He was respected as asky father who was chief of the gods[9] and assigned roles to the others:[10] "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence."[11][12] He wasequated with many foreignweather gods, permittingPausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men".[13] Among his symbols are thethunderbolt and theeagle.[14] In addition to hisIndo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer" (Greek:Νεφεληγερέτα,Nephelēgereta)[15] also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of theancient Near East, such as thescepter.
Zeus is the Greek continuation of*Dyēus the name of theProto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called*Dyeus ph2tēr ("Sky Father").[18][19] The god is known under this name in theRigveda (Vedic SanskritDyaus/Dyaus Pita),Latin (compareJupiter, fromIuppiter, deriving from theProto-Indo-European vocative*dyeu-ph2tēr),[20] deriving from theroot *dyeu- ("to shine", and in its many derivatives, "sky, heaven, god").[18]AlbanianZoj-z andMessapicZis are clear equivalents and cognates ofZeus. In the Greek, Albanian, and Messapic forms the original cluster*di̯ underwent affrication to*dz.[21][22] Zeus is the only deity in the Olympicpantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology.[23]
Plato, in hisCratylus, gives a folk etymology of Zeus meaning "cause of life always to all things", because of puns between alternate titles of Zeus (Zen andDia) 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] WhileLactantius 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 ofCronus.[28]
Zeus was called by numerous alternative names or surnames, known asepithets. Some epithets are the surviving names of local gods who were consolidated into the myth of Zeus.[29]
Mythology
Birth
InHesiod'sTheogony (c. 730 – 700 BC),Cronus, after castrating his fatherUranus,[30] becomes the supreme ruler of the cosmos, and weds his sisterRhea, 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 toLyctus inCrete, 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 poetEumelos of Corinth (8th century BC), according toJohn the Lydian, considered Zeus to have been born inLydia,[39] while the Alexandrian poetCallimachus (c. 310 – c. 240 BC), in hisHymn to Zeus, says that he was born inArcadia.[40]Diodorus Siculus (fl. 1st century BC) seems at one point to giveMount Ida as his birthplace, but later states he is born inDicte,[41] and the mythographerApollodorus (first or second century AD) similarly says he was born in a cave in Dicte.[42] In the second century AD, Pausanias wrote that it would be impossible to count all the people claiming that Zeus was born or brought up among them.[43]
While theTheogony says nothing of Zeus's upbringing other than that he grew up swiftly,[45] other sources provide more detailed accounts. According to Apollodorus, Rhea, after giving birth to Zeus in a cave in Dicte, gives him to the nymphsAdrasteia andIda, daughters ofMelisseus, to nurse.[46] They feed him on the milk of the she-goatAmalthea,[47] while theKouretes guard the cave and beat their spears on their shields so thatCronus cannot hear the infant's crying.[48] Diodorus Siculus provides a similar account, saying that, after giving birth, Rhea travels toMount Ida and gives the newborn Zeus to the Kouretes,[49] who then takes him to some nymphs (not named), who raised him on a mixture of honey and milk from the goat Amalthea.[50] He also refers to the Kouretes "rais[ing] a great alarum", and in doing so deceiving Cronus,[51] and relates that when the Kouretes were carrying the newborn Zeus that theumbilical cord fell away at the river Triton.[52]
Hyginus, the author of theFabulae, 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.[53] 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.[54] Hyginus also says thatIda, Althaea, andAdrasteia, usually considered the children ofOceanus, are sometimes called the daughters of Melisseus and the nurses of Zeus.[55]
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.[56] According toMusaeus, after Zeus is born, Rhea gives him toThemis. Themis in turn gives him to Amalthea, who owns a she-goat, which nurses the young Zeus.[57]
Antoninus Liberalis, in hisMetamorphoses, 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 theMoirai andThemis; he instead transforms them into various species of birds.[58]
Ascension to power
Fresco of enthroned Zeus/Jupiter,Pompeii, House of the Dioscuri, 62-79 CE.
According to theTheogony, 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 atDelphi, so that it may act as "a sign thenceforth and a marvel to mortal men".[60] Zeus next frees theCyclopes, who, in return, and out of gratitude, give him his thunderbolt, which had previously been hidden by Gaia.[61] Then begins theTitanomachy, 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 fromMount Olympus, and the Titans fighting fromMount Othrys.[62] The battle lasts for ten years with no clear victor emerging, until, upon Gaia's advice, Zeus releases theHundred-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 OceanidMetis, who gives Cronus anemetic, 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.[68]
According to theIliad, 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.[69]
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 theGiants, 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;[70] there is, however, no mention of a battle between the gods and the Giants in theTheogony.[71] 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.[72] 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 specialpharmakon (herb) that will prevent the Giants from being killed. Zeus, however, ordersEos (Dawn),Selene (Moon) andHelios (Sun) to stop shining, and harvests all of the herb himself, before havingAthena summonHeracles.[73] 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.[74]
In theTheogony, after Zeus defeats the Titans and banishes them to Tartarus, his rule is challenged by the monsterTyphon, a giant serpentine creature who battles Zeus for control of the cosmos. According to Hesiod, Typhon is the offspring of Gaia andTartarus,[75] described as having a hundred snaky fire-breathing heads.[76] 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:[77] 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.[78]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.[79]Aeschylus andPindar give somewhat similar accounts to Hesiod, in that Zeus overcomes Typhon with relative ease, defeating him with his thunderbolt.[80] Apollodorus, in contrast, provides a more complex narrative.[81] Typhon is, similarly to in Hesiod, the child of Gaia and Tartarus, produced out of anger at Zeus's defeat of the Giants.[82] 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.[83] 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.[84] Disabled, Zeus is taken by Typhon to theCorycian Cave in Cilicia, where he is guarded by the "she-dragon"Delphyne.[85]Hermes andAegipan, 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 theMoirai, which reduce his strength.[86] 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 toSicily, Zeus launchesMount Etna upon him, finally ending him.[87]Nonnus, who gives the longest and most detailed account, presents a narrative similar to Apollodorus, with differences such as that it is insteadCadmus andPan who recovers Zeus's sinews, by luring Typhon with music and then tricking him.[88]
In theIliad, 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 NereidThetis, who summons Briareus, one of theHecatoncheires, to Olympus, that the other Olympians abandon their plans (out of fear for Briareus).[89]
Partners before Hera
Jupiter, disguised as a shepherd, tempts Mnemosyne byJacob de Wit (1727)
According to Hesiod, Zeus takesMetis, one of theOceanid daughters ofOceanus andTethys, 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.[90] 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.[91] According to a fragment likely from the Hesiodic corpus,[92] quoted by Chrysippus, it is out of anger at Hera for producingHephaestus on her own that Zeus has intercourse with Metis, and then swallows her, thereby giving rise to Athena from himself.[93] A scholiast on theIliad, in contrast, states that when Zeus swallows her, Metis is pregnant with Athena not by Zeus himself, but by the Cyclops Brontes.[94] 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.[95] In addition, the myth can be seen as an allegory for Zeus gaining the wisdom of Metis for himself by swallowing her.[96]
In Hesiod's account, Zeus's second wife isThemis, one of the Titan daughters of Uranus and Gaia, with whom he has theHorae, listed asEunomia,Dike andEirene, and the threeMoirai:Clotho,Lachesis andAtropos.[97] A fragment fromPindar 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.[98] According to Hesiod, Zeus lies next with the OceanidEurynome, by whom he becomes the father of the threeCharites:Aglaea,Euphrosyne andThalia.[99] Zeus then partners with his sisterDemeter, producingPersephone.[100] Zeus's next union is with the TitanMnemosyne; as described at the beginning of theTheogony, Zeus lies with Mnemosyne inPiera each night for nine nights, producing the nine Muses.[101] His next partner is the TitanLeto, by whom he fathers the twinsApollo andArtemis, who, according to theHomeric Hymn to Apollo, are born on the island ofDelos.[102] In Hesiod's account, only then does Zeus take his sisterHera as his wife.[103]
Children of Zeus and his partners before Hera[104]
Wedding of Zeus and Hera on an antique fresco fromPompeii
While Hera is Zeus's last wife in Hesiod's version, in other accounts she is his first and only wife.[108] In theTheogony, the couple has three children,Ares,Hebe, andEileithyia.[109] While Hesiod states that Hera produces Hephaestus on her own after Athena is born from Zeus's head,[110] other versions, including Homer, have Hephaestus as a child of Zeus and Hera as well.[111]
Various authors give descriptions of a youthful affair between Zeus and Hera. In theIliad, the pair are described as having first lay with each other before Cronus is sent to Tartarus, without the knowledge of their parents.[112] A scholiast on theIliad states that, after Cronus is banished to Tartarus,Oceanus andTethys give Hera to Zeus in marriage, and only shortly after the two are wed, Hera gives birth toHephaestus, having lay secretly with Zeus on the island ofSamos beforehand; to conceal this act, she claimed that she had produced Hephaestus on her own.[113] According to another scholiast on theIliad,Callimachus, in hisAetia, says that Zeus lay with Hera for three hundred years on the island of Samos.[114]
According to a scholion onTheocritus'sIdylls, 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.[115]Pausanias similarly refers to Zeus transforming himself into a cuckoo to woo Hera, and identifies the location as Mount Thornax.[116]
According to a version fromPlutarch, as recorded byEusebius in hisPraeparatio evangelica, Hera is raised by a nymph named Macris[117] on the island ofEuboea when Zeus kidnaps her, taking her to MountCithaeron, where they find a shady hollow, which serves as a "natural bridal chamber". When Macris comes to look for Hera, Cithaeron, thetutelary deity of the mountain, stops her, saying that Zeus is sleeping there with Leto.[118]Photius, in hisBibliotheca, tells us that inPtolemy Hephaestion'sNew 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.[119] According toStephanus of Byzantium, Zeus and Hera first lay together at the city ofHermione, having come there from Crete.[120] Callimachus, in a fragment from hisAetia, also apparently makes reference to the couple's union occurring atNaxos.[121]
Though no complete account of Zeus and Hera's wedding exists, various authors make reference to it. According to a scholiast onApollonius of Rhodes'sArgonautica,Pherecydes states that when Zeus and Hera are being married,Gaia brings a tree which produces golden apples as a wedding gift.[122]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 toMount Atlas.[123]Apollodorus specifies them as the golden apples of theHesperides, and says that Gaia gives them to Zeus after the marriage.[124] According toDiodorus Siculus, the location of the marriage is in the land of theKnossians, nearby to the river Theren,[125] whileLactantius attributes toVarro the statement that the couple are married on the island of Samos.[126]
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 ofPlataea, 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 ofAsopus. 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.[127] According to a version from Plutarch, as recorded by Eusebius in hisPraeparatio 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 ofPlataia, and upon discovering the trick, the couple are reconciled, with the matter ending in joy and laughter among all involved.[128]
After his marriage to Hera, different authors describe Zeus's numerous affairs with various mortal women.[131] In many of these affairs, Zeus transforms himself into an animal, someone else, or some other form. According to a scholion on theIliad (citing Hesiod andBacchylides), whenEuropa 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.[132] InEuripides'sHelen, Zeus takes the form of a swan, and after being chased by an eagle, finds shelter in the lap ofLeda, subsequently seducing her,[133] while in Euripides's lost playAntiope, Zeus apparently took the form of asatyr to sleep withAntiope.[134] Various authors speak of Zeus rapingCallisto, one of the companions ofArtemis, doing so in the form of Artemis herself according to Ovid (or, as mentioned by Apollodorus, in the form ofApollo),[135] and Pherecydes relates that Zeus sleeps withAlcmene, the wife ofAmphitryon, in the form of her own husband.[136] Several accounts state that Zeus approached theArgive princessDanae in the form of a shower of gold,[137] and according to Ovid he abductsAegina in the form of a flame.[138]
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.[139] Several authors relate that Zeus sleeps withIo, 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.[140] In later accounts of Zeus's affair withSemele, a daughter ofCadmus andHarmonia, 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.[141] According to Callimachus, after Zeus sleeps with Callisto, Hera turns her into a bear, and instructs Artemis to shoot her.[142] In addition, Zeus's son by Alcmene, the heroHeracles, is persecuted continuously throughout his mortal life by Hera, up until hisapotheosis.[143]
According toDiodorus 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.[144]
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.
When the gods met at Mecone to discuss which portions they will receive after a sacrifice, the titanPrometheus decided to trick Zeus so thathumans receive the better portions. He sacrificed a largeox, 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 byHeracles.[253]
Now Zeus, angry at humans, decides to give humanity a punishing gift to compensate for the boon they had been given. He commandsHephaestus 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 brotherEpimetheus. Zeus gave her ajar which contained many evils. Pandora opened the jar and released all the evils, which made mankind miserable. Only hope remained inside the jar.[254]
When Zeus was atop Mount Olympus he was appalled byhuman sacrifice and other signs of human decadence. He decided to wipe out mankind and flooded the world with the help of his brotherPoseidon. After the flood, onlyDeucalion andPyrrha remained.[255] Thisflood narrative is a common motif in mythology.[256]
The Chariot of Zeus, from an 1879Stories from the Greek Tragedians by Alfred Church.
In theIliad
Jupiter and Juno on Mount Ida byJames Barry, 1773 (City Art Galleries, Sheffield.)
Book 8: Zeus prohibits the other Gods from fighting each other and has to return toMount Ida where he can think over his decision that the Greeks will lose the war
Book 14: Zeus is seduced byHera and becomes distracted while she helps out the Greeks
Book 15: Zeus wakes up and realizes that his own brother,Poseidon has been aiding the Greeks, while also sendingHector andApollo to help fight the Trojans ensuring that the City of Troy will fall
Book 16: Zeus is upset that he could not help saveSarpedon's life because it would then contradict his previous decisions
Book 17: Zeus is emotionally hurt by the fate ofHector
Book 20: Zeus lets the other Gods lend aid to their respective sides in the war
Book 24: Zeus demands thatAchilles release the corpse ofHector to be buried honourably
Other myths
WhenHades requested to marry Zeus's daughter,Persephone, Zeus approved and advised Hades to abduct Persephone, as her motherDemeter would not allow her to marry Hades.[259]
In theOrphic "Rhapsodic Theogony" (first century BC/AD),[260] Zeus wanted to marry his motherRhea. After Rhea refused to marry him, Zeus turned into a snake and raped her. Rhea became pregnant and gave birth toPersephone. Zeus in the form of a snake would mate with his daughter Persephone, which resulted in the birth ofDionysus.[261]
Zeus grantedCallirrhoe's prayer that her sons byAlcmaeon,Acarnan andAmphoterus, grow quickly so that they might be able to avenge the death of their father by the hands ofPhegeus and his two sons.[262]
Both Zeus andPoseidon wooedThetis, daughter ofNereus. But whenThemis (or Prometheus) prophesied that the son born of Thetis would be mightier than his father, Thetis was married off to the mortalPeleus.[263][264]
Zeus was afraid that his grandsonAsclepius would teach resurrection to humans, so he killed Asclepius with his thunderbolt. This angered Asclepius's father,Apollo, who in turn killed theCyclopes 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 KingAdmetus of Pherae for a year.[265] According toDiodorus 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.[266]
The winged horsePegasus carried the thunderbolts of Zeus.[267]
Zeus took pity onIxion, 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 ofCentaurus. Zeus punished Ixion for lusting after Hera by tying him to a wheel that spins forever.[268]
Once,Helios thesun god gave his chariot to his inexperienced sonPhaethon 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.[269] In a satirical work,Dialogues of the Gods byLucian, 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.[270]
Zeus played a dominant role, presiding over theGreek Olympian pantheon. He fathered many of the heroes and was featured in many of theirlocal 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 Greekreligious beliefs and thearchetypal 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 achthonic earth-god rather than a god of the sky. These local divinities were gradually consolidated, via conquest andreligious syncretism, with the Homeric conception of Zeus. Local or idiosyncratic versions of Zeus were givenepithets — surnames or titles which distinguish different conceptions of the god.[29]
Theseepithets or titles applied to Zeus emphasized different aspects of his wide-ranging authority:
Zeus Aegiduchos orAegiochos: Usually taken as Zeus as the bearer of theAegis, the divine shield with the head ofMedusa across it,[272] although others derive it from "goat" (αἴξ) andokhē (οχή) in reference to Zeus's nurse, the divine goatAmalthea.[273][274]
ZeusAgoraeus (Ἀγοραῖος): Zeus as patron of the marketplace (agora) and punisher of dishonest traders.
Zeus Areius (Αρειος): either "warlike" or "the atoning one".
Zeus Eleutherios (Ἐλευθέριος): "Zeus the freedom giver" a cult worshiped inAthens[275]
Zeus Horkios: Zeus as keeper of oaths. Exposed liars were made to dedicate avotive statue to Zeus, often at the sanctuary at Olympia
The major center where all Greeks converged to pay honor to their chief god wasOlympia. Their quadrennialfestival 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 ofGreek temples fromAsia Minor toSicily. Certain modes of ritual were held in common as well: sacrificing a white animal over a raised altar, for instance.
Zeus Velchanos
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,[278] 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",[279] whose Minoan name the Greeks Hellenized as Velchanos, was in time assumed as anepithet by Zeus, as transpired at many other sites, and he came to be venerated in Crete asZeus Velchanos ("boy-Zeus"), often simply theKouros.
InCrete, Zeus was worshipped at a number of caves atKnossos,Ida andPalaikastro. In the Hellenistic period a small sanctuary dedicated to Zeus Velchanos was founded at theHagia Triada site of an earlier Minoan town. Broadly contemporary coins fromPhaistos show the form under which he was worshiped: a youth sits among the branches of a tree, with a cockerel on his knees.[280] On other Cretan coins Velchanos is represented as an eagle and in association with a goddess celebrating a mystic marriage.[281] Inscriptions atGortyn and Lyttos record aVelchania festival, showing that Velchanios was still widely venerated in Hellenistic Crete.[282]
The stories ofMinos andEpimenides suggest that these caves were once used forincubatory divination by kings and priests. The dramatic setting ofPlato'sLaws 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 asho megas kouros, "the great youth". Ivory statuettes of the "Divine Boy" were unearthed near theLabyrinth atKnossos bySir Arthur Evans.[283] With theKouretes, a band of ecstatic armed dancers, he presided over the rigorous military-athletic training and secret rites of the Cretanpaideia.
The myth of the death of Cretan Zeus, localised in numerous mountain sites though only mentioned in a comparatively late source,Callimachus,[284] together with the assertion ofAntoninus Liberalis that a fire shone forth annually from the birth-cave the infant shared with amythic swarm of bees, suggests that Velchanos had been an annual vegetative spirit.[285]The Hellenistic writerEuhemerus apparently proposed a theory that Zeus had actually been a great king ofCrete and that posthumously, his glory had slowly turned him into a deity. The works of Euhemerus himself have not survived, but Christianpatristic writers took up the suggestion.
The epithetZeus Lykaios (Λύκαιος; "wolf-Zeus") is assumed by Zeus only in connection with the archaic festival of theLykaia on the slopes ofMount Lykaion ("Wolf Mountain"), the tallest peak in rusticArcadia; Zeus had only a formal connection[286] with the rituals and myths of this primitiverite of passage with an ancient threat ofcannibalism and the possibility of awerewolf transformation for theephebes who were the participants.[287] Near the ancient ash-heap where the sacrifices took place[288] was a forbidden precinct in which, allegedly, no shadows were ever cast.[289]
According toPlato,[290] 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 thatLykaios orLykeios (epithets of Zeus and Apollo) may derive fromProto-Greek *λύκη, "light", a noun still attested in compounds such asἀμφιλύκη, "twilight",λυκάβας, "year" (lit.'light's course") etc. This, Cook argues, brings indeed much new 'light' to the matter asAchaeus, the contemporary tragedian ofSophocles, spoke of Zeus Lykaios as "starry-eyed", and this Zeus Lykaios may just be the Arcadian Zeus, son of Aether, described byCicero. Again under this new signification may be seenPausanias's 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).[291]
Although etymology indicates that Zeus was originally a sky god, many Greek cities honored a local Zeus who lived underground. Athenians and Sicilians honoredZeus Meilichios (Μειλίχιος; "kindly" or "honeyed") while other cities hadZeus Chthonios ("earthy"),Zeus Katachthonios (Καταχθόνιος; "under-the-earth") andZeus 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 didchthonic deities likePersephone andDemeter, and also theheroes at their tombs. Olympian gods, by contrast, usually received white victims sacrificed upon raised altars.
In some cases, cities were not entirely sure whether thedaimon to whom they sacrificed was a hero or an underground Zeus. Thus the shrine at Lebadaea inBoeotia might belong to the heroTrophonius or toZeus Trephonius ("the nurturing"), depending on whether you believePausanias, orStrabo. The heroAmphiaraus was honored asZeus Amphiaraus at Oropus outside ofThebes, and the Spartans even had a shrine toZeus Agamemnon. AncientMolossian kings sacrificed toZeus Areius (Αρειος).Strabo mention that atTralles there was theZeus Larisaeus (Λαρισαιος).[292] InIthome, they honored theZeus Ithomatas, they had a sanctuary and a statue of Zeus and also held an annual festival in honour of Zeus which was calledIthomaea (ἰθώμαια).[293]
Hecatomphonia
Hecatomphonia (Ancient Greek:ἑκατομφόνια), meaning killing of a hundred, from ἑκατόν "a hundred" and φονεύω "to kill". It was a custom ofMessenians, 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 againstSparta.[294][295][296][297]
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 epithetZeusAetnaeus he was worshiped onMount Aetna, where there was a statue of him, and a local festival called the Aetnaea in his honor.[298] Other examples are listed below. AsZeus Aeneius orZeus Aenesius (Αινησιος), he was worshiped in the island ofCephalonia, where he had a temple onMount Aenos.[299]
Oracles
Although most oracle sites were usually dedicated toApollo, the heroes, or various goddesses likeThemis, a few oracular sites were dedicated to Zeus. In addition, some foreign oracles, such asBaʿal's atHeliopolis, wereassociated with Zeus in Greek orJupiter in Latin.
The Oracle at Dodona
The cult of Zeus atDodona inEpirus, where there is evidence of religious activity from the second millennium BC onward, centered on a sacred oak. When theOdyssey was composed (circa 750 BC), divination was done there by barefoot priests calledSelloi, who lay on the ground and observed the rustling of the leaves and branches.[300] By the timeHerodotus wrote about Dodona, female priestesses calledpeleiades ("doves") had replaced the male priests.
Zeus's consort at Dodona was notHera, but the goddessDione — whose name is a feminine form of "Zeus". Her status as atitaness 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
Theoracle of Ammon at theSiwa Oasis in the Western Desert ofEgypt did not lie within the bounds of the Greek world beforeAlexander's day, but it already loomed large in the Greek mind during the archaic era:Herodotus mentions consultations withZeus Ammon in his account of thePersian War. Zeus Ammon was especially favored atSparta, where a temple to him existed by the time of thePeloponnesian War.[301]
After Alexander made a trek into the desert to consult the oracle at Siwa, the figure arose in the Hellenistic imagination of aLibyan Sibyl.
Zeus was identified with theRoman godJupiter and associated in the syncretic classical imagination (seeinterpretatio graeca) with various other deities, such as theEgyptianAmmon and theEtruscanTinia. He, along withDionysus, absorbed the role of the chiefPhrygian godSabazios in thesyncretic deity known in Rome asSabazius. The Seleucid rulerAntiochus IV Epiphanes erected a statue of Zeus Olympios in the Judean Temple in Jerusalem.[303] Hellenizing Jews referred to this statue asBaal Shamen (in English, Lord of Heaven).[304]Zeus is also identified with the Hindu deityIndra. Not only they are the king of gods, but their weapon - thunder is similar.[305]
Helios
Zeus is occasionally conflated with the Hellenicsun god,Helios, who is sometimes either directly referred to as Zeus's eye,[306] or clearly implied as such.Hesiod, for instance, describes Zeus's eye as effectively the sun.[307] This perception is possibly derived from earlierProto-Indo-European religion, in which the sun is occasionally envisioned as the eye of*Dyḗus Pḥatḗr (seeHvare-khshaeta).[308]Euripides in his now lost tragedyMysians described Zeus as "sun-eyed", and Helios is said elsewhere to be "the brilliant eye of Zeus, giver of life".[309] In another of Euripides's tragedies,Medea, the chorus refers to Helios as "light born from Zeus."[310]
Although the connection of Helios to Zeus does not seem to have basis in early Greek cult and writings, nevertheless there are many examples of direct identification in later times.[311] The Hellenistic period gave birth toSerapis, a Greco-Egyptian deity conceived as a chthonic avatar of Zeus, whose solar nature is indicated by the sun crown and rays the Greeks depicted him with.[312] Frequent joint dedications to "Zeus-Serapis-Helios" have been found all over the Mediterranean,[312] for example, the Anastasy papyrus (now housed in theBritish Museum equates Helios to not just Zeus andSerapis but alsoMithras,[313] and a series of inscriptions fromTrachonitis give evidence of the cult of "Zeus the Unconquered Sun".[314] There is evidence of Zeus being worshipped as a solar god in the Aegean island ofAmorgos, based on a lacunose inscriptionΖεὺς Ἥλ[ιο]ς ("Zeus the Sun"), meaning sun elements of Zeus's worship could be as early as the fifth century BC.[315]
TheCretan ZeusTallaios had solar elements to his cult. "Talos" was the local equivalent of Helios.[316]
Zeus is mentioned in the New Testament twice, first in Acts 14:8–13: When the people living inLystra saw theApostle Paul heal a lame man, they considered Paul and his partnerBarnabas to be gods, identifying Paul withHermes and Barnabas with Zeus, even trying to offer them sacrifices with the crowd. Two ancient inscriptions discovered in 1909 near Lystra testify to the worship of these two gods in that city.[318] One of the inscriptions refers to the "priests of Zeus", and the other mentions "Hermes Most Great" and "Zeus the sun-god".[319]
The second occurrence is in Acts 28:11: the name of the ship in which the prisoner Paul set sail from the island of Malta bore thefigurehead "Sons of Zeus" akaCastor and Pollux (Dioscuri).
The deuterocanonical book of2 Maccabees 6:1, 2 talks of KingAntiochus IV (Epiphanes), who in his attempt to stamp out the Jewish religion, directed that the temple at Jerusalem be profaned and rededicated to Zeus (Jupiter Olympius).[320]
^There are two major conflicting stories for Aphrodite's origins:Hesiod'sTheogony claims that she was born from the foam of the sea after Cronos castrated Uranus, making her Uranus's daughter, whileHomer'sIliad has Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dione.[5] A speaker inPlato'sSymposium offers that they were separate figures:Aphrodite Ourania and Aphrodite Pandemos.[6]
^Laërtius, Diogenes (1972) [1925]."1.11". In Hicks, R. D. (ed.).Lives of Eminent Philosophers."1.11".Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (in Greek).
^Hard 2004,p. 74;Hesiod,Theogony479–84. According to Hard 2004, the "otherwise unknown" Mount Aegaeon can "presumably ... be identified with one of the various mountains near Lyktos".
^Hard 2004,p. 75–6; Gantz, p. 42;Epimenidesfr. 23 Diels, p. 193 [= Scholia onAratus, 46]. Zeus later marks the event by placing the constellations of the Dragon, the Greater Bear and the Lesser Bear in the sky.
^Hard 2004,p. 68; Gantz, p. 44;Hesiod,Theogony501–6. The Cyclopes presumably remained trapped below the earth since being put there byUranus (Hard 2004,p. 68).
^Hard 2004,p. 68;Hesiod,Theogony624–9,635–8. As Gantz, p. 45 notes, theTheogony is ambiguous as to whether the Hundred-Handers were freed before the war or only during its tenth year.
^Hard 2004,p. 89; Gantz, p. 449; Salowey, p. 236;Apollodorus,1.6.2. Compare withPindar,Pythian8.12–8, who instead says that Porphyrion is killed by an arrow fromApollo.
^Ogden,pp. 72–3; Gantz, p. 48; Fontenrose,p. 71; Fowler, p. 27;Hesiod,Theogony820–2. According to Ogden, Gaia "produced him in revenge against Zeus for his destruction of ... the Titans". Contrastingly, according to theHomeric Hymn to Apollo (3),305–55, Hera is the mother of Typhon without a father: angry at Zeus for birthing Athena by himself, she strikes the ground with her hand, praying to Gaia, Uranus, and the Titans to give her a child more powerful than Zeus, and receiving her wish, she bears the monster Typhon (Fontenrose,p. 72; Gantz, p. 49; Hard 2004,p. 84); cf.Stesichorusfr. 239 Campbell, pp. 166, 167 [=PMG 239 (Page, p. 125) =Etymologicum Magnum 772.49] (see Gantz, p. 49).
^Hesiod,Theogony839–68. According to Fowler,p. 27, the monster's easy defeat at the hands of Zeus is "in keeping with Hesiod's pervasive glorification of Zeus".
^Gantz, p. 51; Hard 2004,p. 77;Hesiod,Theogony886–900. Yasumura,p. 90 points out that the identity of the foretold son's father is not made clear by Hesiod, and suggests, drawing upon a version given by a scholiast on theIliad (see below), that a possible interpretation would be that the Cyclops Brontes was the father.
^Hard 2004,p. 77. Compare with Gantz, p. 51, who sees the myth as a conflation of three separate elements: one in which Athena is born from Zeus's head, one in which Zeus consumes Metis so as to obtain her wisdom, and one in which he swallows her so as to avoid the threat of the prophesied son.
^Hard 2004,p. 78;Hesiod,Theogony918–20;Homeric Hymn toApollo (3),89–123. The account given by theHomeric Hymn to Apollo differs from Hesiod's version in that Zeus and Hera are already married when Apollo and Artemis are born (Pirenne-Delforge and Pironti, p. 18).
^Of Zeus's children by his partners before Hera, Athena was the first to be conceived (889), but the last to be born. Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head" (924).
^Gantz, p. 57; Pirenne-Delforge and Pironti, p. 24; Hard 2004, pp.78,136;Homer,Iliad14.293–6. Gantz points out that, if in this version Cronus swallows his children as he does in theTheogony, the pair could not sleep with each other without their father's knowledge before Zeus overthrows Cronus, and so suggests that Homer may have possibly been following a version of the story in which only Cronus's sons are swallowed.
^The bust below the base of the neck is eighteenth century. The head, which is roughly worked at back and must have occupied aniche, was found atHadrian's Villa,Tivoli and donated to the British Museum byJohn Thomas Barber Beaumont in 1836. BM 1516. (British Museum,A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1904).
^Durant,The Life of Greece (The Story of Civilization Part II, New York: Simon & Schuster) 1939:23.
^Rodney Castleden,Minoans: Life in Bronze-Age Crete, "The Minoan belief-system" (Routledge) 1990:125
^Pointed out by Bernard Clive Dietrich,The Origins of Greek Religion (de Gruyter) 1973:15.
^A.B. Cook,Zeus Cambridge University Press, 1914, I, figs 397, 398.
^Dietrich 1973, notingMartin P. Nilsson,Minoan-Mycenaean Religion, and Its Survival in Greek Religion 1950:551 and notes.
^"ProfessorStylianos Alexiou reminds us that there were other divine boys who survived from the religion of the pre-Hellenic period —Linos,Ploutos andDionysos — so not all the young male deities we see depicted in Minoan works of art are necessarily Velchanos" (Castleden) 1990:125
^Richard Wyatt Hutchinson,Prehistoric Crete, (Harmondsworth: Penguin) 1968:204, mentions that there is no classical reference to the death of Zeus (noted by Dietrich 1973:16 note 78).
^"This annually reborn god of vegetation also experienced the other parts of the vegetation cycle: holy marriage and annual death when he was thought to disappear from the earth" (Dietrich 1973:15).
^In the founding myth ofLycaon's banquet for the gods that included the flesh of a human sacrifice, perhaps one of his sons,Nyctimus orArcas. Zeus 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.
^A morphological connection tolyke "brightness" may be merely fortuitous.
^Modern archaeologists have found no trace of human remains among the sacrificial detritus,Walter Burkert, "Lykaia and Lykaion",Homo Necans, tr. by Peter Bing (University of California) 1983, p. 90.
^"In the art of Gandhara Zeus became the inseparable companion of the Buddha as Vajrapani." in Freedom, Progress, and Society, K. Satchidananda Murty, R. Balasubramanian, Sibajiban Bhattacharyya, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 1986,p. 97
^Devdutt Pattanaik's Olympus: An Indian Retelling of Greek Myths
^Sick, David H. (2004), "Mit(h)ra(s) and the Myths of the Sun", Numen, 51 (4): 432–467,JSTOR3270454
^Ljuba Merlina Bortolani, Magical Hymns from Roman Egypt: A Study of Greek and Egyptian Traditions of Divinity, Cambridge University Press, 13 October 2016
^In Fourth Tractate 'Problems of the Soul' The Demiurge is identified as Zeus.10. "When under the name of Zeus we are considering the Demiurge we must leave out all notions of stage and progress, and recognize one unchanging and timeless life."
^According toHesiod,Theogony927–929, Hephaestus was produced by Hera alone, with no father, see Gantz, p. 74.
^According toHesiod'sTheogony886–890, of Zeus' children by his seven wives, Athena was the first to be conceived, but the last to be born; Zeus impregnated Metis then swallowed her, later Zeus himself gave birth to Athena "from his head", see Gantz, pp. 51–52, 83–84.
^According toHesiod,Theogony183–200, Aphrodite was born from Uranus' severed genitals, see Gantz, pp. 99–100.
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