this is an introduction to the Greek and
Roman pantheon of gods and goddesses get
started this is Zeus also known as
Jupiter and he's also sometimes known as
Jove so when you read Ovid's
metamorphoses you'll see him refer to as
Jove remember that they are all the same
person but Zeus is god of the sky he's
got of rain and clouds and thunder and
you often see these in statues or or
imagery of gods and goddesses you see
them depicted with certain attributes or
things that are surrounding them animals
or trees holding specific things so that
you know exactly which god or goddess it
is so Zeus often is depicted with an
eagle next to him as you see in this one
instance here sometimes an oak or an
olive tree he usually has his lightning
bolts in his hand so here we have
Poseidon the Greek name Neptune of
course being the Roman name his son is
Triton so if you're a little mermaid fan
King Triton is Poseidon or Neptune son
he's the god of sea he is also the god
of earthquakes and floods and a strange
one perhaps is horse's he is the god
of horses as one so you often see him
with that trident which is the
three-pronged spear that he's carrying
there he is sometimes pictured with a
horse or a bull a golden car which you
might picture again if you're picturing
the little mermaid he's often brought in
on some kind of a golden chariot tugged
by sea creatures so that's the golden
car that we're talking about sometimes
dolphins or other sea animals and a pine
tree or sea celery so in this statue I
know it's a little bit hard to see but
you can see kind of a dolphin's tail
whipping up there
to the right of him next we have Hades or Pluto
as he's known in the Roman and Hades is
interesting an interesting figure in one
of the myths because he weds Persephone
he steals her first and then he weds her
but he is the god of the underworld as
we know he's us of the god of wealth and
precious metals precious metals makes
sense of course because you often have
to dig for them underground and so he is
without of all things that reside under
the earth as you see in this in this
image here of the statue he is pictured
here with the Cerberus the three-headed
dog and if you're fit the Harry Potter
series you're familiar with Fluffy the
three headed dog being an ode to Cerberus
here he usually is pictured with kind of
a two-pronged spear so where's Poseidon
has the Trident with three prongs Hades
has sort of an iteration of that where
its Trident missing the third prong in
the middle so he's it's sort of a sort
of a pitchfork I guess it's an early
pitchfork really but it's a two prong
spear you can tell here many of these
old statues that you know they're
missing limbs they're missing whatever's
being held in their hand but that seems
to be what's missing from this statue
here and Hades has the invisible helmet
the helmet of invisibility that is the
special gift of his so we keep going
here Apollo is an incredibly important
God he's out he's known as Apollo in
both Greek and Roman myths sometimes
he's name is Phoebus Apollo or just
Phoebus in both of the myths but Apollo
is a figure who has a lot to do in both
of the myths he's called upon often here
he is seated in the middle with his
nymphs he's often pictured with a lyre
which is l-y-r-e
which is often which is a kind of
musical instrument that's sort of like
an early handheld harp and he's god of
music and poetry he's also god of
prophecy and so whenever you see movies
when the talking about the Temple of
Apollo it's because he is the god of
prophecy and said that's where the
priestess's would live that's where
people would would go to to pay homage
to the god Apollo he is the seeker of
truth and he is also in the divine art
of healing he's the god of the divine
art of healing so he cares about all of
those things and he's often pictured
like I said with a lyre sometimes with
with his with his bow and arrow a Laurel
so the crown on his head as well as a
crow or a raven he is the twin
brother of Artemis so Artemis is his
sister they're often depicted in later
iterations of myth as the Sun and the
moon so Artemis or diana is the moon
whereas Apollo is the Sun Sun God Sol
Artemis or Diana in the glory in India
in the Roman she's the Virgin Huntress
she's the goddess of hunting she's the
goddess of the wilderness of wild animals
and she's also the goddess of children
because she has this kind of innocence
she's often pictured as she is here with
her bow and arrow and a deer sometimes a
bear sometimes a cypress tree and of
course she's often depicted as the goddess
of the moon when we look at Aphrodite or
Venus as Botticelli's famous painting
here The Birth of Venus shows us it's
not hard to see that she is goddess of
love and beauty and of course sexual
attraction Venus and Aphrodite
quite an interesting origin story in a
very earliest of the stories which we
are of course reading from he sees the
agony she is born from or Uranus'
genitals so when Chronos castrates his
father and his genitals are thrown into
the sea that's what she comes from is
depicted here arriving on the seashell
on the shores she's often depicted with
a conch shell or a seashell of some kind
some kind of Myrtle which is a sea tree  a dove
a sparrow a swan or roses those are
often the kinds of imagery that surround
Aphrodite she winds up being beloved of
Hephaestus later and we'll talk about
that in a second Athena Pallas Athena
sometimes she is known as P-a-l-l-a-s and
Minerva she is an interesting origin
story as well in some of the earliest
myths she is known as coming directly
from Zeus sometimes said to have popped
right out of the top of Zeus's head but
in another version of the myth it is
said that Athena is the child of Zeus
and his first wife named Metis M-e-t-i-s
now we're not actually reading about
this but it is quite an interesting
story especially if you think about how
Chronos was in trouble for swallowing
his children the Zeus got a similar
prophecy and so he swallowed his first
wife Medus and Metis is living in his
belly and so he was the Metis was
apparently pregnant with Athena whenever
he swallowed her and out pops Athena as
the as the spawn of the two of them so
kind of an interesting story there but
Athena Minerva as we know she's the
goddess of wisdom but she's also the
goddess of war and that makes
that interesting because she wants it
being the lover of Ares the God of War
makes for an interesting match there
she's also the goddess of weaving and
crafts and agriculture which all makes
sense she's often depicted with an owl
said the wise owl and agus which is the
shield that you see here she has her
spear and her shield her helmet that
helmet she is usually wearing in
depictions of her and an olive tree this
is Hera or Juno and Hera is of course
Zeus' wife though it's hard to believe
that she stays with them after after all
she is the goddess of marriage she is
the goddess of the sky and she is the
goddess of women she's often seeing
holding a scepter which we can see has
been broken off but she is holding it in
her hand and she's often depicted
holding that scepter or having a peacock
a cow or a lion somewhere around her and
you can see from this that she's got
this headdress on when would women are
seen wearing veils like this in statuary
from early Greek depictions of the
goddesses it means that they have a
husband it it's like when we see Zeus
and Poseidon and Hades with the bearded
as bearded figures it's a signifier in
art history here next I wanted to throw
in Demeter and Persephone though we're
not really reading the myth of Demeter
and Persephone it's probably something
that you've come across before Demeter
of course is is the goddess of the
harvest she's without some grain and
she's usually depicted carrying a stalk
of wheat so Demeter and Persephone have
this interesting story about Persephone
being stolen by Hades and taken into the
underworld Demeter creates a creates a
famine on the world because she's the
goddess of the harvest and she's looking
all over the place for her daughter and
of course the Hades tricks
persephone into eating pomegranate arils
to get him to get her to stay with him
in underground and we kind of get a
story about how the seasons were created
next we have Hermes or as he's known in
Rome Mercury the god of travel he is a
messenger god he's also known as the god
of athletes and the god of thieves so
being fleet-footed he often has the
caduceus as we see in this he has his
winged sandals on also we see that here
he usually has really fast animals
depicted with him so the hare the rabbit
of the hawk or the crocus flowers those
are things that are usually depicted
when we see Hermes/Mercury
Hephaestus who is also known as Vulcan
and Mulciber and the Roman myths he's
the lover of Aphrodite and he's the god
of fire is the god of smithing he's the
god of metal works and the god of
volcanoes and things Hephaestus is part
of that he's often depicted with his
hammer and tongs and donkey because if
you have seen an old school
blacksmithing shop you know that donkeys
are used to pull some of the things
around the shop and he is usually
depicted as seated because of them
injury he's also known as the lame God
and just a couple more here we had Ares
Mars his lover of Athena and he's the
god of war courage and battle lust
anytime somebody wants to take revenge
on somebody and wants to start a battle
that's Ares job right there he's often
depicted with a vulture some kind of a
dog and a serpent we have Dionysus and
for any of you who are fans of Jim
Morrison and The Doors you may or may
not know the de Morrison thought that he
was a reincarnation of Dionysus who is
the god of wine festivity and madness 
and this statue here appears at the
Palace of Versailles I thought that it
was quite beautiful so I thought I'd use
it Dionysus of Bacchus as he is known in
the Roman there's a cult of Dionysus all
kinds of interesting things to read if
you're interested in him we're not
reading too much about him but he's
often depicted with a pinecone staff a
serpent a bowl a Panther grapevines and
Ivy and finally I wanted to show you
Prometheus who we will be reading a
story about and he is his name means for
thought he is the brother of Epimetheus
whose name means afterthought and after
you read the story I think you'll know
why there's a couple of different
stories about his rescue one story has
him being rescued by Io. One story has him
being rescued by Heracles he's the
creator of man in one story he is the
bringer of fire he's usually depicted in
Chains as he is here he's usually
depicted in the famous story of his
liver being pecked out by Eagles and in
pictures where he was not chained up he
is typically depicted holding a fennel
stock which is how he brought fire down
from Olympus to the humans so hopefully
you have enjoyed this presentation on
the Greek and Roman pantheon
