Symbols of the Greek Gods and their Mythology

Symbols of the Greek gods and the mythological meaning has been critically highlighted below. 

There are twelve renown gods in ancient Greek mythology. However, the twelve gods were the most important of the pantheon of gods in ancient Greece.

These pantheon of gods and goddesses were believed to reside on Mount Olympus the highest mountain in Greece. Each god having their own backstory, interests and personalities, and each representing some important ideals and concepts. The gods were believed to lord over human destinies and would interfere directly in the lives of humans as they wished.

From their lofty perch, they ruled every aspect of human life. Olympian deities looked like men and women (though they could change themselves into animals and other things) and were as many myths recounted vulnerable to human foibles and passions.

Ancient Greek mythology is a vast and fascinating group of legends about gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, warriors and fools, that were an important part of everyday life in the ancient world.

Greek myths explained everything from cultural and religious rituals to the weather, and gave meaning to the world that people saw around them.

While many of these myths are fanciful tales, such as the legends of greedy King Midas or heroic Hercules, other stories like the Trojan War epic have a basis in historical fact.

Symbols of the Greek Gods and their Mythology

Symbols of the Greek gods, Greek mythology, body of stories concerning the gods, heroes, and rituals of the ancient Greeks. That the myths contained a considerable element of fiction was recognized by the more critical Greeks, such as the philosopher Plato in the 5th–4th century BCE.

In general, however, in the popular piety of the Greeks, the myths were viewed as true accounts. Greek mythology has subsequently had extensive influence on the arts and literature of Western civilization, which fell heir to much of Greek culture. There are twelve main Greek gods, here the list and symbols of the Greek gods and the mythological meaning:

1. Zeus (Greek god)

Zeus the Greek god symbol

(Symbols of the Greek Gods) Zeus is one of the main Greek gods and mythologically it mean the king of all the gods (and father to many) and god of weather, law and fate. The god is worship in good faith.

ZEUS is the King of the Gods and the god of the sky, weather, law and order, destiny and fate, and kingship. He was depicted as a regal, mature man with a sturdy figure and dark beard. His usual attributes were a lightning bolt, a royal sceptre and an eagle.

Zeus was the youngest child of the Titans Kronos (Cronus) and Rheia. Kronos devoured each of his children as they were born, but Zeus escaped this fate when his mother spirited him away, handing the Titan a stone substitute wrapped in swaddling cloth.

The god was raised in secrecy on Mount Dikte in Krete (Crete) where he was nursed by nymphs on the milk of the goat Amaltheia and guarded by the warrior Kouretes (Curetes) who drowned out the sound of his crying with their shield-clashing battle-dance.

2. Hera (Juno)

Hera queen of the gods and goddess of women and marriage. Hera is the daughter of Cronus and Rhea (mother of Zeus), was associated with all aspects of the life of women. The goddess of women, marriage, and childbirth, she was known by the Romans as Juno. Homer gave Hera the epithet “ox-eyed” because of her large full eyes and described her as tall and striking.

The symbol of Hera

Hera was both sister and wife of Zeus, with whom she reigned on Mount Olympus. She was noted for her resistance to the authority of Zeus and for her jealousy and hatred of his many lovers and other wives.

3. Aphrodite (Venus)

Aphrodite is the goddess of beauty and love. An ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess Venus.

The symbol of Aphrodite

The worship of Aphrodite continued throughout the Roman period. Known as Venus, she came to symbolize Rome’s imperial power. Like her Greek counterpart Aphrodite, Venus was intimately associated with love and beauty, yet other elements were distinctive to the Roman goddess.

4. Apollo (Apollo)

The symbol of Apollo

Apollo is one of the Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion and Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo god of prophesy, music and poetry and knowledge, truth, archery, plague, healing, sun and light (although the god is always associated with the sun, the original sun god was the titan Helios, but everyone forgot about him).

5. Ares (Mars)

Ares is the Greek god of war and courage. He is one of the Twelve Olympians, and the son of Zeus and Hera. The Greeks were ambivalent towards him.

The symbol of Ares

He embodies the physical valor necessary for success in war but can also personify sheer brutality and bloodlust, in contrast to his sister, the armored Athena, whose martial functions include military strategy and generalship.

6. Artemis (Diana)

Artemis

The goddess of hunting, animals and childbirth. Artemis, in Greek religion, the goddess of wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation and of chastity and childbirth; she was identified by the Romans with Diana. Artemis was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and the twin sister of Apollo. Among the rural populace, Artemis was the favourite goddess.

7. Athena (Minerva)

Originally, Minerva was an Italian goddess of handicrafts closely associated to the Greek goddess Athena. The scholarly consensus, however, is that Minerva was indigenous, passing to the Romans from the Etruscan goddess Menrva, and that her name derives from meminisse, meaning ‘to remember’

Athena – Minerva is the goddess of wisdom and defense. Minerva in Roman religion, is the goddess of handicrafts, the professions, the arts, and, later, war; she was commonly identified with the Greek Athena. Some scholars believe that her cult was that of Athena introduced at Rome from Etruria.

8. Demeter (Ceres)

Demeter is often considered to be the same figure as the Anatolian goddess Cybele, and she was identified with the Roman goddess Ceres.

Demeter-Ceres is the goddess of agriculture, grain, harvest and was credited with teaching humans how to grow, preserve, and prepare grain and corn. She was thought to be responsible for the fertility of the land.

9. Dionysus (Bacchus)

This is the symbol of Dionysus

Dionysus, also spelled Dionysos, also called Bacchus or (in Rome) Liber Pater, in Greco-Roman religion, a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation, especially known as a god of wine and ecstasy. This god of wine and pleasure  was originally the Greek god of fertility. Later, he came to be known chiefly as the god of wine and pleasure. The Romans called him Bacchus.

10. Hephaestus (Vulcan)

Hephaestus – Vulcan is the god of fire, metalworking and sculpture.

This is the symbol of Hephaestus

Vulcan is the Roman and Greek god of fire and the forge, and mythical inventor of smithing and metal working. His Greek equivalent is Hephaestus. His forges were under Mount Aetna on the island of Sicily. He was smith, architect, armorer, chariot builder and artist of all work in Olympus–dwelling place of the gods

11. Hermes (Mercury)

Hermes – Mercury is the  god of travel, hospitality and trade and Zeus’s personal messenger.

This is the symbol of Hermes

In Greek mythology, Hermes (the Romans knew him as Mercury), the son of Zeus and Maia, was the messenger of the gods and the mediator between the realm of the dead and the kingdom of the living.

12. Poseidon (Neptune)

Poseidon –Neptune is originally god of the sea and fresh water. This god was identified with the Greek Poseidon and thus became a deity of the sea in 399 BC . His female counterpart, Salacia, was perhaps originally a goddess of leaping Springwater, subsequently equated with the Greek Amphitrite.