Greek Gods and Goddesses
The
myths of
the ancient Greeks tell us what the people of ancient Greece
thought about their world. They believed there were many gods
and that those gods controlled the universe. They also believed
that all of nature including the trees, mountains, rivers, and
rocks either were or contained gods or goddesses.
The Greeks
also believed that the gods and goddesses were not very different
from human beings. They were just another family. Zeus was the
father, Hera the mother, and there were various relatives. Zeus's
stormy brother Poseidon, god of the sea, sometimes lived in
a splendid palace underneath the blue ocean. Zeus's other brother,
Hades, did not live on Olympus, but rather was the god of the
underworld. Zeus's sister, Demeter, was goddess of the harvest.
Zeus's third sister, Hestia, was the goddess of the hearth and
home. These stories about Olympian gods and goddesses reflect
the human world of Greece--its understanding of nature, it's
personal relationships and its wars.
Greek Myths are all that's left of the ancient Greek religion. The
oldest myths can be traced to three main sources: Homer, Hesiod
and The Homeric Hymns, circa 800 b.c.e. That means that by the
time they were written down, these works had survived 400 years
of additions, subtractions and mutations to finally become the
versions we now call 'authentic'.
