Talk:List of Greek deities

Semi-protected edit request on 17 March 2024

This list states that Sarpedon fought on the side of the Greeks during the Trojan War. This is incorrect. He fought for Troy and was killed by Patroclus in book 16 of the Iliad. This article needs to be changed from stating that Sarpedon fought for the Greeks to stating that Sarpedon fought for Troy. ChartreuseRegalia (talk) 12:00, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

 Done Liu1126 (talk) 20:28, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

misspelling

isn't the Greek spelling for hades (άδης) not (ᾍδης, Háidēs)@ Sean gilfoyle (talk) 04:41, 25 April 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 6 September 2024

Change "Said to have existed before Chaos itself." to "In Fabulae, she is said to have existed before Chaos itself." Flashlight237 (talk) 04:45, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

 Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. ⸺(Random)staplers 05:13, 6 September 2024 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 12 December 2024

Please add the following entries under the "Sleep deities" section:

• Phobetor (Φοβήτωρ), god of nightmares and fearsome dreams, often taking the form of animals.
• Phantasos (Φάντασος), god of surreal dreams, who represents inanimate objects and abstract images.

This is consistent with their mention in Greek mythology as part of the Oneiroi, the deities associated with dreams. Alximidios78 (talk) 19:00, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

@Alximidios78: These figures are only mentioned in Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is a Roman source, so I would say they should probably not be mentioned. That said, the current list does not seem particularly clear in terms of criteria for entry, and could probably use some significant refactoring. – Michael Aurel (talk) 22:50, 12 December 2024 (UTC)

Move and split

I've WP:Boldly split out the "Mortals" section of the article into its own stand-alone list, List of mortals in Greek mythology, and have moved this page to "List of Greek deities". For context, editors might like to see the discussion at User:Paul August's talk page: User talk:Paul August#I wondered... – Michael Aurel (talk) 00:34, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Michael Aurel, I believe that List of Greek mythological figures should become a DAB, linking to at least List of Greek deities, List of mortals in Greek mythology, and List of Greek mythological creatures -- and that the incoming links should be repaired (contrary to the semi-protected advice on the redirect). ^~Hydronium^~Hydroxide^~(Talk)~ 00:56, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Yes, it should – specifically, it should redirect to Lists of Greek mythological figures (similar to, for example, Lists of deities), which would link to those three pages, as well as the handful of other lists we have (List of minor Greek mythological figures, List of Trojan War characters, etc.). I'm currently in the process of fixing the incoming links (after which Lists of Greek mythological figures can be created). – Michael Aurel (talk) 01:05, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Structure of list

Discussion copied from User talk:Paul August#I wondered.... Originally titled "I wondered..."

... if you had any thoughts on our article List of Greek mythological figures, and its current organisation and scope. It's apparently one of our most viewed articles on Greek mythology (no. 66 at WP:CGR/Popular pages), and could probably be reworked into a more helpful resource without too much trouble. Per WP:SPLITLIST, I think it might make sense to split the "Mortals" part of the article into its own list article ("List of mortals in Greek mythology", perhaps?), and rename the page to "List of Greek deities", given the vast number of names which a comprehensive list of "figures" would need to include; it's worth noting that we also have List of Greek mythological creatures and List of minor Greek mythological figures (both of which are fairly neglected). (If we were to restrict the page to deities, then the figures in the "Giants" section would probably need to be incorporated into List of Greek mythological creatures, though perhaps a List of Giants in Greek mythology article might also be justified, for the "Giants" of the Gigantomachy specifically?) It's possibly worth referring to List of Mesopotamian deities, which is a WP:FL; perhaps images and descriptive summaries could be included a bit more widely through the article. I considered leaving a message at Talk:List of Greek mythological figures, though I figured you would be the editor most likely to respond. This is a slightly jumbled set of ideas, ;) so don't feel obliged to respond to everything, but any thoughts or recommendations would be appreciated. – Michael Aurel (talk) 12:54, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

@Michael Aurel: My thoughts:

• List of Greek mythological figures ... could probably be reworked into a more helpful resource: Indeed.
• without too much trouble: Hmmm ...
• Per WP:SPLITLIST, I think it might make sense to split the "Mortals" part of the article into its own list article ("List of mortals in Greek mythology", perhaps?), and rename the page to "List of Greek deities": Seems reasonable.
• it's worth noting that we also have List of Greek mythological creatures and List of minor Greek mythological figures (both of which are fairly neglected): Thinking globally about all these lists together is a good thing, and is probably something which hasn't been much done. One thought I had is that an article List of lists of Greek mythological figures might be a good thing.
• (If we were to restrict the page to deities, then the figures in the "Giants" section would probably need to be incorporated into List of Greek mythological creatures, though perhaps a List of Giants in Greek mythology article might also be justified, for the "Giants" of the Gigantomachy specifically?): Either seems reasonable. In any case the lists of Giants given in List of Greek mythological figures should be harmonized with the list of Giants in List of Greek mythological creatures. Also note the section Giants (Greek mythology)#Named Giants of Gigantes.
• It's possibly worth referring to List of Mesopotamian deities, which is a WP:FL; perhaps images and descriptive summaries could be included a bit more widely through the article: Yes.

Global organization (lists, categories, templates, etc.) is both very important and something I've not given much thought to. I'm more the bottom-up type. In any case I see no good reason for you not to WP:Be Bold, so I encourage you to jump right in! Paul August ☎ 16:26, 19 January 2025 (UTC)

Thanks for all of this. I think I'm more the top-down type of person, with the "structure first, fill in the gaps later" sort of attitude. On the point of global organisation, most of our templates (I'm thinking here of the sidebars, in particular) were created around 20 years ago, and probably need to be overhauled. A restructured List of Greek deities page, however, could serve as a good guide there, and perhaps a discussion at WT:CGR could sort out such an overhaul.

A "list of lists" would certainly be a good idea, as would approaching the three (or four) separate lists in an integrated manner. Regarding the Giants, my thought would be that they aren't really "gods" in the strict sense, and so would be better listed at List of Greek mythological creatures rather than List of Greek deities? (As an aside, this makes me think we should have a page on Divinity in ancient Greece; see, eg., [1] [2].) Also, in your view, is the list at Giants (Greek mythology) § Named Giants relatively comprehensive? Vian and Moore provide a list with over seventy entries led me to think it wasn't, though now I'm considering that the figures listed at Giants (Greek mythology) § Named Giants (of which there are around forty) may be the only ones really worth listing, if the others are little more than scholarly attempts to decipher inscriptions, or something of the sort. Anyway, I'll leave the usefulness (or lack thereof) of a stand-alone list of Giants to your judgement.

One thought on List of Greek mythological figures is that it seems a shame that gods with important cults such as Pan or Hecate are given the same prominence as fairly inconsequential figures such as, for example, Hecaterus or Acratopotes. Maybe there should, behind the list of the Twelve Olympians (and, currently, Hades and Persephone), be a longer list of deities of significance in Greek religion, with images and longer descriptions, similar to, for example, the list at List of Mesopotamian deities § Major deities. This would allow important deities to be given a place of prominence, while still allowing them to be found sorted according to their domain (eg., "Sky", "Sea", etc., in the current article). – Michael Aurel (talk) 02:46, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

• On the point of global organisation, most of our templates (I'm thinking here of the sidebars, in particular) were created around 20 years ago, and probably need to be overhauled. A restructured List of Greek deities page, however, could serve as a good guide there, and perhaps a discussion at WT:CGR could sort out such an overhaul: Sure.
• approaching the three (or four) separate lists in an integrated manner: Or five, or six, or ...?
• Regarding the Giants, my thought would be that they aren't really "gods" in the strict sense: Well that's an inherent issue with structure first isn't it? Edge cases. Is Heracles mortal or divine? Are the descendants of the Titans Titans? Are the The Gigantes god's or creatures, or can they be both? I have informed opinions on all this ... but, I don't know that I could find adequate sources supporting them.
• we should have a page on Divinity in ancient Greece Yes, please read those two books (and a few others I can think of, and several I can't) and write one. Ambitious much ;-)
• is the list at Giants (Greek mythology) § Named Giants relatively comprehensive?: Well it was meant to be, in the sense that I tried to list every name for which I could find adequate sourcing, beyond just being named by Vian and Moore. I suppose this amounts to the same thing as me thinking they are the only ones really worth listing.
• Maybe there should, behind the list of the Twelve Olympians (and, currently, Hades and Persephone), be a longer list of deities of significance in Greek religion, with images and longer descriptions Maybe. But I come back to the issue of sourcing. My main demur in all this is sourcing. Frankly, none of our current attempts at presenting a classification scheme are, in my opinion, adequately sourced. And maybe not even sourceable. Various classification schemes are given by various sources, for example Burkert's Greek Religion pp. 119–182 presents one. So we could adopt Burkert's, and source it. But there are other such presentations all different from one another. There is no canonical taxonomy. So ...? Nevertheless, we have all these lists and attempting to improve them, however we can, is a good thing.

Paul August ☎ 16:11, 20 January 2025 (UTC)

As you say, foresight is going to be required for a page like this, lest we unleash future problems for ourselves... (The difficult part about the "structure first" mentality is that you have to get that structure right, otherwise everything from there doesn't work too well.)

I share your concerns around sourcing here – as you probably realised (or suspected), the structure of the current list is derived mainly from Theoi.com (from here in particular, I would guess). I like your suggestion to use Burkert here; of course, as his main concern is with deities who played some role in Greek religion, there are some gods who won't easily fit into his classification scheme (eg., a number of abstract personifications, cosmogonic deities, etc.). Given this, we could perhaps use Burkert as the basis for one section of the article (ie., a section which lists the gods who played a substantial role in Greek religion); that part of his book could determine the section's structure, and (quite crucially) could determine which deities would be included in such a section (rather than determining that ourselves).

If we were to do the above (and perhaps that's a very big "if"), my instinct would be to follow the first sections of Gantz, Hard, and Kerenyi for the structure of another part of (or the rest of?) the article (that structure being, roughly speaking: cosmogonic deities, then the Titans, then their descendants/other pre-Olympian gods). As to the rest of the deities on the page, I'm very much unsure; they are currently organised by domain/association/type ("Sky", "Chthonic", "Agricultural", etc.), a structure for which I can't really find a reliable source (the closest I can see is this). We also have the list of personifications, most of which are minor, though I think they probably ought to be kept listed separately, as I'm not sure how easily they could be spread across various other sections. All of this of course raises the question of whether it's ok to list the same deity in more than one section (eg., Helios had a relatively significant cult, and is of course an immediate descendant of the Titans as well); I think I would lean towards the answer "yes", though possibly that opens a can of worms...

And, by the way, thanks very much for your helpful and reasoned commentary here! Probably I should put a bit of this into action, lest I give an even longer response than this one... – Michael Aurel (talk) 12:48, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

I agree with all of the above. You know I'm sure all these lists are for the most part substantially "correct". And they have considerable value. But they need to based upon sources. Trying to use the structure used by Burkert, Gantz, Hard and Kerenyi, would be a good start. Also Carlos Parada's classification scheme in his Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology might be extremely useful. He gives a list of "Divinities" (pp. 187–188), with the following sub-lists: 1. Abstract personifications, 2. Sidereal and natural personifications, 3. Major divinities, 4. Waters and landscapes, 5. Monsters, demons and other creatures with unusual attributes, 6. Other deities, and 7. Immortals. There is much more structure here which we could adopt, for example, in addition to having entries for individual figures, in his "Genealogical Guide" proper (pp. 1–186), he has many entries for "groups" of figures. His list of such group entries (p. xiv) has more than 100 entries e.g.: "Abstractions, Achaean leaders, ... Bestiary, ... Cabiroi, ... Centaurs, ... Giants, ... , Nymphs, ... Servants, ... Winegrowers, ...Zeus' Nurses, Zeus' offspring". Plus other lists (pp. 189–225: "Personifications", "Constellations & Stars", "Objects", "Conditions to take Troy", "Greek-Latin correspondences", "Places and Peoples", "Authors and Works"), many fold-out genealogical tables, and two fold-out maps. Paul August ☎ 16:07, 21 January 2025 (UTC)

Interesting, all of that indeed looks very helpful – I had wondered about Parada, but I unfortunately haven't ever been able to find a copy of his book (and so haven't seen more than Google Books snippets). I'm quite curious: where in those seven sections does he place the Titans, and the early figures from the Theogony (Gaia, Chaos, Tartarus, etc.)? From the above, his book looks as though it would be especially helpful for sorting personifications and other minor figures, which is valuable, as those are probably going to be the figures left over if we organise our first sections after Burkert, and Gantz, Hard, and Kerenyi.

Also, I'd be interested to hear your view on the edge case of the Gigantes being either gods or creatures; I would incline towards the latter (implying their exclusion from List of Greek deities), though you're of course much more familiar with them than anyone else. – Michael Aurel (talk) 14:20, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

• find a copy of his book: See expensive; and free. See also: Kindle version of just "Genealogical Guide" proper (pp. 1–186); The 'Greek Mythology Link.
• where in those seven sections does he place the Titans: In 3. Major divinities.
• the early figures from the Theogony (Gaia, Chaos, Tartarus, etc.)?: Gaia (with Nyx, Pontus, and Uranus) in "Sidereal and natural personifications"; Chaos (with Erebus and Eos) in "Abstract personifications"; Tartarus in "Major divinities". So he doesn't make use of a "primordial" category, and, as far as I can tell, does not use the term. Which should give us pause about our using the term.
• Gigantes: Creatures (but I' not a reliable source). However Parada includes them in his "Monsters, demons and other creatures with unusual attributes" category.

Paul August ☎ 15:35, 22 January 2025 (UTC)

Ah, I'd forgotten about the Greek Mythology Link – it seems (looking at Google Books snippets) to contain a very similar structure, and the same lists of deities. I think Parada's distinction between "abstract" and "sidereal and natural" personifications is good, and worth using. I too have issues with how we use the term "primordial gods"; the way it's used on Wikipedia is as though they're some group with specific members (probably membership badges, newsletter subscriptions, and all...). (I've noticed that we also tend to use "chthonic deities" in somewhat the same way.) It's fine to talk about the "early deities" or "primal elements" in the Theogony, but matters become a little more problematic when figures from Orphic cosmogony, or, worse, the genealogy from the Fabulae, are mixed in.

Given our above discussion, and the sources which have been brought up, here's a draft of a structure I think could work, with the sources we would follow (or roughly follow) in each case:

• Major deities in Greek religion (Burkert)
  • Twelve Olympians
  • Lesser deities
  • Nature deities
  • Foreign deities worshipped in Greece
• Early deities (Mostly Gantz, also Hard & Kerenyi)
  • Primal elements
  • Descendants of Gaia and Uranus
  • Descendants of Gaia and Pontus
  • The Titans and their descendants
• Groups of minor divinities and nature spirits (Gantz, Hard, also Parada)
• Personifications (Parada)
  • Abstract personifications
  • Astronomical and natural personifications
• Other deities

We're avoiding the domain/assocation organisation, which means we don't have to decide upon what constitutes, for example, a "rustic" deity, or a "sky" deity. We obviously aren't without edge cases, though – for example, do the children of Nyx go in the "Primal elements" section, or in the "Abstract personifications" section? On one edge case you raised earlier, I think we would probably include Heracles (and a few similar figures, such as Aristaeus, Glaucus, Palaemon, etc.), but I'm not sure that we necessarily need to include all immortals, at least not all the figures listed by Parada (eg., stellified mortals, underworld judges, etc.). One other point is that I don't know that we need to, as we currently are, list all of the various members of groups such as the Charites or Muses, lest we give the reader the idea that there are fourteen canonical Charites! (these lists would be better off at the respective pages, probably as prose). "Other deities" may also need splitting up, or we may need further sections. – Michael Aurel (talk) 02:39, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

I like this, it finesses many of the potential problems we've discussed. Some questions:

1. Where will you put Hestia? Burkert includes her as the first god he mentions in his "3.1 Lesser Gods".
2. Where are you putting gods mentioned in Burkert's "3.2 Societies of gods" (pp. 173-174), and "3.5 Daimon" (pp. 179-181)?
3. Are you planning to source "Major deities in Greek religion" to just Burkert?
4. For the parts being sourced to multiple authors, have you thought about how you will deal with any disagreements?
5. I assume "Groups of minor divinities and nature spirits" corresponds to Hard's "Chapter 6: Lesser deities and nature-spirits", Gantz's "Minor Divinities" (pp. 135-151) correct? But where exactly is the correspondence in Parada?

Other responses:

• We're avoiding the domain/assocation organisation, which means we don't have to decide upon what constitutes, for example, a "rustic" deity, or a "sky" deity.: Yes. Good.
• do the children of Nyx go in the "Primal elements" section, or in the "Abstract personifications" section?: Good question ;-) Do they collectively have to go in the same place? Can they individually be in more than one place? (I seem to be resorting to the Socratic method here and above) Ok, fine. For Parada, the answer to the first question is no, for example he puts Aether in "Sidereal and natural personifications", and Moros in "Abstract personifications", and for Parada, since he's trying to partition his set of "Divinities" his sub-lists are disjoint, so the answer to the second question is also no. But I don't think we need (or want?) to do this (there I've given an opinion!)
• I think we would probably include Heracles: Fine, where?
• I don't know that we need to ... list all of the various members of groups: Fine. But some clarifying prose might also work.
• "Other deities" may also need splitting up, or we may need further sections.: Possibly, if sourceable!

Paul August ☎ 15:27, 24 January 2025 (UTC)

Great! We're on the right track, then. Addressing these questions:

1. In the Twelve Olympians section, I think, doing something similar to Twelve Olympians#List. This is technically a departure from Burkert, though it's a fairly minor one, and I think it's worth using the "Twelve Olympians" grouping ("Individuals gods" is a little vague).
2. Good question. From Burkert, I think the three groups of gods worth mentioning (Others enjoy important cults...) would be the Muses, Charites, and Cabeiroi, and the only figure worth mentioning from the "Daimon" section would be Agathos Daimon. I think we should also include the figures from his "Figures who cross the Chthonic–Olympian Boundary" section (ie., Heracles, the Dioscuri, and Asclepius). Where to put these is a little tricky, but splitting these seven figures across three different sections would probably be clunky, so perhaps we just have some sort of "other" section (within "Major deities in Greek religion") for these.
3. Probably, as doing so gives a fairly clear criterion for inclusion. That said, we could also look here to Larson's Ancient Greek Cults, which is structured not too differently to Burkert's discussion. In particular, after sections on (most of) the Twelve Olympians, she has "11. Dear to the people: Hermes, Pan, and nature deities", "12. Divine specialists: other Panhellenic deities", "13. Strangers and indigenes: latecomer and regional deities", and "14. Anomalous immortals: hero-gods and heroine-goddesses". The deities listed are relatively similar, with those not mentioned by Burkert being the Erinyes, Bendis, Britomartis, Dictynna, Aphaea, Themis, Nemesis, Damia, and Auxesia. So using Larson would allow us to list these deities, at the expense of being entirely faithful to Burkert (and we would need to decide where we would put them in our/Burkert's structure). We would also, at that point, not really be talking about "Major deities in Greek religion", though probably that title is a tad problematic to begin with.
4. For the "Early deities" section, I think it would be best to simply follow Gantz, as his section looks comprehensive (at least as far as the Theogony is concerned, which is the basis for his structure). (I'll address the "Groups of minor divinities and nature spirits" section in answer 5.)

I have thoughts on the other points, but it turns out I have a lot of thoughts here, ;) so I'll give responses to these ones first. – Michael Aurel (talk) 10:04, 25 January 2025 (UTC)

End of copied discussion

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