Greek Gods :: Explore the Pantheon of Ancient Greece

Greek Gods

Apart from the better known Olympians, the Greek mythology is full of other major or minor deities that existed before or during the era of Zeus.

According to Hesiod and his work Theogony (lines 116–132), the first to come into being was Chaos, and after it Gaea (earth), Tartarus (the pit beneath the earth) and Eros (love). Out of Chaos came Erebus (darkness) and Nyx (night); Erebus and Nyx in turn bore Aether (the bright upper air) and Hemera (day). In another version (Hyginus, Fabulae preface), Aether and Hemera were born from Chaos and Darkness. Many of the primordial gods are places or realms as much as persons, as can be seen from the above. Gaea, without a partner, bore Uranus (heaven), the mountains and Pontus (sea).

The union of the primordial deities Uranus and Gaea gave birth to the Titans (Theogony 133–138); Hesiod’s Works and Days (109–126) places the golden race of men in the time when Cronus reigned. The Titans were Cronus, Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Crius, Iapetus, Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea and Themis. Cronus became the ruler of the gods after dethroning his father Uranus, but was later dethroned himself by his son, Zeus.

During the era of the Olympians, other deities were also in existence alongside the twelve well-known gods. Some examples include the numerous nymphs and deities of the forests, the seas and the rivers, demi-gods such as Heracles and Theseus, and many others that represented every possible aspect of the life and the surroundings of ancient Greeks.