Lesser Gods, pg.1-Text

The Lesser Deities also lived in Olympus.

These deities were more useful to mortals, as they were easier to understand and worship. Indeed they were mankind's best friends.

Aeolus was the keeper of the winds. He was king of the island of Aeolia. Later classical writers regarded him as a god. He often either freed or penned up the winds at the bidding of some deity.	1	Demeter- Goddess of Agriculture; she and Dionysus were mankind's best friends. She lost her daughter to Hades The grains sacred to her were the wheat, corn, millet, rye, and barley. Symbols Poppies and modius (or corn measure) as a symbol of the fertility of the earth.


•Castor and Pollux the great twin brethren, were sons of Zeus. –They took part in the Caledonian boar-hunt –they went on the Quest of the Golden Fleece –they rescued Helen when Theseus carried her off.	2	•Castor was famous as tamer of horses, and •Pollux was known for his specialty in boxing. •Both represented wrestling. • •They were transported to the sky as constellations and became guardians of mariners, the Gemini.

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•Dionysus - God of Wine; son of Zeus and Semele

•Thebes was his own city, where he was born.

•The vine and ivy were sacred to him.

•Associated with freedom and joy and with savage brutality

•He was man's benefactor and he was man's destroyer (as alcohol can be).

•The Maenads, (Bacchantes) accompanied him when he traveled.

–Frenzied with wine they danced and sang exultant songs, wearing fawn-skins over their robes.

– Nothing could stop them.

–They would tear to pieces the wild creatures they met and devour the bloody shreds of flesh.

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•Eos, (Aurora) was a daughter of Titans; Helios (sun) and Selene (moon) were her brother and sister

•She was a personification of the dawn of the morning.

–A fresh wind was felt at her approach, –she was called "rosy-fingered Morn."

–She loved all fresh young life, and showed special favor to those persons whose active spirit led them abroad in the morning to hunt or to make war

•Cupid - God of Love; son of Aphrodite; fairest of the deathless gods.

– In the early stories, he is most often a beautiful serious youth who gives good gifts to men.

–In the later poets he was almost invariably a mischievous, naughty boy, or worse.

•His heart was evil but his tongue was honey sweet.

•He was often represented as blindfolded, because love is often blind.

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•Hebe - personification of the beauty of youth; youngest daughter of Zeus and Hera

•Official cupbearer of the gods

• Among her other duties she assisted Hera in yoking her chariot..

•When Apollo and the Muses played, she danced with other deities.

•Best known as the bride and wife of Hercules.

•Hymen - God of marriage; said variously to have been from Apollo and Calliope, or from Dionysus and Aphrodite, while at other times he is said to have been by birth a mortal and afterwards defied.

•His home was among the Muses on Mount Helicon.

• He is always a picture of youthful beauty, and of charms of love and song.

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•Hypnos - God of Sleep; son of Nyx (Night) and twin brother of Thanatos (Death)

•His influence extended to gods as well as men.

•Dreams ascended from the lower world to men.

–They passed through two gates, one of horn which true dreams went, one of ivory for false dreams.

–The Greeks believed that sleep was a "little taste of death."

•Iris - The rainbow and a messenger of the gods, especially Hera; daughter of Titans

•A beautiful virgin with wings of varied hue, in robes of bright colors, and riding on a rainbow

•The ancients believed it was Iris who charged the clouds with water to cause rain.

–when her bow appeared in the clouds the farmer welcomed it as a sign of rain to quicken the fields, and gladly paid honors to the goddess.

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•Nemesis - Goddess of Punishment; daughter of Nyx

•Personification of Vengeance

–A mysterious power, she was conceived as shaping the demeanor of men in their times of prosperity, punishing crime, taking luck away from the unworthy, and tracking every wrong to its doer.

–Her name is usually translated as "Righteous Anger."

•To execute her commands she had three attendants, Dike (justice), Poena (punishment), and Erinys (vengeance).

•Nike - Goddess of Victory; daughter of Pallas and the Oceanid Styx,

•Inseparable from Zeus and Athena

•Nike appears standing on a globe, draped, winged, holding a wreath and a palm-branch.

–Sometimes she carries a staff (caduceus) like that of Hermes, as a sign of her power, and floating in air coming down to earth to point the way to a victor, reaching a wreath down to his brow or driving his horses.

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•Pan - God of Green Pastures and Flocks; son of Hermes by Penelope or of Zeus and Hybris.

• He was fond of sportive dances, singing with the nymphs, and playing on pipes.

–invented the sprinx or Pan pipes

•Pan fell in love and chased a nymph named Syrinx. She begged the local nymphs to transform her into marsh reeds, detesting his ugliness with goat legs and horns. They did so and Pan had to content himself by fashioning several lengths of the reeds together with wax that produced sweet notes when skillfully played.

•Pan once ventured to challenge Apollo to a musical competition.

–Midas awarded the prize to Pan.

–Apollo punished Midas making his ears grow like those of a donkey.

•Pan's customary method of overcoming an enemy force was to infect it by means of a sudden, horrified shout, or "panic."

He used this weapon effectively against the Titans during their war against the gods.

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The Lesser Deities - Text Only