JP+Mythology&Religion+famous+gods+and+goddeses

The gods and goddesses were important in ancient Greece, practically everything had a god for it. The had many, many gods which is very unlike some of the religons now-a-days (i.e Christianity and Catholicism) but alike some other religions now (i.e Hinduism and Shamanism). There were twelve olympian gods, previously six gods and six goddeses but that changed a while back and it's now seven gods and five goddeses, and many other gods, including Hades and a bunch of minor gods, and each watch over some aspect of our planet. The three big ones, Hades, Zeus and Posiden, each ruled over a domain but Earth was not ruled by anyone.

=﻿ ﻿ = = The Twelve Olympians: =

Zeus:
Zeus was the king of the gods and the god of the sky. He was the youngest child of the titan, Kronos, and would have been eaten by him if not for his mother (the titaness Rhea), who wrapped a rock up in baby's clothes and gave it to Kronos to eat instead. Zeus was then raised in a cave on Mount Dicte (which was in Crete) and raised by the Nymphs of Amalthea. When Zeus grew up he went back to his father's place and forced him to regurgitate his siblings. The gods (lead by Zeus) then waged war on the titans. The war went on for many years but then Zeus freed some monsters from Tartarus and the gods one the war. Zeus then become King of the Gods and had many children with many different women but ended up marrying his sister Hera.

Hera:
Hera was queen of the gods and Zeus' consort. She was Zeus' sister and, thus, was a child of Rhea and Kronos. Hera was the goddess of childbirth (one of at least) and marriage. She got annoyed and jealous of Zeus' many affairs and inflicted her wrath on the women and their children. She punished them in many ways, She banned Leto (Apollo and Artemis' mother) from giving birth on dry land and tricked a mortal women, named Semele (mother of Dionysus), to ask to see Zeus in his divine form (mortals cannot see the gods in their divine forms, they die instantly). Hera had four children, Hephaestus, Ares, Hebe and Eilithyia. The last three were with Zeus. Hephaestus was born without a man.

Poseidon:
Poseidon was the god of the sea and a child of Kronos and Rhea. His wife was a woman called Amphitrite. Posiden had competed with Athena over who would become the patron god of Athens, he offered them a horse but unfortunately for him Athena won by offering them an olive tree. He was also the god of earthquakes and horses. He had a son called Triton with Amphritrite. He (Triton) was half-human and half-fish. Poseidon, like many of the other gods, had many other children as well. Pegasus, Theseus and Orion to name a few.

Athena:
Athena was the goddess of wisdom and battle strategy. She was child of Zeus and Metis. Zeus had been told that if his child with Metis was a boy, said child would kill him. To make sure he didn't die, Zeus swallowed Metis before she could give birth to a child. Soon afterwards, Zeus developed a splitting headache and asked Hephaestus, the black smith of the gods, to cut his head open with an axe. From his head popped out Athena, fully dressed in armor. As mentioned above, she competed with Poseidon over who would be the patron god of Athens and won with an olive tree, which was easy for the ancient Greeks to grow in their terrain.

Hephaestus:
Hephaestus was the black-smith of the gods and child of Zeus and Hera. It was said the he was weak and crippled so when he was born Hera threw him off Mount Olympus in disgust. He fell into the see and was rescued by some nymphs, who brought him to the island of Lemnos, where he was raised by the inhabitants. He grew up to make beautiful things. Once, to get revenge on her, he fashioned Hera a beautiful throne but when she sat down she was trapped. After being taken back up to Mount Olympus by Dionysus, he finally freed Hera after Aphrodite was made his bride.

Artemis:
Artemis was the goddess of the hunt and Apollo's twin sister. She was the child of Zeus and Leto but before she and Apollo were born, Hera banned Leto from giving birth on dry land and sent a giant serpent called Python after her. Leto ended up giving birth to Artemis on a floating island, called Delos, where she played midwife to her brother, this was why she was considered a goddess of child birth. She actually went up to Zeus and asked him not ever make her get married. Some myths say that she was the goddess of the moon because her twin brother was incorporated with the sun.

Apollo:
Apollo was the god of music and Artemis' twin brother. Apollo did slayed Python, the creature Hera sent after Leto, with his bow and arrows. Apollo was very ruthless when he was anger. One time, a lady known as Niobe, claimed that she was better than Leto because she had fourteen children when Leto had only two. Apollo and Artemis got rather angry at this and decided to kill Niobe's children.

Aphrodite:
Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty. She was obviously very pretty.She had a magical girdle that made her even more irresistible. She was not particularly pleased with being married to the black-smith of the gods and was attracted to Ares, the god of war, and ended up having an affair with him. Hephaestus started to become suspicious, so he made a net with connections so fine that it was near, if not, impossible to break. When Ares and Aphrodite were together he threw the net over them and called all the other gods to come and laugh at them.

Dionysus:
Dionysus was the god of wine. He was the son Zeus and a mortal, Semele, whom Hera tricked into getting Zeus to show her his divine form, which killed her (mortals cannot see gods in there divine forms, the burn up and die at the site). Zeus took the baby from the body and took it up to Mount Olympus. Due to some of the myths about him, Dionysus was sometimes referred to as the "twice born".

Ares:
Ares was the god of war. He was a child of Hera and Zeus. He wasn't well trusted. To the other gods he was the kind of guy that you weren't partically scared of but you don't want to get to close to.

Hermes:
Hermes was the god of thieves and messenger of the gods. He was normally said to have winged sandals. He was the child of Zeus and a nymph called Maia. Even as a baby he was shown to be cunning, he stuck out of his cot while his mother was asleep and stole some of Apollo's cattle. He used some other creatures he gathered (including a turtle) and made a lyre. Apollo got mad and told Zeus, Zeus told Hermes to give the cattle back though he was secretly proud of him. Hermes gave Apollo the lyre and didn't have to give back the cattle.

Hades:
Hades was the god of the Underworld and one of the Big Three gods, along with Zeus and Poseidon. He was Zeus and Poseidon's brother. His with was Persephone. He wore a helm that made him invisible and was happy when people died because then he could expand his realm. He and his brothers drew for their domains and Hades got the shortest straw (figuratively) and that's how he ended up with the underworld.

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