The Dieties of Ancient Greece

The primordial dieties

The Ancient Greeks believed that in the beginning, the world was in a state of nothingness which they called Chaos. Suddenly, from light, came Gaia(Mother Earth) and from her came Uranus(the sky) along with other primordials(old gods).

The titans

The primordials Gaia and Uranus had 12 children: Kronos, Rhea, Okeanos, Tethys, Koios, Phoebe, Hyperion, Theia, Kreios, Iapetos, Themis, Mnemosyne. These are the Ouranides(Elder Titans), who ruled the cosmos(the universe) until the Olympians cast them in to Tartarus, in Hades(the underworld).

Gaia gave birth to monsters called cyclops and monsters called Hecatoncheires(the hundred handed ones). Uranus was disgusted by the monsters, and threw them in Tartarus. This made Gaia angery, and she wanted revenge on him.

Gaia had her son Kronos attack Uranus. Kronos hurt Uranus then threw him into tartarus. But from his blood came the goddess of love and beauty—Aphrodite. Kronos ruled as the king of the gods during the Golden Age.

The Olympians

Kronos married his sister Rhea and gave birth to 6 children, who were called the Olympians. Kronos was afraid of a prophecy that one day his children would cut him up like he cut his father. So he swallowed each of his children the second they were born. Rhea did not like this, so she saved Zeus and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead.

Zeus was raised by Amaltheia. Some say she was a nymph, others say she was a goat. Zeus grew up in a mountain cave in Crete. When he was old enough, he tricked Kronos into drinking a mixture of wine and mustard. This made Kronos vomit up the rest of the gods, who had been growing up completely undigested in Kronos' stomach. Zeus and other Olympian gods then had a big war with the Titans. Zeus won with the help of the hundred handed ones and the cyclops. After they won the war Zeus cut Kronos into pieces and threw him into Tartarus.

Zeus was, from then on, the leader of the gods. Poseidon took over the oceans. Hades took over the Underworld. Zeus married his sister Hera and crowned her Queen of Olympus.

Prometheus

Προμηθεύς

Zeus told Prometheus and Athena to make humans. Prometheus used clay to make human bodies, and Athena breathed life in them. Zeus demanded that humans should bring offerings of meat to feed the Olympian gods. Prometheus loved the humans and wanted them to be happy. So he took all the good meat and hid it under ugly hides. All the bones he hid under juicy fats. When Zeus choose which pile he would have he found it was mostly bones and not meat.

Zeus was angry and mean

He also stole fire from Zeus and gave it to humans. As punishment, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a mountain. Every day an eagle (symbol of Zeus) would come and eat his liver. Prometheus is immortal, so he never died, and his liver grew back every night. But he still felt great pain.