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Mythographia

    The Olympian Gods

    The Olympians are the gods who ruled from Mount Olympus after Zeus overthrew Kronos. They were worshipped as a set of twelve, but no single ancient list is canonical: thirteen figures have a serious claim, Hestia and Dionysus are the two usually competing for the last seat, and Hades is normally excluded because he rules elsewhere.

    By

    Overview

    Thirteen figures on this page compete for twelve seats, and that is not an editorial oversight. The Greeks worshipped the Olympians as a group of twelve long before anyone wrote down which twelve, and the surviving lists were produced by different cities at different dates for different altars. Athens and Olympia did not have to agree, and did not.

    What all of them share is a starting point. Six of these gods are the children Rhea bore to Kronos, named together in one line of the Theogony: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon and Zeus. The rest are Zeus's own children, born after the Titans fell. That succession is what the word Olympian marks. It is not a job description or a tier of power; it is the generation that came out on top.

    The two arguments below are the ones a reader almost always arrives with. Whether Hades belongs here turns on a passage where Homer's Poseidon says something inconvenient for the standard answer. Whether the twelfth is Hestia or Dionysus turns on a story that a great many modern retellings tell and no ancient source does.

    In This Topic (15)

    1. Circular bronze engraving of Zeus, bearded, gripping a lightning bolt across his chest

      Zeus Character

      Zeus is the king of the Olympian gods and the ruler of the sky, thunder, and justice in Greek mythology.

    2. Hera in bronze medallion style, crowned and regal, with a peacock feather as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Hera Character

      Hera is the Greek goddess of marriage, women, and family, and the queen of the Olympian gods.

    3. Poseidon in bronze medallion style, bearded with wave-like hair, holding a trident as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Poseidon Character

      Poseidon is the Greek god of the sea, earthquakes, and horses.

    4. Demeter in bronze medallion style, wearing a grain wreath, holding a bundle of wheat as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Demeter Character

      Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, and the fertility of the earth.

    5. Circular bronze engraving of Athena in a crested helmet, an owl beside her, holding a spear

      Athena Character

      Athena is the Greek goddess of wisdom, strategic warfare, and civic arts.

    6. Apollo in bronze medallion style, laurel-crowned, holding a lyre as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Apollo Character

      Apollo is the Greek god of light, music, prophecy, healing, and archery.

    7. Artemis in bronze medallion style, crescent moon in her hair, holding a bow and arrow as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Artemis Character

      Artemis is the Greek goddess of the hunt, wilderness, wild animals, and the moon.

    8. Ares in bronze medallion style, wearing a crested helmet, holding a spear as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Ares Character

      Ares is the Greek god of war, violence, and bloodshed.

    9. Aphrodite in bronze medallion style, graceful and flowing-haired, holding a rose as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Aphrodite Character

      Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation.

    10. Hephaestus in bronze medallion style, a bearded craftsman in a leather apron, holding a hammer as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Hephaestus Character

      Hephaestus is the Greek god of fire, metalworking, and craftsmanship.

    11. Hermes in bronze medallion style, wearing a winged travel cap, holding a caduceus as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Hermes Character

      Hermes is the Greek god of trade, travel, thieves, and the messenger of the gods.

    12. Hestia in bronze medallion style, a modest veiled figure, a hearth flame as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Hestia Character

      Hestia is the Greek goddess of the hearth, home, and domestic life.

      One of the two candidates for the twelfth seat. Hesiod names her first among Rhea's children, and the Homeric Hymns give her the first and last share at every feast.

    13. Dionysus in bronze medallion style, ivy-crowned, with a grapevine cluster as the solid-bronze accent symbol

      Dionysus Character

      Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, festivity, ecstasy, and theater.

      The other candidate, and the latecomer: a son of Zeus by a mortal woman, admitted to the group in some reckonings and absent from others.

    14. A shallow round libation bowl seen at an angle, with a plain wide rim and a raised central boss, drawn in fine bronze lines on a dark field

      Libation Term

      A libation is a liquid poured out as an offering to a god or to the dead, and in Homer and Hesiod the liquid is usually wine. The pouring is joined to a prayer, and it is small enough to be done at any meal, in any household or camp. Homer shows the act at every scale. At the sacrifice for Apollo, the old priest burns the offering on wood and pours gleaming wine over it. Later the youths pour first drops into the cups before they serve the drink (Iliad 1.462-471). Achilles keeps a cup that he uses for no god but Zeus. He cleans it, washes his hands, draws wine, prays and pours it out looking to heaven (Iliad 16.225-232). Hector tells his mother that he shrinks from pouring wine to Zeus with unwashed hands (Iliad 6.264-268). Hesiod turns that scruple into a rule. He tells the farmer never to pour sparkling wine to Zeus or the other gods with unwashed hands, because the gods then spit back the prayers (Works and Days 724-726). His verb for pouring is leibein. A libation also seals an agreement. At the oath sacrifice in the Iliad both armies pour wine and pray that whoever breaks the oath may have his brains poured out on the ground like the wine (Iliad 3.296-301). The dead received libations too. Odysseus pours milk and honey, then sweet wine, then water around a pit, and sprinkles white barley meal over it (Odyssey 11.25-28). The Phaeacian leaders pour the last libation of the evening to Hermes before they go to rest (Odyssey 7.137-138). The libation is the light, everyday counterpart of the hecatomb, which was a sacrifice of many animals offered by a whole community. Both belong to the worship of the Olympian gods, but only the libation needs no animal and no altar.

      The everyday offering poured to Zeus and the other gods, which shows how the Olympians were addressed at a meal rather than at an altar.

    15. Engraved bronze ram with heavy curled horns turned toward the viewer, set inside a circular medallion frame on a dark warm-brown field

      Arcadia Term

      Arcadia is the region of Greece that Greek myth ties to Pan, Hermes and the people of King Lycaon. The Hymn to Hermes calls Hermes lord of Cyllene and of Arcadia rich in flocks (Homeric Hymn to Hermes 1-16). The Hymn to Pan brings Hermes to Arcadia, a land of many springs and mother of flocks (Homeric Hymn to Pan 34-47). Apollodorus says Lycaon reigned over the Arcadians and had fifty sons by many wives (Library 3.8.1). When Nyctimus succeeded to the kingdom, the flood of Deucalion's age came, and some said the impiety of Lycaon's sons caused it. Eumelus and others give Lycaon a daughter, Callisto (Library 3.8.2). Pausanias also makes Callisto Lycaon's daughter, loved by Zeus and turned into a bear by Hera (Pausanias 8.3.6). Apollodorus places the birth of the seven Pleiades, daughters of Atlas and Pleione, at Cyllene in Arcadia. Maia was one of them (Library 3.10.1). Her son Hermes, one of the Olympian gods, is called son of Zeus and Maia in the Hymn to Hermes (Homeric Hymn to Hermes 1-16). The Hymn to Pan tells of Hermes in Arcadia. There he tended sheep in the service of a mortal man, because desire to wed the daughter of Dryops had come upon him (Homeric Hymn to Pan 34-47). Another account in the Epitome of Apollodorus says that Penelope, sent away by Odysseus, came to Mantinea in Arcadia and bore Pan to Hermes. A high mound at Mantinea was shown as her grave (Epitome 7.38). Pausanias reports that historians of Peloponnesian antiquities placed what Clytaemnestra's Furies did to Orestes in Arcadia, before the trial at the Areopagus (Pausanias 8.34.4). Livy ties Arcadia to Rome. He says the Palatine hill was first called Pallantium, after a city of that name in Arcadia. Evander, an Arcadian, had held that land many ages before. The Lupercalia was already kept there in the days of Romulus (Livy, Ab Urbe Condita 1.5). The festival has its own entry under Lupercalia.

    Is Hades one of the twelve Olympians?

    By the usual reckoning, no. Hades is Zeus's brother and one of the six children Rhea bore to Kronos, but the twelve are counted by where a god resides and he resides in the underworld he was allotted. Homer complicates this rather than settling it: when Poseidon describes the three-way division of the world, he says the brothers drew lots for sea, sky and darkness, and then adds that the earth and high Olympus remain common to all three of them. On that line Olympus is not something Hades was excluded from.

    Homer, Iliad 15.187-193

    Is the twelfth Olympian Hestia or Dionysus?

    The lists disagree and neither answer is the ancient consensus, because there was no ancient consensus to be had. Hestia has the older claim: Hesiod names her first among Rhea's children and the Homeric Hymns give her the first and the last offering at every feast. Dionysus appears in the group in other reckonings, including on the east frieze of the Parthenon. The familiar story that Hestia stepped down and gave her seat to Dionysus is not told by any surviving ancient source. It is a modern harmonisation of two lists that never needed reconciling.

    Hesiod, Theogony 453-458

    Why are there twelve Olympians rather than some other number?

    The number came before the list. Twelve was a cult grouping in the eastern Mediterranean that Greek worship adopted, and the Greeks themselves knew it was borrowed: Herodotus reports that the Egyptians were the first to use the names of twelve gods and that the Greeks took the practice from them. A fixed count with an unfixed membership is exactly what that history predicts, which is why arguing about the twelfth seat misreads what the twelve were for.

    Herodotus, Histories 2.4.2

    Were all the Olympians children of Zeus?

    No, and the group splits neatly in two on this. Hera, Poseidon, Demeter and Hestia are Zeus's siblings, born to Kronos and Rhea and swallowed by their father before Zeus forced their release. Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Hermes and Dionysus are his children, though Hesiod has Hera bear Hephaestus alone, without Zeus. Aphrodite belongs to neither group in Hesiod, who has her born from the sea and the severed flesh of Ouranos, older than any of them. Athena and Ares both belong to war, and in the Iliad Athena guides a spear into Ares (Homer, Iliad 5).

    Hesiod, Theogony 453-458

    Where Accounts Differ

    • twelfth-olympian-hestia-vs-dionysus
    • hades-olympian-status-homer-vs-standard-list
    • There is no canonical list of twelve Olympians. This page presents thirteen figures with a serious claim and names the two competing for the last seat rather than choosing one.
    • The widely repeated story that Hestia yielded her seat to Dionysus has no ancient source. It is recorded here as a modern harmonisation, not as a variant tradition.
    • Homer's Poseidon calls Olympus common to Zeus, Poseidon and Hades alike, which sits awkwardly with the standard exclusion of Hades. Both are reported; neither is resolved.

    Related Terms

    Referenced By

    Sources

    Primary sources
    • Hesiod, Theogony 453-458
    • Homer, Iliad 15.187-193
    • Herodotus, Histories 2.4.2
    Further reading
    • Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (1985)