Dodekatheon and the First Gamos
The gods of Olympus ascended to prominence by overthrowing the pantheon of their tyrannical progenitor, the Titan Cronus. After Cronus and the old gods who sided with him were defeated in the 10-year struggle known as the Titanomachy, the Dodeka was established by two of the children of Cronus, Zeus and Hera, who led the uprising against their father and together cast Cronus out of the heavens to seal him in the center of the Earth.
The brother and sister deities were bound in a ceremonial hieros gamos (“divine marriage”) attended by all the gods of Olympus, after which the twelve deities of the Dodeka consecrated their new accord in a ritual known as Dodekatheon.
In this way, the First Gamos, Zeus-Hera, was coronated as rulers of all the lands that fall under the shadow of Olympus, whether on Earth or in the heavens:
Dionysus – “The Thirteenth Olympian” and “The Seventh Gamos”
After the Dodeka was inaugurated upon Mount Olympus, Zeus and Hera performed a ritual before the assembled deities of Olympus, by which they conceived a mortal son. First, they created for him a body made of earth and bound it within the hide of a bull, then placed the lifeless vessel in the river Styx so the materials from which their son was crafted would learn of life and death. When their son came to life fully grown, Zeus-Hera named him Eleutherios, “The Liberator,” for he was to bring the justice of Olympus to the lands he traveled and conquer those among the older gods who still sought to challenge the authority of the Dodeka.
But Hyperion, the Titan and old god of the sun, saw Eleutherios and grew angry at the Dodeka’s actions. Only moments after his birth, Eleutherios was burned by the light of the sun, until he dissolved into ash and his spirit was heard screaming as it descended into the underworld, where all mortals go.
Enraged by Hyperion’s murder of their son, the First Gamos Zeus-Hera assumed its most destructive aspect, Deiphágos (‘god eater’). Zeus-Hera, foaming at the mouth and bellowing in rage, charged into the sky and smashed through the barriers of the heavens until they reached the sun. The King-Queen Gamos of Olympus unleashed their judgment upon Hyperion and cast him out of his throne inside the sun to the ground below, sending him tumbling through the same hole in creation Zeus-Hera created to reach the sun. It is said that the place where Hyperion landed was transformed into a volcano by the impact of the Titan’s godly mass, and that the divine blood that splattered across the earth below became the lava that flowed out of it.
When the blood of Hyperion splashed upon the blackened ground where Eleutherios had died, the soil parted and the son of Zeus and Hera sprung from the ground, alive and healthy. But when he finally spoke, the reborn “mortal god” declared that he was not Eleutherios; for Eleutherios had died and been reborn as Dionysus, who was born of the three realms of the heavens, the earth, and the underworld, and given life by the blood of the gods both old and new: first as a mortal, then as a god himself.
Zeus-Hera commanded Dionysus to be their herald, as Eleutherios was born to be. The ‘mortal god’ Dionysus agreed to travel the known world under the aegis of his divine parents, bringing with him the celebration of life and liberation from the cruelty of the gods and the shackles they would place on their subjects… no matter which gods they be.
Rites and Customs
Xenia
The traditional code of hospitality between a host and their guest; usually translated as 'guest-friendship' or 'ritualized friendship'; based on the word ‘xenos,’ or stranger. Xenia is expressed in the giving of gifts, shelter, and protection from one’s enemies, as well as the expectation that the host will grant their guest certain favors and oblige their requests.
Hospitality towards foreigners and guests is considered a moral obligation, especially to the gods of Olympus, who aspire to rational justice rather than the chaotic ways of more primal deities or the arrogant tyranny of their predecessors. Hera, the goddess of the household and domestic order, is particularly interested in rewarding those who show hospitality, and perhaps even more interested in punishing those who fail to meet her standards, especially when it comes to her mortal representatives and those who have relied on her protection or invoked her favor in the past.
Theoxenia
Theoxeny, or theoxenia, is a related term to xenia, in which a stranger requests shelter in someone’s home, only to reveal themselves as a god. Those hosts who demonstrate virtue, piety, or exceptional hospitality are acknowledged as paragons of just and civilized behavior, and are rewarded for their kindness and moral obedience. But the hosts who fail to meet the gods’ standards, especially those who try to kill, rob, or deceive their guests, are often made an example of as a reminder to the mortals who live under the shadow of Olympus that the gods are always watching.
Catharsis
The result of measures taken to cleanse away blood-guilt— "blood is purified through blood.” To achieve catharsis, the blood of a sacrificed piglet is allowed to wash over the blood-polluted man, followed by running water that washes away the blood.
THE OLD GODS
Hecate
Though many mortals believe Hera and Hecate to be rivals for dominion over women and the household, the two divine matriarchs are mostly content to leave the other to their business; for unlike the mercurial and untamed Hecate, Hera is a goddess of contracts, order, and civilization. Because of this, Hecate is more than willing to help Hera and her champions take the fleece, especially once her mortal representative Medea marries Jason in a sacred ceremony dedicated to her patron goddess, in which Medea sacrifices her virginity to Jason atop the temple altar in exchange for divine recognition of her marriage to Jason.
Hecate’s sacred animals are snakes and dogs.
Her sacred plants are yew, oak, cypresses (associated with death), mandrake, belladonna, dittany, aconite, and garlic.
Cronus and the Titanomachy
From the beginning of human civilization in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean, the heavens were ruled by the ancient god Cronus, the King of the Titans, who was set upon the throne of creation by his parents Uranus and Gaia, who were the sky and the earth. Cronus ruled from atop Mount Othrys in Asia Minor (Turkey), where he assembled a court of other deities to serve him. In return for their aid and obedience, those gods whom Cronus chose to join him on Mount Othrys were given official roles in the divine order of creation. Cronus named his new pantheon ‘the Titans of Othrys,’ and with their aid he conquered all corners of the heavens that resisted his rule.
When Cronus first assembled the Titans, it was with the promise that their concord would lead to peace and justice for those below them once their enemies were defeated; but after generations upon generations of Mount Othrys’ unchallengeable reign over the Earth, Cronus became little more than a paranoid tyrant who brutalized his subjects in unpredictable fits of cruelty, and devoured his children so they could never replace him. Cronus’ reign only came to an end when two of his children, Zeus and Hera, united the outcast gods and spirits who suffered under Cronus’ rule and went to war against their father. The ten-year war between the gods that followed, known as the Titanomachy, was fought in all three realms of existence – the heavens, the earth, and the underworld.
The Titanomachy only ended when Ares, the Titan of War, denounced Cronus as a tyrant and defected to the side of Olympus; for the mad Cronus had attempted to enslave the souls of the dead and force them to fight for him, which offended Ares’ sense of honor and justice: ‘Those who must die, must die only once. Not even gods may dishonor them by demanding otherwise.’
With the majority of the heavenly hosts now united behind them, Zeus and Hera combined into the Zeus-Hera gamos for the first time and stormed their father’s palace atop Mount Othrys, while the mortal armies of both sides clashed below. Cronus and Zeus-Hera dueled for rulership of the heavens atop Mount Othrys, while on the mortal plane their demigod champions, Helios and Prometheus, led their armies to war against the other.
Cronus was only defeated when Zeus-Hera assumed their most fearsome aspect, Deiphagos the god-eater: a fire-breathing minotaur of metal, aether, and flesh who wields a sickle made of adamant. After breaking their father’s back, Zeus-Hera castrated Cronus with the adamantine sickle and cast the King of the Titans into the furthest depths of the ocean, where their brother and ally Poseidon buried the paralyzed Cronus under all the rocks and sand of the ocean floor, trapping him for all time. At the same moment when Cronus’ back was broken, the Titans’ earthly champion, the demigod Helios, was stripped of his divine power and struck down by his half-mortal Olympian rival, Prometheus.
Following the defeat of their king and their champion, the surviving Titans sued for peace. In return for the defeated Titans’ acknowledgment of Zeus and Hera’s right to rule uncontested, the new king and queen of the heavens extended an offer of peace and coexistence with those gods and mortals who renounced their loyalty to Cronus and swore never to challenge the authority of the Dodeka, the council of twelve gods assembled by Zeus and Hera to rule creation from atop Mount Olympus. To prove their honest intentions and willingness to show mercy for the sake of justness, Zeus and Hera had their brother Hades release Helios’ spirit from the underworld so that he could be raised to full godhood alongside Prometheus.
In order to provide a just outcome to the war, appease their former enemies, and avoid being seen as tyrants like their father, Zeus and Hera agreed to defer some of their authority as rulers of all creation to their siblings and allies. In return for sealing Cronus, Poseidon was given dominion over the oceans. For revealing Cronus’ plan to enslave the souls of the dead to Ares and defeating Cronus’ chthonic champions, Hades was made ruler of the underworld – with the exception of one chthonic realm that was given to Ares; for his honor and bravery in standing against Cronus, Ares was granted eternal dominion over a portion of the underworld, so that the god of war could reward those mortal souls who died honorably and bravely with an eternity of peace and comradeship with their fellows. Ares named his new dominion ‘Elysium,’ and declared it to be an eternal sanctuary where the freedom of the worthy dead from mortal toil and suffering will be protected forever by the one god whom Ares can be sure will never dishonor their sacrifice: himself.
Though the forces of Zeus and Hera had emerged from the war victorious, and with their authority over the heavens and the underworld secure, the new dominion of Olympus in the mortal realms is but a portion of the size and power of their fathers’ great theocratic empire that encompassed all the known world. Despite Zeus and Hera’s claim to a divine mandate, the Dodeka have found the lands outside the shadow of Olympus resistant to their worship and resentful of their rulership, despite the obvious rationality and justness of the Dodeka’s cause. Many of the surviving Titans and other deities who sided with Cronus still hold influence, as well; and the threat of the old gods reuniting to overthrow the usurpers atop Mount Olympus becomes more real the longer the reign of Olympus goes on, and resentment towards Zeus and Hera as monarchs replaces the worship and praise they received as liberators and heroes of the oppressed.
Hyperion and Helios
At the conclusion of the Titanomachy, Zeus and Hera made sure to exclude from their court all the major deities and spirits who stood with Cronus at the Battle of Othrys. However, some of the old Titans were allowed to keep their positions. Aside from Ares, who became a member of the Dodeka, the most notable of these rehabilitated Titans was Hyperion, the father of Helios and the god of the sun. Hyperion had denounced Zeus and Hera as traitors and refused to join their cause, but he but did not provide Cronus with any aid, either; for Hyperion had flatly rejected the King of the Titans’ command to ravage the mortal realms by stopping the sun from rising until all the creatures of the earth knelt to Cronus in submission.
The sun god’s reign would not last much longer, however: after Hyperion betrayed the Dodeka by murdering Zeus and Hera’s newly created ‘mortal son’ Eleutherios, Zeus and Hera assumed the form of the Deiphagos once more and threw Hyperion from the sky. The Dodeka then appointed Hyperion’s son, the newly divine Helios, as Hyperion’s replacement
THE DODEKA -- INDEX (D-Z)
Dionysus*
“The thirteenth Olympian,” and the mortal son of Zeus and Hera reborn as a “mortal god” who exists between the three realms of the mortal world, the underworld, and the heavens.
God of wine, the grapevine, fertility, festivity, ecstasy, madness, and resurrection. Patron god of the art of theatre.
His symbols include the grapevine, ivy, cup, tiger, panther, leopard, dolphin, goat, and pinecone
Hephaestus
Master blacksmith and craftsman of the gods; god of the forge, craftsmanship, invention, fire, and volcanoes. The son of Hera from before her marriage to Zeus. Married (unhappily) to Aphrodite.
His symbols include fire, anvil, axe, donkey, hammer, tongs, and quail.
Hera
Goddess of marriage, women, marital harmony, and the protector of women during childbirth
Sacred animals: cow, cuckoo, peacock
Symbols: the polos crown, peacock feathers, pomegranates
Hermes
Messenger of the gods; god of travel, commerce, communication, borders, eloquence, diplomacy, thieves, and games, and the guide of dead souls. The son of Zeus and the nymph Maia, before Zeus’ marriage to Hera; the third youngest of the high Olympians, just before Zeus and Dionysus.
His symbols include the caduceus (staff entwined with two snakes), winged sandals and cap, stork, and tortoise (whose shell he used to invent the lyre).
Hestia
Goddess of the hearth, fire and of the right ordering of domesticity and the family; born into the first Olympian generation, she is the first child of Cronus and Rhea, and the elder sister of Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera, and Zeus.
Poseidon
God of the seas, water, storms, hurricanes, earthquakes, and horses. The middle son of Cronus and Rhea. Brother of Zeus and Hades. Married but not faithful to the Nereid, Amphitrite.
His symbols include the horse, bull, dolphin, and trident.
Zeus
King of the gods and ruler of Mount Olympus; god of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, and justice.
His symbols include the thunderbolt, eagle, oak tree, bull, scepter, and scales.
THE DODEKA – “The Twelve of Olympus”
The Dodeka Olympia (“The Twelve of Olympus”) are the ascendent gods of the age who reign from atop Mount Olympus. The Dodeka is composed of six male and six female deities: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Hestia.
In addition to being worshipped as individual deities, the gods of the Dodeka are also worshipped as paired male and female halves of the same divine gamos, in symbolic imitation of the sacred hieros gamos between Zeus and Hera that sealed the compact between the Dodeka:
Zeus-Hera
Apollo-Athena
Poseidon-Demeter
Ares-Artemis
Hephaestus-Hestia
Hermes-Aphrodite
Hera Olympiora, Queen of Olympus
“If we do not wish to be overthrown as our parents were, then we must rule by more than strength, and with higher purpose than simply to rule: we must bring justice and order to our dominion, so that those we protect will never have the need to see us replaced. Our authority must bring rewards, as well as punishment.”
-- Hera Olympiora Alexandros Akráia Basíleia Boṓpis Leukṓlenos Teléia Zygia, at her coronation as Queen of Olympus and All Creation
The most important god in the story of the Argonauts is Hera, the wife of Zeus and Queen of Olympus. Hera is the goddess who commanded the Argonauts to assemble for their journey, for it was Hera who demanded Jason’s uncle Pelias bring the Golden Fleece to Iolcus, and it was Hera who convinced the Dodeka to save Phrixus and Helle by allowing Nephele to create the Golden Ram.
Goddess of marriage, women, marital harmony, and the protector of women during childbirth
Sacred animals: cow, cuckoo, peacock
Symbols: the polos crown, peacock feathers, pomegranates
Heracles and other warriors devoted to Hera wear helmets made from the skulls of bulls sacrificed to the goddess.
Hera has the body of a middle-aged woman who has had several children, but her head is that of a cow; when she appears before mortals in her godly form, Hera always appears seated before a giant hearth that stands taller than her.
All aspects of Hera wear a polo (a high cylindrical crown) except for “Man Eater”.
Hera-Xenia: wears a bride’s veil that drapes down over her face, but does not hide her bovine appearance or her large, intense eyes.
Hera-Basíleia (“Queen Hera”): wears a crown with a crest of peacock feathers. holds a large spear in her right hand and her queenly scepter in the left.
Hera-Alexandros (“Protector of Men”): holds the scales of justice in her right hand, and a pomegranate of wisdom in the left.
Hera-Androphágos (“Man Eater”, the vengeful aspect that inflicts madness on those who do not carry out their duty to destroy the goddess’ enemies): Black horns tear through the flesh of her skull, adorned by a wheel of fire that turns between them; her eyes and mouth distend to terrifying size, and bloody foam froths from her mouth.
Like all the gods of Olympus, and the Titans before them, Hera has many aspects through which mortals can perceive her, each with its own epithet:
1. Alexandros, 'Protector of Men' 2. Aigophágos, 'Goat-Eater'3. Akráia, 'She of the Heights'4. Antheia, ‘flowery’5. Basíleia, 'Queen'6. Bounáia '(She) of the Mound’7. Boṓpis, 'Cow-Faced'8. Leukṓlenos, 'White-Armed’9. Teléia, as goddess of marriage.10. Zygia, as the presider over marriage. Zeus has the male equivalent of the same epithet, ‘Zygius’.
Hecate is the triple-aspect goddess of primal femininity and the original protector-deity of the household, whose ambivalent nature and wide dominion make her always present, but rarely noticed.
Unlike the raised outdoor altars of most deities, sacrifices to Hecate are performed indoors in bothros ("pits") or megaron ("sunken chambers"), signifying Hecate’s association with the liminal and the underworld. Aea, the capitol of Colchis, is one of the few places in the world where Hecate has a proper shrine dedicated to her worship alone. As such, the High Priestess of Hecate in Colchis wields unique power and authority that no other mortal can achieve, and she may freely invoke the favor of the gods both old and new, for Hecate belongs to all of them and yet none of them, for she is bound to the authority of both yet defies them all by existing in places they cannot.
Despite the lack of proper shrines to Hecate, deference to Hecate and her divine nature is commonplace throughout the known world; charms with her symbols hang in the doorways of many homes, businesses, and temples, whether their owners follow the ways of Olympus or Othrys, and many prayers for Hecate’s favor are whispered by petitioners whose pleas have gone unanswered by more civilized deities, old or new.
THE DODEKA -- INDEX (A-D)
Aphrodite
Goddess of love, pleasure, passion, procreation, fertility, beauty, and desire. Aphrodite was created fully formed when Zeus-Hera castrated their father, Cronus, and cast his genitals into the sea. The sea foamed with Cronus’ blood and from that foam emerged a giant clam shell, inside of which was Aphrodite.
Aphrodite is the wife of Hephaestus and the mistress of Ares, as well as most of the deities who dwell atop Olympus, both major and minor, whether male or female.
Her symbols include the dove, bird, apple, bee, swan, myrtle, and rose.
Apollo
God of light, prophecy, philosophy, archery, truth, inspiration, poetry, music, arts, manly beauty, medicine, healing, and plague. The son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin brother of Artemis.
His symbols include the bow and arrow, lyre, swan, and mouse.
Ares
God of war, violence, bloodshed, and manly virtues. Ares was once a Titan and began the Titanomachy as Zeus and Hera’s enemy, but the god of war defected to the side of Olympus once he realized Cronus had gone mad.
Ares is disliked by all the gods except for his mistress, Aphrodite.
His symbols include the boar, serpent, dog, vulture, spear, and shield.
Artemis
Goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, virginity, the Moon, archery, childbirth, protection, and plague. The daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo.
Her symbols include the moon, horse, deer, hound, she-bear, snake, cypress tree, and bow and arrow.
Athena
Goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. The daughter of Zeus and the Oceanid Metis, Zeus removed the unborn goddess from Metis’ womb and had her sew the fetus into his leg, so that the child would be protected from those old gods who would threaten her. Six days later, Athena rose from her father's head fully grown and in full battle armor.
Her symbols include the owl and the olive tree.
Demeter
Goddess of the harvest, fertility, agriculture, nature and the seasons. She presided over grains and the fertility of the earth. The middle daughter of Cronus and Rhea, the lover of Zeus and Poseidon, and the mother of Persephone, Despoine, and Arion.
Her symbols include the poppy, wheat, torch, cornucopia, and pigs.