This site contains the fascinating, complex, and at times
amusing family tree of the
Greek Gods . The network of relationships is HUGE: if this site
were printed out and the pages laid end to end it would almost stretch the
length of a football field! There are over 800 separate entries. You won't find
much of a
traditional family structure. Zeus
had affairs with 31 women! But that wasn't as many as his brother
Poseidon, or one of his sons (try finding which one)! Zeus's son
Heracles (Hercules to the Romans) is one of my favorites. Pythagoras estimated
his height from the span of his stride in the original Olympic stadium, which
Heracles supposedly paced out. By Pythagoras' calculations Heracles would have
been about 7' tall.
I've included pictures of the 12 main Olympians , and a few more, and their (main) spouses. I also located images of the broods of Echidne . Much of what we know about the relationships between the myths comes from pottery like that in the pictures . I started this project as my graduation project from Middle School, but even before the months of work it was a hobby as well.
You can find almost every situation in the Greek myths, even transgender issues. There is one person in the tree who had affairs both as a complete man and a complete woman. Can you find him/her?
You can explore this site in several ways. You might start at the very beginning with Gaea. She was the person that started it all. On an interesting note, following Gaea's thread, you can locate anyone in the genealogy. If you like Aphrodite, follow Uranus's thread and check out the second "spouse" thread.
Or you might select your favorite goddess or god from the A-to-Z list (Heracles makes for long reading). You can follow the thread up and down (and quite likely around and round) to see where your favorite fits in. Or you could select one you DON'T like, and trace the history to see where that problem child came from. ( Typhon is pretty nasty.)
Please send me any comments or suggestions you might have. I hope you find this world as amazing as I do. The Greeks certainly were creative with their deities.