Which Gods Ruled over Nature

When Rhea became pregnant with Kronos` 1st child, Uranus prophesied that the children of Cronus would overthrow him as he overthrew Uranus. When Rhea gave birth to her first child, Hestia, Cronus could not get Uranus` prophecy out of her head. Overwhelmed by fear and madness and trying to escape his father`s fate, he swallowed the newborn! The same thing happened to her next four children; Cronus devoured his five newborns! The only one who survived was the sixth and youngest child, Zeus. Rhea made Cronus eat a stone instead of the baby, leaving Zeus on the island of Crete to be taken away by his mad father. Zeus grew older and stronger, eventually trying to free his siblings, leading to the epic battle between the Titans and the Olympians, who eventually won the latter and toppled the previous generation of Greek gods. In ancient cultures, there are a variety of meteorological gods, ranging from Greece and Rome to Norse mythology. Each weather and terrestrial element was divided into subgroups assigned to specific gods ruled by a royal god. Although he was unpopular with the other gods of the classical pantheon except for his lover Aphrodite, Ares was particularly admired in Sparta as an ideal soldier. Apollo was another famous god, not a brother but a son of Zeus. Apollo and Artemis were twins that Zeus had with a mortal woman, Leto. Apollo was born in Delos, which later became his sacred island. He was the God of music and light, poetry and the arts, medicine, truth and prophecy. Note that all the oracles of ancient Greece were dedicated to the god Apollo and that people believed that God actually spoke to them through priests.

He was portrayed as a young, handsome and sensitive man. Together, Gaia and Ouranos had 12 children – known as Titans – including Cronus and Rhea, the parents of Zeus. The Titans rebelled against their father Ouranos, overthrew him, and Kronos became the ruler of the gods until Zeus deposed him to rule over the gods of Olympus – more on that soon. According to Greek mythology, Athena was the goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare. Athena was the beloved daughter of Zeus. His mother was the Titaness Metis, the first wife of Zeus. Zeus received a prophecy informing him that Metis would give birth to the child who would overthrow his father. To escape the prophecy, Zeus swallowed Metis while she was pregnant at Athena.

Later, Zeus began to suffer from headaches and called Hephaestus for help. Hephaestus struck Zeus` head with his hammer and Athena jumped in full armor. She is always portrayed as armed, never as a child, always as a virgin. She won the battle for the patronage of Athens over Poseidon. The Parthenon of Athens is the most famous temple dedicated to him. Athena, protector of heroes and the wisest among the gods, was considered one of the most powerful and important Olympian goddesses. The existence of such deities has led to the idea that gods are personifications of natural phenomena and nature itself. The Greeks, for example, regarded rivers as gods, children of the great gods.

Nymphs could be found in springs and wells that were considered sacred places; Water from some springs was considered fertile, so they were associated with the groom`s ritual bath before marriage; The newborns were thrown into the waters of a certain sacred spring to be blessed and live a good life. Another well-known example of a weather god is Thor, one of the most important figures in Norse mythology. Nowadays, most viewers may be more familiar with him thanks to Chris Helmsworth`s cheeky portrayal of the god of thunder in movies, but by the end of the Viking Age, this god was at the height of his popularity among the Scandinavians. The muscular god of thunder is the archetype of a loyal and honorable warrior and the unstoppable defender of Asgard. With his powerful hammer Mjöllnir, Thor was often represented by lightning, which the Scandinavians interpreted as the embodiment of Thor`s powerful hammer-killing giant. Apollo and Artemis were the children of Zeus and Leto. When Hera – Zeus` wife – heard about Leto`s pregnancy, she forbade Leto to give birth on earth. Leto found the island of Delos (in the Cyclades archipelago of Greece), which was a “floating” island and was not anchored to the mainland, and gave birth to Apollo and Artemis safely. If you love ancient Rome, you can still see the highlights of our special exhibition Nero: The Man Behind the Myth, which ran from May 27, 2021 to October 24, 2021. Demeter was the Greek goddess of agriculture and protected trees, plants and grains. She was the first to make the land fertile and taught people how to grow wheat, barley and other plants.

Demeter is somewhat isolated from the twelve gods in ancient myths and this is because she herself is an even older goddess. The Greeks got their cult from the Pelasgians who originally lived in Greece. According to Greek mythology, Demeter`s daughter is mentioned as Persephone, who was abducted by the god Hades and became his wife. The most sacred and secret religious rites of ancient Greece, the Mysteries of Eleusis, were held in honor of Demeter.