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Titans
- The first divine race.
- Ultimately honored as ancestors of humans.
- Credited with the invention of the arts and magic.
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Cronus
- Son of titans.
- Married to his sister, Rhea. They gave birth to 3 daughters-Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, and 3 sons-Poseidon, Hades, and Zeus.
- Roman counterpart: Saturn
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Prometheus
- Created humans from earth and water.
- Though a titan, he was allowed to live on Olympus.
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Pandora
- The first woman.
- Created by all the divinities.
- Unleashed terrible afflictions which spread over the earth.
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Zeus
- Supreme god.
- Unites in himself all attributes of divinity-omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.
- Ruled according to fate and his own will.
- Lived on Mount Olympus.
- Roamn counterpart: Jupiter.
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Hera
- Zeus's wife.
- Woman deified, presided over all stages of feminine existence, primarily marriage and maternity.
- Represents idealized wife.
- Roman counterpart: Juno.
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Athena
- Warrior goddess, goddess of arts of peace, and goddess of prudent intelligence.
- Zeus's daughter, she was born, fully armed, out of his skull.
- Roman counterpart: Minerva.
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Apollo
- A son-god, god of the light.
- God of divination and prophecy.
- Cultivated and protected crops.
- Associated with music.
- Represented as an archer.
- Son of Zeus and Leto.
- Roman counterpart: Apollo.
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The Muses
- Apollo's habitual companions.
- Goddesses of memory and poetic inspiration.
- The nine muses: Clio(history), Euterpe(flute), Thalia(comedy), Melpomene(tragedy), Terpsichore(lyric poetry and dance), Erato(love poetry), Polyhymnia(mimic art), Urania(astronomy), Calliope(epic poetry and eloquence).
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Artemis
- Agricultural deity.
- Goddess of the chase and of forests.
- Associated with moonlight.
- Represented as an archer.
- Apollo's twin sister, also daughter of Zeus and Leto.
- Roman counterpart: Diana
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Hermes
- God of travellers.
- God of commerce and profit.
- Conducted the souls of the dead to the underworld.
- Tireless runner, messenger of Zeus.
- Son of Zeus and Maia.
- Roman counterpart: Mercury.
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Ares
- God of war, of blind, brutal courage, and of bloody rage and carnage.
- Son of Zeus and Hera.
- Roman counterpart: Mars.
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Aphrodite
- Goddess of love. Goddess of pure and ideal love as well as of marriage and of lust and venal love.
- Essence of feminine beauty.
- Daughter of Zeus.
- Roman counterpart: Venus.
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Eros
- Youngest of the gods, a winged child, gracious and rebellious.
- Armed with bow and arrows which would cause people to fall in love if hit by them.
- Son of Aphrodite.
- Roman equivalent: Cupid.
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Poseidon
- God of the sea.
- Personification of water-god of vegetation and fecundity.
- Son of Cronus.
- Roman equivalent: Neptune.
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Orion
- Beautiful giant, son of Mother Earth.
- Passionate hunter, accompanied by his dog, Sirius.
- Banished to live in the sky, and now an easily recognized constellation.
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Tritons
- Strange sea creatures, half-men, half-fish, with scales, sharp teeth, claws, fins and forked tails.
- Hedonistic and lascivious.
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Sirens
- Sea monsters with bird's bodies and women's heads.
- Sang sweetly and irresistibly to lure travellers and then killed them.
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Charybdis and Scylla
- Dwelt in same Sicilian sea as the Sirens.
- Charybdis, daughter of Poseidon and the earth, was a whirlpool who swallowed ships.
- Scylla, once a beautiful woman, was changed into a monster, with six ugly heads.
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Demeter
- Goddess of the earth and the underworld.
- Represents motherhood and fertile, cultivated soil.
- Earth mother.
- Daughter of Cronus and Rhea.
- Roman counterpart: Ceres.
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Dionysus
- God of wine and pleasure.
- Son of Zeus.
- Roman counterpart: Bacchus.
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Satyrs
- Part of the retinue of Dionysus.
- Represented the elementary spirits of forests and mountains.
- Half-man and half-goat, they were sensual and lascivious.
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Pan
- Shepherd god of woods and pastures, protector of shepherds and flocks.
- Son of Hermes.
- Not a satyr, though he also was half-goat.
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Hades
- God of the underworld.
- Invisible, god of buried treasure and agricultural wealth.
- Son of Cronus and Rhea, brother of Zeus.
- Roman equivalent: Pluto.
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Persephone
- Daughter of Demeter, wife of Hades.
- Spent part of the world in the underworld and part on earth, and therefore associated with seasons of the year and myths of regeneration.
- Roman counterpart: Proserpina.
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Heracles
- Not a god, but a hero.
- Personification of physical strength.
- Founder of Olympic Games.
- Had to perform twelve superhuman labors.
- Son of Zeus and a mortal woman.
- Roman counterpart: Hercules.
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Theseus
- Not a god, but a hero.
- Like Heracles, destroyed many monsters, including the Minotaur on Crete.
- Son of a mortal woman, a mortal man, and the god, Poseidon.
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Perseus
- Son of a mortal woman and Zeus, who impregnated her disguised as a shower of gold.
- Also a hero, not a god, who had many adventures.
- Killed the snake headed monster, Medusa, and a sea monster to save a beautiful princess named Andromeda.
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Helen
- Woman whose beauty launched a thousand ships and began the Trojan War.
- Wife to Menelaus, but carried off by lovestruck Paris.
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Oedipus
- Son of King of Thebes.
- Unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, which caused him to blind himself.
- Answered the riddle of the Sphinx.
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Orpheus
- One of the few Greek heroes not known for warlike exploits.
- Son of Apollo.
- Sang and played the lyre so beautifully that trees and savage beasts would follow him.
- Performed miracles on the voyage of the Argonauts to find the Golden Fleece.
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