Nature of Olympian Gods

Polytheism

The belief and/or worship of more than one god

Zeus

Order, justice

Hera

Marriage

Poseidon

Sea and horses

Athena

Wisdom, crafts, heroes

Apollo

Sun, music, prophecy

Aphrodite

Beauty, love

Demeter

Agriculture

Hermes

Messengers, travellers, merchants and thieves

Hephaestus

Blacksmiths

Ares

War

Hestia

Hearth

Dionysus

Wine, theatre

Homer

8/7C BC

Hesiod

700BC

Hesiod, works and days

Teaches farmers how to live good and productive lives

Theogony

Describes the gods origins and family tree

Aetiology

The reason or cause for something, often deriving from a historical or mythical explanation

Herodotus

5C historian

Homeric hymns

Inform us what the Greeks thought about the gods in around 700BC

Anthropomorphism

the attribution of human characteristics and emotions to non human forms

votive offering

A dedication to a god by an individual as part of a 'contract' or vow made between mortal and deity

Epithet

An adjective that accompanies someone's name, which denotes a quality or characteristic about the individual

Agora

The marketplace

Phratry

A brotherhood - a subdivision of the four old tribes of Athens which was carried over into the New Democratic system after 508/7

Zeus Agoraios

Zeus of the agora

Zeus Horkios

Zeus of oaths

Zeus Phratrios

Zeus of the brotherhood

Athena Phratria

Athena of the brotherhood

Zeus Philios

God of individual and household well being, prosperity and purification

Zeus Herkeios

Zeus of the fence/courtyard, protector of families

oracle

A person or an agency hat provides advice or guidance about the future through prophetic power believed to derive from the gods

Heracles

A hero who completed the 12 labours

Cleomedes of Astypalea

A hero who killed his opponent in the pankration. Upon disqualification, he was so enraged he ripped down a school roof leaving 60 children dead and he vanished from earth. Pythia declared him a hero

Pankration

an olympic event that combined wrestling, kicking and boxing

Pythia

the high priestess of the High Temple of Apollo at Delphi who also served as the oracle of Delphi

Pausanias

Ancient travel writer 2C CE

Heroisation

The process by which a living person becomes a hero/is made a hero

Greek Pantheon

The 12 main Olympian gods

Panhellenic

All Greeks

Athena Chalkioikos

Athena of the Bronze House (Sparta)

Athena Pronoia

Athena of Forethought (Delphi)

Athena Lindia

Named after the city Lindos (Rhodes)

Athena Alea

Name of local divinity? Or local hero Aleus? (Tegea)

Deme

A village or district which was the smallest political constituency in the Athenian democratic system

Erchia

An Athenian deme which worshipped the heroes Epops, Leucaspis, Menedeius. They are unattested elsewhere