Ancient Greek Religion
Many Greek people recognized the 14 major gods and goddesses Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Apollo, Artemis, Aphrodite, Ares, Dionysus, Hephaestus, Athena, Hermes, Demeter, Hestia, and Hades though philosophical religions such as Stoicism and forms of Platonism posited a transcendent single deity. Different cities worshipped different deities, sometimes with epithets that specified their local nature.
The religious practices of the Greeks extended beyond mainland Greece, to the islands and coasts of Ionia in Asia Minor, to Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy), and to scattered Greek colonies in the Western Mediterranean, such as Massalia (Marseille). Greek religion tempered Etruscan cult and belief to form much of the later Roman religion.
Whilst there were few concepts universal to all the Greek peoples, there were common beliefs shared by many.
