The Shadow of Olympus

The Theogony of Hesiod tells a story of beginnings, of the very first acts in our cosmos. Of the coming of the Night, the Earth, and Eros the beautiful. Of the birth of the sky full of stars and the wars that shook the universe to its foundations. Of the founding of the domains of the cosmos, of the throne of heaven and the tumultuous sea and the dark underworld. Of the rise of the sky father and the establishment of his eternal kingdom.

But the stories of myth, like those of any holy scripture or religious poetry, cannot ever be taken so literally as to become the objects of zealotry. Myth is about telling the stories of the beginning in a way that human minds can grasp. In modern times science does the same thing. Through mathematics and observation, we put the magnificence of the universe into a kind of narrative that makes sense to us. But religiously, the stories of Hesiod, and others, put the working of the cosmos into a greater context, a divine context.

The Protogonoi are those Gods who Hesiod calls the first ones. Born of the chasm called "Chaos" and birthing with themselves the very universe itself.

❦ Nyx ❦ Gaea ❦ Eros ❦ Ouranos ❦ Tartaros ❦ Pontus ❦
❦ Hesiod's Theogony ❦ Hesiod's Works and Days ❦

Hesiod's works are linked here from the
Internet Sacred Texts Archive

The King of the Gods, the God of thunder, of storms, of the divine domain of the Sky. He is Sky Father, lord of the summits, and lord of hosts. He is often called father of Gods and Men, and if any God in the Hellenic Pantheon is said to be the template for the Christian Jehovah, it is Zeus, whose Roman counterpart Jove (Jupiter) was adapted by the Christians of Rome into their "God the Father."

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Hera, Queen of the Gods. Queen of Heaven and Earth. Wife of Zeus the Sky Father. Goddess of marriage, of oaths, of unions. This Goddess was important all over the Hellenic world, and her power was rarely appropriately reflected in the mythic cycles which more often than not presented her as a shrew. Her power as a Goddess to which the Hellenes owed much devotion is undeniable, however, if you note how many grand temples were built in her honor.

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God of the Sea and of the second domain. The God Poseidon was brother to Zeus and husband to Amphitrite, a Goddess seldom given much attention. The Sea God was portrayed as stern and conservative and sometimes harsh with his punishments of those who betrayed him.

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The Goddess of Grains, Agriculture, and of the changing seasons, hers was a powerful cult in Attika whose great mysteries in Eleusis were renowned throughout the entire Greek world and beyond. Mother of Persephone, the second Goddess of the Mysteries, the two were often referred to simply as The Two Goddesses.

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Perhaps the best known of all the Olympian Gods in modern culture, Apollo was the God off light, enlightenment, arts, music, and the leader of the muses, angelic goddesses of inspiration. Apollo is often referred to as "the most Greek of Greek Gods" though to be fair it is Zeus who best deserves this title. It is, none the less, an apt description because as the God of Art and Philosophy (considered an art) his power among the cultural influence of the Greeks is without parallel. The Romans adopted Apollo wholesale, and did not even adapt his name to one of their own as they did with the other Gods.

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Huntress. Moon Goddess. Goddess of Childbirth. Artemis holds a special place in the Greek pantheon as one of the three great Virgin Goddesses who reject, in many ways, the dominion of men and instead stand toe to toe with the Gods in power, renown, and influence.

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The great smith god was central to the cults of Athens, and even lends his name to one of Athena's aspects as Athena Hephaestia. Hephaestos is best known, perhaps, as the lame God, because he is portrayed as a being who is physically hobbled but mentally ingenious. He builds for the Gods their great celestial palaces and in his forge builds amazing creatures of metal.

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One of the three Great Virgin Goddesses of Olympus, Athena is perhaps the most powerful of Greece's Goddesses with influence and power all over the Greek world. She is also my primary patron. As Goddess of wisdom, arts and handicrafts, war, and civilization, no other Goddess, not even Hera, held so high a position in the Hellenic pantheon. Later, as Sophia (wisdom) she becomes part of Christian mystical tradition as the holy spirit.

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Ares is the God of War. Son of Zeus and Hera, this Gods is often depicted as an honorable, yet somewhat mean character whose blustering and posturing are taken down by others, including Athena, who bests him in battle. Yet at the heart of Ares, there is always a reminder of something noble, the warrior who is trod upon yet who sacrifices everything to protect or act on behalf of his nation.

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Goddess of love, lust, and attraction, she is also a war goddess, sea goddess, and a Great Goddess of the Eastern World. Depicted as mercurial and often cruel, she is also depicted as caring and sympathetic, characteristics of love itself.

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Son of Zeus, Hermes is a crafty God who is both the messenger of the Gods and the guide of the dead into the underworld. Hermes appears to be depicted, often enough, as being angelic in appearance, and by that I mean like angels are often said to look. Hermes is a god of pastures, boundaries, and of male sexuality or its allure.

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The eldest and the youngest, she is often called, and she is honored first and last in Hellenic ritual. Hestia is the Goddess closest to man. She makes her home among us, every hearth is her hearth, every home her home, every shelter against the world is hers. She is a Goddess of fire and of the home, the hearth and the close bonds of home life.

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One of the most studied of the Greek Gods, Dionysos is at the same time an open book and a complete mystery. He is the God of ecstasies, of wine, of drunkenness. He is the Dying God and the God Reborn. He is Chthonic and Celestial in equal measure, and he is a God of unbridled release. He is the God to whom one is closest when the mind is altered and the mind is made free to wander through paths it might avoid in a state of clarity.

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Often referred to as Kore (Girl), Persephone is the Queen of the underworld, wife of Hades, and daughter of Demeter. According to myth, her role in the cults of Demeter is as the dying goddess, the deity that comes and goes into the underworld, bringing with her the Springtime and taking with her the warmth of Summer as Winter sets in and the fruits of the Earth fall dead.

Her role in the Mysteries is more mysterious, but essential. This dread Goddess is also a goddess of hope in the face of death.

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Son of Hyperion, Helios is the all seeing, the God of the Sun. In the Great Mysteries, it is he who sees the abduction of the girl Persephone, and it is through this revelation that the world is turned away from his life giving light, for Great Demeter will now hide away among men, withdrawing her divine power so that the world turns dark and grey and the fruits of her power are no longer upon the land.

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Selene is the Moon Goddess. Not just a Goddess with a Moon Aspect, but actually THE Moon Goddess. While others, like Hekate and Artemis, may each bear partly the mantle of moon goddess, Selene is most intimately tied to the actual physical manifestation of the moon.

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The great Chthonic King, Aidoneus, the unseen, whose kingdom is the Underworld which bears his name. He is a God of the dead, a god of wealth, of the very riches of the Earth. He is abductor and husband of Persephone, Queen of the Dead.

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This Titan Goddess was given, by Zeus, a place in all the domains of the world for her support in the war against the Titans. She is best known today as a Moon Goddess and a Goddess of Witches, but in ancient times hers was a role of protection.

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