Zeus
Who is Zeus?
Where does Zeus’s name come from?
Who are Zeus’s children?
Why did Zeus eat his wife?
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Zeus, in ancient Greek religion, chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god who was identical with the Roman god Jupiter. His name may be related to that of the sky god Dyaus of the ancient Hindu Rigveda. Zeus was regarded as the sender of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. He was called the father (i.e., the ruler and protector) of both gods and humans.
Birth and rise to power
Upon learning that one of his children was fated to dethrone him, Cronus, king of the Titans, swallowed at birth every child born to him and his wife, Rhea. Five children—Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon—were consumed this way until the birth of Zeus, the sixth child, whom Rhea saved by substituting a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes for Cronus to swallow. The infant Zeus was spirited away to Crete and hidden in a cave—accounts vary on the location of the cave, with Dicte (or Dicta) and Mount Ida most commonly given. There he was nursed by the nymph (or female goat) Amalthaea and guarded by the Curetes (young warriors), who clashed their weapons to disguise the baby’s cries. His cradle was suspended from a tree, between worlds, so that he would be hidden from Cronus’s gaze across earth, heaven, and sea.
After Zeus grew to manhood he succeeded in dethroning Cronus with the help of Rhea and the Titaness Metis. On their advice he became Cronus’s cupbearer and mixed a purgatorial substance into his drink, causing Cronus to regurgitate the five children he had swallowed. Zeus defeated the Titans with the assistance of his brothers, Hades and Poseidon, with whom he then divided dominion over the world—Zeus became lord of the sky, Poseidon of the oceans, and Hades of the underworld. In the revolt against the Titans, who were led by Atlas, Zeus was also assisted by the monstrous offspring of Cronus’s parents, Gaea and Uranus: the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires, who were three brothers named Cottus, Briareus, and Gyges who each had 100 hands and 50 heads. From the Cyclops Zeus received the thunderbolt, Poseidon the trident, and Hades a helmet or cap that granted invisibility.
Supremacy over gods and monsters
According to the Greek poet Homer, heaven was located on the summit of Olympus, the highest mountain in Greece and the logical home for a weather god. The other members of the pantheon—the Olympians—resided there with Zeus and were subject to his will. The 12 Olympians included Zeus and his five siblings, although Hestia eventually resigned her position; the primordial goddess Aphrodite; and Zeus’s divine children Apollo, Artemis, Athena, Hermes, and Ares. Dionysus, whose mother is usually given as the mortal Semele, replaced Hestia in the pantheon. Some versions of the 12 Olympians substitute Hades, who did not live on Mount Olympus, with the divine smith Hephaestus, who did. From his exalted position atop Mount Olympus Zeus was thought to omnisciently observe human affairs, seeing everything, governing all, and rewarding good conduct and punishing evil. Besides dispensing justice—he had a strong connection with his daughter Dike (Justice)—Zeus was the protector of cities, the home, property, strangers, guests, and supplicants. In art Zeus was represented as a bearded, dignified, and mature man of stalwart build; the eagle was sacred to him.
As ruler of heaven Zeus led the gods to victory against the Giants as well as the monster Typhon (both offspring of Gaea and Tartarus). He successfully crushed several revolts against him by his fellow gods. He was chained by the other Olympians during one of these revolts and was eventually freed by the hundred-hander Briareus. On being unbound Zeus punished the primary instigators of the revolt: He suspended Hera from the sky and sentenced Poseidon and Apollo to a year of service to a mortal (they were hired by King Laomedon to build the city of Troy). Zeus’s other opponents included the Titan Prometheus, who was condemned to have his liver eternally pecked by an eagle for the crime of stealing fire from the gods and giving it to humans.
Zeus’s lovers
Zeus compelled the reluctant Hera to marry him by disguising himself as a cuckoo that had been caught in a storm of his own making. When the unsuspecting Hera took the bedraggled bird to her bosom, Zeus reverted to his original form and assaulted her (in some versions, she yielded). Overcome by shame, Hera agreed to become Zeus’s wife, and their wedding was the first among the Olympian gods. The union was a tumultuous one, with husband and wife often in conflict.
Zeus was well known for his amorousness—a source of perpetual discord with Hera—and he had many love affairs with both mortal women, such as Leda, Europa, and Danaë, and immortal women, such as Metis, Themis, Demeter, Mnemosyne, Leto, Io, and Callisto. In some accounts many of these encounters were assaults rather than consensual. A liaison with Zeus often had tragic consequences for the object of his affection: He turned Io into a heifer after she was persecuted by Hera, and Callisto, who served Artemis and was required to remain chaste, was turned into a bear. Notable among Zeus’s lovers was Laomedon’s son Ganymede, who was abducted by Zeus and became the cupbearer on Olympus. As he had with Hera, Zeus frequently assumed animal forms to achieve his amorous designs, such as that of a swan when he ravished Leda or a bull when he carried off Europa.
The children of Zeus
Zeus’s dalliances resulted in many children. The nine Muses were born to him and Mnemosyne; to Themis were born the minor goddesses known as the Horae (of whom Dike was one) and the Moirae (or Fates). According to Homer, Aphrodite was the daughter of Zeus and Dione, Zeus’s consort at Dodona. Zeus’s offspring also included several gods, heroes, and other key figures from Greek mythology:
- Ares, Hephaestus, Hebe, and Eileithyia were born to Hera. In some accounts Hera created Hephaestus on her own.
- Athena was born to Metis, whom Zeus swallowed while she was pregnant, after which Athena sprang fully formed from Zeus’s head. In some versions he created Athena by himself.
- Apollo and Artemis were born to Leto, who, fleeing Hera’s jealousy, desperately sought a location where she could give birth. She eventually did so on the floating island of Delos, which led to the establishment of the Delphic oracle.
- Hermes was born to Maia, one of the Pleiades (the seven daughters of Atlas). Hermes accompanied Zeus when he visited Philemon and Baucis, a pious Phrygian couple. They hospitably received the gods, who were in disguise, and were saved from a flood in reward.
- Dionysus was born to Semele, who is generally regarded as mortal. Hera tricked the pregnant Semele into asking Zeus to reveal himself in his full glory, which he did, resulting in Semele’s destruction. However, Zeus sewed the fetus into his own thigh, from where Dionysus was eventually born. In some accounts Dionysus’s mother is Dione.
- Persephone was born to Demeter, goddess of agriculture. The legend of Persephone’s abduction by Hades and Demeter’s subsequent distress explains the origin of seasonal change.
- Helen and Pollux, one of the twins known as the Dioscuri, were born to Leda. Helen’s seduction by Paris was the trigger for the Trojan War.
Worship
Though regarded by Greek religionists everywhere as omnipotent and the head of the pantheon, Zeus’s very universality tended to reduce his importance compared with that of powerful local divinities such as Athena and Hera. Although statues of Zeus Herkeios (Guardian of the House) and altars of Zeus Xenios (Hospitable) graced the forecourts of houses, and though his mountaintop shrines were visited by pilgrims, Zeus did not have a temple at Athens until the late 6th century bce, and even his temple at Olympia postdated that of Hera.