Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus stands on the border between Thessaly and Macedonia and, with its highest peak Mytikas at 2,918 metres (about 9,570 feet), is the highest mountain in Greece. In Greek mythology it was the home of the principal gods, who ruled the world from there. Homer and Hesiod already place them on Olympus, and in the Iliad Zeus calls the council of the gods “on the topmost peak of many-ridged Olympus” (Homer, Iliad 8.1–3).

Home of the Olympians

Herodotus names Olympus, together with Ossa, as one of the high mountains of Thessaly, through which the river Peneus flows to the sea (Herodotus 7.128). In Homer the mountain is also the seat of the gods. Hera leaves the peak of Olympus and passes over Pieria and lovely Emathia, north of the mountain (Iliad 14.225–226), and in the Odyssey Athena goes to Olympus, “where they say the gods have their seat for ever.” According to the Odyssey, the seat is never shaken by winds, never wet by rain, and snow never comes near it; the sky around it is cloudless and bright, and the blessed gods are glad there every day (Odyssey 6.42–46).

Each god has his own house on Olympus, made by Hephaestus (Iliad 1.605–608). The gates of heaven and Olympus are kept by the Hours, who open and close the thick cloud (Iliad 5.749–751). Zeus himself sits on the highest peak, and when he nods to Thetis, great Olympus shakes (Iliad 1.499, 1.528–530).

Who are the Olympians?

The Olympians are the gods who live on Olympus. Homer and Hesiod do not give a fixed list; but the number twelve is old: in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes the young god divides his sacrifice into twelve portions (Homeric Hymn 4 to Hermes 128–129), and Herodotus knows an altar of the twelve gods at Athens and Athenian sacrifices to the twelve gods (Herodotus 2.7, 6.108). The twelve usually include these gods, whose parentage is given by Hesiod:

• Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter and Hestia, children of Cronus and Rhea (Hesiod, Theogony 453–458). Their brother Hades lives beneath the earth.
• Ares, a son of Zeus and Hera, who also bore Hebe and Eileithyia (Theogony 921–923).
• Hephaestus, whom Hera bore without union with Zeus (Theogony 927–929).
• Athena, born from the head of Zeus (Theogony 924–926).
• Apollo and Artemis, children of Zeus and Leto (Theogony 918–920).
• Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia (Theogony 938–939).
• Aphrodite, who in Hesiod grows from the foam around the severed genitals of Uranus (Theogony 188–200) and in the Iliad is the daughter of Zeus and Dione (Iliad 5.370).

Dionysus, son of Zeus and the mortal Semele, is also a god in Hesiod (Theogony 940–942), and some lists give him a place among the twelve, but the sources do not agree on the exact membership.

Olympus in the Titan War

In Hesiod, the Titans and the gods who were born to Cronus and Rhea fought each other for ten years: the Titans from high Othrys, the gods from Olympus (Theogony 629–634; the length of the war is given at Theogony 636). Zeus and his brothers won, and Olympus became the home of the new ruling gods.

Gods’ Time in Mount Olympus

On Olympus the gods feast and listen to music. They sit with Zeus on the golden floor while Hebe pours them nectar (Iliad 4.1–4). In the Iliad they feast through the whole day until sunset; the lyre is played by Apollo, and the Muses sing in turn with beautiful voices (Iliad 1.601–604). The gods also quarrel, as in the argument between Zeus and Hera over the war at Troy, and Hephaestus recalls how Zeus once threw him from the threshold of heaven so that he fell all day and landed on Lemnos (Iliad 1.589–594).

The Muses are called Olympian: Hesiod says that Mnemosyne bore them to Zeus in Pieria, and that they have their home near the highest peak of snowy Olympus (Theogony 52–62). Later the name Olympus can stand for the gods’ heavenly dwelling as a whole: Virgil opens the tenth book of the Aeneid with the doors of the house of almighty Olympus opening for a council of the gods (Virgil, Aeneid 10.1–2).

Mount Olympus Sources

Mount Olympus is the home of the gods already in Homer and Hesiod: Homer, Iliad 1.499, 1.528–533, 1.589–608, 4.1–4, 5.370, 5.749–751, 8.1–3, 14.225–226 and Odyssey 6.41–46; Hesiod, Theogony 52–62, 188–200, 453–458, 629–636, 918–942. The Homeric Hymn to Hermes 128–129 and Herodotus 2.7 and 6.108 mention the twelve gods, Herodotus 7.128 the location of the mountain, and Virgil, Aeneid 10.1–2 describes the council on Olympus.

See Also: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hestia, Demeter, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Hephaestus, Dionysus, Titanomachy, Muses