The god's name in the nominative isΖεύςZeús/zdeús/. It is inflected as follows:vocative:Ζεῦ /Zeû;accusative:Δία /Día;genitive:Διός /Diós;dative:Διί /Dií.
The nameZeus is the Greek continuation o *Di̯ēus, theProto-Indo-European god o the daytime sky, cried *Dyeus ph2tēr an aw ("Sky Father").[6] The god is kent unner this name in theRigveda (Vedic SanskritDyaus/Dyaus Pita),Laitin (compareJupiter, fraeIuppiter, derivin frae theProto-Indo-European vocative *dyeu-ph2tēr[7]), comin' fae theruit *dyeu- ("tae shine", an in its mony derivatives, "sky, heiven, god").[6]Zeus is the anly deity in the Olympicpantheon whose name haes such a transparent Indo-European etymology.[8]
The earliest attested forms o the name are theMycenaean Greekdi-we andi-wo, written inLinear b syllabic script.[9]
Plato, in hisCratylus, gies a folk etymology o' Zeus meaning "cause o' life always to all things", because o' puns atween alternate titles of Zeus (Zen andDia) wi tha Greek wirds fae life an' "because of". This etymology, wi Plato's entire method o' deriving etymologies, is'nay supported by modern scholarship.
Diodorus Siculus wrote that Zeus wis called Zen an aw, because the humans believed that he wis the cause o' life (zen). While Lactantius wrote that he was called Zeus an' Zen, no because he wis the giver of life, but because he wis the first who lived o' the children of Cronus.
Cronus sired several children by Rhea: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, an Poseidon, but swallowed them aw as soon as they were born, since he had learnt fae Gaia an' Uranus that he wis destined tae be overthrown by his son as he had previously overthrown Uranus, his ain faither, an oracle that Rhea heard and wished tae avert.
When Zeus wis about tae be born, Rhea sought Gaia tae devise a plan tae save him, so that Cronus would get his retribution for his acts against Uranus an' his ain wanes. Rhea gave birth tae Zeus in Crete, handing Cronus a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes, which he promptly swallowed.
According tae Hyginus (Fabulae, 139)) Zeus wis raised by a nymph named Amalthea. Since Saturn (Cronus) ruled aver the Earth, the heavens an' the sea, she hid him by dangling him on a rope fae a tree so he wis suspended atween earth, sea and sky and thus, invisible tae his faither.
According to Pseudo-Apollodorus (Bibliotheca, 1.1.5-7)) Zeus wis raised by a goat named Amalthea in a cave called Dictaeon Antron (Psychro Cave). A company of soldiers called Kouretes danced, shouted and clashed their spears against their shields so that Cronus would'nay hear the greeting wane.
1The Greeks variously claimit that the Moires/Fates wur the dochters o Zeus an the TitanessThemis or o primordial beins likeChaos,Nyx, orAnanke.
2The Charites/Graces wur usually considered the dochters o Zeus an Eurynome but they wur said tae be dochters o Dionysus an Aphrodite or of Helios an the naiad Aegle an aw.
3Some accoonts say that Ares, Hebe an Hephaestus wur born parthenogenetically.
4Accordin tae ane version, Athena is said tae be born parthenogenetically.
↑Thare are twa major conflictin stories for Aphrodite's oreegins:Hesiod'sTheogony claims that she wis born frae the foam o the sea after Cronos castratit Uranus, makkin her Uranus's dauchter butHomer'sIliad haes Aphrodite as the dauchter o Zeus an Dione.[2] A speaker inPlato'sSymposium offers that thay war separate feegurs:Aphrodite Ourania an Aphrodite Pandemos.[3]
