Hades is the oldest male child of Chronus and Rhea. According to myth, he and his brothers Zeus and Poseidon defeated the Titans and claimed authority over the cosmos, ruling the underworld the air and the sea respectively. Formidable in battle, he proved his fierceness in the Titanomachy, the battle of the Olympian gods against the Titans.
Because of his association with the underworld, Hades spent most of his in his dark realm away from mount Olympus. Greeks considered the realm of Hades to be the final destination of the dead. A misty and dark place there was no escape from for any mortal who set foot upon it. Very few mortals managed to escape the boundaries of the underworld, like the celebrated heroes Hercules and Theseus.
Hades personified the inevitable finality of death which is why he was loathed by all mortals. He was not nevertheless a wicked god, since although he was strict and unpitying; he was still fair and just in his judgment. Although he was feared by mortals as the master of the underworld, he was not the personification of death himself. The actual incarnation of Death was Thanatos.
Hades consort and queen of the underworld was Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. He abducted her and claimed her as his wife, fact that caused great sorrow and despair to her mother. By ruling of Zeus he had hence agreed to let her return to her mother on mount Olympus for nine months every year.
The worship of Apollo is the most widely diffused. His birth was adventurous as his mother, Leto, was chased by the serpent Python (Hera's intrigue); he grew up miraculously fast (in seven months he assumed the appearance of a grown man)
Ares is the son of Zeus and Hera and one of the Twelve Olympian Gods. His birthplace and true home was placed far away, among the barbarous and hostile Thracians.
Artemis is special among the other goddesses of Olympus. She was the daughter of Zeus and Leto and twin sister to Apollo.
Athena was the daughter of Zeus and Metis, the Titan and goddess of cunningness and wisdom. According to the myth Zeus received a prophecy that one of his off springs would bring the end to his reign.
Atlas was a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Asia. He was well-known to everyone because his task was no less than to support the sky and the heavens over the earth.
Zagori is an area of great natural beauty and unique architecture in the Pindus Mountains in Epirus in Northwestern Greece. The area is of about 1.000 square kilometers and contains 46 villages. Zagoria villages is called by Greeks “Zagorochoria” meaning the villages behind the mountain.
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In 1989, Professor of Byzantine Studies, Helen Ahrweiler is appointed Chairman of the Cultural Centre Pompidou in Paris