Greek Mythology

​Greek Mythology

​The ancient Greeks believed in many gods. People in ancient Greece believed their gods caused events like volcanic eruptions to happen. They created myths to explain the gods’ actions. These gods were at the center of Greek mythology. Each story, or myth, explained natural or historical events. Greek mythology is part of the cultural landscape of Greece. A cultural landscape describes how natural resources and wildlife relate to events and people. The ancient Greeks used myths to explain natural events such as thunder or earthquakes. They explained these events as acts of the gods.

​The Greeks lived in a time long before the development of modern science. To them, natural events like
thunderstorms and changing
seasons were mysterious.
Today we can explain what
causes these events. But to
the Greeks, they seemed like
the work of powerful gods.
Though they had super-
human powers, the gods
also possessed human
qualities and emotions, to
which the Greeks could
relate.

Open Ended

What can you see that illustrates the Olympian gods have superhuman powers?

​Deities, Titans, Gods, and Mythology

​According to Greek mythology, Gaea and Uranus were the first two deities in the world. A deity is any being that a culture believes has divine power over its people. The children and grandchildren of Gaea and Uranus were known as the Titans. The next generation of deities rebelled against the Titans. Gods and Titans battled in a war known as Titanomachy, and the Titans were defeated. The young victorious deities took control of Mount Olympus and became the Olympian gods.

​The Olympics

​The Greeks saw the work of these gods in events all around them. For example, the Greeks lived in an area where volcanic eruptions were common. To explain these eruptions, they told stories about the god Hephaestus (hi-FES-tuhs), who lived underground. The fire and lava that poured out of volcanoes, the Greeks said, came from the huge fires of the god’s forge. At this forge he created weapons and armor for the other gods.

​The Greeks did not think the gods spent all their time creating disasters, though. They also believed the gods caused daily events. For example, they believed the goddess of agriculture, Demeter (di-MEE-tuhr), created the seasons. According to Greek myth, Demeter had a daughter who was kidnapped by another god. The desperate goddess begged the god to let her daughter go, and eventually he agreed to let her return to her mother for six months every year. During the winter, Demeter is separated from her daughter and misses her. In her grief, she doesn’t let plants grow. When her daughter comes home, the goddess is happy, and summer comes to Greece. To the Greeks, this story explained why winter came every year.

​To keep the gods happy, the Greeks built great temples to honor them all around Greece. In return, however, they expected the gods to give them help when they needed it. For example, many Greeks in need of advice traveled to Delphi, a city in central
Greece. There they spoke to the
oracle, a female priest of Apollo to
whom they thought the god gave
answers. The oracle at Delphi was
so respected that Greek leaders
sometimes asked her for advice
about how to rule their cities.

​Heroes and Mythology

​ Not all Greek myths were about gods. Many told about the adventures of great heroes. Some of these heroes were real people, while others were not. The Greeks loved to tell the stories of heroes who had special abilities and faced terrible monsters. The people of each city had their favorite hero, usually someone from there.
The people of Athens, for example, told stories about the hero Theseus. According to legend, he traveled to Crete and killed the Minotaur, a terrible monster that was half human and half bull. People from northern Greece told myths about Jason and how he sailed across the seas in search of a great treasure, fighting enemies the whole way.

​According to legend, Athens had to send 14 people to Crete every year to be eaten by the Minotaur, a terrible monster. But Theseus, a hero from Athens, traveled to Crete and killed the Minotaur, freeing the people of Athens from this burden.

​Perhaps the most famous of all Greek heroes was a man called Hercules. The myths explain how Hercules fought many monsters and performed nearly impossible tasks. For example, he fought and killed the hydra, a huge snake with nine heads and poisonous fangs. Every time Hercules cut off one of the monster’s heads, two more heads grew in its place. In the end, Hercules had to burn the hydra’s neck each time he cut off a head to keep a new head from growing. People from all parts of Greece enjoyed stories about Hercules and his great deeds.

Open Ended

How were the Titans and the Olympian gods the same? In what ways were they different?