The Greeks worshiped various gods, and represented them in human form. Therefore, their religion was polytheistic and anthropomorphic. The gods inhabited Mount Olympus. On Mount Olympus lived 15 gods, they are:
Zeus - God of the sky and Lord of Olympus;
Hestia - Goddess of the home;
Hades - God of the Underworld
(hell),
Demeter - Goddess of agriculture;
Hera - Goddess of marriage;
Poseidon - God of the Seas
Ares - God of War;
Athena - Goddess of intelligence and wisdom;
Aphrodite - Goddess of love and beauty;
Dionysus - God of wine, pleasure and adventure;
Apollo - God of the Sun, the arts and reason;
Artemis - Goddess of the Moon, hunting and animal fecundity;
Hephaestus- God of Fire;
Hermes - God of commerce and communications.
Asclepius - God of medicine.
The three Graces;
The nine Muses;
Eros;
The hours;
The Morals.
Gods of Olympus
The most important gods lived eternally in a place they called Olympus. Originally, this abode was located high on Mount Olympus in Thessaly, but soon it was situated among the clouds, in some mysterious place in the sky, and the word "Olympus" became a true abstraction.
The list varied slightly, but the most accepted "canon" included Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Aphrodite, Athena, Ares, Hephaestus, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, and Dionysus. There was also a thirteenth god of equal rank, Hades, who did not live on Olympus but in his realm, the underworld.
On Olympus, the gods spent their time in wonderful palaces, eternally rejoicing. They ate ambrosia and drank nectar, exclusively divine foods, to the sound of Apollo's lyre, the singing of the Muses and the dance of the Charites.
Not even the winds, rain or snow disturbed the placidity and tranquility of the eternal and blissful gods.
Elysian Fields
Elysium or Champs Elysées, a pre-Hellenic paradise, a land of perfect peace and happiness. In Homer's story, Elysium was a land at the edge of the world (for they believed the earth was flat) where great heroes were carried, body and soul, and made immortal. There they were free to pursue their favorite activities, free from worry and illness. However, Elysium soon came to be regarded as the blessed abode of the dead, where the souls of dead heroes, poets, priests, and other good and upright men lived in perfect bliss, surrounded by grass, trees, and gentle winds, enveloped in a perpetual light. pink. In Roman mythology, Elysium was a part of the underworld and a place of rewards for the virtuous dead. For some, it was just a temporary paradise. Around its soft green meadows flowed the Lethes, river of forgiveness, from which all souls returning to life in the upper world had to drink.
The Greeks still practiced the cult of heroes, they were mythological beings considered by the Greeks as their predecessors, founders of their cities, to which they gave protection:Theseus, Epidus, Perseus, Bellerophon and Hercules.
The worship of the gods was so developed among the Greeks that they built superb temples to their deities, in which they performed their prayers. They considered oracles to be means used by the gods to communicate with them.
Several periodic games were promoted by the Greeks in honor of the gods, such as the Olympic Games, dedicated to Zeus, in the city of Olympia. The Olympic Games were held every four years. During its realization, wars were stopped, and its participants were respected as sacred people.
Greek Civilization
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