The OlympiansThe Divine Family of Greek and

Roman Myth, part II

•Zeus’s sister, wife, and queen

•Zeus and Hera’s marriage was portrayed as rocky and contentious in myth

•In cult and art it represented the ultimate divine marriage as a model for humans.

•Hera was a beautiful, desirable bride, Zeus a manly, welcoming husband.

•Often wearing a crown

•Portrayed as bitter and angry

Hera (Juno)Hera (Juno)

•Demeter, goddess of grain and fertility had only one daughter,

Persephone

•Hades abducted her and brought her to the underworld, where she ate six

pomagranate seeds

•Demeter was devasted that she could not find her daughter and would

not allow the crops to grow

•She finally found Persephone in the underworld and tried to take her back

to Olympus

•Hades fought this decision

•Zeus decided that since Persephone had eaten six pomegranate seeds, she

must stay in the underworld for six months of the year

•The six months she is in the underworld represent winter, the six

on Olympus represent summer

Demeter (Ceres), Persephone (Proserpina), and Hades

Demeter (Ceres), Persephone (Proserpina), and Hades

•She gave up her position as an Olympian. But she was important in each home, and in Rome (as Vesta) had a crucial civic cult. These are Vestal Virgins with the chief priest.

The first-born of the gods, she is the goddess of the hearth, the center of family life. She is represented by an eternal flame.

Hestia (Vesta)

Athena (Minerva)Athena (Minerva)

• Zeus had a terrible head-ache and convinced Hephaestus to crack open his head

• Athena sprang from the head of Zeus, fully grown and in battle armor

• Athena is the virgin goddess of wisdom and war and sometimes Justice

• She can easily be identified by her armor, the owl, and the “aegis.”

• Zeus had a terrible head-ache and convinced Hephaestus to crack open his head

• Athena sprang from the head of Zeus, fully grown and in battle armor

• Athena is the virgin goddess of wisdom and war and sometimes Justice

• She can easily be identified by her armor, the owl, and the “aegis.”

•Artemis, the huntress, remained forever a virgin, roaming the wilderness, a liminal and often threatening, vengeful figure

•Yet another aspect of this goddess was to promote the fertility of animals, aid in childbirth, and oversee the transition of virgins into brides

•She protected the nymphs, playful female deities who lived in the woods

•She can be easily recognized by her hunting outfit and bow

Artemis (Diana)Artemis (Diana)

Aphrodite (Venus)• Aphrodite was the goddess of love, symbolizing intoxicating

sexuality and beauty.

• In myth she is often portrayed as a willful “girly-girl,” but she is elsewhere portrayed as a powerful, personally-accessible goddess.

• One story of her birth is that after Zeus castrated his father Cronos and tossed the remains into the sea, Aphrodite arose out of the foamy waves.

Iris - The Rainbow Goddess

Iris - The Rainbow Goddess

Female equivalent of Hermes Messenger with golden wings Traveled on the rainbow Most prominent in Homer’s Iliad, the story of the Trojan war In this painting she is telling King Priam to flee the city of Troy

Female equivalent of Hermes Messenger with golden wings Traveled on the rainbow Most prominent in Homer’s Iliad, the story of the Trojan war In this painting she is telling King Priam to flee the city of Troy