Greek Cities and Gods
Greek Cities and Gods
Greek Cities and Gods
Athens worshiped Athena as a patron city-state god. The city's name is in fact derived from
Athena, and named after her. Athena was the goddess of Wisdom, therefore Athens put an
emphasis into education and study. This is why Athens was later famed for its engineering
power
2. Sparta praised two city gods. Ares, and because of this, Sparta put energy into the military,
and fighting. The other Spartan patron god was Artemis and this backs up Sparta's
association with brutal killings and executions.
3. Elis and Olympia had Zeus as their city god. Olympia is famous for its relation to the statue
of Zeus at Olympia, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
4. Syracuse, with similarity to Athens, worshipped Athena.
5. Thespiae was a city-state that worshiped Eros. Due to this, the Thespian hoplites would
bear the crescent moon symbol on their shield, the crescent moon was "the lunar Aphrodite".
The cult of Artemis in her epithet of Elytheriea, the goddess of childbearing, was also
important.
6. Thessaly is a region in Greece that Larissa was built in, and distinctively chose Dionysus,
the god of wine, as their god. The symbol for Dionysus was a bull's foot. Another name for
Dionysus was Axios Tauros, which translates as 'worthy bull'.
7. Corinth was a northern state in comparison to Sparta, which was far south. Corinth's patron
god was Poseidon, the sea god.
8. Mantinea worshiped Poseidon as well as Corinth.
9. Thebes has two main patron gods, but today experts are not sure if they worshiped both or
just one. The two main gods are Apollo, the sun god and Delphi, a minor god
10. Knossos was an ancient Minoan settlement whose gods or goddesses were not known to
the mainland Greeks. Knossos was on Crete, an island, and the people there worshiped
the Snake Goddess as their only god.
11. Megara had a variety of gods and goddesses as their patron god or goddess. However, the
main gods were Apollo and Athena, however they did build temples to Demeter, Aphrodite,
and Artemis
12. Rhodes was a city on an island, which built the Colossus of Rhodes. The Colossus was
made from money gained by selling spare siege equipment left behind by an attacker after
another nation attempted to take the city. The citizens of Rhodes built the Colossus, a giant
statue, in honor to their patron god, Helios. Helios is the Sun God which was replaced by
Apollo. Rhodes is one of the only cities, Olympia being another that built one of the Seven
Wonders of the World in dedication to a god. Some of the other wonders, the Mausoleum at
Halicarnassus for example, was built in dedication to a king, not a god.
13. Eretria was similar to Delphi and followed Apollo
14. Mykonos is the island that Hercules slew the giants and that is the reason it is full of huge
rocks, given the coin discoveries it is safe to say Dionysus was its patron God.
15. Thasos believed in 12 gods of Olympus.The island's patron was Heracles who is
believed to have had his origins not in the Greek halfgod Heracles (Hercules), but in
the Phoenician god Melkarth.Other than their patron, Heracles, the inhabitants of
Thassos respected greatly the god of the sea Poseidon and the goddess of the hunt
Artemis.