who are the major olympians?
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the twelve Olympians are the major deities of the Greek pantheon, commonly considered to be Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hermes, and either Hestia or Dionysus. They were called 'Olympians' because they were considered to reside on Mount Olympus. Although Hades was a major ancient Greek god, and was the brother of the first generation of Olympians: Zeus, Poseidon, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia, he resided in the underworld, far from Olympus, and thus was not usually considered to be one of the Olympians. Besides the twelve Olympians, there were many other cultic groupings of twelve gods.