Most Important Greek Gods

he greeks had a polytheistic religion centered around many gods each representing a certain facet of the human condition, even abstract ideas such as justice and wisdom could have their own personification. The most important greek gods were the olympians led by zeus, these gods were Athena, Apollo, Poseidon, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite, Demeter, Ares, Artemis, Hades, Hephaestus, and Dionysus. These gods were believed to live on Mt. Olympos and would have been recognized all across greece, although, some local variations and perhaps particular attributes and associations. In greek imagination, literature, and art, the gods were given human bodies and characters and just as ordinary men and women, they married, had children, fought, and in the stories
The gods became patrons of cities, for example, Aphrodite for Corinth and Helios for Rhodes, and were called upon for help in particular situations, for example, Ares during war and Hera for weddings. At first, sacred sites were merely a simple altar in a designated area, but over time massive temples came to be built in honour of a particular god and these usually housed a cult statue of the deity, most famously the huge statue of Athena in the Parthenon of Athens or Zeus at Olympia. In time, a whole complex of temples to lesser gods could spring up around the main temple, creating a large sacred complex, often built on an acropolis dominating a city or surrounding area.This sacred area was separated from the rest of the community by a symbolic gate or propylon, and in fact it was believed that this area belonged to the particular deity in question. (Greek religion,
In these closed groups, members believed that certain activities gave spiritual benefits, amongst them a better afterlife. Temples could also acquire a divine connection; the great oracles such as that of Apollo at Delphi and Zeus at Dodona may well have begun as places considered particularly good to receive signs from the gods. Such places became hugely important centres with their priest oracles consulted by both individuals and city-states so that the rather vague and ambiguous proclamations might help guide their future