Zeus (/ˈzjuːs/ zews; Ancient Greek: Ζεύς,Zeús, [zdeǔ̯s]; Modern Greek: Δίας,Días [ˈði.as]) isGod of theSky, and oflightning,thunder,law,order andjustice inancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His equivalent in Roman religious mythology wasJupiter, a name with similar origins and meaning.
Zeus:Agistheus, you are aking, and it's to your sense of king-ship I appeal, for you enjoy wielding the scepter. Aegistheus: Continue. Zeus: You may hate me, but we are akin; I made you in my image. A king is a god on earth, glorious and terrifying as a god. Aegistheus: You, terrifying? Zeus: Look at me.[A long silence.] I told you you were made in my image. Each keeps order; you in Argos, I in heaven and on earth — and you and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts. Aegistheus: I have no secret. Zeus: You and I harbor the same dark secret in our hearts. Aegistheus: I have no secret. Zeus: You have. The same as mine. The bane of gods and kings. The bitterness of knowing men are free. Yes, Aegistheus they are free. But your subjects do not know it, and you do.
InJean-Paul Sartre'sLes mouches (The Flies), Act II, tableau II, scene 5, as translated by Stuart Gilbert (1946)
Variant translations:
The painful secret of Gods and kings; it is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it and they don't.
As quoted inSartre : A Philosophic Study (1966), by Anthony Manser, p. 227
The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free. They are free, Aegisthus. You know it, but they do not.
As quoted inThe Intellectual Resistance in Europe (1981) by James D. Wilkinson, p. 41
The painful secret of gods and kings is that men are free, Aegistheus. You know it and they do not.
Zeus, who guidedmortals to be wise, has established his fixedlaw— wisdom comes throughsuffering. Trouble, with itsmemories ofpain, drips in ourhearts as we try tosleep, somen against their will learn to practicemoderation. Favours come to us from gods seated on their solemn thrones— suchgrace is harsh and violent.
Oh Zeus, father Zeus, Yours is theKingdom of Heaven, and you watch men's deeds, the crafty and the right, and You are who cares for beasts' transgression and justice.
Nothing can be surprising any more or impossible or miraculous, now that Zeus, father of the Olympians has made night out of noonday, hiding the bright sunlight, and . . . fear has come upon mankind. After this, men can believe anything, expect anything. Don't any of you be surprised in future if land beasts change places withdolphins and go to live in their salty pastures, and get to like the sounding waves of the sea more than the land, while the dolphins prefer themountains.
Archilochus, as quoted inEclipse (1999) by James Turrell
Variant translation: Zeus, the father of the Olympic Gods, turned mid-day into night, hiding the light of the dazzling Sun; and sore fear came upon men.
Zeus,n. The chief of Greciangods, adored by theRomans asJupiter and by the modern Americans asGod,Gold,Mob andDog. Some explorers who have touched upon the shores ofAmerica, and one who professes to have penetrated a considerable distance to the interior, have thought that these fournames stand for as many distinct deities, but in his monumental work on SurvivingFaiths, Frumpp insists that the natives aremonotheists, each having no other god thanhimself, whom heworships under many sacred names.
Well, what if I'm wrong, I mean — anybody could be wrong. We could all be wrong about theFlying Spaghetti Monster andthe pink unicorn andthe flying teapot. You happen to have been brought up, I would presume, in aChristian faith. You know what it's like to not believe in a particular faith because you're not aMuslim. You're not aHindu.Why aren't you a Hindu? Because you happen to have been brought up inAmerica, not in India. If you had been brought up inIndia, you'd be a Hindu. If you had been brought up inDenmark in the time of theVikings, you'd be believing inWotan andThor. If you were brought up inclassical Greece, you'd be believing in Zeus. If you were brought up incentral Africa, you'd be believing in the greatJuju up themountain. There's no particular reason to pick on theJudeo-Christiangod, in which by the sheerest accident you happen to have been brought up and ask me the question, "What if I'm wrong?" What if you're wrong about the great Juju at the bottom of the sea?
Richard Dawkins, Answering audience questions after a reading ofThe God Delusion[1], Randolph-Macon Woman's College, (23 October 2006)
Posed question: "This is probably going to be the most simplest one for you to answer, but: What if you're wrong?"
