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This ancient goddess commanded a Wonder of the World – but why did she have thirty breasts?
The strange and powerful symbol at the heart of one of history’s greatest temples reveals the importance of the goddess Artemis in ruling fertility, childbirth and nature
When we think of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Great Pyramid of Giza or the Hanging Gardens of Babylon may be the first examples that come to mind. However, the oldest-known versions of the list start with a landmark that is often forgotten: the Temple of Artemis. Located in the ancient city of Ephesus (near modern-day Selçuk, Turkey), this remarkable place of worship was renowned for its size and scale, standing at least 20 metres tall and boasting an enormous tile-covered roof supported by 127 marble columns. With a floor plan of some 6,000 square metres, the temple was also nearly three times as large as the famous Parthenon in Athens. But some of the most startling archaeological evidence from Ephesus isn’t concerned with the dimensions of the temple, nor its complicated history of destruction and rebuilding. Instead, much attention has been directed towards a collection of statues depicting the temple’s patron deity, Artemis. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/10/BAL957668-36357fc.jpg" width="7715" height="4533" alt="A large temple with a triangular roof and many columns holding it up. It sits on top of a large flight of stairs. The roof has a mural of the goddess sitting in the middle and surrounded by crowds of people and two golden horses" title="A 20th-century depiction of the Temple of Artemis, dedicated to the goddess Artemis (Image by Bridgeman Images)" /> Rather than portraying the goddess as a conventional Greek beauty, the sculptures display Artemis in an altogether different guise. And, according to classicist and broadcaster Bettany Hughes, these statues bear a particularly striking physical characteristic. Read more | On the steps of a sacred temple, Cleopatra's feud with her sister came to a blood-soaked end “[This] is not the Artemis that you probably have in your heads… this image of a beautiful young woman in a tiny Greek chiton, artfully pulling a bow and arrow,” reveals Hughes on an episode of the HistoryExtra podcast. “She is a huge, towering figure, covered in birds and bees, goats and curious figures. But what none of you will miss… is that she looks as though she has 30 or so breasts.” Thirty breasts… or testicles? What need did Artemis have for 30 breasts? As well as being the goddess of hunting and the moon, Artemis was also revered as a deity of fertility and childbirth. Having a multitude of breasts would therefore be a fitting attribute for a goddess so intrinsically connected with fecundity and womanhood. In fact, even alternative theories – which suggest that the ‘breasts’ are actually bulls’ testicles or sacks of honey – bolster Artemis’s association with abundance. Both motifs have also been used as symbols of procreation in Greek art, so the ambiguity was likely deliberate. “These ancient craftsmen are likely playing a game with us,” says Hughes. Ultimately, the ancient Greeks believed that Artemis was so potent in her fertility that “she didn’t need anything as mundane as sex to procreate”. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/10/M42ADD-2-4bc4f79.jpg" width="5560" height="3707" alt="A large statue of a woman with black hands and face, and covered in light brown bulbous growths. On her head, there is a well-shaped crown" title="A second-century AD interpretation of Artemis, with the head and hands cast in bronze added in the 19th century. Artemis is an enduring symbol of fertility (Image by Alamy)" /> A goddess of power and procreation It’s not just the features on the statue[s] itself that suggest Artemis’s importance – the location where they were discovered is notable too. Ephesus was situated on the eastern edge of the ancient Greek world, where Artemis’s association with fertility and childbirth was perhaps stronger than elsewhere. Read more | Wanderlust: Bettany Hughes on the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World “The Artemis who was worshipped in Ephesus was an ‘eastern Artemis’ – a direct descendant of the great nature goddesses of the eastern world,” says Hughes. “Any ancient traveller who went to visit the temple would have been left in no doubts of how extremely strong and potent she was.” While Artemis was regarded as a powerful goddess for all, she was particularly important to women. Care of the temple was entrusted to high priestesses, a system that Hughes likens to a “hive buzzing around, serving the queen bee”. Overall, maleness was not well tolerated at the site; it was intended to be devoted to female presence and power. An offer of sanctuary But it wasn’t just the high priestesses who devoted themselves to Artemis. Countless ordinary women also dedicated themselves to this bastion of fertility, travelling from far and wide to give offerings. “Poor female pilgrims would beat a path to Artemis’s door, and some of them would leave extraordinary gifts [and] beautiful gold offerings,” says Hughes. “They were left as temple dedications and then buried as hoards.” In some cases, the poorest pilgrims would simply leave a seashell for Artemis instead. They merely offered whatever they could, in the hope that the goddess would provide protection and preparation for marriage and childbirth. Crucially, the Temple of Artemis wasn’t solely a place for worship – it also functioned as a place of refuge for the oppressed. Hughes adds, “If you were being persecuted politically, and even if you were a woman escaping domestic abuse, you could go to sanctuary at the temple.” Read more | The gods and their whims: your guide to ancient Greek religion <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/10/WHA0108722-2-0d5f3b2.jpg" width="5000" height="3542" alt="A brown terracotta jug with a circular spout and no handle lays on its side on the left of the image. On the right, there is a pile of small gold-coloured coins" title="A round-mouthed jug and an assortment of Electrum coins, discovered in the foundations of the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus (Image by TopFoto)" /> A forgotten legacy The Temple of Artemis was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World for good reason. Its sheer scale and beauty were matched only by the power of the goddess it honoured. To the modern eye, her many breasts might seem slightly mystifying. But – whether seen as symbols of fertility, abundance or simply a playful riddle set by ancient craftsmen – they remind us of the complexity and depth of her worship. Bettany Hughes was speaking to Rachel Dinning on the HistoryExtra podcast. Listen to the full conversation.
Hug a tree like a pagan from the margins of Europe
David Musgrove finds out from Francis Young why we should engage in creative spirituality in the same way that the non-Christian people of the Baltic and far north did for centuries
I used to be able to say, unequivocally and without hesitation, that I’d never hugged a tree. I can’t do that any more, and it’s all Francis Young’s fault. He told me to be creative with my spirituality, and I took him at his word. Dr Young is a historian and folklorist specialising in the history of religion and belief, and also particular expert on the Baltic. With my inaugural arboreal embrace, I was following in the footsteps of the people that Francis has been studying in his most recent book, Silence of the Gods: The Untold History of Europe's Last Pagan Peoples (Cambridge University Press, 2025). It’s a cracking read, and a revelation if, like me, you could do with being much better informed about the historical and religious story of the peoples living in the geographical northern and eastern margins of Europe. In Silence of the Gods, Francis outlines how in the Baltic region, parts of the far north towards the Arctic, and an area of what’s now Russia today, non-Christian practices persisted for centuries after the church had become established across the rest of the continent. It wasn’t until 1387, as he explains, that Lithuania, the last pagan country in Europe, became officially Christian. Even after this, non-Christian practices persisted for centuries in the region, certainly into the 18th century, and in some places, to the present day. Given the wide spread of space and time we’re talking about, you won’t be surprised to hear that the actual nature of these pagan practices was varied, from shamanism in the far north, to polytheistic veneration of pantheons of multiple gods and spirits, to animism, and to worship of sacred places. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/08/GettyImages-987973286-6b8c286.jpg" width="4928" height="3648" alt="Two women in large flower crowns dance together, arms linked. The one on the left is dressed in khaki and the one on the right is dressed in red" title="Lithuanians celebrate the summer solstice wearing wreaths of wild flowers and dancing round a fire. Lithuania was the last pagan country in Europe (Image by Getty Images)" /> Woodland wonder On that latter point, these sacred places often involved woodland: forests, groves and clearings, or particular trees. Indeed, Francis explained to me that in Lithuania the celebration of trees continues to be a national obsession to this day. Seeing wonder in woods is not something unique to the Baltic though – it’s a broader human condition. “There is something about an ancient tree, a living being that is so much older than us, and has seen all the generations pass. Somehow that is in and of itself a focus of the sacred. I think you see these patterns again and again in Europe's indigenous religions,” explains Francis. “Many of the concerns that people have now about the environment, they actually can be connected to much older and more primal anxieties about deforestation, which are not just to do with climate change, but are to do with a sense in which deforestation or the felling of trees or the transformation of your environment is somehow depriving you of an ancient place of the sacred.” Back to the Baltic countries, the question is “why did these places and people not succumb to the temptation of Christianity like the rest of Europe?”. Francis’s answer is that it’s partly a language barrier, and partly a factor of geographical remoteness and sparsity of population. But also, it’s because many of the people in these areas lived a less settled way of life, a form of nomadic agriculture, which meant that a religion born of settled city-states didn’t hold much appeal. That all meant that for centuries across Europe, there were people who were able to engage with their spirituality in a much more individual and creative way than generally was the case elsewhere on the continent. Where the Christian rules of religious observance were written down, it was harder for people to be inventive in their approach to worship. Now, that’s very interesting, but what can we learn from this? Does this offer any insights into ways that we might live happier, or maybe more meaningful lives today? You can guess the answer is yes, because otherwise this article would end in a disappointingly abrupt way around about now. Spiritual societies “When we delve into the history of spirituality in this marginalised area of Europe, we find something which I think is a lot more interesting than these prepackaged spiritualities. And that is people who have effectively found themselves cut off from other religious traditions and therefore they’ve forged their own, largely in a response to the environment in which they live,” says Francis. “I find that a rather refreshing perspective on religion, and on spirituality, from which perhaps we can draw some life lessons for today.” Before we carry on, it’s probably worth clarifying the difference between spirituality and religion. There are many answers to that, but in Francis’s view, it’s this: “Spirituality tends to refer to an awareness and connection with the numinous that does not necessarily have to have any link to organised religion. And religion in the way that we tend to talk about it in everyday speech (in Britain at least) tends to be to do with some kind of organised worship of a deity.” So when we’re talking about these non-Christian people in northern Europe, spirituality seems a more appropriate word. How that spirituality was actually manifested is hard to get at, because in the absence of a literate tradition, we are relying on second-hand accounts of their practices from Christian writers. Clearly we should be mindful that we’re looking through that lens. The fact that literacy wasn’t embedded in their cultures is a key element in the story though, according to Francis: “The creativity does come from the absence of a literate tradition because clearly that pins down things like rituals and beliefs and stories in a way that an oral culture tends not to. But I think the creativity also arises from the challenges that they faced in that their traditions were constantly being disrupted by attempts to convert them to Christianity, none of which really worked until quite late on in the story. If you are constantly enduring this kind of cultural attrition, you have a choice: you can capitulate, or you can devise your own way. What I find really interesting about these people is that they chose to find their own ways of being spiritual.” Sacred trees It seems that the spirituality of these non-Christian people was malleable and reactive, able to flex under pressure from external sources. Let’s go back to these sacred trees. From the late 15th century onwards, Christian missionaries recognised that there were still people worshipping trees in the Baltics, and so chopped them down to put a stop to it. That didn’t work. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2025/08/HIP2814415-36f2371.jpg" width="4000" height="2939" alt="A 15th-century German woodcut of the earlier Saint Alto chopping down trees, which Christian missionaries did during this period in the Baltics (Image by TopFoto)" title="A 15th-century German woodcut of the earlier Saint Alto chopping down trees, which Christian missionaries did during this period in the Baltics (Image by TopFoto)" /> “There’s one remarkable source that describes how these people developed a ritual for making new sacred trees. Now, it seems highly unlikely that this was part of their original tradition because the whole point of a tree being sacred is that it’s very, very old. It’s sacred because it’s always been there, and goes way, way back to your ancestors who also worship it. But if your sacred trees are constantly being cut down, you need a way of making new ones,” explains Francis. “So, according to this account, people in Latvia would go to a sacred tree that had been cut down. They would recover a branch or some part of the tree, and ask the permission of the tree that had been cut down to make a new sacred tree. It had to be of the same species as the original tree. They would ask the permission of that tree if it would become a new sacred tree, and then touch it with the branch of the tree that was originally sacred. That would make the new tree into a sacred one. And that, to me is extraordinary.” Becoming a tree-hugger Clearly a big part of the story is the persistent importance of the veneration of the natural world to these people. That’s something that has been lost, or at least denuded, in the Christian west, for want of a better way of describing it. I’m not a practising Christian, but I’ve read Tom Holland’s Dominion, and I buy into the idea that western morality and values are the inescapable product of Christianity. If I want to break free of that and find a bit of personal, creative, spirituality, it feels like trees are the way to go, in the spirit of Francis’s Latvian branch communicants. And thus, I went and hugged a tree. It wasn’t a great tree or an ancient tree. And it wasn’t even my favourite tree, the Scots Pine, which I’ve always found to have a particularly satisfying shape. It was an oak tree, in a little woodland down the road from my house. I talked to it a bit and asked it if it minded me hugging it. It didn’t reply. It’s a tree after all. But it didn’t drop any acorns on my head so I think we were in accord. I quite enjoyed hugging it. It was a warm day, and the experience was somewhat cooling. It was pleasantly scratchy on my face. I lingered for a minute or two in a woody embrace, and thought about stuff that was on my mind. I pondered on the strength of the trunk and the roots that no doubt extended some distance beneath my feet. “Most people will have memories of a particular place that's very significant to them, or perhaps a particular kind of tree which they find particularly beautiful or have a personal connection to: places which have some kind of numinous power,” suggests Francis. “And what if you didn't just leave that in the realm of a happy and pleasant memory. What if you actually imbued that with the sacred? What if you went that extra step of fashioning your own way of thinking about what is sacred?” I didn’t get as far as imbuing my hugging tree with sacrality, but I think it was a nice ritual (I’ve got an upcoming article in this series on the importance of ritual, so I’ll come back to that). I felt a little bit of a sense of arboreal power, which just made me reflect on myself a little more deeply than I ordinarily might. If that’s creative spirituality, I think it’s quite helpful. It certainly wasn’t a bad thing. This builds on something that Professor Ronald Hutton told me in an earlier Life Lesson from History, when he opined that now is the perfect time for us to DIY our own religions, and that’s the benefit we get from living in a modern disenchanted world. I got a similar sense from Francis: “You can think about spirituality in a more personally creative way than simply going through a kind of shopping list and deciding ‘which of these spiritualities that I found online should I go with?’. I would encourage people to be creative and to explore the potential of spirituality as something which they fashion themselves as well as something which you might inherit from a tradition.” So the tradition I’m fashioning is to hug a tree. It’s not a new idea, I know. I’m not the first tree-hugger. But it gave me something a bit different, and maybe I’ll refine the ritual as time goes on. I salute the historical peoples of the pagan north and east of Europe, and Dr Francis Young, for reminding me that spirituality is in our gift to explore and fashion as we wish. Now, more than ever, we need to find connection with the natural world around us. So hug a tree, if you like, or do something else, but be spiritually creative and curious, and see where it takes you. This article is part of HistoryExtra's new Life Lessons from History Substack newsletter. Subscribe to the newsletter for more articles and podcasts exploring the ways in which history can help us live better, happier, healthier or more productive lives.
When gods go to war: what was the Titanomachy of Greek mythology?
Before Zeus could rule as the king of the ancient Greek gods, he had to defeat his father and the Titans in a decade-long war. It was either that or be eaten as a baby
In ancient Greek mythology, before the more famous Olympian Greek gods (think Poseidon, Athena, Aphrodite, Hermes and, of course, Zeus) came another group of deities: the Titans. These were the children of the primordial deities Uranus (the personification of the sky) and Gaia (Earth) and were ruled by Cronus. According to Theogony, an epic poem by Hesiod from the eighth century BC, Cronus had overthrown his father, castrating him in the process, but was warned that he would befall the same fate. To defy this prophecy, he made the somewhat extreme decision to devour his children as soon as they were born. This is when things began to go wrong for the Titans. Read more | The gods and their whims: your guide to ancient Greek religion He ate the goddesses Demeter, Hestia and Hera, along with the gods Hades and Poseidon. But the last child, Zeus, was saved from becoming a meal by his mother, Rhea. She tricked Cronus into eating a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead, and hid Zeus on the island of Crete. Once fully grown, he returned to fulfil the prophecy, forcing his father to vomit up his siblings before overthrowing him. Thus began the Titanomachy, a war between the gods that lasted 10 years. The Titanomachy explained On one side of the Titanomachy were the Titans led by Cronus, and on the other was Zeus and his allies – who included more than his recently regurgitated brothers and sisters. One of Zeus’s most important tasks in this contest for the universe was to free the Cyclopes (three one-eyed giants) and the Hecatoncheires (three enormous creatures with one hundred hands and fifty heads) from the deepest abyss of the underworld in return for their support. Listen | Natalie Haynes tackles listener questions on Greek myths, from ancient origins to modern reinterpretations Skilled craftsmen, the Cyclopes forged the thunderbolts that Zeus wielded as weapons, as well as Poseidon’s trident and Hades’ helmet, which gave him the power of invisibility. The immensely strong Hecatoncheires could hold off the Titans by bombarding them with huge boulders. Several Titans joined Zeus’s ranks, too, including Themis, a goddess personifying justice, law and order, and her son Prometheus. He would become best known for stealing fire from the realm of the gods and gifting it to the first humans. His punishment was to be chained to a rock and have an eagle eat his liver, only for it to grow back the following day and be eaten again. How did the Titanomachy end? After a decade of war, Zeus emerged victorious from the last great battle of the Titanomachy and became king of the gods. Holding dominion over the sky, he divided the cosmos with his brothers; Poseidon became a water god who took control of the seas and Hades became the god of death and the underworld. Cronus and most of the Titans would be imprisoned in Tartarus, the abyss from which the Cyclopes and Hecatoncheires had been freed, although some of Zeus’s enemies received unique punishments. Atlas, for example, was condemned to hold up the heavens on his shoulders for eternity. Read more | Zeus's children: who were the offspring of the god with a libido that couldn’t be contained The gods now resided on Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Greece, hence the name Olympians. But Zeus’s position was not yet safe: according to another Greek myth, the Titanomachy was followed by the Gigantomachy, a battle against the giants. More from us HistoryExtra members can explore more ancient Greek history with exclusive content from our archives Ancient Greek theatre and the Athenian identity Did any ancient Greeks visit Britain? Ancient Greek warrior women: the extraordinary female figures who shaped the Greco-Persian Wars Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers
Roman gods and goddesses: 17 of the most important deities of ancient Rome
With every aspect of Roman life having a specific deity to call upon, it can be tricky to make sense of the ancient pantheon – and that’s before you even take the Greek gods and goddesses into account. Here is a guide to the key divine figures and their importance to those who worshipped them
Looking at the ancient Roman religion, you’ll find a rich and diverse collection of gods and goddesses. Peer a little closer and you’ll realise that the pantheon has more than a glancing resemblance to those worshipped in Greece. As the Romans expanded their territory into the Hellenistic world, they took many things they liked and made them their own – whether it was art and culture, or their religious beliefs. As a result, the Greek gods and goddesses went through a rebranding. Suddenly, the Twelve Olympians were Dii Consentes. Worshipping these gods was a multi-faceted business in Roman society, from attending temples, shrines and sanctuaries to making offerings or paying private reverence to individual deities within the household. Every need was catered for and, while some held more sway than others, all had their place. Here are some of the most important names in the Roman religion. Who are the most famous Roman gods and goddesses? Jupiter – King of the gods, and god of the sky and thunder Juno – Queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and childbirth Mars – God of war Venus – Goddess of love, sex and beauty Neptune – God of the sea Pluto – God of the dead and the underworld Saturn – God of time, agriculture and seed-sowing Janus – God of beginnings, transition and doorways Vesta – Goddess of the hearth, home and family Mercury – God of commerce, merchants and travellers Ceres – Goddess of agriculture and harvest Apollo – God of the Sun, music, archery, healing and prophecy Diana – Goddess of the hunt and wild animals Minerva – Goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom, justice and war Vulcan – God of fire and forges Bacchus – God of wine, vines, fertility and revelry Sol Invictus – God of the Sun Jupiter: king of the Roman gods Known as: Ruler of the Roman pantheon, and god of the sky and thunder Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, husband (and brother) of Juno, father of Mars, Minerva, Vulcan and more Greek equivalent: Zeus When the Romans came across Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, they were so impressed that they appropriated his image, iconography and mythology for their own deific ruler. A muscular, bearded man wearing a crown, holding a thunderbolt and sceptre, and often associated with an eagle and sacred oak tree, the Romans worshipped him as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (Best and Greatest). As he was god of the sky and thunder too, the worship of Jupiter was the most important across the Roman world. The fifteen principal deities were overseen by priests called flamines, while the priest that looked after Jupiter was called a flamen Dialis. The heart of his cult was a mighty temple inaugurated in 509 BC on the Capitoline, one of the Seven Hills of Rome. It was dedicated not only to Jupiter but his queen, Juno, and daughter, Minerva. Together, they formed the Capitoline Triad at the top of the pantheon. Read more | Emperors, popes and Renaissance glory: exploring Rome’s history Under both the Roman republic and later the Roman empire, Jupiter was revered as the great protector of the Roman state. His festival took place in September, when officials had to sacrifice a white ox in his honour, while many emperors copied his look to assert their power. Such was his status that the Romans named the largest planet in the Solar System after him. According to the mythology, Jupiter earned his place as king of the gods by surviving his father’s wrath, and then overthrowing him. Saturn, god of time and agriculture, had been told that his children posed a threat to this throne and so devoured each one – Neptune, Pluto, Vesta, Juno and Ceres – as they were born. Only Jupiter was saved: his mother Ops tricked Saturn into eating a rock instead, causing him to vomit up the other children. Sure enough, they banded together to overthrow him, and divided the universe between themselves. Juno: queen of the gods, goddess of marriage and childbirth <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-1691895682-2629fbb-e1733392929424.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Juno, in an 18th-century painting by Georg Engelhard Schröder (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" title="Juno, in an 18th-century painting by Georg Engelhard Schröder (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman queen of the gods and protector of the Roman state Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops, wife (and sister) of Jupiter and mother of Mars, Vulcan and others Greek equivalent: Hera The most important of the goddesses, Juno was queen of the Roman pantheon, goddess of marriage and childbirth, and the maternal protector of Rome as a whole. During her festivals in March and July, a procession of married women made its way to her temple, shared with the other two of the Capitoline Triad, to make offerings. Her own temple was built on the Esquiline Hill in the fourth century BC. When entering her sanctuaries, pregnant women had to wear their hair loose, as hair tied in knots were thought to run the risk of problems in childbirth. Read more | Meet the people the ancient Romans tried to hide More than a mother, Juno looked after the warriors too, and was often portrayed in a goatskin and holding instruments of war like a spear and shield. Usually, she wore a diadem and held a sceptre, and was associated with the peacock, cuckoo and cow. Her origins may have been Etruscan – bearing a strong resemblance to the goddess Uni – or the Sabine people, but once adopted by the Romans she became nearly indistinguishable from the Greek queen of the gods, Hera. As Jupiter’s wife, Juno had to endure her husband’s numerous affairs, and the children they produced, and occasionally the legends had her jealously boiling over. She had Latona, mother of Diana, pursued by a giant serpent, and saw to it that the mortal Semele was killed by looking upon the true divine form of Jupiter before she could give birth to Jupiter’s son, Bacchus (who was ultimately saved by Jupiter, and born from his father’s thigh). Mars: god of war Known as: The Roman war god Family: Son of Jupiter and Juno, father of Romulus and Remus Greek equivalent: Ares War was a way of life for the Romans, and so it is unsurprising that the god just below Jupiter in importance was Mars, the Roman war god. The month of March would be named after him, as was the Red Planet. But unlike his Greek counterpart, Ares, who was disliked for his associations with the bloodlust and chaos of war, Mars was widely worshipped as the harbinger of Rome’s military might, a defender of the people, and the bringer of peace. Read more | A hidden Roman villa? A pair of "remarkable" swords might have just unlocked its ancient secrets He was often depicted wielding a spear, which could be wreathed with laurel as a sign of peace, and accompanied by a wolf and a woodpecker, animals revered by the Romans. According to tradition, sacred spears of Mars were kept at a shrine in Rome, and would be shaken by the temple’s consuls at times of impending conflict to ‘wake’ the god. Beyond his conduct in war, he became notorious for his sexual deeds. It was said that he fathered Romulus and Remus, the legendary brothers at the centre of the founding of Rome, after raping the Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia. Also included in his legends, he made an enemy of his brother Vulcan by bedding his wife Venus, and in his bid to woo the virgin goddess Minerva, he was tricked into marrying Anna Perenna, goddess of renewal and new year. Festivals in Mars’s honour took place in the spring and autumn, at the beginning and end of the military campaigning season. As these times were also linked with the growing of crops, he also held the role of an agricultural guardian. Read more | Fierce and furious: who are the most powerful gods of war throughout world history? Venus: goddess of love, sex and beauty Known as: The Roman goddess of love and desire, beauty and fertility, victory and prostitution Family: Wife of Vulcan, mother of Aeneas of Troy Greek equivalent: Aphrodite Since Venus was not initially worshipped in Rome, she had no myths, temples or cults of her own, and so almost completely became identified with the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Yet she grew to be one of the most vital in the Roman pantheon. The Romans named one of the known planets after her, and celebrated her main festival, Veneralia, in April, the beginning of spring and a time of new life. Others took place throughout the year. Even Julius Caesar claimed to be her descendent. Traditionally, her rise began around the Second Punic War in the third century BC when she was convinced to switch sides from Carthage to Rome in return for a temple on the Capitoline. As such, she was associated with victory as well as love, sex, beauty, desire, fertility and prostitution. Like Aphrodite, Venus had an unusual birth. When Saturn castrated the primordial god Caelus and threw his genitals into the sea, she emerged fully grown from the foam – a scene recreated in the Italian Renaissance painter Botticelli’s famous piece, the Birth of Venus. In the mythology, she is perhaps most associated with her affair with Mars, which ended in her husband Vulcan crafting a net to trap the pair while naked in bed, so that he could mock them before the other gods. She was certainly desired by all, including the mortal Adonis, and had several children, including Aeneas of Troy (the ancestor of Romulus and Remus). Neptune: god of the sea <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-463909963-cb221f7-e1733393340614.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Neptune riding in a chariot pulled by horses with dolphin tails, in a mosaic found in Tunisia (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)" title="Neptune riding in a chariot pulled by horses with dolphin tails, in a mosaic found in Tunisia (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman god of the sea and freshwater Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, brother of Jupiter and Pluto Greek equivalent: Poseidon While his brother Jupiter became god of the sky, Neptune took command of the sea, much like his Greek counterpart Poseidon (that was an upgrade from his original role as god of freshwater). Though the Romans were not as reliant on seafaring as their neighbours to the east, the worship of Neptune was still significant. Neptune was often heralded as one of the three most important Roman gods – though the Greeks endowed their sea god with the creation of horses, a connection never carried over by the Romans. His importance increased as the Romans extended their power over the Mediterranean, but Neptune only had one temple in Rome, near the Circus Flaminius, while the timing of his festival in July at the height of summer when water shortages were more likely, and so seemingly more a nod to his freshwater origins. Neptune’s iconography was highly distinctive, though. Married to Salacia, goddess of saltwater, he resided in a palace at the seabed, from which he used his mighty trident to control the waves and storms, and rode a chariot pulled by seahorses or dolphins. When the eighth planet of the Solar System was discovered in 1846, the decision was made to continue the tradition of using Roman names and, given its blue colour, Neptune was deemed a suitable choice. Read more | Water gods and sea goddesses: 17 water deities from world history Pluto: god of the dead and the underworld Known as: The Roman god of the underworld Family: Son of Saturn and Ops, brother of Jupiter and Neptune, husband of Proserpina Greek equivalent: Hades Given his association with death and what comes afterwards, it should be no surprise that Pluto was one of the gods that the Romans feared most. He had no temples, although there were altars where sacrifices could be made by priests clad in black robes. Ruling over the underworld, Pluto was the analogue of the Greek god Hades. That said, the mythology became tangled, so that Hades was also used as the name of the Roman underworld itself. For the Romans, he was also referred to by another name, Dis Pater, which means ‘rich father’, giving rise to the idea that the god was responsible for the mineral wealth underground. The son of Saturn and Ops, Pluto was one of the children to be devoured, and saved, before dividing responsibility of the world with his brothers Jupiter and Neptune. His most famous myth, however, relates to how he came to be married to the renowned beauty Proserpina. Longing for a wife and struck by one of Cupid’s arrows, he saw Proserpina in a field and immediately rode up in his chariot, seized her and took her to the underworld. Proserpina’s mother, the goddess Ceres, searched the world in vain for her, leaving Pluto’s reluctant bride to live in his underworld palace, only to return to the surface for a few months a year. Saturn: god of agriculture and seed-sowing <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/12/GettyImages-1941766247-31b72b6-e1733395890251.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="An 18th-century statue of Saturn - or Cronus in ancient Greece - by Lazar Widmann (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" title="An 18th-century statue of Saturn - or Cronus in ancient Greece - by Lazar Widmann (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman god of time and sowing seeds Family: Father of Jupiter, Pluto, Neptune, Juno, Ceres and Vesta Greek equivalent: Cronus In Rome today, the ruins of the Forum are dominated by eight columns still standing, which once belonged to a massive temple dedicated to Saturn from the early fifth century BC. He was honoured as the god of agriculture, particularly the sowing of seeds, and was associated with time. The Romans saw him as an old man with a long beard and holding a scythe. The Greeks knew him as Cronus. The son of the primordial deities of the sky and earth, Saturn fathered the gods Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Juno, Ceres and Vesta. As he had overthrown his father Caelus, he feared his children would do the same and so devoured them. It was only thanks to his wife Ops that Jupiter was saved from the fate, and she tricked Saturn into vomiting the others back up so that the pantheon was salvaged. Saturn was exiled from Greece. And yet he then went through an extraordinary revival of his reputation. Settling in Latium, he oversaw a golden age that saw the land become Rome. The Romans named both a day of the week and the furthest planet they knew after him, and marked his worship with their most popular festival of the year. For the week of Saturnalia every December, the Romans enjoyed a time of eating, drinking, games, gift-giving and breaking from societal norms (for instance, masters would wait on their slaves). We now recognise Saturnalia as a forerunner of Christmas. Janus: god of beginnings, transition and doorways Known as: The Roman household spirit of doorways and beginnings Family: Inconclusive Greek equivalent: None While the Romans have the Hellenistic world to thank for nearly all of their gods and goddesses, Janus was different. His worship had no Greek counterpart, going back before the adoption of their pantheon right to the founding of Rome by Romulus. He was one of the spirits of the household, namely doorways. Representing every entrance and exit, he symbolised both beginning and end; both transition and time. His place in Roman religion was ubiquitous. They invoked his name in prayers before Jupiter and honoured him at the start of each new month. January, the beginning of the new year, was named after him. Janus’s origins were murky, at best. It was said that he may have been a mortal king of the land of Latium – which would become Rome – who welcomed the fallen god Saturn after he was overthrown by his children and deified after death. He was most often depicted as literally two-faced so that he could look ahead and back at the same time. The Romans celebrated Janus by building ceremonial gateways in Rome. The Janus Geminus, for example, was near an entrance to the Forum and, according to tradition, the doors were closed in times of peace and open in war so that the god could always be free to assist Rome’s armies. Vesta: goddess of the hearth, home and family <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-487536948-2993980-e1733393673374.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Vesta, a 19th-century marble statue by Pietro Tenerani (Photo by Alessandro Vasari/Archivio Vasari/MONDADORI PORTFOLIO via Getty Images)" title="Vesta, a 19th-century marble statue by Pietro Tenerani (Photo by Alessandro Vasari/Archivio Vasari/MONDADORI PORTFOLIO via Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman goddess of the hearth Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops Greek equivalent: Hestia The worship of Vesta was as old as Rome itself and outlasted many of the cults that disappeared when Christianity came along. Her importance as goddess of the hearth was borne from the vital need to keep a fire going to make food and water, and also from the hearth’s role in Roman society as a gathering place for the family. At the Temple of Vesta in the Forum, a perpetual fire was maintained throughout the year, only to be officially extinguished and then relit every first day of March. If it went out at any other time, it would be seen as a portent of disaster. Keeping the fire was the task of the Vestal Virgins: six priestesses chosen as between the ages of six and ten and committed to a service of 30 years. During that time, they could not marry or – as their name suggests – have any sexual partners, to emulate the virginal Vesta (or Hestia in Greece). If the priestesses did break their chastity, they would be buried alive. But serving as a Vestal Virgin did come with notable advantages, including greater freedoms and privileges than many other women of Rome. At the festival of Vestalia in June, only matrons could enter the shrine, which they did barefoot. Afterwards, the shrine had to be swept and until the debris was thrown into the Tiber River, bad luck could befall Rome. Mercury: god of commerce, merchants and travellers Known as: The Roman god of shopkeepers, merchants, travellers, thieves and tricksters Family: Son of Jupiter and Maia (one of the nymphs known as the Pleiades) Greek equivalent: Hermes In his winged sandals and cap, and carrying a caduceus (a staff intertwined with two snakes), Mercury is one of the more instantly recognisable of the ancient gods. He was also one of the most popular given his role as an intermediary between deity and mortal. To the Greeks, he was Hermes, the messenger of the gods. The Romans regarded Mercury, however, as the protector of shopkeepers, merchants and travellers, since he controlled the movement of all things and represented commerce. Depictions often show him grasping a money bag. The son of Jupiter and Maia (daughter of the Titan, Atlas), he had a mischievous side too, earning him the reverence of thieves and tricksters. In one story, Mercury stole a herd of cattle, but was witnessed by a man named Battus. Having made the man vow not to tell anyone, the god then came to Battus in disguise and convinced him to tell the whole story; Mercury punished Battus by turning him into stone. His temple on the Aventine Hill may have gone back as far as 495 BC, and his festival, Mercuralia, was held every May. Swift and agile, the smallest planet in the night sky was named after him; the element, also known as quicksilver, similarly shares his name. Ceres: goddess of agriculture and harvest Known as: The Roman goddess of agriculture and harvest, and associated with motherhood Family: Daughter of Saturn and Ops, mother of Proserpina Greek equivalent: Demeter Today, we honour this goddess with the word that came from her name: cereal. According to tradition, the cult of Ceres first entered Rome around the early fifth century BC to stop a famine. Like her Greek parallel, Demeter, she was a goddess of agriculture and preserver of the natural cycle of things. Her primary festival of Cerialia lasted for seven days in April and featured games at the Circus Maximus, while other celebrations followed at key times for crop cultivation. Worship, from a temple on the Aventine Hill, then expanded so that Ceres came to protect women, motherhood and the plebians of Rome. Seen with the bounty of the fields, she carried either a sickle or cornucopia with sheaves of wheat. Ceres wore a crown of corn and poppies were her flower. But another important icon was the torch, referring to her most enduring myth. Despite Ceres’ attempts to protect Proserpina from unwanted attention, her daughter was abducted by Pluto and taken to the underworld. Ceres frantically searched the world for her, neglecting her duties until crops began to fail. When Proserpina was finally found, a deal was struck with Pluto so that she would only live in the underworld for six months of the year, allowing Ceres to focus on her care of the Earth again. Ceres’ sadness during Proserpina’s months away, however, led to the seasons of autumn and winter. Apollo: god of the Sun, music, archery, healing and prophecy <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-590663071-9b50c23-e1733394206541.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="An ancient Greek bronze disc depicting Apollo, who the Romans appropriated without changing (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" title="An ancient Greek bronze disc depicting Apollo, who the Romans appropriated without changing (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman and Greek god of many aspects of life Family: Son of Jupiter and Latona, twin brother of Diana Greek equivalent: Apollo Apollo holds a distinct honour: he has the same name in both Rome and Greece. So revered was he that the Romans took him wholesale and instead of giving him a Roman flavour, as they did with the other gods and goddesses, he remained a foreign part of the pantheon with his mythology unchanged. Tall, athletic, youthful and beautiful, Apollo was one of the most loved of deities. He had myriad functions and associations, including the Sun and light, archery and music, healing and prophecy, and, as a bringer of law and reason, the harbinger of divine retribution. Riding a chariot drawn by swans, he wielded both a bow (his archery skills were legendary) and a lyre, referring to his position as a patron of the arts. The Romans first called upon Apollo around the fifth century BC, in particular for healing at a time of plague, and he remained a mainstay in the religion since then. He was especially beloved by the future emperor Augustus, whose naval victory at the battle of Actium in 31 BC, over the fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra, took place near a sanctuary of Apollo. This led him to erect a new temple on the Palatine Hill in Rome. Nearly two millennia later, when NASA needed a name for their ambitious program to launch astronauts into space and land them on the Moon, they chose Apollo. Diana: goddess of the hunt and wild animals Known as: The Roman goddess of the hunt, childbirth, the Moon and more Family: Daughter of Latona, twin sister of Apollo Greek equivalent: Artemis When the goddess Latona became pregnant with twins by Jupiter, his jealous wife Juno banished her and set a giant serpent to pursue her across the world. She only found refuge on the island of Delos, where she gave birth to her children: Apollo and Diana. Like her twin brother, Diana was worshipped for numerous functions, including chastity and childbirth; the Romans saw her as a triple goddess, connected to the underworld and the Moon, too. They preferred to worship her in a natural setting, choosing the grove of Diana Nemorensis on the shores of Lake Nemi. To this day, Diana is worshipped by neopagan religions, like Wicca. But she is probably still best known as the goddess of the hunt and wild animals, like Artemis in Greece. She never married, preferring the company of animals and nymphs to gods and mortals. Accompanied by a stag or hunting dog, she wore a shorter dress than the other goddesses to help her run more easily. Some depictions also shows her in a cloak, boots and bejewelled belt. In the mythology, Diana was once spotted while bathing by a hunter named Actaeon. She grew angry for him looking upon her naked form and transformed him into a deer. He was killed by his own dogs. Minerva: goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom, justice and war <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-464440657-2e131f1-e1733394472825.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Minerva Victorious over Ignorance, c1591, by Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" title="Minerva Victorious over Ignorance, c1591, by Flemish painter Bartholomeus Spranger (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman goddess of crafts, wisdom, justice and war Family: Daughter of Jupiter and Metis Greek equivalent: Athena Of all the gods and goddess with unconventional births, the daughter of Jupiter deserves special mention. The story goes that the king of the gods had an affair with a Titan named Metis, but upon hearing that she may be carrying the child that could overthrow him, he swallowed her. Metis gave birth inside Jupiter and set about forging armour for her daughter, Minerva. This caused Jupiter such bad headaches that he had his head split open, and Minerva sprang out fully grown. This story was taken from the Greek mythology of Athena (after whom the city of Athens was named). Minerva, as one of the Capitoline Triad, was worshipped as goddess of craftsmanship, wisdom and justice, but was also beloved for her virginal purity. Beginning with a shrine on the Aventine Hill in the third century BC, Minerva grew in stature until she was more associated with war. Particularly, she represented the strategy of battle and victory, often depicted wearing a breastplate, helmet and carrying a spear. Her other symbols included the owl, for wisdom, and olive branch, for victory. Minerva even began to overshadow Mars, becoming the focus of the Quinquatras, a festival held every March. Then Emperor Domitian escalated the status of her cult further by claiming that she was his personal protector. He built a new temple and named a new legion after her, Legio I Minervia. Today, her image appears at many universities, especially in the US. Vulcan: god of fire and forges <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-450085425-20190b1-e1733394681261.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Vulcan in an 18th-century painting by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni (Photo by Sergio Anelli / Electa / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)" title="Vulcan in an 18th-century painting by Italian artist Pompeo Batoni (Photo by Sergio Anelli / Electa / Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)" /> Known as: The Roman god of fire, the forge and metalworking Family: Son of Jupiter and Juno, husband of Venus Greek equivalent: Hephaestus Most members of the Roman pantheon tended to be shown as stunningly beautiful or handsome, so it is worth sparing a thought for Vulcan. Despite possessing such strength to be the master blacksmith of the gods – who made magical tools and weapons, like Jupiter’s lightning bolts and Mercury’s winged helmet – he was said to be so ugly, and lame in one leg, that his mother Juno was disgusted and threw him from the realm of the gods. Growing up in a cave on Earth, he learned his unparalleled skills as a smith, so much so that he could take his revenge on his mother. Vulcan designed a magnificent throne for Juno, but when she sat in it, a trap mechanism was released that would not let her go. Vulcan only agreed to free her if Venus married him. It was not a loving relationship: when Venus betrayed him by sleeping with Mars, Vulcan made a special net to catch them in bed. As god of fire and forges, the symbols of Vulcan – the equivalent of Hephaestus in Greece – were the hammer and anvil. The Romans celebrated his chief festival in August, which involved throwing small fish into a fire as a sacrifice, but his association with the destructive power of conflagrations meant that his temples were built a little outside of the city. Volcanoes, after all, were named after him. After the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64, an altar was erected in Vulcan’s honour at Quirinal Hill in the hopes of placating his wrath and preventing another blaze of such devastation. Read more | Fire gods and goddesses: 14 fire deities from world history Bacchus: god of wine, vines, fertility and revelry Known as: The Roman god of wine, revelry and ecstasy Family: Son of Jupiter and Semele (a mortal daughter of a king) Greek equivalent: Dionysus Wine, revelry and festivals of such unrestrained celebration that they were for a time banned in Rome: it is clear why Bacchus was one of the more popular gods. His Greek equivalent was Dionysus, a name that is thought to have first appeared in the 13th century BC, suggesting he was worshipped in the Mycenaean period. It was Dionysus who gave King Midas his golden touch. In Roman mythology – which was combined with another god, Liber – Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and a mortal woman, Semele. While still pregnant, Semele was killed after a jealous Juno contrived to have her look upon Jupiter’s true divine form. Bacchus was only saved by Mercury sewing him into Jupiter’s thigh until the child was ready to be born. Raised by a satyr named Silenus, Bacchus was portrayed as a young, effeminate man in an ivy crown. He held a bunch of grapes and a thyrsus (a stalk of fennel wrapped in ivy and topped with a pine cone) and would be accompanied by big cats like lions, tigers, panthers and leopards. He travelled the world, as far as India, spreading knowledge of viticulture, the cultivation of grapes and building a following of women called maenads. His importance to wine, vines and having a good time was marked in lively festivals, called Bacchanalia. Sol Invictus: god of the Sun Known as: The ‘unconquered Sun’ or ‘invincible Sun’ Family: Unknown Greek equivalent: Helios Meaning ‘unconquered Sun’, Sol Invictus would ride a four-horse chariot across the sky as he wears a shining solar crown. It was his responsibility to bring each new day and protect Rome from darkness, which the Romans prayed for at temples on the Quirinal Hill and Circus Maximus. Sol Invictus had been adapted, with influences from a Syrian deity, from an earlier Sun god, Sol, which had in turn come from the Greek deity Helios. In the third century AD, emperors Elagabalus and Aurelian both tried to make Sol Invictus the primary god of the Roman pantheon, with the former building a new temple on the Palatine Hill and the latter erecting a shrine in the Campus Agrippae. His festival was marked on 25 December, the Roman celebration of the winter solstice. Read more | Sun gods and goddesses: 16 solar deities from world history
Zeus's children: who were the offspring of the god with a libido that couldn’t be contained
The king of the gods in the ancient Greek pantheon had a notorious reputation for sleeping around, so it should come as no surprise that Zeus fathered a lot of children. When you’re nearly counting your offspring in three figures, though, that really is a big family
The king of the Greek gods could control many things: the weather, as the sky and thunder god; order and justice; his enemies, thanks to his thunderbolts; and the other Olympians, most of the time. The thing that Zeus couldn’t control was his libido. His mythology is littered with sordid tales of seducing other goddesses or mortal women, all to the knowledge and chagrin of his long-suffering wife Hera. He forced himself on the subjects of his desire or tricked them into making love to him, even transforming himself into animals to get close to them. Zeus raped the mortal Spartan queen Leda in the form of a swan, a myth that became a source of inspiration for Renaissance art. And when he became besotted with a young prince of Troy, Ganymede, he abducted the boy as an eagle to serve as the cupbearer of the gods. From his dozens of lovers came many children, possibly nearing 100, giving new meaning to his status in ancient Greek religion as the father of all. Here are some of Zeus’s most notable offspring, from the divine to the demi-god. Ares <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-1691897505-4f03772-e1734349737360.jpg" width="620" height="414" alt="Ares, or Mars as he was called in Rome, in a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" title="Ares, or Mars as he was called in Rome, in a 17th-century painting by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)" /> Ares was one of the few children that Zeus actually fathered with his queen, Hera, although that did not help his reputation. A war god, he was generally disliked by the Greeks for his associations with bloodlust, brutality and chaos, so was not widely worshipped. While Ares went into battle accompanied by his sons Phobos and Deimos (fear and terror), his half-sister Athena was the war god to go to for military strategy and leadership. That said, the warrior city state of Sparta did make human sacrifices to him. Apollo and Artemis <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-170520687-f4db317-e1734350066295.jpg" width="620" height="412" alt="Apollo and his sister Artemis in a frieze from the Parthenon, Athens (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" title="Apollo and his sister Artemis in a frieze from the Parthenon, Athens (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> These divine twins, and master archers, were among the most beloved of the Greek pantheon, in contrast to Ares. This was especially true of Apollo, although Artemis’s temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Apollo held myriad roles, including his associations with the Sun and light, archery and music, healing and prophecy, and, as a bringer of law and reason, divine retribution. The Romans liked him so much that they didn’t even change his name or mythology when they adopted the Greek gods as their own. Meanwhile, Artemis was the goddess of the hunt, wilderness and wild animals, but equally revered for helping with childbirth and the care of children. This went back to the myth of how she helped her mother deliver Apollo in the first place. Their mother was the Titan, Leto, who had been pursued by a jealous Hera when she heard of Zeus’s affair. A pregnant Leto eventually found refuge on the island of Delos. Hermes Hermes’ mother was Maia, one of the Pleiades (the seven sister nymphs who accompanied Artemis). With his winged sandals that allowed him to travel between the realms of the gods and mortals, he became the messenger of the gods and a guide for the souls of the dead to the underworld. As well as travel and trade, he was associated with luck, wealth and mischief. Hermes had only just been born when he stole a sacred herd of cattle. But on a more heroic note, he rescued one of Zeus’s lovers from the many-eyed monster, Argos, who had been sent by a jealous Hera. Heracles <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-463918655-6ec2cea-e1734350386258.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="Heracles Delivering Hesione, an 18th-century painting by François Lemoyne (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)" title="Heracles Delivering Hesione, an 18th-century painting by François Lemoyne (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)" /> Of all the victims of Hera’s jealousy, the legendary hero Heracles suffered a great deal. The extraordinarily strong demi-god was the child of a mortal princess named Alcmene, who Zeus seduced while disguised as her husband. Hera did all she could to get revenge, initially sending two serpents to kill Heracles as a baby only for him to strangle them in his first feat of super-strength. When he was an adult, Hera induced Heracles into a fit of madness that led to him killing his wife and children. Yet after his death, and his famous Twelve Labours, Heracles was welcomed at Mount Olympus and made a god. Perseus <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/10/GettyImages-625436606-c4fff9e-e1734350597572.jpg" width="620" height="437" alt="Perseus Freeing Andromeda, a 17th-century painting by Peter Paul Rubens (Photo by PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" title="Perseus Freeing Andromeda, a 17th-century painting by Peter Paul Rubens (Photo by PHAS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> Long before Heracles, Perseus proved himself a great hero by slaying Medusa, a Gorgon whose gaze turned people to stone, and rescuing Andromeda. The daughter of a king, she had been fastened to a rock on the shore to be sacrificed to a sea serpent, but Perseus killed the beast and freed her. His mother was Danae, a beautiful mortal princess trapped in her chamber by her father. He had been told that his grandson would kill him, so went to extreme lengths to keep his daughter a virgin. Zeus’s solution was to come to Danae in the form of golden rain. Persephone <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/12/GettyImages-959929188-473cf77-e1734350760225.jpg" width="620" height="413" alt="A 17th-century painting depicting the infamous Greek myth, the Rape of Persephone (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" title="A 17th-century painting depicting the infamous Greek myth, the Rape of Persephone (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)" /> Persephone was the child of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture and harvest, Demeter. He had already proven with Hera that he had no qualms sleeping with his sister, after all. Persephone was best known for becoming the queen of the underworld as the (reluctant) wife of Hades. In the myth, known as the Rape of Persephone, the lord of the underworld was instantly besotted when he saw her gathering flowers and abducted her. A distraught Demeter searched far and wide, letting the crops fail, before Persephone was found. Zeus demanded she be released, but Hades tricked her into eating a few pomegranate seeds, meaning she had eaten food in the underworld and could not leave. A deal was struck so that Persephone spend a third of the year with Hades. Athena The goddess of wisdom, warfare and crafts had one of the more unconventional births, although Dionysus might have something to say about that. When Zeus heard that his first wife, a Titan named Metis, would give birth to a child who would overthrow him, he took a leaf out of his father’s book and swallowed Metis whole. That could not stop the child, Athena, who burst from his forehead fully grown. Despite the rough start, she became a favourite of Zeus’s. To this day, in the city of Athens, which was named after her, stands the ruins of the mighty Parthenon, dedicated to Athena. Read more | The history of Athens: exploring the birthplace of democracy and philosophy Dionysus <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2024/12/GettyImages-513668529-98f35ff-e1734351060145.jpg" width="620" height="414" alt="Dionysus, depicted in a third-century statue (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" title="Dionysus, depicted in a third-century statue (Photo by Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)" /> If you thought Athena’s birth was tricky, spare a thought for Dionysus. After his mother, the mortal Semele, was seduced by Zeus and impregnated, an enraged Hera came to her in disguise and contrived to have Semele look upon the true divine form of the king of the gods. No mortal could look upon a god, so Semele was destroyed. Zeus saved the unborn Dionysus, however, by sewing the child into his own thigh and carrying him until the real birth. Dionysus became a party god of wine, festivity and ecstasy, making him enormously popular to the Greeks. The Graces, Muses, Fates and Horae As proof of how many lovers Zeus had, and the large family he built, some of his children can be grouped. The Graces were at least three fertility goddesses while the Muses were nine goddesses of inspiration in the arts, science and literature, who Zeus fathered with the Titan deity associated with memory, Mnemosyne. The Fates and Horae were two sets of triplets, the former responsible for keeping track of everyone’s destiny and the latter being the personifications of the seasons. Both sets had the same mother, Themis, the Titan goddess of divine law and order. Minos When Zeus was struck by the beauty of a Phoenician princess, Europa, he transformed into a magnificent white bull and abducted her. He swam with Europa on his back to the island of Crete and seduced her. Their child was Minos, the legendary ruler of Crete. The Minoan civilisation that thrived there was named after him. In the mythology, he was famous for his regular sacrifices of seven boy and seven girls to the bull-headed creature, the Minotaur, which he kept in a labyrinth. Perhaps lesser known was how after his death, from having boiling water poured over him as he bathed, Minos became a judge in the underworld.
King of the gods and sex pest: the legend of Zeus and his thunderbolts
From narrowly avoiding being eaten by his father as a baby to seducing mortal women as a swan or a bull, there were some eye-catching myths about the thunderbolt-hurling god. Jonny Wilkes explores how Zeus came to top the Greek pantheon
Flowing hair and thick beard; heaving muscles that seem to fizz with electricity; and a thunderbolt clasped in one hand while he sits on a throne or stands on a mountaintop. That tends to be the archetypal depiction of Zeus. The king of the ancient Greek gods, and spiritual father of both deity and mortal, needed a powerful image. From Mount Olympus, he ruled over all as a protector and arbiter of justice, and as god of the sky and thunder the weather was his to command. Hence the lightning. What were the origins of Zeus? Zeus was the son of Cronus, leader of the Titans. They were a group of gods borne from a union of the Earth (personified as Gaia) and sky (Uranus) who existed before the more-famous Olympians. Upon hearing a warning that one of his offspring would overthrow him – much like he had done with his own father – Cronus made the extreme decision to devour all of his children after their birth. He swallowed three would-be goddesses, Hestia, Demeter and Hera, and two would-be gods, Hades and Poseidon, and would have had Zeus for dessert were it not for his wife’s quick thinking. Rhea managed to save the youngest of the children by tricking Cronus into eating a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes. She then hid Zeus on the island of Crete, where he was nursed either by a nymph or a goat, depending on the version of the story, while warriors called Curetes clashed their weapons to make enough noise to drown out the baby’s crying. Zeus’s rise to power and the Titanomachy Once a man, which happened quickly for a Greek deity, Zeus made a triumphant return to take on his father. He forced Cronus to vomit up his five brothers and sisters, then, just had been foretold, set about overthrowing him. This began the Titanomachy, a ten-year war between with the Titans on one side and Zeus, the Olympian gods and their allies on the other. The powerful Zeus wielded the thunderbolt as a weapon and carried the aegis, a divine protective shield. As his mythology grew, so did his other important symbols: the eagle, bull and oak tree. Zeus eventually defeated the Titans, with the help of the Cyclopes (one-eyed giants, who forged his thunderbolts) and the hundred-handed, fifty-headed creatures called the Hecatoncheires. He had freed them from Tartarus, the deepest abyss of the underworld, which was where he imprisoned the defeated Titans. The victors then divided the cosmos between themselves. Hades became the god of the underworld and Poseidon the god of the sea, while Zeus held dominion over the sky. Read more | Water gods and sea goddesses: 17 water deities from world history What was Zeus the god of, and what powers did he have? Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek mythology, as well as the king of the Greek gods. From Mount Olympus, the highest peak in Greece, Zeus could oversee everything. He was a protector of cities and homes, but also people. Especially those on the fringes of society, namely strangers and beggars, were under his care. Zeus would dispense justice as he saw fit and was the guardian of oaths, which resulted in the Greeks turning to him to maintain order in the world. He also became associated with prophecy and fate. His oracle at Dodona in northern Greece interpreted the sounds of wind rustling through the sacred oak tree and the babbling water of the holy spring. As god of the sky and thunder, Zeus controlled the weather. He sent the rain and winds, which were so vital to the growing of crops, and whenever lightning struck it was regarded as a sign, for good or for ill, from the ruler of the gods. Zeus in ancient Greek mythology The most important source describing the origins, genealogy and mythology of the Greek gods is the Theogony, a poem composed in the eighth century BC by Hesiod. The mighty cosmological work charts the events that led to Zeus’s rise to power, including the Titanomachy. Following that victory, Zeus’s position was still not safe. The Olympians went on to defeat the giants in the Gigantomachy and Zeus put down a number of threats to his rule, including a rebellion led by his own wife Hera, brother Poseidon and daughter Athena. Listen | Natalie Haynes tackles listener questions on Greek myths, from ancient origins to modern reinterpretations Zeus could be ruthless to his defeated foes or those who angered him, as numerous myths demonstrate. There was Atlas, the Titan who was punished for his role in the Titanomachy by being made to hold up the heavens for eternity. Or Sisyphus, the tyrant king made to push a huge stone up a hill every day only to watch it roll down to the bottom before he ever reached the top. For gifting fire from Mount Olympus to mortals, Prometheus was bound to a rock and had his liver eaten by an eagle. It would grow back each time, allowing the eagle to return every day. Not done with that, Zeus also punished the mortals for Prometheus’s deed by sending them Pandora, the first woman, with a jar containing all the evils of the world inside. These were released, bringing death, disease and famine to the Earth. Who was Zeus’s wife? According to Hesiod, Zeus had a total of seven wives. The last of them was his sister, Hera, who he seduced by appearing to her in the form of a cuckoo and pretending to be cold so that she would take pity and let him into her room. He then turned back into himself and made love to her. Yet to say that Zeus could have been a better husband would be an understatement. Arguably, he was known more for his lust and promiscuity than his thunderbolts, taking dozens of lovers from both the realms of the gods and mortals. The long-suffering Hera was fully aware of his infidelities; in fact, many myths revolve around her jealousy or the acts of vengeance she metes out on Zeus’s lovers or offspring. As they are described in the mythology, however, many of Zeus’s sexual exploits amounted to assault and rape as he forced himself on the women he desired or tricked them. The cuckoo was not the only animal form he took to find his way into women’s beds. The ancient Greeks would have regarded the stories of Zeus’s ‘seductions’ as proof of his power and virility. How many children did Zeus have? By some interpretations of the mythology, Zeus may have had more than 90 children from his numerous lovers. Among his offspring were the gods and goddesses Ares, the twins Apollo and Artemis, and Athena (whose unconventional birth involved bursting out of Zeus’s forehead fully grown). Read more | Fierce and furious: who are the most powerful gods of war throughout world history? He tricked his way into fathering the legendary heroes Heracles – seducing the mortal Alcmene by disguising himself as her husband – and Perseus, whose mother, Danae, was impregnated by Zeus in the form of golden rain. His other transformations included a swan, which he used to rape Leda (mother of Helen, the renowned beauty who “launched a thousand ships”), and a white bull. In this form, he abducted Europa and fathered Minos, the king who built the labyrinth to house the dreaded Minotaur. A jealous Hera often treated Zeus’s mistresses or children badly. Hera convinced Zeus’s mortal – and pregnant – lover Semele to ask to look upon his true divine form, knowing that Zeus had to grant her wish; the sight made Semele burst into flames. The unborn son was sown into Zeus’s thigh until he was ready to be born, as the god Dionysus. How did the Greeks worship Zeus? Zeus’s status as the all-encompassing king of the gods meant that the Greeks did not always focus their worship on him, preferring a more specific god to meet a targeted need. That said, they would have statues of Zeus in the home, as well as build temples and hold festivals. The statue of Zeus at Olympia made of gold and ivory by the artist Phidias was so magnificent that it was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, while the Olympic Games began in 776 BC to honour his name. Then when the Romans adopted the Greek pantheon wholesale, they turned Zeus into Jupiter. More from us HistoryExtra members can explore this topic further with exclusive content from our archives What did the ancient Greeks do for us? Ancient Greek theatre and the Athenian identity Ancient Greek warrior women: the extraordinary female figures who shaped the Greco-Persian Wars Quiz: how much do you know about ancient Greece? Not a HistoryExtra member? Explore our latest membership offers
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Norse myths: everything you wanted to know
Everything you wanted to know about history (podcast series)
Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough delves into the pantheon of Norse myths, from the inscrutability of the nine realms to larger-than-life tales of mischief and magic
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Roman gods & goddesses: everything you wanted to know
From Mars to Minerva, Philip Freeman answers listener questions on the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses
How were Roman deities different to Greek deities? Why did the Romans sacrifice animals? What did religious cults get up to in ancient Rome? And just how many gods and goddesses did they worship? In our latest everything you wanted to know episode, Emily Briffett puts listener questions on the Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses to Philip Freeman, Professor of Classics at Pepperdine University.
8 ancient Egyptian gods and goddesses you might not know about
The ancient Egyptians worshipped at least 1,500 gods and goddesses. Some of these, such as the mummified god of the dead, Osiris, and the goddess of magical healing, Isis, are well known today. Others are more obscure. So how much do you know about Egypt’s forgotten deities? Here, egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley shares 8 lesser-known gods and goddesses
Discover 8 lesser-known deities worshipped by ancient Egyptians… Taweret At first sight the goddess Taweret, ‘the great female one’, appears to be composed of randomly selected animal parts. She has the body and head of a pregnant hippopotamus standing on its hind legs, the tail of a crocodile, and the limbs of a lioness – topped, occasionally, by a woman’s face. Her mouth lolls open to reveal rows of dangerous-looking teeth, and she often wears a long wig. We might find this combination of fierce animals and false hair frightening, but the women of ancient Egypt regarded Taweret as a great comfort, as she was able to protect them during childbirth by scaring away the evil spirits who might harm either the mother or the baby. This made her extremely popular so that, although she did not have a grand temple, her image was displayed on walls, beds, headrests and cosmetic jars in many private homes, and she even appears on palace walls. The same assortment of animal parts – this time the head of a crocodile, the foreparts and body of a lion or leopard and the hind parts of a hippopotamus – can be found in Ammit, the ‘eater of the damned’. Unlike Taweret, Ammit was greatly feared. She lived in the kingdom of the dead where she squatted beside the scales used during the ‘weighing of the heart’, a ceremony that saw the heart of the deceased being weighed against the feather of truth. Those whose hearts proved light were allowed to pass into the afterlife. Hearts that weighed heavy against the feather were eaten by Ammit. 10 things you (probably) didn't know about ancient Egypt Why was mummification used in Ancient Egypt, and why did they leave the heart in the body? Bes Bes was another god who brought comfort and protection to mothers and children. A part-comical, part-sinister dwarf with a plump body, prominent breasts, bearded face, flat nose and protruding tongue, Bes might be either fully human, or half-human, half-animal (usually lion). He might have a mane, a lion’s tail, or wings. He often wears a plumed headdress and carries either a drum or tambourine, or a knife. Bes offered a welcome protection against snakes. But his primary role was as a dancer and musician who used his art to frighten away bad spirits during the dangerous times of childbirth, childhood, sex and sleep. His image decorated bedrooms of all classes, and we can also see him, either tattooed or painted, on the upper thigh of dancing girls. Neith Neith is a warrior or a hunter. Human-form and bald, she wears a crown and carries a bow and arrows. Her linen sheath dress is so tight that, in an age before lycra, she would have had difficulty moving around the battlefield. Her title ‘mother of the gods’ identifies her with the creative force present at the beginning of the world, and it is possible that she is credited with inventing childbirth. On the wall of the temple of Khnum at Esna, in southern Egypt, we see Neith emerging from the primeval waters as a cow-goddess who creates land by simply saying the words: “Let this place be land for me.” Neith was worshipped throughout Egypt, but was particularly associated with the western Delta town of Sais (modern Sa el Hagar) where her temple became known as the ‘house of the bee’. During the 26th dynasty (664-525 BCE), a time when Sais was Egypt’s capital city, she became the dominant state god, and the kings were buried in the grounds of her temple. Her temple and the royal tombs that it contained are now lost. Read more | Water gods and sea goddesses: 17 water deities from world history The Aten If Taweret and Ammit seem to have too many body parts, the god known simply as the Aten, or ‘the sun disk’, does not seem to have enough. The Aten is a bodiless, faceless sun that emits long rays tipped with tiny hands. He hangs in the sky above the royal family, offering them the ankh, symbol of life. As he has no known mythology, we can say very little more about him. This apparently dull deity inspired such devotion in Pharaoh Akhanaten (ruled c1352–1336 BC) that he abandoned the traditional gods, closed their temples and built a new capital city which he named ‘Horizon of the Aten’ (modern Amarna), dedicated to the Aten. Had a private citizen decided to worship just one god, there would have been no problem. But Akhenaten, as pharaoh, was expected to make offerings to all of Egypt’s gods. His decision to abandon the traditional rituals was seen as very dangerous –surely the old gods would get angry? Not long after his death, the pantheon was restored by Tutankhamen (ruled c1336–1327 BC). As the old temples re-opened, the Aten sank back into obscurity. Listen | Chris Naunton on the search for the resting places of famous Egyptians such as Nefertiti and Cleopatra Sekhmet Many of us are familiar with Hathor, the gentle cow-headed sky goddess associated with motherhood, nurturing and drunkenness. Few of us realise that Hathor has an alter ego. When angry, she transforms into the Sekhmet, ‘the powerful one’, an uncompromising, fire-breathing lioness armed with an arsenal of pestilences and plagues and the ability to burn Egypt’s enemies with the fierce heat of the sun. Sekhmet was a ruthless defender of her father the pharaoh and this, together with her skill with a bow and arrow, caused her to become closely associated with the army. When the sun god, Re, learned that the people of Egypt were plotting against him, he sent Sekhmet to kill them all. When he changed his mind, and determined to save the people, he had a lot of trouble stopping the killing. Sekhmet was not entirely vicious, however. As ‘mistress of life’, she could cure all the ills that she inflicted, and her priests were recognised as healers with a powerful magic. Khepri Khepri, ‘the one who comes into being’, is the morning sun. He is usually shown in the form of a beetle, although he might also be a beetle-headed man, or a beetle-headed falcon. He is a divine version of the humble scarab beetle whose habit of pushing around a large ball of dung made the ancients imagine a huge celestial beetle rolling the ball of the sun across the sky. Hidden within the scarab beetle’s dung ball were eggs that eventually hatched, crawled out of the ball and flew away. Observing this, the Egyptians jumped to the conclusion that beetles were male beings capable of self-creation. This enviable ability to regenerate made the scarab one of Egypt’s most popular amulets, used by both the dead and the living. Although Khepri did not have a temple, he was often depicted alongside Egypt’s other gods in the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. <img src="https://images.immediate.co.uk/production/volatile/sites/7/2018/01/GettyImages-463925099-2-37c2110.jpg" width="802" height="530" alt="Four figures in a boat, including the ibis-headed god Thoth and the scarab-headed god Khepri" title="Detail from a funerary papyrus dating from the 21st Dynasty (11th-10th century BC). Four figures in a boat, including the ibis-headed god Thoth and the scarab-headed god Khepri. Located in the Louvre, Paris. (Photo by Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images)" /> Renenutet Renenutet was a cobra goddess. The Egyptian cobra can grow to be nine feet long and can, when angry or threatened, raise a third of its body from the ground, and expand its ‘hood’ (cervical ribs). This made the female cobra a useful royal bodyguard. A rearing cobra (the uraeus) was worn on the royal brow; cobra amulets were included in mummy wrapping to protect the dead; and a painted pottery cobra, placed in the corner of a room, was known to be an effective means of warding off evil ghosts and spirits. Every year the river Nile flooded in late summer. The rising waters caused an increase in the number of snakes attracted to the settlements by the vermin flushed from the low-lying ground. This caused the cobra to be associated with the fertility of the Nile. Renenutet, ‘she who nourishes’, lived in the fertile fields where, as goddess of the harvest and granaries, she ensured that Egypt would not go hungry. Cobras were considered exceptionally good mothers, and Renenutet was no exception. As a divine nurse she suckled the king; as a fire-breathing cobra she protected him in death. Where, in Ancient Egypt, did people live? Life in Ancient Egypt: what was it like? Geb In most mythologies, the fertile earth is classed as female. In ancient Egypt, however, the earth was male. Geb was an ancient and important earth god who represented both the fertile land and the graves dug into that land. For this combination of attributes, and for his prowess as a healer, he was both respected and feared. He usually appears as a reclining man beneath the female sky. His naked green body often shows signs of his impressive fertility, and he may have grain growing from his back. Alternatively, he might appear as a king wearing a crown. In animal form, Geb might be a goose (or a man wearing a goose on his head) or a hare, or he might form part of the crew of the sun boat that sails across the sky each day. Geb ruled Egypt during the time when people and gods lived together. Later, Greek tradition would equate Geb with the Titan Chronos, who overthrew his father Uranus at the urging of his mother, Gaia. Joyce Tyldesley teaches a suite of online courses in Egyptology at the University of Manchester. She is the author of Myths and Legends of Ancient Egypt (Viking Penguin 2010). This article was first published by History Extra in January 2017