About the guide
About this guide
A careful reference to the figures of Greek mythology, built around who is descended from whom, with the ancient source for each claim.
83 figure pages across four generations: primordial powers, Titans, Olympians and Muses.
What it is for
The Greek Gods is for readers who want a straight answer to questions such as who Leto's parents were, how Athena was born, or what a lesser Muse is. Each figure has its own page with their family, their domain, a short account of what the ancient sources say, and the sources themselves, so that anything can be checked. It is also useful for writers, students and designers who want to start from the original stories.
How it is sourced
The family relations follow Hesiod's Theogony, the oldest surviving account of the gods' descent, composed about 700 BCE. Where Homer, the Homeric Hymns, the Orphic poems, Pindar, Aeschylus, Apollodorus, Ovid or Nonnus tell the story differently, the page says so rather than choosing silently. Each page ends with the ancient passages it draws on, cited by book and line so you can find them in any translation.
What it does not claim
Greek myth has no single authorised text. Details change from author to author and from place to place. For figures with thin evidence, such as the lesser Muses, Lelantos or the Nesoi, the page is kept short and says that the evidence is limited, instead of filling the gap with invention. A family link is shown only where an ancient source supports it.
The tools
Four small tools sit on top of the same data. The family tracer follows anyone back to Chaos, forward to their descendants, or finds the nearest ancestor two figures share. Which god looks after it? matches a subject to a god. The myth quiz draws ten questions from a bank. The family tree lists each parent with their children.
Pictures
The pictures are public domain or CC0, from museum collections and Wikimedia Commons, and every one is credited at the foot of the page it appears on.
Corrections
If you find an error, or know a better source, please get in touch. Corrections that come with a reference to an ancient text can be checked and applied quickly.