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Deities and divine councils
Divine names, attributes, roles and relationships in specific sources.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Contextual definition
Shu and Tefnut
Shu and Tefnut are an Egyptian divine pair associated with air and moisture respectively
Bronze ritual menat bearing the heads of Shu and Tefnut, from Egypt’s Late Period, 664–380 BCE. Walters Art Museum, 54.1515. Instruments of this type were used with beaded collars in rituals
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Contextual definition
Re, Egyptian sun god
Re is the Egyptian sun god, associated with creation, life and renewal of cosmic order
Pay raises his hands before Re-Harakhty, shown with a falcon’s head and solar disk, in a limestone stela fragment from Saqqara. The Met dates the object to about 1328–1318 BCE; inventory 04.2.527
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Contextual definition
Ptah
Ptah is an Egyptian god associated with Memphis, craftsmanship and creation
Statuette of Ptah wearing a close-fitting cap, straight beard and enveloping garment. Made of cupreous metal, it is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; object 04.2.406
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Contextual definition
Atum
Atum is an Egyptian creator god associated with Heliopolis
Atum as a human-headed cobra above an animal-mummy box. Made of cupreous metal, the object is dated by the Met to 664–30 BCE; inventory 04.2.519. It illustrates one of the god’s forms in later Egyptian periods
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Illustration
Entity
War Scroll
Dead Sea Scroll text portraying war between the sons of light and the hostile camp; its principal copy is designated 1QM.
Modern distinction between War Scroll camps and equal divine origins; the prayer in1QM XIII attributes Belial’s making to God
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Entity
Book of Jubilees
Jewish retelling of Genesis and Exodus framed as angelic teaching to Moses, adding chronology, narratives and interpretation.
Modern diagram of Jubilees10: permission for one tenth, confinement of nine tenths, and Noah’s remedies; narrative proportions, not a historical census
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Leviathan
A poetic sea being in Hebrew texts, related to Ugaritic ltn; its role varies between combat and creation imagery.
Fragments of Ugaritic KTU 1.5, Louvre AO 16641 and AO 16642, c. 1400–1200 BCE. The Baal Cycle text mentions ltn; the artifact does not depict the creature. Photograph by Rama, 2007, CC BY-SA 2.0 France via Wikimedia Commons; original unchanged
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