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Zeus

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(European mythology)

The supreme deity in Greek mythology— the usurping son of the Titans Kronos and Rhea. In the Theogony, written soon after 700 BC, Hesiod states that Zeus was ‘wise in counsel, father of gods and men, under whose thunder the broad earth quivers’. He defeated his father Kronos, and forced him to yield up not only his swallowed children, such as Poseidon and Hades, but also the imprisoned offspring of Ouranos, his grandfather. In gratitude the primeval Cyclopes presented Zeus with his powerful arms: thunder and lightning. The defeated Titans—the descendants of Ouranos and Gaia—Zeus confined in Tartarus, the realm beneath the underworld.

A composite figure, the sky god of the Greeks was active in the daily affairs of the world, but he was never looked upon as a creator deity. The origins of the world were far distant: they were entangled, Hesiod notes, in the myths concerning Ouranos, sky, and Gaia, earth. The ancient Greeks superimposed an Indo-European sky father cult on an indigenous Aegean tradition in which the earth goddess was very powerful, just as in India the Aryans submerged the Indus valley culture. Although the pre-Greek Hera survived as the wife of Zeus, it was he as Nephelegeretes, ‘the cloud gatherer’, who ruled over all things. His other names were Ombrios, ‘rain god’; Kataibates, ‘the descender’ Keraunos, ‘lightning’ Gamelios, ‘god of marriage’, Teleios, ‘giver of completeness’; Pater, ‘father’; and Soter, ‘saviour’, while Hades, the god of the dead, and Poseidon, the sea god, could be seen as extensions of Zeus' power in their special realms. They were given separate mythical forms, yet the writ of Olympian Zeus, ‘the wolfish’, Lykaios, ran everywhere, and he alone judged winners and losers. He also consorted with a string of goddesses, nymphs, and women, either to produce further offspring, like Apollo and Artemis, or to absorb the females' special powers. Despite Hera's jealousy and wrath, Zeus' illicit children remained the chief actors on the cosmic stage. Heracles was easily the most conspicuous single figure in Greek mythology.

Zeus even managed to subsume Cretan traditions in his personal myths. It was to this island that he was spirited away when Rhea gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the infant Zeus. Thither too he brought the Phoenician princess Europa when that maiden foolishly dared to mount him as a tame sea bull. In Crete she became, by Zeus, mother of Minos and other worthies. Another tradition in which Zeus played a crucial role was Orphism, a mystery religion of considerable popularity under the Romans. Here he was ‘the foundation of the earth and of the starry sky … male and immortal woman … the beginner of all things, the god with the dazzling light. For he has hidden all things within himself, and brought them forth again, into the joyful light, from his sacred heart, working marvels.’

Sixth-century BC Athenian vase representing the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, which Hephaistos has just split with an axe
Sixth-century BC Athenian vase representing the birth of Athena from the head of Zeus, which Hephaistos has just split with an axe

 
 
Who2 Biography: Zeus, Mythical Figure

  • Born: c. 700 B.C.
  • Birthplace: The Ether
  • Best Known As: Supreme ruler of the ancient Greek gods

Beginning around 700 B.C., stories by Homer and other Greek poets described the lives of powerful gods who involved themselves in human affairs. Supreme among these gods was Zeus, who inherited the heavens and earth after overthrowing his father, Cronus. Zeus ruled from Mt. Olympus, rewarding good and punishing evil (his most famous weapon was a thunderbolt) and manipulating human lives just to satisfy his own whims. He also liked the ladies, frequently dropping to earth for amorous adventures with nymphs and mortals. This was often a source of conflict with his wife, the powerful goddess Hera.

 
Dictionary: Zeus  (zūs) pronunciation
n. Greek Mythology.

The principal god of the Greek pantheon, ruler of the heavens, and father of other gods and mortal heroes.

[Greek.]

WORD HISTORY   Homer's Iliad calls him “Zeus who thunders on high” and Milton's Paradise Lost, “the Thunderer,” so it is surprising to learn that the Indo-European ancestor of Zeus was a god of the bright daytime sky. Zeus is a somewhat unusual noun in Greek, having both a stem Zēn– (as in the philosopher Zeno's name) and a stem Di– (earlier Diw–). In the Iliad prayers to Zeus begin with the vocative form Zeu pater, “o father Zeus.” Father Zeus was the head of the Greek pantheon; another ancient Indo-European society, the Romans, called the head of their pantheon Iūpiter or Iuppiter—Jupiter. The –piter part of his name is just a reduced form of pater, “father,” and Iū– corresponds to the Zeu in Greek: Iūpiter is therefore precisely equivalent to Zeu pater and could be translated “father Jove.” Jove itself is from Latin Iov–, the stem form of Iūpiter, an older version of which in Latin was Diov–, showing that the word once had a d as in Greek Diw–. An exact parallel to Zeus and Jupiter is found in the Sanskrit god addressed as Dyauṣ pitar: pitar is “father,” and dyauṣ means “sky.” We can equate Greek Zeu pater, Latin Iū-piter, and Sanskrit dyauṣ pitar and reconstruct an Indo-European deity, *Dyēus pəter, who was associated with the sky and addressed as “father.” Comparative philology has revealed that the “sky” word refers specifically to the bright daytime sky, as it is derived from the root meaning “to shine.” This root also shows up in Latin diēs “day,” borrowed into English in words like diurnal. • Closely related to these words is Indo-European *deiwos “god,” which shows up, among other places, in the name of the Old English god Tīw in Modern English Tuesday, “Tiw's day.” *Deiwos is also the source of Latin dīvus “pertaining to the gods,” whence English divine and the Italian operatic diva, and deus, “god,” whence deity.


 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Zeus

Zeus hurling a thunderbolt, bronze statuette from Dodona, Greece, early 5th century ; in the …
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Zeus hurling a thunderbolt, bronze statuette from Dodona, Greece, early 5th century ; in the … (credit: Courtesy of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Antikenabteilung)
In Greek religion, the chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god. His Roman counterpart was Jupiter. Zeus was regarded as the bearer of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was fated to dethrone his father. He divided dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. As ruler of heaven, Zeus led the gods to victory against the Titans. From his home atop Mount Olympus, he dispensed justice and served as protector. Known for his amorousness — a source of perpetual discord with his wife, Hera — he had many love affairs with mortal and immortal women, giving rise to numerous offspring, including Apollo, Ares, Artemis, Athena, Dionysus, Helen, Hephaestus, and Persephone. In art he was represented as a bearded, dignified, and mature man.

For more information on Zeus, visit Britannica.com.

 
Classical Literature Companion: Zeus

Zeus, in Greek myth and religion, the supreme god, the youngest (according to Homer the eldest) son of Cronus whom he overthrew and succeeded. His name indicates an Indo-European origin, being found in the Indic sky-god Dyaus pita, the Roman Jupiter, the German Tuesday, Latin deus, ‘god’, dies, ‘day’, and Greek eudia, ‘fine weather’. For the Greeks he is the god of weather rather than of the ‘bright sky’ of day. According to his Homeric epithets he is the cloudgatherer, the thunderer on high, hurler of thunderbolts. He was born in Crete, according to what is probably the oldest myth, or was born in Arcadia and brought to Crete, where he was hidden in a cave on Mount Dictē or Mount Ida and fed by the goat Amalthea. The Curētğs, in order to conceal him, drowned his cries by their noisy ritual. (The Cretans also had a peculiar myth of Zeus dead and buried.) After the overthrow of Cronus, Zeus and his brothers divided the universe by casting lots, Zeus obtaining the heavens, Poseidon the sea, and Hadēs the underworld. Zeus dwells on the tops of mountains where the storm clouds gather, on Mount Lycaeus in Arcadia, or Mount Ida near Troy, or on Mount Olympus, the highest mountain in northern Thessaly. The thunderbolt, which only he commands, signifies his irresistible power, over other gods as well as men, and it enabled him to defeat the Titans, the Giants, and Typhoeus. Thus it is Zeus who must be supplicated to grant victory in war. He is the protector of political freedom, Zeus Eleutherios (‘liberator’), or Sōtēr (‘saviour’), and festivals were instituted in his honour. After the Greek victory at Plataea in 479 BC (see PERSIAN WARS) a sanctuary for Zeus Eleutherios and the festival of the Eleutheria were instituted.

Zeus is the only Greek god to have as children other powerful gods, Apollo, Artemis, Hermēs, Dionysus, Athena, and Persephonē. By his wife Hera he was the father only of Arēs, Hebē, and Eileithyia. The mother of Athena, Mētis (Wisdom), was fated to have a second child more powerful than its father, and so Zeus swallowed her, thereafter combining supreme power and wisdom within himself. His mortal children included Heracles, Helen, Perseus, Epaphos, Minos, and the brothers Amphion and Zethus (see also DIOSCURI). Zeus is called ‘the father of gods and men’ and had perhaps been so addressed since Indo-European times, although he is not the father of all the gods and did not create men (for stories about the creation of men see DEUCALION and PROMETHEUS). Epithets added to his name indicate his particular roles: he is father in the sense of ruler and protector, defender of the house (Herkeios), of the hearth (Ephestios), of the rights of hospitality (Xenios and Hikēsios), of oaths (Horkios), and the guardian of property (Ktēsios), his image set up in the store room. He is also the protector of law and morals; in that capacity the poet Hesiod invokes him in Works and Days, and represents the goddess of justice, Dikē, as enthroned beside him. The impartiality of his judgements is represented by Homer in the Iliad in the image of Zeus holding golden scales in his hand; as Achilles and Hector fight, the fall of a pan indicates that Hector is doomed. Zeus has the power, if he wishes, to save Hector whom he loves, as he might have saved his own son Sarpedon, but it is men's ‘fate’ (moira) or ‘portion’ (aisa) to die, and Zeus does not overrule the apportionment (see FATE).

Zeus is also called Chthonios, ‘of the Earth’. Sometimes the phrase simply stands for Hades or Pluto, the god of the Underworld; the sky god is not meant. More often the phrase signifies Zeus whose all-embracing power extends into the earth as well, from whom the growth of crops is expected. Apart, however, from general overseership given by his position of supremacy, Zeus had little to do with the day to day concerns of men, war, agriculture, crafts, etc.; but the wide scope of his functions made him unique in his importance to all Greece. His festival at Olympia asserted his supreme position and the essential unity of all who worshipped him. To participate in his festival was to be a Hellene; the admission of the Macedonians and later of the Romans were events of great political significance. His universality, of which the beginnings are apparent in Aeschylus, paved the way for the later philosophical pantheism of the Stoics. He corresponds to, and was identified with, the Roman Jupiter.

 
Columbia Encyclopedia: Zeus
(zūs) , in Greek religion and mythology, son and successor of Kronos as supreme god. His mother, Rhea, immediately after his birth concealed him from Kronos, who, because he was fated to be overthrown by one of his children, ate all his offspring. Rhea gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes which he devoured immediately, not suspecting that the infant Zeus still lived. Later, Zeus tricked Kronos into disgorging his brothers and sisters and led them in a successful revolt against their father (see Titan). When lots were cast to divide the universe, the underworld went to Hades, the sea to Poseidon, and the heavens and earth to Zeus. Zeus was an amorous god. His first mate was probably Dione, but his official consort was his sister, Hera, who bore him Ares and Hebe. Zeus also loved Themis, Eurynome, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, and Maia and fathered many gods. Famous among his mortal loves were Danaë, Leda, Semele, Thetis, Io, and Europa. His sons sired from mortal wives include Hercules, Dardanus, and Amphitryon. He was also the father of Athena, who was said to have sprung from his head. Supreme among the gods, Zeus, ruling from his court on Mt. Olympus, was the symbol of power, rule, and law. As the father god and the upholder of morality, he rewarded the good and punished the evil. The root meaning of Zeus is “bright” or “sky,” and in this sense he was god of weather and fertility. Thus he was worshiped in connection with almost every aspect of life. The most famous weapon of Zeus was the thunderbolt, but, according to some legends, he also possessed the aegis. The Romans equated Zeus with their own supreme god, Jupiter (or Jove).

Bibliography

See A. B. Cook, Zeus (3 vol., 1914–40).

 
Devil's Dictionary: zeus
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

The chief of Grecian gods, adored by the Romans as Jupiter and by the modern Americans as God, Gold, Mob and Dog. Some explorers who have touched upon the shores of America, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these four names stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on Surviving Faiths, Frumpp insists that the natives are monotheists, each having no other god than himself, whom he worships under many sacred names.

 
Wikipedia: Zeus
The Statue of Zeus at OlympiaPhidias created the 40ft (12m) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving
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The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
Phidias created the 40ft (12m) tall statue of Zeus at Olympia about 435 BC. The statue was perhaps the most famous sculpture in Ancient Greece, imagined here in a 16th century engraving

Zeus (in Greek: nominative: Ζεύς Zeús, genitive: Διός Diós) in Greek mythology is the king of the gods, the ruler of Mount Olympus, and god of the sky and thunder. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull and the oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical Zeus also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently envisaged by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward, a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was the youngest of his siblings. He was married to Hera in most traditions, although at the oracle of Dodona his consort was Dione: according to the Iliad, he is the father of Aphrodite by Dione. Accordingly, he is known for his erotic escapades, including one pederastic relationship with Ganymede. His trysts resulted in many famous offspring, including Athena, Apollo and Artemis, Hermes, Persephone (by Demeter), Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen, Minos, and the Muses (by Mnemosyne); by Hera he is usually said to have sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus.

His Roman counterpart was Jupiter, and his Etruscan counterpart was Tinia.

Cult of Zeus

Panhellenic cults of Zeus

The major center at which all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief god was Olympia. The quadrennial festival there featured the famous Games. There was also an altar to Zeus made not of stone, but of ash - from the accumulated remains of many centuries' worth of animals sacrificed there.

Outside of the major inter-polis sanctuaries, there were no exact modes of worshipping Zeus that were shared across the Greek world. Most of the above titles, for instance, could be found at any number of Greek temples from Asia Minor to Sicily. Certain modes of ritual were held in common as well: sacrificing a white animal over a raised altar, for instance.

Colossal seated Marnas from Gaza portrayed in the style of Zeus. Marnas[1][2][3] was the chief divinity of Gaza. Roman period Istanbul Archaeology Museum)
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Colossal seated Marnas from Gaza portrayed in the style of Zeus. Marnas[1][2][3] was the chief divinity of Gaza. Roman period Istanbul Archaeology Museum)
Bust of Zeus in the British Museum
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Bust of Zeus in the British Museum

History

Zeus, poetically referred to by the vocative Zeu pater ("O, father Zeus"), is a continuation of *Di̯ēus, the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr ("Sky Father").[1] The god is known under this name in Sanskrit (cf. Dyaus/Dyaus Pita), Latin (cf. Jupiter, from Iuppiter, deriving from the PIE vocative *dyeu-ph2tēr[2]), deriving from the basic form *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").[1] And in Germanic and Norse mythology (cf. *Tīwaz > OHG Ziu, ON Týr), together with Latin deus, dīvus and Dis(a variation of dīves[3]), from the related noun *deiwos.[3] To the Greeks and Romans, the god of the sky was also the supreme god, whereas this function was filled out by Odin among the Germanic tribes. Accordingly, they did not identify Zeus/Jupiter with either Tyr or Odin, but with Thor (Þórr). Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.[4]

Role and epithets

Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over the Greek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and heroines and was featured in many of their stories. Though the Homeric "cloud collector" was the god of the sky and thunder like his Near-Eastern counterparts, he was also the supreme cultural artifact; in some senses, he was the embodiment of Greek religious beliefs and the archetypal Greek deity.

The epithets or titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority:

  • Zeus Olympios emphasized Zeus's kingship over both the gods and the Panhellenic festival at Olympia.
  • A related title was Zeus Panhellenios, ('Zeus of all the Hellenes') to whom Aeacus' famous temple on Aegina was dedicated.
  • As Zeus Xenios, Zeus was the patron of hospitality and guests, ready to avenge any wrong done to a stranger.
  • As Zeus Horkios, he was the keeper of oaths. Liars who were exposed were made to dedicate a statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary of Olympia.
  • As Zeus Agoraios, Zeus watched over business at the agora, and punished dishonest traders.
  • As Zeus Aegiduchos or Aegiochos he was the bearer of the Aegis with which he strikes terror into the impious and his enemies.[5][6][7] Others derive this epithet from αίξ ("goat") and οχή, and take it as an allusion to the legend of Zeus' suckling at the breast of Amalthea.[8][9]
  • As Zeus Meilichios, "Easy-to-be-entreated", he subsumed an archaic chthonic daimon propitiated in Athens, Meilichios.

Some local Zeus-cults

In addition to the Panhellenic titles and conceptions listed above, local cults maintained their own idiosyncratic ideas about the king of gods and men. A few examples are listed below.

Cretan Zeus

On Crete, Zeus was worshipped at a number of caves at Knossos, Ida and Palaikastro. The stories of Minos and Epimenides suggest that these caves were once used for incubatory divination by kings and priests. The dramatic setting of Plato's Laws is along the pilgrimage-route to one such site, emphasizing archaic Cretan knowledge. On Crete, Zeus was represented in art as a long-haired youth rather than a mature adult, and hymned as ho megas kouros "the great youth". With the Kouretes, a band of ecstatic armed dancers, he presided over the rigorous military-athletic training and secret rites of the Cretan paideia.

The Hellenistic writer Euhemerus apparently proposed a theory that Zeus had actually been a great king of Crete and that posthumously his glory had slowly turned him into a deity. The works of Euhemerism have not survived, but Christian patristic writers took up the suggestion with enthusiasm.

Zeus Lykaios in Arcadia

For more details on this topic, see Lykaia.

The epithet Lykaios ("wolf-Zeus") is assumed by Zeus only in connection with the archaic festival of the Lykaia on the slopes of Mount Lykaion ("Wolf Mountain"), the tallest peak in rustic Arcadia; Zeus had only a formal connection[10] with the rituals and myths of this primitive rite of passage with an ancient threat of cannibalism and the possibility of a werewolf transformation for the ephebes who were the participants.[11] Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place[12] was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast.[13] According to Plato (Republic 565d-e), a particular clan would gather on the mountain to make a sacrifice every nine years to Zeus Lykaios, and a single morsel of human entrails would be intermingled with the animal's. Whoever ate the human flesh was said to turn into a wolf, and could only regain human form if he did not eat again of human flesh until the next nine-year cycle had ended. There were games associated with the Lykaia, removed in the fourth century to the first urbanization of Arcadia, Megalopolis; there the major temple was dedicated to Zeus Lykaios.

Apollo, too had an archaic wolf-form, Apollo Lycaeus, worshipped in Athens at the Lykeion, or Lyceum, which was made memorable as the site where Aristotle walked and taught.

Subterranean Zeus

Although etymology indicates that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek cities honored a local Zeus, who lived underground. Athenians and Sicilians honored Zeus Meilichios ("kindly" or "honeyed") while other cities had Zeus Chthonios ("earthy"), Katachthonios ("under-the-earth) and Plousios ("wealth-bringing"). These deities might be represented indifferently as snakes or men in visual art. They also received offerings of black animal victims sacrificed into sunken pits, as did chthonic deities like Persephone and Demeter, and also the heroes at their tombs. Olympian gods, by contrast, usually received white victims sacrificed upon raised altars.

In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether the daimon to whom they sacrificed was a hero or an underground Zeus. Thus the shrine at Lebadaea in Boeotia might belong to the hero Trophonius or to Zeus Trephonius ("the nurturing"), depending on whether you believe Pausanias or Strabo. The hero Amphiaraus was honored as Zeus Amphiaraus at Oropus outside of Thebes, and the Spartans even had a shrine to Zeus Agamemnon.


Oracles of Zeus

Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to Apollo, the heroes, or various goddesses like Themis, a few oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus.

The Oracle at Dodona

The cult of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, where there is evidence of religious activity from the 2nd millennium BC onward, centered around a sacred oak. When the Odyssey was composed (circa 750 BC), divination was done there by barefoot priests called Selloi, who lay on the ground and observed the rustling of the leaves and branches (Odyssey 14.326-7). By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodona, female priestesses called peleiades ("doves") had replaced the male priests.

Zeus' consort at Dodona was not Hera, but the goddess Dione — whose name is a feminine form of "Zeus". Her status as a titaness suggests to some that she may have been a more powerful pre-Hellenic deity, and perhaps the original occupant of the oracle.

The Oracle at Siwa

The oracle of Ammon at the oasis of Siwa in the Western Desert of Egypt did not lie within the bounds of the Greek world before Alexander's day, but it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the archaic era: Herodotus mentions consultations with Zeus Ammon in his account of the Persian War. Zeus Ammon was especially favored at Sparta, where a temple to him existed by the time of the Peloponnesian War (Pausanias 3.18).

After Alexander made a trek into the desert to consult the oracle at Siwa, the figure arose of a Libyan Sibyl.

Other oracles of Zeus

The chthonic Zeuses (or heroes) Trophonius and Amphiaraus were both said to give oracles at the cult-sites.

Zeus and foreign gods

Zeus was equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter and associated in the syncretic classical imagination (see interpretatio graeca) with various other deities, such as the Egyptian Ammon and the Etruscan Tinia. He (along with Dionysus) absorbed the role of the chief Phrygian god Sabazios in the syncretic deity known in Rome as Sabazius.

Zeus in myth

The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church
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The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879 Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church

Birth

Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon, but swallowed them all as soon as they were born, since he had learned from Gaia and Uranus that he was destined to be overcome by his own son as he had overthrown his own father— an oracle that Zeus was to hear and avert. But when Zeus was about to be born, Rhea sought Gaia to devise a plan to save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus and his own children. Rhea gave birth to Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.

Infancy

Rhea hid Zeus in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete. According to varying versions of the story:

  1. He was then raised by Gaia.
  2. He was raised by a goat named Amalthea, while a company of Kouretes— soldiers, or smaller gods— danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would not hear the baby's cry. (See cornucopia.)
  3. He was raised by a nymph named Adamanthea. Since Cronus ruled over the Earth, the heavens and the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope from a tree so he was suspended between earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible to his father.
  4. He was raised by a nymph named Cynosura. In gratitude, Zeus placed her among the stars.
  5. He was raised by Melissa, who nursed him with goat's-milk and honey.
  6. He was raised by a shepherd family under the promise that their sheep would be saved from wolves.

Zeus becomes king of the gods

After reaching manhood, Zeus forced Cronus to disgorge first the stone (which was set down at Pytho under the glens of Parnassus to be a sign to mortal men, the Omphalos) then his siblings in reverse order of swallowing. In some versions, Metis gave Cronus an emetic to force him to disgorge the babies, or Zeus cut Cronus' stomach open. Then Zeus released the brothers of Cronus, the Gigantes, the Hecatonchires and the Cyclopes, from their dungeon in Tartarus (The Titans; he killed their guard, Campe. As gratitude, the Cyclopes gave him thunder and the thunderbolt, or lightning, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.) Together, Zeus and his brothers and sisters, along with the Gigantes, Hecatonchires and Cyclopes overthrew Cronus and the other Titans, in the combat called the Titanomachy. The defeated Titans were then cast into a shadowy underworld region known as Tartarus. Atlas, one of the titans that fought against Zeus, was punished by having to hold up the sky.

After the battle with the Titans, Zeus shared the world with his elder brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus got the sky and air, Poseidon the waters, and Hades the world of the dead (the underworld). The ancient Earth, Gaia, could not be claimed; she was left to all three, each according to their capabilities, which explains why Poseidon was the "earth-shaker" (the god of earthquakes) and Hades claimed the humans that died. (See also: Penthus)

Gaia resented the way Zeus had treated the Titans, because they were her children. Soon after taking the throne as king of the gods, Zeus had to fight some of Gaia's other children, the monsters Typhon and Echidna. He vanquished Typhon and trapped him under a mountain, but left Echidna and her children alive.

Zeus and Hera

Zeus was brother and consort of Hera. By Hera, Zeus sired Ares, Hebe and Hephaestus, though some accounts say that Hera produced these offspring alone. Some also include Eileithyia as their daughter. The conquests of Zeus among nymphs and the mythic mortal progenitors of Hellenic dynasties are famous. Olympian mythography even credits him with unions with Leto, Demeter, Dione and Maia.

Among the mortals: Semele, Io, Europa and Leda. (For more details, see below).

Many myths renders Hera as jealous of his amorous conquests and a consistent enemy of Zeus' mistresses and their children by him. For a time, a nymph named Echo had the job of distracting Hera from his affairs by incessantly talking: when Hera discovered the deception, she cursed Echo to repeat the words of others.

Consorts and children

*The Greeks variously claimed that the Fates were the daughters of Zeus and the Titaness Themis or of primordial beings like Nyx, Chaos or Ananke.

Zeus miscellany

  • Zeus turned Pandareus to stone for stealing the golden dog which had guarded him as an infant in the holy Dictaeon Cave of Crete.
  • Zeus killed Salmoneus with a thunderbolt for attempting to impersonate him, riding around in a bronze chariot and loudly imitating thunder.
  • Zeus turned Periphas into an eagle after his death, as a reward for being righteous and just.
  • At the marriage of Zeus and Hera, a nymph named Chelone refused to attend. Zeus transformed her into a tortoise (chelone in Greek).
  • Zeus, with Hera, turned King Haemus and Queen Rhodope into mountains (the Balkan mountains, or Stara Planina, and Rhodope mountains, respectively) for their vanity.
  • Zeus condemned Tantalus to eternal torture in Tartarus for trying to trick the gods into eating the flesh of his butchered son.
  • Zeus condemned Ixion to be tied to a fiery wheel for eternity as punishment for attempting to violate Hera.
  • Zeus sunk the Telchines beneath the sea for blighting the earth with their fell magics.
  • Zeus blinded the seer Phineus and sent the Harpies to plague him as punishment for revealing the secrets of the gods.
  • Zeus rewarded Tiresias with a life three times the norm as reward for ruling in his favour when he and Hera contested which of the sexes gained the most pleasure from the act of love.
  • Zeus punished Hera by having her hung upside down from the sky when she attempted to drown Heracles in a storm.
  • Of all the children Zeus spawned, Heracles was often described as his favorite. Indeed, Heracles was often called by various gods and people as "the favorite son of Zeus", Zeus and Heracles were very close and in one story, where a tribe of earth-born Giants threatened Olympus and the Oracle at Delphi decreed that only the combined efforts of a lone god and mortal could stop the creature, Zeus chose Heracles to fight by his side. They proceeded to defeat the monsters.
  • His sacred bird was the golden eagle, which he kept by his side at all times. Like him, the eagle was a symbol of strength, courage, and justice.
  • His favourite tree was the oak, symbol of strength. Olive trees were also sacred to him.
  • Zelus, Nike, Cratos and Bia were Zeus' retinue.

Spoken-word myths - audio files

Zeus Myths as told by story tellers
1. Zeus and Tantalus, (including Pelops and Poseidon episode), read by Timothy Carter
Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Odyssey, 11.567 (7th c. BC); Pindar, Olympian Odes, 1 (476 BC); Euripides, Orestes, 12-16 (408 BC); Apollodorus, Epitomes 2: 1-9 (140 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI: 213, 458 (AD 8); Hyginus, Fables, 82: Tantalus; 83: Pelops (1st c. AD); Pausanias, Description of Greece, 2.22.3 (AD 160 - 176)
2. Zeus and Ganymede, read by Timothy Carter
Bibliography of reconstruction: Homer, Iliad 5.265ff; 20.215-235 (700 BC); Anonymous, Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite 202ff. (7th c. BC); Sophocles, The Colchian Women (after Athenaeus, 602) (b. 495 - d. 406 BC); Euripides, Iphigenia in Aulis (410 BC); Apollodorus, Library and Epitome iii.12.2 (140 BC); Diodorus Siculus, Histories 4.75.3 (1st c. BC); Virgil, Aeneid 5. 252 - 260 (19 BC); Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.155ff. (AD 1 - 8); Hyginus, Poetica Astronomica

See also

In popular culture

  • In the computer game Zeus: Master of Olympus, Zeus is one of the gods to whom the player can build a temple. His temple includes an oracle which may periodically be consulted for advice, and Zeus's presence in the city means that attacks from any other god will be instantly thwarted.
  • Zeus was a recurring character in the series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and, less frequently, in Xena: Warrior Princess.
  • Like the rest of the Greek pantheon, he appeared in the Disney animated feature Hercules. The storyline took extensive liberties with the Hercules legend, such as making Hercules the son of Zeus and Hera.
  • Zeus appears in both God of War video games. In the first God of War video game, he gives the main character Kratos the ability to fire thunderbolts and also appears as a gravedigger. In God of War II, he offers Kratos the Blade of Olympus in which he kills him after his Godly powers have been drained. It is soon revealed that Kratos is Zeus' son in which Kratos wages war against Zeus by going back in time to bring the Titans to the present time to face the Olympians.
  • In the WarCraft 3 most popular modification DotA Allstars, Zeus is a popular and commonly-used playable hero.

References

  1. ^ a b American Heritage® Dictionary: Zeus. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  2. ^ On;ojhjkhoughohghygygyghyghiyugoiugighoipooooooooooooopline Etymology Dictionary: Jupiter. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  3. ^ a b American Heritage® Dictionary: dyeu. Retrieved on 2006-07-03.
  4. ^ Burkert (1985). Greek Religion, 321. 
  5. ^ Homer, Iliad i. 202, ii. 157, 375, &c.
  6. ^ Pindar, Isthmian Odes iv. 99
  7. ^ Hyginus, Poetical Astronomy ii. 13
  8. ^ Spanh. ad Callim. hymn. in Jov, 49
  9. ^ Schmitz, Leonhard (1867), "Aegiduchos", in Smith, William, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, vol. 1, Boston, pp. 26
  10. ^ In the founding myth of Lycaon's banquet for the gods that included the flesh of a human sacrifice, perhaps one of his sons, Nyctimus or ArcasZeus overturned the table and struck the house of Lyceus with a thunderbolt; his patronage at the Lykaia can have been little more than a formula.
  11. ^ A morphological connection to lyke "brightness" may be merely fortuitous.