I love Greek Mythology and so will you

"At home on Ithaka we have no meadows," sang Odysseus, "but highlands, goat land - prettier than plains".

If Homer did, in fact, visit the island of Ithaka almost 3000 years ago, he fell in love with it. I certainly did. I fell in love with the old stories too, the legends of the heroes, the tales of the blustering bragging gods.

Here's my collection of Tales from the Ancient Greeks

The major deities with prominent roles in Greek mythology are the Olympian gods and goddesses. The name Olympian comes from their dwelling place on Mount Olympus.

Now, this is where it becomes confusing. There are twelve thrones, but fourteen different deities. Gods went in and out of fashion and sometimes Hestia, a patient housekeeper for her father, Zeus, was included and, at other times, Hades, grim god of the Underworld, was left out entirely.

To avoid stepping on the toes of any of these deities, I include the whole lot of them in this list of Olympians.

Goddesses
Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Demeter, Hera and Hestia

Gods
Apollo, Ares, Dionysus, Hades, Hephaestus, Hermes, Poseidon and Zeus.

Although Being an Olympian god meant a throne on Mount Olympus, some of the major Olympians spent most of their time elsewhere. For example, Poseidon lived in the sea and Hades in the Underworld.

"Olympus is the abode of the Gods that stands fast forever. Neither is it shaken by winds nor ever wet with rain, nor does snow fall upon it, but the air is outspread clear and cloudless, and over it hovers a radiant whiteness. Therein the blessed gods are glad all their days..." : Homer

In the back row and from left to right: first Hades, holding his two-forked sceptre, the mother of the gods Rhea, and between her and Hera is Hera's peacock.

Zeus sits in the middle with the eagle at his feet, holding the thunderbolt in his hand. (He is the first among the gods after all)

To our right sits Cronos holding the ouroboros, and standing are Athena with a spear and Apollo with his lyre. A little lower down and still to the right, Artemis, with a half-moon adorning her head, can just be seen holding her bow.

In the first line and from left to right: Dionysus reclines with a wreath on his head. Ares in armour sits leaning over Aphrodite who is looking at Eros as he comes towards her. In the far right sits Poseidon holding his trident.

The Eleusinian Mysteries, held annually in honor of Demeter and Persephone, were the most sacred and revered of all the ritual celebrations of ancient Greece.

They were not a myth but were the forerunner to polyatheism. This was the merging of Oriental religion and the Greco-Roman cults.

Large crowds of worshippers from all over Greece (and later, from throughout the Roman empire) would gather to make the holy pilgrimage between the two cities and and participate in the secret ceremonies, generally regarded as the high point of Greek religion. As Christianity began to spread, the Mysteries were condemned by the early Church fathers; yet the rites continued for hundreds of years more and exercised considerable influence on the formation of early Christian teachings and practices.

Greek mythology can be roughly divided into three periods.

1. The myths of origin or Age of Gods -Theogonies (births of gods). Myths about the origins of the world, of the gods, and of the human race.

2. The age when gods and mortals walked the earth together. Stories of the early interactions between gods, semi-divine, and mortals.

3. The age of Heroes when divine activity was not quite as strong. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and its aftermath.

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Sources
Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology: The Age of Fable
Apollodorus :The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)