Olympians

The Olympians, also known as the Gods of Olympus, are a group of celestial-powered beings who presided over Ancient Greece from atop of.

Still active in modern time, the gods watch over Earth alongside other god pantheons from around the world. The group is responsible for the creation of the Amazons of Themyscira, who in turn worship the pantheon's various members as their gods.

History
The energy unleashed by the explosion of God World at the end of the Third World era spread across the universe in a wave known as the God Wave. The wave seeded the Earth with great power which manifested itself into the form of the first gods.

Amongst these gods was the sky-god, Uranus, and his wife, Gaia, the primeval Goddess of Earth. With her husband, Gaia gave birth to various male and female beings that became known as the Titans of Myth. Uranus was very proud of the Titans for their physical perfection, but Gaia also had other children such as the giants, the Cyclopes and the many-armed Hecatocheiroi. Uranus hated these children and exiled them into the other-dimensional world of Tartarus.

Greatly grieving for these children, Gaia called upon Cronus, the youngest and bravest Titan, to depose his father and free his other siblings from the underworld. Given a sickle to use against his father, Cronus slew Uranus but instead of releasing his siblings, he and his fellow Titans and their children created a "paradise" of subservience on the planet Earth. Now supreme ruler, ruling from atop a mountain called Olympus, Cronus was non-the-less troubled by a prophesy prophesized by his father during his final moments; stating that Cronus would in turn be overthrown by one of his own sons, and so, in order to avoid his prophesized fate, resorted to eating any children that his wife and partner; Rhea, bore. As Rhea gave birth to Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, and Hera, Cronus ate each one of them. Aggrieved, Rhea was guided by Gaia to conceal the birth of her latest son, Zeus, by giving her husband a rock concealed within blankets instead of the baby to eat. Raised in secret by Gaia, Zeus returned as a man to free the giants, Cyclops and Hecatocheiroi from Tartarus and marched against Mount Olympus; forcing his father to disgorge his other siblings with a potion given to him by the Titan Metis and together the group disposed the Titans of Myth from Olympus. With Cronus believed dead, Zeus banished the other Titans from Earth into the farthest reaches of space. Lacking the power to return to Earth, the Titans transformed a nearby moon into a home, dubbing it "New Cronus," and began to guide the primitive race on the nearby planet Synriannaq.

After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers by drawing lots: as a result Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon got the waters, and Hades got Tartarus and the underworld. Hestia, Demeter and Hera became goddesses of "the Hearth", "the Harvest" and "Queen of the Gods" respectively. Dubbing themselves the "Gods of Olympus" the sorceress Hecate cast a spell to hide the newly anointed gods from wandering eyes, reasoning that the Olympians were greatly weakened after usurping power from Cronus and the she feared that other gods in the universe would take advantage of their weakness and seize Earth for themselves.

By the time Hecate lifted the spell during the beginning of the age of Ancient Greece, Hera had slept with Zeus and given birth to the gods Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus, Eileithyia and Eris. However, despite her loyalty, Zeus became infatuated with other beings of the new world open before them and sought out other consorts while still remaining married to Hera. Zeus seduced, slept with and sometimes raped various beings; from mythic beings like the Titans Leto, Metis and Dione, the goddess Demeter and the nymph Maia, to mortal women like Semele, Io, Europa and Leda. From amongst these dalliances, the gods Apollo, Athena and Artemis and the demigod Hercules were born, among others. For her part, Hera was jealous of her husband's conquests and became a consistent enemy of Zeus' mistresses and their children.

One day, the New God Uxas of Apokolips came to Rome. There he spread tales of the great Olympian gods and their following grew tremendously. In order to tend to the needs of two countries of worshipers, the Olympians created avatars of themselves to serve as their Roman representatives. While the effort meant that the gods could receive the power of faith from two countries, Uxas knew that the pantheon would be less powerful divided than it ever could be together.

Trivia

 * The Olympians first appeared in All-Star Comics #8 (January, 1942).
 * Poseidon had long relinquished the title of Sea King to Aquaman, but when Aquaman's subjects lost faith in him, Poseidon arranged a challenge for the title with his son, Triton. Aquaman bested Triton and the godling fell from grace with his father. In anger, Triton slayed Poseidon and claimed his power but when Aquaman freed Poseidon by appealing to Hades, Poseidon slew his son in turn. Disgusted with mortal affairs, Poseidon bequeathed his trident to Aquaman and left the realm.
 * After the Titans' banishment to space and the settlement of New Cronus, the lonely Rhea mated many times with the primitives they looked over; the resulting demigods however, made war on the planet and after 3,000 years of continued destruction, the Titans abandoned all hope of guiding that world to peace.