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Ares (after the word ‘aggression’) was the god of brutal, bloody war. The cult
of Ares was common mainly in Sparta, where human victims were sacrificed.
The cult of Aphrodite came from Minor Asia and resembled similar goddess
cults of Inanna-Ishtar, Astarte. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and not only

beauty, but also of war (in Sparta as Homer describes her direct participation in the
Trojan War).
A couple of twin gods - Artemis and Apollo - also came to Greece from the

East. The first one was the goddess-hunter, patroness of wildlife, hunting. The cult
of Apollo emerged as a very popular alternative for aristocratic contrary to the cult
of Dionysus. Later Apollo became one of the most powerful and influential

Olympians. He was the patron of art, music and muses. He had all appropriate
attributes - a lyre, a bow with arrows and famous Delphic oracle. He was also
known as the god of sun or daylight (another name - Phoebus, meaning ‘shining’).

Hephaestus was the blacksmith god whose work in the underground world
caused volcanic eruptions. His cult moved to Greece from Minor Asia, obviously,
along with metallurgical technologies.
God Hermes (from the Greek ‘Herma’ – ‘boundary stone’) in the

Peloponnesian Arcadia was worshiped as a god of fertility and protector of
livestock. In Homer's poems he served as a messenger of the gods who interpreted

their will to people (the term ‘hermeneutics’ means ‘interpretation of texts’) and
conductor of souls to the underworld, and thus the god of dreams since the
representations of the Greeks about death and drea were very close in the meaning.
Hermes became famous for its fraudulent nature and cunny tricks. He helped

travelers, especially ambassadors and merchants; the god knew the secrets of the
underground treasures. Hermes was the patron of commerce, wealth and success in
life.

It should be noted that the official Olympians were challenged by the informal
Olympians represented by Dionysus (Bakh) who was the patron of wineculture and
winemaking, natural vitality of the world. The role of the cult of Dionysus

contained the ancient Greek sources of theatre. Dionysian choral singing gave a
rise to the tragedy as the main genre of theater art of antiquity.
The lack of dogmatism in the Greek religion had a very significant impact on

the ancient culture. The attempts to rethink the established mythological traditions
and even contradict them constituted a large share of all that was done by the
Greeks in the spheres of culture: philosophy, literature, art.
The Greek art was characterized by the images of living creatures. They were

represented in a harmonious, proportionate manner with a desire to expres
dynamics. The focus on a person (including images of gods) in the unity of her
beauty and harmony remained the leading feature. As a rule, plots were defined by

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