Ancient Greek Deities

While they appear to be things of the past, reminders of ancient Greek deities are all around us. When you read the following names, more than a few will certainly be familiar.

Ancient Greek Deities

The Greek Pantheon was obviously a polytheistic scheme of thought and religion that understood its Greek deities existed autonomously and individually. Their roll was to rule diverse facets of the mortals' daily life. Myth and culture is gathered in the Pantheon from which the deities leave toward their corresponding kingdom.

As a result of the Hellenic polytheist faith in ancient times, deities established relationships with each other on a more human scale. In comparison with one-god ways in many modern religions, Ancient Greek deities had a surprising number of human limitations and deficiencies. As opposed to other religions, not a single one of the ancient Greek deities was omniscient or omnipotent, although their ability was far beyond mortals.

All Ancient Greek deities had identical origins, that of minor deities ruled by the Titans. They later overthrew the Titans in an epic battle. Several of the most famous are:

Aether - Divinity of the upper atmosphere. The name is, of course, related to the English word ether.

Aphrodite - Spirit of love and beauty.

Apollo - God of the luminosity, music, insight, verse, and healing.

Ares - Divinity of warfare, particularly violent war and mayhem.

Artemis - Goddess of the moon along with the hunt.

Athena - Goddess of warfare, wisdom, strategy.

Chaos - Non-gendered spirit of the nothingness.

Chronos - Deity of everlasting time.

Demeter - Goddess of cultivation.

Erebus - Spirit of darkness.

Eros - Deity of love.

Gaia - Titan Goddess of the Earth.

Hades - Divinity of the underworld, death and earth wealth. His realm gets his name.

Hemera - Divinity of daylight.

Hephaestus - Deity of fire plus the forge.

Hera - Divinity of marriage and the family, sister and wife of Zeus.

Hermes - Spirit of business, travel, and theifs. Courier of the gods.

Hestia - Divinity of the hearth and domestic life which gave her place at Olympus with Dionysus.

Nyx - Spirit of night.

Pontus - Titan Spirit of the sea.

Poseidon - Spirit of the ocean.

Tartarus - Titan Spirit of the depths of the underworld.

Uranus - Titan Deity of the heavens.

Zeus - King of the Gods along with Divinity of thunder and lightning.

As you can see, the large list of Ancient Greek deities is really amazing in comparison with one-deity religions including Judaism, Christianity and Islam. No matter the religious connotations, the names of these figures are frequently found in modern civilization although Roman translations are frequently used. For example, Ares has been translated in Roman to Mars, the Divinity of Warfare and is the name of the 4th planet from our sun. Being able to recognize these names in our language is one of the values of studying religion.

Greek deities symbolize a unique view of religion held by ancient Greeks. If the occasion presents itself, make sure you read the Ancient greek classics to gain an understanding of the rather emotional actions of the deities.

Full Posting