Ore: They are season deities, and later they indicated also the hours of the day. They are daughters of Zeus and Themis, and sisters of the Moire. The Greek characterized two of them: Thallus, the closing of the spring and Carpo, the autumnal fructification; later they added Axo, the summery increase. Also they were considered the deities of the order that assures the maintenance of society, and as such they were called Eunomia, Diche and Irene, that is Discipline, Justice and Peace. In Mount Olympus they have various tasks. They are followers of Aphrodite and figure in the cortege of Dionysius, play with Persephone and in the forests they keep Pan's company. They are represented as dancing young girls with flowers or green branches in their hands.

Rhea (Greek deity): Titanid daughter of Gea and Uranus. She married Cronos and had six sons: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus. Every son was eaten by Cronos as soon as he saw the light: Cronos knew in fact an oracle by Uranus and Gea that his sons would have put an end to his realm. Rhea succeeded to save the last one, Zeus, who realized the profecy and drove away theTitans from the world. The festivities in her honor were celebrated on the 9 of July, and the 25 of August (opiconsiva).

Sirene: Beings half women and half birds, were considered sea demons who attracted the boats on the rocks with music and songs to devour the sailors. Their origin is rather conflicting, but their island has been identified in the surrentine peninsula.

Persefone (Greek deity): She was the Queen of Hell. According to a famous myth, Persephone (or for the Roman Proserpina) was the daughter of Demeter and Zeus; she was kidnapped by Hades, the monarch of Tartarus. But Demeter didn't give up until she did not obtain from Zeus that her daughter returned for a part of the year. As daughter of Demeter she was generally called " the child " (Kore), under which title she was worshipped with her mother in Eleusi, in the local misteric cult. On the first of February she was honored in the Small Eleusinian mysteries, on April 3 they feasted her return from the Tartarus and the beginning of the period of stay with her mother, on 22 of september they celebrated her descent in the world of the dead.

Astraea: - Goddess of justice and purity. Hes festivity falls on 8 December.

Carmen/Carmina: - Deities who help in the creation of prayers, and spells.

Copia: - Goddess of abundance.

Demetra (Greek deity): Daughter of Cronos and Rhea, she is the deity of the cultivated earth, and she differs from Gea or Gaia who is the earth conceived as a cosmogonic element. Demeter personified the generatrix force of the earth, and she is the goddess of the grain, identified in Italy with Ceres. He begot with Zeusthe daughter Persephone to whom she is closely tied in nearly all the myths which regard her, and which constitute the central nucleus of the Eleusinian Mysteries. The attributes of Demeter are the ear and the poppy, its bird is the crane, the preferred victim is the sow, symbol of fertility. Often she is represented with the torches in her hand, those with which she went in search of her daughter Persephone kidnapped by Hades. Her feasts fall on 1 February (small mysteries), 28 February and 4 October (Jejunium Cereris).

Ecate: She is a feminine deity of rather mysterious origins, though Hesiod considers her as daughter of Asteria and Persete. Her cult was part of the Orphean mysteries. He grants every kind of favors, among which good will and eloquence, victory and every kind of abundance to all those who invoke her, according to their activities. Later she became a kind of sorceress connected to the world of the shadows, who rules on demons, evokes the spirits, scares people, rambles in the night along the roads, announced by the barks of the dogs. She also was represented with three heads or with three bodies.

Enio (Greek deity): A War Goddess, companion (some said mother, others wet-nurse, others daughter) of Ares. She is the personification of violence, and is represented bleeding. In Rome she was identified with the goddess Bellona. From her Ares takes the name of Enialio.

Eos: Daughter of Hyperion and Teia, sister of Helium and Selene, she is the personification of Dawn: with her " fingers color of rose ", as Homer says, she opens every morning the doors of the sky to the chariot of her brother Helium. She had many loves among gods, and begot many sons - we must remember Phaeton. But the official husband of Eos was Astraeus, with whom she begot the winds, Argestes, Zephyrus, Boreas and Notus, and the stars.

Era (Greek deity): Daughter of Cronos and Rhea, sister then wife of Zeus, she was considered, as such, the monarch of Mount Olympus. Identified by the Roman with Juno, she had four sons from her legitimate husband: Hephaestus, Ares, Ilizia and Hebe. She protected spouses and deliveries, as wife of the monarch of Mount Olympus, but she had a quarrelsome, obstinate, jealous and vengeful character, which she demonstrated above all in occasion of the frequent adventures of Zeus, who easily fell in love with goddesses, nymphs and women. The peacock, the cockoo and the crow were consecrated to her, and among the plants she preferred the pomegranate. She was celebrated on the 30 of April.

Erinni: When Uranus was crippled by his son Cronos, the drops of blood fallen on the earth begot these violent and primitive monsters, to whom Zeus himself was subject. They are analogous to the Fates and confused sometimes with the Chere. Thre of them are named: Alecto, Tisiphone and Megaera. They live in the Erebus and are represented as winged geniuses with hair of snakes and torchs or whips in their hands, in order to torture their victims. They sacrificed to them black sheep and gave offerings without wine. The ancients called them also Eumenides to propitiate them. The Roman instead called them Dirae or Furies. They revenge crimes against family and society, but also hybris (that is the loss of awareness of one's limit). They punish in particular the murders, and torture in many ways the murderer, even if involuntary, until driving him crazy.

Estia (greco/roman deity): She personifies the hearth, of which she is the goddess and the caretaker. Daughter of Cronos and Rhea, sister of Zeus and Hera, she was eternally virgin and received a particular cult on the earth in all the houses of men, and on Mount Olympus by the gods, of whom she represents the immovable center. The Roman called her Vesta and dedicated a particular cult to her, in which the priestesses always had to keep ignited the sacred fire and also had to keep intact their virginity, under death punishment. One of the Vestals, Rhea Silvia, begot Romolus and Remus by Mars intervention. The festivities of the Vestals were called Vestalia and fell on the 9 of June.

Flora: a sabine deity introduced in Rome by Tito Tazio. She presides on the flowering and the life of all the vegetation. According to Ovid she was a Greek nymph, called Cloris. One day she was seen by the God of the wind, Zephyrus, who kidnapped and married her, and gave her the government of the flowers, whose seeds (and honey) she gave to men as a gift. Ovid tells also that Juno, envying that from the head of Jupiter had been born Minerva, wanted to conceive a son without the intervention of the male, and for this she addressed Flora, who with her touch fertilized every thing. Therefore Juno conceived March, which is the first spring month.

Fortuna: She is the Roman goddess correspondent to the Greek Tyche, introduced in the Roman cult by Servio Tullio, who (so they said) had loved her secretly. She is represented with the cornucopia and the rudder, with which she guides the life of men. She is almost always blind. She was invoked with a series of names referring to the several circumstances of life.

Gea (Greek deity): Gaia, or Ghé, which in Greek means " earth ", is exactly, as such, the primordial element which begot from her womb all the generations of gods. Born from Uranus (the sky) with whom she joined, being the only element which could entirely " cover " her, she had with him sons who represent the first generation of of the pre- olympic: the Titans, Ocean, Ceo, Crio, Hyperion, Giapeto and Cronos, and then the Titanids, feminine deities, that is Theia, Rhea, Temi, Mnemosine, Phoebe, Teti. Then were born the Cyclops and the Ecatonchiri. Gea then begot the marine deities, and with Tartarus she begot Typhoon, a wonderous and frightful God, and Echidna. Generally all the monster who represent the wonderous and violent forces of nature are considered her sons: Anteo, Carybdis, the Harpies, Python and also Fama. Then she was confused with Demeter, while the Roman called her Tellus and identified her with Cybele.

Giunone (Roman deity): She is the goddess assimilated to the Greek Hera, and part of the capitoline triad with Jupiter and Minerva. She had also temples where she was venerated as Moneta (the one who admonishes) and as such Rome would have been saved during the invasion of the Galli by means of the geese consecrated to her. Moreover she was venerated as Lucina, and with this name she was the protectress of deliveries and children. She was moreover the female saint of married women, and the Matronal festivities were celebrated in her honor on the 1 of March and during the Caprotine festivities on the 7 of July. Every woman moreover had her own Iuno, who corresponds to the Genius of male men.

Gorgone: The Gorgon monsters were winged daughters of Forco and Ceto, named Euriale, Steno and Medusa. They were horrible, frightful to men and gods, and their look petrified. They had teeth like the the wild boars, hair of snakes, bronze hands and wings of gold. Only Poseidon had dared to join to Medusa whose eyes transformed in stone all those who watched her. She was faced by Perseo who succeeded in fighting her, using his shield like a mirror not to watch her. The head of Medusa was then put on the shield of Atena and from her neck came out two beings sons of Poseidon: Pegasus and Crisaore.

Ninfe: Daughters of Zeus, they are subordinate deities who represent the elementary forces of nature and people, the countries, the forests, the waters. They pass their life singing or spinning, live in coves or in forests, rivers, sea or those places of which they are an expression. There are the Naiads, nymphs of the rivers and sources, sometimes considered descendants of Ocean or generated by the God of the river to which they are connected: they have the power to possess the mortals who see them, and are the caretakers of the sources from which they derive. The Oceanins and the Nereids are the nymphs of the sea, the Oreads of mountains, the Dryads of the forests. Among them there are the Meliads, nymphs of the ash-trees. In the small wood there lived the Elseids, and other nymphs then were reported to places or particular trees. They are secondary deities, but very near to the life of men, and therefore they can be frightening, though they usually personify the fecundity and the grace of nature.

Nyx (Greek deity): In Greek this name means Night, of which this goddess is the personification. Daughter of the primeval Chaos, sister of Erebus, she begot Aether and Emera (Day), and Moros (fate), the Cheres, Ipnos (sleep), Dreams, Momo (sarcasm), the Misery, the Moires, Nemesis, Apate (deceit), Filote (tenderness), Ghera (old age), Eris (discord), the Hesperides (daughters of the evening). They said she lived at the extremity of the earth, towards the West.

Graie: They are the personification of old age, sisters of the Gorgons, have a single eye and a tooth in common, that they lend each other in turn. They live in the country of the night.

Iride (Greek deity): Daughter of Taumantes and Elettra, she is an Oceanine, sister of the Harpies. She represented the rainbow, which is a bridge between sky and earth, and as such is in charge to carry the orders of Zeus and Hera.

Maia (Greek deity): Daughter of Atlas, she was loved by Zeus on the Cillene mount, in Arcadia, where Hermes was begot. In later age she was identified in Rome with a goddess Maia who represented the awakening of the spring, to whom the month of May was dedicated, and became therefore the mother of Mercury. She is honored on the first day of May.

Moire: They are the personifications of the destiny of every man, the part that everyone has in this world, wheter a lucky person or an ill-fated man. Very soon they were assimilated to the Cheres, who had a violent and blood-thirsty character. Even the gods must submit to the Moires, who represent and guard the order of the world. They were in number of three: Cloto, Atropo and Lachesis. They regulated the life of every man carrying out and wrapping the wire of the destiny which was cut at the end of life. Therefore they are represented like spinners and they are said daughters of Zeus and Temi and sisters of the Hours; or, according to another genealogy, they are daughters of the Night and a part of the elementary forces of the world. They are usually remembered with Ilizia, deity of the birth, and with Thyche, who incarnates Fate. In Rome they were identified with the Fates.

Muse: Daughters of Zeus and Mnemosine, they presided to song, music, dance and more generally to every kind of artistic thought. Anciently they were three: Melete, Mneme, Aoide, but subsequently they are remembered as nine: Clio, muse of history, Euterpe, of pipe's sound, Thalia of comedy, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of dance, Herato of lyric chorale, Polimnia of pantomime, Urania of astronomy, Calliope of epic. They protect men giving persuasive words to the kings, so that they can placate the disputes and re-establish peace, conferring to them the gift of sweetness, and giving to all oblivion from pains and sorrows. Their song is divine and they take part singing to all the feastly events of the life on Mount Olympus.

Nemesi (Greek deity): Daughter of Nyx, she was loved by Zeus, whom she tried to escape changing herself in various animals and finally in a goose. She represents vengeance, and stretches to punish the ybris, that is every attempt to exit from the limits of one's own nature, and has the task to bring back the order and the equilibrium every time that whichever excess puts it in danger. She is honored during the festivity of 23 August.

Nereidi: Daughters of Nereus and Doris and grandaughters of the Ocean, they are sea deities and personify the waves of the sea.. They are in number of fifty and the most part of them have a personal name, even if only some have a well defined personality. Among them Teti, the mother of Achille, Anfitrite, the wife of Poseidon, Galatea and Orizia. The Nereids were beautiful maidens who lived in bottom of the sea in a dazzling palace of gold, where they spent time spinning or weaving or singing. They rode dolphins and went on chariots hauled from the Tritons. Often they are represented around Aphrodite coming out of the sea.

Atena(Greek deity): Daughter of Zeus and Meti, she is identified in Rome with the goddess Minerva. According to the legend she was born from the head of Zeus. She has always been represented as a warrior goddess, armed with spear and shield. On the shield she carried the head of Medusa, who transformed instone anyone who watched her, and on the chest the aegis with the snakes. She was considered the goddess of wisdom and intelligence, and as such inventress of arts and sciences. He invented the plow, and the art of spinning and weaving. She introduced in Greece the olive oil, which she gave as a gift to Attica to have the supremacy on the country. Her animal was the owl. In her honor were celebrated many festivities,like the Panatenaiche and Erroforie (14 june). In Rome she was celebrated in the quinquatria between 19 and 23 of March.

Diana: She corresponds to the Greek Artemis. Diana is considered sister of Apollo and daughter of Latona and Zeus, but some traditions believe she was daughter of Demeter. She is the Goddess of hunting, eternally young and virgin, and chases with her nymphs the wild beasts in the forests. She was also identified with Hecate, a lunar goddess. Unexpected deaths are attributed to her arrows. According to the ancients, Diana always wandered along the mountains like the Moon, of which she was the personification, as Apollo was personification of the Sun. She was also the protectress of the Amazons. .

• Associated to Diana is the cult of Sylvanus, also called Pan. Goddess of the forests, lady of the wild beasts. Goddess of the Moon, sometimes called " with an infinite breast ". Goddess of the mountains, forests, women, protectress of delivery. Female saint of outcasts, outlaws, slaves, servants, and in general of the oppressed.Her title of Queen of Heaven allowed her (in Rome) the title of Triple Goddess.Her three aspects were those of Virgin Moon, Mother of Nature and Huntress/warrior.Diana incarnates various others deities, and her name was associated to the Moon Goddess, Earth Goddess, or Star Goddess.Traditionally, in Italy she is the Goddess of the Witches.

• In ancient Italy, her main place of adoration was the lake of Nemi, a famous vulcanic lake known as the mirror of Diana. In order to arrive to the lake the only possible way was her sanctuary. This deity was famous for her predilection for matriarcal societies. Various documents of processes against the Witches speak about encounters with Diana. Her preferred animals are the dog and the ferret. Her traditional festivities: 26-31 of May and 13 and 15 of August.

Venere (Roman deity): Goddess of beauty and love, identified by the Greeks with Aphrodite. According to Greek mythology she was born, if we listen to Homer, from Zeus and Dione, according to others instead from Gea and Uranus. After her birth, Zephyr pushed her in a shell to the beach of the island of Cyprus: here the Hours dressed and gravelled her and then lead her before the Immortals who were amazed and admired by her beauty. Zeus (or Jupiter for the Latins) gave her in wife to Hephaestus (Vulcan), the lame God who was a blacksmith. Obviously Venus had various extramarital adventures, among which it is famous that one with Mars (Ares) with whom she begot two sons: Deimos and Phobos (Fear and Terror). She loved Adonis and Anchises, with whom she begot Enea. Venus was always accompanied by a cortege of semi-divine creatures, among whom the Graces (or Cariti), the Laughters, the Cupids, the Nymphs and the doves sacred to her. Were also sacred to her swans, hares, dolphins and turtles. Among the herbs she loved the rose above all, the myrth, apple tree and poppy. The festivities in her honor were : the 6 of February, the 6 of July, the 23 of May (rosalia) and the 8 of August.  

Fana/Fauna: Wife of Faunus. Also called Bona Dea, and often correlated with Maia. Goddess of the earth and of the fields, she was the goddess of fertility and was honored with a mysterious feast at the beginning ofdecember. This festivity was forbidden to men, and ended in an orgy. The exact day was the 19 of December. He was rabidly abolished by Christianity.

Jana: In Sardinia this name indicates a Witch-fairy-goddess who lived on the mountains.

Pertunda: Goddess of sexual love and sexual pleasure. She was invoked by the frigid women to get pleasure.

Tana: Dialectal for Diana, also used in several children games in northern Italy, i.e. in 'hide and seek', where she is invoked as " Tana libera tutti " (Tana frees all, -my favourite game when I was a child-). She is associated to freedom and stars.

Grazie (Roman deities): Goddesses of beauty and joy, and perhaps anciently of vegetation, they dwell on Mount Olympus and often sing in chorus with the Muses. They are known as the three sisters Euphrosine, Talia and Aglae, daughters of Jupiter and Eurinome: usually they are represented as three naked maidens who turn each other's back. Often they accompany Venus, Eros and Bacchus. For the Greeks they were known as the Cariti.  

Chere: They represent the Fate which follows every man since the moment of his birth, but particularly the kind of death which he must endure; and therefore during battles and wars they stand near the heroes at the moment of their death. They drink the blood of dead and wounded men, and wear a wide black cape spotted with blood. They are daughters of Nyx (the Night), and are often confused with other analogous deities like the Moires and the Erynis.

Uni: The oldest deity of the Witches.