
Greek God Family Tree
A family tree is a chart that shows the relationship between people or deities in a family over many generations. If you were creating a family tree of your own family, you might want to start with your parents. So the first row would be your two parents. Let's pretend that you had brothers and sisters. The next row down, under your parents, would be your brothers and sisters and you - your parents' kids. Then, let's pretend that some of your brothers and sisters got married and had kids of their own. Those kids, your nieces and nephews, would go on the next row down, under your brothers and sisters. That's only three generations, and already your chart is getting crowded.
Now, imagine that you were immortal and could live forever. That's what immortal means - live forever. According to the ancient Greek myths, the ancient Greek gods were immortal. They had lots of time to get married and divorced and have kids and grandkids and great-grandkids and more kids! It can get pretty confusing trying to figure out who is related to whom in the ancient Greek mythical world. For example, Hercules and Perseus were half-brothers. Their father was the mighty Zeus, king of all the gods, an immortal. Their mothers, however, were Greek women and not gods at all. But, according to some storytellers, Hercules was also the great-grandson of Perseus. So Hercules was the son of Zeus and the great-grandson/half-brother of Perseus who was also the son of Zeus. Try to chart that one!
There are many Greek god family tree charts online. Most are far more complicated than we need for our purposes. The chart below lists Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Hades, Hermes, Ares, Apollo, Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite. These students did a great job!
The ancient Greek women would want to include Hestia, Zeus' sister, the Goddess of Hearth and Home, because Hestia was very important to them. Demeter, Zeus' sister and Goddess of the Harvest, is very important as well. It's not easy selecting which gods to include on your Greek God Family Tree! Lots of gods and goddesses in the ancient Greek mythical world had very important jobs to do. But, for our purposes in 5th and 6th grade, if you start with Zeus, you want to include important and powerful gods and goddesses that are related to Zeus, but you don't need to include all his family members or your chart is going to be way too big!
The Greek God Family Tree (pictured above)
Big Family Tree of the Ancient Greek Gods

Explore Ancient Greece
For Kids: Overview
Early Greece: Minoans, Mycenaeans, Dorians
Rise of Greek City-States
- On Land: Greek Warriors
- At Sea: Greek Ships
- Trojan War
- Persian Wars
- The Delian League
- Peloponnesian War
- Alexander the Great
- The League of Corinth
Investigate Real Life Artifacts
For Kids: Art, Culture, Government
For Kids: Greek Mythology
Ancient Greek Myths for Kids, retold by Lin Donn
- Zeus, Hera, and Little Io
- The Competition, Athena and Poseidon
- Theseus, the Minotaur, and the Maze
- Dionysus and Ariadne
- Icarus and Daedalus, Wings
- The 12 Labors of Hercules
- Demeter and Persephone, Reason for the Seasons
- Apollo's Oracle at Delphi
- Perseus, Andromeda, and the sea god, Poseidon
- King Midas and the Donkey Ears
- And Many More
Ancient Greek Gods & Goddesses
For Kids: Ancient Greek Daily Life
NEW: From the Case Files of the Hercules Detective Agency: Join Herc and his friends as they solve daily life problems of the ancient Greeks
- The Misunderstood Minotaur - How Hercules made a best friend
- The Scaredly Fish
- The Tricked Bully
- The Stone Zoo
- The Bad Barber
- The Constant Chatterbox
- The Monster Under the Bridge
- The Festival Arrow
- The Amazing Matchmaker
- And many more, original short stories by Lin and Don Donn - learn about the ancient Greeks the easy way, through the case files of the Hercules Detective Agency!
For Kids: People
For Kids: Interactive Quizzes
Alexander the Great &
Gifts from the Greeks
For Teachers
For Kids and Teachers: Other Ancient Civilizations
See Also: Early Humans for Kids and Teachers