Genealogy of the Olympians
The abduction of Europa
Olympian assembly, from left to right: Apollo, Zeus and Hera
The "Golden Man" Zeus statue
Enthroned Zeus (Greek, c. 100 BC) - modeled after the Olympian Zeus by Pheidas (c. 430 BC)
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Powers and Abilities[]
Zeus is an Elder God and the most powerful of his siblings, and his own children. The only two that were close to him in power were his older brothers, Hades and Poseidon. Also as king of the Gods within his Pantheon he holds great power.
Atmokinesis: Zeus was the God of the Skies, he has absolute control over the weather and storms.
Aerokinesis: Zeus was the god of Air. As the god of the sky, Zeus has absolute control over air. can manipulate and control or create wind and air, such as air waves, air currents, air structures, air pressure, clouds, tornadoes, storms, and altogether air bending. Other abilities include, being able to see and use air magic and the ability to influence and control the minds of air/wind spirits.
◾He can manipulate clouds and any other air structures. In Percy Jackson's Greek Gods, Zeus even made a living replica of Hera out of a cloud, which King Ixion later seduced.
◾He can generate wind.
◾He can generate incredibly powerful hurricanes and tornadoes.
◾Zeus opened his mouth, and sucked Metis in with a mini-tornado.
◾He can manipulate air currents and fly
Electrokinesis/ Thunderbolts: Thunderbolts were Zeus's weapons and that was one of the main reasons he was so powerful.As the god of Thunder and Lightning, Zeus has absolute control over both static and celestial electricity.
◾He is immune to lightning.
◾He can generate tremendous bolts of lightning.
◾He can send static shock through the bodies of others on contact.
Gamakinesis: Zeus was the god who controlled life-force in mortal organisms. He gained that control from Phanes, the Protagenos of Life-force.
Massive Strength: Zeus was stronger than all the lesser gods combined. Only Poseidon and Hades rivalled him. Zeus has incredible physical powers, he is mentioned being able to hurl entire mountains at his enemies. Most notably, Zeus was able to crush and imprison Typhon himself by hurling Mount Etna on top of him. Also, when Hephaestus angered him, Zeus easily overpowered him, and flung him all the way from Mount Olympus to Lemnos.
Shapeshifting: Many women were seduced by Zeus using shapeshifting. Zeus has frequently transformed himself in order to seduce those that he would fall in love with. Zeus has transformed himself into a bull (to woo Europa), an eagle (to woo Ganymede), a swan (to woo Leda), a cuckoo (to woo Hera), an ant (to woo Eurymedousa), a serpent (to woo Demeter), Artemis (to woo Callisto), and even a shower of gold (to woo Danae). Zeus could also transform into a "Titanic" version of himself, while he was posing as Kronos' royal cup bearer.
The Master Bolt: When Zeus freed the Cyclopes, they forged him the Master Bolt, which along with Poseidon's Trident and Hades's Helmet, was one of the greatest weapons in existence. The Master Bolt was the original and the most powerful thunderbolt. It could create more thunderbolts and electricity; shake the earth; boil the oceans; dry freshwater bodies and wipe out entire human and animal populations. When hurled, it could split into several lightning bolts, creating a thunderstorm. The Master Bolt was powerful enough to hurl Kronos from his throne, shear the summit of Etna and raze entire cities to oblivion. His most powerful weapon, the Master Bolt, is incredibly powerful, easily making a hydrogen bomb look like a firecracker in comparison. When Zeus throws it at Typhon, the blast "lights up the world", and mortals can feel the shock-wave hundreds of miles away. Zeus used his Master Bolt to raze the entire city of Salmonia to oblivion after Salmoneus pretended to be Zeus.
Justice: As the god of justice and honor, Zeus maintains control over the other Olympian gods by preventing their feuds from entering huge proportions and ensures the overall order of the world by handing down and enforcing justice. Gods that submitted to being under Zeus' authority were associated with him and thus with mortal worshipers, thus Zeus needed to be accepted as the final word on divine laws if a god wanted a majority of mortal worshipers. A good example is when Zeus assembles the first ever Olympian trial for the murder of Poseidon's son Halirrhothius by Ares, with Zeus himself as the Chief Justice. As a result, Ares is justly acquitted.
(Hades, Hecate and Rhea are some of the only deities not subject Zeus's authority and thus Zeus could not subvert/reign-in Death, mortal-spells or worship of one of the last Titans.)
Aegis: Zeus's shield and breastplate set. It was created from the impregnable skin of the divine goat Amaltheia, who had nursed Zeus since birth. Athena covered it in bronze and set the image of Medusa. The face terrified Zeus's enemies and when Zeus shook the shield, it created thunderstorms. The Aegis was so tough, it was the only defense against Zeus's Master Bolt.
Power over the Lesser Gods: Zeus holds power over his children and his siblings children, and a small degree over his own siblings able to bend them to his will.
Semi-Omniscience: Zeus could see the world below him but not in a complete detail. It was like "seeing the forest but not the Trees in particular".
Titan Abilities: After defeating the Titans, Zeus gained their powers. Zeus could control Day and Night, summon the Sun and Moon, command Influential Power and control the effects of time.
Zeus is seen as brave, easy going and charismatic but also perverted and egocentric. Though Zeus's machismo and womanizing were admirable traits in ancient days in modern times Zeus is seen as just plain perverted because of the evolution of morality over the years. Because of the change in acceptable social moires (Zeus has changed from the embodiment of heroic to an infamous anti-hero). Zeus got into many fights with his siblings who were the only gods considered on par with him and thus not completely subject to his authority. Poseidon in particular would get into many squabbles over power with Zeus. Zeus would cheat on his second wife Hera many times and most of the affairs were not continual and Zeus frequently assumed the form of other men to have his way with attractive women, and on one occasion a man. Regardless of character flaws Zeus is consider one of the most iconic gods of the ancient world and a hero of primordial man well into the golden age of history.
Zeus in Clash of Titans remake, portrayed by Liam Neeson.
Greek god of the sky and king of the gods
Zeus (, Ancient Greek: Ζεύς)[a] is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion and mythology, who rules as king of the gods on Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first syllable of his Roman equivalent Jupiter.[2]
Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Eileithyia, Hebe, and Hephaestus.[3][4] At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione,[5] by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite.[8] According to the Theogony, Zeus's first wife was Metis, by whom he had Athena.[9] Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many divine and heroic offspring, including Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.[3]
He was respected as a sky father who was chief of the gods[10] and assigned roles to the others:[11] "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."[12][13] He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".[14] Zeus's symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" (Greek: Νεφεληγερέτα, Nephelēgereta)[15] also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter.
The god's name in the nominative is Ζεύς (Zeús). It is inflected as follows: vocative: Ζεῦ (Zeû); accusative: Δία (Día); genitive: Διός (Diós); dative: Διί (Dií). Diogenes Laërtius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name Ζάς.[16] The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek 𐀇𐀸, di-we (dative) and 𐀇𐀺, di-wo (genitive), written in the Linear B syllabic script.[17]
Zeus is the Greek continuation of *[[Dyeus|Di̯ēus]], the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr ("Sky Father").[18][19] The god is known under this name in the Rigveda (Vedic Sanskrit Dyaus/Dyaus Pita), Latin (compare Jupiter, from Iuppiter, deriving from the Proto-Indo-European vocative *dyeu-ph2tēr),[20] deriving from the root *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").[18] Albanian Zoj-z and Messapic Zis are clear equivalents and cognates of Zeus. In the Greek, Albanian, and Messapic forms the original cluster *di̯ underwent affrication to *dz.[21][22] Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.[23]
Plato, in his Cratylus, gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always to all things", because of puns between alternate titles of Zeus (Zen and Dia) with the Greek words for life and "because of".[24] This etymology, along with Plato's entire method of deriving etymologies, is not supported by modern scholarship.[25][26]
Diodorus Siculus wrote that Zeus was also called Zen, because the humans believed that he was the cause of life (zen).[27] While Lactantius wrote that he was called Zeus and Zen, not because he is the giver of life, but because he was the first who lived of the children of Cronus.[28]
Zeus was called by numerous alternative names or surnames, known as epithets. Some epithets are the surviving names of local gods who were consolidated into the myth of Zeus.[29]
In Hesiod's Theogony (c. 730 – 700 BC), Cronus, after castrating his father Uranus,[30] becomes the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and weds his sister Rhea, by whom he begets three daughters and three sons: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, and lastly, "wise" Zeus, the youngest of the six.[31] He swallows each child as soon as they are born, having received a prophecy from his parents, Gaia and Uranus, that one of his own children is destined to one day overthrow him as he overthrew his father.[32] This causes Rhea "unceasing grief",[33] and upon becoming pregnant with her sixth child, Zeus, she approaches her parents, Gaia and Uranus, seeking a plan to save her child and bring retribution to Cronus.[34] Following her parents' instructions, she travels to Lyctus in Crete, where she gives birth to Zeus,[35] handing the newborn child over to Gaia for her to raise, and Gaia takes him to a cave on Mount Aegaeon (Aegeum).[36] Rhea then gives to Cronus, in the place of a child, a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallows, unaware that it is not his son.[37]
While Hesiod gives Lyctus as Zeus's birthplace, he is the only source to do so,[38] and other authors give different locations. The poet Eumelos of Corinth (8th century BC), according to John the Lydian, considered Zeus to have been born in Lydia,[39] while the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (c. 310 – c. 240 BC), in his Hymn to Zeus, says that he was born in Arcadia.[40] Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) seems at one point to give Mount Ida as his birthplace, but later states he is born in Dicte,[41] and the mythographer Apollodorus (first or second century AD) similarly says he was born in a cave in Dicte.[42]
While the Theogony says nothing of Zeus's upbringing other than that he grew up swiftly,[44] other sources provide more detailed accounts. According to Apollodorus, Rhea, after giving birth to Zeus in a cave in Dicte, gives him to the nymphs Adrasteia and Ida, daughters of Melisseus, to nurse.[45] They feed him on the milk of the she-goat Amalthea,[46] while the Kouretes guard the cave and beat their spears on their shields so that Cronus cannot hear the infant's crying.[47] Diodorus Siculus provides a similar account, saying that, after giving birth, Rhea travels to Mount Ida and gives the newborn Zeus to the Kouretes,[48] who then takes him to some nymphs (not named), who raised him on a mixture of honey and milk from the goat Amalthea.[49] He also refers to the Kouretes "rais[ing] a great alarum", and in doing so deceiving Cronus,[50] and relates that when the Kouretes were carrying the newborn Zeus that the umbilical cord fell away at the river Triton.[51]
Hyginus, in his Fabulae, relates a version in which Cronus casts Poseidon into the sea and Hades to the Underworld instead of swallowing them. When Zeus is born, Hera (also not swallowed), asks Rhea to give her the young Zeus, and Rhea gives Cronus a stone to swallow.[52] Hera gives him to Amalthea, who hangs his cradle from a tree, where he is not in heaven, on earth or in the sea, meaning that when Cronus later goes looking for Zeus, he is unable to find him.[53] Hyginus also says that Ida, Althaea, and Adrasteia, usually considered the children of Oceanus, are sometimes called the daughters of Melisseus and the nurses of Zeus.[54]
According to a fragment of Epimenides, the nymphs Helike and Kynosura are the young Zeus's nurses. Cronus travels to Crete to look for Zeus, who, to conceal his presence, transforms himself into a snake and his two nurses into bears.[55] According to Musaeus, after Zeus is born, Rhea gives him to Themis. Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who owns a she-goat, which nurses the young Zeus.[56]
Antoninus Liberalis, in his Metamorphoses, says that Rhea gives birth to Zeus in a sacred cave in Crete, full of sacred bees, which become the nurses of the infant. While the cave is considered forbidden ground for both mortals and gods, a group of thieves seek to steal honey from it. Upon laying eyes on the swaddling clothes of Zeus, their bronze armour "split[s] away from their bodies", and Zeus would have killed them had it not been for the intervention of the Moirai and Themis; he instead transforms them into various species of birds.[57]
According to the Theogony, after Zeus reaches manhood, Cronus is made to disgorge the five children and the stone "by the stratagems of Gaia, but also by the skills and strength of Zeus", presumably in reverse order, vomiting out the stone first, then each of the five children in the opposite order to swallowing.[59] Zeus then sets up the stone at Delphi, so that it may act as "a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men".[60] Zeus next frees the Cyclopes, who, in return, and out of gratitude, give him his thunderbolt, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.[61] Then begins the Titanomachy, the war between the Olympians, led by Zeus, and the Titans, led by Cronus, for control of the universe, with Zeus and the Olympians fighting from Mount Olympus, and the Titans fighting from Mount Othrys.[62] The battle lasts for ten years with no clear victor emerging, until, upon Gaia's advice, Zeus releases the Hundred-Handers, who (similarly to the Cyclopes) were imprisoned beneath the Earth's surface.[63] He gives them nectar and ambrosia and revives their spirits,[64] and they agree to aid him in the war.[65] Zeus then launches his final attack on the Titans, hurling bolts of lightning upon them while the Hundred-Handers attack with barrages of rocks, and the Titans are finally defeated, with Zeus banishing them to Tartarus and assigning the Hundred-Handers the task of acting as their warders.[66]
Apollodorus provides a similar account, saying that, when Zeus reaches adulthood, he enlists the help of the Oceanid Metis, who gives Cronus an emetic, forcing to him to disgorge the stone and Zeus's five siblings.[67] Zeus then fights a similar ten-year war against the Titans, until, upon the prophesying of Gaia, he releases the Cyclopes and Hundred-Handers from Tartarus, first slaying their warder, Campe.[68] The Cyclopes give him his thunderbolt, Poseidon his trident and Hades his helmet of invisibility, and the Titans are defeated and the Hundred-Handers made their guards.[69]
According to the Iliad, after the battle with the Titans, Zeus shares the world with his brothers, Poseidon and Hades, by drawing lots: Zeus receives the sky, Poseidon the sea, and Hades the underworld, with the earth and Olympus remaining common ground.[70]
Upon assuming his place as king of the cosmos, Zeus's rule is quickly challenged. The first of these challenges to his power comes from the Giants, who fight the Olympian gods in a battle known as the Gigantomachy. According to Hesiod, the Giants are the offspring of Gaia, born from the drops of blood that fell on the ground when Cronus castrated his father Uranus;[71] there is, however, no mention of a battle between the gods and the Giants in the Theogony.[72] It is Apollodorus who provides the most complete account of the Gigantomachy. He says that Gaia, out of anger at how Zeus had imprisoned her children, the Titans, bore the Giants to Uranus.[73] There comes to the gods a prophecy that the Giants cannot be defeated by the gods on their own, but can be defeated only with the help of a mortal; Gaia, upon hearing of this, seeks a special pharmakon (herb) that will prevent the Giants from being killed. Zeus, however, orders Eos (Dawn), Selene (Moon) and Helios (Sun) to stop shining, and harvests all of the herb himself, before having Athena summon Heracles.[74] In the conflict, Porphyrion, one of the most powerful of the Giants, launches an attack upon Heracles and Hera; Zeus, however, causes Porphyrion to become lustful for Hera, and when he is just about to violate her, Zeus strikes him with his thunderbolt, before Heracles deals the fatal blow with an arrow.[75]
In the Theogony, after Zeus defeats the Titans and banishes them to Tartarus, his rule is challenged by the monster Typhon, a giant serpentine creature who battles Zeus for control of the cosmos. According to Hesiod, Typhon is the offspring of Gaia and Tartarus,[76] described as having a hundred snaky fire-breathing heads.[77] Hesiod says he "would have come to reign over mortals and immortals" had it not been for Zeus noticing the monster and dispatching with him quickly:[78] the two of them meet in a cataclysmic battle, before Zeus defeats him easily with his thunderbolt, and the creature is hurled down to Tartarus.[79] Epimenides presents a different version, in which Typhon makes his way into Zeus's palace while he is sleeping, only for Zeus to wake and kill the monster with a thunderbolt.[80] Aeschylus and Pindar give somewhat similar accounts to Hesiod, in that Zeus overcomes Typhon with relative ease, defeating him with his thunderbolt.[81] Apollodorus, in contrast, provides a more complex narrative.[82] Typhon is, similarly to in Hesiod, the child of Gaia and Tartarus, produced out of anger at Zeus's defeat of the Giants.[83] The monster attacks heaven, and all of the gods, out of fear, transform into animals and flee to Egypt, except for Zeus, who attacks the monster with his thunderbolt and sickle.[84] Typhon is wounded and retreats to Mount Kasios in Syria, where Zeus grapples with him, giving the monster a chance to wrap him in his coils, and rip out the sinews from his hands and feet.[85] Disabled, Zeus is taken by Typhon to the Corycian Cave in Cilicia, where he is guarded by the "she-dragon" Delphyne.[86] Hermes and Aegipan, however, steal back Zeus's sinews, and refit them, reviving him and allowing him to return to the battle, pursuing Typhon, who flees to Mount Nysa; there, Typhon is given "ephemeral fruits" by the Moirai, which reduce his strength.[87] The monster then flees to Thrace, where he hurls mountains at Zeus, which are sent back at him by the god's thunderbolts, before, while fleeing to Sicily, Zeus launches Mount Etna upon him, finally ending him.[88] Nonnus, who gives the longest and most detailed account, presents a narrative similar to Apollodorus, with differences such as that it is instead Cadmus and Pan who recovers Zeus's sinews, by luring Typhon with music and then tricking him.[89]
In the Iliad, Homer tells of another attempted overthrow, in which Hera, Poseidon, and Athena conspire to overpower Zeus and tie him in bonds. It is only because of the Nereid Thetis, who summons Briareus, one of the Hecatoncheires, to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus).[90]
According to Hesiod, Zeus takes Metis, one of the Oceanid daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, as his first wife. However, when she is about to give birth to a daughter, Athena, he swallows her whole upon the advice of Gaia and Uranus, as it had been foretold that after bearing a daughter, she would give birth to a son, who would overthrow him as king of gods and mortals; it is from this position that Metis gives counsel to Zeus. In time, Athena is born, emerging from Zeus's head, but the foretold son never comes forth.[91] Apollodorus presents a similar version, stating that Metis took many forms in attempting to avoid Zeus's embraces, and that it was Gaia alone who warned Zeus of the son who would overthrow him.[92] According to a fragment likely from the Hesiodic corpus,[93] quoted by Chrysippus, it is out of anger at Hera for producing Hephaestus on her own that Zeus has intercourse with Metis, and then swallows her, thereby giving rise to Athena from himself.[94] A scholiast on the Iliad, in contrast, states that when Zeus swallows her, Metis is pregnant with Athena not by Zeus himself, but by the Cyclops Brontes.[95] The motif of Zeus swallowing Metis can be seen as a continuation of the succession myth: it is prophesied that a son of Zeus will overthrow him, just as he overthrew his father, but whereas Cronos met his end because he did not swallow the real Zeus, Zeus holds onto his power because he successfully swallows the threat, in the form of the potential mother, and so the "cycle of displacement" is brought to an end.[96] In addition, the myth can be seen as an allegory for Zeus gaining the wisdom of Metis for himself by swallowing her.[97]
In Hesiod's account, Zeus's second wife is Themis, one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia, with whom he has the Horae, listed as Eunomia, Dike and Eirene, and the three Moirai: Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos.[98] A fragment from Pindar calls Themis Zeus's first wife, and states that she is brought by the Moirai (in this version not her daughters) up to Olympus, where she becomes the bride of Zeus and bears him the Horae.[99] According to Hesiod, Zeus next marries the Oceanid Eurynome, with whom he has the three Charites, namely Aglaea, Euphrosyne and Thalia.[100] Zeus's fourth wife is his sister Demeter, with whom he has Persephone.[101] Zeus's next consort is the Titan Mnemosyne; as described at the beginning of the Theogony, Zeus lies with Mnemosyne in Piera each night for nine nights, producing the nine Muses.[102] His sixth wife is the Titan Leto, who bears him the twins Apollo and Artemis, who, according to the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, are born on the island of Delos.[103] In Hesiod's account, Zeus's seventh and final wife is his sister Hera.[104]
While Hera is Zeus's seventh wife in Hesiod's version, in other accounts she is his first and only wife.[109] In the Theogony, the couple has three children, Ares, Hebe, and Eileithyia.[110] While Hesiod states that Hera produces Hephaestus on her own after Athena is born from Zeus's head,[111] other versions, including Homer, have Hephaestus as a child of Zeus and Hera as well.[112]
Various authors give descriptions of a youthful affair between Zeus and Hera. In the Iliad, the pair are described as having first lay with each other before Cronus is sent to Tartarus, without the knowledge of their parents.[113] A scholiast on the Iliad states that, after Cronus is banished to Tartarus, Oceanus and Tethys give Hera to Zeus in marriage, and only shortly after the two are wed, Hera gives birth to Hephaestus, having lay secretly with Zeus on the island of Samos beforehand; to conceal this act, she claimed that she had produced Hephaestus on her own.[114] According to another scholiast on the Iliad, Callimachus, in his Aetia, says that Zeus lay with Hera for three hundred years on the island of Samos.[115]
According to a scholion on Theocritus' Idylls, Zeus, one day seeing Hera walking apart from the other gods, becomes intent on having intercourse with her, and transforms himself into a cuckoo bird, landing on Mount Thornax. He creates a terrible storm, and when Hera arrives at the mountain and sees the bird, which sits on her lap, she takes pity on it, laying her cloak over it. Zeus then transforms back and takes hold of her; when she refuses to have intercourse with him because of their mother, he promises that she will become his wife.[116] Pausanias similarly refers to Zeus transforming himself into a cuckoo to woo Hera, and identifies the location as Mount Thornax.[117]
According to a version from Plutarch, as recorded by Eusebius in his Praeparatio evangelica, Hera is raised by a nymph named Macris[118] on the island of Euboea when Zeus kidnaps her, taking her to Mount Cithaeron, where they find a shady hollow, which serves as a "natural bridal chamber". When Macris comes to look for Hera, Cithaeron, the tutelary deity of the mountain, stops her, saying that Zeus is sleeping there with Leto.[119] Photius, in his Bibliotheca, tells us that in Ptolemy Hephaestion's New History, Hera refuses to lay with Zeus, and hides in a cave to avoid him, before an earthborn man named Achilles convinces her to marry Zeus, leading to the pair first sleeping with each other.[120] According to Stephanus of Byzantium, Zeus and Hera first lay together at the city of Hermione, having come there from Crete.[121] Callimachus, in a fragment from his Aetia, also apparently makes reference to the couple's union occurring at Naxos.[122]
Though no complete account of Zeus and Hera's wedding exists, various authors make reference to it. According to a scholiast on Apollonius of Rhodes' Argonautica, Pherecydes states that when Zeus and Hera are being married, Gaia brings a tree which produces golden apples as a wedding gift.[123] Eratosthenes and Hyginus attribute a similar story to Pherecydes, in which Hera is amazed by the gift, and asks for the apples to be planted in the "garden of the gods", nearby to Mount Atlas.[124] Apollodorus specifies them as the golden apples of the Hesperides, and says that Gaia gives them to Zeus after the marriage.[125] According to Diodorus Siculus, the location of the marriage is in the land of the Knossians, nearby to the river Theren,[126] while Lactantius attributes to Varro the statement that the couple are married on the island of Samos.[127]
There exist several stories in which Zeus, receiving advice, is able to reconcile with an angered Hera. According to Pausanias, Hera, angry with her husband, retreats to the island of Euboea, where she was raised, and Zeus, unable to resolve the situation, seeks the advice of Cithaeron, ruler of Plataea, supposedly the most intelligent man on earth. Cithaeron instructs him to fashion a wooden statue and dress it as a bride, and then pretend that he is marrying one "Plataea", a daughter of Asopus. When Hera hears of this, she immediately rushes there, only to discover the ruse upon ripping away the bridal clothing; she is so relieved that the couple are reconciled.[128] According to a version from Plutarch, as recorded by Eusebius in his Praeparatio evangelica, when Hera is angry with her husband, she retreats instead to Cithaeron, and Zeus goes to the earth-born man Alalcomeneus, who suggests he pretend to marry someone else. With the help of Alalcomeneus, Zeus creates a wooden statue from an oak tree, dresses it as a bride, and names it Daidale. When preparations are being made for the wedding, Hera rushes down from Cithaeron, followed by the women of Plataia, and upon discovering the trick, the couple are reconciled, with the matter ending in joy and laughter among all involved.[129]
After his marriage to Hera, different authors describe Zeus's numerous affairs with various mortal women.[132] In many of these affairs, Zeus transforms himself into an animal, someone else, or some other form. According to a scholion on the Iliad (citing Hesiod and Bacchylides), when Europa is picking flowers with her female companions in a meadow in Phoenicia, Zeus transforms himself into a bull, lures her from the others, and then carries her across the sea to the island of Crete, where he resumes his usual form to sleep with her.[133] In Euripides' Helen, Zeus takes the form of a swan, and after being chased by an eagle, finds shelter in the lap of Leda, subsequently seducing her,[134] while in Euripides's lost play Antiope, Zeus apparently took the form of a satyr to sleep with Antiope.[135] Various authors speak of Zeus raping Callisto, one of the companions of Artemis, doing so in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as mentioned by Apollodorus, in the form of Apollo),[136] and Pherecydes relates that Zeus sleeps with Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon, in the form of her own husband.[137] Several accounts state that Zeus approached the Argive princess Danae in the form of a shower of gold,[138] and according to Ovid he abducts Aegina in the form of a flame.[139]
In accounts of Zeus's affairs, Hera is often depicted as a jealous wife, with there being various stories of her persecuting either the women with whom Zeus sleeps, or their children by him.[140] Several authors relate that Zeus sleeps with Io, a priestess of Hera, who is subsequently turned into a cow, and suffers at Hera's hands: according to Apollodorus, Hera sends a gadfly to sting the cow, driving her all the way to Egypt, where she is finally transformed back into human form.[141] In later accounts of Zeus's affair with Semele, a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia, Hera tricks her into persuading Zeus to grant her any promise. Semele asks him to come to her as he comes to his own wife Hera, and when Zeus upholds this promise, she dies out of fright and is reduced to ashes.[142] According to Callimachus, after Zeus sleeps with Callisto, Hera turns her into a bear, and instructs Artemis to shoot her.[143] In addition, Zeus's son by Alcmene, the hero Heracles, is persecuted continuously throughout his mortal life by Hera, up until his apotheosis.[144]
According to Diodorus Siculus, Alcmene, the mother of Heracles, was the very last mortal woman Zeus ever slept with; following the birth of Heracles, he ceased to beget humans altogether, and fathered no more children.[145]
The following is a list of Zeus's offspring, by various mothers. Beside each offspring, the earliest source to record the parentage is given, along with the century to which the source dates.
Gaea, Uranus, Kronos, Rhea, and the Titans[]
The story of Zeus starts with the union of his grandparents, Gaea and Uranus, the earth and sky. Gaea bore many children from her union with Uranus, the Titans, giant divine beings of considerable beauty. Gaea also gave birth to the more monstrous one-hundred armed giants called Heka-Gigases and the one eyed giants called Cyclopsi. Though Gaea loved all her children Uranus was ashamed of the more monstrous of his children feeling they were not worthy to walk upon his beautiful wife and so he placed the Heka-Gigases and Cyclopsi in the nether-pits of Tartarus deep bellow the earth. Gaea was heartbroken and enraged so she carved a scythe of her very bone that would be able to cut Uranus himself, she offered it to whichever one of her children was willing to face their father and until he agreed to free the Heka-Gigases and Cyclopsi. The youngest of the Titans, Kronos, Titan of time, agreed to take up arms against his father. Kronos fought Uranus however he made no threats or demands and instead completely deposed his father, castrated him, forced him to surrender his power, and banished him. Kronos never freed his sibling from Tartarus either and so he earned the spite of Gaea, but under his rule the Titans became the first gods of mankind.
Though Kronos dethroned and castrated his father, before Uranus departed, he said one of Kronos's own children would surely do the same to him. Later the Titan of foresight, Prometheus, prophesied that indeed one of Kronos's own children would depose him. Kronos became fearful of his rule and when his wife/sister Rhea gave birth to their first child, Hestia, Kronos ate her rather than risk her growing up to depose him. Rhea would become pregnant and give birth five more times, Poseidon, Hades, Demeter, and Hera all met the same fate as Hestia. On Rhea's sixth and final pregnancy she could no longer bear to see her child killed and knew she would not be able to implore Kronos' mercy, so she made arrangements to have her son Zeus spared. Rhea warped rocks in swaddling cloths and let Kronos eat it thinking it was baby Zeus. Rhea had spirited Zeus off to be raised by her mother Gaea, the earth, Uranus' widow. Of course, Gaea was upset about Kronos dethroning her husband and banishing him and without keeping his word to free his siblings, so she was more than happy to support the young god prophesied to dethrone Kronos. Gaea raised and protected Zeus on a small island of Crete, she kept him hidden from Kronos in thick mists that surrounded the island and had nymph artisans working on it all day and night so the clanging of the shields by the Curetes would drown out young Zeus whenever he cried. Zeus was also cared for by the Curetes with the milk of the goat Amalthea and the bees in the cave. Gaea told Zeus of what his father had done to her husband, children, and his siblings grooming Zeus to one day take his revenge on Kronos. Gaea made Zeus swear that once he freed his siblings he would also free her children still sealed in Tartarus.
When Zeus came of age he set out to confront Kronos, before Zeus returned home he met Metis, Oceanid and Titaness of prudence. Zeus fell in love with Metis and they became lovers and before long Metis was conspiring with him to overthrow Kronos. Metis gave Zeus poison and gave it to Kronos, while Kronos was reeling from the effects of Metis' poison Zeus arrived and fought Kronos. By some accounts Zeus carved open Kronos' stomach and freed his siblings, while other accounts say that the poison induced vomiting and during the confrontation with Zeus Kronos vomited up all five of Zeus's siblings and the rock3, either way Zeus's siblings were all freed from their father's stomach and joined him in the fight. Kronos saw he was outmatched and called for the the Titans to protect him and attack the gods, thus began the "Titanomachy" or Titan God War.
Some of the Titans joined Zeus and the gods like Prometheus, who foresaw Zeus would win and wanted to be on the winning team, he also convinced his brother Epimethius, Titan of antiquity to join Zeus. Zeus and his siblings also garnered the attention of Hecate, Titaness of witchcraft who joined the gods having grown tired of Cronus' tyranny. While the other gods were still fighting the Titans Zeus freed the Heka-Gigases and Cyclopsi who eagerly joined the fight against Cronus. Eventually the Gods won over the Titans, Zeus imprisoned most of the defeated Titans in Tartarus, except for the Titan of strength Atlas, who Zeus punished by turning his strength against him by forcing him to hold up the sky. Of course Zeus did not punish the Titans who had joined his side, leaving Prometheus Epimethius, Hecate, Rhea, Metis, Leto and the monstrous titans. Zeus assumed the new throne as king of the heavens and the new guardian of mortal-kind. Zeus set up a great palace on top of Mont Olympus he made Metis his first wife and ruled the world from mountain tops.
In this new age man-kind would become the dominant mortal life form by being given the gift of intellect but they would also be given sin and discord. Zeus first split up the rule over the world with his brothers, his oldest brother Poseidon, god of the Sea was given the vast oceans to rule once he rested control of them from Gaea's second husband Nereus. Hades, god of wealth was given the Underworld to rule where he could keep an eye on the deepest gates of Tartarus seeing to it they were never opened and establishing a kingdom of the departed souls. Zeus himself created his palace on Mount Olympus and established eleven other positions for other gods as his vassals, Zeus and his eleven brethren were refereed to as the Twelve Olympians commonly. The Twelve Olympians shared in the powers of the Titans that Zeus had inherited and each among them was given a formal throne in the meeting halls of Olympus. Not all Greek gods could claim to be one of the Twelve Olympians but the ones that did were considered the most important. Some gods such as Pan coveted the position of being one of the twelve, others like Hades openly refused to accept the title, considering the power not worth being subject to Zeus' authority. Zeus himself was firmly in control of the Twelve Olympians and could retract their empowered abilities at a moment's notice if they turned on him, this however still made his five siblings a substantial threat since all had claimed power from the titan' personally.
Zeus feared he would be deposed by his first child just as his father and grandfather had so shortly after she became pregnant Zeus would divorce Metis and began to court his sister Hera. Hera would become Zeus' queen despite being his second wife however Metis was made Zeus' personal adviser. Though Metis and Zeus had an easy divorce Prometheus warned Zeus that the child would be greater than him. Zeus was afraid of his child but did not wish to harm Metis partly because of their history and partly because he depended on her as his adviser but Zeus eventually found a way to neutralize Metis without sending her to Tartarus. After much thought one day Zeus challenged Metis to a game they played where each god would try to turn into a smaller animal than the other, Metis won the game by eventually turning into a may-fly, Zeus congratulated her and then swallowed her whole. Metis flew into Zeus' head and was absorbed into his brain thus Zeus always had Metis's sound advice and as part of him he never had worry about the child being born...or so he thought. One day Zeus was plagued by terrible headaches. Though he tried to ignore it at first the headaches eventually became so bad he doubled over in pain. His by then son Hephaestus cracked open Zeus' head to release the pressure and out emerged a fully grown and clothed goddess, Metis' daughter, Athena who had grown in Zeus' head even as her mother was becoming part of his brain. Athena had been clothed by Metis and brought up in Zeus' subconscious but eventually grew too big to be contained within. To Zeus' surprise Athena pledged her loyalty to her father rather than challenging him, for this Athena became Zeus' favorite child. In time Athena was praised even more than Zeus and became a major goddess through-out Greece despite being a second generation god. In this way Prometheus' prediction came true for though greater than Zeus, Athena maintained loyalty to her father and in this way the cycle of ascension among the gods came to a conclusion.
By the time Athena was born Zeus had already had two sons and a daughter via his union with Hera. The first was Hephaestus, the god of smithing the second was Ares, god of war. Ares was well liked by his mother originally, Hephaestus was born considerably ugly to the point where he frightened Hera when she went to hold him and tossed him from Olympus to earth. The fall crippled Hephaestus from a young age. Hephaestus spent his years trying to win his mother's affections and became a smith crafting her perfect jewelry. By extension this also meant Zeus would be given similar gifts. Once an adult Hephaestus began supervising the Elder Cyclopi who made Zeus's lightning bolts. For his devotion Zeus gave Hephaestus one of the twelve thrones of Olympus. Ares had also won himself a throne, partially because Hera had insisted that one of their only legitimate children be among the twelve Olympians but also because Ares had enthusiastically stirred-up and resolved several wars in the name of his parents. Zeus and Hera's daughter was Eileithyia, goddess of mid wives. Eileithyia was less worshiped than her siblings and so Hera made her a totem in her temples thus Eileithyia was worshiped by association with Hera. Though Eileithyia was not prominent enough to earn herself a spot as one of the twelve Olympians she became known through-out Greece due to her mother's influence.
Zeus would adopt the goddess Aphrodite as his daughter. Aphrodite's birth has two conflicting origins' one states that when Cronus took over he castrated Uranus and threw his manhood into the sea- this would result in Aphrodite manifesting from it's remains. Another myth states that Aphrodite was the unclaimed daughter of Nerius, the sea god. Either way Aphrodite first came to the world from the sea, walking out of it completely naked. She was full grown by the time she emerged from the ocean and Zeus was king by then. Zeus spotted Aphrodite and not wishing for their to be any ambiguity over her lineage decided to welcome her into the family. Aphrodite was the goddess of beauty and often associated as goddess of love and sex as well. Zeus would also give birth to the goddess Persephone with Demeter. As the myth goes Poseidon demanded he be permitted to court Hestia as Zeus had done to Hera, Zeus conceded and began pairing his remaining siblings Hades and Demeter, though the two seemed not to like each-other. When Poseidon returned saying Hestia wished to remain a virgin Zeus sided with Hestia that her virginity was hers to keep, Poseidon, still very upset then switched his interests to Demeter and demanded her hand instead. Zeus agreed but to get back at his entitled brother Zeus decided to get Demeter pregnant while he was still trying to woo her. Demeter, being far more open with sex than she was with marriage, had no issues sleeping with Zeus though Poseidon was wooing her and Zeus was already married. Poseidon's interest in Demeter waned long before he found out she was pregnant but Demeter was more than happy to raise the child as a single mother. Zeus had pledged Persephone's hand to Hades to make-up for humoring Poseidon by giving away Hades' intended fiance'. Though Demeter raised Persephone herself Zeus still checked in on and looked after his daughter.
Zeus would take on the titaness, Leto, as lover, however Hera was no longer willing to humor such activities. Metis was married to Zeus before her; Demeter was never sexually restrained by concepts like marriage, had taken favors from Zeus covertly and did not associate sex with love; But with Leto Hera saw a disturbing pattern and chased Zeus for his perspicuity. According to early stories by the time Hera found out Leto and Zeus were an item Leto was pregnant. Zeus fled his wife's wrath and before leaving to chase him Hera cursed Leto not to be able to give birth on Olympus or in any earthly society. Zeus spent months fleeing Hera, changing shape by assuming the forms of storms, the elements, animals and even humans in his attempts to lose her. During this time, Leto became more and more pregnant but was not able to give birth. Zeus raised an island from the sea and sent Eileithyia to meet Leto there to help her give birth. Since the land was newly formed technically it was not part of any mortal realm and thus Hera's decree did not need to apply. Eileithyia, wishing to release Leto's pain used the loop-hole her father had created and helped Leto give birth to the twins Apollo and Artemis. Once Hera gave-up the chase Leto bought Apollo and Artemis to meet their father. Hera refused to permit Leto to take a seat on Olympus, but Zeus said instead he would allow her children too take their thrones there. Though Hera remained bitter about Leto, both Apollo and Artemis were very protective of their mother and Hera ended up needing to hold her tongue in the halls of Olympus to maintain harmony. Zeus was said to be very loving toward Apollo and Artemis and gave them both bows and taught them to hunt from a young age to be great monster slayers like him.
Prometheus and conflicts with humans
When the gods met at Mecone to discuss which portions they will receive after a sacrifice, the titan Prometheus decided to trick Zeus so that humans receive the better portions. He sacrificed a large ox, and divided it into two piles. In one pile he put all the meat and most of the fat, covering it with the ox's grotesque stomach, while in the other pile, he dressed up the bones with fat. Prometheus then invited Zeus to choose; Zeus chose the pile of bones. This set a precedent for sacrifices, where humans will keep the fat for themselves and burn the bones for the gods.
Zeus, enraged at Prometheus's deception, prohibited the use of fire by humans. Prometheus, however, stole fire from Olympus in a fennel stalk and gave it to humans. This further enraged Zeus, who punished Prometheus by binding him to a cliff, where an eagle constantly ate Prometheus's liver, which regenerated every night. Prometheus was eventually freed from his misery by Heracles.[255]
Now Zeus, angry at humans, decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commands Hephaestus to mold from earth the first woman, a "beautiful evil" whose descendants would torment the human race. After Hephaestus does so, several other gods contribute to her creation. Hermes names the woman 'Pandora'.
Pandora was given in marriage to Prometheus's brother Epimetheus. Zeus gave her a jar which contained many evils. Pandora opened the jar and released all the evils, which made mankind miserable. Only hope remained inside the jar.[256]
When Zeus was atop Mount Olympus he was appalled by human sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brother Poseidon. After the flood, only Deucalion and Pyrrha remained.[257] This flood narrative is a common motif in mythology.[258]
The Iliad is an ancient Greek epic poem attributed to Homer about the Trojan War and the battle over the City of Troy, in which Zeus plays a major part.
Scenes in which Zeus appears include:[259][260]
When Hades requested to marry Zeus's daughter, Persephone, Zeus approved and advised Hades to abduct Persephone, as her mother Demeter would not allow her to marry Hades.[261]
In the Orphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD),[262] Zeus wanted to marry his mother Rhea. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth to Persephone. Zeus in the form of a snake would mate with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth of Dionysus.[263]
Zeus granted Callirrhoe's prayer that her sons by Alcmaeon, Acarnan and Amphoterus, grow quickly so that they might be able to avenge the death of their father by the hands of Phegeus and his two sons.[264]
Both Zeus and Poseidon wooed Thetis, daughter of Nereus. But when Themis (or Prometheus) prophesied that the son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, Thetis was married off to the mortal Peleus.[265][266]
Zeus was afraid that his grandson Asclepius would teach resurrection to humans, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. This angered Asclepius's father, Apollo, who in turn killed the Cyclopes who had fashioned the thunderbolts of Zeus. Angered at this, Zeus would have imprisoned Apollo in Tartarus. However, at the request of Apollo's mother, Leto, Zeus instead ordered Apollo to serve as a slave to King Admetus of Pherae for a year.[267] According to Diodorus Siculus, Zeus killed Asclepius because of complains from Hades, who was worried that the number of people in the underworld was diminishing because of Asclepius's resurrections.[268]
The winged horse Pegasus carried the thunderbolts of Zeus.[269]
Zeus took pity on Ixion, a man who was guilty of murdering his father-in-law, by purifying him and bringing him to Olympus. However, Ixion started to lust after Hera. Hera complained about this to her husband, and Zeus decided to test Ixion. Zeus fashioned a cloud that resembles Hera (Nephele) and laid the cloud-Hera in Ixion's bed. Ixion coupled with Nephele, resulting in the birth of Centaurus. Zeus punished Ixion for lusting after Hera by tying him to a wheel that spins forever.[270]
Once, Helios the sun god gave his chariot to his inexperienced son Phaethon to drive. Phaethon could not control his father's steeds so he ended up taking the chariot too high, freezing the earth, or too low, burning everything to the ground. The earth itself prayed to Zeus, and in order to prevent further disaster, Zeus hurled a thunderbolt at Phaethon, killing him and saving the world from further harm.[271] In a satirical work, Dialogues of the Gods by Lucian, Zeus berates Helios for allowing such thing to happen; he returns the damaged chariot to him and warns him that if he dares do that again, he will strike him with one of this thunderbolts.[272]
Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over the Greek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and was featured in many of their local cults. 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.
Popular conceptions of Zeus differed widely from place to place. Local varieties of Zeus often have little in common with each other except the name. They exercised different areas of authority and were worshiped in different ways; for example, some local cults conceived of Zeus as a chthonic earth-god rather than a god of the sky. These local divinities were gradually consolidated, via conquest and religious syncretism, with the Homeric conception of Zeus. Local or idiosyncratic versions of Zeus were given epithets — surnames or titles which distinguish different conceptions of the god.[29]
These epithets or titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority:
Additional names and epithets for Zeus are also:
The major center where all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief god was Olympia. Their quadrennial festival 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 modes of worshipping Zeus precisely shared across the Greek world. Most of the titles listed below, 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.
With one exception, Greeks were unanimous in recognizing the birthplace of Zeus as Crete. Minoan culture contributed many essentials of ancient Greek religion: "by a hundred channels the old civilization emptied itself into the new", Will Durant observed,[334] and Cretan Zeus retained his youthful Minoan features. The local child of the Great Mother, "a small and inferior deity who took the roles of son and consort",[335] whose Minoan name the Greeks Hellenized as Velchanos, was in time assumed as an epithet by Zeus, as transpired at many other sites, and he came to be venerated in Crete as Zeus Velchanos ("boy-Zeus"), often simply the Kouros.
In Crete, Zeus was worshipped at a number of caves at Knossos, Ida and Palaikastro. In the Hellenistic period a small sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Velchanos was founded at the Hagia Triada site of an earlier Minoan town. Broadly contemporary coins from Phaistos show the form under which he was worshiped: a youth sits among the branches of a tree, with a cockerel on his knees.[336] On other Cretan coins Velchanos is represented as an eagle and in association with a goddess celebrating a mystic marriage.[337] Inscriptions at Gortyn and Lyttos record a Velchania festival, showing that Velchanios was still widely venerated in Hellenistic Crete.[338]
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". Ivory statuettes of the "Divine Boy" were unearthed near the Labyrinth at Knossos by Sir Arthur Evans.[339] 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 myth of the death of Cretan Zeus, localised in numerous mountain sites though only mentioned in a comparatively late source, Callimachus,[340] together with the assertion of Antoninus Liberalis that a fire shone forth annually from the birth-cave the infant shared with a mythic swarm of bees, suggests that Velchanos had been an annual vegetative spirit.[341] 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 Euhemerus himself have not survived, but Christian patristic writers took up the suggestion.
The epithet Zeus Lykaios (Λύκαιος; "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[342] 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.[343] Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place[344] was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast.[345]
According to Plato,[346] 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.
There is, however, the crucial detail that Lykaios or Lykeios (epithets of Zeus and Apollo) may derive from Proto-Greek *λύκη, "light", a noun still attested in compounds such as ἀμφιλύκη, "twilight", λυκάβας, "year" (lit. "light's course") etc. This, Cook argues, brings indeed much new 'light' to the matter as Achaeus, the contemporary tragedian of Sophocles, spoke of Zeus Lykaios as "starry-eyed", and this Zeus Lykaios may just be the Arcadian Zeus, son of Aether, described by Cicero. Again under this new signification may be seen Pausanias' descriptions of Lykosoura being 'the first city that ever the sun beheld', and of the altar of Zeus, at the summit of Mount Lykaion, before which stood two columns bearing gilded eagles and 'facing the sun-rise'. Further Cook sees only the tale of Zeus's sacred precinct at Mount Lykaion allowing no shadows referring to Zeus as 'god of light' (Lykaios).[347]
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 (Μειλίχιος; "kindly" or "honeyed") while other cities had Zeus Chthonios ("earthy"), Zeus Katachthonios (Καταχθόνιος; "under-the-earth") and Zeus Plousios ("wealth-bringing"). These deities might be represented as snakes or in human form in visual art, or, for emphasis as both together in one image. 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. Ancient Molossian kings sacrificed to Zeus Areius (Αρειος). Strabo mention that at Tralles there was the Zeus Larisaeus (Λαρισαιος).[348] In Ithome, they honored the Zeus Ithomatas, they had a sanctuary and a statue of Zeus and also held an annual festival in honour of Zeus which was called Ithomaea (ἰθώμαια).[349]
Hecatomphonia (Ancient Greek: ἑκατομφόνια), meaning killing of a hundred, from ἑκατόν "a hundred" and φονεύω "to kill". It was a custom of Messenians, at which they offered sacrifice to Zeus when any of them had killed a hundred enemies. Aristomenes have offered three times this sacrifice at the Messenian wars against Sparta.[350][351][352][353]
Zeus in der griechisch-römischen Philosophie
Zeus spielt auch eine wichtige Rolle in der Philosophie der Antike. Die Orphiker sahen Zeus als den Weltgrund an,[23] der Platoniker Xenokrates identifizierte Zeus mit dem kosmischen Nous,[24] in der Philosophie der Stoa wurde Zeus als die Urkraft oder kosmische Vernunft aufgefasst.[25]
Kampf gegen die Giganten
Die Herrschaft der olympischen Götter unter Zeus wurde durch einen Angriff der Giganten bedroht. In der Gigantomachie aber besiegten die Götter die Giganten.
Der Schild des Zeus heißt Aigis oder Ägis (griech. Ziegenfell). Dieser wurde von Hephaistos geschmiedet und wird meist als schuppen- und schlangenbewehrter Halskragen dargestellt. Die Aigis ist Sinnbild der schirmenden Obhut (Ägide) der Götter.
Verheiratet war Zeus mit seiner Schwester Hera, mit der er vier Kinder hatte, Ares, Hebe, Eileithya und Hephaistos. Aber er hatte auch viele Liebschaften, unter anderem mit der Göttin Leto, einer Tochter des Titanen Koios, die ihm Apollon, den Gott des Lichts und der Musik, und Artemis, heilbringende Göttin der Natur und der Jagd, gebar, oder Leda, von der er die Dioskuren Kastor (Castor) und Polydeukes (Pollux) bekam. Daneben war er auch Vater vieler Nymphen, Halbgöttinnen und Sterblicher. Diese Liebschaften waren nie von Dauer, vor allem wegen Heras maßloser Eifersucht. Um die Kinder, die aus diesen Seitensprüngen entstanden waren (unter anderem Herakles und die schöne Helena), kümmerte er sich aber. Die einzige Liebschaft von Dauer war wahrscheinlich die zum Königssohn Ganymed. Dieser war so schön, dass Zeus ihn in Gestalt eines Adlers auf den Olymp entführte. Dort diente er ihm als Mundschenk. Auch die Göttin Aphrodite soll nach Homer eine Tochter von Zeus und der Dione gewesen sein. Geläufiger ist jedoch die Version des Hesiod, nach der sie aus dem Schaum (daher ihr Name, von griech.: aphros=Schaum) entstand, der sich um die abgeschnittenen Genitalien des Uranos im Meer vor Kythera gebildet hatte. Seine Lieblingstochter Athene, die Göttin der Weisheit, entsprang seinem Kopf, nachdem er von Hephaistos geöffnet worden war. Auch andere Götter stammen von ihm ab, wie Dionysos, der Gott des Weines (siehe Schenkelgeburt), die Göttin Iris, die als Botschafterin die Kommunikation zwischen Menschen und Göttern sicherstellte, oder Hermes, der Götterbote und Schutzgott der Kaufleute und der Diebe.
Um Frauen zu verführen, nahm Zeus oft eine andere Gestalt an:
Das älteste und erste in der Antike berühmte Zeus-Orakel befand sich im Eichenhain von Dodona (die Eiche ist ebenfalls der heilige Baum des Zeus). Auch in Olympia gab es ein Zeus-Orakel; hier wurde der Zeus Olympios verehrt. Auf Kreta nahmen Kulte Bezug auf seine Geburt und Kindheit mit Höhlen- und Geburtskulten. Siehe auch Höhle von Psychro, Idäische Grotte.
Verehrt wurde Zeus als Allgott, als denkendes Feuer, das alles durchdringt, als Vater der Götter und Menschen, als Gott des Wetters, als Schicksalsgott usw. Die Epiphanie des Zeus ist stets der Blitz, etwa bei Homer.
Da Zeus als Götterherrscher galt, war sein Kult oft mit Monarchen verbunden. So ist bezeichnend, dass der große Zeustempel in Athen, das Olympieion, während der Tyrannis des Peisistratos begonnen, durch König Antiochos IV. fortgeführt und erst unter Kaiser Hadrian vollendet wurde, während man die Bauarbeiten zur Zeit der attischen Demokratie ruhen ließ.
Die Zeusverehrung erlosch erst am Ende der Spätantike um das Jahr 600 n. Chr.
Je nach Art der Verehrung erhielt Zeus verschiedene Beinamen, etwa:
Non-panhellenic 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. With the epithet Zeus Aetnaeus he was worshiped on Mount Aetna, where there was a statue of him, and a local festival called the Aetnaea in his honor.[354] Other examples are listed below. As Zeus Aeneius or Zeus Aenesius (Αινησιος), he was worshiped in the island of Cephalonia, where he had a temple on Mount Aenos.[355]
Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated to Apollo, the heroes, or various goddesses like Themis, a few oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus. In addition, some foreign oracles, such as Baʿal's at Heliopolis, were associated with Zeus in Greek or Jupiter in Latin.
The cult of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus, where there is evidence of religious activity from the second millennium BC onward, centered on 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.[356] By the time Herodotus wrote about Dodona, female priestesses called peleiades ("doves") had replaced the male priests.
Zeus's 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 of Ammon at the Siwa Oasis 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.[357]
After Alexander made a trek into the desert to consult the oracle at Siwa, the figure arose in the Hellenistic imagination of a Libyan Sibyl.
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