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Glite Dictionary
Twelve Olympians

Twelve Olympians

7.0
The main gods in Greek myths who live on Mount Olympus after the defeat of the Titans
  • proper noun
  • Literature
translation icon : Doce Olímpicos
  • The Twelve Olympians, including Zeus and Hera, are central figures in Greek mythology.

Examples

  • Worshippers built temples to honor the Twelve Olympians and seek their favor.

  • Rhea hooks up with Cronus to beget seven offspring, who form a gang with five other gods to become the original twelve Olympians.

    Blog text (30)

  • Many ancient stories feature the Twelve Olympians ruling from their home on Mount Olympus.

Surface Forms

Twelve Olympians main

Morphology

twelve + Olympian

The phrase is a straightforward numeral + noun composition: 'twelve' specifies the quantity and 'Olympian' (a principal Greek god of Olympus) names the class, so together they denote the group of the twelve principal gods. This follows normal English noun phrase composition and is cross‑linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand the meaning.

Etymology

Twelve Olympians comes from ancient Greek stories where twelve powerful gods lived together on Mount Olympus, the gods' home on a high mountain. Because of this image of a group of twelve gods living on the mountain, the phrase came to mean 'the main gods' in Greek myth.