The Greek Gods Study Guide

The Greek Gods:

  • Aphrodite

    • Goddess of love and beauty and daughter of Zeus

  • Artemis

    • Virgin goddess of the hunt and the Moon

  • Athena

    • Goddess of wisdom, useful arts, and prudent warfare

  • Cronus

    • The supreme titan until Zeus dethroned him

  • Demeter

    • Goddess of fertility and the harvest

  • Apollo

    • Greek god of light and the sun

  • Ares

    • Greek god of war

  • Atlas

    • A Titan who was forced by Zeus to bear the sky on his shoulders

  • Cerebus

    • The three-headed dog guarding the entrance to the underworld

  • Dionysus

    • God of wine and fertility and drama

  • Hades

    • The god of the underworld

  • Hephaestus

    • The lame god of fire and metalworking

  • Poseidon

    • The god of the sea and earthquakes

  • Zeus 

    • King of the gods, God of lightning and the heavens

  • Hera

    • Queen of the Olympian gods, goddess of marriage

  • Hermes

    • The god of travel and speed

  • Hydra

    • A many-headed snake that regenerates

Homer and the Odyssey

  • Homer

    • Blind Poet from Asia Minor (Greece, Rome, Turkey area)

    • Little is known about him

    • No one is completely sure who he was and if he wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey by himself.

  • The Odyssey

    • Probably written around 700 B.C.

    • Epic Poem- long narrative poem chronicling the deeds of a hero

The History of the Trojan War

Eris’s Revenge

  • The hero Pelus and the sea goddess Thetis get married atop Mount Pelion

  • Eris, the Goddess of Strife, is not invited because she is hideous and disagreeable

  • Eris throws a golden apple which lands between the goddesses Hera, Athena and Aphrodite

  • Zeus refuses to decide and asks Paris, who happily accepts, to step in.

Hera’s Promise

  • Hera is the wife of Zeus and Queen of the Gods

  • Hera is beautiful and flaunts it in an attempt to win Paris over

  • She offers him wealth and power and promises that he will rule over the greatest kingdom in the world, if he chooses

Athena’s Offer

  • Athena is the Goddess of Wisdom

  • She makes him look deep into her wise, grey eyes

  • She offers him the most precious gifts a man can have - glory, wisdom, and victory in all battles, but only if he chooses her

Aphrodite’s Victory

  • Aphrodite is the goddess of love

  • Aphrodite offers him the most perfect woman on Earth as his wife

  • Overwhelmed by her beauty and near nakedness, Paris hands her the apple, without even thinking

Paris faces the consequences

  • By choosing Aphrodite over them, both Hera and Athena became Paris’ life-long enemies

  • Aphrodite gives Paris Helen, but he has to steal her from Melenaus, her very powerful and very controlling husband

The Trojan War

  • Melenaus comes after her, bringing all his Greek troops with him, thus beginning the Trojan War, which lasted for 10 years

  • Many great heroes lost their lives during this war, including Achilles and Paris himself, and this is the time when Odyssseus began his Odyssey

Epic poem

  • Long narrative poem chronicling the deeds of a larger-than-life hero

    • Characteristics

      • Hero of larger-than-life status

      • A lengthy and complicated journey

      • Fateful or prophetic actions

      • Divine intervention

      • Historical events mixed with historical characters

      • Formal speeches

      • Lesson or theme