There were 12 major Greek gods, called the Olympians because they lived on Mt. Olympus. They were immortal and ate mysterious food that was forbidden to humans—the sweet drink, nectar, and heavenly food, ambrosia (not to be confused with the twentieth-century fruit salad made with orange sections, sliced bananas, and shredded coconut in an orange juice and confectioners’ sugar sauce).
Even though the gods did not eat human food, they were very human in their behavior. They fought among themselves, lied, cheated on their spouses, got angry, and were not above disguising themselves to get what they wanted, frequently a beautiful young girl. The husbandand-wife team of Zeus and Hera headed up the gods. Both a goddess and a god were connected to fire. Hestia, the goddess of the hearth, the only sister of Zeus, and a virgin, was worshiped in public and in private every day because every city had a sacred fire that was kept burning constantly. In this case, the goddess paralleled what the humans did, since the daughter of the household was responsible for keeping the fire going. Hestia also received offerings at the beginning and end of every meal. One of the rituals of founding a new colony was to take fire from the old city to the new one to guarantee continuity. It survives today in the ceremony of the Olympic torch, which has to be carried by hand from Athens to the site of the Olympic games every four years. The god connected with fire was Hephaestus. Like many Greek gods, he had both a positive and a negative side. On the positive side, he was a blacksmith, which showed the power of fire to create and be useful to mankind.
The negative was that he also represented the power of fire to destroy, because he lived in a volcano (his Latin name is Vulcan). In another typically Greek contrast, Hephaestus, the only god who was ugly and deformed, was married to beautiful Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She gave her name to foods and other substances that are thought to stimulate the senses or improve performance sexually-aphrodisiacs. Some foods that are considered aphrodisiacs now are oysters, caviar, Champagne, chocolate, and snails. Food played a large part in Greek mythology, too. Hunger was used as a punishment for the crime of cannibalism. Tantalus, the only mortal who had ever dined with the gods on nectar and ambrosia, invited the gods to a banquet at which he served a peculiar dish. He had killed his son, boiled him, and now was feeding him to the gods. They figured it out before they started eating (except for one bite of his shoulder) and gave Tantalus a punishment to fit his crime-eternal agonizing hunger and thirst. He was forced to stand in a pool of water, but every time he bent down to take a drink, it disappeared. He reached up to pluck the ripe apples, pomegranates, pears, and figs dangling just over his head, but the wind blew the branches out of his reach. It is from Tantalus that we get our word tantalize-to drive somebody crazy with desire.
