Greek Gods

Greek gods with their complex characters, genealogies and adventures have always dominated the educated human psyche in Europe through the centuries. Despite gargantuan efforts at detailed researches on the gods of the ancient Greeks, all the information gathered still seems woefully inadequate.

Moreover renaming and reforming exercises carried out in many phases on the gods of Greece have given them even highly self contradictory qualities and characteristics. The highly volatile relationships and unpredictable moralities of the Greek divinities also make them very hard to understand.

But all these are still incidental to the beguiling charms of the Greek deities who rule the Greek Pantheon.

The Greek gods can be classified into eight broad categories:

• The First Born gods or the the Protogenoi.
• The twelve Olympian Gods ruling the universe and dominating the multitudes of lesser gods and spirits, namely, Zeus, Hera, Demeter,
• Poseidon, Hephaistos, Apollon, Artemis, Athene, Ares, Dionysos, Aphrodite, Hermes and Hestia.
• The Theoi or gods of the forces of Nature and mentors of Mankind.
• The Nymphai and the Spirits or Daimones who were responsible for the care of the life in the four elements.
• The Constellation spirits encircling the celestial night sky.
• The Daimones affecting the mind and the body.
• The semi-divine creatures, Beasts, Monsters, Giants intimately related to the gods.
• The Heroi Hemitheoi or the Semi-Divine Heroes, who become minor divinities after death such as Achilles, Perseus and Theseus; and
• founding kings like Pelops, Kadmos and Erikhthonios. There are also some women who became heroines like Helene, Alkmene and Baubo. Many deities in the Greek pantheon belonged to more than one of these classes, for instance Tykhe or Lady Fortune, who deserves to be categorized under Oceanic Nymphe, as personified Fortune, and as a commonly revered goddess. Hence these complex immortals are the most exciting characters of the Greek culture.