in Greek, caduceus in Latin. This is the symbol used by doctors, though Hermes' connection with healing is faint. He is, however, the god of merchants.

Strengths: Clever, bold, determined, athletic, a powerful magician. Can charm monsters with his flute or lyre music.

Weaknesses: No major weakness unless you count seldom staying still for long. Hermes has it together.

Birthplace: Born in a cave on Mount Cylene in Arcadia to Maia

Spouse: Hasn't settled down yet.

Children: By his affair with Dryope, Pan, lusty god of the wild; by the Goddess of Love Aphrodite, Hermaphroditus, a half-man, half-woman deity; Abderus (mother unknown).

Basic Myth: Hermes is the herald of the gods and also leads human souls into and occasionally out of the underworld. Zeus used him as a troubleshooter and secret-agent type, dispatching him to take care of assorted problems. For example, he put the many-eyed Argos to sleep so Io could escape from Zeus's outraged wife Hera. Hermes also arranged for Odysseus to slip away from Callisto, among many other tasks. He is definitely an ally of Zeus.

Roman Name: Jupiter

Appearance: Usually represented as an older, vigorous bearded man. But representations of Zeus as a powerful young man also exist.

Symbols or Attributes: Thunderbolt. 

Animal: Eagle

Strengths: Highly powerful, strong, charming, persuasive.

Weaknesses: Gets in trouble over love, can be moody.

Birthplace: His mother is Rhea and his father is Kronos; things got off to a rocky start as Kronos, fearful of being usurped, kept eating Rhea's children. Finally, she got wise after giving birth to Zeus and substituted a swaddled rock for her husband's snack. Zeus conquered his father and freed his siblings, who were still living in Kronos' stomach.

Spouse: Hera in most stories; Europa, at least among the Cretans; Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis; Dione, mother of Aphrodite.

Children: Lots and lots of them. Hercules is one famous child.

Basic Story: Zeus is King of the Gods of Mount Olympus, seen here from space. He often fights with his wife Hera, and drops down to earth in a variety of disguises to seduce maidens who catch his fancy.

Zeus gained his power by fighting his own father, who had been consuming all the children born to his mother, Rhea. She concealed the birth of Zeus and gave Kronus a swaddled stone to swallow instead. Zeus was raised in secret on Crete, and when old enough and strong enough, defeated his father, forced him to vomit up his swallowed brother and sisters, and surrender to Zeus's power. This should have come as no surprise to Kronus; he had done almost the same with his own father, Uranus.