The Meaning of the Gods of Ancient Greece: Mythology and Name Lists

Ancient Greek mythology was formed in the south of the Balkan Peninsula and became the basis of the worldview of the peoples of the Mediterranean in antiquity. It had a strong influence on ideas about the world in the pre-Christian era, and also became the basis of many later folklore stories.

In this article, we will look at who the gods of Ancient Greece were, how the Greeks treated them, how ancient Greek mythology was formed and what impact it had on later civilizations.

Origins of Greek mythology

The settlement of the Balkans by Indo-European tribes - the ancestors of the Greeks - took place in several stages. The founders were the first wave of immigrants Mycenaean civilization, which is known to us from archaeological data and Linear B.

Initially, the higher powers in the view of the ancients did not have personification (the element did not have an anthropomorphic appearance), although there were family ties between them. There were also legends about the universe, linking gods and people.

As the settlers settled in a new place, their religious views also changed. This happened due to contacts with the local population and events that had a strong influence on the life of the ancients. In their minds, both natural phenomena (change of seasons, earthquakes, eruptions, floods), and human actions (the same wars) could not do without the intervention or direct will of the gods, which is reflected in literary works. Moreover, later interpretations of events, when their participants were no longer alive, were based precisely on divine intrigue (for example, the Trojan War).

Influence of Minoan culture

The Minoan civilization, located on the island of Crete and a number of smaller ones (Thira), was partly the predecessor of the Greek one. relatives Minoans were not Greeks. They, judging by the data of archeology, originated from prehistoric Asia Minor since the Neolithic. During their life in Crete, they formed common culture, language (it is not completely deciphered) and religious ideas based on the maternal cult (the name of the Great Goddess has not come down to us) and bull worship.

The state that existed in Crete did not survive the crisis of the Bronze Age. Climate change in mainland Eurasia has led to mass migrations from the mainland, which Crete did not escape; Pelasgians and other so-called "peoples of the sea" (as they were called in Egypt) began to settle on it, and later - the second wave of Greek settlers - the Dorians. The volcanic eruption on the island of Thera led to a protracted economic crisis from which the Minoan civilization never recovered.

Nevertheless, the religion of the Minoans had a strong influence on that of the Greeks who moved here. The island has firmly entered into their ideas about the world, there they placed the homeland of many of their gods, and the legend of the Minotaur (a remnant of the bull cult) survived both Ancient Greece and subsequent eras.

Names of the gods of Mycenaean Greece

In the tablets, written in Linear B, it was possible to read the names of some gods. They are also known to us from later inscriptions, already classical. The difficulty in reading these tablets was that the letter itself was borrowed o (like all letter systems) from the Minoan, which, in turn, was the development of old hieroglyphic signs. At first, immigrants from mainland Greece who lived in Knossos began to use the letter, and then it spread to the mainland. It was used most often for economic purposes.

By its structure, the letter was syllabic. Therefore, the names of the gods below will be given in this version.

It is not known to what extent these deities were personified. The priestly layer existed in the Mycenaean period, this fact is known from written sources. But some circumstances are suggestive. For example, name of Zeus occurs in two versions - di-wi-o-jo and di-wi-o-ja - both masculine and feminine. The very root of the word - "div" - has the meaning of a deity in general, which can be seen in parallel concepts in other Indo-European languages ​​- to recall at least the Iranian devas.

In this era, ideas about the creation of the world from Mist and Chaos, which gave rise to heaven (Uranus) and earth (Gaia), as well as darkness, the abyss, love, and night, also disappear. In the later beliefs of some developed cults of these gods and titans we do not see - all the stories with them have been preserved in the form of myths about the universe.

Pre-Greek cults of mainland Greece

It should be noted that a number of areas of the life of the ancient Greeks, which we attribute to them, are not Greek in origin. This also applies to the cults that "control" these realms. All of them belonged earlier to the peoples who lived here before the first wave of Greek Achaean settlers. These were both Minoans and Pelasgians, inhabitants of the Cyclades and Anatolians.

Definitely, the pre-Greek manifestations of the cult should include the personification of the sea as an element and concepts related to the sea (the word θάλασσα is most likely of Pelasgian origin). This also includes the cult olive tree.

Finally, some of the deities were originally of external origin. Thus, Adonis came to Greece from the Phoenicians and other Semitic peoples.

All this existed among the peoples who lived in the eastern Mediterranean before the Greeks, and was adopted by them along with a number of deities. Achaeans were people from the continent and did not cultivate the olive, nor did they possess the art of navigation.

Greek mythology of the classical period

Following the Mycenaean period, the decline of civilization follows, which is associated with the invasion of the northern Greek tribes - the Dorians. After this comes the period of the Dark Ages - as it was called due to the lack of written sources in Greek dating from that period. When the new Greek script appeared, it had nothing to do with Linear B, but originated independently from Phoenician alphabet.

But at that time, the mythological ideas of the Greeks were formed into a single whole, which was reflected in the main source of those times - Homer's poems "Iliad" and "Odyssey". These ideas were not completely monolithic: there were alternative interpretations and variants, and they developed and supplemented in later times, even when Greece was under the rule of the Roman Empire.

Gods of Ancient Greece

Homer in his poems does not explain where the gods and heroes of his works came from: from this we can conclude that they were known to the Greeks. The events described by Homer, as well as the plots of other myths (about the Minotaur, Hercules, etc.) were considered by them to be historical events, where the actions of gods and people are closely intertwined.

ancient greek gods

The gods of Ancient Greece during the polis period can be divided into several categories. The Greeks themselves divided the other world depending on the “relevance” of a particular god at the current moment, his sphere of influence, and also his status among other gods.

Three generations of gods

The world, according to the Greeks, arose from Mist and Chaos, which gave birth to the first generation of gods - Gaia, Uranus, Nikta, Erebus and Eros. In the classical period, they were perceived as something abstract, and therefore they did not have any developed cults. However, their presence was not denied. So, Gaia (earth) was a chthonic force, ancient and indomitable, Eros in the main source of those times - the embodiment of physical love, Uranus represented the sky.

The second generation of gods were the titans. There were many of them, and some of them became the progenitors of people and other gods. Of the most famous titans can be noted such as:

• Kronos is the father of the Olympian gods;
• Rhea is the mother of the Olympic gods;
• Prometheus - who gave fire to people;
• Atlas - holding the sky;
• Themis - giving justice.

The third generation is the gods of Olympus. It was them that the Greeks revered, the temples of these gods were placed in cities, it is they who are the main characters of many myths. The Olympian gods also assumed a number of functions of the older gods: for example, Helios was originally the god of the Sun, and later he was brought closer to Apollo. Because of this duplication of functions, it is often difficult to give a "scandal" short definition of a Greek god. So, both Apollo and Asclepius can be called the god of healing, and both Athena and her companion Nike can be called the goddess of victory.

According to legend, the Olympian gods defeated the titans in a ten-year battle, and now rule over people. They have different origins, and even their lists vary by different authors. But we will tell about the most influential of them.

Olympic gods

Imagine the Olympian gods in the following table:

Greek name	Accepted in the literature	What patronizes	Parents	Who is Zeus
Ζεύς	Zeus	thunder and lightning, supreme god	Kronos and Rhea
Ἥρα	Hera	marriage and family	Kronos and Rhea	sister and wife
Ποσειδῶν	Poseidon	chief sea god	Kronos and Rhea	brother
Ἀΐδης	Hades	patron of the realm of the dead	Kronos and Rhea	brother
Δημήτηρ	Demeter	agriculture and fertility	Kronos and Rhea	sister
Ἑστία	Hestia	hearth and sacred fire	Kronos and Rhea	sister
Ἀθηνᾶ	Athena	wisdom, truth, military strategy, science, craft, cities	Zeus and the Titanides Metis	daughter
Περσεφόνη	Persephone	wife of Hades, patroness of spring	Zeus and Demeter	daughter
Ἀφροδίτη	Aphrodite	love and beauty	Uranus (more precisely, the sea foam that formed after Kronos castrated Uranus and threw it into the sea)	aunt
Ἥφαιστος	Hephaestus	blacksmithing, construction, invention	Zeus and Hera	a son
Ἀπόλλων	Apollo	light, art, healing	Zeus and Titanide Leto	a son
Ἄρης	Ares	war	Zeus and Hera	a son
Ἄρτεμις	Artemis	hunting, fertility, chastity	Zeus and Leto, sister of Apollo	daughter
Διόνυσος	Dionysus	viticulture, winemaking, religious ecstasy	Zeus and Semele (mortal woman)	daughter
Ἑρμῆς	Hermes	dexterity, theft, trade	Zeus and the nymph Maya	a son

The information indicated in the fourth column is ambiguous. In different regions of Greece, there were different versions of the origin of the Olympians who were not the children of Kronos and Rhea.

The Olympic gods had the most developed cults. Statues were erected for them, temples were built, holidays were held in their honor.

The Olympus mountain range in Thessaly, the highest in Greece, was considered the habitat of the Olympic gods.

Minor gods and goddesses

They were the younger generation of gods and also had different origins. Most often, such gods were subordinate to the older ones and performed some of their allocated function. Here are some of them:

This is a separate category of revered objects of Greek mythology. They are the heroes of myths and are people of semi-divine origin. They have superpowers, but, like humans, they are mortal. Heroes are the favorite characters of drawings on ancient Greek vases.

Of all the heroes of immortality, only Asclepius, Hercules and Polydeuces were awarded. The first was elevated to the rank of gods for having surpassed everyone in the art of healing and gave his knowledge to people. Hercules, according to one version, received immortality due to the fact that he drank the milk of Hera, with whom he later quarreled. According to another, it was the result of an agreement on ten feats (as a result, he performed twelve).

Polydeuces and Castor (Dioscuri twins) were the sons of Zeus and Leda. Zeus gave immortality only to the first, because the second had died by that time. But Polydeuces shared immortality with his brother, and since then it was believed that the brothers lie in the tomb for a day, and spend the second on Olympus.

Of the other heroes, it should be noted such as:

• Odysseus, king of Ithaca, participant in the Trojan War and wanderer;
• Achilles, the hero of the same war, who had one weak spot - the heel;
• Perseus, the slayer of the Gorgon Medusa;
• Jason, leader of the Argonauts;
• Orpheus, a musician who descended to the dead wife in the underworld;
• Theseus visiting the Minotaur.

In addition to the gods, titans and heroes in the beliefs of the Greeks, there were entities of a smaller order, representing some place or element. So, the winds had their own name (for example, Boreas is the patron of the north wind, and Noth is the patron of the south) and sea elements, and rivers, streams, islands and other natural objects were dominated by the nymphs who lived there.

supernatural creatures

They appear regularly in myths and poems. Here are some of them:

• Gorgon Medusa;
• Minotaur;
• Basilisk;
• Sirens;
• Griffins;
• Centaurs;
• Cerberus;
• Scylla and Charybdis;
• satires;
• Echidna;
• Harpies.

The role of the gods for the Greeks

The Greeks themselves did not consider the gods to be something distant and absolute. They weren't even all-powerful. Firstly, each of them had his own field of activity, and secondly, they argued between themselves and people, and the victory was far from always on the side of the first. Gods and people were connected by a common origin, and people considered the gods to be superior to them in strength and abilities, hence the worship and peculiar ethics of the attitude towards the gods: they could not be angry and proud of victories over them.

An illustration of the latter was the fate of Ajax, who escaped the wrath of Poseidon, but the latter nevertheless caught up with him and broke the rock to which he clung. And also symbolic is the description of the fate of Arachne, who surpassed Athena in the art of weaving and was turned into a spider.

But both gods and people were subject to fate, which was personified by the three Moira, weaving the thread of fate to every mortal and immortal. This image comes from the Indo-European past and is identical to the Slavic Rozhanitsy and the German Norns. Among the Romans, fate is represented by Fatum.

Their origin is lost, in ancient times there were different legends about how they were born.

At a later time, when Greek philosophy began to develop, the concepts of what governs the world began to develop precisely in the direction of a certain higher world that rules over everything. First, Plato outlined the theory of ideas, then his student, Aristotle, substantiated the existence of a single deity. The development of such theories set the stage for the spread of Christianity later.

Influence of Greek mythology on Roman

The Roman Republic, and then the empire, swallowed up Greece quite early, in the 2nd century BC. But Greece not only escaped the fate of other conquered territories that underwent Romanization (Spain, Gaul), but also became a kind of standard of culture. Some Greek letters were borrowed into the Latin language, dictionaries were replenished with Greek words, and the very possession of Greek was considered a sign of an educated person.

The dominance of Greek mythology was also inevitable - it was closely intertwined with the Roman one, and the Roman one became, as it were, its continuation. The Roman gods, which had their own history and features of the cult, became analogues of the Greek ones. So, Zeus became an analogue of Jupiter, Hera - Juno, and Athena - Minerva. Here are some more gods:

• Hercules - Hercules;
• Aphrodite - Venus;
• Hephaestus - Volcano;
• Ceres - Demeter;
• Vesta - Hestia;
• Hermes - Mercury;
• Artemis - Diana.

Mythology was also brought under the Greek models. So, the original god of love in Greek mythology (more precisely, the personification of love itself) was Eros - among the Romans, Amur corresponded to him. The legend of the founding of Rome was “tied” to the Trojan War, where the hero Aeneas was introduced, who became the ancestor of the inhabitants of Lazio. The same goes for other mythical characters.

Ancient Greek mythology: influence on culture

The last followers of the cult of the ancient Greek gods lived in Byzantium as early as the first millennium of our era. They were called Hellenes (from the word Hellas) as opposed to Christians who considered themselves Romans (heirs of the Roman Empire). In the 10th century, Greek polytheism was finally eradicated.

But the myths and legends of Ancient Greece did not die. They became the basis of many folklore plots of the Middle Ages, and in countries completely distant from each other: for example, the plot about Cupid and Psyche became the basis of the fairy tale about the beauty and the beast, presented in the Russian corpus as "The Scarlet Flower". In medieval books, pictures with plots from the mythology of the Greeks are not uncommon - from European to Russian (in any case, they are in the Facial Code of Ivan the Terrible).

All European ideas about the pre-Christian era were associated with the Greek gods. Thus, the action of Shakespeare's tragedy "King Lear" is attributed to pre-Christian times, and although at that time the Celts lived on the territory of the British Isles and Roman garrisons stood, it is Greek ones who are mentioned as gods.

Finally, Greek mythology became a source of plots for the works of artists, and for a long time it was the plot from Greek mythology (or, alternatively, the Bible) that should have been the subject of the examination canvas at the graduation from the Academy of Arts in the Russian Empire. The future members of the association of the Wanderers who violated this tradition became famous.

The names of the Greek gods and their Roman counterparts are called celestial bodies, new types of microscopic creatures, and some concepts have firmly entered the lexicon of citizens far from Greek mythology. So, inspiration for a new business is described as the convergence of the muse (“for some reason, the muse does not come”); the mess in the house is called chaos (there is even a colloquial version with an accent on the second syllable), and the vulnerable spot is called the Achilles' heel by those who do not know who Achilles is.