Ancient Greeks believed there was a large family of gods and goddesses. This family was called the Pantheon. The first race of gods were giants called Titans but these were overthrown by the Olympian gods, who took their name from Mt Olympus. Zeus was king of the gods and Hades was king of the Underworld. The Olympian gods are the best known today as they had the most followers in Ancient Greece.

Ancient Romans incorporated a lot of the mythology of Ancient Greece into their own and many of the Greek gods have matching Roman gods. In fact in some stories that were written in later periods, you will sometimes find the names of the Greek and Roman characters mixed up in one story. The list below shows the main Greek gods with their Roman equivalents and their main duties. If you would like to read more about these gods and goddesses click on the Greek names to go to an external link "Mythography" or "Encyclopedia Mythica" close the window of the external link to return to this page.