Athens, Greece,travel guide.

Mythology. In the modern language, the word myth and mythology is synonymous with a fiction or a lie. But in the ancient Greek language myth meant simply a "traditional tale", and these tales, usually of gods and heroes, were held to be true stories about the ancient past. We have to understand that Greek myths have been around for centuries and were only written down around 800 BCE. To make matters worse, all Greek mythology came to us written in ancient Greek, so translating to English or any other language was not an easy task.No matter what the variations are of each story the bottom line is that the ancient Greeks had a brilliant imagination and created one of the richest and most complete set of characters: gods, demigods and heroes and passed them on to us to appreciate their brilliance millennia later. Chaos & Gaea: Greek mythology tells that the god CHAOS (Greek word meaning void as an empty space) was the creator of all things.

Greek Gods Iphone app

Family tree of the ancient Greek Gods.

The Greek Gods.

Family tree of the Greek Gods..

The Greek Goddess Athena.Athena: Daughter of Zeus, and only by him, the Goddess Athena was not generated by any woman. She leaped from the head of Zeus, already adult, dressed with her armor. But the mother is not completely missing from the miraculous birth of Pallas Athena. According to Hesiod's account of the weddings of Zeus, the King of the Gods chose Metis as his first wife. She was of all beings "the most knowing" (as the word metis is interpreted), or "of many counsels" as translated in the sense of the Homeric epithet polymetis. As she was about to give birth to the Goddess Athena, Zeus deceived his pregnant wife with cunning words and assimilated her into his own body. Mother Earth and Father Sky had advised him to do this so as to prevent any of his descendants from robbing him of his kingly rank. For it was destined that the most brilliant children were to be born to the Goddess Metis: first, the daughter Athena, and later a son, the future King of Gods and men.

In the most ancient account, the Iliad, Athena is the Goddess of ferocious and implacable fight, but, wherever she can be found, she only is a warrior to defend the State and the native land against the enemies coming from outside. She is, above all, the Goddess of the City, the protectress of civilized life, of artesian activities, and of agriculture. She also invented the horse-bit, which, for the first time, tamed horses, allowing men to use them. She is the favorite daughter of Zeus; and that's why he let her use his insignia: the terrible shield, the aegis and his devastating weapon, the ray. The most used expression to describe her is "the bright eyed". She is the first of the three virgin Goddesses, also known as Maiden, Parthenos, and from this name was taken the name to the most important Temple dedicated to her, the Parthenon.

KHAOS (or Chaos) was the first of the Protogenoi (primeval gods) to emerge at the creation of the universe. She was followed in quick succession by Gaia (Earth), Tartaros (the Underworld) and Eros (Love the life-bringer).

Chaos was the lower atmosphere which surrounded the earth - invisible air and gloomy mist. Her name Chaos literally means the gap, the space between heaven and earth. Chaos was the mother or grandmother of the other substances of air: Nyx (Night), Erebos (Darkness), Aither (Light) and Hemera (Day), as well as the various emotion-affecting Daimones which drifted through it. She was also a goddess of fate like her daughter Nyx and grand-daughters the Moirai.

Zeus, king of the ancient Greek Gods.Zeus, who ruled over the land and the air, was the king of the gods, and was the greatest and strongest among them. The strength of all the other gods put together could not overcome him. It was he who caused the clouds to form, and who sent the rain to refresh the thirsty earth. His great weapon was the thun-derbolt, which he carried in his right hand. But the thunderbolt was seldom used, for the frown and angry nod of Zeus were enough to shake the palaces of the gods themselves. Although Zeus was so powerful, he was also kind and generous to those who pleased him. The people who lived upon the earth loved as well as feared him, and called him father. He was the most just of all the gods. Once when there was a great war between the Greeks and another people, all the other gods took sides, and tried to help those whom they favored all they could. But Zeus did not. He tried to be just, and at last he gave the victory to the side which he thought deserved to have it.

Uranus was the first ruler of the gods, while the earth was still young, and there were yet no men on it to be governed. He had many children, who were called Titans. These were huge, fierce gods, and even their father sometimes found it difficult to control them. Indeed, some of them were so strong and terrible that Uranus did not dare to allow them the freedom of the earth and sky, but kept them shut up tight and fast in the very deepest and darkest places inside the earth. Three of these prisoners were giants, each with a hundred hands ; and others of them had only one great eye in the middle of the forehead. Uranus may have been quite right in dreading these strange gods, and putting them away where they could do no harm ; but their mother was angry when she discovered that they had been fastened in the depths of the earth. She was not strong enough herself to set them free, so she could only try to punish Uranus for his cruelty. She gave her youngest son Cronus a sharp sickle for a weapon, and told him to drive his father Uranus from the throne of the gods

Eros, ancient Greek God of love.Eros. The Greeks told many wonderful stories about Eros, the love-god, some of which are very hard to understand. Long before Zeus, or Cronus, or Uranus, was the king of the gods, — indeed, before these gods were born, and before there were any plants or animals, — Eros was a god as powerful as he was in the later days when the Greeks wrote their stories about him. They said that in the beginning the whole world was all one mass of stone, and there was no earth or sky or sea. Then Eros, or Love, was the only living thing; and just as the mother-hen warms her eggs till the little chicks peep out, so the Greeks said Love brooded over the world until living things appeared, and the world began to take shape.
Although he was so very, very old, the Greeks thought that Eros always remained a youth, never growing up as the other gods did. They represented him in their pictures as a beautiful lad, with a golden bow and a quiver full of arrows.

Erebus was known as the embodiment of primordial darkness, the son of Chaos (who was the void from which all things developed, known also as Darkness). According to Hesiod's Theogony, Erebus was born with Nyx (Night), and was the father of Aether (the bright upper atmosphere) and Hemera (Day). Charon, the ferry-man who took the dead over the rivers of the infernal region, is also said to be the son of Erebus and Nyx. Later legend describes Erebus as the Infernal Region below the earth. In this version, Hades was split into two regions: Erebus, which the dead have to pass shortly after they have died, and Tartarus, the deepest region, where the Titans were imprisoned. Aristophanes' Birds says that Erebus and Nyx were also the parents of Eros, the god of love. He is often used metaphorically for Hades itself.

Apollo, son of Zeus.Apollo was the son of Zeus, and was one of the greatest of the gods of Mount Olympus. He was often called the sun-god, because the Greeks thought that he brought the sun's light and warmth to men. As these are so necessary to every living thing, they thought that Apollo was also the god of health and manly beauty. So he was always represented by the Greeks in their pictures and statues as a strong and beautiful young man. Apollo was very fond of music, and was in the habit of playing upon the lyre at the feasts of the gods, to the great delight of all who heard him. He was very proud of his skill, and would often have contests with the other gods, and sometimes even with men

Hermes, the messenger of the Gods.Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods. The Greeks did not always think of their gods as grown-up persons. Sometimes they told stories of their youth and even of their babyhood. According to these stories the god Hermes, who was the son of Zeus, must have been a very wonderful child. They said that when he was but a day old his nurses left him asleep, as they supposed, in his cradle. But the moment .that their backs were turned, he climbed out and ran away.

Posieon, son of Zeus.Poseidon was the brother of Zeus , and just as Zeus ruled over the land and the sky, Poseidon ruled over the rivers and the seas. He was always represented as carrying a trident, or fish-spear with three points. When he struck the sea with this, fierce storms would arise ; then with a word he could quiet the dashing waves, and make the surface of the water as smooth as that of a pond.