Twelve Olympians

In Greek mythic-historical outline, the Olympian gods gained supremacy after a generational war in which Zeus led the younger gods against the earlier generation, the Titans; this succession myth legitimizes the rule of the Olympian deities. The cultic grouping of twelve gods (dōdekátheon) is a ritual/formulaic arrangement attested in cult and literary contexts from the late sixth century BC rather than a single fixed theological list, and local traditions vary in which deities are counted among the twelve.

There is no single collective appearance for the Twelve: they are individual deities each with distinct iconography in Greek art and poetry (examples commonly included among the twelve are Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus). Sources emphasize identity, genealogy, and residence on Mount Olympus rather than a shared bodily form; literary and cultic sources portray them according to their individual attributes rather than as a uniform physical ensemble.

As principal immortal deities of the Greek pantheon, the Twelve function as the leading gods honored in public cult and mythic narrative. Their supremacy is expressed in myth (the overthrow of the Titans) and ritual practice: sacrifices and altars dedicated to the group (for example, Hermes dividing a sacrifice into twelve portions in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes) and civic installations such as the Athenian altar of the twelve gods used for supplication and refuge. They occupy the top tier of Greek divine order in contrast to chthonic deities and numerous lesser divine figures; specific powers and portfolios remain those of the individual deities rather than the grouping per se.