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The ancient Greeks did not have a word for 'religion' in the modern sense. Likewise, no Greek writer is known to have classified either the gods or the cult practices into separate 'religions'. [2] Instead, for example, Herodotus speaks of the Hellenes as having "common shrines of the gods and sacrifices, and the same kinds of customs". [3]
The early Athenian tradition, followed by the 3rd century BC Parian Chronicle, made Cecrops, a mythical half-man half-serpent, the first king of Athens. [5] The dates for the following kings were conjectured centuries later, by historians of the Hellenistic era who tried to backdate events by cross-referencing earlier sources such as the Parian Chronicle.
The evidence about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.
The historical period of ancient Greece is unique in world history as the first period attested directly in comprehensive, narrative historiography, while earlier ancient history or protohistory is known from much more fragmentary documents such as annals, king lists, and pragmatic epigraphy.
This is an index of lists of mythological figures from ancient Greek religion and mythology. List of Greek deities; List of mortals in Greek mythology; List of Greek legendary creatures; List of minor Greek mythological figures; List of Trojan War characters; List of deified people in Greek mythology; List of Homeric characters
Ancient Greece refers to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Greek Dark Ages (c. 1050 – c. 750 BC) to the end of antiquity (c. AD 600). In common usage, it can refer to all Greek history before—or including—the Roman Empire, but historians tend use the term more precisely.
They were the older gods, but not, apparently, as was once thought, the old gods of an indigenous group in Greece, historically displaced by the new gods of Greek invaders. Rather, they were a group of gods, whose mythology at least, seems to have been borrowed from the Near East (see "Near East origins," below). [35]
Chief god of the Greek pantheon. [161] He is the king of the gods, [162] and the most powerful deity. [163] He is the son of the Titans Cronus and Rhea, and the husband of Hera. [164] He is the only Greek god who is unquestionably Indo-European in origin, [165] and he is attested already in Mycenaean Greece. [166]