Inanna of the Thousand Offices

The name Inanna is one of the oldest known recorded names for a divinity worshiped by human kind and the figure of Inanna is one of the oldest and most influential goddesses in human history.  She is the holy virgin and the sacred whore and may have initially been named Nin-anna, which is translated as ‘lady of the sky’; she is among the earliest divinities to be associated with the planet Venus, in both the Morning Star and Evening Star aspects.

Inanna is the Sumerian "Lady of the Thousand Offices", a goddess of love and sexuality, of war and bloodshed, of magic and ritual, and of the qualities that define culture.  In fact many of her primary sites of worship were centered in the earliest sites of cities and civilization – Uruk chief among them, and her temples there were sites of commerce, craft and worship

Dionysus

Though known primarily as the god of grapes and wine, Dionysus or Dionusos is a god of many functions and forms.  He is the (semi-) respectable patron of the theatre and actors, as Greek drama developed out of the masked rituals and celebrations in which his life was acted out by and for his followers.  (In fact a mask was often used as an idol for this god, carved out of vine or fig wood).  In this guise Dionusos is a god of civilization and peace and community.   Dionusos is also the effeminate yet phallic, savage mystery-god who leads his followers – the wild maenads (the ‘raging ones’) – in blood thirsty festivals, ripping animals to pieces with their bare hands and dancing all night within the flames.  Dionusos is also a fertility god, worshiped along side Demeter; where she is the solid, receptive force of nature he is the liquid, active aspect.  Dionusos is a divine saviour who dies for mankind and is reborn, and through eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood humanity is granted eternal life in paradise.  Dionusos presides over communication with the dead, over euphoria, insanity, fear, liberation and intoxication.  Dionusos releases from the mundane and allows the breaking of society’s rules and through his intoxicating possession he grants his followers the ability to perceive the world from a divine point of view. 

Athene

Athene, favourite child of Zeus is the goddess of wisdom and wits and cunning, of war and warriors and of invention and homecrafts.  Athene was the weaver of the gods as well and took great pride in her skills and abilities even punishing mortals who had the hubris to compare their work to her own.  Athene also is credited with many inventions that ease the work necessary for survival, including the bridle, trumpet, flute, pottery, the rake, the plow, the yoke, the ship, and the chariot.

Aphrodite

Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, is possibly the most well known and most worshiped of all the Greek deities.  There are two stories of her birth, the first calls her the child of Zeus and Dione, the second a foam-born child of the surging sea and the severed genitals of Ouranos – the heavens.  Aphrodite’s cult began around 12-800 BCE, the child-of-Dione tradition is present in Homer (c. 800) and perhaps is the original story of her birth as understood by the Greeks.  But as exposure to the older cultures of the near-east increased Aphrodite seems to have been greatly influenced by the powerful goddesses who ruled there and began to acquire some of their titles and events of their own myths.

Ares

Ares, handsome and cruel, often depicted carrying a bloodstained spear or sitting upon a throne in Olympos that was covered in the skin of men he had slain in battle was the god of war, raw masculinity and warlike frenzy.   Though counted among the ruling council of the gods, he had a very poor reputation among the Olympians and the ancient Greeks. Worshiped in places such as Sparta and Thrake, Thessalia and Thesprotia, he was hated by many of the city-states because of the blood lust and slaughter that he brought to mankind as he rode upon his chariot accompanied by Eris the goddess of discord and Enyo, goddess of slaughter

Hephaistos

Called the ugliest of gods, Hephaistos is the god of the forge and fire and patron of craftsmen and was often associated with volcanoes which were seen as great primeval work rooms in which treasures and miraculous devices were created.  In particular Mt. Vesuvius, which devastated Pompeii and Herculaneum, was linked with him. 

Hermes

One of the youngest of the Olympian gods, Hermes is the son of Zeus and the Pleide

Maia (who herself was a daughter of the Titan Atlas).  Hermes is a playful, free spirited god and very much a trickster; he represents the ability to put aside instant gratification for long-term gain.  Hermes was born within a cave in a mountain near Kyllene and as his mother slept after labour, before he was even a day old Hermes snuck from his crib and performed his first theft.  He came across the cattle of Apollon and took a number of the herd and putting boards on their hooves, drove them backwards to his home so that none would be able to follow their tracks.  Helios spied the infant god and reported to Apollon who tracked down the child pretending to sleep and mimicking innocence in his cradle.  Apollon demanded the cattle back but twelve were missing, Hermes had sacrificed one for each of the Olympians (at this time there were only eleven Olympians, Hermes was counting himself as the twelfth).  He had also created the lyre from the shell of a turtle and gut from one of the slaughtered cattle and the music it produced soothed Apollon into forgiveness.  

Artemis

Artemis, the daughter of Zeus and the titaness Leto was worshiped from very early times as the (sometimes winged) goddess of nature, birth, the hunt and all things wild – including young girls.  Later, in classical times was added her association with the moon.  Artemis is the twin sister of Apollon and is one of the few deities of Greek religion who are described by their filial relationships.  Artemis was born two days before her brother on the isle of Ortygia and developed her midwifery skills early in her life helping Leto to deliver Apollon on the isle of Delos.

Apollo

The son of Zeus and the titaness, Leto; Apollo or Apollon is best known as god of the sun, and though he became this in late times (originally it was Helios who was the sun god) that is not what was meant when the ancients called him the lord of light.  Above the temple of Delphi, the seat of the prophetic cult of Apollon were written the words ‘Know Thyself’ and Apollon is the light that seeks out knowledge of the self: deep, rational, true meanings; the light that burns away the shadows and lies and reveals the very core of our Selves. 

Persephone

The maiden of life and the queen of death Persephone is not a true Olympian but as the daughter two Elder Olympians and the wife of a third she is a very powerful and prominent goddess in the ancient Greek religion.  Persephone is the daughter of Zeus (though there are some hints that in earlier, Mykenean times it may have been Poseidon who fathered this goddess) and Demeter – the goddess of the earth’s fertility and distributor of the crops grown from it, though in the Orphic telling of her birth she is the daughter of Rhea who takes the name ‘Demeter’ after giving birth. 

Demeter

One of the six original Olympians, Demeter is the child of the King and Queen of the Titans - Kronos and Rhea, and of all the Greek gods of the earth it is she who is paramount.  Demeter rules over the fertility and lifespan of the fruits and vegetables of the earth and especially of the grain, she is however also a patroness of human and animal reproduction as well – the life force of all living things.  Demeter is also the goddess of the harvest and it was she who taught mankind how to sow and tend crops so that they could settle land and end their wandering nomadic lifestyle.  She is also a goddess who takes great care in the preservation of the ‘natural law’ and tradition (whatever the society may see it as being); this is partly due to her popularity among rural populations (who most directly benefited from her attention) which are often more conservative and cling to older ways long after their urban counterparts.  Demeter is a pre-Olympian deity; her worship extends far, far back into the times of Mycenaean Greece and their nomadic forbearers; votive offerings of clay pigs (an offering unique to Demeter have been found dating to Neolithic times).  Her name probably in Greek means ‘distribution mother’ and is likely derived from the name of the Pre Indo-European mother-earth goddess *dheghom *mater (the astrix indicates that this is a reconstructed word and not one found in literature or modern languages).

Poseidon

As changeable as the sea that he rules over, Poseidon is a moody and sometimes dark god filled with an awesome depth of power and one who places great value on tradition.  Poseidon dwelt deep within the Aegean in a palace on the sea floor made of coral and gems and filled with all manner of treasures salvaged from shipwrecks.  He rode upon the waves in his chariot pulled by foam-white hippocamppi (horses with the tails of fish), brandishing his trident, the three pronged fish spear, and acompanied by dolphins and okianids –  the beautiful sea nymph daughters of Okeanos, an ancinet sea god.  Poseidon likely started out his existence as  a god of rivers and springs and fresh water, one possible source of his name is Poti-don – ‘river lord’ while another possibility is ‘husband of the distributor’ and could connect him to Demeter in early cult.   Poseidon is also known as the god of earthquakes (‘Enosides’ is one of his epithets meaning earth-shaker) and a bringer of madness (he was considered to be the source of certain types of epilepsy).  He is also the lord of horses; horses and the sea have a stong connection and it is not so odd that he would have dominion over both.  Both horses and the sea are forms of travel, carriers of communications and sorces of food (horse meat and fishing) both transporters of colonists (Poseidon  was also a patron of colonization) and in the ancient world horses and herds were and traded by ship.  One of the most famous pan-hellenic games was held in his honour, the Isthmian games held in Corinth and featured horse and chariot races. Sailors would pray to Poseidon for safe travel and calm seas and would often drown a horse in supplication.  Poseidon was also the guardian of navies, including the one of Athens even though the people of that city chose Athene to be their patron valuing her gift of the olive tree over his of a salt water spring.  Poseidon also lost patronage of another city to a goddess when Hera won Argos as her own.

Haides

Haides is the son of the titans Khronos and Rhea, and along with his brothers Poseidon and Zeus, is one of the Three Kings of the Greek Pantheon.  With their defeat over the titans the three drew lots and Haides received dominion over all things under the earth, including metals and precious stones, planted crops and of course the land of the dead – and the very dead themselves who inhabit it. 

The Daimones

 The Daimones are a strange class of divinities in the Greek religion, they are like immortal spirits or conscious personifications more than ‘gods’ or ‘goddesses’; this is not to say that a Daimon could not be classified or worshiped as a god as well (like all categories in Greek myth, there is a lot of leeway). Daemons can be male or female (Daimonoi) and are considered good (Daimones Agathoi) or harmful (Kako Daimones).   Many of the Kako Daimones were the spirits released from the jar given to Pandora.

Daimones can be personifications of emotions, or actions or of places.  The Nymphoi and male nature spirits such as the Satyroi could also be classified as types of Daimones. 

Many Daimones came into existence shortly after the creation of the universe, far before the Olympians and even the titans were born.  Daimones were not usually worshiped by the ancient Greeks though they were often called upon in ritual and day-to-day life and were often given offerings and poured libations, asking for blessings to the avoidance of ills.  Daimones also appear in poetry and writing where they are often used as literary tools and descriptive devices.

Hera

The daughter of Khronos and Rhea, wife of Zeus- Hera is the Lady of Heaven, the Mistress of Olympos and the Queen of all the Gods; she is a Great Goddess in the sense of being a universal mother.  And as any child can tell you- a mother is not always kind.  But Hera is a goddess who always has a purpose to her actions, even if those actions are viewed by others as petty or cruel. 

Zeus

King of the gods and lord of the heavens, Zeus is considered the most powerful of the Olympians and indeed often considered the most powerful of all the gods. Born to the titaness Rhea, she hid the infant Zeus from his father Kronos who had devoured their previous children in order to prevent loosing his throne to succession as well as to take their powers as his own.  A swaddling wrapped stone was given to the titan-king and Zeus was hidden deep within a Kretan cave on Mt. Ida, there he was raised by a goat/nymph named Amalthea (whose horn became the Kornukopia) and protected by the Kouretes (or Daktyloi) who covered the infants cries with their dancing and by banging their spears and shields.  Other versions have Zeus raised by Gaia, or a nymph named Adamanthea who hid him by suspending him from a rope so that he hung between earth and sky and sea and not in any part of Kronos’ kingdom. 

The First Borns

The Protogenoi were the first beings existent at the dawn of creation; they are in fact, the very fabric of existence, the forces that created the physical and spiritual worlds that we live in.  Where Demeter is a goddess of the earth, Gaia is the earth itself; Poseidon the ruler of the oceans, Pontus is the ocean. The protogenoi were for the most part not dealt with in day-to-day Greek cult or worship, these are primal and primeval forces even further beyond the realm of man than the gods.  They were however respected and in some instances did have rituals and celebrations in their honor.  

The Nymphs

Nymphoi are female spirits of the natural world and considered minor goddesses by some.  They are the guardians and sculptors of nature and are responsible for not only the growth and well-being of the earth, but its beauty as well.  Streams, caves, valleys, springs, groves; even individual trees are said to have a residing Nymphai; and though not immortal, they are very long-lived and often reside on Mt. Olympos with the heavenly gods. The word ‘nymphe’ means bride, still Nymphoi are rarely described as being married, it is perhaps a reference to their potential at becoming the wives, nurses, lovers and mothers of gods and heroes, many of whom  and are of great importance in Greek myth, religion and genealogy.  They are also the companions and counterparts to the wild male nature spirits such as the Kentauroi, Satyroi and Panes who are near-constantly chasing after them.  They are often depicted or referred to as bees and honey is one of their favorite offerings.  They are well known for their healing abilities, gifts of inspiration and eloquence and their prophetic and divinatory powers. 

The Titans

The titans are the sons and daughters of Gaia and Ouranos and were the first rulers of the earth; their leader, Kronos, was the ruler of the entire universe after they castrated their father who kept them imprisoned deep within the underEarth.  The Titans were the parents of the eldest of the gods including Zeus and the first generation of Olympians. 

The origin of the titans is not know, they may be related to other Indo-European cultures’ primordial beings (such as the Norse Jotuns) or they could be the remnants of a pantheon worshiped by peoples indigenous to Greece (such as the Pelgasians) before the coming of the Mykeneans.  New evidence in early Kreaten writing by an archaeologist named Paul Faure suggests that there was a deity named Ttan, perhaps he was the original ruler of the group which took his name collectively.  Another theory traces the name to the word for ‘white earth’, referring to clay or gypsum.  In this context it could refer to statues sculpted of the material or even the use of clay as a make up in early ritual.

The protogenoi, including the parents of the titans, are the actual beings the universe is created from.  The titans are the powers of time and fertility, the stages of chaotic growth that the younger gods tamed and brought order to. 

Assemblies of Gods in Greek Myth

There appears in Greek mythology a number of groups made up of deities that share a specific function or activity.  This goes beyond classifications such as ‘titan’ or ‘olympian’ or ‘nyphmae’ and represents small (often no more than three) groups of divinities that work together in a single or related task.  Often these groups grew from the same stock as the myriad of nameless or barely-formed nymphoi but through cult became more specialized and Pan-Hellenic.