Greek and Roman Mythology

 

While mythological characters haven’t been dinner-table topics for quite some time, they are undeniably playing roles in our daily lives. As such, these Greek and Roman mythological characters have enlivened English speeches for centuries. Welcome to the world of mythology!!!

GREEK	ROMAN	TITLE
Aphrodite	Venus	goddess of love and beauty
Apollo	Apollo	god of music,poetry,and the sun
Ares	Mars	god of war
Artemis	Diana	goddess of the moon
Asclepius	Aesculapius	god of medicine
Athena	Minerva	goddess of wisdom
Cronus	Saturn	god of the sky and agriculture
Demeter	Ceres	goddess of fertility and crops
Dionysus	Bacchus	god of wine,ecstacy
Eros	Cupid	god of love
Gaea	Terra	Mother Earth
Hades	Dis/Pluto	god of the underworld
Hephaestus	Vulcan	god of fire,craftsman for the god
Hera	Juno	queen of the gods;goddess of marriage
Hermes	Mercury	messenger of the gods,travel
Persephone	Proserpina	queen of the underworld
Poseidon	Neptune	god of the sea
Zeus	Jupiter	ruler of the gods

 Zeus,the King

Zeus is acknowledged as the leader of the new generation of gods. He is consistently identified as the sky-god. Many of his attributes and titles are attributed to his functions as the god of the sky, e.g Rainer, Thunderer, Cloud Gatherer, Lightning God, Sender of Fair Winds.

Division of Authority

Zeus and his brothers determine the spheres of their authority: Zeus won the sky; Poseidon, the sea; and Hades, the underworld. The surface of the Earth and Mt. Olympus are neutral territories.

Hera

The wife of Zeus, Hera, is considered as the queen of the Olympians. Her name is originally a title which meant “Our Lady” or “Great Lady”. She became greatly associated with the Earth, chiefly with marriage and childbirth. Her Roman name is Juno. Due to her husband’s tendency to womanize, Hera is pictured as a wife who was troubled by her husband’s apparent infidelities. Since she could not directly punish the ruler of the gods, she takes vengeance on his mistresses or even on the children produced from these romances.

Poseidon

Poseidon is primarily the god of the sea but he is also associated with earthquakes and horses. His Roman equivalent is Neptune. Like the sea, Poseidon is unpredictable and easily aroused to anger. He is frequently pictured with a trident, a three-pronged spear which is used by fishermen.

Hestia

Hestia is the goddess of the family hearth and its fire. By extension, she came to be regarded as the guardian of the home, the family, the local community and the state as the whole. Vesta is her Roman name.

The Vestal Virgins

The rites of Vesta were performed by priestesses who were called the Vestal Virgins; each of whom took a vow of virginity in honor of the goddess they served.

Demeter

Demeter is the goddess of the grain and the Earth’s fertility in general. Her Roman equivalent is Ceres. Demeter’s marriage to Zeus produced a daughter names Persephone (Roman: Proserpina). Demeter and Persephone represented essentially the same thing: the fertility of the Earth. When a distinction was made, Persephone represented the seed and Demeter, the blossoming grain.

Artemis

The birth of Artemis marks the second generation of the gods of Olympus. Diana is the Roman equivalent to Artemis. Artemis is the goddess of wild nature and of the animals who live there. She is often portrayed as the huntress with a bow and arrow, but she also carefully protects the animals in her domain. She could be unpredictable, like the open country. She could be benevolent and merciful but also harsh and deadly.

Apollo

Apollo is a god said to be as complex and mysterious as Zeus. He is the god of reason and moderation, the giver of laws and thus, the rewarder of right action and the punisher of the wrong. He is, along with his sister Artemis, a god of archery and could send disease or cure to humans with his arrow. He was the god of the sun as Artemis is of the moon. He is also the god of poetry and music, and, in what perhaps his best known attribute, prophecy.

Athena

Athena is a virgin goddess of domestic arts and crafts, of wisdom and war. She is the patroness of Athens and the protector of the cities, in general. She is known to Romans as Minerva. According to stories, an early goddess of wisdom, Métis, became pregnant by Zeus. It is foretold that her child would produce a son who will overthrow Zeus. To keep the prophecy from being fulfilled, Zeus swallowed Metis as she was about to give birth. Athena, their child, burst forth from his head. Zeus now becomes both the mother and the father of the child and has avoided the consequences of the prophecy.

Ares

He is the son of Zeus and Hera and is considered the god of war. He represents the uncontrollable frenzy of battle and all the destruction and horrors of war.

Aphrodite

She is the goddess of physical love and passionate desire. Her Roman equivalent is Venus. Some say that she is the daughter of Zeuz and Dione,a daughter of Oceanus. Other claims that she is born from the mating of “aphros” which means foam of the sea. She is married to Hephaestus, but largely due to her nature, she has many affairs.

Hephaestus

He is the master craftsman and metal worker of the gods. His forge is always a place of much activity as he designs and produces ingenious and artistic creations.

Hermes

While Hermes is the youngest of the gods, he had very primitive origin. He is the messenger of Zeus, the herald of the gods, the guide of travelers, the leader of spirits of the underworld, giver of fertility and the patrons of orators, writers, businessmen, thieves and athletes. His Roman name is Mercury. As a messenger and herald of the gods, he is pictured wearing a broad-rimmed hat, and with winged shoes or sandals.

Hades

Hades is the god of the underworld. His name means,the “ unseen one”. The Greeks hesitated a lot to mention his name so they often called him Pluto, which means “ rich” or “ wealthy” to refer to both the number of the spirits under his authority and to the fact that all crops grow from beneath the Earth. The Romans borrowed the name Pluto from the Greeks to refer to their god of the underworld. Although, they also call him Dis. His wife is Persephone.

Dionysus

He is the god of wine and by extension, everything associated with it. Dionysus was from the beginning associated with the fertility of the grape vine and gradually this function expanded to include fertility in general ( crop, animal, human).He is in this regard, the male counterpart of Demeter.