

God of wine, fruitfulness, parties, festivals, madness, chaos, drunkenness, vegetation, ecstasy, and the theater. Her sacred animals include pigs and snakes.ĭionysus ( Διόνυσος, Diónusos)/ Bacchus ( Βάκχος, Bákkhos) Her symbols are the cornucopia, wheat-ears, the winged serpent, and the lotus staff.

She is depicted as a mature woman, often crowned and holding sheafs of wheat and a torch. Demeter is one of the main deities of the Eleusinian Mysteries, in which the rites seemed to center around Demeter's search for and reunion with her daughter, which symbolized both the rebirth of crops in spring and the rebirth of the initiates after death. "the girl." One of the central myths associated with Demeter involves Hades' abduction of Persephone and Demeter's lengthy search for her. She is a sister of Zeus, by whom she bore Persephone, who is also known as Kore, i.e. Demeter, whose Roman counterpart is Ceres, is a daughter of Cronus and Rhea, and was swallowed and then regurgitated by her father. Goddess of grain, agriculture, harvest, growth, and nourishment. She is commonly shown as being accompanied by her sacred animal, the owl.

She is the patron of the city Athens (from which she takes her name) and is attributed to various inventions in arts and literature. She is a special patron of heroes such as Odysseus. Poets describe her as "grey-eyed" or having especially bright, keen eyes. She is depicted as being crowned with a crested helm, armed with shield and spear, and wearing the aegis over a long dress. According to most traditions, she was born from Zeus's forehead, fully formed and armored. Goddess of reason, wisdom, intelligence, skill, peace, warfare, battle strategy, and handicrafts. Her attributes include hunting knives and spears, animal pelts, deer and other wild animals. 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. She is the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and twin sister of Apollo. Virgin goddess of the hunt, wilderness, animals, the Moon and young girls. His Roman counterpart Mars by contrast was regarded as the dignified ancestor of the Roman people.

His sacred animals include vultures, venomous snakes, dogs, and boars. Ares is known for cuckolding his brother Hephaestus, conducting an affair with his wife Aphrodite. He generally represents the chaos of war in contrast to Athena, a goddess of military strategy and skill. Homer portrays him as moody and unreliable, and as being the most unpopular god on earth and Olympus ( Iliad 5.890–1). 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. God of courage, war, bloodshed, and violence. Some late Roman and Greek poetry and mythography identifies him as a sun-god, equivalent to Roman Sol and Greek Helios. His sacred animals include roe deer, swans, and pythons. His signs and symbols include the laurel wreath, bow and arrow, and lyre. His most famous temple is in Delphi, where he established his oracular shrine. In myth, he can be cruel and destructive, and his love affairs are rarely happy. Apollo is depicted as young, beardless, handsome and athletic. Both Apollo and Artemis use a bow and arrow. He is the son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis. God of music, arts, knowledge, healing, plague, prophecy, poetry, manly beauty, and archery. Her sacred animals include doves and sparrows. Her symbols include the magical girdle, myrtle, roses, and the scallop shell. She is usually depicted as a naked or semi-nude beautiful woman. She was also a lover to Adonis and Anchises, to whom she bore Aeneas. She had many lovers, most notably Ares, to whom she bore Harmonia, Phobos, and Deimos. She was married to Hephaestus, but bore him no children. 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. Goddess of beauty, love, desire, and pleasure. Drinking cups and other vessels were painted with scenes from Greek myths. A temple would house the statue of a god or goddess, or multiple deities, and might be decorated with relief scenes depicting myths. The Greeks created images of their deities for many purposes.
