Gods

The Supreme Twelve Olympians

Also known as the Dodekatheon (Greek: δωδεκα, dodeka, "twelve" + θεον, theon, “of the gods”), in Greek religion, were the principle gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus. There were, at various times, seventeen different gods recognized as Olympians, though never more than twelve at one time. High in the clouds, they lived in a marvelous palace and diverted themselves from time to time by interfering in the lives of the mortals below.

Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, and Artemis are always considered Olympians. Heracles, Hebe, Apollo, Hestia, Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, and Persephone are the variable gods among the Twelve. Hestia gave up her position as an Olympian to Dionysus in order to live among humankind (eventually she was assigned the role of tending the fire on Mount Olympus); while he sometimes would not accept the offer of being an Olympian god. Persephone spent three months of the year in the underworld (causing the barren landscape of winter), and was allowed to return to Mount Olympus for the other nine months in order to be with her mother, Demeter; who, during this time, would be in woe and not be with the Olympians. And, although Hades was always one of the principal Greek gods, his home in the underworld of the dead made his connection to the Olympians more tenuous. In some accounts, Helios gave up his seat for Apollo. In even rarer, but definite accounts, Hebe, the gods' cupbearer is an Olympian herself, but gave up her job as cupbearer to marry Heracles who became an Olympian upon his death.

The king of the Olympian gods was Zeus. He sat on a throne of Egyptian marble, inlaid with gold. A purple ram's fleece cushioned the seat. Queen Hera's throne was ivory. Over it hung a full moon. To the side of Hera sat Ares, the god of war. His throne, of burnished brass, had a cushion covered in human skin. The throne room, or council hall, was in the midst of the sumptuous palace, built for the Olympians by the Cyclopes, industrious one-eyed giants.

Zeus' brother Poseidon shared the lofty heights of Olympus when he was not breasting the waves in his seaborne chariot. He is often depicted carrying a three-pronged spear, or trident, symbol of his power as god of the sea.

Others in the pantheon were Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, and her husband Hephaestus, master craftsman of the gods; Hermes, the Olympians' messenger, and Apollo, god of prophecy and healing. Athena often carries a spear because she is goddess not just of crafts but of the science of war as well. And Artemis the huntress is equipped with a bow.

Johnny Rotten sustains that the music of the greek gods' names is quite restrictive, which might indicate some sort of riddle, a puzzle to be solved combining those sounds. An orphic fragment's, or rather its uninformed medieval translation is the evidence used to support this candid claim.

Primordial Deities

The many theogonies constructed by Greek poets each give a different account of which gods came first.

In Homer, Ocean and Tethys are the parents of all the gods.
In Hesiod, Chaos (“void”, “gap”) stands at the beginning, followed by Gaia, Tartarus, Eros, Erebus, Pontus, Ourea, Chronos, Nyx, and then Aether, respectively. (See Protogenoi)
Orphic poetry made Nyx the first principle. Nyx is also the first deity in Aristophanes's Birds, producing Eros from an egg.
Alcman made the water-nymph Thetis the first goddess, producing poros “path”, tekmor "marker" and skotos “darkness&” on the pathless, featureless void.
The Pelasgian belief was that Eurynome and Ophion produced the Universal Egg.
Greek philosophers and thinkers also constructed their own cosmogonies, with their own primordial gods:

Pherecydes of Syros made Chronos (“time”) the first god in his Heptamychia.
Aphrodite and Ares were the first principles of Empedocles, who wove the universe out of the four elements with their powers of love and strife.
In Plato's Timaeus, the demiurge models the universe on the Ideas.

Titans

Titans (Greek Τιτάν, plural Τιτάνες) were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. The Titans were twelve from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheke, adds a thirteenth Titan Dione, a double of Theia. The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the female as the Titanides. The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were led by the youngest, Cronus, who overthrew their father, Uranus ('Heaven'), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia ('Earth').

The Titans later gave birth to other Titans, notably Rhea, and the sons of Iapetus — Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius.

The Titans preceded the Twelve Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy ('War of the Titans'). The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the depths of the underworld.

Chthonic Deities

Chthonic (from Greek χθόνιος-pertaining to the earth; earthy) designates, or pertains to, gods or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Greek religion.

Greek khthon is one of several words for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the land (as gaia or ge does) or the land as territory (as khora does). It evokes at once abundance and the grave.

Its pronunciation is somewhat awkward for English speakers—for this reason, many American dictionaries recommend that the initial "ch" should be silent. However, most other dictionaries, such as the OED, state that the first two letters should be pronounced [k]. Note though that the pronunciation of the Greek word "χθόνιος" is [çθonikos].