superintending providence, whose seat was on Mount Olympus, enthroned in
majesty and might, to whom the lesser deities were obedient. With his two
brothers, Poseidon, or Neptune, and Hades, or Pluto, he reigned over the
heavens, the earth, the sea, and hell. Mythology represents him as born in
Crete; and when he had gained sufficient mental and bodily force, he
summoned the gods to Mount Olympus, and resolved to wrest the supreme
power from his father, Kronos, and the Titans. Ten years were spent in the
mighty combat, in which all nature was convulsed, before victory was
obtained, and the Titans hurled into Tartarus. With Zeus now began a
different order of beings. He is represented as having many wives and a
numerous offspring. From his own head came Athene, fully armed, the
goddess of wisdom, the patron deity of Athens. By Themis he begat the
Horae; by Eurynome, the three Graces; by Mnemosyne, the Muses; by Leto
(Latona), Apollo, and Artemis (Diana); by Demeter (Ceres), Persephone; by
Here (Juno), Hebe, Ares (Mars), and Eileithyia; by Maia, Hermes (Mercury).

(M318) Under the presidency of Zeus were the twelve great gods and
goddesses of Olympus--Poseidon (Neptune), who presided over the sea;
Apollo, who was the patron of art; Ares, the god of war; Hephaestos
(Vulcan), who forged the thunderbolts; Hermes, who was the messenger of
omnipotence and the protector of merchants; Here, the queen of heaven, and
general protector of the female sex; Athene (Minerva), the goddess of
wisdom and letters; Artemis (Diana), the protectress of hunters and
shepherds; Aphrodite (Venus), the goddess of beauty and love; Hertia
(Vesta), the goddess of the hearth and altar, whose fire never went out;
Demeter (Ceres), mother earth, the goddess of agriculture.

Scarcely inferior to these Olympian deities were Hades (Pluto), who
presided over the infernal regions; Helios, the sun; Hecate, the goddess
of expiation; Dionysus (Bacchus), the god of the vine; Leto (Latona), the
goddess of the concealed powers; Eos (Aurora), goddess of the morn;
Nemesis, god of vengeance; AEolus, the god of winds; Harmonia; the Graces,
the Muses, the Nymphs, the Nereids, marine nymphs--these were all invested
with great power and dignity.

Besides these were deities who performed special services to the greater
gods, like the Horae; and monsters, offspring of gods, like the gorgons,
chimera, the dragon of the Hesperides, the Lernaean hydra, the Nemean lion,
Scyll