aphroditie

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Aphrodite.htmlhttp://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Aphrodite/aphrodite.html

olympian gods

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0881990.html

hades

http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Haides.html

zeus

http://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Zeus.html

Poseidon

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/poseidon.html

A Tale of Persephone and Hades

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_2.htm

The Story of Medusa and Athena

http://www.dltk-kids.com/world/greece/m-story-medusa-and-athena.htm

Greek Letters

Artemis

ARTEMIS was the great Olympian goddess of hunting, wilderness and wild animals. She was also a goddess of childbirth, and the protectress of the girl child up to the age of marriage. Her twin brother Apollon was similarly the protector of the boy child. Together the two gods were also bringers of sudden death and disease--Artemis targetted women and girls, and Apollon men and boys.
In ancient art Artemis was usually depicted as a girl dressed in a short knee-length chiton and equipped with a hunting bow and quiver of arrows.
Some of the best known myths featuring the goddess include:--

• Her birth, immediately following which she assisted her mother in the birth of her twin brother Apollon;
• The Trojan War where she was beaten by Hera in an angry contest of the gods;
• The hunter Aktaion who encountered the goddess whilst she was bathing and was turned into a stag;
• The Aloadai giants who attempted to storm Olympos but were tricked by Artemis into killing each other;
• The sacrifice of Iphigeneia whom King Agamemnon offered to her for the passage of the Greek fleet to Troy;
• The giant Orion, a close companion of the goddess, who was slain by the goddess or her jealous brother;
• The Kalydonian boar sent by Artemis to ravage Kaldyon;
• The nymph Kallisto, a companion of Artemis, who was seduced by Zeus in the guise of the goddess.

This site contains a total of 15 pages describing the goddess, including general descriptions, mythology, and cult. The content is outlined in the table below. Quotes for these pages are still being compiled (see bottom of this page for status).

Athena's Birth

Birth

Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis. But there was a problem, Zeus checked up on Metis and found out that if he had a son by her this son would be mightier than him (you know, the same way he was greater than his daddy and his daddy was greater than his grandpa). So he tricked Metis and ended up swallowing her when she turned into a fly and figured she was no longer a threat. However, Metis was pregnant with Athena and when Athena was born, this turned into quite a problem. Soon Zeus was plagued with killer headaches and he ran to Hephaestus (Smith God) and begged him to open his head. Hephaestus did as he was told, and out popped Athena, full grown and ready for battle!

Other versions peg her father as Pallas (who later attempted to ravage her and she killed him without hesitation and took his name and skin). Some say her daddy was Itonus, a King of Iton. Some say her biological father was Poseidon, but that she begged to be adopted by Zeus. No matter what the story is, she never has a real mother.

Athena's birth "is a desperate theological expedient to rid her of matriarchal conditions" says J. E. Harrison. She was the Goddess of Wisdom, and the daughter of the Titaness who basically personified it. By having her born only from Zeus, it gave males authority and power over something that had previously only been a female realm. Zeus swallowed Metis, and so was able to assimilate her crafty wisdom. Athena did not have any loyalty to a mother figure, which probably played a major role in her self-description as misogynist.