HERA

Hera 

Hera and Zeus - Hera - The Queen of the Skies

(Greek: Ἥρα, roman: Juno) is one of the twelve Olympians in Greek mythology.

She is next to Zeus the most powerful goddess of Olympus. Hera is the sister and wife of Zeus, her parents are Kronos and Rhea, two Titans. Her siblings are Hestia, Zeus, Poseidon, Demeter and Hades.

Hera is the goddess of marriage, the hearth and the family, and the patron saint of wives and children.

Story

Since Zeus has many affairs, although he is married to her, she is often angry and jealous. Their anger leaves them at the women (Leto, Callisto, u.v.a.). From the affairs Zeus has created children. For example, Heracles, the son of Zeus and the beautiful Alcmene, tried to kill her with two giant snakes. But he simply strangled them. On the coin she is seen with a pomegranate and a peacock as a sign of fertilization.

POSEIDON

Poseidon 

Poseidon

(Greek: Ποσειδῶν, Roman: Neptune) is in Greek mythology the god of the sea.

His siblings are Hades, Zeus, Demeter, Hera and Hestia, while Kronos is his father and Rhea his mother. He is married to Amphitrite.

One of his symbols of power is the trident. His palace is deep in the sea and he has created the horses out of the wave foam.

He is a very calm God, and he appears quite angry, according to Homer.

Story

Poseidon, like his siblings, except for Zeus, was eaten by Kronos. Since Rhea saved Zeus from Kronos, this Poseidon and the others rescued, and eventually led a war against the Titans, which he also won.

The world was divided into three parts by Zeus: In the sky, the sea and the underworld. Poseidon received the sea, while Zeus received the heavens and Hades the underworld.

Attica / Athens

It is said that Poseidon and Athena have been fighting for control of Attica. It was decided that both gods should give a gift to Attica. The god with the better gift should win. Poseidon gave the people a spring (in other sources a source of salt water or a horse) and Athena planted an olive tree. They chose Athenes gift, so the capital of Attica was named after her and henceforth was called Athens.

Love

He was married to Amphitrite and had with her the son Treseus, the horse Areion and the daughters Benthesikyme and Rhode.

Together with Gaia, Poseidon fathered Antaios.

With Kleito, a mortal, Poseidon fathered five twin children, ten children. These were Gadeiros, Ampheres and Euaimon, Mnaseas and Atochthon, Elasippos and Mestor, and Azaees and Diaprepes.
The sea nymph Thoosa gave birth to the Cyclops Polyphemus.
He had the Pegasus with Medusa

Trivia

Since the Greeks were once very dependent on shipping, it was often the case that Poseidon was revered as the god of the oceans and sacrifices were offered to him. It even happened that Poseidon was worshiped more than Zeus. In Roman mythology, this development did not exist.

APHRODITE

Aphrodite 

(Greek: Ἀφροδίτη) is one of the twelve olympic gods.

She is the goddess of love, sensual desire and beauty, and she is the mistress of doves. Her father is the sublime Zeus, and her mother is Dione. According to another legend, it came from the seeds, blood and foam, when Kronos separated the genitals with a sickle from his father Uranos and threw them into the sea.

Together with Hermes she has Hermaphroditos, a two-sexed, as a child. From Dionysus, she is the mother of Priapo, a hero of the Trojan War. With Ares she has the children Eros, the playful god of love, who sits naked on a cloud with darts, Harmonia, Phobos, Deimos, two handsome fighters, Anteros and with Anchises the child Aeneas, also a hero of the Trojan war.

Story

Zeus married Aphrodite with Hephaestus. However, she had several affairs with Ares, which Hephaistos found out. So he tied them up with a redecorated bed just as they were having a good time together. Thereupon he fetched the other gods, who burst into laughter at the sight. After that, Aphrodite and Hephaestus separated.

When Eris had the "bone of contention" at the marriage of Peleus and Thetis on the table between Athena, Aphrodite and Hera roll because she was not invited, she triggered the Trojan War. On the advice of Zeus, Hermes then led the three to Paris, the Prince of Troy. This should give the apple to the prettiest of the three goddesses. At the end, Aphrodite was given the bone of contention of Paris, as she promised him the prettiest of all women, Helen, the wife of the Spartan King Menelaus.

Aeneas, a son of Aphrodite, is the predecessor of the founder of Rome.

Family

Aphrodite is married to Hephaestus. However, she is not a faithful wife to him and has cheated on her husband with gods and mortals. So was also begotten Aeneas, the founder of Rome.

The love story of Aphrodite and Adonis

ZEUS

Zeus 

Zeus

(Greek: Ζεύς) is in Greek mythology the supreme Olympic god and the ruler of heaven, including lightning and thunder. He is the most powerful god and the youngest son of Kronos.

Some of his most famous symbols of power are the Sovereign Lightning and the shield Aigis, a work of Hephaestus.

In his career as an Olympic god, Zeus seduced a large number of women. Although not always in his own form (as a bull, for example, in Europe), either way they always carried one or more of his children.

Family

Zeus is the brother of Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Demeter and Hera, who is also his wife, while Kronos is his father and Rhea his mother.

Story

Titanomachie (Titan War)

Kronos devoured all his children because he was told that one of his children would one day overthrow him, which he did not want. He was afraid of being disempowered by this child, just as his father had previously been by himself. When Rhea realized that she was pregnant with Zeus, she hid the child as Uranos and Gaia advised her. She gave birth to Zeus in a cave and when Kronos noticed that Rhea was gone he sought her out. When he found her, he saw the wrapped child. He demanded the child, and Rhea gave him a wrapped stone, as she had made provision. Rhea asked Kronos to stay in the cave to recover from birth. When Kronos left, Rhea handed Zeus to the goat Amalthea to raise him. Before she left, she made sure Zeus would be able to drink nectar and ragweed from her horns as soon as he could drink Amalthea's milk.

After Zeus grew up to become a man, he wanted to defeat his father. First, he made sure Kronos strangled his siblings. Then they fought together against the Titans.

Zeus also took the Cyclops and the Hekatoncheiren from the underworld in the war for world domination on his side, by liberating them from the same. In gratitude, the Cyclops forged him, Poseidon and Hades the respective power attributes: The ruler's flash, the trident and the Hades cap. The Olympians fought Olympus and the Titans from Mount Othrys. After a long battle, it looked like the gods were going to defeat the Titans and their allies, which eventually came.

Athene's birth

Zeus wanted to make Metis his wife and finally seduced her. However, as a prophecy revealed to him that a Metis son would overthrow him and that a daughter was as pretty, powerful and clever as himself, he turned Metis into a shell and devoured her when she was pregnant. Months later he got a headache and Hephaistos had to split his head with a hammer. Athena sprang out of it in full golden armor. The unborn son of Metis remained unborn. As soon as Metis was out of Zeu's head, she did not want to hear from him, thinking she was power-hungry just like his father Kronos.

Gigantomachie

Gaia now incited the giants to fight the Olympians, as she was angry because their children, the Titans, were defeated and locked up in the Tartarus. Then came another war. But even this Olympus won without loss with the help of Herakles, a son of Zeus.

Typhon

Finally, Typhon came to destroy the gods. Gaia wanted to take revenge on the gods for the defeat of their children, which is why she united with the Tartaros and gave birth to Typhon. Zeus managed to capture Typhon under Etna in a fierce battle, but without Hermes he would have been lost before the final battle, when Typhon cut off his sinews with the sickle that had already emptied Uranos and caught Zeus in a cave stopped while giving the tendons to Delphyne, a monster living there. Hermes distracted the monster, stole the sinews and returned them to Zeus. Since then Typhon is trapped under the Etna.

Zeus as superior god

Finally, the rule of the Olympians was safe. By lots it was decided which of the three brothers received which part of the world. He himself became the supreme god and divided the world into three kingdoms: the sky, the sea and the underworld. Heaven fell to him while Poseidon received the sea and Hades the underworld.

Hera, Zeus' sister and wife, observed his many relationships insulted, but they remained always spouse and consort.

Prometheus

Prometheus creates people out of clay

Prometheus and Epimetheus were on the side of the Olympians during the Titanomachy, as Prometheus has the gift of foresight and knew who would win. Because of this, they were still walking the earth.

Zeus now instructed the two to fill the earth with creatures, so that it is not so barren. Epimetheus created the animals of the world and gave them all presents. Prometheus created the humans out of clay (in appearance he took the gods as a model), but could give them nothing because of Epimetheus. Athena gave them reason and reason, being friends with Prometheus.

Through the mind, humans were superior to animals. But they were physically helpless. So Prometheus gave them the fire. Zeus recognized the spiritual power of men and therefore demanded offerings and complete submission. But Prometheus did not want people to be enslaved by the gods. So he collected offerings and divided them into two clusters. A small piece of meat and a bigger pile of bones. He covered these piles so that they could only be distinguished in size. Finally, he called to Zeus to choose one of the two clusters as his victim; the rest should belong to humans. Zeus in his greed chose the larger of the two offerings. When Zeus became aware that his victim was only bone, he was raging. He felt cheated on by humans and took away the fire.

The unfortunate Prometheus simply stole a bit of the fire and gave it to the humans themselves. Zeus was incredibly angry. So he created together with the other Olympians Pandora a metal sculpture of bronze forged by Hephaestus with golden hair and silver hearts, which went with a box to Epimetheus and offered the content as a gift. From the box came almost only illnesses and other suffering, the hope was the only good thing.

He punished Prometheus by chaining him to the Caucasus, while every day the giant eagle Ethon came to feed on his liver, which due to his immortality was growing up overnight. At some point, however, he was released from Herakles or Cheiron.

Robbery of Europe

Zeus fell in love with the daughter of the Phoenician King Agenor and the Telephassa in Europe. So that Hera did not notice, he turned into a bull. In this form, he kidnapped her while playing with friends and brought her to the island of Crete, where he also transformed back and fathered three children: Minos, Rhadamanthys and Sarpedon. That's why the continent became Europe.

io

Io was the daughter of the river god Inachos. Zeus once fell in love with Io. But Zeus' wife Hera learned this, whereupon he turned Io into a cow. However, she requested the cow as a gift, because she knew that the cow is Io. Hera then had the cow guarded by the one-eyed giant Argos. Out of guilt, Zeus sent Hermes to kill Argos so Io could escape. But Hera pursued Io, whereupon she had to flee over the named after her sea (Ionian Sea). Eventually, Hera was soothed and turned Io back into a human. She gave birth to Zeus Epaphos.

Children of Zeus

Zeus had many children with different women. Here are they:

Aigina: Aiakos
Alkmene: Heracles
Ananke: Adrasteia, after other version the moires
Antiope: Amphion, Zethos
Danaë: Perseus
Demeter: Persephone
Dione: Aphrodite
Elara: Tityos
Electra: Iasion, Dardanos, Harmonia
Europe: Minos, Rhadamanthys, Sarpedon
Eurynome: Charites
Garamantis: Jarbas
Hera: Arge, Elleithria, after Hesiod Ares, after Homer Hephaistos
Hora: Kolaxes
Hubris: Pan
Hercules
Io: Epaphos
Callisto: Arkas
Karme: Britomartis
Kalyke: Edymion
Leda: the Dioscuri
Leda or Nemesis: Helena
Leto: Apollo, Artemis
Maia: Hermes
Metis: Athena
Mnemosyne: Muses
Niobe: Argos
Nymph: Megaros
Persephone: Zagreus
Pluto: Tantalos
Protogeneia: Aethlios
Semele: Dionysus
Taygete: Lakedaimon
Thalia: Palikoi
Themis: Horen, Moiren

CEBERUS

Cerberus or Kerberos 

Herakles and Cerberus

(Greek: Κέρβερος) is in Greek mythology the hellhound that belongs to Hades and guards the entrance to the underworld, so that no dead out, while no living gets into it.

It is said that Cerberus has three heads. However, the number of its heads is controversial, as in some theories it is also 2, 50 or even 100. Furthermore, Cerberus' breath is deadly.

Family
Cerberus is the son of Echidna and Typhon. His siblings are the Chimera, the Hydra, the Nemean Lion and the Sphinx.

Story
Eurystheus once charged Herakles with kidnapping Cerberus to the Overworld. This was Heracles' twelfth job. Hades allowed Herakles to take Cerberus to the Overworld, so that he could bring him to Erystheus.

TYPHON

Typhon 

Zeus hurls his lightning at Typhon

(Greek: Τυφῶν) is a figure in Greek mythology. He is the son of Gaia and Tartaros and is described as an indescribably ghastly monster with a head of 100 dragon or snake heads. He is described as a terrible monster with a hundred heads, all talking in different languages.

Story

Gaia gave birth to Typhon with Tartaros because she wanted revenge for her children, the Titans and the Giant, as they both lost to the Olympians. Typhon was so powerful that the gods initially fled and hid themselves as animals. But this did not last long. Zeus, however, succeeded in a fierce fight to keep Typhon under Etna, but would have been lost without Hermes even before the final battle, as Typhon with the sickle, which had already emasculated Uranos, separated him from his sinews and Zeus in a cave while holding the tendons to Delphyne, a monster living there. Hermes distracted the monster, stole the sinews, and gave it to Zeus. Since then Typhon is trapped under the Etna.

MEDUSA

Medusa

Medusa 

(Greek: Μέδουσα) was in Greek mythology one of the three Gorgons (the others are Stheno and Euryale) and the daughter of Phorkys and Keto.

She is the only Gorgon who can die and therefore died, as Perseus has beheaded her.

Story

Initially, Medusa was beautiful, but when Athena saw Poseidon in her own temple rape Medusa (some other versions speak of sexual intercourse without mentioning any rape), she became so angry that she turned Medusa into an ugly monster: snake hair, long tongue and glowing eyes. A look into her face was enough to turn a man into stone. According to another tradition, all three sisters were of extraordinary beauty and, because of their great pride, were turned into serpentless monsters by the gods.

Perseus

Perseus, the son of Zeus and Danaë, was instructed by Polydektes to bring him the head of Medusa. This was what Polydectes Perseus hoped would die, as he himself imitated Danae and aroused Perseus' displeasure. If Perseus were to die, his path would have been paved.

But Perseus received help: Athena gave him a mirror shield, nymphs gave him a cloak of invisibility and Hermes handed him winged shoes. Athena explained to him hoping that Medusa would die, how he could behead Medusa without looking her in the face. As the three Gorgons closed, Perseus sneaked up to Medusa with his invisibility cloak. He did not look her in the face, but used her reflection, which he saw in his mirror. He beheaded her and fled from Medusa's sisters, who, unlike her, were immortal.

From Medusa's body sprang the winged horse named Pegasos, as Medusa was impregnated by Poseidon when he was in the form of a horse. Even the giant Chrysaor sprang from her body.

With the Medusa head in his luggage, Perseus flew to Ethiopia, where he saved Andromeda from keto. Atlas did not want to act as Perseus wanted him to, so he petrified him with the Head of Medusa and became the Atlas Mountains.

During Andromeda's and Perseus' wedding, Perseus used the Medusa head to freeze some of the attackers to stone.

Athena attached the head of the Medusa to her shield Aegis, which made him more powerful and dangerous. The blood of Medusa gave Athena to the Asklepios and Erichthonios.