Eros, better known by his Roman name Cupid, was the winged figure carrying a bow and arrow. If he shot you with his arrow, you would fall in love with the person he chose for you. But while that is the most popular image of Eros that survives today, the oldest sources for Greek religion... Continue Reading →

According to most accounts of Greek cosmology, Chaos, or more accurately Khaos, was the very first Greek deity. The goddess emerged at the dawn of creation as an atmosphere of invisible fog and mist that formed a great void. She personified the primal force that lies beneath the universe and all existence. Greek Cosmology After... Continue Reading →

Metis was an Oceanid nymph, one of the 3,000 daughters of the Oceanus with his sister Tethys. Like many of Oceanus’ children, Metis joined Zeus in his battle against his father Cronos, and many of his Titan children, for control of Olympus and the universe. According to the myth, fearing his children with his wife... Continue Reading →

Both the Greeks and Romans had goddesses of victory personified, called Nike by the Greeks and Victoria by the Romans. While they are often described as one and the same goddess, and shared a mythology since the Romans were in the habit of applying Greek myths to their own gods, they had quite different roles... Continue Reading →

Styx was a Titan goddess who was both the personification of hatred and the dread water that may have separated the underworld of Hades from the world of the living. She was the first god to ally herself with Zeus before the Titanomachy, so Zeus made her the goddess of divine oaths and adopted her... Continue Reading →

Selene, also sometimes called Mene and known as Luna by the Romans, was the Greek goddess of the moon. While several Greek goddesses were associated with the moon, Selene was considered the personification of the moon itself. She was imagined as riding a chariot across the sky each night, illuminating the sky above the mortal... Continue Reading →

Leto was one of the second-generation Titans in Greek mythology, the daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. With Zeus, she was the mother of the Olympian gods Apollo and Artemis, which made her an enemy of Zeus’ wife, Hera. She was considered a mother goddess in ancient Lycia, from where she was probably imported to Greece.... Continue Reading →

Artemis was a virgin goddess associated with purity and was considered the Greek goddess of the hunt and wilderness and the patroness of wild animals and nature. Despite her chaste nature, she is also associated with childbirth and the care of children, as well as disease and healing. Artemis was sometimes considered the personification of... Continue Reading →

Between the 1st century BCE and the 4th century CE, the cult of Mithra thrived around the Roman Empire. Some sources suggest that it could have been a rival religion to Christianity until it was stamped out through Christian persecution. The Persian God Mithra Persian depiction of Mithra from the 4th century BCE Mithraism centered... Continue Reading →

Jupiter, a sky god and lightning bearer, was the principal god of the Roman state for almost a millennium from the time of the legendary Roman kings, throughout the Republic, and until the Empire converted to Christianity. He was also considered a caring deity, as Cicero called him a “helping father,” and his alternative name,... Continue Reading →