Index                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

ZOdin/AEsir
PNjord/Vanir
HLoki/AEsir
HFrigg/AEsir
MSjorn
AThor
AFreyr/Vanir
AFreyja/Vanir
HGmot
DBraggi
HBalder/AEsir
DNott
ATyre/AEsir
T
THeimdalir
TSol
Sif TDays of the Week

 

 

 The Norse gods  - Aesir, the Vanir and Jothar

 

 

*click on Image to return to Myth Homepage*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

norse pantheon.jpg

  Zeus Anchor

odin throne.jpg

 

Name:

Odin/ AEsir

 

 

    

 

 The "All Father" (The Ruler of the gods). Swallowed by Fenrir.


Domain:

 

    * He ruled the earth and the heavens. 

 

 

gods8 oden5.png

                                                        
bird the eagle  eagle1.gif

 

      the oak his treeoaktree.jpg

 

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  Poseidon Anchor

 

Name:

 

Njord/Vanir

    

 

Domain:

 

    Icons:

 

         

    

 

                                                                                          

 

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 Hades Anchor

hades.gif

Name:

Loki/AEsir

    

 

brother to Zeus and Poseidon.  His wife Persephone.

 

Domain

 

    * He ruled all lands under the  earth's surface.  His wife Persephone.  The god

       of wealth. His son was,  Hypnos and nephew Morpheus the gods of sleep. 

 

 

Icons:

 

   three headed dog "Cerbreus"   cerb1ani.gif

                                           associated with the grim reaper   grim_reaper.jpg

 

   Chiron the ferry man of the dead   charon.jpg

 

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 Hera Anchor

Hera55.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Hera / Juno

    

 

 wife to Zeus, protector of married women 

 

Domain:

 

    * protector of the family unit. 

 

 

Icons:

 

       the cow  wall_Calf_Cow_sm.jpg

                                               the hearth  Fireplace.jpg

              

                                  

                                                                 the peacock   anim peacock.gif

 

                                                      

 

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  Minerva Anchor

minerva.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Athena / Minerva

    

 

daughter of Zeus alone, born in full body armor.

 

Domain:

 

    * protector of the city, goddess of wisdom

 

 

Icons:

 

       the owl  owl.gif

                                   goddess of the city  walls.jpg

 

 

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  Apollo Anchor

apollo_the _sunchariot.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Apollo / Apollo

    

 

son of Zeus and Leto, a twin sister is Artemis

 

Domain:

 

    * god of the sun.  god of truth,  god of archery

 

 

Icons:

 

       archery   arrow+animated.gif

                                 animal the dolphin   eagle.jpg

 

    the crow crow.gif

 

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  Aphrodite Anchor

zeus-jupiter-1.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Aphrodite / Venus

    

 

 Born from sea form off the island of Cythera. 

Married to Hephaestus

 

Domain:

 

    * goddess of love and beauty.  

 

 

Icons:

 

                     the swan  swans.jpg

                                                                                          

                                                                              

        dove  animated-dove-right.gif

 

 

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  Artemis Anchor

Artemisdeerbow.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Artemis / Diana

    

 

born from a swan egg, twin sister to Apollo 

 

Domain:

 

    * goddess of wild animals and the hunt.  goddess of the moon.

 

 

Icons:

 

     the hunting and the bow     arrow2rightred.gif

                                

               animal the deer and wild thngs   deer.gif

 

                                                             

 

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 Hephaestus Anchor

hephaestus.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Hephaestus / Vulcan

    

 

Son of Hera / Juno alone.   A cripple god hurled by Zeus from Olympus as a youth.  Married to Aphrodite / Venus.

 

Domain:

 

    * god of craftsmen who make things.  Blacksmith of the gods.  

 

 

Icons:

 

  The anvil and forge     anvilsmal.jpg

 

                              

                                                           the volcano   volcano.gif

 

                                                     

 

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 Demeter Anchor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ceres.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Demeter / Ceres

    

 

One of the original Olympians 

 

Domain:

 

    *goddess of grain and growing, and the changing

     of the seasons.

 

 

Icons:

 

     grain   wheat.jpg

                                   

seasonal change   seasons20of20life20large.jpg

 

                                                             

 

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 Hermes Anchor

hermes2cadu.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Hermes / Mercury

    

 

Messanger for the gods, he appears more often than any other

gods in Greek mythology.

 

Domain:

 

    * He escorted the dead to the underworld

 

 

Icons:

 

       the Caduceas   caduceus.jpg

                  symbol for medicine   caduceus.png

 

                                                             an icon for speed  ftd mercury.jpg

 

 

                                                              

 

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 Dionysus Anchor

bacchusdio.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Dionysus / Bacchus

    

 

god of the grape, harvest and the god of hospitality

 

 

 

 

Icons:

 

       the grape   grape cluster.png

                                   god of the traveler and hospitality     hiker.jpg

 

 

 

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 Ares Anchor

ares.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Ares / Mars

    

 

son of Zeus and Hera.  Their only child. They did not like him

because he was spoiled and tempermental.

 

Domain:

 

    * god of war.  Liked by the Romans but hated by the Greeks

                              who liked peace. 

 

 

Icons:

 

 

  weapons of war      samurais_sword_fighting.gif

                                                                    the dog  dogwar.jpg

                                        

        

          the vulture  vulture.jpeg

 

                                            

 

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 Fates Anchor

fate_sisters.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Fates / The Moirae

    

 

Otherwise known as the Moirae, these timeless old hags weave the

threads of destiny that control your life. The original spin doctors.

 

They are:

CLOTHO who spins the Thread of Life,

LACHESIS who allots the length of the yarn, and 

ATROPOS who does the snip (the final one).

 

All the good and evil that befalls you is woven into your destiny and cannot

be altered even one jot. You may find this a little unfair, but it's the stuff great Greek tragedies are made of.

 

As the daughters of primeval night deities EREBUS and NYX (though

some claim that ZEUS and THEMIS should be held responsible),

the FATES control the destinies of all. Even the Gods are subject to their decisions. 

 

Icons:

 

      the spinning wheel          spinwheelcol-animation.gif

              

 

 

Spinning-Spinner.jpg

                             

 

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 Muses Anchor

muses-1.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Muses

 

In Greek and Roman mythology,

the nine muses were the daughters of Zeus,

the king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory.

The muses were the patron goddesses of the arts,

and over time each muse became associated with a specific art:

 

Calliope--the muse of epic poetry

 

Clio--the muse of history

 

Erato--the muse of love poetry

 

Euterpe--the muse of lyric poetry

 

Melpomene--the muse of tragedy

 

Polyhymnia--the muse of songs of praise to the gods

 

Terpsichore--the muse of choral songs and dance

 

Thalia--the muse of comedy

 

Urania--the muse of astronomy

 

Traditionally, a poet--especially an epic poet--would invoke the aid

of the appropriate muse to guide and assist him in his creative endeavor.

 

In its earliest development, however, the invocation was essentially a prayer,

a request that the goddess being invoked to inspire--literally, "breathe into"--the artist. The idea was that the artist did not himself "create" the work of art, but merely served as a mortal channel through which the divine voice of the muse could speak.

 

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  Gorgons

gorgon3.jpg

Name:

Greek / Roman 

 

Medusa / Gorgon 

    

 

 

Gorgons

by Micha F. Lindemans

In Greek mythology a Gorgon is a monstrous feminine creature whose appearance would turn anyone who laid eyes upon it to stone. Later there were three of them: Euryale ("far-roaming"), Sthenno ("forceful"), and Medusa ("ruler"), the only one of them who was mortal. They are the three daughters of Phorcys and Ceto.

 

The Gorgons are monstrous creatures covered with impenetrable scales, with hair of living snakes, hands made of brass, sharp fangs and a beard. They live in the ultimate west, near the ocean, and guard the entrance to the underworld.

 

A stone head or picture of a Gorgon was often placed or drawn on temples and graves to avert the dark forces of evil, but also on the shields of soldiers. Such a head (called a gorgoneion) could also be found on the older coins of Athens. Artists portrayed a Gorgon head with snake hair, and occasionally with a protruding tongue and wings.

 

 

Icons:

 

       one of the Gorgons  animated creatures medusa slithering.gif

                                   

 

 

 

 

 

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  Sisyphus

sisyphusffd.jpg

Name:

Greek 

Sisyphus  (SIS-i-fus)

 

 

 A Greek king condemned in Tartarus to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill then watching it roll back down again. Sisyphus was founder and king of Corinth.  He was notorious as the most cunning scoundrel on earth. His greatest triumph came at the end of his life, when the god Hades came to claim him personally for the kingdom of the dead. Hades had brought along a pair of handcuffs, a comparative novelty, and Sisyphus expressed such an interest that Hades was persuaded to demonstrate their use - on himself.

 

And so it came about that the high lord of the Underworld was kept locked up in a closet at Sisyphus's house for many a day, a circumstance which put the great chain of being seriously out of whack. Nobody could die. A soldier might be chopped to bits in battle and still show up at camp for dinner. Finally Hades was released and Sisyphus was ordered summarily to report to the Underworld for his eternal assignment. But the wily one had another trick up his sleeve.

sisyphusani.gif

He simply told his wife not to bury him and then complained to Persephone, Queen of the Dead, that he had not been accorded the proper funeral honors. What's more, as an unburied corpse he had no business on the far side of the river Styx at all - his wife hadn't placed a coin under his tongue to secure passage with Charon the ferryman. Surely her highness could see that Sisyphus must be given leave to journey back topside and put things right.

 

Kindly Persephone assented, and Sisyphus made his way back to the sunshine, where he promptly forgot all about funerals and such drab affairs and lived on in dissipation for another good stretch of time. But even this paramount trickster could only postpone the inevitable. Eventually he was hauled down to Hades, where his indiscretions caught up with him. For a crime against the gods - he was condemned to an eternity at hard labor. And frustrating labor at that. For his assignment was to roll a great boulder to the top of a hill. Only every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the darn thing rolled back down again.

 

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  Tantalus

tantalus.jpg

Name:

 

      Origin of the names of the days

The names of the days are in some cases derived from Teutonic deities or, such as in Romance languages, from Roman deities.

Sunday
The name comes from the Latin dies solis, meaning "sun's day": the name of a pagan Roman holiday.

German: Sonntag; Dutch: zondag. [both: 'sun-day']

Monday
The name comes from the Anglo-Saxon monandaeg, "the moon's day". This second day was sacred to the goddess of the moon.

German: Montag; Dutch: maandag. [both: 'moon-day']

Tuesday
This day was named after the Norse god Tyr. The Romans named this day after their war-god Marsdies Martis.

French: mardi; Italian: martedi; Spanish: martes.
The Germans call Dienstag (meaning "Assembly Day"), in The Netherlands it is known as dinsdag, in Danmark as tirsdag and in Sweden tisdag.

Wednesday
The day named to honor Wodan (Odin).
The Romans called it dies Mercurii, after their god Mercury.

French: mercredi; Italian: mercoledi; Spanish: miércoles.
German: Mittwoch; Dutch: woensdag.

Thursday
The day named after the Norse god Thor. In the Norse languages this day is called Torsdag.
The Romans named this day dies Jovis ("Jove's Day"), after Jove or Jupiter, their most important god.

French: jeudi; Italian: giovedi; Spanish: jueves.
German: Donnerstag; Dutch: donderdag.

Friday
The day in honor of the Norse goddess Frigg
In Old High German this day was called frigedag
To the Romans this day was sacred to the goddess Venus, and was known as dies veneris.

French: vendredi; Italian: venerdi; Spanish: viernes.
German: Freitag ; Dutch: vrijdag.

Saturday
This day was called dies Saturni, "Saturn's Day", by the ancient Romans in honor of Saturn. In Anglo-Saxon: sater daeg.

French: samedi; Italian: sabato; Spanish: sábádo.
German: Samstag; Dutch: zaterdag.
Swedish: Lördag; and in Danish and Norse: Lørdag ("washing day").

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