Heracles/Hercules
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Hestia
In Greek mythology she was the virgin goddess of the hearth, family, and peace, and the inventor of domestic architecture. She was the daughter of Cronus and Rhea and Zeus's sister. Of all the Olympians, she is the mildest, most upright and most charitable.
Hera
She was sister, and wife, of Zeus. Hera is the supreme goddess of the Greeks and goddess of marriage and childbirth. Her children are Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus and Eris. Sacred to her are the peacock, pomegranate, lily and cuckoo. She was extremely jealous and vindictive, and visited dire consequences upon those mortal women with whom Zeus carried on affairs.
HERMES
Son of Zeus and Maia. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes tells of his birth and his first day of life in which he made the first lyre (out of a tortoise he came across) and stole Apollo's cattle. Ovid, Metamorphoses 2 gives a slightly different version of the story in which Hermes/Mercury catches an old man betraying him and turns him into a stone.
He was the cleverest of the Olympian gods, and messenger to all the other gods. He ruled over wealth, good fortune, commerce, fertility, and thievery. He brought the souls of the dead to the underworld, and was honored as a god of sleep. Vase paintings show him performing this role both for heroes of myth (eg. Sarpedon) and for ordinary people.
Icarus
The son of Daedalus. He and his father fastened wings to their bodies and flew over the sea. When Icarus flew higher, the sun melted the wax fastenings and he fell to his death in the waters below.
Pan
He was the son of Hermes and Penelope (later married to Odysseus) in some myths and the son of Zeus and the nymph Callisto in others. He was the god of flocks and shepherds. He had the head and torso of a man, but the hindquarters and horns of a goat. He was a great musician with the pipes. He was considered a symbol of fecundity because of his lustful nature.
Poseidon
God of the sea, protector of all waters. Powerful, violent, and vengeful, he carried the trident, with which he caused earthquakes. The son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the brother of Zeus and Hades, Poseidon was the husband of Amphitrite, one of the Nereids, by whom he had a son, Triton. Poseidon had numerous other love affairs, however, especially with nymphs of springs and fountains, and was the father of several children famed for their wildness and cruelty, among them the giant Orion and the Cyclops Polyphemus. Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa were the parents of Pegasus, the famous winged horse. The Romans identified Poseidon with
their god of the sea, Neptune.
Zeus
In Greek mythology, Zeus was the god of the sky and ruler of the Olympian gods. He was the rain god, and the cloud gatherer, who wielded the terrible thunderbolt. His breastplate was the aegis, his bird the eagle, his tree the oak. He is represented as the god of justice and mercy, the protector of the weak, and the punisher of the wicked.
As husband to his sister Hera, he is the father of Ares, the god of war; Hebe, the goddess of youth; Hephaestus, the god of fire; and Eileithyia, the goddess of childbirth.
Zeus' image was represented in sculptural works as a kingly, bearded figure. Zeus corresponds to the Roman god Jupiter.He is leader of the Olympian deities. His domain is the sky, while his brothers Poseidon and Hades rule over the sea and underworld respectively. In human affairs he is particularly concerned with order, justice, respect for oaths (as Zeus Horkios), for the relationship between host and guest (as Zeus Xenios) and with protection for suppliants (as Zeus Hikesios).
Zeus does not play a major role in our literary myths, although he is important in Homer's Iliad. His myths mainly concern his rise to power, his pursuit of mortal and immortal women (and the resulting jealousy of his wife and sister, Hera).
Hesiod in the Theogony tells how Zeus overthrew his father, Kronos, and then defeated the Titans and the monster Typhoeus, born of Gaia. Other sources, e.g. Apollodoros, Bibliotheca, 1.6 also mention the Gigantomachy, the battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, also born of the earth. The Gigantomachy became popular in art and was often confused with the Titanomachy. In his struggles against monsters and unruly forces Zeus is comparable to his sons Apollo, Herakles and Perseus.
Zeus fathered many gods and heroes. By Leto he had the twins, Apollo and Artemis. By Maia he had Hermes and by the mortal woman, Semele, he had Dionysos. In some versions Aphrodite is his daughter by Dione. He fathered Athena alone, after swallowing her mother, Metis.
Of the heroes, Zeus was father of Herakles, of Perseus by Danaë, to whom he came in the form of a shower of gold, and of Sarpedon, one of the heroes of the Trojan War. He was also father of Helen by Leda.
In his amorous adventures he often changed shape, as when he took on the form of a bull to abduct Europa or when he seduced Leda in the form of a swan. His lover Io was herself turned into a cow.
