THE GREEK & ROMAN GOD(ESSE)S
A quick overveiw by Thomas Palmer

APOLLO - Also called Phoebus, the bright one. Identified with the sun. Said to
be the most powerful of the Gods. Son of Zeus and Leto. Born on Delos, taken
North and raised by the hyperboreans, he went to Delphi and killed the dragon
Python, guardian of the oracle of Themis, but a ravager of the countryside.

Tall, handsome, outstanding in word and deed, he was the god of ever-renewed
youth, archetype of virile beauty and masculine virtue. He was also known as a
seducer & extremely arrogant. Talented in music, inventor of the lyre, he was
the inspiration of poets and soothsayers. His oracles were expressed in verse.

He could cure illness and banish evil. He was a doctor who knew the purification
rites and was invoked against plague. His image was set at dangerous places for
protection (Lighting the ways) Nothing escaped his vision (light of day).

ARIES (MARS) - Son of Hera, born without male assistance. He was a supreme
fighter, loved battle and cared little about issues, switching sides without
scruple. He delighted in massacres.

He was god of war, not victory, and was thoughtless about winning, only
fighting. Was on occasion disarmed by Athena, Goddess of restraint and
forethought, to keep him from interfering in battles that did not concern him.

He was prolific in love, but also a rapist. He was run by his passions.

CRONOS (SATURN) - Son of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea (Earth). Gaea, worn out by
numerous pregnancies, requested to be free of this burden, so Cronos (Saturn)
took up a sickle and cut off his father's testicles.

His wife was Rhea, and he fathered Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and
Zeus. Was eventually deposed by Zeus.

His festivals, the Saturnalia, were a time of liberation and freedom for all and
got pretty wild. They were celebrated from Dec. 17th until the new year. Saturn
is the archetype for "father time".

DIONYSUS - Son of Zeus and Semele. His escort was satyrs and marginally sane
gods. He did not respect laws or customs, loved disguises, wild screaming,
licentious dances and wild places. He was a drunken god with no home, living in
the wild and eating raw meat. He encouraged excesses of all kinds.

Hera hated Dionysus because of Zeus's infidelity and hounded him. She caused him
to be killed by the Titans, but he was resurrected through the efforts of
Athena, Zeus, Apollo, and Rhea. She drove him mad, but through Cybele he gained
mastery of it. He drove many people mad for various reasons.

EROS (CUPID) - A primordial god, contemporary of Chaos, who existed before
Cronos (Saturn) and Zeus. He came out of an egg that formed the earth and sky
when it broke in two. He precipitated the embraces of Gaea (the Earth) and
Uranus (the heavens), which resulted in the birth of Oceanus, Tethys, Coeus, and
Cronos (Saturn). The Earth and heavens were so tightly embraced that none of the
children could rise towards the light until Cronos (Saturn) castrated his
father.

Cupid was associated with Aphrodite, who moderated his power. Where he was
desire, instinct and violent sex, she was grace, tenderness and sweet pleasure.

Cupid made people lose their reason and paralyzed their wills, even inspiring
Zeus to capricious sexual desires.
As Eros he is said to be the child of Porus (Expedience) and Penia (Poverty).
Like Penia, he was said to always be in search of something, and like Porus, he
always found a means of attaining his aims.

FAUNUS - A Roman God, Son of Circe and Jupiter. Protector of the Roman peoples,
he lived on Palatine Hill in Rome. His oracle was given in nightmares.
Lupercalia was his festival, during which his priests ran through the streets
with leather straps and struck any women they met with them to bestow health and
fertility. The women were said to strip themselves to be better targets. He
reproduced himself in the satyrs.

HADES (PLUTO) - Son of Cronos (Saturn), brother of Zeus and Poseidon. When the
world was divided between the three brothers, the underworld and hell fell to
Hades, while Zeus took the heavens and Poseidon the seas. He had a helmet that
made him invisible. He ruled the dead, and forbade his subjects to leave his
domain. He desired Persephone, but Zeus forbade the marriage. He then kidnapped
her.

HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN) - Son of Zeus and Hera. He was lame, either because his
mother, startled by his ugliness, dropped him, or because Zeus, angry that he
took his mother's side in a dispute, threw him from Olympos. He dwelled among
mortals and became the god of black smithing and artistic metal work. He made a
golden throne that imprisoned any who sat in it, and gave it to Hera to avenge
himself for his fall from Olympos.

HERMES (MERCURY) - Son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. He stole some of Apollo's
cattle shortly after his birth and concealed them, sacrificing two to the
Olympian Gods. This theft won him recognition as a God himself. When Apollo
discovered the theft and Hermes was tried, his defense was so skillful and
spirited that Zeus laughed and ruled that there should be a friendly settlement
between the brothers.

Hermes was God of the spoken word and oratory and was the intermediary between
the Gods and men. Also the God of commerce and contracts, where language must be
precise to convey the correct meaning.

JANUS- ROMAN - The Two faced God. He was God of beginnings and presided over new
undertakings, gateways and initiations. He was revered as the first king of Rome
and made order reign. His temple was left open in wartime so the God could act,
but was closed in peace.

THE LARES - Roman - Twin children of Mercury by the rape of Lara. They protected
the land. Were symbolized by two boys and a dog.

PAN - Half man, half goat, with horns on his brow and lust in his eyes. Son of
Hermes and a daughter of the Dryops, he was the God of pastoral regions and
wilderness. Special friend of shepherds, he guided and protected them from
afar. Protector of all wild things and places. His pipes had an aphrodisiac
effect on those who heard them and induced mating.

Pan was a lecher and a drunk who constantly pursued nymphs who would flee in
terror. Caves rang with their cries when he caught them. He was famous for his
rages, where he attacked anyone who got in his way. His irrational behavior led
people to flee him in "panic." He was dangerous when he took possession of a
being. The possessed, or panoleptic, took on his bearing and would wander in
the wild, laugh madly, or throw themselves on others for sex without respect to
gender, or have epileptic fits.

POSEIDON (NEPTUNE) - Son of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea, he is represented wielding
a trident and being pulled by monsters in a chariot. After Zeus's victory over
Cronos (Saturn), the young gods, who preferred life on earth, divided the
various domains of earth. Poseidon chose the seas. He represented the hidden
forces of germination and death. Together with his wife Amphitrite, he had
powerful ties with Gaea, the Earth, mother of the Titans. As subterranean Gods,
they shook the world from inside.

Poseidon caused earthquakes when he made love to his wife. The mystery isle of
Atlanta belonged to Poseidon. Poseidon could provoke storms, set fire to rocks
on shore and create springs of water. He had many children, most wicked and
violent, like the Cyclops of the Oddessy.

PRIAPUS - A small god with a penis of immense size. Son of Zeus and Aphrodite,
he was deformed by Hera in revenge. Aphrodite abandoned him in fear that she
would be ridiculed for her ugly child. He began as a symbol of fertility, but of
no significance. Although he was oversized, he was impotent. He seemed to fail
at everything he tried. He was compared to an ass and ridiculed. He lent his
name to the disease priapism, an incurable illness where the penis remains
painfully erect but incapable of ejaculation. Ended up as an obscure gnome.

QUIRINUS - A Roman warrior god originally, he became a god who watched over the
well being of the community, opposite to his former nature. Called an apparition
of Romulus the founder of Rome.

ZEUS (JUPITER) - Son of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea. He defeated Cronos (Saturn) in
a ten year battle and then divided the realms with his brothers by lot, getting
the heavens for his own. He was ruler and judge, the arbiter of disputes among
Gods and men. His decisions were just and well balanced, showing no favoritism.
He had several wives and many lovers, earning the title "all father" or "father
god". His infidelity caused much strife on Olympos and in the world through he
raging of his wife, Hera.

GODDESSES

APHRODITE (VENUS) - Daughter of Zeus and Dione according to Homer. 'The Woman
Born Of The Waves' according to Hesiod, born of the foam impregnated by the
sexual organs of Uranus, which Cronos (Saturn) had severed and thrown into the
sea. Plato identifies these as two separate Aphrodites. One Urania, the daughter
of Uranus was goddess of pure love. The other, called Pandemos, (Root of
pandemonium?) was the Goddess of 'common' love. She married Hephaestus, but was
unfaithful with Aries.

Aries was caught and humiliated. Aphrodite fled in shame to Cyprus, and there
took Thrace as lover, resulting in the birth of Eros (Love), Anteros (Love in
return), Deimos and Phobos (Terror and Fear). She also was a lover of Adonis, a
human shepherd named Anchises who fathered Aneas, of Hermes and of Dionysus who
fathered Priapus. She was known for jealousy. She made Eos (Dawn) fall in love
with Orion in spite for her seduction of Aries. She punished all who did not
succumb to her. A beauty competition between Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite was
proposed by Eris (Discord) with the prize being a golden apple. It was judged by
the human Paris. All the Goddesses offered him bribes to win.
Aphrodite offered Helen, most beautiful of all Humans. She won and thus caused
the Trojan War. Eros was the primordial god of instinct. When Aphrodite appeared
he adapted himself and joined forces with her. At this time the sexes became
distinct. Aphrodite's kingdom was the place of desire. Young girls were said to
pass from the place of Artemis (chastity and games) to the place of Aphrodite,
where they become women. Considered by some to be an affliction or madness that
women must bear. She represents female lust and passion, and demonstrates its
potential for destructive effect. Young girls gave their virginity to the
Goddess by living in her temples and offering themselves to passing strangers.

ARTEMIS (DIANA) - Daughter of Zeus and Leto. The huntress, she is seen as the
forever young goddess. She is proud of her shapeliness and keeps her virginity
to protect it. She was a warrior, joining Apollo to kill Python and other
exploits. Anyone who offended her or tried to win her virginity paid dearly.
They were killed, transformed, or mutilated. She defended modesty and punished
illicit love and excesses. She avenged rape. She also took out her anger on
those virgins who gave in to love. She did not mind marriage, but when a virgin
married she was to give up all the things of childhood, toys and dolls, locks of
hair, etc., leaving them on her altar.

ATHENA (MINERVA) - Daughter of Zeus and Metis. Metis was swallowed by Zeus, and
when it was time for Diana's birth, he had Hephaestus crack open his skull and
she came forth in full armor shouting a war cry. Also a virgin Goddess, she
lived among men without fear due to her warrior's skills. She was the
protectress of Odysseus and other men. She was a warrior who used strategy,
ambush, cunning, and magic rather than brute force. Her shield bore the head of
a gorgon and she paralyzed her adversaries and made her companions invincible.
She was against excess, both in war and every day life. She taught men to
control their savagery and to tame nature. Was the initiator of all skills.
Taught Pandora to weave, trained horses and invented the chariot. She was the
patroness of blacksmiths and carpenters. She built the first ship and the boat
of the Argonauts.

CYBELE - Was born as Agditis, a hermaphrodite monster, from a stone fertilized
by Zeus. The Gods decided to mutilate him (?) and made the Goddess Cybele from
him. Her love for Attis, a human shepherd, drove him insane and he castrated
himself for her. Her priests were eunuchs dressed as women. It is from the
temple of Cybele that the reference in the Wiccan Charge of the Goddess to "At
mine Altars, the youths of Lacedæmon in Sparta made due sacrifice.", comes.

DEMETER (CERES) - Daughter of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea, the Goddess of corn and
grain. Demeter bore Persephone. She renounced her duties as goddess and began a
fast and went into exile from Olympos when her daughter was abducted into the
under-world until her daughter should be returned to her. She caused the spread
of the know-ledge of the cultivation of corn.

During her exile the earth became barren until Zeus demanded that Hades return
Persephone. She had eaten from a pomegranate, however, and was forever bound to
the underworld. As a compromise, she was allowed to rise up into the world with
the first growth of spring and return to the underworld at seed sowing in fall.
And so the Earth is barren in the winter, while Demeter mourns, and becomes
fruitful again when Persephone is released. Demeter made herself known to the
children of Eleusis, who raised her a temple and instituted the Eleusinian
mysteries. In Sept.-Oct., the candid-ates for initiation purified themselves in
the sea, then processed down the sacred path from Athens to Eleusis. The rites
remain secret, but involve a search for a mill for grind-ing corn, and a
spiritual experience. During the rites, men women and slaves were all treated
as equal.

ERINYES, THE - Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaara. They were born from drops of
blood that fell from Uranus's severed Penis, and did not recognize the authority
of the gods of Olympos. They hounded and tortured their victims, driving them
mad. Also called the Eumenides, The Good Ones, to divert their wrath.
Assimilated by the Romans as the uries. They were implacable and demanded
punishment for every murder. To them murder was a stain. The murderer had to be
banished and driven mad before purifica-tion could occur. They were blind and
carried out their punishments indefinitely.

HARPIES - Greek genii/spirits- Daughters of Thaumes and Electra: Nicotho or
swift-footed, Ocypete or swift of flight, and Celaeno, the dark one. Were either
women with wings or birds with the heads of women. Called the 'hounds of Zeus'
and seized children and souls. Skillful at torture, they could pester a victim
into madness.

HERA (JUNO) - Daughter of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea brought up by Oceanus and
Tethys. Married Zeus. It was claimed that each year Hera regained her virginity
by bathing in the spring of Canathus. According to some traditions Hephaestus,
Aries, and Hebe (Youth) were conceived by her alone without male assistance. As
Zeus' legitim-ate wife, her fury at his infidelities was boundless, and she took
vengeance on his lovers and any progeny of the affair without distinction. Zeus
was often reduced to hiding or disguising his children to protect them.

HESTIA/VESTA - Daughter of Cronos (Saturn) and Rhea. Goddess of the hearth, she
had the privilege of retaining her virginity forever. Her symbol was the fire,
which was never allowed to go out. The young bride and newborn child were
presented to her and she was invoked before each meal. Her temple in Rome was
served by the young vestal virgins.

MOERAE (PARCAE) - The Three Fates. Atropos, Clotho, Lachesis, daughters of Zeus
and Themis. The first spins a thread symbolizing birth. The second unravels it,
symbol-izing life's processes, and the third cuts it, symbolizing death. They
too were blind and ruled destiny. They were also symbols of a limit which could
not be overstepped. Were connected to their sisters, the furies, who punished
crime.

MUSES - Nine daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne (Memory). Calliope ruled epic poet-
ry, Clio ruled history, Polyhymnia mime, Euterpe the flute, Terpsichore dance,
Erarto lyric art, Melpomene tragedy, Thalia comedy and Urania astronomy. They
delighted the Gods and inspired poets. The Muses created what they sang about.
By praising the gods, they completed their glory, by boasting of valiant
warriors, they wrote their names in history. They were celebrated by the
Pythagoreans as the keepers of the knowledge of harmony.NEMESIS - Daughter and
Night. Ruled over the distribution of wealth, looked after balance, took
revenge on arrogance and punished excess, including excessive happi-ness, riches
and power. Moderation in all things was her creed.

NYMPHS - Daughter of Zeus and usually part of a greater god(esses) entourage.
Not immortal, though long lived. Mostly lived in caves. Were dark powers whose
beauty alone could lead to madness. Were seducers of many of the gods. Were
considered secondary deities.

THETIS - Daughter of the old man of the sea. Very beautiful. Mother of Achilles.
Saved Zeus from a plot to overthrow him and was an ally of Hera. Saved the
Argonauts as they passed between the clashing rocks.