50 Fun Facts About Greek Gods

The goat-legged Greek god Pan, whose shout terrified travellers in lonely places, gave English which word?

Panic was the sudden terror that Pan's angry shout was said to cause when his afternoon nap was disturbed. He was also said to have spread it among the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.

Which Titan was condemned by Zeus to stand at the western edge of the world and hold up the sky forever?

Atlas shoulders the heavens, not the Earth as is often imagined. Gerardus Mercator first used his name for a collection of maps in the 16th century.

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

Demeter was also worshipped in the secret Eleusinian Mysteries, which promised initiates a happy afterlife. Latin cerealis meant 'of Ceres', her Roman counterpart.

Which Greek god, a scheming uncle voiced by James Woods, is the villain of Disney's animated film Hercules?

Hades plots against Olympus in the film. In Homer he is the god mortals hate most, and the reason given is that he is unyielding and cannot be swayed.

Which Greek goddess, twin sister of Apollo, gave her name to NASA's program to return humans to the Moon?

Artemis was picked in 2019 because the program follows Apollo, the 1960s Moon landings that NASA named after her twin brother.

Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars, are named after the twin sons of which Greek god?

Ares took his sons Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror) into battle with him. An Eton schoolmaster suggested the names after Asaph Hall found the moons in 1877.

Which planet, first named after King George III, is the only one called after a Greek god, not a Roman one?

Uranus was the Greek personification of the sky and the grandfather of Zeus. William Herschel wanted to call his discovery George's Star, but Johann Bode's suggestion won out.

Which three-headed dog, a child of the monsters Typhon and Echidna, guarded the gates of the Greek underworld?

Cerberus fawned on the dead as they arrived, Hesiod says, but devoured any who tried to leave. He was usually pictured with a serpent for a tail as well as his three heads.

Who stole fire from the Greek gods for humanity and was chained to a rock where an eagle ate his liver daily?

Prometheus carried the fire off hidden in a fennel stalk. Mary Shelley later subtitled her novel Frankenstein 'The Modern Prometheus'.

Which Greek goddess rose from the sea foam, with both Cyprus and Cythera claiming to be her birthplace?

Aphrodite's name was explained by Hesiod as 'risen from the foam' (aphros), though most modern scholars call that a folk etymology. She was also known as Cypris, the Lady of Cyprus.

Who in Greek myth must spend part of every year in the underworld because she ate pomegranate seeds there?

Persephone's yearly absence was the Greek explanation for the seasons: the earth lies barren while her mother grieves and blooms again when she returns.

Which Greek god, on the day he was born, invented the lyre from a tortoise shell and stole a herd of cattle?

Hermes later traded the lyre to Apollo in exchange for the stolen cattle, which is how it became Apollo's signature instrument.

Which Olympian god of wine was sewn into the thigh of Zeus to finish growing after his mortal mother died?

Dionysus was called 'twice-born' as a result. His festivals featured sacred dramas that became the starting point of Western theatre.

Which Greek god of fire and metalworking, described as lame, was hurled down from Mount Olympus?

Hephaestus was cast out by his mother Hera for his lameness in one account and flung down by Zeus in another, falling for a whole day before landing on the island of Lemnos.

Which Greek goddess, a sister of Zeus, received the first offering at every household sacrifice?

Hestia swore to stay unmarried forever after both Poseidon and Apollo sought her hand, and remained tending the hearth of Olympus instead.

Which Titan, the father of Zeus, swallowed his first five children to stop a prophecy that one would overthrow him?

Cronus was tricked when his wife handed him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes in place of the baby Zeus. He later disgorged the stone, followed by the five children.

Under which name did the Romans worship Zeus as the chief god of their state on the Capitoline Hill?

Jupiter's name means 'sky father'. His other name, Jove, gave English the word jovial, first used of people born under his planet.

Which Greek god of love, known to the Romans as Cupid, marries the mortal princess Psyche in a tale by Apuleius?

Eros was a primordial god in the earliest account, among the first beings to exist. Early Greek art showed him as a young man, and only later poets made him a child.

Who in Greek myth was shaped from earth on the orders of Zeus and opened a jar that released every evil?

Pandora was the first mortal woman in the myth. Her 'box' was a large storage jar until a 16th-century Latin translation, usually blamed on Erasmus, turned the Greek pithos into a box.

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

An owl stood for wisdom because of the little bird that accompanied Athena. Her city's four-drachma coins were nicknamed 'owls' throughout the ancient world.

Athena won the patronage of Athens over Poseidon by giving the city which gift?

An olive tree beat the salt-water spring that Poseidon struck from the ground with his trident in the usual telling, because it gave the Athenians wood, oil and food.

Which bird was sacred to Hera, queen of the Greek gods, in memory of her slain hundred-eyed watchman Argus?

A peacock wears the eyes of Argus in its tail: in Ovid's telling, Hera set them there to honor her faithful watchman after he was killed on the orders of Zeus.

Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, was born fully armed from which part of her father Zeus?

His forehead was split open with a double-headed axe to relieve an enormous headache, and Athena leaped out fully grown.

Which giant brothers forged the thunderbolt of Zeus, the trident of Poseidon and a helmet of invisibility?

The Cyclopes of Hesiod's poem are three brothers whose names mean Bright, Thunder and Lightning, a nod to their work as weapon-makers.

Zeus carried off the Phoenician princess Europa across the sea after taking the form of which animal?

A white bull so tame that Europa climbed onto its back was his disguise. Zeus later set its shape among the stars as the constellation Taurus.

Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea and earthquakes, was also said to have created which animal?

The horse sprang from a rock that Poseidon struck with his trident in one myth, and he was believed to have taught people the art of taming the animals.

Which food or drink of the Greek gods, usually paired with nectar, was said to confer immortality?

Ambrosia was carried up to Olympus by doves in Homer's telling. It was fragrant enough to serve as perfume, masking the stench of sealskins in the Odyssey.

At which sanctuary on Mount Parnassus did a priestess called the Pythia deliver the prophecies of Apollo?

Delphi was the centre of the world to the Greeks, marked by a stone called the omphalos, or navel. Zeus was said to have found the spot by releasing two eagles from the ends of the earth.

On which island was the infant Zeus hidden in a cave and raised on goat's milk by his nurse Amalthea?

Crete's armed dancers, the Kouretes, beat their spears on their shields at the cave so that his father could not hear the baby crying.

Which nine sister goddesses, the daughters of Zeus and Memory, inspired Greek poets, historians and dancers?

The Muses were worshipped at shrines called mouseia, which is where English gets the word museum. Music comes from their name too.

The Fates of Greek myth, the sisters Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos, measured out and cut what for every mortal?

A thread stood for each human life: Clotho, 'the spinner', spun it, Lachesis measured it with her rod and Atropos, 'the inevitable', cut it.

By which river of the underworld did the Greek gods swear their most solemn and unbreakable oaths?

The Styx earned the honor by siding with Zeus in his war against the Titans. A later Roman poem has the baby Achilles dipped in it, leaving only his heel vulnerable.

Which Greek sun god, who drove a chariot across the sky each day, was portrayed by the Colossus of Rhodes?

Helios had his giant statue at the port of Rhodes thrown down by an earthquake. It was counted among the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

Which Greek god of sleep, the twin brother of Death, lulled Zeus to sleep at Hera's request during the Trojan War?

Hypnos was said to live in a cave with poppies growing at its entrance, at the source of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness.

Which Greek goddess personified the rainbow and carried messages for the Olympian gods?

Iris shares her name with the colored part of the eye. She was said to travel along the rainbow with messages from the gods, and artists showed her as a winged young woman with a pitcher of water.

Which Greek goddess of retribution punished mortals guilty of arrogance before the gods?

Nemesis punished Narcissus for his vanity in Ovid's telling. Her name, literally 'distribution' of what is due, now means an arch-rival in English.

Which Greek goddess of witchcraft, often shown with three bodies, had shrines set up at crossroads?

Hecate was known to the Romans as Trivia, 'three ways', for her role as guardian of crossroads. She is most often shown holding a pair of torches.

Which Greek god of medicine carried a staff with a single snake coiled around it, still a symbol of health care?

Asclepius's one-snake rod is often mixed up with the caduceus, a winged staff with two snakes that belongs to the messenger of the gods.

Which Greek goddess of strife, left off a wedding guest list, threw a golden apple that led to the Trojan War?

Eris was the one deity not invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis. A dwarf planet more massive than Pluto was named after her in 2006.

Which Greek god of the north wind did the Athenians thank for sinking hundreds of Persian ships in a storm?

Boreas lends his name to the aurora borealis, the northern lights. Athenians counted him as an in-law because he was said to have carried off their princess Oreithyia.

Which Greek goddess of the dawn won immortality for her Trojan lover Tithonus but forgot to ask for eternal youth?

Eos could only watch Tithonus age forever, and in later tellings he shrank into a cicada. The tale may have explained why cicadas are so noisy at daybreak.

Which Trojan prince was carried off to Olympus as cupbearer to Zeus, and now lends his name to a giant moon?

Ganymede was said to have been set among the stars as Aquarius, the water-carrier, beside Aquila, the eagle that carried him away.

Which sea nymph became the queen of Poseidon after a dolphin persuaded her to accept his proposal?

Amphitrite was one of the fifty Nereids in Hesiod's account. Poseidon rewarded the matchmaking dolphin by setting it in the sky as a constellation.

Which Greek goddess, the first wife of Zeus, did he swallow whole while she was pregnant with Athena?

Metis was tricked into turning herself into a fly before Zeus swallowed her, in one telling. He feared a prophecy that she would go on to bear a son who would rule heaven in his place.

At Dodona, reputedly the oldest oracle in Greece, priests read the will of Zeus in the rustling leaves of which tree?

An oak grew in the sacred grove at Dodona, and a timber taken from it was said to give Jason's ship, the Argo, the gift of prophecy.

In Hesiod's Theogony, which primordial being was the very first to exist, before Earth or any of the Greek gods?

Chaos meant a vast, gaping void in Greek, from a verb for 'to gape' that shares its root with the English word yawn.

What name did Homer give the ethereal fluid that runs in the veins of the Greek gods in place of blood?

Ichor flows when the hero Diomedes wounds a goddess in the Iliad. Homer uses the word for divine blood only twice.

Into which abyss, so deep a falling anvil took nine days to reach it, did Zeus cast the defeated Titans?

Tartarus had earlier held the hundred-armed giants, whom Zeus set free to help him win his war. The losers then took their place.

What name was given to the protective goatskin or shield of Zeus and Athena, often shown bearing a Gorgon's head?

The aegis survives in the phrase 'under the aegis of', meaning under a powerful protector. In art it sometimes appears as a skin with a border of snakes draped over Athena's shoulders.

Which paradise of the Greek afterlife, home to heroes and the righteous, gave the most famous avenue in Paris its name?

Elysium was also known as the Isles of the Blessed, set in the western ocean at the end of the earth. Champs-Élysées is French for Elysian Fields.