The Twelve Olympians

The chief hierarchy of the gods, they sometimes varied but were usually given to be- Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Hermes. Rarely Dionysus was swapped with Hades but generally Hades was not considered a member due to dwelling in the Underworld rather than Olympus. Quintus Ennius, a Roman writer swapped Bacchus (Dionysus) with Vesta (Hestia) so as to have six males and six females. To explain this, Hestia/Vesta later gave up her position so that Dionysus/Bacchus could be a member without there being thirteen.

Zeus/Jupiter- the king of the gods, youngest of the six (Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, Hestia, and Zeus), he drew lots with his brothers when they overthrew the Titans and won the heavens. He is the god of the skies, thunderstorms and rain. His symbols are the lightning/thunderbolt, the eagle, the bull, the oak and the sceptre.
His first wife was Metis, the Titaness of Wisdom and mother of Athena, his second is Themis the Titaness of divine order who he has the Horae with, and his third is Eurynome the Titaness of pasture lands, whom he has the Charites with. Hesiod, in the Theogony then gives Zeus' sister Demeter the goddess of agriculture to be his fourth wife and with him parent to Persephone, Mnemosyne the Titaness of memories is given as his fifth wife and the mother of the Muses with him, Leto the Titaness of motherhood is his sixth wife and with him parent to the twins Artemis and Apollo, and Hera his sister and the goddess of marriage is his seventh and final wife, and with him mother to Ares, Eileithyia and Hebe.
He is the father of the heroes Heracles, Perseus, the kings and later three judges of the dead- Minos, Rhadamanthus and Aeacus, and Helen of Troy, amongst many others.

Hera/Juno- the goddess of marriage, wife to Zeus and queen of the gods and goddesses. She was said to have been fostered by Okeanos and his wife Tethys. Zeus seduced her in the form of a bird before marrying her. She is given to be the most beautiful of the goddesses, more beautiful than even Aphrodite. Gaia gave her the Garden of the Hesperides as a wedding gift, in it golden apples grow and are tended by the Hesperides and the many headed dragon Ladon.
She is said to have given birth to Hephaestus/Vulcan without a father in response to Zeus birthing Athena/Minerva without a mother. When Hephaestus was born either Hera cast him down from Olympus because he was ugly or Zeus threw him down because he helped Hera when she was in chains, as a result Hephaestus was lamed.
With Poseidon and Athena she sought to overthrow Zeus, they chained him down but Thetis rescued him. As a result Hera was chained between the sky and the abyss.
As a goddess of marriage she did not have affairs despite her husband having many.
Her symbols are the peacock, the cow, the milkway, the pomegranate, the lily, the sceptre and the crown.

Poseidon/Neptune- the god of the seas, rivers, earthquakes and horses. He is depicted as bearded and carrying a trident. He is a tempermental god and once conspired with Athena and Hera to overthrow Zeus but they were thwarted thanks to Thetis. He is given as the father of many giants and cyclopes.
He competed with Athena over the rights to the city Attica, she offered the people an olive tree whilst he offered a salty spring, they picked Athena's gift and the city was renamed Athens. Some say Poseidon actually created the horse as a gift.
In another version of the creation myth he created the horse to impress Demeter, it was through trial and error and many other creatures such as the zebra were created as a result before he finally created the horse.
With Demeter, in horse form, they sired Arion/Areion, a talking horse. He is also the father of the hero Theseus with the princess Aethra, and Pegasus the winged horse and Chrysaor a man or winged boar, with Medusa. Medusa was cursed by Athena for defiling her temple by being raped by Poseidon in it.
His wife was the Nereid (sea nymph) Amphitrite, daughter of the sea Titan Nereus, known as the Old Man of the Sea, and his wife Doris, a sea nymph.
His symbols are the trident, the horse and the dolphin.

Demeter/Ceres- the goddess of agriculture, the harvest and to an extent marriage. Demeter and her daughter Persephone are infamous for being key figures in the Eleusinian Mysteries. She and her daughter were, amongst other goddesses, also associated with the Maiden, Mother and Crone mythos.
With Zeus she had Persephone and with Poseidon she had the talking steed Areion after she took the form of a mare to escape her brother and he raped her in the form of a stallion, with him she also had Despoine, a minor goddess. With the mortal lord Karmanor she had a son, Eubouleos and a daughter, Khrysothemis who were associated with the ploughed earth and harvest respectively. With the mortal prince Iasion, who was killed by a jealous Zeus, she had the twin boys, Ploutos and Philomelos.
Persephone was her most beloved child and when she was taken by Hades, Demeter wandered the earth in despair looking for her. As a result of her depression the crops failed and famine spread across the world and the weather turned bad. Seeing mankind's suffering, Zeus commanded Hades to return Persephone but she had eaten in the Underworld and was forever tied to it, so Demeter sees her for half of the year, and Hades sees her for the other half, alternatively, Demeter has her for nine months whilst Hades gets three. This resulted in the belief that in Spring and Summer the weather was good because Persephone and Demeter were united, in Autumn it turned bad as their approach drew near or had already happened and in Winter Demeter was in mourning for her daughter.
She is, like Poseidon, associated with the horse. The cornucopia, a horn overflowing with wheat, flowers etc, is usually her symbol as well as an ear of wheat.

Athena/Minerva- the goddess of war, wisdom, strategy, and weaving. She was also given the title of Pallas Athena/Athene after slaying the giant Pallas or, in alternate stories, accidentally killing her friend Pallas. She is a virgin goddess and the daughter of Zeus and Metis.
When Zeus was told that Metis would birth a child more powerful than the father he swallowed her to prevent such a fate but she was already pregnant. After time he suffered from a severe headache and one of the gods was forced to open it with an axe. Out of the wound Athena sprang fully grown and armoured.
Though she had no children she fostered Erichthonius who was created when Hephaestus tried to rape her and his seamen hit Gaia and impregnated her. Erichthonius was given in a box to three sisters to guard but they got curious and opened the box and saw a snake or an infant with a snake or a half-man, half-snake, and two of them went mad and killed themselves. Erichthonius grew up to be a king of Athens.
In one story she turned a crow from white to black when it reported that the sisters had opened the box.
She is said to have turned Medusa into a gorgon after her temple was soiled by Poseidon raping Medusa there.
She and Poseidon competed over Athens for the right to have the city named after them, Poseidon offered the people a salty spring and Athena offered an olive tree, the people picked her gift and Athens was named.
She was a friend to heroes giving advice to Odysseus, Heracles and Perseus, giving Perseus the world's first bridle to tame Pegasus with.
At the wedding of Thetis and Peleus an uninvited Eris threw a gold apple labelled 'to the fairest one', this started a competition between the goddesses for it. Prince Paris was asked to pick between Athena, Aphrodite and Hera. Athena offered him wisdom and glory in and for all battles, Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, and Hera offered him Europe and Asia. Paris picked Aphrodite and as a result Athena and Hera aided the Greeks against the Trojans in the Trojan War.
Athena's association with weaving and the loom is prominent in the tale of Arachne, a weaver who boasted that she was better at it than Athena. Athena came to her disguised as an old woman to warn her but Arachne would not heed and requested a competition. Arachne weaved the gods committing infedelity whilst Athena depicted her success in winning Athens from Poseidon. Arachne's work was perfect but Athena was angered by her choice of topic and jealous so she destroyed it, Arachne then hung herself in despair but Athena turned her into a spider out of pity.
She is shown with her aegis, her shield that has Medusa's head on it, an owl, and a maned helmet. The snake is also associated with her.

Dionysus/Bacchus- the god of wine, drinking, partying, festivals. There are two versions of his birth both of which involve Zeus sewing him in his thigh. The first gives his mother as the mortal Semele who was killed when she asked Zeus to appear in his true form after prompting from a disguised Hera. Zeus rescued the fetus and sewed it into his thigh. The second version gives his mother as Persephone, the baby Dionysus is killed by Titans sent by a jealous Hera, they left his heart though, which Zeus sewed into his thigh, or gave to Semele to eat (probably an attempt to unite the two stories) and recreated him from.
As a baby he was fostered by his aunt Ino and her husband Athamas after being given to them by Hermes, Rhea or Persephone. Ino was the stepmother of Phrixus and Helle, who were infamous for riding the golden ram Chrysomallus, whose fleece was the Golden Fleece. Ino was said to have been a cruel stepmother who blamed them for a famine and bribed an oracle to support her and ask for their sacrifice.
Hera struck either Ino or Athamas with madness leading to the murder of their son Melicertes and their own deaths. Zeus however intervened to turn Ino into the white goddess Leucothea, a sea deity, and her son Melicertes into the god Palaemon. Athamas also killed their son Learchus in his madness thinking he was a ram/lion/deer hunting him down.
Ino's sisters Autonoe and Agave were also cursed with madness and killed their own relations. It is believed that all this madness came from Dionysus who was famous for inflicting people with insanity, particularly women. In fact these mad women even had a title- Maenads or Bacchae. They included the women who had nursed and raised him, which included the nymphs of Nysa who either took him after Ino's death or raised him instead of Ino depending on the source.
His companion and tutor was Silenus, a man originally depicted with a horse's ears and tail and sometimes legs, a little like an equesterian satyr/faun. He was always drunk and said to be wise, when he wandered and got lost once he was found by servants of King Midas. Midas treated him well and as a result Dionysus rewarded him with what he wanted and he picked the golden touch. After he found he could not eat nor drink and his daughter became a golden statue he asked for the gift to be revoked and Dionysus granted the request.
Dionysus also became the husband of Ariadne after finding her on the island Theseus abandoned her on, some stories say Dionysus demanded Theseus do this whilst others say he simply found her after the deed had been done. He is listed to have had several lovers and children.
Dionysus' symbols were the thyrsus, his staff which had a pinecone on the top, the vine and the wine goblet.

Apollo- Also known as Phoebus (radiant) Apollo was the twin of Artemis and a son of Leto and Zeus. He was a god of light, prophecy, archery, music, poetry and healing and later a god of the sun, displacing Helios as his Artemis displaced Selene as goddess of the moon.
He was associated with the Phythia/Oracle of Delphi and said to have given her, her prophecies. The Phythia was named after Python, a dragon of Delphi that chased the pregnant Leto and was slain by Apollo in revenge.
His son Asclepius was a healer god who angered Zeus by taking his gifts too far by resurrecting the dead, chiefly Hippolytus. Zeus then struck him down with lightning, in revenge Apollo killed the Cyclopes who had made the lightning bolt. Zeus then punished Apollo by having him labour as a shepherd for King Admetus, who treated him well.
He had many lovers and children but was equally rebuked by several including the nymph Daphne whose father rescued her from rape by turning her into a laurel tree, and the infamous princess of Troy Cassandra who he cursed to speak prophecies that no one would believe.
It is said that he turned crows from white to black after one told him that his lover Coronis, Asclepius' mother, had taken another lover. Apollo dismissed it as lies and punished the crow, when he found out it was true he made the bird sacred.
Hermes as an infant stole Apollo's cattle and with one's intestines and a tortoise shell he invented the lyre. Apollo tracked down the cattle and hearing the music of the lyre he exchanged the cattle for it.
He cursed Midas with the ears of an ass when he said Pan's music was better than Apollo's. The satyr Marsyas challenged Apollo to a music contest after finding Athena's discarded aulos (like a flute). They were equal until Apollo challenged Marsyas to play his instrument upside down or to sing at the same time, he could not do it and a result Apollo flayed him alive.
His symbols were the bow and arrows, the lyre, the laurel wreath and the crow.

Artemis/Diana- Daughter of Leto and Zeus, twin to Apollo and a goddess of the hunt, wildlife and childbirth and later the moon. She was a virgin hunter who expected her companions to keep their virgnity. She was known for cursing those companions that lost their virginity whether it was willingly or not and for cursing people who spied her bathing.
When Actaeon saw her bathing she turned him into a stag and his own dogs killed him. In some myths she had Adonis killed by a wild boar in an act of revenge against Aphrodite for causing Hippolytus' death.
The giant Orion hunted with her and was either killed by a giant scorpion sent by Gaia after he boasted that he could kill every living thing or by Artemis either in defence after he touched her or tried to seduce a follower or because Apollo, wary of his sister's chastity, tricked her into doing it.
She tricked the giants Otos and Ephialtes into killing each other when they threatened to kidnap her by jumping between them in the form of a doe.
She punished her nymph Callisto after she was impregnated by Zeus by turning her into a bear and with her brother she killed the children of Queen Niobe after Niobe boasted she was superior to Leto. She also punished King Agamemnon after he killed a sacred stag by calming the winds so his fleet could not sail to Troy. He sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to her but Artemis took her at the last moment and left a deer in her place.
All animals were sacred to her but deer and dogs were usually associated with her like her brother the bow and arrows were also her symbols.

Ares/Mars- the god of the violent and cruel aspect of war, a son of Hera and Zeus. Few of the gods liked him, he was a rival to Athena and his lover was Aphrodite. Deimos (terror/dread), Phobos (fear), and Adrestia (war goddess) were his children by Aphrodite and his companions. His sisters Enyo, a war goddess, and Eris, strife/discord, were also his companions. Ironically he is also sometimes given as the father of Eros, love, and Harmonia, harmony, and Anteros, requited love.
He was tried and acquitted for the murder of Halirrhothius, a son of Poseidon who raped Ares' daughter Alcippe.
Hephaestus caught Ares and Aphrodite in a net making love after Helios told him of their affair. He then invited the other gods to come and mock them.
The giants Otus and Ephialtes put him in a bronze urn so he could not stop their takeover of Olympus. He was a prisoner for thirteen months, saved when the giants' stepmother Eriboea told Hermes and he rescued him.
Some say he and not Artemis killed Adonis because he was jealous of Aphrodite loving him.
His symbols were the helmet, spear, shield, armour, vultures and dogs.

Aphrodite/Venus- A daughter of either Ouranos, forming when his genitals hit the ocean, which would make her sister to the Erinyes who formed from his blood, or of Zeus and Dione. She is the goddess of love and beauty and was married to Hephaestus by Zeus so that the gods would not fight over her. One version of the tale is that she was Hephaestus' reward for freeing Hera from the throne he had stuck her to. She was infamously unfaithful to Hephaestus, taking several lovers including Ares.
Eros fell in love with Psyche when Aphrodite asked him to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man because she was jealous of her beauty. Eros made love to her in the dark never revealing his form to her, her jealous sisters suggested he must be a monster so Psyche shone a lamp in his face while he was sleeping and recognised him for a god, he fled in anger. She went to Aphrodite for advice to win him back and Aphrodite set her several tasks- to seperate grains in a time limit, ants helped her, to get wool from violent golden sheep, a river god advised her to pluck it from the bushes when they went to rest and to get a box of beauty from Persephone. She opened the box after getting it and fell asleep, Eros forgave her and awoke her and then married her.
She cursed Myrrha with lust for her own father Cinyras whom she seduces as a disguised prostitute. When he discovered the truth he chased her and the gods turned her into a Myrrh treem Cinyras then committed suicide. From this Adonis was born. Aphrodite gave him to Persephone to raise, when he grew up handsome Aphrodite wanted him back but Persephone refused. They fought over it and Zeus intervened, Adonis was to spend a third of the year with Aphrodite, a third with Persephone and a third with whoever he wanted, he chose Aphrodite. He was killed by either a boar sent by Artemis or Ares, or Ares disguised as a boar.
Eris threw a golden apple addressed 'to the fairest' at Thetis and Peleus' wedding. Aphrodite, Athena and Hera all fought over it until Zeus asked Prince Paris to choose who deserved it. Aphrodite offered him the most beautiful woman in the world Helen so he picked her.
She brought the statue Galatea to life for her creator Pygmalion who had fallen in love with her image.
When Hippolytus chose to worship Artemis over Aphrodite she made his stepmother Phaedra fall in love with him. He rejected her and she claimed to his father Theseus that he had raped her, after making Hippolytus promise not to speak of her love. Theseus cursed him and Poseidon caused a bull from the sea to panic his horses causing his death. Artemis told Theseus the truth and vowed revenge on Aphrodite.
Despite being a goddess of love she was vain, petty, jealous and vengeful.
Her symbols were the dolphin, dove, sparrow, swan, girdle, mirror and the seashell.

Hephaestus/Vulcan- the lame son of Hera, god of the forge, fires, technology, metal, and blacksmiths. He was born by Hera who was angry at Zeus birthing Athena, but when he was born she threw him away in disgust resulting in his lameness. In another version it was Zeus who threw him down for trying to rescue Hera.
He crafted the gods' armour and weapons and weapons and armour for some heroes. He created automatons to help him and was helped by cyclopes.
He avenged himself against Hera by creating for her a throne from which she could not get up, he freed her only after Dionysus got him drunk. Aphrodite was given to him as a wife by Zeus either as a reward for freeing Hera or to stop the other gods from fighting over her beauty.
He tried to rape Athena but she escaped him and his semen hit Gaia impregnating her with Erichthonius. Despite his ugly looks he did have several lovers and children.
He made the Necklace of Harmonia, a cursed necklace given to Harmonia, a daughter of Ares and Aphrodite and wife to Cadmus. He probably cursed her as revenge against Ares and Aphrodite.
He created the first woman Pandora on Zeus' orders as punishment for mankind, crafting her from the earth.

Hermes/Mercury- the messenger god a son of Zeus and the Pleiade Maia. He is the god of thieves, travellers, trade, athletic contests and wit, a trickster and a guide to the dead.
As a baby he stole the cattle of Apollo and with their entrails and a tortoise shell he invented the lyre, which Apollo took in exchange for the cattle. A man, Battos, saw the theft and was bribed by Hermes to keep silent. Hermes returned to him in disguise and he revealed the theft however and was turned to stone as punishment.
He killed the hundred eyed Argus at Zeus' behest who was guarding Io in her heifer form and he assisted the heroes Perseus and Odysseus, giving Perseus his winged sandals and Odysseus a herb to counter Circe's poisons.
He punished Agraulos by turning her to stone when she refused to let him have access to her sister Herse whom he had fallen for.
Hermes and Zeus disguised themselves as peasants to test the generosity of man, they were denied shelter by all except for Baucis and Philemon, a poor but kind couple. They flooded the town and turned Baucis and Philemon's home into a temple, which they guarded.
His symbols were his winged sandals (Talaria), his winged herald's staff (caduceus), the tortoise, hawk and ram.