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Deities and divine councils
Divine names, attributes, roles and relationships in specific sources.
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Original photograph
Site
Troy / Hisarlık
Archaeological site in northwestern Turkey associated with Troy in Greek tradition.
Archaeological walls at Troy/Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, photographed in 2012. The site’s remains alone do not establish the Iliad’s detailed account of the Trojan War
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Original photograph
Site
Mount Olympus
Mountain in northern Greece associated in ancient traditions with the divine community’s dwelling.
Slopes of Mount Olympus, Greece, photographed in 2018. A geographical view; the gods’ residence in the epics belongs to their poetic representation of the world
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Original photograph
Entity
Odyssey
Greek epic attributed to Homer, following Odysseus’s return after the Trojan War.
Papyrus fragment of the Odyssey, about 285–250 BCE; Met 09.182.50. It preserves lines from Book 20, rather than the assembly scenes in Books 1 and 5
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Original photograph
Entity
Iliad
Greek epic attributed to Homer, narrating a phase of the Trojan War.
Fragment of the Hawara papyrus preserving Iliad 2.757–775, about 150 CE. A witness to the epic’s transmission in the Roman period; its date is not the date of composition
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Original photograph
Traditionally attributed author
Homer
The name to which Greek tradition attributes the Iliad and Odyssey.
Roman portrait bust representing Homer, second century CE; British Museum 1805,0703.85. An artistic likeness made long after the epics, rather than a contemporary portrait
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Original photograph
Entity
Leto
Greek goddess and Apollo’s mother in the Iliad, appearing among the gods supporting the Trojans.
Leto, Apollo and Tityos on an Attic vase, about 450–440 BCE; Louvre G 375, attributed to Polygnotos. The image belongs to the story of the assault on Leto and Tityos’s punishment
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Original photograph
Entity
Artemis
Goddess of hunting in Greek traditions and Apollo’s sister, named among the divine company in the Iliad.
Apollo and Artemis with a deer inside an Attic cup of about 470 BCE; Louvre Cp 1005 / G 151. Archaeological evidence for representations of the two deities
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Original photograph
Entity
Ares
God of war in Greek traditions and a participating figure in the Iliad.
Roman statue of the “Borghese Ares” type, held by the Louvre, Ma 866. The type’s name and identification do not make it a contemporary image of Iliadic scenes
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Illustration
Entity
Tartarus
Deep abyss in Greek poetic imagination, named by Zeus as a place of punishment in the Iliad.
Modern explanatory diagram of Tartarus in Iliad 8.13–16: depth compared with the distance between sky and earth, with iron gates and a bronze threshold. A poetic comparison, rather than an archaeological map
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Original photograph
Literary figure
Telemachus
Odysseus’s son in the Odyssey, whose position at home is affected by his father’s absence and family crisis.
Telemachus returning to Ithaca in a plaster relief by Antonio Canova, late eighteenth century; Museo Correr, Venice. A modern work revisiting the ancient story, rather than an artifact from Homer’s era
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Original photograph
Entity
Polyphemus
One-eyed giant in the Odyssey and Poseidon’s son within the narrative.
Odysseus offering a drink to Polyphemus in a Roman mosaic at Villa del Casale, Sicily. A later representation of the adventure narrated in Odyssey Book 9
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Original photograph
Literary figure
Aegisthus
Human figure in Greek narrative whose fate Zeus recalls at the Odyssey’s opening.
Death of Aegisthus on a Greek vase of about 320 BCE; Louvre K 320, Wind Group. The artwork depicts the revenge story, rather than the Odyssey’s first assembly itself
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Original photograph
Entity
Nymphs in Greek poetry
Divine figures associated with natural places in Greek poetry, such as springs and groves.
Hermes leading three nymphs, with the river god Acheloös, on a marble relief of about 320–300 BCE; Met 25.78.59. Evidence for nymphs in Greek art and votive practice
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Original photograph
Entity
Oceanus
Water-related divine figure in Greek poetry, distinguished from the modern geographical use of “ocean.”
Head of a sea deity in a Roman mosaic from Fordington, usually identified as Oceanus; the heritage record also allows Neptune. Dorset Museum, England. Evidence from Roman art later than the Homeric epics
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Original photograph
Entity
Muses
A group of Greek divine figures associated with song and poetry.
Muses in a musical scene on an Attic white-ground pyxis, about 460–450 BCE; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 98.887. This caption leaves the depicted man’s debated identity open
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Original photograph
Entity
Apollo
God of music and prophecy in Greek traditions, also participating in the Iliad’s events.
Apollo and a Muse on an Attic white-ground cup; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 00.356. An ancient representation of the god, rather than a particular Iliadic assembly scene
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Original photograph
Literary figure
Achilles
Important hero of the Iliad, whose anger and participation shape the poem’s warfare.
Achilles fighting Memnon on a vase of about 330–320 BCE; National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden, AMM 1. The scene belongs to broader Trojan War traditions, rather than the Iliad itself
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Original photograph
Literary figure
Odysseus
Greek hero whose attempt to return home after the Trojan War is followed in the Odyssey.
Odysseus disguised as a beggar before Penelope, on a terracotta plaque of about 450 BCE; Louvre CA 860. An ancient representation of epic characters, rather than portraits of historically established people
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Original photograph
Entity
Calypso
Divine figure in the Odyssey who keeps Odysseus on her island while he longs to return home.
Mercury ordering Calypso to release Odysseus, painted by Gerard de Lairesse about 1680; Rijksmuseum SK-A-212. A later European representation of the story, rather than an ancient Greek artifact
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Original photograph
Entity
Themis
Greek goddess instructed in the Iliad to gather the gods for a meeting with Zeus.
Themis and Aegeus inside an Attic cup, about 440–430 BCE; Berlin Antikensammlung F 2538. A photograph of the ancient vessel, rather than a modern redrawing
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Original photograph
Entity
Iris
Greek divine messenger who conveys Zeus’s command to Poseidon in the Iliad.
Winged Iris on a Greek vase, about 500–490 BCE; Louvre L 43. An ancient representation of the divine messenger named in the Iliad
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Original photograph
Entity
Hades
Underworld god in Greek narratives, and brother of Zeus and Poseidon in the Iliad exchange.
Hades and Persephone inside an Attic cup, about 430 BCE; British Museum 1847,0909.6 / E 82. An ancient artistic representation of the underworld’s rulers
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Original photograph
Entity
Thetis
Sea goddess in Greek poetry and mother of Achilles, one of the Iliad’s heroes.
Peleus and Thetis on an Attic vase, about 470–460 BCE; Louvre LL 32 / N 3348 / L 55.1. Greek artistic evidence for the figures, rather than an image of Thetis’s appeal to Zeus in the Iliad
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Original photograph
Entity
Hephaestus
God of metalworking in Greek traditions; the Iliad portrays him as Hera’s son and mediator in her dispute with Zeus.
Hephaestus returning to Olympus on a donkey, on an ancient Greek cup in the British Museum, 1836,0224.48. The image depicts the return story, rather than the Iliad’s assembly scene
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Original photograph
Entity
Hermes
Greek god acting as a messenger in the Odyssey passages examined here.
Hermes carrying a ram on an Attic vase, about 515–510 BCE; Louvre Cp 639 / F 159. An archaeological representation of one aspect of the god
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Original photograph
Entity
Hera
Greek goddess and Zeus’s wife, appearing in council and family-disagreement scenes in the Iliad.
A woman tentatively identified in the museum catalogue as Hera, nursing Heracles; vase of about 365–350 BCE, British Museum 1846,0925.13. The female figure’s identification remains uncertain
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Original photograph
Entity
Poseidon
Sea god in Greek traditions and an influential figure in the Iliad and Odyssey.
Poseidon with a trident and a fish inside an Attic cup, about 510 BCE; National Museum of Denmark 13407. An ancient representation of the deity
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Illustration
Entity
Hundred-Handers
Beings in Hesiod’s poem, shown in one scene leaving captivity and darkness for light.
Modern diagram of the release from captivity into light at Theogony669. It explains the scene when comparing emergence verbs, without reconstructing the Hundred-Handers’ appearance
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Illustration
Entity
Tashmishu
Divine figure named in Kumarbi’s pregnancy with the storm god and the river Aranzah.
Modern diagram highlighting Tashmishu among the figures in Kumarbi’s pregnancy account. It preserves the multiple names without supplying a complete biography or imagined portrait
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Illustration
Entity
Aranzah
River as a divine figure, named among those Kumarbi carries in the Hittite song.
Modern diagram of Kumarbi’s pregnancy list, highlighting Aranzah as a river divine figure. Branches group names in the scene; not a river map or the order of every birth event
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Illustration
Entity
Alalu
First heavenly ruler in the surviving Kumarbi song; defeated by Anu, he flees to the dark earth.
Modern diagram of the surviving Alalu–Anu account: service, defeat and flight to the dark earth. Arrows do not establish genealogy; no ancient divine likeness is invented
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Original photograph
Entity
Aphrodite
Greek goddess whose origin Hesiod relates to foam after the assault on Ouranos.
Aphrodite with a Turtle, an incomplete restored statue from Dura-Europos, about the second–third centuries CE, Louvre AO 20126. Shonagon, 5 January 2024; an object later than Hesiod’s poem
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Original photograph
Entity
Athena
Greek goddess associated in Hesiod with Zeus, Metis and birth from the head.
Athena’s birth from Zeus’s head on an Attic vessel, about 570–560 BCE, Louvre CA 616. Bibi Saint-Pol, 1 June 2007. An ancient artistic witness; the museum records restorations to the vessel
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Illustration
Entity
Metis
Divine figure and Athena’s mother in Hesiod; Zeus swallows her while pregnant to forestall a possible successor.
Modern diagram of Metis’s role in Hesiod: pregnancy, a warning about succession, swallowing by Zeus and Athena’s birth from the head. Arrows order events; not an ancient image of the goddess
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Original photograph
Entity
Rhea
Zeus’s mother in Hesiod, hiding the child and giving Kronos a stone instead.
Rhea presents the stone to Kronos; wood engraving published in the 1878 Leipzig edition of Der Olymp. Later printed reception of the scene, not an artifact photograph or a likeness from Hesiod’s time
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Original photograph
Entity
Gaia
Earth as a divine figure, active in the gods’ origins and conflicts in Hesiod.
Gaia lifts the infant Erichthonios toward Athena; detail of an Attic vase, about 470–460 BCE, Munich 2413. Bibi Saint-Pol, 10 February 2007; another scene representing Gaia as Earth
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Original photograph
Entity
Ouranos
Sky as a divine figure in Greek poetry; Kronos’s father in Hesiod.
The assault on Ouranos in a sixteenth-century work by Vasari and Gherardi, Palazzo Vecchio, Florence. Later artistic reception, not an ancient Greek witness or a contemporary image of Hesiod’s time
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Original photograph
Entity
Kronos
Greek divine figure and Zeus’s father; Hesiod connects his reign with struggles between divine generations.
Rhea hands Kronos a wrapped stone on an Attic jar, about 460–450 BCE, attributed to the Nausicaä Painter. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 06.1021.144; museum photograph
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Illustration
Contextual definition
Inara
Goddess in Hittite traditions who plans the feast enabling the serpent’s defeat in the first Illuyanka account.
Modern narrative diagram of Inara, Hupasiya and the storm god cooperating in the first Illuyanka account. Arrows show successive roles in the story; not an artifact or a reconstruction of divine appearances
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Original photograph
Contextual definition
The Eight in Egyptian creation traditions
The Eight are four divine pairs describing conditions before the ordered world in Egyptian traditions
The Ogdoad in a ceiling relief at the temple of Hathor in Dendera: four pairs with frog and snake heads. This source crop was made by JMCC1 from Olaf Tausch’s 2011 photograph. The standing temple belongs to later Ptolemaic and Roman construction
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