The document summarizes several lesser gods from Greek mythology. It describes gods such as Hecate, goddess of magic; Thanatos, spirit of death; Persephone, queen of the underworld; and Nyx, goddess of night. It also covers sea gods like Amphitrite and Triton, sky gods including Aeolus and the winds, and gods of health like Asclepius. Finally, it mentions rustic gods such as Chloris and Priapus, and other minor gods including the Fates and Nike. The overall document aims to provide information on forgotten and lesser gods in Greek mythology beyond the major Olympians.
2. What you will learn in this report: Know more about the Forgotten and Lesser Gods of Greek Mythology. Know the different characteristics of the Lesser Gods.
3. Chthonic Gods who prefer to live on earth or land or related to underworld.
5. Hecate goddess of magic, witchcraft, the night, moon, ghosts and necromancy. She was the only child of the TitanesPerses and Asteria from whom she received her power over heaven, earth, and sea.
6. Hesiod records that she was esteemed as the offspring of Gaia and Uranus, the Earth and Sky. In Theogony he ascribed great powers to Hecate: Hecate whom Zeus the son of Cronos honored above all. He gave her splendid gifts, to have a share of the earth and the unfruitful sea. She received honor also in starry heaven, and is honored exceedingly by the deathless gods. For to this day, whenever any one of men on earth offers rich sacrifices and prays for favor according to custom, he calls upon Hecate. Great honor comes full easily to him whose prayers the goddess receives favorably, and she bestows wealth upon him; for the power surely is with her. For as many as were born of Earth and Ocean amongst all these she has her due portion. The son of Cronos did her no wrong nor took anything away of all that was her portion among the former Titan gods: but she holds, as the division was at the first from the beginning, privilege both in earth, and in heaven, and in sea.
8. Thanatos spirit of death and minister of Hades. Thánatosis a son of Nyx (Night) and Erebos (Darkness) and twin of Hypnos (Sleep). was the god of non-violent death. His touch was gentle, likened to that of his twin brother Hypnos (Sleep). Violent death was the domain of Thanatos' blood-craving sisters, the Keres, spirits of slaughter and disease. His duties as a Guide of the Dead were sometimes superseded by Hermes. Conversely, Thanatos may have originated as a mere aspect of Hermes before later becoming distinct from him. Thanatos was thought of as merciless and indiscriminate, hated by—and hateful towards—mortals and the deathless gods.
10. Persephone queen of the underworld, wife of Hades and goddess of spring growth. Persephone is the goddess of the underworld in Greek mythology. She is the daughter of Zeus and Demeter, goddess of the harvest. Persephone was such a beautiful young woman that everyone loved her, even Hades wanted her for himself. One day, when she was collecting flowers on the plain of Enna, the earth suddenly opened and Hades rose up from the gap and abducted her. None but Zeus, and the all-seeing sun, Helios, had noticed it.Broken-hearted, Demeter wandered the earth, looking for her daughter until Helios revealed what had happened.
11. Demeter was so angry that she withdrew herself in loneliness, and the earth ceased to be fertile. Knowing this could not continue much longer, Zeus sent Hermes down to Hades to make him release Persephone. Hades grudgingly agreed, but before she went back he gave Persephone a pomegranate (or the seeds of a pomegranate, according to some sources). When she later ate of it, it bound her to underworld forever and she had to stay there one-third of the year. The other months she stayed with her mother. When Persephone was in Hades, Demeter refused to let anything grow and winter began. This myth is a symbol of the budding and dying of nature.
12. Nyx, as represented in the 10th-century Paris Psalter at the side of the Prophet Isaiah.
13. Nyx the primeval goddess of night Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation, and was the mother of personified gods such as Hypnos (sleep) and Thánatos (death). Her appearances in mythology are sparse, but reveal her as a figure of exceptional power and beauty.
14. In Book 14 of Homer's Iliad, there is a quote by Hypnos, the minor god of sleep, in which he reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. He had once before put Zeus to sleep at the bidding of Hera, allowing her to cause Heracles (who was returning by sea from Laomedon's Troy) great misfortune. Zeus was furious and would have smitten Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. Hypnos goes on to say that Zeus, fearing to anger Nyx, held his fury at bay, and in this way Hypnos escaped the wrath of Zeus. He disturbed Zeus only a few times after that always fearing Zeus and running back to his mother Nyx, who would have confronted Zeus with a maternal fury.
17. Amphitrite sea goddess and consort of Poseidon Amphitrite was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (and thus a Nereid), according to Hesiod's Theogony, but of Oceanus and Tethys (and thus an Oceanid), according to Apollodorus, who actually lists her among both of the Nereids and the Oceanids. Others called her the personification of the sea itself. Amphitrite's offspring included seals and dolphins.
19. Triton fish-tailed son and herald of Poseidon He is usually represented as a merman, having the upper body of a human and the tail of a fish, "sea-hued", according to Ovid "his shoulders barnacled with sea-shells". he carried a trident. Triton lived with his parents, Poseidon and Amphitrite, who was also known as Celaeno, in a golden palace on the bottom of the sea. According to Homer it was called Aegae.
21. Thoosa goddess of swift currents Sea nymph associated with swiftness, and the mother of the Cyclops Polyphemus by the god Poseidon. She was the daughter of Phorcys and most likely his wife Ceto, making her one of the Phorcydes. Thoosawas a Haliad nymph loved by the god Poseidon. She was probably a goddess of dangerously swift currents, as her name suggests.
23. Delphin the leader of the dolphins. Poseidon placed him in the sky as the constellation Delphin. When Poseidon was wooing Amphitrite, she fled his advances and hid herself away. Dolphin was sent to find her, and persuaded her to return. As a reward for this service Poseidon set him amongst the stars. Poseidon placed him in the sky as the constellation Delphin
26. Aeolus: god of the winds. was a son of Hellen and eponymous founder of the Aeolian race was a son of Poseidon, who led a colony to islands in the Tyrrhenian Sea and the son ofHippoteswho is mentioned in Odyssey book 10 as Keeper of the Winds who gives Odysseus a tightly closed bag full of the captured winds so he could sail easily home to Ithaca on the gentle West Wind. All three men named Aeolus appear to be connected genealogically, although the precise relationship, especially regarding the second and third Aeolus, is often ambiguous.
27. The Four Anemois were Greek wind gods who were each ascribed a cardinal direction from which their respective winds came, and were each associated with various seasons and weather conditions.
28. Boreas: The North Wind, Boreas bringer of cold winter air, was often depicted as violent and untrustworthy. Like many other gods, he sometimes abducted and raped mortal women.
30. Notus: The South Wind. He was normally associated with the warmth and moistness of a gentle wind. In the autumn, however, Notus was thought to turn angry and bring storms that destroyed crops.
31. Zephyrus: The West Wind. Zephyrus, the god of spring breezes, was considered the gentlest of all of the wind gods.
33. Alectrona solar goddess of the morning or waking up was a daughter of Helios and Rhode, sister to the Heliadae. She died a virgin and was worshipped as a heroine on the island of Rhodes
37. Iris Goddess of the sea and sky; she is also represented as supplying the clouds with the water needed to deluge the world, consistent with her identification with the rainbow. Which connected the sky and Earth. Her name contains a double meaning, being connected both with iris, "the rainbow," and eiris, "messenger." Iris is married to Zephyrus, who is the god of the west wind and had a son name Pothos.
40. Aceso goddess of the healing of wounds and the curing of illnesses. She is one of the daughter of Asklepios, God of medicine, and Epione, Goddess of pain relief, and is sister to Aigle, Hygieia, Panakeia, and Iaso. Akeso’s name, which means “curing,” is also seen as Aceso.
42. Aegle : goddess of radiant good health one of the daughters of Asclepius by Lampetia, the daughter of the Sun, according to Hermippus or by Epione, according to the Suda. She is said to have derived her name Aegle, "Brightness," or "Splendor," either from the beauty of the human body when in good health, or from the honor paid to the medical profession. She is said to have derived her name Aegle, "Brightness," or "Splendor," either from the beauty of the human body when in good health, or from the honor paid to the medical profession.
44. Asclepius : god of healing He was the son of Apollo and Coronis. His mother was killed for being unfaithful to Apollo and was laid out on a funeral pyre to be consumed, but the unborn child was rescued from her womb. Or, alternatively, his mother died in labour and was laid out on the pyre to be consumed, but his father rescued the child, cutting him from her womb. From this he received the name Asklepios "to cut open". Apollo carried the baby to the centaur Chiron who raised Asclepius and instructed him in the art of medicine. He was a Greek hero who later become the Greek god of medicine and healing.
45. Asclepios was married to Epione, with whom he had six daughters: Hygieia ("Hygiene"), Iaso ("Medicine"), Aceso ("Healing"), Meditrina (the serpent-bearer), Aglæa ("Healthy Glow"), and Panacea ("Universal Remedy") and three sons: Machaon, Podaleirios and Telesphoros. He also sired a son, Aratus, with Aristodama. The names of his daughters each rather transparently reflect a certain subset of the overall theme of "good health". Zeus killed Asclepius with a thunderbolt because he raised Hippolytus from the dead and accepted gold for it. Other stories say that Asclepius was killed because after bringing people back from the dead, Hades thought that no more dead spirits would come to the underworld, so he asked his brother Zeus to remove him. This angered Apollo who in turn murdered the cyclops who had made the thunderbolt for Zeus. For this act, Zeus banned Apollo from the night sky and commanded Apollo to serve Admetus, King of Thessaly. After Asclepius' death, Zeus placed Asclepius among the stars as the constellation Ophiuchus ("the Serpent Holder").
50. Priapus As a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus was described as the son of Aphrodite by Dionysus, or son of Dioysus and Chione, perhaps as father or son of Hermes, son of Zeus or Pan, depending on the source. According to legend, Hera cursed him with impotence, ugliness and foul-mindedness while he was still in Aphrodite's womb, in revenge for the hero Paris having the temerity to judge Aphrodite more beautiful than Hera.
52. Pan is the god of the wild, shepherds and flocks, nature, of mountain wilds, hunting and rustic music, as well as the companion of the nymphs. His name originates within the Greek language, from the word paein (Πάειν), meaning "to pasture.“ With his homeland in rustic Arcadia, he is recognized as the god of fields, groves, and wooded glens; because of this, Pan is connected to fertility and the season of spring. The ancient Greeks also considered Pan to be the god of theatrical criticism. Pan's counterpart was Faunus, a nature god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna.
54. Comus Is the god of festivity, revels and nocturnal dalliances. He is a son and a cup-bearer of the god Bacchus. Comus represents anarchy and chaos. His mythology occurs in the later times of antiquity. During his festivals in Ancient Greece, men and women exchanged clothes. He had a wreath of flowers on his head and carried a torch that was in the process of being dropped. Unlike the purely carnal Pan or purely intoxicated Bacchus, Comus was a god of excess.
57. Chione goddess of snow and daughter of Boreas She was seduced by Poseidon by whom, unbeknown to him, she bore a son Eumolpus,. To hide her shame, Chione threw the infant into the deep. Poseidon however witnessed this and carried the child to safety in Ethipoia, where Eumolpus was raised by one of his daughters.
59. The Fates Three goddesses in charge of determining a person's lifespan. These goddesses spun, measured, and cut each individual's thread of life. Some myths say that they could also determine whether a person would be good or evil. Everyone — even the Olympians — were subject to the Fates.
61. Nemesis: Goddess of vengeance. She was usually called upon to avenge those who had been wronged, but she was also in charge of limiting excess. If someone became too rich or had an unending streak of good luck, for example, Nemesis would take away some of that person's good fortune, to keep the universe in balance.
63. Nike Goddess of victory. Often seen in the company of Zeus, Nike also visited conquerors and victors; she would hold a crown of victory above their heads. NIKE (or Nicé) was the winged goddess or spirit (daimon) of victory, both in battle and peaceful competition. When Zeus was gathering allies at the start of the Titan War, Styx brought her four children, Nike (Victory), Zelos (Rivalry), Kratos (Strength) and Bia (Force) into the service of the god. Nike was appointed his charioteer, and all four were appointed as sentinels standing beside the throne of the god. Beyond this Nike never acquired any distinctive mythology of her own.
65. The Muses were the daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They were known for the music of their song, which brought joy to any who hear it
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68. In addition to the great gods whose power resounded throughout the universe, every hill, every river, every spring, even every individual tree seemed to have its own god or goddess. This conception of the world makes the universe seem both ordered and chaotic: ordered because each deity has his or her domain, but chaotic because the desires of those many gods sometimes came into conflict.