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Olympian can be considered to mean of or pertaining to Olympus that is the celestial home of the Greco–Roman pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. The Greek Gods are often called Olympians. Classically, the Olympian Gods were a pantheon of twelve including: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis and Hestia. Hades spent most of his time in the underworld; instead of on Olympus.

However, different sources overtime; include different Gods among the twelve; for example, Herodotus; included Hercules among them. In the ancient world, any Greek God who is related to one of the twelve can be considered an Olympian. In mythology the first generation is with Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, Hera and Zeus.

Zeus with Hera had only six children: Ares, Enio, Hebe, Eileithyia or Ilithyia, as well as Angelos in some myths Eris or Discord. Before his wedding with Hera he already had children from others Goddesses with Metis the children were Athena and with Mnemosine the nine children were the Muses. After these children he impregnated many lovers and they bore many more children including: Aphrodite, Artemis, Apollo, Dionysus and Hermes.

Role - Importance - Territory[]

The lands of Greece, Illyria (balkan peninsula), Macedonia, Italy (Rome), Anatolia (Asia minor) and Colchis (Georgia) praised and prayed to these Gods and their temples often making offerings, despite some of the Gods caring and help about them in return. The people believed the Gods to be the bringers of all forms of matter and life whether they were suffering through hard ships or going through great times.

Powers and abilities[]

The Olympian Gods commonly possess many Powers and Abilities, among them, immortality, invulnerability, the power to heal wounds and diseases, the ability to become invisible to the human eye, superior senses, they can change their physical appearance, they have the ability to teleport, can manipulate energy, matter and natural elements to create phenomenons. Different levels of Deities or Gods have a range of powers, they can sense other supernatural beings, for example the evil presence of Lord Dahak radiates with the darkest of energies.

Title and functions[]

Most of the Olympians are born with specific powers relating to some planetary element, force of nature, or aspect of mortal life. These Olympians are capable of manipulating the world and those in it in ways other Olympians cannot, and they are expected by Zeus to carry out the role that has been given to them, though each God is given considerable leeway with how they choose to enforce their role on the world.

Aphrodite, for example, has the title of Goddess of Love, and in addition to the standard powers of an Olympian, she has the ability to control the emotions of mortals, especially as they relate to love or passion. Hephaestus is the God of the Forge, and he has talent for forging and craftsmanship, crafting most of the weapons wielded by the Gods, while Ares is the God of War, and often rewards his faithful when they excel in battle or strategic warfare. Other Olympians have power over natural forces, such as Demeter, whose sphere of influence includes plants, flowers, crops, and seasons, and Apollo, whose power influences sunlight. Some Olympians have very specific, niche domains. Morpheus, for example, holds sway over the dreams of mortals, while Gods like Nemesis and Hermes perform work for the Gods directly, as the Goddess of Divine Retribution and the messenger of the Gods, respectively.

Some Gods don't possess a domain of their own, but instead share in the duties of another God, functioning as that Gods' subordinates. Strife and Discord both work for Ares, while Cupid is not only Aphrodite's son, but also her subordinate. Mortals or demigods that are not born with full Godhood but rather are granted power later in life, such as by consuming Ambrosia or having Godhood bestowed upon them by Zeus, do not have a domain of sorts, and thus are limited to the standard powers possessed by all Olympians. Examples of such beings include Velasca, Callisto, and Hercules when Zeus briefly elevated him to full Godhood.

Occasionally, when a God dies or has failed to perform their duties adequately, other Olympians can be given a chance to usurp their domain, usually by performing the task the original God could not. One example of this occurred when Hera sent Stregna, a minor Goddess with no domain of her own, to finish the task of slaying a man that stole oil from Hera's temple when Nemesis failed to do so, promising Stregna that she would become the new Goddess of divine retribution should she succeed at killing Nemesis. (Young Hercules: "Herc's Nemesis")

God who has dominion, if by chance his dominion ceases to exist he loses his powers, was the case of Ares, the God of War. When Gabriele through the enchanted parchment wrote that conflicts no longer existed, Ares lost his powers. (XWP: The Quill is Mightier...)

Olympic rules[]

Zeus, as supreme ruler of Olympus, to ensure the existence of the Gods, made the rule that one Olympian God could not kill another and extended it to his Demigod son, Hercules, to ensure he was not killed in a possible disproportionate attack by the Olympian Gods. HTLJ: "Two Men and a Baby"

Violating an order from Zeus carries the death penalty even if the violation occurred unconsciously, suspends Hercules' protection, as was the case with Young Hercules when he took a chalice that belonged to Hera and took it out of its hiding place thinking it was a object that belonged to Zeus and was returned to him, when in fact Zeus had decreed that whoever took the object from its place would be destroyed, taking advantage of the breach. Ares went to kill Hercules, but Jason and Iolaus returned the chalice to its place before Ares could deliver the final blow, Hercules' protection was restored to Ares's frustration. YH: What a Crockery: The Treasure of Zeus, Part 3

In the HTLJ series it does not say what will be the punishment for those who violate this rule, but it says that whoever violates this rule will suffer the wrath of Zeus, in the Young Hercules it says that the punishment is to be trapped in the abyss of Tartarus with the Titans. YH: Ares on Trial

It does not violate the rule when the one who kills is not a complete God, (where the Demigods Hercules and Evander fit in) Ares wanted to use Evander to kill Hercules and not be punished, Evander would have powers to kill Hercules but would not be punished because he is a Demigod. HTLJ: "Two Men and a Baby"

Ares said that one of the dogmas of the Gods of Olympus is not being able to lie. While the Demigods speak half-truths, the most ironic thing is that Ares lies constantly and is not punished for this violation, whereas Hercules, being a Demigod, always speaks the truth. HTLJ: "When a Man Loves a Woman"

Ares said that you don't destroy a God's temple in the name of another God, chiding Mavican's action that to prove his worth he destroyed a temple of Demeter. It is assumed that Demeter could demand repair, so Ares would have to give up one of his temples to her, or taking revenge on Ares, punishing his soldiers with hunger by making the harvest unviable. XWP: Succession

When Hercules accidentally went back in time through the stone of Kronos, Ares warned that time travel was forbidden for whole Gods, let alone (half-bloods) Demigods. HTLJ: The End of the Beginning"

Limitations[]

Gods are limited in their ability to restore others to life. Normally, only Zeus or Hades are capable of reversing death, and even then it was something they wouldn't do without very good reason. Restoring slain demigods is even more difficult, as it took both Zeus and Hera to restore the life of their grandson, Evander. Most Gods are also incapable of healing injuries without the blessing of either Zeus or Athena.

Zeus resurrected Lyla who died unjustly, but was not able to resurrect Hercules' wife and children, because he cannot undo the action of other Gods, as Hercules' family was killed by Hera. HTLJ: Outcast

In some cases, other Gods are able to return to life those they have slain themselves. Ares brought back three people that he had killed while framing Xena (Xena: Warrior Princess: "The Reckoning").

Only once did Zeus make an exception for Hercules and send him back in time, so that Hercules would not go to Gargarency and prevent Hera from causing a tragedy, because going back in time can cause chaos in the stars, on planets and it would make the other gods angry. Hercules and the Amazon Women

Olympians also cannot teleport demigods against their will. HTLJ: "Two Men and a Baby"

Finally, Zeus has the power to permanently revoke another Olympian's Godhood, making them fully mortal. Olympians are also capable of willingly giving up their Godhood at any time, though once they do, only Zeus can restore it. HTLJ: Reunions

Objects that affect the power of the Olympians[]

Hephaestus build a throne that is able to keep even Zeus imprisoned. He could keep Aphrodite imprisoned on that throne as long as he wanted. HTLJ:Love Takes a Holiday

Hephaestus also created chains that are able to bind a titan, and an Olympian God. They can only get rid of the chains if they are broken with the sword of Hephaestus or if the Olympian abdicates his divinity. XWP : Prometheus / Motherhood

Hephaestus was responsible for building a sarcophagus that kept Ares confined for centuries, which had a device called the Eye of Hephaestus that blocked Ares's teleportation but allowed his other powers. Presumably, it was Ares's punishment for his constant violations of Olympian rules. XWP: The Xena Scrolls

Some Gods like Ares and Triton possess power objects through which they channel and control forces of nature and the aspect of mortal life they preside over. The oldest power objects are made by Cabiri, such as Triton's trident and the most recent by Hephaestus which is the case of Ares's sword.

Triton's trident is what keeps the seas, if it falls into the hands of mortals it becomes useless, and the merman loses his powers, if not made another and given to him before he dies, he dies along with the seas. HTLJ: My Best Girl's Wedding

In the event that Ares' sword falls into the hands of a mortal, Ares loses his divinity and the mortal becomes the new God of War. XWP: Ten Little Warlords

Enchanted Artifacts has the power to affect the Gods, when Aphrodite granted Gabriele's scroll the power of fate, everything she wrote came true, for example, when she wrote that there was no more conflict, Ares lost his divinity, and when she wrote that the force that enchanted the scroll lost its powers, Aphrodite lost her divinity. XWP: The Quill is Mightier...

Iolaus turned Discord into a chicken after hitting her with an arrow from Artemis's bow. HTLJ: Porkules

Haleh with access to the spellbook of the first sorcerer Nebros was able to turn the Goddess Discord into a square. HTLJ: A Wicked Good Time

Items that can kill Olympians[]

Very few things can permanently kill an Olympian. Hind's Blood, the Ribs of Kronos, the Dagger of Helios and the Chakram of Light.

Any weapon coated with the blood of the golden doe becomes a lethal weapon for the Olympians, as is the case with the Hind's Blood Dagger. The Olympians are unable to recover from their injuries, which was the case with Strife when he was stabbed by Callisto. The only being who was able to heal someone with wounds caused by an arrow with doe blood, was Serena when she herself was a doe and healed Hercules. HTLJ : Armageddon Now / Stranger and Stranger / The End of the Beginning

Ribs of Kronos are part of the titan's own bone structure, which was used by him to stab and kill his father Uranus and then used by Zeus to kill Kronos and lastly used by Hercules to kill Zeus, confirming Uranus' curse in which the father would be deposed by the son. XWP: God Fearing Child

Helios' dagger is a blade that has the power to kill an Olympian, its origin is unknown. Callisto knew to the location of the dagger and showed it to Xena, so she could kill Ares. In the end Xena didn't do it and Ares destroyed the weapon, thus decreasing the number of rare items that could kill a God. XWP: "The Quest" / Seeds of Faith"

Xena discovered that there is another Chakram, identical to her own and complementarily, it had the power to kill a God - The Chakram of Light. Upon acquiring the broken Dark Chakram, she placed it on the altar for repair. Both Ares and Kal were after the Chakram of Light to obtain the power to eliminate the other Gods of War and to become the supreme God of War themselves. In order to dissipate the power, Xena fused the two Chakrams together, creating a new Chakram with the ability to split in half and fly as two independent weapons. XWP: Chakram

Entities that have the power to kill Olympians[]

Zeus was revealed to have the power to kill the Olympians, after Hera betrayed him by revealing the location of Kronos's ribs to Hercules. Zeus ascended with Hera in a whirlwind and after he kissed her, he made her disappear. XWP: God Fearing Child

Dahak proved to have the power to kill the Olympians, even in the body of Iolaus who was undergoing an exorcism ritual, was able to weaken Ares's divine powers to the point of making him mortal for being in his presence.HTLJ: "Armageddon Now / Let There Be Light

The Olympics weakened by the negative presence of Dahak, that had already been felt before he arrived in Greece, fled to the alternate world, hiding their energetic forms inside a sphere within a room in the labyrinth of memory. HTLJ: "Stranger and Stranger"

Archangel Michael and the Knights of the Apocalypse also revealed the potential to kill the Olympians. Michael knocked Ares out with extreme ease, and Ares' attacks on the Horsemen had no effect. It is logical to say that if Hercules did not perform the sacrifice that renewed the trust of light in humanity, with the extinction of mortals and dominions, Olympians would be weakened, and the Horseman of Death would reap them. HTLJ: Revelations

During Eve's baptism into the Elijian faith, the One God bestowed the power to slay Gods unto Xena. She destroyed some ones of the Olympians in defense of her daughter. (XWP: "Motherhood") He took this power away when Xena try to kill Michael. (XWP: "The God You Know"). in the comic version the events of the past change xena is alive like Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Athena and other gods, dead in the twilight.

Antiquity[]

The pilot of the Amazon High ( 1997 ). When the first Amazon tribe is created, the story takes place 4.000 thousand years before common era. The Olympic Gods already existed, several thousand years before Hercules and Xena.

Gallery[]

List of Olympians known and mentioned[]

  • Achelous God of Achelous river (mentioned in RPG)
  • Aphrodite - Goddess of Love/Aphrodite II- Queen of the Olympians (Strange World)
  • Amphitrite - Wife of Poseidon (mentioned in the novel Hercules: Serpent's Shadow)
  • Apollo - God of Sunlight
  • Ares - God of War/Ares II- God of Love (Strange World)
  • Artemis - Goddess of the Hunt, Wildlife and Amazons
  • Asclepius - God of Healing and Medicine
  • Athena - Goddess of Wisdom, Warfare and Weaving
  • Bacchus - God of Good Times
  • Bliss - Son of Cupid
  • Boreas - The God of North Wind (mentioned in RPG)
  • Calliope - Muse of Epic Poetry
  • Circe - The Sorceress Goddess (mentioned in the novel Xena: The Empty Throne)
  • Celesta - The Olympic personification of Death
  • Cupid - God of Love/Cupid II- God of War (Strange World)
  • Deimos - God of Terror
  • Demeter - Goddess of the Agriculture and Harvest
  • Dionysus - God of Wine
  • Discord - Goddess of Discord
  • Fates - Goddesses of Destiny
  • Fatuus - A God of Prophecy
  • Fortune - Goddess of Luck
  • Furies-Goddesses of Vengeance
  • Gaea or Gea - The Mother Earth
  • Hades - God of the Underworld
  • Hecate - Goddess of the Sorcery
  • Hephaestus - God of the Forge
  • Hera - Queen of the Gods/Hera II- Goddess of Music (Strange World)
  • Hercules - (briefly)
  • Hermes - Messenger of the Gods
  • Hestia - Goddess of the Home
  • Lachrymose - God of the Despair
  • Momus - God of Satire
  • Morpheus - God of Dreams
  • Muses- The Nine Goddesses of Inspiration
  • Nemesis - Goddess of Divine Retribution
  • Nereids - The Sea nymphs, the 50 daughters of sea gods Nereo and Doris (mentioned in RPG)
  • Mnemosyne - Goddess - Titan of memory
  • Nike - Goddess of Victory
  • Nymphs - Minor Goddesses or Supernatural Being, the different aspects of nature (mentioned in RPG)
  • Panope - Goddess of Water
  • Pan - The Satyr God (mentioned in RPG and Hercules: The First Casualty)
  • Persephone - A Goddess of nature and Queen of the Underworld
  • Poseidon - God of Seas
  • Psyche - Wife of Cupid in the myth Goddess of human soul
  • Proteus - The Shapeshifting God
  • Pax - Goddess of Peace
  • Strife - God of Strife
  • Stregna - servant of Hera
  • Themis - Goddess of Justice
  • Terpsichore - Goddess of Dance and Music
  • Triton - A God of seas son of Poseidon
  • Zeus/Zeus II - King of the Gods and God of Thunder, Sky and Lightning.
  • Fifteen gods, seven goddesses and eight gods. Were seen in the episode looking death in the eye.

Trivia[]

With C'tulon intervention in the comic version of Xena, Xena is alive and Gods who died in the twilight fight are now alive.

Taking into account the events of Yes, Virginia, There is a Hercules and For Those of You Just Joining Us, with Strife alive in the late 20th century trying to sabotage the production of the Hercules series with Ares trying to dissuade Kevin Sorbo (the pseudonym of Hercules) from acting, because Zeus doesn't like actors with agreement in the present. The events that occurred Armageddon Now and God Fearing Child, how the deaths of Strife and Zeus were just stories for the show, as well as the deaths of the Gods that occurred in Motherhood, Kevin's influencing the writers doesn't mean that everything produced on the show actually happened, because the writers were free to write whatever they wanted, and with Kevin telling Ares, "they're not ready to find out the truth yet", Kevin may have influenced the writers to create the Twilight of the Gods so that the Gods could live in secret.

Other Greek Gods[]

Mortals turned into Gods are not Olympians as they do not have a family or association relationship with the Olympians Gods, among the known are Velasca and Callisto.

External links[]

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