1 The Olympin Gods
Between Macedon and Thessaly of eastern Greece there stood a high mountain. —
Its cloudy top rushed into the very heavens. —
On the top of the mountain, the home of the gods was bathed in brightness. —
At Olympus Zeus ruled as the father of gods and men. Zeus was not a crude ruler by any standards. —
All the gods listened to his final words,it was true. —
But Zeus made them all sit on a committee of twelve members,including six gods and six goddesses. —
The first in the Olympian crowd sat Zeus himself. —
He was the overlord of gods and men and the operator of the thunderbolt . —
Next to him was Hera,his proud and greeneyed queen. —
Poseidon was ruler of the sea,And Hades,king of the lower world,had no seat in the committee. —
Apollo was the god of the sun,music and poetry,while his twinsister Artemis was the goddess of the moon and the chase. —
Athena was the goddess of wisdom and patroness of house holdarts. —
Hestin,the goddess of the family,represented home life and family happiness. —
The frightening Ares was the god of war,and the charming Aphrodite the goddess of love and beauty. —
The god of fire,Hephaestus,was the forger of the thunderbolts of Zeus. —
The wing footed messenger Hermes was the god of invention and commerce; —
and the goddess of grains and harvests,Demeter,looked after agriculture and stood for mother ofcivilization.
All the chief gods mentioned above took human forms of incomparable beauty and grace. —
Often moved by human feelings and desires,they frequently gave way to anger and jealousy. —
They became involved in ceaseless battles with the world of man. —
Among themselves at Olympus they plotted and struggled for power. —
In the human world they experienced competitions and difficulties. —
They enjoyed earthly friendships and loves. —
Acrowd of everlasting gods looked and acted in a perfectly human fashion that is what all gods at Olympus actually were.