Gods & the Parthenon

Meet the twelve Olympians, the main gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. People believed they lived on top of Mount Olympus. Zeus is the king of the gods. He rules the sky and throws thunderbolts. His wife Hera is the queen. She looks after marriage and families. Athena is the goddess of wisdom. She is also a brave warrior goddess, and the city of Athens is named after her. Poseidon is the god of the sea. He carries a big three-pronged fork called a trident. Apollo is the god of the sun and music. He plays a golden lyre. His twin sister Artemis hunts with a bow and looks after the moon. Ares is the god of war. Aphrodite is the goddess of love and beauty. Hermes is the speedy messenger of the gods. Hephaestus is the god of fire and making things. He forges amazing metal objects. Hades rules the underworld, the land of the dead. The Greeks told stories about these gods to explain the world around them.

Hera is the queen of the gods. She is married to Zeus. She cares about marriage and families. People in ancient Greece gave her special symbols. A pomegranate means love and a happy family, so it belongs to Hera. The peacock is her bird. The many eye spots on its tail feathers watch over everyone. The cuckoo is another bird linked to her. Hera also wears a tall crown called a diadem. It shows that she is the queen. When you see a peacock or a pomegranate in an old Greek picture, it might be telling you that Hera is near.

Apollo is one of the most important Greek gods. He is the god of the sun, music, healing, and archery. People knew him by his special items. His lyre is a small harp. He played it so beautifully that everyone stopped to listen. The sun chariot shows his job pulling the sun across the sky each day. His bow and arrows remind us that he never misses a target. The laurel wreath is a circle of leaves. It was given to winners, because Apollo loved it. When artists painted Apollo, they often gave him a lyre or a bow. Now you can spot him in old pictures too.

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. She has special symbols that tell us who she is. A seashell is her most famous symbol. Stories say she was born from sea foam. Doves and swans are her birds. They are gentle and lovely, just like her. The rose is her flower. Its soft petals and its thorns both belong to her. A mirror stands for beauty, because Aphrodite was the most beautiful of all the goddesses. When you see a shell or a dove in an old Greek picture, think of Aphrodite.

A demigod is a child with one god parent and one human parent. Greek myths are full of them. The most famous is Heracles, known as Hercules in Roman stories. His father was Zeus, the king of the gods. Heracles was super strong. He performed twelve amazing tasks called labors. He fought a lion whose skin no arrow could pierce. He cleaned a giant stable in one day by rerouting a river through it. Another demigod is Perseus. He cut off the head of Medusa, a monster with snakes for hair. Achilles was a great hero in the Trojan War. His mother dipped him in a magic river, so his whole body was protected except for one heel. These stories show that the Greeks believed gods and people could be part of one big family.