Anyone wish to start this off? I can start posting tomorrow... but what of your favorites... the Gods or Goddesses from Greek (or Roman) Mythology that you remember... that you loved the stories of?

Oh!!!

I don't really know many of those Gods/Goddesses myself but I do know that I absolutely love reading and hearing about them! LOL I need to brush up on my mythology darnit! LoL I think one of my favorite Gods would have to be... what was it, Titus? The God of the Sea? The one that in Xena appears as a great big blue dude with a Tri-thingy? (laughs) Oh god that makes me sound SO stupid... As for Goddess, I would have to research that a lot more, off the top of my head I'm going to say Aphrodite, but that's only because she is the main name that I can remember at this time... *laughs*

Xxx-SIN-xxX

I doubt it'll be a suprise, but the story of persephone being stolen by hades, and demeter making it barren(winter) until she was returned, but eating the fruit of hell(a pomegranite) her fate was sealed to spend three months as his bride...and the rest of her time on the land...she's a goddess of spring I believe...:D

I like the japanese goddess, called the goddess*duh*
japaneses believes that she is the caretaker of the earth and the nature.

and it is always depicted as a mother.(with those birthing hips and rather large breasts...I guess that the japs are pervs. LOL!)

Pan,Hades,Ares,Thor,Eris and Prometheus.

The one that in Xena appears as a great big blue dude with a Tri-thingy? Poseidon.Another one of the Gods that shows up in comics.:)

Apollo, who never married, was by no means a celibate. He fathered more than a dozen children by at least nine different partners, and yet, he had one love unfulfilled.

His most persistent courtship - that of Daphne, a mountain nymph - was never rewarded. Apollo first eliminated the competition. Leucippus, the son of King Oenomaus of Pisa, also loved Daphne - so much that he disguised himself as a girl just to be with her as she engaged in her mountan revels with the other nymphs. But Apollo knew of this charade - and so the God quietly advised the nymphs to bathe naked. When Leucippus was exposed - literally and figuratively - the nymphs tore him to shreds.

Though Apollo alone now wooed her, Daphne still refused him. After the chase, ultimately, she changed into a laurel tree rather than submit to his desires. Apollo made the laurel his sacred plant.

Not many others seem to want to join in... sad really - I'm sure you all have studied it - but perhaps people will at least read, along with the few other posts.

The CREATION

To the Greeks, the universe began with a mystery. The physical world was not born from nothing. The existance we know did not spring from any primordial, primevil void. Instead, it sprang from the unknown.... from Chaos.

Chaos, which Hesiod conceived of as an enormous chasm, came first, born into darkness. Ovid, who agreed that everything in the world began with Chaos, saw it somewhat differently. Ovid viewed Chaos as shapeless, mutable matter - an idea that fit well with the theme of his metamorphoses, which focused on the gods, humans, and other creatures which changed their form.

In Ovid's primordial Chaos, land and sea and air existed. Yet all matter remained formless, shapeless, forever changing, and at war within. No one could stand on this mutable land; no one could swim in this ever-changing water; no one could breathe this inconstant air. The confused atoms of this Chaos constantly warred with one another. Heat fought with cold; liquid battled against solid; wet warred with dry; hard battled with soft; the weighty struggled with the weightless. Every quality clashed with it's opposite.

After Chaos came Gaia, the EARTH, either born of Chaos or simply rising on it's own. The Earth surounded and engulfed Chaos. From where Chaos and Gaia came is neither explained nor elaborated. Hesiod simply states that they came first - and that Earth came into being to serve as a solid foundation for the home for the Gods.

Ovid does not explain the sudden appearance of Earth either - attributing the molding of Earth to God or Nature, but refusing to take sides in a debate over which. In either case, he insisted the emergence of Earth brought harmony and order to Chaos. It's "birth" seperated Heaven from Earth, water from land, and air from airless space. Each thing in the universe found it's place through this orderly seperation.

:)

**is really looking forward to this!!!!!**

Keep going WATER!!! *grins*

Xxx-SIN-xxX

my favourites are Eris and Discordia. ;)

next faves are Odin and Loki and Pan and Kali and Horus. et cetera.

..favourite God?..

..eh..*begins to post de ever egotistical, narscasistic(sp) comment, "ME!!"..but seeing as he can't even control 'is
parrot....jus' goes away*

Originally posted by Sinistress
**is really looking forward to this!!!!!**

Keep going WATER!!! *grins*

Xxx-SIN-xxX

*grins back and winks*

I will... *smiles* This is the kind of thing I can only post from home though, along with a couple other threads that I work on, that actually require me to think, and I refuse to think while I am at work. :p

Nyx and Erebus, the children of Chaos have always interested me...there doesn't seem to be a huge amount of information available regarding them though, certainly not the amounts there are for some figures. Nyx was apparently mother to the Fates, as well as Thanatos(Death), Charon(the Ferryman) and Hypnos(Sleep). Curious she should be so little known...perhaps I'm just looking in the wrong places.

And Janus - Roman God of beginnings and endings...one of the few Roman Gods who doesn't seem to have been influenced by the Greek traditions. Or at least, if he has a Greek equivalent, I've yet to come across it. I sometimes wonder what the Roman pantheon was like before the Greek influences.

Further on into describing the creation, Hesiod and Ovid part ways(For those who do not know - The most detailed account of early classical creation comes to us from THEOGONY, a poem composed by Hesiod, a Greek poet, in the 8th century B.C. The first book of METAMORPHOSES, a narrative poem written by the Roman Ovid early in the 1st century, also gives a compelling version of the creation)

Ovid continued to see the hand of a divine creator (or personified nature). This creator, having shaped the globe, then added the waters: ponds, marshes, rivers and oceans. He (Ovid saw the creator as being male) then formewd the plains, mountains, valleys and forests.

The Creator then moved from Earth to Sky. He spread the air above all things and filled it with clouds and winds, and thunder and lightening. Over all these things, the Creator placed the pure and weightless ether, untainted ny Earth. Within the sky, the Creator brought forth the stars, forever earlier shrouded in darkness. The stars beamed throughout the heavens, home of the Gods. And finally, the Creator added fish to the seas, beasts to the land, and birds to the air. All was almost complete, in Ovids Creation, except for the players to take the stage.

By contrast, Hesiod had presented the progression of Creation - at least initially - without explanation or attribution of a devine hand. The first four beings, and the natural phenomenon or abstract qualities the personified, Hesiod proclaimed, sprangd into being without cause or explanation. After Chaos and Gaia came Tarturus, which, located deep within Earth's depths, would become the lowest level of the underworld.Then came Eros, the fairest of all the immortals. Only after these four have emerged do Hesiod and Ovid begin to explain the rest of creation.

Side note: Gaia means both Earth itself and the early goddess of the earth. Most of the early Gods and Goddesses have this kind of dual function: as both the personification of a natural object or phenomenon and the deity associated with that object. So, Uranus is both the Sky and the early god of the sky. Pontious is the Sea and the god of the sea. Nix is the night and the goddess of the night.

Hmm my favorite is Eris, probubly because i dont know many other clasical god's and godess's but oh well :)

Hmm... not sure, been a while since I really read anything about em.

Through Gaia and Chaos, all else comes into being. Yet though these being gave birth to the universe, the driving force behind almost all Creation from this point is Eros: Love. For the birth of almost everything else in the universe came only after powerful erotic attraction. From the mountains and seas to the creatures that would inhabit them, all emerged as products of procreation through good old fashioned sex.

First came the beings who were born through parthenogenesis (creation resulting from one gender):

Chaos gave birth to Erebus, the darkness of the Underworld, and Nix(night).

In her sleep, Gaia (Earth) gave birth to Uranus(sky and sky god) and Pontus (sea and sea god). Uranus came first and was Gaia's equal.

After the emergence of Erebus, Nyx, Uranus and Pontus, virtually all Creation came through mating. Uranus, the Sky, emerged as big as his mother Gaia, so that he may envelope her, which he quickly did. Radient with love for mother earth, the sky showered her with fertile rain. Gaia then gave birth to the rest of the physical world: the mountains, bodies of water, flora and fauna.

Gaia and Uranus also brought forth the 12 Titans. Two of these children Oceanus and Tethys continued the Creation themselves, in prodigious fashion. Their mating produced the 3,000 rivers of Earth, all of which draw their waters from the mighty stream of Oceanus, as well as 3,000 Oceanids, Oceanic goddesses all.

Nyx mated with Erebus, producing a daughter, Hemera (day) and a son Aether (upper air). Night (Nyx) and Day (Hemera) share a house, forever shrouded in darkness by the grim clouds of Tartartus. Yet they never dwell in the house together. Instead they take turns, each waiting for the other to depart before crossing the bronze threshold and entering the house. When Night departs, cradling Sleep (death's brother) in her arms, she greets her daughter Day, but only in passing.Each has her own domain. Night also spawned a breed of most unpleasent abstractions, personified:

Moros (doom)
Thanatos (death)
Hypnos (sleep)
Nemesis (retribution)
Eris (strife)
The Keres (female death-spirits who would be charged with collecting and carrying off the bodies of the dead)
The Moirai (fates)

Strife (according to Hesiod, who became increasingly abstract and philosophical) then bred a host of woes ranging from Famine and Sorrows to Lies and Murder.

Side Note: the great Greek poet Homer, author of the epics The Iliad and The Odyssey attributed an even greater role in Creation to Oceanus and Tethys. Homer held that Oceanus, the great stream that circles the world, flowing on the earths outermost edge, and the god of that primordial stream, provided the source, not only for all the seas and rivers, but all living creatures, including the gods. And, Tethys, the ancient sea goddess, daughter of Earth and Sky, the mother of all these children.

Afterwards, Oceanus and Tethys quarreled and parted. This, too, was a gift to the world. If their unbridled creation had continued, the overstuffed world would never have either order or stability.


Another side note: The Three Fates, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, would later have the responsibility of determining the course of events in mortal lives, including the span of each life. Clotho spun the thread of life, Lachesis measured it with a rod, and Atropos snipped it with shears, thereby ending it. They also saw that violators of devine laws recieved due punishment, though they remained remote, and disinterested in meting out this devine justice.

Interesting... very interesting...

*reads the whole thread*

The Gods Family tree. furthere expaination on waterbearer's theme.

:)

some info I've found :D

Gaea

Gaea is the Earth goddess. She mated with her son Uranus to produce the remaining Titans. Gaea seems to have started as a neolithic earth-mother worshipped before the Indo-European invasion that eventually lead to the Hellenistic civilization.

Uranus

Uranus is the sky god and first ruler. He is the son of Gaea, who created him without help. He then became the husband of Gaea and together they had many offspring, including twelve of the Titans. His rule ended when when Cronus, encouraged by Gaea, castrated him. He either died from the wound or withdrew from earth.

Cronus

Cronus was the ruling Titan who came to power by castrating his Father Uranus. His wife was Rhea. There offspring were the first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronus ate each of the children as they were born. This worked until Rhea, unhappy at the loss of her children, tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus. When he grew up Zeus would revolt against Cronus and the other Titans, defeat them, and banish them to Tartarus in the underworld. Cronus managed to escape to Italy, where he ruled as Saturn. The period of his rule was said to be a golden age on earth, honored by the Saturnalia feast.

Rhea

Rhea was the wife of Cronus. Cronus made it a practice to swallow their children. To avoid this, Rhea tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, saving her son Zeus.

Oceanus

Oceanus is the unending stream of water encircling the world. Together with his wife Tethys produced the rivers and the three thousand ocean nymphs.

Tethys

Tethys is the wife of Oceanus. Together they produced the rivers and the three thousand ocean nymphs.

Hyperion

Hyperion is the Titan of light, an early sun god. He is the son of Gaea and Uranus. He married his sister Theia. Their children Helius (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn).

Mnemosyne

Mnemosyne was the Titan of memory and the mother of Muses.

Themis

Themis was the Titan of justice and order. She was the mother of the Fates and the Seasons. Iapetus Iapetus was the father of Prometheus, Epimetheus, Menoetius, and Atlas by Clymene.

Coeus

Coeus is the Titan of Intelligence. Father of Leto.

Phoebe

Phoebe is the Titan of the Moon. Mother of Leto.

Prometheus

Prometheus was the wisest Titan. His name means "forethought" and he was able to foretell the future. He was the son of Iapetus. When Zeus revolted against Cronus Prometheus deserted the other Titans and fought on Zeus side. By some accounts he and his brother Epimetheus were delegated by Zeus to create man. In all accounts, Prometheus is known as the protector and benefactor of man. He gave mankind a number of gifts including fire. He also tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep the best part of the animals sacrificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts. For this Zeus punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with an eagle tearing at his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to disclose to Zeus which of Zeus children would try to replace him. He was eventually rescued by Heracles without giving in to Zeus.

Epimetheus

Epimetheus was a stupid Titan, whose name means "afterthought". He was the son of Iapetus. In some accounts he is delegated, along with his brother Prometheus by Zeus to create mankind. He also accepted the gift of Pandora from Zeus, which lead to the introduction of evil into the world.

Atlas

Atlas was the son of Iapetus. Unlike his brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus, Atlas fought with the other Titans supporting Cronus against Zeus. Due to Cronus's advance age Atlas lead the Titan's in battle. As a result he was singled out by Zeus for a special punishment and made to hold up the world on his back.

Metis

Metis was the Titaness of the forth day and the planet Mercury. She presided over all wisdom and knowledge. She was seduced by Zeus and became pregnant with Athena. Zeus became concerned over prophecies that her second child would replace Zeus. To avoid this Zeus ate her. It is said that she is the source for Zeus wisdom and that she still advises Zeus from his belly. It may seem odd for Metis to have been pregnant with Athena but, never mentioned as her mother. This is because the classic Greeks believed that children were generated solely from the fathers sperm. The women was thought to be nothing more than a vessel for the fetus to grow in. Since Metis was killed well before Athena's birth her role doesn't count.

Dione

Dione is, according to Homer in the Iliad, the mother of Aphrodite.