Lesson 2

The Greeks gods and

goddesses
• a traditional story of the early history of
a people or explaining some natural or
social phenomenon, and typically
involving supernatural beings or
events.
• FICTION!
• in early times handed down orally from
one generation to another
• Ancient cultures used mythology
belief
• systems much the same way that
people use modern religion.

• to explain the world/ nature, man,

and gods
• to instruct or guide proper behavior
• to give a sense of community
Ancient mythology belongs to the oral
tradition (folklore, legends, etc.)

1. stories passed orally appealed to

the non-literate (non-readers)
2. these stories were a form of
entertainment
3. the stories enabled the passing of
history and culture from one group to
the next
1. The Greeks were the earliest
people to give their gods human
forms
2. The Greeks also gave the
gods human qualities and
emotions
3. Greeks were able to proper
behavior based on what would
“anger the gods” or “please the
gods.”
The Titans
The First Set of Gods
Gaea
• Earth Goddess; made the rest of the
Titans by mating with her son, Uranus.
• she was also mother of the other Titans,
the Gigantes, the Erinyes, and the
Cyclopes
• Gaea was described as the giver of
dreams and the nourisher of plants and
young children.
Uranus
• Sky god; first ruler. Dethroned
by Cronus.
• the personification of heaven.
• Uranus hated his offspring and hid
them in Gaea’s body.
Cronus also spelled Cronos or Kronos,
• Fathered the first of the Olympians.
Swallowed his children except for
Zeus.
• He ruled over other Titans.
• Cronus’s functions were connected
with agriculture; in Attica his
festival, the Kronia, celebrated the
harvest and resembled the
Saturnalia.
Prometheus
• “Forethought” ; Protector of man;
inventor of fire.
• Who was the savior of mankind.
• In common belief he developed into
a master craftsman, and in this
connection he was associated with
fire and the creation of mortals.
Atlas
• Punished by having
to hold the world on his back.
• Who bore the world on his
shoulder.
• son of the Titan Iapetus and the
Oceanid Clymene (or Asia) and
brother of Prometheus (creator of
humankind)
Oceanus
• Ruler of the under river and bodies
of water.
• In Hesiod’s Theogony, Oceanus was the
oldest Titan, the son of Uranus (Heaven)
and Gaea (Earth), the husband of the
Titan Tethys, and father of 3,000 stream
spirits and 3,000 ocean nymphs.
Tethys
• Tethys was one of the Titans,
daughter of Uranus and Gaea.
• She was married to her brother,
Oceanus, and gave birth to
the river gods, who lived in the
rivers that were then known to the
Greeks, such as the
Nile and Alpheus;
Hyperion
• Father of the sun, the moon,
and the dawn.
• His wife was Theia, lady of the
aither--the shining blue of the
sky.
• Hyperion's name means
"watcher from above" or "he
who goes above" from the
greek words hyper and iôn.
Iapetus (God of Mortality)
• Iapetos "the piercer" was probably
also the Titan god symbolising
mortality and the mortal life-span
as his sons Prometheus and
Epimetheus were the creators of
mankind and all other mortal
creatures.
Mnemosyne the goddess of
memory
• Mnemosyne would come the ability
to remember, to use power of reason
and to make use of language; and
therefore ultimately speech was also
connected with her.
• it was expected that all orators, kings
and poet, would give praise to
Mnemosyne for she allowed them to
make use of persuasive rhetoric.
Themis
• Themis, (Greek: “Order”) in Greek
religion, personification of justice,
goddess of wisdom and good counsel,
and the interpreter of the gods’ will.
• The cult of Themis was widespread in
Greece. She was often represented as a
woman of sober appearance carrying a
pair of scales.