Olympians

Fragment of a Hellenistic relief (1st century BCE–CE1st century) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession

Olympians are deities in the Greek pantheon who resides on Mount Olympus.

Quotes on the Olympians:

Walter Friedrich Otto:

• The gods [...] console even more when they come to meet man, they, who no pain touches. However, they do not console so much with what they give or promise, but rather with what they are.
  This is a miracle - and we can call it such - which we do not find only among the ancient Greeks , and yet among them it is among the fundamental characteristics of Hellenic religiosity and allows us to understand their entire spiritual attitude. For the high sensitivity of this type of man there is nothing more satisfying than the awareness that the eternally Blessed are, a knowledge that is already participation - human participation - in the bliss of the gods.
• In the song of the Muses the truth of everything resonates as a being filled with the gods, which shines from the depths, revealing the eternal magnificence and blessed intangibility of the divine even in the darkest darkness and suffering greater.
  This is how the message of the divine reached the Greeks: not as a categorical request or as salvation in this and the other world, but rather as that which is eternal and blessed, which consoles and makes us happy not through promises , but since it is. The spirit of song announces to them the nature of the gods. In fact, singing is essentially their voice.
  By participating in singing, man can therefore participate in the divine, albeit in his own way, with humility. That which the song raises into his sacred kingdom belongs to the eternal, that is to say: to that which is timeless and is joined to God.
• There is nothing [...] that can be said with greater certainty about these gods than the fact that they, indifferent to any happiness or pain in the world, live in the fullest bliss. Precisely this character brings us closest to the divinity of the Olympians. And precisely this spirit of celestial intangibility and silent bliss is what still breathes so happily and freely from the figures of the Greek gods today.

Note:

• Walters Art Museum, accession number 23.40.
• Hansen, p. 250; Burkert, pp. 125 ff.; Dowden, p. 43; Chadwick, p. 85; Müller, pp. 419 ff.; Pache, pp. 308 ff.; Thomas, p. 12; Shapiro, p. 362; Long, pp. 140–141; Morford, p. 113; Hard, p. 80.
• According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100. However, According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
• Hansen, p. 250; Morford, p. 113; Hard p. 80.
• Chadwick, p. 85.
• Dillon, p. 114.
• Ogden, pp. 2–3; Dowden, p. 43; Hansen, p. 250; Burkert, p. 125.
• Herodotus, 2.43–44.
• Diodorus Siculus, 4.39.4.
• Homer, Iliad 15.88
• Hesiod, Theogony 386–388.
• Just who might be called an Olympian is not entirely clear. For example, Dowden, p. 43, describes Heracles, Hebe, the Muses, and the Graces as Olympians, and on p. 45, lists Iris, Dione, and Eileithyia among the Homeric Olympians, while Hansen, p. 250, describes Heracles, Hebe, the Horae, and Ganymede as notable residents of Olympus, but says they "are not ordinarily classified as Olympians".
• Dowden, p. 43; Rutherford, p. 43.
• Rutherford, pp. 43–44; Thucydides, 6.54.6–7.
• Gadbery, p. 447.
• Dowden, p. 43; Rutherford, p. 44; Long, pp. 58–62 (T 13), 154–157.
• Long, pp. 61–62 (T 13 G), 156–157; Homeric Hymn to Hermes, 128–129.
• Dowden, p. 43; Rutherford, p. 44; Long, pp. 59–60 (T 13 C), 154–155.
• Pindar, Olympian 10.49.
• Rutherford, p. 44; Long, pp. 58 (T 13 A), 154; Pindar, Olympian 5.5.
• Dowden, p. 43; Rutherford, p. 47; Long, pp. 58–59 (T 13 B), 154; FGrH 31 F34a-b.
• Rutherford, p. 45; Delos: Long, pp. 11, 87–90 (T 26), 182; Chalcedon: Long, pp. 56–57 (T 11 D), 217–218; Magnesia on the Maeander: Long, pp. 53–54 (T 7), 221–223; Leontinoi: Long, pp. 95–96 (T 32), p. 157.
• Long, pp. 360–361, lists 54 Greek (and Roman) gods, including the twelve Olympians mentioned above, who have been identified as members of one or more cultic groupings of twelve gods.
• Dowden, p. 43; Rutherford, p. 47; Hard, p. 81; Long, pp. 58–59 (T 13 B), 141, 154; FGrH 31 F34a-b.
• Rutherford, pp. 45–46; Plato, The Laws 828 b-d.
• "Greek mythology". Encyclopedia Americana. Vol. 13. 1993. p. 431.
• Hamilton, Edith (September 26, 2017). Mythology : timeless tales of gods and heroes. Tierney, Jim. (75th anniversary illustrated ed.). New York. ISBN 978-0-316-43852-0. OCLC 1004059928.
• Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature. Merriam-Webster. 1995. p. 81. ISBN 9780877790426.
• This chart is based upon Hesiod's Theogony, unless otherwise noted.
• According to Homer, Iliad 1.570–579, 14.338, Odyssey 8.312, Hephaestus was apparently the son of Hera and Zeus, see Gantz, p. 74.
• According to Hesiod, Theogony 927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
• According to Hesiod, Theogony 886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
• According to Hesiod, Theogony 183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
• According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus (Iliad 3.374, 20.105; Odyssey 8.308, 320) and Dione (Iliad 5.370–71), see Gantz, pp. 99–100.

Sources:

• , Walter, Greek Religion, Harvard University Press, C.E.1985. ISBN 0-674-36281-0.
• Chadwick, John, The Mycenaean World, Cambridge University Press, C.E.1976. ISBN 9780521290371.
• Dillon, Matthew, Girls and Women in Classical Greek Religion. London: Routledge. (C.E.2002). ISBN 0415202728.

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Volume III: Books 4.59-8, translated by C. H. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library No. 340. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, C.E.1939. ISBN 978-0-674-99375-4. Online version at Harvard University Press. Online version by Bill Thayer.

• Dowden, Ken, "Olympian Gods, Olympian Pantheon", in A Companion to Greek Religion, Daniel Ogden editor, John Wiley & Sons, C.E.2010. ISBN 9781444334173.
• Gadbery, Laura M., "The Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods in the Athenian Agora: A Revised View", Hesperia 61 (C.E.1992), pp. 447–489.
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, C.E.1996, Two volumes: ISBN 978-0-8018-5360-9 (Vol. 1), ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3 (Vol. 2).
• Hansen, William, William F. Hansen, Classical Mythology: A Guide to the Mythical World of the Greeks and Romans, Oxford University Press, C.E.2005. ISBN 9780195300352.
• Hard, Robin (C.E.2004), The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, C.E.2004, ISBN 9780415186360. Google Books.
• Herodotus; Histories, A. D. Godley (translator), Cambridge: Harvard University Press, C.E.1920; ISBN 0674991338. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Hesiod, Theogony, in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. C.E.1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Homer, The Iliad with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. C.E.1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. The Iliad (Murray) – via Wikisource.
• Homer; The Odyssey with an English Translation by A. T. Murray, Ph.D., in two volumes. Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1919. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. Vol. I, Vol. II at the Internet Archive.
• Homeric Hymn to Hermes (4), in The Homeric Hymns and Homerica with an English Translation by Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Cambridge, Massachusetts., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. C.E.1914. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Long, Charlotte R., The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome, Brill Archive, Jan 1, C.E.1987. Google Books.
• Morford, Mark P. O., Robert J. Lenardon, Classical Mythology, Eighth Edition, Oxford University Press, C.E.2007. ISBN 978-0-19-530805-1.
• Müller, Karl Otfried, Ancient Art and Its Remains: Or, A Manual of the Archaeology of Art, translated by John Leitch, B. Quaritch, C.E.1852.
• Ogden, Daniel "Introduction" to A Companion to Greek Religion, Daniel Ogden editor, John Wiley & Sons, C.E.2010. ISBN 9781444334173.
• Pache, Corinne Ondine, "Gods, Greek" in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece and Rome, Volume 3, Oxford University Press. 2010. ISBN 9780195170726.
• Pindar, Odes, Diane Arnson Svarlien. C.E.1990.
• Plato, Laws in Plato in Twelve Volumes, Vols. 10 & 11 translated by R. G. Bury. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. C.E.1967–1968. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
• Rutherford, Ian, "Canonizing the Pantheon: the Dodekatheon in Greek Religion and its Origins" in The Gods of Ancient Greece: Identities and Transformations, editors Jan N. *Bremmer, Andrew Erskine, Edinburgh University Press C.E.2010. ISBN 978-0748637980. Online version.
• Shapiro, H. A., "Chapter 20: Olympian Gods at Home and Abroad" in A Companion to Greek Art, editors Tyler Jo Smith, Dimitris Plantzos, John Wiley & Sons, C.E.2012. ISBN 9781118273371.
• Thomas, Edmund, "From the pantheon of the gods to the Pantheon of Rome" in Pantheons: Transformations of a Monumental Idea, editors Richard Wrigley, Matthew Craske, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2004. ISBN 9780754608080.
• Thucydides, Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1., Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. C.E.1881. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.

Related entries:

• Aphrodite
• Apollo
• Artemis
• Athena
• Charites
• Clio
• Clotho
• Cronus
• Daphne
• Demeter
• Dike
• Dionysus
• Erinyes
• Hermes
• Moirai
• Muse
• Orpheus
• Pan
• Persephone
• Poseidon
• Prometheus
• Selene
• Urania
• Zeus