The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word OLYMPIAN
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
O
L
Y
M
P
I
A
N
More clues leading to the result OLYMPIAN
- Athlete soft spoken old Scotsman entertains
- Dweller on mountain, one seeking gold in 10 24 down
- Godlike, round, soft-spoken Scotsman
- Great God — preposterous palimony!
- Sporting god secured by the rack, or somehow enslaved?
- Elite athlete‘s cunning main ploy
- Moily initially persuaded and moved to accept an outstanding athlete
- Say, Leander Paes is against alimony, with Pillai beginning to fight
- World-class athlete's palimony amendment
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Great God" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case great god = olympian.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.