The period between 1200 BCE and 323 BCE, known today as Ancient Greece, was an age of great political, artistic, philosophical, and scientific innovations that forever shaped and influenced the future of the Western world. Greece during this time was not a unified country, but instead, over a thousand individual city-states that overlapped in belief systems and culture. Some of the most well-known city-states of Ancient Greece included Athens, Sparta, Olympia, and Thebes. Part of why they were considered separate from one another was that each of the city-states had at least one patron god which the people worshipped in the hopes for their god’s blessing. One of the major reasons that they’re considered part of a greater whole despite their differences was that their gods were all members of a greater familial pantheon. Because of the differing patron gods though, many city-states had centuries-long feelings of resentment towards each other, leading to countless civil wars. Eventually, the period known as Ancient Greece would come to an end with the death of Alexandar the Great, who during his life expanded the Greek territory so far that it became one of the biggest empires at the time.

Even when the age of Ancient Greece came to an end, their legacy can still be felt today. The Greeks invented the concept and discipline of philosophy to question the nature of existence and society. It was also them that created the earliest forms of Democracy, along with notions of a constitutional government, elections, freedom of speech, trial by jury, and much more. The Greeks were not just great philosophers and politicians though, as they even discovered that the world was a sphere. Many temples and bridges built thousands of years ago still stand to this day as a testament to the mighty legacy of the Ancient Greeks.

The pantheon of the Greeks was made up of powerful gods that regularly interacted with each other and the lives of mortals. Many myths regarding the gods center around heroes and their fights against deadly monsters like the half-man half-bull minotaur or the nine-headed giant serpent known as the Hydra. As a religion thousands of years old, the gods were often depicted with conflicting personalities; sometimes being portrayed as benevolent, and other times as petty tyrants. It was part of this conflicting characterization that made many Greeks both respect and fear their gods. Always worshipping to retain their favor. Due in part to the fascination both the Romans and Renaissance artists had with this lost religion, much of the myths of Ancient Greece have survived to the modern day, telling the long and complicated tale of gods, heroes, and monsters.

The Ancient Greeks believed that in the beginning, there existed only the infinite void known as Chaos. From it, a group of elemental deities called the Primordials emerged. The Primordials represented the fundamental forces of the cosmos, which were shaped by their very bodies. The leaders of this group were Ouranos, the primordial sky father, and Gaia, the primordial mother earth. The pair bore many children, including the second generation of deities known as the Titans. They also gave birth to the three primordial one-eyed cyclopses, and the 100-armed 50-headed giants called the Hecatoncheires. Ouranos was disgusted by the Cyclopses and Hecatoncheires and had them banished into the Underworld. Outraged by her husband’s actions, Gaia convinced her son Cronos, the leader of the Titans and lord of Time, who overthrow his father. After defeating Uranos, Chronos, and the Titans would be the new rulers of the universe. Eventually, though, history would repeat itself as Cronos and the rest of the Titans were overthrown by their offspring the gods. These gods were led by Zeus, the god of thunder and the new ruler of the universe.