By supporting our charity World History Foundation, you're investing in the future of history education. Your donation helps us empower the next generation with the knowledge and skills they need to understand the world around them. Help us start the new year ready to publish more reliable historical information, free for everyone.
The 12 gods of Mount Olympus were the most important deities in ancient Greece. In this collection, we examine each of the 12 in detail. With their all-too-human qualities in Greek mythology, the Olympian gods were capable of displaying great kindness and dishing out terrible punishments. The gods argued amongst themselves, had love affairs, and protected their favourite mortal heroes down on earth but each god had a more serious role to play in the Greek view of the world. The Olympian gods represented important ideals and features of the human condition such as justice, loyalty, wisdom, beautiful music, and the changing of the seasons.
The Greeks did not always agree on the 12 and some lists include Hestia, Hercules or Leto, with Dionysos often the one replaced.
The Olympian gods led by Zeus twice defeated the sources of chaos represented by the Titans and the Giants. These gods then, rule humanity's destiny and sometimes directly interfere - favourably or otherwise. Indeed, the view that events are not human's to decide is further evidenced by the specific gods of Fate and Destiny.
The 12 gods of Olympus and their powers are: Zeus (supreme god), Hera (protects childbirth), Athena (wise and resourceful), Apollo (healer and musician), Poseidon (brings storms and earthquakes), Ares (aggressive warfare), Artemis (huntress), Demeter (brings fertility), Aphrodite (brings love and desire), Dionysos (wine and merriment), Hermes (fast messenger who brings luck), and Hephaistos (master craftsman).
Who is the 13th Olympic god?
The 12 Olympian gods are not always agreed upon in ancient sources. A substitute for Dionysos or even a 13th Olympic god could be Hestia, Hercules or Leto,
Who is the strongest of the 12 gods?
The strongest of the 12 Olympian gods is Zeus, leader of the group.
Mark is a full-time writer, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art, architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.
Free for the World, Supported by You
World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide.
World History Encyclopedia is a non-profit organization. Please support free history education for millions of learners worldwide for only $5 per month by becoming a member. Thank you!
Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 10 September 2019. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
