Zeus, father of gods and men, was the most prominent. As viewed by the faithful and depicted by ancient writers, his personality was in many ways contradictory and uneven. All-powerful Zeus had many weakness indeed. Yet all the gods and all the Greeks acknowledged him to be outstandingly powerful. A sing of his sufficed drastically to change the course of events. The thunderbolt was the irresistible weapon with which he imposed his will on all who dared resist him.

Hera, the irreproachable wife of the father of gods and men, stood next to Zeus. Tradition reported her as very jealous of her husband's erotic adventures .Many were the temples built in her honor throughout Greece. But her cult was particularly pronounced at Olympia. In her honor races for unmarried women were organized at the Olympic games.

Between the twelve gods of Olympus was included and the god-king of the Underworld Pluto, known mainly as Hades (Haidis=invisible). There were many traditions that dominated in the ancient Greek cities concerning the underworld, its gods and demons, after Homer though dominated as greater form Hades, king and dominant of the silent world of the dead. A country like Greece, that is washed in its bigger area from the sea and includes about one thousand small and bigger islands, would not be possible not to have a god exclusively of the sea. He was Poseidon, one of the twelve Olympian gods, brother of Zeus and Pluto.

Poseidon was, according to the mythology son of Kronos and Rhea. Ruler of the seas, he lived with his wife Amphitrite in a palatial mansion at the bottom of the sea. Easily roused to anger, he then stirred up the seas with his trident. An old-established Greek deity, he supported the Achaeas during the siege of Troy.

Hermes is one of the weirdest, most endued but also of the most popular Olympian gods. Son of Zeus and Maea, guide and escort of living and dead, herald and messenger of gods, protector of the youth, shepherds, athletes, and thieves. The birth of the skillful and inventive god is placed in Arcadia and more specifically in the mountain Kyllini.

Ancient tradition stated that Apollo was the son of Zeus and Leto, goddess of the night. Hera persecuted Leto, who took refuge on the island of Delos, where Apollo was born. Ionians and Dorians both venerated this god of music and harmony who however, took the side of the Trojans in the Trojan War.

Hestia is one of the most worthy, respectful and modest forms of the ancient Greek group of twelve gods, protector of the family life, harmony and happiness, personification of the honesty and stability on the matrimonial and family life.

The Olympian gods, while they were made from the ancient Greeks with human form and human body, were distinguished for their external beauty. Their hair and face was shining and their form could smooth and the most wild beasts of the nature. Their bodies were harmonically made with the most perfect analogies. Though between them lived and a god that except his invincible strength and his immortality, did not look at all like the rest of the gods. He was Hephaestus, the god of fire and metallurgy, that his ugliness many times was causing the laughter of the other gods, something that embittered him a lot.

In Greek mythology, except the twelve gods of Olympus, that were considered the most important, there were and other gods that did not inhabited in this divine mountain. One of them was and god Dionysus, he was the most cheerful of the gods and beloved one among the humans. Like Prometheus gave the Asclepius the initial basis of medicine, thus Dionysus offered them the vineyard and the wine.

From the ancient times people in order to solve their differences were adopting the most painful for human race action, the war. In ancient Greek mythology dominated two big war campaigns: the ten year Trojan War and the campaign of the Argonauts. The Greeks thus made a god. Ares that personified this horrible scourge. He was always thirsty for blood and his basic characteristic was the absence of any nobility.

It would be impossible for the Greeks, a nation that admired so much the natural fairness and the body beauty , not to invent some divinity that would protect them and personify them. For that reason they have created Aphrodite that symbolized the eternal beauty and the erotic mood. The most prevailing myth for her origin is that was born in a coast of Cyprus.

Artemis was a most ancient goddess and innumerable myths dealt with her story. Protectors of nature, she was also the goddess of hunting. Nymphs, Graces and Horae shared her love for trees and flowers. Yet she was also the goddess of the moon, as well as the goddess of fertility.

Demeter is one of the greatest and oldest goddesses of the ancient Greek pantheon. Goddess of fertility and vegetation of the ground, protector of the earth and its products, mother of the cereals (from her they take their name in greek-dimitriaka) and mainly of the grain.