One group of protogenoi (primordial gods) were the Ourea, the gods of mountains. They are the sons and daughters of Gaia, brothers and sisters of the Potamoi, gods of rivers and streams.
Theoi.com describes the Ourea as "old, bearded men partially emerged from between a pair of crags," though Ourea could also be goddesses, such as Aitna in Sicily. In his Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the mountain god Tmolos "On his mountain top the judge was seated; from his ears he freed the forest trees; only a wreath of oak fringed his green locks, with acorns dangling round his hollow temples."
And Gaia first bore starry Ouranos, equal to herself, to cover her on every side. And she brought forth long Ourea, graceful haunts of the goddess Nymphai who dwell amongst the glens of the mountains. She bare also the fruitless deep with his raging swell, Pontos, without sweet union of love.
He [Orpheus] sang of that past age when Gaia and Ouranos and Pontos were knit together in a single mould; how they were sundered after deadly strife; how the Astra, Selene, and travelling Helios keep faithfully to their stations in the heavens; how the Ourea rose; and how, together with ther Nymphai, the murmuring Potamoi and all four-legged creatures came to be.
-Argonautica 1.498, Apollonius Rhodes
Like most of the theoi, the Ourea often seem enamoured by songs and music in myth; Kithairon and Helikon competed in a music contest, Helicon was so beguiled by the music of the Mousai that he grew taller and taller until Pegasus struck his summit, and Olympos in Phrygia (Mount Uludağ, Turkey, not the home of the gods) was an inventor of the flute and father to the flute-playing Satyroi.
In the Hellenistic era, each mountain was said to have its own Oread, a mountain nymph. One such nymph was Echo, who protected Zeus against Hera's inquiries and was condemned to only speak the last words spoken to her. The Oreades were often associated with Artemis since they dwelled in her preferred hunting grounds.
Zeus is most commonly associated with mountains and has several sanctuaries dedicated to him atop their peaks. Few if any sanctuaries were ever built at the summits for the mountains themselves.
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