Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks. These stories concern the origin and the nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks' own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths in an attempt to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece and its civilization, and to gain understanding of the nature of myth-making itself.
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, handicraft, and warfare, who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of various cities across Greece, particularly the city of Athens, from which she most likely received her name. She is usually shown in art wearing a helmet and holding a spear. Her major symbols include owls, olive trees, snakes, and the Gorgoneion.
Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence starting somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennium BC.
Athena's statue, together with those of Ares, Aphrodite Areia, and Enyo, stood in the temple of Ares at Athens.[1] There was also a colossal acrolithic statue of her, at a temple at Plataea, built with the spoils given to that city by the Athenians after the Battle of Marathon.[2] This was supposedly created by the artist Pheidias, though there is some disagreement among modern scholars whether this was indeed created by that artist.[3]Plutarch mentions a gilded statue in this temple, but does not specify the name of the deity it honors.[4][5]
Ares is the Greek god of war. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, the son of Zeus and Hera. In Greek literature, he often represents the physical or violent and untamed aspect of war, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose functions as a goddess of intelligence include military strategy and generalship.
Areia or Aphrodite Areia or "Aphrodite the Warlike" was a cultic epithet of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, in which she was depicted in full armor like the god Ares. This representation of the goddess was the norm at Sparta. There were other, similarly martial interpretations of the goddess, such as at her Sanctuary at Cythera, where she was worshiped under the epithet Aphrodite Urania, who was also represented as being armed.
Enyo was a goddess of war in Classical Greek mythology. She frequently is associated with the war god Ares, as a companion, sister, wife, or perhaps, mother.
Athena's worship under this name was said to have been instituted by Orestes after he had been acquitted by the Areopagus of the murder of his mother.[6] It was Athena Areia who gave her casting vote in cases where the Areopagites were equally divided.[7] There is some epigraphic evidence of a distinct priesthood for this aspect of Athena, but all we have are incomplete fragments, primarily of an oath from this priesthood at Acharnae.[8][9][10]
In Greek mythology, Orestes was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and purification, which retain obscure threads of much older ones.
The Areopagus is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the Late Latin composite form of the Greek name Areios Pagos, translated "Ares Rock". In classical times, it functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide, wounding and religious matters, as well as cases involving arson or olive trees. Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius.
Acharnae or Acharnai was a deme of ancient Athens. It was part of the phyle Oineis.
From these circumstances, it has been surmised by some scholars (primarily in the 19th century) that the name "Areia" ought not to be derived from Ares, but from "ara" (ἀρά), a prayer, or from "areo" (ἀρέω) or "aresko" (ἀρέσκω), to propitiate or atone for. This is not considered likely by modern scholars.
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Dr Leonhard Schmitz FRSE LLD was a Prussian-born classical scholar and educational author, mainly active in the United Kingdom. He is sometimes referred to in the Anglicised version of his name Leonard Schmitz.
Sir William Smith was an English lexicographer. He also made advances in the teaching of Greek and Latin in schools.
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Alcamenes was an ancient Greek sculptor of Lemnos and Athens, who flourished in the 2nd half of the 5th century BC. He was a younger contemporary of Phidias and noted for the delicacy and finish of his works, among which a Hephaestus and an Aphrodite "of the Gardens" were conspicuous.
Rhea is a character in Greek mythology, the Titaness daughter of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus as well as sister and wife to Cronus. In early traditions, she is known as "the mother of gods" and therefore is strongly associated with Gaia and Cybele, who have similar functions. The classical Greeks saw her as the mother of the Olympian gods and goddesses, but not as an Olympian goddess in her own right. The Romans identified her with Magna Mater, and the Goddess Ops.
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia was a giant seated figure, about 13 m (43 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus there. A sculpture of ivory plates and gold panels over a wooden framework, it represented the god Zeus sitting on an elaborate cedar wood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold and precious stones. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was lost and destroyed during the 5th century AD with no copy ever being found, and details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins.
Phidias or Pheidias was a Greek sculptor, painter, and architect. His statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Phidias also designed the statues of the goddess Athena on the Athenian Acropolis, namely the Athena Parthenos inside the Parthenon, and the Athena Promachos, a colossal bronze which stood between it and the Propylaea, a monumental gateway that served as the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens. Phidias was the son of Charmides of Athens. The ancients believed that his masters were Hegias and Ageladas.
Athena Parthenos is a lost massive chryselephantine sculpture of the Greek goddess Athena, made by Phidias and his assistants and housed in the Parthenon in Athens. Despite the dynamic architectural characteristics of the Parthenon, the statue of Athena was designed to be the focal point. Its epithet was an essential character of the goddess herself. A number of replicas and works inspired by it, both ancient and modern, have been made.
Chryselephantine sculpture is sculpture made with gold and ivory. Chryselephantine cult statues enjoyed high status in Ancient Greece.
The Athena Promachos was a colossal bronze statue of Athena sculpted by Pheidias, which stood between the Propylaea and the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens. Athena was the tutelary deity of Athens and the goddess of wisdom and warriors. Pheidias also sculpted two other figures of Athena on the Acropolis, the huge gold and ivory ("chryselephantine") cult image of Athena Parthenos in the Parthenon and the Lemnian Athena.
Agrotera was an epithet of the Greek goddess Artemis, and the most important goddess to Attic hunters.
The Temple of Ares was a sanctuary dedicated to Ares, located in the northern part of the Ancient Agora of Athens. The Temple was identified as such by Pausanias but the ruins present today indicate a complex history. Ares had a temple somewhat like Athena's.
Echetlaeus or Echetlus (Ἔχετλος) was an ancient Athenian mythical hero of the Battle of Marathon with the Persians of the Achaemenid Empire. The latter name was also the name of a hero of ancient Thebes.
Itonia, Itonias or Itonis was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena worshiped widely in Thessaly and elsewhere. The name was derived from the town of Iton in the south of Phthiotis.
Plynteria was a festival of ancient Greece celebrated at Athens every year, on the 22nd of Thargelion, in honor of Athena Polias, with the heroine Aglauros, whose temple stood on the Acropolis. The festival's name came from plynein (πλύνειν), a Greek verb meaning "to wash".
Alea was an epithet of the Greek goddess Athena, prominent in Arcadian mythology, under which she was worshiped at Alea, Mantineia and Tegea. Alea was initially an independent goddess, but was eventually assimilated with Athena. A statue of Athena Alea existed on the road from Sparta to Therapne. Her most important sanctuary was the famous Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea.
In Greek mythology, Gaia, also spelled Gaea, is the personification of the Earth and one of the Greek primordial deities. Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life: the primal Mother Earth goddess. She is the immediate parent of Uranus, from whose sexual union she bore the Titans and the Giants, and of Pontus, from whose union she bore the primordial sea gods. Her equivalent in the Roman pantheon was Terra.
Arimnestos was the commander of the Plataean contingent at the battles of Marathon and Plataea during the Greco-Persian Wars.
Areius was a cultic epithet of the Greek god Zeus, which may mean either "the warlike god" or "the propitiating and atoning god".
