50 Fun Facts About Greek Goddesses

Which winged Greek goddess of victory has featured on every Summer Olympic medal since Amsterdam 1928?

Nike holds a winner's crown and a palm on the design introduced for the Amsterdam Games. Since Athens 2004 she has been shown above the Panathenaic Stadium rather than the Roman Colosseum.

Which feature of the night sky was formed, in Greek myth, when Hera pushed the suckling infant Heracles away?

The Milky Way, in the best-known telling, was the milk that spurted across the heavens when Hera woke and thrust the unknown baby aside. The Greek word for milk, gala, is also the root of galaxy.

In the Roman poet Ovid's telling, Athena punished which beautiful maiden by turning her hair into snakes?

Medusa is a punished beauty in Ovid's late version; in Hesiod's older account she was born a Gorgon. After Perseus beheaded her, he gave the head to Athena, who set it on her shield.

The word cereal comes from Ceres, the Roman name for which Greek goddess of grain and the harvest?

Demeter was Ceres to the Romans, and cereal comes from the Latin for 'of Ceres'. Her secret rites at Eleusis, near Athens, promised initiates a happy afterlife.

Which Trojan prince awarded a golden apple to Aphrodite, judging her fairer than her rivals Hera and Athena?

Paris took Aphrodite's bribe, the world's most beautiful woman, and carrying Helen of Sparta off to Troy started the Trojan War. Hera had offered to make him king of Europe and Asia.

Which mortal princess, shown in art with butterfly wings, became the immortal wife of the love god Eros?

Psyche shares her name with the Greek word for soul, the root of psychology. She was made immortal only after surviving a string of trials set by her husband's jealous mother, Aphrodite.

Eating the seeds of which fruit in the underworld bound Persephone to return to Hades for part of every year?

Pomegranate seeds were a trick in the best-known version: Hades got Persephone to eat them just before she was due to leave. The Greeks told the story of her yearly return to explain the seasons.

Which seven sister nymphs, companions of Artemis turned into stars, appear in the logo of the carmaker Subaru?

The Pleiades also give Subaru its name, the Japanese word for their star cluster. The logo shows six of its stars, about as many as the naked eye can easily pick out.

Which bird, sacred to Hera, was said to pull her chariot through the sky?

A peacock got the eyes on its tail from Hera, the myth says: she set them there after Hermes killed her hundred-eyed watchman, Argus.

Which bird, stamped on the silver coins of ancient Athens, was the companion and symbol of Athena?

An owl stood for Athena so firmly that Athenian silver coins were themselves nicknamed owls. The little owl still carries her name in its scientific name, Athene noctua.

Which Greek goddess of the hearth, sworn never to marry, received the first offering at every household sacrifice?

Hestia was honoured at every city's public hearth, and a flame from it was carried out to light the hearth of each new colony.

Which Greek earth goddess, mother of the Titans, lends her name to James Lovelock's theory of a living planet?

Gaia was proposed as the theory's name by Lovelock's neighbour, the novelist William Golding. Her name, also written Ge, is the root behind geology and geography.

Which gift to Athens won Athena the city's patronage over Poseidon and his salt-water spring?

An olive tree gave the Athenians wood, oil and food, so in the best-known telling their king Cecrops judged it the better gift and declared Athena the city's patron.

Athena turned the boastful mortal weaver Arachne into which creature after their weaving contest?

A spider is what Arachne became, in Ovid's telling, after she hanged herself in shame and the goddess took pity on her. Her name is the Greek word for the creature, hence arachnid.

Which Greek goddess of strife gives her name to the dwarf planet that NASA first described as a tenth planet?

Eris seemed larger than Pluto when it was found, and within two years both had been classed as dwarf planets. In myth she set the goddesses quarrelling by tossing a golden apple into a wedding.

Which three-formed Greek goddess of witchcraft and crossroads was known to the Romans by the epithet Trivia?

Hecate was Trivia, 'three ways', because she guarded the places where roads met. Shrines showing her as three figures set back to back stood at crossroads and doorways.

Which Greek goddess of retribution lured the vain Narcissus to the pool where he fell for his own reflection?

Nemesis punished hubris, arrogance before the gods, and her name became the English word for a rival who cannot be beaten. She struck Narcissus after he spurned the nymph Echo.

Which sorceress goddess, a daughter of the sun god Helios, turned men from the crew of Odysseus into pigs?

Circe changed them back once Odysseus had resisted her magic with the herb moly, a gift from Hermes. He then lived with her on the island of Aeaea for a year.

The priestess Io, loved by Zeus and hounded by a jealous Hera, was turned into which animal?

A cow is the shape Io takes in every version, though tellers differ on whether Zeus or Hera changed her. Hera then set the hundred-eyed Argus to guard the heifer.

According to the poet Hesiod, Aphrodite was born from what, before coming ashore on the island of Cyprus?

Sea foam gathered around the severed flesh of the sky god Uranus, thrown into the waves by his son Cronus. Hesiod tied her name to aphros, foam, which scholars now call a folk etymology.

Which Titaness saved her infant son Zeus by giving Cronus a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes to swallow?

Rhea hid the real baby in a cave on Crete. Once grown, Zeus challenged his father's rule and rescued the brothers and sisters Cronus had already swallowed.

Which Greek goddess drove the Moon's chariot across the heavens and loved the mortal Endymion?

Selene is the root of selenium, an element named for the Moon because it resembled tellurium, the one named for the Earth. Her brother was the Sun and her sister the dawn.

Which Greek goddess of the dawn won immortality for her lover Tithonus but not eternal youth?

Eos has a Roman counterpart, Aurora, whose name the northern lights still carry. Tithonus, a prince of Troy, was left to grow older for ever.

Which primordial Greek goddess of the night did even Zeus fear to displease, according to Homer's Iliad?

Nyx once saved her son Hypnos, the god of sleep, from the anger of Zeus. Without a father she also bore Death, the Dreams and Old Age.

Which Greek goddess of fortune, shown wearing a crown of city walls, was worshipped as the guardian of whole cities?

Tyche was also shown with a horn of plenty, a ship's rudder and a wheel of fortune. Archaeologists use her wall-shaped crown to pick her out in ancient art.

Which Greek goddess of youth, a daughter of Zeus and Hera, became the divine wife of Heracles?

Hebe served the gods as their cupbearer and could restore youth to mortals: in Euripides and Ovid she makes Iolaus, the aged nephew of Heracles, young again.

Which Titaness of divine law and order, the second wife of Zeus, is often depicted holding scales?

Themis was tied to prophecy as well as law, including the oracle at Delphi. By Zeus she bore the Seasons, whose names mean Law, Justice and Peace.

Which Greek sea goddess, married off to the mortal Peleus, was the mother of the warrior Achilles?

Thetis, in the best-known telling, was courted by both Zeus and Poseidon until a prophecy warned that her son would be greater than his father, so they gave her to a mortal instead.

Which goddess, shunned by every land on Hera's orders, gave birth to Apollo on the island of Delos?

Leto, in one telling, could shelter on Delos because it was not joined to the sea floor, so it did not count as land. Some versions add that Hera sent the serpent Python to hunt her.

Which Titaness of memory became the mother of the nine Muses after nine consecutive nights with Zeus?

Mnemosyne also presided over a pool in the underworld, the counterpart of Lethe, the river whose water made dead souls forget their past lives.

Which marble temple on the Acropolis of Athens was built to house a colossal gold-and-ivory statue of Athena?

The Parthenon had an inner hall designed around the statue, a work credited to the sculptor Phidias that vanished some time in the first millennium.

Which lame smith god, the husband of Aphrodite, trapped her with Ares in a net too fine to see?

Hephaestus learned of the affair from the all-seeing sun god Helios, caught the lovers in his net, then called in the other gods, who laughed at the trapped pair.

By what name did the Romans know Aphrodite, whom Julius Caesar claimed as an ancestor of his family?

Venus was, in Roman eyes, the mother of the Trojan hero Aeneas and so the ancestress of the whole Roman people. Caesar dedicated a temple to her as Venus the Mother in 46 BC.

Which beautiful mortal youth, loved by Aphrodite, was gored to death by a wild boar on a hunting trip?

Adonis was also loved by Persephone, so in one telling Zeus ruled that he spend a third of each year with each goddess and the rest as he chose. His name is still used for any strikingly handsome man.

The hunter Actaeon, who stumbled on Artemis bathing, was turned into which animal and killed by his own hounds?

A stag was a cruel shape for a hunter: his hounds no longer knew him and ran him down. Ancient authors gave different reasons for the anger of Artemis.

The Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, stood in which city in modern Turkey?

Ephesus lost an earlier version of the temple in 356 BC to an arsonist, usually named as Herostratus, and its people paid for the final rebuilding.

The nymph Callisto, a follower of Artemis seduced by Zeus, was turned into which animal and set among the stars?

A bear is what Callisto became, though tellers differ on whether Hera, Artemis or Zeus changed her. Zeus later set her in the sky as Ursa Major, the Great Bear.

Which giant huntsman, who hunted with Artemis on Crete, was placed among the stars as a constellation?

Orion threatened on that hunt to kill every beast on Earth, so a giant scorpion was sent to stop him. In other versions Artemis herself killed him.

Which musician so moved Persephone and Hades with his playing that they agreed to release his dead wife?

Orpheus was told to walk ahead of Eurydice and not look back until both had reached the upper world. He turned too soon and lost her a second time.

Which instrument did Athena invent, in one Greek tale, then throw away because playing it puffed out her cheeks?

The flute in the story is the aulos, a reed pipe, which Athena cursed as she threw it down. The satyr Marsyas picked it up and was later killed by Apollo for his presumption.

Which Oceanid goddess of wise counsel, the first wife of Zeus, was swallowed by him while pregnant with Athena?

Metis was destined to have a son mightier than his father, so Zeus swallowed mother and unborn child together. Athena later emerged from his forehead.

Which sea goddess fled from Poseidon's proposal until a dolphin found her and persuaded her to marry him?

Amphitrite had fled to Atlas, at the far edge of the sea, to stay unmarried. Poseidon thanked the dolphin that won her round by setting it in the sky as the constellation Delphinus.

Which daughter of Ares and Aphrodite was given a famously ill-fated necklace at her wedding to Cadmus of Thebes?

Harmonia had every god as a guest at her wedding, but the necklace was said to bring misfortune on her descendants for generations.

Which Greek goddess of justice left the Earth after the Golden Age to become the constellation Virgo?

Astraea had lived among people while they were virtuous and gave up on them as they grew crueler. The Roman poet Virgil later wrote that her return would bring the Golden Age back.

According to a tale recorded by Pausanias, Zeus wooed Hera by turning himself into which bird?

A cuckoo was counted among Hera's sacred creatures from then on, and Zeus had a temple on a peak named Cuckoo Mountain.

Which Greek goddess of childbirth, a daughter of Zeus and Hera, was worshipped in a cave at Amnisos on Crete?

Eileithyia is usually shown in Greek art helping at a birth. A fragment of the poet Callimachus even has her assisting her own sister in labour.

Which Aegean island claimed to be the birthplace of Hera and built her one of the largest of all Greek temples?

Samos had a temple that the historian Herodotus called the largest he knew of. Each year her cult image was bound with branches and carried down to the sea to be washed.

Which Oceanid goddess sided with Zeus against the Titans and gave her name to the river the gods swore oaths by?

Styx was rewarded by Zeus with the decree that the gods' most solemn oaths be sworn on her waters. In Homer's Iliad even Hera swears by her to convince Zeus.

Which avenging goddesses, the Erinyes of Greek myth, hounded Orestes after he killed his mother Clytemnestra?

The Furies is the Roman name for these goddesses of vengeance. They were also called the Eumenides, the Gracious Ones, the title of the Aeschylus play in which Orestes stands trial.

Which Muse of epic poetry shares her name with a steam-whistle organ once common on riverboats and at circuses?

Calliope means 'beautiful-voiced', and Hesiod and Ovid called her the chief of all the Muses. Players of the steam instrument usually said its name differently, as KAL-ee-ope.