List of Greek deities
A temple would house the statue of a god or goddess, or multiple deities, and might be decorated with relief scenes depicting myths.
In Hesiod's Theogony (188–206), she was born from sea-foam and the severed genitals of Uranus; in Homer's Iliad (5.370–417), she is daughter of Zeus and Dione.
[1] God of music, arts, knowledge, healing, plague, prophecy, poetry, manly beauty, and archery.
The son of Zeus and Hera, he was depicted as a beardless youth, either nude with a helmet and spear or sword, or as an armed warrior.
Homer portrays him as moody and unreliable, and as being the most unpopular god on earth and Olympus (Iliad 5.890–1).
He generally represents the chaos of war in contrast to Athena, a goddess of military strategy and skill.
In art she is often depicted as a young woman dressed in a short knee-length chiton and equipped with a silver hunting bow and a quiver of arrows.
[4] Goddess of reason, wisdom, intelligence, skill, peace, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts.
She is depicted as being crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the aegis over a long dress.
Demeter, whose Roman counterpart is Ceres, is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and was swallowed and then regurgitated by her father.
God of wine, fruitfulness, parties, festivals, madness, chaos, drunkenness, vegetation, ecstasy, and the theater.
It was once held that Dionysius was a later addition to the Greek pantheon, but the discovery of Linear B tablets confirm his status as a deity from an early period.
He was usually depicted as a bearded, crippled man with hammer, tongs, and anvil, and sometimes riding a donkey.
Hephaestus used the fire of the forge as a creative force, but his Roman counterpart Vulcan was feared for his destructive potential and associated with the volcanic power of the earth.
Queen of the gods, and goddess of women, marriage, childbirth, heirs, kings, and empires.
She was usually depicted as a regal woman in the prime of her life, wearing a diadem and veil and holding a lotus-tipped staff.
Hermes was also responsible for protecting livestock and presided over the spheres associated with fertility, music, luck, and deception.
[8] The son of Zeus and Maia, Hermes is the messenger of the gods, and a psychopomp who leads the souls of the dead into the afterlife.
In art he is depicted as a mature man of sturdy build, often with a luxuriant beard, and holding a trident.
In some stories he rapes Medusa, leading to her transformation into a hideous Gorgon and also to the birth of their two children, Pegasus and Chrysaor.
The Titan gods and goddesses are depicted in Greek art less commonly than the Olympians.
