The Heroes
Him mighty Heracles slew in sea-girt Erythea by his shambling oxen on that day when he drove the wide-browed oxen to holy Tiryns, and had crossed the ford of Ocean and killed Orthus and Eurytion the herdsman in the dim stead out beyond glorious Ocean.
--From Theogony
Heroes, Daemones, and Angeloi
There are in Hellenic Paganism, different levels of beings who are, by all accounts, divine. In my opinion, this is really no different from the Christian hierarchy of heaven, with its various levels of angels and saints as well as the hierarchy of Hell, with the devil on top and demons of various types below him, but there is a difference in the nature of these beings, a difference that is, for me anyway, fundamental to the way I view the universe. Heroes, Angeloi, Daemones, Nymphs, etc, are all different. Heroes, for example, are most definatley along the same lines as Saints. They were mortal men who in life were so courageous or so important to the way in which Hellenism developed that they received cultus, and in some cases were even said to become Gods themselves, by the grace of Zeus, as did Herakles.
The way it seems to work, and please note that I am no scholar on such matters, is that the Hero has the closest level of contact with humanity or mortal life, since he, and yes she, was at one time mortal. In many cases, these Heroes were said to be descended from Gods themselves, but the truth is likely more along the lines of their having attracted, through their heroism and courage, the attentions and affections of a deity or many deities who then conveyed upon them a gift of immortality. Do I believe that Herakles is a God? No, but I do have a sense of his having been loved by Zeus, and tested by Hera, and that in his trials and tribulations, he proved himself to posses qualities the Gods did not want to do without, and so a Hero was born into Hellenism who would forever inspire them.
There are then Daemones, who are simple spirit forms or small divinities, perhaps part of greater Gods, that act as ethereal guardians or observers. They are sometimes seen as the restless spirits of those who gave their lives to save their communities in some way. Many of the heroins of Ancient Greece were seen in this way, or as having become the attendants of Goddesses who sometimes received cultus themselves, such as Iphigeneia, who became attendant to Artemis after being rescued, by Artemis, from the sacrificial altar at which she would have given her life. Daemones then are all around us in very real ways, but what they are, exactly, is still very much a mystery to me.
Nymphs and other such nature spirits, however, are of a higher order. Unlike fully individuated deities, they are beings tied directly to the nature of the universe, beings who form part of the essential forces of the universe. I don’t quite believe in these beings, but they are part of our mythology.
Then there are Angeloi. The term means angel, and that is essentially the form they take in Hellenic Paganism. They are subservient divinities, messengers, attendants, etc, but I am not convinced that they even exist. Gods are infinite in their nature, and the need for such beings is hardly necessary. More likely, in my opinion, they are simply deities like Hekate and Hermes, as seen through the eyes of people.
The Idea of Lesser Deities
There is then the rather contradictory idea that a deity can be lesser or subservient to another. We often talk about lesser deities, perhaps Hekate being an example, but what we really mean is that they were not as popular among the general population as the major Gods. But in this there are also those gods who do not play a very large part in human affairs, gods like Helios and Selene, who are more the observers than the participants in a game. There is also the idea of aspected divinity. Are Selene and Helios two distinct deities, or are they two aspects of a single godhead? Is Hebe the daughter of Hera, or simply the view of Hera as a girl? What of Asklepios, or Harmonia, or Deimos and Phobos? To many these beings, these deities, are distinct and separate, but I do not really see it that way, for I think that Harmonia, Deimos and Phobos are aspects of the work of Ares and Aphrodite, for these Gods often work in concert, yet our own limited ability to see them may lead to the confusion of them as a single being, or as distinct beings rather than aspects of a greater deity.
There are, to my astonishment, lesser deities, however. Deities whose roles in the cosmic scheme of things is small, either because their work is done, or because their work is just beginning. Whether or not this is just a matter of human vision is irrelevant to the idea of religion, since it is belief that forms the basis of all religions. The Titans, for example. Who were they? Were they distinct deities, or were they just the Gods as we know them by different names? It is a question worth asking, but one that is never likely to have a satisfactory answer. If we assume they were distinct Gods, why did they fade away? Why did man forget them, even vilify them? I cannot know.