Complete Greek Gods Family Tree

The branches most family trees leave out

The usual charts run straight from Chaos to the Olympians. Some of the most interesting lines branch off sideways, through the sea and through the minor Titans. These lines produce most of the monsters and personified forces of Greek myth.

The children of Pontus and Gaia. Nereus, the truthful "Old Man of the Sea", married the Oceanid Doris and fathered the fifty Nereids, including Thetis and Amphitrite. Thaumas married Electra, a daughter of Oceanus, and fathered Iris and the Harpies. Phorcys and his sister Ceto produced the line of monsters: the Graeae, the Gorgons and the serpent that guarded the golden apples. Hesiod's wording leaves it unclear whether Ceto was also the mother of Echidna.

The monster dynasty. Echidna paired with Typhon and bore Orthus (Geryon's dog), Cerberus, the Lernaean Hydra and, probably, the Chimera. In Hesiod's account Echidna or the Chimera then mated with Orthus and produced the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion. Most of the beasts that heroes later killed belong to this one family.

Crius and Eurybia. The least famous Titan married a daughter of Pontus and fathered three sons: Astraeus, Pallas and Perses. Astraeus and Eos (Dawn) produced the winds Boreas, Zephyrus and Notus, along with the morning star and the other stars. Pallas married the river Styx and fathered Zelus (Rivalry), Nike (Victory), and Kratos and Bia. Styx brought these children over to Zeus's side first in the war against the Titans. Perses married Asteria, Leto's sister, and fathered Hecate, whom Hesiod praises at unusual length.

Children of Uranus's blood. When Cronus castrated his father, the blood that fell on Gaia produced the Erinyes (the Furies), the Giants and the Meliae, the ash-tree nymphs. The severed genitals fell into the sea, and the foam around them produced Aphrodite.

Rival versions of the beginning

Hesiod's Theogony became the standard account, but it was never the only one. Ancient listeners would have known several competing genealogies.

• Homer twice calls Oceanus the origin of the gods and Tethys their mother. That points to a tradition in which the world began from water, not from Chaos.
• Orphic theogonies start with Time (Chronos) or with Night, and introduce Phanes (also called Protogonos), a shining, double-sexed being hatched from a cosmic egg. A commentary on one such poem survives in the Derveni papyrus, a scorched scroll from the 4th century BC found in northern Greece.
• Eros appears among the very first beings in Hesiod. In later poetry he is the son of Aphrodite, usually by Ares. These are effectively two different figures under one name. See Eros.
• Aristophanes' Birds parodies the Orphic picture: Night lays a wind-egg in Erebus, Eros hatches from it, and the birds turn out to be older than the gods.

From gods to human dynasties

Greek genealogy did not stop at the heroes. It carried on into the families that claimed to rule real cities, and much of the lost Hesiodic Catalogue of Women was devoted to this.

After the flood, Deucalion, son of Prometheus, and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora, became the parents of Hellen. Hellen's sons Dorus and Aeolus, and his grandsons Ion and Achaeus (through Xuthus), gave their names to the Dorians, Aeolians, Ionians and Achaeans. This one family tree explained how the whole Greek-speaking world was divided.

In Argos, the river god Inachus was father of Io. Her descendants returned from Egypt as Danaus and his fifty daughters, and later produced Perseus and Heracles. In Asia Minor, Tantalus, a son of Zeus, fathered Pelops, whose sons Atreus and Thyestes began the cursed house of Agamemnon and Menelaus. At Thebes, Cadmus, brother of Europa, married Harmonia, daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. Their grandchildren included Dionysus, Actaeon and Pentheus.

A tidy chart hides one thing: the same figure can sit in two places at once. Hecate, the Fates, Aphrodite and Eros all have more than one set of parents, depending on who is telling the story. A tree that shows only one version is making a choice, not recording a single fact. For a visual version see the interactive family tree.

Ancient sources

• Hesiod, Theogony 116–138: Chaos, Gaia, Tartarus and Eros; the children of Erebus and Nyx; Gaia's offspring by Uranus.
• Hesiod, Theogony 233–336: the descendants of Pontus, including the Nereids, Iris and the Harpies, the Gorgons, Echidna and her monstrous brood.
• Hesiod, Theogony 375–452: the children of Crius, the Styx episode, and the long praise of Hecate.
• Homer, Iliad 14.200–201: Hera speaks of Oceanus, origin of the gods, and mother Tethys.
• Apollodorus, Library, book 1 (with books 2–3): a systematic genealogy from Uranus down through Deucalion's descendants and the heroic houses.
• Hesiodic Catalogue of Women (fragments): the line of Hellen and the heroines whose children founded the Greek peoples.

Frequently asked questions

Who is the oldest god in Greek mythology?

In Hesiod, Chaos comes into being first, then Gaia, Tartarus and Eros. Orphic poems put Time, Night or Phanes first instead, and Homer hints that Oceanus was the origin of everything.

Are all the Greek gods related?

Almost all of them, yes. Nearly every deity descends from Gaia, either through Uranus or Pontus, or from Chaos through Nyx and Erebus. Siblings, cousins and aunts marry one another constantly. It is one huge, very interconnected family.

Where do the monsters fit in the family tree?

Mostly in the sea branch. Phorcys and Ceto produced the Gorgons and Graeae, and Echidna and Typhon produced Cerberus, the Hydra and the Chimera. Their offspring include the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.

How are humans connected to the gods?

In one line, through Prometheus's son Deucalion and his grandson Hellen, ancestor of the Greeks. Many royal families also claimed descent from Zeus or Poseidon through a mortal mother.

Books to read next

• Hesiod, Theogony and Works and Days (Oxford World's Classics)
• Stephen Fry, Mythos
• Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology (Oxford World's Classics)

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