Essays

Greek Gods

Greek mythologyis one of the most fascinating parts of ancient Greece. The storiesthat are created to tell the lives of the gods are extensive andoften strange, often leading to a fantastic read. The Greek gods allhave their own unique traits and things they are known for. Whilethere are the "Big Three," and the twelve Olympians, there are somany of the gods in total, minor gods, demigods, and the like, thatit makes it difficult to keep up with them all. For now it will bekept simple. Not with the twelve Olympians, but fourteen of the mostimportant gods. Yes, that includes all twelve Olympians, but thereare two more gods who aren't Olympians, but should be, so they shallbe included here.

To start off,there are the big three. Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. These threebrothers are the sons of Titans Kronos and Rhea. Their sisters areHestia, Demeter, and Hera. Kronos had heard a prophecy that one dayhe would be killed by one of his offspring. Fearing this, Kronosinstructed Rhea to bring him their infant children, planning toswallow them whole. She gave him all of their children except forZeus, who she replaced with a stone wrapped in Zeus' blanket. Kronosate it whole, as well as the other children, and did not realize thathis last son was safe. When Zeus grew older, he returned and trickedhis father into drinking a concoction of mustard and wine, causinghim to throw up his now grown children, who were unscathed from theyears spent in their fathers stomach, because they were immortal.Zeus proceeded to kill his father, as Kronos had once done to hisown, and chop him into a thousand pieces, throwing him into the pitsof tartarus. This marked the end of the time of the Titans, and thebeginning of the era of the gods.

Following this,Zeus became known later as the king of the gods. He was the ruler ofthe heavens, or Olympus. Unfortunately, while Zeus was known to bethe husband of the goddess of marriage, he was also good at gettingcaught up in other people on a regular basis, and is often seenchasing after others, or even tricking them into sleeping with him.

When the threebrothers drew lots to split up the cosmos after the fall of theTitans, Poseidon was dubbed the ruler of the sea, earthquakes, andfloods. Poseidon and Athena fought over the domain of Athens, eachpresenting gifts to the king of Athens to see who would win. Athenapresented an olive tree, and Poseidon created the first horse inexistence, but Athena won. Much like his brother, Poseidon would fawnafter random women and trick them into sleeping with him if theyhadn't appreciated his advances. Often he would use the guise of ananimal or flowing water.

Hades wasunwanted. He did not become a member of the twelve Olympians, eventhough he was one of the big three, and one of the original gods.Hades was left to be the king of the underworld, ruling over the deadin solitary and making sure that everything stayed as it was supposedto with the lost souls.

While Hera isone of the sisters of the Big Three, she is also Zeus' wife and thegoddess of marriage and families. Obviously, Hera was not a fan ofthe many activities that her husband got up to. She was someone wholiked things to at least appear as though they had the perfectmarriage, seeing as that was what she was the goddess of. Often shewould find women that her husband had been with and trick them orcurse them, usually ending in miserable deaths.

Demeter isgenerally only thought of as being the goddess of harvest, but alsowas the goddess of sacred law, and the cycle of life and death. Shealso showed mankind how to grow and harvest corn. When Demeter'sdaughter, Persephone, was abducted by Hades and ended up marryinghim, Demeter got very upset with Zeus, Persephone's father, forallowing it to happen. She decided that as long as Persephone was inthe underworld with Hades, Demeter wouldn't help crops grow, andtherefor Persephone could only stay with Hades for a few months inthe year, and the rest of the year was spent with her mother.

Hestia is thegoddess of the hearth. She is a peace keeper among the gods, andwhile she was originally one of the twelve olympians, she ended upgiving up her spot for Dionysus, who wanted to be one of the