Who Were the Twelve Olympian Gods?

Which gods were the twelve Olympians?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art counts twelve principal deities in the Greek pantheon, and notes that the ancient Greeks believed Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in mainland Greece, was the home of the gods.^[1] The Theoi Project, an online reference on Greek mythology, lists the twelve as Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes and Dionysus.^[8] The membership was not completely fixed: Theoi adds that Hestia, goddess of the hearth, was sometimes included among the Twelve.^[8] Other sources group the gods differently: after counting twelve principal deities, the Met's overview describes Zeus, his brothers Hades and Poseidon, Hera, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Aphrodite, Dionysos, Ares and Hephaistos, a selection that includes Hades, ruler of the Underworld, and does not mention Demeter or Hestia.^[1]

According to Ian Rutherford of the University of Reading, the idea of a group of twelve gods, or Dodekatheon, can be traced back no further than the late sixth century BC, which he calls surprising for an idea "apparently so central" to Greek religion.^[4] That is when an altar of the twelve gods was set up in the agora at Athens in 522 BC by the archon Peisistratos, grandson of the tyrant of the same name.^[4] The altar was the symbolic centre of the city, and distances were measured from it.^[4]

What was each Olympian the god of?

Greek art gave each god a recognisable set of attributes.^[1] The ox and the oak tree were sacred to Zeus, and the owl and the olive tree to Athena, who usually appears in armour with a helmet, a spear and the aegis, a goatskin with a snaky fringe.^[1] Hera is often shown wearing a tall crown called a polos, Apollo holding a kithara, Artemis carrying a bow and quiver, and Hermes in winged sandals with a herald's staff.^[1]

The Roman names in the table come from the Theoi Project, in which Apollo keeps his Greek name; Theoi also notes that Greeks and Romans shared some titles, such as Phoebus for Apollo, Pallas for Athena and Bacchus for Dionysus.^[8] The Met describes Bacchus as an epithet of Dionysus.^[3]

How did the Greeks worship the Olympians?

Greek religion had no single guiding scripture and no strict priestly caste.^[1] The relationship between people and gods was based on exchange: the gods were expected to give gifts, and worshippers left votive offerings as thanks, thousands of which have been excavated from sanctuaries.^[1]

Worship took place in sanctuaries, sacred precincts that held a temple with a monumental cult image of the god, an outdoor altar, statues and offerings.^[1] The natural surroundings of many temples helped express the character of their god: the temple of Poseidon at Sounion overlooks the sea on three sides.^[1] The central ritual was animal sacrifice, especially of oxen, goats and sheep, usually at an altar in front of the temple, after which the participants ate the meat; liquid offerings called libations were also common.^[1]

The Parthenon in Athens was built in honour of Athena between 447 and 438 BC.^[7] Its frieze shows the procession of the Panathenaia festival held for her.^[7] In the middle of the east side, a new robe is handed over for Athena's ancient wooden statue, and the twelve Olympian gods are shown seated to the left and right of that scene.^[7]

Religious festivals filled the year.^[1] The four most famous, at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia, each had a procession, athletic contests and sacrifices, and drew people from all over the Greek-speaking world.^[1] The games at Olympia and Nemea honoured Zeus, the Pythian games at Delphi honoured Apollo and those at Isthmia honoured Poseidon, while separate games for young unmarried women at Olympia were held for Hera.^[2] By tradition, the games at Olympia were founded in 776 BC.^[2]

Some cults were open only to initiates.^[1] The most celebrated were the mysteries at Eleusis, where Demeter and her daughter Persephone were worshipped; they admitted women, slaves and non-Athenians as well as Athenian male citizens.^[3]

Where do the stories about the Olympians come from?

Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, believed to have been composed around the eighth century BC, had a powerful influence on Greek thought.^[1] Hesiod, who described himself as a shepherd from Boeotia called by the Muses to sing about the gods, is often considered a younger contemporary of Homer, though his exact dates are unknown.^[5] His Theogony traces the history of the divine world, from the origin of the universe and the rise of the gods to the triumph of Zeus.^[5]

In the Theogony, Rhea bears six children to Cronos: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, "the loud-crashing Earth-Shaker" and Zeus.^[6] (The Met names Zeus's two brothers as Hades and Poseidon.^[1]) Cronos swallows each child at birth, having learned that he is destined to be overcome by his own son.^[6] Zeus, the youngest, is born in Crete and hidden in a cave, and Cronos is handed a great stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he swallows in his place.^[6]

Myths like these explained the origins of the gods and their relations with humans, and Greek artists illustrated many of them.^[1] The Homeric hymn to Demeter, for example, tells the founding story of the cult at Eleusis.^[3]