Gods

What is clear is the celebration of the city and the goddess who protected the city and rendered it brilliant. In her city, Athena was responsible for everything from craft smanship to the cultivation of the olive through spinning and weaving to political festivals.

Athena was also one of the great gods of classical Greece. Yet even Nilsson (1967: 433) did not hesitate to trace Athena back to what he calls the Minoan “snake-goddess” (Schlangengottiii). Therefore, like Zeus, Athena’s origins lie in the Bronze Age, before the collapse of the citadels and rise of the city-states of classical Greece - and before the days of temples. Yet over the centuries, Athena of Greece had somehow remained associated with the citadel of Athens, just as Zeus had somehow become associated with the city of Olympia. Each thus developed the identities that we know in the classical era where they were each associated with a specific city. Yet each also belonged to the Greek nation, along with a number of other major gods.

Among the major (Olympian) gods, we can number: Zeus, first among the gods; his daughter the virtuous Athena; his long-suffering but wily wife Hera; his brother Poseidon, lord of the Sea, and another brother Hades, lord of the Netherworld. Reigning over the Netherworld was Persephone, consort of Hades and daughter of Demeter, a chthonic deity of fertility as an attribute of the earth itself. Hermes was the messenger of the gods and a herdsman in contrast to Artemis, the huntress and mistress of the wild animals. Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty and love, preferred the company of Ares, the god of war, and thus betrayed her consort Hephaestus (son of Hera, and bother of Ares), the competent but crippled smith of the gods. Apollo was the prophet of the gods but became a patron of the arts, being ultimately compared to Helios, the god of the sun, for the light he brought to Hellas. Most popular was probably Dionysius, the god of wine.

There were, of course, many other deities, but these can suffice for the moment. Most of these were viewed as the Olympian gods, the most important ones surrounding Zeus and the origins of divine rule, as defined by reference to Homer’s view (but Homer’s view was slightly biased against, e.g., Dionysius and Demeter). In a way, these gods form a pantheon covering the full scope of the world and human life: Zeus as the god of the heavens, Poseidon the sea, Hades the Netherworld, Demeter the earth, Artemis the hunters, Hermes the herders, Athena the city, Ares war, Aphrodite love, Apollo the arts, Hephaestus the crafts, and Dionysius festivity. Each had their cults and temples, some were more popular (e.g. Artemis), some had more temples (e.g. Apollo), and some have left more images (e.g. Hermes); none were more hated than Hades and Persephone.

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Source: Bredholt Christensen Lisbeth, Hammer Olav, Warburton David. The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. Acumen,2013. — 456 p.. 2013

Gods

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