User:Paul August/Twelve Olympians

Twelve Olympians

ToDo

• See Paus. 1.40.3

• Add Leto as a resident of Olympus, see Gantz, p. 38

• Fix and expand Plato bit?

• Further clarify distinction between "twelve Olympians" and "twelve gods"

• Change article to be about the Olympians rather than just "twelve Olympians"?

• Modify Genealogy chart re Athena being born from Zeus alone.

• Delete template: [1]

Long cites

Long 1987

p. 123

this gives one list from an inscription from Sidyma, Lycia., which lists Hestia, and omits Dionysus

p. 169

[the gods on the Parthenon frieze] are not the canonical twelve Olympians, for they include Dionysos.

p. 222

Mentions that the Magnesia tribe names "provide eight of the names of the Twelve Gods of Magnesia. All are Olympians, and they include the least popular, Ares Hephaistos, and Hestia."

On the same page it says that the "[Attic Twelve] included Dionysos in place of Hestia".

Get

• Long, The twelve gods of Greece and Rome [in folder]

pp. 53–54 (T 7) (for Magnesia on the Maeander), 95-96 (T 32) (for Leontinoi), 187-? (for ?), 198-201 (for Delos?), 221-223 (for Magnesia on the Maeander)

Read

• Long, The twelve gods of Greece and Rome [in folder]

pp. 198-201 (for Delos), 217-18 (for Chalchedon)

• Long, The twelve gods of Greece and Rome [in folder]

pp. Section "Origins of the Twelve Gods" pp. 144-146 (Anatolia), 147-149ff. (Egypt), 157 (Leontinoi, Sicily), 158-159 (Ionia), pages describing distinction between twelve Olympians and Twelve Gods, 174-175 ff.?, others?

p. 198

New Text

List

There is no single canonical list of the twelve Olympian gods. The thirteen gods and goddesses most commonly considered to be one of the twelve Olympians are listed below.

Greek	Roman	Image	Functions and attributes
Zeus	Jupiter		King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order and justice. The youngest child of the Titans Cronus and Rhea. Brother and husband of Hera, although he had many lovers, also brother of Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hestia. His symbols include the thunderbolt, eagle, oak tree, bull, scepter, and scales.
Hera	Juno		Queen of the gods and the goddess of marriage, women, childbirth and family. The youngest daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Sister and wife of Zeus. Being the goddess of marriage, she frequently tried to get revenge on Zeus' lovers and their children. Her symbols include the peacock, cuckoo, and cow.
Poseidon	Neptune		God of the seas, water, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and horses. The middle son of Cronus and Rhea. Brother of Zeus and Hades. Married to the Nereid Amphitrite; although, as with many of the male Greek gods, he had many lovers. His symbols include the horse, bull, dolphin, and trident.
Demeter	Ceres		Goddess of the harvest, fertility, agriculture, nature and the seasons. She presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. The middle daughter of Cronus and Rhea. Also the lover of Zeus and Poseidon, and the mother of Persephone. Her symbols include the poppy, wheat, torch, cornucopia, and pig.
Athena	Minerva		Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. The daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Metis, she rose from her father's head fully grown and in full battle armor. Her symbols include the owl and the olive tree.
Apollo / Apollon[A]	Phoebus[A]		God of light, the sun, prophecy, philosophy, archery, truth, inspiration, poetry, music, arts, manly beauty, medicine, healing, and plague. The son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis. His symbols include the sun, bow and arrow, lyre, swan, and mouse.
Artemis	Diana		Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, virginity, the moon, archery, childbirth, protection and plague. The daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. Her symbols include the moon, horse, deer, hound, she-bear, snake, cypress tree, and bow and arrow.
Ares	Mars		God of war, violence, bloodshed and manly virtues. The son of Zeus and Hera, all the other gods despised him except Aphrodite. His Latin name, Mars, gave us the word "martial." His symbols include the boar, serpent, dog, vulture, spear, and shield.
Aphrodite	Venus		Goddess of love, pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, beauty and desire. The daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Dione, or perhaps born from the sea foam after Uranus' blood dripped into the sea after being castrated by his youngest son, Cronus, who then threw his father's genitals into the sea. Married to Hephaestus, although she had many adulterous affairs, most notably with Ares. Her name gave us the word "aphrodisiac", while her Latin name, Venus, gave us the word "venereal".[B] Her symbols include the dove, bird, apple, bee, swan, myrtle, and rose.
Hephaestus	Vulcan		Master blacksmith and craftsman of the gods; god of the forge, craftsmanship, invention, fire and volcanoes. The son of Hera, either by Zeus or through parthenogenesis. Married to Aphrodite. His Latin name, Vulcan, gave us the word "volcano." His symbols include fire, anvil, axe, donkey, hammer, tongs, and quail.
Hermes	Mercury		Messenger of the gods; god of travel, commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves and games. He was also the guide of dead souls. The son of Zeus and the nymph Maia. The second-youngest Olympian, just older than Dionysus. His symbols include the caduceus (staff entwined with two snakes), winged sandals and cap, stork, and tortoise (whose shell he used to invent the lyre).
Most lists of the "twelve Olympians" consist of the above eleven plus either Hestia or Dionysus
Hestia	Vesta		Goddess of the hearth, fire and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family; she was born into the first Olympian generation and was one of the original twelve Olympians. She is the first child of Cronus and Rhea, the elder sister of Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus. Some lists of the Twelve Olympians omit her in favor of Dionysus, but the speculation that she gave her throne to him in order to keep the peace seems to be modern invention.
Dionysus / Bacchus	Bacchus		God of wine, the grape vine, fertility, festivity, ecstasy, madness and resurrection. Patron god of the art of theatre. The son of Zeus and the mortal Theban princess Semele. Married to the Cretan princess Ariadne. The youngest Olympian god, as well as the only one to have a mortal mother. His symbols include the grapevine, ivy, cup, tiger, panther, leopard, dolphin, goat, and pinecone.

Notes

1. ^{^} Romans also associated Phoebus with Helios and the sun itself, however, they also used the Greek name Apollon in a Latinized form Apollo.
2. ^{^} According to an alternate version of her birth, Aphrodite was born of Uranus, Zeus' grandfather, after Cronus threw his castrated genitals into the sea. This supports the etymology of her name, "foam-born". As such, Aphrodite would belong to the same generation as Cronus, Zeus' father, and would be Zeus' aunt. See the birth of Aphrodite

Other residents of Olympus?

Mentioned in the article

• Dione

Homer, Iliad 5.367–370

Dowden, p. 45

Too minor to list?

• Eileithyia

Homeric Hymn to Delian Apollo 98–98

Daughter of Zeus (and Hera), so probably also an Olympian?

Dowden, p. 45

Gantz, p. 83 (in vase paintings standing beside Zeus)

• The Muses

Hesiod, Theogony 52, 75, 114

Dowden, p. 43

• Ganymede

Homer, Iliad 230–235

Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 5.202–204

Hansen, p. 250 residing on Olympus but not "ordinarily classified as Olympians"

Morford, p. 123: cupbearer to the Olympian gods

• The Graces

Hesiod, Theogony 64

Dowden, p. 43

Hansen, p. 31

• Heracles

After his apotheosis

Dowden, p. 43

Hansen, p. 250 residing on Olympus but not "ordinarily classified as Olympians"

• Hebe

Iliad 4.2–3 (pours wine for the gods), 5.905 (bathes Ares), 5.722 hitches Hera's chariot

Odyssey 11.602–4: Became the wife of Heracles after his apotheosis

Dowden, p. 43

Hansen, p. 250 residing on Olympus but not "ordinarily classified as Olympians"

Morford, p. 123: cupbearer to the Olympian gods

Gantz, p. 82

• Iris

Homer, Iliad 5.367–370

Dowden, p. 45

Gantz p. 82: unhitches Aphrodites' chariot (see Iliad book 5), cupbearer frequently in vase painting.

• The Horae (Hours)

Daughters of Zeus (and Themes), so probably also Olympians?

Hansen, p. 250 residing on Olympus but not "ordinarily classified as Olympians"

• Styx's children: Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Power), and Bia (Force)

According to Hesiod, Zelus (Envy), Nike (Victory), Cratos (Power), and Bia (Force), "have no house apart from Zeus, nor any dwelling nor path except that wherein God leads them, but they dwell always with Zeus."

Others

• Himerus

Hesiod, Theogony 64

• Hygeia

?

• Leto

Gantz, p. 38: [Leto] does seem to be a permanent resident on Olympos, as we see from both the begininng of the Hymn to Apollo (where she holds an honored place beside Zeus when Apollo makes an entrance) and the batle of the gods in Iliad 21 (where she is the recipient of Hermes' humorous surrender at 497-504 after having come down from Olympos with the other gods at Il 20.38-40).

• The Moirai

Daughters of Zeus (and Themes), so probably also Olympians?

• Nike

?

• Themis

?

• Mortals brought to live in Olympos

Gantz, p. 123: Semele, Ariadne, Kephalos, "perhaps" Hyakinthos, "might also add Tantalos"

• See Theoi

But not

• Asclepius

Not an Olympian see [2]

Deleted content to add back

In ancient Greek religion, the "Olympian Gods" and the "Cults of Twelve Gods" were often relatively distinct concepts.

The historian Herodotus states that Heracles was included as one of the Twelve by some. At Kos, Heracles and Dionysus are added to the Twelve, and Ares and Hephaestus are not. For Pindar, the Bibliotheca, and Herodorus of Heraclea, Heracles is not one of the Twelve Gods, but the one who established their cult. Lucian (2nd century AD) includes Heracles and Asclepius as members of the Twelve, without explaining which two had to give way for them.

Hestia

• Müller, pp. 419 ff.
• Dowden, p. 43
• Thomas, p. 12

Dionysus

• Burkert, pp. 125 ff.
• Chadwick, p. 85
• Pache, pp. 308 ff.
• Morford, p. 113

Hades

• Hansen, p. 250

"Hades, a sibling of the elder Olympians, resides in Erebos and so is not accounted one of the Olympians."

• Morford, p. 113

"And so a circle of major deities (fourteen in number) comes into being; their Greek and Roman names are as follows: Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Hades (Pluto), Hestia (Vesta), Hephaestus (Vulcan), Ares (Mars), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Demeter (Ceres), Aphrodite (Venus), Athena (Minerva), Hermes (Mercury), and Dionysus (Bacchus).¹ This list was reduced to a canon of twelve Olympians by omitting Hades (whose specific realm is under the earth) and replacing Hestia with Dionysus, a great deity who comes relatively late to Olympus."

• Hard p. 80

At this point, it may be useful to take stock of the origins of the main Olympian gods. ... If Aphrodite is left aside for the present, the major Olympians can be divided into three groups. Those who belonged to the first generation as children of Kronos and Rhea were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, [Demeter accidentally omitted] and Hestia. Although Hades also belonged to this generation, he lived far away from Olympos in his underground realm.

• Aune, p. 24

"The twelve Olympian gods became the most pervasive pan-Hellenic institution in the Greek world. The canonical list of twelve deities consists of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Hestia. This list exhibs variations, however, for the earth dieties Demeter and Dionysus, intentionally omitted from the Iliad and Odyssey of Homer, are sometimes included on the list in place of Hades and Hestia.

• Gantz, p. 44

"In Hesiod, Zeus' first act after recovering the other Olympians" seems to be considering Hades here as an Olympian.

• Long

p. 55–p. 56

Quotes a scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica: which lists the Twelve Gods: includes Hestia and Hades, and omits Dionysus and Ares

Heracles

• Neils, "Reconfiguring the Gods of the Parthenon Frieze"

p. 8

"As for the other seated male (E25), because of damageto the head it is not known wether he was bearded or not, but by a process of eliminination he is taken to be Dionysos, although Herakles has been suggested.¹⁷

p. 18

"16. ... Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen, ed. Gunter Kopcke and Mary B. Moore (Locust Valeely, N.Y.: J.J. Augustine, 1979), 91–98.

"17. Based on this figures robust physique, Martin Robertson has argued that he might be Herakles rather than Dionysos; see RObertson, "Two Question-marks on the Parthenon." in Kopcke and Moore (as in n, 16), 75–78. See also the discussion of this identification and a defense of the figure as Dionysos in Thomas Carpenter, Dionysian Imagery in Fifth-Century Athens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 90–92.

Parthenon

• Shapiro, p. 362

"Perhaps the best-known surviving depiction of the twelve Olympian gods is found on the east frieze of the Parthenon, completed about 432 BC (Berger and Ghistler-Huwiler 1996; Neils 2001; see Plate 5). It is generally agreed that this monument established for the first time (at least in Classical Athens) a canonical list of the twelve. ... For the Olympian gods, there was little doubt which ones made up the essential core, ever since the time of Homer and Hesiod, but at the edges, there was room for doubt as to who was in and who was out. The Parthenon frieze, for example established Dionysos as definitely in, while Hestia — whom most Greeks of the Archaic period would have considered an idispensible Olympian — was now out.

• Neils, "Reconfiguring the Gods of the Parthenon Frieze"

"These [the twelve gods on the Parthenon], the only seated figures on the frieze, are configured into two groups of six and represent the earliest extant depiction of what later became the canonical Twelve Gods of Greek and Roman art.⁹

Table

Greek	Roman	Image	Functions and attributes
Muses	Muses		The inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts
Dionysus (or Bacchus)	Bacchus		God of wine, the grape vine, fertility, celebrations, ecstasy, madness and resurrection. Patron god of the art of theatre. Symbols include the grapevine, ivy, cup, tiger, panther, leopard, dolphin, goat, and pinecone. Son of Zeus and the mortal Theban princess Semele. Married to the Cretan princess Ariadne. The youngest Olympian god, as well as the only one to have a mortal mother.

Sources

Ancient

Altar of the Twelve Gods

c. 522 BC

Homeric Hymn to Hermes

(4) 128–129 (c. 500 BC -- Dowden, p. 43)

"Next glad-hearted Hermes dragged the rich meats he had prepared and put them on a smooth, flat stone, and divided them into twelve portions distributed by lot, making each portion wholly honorable."

Long, pp. 61–62 (T 13 G), 156–157

Xenophon

Hipparchicus 3.2 (c. 350)

"So at the Great Dionysia the dance of the choruses forms part of the homage offered to the Twelve and to the other gods."

Pindar

Olympian 5

Psaumis who, exalting your city, Camarina, which cares for its people, [5] honored the six double altars, at the greatest festivals of the gods, with the sacrifice of oxen and in contests on the fifth day, contests of horse teams, and mule teams, and of riding the single horse.

Long, pp. 58 (T 13 A), 154

Olympian 10.49

"He [Heracles] enclosed the Altis all around and marked it off in the open, and he made the encircling area a resting-place for feasting, honoring the stream of the Alpheus along with the twelve ruling gods."

Long, p. 59 (T 13 C), 154–155

Herodotus

(c. 484—425 BC)

2.4.1

"But as to human affairs, this was the account in which they all agreed: the Egyptians, they said, were the first men who reckoned by years and made the year consist of twelve divisions of the seasons. They discovered this from the stars (so they said). And their reckoning is, to my mind, a juster one than that of the Greeks; for the Greeks add an intercalary month every other year, so that the seasons agree; but the Egyptians, reckoning thirty days to each of the twelve months, add five days in every year over and above the total, and thus the completed circle of seasons is made to agree with the calendar."

2.7.1

"From the sea up to Heliopolis is a journey about as long as the way from the altar of the twelve gods at Athens to the temple of Olympian Zeus at Pisa."

2.51.3

2.82.1

6.108.4

"So the Lacedaemonians gave this advice to the Plataeans, who did not disobey it. When the Athenians were making sacrifices to the twelve gods,¹ they sat at the altar as suppliants and put themselves under protection. When the Thebans heard this, they marched against the Plataeans, but the Athenians came to their aid.

¹ The twelve gods were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hestia. The βωμὸς was a central altar in the agora, from which distances were reckoned.

Parthenon

(c. 440/435 BC) (Burket pp. 125 ff.)

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Demeter, Dionysos, Hephaistos, Ares

Herodorus of Heraclea

(c. 400 BC)

FGrH 31 F34a

Dowden, p. 43

"When he [Heracles] came to Elis, he founded the shrime at Olympia of Zeus Olympios and named the place Olympia after the god. He sacrificed to him there and to the other gods, setting up alters, six in number, shared by the twelve gods: first the altar of Zeus Olympios, whom he had share with Poseidon; second of Hera and Athene; third of Hermes and Apollo; fourth of the Graces and Dionysus; fifth of Artemis and Alpheius; sixth of Cronus and Rhea."

Long, pp. 58–59 (T 13 B), 154

FGrH 31 F34b

Long, p. 59 (T 13 B), 154

Rutherford, p. 47

Thucydides

6.54.6-7

"The city meanwhile was permitted to retain her ancient laws; but the family of Pisistratus took care that one of their own number should always be in office. Among others who thus held the annual archonship at Athens was Pisistratus, a son of the tyrant Hippias. He was named after his grandfather Pisistratus, and during his term of office he dedicated the altar of the Twelve Gods in the Agora, and another altar in the temple of the Pythian Apollo. [7] The Athenian people afterwards added to one side of the altar in the Agora and so concealed the inscription upon it; but the other inscription on the altar of the Pythian Apollo may still be seen, although the letters are nearly effaced. It runs as follows:—

Pisistratus the son of Hippias dedicated this

memorial of his archonship in the sacred precinct

of the Pythian Apollo.

Apollonius of Rhodes

Argonautica 2.530–531

"And afterwards they raised an altar to the blessed twelve on the sea-beach opposite and laid offerings theron ..."

Long, p. 55 (T 11 A)

Diodorus Siculus

(fl. 1st century BC)

4.39.4

They report of Heracles further that Zeus enrolled him among the twelve gods but that he would not accept this honour; for it was impossible for him thus to be enrolled unless one of the twelve gods were first cast out; hence in his eyes it would be monstrous for him to accept an honour which involved depriving another god of his honour.

Apollodorus

(after 1st century BC?)

2.7.2

[Heracles] also celebrated the Olympian games and founded an altar of Pelops, and built six altars of the twelve gods.⁷

⁷ As to the six double altars, each dedicated to a pair of deities, see Pind. O. 5.4(8)ff.; Pind. O. 10.24(30); Scholiast on Pind. O. 5.4(8) and Pind. O. 5.5(10), who cites Herodorus on the foundation of the altars by Herakles.

Long, pp. 60–61 (T 13 E)

3.14.1

"So Poseidon was the first that came to Attica, and with a blow of his trident on the middle of the acropolis, he produced a sea which they now call Erechtheis. After him came Athena, and, having called on Cecrops to witness her act of taking possession, she planted an olive tree, which is still shown in the Pandrosium. But when the two strove for possession of the country, Zeus parted them and appointed arbiters, not, as some have affirmed, Cecrops and Cranaus, nor yet Erysichthon, but the twelve gods."

3.14.2

"In attempting to violate Alcippe, Halirrhothius, son of Poseidon and a nymph Euryte, was detected and killed by Ares.2 Impeached by Poseidon, Ares was tried in the Areopagus before the twelve gods, and was acquitted."

Scholia on Pindar

Olympia 5.10

Long, pp. 58–59 (T 13 B)

Olympia 10.58

Long, p. 60 (T 13 D)

Modern

Burkert

1985

p. 125

In Asia Minor a group of Twelve Gods had long been known. The Greeks correspondingly came to assemble their most important gods in a society of twelve. The number is fixed; some names vary, especially Hestia/Dionysus.¹

Chadwick (1976)

p. 85

The analysis of classical religion has easily yielded the separation of two strands: alongside the so-called Olympian deities, who are placed not so much upon the actual Mount Olympus in northern Greece as in a remote area of the sky, stands another less prepossessing group known to experts as chthonic, who were thought of as located within the surface of the earth; their technical name means simply 'earthy'. It is a reasonable hypothesis that the chthonic element represents the religion of the pre-hellenic people, the Olympian element the religion of the proto-Greek newcomers. But even this view is probably an oversimplification, and there is a vital piece of linguistic evidence here which is all too often overlooked.

There were traditionally twelve Olympian deities: Zeus, Poseidon, Hermes, Ares, Apollo, Hepaistos, Dionysos; Hera Artemis, Aphrodite, Athena, Demeter. Of these Demeter is probably a latecomer to this group, being in origin a realization of the Earth-goddess; and Dionysos had always been considered a late introduction, until the revelation of his name on two Pylos tablets upset this comfortable belief.

Dowden (2010)

p. 43

A pantheon ("all-gods") is the set of gods that any individual culture possesses, and because they are personal gods they will tend to form a family. In moderm treatments these tend to be formalized as the twelve Olympian gods: Zeus and Hera, Poseidon and Demeter, Apollo and Artemis, Ares and Aphrodite, Hermes and Athene, Hephaestus and Hestia. Which unfortunately leaves out Dionysus — so sometimes Hestia is relegated. Unfortunately again, this does not take account of Heracles, who becomes an Olympian god (Herodotus 2.44), joining his new wife Hebe ("Youthfulness") on Olympus — so she was an Olympian too. It also leaves out deities such as the Muses and the Graces who are assuredly Olympian goddesses:

Mousai Olympiades, kourai Dios aigiochio

Olympian Muses, daughters of aegis–bearing Zeus (Hesiod Theogony 52)

It is therefore not a straightforward matter of fact that there were twelve Olympian gods. The Greek gods of cult and mythology were quite numerous and various. Nonetheless, the attempt to create a twelve-strong pantheon began as early as the sixth century BC at both Olympia and Athens.

p. 44

"We can see, then how a notion of the twelve gods took final shape in Greek culture as it assumed its definitive classical form."

p. 45

Table 2.1 Olympian gods in Homer

...

Gadbery 1992

"The Sanctuary of the Twelve Gods In the Athenian Agora: A Revised View"

PDF

p. 447

THE SANCTUARY OF THE TWELVE GODS was once one of the more distinguished precincts in the Athenian Agora, the central marker for calculating distances from the city and an important place of refuge.¹

Hansen (2005)

p. 250

OLYMPIANS (GREEK OLYMPIOI)

Family of gods, the principal deities of Greek mythology.

The Olympian gods consist of an older generation and a younger generation. The elder Olympians are the siblings Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, and the younger Olympians are Zeus's sons Hermes, Hephaistos, Ares, Apollon, and Dionysos and Zeus's daughters Athena, Aphroditê, and Artemis. (Aphroditê is a daughter of Zeus and Dionê, although according to a different tradition she emerged from the semen of the god Ouranos.) Hades, a sibling of the elder Olympians, resides in Erebos and so is not accounted one of the Olympians. In addition other immortals dwell on Olympos who are not ordinarily classified as Olympians, notably the Hours, Herakles [after his apotheosis] and his wife Hebê, and Ganymedes. There was a tradition that when Zeus was about to enroll Herakles among the twelve Olympians, Hderakles declined the honor, since one of the present Olympians would have to be ejected (Diodorus of Sicily 4.39.4).

Although the Greeks generally agree that the Olympian gods were twelve in number, they did not always agree which were the twelve. In lists or works of art representing all the Olympians, Dionysos or Hestia is likely to be omitted, since the number of Olympians otherwise amounts to thirteen. Since the number twelve was a pattern number, or culturally favored number, as in the twelve labors of Herakles, the persistent idea of a group of twelve gods was to some extent independent of the idea of the Olympian family. In any case, the notion of twelve gods was more important in cult than in mythological narrative, where it is mentioned only occasionally (Homeric Hymn to Hermes 126-137; Apollodorus Library 3.14.1-2).

Hard

p. 80

At this point, it may be useful to take stock of the origins of the main Olympian gods. ... If Aphrodite is left aside for the present, the major Olympians can be divided into three groups. Those who belonged to the first generation as children of Kronos and Rhea were Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, [Demeter accidentally omitted] and Hestia. Although Hades also belonged to this generation, he lived far away from Olympos in his underground realm. Four major gods were born as children of Zeus in the next generation, namely Athena ... Apollo and Artemis ... and Ares ... Hephaistos ... And finally, during the heroic era, Zeus fathered Dionysos and Hermes ... Aphrodite

From the classical period onwards, it was commonly believed that there were twelve principal gods, an idea that was derived from cultic rather than strictly mythological considerations. The cult of the Twelve Gods originated in Asia Minor during the archaic period and was firmly established on the Greek mainland by the [cont.]

p. 81

fifth century BC; Pindar refers to the cult of the Twelve Gods at Olympia, where they were honoured at six altars, and Herodotus and Thucydides both mention an altar that was raised to them in the Athenian agora by the younger Peistratos.⁸⁸ Thie canonic list of the Twelve, as established at Athens and later transferred to Rome, ran as follows: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares Aphrodite, Hermes, Athena, Hephaistos and Hestia.⁸⁹ It will be noted that Hestia, who enjoyed a certain precedence in cult but was of no importance in myth (see p. 139), in cluded in the list while Dionysos is absent; but those who are named in it are otherwise the deities who would be regarded as the principal Olympians from a mythological view.

Long

p. 56

Scholion on Apollonius of Rhodes Arg 2.531-32: These are the Twelve Gods: Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Hepaistos, Apollo, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Artemis, Aphrodite and Athena.

p. 139

Weireich's theory that the Twelve were the Olympins from the beginning has been challenged by A. Raubischek, who revived C. Robrt's interpretation of them as anonymous local daimons or heroes. Here my own examination [cont.]

p. 140

of the evidence supports Weinreich to the extent that the Attic Twelve seem to have been major, named Greek gods from the start.

...

Weinreich held that the Twelve Gods were the twelve Olympians, among whom idividual members might be dropped to admit other gods. Thus he regarded Dionysos on the Parthenon frieze to be a substitution for Hestia.¹¹ The table below provides the best known set of twelve gods: [cont.]

¹¹ ... However Dionysos is included on Athens 1 and 2, both dated to the sixth century B.C. The earliest set with Hestia is Pherai 1, dated to the late fourth-early third century B.C. C.f. also the naming of a civic tribe at Magnesia for Hestia probably when the city submitted to Alexander: infra, 221-22.

p. 141

[Table: Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hera, Hestia, Apollo, Ares, Hepaistos, Hermes, Poseidon, Zeus]

The Greek texts, however, stress the number of the gods, seldom revealing their names. About 400 B.C. Herodorus listed the six pairs to whom the altars at Olympia were dedicated (T 13 B): Olympian Zeus and Poseidon, Hera and Athena, Hermes and Apollo, the Charites and Dionysos, Artemis and Alpheios, Kronos and Rhea. These are not the twelve Olympians, but they could be regarded as the chief gods of Olympia. ... The essential figure is the nuber. At the same time the members tend to be major named gods, usually of Greek origin. A majority of them may be Olympians because this group included the most widely recognized Greek gods, but they are not the Olympians per se. They are the twelve chief gods of a given community or individual at a given time.

Morford (2007)

p. 113

"And so a circle of major deities (fourteen in number) comes into being; their Greek and Roman names are as follows: Zeus (Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Poseidon (Neptune), Hades (Pluto), Hestia (Vesta), Hephaestus (Vulcan), Ares (Mars), Apollo, Artemis (Diana), Demeter (Ceres), Aphrodite (Venus), Athena (Minerva), Hermes (Mercury), and Dionysus (Bacchus).¹ This list was reduced to a canon of twelve Olympians by omitting Hades (whose specific realm is under the earth) and replacing Hestia with Dionysus, a great deity who comes relatively late to Olympus."

Müller (1852)

[Too old to be considered a high quality source]

p. 419

THE TWELVE OLYMPIAN DEITIES

1. ZEUS

pp. 428–487

2. Hera

[and Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus, Athena, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, Hestia]

p. 488

[Dionysius listed as first in the section "The Other Dieties"]

Neils

"Reconfiguring the Gods of the Parthenon Frieze"

p. 6

"These [the twelve gods on the Parthenon], the only seated figures on the frieze, are configured into two groups of six and represent the earliest extant depiction of what later became the canonical Twelve Gods of Greek and Roman art.⁹

p. 8

"As for the other seated male (E25), because of damageto the head it is not known wether he was bearded or not, but by a process of eliminination he is taken to be Dionysos, although Herakles has been suggested.¹⁷

p. 18

"9. On the Twelve Gods see Charlotte R. Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome' ... and Gratia Berger-Doer. Dodekatheoi, in ... LIMC), vol 3 (1986), 646–58. The canonical "Twelve Gods" consist of six males and six females; on the frieze Dionysos replaces Hestia.

"16. ... Studies in Classical Art and Archaeology: A Tribute to Peter Heinrich von Blanckenhagen, ed. Gunter Kopcke and Mary B. Moore (Locust Valeely, N.Y.: J.J. Augustine, 1979), 91–98.

"17. Based on this figures robust physique, Martin Robertson has argued that he might be Herakles rather than Dionysos; see RObertson, "Two Question-marks on the Parthenon." in Kopcke and Moore (as in n, 16), 75–78. See also the discussion of this identification and a defense of the figure as Dionysos in Thomas Carpenter, Dionysian Imagery in Fifth-Century Athens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 90–92.

Ogden (2010)

pp. 2–3

The canonical number of Olympian gods was twelve, but the number of important gods commonly held to dwell on the mountain was significantly larger. Various attempts to define a pantheon of twelve can be traced from the Homeric poems onwards, and it was often conceived in terms of a series of pairs of gods.

Pache (2010)

pp. 308 ff.

[Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Hermes, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Ares.]

p. 314

The Twelve Gods. Though the gods and their myths were familiar to the Greeks from different regions, there is a certain tension between the Panhellenic dimensions of the gods and local cultic practices. With the important exception of the Panhellenic character of sanctuaries such as Delos, Delphi, Isthmia, Nemea, and Olympia, where Greeks from different areas gathered and worshipped together, cult in ancient Greece was a local affair. ...

... Although at the local level the Greeks worshipped their gods in various configurations—in groups, pairs, or individually—the most common [cont. p. 316]

p. 316

group found consistently throughout the Greek world is the so-called Twelve Gods, which included the most important members of the Olympian family. As they are depicted on the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens, the Twelve Gods are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Aphodite, Hermes, Demeter, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Ares.

The notion of the Twelve Gods provides a condensed pantheon. The identity of the Twelve was not fixed and could differ according to location or ritual context. It almost always included the Twelve Olympians listed above, though occasionally one or more gods might be substituted. Hestia for example, is often numbered among the Twelve Gods. ... In some contexts the Twelve Gods might include local divinities such as for example Alpheus at Olympia. Although Homer does not explicitly mention the cult of the Twelve Gods, he is clearly aware of this number: twelve gods take part in the battle of the gods described in books 20 and 21 of the Iliad.

Rutherford (2010) [in folder]

Online version

p. 43

"It is surprising that an idea apparently so central to Greek relegion as the twelve gods or Dodekatheon can be traced back no further than the late sixth century BC. This is when an altar of the twelve gods was set up in the agora at Athens by the archon Peistratos, ..."

p. 46

If so, you might think that the members of Dodekatheon would always be the same, but in fact the members varied like everything else in Greek religion. The most group is:²¹ Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, [cont.]

p. 47

Athena, Hephaistos and Hestia. Some are more secure in thier position than others. Hestia and Ares tend to be the first jettisoned and we may find Dionysos, Herakles or Hades sneaking in. But the variations are often even greater. One strikenly aberrant list is the Olympic one, known from Herodorus, where the deities were arranged in six pairs:²²

Zeus and Poseidon

Hera and Athena,

Hermes and Apollo,

the Charites and Dionysos,

Artemis and the river Alpheios

Kronos and Rhea

So there are five differences from the standard twelve: added are Dionysos, Kronos and Rhea, the River Alpheios and rthe Charites (Kronos obviously belongs because of the Kronion, and Rhea goes with him; the River Alpeios speaks for itself); absent are Demeter, Hestia, Aphrodite and Ares and Hephaistos. the seven deities common ...

"However, while the members of the Dodaketheon may have varied the number twelve itself was a consistent, levelling factor.²⁵

25 Cf. L. B. Zaidman, and P. Schmitt Pantel, Releigin in the Ancient Greek City (Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 183.

Shapiro (2012)

p. 362

"Perhaps the best-known surviving depiction of the twelve Olympian gods is found on the east frieze of the Parthenon, completed about 432 BC (Berger and Ghistler-Huwiler 1996; Neils 2001; see Plate 5). It is generally agreed that this monument established for the first time (at least in Classical Athens) a canonical list of the twelve. ... For the Olympian gods, there was little doubt which ones made up the essential core, ever since the time of Homer and Hesiod, but at the edges, there was room for doubt as to who was in and who was out. The Parthenon frieze, for example established Dionysos as definitely in, while Hestia — whom most Greeks of the Archaic period would have considered an idispensible Olympian — was now out.

Thomas (2004)

"From the pantheon of the gods to the Pantheon of Rome"

p. 12

Traditionally, the ensemble of the ancient Greek gods of Mount Olympus is considered to be a coherent unit. Yet the principal representatives of ancient Greek literature, Homeric epic and classical tragedy, are remarkably silent about this name. Instead Greek sources, literary and epighraphic, tend to refer to the dodecatheion, a body of twelve gods. Even these are remarkably Potean in identification: the most common and traditional group is Zeus (Roman: Jupiter), Hera (Juno), Apollo, Athena (Minerva), Aphrodite (Venus), Ares (Mars), Hephaistos (Vulcan), Poseidon (Neptune), Hermes (Mercury), Artemis (Diana), Demeter (Ceres), and Hestia (Vesta). Yet many other deities have laid claim to be incuded in the twelve. A recent study of the twelve gods of Greece and Rome lists fifty-four different divinities, which at one time or another were identified as members of 'the twelve'.³

p. 13

"A variety of sanctuaries dedicated collectively to the Twelve Gods, dodecatheia, existed in mainland Greece already from the later Archaic period. The oldest that can be reasonably securely dated is the Altar of the Twelve Gods set up by the younger Pisistratus — the son of the tyrant Hippias, who was in turn the son of the elder Pisistratus — in Athens during his archonship.⁹ The altar was probably dedicated in 521–1 BC, as suggested by a fragment of the Athenian archon list.¹⁰"

p. 31 [No longer viewable online]

"3. Charlotte R.Long, The Twelve Gods of Greece and Rome, Leiden, 1987.

"9. For textual sources, see R. E. Wycherley, The Athenian Agora III: Literary and Epigraphical Testimonia, Princeton, 1957, pp. 119–22.

"10. Russell Meiggs and David Lewis (eds) A Selection of Greek Historical Inscriptions, revised edn Oxford, 1988, pp. 9–12 n. 6 (fragment c). The list was inscribed c. 425 BC.