We may learn from the Homeric poems what were the
religious ideas held by the early Greeks. The greater gods and goddesses were
not numerous. Less than a score everywhere received worship under the same
names and in all the temples. Twelve of the chief deities formed a select
council, which was supposed to meet on the top of snow-crowned Olympus. The
Greeks, however, did not agree as to what gods and goddesses should be included
in this august assemblage.
ATTRIBUTES OF THE DEITIES
Many of the Olympian deities appear to have been simply
personifications of natural phenomena. Zeus, "father of gods and
men," as Homer calls him, was a heaven god, who gathered the clouds in
storms and hurled the lightning bolt. Apollo, a mighty god of light, who warded
off darkness and evil, became the ideal of manly beauty and the patron of
music, poetry, and healing. Dionysus was worshiped as the god of sprouting and
budding vegetation. Poseidon, brother of Zeus, ruled the sea. Hera, the wife of
Zeus, represented the female principle in nature. Hence she presided over the
life of women and especially over the sacred rites of marriage. Athena, who
sprang full-grown from the forehead of Zeus, embodied the idea of wisdom and
all womanly virtues. Aphrodite, who arose from the foam of the sea, was the
goddess of love and beauty. Demeter, the great earth- mother, watched over
seed-time and harvest. Each deity thus had a kingdom and a function of its own.
