TWO OLYMPIC PORTRAITS

Abstract

Most of the gods in the Greek pantheon were portrayed with four attributes: onomastic (name, nickname, epithet), thing, animal and plant. Homer’s gods are spatially defined, and as characters are simple to visualize. Because of the liberty of depicting and describing the gods, which is one of the main characteristics of the ancient Hellenic religion, Homer gradually built up, in his epic works, interesting portraits of the Olympic gods.