ABSTRACT
Representing natural forces, the inhabitants of Olympos have superhuman attributes that account for the extraordinary in human experience, but conceived in human form, their manoeuvres were explained in terms representing ideals of all the traits of humanity. Hence the myths as many and various as the Hellenic communities that emerged from the dark ages following the last wave of invasion, defining man's relationship to the divine, exorcizing his phobias about the forces of nature and relating the impact of one way of life upon another. Zeus bestowed Hera's responsibility for agriculture on his sister Demeter, and through various extramarital liaisons claimed paternity over other key pre-Hellenic deities, notably Apollo and Artemis, Athena, Aphrodite and Dionysos. Many peoples saw their gods in the image of their king, the greatest figure they knew. The Hellenic corps that took these valleys settled about some defensible eminence (acropolis) from which they managed the land.
