The Twelve Olympians, also known as the Dodekatheon, in Greek mythology, were the principal gods of the Greek pantheon, residing atop Mount Olympus with prominent roles in Greek mythology. The Twelve Olympians gained their supremacy in the world of gods after Zeus led his siblings to victory in war with the Titans. Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hestia, Hades, and Chiron (who was not a god, but a trainer to the children of the gods, also known as demigods) were siblings. Ares, Hermes, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, the Charites, Heracles, Dionysus, Hebe, and Persephone were children of Zeus. Some versions of the myths state that Hephaestus was born of Hera alone, and that Aphrodite was born of Uranus' blood.
The first ancient reference of religious ceremonies for them is found in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. The Greek cult of the Twelve Olympians can be traced to the 6th century BC Athens and probably has no precedent in the Mycenaean period. The altar to the Twelve Olympians at Athens is usually dated to the archonship of the younger Pesistratos, in 522/521 BC. The classical scheme of the Twelve Olympians comprises the following gods: Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Dionysus, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus and Hermes.
Hades (Roman: Pluto) was not generally included in this list. He did not have a seat in the pantheon because he spent almost all of his time in the underworld. The respective Roman scheme as given by Ennius gives the Roman equivalents of these Greek gods, but replaces Dionysus (Bacchus) with Hestia (Vesta) so as to list six gods and six goddesses. The difference in the list is explained by the story that when Dionysus was offered a seat among the Olympians, the total number of Olympians became thirteen. Believing this would create a fight amongst the gods, Hestia (Roman: Vesta) stepped down.
Plato connected the Twelve Olympians with the twelve months, and proposed that the final month be devoted to rites in honor of Hades and the spirits of the dead, implying that he considered Hades to be one of the Twelve. Hades is phased out in later groupings due to his chthonic associations. In Phaedrus Plato aligns the Twelve with the Zodiac and would exclude Hestia from their rank.
Now that you have the story of the Olympians, here are the requirements to log there cache. Your job is to find at least 12 caches with Olympians in the name of the cache. You can use either the Greek version or the Roman equivalent. However, you can only use one to fill the slot. Here is what I mean. If you chose to use a cache with the Roman version of Jupiter then you cannot use the Greek version Zeus as ANOTHER Olympian. You must find 12 DIFFERENT Olympians. Now, as you read the story above. I will throw you two bones. Even though the mythology only lists twelve Olympians they elude to two others HADES and HESTIA. I will allow these two and their Roman equivalents to count in your twelve finds.
In addition to finding 12 different Olympians please find at least (4) different types of caches or categories (icons) when posting your finds. (Traditional, Multi, Unknown, Letterbox, Web, Virtual, Events. etc). This gives the challenge that extra star boost to the difficulty.
The Twelve (Fourteen) Olympians you can choose from are:
ZEUS (JUPITER), HERA (JUNO), POSEIDON (NEPTUNE), DEMETER (CERES), ATHENA (MINERVA), DIONYSUS (BACCUS), APOLLO, ARTEMIS (DIANA), ARES (MARS), APHRODITE (VENUS), HEPHAESTUS (VULCAN), HERMES (MERCURY), HADES (PLUTO), HESTIA (VESTA).
You may use the plural of the Olympian. You have no time limit on finding the caches. In fact, you may have already completed the cache requirements. But, if you haven’t… now you have some target caches to find.
When logging this cache, list your requisite caches on the cache page with the cache name, gc#, date found, and type of cache as identified below:
Vgr1 - JUPITER (GC1TW3D) 9/28/10 (TRADITIONAL)
HERA or JUNO? (GC2WAZH) 5/15/11 (TRADITIONAL)
King NEPTUNE’S Party (GC178P3) 3/31/11 (MULTI)
DEMETER or CERES? (GC2V8M9) 4/27/11 (UNKNOWN)
ATHENA or MINERVA? (GC2X209) 5/26/11 (TRADITIONAL)
BACCHUS or DIONYSUS? (GC2RFQ7) 4/1/11 (LETTERBOX)
Ode to APOLLO (aka More Rock Piles, You Wish!) (GCGE67) 5/5/05 (MULTI)
DIANA or ARTEMIS? (GC2RFJ9) 4/1/11 (MULTI)
Imperial MERCURY: Avalanche cold – Sun hot! (GC2KXG9) 1/6/11 (TRADITIONAL)
TGU Library: The Gods of MARS (GC1MT9C) 8/30/10 (TRADITIONAL)
Vgr2 - VENUS (GC1VPGC) 3/15/11 (TRADITIONAL)
VULCAN Cache (GCQ4B7) 2/17/06 (TRADITIONAL)
PLUTO the Pup (GC16076) 10/7/07 (TRADITIONAL)
HESTIA or VESTA? (TBD)
You may find the cache and ink your TnL mark™ in the log at anytime but you may not log it as a find until you meet the requirements listed above.
As always, enjoy.